eare-pleasing Madrigals and Fancies but the strong and loud voice of Cryers to call all men into the Court and summon them to the barre of Christs judgement hee that promiseth his Apostles and their successors to give them a b Luk. 21.15 I will give you a mouth c. mouth hath given mee at this time both the mouth and the Motto the Motto of the embleme viz. the words of my text Zelus domus tuae devoravit me In the uttering whereof if ever now I need to pray that the Lord would c Esay 6.7 touch my tongue with a coale from his altar with a coale that I may speake warmely of zeale with a coale from the altar that I may discourse holily of his Temple Saint d Homil. 3. Utinam daretur mihi de superno altare non carbo unus sed globus igneus offeratur qui multam inveteratam rubiginem possit excoquere Bernard made the like prayer upon the like occasion O saith hee that there were given unto mee from the altar above not one coale but rather a fiery globe a heape of coales to scorch the abuses of the time and burne out the inveterate rust of vitious customes By the light of these coales you may behold in this Scripture 1 In David as the type Christ 2 In Christ as the mirrour of perfection zeale 3 In zeale as a fire 1 The flame 2 The fuel The flame vehement consuming or devouring devoravit The fuel sacred me mee No divine vertues or graces like to Christs affection No affection in him like to his zeale No zeale like to that which hee bare or rather wherewith hee was transported to his Fathers house which even eat him up and may deservedly take up this golden moment of our most pretious time May it please you therefore Right c. to suffer your religious eares to bee bored at this present with these sacred nayles or points which I humbly pray the holy Spirit to fasten in your hearts 1 The vertue or affection it selfe zeale 2 The object of this affection thy house 3 The effect of this object hath eaten up 4 The subject of this effect mee 1 In figure David 2 In truth Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and who is sufficient for these things or able worthily to treat of 1 An affection most ardent zeale 2 A place most sacred thine house 3 An effect most powerfull hath eaten up 4 A person most divine mee Zeale is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burne or hizze as water cast on metall melted and it signifieth a hot or burning desire an ardent affection and sometimes it is taken 1 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or emulation which is a commendable desire of attaining unto anothers vertue or fame 2 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 envie which is a vitious affection repining at anothers fame or fortune 3 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jealousie which is an irkesome passion arising from love wronged at least in opinion And no other fire wee finde on natures forge or the Philosophers hearth but on Gods altar there burneth another manner of fire fed with pure fuell which like a waxe light or taper yeeldeth both a cleare flame and a sweet fume and this is holy zeale All things that are cast into the fire make a smell but the burning of sweet odors onely makes a perfume so the hot and fervent 1 Desire of 2 Intention in 3 Affection to the best things onely is zeale Fire is the noblest of all the elements and seated next to the heavens so zeale sparkling in the soule is the chiefe and most heavenly of all spirituall affections Some define it to bee the fervour intention excellency or improvement of them all Heat 1 In e Rom. 12.11 Ferâ—ent in spirit devotion if it exceed becommeth zeale 2 In f Col. 4.13 affection if it be improved groweth to be zeale 3 In g 1 Cor. 14.12 desire of spirituall gifts if it bee ardent is zeale 4 In h 1 Cor. 7.11 indignation or revenge of our selves if it bee vehement is called by the Apostle zeale Fervent devotion ardent love earnest desire vehement indignation all are zeale or rather are all zeale for there is a 1 Zeale of good things which maketh us zealous of Gods gifts 2 Zeale in good things which maketh us zealous in Gods service 3 Zeale for good things which maketh us zealous for Gods glory And answerable to the three operations of fire which are to heat to burne to consume 1 The first heateth us by kindling a desire of grace 2 The second burneth by enflaming our hearts with the love of God 3 The third consumeth by drying up the heart absuming the spirits with griefe and hazzarding our persons and estates in removing scandals and reforming abuses and profanations of God his name house or worship as also revenging wrongs done to his houshold and servants In summe zeale is a divine grace grounded upon the knowledge of Gods word which according to the direction of spirituall wisedome quickeneth and enflameth all the desires and affections of the soule in the right worship of the true God and vehemently and constantly stirreth them up to the preserving advancing and vindicating his honour by all lawfull meanes within the compasse of our calling Rectum sui est judex obliqui If you set a streight line or rule to a crooked figure or body it will discover all the obliquities in it Hang up an artificiall patterne by an unskilfull draught and it will shew all the disproportions and deformities in it Wherefore Aristotle giveth this for a certaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or character of a true definition to notifie and discover all the errors that are or may be devised about the nature of the thing defined which are in this present subject wee treat of sundry and manifold For as when there is publicke notice given of a ring found with a rich stone set in it every one almost that ever was owner of a ring like unto it especially if his owne bee lost challengeth it for his so all in whose temper affections or actions any naturall or spirituall divine or diabolicall heavenly earthly or hellish fire gloweth challengeth the pretious coale or carbuncle of zeale to bee theirs The Cholericke and furious the quarrelsome and contentious the malicious and envious the jealous and suspicious the Idolatrous and superstitious the indiscreet and preposterous the proud selfe-admirer the sacrilegious Church-robber the presumptuous and exorbitant zealot nay the seditious boutefieu and incendiary all pretend to zeale But all these claimers and many more besides are disproved and disclaimed by the true definition of zeale which is first a grace and that distinct from other not more graces or a compound of love and anger as some teach or of love and indignation as others for the graces of the spirit and vertues of the minde are incoincident As
where divers candles or torches in a roome concurre to enlighten the place the light of them remaineth impermixt as the Optickes demonstrate by their severall shadowes so all the divine graces conjoyne their lustre and vertue to adorne and beautifie the inward man yet their nature remaines distinct as their speciall effects make it evident to a single and sharp-sighted eye God was in the bush that burned and consumed not yet God was not the bush The holy Ghost was in the fiery cloven tongues yet the holy Ghost was not the tongues The spirits runne along in the arteries with the purer and refined blood yet the spirits are not the blood The fire insinuateth it selfe into all the parts of melted metall and to the eye nothing appeareth but a torrent of fire yet the fire is not the metall in like manner zeale shineth and flameth in devotion love godly jealousie indignation and other sanctified desires and affections it enflameth them as fire doth metall it stirreth and quickeneth them as the spirits doe the blood yet zeale is not those passions neither are all or any of them zeale howsoever the schooles rather out of zeale of knowledge than knowledge of zeale have determined the contrary 2 Secondly zeale is defined to bee not a morall vertue but a divine gift or grace of the Spirit the Spirit of God is the efficient cause and the Spirit of man is the subject which the Apostle intimates in that phrase i Rom. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being fervent or zealous in Spirit This fire like that of the Vestals is kindled from heaven by the beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse not from any kitchen on earth much lesse from hell They therefore qui irae suae stimulum zelum putant they who imagine the flashes of naturall choler are flames of spirituall zeale toto coelo errant are as farre from the marke as heaven is distant from the earth No naturall or morall temper much lesse any unnaturall and vitious distemper can commend us or our best actions to God and men as zeale doth The fire of zeale like the fire that consumed Solomons sacrifice commeth downe from heaven and true zealots are not those Salamanders or Pyrausts that alwayes live in the fire of hatred and contention but Seraphims burning with the spirituall fire of divine love who as Saint Bernard well noteth kept their ranke and station in heaven when the other Angels of Lucifers band that have their names from light fell from theirs Lucifer cecidit Seraphim stant to teach us that zeale is a more excellent grace than knowledge even in Angels that excell in both Howbeit though zeale as farre surpasse knowledge as the sunne-beame doth a glow-worme yet zeale must not be without knowledge Wherefore God commandeth the Priest when hee k Exod. 30.8 lighteth the lamps to burne incense though the fire bee quicke and the incense sweet yet God accepteth not of the burning it to him in the darke The Jewes had a zeale as the l Rom. 10.2 Apostle acknowledgeth and the Apostle himselfe before his conversion yet because it wanted knowledge it did them and the Church of God great hurt No man can bee ignorant of the direfull effects of blind zeale when an unskilfull Phaeton takes upon him to drive the chariot of the sunne hee sets the whole world in a combustion What a mettled horse is without a bridle or a hot-spurred rider without an eye or a ship in a high winde and swelling saile without a rudder that is zeale without knowledge which is like the eye in the rider to choose the way or like the bridle in the hand to moderate the pace or like the rudder in the ship to steere safely the course thereof Saint m Inser 22. in Cant. Bernard hits full on this point Discretion without zeale is slow paced and zeale without discretion is heady let therefore zeale spurre on discretion and discretion reyne zeale fervor discretionem erigat discretio fervorem regat Discretion must guide zeale as it is guided by spirituall wisedome not worldly policy and therefore Thirdly I adde in the definition of zeale that it quickeneth and enflameth all our holy desires and affections according to the direction of spirituall wisdome For wisdome must prescribe zeale when and where and how far and in what order to proceede in reforming all abuses in Church and State and performing all duties of religious piety and eminent charity What Isocrates spake sometime of valour or strength is as true of zeale viz. n Isoc ad Dem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that zeale and resolution with wisedome doth much good but without it doth much mischiefe to our selves and others like granadoes and other fire-works which if they be not well looked to and ordered when they breake do more hurt to them that cast them than to the enemie Yet that we be not deceived in mistaking worldly policy for wisdome I adde spirituall to difference it from carnall morall or civill wisedome for they are too great coolers they will never let zeale exceed the middle temper of that * Vibius Statesman in Tiberius Court who was noted to bee a wise and grave Counseller of a faire carriage and untainted reputation but hee would o Juven sat 4. Ille igitur nunquam direxit brachia contra torrentem never strike a stroake against the streame hee would never owne any mans quarrell hee would bee sure to save one Such is the worldly wise man hee will move no stone though never so needfull to bee removed if hee apprehend the least feare that any part of the wall will fall upon himselfe The p Cic. de orat l. 1. Tempus omne post consulatum objecimus iis fluctibus qui per nos à communi peste depulsi in nosmetipsos redundarunt Romane Consul and incomparable Oratour shall bee no president for him who imployed all his force and strength to keepe off those waves from the great vessel of the State which rebounded backe againe and had neere drowned the cocke-boate of his private fortune Hee will never ingage himselfe so farre in any hot service no not though Gods honour and the safety of the Church lye at stake but that he will be sure to come off without hazzard of his life or estate Hee hath his conscience in that awe that it shall not clamour against him for not stickling in any businesse that may peradventure reflect upon his state honour or security In a word peradventure he may bee brought with much adoe to doe something for God but never to suffer any thing for him This luke-warme Laodicean disposition the lesse offensive it is to men the more odious it is to God who is a jealous God and affecteth none but those that are zealous for his glory he loveth none but those that will bee content to expose themselves to the hatred of all men for his names sake Hee q
Sacrament of our Lords body and bloud wee shall feele the effects of both in us viz. more light in our understanding more warmth in our affections more fervour in our devotions more comfort in our afflictions more strength in temptations more growth in grace more settled peace of conscience and unspeakable joy in the holy Ghost To whom with the Father and the Sonne bee ascribed c. THE SYMBOLE OF THE SPIRIT THE LXIV SERMON ACTS 2.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting SAint Luke in the precedent verse giveth us the name in this the ground of the solemne feast we are now come to celebrate with such religious rites as our Church hath prescribed according to the presidents of the first and best ages The name is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the feast of the fiftieth day from Easter the ground thereof the miraculous apparition and if I may so speake the Epiphany of the holy Spirit in the sound of a mighty rushing wind the light of fiery cloven tongues shining on the heads of the Apostles who stayed at Jerusalem according to our Lords command in expectation of the promise of the holy Ghost which was fulfilled then in their eyes and now in our eares and I hope also in our hearts After God the Father had manifested himselfe by the worlds creation and the workes of nature and God the Sonne by his incarnation and the workes of grace it was most convenient that in the third place the third person should manifest himselfe as he did this day by visible descension and workes of wonder Before in the third of Matthew at the Epiphany of our Saviour the Spirit appeared in the likenesse of a dove but here as yee heare in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues to teach us that we ought to be like doves without gall in prosecution of injury done to our selves but like Seraphins all fire in vindicating Gods honour This morall interpretation Saint a Greg. tert pas Omnes quos implet columbae simplicitate mansuetos igne zeli ardentes exhibet Et ib. Intus arsit ignibus amoris foras accensus est zelo severitatis causam populi apud Deum lachrymis causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegabat c. Gregory makes of these mysticall apparitions All whom the spirit fills he maketh meeke by the simplicity of doves and yet burning with the fire of zeale Just of this temper was Moses who took somewhat of the dove from the spirit and somewhat of the fire For being warme within with the fire of love and kindling without with the zeale of severity he pleaded the cause of the people before God with teares but the cause of God before the people with swords Sed sufficit diei suum opus sufficient for the day will be the worke thereof sufficient for this audience will be the interpretation of the sound the mysticall exposition of the wind which filled the house where the Apostles sate will fill up this time And lest my meditations upon this wind should passe away like wind I will fasten upon two points of speciall observation 1. The object vehement the sound of a mighty rushing wind 2. The effect correspondent filled the whole house Each part is accompanied with circumstances 1. With the circumstance of 1. The manner suddenly 2. The sourse or terminus à quo from heaven 2. With the circumstance of 1. The place the house where 2. The persons they 3. Their posture were sitting 1. Hearken suddenly there came on the sudden 2. To what a sound 3. From whence from heaven 4. What manner of sound as of a mighty rushing wind 5. Where filling the roome where they were sitting That suddenly when they were all quiet there should come a sound or noise and that from heaven and that such a vehement sound as of a mighty rushing wind and that it should fill the whole roome where they were and no place else seemes to mee a kind of sequence of miracles Every word in this Text is like a cocke which being turned yeeldeth abundance of the water of life of which we shall taste hereafter I observe first in generall that the Spirit presented himselfe both to the eyes and to the eares of the Apostles to the eares in a noise like a trumpet to proclaime him to the eyes in the shape of tongues like lights to shew him Next I observe that as there were two sacred signes of Christs body 1. Bread 2. Wine so there are two symboles and if I may so speake sacraments of the Spirit 1. Wind 2. Fire Behold the correspondency between them the spirit is of a nobler and more celestiall nature than a body in like manner the elements of wind and fire come neerer the nature of heaven than bread and wine which are of a more materiall and earthly nature And as the elements sort with the mysteries they represent so also with our senses to which they are presented For the grosser and more materiall elements bread and wine are exhibited to our grosser and more carnall senses the taste and touch but the subtiler and lesse materiall wind and fire to our subtiler and more spirituall senses the eyes and eares Of the holy formes of bread and wine their significancie and efficacy I have heretofore discoursed at large at this present by the assistance of the holy Spirit I will spend my breath upon the sacred wind in my Text and hereafter when God shall touch my tongue with a fiery coale from his Altar explicate the mystery of the fiery cloven tongues After the nature and number of the symboles their order in the third place commeth to be considered first the Apostles heare a sound and then they see the fiery cloven tongues And answerable hereunto in the fourth verse we reade that they were filled with the holy Ghost and then they began to speake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance For b Mat. 12.34 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh With the c Rom. 10.10 heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and then with the tongue he confesseth unto salvation My d Psal 45.1 heart saith David is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer first the heart enditeth and then the tongue writeth They who stay not at Jerusalem till they are endued with power from above and receive the promise of the Father but presently will open their mouthes and try to loosen the strings of their fiery tongues I meane they who continue not in the schooles of the Prophets till they have learned the languages and arts and have used the ordinary meanes to obtaine the gifts and graces of the holy Spirit and yet will open their mouthes in the Pulpit and exercise the gift of their tongues doe but fill the eares of their auditors with a
ceaseth to offer up prayers to God with strong cries till hee be eased of them Are wee such bruised reeds We often in stead of denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts have with Peter denied our Master but doe wee weep bitterly with him and as hee whensoever hee heard the Cocke crow after the deniall of his Master fell on weeping afresh so doe the wounds of our consciences bleed afresh at the sight of every object and hearing of every sound which puts us in mind of our crimson sinnes We have polluted our beds with David but doe wee cleanse them as he did doe wee make our couches to swimme with teares of repentance Wee have intertained with Mary Magdalen many soule sinnes like so many uncleane spirits but have wee broken a boxe of precious oyntment upon Christs head or kneeled downe and washed his feet with our teares If wee have done so then are we bruised reeds indeed and shall not be broken but if otherwayes wee be not bruised in heart for our sinnes and breake them off by mature repentance wee shall bee either broken for them by sore chastisements in this world or which is worst of all like unfruitfull and rotten trees be reserved to be fuell for Hell fire But because the bruised reed was the measure of my former discourse I will now fall to blow the smoaking flaxe which Christ will not quench To quench the light especially the light of the spirit in our hearts seemeth to bee a worke of darknesse how then may it bee ascribed to the Father of lights or what meaneth the Prophet to deny that Christ will doe that which is so repugnant to his nature that if he would he could not doe it Religiously learned antiquity hath long ago assoyled this doubt teaching us that God quencheth as he hardneth Non infundendo malitiam sed subducendo gratiam not by pouring on any thing like water to quench the flame but by taking away that oyly moisture which nourisheth it Our daily experience sheweth us that a lampe or candle may bee extinguished three manner of wayes at least 1. By a violent puffe of winde 2. By the ill condition of the weeke indisposed to burne 3. By want of waxe or defect of oyle to feed it Even so the light of the Spirit may be quenched in us by three meanes either by a violent temptation of the evill spirit as it were a puffe of wind or by the inbred corruption of our nature repelling grace which fitly resembleth the indisposition of the week to take fire or keep in it the flame or lastly by subtraction of divine grace which is the oyle or sweet waxe that maintaineth this light By the first meanes the Divell by the second man himselfe by the third God quencheth the light of the spirit in them who love darknesse more than light but such are not those who in my Text are compared to smoaking flaxe For though they have small light of knowledge to shine to others yet they have heat of devotion burning in themselves Hil. In haec verba igniculum fidei concipientes quadam dilectione cum carne juxta fumantes quos Christus non extinxit sed incendit in iis ignem perfectae charitatis they are such saith St. Hilary Who conceiving in themselves a small sparke of faith because they are in part still flesh burne not cleerly but as it were smoakily whom Christ will not quench but kindle in them the fire of perfect charity St. * Greg. in Evan. Dom. Quod sacerdotes lineis uterentur vestibus Gregory by smoaking flaxe understandeth the Aaronicall Priesthood now dimly burning and ready to go out he thinketh the flaxe to have some reference to the Priests linnen garments made of it Tertullian paraphraseth the smoaking flaxe Momentaneum gentium fervorem The momentary fervour of the Gentiles in whom the light of nature by sinfull filthinesse being extinct exhaleth most pestiferous fumes of noysome lusts St. a Chrysost in Matth. ca. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome and St. Austin through the smoake discerne the Scribes and Pharisees and other enemies of Christ their envie and malice which soultred within them but brake not out into an open flame Whom Christ quenched not that is destroyed not though he could have as easily done it as breake a reed already bruised or tread out a stinking snuffe cast upon the ground But these expositions in the judgement of later Divines seem either constrained and forced or at the lest too much restrained and narrow They therfore extend the meaning of them to all weak Christians either newly converted or relapsed b Pintus In quibus tamen relucet aliquid bonae spei c Junius Scintilla aliqua pietatis veluti moribunda d Aquinas Tepidi ad opus bonum habentes tamen aliquid gratiae e Arboreus Extinctioni vicini f Guilliandus Qui sceleribus gravissimis seu fumo quodam oculos bonorum offendunt veluti foetore corruptae famae mores piorum infestant Breathing out bitter fumes for their sinnes offending the godly with the ill savour of their lives luke-warm to good workes neere extinction in whom yet remaines some light of faith and hope though very obscure some warmth of charity some sparke of grace Comfort then O comfort the fainting spirits and cheare up the drouping conscience say to the bruised reed that is now unfit to make a pipe to sound or a cane to write the praises of God thou shalt not be broken and to the smoaking flaxe which gives but a very dimme light and with the fume offendeth the eyes of the godly and with the stench their noses thou shalt not bee quenched Nothing is so easie as to breake a reed already bruised the least weight doth it nothing so facile as to quench smoaking flaxe the least touch doth it yet so milde was our Saviour that he never brake the one nor quenched the other The flaxe or weeke smoaketh either before it is fully kindled or after it is blowne out If we consider it in the first condition the morall or spirituall meaning of the Text is that Christ cherisheth the weake endeavours and small beginnings of grace in his children For we must know that in our first conversion the measure of grace is but small in us and mixt with much corruption which if Christ should quench there would be found never a cleere burning lampe in his Church but hee most graciously preserveth it and augmenteth it because it is a sparke from heaven kindled by his owne spirit and it much illustrateth his glory to keep it from going out notwithstanding the indisposition of the weeke to burne and continuall blasts of temptation ready to blow it out I said in my haste quoth David I am cast out of thy sight there is smoake in the flaxe Psal 31.22 yet was not the flaxe quenched for he addeth yet thou heardest the voice of my prayer
erit timor ut mihi perseveranter adhaereant I will put my feare in their hearts that they depart not from me what is it else than to say the feare which I put in their hearts shall be such and so great that they shall assuredly or perseveringly cleave unto me They whose hearts are kept alwaies in this feare need never feare finall Apostacy from God Counterfeit f Sen. de clem l. 1. Nemo potest personam diu ferte ficta cito in naturam suam recidunt things are discovered by their discontinuance variation but true by their lasting That which glareth for a time in the aire and out-braveth the stars even of the first rank or magnitude but after a few daies playeth least in sight is a Comet no true starre Stella cadens non est stella cometa fuit Likewise that which glistereth like gold yet endureth not the fire is Alchymy stuffe no pretious metall The stone that sparkleth like a Diamond yet abideth not the stroke is a cornish or counterfeit not a true orient Diamond It is artificiall complexion and meere painting not true beauty which weareth out in a day and is washed off with a showre Feigned things and false saith the g Cic. de â—sâ—c l. 3. Ficta omnia tanquam slosculi decidunt vera gloria â—adices agiâ— â—que etiam propagatur Oratour soone fall like blossomes true glory taketh root and spreadeth it selfe The truth himselfe our h Joh. 8 31. Lord and Saviour maketh perseverance a certain note of true Disciples If yee continue in my word then are you my Disciples indeed Would any of you know whether he be a true sonne of God and member of Christ he can by no thing so infallibly finde it in himselfe as by the gift of perseverance This St. i 1 Joh. 2.19 John giveth for a touch-stone of a true Apostle They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had beene of us they would have continued with us but they went out that they might bee made manifest that they were not of us Saint Paul of a true k Heb. 3.6 member of Christ or temple of the holy Ghost But Christ is a sonne over his owne house whose house are wee if wee hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firme to the end Saint l Aug. de correp grat c. 9. Tunc verè sunt quod appellantur si manseâ—int in co propter quod sic appellantur Augustine of the true children of God Then they are truely what they are called the sonnes of God if they continue in that for which they are so called The fourth pillar I named unto you was the power of regenerating grace 1 Pet. 1.3 4. whereby wee are begotten againe unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us That which is incorruptible cannot bee destroyed or perish that which is reserved for us cannot be taken away from us Now if any demand what preserveth faith in the soule in such sort that it is never habitually lost though the act thereof be sometimes suspended I answer 1. Outwardly the powerfull ministry of the Word and Sacraments 2. Inwardly renewing grace infused into the soule at the first moment of our conversion This grace is by the holy Ghost termed the * Jam. 1.21 Receive with meeknesse the engraffed word which is able to save your soules engraffed word sometimes the a 1 Joh. 2.27 But the annointing which ye hâ—ve received of him abideth in you and as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him annointing that abideth in us sometimes the b 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the temples of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you spirit dwelling in us sometimes a c John 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of water springing to everlasting life Well of water springing up to everlasting life sometimes Gods d 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is borne of God doth not coÌ„mit sin for his seed remaineth in him seed remaining in us sometimes e 1 Pet. 3.23 Being borne againe not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever incorruptible seed whence we may frame an argument like to that of our Saviours to Nicodemus As f John 3.6 That which is borne of the flesh is flesh but that which is borne of the spirit is spirit that which is borne of corruptible seed is corruptible so that which is borne of incorruptible seed is incorruptible How can he that is borne of incorruptible and spirituall seed be corrupted and dye spiritually how can hee that hath in his belly a Well of ever-springing water thirst eternally how can he in whom the annointing S. John speaketh of abideth putresie in his sinnes how can hee in whom the spirit dwelleth be estranged from the love of God how can he that is borne of God become a childe of the Divell Saint g 1 John 3.9 John strongly argueth against it Whosoever is born of God cannot commit sinne because he is borne of God I conclude this argument with that daring interrogation of Saint h Aug. de bono persev c. 7. Contra tam claram veritatis tubam quis voceâ— ullâ—s auaâ—â—t humanas Austin Against so cleere and loud sounding trumpet of divine truth what man of a sober and watchfull faith will endure to heare any voices or words from man The fifth pillar is Christs prayer for the perseverance of all true beleevers The pillar is like to Jacobs ladder that reacheth from earth to heaven and though heaven and earth be shaken yet this pillar will stand immoveable I know saith Christ that thou i John 16.23 Verely verely I say unto you whatsoever you aske the Father in my name he will give it you O Father hearest mee alwaies If wee obtaine whatsoever we aske for Christs sake shall not Christ obtaine what he asketh for us If the Word of God sustaine the whole frame of nature shall not Christs prayer be able to support a weake Christian Doth God heare the softest voice and lowest sigh and groane of his children upon earth and will he not heare the loud cry of his Sonne in his bosome in heaven What therefore if Sathan seeke to winnow us like wheat Saint k Cypr. de simpl prelat Triticum non rapit ventus manes paleae tempestate jactantur Cyprian biddeth us never to feare blowing away It is empty chaffe that is blowne away with the winde the corne still abides on the floore Shall Sathans fanning bee more powerfull to scatter than Christs prayer to gather us shall any winde of temptation be of more force
terris the Earth trembled the Stones clave with indignation the vaile of the Temple rent it selfe the Heaven mourned in sables the Sunne that he might not behold such outrage done upon so sacred a person drew in his beams He who suffereth all this quatcheth not stirreth not nor discovereth his divine Majesty no not when death approached When all insensible creatures seemed to be sensible of the injury offered their Maker he who feeleth all seemeth to be insensible For hee maketh no resistance at all and though he were omnipotent yet his patience overcame his omnipotency and even to this day restraineth his justice from taking full revenge of them who were the authours of his death and of those who since crucifie againe the Lord of life and trample under their feet the bloud of the Covenant as a prophane thing Whose thoughts are not swallowed up in admiration at this that he who is adored in heaven is not yet revenged upon the earth You see meeknesse in his passions behold now this vertue expressed to the life in his life and actions Actions I say whether naturall or miraculous so indeed they are usually distinguished albeit Christs miraculous actions were naturall in him proceeding from his divine nature and most of his naturall actions as they are called proceeding from his humane nature were in him wonderfull and miraculous For instance to weep is a most naturall action but to weep in the midst of his triumph and that for their ruine who were the cause of all his woe to shed teares for them who thirsted after his bloud was after a sort miraculous Who ever did the like Indeed we reade that Marcellus wept over Syracuse and Scipio over Carthage and Titus over Jerusalem as our Saviour did but the cause was far different They shed teares for them whose bloud they were to shed but our Saviour for them who were ready to shed his Luke 19.41 His bowels earned for them who thought it long till they had pierced his heart with a launce When the high Priest commanded Paul to be smote on the face hee rebuked him saying The Lord shall smite thee thou painted wall Acts 23 3. but when the Lord himselfe was smitten by the high Priests servant he falls not foule upon him but returnes this milde answer If I have done evill John 18.23 beare witnesse of the evill but if I have done well why strikest thou me The servant thinketh much to endure that from the Master which the Master endures from the servant The Apostles on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fiery tongues were often hot and inflamed with wrath against the enemies of God and brought downe fearfull judgements upon them but our Saviour on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of a Dove never hurt any by word or deed 2 Kin. 5.27 Matth. 8.2 Luke 4.27 17.12 Acts 13.11 Acts 5.5.10 Eliah inflicted leprosie upon Gehazi by miracle Christ by miracle cleansed divers lepers Saint Paul tooke away sight from Elymas Christ by miracle restored sight to many Saint Peter miraculously with a word strucke Ananias and Sapphira down dead Christ by miracle raised many from death insomuch that his very enemies gave this testimony of him Mark 7 37. Hee hath done all well giving to the lame feet to the maimed strength to the dumbe speech to the deafe eares to the blind sight to the sicke health to the dead life to the living everlasting joy and comfort I have proposed unto you a notable example shall I need to put to spurres of art to pricke on your desires to follow it the example is our Saviour and the vertue exemplified in him meeknesse How excellent must the picture be which is set in so rich a frame such a vertue were to be imitated in any person such a person to be imitated in any vertue how much more such a vertue in such a person It is hard to say whether ought to bee the stronger motive unto us to follow meeknesse either because it is the prince of vertues or the vertue of our Prince whose stile is Princeps pacis Where the prince is the Prince of peace and the kingdome the Kingdome of grace and the law the Law of love they must certainly be of a milde and loving disposition that are capable of preferment in it If the Spirit be an oyntment as S. a 1. John 2.20 But you have an oyntment from the Holy One and you know all things John calleth it it must needs supple If grace bee a dew it cannot but moisten and soften the heart and make it like Gedeons fleece Judges 6.37 which was full of moisture when all the ground about it was dry What can be said more in the commendation of any vertue than meeknesse and of it than this that God commandeth it in his Word Christ patterneth it in his life and death the holy Spirit produceth it in our hearts our very nature enclineth us to it and our condition requireth it of us No vertue so generally commended as meeknesse Follow after righteousnesse 1 Tim. 6.11 godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse bee no brawler Tit. 3.2 but gentle shewing all meeknesse to all men Walke worthy of the vocation whereunto you are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace James 3.17 18. The wisedome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits and the fruit of righteousnesse is sowne in peace of them that make peace No fruit of the spirit so sweet and pleasant as this as on the contrary no fruit of the flesh so tart and bitter as jealousie and wrath which God curseth by the mouth of b Genes 40.7 Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell Jacob but blesseth meeknesse by the mouth of our Saviour Matth. 5.5 Blessed are the meeke for they shall inherit the earth The earth was cursed before it brought forth thornes and thistles and briars which are good for nothing but to bee burned Wherefore let us hearken to the counsell of St. c Cypr. de zelo bâ—â—ore Evellamus spinas de cordibus ut dâ—â—minicum semen nos fertili fruge locupletet Cyprian Let us weed out of our soules envie wrath and jealousie and other stinging and pricking passions And of the Apostle Let no root of d Heb. 12.15 Looking diligently lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you bitternesse remaine in us that we may receive with meeknesse the engraffed Word which is able to save our soules James 1.21 Our carnall lusts are like so many serpents and of all wrath is the most fiery which will set all in a combustion if it bee not either quenched by the teares of repentance or slacked by the infusion of divine
also doth the like Ovid. Met. l. 1. Cuncta priùs tentanda sed immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum est ne pars sincera trahatur Si frustra molliora cesserint Seneca l. 1. de irâ— ferit venam For Physicians first minister weak and gentle potions and as the disease groweth apply stronger medicines And good Surgeons Homer l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Machaon in Homer first lay plasters and poultesses to wounds and swellings and never launce or burne the part till the sore fester and other parts be in danger whom good Magistrates ought to imitate and never to use violent and compulsive remedies but when they are compelled thereunto nor to take extreme courses Senec. l. 1. de ira Ultima supplicia motibus ultimis parat ut nemo pereat nisi quem perire etiam pereuntis intersit but when the malady is extreme Desperate remedies are never good but when no other can be had for they that are of a great spirit if they be well given will not if they be ill cannot be amended by such meanes They resemble Jeat which burneth in water but is quenched with oyle or the c Plin. nat hist l. 31. c. 7. Uno digito mobilis idem si toto corpore impellitur resistens ita ratio est libra menti Colossus at Tarentum which you may move with your finger but cannot wagge if you put your whole strength to it As for those that are of a weaker spirit and are easily daunted harsh courses will doe them more hurt than good for they resemble tender plants which dye if they are touched with a d Rustici frondibus teneris non putant adhibendam falcem quia reformidare ferrum videntur cicatricem nondum pati posse knife or iron instrument The sixth rule is to sweeten the sharpest censures with mild speeches This rule is delivered by Lactantius in these words Circumlinere poculum coelestis sapientiae melle when wee minister a wholsome but bitter potion to annoint the side of the cup with honey when we give the patient a loathsome pill to lap it in sugar The manner whereof the Spirit sheweth us in divers letters sent to the Churches of e Apoc. 2.3 Asia First we are to professe the good will wee beare to the party and make it knowne unto him that whatsoever we doe we doe it in love f Apoc. 3.19 I rebuke and chasten as many as I love Secondly to acknowledge their good parts if they have any g Apoc. 2.2 4. I know thy workes and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not beare them that are evill neverthelesse I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Thirdly to give them some good advice and counsell with our reproofe h Apoc. 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist bee rich and white raiment that thou maist be clothed and that the shame of thy nakednesse may not appeare and to annoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see Lastly to promise them favour upon any token of amendment i Apoc. 3.20 Be zealous therefore and repent behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Some there are who like best a resolute Chirurgian who be the patient never so impatient will doe his duty and quickly put him out of his paine though in the meane time he putteth the party to most intolerable torture Give me a tender-hearted Chirurgian who being to set an arme or legge that is out of joynt handleth it so gently that the patient scant feeleth when the bone falleth in Thus Nathan the Prophet handled King David 2 Sam. 12.3 4 5 6 7. and by telling him first a parable of a poore man that had but one lambe c. and afterwards applying it unexpectedly to the King himself ere he was aware as it were set not his body but his soule in joynt The seventh rule is to keep the execution of justice within certaine bounds set by equity and mercy This rule is laid downe by the Prophet Micah Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 and what the Lord requireth of thee to doe justice and to love mercy and by Solomon Eccles 7.16 Be not just overmuch Cut not too deep nor launce too farre Ne excedat medicina modum It is better to leave some flesh a little tainted than cut away any that is sound It is more agreeable to Gods proceedings to save a whole City for ten righteous mens sake than after the manner of the Romans when there was a mutiny in the Campe to pay the tythe to justice by executing every tenth man through the whole Army For as Germanicus cryed out in Tacitus Tacit. annal l. 1. Non medicina ista est sed clades when hee saw a great number of souldiers put to the sword for raising up sedition in the Army Stay your hand this is not an execution but a slaughter not a remedy but a plague not severity of justice but extremity of cruelty For which Theodosius the Emperour was justly excommunicated by St. Ambrose and Aegyptus sharply censured by the Poet Ovid. l. 1. de Pont. Eleg 9. qui caede nocentum Se nimis ulciscens extitit ipse nocens And Scylla was proscribed by the Historians and Poets of his time to all ages because hee was not content with the punishment of sixty thousand in Rome who were executed with most exquisite torments but entring afterwards into Praeneste there left not a man alive and else where also his cruelty raging in the end as Lucan observeth hee let out the corrupt bloud but when there was in a manner no other bloud left in the whole body of the Common-wealth Lucan de bel ci l. 1. periere nocentes Sed cum jam soli poterant superesse nocentes What was this else Sabast conjur Caâ—il Vastaâ—e civitatem non sanaâ—e than as Salust speaketh to exhaust a city not to purge it I am not against the cutting off a rotten member to preserve the whole body I know the sword is the only cure of an incurable wound which yet hath no place when there is no sound part in the whole body a Bodin de rep l 3. c 7. Et si salutare est putre membrum ad universi corporis salutem urere aut secare non propterea si omnia membra extabuerint aâ—t gangâ—ena inficiantuâ— sectionibus erit aut ustionibus utendum Bodine speaketh pertinently to this purpose It doth not follow that because it is good Surgery sometimes to burne out rotten flesh or cut off a member to save the whole that therefore if a gangrene overspread the whole we are to apply a Razor or Cupping-glasse b Sen.
so wonderfully for nought but that he reserved him for some greater worke and service to his Church as wee see this day There remaineth yet one clause in my text And the mouth of every one that speaketh lies shall bee stopped and answerably an appendix to the narration of the conspiracie of the Gowries for stopping the mouthes of all that shall call in question the truth of that relation Which besides the conscience of his Majesty the deposition of his servants the publicke justice of the Parliament of Scotland the solemne piety and devotion of the Churches of great Brittaine and Ireland was sixteene yeeres after the plotting thereof and eight yeeres after the acting confirmed by the publicke free and voluntarie confession of p Vid. a booke intituled the examination of G. Sprot published with a learned preface to it by G.A. Dr. D. and Dean of Winchester George Sprot arraigned and executed at Edinburgh for it Thus have I fitted each member of this prophecy to the severall parts of the storie of his Majesties deliverance as on this day betweene which there is such good correspondencie that the prophesie seemeth text to the storie and the storie a commentarie on the prophesie Observe I beseech you the harmony of them and let your heart dance with joy at every straine 1. The first is They that seeke my soule to destroy it shall goe downe c. This was exemplified and according to the letter accomplished in Alexander Ruthwen who sought the ruine of our David and was himselfe throwne downe the staires and after part of him into the lowest parts of the earth a deepe pit into which his bowels were cast 2. The second is They shall cast him downe by the edge of the sword This was accomplished in the Earle Gowrie whom the Kings servants smote in the study with the edge of the sword that hee died and fell at their feet 3. The third is And they shall be a portion for foxes that is lie unburied for a prey to the fowles of heaven and beasts of the earth this was accomplished in all the Traitors who were according to the Lawes of the kingdome hanged drawne and quartered and their quarters set up upon the most eminent parts of the Citie where the fowles preyed upon them till they dropped downe to the ground and were made an end of by some ravenous beasts 4. The fourth is The King shall rejoyce in God This was literally verified in our King who joyfull after hee was plucked out of the jawes of death gave publicke thankes to God and ascribed the whole glory of his deliverance and victorie over his enemies to his gracious goodnesse and in memorie of this so great a benefit commanded this feast which wee now celebrate to be solemnly kept in all his Dominions yeerely 5. The fifth is And all that sweare by him that is all which worship the true God the God of our Jacob or all that sweare to him that is allegiance to his Majestie shall glorie This as it was accomplished in other congregations so is it in us here present assembled to glorie in the Lord for this wonderfull delivery of their then and now also our Soveraigne 6. The sixt and last is And the mouth of all that speake lies shall bee stopped This was also fulfilled by the meanes of George Sprot who by his pious behaviour and penitent confession at his death and a signe which he promised to shew after his breath should be stopped and accordingly performed after he had hanged a great while clapping his hands above his head stopped the mouth of all such as before spake lies against the truth of the precedent relation To the lively expression whereof I have borrowed as you see Davids princely characters and set the presse placing each letter in his ranke and part in his order What remaineth but that I pray to God by his spirit to stampe them in our hearts and so imprint them in our memories that he that runneth may reade our thankfulnesse to God for this deliverance and confidence in his future protection of our Soveraignes person and love and loyaltie to his Majestie whom God hath so strangely saved from the sword to save the sword from us that in peace and safety he might receive and sway the Scepter of these Kingdomes of great Brittaine and Ireland Which long may hee with much prosperity and honour to the glory of God and propagation of the truth libertie and safetie of the Church and Common-wealth exceeding joy and comfort of all his friends and remarkeable shame and confusion of his implacable enemies So bee it Deo patri c. THE LORD PROTECTOR OF PRINCES OR DEUS ET REX GOD AND THE KING A Sermon appointed to be preached before his Grace at Croydon August 5. 1620. THE SIXTH SERMON PSAL. 21.1 The King shall joy in thy strength O Lord and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoyce Or as wee reade in the Bishops Bible The King shall rejoyce in thy strength O Lord exceeding glad shall he be of thy salvation THat manifold or to make a new compound to translate a compound in the Originall a Eph. 3.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multivarious wisedome and goodnesse of God which hath illustrated the firmament with varietie of starres some more some lesse glistering and glorious enamell'd the meadowes with choyce of flowers some more some lesse beautifull and fragrant inriched the sands of the Sea with pearle some more some lesse orient and veines of the earth with metals some more some lesse pretious hath also decked and garnished the Calendar of the Church with variety of Feasts some more some lesse holy and solemn You may observe a kinde of Hierarchy among them some have a preheminence over the rest which we call greater and higher Feasts Among which this day challengeth his place on which we refresh the memorie of his Majesties rescue out of the prophane and impious hands of the Earle Gowry and Alexander Ruthwen A paire of unnaturall brethren brethren in nature and brethren in a most barbarous and unnaturall attempt against their Soveraigne the Lords annointed brethren by bloud and brethren also in bloud who by the just judgement of God cleansed that study with their owne bloud which they would have for ever stained by the effusion there of the Royall bloud of the most innocent Prince that ever sate on that or this Throne whom almighty God seemeth not so much to have preserved from those imminent dangers he then escaped as reserved for these unvaluable blessings we now enjoy by the prorogation of his life enlarging of his Scepter and propagation of his Issue In his life the life of our hope is revived in his Scepter the Scepter of Christ is extended in his stocke the root of Jesse is propagated and shall I hope flourish to the end of the world For this cause the King shall rejoyce c. he shall rejoyce in thee we in
Eph. 6.14 15 16 17. The breast-plate of righteousnesse the shooes of preparation the shield of faith the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit Learne of that fortunate Commander of the Gothes who like lightning in a moment appeared from one part of the earth to the other and nothing was able to withstand him This Emperour never put himselfe into the field to fight with his enemy before at home hee had made his peace with God Salvianus who lived at the same time and accurately observed his demeanour attributeth his miraculous victories to nothing more than to his extraordinary and admirable devotion e Sal. de prov l. 7. Ipse rex hostium usque ad diem pugnae stratus cilicio preces fundit ante bellum in oratione jacuit ad bellum de oratione surrexit The King that warreth against us to the very day in which hee draweth out his forces to fight lyeth on the ground at his devotion in sackcloth and ashes before hee goeth into the battell hee is at his prayer in private and never riseth but from his knees to fight Wrestle you in like manner with God that you may bee Israels keep his Law as strictly as your Martiall discipline and I will be bold to give you now at your parting the benediction of the Psalmist * Psal 45.3 4. Gird your swords upon your thighes O yee mighty with glory ride on with honour because of truth meeknesse and righteousnesse and your right hand shall teach you terrible things your arrowes shall bee sharpe in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people shall fall under you Hath not the Lord by his Vice-gerent commanded you to help and assist your brethren Bee strong therefore and of a good courage and the Lord God shall bee with you whithersoever you goe To whom c. THE CROWNE OF HUMILITY A Sermon preached in VVooll-Church Aprill 10. 1624. THE NINETEENTH SERMON MATTH 5.3 Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven THey who desire to abide in the Tabernacle of the Almighty and rest upon his holy a Psal 15.1 Hill had need to get by heart and con without booke by continuall practice this Sermon of Christ upon the Mount which hath more ravishing straines of Eloquence more divine a phorismes of Wisedome more powerfull motives to Holinesse more certaine directions to Happinesse treasured up in it than are found in all the parenetiques of Oratours all the diatribes of Philosophers all the apophthegmes of Sages all the emblemes of Poets all the hieroglyphicks of Egyptian Priests all the tables of Lawes all the pandects of Constitutions all the digests of Imperiall Sanctions all the bodies and systemes of Canons all acts of Parliament all rules of Perfection ever published to the worlds view I dare confidently affirme that which all the ancient and later Commentatours upon it will make good that this one Sermon in Monte surmounts them all Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus Where the Philosophers left and could goe no further the Physician of our soule goes on at the health and eternall salvation of our immortall spirit where they made an end of their discourses which yet came farre short of their marke there hee begins at blessednesse it selfe And doubtlesse if there be any happinesse in knowledge it is in the knowledge of happinesse which the proper owner thereof in himselfe and gracious doner to his creatures capable thereof bestoweth here as a dowry and shareth betweene eight divine vertues 1. Humility poore in spirit 2. Repentance mourning for sinne 3. Compassion ever meeke 4. Devotion hungring and thirsting for righteousnesse 5. Piety alwaies mercifull 6. Sincerity pure in heart 7. Brotherly love making peace 8. Patience enduring all for righteousnesse sake There are no straines in Musicke so delightfull as those in which discords are artificially bound in with concords nor dishes so dainty as those in which sweet things and tart or sowre are seasonably mingled nor pictures so beautifull as those in which bright colours with darke shadowes are curiously tempered nor sentences so rhetoricall as those in which contraries are fitly opposed and set one against the other Such are almost all the straines of this sweet Lesson pricked by our Saviour such are all the dishes placed in this heavenly Banquet such are the pictures set in this Gallery such are the sentences skilfully contrived into the Proeme of this Sermon wherein blessing is opposed to cursing laughing to weeping reward to punishments satisfaction to hungring and thirsting gaine to losses glory to shame and in my Text heavenly riches to earthly poverty 1. Blessed poverty because to be enriched 2. Blessed mourning because to be comforted 3. Blessed hungring because to be satisfied 4. Blessed enduring punishment because to be rewarded Blessed are the poore c. In these words our blessed Saviour the hope of our blessednesse here and blessednesse of our hope hereafter teacheth us 1. Whom we are to call blessed 2. Why. 1. Whom the humble in heart here tearmed poore in spirit 2. Why because their lowlinesse of mind entituleth them to the highest top of honour glory and happinesse a Kingdome and that in Heaven Blessed not in fruition but in hope are the poore not simply in estate but in spirit and these are also blessed not for any thing they have on earth but for that they shall have in heaven an incorruptible Crowne of glory 1. There are some to be held for blessed even in this life 2. These blessed are the poore 3. These poore are poore in spirit Or if you like better of a Logicall division than a Theologicall partition observe in this speech of our Saviour 1. An affirmation Blessed are the poore 2. A confirmation For theirs is the kingdome of Heaven The affirmation is strange and may be called a divine Paradoxe for the world accounteth blessednesse to consist in wealth and abundance not in poverty A good man in the language of the City is a wealthy man Poverty above all things is despised b Juv sat 3. Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se Quam quod ridiculos homines facit And of all poore men we have the meanest opinion of those that are poore in spirit we account not them worth the earth they tread upon yet for these Christ plats the Garland of blessednesse Because the affirmation is strange the confirmation ought to be strong and so indeed it is For saith hee theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Whether wee take the Kingdome of Heaven for the Kingdome of grace or the Kingdome of glory they have best right to both For the Kingdome of grace is in them according to the words of our Saviour c Luk. 17.21 The Kingdome of God is with you and they shall be in the Kingdome of glory when they enter into their Masters joy therefore they are doubly happy 1. Re. 2. Spe. 1. Re in the present
unto our spirits that wee are the sonnes of God Pretious metals are digged out of the bowels of the earth and pearles are found in the bottome of the sea and truely seldome shall we fall upon this treasure of spirituall joy and pearle of the Gospell but in the depth of godly sorrow and bottome and lowest point of our humiliation before God 1. The first taste wee have of the hidden Manna of the Spirit is in the beginning of our conversion and nonage of our spirituall life when after unutterable remorse sorrow and feare arising from the apprehension of the corruption and guilt of our naturall estate and a dreadfull expectation of wrath laid up for us against the day of wrath and everlasting weeping howling and gnashing of teeth with the damned in hell wee on the suddaine see a glympse of Gods countenance shining on us and by faith though yet weake hope for a perfect reconciliation to him 2. A second taste wee have when wee sensibly perceive the Spirit of grace working upon our heart thawing it as it were and melting it into godly sorrow and after enflaming it with an everlasting love of him who by his infinite torments and unconceivable sorrowes hath purchased unto us eternall joyes 3. A third taste wee have of it when after a long fight with our naturall corruptions wee meet with the Divels Lievtenant the sinne that reigneth in us which the Scripture calleth the plague of the heart that vice to which either the temper of our body or our age or condition of life enclineth us unto our bosome abomination to which for a long time wee have enthralled our selves and having perfectly discovered it by employing the whole armour of God against it in the end wee get the victory of it 4. A fourth taste wee have after some heavie crosse or long sicknesse when God delivereth us above hope and sanctifieth our affliction unto us and by his Spirit calleth to our remembrance all his goodnesse to us from our childhood and anointeth our eyes with eye-salve that wee may see the manifold fruits of the crosse and finde in our selves with David that it was good for us thus to bee afflicted 5. A fift taste wee have at some extafie in our life or a trance at our death when wee are rapt up as it were into the third heaven with St. Paul and see those things that eye never saw and heare words that cannot be uttered Thus have I opened unto you five springs of the waters of comfort in which after you have stript your selves of wordly cares and earthly delights you may bathe your soules in the bottome whereof you may see the white stone which Christ promiseth to him that overcommeth saying To him that overcommeth I will give to eate of the hidden Manna To whom c. THE WHITE STONE THE XXVII SERMON APOC. 2.17 And I will give him a white stone Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IT was the manner of the Thracians to reckon up all the happy dayes of their life and marke them in a booke or table with a white stone whereunto the Poet alluding saith a Pers satyr Hunc Macrine diem numera meliore lapillo May it please God by his Spirit to imprint those mysteries in your hearts which are engraven upon this stone I doubt not but this day in which I am to describe unto you the nature of it will prove so happy that it shall deserve to bee scored up with the like stone For this white stone is a certaine token and pledge of present remission of sinnes and future admission into Christs kingdome Whereof through divine assistance by your wonted patience I will speake at large after I have refreshed the characters in your memory of my former observations upon this Scripture which setteth before all that overcome in the threefold christian warre 1 Forraine against Sathan Recapitulat 2 Civill against the world 3 Servile against fleshly lusts three boones or speciall gifts 1 Hidden Manna a type of spirituall consolation 2 A white stone the embleme of justification 3 A new name the imprese of glorification There is 1 Sweetnesse in the hidden Manna 2 Comfort in the white stone 3 Glory in the new name The sweetnesse of the hidden Manna wee tasted 1 In the mysticall meaning of the Word 2 In the secret power of the Sacrament 3 In the unutterable comfort of the Spirit And now I am to deliver unto you in the next place the white stone In the handling whereof I will levell at those three scientificall questions mentioned by b Aristot analyt post l. 2. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notand quod sit referti ad an sit ubi de accidente quaeritur quia accidentis esse est messe Aristotle in his bookes of demonstration Divis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An sit aut quod sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quid sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propter quod sit First whether there be any such white stone Secondly what it is Thirdly to what end it is given and what use wee are to make of it for our instruction correction or comfort First of the An sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether there be any such stone or no. There hath beene for many ages a great question De lapide Philosophico of the Philosophers stone to which they ascribe a rare vertue to turne baser metals into gold but there is no question at all among the sincere professours of the Gospell De lapide theologico of the divine stone in my text which yet is far more worth and of greater vertue than that For that if we have any faith in Alchymy after much labour and infinite cost will turne base metall into gold but this will undoubtedly turne penitent teares into pearle and drops of blood shed for the testimony of the Gospell into rubies and hematites to beset our crowne of glory With this stone as a speciall love-token Christ assureth his dearest spouse that c Rom. 8.28 all things shall turn to her good and worke together for her endlesse happinesse Hee that hath this white stone shall by the eye of faith see it suddenly turne all temporall losses into spirituall advantages all crosses into blessings all afflictions into comforts What though some heretickes or profane persons have no beliefe of this white stone no more than they have of that d Mat. 13.46 pearle of great price which the Merchant sold all that hee had to buy What though some have beene abused by counterfeit stones like to this shall wee not therefore regard this or seeke after it This were all one as if an expert Gold-smith should refuse to look after pure gold because some ignorant Merchant hath beene cheated with sophisticated alchymie stuffe for gold or if a skilfull Jeweller should offer nothing for an orient Diamond because an unskilfull Lapidary hath beene corisened with a Cornish or Bristow stone in stead of it The
sed spe debemus indubitatâ praesumere Gregory impropriateth not this assurance to himselfe or some few to whom God extraordinarily revealeth their state hereafter but extendeth it to all making it a common duty not a speciall gift saying Being supported with this certainty wee ought nothing to doubt of the mercy of our Redeemer but bee confident thereof out of an assured hope By the coherence of the text in the eighth to the Romans we may infallibly gather that all that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and have received the first fruits thereof and the testimony within themselves are the Sonnes of God know that all things worke together for their good Have wee not all received the spirit of adoption doe we not come to God as children to a most loving father doe wee not daily in confidence of his love cry Abba Father If so then the Apostle addeth farther that the Spirit testifieth to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God And lest any hereticall doubt cast in might trouble the spring of everlasting comfort as if we were indeed made sonnes for the present but might forfeit our adoption and thereby lose our inheritance the Apostle cleareth all in the words following v. 17. If sonnes then heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ God adopteth no sonne whom he intendeth not to make his heire neither can any that is borne of him cease to be his sonne because the ſ 1 Pet. 1.23 Being borne againe not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed of which he is borne is incorruptible and this seed still remaineth in him 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne for his seed remaineth in him There are three means of assurance among men 1 Earnests 2 Seales 3 Witnesses In bargaines earnests in deeds seales in trialls witnesses First to secure summes of money or bargaines we take earnests of men or some pledge behold this security given us by God even the t 2 Cor. 1.22 earnest of his Spirit in our hearts On which words St. u Chrysost in secund ad Cor. hom l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome thus plainely glosseth He saith not the Spirit but the earnest of the Spirit that thou mayst be every way confident for if he meant not to give thee the whole he would never have given this earnest in present For this had beene to lose his earnest and cast it away in vaine Secondly to confirme all grants licences bonds leases testaments and conveyances seales are required behold this confirmation also Ephes 1.13 In whom ye are sealed by that holy Spirit of promise and 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption Whether we speake of the seale sealing or the seale sealed we have both For we are sealed by the Spirit of grace as by the seale sealing and by the grace of the Spirit as the seale sealed that is printed upon us In reference to which place Daniel x Chamierus de fid l. 10. c. 13. Sigillorum varii sunt gradus alia simpliciter ad rei pertinent certitudinem indefinité sic Reges sigillis suis muniunt diplomata sic contrahentes sigillis schedam suam muniunt sed alia spectant personae certitudinem quae obsignari dicitur id est signo peculiari insigniri ut eo sciat se in numerum eorum ascriptum ad quos tale aliquod jus pertinet ut cum Rex Equitibus suis torques concedit ut procerto habeat se Equites esse Chamierus rightly noteth that there are seales put to things for their confirmation and certaine signes or badges answerable to seales given to persons at their investiture as a collar of S's and a blew ribbon with a George to the knights of the Garter c. We have both these seales sigillum rei by the Sacrament and sigillum personae by the Spirit which sealeth us to the day of our redemption Thirdly to prove any matter of fact in Courts of justice witnesses are produced behold this proofe of our right and title to a kingdome in heaven proofe I say by witnesses beyond exception the holy Spirit and our renewed consciences The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our Spirit that wee are the children of God Rom. 8.16 On which words St. Chrysostome thus enlargeth himselfe y Chrysost in epist ad Rom. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a man or an Angel or an Archangel had promised thee this honour to be the Sonne of God thou mightest peradventure have made some doubt of it but now when God himselfe giveth thee this title commanding thee to call him Abba Father who dare question thy title If the King himselfe pricke a Sheriffe or send him the Garter or the Seale what subject dare gainesay it Lastly as the Planets are knowne by their influence and the Diamond by his lustre and the Balsamum by his medicinall vertue and the soule by her vitall operations so the gift here promised is most sensibly knowne by the effects 1 Exceeding love 2 Secure peace 3 Unspeakable joy 4 Invincible courage He that is not certain that he hath or ever shall receive any benefit by another or comfort in him loveth but a little He that was condemned to die and cannot tell whether he hath a pardon for his life or no can be at no peace he that heareth glad tidings but giveth little credit to them rejoyceth but faintly he who hath no assurance of a better life will be advised how he parteth with this But the Saints of God and Martyrs of Jesus Christ are exceedingly enflamed with the love of their Redeemer in comparison whereof they esteeme all things as dung they enjoy peace that passeth all understanding they are ravished with spirituall joy they so little passe for this present life that they are ready not onely to be bound but to dye for the Lord Jesu they rejoyce in their sufferings they sing in the middest of the flames they lie as contentedly upon the racke as upon a bed of doune they prove masteries with all sorts of evill they weary both tortures and tormentors and in all are more than Conquerours therefore they know assuredly how they stand in the Court of heaven they feele within them what Christ hath done for them they have received already the first fruits of heavenly joyes and doubt not of the whole crop they haue received the earnest and doubt not of their full pay they have received the seales and doubt not of the deeds of their salvation they have received the testimonie of the Spirit and doubt not of their adoption they have received the white stone in my text and doubt not of their absolution from death and election to a kingdome in heaven What doe their dying speeches that ought to live in perpetuall memory import lesse First St. y 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. Pauls I am now ready to be
and godly in this present world Againe if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spirituall graces and lackest nothing when thine owne Spirit testifieth within thee that thou art blinde and naked and miserable and poore beleeve not that Spirit For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit q Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the sonnes of God and when they both sweetly accord we may without presumption conclude with Saint r Tract 22. in Joh Veritas pollicetur qui credit habet vitam aeternam ego audivi verba Domini credidit infidelis cum essem factus sum fidelis sicut ipse monuit transii de morte ad vitam in judicium non venio non praesumptione meâ sed promissione ipsius Austine The truth promiseth whosoever beleeveth in mee hath eternall life I have heard the words of the Lord I have beleeved whereas I was before an Infidell I am now made faithfull and according to his promise have passed from death to life and shall come into no condemnation It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christs promise Hereunto let us adde the testimony of the effects of saving grace As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word so the effects of saving grace confirme both unto us These Saint Bernard reckoneth to bee Hatred of sinne Contempt of the world Desire of heaven Hatred of our unregenerate estate past contempt of present vanities desire of future felicity And doubtlesse if our hatred of sinne bee universall our contempt of worldly vanities constant and our desire of heavenly joyes fervent wee may build upon them a strong perswasion that we are in the favour of God because we hate all evill that we are espoused to Christ because wee are divorced from the world and that heaven belongeth unto us because wee long for it Howbeit these seeme to bee rather characters of christian perfection than common workes of an effectuall vocation Though wee arrive not to so high a degree of Angelicall rather than humane perfection yet through Gods mercy wee may bee assured of our election by other more easie and common workes of the Spirit in us I meane true faith sincere love of goodnesse in our selves and others hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse striving against our fleshly corruptions godly sorrow filiall feare comfortable patience and continuall growth in grace and godlinesse Tully writeth of l Cic. Verr. 5. Syracuse That there is no day through the whole yeere so stormy and tempestuous in which they have not some glympse of the sunne neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation in the soule of a Christian in which the Sunne of righteousnesse doth not shine upon him and some of these graces appeare in him For if hee decay in one grace hee may increase in another if hee finde not in himselfe sensible growing in any grace hee may feele in himselfe an unfained desire of such growth and godly sorrow for want of it and though hee conquer not all sinne yet hee alloweth not himselfe in any sinne and though he may have lost the sense yet not the essence of faith and though hee bee not assured in his owne apprehension of remission of sinnes yet hee may bee sure of his adhesion to God and relying upon him for the forgivenesse of them with a resolution like that of Job Though he kill me yet will I put my trust in him And this is the summe and effect of what our Christian casuists answere to the second question Quid sit what is the white stone whereby as a certaine pledge grace and glory are secured unto us The third question yet remains Propter quid sit to what end this white stone is given In the maine point of difference betweene the reformed and the Romane Church concerning assurance of salvation that wee bee not mis-led wee must distinguish of a double certainty The one of the subject or of The person The other of the object or of The thing it selfe The certainty of the one never varieth because it dependeth upon Gods election the certainty of the other often varieth because it dependeth upon the vivacity of our faith Even as the apple in the eye of many creatures waxeth and waineth with the Moone and as t Solin Poly-hist c. 56. Uniones quoties excipiunt matutini aeris semen fit clarius margaritum quoties vespertini fit obscurius Solinus writeth that the Margarite is clearer or duskier according to the temper of the aire and face of the skie in which the shell-fish openeth it selfe so this latter assurance waxeth and waineth with our faith and is more evident or more obscure as our conscience is more or lesse purged from dead workes If our faith be lively our assurance is strong if our faith faile our assurance flagges and in some fearfull temptation is so farre lost that wee are brought to the very brinke of despaire partly to chasten us for our former presumption partly to abate our spirituall pride and humble us before God and in our owne spirits but especially to improve the value of this jewell of assurance and stirre us up to more diligence in using all possible meanes to regaine it and keep it more carefully after we have recovered it By the causes of Gods taking away of this white stone from us or at the least hiding it out of our sight for a while wee may ghesse at the reasons why hee imparteth it unto us 1. First to endeare his love unto us and enflame ours to him For how can wee but infinitely and eternally love him who hath assured us of infinite joyes eternall salvation an indefeizable inheritance everlasting habitations and an incorruptible crowne 2. Secondly to incourage us to finish our christian race through many afflictions and persecutions for the Gospels sake which we could never do if this crowne of glory were not hung out from heaven and manifestly exhibited to the eye of our faith with assurance to winne it by our patience 3. Thirdly but especially to kindle in us a most ardent desire and continuall longing to arrive at our heavenly countrey where wee shall possesse that inheritance of a kingdome which is as surely conveighed unto us by the Word and Sacraments as if Almighty God should presently cause a speciall deed to bee made or patent to bee drawne for it and set his hand and seale to it in our sight To knit up all that hath beene delivered that it may take up lesse roome in your memory and bee more easily borne away let mee entreat you to set before your eyes the custome of the Romanes in the entertainment of any great personage whom after they had feasted with rare dainties served in covered dishes at the end of the banquet they gave unto him an Apophoreton or
be no other than grace and he who hath a greater measure of grace must needs more love the Fountaine of grace Christ Jesus As Jesus therefore more loved John so John more loved Jesus hee followed him boldly to the high Priests hall hee never denyed him once as Peter did thrice hee with his mother attended him at the crosse and from that day tooke the blessed Virgin to his owne home and therefore though Christ promised the keyes of heaven to Peter first yet hee gave Saint John a greater priviledge to leane on his breast Which leaned on his breast Of Saint Johns leaning on Christs breast foure kindes of reasons are given 1 A civill by Calvin 2 A Morall by Theophylact. 3 A mysticall by Saint Austine 4 A tropologicall by Guilliandus Though saith a Calv. in Harmon Calvin for a servant to lye on his masters breast may seeme unseemly yet the custome of the Jewes being not to fit at table as we do but at their meales to lye on beds or carpets on the ground it was no more for Saint John to lye on Christs breast than with us to sit next to him unlesse with Theophylact we conceive that Saint John upon the mention of our Lords death and that by treason tooke on most grievously and beginning to languish through griefe was taken by Christ into his bosome to comfort him or wee interpret with Saint Austin and others of the Ancients Sinum Christi Sapientiae secretum the bosome of Christ the cabinet of celestiall jewels or treasury of wisedome and inferre with Saint Ambrose from thence b In psal 118. Johannes cum caput suum super pectus domini reclinaret hauriebat profunda secreta sapientiae That John when hee laid his head to Christs breasts sucked from thence the profound secrets of wisedome and with c Beda in Evang Johan Quia in pectore Christi sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae scientiae reconditi meritò super pectus ejus recumbit quem majore caeteris sapientiae scientiae singularis munere donat Beda That Christ revealed to Saint John as his bosome friend more secrets and that the reason why his writings are more enriched with knowledge especially of things future than the rest is because he had free accesse to Christs breast wherein all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge were hid Moreover as d Guil. com in Johan c. 21. Guilliandus observeth S. John lay upon Christs breast for the same reason that Moses appointed in the law the breast of all sacrifices for the Priest to teach us that wisedome and understanding whose seat is the breast and heart ought to be the speciall portion of the Priests Among so many ingenuous reasons of this gesture of Saint John if wee leane to Saint Austines opinion the use wee are to make of it is with reverence and religious preparation to read and heare all the bookes of holy Scripture and especially Saint Johns writings who received those hidden and heavenly mysteries in Jesus his bosome which Jesus * Joh. 1.18 No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father hath revealed him heard in his Fathers bosome All Scriptures are given by e 2 Tim. 3.16 divine inspiration and are equally pillars of our faith anchors of our hope deeds and evidences of our salvation yet as the heaven is more starry in one part than another and the seas deeper in one place than another so it is evident that some passages of Scripture are more lightsome than others and some books contain in them more profound mysteries and hidden secrets and most of all S. Johns Gosspell and his Apocalypse wherein by Saint Jeromes reckoning the number of the mysteries neare answereth the number of the words quot verba tot sacramenta If wee like of Theophylact his reason wee are from thence to learne not to adde affliction to the afflicted not to vexe them that are wounded at the heart but to stay with flaggons and comfort with apples those that are in a spirituall swoune and by no meanes to withhold from them that faint under the burden of their sinnes the comforts of the Gospell to support them especially considering that hee as well killeth a man who ministreth not to him in due time those things which may hold life in him as hee that slayeth him downe right Lastly if wee sticke with Calvin to the letter it will discover unto us the errour of many among us that contend so much for sitting at the Communion and a table gesture as they speake whereas Christ at his last Supper neither sate nor used any table at all In eating of the Passeover wee read f Mat. 26.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 14.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 22.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ with the twelve fell down or lay downe after the Jewish manner which was nearer to kneeling than sitting But what gesture precisely hee used in the delivery of the holy mysteries it is not expressed in Scripture most probable it is that he kneeled or at least that the Apostles kneeled when they received the sanctified Elements from him For no doubt they who in the first ages immediatly succeeded the Apostles received the Communion as the Apostles maner was and that they kneeled the heathen cavill against them that they worshipped bread and wine maketh it in a maner evident For had they sate or stood in the celebration of the Sacrament the Gentiles could have had no colour to cast an aspersion of bread-worship on them but because in receiving the sacred elements of bread and wine they kneeled downe and religiously called upon God the Paynims conceived that they adored the creatures of bread and wine And they among us who cannot distinguish betweene kneeling at the Sacrament and kneeling to the element bread worship and the worship of Christ in religiously and reverently participating the holy mysteries of his body and blood are as grossely ignorant in Christian rites as the ancient heathen were Verely did they consider seriously who it is that under the forme of bread and wine offereth unto them his body and blood even Christ himselfe by his Spirit and what they at the same time in a thankfull love offer to God their bodies for a holy and living sacrifice and what then they receive a generall pardon of all their sinnes under the seale of the King of heaven I perswade my selfe their hearts would smite them if they strived not to receive so great a benefit from so gracious a Majesty as in the most thankfull so in the most humble manner But it is not the position of your bodies but the disposition of your mindes which in this rare patterne of my text I would commend to your Christian imitation The best keeping the Feast of a Saint is to raise him as it were to life by expressing his vertues and
the writer of them such was the story of Genesis before the Floud whereof Moses could bee no otherwise infallibly enformed than by Gods revealing them unto him 2. Of things to come which is properly termed prophecy and this may be either 1. By instinct when men or women fore-tell things to come not knowing the certainty or being fully perswaded of the things themselves 2. Per raptum or ravishing of Spirit when they fore-tell such things whereof they are infallibly assured either 1. By voice as Moses was 2. By dreame as Daniel 3. By vision as Esay Ezekiel Zechary and other Prophets By instinct I am easily induced to beleeve that many especially before their death may fore-tell many things that come to passe shortly after and I deny not but some also may per raptum as I am perswaded John Hus did before his martyrdome in those words which are stampt in the coyne of those dayes yet to be seen Centum revolutis annis respondebitis Deo mihi after a hundred yeeres you shall bee called to an accompt for these things about which time they were openly challenged for them by Martin Luther and other zealous Reformers Yet are wee not to build our Christian faith upon any prophesies save those only which holy men have set downe in Scripture as they were guided by the holy Ghost Among which this is to bee ranked which Saint John received not from man or Angel but from e Cap. 1. V. 9 10. Jesus Christ not per instinctum but per raptum as himselfe testifieth I John which also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ was in the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ I was in the spirit on the Lords day and heard behind mee a great voice as of a Trumpet Note wee herein that Saint John received this revelation in his exile or banishment to teach us that Gods servants may be banished out of their native soyle and the Court of Princes but not out of the Catholicke Church or the presence of God Secondly Saint John received this prophesie as he was in the spirit to intimate unto us that this booke is of a spirituall interpretation Thirdly he received it on the Lords day to lesson us that God most blesseth our meditations on this day and that they must bee at peace with him and free from worldly cares and businesse who expect revelations from him For the title of the booke of Apocalypse or Revelation it is taken either from the manner whereby it came to Saint John before mentioned or from the matter herein contained which is mysticall hidden and for the most part of things future very obscure before the event and issue manifest them not from Saint Johns manner of expressing them for that for the most part is very intricate For as Plato sometimes spake of an obscure example Exemplum O hospes eget exemplo You had need to illustrate your example by another example so of all the bookes in Scripture the booke of Revelation most needs a revelation and cleare exposition in which as Saint Jerome hath observed Quot verba tot Sacramenta there are neere as many mysteries and figures and aenigmaticall expressions as words for this is the booke spoken of in this booke f Apoc. 5.1 sealed with seven seales answerable to the seven letters enclosed in it directed to the seven Churches of Asia to Ephesus Smyrna Sardis Pergamus Philadelphia Laodicea and Thyatira which names are as it were a small table and short draught of the lineaments of these Churches As Irenaeus his peaceable temper and Lactantius his milkie veine and Eusebius his piety and Chrysostomes golden mouth and contrariwise Jacobs subtilty and Edoms cruelty and Nabals folly and Seneca his end Se necans and Protesilaus his destiny were written in their names g Ovid. ep Protesilae tibi nomen sic fata dedêre victima quod Troiae prima futurus eras so the speciall and most noted vertues and vices in these Churches may bee read by the learned in the Greeke tongue in their names I dare not affirme that the holy Ghost either imposed or made choice of these names to intimate any such thing especially because these names were given to these Cities before they gave their names to Christ Neither doe we reade that these names at the first were put upon these Townes by men endued with a Propheticall spirit but by their Heathen Founders or Governours yet is the correspondency between these names and the condition of these Churches at the time when Saint John as Christ his amanuensis wrote these letters to them very remarkable and they may serve the learned as places in artificiall memory to fixe the character of these Churches in them 1. By the name Ephesus so termed quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying remission or slacking they may bee put in minde of slacking or back-sliding wherewith the Spirit upbraideth this Church h Cap. 2. Ver. 4. Thou hast left thy first love remember whence thou art fallen and repent 2. By the name Smyrna signifying lacrymam myrrhae the dropping or teares of myrrhe they may be put in mind of the i Ver. 10. cup of teares which this Angel was to drinke Yee shall have great tribulation for ten dayes 3. By the name Pergamus quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying beyond or out of the bounds of marriage they may be put in mind of the Nicolaitans abounding in this Church who were great abusers of k Ver. 15. marriage Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate 4. By the name Sardis quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying fleshly they may be put in minde of many in this Church that were l Cap. 3. Ver. 4. fleshly given for as we reade This Angel had but a few names which had not defiled their garments 5. By the name Philadelphia signifying brotherly love they may bee put in minde of this vertue whose proper worke it is to cover multitude of sinnes which because it was eminent in many of this Church the Spirit covereth all her infirmities and rebuketh her openly for nothing but contrariwise commendeth her and promiseth because she m Ca. 3. Ver. 10. had kept the word of his patience to keep her from the houre of temptation 6. By the name Laodicea quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the righteousnesse or customes of the people they may bee put in minde of the condition of the common sort in this Church and else-where who are well conceited of themselves though God knowes for little cause they imagine that they are very forward in the way that leades to eternall life that they are rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing when indeed in their spirituall estate they are
for but what he loveth A man may beleeve the truth and be a false man he may hope for good things and yet be exceeding bad himselfe but he cannot love the best things but he must needs be good he cannot affect grace if hee have not received some measure thereof he cannot highly esteeme of God and not be high in Gods esteeme As the love of the world maketh a man worldly and the love of the flesh fleshly so the love of the Spirit makes the children of God spirituall and the love of God partaker of the divine g 2 Pet. 1.4 nature for God is love Now saith Saint Paul that is in this life abideth h 1 Cor. 13.13 faith hope and charity but after this life of these three charity onely remaineth For when we have received the end of our faith which is the salvation of our soules and taken possession of the inheritance which we have so long expected by hope faith shall be swallowed up in vision and hope in fruition but then love shall be in greatest perfection Our trust is that we shall not alwayes walk by faith and our hope is that we shall one day hope no more we beleeve the end of faith and hope for the end of hope but love no end of our love but contrariwise desire that it may bee like the soveraigne object thereof that is eternall and infinite To leap over this large field at once and comprise all in one sentence concerning this vertue of which never enough can be said Love brought God from heaven to earth love bringeth men from earth to heaven In which regard it may not be unfitly compared to the ladder at the foot whereof i Gen. 28.12 Jacob slept sweetly and in his dreame saw Angels climbing up by it to heaven For upon it the religious soule of a devout Christian resteth and reposeth her selfe and by it in her thoughts and desires she ascendeth up to heaven as it were by foure steps or rounds which are the foure degrees of divine love 1. To love God for our selves 2. To love God for himselfe 3. To love God above all things 4. To love nothing but God or in a reference to him First to love God for our selves or our owne respect whereunto wee are induced by the consideration of his benefits and blessings bestowed upon us and continued unto us The second is to love God for himselfe whereunto wee are moved by the contemplation of the divine essence and his most amiable nature The third is to love God above all things whereunto we are enclined by observation of the difference between God and all things else The fourth is to love nothing but God that is to settle our affections and repose our desires and place our felicity wholly and solely in him To which highest round or step of divine love and top of Christian perfection we aspire by fixing our thoughts upon the all-sufficiency of God who hath in him infinite delights and contentments to satisfie all the appetites of the soule whereof the Kingly Prophet David was fully perswaded when lifting up his heart to God and his eyes to heaven he calleth God himselfe to witnesse that he desired no other happinesse than what he enjoyed in him saying Whom have I in heaven but thee These words may admit â—f a double construction 1 Either that David maketh God his sole refuge and trust 2 Or that he maketh him his chiefe joy and whole hearts delight For the first sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my refuge and strength of my confidence we are to know that in heaven and in earth there are other besides God in heaven the elect Angels and the spirits of k Heb. 12.23 just men made perfect in earth there are men and the creatures yet a religious soule reposeth no confidence in any of these First not in the creature in generall for it is l Rom. 8.20 subject to vanity not in riches for m 1 Tim. 6.17 they are uncertaine Charge the rich in this world that they trust not in uncertaine riches not in n Jer. 9.23 wisedome or strength or power nor in the favour of o Psal 146.3 Princes nor any childe of man for there is no helpe in them I will yet ascend higher even to heaven and to the Angels and soules there For whatsoever power or strength or helpe may be in them we may not put our trust in them 1 Not in the soules of Saints departed for they p Esay 63.16 take no notice of our affaires here neither have we any order to addresse our selves to them Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not q 2 Kin. 22.20 Good Josiah seeth not the evill which befell his subjects after his death 2 Not in Angels for though they excell in strength and are ministring r Heb. 1.14 Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation yet we have no charge to worship them or relie upon them for our salvation Nay wee are charged to the contrary both from God and from themselves from God Å¿ Mat. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve and t Col. 2.18 Let no man beguile you in voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels and from themselves also u Apoc. 19.10 22.9 And I fell downe at the feet of the Angel that shewed me these things and he said unto me See thou doe it not I am thy fellow servant worship God For the second sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my chiefe joy and sole hearts delight we are to know that the faithfull soule is wedded to God and like a loyall Spouse casteth no part of her conjugall affection upon any but him Love she may whom he loveth and what he commandeth her to love for him and in him but not as him if she doth so shee becommeth Adultera Christo as St. Cyprian speaketh and may not be admitted to sing in Davids quire or at least not to bear a part in this Antheme Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord No more than the life of the body can bee maintained without naturall heat and moisture can the life of grace be preserved in the soule without continuall supply of the moisture of penitent teares and a great measure of the heat of divine love wherewith we are to consume those spirituall sacrifices of prayer and praises which we are now and at all times to offer lifting up pure hands and hearts unto God To kindle this sacred fire I have brought you a live coale from the Altar of incense Davids heart sending up sweetest perfumes of most fragrant and savourie meditations This coale the best Interpreters ancient and later conspiring in their expositions blow after this manner St. u Hier. in hunc locum Neque in coelo neque in terrâ alium praeter
may be running at this very moment and point of time the threed of his life may be cut off Now if wee cannot be said truely to have any part of our time how can we have any part in things temporall if the lease of our lives by which we hold all our earthly goods and possessions be of so uncertaine a date let our common Lawyers talke never so much of possessions and estates and firme conveighances and perpetuities and severall kindes of tenures they shall never perswade mee that there is any sure hold or good tenure of any thing save God and his promises it is impossible that wee should have any estate in things that are altogether e Cyp epist l. 2. Nec fiduciam praebent possidentibus stabilem quae possessionis non habent veritatem unstable Hereof it seemeth Abraham was well advised for though he were an exceeding rich man yet we reade of no purchase made by him save onely of a f Gen. 25.10 cave in Machpelah for him and his heires to hold or rather to hold him and his heires for ever If any man ever knew the just value of all earthly commodities it was King Solomon the mirrour of wisedome and yet he after he had weighed them all in the scales of the Sanctuary found them as light as vanity it selfe Omnia sub sole vanitas ergo supra solem veritas as rightly inferreth g Paulin. in opusc Paulinus If all things under the sunne are vanity therefore the verity of all things is above the sunne viz. In heaven Whom have I in heaven but thee that is thee I have and none but thee in heaven I deny not that which Saint h Tract 50. in Johan Habes Christum in praesenti per signum in praesenti per fidem in praesenti per baptismatis sacramentum Austine affirmeth in expresse termes that we have God many waies with us in this life for we see him in his workes we heare him in his word we taste him in the Sacrament we feele him by the motions of the Spirit within us we touch him by faith we embrace him by love we relye upon him by hope we have private conference with him by prayer yet all this is nothing to our modus habendi our manner of having him in heaven Then a man may be truely said to have a lordship mannour benefice or living when he entereth upon the fruits thereof and receiveth the crop The Lord is indeed our lot and portion even in this life but we cannot reap the thousanth part of the profits and delights he hath in himselfe and will afford us hereafter They to whom hee most imparteth himselfe and communicateth his goodnesse here have but a taste onely of the tree of life a weak sent of the flowers of Paradise a confused noise of heavenly musicke as it were afarre off no more than a glympse of the sunne of righteousnesse but a blast of the Spirit onely an earnest-penny of their wages yet such a taste as more satisfieth them than a royall banquet furnished with all the delicacies the sea or land can yeeld such a sent as they will not leave for all the sweet odours of Arabia such a noise as they would not misse the hearing thereof for all the consorts in the world such a glympse as is to be preferred before the full view of all the Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them such a blast as more refresheth the soule than a constant gale of prosperous fortune such an earnest-penny as they would not lose for the treasures of Solomon This taste this sent this glympse this blast this earnest-penny the Kingly Prophet David so exceedingly desired that he compareth the ardency of his affection to the thirst of a Hart either long chased or after he is stung with the serpent Dipsas that sets all his throat on fire As the i Psal 42.1 2. Hart brayeth and panteth in this case for the rivers of waters to coole his heate and quench his thirst so panteth my soule after thee O God My soule thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appeare before God Of this thirst of the soule they onely can speake feelingly who have been long k Cant 2.5 Stay mee with slagons and comfort mee with apples for I am sicke with love sicke with the Spouse in the Canticles who feeling her heart faint and all her vitall faculties faile cryeth out Stay mee c. that is hold life in mee with cordiall waters and soveraigne smells for I languish I swoune my soule is running out of the doores of my lips after him whom she incomparably loveth above all things in heaven and in earth yet she seeth here nothing but his backe parts that is obscure shadowes and resemblances of him And if she be so enamoured with these how will she be ravished at the sight of his countenance if she take such contentment in the contemplation of his image in a mirrour how will shee be transported when she shall see him face to face and bee united to him spirit to spirit if she take such pleasure in pledging him in the bitter cup of his passion what will she take in l Psal 16.11 drinking of the rivers of pleasures that run at his right hand for evermore To borrow a straine of the Schooles for the closing up of this sweet note Hic Deum amamus amore desiderii at in coelo amore amicitiae Here we love God with a love of desire there with a love of friendship here we desire to have God there we have our full desire and so I fall into the maine doctrine of the Text That there is fulnesse of delight and content in God Quid eo avarius est cui Deus non sufficit in quo sunt omnia Can we desire larger possessions than immensity a surer estate than immutability a longer terme of yeeres than eternity Let Saint m De vitâ contemplat l. 2. c. 15. Quid potest eo esse foelicius cujus efficitur suus conditor census haereditas ejus dignatur esse ipsa divinitas si modo sanctis operibus eum colat omnes fructus ex illo percipiet Prosper speake Who so fortunate as he whose Maker is his fortune who so rich as hee who possesseth him that possesseth all things whose lord is his lot and his owner part of his goods Howbeit because we cannot perfectly survey much lesse take full possession of this our large or rather infinite inheritance in this life Mollerus conceiveth these words not to be uttered in an exultation of spirit ravished with the contemplation of God but rather as a prayer to this effect O that I had thee in heaven as when the Prophet demandeth Who will shew us any good wee take the meaning to be O that any would shew us some good in like maner in the second of Samuel Who n 2 Sam. 23.15
the bloud of your Redeemer from all spots of impurity will yee againe pollute and soile them It is folly eagerly to pursue that which will bring you no profit at all and greater to follow afresh those things whereof ye were not only ashamed in the enjoying them but also are now confounded at the very mention of them yet this is not the worst shame is but the beginning of your woe For the end is death yea death without end Will yee then forsake the waies of Gods Commandements leading to endlesse felicity and weary your selves in the by-pathes of wickednesse in the pursuit of worldly vanities without hope of gaine with certaine losse of your good name nay of your life will yee sell heaven for the mucke of the earth set yee so much by the transitory pleasures of sinne mixed with much anguish and bitternesse attended on with shame that for them yee will be content to be deprived of celestiall joyes the society of Archangels and Angels and the fruition of God himselfe for ever nay to be cast into the darke and hideous dungeon of hell to frie in eternall flames to be companions of ghastly fiends and damned ghosts howling and shreeking without ceasing complaining without hope lamenting without end living yet without life dying yet without death because living in the torments of everlasting death Divis explicat verb. Having taken a generall survey of the whole let us come to a more particular handling of the parts which are three forcible arguments to deterre all men from all vicious and sinfull courses 1. The first ab inutili What fruit had yee 2. The second ab infami Whereof yee are now ashamed 3. The third à pernicioso or mortifero The end of these things is death 1. Fruit. What fruit This word fruit is fruitfull in significations it is taken 1 Properly for the last issue of trees and so it is opposed to leaves or blossomes for nature adorneth trees with three sorts of hangings as it were the first leaves the second blossomes the third fruits in this sense the word is taken in the first of Genesis and in the parable of the figge-tree cursed by our Saviour because hee found no fruit thereon 2 Improperly either for inward habits which are the fruits either of the spirit whereof the Apostle speaketh The g Gal. 5.22 fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance or of the flesh reckoned up by the same h Ver. 19 20. Apostle or for outward workes which are the fruits of the former habits whereof we reade Being i Phil. 1.11 filled with the fruits of righteousnesse and in the Epistle of S. k Jam. 3.15 James Full of mercy and good fruits Or for the reward of these works either inward as peace joy and contentment whereof those words of S. l Ver. 18. James are to be meant The fruit of righteousnes is sowne in peace of them that make peace and those of S. Paul No m Heb. 12.11 affliction for the time is joyous but grievous but in the end it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse to those that are exercised thereby Or lastly for outward blessings wherewith God even in this life recompenseth those who are fruitfull in good workes as the Prophet Esay and David assure them Surely it shall be n Esay 3.10 Psal 58.11 well with the just for they shall eate the fruits of their workes Utique est fructus justo Verily there is fruit for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth the earth 2. Had. Had. It is written of the Lynx that he never looketh backe but Homer contrarily describeth a wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking both forward and backward forward to things to come and backward to things past for by remembring what is past and fore-casting things future he ordereth things present and in speciall what advantage a Christian maketh of the memory of his former sinnes and the sad farewell they have left in the conscience I shall speake more largely hereafter for the present in this cursory interpretation of the words it shall suffice to observe from the pretertense habuistis had ye not habetis have ye that sin like the trees of Sodome if it beare any fruit at all yet that it abideth not but assoone as it is touched falls to ashes Musonius the Philosopher out of his owne experience teacheth us and that truely that if we doe any good thing with paine the paine is soone over but the pleasure remaineth but on the contrarie if we doe any evill thing with pleasure the pleasure is soone over but the paine remaineth In those things whereof yee are now ashamed 3. Those things As after the wound is healed there remaines a scar in the flesh so after sinne is healed in the conscience there remaines as it were a scarre of infamie in our good name and of shame also in the inward man The act of sinne is transcunt yet shame the effect or rather proper passion of it is permanent sinne is more ancient than shame but shame out liveth sinne It is as impossible that fire should be without scorching heat or a blow without paine or a feaver without shaking as sinne especially heinous and grievous without a trembling in the minde and shame and confusion in the soule For as o In Saturnal Macrobius well observeth when the soule hath defiled her selfe with the turpitude of sinne pudore suffunditur sanguinem obtendit pro velamento she is ashamed of her selfe and sends forth bloud into the outward parts and spreadeth â—t like a vaile before her just as the Sepia or Cuttle fish when she is afraid to be taken p Plin. nat hist l. 9. c. 29. Sepiae ubi sensere se apprehendi offuso atramento quod illis pro sanguine est absconduntur sends from her bloud like inke whereby she so obscureth the water that the angler cannot see her If it be objected that some men as they are past grace so past shame also and some foreheads of that metall that will receive no tincture of modestie such as Zeno was in q L. 16. Si clam scelera perpetrasser obscurum minus gloriosum putabat sin publicitùs apertè in conspectu omnium absque pudore flegitiosus esset id dâ—mùm Principe Imperatore dignum putabat Nicephorus his story who held it a disparagement to himselfe to commit wickednesse in secret and cover his filthinesse with the darke shadow of the night for that it became not soveraigne majestie to feare any thing he thought he could not shew himselfe a Prince unlesse without feare or shame he committed outrages in the face of the sunne Such were those Jewes whom the Prophet Jeremie brands in the forehead with the marke of a Strumpet that cannot blush r Jer 8.12 Were they ashamed when they committed abominations nay Å¿ Jer.
and rested themselves these three Lords dayes it beareth fruit and that in great variety not only upon the branches but upon the maine stocke which yeeldeth us this fruitfull observation That the sense and taste of the bitternesse of sinnes past and remorse of conscience for them are most forcible motives and meanes to restraine the desires and weane the affections of Gods children from them This fruit we gathered heretofore and since plucked to us the first branch of the Text which affordeth this most wholsome observation That sinne is altogether unfruitfull As no meditation is more serious than upon the vanity of the world no contemplation more pleasant to a regenerate Christian than of the unpleasantnesse of impure delights so no observation is more fruitfull than of the unfruitfulnesse of sinne Who cannot copiously declaime against sinne against which it is a sinne not to declaime Who cannot easily recount all the evils which sinne hath brought into the world which are summarily all that are in the world insomuch that all sciences arts and professions have a blow at sinne The Metaphysicke Philosopher demonstrateth that sinne is non ens naught and therefore to be set at naught The Naturalist sheweth that it destroyeth nature and therefore ought to be exterminated out of nature The Moralists muster all the forces of vertue against it as being the chiefest enemy of mans chiefe good which they define to be actio virtutis in vitâ perfectâ the continuall practice of vertue in a happy life The Physicians observe that the greater part of the diseases of the body arise from sins which are the diseases of the soule Plures gulâ quà m gladio more come to their end by gluttony drunkennesse and incontinency than by the halter or the sword The Grammarians condemne sinne as incongruous the Logicians as illogicall that is unreasonable and all other arts and sciences as irregular but Divinity alone knocketh it downe and battereth it to pieces with the hammer of the Word There is more weight of argument in this one Verse of the Apostle than in all the Oratours declamations and Poets satyres and the Philosophers invectives against vice that ever were published to the world What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed for the end of those things is death As the same metall running upon divers moulds is cast into divers formes so the words of this Text admit of divers divisions according to severall moulds and frames of art It shall suffice to give you your choice of three 1. The Rhetoricall which breaketh them into 1. A poignant interrogation What fruit had yee 2. A forcible reason For the end of those things is death 2. The Logicall which observeth in them 1. The persons Yee 2. The object Those things 3. The attributes which are three 1. Losse What fruit had yee 2. Confusion Whereof yee are now ashamed 3. Perill For the end of those things is death 3. The Theologicall which considereth sinne in a three-fold relation 1. To the time past and so it is unfruitfull What fruit 2. To the time present and so it is shamefull Whereof c. 3. To the time to come and so it is dreadfull or deadly For the end of those things is death First of sinne considered in a relation to the time past What fruit had yee Xerxes as Herodotus reporteth bare a strange affection to the Plane tree which hee hung about with chaines and deckt with jewells of greatest price A fond and foolish affection as being to a tree and such a tree as is good for nothing but to shade us out of the Sunne This folly of so great a Monarch very well resembleth the humour of all those who are not guided by the Spirit of God into the wayes of truth and life but are led by the spirit of errour or the errour of their owne spirit to ungodly and sinfull courses the very beaten paths to hell and death The tree they are in love with adorne and spend so much cost upon is the forbidden tree of sinne altogether as unfruitfull as that of Xerxes it hath neither faire blossomes nor sweet fruit on it onely it is well growne and hath large armes and broad boughes and casteth a good shade or to speake more properly a shadow of good For the shade it selfe of this tree is like the shade of the Cyprus tree gravis umbra a noysome or pestilent shade making the ground barren and killing the best plants of vertues by depriving them of the Sun-shine of Gods grace Yet as divers Nations in the dayes of b Nat. hist l. 12. Tributum pro umbrâ pendunt Pliny paid tribute to the Romanes for the shade of these trees so doe these men pay for the seeming pleasure and delight of sinne being indeed but a shadow of vanity to the Divell the greatest tribute that can be payd the tribute of their soules To reprove this folly to bee bewailed with bloudy teares I have heretofore produced divers passages of holy Scripture the point of doctrine I beat upon and laboured especially to fasten in your hearts was the unprofitablenesse and the unfruitfulnesse of sinne which was proved 1. By the three names of sinne imposed by the Holy Ghost folly vanitie and a lye The reason whereof was because all sinne maketh a shew of and as it were promiseth to the sinner either pleasure or profit or honour or some good whereas indeed it bringeth not any thing to him but shame nor him to any thing but death 2. By divers lively comparisons and resemblances in holy Scripture of sinfull labours and travells as the running in a ring or circle whereby hee that moveth and tireth himselfe getteth no ground impii ambulant in circuitu the weaving of the Spiders web which maketh no garment the sowing of wind whereof nothing can be reaped but the whirlewind stormes and tempests of conscience 3. By the judgements of God falling upon them who seem to drive the most gainfull trade with Sathan For either they themselves are taken away in the midst of their prosperity and as soone as they have gotten the wealth of the world are constrained to leave a world of wealth c Luk. 12.20 O foole this night they shall take away thy soule Stulte hac nocte eripient tibi animam tuam or God bloweth upon their ill gotten goods and they are suddenly consumed or passe the same way that they came as the fogges that are raised by the Sunne when they come to their height are dispelled by his beames Or they prove like the horse of Sejanus or the gold of Tolous or the vessels and treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem which became the bane and ruine of all that laid hands on them Or if they long enjoy their wealth yet they joy not in it at all For howsoever none lay claime to their unrighteous Mammon yet they can never perswade themselves that it is their owne and between
Fathers of children Magistrates of cities and Kings of realmes who have received your authority from God bee ruled by him by whom yee rule take him for a president in your proceedings from whom yee have your warrant hee first convinceth then reproveth after threatneth and lastly chastiseth those all those whom he loveth doe yee likewise first evidently convince then openly rebuke after severely threaten and last of all fatherly chasten with moderation and compassion all those indifferently without partiality who deserve chastisement not sparing those who are most deare and neare unto you But to the bruised reed to the drouping conscience overwhelmed with sorrow and griefe both for sinnes and the punishment thereof the Spirit speaketh in the words of my text on this wise Why doe yee adde affliction to your affliction and fret and exulcerate your own wounds through your impatience It is not as yee conceive your enemy that hath prevailed against you it is not a curst Master or a racking Land-lord or a partiall Magistrate or an envious neighbour that wreakes his spleene and malice upon you but it is your heavenly Father that striketh you and he strikes you but gently and with a small ferular neither offereth hee you any harder measure than the rest of his children so hee nurtureth them all Neither are yee cast quite out of favour though cast downe for the present nay bee it spoken for your great comfort yee are no lesse in favour than when your estate was entire which now is broken and your day cleerest which is now overcast Yee are so farre from being utterly rejected and abandoned by your heavenly father that yee are by this your seasonable affliction more assured of his care over you and love unto you For hee never saith As many as I love I smile upon or I winke at their faults but I rebuke and chasten whom hee lesse careth for hee suffereth to play the trivants and take their pleasure but hee nurtureth and correcteth you whom hee intendeth to make his heires yea joint heires with his best beloved Christ Jesus Therefore submit your souls under his mighty hand in humble patience after that raise them up in a comfortable hope kisse his rod quae corpus vulnerat mentem sanat which woundeth the body but healeth the soule makes the flesh peradventure blacke and blew but the spirit faire and beautifull Arguite castigate vos ipsos convince your owne folly rebuke your bad courses chasten your wanton flesh with watching fasting and other exercises of mortification confesse your faults and grieve not so much because yee are stricken as that ye should deserve to bee so stricken by him then will the affection of a father so worke with him that hee will breake his ferular and burne his rod wherewith hee hath beaten you and the overflowing of his future favours will make it evident that whatsoever was said or done before was in love to make you partakers of his holinesse and more capable of celestiall happinesse Wherefore let all that mourne in Zion and sigh as often as they breath for their many and grievous visitations heare what the Spirit saith to the Angel of Laodicea I rebuke and chasten as many as I love Spices pounded and beaten small smell most sweetly and Texts of Scripture yeeld a most fragrant savour of life when they are expounded and broken into parts which are here evidently foure 1 The person of Christ I. 2 The actions of this person Rebuke and chasten 3 The subject of these actions As many 4 The extent of the subject As I love 1 The person most gracious I. 2 The actions most just Rebuke and chasten 3 The subject most remarkable Whom I love 4 The extent most large As many 1 In the person you may see the author of all afflictions 2 In the actions the nature of all afflictions 3 In the extent the community of all afflictions 4 In the subject the cause of all afflictions Of this extent of the subject subject of the actions actions of Christ by his gracious assistance and your Christian patience and first of the person 1. That in all afflictions of the servants of God God is the principall agent and hath i Isa 45.7 I make peace create evill the greatest stroake needeth not so much evident demonstration as serious consideration and right and seasonable application in time of fearfull visitations For what passage can wee light upon at all adventures especially in the writings of the Prophets where wee finde not either God threatning or the Church bewailing afflictions and sore chastisements k Amos 3.6 Is there any evill in the city which I have not done saith the Lord And l Lam. 1.12 Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted mee in the day of his fierce wrath saith his captive Spouse What face of misery so ugly and gastly wherewith hee scareth not his disobedient people To them that have hard hearts and brazen browes that cannot blush hee threaneth to make m Lev. 26.19 the earth as iron and the heaven as brasse hee martials all his plagues against them sword famine pestilence stings of serpents teeth of wilde beasts blasting mildew botches blaines and what not And according as he threatneth in the law he professeth that he had done to the Israelites in the dayes of the Prophet Amos n Amos 4.6.7 8 9 10. I have sent you cleannesse of teeth and scarcity of bread in all your coasts and yet yee have not returned unto mee also I have withholden the raine from you and yet yee have not returned I have smitten you with blasting and mildew your gardens and vineyards the valmer-worme hath devoured and yet yee have not returned unto mee Pestilence I have sent you after the manner of the Egyptians and your young men I have slaine with the sword and yet yee have not returned unto mee I have overthrowne you as God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrah and you were as a fire-brand out of the burning and yet yee have not returned unto mee There being a double evill as the Schooles distinguish Malum 1. Culpae 2. Poenae the evill of sin and the evill of punishment to make him the author of the former and to deny him to be the author of the later is a like impiety For the former errour impeacheth his purity sanctity the later his justice and providence It is true that in the afflicting of his children God sometimes useth none of the best o Job 1.2 2 Cor. 12.7 Hieron lib. de vir illustr in Ignat. De Syria ad Romam pugno ad bestias in mari in terrà ligatus cum 12. Leopardis hoc est militibus qui me custodiunt quibus si benefeceris pejores sunt iniquitas eorum mea doctrina est instruments neither do they intend what God doth in laying heavie crosses upon his children yet he keepeth their malice within such
and all the ingredients of that bitter cup which our Saviour prayed thrice that it o Mat. 26.44 might passe from him We have viewed the root and the branches let us now gather some of the fruit of the tree of the crosse Christs passion may be considered two maner of wayes 1. Either as a story simply 2. Or as Gospel The former consideration cannot but breed in us griefe hatred griefe for Christ his sufferings and hatred of all that had their hand in his bloud the latter will produce contrary affâ—ctions joy for our salvation and love of our Saviour For to consider and meditate upon our Saviours passion as Gospel is to conceive and by a speciall faith to beleeve that his prayers and strong cries are intercessions for us his obedience our merit his sufferings our satisfactions that we are purged by his sweat quit by his taking clothed by his stripping healed by his stripes justified by his accusations absolved by his condemnation ransomed by his bloud and saved by his crosse These unspeakable benefits which ye have conceived by the Word ye are now to receive by the Sacrament if ye come prepared thereunto for they who come prepared to participate of these holy mysteries receive with them and by them though not in them the body and bloud of our Lord and Saviour and thereby shall I say they become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone nay rather he becommeth flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone The spirit which raised him quickneth them and preserveth in them the life of grace and them to the life of glory Howbeit as the sweetest meats turne into p Cal. l. 4. instit c. 14. sec 40. Quemadmodum sacrum hunc panem coenae Domini spiritualem esse cibum videmus suavem delicatum non minus quà m salutiferum piis Dei cultoribus cujus gustu sentiunt Christum esse suam vitam quos ad gratiarum actionem erigit quibus ad mutuam inter se charitatem exhortatio est ita rursus in nocentissimum venenum omnibus vertitur quorum fidem non alit non aliter ac cibus corporalis ubi ventrem offendit vitiosis humoribus occupatum ipse quoque vitiosus corruptus nocet magis quà m nutrit choler in a distempered stomach so this heavenly Manna this food of Angels nay this food which Angels never tasted proves no better than poyson to them whose hearts are not purified by faith nor their consciences purged by true repentance and charity from uncleannesse worldlinesse envie malice ranckour and the like corrupt affections If a Noble man came to visit us how would we cleanse and perfume our houses what care would we take to have all the roomes swept hung and dressed up in the best manner Beloved Christians we are even now to receive and entertaine the Prince of Heaven and the Son of God let us therefore cleanse the inward roomes of our soules by examination of our whole life wash them with the water of our penitent teares dresse them up with divine graces which are the sweetest flowers of Paradise perfume them with most fragrant spices and aromaticall odours which are our servent prayers zealous meditations and elevated affectious tuned to that high straine of the sweet Singer of Israel Lift ye up ye gates and be ye q Psal 24.9 lift up ye everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in Cui c. THE REWARD OF PATIENCE THE LII SERMON PHILIP 2.9 Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him Right Honourable c. THe drift of the blessed Apostle in the former part of this chapter to which my Text cohereth is to quench the fire-bals of contention cast among the Philippians by proud and ambitious spirits who preached the Gospel of truth not in truth and sincerity but in faction and through emulation Phil. 1.15 Some indeed preach Christ out of envie and strife This fire kindled more and more by the breath of contradiction and nourished by the ambition of the teachers and factious partaking of the hearers Saint Paul seeketh to lave out partly with his owne teares partly with Christs bloud both which he mingleth in a passionate exhortation at the entrance of this chapter If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercies fulfill yee my joy bee yee like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory Look not every man to his owne things but every man also to the things of others Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the forme of God thought it no robbery to be equall with God But made himselfe of no reputation c. In this context all other parts are curiously woven one in the other only there is a bracke at the fifth verse which seemes to have no connexion at all with the former for the former were part of a zealous admonition to brotherly love and christian reconciliation add this to voluntary obedience and humiliation in those he perswaded them to goe together as friends in this to give place one to the other in those he earnestly beseecheth them to be of one mind among themselves in this to be of the same mind with Christ Jesus Now peace and obedience love and humility seeme to have no great affinity one with the other for though their natures be not adverse yet they are very divers Howbeit if ye look neerer to the texture of this sacred discourse ye shall find it all closely wrought and that this exhortation to humility to which my Text belongeth hath good coherence with the former and is pertinent to the maine scope of the Apostle which was to re-unite the severed affections and reconcile the different opinions of the faithfull among the Philippians that they might all both agree in the love of the same truth and seeke that truth in love This his holy desire he could not effect nor bring about his godly purpose before he had beat down the partition wall that was betwixt them which because it was erected by pride could be no otherwise demolished than by humility The contentions among the people grew from emulation among the Pastors and that from vaine glory As sparkes are kindled by ascending of the smoake so all quarrels and contentions by ambitious spirits the a Judg. 5.16 divisions of Reuben are haughty thoughts of heart A high conceit of their owne and a low value and under rate of the gifts of others usually keep men from yeelding one to the other upon good termes of Christian charity Wherefore the Apostle like a wise Physician applyeth his spirituall remedy not so much parti laesae to the part where the malady brake forth as to the cause the vanitie of the Preachers and pride of the hearers after this manner Christ
double with God and are of a changeable religion to have no faithfulnesse or honestie By how much the graces and perfections of the mind exceed those of the body by so much the imperfections and deformities of the one surpasse the other what may wee then judge of wavering inconstancie which is compared to a spirituall palsey or an halting in the mind Halt yee Though the metaphor of halting used in my text might signifie either a slacknesse or slownesse in the way of godlinesse or a maime in some member or article of their faith yet according to the scope of the place and consent of the best Expositors I interpret it unsettled wavering and inconstancie For he that halteth is like a man of a giddie braine in a cock-boat or wherrie who turneth the boat sometimes this way sometimes that way not knowing where to set sure footing The opposite vertue to this vice is a stedfast standing in the true faith whereto S. Paul exhorteth the Corinthians i Cor. 15.58 Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. And the Colossians If yee continue in the faith k Chap. 1.23 grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospell and for it he heartily prayeth For this cause I bow l Ephes 3.14 16 17 18 19. my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ that hee would grant you according to the riches of his glorie to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that yee being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth length depth height to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fulnes of God The Pythagorians who delighted to represent morall truths by mathematicall figures described a good man by a cube whence grew the proverb Homo undique quadratus A perfect square man everie way The reason of this embleme is taken from the uniformitie stabilitie of this figure which consisteth of six sides exactly equall on which soever it falleth it lies stedfast As the needle in the mariners compasse while it waggleth to fro till it be settled fixed to the North-point giveth no direction no more doth our faith till it be settled unmoveably pointeth directly to the true religion which is the only Cynosure to guide our brittle barks to the faire havens where we would be Between two opinions It is bad to halt but worse as I shewed before to halt betweene two opinions which may be done two manner of wayes 1. Either by leaving both keeping a kind of middle way betwixt them 2. Or by often crossing from one to the other and sometimes going or rather limping in the one and sometimes in the other The former is their hainous sinne who in diversitie of religions are of none the latter of them who are of all The former S. m Confess l. 6. c. 1. Cum maâ—â— indicassem non me quidem jâ—â— esse Maniâ—â—aeâ—m sed nec Catholicum Christianum Austine confesseth with teares to have beene his piteous case when being reclaimed from the heresie of the Manichees and yet not fully perswaded of the truth of the Catholique cause he was for the time neither Catholique nor Manichee Which estate of his soule he fitly compareth to their bodily malady who after a long and grievous disease at the criticall houres as they call them feele suddenly a release of paine yet no increase of strength or amendment at which time they are in greater danger than when they had their extreme fits on them because if they mend not speedily they end For there can be no stay in this middle estate betweene sicknesse and health The wise Law-giver of Athens Solon outlawed and banished all those who in civill contentions joyned not themselves to one part How just this Law may be in Common wealths on earth I dispute not this I am sure of that our heavenly Law-giver will banish all such out of his Kingdome who in the Church civill warres with Heretiques joyne not themselves to one part I meane the Catholique and Orthodox The Praetor of the Samnites spake to good purpose in their Senate when the matter was debated whether they should take part with the Romans against other Greekes or carrie themselves as neuters n Media via neque amicos patit neque iniâ—icos tolliâ— This middle way saith hee which some would have us take as the safest for us because thereby we shall provoke neither partie as bolding faire quarter with both is the unsafest way of all for it will neither procure us friends nor take away our enemies Of the same minde was the great Statesman Aristenus who after hee had weighed reasons on all sides o Romanos aut socios habere aut hostes oportere mediam viam nullam esse Liv. Dec. 4. l. 1. Macedonum legati Aetolis sâ—â—ò ac nequiâ—quâ—m cum Doâ—inum Romanum habebitis socium Philippum quaeretis resolved that the Romans so peremptorily demanding aid of them as they did they must of necessitie either enter into confederacie strict league with them or be at deadly fewd that middle way there was none Apply you this to the Roman faith and it is a theologicall veritie upon necessitie wee must either hold communion with the Roman Church or professedly impugne her and her errours God cursed q â—udg 5.23 Meros for not taking part with the Israelites against their and Gods enemies and Christ in the Gospel openly professeth r Matt 12.30 He that is not with me is against me Media ergo via nulla est The second kinde of halting betweene two opinions may be observed in those who are sometimes of one and sometimes of another Men of this temper though they seeme to be neerer health than others yet indeed they are in more danger as the Angell of Å¿ Apoc. 3.16 Laodicea his censure maketh it a cleare case For though they may seem to be more religious than they who professe no religion yet sith it is impossible that truth falshood should stand together all their religion will be found to be nothing else but dissimulation and so worse than professed irreligion Here that speech of Philip concerning his two sons u Plut. Apoph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hecaterus and Amphoterus may have place Hecaterus is Amphoterus and Amphoterus is Udeterus that is hee whose name is Either of the two is worth Both but he whose name is Both is neither The Nazarean Heretiques saith S. Austine while they will be both z Aug. de haer Ad quod vult Deum 2 Kings 17. 29 30 33. Jewes and Christians prove neither one nor the other Doth
lately celebrated with a fit antheme Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivitie captive the later may supply this present thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits even the God of our salvation for on this day Christ received gifts for his Church the gifts of faith hope and charitie the gift of prayer and supplication the gift of healing and miracles the gift of prophecie the gift of tongues and the interpretation thereof Verily so many and so great are the benefits which the anniversary returne of this day presenteth to us that as if all the tongues upon the earth had not beene sufficient to utter them a supply of new tongues was sent from heaven to declare them in all languages The new Testament was drawne before and signed with Christs bloud on good Friday but c Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed to the day of redemption sealed first on this day by the holy spirit of God Christ made his last Will upon the crosse and thereby bequeathed unto us many faire legacies but this Will was not d 1 Cor. 12.4 5 8. There are differences of administrations but the same Lord and diversitie of gifts but the same spirit For to one is given by the same spirit the word of wisdome unto another the word of knowledge by the same spirit administred till this day for the e And 2 Cor. 3.8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious ministration is of the spirit Yea but had not the Apostles the spirit before this day did not our Lord breathe on them John 20.22 the day he rose at evening being the first day of the weeke saying Receive yee the holy Ghost The learned answer that they had indeed the spirit before but not in such a measure the holy Ghost was given before according to some ghostly power and invisible grace but was never sent before in a visible manner before they received him in breath now in fire before hee was f Calv. in Act Anteà respersi erant nunc plenè imbuti sprinkled but now powred on them before they received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before authority to discharge their function but now power to worke wonders before they had the smell now the substance g Aug. hom de Pent. Nunc ipsa substantia sacri defluxit unguenti cujus fragrantia totius orbis latitudo impleretur iterum adfuit hoc die fidelibus non per gratiam visitationis operationis sed per praesentiam majestatis of the celestiall oyntment was shed on them they heard of him before but now they saw and felt him 1. In their minds by infallible direction 2. In their tongues by the multiplicity of languages 3. In their hands by miraculous cures S. Austine truly observeth that before the Apostles on this day were indued with power from above they never strove for the Christian faith unto bloud when Satan winnowed them at Christs passion they all flew away like chaffe And though S. Peters faith failed not because it was supported by our Lords prayer Luke 22.32 yet his courage failed him in such sort that he was foyled by a silly damsell but after the holy Ghost descended upon him and the rest of the Apostles in the sound of a mightie rushing wind and in the likenesse of fierie cloven tongues they were filled with grace and enflamed with zeale and they mightily opposed all the enemies of the truth and made an open and noble profession thereof before the greatest Potentates of the world and sealed it with their bloud all of them save S. John who had that priviledge that hee should stay till Christ came glorifying the Lord of life by their valiant suffering of death for his names sake In regard of which manifold and powerfull effâ—cts of sending the spirit on this day which were no lesse seene in the flames of the Martyrs than in the fiery tongues that lighted on the Apostles the Church of Christ even from the beginning celebrated this festivity in most solemne manner and not so onely but within 300. yeares after Christs death the Fathers in the Councels of h Concil Elib c. 43. Cuncti diem Pentecostes celebrent qui non fecerit quasi novam heresem induxerit pumatur Eliberis mounted a canon thundring out the paine of heresie to all such as religiously kept it not If the Jewes celebrated an high feast in memory of the Law on this day first proclaimed on mount Sinai ought not we much more to solemnize it in memory of the Gospel now promulgated on mount Sion by new tongues sent from heaven If we dediâ—â—â— peculiar festivals to God the Father the Creatour and God the Sonne the Redeemer why should not God the holy Ghost the Sanctifier have a peculiar interest in our devotion S. i Serm. in die Pent. Si celebramus sanctorum solennia quanto magis ejus à quo habuerunt ut sancti essent quotquot fuerunt sancti si veneramur sanctificatos quanto magis sanctificatorem Bernard addeth another twist to this cord If we deservedly honour Saints with festivals how much more ought wee to honour him who maketh them Saints especially having so good a ground for it as is laid downe in this chapter and verse And when the day of Pentecost was come As a prologue to an act or an eeve to an holy day or the Parascheve to the Passeover or the beautifull gate to the Temple so is this preface to the ensuing narration it presenteth to our religious thoughts a three-fold concurrence 1. Of time 2. Of place 3. Of affections Upon one and the selfe same day when all the Apostles were met in one place and were of one minde the spirit of unity and love descendeth upon them Complementum legis Christus Evangelii spiritus As the descending of the Sonne was the complement of the Law so the sending of the spirit is the complement of the Gospel and as God sent his Sonne in the fulnesse of time so he sent the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the fulnesse of the fiftieth day When the Apostles number was full and their desire and expectations full then the spirit came downe and filled their hearts with joy and their tongues with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnifica Dei facta the wonderfull works of God vers 11. That your thoughts rove not at uncertainties may it please you to pitch them upon foure circumstances 1. The time when 2. The persons who They. 3. The affection or disposition were with one accord 4. The place in one place 1. The time was solemne the day of Pentecost 2. The persons eminent the Apostles 3. Their disposition agreeable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The place convenient in an
her husband on the sudden loseth him which I call God to witnesse saith x Orig. in Cant. Conspicit Sponsa Sponsum qui conspectus statim abscessit frequenter hoc in toto carmine facit quod nisi quis patiatur non potest intelligere saepe Deus est testis Sponsum mihi adventate conspexi mecum esse subitò recedentem invenire non potui Origen I my selfe have sensible experience in my meditations upon this book And who of us in his private devotions findeth not the like Sometimes in our divine conceptions contemplations and prayers we are as it were on float sometimes on the sudden at an ebbe sometimes wee are carried with full saile sometimes we sticke as it were in the haven The use we are to make hereof is when we heare the gales of the Spirit rise to hoise up our sailes to listen to the sound when we first heare it because it will be soon blown over to cherish the sparkes of grace because if they be not cherished they will soone dye There came a sound Death entred in at the windowes that is the eyes saith Origen but life at the eares z Gal. 1.8 For the just shall live by faith and faith commeth by hearing The sound is not without the wind for the Spirit ordinarily accompanieth the preaching of the Word neither is the wind without the sound Away then with Anabaptisticall Enthustiasts try the spirits whether they be of God or no by the Word of God To the y Esay 8.20 Law and to the testimony saith the Prophet Esay If they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them And if we saith the Apostle or an Angel from heaven preach unto you any other Gospel than what ye have received that is saith St. * Aug. contr lit Petil. l. 3. c. 6. Praeterquam quod in Scripturis legalibus Evangelicis accepistis Anathema sit Austine than what is contained in the Propheticall and Apostolicall writings let him be accursed From heaven This circumstance affordeth us a threefold doctrine 1. That the Spirit hath a dependance on the Son and proceedeth from him for the Spirit descended not till after the Son ascended who both commanded his Disciples to stay at Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father which yee have a Act. 1.4 heard saith he from mee and promised after his departure to send the b John 15.26 When the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father Act. 1.5 Yee shall be baptized with the holy Ghost not many dayes hence spirit and accordingly sent him ten dayes after his ascension with the sound of a mighty wind in the likenesse of fiery cloven tongues 2. That the Gospel is of divine authority As the Law came from heaven so the Gospel and so long as we preach Gods word ye still heare sonum de coelo a sound from heaven Thus c Lactan. instit l. 3. c. 30. Ecce vox de coelo veritatem docens sole ipso clarius lumen ostendens Lactantius concludes in the end of his third booke of divine institutions How long shall we stay saith he till Socrates will know any thing or Anaxagoras find light in darknesse or Democritus draw up the truth from the bottome of a deep Well or Empedocles enlarge the narrow pathes of his senses or Arcesilas and Carneades according to their sceptick doctrine see feele or perceive any thing Behold a voice from heaven teaching us the truth and discovering unto us a light brighter than the sunne 3. That the doctrine of the Gospel is not earthly but of a heavenly nature that it teacheth us to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation that it mortifieth our fleshly lusts stifleth ambitious desires raiseth our mind from the earth and maketh us heavenly in our thoughts heavenly in our affections heavenly in our hopes and desires For albeit there are excellent morall and politicke precepts in it directing us to manage our earthly affaires yet the maine scope and principall end thereof is to bring the Kingdome of heaven unto us by grace and us into it by glory This a meer sound cannot doe therefore it is added As of a rushing mighty wind This blast or wind is a sacred symbole of the Spirit and there is such a manifold resemblance between them that the same word in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine spiritus signifieth both what so like as wind to the Spirit 1. As the wind bloweth where it d John 3.8 listeth so the Spirit inspireth whom he pleaseth 2. As wee feele the wind and heare it yet see it not so wee heare of the Spirit in the word and feele him in our hearts yet see him not 3. As breath commeth from the heat of our bowells so the third person as the Schooles determine proceedeth from the heat of love in the Father and the Son 4. As the wind purgeth the floore and cleanseth the aire so the Spirit purifieth the heart 5. As in a hot summers day nothing so refresheth a traveller as a coole blast of wind so in the heat of persecutions and heart burning sorrow of afflictions nothing so refresheth the soule as the comfort of the Spirit who is therefore stiled Paracletus the Comforter 6. As the wind in an instant blowes downe the strongest towers and highest trees so the Spirit overthrowes the strongest holds of Sathan and humbleth the haughtiest spirit 7. As the wind blowing upon a garden carrieth a sweet smell to all parts whither it goeth so the Spirit bloweth upon and openeth the flowers of Paradise and diffuseth the savour of life unto life through the whole Church 8. As the wind driveth the ship through the waves of the sea carrieth it to land so the gales of Gods Spirit carrie us through the troublesome waves of this world and bring us into the haven where wee would bee Cui cum Patre Filio sit laus c. THE MYSTERIE OF THE FIERY CLOVEN TONGUES THE LXV SERMON ACTS 2.3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them AMong the golden rules of a Cael. Rodig lib. antiq lect Nunquam de Deo sine lumine loquendum Pythagoras so much admired by antiquity this was one that we ought not to speake of God without light the meaning of which precept was not that we ought not to pray to God or speake of him in the night or the darke but that the nature of God is dark to us and that we may not presume to speak thereof without some divine light from heaven Nothing may be confidently or safely spoken of him which hath not been spoken by him In which regard b Salv. de gubern lib. 1. Tanta est Majestatis sacrae tam tremenda reverentia ut non solùm illa quae
cognation or affinity 3. by nation or country 4. by love affection 1. common to all men the sons of Adam our father 2. speciall to all Christians the sons of the same mother the Church 1. Nature made Jacob and Esau brethren 2. Affinity our Lord and James brethren 3. Nation or country Peter and the Jewes brethren 4. Affection and obligation 1. Spirituall all Christians 2. Carnall and common all men brethren Thus the significations of brother in Scripture like the circles made by a stone cast into the water not only multiply but much enlarge themselves the first is a narrow circle about the stone the next fetcheth a bigger compasse the third a greater more capacious than it the fourth so large that it toucheth the bankes of the river in like manner the first signification of brethren is confined to one house nay to one bed and wombe the second extendeth it selfe to all of one family or linage the third to the whole nation or country the fourth and last to the utmost bounds of the earth No name so frequently occurreth in Scripture as this of brethren no love more often enforced than brotherly We need not goe farre for emblemes thereof b Plut. de amor fratr Plutarch hath found many in our body for wee have two eyes two eares two nostrills two hands two feet which are as hee termeth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brethren and twinne members formed out of like matter being of one shape one bignesse and serving to one and the selfe same use Nature her selfe kindleth the fire of brotherly love in our hearts and God by the blasts of his Spirit and the breath of his Ministers bloweth it continually yet in many it waxeth cold and in some it seemeth to bee quite extinguished Saint Paul prayed that the Philippians c Phil. 1.9 love might abound more and more Hee exhorteth the Hebrewes Let brotherly d Heb. 13.1 love continue but we need now-adaies to cast our exhortation into a new mold and say Let brotherly love begin in you For were it begun so many quarrells so many factions so many sects so many broiles so many law-suites would not be begun as we see every day set on foot Did we looke upon the badge of our livery which is mutuall e John 13.35 By this all men shall know that ye are my disciples if ye love one anther love we would cry shame of our selves for that which we see and heare every day such out-cries such railing such cursing such threatning such banding opprobrious speeches such challenges into the field and spilling the bloud of those for whom Christ shed his most precious bloud Is it not strange that they should fall foule one upon another who have bin both washed in the same laver of regeneration that they should thirst after one anothers bloud who drinke of the same cup of benediction that they should lift their hands up one against another for whom Christ spread his hands upon the crosse Let there be no f Gen. 13.8 falling out between mee and thee saith Abraham to Lot for wee are brethren Let mee presse you further touch you neerer to the quick Let there be no strife among you for you are members one of another nay which is more Yee are all members of Christ Jesus What members of Christ and spurne one at another members of Christ and buffet one another members of Christ and supplant one another members of Christ and devoure one another members of Christ and destroy one another It is true as Plutarch observeth that the neerer the tye is the fouler the breach As bodies that are but glewed together if they be severed or rent asunder they may be glewed as fast as ever they were but corpora continua as flesh and sinewes if any cut or rupture be made in them they cannot bee so joyned together againe but a scarre will remaine so those who are onely glewed together by some civill respects may fall out and fall in againe without any great impeachment to their reputation or former friendship but they who are tied together by nerves and sinewes of naturall or spirituall obligation and made one flesh or spirit together if there fall any breach between them it cannot be so fairely made up but that like the putting a new peece of cloth into an old garment the going about to piece or reconcile them maketh the rent worse When g Cic. famil ep l. 9. Noli pati litigâ—re fratres judiciis turpiâ—us conflictari Tully understood of a suit in law commenced between Quintus and M. Fabius hee earnestly wrote to Papirius to take up the matter g Cic. famil ep l. 9. Noli pati litigâ—re fratres judiciis turpiâ—us conflictari Suffer not saith hee brethren to implead one another For though suits about title of lands seem to be the fairest of any yet even these are foule among brethren wherefore my beloved brethren let us 1. Prevent all occasions of difference let there be no tindar of malice in our hearts ready to take fire upon the flying of the least sparke into it let us so root and ground our selves in love that no small offence may stirre us let us endeavour by all friendly offices so to endeare our selves to our brethren and so fasten all naturall and civill ties by religious obligations that we alwaies keep the h Ephes 4.3 unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace 2. If it cannot be but that offences will come and distract us if the Divell or his agents cast a fire-brand among us let us all runne presently to quench it let us imitate wise Mariners who as soone as they spie a leake spring in the ship stop it with all speed before it grow wider and endanger the drowning of the vessell 3. After the breach is made up and the wound closed and healed let us not rub upon the old sore according to the rule of i Coel. Rodig antiq lect l. 16. 19. Pythagoras Ignem gladio ne fodias let us not rake into the ashes or embers of the fire of contention lately put out As we pray that God may cast our sinnes so let us cast our brothers trespasses against us into the k Micah 7.19 bottome of the sea The Athenians as l Plut. lib. de fraterno amoâ—e Plutarch writeth tooke one day from the moneth of May and razed it out of all their Calenders because on that day Neptune and Minerva fell out one with another even so let us Christians much more bury those daies in perpetuall oblivion strike them out of our Almanacks in which any bloudy fray or bitter contention hath fallen among us For our Father is the God of peace our Saviour is the Prince of peace our Comforter is the Spirit of peace and love God who is m John 4.8 love and of his love hath begot us loveth nothing more
in the children of his love than the mutuall love of his children one to another n Mat. 23.8 Ye are all brethren love therefore as brethren be pitifull be courteous not rendering evill for evill nor railing for railing but contrariwise o 1 Pet 3.8 9. blessing knowing that yee are thereunto called that yee should inherit a blessing As beames of the same sunne let us meet in the center of light as rivelets of the same spring joyne in the source of grace as sprigs on the same root or twins on the same stalke sticke alwaies together Such was the love of the Saints of God in old time that their hearts were knit one to the other yea which is more All the beleevers had but p Acts 4.32 The multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart of one soule one heart But such love is not now to be found in our bookes much lesse in our conversations we hardly beleeve there can be such love in beleevers we seem not to be of their race wee seem rather to be descended many of us from Coelius who could not be quiet if he were not in quarrells who was angry if he were not provoked to anger whose motto was Dic aliquid ut duo simus Say or doe something that we may be two or from Sylla of whom Valerius Maximus writeth that it was a great question whether he or his malice first expired for he died railing and railed dying or of Eteocles and Polynices who as they warred all their life so after a sort they expressed their discord and dissention after their death for at their funerals the flame of the dead corpses parted asunder when they were burned When the Son of man commeth shall hee find q Luke 18.8 faith on the earth saith our Saviour I feare we may demand rather shall he find charity on the earth All the true family of love may seem to be extinct for the greater part of men as if they had been baptized in the waters of strife from the font to their tomb-stone are in continuall frettings vexings quarrells schisme and faction Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti But let these Salamanders which live perpetually in the fire of contention take heed lest without speedy repentance they be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone forever If r Mat. 5.9 blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God cursed are all make-bates for they shall be called the children of the wicked one If the fruits of ſ Jam. 3.18 righteousnesse are sowne in peace of them that make peace certainly the fruits of iniquity are sowne in contention by them that stirre up strife and contention If they that sow t Pro. 6.16 19. These sixe things doth the Lord hate yea seven are abomination unto him a false witnesse that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren discord among brethren are an abomination to the Lord they that plant love and set concord are his chiefe delight What u Cic. tusc 1. Optimum non nasci proximum quà m citissimè mori Silenus spake of the life of man The best thing was not to be borne the next to dye as soone as might be may bee fitly applyed to all quarrells and contentions among Christian brethren it is the happiest thing of all that such dissentions never see light the next is if they arise and come into the Christian world that they dye suddenly after their birth at the most let them be but like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 small creatures Aristotle speaketh of whose life exceedeth not a summers day Let not the * Ephes 4.26 sun goe down upon our wrath How can we long be at odds and distance if we consider that we are all brethren by both sides For as we call one God our Father so we acknowledge one Church our Mother wee have all sucked the same breasts the Old and New Testaments we are all bred up in the same schoole the schoole of the crosse we are all fed at the same table the Lords board we are all incorporated into one society the communion of Saints and made joynt-heires with our elder brother Christ Jesus of one Kingdome in Heaven If these and the like considerations cannot knit our hearts together in love which is the bond of perfection the Heathen shall rise up in judgement and condemne us x Mart. epig. lib. 1. Si Lucane tibi vel si tibi Tulle darentur Qualia Ledaei fata Lacones habent c. Martial writeth of two brothers between whom there was never any contention but this who should die one for the other Nobilis haec esset pietatis rixa duobus Quod pro fratre mori vellet uterque prior The speech also of Pollux to Castor his brother is remarkable y Mart. epig. lib. 1. Vive tuo frater tempore vive meo I cannot let passe Antiochus who when he heard that his brother Seleuchus who had been up in armes against him died at Galata commanded all the Court to mourne for him but when afterwards hee was more certainly enformed that he was alive and levied a great army against him he commanded all his Commanders and chiefe Captaines to sacrifice to their gods crown themselves with garlands for joy that his brother was alive But above all z Plut. de fraterno amore Euclid shewed in himselfe the true symptomes of brotherly affection who when his brother in his rage made a rash vow Let me not live if I be not revenged of my brother Euclid turnes the speech the contrary way Nay let me not live if I be not reconciled to my brother let me not live if we be not made as good friends as ever before Shall nature be stronger than grace bonds of flesh tie surer than the bonds of the spirit one tie knit hearts together faster than many The a Cic. offic l. 1. Oratour saith Omnes omnium charitates patria complectitur but we may say more truly Omnes omnium charitates Christus complectitur all bonds of love friendship affinity and consanguinity all neernesse and dearnesse all that can make increase or continue love is in Christ Jesus into whose spirit we are all baptized into whose body we are incorporated who in his love sacrificed himselfe to his Fathers justice for us who giveth his body and bloud to us in this sacrament to nourish Christian love in us For therefore we all eate of one bread that we may be made one bread therefore wee are made partakers of his naturall body that wee may be all made one mysticall body and all quickned with one spirit that spirit which raised up our head Christ Jesus from the dead Cui cum Patre c. THE PERPLEXED SOULES QUAERE A Sermon preached on the third Sunday in Lent THE LXIX SERMON ACTS 2.37 What shall we doe THe words of the