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A40656
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A collection of sermons ... together with Notes upon Jonah / by Thomas Fuller.; Sermons. Selections
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Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.
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1655
(1655)
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Wing F2418; ESTC R21301
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51,193
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163
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than the Sword and many reported by People to be slain over-night are found alive in the morning though perchance sorely wounded or taken Captives Sorely wounded but so as they may be cured Taken captives but so as they may be freed by Gods pardon on their repentance like S. Peter in my Text who went out c. 13. So much of the Text in reference to S. Peter Come we now to the application unto our selves The Pope pretendeth to be the onely Successor of S. Peter but in this respect we all are his Successors we all have followed him we all have sate in his Chair we all have denied our Master though not Formally totidem verbis yet Equivalently and it is to be feared some of us Transcendently There be divers degrees and different manners of denying of Christ some deny him Totally as Apostates some Partially as Prophane people some in his Essence as Atheists some in his Deity as Arians some in his Humanity as Nestorians some in his Merits as some Proud Papists some in his spirituall Dominion over them as all Licentious People If I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1. 6. so that they who call God Master with their mouths and do not honour him in their hearts by their lives doe in effect Deny him and Un-master him as much as lieth in their power 14. Saint Paul complaineth Titus 1. last ver of some who profess that they know God but in works they deny him And S. Peter comes closer second Epist Cap. 2. ver 1. even denying the Lord that bought them And the same reproof is ecchoed by S. Jude ver 4. turning the grace of God into lasciviousnesse and denying the onely Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ The best of us all in some measure have been guilty hereof and have abused our Christian Freedome the more freely to abuse Christ who gave it us Wherefore as we have been like S. Peter in Sinning let us be like S. Peter in Sorrowing let us go out not with outward Moving but inward Mending not shifting our Place but changing our Practise go out of our Sinnes goe out of our Selves go out to our Saviour go out and weep bitterly 15. Yea but may some man say I never could nor shall weep bitterly for my sins I am affected for outward afflictions like Rahel weeping for her children and would not be comforted If I have a Ship sunk in the Sea I can almost again drown it in my weeping But alas when I am to sorrow for my Sinnes no Teares as Voluntaries profer themselves to my service And I have much adoe to Press any to bewaile my Wickedness yea I have grieved more for one Temporall Cross than for all the Sinnes I ever Committed which makes me to feare that for want of bitter weeping here I shall go to the place of weeping and wailing hereafter 16. If any penitent Soule doth stagger with this Objection let him stay himselfe with these following Meditations First know that Sorrow for Sufferings must of necessity be more Violent and Passionate than our Sorrow for our Sins First because it is not only a Pure Virgin Delibated Sorrow but hath much of the mixture of Impatience Discontentment and Rebellion against Divine Providence And these make the Sorrow more Vocall Clamorous and Obstreperous Secondly because we Sorrow for our Sufferings with the whole man and for our Sins but with half the man onely our Regenerate Part our Sanctified Moity For our Flesh all the while laughs at Sin and delights in it Thirdly because Sorrow for our Sufferings makes an immediat impression upon our bodies whereas sorrow for our Sins works directly on the Soul and on the Body but by the by and at the second hand Now although all Sorrow doth flow from the Soul as the Fountain yet because it runneth through the Body as the Channel and from thence is furnished with outward Expressions as Teares Sighs Cries rending the Haire wringing the Hands and the like hence cometh it to passe that Sorrow for Sufferings is best stored with plenty and variety of outward lamentations 17. For a second Comfort take this Though Sorrow for Sufferings be more Passionate Sorrow for Sinnes is more Permanent David saith Psal 51. 3. And my sinne is ever before me As the Sin so the Sorrow of a Saint is ever before him morning evening early late day night he may go away with it but cannot run away without it Again Sorrow for Sin doth grieve more though it doth complain lesse which will appeare by comparing of Two sick Persons one having the Tooth-ach the other the Consumption He that hath the Tooth-ach cries out most even to the disturbing of the standers by and no wonder if where the mouth be Plantiff it complaineth aloud of its own grievances and yet all know the Tooth-ach not to be mortall it hath raised many from their Beds sent few to the Grave hindred the sleep of many hastned the death of few Whereas he who hath the Consumption doth not roare nor rage nor cry out and the little breath left in his bad lungs he layeth out rather than in living than in sighing And yet sure his grief is the greater as knowing that he carrieth though the easiest yet the surest death about him And such is a Saints Sorrow for his Sins low and silent the lesse grieving he keeps the more grieving he keepes the lesse he expresseth the more he retaineth It is a continuall dropping and you know it is the sober rain which maketh the earth drunk 18. Third and last Comfort Know that our Sorrow for our Sins though little in it selfe is great in Gods acceptance and Appreciation Well doth any wise earthly Prince know how to value the liberality of his loyall Subjects who shall assist him in his great want with a small summe of money especially if he knoweth that they are deeply impoverished struggle with their necessity which makes his gracious goodnesse to interpret a small gift a great one comming from a large Heart confined to a narrow Estate But farre better doth the King of Heaven know how barren we are in Grace how beggarly in Goodnesse so that sorrow for our Sinnes comes from us with great difficulty and disadvantage we are faine to strive and struggle against our corruptions before one teare be extracted Spigellius in his Booke of Anatomy telleth us That many English Mothers and Nurses have a foolish custome to swaddle the breasts of their new-borne Babes over-hard and so straiten their stomacks that their lungs cannot dilate themselves in breathing and this by the way doth he say is the cause why more die of the Consumption in England than in any other Country Sure I am that by the wilfull folly of our first Parents Adam and Eve before we had our Birth when first we had our Being we were so soule-bound with sin and hard tied with the bands of Originall
not to be dedicated to God in the Leviticall Law but the neck thereof was to be broken Let us break the asses neck let us banish all sloth and laziness when we goe about to perform any service of God Call upon thy God Because perchance the Ship-master had a great opinion of the sufficiency of Ionah's God or because he might have a conceipt that Ionah's prayers might be more prevalent than his owne Aeschinus said unto his Uncle Mitio in the Comedie Tu potius deos comprecare nam tibi eos certo scio Quo vir melior es quam ego sum obtemperaturos magis Or else he onely aimed at a generall collection of prayers hoping that that cable-rope would be strongest that was twisted of most severall cords If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not It is worth our search to know when these words If so be God will are to be inserted into our prayers and when they must be omitted When we pray for pardon of our sins then we must omit them For God hath said At what time c. I will put all his wickednesse out of my remembrance Now let us not dispute of what is determined suspect what is sure God saith he will Let us not say If so be God will If our repentance be unfaigned our pardon may be undoubted In such a case Let us come to the Throne of Grace with boldnesse in the assurance of faith with reasoning trust perfectly in grace But when we pray for the removall of punishment then these words are no Parenthesis but an essentiall part of our prayers then we must submit our selves not our wills but thy will be done then with children we must not cry to carve our own meat but eat that which God our Father cuts for us though it be untoothsome for our palats to tast it is never unwholsome for our stomachs to digest Verse 7. And they said every one to his fellow Come and let us cast lots that we know for whose cause this evill is upon us So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah And they said every one to his fellow The apprehension of the present danger was the cement that did glue and unite their different judgments and affections to resolve on that which they conceived was for their generall good It is likely that the beasts in the Arke when they were in a common danger of drowning did agree together and for that time dispence with their mutuall Antipathies Grant then that we have severall tempers humours opinious yet the apprehension that we have one grand unpartiall enemy the Devil who like a roaring Lyon seeks to devour us This should make us centre our votes in such resolutions which are behoofull for all our goods Come let us cast lots The use of Lots was very antient amongst both Jewes and Gentiles They were of three natures 1. The Lot Divinatorie used by Haman Hest 3. 7. And as for this kinde of Lot it is utterly unlawfull We have no such custome nor yet the Churches of God Secondly Divisorie Obad. 11. Mat. 27. 35. Thirdly Consultory Lev. 16. 21. Iosh 7. 18. 1 Sam. 14. 42. These are lawfull if used lawfully with these cautions First in matters of difficulty As quicksilver in the Iliaca passio when nothing else can untwine the gutts in perplext and intricate causes Secondly in matters of consequence otherwise there may difficiles nugae Riddles not worth the reading Hard shells without a kernell not worth the cracking Difficulties which deserve not the resolving Thirdly they are to be ushered with prayer as in the choice of Matthias Act. 1. Fourthly that nothing therein be attributed to Chance Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is from the Lord. Whole Fortune that God of mans making is a meer Idol of Dagon and falls down at the approach of the Arke of GOD's providence Loosing both head and hands power both to plot and perform It is not Fortune blinde through ignorance that cannot see But Divine Justice blinde through impartiality that will not see which ordereth the matter Lastly no cousenage or deceit is to be used in them Lots are Gods scales wherein he weigheth matters of seeming equallity and showes which preponderates they therefore that falsifie this ballance of the Sanctuary must needs be abomination in the sight of God Now because Lots may say to Cards what Naomi sayd to Boaz They are neer unto us and of our affinity something also of the use of them It were no great harm if there were no other Cards used than those of Clothiers about wooll and of Mariners in the ship But as for Cards to play with Let us not wholly condemn them lest lacing our consciences too straight we make them to grow awry on the wrong side Such Recreations are lawfull if we use them as Ionathan tasted the honey putting forth the end of his rod he touched a little of it and his eyes were cleared But let us take heed of a surfeit into which those doe fall who either play out of covetousnesse or for more than their estates can bear or constantly and continually all their meat is sauce all the dayes in their Almanack play-dayes though few Holy-dayes The Creation lasted but a Week but these mens Recreations all the dayes of their lives such using of lawfull exercises is altogether unlawfull That we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us The best man in the ship carried sinne enough about him to drown himself ship and passengers But this milk we suck from the brests of our mother Eve to shift and post off the fault from our selves how guilty soever we are 1 Sam. 15. 9. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best sheep Now ver 15. it is said They have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep He that was the greatest in the sinne would not be at all in the shame Should God scourge this Land with Famine or any other generall punishment The Courtiers would impute the cause thereof to the Covetousnesse of the Citizens The Citizens to the Prodigality of the Courtiers The Rich to the unthankfulnesse discontented murmuring of the Poor The Poor to the hard-heartednesse of the Rich The Laity to the Clergies want of preaching The Clergie to the Laities want of practising Every one would post the fault from himselfe and be inquisitive with these Mariners For whose fault this evill was upon them FINIS * Gen. 43. v. 11. * Eccles 12. v. 11. * I v. 1 * Job 18. 6. Prov. 20. 27.