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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

line as you have seene the golden line in the Genealogies a via lactea to lead to Christ in whom all Genealogies are ended and accounted by Paul in the same ranke with Mataeologies and old wives Fables And therefore Matthew begins his Gospell with this and cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Booke a Bible because this is the very Map and Epitome of the whole Bible as it was in the old Testament that he might by this divine art of insinuation teach the end and use of all that was then written The like may be picked out of the very names there registred for though the conceit of the Cabalists be fond and vaine that patch up the names of Mary and Iesus by a strange Alchymie of Rapsodies and Anagrams out of diverse passages of the Scripture yet this ought to be of some importance that religious parents imposed such names to their children as might be monuments of the Messiah Master Broughton hath observed many and I spare to repeate any View againe the Succession of Kings Priests and Prophets you shall finde that all those severall currents emptie themselves into Christ as rivers into the Ocean and Crown him with a triple Crown for hee is the King Priest and Prophet of his Church of whose comming all the rest were but Harbengers I say they three like the three Wisemen offer Gold and Myrrhe and Frankincense and so make a triple Crowne for Christ and so again make a three twined scourge to whip the usurping Whore out of the Temple of God as Christ served the Trucksters buyers and sellers and money changers Thus is the series of the storie contracted into Christ the summe of all the same lesson may be read written in great letters that hee that runnes may read them in those many illustrious examples of all those three kinds recorded in Scripture so that if there were not many expresse notes yet there were many notable impressions many vistigia omnia te adversum spectantia all looking to Christ-ward each of them giving a taste of that which Christ performed in all fulnesse 1 For Priests I need not name any because they all represented Christ if not in their personall excellencies yet in their officiall performances 2. For Prophets I will name a few because they were so many Two ascended into Heaven Enoch before the Law Elias in the Law thus was Christs ascension who was primitiae dormientium a maine Article of our faith prefigured Three before Christ were raised from the dead one by Eliah another by Elisha a third by touching the bones of Elisha being dead revived even as three were raised in the Gospell the daughter of Iairus in the house the Widowes son in the gate Lazarus stinking in the grave thus was one of the greatest miracles of our Saviour and his owne resurrection who was primitiae dormientium prefigured Elias after his wearie persecution by Ahab lying under the Juniper tree complained and desired that he might die so did Ionas when the Sunne beate upon his head after the Gourd was withered and something more frowardly thus was the passion of Christ prefigured and the most uncouth exigent thereof for when the wrath of God the Father like the rayes of the Sunne beat upon him when hee hung upon the Crosse then was hee brought under the Juniper tree for the heat of the heat of the wrath of God was hotter than Juniper coales yet he underwent it for the love of us men and our salvation constrained him for the fire of love is hotter then the coales of Juniper Moses and Elias fasted forty dayes in the Wildernesse so did Christ who notwithstanding fed five thousand with five loaves as Elisha typically had done before him I had intended to have propounded more but it shall be enough digitum ad fontes as they say to have set the wheeles of your better meditations a going 3. Many Kings and Iudges were types of Christ in the storie as Moses a lawgiver in the Wildernesse Iosua a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator of the true Mediator a leader of Israel into the land of Canaan a Iosua of the true Iosua the true Iesus David that fought the Lords battailes and foiled the great Goliah that defied the hoast of Israel Salomon the beloved of the Lord the Prince of peace and otherwise were they but glasses which did not bound the light but transported the godly to the contemplation of Christ The accommodation is easie but I hasten yet I cannot passe by the type of Sampson it was so lively for as Sampson by his owne death was the death of thousands of Philistims and David slew Goliah with his owne sword so Christ overcame death by undergoing death and brake the head of the Serpent by suffering him to bruise his heel for in him the fiction of Achilles is no fiction that being otherwhere impenetrable his heele was not for Christ was only penetrable in his heele his humanitie his Deitie remaining altogether impassible I am ravished with delight in these sacred reliques of antiquitie yet I must cut off what I thought to have added and me thinks I heare some wondring what all this makes to the argument in hand I answer as Tamar convinced Iudah by his staffe and his signet and Theseus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that made him knowne were a pasport and certificate to his father of his legitimation so Christ is acknowledge to be Iesus to be Messiah by these performances for these are the tesserae of commerce the watch word betweene the old and new Testament the badges of the whole booke proclaiming to us they doe belong the joynts and gimmers by which either of them is as it were scrued into the other Mercuriall statues pointing the way to Christ Starres in storie like the starre that appeared to the Wisemen guiding them to Bethlehem where it stood still for all ended in Christ and he is the end of all Thus the Historicall part of the old Testament is full of Asterisks and hands and lines that draw the intelligent reader to Christ To conclude this point this is the use of Genealogies to track the way of salvation by the golden line that leades to Christ and this is the wisdome of wisemen to follow the conduct of the starre till we come to him who is the true morning-star the true Load-starre that guides our wandring feet in our wearie pilgrimage to eternall rest in the heavenly Canaan The Propheticall part is more plaine by many degrees almost palpable for there was not any thing almost fulfilled by Christ but it was foretold by the Prophets as there was not any thing foretold by the Prophets which was not fulfilled by Christ See this 1. In the maine Articles of the Creed he was borne of the Virgin Mary so Esay Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare Suffered under Pilate so Iacob The Scepter shall not depart from

by Christ did overflow and superabound and the riches of grace the exceeding great love of Christ and the bredth and the length and the height and the depth of love A man would thinke that Paul had spent all his Arts all his Rhetorick in Pleonasmes and Hyperbolies his Geometry in taking the height of his desert and could not attaine it And indeed they are words of wonder wondrous words or rather as he sayes wonders not words to expresse his absolute perfection to omit all these I say I will content my selfe with two or three witnesses to ratifie it which shall be past exception Iohn 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sinne of the world saith Iohn Baptist of Christ Will you believe the Lords Messenger Behold the Lamb what shall we behold in a Lamb Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Iohn 19. 30. It is finished saith Christ Iesus himselfe It what the Redemption of mankind what of the Redemption It is finished will you believe the Lord and Master Let no man think to thrust his Sickle into another mans harvest for it is finished Matth. 3. last This is my welbeloved sonne in whom I am well pleased saith God the Father This which even Christ Iesus what of Christ This is my welbeloved sonne in whom I am well pleased will you believe the Lord and Maker Let no man feare any after reckoning the Lord will looke for no more he will take no more for he is already pleased for in his welbeloved sonne he is well pleased I thinke there 's no man can slight the credit of these witnesses for Iohn hee said no more then he saw and Christ he affirmed no more then he performed and God spoke that which be received his acquittance could be no larger then his acceptance and therefore needs must all these make it irrefragable Neither was their witnesse a perfunctory testimoniall but a peremptory proofe of his fufficiencie for Iohn was nothing but a voice and the voice of a cryer and yet this is all that he said with such earnest contention and God said it not in a silent manner whispering not in a secret place but it was a voice from Heaven and Christ said it not in his ordinary speech but when he was upon the Crosse then he said a great voice as S. Matthew and S. Marke note then he said it with his last breath and seald it with his dearest blood And therefore I hope that this will suffice to have spoken of his sufficiencie I come now to the second point That Faith is sufficient to make him our Saviour which I will handle according to my former order but exceeding briefly 1. What faith is viz. out of the true sence of our own misery by nature and sweet apprehension of Gods mercy offered an humble denyall of our selves and all creatures and confident relying on the mercy of the Lord in Christ Iesus This may serve for a weake delineation of that worthy grace framed according to the proportion of my former principles And that this is sufficient needs no more proof but to point at that which ye have heard already for seeing our Salvation must be wrought by another and he that wrought it is Christ what can be further requisite then that Christ and his merits be made ours which can be done by faith only beside which there can be no other affection betweene God and man for the Spirit of God is the bond that unites and knits us to Christ by faith and faith is the hand that receives the treasure of Christs merits that inrich us and Christ is all our riches for being once transplanted out of the old Adam and ingrafted into the new which is Christ and made one with him the Lord cannot chuse but repute us righteous through the imputation of his righteousnesse Hence it is that all our sinnes are remitted and blotted out of the booke of remembrance and our selves re-admitted into his favour and into his family hence it is that we are adopted to be his sonnes and adorned with his sonnes holinesse hence it is that the curse of our sinnes is take away and we have peace with God and all his creatures the Angels pitch their Tents about us and the stones of the field are in league with us for it is written He hath given his Angels charge over us to preserve us in all our wayes least at any time we should hurt our foot against a stone hence it is that the old man with the lusts of the same dye in us and decay and the new man is renewed daily As soone as we begin to believe in the Lord Iesus the scales fall from our eyes that we can not only read in the book of the Scripture the will of God which before was a booke closed a booke sealed up to us but also lift up our eyes to Heaven and looke into the volumes of eternitie and read our names written in the booke of life The shackels also fall from our feet and we being inlarged are enabled not only to walk in the Lords Statutes but also to run the way of his Commandements And though we groane under the burden of our sinnes so long as we live here cloathed with this body of death yet we are freed from the bondage of them and still grow on to perfection which then wee shall attaine when we shall bee translated into the Heavens where we shall receive the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls through his mercy who hath so dearely bought us and brought us thither where we shall enjoy the blessed presence of God in whose presence there is fulnesse of joy and pleasure for evermore Blessed are the people that are in such a case in such a place yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. But all this is made ours by faith only which entitles us to the merits of Christ who purchased it for us therefore faith is sufficient I should now justifie this by Scripture but to say truth this truth and this Text is the only scope of the Scripture the theme of Theologie the pith of all piety and therefore because it deserves some better observation I will deferre it to some better opportunitie Μόνῳ τῷ Θεῷ δόξα 1 Corinth 2. 2. For I determined to know nothing among you but Christ Jesus and him Crucified WHen I first tooke this place in hand I thought to have finished it out of hand the same time I began but it fared with me as it did with Simonides who the more time they gave him to assoyle the question what God was the more he craved And what marvaile since Christ is the argument we have in hand They talk of a fabulous purse of Fortunatus I thinke few are so credulous to believe it but this we may and must believe for the Spirit of truth avouches

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