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

them new Sepulchers and adore them as the Pharisees did in Christs time If Christ be sufficient then why doe you not make an Index expurgatorius for the Bible as the Jesuites have done already for the Fathers and spung out all but Christ crucified for that is sufficient whereas the Scripture sayes all Scripture is inspired of God profitable c. and Christ himself sayes that he came to fulfill not to disanull the Scripture You heare what the curious Rabbins may object I dare not undertake to relate what answer the Apostle might make them lest I should sinke under the gravitie of so great a person you may presume it was divine sed nostro non referenda sono But yet because it concernes the Text I have in hand very nearely I will endeavour in that respect to give satisfaction Every word of God is pure like Gold tryed in the fire seven times and what was said of the Orator that the addition or detraction of a word would marre the grace or clyp the meaning of their sentence is most true in Gods word and therefore we read this just and severe sanction of his Books authority he that adds to this booke God shall adde to him all the plagues that are written in this booke hee that detracts any thing his name shall be razed out of the book of life and what was said in another case is most true in this not an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the least letter nor the least tittle thereof shall passe because not so much as one of them is idle or superfluous And for profit the very leaves thereof are for the healing of the nations and the fruit is the fruit of the tree of life the leaves are physicke and the fruit is meate the fruit is preservative and the leaves are restorative the leaves are health the fruit is immortality for this book is not for sight but for meat as appeares by Iohn who ate the booke that the Angell gave him beside that it is sweeter then the hony and the hony combe as David that hath tasted hath testified How then this resolution of S. Paul doth not abolish the Scripture but establish it for Christ crucified and faith in him is the summe and scope of all the Scripture And thus you see I have overtaken or rather met with the same point and in the same place where I left it the last time for as you may remember after I had treated of the sufficiency of faith in Christ I propounded consequently that it was the summe of Divinitie and the scope of the Scripture that it was the summe of Divinitie as I could I then evinced by casting up the reckoning of both the parts thereof faith and obedience which amounted to no more but this for wee found that Christ was the foundation of faith and the fountaine of obedience the Iacobs Ladder of ascent and descent descent of God to man ascent of man to God and as the Spouse speaks in the Ganticles he is Sigillum cordis Sigillum brachii for he is the stampe of faith in the heart that is Sigillum cordis and he is the stampe of good works in the hand that is Sigillum brachii in the hands the following character but in the heart the leading character for he is both Sigillum cordis and Sigillum brachii as the Spouse speaks in the Canticles Thus is Christ the summe of Divinitie It remaines now then that we should cleare the other that he is the Scope of all the Scripture which I will do first in generall and so leade you on into the particulars In generall this may be demonstrated by that which hath been before delivered for if faith in Christ be the Epitome of the Rule of Divinitie then needs must it be so likewise of the Scripture that containes that Rule and that in a double respect 1. As the immutable substance of the Rule is considered the substance was alway that which leads man to eternall Salvation which is by Christ Iesus only and this is the maine scope of the Scripture in generall For all the sonnes of Adam being guilty of high treason against the most High the hand writing of the Law inditeing us Heaven and earth witnessing against us the Grand jurie of the blessed Angels finding us guiltie our owne consciences answering guilty what remaines but to heare the terrible sentence of condemnation pronounced against us by the mouth of the most just Judge the Lord Almightie Yet the mercy of the Lord was such that when the Law had cast us the Lord called us to pardon And as the Clergie of our Land is priviledged in many cases to have their booke so was it his pleasure to give his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his inheritance his peculiar their booke that by their booke they may be saved and this booke is the booke of the Scripture The Scripture againe is the Letter of the Almightie to the sonnes of men as one cals it indited by God himselfe and the Angell of his great counsell Christ Iesus for so Esay stiles him together with his Spirit penned by his principall Secretaries the holy Prophets and Apostles and sealed with the blood of the Lamb let me goe a little further they are the Literae laureatae the Superscription is To the faithfull the Salutation is Salutem in Christo The Argument is nothing but a Proclamation of a generall pardon in his name to all penitent and believing sinners This is the Summe of the Scriptures in generall and this is the first demonstration that Christ is the summe thereof because Divinitie and it like two twinnes keepe pace with a mutuall correspondency like two parallels runne on in equall extent beginning and ending both together and the summe of the one is the summe of the other and the summe of both is eternall happines which is to bee looked for and can bee found in Christ alone 2. This is the first proportion we find between them the second offers it selfe to your consideration as the Scripture may be accommodated to the mutable circumstances of the Rule according to the difference of time before and after Christ. The Lord made in the beginning duo magna Luminaria the great to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night the Sunne and the Moone Much like to this there be two portions of the light which God hath revealed concerning our salvation given to guide two times the old Testament the lesser light like the Moone to rule the night of ignorance when the Doctrine of the Messiah was more obscurely delivered the New the greater light like the Sun to rule the day of knowledge which the faithfull have injoyed ever since Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse appeared When it was night there must needs be many Ceremonies like many shadowes and many humours by reason of the feeble light and heat the influence of the Moone

to the Sepulcher but Peter went first into the Sepulcher and saw all things In a word let them be sure to take their instructions with them that desire to goe Ambassadors I come now to the second observation which concernes those that are in the Ministerie and that divers wayes both for instruction and first for their life If Vzzah must die but for touching the Arke of God and that to stay it when it was like to fall if the men of Bethshemesh but for looking into it if the very beasts that doe but come neere the holy Mount bee threatned then what manner of persons ought they to be who shall be admitted to talke with God familiarly to stand before him as the Angels doe and behold his face continually to beare the Arke upon their shoulders to beare his name before the Gentiles in a word to be his Ambassadors Holinesse becommeth thy house O Lord and were it not a ridiculous thing to imagine that the Vessels must be holy the Vestures must be holy all must be holy but only he upon whose very garments must be written Holinesse to the Lord he might be unholy that the bels of the horses should have an inscription of holinesse upon them in Zechariah and the Saints-Bells the Bels of Aaron should be unhallowed No they must be shining and burning lights or else their influence will dart some malignant quality they must chew the cud and divide the hoofe or else they are uncleane they must divide the Word aright and walke uprightly in their life joyne life to learning or either of them single like the solitary Helena to the Mariners will be unhappy they must be such as he sayes of zealous Christians which unwisely opposed their Pastor which had a conversation perswading to godlinesse they must be such of which that may be verified his degree credited his life and his life graced his degree then shall all the world know them to be Gods servants Gods Ambassadors they shall be like Innes which have their Signes on both sides like those which you have seene of the Kings Guard which have the Armes of the Crown on their brests and on their backes they carry about them a double demonstration of their office à priori à posteriori If they meet with you in their doctrine you know them for Gods servants If you follow them in their steps in their example you know them for Gods servants either way they beare the stampe and cognisance of Heaven upon them Excellently Nazianzen of Athanasius he was rich for the theorick and rich for the practick in his life and he linckt both as in a golden chaine manifesting it by using his conversation as a guide of his speculation and his speculation as a seale of his conversation where the reading I thinke may be better inverted If this be wanting they dishonour the countrey from whence they come the Prince from whom they come and this dead Amasa this dead Doctrine not quickned with a good life lying in the way stops the people of the Lord that they cannot goe on cheerefully in their spirituall warfare They would be wished therefore to preach no otherwise then Origen did you know the storie Origen after his foule fall when put to his choise whether he would defile himselfe with an Aethiopian woman or sacrifice to the Heathen gods he had done the latter comming to the Church at Ierusalem and being requested to preach there he opened the booke and fell upon that in the Psalme What hast thou to doe to take my words into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed which when he had read he closed the booke againe and sate downe and wept and all the congregation wept with him and this was all his sermon And thus in my opinion would these men be counselled to repent of their preaching and so as it were preach of their repentance The second instruction followes for their doctrine For this title of Ambassadors commends many things unto them as 1. Fidelitie Ambassadors have a commission beyond which they must not go and I thinke it is disputed and determined by Lawyers that a Legate may not transgresse it though he might in probability advantage his master more otherwise I am sure it must be so with Gods Ambassadors the Word is their commission from which if they swerve the Lord will commence an Action concerning their Embassage against them And if it were possible that traditions and humane inventions could gain more glory then this yet they that presumed to use them might justly looke to be handled as the Triumvirs did the servant of a noble Senator of Rome that betrayed his Master whom they had proscribed they rewarded him for his service to them because he delivered him who was proscribed they proving him guilty and then they rewarded him for his treachery to his master whom he should have preserved they cast him down headlong from the Capitoll and brake his neck 2. Humility They go for another they must not wo for themselves Non nobis Domine non nobis not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be given all the praise and glory must be their song They may take up the Embleme that a noble Lady of France being suspected of a crime and not well knowing how to wash it away otherwise used a watering Pot dropping with this Motto Nil mihi praeterea praeterea mihi nil The Ministers I say may well use this watering pot for Paul may plant and Apollo water but it is God that giveth the increase In a word because I am forced to post over these things as Peter and Iohn having healed a lame man that lay at the beautifull gate of the Temple said to the people that beheld it and began to have them in some admiration Why gaze you upon us as if we had done this by our owne power c And as the King Canutus in our English Historie tooke off the Crowne from his owne head and set it upon the Crucifixe at Westminster So Gods Ambassadors must not receive honour for themselves but must be like the Mercuriall Statues to point men the right way to Christ. 3. Diligence Cursed be he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently especially they that are is Ambassadors they must not say as Iustin Martyr speakes in a case not much different we know not how to worke but as the heroicall Prince professeth so their Arms must be the feathers and their word I serve and who is so dull a Gramarian that cannot put these together and make this easie construction That the nature of their service requires much diligence and expedition Their master and their errand the authority of the one the necessity of the other the reward the punishment the horrour of the one the hope of the other will compell them to discharge their office with all possible industrie Who would not runne

the Lord had not beene on our side they had swallowed us up quicke But thanks be to God in Christ Iesus the net is broken and we are escaped and behold they are dead that sought our lives The Divell like a Serpent in the Garden stirred Adam to sinne and Sinne like a Serpent in the Wildernesse stung Israel to the death but our Saviour hath overcome them all he tamed the Serpent in the wildernesse that tempted Adam in the Garden to sinne and he tooke out the sting of sinne the Serpent of the Desart by the desert of his suffering for sinne was the Serpent and the sting of sin was death and death he vanquished in the grave even in his owne denne even on his owne dunghill So that if death should now reason that he hath us still in captivitie because he hath us still in keeping we may say as Tully once to Atticus O mors ubi est acumen tuum or rather as S. Paul prompteth us O death where is thy sting ô grave where is thy victorie And thus was Christ the Lambe sltaine the price paid the propitiatory sacrifice for his chosen and this was his passive obedience whereby he suffered and overcame that which we should have suffered but could not have overcome satisfying even the rigorous exaction of Gods exact justice and these are both the parts of the payment which he tendred up to God in our behalfe and for our behoofe by which he hath not only freed us from our naturall misery which was the first part of Salvation and hath beene shewed hitherto but hath also filled us with all good things which as the former consists in two things Holinesse and Happinesse Both which Christ hath furnished us withall out of the rich storehouse of his merits for what he did he did for us and we are righteous in his righteousnesse and what he merited for us he merited and we are victorious in his victorie in a word he hath cloathed us with an undefiled immaculate robe of righteousnesse and crowned us with an immortall crown of glory even in incorruptible crowne of inconceivable glory with righteousnesse irreprehensible with glory incomprehensible And if any man doubt yet of the sufficiency of his satisfaction weighing the heinousnesse of our transgression let that man consider but who it was that did these things and what the things were that he did and suffered and then I hope he shall be sufficiently satisfied It was the Lord of glory that emptied himselfe into the forme of a servant it was the Lord of life that shed his precious blood for us he humbled himself to be a man yea a servant of whom it was every way true if ever it were true there is one servant only which is master of the house yea not a man a worme and no man he humbled himselfe to the death the death of the crosse the most ignominious and ignoble death of all other● he descended out of the bosome of blessednesse into the bottome of basenesse and therefore needes must his passion be very meritorious whose person was so magnificent his desert must needs be great whose descent was so glorious Neither need any man doubt of Gods acceptation for beside that which hath beene said that what he did and what he suffered it was for us because he was man he tooke not the nature of Angels upon him but of man and it was sufficient because hee was God which adds infinite value to both beside this I say who could be so fit to reconcile man to God as he who was both God and man Man quia solus Deus sentire God quia solus homo superare non potuit mortem quam pro nobis obire debuit yea and it was the counsell of the Lord that this should be the meanes to bring this to passe and therefore hee laid his wrath upon him which otherwise had beene injustice his wrath I say so heavily upon him that it wrung out strange words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and therefore he that accounted him a sinner for our sakes must needs accept of the sacrifice that he offer'd for our sins Now when I review all that I have said for his sufficiency me thinks I need not have gone further off my text for demonstration of this truth for Paul saith he determined to know nothing but Christ Iesus and him crucified therefore he is Christ and Iesus and crucified therefore he is an alsufficient Saviour for these three like the three termes of a Syllogisme draw in a demonstrative Conclusion like the three tongues that were written upon the Crosse Greeke Latine Hebrew to witnesse Christ to be the King of the Iewes doe each of them in his severall Idiom avouch this singular Axiom that Christ is an alsufficient Saviour and a threefold cord is not easily broken He was that Christ which was annointed and appointed of God for that purpose and therefore filled and furnished with all graces fit for the accomplishment According to the smell of thine Ointments thy Name is an Ointment powred forth therefore the virgins love thee saith the Spouse in the Canticles His name is the Annointed and in him many graces concurred to make a full performance as in a precious ointment many spices concurre to make a sweete perfume Therefore the virgins love thee the virgins that are pure in heart hence they fetch Oyle for their Lamps and therefore they burne in love virgins love ointment for their beautie thy Name is an ointment powred forth therefore the virgins love thee the wise virgins love thee because they are wise and so would the foolish too but that they are foolish 2. This Christ was crucified for us there was the whole box of ointment broken and powred forth there all the spices gave their smell a sweet smelling savour which ascended into the nosthrils of the Lord and became to him a dutifull smell in which he is well pleased And therefore 3. He must needs be Iesus whether you derive the name from the Greeke as some have done to heale more finely then fitly and yet more fit then finely for he hath healed all our infirmities by the merit of his blood and the annointing of his Spirit or from the Hebrew as it is most truly for he hath saved us from our sinnes from all our sinnes and therefore is a true Iesus a Saviour a perfect Saviour for so the Angell that imposed his name expounded it And therefore is an Angell from Heaven preach any other doctrine then this let him be accursed saith S. Paul I need not heape up any more yet it will not be amisse to let you heare the voice of the Scripture where to omit the common consent of the whole frame and phrase of the booke and the murmure of every letter which all of them proclaime this truth and beside those words of note which note thus much every where as Grace

And now I hope though this my discourse bee very imperfect yet it will not bee altogether impertinent or unprofitable for this one point that faith in Christ crucified is the summ of al the Scripture well considered must needs give very much light to the reading of every part thereof it will be like a key to unlock the meaning and so make way to the rich treasure therein like a clue of thread to lead us thorow many intricate Labyrinths therof And this makes me call to mind what I forgat even now that the red thread that Rahab hung out of her window when Iericho was beseiged was an Embleme of Christ Crucified by whom all the faithfull must be saved from eternall death as she was then preserved from present destruction much bettet then Leucotheae vitta or Ariadnes filum Let me wind up all that hath beene said Christ is the summe of all Divinity me thinks the Clypeus fidei is like that Clypeus Phidiae the Buckler of faith like the buckler of Phidias that Historians speake of I meane the Buckler of Minerva which Phidias made for as in it he had so curiously intrailed his owne name that it could not be taken out without the dissolution of the whole frame so hath Christ so divinely wrought his name in the worke of salvation the rule of Divinitie that it cannot be taken out but that golden chaine that series causarum will all fall in sunder The Ephesians when Croesus beseiged them chained their City to the Temple of Diana the Tyrians theirs when Alexander to the Statue of Hercules and so all the precepts of Divinitie seem to be chained to the Crosse of Christ he is the umbilicus where all the intrails are knit together the Center where all lines meet and therefore in the Creed of twelve Articles ten of them concern him and beside the other two of God the Father and the Holy Ghost have their dependance on him too for he hath obtained the Spirit for us and by him we have accesse unto the Father as I shewed before And therefore as in the first book we learn the Crosse begins the row as though all the 24. Letters were but Commentaries upon the Crosse so surely this is the summ of all our learning to learn to know Christ Iesus and him Crucified Againe Christ is the Scope of all the Scriptures Me thinks the Scripture is a Ring of Gold which Christ hath given his Spouse the Church as a token of his love and himselfe like the Diamond in the Ring the Scripture is the field mentioned in the Gospell and Christ like the jewell in the field which a wise Merchant knowing of would sell all he hath to purchase the Scripture the box and Christ the ointment preciosum opobalsamum in gemmeo myrothecio and therefore Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word as though every word sounded of Christ and all the Word of God were nothing else and Christ is the Alpha and Omega thereof as himself sayes Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end for all the Letters without which the Spirit in the Scripture breaths not for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies or Alpha and Omega the two principall for all the Vowels without which all the Scripture is but a mute Letter a dead Letter I may say a killing Letter and for him the Scripture it selfe is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bible the booke because it is the only book containing this knowledg which alone is sufficient and which is only necessary to eternall salvation In a word to close up all the knowledge of Christ crucified is the Theme of Theologie the Scope of the Scripture the Pith of all Pietie as Paul excellently layes it downe Ephes 2. 19. For through him we have accesse by one Spirit to the Father being no more strangers and forreiners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. c. you see the knot that holds all together And thus much for the explication of this Text. 1 Corinth 2. 2. For I determined to know nothing among you but Christ Jesus and him Crucified THe handling of the Word of God is a divine kinde of husbandry And this portion of Scripture is that parcell of holy ground which I began to till long agoe but have not yet finished I have hitherto broken up the ground only it remaines that I should now breake the clods which might hinder the fruitfulnesse and cast out the stones that so at last I may sowe the blessed seed of exhortation in hope of a blessed harvest Or rather this portion of Scripture is the seed for so saith Christ the seed is the Word and I have hitherto beat this seed out of the eare onely and must now winnow and fanne it out of the chaffe that at the last I may cast it again into the ground of your heart for so saith Saint Paul you are the Lords husbandrie in hope of a fruitfull increase from the blessing of the Lord the Lord of the harvest for Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is the Lord that gives the increase he that planteth is nothing and he that watereth is nothing but the Lord that giveth the increase for without him the seeds-man is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semini verbius a babler according to our translation as the Epicures scoffed at Paul or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seminilegus such an one as they that stood in the Corne-markets and gathered up the Corne that fell beside the Sacks in emptying as Casaubon observes that is a man of no worth an earthen vessell as the Apostle cals Ministers elsewhere and the word will beare it I presume the meanest in this place conceives my meaning yet I will endeavour to speake more plainly that if there be any seeming riddle you may plow with my Heifer as Sampsons companions did and reed the interpretations I have hitherto given you the explication of these words and so as it were threshed the Corne out of the eare with the flaile of the Spirit I come now to the application in two parts 1. For confutation of popish errors and so I will chide away the chaffe out of this stoore with the fanne of Christ 2. For exhortation and so I will cast the seed into your eares and charme it in the phrase of the Spouse in the Canticles Arise ô North and come ô South and blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow forth In the Explication I have handled alreadie these three points 1. That Christ crucified is a sufficient Saviour 2. That Christ Crucified is the summe of the Scripture 3. That Christ Crucified is the summ of Religion Which may stand as so many