in reproving sin should not allow those that come amongst them that liberty and plainness against themselves and their own sins I dare appeal to your selves Have you never been taught that it is the Ministers duty as to oppose against all errors and sins in the general so to bend himself as near as he can especially against the apparent errors and sins of his present auditory And do you not believe it is so Why then might I not nay how ought I not bend my speech both then against a common error of sundry in these parts in point of Ceremony and now against the late petulancy or at least oversight of some misguided ones The noise of these things abroad and the scandal taken thereat by such as hear of them and the ill â—ruits of them at home in breeding jealousies and cherishing contentions among Neighbours cannot but stir us up if we be sensible as every good member should be of the damage and loss the Church acquireth by them to put you in mind and admonishâ— you as opportunities invite us both privately and publickly Is it not time trow ye to thrust in the sickle when the fields look white unto the harvest Is it not time our Pulpit should a little echo of these things when all the Country far and near ringeth of them For my own part however others censure me I am sure my own heart telleth me I could not have discharged my conscience if being called to this place I should have balked what either then or now I have delivered My Conscience prompting me all circumstances considered that these things were pro hic nunc necessary to be delivered rather than any other If for any outward inferiour respect I should have passed them over with silence I think I should have much swerved from the Rule of my Text and have done a great evil that some small good might come of it But many thousand times better were it for me that all the world should censure me for speaking what they think I should not than that my own heart should condemn me for not speaking what it telleth me I should And thus much of things simply evil I should proceed to apply this Rule We must not do evil that good may come unto evils not simply but accidentally such and that both in the general and also in some few specials of greatest use namely unto evils which become such through Conscience Scandal or Comparison In my choice of the Scripture I aimed at all this and had gathered much of my provision for it But the Cases being many and weighty I foresaw I could not go onward with my first project without much wronging one or both either the things themselves if I should contract my speech to the scanting of time or you if I should lengthen it to the weight of the matter And therefore I resolved here to make an end and to give place as fit it is to the business whereabout we meet The Total of what I have said and should say is in effect but this No pretension of a good end of a good meaning of a good event of any good whatsoever either can sufficiently warrant any sinful action to be done or justifie it being done or sufficiently excuse the Omission of any necessary duty when it is necessary Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things Now to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit c. AD CLERUM The Third Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln March 13 th 1620. 1 COR. XII 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal IN the First Verse of this Chapter S. Paul proposeth to himself an Argument which he prosecuteth the whole Chapter through and after a profitable digression into the praise of Charity in the next Chapter resumeth again at the fourteenth Chapter spending also that whole Chapter therein and it is concerning spiritual gifts Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant c. These gracious gifts of the holy Spirit of God bestowed on them for the edification of the Church the Corinthians by making them the fuel either of their pride in despising those that were inferiour to themselves or of their envy in malicing those that excelled therein abused to the maintenance of Schism and Faction and Emulation in the Church For the remedying of which evils the Apostle entreth upon the Argument discoursing fully of the variety of these spiritual gifts and who is the Author of them and for what end they were given and in what manner they should be imployed omitting nothing that was needful to be spoken anent this subject In this part of the Chapter entreating both before and after this verse of the wondrous great yet sweet and useful variety of these spiritual gifts he sheweth That howsoever manifold they are either for kind or degree so as they may differ in the material and formal yet they do all agree both in the same efficient and the same final cause In the same efficient cause which is God the Lord by his Spirit ver 6. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And in the same final cause which is the advancement of Gods glory in the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church in this verse But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal By occasion of which words we may inquire into the nature conveyance and use of these gifts First their nature in themselves and in their original what they are and whence they are the works of Gods Spirit in us the manifestation of the Spirit Secondly their conveyance unto us how we come to have them and to have propeâ—ty in them it is by gift it is given to every man Thirdly their use and end why they were given us and what we are to do with them they must be employed to the good of our Brethren and of the Church it is given to every man to profit withal Of these briefly and in their order and with special reference ever to us that are of the Clergy By manifestation of the Spirit here our Apostle understandeth none other thing than he doth by the adjective word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first and by the substantive word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last verse of the Chapter Both which put together do signifie those spiritual gifts and graces whereby God enableth men and specially Church-men to the duties of their particular Callings for the general good Such as are those particulars which are named in the next following verses the word of Wisdom the word Knowledge Faith the gifts of healing working of miracles prophecy discerning
our Faith But it is by the grace and power of God that our Faith it self standeth Take that grace away and our faith faileth and then our hearts fail and then there is neither courage nor patience nor obedience nor any thing else that good is in us At least not in that measure as to render our ways during that estate either acceptable to God or comfortable to our selves until it shall please him to renew us unto repentance to give us the comfort of his help again and to establish us afresh with his free spirit and grace 32. Of whose most holy and wise dispensations although we be neither able nor worthy to apprehend any other reason than his own will nor to comprehend that for his spirit breatheth where and when it listeth and we know not antecedently either why or how yet are we well assured in the general that the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Yea and we find by the blessed consequents many times that the very withdrawing of his grace is it self a special act of his grace 1. As when he hath thereby humbled us to a better sight and sense of our own frailty so was Hezekiah left to himself in the matter of the Embassadours that came from the King of Babel 2. Or checkt us for our overmuch self-confidence as Peters denial was a real rebuke for his over-bold protestation 3. Or brought us to acknowledge with thankfulness and humility by whose strength it is that we have hitherto stood My strength will I ascribe unto thee Psal. 59. 4. Or taught us to bear more compassion towards our brethren and their infirmities if they hap to be overtaken with a fault and to restore them with the spirit of meekness considering that even we our selves are not such as cannot be tempted Or wrought some other good effect upon us some other way 33. Sith then great and lasting afflictions are strong trials of mens patience and courage and their inability to bear them great through the frailty of nature is yet by their own personal default and supine negligence much greater and without the support of Gods grace which as he is no ways bound to give them so he may and doth when it pleaseth him take from them their spirits are not able to bear up under the least temptation you will grant the Apostle had great reason to fear lest these Hebrews notwithstanding the good proof they had given of their Christian constancy in some former trials should yet be weary and faint in their minds under greater sufferings And consequently how it concerneth every one of us whatsoever comforts we may have of our former sufferings and patience whereof unless God have the whole glory our comfort sure will be the less yet to be very jealous of our own treacherous hearts and to keep a constant watch over them that they deceive us not not to be too high-minded or jolly for any thing that is past nor too unmerciful censurers of our weaker brethren for their faintings and failings nor too confident of our own future standing 34. It ought to be our care rather at all times especially in such times as threaten persecution to all those that will not recede from such Principles of Religion Iustice and Loyalty as they have hitherto held themselves obliged to walk by to live in a continual expectancy of greater trials and temptations daily to assault us than we have yet wrestled withal And to give all diligence by our faithful prayers and utmost endeavours to arm and prepare our selves for the better bearing them with such calm patience and moderation on the one side and yet with such undaunted courage and resolution on the other side as may evidence at once our humble submission to whatsoever it shall please God to lay upon us and our high contempt of the utmost despight the world can do us 35. For since every affliction Ianus-like hath two faces and looketh two ways we should do well to make our use of both It looketh backward as it cometh from God who layeth it upon us as a correction for some past sin And it looketh forward as it cometh from Satan and the World who lay it before us as a temptation to some new sin Accordingly are we to entertain it As it is Gods Correction by no means to despise it My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord the next verse but one but to take it up with joy and to bear it with patience and to profit by it to repentance But as it is Satans temptation by all means to resist it with courage yea and with disdain too Resist it I say but in that sence wherein such resistance is to be understood in the very next verse after Text. That is to say so to resist the temptation by striving against that sin whatever it be which the Tempter seeketh to drive us into by the affliction that we should fight it out in blood resolving rather to lose it all were it to the last drop than consent to the committing of that Thus to lose our blood is to win the day And the failing so to do is that weariness and faininess of mind and soul of which our Apostle here speaketh and upon which we have hitherto thus long insisted 36. Yet dare I not for all that leave it thus without adding a necessary caution lest what hath been said be mis-understood as if when we are bidden not to faint under the Cross we were forbidden to use any means or endeavours to remove it No such matter True it is where no more is left to our choice but one of the two either Sin or Suffer a right Christian should not for shame so much as take it into deliberation Never demur upon it it is a plain case we must suffer But where there is a Medium or third thing as an out-let or expedient between both as many times there is nothing hindreth but we may and reason would we should make choice of that and so neither sin nor suffer Lay that first as a sure ground We must avoid sin though we suffer for it But that once laid if we can then avoid suffering too without sinning why may we not nay why ought we not to avoid both 37. No man doubteth but we may pray to be delivered from troubles David doth it an hundred times and if we do it not daily too even as often as we beg our daily bread our Saviour having contrived both Petitions into the same Prayer we are to blame And if we may pray for it then no doubt but we may endeavour it also Though they look something alike in someother respects yet in this one at least Wishes and Prayers are much unlike Many things we may lawfully wish for which we may not endeavour after but sure whatsoever we may lawfully pray for we not only lawfully may but are in
given Nobis Nobis both to us and for us that is chiefly for our own good these Nobis sed Nostris to us indeed but for others that is chiefly for the good of our Brethren Those are given us ad salutem for the saving of our Souls these ad lucrum for the winning of other mens Souls Those proceed from the special love of God to the person and may therefore be called personal or special these proceed from the General love of God to his Church or yet more general to humane societies and may therefore rather be called Ecclesiastical or General Gifts or Graces Of the first sort are Faith Hope Charity Repentance Patience Humility and all those other holy graces fruits of the Spirit which accompany Salvation Wrought by the blessed and powerful operation of the holy Spirit of God after a most effectual but unconceivable manner regenerating and renewing and seasoning and sanctifying the hearts of his Chosen But yet these are not the Gifts so much spoken of in this chapter and namely in my Text Every branch whereof excludeth them Of those graces of sanctification first we may have indeed probable inducements to perswade us that they are or are not in this or that man But hypocrisie may make such a semblance that we may think we see spirit in a man in whom yet there is nothing but flesh and infirmities may cast such a fogg that we can discern nothing but flesh in a man in whom yet there is spirit But the gifts here spoken of do incurr into the senses and give us evident and infallible assurance of the spirit that wrought them here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manifestation of the Spirit Again Secondly those Graces of sanctification are not communicated by distribution Alius sic alius verò sic Faith to one Charity to another Repentance to another but where they are given they are given all at once and together as it were strung upon one thread and linked into one chain But the Gifts here spoken of are distributed as it were by doal and divided severally as it pleased God shared out into several portions and given to every man some to none all for to one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge c. Thirdly those Graces of sanctification though they may and ought to be exercised to the benefit of others who by the shining of our light and the sight of our good works may be provoked to glorifie God by walking in the same paths yet that is but utilitas emergens and not finis proprius a good use made of them upon the bye but not the main proper and direct end of them for which they were chiefly given But the Gifts here spoken of were given directly for this end and so intended by the giver to be imployed for the benefit of others and for the edifying of the Church they were given to profit withal It then remaineth to understand this Text and Chapter of that other and later kind of spiritual Gifts Those Graces of Edification or Gratiae gratis datae whereby men are euabled in their several Callings according to the quality and measure of the graces they have received to be profitable members of the publick body either in Church or Common-wealth Under which appellation the very first natural powers and faculties of the Soul only excepted which flowing à principiis speciei are in all men the same and like I comprehend all other secondary endowments and abilities whatsoever of the reasonable Soul which are capable of the degrees of more and less and of better and worse together with all subsidiary helps any way conducing to the exercise of any of them Whether they be First supernatural graces given by immediate and extraordinary infusion from God such as were the gifts of tongues and of miracles and of healings and of prophesy properly so called and many other like which were frequent in the infancy of the Church and when this Epistle was written according as the necessity of those primitive times considered God saw it expedient for his Church Or whether they be Secondly such as Philosophers call Natural dispositions such as are promptness of Wit quickness of Conceit fastness of Memory clearness of Understanding soundness of Iudgment readiness of Speech and other like which flow immediately à principiis Individui from the individual condition constitution and temperature of particular persons Or whether they be Thirdly such as Philosophers call intellectual habits which is when those natural dispositions are so improved and perfected by Education Art Industry Observation or Experience that men become thereby skilful Linguists subtle Disputers copious Orators profound Divines powerful Preachers expert Lawyers Physicians Historians Statesmen Commanders Artisans or excellent in any Science Profession or Faculty whatsoever To which we may add in the Fourth place all outward subservient helps whatsoever which may any way further or facilitate the exercise of any of the former graces dispositions or habits such as are health strength beauty and all those other Bona corporis as also Bona Fortunae Honour Wealth Nobility Reputation and the rest All of these even those among them which seem most of all to have their foundation in Nature or perfection from Ar◠may in some sort be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts in as much as the spirit of God is the first and principal worker of them Nature Art Industry and all other subsidiary furtherances being but second Agents under him and as means ordained or as Instruments used by him for the accomplishing of those ends he hath appointed And now we have found out the just latitude of the spiritual gifts spoken of in this Chapter and of the manifestation of the Spirit in my Text From whence not to pass without some observable Inferences for our Edification We may here first behold and admire and magnifie the singular love and care and providence of God for and over his Church For the building up whereof he hath not only furnished it with fit materials men endowed with the faculties of understanding reason will memory affections not only lent them tools out of his own rich store-house his holy Word and sacred Ordinances but as sometimes he filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with skill and wisdom for the building of the material Tabernacle so he hath also from time to time raised up serviceable Men and enabled them with a large measure of all needful gifts and graces to set forward the building and to give it both strength and beauty A Body if it had not difference and variety of members were rather a lump than a Body or if having such members there were yet no vital spirits within to enable them to their proper offices it were rather a Corps than a Body but the vigour that is in every part to do its
and novelties and niceties in Religion and wherein most of our Gentry very Women and all by the advantage of long Peace and the customs of modern Education together with the help of a multitude of English Books and translations are able to look through the ignorance of a Clergy-man and censure it if he be tripping in any point of History Cosmography Moral or Natural Phylosophy Divinity or the Arts yea and to chastise his very method and phrase if he speak loosly or impertinently or but improperly and if every thing be not point-vise I say as these times are I would not have a Clergy-man content himself with every mediocrity of gifts but by his prayers care and industry improve those he hath so as he may be able upon good occasion to impart a spiritual gift to the people of God whereby they may be established and to speak with such understanding and sufficiency and pertinency especially when he hath just warning and a convenient time to prepare himself in some good measure of proportion to the quickness and ripeness of these present times as they that love not his Coat may yet approve his labours and not find any thing therein whereat justly to quarrel shewing in his Doctrine as our Apostle writeth to Titus uncurruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of him They that are called spiritual persons should strive to answer that name by a more than ordinary manifestation of spiritual gifts And thus much shall suffice us to have spoken concerning the name and nature of these spiritual gifts by occasion of the title here given them The manifestation of the Spirit Consider we next and in the second place the conveyance of these gifts over unto us how we come to have a property in them and by what right we can call them ours The Conveyance is by deed of gifts the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man Understand it not to be so much intended here that every particular man hath the manifestation of the Spirit though that may also be true in some sence as that every man that hath the manifestation of the Spirit hath it given him and given him withal to this end that he may do good with it Like as when we say Every man learneth to read before he learn to write it is no part of our meaning to signifie each particular person so to do for there be many that learn neither of both but we may only intend to shew the received order of the things to be such as that every man that learneth both learneth thut first As we conceive his meaning who directing us the way to such or such a place should tell us Every man rideth this way and as we conceive of that speech of the Ruler of the Feast in the Gospel Every man at the beginning setteth forth good Wine and then after that which is worse though there be many thousand men in the world that never rode that way or had occasion to set forth any Wine at all either better or worse very so ought we to conceive the meaning of the universal particle Every man both in this and in many other like speeches in the Scriptures with due limitations according to the tenour and purpose of the thing spoken of It mattereth not then as to the intent of this present speech be it true be it false otherwise whether every man have received a spiritual gift or no only thus much is directly intended that every man who hath received such a gift hath received it by way of gift All spiritual graces all those dispositions habits and abilities of the understanding part from which the Church of God may receive edification in any kind together with all the secondary and inferiour helps that any way may conduce thereunto they are all the good gifts of God The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man The variety both of the gifts meet for several Offices and of the Offices wherein to imply those gifts is wonderful and no less wonderful the distribution of both gifts and offices But all that variety is derived from one and the same fountain the holy Spirit of God and all those distributions pass unto us by one and the same way of most free and liberal donation Have all the Word of Wisdom Have all the Word of Knowledge Have all Faith Have all Prophecy or other spiritual grace No they had not but to one the Word of Wisdom the Word of Knowledge to another and to others other gifts There is both variety you see and distribution of these graces But yet there is the same Author of them and the same manner of communicating them For to one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit and to others other graces but they are all from the same Spirit and they are all given And as the gifts so the offices too To that question in ver 29. Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Answer may be made as before negatively No they are not but some Apostles and some Prophets and some Teachers There is the like variety and distribution as before but withal the same Donor and the same donation as before For he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4. And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. beneath at ver 28. Both gifts and offices as they are à Deo for the Author so they are ex dono for the manner from God and by way of gift If we had no other the very names they carry like the superscription upon Caesar's penny were a sufficient proof from whom we first had them When we call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratias gratis datas gifts and graces and manifestations of the Spirit do we not by the use of those very names confess the receipt For what more free than gift and what less of debt or desert than grace Heathen men indeed called the best of their perfections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Habits But Saint Iames hath taught us Christians a fitter name for ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts They say they had them and looked no farther but we must know as that we have them so as well how we came by them And therefore this Apostle above at Chap. 4. joyneth the having and the receipt together as if he would have us behold them uno intuitu and at once Quid habes quod non accepisti What hast thou that thou hast not received Possibly thou wilt alledge thy excellent natural parts these were not given but thou broughtest them into the world with thee or thou wilt vouch what thou hast attained to by Art
of and for which God here promiseth that he will not bring the evil in his days Lay all this together the man and his ill conditions and his present carriage with the occasion and success of it and it offereth three notable things to our consideration See first how far an Hypocrite a Cast-away may go in the outward performance of holy duties and particularly in the Practice of Repentance here is Ahab humbled such a man and yet so penitent See again secondly how deep God's Word though in the mouth but of weak Instruments when he is pleased to give strength unto it pierceth into the Consciences of obstinate sinners and bringeth the proudest of them upon their knees in despite of their hearts here is Ahab quelled by Elijah such a great one by such a weak one See yet again thirdly how prone God is to mercy and how ready to apprehend any advantage as it were and occasion to shew compassion here is Ahab humbled and his Judgment adjourned such a real substantial favour and yet upon such an empty shadow of Repentance Of these three at this time in their order and of the first first An Hypocrite may go very far in the outward performances of holy duties For the right conceiving of which assertion Note first that I speak not now of the common Graces of Illumination and Edification and good dexterity for the practising of some particular Calling which Gifts with sundry other like are oftentimes found even in such apparently wicked and profane men as have not so much as the form much less the power of Godliness but I speak even of those Graces which de tota specie if they be true and sincere are the undoubted blessed fruits of God's holy renewing Spirit of Sanctification such as are Repentance Faith Hope Ioy Humility Patience Temperance Meekness Zeal Reformation c. in such as these Hypocrites may go very far as to the outward semblance and performance Note secondly that I speak not of the inward power and reality of these Graces for Cast-aways and Hypocrites not having union with God by a lively Faith in his Son nor communion with him by the effectual working of his Spirit have no part nor fellowship in these things which are proper to the chosen and called of God and peculiar to those that are his peculiar people but I speak only of the outward performances and exercises of such actions as may seem to flow from such spiritual Graces habitually rooted in the heart when as yet they may spring also and when they are found in unregenerate men do so spring from Nature perhaps moralized or otherwise restrained but yet unrenewed by saving and sanctifying Grace Note thirdly that when I say an Hypocrite may go very far in such outward performances by the Hypocrite is meant not only the gross or formal Hypocrite but every natural and unregenerate man including also the Elect of God before their effectual calling and conversion as also Reprobates and Cast-aways for the whole time of their lives all of which may have such fair semblances of the fore-named Graces and of other like them as not only others who are to judge the best by the Law of Charity but themselves also through the wretched deceitfulness of their own wicked and corrupt hearts may mistake for those very Graces they resemble The Parable of the seed sown in the stony ground may serve for a full both declaration and proof hereof which seed is said to have sprouted forth immediately springing up forthwith after it was sown but yet never came to good but speedily withered away because for want of deepness of earth it had not moisture enough to feed it to any perfection of growth and ripeness And that branch of the Parable our blessed Saviour himself in his Exposition applieth to such hearers as when they hear the Word immediately receive it with gladness and who so forward as they to repent and believe and reform their lives but yet all that forwardness cometh to nothing they endure but for a short time because they have no root in themselves but want the sap and moisture of Grace to give life and lasting to those beginnings and imperfect offers and essays of goodness they made shew of Here are good affections to see to unto the good word of God they receive it with joy it worketh not only upon their judgments but it seemeth also to rejoice yea after a sort to ravish their hearts so as they feel a kind of tickling Pleasure and Delight in it which the Apostle calleth tasting of the heavenly gift and the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come Heb. 6. And as they receive the seed joyfully so it appeareth quickly it springeâ—h up anon in the likeness of Repentance and Faith and Obedience and newness of life They may be touched with a deep feeling of their sins and with heavy hearts and many tears confess and bewail them and not only promise but also purpose amendment They may be superficially affected with and find some overly comfort and refreshing from the contemplation of those gracious promises of mercy and reconciliation and salvation which are contained in the glorious Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ and have some degrees of perswasion that those promises are true and some flashes of confidence withal of their own personal interest therein They may reform themselves in the general course of their lives in sundry particulars refraining from some gross disorders and avoiding the occasions of them wherein they have formerly lived and delighted aud practising many outward Duties of Piety and Charity conformable to the letter of the Laws of both Tables and misliking and opposing against the common errors or corruptions of the times and places wherein they live and all this to their own and others thinking with as great zeal unto godliness and as thorough indignation against sin as any others All this they may do and yet all the while be rotten at the Heart wholly carnal and unrenewed quite empty of sound Faith and Repentance and Obédience and every good Grace full of damnable Pride and Hypocrisie and in the present state of Damnation and in the purpose of God Reprobates and Cast-aways Examples hereof we have in Saul's care for the destroying of Witches in Iehu's zeal in killing Baal's Priests in Herod's hearing of Iohn Baptist gladly and doing many things thereafter and to omit others in this wicked King Ahab's present fit of Repentance and Humiliation At all which and sundry other like effects we shall the less need to marvel if we shall seriously consider the Causes and Reasons thereof I will name but a few of many and but name them neither First Great is the force of Natural Conscience even in the most wicked men especially when it is awakened by the hand of God
generation be visited with any such spiritual judgment as is the removal of their Candlestick and the want of the Gospel for the sins and impieties of their Ancestors in some former generations yet this ought no more to be accounted the punishment of one for another than it ought to be accounted the punishing of one for another to punish a man in his Old Age for the sins of his Youth For as the body of a man though the primitive moisture be continually spending and wasting therein and that decay be still repaired by a daily supply of new and alimental moisture is yet truly the same body and as a River fed with a living Spring though the water that is in the channel be continually running out and other water freshly succeeding in the place and room thereof is truly the same River so a Nation or People though one generation is ever passing away and another coming on is yet truly the same Nation or People after an hundred or a thousand years which it was before Again secondly The want of the Gospel is not properly a spiritual but rather a temporal punishment We call it indeed sometimes a spiritual Iudgment as we do the free use of it a spiritual blessing because the Gospel was written for and revealed unto the Church by the Spirit of God and also because it is the Holy Ordinance of God and the proper instrument whereby ordinarily the spiritual life of Faith and of Grace is conveyed into our souls But yet properly and primarily those only are Spiritual Blessings which are immediately wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God and by the same Spirit cherished and preserved in the heart of the receiver for his good and are proper and peculiar to those that are born again of the Spirit and all those on the contrary which may be subject to decay or are common to the reprobate with the Elect or may turn to the hurt of the receiver are to be esteemed temporal blessings and not spiritual And such a blessing is the outward partaking of the Word and Ordinances of God the want thereof therefore consequently is to be esteemed a temporal judgment rather than spiritual So that notwithstanding this instance still the former consideration holdeth good that God sometimes visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children with outward and temporal but never with spiritual and eternal punishments Now if there could no more be said to this doubt but only this it were sufficient to clear God's Justice since we have been already instructed that these temporal judgments are not always properly and formally the punishments of sin For as outward blessings are indeed no true blessings properly because wicked men have their portion in them as well as the godly and they may turn and often do to the greater hurt of the soul and so become rather Punishments than Blessings so to the contrary outward punishments are no true punishments properly because the Godly have their share in them as deep as the Wicked and they may turn and often do to the greater good of the soul and so become rather Blessings than Punishments If it be yet said But why then doth God threaten them as Punishments if they be not so I answer First because they seem to be punishments and are by most men so accounted for their grievousness though they be not properly such in themselves Secondly for the common event because ut plurimum and for the most part they prove punishments to the sufferer in case he be not bettered as well as grieved by them Thirdly because they are indeed a kind of punishment though not then deserved but formerly Fourthly and most to the present purpose because not seldom the Father himself is punished in them who through tenderness of affection taketh very much to heart the Evils that happen to his Child sometimes more than if they had happened to himself See David weeping and pulling for his traiterous Son Absolom when he was gone more affectionately than we find he did for the hazards of his own person and of the whole State of Israel whilst he lived For if it be a punishment to a man to sustain losses in his Cattle or Goods or Lands or Friends or any other thing he hath how much more then in his Children of whom he maketh more account than of all the rest as being not only an Image but even a part of himself and for whose sakes especially it is that he maketh so much account of the rest The Egyptians were plagued not only in the blasting of their Corn the murrain of their Cattel the unwholesomness of their Waters the annoyance of Vermine and such like but also and much more in the death of their first-born that was their last and greatest Plague The news of his children slain with the fall of an house did put Iob though not quite out of Patience yet more to the trial of his patience than the loss of all his substance besides though of many thousands of Oxen and Asses and Sheep and Camels Now if no man charge God with Injustice if when a man sinneth he punishe him in his body or goods or good name or in other things why should it be suspected of Injustice when he sinneth to punish him in his Children at least there where the evil of the children seen or fore-seen redoundeth to the grief and affliction of the Father And so was David's Murther and Adultery justly punished in the loss of his incestuous Son Amnon and of his murtherous Son Absalom Upon which ground some think that clause unto the third and fourth generation to have been added in the Second Commandment respectively to the ordinary ages of Men who oftentimes live to see their Children to the third and sometimes to the fourth Generation but very seldom farther implying as they think that God usually punisheth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children within such a compass of time as they may in likelihood see it and grieve at it and then whatever evil it be it is rather inflicted as a punishment to them than to their Children This in part satisfieth the doubt That the Punishments which God layeth upon the Children for the Fathers sins are only temporal punishments and consequently by our second ground not properly punishments But yet for so much as these temporal evils be it properly be it improperly are still a kind of Punishment and we have been already taught from the third ground that all evils of punishment whether proper or improper are brought upon men evermore and only for their own personal Sins the doubt is not yet wholly removed unless we admit of a second Consideration and that concerneth the Condition of those Children upon whom such punishments are inflicted for their fathers Sins And first It is considerable that Children most times tread in their Fathers steps and
confident that friend will not fail to assist him therein to his utmost power Now if a man be bold to do but what he may and should do and that withal he have some good ground for his confidence from the consideration of his friends ability the experience of his love some former promises on his friends or merit on his own part or other like so as every man would be ready to say he had reason to presume so far of his friend this is a good reasonable and warrantable presumption But if he fail in either respect as if he presume either to do unlawful unworthy or unbefitting things or to do even lawful things when there appeareth no great cause why any man should think his friend obliged by the laws of friendship to assist him therein then is such his presumption a faulty and an evil presumption And whatsoever may bear the name of a Presumptuous sin in any respect is some way or other tainted with such an evil irrational presumption 9. But we are further to note that presumption in the worser sence and as applied to sin may be taken either Materially or Formally If these terms seem obscure with a little opening I hope the difference between these two will be easily understood Taken materially the sin of presumption is a special kind of sin distinguished from other species of sins by its proper Object or Matter when the very matter wherein we sin and whereby we offend God is Presumption and so it is a branch of Pride When a man presuming either upon his own strength or upon Gods assisting him undertaketh to do something of himself not having in himself by the ordinary course of nature and the common aid which God affordeth to the actions of his creatures in the ordinary ways of his providence sufficient strength to go through therewithal or expecteth to receive some extraordinary assistance from the Mercy Power c. of God not having any sufficient ground either from the general Promises contained in the Scriptures or by particular immediate revelation that God will certainly so assist him therein 10. All those men that over-value themselves or out of an overweening conceit of their own abilities attempt things beyond their power That lean to their own understandings as Solomon That mind high things and are wise in their own conceits as St. Paul That exercise themselves in great matters and such as are too high for them as David expresseth it All those that perswade themselves they can persist in an holy course without a continual supply of Grace or that think they can continue in their sins so long as they think good and then repent of them and forsake them at their leisure whensoever they list or that doubt not but to be able by their own strength to stand out against any temptation All these I say and all other like by presuming too much upon themselves are guilty of the sin of Presumption ' 'To omit the Poets who have set forth the folly of this kind of Presumption in the Fables of Phaethon and Icarus A notable example we have of it in the Apostle Peter and therein a fair warning for others not to be high-minded but to fear who in the great confidence of his own strength could not believe his Master though he knew him to be the God of truth when he foretold him he would yield but still protested that if all the world should forsake him yet he would never do it 11. Nor only may a man offend in this kind by presuming upon himself too much but also by presuming even upon God himself without warrant He that repenteth truly of his sins presuming of Gods mercy in the forgiveness thereof or that walketh uprightly and conscionably in the ways of his Calling presuming of Gods Power for his protection therein sinneth not in so presuming Such a presumption is a fruit of Faith and a good presumption because it hath a sure ground a double sure ground for failing first in the Nature and then in the Promise of God As a man may with good reason presume upon his Friend that he will not be wanting to him in any good Office that by the just Laws of true friendship one friend ought to do for another But as he presumeth too much upon his friend that careth not into what desperate exigents and dangers he casteth himself in hope his friend will perpetually redeem him and relieve him at every turn So whosoever trusteth to the Mercy or to the Power of God without the warrant of a Promise presumeth farther than he hath cause And though he may flatter himself and call it by some better name as Faith or Hope or Affiance in God yet is it in truth no better than a groundless and a wicked Presumption Such was the Presumption of those Sons of Sceva who took upon them but to their shame and sorrow to call over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Iesus in a form of adjuration Acts 19. when they had no calling or warrant from God so to do And all those men that going on in a wretched course of life do yet hope they shall find mercy at the hour of death All those that cast themselves into unnecessary either dangers or temptations with expectance that God should manifest his extraordinary Power in their preservation All those that promise to themselves the End without applying themselves to the means that God hath appointed thereunto as to have Learning without Study Wealth without Industry Comfort from Children without careful Education c. forasmuch as they presume upon Gods help without sufficient Warrant are guilty of the sin of Presumption taken in the former notion and Materially 12. But I conceive the Presumptuous sins here in the Text to belong clearly to the other notion of the word Presumption taken formally and as it importeth not a distinct kind of sin in it self as that Groundless Presumption whereof we have hitherto spoken doth but a common accidental difference that may adhere to sins of any kind even as Ignorance and Infirmity whereunto it is opposed also may Theft and Murther which are sins of special kinds distinguished either from other by their special and proper Objects are yet both of them capable of these common differences inasmuch as either of them may be committed as sometimes through Ignorance and sometimes through Infirmity so also sometimes through Wilfulness or Presumption 13. The distribution of Sins into sins of Ignorance of Infirmity and of Presumption is very usual and very useful and compleat enough without the addition which some make of a fourth sort to wit Sins of Negligence or Inadvertency all such sins being easily reducible to some of the former three The ground of the distinction is laid in the Soul of man wherein there are three distinct prime faculties from which all our actions flow the Understanding the Will and the sensual
should repose upon such things must needs rise and fall ebb and flow just as the things themselves do Which is contrary to the state of a true contented mind which still remaineth the same and unchanged notwithstanding whatsoever changes and chances happen in these outward and mutable things 7. We see now the unsufficiency of Nature of Morality of Outward things to bring Contentment It remaineth then that it must spring from Religion and from the Grace of God seated in the heart of every godly man which casteth him into a new mould and frameth the heart to a blessed calm within whatsoever storms are abroad and without And in this Grace there is no defect As the Lord sometimes answered our Apostle when he was importunate with him for that which he thought not fit at that time to grant sufficit tibi gratia My Grace is sufficient for thee He then that would attain to St. Pauls learning must repair to the same School where St. Paul got his learning and he must apply himself to the same Tutor that St. Paul had He must not languish in Porticu or in Lycaeo at the feet of Plato or Seneca but he must get him into the Sanctuary of God and there become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must be taught of God and by the anointing of his holy Spirit of grace which anointing teacheth us all things 1 Ioh. 2. All other Masters are either Ignorant or Envious or Idle Some things they are not able to teach us though they would some things they are not willing to teach us though they might but this Anointing is every way a most compleat Tutor able and loving and active this anointing teacheth us all things and amongst other things this Art of Contentation also 8. Now as for the means whereby the Lord traineth us up by his holy grace unto this learning they are especially these three First by his spirit he worketh this perswasion in our hearts that whatsoever he disposeth unto us at any time for the present that is evermore the fittest and best for us at that time He giveth us to see that all things are guided and ordered by a most just and wise and powerful providence And although it be not fit for us to be acquainted with the particular Reasons of such his wise and gracious dispensations yet we are assured in the general that all things work together for the best to those that love God That he is a loving and careful Father of his children and will neither bring any thing upon them nor keep back any thing from them but for their Good That he is a most skilful and compassionate Physician such an one as at all times and perfectly understandeth the true state and temper of our hearts and affections and accordingly ordereth us and dieteth us as he seeth it most behoofeful for us in that present state for the preservation or recovery of our spiritual strength or for the prevention of future maladies And this perswasion is one special means whereby the Lord teacheth us Contentment with whatsoever he sendeth 9. Secondly whereas there are in the word scattered every where many gracious and precious promises not only concerning the life to come but also concerning this present life the spirit of grace in the heart of the Godly teacheth them by faith to gather up all those scattered Promises and to apply them for their own comfort upon every needful occasion They hear by the outward preaching of the Word and are assured of the truth thereof by the inward teaching of the Spirit That God will never fail them nor forsake them That he is their shepherd and therefore they shall not want but his goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives That his eye is upon them that fear him to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of dearth That he will give grace and Worship and with-hold no good thing from them that live a godly life That though the Lions the great and greedy Oppressours of the world may lack and suffer hunger yet they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and a thousand other such like Promises they hear and believe The assurance whereof is another special means by which the Lord teacheth his children to repose themselves in a quiet content without fear of want or too much thoughtfulness for the future 10. Thirdly for our better learning besides these Lectures of his Providence and Promises he doth also both appoint us Exercises and discipline us with his Rod By sending changes and afflictions in our bodies and in our names in our friends in our estates in the success of our affairs and many other ways but always for our profit And this his wise teaching of us bringeth on our learning wonderfully As for those whose houses are safe from fear neither is the Rod of God upon them as Iob speaketh that are never emptied nor poured from vessel to vessel they settle upon their own dregs and grow muddy and musty with long ease and their prosperity befooleth them to their own destruction When these come once to stirring and trouble over-taketh them as sooner or later they must look for it then the grumbles and mud of their impatience and discontent beginneth to appear and becometh unfavoury both to God and man But as for those whom the Lord hath taken into his own tuition and nurturing he will not suffer them either to wax wanton with too long ease nor to be depressed with too heavy troubles but by frequent changes he exerciseth them and inureth them to all estates As a good Captain traineth his Souldiers and putteth them out of one posture into another that they may be expert in all so the Lord of hosts traineth up his Souldiers by the armour of righteousnes on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evil Report and good Report by health and sickness by sometimes raising new friends and sometimes taking away the old by sometimes suffering their enemies to get the upper hand and sometimes bringing them under again by sometimes giving success to their affairs even beyond their expectation and sometimes dashing then hopes when they were almost come to full ripeness He turneth them this way and that way and every way till they know all their postures and can readily cast themselves into any form that he shall appoint They are often abased and often exalted now full and anon hungry one while they abound and they suffer need another while Till with our Apostle they know both how to be abased and how to abound Till every where and in all things they be instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Till they can at least in some weak yet comfortable measure do all things through Christ that strengtheneth them These exercises
this mind and so be at least thus far like-minded as to resolve to forbear all scornful and insolent speeches and behaviour of and towards one another without jeering without censuring without provoking without causless vexing one another or disturbing the publick peace of the Church For the servant of God must not strive but be gentle unto all men and patient So gentle and patient that he must study to win them that oppose themselves not by reviling but instructing them and that not in a loud and lofty strain unless when there is left no other remedy but first and if that will serve the turn only in love and with meekness Our conversation where it cannot be all out so free and familiar should yet be fair and amiable Gods holy truth we must stand for I grant if it be opposed to the utmost of our strength neither may we betray any part thereof by our silence or softness for any mans pleasure or displeasure where we may help it and where the defence of it appeareth to be prudentially necessary Yet even in that case ought we so to maintain the truth of God as not to despise the persons of men We are to follow the truth in love which is then best done when holding us close to the truth we are ready yet in love to our brethren to do them all the rights and to perform unto them all those respects which without confirming them in their Errors may any way fall due unto them 27. It is a perfect and a blessed Unity when all the three meet together unity of true Doctrine unity of loving Affection and unity of peaceable conversation and this perfection ought to be both in our Aims and in our Endeavours But if through our own weakness or the waywardness of others we cannot attain to the full perfection of the whole having faithfully endeavoured it pulchrum est in secundis tertiisve it will be some commendation and comfort to us to have attained so much as we could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. Nevertheless whereunto we have attained let us mind the same thing 28. To quicken us hereunto the duty being so needful and we withal so dull these few things following would be taken into consideration Consider first that by our Christian Calling we are all made up into one mystical body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that by such a real though mysterious concorporation as that we become thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as all of us members of Christ so every one of us one anothers members Now the sympathy and supply that is between the members of the natural body for their mutual comfort and the good of the whole the Apostle elegantly setteth forth and applieth it very fully to the mystical body of the Church in 1 Cor. 12. at large It were a thing prodigiously unnatural and to every mans apprehension the effect of a phrensie at the least to see one member of the body fall a beating or tearing another No! if any one member be it never so mean and despicable be in Anguish the rest are sensible of it No terms of betterness are then stood upon I am better than thou or I than thou no terms of defiance heard I have no need of thee or I of thee But they are all ready to contribute their several supplies according to their several abilities and measures to give ease and relief to the grieved part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the reason is given at Ver. 25. there that so there might be no rent no schism no division or dis-union of parts in the body Consider secondly That by our Condition we are all fellow-brethren and fellow-servants in the same family of the houshold of faith all and these are obliging relations We ought therefore so to behave our selves in the house of God which is the Church of the living God as becometh fellow-brethren that are descended from the same Father and fellow-servants that live under the same Master We all wear one livery having all put on Christ by solemn profession at our holy Baptism We are fed at one Table eating the same spiritual meat and drinking the same spiritual drink in the holy Communion Every thing that belongeth to this House breatheth Union One body one spirit one calling one hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all as the Apostle urgeth it Eph. 4. concluding thence that therefore we ought to be at one among our selves endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Any of us would think it a very disorderly house and ill governed if coming in by chance we should find the Children and Servants all together by the Ears though but once How much more then if we should observe them to be ever and anon snarling and quarrelling one with another and beating and kicking one another Ioseph thought he need say no more to his brethren to prevent their falling out by the way in their return homeward than to remind them of this that they were all one mans children And Abraham to procure an everlasting Amnesty and utter cessation thenceforth of all debate between himself and his Nephew Lot and their servants made use of this one argument as the most prevalent of all other for that end that they were Brethren Ecce quam bonum I cannot but repeat it once more Behold how good and joyful a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity 30. Consider thirdly how peace and unity forwardeth the work of God for the building up of his Church which faction and division on the other side obstructeth so as nothing more When all the workmen intend the main business each in his place and office performing his appointed task with chearfulness and good agreement the work goeth on and the building gets up apace But where one man draweth one way and another another way one will have things done after this fashion and another after that when one maketh and another marreth now one setteth up by and by cometh another and plucketh all down again how is it possible whilst things go thus that ever the building should be brought to any perfection or handsomness The Apostle well understood what he said when in the foregoing Chapter he joyned Peace and Edification together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us follow after the things that make for peace and things wherewith we may edifie one another Where the Hearts and Tongues of the builders are divided the building will either come to nothing or prove but a Babel of Confusion For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Strife you see maketh ill work it buildeth up nothing unless it be the walls of Babel It is peace and concord that buildeth up the walls of Ierusalem which as it hath its name from Peace so hath it its beauty also and
both sorts as they are set down the one in the beginning of verse 19. The works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery c. the other in the beginning of verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is Love c. And those differences are four First those effects of the former sort proceed originally from the Flesh these from the Spirit Secondly those are rather stiled by the name of Works these by the name of Fruit the Works of the Flesh but the Fruit of the Spirit Thirdly those are set forth as many and apart Works in the Plural These as many but united into one Fruit in the Singular Fourthly those are expresly said to be manifest of these no such thing at all mentioned 6. The first difference which ariseth from the nature of the things themselves as they relate to their several proper causes is of the four the most obvious and important and it is this That whereas the vicious habits and sinful actions catalogued in the former verses are the production of the Flesh the Graces and Vertues specified in the Text are ascribed to the Spirit as to their proper and original cause They are not the works of the Flesh as the former but the fruit of the Spirit 7. Where the first Question that every man will be ready to ask is What is here meant by the Spirit The necessity of expressing supernatural and divine things by words taken from natural or humane affairs hath produced another necessity of enlarging the significations of sundry of those words to a very great Latitude Which is one special cause of the obscurity which is found in sundry places of holy Scripture and consequently of the difficulty of giving the proper and genuine sence of such places and consequently to that amidst so many interpretations of one and the same place whilst each contendeth for that sence which himself hath pitched upon of infinite disputes and controversies in point of Religion Among which words three especially I have observed all of them of very frequent use in the New Testament which as they are subject to greater variety of signification than most other words are so have they ever yet been and are like to be to the Worlds end the matter and fuel of very many and very fierce contentions in the Church Those three are Faith Grace and Spirit Truly I am perswaded if it were possible all men could agree in what signification each of those three words were to be understood in each place where any of them are found three full parts at least of four of those unhappy Controversies that have been held up in the Christian Church would vanish 8. And of the three this of Spirit hath yet the greatest variety of Significations God in his Essence the Person of the Holy Ghost good Angels evil Angels extraordinary gifts wherewith the Apostles and others in the Primitive times were endowed the several faculties of the Soul as Understanding Affections and Conscience the whole Soul of man supernatural Grace besides many others not needful now to be remembred all come under this appellation of Spirit Much of the ambiguity of the World I confess is cut off when it is opposed to Flesh yet even then also it wanteth no variety The Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Christ the literal and mystical sence of Scripture the Ordinances of the Old and New Testament the Body and the Soul Sensuality and Reason the corruption of Nature and the Grace of God all these may according to the peculiar exigence of several places be understood by the terms of Flesh and Spirit 9. Generally the word Spirit in the common notion of it importeth a thing of subtile parts but of an operative quality So that the less any thing hath of matter and the more of vertue the nearer it cometh to the nature of a Spirit as the Wind and the Quintessences of Vegetables or Minerals extracted by Chymical operation We use to say of a man that is of a sad sluggish and flegmatick temper that he hath no Spirit but if he belively active quick and vigorous we then say he hath spirit in him It is said of the Queen of Sheba when she saw the wisdom and royal state of King of Solomon that there was no more spirit left in her that is she stood mute and amazed at it as if she had had no life speech sense or motion in her The Soul is therefore called a Spirit because being it self no bodily substance it yet actuateth and enliveneth the body and is the inward principle of life thereunto called therefore The Spirit of life and St. Iames saith The body without the Spirit is dead that is it is a liveless Iump of flesh without the Soul So that whatsoever is principium agendi internum the fountain of action or operation as an inward principle thereof may in that respect and so far forth borrow the name of a Spirit Insomuch as the very flesh it self so far forth as it is the fountain of all those evil works mentioned in the foregoing verses may in that respect be called a Spirit and so is by St. Iames The Spirit that is in us lusteth after Envy saith he that is in very deed the Flesh that is in us for among the lusts and work of the flesh is envy reckoned in the very next verse before the Text. 10. To come up close to the Point for I fear I have kept off too long as they stand here opposed by Flesh I take to be clearly meant the Natural Corruption of Man and by Spirit the Supernatural Grace of God Even as the same words are also taken in some other places as namely in that saying of our Saviour Ioh. 3. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Which words may serve as a good Commentary upon this part of the Text for they do not only warrant the interpretation but afford us also the reason of it under the analogy of a twofold Birth or Generation The Generation whether of Plants or living Creatures is effectual by that prolifical vertue which is in the seed Answerable therefore unto the twofold Birth spoken of in the Scriptures there is also a twofold seed The first Birth is that of the Old man by natural generation whereby we are born the sons of Adam The second Birth is that of the New man by spiritual regeneration whereby we are born the Sons of God Answerably whereunto the first seed is Semen Adae the seed of old Adam derived unto us by carnal propagation from our natural Parents who are therefore called The Fathers of our Flesh together wherewith is also derived that uncleanness or corruption which upon our first birth cleaveth so inseparably to our nature and is the inward principle from which all the works of the flesh have their emanation But then there is another seed
so many Mock-Graces and specious counter feits that carry a semblance of spiritual fruit but are not the things they seem to be And on the other side inordinate love of our selves partly and partly want of Charity towards our brethren have so disposed us to a capacity of being deceived that it is no wonder if in passing our judgments especially where our selves are concerned we be very much and very often mistaken It might rather be a wonder if we should not be sometimes mistaken 44. As most Errors claim to be a little akin to some Truths so most Vices challenge a kind of affinity to some Vertue Not so much from any proper intrinsecal true resemblance they have with such vertues as by reason of the common opposition they both have to one and the same contrary Vice As Prodigality hath some overly likeness with Liberality and so may hap to be mistaken for it for no other cause but this only that they are both contrary to Covetousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle truly fallacy and deception for the most part arise from the appearance of some likeness oâ— similitude when things that are like but not the same are taken to be the same because they are like They that have given us marks of sincerity for the trial of our Graces have not been able to give us any certain Rules or infallible Characters whereby to try the sincerity of those Marks so as to remove all doubtings and possibility of erring 45. Whence I supose I may safely infer that the certainty of a Man's present standing in grace but much more then of his eternal future salvation although I doubt not but by the mercy of God it may be attainable in this life and that without extraordinary revelation in such a measure as may sustain the soul of an honest Christian with comfort is not yet either so absolutely necessary nor so void of fears and doubtings as some perhaps have imagined 46. Not so necessary but that a Man may be saved without it Many a good soul no doubt there is in the world that out of the experience of the falseness of his own heart and the fear of self-deceit and the sense of his own unworthiness could never yet attain to be so well persuaded of the sincerity of his own Repentance Faith and Obedience as to think that God would approve of it and accept it The censure were very hard and a great violation it would be of Charity I am sure and I think of Truth also to pronounce such a Man to be out of the State of Salvation or to call such his dis-persuasion by the name of Despair and under that name to condemn it There is a common but a great mistake in this matter Despair is far another manner of thing than many take it for When a Man thinketh himself so incapable of God's pardon that he groweth thereupon regardless of all duties and neither careth what he doth nor what shall become of him when he is once come to this resolution Over shoes over boots I know God will never forgive me and therefore I will never trouble my self to seek his favour in vain this is to run a deseperate course indeed this is properly the sin of Despair But when the fear that God hath not yet pardoned him prompteth him to better resolutions and exciteth him to a greater care of repentance and newness of life and maketh him more diligent in the performance of all holy duties that so he may be the more capable of pardon it is so far from being any way prejudical to his eternal salvation that it is the readiest way to secure it 47. But where the greatest certainty is that can be attained to in this life by ordinary means it is not ordinarily unless perhaps to some few persons at the very hour of death so perfect as to exclude all doubtings The fruits of the Spirit where they are true and sincere being but imperfect in this life and the truth and sincerity of them being not always so manifest but that a Man may sometimes be deceived in his judgment concerning the same it can hardly be what between the one and the other the imperfection of the thing and the difficulty of judging but that the Assurance which is wholly grounded thereupon and can therefore have no more strength than they can give it must be subject to Fears Iealonsies and Doubtings 48. I speak not this to shake any Man's comfort God forbid but to stir up every Man's care to abound and increase so much the more in all godliness and in the fruits of the Spirit by giving all diligence by walking in the Spirit and subduing the Lusts of the Flesh to make his Calling and Election sure Sure in it self that he fail not of Salvation in the end and sure to him also as far as he can that his comfort may be the greater and sounder in the mean time Now the God of all Grace and Glory send the Spirit of his Son plentifully into our Hearts that we may abound in the Fruits of godly living to the praise of his Grace our present comfort in this Life and the eternal salvation of our Souls in the Day of our Lord Iesus Christ. AD MAGISTRATUM The First Sermon At the Assizes at Lincoln in the Year 1690 at the Request of Sir DANIEL Dâ—IGNâ— Knight then High Sheriff of that Coâ—â—â—y Prov. 24. 10 12. 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small 11. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be sâ—ain 12. If thou sayest Behold we know it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works 1. AS in most other things so in the performance of that duty which this Text aimeth at we are neither careful before-hand such is the uncharitableness of our incompassionate hearts to do well nor yet willing afterwards through the pride of our Spirits to acknowledg we have done ill The holy Spirit of God therefore hath directed Solomon in this Scripture wherein he would incite us to the performance of the duty to frame his words in such sort as to meet with us in both these corruptions and to let us see that as the duty is necessary and may not be neglected so the neglect is damnable and cannot be excused In the handling whereof I shall not need to bestow much labour either in searching into the contexture of the words or examining the differences of translations Because the sentence as in the rest of this Book for the most part hath a compleat sence within it self without any necessary either dependence upon any thing going before or reference to any thing coming after and the differences that are in the translations are neither many in number nor
have certainer grounds for what we do than uncertain examples Secondly what if Phinehas had the Magistrates Authority to enable him to that attempt It is not altogether improbable to my apprehension from the fifth Verse of the Chapter where the story is laid down Numb 25. 5. especially parallell'd with another story of much like circumstances Exod. 32. 27. that as there the Levites so here Phinehas drew the Sword in execution of the express command of Moses the supreme Magistrate If neither thus nor so yet Thirdly which cutteth off all plea and is the most common answer ordinarily given by Divines to this and the like instances drawn from some singular actions of God's worthies Men of Heroical spirits and gifts such as were David Sampson Ehud Moses Elias and some others especially at such times as they were employed in some special service for the good of God's Church were exempt from the common rules of life and did many things as we are to presume not without the secret motion and direction of God's holy and powerful Spirit which were therefore good in them that secret direction being to them loco specialis mandati like that to Abraham for sacrificing his Son but not safe or lawful for us to imitate Opera liberi spiritus say Divines non sunt exigenda ad regulas communes nec trahenda in exemplum vitae The extraordinary Heroical Acts of God's Worthies are not to be measured by the common rules of life nor to become exemplary unto others Of which nature was David's single combat with Goliah and Sampson's pulling down the house upon himself and the Philistines And Moses slaying the Egyptian and Ehud's stabbing of King Eglon and Eliah's calling down for fire from Heaven upon the Captains and their fifties and divers others recorded in the Scripture Of which last fact we have our blessed Saviour's judgment in Luk. 9. that it was done by the extraordinary and peculiar instinct of God's spirit but it is not to be imitated by others without particular certain assurance of the like instinct Where when the Disciples would have called down for fire from Heaven upon the Samaritans and alledged Elias for their precedent Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did His answer was with a kind of indignation as both his gesture and speeches shew Nescitis cujus spiritus estis You know not what manner of spirits you are of Elias was endued with an extraordinary spirit in the freedom whereof he did what he then did but it is not for you or others to propose his example unless you can demonstrate his spirit And if Phinehas's Act also was as most think it was such as these it can no more justifie the usurpation of Magistracy than David's act can bloody Duels or Sampson's self-murther or Moses's secret slaughter or Ehud's King-killing or Eliah's private revenge I have stood the longer upon the discovery of this sin that men might take right judgment of it and not think it either warrantable or excuseable by any pretension of zeal or of whatsoever other good and that both such as have gone too far this way in their practice already for the time past may acknowledge their own oversight and be sorry for it and others seeing their error may for the time to come forbear such outrages and keep themselves within the due bounds of Christian sobriety and their particular Callings And thus much of the former instance in a matter of Commission I am to give you another in a matter of Omission Every Omission of a necessary duty is simply evil as a sin But affirmative duties are but sometimes necessary because they do not obligare ad semper as being many it is impossible they should And many times duties otherwise necessary in case of Superior reason and duties cease to be necessary pro hic nunc and then to omit them is not to do evil Among other necessary duties this is one for a Minister furnished with gifts and abilities for it to acquaint God's people with all material needful truths as he can have convenient occasion thereunto And such conveniency supposed not to do this is simply evil Now then to make the Case and the Question The Case thus A Minister hath just opportunity to preach in a Congregation not his own where he seeth or generally heareth some error in judgment or outragious sin in practice to be continued in with too publick allowance He hath liberty to make choice of his Text and Theme and leisure to provide in some measure for it and his conscience telleth him he cannot pro hic nunc direct his speech with greater service to God's Church than against those errors or sins He seeth on the other side some withdrawments his discretion may perhaps be called in question for medling where he needed not he shall possibly lose the good opinion of some with whom he hath held fair correspondence hitherto he shall preserve his own peace the better if he turn his speech another way This is the Case The Question is Whether these latter considerations and the good that may come thereby be sufficient to warrant unto him the omission of that necessary duty The rule of my Text resolveth negatively they are not sufficient The duty being necessary pro hic nunc it is simply evil to omit it and therefore it may not be omitted for any other good I deny not but a Minister may with good discretion conceal many truths from his flock at least the opening and amplifying of them if they be not such as are needful for them to know either for the establishment of Faith or practice of Life as not only many nice School-points and Conclusions are but also many Genealogies and Levitical Rites and other things even in the Scriptures themselves Nay more a Minister not only in discretion may but is even in Conscience bound at least in the publick exercise of his Ministry to conceal some particular truths from his Auditory yea though they be such as are needful for the practice of life and for the setling of mens Consciences if they be such withal as are not fit to be publickly spoken of as are many Resolutions of Cases appertaining to the seventh Commandment Thou shalt not commit Adultery and some also appertaining to the eighth Thou shalt not steal Our men justly condemn the Popish Casuists for their too much liberty in this kind in their Writings whereby they reduce Vices into an Art under colour of reproving them and convey into the minds of corrupt men Notions of such prodigious filthiness and artificial Legier du-main as perhaps otherwise they would never have dreamed on or thirsted after The loose writings of the unchaste Poets are but dull Tutors of Lust compared with the authorized Tomes of our severe Romish Votaries
of spirits divers kinds of tongues interpretation of tongues All which and all other of like nature and use because they are wrought by that one and self-same Spirit which divideth to every one severally as he will are therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritual gifts and here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit The word Spirit though in Scripture it have many other significations yet in this place I conceive it to be understood directly of the Holy Ghost the third Person in the ever-blessed Trinity For First in ver 3. that which is called the Spirit of God in the former part is in the latter part called the Holy Ghost f I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus accursed and that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Again that variety of gifts which in ver 4. is said to proceed from the same Spirit is said likewise in ver 5. to proceed from the same Lord and in ver 6. to proceed from the same God and therefore such a Spirit is meant as is also Lord and God and that is only the Holy Ghost And again in those words in ver 11. All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will The Apostle ascribeth to this Spirit the collation and distribution of such gifts according to the free power of his own will and pleasure which free power belongeth to none but God alone Who hath set the members every one in the body as it hath pleased him Which yet ought not to be so understood of the Person of the Spirit as if the Father and the Son had no part or fellowship in this business For all the Actions and operations of the Divine Persons those only excepted which are of intrinsecal and mutual relation are the joynt and undivided works of the whole three Persons according to the common known Maxim constantly and uniformly received in the Catholick Church Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa And as to this particular concerning gifts the Scriptures are clear Wherein as they are ascribed to God the Holy Ghost in this Chapter so they are elsewhere ascribed unto God the Father Every good gift and every perfect giving is from above from the Father of Lights Jam. 1. and elsewhere to God the Son Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Eph. 4. Yea and it may be that for this very reason in the three verses next before my Text these three words are used Spirit in ver 4. Lord in ver 5. and God in ver 6. to give us intimation that these spiritual gifts proceed equally and undividedly from the whole three persons from God the Father and from his Son Iesus Christ our Lord and from the eternal Spirit of them both the Holy Ghost as from one intire indivisible and coessential Agent But for that we are gross of understanding and unable to conceive the distinct Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead otherwise than by apprehending some distinction of their operations and offices to us ward it hath pleased the Wisdom of God in the holy Scriptures which being written for our sakes were to be fitted to our capacities so far to condescend to our weakness and dulness as to attribute some of those great and common works to one person and some to another after a more special manner than unto the rest although indeed and in truth none of the three persons had more or less to do than other in any of those great and common works This manner of speaking Divines use to call Appropriation By which appropriation as power is ascribed to the Father and Wisdom to the Son so is Goodness to the Holy Ghost And therefore as the work of Creation wherein is specially seen the mighty power of God is appropiated to the Father and the work of Redemption wherein is specially seen the wisdom of God to the Son and so the works of sanctification and the infusion of habitual graces whereby the good things of God are communicated unto us is appropriated unto the Holy Ghost And for this cause the gifts thus communicated unto us from God are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit We see now why spirit but then why manifestation The word as most other verbals of that form may be understood either in the active or passive signification And it is not material whether of the two ways we take it in this place both being true and neither improper For these spiritual gifts are the manifestation of the spirit actively because by these the Spirit manifesteth the will of God unto the Church these being the Instruments and means of conveying the knowledge of salvation unto the people of God And they are the manifestation of the spirit Passively too because where any of these gifts especially in any eminent sort appeared in any person it was a manifest evidence that the Spirit of God wrought in him As we read it Acts 10. that they of the Circumcision were astonished when they saw that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gifts of the Holy Ghost If it be demanded But how did that appear it followeth in the next verse For they heard them speak with tongues c. The spiritual Gift then is a manifestation of the Spirit as every other sensible effect is a manifestation of its proper cause We are now yet further to know that the Gifts and graces wrought in us by the holy Holy Spirit of God are of two sorts The Scriptures sometimes distinguish them by the different terms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although those words are sometimes again used indifferently and promiscuously either for other They are commonly known in the Schools and differenced by the names of Gratiae gratum facientes Gratiae gratis datae Which terms though they be not very proper for the one of them may be affirmed of the other whereas the members of every good distinction ought to be opposite yet because they have been long received and change of terms though haply for the better hath by experience been found for the most part unhappy in the event in multiplying unnecessary book-quarrels we may retain them profitably and without prejudice Those former which they call Gratum facientes are the Graces of Sanctification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do acceptable service to God in the duties of his General Calling these latter which they call Gratis datas are the Graces of Edification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do profitable service to the Church of God in the duties of his particular Calling Those are
office is a certain evidence and manifestation of a Spirit of life within and that maketh it a living Organical body So those active gifts and graces and abilities which are to be found in the members of the mystical body of Christ I know not whether of greater variety or use are a strong manifestation that there is a powerful Spirit of God within that knitteth the whole body together and worketh all in all and all in every part of the body Secondly though we have just cause to lay it to heart when men of eminent gifts and place in the Church are taken from us and to lament in theirs our own and the Churches loss yet we should possess our Souls in patience and sustain our selves with this comfort that it is the same God that still hath care over his Church and it is the same Head Iesus Christ that still hath influence into his members and it is the same blessed Spirit of God and of Christ that still actuateth and animateth this great mystical Body And therefore we may not doubt but this Spirit as he hath hitherto done from the beginning so will still manifest himself from time to time unto the end of the world in raising up instruments for the service of his Church and furnishing them with gifts in some good measure meet for the same more or less according as he shall see it expedient for her in her several different estates and conditions giving some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all meet in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. He hath promised long since who was never yet touched with breach of promise that he would be with his Apostles and their successors always unto the end of the World Thirdly where the Spirit of God hath manifested it self to any man by the distribution of gifts it is but reason that man should manifest the Spirit that is in him by exercising those gifts in some lawful Calling And so this manifestation of the Spirit in my Text imposeth upon every man the Necessity of a Calling Our Apostle in the seventh of this Epistle joineth these two together a Gift and a Calling as things that may not be severed As God hath dictributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one Where the end of a thing is the use there the difference cannot be great whether we abuse it or but conceal it The unprofitable Servant that wrapped up his Masters Talent in a napkin could not have received a much heavier doom had he mis-spent it O then up and be doing Why stand ye all the day Idle Do not say because you heard no voice that therefore no man hath called you those very gifts you have received are a Real Call pursuing you with continual restless importunity till you have disposed your selves in some honest course of life or other wherein you may be profitable to humane society by the exercising of some or other of those gifts All the members of the body have their proper and distinct offices according as they have their proper and distinct faculties and from those offices they have also their proper and distinct names As then in the body that is indeed no member which cannot call it self by any other name than by the common name of a member so in the Church he that cannot style himself by any other name than a Christian doth indeed but usurp that too If thou sayest thou art of the body I demand then What is thy office in the Body If thou hast no office in the Body then thou art at the best but Tumor praeter naturam as Physicians call them a Scab or Botch or Wenne or some other monstrous and unnatural excresâ—ency upon the body but certainly thou art no true part and member of the body And if thou art no part of the body how darest thou make challenge to the head by mis-calling thy self Christian If thou hast a Gift get a Calling Fourthly We of the Clergy though we may not ingross the Spirit unto our selves as if none were spiritual persons but our selves yet the voice of the World hath long given us the Name of Spiritualty after a peculiar sort as if we were spiritual persons in some different singular respect from other men And that not altogether without ground both for the name and thing The very name seemeth to be thus used by S. Paul in the 14. Chapter following where at ver 37. he maketh a Prophet and a Spiritual man all one and by Prophesying in that whole Chapter he most what meaneth Preaching If any man think himself to be a Prophet either spiritual let him acknowledge c. But howsoever it be for the Title the thing it self hath very sufficient ground from that form of speech which was used by our blessed Saviour when he conferred the ministerial power upon his Disciples and is still used in our Church at the collation of Holy Orders Accipite Spiritum Sanctum Receive the holy Ghost Since then at our admission into holy Orders we receive a spiritual power by the imposition of hands which others have not we may thenceforth be justly styled Spiritual persons The thing for which I note it is that we should therefore endeavour our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to stir up those spiritual gifts that are in us as that by the eminency thereof above that which is in ordinary temporal men we may shew our selves to be in deed what we are in name Spiritual persons If we be of the Spiritualty there should be in us anothergates manifestation of the Spirit than is ordinarily to be found in the Temporalty God forbid I should censure all them for intruders into the Ministry that are not gifted for the Pulpit The severest censurers of Non-preaching Ministers if they had livd in the beginning of the Reformation must have been content as the times then stood to have admitted of some thousands of Non-preaching Ministers or else have denied many Parishes and Congregations in England the benefit of so much as bare reading And I take this to be a safe Rule Whatsoever thing the help of any circumstances can make lawful at any time that thing may not be condemned as universally and de toto genere unlawful I judge no mans conscience then or calling who is in the Ministry be his gifts never so slender I dare not deny him the benefit of his Clergy if he can but read if his own heart condemn him not neither do I. But yet this I say As the times now are wherein learning aboundeth even unto wantonness and wherein the world is full of questions and controversies
consciences direct our lives mortifie our corruptions encrease our graces strengthen our comforts save our souls Hoc opus hoc studium there is no study to this none so well worth the labour as this none that can bring so much profit to others nor therefore so much glory to God nor therefore so much comfort to our own hearts as this This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly saith S. Paul to Titus that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men You cannot do more good unto the Church of God you cannot more profit the people of God by your gifts than by pressing effectually these two great points Faith and good Works These are good and profitable unto men I might here add other Inferences from this point as namely since the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one of us chiefly for this end that we may profit the people with it that therefore fourthly in our preaching we should rather seek to profit our hearers though perhaps with sharp and unwelcome reproofs than to please them by flattering them in evil and that Fifthly we should more desire to bring profit unto them than to gain applause unto our selves and sundry other more besides these But I will neither add any more nor prosecute these any farther at this time but give place to other business God the Father of Lights and of Spirits endow every one of us in our Places and Callings with a competent measure of such Graces as in his wisdom and goodness he shall see needful and expedient for us and so direct our hearts and tongues and endeavours in the exercise and manifestation thereof that by his good blessing upon our labours we may be enabled to advance his Glory propagate his Truth benefit his Church discharge a good Conscience in the mean time and at the last make our account with comfort at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom c. AD CLERUM The Fourth Sermon At a Metropolitical Visitation at Grantham Lincoln August 22 d. 1634. ROM XIV 23. For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin ONE remarkable difference among many other between Good and Evil is this That there must be a concurrence of all requisite conditions to make a thing good whereas to make a thing evil a single defect in any one condition alone will suffice Bonum ex causa integra Malum ex partiali If we propose not to our selves a right end or if we pitch not upon proper and convenient means for the attaining of that end or if we pursue not these means in a due manner or if we observe not exactly every material circumstance in the whole pursuit if we fail but in any one point the action though it should be in every other respect such as it ought to be by that one defect becometh wholly sinful Nay more not only a true and real but even a supposed and imaginary defect the bare opinion of unlawfulness is able to vitiate the most justifiable act and to turn it into sin I know there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean at the 14. verse of this Chapter Nay yet more not only a setled opinion that the thing we do is unlawful but the very suspension of our judgment and the doubtfulness of our minds whether we may lawfully do it or no maketh it sometimes unlawful to be done of us and if we do it sinful He that but doubteth is damned if he eat Because he eateth not of faith in the former part of this verse The ground whereof the Apostle delivereth in a short and full Aphorism and concludeth the whole Chapter with it in the words of the Text For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Many excellent Instructions there are scattered throughout the whole Chapter most of them concerning the right use of that Liberty we have unto things of indifferent nature well worthy our Christian Consideration if we had time and leisure for them But this last Rule alone will find us work enough and therefore omitting the rest we will by Gods assistance with your patience presently fall in hand with this and intend it wholly in the Explication first and then in the Application of it For by how much it is of more profitable and universal use for the regulating of the common offices of life by so much is the mischief greater if it be and accordingly our care ought to be so much the greater that it be not either misunderstood or misapplyed Quod non ex fide peccatum that is the rule Whatsoever is not of faith is sin In the Explication of which words there would be little difficulty had not the ambiguity of the word Faith occasioned difference of interpretations and so left a way open to some misapprehensions Faith is verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most other words are There be that have reckoned up more than twenty several significations of it in the Scriptures But I find three especially looked at by those who either purposely or occasionally have had to do with this Text each of which we shall examine in their Order First and most usually especially in the Apostolical writings the word Faith is used to signifie that Theological vertue or gracious habit whereby we embrace with our minds and affections the Lord Iesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God and alone Saviour of the World casting our selves wholly upon the mercy of God through his merits for remission and everlasting Salvation It is that which is commonly called a lively or justifying Faith whereunto are ascribed in holy Writ those many gracious effects of purifying the heart adoption justification life joy peace salvation c. Not as to their proper and primary cause but as to the instrument whereby we apprehend and apply Christ whose merits and spirit are the true causes of all those blessed effects And in this notion many of our later Divines seem to understand it in our present Text whilst they alledge it for the confirmation of this Position that All the works even the best works of Unbelievers are sins A position condemned indeed by the Trent Council and that under a curse taking it as I suppose in a wrong construction but not worthy of so heavy a censure if it be rightly understood according to the doctrine of our Church in the thirteenth Article of her Confession and according to the tenour of those Scriptures whereon that doctrine is grounded viz. Matth. 12. 33. Rom. 8. 8. Tit. 1. 15. Heb. 11. 6 c. Howbeit I take it with subjection of judgment that that Conclusion what truth soever it may have in it self hath yet no direct foundation in this Text. The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
and obedience other fruits of grace in some good and comfortable measure it is a good sign of grace and sanctification in the heart But if thou hast these things only by fits and starts and sudden moods and art sometimes violently hot upon them and other sometimes again and oftner key cold presume not too much upon shews but suspect thy self still of hypocrisie and insincerity and never cease by repentance and prayer and the constant exercises of other good graces to physick and dyet thy soul till thou hast by Gods goodness put thy self into some reasonable assurance that thou art the true child of God a sincere believer and not an hypocrite as Ahab here notwithstanding all this his solemn humiliation was Here is Ahab an Hypocrite and yet humbled before the Lord. But yet now this humiliation such as it was what should work it in him That we find declared at vers 27. And it came to pass that when Ahab heard these words c. There came to him a message from God by the hand of Eliah and that was it that humbled him Alas what was Eliah to Ahab a silly plain Prophet to a mighty King that he durst thus presume to rush boldly and unsent-for into the presence of such a potent Monarch who had no less power and withal more colour to take away his life than Naboth's and that when he was in the top of his jollity solacing himself in the new-taken possession of his new-gotten Vine-yard and there to his face charge him plainly with and shake him up roundly for and denounce Gods judgments powerfully against his bloody abominable oppressions We would think a Monarch nusled up in Idolatry and accustomed to blood and hardened in Sin and Obstinacy should not have brooked that insolency from such a one as Eliah was but have made his life a ransom for his sawciness And yet behold the words of this underling in comparison how they fall like thunder upon the great guilty Offender and strike palsie into his knees and trembling into his joints and tumble him from the height of his jollity and roll him in sackcloth and ashes and cast him into a strong fit of legal humiliation Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me And here now cometh in our second Observation even the power of Gods Word over the Consciences of obstinate sinners powerful to Cast down strong holds and every high thought that exalteth it self against God That which in Heb. 4. if I mistake not the true understanding of that place is spoken of the Essential word of God the second person in the ever blessed Trinity is also in an analogy true of the revealed Word of God the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles that it is Quick and powerful and more cutting than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow Is not my word like as a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces Jer. 23. Like a soft fire to dissolve and melt the hearts of relenting sinners and true Converts but like a strong hammer to batter and break in pieces the rocky and flinty consciences of obstinate and hardened offenders Examples hereof if you require behold in the stories of the Kings Saul whining when Samuel reproveth him in the books of the Prophets Ninevites drooping when Ionas threatneth them in the Acts of the Apostles Felix trembling when Paul discourseth before him in the Martyrologies of the Church Tyrants and bloody Persecutors maskered at the bold consessions of the poor suffering Christians in this Chapter proud Ahab mourning when Eliah telleth him his sin and foretelleth him his punishment Effects which might justly seem strange to us if the Causes were not apparent One cause and the Principal is in the instrument the Word not from any such strength in it self for so it is but a dead letter but because of Gods Ordinance in it For in his hand are the hearts and the tongues and the ears both of Kings and Prophets and he can easily when he seeth it good put the spirit of Zeal and of Power into the heart of the poorest Prophet and as easily the spirit of fear and of terrour into the heart of the greatest King He chooseth weak Instruments as here Eliah and yet furnisheth them with power to effect great matters that so the glory might not rest upon the instrument but redound wholly to him as to the chief agent that imployeth it We have this treasure in earthen Veslels saith St. Paul that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us 2 Cor. 4. We say words are but wind and indeed the words of the best Minister are no better as they are breathed out and uttered by sinful mortal man whose breath is in his nostrils but yet this wind as it is breathed in and inspired by the powerful eternal Spirit of God is strong enough by his effectual working with it not only to shake the top branches but to rend up the very bottom-root of the tallest Cedar in Lebanon Vox Domini confringens Cedros Psal. 29. The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice The voice of the Lord breaketh the Cedars yea the Lord breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon Another Cause is in the Object and that is the force of Natural Conscience which the most presumptuous sinner can never so stifle though he endeavour all he can to do it but that it will be sometimes snubbing and stinging and lashing and vexing him with ugly representations of his past sins and terrible suggestions of future vengeance And then of all other times is the force of it most lively when the voice of God in his Word awakeneth it after a long dead sleep Then it riseth and Sampson-like rouseth up it self and bestirreth it self lustily as a Giant refreshed with Wine and it putteth the disquieted patient to such unsufferable pain that he runneth up and down like a distracted man and doth he knoweth not what and seeketh for ease he knoweth not where Then he would give all Dives his wealth for A drop of Water to cool the heat he feeleth and with Esau part with his birth-right for any thing though it were never so little mean that would give him but the least present refreshing and preserve him from fainting Then sack-cloth and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning and renting the garments and tearing the hair and knocking the breast and out-cries to heaven and all those other things which he could not abide to hear of in the time of his former security whilest his conscience lay fast asleep and at rest are now in all haste greedily entertained and all too little if by any means they can possibly give any ease or asswagement to the present torment
Isaac he kept with him and gave him all that he had Right so God giveth temporal gifts to Hypocrites and Cast-aways who are bastards and not sons and not sons of the freewoman not sons of promise not born after the spirit and that is their portion when they have gotten that they have gotten all they are like to have there is no more to be looked for at his hands But as for the Inheritance he reserveth that for his dear Children the godly who are Born after the Spirit and Heirs according to promise on these he bestoweth all that ever he hath all things are theirs for on them he bestoweth his Son the heir of all things in whom are hid all the treasures of all good things and together with whom all other things are conveyed and made over unto them as accessories and appurtenances of him and on them he bestoweth Himself which is All in all in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore To which joy unspeakable and glorious O thou the Father of mercies who hast promised it unto us bring us in the end for thy dear Son's sake Jesus Christ who hath purchased it for us and given into our hearts the earnest of his and thy holy Spirit to seal it unto us To which blessed Son and holy Spirit together with thee O Father three persons and one only wise gracious Almighty and eternal Lord God be ascribed by us and all thy faithful people throughout the world the whole kingdom power and glory for ever and ever Amen Amen AD POPULUM The Second Sermon At Grantham Linc. Feb. 27. 1620. 3 KINGS 21. 29. because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days I Will not so far either distrust your Memories or straiten my self of Time for the delivery of what I am now purposed to speak as to make any large Repetition of the Particulars which were observ'd the last time from the consideration of Ahab's Person and Condition who was but an Hypocrite taken joyntly with his present Carriage together with the Occasion and Success thereof He was humbled It was the Voice of God by his Prophet that humbled him Upon his humbling God adjourneth his Punishment From all which was noted first That there might be even in Hypocrites an Outward formal Humiliation secondly the Power and Efficacy of the Word of God able to humble an Oppressing Ahab thirdly the boundless Mercy of God in not suffering the Outward formal Humiliation of an ungodly Hypocrite to pass altogether unrewarded All this the last time by occasion of those first Clauses in the Verse Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not We are now next to consider of the Great Favour which it pleased God to shew to Ahab upon his humiliation what it was and wherein it consisted It was the Removal at least for a time that is the suspension of an heavy judgment denounced against Ahab and his house most deservedly for his bloody and execrable oppression Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days The Evil which God now promiseth he will not bring I will not bring the evil in his days is that which in vers 21. he had threatned he would bring upon Ahab and upon his house Behold I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the Son of Abijah for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin A great Judgment and an heavy But the greater the Judgment is when it is deserved and threatned the greater the mercy is if it be afterwards forborn as some of this was But whatsoever becometh of the Iudgment here we see is Mercy good store God who is rich in mercy and delighteth to be stiled the God of mercies and the Father of mercies abundantly manifesteth his mercy in dealing thus graciously with one that deserved it so little Here is mercy in but threatning the punishment when he might have inflicted it and more mercy in not inflicting the punishment when he had threatned it Here is mercy first in suspending the punishment I will not bring the evil and mercy again in suspending it for so long a time I will not bring the evil in his days Of these two points we shall entreat at this time and first and principally of the former I will not bring the evil It is no new thing to them that have read the sacred Stories with Observation to see God when men are humbled at his threatnings to revoke them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom more than once this is ever Gods manner when men change their deeds to change his doom when they renounce their sins to recal his sentence when they repent of the evil they have done against him to Repent of the evil he had said he would do against them Search the Scriptures and say if things run not thus as in the most ordinary course God commandeth and Man disobeyeth Man disobeyeth and God threatneth God threatneth and man repenteth Man repenteth and God forbeareth Abimelech thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken but Abimelech restoreth the Prophet his Wife untouched and God spareth him and he dieth not Hezekiah make thy Will and Put thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live but Hezekiah turneth to the Wall and prayeth and weepeth and God addeth to his days fifteen years Nineveh prepare for desolation for now but forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed but Nineveh fasted and prayed and repented and Nineveh stood after more than forty years twice told Generally God never yet threatned any punishment upon person or place but if they repented he either withheld it or deferred it or abated it or sweetned it to them for the most part proportionably to the truth and measure of their repentance but howsoever always so far forth as in his infinite wisdom he hath thought good some way or other he ever remitted somewhat of that severity and rigour wherein he threatned it A course which God hath in some sort bound himself unto and which he often and openly professeth he will hold Two remarkable testimonies among sundry other shall suffice us to have proposed at this time for the clear and full evidencing hereof The one in Ier. 18. 7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and pull down and to destroy If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will
on your own time and suspendeth the judgments your sins have deserved for a space as here he did Ahab's upon his humiliation but be assured sooner or later vengeance will overtake you or yours for it You have Coveted an evil covetousness to your house and there hangeth a judgment over your house for it as rain in the clouds which perhaps in your sons perhaps in your grand-childs days sometime or other will come dashing down upon it and overwhelm it Think not the vision is for many descents to come De malè quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres seldom doth the third scarce ever the fourth generation pass before God visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children if he do not in the very next generation In his sons days will I bring the evil upon his house Secondly if not only our own but our Fathers sins too may be shall be visited upon us how concerneth it us as to repent for our own so to lament also the sins of our forefathers and in our confessions and supplications to God sometimes to remember them that he may forget them and to set them before his face that he may cast them behind his back We have a good president for it in our publick Letany Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers A good and a profitable and a needful prayer it is and those men have not done well nor justly that have cavilled at it O that men would be wise according to sobriety and allow but just interpretations to things advisedly established rather than busie themselves nodum in scirpo to pick needless quarrels where they should not What unity would it bring to brethren what peace to the Church what joy to all good and wise men As to this particular God requireth of the Israelites in Lev. 26. that they should confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers David did so and Ieremy did so and Daniel did so in Psal. 106. in Ierem 3. in Dan. 9. And if David thought it a fit curse to pronounce against Iudas and such as he was in Psal. 109. Let the wickedness of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord and let not the sin of his mother be done away why may we not nay how ought we not to pray for the removal of this very curse from us as well as of any other curses The present age is rise of many enormous crying sins which call loud for a judgment upon the land and if God should bring upon us a right heavy one whereat all ears should tingle could we say other but that it were most just even for the sins of this present generation But if unto our own so many so great God should also add the sins of our forefathers the bloodshed and tyranny and grievous unnatural butcheries in the long times of the Civil wars and the universal Idolatries and superstitions covering the whole land in the longer and darker times of Popery and if as he sometimes threatned to bring upon the Iews of that one generation all the righteous blood that ever was shed upon the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias so he should bring the sins of our Ancestors for many generations past upon this generation of ours who could be able to abide it Now when the security of the times give us but too much cause to fear it and regions begin to look white towards the harvest is it not time for us with all humiliation of Soul and Body to cast down our selves and with all contention of voice and spirit to lift up our prayers and to say Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our sins Spare us good Lord spare the people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry with us for ever Spare us good Lord Thirdly Since not only our fathers sins and our own but our Neighbours sins too aliquid malum propter vicinum malum but especially the sins of Princes and Governours delirant reges plectuntur Achivi may bring judgments upon us and enwrap us in their punishments it should teach every one of us to seek his own private in the common and publick good and to endeavour if but for our own security from punishment to awaken others from their security in sin How should we send up Supplications and prayers and intercessions for Kings and for all that are in authority that God would incline their hearts unto righteous courses and open their ears to wholesom counsels and strengthen their hands to just actions when but a sinful oversight in one of them may prove the overthrow of many thousands of us as David but by once numbring his people in the pride of his heart lessened their number at one clap threescore and ten thousand If Israel turn their backs upon their enemies up Ioshua and make search for the troubler of Israel firret out the thief and do execution upon him one Achan if but suffered is able to undo the whole host of Israel what mischief might he do if countenanced if allowed The hour I see hath overtaken me and I must end To wrap up all in a word then and conclude Thou that hast power over others suffer no sin in them by base connivence but punish it thou that hast charge of others suffer no sin in them by dull silence but rebuke it thou that hast any interest in or dealing with others suffer no sin upon them by easie allowance but distaste it thou that hast nothing else yet by thy charitable prayers for them and by constant example to them stop the course of sin in others further the growth of grace in others labour by all means as much as in thee lieth to draw others unto God lest their sins draw God's judgments upon themselves and thee This that thou mayest do and that I may do and that every one of us that feareth God and wisheth well to the Israel of God may do faithfully and discreetly in our several stations and callings let us all humbly beseech the Lord the God of all grace and wisdom for his Son Iesus sake by his holy Spirit to enable us To which blessed Trinity one only Wise Immortal Invisible Almighty most gracious and most glorious Lord and God be ascribed by every one of us the kingdom the power and the glory both now and for ever AD POPULUM The Fourth Sermon In St. Paul's Church London Nov. 4. 1621. 1 COR. VII 24. Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God IF flesh and blood be suffered to make the Gloss it is able to corrupt a right good Text. It easily turneth the doctrine of Gods grace into wantonness and as easily the doctrine of Christian liberty into
licentiousness These Corinthians being yet but Carnal for the point of Liberty consulted it seemeth but too much with this cursed Gloss. Which taught them to interpret their Calling to the Christian Faith as an Exemption from the duties of all other callings as if their spiritual freedom in Christ had cancelled ipso facto all former obligations whether of Nature or Civility The Husband would put away his Wife the Servant disrespect his Master every other man break the bonds of relation to every other man and all under this pretence and upon this ground that Christ hath made them free In this passage of the Chapter the Apostle occasionally correcteth this errour principally indeed as the present Argument led him in the particular of Marriage but with a farther and more universal extent to all outward states and conditions of life The summ of his Doctrine this He that is yoked with a wife must not put her away but count her worthy of all love he that is bound to a Master must not despise him but count him worthy of all honour every other man that is tied in any relation to any other man must not neglect him but count him worthy of all good offices and civil respects suitable to his place and person though Shee or He or that other be Infidels and Unbelievers The Christian Calling doth not at all prejudice much less overthrow it rather establisheth and strengtheneth those interests that arise from natural relations or from voluntary contracts either domestical or civil betwixt Man and Man The general rule to this effect he conceiveth in the form of an Exhortation that every man notwithstanding his calling unto liberty in Christ abide in that station wherein God hath placed him contain himself within the bounds thereof and chearfully and contentedly undergo the duties that belong thereto vers 17. As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk And lest this Exhortation as it fareth with most other especially such as come in but upon the by as this doth should be slenderly regarded the more fully to commend it to their consideration and practice he repeateth it once again verse 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called And now again once more in the words of this verse concluding therewith the whole discourse into which he had digressed Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God From which words I desire it may be no prejudice to my present discourse if I take occasion to entreat at this time of a very needful argument viz. concerning the Necessity Choice and Use of particular callings Which whilest I do if any shall blame me for shaking hands with my Text let such know First that it will not be very charitably done to pass a hard censure upon anothers labour no nor yet very providently for their own good to slight a profitable truth for some little seeming impertinency Secondly that the points proposed are indeed not impertinent the last of them which supposeth also the other two being the very substance of this Exhortation and all of them such as may without much violence be drawn from the very words themselves at leastwise if we may be allowed the liberty which is but reasonable to take in also the other two verses the 17. and the 20. in sence and for substance all one with this as anon in the several handlings of them in part will appear But howsoever Thirdly which Saint Bernard deemed a sufficient Apology for himself in a case of like nature Noverint me non tam intendisse c. let them know that in my choice of this Scripture my purpose was not so much to bind my self to the strict exposition of the Apostolical Text as to take occasion therefrom to deliver what I desired to speak and judged expedient for you to hear concerning 1. the Necessity 2. the Choice and 3. the Use of particular Callings Points if ever need to be taught and known certainly in these days most Wherein some habituated in idleness will not betake themselves to any Calling like a heavy jade that is good at bit and nought else These would be soundly spurred up and whipped on end Othersome through weakness do not make good choice of a fit Calling like a young unbroken thing that hath metal and is free but is ever wrying the wrong way These would be fairly checkt turned into the right way and guided with a steddy and skilful hand A third sort and I think the greatest through unsetledness or discontentedness or other untoward humour walk not soberly and uprightly and orderly in their Calling like an unruly Colt that will over hedge and ditch no ground will hold him no fence turn him These would be well fettered and side-hanckled for leaping The first sort are to be taught the Necessity of a Calling the second to be directed for the Choice of their Calling the third to be bounded and limited in the Exercise of their Calling Of which three in their order and of the First first the Necessity of a Calling The Scriptures speak of two kinds of Vocations or Callings the one ad Foedus the other ad Munus The usual known terms are the General and the Particular Calling Vocatio ad Foedus or the General Calling is that wherewith God calleth us either outwardly in the ministry of his Word or inwardly by the efficacy of his Spirit or joyntly by both to the faith and obedience of the Gospel and to the embracing of the Covenant of grace and of mercy and salvation by Jesus Christ. Which is therefore termed the General Calling not for that it is of larger extent than the other but because the thing whereunto we are thus called is one and the same and common to all that are called The same duties and the same promises and every way the same conditions Here is no difference in regard of Persons but One Lord one Faith one Baptism one Body and one Spirit even as we are all called in one hope of our Calling That 's the General Calling Vocatio ad Munus Our Particular Calling is that wherewith GOD enableth us and directeth us and putteth us on to some special course and condition of life wherein to employ our selves and to exercise the gifts he hath bestowed upon us to his glory and the benefit of our selves and others And it is therefore termed a Particular Calling not as if it concerned not all in general for we shall prove the contrary anon but because the thing whereunto men are thus called is not one and the same to all but differenced with much variety according to the quality of particular persons Alius sic alius verò sic Every man hath his proper gift of God one man on this manner another on that Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some called to be
with God The clause was not added for nothing it teacheth thee also some duties First so to demean thy self in thy particular calling as that thou do nothing but what may stand with thy general calling Magistrate or Minister or Lawyer or Merchant or Artificer or whatsoever other thou art remember thou art withal a Christian. Pretend not the necessities of thy particular Calling to any breach of the least of those Laws of God which must rule thy general Calling God is the author of both Callings of thy general Calling and of thy particular Calling too Do not think he hath called thee to service in the one and to liberty in the other to Iustice in the one and to Cosenage in the other to Simplicity in the one and to Dissimulation in the other to Holiness in the one and to Prophaneness in the other in a word to an entire and universal Obedience in the one and to any kind or degree of Disobedience in the other It teacheth thee secondly not to ingulf thy self so wholly into the business of thy particular Calling as to abridg thy self of convenient opportunities so the exercise of those religious duties which thou art bound to perform by virtue of thy general calling as Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Meditation c. God alloweth thee to serve thy self but he commandeth thee to serve him too Be not thou so all for thy self as to forget him but as thou art ready to embrace that liberty which he hath given thee to serve thy self so make a conscience to perform those duties which he hath required of thee for his service Work and spare not but yet pray too or else work not Prayer is the means to procure a blessing upon thy labours from his hands who never faileth to serve them that never fail to serve him Did ever any man serve God for nought A man cannot have so comfortable assurance that he shall prosper in the affairs he taketh in hand by any other means as by making God the Alpha and Omega of his endeavours by beginning them in his name directing them to his Glory Neither is this a point of duty only in regard of Gods command or a point of wisdom only to make our labours successful but it is a point of Iustice too as due by way of Restitution We make bold with his day and dispence with some of that time which he hath sanctified unto his service for our own necessities it is equal we should allow him at least as much of ours as we borrow of his though it be for our necessities or lawful Comforts But if we rob him of some of his time as too often we do employing it in our own businesses without the warrant of a just necessity we are to know that it is theft yea theft in the highest degree sacrilege and that therefore we are bound at least as far as petty Thieves were in the Law to a four-fold restitution Abide in thy Calling by doing thine own part and labouring faithfully but yet so as God's part be not forgotten in serving him daily It teacheth thee thirdly to watch over the special sins of thy particular Calling Sins I mean not that cleave necessarily to the Calling for then the very Calling it self should be unlawful but sins unto the temptations whereof the condition of thy Calling layeth thee open more than it doth unto other sins or more than some other Callings would do unto the same sins and wherewith whilst thou art stirring about the businesses of thy Calling thou mayest be soonest overtaken if thou dost not heedfully watch over thy self and them The Magistrates sins Partiality and Injustice the Ministers sins Sloth and Flattery the Lawyers sins Maintenance and Collusion the Merchants sins Lying and Deceitfulness the Courtiers sins Ambition and Dissimulation the great Mans sins Pride and Oppression the Gentlemans sins Riot and Prodigality the Officers sins Bribery and Extortion the Countrymans sins Envy and Discontentedness the Servants sins Tale-bearing and Purloyning In every State and Condition of life there is a kind of opportunity to some special sin wherein if our watchfulness be not the greater mainly to oppose it and keep it out we cannot abide therein with God All that I have done all this while in my passage over this Scripture is but this I have proved the necessity of having a Calling laid down Directions for the choice and trial of our Callings and shewed what is required of us in the use of our Callings for the abiding therein with God And having thus dispatched my Message it is now time I should spare both your ears and my own sides God grant that every one of us may remember so much of what hath been taught as is needful for each of us and faithfully apply it unto our own Souls and Consciences and make a profitable and seasonable use of it in the whole course of our lives even for Jesus Christ his sake his blessed Son and our alone Saviour To whom c. AD POPULUM The Fifth Sermon At St. Paul's Cross London Nov. 21. 1624. 1 Tim. IV. 4. For every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving OF that great and Universal Apostasie which should be in the Church through the tyranny and fraud of Antichrist there are elsewhere in the Scriptures more full scarce any where more plain Predictions than in this passage of St. Paul whereof my Text is a part The Quality of the Doctrines foretold Vers. 1. contrary to the Faith Erroneous Devillish Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils The Quality of the Doctors foretold verse 2. Liars Hypocritical Unconscionable Speaking lies in Hypocrisie having their consciences seared with a hot Iron But lest these generalities should seem not sufficiently distinctive each side charging other as commonly it hapneth where differences are about Religion with Apostasie and Error and Falshood and Hypocrisie the Apostle thought it needful to point out those Antichristian Doctors more distinctly by specifying some particulars of their devillish Doctrines For which purpose he giveth instance in two of their Doctrines whereof he maketh choice not as being simply the worst of all the rest though bad enough but as being more easily discernable than most of the rest viz. a Prohibition of Marriage and an injunction of Abstinence from certain meats Which particulars being so agreeable to the present Tenets of the Romish Synagogue do give even of themselves alone a strong suspicion that there is the seat of Antichrist But joyned unto the other Prophecies of St. Paul and St. Iohn in other places make it so unquestionable that they who will needs be so unreasonably charitable as to think the Pope is not Antichrist may at the least wonder as one saith well by what strange
to God and the fairest requital we can make for them If we withdraw our obedience and fall into open rebellion against God if we abuse them in making them either the occasions or instruments of sin to the dishonour of God and damage of his Servants we repay him ill and unworthily for the good we have received and are guilty of Unthankfulness in this foulest and highest degree Now we have seen what we are let us say the worst we can by unthankful ones call them Wretches Caitiffs Churles any thing load them with infamies disgraces contumelies charge them with Injustice Prophaneness Atheism condemn them and with them the vice it self Unthankfulness to the pit of Hell do all this and more and spare not and as David did at Nathan's Parable when we hear any case or example of ingratitude in any of the former degrees whether really done or but in a Parable pronounce sentence upon the guilty The man that hath done this thing shall surely die But withal let us remember when we have so done that our hearts instantly prompt us what Nathan told David Thou art the man We we are the men we are these unthankful ones unthankful to God first in passing by so many of his blessings without taking any consideration of them unthankful secondly in ascribing his Blessings wholly or partly to our selves or any other but him unthankful thirdly in valuing his Blessings so lightly as to forget them unthankful fourthly in diminishing the worth of his Blessings and repining at our portion therein unthankful fifthly in not rendring to him and his according to the good he hath done for us but sixthly and most of all unthankful in requiting him evil for good and hatred for his good will Dealing thus with him let us not now marvel if he begin to deal something strangely and otherwise than he was wont with us If he deny us his Creatures when we want them if he take them from us when we have them if he withhold his blessing from them that it shall not attend them if we find small comfort in them when we use them if they be unanswering our expectations when we have been at some pains and cost with them if as the Prophet speaketh We sow much and bring in little we eat and have not enough we drink and are not filled we cloath us and we are not warm and the wages we earn we put into a bag with holes if any of these things befal us let us cease to wonder thereat our selves are the causers of all our woe It is our great unthankfulness that blasteth all our endeavours that leaveneth with sowerness whatsoever is sweet and turneth into poison whatsoever is wholesom in the good Creatures of God It is the Word of God and Prayer that sanctifieth them to our use and they are then good when they are received with thanksgiving So long as we continue unthankful we are vain if we look for any sanctification in them if we expect any good from them I have now done with my first Inference for Trial or rather Conviction I add a second of Exhortation The duty it self being so necessary as we have heard Necessary as an Act of Iustice for the receipt of the Creature and necessary as an Act of Religion for the sanctifying of the Creature how should our hearts be enflamed with an holy desire and all our powers quickned up to a faithful endeavour conscionably to perform this so necessary a duty One would think that very necessity together with the consciousness of our former unthankfulness should in all reason be enough to work in us that both desire and endeavour In all reason it should so but we are unreasonable and much ado there is to perswade us to any thing that is good even when we are perswaded Wherefore to enforce the exhortation more effectually I must have leave to press the performance of this duty upon our Consciences with some farther Inducements and important Considerations Consider first the excellency of the Duty There are but three heads whereto we refer all that is called good Iucundum Utile Honestum Pleasure Profit and Honesty There is nothing desirable and lovely but in one or other of these three respects Each of these singly we account good but that excellently good wherein they all concurr We love things that will give us delight sometimes when there is neither profit nor credit in them we love things that will bring us profit though possibly neither delightful greatly nor sâ—emly and we love things that we think will do us honesty oftentimes without regard either of Pleasure or Profit How should we then be affected to this duty of giving thanks and singing Praises unto our GOD wherein all those do jointly concurr and that also in an excellent measure David hath wrapped them all together in one verse in the beginning of Psal. 147. Praise ye the Lord for it is good yea it is a pleasant thing and praise is comely It is good it will bring you profit it is pleasant it will afford you delight and it is comely it will do you honesty and what can heart wish more Again many good virtues and graces of God in us shall expire together with us which though they be eternal in their fruit and reward yet are not so as to their proper Acts which after this life shall cease because there shall be neither need nor use of them then Whether there be Prophecies they shall fail or whether there be tongues they shall cease or whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away There shall be no use of taming the flesh by Fasting or of supplying the want either of others by Alms or of our selves by Prayer Nay even Faith and Hope themselves shall have an end for we shall not then need to believe when we shall see nor to expect when we shall enjoy But giving of Thanks and Praise and Honour and Glory unto God shall remain in the Kingdom of Heaven and of Glory It is now the continual blessed exercise of the glorious Angels and Saints in Heaven and it shall be ours when we shall be translated thither O that we would learn often to practise here what we hope shall be our eternal exercise there Oh that we would accustom our selves being filled in the Spirit to speak to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making Melody in our hearts to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ as speaketh our Apostle Ephes. 5. Consider secondly the multitude and variety and continuance of God's Blessings and let that provoke thy Thankfulness If thou hadst received but one or a few benefits yet thanks were due even for those few or for that one more than thou art able to return But what canst thou alledge or how excuse thy unthankfulness when
doctrine of Christian Liberty to them in such a manner as might frame them withal to yield such Reverence and Obedience to their Governours as became them to do And therefore St. Peter beateth much upon the point of Obedience But he no where presseth it more fully than in this Chapter Wherein after the general exhortations of subduing the lusts that are in their own bosoms vers 11. and of ordering their conversation so as might be for their credit and honesty in the sight of others ver 12. when he descendeth to more particular duties he beginneth first with and insisteth most upon this duty of subjection and obedience to Authority in the greatest remaining part of the Chapter The first Precept he giveth in this kind is set down with sundry Amplifications and Reasons thereunto belonging in the next verses before the Text submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake And then he doth by way of Prolepsis take away an Objection which he foresaw would readily be made against that and the following Exhortations from the pretext of Christian liberty in the words of the Text As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God Conceive the words as spoken in answer to what those new converts might have objected We have been taught that the Son of God hath made us free and then we are free indeed and so not bound to subject our selves to any Masters and Governours upon Earth no not to Kings but much rather bound not to do it that so we may preserve that freedom which Christ hath purchased for us and reserve our selves the more entirely for Gods service by refusing to be the servants of men This Objection the Apostle clearly taketh off in the Text with much holy wisdom and truth He telleth them that being indeed set at liberty by Christ they are not therefore any more to enthral themselves to any living soul or other creature not to submit to any Ordinance of man as slaves that is as if the ordinance it self did by any proper direct and immediate virtue bind the conscience But yet all this notwithstanding they might and ought to submit thereunto as the Lords free-men and in a free manner that is by a voluntary and uninforced both subjection to their power and obedience to their lawful commands They must therefore take heed they use not their liberty for an occasion to the flesh nor under so fair a title palliate an evil licentiousness making that a cloak for their irreverent and undutiful Carriage towards their Superiours For albeit they be not the servants of men but of God and therefore owe no Obedience to men as upon immediate tie of conscience and for their own sake but to God only yet for his sake and out of the conscience of that Obedience which they owe to his command of honouring of father and mother and of being subject to the higher powers they ought to give unto them such honour and obedience as of right belongeth unto them according to the eminency of their high places As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God From which words thus paraphrased I gather Three Observations all concerning our Christian Liberty in that branch of it especially which respecteth human◠Ordinances and the use of the creatures and of all indifferent things Either 1. in the Existence of it As free or 2. in the Exercise of it And not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness or 3. in the End of it but as the servants of God The first Observation this We must so submit our selves to superiour Authority as that we do not thereby impeach our Christian Liberty As free The second this We must so maintain our liberty as that we do not under that colour either commit any sin or omit any requisite office either of charity or duty and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness The third this In the whole exercise both of the liberty we have in Christ and of the respects we owe unto men we must evermore remember our selves to be and accordingly behave our selves as those that are Gods servants but as the servants of God The sum of the whole Three Points in brief this We must be careful without either infringing or abusing our liberty at all times and in all things to serve God Now then to the several points in that order as I have proposed them and as they lie in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As free Which words have manifest reference to the Exhortation delivered Three Verses before the Text as declaring the manner how the duty there exhorted unto ought to be performed yet so as that the force of them stretcheth to the Exhortations also contained in the Verses next after the Text. Submit your selves to publick Governours both supreme and subordinate be subject to your own particular Masters honour all men with those proper respects that belong to them in their several stations But look you do all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as slaves but as free do it without impeachment of the liberty you have in Christ. Of which liberty it would be a profitable labour but that I should then be forced to omit sundry other things which I deem needful to be spoken and more nearly pertinent to the points proposed to discover at large the Nature and Parts and Causes and Effects and Adjuncts that we might the better understand the amplitude of that power which Christ hath setled upon his Church and thence learn to be the more careful to preserve it But I may not have time so to do it shall therefore suffice us to know that as the other branches of our liberty whether of glory or grace whether from the guilt of sin in our justification or from the dominion of sin in our sanctification with the several appendices and appurtenances to any of them so this branch of it also which respects the use of indifferent things First is purchased for us by the blood of Christ and is therefore usually called by the name of Christian liberty Secondly is revealed unto us outwardly in the preaching of the Gospel of God and of Christ which is therefore called the Law of liberty And thirdly is conveyed unto us inwardly and effectually by the Operation of the Spirit of God and of Christ which is therefore called a free spirit O stablish thou me with thy free spirit because where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Now this liberty so dearly purchased so clearly revealed so firmly conveyed it is our duty to maintain with our utmost strength in all the parts and branches of it and as the Apostle exhorteth to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and not to suffer
carcerem ille gehennam And the Apostles to the whole Council of the Jews whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more than unto God judge ye Acts 4. He that will displease God to please men he is the servant of men and cannot be the servant of God But honest and conscionable men who do not easily and often fail this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is Rom. 16. men that are not evil are yet apt sometimes to be so far carried away with an high estimation of some men as to subject themselves wholly to their judgments or wills without ever questioning the truth of any thing they teach or the lawfulness of any thing they enjoyn It is a dangerous thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Iude speaketh to have mens persons in admiration though they be of never so great learning wisdom or piety because the best and wisest men that are are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject to the like infirmities as we are both of sin and error and such as may both deceive others and be themselves deceived That honour which Pythagoras his Scholars gave to their Master in resting upon his bare Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a sufficient proof yea as a divine Oracle many judicious even among the heathen altogether misliked as too servile and prejudicial to that libertas Philosophica that freedom of judgment which was behoveful for the study of Philosophy How much more then must it needs be prejudicial in the judgment of Christians to that libertas Evangelica that freedom we have in Christ to give such honour to any other man but the man Christ Iesus only or to any other Writings than to those which are in truth the Oracles of God the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament There is I confess much reverence to be given to the Writings of the godly ancient Fathers more to the Canons and Decrees of general and provincial Councils and not a little to the judgment of learned sober and godly Divines of later and present times both in our own and other reformed Churches But we may not jurare in verba build our faith upon them as upon a sure foundation nor pin our belief upon their sleeves so as to receive for an undoubted truth whatsoever they hold and to reject as a gross error whatsoever they disallow without farther examination St. Iohn biddeth us try the Spirits before we believe them 1 Iohn 4 And the Beraeans are remembred with praise fol so doing Act. 17. We blame it in the Schoolmen that some adhere pertinaciously to the opinions of Thomas and others as pertinaciously to the opinions of Scotus in every point wherein they differ insomuch as it were grande piaculum a heinous thing and not to be suffered if a Dominican should dissent from Thomas or a Franciscan from Scotus though but in one single controversed conclusion And we blame it justly for St. Paul blamed the like sidings and partakings in the Church of Corinth whilst one professed himself to be of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas as a fruit of carnality unbeseeming Christians And is it not also blame-worthy in us and a fruit of the same carnality if any of us shall affect to be accounted rigid Lutherans or perfect Calvinists or give up our judgment to be wholly guided by the Writings of Luther or Calvin or of any other mortal man whatsoever Worthy instruments they were both of them of Gods glory and such as did excellent service to the Church in their times whereof we yet find the benefit and we are unthankful if we do not bless God for it and therefore it is an unsavory thing for any man to gird at their names whose memories ought to be precious But yet were they not men Had they received the spirit in the fulness of it and not by measure Knew they oâ—herwise than in part or prophesied otherwise than in part Might they not in many things did they not in some things mistake and err Howsoever the Apostles Interrogatories are unanswerable what saith he was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized in the name of Paul Even so was either Luther or Calvin crucified for you Or were ye baptized into the name either of Luther or Calvin or any other man That any one of you should say I am of Luther or any other I am of Calvin and I of him and I of him What is Calvin or Luther nay what is Paul or Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed That is to say Instruments but not Lords of your belief To sum up and to conclude this first point then To do God and our selves right it is necessary we should with our utmost strength maintain the doctrine and power of that liberty wherewith Christ hath endowed his Church without either usurping the mastery over others or subjecting our selves to their servitude so as to surrender either our judgments or consciences to be wholly disposed according to the opinions or wills of men though of never so excellent piety or parts But yet lest while we shun one extreme we fall into another as the Lord be merciful unto us we are very apt to do lest while we seek to preserve our liberty that we do not lose it we stretch it too far and so abuse it the Apostle therefore in the next clause of the Text putteth in a caveat for that also not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness whence ariseth our second observation We must so maintain our liberty that we abuse it not as we shall if under the pretence of Christian liberty we either adventure the doing of some unlawful thing or omit the performance of any requisite duty As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness The Apostles intention in the whole clause will the better appear when we know what is meant by Cloak and what by Maliciousness The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is no where else found in the whole New Testament but in this verse only signifieth properly any Covering as the covering of Badgerâ— skins that was spread over the Tabernacle is in the Septuagints Translation called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An it is very fitly translated a cloak though it do not properly so signifie in respect of that notion wherein the word in our English Tongue is commonly and proverbially used to note some fair and colourable pretence wherewith we disguise and conceal from the conusance of others the dishonestly and faultiness of our intentions in some things practised by us Our Saviour Christ saith of the obstinate Iews that had heard his Doctrine and seen his Miracles that they had no cloak for their sin Ioh. 15. he meaneth they had no colour of plea nothing to pretend by way of excuse And St. Paul professeth in
of Iupiter and the other Gods wings both at his hands and feet to intimate thereby what great speed and diligence was requisite to be used by those that should be imployed in the service of Princes for the managing of their weighty affairs of State Surely no less diligence is needful in the service of God but rather much more by how much both the Master is of greater Majesty and the service of greater importance Not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord saith St. Paul Let all those that trifle away their precious time in unconcerning things or put off the repentance of their sins and the reformation of their lives till another age or any other way slack their bounden service unto God either in the common-duties of their general or in the proper works of their particular calling tremble to think what shall become of them when all they shall be cursed that have done the Lords work in what kind soever negligently We see now what we are to do if we will approve our selves and our services unto the Lord our heavenly Master What remaineth but that we be willing to do it and for that end pray to the same our Master who alone can work in us both the will and the deed that he would be pleased of his great goodness to give to every one of us courage to maintain our Christian liberty inviolate as those that are free wisdom to use it right and not for a cloak of maliciousness and grace at all times and in all places to behave our selves as the servants of God with such holy reverence of his Majesty obedience to his will faithfulness in his employments as may both procure to us and our services in the mean time gracious acceptance in his sight and in the end a glorious reward in his presence even for Jesus Christ his sake his only Son and our alone Saviour FINIS A Table of the Places of Scripture to which some light more or less is given in the fore-going Fourteen Sermons Chap. Ver. Page Gen. III. 4-5 122 15 206.290 16 206 19 206 iv 2 206 vi 6 172 ix 25 190 xv 15 180 xviii 20 127 32 182 xix 8 33 9 182 16 181 xx vi 269 c. xxiv 12 c. 112 xxxi 23 c. 286 xxxii 6 287 xxxiii 4 c. 287 Exod. II. 14 8 x 26 303 xi 5-6 193 xiv 4 155 xx 5 193. 198. 201. xxiii s i ii-iii 117 c. Lev. 26. 21 324 23 324 26 c. 266. 208 Num. 22. 27 238 xxiii 19 172 xxv 5 139 Deut. 8. 3 251 14 255 17 255 18 263 xv 4 213 xvii 2 105 xxxii 15 258 Iosh. 24. 15 320 24 323 Iudg. 3. 9-10 139 v 7 139 xix 30 105 1 Sam. 2. 30 321 iv 18 138 xii 24 325 xv 15 308 1 Sam. 13. 28 324 xv 4 110 xxi 14 146 3 King 3. 9 99 x 20 107 xxi 13 308 s xxix 151 c. 4 King 2. 9 51 vi 25-26 196 viii 27 195 x 10 179 30 191 xxii 20 180 1 Chro. 26. 29-31 138 2 Chro. 19. 6 108 xxiv 22 258 Nehem. 5. 15 131 Iob 1. 3 98 5 8 20 193 ix 33 2 xiii 7 62 xxii 30 182 xxix 9 98 s 14-17 c. 95 c. Psalm 2. 11 323 iii 7 107 iv 6-7 252 xiv 4 106 xviii 44 323 xix 12 272. 278. 13 296. xxxv 11 284 xxxvi 3 279 6 186 xxxvii 1 167 xxxix 11 189 xlv 6-7 99 l 22 183 li 6 325 12 301 lii 2-4 122 lvii 4 106 lviii 4 279 6 107 lxxiii 2-3 188 17 188 lxxv 2-4 108. 149 lxxvi 10 288 12 288 lxxxi 12 297 lxxxii 6 102. 108. ciii 1-2 249 cv 14 290 cvi 6 201 sxxx 133 c. 31 139 cvii 8 290 cix 14 101 16 98 cxvi 12 250 16 320 cxix 6 159 94 322 141 3 cxliii 12 322 cxlv 8 177 16 208 cxlvii 1 260 cxlix 8 293 Prov. 1. 13 125 iii 3 103 xii 13 143 xiv 21 5 xv 8 164 17 252 xvi 12 149 xvii 16 221 xviii 7 125 9 208 13 105 17 126 xx 25 321 xxi 1 287 xxiv 26 99 xxv 2 105 xxvi 13 143 25 292 xxviii 13 278 xxix 7 127 12 130 xxx 1 5 33 121 xxxi 21 208 Eccles. 1. 4 191 18 280 viii 11 143 ix 1 156 x 4 229 10 54 xi 4 142 xii 9 56 Isaiah 1 24 171 iii 9 308 15 106 18-23 311 v 20 305 viii 20 140 xxvi 12 321 xxviii 21 311 xxxvii 35 191 xxxix 8 180 xliii 23-24 320 xliv 21 319 lii 11 176 lv 8-9 186 lvii 1 181 lx 12 320 lxv 13-14 322 Ierem. 3. 15 201 v 1 282 viii 6 288 xvii 9 223 xviii 7-8 172. 174. 18 122 xxiii 29 161 xlviii 10 326 Lam. 5. 7 198 Ezek. 22. 9 123 xxix 20 165 xxxiii 11-14 171. 174 Dan. 3. 16 71 18 306 vi 3-5 124 ix 5 201 Hos. 2. 8 258 iv 1 279 xi 8 171 xiii 9 236 Amos 3. 6 196. 236 vi 4-6 311 Ion. 3. 9 174 Micah 6. 8 299 Zach. 5. 4 195 Mal. 1. 6 323 Chap. Ver. Page Matth. 3. 7 195 iv 10 303 v 15 56 16 44. 156 17 310 29-30 244 37 32 vi 2 c. 165 24 321 vii 12 123 ix 13 29 xi 19 156 30 304. 321 xii 31-32 26 36 25 xiii 5 6 154. 159 20-21 154 xviii 7 246 10 36 xix 21-22 158 xxiii 4 312 8 301 10 301 13 309 14 308 23 99 35-36 201 xxiv 45 324 51 156 xxv 21 324 26 325 28 55 xxvi 11 213. 257 xxvii 25 190 xxviii 20 46 Mark 4. 16-17 154 x 18 237 Luke 3. 14 125 vi 25 311 viii 6 154 ix 50 70 x 28 179 xii 14 8 48 279 xv 17 168 xvi 2 127 9 209 19 311 25 167 xvii 13 262 xviii 11 4. 295 xix 8 121. 130 41 164 53 35 xxi 15 57 26 137 xxiii 2 24 11 4 Iohn 20 22 47 iii 36 66 ix 2-3 189 x 12 25. 107 xv 22 308 xvi 26 310 xix 12 24 xx 22 47. 229 Acts 4. 19 306 viii 22 309 x 28 215 45-46 43 xiv 12 66 15 306 17 252 xv 9 253 28-29 273 xvii 11 307 28 260 xxiii 1 282 xxiv 25 163 xxvi 9 68 Rom. 1. 16 156 19-20 223 ii 5-6 188 14 282. 283 15 63 22 34 iii viii 21 c. 31 310 iv 13 252 20 323 vi 14 310 16 323 21-22 322 23 187 vii 4 310 6 310 x 4 310 xi 35 262 xii 7 100 11 326 xiii 1 110 1. 6 318 4 102. 108. 118. 144 6 102 xiv 2 66 iii 1 c. 4 9 5 69 6 249 10 9 13 8 14 29. 70. 15 312 20-21 29 22 71 s xxiii 59 c. xv 1-2 312 14 125 xvi 18 306 1 Cor. 1. 13 307 26 291 iii 4-5 307 21 168 22-23 240. 252 iv 3 284 4 284 5 9. 142 7 49. 255. 295 v 8 309 vi 12 243.
strengthened the hands of those enemies against thee with whom thou mightest have been at peace 2. Thou hast exposed thy self for a prey to those temptations from which thou mightest have escaped 3. Thou hast blocked up the passage against thine own Prayers that they cannot have access before the Throne of grace 4. Thou hast utterly debarred thy self from ever entering into the Kingdom of glory All this thou hast lost not now to be regained save only by bewailing the time past that thou hast not sought to please him better heretofore and by redeeming the time to come in seeking to please him better hereafter 12. Which how and by what means it may best be done is our next Enquiry Wherein to give you a general and easie direction without descending into particulars these two things will do it Likeness and Obedience For the first Similis Simili is a common saying and common experience proveth it true Likeness ever breedeth liking As men we see are best pleased every one with such notions and expressions as sort best with their own fancies and with such companions as are of their own temper So good Souldiers are best pleased with those that are valiant like themselves and good Wits with those that are facetious like themselâ—â—s and good Scholars with those that are judicious like themselves and accordingly it is with all other sorts of men in their kinds Yea of so great moment is likeness unto complacency as that two men if they be of different dispositions as it may be the one of a quick stirring and active the other of a slow remiss and suffering spirit or it may be the one of an open free and pleasant conversation the other of a sad close and reserved temper although they may be honest and holy men both yet I say two such men will take little pleasure either in the company of the other as experience also sheweth Oderunt hilarem tristes c. 13. Now a wicked man is altogether unlike God both in his inward Affections and in his outward Conversation He loveth the ways of sin which God hateth and hateth to be reformed which God requireth He speaketh well of evil men as the covetous and others whom God abhorreth and casteth out their names as evil in whom God delighteth Is it possible that God who is light should take pleasure in him that is nothing but darkness And God who is a Spirit in him who is nothing but flesh And God who is Love in him who is nothing but rancour and malice and uncharitableness And God who is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works a just a merciful a bountiful God in him who is altogether unclean or unjust or cruel or covetous It cannot be 14. But then as for the Godly no marvel if both their persons and ways be well pleasing unto God being that both their persons are inwardly renewed after his Image and their ways also outwardly framed after his Example They love what he loveth hate what he hateth in the Affections of their hearts and they are followers of God as dear children in the conversation of their lives They desire and endeavour to be holy as he is holy perfect as he is perfect and merciful as he their heavenly Father is merciful And as earthly Parents though they love all their Children well yet commonly love those best that are likest themselves so our heavenly Father is well pleased with all his Children because they are indeed all like him but best pleased with those that nearliest resemble him The more we grow in likeness to him the more shall we grow also in liking with him 15. The other thing wherewith to please God is our Obedience when he beholdeth in our ways a proof of our willing and chearful subjection to his most righteous Commands All Superiours are best pleased with those that owe them service when they find them most pliable to their Wills and most careful to observe what is given them in charge neither are ever so much or so justly displeased with them as when they see them to slack their own Obedience and slight their Commands Do you think the Centurion could have been pleased with those he had under him if when he said to one Come he should have gone the other way And to another Go he should have stood still And to another Do this he should have left that undone and done the quite contrary Obedience is a thing wherein God more delighteth than in Sacrifice and the keeping of the Commandment will please him better than a Bullock that hath horns and hoofs The Apostle giveth this very reason in Rom. 8. why they that are in the flesh carnal and worldly men cannot please God even because the carnal mind is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be so long as it continueth carnal Intimating that if it could be subject it could not chuse but please 16. Great therefore is the vanity of those men who think to gain and to hold the favour of God by the outward performances of Fasting Prayer Almsdeeds hearing Gods Word receiving the Holy Sacrament and the like just as the hypocritical Iews of old did by Sacrifices and Oblations when as all the while their hearts are rotten and their conversation base But let not any of us deceive our selves with vain confidences For as the Lord of old often cried down Sacrifices by his Prophets though they were in those times a necessary and principal part of that holy worship which himself had prescribed so no doubt he will now reject these outside services though otherwise and in themselves excellent dâ—ties in their kinds if there be no more in them but meer outside And they are no better where there is not withal a conscience made of Obedience The Lord who weigheth the spirits as it is a little before in this Chapter and searcheth the hearts and reins seeth the falseness of our spirits and observeth every prevaricating step both of our hearts and lives There is no dallying therefore with him either let us set our hearts and our faces aright and make straight steps to our feet or our ways will not please the Lord. Deus non volens iniquitatem he is a God that hath no pleasure in wickedness Psal. 5. 17. We have hitherto enquired into the Reasons why we should endeavour to please the Lord and into the means how it may best be done There remains yet a third Enquiry which concerneth the success or the Event and that is how it cometh about that such poor things as our best Endeavours are should so far find acceptance with the Lord as to please him Likeness indeed will please and Obedience will please But then it should be such a likeness as will hold at least some tolerable proportion with the Exemplar such Obedience as will punctually
answer the Command and such is not ours True it is if the Lord should look upon our very best Endeavours as they come from us and respect us but according to our merit he might find in every step we tread just matter of offence in none of acceptance If he should mark what is done amiss and be extreme in it no flesh living could be able to please him It must be therefore upon other and better grounds than any desert in us or in our ways that God is graciously pleased to accept either of us or them The Apostle hath discovered two of those grounds and joined them both together in a short passage in Heb. 13. Now the God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ. Implying that our good works are pleasing unto him upon these two grounds First Because he worketh them in us Secondly Because he looketh upon us and them in Christ. 18. First Because he worketh them in us As we see most men take pleasure in the Rooms of their own contriving in the Engines and Manufactures of their own devising in the Fruits of those Trees which themselves have planted Now the crooked ways of evil men that walk according to the course of the World are indeed the Works of the Devil he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2. such works therefore may please the Devil whose they are But it is not possible they should please God who sent his Son into the World on purpose to destroy the Works of the Devil And as for those strayings also and outsteppings whereof Gods faithfullest servants are now and then guilty although they be not the Works of the Devil for he hath not now so much power over them as to work in them yet are they still the Works of the flesh as they are called Gal. 5. Such works therefore may be pleasing to the flesh whose they are but they are so far from being pleasing unto God that they rather grieve his holy Spirit The works then that must please God are such as himself hath wrought in us by that his holy Spirit which are therefore called the fruits of the Spirit in the same Gal. 5. As it is said by the Prophet O Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us And again in the Psalm The Lord ordereth a good mans ways and maketh them acceptable unto himself they are therefore acceptable unto him because they are ordered by him 19. That is one ground The other is because God looketh not upon us as we are in our selves neither dealeth with us according to the rigour of a legal Covenant but he beholdeth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the face of his beloved One even Jesus Christ his only Son and as under a Covenant of Grace He is his beloved Son in whom alone he is well pleased for his own sake and in whom and for whose sake alone it is if at any time he be well pleased with any of us or with any of our Ways For being by him and through faith in his Name made the children of God by adoption and grace he is now pleased with us as a loving Father is with his beloved Child As a loving Father taketh in good part the willing Endeavours of his Child to do whatsoever he appointeth him though his performances be very small So the Lord is graciously pleased to accept of us and our weak services according to that willingness we have and not according to that exactness we want not weighing our merits but pardâ—ning our offences and passing by our imperfections as our loving Father in Iesus Christ. That is the other ground 20. And we doubt not but the acceptance we find with God upon these two grounds if seasonably applied will sustain the soul of every one that truly feareth God with strong comfort against two great and common discouragements whereunto he may be subject arising the one from the sense of mens displeasure the other from the conscience of his own imperfections Sometimes God and his own heart condemn him not and yet the World doth and that troubleth him Sometimes God and the World condemn him not and yet his own heart doth and that troubleth him more If at any time it be either thus or so with any of us let us remember but thus much and we shall find comfort in it that although we can neither please other men at all nor our selves sufficiently yet our Works may for all that be graciously accepted by our good God and so our ways may please the Lord. 21. But I forbear the amplification of these comforts that I may proceed from the Antecedent in those former words when a mans ways please the Lord of which I have spoken hitherto unto the Consequent in the remaining words he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him Wherein also as in the former part we have three things observable The Persons the Effect the Author The Persons a mans Enemies the Effect Peace the Author the Lord. He maketh a mans Enemies to be at peace with him The words being of an easie understanding will therefore need the less opening Only thus much briefly First for the Persons they that wish him ill or seek to do him Harm in his Person Estate or good Name they are a mans Enemies And Solomon here supposeth it possible that a man whose Ways please the Lord may yet have Enemies Nay it is scarce possible it should be otherwise Inimici Domestici rather than fail Satan will stir him up Enemies out of his own house 2. And these Enemies are then said to be at peace with him which is the Effect when either there is a change wrought in their Affections so as they now begin to bear him less ill-will than formerly they have done or when at least-wise their evil Affections towards him are so bridled or their power so restrained as not to break out into open hostility but whatsoever their thoughts are within to carry themselves fairly and peaceably towards him outwardly so as he is at a kind of peace with them or howsoever sustaineth no harm by them Either of which when it is done it is thirdly Mutatio dextrae excelsi it is merely the Lords doing and it may well be marvellous in our Eyes It is he that maketh a mans Enemies to be at peace with him 22. The scope of the whole words is to instruct us that the fairest and likeliest way for us to procure peace with men is to order our ways so as to please the Lord. You shall therefore find the favour of God and the favour of men often joined together in the Scriptures as if the one were and so usually it is a consequent of the other So
which he suffereth their enmity to continue But it is more certain thirdly that we please him but imperfectly and in part even as those Graces wherewith we please him are in us but imperfectly and in part And therefore no marvel if our peace also be but imperfect and in part Possibly he will procure our peace more when we please him better 28. But where none of these or the like Considerations will reach home it will sufficiently clear the whole difficulty to consider but thus much and it is a plain and true answer that generally all Scriptures that run upon temporal promises are to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as universally but as commonly true Or as some Divines express it cum exceptione crucis not absolutely and without all exception but evermore with this reservation unless the Lord in his infinite Wisdom see cause why it should be good for us to have it otherwise But this you shall ever observe withal and it infinitely magnifieth the goodness of our gracious Lord and God towards us that where he seeth it not good to give us that blessing in specie which the Letter of the Promise seemeth to import he yet giveth it us eminenter that is to say if not that yet some other thing fully as good as that and which he well knoweth though perhaps we cannot yet apprehend it so to be presently far better for us than that Say he do not give us Wealth or Advancement yet if he give us a contented mind without them is it not better Say he do not speedily remove a temptation from us whereunder we groan which was St. Paul's Case yet if he supply us with a sufficiency of grace to encounter with it is it not better So in the present Case if he do not presently make our Enemies to be at peace with us yet if he teach us to profit by their Enmity in exercising our faith and patience in quickning us unto prayer in furthering our humiliations or encreasing any other grace in us is it not every way and incomparably better Now will any wise man tax him with breach of Promise who having promised a Pound of Silver giveth a Talent of Gold Or who can truly say that that man is not so good as his Word that is apparently much better than his Word 29. From the Words thus cleared may be deduced many profitable Inferences for our further instruction but that the time will not suffer us to enlarge them As first We may hence know what a blessed and desirable thing Peace is not only that inward peace with God and in our own breasts which passeth all understanding but even this outward peace with men When the Holy Spirit of God here in the Text useth it as an especial strong inducement to quicken us up the rather to the performance of that with chearfulness which we are in Duty bound to perform howsoever in seeking to please the Lord. We may learn hence secondly if at any time we unfeignedly desire peace by what course we may be likeliest to procure it Preposterous is the course which yet most of men take when to make their Peace with mortal men they hazard the disfavour of the Eternal God The right and ready way is chalked out in the Text First to make our peace with God by ordering our Ways so as to please him and then to commit our Ways to his ordering by leaving the whole success to him and so doing it is not possible we should miscarry Those that are now our Enemies either he will turn their hearts towards us so as to become our Friends if he seeth that good for us or else he will so curb and restrain them that with all their Enmity they shall not be able to do us any harm if he see that better for us or if by his just sufferance they do us harm one way and yet he will not suffer that neither unless he see that absolutely best for us it shall be recompensed to us by his good providence in a far greater comfort another way We may learn hence Thirdly how hateful the practice is and how wretched the condition of Make-bates Tale-bearers Whisperers and all those that sow dissention among Brethren Light and Darkness are not more contrary than are Gods Ways and theirs He is the Author of Peace and lover of Concord they are the Authors of Strife and lovers of Discord It is his Work to make a mans enemies to be at peace with him It is their business to make a mans friends to be at odds with him We may learn hence Fourthly if at any time our Enemies grow to be at peace with us to whom we owe it Not to our selves it is a thing beyond our power or skill to win them Much less to them whose Malice is stiff and will not easily relent But it is principally the Lords own Work He is the God of Peace which maketh men to be of one mind in an house it is he that causeth wars to cease in all the Earth and that giveth unto his people the blessing of peace And therefore the glory of it and the thanks for it belong to him alone 30. But I willingly omit all further enlargement of these inferences that I may somewhat the longer insist upon one other inference only very needful to be considered of in these times which is this We may hence learn Fifthly if at any time we want peace probably to guess where the fault may partly be and that by arguing from the Text thus I read here that when a mans ways please the Lord he maketh his Enemies to be at peace with him I find in mine no relenting but an utter averseness from peace I am for peace but when I speak to them thereof they make them ready to battel I have cause therefore to fear that all is not right with me either my heart is not right or my ways are not right I will examine them both throughly and search if I can see any way of wickedness in me for which my God may be justly displeased with me and for which he thus stiffneth mine Enemies still against me 31. Thus to be jealous over our selves with a godly jealousie would not only work in us a due consideration of our ways that so we might amend them if there be cause but would be also of right use to prevent two notable pieces of Sophistry two egregious fallacies wherewith thousands of us deceive our selves The former fallacy is that we use many times especially when our Enemies do us manifest wrong to impute our sufferings wholly to their iniquity whereof we should do wiselier to take some of the blame upon our selves Not at all to excuse them whose proceedings are unjust and for which they shall bear their own burthens But to acquit the Lords proceedings who still is just even in those
understanding can fathom Sic Deus dilexit So God loved the world But how much that so containeth no tongue or wit of man can reach Nothing expresseth it better to the life than the work it self doth That the Word should be made Flesh that the holy One of God should be made sin that God blessed for ever should be made a curse that the Lord of life and glory should suffer an inglorious death and pour out his own most precious blood to ransome such worthless thankless graceless Traitors as we were that had so desperately made our selves away and that into the hands of his deadliest enemy and that upon such poor and unworthy conditions O altitudo Love incomprehensible It swalloweth up the sense and understanding of Men and Angels fitter to be admired and adored with silence than blemished with any our weak Expressions 29. I leave it therefore and go on to the next his Right When de facto we sold our selves to Satan we had de jure no power or right at all so to do being we were not our own and so in truth the title is naught and the sale void Yet it is good against us however we may not plead the invalidity of it forsomuch as in reason no man ought to make advantage of his own act Our act then barreth us But yet it cannot bar the right owner from challenging his own wheresoever he find it And therefore we may be well assured God will not suffer the Devil who is but malae fidei possessor an intruder and a cheater quietly to enjoy what is Gods and not his but he will eject him we have that word Ioh. 12. 21. Ejicietur now is the Prince of this world cast out and recover out of his possession that which he hath no right at all to hold 30. Sundry inferences we might raise hence if we had time I may not insist yet I cannot but touch at three duties which we owe to God for this Redemption because they answer so fitly to these three last mentioned assurances We owe him Affiance in respect of his Power in requital of his Love Thankfulness and in regard of his Right Service First the consideration of his Power in our Redemption may put a great deal of comfort and confidence into us that having now redeemed us if we do but cleave fast to him and revolt not again he will protect us from Sin and Satan and all other enemies and pretenders whatsoever O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee Isa. 43. If then the Devil shall seek by any of his wiles or suggestions at any time to get us over to him again as he is an unwearied sollicitor and will not lose his claim by discontinuance Let us then look to that Cornu salutis that horn of salvation that God hath raised up for us in Christ our Redeemer and flie thither for succour as to the horns of the Altar saying with David Psalm 119. I am thine oh save me and we shall be safe In all inward temptations in all outward distresses at the hour of death and in the day of judgement we may with great security commit the keeping our souls to him both as a faithful Creator and as a powerful Redeemer saying once more with David into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Psal. 31. 6. 31. Secondly The consideration of his love in our Redemption should quicken us to a thankful acknowledgment of his great and undeserved goodness towards us Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from the hands of the enemy Psal. 107. Let all men let all creatures do it but let them especially If the blessings of corn and wine and oyl of health and peace and plenty of deliverance from sicknesses pestilences famines and other calamities can so affect us as to provoke at least some overly and superficial forms of thanksgiving from us how carnal are our minds and our thoughts earthly if the contemplation of the depth of the riches of God mercy poured our upon us in this great work of our Redemption do not even ravish our hearts with an ardent desire to pour them out unto him again in Hymns and Psalms and Songs of Thanksgiving with a Benedictus in our mouths Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people 32. Thirdly The consideration of his Right should bind us to do him service We were his before for he made us and we ought him service for that But now we are his more than before and by a new title for he hath bought us and paid for us and we owe him more service for that The Apostle therefore urgeth it as a matter of great equity you are not your own but his therefore you are not to satisfie your selves by doing your own lusts but to glorifie him by doing his will When Christ redeemed us by his blood his purpose was to redeem us unto God Rev. 5. 9. and not to our selves and to redeem us from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. and not to it And he therefore delivered us out of the hands of our enemies that we might the more freely and securely and without fear serve him in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our lives Luke 1. which being both our bounden duty and the thing withal so very reasonable we have the more to answer for i◠we do not make a conscience of it to perform it accordingly He hath done his part and that which he was no way bound unto in redeeming us and he hath done it to purpose done it effectually Let it be our care to do our part for which their lye so many obligations upon us in serving him and let us also do it to purpose do it really and throughly and constantly 33. Thus is our Redemption done effectually it is also done freely which is the only point now remaining Not for price nor reward Isa. 45. 13. but freely and without money here in the Text. Nor need we here fear another contradiction For the meaning is not that there was no price paid at all but that there was none paid by us we laid out nothing towards this great Purchase there went none of our money to it But otherwise that there was a price paid the Scriptures are clear You are bought with a price saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 6. and he saith it over again Chap. 7. He that paid it calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom that is as much as to say a price of Redemption and his Apostle somewhat more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth a just and satisfactory price full as much as the thing can be worth Yet not paid to Satan in whose possession we were for we have found already that he was but an Usurper and his title naught He had but bought of us
Mystery that driveth at all this must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest degree the great mystery of Godliness That for the scope 27. Look now secondly at the parts and parcels the several pieces as it were whereof this mystery is made up those mentioned in this verse and the rest and you shall find that from each of them severally but how much more then from them altogether joyntly may be deduced sundry strong motives and perswasives unto Godliness Take the material parts of this Mystery the Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Baptism Temptation Preaching Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascension Intercession and Second coming of Christ. Or take if I may so call them the formal parts thereof our eternal Election before the World was our Vocation by the Preaching of the Gospel our Iustification by Faith in the merits of Christ our Sanctification by the Spirit of grace the stedfast Promises we have and hopes of future Glory and the rest It would be too long to vouch Texts for each particular but this I say of them all in general There is not one link in either of those two golden chains which doth not straitly tye up our hands tongues and hearts from doing evil draw us up effectually unto God and Christ and strongly oblige us to shew forth the power of his Grace upon our souls by expressing the power of Godliness in our lives and conversations That for the parts 28. Thirdly Christian Religion may be called the Mystery of Godliness in regard of its Conversation because Godliness is the best preserver of Christianity Roots and Fruits and Herbs which let alone and left to themselves would soon corrupt and putriâ—ie may being well condited with Sugar by a skilful Confectioner be preserved to continue for many years and be serviceable all the while So the best and surest means to preserve Christianity in its proper integrity and power from corrupting into Atheism or Heresie is to season it well with Grace as we do fresh meats with salt to keep them sweet and to be sure to keep the Conscience upright Holding the mysteries of faith in a pure Conscience saith our Apostle a little after at verse 9. of this Chapter and in the first Chapter of this Epistle vers 19. Holding faith and a good Conscience which latter some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack Apostasie from the faith springeth most an end from Apostasie in manners And he that hath but a very little care how he liveth can have no very fast hold of what he believeth For when men grow once regardless of their Consciences good affections will soon languish and then will noysom lusts gather strength and cast up mud into the soul that the judgement cannot run clear Seldom is the head right where the heart is amiss A rotten heart will be ever and anon sending up evil thoughts into the mind as marish and fenny grounds do foggy mists into the air that both darken and corrupt it As a mans taste when some malignant humour affecteth the organ savoureth nothing aright but deemeth sweet things bitter and sowre things pleasant So where Avarice Ambition Malice Voluptuousness Vain-glory Sedition or any other domineering lust hath made it self master of the heart it will so blind and corrupt the judgment that it shall not be able to discern at any certainty good from evil or truth from falshood Wholsome therefore is St. Peters advice to add unto faith Vertue Vertue will not only keep it in life but at such a height of vigour also that it shall not easily either degenerate into Heresie or languish into Atheism 29. We see now three Reasons for which the Doctrine of Christianity may be called The mystery of Godliness because it first exacteth Godliness and secondly exciteth unto Godliness and is thirdly best preserved by Godliness From these Premisses I shall desire for our nearer instruction to infer but two things only the one for the trial of Doctrines the other for the bettering of our lives For the first St. Iohn would not have us over-forward to believe every spirit Every spirit doth he say Truly it is impossible we should unless we should believe flat contradictions Whilst one Spirit saith It is another Spirit saith It is not can a man believe the one and not disbelieve the other if he hear both Believe not every spirit then is as much in St. Iohn's meaning as if he had said Be not too hasty to Believe any Spirit especially where there appeareth some just cause of Suspicion but try it first whether it be a true spirit or a false Even as St. Paul biddeth us prove all things that having so done we may hold fast what upon trial proveth good and let the rest go 30. Now holy Scripture is certainly that Lapis Lydius that Test whereby this trial is to be made Ad legem ad testimonium when we have wrangled as long as we can hitherto we must come at last But sith all Sectaries pretend to Scripture Papists Anabaptists Disciplinarians All yea the Devil himself can vouch Texts to drive on a Temptation It were good therefore we knew how to make right applications of Scripture for the Trial of Doctrines that we do not mistake a false one for a true one Many profitable Rules for this purpose our Apostle affordeth us in sundry places One very good one we may gather from the words immediately before the Text wherein the Church of God is said to be the pillar and ground of truth The Collection thence is obvious that it would very much conduce to the guiding of our judgments aright in the examining of mens doctrines concerning either Faith or Manners wherein the Letter of Scripture is obscure or the meaning doubtful to inform our selves as well as we can in credendis what the received sence and in agendis what the constant usage and practice of the Church especially in the ancient times hath been concerning those matters and that to consider what conformity the Doctrines under trial hold with the principles upon which that their sence or practice in the Premisses was grounded The Iudgment and Practice of the Church ought to sway very much with every sober and wise man either of which whosoever neglecteth or but slighteth as too many do upon a very poor pretence that the mystery of iniquity began to work betimes runneth a great hazard of falling into many errors and Absurdities If he do not he may thank his good fortune more than his forecast and if he do he may thank none but himself for neglecting so good a guide 31. But this now mentioned Rule although it be of excellent use if it be rightly understood and prudently applied and therefore growing so near the Text I could not wholly baulk it without some notice taken of it it being not within the Text I press it no farther but come to another that springeth out of the very Text it self And
but every man also on the things of others as St. Paul elsewhere exhorteth then should we also agree with one mind and heart to follow the work close till we had got it up That for dispatch 36. But haste maketh waste we say It doth so and in building as much as in any thing It were good wisdom therefore to bring on the work so as to make it strong withal lest if we make false work for quicker dispatch we repent our over-hasty building by leisure To rid us of that fear know secondly that unity and concord serveth for strength too as well as dispatch Ever more vis unita fortior but division weakeneth A house divided against it self cannot stand and the wall must needs be hollow and loose where the stones stand off one from another and couch not close Now brotherly love and unity is it that bindeth all fast so making of loose heaps one entire piece I beseech you brethren saith the Apostle that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment 1 Cor. 1. Like-mindedness you see is the thing that joineth all together and in the well-joining consisteth the strength of structure In Eph. 4. therefore he speaketh of the bond of peace and in Col. 3. he calleth love the bond of perfectness 37. In Phil. 1. he hath another expression which also notably confirmeth the same truth That I may hear saith he of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind They never stand so fast as when they are of one mind There is a Greek word sometimes used in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word which is commonly translated confusion and sometimes tumult Not unfitly for the sence either but in the literal notation it improveth a kind of unstableness rather or unsettledness when a thing doth not stand fast but shaketh and tottereth and is in danger of falling And this St. Paul opposeth to peace 1 Cor. 14. God is not the author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of confusion or unstableness but of peace By that very opposition intimating that it is mostly for want of peace that things do not stand fast but are ready to fall into disorder and confusion St. Iames speaketh out what St. Paul but intimateth and telleth us plainly that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the effect of discord and that contention is the mother of confusion For where envying and strife is saith he there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inconstancy unsettledness confusion and every evil work The builders make very ill work where the building is not like to stand but threatneth ruine and is ready to drop down again by that it be well up And yet such ill work doth envying and strife ever make it is concord only and unity that maketh good work and buildeth strong Let Ierusalem be built as a City at unity in it self and Ierusalem will be like to stand the faster and to stand up the longer 38. For a conclusion of all I cannot but once again admonish and earnestly entreat all those that in contending with much earnestness for matters of no great consequence have the glory of God ever and anon in their mouths that they would take heed of embarquing God and his glory so deep in every trifling business and such as wherein there is not dignus vindice nodus But since it clearly appeareth from this and sundry other Texts of holy Scripture that peace and love are of those things whereby our gracious Lord God taketh himself to be chiefly glorified that they would rather faithfully endeavour by their peaceable charitable and amiable carriage towards others especially in such things as they cannot but know to be in the judgment of sundry men both learned and godly accounted but of inferiour and indifferent nature to approve to God the World and their own Consciences that they do sincerely desire to glorifie God by pleasing their brethren for their good unto edification Which that we all unfeignedly may do I commend us and what we have heard to the grace and blessing of Almighty God dismissing you once again as I did heretofore with the Apostles Benediction in the Text for I know not where to fit my self better Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according unto Christ That ye may with one mind and with one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. To which God the Father and his Son Iesus Christ our Lord and the blessed Spirit of them both three Persons c. AD AULAM. Sermon XIV WOBURNE 1647. AUGUST Psal. 27. 10. When my Father and my Mother forsake me the Lord taketh me up 1. THings that have a natural weakness in them to bear up themselves do by a natural instinct lean towards and if they can find it clasp about something that may sufficiently support them but in default of such will catch and twine about whatsoever is next them that may be any little stay to them for any little time So a Hop for want of a strong Pole will wind it self about a Thistle or Nettle or any sorry weed The heart of man whilst it seeketh abroad for somewhat without it self to rest it self upon doth even thereby sufficiently bewray a secret consciousness in it self of its own insufficiency to stand without something to support it If it find not that which is the only true support indeed it will stay it self as long as it can upon a weak staff rather than none Chariots and Horses and Riches and Friends c. any thing will serve to trust in whilst no better appeareth 2. But that our hearts deceitful as they are delude us not with vain confidences we may learn from the Text where it is and where alone that we may repose our selves with full assurance of hope not to fail David affirmeth positively what he had found true by much experience that when all others from whom we expect help either will not or cannot God both can and will help us so far as he seeth it good for us if we put our trust in him When my Father and Mother forsake me the Lord will take me up The words import First a possibility of failing in all inferiour helps It is supposed Fathers and Mothers and proportionally all other friends and helps may forsake us and leave us succourless When my Father and my Mother forsake me Secondly a never-failing sufficiency of help and relief from God though all other helps should fail us Then the Lord will take me up The two points we are to speak to 3. Father and Mother First who are they Properly and chiefly our natural Parents of whom we were begotten and born to whom under God we owe our being and breeding Yet here not they only but by Synecdoche all other kinsfolks neighbours
a fitter similitude whereby to express the miseries of the hell within us that of an evil conscience or of the hell without us that of eternal torments than by inner and outer darkness But light is a most glorious creature than which none fitter to express to our capacities either the infinite incomprehensible Glory and Majesty of God He clotheth himself with light as with a garment and dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto or that endless glory and happiness which the holy Angels do now and all the Saints in their due time shall enjoy in heaven Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 14. In these respects he that hath the honour to be stiled a Christian in any degree hath also a title so far forth to be stiled a child of light Whether it be by the outward profession of the Christian faith only or by the inward sanctification of the Spirit also Those are nomine tenus Christiani Christians but in name and shew equivocal Christians these only are Christians indeed and in truth Of these is made up the Church of Gods Elect otherwise called the invisible Church of Christ and not unfitly because the persons appertaining to that Church as members thereof are not distinguishable from others by any outward infallible Character visible to us but by such secret and inward impresses as come not within the cognizance of any creature nor can be known by any creature otherwise than conjecturally only without special revelation from God The foundation of God standeth firm having this seal Dominus novit The Lord knoweth who are his Should we take these here meant the opposition between the children of this world and the children of light would be most perfect Those who remain in the state of depraved nature and so under the dominion of Sin and Satan being the children of this world in the strictest notion and those whom God hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light that is brought out of the state of Nature into the state of Grace and translated into the Kingdom of his Son Iesus Christ being the children of light in the stricter notion also 15. But forasmuch as we who cannot look beyond the outside are no competent judges of such matters It will best become us to make use of that judgment which alone God hath allowed us I mean that of Charity And then it will be no hard business for us to pronounce determinately applying the sentence even to particular persons who are to be esteemed the children of light Even all those that by outwardly professing the name and faith of Christ are within the pale of the visible Church of Christ. The holy Apostle so pronounceth of them all 1 Thes. 5. Ye are all the Children of the light and of the day And Eph. 5. Yea were sometimes darkness but now are light in the Lord. Our very Baptism entitleth is hereunto which is the Sacrament of our initiation whereby we put on Christ and are made members of Christ and Children of God Whence it is that in the Greek Fathers Baptism is usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an enlightening and persons newly baptised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Officer in the Greek Church to whom it belonged to hear the confessions of the Catechumeni and after they were approved to present them to Baptism with many other phrases and expressions borrowed from the same metaphor of light and applied in like manner to Baptism 16. Now to bring all this long and as I fear tedious discourse home to the Text the question here resolved seemeth in the right stating thereof to come to this issue whether natural and worldly men in the managery of their worldly affairs to the best temporal advantage or they that profess themselves Christians in the business of their souls and pursuit of everlasting salvation do proceed the more rationally and prudentially in their several ways towards the attainment of their several ends How the question is resolved we shall consider by and by In the mean time from this very consideration alone that the children of light and the children of this world stand in mutual opposition one to the other we may learn something that may be of use to us We would all be thought what I hope most of us are not nomine tenus only by outward profession and at large but in very deed and truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Christians and children of light in the stricter and nobler notion Yet were it but the other only our very Baptism and profession of Christianity would oblige us to a holy walking sutable to our holy calling and Profession and to the solemn vow we took upon us at our Baptism It were a base yea a very absurd thing for us to jumble and confound what we find here not only distinguished from but even opposed against the one the other Children of God and of the Church by profession and yet children of Satan and of the world in our conversation Children of light and yet hold fellowship with and take delight in the unfruitful works of darkness Quae communio saith St. Paul It astonisht him that any man could think to bring things so contrary as Light and Darkness to any good accord or but tolerable compliance When we were the children of this world and such we were as soon as we were born into the world by taking Christendom upon us at our Baptism we did ipso facto renounce the world with all the sinful pomps and vanities thereof and profess our selves children of the God of light If now being made the children of God and of the light we shall again cast back a longing eye after the world as Lots wife did after Sodom or Demas-like embrace this present world clasping our hearts and our affections about it how do we not ipso facto renounce our very Christendom with all the blessed comforts and benefits thereof return with the dog to lick up our old vomit and reduce our selves to that our former wretched condition of darkness from which we had so happily escaped Can any of us be so silly as to think the Father of lights will own him for his child and reserve for him an inheritance in light who flieth out from under his wing and quite forsaketh him to run after the Prince of darkness The Apostles motion seemeth very reasonable Eph. 5. that whereas whilst we were darkness we walked as children of darkness now we are become light in the Lord we should walk as children of the light The children of the world perfectly hate the light why should not the children of light as perfectly scorn the world We have not so much spirit in us as we should have if we do not nor so much wisdom neither as we should have if we do not no nor
day of their adversity protect the innocent from such as are too mighty or too crafty for him hew in pieces the snares and break the jaws of the cunning and cruel oppressor and deliver those that are drawn either to death or undoing 24. The course is preposterous and vain which some Men ambitious of honour and reputation take to get themselves put into the place of Magistracy and Authority having neither head nor heart for it I mean when they have neither knowledge and experience in any measure of competency to understand what belongeth to such places nor yet any care or purpose at all to do God their King and Country good service therein The wise Son of Sirac checketh such ambitious spirits for their unseasonable forwardness that way Sirac 7. Seek not of the Lord preeminence neither of the King the seat of honour Think not he hath any meaning to dissuade or dishearten Men of quality and parts for medling with such employments for then the service should be neglected No Men that are gifted for it although the service cannot be attended without some both trouble and charge yet should not for the avoiding either of charge or trouble indeed they cannot without sin seek either to keep themselves out of the Commission or to get themselves off again being on His meaning clearly is only to repress the ambition of those that look after the Title because they think it would be some glory to them but are not able for want either of skill or spirit or through sloth nor willing to perform the duties And so he declareth himself a little after there Seek not to be a Iudge being not able to take away iniquity lest at any time thou fear the person of the mighty and lay a stumbling-block in the way of thy uprightness 25. Did honour indeed consist which is the ambitious Man's error either only or chiefly in the empty Title we might well wish him good luck with his honour But since true Honour hath a dependence upon vertue being the wages as some or as others have rather chosen to call it the shadow of it it is a very vanity to expect the one without some care had of the other Would any Man not forsaken of his senses look for a shadow where there is no solid body to cast it Or not of his reason demand wages where he hath done no service Yet such is the perversness of our corrupt nature through sloth and self-love that what God would have go together the Honour and the Burden we would willingly put asunder Every Man almost would draw to himself as much of the honour as he can if it be a matter of credit or gain then Why should not I be respected in my place as well as another But yet withal would every Man almost put off from himself as much of the burden as he can If it be a matter of business and trouble then Why may not another Man do it as well as I Like lazy servants so are we that love to be before-hand with their wages and behind-hand with their work 26. The truth is there is an Outward and there is an Inward Honour The Outward honour belongeth immediately to the Place and the place casteth it up on the Person so that whatsoever person holdeth the place it is meet he should have the honour due to the place whether he deserve it or not But the Inward honour pitcheth immediately upon the Person and but reflecteth upon the Place and that Honour will never be had without desert What the Apostle said of the Ministry is in some sense also true of the Migistracy they that labour faithfully in either are worthy of double Honour Labour or labour not there is a single honour due to them and yet not so much to them as to their Places and Callings but yet to them too for the places sake and we are unjust if we with-hold it from them though they should be most unworthy of it But the double Honour that inward Honour of the heart to accompany the outward will not be had where there is not worth and industry in some tolerable measure to deserve it The knee-worship and the cap-worship and the lip-worship they may have that are in worshipful places and callings though they do little good in them but the Heart-worship they shall never have unless they be ready to do Iustice and to shew Mercy and be diligent and faithful in their Callings 27. Another fruit and effect of this duty where it is honestly performed are the hearty prayers and blessings of the poor as on the contrary their bitter curses and imprecations where it is slighted or neglected We need not look so far to find the truth hereof asserted in both the branches we have a Text for it in this very Chapter Prov. 24. He that saith unto the wicked Thou art righteous him shall the people curse nations shall abhor him But to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good blessing shall come upon them Every Man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer As he that with-holdeth corn in the time of dearth having his Garners full pulleth upon himself deservedly the curses of the poor but they will pour out blessings abundantly upon the head of him that in compassion to them will let them have it for their mony Prov. 11. So he that by his place having power and means to succour those that are distressed and to free them from wrongs and oppressions will seasonably put forth himself and his power to do them right shall have many a blessing from their mouths and many a good wish from their hearts but many more bitter curses both from the mouth and heart by how much men are more sensible of discourtesies than of benefits and readier to curse than to bless if they find themselves neglected And the blessings and cursings of the poor are things not to be wholly disregarded Indeed the curse causless shall not come neither is the Magistrate to regard the curses of bad people so far as either to be deterred thereby from punishing them according to their desert or to think he shall fare ever the worse doing but his duty for such curses For such words are but wind and as Solomon saith elsewhere He that observeth the wind shall not sow so he that regardeth the speeches of vain persons shall never do his duty as he ought to do In such cases that of David must be their meditation and comfort Though they curse yet bless thou And as there is little terrour in the causless curses so there is as little comfort in the causless blessings of vain evil Men. But yet where there is cause given although he cannot be excused from sin that curseth for we ought to bless and to pray for not to curse even those that wrong us and persecute us yet vae homini withal woe to the