to what he doth not yet possesse and a man may wrongfully possess that to which he hath no just Title Nabouh had to his vineyard to wit Title of inheritance the Lord forbid saith he to Ahab that I should give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee 1. of Kings 21. Yet at length Ahab possest it without a Title for ought we find unlesse perhaps it were some new Law of Iezabels enacting that the Husband should succeed him whom the Wife had murthered We may get a right of Title by others for so Isaack had it to his Inheritance because he was the Son of Sarah the wife of Abraham and Mephibosheth to his possession because he was the Son of Ionathan the Friend of David But 't is the Act of their own Body usually whereby men take possession Possessio quasi pedis positio say the learned Lawyers 't is gotten by setting our foot and seeming to take up our rest upon the ground which we meant to possesse You may remember Ahab went down in person to take possession of Nabaoths vineyard in the Text before cited So then we may get a right of Title from the bounty of others but possession is the Fruit of our own endeavours I apply it the practice of this legal course is no lesse observable in the attainment of the Everlasting Kingdom for to have a Title to it is one thing the manner of possessing it another If we be Sons then are we also heirs Saith the Apostle there 's our Title 't is by a right of Inheritance Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy masters joy there 's the manner of possessing it 't is per pedis positionem by setting our feet and putting our selves resolutely into that narrow way which leadeth unto life by bringing forth the Fruits of Faith which may abound and advance us unto this possession Calvin himself hath intimated what I now observed in his third Book of Institutions chap. 17. In his locis in these Texts saith he where Eternal life is called the reward of good works the Holy Ghost speaks not of life it self but of the form of enjoying it that is as I understand him he speaks not of our Title to the Kingdom but of the manner how we must possesse it Without Fruits then our Account will not be taken or to speak plainly and leave this Metaphor without good works there 's no Salvation They are not indeed the cause but they are the way to life They are not the Title whereby we lay claym to Heaven but yet they serve instead of that legal form whereby we must take possession of Heaven Nor is my Text any way injurious to Faith while it holds good works in so great esteem for if you observe the word here used by my Apostle when he mentions the one he implyes the other yea and chiefly extolls Faith though he doth not name it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he saith not I desire good works but I desire Fruit They are not esteem'd then for their own sakes but because they grew upon the Stemm of Faith He that loves an Israelite because he is the Son of Abraham loves Abraham more than he doth the Israelite and so he that desires good works because they are the Fruits of Faith honours Faith more than he doth good works For our affection looks chiefly at that which first moves it and therefore the cause why we respect any thing is still more in our account than the Thing it self Names of Relation alwayes busie our understanding and by a silent kind of Command make us to search farther than the Thing we hear If we call the Rechabites no more but good men our apprehension confines it self unto their persons only but when we Stile them obedient Sons we can hardly abstain from making some farther enquiry touching their Father Ionadab So had it been here said Good works abound we might perhaps have sought no further than into their desert but the name of Fruit which is given them makes us enquire for the Tree on which they grow and silently enformes our understanding that good works do therefore abound to our account because they are the Fruits of Faith that saves us So then 't is Faith that justifies both our selves and our works too it makes us of Sinfull men become the children of God and it makes our works of unprofitable Actions become Fruits abounding unto our Eternal Freedome Where 's now the forehead of that Romish strumpet who dares affirm that our Doctrine hinders good works and that without blushing too Indeed we must not say they merit that were as false as dangerous and the ready way to make us men become rather proud than honest yet we averr without good works there 's no Salvation and in mine Apostles phrase that without such Fruit we shall fail in our account our Master will be wroth with us and deliver us over to the Tormentor to lye in prison till we pay all that 's due to him which will be to eternity If this be not a sufficient inducement to good works what is who can move him that regards neither the losse of Heaven nor the gaining of hell nor do I well see how our adversaries themselves should present us with a greater motive unlesse perhaps they will have the confidence to tell us that the Fire of Hell is not so hot but burns more gently and softly than that of Purgatory 'T were to be wished indeed that in this point our lines were as well able to give Rome the lye as our Doctrine is she might then see as well as read that the reformed Church can be both good and humble too and knows both to be rich in the Fruits of Faith and yet to rely onely upon Christs satisfaction I conclude with that of Saint Austin in the 23th chapter of his Confession Germinet anima nostra opera misericordiae Let our souls Bud and Bring forth the works of mercy pitty the Fatherlesse have compassion on the poor relieve those that are in distresse lend a tender and favourable ear to the widdows groanes Be ye members one of another by compassion and a lively sense of your Brethrens sufferings and be ye members one to another by the free help of your Benevolence and Chatity Be Eyes to the blind be Feet to the lame be Hands to them that cannot through age or other impotency labour for themselves In a word give Almes every man according to his Estate liberally frequently constantly worship God humbly and devoutly do all kind of good works with Diligence Faithfullnesse and Sincerity So shall your Fruit abound not onely to your own but to the Churches account the Church shall have wherewith to answer her Adversaries in this world and your selves wherewith to satisfy that great Judge of account in the world to come which God of his mercy grant c. The Second SERMON MARK 6. 20. For Herod feared Iohn knowing
Herod might indeed truly rejoyce at the Preaching of Iohn but I shall detect his joy and shew it to have been meerly carnal and so wholly set upon the respects of this life that it had no dependency at all on that to come And to begin the discovery aright we must first observe his Faith which I take or rather find to be Temporary the fame that Saint Mark describes chap. 4th at the 17th verse They have no root in themselves and endure but for a time my Authority is Beza â—…adebat hic semen in saxosa loca saith he The sowers seed sell here upon stony ground The servant must not be above his Master and therefore as Christ sometimes Preached to hard and obdurate hearers that received not the word so kindly into their hearts as that it could take due root in them so must Iohn be content to do Now this Temporary Faith although we may well enough stile it true Faith as Truth is opposed to Hypocrisie because it was not feigned yet doth it as much differ from the nature and excellency of that which justifieth as Ismael did from Isaak he was no counterfeit child of Abraham but yet begotten upon a bond-woman So these Faiths the Temporary and Iustifying Faith do both proceed from the same Spirit as from the same Father or Author of them But you know that Sun the Holy Spirit I mean imparts his influences diversly unto men and after different measures viz. according as he stands affected to the subject which he works upon No man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 12. and yet the devils themselves constrained no doubt thereto by the evident power of Gods Spirit non dicunt tantum sed vociferantur as one saith they do not onely speak it but proclaim it I know who thou art saith the unclean spirit in Saint Mark chap. the 3. even the holy one of God Here are different works of the Spirit you see even upon reprobate and damned creatures But Spiritus Paracletus erit vobiscum saith Christ of the elect Iohn the 14th They shall receive the Spirit not of Illumination only but of Comfort The Scripture 't is confessed stiles them both by the name of Faith but the one is a bare assent only unto the Doctrine preached the other is a confident application of it wee saith that elect Apostle have confidence by Faith in him Ephes. 3. at the 12th verse Lastly they both produce a gladnesse this pure and Spiritual out of a sense of the forgivenesse of Sins being justified by Faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. at the 1. that other impure carnal and only stirr'd up by the force of some Worldly motives So were the Philosophers at Athens most gladly desirous to hear the Doctor of the Gentiles not because their Souls were joy'd with the soundnesse of his Doctrine but because their ears listened after Novelties 'T was a story to them that seem'd to deserve attention to hear of a Deity Incarnate of a God crucifyed and that to the Immortality of the Soul which they had learn'd from nature the Gospel now added the Resurrection of the Body The strangenesse of such Doctrine as this must needs delight and give satisfaction no lesse to a Curious than to a Godly Auditour How could the Doctrine of Christian liberty but be welcome to many irreligious and loose people in Hierusalem how could that news want ready entertainment that promised such absolute and present freedom both to themselves from the bondage of those annual ceremonies and to their children also from the pain and peril of Circumcision Iustification by Faith must needs joy them that are loath to be at the charge of good Works and free remission of Sins is so plausible a Theme that I fear it makes many think they are scarse put to the trouble of Beleeving How many joyful hearers do these times afford who yet never in their life desired much lesse laboured to attain a sense of the forgivenesse of Sins Their joy imployes it self about other matters The Preacher 's eloquent perhaps and then his pleasing periods command their attention Perhaps he 's bitter and then they are tickled with the display of their Neighbours vices and begin to take it for a kind of Innocency that other men are as bad as themselves Nay are they not those that presse with eagernesse into these Assemblies only that they may find wherewith to busie their detracting humours Here he wanted Art there diligence these lines were too carelesse that strain too affected Quibus plus Displices si ominem sine aspiratione dixeris saith St. Austin quam si hominem oderis men that had rather you should break a Commandement than offend a Grammar rule and think it a greater fault to mispronounce a mans name than to murther his reputation But let such Auditours know animis non auribus loquimur as Seneca hath it we speak to your consciences not to your ears and desire not so much to please as to save your Souls I much wonder therefore at our English Arminius I mean Thompson in the 5. chapter of his Diatriba that makes the difference according to Scripture as he pretends between the wavering or Temporary and Iustifying Faith to be only temporis tantum aut gradus non rei et essentiae that is that they differ not essentially and in nature one from another but gradually and in respect of time durance and perseverance only So that Temporary Faith with him so long as it continues is as true Faith as that which continues for ever And hence indeed it follows easily that a man though qualifyed only with that fading imperfection of a Temporary Faith yet for the time that such Faith continueth in him must needs be justified before God and when it fails that his Iustification also ceaseth and is broken off and so the Title of his Diatriba is made good de interscisione Gratiae c. But surely the Truth is farr otherwise Those things are distinguish'd essentially and in nature that differ as I have shewed these to do that is to say first in the cause The Temporary Faith proceeding only from some general and inferiour operation of the Holy Spirit commonly incident unto reprobates and wicked men who doubtlesse feel many times Impulses and as it were Knockings of the Spirit at the dore of their hearts which yet are never opened to any true Conversion whereas Iustifying Faith proceeds from that supreme and most special working of the Spirit which is proper to the Elect and alwayes effectual to Salvation Secondly they differ in the things themselves or in their Definition That viz. Temporary Faith being only a bare assent unto the Doctrine preached This a confident and lively application of it to ourselves and to our own Souls Thirdly in their effects This to wit Iustifying Faith being the Fountain and Source of true Spiritual joy and comfort
and yet not know it After this remedy followes our happy estate of health attended with the blessing of peace and quietness being in my last part shadowed out only under a negative description {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no more conscience of sinne The happy Estate Part 3. I dare not undertake to describe this happinesse for I find it passeth all understanding much more all discourse of man To call it health or peace or joy in the Holy Ghost were to name it rather than to expresse it so mysteriously happy is this estate that its conceived onely by being enjoyed I shall therefore make use of my Apostles modesty and call it onely no conscience of sin yet doth this Brevity include a panegyrick of praises for you know all excellencies are defin'd by Negatives Nor do I hold it a weak argument of perfection that Sathan so much desires to counterfeit this Estate seeing things of mean condition are no objects for imposture men do not usually counterfeit Brasse or Copper but Gold and Silver And therefore Satan that grand Impostor and deceiver of souls that he may more securely cheat us of that which is true labours with all subtlety to work in us a false similitude of this blessednesse and in stead of leaving us no conscience of sinne many times leaves us no conscience at all Saint Paul chap. the 4th of his fiâ—…st Epistle to Timothy verse 2. fiâ—…ly describes such deluded ones {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} men of seared consciences as we say in English or rather as Beza somewhat more Emphatically seemes to render it such men as an hot Iron set on fire surâ—…ly by Hell hath not seared only but cut off their consciences quite Hâ—…u miseri servitutem qui intelligunt miseriores qui non intelligunt cryd the Orator and I may well in this case be his Eccho Miserable are those men that feel the burthen and bondage of daily transgressions but most of all unhappy are they that serve sin and do not perceive it Canst thou then being a Noah beget a Cham make laughter the sonne of drunkennesse canst thou after a beastly surfeit jest at it instead of weeping canst thou lye in wait to deceive chastitie and then impudently boast of those Actions of which nature her self is ashamed If you be such Beloved it behoves me then to turn this part of my Sermon which I intended for your consolation into some Funeral discourse and set my self rather to deplore than congratulate your estate your disease is not cur'd but chang'd in stead of the Fever the burning Fever of a tormenting guilty conscience you are fallen into a Lethargie or dead sleep of unsensibleness and stupidity of spirit in a word you are dead not living Yet seing the dead too shall hear the voice of the Gospel of Christ I must not forbear to call upon you Awake therefore thou that sleepest in the security and senselessenesse of sin awake and stand up from the dead that Christ may give thee life Take and consider well these few lessons I shall give thee they may possibly help to recover thee Leaâ—…n first to be diseas'd that thou maist be healthfull let the Terrours of the Law threatning sin with death affright thy soul let them enter and wound thy Conscience that so thou maist both hunger and thirst after this remedy by Teares and contrition labour to procure a sense of it and so by degrees at length attain the blessednesse of this happy estate wherein those accusing thoughts shall be silenced those distractions quieted and composed and instead of Terrours and amazement thy conscience shall speak nothing but peace unto thee Thus have I discoursd upon the words of my Text apart and shewed you hitherto what I was able to collect from each of them in particular by themselves It remains now that I declare according to my intended purpose and briefly the Truth of this whole proposition namely how far a justified person may be again perplexed with his former transgressions and in what sense mine Apostle speaks when he saith that Worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sin Give me a man then after Gods own heart one who condemns himself with as much severity as he sinnes with fear let his sorrow keep pace with his transgressions and because he must daily offend let his life be a perpetual repentance yet may even such a Iob such a just man and carefull walker with God be afflicted with his passed offences after a setled confidence of Absolution He may hold himself for their sakes unworthy of the blessings of this present life as Saint Paul thought he deserved not the high attribute and Title of an Apostle because the Christian Church had sometimes groaned under his persecution I am not meet saith he to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of Christ yet I was received to mercy because I did it ignorantly through unbelief I was received to mercy that argues his confidence of forgivenesse I am unworthy to be called an Apostle that shews there was a conscience remaining in him which some way accused his sin Nay in respect of Temporal punishments our consciences are of so large extent that they bid us fear sometimes when our conceit tells us that others offend For Deliâ—…ant reges plectuntur Achivi the pestilence may invade all Israel upon Davids offence and though it were the Son of Kish onely that unjustly flew the Gibeonites yet may the famine starve all Iudah in the reign of the son of Ishai for that offence Upon this conscience of sinne doth our English Letany not without good cause give entertainment to that petition Remember not Lord the offences of our Fore-Fathers although I confesse vehemently opposed by that sort of men who professe themselves enemies to our whole Liturgy and whose zeal in this as in diverse other cases of like nature is manifestly of great prejudice to their judgment But I have no occasion to speak more of them at present 'T is true Ieremy hath long ago censured that murmuring proverb of his people the Fathers have eaten the sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge and not without cause for it was as false as common For Iudah her self never eat more sour grapes than in the time of that weeping Prophet and whereas sometimes she tasted onely and set her teeth on edge now she eat and surfetted The sinne then of the Fathers was punished in their posterity but not without the childrens offence and when they also cease not to continue their Fathers sinne they may justly expect a severer punishment now which of us dare say I am innocent I have utterly declined my Fathers sinnes It we dare not or cannot say thus if our own consciences would fly in our faces and give us the lye in case we should what mervail is it yea what obstinate perversenesse were it if we should refuse to make our petition to