Christ. 25. In which latter 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 unbelievers The name of Christian though of commonest use and longest continuance was yet but of a latter date taken up first at Antioch as we find Acts 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. St. Paul opposeth the Brethren to them that are without and so includeth all that are within the Church What have I to do to judge 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 than 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 only 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. Affect us cordis and Effect us 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 useful and so very acceptable to them 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 most 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 delectionis exhibitio est operis Good works are the best demonstrations as of true Faith so of true love Where there is life and heat there will be action There is no life then in that Faith St. Iames calleth it plainly a dead Faith Iam. 2. nor heat in that Love according to that expression Mat. 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 â—it 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 than this we cannot go in the expressing of our love Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend and thus far we must go 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 Heatheâ—s and to manifest the same proportionably by performing all loving offices to them upon every fit occasion to
those latter words of the verse The Lord taketh me up 16. The primary signification of the Hebrew Verb here used is together and so it might allude to that whereunto our Saviour in the Gospel resembleth his compassion towards the Jews of a Hen gathering her Chickens under her wings But it is here rather translated by taking up as the word very usually signifieth 1. And it seemeth to resemble the state of young infants by the unnatural Parents exposed to the wide world as we read Cyrus and Romulus and some others both in Fables and Histories to have been where they must have perished if some good body had not taken pity of them and taken them up 2. Or the state of some impotent neglected Cripple like him that lay before the Pool of Bethesda and had neither limbs to put himself into the water nor any friend to help him in 3. Or the traveller in the Parable Luke 10. that lay in the high-way wounded by thieves half dead where he must have died out-right if the Samaritan Passenger had not taken him up and taken order for his tending and recovery 17. The plain meaning is that though our Fathers and Mothers forsake us though all other friends and comforts fail us because they either cannot or will not help us yet our heavenly Father never doth nor will fail or forsake those that put their trust in him Yea rather then is his providence nearest and his help readiest when we are most forsaken of others and left most destitute of all worldly succour Whence it is that so often in the Psalms to procure readier help from God David alledgeth it as a forcible argument that he was a desolate and forsaken man The poor committeth himself to thee for thou art a helper of the friendless O go not far from me for trouble is nigh at hand and there is none to help me O be thou our help in trouble for vain is the help of man and many the like And how often doth the Lord himself whose general providence watcheth over all men yea even all creatures profess himself yet in a more special manner to be the father of the Fatherless and to have a special care of the widow the poor and the stranger above others as being more destitute of worldly succour and friends than others are In three Psalms together you have passages to this purpose In the 145th The Lord upholdeth all those that fall and lifteth up all those that be down In the 146th The Lord helpeth them that are fallen the Lord careth for the stranger he defendeth the Fatherless and Widow In the 147th he feedeth the young ravens that call upon him The observation is common that he instanceth in the raven rather than in any other bird because of all other birds the ravens are observeth soonest to forsake their young ones Whether the observation hold or no it serveth to my purpose howsoever for if God so sufficiently provide for the young ravens when the dams forsake them will he not much more take care of us when our Father and Mothers forsake us Are not we stampt with his own image much more valuable with him than many ravens 18. But dictum factum These are but words are there producible any deeds to make it good Verily there are and that to the very Letter When Ishmaels Mother despairing of his life had forsaken him and laid him down gasping his last for ought she knew or could do to help it in the wilderness the Lord took him up He opened a new spring of water and opened her eyes to see it and so the child was preserved Gen. 21. When Moses his Parents also had forsaken him for they durst not stand by him any longer and laid him down among the rushy flags the Lord took him up too He provided him of a Saviour the Kings own Daughter and of a Nurse the Child 's own Mother and so he was preserved too Take but two Examples more out of either Testament one David and St. Paul both forsaken of men both taken up of God How was David forsaken in Psal. 142. 5. when he had looked upon his right hand and saw no man that would know him he had no place to fly unto and no man cared for his soul. But all the while Dominus à dextris there was one at his right hand though at first he was not aware of him ready to take him up As it there followeth ver 6. I cried unto thee O Lord and said thou art my hope and my portion in the land of the living And how St. Paul was forsaken take it from himself 2 Tim. 4. 16. At my first answer no man stood with me but all forsook me A heavy case and had been heavier had there not been one ready to take his part at the next verse Nevertheless the Lord stood by me and strengthened me c. What need we any more witnesses In ore duorum In the mouth of two such witnesses the Point is sufficiently established 19. But you will yet say These two might testifie what they had already found post-factum But David in the Text pronounceth de futuro before-hand and that somewhat confidently The Lord will take me up As he doth also elsewhere Sure I am that the Lord will avenge the poor and maintain the cause of the helpless Psal. 140. But is there any ground for that Doubtless there is a double ground one in the nature another in the promise of God In his Nature four Qualities there are we take leave so to speak sutably our own low apprehensions for in the Godhead there are properly no Qualities but call them Qualities or Attributes or what else you will there are four perfections in God opposite to those defects which in our earthly Parents we have found to be the chiefe causes why they do so oft forsake us which give us full assurance that he will not fail to take us up when all other succours fail us Those are his Love his Wisdom his Power his Eternity all in his Nature To which four add 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 mankind 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 Potenier non potest It is impossible for him to whom all things are possible to deny himself The Church indeed out
of God's Will and Power with subordinate Agents in every and therefore even in sinful actions God's free Election of those whom he purposeth to save of his own grace without any motives in or from themselves the immutability of God's Love and Grace towards the Saints Elect and their certain perseverance therein unto Salvation the Iustification of sinners by the imputed righteousness of Christ apprehended and applyed unto them by a lively faith without the works of the Law These are sound and true and if rightly understood comfortable and right profitable Doctrines And yet they of the Church of Rome have the forehead I will not say to slander my Text alloweth more to blaspheme God and his Truth and the Ministers thereof for teaching them Bellarmine Gretser Maldonat and the Jesuits but none more than our own English Fugitives Bristow Stapleton Parsons Kellison and all the Rabble of that Crew freely spend their mouths in barking against us as if we made God the author of sin as if we would have men sin and be damned by a Stoical fatal necessity sin whether they will or no and be damned whether they deserve it or no as if we opened a gap to all licentiousness and profaneness let them believe it is no matter how they live Heaven is their own cock-sure as if we cryed down good works and condemned charity Slanders loud and false yet easily blown away with one single word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These imputations upon us and our Doctrine are unjust but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that thus mis-report us know that without repentance their damnation will be just It would be time not ill spent to discover the grounds of this observation and to press the uses of it something fully But because my aim lyeth another way I can but point at them and pass If seldom Truth scape unslandered marvel not the reasons are evident On God's part on Man's part on the Devil's part God suffereth Man raiseth and the Devil furthereth these slanders against the Truth To begin ordine retrogrado and to take them backwards First on the Devil's part a kind of Contrariety and Antipathy betwixt him and it He being the Father of Lyes and Prince of darkness cannot away with the Truth and with the Light and therefore casteth up slanders as Fogs and Mists against the Truth to bely it and against the Light to darken it Secondly on Mans part And that partly in the understanding when the judgment either of it self weak or else weakned through precipitancy prejudice or otherwise is deceived with fallacies instead of substance and mistaketh seeming inferences for necessary and natural deductions Partly in the Will when men of corrupt minds set themselves purposely against the known truth and out of malicious wilfulness against the strong testimony of their own hearts slander it that so they may disgrace it and them that profess it Partly in the Affections when men overcome by carnal affections are content to cheat their own souls by giving such constructions to God's Truth as will for requital give largest allowance to their practices and so rather choose to crooken the Rule to their own bent than to level themselves and their affections and lives according to the Rule Thirdly on God's part who suffereth his own truth to be slandered and mistaken Partly in his Iustice as a fearful judgment upon wicked ones whereby their hard hearts become yet more hardened and their most just condemnation yet more just Partly in his goodness as a powerful fiery trial of true Doctors whose constancy and sincerity is the more approved with him and the more eminent with men if they flee not when the Wolf cometh but keep their standing and stoutly maintain God's Truth when it is deepliest slandered and hotly opposed And partly in his Wisdom as a rich occasion for those whom he hath gifted for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awaken their zeal to quicken up their industry to muster up their abilities to scour up their spiritual armour which else through dis-use might gather rust for the defence and for the rescue of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that precious truth whereof they are depositaries and wherewith he hath entrusted them These are the Grounds The Uses for instruction briefly are to teach and admonish every one of us that we be not either first so wickedly malicious as without apparent cause to raise any slander or secondly so foolishly credulous as without severe examination to believe any slander or thirdly so basely timorous as to flinch from any part of God's truth for any slander But I must not insist This from the slander Observe fourthly how peremptory the Apostle is in his censure against the slanderers or abusers of holy truths Whose damnation is just Some understand it with reference to the slanderers As we be slander ously reported and as some affirm that we say whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just who thus unjustly slander us Others understand it with reference to that ungodly resolution Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just that is their damnation is just for the evil they do who adventure to do any evil under whatsoever pretence of good to come of it Both expositions are good and I rather embrace both than prefer either I ever held it a kind of honest spiritual thirst where there are two sences given of one place both agreeable to the Analogy of Faith and Manners both so indifferently appliable to the words and scope of the place as that it is hard to say which was rather intended though there was but one intended yet to make use of both And so will we Take it the first way and the slanderer may read his doom in it Here is his wages and his portion and the meed and reward of his slander Damnation And it is a just reward He condemneth God's truth unjustly God condemneth him justly for it whose damnation is just If we be countable and we are countable at the day of Judgment for every idle word we speak though neither in it self false nor yet hurtful and prejudicial unto others what less than damnation can they expect that with much falsehood for the thing it self and infinite prejudice in respect of others blaspheme God and his holy Truth But if it be done on purpose and in malice to despight the Truth and the professors thereof I scarce know whether there be a greater sin or no. Maliciously to oppose the known Truth is by most Divines accounted a principal branch of that great unpardonable sin the sin against the holy Ghost by some the very sin it self I dare not say it is so nor yet that it is unpardonable or hath final impenitency necessarily attending it I would be loth to interclude the hope of
his observation be sound it may then well pass for a double mercy of God to a sinner if he both respite his destruction and withal restrain him from sin for by the one he giveth him so much longer time for repentance which is one Mercy and by the other he preventeth so much of the increase of his sin which is another Mercy Thirdly it may be called Grace in respect of other men For in restraining men from doing evil God intendeth as principally his own glory so withal the good of mankind especially of his Church in the preservation of humane society which could not subsist an hour if every man should be left to the wildness of his own nature to do what mischief the Devil and his own heart would put him upon without restraint So that the restraining of mens corrupt purposes and affections proceedeth from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle somewhere calleth it that love of God to mankind whereby he willeth their preservation and might therefore in that respect bear the name of grace though there should be no good at all intended thereby to the Persons so restrained Just as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those spiritual gifts which God hath distributed in a wonderful variety for the edifying of his Church though they oftentimes bring no good to the receiver are yet stiled graces in the Scriptures because the distribution of them proceedeth from the gracious love and favour of God to his Church whose benefit he intended therein God here restrained Abimelech as elsewhere he did Laban and Esau and Balaam and others not so much for their own sakes though perhaps sometimes that also as for their sakes whom they should have injured by their sins if they had acted them As here Abimelech for his chosen Abraham's sake and Laban and Esau for his servant Iacob's sake and Balaam for his people Israel's sake As it is said in Psal. 105. and that with special reference as I conceive it to this very story of Abraham He suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm He reproved even Kings by restraining their power as here Abimelech but it was for their sakes still that so Sarah his anointed might not be touched nor his Prophet Abraham sustain any harm We see now the Observation proved in all the points of it 1. Men do not always commit those evils they would and might do 2. That they do not it is from Gods restraint who with-holdeth them 3. That restraint is an act of his merciful providence and may therefore bear the name of Grace in respect of God who freely giveth it of them whose sins and stripes are the fewer for it of others who are preserved from harm the better by it The Inferences we are to raise from the Premisses for our Christian Practice and comfort are of two sorts for so much as they may arise from the consideration of Gods Restraining Grace either as it may lye upon other men or as it may lye upon our selves First From the consideration of Gods restraint upon others the Church and Children and servants of God may learn to whom they owe their preservation even to the power and goodness of their God in restraining the fury of his and their enemies We live among Scorpions and as sheep in the midst of Wolves and they that hate us without a cause and are mad against us are more in number than the hairs of our heads And yet as many and as malicious as they are by the mercy of God still we are and we live and we prosper in some measure in despight of them all Is it any thanks to them None at all The seed of the Serpent beareth a natural and an immortal hatred against God and all good men and if they had horns to their curstness and power answerable to their wills we should not breath a minute Is it any thanks to our selves Not that neither we have neither number to match them nor policy to defeat them nor strength to resist them weak silly little flock as we are But to whom then is it thanks As if a little flock of sheep escape when a multitude of ravening Wolves watch to devour them it cannot be ascribed either in whole or in part either to the sheep in whom thereis no help or to the Wolf in whom there is no mercy but it must be imputed all and wholly to the good care of the shepherd in safe-guarding his sheep in keeping off the Wolf so for our safety and preservation in the midst and in the spight of so many Enemies Not unto us O Lord not unto us whose greatest strength is but weakness much less unto them whose tendrest mercies are cruel but unto thy Name be the Glory O thou Shepherd of Israel who out of thine abundant love to us who are the flock of thy Pasture and the sheep of thy hands hast made thy power glorious in curbing and restraining their malice against us Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men Wonders we may well call them indeed they are Miracles if things strange and above and against the ordinary course of Nature may be called Miracles When we read the stories in the Scripture of Daniel cast into the Den among the Lions and not touched of the three Children walking in the midst of the fiery furnace and not scorched of a viper fastning upon Pauls hand and no harm following we are stricken with some amazement at the consideration of these strange and supernatural accidents and these we all confess to be miraculous escapes Yet such Miracles as these and such escapes God worketh daily in our preservation notwithstanding we live encompassed with so many fire-brands of hell such herds of ravening Wolves and Lions and Tygers and such numerous generations of vipers I mean wicked and ungodly men the spawn of the old Serpent who have it by kind from their father to thirst after the destruction of the Saints and servants of God and to whom it is as natural so to do as for the fire to burn or a Viper to bite or a Lion to devour O that men would therefore praise the Lord for this his goodness and daily declare these his grea◠wonders which he daily doth for the children of men Secondly since this restraint of wicked men is so only from God as that nothing either they or we or any Creature in the world can do can with-hold them from doing us mischief unless God lay his restraint upon them it should teach us so much wisdom as to take heed how we trust them It is best and safest for us as in all other things so in this to keep the golden mean that we be
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 Co-partners in the state of Grace all of us enjoying the same Promises Liberties and Priviledges whereof we are already possessed in common and Co-heirs in the state of Glory all of us having the same joy and everlasting bliss in expectancy and reversion For being the Sons 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 poor 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 jure 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 applied 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 St. Pauls charge to Timothy in another business but may suit very well with this also 37. 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 nearness in relation to us those two considerations being as you heard the grounds of our Love So David loved Ionathan as his own soul his heart was knit to him both because he was a good man and had withal approved himself his trusty friend Yea our blessed Saviour himself shewed a more affectionate Love to Iohn than to any other of his Disciples the Disciple whom Iesus loved for no other known reason so much as for this that he was near 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 Countrey-men our Neighbours our Kindred our friends than 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 than 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 be remembred for there may such a disparity arise by emergent occasions as may render a meer stranger a heathen a notoriously vicious person a fitter object of our compassion help or relief pro hic nunc than the most pious Christian or our dearest friend or allye In cases of great extremity where the necessities of the party importune a present succour and will admit no delay Câ—dat necessitudo necessitati the former considerations whether of Nearness 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 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 than 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 than 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 hîc nunc And therefore the rules given concerning them must not be punctually and mathematically interpreted but prudentially and rationally and held 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 is taken from other peculiar and just respects and not from the very condition of Brotherhood it self or any distinction made therein But here is that evil partiality we are to take heed of when we restrain the Brotherhood to some one party or society in the Church such as we think good of and exclude the rest as if they had no part nor fellowship in this Brotherhood nor consequently any right to that special affection wherewith we are to love the Brethren Which Partiality hath indeed been the very bane of the Churches unity and peace and the chiefest cause both of the beginning and continuance of most of the schisms under which Christendom hath groaned from time to time 40. Not to
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 wisdom 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 wisdom seeth best for them that evermore in his love he provideth for them From which Principle every man that truly feareth God and hath fixed 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 petra gather grapes of thorns 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 than 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 falseness 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 mind contented in as good though perhaps not in so high a measure when he sate upon the dunghil 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 minds 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 are 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 fool 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 than 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 applied and telleth you that Better is a handful with quietness than both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit Would you not think him the most contented soul that lives But there is no such matter He is as desiring and as craving 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 their providence industry and good endeavours in a fair 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 ways we go 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 withal the minds 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 ferè praesentibus aequum It is a point of wisdom not a fruit of discontent when God openeth to a man a fair opportunity of advancing his estate to an higher or fuller condition than now he is in to embrace the opportunity and to use all meet diligence in the pursuit for the obtaining of his lawful desires Rather it is a fruit either of Pride or Sloth 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 points observed concerning the object of true Contentment which was the Indifferency of it as it standeth in the Text for the kind quantity quality and every other respect except the before excepted altogether unlimited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferently Be it high or low rich or poor base or honourable easie or painful prosperous or troublous all is a point all that God sendeth is welcom He that hath learned St. Pauls Lesson can make a shift with any state and rest satisfied therewithall The Apostle a little enlargeth himself in the next verse shewing that in the change of outward things his mind yet continued unchanged and was still the same under the greatest contrarieties of events I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both â—o abound and to suffer need And elsewhere he saith of himself and his fellow-labourers in the
the stuff or fashion so it were but raiment to cover nakedness and to keep off heat and cold Neither doth St. Paul speak of any choicer or costlier matters Having food and raiment saith he let us be therewith content 1 Tim. 6. He saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicates but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 food nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ornaments but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raiment coverings Any filling for the belly any hilling for the back would serve his turn 47. Thirdly since it is a point of the same skill to do both to want and to abound we should do well whilst the Lord lendeth us peace and plenty to exercise our selves duly in the Art of abounding that we be the better able to manage the Art of wanting if ever it shall please him to put us to it For therefore especially are we so much to seek and so puzled that we know not which way to turn us when want or afflictions come upon us because we will not keep within any reasonable compass nor frame ourselves to industrious thrifty and charitable courses when we enjoy abundance It is our extreme insolency and unthankfulness when we are full that maketh our impatience and discontentedness break forth with the greater extremity when the Lord beginneth to empty us Quem res plus nimio delectavere secundae Mutatae quatient As in a Feaver he that burneth most in his hot fit shaketh most in his cold so no man beareth want with less patience than he that beareth plenty with least moderation if we would once perfectly learn to abound and not riot we should the sooner learn to want and not repine 48. But how am I on the sudden whilst I am discoursing of the Nature fallen upon some of the Rules of the Art of Contentment And yet not besides the Text neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containeth that too Yet because to lay down the grounds and method of that Art and to do it to purpose another hours work would be but little enough I shall therefore forbear to proceed any further at this time Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost c. AD AULAM. The Sixth Sermon OTELANDS JULY 1637. Philip. 4. 11. for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 1. TO omit what was observed from the Apostles Protestation in those first words of the verse not that I speak in respect of want from these words in the latter part of the verse we have proposed formerly to speak of two things concerning Christian Contentment first of the Nature of it and wherein it consisteth and then of the Art of it and how it may be attained The Nature of it hath been not long since somewhat opened according to the intimations given in the Text in three particulars Wherein was shewn that man only liveth truly contented that can suffice himself first with his own estate secondly with the present estate thirdly being his own and the present with any estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I am now by the Laws of good Order and the tie of a former promise to proceed to the like discovery of the Art of contentment by occasion of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be therewith content 2. St. Paul was not framed unto it by the common instinct of nature neither had he hammered it out by his own industry or by any wise improvement of nature from the Precepts of Philosophy and Morality nor did it spring from the abundance of outward things as either an effect or an appurtenance thereof It was the Lord alone that had wrought it in his heart by his saving and sanctifying Spirit and trained him up thereunto in the School of Experience and Afflictions The sum is that true contentedness of mind is a point of high and holy learning whereunto no man can attain unless it be taught him from above What the Apostle saith of Faith is true also generally of every other Grace and of this in particular as an especial and infallible effect of Faith Not of your selves it is the gift of God And of this in particular the Preacher so affirmeth in Eccles. 5 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoyce in his labour this is the gift of God 3. Neither is it a common gift like that of the Rain and Sun the comforts whereof are indifferently afforded to good and bad to the thankless as well as the thankful but it is a special favour which God vouchsafeth to none but to those that are his special favorites his beloved ones he giveth his beloved sleep Psal. 127. whiles others rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of sorrows restlesly wearing out their bodies with toyl and their minds with care they lay them down in peace and their minds are at rest They sleep But it is the Lord only that maketh their rest so soft and safe he giveth them sleep And the bestowing of such a gift is an argument of his special love towards them that partake it He giveth his beloved sleep It is indeed Gods good blessing if he give to any man bare riches but if he be pleased to second that common blessing with a farther blessing and to give contentment withal then it is to be acknowledged a singular and most excellent blessing as Solomon saith The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it In Eccles. 2. the same Solomon telleth us that contentment cometh from none but God and is given to none but the Godly For saith he God giveth to a man that is good in his sight and that is the godly only wisdom and knowledge and joy But as for the sinner none of all this is given to him What is his portion then Even as it there followeth But to the sinner he giveth travel to gather and to heap up The sinner possibly may gather as much together as the godly or more and raise to himself more and greater heaps of worldly treasure but when he hath done he hath but his travel for his pains He hath not wisdom and knowledge to understand the just valuation and the right use of that which he hath gathered together he taketh no joy he taketh no comfort in those heaps he findeth nothing in them but cares and disquietness and vexation of spirit All his days are sorrows and his travel grief yet his heart taketh not rest in the night It is not therefore without cause that our Apostle so speaketh of contentment as of the hand maid unto godliness But Godliness with contentment is great Gain 1 Tim. 6. 4. The truth whereof will yet farther appear unto us if we
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 latter 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 Cattel 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 subtil 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 name from it yet he is but a Tempter he cannot enforce us to anything 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 solicite 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 St. Iames that is doth not so much as endeavour to do it Nay I may add 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 sence and cum effectu Though he endeavour it all he can yet it cannot take effect unless we will St. James therefore concludeth positively that every mans temptation if it take effect is meerly from his own lust It is then our own act and deed that we are Satan's Vassals Disclaim it we cannot and whatsoever misery or mischief ensueth thereupon we ought not to impute to any other than 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 several 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 money of ours Ye shall be redeemed without money 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 Prophecy 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 near 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 nearer to be done for never would man have been found able either to redeem his own soul or to make agreement for his brothers It would cost more to redeem their souls than 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 us 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 Vir fortis armatus in the Parable Luke 11. 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 than he cometh upon him and overcometh 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 perforce what he cannot hold and suffer his house to be ransacked and his goods and possessions to be carried away Greater is he that is in you saith St. Iohn that is Christ than 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 hand-writing that was against us and having blotted defaced and cancell'd it took it out of the way nailing 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 pity he redeemed them Isa. 63. 9. There is such a height and depth and length and breadth 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 than 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 pour out his own most precious blood to ransome 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 poor and unworthy conditions O altitudo Love incomprehensible It swalloweth up the sense and understanding of Men and Angels fitter to be admired and adored with silence than 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 naught and the sale void Yet it is good against us however we may not plead the invalidity of it forsomuch 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 find 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 Ioh. 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 Isa. 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 judgement we may with great security commit the keeping 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 Psal. 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 hands 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 earthly if the contemplation of the depth of the riches of God mercy poured our 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 than 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 therefore 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 blood 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 daies of our lives Luke 1. which being both our bounden duty and the thing withal so very reasonable we have the more to answer for i◠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 their lye 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 reward Isa. 45. 13. but freely and without money here in the Text. Nor need we here fear another contradiction For the meaning is not that there was no price paid at all but that there was none paid by us we laid out nothing towards this great Purchase there went none of our money to it But otherwise that there was a price paid the Scriptures are clear You are bought with a price saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 6. and he saith it over again Chap. 7. He that paid it calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom that is as much as to say a price of Redemption and his Apostle somewhat more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth a just and satisfactory price full as much as the thing can be worth Yet not paid to Satan in whose possession we were for we have found already that he was but an Usurper and his title naught He had but bought of us
Moses and Aaron and that upon every occasion and for every trifle so do we Every small Disgrace Injury Affront or Loss that happeneth to us from the forwardnesâ— of our Betters the unkindness of our Neighbours the undutifulness of our Children the unfaithfulness of our Servants the unsuccessfulness 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 Dost thou well to be angry Ionas Yea 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 blood 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 remeâ—â—y there-against if blind Self-love will but suffer us to be so wise as to make use oâ— it and that is no more but this to turn our eye inward and to examine our 〈…〉 not how well we have dealt with other men who now requite us so ill 〈◊〉 we our selves have requited God who hath dealt so graciously and â—â—â—â—â—tifully 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 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 withal 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 iniquity as the Phrase is Lev. 26. by humbling our selves and confessing that the Lord is righteous as Rehoboam and the Princes of Iudah did 2 Chron. 12. The sense of our own wickedness 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 become For if we would judge 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 than 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 â—he world And it is that faithfulness of God which David acknowledgeth in the latter Conclusion whereunto I now pass 12. And that thou of very faithfulness 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 news when we hear of David to hear of trouble withal 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 Haeâ— est conditio nascendi Every mothers child that cometh into the world hath a childs part of those troubles the world affordeth Man that is born of a woman those few days 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 out-flyings wherewith their holy Father is not well-pleased to come under the scourge oftner than the Bastards do If they do amiss and amiss 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 young man in the Court of Saul long before his coming to the Crown But yet he was even then unct us 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 unrest was the greatest part of his Reign I noteit not with a purpose to enter into a set discourse how many and great the troubles are that attend the Crown and Scepters of Princes which I easily believe to be far both more and greater than we that stand below are capable to imagine but for two other reasons a great deal more useful and therefore so much the more needful to be thought on both by them and us It should first wâ—rk in all them that sit aloft and so are exposed to more and stronger blasts the grâ—ater care to provide a safe resting place for their souls that whensoever they â—hall meet with trouble and sorrow in the flesh and that they shall be sure to do oftner than they look for they may retire thither there to repose and solace themselves in the goodness of their God saying eftsoons with our Prophet Return unto thy rest O my soul. It was well for him that he had such a a rest for his soul for he had rest little enough otherwise from continual troubles and cares in his civil affairs
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 Mar. 10. you shall find persecutions and persecutions are troubles expresly named there among other things as 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 shepherd he is a good shepherd Joh. 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 Commandments 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 Jam. 2. There is Faith Ye are my friends if ye keep my commandments saith our Saviour Ioh. 15. There is Obedience Such a League of friendship there was betwixt God and David in this 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 Uriah 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 extreme 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 than well and sometimes anger him by doing some things quite contrary to his mind but yet for his good Yea and if the inequality and condition of the person be such as will bear it he will give him also such punishments 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 than a Father doth his Child 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 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 Child saith Solomon he meaneth it interpretative that is he doth his child as much hurt out of his fond love as he could not do him more harm if he were his enemies child whom he hateth Will not a mother that loveth her child with all tenderness if it have got some hurt with a fall lay on a plaister to heal it though it smart And though the child cry and struggle against it all it can yet will she lay it on for all that yea and bind it too to keep it on and all out of very love and faithfulness because she knoweth it must be so or the child will be the worse for it I use these Comparisons the rather not only 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
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 vers 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 hear 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 Psal. 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 hair of his head How oft do we hear 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 delivered 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 hear him yea I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and bring him to honour Psal. 91. As gold cast into the furnace receiveth there a new lustre and shineth brighter when it cometh forth than it did before so are the Saints of God more glorious after their great afflictions their graces ever more 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 Psal. 113. verified He raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth 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 trodden 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. The Eleventh Sermon WHITEHALL JULY 5. 1640. 1 Cor. 10. 23. All things are lawful for me But all things are not expedient All things are lawful 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 Error of those that would shrink it in and the Presumption of those that would stretch it out more than 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 withal 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 practice 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 Gulph of Profaneness on the left we shall neither betray our Christian Liberty nor abuse it 2. In the words themselves are apparently 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 latter 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 only at this time And first and chiefly in respect of the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are lawful 3. What All things Simply and â—ithout 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 Mat. 14. Or if Iohn were an austere 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 had said No it is not lawful St. Peter saith the wicked Sodomites vexed the righteous soul of Lot daily with their unlawful deeds And who that hearkneth to the holy Law of God or but to the dictates of natural conscience will not acknowledge Blasphemy Idolatry Sacriledge Perjury Oppression Incest Parricide Treason c. to be things altogether unlawful And doth St. Paul now dissent so far from the judgement of his Master of his Fellow-Apostle of the whole world besides as to pronounce of all these things that they are lawful 4. Here the rule of Logicians must help Signa distributiva sunt intelligenda accommodatè ad subjectam materiam Notes of Universality are not ever to be understood in that fulness of latitude which the words seem to import but most often with such convenient restrictions as the matter in hand will require Now the Apostle by mentioning Expediency in the Text giveth us clearly to understand that by All things he intendeth all such things only whose Expediency or Inexpediency are meet to be taken into consideration as much as to say All indifferent things and none other For things absolutely necessary although it may
only to the manners of men but almost to common sense also they gave occasion to the Wits of those times under a colour of making themselves merry with the Paradoxes of the Stoicks to laugh even true vertue it self out of countenance 22. Lastly for why should I trouble you with any more These are enow by condemning sundry indifferent things and namely Church Ceremonies as unlawful we give great scandal to those of the Separation to their farther confirming in that their unjust Schism For why should these men will they say and for ought I know they speak but reason why should they who agree so well with us in our Principles hold off from our Conclusions Why do they yet hold communion with or remain in the bosom of that Church that imposeth such unlawful things upon them How are they not guilty themselves of that luke-warm Laodicean temper wherewith they so often and so deeply charge others Why do they halt so shamefully between two opinions if Baal be God and the Ceremonies lawful why do not they yield obedience chearful obedience to their Governours so long as they command but lawful things But if Baal be an Idol and the Ceremonies unlawful as they and we consent Why do they not either set them packing or if they cannot get that done pack themselves away from them as fast as they can either to Amsterdam or to some other place The Objection is so strong that I must confess for my own part If I could see cause to admit of those principles whereon most of our Non-Conformers and such as favour them ground their dislike of our Church-Orders and Ceremonies I should hold my self in all conscience bound for any thing I yet ever read or heard to the contrary to forsake the Church of England and to fly out of Babylon before I were many weeks older 23. Truly Brethren if these unhappy fruits were but accidental events only occasioned rather than caused by such our opinions I should have thought the time mis-spent in but naming them since the very best things that are may by accident produce evil effects But being they do in very truth naturally and unavoidably issue therefrom as from their true and proper cause I cannot but earnestly beseech all such as are otherwise minded in the bowels and in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ and by all the love they bear to Gods holy truth which they seem so much to stand for to take these things into their due consideration and to lay them close to their consciences Aud as for those my brethren of the Clergy that have most authority in the hearts of such as byass too much that way for they only may have some hope to prevail with them the rest are shut out by prejudice if I were in place where I should require and charge them as they will answer the contrary to God the Church and their own Consciences that they would approve their faithfulness in their Ministry by giving their best diligence to inform the judgments of Gods people aright as concerning the nature and use of indifferent things and as in love to their souls they are bound that they would not humour them in these their pernicious errors nor suffer them to continue therein for want of their rebuke either in their publick teaching or otherwise as they shall have opportunity thereunto in private discourses 24. But you will say if these things were so how should it then come to pass that so many men pretending to Godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty God's Permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with Heresies and Schisms and Scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whether way our hearts incline most to looseness or to strictness and then frameth his Temptations thereafter So he can but put us cut of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affectation of singularity to go beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of Education and Custom besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Error to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest Servants and Children are in this life wholly exempted 25. Ignorance first is a fruitful mother of Errors Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. Yet not so much Gross Ignorance neither I mean not that For your mere Ignaro's what they err they err for company they judge not at all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are led be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withall very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh that he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falshood nor to discern between a sound Argument and a captious Fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth his Conclusions he is easily carried away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As St. Augustine said of Donatus Rationes irripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a small thing rather than yield from their opinions quas consider antes verisimiles esse potius quam veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance than substance of truth after they were well considered of 26. And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judicious and unpartial eye most of those Pamphlets that in this daring age have been thrust into the World against the Ceremonies of the Church against Episcopal Government to pass by things of lesser regard and usefulness and more open to exception and abuse yet so far as I can understand unjustly condemned as things utterly unlawful such as are lusorious lots dancing Stage-plays and some other things of like nature When he shall have drained out the bitter invectives unmannerly jeers petulant girding at those that are in authority impertinent digressions but above all those most bold and perverse
glorifie God And then two Amplifications thereof the one respecting the person whom they were to glorifie thus described God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the other respecting the manner how or the means whereby they were to glorifie him with one mind and with one mouth Of which in their order the End first and then the Amplifications 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That ye may glorifie God We must a little search into the words that we may the more fully understand them The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though but a Particle hath its use It pointeth us out to some end or final cause Would St. Paul have so bestirred himself as he doth spent so much breath so much oratory so many arguments been so copious and so earnest as he is by his best both persuasions and prayers to draw all parts to unity if he had not conceived it conducible to some good end He that doth not propose to himself some main end in all his Actions especially those that are of moment and such as he will make a business of is not like either to go on with any good certainty or to come off with any sound comfort There would be ever some fixt end or other thought of in all our undertakings and endeavours 4. And so there is most an end Nature it self prompting us thereunto but for the most part our Nature being so foully depraved a wrong one Omnes quae sua he speaketh of it complainingly as of an error that is common among men and in a manner universal All seek their own seldom look beyond themselves but make their own profit their own pleasure their own glory their own safety or other their own personal contentment the utmost end of all their thoughts Which upon the point is no better than very Atheism or at the best and that but a very little better Idolatry He that doth all for himself and hath no farther End make an Idol of himself and hath no other God The ungodly is so proud that he careth not for God neither is God in all his thoughts Psal. 10. He is so full of himself his thoughts are so wholly taken up with himself that there is no room there for God or any thing else but himself But this self-seeking St. Paul every where disclaimeth Not seeking his own profit 1 Cor. 10. Nor counting his life dear unto himself so as he might do God and his Church any acceptable service either with it or without it Act. 20. If he had looked but at himself and his own things what need the dissention of the Romans have troubled him any thing at all If they be so minded let them go to it hardly judge on and despise on tug it out among themselves as well as they can bite and devour one another till they had wearied and worried one another what is that to him It would be much more for his ease and possibly he should have as much thanks from them too for to part a fray is most what a thankless office to sit him down let them alone and say nothing This is all true and this he knew well enough too But there was a farther matter in it he saw his Lord and Master had had an Interest his honour suffered in their dissentions and then he could not hold off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Phrase is twice in one Chapter he could not for his life forbear but he must put in for the love of Christ constrained him We are by his example to make God our chiefest good and the utmost end of all our actions and intentions Not meerly seeking our own credit or profit or ease or advancement nor determining our aims in our selves or in any other Creature But raising our thoughts to an higher pitch to look beyond all these at God as the chief delight of our hearts and scope of our desires That we may be able to say with David Psal. 16. I have set the Lord alway before me That is a second Point 5. And if we do so the third will fall in of it self to wit his Glory for he and it are inseparable The greatest glory on earth is that of a mighty King when he appeareth in state his robes glorious his attendants glorious every thing about him ordered to be as glorious as may be Solomon in all his glory Mat. 6. There is I grant no proportion here finiti ad infinitum But because we are acquainted with no higher it is the best resemblance we have whereby to take some scantling of the infinite glory of our heavenly King And therefore the Scriptures fitted to our capacity speak of it to us mostly in that key The Lord is King and hath put on glorious apparel Psal. 93. O Lord my God thou art become exceeding glorious thou art cloathed with Majesty and honour Psal. 104. But as I said before it holdeth no proportion So that we may not unfitly take up our Apostles words elsewhere though spoken to another purpose Even that which is most glorious here hath no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 2 Cor. 3. 10. And the force of the Argument he useth at the next verse there holdeth full out as strongly here For saith he if that which is done away be glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious The glory of the greatest Monarch in the world when it is at the fullest is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word fitteth the thing very well a matter rather of shew and opinion than of substance and hath in it more of fancy than reality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is St. Luke's expression Acts 25. Yet as emptie a thing as it is if it were of any permanency it were worthy the better regard But that that maketh it the verier vanity is that it is a thing so transitory it shall and must be done away But the glory of the great King of Heaven remaineth and shall not cannot be done away for ever The glorious Majesty of the Lord endureth for ever Psal. 104. If then that be glorious much more this but how much more is more than any tongue can utter or heart conceive So that if we look at God we cannot leave out Glory 6. Neither if we speak of Glory may we leave out God and that is a fourth Point For as no other thing belongeth so properly to God as Glory so neither doth Glory belong so properly to any other person as to God The holy Martyr St. Stephen therefore calleth him The God of Glory And the holy Apostles when they speak of giving him glory do it sometimes with the exclusive Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the only wise God or as the words will equally bear it only to the wise God be Glory to him and only to him Yea and the holy Angels in that Anthem they sang upon our
of the sense of her pressures letteth all complaints sometimes as if she were forsaken But Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Isa. 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 Child 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 alass are negligent enough unthankful undutiful children nay confest it must be other while stubborn and rebellious But as Davids heart longed after Absolom because he was his Son though a very ungracious one so his bowels yearn after those that are no ways worthy but by his dignation only to be called his Sons Forgiving all their by-past miscariages upon their true repentance receiving them with gladness though they have squandered 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 indulgences and insinuations they shall come in he will not only welcome them with kind embraces but do his part also to hold them in when they are even ready to fly out again and were it not for that hold would in all likelihood 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 disregard 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 Isa. 62. Thou shalt no more be called forsaken c. But thou shalt be call'd 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 in most recesses the darkest thoughts and secrets of all mens hearts better than 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 design the Lord by his infinite wisdom can manage the business with all advantage for the good of his children if he see it behoveful for them bringing it about suaviter 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 always 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 Iustice 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 surfeiting 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 Physician 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 err 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 ways But the Lord perfectly knoweth how it is with us and what will do us good and how much and when and how long to continue c. and proceedeth in every respect thereafter 25. Thirdly whereas our earthly Parents have a limited and that a very narrow power and cannot therefore do their children the good they would our heavenly Fathers power is as his wisdom infinite Not limited by any thing but his own blessed will quicquid voluit fecit as for our God he is in heaven he hath done whatsoever pleased him Not hindred by any resistance or retarded by any impediments Quis restitit Who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. Not disabled by any casualities occurrences or straitness of time adjutor in opportunitatibus Psal. 9. Even a refuge in due time of trouble That is his due time commonly dominus in monte when it seemeth too late to us and when things are grown in the eye of reason almost desperate and remediless The most proper time for him to lay to his hand is when to our apprehensions his Law is even quite destroyed when Men have fallen upon most cursed designs trampled all Laws of God and Men under their feet and prospered And here indeed is the right trial of our faith and whether we be the true children of faithful Abraham If we can hope beyond and against hope That is if we can rest our faith intirely upon