Brotherhood of Grace by profession of the faith of Christ as we are Christian men As men we are members of that great body the World and so all men that live within the compass of the World are Brethren by a more general communion of Nature As Christians we are members of that mystical body the Church and so all Christian men that live within the compass of the Church are Brethren by a more peculiar communion of Faith And as the Moral Law bindeth us to love all men as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common Nature in Adam so the Evangelical Law bindeth to love all Christians as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common faith in Christ. 25. In which later notion the word Brother is most usually taken in the Apostolical writings to signifie a professor of the Christian Faith and Religion in opposition to heathen men and unbeleevers The name of Christian though of commonest use and longest continuance was yet but of a later date taken up first at Antioch as we finde Act. 11. whereas believers were before usually called Disciples and no less usually both before and since Brethren You shall read very often in the Acts and Epistles of the holy Apostles How the Brethren assembled together to hear the Gospel preached to receive the Sacrament and to consult about the affairs of the Church How the Apostles as they went from place to place to plant and water the Churches in their progress every where visited the Brethren at their first coming to any place saluting the Brethren during their abode there confirming the Brethren at their departure thence taking leave of the Brethren How collections were made for relief of the Brethren and those sent into Iudea from other parts by the hands of the brethren c. S. Paul opposeth the Brethren to them that are without and so includeth all that are within the Church What have I to do to judg them that are without 1 Cor. 5. As if he had said Christ sent me an Apostle and Minister of the Churches and therefore I meddle not but with those that are within the pale of the Church as for those that are without if any of them will be filthy let him be filthy still I have nothing to do to meddle with them But saith he if any man that is within the Christian Church any man that is called a Brother be a fornicator or drunkard or rayler or otherwise stain his holy profession by scandalous living I know how to deal with him let the censures of the Church be laid upon him let him be cast out of the assemblies of the Brethren that he may be thereby brought to shame and repentance 26. So then Brethren in the Apostolical use of the word are Christians and the Brotherhood the whole society of Christian men the systeme and body of the whole visible Church of Christ. I say the visible Church because there is indeed another Brotherhood more excellent then this whereof we now speak consisting of such only as shall undoubtedly inherit salvation called by some of the ancients The Church of Gods Elect and by some later writers the Invisible Church And truly this Brotherhood would under God deserve the highest room in our affections could we with any certainty discern who were of it and who not But because the fan is not in our hand to winnow the chaff from the wheat Dominus novit The Lord onely knoweth who are his by those secret characters of Grace and Perseverance which no eye of man is able to discern in another nor perhaps in himself infallibly we are therefore for the discharge of our duty to look at the Brotherhood so far as it is discernable to us by the plain and legible characters of Baptism and outward profession So that whosoever abideth in areâ Domini and liveth in the communion of the visible Church being baptized into Christ and professing the Name of Christ let him prove as it falleth out chaff or light corn or wheat when the Lord shall come with his fan to purge his floor yet in the mean time so long as he lieth in the heap and upon the floor We must own him for a Christian and take him as one of the Brotherhood and as such an one love him For so is the Duty here Love the Brotherhood 27. To make Love compleat Two things are required according to Aristotle's description of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Affectus cordis and Effectus operis The inward affection of the heart in wishing to him we love all good and the outward manifestation of that affection by our deed as occasion is offered in being ready to our power to do him any good The heart is the root and the seat of all true love and there we must begin or else all we do is but lost If we do never so many serviceable offices to our brethren out of any by-end or sinister respect although they may possibly be very usefull and so very acceptable to him yet if our heart be not towards them if there be not a sincere affection within it cannot be truly called Love That Love that will abide the test and answer the Duty required in the Text must be such as the Apostles have in several passages described it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfained love of the brethren 1 Pet. 1. Love out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 28. Of which inward affection the outward deed is the best discoverer and therefore that must come on too to make the love perfect As Iehu said to Ionadab Is thy heart right If it be then give me thy hand As in the exercises of our devotion towards God so in the exercises of our charity towards men heart and hand should go together Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis Good works are the best demonstrations as of true Faith so of true love Where there is life and heate there will be action There is no life then in that Faith S. Iames calleth it plainly a dead faith Iam. 2. nor heate in that Love according to that expression Matth. 24. the love of many shall wax cold that doth not put forth it self in the works of righteousness and mercy He then loveth not the Brotherhood indeed whatsoever he pretend or at least not in so gracious a measure as he should endeavour after That doth not take every fit opportunity of doing good either to the souls or bodies or credits or estates of his Brethren That is not willing to do them all possible services according to the urgency of their occasions and the just exigence of circumstances with his countenance with his advice with his pains with his purse yea and if need be with his very life too This is the Non ultra farther then this we cannot goe in the expressing of our love Greater love
we take leave so to speak sutably to our own low apprehensions for in the God-head there are properly no Qualities but call them Qualities or Attributes or what else you will there are foure perfections in God opposite to those defects which in our earthly Parents we have found to be the chief causes why they do so oft forsake us which give us full assurance that he will not faile to take us up when all other succours faile us Those are his Love his Wisdome his Power his Eternity all in his Nature To which foure adde his Promise and you have the fulness of all the assurance that can be desired 20. First the Love of our heavenly Father towards all mankinde in general but especially towards those that are his children by adoption and grace is infinitely beyond the Love of earthly Parents towards their children They may prove unnatural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their bowels may be crusted up against the fruit of their own body But the Lord cannot but love his people He can as well cease to be as to love for he is love If he should deny that he should deny himself and that he will not do because he cannot and that he cannot do because he will not Potenter non potest It is impossible for him to whom all things are possible to deny himself The Church indeed out of the sense of her pressures letteth fall complaints sometimes as if she were forsaken But Syon said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Esay 49.14 But she complaineth without cause it is a weakness in her to which during her warfare she is subject by fits but she is checkt for it immediately in the very next verse there Can a woman forget her sucking childe c. Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee 21. Again their Love may be alienated by needless jealousies or false suggestions and so lost But his Love is durable he loveth his own unto the End He knoweth the singleness of their Hearts and will receive no accusation against them Quis accusabit Who dare lay any thing to the charge of his Elect when he standeth up for their Iustification They alas are negligent enough unthankful undutiful children nay confest it must be other while stubborn and rebellious But as Davids heart longed after Absolon because he was his son though a very ungracious one so his bowels yearn after those that are no wayes worthy but by his dignation only to be called his sons Forgiving all their by-past miscarriages upon their true repentance receiving them with gladness though they have squandred away all their portion with riotous living if they return to him in any time with humble obedient and perfect hearts and in the mean time using very many admonitions entreaties and other artifices to win them to repentance and forbearing them with much patience that they may have space enough to repent in And if upon such indulgencies and insinuations they shall come in he will not onely welcome them with kinde embraces but do his part also to hold them in when they are even ready to flie out again and were it not for that hold would in all likelyhood so do So as unless by a total wilful renouncing him they break from him and cut themselves off nothing in the world shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. 22. Yet again Parents affections may be so strongly byassed another way as we heard that in the pursuit of other delights they may either quite forget or very much dis-regard their children But no such thing can befal our heavenly Father who taketh pleasure in his people and in their prosperity whose chiefest delight is in shewing mercy to his children and doing them good The Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them Deut. 10. And whereas the Church as we also heard is apt to complain that she is forsaken and desolate the Lord by the Prophet giveth her a most comfortable assurance to the contrary Esay 62. Thou shalt no more be called forsaken c. But thou shalt be called Hephzibah It is a compound word and signifieth as much as My delight is in her and so the reason of that appellation is there given For the Lord delighteth in thee That for his Love the first Attribute 23. His Wisdom is the next Fathers and mothers through humane ignorance cannot perfectly understand the griefs of their children nor infallibly know how to remedy them if they did But God who dwelleth in light nay who is light knoweth the inmost recesses the darkest thoughts and secrets of all mens hearts better then themselves do He perfectly understandeth all their wants and what supplies are fittest in their respective conditions with all the least circumstances thereunto belonging When all the wits and devices of men are at a loss and know not which way in the world to turn them to avoid this danger to prevent that mischief to effectuate any designe the Lord by his infinite wisdom can manage the business with all advantage for the good oâ— his children if he see it behoveful for them bringing it about suaviâ—er fortiter sweetly and without violence in ordering the means but effectually and without fail in accomplishing the end 24. Which wisdom of his observable in all the dispensations of his gracious providence towards his children we may behold as by way of instance in his fatherly corrections As the Apostle Heb. 12. maketh the comparison between the different proceedings of the fathers of our flesh and the Father of spirits in their chastisements They do it after their own pleasure saith he that is not alwayes with judgement and according to the merit of the fault but after the present disposition of their own passions either through a fond indulgence sparing the rod too much or in a frantick rage laying it on without mercy or measure But it is not so with him who in all his chastisements hath an eye as to our former faults such is his justice so also and especially to our future profit such is his mercy and ordereth all accordingly His blessings are our daily food his corrections our physick Our frequent surfetting on that food bringeth on such distempers that we must be often and sometimes soundly physickt or we are but lost men As therefore a skilful Physitian attempereth and applieth his remedies with such due regard to the present state of the Patient as may be likeliest to restore him to a good habit of body and consistency of health so dealeth our heavenly Father with us But with this remarkable difference The other may erre in judging of the state of the body or the nature of the ingredients in his proportions of mixture in the dose and many other wayes But the Lord perfectly knoweth how it is with us and
that call themselves brethren fall soule upon one another not only girding at and clashing against but biting and nipping and devouring one another as if they were bent to consume and destroy one another But a most blessed thing on the other side pleasant as the holy oyle distilling from Aarons head upon his beard and garments and rejoycing the heart as the dew upon the mountains refresheth the grass when there is nothing done in the house through strife or vain glory but such an accord amongst them that all the Brethren are of one minde and judgment or if not alwayes so yet at leastwise of one heart and affection bearing the burdens and bearing with the infirmities one of another and ready upon all occasions to do good as to all men generally and without exception so especially to their Brethren that are of the same houshold of faith with them 35. Lastly we are Brethren by partnership in our Fathers estate Coparceners in the state of Grace all of us enjoying the same promises liberties and priviledges whereof we are already possessed in common and Coheirs in the state of Glory all of us having the same joy and everlasting blisse in expectancy and reversion For being the sonnes of God we are all heirs and being brethren all joynt-heirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same glorious inheritance reserved for us in the heavens which St. Iude therefore calleth the common salvation It argueth a base wrangling spirit in us having such goodly things in reversion enough for us all so as heart can wish no more to squabble and fall out for such poore trifles as the things of this world are We that have by Gods goodness competent sustenance for our journey and full sacks to open at our coming home as Iosephs brethren had when they came out of Egypt to return to their own land shall we fall out among our selves and be ready to mischief one another by the way 36. Having all these Obligations upon us and being tied together in one Brotherhood by so many bands of unity and affection I presume we cannot doubt de Iure but that it is our bounden duty thus to love the Brotherhood There remaineth now no more to be done but to look to our performances that they be right wherein the main thing we are to take heed of besides what hath been already applyed is Partiality I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by Partiality It was S. Pauls charge to Timothy in another businesse but may suit very well with this also 27. Not but that we may and in most cases must make a difference between one brother and another in the measure and degree of our Love according to the different measures and degrees either of their goodness considered in themselves or of their neerness in relation to us those two considerations being as you heard the grounds of our Love So David loved Ionathan as his own soule his heart was knit to him both because he was a good man and had withall approved himself his trusty friend Yea our blessed Saviour himself shewed a more affectionate Love to Iohn then to any other of his disciples the disciple whom Iesus loved for no other known reason so much as for this that he was neer of kin to him his own mothers sisters son as is generally supposed No reasonable man among us then need make any question but that we may and ought to bear a greater love unto and consequently to be readier to do good unto caeteris paribus our Countrymen our neighbours our kindred our friends then to those that are strangers to us and stand in no such relation And so no doubt we may and ought in like manner upon that other ground of Goodness more to love and to shew kindness sooner to a sober discreet judicious peaceable humble and otherwise orderly and regular man caeteris paribus then to one that is light-headed or lazy or turbulent or proud or debauched or heretical or schismatical 38. But still that proviso or limitation which I now twice mentioned caeteris paribus must he remembred for there may such a disparity arise by emergent occasions as may render a meer stranger a heathen a notoriously vitious person a fitter object of our compassion help or relief pro hîc nunc then the most pious Christian or our dearest friend or ally In cases of great extremity where the necessities of the party importune a present succour and will admit no delay Cedat necessitudo necessitati the former considerations whether of Neerness or Goodness must be waved for the present and give way to those Necessities He is most our neighbour and brother in a case of that nature that standeth in most need of our help as our Saviour himself hath clearly resolved it in the case of the wounded traveller in the parable Luke 10. Nor doth this at all contradict what hath been already delivered concerning the preferring of the brethren before others either in the affection of love or in the offices which flow therefrom For the affection first it is clear that although some acts of compassion and charity be exercised towards a stranger yea even an enemy that hath great need of it rather then towards a friend or brother that hath either no need at all or very little in comparison of the other it doth not hinder but that the Habit or affection of love in the heart may notwithstanding at the very same time be more strongly carried towards the brother or friend then towards the enemy or stranger as every mans own reason and experience in himself can tell him And as for the outward acts and offices of love it is with them as with the offices of all other vertues and gracious habits or affections which not binding ad semper as the graces and habits themselves do are therefore variable and mutable as the circumstances by which they must be regulated vary pro hic nunc And therefore the rules given concerning them must not be punctually mathematically interpreted but prudentially and rationally and hold as we use to say in the Schools communiter but not universaliter that is to say ordinarily and in most cases where circumstances do not require it should be otherwise but not absolutely and universally so as to admit of no exception 39. This rub then thus removed out of the way it may yet be demanded where is this partiality to be found whereof we spake or what is it to have the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons if this putting of a difference in our love between brother and brother which we have now allowed of be not it I answer It is no partiality to make such a difference as we have hitherto allowed so long as the said difference
Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est Oderit curare And again Dona praesentis cape laetus horae Linque futura These and sundry other like passages we meet with in the Poets together with those phrases so usuall with them In diem vivere c. would be good meditations for us if we should understand them in that Christian sence whereto we now apply them and which the words themselves will bear and not in the Epicures sence wherein for the most part they that used them meant them But I rather give it you in our Saviours words Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof Matth. 6. 36. A third consideration there is nothing less available then either of the former but rather much more to them that can lay hold of it for it is above the reach of Poets and Philosophers and beyond the ken even of professed Christians that want the eye of Faith to frame us to contentment with the present arising from the contemplation of the infinite love of our gracious Lord God joyntly with his infinite wisdome By these as many as are truly the children of God by faith and not titulo tenùs only are assured of this most certain truth that whatsoever their heavenly Father in his wisdome seeth best for them that evermore in his love he provideth for them From which Principle every man that truly feareth God and hath fixeth his hope there may draw this infallible conclusion demonstratively and by the Laws of good discourse per viam regressus This my good God hath presently ordered for me and therefore it must needs be he saw it presently best for me Thus may we sugere mel de petrâ gather grapes of thornes and figs of thistles and satisfie our selves with the honey of comfort out of the stony rock of barrenness and adversity 37. Where are they then that will tell you On the one side what jolly men they have been But miserum est fuisse Having been born and bred to better fortunes their spirits are too great to stoop to so low a condition as now they are in If it were with them as in some former times no men should lead more contented lives then they should do Or that will tell you on the other side what jolly men they shall be when such fortunes as they have in chase or in expectation shall fall into their hands they doubt not but they shall live as contentedly as the best Little do the one sort or the other know the falsness of their own unthankful and rebellious hearts If with discontent they repine at what they are I shall doubt they were never truly content with what they were and I shall fear unless God change their hearts that they will never be well content with what they shall be He that is indeed content when the Lord giveth can be content also when the Lord taketh away and with Iob bless the holy name of God for both He had a minde contented in as good though perhaps not in so high a measure when he sat upon the dung-hill scraping himself with a potsheard in the midst of his incompassionate friends as he had when he sate in the gate judging the people in the midst of the Princes and Elders of the Land 38. It were certainly therefore best for us to frame our minds now the best we can to our present estate be it better or worse that whether it shall be better or worse with us hereafter we may the better frame our mindes to it then also We should all do in this case following the Lord which way soever he leadeth us as the Israelites followed the guidance of the cloudy-fiery-pillar When it went they went when it stood they stood and look which way it went to the North or to the South the same way they took and whether it moved swiftly or slowly they also framed their pace accordingly We in like sort to frame our selves and wills to a holy submission to whatsoever the present good pleasure of his will and providence shall share out for us 39. Which yet let no man so desperately mis-understand as to please himself hereupon in his own sloth and supinity with Solomons sluggard whom that wise man censureth as a foole for it who foldeth his hands together and letteth the world wag as it will without any care at all what shall become of him and his another day And yet as if he were the only wise man Sapientum octavus wiser then seven men that can render a reason he speaketh sentences but it is like a parable in a fools mouth a speech full of reason in it self but by him witlesly applyed and telleth you that Better is a handfull with quietness then both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit Would you not think him the most contented soule that lives But there is no such matter He is as desiring and as having as the most covetous wretch that never ceaseth toyling and moyling to get more if he might but have it and never sweat for it 40. Nor yet Secondly so as to pass censure upon his brethren as if it were nothing but Covetousness or Ambition when he shall observe any of them by his providence industry and good endeavours in a faire and honest course to lay a foundation for their future better fortunes as the currish Philosopher snarled at his fellow Si pranderet olus sapienter regibus uti Nollet Aristippus For so long as the wayes we goe are just and straight and the care we take moderate and neither the things we look after unmeet for us nor the event of our endeavours improbable if withall the mindes we bear be tempered with such an evenness as to expect the issue with patience and neither be puft up beyond measure with the good success of our affairs nor cast down beyond measure if they hap to miscarry it hindereth not but we may at once both be well contented with the present and yet industriously provident for the future The same Poet hath meetly well expressed it there speaking again of the same person Omnis Aristippum decuit color status res Tentantem majora fere praesentibus aequum It is a point of wisdom not a fruit of discontent when God openeth to a man a faire opportunity of advancing his estate to an higher or fuller condition then now he is in to embrace the opportunity and to use all meet diligence in the pursuit for the obtaining of his lawfull desires Rather it is a fruit either of Pride or Sloath or both to neglect it though upon the pretence of being content with the present 41 Pass we now on from this Second to the Third and last point observed concerning the Object of true Contentment which was the indifferency of it as it standeth
tedious and bootless work Non si te ruperis We may tug hard at it sweat till our hearts ake but it will not be Why do we not rather begin at the other end do that rather which is not only possible but the grace of God assisting easie also in striving to fit our mindes to the things Non augendae res sed minuendae cupiditates that is the way To work our own Contentment we should not labour so much to encrease our substance that is a preposterous course as to moderate our desires which is the right way and the more feizible Iacob did not propose to himself any great matters fat revenues and large possessions but only bread to eat and rayment to put on Gen. 28. No matter of what course grain so it were but bread to give nourishment and maintain life No matter for 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 matter 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 whilest 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 puzzled 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 our selves 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 delectavêre secundae Mutatae quatient As in a fever he that burneth most in his hot sit shaketh most in his cold so no man beareth want with less patience then he that beareth plenty with least moderation If we would once perfectly learn to abound and not ryot we should the sooner learn to want and not repine 48. But how am I on the sodain whilest 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. Sermon VI. 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 later 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 shewen that 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 tye of a former promise to proceed to the like discovery of the Art of Contentment by occasion of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I heve learned in whatsoever estate I am to be therewith content 2. Saint 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 of afflictions The Sum is that True contentedness of minde 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 comfort 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 favourites 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 toyle 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 withall 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
the first Sale was his personal act by which he passed away both himself and all his posterity and so were we venditi antequam editi sold a long while before we were born And that Sale is still of force against us I mean that of Original sin till it be annull'd by baptism in as much as being virtually in his loins when he made that contract we are presumed to have given our virtual consent thereunto But there is another part of the sale which lieth most against us whereto our own actual consent hath passed in confirmation and for the further ratification of our fore-fathers act when for satisfaction of some ungodly lust or other we condescended by committing sin in our own persons to strengthen Satans title to us whatever it was as much as lay in us Like the unthrifty heir of some unthrifty father who when he cometh at age for a little spending money in hand is ready to do any further act that shall be required of him for the confirmation of his fathers act who had long before sold away the lands from him Whatever then we may impute of the former I mean of original guilt to Adam yet we must take the later I mean our actual transgressions wholly and solely to our own selves 23. Nor can we thirdly lay the blame upon Satan or his instruments which is our last and commonest refuge Serpens decepit was Eves plea and she pleaded but truth for the Serpent had indeed beguiled her St Paul hath said it after her twice over Esau after he had sold his birth-right his own self yet accused his brother for supplanting him Aaron for making the calf and Saul for sparing the Cattle both contrary to God's express command yet both lay it upon the people Others have done the like and still do and will do to the worlds end But alas these fig-leaves are too thin to hide our nakedness all these excuses are insufficient to discharge us from being the authors of our own destruction Say Satan be a cunning cheater as he is no less who should have look'd to that had not God endowed us with understanding to discern his most subtile snares and with liberty of will to decline them Say he do tempt us perpetually and by most slie insinuations seek to get within us and to steal away our hearts That is the utmost he can do a tempter he is and that a shrewd one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath his own from it yet he is but a tempter he cannot enforce us to any thing without our consent and God hath given us power and God hath given us charge too not to consent Say ungodly men who are his agents cease not by plausible perswasions importunities and all the engagements they can pretend to solicit and entice us to evil Yet if we resolve and hold not to consent they cannot hurt us My son if sinners entice thee consent thou not Prov. 1.10 Say they lay many a cursed example before us as Iacob did pilled rods in the sheep-troughs or cast stones of offence in our way Have we not a rule to walk by by which we ought to guide our selves and not by the examples of men And whereto serve our eyes in our heads but to look to our feet that we may so order our steps as not to dash our foot against a stone 24. Certainly no man can take harm but from himself Let no man then when he is tempted and yieldeth say he is tempted of God for God tempteth no man saith S. Iames that is doth not so much as endeavour to do it Nay I may adde further Let no man when he is tempted say he is tempted of Satan That is let him not think to excuse himself by that For even Satan tempteth no man in that sense and cum effectu Though he endeavour it all he can yet it cannot take effect unless we will S. Iames therefore concludeth positively that every mans temptation if it take effect is merely from his own lust It is then our own act and deed that we are Satan's Vassals Disclaim it we cannot and what so ever misery or mischief ensueth thereupon we ought not to impute to any other then our selves alone He could never have laid any claim to us if we had not consented to the bargain and yielded to sell our selves 25. Of the Sale hitherto I come now to the Redemption the more Evangelical and comfortable part of the Text. And as in the Sale we have seen mans inexcusable baseness and folly in the severall circumstances so we may now behold Gods admirable power and grace in this Redemption His Power that he doth it so effectually The thing shall be done Ye shall be Redeemed His Grace that he doth it so freely without any mony of ours Ye shall be Redeemed without mony 26. First the work to be effectually done It is here spoken in the future Ye shall be Redeemed not only nor perhaps so much because it was a prophesie of a thing then to come which now since Christs coming in the flesh is actually accomplished but also and especially to give us to understand that when God is pleased to Redeem us all the powers on earth and in hell cannot shall not hinder it By the Levitical Law if a man had sold himself for a bondslave his brother or some other neer friend might redeem him or if ever God should make him able he might redeem himself If this had been all our hope we might have waited till our eyes had sunk in their holes and yet the work never the neerer to be done for never would man have been found able either to Redeem his own soule or to make agreement for his brothers It would cost more to redeem their souls then any man had to lay down so that of necessity he must let that alone for ever But when the son of God himself setteth in and is content to be made of God to us Redemption the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand and the work shall go on wondrous happily and successfully 27. His Power his Love and his Right do all assure thereof First his Power Our Redeemer is strong and mighty even the Lord of hosts And he had need be so for he that hath us in possession is strong and mighty Ter fortis amatus in the Parable Luke 11th He buckleth his armour about him and standeth upon his guard with a resolution to maintain what he hath purchased and to hold possession if he can But then when a stronger then he cometh upon him and overcommeth him breaketh into his house bindeth him and having bruised his head taketh away from him his armour wherein he trusted the Law Sin Death and Hell there is no remedy but he must yield per-force what he cannot hold and suffer his house to be ransack'd and his goods and possessions to
be carried away Greater is he that is in you saith S. Iohn that is Christ then he that is in the world that is the Devil Christ came into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the Devil and he did atchieve what he came for he hath destroyed them And amongst his other works he hath destroyed this Purchase also wrung the evidences out of his hand even the handwriting that was against us and having blotted defaced and cancell'd it took it out of the way nayling it to his Cross. 28. Such was his Power his Love secondly not less which made him as willing as he was able to undertake this work of our redemption In his love and in his pitty he redeemed them Esay 63.9 There is such a height and depth and length and bredth in that Love such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every dimension of it as none but an infinite understanding can fathom Sic Deus dilexit So God loved the world But how much that so containeth no tongue or wit of man can reach Nothing expresseth it better to the life then the work it self doth That the Word should be made Flesh that the holy one of God should be made sin that God blessed for ever should be made a curse that the Lord of life and glory should suffer an inglorious death and poure out his own most precious blood to ransom such worthless thankless graceless Traitors as we were that had so desperately made our selves away and that into the hands of his deadliest enemy and that upon such poore and unworthy conditions O altitudo Love incomprehensible It swalloweth up the sence and understanding of Men and Angels fitter to be admired and adored with silence then blemished with any our weak expressions 29. I leave it therefore and go on to the next his Right When de facto we sold our selves to Satan we had de jure no power or right at all so to do being we were not our own and so in truth the title is nought and the Sale void Yet it is good against us however we may not plead the invalidity of it for so much as in reason no man ought to make advantage of his own act Our act then barreth us But yet it cannot bar the right owner from challenging his own wheresoever he finds it And therefore we may be well assured God will not suffer the Devil who is but malae fidei possessor an intruder and a cheater quietly to enjoy what is Gods and not his but he will eject him we have that word Iohn 12.21 Ejicietur now is the Prince of this world cast out and recover out of his possession that which he hath no right at all to hold 30. Sundry inferences we might raise hence if we had time I may not insist yet I cannot but touch at three duties which we owe to God for this Redemption because they answer so fitly to these three last mentioned assurances We owe him Affiance in respect of his Power in requital of his Love thankfulness and in regard of his Right Service First the consideration of his Power in our Redemption may put a great deal of comfort and confidence into us that having now redeemed us if we do but cleave fast to him and revolt not again he will protect us from Sin and Satan and all other enemies and pretenders whatsoever O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee Esay 43. If then the Devil shall seek by any of his wiles or suggestions at any time to get us over to him again as he is an unwearied sollicitor and will not lose his claim by discontinuance Let us then look to that Cornu salutis that horn of salvation that God hath raised up for us in Christ our Redeemer and flie thither for succour as to the horns of the Altar saying with David Psalm 119. I am thine oh save me and we shall be safe In all inward temptations in all outward distresses at the hour of death and in the day of judgment we may with great security commit the keeping of our souls to him both as a faithful creator and as a powerful Redeemer saying once more with David Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Psalm 31.6 31. Secondly the consideration of his love in our Redemption should quicken us to a thankful acknowledgment of his great and undeserved goodness towards us Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the hand of the enemy Psal. 107. Let all men let all creatures do it but let them especially If the blessings of corn and wine and oyl of health and peace and plenty of deliverance from sicknesses pestilences famines and other calamities can so affect us as to provoke at least some overly and superficial forms of thanksgiving from us how carnal are our minds and our thoughts earthy if the contemplation of the depth of the riches of Gods mercy poured out upon us in this great work of our Redemption do not even ravish our hearts with an ardent desire to pour them out unto him again in hymns and Psalms and songs of thanksgiving with a Benedictus in our mouths Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people 32. Thirdly the consideration of his Right should bind us to do him service We were his before for he made us and we ought him service for that But now we are his more then before and by a new title for he hath bought us and paid for us and we owe him more service for that The Apostle therefote urgeth it as a matter of great equity you are not your own but his therefore you are not to satisfie your selves by doing your own lusts but to glorifie him by doing his will When Christ redeemed us by his bloud his purpose was to redeem us unto God Rev. 5.9 and not to our selves and to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 and not to it And he therefore delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might the more freely and securely and without fear serve him in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our lives Luke 1. which being both our bounden duty and the thing withall so very reasonable we have the more to answer for if we do not make a conscience of it to perform it accordingly He hath done his part and that which he was no way bound unto in redeeming us and he hath done it to purpose done it effectually Let it be our care to do our part for which there lie so many obligations upon us in serving him and let us also do it to purpose do it really and throughly and constantly 33. Thus is our Redemption done effectually it is also done freely which is the only point now remaining Not for price nor
not unusuall with him velut emblemate vermiculaâ—o to emblemish his Epistles upon fit occasions with supplications prayers intercessions and givings of thanks breaking off the course of his speech and that now and then somewhat abruptly witness 2 Cor 9.10 and some other places to lace in a Prayer a Blessing a Thanksgiving 5. Preachers by his example to Pray for the people as well as to instruct them So should their labours bring more comfort to themselves more profit to their hearers The kingdom of Heaven must suffer violence and our people will not ordinarily be brought unto it without some force But let me tell you it is not so much the violence of the Pulpit that doth the deed it were many times better if there appeared less violence there as the violence of the Closet Nor they only but all Governors and Superiors in every other kinde indeed generally all Christians whatsoever in their proportion to make use of this Example Think none of you you have sufficiently discharged your parts towards those that are under your charge if you have instructed them in what they are to do admonished them to do thereafter reproved or corrected them when they have done amiss encouraged or rewarded them when they have done well so long as your faithful and fervent prayers for them have been wanting In vain shall you wrestle with their stubbornness and other corruptions though you put to all your strength and wrestle with great wrestlings as Rachel said upon the birth of Nepthali so long as you do but wrestle with them only for so long you wrestle but with flesh and blood and alas what great matters can thereof be done Then or not at all shall you wrestle to purpose when you enter the lists with the father of spirits himself as Iacob did wrestling with him by your importunate prayers and not giving him over till you have wrung a blessing from him either for your selves or them or both For when you have done what you can the blessing must come from him or it will never come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is the next Point 6. God grant As for himself the Apostle well knew by all those convincing Reasons and winning Insinuations he had used he could but work upon the outward sense and by the sense represent fit motives to their understandings it was God only that could bow and frame the heart to Peace and Unity You may wish yeace and do your good wills to perswade unto peace and you ought to do it but unless God set in with you it will not take effect Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris God shall perswade Iaphet to dwell in the tents of Sem. Gen. 9. Noahs perswasions will not do it nor Sems though they should speak with the tongues of men and Angels but let God perswade Iaphet and Iaphet will be perswaded He is not only a lover of Concord for such by his grace are we also but the author of peace likewise A thing so proper and peculiar to him alone that he sundry times taketh his stile and denomination from it The God of Peace The very God of Peace c. 7. For alas without him what can be expected from us whose dispositions by reason of that pride that aboundeth in us are naturally turbulent and self-willed The heart of man is a sowre piece of clay wondrous stubborn and churlish and not to be kindly wrought upon but by an Almighty power What man is able to take down his own pride sufficiently many a good man hath more ado with this one viper then with all his other corruptions besides But how much less then is any man able to beat down and subdue the pride of another mans spirit Only God with the strength of his arm is able to throw down every exalting thought and to lay the highest mountains level with the lower flats He can infuse a spirit into us to eat out by degrees that cankered proud flesh that breedeth us all those vexations He can make us so vile in our own eyes that whereas we are naturally prone to esteem better of our selves then of all other men we shall through lowliness of minde esteem every other man better then our selves 8. But in the mean time never marvail to see so many scandals and divisions every where in the world distractions and wranglings in the Church factions and convulsions in Common-wealths sidings and censuring in your Towns jarrings and partakings even in your private families so long as there is pride and self-self-love in every mans own bosome or indeed any other lust unsubdued For all these wars and fightings without what other are they then the scum of the pot that boyls within the ebullitions of those lusts that war in our members and the dictates of corrupt nature Saint Paul saith There must be heresies even as we use to say That that will be must be His meaning is there will be heresies there is no help for it the wit of man cannot hinder it Nay it were well if the wit of man did not sometimes further it Ingeniosi malo publico is none of the best commendations yet such as it is there are too many that deserve it but too well That employ their wit learning eloquence power and parts by the right use whereof they might do God and his Church excellent service to raise strifes foment quarrels and blow the coal of contention to make it blaze afresh when it lay in the ashes well nigh out Our comfort is the time will come but look not for it whilest this world lasteth when the son of man will cause to be gathered out of his kingdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things that minister occasion of stumbling or contention But in the mean time Sinite crescere must have place We must be content to want that peace which we desire but cannot have without God till he be pleased to grant it and possess our selves in patience if still something or other be amiss whereof we can see as yet no great likelihood that it will be better 9. By which Patience yet I mean nothing less then either in private men a stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dull flegmatick stupidity that is not sensible of the want of so great a blessing or much less in publick persons or governours a retchless slothful connivence whereby to suffer men to run wilde into all kinde of irregularitie without restraint But such a well tempered Christian Patience as neither murmureth at the want nor despaireth of a supply but out of the sence of want is diligent to seek supply Praying with the Church Da domine Give peace in our time O Lord and endeavouring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as is possible and to the uttermost of our power to have peace with and to make peace among all men For Almighty God useth not to cast away
to justifie themselves will not stick to repine even at God himself and his judgments as if he were cruel and they unrighteous like the slothful servant in the parable that did his master no service at all and yet as lazy as he was could blame his master for being an hard man Cain when he had slain his righteous brother and God had laid a judgment upon him for it complained of the burden of it as if the Lord had dealt hardly with him in laying more upon him then he was able to bear never considering the weight of the sin which God in justice could not bear Solomon noteth it as a fault common among men when by their own sinful folly they have pulled misery upon themselves then to murmur against God and complain of his providence The folly of a man perverteth his wayes and his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19. As the Israelites in their passage through the wilderness were ever and anon murmuring and complaining at somewhat or other either against God or which cometh much to one against Moses and Aaron and that upon every occasion and for every trifle so do we Every small disgrace injury affront or losse that happeneth to us from the frowardness of our betters the unkindness of our neighbours the undutifulness of our children the unfaithfulness of our servants the unsuccesfulness of our attempts or by any other means whatsoever any sorry thing will serve to put us quite out of patience as Ionas took pet at the withering of the gourd And as he was ready to justifie his impatience even to God himself Doest thou well to be angry Ionas Ey marry do I I do well to be angry even to the death so are we ready in all our murmurings against the Lords corrections to flatter our selves as if we did not complain without cause especially where we are able to charge those men that trouble us with unrighteous dealing 11. This is I confess a strong temptation to flesh and bloud and many of Gods holy servants have had much ado to overcome it whilest they looked a little too much outward But yet we have by the help of God a very present remedy there-against if blinde self-love will but suffer us to be so wise as to make use of it and that is no more but this to turn our eye inward and to examine our selves not how well we have dealt with other men who now requite us so ill but how we our selves have requited God who hath dealt so graciously and bountifully with us If we thus look back into our selves and sins we shall soon perceive that God is just even in those things wherein men are unjust and that we have most righteously deserved at his hands to suffer all those things which yet we have no ways deserved at their hands by whom we suffer It will well become us therefore whatsoever judgments God shall please at any time to lay upon us or to threaten us withall either publick or private either by his own immediate hand or by such instruments as he shall employ without all murmurings or disputings to submit to his good will and pleasure and to accept the punishment of our iniquitie as the phrase is Levit. 26. by humbling our selves and confessing that the Lord is righteous as Rehoboam and the Princes of Iudah did 2 Chron. 12. The sence of our own wickednesse in rebelling and the acknowledgment of Gods justice in punishing which are the very first acts of true humiliation and the first steps unto true repentance we shall find by the mercy of God to be of great efficacy not only for the averting of Gods judgments after they are come but also if used timely enough and throughly enough for the preventing thereof before they be come For if we would judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. But because we neglect it and yet it is a thing that must be done or we are undone God in great love and mercy towards us setteth in for our good and doth it himself rather then it should be left undone and we perish even as it there followeth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world And this is that faithfulnesse of God which David acknowledgeth in the later Conclusion whereunto I now pass 12. And that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused me to be troubled In which words we have these three points First David was troubled next God caused him to be so troubled last and God did so out of very faithfulness No great newes when we hear of David to hear of troubles withall Lord remember David and all his troubles Psal. 132. Consider him which way you will in his condition natural spiritual or civil that is either as a man or as a godly man or as a King and he had his portion of troubles in every of those conditions First troubles he must have as a man Haec est conditio nascendi Every mothers childe that cometh into the world falleth a childs-part of those troubles the world affordeth Man that is born of a woman those few dayes that he hath to live he shall be sure to have them full of trouble howsoever In mundo pressuram saith our Saviour In the world ye shall have tribulation Never think it can be otherwise so long as you live here below in the vale of misery where at every turn you shall meet with nothing but very vanity and vexation of spirit 13. Then he was a Godly man and his troubles were somewhat the more for that too For all that will live godly must suffer persecution and however it is with other men certainly many are the troubles of the righteous It is the common lot of the true children of God because they have many outflyings wherewith their holy Father is not well-pleased to come under the scourge oftner then the bastards do If they do amisse and amisse they do they must smart for it either here or hereafter Now God meaneth them no condemnation hereafter and therefore he giveth them the more chastening here 14. But was not David a King and would not that exempt him from troubles He was so indeed but I ween his troubles were neither the fewer nor the lesser for that There are sundry passages in this Psalm that induce me to believe with great probability that David made it while he lived a yong man in the Court of Saul long before his coming to the Crown But yet he was even then unctus in Regem anointed and designed for the Kingdom and he met even then with many troubles the more for that very respect And after he came to enjoy the Crown if God had not been the joy and crown of his heart he should have had little joy of it so full of trouble and
and he should not love him faithfully but foolishly if he should out of fond indulgence let him go on in an evil way without due correction He that spareth the rod hateth his childe saith Solomon he meaneth it interpretativè that is he doth his childe as much hurt out of his fond love as he could not do him more harm if he were his enemies childe whom he hateth Will not a mother that loveth her childe with all tenderness if it have got some hurt with a fall lay on a plaster to heal it though it smart and though the child cry and struggle against it all it can yet will shee lay it on for all that ey and binde it too to keep it on and all out of very love and faithfulness because she knoweth it must be so or the childe will be the worse for it I use these comparisons the rather not onely because they are familiar and the more familiar ever the better if they be fit but because the Lord himself also delighteth to set forth his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and love to us by the love of a discreet father and the affection of a tender mother towards the fruit of their own loins and womb And the Apostle at large prosecuteth the resemblance and that in this very matter whereof we now speak of our heavenly Fathers correcting his children in love and for their good most accurately and comfortably in Heb. 12. 22. But to return back to the relation of friendship from which yet I have not disgressed for can we have any better friends then our parents If any of us have a friend that is lethargique or lunatique will we not put the one from his drousie seat and shake him up and make him stir about whether he will or no and tie the other in his bed hamper him with cords ey and with blows too if need be to keep him quiet though it be death to the one to be stirred and to the other to be tied Or if we have some near friend or kinsman that we wish well to and partly dependeth upon us for his livelyhood that will not be advised by us but will flee out into bad company drink and quarrell and game will we not pinch him in his allowance refuse to give him entertainment set some underhand to beate him when he quarrels in his drink or to cheat him when he gameth too deep and if he will not be reclaimed otherwise get him arrested and laid up and then let him lie by it till shame and want give him some better sight and sence of his former follies Can any man now charge us truly with unfaithfulness to our friend for so doing Or is it not rather a good proof of our love and faithfulness to him Doubtless it is You know the old saying Non quòd odio habeam sed quòd amem it hath some reason in it For the love and faithfulness of a friend is not to be measured by the things done but by the affection and intention of the doer A thing may be done that carrieth the shew of much friendship with it yet with an intent to do the party a mischief Eutrapelus cuicunque nocere volebat c. As if he should put his friend upon some employment he were unmeet for of purpose to disgrace him or feed him with money in a riotous course to get a hanck over his estate like Sauls friendship to David in giving him his daughter to wife that she might be a snare to him to put him into the hands of the Philistines This is the basest unfaithfulness of all other sub amici fallere nomen and by many degrees worse then open hostility Let not their precious balmes break my head Let the righteous rather smite me friendly saith David There may be smiting it should seem by him without violation of friendship And his wise son Solomon preferreth the wounds of a friend before the kisses of an enemy These may be pleasanter but those will prove wholsomer there is treachery in these kisses but in those wounds faithfulness 23. You may perceive by what hath been said that God may cause his servants to be troubled and yet continue his love and faithfulness to them nevertheless yea moreover that he bringeth those troubles upon them out of his great love and faithfulness towards them It should make us the more willing whether God inflict or threaten whether we feel or fear any either publick calamity or personal affliction any thing that is like to breed us any grief or trouble to submit our selves to the hand of God not only with patience because he is righteous but even with thankfulness too because he is faithful therein Very meet we should apprehend the wrath of God and his just indignation against us when he striketh for he is righteous and will not correct us but for our sin Which should prick our hearts with sorrow nay rend them in pieces with through-contrition that we should so unworthily provoke so gracious a God to punish us But then we must so apprehend his wrath that we doubt not of his favour nor despair of staying his hand if we will but stay the course of our sins by godly repentance and reformation for he is faithful and correcteth us ever for our good Doth he take any pleasure think you in our destruction He hath sworn the contrary and dare you not believe him Doubt ye not therefore but that humility and confidence fear and hope may consist together as well as justice and mercy may in God or repentance and faith in us Presume not then to continue in sin but fear his judgments for he is righteous and will not acquit the guilty Neither yet despair of finding pardon but hope in his mercy for he is faithful and will not despise the penitent I forbid no man but charge him rather as he meaneth to build his after-comforts upon a firm base to lay a good foundation of repentance and godly sorrow by looking first upon Gods justice and his own sins that he may be cast down and humbled under the mighty hand of God before he presume to lay hold of any actual mercy But after he hath by this means assured the foundation let him then in Gods name proceed with his work and bring it on more and more to perfection by sweet meditations of the great love and gracious promises of our good God and his undoubted stedfastness and faithfulness therein Never giving it over till he come to that perfection of art and skill that he can spy love even in the very wrath of God Mel de petra suck honey out of the stony rock gather grapes of thornes and figs of thistles Till we attain to this I say not but we may have true hope and comfort in God which by his mercy may bring us to salvation but we have not yet
more refreshing then all those troubles could work him vexation Psal. 94. And S. Paul found that still as his sufferings encreased his comforts had withall such a proportionable rise that where those abounded these did rather superabound 2 Cor. 1. 34. These inward comforts are sufficient even alone Yet God knoweth our frame so well and so far tendereth our weakness that he doth also afford us such outward comforts as he seeth convenient for us A small matter perhaps in bulke and to the eye but yet such as by his mercy giveth us mighty refreshing For as any little affliction scarce considerable in it self is yet able to worke us much sorrow if God meane to make a rod of it so any otherwise inconsiderable accident when God is pleased to make a comfort of it is able to cheer us up beyond belief The coming of Titus out of Achaia into Macedonia seemed to be a matter of no great consequence yet coming at such a time and in the nick as it were S. Paul remembreth it as a great mercy from God and a great comfort to him in 2 Cor. 7. He was much distressed it seemeth at that time with fightings without and fears within insomuch as he was troubled on every side and his flesh had no rest at the fifth verse there Nevertheless saith he God that comforteth those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus at ver 6. 35. Thirdly God manifesteth his love and faithfulness to his children in their troubles by the issues that he giveth out of them Deliverance and Honour Deliverance first That God hath often promised Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will heare thee Psal. 50. And he hath faithfully performed it Many or great are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all Psalm 34. And he delivereth him safe and sound many times without the breaking of a bone yea sometimes without so much as the loss of a haire of his head How oft do we heare it repeated in one Psalm and made good by sundry instances So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them from their distress 36. Some evidence it is of his love and faithfulness that he delivereth them at all but much more that he doth it with the addition of honour Yet hath he bound himself by his gracious promise to that also He shall call upon me and I will heare him yea I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and bring him to honour Psalm 91. As gold cast into the furnace receiveth there a new lustre and shineth brighter when it cometh forth then it did before so are the Saints of God more glorious after their great afflictions their graces evermore resplendent and many times even their outward estate also more honourable We may see in the examples of Ioseph of Iob of David himself and others if we had time to produce them that of Psalm 113. verified He raiseth the poore out of the dust and listeth the needy out of the mire and from the dunghil that he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people But we have an example beyond all example even our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ. Never any sufferings so grievous as his never man so emptied and troden down and made a man of sorrows as he Never any issues so honourable as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess to his honour And what hath befallen him the head concerneth us also his members not only by way of merit but by way of conformity also Si compatimur conregnabimus If we be partakers of his sufferings we shall be also of his glory God as out of very faithfulness he doth cause us to be troubled so will he out of the very same faithfulness give an honourable issue also to all our troubles if we cleave unto him by stedfast faith and constant obedience possibly in this life if he see it useful for us but undoubtedly in the life to come Whereunto c. AD AULAM. Sermon XI WHITE-HALL July 5. 1640. 1 COR. 10.23 All things are lawfull for me But all things are not expedient All things are lawfull for me But all things edifie not 1. IN which words the Apostle with much holy wisdom by setting just bounds unto our Christian Liberty in the Power first and then in the exercise of that power excellently preventeth both the Errour of those that would shrink it in and the Presumption of those that would stretch it out more then they ought He extendeth our Liberty in the Power but restraineth it in the use Would you know what a large power God hath permitted unto you in indifferent things and what may be done ex plenitudine potestatis and without scruple of conscience For that you have Omnia licent All things are lawful But would you know withall with what caution you ought to use that power and what at all times is fit to be done ex intuitu charitatis and for the avoiding of offence You have for that too Non omnia expediunt All things are not expedient All things edifie not If we will sail by this Card regulate our judgement and practise by our Apostles rule and example in the Text we shall neither dash against the Rock of Superstition on the right hand nor fall into the Gulf of Profaneness on the left we shall neither betray our Christian Liberty nor abuse it 2. In the words themselves are apparantly observable concerning that Liberty two things the Extension first and then the Limitation of it The Extension is in the former clause Wherein we have the Things and the Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things lawful and All lawful for me The Limitation is in the later clauses wherein is declared first what it is must limit us and that is the reason of Expediency But all things are not expedient And secondly one special means whereby to judge of that Expediency which is the usefulness of it unto Edification But all things edifie not I am to begin with the Extension of which onely at this time And first and chiefly in respect of the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are lawful 3. What All things simply and without exception All What meant Iohn Baptist then to come in with his Non licet to Herod about his Brothers Wife It is not lawful for thee to have her Matth. 14. Or if Iohn were an austero man and had too much of Elias's spirit in him Yet how is it that our blessed Saviour the very pattern of love and meekness when the Pharisees put a question to him Whether it were lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause resolveth it in effect as if he
on that behalf But he that suffereth for his errour or disobedience or other rashness buildeth his comfort upon a sandy foundation and cannot better glorifie God and discharge a good conscience then by being ashamed of his fault and retracting it 21. Seventhly hereby we expose not our selves onely which yet is something but sometimes also which is a far greater matter the whole Reformed Religion by our default to the insolent jeers of Atheists and Papists and other profane and scornful spirits For men that have wit enough and to spare but no more religion then will serve to keep them out of the reach of the Laws when they see such men as pretend most to holinesse to run into such extravagant opinions and practises as in the judgement of any understanding man are manifestly ridiculous they cannot hold but their wits will be working and whilest they play upon them and make themselves sport enough therewithal it shall go hard but they will have one fling among even at the power of Religion too Even as the Stoicks of old though they stood mainly for vertue yet because they did it in such an uncouth and rigid way as seemed to be repugnant not only to the manners of men but almost to common sence 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 schisme 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 bosome of that Church that imposeth such unlawful things upon them How are they not guilty themselves of that luke-warme 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 they not yield obedience cheerful obedience to their Governours so long as they command but lawfull things But if Baal be an Idol and the ceremonies unlawfull 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 confesse 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. Truely Brethren if these unhappy fruits were but accidentall events onely occasioned rather then 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 beare 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 And as for those my brethren of the Clergie that have most authority in the hearts of such as byasse 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 informe 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 errours nor suffer them to continue therein for want of their rebuke either in their publick teaching or otherwise as they shall have opportunity thereunto 24. But you will say If these things were so how should it then come to passe 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 Gods 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 whither way our hearts incline most to looseness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out 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 affection of singularity to goe 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 custome 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 Errour 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 wholy exempted 25. Ignorance first is a fruitful mother of Errour Ye erre not knowing the scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much grosse Ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they erre they erre for company they judge not all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are lead 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 he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falsehood 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
done Now the God of patience and of consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus That ye may with one c. 2. In the matter or substance of which prayer besides the formality thereof in those first words Now the God of patience and consolation grant you S. Paul expresseth both the thing he desired even their unity in the residue of the fifth verse to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus and the end for which he desired it even Gods glory in this sixth verse That ye may with one minde and with one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Of that I have heretofore spoken now some yeers past of this I desire by Gods grace presently to speak And like as in that former part we then considered three particulars First the thing it self Unity or like-mindedness to be like-minded and then two amplifications thereof one in respect of the Persons that it should be universal and mutual one towards another the other in the manner that it should be according to Christ Iesus So are we at this time in this later part to consider of the like three particulars First the end it self the glory of God that ye may 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 on◠minde and with one mouth Of which in their order the End first and then the amplifications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 S. 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 perswasions 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 fouly depraved a wrong one Omnes quae sua he speaketh of it complainingly as of an errour 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 then very Atheisme or at the best and that but a very little better Idolatry He that doth all for himself and hath no farther End maketh 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 Psalm 10. He is so full of himself his thoughts are so wholy taken up with himself that there is no room there for God or any thing else but himself But this self-seeking S. 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 needed the dissentions of the Romanes have troubled him any thing at all If they be so minded let them go to it hardly judge on and despise on tugg 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 mostwhat 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 an interest his honour suffered in their dissentions and then he could not hold off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his phrase is twise in one Chapter he could not for his life forbear but he must put in for the love of Christ constrained him We 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 than 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 Psalm 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 then of substance and hath in it more of fancy then reality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is S.