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B00055
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Love and obedience or, Christs precept and promise. Being a sermon preached on Whitsunday last, 28 of May, 1637. in Guild-hall chappell, before the right honorable the Lord Major of this city of London.
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Freake, William
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1637
(1637)
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STC 11347; ESTC S123109
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14,888
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23
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Love and Obedience OR Christs Precept and Promise Being a Sermon Preached on Whitsunday last 28. of May 1637. in Guild-hall chappell before the right Honorable the Lord Major of this City of London By William Freake Minister of the Word of God 1 Samuel 15.22 Behold to Obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken is better then the fat of Rams LONDON Printed by Iohn Okes dwelling in little-Saint Bartholmewes 1637. To the Right Honourable Sir Edward Bromfield Knight Lord Major of this honorable City and to the rest of the right Worshipful Court of Aldermen with the right Worshipful William Abell and Iames Garrard Esquires Shriefes of this Honourable Citty for this yeare William Freake Minister of Gods Word wisheth in the Dedication of this his service all reall happinesse conducing to this life and a better Right honorable and right Worshipfull TO shew reasons for my Dedication of this Sermon and my service therein to your Honour and to this City may bee expected by some that have not knowne me and my course but they are well known almost to all that know me to be such and of that Nature that if I should neglect this duty the World might well crie shame upon me I have beene above thirty foure yeares imploied here wholy and within the Verge of this City I haue received the greatest good that I enjoy in my present course from the reverend Ministry of this City I have had my first incouragement in this way from a worshipfull Society of this City What I hope to enjoy during life hath beene the free gift of this honourable Court of Aldermen and of this Citty All which are iust incentives to a respective thankefulnesse from me But I must adde one reason more in respect of you my much honoured Lord your Honours free goodnesse to mee at my first comming to Saint Georges in Southwarke now five yeares since compleate The free continuation of your love in some distresses falne upon me in the interim And lately your Honors undeserved favour in appointing me to this Service All these have enioyned me to this Dedication which I humbly beseech your Honor to accept of as proceeding from him whose daily praiers and constant indeauours in the way of all thankefulnesse and dutifull obseruance are and shall be during life ever yours as obliged Your Honours and the Cities Chaplaine to be commanded William Freake Love and Obedience JOHN 14. vers 15.16 If yee love me keepe my Commandements and I will pray unto the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever OVr Text is Verbum Dei and Verbum diei as a Father sometimes said in the like case as the Word of God so a Word in season even a word for the very day being the first words of that portion of sacred Scripture which the pious care of our Church hath selected to be read unto you as the Gospel for this day In which without any dilatory Preambles wee have onely these 2. generals propounded to our consideration 1. A Precept 2. A Promise The precept seeming to be propounded conditionally as a man would collect from the words at the first sight thereof Si me diligatis If yee love me But being indeed as Ferus hath observed a charge inforced by way of Argument drawne Ex concessis from the generall and frequent confession of all the Apostles in their professed love to Christ as their Lord and Master If ye love me keepe my Commandements As if our blessed Lord had sayd Ye all professe to love me and that ye are desirous to indeare your service by some reall testimonies thereof unto me If then ye love me as yee professe yee can no way better shew it than by keeping my Commandements If ye love me keep my Commandements As touching the second generall it is a promise of the sending downe of the Holy Ghost whose descending gave occasion to this Festivall which now we celebrate this being the day by the Churches accompt whereon the Holy Ghost came downe in the forme of cloven tongues of fire and sate upon the Apostles at Hierusalem as yee have it delivered in the second of the Acts. A Day to bee celebrated with a religious observance in a double respect First as it is the day if we understand things aright whereon the Law was delivered to the Israelites from Mount Sinai the fiftieth day after their departure out of Egypt which gave name to the Feast of Pentecost Levit. 23.15 16. Deut. 16.9 Exod. 13.4 Secondly as it is the day upon which the Gospell proceeded from Mount Sion by the comming downe of the Holy Ghost the third person in Trinity according to the promise of the second person in Trinity our blessed Lord heere in my Text If ye love me c. Et ego rogabo Patrem ille dabit vobis alium paracletum You have the second generall propounded the precept of our blessed Lord and his gracious promise which together with the particulars therein considerable are like to be the subject of my discourse and your attention at this time Wherein that our joynt indeavours may tend to the glory of our good God and our mutuall comforts both here and hereafter may it please our heavenly Father to assist me in speaking and you in hearing and to second our weake and worthlesse undertakings by the sacred influence and holy operation of his gracious Spirit the Comforter in our Text even for his sake who in this Text hath promised to pray for us saying Ego rogabo Patrem c If yee love me keepe my Commandements and I will pray c. and of these two Generals in their order beginning with the first the Precept Si me me diligatis c. Many Observations may be made from this first Generall profitable for instruction for direction comfortable which I will runne over with what brevity I can As first from the scope and maine intention of the words I observe with Ferus Probatio dilectionis est exhibitio operis The best testimony of mans love to Almighty God is collected from the sincerity of mans obedience to Gods revealed Will. God is faithfull saith Moses keeping covenant and mercy with them that love him and keepe his Commandements Deut. 7.9 as intimating that no profession of love to Almighty God is acceptable in his sight where there wanteth a pious respect to his holy Commandements For what is it saith he ô Israel that God requireth of thee but to love the Lord thy God and to serve him with all thine heart and with all thy soule and that thou keepe the Commandements of the Lord and his Ordinances which I command thee this day Deut. 10.12 13. As if he should say God requireth nothing of thee but Love and Obedience Therefore in the 11. Chap. of the same Booke ver 22. hee comprehendeth the whole summe of Religion in these two branches Love and Obedience where having said Keepe
diligently all the Commandements which I command you to doe hee explaineth his meaning in the words following that is To love the Lord your God and to walke in all his wayes Deut. 11.22 Whereunto agreeth that speech of the beloved Disciple to the full I Iohn 5.3 This is the love of God that we keepe his Commandements Plainely shewing the truth of this assertion observed from the scope of the words that the best Testimony of mans love to God is the sincerity of mans obedience to Gods revealed Word Which if it be so then wretched is that errour of multitudes of men and women who contenting themselves in this case with a verball profession take liberty to shame the same by a disorderly conversation whose Religion can not better be exprest than by comparing it to that language which the Jewish children spoke in the dayes of Nehemia Nehem. 13. ver 24. For as they spoke their Hebrew in a broken manner halfe the speech of Ashdod and halfe of Ammon and halfe of Moab and could not speake in the Iewes Language but according to the language of each people So too many amongst us when they are put to it to speake out their Religion in their practice utter it in such a broken manner so mingled with the practice of a prophane life that they appeare to be meerely Hybridae of a mixt race as were Iewish children halfe Christian halfe worldling whose profession and practice being layd together miserably shame each other Should a man demand this question of the veryest Epicure and dissolute liver of the griping oppressour or prophane Sabbath-breaker of the blasphemous swearer or time-serving Atheist if he love God or not he will answer that it were pitty of his life else I would then gladly know what evidence such a person can have in his heart what testimony he can give unto the world that there is any love of God in him at all while so contemptuously and wilfully he continueth to breake Gods Commandements Assuredly men doe not gather Grapes off Thornes nor Figs off Thistles saith our blessed Redeemer Math. 7.6 The tree is knowne by his fruite and by their fruits yee shall know them ibid. ver 20. Mens love to God is best discerned by their lives and if they love God truely they wil keepe his Commandements conscionably It is a good note of Musculus in his Comment upon my Text Observatio preveptorum Dei omnibus Christi fidelibus eo loco habenda est ut si illa desit in ipsam Christi dilectionem peccasse convincamur The conscionable observance of Gods Commandements is so materiall and absolute a marke of a true Christian as that where this is wanting the lives of men convince them to their faces that the love of Christ dwelleth not in them I will conclude this observation therefore with that saying of St. John 1. Ioh. 2.4 He that sayeth I know him and keepeth not his Commandements the same is a liar and the truth is not in him Testifie therefore my beloved I humbly beseech you your love to our blessed Lord and Redeemer by yeelding a carefull and quicke obedience to his holy Commandemen for he loveth me not that keepes not my word saith our Saviour in this chap. ver 24. But if any man love me he will keepe my word ibid. v. 23. and hee that hath my Commandements and keepeth them is he that loveth mee ibid. v. 21. 2. Which thing we might the rather be induced to do if we would but duly consider the force of Christs argument as it is couched in that forme of eloquution which he is pleased here to use si me diligatis for he saith not si in me credatis if ye beleeve in me that I am the Son of God and Redeemer of the World then keep my Commandaments He saith not quoniam mihi serviatis because ye here profest your selves my servants and Disciples seeing ye cal me Lord and Master therefore keepe my commande ments he saith not quoniam potestatem meam cognoscatis because ye know I have power to kill and power to make alive therefore keepe my Commandements though any of these had beene an argument strong enough to have convinced them but si me diligatis if ye love me c. as if he had said yee have seene what love I have expressed to all of you how freely I have chosen you how tenderly respected you and what care I have to instruct you in the knowledge of the things that belong to your salvation and I shall shortly give you a full and unanswerable demonstration of my unparaleld love in giving my life for you if then ye love me as ye professe to doe by that love ye professe to beare me I adjure and charge ye thatye keepe my Commandements An argument I confesse of small force and validity to a base and servile nature but to a free-borne and ingenuous disposition to a sanctified soule it is an argument of that force that none can be more perswasive none so fully prevailent Dilectio fortis ut mors saith the Spouse in the Canticles 8.6 and where that is the object of our respect it draweth us most effectually I lead them with the cords of a man even with the bonds of love saith the Lord concerning Israel Hos 11.4 as intimating plainly unto us that as nothing but death can divert that soule which truely loveth God from a chearefull and conscionable obedience to his revealed will So no obligation in this world tyeth the soule of a true Christian to so strict an obedience as the serious considerations of Gods undeserved love when a man shall consider truely as St. Bernard expresseth it that Prior Deus dilexit nos antus tantum gratis tantillos tales That God should love mankinde and love him first so infinite a Majestie such abject creatures so freely so exceedingly with such large expression thereof to those who are every way so unworthy so undeserving of the least jot if considered in our selves And seeing it is true that nulla major ad amorem provocatio quam praevenire amando as saith holy St. Augustine divinely There is no more kindly attracting of love than in loving to prevent We must needes acknowledge this argument of our blessed Lord to be most forcible if rightly understood si me diligatis if ye love me keepe my Commandements And conclude with Augustine in his owne words in the same place Nimis durus est qui amorem etiamsi nolebat impendere nolit rependere That man is composed of too hard a mettall who though he like not to love first will not requite it and love againe either first or second 3. And yet it were some diminution to the strength of this argument if our Blessed Lord in this his love to mankinde should any way appeare to respect his owne benefit But see the freedome of his love and thence observe yet a further force in Christs argument Christus non sibi