portion by the eternal decree of Gods election and choice being only Aliquorum it can neither consist nor yet be conceived or imagined without a refusal That same negative Act of Praeterition or Reprobation God freely denying grace and justly passing over the remainder Thus Saint Paul restraines to a definitive number Rom. 8.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom be predestinate them also he called Quos praescivit saith the Apostle so that it is Electio personarùm non qualitatum An absolute no respective decree either grounded or occasioned by any motive condition in the object of foreseen faith and perseverance Nor is it an universal or general election which is quite repugnant to the nature Quos praescivit saith the Text Hos non alios those alone and no other as Augustine toucheth upon the place Secondly In the meritorious Efficacy of Christs Redemption the Church is separated unto holiness in the meritorious Efficacy of Christs Redemption who though he gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom for all men 1 Tim. 2.6 A propitiation for the sins of the whole world 1 John 2.2 if we take an estimate of the greatness of the price and sufficiency of his death and passion Yet doth he lay down his life for his sheep and hath purchased the Church with his own blood Acts 20.28 in respect of the force and efficacy of his death and the property of redemption Poculum immortalitatis habet equidem in se ut prosit omnibus sed si non bibit non proficit saith Prosper excellently And did all men drink of the blood of Christ then should they have eternal life John 6.5 Thirdly the Church is separated from the world in the actual vocation and conversion In the actual vocation and conversion for though God imbraced and clasped it in the arms of his mercy from all Eternity And loved it with an everlasting love Jer. 3.3 by way of benevolence Yet neither doth the purpose of Election which is an immanent act in God confer ought upon the partie that is predestinate nor the vertues of Christs Redemption avail any whit to the justification and acceptation of the person Nor doth God respect and tender the Church with the love of complacency and contentment until he be pleased actually to call it out of the power of darkness into his marvellous light And hereby it becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 populus evocatus a people called out from amidst the sons of men by the powerful attraction and energy of the spirit and by the subordinate ministry of the Word and Sacraments In all these respects the Church is Holy by Separation Secondly this Temple and Church is holy in the Consecration In the Consecration being dedicate to God by baptism which though it be no Physical instrument that conveies grace by any natural force efficacy yet is it signum figillum both by representation and assurance doth establish and confirm it And as many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 And from hence arose that antient custom in the Primitive Church of clothing the baptized with white apparel Fulgentes animas vestis quoque candida signat Lactantius Who were therefore stiled Candidati the Sunday after Easter whereon this Sacrament of Baptism was solemnly administr'd for the whole year took the denomination of Dominica in albis and was term'd White Sunday that so both the name of the day the bright colour of their garments might clearly signifie set forth the unspotted innocency of their profession the spiritual purity of their conversation Thus is the Church holy by consecration Thirdly it is holy in the practical use and exercise In the Practical use and exercise The reverent hearing of the Word the devout administration of the blessed Sacraments And above all affectionate fervent Prayer This is the service of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereunto his house is assigned and dedicated in a special manner My house shall be called the House of Prayer for all people Isa 56.7 And this is it which Christens the publick places of God's worship and gives the name unto Temples Not Concionatoria nor Sacramentaria but Oratoria houses of request and prayer As being a primary action which by an elegant Synecdoche compriseth all other religious duties that are ordered to it and derive and borrow from it a plentiful increase Thus is the Temple the Church of God in the general and each private Christian in particular the house of Prayer who prays not onely openly in the outward Temple but secretly in the (r) Vis in Temple orare de scendi in reipsum August inward Temple of his own heart And as the consecration of Temples is evermore solemnized with prayer so is every living Temple hereby dedicate unto God It was so with Saul upon the point of his conversion For behold he prayeth faith God to Ananias Act. 9.10 To ascertain him of the truth It is so with all others whose invocation and calling upon the name of God immediatly follows God's vocation effectual calling of them This is the threefold holiness of the Temple The separation The consecration The practical use and exercise These are the several limbs and members of the point like unto those dry bones in Ezekiels vision which though they are knit together by their several Sinewes yet are they not covered with flesh and skin as otherwise they might if the time would permit And least these dry bones should be utterly void of life give me leave but once more to prophesie unto them and breath a little upon them by the spirit of Application And is the Temple of God holy The Application away then with the vainglorious vaunt of Corah and his complices All the congregation of the Lord is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Numb 16.2 These indeed are the presumptuous speeches of the sons of Corah I mean some of our own Tribe there is no distinction betwixt Elect and Reprobate Tros Tyriusque illis nullo discrimine habentur There is no certainty of grace no assurance of salvation Nemo ante obitum foelix Beleeve them who list As is the good so is the sinner And yet saith the text expresly The Temple of God is holy But who is this holy Temple Quod vos estis so it follows in the Text ye of the Clergy in a peculiar manner who serve at Gods Altar Be ye clean that carrie the vessel of the Lord Isa 52.11 Ye are not only the Temple but the Priests of the Temple and should have ingraven as it were upon your foreheads with the High Priest under the Law Holiness unto the Lord. And as he that hath called you and that not only ad salutem but officium as he is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 2. The Temple of God is holy quod vos estis Ye of
authoritative for their own sake The Ordinances of man so far forth as they are agreeable to the law of God and the law of the Land Let every soul be subject to the higher powers Rom. 13.1 And how hath this Text been strained and squeezed of late And as the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood saith the wise man Prov. 30.33 So some and those not a few by a violent wringing of this Text of the Apostle have forced blood out of it and yet I find the result of the place to be no other than this The absolute necessity of a regular and orderly subjection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Saint Pauls word which is bred in the wars and taken up from the exercise of martial discipline where the common souldier is subject to his Captain the Captain to his Colonel the Colonel to the Chieftain or General according to the order of war but if either General Colonel or Captain command any thing that is contrary to the rules of military discipline if they break their ranks or run over into the camp of the enemy the common souldier is not herein bound to observe their commands or follow their example And that which order and discipline is in an Army the same are aws statutes in an established State And this is all that may be clearly collected out of S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a legal and orderly subjection And as for those higher powers whereof he speaks they are sundry forms and kinds of government or the several degrees of the same government There is a Monarchy where a King commands in chief an Aristocrocy that is swayed and ruled by select States and Senutors a Democracy where the power of government is vested and lodged in the common people And they that are members of any of these must conform themselves to the law of the whole and testifie their subjection and as to the several forms so to the different degrees of the same government to every degree of superiority supream and subordinate even to the meanest and lowest Officer a petty and a parish Constable And that Text of Saint Peter may well serve for a Commentary upon Saint Paul 1 Pet. 3.2.21.14 Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supream or unto governors as unto those that are sent by him Which is all one as if Saint Peter had expressed himself more particularly and come home to the present case of the Kingdom To the King as to the Supreme or to the Parliament as to the Governors that are sent by him For the King and Parliament as they are joined together in the civil polity and constitution of our Kingdom so most they be conjoined in our subjection And it is an undeniable principle in reason subordinata non pugnant The supreme and subordinate do not fight in their nature or in action and outward opposition Howsoever the vulgar sort conceive and misjudge the contrary and they that go about to make them fight against each other or endeavour to divide betwixt them they shew themselves the disciples of the Florent ne and well versed in his politiques Divide impera That so by dividing betwixt both they may rule alone Fourthly A Touch of charity to our Christian Brethren There must be a Touch of charity to our Christian Brethren God is love saith St. John 1 John 4.8 not onely causally as the efficient and the author but formally and in his own nature And there is not any spiritual or supernatural quality whereby we approach and draw nearer unto God and more perfectly communicate in the divine nature then the grace of love Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God 1 John 4.7 and if God is love and love cometh of God then sure those spirits that are of God must needs have this Touch of charity And yet if we bring the greater part of the Metal to the true Touchstone Three Characters of the Donatists they manifestly bewray the want of it I will onely acquaint you with some of the Marks and Characters of the old Donatists as I find them alledged by Optatus and exemplisie them in the Donatists of the last stamp And they are Three in number First was the ingrossing and as it were monopolizing of the name of the Church The ingrossing the name of the Church as if they alone had the Patent for it (m) Optat. lib. 2. Vultis vos solos esse totum qui in omni toto non estis saith Optatus of them And how fitly doth this Character agree to the Church of Rome Babylon of the West who prides her self with Babylon in the East and speaks in her Ancient language Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me assuming and usurping the stile and Title of the Catholique Church which is the confusion of a particular with an universal and withall implies a gross and evident contradiction For if it be the Roman it is not Catholique and if the Catholique Church it is no longer Roman Secondly a second Mark of the Donatists was their supercilious renouncing and disclaiming all Brotherly communion with the Orthodox The disclaiming of Brotherly communion (n) Optat. lib. 1. Nolunt se Fratres dici saith Optatus They thought it a disparagement to be known for their Brethren And herein the Church of Rome offends as in the former who deny unto the Protestant party all right and title unto the Church as their common Mother will in no wise acknowledge them for their Brethren Brand them with the odious name of Hereticks and accurse them unto death Thirdly a third Character of the Donatists was their common opprobry and reproaches which they familiarly inserted into their Tractates and Sermons Opprobrious and reproachful speeches who having made choice of Scripture for their Text they were wont to Comment upon it with shameless railings and revilings (o) Nullus vestrum est qui non convitia nostra suis tractatibus misceat Lectiones dominicas incipitis tractatus vest os ad uostras injurias explicatis Optaet lib. 4. Profertis Evangelium facitis absonti fratri convitium as Optatus relates it Not to speak of the open Enemy of Religion those railing Rabshakehs of Priests and Jesuits are there not a great part even of professing Protestants that are guilty of this sin and may not that of the Psalmist be sitly applied to many of them Psal 50.20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother Thou slanderest thine own mothers son What else mean those paultry Pamphlets lying Libels defamatory Declarations bitter Sarcasms and invectives So that there is just cause to renew St. Hilaries complaint of old (p) Hilar. ad Constant l. 2. Cum alter coepit esse Anathema alteri prope jam nemo est Christi When one Christian bespatters and
because ye go to law one with another why do ye not suffer wrong why do ye not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded this was the 〈◊〉 the spiritual impotency and infirmity of their dispositions that they did not voluntarily relinquish and in some measure recede from their own right thereby to piece and flitch up differences out of a zealous desire and endeavour after brotherly love and concord This was very remarkable and signal in Gregory Nazianzen who when the Council of Constantinople was split in two about the choice of a Bishop he took his leave both of the Council and of his Bishoprick with this farewel speech (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregor Naz. vita If I be the cause of this dissension I am not better then the Prophet Jonas cast me forth into the sea so shall the sea be calm unto you onely remember that of Zacharie love the truth and peace 3. The third work of charity is a liberal communicating and distributing with a free heart and an open hand to the necessities of our brethren who soe hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him â—how dwelleth the love of God in him The third Work of Charity A free distributing to the necessity of our Brethren 1 Ioh. 3.17 and then do men shut their bowels of compassion when they shut their hands and are close fisted and in so doing how dwelleth the love of God in them and the Apostles interrogation hath in it the force of a vehement negation that there is no love at all It is a grosse yet common error of the Papists to confound good works in the general with works of charity and liberality as if the part and the whole were all one and there were no other works besides and yet almes-deeds are good works good in their kind and nature Good and profitable unto men Titus 3.8 And much more profitable unto our selves for howsoever works of charity are not either efficient or meritorius causes entitling or interessing us in the Kingdome of Heaven which descends upon us as an inheritance provided by our Father from all Eternity and purchased in the fulness of time by the blood of Christ Yet are they a necessary condition and an effectual means of our entrance and actual possession of that Kingdome the rule and measure of Christs award in pronouncing and passing that definitive sentence at the great and general judgment of the latter day Mat. 25.34 35 36. Come ye blessed children of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me Thus will Christ entertain and welcome men into his Kingdom at the day of his appearance And that is the reason of Saint Paul's charge to Timothy Why those that are rich in this world should be rich in good works Ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. 4. The Fourth work of charity is the exercise of benevolence and beneficence The fourth Work of Charity The doing good to our Enemies to such as are most alienated and estranged from us the person of professed Enemies And that whether enemies in Opinion Affection Action we must according to our Saviours counsel Love Bless Pray Do good to them and by all means possible intend and further their temporal and much more their eternal welfare This is the Genius of the Gospel the discriminating character of Christianity from all other professions and all Religions (a) Amicos diligere est omnium inimicos autem solorum Christianorum Tertul. ad Scapulam cap. 1. For men to love their Friends is common to all but to love their Enemies is proper and peculiar to Christians And herein must we express evidence our charity to enemies by an unfained earnest desire of their conversion to the unity of faith and love If that a member be dissected and out off from the society of (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we forthwith carefully closs and bind it up and use the best means of art and skill to incorporate it with the c fellows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is St. Chrysostom's comparison Even so should all our attempts endeavours aim and level at this main project and design The Application in a threefold Consectary Inference to reunite and combine our most enraged and implacable Enemies in the bond of Christian communion and Brotherly fellowship from which they are severed and divided for want of Charity 1. And is St. Paul's Aphorism sound Divinity Let all your things be done with charity The First affording matter of Grief and Sorrow That which we may from hence observe in the first place is matter of grief and sorrow Private grief and publick sorrow A copious Theme and subject large enough to make up a full volume of the same Argument with the Roll of Ezechiel ' s prophecy that was written within and without with lamentation and mourning and woe And just cause there is now if ever for every man in his own person to renew and take up that melting desire of the pathetical Prophet Jer. 2.1 O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I may weep day and night for the want of this grace and charity Oh Charity the map and mirrour of Excellency the glory of graces the bond of peace the bond of perfectness the desire and delight of Angels the lively image and portraicture of God himself which is everywhere stiled The peace of God and the God of peace (c) Nazianz. Orat. 14. pag. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen Which is of God and is God For God is love 1 John 4.8 Not only causally in us but formally in himself though not as an Affection but as his Nature Oh thou highly beloved and lovely Love the fairest among vertues Beautiful as Tirzah comely as Hierusalem What is become of thee where dost thou abide and dwell Hast thou quite left this habitable world and art ascended and gone up to Heaven there to enjoy the sight of Gods blessed Face and to repose and rest thy self in his Bosom from whence thou first came (d) Nazianz Orat. 14. pag. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the passionate complaint of Gregory Nazianzen O dear and precious peace a Grace that is generally commended and cried up by all but observed and practised by a very few Where hast thou forsaken us for so long time And when oh when wilt thou
nostri calamitas and one principal cause of the defeat and overthrow that hath been given unto both parties hath been the neglect of Sconts and Emissaries to discover and descry the approach of the enemies Give me leave therefore at this time to take upon me the office of a Church Scout to give timely notice and intelligence of an enemy and that not upon the frontires or borders but Hanibal ad portas that knocks at the gates for entrance One that hath made an invasion and inroad into the heart of the Kingdom and subdued a great part of it who are here indigitated and pointed out by Saint John and branded with the title of false Prophets For false Prophets are gone out into the world I shall likewise furnish you with sundry weapons out of Saint Johns Armory for the better encounter with this enemy Weapons defensive Believe not every spirit Slowness of belief is a defensive weapon against the assaults of a sly seducer Weapons offensive Try the spirits whether they be of God And lest that my discovery seem unpleasant or prove unwelcom unto any of you I shall borrow and take up Saint John's Preface for my just Apology Dearly Beloved and apply it to every one here present I will speak the words of truth and oberness a Paul told Festus yea and love too without any gall of bitterness And so I come to the Text. The General parts whereof are two The division of the Text. 1. A compellation Dearly beloved 2. And a command in the sequel In the command we have two specialities or particular circumstances 1. The Matter 2. The Motive 1. the matter is partly disswasive or monitory Believe not every spirit 2. Partly perswasive or injunctive Try the spirits whether they be of God 2. The second speciality of the Command is the motive unto the matter or the ground and reason of it And that is couched in the close or latter part of the verse For mony false Prophets are gone out c. I begin with the compellation Dearly beloved 1. There were two great Apostles of our blessed Saviour The first parr The compellation Saint Peter and Saint John Saint Peter was a man of an hot temper and a fiery metal the freest and forwardest of his order one that was ready to vent and put forth himself at every turn and to ply Christ with replies and answers upon each occasion who like unto the foreman of a Jury was commonly the mouth of all the rest To say with Aquinas that Christ loved Saint Peter above the rest of the Apostles in ordine ad Ecclesiam savours strong and soure of the Leaven of the Pharisees the Doctrine of the Church of Rome For Christ loved his Disciples alike with an even and uniform love in reference to his Church yet did Christ advance Saint John above the rest of his brethren in ordine ad personam in reference unto his person as the same Aquinas affirmeth as being the natural and neer kinsman of Christ and in that respect the more affected and indeared to him And as Saint John was the beloved so the most loving Disciple of his Lord and Master Magnes amoris amor the love of Christ to him was as an attractive Loadstone of his heart to the love of Christ and to draw Christians to the mutual love of one another His soul was a full volume of charity and every leaf of this volume each leaf in his Epistles each Chapter and well near verse and line in those Chapters contain sundry invitations and inducements unto charity And as it was said of Homers Iliads (a) Justin Martyr Orat. ad Graecos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was carnal and sensual love that was the beginning and end of his writings so may it be much more truly affirmed of Saint Johns works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine and spiritual love that was the beginning and end yea and the middle too of his Epistles This was his constant practice in his declining time and extremity of old age that being carried into the Temple upon the shoulders of his Disciples and being unable to preach to them in regard of his weakness and infirmity he would then inculcate and press upon them this short and pithy exhortation which was in effect a very powerful and perswasive Sermon Filioli diligite vosmet invicom little children love one another For as Saint Paul was an Apostle of faith constantissimus gratiae praedicator as Austin stiles him a most constant Preacher of the free grace of God in Christ As Saint James was an Apostle of works which he vehemently urges against loose Libertines and carnal Gospellers So this was the special excellency of S. John that he was an Apostle of love which he expresses and evidences in the Compellation here in the Text A double duty Dearly beloved And implies and intimates a double duty 1. The one of the pastor The duty of the Pastor to love his people to love them affectionately tenderly from the very heart-root and bowels yea in the bowels of Christ For God is my record how I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. It is Saint Pauls profession to the Philippians Phil. 1.8 2. The other of the people The duty of people to be throughly assured perswaded of the love of their Pastor and to embrace his instructions admonitions and his severest reprehensions as so many love-tokens and arguments of his affection And if the peoples hearts be once possessed and taken up with this belief it will be as an Harbinger to make way for the entertainment of their doctrine it will welcome their Message and their Ministry and make their sharpest reproofs not onely saving but sweet and cause them to pray in the words of the Psalmist Psal 101.5 Let the righteous smite me for that is a benefit and let them reprove me and it shall be a precious oyl that shall not break my head And let this suffice to have spoken of the compellation Dearly beloved For I must not stay in the porch or entry which though it be both useful and necessary in a Building yet it is onely to lead us into the inward rooms whereunto I now come 2. The Command The second Part. The command which contains in it the Matter The second general part of the Text where the matter and the motive present themselves unto us And in the matter first of the dissuasive or monitory part believe not every spirit And then of the persuasive or munitive Try the spirits whether they be of God I will take them up as they lie in order 1. Believe not every spirit The dissuasive or monitory part That is St. John's disswasion or admonition There are spirits in their nature spiritual and immaterial substances and those either uncreated as God himself God is a Spirit John 4.24 or else created as Angels and the Souls of men And there
with her hair disheveld and her torn garments should shew the womb that bare thee and the paps that gave thee suck If that thy aged and hoary-headed Father should lie in the threshold to detain thee in a course of wickedness or hinder thy passage unto Christ In such a case as this Cast down thy Infant run over thy mother tread and trample thy father under feet And with dry eyes run yea flie to the Banner of Christ's crosse It is the onely piety to be accounted even cruel for Christs sake and the highest strain and pitch of natural affection to prove unnatural in the cause of Christianity The second cause of this Almost in Christianity is the inordinate love of worldly promotion and preferment Worldly promotions and preferments when men make the world their standing mark and do only rove at God when they do uti frnendis frui utendis Make use of God onely who should be enjoyed to serve their own turn and enjoy the world which should be but barely used and that as though we used it not It was the world that made Demas a Renegado and a Revolter from his profession Demas hath forsaken me and embraced this present world so St. Paul complains of him 2 Tim. 4.10 And it is the love of the world that is as (g) Amor rerum temporalium est viscus alarum spiritualium August Baldwino ferventi Monacho ac Abbati calido Episcopo tepido frigido Archiepiscopo PopeVrbans Letter to him Gerald. Camb. Itinerar Birdlime to the wings of the foul that keeps it from soaring and mounting upward unto God and from seeking those things that are above It was the downright confession of Theodorus a Jew That it was neither ignorance nor hatred of the true Religion that captivated him in his errors but onely his preheminence and temporal dignities in his own Country that disswaded him from the embracing of Christianity And it may be this was it that prevailed with Agrippa in my Text who eame and Bernice with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of pomp and outside bravery Acts 25.23 And it is like enough that this vain shew and fancy of earthly glory so bleared and misted and cast such a Dust in the eye of his judgement that he could not find the right Way to Christianity The third cause of this Almost in Christianity is the inordinate love of some vitious and sinful lust Of vicious and sinful lusts Non faciunt bonos vel malos mores nisi boni vel mali amores August Epist 52. a Dalilah and darling sin What though Herod do many things and hear John Baptist gladly yet if his Herodias come in the way she will soon take off the edge of his Devotion And howsoever Foelix trembled being hammered upon the Anvil of St. Pauls ministery yet his Drusilla his bosome sin of lasciviousness and incontinency marrs all This is the reason of our Saviours counsel To pluck out the right Eye and to cut off the right Hand Mattli 5.29 30. For if this right eye or right hand be left behind an Herodias or Drusilla That which Divines stile Peccatum in deliciis a delicate and dainty lust a tender and beloved corruption This will so entangle and enveigle the Heart and make another Agrippa of it That it shall be but Almost perswaded to be a Christian The second cause of this Almost in Christianity A second cause of this Almost in Christianity Immoderate fear is immoderate Fear The terrour of the crosse the amazement of triall and temptation and the frightful Bugbears of Persecution These are the main matters that stave men off from coming unto Christ The slothfull man saith a Lyon is in the way a Lyon is in the streets Prov. 26.13 Such is the spiritual sluggishness and faint-hearted-cowardize of our natures who preoccupate and forestall our hearts with superfluous fears speak in the language of the sluggard a Lyon is in the way of Christianity (h) Si coelum stetit si terra movit si fames si lues statim Christianos ad Leonem Tertul. Apol. cap. 40. Christianos ad Leonem which was the outragious outery of the Heathen There is nothing to be found there but death and destruction Insomuch that when Christ began to instruct his Disciples of his going up to Hierusalem of his suffering many things of the Elders and of being slain the third day they all lent a deaf Ear unto it and St. Peter who was forwarder then the rest began to rebuke him saying Master This shall not be unto thee Matth. 16.21 22. Men cannot endure to hear of suffering and they that would fain raign with Christ will in no case be brought in the mind to suffer with him They will not accept of Christ for their spiritual Husband upon the just conditions of marriage for better for worse for richer for poorer in sickness and in health They fancy not a poor neglected despised and persecuted Redeemer Nor can they be allured and invited to accompany their Saviour in reproach and ignominy in poverty and nakedness in imprisonment and banishment and to dy with him upon mount Calvary (h) Non est in Deum delicata secura confessio Qui in me credit debet sanguinem suum fundere Hieronym It is no delicate or secure thing to confess Christ that man which believes in him must so cast up his account and reckoning as to be ready to lay down his life and to shed his blood for him This is it that makes men look a skue upon Christ as a meer stranger as if with St. Peter they knew not the man and to follow him a far of after his example and that for dread of their own danger This is it that makes so many Agrippa's in times of temptation who upon this very ground and reason are but almost perswaded to become Christians Seeing then Agrippa brake of as it were in the middle of a sentence and slopt as at a full point where he should have made a comma or a colon yet remained but a Semi-Christian and that after the hearing of another Apollo St. Paul mighty in the Scriptures who preached a penetrating and a peircing Sermon and with a deep tent and keen lancet searcht his conscience to the quick we may from hence observe the truth of that Divine Aphorisme and Theological Maxime The first Corollary That there is not a (i) It is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven but to them it is not given Matth. 13.11 Fides inchoata perfecta donum Dei est hoc donum quibusdam dari quibusdam non dari omnino non dubitet qui non vult manifestissimis sacris literis repugnare August de Praedest sanct cap. 9. Quidam sic opinantur quasi Deus recesse habeat praestare etiam indignis quod spospondit liberalitatem ejus faciunt servitutem Sed Deus