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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	church_n	head_n	visible_a	10,670	5	9.6541	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13010	XI. choice sermons preached upon selected occasions, in Cambridge. Viz. I. The preachers dignity, and duty: in five sermons, upon 2. Corinth. 5. 20. II. Christ crucified, the tree of life: in six sermons, on 1. Corinth. 2. 2. By John Stoughton, Doctor in Divinity, sometimes fellow of Immanuel Colledge in Cambridge, late preacher of Aldermanburie, London. According to the originall copie, which was left perfected by the authour before his death.	Stoughton, John, d. 1639.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.	1640 (1640)	STC 23304; ESTC S100130	130,947	258

God by which we are that which we are and I am able to do all things by the grace of God which enableth me And we may say of grace in this kinde as the Poet doth O mutis quoque piscibus Donatur a Cygni si libeat sonum Totum muneris hoc tui est Quod spiro placeo si placeo tuum est Yet Moses could not rest but he leaves objecting and fals intreating O my Lord I pray thee send by the hand of him whom thou shouldest send And who is so highly priviledged above Moses that might not shrinke as Moses did when hee should consider with himself the weightinesse of the worke and the weaknesse of his owne person and say as Paul did who is sufficient for these things But it is time to frame an answer Though neither our shallow capacitie can sound the depth of Gods counsels nor he be bound to render a reason of his proceedings yet he gives us both liberty to enquire with sobriety and light to finde out so much that we may go away with reasonable satisfaction And therefore I pray observe with me three principall Reasons why the Lord who wants neither wisdome or power to contrive it otherwise either by immediate irradiation upon the understanding and influence into the will or by the ministerie of the blessed Angels yet thought good rather to make use of the helpe of man for the bringing of man to himselfe and working that mighty worke of conversion which our Divines have thought and taught not without some probabilitie of reason to be greater than the great worke of the first creation The first I take to be from the nature of the thing wherewith this order stands in greater congruity divers wayes For first of all supposing things in statu quo that God will have men descend by naturall propagation and divide themselves into politicall societies of which and out of which he will call some to grace which shall come by degrees not powred in all at once but dropped in by little and little here a line and there a line It sures not with the nature of Angels to have such ordinary and visible commerce with men as is necessary to accomplish this for men in this case must be alwaies feeding as children use and must have continuall hand and tending well indeed they may be dry nurses to watch and preserve and protect the children of God but to be fathers to beget them by the immortall seed of the Word to be wet nurses to succle them with the syncere pure milke of the Word they cannot be So that unlesse we would imagine the whole face of nature changed and all moulded into a new frame this peece would not hold proportion with the rest Nay it were a thing irregular and a kinde of violence to the Angelicall nature to converse with men in this kinde whereas we all know nullum violentum est perpetuum there be few Analogies but there be none Anomalies that are perpetuall Indeed the Lord uses them for the good of man many times but their part is not to be alwayes on the Stage 2. By this meanes man is drawne to God in such a manner as is most convenient for his nature not only in regard of his composition for by preaching of the Word his sensible part is wrought upon and affected but also in regard of his freedome for as in the free motions of nature there is that I may use a distinction something nice for the termes but necessary for the thing I say a cooperation without any coaction so in the first motion of grace though the Lord worke with a certaine infallibility and as I may say a sweet necessity yet he doth not offer violence to any principle of nature which hath some evidence ever from this that God workes it by man so that if you looke to both the causes the principall and instrumentall you may say it is the work of God therefore there is no possibilitie of resistance it is the work of man therefore there is no shew nor shadowes of violence and these two must goe together for as the King in Plutarch said of a groat it is no kingly gift and of a talent it is no base bribe So may we say in this case to worke with danger of failing agrees not with the power of God whose will is not will if not omnipotent except it can worke what it will Againe to worke by way of forcing agrees not with the nature of man whose will is not will except it will what it workes I should enterpret my selfe more fully for feare of unkind constructions but that I must make haste 3. There is a decency that seeing the Sonne of God became the sonne of man that the sons of men might become the sonnes of God and we having all received of his fulnesse grace for grace his gifts of grace should be conveighed as by a conduit pipe by the same nature and therefore the Apostle painting forth unto us that goodly body of the Church of which Christ is the head makes Apostles Evangelists Pastors all men c. the organicall parts of that body which receive sense and motion and direction from the head and for this purpose he is as the head annointed with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes that is in greater measure and above that from him it may distil by the higher to the lowest members Now the Angels are not univocall members with us under the same head though for the efficacie of Christs merit whether it may any way redound to those blessed Spirits I will neither peremptorily deny nor dispute for the present and therefore it is more meet the Word should be committed to men than Angels or any other creatures The second principall reason may be this because it is most profitable for man that men should be Gods Ambassadors and that in three respects 1. Because this honour is both a fruit of Christs exaltation Who ascended on high and led captivitie captive and gave gifts unto men and those gifts are the ministeriall gifts as you may see in the place and besides it is a reall pledge of Gods affection to man not only to the persons so dignified but also in them to all mankinde even as great offices in the Court bestowed on any are ordinarily arguments of great grace with the King 2. Because it is a most probable and likely way to bring men to God for many reasons which I will but propound and so proceed 1. In that God deales familiarly with us which is a wondrous art to win affection You know the Fable of the Theban Dame that was misperswaded to intreat lupiter to company with her in all his majestie to which when he condescended she was so farre from taking that pleasure she promised her selfe from her goodly Bridegroome that she lost her life So could not our feeble spirits brooke the presence of the

Divine glory if he should vouchsafe to come unto us in all his Royaltie I will not tell you any Poeticall Fable but the truth of God The Israelites tryed this for when the Lord appeared to them in Mount Sinai with thunder and lightning they presently found their owne weaknesse and made suit to Moses Let not the Lord speake unto us lest we die but speake thou unto us and we will heare thee And therefore Iob wishes that God would lay aside his terrour and reason with him familiarly to which when the Lord graciously condescended what was the issue instead of his former disputation he grew to this conclusion I abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes And God promises this as a blessing I will raise you up a Prophet from among your brethren he shall teach you And therefore the Lord stooping to our capacitie gives us so as we may receive and speakes to us men by the mouth of men as the most proportionable instrument to worke upon us Not much unlike Astyanax in the Poet who when his father being armed came to embrace him the child forthwith hid his face in his nurses bosome cryed and being afraid at the sight of his father when he saw his hairy Plume upon his Headpeece bending towards him Like as the Sunne when he lists to be seene delayes his beames in some thicker cloud that the edge of his brightnesse being abated our dim eyes may not be too much offended Againe thus the troubled soule may have free accesse to the Minister which comfort could hardly be conveighed another way especially considering whom the Lord makes choice of to bestow the riches of his grace upon not the great ones of the world so much but the mean ones Now as you have seene in a Faire the Countrey people will not venture into the rich Shops among the fine Citizens but had rather bestow their money on some countrey Chapman so it may bee in this case and therefore the Lord appoints men and meane men that even the meanest Christians may more freely repaire unto them 2. Secondly the ministery of Men is more credible then Angels or any other could be for though their testimony be of more weight in it selfe by reason of their acurate knowledge and entire fidelity yet I know not how a man may have more advantages to deale with us for to let passe the irrefragable authority of the word of God upon which all divine truths must stand which would be needlesse if it pleased God to take any other course than this and to omit that it is hard to give such infallible characters wherby divine illuminations might be distinguished from diabolicall illusions that all ambignity might be taken away I say 1. First men converse with us are knowne they are our brethren flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone and therefore what suspicion can arise that they who are otherwise approved should goe about to deceive us in a thing that is as much worth as our soule is 2. They cannot deceive others but they must deceive their owne soule being they are in eâdem navi in the same condition 3. They confirme their owne words and adde a commentary of practice to the text of preaching with their workes and by tasting themselves of what they prescribe to us securing us of all feare of poyson 4. Lastly they may and doe sometimes set a seale of suffering to their saying but I passe to the third Thirdly the ministery of men is most effectuall as for those respects touched before and because they symbolize in qualities whereas Philosophy teacheth that there is easiest transmutation where there is a Symbolicall quality betweene the agent and the patient and because they sympathize in nature so that there may be a secret attractive power as we see in the Loadstone to the Iron or rather a mutuall conspiring to embrace one another So even by the very art of perswading I know not what the tongue-eloquence of Angels is and the Apostle seems to mention them with intimation of excellency neither will I maintaine against all commers that a man may be a better Orator than an Angell but I know the Lord is and he hath put his Word into the mouth of man he that made the heart and tryes the reines he knowes how to frame words that will affect the heart and so they doe insinuate themselves into the darkest corners of it with wondrous power and efficacie And this I know and dare avouch that the highest mysterie in the Divine Rhetorick is to feele what a man speakes and then speak what a man feeles * Praxiteles exquisitely drew love taking the patterne from that passion which he felt in his owne heart And therefore this advantage a man hath that he having a portion in the worke of Christs redemption hath himselfe tasted how sweet the blood of Christ is how soveraigne to a sinfull soule by experimentall as well as contemplative Divinitie The heart best understands the language of the heart But as this ordinance is profitable to men because it is honourable to the Minister and beneficiall to the people so there is a common utility redounds to both For thirdly it is one of the strongest bonds of love betweene Christians who are hereby made givers and receivers in the most precious things it is a knot to tie man and God together God speaking to man by the Minister and man speaking to God it is the mid way as it were in which they meet and though there be more subtile bonds of faith and Gods Spirit whereby we are immediately united to Christ and made members of his mysticall body yet for our visible communion with him in his politicall body the Ministers are as it were the ligaments There remains yet one of the three principall reasons Why the Lord makes men his Ambassadors and it must not be omitted because it is the most principall among the three and this it is 3. He gaines most glory this way for the weaker the instrument is for outward pomp or appearance the greater had need to be the power and so the praise of the artificer If the Iron be blunt you must put the more strength to it saith Salomon in Ecclesiastes Now you know how much the Lord esteemes of his honour I am the Lord saith he by the Prophet And my glory I will not give to another And as Xenocrates said once to the children of one that had beene liberall to him I have required your father said he for all men commend him for his kindnesse to me And as Themistocles when he entred into the Olympick games and all the Grecians cast their eyes upon him and pointed at him and whispered one to another This is Themistocles that delivered Greece from Xerxes and the barbarous Persians This is Themistocles This day said Themistocles I confesse I am abundantly recompenced for all the paines that ever I tooke for Greece So the Lord