that call themselves brethren fall soule upon one another not only girding at and clashing against but biting and nipping and devouring one another as if they were bent to consume and destroy one another But a most blessed thing on the other side pleasant as the holy oyle distilling from Aarons head upon his beard and garments and rejoycing the heart as the dew upon the mountains refresheth the grass when there is nothing done in the house through strife or vain glory but such an accord amongst them that all the Brethren are of one minde and judgment or if not alwayes so yet at leastwise of one heart and affection bearing the burdens and bearing with the infirmities one of another and ready upon all occasions to do good as to all men generally and without exception so especially to their Brethren that are of the same houshold of faith with them 35. Lastly we are Brethren by partnership in our Fathers estate Coparceners in the state of Grace all of us enjoying the same promises liberties and priviledges whereof we are already possessed in common and Coheirs in the state of Glory all of us having the same joy and everlasting blisse in expectancy and reversion For being the sonnes of God we are all heirs and being brethren all joynt-heirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same glorious inheritance reserved for us in the heavens which St. Iude therefore calleth the common salvation It argueth a base wrangling spirit in us having such goodly things in reversion enough for us all so as heart can wish no more to squabble and fall out for such poore trifles as the things of this world are We that have by Gods goodness competent sustenance for our journey and full sacks to open at our coming home as Iosephs brethren had when they came out of Egypt to return to their own land shall we fall out among our selves and be ready to mischief one another by the way 36. Having all these Obligations upon us and being tied together in one Brotherhood by so many bands of unity and affection I presume we cannot doubt de Iure but that it is our bounden duty thus to love the Brotherhood There remaineth now no more to be done but to look to our performances that they be right wherein the main thing we are to take heed of besides what hath been already applyed is Partiality I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by Partiality It was S. Pauls charge to Timothy in another businesse but may suit very well with this also 27. Not but that we may and in most cases must make a difference between one brother and another in the measure and degree of our Love according to the different measures and degrees either of their goodness considered in themselves or of their neerness in relation to us those two considerations being as you heard the grounds of our Love So David loved Ionathan as his own soule his heart was knit to him both because he was a good man and had withall approved himself his trusty friend Yea our blessed Saviour himself shewed a more affectionate Love to Iohn then to any other of his disciples the disciple whom Iesus loved for no other known reason so much as for this that he was neer of kin to him his own mothers sisters son as is generally supposed No reasonable man among us then need make any question but that we may and ought to bear a greater love unto and consequently to be readier to do good unto caeteris paribus our Countrymen our neighbours our kindred our friends then to those that are strangers to us and stand in no such relation And so no doubt we may and ought in like manner upon that other ground of Goodness more to love and to shew kindness sooner to a sober discreet judicious peaceable humble and otherwise orderly and regular man caeteris paribus then to one that is light-headed or lazy or turbulent or proud or debauched or heretical or schismatical 38. But still that proviso or limitation which I now twice mentioned caeteris paribus must he remembred for there may such a disparity arise by emergent occasions as may render a meer stranger a heathen a notoriously vitious person a fitter object of our compassion help or relief pro hîc nunc then the most pious Christian or our dearest friend or ally In cases of great extremity where the necessities of the party importune a present succour and will admit no delay Cedat necessitudo necessitati the former considerations whether of Neerness or Goodness must be waved for the present and give way to those Necessities He is most our neighbour and brother in a case of that nature that standeth in most need of our help as our Saviour himself hath clearly resolved it in the case of the wounded traveller in the parable Luke 10. Nor doth this at all contradict what hath been already delivered concerning the preferring of the brethren before others either in the affection of love or in the offices which flow therefrom For the affection first it is clear that although some acts of compassion and charity be exercised towards a stranger yea even an enemy that hath great need of it rather then towards a friend or brother that hath either no need at all or very little in comparison of the other it doth not hinder but that the Habit or affection of love in the heart may notwithstanding at the very same time be more strongly carried towards the brother or friend then towards the enemy or stranger as every mans own reason and experience in himself can tell him And as for the outward acts and offices of love it is with them as with the offices of all other vertues and gracious habits or affections which not binding ad semper as the graces and habits themselves do are therefore variable and mutable as the circumstances by which they must be regulated vary pro hic nunc And therefore the rules given concerning them must not be punctually mathematically interpreted but prudentially and rationally and hold as we use to say in the Schools communiter but not universaliter that is to say ordinarily and in most cases where circumstances do not require it should be otherwise but not absolutely and universally so as to admit of no exception 39. This rub then thus removed out of the way it may yet be demanded where is this partiality to be found whereof we spake or what is it to have the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons if this putting of a difference in our love between brother and brother which we have now allowed of be not it I answer It is no partiality to make such a difference as we have hitherto allowed so long as the said difference
sinner he giveth travail to gather and to heap up The sinner possibly may gather as much together as the godly or more and raise to himself more and greater heaps of worldly treasure but when he hath done he hath but his travel for his pains He hath not wisdom and knowledge to understand the just valuation and the right use of that which he hath gathered together he taketh no joy he taketh no comfort in those heaps he findeth nothing in them but cares and disquietness and vexation of spirit All his dayes are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night It is not thefore without cause that our Apostle so speaketh of contentment as of the handmaid unto godliness But godliness with contentment is great gain 1 Tim. 6. 4. The truth whereof will yet farther appear unto us if we shall consider of these two grounds First that in all other things there is an unsufficiency and Secondly that there is a sufficiency in the grace of God to work Contentment We cannot conceive any other things besides the Grace of God from which Contentment can be supposed to spring but those three Nature Morality and Outward things All which in the triall will appear to be altogether insufficient to work this effect First Nature as it is now corrupt inclineth our hearts and affections strongly to the world the inordinate love whereof first breedeth and then cherisheth our discontent Whiles between the desire of having and the feare of wanting we continually pierce our selves thorough with a thousand cares and sorrows Our lusts are vast as the sea and restless as the sea and as the sea will not be bounded but by an almighty power The horseleach hath but two daughters but we have I know not how many craving lusts no less importunately clamorous then they Till they be served incessantly crying Give Give but much more unsatisfied then they for they will be filled in time and when they are full they tumble off and ther 's an end But our lusts will never be satisfied like Pharaohs thin kine when they have eaten up all the fat ones they are still as hungry and as whining as they were before We are by nature infinitely covetous we never think our selves rich enough but still wish more and we are by nature infinitely timerous we never think our selves safe enough but still feare want Neither of both which alone much less both together can stand with true Contentment This flower then groweth not in the garden of corrupt Nature which is so rankly over-grown with so many and such pestilent and noysome weeds 5. But perhaps the soyle may be so improved by the culture of Philosophy and the malignity of it so corrected by moral institution as that Contentment may grow and thrive in it No that will not do the deed neither True it is that there are to be found in the writings of heathen Orators Poets and Philosophers many excellent and acute sentences and precepts tending this way and very worthy to be taken notice of by us Christians both to our wonder and shame To our wonder that they would espy so much light as they did at so little a peep-hool but to our shame withall who enjoying the benefit of divine revelation and living in the open sun-shine of the glorious Gospel of truth have profited thereby in so small a proportion beyond them But all their sentences and precepts fall short of the mark they could never reach that solid Contentment they levelled at Sunt verba voces as he said and he said truer then he was aware of for they are but words indeed empty of truth and reality The shadow of contentment they might catch at but when they came to grasp the substance Nubem pro Iunone they ever found themselves deluded As the blinded Sodomites that beset Lots house they fumbled about the door perhaps sometimes stumbled at the threshold but could not for their lives either finde or make themselves a way into the inner rooms The greatest Contentments their speculations could perform unto them were but aegri somnia Not a calm and soft sleep like that which our God giveth his beloved ones but as the slumbring dreams of a sick man very short and those also interrupted with a medley of cross and confused fancies Which possibly may be some small refreshing to them amid their long weary fits but cannot well be called Rest. Now the very true reason of this unsufficiency in whatsoever precepts of Morality unto true Contentment is because the topicks from whence they draw their perswasions are of too flat and low an elevation As being taken from the dignity of man from the baseness of outward things from the mutability of fortune from the shortness and uncertainty of life and such like other considerations as come within their own spear Vseful indeed in their kind but unable to bear such a pile and roof as they would build thereupon But as for the true grounds of sound Contentment which are the perswasions of the special providence of God over his children as of a wise and Loving father whereby he disposeth all things unto them for the best and a lively faith resting upon the rich and precious promises of God revealed in his holy word they were things quite out of their element and such as they were wholly ignorant of And therefore no marvel if they were so far to seek in this high and holy learning 6. But might there not in the third place be shaped at least might there not be imagined a fitness and competency of outward things in such a mediocrity of proportion every way unto a mans hopes and desires as that contentment would arise from it of it self and that the party could not chuse but rest satisfied therewithall Nothing less For first experience sheweth us that contentment ariseth not from the things but from the minde even by this that discontents take both soonest and sorest of the greatest and wealthiest men Which would not be if greatness or wealth were the main things required to breed Contentment Secondly those men that could not frame their hearts to contentment when they had less will be as far from it if ever they shall have more For their desires and the things will still keep at a distance because as the things come on so their desires come on too As in a coach though it hurry away never so fast yet the hinder wheeles will still be behind the former as much as they were before And therefore our Apostle in the next verse maketh it a point of equall skill and of like deep learning to know how to be full as well as how to be hungry and how to abound as well as how to suffer need Thirdly it is impossible that Contentment should arise from the things because contentment supposeth a sufficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supposeth to 〈◊〉
Brotherhood of Grace by profession of the faith of Christ as we are Christian men As men we are members of that great body the World and so all men that live within the compass of the World are Brethren by a more general communion of Nature As Christians we are members of that mystical body the Church and so all Christian men that live within the compass of the Church are Brethren by a more peculiar communion of Faith And as the Moral Law bindeth us to love all men as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common Nature in Adam so the Evangelical Law bindeth to love all Christians as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common faith in Christ. 25. In which later notion the word Brother is most usually taken in the Apostolical writings to signifie a professor of the Christian Faith and Religion in opposition to heathen men and unbeleevers The name of Christian though of commonest use and longest continuance was yet but of a later date taken up first at Antioch as we finde Act. 11. whereas believers were before usually called Disciples and no less usually both before and since Brethren You shall read very often in the Acts and Epistles of the holy Apostles How the Brethren assembled together to hear the Gospel preached to receive the Sacrament and to consult about the affairs of the Church How the Apostles as they went from place to place to plant and water the Churches in their progress every where visited the Brethren at their first coming to any place saluting the Brethren during their abode there confirming the Brethren at their departure thence taking leave of the Brethren How collections were made for relief of the Brethren and those sent into Iudea from other parts by the hands of the brethren c. S. Paul opposeth the Brethren to them that are without and so includeth all that are within the Church What have I to do to judg them that are without 1 Cor. 5. As if he had said Christ sent me an Apostle and Minister of the Churches and therefore I meddle not but with those that are within the pale of the Church as for those that are without if any of them will be filthy let him be filthy still I have nothing to do to meddle with them But saith he if any man that is within the Christian Church any man that is called a Brother be a fornicator or drunkard or rayler or otherwise stain his holy profession by scandalous living I know how to deal with him let the censures of the Church be laid upon him let him be cast out of the assemblies of the Brethren that he may be thereby brought to shame and repentance 26. So then Brethren in the Apostolical use of the word are Christians and the Brotherhood the whole society of Christian men the systeme and body of the whole visible Church of Christ. I say the visible Church because there is indeed another Brotherhood more excellent then this whereof we now speak consisting of such only as shall undoubtedly inherit salvation called by some of the ancients The Church of Gods Elect and by some later writers the Invisible Church And truly this Brotherhood would under God deserve the highest room in our affections could we with any certainty discern who were of it and who not But because the fan is not in our hand to winnow the chaff from the wheat Dominus novit The Lord onely knoweth who are his by those secret characters of Grace and Perseverance which no eye of man is able to discern in another nor perhaps in himself infallibly we are therefore for the discharge of our duty to look at the Brotherhood so far as it is discernable to us by the plain and legible characters of Baptism and outward profession So that whosoever abideth in areâ Domini and liveth in the communion of the visible Church being baptized into Christ and professing the Name of Christ let him prove as it falleth out chaff or light corn or wheat when the Lord shall come with his fan to purge his floor yet in the mean time so long as he lieth in the heap and upon the floor We must own him for a Christian and take him as one of the Brotherhood and as such an one love him For so is the Duty here Love the Brotherhood 27. To make Love compleat Two things are required according to Aristotle's description of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Affectus cordis and Effectus operis The inward affection of the heart in wishing to him we love all good and the outward manifestation of that affection by our deed as occasion is offered in being ready to our power to do him any good The heart is the root and the seat of all true love and there we must begin or else all we do is but lost If we do never so many serviceable offices to our brethren out of any by-end or sinister respect although they may possibly be very usefull and so very acceptable to him yet if our heart be not towards them if there be not a sincere affection within it cannot be truly called Love That Love that will abide the test and answer the Duty required in the Text must be such as the Apostles have in several passages described it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfained love of the brethren 1 Pet. 1. Love out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 28. Of which inward affection the outward deed is the best discoverer and therefore that must come on too to make the love perfect As Iehu said to Ionadab Is thy heart right If it be then give me thy hand As in the exercises of our devotion towards God so in the exercises of our charity towards men heart and hand should go together Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis Good works are the best demonstrations as of true Faith so of true love Where there is life and heate there will be action There is no life then in that Faith S. Iames calleth it plainly a dead faith Iam. 2. nor heate in that Love according to that expression Matth. 24. the love of many shall wax cold that doth not put forth it self in the works of righteousness and mercy He then loveth not the Brotherhood indeed whatsoever he pretend or at least not in so gracious a measure as he should endeavour after That doth not take every fit opportunity of doing good either to the souls or bodies or credits or estates of his Brethren That is not willing to do them all possible services according to the urgency of their occasions and the just exigence of circumstances with his countenance with his advice with his pains with his purse yea and if need be with his very life too This is the Non ultra farther then this we cannot goe in the expressing of our love Greater love
but commodata When God lent us the use of them he had no meaning to forgoe the property too and therefore they are his goods still and he may require them at our hands or take them from us when he will and dispose of them as he pleaseth I will return and take away my corn and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wooll and my flax Osee 2. What we have we hold of him as our creditor and when he committed these things to our trust they were not made over to us by covenant for any fixed term Whensoever therefore he shall think good to call in his debts it is our part to return them with patience shall I say ey and with thankfulness too that he hath suffered us to enjoy them so long but without the least grudging or repining as too often we do that we may not hold them longer Non contristor quòd recepisti ago gratias quòd dedisti Thus did Iob when all was taken from him he blessed the name of the Lord still and to his wife tempting him to impatience gave a sharp but withall a most reasonable and religious answer Thou speakest like a foolish woman Shall we receive good things at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil also As who say shall we make earnest suite to him when we would borrow and be offended with him when we are called on to pay again We account him and so he is an ill and unthankful debter from whom the lender cannot ask his own but he shall be like to lose a friend by it Add yet how impatiently oftentimes do we take it at our Lords hand when he requireth from us but some small part of that which he hath so freely and so long lent us 21. Try thy self then Brother by these and the like signes and accordingly judge what progress thou hast made in this so high and useful a part of Christian learning 1. If thou scornest to gain by any unlawfull or unworthy means 2. If thy desires and cares for the things of this life be regular and moderate 3. If thou canst finde in thy heart to take thy portion and to bestow thereof for thine own comfort 4. And to dispense though but the superfluities for the charitable relief of thy poor neighbours 5. If thou canst want what thou desirest without murmuring and lose what thou possessest without impatience then mayest thou with some confidence say with our Apostle in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content But if any one of these particular signes be wholy wanting in thee thou art then but a truant in this learning and it will concern thee to set so much the harder to it and to apply thy self more seriously and diligently to this study hereafter then hitherto thou hast done 22. Wherein for the better guiding of those that are desirous of this learning either to make entrance thereinto if they be yet altogether to learn which may be the case of some of us or to proceed farther therein if they be already entred as the best-skilled of us all had need to do for so long as we are in the flesh and live in the world the lusts both of flesh and world will mingle with our best graces and hinder them from growing to a fulness of perfection I shall crave leave towards the close of this discourse to commend to the consideration and practise of all whether novices or proficients in this Art of Contentation some usefull Rules that may serve as so many helps for their better attaining to some reasonable abilities therein The general means for the obtaining of this as of every other particular grace we all know are fervent Prayer and the sincere love of God and goodness Which because they are general we will not now particularly insist upon it shall suffice without farther opening barely to have mentioned them 23. But for the more special means the first thing to be done is to labour for a true and lively Faith For Faith is the very basis the foundation whereupon our hearts and all our hearts-content must rest the whole frame of our contentment rising higher or lower weaker or stronger in proportion to that foundation And this Faith as to our present purpose hath a double Object as before was touched to wit the Goodness of God and the Truth of God His Goodness in the dispensation of his special providence for the present and his Truth in the performance of his temporal promises for the future First then labour to have thy heart throughly perswaded of the goodness of God towards thee That he is thy Father and that whether he frown upon thee or correct thee or howsoever otherwise he seem to deal with thee he still beareth a Fatherly affection towards thee That what he giveth thee he giveth in love because he seeth it best for thee to have it and what he denieth thee he denieth in love because he seeth it best for thee to want it A sick man in the extremity of his distemper desireth some of those that are about him and sit at his bed-side as they love him to give him a draught of cold water to allay his thirst but cannot obtain it from his dearest wife that lieth in his bosome nor from his nearest friend that loveth him as his own soul. They consider that if they should satisfie his desire they should destroy his life they will therefore rather urge him and even compel him to take what the Doctor hath prescribed how unpleasant and distastful soever it may seem unto him And then if pain and the impotency of his desire will but permit him the use of his reason he yieldeth to their perswasions for then he considereth that all this is done out of their love to him and for his good both when he is denied what he most desireth and when he is pressed to take what he vehemently abhorreth Perswade thy self in like sort of all the Lords dealings with thee If at any time he do not answer thee in the desire of thy heart conclude there is either some unworthiness in thy person or some inordinacy in thy desire or some unfitness or unseasonableness in the thing desired something or other not right on thy part but be sure not to impute it to any defect of love in him 24. And as thou art stedfastly to beliéve his goodness and love in ordering all things in such sort as he doth for the present so oughtest thou with like stedfastness to rest upon his truth and faithfulness for the making good of all those gracious promises that he hath made in his word concerning thy temporal provision and preservation for the future Only understand those promises rightly with their due conditions and limitations and in that sense wherein he intended them when he made them and then never doubt the performance
and he should not love him faithfully but foolishly if he should out of fond indulgence let him go on in an evil way without due correction He that spareth the rod hateth his childe saith Solomon he meaneth it interpretativè that is he doth his childe as much hurt out of his fond love as he could not do him more harm if he were his enemies childe whom he hateth Will not a mother that loveth her childe with all tenderness if it have got some hurt with a fall lay on a plaster to heal it though it smart and though the child cry and struggle against it all it can yet will shee lay it on for all that ey and binde it too to keep it on and all out of very love and faithfulness because she knoweth it must be so or the childe will be the worse for it I use these comparisons the rather not onely because they are familiar and the more familiar ever the better if they be fit but because the Lord himself also delighteth to set forth his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and love to us by the love of a discreet father and the affection of a tender mother towards the fruit of their own loins and womb And the Apostle at large prosecuteth the resemblance and that in this very matter whereof we now speak of our heavenly Fathers correcting his children in love and for their good most accurately and comfortably in Heb. 12. 22. But to return back to the relation of friendship from which yet I have not disgressed for can we have any better friends then our parents If any of us have a friend that is lethargique or lunatique will we not put the one from his drousie seat and shake him up and make him stir about whether he will or no and tie the other in his bed hamper him with cords ey and with blows too if need be to keep him quiet though it be death to the one to be stirred and to the other to be tied Or if we have some near friend or kinsman that we wish well to and partly dependeth upon us for his livelyhood that will not be advised by us but will flee out into bad company drink and quarrell and game will we not pinch him in his allowance refuse to give him entertainment set some underhand to beate him when he quarrels in his drink or to cheat him when he gameth too deep and if he will not be reclaimed otherwise get him arrested and laid up and then let him lie by it till shame and want give him some better sight and sence of his former follies Can any man now charge us truly with unfaithfulness to our friend for so doing Or is it not rather a good proof of our love and faithfulness to him Doubtless it is You know the old saying Non quòd odio habeam sed quòd amem it hath some reason in it For the love and faithfulness of a friend is not to be measured by the things done but by the affection and intention of the doer A thing may be done that carrieth the shew of much friendship with it yet with an intent to do the party a mischief Eutrapelus cuicunque nocere volebat c. As if he should put his friend upon some employment he were unmeet for of purpose to disgrace him or feed him with money in a riotous course to get a hanck over his estate like Sauls friendship to David in giving him his daughter to wife that she might be a snare to him to put him into the hands of the Philistines This is the basest unfaithfulness of all other sub amici fallere nomen and by many degrees worse then open hostility Let not their precious balmes break my head Let the righteous rather smite me friendly saith David There may be smiting it should seem by him without violation of friendship And his wise son Solomon preferreth the wounds of a friend before the kisses of an enemy These may be pleasanter but those will prove wholsomer there is treachery in these kisses but in those wounds faithfulness 23. You may perceive by what hath been said that God may cause his servants to be troubled and yet continue his love and faithfulness to them nevertheless yea moreover that he bringeth those troubles upon them out of his great love and faithfulness towards them It should make us the more willing whether God inflict or threaten whether we feel or fear any either publick calamity or personal affliction any thing that is like to breed us any grief or trouble to submit our selves to the hand of God not only with patience because he is righteous but even with thankfulness too because he is faithful therein Very meet we should apprehend the wrath of God and his just indignation against us when he striketh for he is righteous and will not correct us but for our sin Which should prick our hearts with sorrow nay rend them in pieces with through-contrition that we should so unworthily provoke so gracious a God to punish us But then we must so apprehend his wrath that we doubt not of his favour nor despair of staying his hand if we will but stay the course of our sins by godly repentance and reformation for he is faithful and correcteth us ever for our good Doth he take any pleasure think you in our destruction He hath sworn the contrary and dare you not believe him Doubt ye not therefore but that humility and confidence fear and hope may consist together as well as justice and mercy may in God or repentance and faith in us Presume not then to continue in sin but fear his judgments for he is righteous and will not acquit the guilty Neither yet despair of finding pardon but hope in his mercy for he is faithful and will not despise the penitent I forbid no man but charge him rather as he meaneth to build his after-comforts upon a firm base to lay a good foundation of repentance and godly sorrow by looking first upon Gods justice and his own sins that he may be cast down and humbled under the mighty hand of God before he presume to lay hold of any actual mercy But after he hath by this means assured the foundation let him then in Gods name proceed with his work and bring it on more and more to perfection by sweet meditations of the great love and gracious promises of our good God and his undoubted stedfastness and faithfulness therein Never giving it over till he come to that perfection of art and skill that he can spy love even in the very wrath of God Mel de petra suck honey out of the stony rock gather grapes of thornes and figs of thistles Till we attain to this I say not but we may have true hope and comfort in God which by his mercy may bring us to salvation but we have not yet
we take leave so to speak sutably to our own low apprehensions for in the God-head there are properly no Qualities but call them Qualities or Attributes or what else you will there are foure perfections in God opposite to those defects which in our earthly Parents we have found to be the chief causes why they do so oft forsake us which give us full assurance that he will not faile to take us up when all other succours faile us Those are his Love his Wisdome his Power his Eternity all in his Nature To which foure adde his Promise and you have the fulness of all the assurance that can be desired 20. First the Love of our heavenly Father towards all mankinde in general but especially towards those that are his children by adoption and grace is infinitely beyond the Love of earthly Parents towards their children They may prove unnatural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their bowels may be crusted up against the fruit of their own body But the Lord cannot but love his people He can as well cease to be as to love for he is love If he should deny that he should deny himself and that he will not do because he cannot and that he cannot do because he will not Potenter non potest It is impossible for him to whom all things are possible to deny himself The Church indeed out of the sense of her pressures letteth fall complaints sometimes as if she were forsaken But Syon said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Esay 49.14 But she complaineth without cause it is a weakness in her to which during her warfare she is subject by fits but she is checkt for it immediately in the very next verse there Can a woman forget her sucking childe c. Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee 21. Again their Love may be alienated by needless jealousies or false suggestions and so lost But his Love is durable he loveth his own unto the End He knoweth the singleness of their Hearts and will receive no accusation against them Quis accusabit Who dare lay any thing to the charge of his Elect when he standeth up for their Iustification They alas are negligent enough unthankful undutiful children nay confest it must be other while stubborn and rebellious But as Davids heart longed after Absolon because he was his son though a very ungracious one so his bowels yearn after those that are no wayes worthy but by his dignation only to be called his sons Forgiving all their by-past miscarriages upon their true repentance receiving them with gladness though they have squandred away all their portion with riotous living if they return to him in any time with humble obedient and perfect hearts and in the mean time using very many admonitions entreaties and other artifices to win them to repentance and forbearing them with much patience that they may have space enough to repent in And if upon such indulgencies and insinuations they shall come in he will not onely welcome them with kinde embraces but do his part also to hold them in when they are even ready to flie out again and were it not for that hold would in all likelyhood so do So as unless by a total wilful renouncing him they break from him and cut themselves off nothing in the world shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. 22. Yet again Parents affections may be so strongly byassed another way as we heard that in the pursuit of other delights they may either quite forget or very much dis-regard their children But no such thing can befal our heavenly Father who taketh pleasure in his people and in their prosperity whose chiefest delight is in shewing mercy to his children and doing them good The Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them Deut. 10. And whereas the Church as we also heard is apt to complain that she is forsaken and desolate the Lord by the Prophet giveth her a most comfortable assurance to the contrary Esay 62. Thou shalt no more be called forsaken c. But thou shalt be called Hephzibah It is a compound word and signifieth as much as My delight is in her and so the reason of that appellation is there given For the Lord delighteth in thee That for his Love the first Attribute 23. His Wisdom is the next Fathers and mothers through humane ignorance cannot perfectly understand the griefs of their children nor infallibly know how to remedy them if they did But God who dwelleth in light nay who is light knoweth the inmost recesses the darkest thoughts and secrets of all mens hearts better then themselves do He perfectly understandeth all their wants and what supplies are fittest in their respective conditions with all the least circumstances thereunto belonging When all the wits and devices of men are at a loss and know not which way in the world to turn them to avoid this danger to prevent that mischief to effectuate any designe the Lord by his infinite wisdom can manage the business with all advantage for the good oâ— his children if he see it behoveful for them bringing it about suaviâ—er fortiter sweetly and without violence in ordering the means but effectually and without fail in accomplishing the end 24. Which wisdom of his observable in all the dispensations of his gracious providence towards his children we may behold as by way of instance in his fatherly corrections As the Apostle Heb. 12. maketh the comparison between the different proceedings of the fathers of our flesh and the Father of spirits in their chastisements They do it after their own pleasure saith he that is not alwayes with judgement and according to the merit of the fault but after the present disposition of their own passions either through a fond indulgence sparing the rod too much or in a frantick rage laying it on without mercy or measure But it is not so with him who in all his chastisements hath an eye as to our former faults such is his justice so also and especially to our future profit such is his mercy and ordereth all accordingly His blessings are our daily food his corrections our physick Our frequent surfetting on that food bringeth on such distempers that we must be often and sometimes soundly physickt or we are but lost men As therefore a skilful Physitian attempereth and applieth his remedies with such due regard to the present state of the Patient as may be likeliest to restore him to a good habit of body and consistency of health so dealeth our heavenly Father with us But with this remarkable difference The other may erre in judging of the state of the body or the nature of the ingredients in his proportions of mixture in the dose and many other wayes But the Lord perfectly knoweth how it is with us and
then this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend and thus far we must goe if God call us to it So far went Christ for our redemption and so far the Scriptures press his example for our imitation Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 29. To recollect the premises and to give you the full meaning of the precept at once To Love the Brotherhood is as much as to bear a special affection to all Christians more then to Heathens and to manifest the same proportionably by performing all loving offices to them upon every fit occasion to the utmost of our powers A duty of such importance that our Apostle though here in the Text he do but only name it in the bunch among other duties yet afterwards in this Epistle seemeth to require it in a more speciall manner and after a sort above other duties Above all things have fervent charity among your selves Chap. 4. And S. Iohn upon the performance hereof hangeth one of the strongest assurances we can have of our being in Christ. We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 30. Now of the Obligation of this duty for that is the next thing we are to consider there are two main grounds Goodness and Neerness First we must love the Brotherhood for their goodness All goodness is lovely There groweth a Love due to every creature of God from this that every creature of God is good Some goodness God hath communicated to every thing to which he gave a beeing as a beame of that incomprehensible light and a drop of that infinite Ocean of goodness which he himself is But a greater measure of Love is due to man then to other Creatures by how much God hath made him better then them And to every particular man that hath any special goodness in him there is a special Love due proportionable to the kinde and measâ—re thereof So that whatsoever goodness we can discern in any man we ought to love it in him and to love him for it whatsoever faults or defects are apparently enough to be found in him otherways He that hath good natural parts if he have little in him that is good besides yet is to be loved even for those parts because they are good He that hath but good moralities only leading a civil life though without any probable evidences of grace appearing in him is yet to be loved of us if but for those moralities because they also are good But he that goeth higher and by the goodness of his conversation sheweth forth so far as we can judge the graciousness of his heart deserveth by so much an higher room in our affections then either of the former by how much Grace exceedeth in goodness both Nature and Morality Sith then there is a special goodness in the Brethren quatenùs such in regard of that most holy faith which they profess and that blessed name of Christ which is called upon them we are therefore bound to love them with a special affection and that eo nomine under that consideration as they are brethren over and above that general love with which we are bound to love them as men or that which belongeth to them as men of parts or as Civil men 31. The other ground of Loving the Brotherhood is their Neerness The neerer the dearer we say and there are few relations neerer then that of brotherhood But no brotherhood in the world so closely and surely knit together and with so many and strong tyes as the fraternity of Christians in the communion of Saints which is the Brotherhood in the Text. In which one brotherhood it is not easy to reckon how many brotherhoods are conteined Behold some of many First we are Brethren by propagation and that ab utroque parente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of the one Eternal God the common father of us all and of the one Catholick Church the common mother of us all And we have all the same Elder brother Jesus Christ the first born among many brethren the lively image of his fathers person and indeed the foundation of the whole Brotherhood for we are all as many of us as have been baptised into Christ the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Therefore as Ioseph loved Benjamin his brother of the whole bloud more affectionately then the other ten that were his brethren but by the fathers side only so we ought with a more special affection to love those that are also the sons of our mother the Church as Christians then those that are but the sons of God only as Creatures 32. Secondly we are Brethren by education 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foster-brethren as Herod and Manahon were We are all nursed with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincere milk of the word in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament which are ubera matris Ecclesiae the two brests whence we sucked all that wholsome nourishment by which we are grown up to what we are to that measure of stature of strength whatsoever it is that we have in Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle and common experience sheweth it so to be They that have been nursed or brought up together in their childehood for the most part have their affections so seasoned and setled then that they love one another the better while they live 33. Thirdly we are Brethren by Covenant sworn brothers at our holy Baptism when we dedicated our selves to Gods service as his Souldiers by sacred and solemn vow Do we not see men that take the same oath pressed to serve in the same Wars and under the same Captains Contuâ—ernales and Comrades how they do not only call Brothers but hold together as Brothers and shew themselves marvelous zealous in one anothers behalf taking their parts and pawning their credits for them and sharing their fortunes with them If one of them have but a little silver in his purse his brother shall not want whiles that lasteth Shame we with it that the children of this world should be kinder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards those of their own generation then we are in ours 34. Fourthly we are Brethren by Cohabitation We are all of one house and family not strangers and forrainers but fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God What a disquietness and discredit both is it to a house where the children are ever jarring and snarling and fighting one with another but a goodly sight Ecce quam bonum when they dwell together in love and unity Even so a sad thing it is and very grievous to the soule of every good man when in the Church which is the house of God Christians
unrest was the greatest part of his reign I note it not with a purpose to enter into a set discourse how many and great the troubles are that attend the Crowns and Scepters of Princes which I easily believe to be far both more and greater then we that stand below are capable to imagine but for two other reasons a great deal more useful and therefore so much the more needful to be thought on both by them and us It should first work in all them that sit aloft and so are exposed to more and stronger blasts the greater care to provide a safe resting place for their souls that whensoever they shall meet with trouble and sorrow in the flesh and that they shall be sure to do ofter then they look for they may retire thither there to repose and solace themselves in the goodness of their God saying eftsoones with our Prophet Return unto thy rest O my soul. It was well for him that he had such a rest for his soul for he had rest little enough otherwise from continual troubles and cares in his civil affairs and estate And it should in all reason secondly quicken the hearts of all loyal and well-affected subjects by their prayers counsels services aids and cheerful obedience respectively rather to afford Princes their best assistance for the comfortable support of that their weighty and troublesome charge then out of ambition discontent popularity envy or any other cross or peevish humor add unto their cares and create unto them more troubles 15. David you see had troubles as a man as a godly man as a King But who caused them Sure in those his first times when as I conjecture he wrote this Psalm Saul with his Princes and followers was the chiefest cause of most of his troubles and afterwards crafty Ahitophel caused him much trouble and railing Shimei some and seditious Sheba not a little but his rebellious son Absalon most of all He complaineth of many troublers raised by the means of that son in Psalm 3. Domine quà m multiplicati Lord how are they increased that trouble me Yet here you see he overlooketh them all and all other second causes and ascribeth his troubles wholly unto God So he did also afterwards in the particular of Shimei's rayling Let him alone saith he to Abishai Let him curse on for God hath bidden him Even as Iob had done before him when the Sabeans and the Chaldeans had taken away his cattle and goods he scarce took notice of them he knew they were but instruments but looked at the hand of God only as the chief and principal cause Dominus abstulit The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away Neither did David any injury at all to Almighty God in ascribing it to him for God also himself taketh it all upon himself I will raise him evil out of his own house and I will do it before the sun 2 Sam. 12. 16. How all those things wherein wicked men serving their own lusts only in their own purpose do yet unwittingly do service to God Almighty in furthering his wise and holy designs can have their efficiency from causes of such contrary quality and looking at such contrary ends to the producing of one and the same effect is a speculation more curious then profitable It is enough for us to know that it neither casteth any blemish at all upon him that he maketh such use of them nor giveth any excuse at all to them that they do such service to him but that all this notwithstanding he shall still have the whole glory of his own wisdom and holiness and they shall still bear the whole burthen of their own folly and wickedness But there is another and that a far better use to be made hereof then to trouble our selves about a mysterie that we shall never be able in this life to comprehend and that is this that seeing all the troubles that befall us in any kind whatsoever or by what instruments soever come yet from the hand of God we should not therefore when at any time we meet with trouble rage against the second causes or seek to venge our teen upon them as of our selves we are very apt to do but laying our hands upon our mouths compose our selves to a holy patience and silence considering it is his will and pleasure to have it so to whom it is both our duty and wisdom wholly to submit 17. We may learn it of holy Iob. His wife moved his patience not a little by moving him to impatience Thou talkest like a foolish woman saith he shall we receive good things at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil also Or we may learn it of good old Eli. When he received a message from the Lord by the mouth of young Samuel of a right heavy judgment shortly to fall upon him and his house for his fond indulgence to his ungracious children he made no more reply but said only It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Or to go no further then our Prophet David we may learn it sufficiently from him Psalm 39. I was dumbe saith he and opened not my mouth Quoniam tu fecisti for it was thy doing This consideration alone Quoniam tu fecisti is enough to silence all tumultuous thoughts and to cut off all farther disputing and debating the matter that it is God that causeth us to be troubled All whose judgments are not only done in righteousnesse as we have hitherto heard but towards his children also out of much love and faithfulnesse as we are next to hear I know that of very faithfulnesse thou hast caused me to be troubled 18. In the former part of the verse where he spake of the righteousnesse of God he did it indefinitely without mentioning either himself or any other person not particularly Thy judgments upon me but indefinitely I know O Lord that thy judgments are right But now in this latter part of the verse where he cometh to speak of the faithfulness of God he nameth himself And that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused Me to be troubled For as earthly Princes must do justice to all men for Iustice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man may challenge it and there must be no respect had no difference made of persons therein but their favours they may bestow upon whom they think good so God will have his justice to appear in all his dealings with all men generally be they good or bad that none of them all shall be able to say he hath done them the least wrong but yet his tender mercies and loving kindnesses those he reserveth for the godly only who are in special favour with him and towards whom he beareth a special respect For by faithfulnesse here as in sundry other places of Scripture is meant nothing else but the special love and favour of God towards those that
that there is nothing of moment proved against him for in the construction of the Law every man is presumed to be an honest man till he be proved otherwise But to the condemning of a man there is more requisite then so bare suspicions are not enough no nor strong presumptions neither but there must be a clear and full evidence especially if the triall concern life So in these moral trials also in foro interno when enquiry is made into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of humane acts in their several kindes it is sufficient to warrant any act in the kinde to be lawful that there can be nothing produced from scripture or sound reason to prove it unlawfull For so much the words of my Text do manifestly import All things are lawful for me But to condemn any act as simply and utterly unlawful in the kind remote consequences and weak deductions from Scripture-Text should not serve the turne neither yet reasons of inconveniency or inexpediency though carrying with them great shews of probability But it is requisite that the unlawfulness thereof should be sufficiently demonstrated either from express and undeniable testimony of scripture or from the clear light of natural reason or at leastwise from some conclusions properly directly and evidently deduced therefrom If we condemne it before this be done our judgement therein is rash and unrighteous 15. Nor is that all I told you besides the unrighteousness of it in it self that it is also of very noysome and perilous consequence many wayes Sundry the evil and pernicious effects whereof I desire you to take notice of being many I shall do little more then name them howbeit they will deserve a larger discovery And first it produceth much Vncharitableness For although difference of judgment should not alienate our affections one from another yet daily experience sheweth it doth By reason of that self-selfe-love and envy and other corruptions that abound in us it is rarely seen that those men are of one heart that are of two mindes S. Paul found it so with the Romans in his time whilest some condemned that as unlawful which others practised as lawful they judged one another and despised one another perpetually And I doubt not but any of us that is any-whit-like acquainted with the wretched deceitfulness of mans heart may easily conclude how hard a thing it is if at all possible not to think somewhat hardly of those men that take the liberty to do such things as we judge unlawful As for example If we shall judge all walking into the fields discoursing occasionally on the occurrences of the times dressing of meat for dinner or supper or even moderate recreations on the Lords day to be grievous prophanations of the sabbath how can we chuse but judge those men that use them to be grievous prophaners of Gods sabbath And if such our judgment concerning the things should after prove to be erroneous then can it not be avoided but that such our judgement also concerning the persons must needs be uncharitable 16. Secondly this mis-judging of things filleth the world with endless nicities and disputes to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which to every good man ought to be precious The multiplying of books and writings pro and con and pursuing of arguments with heat and opposition doth rather lengthen then decide controversies and insted of destroying the old begetteth new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of conscience dare not may not yeeld and so still the warr goeth on 17. And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens consciences when by the peremptory doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the soules of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples and driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can be no light matter thus to lay heavie burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast a snare upon their consciences by making the narrow way to heaven narrower then ever God meant it 18. Fourthly hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their Affections and Subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such things to be done as namely wearing of a surplice kneeling at the communion and tho like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful it cannot be but our hearts will be sowred towards our superiours in whom we ought to rejoyce and instead of blessing God for them as we are bound to do and that with hearty cheerfulness we shall be ready to speak evil of them even with open mouth so far as we dare for fear of being shent Or if out of that fear we do it but indirectly and obliquely yet we will be sure to do it in such a manner as if we were willing to be understood with as much reflexion upon authority as may be But then as for our Obedience we think our selves clearly discharged of that it being granted on all hands as it ought that superiours commanding unlawful things are not therein to be obeyed 19. And then as ever one evil bringeth on another since it is against all reason that our Errour should deprive our Superiours of that right they have to our obedience for why should any man reap or challenge benefit from his own act we do by this means fifthly exasperate those that are in authority and make the spirit of the ruler rise against us which may hap to fall right heavy on us in the end All power we know whether natural or civil striveth to maintain it self at the height for the better preserving of it self the Natural from decay and the Civil from contempt When we therefore withdraw from the higher powers our due obedience what do we other then pull upon our selves their just displeasure and put into their hands the opportunity if they shall but be as ready to take it as we are to give it rather to extend their power Whereby if we suffer in the conclusion as not unlike we may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom may we thank for it but our selves 20. Sixthly by this means we cast our selves upon such sufferings as the cause being naught we can have no sound comfort in Causa non passio we know it is the cause maketh a true Martyr or Confessour and not barely the suffering He that suffereth for the truth and a good cause suffereth as a Christian and he need not be ashamed but may exult in the midst of his greatest sufferings chearing up his own heart and glorifying God
they do edifie they are not onely lawful but expedient too and we may do them But when they edifie not but destroy though they be lawful still yet are they not expedient and we may not do them All things are lawful but all things edifie not 23. To this edification it appeareth S. Paul had a great respect in all his actions and affairs We do all things brethren for your edifying 2 Cor. 12. And he desireth that all other men would do so too Let every man please his neighbour for his good unto edification Rom. 15.2 and that in all the actions of their lives Let all things be done to edifying 1 Cor. 14. It is the very end for which God ordained the ministery of the Gospel the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes. 4. and for which he endowed his servants with power and with gifts to enable them for the work the power which God hath given us for edification 2 Cor. 13. Whatsoever our callings are whatsoever our power or guifts if we direct them not to Edification when we use them we abuse them 24. But then what is Edification for that we are yet to learn The word is metaphorical taken from material buildings but is often used by our Apostle in his Epistles with application ever to the Church of God and the spiritual building thereof The Church is the house of the living God All Christians members of this Church are as so many stones of the building whereof the house is made up The bringing in of unbeleevers into the Church by converting them to the Christian faith is as the fetching of more stones from the quarries to be layed in the building The building it selfe and that is Edification is the well and orderly joyning together of Christian men as living stones in truth and love that they may grow together as it were into one entire frame of building to make up the house strong and comely for the masters use and honour 25. I know not how it is come to pass in these later times that in the popular and common notion of this word in the mouths and apprehensions of most men generally Edification is in a manner confined wholy to the Understanding Which is an errour perhaps not of much consequence yet an errour tho and such as hath done some hurt too For thereon is grounded that Objection which some have stood much upon though there be little cause why against instrumental musick in the service of God and some other things used in the Church that they tend not to edification but rather hinder it because there cometh no instruction nor other fruit to the understanding thereby And therefore ought such things say they to be cast out of the Church as things unlawful A conclusion by the way which will by no means follow though all the premises should be granted for it is clear both from the words and drift of the Text that Edification is put as a meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed of Expediency but not so of lawfulness And therefore from the unserviceableness of any thing to Edification we cannot reasonably infer the unlawfulness thereof but the Inexpediency only But to let go the inconsequence that which is supposed in the premises and laid as the ground of the objection viz. that where the understanding is not benefited there is no Edification is not true The objecters should consider that whatsoever thing any way advanceth the service of God or furthereth the grouth of his Church or conduceth to the increasing of any spiritual grace or enliving of any holy affection in us or serveth to the outward exercise or but expression of any such grace or affection as joy feare thankfulness cheerfulness reverence or any other doubtless every such thing so far forth serveth more or less unto Edification 26. The building up of the people in the right knowledge of God and of his most holy truth is I confess a necessary part of the worke and no man that wisheth well to the worke will either despise it in his heart or speak contemptibly of it with his mouth yet is it not the whole work tho no nor yet the chiefest part thereof Our Apostle expressly giveth charity the preheminence before it knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth And for once he speaketh of Edification in his Epistles with reference to knowledge I dare say he speaketh of it thrice with reference to peace and brotherly Charity or condescension The truth is that Edification he so much urgeth is the promoting and furthering of our selves and others in truth godliness and peace or any grace accompanying salvation for the common good of the whole body S. Iude speaketh of building up our selves and S. Paul of edifying one another And this should be our daily and mutual study to build up our selves and others in the knowledge of the truth and in the practise of godliness but especially to the utmost of our powers within our several sphears and in those stations wherein God hath set us to advance the common good by preserving peace and love and unity in the Church 27. The instructions corrections or admonitions we bestow upon our private brethren the good examples we set before them our bearing with their infirmities our yielding and condescending from our own power and liberty to the desires even of private and particular men is as the chipping and hewing and squaring of the several stones to make them fitter for the building But when we do withall promote the publick good of the Church and do something towards the procuring and conserving the peace and unity thereof according to our measure that is as the laying of the stones together by making them cowch close one to another and binding them with sillings and cyment to make them hold Now whatsoever we shall finde according to the present state of the times places and persons with whom we have to do to conduce to the good either of the whole Church or of any greater or lesser portion thereof or but of any single member belonging thereunto so as no prejudice or wrong be thereby done to any other that we may be sure is expedient for that time 28. To enter into particulars when and how far forth we are bound to forbear the exercise of our lawful liberty in indifferent things for our brothers sake would be endless When all is said and written in this argument that can be thought of yet still as was said much must be left to mens Discretion and Charity Discretion first will tell us in the general that as the Circumstances alter so the expediency and inexpedieny of things may alter accordingly Quaedam quae licent tempore loco mutato non licent saith Seneca There is a time for every thing saith Solomon and a season for every purpose under heaven Hit that time right and what ever we do is beautiful but
as hard to drive her Westward 35. Nor is it otherwise in the Church and Common-wealth when Superiours rule with moderation Inferiours obey with chearfulness all men keeping themselves within their own ranks and stations bend themselves with their utmost diligence to advance the publick welfare the worke commonly riseth apace and prospereth in their hands But if they that worke above shall strive only how to extend their Power and they that worke below shall strive as much how to enlarge their Liberty the one to impose the other to refuse what they list If those shall hold them stiffly at this point We may do it and therefore we will do it and these as stiffly at this We may chuse and therefore we will not do it when shall they meet where is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that yielding and condescension the Apostle so often requireth It were a blessed thing and till it be so in some measure the building will never rise to purpose if men would look not so much at their power what they may do or at their liberty what they may not do so to serve their own turns humours or ends as how to use both power and liberty with all due sobriety and charity to the glory of God in the good of others If we could once grow to that not to look every one on his own things but every man also on the things of others as S. Paul elsewhere exhorteth then should we also agree with one minde and heart to follow the work close till we had got it up That for dispatch 36. But hasle maketh waste we say It doth so and in building as much as in any thing It were good wisdom therefore to bring on the work so as to make it strong withal lest if we make false work for quicker dispatch we repent our over-hasty building by leisure To rid us of that fear know secondly that unity and concord serveth for strength too as well as dispatch Evermore virtus unita fortior but division weakneth A house divided against it self cannot stand and the wall must needs be hollow and loose where the stones stand off one from another and couch not close Now brotherly love and unity is it that bindeth all fast so making of loose heaps one entire piece I beseech you brethren saith the Apostle that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement 1 Cor. 1. Like-mindedness you see is the thing that joyneth all together and in the well joyning consisteth the strength of any structure In Ephes. 4. therefore he speaketh of the bond of peace and in Colos. 3. he calleth love the bond of perfectness 37. In Phil. 1. he hath another expression which also notably confirmeth the same truth That I may hear saith he of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit with one minde They never stand so fast as when they are of one minde There is a Greek word sometimes used in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word which is commonly translated confusion and sometimes tumult Not unfitly for the sense either but in the literal notation it importeth a kinde of unstableness rather or unsetledness when a thing doth not stand fast but shaketh and tottereth and is in danger of falling And this S. Paul opposeth to peace 1 Cor. 14. God is not the author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of confusion or unstableness but of peace By that very opposition intimating that it is mostly for want of peace that things do not stand fast but are ready to fall into disorder and confusion S. Iames speaketh out what S. Paul but intimateth and telleth us plainly that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the effect of discord and that contention is the Mother of confusion For where envying and strife is saith he there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inconstancy unsetledness confusion and every evil work The builders make very ill work where the building is not like to stand but threatneth ruine and is ready to drop down again by that it be well up And yet such ill work doth envying and strife ever make it is concord only and unity that maketh good work and buildeth strong Let Ierusalem be built as a city at unity in it self and Ierusalem will be like to stand the faster and to stand up the longer 38. For a conclusion of all I cannot but once again admonish and earnestly entreat all those that in contending with much earnestness for matters of no great consequence have the glory of God ever and anon in their mouthes that they would take heed of embarquing God and his glory so deep in every trifling business and such as wherein there is not dignus vindice nodus But since it clearly appeareth from this and sundry other Texts of holy Scripture that peace and love are of those things whereby our gracious Lord God taketh himself to be chiefly glorified that they would rather faithfully endeavour by their peaceable charitable and amiable carriage towards others especially in such things as they cannot but know to be in the judgement of sundry men both learned and godly accounted but of inferiour and indifferent nature to approve to God the World and their own consciences that they do sincerely desire to glorifie God by pleasing their brethren for their good unto edification Which that we all unfeinedly may do I commend us and what we have heard to the grace and blessing of Almighty God dismissing you once again as I did heretofore with the Apostles benediction in the Text for I know not where to fit my self better Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according unto Christ Iesus That ye may with one minde and with one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. To which God the Father and his Son Iesus Christ our Lord and the blessed spirit of them both three persons c. AD AULAM. Sermon XIV WOBVRNE 1647. August Psalm 27.10 When my Father and my Mother forsake me the Lord taketh me up 1. THings that have a natural weakness in them to bear up themselves do by a natural instinct lean towards and if they can finde it clasp about something that may sufficiently support them but in default of such will catch and twine about whatsoever is next them that may be any little stay to them for any little time So a Hop for want of a strong pole will winde it self about a Thistle or Nettle or any sorry weed The heart of man whilest it seeketh abroad for somewhat without it self to rest it self upon doth even thereby sufficiently bewray a secret consciousness in it self of its own insufficiency to stand without something to support it If it finde not that which is the onely true support indeed it will stay it self as long
that have succeeded in their rooms 7. Thirdly parents whose affection towards their children hath not been sowred by any personal dislike may yet have their affection so over-powred by some stronger lust as to become cruel to their children and forsake them For as in the World Might oftentimes over-beareth Right so in the soul of man the violence of a stronger passion or affection which in the case in hand may happen sundry wayes beareth down the weaker It may happen as sometimes it hath done out of superstition So Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia The Heathens generally deceived by their cheating Oracles and some of the Iews led by their example sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils and caused their children to pass through the fire to Molech Sometimes out of revenge As Medea to be revenged of Iason for leaving her and placing his affection elsewhere slew her own two sons begotten by him in his sight Saevus amor docuit natorum sanguine matres Commaculasse manus Sometimes out of fear So the parents the blinde man owned their son indeed Iohn 9. but for fear of being cast out of the Synagogue durst not speak a word in his just defence but left him to shift as well as he could for himself And Herod the great for no other cause then his own causeless fears and jealousies destroyed many of his own sons Sometimes out of the extreamity and impatience of hunger As in the sad story of the two mothers who in the great famine at the siege of Samaria had covenanted to dress their children by turns and to eat them so fulfilfilling even to the letter that heavie curse which God had long before threatned against Israel in case of their disobedience Sometimes out of voluptuousness and sensuality As do thousands of prodigal ding-thrifts every where in the World who by gaming drinking luxury and other riot and intemperance vainly wasting their estates out of which by S. Pauls rule they ought to provide and lay up for their children bring themselves to penury and leave their children to beggery 8. And if by all these and sundry other wayes besides it may happen fathers and mothers so often to forsake their children the less are we to marvell if our brethren kinsfolkes and neighbours if our familiar acquaintance companions and friends prove unfaithfull shrink from us when we stand in need to them dealing deceitfully as a brook It is Iobs comparison Iob 6. The Brooks in Winter when the Springs below are open and the bottles of heaven powre down water from above overflow the banks and the medows all about and look like a little Sea but when the heat of Summer is come and the season dry vanish so as the weary traveller can finde no refreshing nor the cattel quench their thirst thereat Such is the common friendship of the World Whilest we are full and stand in no need of them they are also full of kindness and overflow with protestations of love and service Amici divitis multi every friend will say I am his friend also Yet they talk but vanity all this while every one with his neighbour they do but flatter with their lips and dissemble with their double heart When we seek to them in our need they look upon us slightly and at a distance at the most let fall some overly expressions that they wish us well and pity our case Good words are good cheap but do little or nothing for us It may be while we are up and aloft they will crouch under us apply themselves to us lend a shoulder ey and sweat to lift us up yet higher But if we be going down then at the best as the Priest and Levite in the parable they will see and not see but pass by without so much as offering a hand to help us up nay it is well if they lift not up the heel against us and help to tread us yet lower 9. As then first natural parents many times want natural affection so common friends many times want common honesty and fail those that trust to them And as they secondly sometimes withdraw their love from their children upon slender dislikes so these many times take toy at a trifle actum est de amicitiâ and pick quarrels to desert us when we have not done any thing that may justly deserve it at their hands And as they lastly too much forgot their children whilest they too eagerly pursue their own lusts so these to serve their own ends lay aside all relations and break through all obligations of friendship and if our occasions require something should be done for us that may chance put them to some little trouble hazard or charge or otherwise standeth not with their liking put us off as they did their fellow-virgins Ne non sufficiat Provide for your selves we cannot help you This is the first kinde a voluntary forsaking wherein the fault is theirs when our fathers and mothers and friends might help us but do not 10. The other kinde is an enforced forsaking and without their fault when they cannot help us if they would Which also ariseth from three other causes Ignorance Impotency Mortality First there is in the understandings of men a great deal of darkness for the discerning of Truth and Falsehood even in speculativis matters which stand at a certain stay and alter not but much more for the discerning of Good and Evil in Practicis matters which by reason of the multiplicity of uncertain and mutable Circumstances are infinitely various Whereby it becometh a matter of greater difficulty to avoid folly in practise then Errour in judgement No wonder then if the carefullest Parents and faithfullest Friends be many times wanting in their help to those they wish well to when either they can finde no way at all whereby to do them good or else pitch upon a wrong one whereby unawares they do them harme Sedulitas autem stultè quem diligit urget Nil moror officium quod me gravat The body of a Patient may be in such a condition of distemper that the learned'st Doctor may be at a stand not knowing perfectly what to make of it and so must either let it alone and do nothing or else adventure upon such probabilities as may lead him to mistake the Cause and so the disease and so the cure and so in fine to destroy the Patient by those very means whereby he intended his recovery So Parents and others that love their children or friends well and desire nothing more then to do them good may be so puzled sometimes by the unhappy conjuncture of some cross circumstances as that they cannot resolve upon any certain course how to dispose of them deal with them or undertake for them with any assurance or but likely hope of a good effect but they must either leave them to wrestle with their own burdens as well as they
excuses which he pretendeth in his own defence Whether they have justae excusationis instar and will bear a good and sufficient plea or be but rather shifts devised to serve a present turn more for outward shew then real satisfaction within Which is that Iudicium cordis the judgement of the heart whereunto Solomon as I told you referreth over this pretension Behold we knew it not to receive its first and most immediate trial Doth not he that pondreth the heart consider it What the tongue pleadeth is not a thing so considerable with God as how the heart standeth affected 29. For the approving his heart therefore in this business before him that knoweth it perfectly and is able to ponder it exactly let every Magistrate and other Officer of justice consider in the fear of God First whether he hath been willing so far as his leisure amidst the throng of other his weighty imployments would permit to receive the petitions and with patience to hear the complaints of those poor men that have fled to him as to a Sanctuary for refuge and succour Iob professeth himself to have been a father to the poor and he is a very unnatural father that stoppeth his ears against the cryes of his children or so terrifieth them with his angry countenance that they dare not speak to him Solomon in the twenty ninth of this book distinguisheth a righteous man from a wicked by this that the righteous considereth the cause of the poor but the wicked regardeth not to know it He that rejecteth their complaints or beateth them off with bug-words and terrour in his looks either out of the hardness of his heart or the love of ease or for whatsoever other respect when he might have leisure to give them audience if he were so minded and to take notice of their grievances cannot justly excuse himself by pleading Behold we knew it not But I must hasten Let him consider Secondly whether he have kept his ear and his affection equally free to both parties without suffering himself to be possessed with prejudices against or to be carried away with favourable inclinations towards the one side more then the other He is too little a Iudge that is too much either a friend or an enemy Thirdly whether he hath used all requisite diligence patience and wisdom in the examination of those causes that have been brought before him for the better finding out of the truth as Iob searched out the cause which he knew not without shuffling over business in post-haste not caring which way causes go so he can but dispatch them out of the way quickly and rid his hands of them Fourthly whether he hath indeed endeavoured to his power to repress or discountenance those that do ill offices in any kinde tending to the perverting of justice as namely Those that lay traps for honest men to fetch them into trouble without desert Those that sow discord among neighbours and stir up suites for petty trespasses and trifles of no value Those that abett contentious persons by opening their mouths in their behalf in evil causes Those that devise new shifts to elude good Laws Lastly whether he hath gone on stoutly in a righteous way to break the jaw-bones of the Lions in their mouths and to pluck the spoil from between their teeth by delivering them that were ready to be slain or destinated to utter undoing by their powerful oppressours without fearing the faces of men or fainting in the day of their brothers adversity He that hath done all this in a good mediocrity so far as his understanding and power would serve though he have not been able to remedy all the evils and to doe all the good he desired may yet say with a good conscience and with comfort Behold we knew it not and his excuse will be taken in the judgment both of his own heart and of God who knoweth his heart whatsoever other men think of him or howsoever they censure him But if he have failed in all or any the premises though he may blear the eyes of men with colourable pretences he cannot so secure his own conscience much less escape the judgment of God before whose eyes causeless excuses are of no avail Which is the last of the three points proposed whereunto I now proceed 30. The judgment of a mans own heart is of great regard in utramque partem then the censures of all the men in the world besides Better the world should condemn us if our own hearts acquit us then that our hearts should condemn us and all the world acquit us This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience saith S. Paul The approbation of men may give some accessioâ—â— to the rejoycing the other being first supposed but the main of it lieth in the testimony of the Conscience This is the highest tribunal under heaven but not absolutely the highest there is one in heaven above it St. Paul who thought it safe for him to appeal hither from the unjust censures of men yet durst not think it safe for him to rest here but appealeth from it to a higher Court and to the judgment of the great God 1 Cor. 4. It was a very small thing with him to be judged of mans judgment So long as he knew nothing by himself so long as his own heart condemned him not he passed not much for the censures of men Yet durst not justifie himself upon the acquital of his own heart He knew there was much blindness and deceitfulness in the heart of every sinful man and it were no wisdom to trust to that that might fail He would up therefore to a higher and an unerring Iudge that neither would deceive nor could be deceived and that was the Lord. I judge not mine own self saith he but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Even so here Solomon remitteth us over for the triall of our pretended excuses from our mouthes to our hearts and from our hearts unto God If thou sayest Behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the hearts consider it c. As if he had said No matter for thy words look to thy heart If thou pretendest one thing without and thy conscience tell thee another thing within thou art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast and condemned by the sentence of thine own heart But if thy heart condemne thee not the more indeed is thy comfort and the stronger thy hope yet be not too confident upon it There is an abyssus a depth in thy heart which thou canst not fathome with all the line thou hast Thou hast not a just ballance wherein to weigh and to ponder thy own heart That must be left therefore wholy to the Lord who alone can do it perfectly and to whose judgment alone every man shall finally stand or fall and if he deserve to fall all his vain excuses shall not be able to hold him up 31. Which of