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A29533
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Two treatises both lately delivered to the Church of God at Great Yarmouth, and now published as useful and seasonable by John Brinsley ...
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Brinsley, John, 1600-1665.
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1656
(1656)
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Wing B4736; ESTC R36519
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171,517
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320
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their lives and conversations that they may he exemplary to others That is that which both Paul and Peter require from them in the places forecited 1 Tim. 4. 12. Tit. 2. 7. 1 Pet. 5. 3. Quest. But wherein should they he so exemplary unto others Answ. In setting forth of this I will not go from the word I have in hand Onely send them to the Stars which I shall propound as patterns to them in those things wherein I would have them to be patterns to others 1. Let them be Examples to others in Purity Such are the Stars pure creatures Not a spot not a blemish to be seen in any of them I mean in the fixed stars True indeed in the Moon there are spots but not so in any of the fixed stars which are most properly the Ministers Embleme They are all pure And such all the Ministers of Christ should labour to be Pure The Priests under the Law must not have a blemish Levit. 22. Patterns of Purity This is one thing wherein Paul would have Timothy to be a Pattern in that place forenamed 1 Tim. 4. 12. Be thou an example of the believers But wherein why among other things in Puritie And again Chap. 5. 22. Keep thy self pure And herein should all the Ministers of Christ be exemplary to others In purity of Conversation keeping themselves unspotted of the world free from the evils of the times and places wherein they live that their lives be not spotted with any scandalous crimes Which if they be they will be like those spots in the Moon obvious to every eye and no small blemish to their holy function 2. As in Purity so in Zeal Stars as they shine so they sparkle Therein differing from the Moon as a Diamond doth from a Christal The one shines but it is but with a pale wan light The other both shines and sparkles And so should it be with the Ministers of Christ Whilest they shine in purity they should sparkle with zeal Such a light was Iohn the Baptist not onely shining but burning John 6. 35. shining with holiness and burning with zeal And such should all the Ministers of God be as pure so zealous That is the thing which the Spirit requires from one of these seven Angels the Minister or Ministers of the Laodicean Church Rev. 3. 19. Be zealous And so should all the Ministers of Christ be zealous for God for his truth for his worship and service zealous against Errours Heresies all kind of doctrinal or practical wickedness Such were Moses and Phineas whose zeal standeth upon record to their eternal honour And such was Paul of whom the story tels us Acts 13. 9. that when he saw Elimas the Sorcerer opposing him as he did not so much his Person as his Doctrine Being filled with the Holy Ghost saith the Text he set his eyes upon him His eyes even sparkled with a holy indignation against him And so when he came to Athens and there saw the City so wholly given to Idolatry his spirit was stirred within him saith the Text Acts 17. 16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exacerbabat spiritus ejus his spirit was sharpned it had an edge set upon it it was so stirred that he could not but break forth into an open and tart reproof And so was it with our blessed Lord and Master the Lord Iesus However in his own personal concernments none more patient that Lamb of God yet in the cause of his father none more zealous The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up It is spoken of Christ Iohn 2. 17. Such was his holy zeal for the service and honour of God his Father that it was as a fire in his Breast continually feeding upon his spirits so busying and taking up his thoughts that it made him even regardless of himself And such should be the zeal of his servants his Ministers Onely let them see that it be a well tempered zeal Not fiery not furious In this do Stars differ from Comets Blazing-stars Both sparkle but the one in a temperate the other in a furious way as if they would set the world on fire Such zeal the Ministers of God must be ware of When Iames and Iohn having had some affront offered them and their Master by the Samaritans wo refused to receive them propound to him this course of proceeding against them wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven to consume them he presently makes answer to them with a Check ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Luke 9. 54 55. Giving them to know that their counsel did not suit with their calling neither did it favour of a truly Ministerial spirit which should be a spirit of meekness and gentleness Zealous the Ministers of God may be ought to be But let it be for God and not for themselves And then let their fervour be tempered with a wise and holy discretion Let them sparkle where need is but let it be like Stars not like Blazing-stars Thirdly As in Puritie and Zeale so in Humilitie Hereof the Stars are very proper Emblems as Lapide hints it upon the Text. Which though they be vaste bodyes most of them far bigger then the Earth yet how little doe they seem to be And such should the Ministers of the Gospel be what euer they be for place for partes for gifts yet they should be little in their owne eyes· So was Paul however not Inferiour in place or gifts to any of the Apostles which being thereunto provoked by his emulous Adversaries he sometimes asserts and stands upon 2 Cor. 11. 5. I suppose I was not any whit behind the cheifest of the Apostles And againe in the Chapter following verse 11. he inculcates the same In nothing am I behind the very cheifest Apostles Yet in his owne eyes how low was he Even the least of them So much we may heare him elswhere acknowledging 1 Cor. 15. 9. I am the least of the Apostles Yea the least of Saints So he tels his Ephesians cap. 3. verse 8 Vnto me who am least then the least of all Saints is this grace given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double diminitive Less then the Least i.e. for the least So little was this great Apostle to himself Even as nothing That is his Expression elswhere in that place forenamed 2. Cor. 12 11. In nothing am I behind the very cheifest Apostles though I be nothing Thus whilst he tooke notice of the abundant grace of God to him in bestowing such gifts as he had done upon him yet with all he acknowledgeth his owne nothingness How in and of himself he was nothing nothing without Christ even as the stars are nothing without the Sun of no use good for nothing Such was Paul in his own eyes And he would not seeme over great in the eyes of others It is the reason which he giveth why he did forbeare to speake somewhat of himself which
not onely by way of Commiseration but also of Exprobration As pitying so upbraiding them Pitying them in regard of the Calamitie which he saw coming upon them but withall upbraiding them with the mercies and favours which God had bestowed upon them above others to which they had made a most unworthy return Even thou Thou whom I have done thus and thus for thou for whom I have done more then for any other place upon earth O it is a sad thing when God shall come thus to upbraid a people with his favours A thing which he is not ready and forward to do So much we may learn from St. Iames Jam. 1. 5. If any man lack wisedome let him ask it of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not viz. those who receiving his blessings thankfully indeavour to make a right use of them But as for those who being ungrateful for them shall not walk in measure worthy of them them he will upbraid So he often doth ungrateful Israel as elsevvhere so Isaiah 5. 1 2. vvhere comparing Israel to a vineyard he reckons up what offices he had done to it in fencing and planting and mannuring of it c. accommodating it with all necessaries and conveniencies And this he doth by way of exprobration upbraiding them with those favours for which they had made so ill a requital And the like again Ier. 2. 5. Thus saith the Lord what iniquity have your fathers found in me c. Neither said they where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness And so he goeth on reckoning up the many favours he had done for that Nation which he doth in an upbraiding way inasmuch as they had shewed themselves so ingrateful and forgetful as they had done And the like doth our Saviour to those Cities in the Text forenamed Mat. 11. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He began to upbraid them O take we heed that we do not give God just cause to do the like by us And therefore what special mercies and favours God is pleased to bestow upon us take notice of them be thankful for them endeavour to walk worthy of them This do we for publick And this do we for private mercies Is it so that God is pleased to bless any of us above other of our brethren in any kinde Be it in our Bodies with health and strength In our Estates with larger portions of this worlds goods advancing us above the common ranke In our mindes inriching us with inward gifts and indowments of wit wisdome knowledg c. O take we heed that these be not a matter of exprobration to us that by our abusing of them not improving them not walking worthy of them we do not give God just cause to upbraid us with them Considering that in this case every of these mercies will be as so many several aggravations of our ingratitude This is that which the Lord by his Prophet Nathan tels King David 2 Sam. 12. 7 8. Where reckoning up the many favours he had done and was ready to do for him how he had delivered him out of the hand of Saul how be had set him upon the Throne of Israel giving him his Masters House and Wives and the House of Israel and of Iudah And saith he if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things then he cometh to expostulate the matter with him why he should so deal by his God as had done Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight Thus God taketh the sins of his favourites more unkindly then the sins of any other And therefore is it so that God hath indeared any of us to himself by any special favours wherein he hath preferred us before others let us be so much the more watchful careful over our walkings that so he may never take up the like complaint against us as our Saviour here doth against Ierusalem O that thou even thou shouldest do thus and thus This it was that David took most heinously that his favourites and familiars should prove treacherous to him Psal. 41. 9. Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me Some of his Courtiers friends Which our Saviour applieth unto Iudas's dealing with himself Ioh. 13. 18. He that eateth bread with me hath lift up his heel against me This did exceedingly aggravate Iudas's sin Had some of the Scribes o◠Pharisees done what he did it had been no strange thing But that Iudas should do it one whom Christ had so far honoured as to admit him to so near an attendance upon his person to make him one of his Privy Counsel as it were this highly aggravated his offence O take heed lest the like aggravation lie against any of us And therefore the more gracious God hath been or shall be to any of us let us be the more grateful the more watchful the more careful to walk worthy of his mercies I have done with the former of these Circumstances these Aggravations Come we now to the latter which is taken from the Time and the Season In this thy day Q. And what is here meant by Ierusalems day A. Day in Scripture it hath divers senses and significations Literally and properly we meet with a Natural day and an Artificial day The one consisting of twenty four hours the Suns Revolution the other of the time of light from morning to evening Both which we finde in that one verse Gen. 1. 5. And God called the light day and the darkness he called night And the evening and the morning were the first day By the first understanding the Artificial day by the latter the Natural But to let these pass as nothing to our purpose Tropically and improperly the word is diversly used 1. Sometimes for the time of mans life that space which he liveth upon earth Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day saith our Saviour to the Jews Iohn 8. 56. the time of my manifestation in the flesh and abode upon earth I must work the work of him that sent me whilest is day John 9. 4. that is whilest I live here upon earth 2. Sometimes it denotes the time of grace under the Gospel So the Apostle is conceived to use the world Rom. 13. 12. where he saith The night is far spent the day is at hand The night the time of the Law which was a time of darkness and Ignorance wherein spiritual and heavenly mysteries were all clouded and vailed under shadows and figures In opposition thereunto the time of the Gospel is called the Day in regard of the clear manifestation of the grace of God and of the mysterie of salvation to all sorts not onely to Iews but Gentiles And so that other Text of the same Apostle is looked upon 1