these things hee was not then the master of his owne guidance in the Action but hee was to bee lead and directed by a Spirit that was higher then his owne by the Spirit of God And hee was not so resolute as fleshly men are as to say I will doe this or I will doe that His yea was not yea and his nay was not nay as if he should say I was not so peremptory as to come unto you till I knew the will of God as St. Iames Iames 5. saith Chap. 5. For this you ought to say if God will or if the Lord permit so the sense is this That whereas I purposed to come unto you and doe not now come you must pardon mee for I am not lead by my selfe but by a higher Spirit which hinders and intervents my purposes as it pleaseth him for I depend not upon my owne will but upon the will of God for if I had beene guided by my owne will I had been with you Then as it followes in the Text The Lord is faithfull for our speach to you hath not beene yea and nay for the Sonne of God Iesus Christ who was preached among you by us was not yea and nay but yea for all the promises of God in him are yea and in him are amen As if hee should have said You must make a difference betweene my Preaching of the Gospel and the promises that I make as I am a man as I am a weake man and know not the things that are to come I know not the things that are contingent so I tell you this and I tell you that which it may bee shall not bee performed and made good so that I will not say that my yea is yea or my nay nay but when I come to preach the Gospel I am sure of those things I know what I say I understand my selfe I know the foundation of truth is unmoveable I know that there it is not yea and nay in Christ but all the promises of God in him are yea and in him are Amen for ever Thus you partly understand this But that wee may make it a little more open the sense of the Apostle is this That whereas I promised you in my former Epistle to come unto you I was so in earnest affected to this journey that whereas I told you I would not passe by you but would first goe to Macedonia and then come backe to you yet my minde was so altered and my bowels againe were so earnest that I determined to bee better then my word I purposed to come to you first and so to passe from you to Macedonia but all this was not in my owne government but in the hand of God I know not whether I shall goe I know not how I shall be disposed of I know not how the Lord hath laid the way for mee I know not where hee will have mee imployed I went to preach unto all Nations the Gospel of Christ but the Lord hindered mee and would not suffer mee to preach to many of them but bade mee hold my tongue so I promise you now to come to Corinth but I know not whether ever I shall come or that this shall come to passe therefore I would have you distinguish and make a difference between the word of my preaching and the word of my Promise the word of my Preaching is alway certaine it is yea and amen but those words that I promise as a man they bee yea and nay as God shall dispose of them I have not power of my selfe to order them so this place is a plaine argument of that I said before that St. Paul never performed this which hee thought and desired that is to come to Corinth Now looke to another place that makes it a little more plaine 2. Cor. 2.1 where hee gives another reason for it I determined saith hee I disposed with my selfe that I would never come in sorow to you I would never come to you in heavinesse but if I come I will come in joy and cheerefulnesse Now I understand that yee are in heavinesse because of the letter that I wrote unto you I wrote a letter concerning the incestuous fellow that used his fathers wife and lived with her and I understand that you are in heavinesse for this and I would not therefore come unto you for this cause because you were in sorow although I bee glad for it that you are sorry for it was a godly sorrow which caused repentance but yet I would not come unto you in that state but when you have made your peace with God and with your selves when you may entertaine me with cheerefulnesse it is my purpose then to come So both the will of God and my will wrought together in this for Gods will it perfects my will it was Gods will that I should not come unto you and my will is agreeable to Gods will the Lord told mee that it was not fit for mee to come and take you in sorrow for the spirit of the Pastor and of his Schollers should alwayes meet in joy they should rejoice continually as the Apostle saith We see then it was not done Now let us see a little the cause why it was not done The cause why he came not how came it to passe that the Apostle Paul was thus disturbed and disappointed of his purpose For that you shall see Acts 20.3 Act. 20.3 St. Paul went to Macedonia and came through those parts and exhorted the brethren with much exhortation from thence he came into Grecia and staying there three moneths he heard say that there was treason plotted against him that there was a conspiracy against him in Asia by the Iewes or else in some part of Grecia the Iewes had laid wait for his life to intercept and hinder him Therefore hee was counselled by the company by the body of the Apostles those that were then companions with him to goe backe againe to Macedonia and from thence he came to the port Towne to Philippi and thence along and never touched at Ephesus as we shal have occasion to shew upon the next verse if God give permission he never touched there but went along upon the first day upon Easter Munday as wee call it and so passed on till Pentecost and never saw Ephesus nor Corinth more but went to Ierusalem and after hee was carried to Rome and there he continued till the time of his Martyrdome So out of this we gather that St. Paul was twice at Macedon once when hee planted the Church and another time when hee came to visite the Church The planting of the Church wee find Act. 16.9 Acts 1â— 9 It is said there that there was in the night time a vision made to Paul a certaine vision appeared to him for there was a man of Macedon that stood there and intreated him and said unto him Come over to Macedonia and help us And upon this
more behinde still so to fill the desires of men and to draw their affections unto him As it is thus in these corporall things which are with lesse labour found out still there is an infinitum a kinde of infinite labour and toyle in it that they are not found out but by the hand of God So many golden mines in the earth that are undiscovered so many precious things that are not yet revealed Much more must it needs be in those holy secrets those gracious things in heaven in the glorious Court above when the footstoole is so infinite and secret Psal 77.19 Aug. As the Psalmist saith his footsteps are not knowne Saith Saint Austin well If the steppes of his feet be not knowne how then shall the counsels of his head be discovered Therefore in these things wee must settle our selves and returne the foole upon our owne soules when we meddle with these deepe and secret matters wee know not a great number of things that are created the hearbes that are under our feet we know not the difference of them wee know not the qualities of them nor their natures and operations and shall we then mount up into heaven to see what is done there before our time The Lord will give it us in time if wee keepe our selves within the limits of modestie and restraine our selves within that compasse which hee hath commanded us Vse Secondly we learne out of this in that the Apostle cals him foole and cals these things foolish therefore we should not affect these things and give our selves over to them We learne what to judge of all curious Divinitie and dâ—scourses that it is rather a part of folly then any shew and remonstrance of wisedome And by this reason a great number of Students and Scholars in this Land spend their time meerly in folly 1. Tim. 6.10 As the Apostle saith It is science falsely so called they studie and imploy themselves that they may be madde with reason that is by following a kinde of sublime reason as they thinke they fall from reason and loose themselves Like the Philosopher that so long conversed about the mysterie of the Sunne that at the last he made a question whether ever there were a Sunne or no he knew not whether the light came from the Sunne or from any super-illuminating cause or no. The Lord blindes men that are too quicke sighted to search into things that hee hath not provided for them Such things there be indeed as Saint Austin saith Aug. there are certaine idle delicacies and dainties but they are not for us they are for no man to know that would worke out his salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 Lastly in that he cals him foole or madde man we see how lawfull and how necessary it is sometimes to use the authoritie of the Spirit to use the majestie of the Spirit in the Gospell to call them fooles that speake foolish things And although Christ forbid us to do it in our particular and private talke and he that cals his brother foole Mat. 5.22 is in danger of hell fire yet it is one thing what a common Christian may do upon a little sleight cause and it is another thing what the Magistrate or what the Minister of the Word may do upon an urgent occasion Gal. 3.1 Wee see Saint Paul cals the Galathians madde men and foolish men and this questionist here hee cals him foole Luk. 12.20 Yea our Lord Christ cals the rich man foole Thou foole this night shall they take away thy soul Mat. 3.7 And Saint Iohn Baptist Oh generation of vipers So that there is left in the Church a power and authority which must be used when there is occasion to draw the sword against contumacious rebels which will not be reclaimed by other meanes As Saint Ambrose Ambrose saith the preacher of the Word must be like unto the Bee he must have both a sting and honey And Saint Chrysostome upon this place saith he Chrysost he gives him a sharpe tearme but hee passeth by him quickly hee gives him indeed a poore title but yet it is a fit one He was afraid lest hee should cut him too deepe therefore hee would not stand too long upon him lest he should make him runne away For as a wise man will easily endure such a word as this from the mouth of a wiser so a man when he is followed and baited too farre he will kicke against the pricks and be ready altogether to cast off the reprehension Now we come to the demonstration That which thou sowest c. 2 The demonstration Here is the substance of the Answer to the first question the answer to the second follows in the next verse The Lord of his great goodnesse and mercie hath made the possibilitie of his owne truth apparant unto us in all the common actions of nature What more usuall what more ordinarie what more necessarie then the sowing of seed Now the seeds man if he do but mark what he doth when he imployes himselfe he shall easily perceive that God teacheth him out of his owne trade what he is to thinke of this great mystery To sow the corne in the ground we know that to flesh and bloud and common sence it is a meere losse of it and if wee had not seene it done before wee should conclude so Therefore there are some men that are celebrated as famous in the Poets for inventing this the casting of the seed into the ground from whence people thought there was no returning Indeed that conceit might be in barbarous rude Nations but it is certaine that this doctrine was taught unto Adam in Paradise and hath beene transmitted to all his posteritie Yet there are some Nations that to this day do not know the common necessity of sowing nor use it not they understand not the mystery the Lord hath so farre blinded them So it is in this sowing of the body In all judgement of flesh and bloud when the body is put downe into the grave into the coffin into the earth it seemes to be gone for ever and it goes from worse to worse till it come to dust and ashes the prime principles of our creation We ought to compare therefore these things together and we shall see how wondrous God is in the one and learne thereby how glorious he will be in the other The seed that is sowne it is quickened and hath life that vegetable life th t things of like nature have to grow againe and to bee greater to feed it selfe and to feed us also For God hath made the seed of a singular piercing qualitie that the lesser it is the more power it hath Therefore the mustard-seed which is the least graine whâ—n it comes up it grows to be a great tree For in these small things God sets forth his power oft times more gloriously then in greater matters And
sinfull man had spoken this it had beene no newes but that it should come from a most sanctified vessell of the holy Ghost a chosen vessell one that for his life was unblameable and for all learning and the graces of the spirit incomparable that he should utter this it is a very strange mervaile Indeed a reprobate a man that followes his owne lusts that lives not to God but to himselfe he may truely say I dye daily For the Lord makes his life to be hanged before him as a perpetuall signe of death that as the children of God are said to have the earnest of the spirit and of the kingdome of heaven so the servants of sinne may be said to receive the earnest of hell So many passages of his life as there be they are as so many flakes of hell burning before him and doe assure him that at the last he shall be tumbled and divolved into the damnation of the divell and his Angels That gnawing worrne of conscience makes his life a continuall death But that the Saints of God should be thus troubled too it is this that moves the wonder And yet the Apostle here saith nay and sweares it too that not onely wicked men are troubled and galled with the conscience of sinne that they are alway in death because they are the sonnes of death and study that which tends to death but he that had the fruit of life he that had the spirit of God and of Christ in him Gal. 2.20 nay that had Christ himselfe as he saith It is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in me that he should he subject to this death and to this frequencie of death that there was never a day came over his head but a new death was presented to him It seemeth strange The reason of this we must fetch out of the rest of his writings for there he hath set downe the summe of every thing that we are to conceive of this mystery The first reason or meanes of this death it was that he carried the divell about him as Gregory Nazianzen saith in his 32. Nazianzen Orat. 32. Oration to the Bishops at Constantinople when he was to leave the place Saith he Even as it was with Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 so doe I carry the divell about me alluding to that place 2 Cor. 12. where the Apostle complaines of the messenger and instrument of Sathan that was sent to buffet him continually that he could not be at peace and quiet for him and he prayed to the Lord thrice against it but the Lord answered him My grace is sufficient for thee Rom. 7 23. This was it that made him to say I protest by the rejoycing that I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily For my life is such a kinde of condition as wherein the flesh and the spirit are continually conflicting together good and evill righteousnesse and sinne are alway countermanding one another A good conscience and an evill conscience sorrow and joy heaven and hell God and the divell are continually in an agony and combate This conflict that I sustaine betweene the flesh and the spirit is that which makes me dye daily and makes me cry out Oh wretched and miserable man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from this body of death that is from the sting of the law in my members whereby I am carryed in contradiction to the good spirit of God And so as Nazianzen saith he did carry Sathan about him nay within him also For the reliques of sinne which he cals the messenger of Sathan the instrument of the divell the remainders of corruption were in him yea and are in all the sonnes of God For there was none ever without them but that Sonne of God that came to take away the sinnes of the world The second reason why the Apostle said he dyed daily was because the divell bare him outwardly by envy and trouble and persecution he carried him on his shoulders he was the beast that he was set on And no marvell for if the divell could make our Lord sit on his backe Math. 4. Mat. 4. and that our Lord Iesus rode upon the divell as a man would ride upon a horse if he were so impudent as to set himselâ—fe under our Lord and carry him about to the pinacle of the Temple and to the mountaine then well may he come to the shoulders nay to the very bowels of his members If he did so to the head he will doe to the members much more Acts 17.4.12 Thus he still carried Paul wheresoever he came by the envy of the world by the malice of the Iewes and Gentiles as upon the occasion of those devout and religious womens beleeving whereupon they raised persecution against him and that wheresoever he came there was eyther stoning or fire and faggot or banishment some mischiefe intended Treason by false brethren treason by his opposers or treason of those that were best trusted of him every where he was inclosed with perill This was the divell without him as some of the Fathers imagine 2 Cor. 12 7. from that place 2 Cor. 12. that messenger of Sathan there sent to buffet him They say it was not so much any inward thing he speakes of But I yeeld not to this for I suppose it was somewhat inward Rom. 7.23 But the Fathers say he meanes another matter he speakes of men and of the malice of men that would not suffer the Gospell to passe in the world and that for this he saith he dyed daily by the perpetuall hand of those murtherers I cannot goe any where but the malice of men persecutes and followes me so that I cannot rest and if they could trap me once in their snare and make a prey of me I were surely theirs and then I were gone the feare of this makes me dye daily Thirdly another cause that made the Apostle dye daily was the opposition that hee had by Idolaters wheresoever he came Idolaters still laboured to put downe the Gospell As we see at Athens Acts 17. Acts 17.16 The Text saith His spirit was sore troubled when hee saw the City given to idolatry And so likewise when he came to Ephesus they cry Acts 19.28 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Diana the Idoll of Ephesus had like to have cost him his life Therefore the vexation of his spirit to see men fall down to stocks and stones and to forget that loyalty they ought to God Rom. 1.25 To worship the creature in stead of the Creator This made him teare his cloathes and ready to teare his flesh for the vexation of his spirit to see whole Cities so given over Fourthly another cause of this daily death of the Apostle it was the opposition that he had by Witches and Sorcerers wheresoever he came almost the divell would still set some Witch in the place so in Acts 16.17 Acts
cast among them to strive and struggle with them to see whether God would favour his cause or no whether he were of a magnanimous spirit or whether he would yeeld and shrinke when he saw the beast come neare him from his faith or no. We cannot imagine that Saint Paul did this seeking to please the people to make himselfe a barbarous spectacle to them or that he did it to tempt God by offering his life to the beasts but he was throwne unto them and compelled to it And it was no disgrace for him then to yeeld to it being forced by the superiour powers So Calvin Luther and Beza are indifferent But many of the Ancients directly expound it according to the letter as that these beasts must be understood to be some kinde of Tygers Leopards or Lyons such things Saint Paul was exposed unto to try the constancy of his faith to try his prowesse and valour to see whether God would deliver him or no. I confesse the number of the Authors are so great and their authority and gifts so excellent as that I cannot deny but that this may be the true sence of this place But yet I rather incline to the other which Saint Chrysostome Saint Augustine Saint Cyrill Tertullian and divers other Fathers doe warrant to us as the best and most proper sence Namely that Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus that is with beastly men men of beastly conditions And there is but one thing difficult in it that is that the Apostle should forget that lenity of spirit in which he useth to speake and that Christ teacheth all men that they should not give an ill or a rayling word Whereas there cannot be a worse word given to a man than to call him beast Our Lord and Saviour Christ saith that he that cals his brother Racha Math 5.22 he that cals his brother foole shall be in danger of hell fire Now he that cals a man foole speakes farre more moderately and modestly than he that cals a man a beast For to call a man foole is still to call him man for there is nothing can be a foole but man or woman for it fals not within the compasse of beasts to bee wise or foolish but still when one is called foole hee is kept in the condition of a man but when a man cals a man beast he is out of the element and latitude of men and compared to a more base and degenerate creature But for this we must understand that our Lord Christ speakes there of the common talke and discourse among Christians and not of that Apostolicall authority not of that magisteriall reproofe that is in the Church and must be to the worlds end For every man may not speake alike a private man must not speake as the Magistrate doth nor every man must not speake as the Minister may speake in reprooving sinne and revealing the will of God And here we must conceive that this that the Apostle speaks it was by Gods spirit dictating it unto him he was the Prophet of God put in that place he spake it not from himselfe but from a greater Therefore to pitch upon this exposition If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus That is with men that had the faces of men but the condition of beasts For this is the common phrase and language of people when a man transcends others in bruitishnesse and cruelty in a base conversation they say he hath put on the beast he hath left humanity and is turned beast For it is mens carriage and conditions that distinguisheth them from beasts So we see the Scripture hath this peculiar phrase when the Prophet speakes Isa 56.10 Isa 56. of Prophets that would not Preach or that preached for gaine he cals them dumb dogs Phil. 3.2 and the Apostle Paul saith Beware of dogges whereby is meant such kinde of men as are prophane as Esau those that returne to their vomit of sinne to their former concupiscence and contemne and scorne all holy things Math. 7.6 yea and our Lord Christ saith Give not holy things to dogges that is to doggish men so the Prophet David often prayes unto God to deliver his soule from the Lyon from the Vnicorne from the Dogge from the Wolfe And so Saint Paul calleth Nero 2 Tim. 4.17 Lyon 2 Tim. 4. The Lord hath delivered me from the mouth of the Lyon that is from the Emperour Nero Luke 13.32 so our Lord Christ called Herod Foxe Tell that Foxe saith he I worke to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfect There is nothing more usuall in the Scriptures than this therefore I will not insist to prove or illustrate it any further It is an excellent thing which Chrysologus Chrysologus saith The Scriptures of God make no more account of a man to be a man after he fals to bruitish conditions but reputes him in his ranke among beasts as he is a beast of the field a beast for the slaughter The Scripture cals them divels in the fashion and habite and outward forme of men so our Saviour Christ tels us Iohn 8. Ioh. 8. of a generation of Vipers of a genealogy of divels Ye are of your father the divell saith he which wee know is not to be understood according to the letter but is to be referred to the absurd conditions of men Of which also the Apostle speakes 2 Thes 3.2 2 Thes 3.2 Pray to God for us saith the Apostle for what purpose That we may be delivered from absurd men men that have no nature in them that have no common straine of humanity in them but are altogether degenerated and metamorphosed into beasts pray for us to be delivered from them So that place being compared with this it is cleere If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus that is with men of bruitish natures men that cannot be contampred with at all men of no society but are given over to their fury and madnesse that have no more mercy in them than bruit beasts and must be let goe to their fury as a beast that doth what mischiefe it can without any limitation or respect To passe from this poynt We see what base dejection sinne hath brought on us we that thought to be equall to God Vse as God saith Behold Adam is become as one of us Gen. 3.22 we are now become as the beasts that perish Psal 59.20 as the Prophet David saith Man being in honour understood it not but it become like the beasts that perish Gen. 3.21 And as man fell to bee like a beast so God clad him in the skinne of a beast Our first great grandfather Adam had the skinnes of beasts for his garments to signifie that as they were turned beasts so God gave them an outward habite and vesture to shew them what inwardly they were become This should teach us still to have our eye on that
speakes of here said Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye There is no wise man would ever give himselfe to this most bestiall fashion were it but for the ill consequents of it for to say the truth there is nothing makes a man lesse like a man then to be a great drinker especially to be a great eater such being the very monsters of mankinde Nature is content with little and those that exceed that measure are hated and ridiculous to all men To see what mischiefe it brings to the body to this little frame of the world To see what intollerable dammage accrewes by it to the understandings of men What grosse heavinesse it brings upon the body How it takes away all nimblenesse and agility How it takes away all the powers of the spirits How it confounds the memory How it drownes every part of reasonable discourse How it makes a man a swadde and deformes that proportion and comely figure that God hath imposed upon him Every man knowes these things by common and wofull experience and yet these wretches cry out Let us eate and drinke As if they should have said Let us become fooles Let us make our selves mad Let us drowne our understandings Let us disfigure our selves that men may not know us to be men for nothing makes a man lesse discerned to be that which once he was then excessive eating and drinking Let us so eate and drinke therefore that we may eate and drinke in heaven let us not so set our selves upon our bellies as to become sonnes of Belial Let us take our bread here as an earnest of that bread we shall have in heaven Let us sit at our tables so here as a representation of the 12. Tables on which the 12 Apostles shall iudge the 12 Tribes of Israel Luke 22.30 Christ saith They shall sit upon 12 Tables and eate and drinke with him in the Kingdome of God It should teach us to eate and drinke these temporall things with conscience with remembrance with prefiguration and signification of those eternall meates drinks which we shall have in the kingdome of heaven by the mercy God For although it is true wee shall not eate and drinke there yet because this life consists in eating and drinking the holy Ghost hath set us downe the modell of the life to come with such ioyes and delights as may be compared nay which farre transcend eating and drinking but can by no meanes better be expressed to us than by these of eating and drinking For to eate and to drinke and to reigne and to reioyce and to dance and sing there are no such things in heaven but we cannot understand the ioy in heaven while we are here upon earth except it be set forth to us by these foyles Therefore the Lord condescends to our capacity and tels us of eating and drinking in heaven Let us therfore eate so here as that we may maintaine a hope of heaven Let not our tables be made a snare here Rom. 11.9 that which God hath appointed for our sustentation let it not turne to our confusion God hath not appoynted meate and drinke to overthrow us but to refresh us to make us fitter for his service and more able to the workes of our calling let us therefore disclaime and abhorre this brutish acclamation which these wicked wretches make that have no portion but their belly that are altogether for the gut and let us repute them among the basest of beasts but let us so eate as those that shall receive eternall food in the kingdome of God So much for the first poynt the poyson propounded Now we are to see the cause that these men alleadge for themselves 2 Poynt Reason alledgâ—d To morrow wee shall dye why they should eate and drinke For the wretched understanding of men is so depraved and corrupted by the judgement of God that they will drinke poyson upon reason these Epicures alleadge reason for their brutish course and their reason is because To morrow we shall dye This was a close mockery for when Isay told them in his time they should dye by the judgement of God for their wickednesse they mocked God in the Prophet As if they should say he tels us we shall dye he still threatens judgement and we know not how soone we may be taken out of this world therfore as long as we live let us have a time of it and while we live let us live since our time is short let us take the benefit of that time we have and so make it our happinesse See the wondrous stroke of Gods hand in blinding the understanding of man We are subject God knowes to the whole hand of God and sinne workes shame and confusion every where But there is no plague like this when a mans braine is smitten when his understanding is disturbed when he draws false and base conclusions out of Idle and foolish premises then comes the wracke and ruine of the poor creature There is nothing so wretched and miserable in the world as a mad man And in the body of Christianity there are none so mad as those men that argue after a contrary manner which upon strange premises bring in unnaturall conclusions For I beseech you coÌ„sider doth it follow because to morrow we shall dye that therefore we should feast ioviall it out to day nay cleane contrary It followes rather thou shouldest throw thy selfe downe in spirit and humble thy soule with fasting and prayer and in all the parts of humiliation to God to crave pardon for thy sinnes and so to prepare thee a way to everlasting glory How can thy meate be digested when thou must dye to morrow what man is so stout hearted that if he knew he should dye to morrow would feast to day can such a man swallow down his morsels with pleasure can he put over his drink with delight can he have any taste or rellish in these things that is destinated a dying man It is a wretched and divellish conclusion And yet God gives over the wicked wretched world to draw poysonful sences and wicked conclusions out of cleane contrary premyses What is that thou sayest saith Saint Austine To morrow we shall dye let us eate and drinke saith he thou hast terrified mee indeed but thou hast not deceived me Thou hast terrified me because thou sayest to morrow I shall dye and perhaps so I may The frailty of my nature is such that I may dye to night before to morrow Yet thou hast not deceived me for if I shall dye to morrow as thou sayest I will fast to day certainly Augustine so Saint Austine concludes and so would all reason conclude even a naturall man for as Plutarch Plutarch saith there is no man that if the Emperour should send him word that he should prepare himselfe and that after three dayes he should dye there is no man would be so brutish as
he must stand up and do the actions of an holy life It is true saith S. Austin I see thou are rowsed and wakened but yet thou art drowsie thou art rubbing thine eyes thou hast not yet quite overcome and mastred thy sleepe but I tell thee God will have thee shake off all this sleepe and drowsinesse and so to awaken as Christ awakened from death he once left the grave never to return and come there any more For in that he dyed hee dyed once for sinne but in that he liveth he liveth ever to God Then therefore a man is risen justly when there is no part of drowsinesse remaines in him when he is not like those sleepie creatures that rise in their sleepe and go about their businesse and go to bed againe and when they have done all know not of it There is a kinde of kell or skinne wanting in the braine wherein memory should be retentive therefore they do many things in their sleepe But God would have men so waken as that there should no portion of this drowsinesse rest in them This doctrine is very necessarie For there is much sleepe carries them away that are most watchfull there is infinite heavinesse and slumber waits upon them God is in his children in one part and the devill in another part that they now speake well anon they do ill many make profession of the Gospell and yet shew no pittie to the poore nor exercise charitie where they see occasion These men are awaked and they be doing and stirring but it is not justly as God would have them When once a man leaves that way and habite which hee had before and hath a new spirit of life put into him he is then all for action and for working in the wayes of God Now I come to the Exposition Exposition And sinne not Here the Apostle expounds what he meanes by waking Where first the Apostle gives us to understand that the cause of all foolish and idle speech and communication as those hee speakes of before Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye the cause of these idle discourses it is meerly an inherent habite of sinne so that corruption is the plague that causeth evill speeches and behaviour and the one as a pestilent serpent brings forth the other It is sinne that breeds monstrous opinions it is sinne that breeds all the heresies in the world they have no other mother As Saint Ambrose Ambrose saith those that make shipwracke of a good life it is no marvell if they make shipwracke of a good faith They that give themselves to base manners they are given over by the judgement of God to erronious opinions For as Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysost a wicked life is a corrupt fountaine from whence comes nothing but mud and dirt and froth Aâ—g and as Saint Austin saith well A man having knowledge once to do the will of God and yet will not do it according to his knowledge it is impossible he should retaine his knowledge he that knows what is acceptable in the sight of God and yet from a stubbornnesse of minde will not follow his knowledge the Lord shall bring that judgement upon him that he shall lose that power that he shall not be able to know what is right and what is wrong Take the talent from that unprofitable servant Mat. 25.28 and give it to him that hath ten talents Matth. 6.23 If the light in a man be darknesse how great is that darknesse from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath It is a fearfull and terrible sentence let us all tremble under the blast of it for it concernes every man As long as he lives in sinne it is the greatest miracle in the world that he is not drowned in it To keepe a true faith with a bad life it is meerly impossible Therefore sinne not For that there is all this false and idle communication that there is this base conversation these evill speeches these distrustfull languages concerning God and concerning the Resurrection the cause of it is this inveterate sinfulnesse If God punish men with giddinesse of braine and blinde their understandings that the light in him be darknesse it is a fearfull stroke yet this comes from sinne therefore he joynes both together and injoynes them saying Sinne not But how saith the Apostle sinne not Ob. Doth he not know they were men would he have them of Angelicall natures Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say If we that is if we that are Apostles 1. Joh. 1.8 if we say that wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And if the Physitian require of his Patient a thing that he cannot possibly do as to tell him that is diseased that hee must fetch such an hearbe from the East-Indies to cure him it were a meere trouble and delusion and the way to make him desperate Therefore what doth the Apostle meane when he saith Sinne not Why all men are sinners and stand in need of the glory of God and a man must pray as duly for the forgivenesse of his sinnes as for his daily bread they follow both as necessarily the one upon the other as it is possible two benefits can do Answ But to sinne in Scripture is taken in these sences chiefly First men are said to sinne that study sinne that hunt after sinne that seeke it many men are so given to the devill in the world that if hee do not seeke them they will seeke him The Apostle bids us take heed of that it is a terrible thing when a man hath a carefull minde to serve Sathan and to leave and forsake the living God The nature of Gods children may be overtaken with infirmities but they do not study for it Secondly they are said to sinne that go on in sinne so Saint Iohn saith the childe of God doth not sinne because they premise it not before hand and they call themselves to account and to judgement for it after they judge themselves for their sinne There is no man nor no barre in the world can devise that punishment for the childe of God that he doth inflict upon himselfe he is his owne judge and his owne executioner Therefore he makes no profession of his sinne but is ashamed and hides his head upon every remembrance of his sinne Therefore he is said nor to sinne by the speciall grace of God that covers his sinne because he cannot indure it As Saint Basil Basil saith If thy sinne please thee not it shall never hurâ— thee Lastly they are said to sin that sin to desperatioÌ„ thaâ— care not for pardon that disclaime the mercy of God that say their sinne is so great that it cannot bee forgiven like Cain and Iudas that will none of Gods compassion that reject his favour and will not subject themselves to his censure but are ready to say thus
I have done and I see not how it can be amended and God will not forgive it and therefore they will go forward and make a bad cause desperate This is the height of sinne These things we see it lyes in the power of grace to keepe us from that we sinne not that is by the grace of God wee may so command our spirits as that we shall not study and hunt after sinne nor we shall not sinne with a high hand nor sinne to desperation but if we sinne we do not as the reprobates of the world that cast away all hope and resist and blaspheme God 1. Joh. 2.1 2. but wee have a Mediatour and propitiation for our sinnes the man Christ Iesus Now for that which he objects unto them he tels them They knew not God and hee speakes it to their shame It is a wondrous thing that the Corinthians that were so illuminated and had such knowledge as the Apostle saith Chap. 1. that they had all knowledge 1. Cor. 1.5 and all grace and all strength and yet now hee comes and begins at the very foundation and taxeth them that they knew not God himselfe But we must know in that he said before they had all knowledge and all faith and all grace it is spoken of the better part and the better part denominates the whole As when there is an heape of wheat and chaffe together wee call it an heape of wheat because the understanding of a man takes no notice of that which is the riffe raffe but of that which is good and commendable So Saint Paul because many of them were illuminated hee gives them a title exceeding and saith they had all knowledge and all learning and abundance of all grace In the meane time he meddles not with these that were the worst and the poorest that were fallen from their knowledge and had blinded themselves in sinfulnesse He saith therefore Some of you have not the knowledge of God Where we are to consider First that he that doth not yeeld unto God in all the parts of his Word he doth not know God he that knows not God as he would be knowne he knows him not at all A man were as good to make no profession of God as not to give him the full extent of his owne declaration Whatsoever it hath pleased God to promise to them that belong unto him he will certainly performe it 2 Cor. 1.20 he cannot lye all his promises are Yea and Amen in Christ Iesus Therefore those know God that know him to be al-sufficient and true of his promise and they that know him otherwise and know him not that way they know him no way So that it is not for any man to take to himselfe a singular dexteritie of knowledge except he yeeld unto the written word of God Many men take upon them to be the onely wittie men to be singular in all sciences and that the knowledge of all belongs to them and yet they know nothing Why because they doubt of the prime and chiefe things they make a doubt whether Christ be the Mediatour of intercession as he is of satisfaction or no they make a question whether we may pray to Saints and Angels or no they call in question how the body of Christ is determined in the Sacrament and this article of the Resurrection of the dead they make it a disputable case When men will thus dispute and jangle away their faith they corrupt their knowledge and when they thinke they know all things they are meere ignoramus that are not seene at all in these things And no marvell for God saith the things that hee hath laid up for his children they passe the mindes of these men They are such as eare hath not heard 1. Cor. 2.9 nor eye hath seene nor hath ever entred into the heart of man to conceive Flesh and bloud will speake of the things belonging to it selfe it cannot attaine further These earthly mansions can take in no more then is vouchsafed them and no more then they use well when they have received it But when men will blinde themselves they fall into absurdities from better to worse and from worse to worst of all Let us take heed how wee bragge of knowledge Vse In our Church by the blessing of God we have had as great light as any part of the world none comparable but when we begin by our base manners and evill lives to fall from the service of God to our pleasures there is nothing so blindes our understandings nothing casts such mists and vapours into the world as this and at last it resolves into a meere sencelesnesse That he that when he was an apprentise when he was a yong man understood the grounds of Religion and was able to give a reason of his faith now when he comes to be an old man he is growne a meere butterflie of a laborious silkworme Hee is growne a very bruit meerly sencelesse by reason of the cares and pleasures of this world For when a man fals into sinne it breeds an oblivion of God and from that it brings a man to a meere ignorance of him Therefore if we know God let us follow him as our guide It is to no purpose for us to have a guide and to know him if we go one way and he go another but herein is our wisedome to follow our guide to yeeld to his blessed word to hope and put confidence in his promises for our guidance and direction and to disclaime and forsake our selves and all things else Col. 3.11 that we may be onely his who is all in all Secondly observe when the Apostle layes this imputation upon them he restrains it and saith Some of you Vse Men should be carefull how they cast aspersions a Church especially upon a whole Church as Corinth was We must speake so that offence may not bee taken that we do not lay the fault of a few upon all A man must not be so base that because two or three of a profession live ill to say that therefore all do so because some few are ill neighbours that therefore all the street is so No but we must lay the fault to the right owner every person must answer for himselfe The Church is still to be presumed to know God In this Congregation although there were fewer understanding people then there are yet he that should say All this people were without the knowledge of God were blasphemie There is no Congregation of the people of God but they know God and they feare God and love God and though some do not so yet the better part do the select number that God hath where his word is preached they both know him and feare him Still therefore we are to comprehend the Church in this that she knows God and that she loves God And as the Church universall so in particular Churches in parishionall Churches in every company and
which is now accomplished but in one the Lord Iesus hath it alone in one Now it is in the first fruits then it shall be in the whole Harvest then it shall be made good to the whole Church which is now only performed to the head of the Church that Death is swallowed up into victory This I take to be the sense of the words To proceed in order First we are to consider it as the words lye and not as the logicall rule would carrie us For logically we have A subject A predicate And a Vinculum or Copulate The subject is corruption This corruptible The predicate is a certaine change it must have this corruptible must take and put on incorruption And the copulate is the oportet it must needs be so and this mortall must put on immortality And then after that there is a blessed comfort that the Church of God shall receive In the meane time shee receives it as being certaine that it shall be but then she shall receive it as a full payment at that time That Scripture which said Death is swallowed up into victory It shall then be utterly accomplished Wherein we are to consider First that the Apostle confirmes and strengthens himselfe by Scripture by that which is written Secondly where it is written Thirdly the substance and matter that is written That Death is swallowed up into victory Where againe we are to consider three termes First what that is that is swallowed Death and all evill and mischiefe Secondly the terme to which it is swallowed or consumed to victory Thirdly the efficient cause who swallowes it and what it is that swallowes Death that must needs be understood the death of the Sonne of God the death of Christ swallowes up the death of men into an absolute victory And then the answer to that question How is Death swallowed up in victory seeing it every day swallowes us up and consumes us how then is Death swallowed up himselfe And that is to be answered in these words because the time is not yet come When this corruption shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality then shall be fulfilled this saying Every thing is in its own time when all things are done that should bee done when all things are accomplished that the Lord shall send before then that shall come after But we have it now onely in hope we have it onely in the first fruits we have it in some part we have it in the head then we shall have it in all the members We have it in some few that were raised with Christ to be witnesses of his Resurrection and they are pawnes for all the rest When this corruption hath put on incorruption and this mortall c. Of these parts briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first to follow the order of the words He saith this corruptible and this mortall speaking of the bodies of men For the soule of man is neither corruptible nor mortall as heretofore wee have touched Therefore those that understand these things of the Resurrection of the spirit of the Resurrection of the soule from vice to newnesse of life they are extremely mistaken and they abuse the word of grace which is here propounded unto us For the Apostle speakes of that part which is corrupt and mortall that the glory of God shall be shewed upon it and he saith this very body this Identicall thing this Idem numero not another body in stead of this but this which is now so corrupt The body shall remaine the same although the accidents and qualities shall be rare and glorious which shall accrew unto it yet it shall be one and the selfe same body As S. Chrysostome saith Chrysost the selfe same it shall be in the selfe same inches and quantity although the qualities shall be altred and it shall have gracious indowments yet they shall be the same substance they shall be the same bodies And againe it is to be observed that hee useth two words together hee repeates it This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality And this hee doth not without very good reason For it is no vaine repetition of the same thing twice over it is not S. Pauls purpose nor his custome so to doe but hee notes in us two certaine infirmities which the Lord shall stay and stanch at that day by that glorious vesture and garment of incorruption and immortality which he shall put upon us First then our body is corrupt that is changing from one forme to another it cannot continue in the same stay And secondly it is mortall that is subject to utter destruction to be altogether without any forme The first is the mutability which the matter whereof we consist cannot endure You understand that in all things that are made there are two great principles the matter and the forme besides the privation The matter is so infinitly capable and desirous of new formes that it cannot endure long to stay in one state still the matter desires a new forme to come upon it as being weary of that which it hath borne before We see it in all things in nature And though God worke his owne will and his gracious wonders by that yet notwithstanding it shewes the variety and disposition of the matter which is still capable and hath an appetite after a new forme and desires to be changed In the fruits of the earth The seed would not continue so a seed but when it is cast into the ground it comes to sprout and to spring and from thence it comes to be a little tree and so a greater and then it comes to grow backward it comes downe againe and comes to be a dead thing We see it in our selves First there is the matter of our nature then wee doe not so continue but it becomes an embrio then it comes from that forme to be a childe and when it is weary of that it comes higher So God brings things to perfection and then back againe to imperfection I speake onely of the variety in the materiall cause which as the Philosopher speaks is the devourer of formes it is ever desiring a new forme to be set upon it So God teacheth us by this that the very appetite of the matter shall carrie us to the certainty of a new forme which shal be set upon us in that blessed day because that this corruptible matter is ever changeable and changing formes It is certaine that God shall then stop the appetite of the matter and give it a forme which shall never be changed and that it shall never desire to change Here nature never stayes nor is never content with any forme but wee come from our prime matter to childhood from childhood wee passe along to youth and youth sends us to middle age middle age brings us to dotage and dotage sends us to our graves
us that are the children of Abraham although wee must study holinesse Heb. 12.14 without which no man shall see God and we must abhor all the works of darknesse and come into the light yet we are so fraile in this flesh that we cannot doe the one nor the other But miserable wretches we have two lawes the law of our members and the law of God and so we must conclude with the Apostle Rom. 7.25 I serve the law of God in my minde and spirit but the law of sinne with my members and yet hee concludes in this place thankes bee to God that gives us victory in Christ Iesus our Lord. To conculde this point It is the faith that a man holds in God the faith he hath in Christ that makes us Conquerers and gives us the victory It was this that armed the thiefe upon the Crosse when hee had done nothing all his life time but plaied the thiefe and robbed and oppressed and played his tragicall part in the world yet hee shewed himselfe to have one mite of faith in the end of his life and for that he was accepted And Christ saith unto him Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That whereas the Pharisees and Priests and Scribes thought Christ to be justly executed and put to death yet notwithstanding hee put his faith in him and beleeved that hee was a King and that he had a great portion of glory reserved for him and that hee was able to communicate it to his followers therefore he desires to partake of that glory Luke 23.42 Lord remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome Now I come to the last point of the precedent verse Thanks be to God since wee have the victory in Christ Iesus our Lord that is since wee have both received the fulnesse of the conquest imparted to us and also the first fruits of the Spirit by which we are able to overcome though not fully to overcome yet to overcome by the power of his victory and to be accounted conquerers though we bee but cowards Thanks be to God for this great gift and mercy of imputation The holy Apostle saith Theodoret Theodoret. hath concluded all his discourse with a necessary line with thanksgiving and praise to God For indeed as wee are bound to thanke God for every thing that wee receive so much more for the chiefe and principall things that wee take from his hands There is no thing so gracious as this to be victors to bee borne to be Conquerers and to be conquerers over such enemies too as have conquered all the world this many thousand yeares together that in sight that there was nothing that domineered nor nothing got the victory but death and sinne and hell and to conquer these miscreants that had over-run all the world this is the hand of God which is to be rejoyced in and if there bee any blessing for us to blesse our soules in it is this that we are conquerers in Christ saith St. Austin Aug. For saith hee If I must thanke God for every petty benefit what greater reason can I have then to give thanks for chiefe and maine benefits The grace of God in Iesus Christ our Lord is that which gives us this victory Thanke God saith St. Bernard thanke not thy selfe St. Bern. thank not Saints thanke not Angels thanke not preparatory works thanke not foreseene merits thanke nothing else but let the praise rest wholly and totally in God It is he that did all therefore to him be given all praise and glory for ever and ever FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15. ult Therefore beloved brethren be stedfast and unmoveable abounding in the worke of the Lord alway because you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. WEE are come now to the conclusion of this Chapter which followes most naturally as Chrysostome saith Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast c. It is a true conclusion when a man hath fully proved the premises hee that concludes a thing before he hath argued well and proved the matter he discourseth of hee is either a foole or a falsarie for it must needs argue it is a lie when a man will ground upon uncertaine grounds It argueth also weaknesse in him when hee thinks hee hath perswaded without sufficient ground for there is no wise man will be perswaded without due confirmation and demonstration of those things that are argued Therefore now the Apostle comes in as an excellent Oratour to conclude not upon poore grounds nor upon weak evidences but upon strong perswasion and demonstration saith Tertullian Tertul. Hee useth all the strength of the holy Ghost to perswade to this powerfull article of the Resurrection his meaning is with all the power of the holy Ghost that he was capable of for else the power of the holy Ghost is as infinite as God himselfe is infinite But now when the Apostle had driven this doctrine home when he had so beat it into them as that there was no scruple left to any gainsayer or contradictor when he had shewed the cause of the Resurrection when he had shewed the maner of it when he had shewed the absurdities that would follow the contrary doctrine if men did doubt of it when hee had shewed the effects and consequents of it of that glorious incorruption and immortality when hee had proved it by force of holy Scriptures Oh death I will be thy death oh hell I will be thy destruction When he had set downe all these firme and maine presidents it is time for him now to bring in his conclusion He is a foolish builder that will set up the roofe of his house before the walls be built and he is an idle discourser that will offer to bring a thing into his Auditory upon any triviall reason but the Spirit of God teacheth us first to settle the understandings to perswade the minds of men by strong and puissant arguments and then to draw forth conclusions for hee must first move a mans senses and understanding and then draw his will for the will is alway plyable to the conclusion but the understanding is attentive to the demonstration All this while the Apostle had held the understanding giving demonstrative causes and such reasons as no man could contradict him in Now that being done he closeth with the will and that is easily brought if he can perswade the understanding therefore he saith Therefore my beloved brethren that is seeing these things are thus seeing I have told you the will of God in this point that Christ is risen himselfe and that he is risen so palpably that he was seene of more than five hundred brethren at once and that he is the Head of the body and that therefore all the members must be raised up at one time to come with their Head and be joyned unto him Seeing that
affaires But to conclude this point the Apostle teacheth us that it is lawfull for Church-men to intend these businesses which we call secular In times past it was so although the Laws and Canons and Constitutions have obscured the light of poore Ecclesiasticall men as that they should be no guardians of the poore of widdows and orphans many have taken these to themselves to manage their lands and possessions yet the common tenent of the Church hath ever beene that those things were most sure and trusty which were put into the Churches hands and that they might do it is manifest by the example of the Apostle who layes aside the care of his generall function in preaching to all the world and is content to negotiate for one Church and for the poorest thing in the Church not so much for the administration of the Sacrament or the preaching of the Word but to carry a little maintenance to carry a little victuall which one would think might as well have beene transported without his presence as with it But now observe the condition The Churches sacrifice must be worthy for so he promiseth all upon a condition If the collection shall be worthy I will go with it So we learne out of this that the Church of God is bound to make all their sacrifices as worthy as they may to have a worthinesse in them A leane sacrifice is a shamefull kinde of sacrifice it was an abhomination to God the Lord would have the fattest and the fairest Therefore those that present any thing to him except it be out of a willing minde and proportionable to that which God hath blessed them with it rather draws a curse and indignation and detriment and losse upon them then a benefit and help to themselves the Lord loves a chearfull giver and the Lord would have them that do good works either to be rich in good works or else not to do them at all both in respect of the quantitie in giving so much and to account themselves so much the more rich by how much they have beene contributers to the poore for this is that great support whereby we live and it is a mystery which we cannot be perswaded of yet it is most true Which if we looke into it will make any man amazed that there is no man that thrives so well in the world nor shall thrive as those that are open-hearted and bountifull handed in good causes and for good purposes We see how the meanes of the Church from time to time they have beene imbezelled and brought to nothing and yet if we looke into the fortunes and states of those men that have done it that have thus wasted them we shall see that hungrie beggarly povertie hath overtaken them that they are not able to do the tenth part of that which their fathers did that had no such benefit as they have incroached to themselves Therefore seeing the Lord is mercifull in blessing and there is a secret bountie to them that are bountifully minded It should teach a Christian man to resolve not to hearken to flesh and bloud not to hearken to the contradictions of nature not to hearken to the probabilities of reason for they will tell a man it is good for him still to be hoording it is good for him to save in private to keepe all to himselfe and by so doing bee thinkes to gather a multitude of wealth and riches together although indeed it be contrary for the Lord scatters where men scrape and where men scatter and disperse abroad the Lord multiplyes and increaseth If it be in a good cause and if it be chearfully with a willing minde It is therefore a Christians glory and his care to make up the service of his God as faire as he may It is a shamefull thing when the people of God shall have a stye for their Church as they have in many poore places in our Land where there is not so much as a roofe or covering to the Church but it lyes open exposed to winde and weather it is a shamefull thing that the service of God should be offered up in such a base place as that It is a shamefull thing to have the Ministers of the Gospell poorely and basely and beggarly respected to have the sonnes of Ely forced to begge a peece of bread as it is 1. Sam. 3. 1. Sam 3. ult It is a shamefull thing to see the meanes of the Church so cut downe as that there is no hope for ever of reviving of it to the sight and shew of men neither is there any possibilitie that learning should thrive there or that ever there should grow or spring any kinde of literature thence and that any honest manners should come to any purpose these things are a shame to the world and the goods of our common Church which should bee faire and goodly in the view of all the world now they are turned to Chappels of ease to corner Churches to Gentlemens chambers to preaching by the fire side to conferences in bed roomes and such base tearmes the whole Gospell is brought unto that there is almost no shew or similitude of any true love and charity in the poore distressed parts of this Nation It is a common thing as we say in the Churches beyond the Seas where all things are wasted and spoyled and cast downe but I would it had not come over the Sea too it hath also invaded us as a great canker-worme in the state of many places of this flourishing kingdome for although God be thanked there is a singular alacritie in the spirits of many men to beautifie Churches to make spatious and goodly Colledges and to keepe the poore in Hospitals and Almes-houses these things are yet in many places to the glory of God and the commendation of the people of God yet in many other places and farre more in number there is nothing but misery vastation and meere desolation and it is so desperate as that it is almost impossible except an extraordinary hand of God from heaven worke it that there should be any reliefe That which we do for Gods cause let us do it with good will let us do it with a chearfull minde to make it as neare as we can as the Apostle saith here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a worthy collection a worthy sacrifice a worthy house of prayer a worthy Scholar a worthy Preacher of the Word of God a worthy maintenance for the poore a worthy allowance for Hospitals whatsoever we do let us labour as much as wee can to make it worthy God cannot abide these hungry base beggarly things which Saul himselfe in the pursuit of the Amalekites killed he destroyed the weary leane creatures which were not worthy to be sacrificed but he saved the best and the fattest because he knew that God in his Law required the fattest to be offered to him in sacrifice And now also the Lord will have the flower
frozen there are many trades that cannot worke and likewise the aire may be so intolerable that no man can work in it and the mist and damp may be so thick that a man cannot work in them but the glorious Gospell of Christ is of a spirituall nature it works when all things doe oppose it when every thing is against it the Gospell works As the Apostle saith Although I be bound yet the Word of God is not bound 2 Tim. 2. 2 Tim. 2. Although I be bound yet the Gospell of Christ is free and it judges the judgers and condemnes the condemners and stands against the opposers and refutes the adversaries it is mighty and powerfull even in the chaines of darknesse there is nothing that can stop the light and glory of the passage of the word of God The Minister can work when no man can work and he can doe the parts of his calling when every man else is silent and is not able to proceed in that thing that hee makes profession of for the glorious Gospell of Christ it is the Midwife of the world the Midwife must rise at all houres in the night to attend and to bring forth babes into the world and such a Midwife spiritually is the preaching of the Gospell which is ready at all times and upon all occasions if God give strength at all houres of the day and all times in the night to bring forth new creatures unto Christ and to feed them with the spirituall and sincere milk of the Word I will harbour or winter with you I but at whose cost wilt thou winter At whose charges St. Paul wintered upon thy owne purse or at the charge of the Corinthians That is a great matter nowadayes a poore mans wintering it is a trouble to a whole city they can hardly beare his charges although in old time in the Primitive Church they were so free spirited that every man had a house for S. Paul every man had a bed a chamber for him and for his followers but now men are growne so hide-bound and so base that S. Paul himselfe might lie in the streets perhaps if he were here in person before he should be entertained unlesse he brought some great and strange miracle with him or some great demonstration of the Spirit he might lie upon the stalls or the shop-boards hee should hardly be entertained into their houses Therefore it is a matter of great moment to consider in that he saith hee will winter with them who shall beare his charges in his wintering You may think this to be a simple conceit but if you marke the writings of the Apostle Paul you shall see there is some consequence in it marke what he saith 1 Cor. 9. 1 Cor. 9. saith he there I was never troublesome to you I never tooke any thing of you nor was chargeable to you And againe hee saith more cleerely 1 Cor. 12.13 1 Cor. 12.13 I pray saith he wherein did I baffle you for so the word signifieth wherein did I baffle you above other Churches was it in this because I was not burthensome to you forgive me this injury It is an ironia where the Apostle saith hee was never burthensome to them or never tooke any thing of their purses and by way of ironia hee desires them to forgive him that wrong he nevertroubled them which he doth account not a wrong nor any man would account it a wrong for it was a singular courtesie for a man to abstaine from his owne right to quit and disclaime that which was due to him that which was his maintenance for God hath appointed that those that wait on the Altar should live on the Altar so those that preach the Gospel should live on the Gospel but the Apostle saith he did not this hee tooke nothing from them Now then observe seeing St. Paul was so carefull to proove that he gave the Corinthians a Gospel freely without charge and now he saith he will lodge with them all the winter it argueth that St. Paul lodged upon his owne cost and not at their cost and charge although perhaps there were many faithfull men in Corinth that would intreat him yet hee disbursed the charges his owne selfe But some will say Quest how could this come to passe how was this done Hee gives the reason in 2 Cor. 11. Answ I robbed saith he other Churches to doe you service When I came to Macedon I found such free 2 Cor. 11. such generous and high spirits that they denied mee nothing that I would have they furnished him with money in abundance that he saith he robbed them he took so much of them I robbed other Churches to doe you service he had therefore a stock with him whereby hee was able to maintaine himselfe at Corinth and not be chargeable to them So much of that point Now to make some Application of it It is certaine that the Messengers of Christ ought to bee maintained wheresoever they come if they can proove that they come in a good cause and upon necessity hee is no member of Christ that will not receive them but withall they must indeavour to come as Paul did not to trouble them nor bee chargeable to them If they see the place cannot brooke it if the disposition of men bee churlish they ought not to impose it upon them nor to work upon them too much but to take that thankfully that comes from them willingly and if nothing come they must sit downe content with nothing As St. Bernard S. Bern. speaks upon this place saith he St. Pauls wintering was a small matter he had a small retinue his company was few a meane lodging would content him a poore thin diet would suffice him but saith he if there should an Abbot goe to such a place he would bring a famine after him hee goes with such great equipage and with such pompous company that men could not possible without a great burthen entertaine such a creature But St. Paul was of another minde hee came with such a mediocrity that hee is content with a small matter a little thing served his turne hee served the Lord with fasting oft with much prayer he preached oft hee watched oft he was not one that sought varieties or dainties but a small matter for his Wintering would doe it therefore he saith considering that they knew his manner of fare and diet hee was so bold and presumed that they were willing to entertaine him as being one that was no devourer but was content with whatsoever came to hand 2. Part. The end of Pauls lodging at Corinth The next thing that followes in the Text is the end wherefore the Apostle saith hee would lodge with them or winter with them the end is because hee would bee led by them wheresoever hee should goe by their meanes he would be conducted on the way It is certaine this was not the prime cause that St.
speake nothing to the purpose especially nothing to the combate nothing to the duel that ought to bee betweene the adversaries and the champions of Christ but leave all to such kinde of fresh-water-souldiers and themselves in the meane time taking their ease because they thinke it is not safe medling and perhaps because they thinke they shall bee discomfited and if they should chance to be overcome there would bee more shame to them by their overthrow then there could come glory by their conquest if they should offer to stand in the cause of Christ These kinde of men are exactly contrary to the Apostles spirit Where there are many adversaries there the Spirit of God should rise in men as it is said of Saul when Nahash the King of the Ammonites put that base and deadly condition upon the Gileadites that they should give him their right-eyes by way of compact The Text saith the Spirit of God came upon Saul when hee heard such a thing that although the Ammonits were a great and terrible and an infinite number and the case grew desperate for they were to deliver the Citie within eight dayes yet so much the more strong was the Spirit of God in Saul and he tooke a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them to the quarters of Israel and told them that so their cattell should bee served whosoever would not follow him in this just quarrell So St. Paul although otherwise in Acts 17. Acts 17. when hee saw Athens full of Idols full of Devills that there was every where Temples set up the Text saith that his spirit was exasperated so moved he was in himselfe he was in a holy trance hee was without himselfe to see that horrible blasphemy against God So it is ever naturall to true spirits that are guided by the Holy Ghost not to bee daunted with perill nor to hang downe their heads for the opposition of the Devil but to gather strength and courage for as much as it is a signe that God is with them a signe that God hath sent them It was the lot of Christ to be beset about on every side that when he had done the most good to sustaine the greatest harme of those ungratefull monsters The adversaries are many therefore I will goe Adversarii multi contrary to the course of flesh and blood which because the adversaries are many and great therefore I will not goe I will keep within doores I will lie safe I cannot doe any good what can I doe against so many what can one man do against so many thousands No but the Spirit of God perswaded him that hee alone had the world in his breast and that he was able to conquer as Samson who with the Iaw-bone of an Asse slew a thousand men and he was stronger by the haires of his head which were but an excrement yet it made him stronger then all the adversaries that were against him so the least thing in the child of God which seems the excrement of the world the hairs of their head are able to confront and confound all adverse powers Mat. 10. As our Lord Iesus tels his Disciples in Mat. 10. They shall not be able to resist the Spirit whereby you speake Deut. 28. one of you shall scatter ten of them and an hundred of you shall scatter a thousand of them The enemies of God are set to be routed before the few handfulls of Gods children as in the Army of Gedeon 300. men put to the slaughter and wrought the confusion of a thousand thousand Midianites Let us therefore have this confidence in our spirits in the truth and cause of God and not be unsetled or moved with the speech or with the actions of men or with the disasters of the times nor with the conceits that flesh and bloud will suggest unto us for verily if we stand upon our own foundation we shall be able to undermine them and to keep our standing against them there is no counsell nor no power nor no hand that can come against the will of God for hee carries all abrest before him and his legions are able to drive the world into smoake and to make the mountains to tremble at the approach of him The adversaries are many Many because they are gathered from many Nations Devout men of the Iewes from all quarters under heaven Acts 2. Acts 2. And wheresoever these Iewes dwelt they were still as it were the chief Prelats they would looke to the state of the Church and make that the supreame object We see in Thessalonica a poore Colonie they sent as if they were the chiefe Magistrates after St. Paul to take him alive and to bring him to his answer when he was at Berea A strange spirit was in them to be adversaries to the cause of Christ they were great persecutors wheresoever they were whereas our Colonies and our Churches in other places of the world they take not half so much upon them a man may live as quietly and safe at Hamborough and such places in as much peace and quiet and more too sometimes than in his owne countrie because there is not that fulnesse of authority there as there is here But the Iewes were of that nature that still they would be the chiefe primates and the great men of the world wheresoever they were Therefore the Apostle having such a confluence of them from Greece from Asia from Scythia from India from Egypt from Cyrene from Rome and from all the parts of Italie from Germanie and from Spaine it selfe where the Iewes were dispersed and scattered he finding them in all places so exact and so purposely set to the maintaining of Moses law and to oppose any new opinion that should come in place he must needs complaine of adversaries There is a great number of adversaries from all parts of the world and they be all adversaries full of power and full of terrour every man thought himselfe a Prelate every man took himselfe to be a ruler and a governor therefore the match was so much the harder the combat was so much the more dangerous because he was in the middest of all the power of his adversaries and yet this daunted him not But now the holy Ghost gives us here to consider what kinde of adversaries these were that is they were the most potent and powerfull adversaries not only great in their number but great also in their affections great in their strength and great in their zeale for there is no adversarie so much to be feared as those that are nearest neighbours to us in the profession of the common religion In Micah 5. Micah 5. Let no man trust his servant nor his neighbour A mans owne houshold shall be his greatest enemies as the common proverb saith A man hath no worse friends than them hee brings from home with him so it was here the Iewes of all others should have maintained Christ
I must labour to bring them in and call them home if they be bruitish already I must seeke to make them men to reduce them backe againe But especially I speake according to the custome of men for your sakes for your weakenesse for your better understanding that you may know the greatnesse of my trouble which I sustained at Ephesus I speake after the manner of men as they use to call wicked men beasts so give me leave also to call these who have made themselves so by their malice and persecution 2 Where the place was Concerning the place it was at Ephesus and when this persecution was there is great dissention among Writers some thinke it to be that persecution that Saint Luke mentions Acts 19.24 Acts 19. Paul being at Ephesus and preaching against Idolatry there riseth up Demetrius the silver Smith and all the trade comes with him he being as it were the Master of his Company he brings his livery after him a whole army of divellish beasts were raised against Paul Demetrius being the principall man that led all the heard after him and so the whole forrest was in a tumult and uproare Tertul. Beza So Tertullian and Beza after him with divers other of the Fathers But certainly this cannot be so for we reade that Saint Luke sets it downe directly that Saint Paul as soone as he had received that affront at Corinth that great danger when Sosthenes was beaten and that Gallio cared for none of these things Acts 18.17 he after a while quitted the Citie and went from Ephesus to Macedonia Acts 18.18.19 and it is certaine when Saint Paul wrote this he was at Ephesus and saith he will stay there till Pentecost 1 Cor. 16.8 as he saith Cap. 16.8 Therefore it cannot be that hee speakes of that sedition that Demetrius raysed against him that being the last period of his stay at Ephesus he went thence presently upon it he knew that Christ gave him a commission when they persecuted and beate him away Math. 10.14 to shake the dust off his feete against them Therefore this cannot be admitted Another Company expound it thus that it was the trouble that happened to him from the sonnes of Sceva Acts 19.16 Acts 19.16 And the sonnes of Sceva cast out divels in the name of Iesus whom Paul preached There were seven sonnes of Sceva and they tooke upon them to cast out divels and the manner of their conjuration was this We adiure you by IESVS Acts 19.13 whom Paul preacheth to come forth Verse 14. Now the divell replyed Iesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye and so he ranne upon them and prevailed against them and tare and rent them Hereupon some thinke the sons of Sceva raised persecution against him of envy because they suffered that great hurt by the divell But this is more uncertaine then the former It cannot be thus for we know that the sonnes of Sceva invocated the name of Christ and nominated Christ whom Paul preacheth wherein they shewed themselves rather friends and allies to Paul then enemies and so we have a direct rule and Canon of Christ Math. 10. Matth. 10. his Disciples tell him We saw one casting out divels in thy name and we forbade him saith Christ to them Forbid him not for he that is with mee is not against me Where Christ gave them to understand that as long as any man although hee were not of their company and Colledge yet as long as he profest the name of Christ and did their miracles in his name they were with him and not against him and though the sonnes of Sceva miscarried in their desire of lucre and that they did not their miracles for the good of the Church yet they pretended friendship to Saint Paul rather then any adverse disposition Therefore I say this cannot be But we must understand it of the totall troubles that hee found at Ephesus which hee expresseth 2 Cor. 1.8 2 Cor. 1.8 Brethren saith he I would not have you ignorant of the pressures and troubles that wee sustained in Asia how we were pressed and urged above strength that we even despaired of life in our owne selves This desperate life he was cast into by the malice of the men of Ephesus that studied Idolatry and for their Idoll Diana and would therefore have beate downe and destroyed Paul and the doctrine of Christ This sedition that they moved against him he cals fighting with beasts And so wee must take the sence to be this that seeing you know that at Ephesus I had such a world of adverse powers against me that I was pressed above measure urged and crushed even to death that I received the sentence of condemnation against my selfe 2 Cor. 1.9 that I thought there was no way for me but to bee devoured as with the teeth and fury of so many wilde beasts If you have heard of it or if you know it you may imagine that I have some reason to undergoe these troubles For I brought them upon mine owne head I might have avoyded them if I would but I would not doe it because of that abundant reward and consolation of Christ which shall raise this my body So that all the teeth of beasts shall not offer me more wrong and injury in tearing it then Christ shall give it honour and glory in saving it after it hath beene thus deformed and so he shall give honour to that part which most lacked which hath most suffered here 1 Cor. 12.24 For this cause I am thus ready to undergoe these dangers and to encounter againe with beast after beast as they shall bee singled out against me that drinking of that cup of affliction here I may receive that eternall cup of thanksgiving in the world to come This should teach us to conclude all in a word that we ought not to despise the passions of Gods children Vse It is a great misery that the world is usually blinded withall Whatsoever a man suffers they thinke he suffers it as a guilty person they take him as a malefactor and it is enough that hee is in misery to prove him also to bee in fault By this meanes there should no substantiall argument bee drawne from the martyrdome of Gods Saints for of all men to flesh and bloud and common sence they are most miserable and wretched and pronounced guilty at every tribunall and are accounted the malefactors of the world the plagues of the earth such as brought barrennesse upon the earth and other plagues from God because men were not enlightened by the spirit of grace therefore they fell to the condemnation of the righteous which is the greatest plague in the world to condemne the righteous for woe to them that call light darkenesse and darkenesse light Esay 5.20 Let us therefore have speciall regard when we see troubles fall upon men to keepe an upright heart to
discerne the cause and the person by the cause and not the cause by the person Otherwise it will not follow that because Saint Paul suffered these plagues for the Resurrection that therefore there shall be a Resurrection but God forbid that any man should conclude such a peremptory sentence against Gods children as to account them furious or mad men And the reason is plaine because God protesteth to avenge his Saints Let the bloud of thy Saints which the heathens have shed in thy sight Psal 79.11 be avenged and he protesteth for his people in Egypt I have seene I have seene the afflictions of my people in Egypt And he that gathers the teares of his children the teares of his Saints into his bottle as if to make a speciall drinke and receipt of them much more doth he gather the drops of bloud of his Saints Psal 56.8 that they spend for his sake and the Gospells And if he that gives a cup of cold water Math. 10.42 in the name of a Prophet it shall be rewarded much more shall hee be abundantly recompenced that gives not a cup of cold water but a chalice of his owne warme bloud of his dearest bloud for the maintenance of the truth that he hath received and that is inspired into him by the holy Ghost he that doth it not onely in the name of a Prophet but in the name of the Prince of the Prophets Christ Iesus who is able to give that abundant recompence he hath promised Let us alway take it to heart and hold it as a strong argument even the Churches sufferings Because the Church in former times hath liv'd in this holy faith because the Church hath bin content to dye for it because the Churches in former times have mortified theÌ„selves to the world and lived as men of another world to keep themselves pure undefiled in this world Let the presidents of these men bee undoubted rules for us to guide our feete and steps by as infallible and unerrant rules let us follow with unrepealable affections in that blessed truth Application which hath beene revealed to us from time to time The last thing I noted to you was the Application As it was in Saint Pauls time so it hath beene in the time of all Christians we have alway beasts in rhe world These kinde of beasts the true Christians and professors of the Gospell must be exposed to them A man may finde Ephesus every where and as much in this Citie as in any place in the world where our beasts be of divers natures Some are horned beasts Some are beasts that devoure with their teeth Some are beasts that kicke with the heele Some are beasts that hisse and snarle and with a secret kinde of poyson destroy men For the one sort David saith they set their hornes on high I said to the fooles deale not so madly Psal 75.4.5 and to the ungodly set not your hornes on high Proud creatures are compared in the Scriptures Psalm 22.12 Amos 4 1â— to Buls of Bashan There be also Kyne of Bashan for there bee horned creatures of both sexes Saint Paul was much plagued with women in three or foure places in the Acts the women still raised persecution When men had more modesty and more grace then comes Iezebel and Herodias and raiseth persecution and although it be not now in that kinde as it was then yet they doe it â—n a semblable way now adayes they will disgrace one Preacher and set up another comparing one man with another perswading men to withdraw the naturall allowance and maintenance due to the Ministers and so they bring Saint Paul to that extreme necessity that if any man should judge the case he would say he were conversant with beasts rather then men There are another kinde of beasts that bite with their teeth David tels us of them too that as there are buls of Bashan and Kine of Bashan and Vnicornes so there are Lyons and Tygers and Beares and Wolves and Dogges with such kinde of beasts this Forrest is full too which have most virulent and poysonous teeth and lay on their fangs where it pleaseth them without all respect either of place or person or any kinde of humane reference And they bite even to death and destruction they will bite a man out of his fortunes out of his fame out of his contentment bite him out of his neighbours out of his servants out of his children there is no place where this dogges tooth is not gressant and playing masteries As for the other that be altogether for the heele to kick Psal 32.9 and spurne the Prophet David saith Psal 32. Be not like the horse and Mule whose mouth must be held with bit and bridle lest they fall upon thee These Cammels these Horses and Mules are as frequent as the rest of the beasts of the desert be and they will insult and turne upon every body There is no man can escape them but they will now and then give him a dash with the heele before hee be aware of them And for those other that are in lurking holes and murmure and grumble and like Serpents doe but only hisse our world is also replenished with them like fiery Serpents in the wildernesse that would creepe upon a mans legs before hee knew where he was and on a sudden sting him Such kinde of beasts all the Ministers of God must resolve to fight withall and al Christian men 2 Tim. 3.12 Al that wil live godly in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle must suffer persecution and they must be persecuted from such kinde of beasts as these but he that is the God of men and Angels hee shall one day either turne these beasts into men or else destroy them as beasts In the meane time our prayer must be with David Psal 3.7 Psal 3.7 Lord breake the hornes of the ungodly strike the iaw bones of thine enemies breake their teeth asunder breake the teeth of the ungodly and send them downe their throat that they may be able to doe no more mischiefe These and the like prayers the Prophet hath in the high spirit of revelation whereby it was assured him that they would not be better But we must pray unto God to amend them that it would please God to turne their faces againe and to make him that is beastly to remember humanity and to come home againe to himselfe and know the doctrine of the Gospell of Christ and so settle himselfe in Christian Charity and love as Saint Paul teacheth and labour to bee a member of that body and to keepe within the compasse of the Church and no more to be extravagant from the Common-wealth of Israell That hee may have the promise of God here and the performance of them in the life to come Which the Lord grant unto us Amen FINIS 1 COR. 15.32.33 Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye Be