garment may be called a winters garment quia tegit because it covers vs. The second may be called a summers garment quia ornat because it adorneth vs and maketh vs fine The third may bee called a stand of armour quia protegit because it protecteth vs. And the fourth may bee called our Wedding garment because wee must not put it on till our Marriage day with the Lambe The first three garments may bee called our work a day suites because euery good Christian must put them on euery day so long as hee remaineth in this valley of teares here belowe But the fourth must bee called our holidayes suite because wee must not put it on till the weeke of our Pilgrimage in baca bee ended and the day of our appearance before GOD in Sion in that new Ierusalem in which no arrow can bee shot begin I returne to the first garment the garment of CHRISTS imputed Righteousnesse The first Garment Christs righteousnesse and our Saviour himselfe speaketh of it Revel 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of mee white rayment that thou mayest bee cloathed and that thine filthy nakednesse doe not appeare The Prophet Esay speaketh of this garment too but more plainly GOD hath cloathed mee with the garments of Salvation and covered me with the robes of Righteousnesse Esay 61.10 But what righteousnesse is this What righteousnesse this is Is it not the righteousnesse of his Diuine nature No for that is not communicable but the glory which hee will not giue vnto another What then Is it not the righteousnesse of his Humaine nature consisting in a perfect obedience of the morall Law No not that alone neyther for that alone were perbrene too short non vult tegere it will not cover vs from the frostie blasts of Gods wrath and from the fearefull winter tempests of his infinite Iustice What righteousnesse then I pray you A righteousnesse neuer imposed to Man nor Angell euen that righteousnesse which hee as our Mediator by fulfilling the singular law of a Redeemer hath purchased and acquired to the end that hee might communicate it and giue it freely vnto his Church for her justification by which shee is absolued from death whereunto by reason of sinne both originall and actuall she was subject and is adjudged vnto life And this is CHRISTS imputed righteousnesse wherewith hee first couers those that puts him on How it couers vs. euen our winters garment which is so perfect and so compleat that it covereth all our nakednesse from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote both of body and soule for in both our Mediator suffered his blessed Head was crowned with thornes to satisfie for the proud Imaginations of our stout braines his sacred hands and feete which neuer offended were pierced with nailes of Iron to satisfie for the wicked deeds which wee haue done with our hands and runne to with our feet and alas daily by our sinnes wee draw him againe to the same torture and crucifie againe to our selues the Sonne of God and make a mockerie of him Heb. 6.6 Hee suffered the wrath of GOD in his soule so heauily as that both heauen and earth did stand amazed to behold it The Heauens did draw their curtaine and darknesse was vpon the face of the earth that they should see their maker in such paine the Sunne for shame would not looke vpon the Sonne of GOD in such a case the vayle of the Temple rent it selfe in two for griefe to see its Lord so dishonoured the Stones in the street did cleaue a sunder for woe to see that Stone refused of the builders which is the head of the corner And finally the Bodies of the dead rose out of their graues astonished to behold the Lord of life so troubled in soule that their soules might in joy perpetuall peace with GOD and be cloathed with the garments of his imputed righteousnes The second garment is a garment of Sanctification The second garment Sanctification Now wee are cloathed with this garment when like the Elect wee put on tender mercy kindnesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse and long suffering Col. 3.12 But specially when wee put on loue When it is put on 1. Thes 5.8 Or to say with St PETER When wee decke the hidden man of our heart with a quiet and meeke spirit 1. Pet. 3.4 This is our summers garment which adorneth vs and maketh vs fine this is that pure fine and shining linnen which is the righteousnesse of the Saints A garment not partie coloured as IOSEPHS was but made of many vertues and graces of IESVS CHRIST These are the badges and cognisances by which wee are knowne to bee his seruants and the putting on thereof is the putting on of Iesus Christ These are the graces by which the Holy Ghost translateth vs out of nature transformeth vs into the Image of the Sonne of GOD and maketh vs become one with our Redeemer When it is giuen vs. This garment and the former are both giuen vs at one time The former garment of CHRISTS imputed Righteousnesse defendeth vs from the fierie flames of Gods burning wrath This garment of Sanctification reformeth our corrupted nature renueth the same These 2. What it worketh garments both cures and couers our filthy nakednes they turne our sicknesse into health and our darknesse into light for whosoeuer putteth on IESVS CHRIST for righteousnes to Iustification puts him likewise on for holinesse to Sanctification So full of grace and vertue is the Lord that hee not onely by the merit of his sufferings pacifieth the wrath of God toward all those in whom hee is but likewise by this vertue sanctifieth them and by creating a new heart within their breast and a right spirit within their bowels maketh them new creatures changing them from one thing to another both in body and soule Act. 26. from sinne to sanctification from darknesse to light from death to life and finally from the power of Sathan to the power of God That is to Righteousnes Iustice and soberly to walke in this life in which except our sanctified carriage neyther is that compleat for man heere is but onely in a part sanctified otherwise hee were more then a man but is perfectly justified or else were hee no more then a sinner all things are not onely transitorie and vayne But vanitie it selfe The 3. Garment and its 3. names The third garment wherewith CHRIST cloatheth his Church and those that put him on is a suite of compleat armour hoc protegit this protecteth the Christian man against all the assaults of Sathan and maketh him stand out against all the invasions of his Spirituall enemies Sathan enuying this vnion betweene CHRIST and his Church endeuoreth incessantly to defile the members of the same to rent them a sunder and teare them in peeces sometime assaulting their Patience Iob. 1. Gen. 9.21 Gen. 19.33 2. Sam. 11.4 as he did IOBS sometime their
and rescinde the sentence of LIGARIVS after that hee was condemned But when a Minister of Gods word a faithfull Pastor must discharge his commission vnto his Flocke what Rhetorick shall make them beleeue that life flowed from the Crosse of CHRIST that deaths Empire by death was subdued that the eternall word covered with flesh beaten with fists nailed to the Crosse did beare our sinnes die rise againe that we by this benefit shall triumph ouer death and by marriage be vnited vnto him Here all humaine reason and adminicles of art though thundered out by a Pericles must be abstained from Here all pompe in preaching and sophistick ostentation must giue place to the efficatious Pastor whose sermon is replenished with substance matter and the riches of the Spirit which by Saint PAVL is called 2. Tim. 1.13 Verae doctrinae hypotyposis The true patterne of wholsome words Secondly good reader albeit it be barren of humaine eloquence yet feare not to read it for it may be plentifull in substance and if thou thinkest that J haue stayed too much vpon the two first similitudes J thinke so with thee myselfe Et habes confitentem reum yee I pray thee to pardon mee seeing it is for thy instruction and discouering of much obstruce and excellent Theologie by which I hope and J wish it from my heart that thou shalt be bettered and so expecting thy friendly censure J take my leaue Farewell Thine in Christ to bee commanded James Baillie SPIRITVALL MARRIAGE OR THE VNION BEtweene CHRIST and his CHVRCH HOSEA 2.19 J will marrie thee to me for euer yea I will marrie thee to me PLATO Philosophizing vpon the grace of GOD Because he was an heathen Philosopher according as hee was able gaue thankes vnto him for three thinges First that GOD had created him a Man and not a Beast secondly that hee was borne a Grecian and not a Barbarian Thirdly that not only so but a Philosopher also But wee that are instructed at a better schoole doe otherwayes destribute our thanksgiving and praise him for three things also First that amongst all his creatures hee hath made vs men created in a most glorious manner Omnino ad imaginem suam altogether after his owne Image Secondly that from among all sorts of men he hath made vs Christians Thirdly that amongst those that beare the name of Christians hee hath made vs onely faithfull ones elected and adopted vs in his owne Sonne before the foundation of the world 2. Tim. 1.9 and made vs like a few well sighted among a throng of blind men like the portion of IACOB in Aegipt Exod. 10.22 onelie enlightened in the middest of that darkenesse which couered all the Countrie Iudg. 6.38 like the fleece of Gideon onelie watered with the dewe of his grace whilest all the rest of the earth is drie and destitute of his fauour When I call to memory the vnspeakeable loue of GOD and his fatherly care in the conduct and conseruation of his Church it is a whole web of wonders Gen 4.11 How he hath reuenged the blood of ABELL how he hath serued for a pilot and steersman to his Church inclosed within the arke Gen. 7. how for the loue of ABRAHAM and ISAACK he hath striken and curbed Kings Gen. 12.17 how he hath prepared lodging for his people in Aegipt Gen. 48.11 how he hath drawne them from thence with a mighty hand and outstretched arme hauing caried his people out of captiuitie as vpon Eagles winges Exod 14.28 how he hath giuen them his law Exod. 20. fed them with bread from heauen Exod. 16.15 couered them in the day time giuen them light in the night and driuen out Nations before them how he hath chastized them to keepe them vnder subjection in prosperitie and how his chastisements haue euer beene interlaced with deliuerances least they should haue beene ouerwhelmed with too great adversitie The historie of the Iudges of DAVID and his successors the deliuerance from Babilon and the re-establishment of Ierusalem Is not this a whole chaine of GODS mercies and loue towards his Church linked together already and yet to make it not onely more weightie but weight it selfe hee joyneth this linke vnto it I will marrie thee to me for euer yea I will marrie thee vnto me And this last linke is that which I intend to bestow vpon you this morning for a New yeeres gift Mos vetus est Iani dare mutua dona calendis Annus vt auspicio prosperiore fluat It is an ancient custome among friends vpon New yeeres day mutually to giue and to receiue gifts as fortunate pledges of a hopefull yeere saith a Poet Buchan which commonly are of siluer gold and of precious stones But as Saint Peter Acts. 3.6 said of old to the Creeple that lay at the gate of the Temple called beautifull siluer and gold haue I none to giue vnto you Act. â— 6 so say I now vnto you for I will bestow no such ware vpon you those are but drosse and earth and of a rusty and an earthly worth but such as I haue I will bestow vpon you a Spirituall gift most liberally And if you shall but gratefully receiue it and lay it vp close in the most inward cabine of your hearts I dare bee bold to promise that one day it shall be helpfull vnto you minister vnto you more joy and comfort then all the siluer gold and precious stones which are brought from the Orient And so I come to the bestowing of it I meane to the handling of my text I will marrie thee to mee for euer yea I will marrie thee vnto me This text is a promise of comfort in which you shall take notice of these foure First of the subiect CHRIST lurking vnder his word I secondly of the object the Church sheltred vnder this word thee Thirdly of the thing promised Marriage I will marrie thee Fourthly of the qualities of this marriage which are two First the certaintie implyed in the gemination and doubling of the promise I will marrie thee yea I will marrie thee Lastly the perpetuitie of this marriage for ever I will marrie thee vnto mee for ever This Proposition is first propounded I will marrie thee and hereafter explained by a twofold distinction first not to a base not to a dishonorable match but to my selfe that am Gnamith IEHOVAH Esay 9. equall to IEHOVAH * the Father of Eternitie who made the earth and spred the heavens like a curtaine Psal 104. the eternall Wisedome the essentiall Word the second person of the holy Trinitie GOD euerlastingly blessed Secondly not for a day a moneth or a yeere but perpetually for euer and so haue you the parts and circumstances of this Proposition neither minde I to handle them seuerally and alone but joyntly and together because in them joyntly is onely contayned that most admirable conjunction and most strait vnion betweene CHRIST and his
this Gospell is not preached it is a sure argumēt that there is none of Gods chosen childrē in that place for where there is a haruest God will send reapers and labourers where he will plant a vineyard and when there is but little preaching in a Parish or a Citie it is a token that God hath no great haruest in that place and where the lampe of the Gospell hath been burning once in a glorious manner and now is extinguished the candlestick remoued and false lights set vp in the place thereof as in the Church of Rome it is euident that the Lords haruest is done in that Citie place or Parish because the Lord will neuer call home the labourers otherwise in the noone time of the day nor remoue his Ministrie from his owne peoples conuersion consolation and farther corroboration in which regard the Ministers of Gods word in some respect are the parents of all Christians that is both their father and their mother Iustified by St. 1. Cor. 4.15 Paul In Christ Iesus faith he I haue begotten you through the Gospell And here it is cleere that they are the fathers of Christians and Gal. 4.19 he makes it plaine that they are the mothers of all Christians too My little children of whom I trauell againe in birth till Christ bee formed in you Gods Ministers the Parents of Christians And this should teach all Christians reuerently to speake of their Ministers to honor them maintaine their reputatiō as their begetters to be the heirs of the kingdom of heauen to supply them in their necessities as their spirituall parents But the omission of this dutie toward the ministerie argues that Christ is not yet formed in them which is the forming of them to Christs Image and similitude by casting off the old man which cannot be done without sorrow and paine like a woman in her labour whereof as yet they haue neuer so much as once felt the least smarting But before Christ be formed in them they will be sensible of it for if a woman cannot be deliuered of her child which she hath carried but nine moneths in her wombe without dolour and griefe shall we thinke to be deliuered of sinne which is a man an old man and a man which we haue carried about within our breasts ever since the day of our natiuitie without spirituall dolour and paine No it is not possible for in a sinners conuersion and forming of him according to the Image of the sonne of God there must bee the broken heart the contrite Spirit the mourning weed the pale countenance the melting eye and the voice of lamentation and therefore Repentance receiues these three names in Scripture Regeneration Three names giuen to Repentance Circumcision and Mortification and as there can be no cutting of the flesh no death no birth without paine so in this spirituall birth Wherein consisteth the paine in the spirituall birth in this forming of sinners to the Image and similitude of Christ there is paine paine for their owne sins past paine for the iniquities of the wicked because they will not keepe Gods law paine for all the abominations in the Land and place wherein they liue paine for to see the Church of God so oppressed in many places of the world and finally paine for their absence from their country the kingdome of heauen Those that are after this manner in labour and paine are the children of Christ begotten in this spirituall marriage not by the will of flesh and blood but by the will of God And thus much for the three similitudes by which our vnion with Christ is expressed And now I come to the two qualities of this Marriage The two qualities of this marriage the certaintie and the perpetuitie but because the time is spent I feare that I haue stayed you too long I will dispatch them in a word The certaintie then of this marriage as I told you is implyed in the gemination and doubling of this Promise I will marrie thee to me yea I will marrie thee And this is no tautologie or vaine repetition but an infallable truth iustified by Ioseph Gen. 41.32 that tels vs that Pharaohs dreame was doubled because the thing is established by God It is truth that Gods promises are as sufficient when they are but once made as when they are reiterated as firme when they are spoken as being sworne confirmed with an oath yet for to supply our weakenes and defects our most gracious God is not only willing to promise but often to double redouble his promises as he did to Abraham in the booke of Genesis Gen. 12.2 Gen. 13.14.17 Gen. 15.18 Gen. 18.8 when hee promised vnto him the land Canaan not once twise or thrice but fiue times And here in my text not once or twise I will marrie I will marrie thee but the third time yea I will euen marrie thee Not only content to speake but to sweare as in Psal 12.11 The Lord hath sworne vnto David and he will not shrinke from it that of the fruit of thy body will I set vpon thy throne The Apostle Heb. 6. giueth the reason and tels vs wherefore this is done that thereby saith he he might declare to the heires of the promise the stabilitie of his counsell And looke how stable and how sure that our Election bee the certaintie of this Marriage is as sure and what arguments and reasons may be or can be brought to proue the certaintie of the one the same will serue to proue the certainty of the other but at this time I will neither weary you nor lose my selfe in such a wildernesse of discourse for none can be members of this Marriage but the Elect. The last qualitie of this Marriage is perpetuitie for euer This speech for euer is taken 3. manner of wayes This speech for euer taken three manner of waies in Scripture first for the time of a mans life only and so it is taken Psal 121.8 The Lord shall preserue thy going out and thy comming in from henceforth and for euer that is all the dayes of thy life that notwithstanding of the speculatiue interpretations of many that hath commented this place that can draw out quidlibet ex quolibet gold out of drosse or rather turne gold with their metaphysicke contemplations into drosse whose opinions I cannot now stay to refute Secondly in the old Testament it is extended somtimes to the Messias his comming in the flesh so is it taken Gen. 17. Where the Sacrament of Circumcision is called a Couenant for euer Circumcision abolished yet you know it was abolished at the institution of Baptisme and S. Paul in dirision cals it Concision and in 2. Gal. 4. a Bondage Likewise in the 12. Chap. of Exodus the Passouer is called an Ordinance of the Lord to be kept holy for ever The Passouer abrogated Neuerthelesse it was abrogated at the institution of the sacrament of the Lords supper Thirdly it is taken not only for the whole time of the worlds induring but likewise for that Eternity which shall bee after the consummation of the world and so it is taken Revel 11.15 where it is said That Christ shall raigne for ever and here in my text I will marrie thee vnto mee for euer No time here no time hence shall repudiate sunder and diuorce vs but as I haue loued my Church before all time so will I continue my affection towards my welbeloued after all time and when there shall be no more time But seeing time is spent let vs winde vp this clew let vs see what wee shall render vnto the Lord for so great fauor bestowed vpon vs for so great loue shewed toward Mankinde aboue the Angels in marrying himselfe vnto vs making vs sure of this marriage alluring vs to constancie by louing speeches and by great promises perswading vs yea drawing vs to imbrace it and suffring the Angels to lie still vnder the heauie burden of his wrath in the most wofull and most miserable estate of Apostacie What say I shall we render vnto the Lord for so incomprehensible a benefit and such an infinite weight of loue ten thousand rivers of oile all the beasts on thousand mountaines yea in all the forrest of Libanon are nothing to the Lord. What then heare the Apostle Loue the Lord because he hath loued vs first let our hearts melt with kindnesse toward him then shall it be vnto vs a faithfull witnes that we are a part of his mysticall body a part of the Church of the elect his spouse and that the Lord loueth vs for this loue is the first effect of our faith the most expresse trace of Gods Image and the most liuely marke of his children it is the soule of other vertues the rule of our actions and the summarie of the Law it is the vpholder of Martyrs the ladder of heaven the peace of conscience yea I dare say that it is a tast a beginning here of that infinit loue which hence we shall carrie toward Christ our husband when we shall be presented vnto him without spot or wrinkle a most chaste spouse vnited and perfectly haue this promise of marriage consummated and fulfilled To this our husband and redeemer with the Father and the holy Spirit three persons and one Deitie be all honour praise and dominion for now and euermore AMEN FINIS