we called an house of prayer In Solomons prayer 1 Kings 8.48 the captives of Israel carried into another Land are supposed in their captivity to pray unto God with their face towards the Land of Israel and also towards the Temple Fourthly But from this Temple to argue for such holinesse in our Churches Yea and with Bellarmine and others to plead for private praying in the Church more than in other places as if there were more holinesse therein and for the places sake to have more acceptance is unjustifiable by Scripture John 4.21 24. The time is coming when they shall not worship in this mountaine or in Jerusalem but they shall worship him in Spirit and truth There is no Jerusalem now nor any place like Jerusalem and now God would have us in every place lift up holy hands in prayer 1 Tim. 2.8 It 's therefore unwarrantable by Scripture to pray in a Church for the places sake to have the prayer the more acceptable as Bellarmine pleadeth And indeed because there is no such peculiar institution nor no such peculiar promise therefore there cannot be such a relative holinesse Private prayers in the Church though pretended not to be done for the places sake while we are at the publick Ordinances are also incongruous and unwarrantable partly because they are against the nature of private prayer prescribed by our Saviour When thou prayest shut thy door after thee Mat. 6.6 Private prayer must be done in a private manner and partly because the Church is for publick Ordinances We meet together in spiritual communion and while the society is singing for thee to be privately praying is unsuitable to the duty in hand where there ought to be one heart one mouth and consent Fifthly Because the Temple was so glorious and Gods promise was in a special manner made to it therefore the Jews put all their trust and confidence in this though their lives were full of wickednesse and grosse impieties yet because they had the Temple that made them think themselves happy Hence the Prophet severely reproveth them for it saying Trust no more in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these Jer. 7.4 Hence at last God was so provoked that he gave it up to idolatrous Heathens to be destroyed that a stone should not be left upon a stone For Hadrian the Emperor quite demolished it and in stead thereof built a place with a new name calling it Aelia and upon the gate set the Image of a Swine by way of scorn and derision to the Jews to whom that beast was unclean And thus truly God hath done with many glorious spiritual Temples under the Gospel Where are the seven Churches of Asia And where is the pure Church of Rome now The present Governours of that Church glory of their succession to their former Worthies Whose faith was spread over the whole world but they succeed them as vespae apibus Wasps many times do Bees or as night doth the day Lastly Our Churches therefore do not resemble the Temple an holy place dedicated to God but their publick Synagogues where they met together to pray and reade the Word and have it expounded Some find fault that we call this material building a Church but use of speech doth fully justifie this It 's an ordinary figure to put the place containing for the thing contained Thus it 's said All Jerusalem went out And Oh Jerusalem that killest the Prophets Mat. 23.77 which is meant of the Inhabitants thereof Thus we call a City or a Town the people of the Town But of this we have spoken formerly But though there is no such relative holinesse in these places as was in the Temple neither are the duties regarded for the places sake but the place for the duties yet there is a moral and civil decency or respect to be had to them as we do unto places appointed for solemn meeting and therefore are unfitly compared to barns or stables or to be polluted like them not because of any holinesse in them more than in other places but from a civil respect But these things only occasionally by the way The next main thing is That believers joyned in a Church way according to Scripture are Gods temple and that requireth these things First Purity and an undefiled life from the wicked wayes of the world Though they be in the world yet not of the world This is called pure Religion to keep a man defiled from the world Jam. 1.27 And we must not be conformed to the fashion of this world Rom. 12.2 We are to be as Lot in Sodome so farre from having fellowship with it that we are to grieve in seeing and hearing the evil deeds of others We are to be like the three Worthies in the midst of the fire and yet our hair not singed thereby Do not thou then judge of thy self as the Temple of God when thou art like a dung-hill thy heart is not a sacred Temple but an open Inne or Market-place all strange lusts may lodge in thee thou art to take Christ for an example not the world Secondly Dedication and giving up our selves wholly unto God Thy soul and body are to be one Temple onely thy soul is the Saxctum sanctorum there should only be admitted choice and sanctified thoughts and intentions Shall I take saith the Apostle the member of Christ and make it the member of an harlot 1 Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the Temple of God and make it a publick stew for all lusts As they said of their Temples Procul ô procul este prophani So do thou of all noisome and filthy sinnes As there were constant Porters to watch the Temple so do thou continually set a watch before thy heart and soul that no unclean thing enter in Thirdly Here is implied Vnion of the members of the Church together The Temple was not one stone or a few stones scattered up and down but exactly and curiously joyned together The Churches are compared to a body where there are several organized members and all usefull one to another Lastly Communion Not onely internal by faith and love which we have with Christ the Head and so with all the members For this communion is invisible but external in a visible society and fellowship one with another in the publique worship Hence they are greatly reproved That forsook the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10.15 Visible communion in Church-Ordinances brings much glory to God and great edification to our selves Vse of Instruction What kind of societies we should be who are Gods temple Gods house Gods Church What enjoyment of God What effectual participation of his presence The body by its senslesnesse doth quickly discover whether a soul be in it and the soul will quickly manifest whether God and Christ be in it if the Temple of God What holinesse and purity ought to be in our lives Oh this is the glory of the Church
must be subordinate to Christ Secondly We must preach Christ the foundation of all strength and power from whom we receive all ability to do any thing that is good To lay free-will for a foundation to preach up mans power for Christs power will be found stâ—ustble and hay if not worse when the fiery tryal shall come Thus Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing O there he doth excellently shew As the branch unless it be in the Vine must wither and can bring forth no fruit so unless a man be in Christ and abide in him he is not able spiritually to live or move And this is a necessary and excellent way of preaching Christ when he is set up as the only fountain of all our spiritual abilities when the humane strength of man is debased and contemned yea discovered to be not only impotent but abhominable and contrary unto God Hence Christ is compared to the Olive-tree from whence we have all our fatness Rom. 11. And he cals himself the life and the way Joh. 11.25 The way that is a Prophet The life that is a foundation of all spiritual strength Now in Popery when there was so much advancing of free-will and magnâ—fying the merit and worth of the good works we did Christ was much obsâ—ured Therefore â—e are not only to exhort you to pray to repent to reform but to preach Christ as him by whom you must have power to do those things People generally make little or no use of Christ in this respect when yet thou needest him all the day long I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Phil. 4.13 Thirdly Christ is preached as a foundation when he is exalted in our Miâ—istry to be the head of the Church and he that governeth all things The head is for direction and government and also for lively influence and nourishment And thus Christ is 1 Col. 1. to the 15. What divine and admirable exaltations are there of Christ setting him up above all things and making him the head of the Church which is his body Oh the preaching of Christs Head-ship and supremacy is of great consequence There had never been such bold presumption to be an universal head in the Church never such tyranical government therein never such Angel-worship and invocation of Saints and a thousand of those derrogatory Doctrines had Christ been exalted as Head Paul saith They brought in worship of Angels because they held not the Head Col. 3.19 And that blasphemous Doctrine of making the Pope an head of the Church though they would extenuate it by calling him a ministerial head is a gross invasion of Christs right Though Christ thought it no robbery to be equall with God yet the Pope ought to think it robbery to be equall with Christ Who then can excuse Bellarmine from blasphemy who is not afraid to apply that promse of Esay Behold I lay in Zion a foundation stone to the Pope though secondarily Look we then that are Ministers and you that are people To keep this Doctrine pure Christ is the head of the Church All direction and government must be from him All vivificall influence into the Churches is by his spirit So that as the body cannot live or move without the soul so neither can the Churches of Christ spiritually move without life received from him The Scripture doth often delight to use this similitude Fourthly Christ is to be set up the only foundation in respect of mediation and intercession with God We can have no approach to God without him because of the great gulf sin hath raised between him and us He is a consuming fire and we are stubble without Christ Concerning Deus Absolutus as Luther would say The soul of a man may not think of him without horrour or despair but as he is Deus relatus related to us in Christ And this is indeed the primary and the most noble setting up of Christ as the foundation when we again and again instruct you of what distance and contrariety there is between God and a sinner and that only by his mediation there can be an agreement There is one Mediator saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.5 No man may can dare to draw nigh to God or think of him without this Mediatour Oh but how practically ignorant are people of Christ herein They do not go to God in Christs Name They do not desire by Faith to bring Christ as it were into Gods presence that he may behold us in him that we may be Jacobs in our eldest Brothers cloaths As Joah bid the Messenger tell David when his anger should rise because they had the worse in battell that Vriah is slain and this quieted David So it 's here When the wrath of God shall be ready to arise against thee Why hast thou bâ—oken this Command Why hast thou trasgressed this Law Then say Christ was killed Christ was the Lamb slain And this will appease the wrath of God Rev. 10.1 Christ is there described with a rainbow upon his head very fitly As God said He would not drown the world any more but look upon the rainbow and remember that Covenant of mercy So it 's here God will not damn the poor sinner repenting and believing but he will remember this rainbow he will look on Christ Now this preaching of Christ hath been wonderfully obscured in setting up other Mediatours other Intercessours so that Christ was seldom spoken of but the Virgin Mary St Francis and others And this very point was the first occasion of coming out of Popery The obscuring of Christs Mediatourship They equalized St Francis to Christ They indeed said the way to Heaven was by Christ but it was easier by St Francis So that if you look upon the Doctrine of other Mediatours about the Virgin Mary about their Canonized Saints about Images about Indulgences Oh the black clouds that were drawn over that glorious Sunne of righteousness Let then Ministers and people keep to this look to this For without it all the marrow of Religion is lost Only by Christ his mediation with God God is an enemy to me and I to God And for this end were all those Sacrifices appointed in the old administration to shew that by Christ was all reconcilement and atonement Do not thou then think thy teares must do that which belongs to Christs blood Thy teares thy humiliation thy broken heart for sinne is indeed necessary but to think by these to have a mediation with God is to build another foundation then what the Apostles laid And truly if sinne be rightly considered in the infinite aggravation of it we we must quickly yeeld none but who is an infinite person can be our Mediatour Fifthly From this floweth another necessary way of preaching Christ a foundation viz. Of acceptation of our persons and duties Our Justification is built only on him and all the sweet savour that our duties have is through him Thus Paul doth frequently make
Law not the imbracements or love of the Gospel belonging The second thing observable is the Subject or Matter of the Apostles complaint Not as spiritual but as carnal This is not to be understood of all but of many amongst them for he doth acknowledg some wise and perfect to whom he was a debtor Now you must know this word or attribute carnal hath several significations in Scripture sometimes it signifieth no more than to partake of the same stock with us Thus the Apostle cals them carnal Masters or Masters after the flesh Ephes 6.5 And the Apostle makes a distinction between being in the flesh and walking after the flesh 2 Cor. 10.3 2. He is said to be carnal that although he hath a great measure of grace and with much spiritual fortitude doth conquer sinne yet it many times haled him away captive to those reliques and remainders of corruption in him And this as I remember is but in one place where Paul saith But I am carnal and sold under sin Rom. 7.14 3. The most frequent application of this word is to those who wholly give up themselves to the lusts of the flesh and make provision for them Even as customary sins are called the works of the flesh Ephes 2.3 This is the most general use of the word as we use it also in English 4. Carnal is used comparatively for those who are indeed godly but very weak and infirm retaining many corruptions and savouring much of the flesh though they for the main are godly And in this sense it is used in the Text. As unto carnal He useth the word As for mitigation sake and then explains his meaning calling them babes in Christ Observe That even among those who are truly and indeed of the visible Church of God there is a vast difference some are spiritual some are carnal some are men some are babes Though God created Adam and Eve in their full perfection yet he doth not regenerate us into a full stature in Christ Though it be the opinion of some Divines That at the Resurrection all the godly shall rise in their compleat perfection children in that stature they might have grown up unto yet it is not so here we are spiritually begotten babes in Christ and so have several degrees into which we are to grow yea one Christian may so far exceed another both in parts and graces that one would wonder that the same Heaven should ever receive them at last Yea one Christian in time may exceedingly differ from himself As the Apostles how rude and evil at first but how admirable and wonderfull when they had received the Spirit from above in a fuller measure Thus as one starre differeth from another in glory There is a vast difference between the Sunne and any of the lesse starres so it is many times in the visible Church To open this Point Consider First That it is a great Dispute Who are truly members of the visible Church The Papists they make all publick and grosse sinners to be truly of the Church even as a wicked or ungodly man may be truly and indeed a Citizen of such a City and have the Liberties thereof But the Reformed Divines they say Grosse and prophane men are not truly and indeed of the visible Church which is a company of sheep and not goats It is that through neglect of Discipline and want of godly order prophane obstinate men may abide in the Church who yet are to be cast out of it And this is not a ground for any to separate uncharitably and sinfully from the Church so polluted yet such wicked men continuing amongst believers are not internally but externally and in appearance only of the Church Even as a wicked branch or a dead hand is a part of the body equivocally it receiveth no life or influence so neither do these though they pray hear come to Church yet they receive no more spiritual benefit from Christ then the glasse eye doth vital operation from the soul And Bellarmine himself doth at last acknowledge That publick and open sinners though they be De corpore Ecclesiae yet they are not De Anima Happily therefore the Papists do not so much contradict the Doctrine of the Protestants as themselves For Amesius doth reject that Proposition which Bellarmine doth impose on us as if we held internal grace necessarily constituent of a member of a visible Church external profession of faith and of obedience to Christ is enough to this though Regeneration be wanting John said Some were not of them though they were amongst them 1 Joh. 2.19 Secondly In the primitive times they had a two-fold distinction of those that were in the visible Society There were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as did take care onely about the body and things pleasing to the sense which is the generality of people minding the necessities of the body and the pleasures thereof These are even like bruit beasts 2. There were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animal or natural men and those indeed had the natural perfections of the soul learning parts morality and whatsoever in an humane way would elevate the reason of a man Lastly There were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spiritual ones who being sanctified by the Spirit of God did all things upon spiritual grounds and to spiritual ends Though this distinction may be allowed in an orthodox sense yet the Valentinians they made such a division and by their spiritual men meant such who could not sinne at all But the second and more common division of their hearers were into the Catechumeni such who were to be instructed and taught the principles of Religion For they admitted no grown person into Church-communion that were not competently taught the foundations of Religion Oh how many are amongst us though aged and married persons that need to be placed in this forme 2. Poenitentes the Penitents of whom there were several degrees and such were those who being Christians in profession did yet fall into grosse and scandalous sinnes such were kept from the Sacrament They had a distinct place in the Church as not worthy the communion of the rest Oh Beloved in the Apostles times in the primitive times when there was spiritual zeal for the glory of God a prophane impenitent man was no more owned for one of theirs than we would own a toad in our dishes or a swine in our garden No not with such an one not to eat Withdraw from such a man Cast him out saith the Apostle and thus for many hundred years after Christ But alas we are like so many Hospitals full of diseased persons The other were those that were initiated and received into their Society and made partakers of the Sacrament But 3. The Apostle in the Text he speaks of two degrees onely amongst the godly the Spiritual and the Carnal the men and the babes even as we speak of the Incipients and Proficients Now the
we not say there is an heap of wheat though some chaff and cockle be among it And do not the Orthodox say thus to the Papists For when the Papists say That if there be corruption in every work we doe if a godly man hath a principle of sinne in him as well as of grace Then say they we may as well call him a wicked man as a godly man we may as well call it a sinfull action as a godly action To this it is answered That seeing a godly man regenerated is made a new creature and so that which is fundamentally predominant in him is grace and sinne is praeter naturam beside his nature Insomuch that the Scripture saith Being born of God he doth not sinne 1 John 3.9 He is a godly man but not perfect As a sick man is truly a man if life be in him though not a sound healthfull man This must be granted and therefore these Corinthians that were godly for the main we speak not of individuals but indefinitely when absolutely considered are called Saints 1 Cor. 1. and the Temple of the Lord and the sanctified ones in Jesus Christ But if we take them comparatively as the Apostle here doth then that Rule comes in Minus boni respectu majoris habet rationum mali So that if these Corinthians were compared with others of greater progresse they were carnal Even as in learning one of competent knowledge compared to an eminent Scholar is but an ignorant man so that this is spoken by way of reproach unto them They suffer those remainders of corruption in them to prevail they cut not off the hair wherein the strength of sinne lieth they have a flux of this noisome blood running on them and yet they seek not out to a Physician to have it cured Observe That the reliques of corruption which do abide in the godly ought to be an heavy burden to them against which they are daily to strive and combate As God when he gave the Israelites Canaan in full possession yet let the Inhabitants and wild beasts be still there not totally destroyed that they might have daily exercise and dependance upon God So it is here though God hath put thy soul in full possession of Christ though thou art renewed and sanctified yet all that corruption within shall not be subdued but this is left like a thorne in thy eyes and a prick in thy side to make thee pray often to God for his grace Hence are those commands even to such that are godly To mortifie the deeds of the flesh Col. 3.5 And to crucifie them Gal. 5.24 which argueth sinne hath some life in them still And the Apostle Rom. 6.12 exhorts That sinne may not reign in their mortal bodies He doth not say let it not be but let it not reign Though the Tree be cut down yet here is the stump and root in the godly To open this Consider First That even the most spiritual that are the Christians of the first magnitude even those that shine like Sunnes in the world have yet spots blemishes and wrinkles in them So that not only these Corinthians of an inferiour form but even Paul himself who reproveth those for being carnal yet Rom. 7. he complaineth of himself That he is carnal and that when he would do good evil is present with him That Chapter doth excellently declare what a great conflict and combate the people of God have in these for when they would believe unbelief hindereth them when they would be heavenly-minded earthlinesse hinders them And Gal. 6. the Apostle speaks there universally of all the godly of those that are Pillars as well as others of the â—yes and head in the body as well as the feet The Spirit lusteth against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 That the things you would not do those you do So that it 's plain no godly man in the world is inabled in his whole heart with all might to what is good as Adam or the Saints glorified in Heaven but they have opposition within them They have heart against heart mind against mind will against will affections against affections They are like a blind man and a dead man coupled together Austin did much dispute this point by reason of the Pelagians Whether any man might be perfect in this life free from all sinne And although he seemed not to deny that a man might be yet he affirms de facto none ever was But that former also must be distinguished of For if you regard the power of God no question he can cure all diseases He that gives thee any degree of grace can make thee altogether godly God who made the world by degrees in the space of six dayes could have done it in a moment as Austin thought he did And so may we say Men may be without sinne But if we speak of the ordinary power of God or his declared will whereby he hath decreed not to give to men such a measure of grace as shall subdue all sinne then we say it cannot be But the best gold will have some drosse The best Garden will have some weeds Hence they have a perpetual patern of Prayer which a David a Paul is to pray as well as babes in Christianity that God would forgive their sinne So that this is an undoubted truth that even the most holy carry about with them a body of sinne which they are alwayes crucifying Secondly Yet there are other Christians who have sinne more prevalent over them and are easier overcome and these deserve more to be called carnal than the former their corruptions are more visible than their grace As David had several degrees of worthy valiant men some were valiant and strong but did not attain by farre to the degree of the first Worthies Such a degree there is in Christs souldiers all have spiritual strength and the armour of Christ upon them but there are some who are the worthies of the first rank others there are who are negligent and carelesse who often fall into the enemies hands and get wounds and blows often to their consciences It 's a sad thing to see a godly man not keeping his garments clean but spotting and defiling them by the pitch in the world They walk as men saith the Apostle carnal as others proud as others earthly as others passionate as others Oh take heed that thy life be not as the sluggards field all grown over with bryars and thorns This is too often that men hide their light in a bushel nay lose their savourinesse although godlinesse be in the bottome yet nothing but bitternesse and corruption doth appear Thirdly As corruption doth thus abide in all the godly and worketh differently so it doth sometimes flame out into open fire so that it 's no longer the lust and motions of sinne within but the grosse operations without In Peter you see what a leak there was ready to drown the
Apostle Paul though he be an eloquent Apollo More spiritual matter this Text will also afford only I must first answer that Question Whether the Corinthians did indeed set up these eminent godly men as Heads of Parties or whether his meaning was that they set up many false Apostles and became factious Disciples to such only the Apostle spareth to name them thinking it wisdome to do so and instanceth in himself and other Pillars teaching them hereby that if such as were faithfull and godly ought not to be exalted how much less corrupt and false Teachers Some are for the Affirmative and some for the Negative but I think both Expositions may well be joyned together For the Corinthians some of them did too much glory in Paul and Apollo and set them up Otherwise Why should Paul bless God so much for that Providence that he had baptized so few For men were apt to set up those that baptized them as if they had been baptized into their name Therefore certainly the Corinthians did sinfully rest and glory in such as Paul Wherfore he takes them off and excellently concludes Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1.13 Thus the first Exposition is true Then that the other also is true that although Paul instanceth in himself and others yet therby meaning other ambitious Teachers that affected Disciples appeareth also 1 Cor. 4.6 where he saith He had by a Figure transferred those things to himself and Apollo for their sakes That is for their Instruction to teach them that they must not think of Paul and Apollo above what they should as many of them did much less of false ambitious corrupt Teachers as many others also did This explained we may observe two more Doctrines 1. That it is not lawfull for Christians to call themselves by the Name of any men though never so Eminent so as to build on them Christ and his Truth are the foundation we must build upon The Apostles indeed are called the foundations Rev. 22.14 but they were immediately inspired and they were but secondary foundations fundamenta fundata not fundamemta fundantia as Divines say So that we are not Believers in Paul or Peter We are not the Apostles Believers much less the Fathers or any Doctors and Teachers in the world That is our Saviours meaning when he saith Call no man Master but Christ Mat 23 8. It is true this Doctrine is abused by some as is to be shewed when I come to speak of those who said they were of Christ viz. in a sinfull factious way They were not for Paul or Apollo or any Ministers they cryed down all the Ministry They are for Christ to teach them immediately But thus farre the Doctrine is true we may not be called after any mans name We are not to set up any Persons or Councils in Christs stead We are not to believe in them Homines non debent aedificari super homines said Austin For the opening of this let us Consider First The Names that Christians have had in the New Testament and afterwards in the Church For by wise Names we come to know the nature of things And First Christ did often call those that followed him his Disciples Thus He that would be his Disciple must hate Father and Mother for his sake And when the Apostles are sent out their Instruction is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make Disciples Indeed there are the seventy Disciples who were in a Church-Office next the Apostles but every follower of Christ his Doctrine and way was called a Disciple but it is Christs Disciples They were never called the Apostles Disciples or any mans Disciples And certainly this doth excellently denote what Christians should do viz. Take that duty which God from Heaven commanded us concerning Christ Hear him Mat. 17.5 a Disciple is not to dispute but to believe A Disciple is wholly to learn and receive from his Master And oh how excellent would this be if every Christian would thus hearken to what Christ saith If thou art Christs Disciple learn of him how to live how to walk how to obey Lean not to thy own understanding Lean not to others for only Christ is Truth Another Name and that most frequent was Believers Christians are often called by this title None more frequent And this also doth difference Christians from all other sects in the world All the Philosophers they affected to be knowing men not believing Averroes by scorn called Christians credentes Believers For such as he affected to know the Causes of things and to inquire in the hidden secrets of Nature counting it a disgrace to believe upon meer Authority Thus Julian upbraided Christians with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe only Hence Rom. 1. The preaching of Christ was accounted foolishness to the Gentiles They sought for wisdome for strong demonstrations but the Apostles meerly declaring and preaching such Doctrines were accounted foolish bablers So that to be a Believer doth denote the captivating of our understandings unto the Word of God and every sublime thought or reasoning that doth exalt it selfe And certainly if a Christian would think how much he is to submit his understanding to believe the Doctrines of the Scripture it would much inable him also to believe the Promises for the Church in general or in particular for his own self Faith of assent would breed Faith of fideucial adherence Should it be so great a matter to believe that God will raise up the Church when it hath no help Or subdue thy corruptions when thou believest greater matters in Doctrine As the Trinity That God was made man the resurrection of the body This is an excellent point to be pressed though not so proper here Another Name often attributed to Christians is Saints The Saints at Corinth and in many places Oh the very Name of this title should strike blasting and confusion into man Art thou a Saint-lyer a Saint-drunkard a Saint-Blasphemer All that are Christians should be Saints and Holy And therefore the Scripture cals them by that Name Not that all will be holy in a Church no There will be tares as well as Wheat Nor that we are to depart from a Church where wicked men are not cast out Or that the Sacraments are to be administred to none but who are truly godly though they be free from gross sinnes These things cannot be inferred only Christians are called to be Saints and are Saints by Calling and so should be in their lives Oh consider this you who are prophane Beasts and tremble at it But the most famous and distinguishing Name of the people of God is Christians They were first called so at Antioch saith the Scripture Act. 11.26 Some have questioned whether others did not then put this Name upon them by scorn and reproach because Christ was crucified or whether they themselves did not voluntarily take upon them this Name as being a glory and honour to
it but Faith would quickly dispossess these and make it clean for Christ to dwell in And then thy life How pure is that Dost thou talk of believing in Christ when thou hatest purity makes a scoff and a taunt at it I tell thee if thou didst believe thou wouldst be pure and strict also As Saul that went with no good will to the Prophets when he came to them the Spirit of God sell on him and he prophesied also Thus thou that art a malicious enemy a prophane scoffer at purity and holiness should the Spirit of God once fall upon thee thou wouldst become pure and strict also Know then a man can no more carry faith in his heart and this not reforme his life then oyntment about him and that not discover it self Secondly Where there is a true lively Faith that will make a stout though wise confession of the truth when God doth require it Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believeth with the mouth confession is made to salvation and the Apostle We believe therefore we speak 2 Cor. 4.13 Indeed there is a faith about some disputable poinâ—s in Religion that are not essential to salvation that the Apostle bids a man have it to hâ—mself Rom. 14. but for the main points the owning or not owning whereof is the owning or not owning of Christ Our Saviour speaks terribly to the not confession herein He that shall not confesse me before men though before a croâ—ked and perverse generation him will not I confesse before my Father nor the holy Angels Mark 8.38 Thirdly Where faith is there it will carry a man out to the ready performance of all obedience justice temperance liberaâ—ity equity and every good worke The Apostle James Jam 2. doth at large shew That that man is but a vain man and an hypocrite one who cousens his own soul that thinketh by faith to be saved when this is not incarnated and manifested in all godly conversation Yea faith puts all graces on working as Heb. 11. That seemeth to be the great wheel that sets all others on going Lastly He that doth truly believe is not discouraged from his duty because of any trouble or persecution in the world Christ prayed for Peter That his faith might not fail him No danger no fears could have drawn him into sinne had faith been active It was faith made Moses chuse reproaches and persecutions rather than the glory of Aegypt A man that liveth by sense and by worldly advantages he cannot but with the Chamelion turn into every colour of that object which is by him because worldly fear reigneth and ruleth in his heart but Faith that overcomes the world If it conquer Devils and Hell much more the world Yea it makes a man rejoyce in tribulations Vse of Examination Hath the Ministry had this effect to make you believe Oh you will say Who doubts of that Are we Atheists Do you make Pagans and Infidels of us Consider there is a great difference between the Title Name and Profession of a Believer and the reall Efficacy of it It 's said Simon Magus believed because he outwardly professed so yet he was in the state of gall and bitterness It 's said John 2. ult That many believed but Christ would not commit himself to them because he knew what is in man Therefore Do you really believe all that the Scripture saith And if so How darest thou lie swear deal unjustly No you flatter your selves The Faith of these things would make you tremble yea roar out Oh! What shall I do to escape this great wrath Therefore set Faith more on work from day to day I am no Atheist I am a Christian I believe a Day of Judgment Why then live I thus But Ministers by whom ye belived even as the Lord gave to every man We are come to the last Particular observeable in this Verse and that is the Efficient Cause of this Ministry and Service in the Church with the variety of the Gifts of those that are employed therein Even as the Lord gave to every man This the Apostle addeth still to take off all from the Instruments and give it to God They are indeed Pipes to conveigh Gods grace but they can no longer runne then this Fountain fils them They are indeed spiritual Trumpets to give warning of Gods wrath approaching but they cannot breathe forth any sound but what the mouth of the Lord doth first breathe into them So that although the Church of God in respect of the several Gifts God bestoweth on her Officers be like the Queens Daughter cloathed all in needle and embroidered work Even as the Kings Daughters were wont to go in parti-coloured cloathes Yet all this Ornament and comeliness is put upon her by God alone So that every Minister hath a peculiar Gift yet so as all comes from above from God to him Doct. That God hath given several Gifts and Abilities to the Ministers of the Church and thereby makes use of them all for his glorious ends The Apostle doth in many places delight to compare the Church to a mans body where there are several parts and every part hath its peculiar Office There is the eye the hand the foot and though all are not equally eminent yet all are equally necessary But 1 Cor. 12.4 5. you may see this excellently described I here are diversities of Gifts and of Administrations but all from the same Spirit the same Lord and all is for the same end The manifestation of the Spirit is to profit withall Whatsoever Abilities and Gifts God hath given they are not for vain ostentation They are not for humane applause but for use to profit withall Insomuch that if any man should should use his parts his abilities to propagate errour or to strengthen men in wickedness they did greatly abuse the good Gifts of God and turn wholesome meat into poyson To open this Doctrine you may consider That the Gifts of God to the Church are as to our purpose of two sorts Sometimes the very Office and Function it self is called a Gift To be an Apostle to be a Pastour to be a Teacher is a Gift Thus Ephes 3. Yea Christs Ascension He gave Gifts to men As Kings at their Coronations distribute large and plentifull gifts And what are these Gifts Apostles Evangelists Pastours and Teachers Thus the very Office is a Gift and that a great one too More then all temporal mercies though the ungratefull world cannot think so Thus the Psalmist speaking of the Word of God and the Ministry given to the Jews he addeth He hath not done so to every Nation Psal 147.20 Alas for temporal mercies he had he gave them peace quietness and plenty all aboundance and filled them with good things but this was nothing to the Ministry of the Word And certainly no plenty no quietness no abundance is a mercy equall to the Gospel Therefore Amos threatned the famine of the Word as more terrible
find the Lord in our Ministry that howsoever it have no virtue or efficacy to others yet it may have to you do these two things First Work with God in prayer that he would work with the Ministry Effectual prayer is the first wheel that sets all on going Prayer is the key of Heaven Hence the Apostle James speaks of a prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 working Whatsoever God will do he will do only to a praying people It 's like the Prophets arrow if that be stuck not in the ground thrice but often into Heaven so often will it bring glorious effects Now let this prayer be working two wayes 1. In the general That God would set up spiritual labourers in every Congregation Our Saviour taught his Disciples to pray That God would send out labourers into his harvest Matth. 9.38 Every particular Congregation without such a worker with God is like the world without a Sunne Wo be to them that are thus alone 2. Pray in particular That Gods work by the Ministers work may go home to thy heart Be exceedingly afraid that thy condition be not made like that of Sauls whom God would not answer any kind of way As Elisha struck the waters of Jordan with Elijahs mantle saying Where is the God of Elijah and presently the waters did divide and give way 2 Kings 2.14 Do thou say Oh where is that mighty God that wrought so with Peter and Paul and other servants of his Secondly Take heed of such sinnes as may provoke God not to be with the Ministry The word of God is not an hammer battering is not a fire consuming many times because of thy unthankfulness and rebellion The Jews did so long sin against God that he forsook the Temple and answered them no more there Thus a people may quickly provoke God to leave the Ordinances so that thou shalt find no benefit no power in them but even consume in thy sin Vse 1. Is the◠Ministry a working with God then it may teach Ministers First That they be not workers with the Devil And that is two waies either by bringing in the Doctrine of Devils all Heresies and false worship which are the works of the Devil Or Secondly That they do not sooth and flatter men in sinne as if they prayed that the Kingdom of darkness may come and not the Kingdom of God And Secondly So to walk as those that work with him Who is sufficient for this What holiness purity humility is required Vse 2. To the people Is it a working with God then lay aside all prejudice and cavils against it Neglect it not thou refusest the work of God upon thy soul This is the way wherein God will discover his power Secondly Wonder not if the Ministry hath many times wrought such powerfull effects that the blind see the poor are humbled the lofty cast down and mens hearts changed for God worketh with it Ye are Gods husbandry ye are Gods building The former part of this Text contained the description of the Office of the Ministers in the Church of God They were labourers with God This latter part describeth the nature of the people and the Church of God in what suteable relation they stand in viz. They are Gods husbandry they are Gods building Here is a two-fold Metaphor and the first that referreth to the comparisons the Apostle had used before of watering and planting Now answerable to this is Gods tillage the latter of building the Apostle prosecuteth in the following Verses Both these similitudes tend to the same thing yet they both have their peculiar signification likewise and emphasis The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both the matter and object that they are Gods field ager colendus as also Gods work about it we may put both the similitudes together and Observe That the people of God are his husbandry and building The Scripture doth delight to compare the Church to many similitudes all which shew the tende◠and dear respects it stands in towards God Sometimes to a wife sometimes to a body sometimes to the branches of a Vine at other times to a garden to a Vineyard and here to a field and an house Every one of these similitudes hath some peculiar respect which the other hath not and yet they all shew the near conjunction and relation they have to God They are excellent similitudes because they partly shew Gods tender love to us and partly they teach what holy and pur◠persons we should be to God So that here is both great priviledge and exact duty We will first handle these two similitudes joyntly and then severally Joyntly in that they are Gods husbandry and house It implyeth these things First The power and goodness of God in making them so A building is not of it self every body that seeth a house presently concludes the house did not make it self so if you see a field well husbanded plowed sowed and cloathed with goodly Corn we all know of it self the earth would not do so but rather its curse is to bring forth briars and thornes So when you see a people leaving the sinnes and superstitious Idolatry of the world walking according to the rules revealed in Scripture you must necessarily conclude this men have not of themselves they cannot have this by flesh and blood Hence God speaking of the Church of Israel said He planted a Vine Jer. 2.21 even as the pleasant garden of Eden was planted at first Thus the Psalmist speaking not of our natural but Church-Creation saith We are the sheep of his pasture he hath made us and not we our selves Psal 100 3. So then it is God that hath made us not only creatures but a people believing in him and worshipping of him Secondly It doth imply dominion and absolute soveraignty over us Even as the Master that buildeth the house appointeth what customes and orders shall be in the house the Husbandman appointeth what seed he pleaseth for the ground Heb. 3.6 Christ is said to be a Sonne over this house whose house the godly are he is there exalted above Moses who was a faithfull servant in the house of God and appointed what worship God commanded but Christ was over the house as well as over him that built it This point is of great consideration for how durst men in all ages have brought in such superstition such heresie such tyranny in the Church of God if they had remembred there is but one Master in the house of God one Law giver All Officers are but servants and not Masters Thirdly It denoteth propriety and interest that God hath a right to us that we are his and not our own The house is the owners he hath the propriety of it and therefore the Scripture is not content with these similitudes but useth these that declare a sweeter union and nearer as that of a wife to a husband that of the body to the head So that by
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the building 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then take off your thoughts from all superstitious conceâ—â—s about holiness in places Gods House Gods Church are the persons and men that do outwardly profess his way and live accordingly Whose House we are Heb. 3 6. With those God is present Indeed 1 Chron. 7. we read of a Temple a great stately House dedicated to God with a relative holiness with Prayers that God would be present there his eyes and his heart would be in that place But to argue from that Temple to our material Churches it 's very unsafe It is true Mr Made whose opinion about the relative holiness of Churches in Gospel times is publiquely known doth endeavour to answer this Argument thus viz. That though we have not such a command as the Jews had about the Temple for our Churches yet by Analogy such a Jewish command will bind c. But through this wâ—de gate the whole Jewish administration may croude in upon us c. For the Temple was typical of Christs body and therefore was destroyed with all the other significative Ceremonies So then they erre on one hand too rigidly who think we may not call this material building a Church for we may call it so by a figure which is ordinary about such things And they on the other hand who take of their thoughts from minding the true Church indeed and House of God by holiness and purity of life addicting themselves to curious building goodly Images and external worship But this occasionally only We see here the Apostle speaks of persons and not of places and he saith They are Gods building All our particular Societies should be of such men for knowledge and godliness that we may say they are Gods House not the Devils den Now this comparison of building supposeth these things First That a people of themselves are nothing but so much rubbish and sit fuel for Hell fire and that it's God who makes them this glorious building That as you see the Temple was built by excellent art The trees in the forrest and the stones in the quarrey could never have prepar'd themselves nor put themselves into so goodly a structure So it is here Men by their own power their own ability and strength could never become a fit habitation for the Lord to rest in We are not born but made the house and building of God so that although by our birth and education we may have many Church-priveledges being born of Christian Parents yet we have no saving priviledges till God hath wrought something upon every mans soul in particular that it may be his faith his godliness his patience and so indeed the Temple of the Holy Ghost Secondly It implyeth that the matter of this building should be sound precious and substantial The material Temple was built of the choicest stone and most excellent timber and the Apostle in this Chapter supposeth this house to be built of gold and stone and that the building of hay and stubble is very absurd and dangerous which although it be chiefly to be understood of the Doctrine yet it hath some relation also to the persons constituting a Church It 's the great Question in this age What is the matter of a Church What persons ought to be taken in to constitute a Church I shall not touch on that now It is one thing to say What should be and another thing What the Scripture fore-tels will be It 's true all that are of this building should be really and truly sound both in Doctrine and life and where any of heretical Doctrines or prophane lives have got into this house the Scripture commands such to be cast out as being a dishonour and a burden to the house but yet it also fore-tels that there will be tares among the wheat That in this house there will be vessels of honour and of dishonour But more of this anon This is certain we cannot sufficiently lament to see the ruines of Gods house in this spiritual sense As they wept to see Jerusalem the second time built because it came so short of the lustre and glory the former Temple had So may we mourn exceedingly to see what our particular Congregations are comparatively to primitive Institutions and the patern upon the Mount Indeed this Church had some weeds but how restlesse is Paul to pull them out Oh how desirous as he saith 2 Cor. 11.2 to present them a pure Virgin to Christ free from all false worship and all foul transgressions Oh that you would think of this what ye ought to be Holinesse to the Lord should be writ on your hands fore-heads and whole conversation Thirdly It implieth the gracious presence and power of God among his people An house is the place where a man dwels and continually resides and this is one great reason why God useth this Metaphor to shew with what reâ—t and delight he will take up his habitation in his Church Thus the Covenant of grace runnes from this when the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. had shewed That there ought to be no agreement between the Temple of God and Idols he addeth They are the Temple of the living God and therefore what he inferreth I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Apostle to describe the innate power of original sinne said It dwelled in him So it is here God to describe how intimate familiar and gracious his presence is saith He will dwell in them This particular then sheweth there are many in this house that are not of this house for how is Gods presence and power manifested in them Nay doth not the Devil and sinne discover themselves dwelling in them Do they manifest any thing but the blacknesse of darknesse in their words and works Glory not then of being in the house of God if you find not the powerfull presence of God in you which is two wayes by sanctification and consolation In these two wayes God doth discover himself he fils with grace and consolation he sanctifieth and comforts They are in Christ and Christ in them Fourthly This house or building doth imply God to be the Master therein that he only may prescribe the Laws and orders what shall be done and what not he appoints every one his work and his labour All the Officers in the Church are but servants None may take upon them to appoint what is to be believed How God must be worshipped This is of great consideration Christ is said to be more faithfull in this house than Moses in the former Heb. 3. Hence came the neglect of all true Worship and piety because the orders and laws of the Master are not followed Come then and be afraid thou that livest in prophanenesse and impiety what Law what order hath God for this in his house His House is
an House of Prayer Ye are to be a praying people but thou art a cursing and blaspheming wretch In his House every vessel was holy but thou art a loathsome vessel of all impiety and filthinesse Fifthly Here is this further in this building It 's not an ordinary building but a sacred and an holy one Therefore as you heard they are called The Temple of the living God Now then what an astonishing consideration is this Those that are of this House must be separated unto God from all prophane and common things even as the Temple might not be polluted by any common action And hence is that phrase They are sanctified that is they are made holy by a peculiar dedication unto God Therefore in that 2 Cor. 6.16 17. when the Apostle had said they were the Temple of the living God he addeth this Exhortation Therefore come out from among them and touch no unclean thing Oh then if you would be thought the House and Temple of the Lord consider what Communion hath light with darkness What agreement is there between Christ and Belial Be not then forgetfull of this when thou art tempted unto any grosse impiety Sixthly It being an house all within are servants and so they are to do their Masters worke to live to him Whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10 31. All those servants in the Parable called for by the Master and bid to merchandize till he came Luke 19 12. And those who have been eminent in Gods work they have this title in a peculiar manner Thus Moses the servant of God and Paul the servant of Christ Now alas who thinketh of these things Every man lives to himself to his own ease gain and advantage We walk not as servants who though they have gained never so much yet say this is none of ours we may not do with it what we please Servus non est persona sedres saith the Civil Law Thus this health this wealth these parts this time is none of mâ—ne I must improve it for my Master Oh what a good consideration would this be for every one to think I am set in this place I am in this relation I have these helpes to serve God with This is my chiefe end Seventhly It supposeth Order and Government The Church of God is an House now that hath domestical Laws There are Oeconomicks as well as Politicks it doth not deserve the name of an house where there is no body to command nor none to obey but all do as they list And must not this be much more in the spiritual house of God Paul did rejoyce to see the Churches Order and her faith Col. 2.5 her Faith for Doctrine her Order for Government Hence the Scripture speaks of those that govern and those that are to obey and God who is not a God of confusion hath not left every man to believe and think and maintain what he lift Hence are those spiritual censures of reproving admonishing and casting out a man Some walk disorderly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 3.11 it 's an excellent word it signifieth such an exact order as in an army none may break his rank Thus God hath set a spiritual order in his Church some are eyes some hands some to preach some to hear some to rule some to obey and it 's a monster and not a body when every member would be an eye every private man a publick Officer in the Church This would be a Babel and not Gods house Eighthly Vnity love and concord among those that are in the same house Oh let this shame all animosities fractions and quarrellings Are we not of the same house How comely a thing is it to see brethren dwell together in unity Psal 133.1 2. It 's compared to that precious ointment poured on Aaron We reade in one Parable of some wicked servants that were drunken and did beat their fellow servants but how severe will their Master be against such How much respect have Laws given to the material building that none might quarrel or fight in the Church or Church-yard Now it 's a farre greater matter to have those brawlings and contentions in the spiritual house of God The primitive Christians were remarkable for all this when they all had one heart and one mind If it be a body and Christs body then one member must not fight with another Vse Of Direction to our particular Congregations Oh consider what titles and names the Scripture useth to give to such societies To be Gods house Is not this enough to confound us when we have by our lusts made them the sty of swine or as Jerusalem was in her desolation made for Owls and Satyrs to dance in so we chase away the presence of God from our Congregations and the Devil and lusts reigne over us Oh how unworthy are we of such names Know then that of all places Gods judgement will first begin with his own people Then judgement must begin at the house of God Your condemnation will be greater than those who never were dignified with such titles Study Reformation every one in his particular lest Christ take up a rod and whip to cleanse his Temple Certainly all our particular Congregations need much building much reforming this hath made so many sad questions Whether they may be called Churches because so many ignorant and prophane abound every where Let us labour to take away these blemishes woe be to those that give these offences you go on from one lust to another and never think what order God hath left to guide you by What purity zeal mortification ought to be every where To be like an heavenly orb full of glorious stars What doth the prophane man the liar the proud man the beastly drunkard in Gods house A master of a family that loveth God and hath care of his own soul will not let such a person dwell in his own house and do you think God will suffer it So then look not only to your own sins as private persons but as servants in so many houses Pray for godly order comely society Verse 10. According to the grace of God which is given to me c. THe Apostle having used those excellent similitudes of a field and an house in which relation particular Congregations are or should be unto God In this tenth verse he declareth what he had done among them as the house of God persisting in the same similitude So that the words are partly declaratory partly exhortatory Declaratory and in that there is the person set forth by a two-fold property a Master builder and a wise builder 2. Their is his action I have laid the foundation 3. There is the efficient cause of this According to the grace of God given unto me The latter part is Exhortatory but of that afterwards I shall at this time consider the ground and rise of all Pauls strength to lay this foundation viz. The
Christ the Pâ—llar and foundation of all his boldnesse and acceptance of grace through him Eph. 3.12 In whom we have boldness and free access We cannot inherit or obtain a blessing unless we come in our elder Brothers cloaths as was even now said before He is made unto us wisdom righteousnesse and sactification yea we are made the righteousnesse of God through him 2 Cor. 4. ult Which expression first used by Ambrose but found in Calâ—in by Pighâ—uâ— was a means to bring him off to imputed righteousnesse And Paul throweth away all his own works as dâ—â—g in comparison of the righteousness through faith in Christ Phil. 3. Thiâ— iâ— a special foundation few are acquainted with this Gospel foundation Theâ— build on their works on their duties they rest on them as a foundation nor making Christ all in all He is the Altar from whom the incense of the Prayers of the Saints is accepted As Jacob said Let not me see your face unless you bring Benjamin Thus God saith Pray not but in the name of Christ Give not thanks but through Christ What a Mystery was this to the seduced Belivers even in the Apostles times The Epistle of the Romanes and especially to the Galathians is wholly to settle this foundation That it was not the righteousâ—ess of the Law iâ— their own persons or â—f works they were to seek after but a righteousness of Faith through Christ Yet where is the Christian to spiritual so Gospelized as to go out of all his duties resting on Christ only He is diligent and carefull in the use of them but leaneth on Christ only We are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus only Phil. 3.3 Sixthly Christ is to be preached as the foundation of all fulnesse for all our necessities and spiritual wants The people of God they sit dejected through theâ—r nakednesse and poverty Oh they would have better hearts more fruitfull lives and they complain and complain but they do not make use of Christs fulnesse for all their wants He is the fountain their streams are to be replenished by him Of his fulness we all receive grace for grace Joh. 1.16 That is aboundance of grace as some or grace answering the grace in Christ And Col. 1. It pleased God that in him should all fulness dwell So that the soul cannot be cast into such straights as not to know where to be supplied There is the fulness of the fountain and therefore the vessel may well be filled This is the fulness in the Head therefore the members may thrive and flourish It 's a sad thing to consider how unacquainted even the godly are in this point They do not improve Christ They do not go to his fulness As the Mothers breasts are filled for the Child and it 's an ease to the Mother to have the Child to suck them Thus Christ received the fulness of grace as an Head for us and by Faith we sucking of it do exceedingly please and honour Christ Vse of Instruction What it is to preach Christ even to set him up in all this glorious fulnesse To represent him in all these Offices and Perfections for us It 's true indeed there are few people that can prize him that can see the glory of these Properties They admire nothing but the pleasure of siâ—ne and the glory of the world Therefore our work is not so often to set forth the beauty of Christ as the foulness of sinne and the torments of Hell We like John Pâ—pâ—ist are to prepare a people for Christ to cast down high mountains to wound and break the heart of sinners to take them off from all false foundations The ignorance stubbornnesse and stupidity of most hearers do call for the two-edged sword to wound and cut not for balm and oyl to be poured in their wounds But yet certainly this is our main work to preach Christ in this his heavenly glory Although to speak properly as is to be shewed in time to preach Christ is to preach also all the duties all the threatnings all the Commands Christ required To preach Repentance is to preach Christ but we take it most strictly in this place Oh then that our Auditories were such to whom Christ in all his glory might be displayed such as we might have into this Wine-celler every day such as might be invited to this Banquet and heavenly Feast that the Gospel hath provided A people that know the the need of Christ that desire and thirst after Christ That say with the Church I will hold him and will not let him go Bernard did not like to read Tully's Works in all his eloquence because he did not find Christ there How shouldst thou in all prayers duties conference still desire to enjoy Christ Saying with the Church I am sick of love The Ministers of the Gospel are to lay no other foundation but Christ Jesus If ye are branches he is the Vine If ye are the body he is the Head If ye the building he the Foundation He is the Rock He is the Root Heb. 1.3 He upholdeth all things by the Word of his power in Creation much more in Redemption Two or three Particulars more we are to instance in by which it may appear in what Christ is laid a foundation And Seventhly He is to be preached as the Fountain of all the happiness joy and spiritual content the godly hearer can have We are to preach Christ as the center in whom all the lines of your hope love and desire are to meet Thus Paul himself I determined to know nothing but Christ crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 The Greek words are comparative Christ crucified rather then any thing else There is no Doctrine no Opinion there is no outward or earthly advantage that I desire to know but Christ And in many other places you have Paul despising and renouncing all priviledges To be a Jew was nothing Circumcision was nothing To be an Apostle to be a pure Roman all these were nothing with Paul in respect of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Therefore it is that Christ is compared to our King to our Husband to our Head because all our affections desires and inclinations should be towards him And this is so necessary a foundation that no man can be Christs Disciple that doth not attain to this that doth not hate Father and Mother and Children for his sake Oh then consider Where is thy joy thy love Upon whom is thy heart set If it be on any thing but Christ thou errest in the Foundation Oh but how hard a thing is it thus to Disciple our Auditours Some have the world for Christ some their lust for Christ and thus instead of building gold and precious Stones they build dung and silth Eighthly Christ is to be preached as the person with whom we are to close in all Ordinances We are to look for Christ and enjoy him in every Prayer in every
erroneous person therefore is not presently convinced in his own conscience of his false way he may as the Antichristian party is be delivered up to believe a lie To call light darknesse and darknesse light Even as the distempered palate may call sweet things bitter So then though errours in Doctrine be stubble and trash yet they are not thought so by the Authors of them The Manichees called Manes Manicheus because he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they commonly commend their falshoods as the precious rare and unheard of truths of Christ Secondly When the Apostle cals these errours hay and stubble he doth not speak of fundamental errours neither but such as are consistent with and built on the true foundation They do not damne the Authour of them but they make his salvation difficult He shall be saved but by fire For as for those Doctrines that race up the foundations Peter cals them damnable heresies 2 Pet. 2.1 Paul reckons them with Idolatries Witchcrafts and all the grosse sinnes that palpably exclude from the Kingdome of Heaven Gal. 5.21 Yea if an Angel from Heaven should bring such a Doctrine we were to hold him accursed Gal. 1.8 9. And all the faithfull are commanded Not to bid such an one God speed John 2. Epist As John the Apostle would not wash himself in that Bath where Cerinthus the Heretique had been So that these expressions of hay and stubble are onely for lesser errours But those that are in Folio as it were they are poison They are the venome of the red Dragon They are like the Plague that strikes dead into Hell quickly without a speedy recovery So that as all sinnes are not alike so neither are all errours And we are to make a difference between those that are fundamental Circa-fundamental and Super-fundamental as a man may so say As in sicknesses some are mortal and deprive of life immediately others are not so In the second place Let us consider why the Apostle cals errours by such names wood hay and stubble First Because of the vilenesse and contemptiblenesse of them Men if they did understand the Scripture and walk by that Rule would no more regard them than the straw under their feet as we say For as the true Doctrines of Christ were compared to gold because of their precious and excellent nature so errours are called stubble because of their base and vile nature In the Old Testament the names of Idols were names of contempt and scorn Baal-Phegor and Baal-zebub and thus here the sinfull opinions that men deliver are straw and stubble Secondly The Apostle describeth the Idolatry of the Heathens under this aggravation Rom. 1. That they turned the Image of God into an Oxe that eateth hay and truly all that love and delight in errours doe so They who should be after the Image of God delighting in precious and heavenly truths make themselves like the beast that eats hay Vitiated and corrupted stomacks will eat trash and so distempered minds and corrupted will receive falshoods Secondly It 's compared to hay and stubble for the levity and uncertainty of it What solidity hath a straw that is blown up and down with every winde Now the lightnesse and uncertainty appeareth in three things 1. It cannot abide the touchstone it cannot endure to be tried Straw cannot endure the fire The thief or he that doth evil hateth the light saith our Saviour John 3.20 Counterfeit and base coin cannot abide the touchstone whereas the Apostles when they preached they were willing to have their Doctrines tried by the Scripture and the Bereans are commended for making such an enquiry Acts 17.11 The Owls and the Bats cannot endure the day As soon as errour is detected it is confuted whereas the precious truths of God they grow more excellent and glorious by the trial of them The wheat loseth nothing by winnowing the iron by filing By all the errours and heresies that ever have been truth hath gotten the advantage As the ark was the more lifted up to Heaven by the waters 2. It 's uncertainty is seen in the divers shapes and moulds it hath denying and affirming As Tertullian of the Peacock Multicolor versicolor nunquam idem tamen semper idem Thus erroneous Doctrines are alwayes in new dresses in a new garb as they are necessitated by truth How often was Pelagianism interpoluted Therefore the Apostle cals the dealing of such persons who use to sow these tares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.14 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slight jugling yea and bewitching Gal. 3.1 making such things to appear to the sense that have no subsistence Thus among the Arians both the Eusebiusses were in crafty and divers dresses sometimes for the Orthodox sometimes against them And Pelagius did four times change his opinion about Grace or rather his expressions At first he denied grace then he made nature grace then the outward preaching of the Word grace then granted the grace of remission of sinne Thus he did gratiae voâ—abulo uti ad frangeâ—dum invidiam So that herein the levity and uncertainty of falshoods doth appear that they are divers and strange Doctrines strange to the Word and divers and disagreeing among themselves 3. It 's uncertainty is seen that it doth never stay till God in mercy to his Church put a period to it Therefore false Doctrines are compared to a Gâ—ngrene 2 Tim. 2.17 you know that spreads and spreads till it hath even consumed the body And thus it is with errour it spreads from one to another and not only so but this young Serpent will grow up to a Dragon in time Arius una scintilla fuit was but one spark and yet he-set the whole world on fire Wicked men shall grow worse and worse one errour draweth on another When a man begins to tumble down the hill it 's hard staying ere he come to the bottom And therefore when thou once beginnest to wander from the truth fear thy self thou wilt presently be in a wildernesse yea thou wilt be like an Hazael in time Those opinions and blasphemies thou wouldst once have trembled and quaked at thou wilt excuse and defend Experience hath â—â—en too true but very sad of this in all ages of the Church Thirdly Errours are compared to hay and stubble For the uselesnesse and unprofitablenesse of them They are but fig leaves to cover our nakednesse and that will appear in these particulars 1. They do not truly inform and enlighten the mind Truth is light and doth inform and instruct the mind but all errours do bring more darknesse so that while they think they know more then they did they know lesse Hence they are said to be men of corrupt minds 1 Tim. 6 5. and deluded or deceived Oh what a dreadfull thing may this be for thee to think thou hast more light than ever when it may be thou art in more darknesse than ever To thinke thou art in a nearer way to
unthankfulnesse and disobedience with corrupt ends and practices As it 's said Because men did not receive the truth in love God gave them up to believe a lie 2 Thess 2.10 So that it 's hard to say whether is more sad to consider the nature of the errours that dishonour God or the cause of them which is Gods anger against a people for barrennesse and unthankfulnesse God then hath his times when for the sinnes of a people he lets Satan loose and suffers this red Dragon to vent his dreadfull poison Thirdly As the corrupt errours of men came from Gods anger so in mercy he hath appointed times wherein he will purge and take away their drosse For these Church-burthens and Church-corruptions have been farre more heavy upon Gods people than State-oppressions Therefore the first thing that Gideon did who was raised up by God to be a Judge to deliver Israel from their cruel oppressions was to remove their Altars and all their Idolatry he began with God first Judges 6.28 And so when Moses had gathered the people of Israel into a body and they were capable of a Civil Government yet the first thing he doth is to prescribe them Lawes concerning the worship of God and in the Decalogue the first Table is for the Duties relating to God By this you see That corruptions in Gods worship and truth as they are greater sinnes than others they are talents when others are pounds so they lie more heavily upon the people of God they bewail them more Rome as it was Aegypt did not so much trouble the godly as it was Sâ—dome the Idolatry more than the cruelty offended the people of God This being so God among temporal promises of deliverance of righteousnesse and peace doth also comfort the godly with times of Reformation in his Church that this hay end stubble shall no longer stand to dishonour his building Thus God by the Prophet Isaiah promiseth To purge away their drosse and to take away their tinne from them Isai 1.25 which doth relate to their Church-sinnes their Idolatries as well as State-sinnes And by Ezekiel you have a glorious promise concerning Church-Reformation Ezekiel 36.25 as well as temporal He will give them to see their Idolatries so that they shall be confounded and never open their mouths Especially God hath those times when people shall be ashamed of their errours of their superstitions and shall never open their mouths again to plead for them or justifie them When they shall see the patterne of the Mount Ezekiel 43.10 You have a notable promise Malachi 3 3 where upon Christs coming there is promised a glorious restauration He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sonnes of Levi. Christ when he came into the world found all Gods worship grossely polluted all the Priests had defiled themselves Now this was one end of Christs preaching to purifie them to cleanse them from these defilements It 's true prophane and worldly men or meer Atheistical Politicians they make no matter about Gods truth they make advantage of any Religion that serveth a designe but this was the great worke of Christs Ministery to make a Reformation in Doctrine and Worship Though this was very unpleasing to corrupt men therefore it is said Who can abide the day of his coming It is even like a day of judgement to them It is observable what our Saviour saith as much to our purpose and parallel with the Text John 4.23 The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth You see how God hath his houre his time and season for such a thing and then when that is come they shall worship God will so over-rule enlighten and perswade mens hearts that they cannot but yeeld Such an hour or time God had when we recovered out of Popery Then darknesse covered the face of the earth The Sunne and the Moone and the Starres were turned into blood The Officers of the Church who should have had light to instruct did cruelly and bloodily persecute such as did hold the truth Now though all the world was thus in darknesse yet when God raised up those instruments of his truth Luther Melancthon Calvin and others They were no more able to stop the spreading of the Gospel then they could hinder the Sunne from running its race Gods hour was come and then the eyes of men would be opened There were many persons before Luther's time learned and godly men that did withstand Popish errours that died in contradiction of them but yet the world was not awakened they did not thinke of coming out of Aegypt till Gods time was come Fourthly This Day of Gods revealing may be a long while as to our expectation God may suffer corruptions to cover all the body of the Church You may see onely chaffe and no wheat and this may be a long while so that the godly doe even languish under their expectations Thus in Elijah's time 1 Kings 19 14. to his knowledge and according to visible appearance he onely was left to vindicate the pure Glory and Worship of God And in what a temptation was he about it It 's true God told him He had reserved seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal that did not communicate in Idolatry But what was seven thousand to all the people of Israel No more than the gleanings of the Harvest And thus also we might shew how in the Christian Church when errours had once got possession in it they were like the Jebusites and the wilde beasts in the Land of Canaan which could hardly be destroyed Donatisme lasted above two hundred yeares Pelagianisme and Arianisme though but sparkes yet kindled such a fire that it was not extinguished in many generations So that we may say of this time as Christ to the Disciples It is not for us to know the times and seasons when God will restore his Church to her purity That is enough which our Saviour saith Every plant that is not of my Fathers planting shall be rooted out Matth. 15.13 That is an excellent place compared with this Text God hath his time when he will root out all the plants that he did not plant in his owne Vineyard But how long it will be ere this day breake forth God hath not discovered to us These things thus explained Let us consider the Reasons Why God will have a Day to declare mens workes in matter of false Doctrines And First Because the truth of God is deare and precious to him Christ himselfe makes it one main reason why he came into the world viz. To beare witnesse to Gods truth So that Divines say Though Christs death in respect of God the Father appointing him to be a Sacrifice for sinne was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an attonement or expiation yet if you doe respect men before whom he made a good Confession as Paul saith 1 Timothy 6.13 So it
Manners are a pollution of this spiritual Temple So that in the words you have a strong Argument against all Church pollutions whether doctrinal or practical from a similitude or comparison the Apostle useth Those that are the Temple of God must be dedicated to him and not polluted with any unclean thing but the Church of Corinth is the Temple of God And that this Argument might pierce the more he puts the sting of a sharp Interrogation upon his words Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God Know ye not as if he would have said This is a confessed Principle a truth acknowledged by all none can or ought to be ignorant of it Now for the explication of the word Temple and the Reason to prove they were the Temple as followeth in the words I referre it till we come at it For truly this Text is a Mine of gold every word hath precious matter in it Only consider at this time the interrogative Introduction Know ye not One great cause why they admitted such prophanensse and corruption in the Church was the ignorance of or the not attending to those Priviledges and Relations they were called unto If they had duely considered they were Gods Temple they would not have suffered strange Doctrines or strange manners to come in amongst them as no strange uncircumcised might enter into the Temple Observe That the consideration of those Priviledges and Relations which all the People that professe God are put into would be a great Argument against all kind of Pollutions In the 1 Cor. 6.19 the Apostle argueth against all libidinous and unclean waies because their bodies were the Temple of the Holy Ghost now here the Apostle doth not so much speak of every man as their Assembly united together as they were a spiritual Society joyned together As is more largely to be shewed The Apostle argueth chiefly though not excluding sinnes of practice against corruptions in Doctrine and the Ordinances instituted in the Church by which we may see the Scripture puts corruptions in Doctrine through errours and in our lives through ungodlinesse in the same guilt both are unclean and so may not be admitted into the Temple even as the Apostle in the first Chapter verse 5 6. and Gal. 59 useth a Proverbial speech A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump against corruptions in life and in Doctrine but of this more afterwards That which at this time I insist on is To shew what a goade and spurre to all purity and holinesse in Doctrine and Manners the consideration of Church-Priviledges Church-Titles and Relations aâ—e Thus Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Ignorance of the extent of their baptism what it did signifie and oblige to made them live in sinne I know nothing more to be complained of then that people generally rest in this They are the Church of God They are Christians They are baptized but they do not understand what these things mean nor what they oblige them unto It would make us all tremble to consider the vast disproportion between our Names our Relations and our lives This hath occasioned many to runne into an extremity to say We have no true Churches no true members of a Church amongst us because the ignorance corruption and prophaneness is so great amongst us though therein they go beyond bounds For this Church of Corinth was not unchurched by the disorders and corruptions amongst it To enforce this Doctrine upon us consider some of the chief and notable Titles or Relations the people of God have and see if rightly considered they would not work like fire to consume all our drosse As First The very word Ecclesia Church This is given to all the spiritual Societies and Assemblies that we read of in the Scripture converted to the true Faith Thus the Church of Corinth the Churches in Asia Now how great a matter is this very word Church For a people to be a Church the word signifieth as much as a company of people called out of the ignorance idolatry and prophanenesse of the world to worship and serve God in his way and to obey his Laws So that when men come to be of this body they are to renounce all their former prophanenesse and wickednesse and live a life conformable to the Word which is the Churches Charter and by which it walketh Thus all our Congregations should be men called out of the ignorance and prophanenesse of the world to live according to Gods Rule But where are the persons or the Societies that do this Are not many of our Assemblies in the world and of the world still in respect of conversation There will be scandals and offences in the Churches of God too often but woe be to such who by their prophanenesse idolatry and wickednesse give so many scandals as to make us accounted a Babylon a Sodome or as the world Indeed they who do thus charge us go beyond their line for we have a true Church and a true Ministry and true Ordinances only the lives of men are generally so corrupt and wicked so ignorant and beastly that they are spots in our Assemblies and a grievous reproach to that holy Profession which we have taken upon us So then if we would have our Congregations and persons freed from all these defilements remember what the word Church is a company called out of the world And as for ignorant and prophane men the orders of Christ are to endeavour their reformation but if they continue obstinate then they are to be cast out As the Clouds that are exhaled from the earth which though terrestrial in nature yet follow the motions of the Heavens so though in our original we be of the world and are dust and ashes yet by this heavenly call we are wholly to live a heavenly conversation Is it for Starres to be like the dung of the earth Is it for a Church to be a prophane ignorant and worldly people Oh this very title should raise up your hearts Are we not a Church persons called out of wickednesse Why then are we such Apostates as to degenerate from our Titles and Names If Christ complained of those that had made the material Temple a den of thieves Mat. 21.13 will he not also of such who shall make his Church a stew a dunghill a place of wickednesse and ungodlinesse I beseech you know these things and consider them better If you would have the Name of a Church have the nature Life and operations of a Church Secondly The consideration that we are the people of God in a more peculiar manner then all the Nations of the world that do not know God This also should affect us This is that Covenant of Grace God enters into I will be their God and they shall be my people Jer. 7.23 2 Cor. 6.16 Yea a peculiar people Gods Jewels Gods Treasure Deut. 26.18 Psal 135.4
off every man from his dearest sinnes The Apostle speaking 2 Pet. 3.11 of this expectation and how the whole world shall be then on fire he cryeth out What manner of persons ought we to be For Heathens and Atheists that believe not this Day it 's no marvell if they eat and drink and take no care but how is it that thou a Believer of these things art not in Prayer often in fasting and humiliation in reference hereunto Vse of Instruction The reason of the deluge of all errours and prophanenesse is for want of good logick They do not inferre good conclusions from good Premises For to be a Church to be Christians to be Believers of such sure and certain things do not those inferre to all What manner of persons should we be in all godlinesse and holinesse of Conversation Do you not know these things Are not these things acknowledged by all How then can wickednesse and sinne be found in any mans life Oh men be either desperate Atheists or mad fools Atheists if we believe not these things fools if we believe yet our lives not answerable thereunto What wilt thou plead at the day of Judgment What will thy own conscience say for thee Wilt thou not become immediately speechlesse not able to open thy mouth when God shall command to take such a sinner such a wicked man and bind him hand and foot and throw him into Hell If these things be not true deny them if you cannot you dare not deny them then go home and mourn in secret and meditate in secret on these things Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God The Introductive Preface hath been dispatched we come to the Assertion it self and therein we are to consider the Subject who are compared And 2. To what they be compared And Lastly The ground or Reason of the comparison The Subject compared is Ye Ye are the Temple of God This Ye may be taken both Collectively as a Church a Community a Society as the Temple was not one stone but a multitude of stones artificially built together And Secondly Distributively Ye that is every man is the Temple of the Holy Ghost As 1 Cor. 6.17 Your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost But the first sense is here chiefly to be retained he speaketh to them as a Church 2. Here is the Matter we are compared to The Temple of God I shall speak more of this in verse 17 Only the word Temple is used sometimes for that magnificent and glorious building of Jerusalem where God had appointed all his worship Sometimes it is used for Heaven as being that glorious Palace wherein the Majesty of God doth effectualy demonstrate it self The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth any large Palace or Tower any Kingly House and is attributed to the Tabernacle 1 Sam. 1.9 It 's used for Heaven as Gods House Mich. 1.2 and Psal 11.4 From Templum comes that word Contemplâ—r because all behold the glory of the Heavens as also some say Considere from sidus But metaphorically the word signifieth First The Body of Christ Destroy this Temple said Christ and in three daies I will build it up Joh. 2.19 And if the Temple were holy because of the Schechinah the habitation of Gods presence there how much rather doth Christs body deserve to be called the Temple because the Godhead dwelled in it so fully for the company of Believers assembled and joyned together in the service and worship of God So that as God promised to commune with the people of Israel from between the Mercy-Seat and did there graciously exhibite himself so it is here Thus then as the Temple was a peculiar place dedicated to God wherein God promised his gracious presence so it is with a company of Believers joyned together in a Church way Concerning the holinesse of the Temple more in verse 17. Doct. That the People of God met together to worship him according to his way are the Spiritual Temple of God The ancient Temple was not more glorious and admirable to the humane eye then such Societies should be to the eye of Faith Thus Antichrist is said to fit in the Temple of God 2 Thes 2.4 that is in the Church of God where the true Church was And learned men think that latter part of Exekiel's prophesie though very obscure concerning the measuring of the Temple is nothing but the Promise of the building of the Church in the new Testament in an heavenly and glorious manner The Scripture delights to allude to those ancient usages in the Old Testament So that Evangelical Duties are sometimes called Sacrifices thus the people of God a Temple in this place To open this Doctrine let us consider what is in the Church allusively to the Temple And First The Materials for the Temple were to be polished and fitted by art ere they could be made part of the building The trees and timber of themselves the stones of themselves were not fit for that goodly structure but they had Instruments of art going over them to prepare them and thus it is ere a people come in to be made Members of a Church indeed there must be a Divine efficacy and power passing over them We of our selves have not Faith have not preparednesse for such Church duties till God doth enable us Look we therefore how we come into the Church of God How is it brought about that we are so If there be nothing but nature and custome or because we are born in such places if we have no more for our being Christians then Jews have for being Jews Turkes for being Turkes this is not to be Gods Temple indeed No that must be said to thee which was to Peter Flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee Mat. 16.17 Hence the Church of God is compared to a Vineyard to a Garden all which are not naturally so but by art and industry are made such Thus it is here whatsoever our Societies and Meetings are in reference to God it is wholly of his making Secondly The Materials of the Temple were very excellent and precious of gold and silver c. not hay and stubble The best stone the best wood that would not putrifie and all things were covered over with gold and the gold was to be pure gold even the very snuffers were to be of gold Now what did this represent but to shew what kind of people those should be who were of the Church of God even as much differing from the others as gold and precious stones from pibble stones as precious wood from bryers So then if we be the Temple of God we ought to be a people of more noble and heavenly Conversation then the world can reach unto There ought to be no sinfull debasing waies amongst us As Michall though falsly said to David dancing before the Ark Thou hast made thy self like one of the vile fellowes of the Land it is
represâ—nt this though many learned men ancient and later have used similitudes because there is no such thing as a God besides the true God And therefore Basil said well to the Heâ—etique desiring a similitude to represent the Trinity Da mihi alium Deum aliam trinitatem tibi ostendam Thus we have laboured to establish your faith in this necessary point Now I shall shew Why the holy Ghost is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirit The word at first did signifie wind Why then doth the Spirit of God assume this comparative expression of wind Or rather Why is he called a Spirit Even for these Reasons First Essentially For the simplicity and purity of his Essence and this is common to every other Person for God is a Spirit Secondly Hypostatically For his personal propriety because he proceeds from the Father and the Sonne by way of spiration the manner whereof we cannot comprehend no more than the generation of the Sonne Thirdly Effectively Many wayes 1. For the Incomprehensibility of the actions of the Spirit John 3. The wind bloweth where it lists and no man knoweth from whence it comes so is the Spirit 2. The Diversity of his operations As the breathings of the winde is from several corners the Spirits dispensations have not been alwayes alike 3. For the Efficacity moving the hearts of men to love good to hate evil 4. For the Impossibility of resisting this 5. For the Necessity of it to every good worke as the winde is to the ship Vse Is the holy Spirit God Then take heed of that blasphemous scoffing which many carnal and wicked people are guilty of which is to mock at the very name of the Spirit If a sinne against the holy Ghost be unpardonable and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace leaveth a man in an impossibility of recovering How darest thou let thy heart and tongue be thus set on hell fire Thy body and soul is to be the temple of the Spirit Thy duties are to come from this Spirit and doest thou deride it Vse of Admonition Take heed of entituling thy own fancies and delusions to the Spirit of God For seeing the holy Ghost is God it must be a capital crime to make such sinfull fancies and thoughts that come from thy corrupt heart to flow from the holy Spirit of God If to counterfeit the publick Seal or Coin of a Land be a capital crime How great a sinne is it to â—ake thy sinfull and carnal affections as if they were the workings of Gods Spirit And that the Spirit of God dwels in you Two Propositions you heard were contained in these words First That the Spirit of God is God which hath been demonstrated Secondly That the Spirit of God dwels in his Church We therefore proceed to this second Doctrine And now to open this let us consider First What the phrase to dwell in the Church implieth Secondly How he dwels there As the Spirit of God is said to dwell in us so in other places God promiseth to dwell in his people 2 Cor. 6 16. And Christ is said To dwell in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 All which are not to be understood of any visible or local habitation much lesse comprehensive that we cold comprehend God for he is as he said one whose circumference is every where and center no where The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him but it is meant in a mystical and spiritual manner Now this phrase To have the Spirit dwell in us denoteth First The propriety that it hath to us that we are his possession as an house is a mans own where he is Lord and Master And this is worthy of consideration That we who once were the Devils he dwelt in us He ruleth in the hearts of the disobedient Ephes 2. have now him expelled from us and the Spirit of God taking us for his possession We pity persons bodily possessed that they foame and rore and are throwne sometimes into the fire and sometimes in the water but he who is a wicked man the Devil possesseth his soul more dreadfully he puts him upon anger malice upon unclean lusts and noisome filthy wayes and though many be of the Church visibly yet in regard of their own particular they are thus possessed by the Devil who hath their heart their eyes their tongues their whole body so that they seem to be a walking Hell So that herein is a wonderfull change when the Spirit of God comes and takes possession of a people who before were captives to Satan and led aside according to his will 2 Tim. 2.26 Secondly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in a people it supposeth That he doth fashion and prepare them for himself For every lodging is not fit for so noble a guest but as great men carry their rich furniture with them to have convenient lodgings so also doth the Spirit of God raise up a people by illumination and sanctification to be a fit habitation for him As they say Anima fabricat sibi domicilium The soulâ— makes the body so curiously organized and diversified for it's self to be in So much more doth the Spirit of God put spiritual life and quicken up our dead hearts that we may be prepared for the enjoyment of him It 's said The Spirit of God moved upon those waters Genes 1. that covered the deep when the earth was without forme or void Thus the Spirit of God doth take us out of our natural confusion and horrible darknesse and makes us comely with those ornaments he puts upon us So that as it is impossible to have the Sunne but withall we must enjoy glorious light So we cannot have the Spirit of God but withall many precious and heavenly gifts will be bestowed upon us Oh then how few persons how few Congregations can endure the lustre of this Doctrine What heavenly or precious jewels have they of Gods Spirit Thirdly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in us it denoteth The familiarity and condescending Communion that God vouchsafeth unto his children To dwell with one is an act of communion Hence 1 Peter 3.17 Husbands are commanded to dwell with their wives Our Savior expresseth this familiarity by John I will come in and sup with him and he with me Revel 3.20 So that what was spoken of Moses as so rare a priviledge He spake to God face to face as one friend speaketh to another in some kinde of sense though not after the same manner is true of every godly person Hence the Spirit of God is said to enable us to cry Abba Father Galat. 4 6. which though it suppose a filial reverential frame in us yet also godly boldnesse and confidence Hence he is also said To witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. So that children being admitted to sit at their Fathers Table have that bread which dogs may not eat of They have
Vse of Reproof to the Godly that walke in dejections and discouragements alwayes complaining they are many times cast down and disquieted Be asham'd of such a childish weak disposition think of this Text carry it about thee in thy heart in thy mind in thy affections Say I will not disgrace the promise nor dishonour the goodnesse of God any more by these troublesome complaints You see David called himself a fool and a beast for such things Psal 73.22 But then secondly Here is duty as well as priviledge Pray for spiritual wisdome how to make every thing thine in a godly manner Get that excellent art of profiting by every thing Be not as the foolish Cock that knew not what to do with a pearl How do you esteem an herb or a receit of some special use I tell thee Every thing is precious thy time thy health the creatures thou mayest turn all things into gold Verse 22. Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas FRom the General the Apostle in this Verse descends to a particular enumeration of the several things that are for the use of the godly man He giveth us an Inventory of the Churches goods And first he beginneth with the Officers and their Gifts and labours Whether Paul c. He instanceth in the chiefest and highest If Paul and such as were Apostles immediately called and placed in the highest Offices were not for themselves but for the Church then much lesse meaner and lower persons whether Paul that plants or Apollo that waters or Cephas that is Peter Here you see he is placed after Paul and from hence is plainly inferred That Peter had not such an universal and absolute dominion over the Church as the Papists dream of but all for the Church not the Church for them Observe That all Offices and Gifts howsoever diversified are for the Churches of God The Churches edification is the end of their Institution When God made the world he made it for himself The world is for God not God for the world But when Christ ascended on high and set Officers in the Church he made them for believers not believers for them Thus before vers 5. What is Paul and Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believe And so 2 Cor. 4.5 We preach not our selves but Jesus Christ and our selves your servants for Jesus sake So that all the offices all the ministerial power and abilities that are be wholly for the Churches spiritual advantage Even as the nurse of some great Emperours child all the dainty fare and good provision she hath is onely to cause milk that may be good nourishment for the child Hence are they compared to light and salt which have their property for other things and not themselves Now let us consider 1. In what sense this is not true that all Officers are the servants of the Church 2. How it is true And first When we say Officers and all their abilities are for the Church The meaning is not as if they had their power and office from the Church or from believers so as that they should preach and baptize and dispense all Ordinances in the Churches name as the Brownists do earnestly contend making all power and dominion to be in the number of the Church This is not so for the Officers and their power is of Christ 1 Cor 2.28 God hath set in his Church Ephes 4.11 Christ gave some Pastors some Teachers Acts 20.28 Over which the holy Ghost hath made you Overseers Hence they are called The Ministers of Christ and the stewards of God By all which places it's clear That the Officers of the Church have their power and authority from God and Christ that they do all not in the Churches name but Christs name They are not the Churches stewards nor the Churches Embassadors but Christs Indeed by the Churches election or designation such a man is received to be their Pastor or Shepherd but the Church doth not give him his Office but Christ or such Officers that Christ hath appointed to do it So that they are both the Churches servants and Christs servants The Churches servants because the end of their office is to benefit the Church Christs servants because they come in his Name and have their Commission and Authority from him Secondly In that they are wholly the Churches the Apostle doth not confound or make void that order appointed in the Church between Officers and those they have a care over He doth not nullifie the relation they are in of Shepherds Guides Overseers and such as rule over them and watch for their souls good Nor doth he take away that command of honour reverence love and respect yea that submission and obedience unto them as other places do require There are those that would bring an Anarchy and confusion in the Church making no difference between Shepherd and Sheep Guides and Overseers and those who are to submit to them but the Scripture is very clear for this distinction and God is not the God of confusion but of order Is the whole body an eye or the whole body an head saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.17 This would make the body of Christ a deformed monster and worse than any humane society But when he saith All these Officers are yours it implieth these things First That the aim of all those who enter in any Church office and all the while they are in should not be principally their own advantage or earthly accomodations but the edification of the Church the glory of Christ and the good of peoples souls This is very difficult when he saith Paul and Apollo are yours he thereby teacheth all us Ministers what should be the chiefest aim of our souls to feed not to shear the sheep Thus Peter is instructed Lovest thou me Lovest thou me then feed my sheep feed my lambes John 21.16 Not but that Christ taketh care for their maintenance and they are lawfully to look to that but it ought not to be the principal He that desireth 1 Tim. 3.1 the office of a Bishoprick desireth a good work It 's a work and labour for the good of others So that this teacheth us what sincere and publique intentions ought to be in us What tender and compassionate bowels we ought to have to the flock committed to our charge Secondly It implieth That all our preaching and the whole labour of our Ministry must not be for ostentation or self-advancement but in the most profitable and advantagious way we can to better mens souls 1 Cor. 12.7 Every one hath his gift to profit with all The Apostle rejects all such Questions as do not profit 2 Tim. 2.14 So that all our care should be in our preaching in our study so to handle the Word that we may most benefit our people that our words may fall like the rain or dew upon the tender herb as Moses saith Deut. 32.2 that the meanest may be edified The Apostles arguments against speaking in