for this end and so intended by the giver to be imployed for the the benefit of others and for the edifying of the Church they were given to profit withall It then remaineth to understand this Text and Chapter of that other and latter kind of spirituall Gifts Those Graces of Edification or Gratiae gratis datae whereby men are enabled in their severall Callings according to the quality and measure of the graces they have received to be profitable members of the publick body either in Church or Common-wealth Under which appellation the very first naturall powers and faculties of the soul onely excepted which flowing à principiis speciei are in all men the same and like I comprehend all other secondary endowments and abilities whatsoever of the reasonable soul which are capable of the degrees of more and lesse and of better and worse together with all subsidiary helps any way conducing to the exercise of any of them Whether they be first supernaturall graces given by immediate and extraordinary infusion from God such as were the gifts of tongues and of miracles and of healings and of prophesie properly so called and many other like which were frequent in the infancy of the Church and when this Epistle was written according as the necessity of those primitive times considered God saw it expedient for his Church Or whether they be Secondly such as Philosophers call Naturall dispositions such as are promptnesse of Wit quicknesse of Conceit fastnesse of Memory clearnesse of Understanding soundnesse of Iudgement readinesse of Speech and other like which flow immediately à principiis individui from the individuall condition constitution and temperature of particular persons Or whether they be Thirdly such as Philosophers call Intellectuall habits which is when those naturall dispositions are so improved and perfected by Education Art Industry Observation or Experience that men become thereby skilfull Linguists subtile Disputers copious Orators profound Divines powerfull Preachers expert Lawyers Physicians Historians Statesmen Commanders Artisans or excellent in any Science Profession or faculty whatsoever To which me may adde in the fourth place all outward subservient helps whatsoever which may any way further or facilitate the exercise of any of the former graces dispositions or habits such as are health strength beauty and all those other Bona Corporis as also Bona Fortunae Honour Wealth Nobility Reputation and the rest All of these even those among them which seem most of all to have their foundation in Nature or perfection from Art may in some sort be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts in as much as the spirit of God is the first and principall worker of them Nature Art Industry and all other subsidiary furtherances being but second Agents under him and as means ordained or as instruments used by him for the accomplishing of those ends he hath appointed And now have we found out the just latitude of the spiritual gifts spoken of in this Chapter and of the manifestation of the spirit in my Text. From whence not to passe without some observable inferences for our Edification We may here first behold and admire and magnifie the singular love and care and providence of God for and over his Church For the building up whereof he hath not onely furnished it with fit materialls men endowed with the faculties of understanding reason will memory affections not onely lent them tools out of his own rich store-house his holy Word and sacred Ordinances but as sometimes he filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with skill and wisdome for the building of the materiall Tabernacle so he hath also from time to time raised up serviceable Men and enabled them with a large measure of all needfull gifts and graces to set forward the building and to give it both strength and beauty A Body if it had not difference and variety of members were rather a lump than a Body or if having such members there were yet no vitall spirits within to enable them to their proper offices it were rather a Corps than a Body but the vigour that is in every part to do its office is a certain evidence and manifestation of a spirit of life within and that maketh it a living Organicall body So those active gifts and graces and abilities which are to be found in the members of the mysticall body of Christ I know not whether of greater variety or use are a strong manifestation that there is a powerfull Spirit of God within that knitteth the whole body together and worketh all in all and all in every part of the body Secondly though we have just cause to lay it to heart when men of eminent gifts and place in the Church are taken from us and to lament in theirs our own and the Churches loss yet we should possess our souls in patience and sustain our selves with this comfort that it is the same God that still hath care over his Church and it is the same Hâ—ad Iesus Christ that still hath influence into his members and it is the same blessed Spirit of God and of Christ that still actuateth and animateth this great mysticall Body And therefore we may not doubt but this Spirit as he hath hitherto done from the beginning so will still manifest himself from time to time unto the end of the world in raising up instruments for the service of his Church and furnishing them with gifts in some good measure meet for the same more or less according as he shall see it expedient for her in her severall different estates and conditions giving some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all meet in the unity of the Faith of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. He hath promised long since who was never yet touched with breach of promise that he would be with his Apostles and their successors alwayes unto the end of the world Thirdly where the Spirit of God hath manifested it self to any man by the distribution of gifts it is but reason that man should manifest the Spirit that is in him by exercising those gifts in some lawfull Calling And so this manifestation of the Spirit in my Text imposeth upon every man the Necessity of a Calling Our Apostle in the seventh of this Epistle joyneth these two together a Gift and a Calling as things that may not be severed As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one Where the end of a thing is the use there the difference cannot be great whether we abuse it or but conceal it The unprofitable servant that wrapped up his Masters talent in a napkin could not have received a much heavier doom had he mis-spent it O then up and be doing
posterity together with thy estate the wrath and vengeance and curse of God which is one of those appurtenances Haddest thou not a faithfull Counsellor within thine own brest if thou wouldest but have conferred and advised with him plainly and undissemblingly that could have told thee thou hadst by thy oppression and injustice ipso facto cut off the entail from thy issue even long before thou haddest made it But if thou wouldest leave thy posterity a firm and secure and durable estate doe this rather Purchase for them by thy charitable works the prayers and blessings of the poor settle upon them the fruits of a religious sober and honest education bequeath them the legacie of thy good example in all vertuous and godly living and that portion thou leavest them besides of earthly things be it much or little be sure it be well gotten otherwise never look it should prosper with them A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and sowreth it and a little iâ—l gotten like a gangrene spreadeth through the whole estate and worse than aqua fortis or the poysoned shirt that Deianira gave Hercules cleaveth unto it and feedeth upon it and by little and little gnaweth and fretteth and consumeth it to nothing And surely Gods Iustice hath wonderfully manifested it self unto the world in this kinde sometimes even to the publike astonishment and admiration of all men that men of antient Families and great estates well left by their Ancestors and free from debts legacies or other encombrances not notedly guilty of any expencefull sinne or vanity but wary and husbandly and carefull to thrive in the world not kept under with any great burden of needy friends or charge of children not much hindred by any extraordinary losses or casualties of fire theeves suretiship or sutes that such men I say should yet sink and decay and runne behind hand in the world and their estates crumble and milder away and come to nothing and no man knoweth how No question but they have sinnes enough of their own to deserve all this and ten times more than all this but yet withall who knoweth but that it might nay who knoweth not that sometimes it doth so legible now and then are Gods judgements come upon them for the greediness and avarice and oppression and sacrilege and injustice of their not long foregoing Ancestors You that are parents take heed of these sinnes It may be for some other reasons known best to himself God suffereth you to goe on your own time and suspendeth the judgements your sins have deserved for a space as here he did Ahab's upon his humiliation but be assured sooner or later vengeance will overtake you or yours for it You have Coveted an evil covetousness to your house and there hangeth a judgement over your house for it as rain in the clouds which perhaps in your sons perhaps in your grand-childs daies some time or other will come dashing down upon it and over-whelm it Think not the vision is for many descents to come de male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres seldom doth the third scarce ever the fourth generation passe before God visit the sinnes of the Fathers upon the Children if he doe not in the very next generation In his sons dayes will I bring the evil upon his house Secondly if not onely our own but our fathers sinnes too may be shall be visited upon us how concerneth it us as to repent for our own so to lament also the sins of our forefathers and in our confessions and supplications to God sometimes to remember them that he may forget them and to set them before his face that he may cast them behind his back We have a good president for it in our publike Letany Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers A good and a profitable and a needfull prayer it is and those men have not done well nor justly that have cavilled at it O that men would be wise according to sobriety and allow but just interpretations to things advisedly established rather than busie themselves nodum in scirpo to pick needlesse quarrels where they should not What unity would it bring to brethren what peace to the Church what joy to all good and wise men As to this particular God requireth of the Israelites in Lev. 26. that they should confesse their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers David did so and Ieremy did so and Daniel did so in Psal. 106. in Ierem. 3. in Dan. 9. And if David hought it a fit curse to pronounce against Iudas and such as he was in Psal. 109. Let the wickednesse of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord and let not the sinne of his mother be done away why may we not nay how ought we not to pray for the removal of this very curse from us as well as of any other curses The present age is rise of many enormous crying sinnes which call loud for a judgement upon the land and if God should bring upon us a right heavy one whereat all ears should tingle could we say other but that it were most just even for the sinnes of this present generation But if unto our own so many so great God should also adde the sinnes of our forefathers the bloudshed and tyranny and grievous unnatural butcheries in the long times of the Civil warrs and the universal idolatries and superstitions covering the whole land in the longer and darker times of Popery and if as he sometimes threatned to bring upon the Iews of that one generation all the righteous bloud that ever was shed upon the earth from the bloud of the righteous Abel unto the bloud of Zacharias the sonne of Barachias so he should bring the sinnes of our Ancestors for many generations past upon this generation of ours who could be able to abide it Now when the security of the times give us but too much cause to fear it and the regions begin to look white towards the harvest is it not time for us with all humiliation of Soul and Body to cast down our selves and with all contention of voice and spirit to lift up our prayers and to say Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our sinnes Spare us good Lord spare the people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud and be not angry with us for ever Spare us good Lord. Thirdly Since not only our fathers sinnes and our own but our Neighbours sinnes too aliquid malum propter vicinum malum but especially the sinnes of Princes and Governours delirant reges plectuntur Achivi may bring judgements upon us and enwrap us in their punishments it should reach every one of us to seek his own private in the common and publike good and to endeavour if but for our own security from
of the power and liberty even still to intimate unto the sonnes of men the knowledge of his will and the glory of his might by Dreams Miracles or other like supernatural manifestations if at any time either in the want of the ordinary means of the Word Sacraments and Ministery or for the present necessities of his Church or of some part thereof or for some other just cause perhaps unknown to us he shall see it expedient so to do He hath prescribed us but he hath not limited himself Fifthly that because the Devil and wicked spirits may suggest Dreams probably foretell future events foreseen in their causes and work many strange effects in nature applicando activa passivis which because they are without the sphere of our comprehension may to our seeming have fair appearances of Divine Revelations or Miracles when they are nothing less for the avoiding of strong delusions in this kind it is not safe for us to give easie credit to Dreams Prophecies or Miracles as Divine untill upon due tryal there shall appear both in the End whereto they point us a direct tendance to the advancement of GODS Glory and in the Means also they propose us a conformity unto the revealed Will of GOD in his written word Sixthly that so to observe our ordinary Dreams as thereby to divine or foretell of future contingents or to forecast therefrom good or ill-luck as we call it in the success of our affairs is a silly and groundless but withall an unwarranted and therefore an unlawfull and therefore also a damnable superstition Seventhly that there is yet to be made a lawfull yea and a very profitable use even of our ordinary Dreams and of the observing thereof and that both in Physick and Divinity Not at all by foretelling particulars of things to come but by taking from them among other things some reasonable conjectures in the general of the present estate both of our Bodies and Souls Of our Bodies first For since the predominancy of Choler Bloud Flegm and Melancholy as also the differences of strength and health and diseases and distempers either by dyet or passion or otherwise do cause impressions of different forms in the fancy our ordinary dreams may be a good help to lead us into those discoveries both in time of health what our natural constitution complexion and temperature is and in times of sickness from the ranckness and tyranny of which of the humours the malady springeth And as of our Bodies so of our Souls too For since our Dreams for the most part look the same way which our freest thoughts encline as the Voluptuous beast dreameth most of pleasures the Covetous wretch most of profits and the proud or ambitious most of praises preferments or revenge the observing of our ordinary Dreams may be of good use for us unto that discovery which of these three is our Master sin for unto one of the three every other sin is reduced The Lust of the flesh the Lust of the eyes or the Pride of Life But concerning Revelations and Dreams it shall suffice to have only proposed these few Conclusions without farther enlargement the manner of Gods revealing his will here to Abimelech by Dream being but an incidental circumstance upon the bye and not belonging to the main of the present story We will therefore without more ado proceed to the substance of Gods reply in the rest of the verse and therein begin with the former general part which But concerning Revelations and Dreams it shall suffice to have only proposed these few Conclusions without farther enlargement the manner of Gods revealing his will here to Abimelech by Dream being but an incidental circumstance upon the bye and not belonging to the main of the present story We will therefore without more adoe proceed to the substance of Gods reply in the rest of the verse and therein begin with the former general part which is Gods admission of Abimelechs Plea and Apology for himself The ground of whose Plea was Ignorance and the thing he pleaded his own Innocency and the integrity of his heart and God who is the searcher of all hearts alloweth the allegation and acknowledgeth that integrity Yea I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart The Original word here translated Integrity is rendred by some Truth by others Purity and by others Simplicity and it will bear them all as signifying properly Perfection or Innocency You would think by that word that Abimelech had in this whole businesse walked in the sight of God with a pure and upright and true and single and perfect heart But alas he was far from that God plagued him and his for that he had done and God doth not use to punish the carcasse for that wherein the heart is single Again God with-held him or else he would have done more and worse and it is a poor perfection of heart where the active power only is restrained and not the inward corruption subdued Besides Sarah was taken into the house and there kept for lewd purposes and how can truth and purity of heart consist with a continued resolution of sinful uncleannesse Abimelech then cannot be defended as truly and absolutely innocent though he plead Innocency and God himself bear witnesse to the Integrity of his heart For had his heart been upright in him and sincere in this very matter of Sarah he would never have taken her into his house at all as he did But that he pleadeth for himself is that in this particular wherewith it seemed to him God by so threatning him did charge him in wronging Abraham by taking his wife from him his conscience could witnesse the Innocency of his heart how free he was from any the least injurious purpose or so much as thought that way It was told him by them both that she was his Sister and he knew no other by her than so when he took her into his house supposing her to be a single Woman if he had known she had been any mans Wife he would not for any good have done the man so foul an injury nor have sinned against his own soul by defiling anothers bed In the integrity of his heart and innocency of his hands he did what he had done This is the substance of his allegation and God approveth the integrity of his heart so far viz. as free in this particular from any intent either to injure Abraham or to sin against the light of his own Conscience by committing adultery with anothers wife The meaning of the words thus cleared we may observe in them three things First the fact for which Abimelech pleadeth and that was the taking of Sarah who was anothers wife into his house Secondly the ground of his plea and that was his Ignorance he knew not when he took her that she was anothers wife Thirdly the thing he pleadeth upon that
contract my speech to the scanting of time or you if I should lengthen it to the weight of the matter And therefore I resolved here to make an end and to give place as fit it is to the businesse whereabout we meet The Total of what I have said and should say is in effect but this No pretension of a good end of a good meaning of a good event of any good whatsoever either can sufficiently warrant any sinfull action to be done or justifie it being done or sufficiently excuse the Omission of any necessary duty when it is necessary Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things Now to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit c. AD CLERUM The Third Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln 13. March 1620. 1 COR. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall IN the first Verse of this Chapter S. Paul proposeth to himself an Argument which he prosecuteth the whole Chapter through and after a profitable digression into the praise of Charity in the next Chap. resumeth again at the 14. Chapter spending also that whole Chapter therein and it is concerning spirituall gifts Now concerning spirituall gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant c. These gracious gifts of the holy Spirit of God bestowed on them for the edification of the Church the Corinthians by making them the fuell either of their pride in despising those that were inferiour to themselves or of their envy in malicing those that excelled therein abused to the maintenance of schisme and faction and emulation in the Church For the remedying of which evils the Apostle entreth upon the Argument discoursing fully of the variety of these spirituall gifts and who is the Author of them and for what end they were given and in what manner they should be imployed omitting nothing that was needfull to be spoken anent this subject In this part of the Chapter entreating both before and after this verse of the wondrous great yet sweet and usefull variety of these spirituall gifts he sheweth that howsoever manifold they are either for kind or degree so as they may differ in the materiall and formall yet they do all agree both in the same efficient and the same finall cause In the same efficient cause which is God the Lord by his Spirit ver 4 6. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And in the same finall cause which is the advancement of Gods glory in the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church in this ver But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall By occasion of which words we may enquire into the nature convenience and use of these gifts First their nature in themselves and in their originall what they are and whence they are the works of Gods Spirit in us the manifestation of the Spirit Secondly their conveyance unto us how we come to have them and to have property in them it is by gift It is given to every man Thirdly their use and end why they were given us and what we are to do with them they must be employed to the good of our Brethren and of the Church is given to every man to profit withall Of these briefly and in their order and with speciall reference ever to us that are of the Clergy By manifestation of the Spirit here our Apostle understandeth none other thing then he doth by the adjective word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first and by the substantive word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last verse of the Chapter Both which put together do signifie those spiritual gifts and graces whereby God enableth men and specially Church-men to the duties of their particular Callings for the generall good Such as are those particulars which are named in the next following verses the word of Wisdome the word of Knowledge Faith the gifts of healing workings of miracles prophecy discerning of spirits divers kinds of tongues interpretation of tongues All which and all other of like nature and use because they are wrought by that one and self-same Spirit which divideth to every one severally as he will are therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts and here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit The word Spirit though in Scripture it have many other significations yet in this place I conceive to be understood directly of the holy Ghost the third Person in the ever blessed Trinity For first in ver 3. that which is called the Spirit of God in the former part is in the latter part called the Holy Ghost I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus accursed and that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Again that variety of gifts which in ver 4. is said to proceed from the same Spirit is said likewise in ver 5. to proceed from the same Lord and in ver 6. to proceed from the same God and therefore such a Spirit is meant as is also Lord and God and that is onely the Holy Ghost And again in those words in ver 11. All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will the Apostle ascribeth to this Spirit the collation and distribution of such gifts according to the free power of his own will and pleasure which free power belongeth to none but God alone Who hath set the members every one in the body as it hath pleased him Which yet ought not to be so understood of the Person of the Spirit as if the Father and the Son had no part or fellowship in this business For all the Actions and operations of the Divine Persons those onely excepted which are of intrinsecall and mutuall relation are the joynt and undivided works of the whole three Persons according to the common known maxime constantly and uniformly received in the Catholike Church Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa And as to this particular concerning gifts the Scriptures are clear Wherein as they are ascribed to GOD the Holy Ghost in this Chapter so they are elsewhere ascribed to God the Father Every good gift and every perfect giving is from above from the Father of Lights Jam. 1. and elsewhere to God the Son Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Eph. 4. Yea and it may be that for this very reason in the three verses next before my text these three words are used Spirit in ver 4. Lord in ver 5. and God in ver 6. to give us intimation that these spirituall gifts
proceed equally and undividedly from the whole three Persons from God the Father and from his Son Iesus Christ our Lord and from the eternall Spirit of them both the Holy Ghost as from one entire indivisible and coessentiall Agent But for that we are grosse of understanding and unable to conceive the distinct Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead otherwise then by apprehending some distinction of their operations and offices to-us-ward it hath pleased the wisdome of God in the holy Scriptures which being written for our sakes were to be fitted to our capacities so far to condescend to our weakness and dulness as to attribute some of those great and common works to one person and some to another after a more speciall manner than unto the rest although indeed and in truth none of the three persons had more or lesse to do than other in any of those great and common works This manner of speaking Divines use to call Appropriation By which appropriation as Power is ascribed to the Father and Wisdome to the Son so is Goodness to the Holy Ghost And therefore as the Work of Creation wherein is specially seen the mighty power of God is appropriated to the Father and the work of Redemption wherein is specially seen the wisdome of God to the Son and so the works of sanctification and the infusion of habituall graces whereby the good things of God are communicated unto us is appropriated unto the Holy Ghost And for this cause the gifts thus communicated unto us from God are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit We see now why spirit but then why manifestation The word as most other verballs of that form may be understood either in the active or passive signification And it is not materiall whether of the two wayes we take it in this place both being true and neither improper For these spirituall gifts are the manifestation of the spirit Actively because by these the spirit manifesteth the will of God unto the Church these being the instruments and means of conveying the knowledge of salvation unto the people of God And they are the manifestation of the spirit Passively too because where any of these gifts especially in any eminent sort appeared in any person it was a manifest evidence that the Spirit of God wrought in him As we read in Acts 10. that they of the Circumcision were astonished When they saw that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost If it be demanded But how did that appear it followeth in the next verse For they heard them speak with tongues c. The spirituall Gift then is a manifestation of the Spirit as every other sensible effect is a manifestation of its proper cause We are now yet farther to know that the Gifts and graces wrought in us by the holy spirit of God are of two sorts The Scriptures sometimes distinguish them by the different terms of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although those words are sometimes again used indifferently and promiscuously either for other They are commonly known in the Schooles and differenced by the names of Gratiae gratum facientes Gratiae gratis datae Which termes though they be not very proper for the one of them may be affirmed of the other whereas the members of every good distinction ought to be opposite yet because they have been long received and change of termes though haply for the better hath by experience been found for the most part unhappy in the event in multiplying unnecessary book-quarrells we may retain them profitably and without prejudice Those former which they call Gratum facientes are the graces of Sanctification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do acceptable service to God in the duties of his generall Calling these latter which they call Gratis datas are the Graces of Edification whereby the person that hath them is enabled to do profitable service to the Church of God in the duties of his particular Calling Those are given Nobis Nobis both to us and from us that is chiefly for our own good these Nobis sed Nostris to us indeed but for others that is chiefly for the good of our brethren Those are given us ad salutem for the saving of our own souls these ad lucrum for the winning of other mens souls Those proceed from the speciall love of God to the Person and may therefore be called personall or speciall these proceeed from the Generall love of God to his Church or yet more generall to humane societies and may therefore be rather called Ecclesiasticall or Generall Gifts or Graces Of that first sort are Faith Hope Charity Repentance Patience Humility and all those other holy graces and fruits of the Spirit which accompany salvation Wrought by the blessed and powerful operation of the holy Spirit of God after a most effectuall but unconceivable manner regenerating and renewing and seasoning and sanctifying the hearts of his Chosen But yet these are not the Gifts so much spoken of in this Chapter and namely in my Text Every branch whereof excludeth them Of those graces of sanctification first we may have indeed probable inducements to perswade us that they are or are not in this or that man But hypocrisie may make such a semblance that we may think we see spirit in a man in whom yet there is nothing but flesh and infirmities may cast such a fogge that we can discern nothing but flesh in a man in whom yet there is spirit But the gifts here spoken of do incurre into the senses and give us evident and infallible assurance of the spirit that wrought them here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manifestation of the spirit Again Secondly those Graces of sanctification are not communicated by distribution Alius sic alius verò sic Faith to one Charity to another Repentance to another but where they are given they are given all at once and together as it were strung upon one threed and linked into one chain But the Gifts here spoken of are distributed as it were by doal and divided severally as it pleased God shared out into severall portions and given to every man some to none all for to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdome to another the word of Knowledge c. Thirdly those Graces of sanctification though they may and ought to be exercised to the benefit of others who by the shining of our light and the sight of our good works may be provoked to glorifie God by walking in the same paths yet that is but utilitas emergens and not finis proprius a good use made of them upon the bye but not the main proper and direct end of them for which they were chiefly given But the Gifts here spoken of were given directly
of the Ruler of the Feast in the Gospel Every man at the beginning setteth forth good Wine and then after that which is worse though there be many thousand men in the world that never rode that way or had occasion to set forth any Wine at all either better or worse very so ought we to conceive the meaning of the universall particle Every man both in this and in many other like speeches in the Scriptures with due limitations according to the tenour and purpose of the thing spoken of It mattereth not then as to the intent of this present speech be it true be it false otherwise whether every man have received a spirituall gift or no onely thus much is directly intended that every man who hath received such a gift hath received it by way of gift All spirituall graces all those dispositions habits and abilities of the understanding part from which the Church of God may receive edification in any kind together with all the secondary and inferiour helps that any way conduce thereunto they are all the good gifts of God The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man The variety both of the gifts meet for several offices of the offices wherein to employ those gifts is wonderfull no less wonderful the distribution of both gifts and offices But all that variety is derived from one and the same fountain the holy Spirit of God and all those distributions pass unto us by one and the same way of most free and liberall donation Have all the Word of Wisdome Have all the Word of Knowledge Have all Faith Have all Prophecy or other spirituall grace No they have not but b to one the Word of Wisdome the Word of Knowledge to another to others other gifts There is both variety you see and distribution of these graces But yet there is the same Author of them and the same manner of communicating them For to one is given by the spirit the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit and to others other graces but they are all from the same Spirit and they are all given And as the gifts so the offices too To that question in ver 29. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers Answer may be made as before negatively No they are not but some Apostles some Prophets some Teachers There is the like variety and distribution as before but withall the same Donor and the same donation as before For he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Pastors and Teachers Ephes. 4. And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. beneath at ver 28. Both gifts and offices as they are à Deo for the Author so they are ex dono for the manner from God and by way of gift If we had no other the very names they carry like the superscription upon Caesars penny were a sufficient proof from whom we first had them When we call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratias gratis datas gifts and graces and manifestations of the Spirit do we not by the use of those very names confess the receipt For what more free than gift and what less of debt or desert than grace Heathen men indeed called the best of their perfections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Habits but Saint Iames hath taught us Christians a fitter name for ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts They say they had them and looked no farther but we must know as that we have them so as well how we came by them And therefore this Apostle above at Chap. 4. joyneth the having and the receipt together as if he would have us behold them uno intuitu and at once Quid habes quod non accepisti what hast thou that thou hast not received Possibly thou wilt alledge thy excellent naturall parts these were not given thee but thou broughtest them into the world with thee or thou wilt vouch what thou hast attained to by Art and Industry and these were not given thee but thou hast won them proprio Marté and therefore well deservest to wear them Deceive not thy self it is neither so nor so Our Apostle in the place now last mentioned cutteth off all such Challenges Quis te discrevit who made thee to differ from another Say there were as there is not such a difference in and from Nature as thou conceivest yet still in the last resolution there must be a receipt acknowledged for even Nature it self in the last resolution is of Grace for GOD gave thee that Or say there were as there is not such a difference of desert as thou pretendest yet still that were to be acknowledged as a gift too for GOD gave thee that power whatsoever it was whereby thou hast attained to whatsoever thou hast But the truth is the difference that is in men in regard of these gifts and abilities ariseth neither from the power of Nature nor from the merit of labour otherwise than as GOD is pleased to use these as second causes under him but it cometh meerly from the good will and pleasure of that free spirit which bloweth where and when and how he listeth dividing his graces to every man severally as he will at the eleventh and as it hath pleased him at verse 18. of this Chapter Nature is a necessary agent and if not either hindred by some inferiour impediment or over-ruled by some higher power worketh alwayes alike and produceth the same effects in all individuals of the same kind and how is it possible she should make a difference that knoweth none And as for Desert there is indeed no such thing and therefore it can work nothing For can God be a debtor to any man or hath any man given to him first that it might be recompensed him again As a lump of Clay lyeth before the Potter so is all mankind in the hand of GOD. The Potter at his pleasure out of that Lump frameth vessels of all sorts of different shape proportion strength fineness capacity as he thinketh good unto the severall uses for which he intendeth them So God after the good pleasure of his own will out of mankind as out of an untoward lump of Clay all of the same piece equall in nature and desert maketh up vessels for the use of his Sanctuary by fitting several men with several gifts more or less greater or meaner better or worse according to the difference of those offices and employments for which he intended them It is not the Clay but the Potter that maketh the difference there neither is it any thing in man but the Spirit of God that maketh the difference here Whatsoever spirituall abilities we have we have them of gift and by grace The manifestation of the spirit is given to every man A point of very fruitfull
becommeth wholly sinfull Nay more not onely a true and reall but even a supposed and imaginary defect the bare opinion of unlawfulnesse is able to vitiate the most justifiable act and to turn it into sin I know there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean at the 14 verse of this Chapter Nay yet more not onely a setled opinion that the thing we do is unlawfull but the very suspension of our judgement and the doubtfulnesse of our minds whether we may lawfully do it or no maketh it sometimes unlawfull to be done of us and if we do it sinfull He that but doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith in the former part of this verse The ground whereof the Apostle delivereth in a short and full Aphorism and concludeth the whole Chapter with it in the words of the Text For whatsoever is not of faith is sin Many excellent instructions there are scattered throughout the whole Chapter most of them concerning the right use of that Liberty we have unto things of indifferent nature well worthy our Christian consideration if we had time and leisure for them But this last Rule alone will find us work enough and therefore omitting the rest we will by Gods assistance with your patience presently fall in hand with this and intend it wholly in the Explication first and then in the Application of it For by how much it is of more profitable and universall use for the regulating of the common offices of life by so much is the mischief greater if it be and accordingly our care ought to be so much the greater that it be not either misunderstood or misapplyed Quod non ex fide peccatum that is the rule Whatsoever is not of faith is sin In the Explication of which words there would be little difficulty had not the ambiguity of the word Faith occasioned difference of interpretations and so left a way open to some misapprehensions Faith is verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most other words are There be that have reckoned up more than twenty severall significations of it in the Scriptures But I find three especially looked at by those who either purposely or occasionally have had to do with this Text each of which we shall examine in their Order First and most usually especially in the Apostolicall writings the word Faith is used to signifie that Theologicall vertue or gracious habit whereby we embrace with our minds and affections the Lord Iesus Christ as the onely begotten Son of God and alone Saviour of the world casting our selves wholly upon the mercy of God through his merits for remission and everlasting salvation It is that which is commonly called a lively or justifying faith whereunto are ascribed in holy Writ those many gracious effects of purifying the heart adoption justification life joy peace salvation c. Not as to their proper and primary cause but as to the instrument whereby we apprehend and apply Christ whose merits and spirit are the true causes of all those blessed effects And in this notion many of our later Divines seem to understand it in our present Text whilest they alledge it for the confirmation of this Position that All the works even the best works of unbelievers are sins A position condemned indeed by the Trent-Council and that under a curse taking it as I suppose in a wrong construction but not worthy of so heavy a censure if it be rightly understood according to the doctrine of our Church in the thirteenth Article of her Confession and according to the tenour of those Scriptures whereon that doctrine is grounded Viz. Mat. 12.33 Rom. 8.8 Tit. 1.15 Heb. 11.6 c. Howbeit I take it with subjection of judgement that that Conclusion what truth soever it may have in it self hath yet no direct foundation in this Text. The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe and the Nown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith or belief are both of them found sundry times in this Chapter yet seem not to signifie in any place thereof either the Verb the Act or the Nown the Habit of this saving or justifying Faith of which we now speak But being opposed every where and namely in this last verse unto doubtfulnesse of judgement concerning the lawfulness of some indifferent things must therefore needs be understood of such a perswasion of judgement concerning such lawfulness as is opposite to such doubting Which kind of Faith may be found in a meer heathen man who never having heard the least syllable of the mystery of salvation by Christ may yet be assured out of clear evidence of reason that many of the things he doth are such as he may and ought to do And as it may be found in a meer heathen man so it may be wanting in a true believer who stedfastly resting upon the blood of Christ for his eternall redemption may yet through the strength of temptation sway of passion or other distemper or subreption incident to humane frailty do some particular act or acts of the lawfulnesse whereof he is not sufficiently perswaded The Apostle then here speaking of such a Faith as may be both found in an unbeliever and also wanting in a true believer it appeareth that by Faith he meaneth not that justifying Faith which maketh a true believer to differ from an unbeliever but the word must be understood in some other notion Yet thus much I may adde withall in the behalf of those worthy men that have alledged this Scripture for the purpose aforesaid to excuse them from the imputation of having at least wilfully handled the Word of God deceitfully First that the thing it self being true and the words also sounding so much that way might easily induce them to conceive that to be the very meaning And common equity will not that men should be presently condemned if they shall sometimes confirm a point from a place of Scripture not altogether pertinent if yet they think it to be so especially so long as the substance of what they write is according to the analogy of Faith and Godlinesse Secondly that albeit these words in their most proper and immediate sense will not necessarily enforce that Conclusion yet it may seem deducible therefrom with the help of some topicall arguments and by more remote inferences as some learned men have endeavoured to shew not altogether improbably And thirdly that they who interpret this Text as aforesaid are neither singular nor novell therein but walk in the same path which some of the ancient Fathers have trod before them The Rhemists themselves confesse it of S. Augustine to whom they might have added also S. Prosper and whose authority alone is enough to stop their mouthes for ever Leo Bishop of Rome who have all cited these words for the self-same purpose But we are content
is no lesse good to the poor that whippeth him when he deserveth This is indeed to be good to the poor to give him that almes first which he wanteth most if he be hungry it is almes to feed him but if he be idle and untoward it is almes to whip him This is to be good to the poor But who then are the poor we should be good to as they interpret goodnesse Saint Paul would have Widowes honoured but yet those that are widowes indeed so it is meet the poor should be relieved but yet those that are poor indeed Not every one that begges is poor not every one that wanteth is poor not every one that is poor is poor indeed They are the poor whom we private men in Charity and you that are Magistrates in â—ustice stand bound to relieve who are old or impotent and unable to work or in these hard and depopulating times are willing but cannot be set on work or have a greater charge upon them than can be maintained by their work These and such as these are the poor indeed let us all be good to such as these Be we that are private men as brethren to these poor ones and shew them mercy be you that are Magistrates as Fathers to these poor ones and do them justice But as for those idle stubborn professed wanderers that can and may and will not work and under the name and habit of poverty rob the poor indeed of our almes and their maintenance let us harden our hearts against them and not give them do you execute the severity of the Law upon them and not spare them It is Saint Pauls Order nay it is the Ordinance of the Holy Ghost and we should all put to our helping hands to see it kept He that will not labour let him not eat These Ulcers and Drones of the Common-wealth are ill worthy of any honest mans almes of any good Magistrates protection Hitherto of the Magistrates second Duty with the Reasons and extent thereof I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a Father to the poor Followeth next the third Duty in these words The cause which I knew not I searched out Of which words some frame the Coherence with the former as if Iob had meant to clear his mercy to the poor from suspicion of partiality and injustice and as if he had said I was a Father indeed to the poor pitifull and mercifull to him and ready to shew him any lawfull favour but yet not so as in pity to him to forget or pervert justice I was ever carefull before I would either speak or do for him to be first assured his cause was right and good and for that purpose if it were doubtfull I searched it out and examined it before I would countenance either him or it Certainly thus to do is agreeable to the rule of Iustice yea and of Mercy too for it is one Rule in shewing Mercy that it be ever done salvis pietate justitiâ without prejudice done to piety and justice And as to this particular the commandment of God is expresse for it in Exod. 23. Thou shalt not countenance no not a poor man in his cause Now if we should thus understand the coherence of the words the speciall duty which Magistrates should hence learn would be indifferency in the administration of Justice not to make difference of rich or poor far or near friend or foe one or other but to consider onely and barely the equity and right of the cause without any respect of persons or partiall inclination this way or that way This is a very necessary duty indeed in a Magistrate of justice and I deny not but it may be gathered without any violence from these very words of my Text though to my apprehension not so much by way of immediate observation from the necessity of any such coherence as by way of consequence from the words themselves otherwise For what need all that care and paines and diligence in searching out the cause if the condition of the person might over-rule the cause after all that search and were not the judgement to be given meerly according to the goodnesse or badnesse of the cause without respect had to the person But the speciall duty which these words seem most naturally and immediately to impose upon the Magistrate and let that be the third observation is diligence and patience and care to hear and examine and enquire into the truth of things and into the equity of mens causes As the Physician before he prescribe receipt or diet to his patient will first feel the pulse and view the urine and observe the temper and changes in the body and be inquisitive how the disease began and when and what fits it hath and where and in what manner it holdeth him and inform himself every other way as fully as he can in the true state of the body that so he may proportion the remedies accordingly without errour so ought every Magistrate in causes of Justice before he pronounce sentence or give his determination whether in matters judiciall or criminall to hear both parties with equall patience to examine witnesses and other evidences advisedly and throughly to consider and wisely lay together all allegations and circumstances to put in quaeres and doubts upon the by and use all possible expedient meanes for the boulting out of the truth that so he may do that which is equall and right without errour A duty not without both Precept and Precedent in holy Scripture Moses prescribeth it in Deut. 17. in the case of Idolatry If there be found among you one that hath done thus or thus c. And it be told thee and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently and behold it to be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel Then thou shalt bring forth that man c. The offender must be stoned to death and no eye pity him but it must be done orderly and in a legall course not upon a bare hear-say but upon diligent examination and inquisition and upon such full evidence given in as may render the fact certain so far as such cases ordinarily are capable of certainty And the like is again ordered in Deut. 19. in the case of false witnesse Both the men between whom the controversie is shall stand before the Iudges and the Iudges shall make diligent inquisition c. And in Iudg. 19. in the wronged Levites case whose Concubine was abused unto death at Gibeah the Tribes of Israel stirred up one another to do justice upon the inhabitants thereof and the method they proposed was this first to consider and consult of it and then to give their opinions But the most famous example in this kinde is that of King Solomon in 3 Kings 3. in the difficult case of the two Mothers
him that is the point wherein consisteth the chiefest difficulty in this matter and into which therefore we are now to enquire viz. whether that were rather his own sin or his father Ahabs sin Whether we answer for this or for that we say but the truth in both for both sayings are true God punished him for his own and God punished him for his Fathers sin The difference only this His own sins were the impulsive cause that deserved the punishment his fathers sin the impulsive cause that occasioned it and so indeed upon the point and respectively to the justice of God rather his own sins were the cause of it than his fathers both because justice doth especially look at the desert and also because that which deserveth a punishment is more effectually and primarily and properly the impulsive cause of punishing than that which only occasioneth it The terms whereby Artists expresse these two different kinds of impulsive causes borrowed from Galen and the Physicians of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be excellent and full of satisfaction if they were of easie understanding But for that they are not so especially to such as are not acquainted with the terms and learning of the Schools I forbear to use them and rather than to take the shortest cut over hedge and ditch chuse to lead you an easier and plainer way though it 's something about and that by a familiar example A man hath lived for some good space in reasonable state of health yet by grosse feeding and through continuance of time his body the whilst hath contracted many vitious noisome and malignant humours It happeneth he had occasion to ride abroad in bad weather taketh wet on his feet or neck getteth cold with it commeth home findeth himself not well falleth a shaking first and anon after into a dangerous and lasting fever Here is a fever and here are two different causes of it an antecedent cause within the abundance of noisom and crude humours that is causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the evident cause ah extra his riding in the wet and taking cold upon it and that is Galens causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us go on a little and compare these causes The Physician is sent for the sick mans friends they stand about him and in commeth the Physician among them and enquireth of him and them how he got his fever They presently give him such information as they can and the information is both true and sufficient so far as it reacheth they tell him the one cause the occasional cause the outward evident cause Alas Sir he rode such a journey such a time got wet on his feet and took cold upon it and that hath brought him to all this That is all they are able to say to it for other cause they know none But by and by after some surview of the state of the body he is able to inform them in the other cause the inward and original cause whereof they were as ignorant before as he was of that other outward one and he telleth them the cause of the malady is superfluity of crude and noysom humours ranknesse of bloud abundance of melancholy tough flegm or some other like thing within Now if it be demanded which of these two is rather the cause of his sickness The truth is that inward antecedent cause within is the very cause thereof although perhaps it had not bred a fever at that time if that other outward occasion had not been For by that inward hidden cause the body was prepared for an ague only there wanted some outward fit accident to stir and provoke the humours within and to set them on working And the parties body being so prepared might have fallen into the same sickness by some other accident as well as that as over heating himself with exercise immoderate watching some distemper or surfeit in diet or the like But neither that nor any of these nor any other such accident could have cast him into such a fit if the humours had not been ripe and the body thereby prepared to entertain such a disease So as the bad humours within may rather be said to be the true cause and that cold-taking but the occasion of the Ague the disease it self issuing from the hidden cause within and the outward accident being the cause not so much of the disease it self why the Ague should take him as why it should take him at that time rather than at another and hold him in that part or in that manner rather than in another From this example we may see in some proportion how our own sins and other mens concurr as joynt impulsive causes of those punishments which God bringeth upon us Our own sinnes they are the true hidden antecedent causes which deserve the punishments our Fathers sins or our governours sins or our neighbours sins or whatsoever other mans sins that are visited upon us are only the outward evident causes or rather occasions why we should be punished at this time and in this thing and in this manner and in this measure and with these circumstances And as in the former Example the Patients friends considered one cause and the Physician another they the evident and outward he the inward and antecedent cause so respectively to God's Iustice our own sins only are the causes of our punishments but in respect of his Providence and Wisdom our Fathers sins also or other mens For Iustice looketh upon the desert only and so the punishments are ever and only from our own personal sins as we learned from our third Certainty but it is Providence that ordereth the occasions and the seasons and the other circumstances of Gods punishments Hence may we learn to reconcile those places of Scipture which seem to Cross one another in this Argument In Ezekiel and Ieremy it is said that Every man shall be punished for his own sinnes and that the Children shall not bear the iniquity of the Fathers and yet the same Ieremy complaineth as if it were otherwise Lam. 5. Our fathers have sinned are not and we have born their iniquities Yea God himself proclameth otherwise I am a jealous God visiting the sins of the Fathers upon the Children Nor only doth he visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children but he visiteth also the sins of Princes upon their Subjects as Davids people were wasted for his sin in numbring them yea and he visiteth sometimes the sins even of ordinary private men upon publick societies Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespasse in the accursed thing and wrath fell upon all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished not alone in his iniquity Now how can all this stand together Yes very well even as well as in the act of punishing Gods Iustice and his Wisedome can stand together Mark then wheresoever the