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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13010	XI. choice sermons preached upon selected occasions, in Cambridge. Viz. I. The preachers dignity, and duty: in five sermons, upon 2. Corinth. 5. 20. II. Christ crucified, the tree of life: in six sermons, on 1. Corinth. 2. 2. By John Stoughton, Doctor in Divinity, sometimes fellow of Immanuel Colledge in Cambridge, late preacher of Aldermanburie, London. According to the originall copie, which was left perfected by the authour before his death.	Stoughton, John, d. 1639.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.	1640 (1640)	STC 23304; ESTC S100130	130,947	258

Iuda till Shilo come Crucified As the Serpent was lifted up in the Wildernesse Dead The Messiah shall bee slaine saith Daniel Buried Thou wilt not leave my soule in grave said David in his person the third day he rose againe for it was impossible that the paines of death should hold him as was signified in Ionas comming out of the Whales bellie He ascended into Heaven as Enoch and Elias types of him had done Sitteth at the right hand of God the Father so David the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole 2. Because Christ crucified more specially makes for our purpose consider it of his passion in speciall he was betrayed he that eateth bread with me my familiar in whom I trusted saith David sold for thirty pieces of silver some would have it to answer to the price of the ointment that Mary powred upon his feet because Iudas murmured and so that hee did it ut impleretur that the bagge might be filled thus the covetous Traitor should have sold the annointed of the Lord to have gained the ointment but this was not it here was the true reason ut impleretur that the Scripture might be fulfilled that said so much Zach. 11. 12. So they weighed my price thirty pieces of silver a goodly price that I was prized of them he was Crucified betweene two Thieves for so saith the Scripture with the wicked was he counted 3. Nay even petty things were not omitted he thirsted well might he thirst who was so scorched with the heat and pressed with the weight of Gods wrath that he sweat water and blood and therefore well might he say he thirsted ut impleretur that he might quench it but this was the maine cause ut impleretur that the Scripture might be fulfilled for it was meat and drink for him to doe his fathers will they gave him vinegar to drinke so David They cast lots for my garments so said he upon my vesture have they cast lots his side was peirced with a spear even that speare was guided by a prophesie so saith David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Zacharie they shall see him whom they have pierced I might be infinite and Matthew alone hath gathered thirty two prophecies and applyed them to him with this burden or undersong ut impleretur quod dictum erat per Prophetas I end this point with that of Peter Act. 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sinnes the place is very plaine and those words of the Prophets are thrise repeated in the third of that booke for all the Prophets are many times Boanerges sonnes of thunder and then indeed they fetch all from Mount Sinai where there were thunder and lightning and earthquakes when the Law was given but all these stormes usually end in some calme of consolation and when they would be Barnabas sons of consolation they fetch all from Mount Sion the sweet promises of the Messiah and steepe all their words in his blood Thus Christ is the scope of the Propheticall part of the old Testament I should shew the same in the new also but it will be needlesse every letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the very sound as the Orator speakes avouches this truth The foure Evangelists what are they but the storie of his life and death Let Iohn speake for them all These things are written that ye might believe in Christ Iesus and believing have everlasting life through his name I will not hunt for comparisons nor shew what reference they have to the foure beasts in Ezekiel but me thinkes all the rest aime at his humanitie more principally Iohn only like the Eagle is quicker eyed and as though he had some window into his breast as well as he leaned on his breast hee peirceth through the vaile of his flesh to his Divinity and draws his pedigree from heaven through eternitie And the Providence of the Lord is worth observation that he would have foure to write this storie all in a most celestiall harmony two of which the two Apostles Matthew and Iohn were ocular and two the two Evangelists Mark and Luke auricular witnesses of that which they wrote that all pretext of doubting might be excluded The Acts have nothing but the same Christ preached among the Gentiles for he brake downe the wall of separation And as after the flood there was a confusion of tongues to hinder the building of Babel so was there the effusion of the gift of tongues to further the building of the heavenly Ierusalem that all knees might bow and all tongues confesse that Iesus is the Lord. All the Epistles have no other argument but salvation by Christ as may appeare out of the salutation Grace and peace in Christ Iesus grace the beginning and peace the perfection of all happinesse and both by Christ Iesus And it is observed that the very name of Iesus is used by Paul alone above five hundred times and no wonder for there be in it a thousand treasures as Chrysostome said yea all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge and comfort are hid and lockt up in him The whole Revelation what is it but a Commonitorie for the observation of the government of the Church by Christ the King thereof and the expectation of his glorious comming as the conclusion of all evidences Come Lord Iesus come quickly Tanquam habeat scriptum tota tabella veni That I may didicate an Egyptian Jewell to the service of the Tabernacle And thus I shut up this part that Christ is the summe of both Old and New Testament in these three differences as to come in the Old and in the New as come and to come againe to judgement And me thinks those two are like the two Cherubims that shadowed one Mercy-seat their faces were one toward another and their wings but both toward Christ the Mercy-seat like Ezekiels vision where the foure creatures stirred and stood still both together whose wheels were as it were one wheele within another and Christ in all like the Spies that returned to Moses out of Canaan for as they brought the clusters of Grapes a map of that good Land betweene them so the two Testaments bring nothing but Christ betweene them now Christ is the true Vine as himself sayes like the clusters of Grapes as the Spouse speaks and his blood is the Wine of the Sacrament the wine that maketh glad the heart of the faithfull which was scruzed out of his body upon the Crosse the Winepresse of Gods wrath where you may behold him excellently tanquam uva passa Christ Crucified And therefore Christ is like the hinges upon which the whole frame of time upon which the bifores valvae of the house of the Sunne the two Tabernacles the two gates of Heaven doe hang and turne themselves

lookes for no other reward but this And therefore the Psalmist repeates it very often and very pathetically O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wondrous workes that he doth for the children of men Psalme 107. He gives all the commodity of the world to the sonnes of men receiving only this Royaltie to himselfe he cals for no other tribute but that we attribute all to him Now when he workes by simple meanes all the glory comes entirely to him there is none to share with him none to cry halfes with him mens mindes cannot rest in the inferiour causes they must needs looke higher and say This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes whereas if the meanes had many faire probabilities in them God must needs be robbed of a great part of his honour both because men are ready to thinke highly of themselves and magnifie their owne actions and also because others are ready to ascribe much to the immediate agent who is intituled to the honour by the suffrage of the senses too Is not this great Babell that I have built for my owne magnificence said Nebuchadnezzer strouting in his Palace and the proud Physitian wrote thus to King Philip Menecrates a god to Philip a King what title then might the spirituall Physitian challenge that revives soules either arrogating all to themselves or else dividing as the Asse in the Fable did to the Lion an equall portion to God and themselves and as the Jesuites now doe Laus Deo virgini Marieae and then they would fall soone into the Cardinals method Ego Rex meus Besides you see how fond men are of the instruments of their good how ready they are to deifie them most of the Heathen gods have beene dubbed so because they have been beneficiall to men Communicative bonitie which we call bountie hath such a lively resemblance of the Divinitie that weake eyes can hardly know them asunder it was once Dionysius his sophistry Dii boni sunt eorum ergo bonitate utendum but it is almost all mens naturall Logick Boni sunt ergo dii sunt according to that in the Poet Deus nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus And therefore the Lord to prevent all such injurious usurpation and vindicate his owne title effects great things sometimes without meanes sometimes with very small meanes that in all matter of praise the image and superscription may be his only And therefore as when Caesar and Bibulus were Consuls together and Bibulus did nothing being over-awed by Caesar they were wont to write in jesting manner Iulio Caesare Consulibus So if it please God at any time to assume man to be his colleague in any great action we must not say God and man did such a thing but God and his grace did such a thing And it may be said well enough of him as it was of Caesar in in another cause Socium habet neminem he may have a companion but he must not have a competitor Perhaps indeed the foolish Epicure that cousened himselfe with a silly Paralogisme and concluded that God did not create the world because he had nothing to create it withall Quae ferramenta quae machinae qui vectes qui ministri tanti operis fuerunt perhaps I say he when he heard of Ambassadors from a God and a new creation and saw nothing but men and weak men Gods Ministers would make a scoffe againe at qui Ministri and would either denie the thing because he did not like the meanes or would hardly be perswaded that such Atomes could do such great wonders But God sees not as man sees he in his wisdome uses this course for the cause alledged It is time to conclude but yet give me leave to confirme this with two places of Scripture and two examples The first is the 2 Corinth 4. 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellencie of the power may be of God and not of us I will not urge it because I have used it before since I entred into this argument The second is the 1 Corinth 1. from 17. to the end of the Chapter a known Text where as Apostle discourses this at large The summe is this It pleased God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that believe And againe Brethren you see your calling how not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble that are called And wherefore is this God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weake things of the world to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are and what of this That no flesh should glory in his presence and the conclusion of all is according as it is written He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. The words need no Commentary and therefore I passe to the examples The first you shall finde in the 7. of Iudges There the Lord overthrowes the Midianites by Gideon who at first had gathered thirty two thousand men but these were too many for the Lord to worke with therefore he will have them as it were boyled by two decoctions till they sunke first to ten thousand but there were yet too many then to three hundred and then they march against the enemy who were more then one hundred and thirty thousand and covered the land like Grashoppers but I pray how were these three hundred appointed we doe not read so much as of a sword they had but they carried a Trumpet in their right hand and emptie Pitchers with a Lampe in their Pitchers in their left hand and what did they we cannot find a stroke they strooke but only they blew their Trumpets and brake their Pitchers and cryed The sword of the Lord and of Gide on and their enemies fell downe dead or fled before them and the end of all is couched in the beginning of the Chapter Lest Israel should vaunt himselfe against nee and say mine owne hand hath saved me The second is the 6. of Ioshua where the Israelites beseiged Iericho and won it a strange seige and a strange victory the Priests carried the Arke of God about the Citie and blew with Rams-hornes they compassed it about six dayes and seven times the seventh day and this was all there was no other seige laid but the Arke of God no other Arietes to batter the wals but the Rams-hornes no Ordnance but the ordinance of God that commanded this they did not lift up an hand against it only they lifted up their voyces they did not shoot once but only shout and the wals of Iericho as it were willing to doe some holy service on Gods holy Sabboth did obeysance to the Arke of God as Dagon

a double illustration and so altogether make a treble attribution as I told you First from the Object about which they are employed for Christ We are Ambassadors for Christ The second from the Author by whom they are imployed from God We are Ambassadors for Christ from God indeed this is implyed in the text but must be supplyed out of the context as you may see easily and shall see shortly This is the first part and the second is like unto it as our Saviour said of the Commandements for there we have one proposition likewise which hath a sensible proportion with the former but yet accompanied with some remarkable alterations for 1. It consists of a triple antecedent and a simple consequent cleane contrary to it 2. That which was the consequent before hath shifted his place and is now become the antecedent the whole being enriched with a new consequent which was not in the former 3. The three parts of the consequent have had a remove that which was last is commended and preferred to be first and which was first is degraded and rejected to be last only the middle as the center is unmooved And now thus it is We are Ambassadors for Christ from God ther 's the antecedent peeced out with the three parts of the former consequent pray you be ye reconciled to God ther 's the consequent but the order of the parts are inverted for they should run as I propounded them but they are propounded so that they run cleane backward in a retrograde motion as the Artists speake We as Ambassadors for Christ from God comming from God as though God did beseech you by us comming for Christ in Christs stead or in Christs name comming as Ambassadors or Orators do play the Orators we pray you be ye reconciled to God The last point of the first is the first of the last and the last of the last is the first of the first and so they close together much like the figure which the Rhetoricians called a circular figure and more like the yeare of which the Poet Atque in se sua per vestigia vertitur annus So that ye have in these words two propositions like two Semicircles and we is the Center upon which they both move like two Hemisphears and we is the Horizon which divides the superiour from the inferiour both which together make one solid Globe and we is the Diameter that cuts it into equall portions a Semicircle of being and a Semicircle of operation an Hemisphear of office and an Hemisphear of action The first We are Ambassadors for God The second We as Ambassadors pray you to be reconciled to God The contriving of these rooms was so perplexed that I am afraid my speech hath not given window enough to let in light enough to cleare the passages I am sure I am glad that I have wound my selfe out of this intricate Labyrinth though I were to breake the clue that guided me and the thread of my discourse presently But now we have cut out the stuffe we must goe about to make up the garment To begin with the first As the Stars in the Firmament have a double vertue of illumination and influence whereby they communicate themselves to the inferiour bodies So hath every text in holy writ an illumination of truth upon the understanding and an influence of grace and goodnesse upon the will and therefore I will endeavour to shew your apprehensions the light of truth in the explication of the words so that they may shed their influence of grace upon your affections in their application The first word that offers it selfe to our confideration is the subject we which though it be so concrete with that which followes in the originall that it hath lost it selfe for there all that sentence is wrapped up in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the lesser Starres when they have approached in too near a degree of propinquity to the Sunne as it were conscious of their own presumption they dare not be seene or else they forfeit their light to the Sunne their soveraigne and are eclipsed Yet a good Logician with his Prometheus fire would sever these heterogeneals and resolve them into their pure and primitive natures and then would appeare a paire of arguments besides the yoke that holds them together as our translation renders it We are Ambassadors Well then that first word that we may take the just measure of the meaning of it must be considered in three degrees of latitude 1. It respects himselfe 2. All his fellow Apostles 3. All his Fellow-labourers in the Lords harvest The body of it moves within himselfe as in his proper and particular Spheare the beames are cast abroad upon all the Apostles in a direct and perpendicular line the beautie and lustre diffuseth it selfe yet further in an unpartiall liberality to every Minister of the Word I and they and all we are Ambassadors for Christ. 1. Himselfe I who was an abortive birth a stranger a wolfe a persecutor a traitor an enemy to the grace of God in my best principles of nature I am become by the rich mercy of God a darling sonne a Subject a Shepheard a Preacher a Favourite an Ambassador of the grace of God in Iesus Christ I am an Ambassador Thus the Apostle chewes as it were upon his office as the wounded Hart upon the famous Dictamum and all the poisoned Arrowes of reproach and obloquy drop off Thus he shakes the Viper off his hand which those barbarous enemies thought to have beene deadly but the reason why he speakes in the plurall number is because of humility partly and partly of wisedome It is the language of humility when a man is urged to a necessary selfe-praise and forced by the importunity of others to vindicate himself yet to qualifie his speech as much as may be So doth the Apostle here excellently it seemes good to him to distribute this honour to many that he may not seeme to attribute too much to himselfe and this plurall number is a phrase of singular humility and thus the stile of Princes runnes we will and our pleasure joyning their Counsell or the whole State with themselves For I rather take that frequent anomalie for an intimation of modesty then of majestie though I am not ignorant how others apprehend it Again here is a mystery of wisdome in this word For as a Deere that is eagerly pursued will immerse it selfe into the whole heard that so she may suspend the violence of the chase by the ambiguity of the choise in such variety of game So Paul being singled out by calumny doth mingle himselfe with the whole fellowship of Apostles Or as one in danger of arresting will take sanctuary in some priviledged place So Paul takes sanctuary at the Colledge of Apostles 2. This word besides the particular appropriation which it hath to Paul himselfe must needs be interpreted according to the true propriety

If you aske me whence this comes I answer as Christ in another case Ab initio non fuit sic for as I told you before and now tell you againe Man was created the most glorious piece of this goodly frame a Citizen of Heaven Inhabitant of Paradise Brother of the Angels Lord of the Creatures Sonne of the Almightie even the glorious image of the Lord of glory the lively picture of the living God his body being graced with many ornaments and his soule adorned with many graces so that Heaven and Earth might seeme to have beene maried in his making Now then man was no sooner made but he rebelled against his maker he that was right was fat and kicked against his Lord and we in him we were sonnes of prevarication and the sonnes of perdition Ex illo fluere from that fountaine springs all our miserie we have all sinned against the Lord and therefore this great evil is upon us hence it is that our minds are blind the Crowes of the valley have picked out our eyes our wil 's lame to any thing that is good our nature catcht a fall like Mephibosheth in the cradle of her infancie and we could never outgrow it hence it is that our bodies are subject to deformities infirmities death our soules and bodies to the wrath of God which lies heavie upon us here prosecuting us with armies of plagues and will never leave us till it hath brought us unlesse his mercy prevent us to eternall torments and sunck us into the bottome of Hell No marvaile then if Plato complaine that the soule hath broke her wings if Poets tell us of an iron age if whole volumes be filled with declamations of the brevitie of mans life and the miseries of mankind No I marvaile not if they who had but one eye saw these things even through the cloudes of obscuritie I marvaile rather that among Christians who have both their eyes the eye of reason and the eye of faith and besides live in the Sunneshine of the Gospell so few see this as they did or at least the reason of this which they could not I marvaile I heare no more cry out with S. Paul O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death for if Paul so pathetically cryed out who could so triumphantly give thanks how much more justly may we if we cannot adde that which follows reiterate the same againe and say O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Ye see now the misery of a naturall man consisting in the conscience of sinne and the consequence of sinne the fault and the guilt malum culpae malum poenae this is the miserie of man which estranges him farre from the state of happines and out of this ye may gather what salvation is For every Salve supposes a Sore and the sore is sinne and paine and therefore the salve is that which will free us from this horrible condition and restore and re-estate us into the favour of the Lord and so into our former felicitie This is that which I meane by Salvation And thus am I falne into the second point That Christ is a sufficient Saviour The Sunne shines not so cleare in his strength as this truth I hope shall shine though through my weaknesse for to let passe all that might bee alleadged for it and to make use of those grounds onely which have beene laid already Yet it will be more then evident for as you heard Salvation is the redeeming us from that miserable condition in which by nature we lie plunged most deservedly and restoring us to that happy state which we should have enjoyed had we continued in our integrity But Christ Iesus hath performed both these for us therefore he is a sufficient Saviour The proofe of the Proposition was provided for before the Assumption I will make good in the parts For first Christ hath redeemed us from all our misery whether sinne the roote or punishment the fruit be considered 1. He hath taken away all sinne both our originall impuritie by the originall purity of his manhood which was therefore sanctified in his conception by the worke of the Holy Ghost that it might be exempted from the common condition of corruption and our actuall impietie by the actuall observance of the whole Law of God The Pharisees could not take him tripping in a word though they laid many traines to intrap him The High Priests could lay nothing to his charge though they hired false witnesses against him Pilate himselfe was constrained through the innocencie of his cause ceremonially to justifie him by washing his hands though he were constrained through the importunitie of his enemies judicially to proceed against him and so spill blood guiltlesse Thus was Christ Iesus the Lambe without spot the Israelite without guile fairer then the children of men that so he might take away the pollution of our nature with which we were wholly defiled And this was his active obedience wherein hee did that which we should have done but could not exactly fulfilling even the rigorous exaction of all Gods Commandements 2. The Punishment of sinne he tooke away likewise by suffering and overcomming that which we must have suffered but could not overcome even the full viols of Gods wrath and the weight of his hand the heavie weight of his heavie wrath which was due to us for our offences for he tooke not on him our nature only but the infirmities of our nature hee that was rich became poore for our sakes that we which were poore might be made rich hee that was cloathed with majestie as with a garment became naked that we might be decked with the robes of his righteousnesse he that was annointed with the oile of gladnesse above his fellowes wept that all teares might be wiped from our eyes he whose throne was in the Heavens wandred and had not whereon to rest his head that he might lead us who had lost our selves in the Labyrinth of sinne to eternall rest and fix us like starres in the Firmament Doe you believe in him for these things as he once said to Nathaniel follow me a little with your attention and you shall see greater things then these For he tooke upon him the chastisements of our sinnes and bare the burden of our iniquities he was accused that wee might be acquitted he was condemned that wee might be condoned he was accursed that wee might be acquitted he was hanged upon the Crosse and accounted a sinner that our sinnes might be crossed out of the booke of accounts and we might be accounted holy and righteous and wholly righteous Who now shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Take a view of all the enemies they were three like the three sonnes all terrible Gyants terrible to all the sonnes of Adam Sinne Death and Hell If the Lord had not beene on our side may we now say if

wanton and lascivious Rhetorick makes the immortall seed of Gods Word more unfruitfull like a sword wrapped in wooll that cannot cut like an Oke embraced with the flattering Ivie that will not thrive and prosper I doe not condemne Rhetorick the genuine tropes and figures in a solid speech are like arrowes in the hand of a mighty man as the Psalmist saith in another case blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them And as the Philosopher said of Oyle observing the use to be good but the abuse to be great Male sit illis cinaedis said he qui rem optimam pessime infamârunt so may I say the use is good but the abuse is great of eloquence and therefore away with these effeminate and unmanly Orators that have cast a shrewd aspersion upon a noble profession As for the modest and sober use that is true of Divinitie which Seneca said of Philosophy that is true of eloquence which he said of wit Philosophia non renunciat ingenio Theologianon renunciat eloquentiae for there is an eloquence in the Scripture which is more then eloquence the Rhetoricians may call theirs an Allurement of the soule but this is a transmigration as I told you theirs may perfundere animum but this doth perfringere they may delight but this doth ravish with a divine Enthysiasme theirs is properly oratory but this is to speake more properly Imperatory which is then most full of Affection when it is most free from affectation theirs is more Scholasticall but this is more majesticall as best becomes the mouth of Princes as the noble Lord of Plesis hath well noted of the stile of the Scripture But the best of their nervi and t●ri the best sinewes and strength is but as Longinus observs of some childish Orators their schoole wit through curiosity ends in folly or frigidity and chilnesse in comparison of this To end this I can beare well that they brag of their Arculae Myrothesia and Lecythi like some deformed woemen of their boxes out of which they draw a painted and greasie beautie But I cannot brook that they should speake of thunder and lightning in their Orators ignorant and silly men as though these fiery Meteors were bred or did appeare in this lower Region so far from Heaven No no as they said once of Christian Souldiers that they were Fulminatrix Legio so I may say of the celestial Hierarchie of the Angels of the Churches the Lords Ministers that is Fulminatrix Regio and if I be not deceived he should not be much amisse that should call the Pulpit the shop of thunder all other Pericles have but brutum fulmem in comparison of that as you may conceive out of that which hath beene spoken and that which is the wonder in this all this is without any pomp or shew not with great pompe but with great weaknesse and infirmity rather which argues the evidence of the Spirit and the power of God the more strongly I conclude therefore As one said of Demetrius Pompeii libertus who spake much but had nothing to doe when Pompey himselfe who did all but said but little I regard not said he what thou sayest but what he doth silently so may we say it skils not so much what the Minister said outwardly as what the Spirit workes inwardly since the efficacie of their words depend not so much upon themselves because they are good orators as upon the Spirit of God because they are Gods Orators Gods Ambassadors I have finished now the explication of the intensive efficacie I must adde a word of their extensive for so I was constrained to call them for distinction sake I meane it thus If you take a view of the whole world you shall scarce find a region of which the Ministers of the Gospell may not say as he in the Poet Quae Regio in terris nostri non plena laboris The Sects of Philosophers were distinguished by the names of Italick and Ionick as Laertius tels us but Religion is characterized and known by the name of Catholike Now wee know there is nothing commonly received but either by the law of nature in morall or by the law of nations in politicall affaires Now the faith of Christ preached by the Ministers being dispersed over all and not imprinted in all by either of those it cannot be but probable that it proceeds from the grace of God who is the God of nature Againe as the great Mathematician said once to the King let me have a place to stand on and I will move the earth implying that the moving of this earth could not be supposed without a firme standing on some other earth granted so the moving of the whole earth by the Ministers to the embracing of the faith must needs evince a fixing of them in Heaven from whence they are sent and the rather because of that great opposition which they find every where which will compell us to grant the former supposition You have seene the Embleme of an earth beseiged round with many windes the Devill on the one side blowing and the Pope the Divels instrument on the opposite side blowing and the Cardinals the Popes agents on each side betweene them blowing and the Turke at another corner blowing and all to shake this earth and yet notwithstanding all these the word is written in it immobilis the word is written in indeleble characters and it is unmoovable and it may well be said of all these blowers as the Orator said of the Athenians comparing them to men running up an Hill they blow hard but runne slow The Earth is the Ministers of the Gospell and that Word which they preach all those and many other lay their heads together to blow it away but all in vaine for the finger of God hath written immobilis upon them and his decree is like the Medes and Persians that cannot be changed but what he hath written he hath written Nulla litura in Decretis sapientum t is true of God and good reason the Spirit as the wind bloweth where it listeth as Christ saith and it is folly at least if not madnesse as Pythagoras speaks to blow against the winds The Word is like the Lampe that is unquenchable in the storie which laughs at the winds ridebis ventos saith he that swell and puffe and blow against it but it cannot blow it out and they that carry it are like the Persian Souldiers which they call immortall of whom the world may say as they did once of the Grecians in that Epigramme whom they thought invulnerable we shoot at them but they fall not downe we wound them and not kill them In a word as Gamaliel said of the Apostles preaching if it be of God it will prevaile we may invert it and say most truly if it prevaile thus against all opposition surely it is of God they are men of his right hand

men of God Gods Ambassadors There is no gainsaying Demosthenes words t is true of the power of the Spirit in the word of the Ministers as it was said of Steven his enemies could not so much as stand against the wisdome of the Spirit of God that was in him but fell downe as Dagon did before the Arke The tale of the Dragon and his traine the false Prophet is the taile saith Isaiah and the Pope is the false Prophet as may appeare out of the Revelation the taile of the Dragon the Pope may draw the third part of the stars out of heaven but the gates of Hell cannot prevail gainst any part of a starre in the right hand of Christ O thence it is that they are so invincible 2. CORINTH 5. 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God YOu have seene a Larke upon a fine Sunn-shine day mounting and singing not to the Sunne as Cardan tels of strange flowers that make strange hymns to the Moone but as Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of the quire of Grashoppers one of which leapt upon the Musicians Harpe and supplyed the want of a string that chanced to crack in the midst of his song to the most wise God the inventer of musick a song of thanksgiving to him that taught her the art of singing and so she climbes aloft with her prety note peiring and peiring as though she would peire into the secrets of Heaven but on the suddaine when you have long expected what newes shee would bring from thence you have seene her fall silently to the earth againe me thinkes those Ministers may be said to be like those Larkes fly like Larkes and fall like Larks which rise much in the contemplative of their discourse nothing in the practicall which in the explication of truths wind up their auditors understanding to so high a pitch that they seeme to carry them into Heaven and make them read distinctly in the volumnes of eternitie but in the application so slacken their hand that they let their affections fall againe and have them where they found them at the first on earth And therfore I will crave leave to spend this exercise wholly in such instructions as may be profitably deducted out of that which hath beene formerly delivered You have heard the proportion betweene the Ministers of God and the messengers of Princes how they are Ambassadors the compulsion and necessity of the sending of these why there needed Ambassadors the election of these why such meane men were made Ambassadors the confirmation of the point that these meane men are notwithstanding Gods Ambassadors and this the last time where the last proofe was from the efficacie of their Ministerie as it was upon the heart in which respect that may be said of all which was said of Luther that he spake as if he had beene within a man in that it was a great worke upon the heart a resurrection a regeneration a new creation in that it was against the propension of the subject the heart of man opposing it in that it was without any great preparation of art and eloquence in which respects though there had never beene any miracle to seale their preaching yet it may be said of the doctrine it selfe as the Thomists say of their Master Aquinas Etsi nullis in vita sua nec morte miraculis claruisset c. to warrant his canonization for a Saint yet his doctrine would be sufficient quot enim articulos tot miracula so many articles as he wrote so many miracles God wrought by him quilibet enim est unum miraculum say they and may not I say so many articles of Religion so farre above naturall reason as they have perswaded men to believe so many miracles have they wrought Lastly in that it hath prevailed over the whole world in spite of all enemies and opposition in which respect I may not unfitly paralell the triumph of the Word of God concerning Christ with the triumph of Christ himselfe described in the 19. of the Revelation who is called the Word of God not without some reference to this I thinke And I saw Heaven opened and behold a white Horse and he that sate upon him was called faithfull and true and in righteousnesse he doth judge and make warre his eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crownes and he had a name written that no man knew but himselfe and he was cloathed in a vesture dipt in blood and his name is called the Word of God and out of his mouth goeth a sharpe sword that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron c. I might improove this text but that I make haste to the observations that follow which I must passe over in a word because I have many things to speake and am loth to trouble memorie The first of which concernes those that enter into the ministery It is reported of three Romane Ambassadors appointed for Bythinia one of which had his head full of scarres the second did vecordia laborare and the third had the gout in his feet of whom Cato said scoffingly that Romana legatio neque caput neque cor neque pedes haberet and it were great pity that Gods Ministers which are his Ambassadors should be such as might be obnoxious to any just obloquy of the World for any grosse defects it would well become the Church of God the Spouse of Christ which weares the keyes of authority at her girdle as I noted heretofore to turne the key against all those that would presume to enter into this great office and charge and had not good cardes to shew for it that should be found defective either in sound understanding or syncere affection or unblameable conversation either in head or heart or feet Princes count it a point of honour to send those that are fit and in this case it is a shrewd presumption that those that are not fit were never sent by God who is so jealous of his honour they may bee uncased for counterfeits that have not these gifts to shew as it were letters of credit from their Master There is indeed a latitude and it were folly to disable every one that cannot fill Procrustes bed but it is wisdome again to measure every one and stretch them out by Pauls Canons as Nazianzen speaks that they should be of good behaviour apt to teach at the least it is not necessary every one shonld be a golden mouth'd Chrysostom but who ever heard of dumb Orators dumbe Ambassadors much is required of them they must instruct exhort reprove correct c they must be wise and learned and meeke and zealous or to use Nazianzens word they must be in a word heavenly they should reflect some splendor back upon their honours