end and largely doth he garnish this Similitude in the place I named right now pressing it to divers Duties which shortly to name because they serve to the maintenance of Peace in her Soveraignty are these 1. To rejoyce each at others good If one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it 1 Cor. 12. 26. 2. To suffer Compassionately each with other And whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it ibid. 3. To have Care each of another That there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one of another v. 25. to nourish and cherish them 4. The more weak and base to be compassed with Honour with the more comely Nay much more those members of the body that seem more feeble are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be base upon those we bestow more abundant honour and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness verse 22 23. 5. The worthier not to think they may be without the baser nor the baser think they are not in any place or reckoning because not the worthiest And the Eye cannot say to the Hand I have no need of thee nor again the Hand to the Foot I have no need of you v. 2. 6. If the Foot shall say because I am not the Hand I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body And if the Ear shall say because I am not the Eye I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body v. 15. 26. Thus far the Apostle in his excellent Parallel between the Members of the Natural Body and the Members of the Body Mystical These Opinions and Practices befit such as would keep peace such as are Members of one Body which very Consideration that they are found in the Natural Body should draw us into the practice of them in the Spiritual and Mystical Christ our Lord flows into us by his Spirit of Peace and Love and gives us Grace so to do and this will enable us to obey the Apostle in the words before this Text. And above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness This word Bond is taken sometimes for the Sinews and Ligaments of the Joynts as Chap. 2. v. 19. Sometimes for the Band that tieth a thing composed of a great many small parts into one as a Sheaf or Faggot so I think Peace is called Ephes 4. 3. endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace And this Perfectness may be taken 1. For the perfectness of every man in the Gifts of the Spirit which are dissolved and fall one from another without Love Or 2ly For the whole Body of the Church which is dissolved and falls asunder without love of which in the two places last named I will include herein both inward perfectness in private Christians and publick in the body of the Church So the Church Christ's Body it is capable of a kind of perfection even when it is most imperfect in the Eyes of the World as now it was and when the Apostle wrote that Ephesians 4. v. 3. Observat The thing that makes the Perfection of the Church is Love He therefore that loves not is imperfect in Christianity A Child in Grace if he have any yet is Carnal not Spiritual a Babe not a Man as the Apostle concludes of the Corinthians from hence 1 Cor. 3. 1. 3. And those that take no care to maintain Love with their even Christians they do as much as they may maim lame and make imperfect the Body of Christ laying aside his new Commandment That ye love one another as I have loved you John 13. 34. Let Papists and such as rejoyce in bitterness against their Brethren think on this Let us learn by all means to maintain Peace and Love the untimely breaking of some Truth is not worth so much as to break Love As the curing of some Disease not worth the pain of the Cure as of some Wens and Warts c. worth the cutting c. and this is to be followed of us It is more than seasonable that we were put in mind of this Point for we are faulty in it much Now if one be more scrupulous than another in Ceremonies and Matters indifferent Minister or other one sort there is that presently abate their love Again if another take a little liberty in such things the other side bears not that hearty affection which should be unto him Though thus either think of the other they are men that intend to do vertuously yet there is not this equal Communication of the Offices of Kindness which this Form Above all things put on love would require What if men dissent from us in sundry Points of Judgment or of Affection as both may be and justly yet let the Consideration that they are Members of the same Body with us Men reclaimed to God Men which according to that which they know endeavour to Serve and Worship God makes us to strive so much the more that it might not seem to come through our Default that any Strangers should be between us or Differences grow to greater Extremities we shall have the better in the handling of the Cause to say nothing of the Truth whether we have it on our side or no. I would to God that we could be content in Matters of no great Consequence when many Differences be among us to comprise them with that of the Apostle If any man think otherwise the Lord shall reveal this also unto you Phil. 3. 15. And in the mean space in our Speeches Countenances Gestures Writings be mindful of this standing Rule That Love belongs to all the Saints as the Apostle describes these Colossians by their Faith in Jesus Christ and their Love to all the Saints Chap. 1. 4. So by letting go vain Clamours we shall find more Truth than we do as being better disposed to seek it which indeed no passionate man is and sure I am we should have more peace and comfort and be freed from much foolish Suspicions among our selves and many slanderous and foul Imputations from our common Enemies God give us Grace to see our Faults put a Remedy thereto in time before by our Dissentions we have weakened our selves that both together we be not matchable to our third and worst Adversary see Psalm 133. And be ye thankful The second Duty we are exhorted unto in this Scripture is the duty of thankfulness what variety is between these two Words Amiable and Thankful every man may at the first view easily conceive But our latest Translation of the Word is the best that for Amiable puts in Thankful whereunto the propriety of the Word and Authority of other Interpreters doth so lead me as Ephes 5. 4. but rather giving of thanks and 1 Thessal 5. 18. In every thing give thanks And although they 〈◊〉 Chrysost Bruno Osiandor refer it to God
or Christ many of them yet what should that do here in the midst of other Duties pertaining to Man Christ being not named Therefore I will speak of it in that sense which in my Conscience I take it was ment m. Be ye thankful Be not unkind and ungrateful to those that have deserved well at your hands Q. What is the thankfulness that is here required R. It may be described a willing acknowledging and readiness to requite Benefits and good Turns received I did not say a Requital for many times there is no Power or Means so to do but at least there is Readiness to do it and Mind of the good Turn if either of these fail there is a Defect in Thankfulness The occasion of Thankfulness is a Benefit received the greater Benefit calls more Thanks which hath diversity from the Person 1. Sometimes we are wholly prevented in receiving before we have shewed any occasion 2. Sometimes again we are first in some Office but are exceeded in the answering the same 3. Sometimes the Persons are Superiors or Equals of such quality I mean as there is no great odds between the Donor and Receiver To the First and Second of each Thankfulness is the more to be shewed I mean we are more beholding inasmuch as there is less desert on our part and in the one nothing at all I would speak plainly 1. To our Parents Ministers and Masters in Learning there is no Office we could shew to deserve Kindness therefore to them we must be more bound to be thankful So to a Stranger that shall first upon some acquaintance no expectation of Requital bestow only upon us in the same measure of Beneficence our Debt is more than to one that we have or may be helpful or shew duty to again 2. To our Superiour being kind we owe more gratitude than to our Equal as Ishbosheth David 2 Sam. 19. 30. 28. 3. Even the Value of the Benefit adds some degree unto our Debt of Thankfulness most our selves as Paul writes to Philemon v. 19. Albeit I do not say unto thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides 4. And the Speediness sometimes adds to our Debt especially if it be at the first knowledge of our Want or Desire and perhaps expects not our moving the Matter or if at our Suit be given undelaiedly Beneficium qui cito dat bis dat He gives twice that gives speedily 5. But most of our debt of Thankfulness comes from the Mind of the Donor as proceeding from greater Love though there be by reason of want of power less worth in the good Turn We are then to be taught here Doctr. That to all those that have been Instruments of God's Providence to procure good unto us we are to owe Thankfulness they are so many Blessings of God to us That which the Queen of Sheba once affirmed before Solomon is very true The Instruments of God's Blessings are the Arguments of his Love to us Because the Lord loved Israel for War therefore made he the King to do Judgment and Justice 1 Kings 10. 9. 1. The first duty of Thankfulness that under God we owe is to our Parents which is so necessary that the Apostle would not have the Widows to be chosen to the service of the Church that had Children to maintain them and perform duty to them Let them saith he recompence their Ancestors So the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies For that is good and acceptable before God 1 Tim. 5. 4. The Greek Elegantly expresseth this by a Metaphor taken from the Stock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which feedeth her aged Parents and carries them upon her shoulders and in that regard in the Hebrew Tongue is called Chasida that is pious and merciful Let all Children hear this and as they will have the blessing of their Parents and of God that is tender of their honour learn it and fail not to praise it as Joseph did Gen. 45. 10. There will I nourish thee when he sent for his aged Father from the famished Land of Canaan to come into Goshen the most fertile Soil in all the Land of Egypt 2. So we are to be thankful to the Ministers of the Gospel to whom God hath committed the word of reconciliation that break the bread of life unto us that have the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to their trust that administer unto us the Seals of the Covenant of Grace according to Christ's Institution that watch over our Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief as the Apostle speaks Heb. 13. 17. 3. To our Teachers and Masters as Philemon owned himself to Paul v. 19. To our Benefactors to our Friends to all that are loving and kind to us David sent a Present of Thankfulness of the Spoyl of the Enemies of the Lord to all those places where David himself and his men were wont to lament in his Exile 1 Sam 30. 26. 3. He makes diligent inquiry Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may shew him kindness for Jonathon's sake whose love to him was wonderful passing the love of women to their Husbands or Children 2 Sam. 9. 1. His thankfulness to the Living for the Dead's sake to the Child for his Fathers sake is again recorded Then said David I will shew kindness to Hanun the son of Nachash as his father shewed kindness unto me and David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father 2 Sam. 10. 2. What this kindness was the Scripture mentions not nor when it was shewed for David in his flight from Saul fled first to Achish King of Gath then to the King of Moab And he said unto the King of Moab Let my father and mother I pray thee come forth and be with you till I know what God will do for me and he brought them before the King of Moab and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold He durst not trust them to Saul's mercy in Bethlehem that had exercised such barbarous cruelty upon the Priests of the Lord and to the City of No◠without any just cause 1 Sam. 22. 17. 20. Possibly the King of Moab might shew some such kindness to David out of his hatred of Saul that had given him a great Overthrow 1 Sam. 11. 11. But whatsoever the matter was that had obliged David he was not unmindful of it but studied to requite it to his Son Hanun though ill entertained and misinterpreted to his destruction and his Countries The first Ambassadors that David sent after the Solemnity of his Coronation was over is thus recorded And David sent Messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said unto them Blessed be ye of the Lord that you have shewed the kindness to your Lord even unto Saul and have buried him and now the Lord shew
I did it to God's Glory that I might express my Thankfulness to him and the joy of my Heart in doing him Service whom since the rest know not they are not to be respected if they scorn nor is it to be wondred if they be strangely affected with it as above the compass of their Conceit Fifthly How without hope of Requital are all yea the least of God's benefits that call for Thankfulness a cup of cold water only given to drink in Christ's name because ye belong to Christ shall not lose a just and superabundant requital saith our Lord Mar. 9. 41. See the full and final requital of all good and charitable Deeds Matth. 25. 34 35 36. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prinson and ye came unto me The Wicked he requites here sometimes in their own Coin as Adoni bezek acknowledgeth when his thumbs and great toes were cut off As I have done to threescore and ten Kings so hath the Lord requited me Judg. 1. 7. We are all ready enough to requite Evil for Evil to give him quid pro quo as good as he brings as the Proverb rimes as Sampson served the Philistines As they have done unto me so have I done unto them Jud. 15. 11. But it being impossible to requite God in any thing it is a most heinous Provocation of his justice to render Evil for Good Do ye thus provoke the Lord O foolish people and unwise saith Moses with Astonishment and Abhorrency Deut. 32. 6. 'T is left as a sad blot in Hezekiah's Scutcheon tho' otherwise a good Man and a good King by God's own Testimony He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among all the Kings of Judah nor any that were before him But Hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wroth upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chr. 32. 25. For after the defeat of Senacherib's Forces by an Angel of God that slew in one night an hundred fourscore and five thousand men of war in the Assyrian Camp and after the recovery of his Health confirmed by a sign from Heaven in the Sun's Retrogradation by ten degrees and the addition by Patent from God of fifteen years to his days with exceeding much Riches and Honour yet for all this he was not so careful to please God in an humble and thankful Acknowledgment of such great Favours as God was to pleasure him in them all Sixthly Consider from what odds the Person giving to our baseness have been all his benefits he being the great Independent Jehovah greatness is stampt upon all his Benefits to us and we a Seed of evil Doers a people laden with Iniquity children that are corrupters our spot is not the spot of his Children we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and in want of all things as our Lord writes to the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. v. 17. Lastly Consider with what advantage of time and order in first bestowing have his Benefits been to us No eye pittied thee to have compassion upon thee I said unto thee when thou wast in thy Blood live saith the Lord Ezek. 16. 5 6. we love him because he first loved us saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 19. His love to us is an antecedent love we love him with a consequential love because he hath cast his love upon us first and therefore is no way indebted to us for our love The Apostle asks this question Who hath first given unto him and it shall berecompenced to him again for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Rom. 11. v. 35 36. It is said by some we can never requite our Parents by some also we owe more to our Masters and Teachers than to Parents in as much as one gave being the other well being doubtless in both respects we cannot requite God and Christ First Our Parents begat our Bodies he gave us our senses who is therefore styled by the Apostle The Father of our Spirits Heb. 12. 9. 2. Our Masters and Teachers gave us with God's Blessing Knowledge and Learning Christ teacheth us the way to Heaven who is the Way the Truth and the Life Christ gave himself to us and for us to wash us from our Sins in his own Blood Joh. 14. 6. without which it had been better for us to have been any thing rather than men yea at all not to have been Let us with the Psalmist again and again say What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psal 116. 12. all his benefits are above us even the one also of our former means to express Gratitude here fails us what can we wish or desire to the most absolute and perfect Being Only we may acknowledge the Benefits and the Excellency and Liberality of the Giver which further may desire that all others would do the like this is our utmost unless further to endeavour not to be disobedient to this Heavenly Author of much good to us which yet is our duty otherwise the less we have means to the former the more ought we to be in this and say with the Man after God's own Heart I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praises to my God while I have my being my Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord Psal 103. 33 34. and in another At Midnight will I rise to give thanks to thee because of thy righteous Judgments Psal 119. 62. Let us beg of him as another Benefit that he will give us Grace and a mind to do these things who hath given the ground an occasion of them even the same our Lord Jesus Christ Now because the Apostle Peter saith no Prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. so neither are all of sole private application but some are of a larger Extent and Compass than others if I should have studied long for a fit Text Psal 119. 16. Thy commandment iâ— exceeding broad and turned the whole Scripture I could not have had a fitter passage or greaâ—◠〈◊〉 in all the Book of God he calls more both for private and publick application than this that is in so strange a manner laid open before us to look into it and yet no more strange than true as the truth is in Jesu before whom I stand for this Doctrin of the Peace of God that ought to rule in the Hearts of all Believers gives great help advantage and admonition to Kings Law-makers Rulers to
be hid from their Eyes Luk. 19. 42. they will not only follow Peace with one another but with all Men Assenters and Dissenters as much as in them lies and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. That they may see the travel of their Soul and be satisfied that the work of the Lord is carried along prosperously in their hand Is 53. 11. They will be gentle to their People as another Paul we were gentle among you even as a Nurse cherâ—sheth her Children Ye are Witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves among you that believe And ye know how we exhorted comforted and charged every one of you as a Father doth his Children 1 Thess 2. 10 11. Exhorting them as Fathers Mothers Children Brethren 1 Tim. 5. 1 2. as St. Paul instructs Timothy avoiding Non-residence especially in this State and Time when they are making a Captain to return to Egypt Numb 14. 4. that it may not be said of us That they that lead thy People caused them to err and they that are led by them are destroyed Isa 3. 12. and they that rule over them make them to howl Isa 52. 5. I doubt not but the Prudence and Moderation of the Wise and Learned Men will silence all Controversies Eusebius tells us in the Life of Constantine that he said in the Synod of Nice that the Dissentions of Church-Men among themselves was an Evil beyond all Calamities and any Foreign Wars whatsoever Surely they will not shed the Blood of War in Peace as Joab did that put the Blood of War upon the Girdle that was about his Loins and upon his Shooes that were upon his Feet for which David left him a Bloody Legacy Let not his hoary Head go down to the Grave in Peace 1 Kin. 1. 5. Under Valens the Emperor saith Socrates l. 4. c. 29. by occasion of one Godly Man a grievous and dangerous War that was undertaken against the Roman Empire was extinct The Saracens had made defection from Roman Empire and under the Conduct of their Queen Mavia began an Offensive War and that on a most Advantageous Opportunity when the Goths were wasting all Thracia and therefore all the Roman Provinces towards the East they are the words of Socrates had been over-run and wasted by the Saracens The occasion was this one Moses a Saracen by Nation lived a Solitary Life in a Desert who for his eminent Piety Constancy Faith and Miracles was very famous Mavia the Queen of the Saracens desires the Romans to design this Godly Man for their Bishop and promiseth to lay down her Arms to disband her Forces and to be at Peace with the Romans Dictum factum 't is done immediately and so by the Peace of God ruling in the Heart of this Godly Man and of his Queen a great Fire is suddenly quenched Sozomon tells us l. 7. c. 3. That under Theodosius the Great the People of Antioch had dejected the Statues of the Emperor and Empress and most ignominiously dragg'd them with a Rope through the Streets of the City adding most contumelious and disgraceful words no doubt by the instigation of the Devil Theodosius hearing of this Affront and Disgrace was highly displeased and resolved to be avenged on them for this Insolency whereof the People of Antioch being aware began to relent to leave off their Fury and to repent and to beg with Sighs and Groans Favour of God to turn his Heart that they might not be suddenly destroyed They composed certain mournful Ditties and Funeral Songs which they used in their solemn Prayers at the Throne of Grace and they sent their Bishop Flavianus to the Empâ—ror to appease his Wrath towards them the which that he might effectuate he perswaded and prevailed with the young Men that used to sing at the Emperors Table to sing those mournful Songs by which the Men of Antioch had made their Supplications to God in their fear and dangerous Condition with which the Emperor was so taken and surprized that a Flood of Tears gusht from his Eyes immediately and wet the Cup that was in his Hand and understanding the matter he calls Flavianus and laid aside his Anger and frankly forgave the City Thus ye see how the Peace of God ruled in the Heart of this Prudent and Godly Bishop and his Emperor Theodosius to prevent the Ruin of the great City of Antioch where the Disciples were called Christians first Act. 11. 26. Now If the Son of Peace be in your Houses or Parishes Luk. 10. 6. that is any Men capable of that Blessing and disposed to receive the Doctrin of Peace which you Preach your Peace shall rest upon it then doubtless ye my keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Eph. 4. 3. you may follow Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure Heart 2 Tim. 2. 22. tho' dissenting from you in a few small Matters Thus shall we procure the love of our Heavenly Father for if Earthly Parents take Comfort to see their Children kind peaceful and helpful to one another it cannot be but he that hath all perfections that are in us in the highest degree shall likewise both approve in this World and reward in that to come our love to and Peace with one another and say Euge serve bone c. Pâ—ssid in vita August c. 17. and upon their Death-Bed say with Ambrose non sic vixi ut me pudeat inter vos vivere sed non mori timeo quia bonum dominum habemus that I have not so lived as to be ashamed to live any longer among you but neither am I afraid to die because we have a good Lord and that of St. Paul I have fought a good fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. 2. If the Peace of God rule in the Hearts of our Hearers they will account the Elders that rule well worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrin as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 5. 17. They will remember them that hath the rule over them who have spoken unto them the word of God whose Faith they follow considering the end of their Conversation and a little after Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you saith the same Apostle Heb. 13. â—7 17. 1. Let them hold such Dear for their Master's sake Now then saith the Apostle we are Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God 2 Cor.