disconsolate yet are they secretly guided by the true Spirit of comfort Sorrow does sometimes also keepe-in teares when the heart is excessively contracted when it so cals in the vitall heat that the moisture of the brain is meerly congeal'd such winter also does the righteous sometimes feel and only would shed teares because he can not and thus his will does weep though his eies doe not It is indeed only Man's Intentive will that is the cause why only Man does weep and good reason it is since it was only his will that was the cause of his sinne and consequently an occasion of his teares The soft heart is naturally most ready to weep and it is the soft heart that is spiritually most ready to weep Yet if you would know the true cause of teares you may observe nay for feare of errour you must observe that as teares flow from the moisture of nourishment receiv'd into the body so spirituall sorrow flows from grace receiv'd into the Soule Unto which grace of sorrow in our Conversion in the first point of conversion the will is meerly passive meerly passive in respect of an inward change though it has still naturall liberty by which it is always active active in generall to concurre to an Act of faith as to an Act not in speciall as to such an act an act of Faith The Naturall will can concurre to the work of God in respect of outward means as it can freely heare or not heare the word preach'd but the inward efficient cause of conversion is the Holy Ghost In which expression we may understand all subordinate causes inservient in that worke though not working by their owne power but by the power of God And thus we may say that conversion is the worke of Man as he is the subject of it but the worke of God in respect of the first motion The will in this is like Elisha's eie which had a naturall power to see but it needed a supernaturall power to discerne a supernaturall aide of angels An active Liberty then unto grace the will by meer nature can not claim nor may wee though some doe attribute an active power to the water in baptisme though Sacramentall much lesse to the teares in repentance as if the water did concurre actively and physically to the production of grace God does indeed sometimes exalt a naturall agent to an ability above his degree in his kind but never above his kind The first is to helpe things in their Order but the last is to destroy order The God then of Nature and of order does not make a Naturall agent the proper cause of a supernaturall Effect which truth may save us from the magisteriall impositions of mistaking Reason Our Prophet here does wish for this sorrow it was not then according to the measure he desir'd either in his own possession or at all in his power The cause then of Spirituall sorrow can not be naturall and as holy teares have thus their Cause from grace so also have they their Abundance And here we may farther observe the apt wisdome of the Prophet who expresses his sorrow a work of Grace by similitude and parallel to the work of Nature Now in Nature there is not only a fountain that sends forth streams but there are also waters in the Cavernes of the earth to nourish the fountain so must there be not only a fountain in the penitent eie but there must also be inwardly store of waters He wishes therfore not only that his eies were a fountain but also nay first of all that his Head were waters And if we consider the collection of waters which are in the earth we shall find some affirme it to be caus'd by Protrusion as we may call it by a violent blast forcing those waters into the Pores of the earth so S Basil Some also we shall find that attribute it to the attractive influence of the Heavens so Aquinas Both which waies we shall find proportionall to God's manner of working in the Soule whiles some he Thrusts into tears by Affliction as some he Drawes into teares by Love And as the waters in the earth as some think doe serve to temper the veines of metall so does the secret sorrow of the heart serve to temper the hardnesse of the heart that at last it confesses it is waters and the eies as a fountain send forth streams of tears Now streams as they passe doe commonly cleanse such places as they passe-through so surely the tears of the truly penitent do not only wash away his finnes but they indeavour also to wash away other-mens and consequently the calamity due unto them Which Object of sorrow we should next behold if through the darknesse of sorrow we could behold it But alas what pleasure is in Destruction which being contrary to nature is also contrary to pleasure What pleasure in garments rolled in blood which doe afford more Horrour than warmth what pleasure in the tumult of the Battell where not to be furious is to be Cowardly where Mercy is held an Absurdity and to be barbarous a glory This is the prerogative and the supererogation of the Sword This claimes alone the triumph over the conquer'd this usually alone over-acts the triumph Yet thus did the sword sleight Iudah to a slaughter and wound the Prophet also with Compassion But is Judah so destroy'd that it has left none like unto her Yet then her vices also were gone with her but surely there will alwaies be a People and but too like her whiles as much in sinne as in an undeserv'd love and whiles in sinne too probably a Judah in Calamity God will not want a People nor will they want faults nay by turning his Blessings into sinnes they make him turne them into Curses the Punishment of sinnes The deformity of which if in the wisdome of your fear you would behold but in the extreamity of your fear can not insteed of the eie understand by the eare and the Prophet will tell you that this his People the people of Judah were liers slanderers slanderers of their brethren deceivers that their tongue was a bow a bended bow v. 3. nay and an arrow too yea an arrow shot-out v. 8. that when their tongue spake peaceably their heart lay'd wait v. 8. that their habitation was in the midst of deceite v. 6. Take yee heed every one of his neighbour sayes the Prophet and trust ye not in any brother for every brother will utterly supplant Heare him accuse them farther They proceed from evill to evill v. 3. you see their degrees They weary themselves to commit iniquity v. 5. you see their unhappy diligence They bee all adulterers an assembly of treacherous men v. 2. O what a Judah is this and shall such a Judah be found in our Judah O Let every Conscience be its owne Confessor and whisper it self an answer to amendment And can we desist then from bewailing our owne sinnes and
the golden the most excellent crown since he only has entred the fort of our enemy the Divell by his victory over Hell Thus then he only shall have the glorious crown and by his own merit Yet we also shall have crownes though all ours shall in effect be his Since then there is so Glorious a reward proposed unto us let us be temperate in all things that we may strive for the mastery that by getting the mastery we may get the crown And since that our crownes are due to Him let us imitate the Elders who sell down before him that sate upon the Throne and cast their Crownes before the Throne So let us in thankfull humility cast down our selves and our Crownes before his Throne and let us say Thy Kingdome come Our Kingdome come And let us tryumphantly say with them Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power who hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests To thee therefore with the Father and the blessed spirit be ascribed the Crown and the Kingdome for ever for ever FINIS OF God's Husbandry A SERMON BY BARTEN HOLYDAY Doctor of Divinity OXFORD Printed by Leonard Lichfield 1657. 1 Cor. 3.9 Ye are Gods Husbandry THE first cause of Husbandry was sinne the painfull tillage of the ground being imposed on man for his transgression since otherwise even good things had grown of their own accord And this punnishment was so necessarily layd upon man that as a labour it was made a duty God sending him forth of Paradice to till the ground Gen. 3.23 So that now for man not to manage the ground lookes like a sinne and thus all gentler laboures in other callings we may count but Indulgence by a gracious permission and exchange of penalty Yet God in his favour made this duty so honourable that he made it the frequent labour of the ancient Patriarchs And even the Heathen so honoured this profession that they highly honoured them that honoured this which was especially the practice of the Romans amongst whom even the chiefe families were descended from husbandmen witnesse their Names drawn from severall kinds of graine the subject of their employment as the Fabii the Lentuli the Cicero's and others of the like Labour and Honour But God himselfe did at last so honour this labour that as man was at first made a husbandman for the Guilt of sinne so God himself vouchsafed to make himselfe a husbandman to take away the Power of sinne Man is a husbandman about the Earth and God is a Husbandman about man The Earth is our Tillage we are God's Tillage Yet as in a large estate the Lord usually imployes his Baily so in the larger husbandry of man God is pleased to imploy his minister and by way of inferiour deputation continuall to imploy every man in the managing of himself Now whereas the professors of other Arts do cōmonly reserve the mysteries of their knowledge to themselves for which too often as well as for their skill they may justly and unhappily be called Crafts the Husbandman on the contrary delights to impart his knowledge that others may be instructed in their spirituall husbandry in the understanding of this duty they may chiefely consider the Nature of the Ground that is to be husbanded and the Manner of the Husbandry in which two we must imploy study and in which two we may then expect Blessing First then behold the Ground on which we are to bestow our labour which yet without labour we shall find to be man When God says we are his Husbandry you see he does remember us that we are Earth Now the Earth we know is most remote from Heaven and is not man so meere naturall man Is he not most remote from the Gracious thoughts of divine affaires Yet as the earth is capable of the Heavenly Influences so is man capable of the influences of Grace The Earth is singularly fruitfull producing many excellent effects for which cause the Gentiles made it a Goddesse attributing unto it divine honours in like manner have some Philosophicall Christians been so farre inamour'd with the abilities of man that they esteemed the power of man's will in a manner equall to the power of God But as the fruitfullnesse of the Earth in the outward or inward parts of it in the production of Graine or Metall is begunne and finish'd by the influence of the Heaven so is the fruitfullnesse of man's soule by the influence of Grace And as the Earth is incompassed with the Sea by the penetrating moisture whereof as some think dry parts of it are made more firme and compact so is man as drie Earth the better compacted by the moisture of Grace The Earth the more it is plowed and stir'd the more fruitfull it is but if it be suffered to lie continually fallow insteed of fruit it shall bring forth weeds so the soule if exercised and dilligently dressed will prove very fruitfull but if it be left follow then shall it yeild nothing but the weeds of sloth When the ancients pictured the Earth they did adjoyne the picture of a key to signifie that the earth is opened in the Spring and shut in the winter and does not man so truely resemble the Earth Does he not shoot forth in the spring of his youth and is he not shut up againe in his old age The Earth was also anciently painted in the forme of a woman sitting and bearing a drumme which in their conceit well expressed the winds inclosed within the Earth this also does as aptly expresse the nature of man who is filled and disturbed with the passions of his Mind The Romans built unto Vesta in whom they express'd the Earth a round Temple in the midst of which was a perpetuall fire and does not this as truly expresse Man Is not his Body a consecrated Temple and is not his Soul as a perpetuall fire The same picture was also crown'd with white garlands to signifie the foaming waters that continually incompasse and beate the shoare and may not these as aptly signifie the continuall troubles that beset and offer violence unto man And as Earth does thus signifie man so does dust which we may call dead earth as having lost the livening moisture signifie dead man does not the Prophet imply as much Ps 30.9 Shall the dust praise thee O Lord Nor are men thus only like the earth in these properties but also for the many Differences of the earth some ground is Mountanous and some low some fruitfull and other barren the like differences in their conditions doe men admit some being proud and some humble some being fruitfull of good workes and others as barren Cato observ'd that kind of ground to be the best that lies open towards the Sunne so is that Soul the most happy that is truly inlivened with the warmth of grace Varro tels us that if in land there be stones sand gravel or the like it is over heated and
destruction Their God could neither give life nor save life Such was the Anger of our Blessed Saviour He looked round about on them with Anger being grieved for the hardnesse of their hearts Mark 3.5 and though they were not moved with Miracle He was moved with Compassion healing the man that had a withered hand and shewing that a worke of mercy is a Sabbath days work that aimes not at mans gain but God's Glory He was angry that they having reason would not use it and having deseases had neither the Mercy to cure them nor the Wisedome to seek cure Such was the Anger of S. Paul calling the Galatians fooles whom yet he called Brethren Brethren they had been in the Profession of the Gospell Fooles they were in deserting the Profession of the Gospel He told them they were bewitch'd and were they not bewitch'd when being not able to beare the burthen of the Law they would not accept of the kindnesse of our Saviour who would beare it for them Angry then he was yet not without cause and therefore is his Anger defended by S. Austin Indeed such anger is the defence of Anger Such anger was again the anger of S. Paul against Elymas the Sorcerer whom the Apostle call'd the Child of the Devill and was it not justly when as he refused to be borne of God and as he would not injoy the light of Grace so Miracle and Justice would not let him injoy the Light of the Sunne For blind he was strucke and sought for some to lead him that would have hindred others from being lead by them they sought not for Act. 13.12 Such once more was the Anger of S. Paul against Ananias the high Priest whom he called a whited wall his outside was his fairest side and so not Wrath but Truth and Inspiration utter'd it S. Paul defended himselfe and the high Priest commanded that he should be struck on the mouth but the mouth of Paul nay of God struck the Hypocrite A Judge and Justice should be Relative but this man had the seate of Justice but not the Conscience Not Rashnesse then but Zeale saies Theophylact mov'd the Apostle adding this Rule that we are then rashly angry when it is for Profit or Glory S. Chrysostome likewise saies that just Anger is the mother of Discipline and that anger with just cause is not Anger but Judgement S. Paul sayd the same before Râ—m 4. calling the Magistrate the avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evill And though the Guilty suffers evill for his evill this is not to be angry with the Person but the Fault whiles with the person but for the fault But an anger there is which is neither Good nor Indifferent but Bad which if the Latine Critiques should helpe us to understand as well as the Philosophers we might with some think Ira to come from Vro it seems such burning choler as Tracundia from Incendo as if it were an Inflaming Choler it being estemed the Habit of a Vice whence arise wrathfull Acts flames of a wrath that seeks revenge beyond and so against Reason Which has mov'd some with Phansie if noe Truth to think it may come from Ire when we see how it makes a man runne out of Himselfe whiles out of his Reason This makes a men sometimes runne without provocation sometimes beyond it Sometimes without the Order that Law prescribes sometimes without that End the Law prescribes This is the vice of which Solomon thus complains Pro. 27.4 Wrath is Cruel and Anger is Outragious and so it becomes not only Odious but Monstrous as if it would exceed both for the Kind and the Degree This is Wrath this is that Wrath upon which the Sunne must not goe down but why saies S. Austin Non enim erubescit in tenebris cum super eam Sol occiderit When the Sunne is departed the blush too commonly is departed as if Night added impudence unto Wrath. But it may as truely imply That the End of the Day should be the end of the Guilt that though it may unhappily last a day it may happily last but a day that though by the light it could not see its own unseemlinesse it may by the Meditation of the Night by which yet too frequently it is if not Abated Increased This vice then must not breake forth against a Pagan even He is a brother by Creation and though he does not as yet own his right Master he may own him honour him It must not breake forth against a Jew God he acknowledges though not the Sonne of God he confesses God to be his Judge and by mercy may in time confesse him to be his Saviour This must not breake forth against a Turke who though he acknowledges not Christ a God acknowledges him a Prophet and by a possible Unitie in the Faith may by the Charitie of Hope be mantled-over with the title of Brother a brother sometimes lesse guilty than a Cain or an Esau and whiles more naturall than those Brothers become at last Supernaturall Thus wrath without a cause must not breake out no nor be within us to break out Not in the Mind since if it be in the mind it will soon be in the Body so in the Tongue This will Languagne wrath quickly but must not helpe it or rather mischief it to crie Racha Our Saviour as the most wise Master spake what was understood by his Hearers and therefore teaches us that they teach us not rightly who would draw the word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tattered garment and so sometimes a patch or ragge as if we call'd one a ragged fellow which though it may be partly true in the sense yet is not so in the derivation as if the Elder Language should borrow it of the Younger or as if we should think that our Saviour spake Greek among the Jewes This teaches us to suspect that Jew that told S. Austin the word was only an Interjection not signifying any certaine thing more than the indignation of the minde but this is denyed by the many certain significations which it hath This will not admit Theophilact's exposition who tells us it is as much as Thou implying a Contempt but this is an Interpretation as unwarrantable for its proportion as the contempt This teaches us to doubt S. Chr. opinion who counting it a coÌ„mon word among the Jews says yet that it proceeds not froÌ„ Anger or Hate but rather from familiarity yet from some coÌ„tempt but our Saviour makes it the second degree of anger Nor need we draw this word from their conceite who would have it come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spittle and so imply an unworthy person sit for a contempt which our Saviour suffered from the impious Jewes but this is rather Imagination than Judgement Nor need we heare some that more subtilly tell us that Racha in the Chaldie which was the tongue which the Iewes learned in their Captivitie signifies