to be jealous over our selves with a godly jealousie would not only work in us a due consideration of our wayes that so we might amend them if there be cause but would be also of right use to prevent two notable pieces of sophistry two egregious fallacies wherewith thousands of us deceive our selves The former fallacy is that we use many times especially when our enemies do us manifest wrong to impute our sufferings wholy to their iniquity whereof we should do wiselier to take some of the blame upon our selves Not at all to excuse them whose proceedings are unjust and for which they shall bear their own burthens But to acquit the Lords proceedings who still is just even in those things wherein men are unjust Their hearts and tongues and hands are against us only out of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that superfluity of maliciousness wherewith their naughty hearts abound and for to serve their own cursed ends which is most unjust in them But the Lord sundry times hardneth their hearts and whetteth their tongues and strengtheneth their hands against us in such sort to chasten us for some sinfull error neglect or lust in part still remaining in us unsubdued which is most just in him 32. For as I touched in the beginning a mans heart may be right in the main and his wayes well-pleasing unto God in regard of the general bent and intention of them and yet by wrying aside in some one or a few particulars he may so offend the Lord as that he may in his just displeasure for it either raise him up new enemies or else continue the old ones As a loving father that hath entertained a good opinion of his son and is well pleased with his behaviour in the generality of his carriage because he seeth him in most things dutifull and towardly may yet be so far displeased with him for some particular neglects as not only to frown upon him but to give him sharp correction also Sic parvis componere magna Not much otherwise is it in the dealing of our heavenly Father with his children We have an experiment of it in David with whom doubtless God was well pleased for the main course of his life otherwise he had never received that singular testimony from his own mouth that he was secundum cor a man after his own heart yet because he stepped aside and that very foulely in the matter of Vriah The Text saith 2 Sam. 11. that the thing that David had done displeased the Lord and that which followed upon it in the ensuing chapters was the Lord raised up enemies against him for it out of his own house 33. The other fallacy is when we cherish in our selves some sinful errors either in judgement or practice as if they were the good wayes of God the rather for this that we have enemies and meet with opposition as if the enmity of men were an infallible mark of a right way The words of the Text ye see seem rather to incline quite the other way Indeed the very truth is neither the favour or disfavour of men neither their approving nor opposing is any certain mark at all either of a good or of a bad way Our Solomon hath delivered it positively and we ought to believe him Eccl. 9. that no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them It is an error therefore of dangerous consequence to think that the enmity of the wicked is an undoubted mark either of truth or goodness Not only for that it wanteth the warrant of truth to support it which is common to it with all other errors but for two other especial reasons besides The one is because through blinde selfe-love we are apt to dote upon our own opinions more then we ought How confidently do some men boast out their own private fansies and unwarranted singularities as if they were the God! The other reason is because through wretched uncharitableness we are apt to stretch the title of the wicked further then we ought How freely do some men condemne all that think or do otherwise then themselves but especially that any way oppose their courses as if they were the wicked of the world and Persecutors of the godly 34. For the avoiding of both which mischiefs it is needful we should rightly both understand and apply all those places of Scripture which speak of that Opposition which is sometimes made against truth and goodness which opposition the holy Ghost in such like places intended not to deliver as a mark of godliness but rather to propose as an Antidote against worldly fears and discouragements That if in a way which we know upon other and impregnable evidences to be certainly right we meet with opposition we should not be dismaid at it as if some strange thing had befallen us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beloved think it not strange saith S. Peter concerning all such trials as these are as if some strange thing had hapned because it is a thing that at any time may and sometimes doth happen But now to make such opposition a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mark whereby infallibly to judge of our wayes whether they be right or no as some out of the strength of their heat and ignorance have done is to abuse the holy Scriptures to pervert the meaning of the Holy Ghost and to lead men into a maze of uncertainty and error We had all of us need therefore to beware that we doe not like our own wayes so much the better because we have enemies it is much safer for us to suspect lest there may be something in us otherwise then should be for which the Lord suffereth us to have enemies 35. And now the God of grace and peace give us all grace to order our wayes so as may be pleasing in his sight and grant to every one of us First perfect peace with him and in our own consciences and then such a measure of outward peace both publick and private with all our enemies round about us as shall seem good in his sight And let the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep our hearts and mindes in the knowledge and love of him and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord And let the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the holy Ghost be upon us and upon all them that hear his word and keep it at this present time and for evermore Amen Amen AD AULAM. Sermon III. NEWARKE 1633. 1 Pet. 2.17 Honour all men Love the Brotherhood 1. WHen the Apostles preached the Doctrine of Christian liberty a fit opportunity was ministred for Satans instruments to work their feats upon the new-converted Christians false Teachers on the one side and false Accusers on the other For taking advantage from the very name of Liberty the Enemies of their Souls were ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to teach them under that pretence
quotations with him But as there Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avoid Satan non-plust the Tempter beyond all the Reasons and Authorities that could be produced so the safest way for us to come off clear from him is to give him a flat deniall without further reason and let him take that for an answer if he will any Thus to be Wilful is a blessed Wilfulness a resolution well becoming the servant and childe of God and a strong preservative against wilfull Presumption The fort is as good as half lost having to treat with such a cunning enemy if you do but once admit of a Treaty therefore stand off 46. But when we have done all we must begin again When we have resolved and endeavoured what we can unless the Lord be pleased to set his Fiat unto it and to confirm it with his royall assent all our labour is but lost As he is the Alpha so is he to be the Omega too and therefore we must set him at both ends And as we were to begin with him so are we to conclude with him pray first pray last Pray before all that we may have grace to do our Endeavours Pray after all that he would give a blessing to our endeavours That so when Satan the World and our own Flesh shall all conspire against us to drive us forward to the works of sin we may by his grace and blessing be kept back therefrom and enabled to persevere in true faith and holiness all the dayes of our lives Which God our heavenly Father grant us for his mercies sake and for the merits of Iesus Christ his only son our Lord to both whom with the Holy Ghost c. AD AULAM. Sermon V. GREENWICH JULY 1637. Philip. 4.11 Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 1. SAint Paul found much kinndesse from these Philippians and took much comfort in it And because it was more then ordinary and beyond the kindness of other Churches he doth therefore sometimes remember it with much thankfulness both to God and them Even in the beginning of the Gospel that is presently after his first preaching it among them the story whereof is laid down Acts 16. when having passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia he came and preached at Thessalonica which was another principal City of Macedonia these Philippians hearing belike that the Apostle had little other means for his maintenance there then what he got by his hand-labour wherein both for examples sake and because he would not be chargable to the Thessalonians he employed himself diligently both day and night they sent over and so did no other Church but they and that once and again to supply his necessities there 2. And as they began it seemeth they continued to shew forth the truth of their Faith and to adorn their Christian profession by their cheerfulness and liberality in contributing to the necessities of their brethren upon every good occasion For at Corinth also the year following where for the space of a year and half together he did for good considerations forbear as he had before done at Thessalonica to challenge that maintenance from the people which by Gods ordinance he had a right unto the supplies he had he acknowledgeth to have come from these brethren of Macedonia As if he had even robbed the Philippians it is his own word in taking wages of them for the service done to other Churches 3. Not to speak of their great bounty some three or foure years after that towards the relief of the poore brethren that dwelt in Iudea wherein they were willing of themselves without any great solicitation and liberall not only to the utmost of but even somewhat beyond their power Now also again after some three or foure years more S. Paul being in durance at Rome their former charitable care over him which had not of a good while shewen it self forth for lack of opportunity began to re-flourish and to put forth with a fresh verdure as a tree doth at the approach of Summer For they sent him a large benevolence to Rome by Epaphroditus of the receipt whereof he now certifieth them by the same Epaphroditus at his return expressing the great joy and comfort he took in those gracious evidences of their pious affections to the Gospel first and then to him He highly commendeth their Charity in it and he earnestly beseecheth God to reward them for it 4. Yet lest this just commendation of their beneficence should through any mans uncharitableness whereunto corrupt nature is too prone raise an unjust opinion of him as if he sought theirs more then them or being crafty had caught them with guile to make a prey or a gain of them so sinisterly interpreting his extolling of their charity for the time past as if it were but an artificiall kinde of begging for the time to come He thought it needfull for him by way of Prolepsis to prevent whatsoever might be surmised in that kinde which he beginneth to do in the words of the Text to this effect 5. True it is nor will I dissemble it when I received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you it was no small rejoycing to my heart to see your care of me after some years intermission to flourish again And I cannot but give an Euge to your charity for truly you have done well to communicate with my afflictions Yea I should derogate from the grace of God which he hath bestowed upon you and worketh in you if I should not both acknowledge your free benevolence towards me and approve it as an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God Which I speake not out of a greedy minde to make a gain of you nor for a cloak of covetousness God is my witness nor any other way so much in reference to my own private interest as for the glory of God and to the comfort of your consciences In as much as this fruit of your Faith thus working by Love doth redound to the honour of the â—ospel in the mean time and shall in the end abound to your account â—n the day of the Lord Iesus Otherwise as to my own particular altâ—ough my wants were supplyed and my bowels refreshed through your liberality which in the condition I was in was some comfort to me yet if that had been all I had looked after the want of the things you sent me could not have much afflicted me The Lord whom I serve is God All-sufficient and his grace had been sufficient for me though your supplies had never come He that enableth me howsoever of my self vnable to do any thing yet to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me hath framed my heart by his holy spirit and trained me up hereunto in the school of Experience and Afflictions to rest
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
holy and wise God the first cause of all things that happen suffereth it so to be as to particulars that is counsel to us and we may not search into those secrets only we are assured in the general that he doth it for just and gracious ends best known to himself But as to second causes we see evidently reason enough to satisfie us why it should be likely to fall out thus rather then otherwise if but in this that wicked men what worldly ends they propose to themselves they pursue to the utmost not boggling at any thing that they think may conduce to the obtaining of the same be it right or wrong whereas godly and vertuous men make conscience both of End and Means and will neither pitch upon any unworthy end nor adventure upon any unlawful means Hath it not been always seen and still is and ever will be more or less to the worlds end That extorting Vsurers oppressing Landlords unconscionable Traders corrupt Magistrates and griping Officers have gotten together the greatest wealth and most abounded in riches That obsequious Flatterers temporising Sycophants perfidious Traytors bold and insolent intruders bribing and simoniacal chafferers have climbed up the highest rounds of Civil and Ecclesiastical preferments That men of base and unmanly condition rather to be called beasts then men if not Monsters rather then either of both such as some of the old Assyrian and Persian Monarchy and after them some of the Romane Emperours were have surfeited of pleasures to the full and wallowed in all manner of luxury and sensuality Worthless and wicked men may swim up to the chin in rivers of oyle and have their heads and beards ey and the very skirts of their garments too bedrencht in great abundance with the choysest of these outward Oyntments 14. But a Good Name is Peculium bonorum Gracious and vertuous men have a more special interest a kinde of peculiarity in it as being in the ordinary course of Gods providence the proper effect and by his good blessing for the most part the most certain temporal reward of Vertue and Piety Si quae virtus si qua laus saith the Apostle Phil. 2. If there be any vertue if there be any praise As if there could be no praise where there is no vertue no more then there can be a shadow where there is no body to cast it It was by faith and the fruits of faith that the Elders obtained a good report The projectors of the Tower of Babel aymed by that building to get themselves a name and they did but the name was Babel a name of Confusion little comfort or honour to them Many men are ambitious of a great name and sometimes they get it too as he that set Diana's Temple on fire only to be talked of But a great name is one thing and a good name another Greatness may get a man a great name but goodness only a good name You that are great men if you be not good withall do what you can for the preservation of your name and memory use all your best wit and art spend the most costly perfumes and precious ointments you have about it when you have done your utmost endeavours we may justly put that rebuke upon you which the Disciples did unjustly upon the good woman in the Gospel Quorsum perditio haec whereto serveth this wast Oleum operam you shall not be able after all this expence of oyle and toyle to preserve your names from stench and putrifaction It is nothing but godliness and righteousness that can do that The memorial of the just when Envy and Calumny have done their worst to blast it shall yet be blessed but the name of the wicked when Hypocrisie and Flattery have done their best to prevent it shall not notwithstanding A good name then is therefore first more excellent then any precious oyntment either in the letter or metaphor because less Common 15. Compare secondly the delights and comforts and contents of both and see the issue Oyles and Oyntments do give exceeding great delight to the senses so as scarce any one kinde of thing more which perhaps might be some cause why Solomon should here make choice of them rather then any other things whereby to express outward and sensual pleasures And this they do by three distinct qualities whereby they â—ffect three distinct senses The Qualities are Laevor Nitor Odor The Senses affected therewith Feeling Seeing Smelling The first Quality is Laevor a kinde of gentle softness and smoothness and supple glibbiness wherewith the touch is much delighted Upon which quality David the father and Solomon the son do both reflect in those proverbial speeches of theirs where speaking the one of flattering dissemblers saith Molliti super oleum Their words are softer then Oyle Psal. 55. the other of the whorish woman saith Her lips drop like a hony-combe and her mouth is smoother then Oyle Prov. 5. The second Quality of Oyls and Oyntments is Nitor a kinde of brightness and varnish which they cast upon other bodies making them loook fresh and glister which quality taketh the eye and affecteth the sightâ— As colours laid in Oyle have a gracefull verdure and lustre beyond those that are not so laid Of which quality the Psalmist maketh special mention Psal. 104. where describing the manifold works of God among other things he saith that God bringeth food out of the earth as namely wine to make glad the heart of man and Oyle to make him a cheerful countenance or as our last translation hath it somewhat neerer the letter but to the same sense to make his face to shine Their third Quality is Odor the sweet fragrancy which they send forth round about them to a good distance which maketh them wondrous pleasant to the Smell The Poets therefore sometimes call Oyntments and Perfumes Odoers in the abstract as if they were nothing else but smell To this quality do referr those reciprocal speeches in the Canticles Of the Spouse to her well-beloved in the first Chapter Because of the savour of thy good Oyntments therefore doe the virgins love thee And of him again to her in the fourth Chapter How faire is thy love my sister my spouse how much better is thy love then wine and the smell of thine Oyntments then all spices When Mary powred out her costly spikenard on Christs feet the story telleth us that all the house was filled with the odour of the Oyntment Joh. 12. 16. Oyntments then are good and pleasant But as Aristotle sometimes pronounced of the Rhodian and Lesbian wine when he had tasted of both that the Rhodian was good too but the Lesbian was the pleasanter so it may as reasonably be pronounced in the present contest that though the precious Oyntment be good and pleasant in his kinde yet the good Name for goodness and pleasantness is far beyond
for which he gave it and so as it be withal subservient to his glory that gave it And the law of Charity binding us to honour all men and to preserve the just reputation of our meanest neighbour must consequently bind us to do our selves right in the point of honour for as much as we also as men are included in that generality Yea and that à fortiori too in as much as the duty of Charity to be performed to our selves is to be the rule and measure of that Charity which we owe to our neighbour and it is not supposable that he that hath little care of his own should be meetly tender of his brothers reputation 34. Consider secondly as but now I touched that it is partly in our own power what other men shall speak and think of us Not that we are Lords either of their tongues or thoughts for men generally and wicked men especially challenge a property in these two things as absolute Lords within themselves Our tongues are our own say they and Thought is free But that we may if we behave our selves with godly discretion win good report even from those that in their hearts wish no good to us or at least put such a muzzle upon their tongues that whereas they would with all their hearts speak evil of us as of evil doers they shall not dare for shame to accuse our good conversation in Christ. For who is he that will harm you saith St Peter if ye be followers of that which is good as if he had said Men that have any shame left in them will not lightly offer to do you any harme or to say any harme by you unless by some miscariage or other of your own you give them the advantage The old saying that every man is Fortunae suae faber and so Famae too is not altogether without truth and reason For seldome doth a man miscarry in the success of his affairs in the world or labour of an ill name but where himself by some sinful infirmity or negligence some rashness credulity indiscretion or other oversight hath made a way open for it This I note the rather because it falleth out not seldome to be the fate or fault of very good men biassed too much by selfe love and partiality to impute such crosses and disgraces as they sometimes meet withall wholy to the injuries of wicked men which if they would search narrowly at home they might perhaps finde reason enough sometimes to impute at least in part unto themselves When by busie intermedling where they need not by their heat violence and intemperance of spirit in setting on those things they would fain have done or opposing those things they would faine hinder by their too much stiffeness or peremptoriness either way concerning the use of indifferent things without due consideration of times places persons and other circumstances by partaking with those they think well of so far as to the justifying of their very errors and exorbitances and denying on the other side to such as are not of their own way such faire and just respects as to men of their condition are in common civility due or by some other like partialities and excesses they provoke opposition against themselves their persons and good names from such men especially as do but wait an opportunity and would greedily apprehend any occasion to do them some displeasure or disgrace 35. That it may be otherwise and better with you Beloved ponder well I beseech you what our Solomon wrote long since Prov. 19. The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord or which cometh to one against such persons as the Lord is pleased to make use of as his rods wherewith to give him due correction Neither cast off this care of your good names by any pretensions of impossibility which is another Topique of Sophistry wherewith Satan teacheth us to cheat our selves It is indeed and I confess it something a hard thing and not simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have every mans good word but I may not yield it impossible Demetrius hath good report of all men and of the truth it self saith S. Iohn Do you what in you lyeth towards it and if then men will yet be unjust and speak evil of you undeservedly you have your comforts in God and in Christ and some comfort also in the testimony of your own hearts that you have faithfully done what was to be done on your part to prevent it and by walking honestly and wisely to cut off occasion from them that seek occasion But so far as you have been wanting to your selves in doing your part so much you take off both from their blame and from your own comfort It concerneth you to have a great care of preserving your good names because by your care you may do much in it 36. Consider thirdly that a good name is far easier kept then recovered Men that have had losses in sundry kinds have in time had some reparations Sampsons locks were shorne off but grew again Iobs goods and cattel driven but restored again the widows childe dead but revived again the sheep and the goat in the parable lost but found again But the good name once lost the loss is little better then desperate He had need be a good gamster they say and to have very good fortune too that is to play an after-game of reputation The shipwrack of a good Name though in most and the most considerable respects it be incomparably less yet in this one circumstance it is in some sort even greater then the shipwrack of a good Conscience The loss there may be recovered again by Repentance which is tabula secunda post naufragium as in Act. 27. some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship got all safe to land But when our good names are shipwrackt all is so shattered in pieces that it will be hard to finde so much as a board or plank to bring us ashore And the Reason of the difference is manifest which is this When we have made shipwrack of our Consciences we fall into the hands of God whose mercies are great and his compassions fail not and who if we timely and unfainedly repent is both able and willing to restore us But when we make shipwrack of our good names we fall into the hands of men whose bowels are narrow their tenderest mercies cruel and their charity too weak and faint to raise up our credit again after it is once ruined I have some times in my private thoughts likened a flaw in the Conscience and a flaw in the good name to the breaking of a bone in the body and the breaking of a Chrystal glass or China dish at the table In the mischance there is no comparison a man had better break twenty glasses or Dishes at his table then one
him outwardly so as he is at a kinde of peace with them or howsoever sustaineth no harm by them Either of which when it is done it is thirdly Mutatio dexterae excelsi it is meerly the Lords doing and it may well be marvelous in our eyes It is he that maketh a mans enemies to be at peace with him 22. The scope of the whole words is to instruct us that the fairest and likeliest way for us to procure peace with men is to order our wayes so as to please the Lord. You shall therefore finde the favour of God and the favour of men often joyned together in the Scriptures as if one were and so usually it is a consequent of the other so it is said of our blessed Saviour Luke 2 that he encreased in favour with God and men My son let not mercy and truth forsake thee c. so shalt thou finde favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man saith our Solomon Prov. 3. And S. Paul Rom. 14. he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men In all which places favour and acceptation with God goeth before favour and approbation with men followeth after 23. You may see the proof of it in the whole course of the sacred story wherein the lords dealing with his own people in this kinde is remarkable When they started aside to walk after their own counsels displeased him how he stirred them up enemies round about them how he sold them into the hands of those that spoiled them how he hardned the hearts of all those that contended with them that they should not pitty them Againe on the other side when they believed his word walked in his wayes and pleased him how he raised them up friends how he made their enemies to bow under them how he enclined the hearts of strangers and of Pagans to pitty them Instances are obvious and therefore I omit them 24. Of which Effect the first and principall cause is none other then the overruling hand of God who not only disposeth of all outward things according to the good pleasure of his will but hath also in his hands the hearts of all men even of the greatest Kings as the rivers of water to turn them which way soever he will as our Solomon speaketh at the 21th ch of this Book The original there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Palge maijm as you would say the divisions of waters Which is not to be understood of the great rivers though the greatest of them all even the wide and great Sea also is in the hands of God to turne which way soever he will as he turned the waters of the red sea backwards to let his people goe through and then turned them forward again to overwhelme their enemies But the allusion there is clearly to the little trenches whereby in those drier Eastern countries husbandmen used to derive water from some fountain or cistern to the several parts of their gardens for the better nourishing of their herbs and fruit-trees Now you know when a gardner hath cut many such trenches all over his garden with what ease he can turne the water out of any one into any other of those channels suffering it to runne so long in one as he thinketh good and then stopping it thence and deriving it into another even as it pleaseth him and as he seeth it most conducible for the necessities of his garden With much more ease can the Lord stop the current of any mans favour and affections in the course wherein it presently runneth and turne it quite into another channel drying it up against one man and deriving it upon another even as it seemeth good in his sight and as will best serve other his holy and just purposes whether he intend to chastise his children or to comfort them or to exercise any other part or passage of his blessed providence upon them Thus he gave his people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so as they lent them all their precious things at their departure who but a little before had consulted the rooting out the whole generation of them And thus after that in his just displeasure against them for their sins he had given them over into captivity into their enemies hands when he was pleased again with their humiliations he not only pittied them himself according to the multitude of his mercies but he turned the hatred of their enemies also into compassion and made all those that had led them away captives to pitty them as it is in Psalm 106. 25. The Lord is a God of power and therefore can work such effects as he pleaseth for our peace without any apparent means on our parts But being withall a God of order for the most part therefore and in the ordinary course of his providence he worketh his own purposes by second causes and subordinate means At least he hath so tied us to the use of probable means for the bringing about of what he hath promised that although we ought to be perswaded he can yet we may not presume he will work our good without our endeavours Now the subordinate means to be used on our part without which we cannot reasonably expect that God should make our enemies to be at peace with us is our faire and amiable conversation with others For who will harme you if ye be followers of that which is good saith S. Peter As if he had said so long as you carry your selves graciously and wisely if the hearts of your enemies will not be so far wrought upon as to love and affect you yet their mouths will be muzled and their hands manacled from breaking out into any outragious either tearms or actions of open hostility so as you shall enjoy your peace with them in some measure Though they meane you no good yet they shall doe you no harme 26. But it may be objected both from scripture and experience that sundry times when a mans wayes are right and therefore pleasing unto God his enemies are nothing less if not perhaps much more enraged against him then formerly they were Our Saviour often foretold his Disciples that they should be hated of all men for his sake And David complaineth in Psalm 38. of some that were against him eo nomine and for that very reason because he was a follower of that which was good What a seeming distance is there between the Prophets and the Apostles speeches or else how may they be reconciled Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good saith the one Yea saith the other there are some agaiâ—st me even therefore because I follow that which is good As if by seeking to please God he had rather lost his friends then gained his enemies 27. There are sundry considerations that may be of good use to us
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
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
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
any thing proposed to debate under any name or notion What doth that name or word import To presume then in the common use and notion of the word with us importeth ever a kinde of confidence or boldness in the Presumer And it may be taken either in a good or in a bad sense but more usually in the bad as by reason of common abuses most other indifferent words are He that hath a fast friend that he thinketh will support him will sometimes adventure upon an undertaking which he is not able to go through with all alone nor durst undergo if he had not such a friend to rely upon When a man doth so we say he presumeth upon that friend that is he is confident that friend will not fail to assist him therein to his utmost power Now if a man be bold to do but what he may and should do and that withall he have some good ground for his confidence from the consideration of his friends ability the experience of his love some former promises on his friends or merit on his own part or other like so as every man would be ready to say he had reason to presume so far of his friend this is a good reasonable and warrantable presumption But if he fail in either respect as if he presume either to do unlawful unworthy or unbefitting things or to do even lawful things when there appeareth no great cause why any man should think his friend obliged by the laws of friendship to assist him therein then is such his presumption a faulty and an evil presumption And whatsoever may bear the name of a Presumptuous sin in any respect is some way or other tainted with such an evil irrational presumption 9. But we are further to note that presumption in the worser sense and as applied to sin may be taken either Materially or Formally If these termes seem obscure with a little opening I hope the difference between these two will be easily understood Taken materially the sin of Presumption is a speciall kinde of sin distinguished from other species of sins by its proper Object or Matter when the very matter wherein we sin and wherby we offend God is Presumption and so it is a branch of Pride When a man presuming either upon his own strength or upon Gods assisting him undertaketh to do something of himself not having in himself by the ordinary course of nature and the common aid which God affoordeth to the actions of his creatures in the ordinary wayes of his providence sufficient strength to go through therewithall or expecteth to receive some extraordinary assistance from the Mercy Power c. of God not having any sufficient ground either from the general promises conteined in the Scriptures or by particular immediate revelation that God will certainly so assist him therein 10. All those men that over-value themselves or out of an overweening conceit of their own abilities attempt things beyond their power That lean to their own understandings as Solomon That minde high things and are wise in their own conceits as St Paul That exercise themselves in great matters and such as are too high for them as David expresseth it All those that perswade themselves they can persist in a holy course without a continual supply of Grace or that think they can continue in their sins so long as they think good and then repent of them and forsake them at their leasure whensoever they list or that doubt not but to be able by their own strength to stand out against any temptation All these I say and all other like by presuming too much upon themselves are guilty of the sin of Presumption To omit the Poëts who have set forth the folly of this kind of Presumption in the Fables of Phaethon and Icarus A notable example we have of it in the Apostle Peter and therein a fair warning for others not to be high minded but to fear who in the great confidence of his own strength could not believe his Master though he knew him to be the God of truth when he foretold him he would yield but still protested that if all the world should forsake him yet he would never do it 11. Nor onely may a man offend in this kinde by presuming upon himself too much but also by presuming even upon God himself without warrant He that repenteth truly of his sins presuming of Gods mercy in the forgiveness thereof or that walketh uprightly and conscionably in the wayes of his calling presuming of Gods Power for his protection therein sinneth not in so presuming Such a presumption is a fruit of Faith and a good presumption because it hath a sure ground a double sure ground for failing first in the Nature and then in the Promise of God As a man may with good reason presume upon his friend that he will not be wanting to him in any good office that by the just Laws of true friendship one friend ought to doe for another But as he presumeth too much upon his friend that careth not into what desperate exigents and dangers he casteth himself in hope his friend will perpetually redeem him and relieve him at every turne So who ever trusteth to the Mercy or to the Power of God without the warrant of a promise presumeth farther then he hath cause and though he may flatter himself and call it by some better name as Faith or Hope or Affiance in God yet is it in truth no better then a groundless and a wicked Presumption Such was the presumption of those Sons of Sceva who took upon them but to their shame and sorrow to call over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Iesus in a form of adjuration Acts 19. when they had no calling or warrant from God so to do And all those men that going on in a wretched course of life do yet hope they shall finde mercy at the houre of death All those that cast themselves into unnecessary either dangers or temptations with expectance that God should manifest his extraordinary Power in their preservation All those that promise to themselves the End without applying themselves to the Means that God hath appointed thereunto as to have Learning without Study Wealth without Industry comfort from children without carefull education c. for as much as they presume upon Gods help without sufficient warrant are guilty of the Sin of Presumption taken in the former notion and Materially 12. But I conceive the Presumptuous sins here in the Text to belong clearly to the other notion of the word Presumption taken formally and as it importeth not a distinct kinde of sin in it self as that Groundless Presumption whereof we have hitherto spoken doth but a common accidentall difference that may adhere to sins of any kinde even as Ignorance and Infirmity whereunto it is opposed also may Theft and Murther which are sins of speciall kinds distinguished either from
19. But what need we seek any other indeed where can we finde a better example to instance in as to the matter we now treat of then this our Apostle if we do but recall to minde that Protestation of his once before mentioned made before the Clergie of Asia in his Visitation at Miletum Act. 20. I have coveted no mans silver or gold or apparel Brave and noble was the challenge that Samuel made in a full assembly of the whole people of Israel Behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his Annointed Whose Oxe have I taken or Whose Asse have I taken or Whom have I defrauded Whom have I oppressed or of whose hands have I received a bribe Possibly there are Iudges and Officers in the world that would be loath to make so bold a challenge and venture a faire triall upon it Yet commeth that challenge far short of this protestation Samuel speaketh only of not taking S. Paul also of not coveting according to the express letter of the prohibition in the Decalogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not covet saith the Law his Conscience answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not coveted So good a proficient was he so perfect a scholar in this holy learning that he could it Verbatim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might he well say and truly for he had indeed learned to be content with his own 20. And mought not we learn it too think ye as well as he Sure we mought for what should hinder Only if we would but tye our selves strictly to those Rules those I mean of Iustice and Charity which are the first elements of this learning For Iustice first the Rule is Suum cuique That every man have what of right to him appertaineth Now every mans right unto any of the things of this world ariseth from Gods disposal thereof by such wayes and means ordinarily as by the general Law and common consent of all civil Nations or by the positive Laws of particular Kingdoms and Common-wealths not repugnant thereunto are allowed for that end as Descent Guift Purchase Industry c. Whose distributions howsoever unequal they may seem to us are yet evermore just in themselves and as they come from him So that every man is by us to be accounted the just owner and proprietary of that whereof he is the legall possessor yea though it do appear to us to have been very unjustly gotten either by himself or by any of those from whom he had it His very possession I say although without a justifiable title is yet sufficient to make it his as to the entendment of the Law in that behalf that is to say so far forth as to render our desiring of it from him unlawfull in foro interno unless in that one case only when the right is in us though he be in possession In all other Cases possession is a good plea the Title of possession being in all reason to be esteemed good against him that is not able to shew a better 21. If then we be at any time carried with a restless and immoderate desire after that which the hand of providence hath been pleased to dispose otherwhere and our selves have no antecedent right whereby to entitle it ours do we not take upon us after a sort to controle the holy and wise appointments of our good God For if it were indeed fitter for us then him and not in opinion only could not the Lord by his almighty power and would he not in the dispensation of his good providence have by some honest means or other disposed it upon us rather then upon him By this extreme partiality to our selves we become unjust Iudges of evil thoughts in setling that upon our selves in our own thoughts as fittest for us which God hath thought fit to settle rather upon another The story in Xenophon how yong Cyrus was corrected by his Tutor for bestowing the two coats upon two of his schoolfellows according to the fitness thereof to their two bodies in his own discretion without enquiring first as he should have done who was the right owner of either is so well known and withall so pertinent to our present purpose that I shall not need either to relate it or apply it When Almighty God then by disposing of these outward things hath manifested his pleasure to give our neighbour a property in them it is an unjust desire in us to covet them from him and to wish them transferred upon our selves 22. The other Rule I told you of is that of Charity Which binding us to love our neighbour as our selves must needs binde us consequently to rejoyce in his good as in our own and not wish any thing to his prejudice no more then to our own and consequently to these to be content that he should enjoy that which God hath allotted him with our good wills as we desire to hold that which is in like manner allotted us with his good will There is no such enemy to brotherly love as is Self-love For look how much we bestow upon our selves more then we should we must needs leave to our brother so much less then we should And it is nothing but this over-much love of our selves that maketh us so much cover to have to our selves that which belongeth not to us If ye fulfil the royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well saith St Iames Very well this But if ye have respect to persons especially if ye become partial once to your own persons that is not well then you commit sin saith he and are convinced of the law as transgressors 23. But this is Durus sermo may some say It were hard so to confine mens minds to that which is their own as not to allow any desire at all of that which is anothers If we should conceive the Law thus strict it would destroy not only all humane ordinances that concern trading and commerce as buying selling exchanging c. without which publick societies cannot subsist but even the divine ordinance also of earning our livings by labour and industry Then might no man endeavour by honourable and vertuous atchievements to raise himself a fortune or make way for his future advancement or do any thing whatsoever whereby to acquire or derive upon himself a property in any thing that were not his own already Since none of all this can be done without a desire in some degree or other of that which is anothers 24. This Objection need not much trouble us Nor Iustice nor Charity nor the holy Law of God which giveth rules to both condemn all desire of that which is anothers but an inordinate desire only that which is orderly and rightly qualified they all allow All the difficulty in this matter will be and that will make us some business how to discern between an orderly and an inordinate desire
Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est Oderit curare And again Dona praesentis cape laetus horae Linque futura These and sundry other like passages we meet with in the Poets together with those phrases so usuall with them In diem vivere c. would be good meditations for us if we should understand them in that Christian sence whereto we now apply them and which the words themselves will bear and not in the Epicures sence wherein for the most part they that used them meant them But I rather give it you in our Saviours words Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof Matth. 6. 36. A third consideration there is nothing less available then either of the former but rather much more to them that can lay hold of it for it is above the reach of Poets and Philosophers and beyond the ken even of professed Christians that want the eye of Faith to frame us to contentment with the present arising from the contemplation of the infinite love of our gracious Lord God joyntly with his infinite wisdome By these as many as are truly the children of God by faith and not titulo tenùs only are assured of this most certain truth that whatsoever their heavenly Father in his wisdome seeth best for them that evermore in his love he provideth for them From which Principle every man that truly feareth God and hath fixeth his hope there may draw this infallible conclusion demonstratively and by the Laws of good discourse per viam regressus This my good God hath presently ordered for me and therefore it must needs be he saw it presently best for me Thus may we sugere mel de petrâ gather grapes of thornes and figs of thistles and satisfie our selves with the honey of comfort out of the stony rock of barrenness and adversity 37. Where are they then that will tell you On the one side what jolly men they have been But miserum est fuisse Having been born and bred to better fortunes their spirits are too great to stoop to so low a condition as now they are in If it were with them as in some former times no men should lead more contented lives then they should do Or that will tell you on the other side what jolly men they shall be when such fortunes as they have in chase or in expectation shall fall into their hands they doubt not but they shall live as contentedly as the best Little do the one sort or the other know the falsness of their own unthankful and rebellious hearts If with discontent they repine at what they are I shall doubt they were never truly content with what they were and I shall fear unless God change their hearts that they will never be well content with what they shall be He that is indeed content when the Lord giveth can be content also when the Lord taketh away and with Iob bless the holy name of God for both He had a minde contented in as good though perhaps not in so high a measure when he sat upon the dung-hill scraping himself with a potsheard in the midst of his incompassionate friends as he had when he sate in the gate judging the people in the midst of the Princes and Elders of the Land 38. It were certainly therefore best for us to frame our minds now the best we can to our present estate be it better or worse that whether it shall be better or worse with us hereafter we may the better frame our mindes to it then also We should all do in this case following the Lord which way soever he leadeth us as the Israelites followed the guidance of the cloudy-fiery-pillar When it went they went when it stood they stood and look which way it went to the North or to the South the same way they took and whether it moved swiftly or slowly they also framed their pace accordingly We in like sort to frame our selves and wills to a holy submission to whatsoever the present good pleasure of his will and providence shall share out for us 39. Which yet let no man so desperately mis-understand as to please himself hereupon in his own sloth and supinity with Solomons sluggard whom that wise man censureth as a foole for it who foldeth his hands together and letteth the world wag as it will without any care at all what shall become of him and his another day And yet as if he were the only wise man Sapientum octavus wiser then seven men that can render a reason he speaketh sentences but it is like a parable in a fools mouth a speech full of reason in it self but by him witlesly applyed and telleth you that Better is a handfull with quietness then both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit Would you not think him the most contented soule that lives But there is no such matter He is as desiring and as having as the most covetous wretch that never ceaseth toyling and moyling to get more if he might but have it and never sweat for it 40. Nor yet Secondly so as to pass censure upon his brethren as if it were nothing but Covetousness or Ambition when he shall observe any of them by his providence industry and good endeavours in a faire and honest course to lay a foundation for their future better fortunes as the currish Philosopher snarled at his fellow Si pranderet olus sapienter regibus uti Nollet Aristippus For so long as the wayes we goe are just and straight and the care we take moderate and neither the things we look after unmeet for us nor the event of our endeavours improbable if withall the mindes we bear be tempered with such an evenness as to expect the issue with patience and neither be puft up beyond measure with the good success of our affairs nor cast down beyond measure if they hap to miscarry it hindereth not but we may at once both be well contented with the present and yet industriously provident for the future The same Poet hath meetly well expressed it there speaking again of the same person Omnis Aristippum decuit color status res Tentantem majora fere praesentibus aequum It is a point of wisdom not a fruit of discontent when God openeth to a man a faire opportunity of advancing his estate to an higher or fuller condition then now he is in to embrace the opportunity and to use all meet diligence in the pursuit for the obtaining of his lawfull desires Rather it is a fruit either of Pride or Sloath or both to neglect it though upon the pretence of being content with the present 41 Pass we now on from this Second to the Third and last point observed concerning the Object of true Contentment which was the indifferency of it as it standeth
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
the first Sale was his personal act by which he passed away both himself and all his posterity and so were we venditi antequam editi sold a long while before we were born And that Sale is still of force against us I mean that of Original sin till it be annull'd by baptism in as much as being virtually in his loins when he made that contract we are presumed to have given our virtual consent thereunto But there is another part of the sale which lieth most against us whereto our own actual consent hath passed in confirmation and for the further ratification of our fore-fathers act when for satisfaction of some ungodly lust or other we condescended by committing sin in our own persons to strengthen Satans title to us whatever it was as much as lay in us Like the unthrifty heir of some unthrifty father who when he cometh at age for a little spending money in hand is ready to do any further act that shall be required of him for the confirmation of his fathers act who had long before sold away the lands from him Whatever then we may impute of the former I mean of original guilt to Adam yet we must take the later I mean our actual transgressions wholly and solely to our own selves 23. Nor can we thirdly lay the blame upon Satan or his instruments which is our last and commonest refuge Serpens decepit was Eves plea and she pleaded but truth for the Serpent had indeed beguiled her St Paul hath said it after her twice over Esau after he had sold his birth-right his own self yet accused his brother for supplanting him Aaron for making the calf and Saul for sparing the Cattle both contrary to God's express command yet both lay it upon the people Others have done the like and still do and will do to the worlds end But alas these fig-leaves are too thin to hide our nakedness all these excuses are insufficient to discharge us from being the authors of our own destruction Say Satan be a cunning cheater as he is no less who should have look'd to that had not God endowed us with understanding to discern his most subtile snares and with liberty of will to decline them Say he do tempt us perpetually and by most slie insinuations seek to get within us and to steal away our hearts That is the utmost he can do a tempter he is and that a shrewd one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath his own from it yet he is but a tempter he cannot enforce us to any thing without our consent and God hath given us power and God hath given us charge too not to consent Say ungodly men who are his agents cease not by plausible perswasions importunities and all the engagements they can pretend to solicit and entice us to evil Yet if we resolve and hold not to consent they cannot hurt us My son if sinners entice thee consent thou not Prov. 1.10 Say they lay many a cursed example before us as Iacob did pilled rods in the sheep-troughs or cast stones of offence in our way Have we not a rule to walk by by which we ought to guide our selves and not by the examples of men And whereto serve our eyes in our heads but to look to our feet that we may so order our steps as not to dash our foot against a stone 24. Certainly no man can take harm but from himself Let no man then when he is tempted and yieldeth say he is tempted of God for God tempteth no man saith S. Iames that is doth not so much as endeavour to do it Nay I may adde further Let no man when he is tempted say he is tempted of Satan That is let him not think to excuse himself by that For even Satan tempteth no man in that sense and cum effectu Though he endeavour it all he can yet it cannot take effect unless we will S. Iames therefore concludeth positively that every mans temptation if it take effect is merely from his own lust It is then our own act and deed that we are Satan's Vassals Disclaim it we cannot and what so ever misery or mischief ensueth thereupon we ought not to impute to any other then our selves alone He could never have laid any claim to us if we had not consented to the bargain and yielded to sell our selves 25. Of the Sale hitherto I come now to the Redemption the more Evangelical and comfortable part of the Text. And as in the Sale we have seen mans inexcusable baseness and folly in the severall circumstances so we may now behold Gods admirable power and grace in this Redemption His Power that he doth it so effectually The thing shall be done Ye shall be Redeemed His Grace that he doth it so freely without any mony of ours Ye shall be Redeemed without mony 26. First the work to be effectually done It is here spoken in the future Ye shall be Redeemed not only nor perhaps so much because it was a prophesie of a thing then to come which now since Christs coming in the flesh is actually accomplished but also and especially to give us to understand that when God is pleased to Redeem us all the powers on earth and in hell cannot shall not hinder it By the Levitical Law if a man had sold himself for a bondslave his brother or some other neer friend might redeem him or if ever God should make him able he might redeem himself If this had been all our hope we might have waited till our eyes had sunk in their holes and yet the work never the neerer to be done for never would man have been found able either to Redeem his own soule or to make agreement for his brothers It would cost more to redeem their souls then any man had to lay down so that of necessity he must let that alone for ever But when the son of God himself setteth in and is content to be made of God to us Redemption the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand and the work shall go on wondrous happily and successfully 27. His Power his Love and his Right do all assure thereof First his Power Our Redeemer is strong and mighty even the Lord of hosts And he had need be so for he that hath us in possession is strong and mighty Ter fortis amatus in the Parable Luke 11th He buckleth his armour about him and standeth upon his guard with a resolution to maintain what he hath purchased and to hold possession if he can But then when a stronger then he cometh upon him and overcommeth him breaketh into his house bindeth him and having bruised his head taketh away from him his armour wherein he trusted the Law Sin Death and Hell there is no remedy but he must yield per-force what he cannot hold and suffer his house to be ransack'd and his goods and possessions to
be carried away Greater is he that is in you saith S. Iohn that is Christ then he that is in the world that is the Devil Christ came into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the Devil and he did atchieve what he came for he hath destroyed them And amongst his other works he hath destroyed this Purchase also wrung the evidences out of his hand even the handwriting that was against us and having blotted defaced and cancell'd it took it out of the way nayling it to his Cross. 28. Such was his Power his Love secondly not less which made him as willing as he was able to undertake this work of our redemption In his love and in his pitty he redeemed them Esay 63.9 There is such a height and depth and length and bredth in that Love such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every dimension of it as none but an infinite understanding can fathom Sic Deus dilexit So God loved the world But how much that so containeth no tongue or wit of man can reach Nothing expresseth it better to the life then the work it self doth That the Word should be made Flesh that the holy one of God should be made sin that God blessed for ever should be made a curse that the Lord of life and glory should suffer an inglorious death and poure out his own most precious blood to ransom such worthless thankless graceless Traitors as we were that had so desperately made our selves away and that into the hands of his deadliest enemy and that upon such poore and unworthy conditions O altitudo Love incomprehensible It swalloweth up the sence and understanding of Men and Angels fitter to be admired and adored with silence then blemished with any our weak expressions 29. I leave it therefore and go on to the next his Right When de facto we sold our selves to Satan we had de jure no power or right at all so to do being we were not our own and so in truth the title is nought and the Sale void Yet it is good against us however we may not plead the invalidity of it for so much as in reason no man ought to make advantage of his own act Our act then barreth us But yet it cannot bar the right owner from challenging his own wheresoever he finds it And therefore we may be well assured God will not suffer the Devil who is but malae fidei possessor an intruder and a cheater quietly to enjoy what is Gods and not his but he will eject him we have that word Iohn 12.21 Ejicietur now is the Prince of this world cast out and recover out of his possession that which he hath no right at all to hold 30. Sundry inferences we might raise hence if we had time I may not insist yet I cannot but touch at three duties which we owe to God for this Redemption because they answer so fitly to these three last mentioned assurances We owe him Affiance in respect of his Power in requital of his Love thankfulness and in regard of his Right Service First the consideration of his Power in our Redemption may put a great deal of comfort and confidence into us that having now redeemed us if we do but cleave fast to him and revolt not again he will protect us from Sin and Satan and all other enemies and pretenders whatsoever O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee Esay 43. If then the Devil shall seek by any of his wiles or suggestions at any time to get us over to him again as he is an unwearied sollicitor and will not lose his claim by discontinuance Let us then look to that Cornu salutis that horn of salvation that God hath raised up for us in Christ our Redeemer and flie thither for succour as to the horns of the Altar saying with David Psalm 119. I am thine oh save me and we shall be safe In all inward temptations in all outward distresses at the hour of death and in the day of judgment we may with great security commit the keeping of our souls to him both as a faithful creator and as a powerful Redeemer saying once more with David Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Psalm 31.6 31. Secondly the consideration of his love in our Redemption should quicken us to a thankful acknowledgment of his great and undeserved goodness towards us Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the hand of the enemy Psal. 107. Let all men let all creatures do it but let them especially If the blessings of corn and wine and oyl of health and peace and plenty of deliverance from sicknesses pestilences famines and other calamities can so affect us as to provoke at least some overly and superficial forms of thanksgiving from us how carnal are our minds and our thoughts earthy if the contemplation of the depth of the riches of Gods mercy poured out upon us in this great work of our Redemption do not even ravish our hearts with an ardent desire to pour them out unto him again in hymns and Psalms and songs of thanksgiving with a Benedictus in our mouths Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people 32. Thirdly the consideration of his Right should bind us to do him service We were his before for he made us and we ought him service for that But now we are his more then before and by a new title for he hath bought us and paid for us and we owe him more service for that The Apostle therefote urgeth it as a matter of great equity you are not your own but his therefore you are not to satisfie your selves by doing your own lusts but to glorifie him by doing his will When Christ redeemed us by his bloud his purpose was to redeem us unto God Rev. 5.9 and not to our selves and to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 and not to it And he therefore delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might the more freely and securely and without fear serve him in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our lives Luke 1. which being both our bounden duty and the thing withall so very reasonable we have the more to answer for if we do not make a conscience of it to perform it accordingly He hath done his part and that which he was no way bound unto in redeeming us and he hath done it to purpose done it effectually Let it be our care to do our part for which there lie so many obligations upon us in serving him and let us also do it to purpose do it really and throughly and constantly 33. Thus is our Redemption done effectually it is also done freely which is the only point now remaining Not for price nor
and to break the confederacies of the ungodly Destroy their tongues O Lord and divide them is holy Davids prayer Psal. 55. And S. Paul when he stood before the Sanhedrim at Ierusalem to take off his malicious accusers the better perceiving both the Iudges and by-standers to be of two different factions some Pharisees who beleeved a resurection and other-some Sadduces who denied it did very wisely to cast a bone among them When by proclaiming himself a Pharisee and professing his belief of the resurrection he raised such a dissension between the two factions that the whole multitude was divided insomuch as the chief Captain was fain to use force to get Paul from amid the uprore and to carry him away by which means all their intended proceedings against him were stopt for that time 40. But the Vnity that is to be prayed for and to be laboured for in the Christian Church is a Christian Vnity that is to say a happy concord in walking lovingly together in the same path of Truth and Godliness The word of Christ is the word of truth and the mystery of Christ the mystery of Godliness Whatsoever therefore is contrary to either of these Truth or Godliness cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Christ but rather altogether against him Here then we have our bounds set us our Ne plus ultra beyond which if we pass we transgress and are exorbitant Alas for us the while when ever our good desires may deceive us if they be inordinate and the love of so lovely a thing as Peace is mis-lead us The more need have we to look narrowly to our treadings lest the tempter should have laid a snare for us in a way wherein we suspected it not and so surprise us â—re we be aware Vsque ad aras The altar-stone that is the meer-stone All bonds of friendship all offices of neighbourhood must give way when the honour of God and his truth lye at the stake If peace will be had upon fair terms or indeed upon any terms salvis veritate pietate without impeachment of either of these it ought to be embraced But if it will not come but upon harder conditions better let it goe A man may buy gold too dear Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. The gender of the article there sheweth the meaning not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which holiness no man shall see the Lord. Without peace some man may having faithfully endeavoured it though he cannot obtain it for that is not his fault but without holiness which if any man want it is through his own fault only no man shall see the Lord. Our like-mindedness then must be according to Christ Iesus in this first sense that is so far forth as may stand with Christian truth and godliness 41. But very many Expositors do rather understand the phrase in another sense According to Christ that is according to the example of Christ which seemeth to have been the judgement of our last Translators who have therefore so put it in the margent of your Bibles His Example the Apostle had reserved unto the last place as one of the weightiest and most effectual arguments in this business producing it a little before the Text and repeating it again a little after the Text. So as this Prayer may seem according to this interpretation to be an illustration of that argument which was drawn from Christs Example as if he had said Christ sought not himself but us He laid aside his own glory devested himself of Majesty and Excellency that he might condescend to our baseness and bear our infirmities he did not despise us but received us with all meekness and compassion Let not us therefore seek every man to please himself in going his own way and setting up his own will neither let us despise any mans weakness but rather treading in the steps of our blessed Lord Iesus let every one of us strive to please his neighbour for his good unto edification bearing with the infirmities of our weaker brethren and receiving one another in our inwardest bosomes and bowels even as Christ also received us to the glory of God 42. If the examples of the servants of Christ ought not to be lightly set by how much more ought the Example of the Master himself to sway with every good Christian In 1 Cor. 10. St Paul having delivered an exhortation in general the same in effect with that we are now in hand withall verse 24. Let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth he doth after propose to their imitation in that point his own particular practise and example in the last verse of the Chapter Even as I please all men in all things saith he not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved But then lest he might be thought to cry up himself and that we might know how unsafe a thing it were to rest barely upon his or any other mans example in the very next following words the first words of the next Chapter he leadeth them higher and to a more perfect example even that of Christ Be ye followers of me saith he as I also am of Christ. As if he had said Although my example who am as nothing be little considerable in it self yet wherein my example is guided by the example of Christ you may not despise it The original record only is authentical and not the transcript yet may a transcript be creditable when it is signed and attested with a Concordat cum originali under the hand of a publick notary or other sworn officer I do not therefore lay mine own example upon you as a Rule I only set it before you as a help or Encouragement that you may the more cheerfully follow the Example of Christ when you shall see men subject to the same sinful infirmities with your selves by the grace of God to have done the same before you My example only sheweth the thing to be feisable it is Christs Example only that can render it warrantable Be ye therefore followers of me even as I also am of Christ. 43. Here just occasion is offered me but I may not take it because of the time first and more generally of a very profitable Enquiry in what things and how far forth we are astricted to follow the example of Christ. And then secondly and more particularly what especial directions to take from his example for the ordering of our carriage towards our brethren in order to the more ready attaining of this Christian unanimity and likemindedness one towards another of which we have hitherto spoken But I remit you over for both to what our Apostle hath written Phil. 2. in the whole fore-part of the Chapter The whole passage is very well worthy the pondering
to justifie themselves will not stick to repine even at God himself and his judgments as if he were cruel and they unrighteous like the slothful servant in the parable that did his master no service at all and yet as lazy as he was could blame his master for being an hard man Cain when he had slain his righteous brother and God had laid a judgment upon him for it complained of the burden of it as if the Lord had dealt hardly with him in laying more upon him then he was able to bear never considering the weight of the sin which God in justice could not bear Solomon noteth it as a fault common among men when by their own sinful folly they have pulled misery upon themselves then to murmur against God and complain of his providence The folly of a man perverteth his wayes and his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19. As the Israelites in their passage through the wilderness were ever and anon murmuring and complaining at somewhat or other either against God or which cometh much to one against Moses and Aaron and that upon every occasion and for every trifle so do we Every small disgrace injury affront or losse that happeneth to us from the frowardness of our betters the unkindness of our neighbours the undutifulness of our children the unfaithfulness of our servants the unsuccesfulness of our attempts or by any other means whatsoever any sorry thing will serve to put us quite out of patience as Ionas took pet at the withering of the gourd And as he was ready to justifie his impatience even to God himself Doest thou well to be angry Ionas Ey marry do I I do well to be angry even to the death so are we ready in all our murmurings against the Lords corrections to flatter our selves as if we did not complain without cause especially where we are able to charge those men that trouble us with unrighteous dealing 11. This is I confess a strong temptation to flesh and bloud and many of Gods holy servants have had much ado to overcome it whilest they looked a little too much outward But yet we have by the help of God a very present remedy there-against if blinde self-love will but suffer us to be so wise as to make use of it and that is no more but this to turn our eye inward and to examine our selves not how well we have dealt with other men who now requite us so ill but how we our selves have requited God who hath dealt so graciously and bountifully with us If we thus look back into our selves and sins we shall soon perceive that God is just even in those things wherein men are unjust and that we have most righteously deserved at his hands to suffer all those things which yet we have no ways deserved at their hands by whom we suffer It will well become us therefore whatsoever judgments God shall please at any time to lay upon us or to threaten us withall either publick or private either by his own immediate hand or by such instruments as he shall employ without all murmurings or disputings to submit to his good will and pleasure and to accept the punishment of our iniquitie as the phrase is Levit. 26. by humbling our selves and confessing that the Lord is righteous as Rehoboam and the Princes of Iudah did 2 Chron. 12. The sence of our own wickednesse in rebelling and the acknowledgment of Gods justice in punishing which are the very first acts of true humiliation and the first steps unto true repentance we shall find by the mercy of God to be of great efficacy not only for the averting of Gods judgments after they are come but also if used timely enough and throughly enough for the preventing thereof before they be come For if we would judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. But because we neglect it and yet it is a thing that must be done or we are undone God in great love and mercy towards us setteth in for our good and doth it himself rather then it should be left undone and we perish even as it there followeth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world And this is that faithfulnesse of God which David acknowledgeth in the later Conclusion whereunto I now pass 12. And that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused me to be troubled In which words we have these three points First David was troubled next God caused him to be so troubled last and God did so out of very faithfulness No great newes when we hear of David to hear of troubles withall Lord remember David and all his troubles Psal. 132. Consider him which way you will in his condition natural spiritual or civil that is either as a man or as a godly man or as a King and he had his portion of troubles in every of those conditions First troubles he must have as a man Haec est conditio nascendi Every mothers childe that cometh into the world falleth a childs-part of those troubles the world affordeth Man that is born of a woman those few dayes that he hath to live he shall be sure to have them full of trouble howsoever In mundo pressuram saith our Saviour In the world ye shall have tribulation Never think it can be otherwise so long as you live here below in the vale of misery where at every turn you shall meet with nothing but very vanity and vexation of spirit 13. Then he was a Godly man and his troubles were somewhat the more for that too For all that will live godly must suffer persecution and however it is with other men certainly many are the troubles of the righteous It is the common lot of the true children of God because they have many outflyings wherewith their holy Father is not well-pleased to come under the scourge oftner then the bastards do If they do amisse and amisse they do they must smart for it either here or hereafter Now God meaneth them no condemnation hereafter and therefore he giveth them the more chastening here 14. But was not David a King and would not that exempt him from troubles He was so indeed but I ween his troubles were neither the fewer nor the lesser for that There are sundry passages in this Psalm that induce me to believe with great probability that David made it while he lived a yong man in the Court of Saul long before his coming to the Crown But yet he was even then unctus in Regem anointed and designed for the Kingdom and he met even then with many troubles the more for that very respect And after he came to enjoy the Crown if God had not been the joy and crown of his heart he should have had little joy of it so full of trouble and
love and fear him whereby he ordereth and disposeth all things so as may make most for their good 19. And it is not unfitly so called whether we respect the gracious promises that God hath made unto them or those sundry mutual relations that are between him and them First faithfulnesse relateth to a promise He is faithful that hath promised Heb. 10. Truly God is a debter to no man that he doth for us any thing at all it is ex mero motu of his own grace and goodness meerly we can challenge nothing at his hands But yet so desirous is he to manifest his gracious love to us that he hath freely bound himself and so made himself a voluntary debter by his promises for promise is due debt insomuch as he giveth us the leave and alloweth us the boldness to remind him of his promises to urge him with them and as it were to adjure him by all his truth and faithfulness to make them good But what a kind of promise is this may some say to promise a man to trouble him It seemeth a threatning this not a promise If these be his promises God may keep his promises to himself we shall not be very forward to challenge him or his faithfulness about them Yet so it is the afflictions and troubles wherewith God in his love chasteneth his children for their good are indeed part of his promise and that a gracious part too In Mark 10. you shall find persecutions and persecutions are troubles expresly named there among other things as a part of the promise or reward No man that hath left house or brethren c. for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren c. with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life There it is exprest but where it is not so it must ever be understood in all the promises that concern this life It is a received rule among Divines that all temporal promises are to be understood cum exceptione crucis that is to say not absolutely but with this reservation unless the Lord in his holy wisdom shall see it good for us to have it otherwise So that if at any time he see it good for us to be troubled as many times he doth David confesseth it but four verses higher Bonum mihi quòd humiliasti It is good for me that I have been in trouble he doth then in great love to us cause us to be troubled and that out of very faithfulness and in regard of his Promise 20. There are also sundry mutual relations wherein God and his people stand tied either to other all which require faithfulness He is their Creator and they are the work of his hands and St Peter stileth him a faithful Creator He is their shepherd and they the sheep of his pasture and a faithful shepheard he is a good shepheard Iohn 10. To omit these and sundry other as of Father Master Husband and the rest take but this one relation only of friendship whereto as every man knoweth faithfulness is so necessary as nothing can be more Now as for those that believe God and keep his Commandements God entreth into a league and covenant of friendship with them for Faith and Obedience are those very things that qualifie us for his friendship Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God James 2. There is Faith Ye are my friends if ye keep my commandements saith our Saviour Iohn 15. There is Obedience Such a league of friendship there was betwixt God and David in his particular and as strongly tied and confirmed as any other we read of the parties swearing fidelity either to other God to him The Lord hath made a faithful Oath unto David and he shall not shrink from it And he to God I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous judgments The misery is we hold not touch perfectly with God but break with him oftentimes through humane frailty and subreption and sometimes also in a more desperate and provoking manner when we sin presumptuously and with a high hand David himself notwithstanding his Oath and the stedfastness of his purpose to perform it yet held not out but failed sundry times through infirmity but he shrank most shamefully and foully in the matter of Vriah But here is our comfort then on the other side that though we are wavering and loose off and on and no hold to be taken of us yet he is still the same he remaineth a fast and constant friend to us Though we sometimes so far forget our selves and our faithful promise as to deny him yet he continueth faithful and will not deny himself no nor us neither if we will but seek to him in any time by true repentance confessing our unfaithfulness and asking pardon thereof and not wholly and finally renounce the covenant we made with him It maketh well for us that he is not forward to take no not all just exceptions he might if he should be any whit extream to mark what we do amiss not a man of us all should long abide in his friendship It is not our faithfulness then to him but his faithfulness to us that holdeth us in 21. But you will say This is scarce a friendly part will any friend cause his friend to be troubled especially having the power in himself to prevent it As Absolon said to Hushai Is this thy kindness to thy friend Call you this faithfulness Yes indeed and very faithfulness too For a true friend aimeth at his friends good in every thing he doth and in comparison of that regardeth not at any time the satisfying of any his inordinate or unreasonable desires And therefore he will freely reprove him when he seeth him to do otherwise then well and sometimes anger him by doing some things quite contrary to his minde but yet for his good Yea and if the inequality and condition of the persons be such as will bear it he will give him also such punishment or other correction as shall be needful according to the merit of his fault And all this he may do salvâ amicitiâ and without breach of friendship nay he is so far tied by the rules of true friendship to do all this and out of very faithfulness that he should transgress those rules and prove unfaithful if he should neglect so to do where the cause requireth it Doth not a father scourge the son in whom he delighteth and sometimes give him sharp correction when the fault deserveth it And no friend can love his friend more dearly and faithfully then a father doth his childe Nay this chastening is so far from being any argument of the fathers dis-affection that it is rather one of the strongest evidences of his faithful love towards him
more refreshing then all those troubles could work him vexation Psal. 94. And S. Paul found that still as his sufferings encreased his comforts had withall such a proportionable rise that where those abounded these did rather superabound 2 Cor. 1. 34. These inward comforts are sufficient even alone Yet God knoweth our frame so well and so far tendereth our weakness that he doth also afford us such outward comforts as he seeth convenient for us A small matter perhaps in bulke and to the eye but yet such as by his mercy giveth us mighty refreshing For as any little affliction scarce considerable in it self is yet able to worke us much sorrow if God meane to make a rod of it so any otherwise inconsiderable accident when God is pleased to make a comfort of it is able to cheer us up beyond belief The coming of Titus out of Achaia into Macedonia seemed to be a matter of no great consequence yet coming at such a time and in the nick as it were S. Paul remembreth it as a great mercy from God and a great comfort to him in 2 Cor. 7. He was much distressed it seemeth at that time with fightings without and fears within insomuch as he was troubled on every side and his flesh had no rest at the fifth verse there Nevertheless saith he God that comforteth those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus at ver 6. 35. Thirdly God manifesteth his love and faithfulness to his children in their troubles by the issues that he giveth out of them Deliverance and Honour Deliverance first That God hath often promised Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will heare thee Psal. 50. And he hath faithfully performed it Many or great are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all Psalm 34. And he delivereth him safe and sound many times without the breaking of a bone yea sometimes without so much as the loss of a haire of his head How oft do we heare it repeated in one Psalm and made good by sundry instances So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them from their distress 36. Some evidence it is of his love and faithfulness that he delivereth them at all but much more that he doth it with the addition of honour Yet hath he bound himself by his gracious promise to that also He shall call upon me and I will heare him yea I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and bring him to honour Psalm 91. As gold cast into the furnace receiveth there a new lustre and shineth brighter when it cometh forth then it did before so are the Saints of God more glorious after their great afflictions their graces evermore resplendent and many times even their outward estate also more honourable We may see in the examples of Ioseph of Iob of David himself and others if we had time to produce them that of Psalm 113. verified He raiseth the poore out of the dust and listeth the needy out of the mire and from the dunghil that he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people But we have an example beyond all example even our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ. Never any sufferings so grievous as his never man so emptied and troden down and made a man of sorrows as he Never any issues so honourable as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess to his honour And what hath befallen him the head concerneth us also his members not only by way of merit but by way of conformity also Si compatimur conregnabimus If we be partakers of his sufferings we shall be also of his glory God as out of very faithfulness he doth cause us to be troubled so will he out of the very same faithfulness give an honourable issue also to all our troubles if we cleave unto him by stedfast faith and constant obedience possibly in this life if he see it useful for us but undoubtedly in the life to come Whereunto c. AD AULAM. Sermon XI WHITE-HALL July 5. 1640. 1 COR. 10.23 All things are lawfull for me But all things are not expedient All things are lawfull for me But all things edifie not 1. IN which words the Apostle with much holy wisdom by setting just bounds unto our Christian Liberty in the Power first and then in the exercise of that power excellently preventeth both the Errour of those that would shrink it in and the Presumption of those that would stretch it out more then they ought He extendeth our Liberty in the Power but restraineth it in the use Would you know what a large power God hath permitted unto you in indifferent things and what may be done ex plenitudine potestatis and without scruple of conscience For that you have Omnia licent All things are lawful But would you know withall with what caution you ought to use that power and what at all times is fit to be done ex intuitu charitatis and for the avoiding of offence You have for that too Non omnia expediunt All things are not expedient All things edifie not If we will sail by this Card regulate our judgement and practise by our Apostles rule and example in the Text we shall neither dash against the Rock of Superstition on the right hand nor fall into the Gulf of Profaneness on the left we shall neither betray our Christian Liberty nor abuse it 2. In the words themselves are apparantly observable concerning that Liberty two things the Extension first and then the Limitation of it The Extension is in the former clause Wherein we have the Things and the Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things lawful and All lawful for me The Limitation is in the later clauses wherein is declared first what it is must limit us and that is the reason of Expediency But all things are not expedient And secondly one special means whereby to judge of that Expediency which is the usefulness of it unto Edification But all things edifie not I am to begin with the Extension of which onely at this time And first and chiefly in respect of the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are lawful 3. What All things simply and without exception All What meant Iohn Baptist then to come in with his Non licet to Herod about his Brothers Wife It is not lawful for thee to have her Matth. 14. Or if Iohn were an austero man and had too much of Elias's spirit in him Yet how is it that our blessed Saviour the very pattern of love and meekness when the Pharisees put a question to him Whether it were lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause resolveth it in effect as if he
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
Iob to comfort himself with it as we see he did in the day of his great distress The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy Job 29. 28. But say these poor ones should be so charitable as very seldom they be as not to curse us when we have despised them or so unthankful as seldom they are otherwise as not to bless us when we have relieved them yet the Lord who hath given every man a charge concerning his brother and committed the distresses of the poor to our care and trust will take district knowledge how we deal with them and unpartially recompense us thereafter Doth not he consider and shalt not he render to every man according to his works the last words of the Text. If therefore you have done your duty faithfully let it never discourage you that unrighteous and unthankful men forget it They do but their kinde the comfort is that yet God will both remember it and requite it God is not unrighteous to forget your work labour of love saith the Apostle Heb. 5. He will remember it you see And then saith David Psal. 41. Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble He will requite it too He that for Gods sake helpeth his poor brother to right that suffereth wrong he doth therein at once first an act of mercy because it is done in the behalf of a distressed man and an act secondly of justice because it is done in a righteous cause and thirdly being done for the Lords sake an act of Religion also Pure religion and undefiled before God even the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction Iames 1. And is it possible that God who delighteth in the exercise of every one of them singly should suffer an act to pass unrewarded wherein there is a happy concurrence of three such excellent vertues together as are Iustice Mercy and Religion The Prophet Ieremy to reprove Iehoâ—achins tyranny and oppression upbraideth him with his good father Iosiah's care and conscience to do justice and to shew mercy after this manner Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgement and justice and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord But now on the contrary He shall have judgement without mercy that sheweth no mercy He that stoppeth his ears against the cry of the poor he shall also cry himself but shall noâ— be heard c. Many other like passages there are in the Scriptures to the same effect 29. Nay moreover the general neglect of this duty pulleth down the wrath of God not only upon those particular persons that neglect it but also upon the whole nation where it is in such general sort neglected O house of David thus saith the Lord execute judgment in the morning and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressour lest my fury go out like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings Ier. 21. Brethren we of this nation have cause to look to it in time against whom the Lord hath of late manifested his just wrath though tempered as we must all confess with much clemency yea and his hand is stretched out against us still in the heavie plagues both of dearth and death Though the land be full of all manner of sin and lewdness and so the Lord might have a controversy with us for any of them yet I am verily perswaded there are no other kinds of sins that have overspread the face of the whole land with such an universal contagion as it were of a Leprosie as the sins of Riot and Oppression have done Which two sins are not only the provoking causes as any kind of sinnes may be in regard of the justice of God but also the sensible instrumental causes in the eye of reason and experience of much penury and mortality among us 30. Surely then as to quench the fire we use to withdraw the fewel so to turn away the heavie wrath of God from us we should all put to our helping hands each in his place and calling but especially the Minister and the Magistrate the one to cry down the other to beat down as all sins in general so especially these of Ryot and Oppression Never think it will be well with us or that it will be much better with us then now it is or that it will not be rather every day much worse with us then it is never look that disorders in the Church distempers in the State distractions in our judgments diseases in our bodies should be remedied or removed and not rather more and more encreased if we hold on as we doe in pampering every man his own flesh and despising every man his poor brother So long as we think no pleasures too much for our selves no pressures too heavy for our brethren stretch our selves along and at ease upon our couches eat of the fat and drink of the sweet without any touch of compassion in our bowels for the afflictions of others we can expect no other but that the rod of God should abide upon us either in dearths or pestilences or if they be removed for God loveth sometimes to shift his rods in greater and heavier judgments in some other kinde 31. But as to the particular of Oppression for that of Ryot and Intemperance being beside the Text I shall no farther press my humble request to those that are in place of authority and all others that have any office or attendance about the Courts is this For the love of God and of your selves and your Country Be not so indulgent to your own appetites and affections either of Ease as to reject the complaints or of Partiality as to despise the persons or of filthy lucre as to betray the cause of the fatherlesse and friendlesse Suffer not when his cause is good a simple man to be circumvented by the wilinesse or a mean man to be overpowred by the greatnesse of a crafty or mighty adversary Favour not a known Sycophant nor open your lips to speak in a cause to pervert judgment or to procure favour for a mischievous person Turn not judgment into wormwod by making him that meant no hurt an offender for a word Wrangle not in the behalf of a contentious person to the prejudice of those that desire to live quiet in the land Devise not dilatory shifts to tug men on along in a tedious course of Law to their great charge and vexation but ripen their causes with all seasonable expedition for a speedy hearing In a word doe what lieth in your power to the utmost for the curbing of Sycophants and oppressours and the