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A52476 Three choice and profitable sermons upon severall texts of Scripture viz. Jer. 30. 17, John 14. 3, Heb. 8. 5 : the first of them being the last sermon which he preached at the court of election at Boston, the second was the last which he preached on the Lords-Day, the third was the last which he preached on his weekly-lecture-day : wherein (beside many other excellent and seasonable truths) is shewed, the Lords soveraignty over, and care for his church and people, in order to both their militant and triumphant condition, and their fidelity and good affection towards himself / by that reverend servant of Christ, Mr. John Norton ... Norton, John, 1606-1663.; Norton, John, 1606-1663. Copy of the letter returned by the ministers of New-England to Mr. John Dury about his pacification. 1664 (1664) Wing N1324; ESTC R40050 44,511 76

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look after his Out-casts and care for us being Out-casts for the Truth Let it appear that we are such Out-casts to whom the calamity and temptations of Out-casts are sanctified Out-casts healed Out-casts that care for the truth and then Out-casts on which God will bring the blessing of his own people If this plaister findeth acceptance with you you shall finde esteem and acceptance and favour from God and man Let us all labour so to carry it as that we may have this Rejoycing of a good Conscience to sweeten that bottle full of tears shed in your Out-cast condition in this wilderness viz. That we came into it not onely with a Spirit testifying according to the Scriptures against the Inventions of men but also that we do come up unto the Institutions of Christ that as we have departed from Inventions Humane so we may not be found to be or here continue opposers against Institutions Divine that we are not negligent of but faithful to that Order of the Gospel which we are Out-casts for THE BELIEVERS CONSOLATION In the Remembrance of his Heavenly Mansion prepared for him by CHRIST BEING THE SECOND SERMON AND Preached on the LORDS-DAY MARCH XXIX 1663. John 14.3 And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there you may be also THis Verse and the former holds forth a double Consolation to support the Disciples against the suffering which they were to conflict with either In the way of Truth or For the way of Truth This Verse holds forth the second Argument of Consolation the former you have in the second Verse it is taken from the Place they were to be taken to after Death And this Argument in this Verse is taken from the Company they shall have in that place and that is his Personal Presence his full and clear Presence Where I am there you shall be also Now this Argument of Consolation is described 1. From the Scope of Christ in preparing such a place for them and it was that he and they might be there together I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also 2. It is declared from the Time when they must expect their being taken to Christ and that is when he comes again I will come again and receive you to my self 3. It is declared from the Efficient of it the Undertaker of this and that is Himself I will come again and receive you to my self To open the words thus resolved 1. Touching the Presence of Christ and Believers together That where I am there you may be also you must understand this of his Presence emphatically so called of his Presence in the place of Blessedness In thy Presence is fulness of joy Psal 16.11 There is a double Presence of Christ but he means here his Presence in Glory where we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 I said this Argument of their Consolation was declared from the Scope of it I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also it was one great end of his being a Fore-runner Secondly he should fail of his Fidelity and Ability if there should be a disappointment 2. From the Time When I come again Christs coming is either his last Coming or his coming by Death Of his last coming you reade 1 Thess 4.18 Of his coming by Death you reade Luke 23.43 To day thou shalt be with me in Paradice Now the Soul goes to Christ when He comes to us by Death at his last coming both Soul and Body shall be together with him 3. This Argument of Consolation is described by the Efficient of it or Undertaker I will receive you to my self We may doubt how our Souls when we dye shall come to Heaven why saith Christ I will come and receive you to my self They therefore say properly when they dye that say Into thy hands I commend my Spirit Psal 31.5 it is a proper saying so to speaks Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit It is a blessed thing to commit our Souls by Faith to Christ when they go out of the Body He comes by the ministry of his Angels or otherwise as he please I will come again and receive you to my self You may remember the words of Steven he dying called upon God and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit we receive Christ and we receive the Spirit of Christ Now to as many as received him to them gave he power c. Joh. 1.12 Christ receives our Spirits then If we receive his Spirit now he will receive our Spirits then I will receive you to my self Doct. That the effectual Remembrance that at Death Christ will receive our Souls unto Himself is a Soveraign Preservative to quiet our Souls throughout all the Sufferings we meet with either In the way of Truth and For the way of Truth during this life You shall finde in Iob 19.25 saith he I know that my Redeemer liveth He might say I know my Estate is gone and I see that my Friends are gone and my Children be gone and my Health and Strength is gone and the Grave is ready for me but what stayes Iobs heart now I know that my Redeemer lives This is a living truth for a dying man I know that my Redeemer lives and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth and I shall see him c. This was now In the way of Truth for you cannot say that Iob was persecuted For the way of Truth But you shall finde in a way of suffering for the way of Truth Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Having passed through many troubles I would be out of the body and freed from the body of death I desire to depart and to be with Christ 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. You must either be absent from the body or absent from the Lord it is an hard thing to be absent from the body but not comparatively We desire rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord We shall meet the Lord and shall ever be with the Lord. What is the use of this 1 Thess 4 18. Comfort one another with these words what are these Comforts They are nothing but Promises Promises rightly applied these are the Comforts of the holy Ghost they hold forth more good then the affliction doth evil If you would comfort one another bring out the Promise that is comfortable and seasonable Comfort one another with what with these words for in them the Comforter doth come and apply comfort Reas 1. Because hereby we are made fit for this rest fit to be with Christ that is by our trouble by this remembrance Mixing this remembrance with our trouble doth fit us for this place 2 Cor. 5.5 He that worketh us
much As unto him his honour due malignantly to grutch Yet this will adde unto the weight of his most glorious Crown And both in sight of God and men increase his high renown T is true he was a man and none himself abhorred more But none did more the Lords free grace in Jesus Christ adore Nothing but this to know or preach or share in did he wish This was on Earth as 't is in Heav'n his blessed Paradice To Honour Christ he was content as well by Sea as Land His Life to venture yea his ALL was All at Christ's Command The care of all His Churches-dear lay heavy on his heart As he did ever but at last most fully it impart His life was nothing but of death a daily meditation And to his happy end at last a solemn preparation He was a man if any were that loved truth and peace Which to promote in every kinde he ne're at all did cease An Orthodox Divine he was his writings all do show Both Englands Holland all the World or do or may it know His Books do Antichrist confute with all his viperous brood Especially where they eclipse the merits of Christs blood Church-holy-order he maintain'd against Morellianisme Decrying every sect but most abhorring Quakerisme His last both words and works like Davids were the best And as his death more neer approach'd more lively then the rest Nothing but things at Gods right hand and heavenly Mansions Was in his thoughts at home abroad breath'd in 's expressions Ipswich was happy Boston more if it we had but known Whom two such Johns successively God gave to be their own But John and Paul so much admir'd and most deservedly Must be content to be abas'd by some before they dy And being dead it will appeare such Prophets once we had When God hath once abased us with changes very sad The Lord if his good pleasure be our miseries prevent And of our great unthankfulness grant that we may repent Then will the Lord this Widow-Church that widows house relieve And make us all rejoyce again whom now he makes to grieve We griev'd him first and just it was that he should grieve our hearts Though when at low'st we are t is far beneath our just deserts I speak of all New-England but chiefly of Boston Church Oh! let us all impartially our wayes and spirits search And say as the Disciples did Lord is it I is' t I And thou my soule beyond the rest It to thy self applie T is thou hast sinned were there none but thy unworthiness Well might the Lord both thee and all because of thee distress When such green trees as were those Johns Gods hand thus spareth not Of such a dry and withered one Lord what will be the lot However we must bless thy name what ere of us become That thou takes up such fruitful ones to thine eternal home Oh! that their rare Examples wee to follow had the grace That thou may'st count us worthy once of that most glorious place As for his Mary let her say Rabboni unto him Who calls her Mary by her Name and did her Soul redeem Iohn Wilson Sen. SION the Out-cast healed of her Wounds BEING THE FIRST SERMON AND Preached at the COURT of ELECTION MAY XXII 1661. Jerem. 30.17 For I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord because they called thee an Out-cast saying This is Sion whom no man seeketh after THis Text may be called A Divine Plaister for a Sin-sick Out-cast in other words it is Gods Cure of Sion when incurably Wounded You have here the Patient described from divers Adjuncts some Inherent abiding in the Patient some Extrinsecal relating to the Patient That which is Abiding is that she is an Out-cast Wounded and Sick That which is Extrinsecal relateth either to the Spectators or to the Physician To the Beholders and there you have their disaffection viz. They called thee an Out-cast saying c. To the Physician and there you have his affection viz. I will restore health to thee and will heal thee of thy wounds which Affection is amplified 1. From the Cause Because they called thee an Out-cast therefore will I heal thee 2. From the Infallibility of it upon the testimony of this Physician Thus saith the Lord. They say Thou art an Out-cast the Lord saith He will restore her To open the words briefly The Patient Here you finde 1. An Out-cast It doth immediately look to the good Figs that were in Babylon and they were in a manner voluntary Exiles they yielded themselves to go and such an Out-cast is here meant as is not onely cast out of the Country but out of the hearts and affections of others Several Comparisons there are that set forth this Out-cast as that of a menstruous woman Lam. 1.17 of the person cast out of the Synagogue Ezra 10 8. Ioh. 9 22. and that of the Leper 2 Chron. 26.21 he dwells in an house apart and as Iephthah thrust and expelled out of his Fathers house cast out of doors and out of hearts and esteem 2. But not onely is Sion an Out-cast but an Out-cast Wounded and it is Laesio ad mortem a deadly wound and an incurable wound Ier. 30.12 i. e. according to man And not a green Wound but an Ulcer a festered Wound and Sore and no wonder then she is also sick And if we look to the Extrinsecal Adjunct which accompany this Patient there is that which relates unto 1. The Beholders They say This is Sion whom no man seeketh after They did reproach her and there was no denial of it Is not this Sion 't is spoken in way of derision the sarcasm of an Enemy Sion was a word of honour but they here relate to the Notation of the Hebrew word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Siccitas as being a day withered sapless thing a barren and forsaken and undesirable place and society And further Whom no man seeketh after Neither this sort of men nor that sort of men none hath any care of her welfare 2. A second kinde of Extrinsecal Adjuncts relate unto the Physician Therefore I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee Now God will apply a sanative Cataplasm an healing Pla ster This is Repentance and Restitution Ier. 31.9 Repentance and their Return make up the sanative Plaister In respect of her self there was need of Repentance in respect of the adversary there was need of Reduction And the Cause of it viz. Because they called thee an Out-cast as who should say I am sensible of all thy case and the opprobrie thou hast suffered therefore will I restore thee But shall not this fail No Jehovah's word is engaged for it Thus saith the Lord. Doct. When Sion for its sin is become an Out-cast a subject of contempt God takes occasion from her Calamity to give her Repentance that so he may bring upon her the Blessing of his own
belongeth not to them we must do nothing but according to the Patern Instr 3. A Religious Worshipper or a man truly religious doth not rest in this That externals do answer the Prescript Rule of the Word without proceeding to internal Worship You finde that God doth not onely bear testimony against our Worship but also against hypocritical Worship First against our Worship or our Administrations that as you see is Will-worship and it is vain Worship all the Institutions of men are so they are Will-worship i. e. there is sin and defilement in them we must not set our posts by Gods posts But then suppose we are brought to external worship doth God rest here no do you think that God liveth on goat's bloud Psal 50.13 And hence also Amos 5.25 saith the Lord you did not offer unto me your sacrifices during the space of fourty years speaking of the time in the Wilderness It is like there was a cessation in respect of the condition that they were in as who should say then I can be without Sacrifices Ier. 7.22 23. God saith there He did not command Sacrifices or external Worship i. e. Comparatively in respect of Obedience he commanded it not but I Commanded them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people So God will say to us He did not Command us to come hither to set up the external Worship of the Gospel i. e. comparatively in stead of Obedience Holiness and Righteousness this is that which Stephen pleads Acts 7.42 43. Oh house of Israel you have not offered to me slain beasts but you had the Tabernacle of Moloch c. but they could not bear with Stephen when he came to this So our Saviour Christ tell 's them They have made my House a den of thieves Those among you that are given to injustice drunkenness or other scandalous wayes this or that I tell you God requires not your Sacrifices but Obey my voyce that I may be your God this is the thing God aime's at As for our external worship it ought indeed to be according to the Rule but this may be and yet as it is in Isai 1.13 14 15. Your Incense is an abomination and your solemn meetings iniquity my soul hates them saith the Lord they are a trouble unto me and when ye make many Prayers I will not hear them your hands are full of blood c. It would be a dreadful thing if God should say to any of us that are full of duties and concerning our Sabbaths Lords Supper our Fasts our Feasts I am weary of your Worship bring no more vain Oblations c. God forbid that we should forget the internal part of worship whilest we are exercised in the external Amos 5.21 I hate and despise your feasts I will not smell in your solemn Assemblies Look not onely to external regularity but look we unto inward piety lest God hate and despise our Worship Joshua saith God Why lyest thou upon the ground Chap. 7.10 11. Israel hath sinned and transgressed my Covenant c. we have been much in fastings and in external duties many years but what reformation is there are we brought sny more unto the Rule in Church and State I beseech you know that God aimes at Obedience as the internal substantial part of his Worship Instr 4. That the external Order of the Gospel Church-order is no other then the external Throne of Christ Jesus Worship that is mixt partly Divine and partly Humane this is so much defilement in Gods Worship but when it is according to the Rule that is Christs Throne Satan hath his throne that is where Antichrist reignes and Christ hath his Throne that is where his Institutions are in force there Christ sits as Lord. If the Polity be according to the Gospel Jesus Christ is there acknowledged Lord and there is never a Member but is a Subject there must be an Order and according to that Order there must be subjection do you think it an easy thing to be subject to Order Remember it was matter of tryal to those that came out of Egypt and through the Sea as we have done yet there were men of renown that could not bear Church-Order Let me tell you it is a greater matter to be subject to Order then to come over the Seas or to endure the troubles of a Wilderness many will bear a Prison before they will endure the Government of Christ and Gospel-order in his Church Vse 2. Of Exhortation to us all in our Churches especially to sanctifie God according to this truth viz. That our polity may be a Gospel-polity and may be compleat according to the Scriptures answering fully the Word of God this is the work of our generation and the very work we engaged for into this Wilderness this is the scope and end of it that which is written upon the forehead of New-England viz. The compleat walking in the Faith of the Gospel according to the Order of the Gospel 1. And for your direction first remember that we have the patern in the mount I mean we have the Scripture as a Rule and you have the Platform of Church-Discipline given to you in way of Council as the Confession of our Faith to this way of Church-government you know in what manner it was that which for the substance of it ownes the cause Congregational if any are departed from it let them look to it I know none of the Elders that have receded from it It was given many years ago as the Confession of our Faith to this Country and to the World it is distinct from the Episcopacy and from the Presbyterian way from the Morellian way from that of Separatism and it is for the substance of it precisely the way Congregational And as David said to Solomon 1 Chron. 28.10 11. I give unto thee the patern of the House of God c. what God will do with us he knows best David lived not to build the Temple himself but he left the patern thereof to his Son Solomon And so we have the patern only this is complained of that it is not practised though we have had it many years ago now practice is the end of Doctrine 2. Consider that we are all concerned in this service I mean in setting up the Throne of Christ Moses is concerned and it is his commendation that he was a man of God who erected the Tabernacle and set up the Worship of God according to the Patern in the Mount and so David and Solomon c. Thou Solomon my Son if thou doest hold here the Lord will be with thee and let the Churches look to it we are all concerned herein our Fidelity in this cause is our Crown see that it be not taken from us 3. It is a matter of very good Policy times of trouble danger may approach and we read in Ezr. 3.3 that they set the Altar upon its Bases for
been abundantly performed both by Strangers as well as by our own Countrymen We may here call to minde and not without some sacred sympathy those Blessed Soules Melancthon and Pareus now amongst the Blessed the one no less famous amongst the Reformed then the other amongst the Evangelicks The first of whom going towards Haganoa with sighing uttered these words In Synods hitherto we lived have And now in them return unto the grave The other seriously meditating on the controversie of the Encharist brake forth into these words I am weary with disputing Thus if these men might be Judges we ought rather Pray then Dispute and study how to Live then to Contend And perhaps the Divines of either part after they have been wearied and broken in their Spirits with daily and continual Contentions will more readily accept of the Counsels of Peace which hitherto have been less acceptable while the Sense of Anger remained fresh After by long use they have been taught they may prefer the waters of the Pacifick Sea before those of Meribah Nor need we say That those Honoured Persons and Brethren will perhaps more kindly entertain the Counsels of Peace seeing there are we know not how many Sayings Writings Deeds of Princes Churches and Universities openly testifying That eminent men of both Orders and that not of the lowest Rank have not onely received but taken Counsel together and engaged their helping hand as need shall require from which beginnings it is but meet to hope the best God is able to make them workers of Peace whom he hath given to be Seekers of Peace If otherwise such eminent endeavours shall not want their reward in heaven and their honour in Israel These are piously Heroick Enterprises which as they do oblige all good men so are they to be admired of them Their Praises how great or how little soever as the present age is not altogether silent about them so will posterity declare the rest and perhaps the unknown parts of the World We give thanks unto the Father of Lights with all our hearts who hath put this Work into the minde of Dury savouring of a Spirit more then Humane and hath added also suitable Courage to the promoting so Pious and Apostolical a matter which Task whosoever shall effect if we may be Judges will deserve a more then ordinary Triumphant Statue and whose Monument will so far excel the Trophees of Achilles as if they were not worthy to be mentioned in the same day However the issue of the matter fall yet it is a great deal to have attempted in a great Design Seek the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee We give thanks unto the God of Peace who would not suffer the labours of his servant endeavouring after peace to be undertaken altogether without success Therefore most worthy Sir go on in this your strength resting on the prophecy for the desired Concord That it shall be in it 's own appointed time The power which have obeyed the Roman Harlot shall hate her make her naked and burn her with fire For God hath put it into the hearts of the Kings that they should fulfil his will It doth not become those that have a meet understanding of things to doubt of their Agreement in the Faith who are to burn to Ashes the Metropolis of the last Head of the Beast as an enemy to the Faith The Discord of the Kings detaines the Whore on her throne and keeps the Woman in the Wilderness while they are contending amongst themselves It makes all Priamus his house rejoyce And other Trojans to lift up their voice But this their sacred Concord the renowned Sons of Sion cannot but look upon as a forerunner of the Destruction of Rome now at the very doors and accordingly with their daily and most ardent prayers breathe after hope and long for the same Lastly we give thanks to Mr. Dury into whose heart it came to remember Joseph separate from his Brethren at so great a distance both by Sea and Land and who hath vouchsafed with so comfortable a message to visit us poor wretches clothed in Sackcloth for our warfare yet as we trust the Sackcloth of the Gospel who hath not refused to put New-England as a part of the skirt of Aaron's garment upon which hath descended some of the precious Oil into the Catalogue of the so much famed Agreement And who hath by his Letter exhorting unto such Agreement given us an occasion to bring in this Testimony such as it is for our brotherly Communion with the whole company of Protestants professing the Faith of Christ Jesus For we must ingenuously confess that then when all things were quiet and no threatning signes of warre appeared seeing we could not be permitted by the Bishops at that time prevailing to perform the Office of the Ministry in Publick nor yet to enjoy the holy Ordinances without Subscription and Conformity as they were wont to speak nor without the mixture of Humane Inventions with Divine Institutions we chose rather to depart into the remote and unknown Coasts of the Earth for the sake of a purer worship then to lye down under the Hierarchy in the abundance of all things but with the prejudice of Conscience But that in flying from our Country we should renounce communion with such Churches as profess the Gospel is a thing which we confidently and solemnly deny Certainly so far as concerns our selves in whatever Assemblies amongst us the whole Company of them that profess the Gospel the Fundamentals of Doctrine and Essentials of Order are maintained although in many niceties of controversal Divinity they are at less Agreement with us we do hereby make it manifest which yet we would alwayes have understood so as the least part of Truth according to the nature of that Reverence which ought exactly to be yielded thereunto may be preserved that we do acknowledge them all and every one for Brethren and that we shall be ready to give unto them the right hands of fellowship in the Lord if in other things they be peaceable and walk orderly We humbly beseech the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in whose lips is onely power to perswade that he would enlighten Princes Divines and even all who are rightly called Christians from the name of Christ with the lively splendour of such an Agreement and draw them with a Soul-moving Energie to the divine Love of himself As for that which concerns your self the sweetest Follower of Peace We should account it an heinous crime to be wanting unto you in our Prayers to the very God of Peace That he would so preserve your Life your Course and your Work that you may bring unto a Conclusion your so eminent undertaking with so many sighs labours sweatings dangers and with so great charges hitherto carried on if otherwise and that it seem good to the great Determiner of things before this come to pass to advance him that hath been a follower of peace on Earth to the state of a Blessed Saint in Heaven That then he would raise up other Duryes who may bring the work so happily begun to its desired end Your most observant Brethren in Christ The Ministers of the Churches and Preachers of the Word Militant for the Faith of Jesus in New-England John Wilson Pastor of Boston John Norton Teacher of the same John Mayo Pastor of New-Boston Richard Mather Teacher of Dorchester John Allin Pastor of Dedham John Eliot Teacher of Rexbury Samuel Danforth Pastor of the same William Thomson Pastor of Braintry Henry Flint Teacher of the same Thomas Thatcher Teacher of Weymouth Peter Hubbard Pastor of Hingham John Miller Pastor of Yarmouth John Wilson junior Pastor of Medfield Zechariah Symmes Pastor of Charlstown Thomas Shepard Peacher of the same Samuel Stone Teacher of Hartford Jonathan Mitchel Pastor of Cambridge John Sherman Pastor of Watertown Edmund Brown Pastor of Sudbury Edward Bulkly Pastor of Concord Thomas Carter Pastor of Woborne Samuel Haugh Pastor of Reding John Fiske Pastor of Chelmsford John Reyner Teacher of Dover Ezekiel Regers Pastor of Rowly Samuel Philips Teacher of the same Samuel Whiting Pastor of Lyn. John Higginson Pastor of Salem Thomas Cobbet Pastor of Ipswich William Hubbard Teacher of the same Francis Dane Teacher of Andover William Worcester Pastor of Salisbury John Ward Pastor of Haverhil Timothy Dalton Teacher of Hampton Seaborn Cotton of the same Joseph Emerson Pastor of York Michael Wigglesworth Pastor of Maldon William Walton Minister of the Word Ralph Smith Minister of the Word Charles Chauncy President of Harvard Colledge Gershom Bulkly Fellows of the said Colledge Thomas Graves Fellows of the said Colledge Zech. Symmes Fellows of the said Colledge Zech. Brigden Fellows of the said Colledge FINIS