notice of the means or instrument whereby they are afflicted but look not up unto him that sent is as the dog flieth upon the stone that is thrown at him but mindeth not him that threw it but in every affliction we look up to God as the principall Agent Thus when Shimei reviled David 2 Sam. 16. telling him openly before all the people that he was a murderer and a wicked man and that he was an usurper of Sauls Kingdom and Davids Servants would have stain Shemei for railing on him David would not suffer them to do him any harm and he gives this reason Suffer him saith he to curse me for the Lord hath bidden him and so he looks not upon Shimei 2 Sam. 16. 11. but he hath an eye unto God as the Authour of this affliction Thus when the Devill had got a licence from God to afflict Job and the Sabeans on the one side took away his oxen as they were plowing and his asses as they were feeding in their places and the Calde ans on the other side took away his Camels and put his servants to the edge of the sword Job though he understood by his servants that it was done by them yet he passeth them by as being but the instruments and ascribes it to God as the principall Agent The Lord saith he hath given Job 1.21 and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. And thus when Joseph was afflicted by his brethren and sold into Egypt though he knew that this was done by them and that of an evill intent and meer malice towards him yet he looks not upon them but he looks upon God as the Author of his affliction Gen. 45.7.8 Gen. 50.20 The Lord saith he hath sent me hither for your preservation and the Lord hath disposed it unto good So that whensoever we are any way afflicted we are to passe by all second causes as being but the means and instruments which God useth to afflict us but we are especially to have an eye unto God as to the principall Agent and to remember that it is God that chastens us Vse 2 Secondly Seeing God is the Authour of all afflictions Therefore whensoever we are afflicted we are to humble our selves under the hand of God and to bear with patience whatsoever it shall please God to lay upon us For seeing God is the Authour of our afflictions who as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. is faithfull and will not suffer us to be tempted above our power but will give an issue with the temptation that we may be able to bear it and seeing that if we indure chastening as the Apostle here telleth us in the next verse God offers himselfe unto us as unto Sons Heb. 12.7 he offers himself as a father unto us therefore we are patiently to under go all afflictions that he shall lay upon us Diogenes the Philosopher being visited with sicknesse and being impatient by reason of his pain his friend to comfort him willed him to be of good chear and to bear it with patience because God was the Authour of his sicknesse Oh saith the Philosopher but this is that which grieves me the more this is that which maketh me the more impatient seeing that my sicknesse is sent of God But it is not so with the children of God they are always the more patient when they are afflicted and do bear the same without murmuring and repining because God is the Authour of their afflication So when old Eli 1 Sam. 3. understood by Samuel what God had threatned even to root out his house for ever he submitted himself unto Gods will It is faith he the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 Psal 39.9 let him do what seemeth him good The like did David Psal 39. when the hand of the Lord was so heavy upon him that it even consumed him yet he bare it patiently I became faith he dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing When Jobs wife would have had him to blaspheme and to curse God in the extreamity of his pain Job 2.10 Thou speakest saith Job like a foolish woman shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill as thinking it unreasonable that we should be content to receive the one and not the other If our earthly parents do chasten and correct us we will endure it with patience and should we not endure the chastisement and correction of our heavenly Father We have had saith the Apostle here in the 9th verse the fathers of our bodies which have corrected us and we have given them reverence and should we not faith he much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits We will suffer the Physician in the time of our sicknesse because he hath seen our water or felt our pulse to let us bloud we will suffer him to prescribe us a lesse diet and to take away from us the use of some meats wherein in our health we were much delighted and we will patiently endure the want thereof and not murmure against him And should we not yield as much unto God as we do to the Physician yet if God take away from us any of those things wherein we were wont to take comfort and delight if he afflict us with the losse of our goods with the losse of our health or with the losse of our friends we presently fall into great impatiencie as if so be God dealt too hardly with us But doth not God know what is best for us if he afflict thee with the losse of thy goods he fore-saw it may be they would have done thee harm and that thou would'st have set thy heart upon them Nisi perdidisses tu illa te fortè perdidissent faith Seneca If God had not withdrawn thy riches from thee it may be thy riches would have withdrawn thee from God If God take away thy health and afflict thee with sicknes it may be it is to cure thee of a more dangerous disease as foreseeing that otherwise if thou hadst had thy health thou wouldest have taken a greater surfet of the pleasures of this life If God do afflict thee with any kind of disgrace by suffering thee to be wronged in thy good name and credit it may be he doth it to teach thee humility as fore-seeing that otherwise thou wouldest have waxed proud and vain-glorious For vicâ—sin the mind saith Plato are as diseases in the body and chastilements as medicines and surely God is the Physician that knows best how to apply them And therefore whensoever we are any way afflicted we are to possesse our soules with patience because it is God that chastens Lastly Seeing it is God that chastens this may therefore teach us in all our afflictions to seek vnto God for help deliverance Vse 3 that he that wounded us may cure recover us the same hand that cast us down may raise us up again I saith
And therefore to conclude with the words of the Apostle Behold now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation And therefore if thou wilt come unto him in the time accepted deferre not the time but come unto him while salvation is offered The time that is past is altogether irrevocable the time that is to come is altogether uncertaine onely the time present is the time accepted and therefore come now while he may be found FINIS The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS 7.59.60 And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Division TO passe over the Coherence of these words with the former we may observe in them these two things The great impiety of the Jewes in martyring Steven and Stevens great piety in his martyrdom Their impiety is set down briefly in the first words wherein is mentioned both the person that was martyr'd and that was Steven the kind of his martyrdom and that was stoning and by whom he was thus martyr'd namely by the Jewes They stoned Steven Stevens great piety in his martyrdom is set down more largely in the words following and herein is declared both his faith towards God and his charity towards men both which he shews by a double prayer which he makes first for himself He called upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit then for his persecutors he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge First then concerning the impiety of the Jewes the person that was martyred here was Steven who according to his name which in the Greek doth signifie a Crown was the first who after the Ascention of Christ 3. Sorts of Martyrs was crowned with martyrdom Now there are Martyrs of three sorts First Such as are Martyrs voluntate sed non opere in will and desire but not in act So Eusebius vvrites of Origen that while he vvas young he had such a desire to be a Martyr that his Mother was faine to hide all his apparel that she might keep him at home because otherwise he vvould have gone to his Father who vvas then in prison to have suffered martyrdom vvith him And so he was a Martyr in vvill and affection And it is very memorable vvhich Sotrates Theodoret and likevvise Sozomen in their Ecclesiastical Histories do report of a woman vvho so affected martyrdom that vvhen she understood that Valens the Emperour had sent Modestus the Governour of Edessa with a band of souldiers to kill all the Christians that were assembled there at St. Thomas Church she ran thither in all hast with a child of hers Modestus observing how fast she ran caused her to be called and asked her whether she was running She answered to the Church vvhere the Christians were assembled Why do you not know saith Modestus that the Emperour hath sent me thither to put them all to death I know it well saith the woman and therefore I make the more hast thither that I may dye with them But why saith he do you carry your child with you That he saith she may likewise be crowned vvith Martyrdom This answer of hers so moved Modestus that he returned back and diswaded the Emperour from the execution of it And these vvere Martyrs in vvill and affection but not in act Secondly There are others that are Martyres opere sed non voluntate Martyrs in act but not in vvill and affection Such were those innocent babes of Bethlehem that Herod slew vvhom St Augustine calls Primitias Martyrum the first fruits of Martyrs for these dyed for Christ that vvas to dye for them and vvere Witnesses unto him speaking vvith their bloud as Chrysostom saith that could not speak vvith their tongue and confessing and shewing forth his praise not in speaking but in dying And such a Martyr vvas that babe vvhereof we read in the book of Martyrs vvhich sprang out of his Mothers Wombe while she was burning at the stake and vvas by the Papists cast againe into the fire as thy brood of Heriticks A more horrible and impious act in them then it had been being committed by any other in regard of their doctrine because they hold it as an Article of their Faith that all Children are damned that dye without Baptisme and yet they vvilfully burned this innocent before he vvas Baptized and so as they thought did not onely cast his Body into the fire but his Soule into Hell though indeede this blessed Babe did not want Baptisme but vvas Baptized vvith the Holy Ghost and vvith fire and vvas no sooner borne but died a Martyr Martyr opere non voluntate a Martyr in act though not in vvill and desire Thirdly There are others that are Martyres voluntate et opere Martyrs both in Will and Act and such a Martyr vvas Steven vvho both in Will and Act did suffer Martyrdom Now because as St. Austin saith out of Cyprian Non paena sed causa facit Martyrem it is not the punishment vvhich a man doth suffer but the cause for vvhich he suffers that makes him a Martyr Let us see for what it vvas that Steven vvas here Martyred And this vvas as vve see verse 52. for the Testimony of Christ Which of the Prophets saith he have not your Fathers persecuted And they have slaine them which shewed before of the coming of the just One of whom you have been now the betrayers and murtherers He knevv that they hated Christ to the death and had therefore Crucified him He knevv that they had imprisoned his Disciples and strictly charged them to Preach no more in his Name He knevv that for Preaching in his Name he himself vvas here brought before the Councell and had false Witnesses suborned against him and so could not but knovv that his bearing vvitnesse to Christ must needs endanger him and yet vvith great boldnesse he bear vvitnesse to Christ and for this it vvas that he suffered Martyrdom Here then in Steven we may observe a difference betvven true and false Martyrs True Martyrs suffer in a good cause for the testimony of Christ and the defence of the truth but false Martyrs suffer in a bad cause for the defence of their errors Epipha contra Har. lib. 3. to 2. Har. 80. So Epiphanius writes of a sect called Martyriani vvho count themselves Martyrs though they suffred indeed for their vvorshiping of Idols So many have been registred for Martyrs and canonized for Saints in the Church of Rome that have suffered as Traitors and died for Treason But true Martyrs do suffer in a just cause and such onely can have comfort in their sufferings Mat. 10.39 He saith our Saviour that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it it is not enough to lose it unlesse it be lost for Christs sake otherwise there is no promise made of finding it Mat. 5.10 Blessed are
faire words concerning his Sonne Job 10.1.2 but all to no purpose And surely had it not bin Abraham he would have offered like Job in the bitterness of his soule to have pleaded with God he would have stood up in the behalf of his Sonne and replyed again And is this that Isaac that should be my comfort is this he whom thou hast so often promised and whom I have so long expected as a pledge of thy love and favour towards me and must I now kill him Quid meus hic Isaac in te committere c. Alas what hath Isaac committed against thee how hath he offended thee who will ever believe that thou wouldest have spared Sodom had there been ten that were good in it if thou now takest delight in the blood of the innocent doest thou thus reward thy Children and Servants and is this the fruit of their love and obedience O let it not be known in Gath nor published in Ascalon lest the uncircumcised Philistins insult over thy people say among themselves such honour may have all his Saints But Abraham never opened his mouth for his Sonne but grace having got the upper hand of nature and faith of affection he was glad when God had given him a Sonne but more glad that he had a Sonne to give unto God for so saith Chrysostom Latus erat Abraham cum silium acciperet laetior cum sibi imolandum dominus postularet Abraham rejoyced when he received his Sonne but he rejoyced more when God commanded him to offer him unto him Doct. 1 The Doctrine that may be gathered from hence is this That God makes tryall of our love and obedience in those things which of all other are dearest unto us For so we see he deales here with Abraham when he sees how dearly he loves his Sonne for the better tryall of his love and obedience he commands him to offer him for a burnt-offring Thus dealt our Saviour with the Ruler in the Gospell Luke 18.22 for knowing that he was rich and withall that his heart was set upon his treasure he willed him to sell all that ever he had and to give it to the poor and so tryed him in that which was dearest unto him He Math. 10.37 saith our Saviour that loveth Father Mother Sonne or Daughter more then me he is not worthy of me It is no ordinary love which God requires of us but such a love as is able to subdue all naturall affection So that if our Children were dearer unto us then our own soules yet the love of God is to be preferred before them And this was prefigured by those milch kine 1 Sam. 6. which being to carry the Arke of the Lord it is said that their Calves were taken from them and yet they went on and onely sometimes did low after their Calves but never turned back to look after them To note unto us that Religion must alwayes oversway affection and though we do naturally love our Children yet if they be any hinderance unto us in Gods service we are not to regard them It is the commendation of Levi Deut. 33. that he said to his Father and Mother he had not seen them and that he knew not his Brethren nor his own Children For when the Levites were commanded Exod. 32. to consecrate their hands unto the Lord every man upon his own Sonne and his own Daughter they were so zealous in Gods Cause that they fought against nature and had no more compassion on their Parents or Children then if they had been meer changers whom they had never seene Hieron lib. 2. Epist Select It is an excellent saying of St. Jerom Licet pervulus ex collo pendeat nepos c. Though thy little Nephew should hang about thy neck though thy Mother should intreat thee by those her own duggs that gave thee suck though thy Father should lie upon the Threshold and cling about thy feete as thou art going out to stay thee from spending thy life in Gods service per calcatum perge patrem c. Tread thy Father under thy feete and trample upon him Solum in hac re crudelem esse pietatis est genus Onely in this case it is a kind of piety to use cruelty This howsoever it may seeme a very harsh Doctrine unto flesh and blood yet if our hearts were once throughly inflamed with the love of God if we were wholly devoted unto Gods service and if we did even hunger and thirst after righteousness then whatsoever it were that God required at our hands we would be ready with Abraham to perform obedience Mat. 4.21.22 And as the Disciples when our Saviour called them they left both their goods and their Parents to follow him So whatsoever it were that God required of us though it were to the losse of all that ever we have yet we would be willing to resigne it when God commands us And thus much concerning the first difficulty in this Commandement in regard of the sacrifice which is to be offered Abrahams onely beloved sonne Isaac I come now to the second diffi ∣ culty Second The second difficulty is in regard of the Person that must offer this sacrifice that is Abraham Abraham a Father must sacrifice his Son he must do it himself and no other for him Take thine onely beloved Sonne Isaac and do thou offer him If a Father having but one onely Son should but hear that he were causeless to be put to death this ye know would be a great grief unto him but if he were commanded to be present himself and to be an eye-witnesse and spectator of his death this must needes be a further vexation O but being come thither if he himself were inforced to be his Sonnes executioner and with his own hands to kill his Sonne this were a torment beyond all comparison But this is Abrahams case here If God had commanded him to deliver his Son to some of his Servants and that they should kill him yet Abraham might have conceived some comfort for it may be his Servants would have had compassion on him as it hath often been seene or if they had not but had put him to death yet Abraham should not have been a spectator thereof but that Abraham may be sure of the death of his Son God will have him not onely an eye-witness thereof but to be the actor himself he will have him with his own hands to kill him Valer. Max. lib. 5. tit 7. When Caesar commanded Cesetus a Roman to subscribe but his hand to the bannishment of his Son he made him this answer Celerius tu mihi Caesar omnes meos liberos eripies quam ex his ego unum mea notá pellam Thou shalt sooner saith he berave me of all my Children then I will ever set my hand to bnnish any one of them What would he have answered if he had been commanded with his own hands to have
to a little sinne that sinne will grow in the heart as the child growes in the wombe and that if he can bring us to give entertainment but to an angry thought though we count this but a small matter yet it will grow from the heart to the tongue and from the tongue to the hand so that many like Cain begin with anger and end with murder For he knows that little sinnes if we yield unto them will grow to be great ones and will procure our ruin The Swallow in the Fable when she saw the Husband-man begin to sow Hemp-seed in his field she counselled the Birds to peck it up because otherwise if it were let alone it would prove dangerous for them The Birds could not see how so small a seed should do them any harme but afterward vvhen it vvas grovvn ripe and vvas cut dovvn the Husband-man made snares and nets of the Hemp vvhereby the Birds vvere taken Those little sinnes vvhich vve thinke so small that they can do us no harme yet the Devill vvill use them as snares to intrap us and to vvork our destruction And therefore he vvill begin vvith small sinnes and dravv us on by degrees from the lesse to the greater as he drew on Peter from lying to perjury and David from adultery to commit murder And yet that he may the more easily deceive us what sin soever he tempts us unto he will commonly set such a Glosse upon it that it shall seem to be either no sinne at all or a very small matter till we have committed it Nay that which is strange many times when he tempts a man to never so hainous a sinne yet he will make him believe that it is a good vvork and that he shall deserve commendation and reward for the doing of it as when he tempted Paul to persecute the Church he made him believe that he did God good service and when he perswads the Jesuites to the murdering of Princes he make them believe that it is a meritorious worke and puts them in hope of being rewarded by God as the Amalekite was in hope of being rewarded by David 2 Sam. 1.14 15 16. for bringing him word that he had killed King Saul and instead of a reward he was executed for it And as his subtiltie appears in tempting us to evill under the colour of good so likewise in tempting us to do that vvhich is good but to an evill end As vvhen he tempts us vvith the Pharisees to give almes in publicke and openly in the sight and view of the world that vve may be seene of men and commended for it The giving of Almes is a good deed and to give them in publick is likewise lawfull that others may be moved to do the like by our example But the Devill knows that though it be a good deed yet if a man do it openly for vaine glory the good deed becomes evill in the doer of it and therefore he vvill tempt a man to do that vvhich is good where he sees it vvill be a sinne in him that doth it And indeed his craft and subtiltie is such he hath so many vvays to deceive and beguile us that vve have great cause to sear all our vvorks lest we be taken vvith his hook at unawars He will do the best he can to turn those good gifts vvhich God gives unto men to be occasions of sinne Thus many times vvhere God gives Knovvledge and Learning the Divill allures men thereby to pride vvhere God gives beauty the Devill allures men thereby to vvantonnesse vvhere God gives strength the Devill abuseth it to do wrong violence and vvhere God gives vvit the Devill turns it to gibing scoffing at others Yet still vvhen he tempts a man to sin he vvill extenuate the same make it seeme lesse and to make him to yield the more easily unto it he will perswade him that God is infinitely mercifull and that he daily pardons many sinnes of many that are far greater When he hath brought a man to yield to his temptation then he labours to make him continue in his sinne by putting him in hope that he hath a long time to live and that he may repent him when he comes to be old and all in good time And when he hath now brought him to this that he sees him continue secure in his sinnes then he will go a degree further he will labour to hinder him from hearing the word from praying unto God and from all other meanes that might bring him to repentance as the enemy when he hath besieged a City he will stop all the passages and will hinder any from coming to the City for their aide and assistance And these are indeed his most usuall vviles whereby he deceives us And as he is subtil so he is very malicious He would deale with us if God would suffer him as he dealt with Job he would take away from us all that ever we have and would leave us nothing unlesse it were that which might do us harme as when God gave him leave to afflict Job he took away his goods his Servants and his Children but left him his wife to be a crosse unto him Therefore it is that he is called our adversary your adversary saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 5. Like a roaring Lyon walkes about seeking whom he may devoure For such is his malice that he is never at rest but goes compassing the earth from one end to the other Job 1.7 seeking the destruction of the vvhole race of Adam both in body and soule Now if ye ask the reason why the Devill is so maliciously set against man the reason is plain because that man is the Image of God The Devil bears infinite hatred to God for casting him out of Heaven and because he cannot do God any harme yet he seekes maliciously to deface his Image and to be revenged upon man not unlike the Panther whose hatred towards man is so implacable as St. Basil saith that if he see but a mans Picture he will set furiously upon it and tear it in peeces Lastly As his subtilty and malice are great so likewise is his power Therefore Christ calles him the Prince of this World to shew that his power is very great And therefore St. Paul when he tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers he councells us twice in the same Chapter to take and put on the whole Armour of God that so we might be able to resist his temptations We see then what this enemy is whom we are exhorted to resist one that is both subtil and powerfull and malicious Though he were never so malicious against us yet if he were not powerfull withall like a curst Cow as the Proverb is that hath short hornes for want of power to effect his malice we might fear him the lesse Or though he were both malicious and powerfull yet if he were
Adam Gen. 3.17 Gen. 3. Thou hast eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat Cursed is the earth for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life c. For as there is nothing in the World but onely sinne that dishonours God so there is nothing but sinne that is displeasing and offensive unto him And this is so offensive that at first when it began to spring up in Heaven among the Angels God presently pulled up this weede by the root and cast the Angels out of Heaven afterwards when it began to take root in Paradise among our first Parents God weeded it from thence and thrust them out of Paradise afterwards again when it began to increase and to spread it self all over the earth God to cleanse the earth from this pollution did send the deluge and drowned all the world except eight persons and still to shew how it doth displease him even those whom he loves he chastens for sinne and doth not spare it in his own Children A second Reason why God doth afflict us for his own glory is to make manifest his power in our weakness that when we are sufficiently humbled by affliction and past all recovery of our selves he might shew his power in our deliverance and provoke us to thankfulness when he hath delivered us Thus he suffered Daniel to be cast among the Lions the three Children to be thrown into a fiery furnace and the Israelites to be so hotly pursued by Pharoh that they were faine to flie through the read Sea with Moses that when they were delivered they might ascribe the glory thereof unto God and say with the Prophet David This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And these are the reasons which concern Gods glory Secondly God doth chasten and correct us for our good Si bonus est qui patitur in bonum desinit quodcunque patitur If he be good that suffers it is for his good whatsoever he suffers For howsoever afflictions seem evill to us yet God like a skilfull Physitian that will make good use of poyson turnes them to the good and benefit of his Children and that divers wayes First To withdraw us from the love of the World and to draw us nearer to God for when we are visited with any affliction we are more ready to seek unto God for help as the sick man repaires unto the Physitian While we live in health and prosperity we are more prone to forget God as having lesse feeling of the want of his help and we commonly take such a liking of this World that we are loath to leave it but when we are afflicted then we seek unto God for help and comfort which because we cannot find in the World we grow weary of it Plutarch reports of a Souldier of Antigonus that having a Disease which was irksome unto him it made him wearie of his life insomuch that he would adventure upon any danger and there was no so desperate a piece of service but he would alwayes be the foremost in it The Generall much affecting him for his great valour was at great expences to have him cured of his Disease but when he had got him cured looking that he should be as valorous and resolute as he was before he found him far otherwise and unwilling to put himself into any danger whereof when the Generall asked him the reason he gave him this answer That when his Body was diseased he was weary of it but seeing that now it was whole and sound he was loth to loose it As it was with this Souldier so God seeth it to be with many of us when we are in adversity we grow weary of this life and can say with Jonah Jonah 4.8 It is better for me to die then to live but when we are in prosperity the case is altered we take such a liking of this present World that we are loath to leave it but can say with Peter Master it is good for us to be here and are of the same mind as the Cardinall was who prosest he would not leave his part in Paris for his part in Paradise And therefore as a Nurse when she would weane the Child from sucking the dugge will annoint her teates with some bitter thing to the end that the Child may begin to mislike them So God to withdraw us from the pleasures of this World sends us afflictions to reclaime us from our pleasures and to make the same more unsavory unto us For as the Children of Israel would never have thought of leaving Egypt and coming into Canaan if they had not been afflicted in the Land of Egypt So many will never renounce the pleasures of this life untill they be distasted thereof by affliction And therefore God chastens and afflicts his Children because affliction is a meanes to weane them from the World and to draw them unto him Tentatio quasi interrogatio A second Reason why God doth afflict them is to make manifest those gifts and graces which lie hidden in them For as showers in the spring time cause the budds to appear which before were not seene so afflictions make manifest many virtues in Gods Children which before lay hidden If Abraham had not been commanded to have sacrificed his Sonne he had not had that occasion to have testified his obedience and if Job had not been so grievously afflicted as he was he had not had occasion to have declared his patience Many virtues lie hidden in the Children of God while they are in prosperity but when adversity comes then they break forth like starres in the night and do shew themselves I might alleage other Reasons why God doth chasten us as to make us conformable to Christ our head to shew us how weak we are of our selves without Gods assistance to stir us up to prayer to teach us humility and to exercise our patience all which may hearten us in the time of affliction because it is for our good that God thus afflicts us We are much dejected when we are afflicted we count our afflictions to be long and grievous for the time but the Apostle teacheth us to make another account where he calles our afflictions both short and light our light affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 saith he which is but for a moment Some indeed are afflicted longer then other yet their afflictions are but short that continue longest Acts 9.33 Mat. 9.20 We read of one Acts 9. that was sick of the Palsie and kept his Bedde 8. years St. Matthew tells us of a Woman that was diseased with an issue of blood for 12. years St. Luke tells us of a Woman that had a spirit of infirmity Luke 13.11 and was bowed together and could in nowise lift up her self for 18. years St. John tells us of a Man that had been diseased 38. years The time no doubt seemed long
if he please so visite us with sicknesse that like the woman in the Gospell We may spend all that we have upon the Physicians Nay he can Luke 8.43 Deut. 28.23 if he please make the earth as iron and the heavens as brasse and send a famine as he did in the time of Elias and then what would all that we have do us good if we were debarred from the fruits of the earth which should sustaine and preserve us And therefore we must not ascribe what we have to our selves or our friends but unto God who gives as Agur saith both poverty and riches Secondly Seeing it is God that gives them this may therefore teach us Vsc 2 To be content with that portion which God hath given us whether it be more or lesse Though we have a lesse portion then many others have yet we must remember that we have it of God of his free-gift and therefore ought to be contented with it and not to murmure that we have lesse then others lest we provoke him by our murmuring to lessen that portion which he hath given us The Jews in their Talmud have an Apologue to this purpose That the Moon upon a time did murmure and complaine that God had not appointed her for so good a use as he appointed the Sun because the Sun shines in the day and she in the night time and that God therefore for her murmuring did as they say diminish her light and lessen her shining Which though it be but a fable yet it hath a true morall that if we be not content with that portion which God hath allotted us we do provoke him thereby to make it lesse The Lord saith Job hath given and the Lord hath taken Job 1.21 blessed be the name of the Lord. If we should fall into poverty by the hand of God as Job did yet we are not to repine and murmure against him because whatsoever he takes from us he takes but his own which he gave us before of his free-gift and not of our deserving And indeed if we consider our own deserving though we have but little yet even he that hath least hath more cause to wonder that he hath so much then that he hath no more because we have more then we do deserve though we have never so little For that which we have is of Gods free-gift as Agur here acknowledges Give me neither poverty nor riches Thirdly Seeing riches are from God Vse 3. it may therefore teach us to use them well and to imploy them to good uses For God hath given them that we might use them to the glory of God the maintenance of our selves and the good of others which if we do not we abuse his blessings Mat. 25.28 The servantâ—which imployed not the talent well which his Master had given him had it taken from him and was cast besides into outer darknesse What then may we think shall become of those that imploy them ill and abuse the blessings which God hath given them to surfetting drunkennesse and voluptuous living These God will call to a fearfull account at the day of judgement for abusing wasting and mispending his gifts And in the mean time God many times suffers them to want that which they have carelesly wasted that they may see their fault what it is to waste by their want of it I have read of a Duke in another Countrey who seeing through his window a company of young Gallants that were a hunting and ridde up and down over the corn-fields and tread down the corn he sent to bid them the next day to dine with him And when they were come he made them great cheere but took order that no bread except a manchet for himselfe should be set on the Table One of the Gallants spake to a Servitour to bring in some bread he went out as if he would fetch some but came not again another spake to another who likewise went out but came in no more at last they told the Duke that they wanted bread And well saith the Duke do ye deserve to want bread with your meat who so trampled down the corn under your horse-feet And thus doth God many times deal with those that do waste his blessings causing them to want what they have formerly wasted as the Prodigall did Yet many that live wastefully will excuse themselves and think their fault the lesse both because as they will say they have enough to spend and are able to do it and because it is their own and not anothers which they spend But will this excuse them Though thou hast enough mayest thou therefore use it at thy pleasure and is it no fault to waste and mispend it If thy Cook that dresseth thy meat for thee because thou allowest him to have salt enough alwayes lying by him should therefore put too much salt in the pot or cast too much on thy meat and when thou reproovest him he should excuse himselfe and say that he did it because he had salt enough and therefore need not to spare wouldest thou take this for a sufficient answer And will God take this as an answer from thee That because that he hath given thee enough thou mayest spend it wastefully and though it were thine own as indeed it is not for thou art but a steward to use what thou hast as God hath appointed yet if it were thine own and not anothers mayest thou therefore mispend it as thou pleasest mayest thou not say as well that thy tongue is thine own and mayest thou therefore speak what thou listest but as thou shalt answer for the words which thou speakest so for the goods which thou spendest because thereby thou doest wrong unto him who is the giver of them Lastly Vse 4. Seeing riches are the gift of God therefore we are to be thankfull to him for them Qui serit benesicium metere debes fructum He that sowes a benefit great reason he should reap some fruit of it the fruit of thankfulnesse for the use of his benefits Therefore they were commanded in the old Law To offer unto God their first-fruits that so they might acknowledge that they had them from him and therefore were to return them to him from whom they had them as the rivers saith Solomon return to the sea from whence they came and as Hannah did dedicate her Son Samuel to God Eccles 1.7 1 Sam. 1.27.28 from whom she received him FINIS The Thirteenth SERMON PSALM 32.6 Therefore shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found THe Prophet David having committed two hainous sins Coherence one upon the neck of another adultery and murder and having continued a long time secure and impenitent at the last as we read 2 Sam. 12 Chapter God sent Nathan the Prophet to him to denounce the judgements of God against him by reason of his sins which when David heard he
Gen. 14.22 Gen. 31.53 Gen. 14.22 And thus Isaac swore unto Abimelech the King of the Philistins Gen. 26.31 sometime privately Thus Jacob swore unto Laban Gen. 31.53 And thus David sware unto Jonathan 1 Sam. 20.17 I might alleadge further the example of Angels and of God himselfe who have taken oathes and therefore to sweare is not unlawfull Thirdly by the end for which an oath was ordained An oath is a means which God hath appointed for the ending of controversies and for the decision of strife and contention And therefore the Apostle saith of an oath Heb. 6.16 Heb. 6.16 that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of all strife Thus for the determination of doubtfull causes Exed 22.11 God appointed the Magistrate Exod. 22. to put men to their oathes and the party suspected having thus taken an oath was freed and acquitted And this custome hath prevailed in all Countries For all men being perswaded that there is a God from whom nothing is hid and that he is a lover of truth and an hater of falshood and therefore that he will be revenged upon those that for-sweare themselves hence it is that this custom hath prevailed all over the World that mens oathes should be taken in doubtfull causes that so the truth might be brought to light and the matter decided Seeing then that the taking of an oath it not onely permitted but commanded by God commanded as a part of Gods service and worship and commanded with the promise of a blessing to those that take it Seeing it is warranted by the examples of the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Angels and of God himselfe who have taken oaths and seeing an oath was ordained by God for so excellent an end as for the confirmation of the truth and the decision of controversies it is plain against the Anabaptists that there is a lawfull use of swearing And thus much concerning the lawfulnesse of oaths I come now to the object of an oath or by whom we are to swear by God and no other Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth The Heathen in their oaths were wont to swear by all manner of creatures Some of them were wont to swear by themselves or by some part of their body as Otho the Emperour used to swear by his beard and Polypheme the Monster by his one eye Some of them were wont to swear by others as the Ethiopians swore by dead mens ghosts Caligula by his sister and wife Drusilla and some of the Philosophers by the name of Socrates Some swore by unreasonable and sencelesse creatures as Socrates swore by dogs and goats the Germans swore by the names of their horses and the Egyptians by their garlick leeks and onions But to passe them over the Papists hold it lawfull to swear by the Creatures And they alleadge to this purpose those words of our Saviour Mat. 23.21 Whosoever swears by the Temple swears by it Mat. 23.21 and by him that dwels therein and he that sweareth by Heaven swearth by the Throne of God and by him that sits thereon From whence they inferre That swearing by the creatures is referred to the honour and glory of God and therefore that it is lawfull to sweare by them But I would aske them this question Whether Christ in those words doth authorize the Jews to swear by the creatures and justifie their swearing by the Temple or by Heaven If they say he doth not how do they inferre that God is honoured by their swearing by them If they say he doth then why doth Christ say Swear not by Heaven for it is Gods Throne for if these oaths were lawfull Mat. 5.34 Christ would not have forbidden them and if they be unlawfull God is dishonoured by them And therefore they cannot inferre from those words that because while the Jews did swear by the creatures they swore likewise by God and therefore God was honoured by their swearing by the creatures but rather that in swearing by them they could not avoid but they swore also by God and therefore dishonoured him while they counted it nothing to swear by them An oath is a part of Gods service and worship and so to be directed to no other but God Therefore God commands as we heard before to svvear onely by him Deut. 10.20 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God him shalt thou serve thou shalt cleave unto him and swear by his Name And he complaines of the Jews Jer. 5.7 That their children had forsaken him and had sworn by those which were no Gods implying thereby That we are to swear by God and no other And he threatens Zeph. 1.5 That he will cut them off that swear by the Lord swear by Malcham It is a true saying Quicquid illud est per quod quis jurat illud deificat If we swear by any thing whatsoever it be we deifie the same For an oath is an invocation of the Name of God as the onely searcher of the heart whereby when we swear we call God to witnesse that we speak the truth and wish God to punish us if we do otherwise So that whatsoever we sweare by we attribute unto it these two things First That it knows whether we speak the truth or no and therefore it is that we call it to witnesse So saith Thomas Aquinas Jurare per Deum nihil alind est quam invocare ejus testimonium To swear by God is nothing else but to call God to witnesse So that while we swear by any thing we call it to witnesse and so attribute the knowledge of the truth untoit Secondly That it is able to punish us if we swear that which is false So saith the same School-man Nihil aliud est dicere per Deum ita est nisi quod Deus puniat me si non it a est It is nothing else to swear by God that it is so but that God punish me if it be not so So that while we swear by any thing we give thus much unto it That if we swear false it is able to punish us But these two things are onely proper unto God and therefore we are to swear by no other Whensoever then we swear by the creatures as either by this light which was the oath of the Manichees or by the Roode by the Masse by our Lady or the like which as if we wanted oaths of our own we have borrowed of the Papists they are all superstitious and idolatrous oaths It was decreed by the â—ouncel of Carthage that if a Minister should swear by any creature he should first be sharply reprehended for it and if he persisted in this vice he should be excommunicated because it is an abuse of Gods holy Name to swear by the creatures And therefore Polycarp as we read in Eusebius chose rather to be torn in pieces by wilde beasts as they threatned him at the first or to be burnt at the stake as he was after rather then he