THREE SERMONS PREACHED AT SHERBORNE IN DORSETSHIRE By WILLIAM LYFORD B. D. Being his last SERMONS Upon these words 2 Cor. 2.15 16. For we are unto God a sweet savour c. ACADEMIA OXONIESIS OXFORD Printed by H. HALL Printer to the University for EDVVARD FORREST 1654. 2. COR. 2.15 16. For we are unto God a sweet savour c. TWo parts of Chap. 1. Shewing the causes of his Indulgence towards that excommunicate person giving order for his reception into Fellowship upon his repentance testified 2. The successe of his Ministry v. 14. Now thanks be to God c. The praise and glory of the successe of our Ministrie is to be ascribed to God alone he causeth us to triumph q. d. notwithstanding al the oppositiōs we meet with all yet God giveth us the conquest where-ever we preach the Gospel all Countries are brought into subjection to the obedience of the faith he manifesteth the savour q. d. the doctrine of the Gospell is a sweet perfume blowne about with the Breath of the Apostles preaching into all parts of the world and doth sweeten and season them with saving knowledge q. d. God never placeth the faithful ministry of the Gospell in any place but he useth to make it savorie and fruitfull unto some in every place some were seasoned with it Ob. If so why then doe so many in every place reject the Gospell as an odious thing You stinke in the nostrills of some and are counted as the filth of the world Sol True unto some men we are so but yet unto God in his esteeme and account of us we are a sweet savour of Christ the knowledge of Jesus Christ spread abroad by us is pleasing to God though not salvificall to all q. d. we are a sweet savour of Christ we are pleasing gratefull and delightfull to God because by us is sent abroad the sweet savour of Christ the knowledge of his sweet mercy and grace to the corrupt world to save filthy sinners that lay rotting and stinking in their sinnes v. 16. This sweet doctrine is indifferently preacht to all but it worketh in a very different manner for as much as being received by beleevers it produceth in them life and salvation but being rejected by unbeleevers it sealeth up their condemnation it is a killing word to them Wee preach Christ a Saviour for to know him it is eternall life but to them that disobey him a Judge To some Christ preached is the power of God and the wisdome of God To others he is foolish nesse his Gospell is unsavorie a dead thing To the one sort he is a savour of life i. a vitall savour of spirituall life to life eternall of spirituall death unto death eternall to the other In the words 3. 1. the nature of the Gospell a sweet savour 2. The esteem that God hath of his Ministerie they are unto him a sweet savour for their works sake 3. The power of the Gospell it is unto life or unto death the one is effectus per se that which comes from it in its own nature the other per accidens that which follows upon the neglect contempt of 4. The difficultie of this calling who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient he remoues from himselfe the suspicion of arrogancie for neither he nor they are sufficient Foure doctrines First a sound Ministerie is a savorie Ministerie it sends forth a sweet savour of Christ to perfume the world or The Gospell Purely preached brings with it a sweet smell savour to the soules of God's elect Second doctrine The faithfull Ministers of Christ are well pleasing as a sweet smelling savour unto God both in them that be saved in them that perish God esteemes so of them however the successe be Third doctrine The same Ministery and the same doctrine preacht indifferently to all hath not the same effects in all It is to some a doctrine of life and salvation it hath â spirituall savour and rellish but to others it is a deadly savour it does thē no good Fourth doctrine Men are to be reckned in a state of life or death of perishing or being saved according as they doe or doe not receive the savour and rellish the doctrine of our ministerie of the Gospell for so the persons are here distributed I made choyce of this Text because from hence ariseth the fountaine of your everlasting weale or woe from peoples respect or disrespect to this ordinance I thinke you are glad to see me now But your aymes upon me should be spirituall for spirituall good What the issue will be God knowes if he hath more work for me he will restore me to his house and make you more diligent hearers that so both may rejoyce together First doctrine A sound Ministrie sends forth a sweet savour The Breath of the Gospell is a sweet odour or smell and God's faithfull Ministers are they that carry it blow it abroad to perfume season the soules of sinners that ly stinking in their sins and in a state of condemnation Ministers are in regard of their necessitie and utilitie or benefit to the world compared to light to shine to them that fit in darknesse to salt to season and preserve from putrifying and in this place to a sweet perfume to make the men of earth to savour of Christ of Religion of Heaven And that for two Reasons First Reason Because they open the mystery and riches of God's grace in Christ to lost and undone mankinde Mary Magdalen brought a Box of ointment of Spiknard very pretious And she brake the Box and poured it on Christ's head and the house was filled Mark 14.3 Joh 12.3 Christ himselfe is like that Box the Ministers open it the Treasures of wisdome and mercy that be in Christ and poure it on your heads the whole house where they preach is filled with the odour thereof you carry the sent of it upon you all the weeke after yea as long as you live Thus Cant. 1.3 Christ is compared to rich oyntments because of the savour of thy good ointments Christ was filled with all Graces anointed with the holy Ghost and Power the savour of these ointments is smelt when the Gospell preached is perceived by sense or judgement for by smell or savours is meant knowledge by sense and feeling It followes Thy name is as ointment powred forth Christ's name is by interpretation Anointed By his name is meant the doctrine of his grace the law of faith and the preaching of that grace is called the Bearing of Christ's name before the Gentiles Acts 9.15 That 's the pouring forth of that ointment Therefore doe the Virgins love thee that is They that bee chosen of God and faithfull who serve God with chast and pure mindes and are not tainted with the common pollutions of the world These love Christ they follow him they are taken with the odour of his pretious ointments which they perceive sensible to revive
to which of death In them that are saved we are a sweet savour of God unto life in them that perish a savour of death Doctrine 4 Men are to be reckned in a state of being saved or of perishing according as they doe or doe not receive the Ministry of the Gospell according as it is savorie and fruitfull and good unto them or a dead and unsavorie thing upon their spirits so are the persons here distributed God is glorified and our Ministry accepted both when people perish and when they are converted Unto the saved ones we are a savour of life to the other a savour of death and an occasion of their hardning Joh 8.46.47 If I say the truth why doe you not believeme He that is of God heareth Gods words yee therefore heare them not because yee are not of God Here our Saviour distinguisheth them that be of God from them that be not by their different respect and relish of God's word they that are of God and led by his spirit will hearken endeavour to doe his will the rest who are not of God but of Satan hate and resist the truth So doth Christ mark out his own sheep Joh. 10.27 My sheep heare my voice and follow me and I know them and give unto them eternall life So Mat. 7.24 26. He compares his hearers to wise and foolish builders of their owne salvation the one who heareth and doth them is blessed is safe from danger Blessed are they that heare the word and keep it When people rellish life in it they are in the rank of blessed and saved ones when they remaine dead under it hardned in their sins it is a sad fore-runner of their everlasting destruction How can this be so sure an evidence of life and death seeing Hypocrites goe far yea doe all in this kinde that a sound Christian may doe They may doe much as Herod did to John Baptist and Ezekiel's hearers cap. 33. 31. But herein they fall short they doe not yeeld the word a sincere universall respect obedience they heare but doe it not they heare are offended at the word It is the honest heart that heares brings forth fruit with patience an hypocrite may do much but he cannot do this he may make many prayers heare many sermons use fasting cleave to the best side approve of a sound ministrie forsake scandalous sins and be reformed in some measure by the word c. Yet this he cannot doe he cannot with an honest heart bring forth fruit with patience he doth not in all things give the word a divine power over his heart he cannot yeeld universall obedience thereto out of love to God Therefore slight not this doctrine the power of it expressed in your consciences will witnesse your soundnesse true fellowship with Jesus Christ against all temptations Ps 119.161 My heart stands in awe of God's word you dare not resist any truth that yee heare but you will yeeld unto it make conscience of it desire and endeavour to obey it and put it in practise This I say will witnesse with you and for you 1. Th. 1.5 For the Gospell came not unto you in word only but also in power Of Exhortation Therefore come to the Ministrie as to an ordinance wherein life and death are sealed Take these Motives You must live for ever in heaven or in hell and the question must be resolved upon our obeying or not obeying the Gospell Therefore bethinke thy selfe what thou wert best to doe Is not heaven worth all the sins which the word would crucifie in thee And will thy unsubdu'd lusts and the pleasure thereof make amends for all the torments which the disobedient are sure to endure in hell Is thy conscience convinced of this truth If it be how darest thou now goe on in thy common carelesse course against the light of the word in thy own conscience How darest thou live as loosely heare as carelesly Spend the Sabbath as profanely slubber over the worship and service of God as slightly as formerly thou hast done To have this question resolved on thy side me thinkes thy heart should breake through all oppositions scornes and temptations and forthwith set thy selfe wholly about the worke and to cast off every weight and with full resolution of heart to lay thy soule at the feet of Christ and his Ministrie and say Lord here I am what wilt thou have me to doe Doe with my heart and mould it to thine owne minde will Motive 2 Consider the terrour of the Lord against all wilfull people that despise the savour of life depart from mee yee workers of iniquitie into the place of torments you know the Sodomites are in an ill case in hell yet it shall be more tolerable for Sodom then for thee they sinned against the light of nature thou against the light of the Gospell they against the Law thou against the Remedie against the mercy of a Redeemer Heb. 10.29 Of how much serer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the blood of the covenant c. Woe to poore sinners for their madnesse against their own soules Consider your case art thou able to beare the wrath of God for ever When he shall come in flames of fire taking vengeance on them that know him not and obey not the Gospell of his Son 2. Thes 2.10 Thou canst not endure the voice of the Cock of a poore Minister that awakens thy conscience How then wilt thou endure the voice of the Trumpet Arise yee dead and come to judgement Death is terrible sicknesse is painfull thou canst not endure thy finger in the fire one houre how then wilt thou endure everlasting fire The tooth-ake the stone the Gout make thee roar and cry out O Lord help me the torments of hell made Dives cry out Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to coole my tongue you that will cry out then pity pity a poore tormented soul should doe well to pity your selves now when we cry out unto you to pitty your own soules if thou wilt be entreated to pity thy selfe thouwilt need no man's pity then but here 's your misery our infelicitie you will not believe your own miserie you will not believe our report if you did believe it you would soone cast away every sin that hangeth on so fast you would no longer stand off but deliver up your soules into Christ's doctrine to be transformed renued and moulded by it you would presently enter into a strict covenant with God to be his people you would never content your selves with a cold formall livelesse profession but labour for the life of grace and that too while the day of grace doth last Heb. 3.14 Motive 3 It will torment you one day to remember what yee have lost what blessed opportunities which cannot be recalled to remember how eagerly the world was pursued when your salvation lay at stake if you had spent but one of those yeares to get the knowledge of Christ unto unfeined conversion you had been for ever happy whereas now your miserie is past recoverie and all through your owne fault and doings It will cut you to remember how often did the Minister call upon me how faine would he have had me to be saved to be converted and escape these torments but I would not I counted him mine enimie I made a jest of his compassionate beseechings when he told me 't was not well with me and shewed me my own heart I thought him too busie with other mens estates though he were more willing to save me then I my selfe to be saved How fresh will these things come into thy minde gnaw thy heart like a worme thou wilt be a terrour to thy selfe What will yee doe now upon these Motives resolve for life before God take you away in his wrath FINIS
and not to another Remarkable to this purpose is that Rom. 11.7 But the Election hath obtained it The question is propounded vers 1. Hath God cast away his people No He proves it first in himselfe I am a Jew therefore all are not cast away Secondly God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew What then how stands the matter Why this is the conclusion the election hath obtained it the rest were blinded the elect have a preeminence above the rest the God of grace doth shine into their hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ But the God of the world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not least the light of the glorious gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4.4.6 Reason 2 Of the event per accidens occasionally it provesa savour of death to some Quest Now let us consider what those occasions are or what those distempers are in the parties themselves seeing the difference cannot be in the ordinance it selfe which is the same to both it must be sought elsewhere Answer 1 The Gospell therefore proves a savour of death First sometimes on the Ministers part when they doe not deale faithfully when by flatteries they say to the soules that shall die yee shall live This the Lord complaines of Jer. 6.14 They dealt falsely they healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying Peace peace when there was no peace Thus it comes to passe that the poore soule is hardned when men preach the free grace of God and mercy without laying before people the conditions whereupon mercy is promised when we promise them life and doe not presse upon them the necessitie of holy walking in the path of life mercy without repentance People must be sound in repentance in faith in puritie of conscience else we can promise them no peace of conscience we must put a difference betweene pretious and vile Jer. 15.19 We must not preach as if all alike should be saved as if the outward ordinances and communion therein were sufficient unlesse yee be circumcised in the heart as well as in the flesh baptized with the spirit inwardly called really converted c. Ye cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven we must deale clearely in this point else we delude the people Wee must tell you that 't is not all your moralities nor all your civilities nor all your formalities in prayer and comming to Church that makes a sound Christian yee must be humbled brought into covenant with Christ whatsoever is short of regeneration is short of salvation Thus Mat. 7.22 profession of Christ's name will not serve the turne A distinguishing Ministry is the savory saving Ministry which lets you see in what state you are whether in nature or in Grace Sheepe or Goates c. A promiscuous preaching of Christ's mercy to all without any other distinguishing markes doth cause a mis-application of the Gospell men that are sons of death thinke themselves Children of life Poore souls are blinded to their destruction through Ministers fault we must not warrant repentance to be true without faith nor faith to be true in any that see not their cursed state in nature that feele not their need of faith by reason of sin and misery Nor can we warrant faith in any Body that is not become a new Creature and the new-borne desire to grow by the sincere milke of the word c. The Gospell preaching mercy to the Lumpe is a truth But that word must be rightly divided and mercy applyed to whom it is promised On the peoples part foure waies 1. By reason of their carelesnesse customarinesse in religion not Examining Trying and Applying to themselves in particular the markes and truths deliver'd when the faithfull Ministers shew the world how their sins are pardoned and how they must get into the Covenant of Grace to have their deadly woe removed people doe not marke it nor take paines about it but esteeme of it as a light matter as if God were beholding to them for hearing the Gospel of Salvation This Customarinesse you discover by carelesnesse in hearing and after hearing some lay them to sleepe others play with their Children others place themselves out of hearing c. people plainly shew that they come not as people that are to deale in matters of salvation and damnation If our Gospell be hid 't is hid to them that are lost the light thereof shines cleare but the fault is in your selves you are content to be blindfolded and holden back from so great a treasure as is cōmunicated in the Gospell O Is it not a sad thing and yet too true that in many houses not one of the familie knowes himselfe to be saved All such saving knowledge is a mysterie to them you think you have repented because you have sorrowed for some particular sin and that you have faith because you hold some doctrines of faith the Divels doe the same But how to know your selves to be the elect of God though it be clearly laid forth by your Ministers yet that heavenly truth is not understood because you are not carefull to trie your selves and to prove your estate to be good All is but a dead and unsavorie thing upon your spirits Whereas the conscionable hearer doth finde spirituall life in such distinguishing truths he is comforted and quickned finding his name to be written in the book of God 2 Secondly it proves a deadly savour to you by reason of the discontent pride selfe-love and contentiousnesse of your spirits that will not endure to be reproved or searched you stumble at the word through disobedience be angry with that which should doe you most good quarrell at the Light Now when people be thus settled on their Lees when they have such stumbling-blocks of iniquitie in their hearts now I say that word which brings life to others brings death to you you see no good in it As if you stir a dunghill it stinks the worse so if you rake in a fowle heart the mud and filth that 's in it doth arise and corruption works the more O what reasonings and sidings with sin and Satan ô what anger and opposition against the Light Sin taking occasion by the Commandement saies Paul wrought in me all maner of concupiscence Rom. 7.8 The Law did put no evill motion into his heart but wrought that is did stir it up it was there before it set corruption aworke If the word doe not prevaile to subdue and purge out corruption then it stirs it up and sets it a working and so proves a savour of death to you Whereas the same doctrines reproofes and searching trialls to the saved ones do yeeld a savour of life Good is the word of the Lord I am vile I am uncleane thy word is truth Hic ure hic seca ut in aeternum parcas Let thy word cut