hath given to his Church for this ver relates to the 11. He gave some Apostles and some c. that henceforth c. and to them doth the Apostle commit the charge of the flock to watch over them against wolves Acts 20. 28 29. 2. The holding fast and pursuance of the substance and great things of Religion ver 15. but being sincere in love grow up in all things into him which is the head It s an excellent growth to grow up into the head that is into communion with and conformity to Jesus Christ which triviall opinions nothing at all advance observe the antithesis or opposition he makes between being carried about c. and following the truth in love for contraria contrariis diseases are cured by contraries so the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 3. 17 18. gives the same receipt against unstedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to take off teachers from fables and genealogies and questions of no value Paul commends to them the aiming at godly edifying which is by faith and to hold to that which is the end of the commandement charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 4 5. If both Ministers and people would but drive this trade it would take off that wandring and hunting after novell opinions and doctrines and would keep us constant in the wholesome pastures even now that the hedge of setled government is wanting If you have good feeding why should not that keep you from wandering untill the pale be set up wait upon God in the use of his saving ordinances and pray for us If Moses stay long in the mount must the people be setting up golden calves and say we know not what is become of this Moses Aarons rod Exod. 7. 12. shal swallow up all the rods of Iannes and Iambres in due time The Apostle puts us in hope of a vil ultra to such 2 Tim. 3. 9. They shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all FINIS Magnalia DEI ab Aquilone Set forth in a SERMON PREACHED BEFORE The Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS at Saint MARGARETS Westminster upon Thursday July 18 1644. Being the day of publike Thanksgiving for the great VICTORY obtained against Prince RUPERT and the Earl of Newcastles Forces neer YORK By RICHARD VINES Minister of Gods Word at Weddington in the County of Warwick and a Member of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of both Houses LONDON Printed by R. L. for Abel Roper at the signe of the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1646. Die Veneris 19. Julii 1644. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That Mr. Vines hath hereby thanks given him by this House for the great pains hee hath took in his Sermon Preached before the Lords and Commons on Thursday the eighteenth of this instant Iuly in Margarets Church Westminster it being the day of Thanksgiving for the great mercy of God in the happy successe of the Forces of both Kingdoms against the Enemies of King and Parliament neer York And that the said Mr. Vines be intreated to Print and publish his said Sermon which no man is to presume to Print or reprint without his authority under his hand as he will answer the contrary to this House John Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Die Veneris 19. Julii 1644. IT is this day Ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That Sir Robert Harley do give the thanks of this House to Mr. Vines for the great pains hee took in the Sermon hee Preached at the intreaty of both Houses at St. Margarets Westminster upon the day of publike Thanksgiving for the great Victory obtained against Prince Rupert and the Earle of Newcastles Forces and he is desired to publisht it in Print H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. Dom. Com. I appoint Abel Roper to Print my Sermon Richard Vines To the Right HONOURABLE THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in Parliament Right Honourable and Noble Senatours BY this time it is cleere day even their eyes whose unwillingnesse to beleeve it made them blinde are now waken to see that God did indeed put matter of thanksgiving both into our hands and mouthes To disguise so solemne a duty onely to support reputation in the eyes of the world is no lesse then to put an Irony upon GOD. Thanksgiving is the reply we make to GODS answer of our prayer of whom if we walke worthy he will surely make rejoynder of new mercies Though we cannot expect but that we may shift our garments and somtimes weare sackcloth The Lord set our hearts in tune whether to Lachrymae or Hallelujah Beware of that rock which the Israelites fel foul upon in their wildernesse condition where being at Gods more immediate finding and having all their entertainment from Heaven they most of all did then imbitter GOD by their murmurings against and temptations of him The good Lord command the West to blow as sweet a gale as the North hath done and so finish his own worke that unto Henricus Rosas Regna Jacobus may be added Ecclesias Carolus So prayeth Your unworthy servant for Christ Richard Vines A SERMON PREACHED Before the Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS assembled in Parliament upon the 18th day of July 1644. It being the day of Thanksgiving for the great mercy of God in the happy successe of the Forces of both Kingdoms against the Enemies of King and Parliament neer York ISAIAH 63. 8. For he said Surely they are my people children that will not lie So he was their Saviour WHat the Historian sayth of that day wherein Non suit maior sub imperio Romano dies c. Florus lib. 2. cap. 6. de bello Punico secundo Scipio and Hannibal disputed that long depending cause between Rome and Carthage in open field The Romane Empire untill that time had not seen a greater day The same may I justly say of the occasion of this our meeting Nor we nor our fathers in this Kingdom considering the numbers on both sides the Interests that lay at stake the fulnesse of the victory the hopefull consequence of it have had more cause to sing They compassed me about like Bees they are quenched as the fire of thorns for in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me The Lord is my strength and song and is become my salvation The voice of rejoycing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the righteous The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly Psal 118. 12 13 14 15 16 c. for though God have cleerly attested his presence with us by many visible tokens thereof ever since we came into this wildernesse so that we may truly say Take counsell together and it shall
second comming of Christ or at least untill he shall gloriously declare himself in the destruction of the beast and false Prophet and in the calling of the Jewes These things being laid together doe cry aloud unto you to consider your danger and to hearken to the frequent inculcations of the Apostles in their Epistles in almost all their a 2 Cor. 11. 3. Epistles describing false teachers to bee like the Serpent that beguiled Eve branding them with the name of Jannes and Jambres Balaam false Apostles deceitfull workers ministers of Sathan c. stigmatizing their doctrins with the names of damnable haeresies doctrines of Devills c. Fortifying Christians with effectuall arguments and exhortations against the impressions and infections of such poysonous errours And if you looke upon those Epistles which were sent from heaven to the seven Churches you shall finde that the greatest part of those comminations in them contained are thundred forth against haeresies or doctrinall errours maintaining or cherishing as I may call them haereticall lusts there wee finde them b Revel 2. 2. that said they were Apostles but were lyers the c cap. 2. 9. 14. 15. 20. 24. blasphemy of such as said they were Jews but were the Synagogue of Satan the doctrine of Balaam the doctrine of the Nicolaitans the teaching and seducing of Jezebel the depths of Sathan c. The Churches are commended or the Angels of those Churches who found out these disguised seducers and kept the truth uninfected by them and those Angels or Churches blamed which d Revel 2. 15. had them and suffered them in their bosome These things I offer to your serious and sad consideration you have not made use of the point as soone as you have said The Minister railes It s not my meaning to poure out all this that hath beene said upon every errour either preacht or followed in our times but to shew you that false teachers and haeresies must be and shall be in the Gospel Churches and to put you in minde what the Scripture saith concerning them and how much you are concerned to looke about you for I observe that men are not so jealous over themselves or so affraid of e Vers 20. corruption of their minds as they ought to be nor so sensible of sin in intellectuall errours as in morall corruptions and yet we know diseases in the head are mortall too and that a fish begins to corrupt and stink in the head and so throughout corrupt manners usually and naturally follow upon corrupt minds they that are not sound in the faith no wonder if they be not sound in the feare and in the wayes of God whither will this new scepticisme come and into what will it be resolved but into Athiesme when men begin to fall we see by experience that many fall from story to story till they come to the very bottom And therefore I exhort and beseech you all to that which the scripture exhorts and injoynes upon Christians who are in danger of being seduced by false teachers or their doctrines and that is to try the spirits whether they are of God 1. John 4. 1. To contend for the faith once delivered Jude 3. To beware lest you be carried away with the errour of lawlesse men 2. Pet. 3. 17. To turne away from such as creep into houses and lead captive silly women 2. Tim. 3. 5. 6. To avoid foolish questions which are unprofitable and vaine Titus 3. 9. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. To continue in the things that you have learned and been assured of out of the word of God 2. Tim. 3. 14. And lastly If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither say to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Epistle of John 10. 11. For he that bids him god speed is partaker of his evill deeds where the Apostle supposes that false teachers are men of evill deeds besides their false doctrines or that indeed their false doctrine is evill deeds in the plurall number and therefore not to be slighted off as a thing of the minde or mentall mistake onely you see that to countenance or encourage such teachers is to be partaker of their evill deeds and whatsoever credit you will give to the report of f lib. 3. cap. 3. Irenaeus concerning John his leaping out of the bath from Cerinthus or Polycarp his refuseal of Marcion his acquaintance yet the observation which he makes upon those reports or histories is to be taken notice of that the Apostles and their followers would Tantum Apostoli eorum discipuli c. Iren lib. 3. cap. 3. not so much as verbo tenus communicate with any of them that had adulterated the truth how much lesse should private Christians close with such seducers who are more likely to pull them into the water then they to pull them out Naturally wee are tinder too apt to take fire by their sparkes he that fishes with an haereticall bait may haply catch more in a moneth than some godly Minister shall bring to Christ with all his travell and paines as long as he lives for he hath the advantage of the bait and therein lies the odds of successe between preaching of errour and preaching of the truth I maruell saith the Apostle that you are so soone removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospell Gal. 1. 6. there was the wonder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were removed so quickly and the Apostles wonder may be ours also wee have been a people of as powerfull godlinesse as any in the world practicall divinity was improved to a great height of clearenesse and sweetnesse but I feare that I may truely say we were best in worst times wee held our cloake in the winde and now are laying it off in the sun A miserable declination from the life and power of godlinesse is come to passe within these few yeares our practicals our inward and close wayes of walking with God in faith and love are sublimed into fancies and vapour out into fumes of new opinions and which is worst of all we take this dropsy to be growth and conceive our selves to be more spirituall and refined because more ayry and notionall The Lord humble us for our declensions and swervings from the g 1 Tim. 6. 3. end of the commandement which is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained and for our turnings aside to vaine ianglings The best way of fortification of our selves against the allurements and assaults of false teachers is 1. To be grounded in the principles of the doctrines of Christ or else we shall easily be tumbled up and downe like loose stones that lie not fast in the building upon the foundation 2. To study and adhere unto the doctrine which is h 1 Tim. 1. 5. 6. according to
and the worship more outward but under the Gospel circumstances are at more liberty and spiritualnesse more call'd for and therefore in this Sacrament for instance we have nothing for how often but we have for how worthily as a learned man observes and therefore under correction it was not so right Mâ—â—cul de coeâ—â— Lib 4. distinct 13. Qu. 5. that when as Durand saith The primitive devotion of communicating every day was grown so cool that it came to be commanded on the three great festivals whereof Easter was by Innocent the first made Anno 1200. of the Quorum I might instance nearer home enjoyning all to it at that time For of this Chrysostom had complained long before that at those times the people either of custome or by Law crouded in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the custome saith he O the partiality of men The truth is I finde that in times of persecution threatning Christians either to arm themselves or in fear of being scatter'd and dispers'd took every occasion to celebrate the Supper and Justin Martyr signifies that their solemn meetings on the Lords dayes were accompanied with this feast and that the Question how often is propounded in Austine and Chrysostom and Austin perswades and exhorts every Lords-day Austin Eccles Dogm cap. 53. Chrysost hom 13. hâ—b Gerard. Harm cap. 171. if the heart be prepared and Chrysostom saith that a pure conscience may come as often as it will but for a wicked man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once is too often and to conclude if the necessity of our infirmities the great benefit the honour of this memorial may be heard to speak we shall come to this Rule That frequency beget not a customary formality or fastidious satiety as Manna did nor seldomnesse beget forgetfulnesse or superstitiousnesse extraordinarinesse and under this caution I leave the determination of the times unto the Church CHAP. XVI Of the Continuance of this and other Gospel-Ordinances in the Church THe fourth point ariseth from the last words Untill he come and it is this This Ordinance and so all Gospel-ordinances are to continue in force in the Churches untill Christ come and this point cleaves into two parts §. 1. First The Lord Christ will come again he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10. 37. He that shall come he shall appear the second time Heb. 9. 28. as in the old Church of Israel there was a glorious Temple then a captivity that followed after the captivity a second Temple and then Christ came So in Gospel-Churches there was first a glorious Virgin primitive Church then followed a captivity under Antichrist and that captivity shall be followed with a second Temple a Reformed Church and then Christ shall come again but as the Church of God waited neer four thousand years from the first promise of Christ made to Adam to his first coming so shall the Church of the Gospel wait many years from that promise of Christs second coming Act. 1. 11. untill it be The first Christians did not imagine so long Revolution of time untill Christs second coming as we have seen sixteen hundred and how many yet are to runne out we know not The Apostle checks it in the Thessalonians 2 Thess 2. 2. who began to think that the day of Christ was at hand and the Christians in Justins time who were most of them of the millenary opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he did not think it should be so long ere the thousand years should commence and in Tertullians time they used in their publick prayers to pray pro mora finis for delay of the end in respect of Antichrists tyranny but the Jews are the example of the efficacy of errour that have overshot already that which is Christs first coming by above sixteen hundred years and are yet gazing we rest in this there is a fulnesse of time for Christs first and so for his second coming and then he will come our hope our comfort our salvation do all lie upon it and therefore we look for it Secondly This Ordinance of the Supper is to continue till Christ come the meaning is not That men shall not deface and dishonour it in some places but that it shall continue in force though not in use God will not alter or discharge it and the like for there is the like reason may be said of other standing Ordinances of worship The Jewish Passeover was an Ordinance for ever but that ever had an end when Christ came and the Ordinances of that Church though they might be defaced and destroyed for a time yet were in force till Christs first coming and so the Gospel-Sacraments Worship Ordinances and may it please you Ministry shall be in force and God grant in use for the time of their Ever and that is Christs second coming The legal Sacrifices and Ordinances were as the Apostle expounds Heb. 12. 27. the Prophet to be shaken down and removed by the bringing in of a better Covenant and other Ordinances by Christ Jesus but the Ordinances of the Gospel cannot be shaken are never to be removed by any other Ordinance or any new Church but onely to cease and expire with the worlds end The Scripture closes and shuts it self up with this Come Lord Jesus Rev. 22. 20. §. 3. The Use of this Point may be 1. To confirm us in the use and esteem of the Ordinances of Christ which have no other period then the world wiser we cannot be than he that thought them necessary but we may be prouder than we should by thinking our selves in a state of perfection and not infirmity which Christ hath provided for by his Ordinances of the Sacrament he saith Till I come Of the Gospel-Ministry he saith I am with you to the worlds end The devil is foolishly subtil now adayes under a pretence of immediate spirit crying down Ordinances and the Gospel-spirit must put down Gospel-Ordinances what Christ set up the Spirit must demolish and it is a Spirit indeed but a perverse one as you may see by the same argument cast in another mould The water only refreshes and quenches thirst therefore cut off all the cocks and pipes you know my meaning §. 4. 2. This point may stop the mouth of those degenerate Apostates the shame of Christianity that mock at the common principles and fundamentals of our faith saying Where is the promise of his coming 2 Pet. 3. 4. They are Infidels in their faith that they may be Epicures in life We have not waited half so long for his second coming as the old believers did for his first God hath somewhat to do in the world besides the saving of us Time is not so long if it be measured by his span as by ours a thousand years are as one day and then what shall we say to the real Presentialists who will have Christ to come into every Sacrament and
14. An Israelite that is without guile that hath but one heart is a rare man and worthy of an Ecce Behold indeed an Israelite In the opening of this point I shall follow the threed of that explication of this word double minded which I gave in the beginning 1 This double mindednes is an uncertainty of the heart with God not fixed upon a Centre but off and on as times occasions and interests doe lead on or draw off so farre you will goe with God as your way and his doe fall out to hold together and untill you must pull downe Jeroboams Calves as well as Ahabs Baal and then you part with him when it comes to such a pinch so also in adversity or affliction wee make nautarum vota Mariners vowes as they doe in a storme and when wee are on shore and landed out of danger wee eat the Covenant wee made before Psal 78. 24. c. When he slue them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God and they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer Nevertheless they did but flatter and lye unto him for their heart was not right with him nor were they stedfast in his Covenant If the heart was right with God it would be certaine and stedfast with him Constancie is but the daughter of Synceritie It s a hatefull thing to set sail to every winde and to change colour so often being no faster tyed to God in the tempest then we can be loosened in the calme Be what you were in the storme in your affliction you will abide to be spurred without kicking and are very tame under reproofs but when you are lifted up and are at short then to put you in minde of your Vowes and Covenants in the day of your trouble is as an unpleasing a thing as to put a Mariner at shore in minde of his Vowes or promises made at Sea It s no great danger to reprove men sharply when they are low any coward may strike a man that is down but believe it when men are aloft and high and may more safelyer he dealt withall by stroaking then by the spurre then it is somwhat to come nigh the heels of truth for it may haply strike out his teeth 2. This double mindednesse is a division of the heart from God 1. It is divided between the promises of God and the difficulties opposite when a man laies his dead body and the dead womb of Sara in the skales against the promise of having Isaac this is sense fighting against faith 2. Between conscience and lust conscience dictates lust byasses the inferiour appetite mutinies against the superiour light and leades it captive video melior a probâ—que deteriora sequor 3. Between Religion and policie and then Religion commonly goes by the worse Jeroboam and the King of Israel to comply with their politick respects set up and continued a selfe-devised worship 4. Between God and the world or God and our own ends as they here in the Text when we make God a meere servant to our selves and move upon a private centre of our own the heart is cunning subtile in squinting towards its own ends visibly we will be for God under hand we seeke ourselves so the planets in their daily motion from East to West move as the fixed stars but they have another motion of their own which is creepingly by stealth and more unperceiveable then the other Use For the use of this point let me turn the words of the Text once more upon you by way of exhortation Purifie your hearts ye double minded cast out those dividing lusts policies ends which draw you away from God and pluck off those false byasses of self-interest and self-seeking which cause you to wheele off from the true mark or scope of all your desires and endeavours you will be found faulty if your hearts be divided Hos 10. 2. simplicity of heart is of great account with God there is asinina simplicitas columbina the simplicity of the asse and of the dove the former is a defect in the understanding the later is the grace of an honest heart and this sure is that which is of esteeme with God In matters of judgement and justice between man and man you are to have two eyes to looke both wayes but as they that take aime shut one of their eyes lest the sight should be distracted so in your aims and ends your eye is to be single in intending God and not self let Christ increase though you decrease The greatest matter above-board and which all mens expectations and mouthes are full of is the setling of Religion and of the Church Religion is rerum-publicarum quoddam quasi coagulum Cunaeus lib. 1. cap. 15. that which caements Common-wealths together though now it be made the ball of contention and the great divider of us into parties we divide it and are divided being far more then double minded there about Oh that God was first set into possession of his right and that his Tabernacle was pitcht before any of the lots for our own liberties or interests were drawn This was the oath that David swore in his afflictions Psal 132. 2 3. He sware unto the LOrd and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come unto the Tabernacle of mine house nor go up into my bed I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eye-lids untill I finde out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob and this is the first Article in our Vow and Covenant What the reall impediments are doth not fall within my way but the self-interests are to be searched out Not yet say some and their reason is the same with that of the common sort of people against Inclosures in former times If every mans own should be inclosed they should lose their freedom of Common and that liberty they usurped all the field over or as others hope that after wee have turned round a while wee may haply returne to the same posture wee were in before and having lost our way in the myst may come backe againe to the same place whence wee set out at first If any say others let it be a George on horsback that stands at doore with a wooden dagger but keeps no body from going in the thiefe passes under his nose into the house as well as the true-man Not this say some of those that are toward the law for then haply many contentions might be quencht at the bottome of the chimney before they flame out at the top and such may be the want of grist as it may tend much to the hinderance of their Mill. Nothing that 's one say the Libertines for we have gon loose so long that now we cannot go strait laced It s irksome to wild birds to be coopt up in a cage under Discipline Those that have beene such
godlinesse practicall and edifying truths which draw up the heart into acquaintance and communion with God and draw it out in love and obedience to him For its good that the heart be stablisht with grace Heb. 13. 9. 3. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. for if we thrust away a good conscience by entertaining base lusts and ends the shipwrack of faith will follow 4. To pray for confirmation and establishment by the hand of God for as it is not a strong constitution that is a protection against the plague so neither is it parts and learning which secure us from beleeving lies and delusions It s a mercy for which we are not enough thankfull that God keeps any of us standing upright when others shrink awry or that wee are enabled to discerne between truth and errour and to stand for the one and withstand the other when so many that have driven a great trade of profession are broken and turned bankerupts 5. To keep as a treasure those truths wherein you have formerly found comfort and which have been attested and confirmed to you by your owne experience sit upon those flowers still and sucke their fresh honey every day A Christian very hardly parts with those truths that have been sealed up to his experience but it s no wonder that a man should lose that out of his head which he never had in his heart Vse 2 To those that bring in or follow these pernicious wayes of damnable haeresy you shall see the crop which you shall reap swift destruction you are under judgement which slumbers not It will be destructive to you to wrest the Scriptures 2. Pet. 5. 16. and to make merchandise of mens soules for sinfull ends 2. Pet. 2. 3. To corrupt the mindes of men from the simplicity that is in Christ 2. Cor. 11. 3. and to cause divisions and scandalls Rom. 16. 17. are things which will cost you deare lay to heart the terrible expressions of wrath which are fulminated against such men in Scripture There may be differences in opinion betweene them that are godly which are not inconsistent with the peace of the Churches and for which its unlawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the historian saith to make butter and cheese of one another It s a discreet rule which is laid downe by one a Conradus Bergius dedictamine c. Si non idem sentimus de veritate at saltem de pondere If we cannot agree upon the truth of every question or point of divinity yet at least lets be agreed concerning the weight and moment thereof so as not to make as great a stirr about a tile of the house as if it were a foundation stone nor erect new parties or Churches upon every lesser variation but to contend for or pretend a liberty of professing or publishing such docttrins as overthrow the faith and subvert the soule under the name of liberty of conscience can be no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Tim. 3. 9. a manifest folly or madnesse Is this liberty any part of Christs purchase Hath he made men free to sin and deny him that bought them what yoake of bondage doth this liberty free us from Gal. 5. 1. should we claime a liberty of being in bondage to errour or promise to men a liberty of being servants to corruption which the falseteachers in effect did 2. Pet. 2. 19. God hath as one saith reserved to himself as his prerogative three things Ex nihilo creare futura praedicere conscientijs dominari To create out of nothing to foretell things to come to have dominion over conscience and it is true that while a thing is within in the conscience it s out of mans reach but when ' its acted and comes abroad then it comes into mans jurisdiction and is cognizable in foro humano God onely is judge of thoughts men also are judges of actions It s a great mistake and of very ill consequence to imagine that a man is alwayes bound to act or practice according to the light or judgement of conscience though rightly informed in thesi for then I see not that there can be any place for that rule given by the Apostle Rom 14. 22. Hast thou faith have it to thy selfe before God Truth it selfe though never to be denyed yet is not alwayes to be declared for the hurt or scandall may be greater then an inseasonable profession or practice of that which is in it selfe lawfull may be worth but the mistake is yet more grosse to imagine that an erring conscience is a sufficient protection or warranty for an evill act It s sin to goe againstan erring conscience Stante dictamine as its sin to ravish and force awhore It s sin also to act according to the dictate of an erring conscience as to committ adul tery with consent To make conscience the finall judge of actions is to wipe out the hand writing of the word of God which doth condemne many times those things which conscience justifies yea and men also may passe just judgement on delusions or lyes though those that vent them doe beleeve them for truths If conscience be warrant enough for practices and opinions and liberty of conscience be a sufficient licence to vent or act them I cannot see but the judicatories either of Church or State may shut up their Shop and bee resolved into the judicatory of every mans private conscience And put the case that the Magistrate should conceive himselfe bound in conscience to draw forth his authority against false teachers or their damnable haeresies and upon that supposed errour should challenge a liberty of judging as wee doe of acting would our liberty give us any ease so long as he had his and were it not better for him to judge and for us to walke by a knowne rule and if we should say that his liberty of judging is unlawfull it is as easy for him to say that our liberty of preaching or professing errours is so too To you that are Ministers of the word that you would draw forth the sword of the Spirit against these spirits of errour as not onely the duty you owe to Gods truth and mens soules requireth but also the pressing examples of the Apostles doe constraine you let not the Lord Jesus Christ and his offices be denyed by false teachers and by your silence too and the Lord grant that it may not be said of you as of the Ministers of Ephesus Acts. 20. 30. also of your owne selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Catharinus said of some middle-region men in those times that they were Luther anunculi halfe or dough-baked Lutherans Let us not half between two opinions but be valiant for the truth He is but halfe a good Sheepheard that feeds the sheep in good pasture but defends them not from the wolves It belongs to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Titus 1. 11.
of his properties but it was both As it was the death of the Lord of Glory the Sonne of God so it gave us the most illustrious testimony and example of the love of God as ever was or could be and that the Scripture often points unto As it was the death of the Lamb of God so it was a Sacrifice death wherein he was made sinne for us and bore our sinnes in his Body As it was the Joh. 11. 13. Rom. 5. Gal. 2. 20. death both of the Sonne of God and the Lamb of God so it reconciled us sinners unto God and meritoriously redeemed and ransomed us from our bondage to the curse and wrath of God the only ground and foundation of our hope peace and comfort §. 2. Secondly It is the business of the Communicant to shew forth this death of the Lord The Ordinance it self is full of death what other language doth bread broken and the blood severed from the body speak but a dying Christ As the Ordinance so the Communicant doth by eating and drinking in fact declare and annunciate his profession of adherence to and embracement of the death of Christ we solemnly and publiquely avow both to God and men that we stick unto and abide by the death of the Lord for remission of sinne and reconciliation of our persons to God and it is a solemn part of Gods positive worship to shew forth the death of Christ our Lord not by a meer historicall relation but a practicall and publique profession of our faith and acceptance thereof which though at all times we may remember yet God would have a solemn Ordinance in his Gospel-Churches for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Supper I know men are witty to elude Ordinances and to flatter themselves with private devotions and meditations but when God hath set up an Ordinance on purpose for the publique and solemn shewing of the Lords death let them consider it that are not only careless of the benefit of it but fail of their duty by not presenting themselves at this solemn shewing of the Lords death but how can it be expected that they that shew not the life of Christ by a godly conversation should care to shew forth his death by publique profession or rather how can it be construed that they do it out of conscience of duty and not out of meer superstition expecting that from the Sacrament which the Papist expects from his auricular confession that is to quit the old score that he may more freely begin upon a new But I may not forget that which is very learnedly observed that the Apostle using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which frequently is used for publishing and preaching Schiud in loc Haggada the Gospel doth allude to the Haggada as it was called by the Jewish custom at the Passeover and that was a set and solemn declaration or annunciation of the Lords passing over the houses sprinkled with blood of their slavery and hard bondage in Aegypt and their deliverance thence teaching us in this our Gospel-Passeover to shew forth our hard bondage under sinne and the Lords justice passing over all the souls sprinkled with this blood and thereby delivering us from our spirituall Aegypt §. 3. Use The Use of this Point is to call upon all Communicants hoc agere to be intent upon and taken up with this employment Shew ye forth the Lords death this must be your actuall exercise at the time of eating and drinking the death of Christ must fill your eyes your ears your lips your thoughts If any of you could see Christ dying the sight would wholly take you up and you come as near to see him dying as an Ordinance can bring you in a representation If any where that Psal 2. 11. takes place here Rejoyce with trembling Tremble for you see the weight of sinne upon the Lord Christ and the severity and wrathfull indignation of God against sinne both those terrours cannot be seen in a clearer glass than the death of the Lord Rejoyce for the love that delivers up Christ is unparallel'd and the death of the Lord is succedaneous a Sacrifice death the Sacrifice bears the sinne and takes it off you there is a nunc dimitiis for all you that take Christ in your arms I would not be thinking of the joys of heaven the second coming of Christ absolutely and abstractly considered but shewing forth his death As in prayer good thoughts if impertinent are distractions and to be whipt for vagrants so here If my heart present to me the anger and terrible wrath of a just and holy God I shew the Lords death If the Law take me by the throat and say Pay that thou owest I shew the Lords death If conscience ask me what I have to shew for pardon of sin and peace with God I shew the Lords death Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It s Christ that died CHAP. XV. The Lords Supper is an iterable Ordinance THe third Point is taken up from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as often as ye eat this bread c. Doct. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is an iterable Ordinance which is to be repeated Our Saviour gives a hint of this in those words This do for a remembrance of me and the Apostle from him For as often c. The word often is sometimes opposed to seldom and sometimes to once as Heb. 9. 25 26. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the High priest entreth into the holy place every year For then he must have often suffered since the foundation of the world The Sacrifice of Christ or the offering of him up was but once Heb. 9. 26. The Sacrament of his body and bloud is often as a memorial of that Sacrifice and the comparison used in that place is this As man dies but once so Christ also As in the Sacraments of the Jews the first of them Circumcision was but once nor indeed could be but the Passeover often once every year and Christ was but once circumcised but kept the Passeover often So in the Sacraments of the New Testament Baptism is but once Christ was but once baptized but the Supper often which though Christ celebrated but once yet he gave order for the repetition of it I will not now take up the discussion why Baptism but once the Supper often the Scripture gives us no hint for the repetition of the one but it doth for the other and the old saying is plausible Semel nascimur saepius pascimur we are but once born but we are often nourisht God did more punctually and precisely under the Law prescribe the times of their Sacraments the eighth day for circumcision such a day of such a moneth yearly for the Passeover as he also did the times and place and other circumstances of his worship for the people were more servile then
knowledge and conviction that they believe more than we do because they know more but this faith hath no seat in the will or at least draws it not to election of the good things believed to be A man may be called an orthodox believer by vertue of this faith and it is sides recta not vera a right faith not a true sana but not salvifica sound faith but not saving if thou bring this faith only thou shalt receive only the outward signe for it is a seeing eye but not a receiving hand and many shallow effects it may have by vertue of the general mercies and promises of God but the Sacrament saith Take Eat and therefore there is besides this a Christ-receiving or a Christ-accepting faith for not to those that believed by meer conviction John 2. 23. did Christ impart himself but to as many as received him Joh. 1. 12. Weaknesse of faith in our times is properly said of this manner of believing It 's the receiving hand that shakes with the palsie Few complain of weaknesse of faith historical nor of the hardnesse of it because it 's not encountred with discouragements sins temptations as saving faith is because the whole adventure of the soul lies upon it and God knows when we come to shoot the gulf and to renounce all false hopes or true fears and cast our selves on Christ we do it with great difficulty for without Gods attraction it 's impossible and this is the faith which we must be exercised in and which is confirmed by this Sacrament and a rare faith it is even in the believing world For it gives up man to Christ as well as receives Christ And the dis-interessing of self-love and the interessing of Christ into preheminence and government is very rare and infrequent For I count that no receiving of Christ which divides him and takes so much as self-love would serve it self upon but brings not every thought into captivity to the obedience of him IV. If thou finde in thy affections any appearances or seeming impressions of grace be not over-credulous till the bottom be searched for there lies abundance of self-love and self-interest even when there is a good countenance and fore-side as in the zeal of Jehu which carried in the fore-head of it The Lord of hosts but there was a byas within that wheeled towards his own interest I shall name but four and that briefly § 2. 1. The love of God which is a reflex of his first love to us As the Sun-beams which come from the wall are the reflex of the beams that first smite upon it and there may be a love of God upon terms of his beneficence providence patience general goodnesse to mankinde without any love of Christ in sincerity which is upon special and distinguishing grounds for that love of God which is over-topt by self-love is not accounted love of God but rather a lust of serving our selves upon him which is the last resort of the love of most men to God but it may be distinguisht thus If it arise from the sense of that distinguishing love of God to thy soul whereby he hath drawn thee to Christ out of the pit of common perdition and that without any worthinesse in thee or contributions of thine to that inestimable grace yea notwithstanding that contrariety and opposition to him wherein thou wast above many others ingaged the very thought whereof doth ever inflame the heart unto a mans dying day If it be a love to God for his holinesse and his sanctification of thee to bear his Image and to be like him If it be a love of complacency and friendship to delight thy self in God and to affect Union and Communion with him If it produce a willingnesse to confederate with him and to be in league against all interests of the flesh and world I love my master I will not go out free or be at my own freedom 2. The second affection is desire of grace and of spiritual things I conceive there may be a carnal desire of things spiritual and carnal prayers for spiritual gifts namely to consume them upon our lusts of pride and vain-glory which is the desire of Simon Magus a desire to die the death of the righteous which was the wish of Balaam a desire of forgivenesse of sinne to be freed from condemnation by meer self love a desire of heaven too to open unto us for happinesse not holinesse or communion with God a desire comfort to anguish of conscience and that rather for ease than for grace a desire of grace it self as a necessary bridge unto or signe of salvation Give us of your oyl say they for our lamps are out Many fallacies may be in our desires and yet I account them when they are refined from drosse to be most comfortable signes of spiritual life for Christ makes thirsting after rightcousnesse the character of a blessed man Matth. 5. and the Apostle makes them a fruit of repentance 2 Cor. 7. 11. and a signe of regencration 1 Pet. 2. 2. if they arise from a taste of the graciousnesse of God and carry on to the sincere Word for growth in grace and be spent in endeavours of obedience and exercise of communion with God equally longing to be Christs as to have Christ He that shall deny to a poor soul the comfort of such desires puts out the spark that smokes in the wick of the candle when the flame is gone out before 3. The third affection is fear the fear of the terrours of the Lord and those punishments which according to his threats wait upon sinne Estius propounds the case Whether a man under servile fear may come to the Lords Supper And answers No but with distinction the fear of wrath may be used as a bridle to curb the insolency and luxuriency of the flesh by saying hell and damnation close to it and so the regenerate whose flesh is impetuous may make use of this fear to restrain the propension of it but then if this fear be meerly of punishment so that were it not for that he would with all his heart give himself over to commit iniquity with greedinesse then it 's plain that the willingnesse to sinne lives and this horrour of conscience nothing at all changes the inclination of the will no more than the whip or chain doth the nature of a Fox or Wolf and the case is no other than that of a childe that will colly himself with the cole that 's black and dead but dare not touch the fire cole which burnes his fingers and there is no comfort in such restraints from sinne nor have such feares any sparke of grace in them 4. The fourth affection is sorrow for sinne which may be worldly and carnal and no other than Pharoah his Take away this plague or the pangs of a whore that returns to folly But there is a sorrow according to God which works repentance unto salvation and brings