very character is Cholericke for it is a Locust that hath the tayle of a Scorpion and a sting in his tayle c. Reu. 9. But for Phlegmatickes there are no patternes like the Monkes whose Life in generall is paine by ease and labour in eating And in this payne and labor they expresse a wonderfull patience This is the man whom that excellent pensill of the Spirit Saint Paul describes weeping whose end is damnation whose god is their belly and whose glory is their shame And if you will see the face of Melancholy behold your Anchorite or Stillite who often by a fullen humour falls out with the world and falls into a corner and at best vndertakes voluntary temptations that hee may escape necessary ones This man also Saint Paul describes when hee calls his Religion a shewe of wisdome in wil-worship and humilitie and punishing the body And these differences haue also bred oppositions among them The Popes turning Religion to be a Pander for pride lusts and pleasures is condemned by diuers as Barnard Cassander Mantuan c. The Iesuite is condemned by the Priest yea by the founder Romanists for being too pragmaticall and the whole world cryes out on the Monckes and the Poets make songs on them But the Melancoly Christian seemes most reuerent as hee doth among vs yet they haue beene censured by men of Iudgement as Cornelius Agrippa de vanit sci cap. 62. and Barnard in Cant. sermo 35. and others who condemn that life which liues to it selfe profiteth not others and runnes into Salomons Vaesoli And no doubt by the lawes of flesh and bloud the Pope in his glory cannot but laugh at their Penury and he that reioyceth in his gayne by Fabula de Christo which was the blasphemous speedy of an impious Pope must needs thinke them mad that loose thereby eyther pleasure or profit No doubt as fitly by the Pope may be giuen to these men of penance that saying which was bestowed on the common people that sought a fatherly benediction Quando populus hic decipi vult decipiatur Againe the Philosophers had Sects agreeable to different Complexions The Epicure fitted eyther the Sanguine or Phlegmaticke the Stoicke and Cynicke the Cholericke and Melancolicke So much in all men that are meerly naturall doth the Body worke on the Soule and the Soule by the same blindnesse which it suffers from the Body hath this defect that it sees not that it is blind and therefore beleeuing that it sees it calls that an opinion which is indeed but a preiudice Now the Remedie of this Disease as of others is by contraries Surely as these Complexions of the Flesh in their extremities fight with the Spirit so doth the Spirit with them and therefore the Remedie of the Flesh is the Spirit and wee shall bee safe from the extremities and superfluities of the Flesh if wee keep our selues in the vprightnesse vnpartialnesse and indifferency of the Spirit Now this shall wee performe if wee be guided by certaine rules whereof it may be truly sayd that hee that keepeth these rules keepeth his way and he that keepeth his way keepeth himselfe in the Spirit and hee that keepeth himselfe in the Spirit keepeth his Life And most true it is that they that walke by these rules peace shall bee vpon them for they are the very Israel of God The First of these is this That euery man truely iudge himselfe his Complexion and Constitution in the outward glasse of the eye and the inward glasse of the soule so to find out the exuberant abounding and reigning Complexion and that being found to bee farre from fauouring and defending it in the things of God which is the vsuall manner of flesh and bloud But rather on the contrary let him suspect and stoppe himselfe in that way to which his inclination ouer-hurries him and condemne his errour when he goes astray and hauing condemned it returne backe to his true way Surely in this we must imitate the Nauigators The Nauigators know the right Line that leades to their intended Hauen and to that Line by the Compasse they set the course of the Shippe But if contrary windes ouer-rule them turne them from this right proposed Line to any one side then they reckon how farre they haue gone on the one side and by another returne they requite it and so bring themselues againe into their right intended way Doubtlesse our Life is a Voyage our Hauen is the Citie of God the Line of our course is Sanctification and the Spirit is our Compasse This Spirit pointeth vs our way and our Soules must resolue to run in that way But it so falls out that the tempests of the Flesh of Complexion of exorbitant Constitution carries vs aside what remaynes but that wee find out this Errour and finding it allow a returne as long and as large as our wandring But farre be from vs that foolish and dangerous Custome of those blind Soules who being hood wincked by Humour and Complexion doe make their Humors and Complexions the Guids of their Soules and not their Soules guided by the Spirit the Guide of their Humours Yea they thinke that Humor is the Spirit and so they erre by authority and are therefore farre more incurable This is to make the winde the Guide of the Shippe and not the Compasse and surely such men shal be sure neuer to come to their pretended Hauen For the end of the Flesh is Death and the fruit of the Spirit onely is Life Neyther is it hard for each man to finde out the superfluities of his flesh and to correct them if hee follow the Second Rule which is this Man must not compare himselfe with himselfe nor measure himselfe by himselfe for euery man is as tall as his own measure and he cannot thereby finde out his shortnesse or tallnesse But Man must seeke out for his patternes both the words and persons of men truly sanctified or rather the words and deeds of the Spirit speaking and liuing in them euen such whose vnpartiall vprightnesse hath wholly giuen them vp from the Flesh to the Spirit The chiefest is Christ himselfe whose vpright temper rectified and guided by an vnmeasured Spirit setleth him in a perpetuall equilibriousnesse apt vpon occasion to the effects of any Complexion yet vnapt without to be led by any of them Next to Christ are his Apostles And among them most conspicuous and most knowne in S. Paul In him shall yee see the reasonable vse of each Complexion while he chideth the Galathians and Corinthians while he reioyceth for the Romanes while he expresseth a feruent loue to Timothy and many other Saints yea to his owne Nation wishing with his owne perill that they might bee saued while he speakes weeping of those whose end is Damnation and being still one and the same man he is full of anger when Elimas resisted him and full of patience when the Iewes afflicted him And euen at this day are there paternes
Holinesse Mat. 5.16 Fourthly let men know renounce as an extreme folly that temporall Thrift which causeth an eternall losse Surely if that Lord who is Wisedome it selfe commended the Steward for a Wiseman that abated his temporall Reckonings to increase his eternall Rewards hee cannot but disprayse for a Foole that man that wil increase a little perishing vanity that hee may decrease an exceeding weight of eternall glory Whereas a hundred abated heere would increase a thousand hereafter this man by a most foolish thrift will saue fifty here that hee may lose fiue hundred hereafter Ill Husbands they are in the midst of their good husbandry and the Husbandmen of this generation shall rise in iudgment against them for these will not sow sparingly that they may reape sparingly but with a full hand do sow that with a full hand they may mow Let vs therefore pray the Lord of the Haruest he that as he increseth our seed will also increase our sowing that as he outwardly ladeth vs with the bounty of his blessings he will inwardly fill vs with the bountie that giueth these blessings that partaking of his good things wee may also partake of the goodnesse that bestoweth them Then by the same goodnesse which gaue vnto vs shall we giue vnto others the goodnes of God supplying vs both within and without inwardly giuing vs the power of giuing and outwardly giuing vs the matter of giuing And to these men that are filled with this goodnesse the Mother of good Workes is especially recommended that saying of S. Paul Hee that prouides not for his owne is worse then an Infidell To such I say it belongs who are likely to stray too farre on the right hand of Bounty and not to such who most commonly abuse it for the defence of their left-handed Parsimonie This place is to limit those that are excessiuely good not to stop and bound those that are not yet good enough Wherefore goe on boldly a good way farther for there is yet a good distance betweene this place and thee except thou art in doubt of being too good There is yet a third sort which I would only name and I wish that there might be no Examples of such hereafter knowne in Gath nor spoken of in Ashdâ—d and that is when they that beare the true marke of God in their foreheads and haue ript off the Badge of worldly loue from their harts yet in some sleepe of their consciences the enemie soweth some Tares of worldly Lust Couetousnesse or Ambition Dauid sinned in one kind and no doubt men of perfect hearts sinne in other kindes and single Actions of sinne issue from them that haue an habite or rather a nature of Grace God hath left the Canaanite in vs to exercise vs to humble vs that wee may haue an Enemy to fight against before we weare the Crownes of Glory and that we may haue a patterne of our corruption to humble vs as the Valleyes before we receiue his showres of Grace and Mercy from those hils from whence commeth our Saluation What remaynes but that we fight like men for the killing of that old man which fighteth to kill vs While we stand let vs stand in humility taking heed lest wee fall and this humilitie which makes vs take heed lest wee fall will best keepe vs from that falling whereof wee are to take heed And if wee doe fall as what man lineth that sinneth not let vs rise by giuing our hand to Christ in Faith and Repentance who by his bloud washing vs and by his Spirit quickning vs will raise vs againe set vs on our feet That we may run the way of his CoÌ„mandements Neyther let the wicked in the fals of the Godly magnifie themselues and despise the other as such Pharisies vse to do for though these two did the same kinde of fact yet the fact is different The godly man fals by infirmitie as by the weight of his body or slip of his foote the wicked fals with the swinge of his will as if hee ran his head against the Rockes The godly man hates his owne fault and ariseth from it the wicked man neuer truly hates it neuer heartily forsakes it Yea the godly man is bettred by his fals and by falling stands the more strongly because the more humbly and warily And finally though hee passe by some particular frailties yet vpon the whole he is still better and growes from strength to strength vntill he appeares before God in Sion CHAP. XI An Errour that forbids men though mortally diseased to be cured by a sicke Physician THere is an Errour which though it possesseth not many yet some it possesseth strongly and this is a great mischiefe belonging to it that they thinke themselues better then others for being deceiued and so they become angry with those that would cure them because they seeme to indeauour not to take away an Errour from them but to depriue them of their Eminence Their misbeliefe is this That none but sanctified Preachers can teach vnto Sanctification and Saluation And first for a generall remedie I desire these men to consider that as in naturall so in spirituall fiâ—e there are two things of especiall and inseparable vse the one is Light the other Heate Let the heate of Nature make a mans body neuer so actiue and able yet if the eyes be shut vp so that this heate by the inward light which it makes cannot entertayne the outward light the more actiue and stirring this man is the more hee stumbles and the more hee fals Euen so in the things of Grace if a man will separate heate from light hee diuorceth those â—hat in the spirit are ioyned together and therefore it is likely that such are Saint Iudes men separaters sensuall not hauing the spirit For where the spirit is there light is the guide of heate and such are led by euident Truth not by blind violence But to meete with their Errour more particularly I will first lay my foundation and it is this An assured discouery of the true cause of mans Saluation Not to runne into by-wayes the true way to life is Christ The Way the Truth and the Life Christ our life shall appeare saith Paul and againe Our life is hid with Christ in God More particularly Christ entring into man doth abolish the olde man which is the bodie of Sinne Death and giues vs the new man wherein is included a right of Inheritance vnto Life Eternall The bodie of sinne by sinne had bound vs vnto death and by Dominon had bound vs to sinne but Christ Iesus entring into vs by his Spirit by his Death freeth vs from the Death to which we were bound and by his sanctifying Grace freeth vs from that Dominion by which wee were bound vnto sinne So from henceforth neyther sinne nor death haue dominion ouer vs but the free and freeing Spirit of Christ dwels in vs whereby we are sonnes and heires of Life Eternall Rom.
Wine more hereafter Secondly If thy tast delight thee how much is that exceeded by the delights of the Spirit The Church confesseth that the kisses of Christ Iesus who kisseth his Church by the Spirit are pleasanter then Wine Quam dulcia faucibus meis eloquia tua sayth Dauid Hee is fayne to aske how sweet because he cannot tell nor expresse the sweetnesse of it What is sweeter then hony sayth Samson and yet Dauid sayth The Word of God being tasted by the Spirit is sweeter then hony How many Saints haue left their meat and drinke for the Wine of the Spirit How many haue beaten downe their bodies by abstinence that they might the more fully tast the Sweetnesse of God Wherefore if thou wilt indeed tast sweetnesse get thee a Spirituall tast receiue the Wine of heauen giuen by Christ Iesus the Wisdome of God For he it is that Pro. 8. calleth the sonnes of men promising to fill them with delights vers 31. And surely those must needs be the chiefe delights which issue from the taste of the Deity which is the vppermost Sweetnesse Wherfore desire thou rather to taste God in himselfe then in his Creatures for that is the highest pleasure of tasting which flowes from the taste of the sweetnesse of the Highest Thirdly If thou desire Wine for the cheerfulnesse and ioy which it breedeth know that the Spirit of God is the Fountaine of Consolation and then chuse thou whether thou wilt drink of the streame or of the fountaine The Spirit of God hath in it the ioy and comfort of Wine Yea Wine hath his ioy and comfort from the Spirit for the Spirit of God as once by miracle so still by course of Nature turnes water into Wine But there is another euen a new Wine in the kingdome of God and this is the best wine A new Wine it is to vs but not in it selfe new to vs because wee were first filled with the old Wine of our fall and secondly with this Wine of excesse and after wee come to drink this wine of regeneration and glorification So it is new to vs but it is old in it selfe as flowing eternally from an eternally from an eternall Deity This is the true Wine which recoyceth the heart not of the body onely but of the soule also to which the outward Wine connot reach This is the Wine of blessed Spirits the drinking whereof is the cause of those vnvtterable ioyes which dwel in the dwellers with God In this the Spirit giues not some grosse and bodily relish thereby to become comfortable to the bodily part of Man but in this the Spirit communicates the sap tast and relish of its owne primitiue sweetnesse vigour and cheerfulnesse so that wee doe not so much tast comfort as the Comforter himselfe In the drinking of this Wine shew thy manhood Drinke deep and true healths for with this drinking is ioyned true and eternall health The more thou drinkest of this the wiser the holyer the more sober thou art for in the same Spirit wherein is cheerfulnesse is also Wisdome and Vertue The tast of this Wine is a bequeath of dying Christ Iesus to his beloued Spouse the Church whom he comforteth and supporteth with the flagons thereof in his absence before the Day of his great Marriage where it shall bee giuen in fulnesse And the comforts of it are sufficient to strēgthen vs against all sorts of griefe yea they make vs cheerfully to scorne and despise the pleasures of sinne they make vs to looke on death with disdayne as vpon a Snake whose fling and teeth are pulled out Death where is thy sting Graue where is thy victory They make vs to long for heauen and stirre vp the stomacke of the soule by these measured tastes of God to tast him perfectly in a most blessed full and eternall fruition But perchance thou wilt tell mee that thou tastest no such sweetnesse in God thou hast heard him spoken of in Churches and Pulpits and thou sayest thy prayers as others doe and yet thou perceiuest no such matter as I talke of Surely I must confesse This Wine is not for euery mouth neyther is euery mouth for this Wine The holy Wine must be put into holy Vessels for it is farre holyer then the shew-bread for the receiuing whereof Abimelech would that the young mens Vessels should be cleane The corrupt and lustfull Flesh as it tasteth not this Wine no more doth this Wine indure to be tasted by it this fruit of the tree of Life cannot be receiued but where the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and euill is spit out and denyed The louers of Egyptian Onions are no true tasters of celestiall Manna therfore striue to cast out the old Man corrupt with deceiuable Lusts which makes thy taste grosse and earthly and then thou shalt taste the sweetnesse of God and his consolations And hauing tasted it thou shalt despise the tast of thy former gluttonies and drinkings and thou shalt say with Dauid Thou hast put more ioy into my heart then formerly there was when the Oyle and Wine were plentifull This is a priuiledge of Saints bee thou a Saint and inioy the priuiledge Thirdly for drunkennesse had need to be haled out with a three-fold cord behold a benefit of this Spirituall wine which the other wanteth yea behold the same thing commendable in the one damnable in the other and that is excesse Thou must drinke too much of the outward wine but canst not drinke too much of the inward and therfore if thou loue safety better then danger loue the wine of the Spirit rather then the fruit of the Vine If thou knowest a Physitian that heales all that he meddles with and another that hath killed as many as he hath vndertaken doest thou not shew thy folly to preferre the killer before the sauer Surely the spirit saues all that it vndertakes and wine hath slaine many soules and bodies by excesse O loue life and seeke not death by the errours of this life Drinke the Spirit without feare but drink wine still in feare thou mayst not feare in the drinking of the spirit except thou wilt feare increase of comfort of light of holinesse Thou canst not drinke freely of wine without feare except thou do not feare the losse of light the losse of reason of goodnesse of thy whole selfe The spirit by how much it groweth in thee the wiser the better the more larger thou art But by how much more thou drinkest the wine of excesse the foolisher the wickeder the lesser thou art Therefore when thou takest the Cup of Saluation open thy mouth wide that it may bee largely filled but when thou takest thy cup of wine know it is a cup of danger and let in danger as sparely as thou mayst It is the saying of a Wiseman Hee that loueth danger shall perish in it and surely hee that loueth wine loueth danger and therefore hee that lowine is likely
inferences as loudly though not so truly it shall say Vos autem sic You shall not be as the kings of the Nations sayth one Text yet other Texts with their glosses will bring it so about that the Kings of the Nations shall be but your Vassals and shall be metamorphosed into Brutes euen Aspes and Basiliskes for Popes to tread on And hither tend the mayn endeuors of diuers later Popes euen to settle a principality by the Gospell Yea and when the Gospell would not helpe them for it will not they striue to establish it by warres by tumults by treasons things meerly repugnant and forbidden by the Gospell So necessary it is that the Pope must bee the Head of the World that he had rather kill the body then not be the Head So is hee a true and liuely Antichrist euen an opposite to Christ For Christ being the true Head of the Church gaue himselfe to death for the life of his body But this Man being as his owne say but a Ministeriall head giueth the body of Christ to distraction for the life of this imaginary Head On this Theme are spent the huge labours of Baronius And to this end is the Popes authoritie ouer Princes maintayned by Bellarmine and others and to this end is the doctrine of Treasons against excommunicated Princes taught printed by many of the Popes Parisites so that euery Protestant Prince may truly be called a Confessor for he confesseth the Christian Religion with the danger of his life Which transcendence both of pride and sinne though the Court of Rome maintayne yet because some members of the same Church haue confuted and disclaymed it I may the more truely call it a different kind of Religion Another sort shall bee termed Religio Theologorum the Religion of the Diuines or that doctrine which is ordinarily taught or acknowledged for the sauing of learned souls of this also there are three degrees The first is Crassa doctrina the grosser or lesse refined doctrine which was both more common more grosse before Luther and yet hath large entertaynment among â—hem such is the doctrine of Merits of condignity of Predestination ex praeuisis operibus of worshipping of Images with the worship due to the sampler c. which assertions if any would farther learne he shall finde them in the confutation of their owne â—eater Writers who among the Hereticâ—es confute also their fellows grosser opinions And those confuters are those which teach the second degree of Doctrine which is Doctrina limita a refined kind of Doctrine conceiued by the genuine interpretation of Scriptures yea inforced by the euident light of the Word and approcheth very neere to that of the Reformed so that though not out of one yet out of all our Doctrine may bee proued and deduced And this is that which yeelds the matter of such workes as the Catholick Apologie Papa non Papa and such other which by the Romanists haue confuted the Romane Religion A third degree is Doctrina Spiritus aut Conscientia the Doctrine of the Spirit or Conscience which is when Men taught by the Spirit of God or enforced by the Light of their own Conscience confesse their owne vnworthinesse and wholly extoll as the surest Refuge the mercy of God in the merits of Christ. This former is frequently seen in Barnard Thomas Campensis and others that liued in that Church Men as I hope sanctified and taught by the Spirit Others also by the terror or conuiction of their Conscience haue acknowledged the same as Stephan Gardiner at his end and Bellarmine when after disputation of merits he confesseth this affiance in Gods mercy to bee the safest rest of the soule And no doubt when men are approching by death to the barre of a supreme Iustice before a perfect God with pure eyes if they haue any portion of the Spirit they abhorre themselues with Iob and doe so see and feare their own corruption that they cannot find rest but in perfect merits and a perfect satisfaction So that I doubt not but of these there is a reserued number euen a number reserued by Gods election which is truly Ecclesia Electorum hauing washed their robes white in the bloud of the Lambe A third and last sort of Religion may be called Doctrina Idiotarum euen that Doctrine which is taught to the common people apprehended and accordingly practised by them as sufficient to saue their ignorant Soules This is generally a Religion very neere fitted to brute beasts for it teacheth them to be saued in ignorance and by beleeuing as the Church beleeues Which is vpon the matter by beleeuing that which they know not and by not knowing what they beleeue So is the Soule which should bee the principall agent in Religion left out in Religion and lyes like the first Chaos voyd and full of darknesse And the body is principally instructed Accordingly they are taught by Images Pictures more then by preaching as men that haue fiue senses without but no sense within They must confesse they must doe penance they must say Creeds and Aue-Maries in Latine and those they must mistake for prayers they must worship Images and adore the Sacrament They must bring their bodies to the Church leaue behind their vnderstandings for in their Liturgie there is only worke for the eare and none through the eare for the vnderstaÌ„ding And as this teaching of Religion is brutish so is the practice Mechanical They worke it out with their limbes and the poore Soule stands by and knowes not a iot of the busines The mouth speakes the knee bowes the hand mooues on the beades or knocks vpon the breast the eye lookes vp the eare heares and yet the soule and spirit which giue the onely life and beeing to the worship that God a Spirit loues knowes nothing vnderstands nothing what the body is doing And as for the Images the poore wretches must needs commit flat Idolatry for I neuer heard that any of their Doctors did perfectly teach their common people to distinguish between Doulia and Latria but as one of their owne sayth If they worship them with all their heart they thinke they haue done it excellently Surely it cannot be conceiued that the ignorant Papists who haue no Commandement against Images should in this point doe better then the Iewes who had a plaine Commandement against them But the Iewes fell to Idolatrie against an euident Commandement yet these Doctors think that their people shall be held from Idolatrie onely by a distinction Surely they little regard the infirmity of miserable Man fallen into so great an Ignorance and Corruption that he is apt to learne Lyes of a stock and to be inflamed with Images vnder euery greene â—ree Neither doe they consider the strictnesse of Ielousy which in the Lord Almightie is as perfect and infinite as himselfe Now perfect Iealousie cannot abide to haue a known Adulterer come neere to his spouse neither can it indure to haue
8.14 c. I will summe all vp in the words of Saint Peter 1.1.1 We are elect by God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit and the sprinkling of the bloud of Iesus Christ. But this thou wilt say thou doubtest not but confessest that the Trinitie by Christs humanity saueth vs but thou sayst that this Saluation is imparted to vs by the Ministery and the defect of the Preacher may stop the benefit of the hearer I confesse indeed if his defect be in preaching then there is an abatement of the benefit of hearing but if his preaching be sound and sufficient Gods Word soundly vttered by him is able to saue vs without the Preachers Goodnesse or Sanctification The Preacher is Vehiculum verbi verbum is vehiculum Christi Christus est fons vitae The Preacher brings the Word and the Word brings Christ and Christ brings Saluation If now the heart of man doe but open that the King of Glorie may enter in saluation is come into his house And surely if the spirit within open when the Word without knockes or Christ in the Word there is an entrance of Life eternall So is it brought to this narrow poynt That when the Spirit meets the Word in the heart and opens to it Christ enters in the Word and there is but this left to say That the Spirit hath so tyed himselfe to the goodnesse of the Minister that he will not open the heart of the hearer except he heare a holy Teacher But this is a fearfull saying and worthie of detestation This is to tye the free Spirit of God vnto Man whose libertie Christ hath taught saying The Spirit bloweth where it listeth This were to make the Spirit to stand in need of his owne graces and to bee beholding to the grace of the speaker to giue grace to the hearer This were to bring Christians not to receiue their saluation from the fulnesse of Christ but partly from the fulnesse of the Minister Then it might be truly sayd that Paul were something and Apollo something whereas St Paul sayth they were nothing but God onely that gaue the increase Then might we be baptized into the name of Paul for from whom wee receiue the grace of Baptisme in his Name may wee receiue Baptisme This were to ouerthrow St Pauls Assertion and to breake his golden chayne in pieces who sayth that Faith commeth by hearing and hearing by preaching for by this noueltie hearing doth not saue vs except the Preacher bee also saued so where Paul tyeth Faith to hearing these haue vntyed Faith from hearing except the Preachers goodnesse tye it vp againe But what did our Sauiour Christ meane to cause his Disciples to heare the Scribes and Pharises in Moses chayre whom he termed Hypocrites and on whom he heaped his woes Either Christ commanded them to doe that which was vnprofitable or these men vainly condemne that which Christ commanded And Paul reioyceth that Christ was preched by enuious and persecuting Preachers and I hope persecutors are not likely to be sanctified Surely it is the beauty of Christ Iesus that rauisheth a soule touched and warmed by the Spirit It is not essentiall to the moouing of Loue that the Painter himselfe be handsome so his picture bee euident and liuely and the comlinesse of the person represented admirable If the Painter be vnlike his owne picture the beauty of the picture disgraceth his vglinesse but remaynes louely it selfe Who is there that if he were condemned to death as wee are all naturally to death eternall but would gladly receiue a pardon from the king by the hands of a condemned man Surely the eye of a man touched by the Spirit doth looke more stedily on the happinesse of the message then the miserie of the Messenger For God sends sometimes a message of happinesse by a Messenger that is miserable as hee sent blessings to Israel by the mouth of cursed Balaam This is true though it bee obiected that vnsanctified men are not called and not being called are not sent For Iudas a worse then Balaam had the calling of an Apostle was ordayned to preach and to cast out deuils Mark 3.14 and obtayned part of the Ministerie Act. 1.17 God giueth not his gifts in vaine but they are for the edification of the Church So is the gift of Prophecie 1. Cor. 14.4 Eph. 4.12 yet many that haue this gift of edification shall be commanded to a So it seemes the promise of shining like the stars for conuersion of soules Dan. 12.3 hath an implicite condition of godlinesse which hath the promises of this life and that to come 1. Tim 4.8 depart for want of Sanctification Though they loose the priuate benefit of the gift of God yet God will not loose the fruit of his owne gift which hee gaue for the publike Wherfore let not the Preacher looke into the soule of his Hearer to find his saluation in his Hearers conuersion for hee shall not find it there but in his owne Soule if there he find Sanctification Neither let the Hearer looke into the soule of the Preacher in his Sanctification to finde his owne Saluation for hee shall not find it there but in his owne Soule if therein he can find Faith and Holinesse Surely the dayes of persecution had not this wantonnesse of Hearing but they reioyced as the Spouse in the Canticles by any meanes to heare newes of him whom their Soule loued But whereto doth all this tend To giue encouragement to a wicked Ministery God forbid I wish verily that all the gatherers of Saints were Saints and that those who expresse a scandalous b Tit. 1.7 S. Gregor de past cura lib. 1.2 Hooker lib. 5. see 81. contrariety to Sanctification were remoued if incorrigible For no doubt though such may quicken some by their doctrine yet they kill others by their example and a man-killer is not fit to be a Minister whose very Trade is Saluation Besides though a Ministers goodnesse giue not the esse of Saluation yet no doubt it giues the melius esse For a Minister that liues well is a double Preacher hee preacheth both by words and workes so he preacheth with a witnesse and his life is a witnessing or Martyrdome of his doctrine But the good Preacher and euill Liuer is but a single Preacher yea he labors by his Life to confute his Doctrine Now where the Spirit speaketh twice by Illumination and Sanctification he is more heard then where he speaketh but once Surely the liues of Saints and especially of Ministers are the liuely bookes of the Ignorant and in them should they reade the Characters of Vertue and Holinesse But my purpose is this First that God alone may haue the glory of our Saluation and that with the Virgin our spirits may reioyce in God our Sauiour It is the singer of the Spirit issuing from Christ Iesus that giues life to the Letter and brings the aduantage of the New Couenant