deceased and cannot but be delighted with their Goodnesse let us labour to fashion our selves after their frame and to erect the like vertues in our owne soules Godly Children occasion their Parents to bee called to memory Saint Paul beholding Timothies Goodnesse is minded thereby to remember his Mother and Grand-mother Eunice and Lois they can never bee dead whiles hee is alive Good children are the most lasting monument to perpetuate their Parents and make them survive after death Dost thou desire to have thy memory continued Art thou ambitious to be revenged of death and to out-last her spight It matters not for building great houses and calling them after thy name give thy children godly education and the fight of their goodnesse will furbish up thy memory in the mouthes and minds of others that it never rusts in oblivion Which dwelt first That is which was an Inhabitant in their hearts Faith in temporary Believers is as a Guest comes for a night and is gone at the best is but as a Sojourner lodges there for a time but it dwelleth maketh her constant residence and aboad in the Saints and servants of God Grand-mother Lois and Mother Eunice Why doth not Saint Paul mention the Father of Timothy but as it were blanch him over with silence First it is probable that Saint Paul had not any speciall notice of him or that hee was dead before the Apostles acquaintance in that Family 2. Likely it is he was not so eminent and appearing in Piety the weaker vessell may sometimes be a stronger vessel of honour yea the Text intimateth as much Act. 16.1 Behold a certaine Disciple was there named Timotheus the sonne of a certaine woman which was a Iewesse and beleeved but his Father was a Greeke Let women labour in an holy Emulation to excell their husbands in Goodnesse it is no trespasse of their modesty nor breach of the obedience they vowed to their husbands in marriage to strive to bee Superiours and above them in Piety 3. Eunice and Lois the Mother and Grand-mother are onely particularly mentioned because deserving most commendation for instructing Timothy in his youth as it is in the Chap. 3. ver. 16. Knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast knowne the Holy Scriptures For the same reason the names of the Mothers of the Kings of Iudah are so precisely recorded for their credit or disgrace according to the goodnesse or badnesse of their sonnes Let Mothers drop instruction into their children with their milke and teach them to pray when they beginne to prattle Though Grace bee not entayled from Parent to Child yet the Children of goldy Parents have a great advantage to Religion yea that five-fold 1. The advantage of the promise yea though they come but of the halfe blood much more if true borne on both sides if one of their Parents bee godly 1 Corinth 7.14 For the unbeleeving Husband is sanctified by the unbeleeving Wife and the unbeleeving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children uncleane but now they are holy 2. Of good Precepts some taught them in their Infancy so that they can easier remember what they learned then when they learned it Gen. 28.19 For I know Abraham that hee will command his children and his Houshold after him to feare the Lord 3. Of good Presidents Habent domi unde discant whereas the children of evill Parents see daily what they ought to shun and avoyd these behold what they should follow and imitate 4. Of Correction which though untoothsome to the palat to taste is not unwholsome to the stomacke to digest 5. Of many a good prayer and some no doubt steept in teares made for them before some of them were made Filius tantarum lachrymarum non peribit said Saint Ambrose to Monica of Saint Augustine her son Disdaine thou then out of an holy pride to bee the vitious sonne to a vertuous Father to bee the prophane Daughter of a pious Mother but labour to succeed as well to the lives as to the Livings the Goodnesse as the Goods of the Parents Yea but may the Children of bad Parents say This is but cold comfort for us and they may take up the words of the Souldiers Luke 3.14 And what shall wee doe First if thy Parents be living conceive not that their badnesse dispenceth with thy duty unto them thou hast the same cause though not the same comfort with good children to obey thy Parents this doe labour to gaine them with thy conversation It was Incest and a fowle sinne in Lot to bee Husband to his Daughters and beget children on them but it would bee no spirituall Incest in thee to be Father to thy Father to beget him in grace who begat thee in nature and by the Piety and Amiablenesse of thy carriage to be the occasion by Gods blessing of his Regeneration and what Samuel said to the people of Israel 1 Sam. 12.23 God forbid that I should sinne against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you so God forbid thou shouldest ever leave off to have thy knees bended and thy hands lifted up for the conversion of thy bad Father Moreover labour more especially to shun and avoyd those sinnes to which thy Father was addicted and chiefly such sinnes the Inclination whereto may depend from the temper and constitution of the body so that a pronenesse thereto may in some sort seem to be intayled to Posterity Was thy Father notorious for wantonnesse strive then to be noted for chastity was hee infamous for Pride Labour thou to be famous for Humility And though thou must not be dejected with griefe at the consideration of the badnesse of thy Parents yet mayest thou make a Soveraigneuse thereof to bee a just cause of Humiliation to thy selfe If thy Parents bee dead and if thou canst speake little good of them speake little of them What Sullennesse did in Absolon 2 Sam. 13.22 Hee spake to his Brother Amnon neither good nor bad Let Discretion do in thee seale up thy lips in silence say nothing of thy Parents He is either a Foole or a mad man who being in much company and not being urged thereunto by any occasion will tell others My Father lyes in the Fleet my Father lyes in Prison in the Counter More witlesse is hee who will speake both words Vncharitable and Vnnaturall concerning the finall estate of his Father in an eternall bad condition And I am perswaded there is a three-fold kind of Perswasion whereby one may be perswaded of good in another man 1. The perswasion of Infallibility and this onely God hath Act. 5.18 Knowne unto God are all his workes from the beginning of the World hee alone searcheth and tryeth the hearts and reines And they also have it to whom God immediately reveales it Thus Ananias knew that Paul was a true servant of God after it was revealed to him Act. 9.15 For hee is a chosen
IOSEPH'S PARTIE-COLORED COAT CONTAINING A COMMENT ON Part of the 11. Chapter of the 1. Epistle of S. Paul to the CORINTHIANS Together with severall Sermons namely 1 Growth in Grace 2 How farre Examples may be followed 3 An ill Match well broken off 4 Good from bad Friends 5 A Glasse for Gluttons 6 How farre Grace may be Entayled 7 A Christning Sermon 8 Faction confuted By T. F. IOHN 6.12 Gather up the Fragments that remaine that nothing be lost LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Iohn Williams and are to be sold at his shop at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church yard 1640. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL the Lady IANE COVERT of Peper Harrow in Surry MADAM CVstome hath made it not only pardonable but necessary to flatter in Dedicatory Epistles Epitaphs and Dedications are credited alike But I will not follow the streame herein First because I account it beneath my calling to speake any thing above the truth Secondly because of you it is needlesse Let deformed Faces be beholding to the Painter Art hath nothing to doe where Nature hath prevented it Wherefore I will turne my praysing of you into prayer for you desiring God to strengthen and increase all goodnesse in you and give you perseverance that golden Claspe which joynes Grace and Glory together Thus desiring to shroud my weake labours under your favourable Patronage I rest Your Ladiships in all service Thomas Fuller A COMMENT on 1 COR. 11.18 c. For first of all when you come together in the Church I heare there be divisions among you and I partly beleeve it THE Apostle calleth the Corinthians to an account and readeth his black Bill unto them It containeth severall Items which you may reade in the following chapters but the Imprimis is in the Text For first of all c. When you come together in the Church c. Even in the non-age and infancy of Christianity there were Churches appointed for Gods holy service True some take Church here pro caetu fidelium yet Theophylact and all Greeke Writers generally expound it the materiall place of meeting Two things then were chiefly aymed at in Churches 1. Receipt that the place were capable to containe the people 2. Privacie Being then under persecution they built not their Churches to be seene but not to be seen and then were as plaine in their houses as in their dealing Beauty and Magnificense were of later date in Christian Temples when Religion grew acquainted with peace and prosperity and good reason Gods house now should bee decently garnished Some shunning whorish gaudinesse leave the Church to sluttish nastinesse The Font our Iordan having more mud than water in it the Communion-table unseemingly kept Withall let us take heed lest as it hath been observed in England that great House-building hath beene the bane of good Hous-keeping So let us take heed lest piety in us bee so much the worse by how much our Churches are better then they were in the time of Saint Paul What a shame would it be if there should be more light in the Church windows than in our understanding more pious sentences written in their wals than in our hearts more uniformity in the building than in our behaviours I heare there be divisions among you How came Saint Paul by this intelligence Was not hee at Philippi when hee wrote this Epistle as appears by the Postscript which was many miles from Corinth How heard the Apostle of these divisions at such a distance Saint Paul was cunning in a kind of Christian and lawfull Magick All the world was his circle for so he saith of himselfe The care of all Churches lyeth upon me 2 Cor. 11.28 and some faithfull friends in every Church were his familiar Spirits in this circle to inform him of all considerable passages So that Saint Paul was at Corinth when hee was not at Corinth absent in person present by Proxies these Intelligencers which kept correspondencie with him Men in authority have quick eares to heare at a great distance The mutterings of Malefactors are hollowings to Magistrates who heare distinctly what offenders but whisper to themselves Let none therefore be encouraged to sinne through a confidence to be concealed What though Sinners be the servants of the Prince of darkenesse and therefore hope to obtaine from their Lord and Master a protection that no punishment may arrest them yet let them know that though the place wherein they sin seeme to them as darke as Egypt it is as light to men in authority as the land of Goshen Lyons sleepe with their eyes open Magistrates with their eyes both open and seeing when wee thinke them blind they Behold when deafe with Saint Paul they Heare Did these men whosoever they were well in telling Saint Paul these discords of the Corinthians had they not better have gone backward and covered the nakednesse of their neighbours with the cloake of silence Pitty it is but that his tongue should bee for ever bound to the peace who will prate of every fault hee finds in another and at the best they are but clacks and tel-tales for their paines Had they told it to some scoffing Cham or mocking Ismael who would have made musick to himselfe of the Corinthians discords then they had been faulty in relating the faults of others Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in Askalon lest the c. 2. Sam. 1.20 but it being told to S. Paul who would not mock but be moan not defame but reform these offenders it was no breach but a deed of charity and the doers hereof benefactors herein to the Chuch of Corinth It is both lawfull and laudable to discover the faults of our dearest friends to those who have power and place to reforme them Thus Ioseph brought to his father Iacob the evill deeds of his brethren Gen. 37.2 Indeed the Devill is called the Accuser of the brethren Revel. 10.12 but he accuseth them often without cause even without charity who since hee hath been cast into hell knowes no other heaven then to doe mischiefe But for a man to open the sins the wounds of his neighbour not with desire to put him to torment but that the Chyrurgion may search and salve them is an action most charitable There are divisions But did not Saint Paul in the 2. verse of this Chapter prayse the Corinthians Now I commend you brethren that you remember me in all things and keepe the Ordinances as I delivered them to you Were they growne so bad since the beginning of this Chapter or doth Saint Paul with Saint Augustine write a retractation of what hee had written before Is this faire dealing that hee who formerly had by his commendations given the Corinthians a generall Acquittance from al their faults should now come over them with an after-reckoning and charge them with the sin of divisions 1 Some answer * Omnia id
hand but it concernes every one of us to make a punctuall and direct answer thereunto Vpon examination all will confesse themselves guilty except a dumbe Devill or a Pharisaicall spirit hath possessed any Yet are there degrees of guiltinesse Some are guilty that they have not these graces at all but the opposite vices in stead of them in stead of knowledge ignorance All the reason Laban could render Iacob in cozening him with the elder sister for the younger was but pleading the custome of the countrey Gen. 29.26 And this is the best account some can giue why they receive the Sacrament It is an old ceremony a fashion of their Fore-fathers a custome of the Church that young men and maidens at such an age use to receive and so of the rest in stead of repentance obstinacy in sin in lieu of faith unbeliefe in place of charity malice an indifferency for desire and ingratitude for thankfulnesse these in no case must presume to receive but tarry till these vices are amended and graces in some degree begotten in them Others are guilty that though they have them in sincerity yet they have them not in perfection these are bound to come to Gods table his dainties are provided properly for such guests by his blessing these holy mysteries may worke in them what is wanting and strengthen what is weak And to conclude as the father of the lunatick child cryed out Mar. 9.24 Lord I beleeve help my unbeliefe so may the best of us all when we come to communicate call out with teares Lord I come with knowledge helpe my want of knowledge Lord I come with repentance help my want of repentance Lord I come with faith helpe my want of faith Lord I come with love help my want of love Lord I come c. VERS 30. For this cause many are weake and sicke among you and many sleepe RIght at this time there raged and raigned in the Church of Corinth an Epidemicall disease and my Apostle in my Text tels them the Fountaine from which it flowed namely from the unprepared and unreverent receiving of the Sacrament The words containe the punishment and the cause thereof I must confesse in the Heraldry of nature the cause is to be handled before the effect but because the punishment being the effect discovered it selfe first while the cause was yet unknown we will first treat thereof The punishment containes three steps to the Grave 1. Weaknesse 2. Sicknesse 3. Temporal death called sleep Learne God inflicteth not the same punishment for all but hath variety of correction In his Quiver some Arrowes are blunt some sharpe and of these some he drawes halfe way some to the head And the Reason is because there are divers degrees of mens sinnes some sinne out of Ignorance others out of Knowledge some out of Infirmity others of Presumption some once others often some at the seducing of others others seduce others God therefore doth not like the unskilfull Empiricks who prescribe the same quantity of the same receit at all times to all ages tempers and diseases But wisely he varieth his physick few strips to those that knew not his will and many stripes for them who knew his wil and did it not Sometimes hee shooteth halfe canon weaknesse sometime full canon sicknesse sometimes murthering Peeces death it selfe Let us endeavour to amend when God layeth his least judgement upon us let us humble our selves with true Repentance under his hand when hee layeth his little finger upon us lest we cause him to lay his loynes on us let us be bettered when he scourgeth us with rods lest we give him occasion to Sting us with Scorpions for light punishments neglected wil draw heavier upon us Let Magistrates and men in authority mitigate or increase the punishment according to the nature of the offence Let there be as well the stocks for the Drunkard the house of correction for the idle Drone the whip for the petty Lassoner as the brand for the fellon and the Gallowes for the Murtherer Let mercy improve it selfe to obtaine if not a pardon yet a lighter punishment for those in vvhose faces are read the performance of present sorrovv and promise of future amendment Let severity lay load on their backs vvhich are old and incorrigable sinnes so that there is more feare of their perverting others than hope of their converting Then shal the gods in earth be like to the God in Heaven and Magistrates here imitate the patterne which God setteth in my Text For probable it is that those Corinthians who are least offenders in the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament were punished with weaknesse the greater with sicknesse the greatest of all with death temporall called Sleepe in my Text The death of the Godly in Scripture language is often stiled sleepe And indeed sleepe and death are two twins sleepe is the elder brother for Adam slept in Paradise but death liveth longest for the last enemy that shall bee destroyed is death But some will object was Saint Paul so charitably opinioned to these Corinthians as to thinke that they some wereof were drunken at the receiving of the Sacrament that they slept that is dyed and went to Heaven me thinkes so strong a charity argues too weake a judgement I answer the Apostle had perceived in these mens lives the strength of unfained piety and though God suffered them to fall into a sin of so high a nature as this must be confest to be yet Saint Paul did Christianly beleeve that this sinne by Repentance and faith in Christ was pardoned and their soules eternally saved Let us measure the estates of men after death by the rule of their lives and though wee see some commit grievous sinnes yea such sinnes for which they are brought to exemplary death perchance by the orderly proceeding of the Law yet withall if wee had knowne that the drift and scope of their lives had beene to fear God wee may and must charitably conceive of their finall estate and that with the Corinthians in my Text they are fallen asleepe So much for the punishment wee come now to the cause For this cause many are weake All sicknesses of the body proceed from the sinne of the soule I am not ignorant that the Lethurgy ariseth from the coldnesse of the braine that the dropsie floweth from waterish blood in an ill affected Liver that the spleen is caused from melancholly wind gathered in the midriffe but the cause of all these causes the Fountaine of all these Fountaines is the sinne of the soule And not onely the sinnes which wee have lately committed and still lye fresh bleeding on our consciences but even those which wee have committed long agoe and which processe of time hath since scarred over Iob 13.26 For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me possesse the sinnes of my youth So that Iob being gray is punished for Iob being greene Iob in the autumn of his age smarts
for what he hath done in the spring of his age and as those which have beene given to violent exercises in their youth when they are old reade the admonitions of their former folly in the aches of their bones so they who have prodigally ryoted their youth out in vitious courses in their old age find the smart of it in their weak and diseased bodies Doe wee then desire to lead our old age in health I know no better preservative or dyet drinke can bee prescribed then in our youth to keepe our soules from sin for now wee sow the seeds of health or sicknesse which perchance wee shall reape twenty yeares after But how came Saint Paul to know that this sicknesse of the Corinthians proceeded from the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament especially sithence there were four other grand sinnes which then raigned in their Church each whereof upon hew and cry might be taken as suspitious to be the cause of this disease 1. Factious affecting of one Minister above another to the disgrace of God and the Gospel 1 Corinthians 1.12 Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas and I am of Christ 2. Suffering an incestuous person husband to his mother and sonne to his wife to live amongst them without publike penance and punishment For though this incest as it was committed but by one man was but a particular and personall sin yet as it was connived at and not punished it began gangreenlike to spread and leaving its nature of personality it intituled it selfe to be a publike generall Church-sin of the Corinthians 3. Going to law one with another under heathen Iudges 1 Cor. 6.1 Dare any of you having busines against another be judged by the unjust and not by the Saints 4. Denying the Resurrection of the body 1 Cor. 15.12 How say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the dead Sithence therefore at the same time the Corinthians were guilty of factious affecting of their Ministers going to law under Pagan Iudges suffering an incestuous person to live amongst them unpunished denying of the Resurrection of the body why might not Saint Paul thinke that any one or all of these might be the cause of this disease in the Church of Corinth as well as the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament Because this sinne was the sinne paramount like Saul higher then his fellowes from the shoulders upwards the other four sins were fellony robbing God of his glory but the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament was high treason against the person of Christ so against God himselfe The other for sins were Tetrarchs raigning over the Corinthians but this was as Augustus the Emperour over the Tetrarchs more conspicuous then any of the rest Learn we then that though God of his goodnesse may be pleased graciously to pardon and passe by sins of an inferior nature and meaner alloy yet he wil not hold them guiltless let them escape unpunished who irreverently receive the body and blood of his Sonne This stentor sin shouts in Gods eares for revenge Saint Anselme saith that many diseases that raigne in the summer though Physicians may impute them to other second causes proceeds from peoples irreverent receiving the Sacrament at Easter Because the Apostle perceived some resemblance betwixt the sin committed and the punishment inflicted For as a Physician when he comes to his Patient and finds him strangely affected so that the disease puzles al his rules of art to reduce it to some naturall cause then he will be ready to suspect that his Patient hath eaten some poyson which hath strangely invenomed the estate of his body so Saint Paul seeing the Corinthians to be punished with a strange and unusuall sicknesse some conceive it was the plague presently suspected that they had eaten some poysenous thing and on inquiry he finds that it was the Sacrament irreverently received It being just with God to turne that which was appoynted to bee preservative for the soule to prove poyson to the body being not received with due preparation And here I may adventure upon a profitable discourse how a man in his sicknesse may come to know the very particular sin for which God hath inflicted that sicknesse upon him It is not a meer curiosity which will afford the ground work of much good meditation nor an impossibility though a difficulty to arrive at the knowledge of it Wherefore let a man in such a case summon all his great sins to make a personall appearance in his memory and not onely those of the last edition but even those whose impression is almost out of the date of his memory such as were committed long agoe in his youth This done all the matter will bee to find out which is the veriest sinne for which God punisheth him at that time and here I must confesse my candels to be but dim but I will light the more of them First see to which sin the punishment thou sufferest bears the most proportion of resemblance for God commonly punisheth like with the like Thus one may see Gods hand in the cutting of one of Adonibezecks fingers he being served as hee had served 72. Kings And thus King Ioram who had cruelly slaughtered his brethren on a stone was troubled with an incurable disease that his bowels fell out and just it was that he should have no bowels that had no compassion 2. See if thou canst not find some proportion in the disproportion and likenesse in the unlikenes of some sin to this punishment God oft times punishing by the contrary Thus those who out of nicenesse and curiosity have tooke more then comes to the share of a corrupt creature are commonly sent to their graves by some nasty and loathsome disease as proud Herod whom the wormes impatient to stay so long till death had dished him for their palate devoured him alive 3. Something may be gathered from the place or part wherein the disease lieth For if it be in the eyes it is probable it s inflicted for the shooting out of lustfull lascivious glances or looking with envious and covetous sight on the meanes of others if in the eares for giving audience to wanton sonnets or for being over credulous in the hearing ill reports of others if in the tongue for lying swearing c. 4. See whether Chronology or the time wherein the sicknesse seizeth upon thee will not something advantage thee for the discovering the cause thereof Thus as one observes the Lord Hastings was beheaded at London that very selfe-same day twelve-moneth yea the same houre and if curiosity may goe further the same minute wherein he had conspired the death of the Queenes kinred at Pomfret Castle 5. Consider what sinne it is for the committing whereof thou hast conceived the least sorrow For though wee can never bee condignly sorry for our least sinne yet we may be more penitent for
one sinne than for another and that sinne which hath cost us the slightest and shallowest Repentance is most likely to be the cause of our present sicknesse 6. Hearken chiefly to the Inditement of thy conscience for when wee hunt after that sin which causeth our disease and wee find our selves to be either at a losse or at a cold sent if once our conscience begin to spend her open mouth wee may certainely conclude that the game went that way and that that is the very sin for which at that time wee are punished Thus the Patriarks Gen. 42 21. Said one to another we have verely sinned against our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his soule where hee besought us and wee would not heare therefore is this evill fallen upon us Reuben did not impute it to the defiling of his Fathers bed nor Iudah to his Incest nor Simeon and Levi to their murthering of the Shechemites for these were but personall sinnes but all joyntly agreed that it was for their cruelty to their Brother a sin wherein all they were equally ingaged as they were equally inwrapt in the punishment If by these or any other meanes we attaine to the knowledge of that particular sinne for which wee are punished let us drown that sin in penitent teares and in the blood of our Saviour but if we cannot find it out let us imitate the example of Herod Mat. 2. Who that he might make sure work to kil our Saviour slew all the children in Bethelem and the countrey about it from two years old and under a plot probable to have taken effect if heaven had not beene too wise for hell In like manner let us indifferently and impartially repent for all our sins in generall if wee know not which was the Bee that stung us let us throw downe the whole Hive if wee know not which was the thorne that prickt us let us cut downe the whole hedge and so wee shall bee sure that sinne shall not escape which hath caused our present sicknesse Now whereas God might have tumbled the Corinthians down into hell-fire for their irreverent receiving of the Sacrament and yet was pleased to inflict on them bodily weakenesse and sicknesse and death we learn God oftentimes with his Saints commuteth eternall torments into temporall punishments Hee is therefore angry in this world that hee might not be angry in the world to come Et misericorditer adhibet temporalem paenam ne juste inferat aeternam ultionem If any object but why will God pardon talents and not tokens pounds but not pence and for Christs sake forgive and strike off eternall torment and yet not crosse the score of temporall punishment I answer 1. To make us take notice that wee have beene offenders 2. That by feeling the smart of what hee inflicteth on us wee may bee the more sensible of his favour how much paine he hath forgiven us 3. To make us more wary and watchfull in time to come But farre bee it from us to conceive that there is any satisfactory or expiatory power in the afflictions which wee suffer Satisfaction for sinne could not be but once and once was fully made when Christ offered himselfe upon the Crosse Let us therefore learne patience under Gods afflicting hand when hee layeth any sicknesse upon us Solomon said to Abiathar 1 King 2.26 Get thee to Anathoth to thine owne fields for thou art worthy of death but I will not at this time put thee to death because thou barest the Arke of my Lord God before David my Father Thus God dealeth with us when hee might justly deprive us of our life yea of our eternall life yet if wee have borne his Arke if wee can plead any true reference or relation to Christ our Saviour God will be graciously pleased not to take away our lives but onely to send us to our Anathoth to confine us to our beds to keepe us his close Prisoners and onely to deprive us of our health pleasure and delight Let us therefore patiently endure the aking of the teeth wee have all deserved the gnashing of the teeth Let us patiently endure a burning Fever for wee have all deserved Hell-fire Let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bodily Consumption for wee have deserved to bee consumed and brought to nothing GROWTH IN GRACE 1 PET. 2.18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 1 PHilosophers make a double growth One per aggregationem materiae by gayning of more matter Thus Rivers grow by the accession of tributary Brooks heaps of Corne waxe greater by the addition of more graine and thus stones grow as some would have it though this more properly bee termed an augmentation or increase then a growth The other per intro receptionem nutrimenti by receiving of nourishment within as plants beasts and men grow Of the latter growth wee understand the Apostle in the Text and will prosecute the Metaphor of the growth of vegetables as that which the Holy Spirit seemes most to favour and intend in these expressions 2. Here is one thing presupposed in the text laid down for a foundation namely that those to whom S. Peter writes were already rooted in grace goodness These must be an Vnit at least before any multiplication a Basis before any building upon it no doubt they were such as to whom S. Paul writes Eph. 3.18 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Being rooted and grounded in love such as the Colossians were Col. 2.7 Rooted in Christ and established in faith And such I trust you are to whom my discourse is directed or else it were in vaine for me or any to give you instructions for Growth in Grace 3. But why is it said in the Text first in Grace and then in Knowledge this seemes to be an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Lanthorne is to go first Knowledge is to be the Vsher of Grace information in the understanding must goe before reformation in the will and affections I could answer the holy Spirit is no whit curious in marshalling these graces which he putteth first they need no herauld to shew their pedigree wch wil not fal out for precedency But to the point their is a two-fold knowledge one precedent grace as disposing one therto making capable therof the other subsequent is an effect therof a reward of it through Gods mercy These that have gracious hearts do daily better improve their knowledge in matters of salvatiō some herein arrive at a great heigth as David Psa. 119.99 I have more understanding than al my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditations 4 However see the Apostle puts grace Knowledge together What God hath joyned let no man put asunder We must grow according to both demensions both in heigth in knowledge in bredth in piety both in head and in heart both in speculation and practise we must not all run up in heigth like an Hop-pole
King 18. 16. For Senacharib no sooner received his money but hoc non obstante persisted in his former enmity and hostility against the Iewes and as it followeth in the very next verse sent up his Captaines to besiege Ierusalem 3. If there be no fault in the inchoation Examine hath there beene none in the continuance of your friendship hast thou not committed many sinnes to hold in with him If so then it is just with God hee should forsake thee Thus Tyrants often times cut off those staires by which they climbe up to their Throne Yea good Princes have often times justly sacrificed those their Favorites to the fury of the people who formerly have been the active Instruments to oppresse the people though to the enriching of their Princes Hast thou not flattered him in his faults or at least wise by thy silence consented to him If so God hath now opened thy friends eyes he sees thy false dealing with him and hath just cause to cast thee out of his favour When Amnon had defiled his sister Thamar the Text saith 2 Sam. 13.15 that the hatred wherewith hee hated her was greater than the love wherewith hee loved her Poore Lady shee was in no fault not the cause but onely the object and the occasion of her brothers sinne and that against her will by his violence Now to reason A minore ad majus If Amnon in cold blood viewing the hainousnesse of his offence so hated Thamar which onely concurred passively in his transgression how may our friends justly hate us if haply we have beene the Causers Movers and Procurers of their badnesse If wee have added fewell to the flame of their ryot played the Pandors to their lusts and spurred them on in the full speed of their wantonnesse deserve wee not when their eyes are opened to see what foes we have been unto them under pretended Friendship to bee spit in the face kik't out of their company and to bee used with all contumely and disgrace 4. Hast thou not idolatrized to thy friend hath he not totally monopolized thy soule so that thou hast solely depended on him without looking higher or further Tu patronus si deseris tu perimus Thus too many wives anchor al their hopes for outward matters on their husbands and too many children leane all their weight on their Fathers shoulders so that it is just with God to suffer these their woodden Pillars to breake on whom they lay too much heft 5. Hast thou not undervalued thy friend and set too meane a rate and low an estimate on his love If so God hath now taught thee the worth of a Pearle by loosing it And this comes often to passe though not in our friends voluntary deserting us as Achitophel did David yet in their leaving us against their wils when God taketh them from us by death But here this question may be demanded whether is one ever againe to receive him for his friend and to restore him to the old state of his favour who once hath deceived and dealt falsely with him Many circumstances are herein well to bee weighed first did hee forsake thee out of frailty and infirmity or out of meer spight and maliciousnesse Secondly hath he since shewed any tokens and evidences of unfained sorrow hath hee humbled himselfe unto thee and beg Gods and thy pardon If hee hath offended mischievously and persists in it obstinately O let not the strength of thy supposed charity so betray thy judgement as to place confidence in him Samson was blind before hee was blind the lust of Dalilah deprived him of his eyes before the Philistims bored them out in that once and againe being deceived by Dalilah hee still relyed on her word But if hee hath shewed himselfe such a Penitent and thou art verely perswaded of his Repentance receive him againe into thy favour Thus dealt our Saviour with Saint Peter Marke 16.7 But goe your way tell his Disciples and Peter Peter especially Peter that had sinned and Peter that had sorrowed Peter that had denyed his Master but Peter that went out and wept bitterly 6. Sixthly and lastly it may bee God suffers thy friends to prove unfaithfull to thee to make thee sticke more closely to himselfe Excellent to this purpose is that place Mica 7.5 Trust yee not in a friend put yee no confidence in a Guide keepe the doers of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosome For the Son dishonoureth the Father the Daughter riseth up against the Mother the Daughter in law against her Mother in law a mans enemies are the men of his own house But now marke what followes therefore will I looke unto the Lord I will wayte for the God of my salvation As if hee had said is the world at this bad hand is it come to this bad passe That one must bee farre from trusting their neerest friends it is well then I have one fast Friend on whom I may relye the God of Heaven I must confesse these words of the Prophet are principally meant of the time of Persecution and so are applyed by our Saviour Mat. 10.21 However they containe an eternall truth whereof good use may bee made at any time Let us therefore when our friends forsake us principally relye on God who hath these two excellent properties of a friend first he is neere to us so saith the Psalmist Thy name is neere and this doth thy excellent workes declare They have a speedy way of conveying Letters from Aleppo to Babylon sending them by a winged Messenger tyed to the legs of a Dove but wee have a shorter cut to send our prayers to God by sending our prayers by the wings of the Holy Spirit that heavenly Dove whereby they instantly arrive in Heaven As God is neere to us so hee is ever willing and able to helpe us On him therefore let us ever relye and when other Reeds bow or break or run into our hands let us make him to bee our staffe whereon wee may leane our selves A GLASSE FOR GLVTTONS ROM. 13.13 Not in Gluttony THese words are a parcell of that Scripture that converted Saint Augustine He as hee confesseth of himselfe at the first was both erroneous in his Tenets and vicious in his life when running on in full carreare in wickednesse God stopt him with his voyce from Heaven Tolle et lege take up thy Book and reade and the first place which God directed his eye to was these words in my Text and after this time being reclaymed hee proved a worthy Instrument of Gods glory and the Churches good Now as those receipts in Physicke are best which are confirmed under the Broad Seale of Experience and set forth with the priviledge of Probatum est so my Text may challenge a priority before other places of Scripture because upon Record it hath been the occasion to convert so famous a Christian Neither thinke that the vertue of these words are extracted by doing