of the Church They include and suppose the publick receiving of it by the people yea some do clearly expresse it By this pure and true preaching of the Word we may discern the true Church from Jewes and Pagans as also from Heretical and Idololatrical Societies yet pretending to a Church Fourthly When these Notes especially the former are said to be proper and inseparable to the Church of God You must alwayes remember here is a latitude in the application of these Notes For some Churches may have the Word more soundly preached and the Sacraments more dispensed than another and yet for all that not to be denied to be Churches This Church of Corinth was foully out of order And so most of those Churches in Asia were sharply reproved yet they did not cease to be a Church Yea the Church of Israel had many corruptions both in worship and life yet it was a long while ere God did cast her off So that we must not for some defilements either in the Doctrine Worship or Manners of a Church presently deny her to be a Church and separate from her for this is against Scripture information Yea there is no Church so perfect but needeth some Reformation They may build hay and stubble though they keep the foundation So that he must go out of the world that would live in a Church where nothing is amiss Even that Church of Smyrna the Apostle mentioneth Revel 2. 8. that was as her Name signifying sweet smelling and fragrant like a Garden or bed of Spices yet she was troubled with some who said They were Jews but were not but were of the Synagogue of Satan But of this more when we come to the next Doctrine Fifthly These then being the visible Marks of a visible Church we must not confound them with the properties of the Church invisible The Church of God hath as it were a two-fold Form one Internal and Essential which consists in their Union with Christ and communion with his benefits Now none but those that are truly godly are of the Church in this invisible manner he must be regenerated and graffed into Christ that can have any saving benefit by Christ But then 2. The Church of God hath an External and outward Form which consists in the external profession of faith and observance of Christs Ordinances Now a man may be of the Church in respect of this outward standing though he be not truly godly Therefore Dr Ames said well That it was a false thing which Bellarmine objected to us about the constitution of a Church as if we required internal graces to the making of a man a member of the Church in respect of the visible state of it We read in the New Testament that upon the outward profession of their faith they were baptized and received into the Church though it 's plain all of them had not true internal grace So then when the Question is put Whether may a man that is not truly godly be of the Church or no You must distinguish between the inward form of the Church which is union with Christ the Head and so he is not no more than a wooden leg is a member of the body that is not animated by the soul and the External visible state of it and so he is of the Church till by his obstinacy in wickedness he be cast out as unworthy We must not therefore give those Notes of the Church as visible which belong to it only as invisible viz. Election Vocation and Justification c. Sixthly The Papist to avoid this extream he giveth such Marks of a Church as savour rather of worldly ambition and pride Yea the true Church of God many times is known by the contrary Marks they give amplitude and universality as also temporal felicity Now this is rather a Description of some worldly Monarchy than Gods Church For as for the Churches amplitude though absolutely in it self it may be sometimes numerous yet at other times it hath been brought into a narrow compasse Elijah thought none was left and God speaks of but seven thousand that did not how the knee to Baal which was a very inconsiderable number to the Idolaters Therefore respectively to the wicked of the world even when they are most ample they are but a little flock And as for any glorious felicity though the Church of God hath sometimes had her respite and halcyon dayes yet for the most part a crown of thorns hath been on her head and therefore she is justly called the Militant Church while in this world because of her spiritual conflict with all sorts of enemies So that the Church of Christ may sometimes say as Christ once did The Foxes have their holes and the Birds of the air their nests but the Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head Thus the Foxes of the world the crafty subtil men have great abundance many times when the Church hath hid her self in the wildernesse And Fowls of the air men of proud and lofty minds have their nests when the Church like Noah's Dove hath not where to set her foot Seventhly I shall not enlarge my self to prove these only to be the proper Notes of the Church only consider that place Act. 2. 41 42. where you have all of them conjoyned together 1. They received the Word gladly There is a solemn profession of it 2. There is the administration of the Sacraments They were baptized and continued in breaking of bread with prayers There is the solemn calling upon God And as an epitomizing of all this it 's said Then were added unto the Church about three thousand souls Thus 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Church is called The pillar and foundation of the truth that is by the Ministeries preservation of it and the peoples submitting unto it Lastly If to this it be objected as Socinians do who hold this way of Notes to find out a Church to be useless and vain That true Doctrine cannot be a sign of the Church because it 's the Form and Essence of it Now that which notifieth the essence of a thing must be distinct from it To this it is answered That the form as it giveth being to a thing so it giveth to distinguish from others Forma dat esse distingui Although we do not say True Doctrine is the Note of a Church but the external preaching and receiving of it that is a Note incurring into our senses Even as Reason though it give a man his rational being yet speaking is the proper and true sign that manifests this So let true Doctrine or a true faith be the soul and life of a Church yet the external profession is the outward Note and Sign of it And if further it be said That every Sect doth claim to it self the pure preaching of the Word and the right administration of Ordinances Therefore these cannot be a sign It 's answered The consequence is denied for true preaching and
high rebellions and treasons So that this alwaies falleth out as men are perswaded of their way so they judge it true persecution or false Hastia did truly call the Donatists persecutions Persecutiones steriles â—barren and fruitlesse as losing the crown of glory though they boasted of them On the other side the rigid Lutherans did condemn our Martyrs in Queen Maries daies because they dyed against that error That Christ was bodily present in the Sacrament yea and called them Martyres Diaboli The Devils Martyrs This I confesse is more grievous many times then all the persecutions of the adversaries when those who are of the same general profession yet for some particular differences shall so uncharitably censure one another But this is no new thing in the Church of God The Socinians though they blaspheme the Deity of Christ and their doctrine is not simply heresie but blasphemy also yet they will admire their sufferings as if for Christ also The Polonian Gentleman that writ Socinus his life would preferre him above Luther and Ignatius As for Ignatius the Father of Jesuites we have nothing to do with him but that he should preferre him above Luther for the greatnesse of his faith Because saith he Luthers Doctrine at the first had many to applaud it but Sociâ—ius had few or none to encourage him Though we might say Luthers was universally hated the whole world being then subject to the Pope yet that can be nothing with that writer who confesseth that pride and vain-glory may make all a mans sufferings to be fewel to it Thus you see how that all suffering parties in Religion will pretend to Christ and plead they suffer for him but as Christ is Christ though there have risen many false Christs so suffering and persecution for Christ is truly so and some there are and they only who can claim this honour though others do gloriously pretend to it It is a true rule of Austins Causa non paena facit Martyrem Not the punishment but the cause makes a Martyr Even as Causa non separatio facit schismaticum It must be indeed the Doctrine of Christ not our opinions and presumptions we suffer with Thirdly The Scripture expresseth this Suffering for righteousnesse sake He that suffereth for doing that which is righteous suffereth for Christ Mat. 5. 10. If ye be persecuted for righteousnesse sake blessed are ye This is made the same with suffering for Christs sake This is good to observe lest we should think that then we only suffer for Christ when the matter we are troubled for is either Christ himself or his truth and ordinances something that is immediately terminated upon Christ No this is to be extended farther For when a Magistrate is zealous to rebuke sinne and put it to shame if he be maligned for this he suffereth for Christ So if a private Christian set himself in a lawfull way against all the impieties that abound where he liveth and thereupon all his neighbours hate and oppose him he suffers for Christ And all because it 's for righteousnesse Insomuch that thou maiest take much comfort herein as one Martyr did That it is not for any wickednesse of thine any wrong or injury thou hast done them only because thou hast had a zeal for God and his glory therefore it is that they rise up with such malice against thee And let this encourage all such who desire to have all ungodlinesse and dishonour to God by sinne be wholly rooted out though in this labour they have many oppositions and much hatred yet remember it is for Christ It is true indeed that besides meer righteousnesse there must be also a knowledge of Christ For without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 3. And therefore though Aristides the just was banished for righteousnesse and Socrates put to death for maintaining there was but one God yet these cannot be said to suffer for Christ because they had no knowledge of him Seeing Christ is only in the Church therefore there cannot be any true suffering for him but in the Church Lastly In respect of the object matter Then we suffer for Christ when we are persecuted for keeping a good conscience and will not break the peace thereof for all the advantages in the world Thus the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3. 16. maketh the having of a good conscience to be equivalent to suffering for righteousnesse sake and also for the Name of Christ This good conscience consists in this That whereas the enemies and persecutors speak all evil of us as evil doers they may at last be ashamed for such false accusations Here you see none ever persecuted the Church of God but they laid foul things to their charge That as they did put the Christians sometimes in Bear-skins to make the dogs tear them with the greater rage so also they have turned their names into Heretiques Schismaticks and every odious title that so they might be the more justified in their cruel waies Now then to suffer with and for a good conscience is to be innocent from all these calumnies that we dare appeal to God as Christ said For which of the good works do ye stone me So for what good is it that I have done you reproach you revile and persecute me But when we say a good conscience we mean that which is truly so and informed out of Gods Word otherwise as Paul said he had a good conscience while he was a Pharisee and thought he was bound to do against Christ what he did So many deluded consciences may indure much misery yea death it self with a good conscience thus farre that they do not go against any light thereof They are not as some Heretiques 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-condemned as it is commonly expounded No they may think they are bound to suffer as they do Yea if they should recant their errors though never so damnable while their conscience is perswaded to the contrary they would sinne against God not because they renounce an error materially but because they do that which formally appeareth a truth to them and it may be bring much horror and teror upon their own consciences It is not enough therefore to make a man a sufferer for Christ if in a false way because he is perswaded so his conscience doth not tell him to the contrary he hath much comfort doing as he doth whereas if he should do otherwise he should have no peace For conscience is but an inferiour Judge and is no further to command then guided by the Word of God and when it is so then whosoever will not please men but indure all hardship rather then wound this conscience this man suffers for Christ Thus you see what it is to suffer for Christ in the Scripture expression and let it be thy earnest prayer to God to have a preparednesse of heart thus to suffer Oh consider how much Christ suffered for thee both from God and
man He suffered in his Name in all reproach and ignominy dying a most accursed death and shalt thou be so tender and delicate as not to indure the mocks and rages of men for him Shall Christ be in cruce and thou in luce Christ in convitiis and thou in conviviis Christ in patibulo and thou in Paradiso as Gerhard expresseth it Oh fear left this prove dreadfull at the latter end SERM. XLVII What Qualifications they must be endowed with who suffer in a right manner for Christ 2 COR. 1. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ WHat it is to suffer for Christ ex parte objects in respect of the matter for which hath already been dispatched We now proceed to shew What is required ex parte subjecti What are the qualifications necessary in him who doth truly suffer for Christ When we read of so many glorious priviledges promised to such as are troubled for Christs sake you must know that their bare suffering no not for that which is righteous is enough to entitle them to this blessedness but there must be the Adverb as well as the Nown it must not only be pro bono but benè for that which is good but also in a good manner for suffering and martyrdome it self as all other duties is not integrated of all its causes as it is not enough to pray to hear though these for the matter be commanded but they must be done in an holy and spiritual manner Thus it is not enough to suffer or to be persecuted and that for Christs sake unlesse also we have that holy frame of heart in suffering which Gods word doth require Let us then examine this truth viz. What are the requisites to qualifie a true sufferer for Christ When his cause is good his heart his ends also must be good Therefore that ordinary saying Causa non poena facit Martyrem The cause not the punishment doth make a Martyr must be further limited for the cause doth not unlesse there be also those concomitant graces in the subject as well as there is truth in the object and we shall find this suffering temper to have as curious ingredients into it as there was into that precious ointment made for the high Priest alone and no wonder for it is the highest pitch of love we can arrive at to suffer for him and it is the most contrary to flesh and blood So that â—one can do this for Christ but such who are wonderfully enabled by him First Therefore in a sufferer for Christ there is required Faith in the eminent and powerfull actings thereof It is as impossible to suffer without faith as a bird to flie without wings It 's faith alone that can remove these mountains in the Sea Heb. 11. Those great exploits the Saints did yea and those wonderfull sufferings they underwent is attributed by the Apostle wholly to their faith Now this faith requisite to true suffering for Christ emptieth it self into two chanels there must be a Dogmatical Faith and a Fiducial Faith A Dogmatical Faith is that whereby a man is assured of the truths be suffereth for as divine and because of Divine Authority Faith must be as Heb. 11. 1. an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The substance and evidence of things For if a man have not this faith it 's obstinacy and pertinacy not faith that maketh him suffer as we see in Hereticks Hence also it is that a meer Opinionist or Sceptick in Religion will never suffer for Christ because he hath no faith but opinion in Religion So likewise those who are of a Religion meerly for humane Authority sake because of the custome and Laws where they live commanding such a Religion as those amongst the Graecians that were called Melchitae because they followed the Religion the King was of though indeed the Orthodox were so branded by the Heretical party Vide Hornbeck de Graecis These cannot suffer truly for Christ Indeed they may suffer for their Religion as it 's local and traditional to them as Turks and Jews do but yet this is not from faith which doth necessarily relate to divine testimony This then cuts off the glory which Hereticks and erroneous persons may boast of if they suffer truly they suffer with a true Faith if they have a true Faith that can be proved and demonstrated out of Gods Word And when we say a Dogmatical Faith that must be understood in respect of its compleatnesse and integrity as to Fundamentals No man can suffer truly for Christ that peremptorily denieth any I undamental if he hold the foundation though he build hay and stubble superstructive errours yet if he do not demolish any of the foundation stones he may be saved but so as by fire And truly is this charity be not allowed we shall scarce find any person or Church truly suffering for Christ For where hath there been such a sound faith in Fundamentals circa-fundamentals and praeter-fundamentals as that there hath not been any spot or wrinkle in the face of the Church This prerogative belongs to the Church in Heaven They therefore suffer for Christ who are persecuted for his truths though happily they erre in many things not necessary to salvation But if they deny any Fundamentals I do not say doubt and that for a season as the Apostles did about the nature of Christs Kingdome and his Resurrection and that with persevering obstinacy then though he suffer for one Fundamental yet because he denieth another he doth in effect destroy the whole building of Christ Thus when a Macedonian suffered for holding the Deity of Christ being put to death by an Arian the primitive Church never judged him a Martyr because he denied the Deity of the Holy Ghost There is therefore required a sound Dogmatical Faith for which cause some have doubted Whether the Church did well in making all those infants which were killed by Herod because of Christ in reckoning them among Martyrs For they did not know any thing of Christ neither it may be many of their parents had any true faith about him Certainly ly they cannot be called Martyrs or Sufferers for Christ in an active fense but passively only The second act of faith is a fiducial dependance on the promise of God and his Power which is able to raise up the heart above all fears and discouragements yea to represent prisons palaces and coals of fire beds of roses such a transubstantiating nature is faith of It was faith Heb. 11. which made Moses esteem the reproaches of Christ more than all the glory and honour which was in Pharaoh's court especially faith as it is the substance of things hoped for As it maketh Heaven and glory present so it 's admirably quickning and enlivening the heart of him that suffereth It is therefore called The shield of faith which above all or to all as some expound we
enlighten our minds to give us tenderness and lowliness of mind that we be not led aside with the errour of the wicked for errour and heresie will break out into enmity and make men think they do God good service while they destroy you Thirdly Then we regard Religion after a carnal manner When we make parties in it when we promote factions and divisions and such as do so are filled with much spite and malice against those that are contrary to them This is a sinne the members of the Church are prone to and nothing inclineth more to oppositions and contentions then such a frame upon mens spirits The Apostle speaketh very clearly to this 1 Cor. 3. 3. Whereas there is among you envying and strife one is for Paul another for Apollo are ye not carnal And vers 4. Again are ye not carnal So that this doth plainly discover men not to be led by divine and holy principles who are apt to foment differences who are ready to set up one Minister against another to admire the gifts and abilities of one to the contempt of others This was the great sinne of these Corinthians that as they discovered much pride and ambition in the names which they gave persons Capellus Histor A. M. 3168. sometimes delighting in words which signified power and principality as Hegemon c. Or such as denoted victory as Nicolaus c. Or such as declared glory as Polycletus c. Thus such a carnal ambition did still remain in them though made Christians setting up and admiring mens persons looking after gifts which brought applause more than grace and sanctification Now those that are thus carnally affected they do continually throw balls of fire into the Church and make it a Babylon in stead of a Jerusalem Jude speaketh vers 16. Of having mens persons in admiration because of advantage It is some carnal advantage or other that maketh them advance this and that man against others What the issue of such divisionsis appeareth Jam. 3. 14 15 16. viz. To bring in all confusion and every evil work As also he sheweth the nature and cause of this It is earthly sensual and devilish though men may judge it zeal and think they are active for Gods glory yet it 's sensual and cometh from the Devil and it is good to observe how largely the Apostle expatiateth about the sinfulnesse of the tongue That a world of evil is in it and from that exhortation Be not many Masters that is do not take upon you to be Teachers and so to reprove and censure others in a carnal and sinfull way It is this that maketh not only the tongue but the pen also to be full of gall and wormwood it maketh the pen to be an unruly evil that none can tame Take we heed then of minding Religion onely to make parties and different wayes therein for this will at last break into an open enmity against the truely godly Fourthly Then we look after Religion in a carnal way When we make use of the Doctrine thereof onely to shew our parts or learning when we earnestly contend about it as it is our opinion not as it is Gods truth For this reason the Apostle doth so frequently exhort Timothy To take heed of disputes and vain janglings 1 Tim. 1. 6. where the end of the preaching of the Gospel is said to be Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience with faith unfeigned but from these some did swerve by turning aside unto vaine jangling Here you see that those who have not pure and unfeigned hearts in the things of God they fall into vain disputes and quarrels So 2 Tim. 6. 4. it is called Doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy railings and evil surmises And he addeth their character Supposing that gain is godlinesse Here you see that in all these disputes and controversies there is no pure heart no good conscience all is to advantage themselves by it yea if this be not discovered in any sordid or worldly manner yet if thy pride the loftiness of thy spirit be hereby advanced and thou doest not mind Religion to exercise thy self to godlinesse but to have men admire thy gifts and to wonder at thy abilities Thy heart is a corrupt heart and thou wilt manifest thy enmity against the wayes of Christ when opposed therein Thy wit thy parts thy applause thou mayest make thy great Diana and oppose all that would destroy this Goddesse Lastly That we may conclude all and leave nothing out Whosoever doth not own the Christian faith from divine principles and holy pure motives this man is but a titular and a false Christian and so cannot but when occasion serveth manifest his opposition to Christs wayes And therefore it is that as amongst the people of Israel there was an irreconcilable division between Israel and Judah and a great opposition between Davids house and Sauls though all pretending to the onely true God So it is in the Church of God though there may be an agreement in the same Doctrine in the same Profession of faith come to the same Ordinances together yet because one hath not a supernatural life of grace within hath no experimental feeling of the power of sanctification upon his soul hence it is that he hath a spirit of antipathy and contrariety to those who are indeed born of God and walk in wayes of mortification So that we may conclude Whosoever is not regenerated regardeth Religion no further than carnal and earthly respects let his pretences be never so high and plausible And therefore there is no unconverted man though he hath never so high an Office never so great repute in the Church of God but he serveth Christ for loaves some insincere and insufficient motive or other worketh upon him he hath his shrines that he liveth by And therefore as it was with that rich man who boasted He had kept all Gods Commandments from the youth when he was tryed in one instance where his heart was greatly affected viz. To part with all and follow Christ it is said He went away exceeding sorrowfull Thus when any such empty nominal Christians are put upon such duties and wayes which are contrary to their lusts they will go away not it may be exceedingly grieved but greatly enraged and disquieted This will be like the jealousie-water to discover the adulteresse To pull out their right eyes and to cut off their right hands will be like the pronouncing of Shibboleth to discover what they are And the ground of this whole truth is from the exceeding great purity and exactnesse that is in the word of God truly preached it cometh to new mould and change the whole man All old things must passe away This will not abide either a corrupt mind or a carnal heart and therefore one being contrary to the other as light to darknesse and fire to water No wonder if then the hypocrite be
complain of such a dull and liveless Ministry yet how little do people think that many times they give the cause so that its Gods punishment upon them in that very thing yea though Ministers be never so faithfull and godly yet as Calvin observeth they cannot go on in their Ministerial work with that vigor and alacrity they ought to do when their hearts are bound up with sorrow and discouragements about their people All cannot attain to Pauls excellency who could have enlarged bowells to that people who had streightened ones towards him SERM. CVII Of the Necessity of a constant Ministry not only for the constituting but to an establishing the Church 2 COR. 1. 15. That you might have a second benefit IN these words we have the End of Pauls purpose to come to them It was wholly spiritual It was not for any advantage any earthly respects but but wholly for their good to encrease and confirm their graces The End is expressed in these words That ye might have a second benefit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some as Chrysostome interpret for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea their are some who would have that to be the word in the Original It is no doubt but that much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or joy did follow upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All spiritual effects and heavenly exercises are apt to breed much joy Hence none have true joy but those that are godly and so by consequence none are blessed but they for Joy is a great ingredient to Happiness Hence Aristotle maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceedingly to rejoyce yet is more consonant to other places of Scripture to read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus Rom. 1. 11. He desired to see them that he might impart to them some spiritual benefit The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is chiefly used in the New Testament for the free grace of God towards us in reference to our Eternal Happiness so that the very name ought to be sweet and precious to such who labour under the sense of their unworthiness and see no power or works of their own any wayes able to save them It is of grace therefore that doth not onely exclude merit but supposeth thee unworthy for such mercies of thy own self It is sometimes in Scripture applyed to such Almes as were freely given for the use of distressed Churches 2 Cor. 8. which is therefore called Grace partly because it is of Gods special goodness to give us such a free and liberal Disposition as the first Verse in that Chapter implyeth I do you to wit saith Paul of the grace of God bestowed on the Churches of Macedonia and that was to be liberal to the other afflicted Saints and partly because it cometh from the bountifull disposition of a man to such as are in want In this Text it is to be applyed to spiritual bounty that is to be willing and ready in all serviceableness to promote the spirituall good of others for there are spiritual almes as well as temporal which lieth in reproof in Admonition and frequent Exhortation to what is good Now this Grace or Benefit is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some translate iterated and repeated though it be more than the Second or third time Chrysostome referreth it to his Epistles and his presence for by both these he communicated spiritual benefit unto them But it is most probably and generally referred to his first and second coming whether Paul did come a third time to those Corinthians is disputed by Commentators because of some passages in the 12 and 13 Chapters of this Epistle of which in its time It is enough that by the first grace or benefit we mean the first work upon them by Pauls Ministry when they were converted from their Paganism and planted a Church of Christ And the second benefit was to confirm them in the same Faith and also to quicken them up unto further degrees of Holiness and this was the second Benefit Paul desired to impart unto them For it appeareth that though this Church of Corinth was a garden planted by Paul yet many weeds and some poysonous ones began to grow up amongst them There were both in Doctrine and Manners many things amiss which needed Pauls presence to reforme Observe That it is not enough to be a Church planted and gathered from out of the world at first but there needeth a constant and dayly Ministry to be tilling and dressing of it That Garden which God planted and put Adam into yet was to be dayly dressed and so it is still with the best Churches even those that are of the Apostolical Plantation yet needed the Apostles care and diligent visitations which was one main cause of writing those several Epistles to several Churches They were not written to convert them or make them Churches but to admonish instruct or confirm and comfort as occasion did require and upon this ground it is that though the office of Apostles and Prophets as also the gift of miracles are now ceased because the Church is now planted yet the office of Pastors and the Ordinances Christ hath instituted are perpetual and must be continued to the end of the world So that the opinion of the Socininians about the Ministry as it were only a thing of order and not of Divine Institution is grosly repugnant to Gods Word as also their Doctrine about Baptism That it was but a temporary Ceremony instituted for the beginning of the Church is full of falshood Churches though constituted yet must be dayly watered neither is it enough for a people once to be brought home to the Faith but they need a second and a third yea a continual benefit For though the Apostle haply did come but the second time to these Corinthians yet he appointed Officers in an ordinary residence amongst them as wel as in other Churches which were continually to watch over them The particulars wherein the Ministry is necessary for perfecting work as well as foundation work for progress as well as ingress for consummation as well as imitation are these First To inform against those Errors which false Teachers do easily insinuate into the hearts of people No sooner hath God sowed his field with precious wheat but the envious one commeth and soweth his tares As the April showers that make grass and flowers to come cause also weeds to grow Thus at the same time God is building the Church the Devil and his instruments are raising their Babel No sooner have the Ministers of God with Isaac digged up Wells but the Philistines have been ready to throw their earth and mud therein If then Errors and damnable Heresies may so quickly infect a Church formerly pure no wonder if there be such necessity of Pastors and Guides who are to lead the people into all truth by their Ministry as the spirit of
the Church but that is finaliter not originaliter because the end of their office is for the good of the people They have not these Offices for their own honour and dignity but meerly for the good of others So that although in respect of Christ they are meerly Ministers and servants yet in respect of the Church and the people they are Fathers and Pastors having a spiritual rule over them 3. Neither doth this expression encourage a licentious boundlesse questioning of the Doctrine that the Ministers of the Gospel do deliver because they are not infallible because they are not commanded absolutely to depend on them Therefore some runne into a disorderly extream cavilling and questioning every thing that is taught But you must know that although every Christian be allowed a judgement of discretion and he is by his own faith to be saved Hence the Bereans are accounted more noble because they compared the Doctrine delivered with the Scriptures yet withall they are commanded to hear the Ministers highly to esteem of them for the workes sake To obey them and to submit themselves to them So that the liberty a believer is allowed must not tend to the overthrow of the office of the Ministry It is true here is much wisdome and grace required in bounding the peoples liberty and yet asserting their dependance upon the Ministers whom God hath set over them and from whom they are to seek direction and guidance but this work is not to be done here It is certain they may mutually stand together yea they were appointed by God for the mutual good of each other and therefore it 's nothing but corruption that maketh a contrariety herein sometimes by the Ministers pride and affectation of power and sometimes by the peoples pride and conceitednesse whereby they refuse humbly to submit to such order and officers as God hath commanded them But this deserveth a large Tractate For all evil ariseth in the Church because these bounds are transgressed In some ages the officers tyranny in other ages the peoples licentiousness have much hindered the power of godliness and the beauty of Ordinances Lastly By this is not excluded that duty whereby Ministers ought with holy zeal and courage reprove sinne and that in the greatest of men Yea and whosoever are obstinate and impenitent sinners to refuse the administration of the seals of Church-communion unto them When the Apostle commanded this incestuous person whom some think to be a man of great place among the Corinthians to be cast out when he delivered Hymenaeus and Philetus up to Satan when he commands If any walk disorderly to withdraw from such 2 Thess 3. 6. Yea and if any obey not his word to note or signifie such a man All these are demonstrations of power but not lordly dominion yea where reproof admonition and excommunication are rightly administred to a spiritual heart awakened they become more dreadfull than civil or bodily punishments because what is done this way God bindeth in Heaven God casteth such out of his communion and commands them as David to Absolom not to come in his presence Thus the Apostle doth not exclude these necessary ministerial duties although distastfull to flesh and blood Yea though corrupt persons account them nothing but the expression of lordlinesse Even as when Lot reproved those wicked Sodomites they replied He would be a Judge over them Gen. 19. 9. and Moses when he rebuked the Hebrews striving one with another How scornfully did the injurious person answer him Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us Exod. 2. 14. By this we see how imbred a thing it is in all sinners if they be reproved and controlled in their wickednesse to account all nothing but dominion and lordlinesse Even the holy Government of the Church appointed by Christ for spiritual and supernatural ends and so wholly for the good of those that go astray yet by evil men hath been complained of as worse than Turkish slavery How little do such men consider what their Christianity obligeth them unto What it is to be baptized into the name of Christ and to acknowledge him the Head Lord and Governour of his Church For if they did they would not say Let us break his bends and cast his cords away from us Is not the Discipline of Christ to be received as well as his Doctrine Did not the Apostle rejoyce to behold the faith and order of the Colossians Col. 2. 5. Thus you see what is not excluded Let us then consider in the next place What the Apostle doth positively shut out by this negative expression Not that we have dominion over you And 1. It doth exclude all abuse and excesse even of lawfull power For those who are true officers of Christ having a lawfull power committed to them may yet abuse it they may shew much rashnesse too much austerity in the exercise of it Therefore in the next Chapter we see this holy Apostle though zealous to have this incestuous person cast out yet when truly humbled and repenting he is no lesse carefull to have him received again requiring them to confirm their love to him lest he should be swallowed up with too much grief Some learned men have thought that the primitive Bishops did exceed in their austerity herein as appeareth by many Canons made against some sinners who for two or three years were not to be received into Church-communion though truly repenting yet some excuse them because the condition of the times did then they say require it that the Churches zeal against sinne might vindicate her against those abominable calumnies cast upon her by the Heathens as if she did secretly nourish all impiety And although she was thus severe yet the Novatians did refuse communion with the Church as being too remisse in that she would at any time receive such who through fear apostatized in time of persecution though never so sincerely manifesting their humiliation Thus all unlawfull austerity even in lawfull power is excluded 2. By this the Apostle doth disclaim all civil and political Government Hence the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth one in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Varinus and one that hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Budaeus The Apostles did not invade the Magistrates office neither would Christ the fountain of all Church-power be a divider of an inheritance A civil power is coactive and compelling by force which Church-power is not And although Bellarmine say Ecclesiastical power is ridiculous and in vain if it may not civilly compell Yea a prophane Papist saith Our Lord Christ had been indiscreet if he had not given this temporal power also Yet they speak this according to their humane apprehensions transforming Christs kingdome into an earthly and external one 3. Hereby he excludeth a magisterial power though in an ecclesiastical way over consciences That is he doth not assume to himself to be Lord in the Church but
be applyed to you how can ye have comfort if ye live in the waies of sinne doe not any thing that may chase away this comfort if we preach never such comfortable truths if thou by thy negligence and unmortified walking dost deprive thy self of consolation then know the blame lieth in thy self and not in the Ministery Thou criest give me a word of comfort how can we comfort him whom God would not have comforted SERM. CXLVII God only the Lord of our Christian Faith 2 COR. 1. 24. For by faith ye stand THis last clause saith Calvin other Interpreters either take no notice of or else do not clearly instruct about it for whereas it is plain by the causall particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is brought in as an argument of something preceding it is very difficult to finde out the reason Those Interpreters that take notice of it are divided Some do make it a reason of the words immediatly foregoing Paul was a helper of their joy because they stood firmly in the faith for although there were some who denied the resurrection yet that was not the doctrine of the Chuch in general nor was it puhlikely professed by them It is true many abuses there were in practice both civill and religious yet because they did firmly retain the true faith therefore it was that he would not wholly cast them off as no Church Their true doctrine which they professed made him the more hopeful of them and certainly the pure sound faith professed by a Church though otherwise greatly corrupted maketh it to have the essence and life of a Church and withall suggesteth hope that God in time will make them an holy practical Church as well as a sound Orthodox one Hence Paul in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians c. 3. v. 5 6 7. doth much rejoyce in their faith that they stood stedfast therein When I could no longer forbear I sent to know your faith As also Timotheus brought him glad tidings of their faith And again we were comforted in our affliction by your faith and this interpretation is very probable and not to be wholly rejected But then a second is more probable and that maketh it a reason of the former part of the verse We have not dominion over your faith for by faith ye stand stedfast Insomuch that if I Paul or an Angel from heaven should preach unto you another doctrine yet you beleeve in the truth as Gods truth and not mans truth So that God alone hath the dominion over your hearts in beleeving Thus it is a very fit and proper reason Hence Heinsius thinketh there is a transposition of the words which is usuall with Paul and that they should be inserted before the later clause thus Not that we have dominion over your faith for by faith you stand Whether we reade it objectively you stand in the faith or instrumentally by faith you stand it is not much materiall Neither are we to render it in the past signification you have stood because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek as if the Apostle did imply they formerly had indeed stood in the faith though lately they grew wavering for it is usuall to use the preterperfect for the present especially when a continuance or perseverance is intended as Matth. 20 Why stand ye here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idle all the day long Both these interpretations may be conjoyned but because the latter is the most considerable Therefore I shall insist on that and observe That the Christian faith is of that nature that it doth respect and relate unto God only We believe not in men but in God Whether we speak of dogmatical or fiducial faith they cannot have any other bottome to stand upon but the authority of God himself Thus saith the Lord Thus it is written is the ground of all true Christian faith which truth deserveâ—h explication in some particular Propositions As First There is an humane and there is a divine faith which onely deserveth the name of Christian faith and to which onely the promises of God doe belong An humane faith I call that when men doe beleeve principles of Religion meerly upon humane motives that is the ultimate reason and motive into which their faith is resolved These humane motives are manifold as the Authority of the Church the Authority of Ministers and Pastors our education by parents custome and universality as also the Laws and Edicts of a Magistrate commanding such a Religion to be received and no other Now whosoever maketh this the chief reason of the profession of his faith is upon no better ground than the Turkes is for their Mahumetan the Papists for their Popish faith Insomuch that many Protestants Turkes and Papists though they exceedingly differ in the materials of Religion yet agree in the formali motivo they believe so and so because brought up in it because commanded by their Civil Magistrates It is that which the Papists upbraid us with that our Religion is but a Parliament-Religion or a Queen Elizabeths-Religion because when they established it the Land generally received it Now to this we say That no doubt the generality of people except such as are enlightned by Gods Spirit doe receive even the Christian or true Religion but upon civil and humane respects and therefore when Emperours have been Arrians the people have been Arrians when the Kings of Israel were Idolaters the inhabitants became Idolaters And thus when the Kings of the Earth have been Papists the people have been Papists also So that they cannot object any thing more against the Protestant Religion than we may against the Papist Onely we adde a further position which introduceth a divirâ—e faith which they overthrow and so by consequence teach no more than an Lumane faith For we hold That every private believer is bound to have an explicite faith of the things necessary to salvation and this faith we say is knowledge the ground whereof is the Authority and Testimony of God in the Scripture So that we doe not believe in Magistrates nor in Ministers nor in the Church trusting our faith and salvation upon them but the word of God onely whereas the Papists do expresly affirm That a private Christians faith is enough to salvation if he content himself with this That he believeth as the Church believeth never troubling himself in reading of books or searching of the Scripture As Valentia's known instance of a Merchant brought in by him disputing What Religion he should be of doth evidently declare So then a Papist as a Papist cannot reach any higher than to an humane faith For though they will not yeeld the Authority of the Church to be an humane Authority yet both reason and experience doth fully convince that But let us come to our own people and sadly bewail the ignorance and stupidity of Protestants in general who are not moved by any divine motives or Scripture-respects to imbrace
minds of men alike that he would bless the Church with this Unity Oh how greatly would godliness flourish errours be discouraged if it could be said of all believers which is spoken of the primitive Christians often That they met together with one accord and with one heart Oh how blessed is it to see the whole Church of God rather than one family or City to dwell together in Unity The next thing observable is in that Timothy who is here called a Brother is at other times very often called a Sonne And besides the Reasons insisted on the last day there is another mentioned Phil. 2. 22. that Paul was as a Father to him instructing of him about his Ministerial Office and therefore had two Episties wrote to him for the managing of Ecclesiastical affairs in a godly manner This great help and tuition as it were Timothy had from Paul being made a Church-officer while he was young Observe That it is of great consequence to such who in their young years are set apart for the Ministry to have the guidance of those who are more solid and experienced Thus Christ himself though he could have immediately furnished his Apostles with admirable and sufficient abilities for the great work of Apostleship yet kept them two years as the Harmonists gather under his peculiar charge and information In the Old Testament likewise though the gift of prophesie was by immediate inspiration yet we read that even then there was the Colledge of the Prophets and the sons of the Prophets 2 King 2. 7. So we read 2 Chron. 34. 22. of the Colledge of the Prophets Hence it is also in the New Testament that the Apostle directing of Timothy how to keep up the sound Doctrine of Christ after his departure giveth this notable instruction 2 Tim. 2. 2. That what Doctrine he had heard from Paul he should commit to faithfull men that should teach others That is a very full and pregnant Text. For the usefulness of Universities that there should be Nurseries wherein young ones should be trained up to deliver the sound Doctrine to their Posterity after them Though in those primitive times there was such a plentifull effusion of the Spirit of God in the gifts thereof yet he there commands that faithfull men should be chosen who should commit to posterity one age after another the true Doctrine of Christ and therefore in the primitive times before there were Universities the Bishops house was a Nursery to train up young Disciples And in Origen's time he began to be a Catechist and to set open a School in reference to the Christian Religion If there be in such publick Nurseries and Universities gross abuses men degenerating into laziness and not fulfilling the general intention of the Founders the abusers are to be purged away but not the order or manner of education it self If it be said The the Spirit of God is that which alone inableth a man to such Offices and Imployments We grant that the Spirit of God is the alone Sanctifier of all gifts and abilities but yet now the Spirit of God doth not work in an immediate and miraculous manner else why is there not working of Miracles Why do they not speak in all Tongues Why do they not understand Hebrew and Greek which are the original Languages the Scripture was written in If therefore we must not look for the Spirit of God in such an immediate way it must be in a mediate and acquired way And this ordinary way doth not exclude Gods Spirit but supposeth it For if in those days when miraculous gifts were ordinary yet see what charge Paul layeth upon Timothy to give himself to reading and studying of the Scriptures especially that is observed by Calvin 1 Tim. 4. 13. Till I come give thy self to reading he would not have him so much as neglect that little time No wonder if in these later days such duties are more vehemently to be pressed Use of Exhortation to you that are people to be of more publick spirits in your prayers not only regarding your present age but that the truths of God may be handed from age to age that the Universities may be pure fountains and hopefull Nurseries from whence may come such who shall be able to propagate the pure Doctrins of Christ Peter was carefull that after his decease the pure Doctrins of Christ might be preserved And so for your children and childrens sake that they may not live in times of ignorance and darkness importune God earnestly that he would keep up such faithfull men and good wayes that may propagate the Gospel to the worlds end SERM. XII Of the Name and Nature of a Church 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth c. FRom the Persons inscribing we come to the Persons inscribed or to those to whom this salutatory Preface and so the whole Epistle is directed and that is set down 1. More particularly and then more generally More particularly and they are described by the relative condition and estate they are in viz. a Church To the Church which is further described topically from the place where it is At Corinth Let us consider this particular first And for the opening the word Church we might spend much time therein but I shall briefly explicate it The word is used and that only in Act. 19. for a Civil Assembly Yea it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Assembly was confused The Athenians called their publick meetings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is used in Thucidides as the learned observe The Hebrew hath two words Cohel which is for the most part translated Ecclesia by the Septuagint and Gnedeth which is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church doth rather answer Cohel than Gnedeth because under the New Testament it is not fixed As for such who would understand that place Mat. 18. Tell the Church of a Senate or Civil Power it 's so improbable that it 's not worth time to confute it The word therefore is most frequently used in the New Testament for an holy Society gathered together in an holy manner for holy ends And thus it is used either for the Catholick invisible Church which is the whole body of Christ that shall be saved as when he is said Ephes 5. To give himself for his Church and the Church is made the wife of Christ And Col. 1. 24. it 's called the body of Christ This Church is meant in the Creed when we believe there is an holy Catholick Church and so a Communion of Saints though some would have it a communion in holy things To this Church belonged all the godly that lived in the Old Testament For that is a dangerous errour of the Socinians that make the Church in the Old Testament specifically distinct from that in the New as if they were not saved by the same Christ and the same faith as we are under the Gospel Now it
's very necessary to distinguish this Catholick invisible Church from a visible particular one The Papists confounding these and making their Roman particular Church a Catholick one and applying such Texts of Scripture as are spoken of the Universal invisible Church to their particular do thereby grosly mistake in pleading for the infallibility and perpetuity of their Church But Secondly The Scripture doth use the word Church for a visible company of persons professing faith in Christ and then it hath several acceptions For sometimes it is used for the general Company of believers Act. 8. 3. Thus Paul is said to persecute the Church Or else more particularly and for a Church at such a place as the Church at Jerusalem the Church at Corinth Again the word Church is sometimes used more strictly for the People onely as distinct from Pastors Thus the Epistles of John are directed To the Angels of the seven Churches Thus the Elders are exhorted Act. 20. 28. To feed the Church of God over which they were set And in this sense the Remonstrants speak confidently That the word Church is most commonly used and that never or very seldom it comprehends the Officers also But this is not so for Mat. 18. Tell the Church by the Church must needs be meant Officers at least with the Church for they are said to bind and lose which power is given to Officers only It 's true they and so Grotius by Church understand a multitude or more in opposition to those two or three witnesses that were required before But the Context may easily be improved to overthrow that 1 Cor. 12. 28. God is there said to set in his Church some Pastors and Teachers that is as part but the chief part of the Church Even as the Starres are set in the firmament but as parts of the Heavens though the more noble and fulgent parts Again when the Apostle here writeth to the Church of Corinth he must needs comprehend the Officers as well as the People because he writeth about such duties wherein the Officers were interested as the censuring of the incestuous person he speaks also of Prophets which were extraordinary Officers in that Church and they are blamed for male-administration about the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper So that although Grotius thinketh that abuse was because they had no constituted Officers yet it 's plain they had some because they had the administration of the Sacraments Lastly The word Church is applied sometimes to an essential Church as it is called for a company of believers simply as such believing in Christ of which often in Scripture sometimes for an organized Church that is formed and stated in that godly order by a Ministry Government and Discipline conjoyned together So that they make a particular flock being bound to submit to their Pastors as their peculiar Pastors and Pastors bound to watch over them as their peculiar flock Whether indeed this Church of Corinth was one Congregational Church or one Church aggregated of several Congregations is disputed But of this in its time This Church of Corinth was formed and stated in some order though there were great abuses in it As for our common use of the word Church taking it for a place or the material building that is an improper speech but allowable by a Synecdoche as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both the place and persons therein convened And although one or two learned men from 1 Cor. 11. would have the word used there for a place yet the arguments are not cogent for the people are properly the Church it 's they that Christ hath redeemed they are to be built up by Pastors and Teachers whereas the material Church is built by manual Artificers not needing an Apostle but a Carpenter This may suffice for Explication only let this be added that the Greek word relates to Gods calling it signifieth a Society called by God So that the Apostle directs his Epistle to that Society or company of persons that did come our from the Heathenish Idolatries and abominations that the other Corinthians lived in and did profess their faith in Christ with obedience to him From whence observe That a Church is a company called of God by the preaching of the Word to the profession of faith in Christ and an observation of all that solemn worship and Ordinances which Christ hath appointed with a life in external conformity thereunto This is a Church When you read of a Church at Jerusalem a Church at Corinth the seven Churches of Asia you are to understand such a company And this Doctrine about a Church is much to be insisted on People are generally carnal ignorant and prophane And although they would think it an high reproach to have the name of a Church denied them or to be cast out of the Church as so many Heathens yet they do not attend to the nature of a Church nor to the properties of those who are to be members thereof It is true there are vast and infinite Disputes about a Church and every sect or party is ready to monopolize and appropriate that name to them That they are only the Church But these great Disputes about it argue we should be more carefull to distinguish lest we take Babylon for Jerusalem lest we take that for Gods Temple which is indeed a den of thieves Doth not the Popish party glory in the name of a Church Do they not make it necessary to salvation to come into communion with it and yet it is the place that Gods people are called to come out of lest they partake both of her sins and punishments But let us examine the chief particulars in the Doctrine which is a popular deseription of a Church And First We say It is a Society or Company So that one man cannot be called a Church It 's absurd in the Papists that when they have lifted up the name of a Church like a Gorgons head to turn all men into stones that they must not mutter a word against it when you come to examine what this Church is at last it is but one man and that is the Pope What number goeth to make a Church is not defined To a formed organized Church there must be so many at least that Church duties which are essential may be performed and a distinction between Governours and governed maintained otherwise where two or three are there is a Church said Tertullian Again In that it is a Company we see That it is not lawfull for a man to think of serving God alone by himself when there is an opportunity of joyning to a Church You read Act. 3. and 4. as any persons were converted presently they joyned themselves to the Church It is true there may be such persecutions or other impediments that Christians have wandered up and down and could not enjoy publick or private meetings but this absence from Church-communion was an heavy burden on their spirits And
are said not to be all Israel who are of Israel In the Old Testament we read of many who outwardly submitted to the profession of Gods commands who yet were not found at heart and therefore our Saviour in the course of his Ministry did not direct his preaching more to any subject almost then this viz. to have the internals of grace as well as externals so that we may say There is a called and elected Church and a called Church only not elected and this is to take off all Churches from idolizing and doting upon the Ordinances and external administrations which are in a Church as the Jews did and as most Christians do We are to go further and to see whether we be indeed and really Christs body as well as seemingly For if we do compare a Church called only with the Church called and elected and to the spiritual priviledges that are promised so our Divines use to say That it is but equivocally a Church they have no true acceptance with God If there should be a Society professing faith in Christ and have pure administrations but not one in the Society having true real sanctifying grace this Society in respect of God and Christ hath no true communion with them They have but the name not the nature and so are equivocally not univocally a true Church For why should it be otherwise with a Society then every member of it taken singly Now it 's certain in such a supposed Society where all are professors but not one member truly godly there every individual person notwithstanding all Church enjoyments yet hath no lively interest in Christ he is but as a glass eye or wooden leg in the body that hath no vivifical nourishment or is animated by the soul and therefore such are said to be De corpore Ecclesiae but not de animâ if then this be true of every member of that Church it must be also true of the Church taken collectively Only this is true if we consider such a company relatively to God But then if we consider them quoad nos in respect of men who cannot judge the hearts nor know when true grace is in any mans soul then such a Church or a Society may be called truly a Church For it is the external profession and outward submission to Christs order that doth make a Church visible to us and therefore in such a Church there are true Ordinances true Administrations And this is the rule we must go by in joyning our selves to a Church and keeping external communion with it if it be a called Church though not elected and be so farre orthodox and pure that we may have communion with them without sinne This is a Church to us howsoever God may look upon them as having a name to live but were dead as God said of Sardis Rev. 3. 1. which yet was a Church This distinction is of a two-fold use to prevent two mistakes First Of such who confound an external Church with an elected making Gods call and his election in an equal latitude thinking that because none but predestinated and truly sanctified men are of the invisible Church therefore none but such are also of the visible And then Secondly Of those who if they be of a Church especially cleansed from superstitions and prophaneness if the Church be a Reformed Church they rest in those external administrations and never attend to the work of grace indeed For if among Papists though so greatly polluted yet the Church is made an Idol to them no wonder if the Reformed Churches are prone to put confidence in Church-reformations without attending to internal sanctification But the Apostle tells us Gal. 6. 15. That in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new creature that is no externals in the Church of God though of his own institution avail any thing without regeneration Therefore rest not in this that you are called of God that ye are his Church for many taken out of his Church shall be damned as well as out of the world yea more in the Church that is the visible Society professing of Christ will be damned then saved as appeareth by that expression twice repeated by our Saviour as being of so great concernment being worthy to be heard again and again Many are called but few are saved Mat. 22. 14. and 20. 16. And thus much of the Efficient Cause with the manner Called of God In the next place There is the Instrumental Cause and that is by the preaching of the Word For so we read upon Christs giving his Apostles commission to teach and preach to all Nations there were Churches gathered in every place And this is to be understood of the ordinary way For whether the Word even as read may not in some extraordinary cases be a means to bring some one person or more to the Church of God is not here to be disputed for we speak of the solemn ordinary instituted means of God and so there is no other way but the preaching of the Word Hence Rom. 10. 14 15. you see there a concatenation and chaining of calling upon God and believing together of beliving and hearing together and of hearing and the Ministry together But it 's objected by the Socinians That if the preaching of the Word be an instrument to gather a Church then it cannot be a note of the Church For that which is antecedent to a Church and is before the Church is cannot be a note of it To this we may answer That it is both an instrument to gather a Church and then a note of it when gathered neither is there any absurdity therein It 's true that very numerical preaching which at first made the Church cannot be a mark or note of it but the same specifical preaching or that which is like it that doth truly declare where the true Church is So that by this we may see the dignity and usefulness of the Ministry for by that God is pleased to raise up all the Churches that are in the world God who did immediatly create the world and used no instruments yet in planting of his Church doth and therefore they are workers with him 2 Cor. 6. 1. Neither is the Ministry only necessary to constitute a Church and then afterwards useless as Episcopius saith Where people have the Scriptures there the Ministry is of no necessity Yea the Socinians make it only a matter of order and conveniency For Ministers are not only appointed to gather Churches at first but when they are planted continually to water them Therefore Ephes 4. their usefulness is shewed even to constituted Churches For the further building them up even till they come to a full stature in Christ. And therefore the Apostles thought it not enough to make Churches to erect new spiritual Societies that should profess Christ but Elders were to be ordained in every Church that were to have constant residence amongst
from Christ and that having begun in the Spirit they would end in the flesh We might instance also in several other Churches But as the Father said elegantly We need not drink up the whole Sea to know whether the water be saltish a drop or two will suffice Secondly This may be demonstrated from the relation and comparison the Church is adorned with in reference to Christ It 's often compared to Christs wife now the wife continueth a true wife and is not to be deserted unless for Adultery which breaketh the conjugal knot otherwise though she have many sad infirmities which may make the relation bitter and uncomfortable yet it doth not unwise her The Church is also Christs body now a body is not forsaken by the soul though it be a sore body a leprous body a leper is a man though a leper It 's Christs â—arden now this may have many weeds in it and many things defile it yet it is not presently made a waste wilderness Thus it is with the Church of God she may have many failings in Doctrine and manners yet not be quite unchurched Thirdly From a godly man A true child of God may have sad falls as we see in Peter and David yet for all this not be quite excluded out of the Covenant of grace they did not lose their sonship even in those sad transgressions and will God be more severe to a whole Church than to one person Use of Instruction what a deal of prudence and wisdome is required in every godly man under Church-pollutions To know what to do to understand how to deport himself for this he must be guided by the Word and the advise of those that are faithfull on the one hand not to be stupid or careless much less complying and communicating with the Church defilements and on the other side not to be so transported with misguided zeal and impatiency against evil as there by to rend the Church causlesly and to sin our selves because others sin SERM XVIII The Preheminence of the Church of God above all Civil Societies As likewise concerning Paul's writing this second Epistle to the Corinthians how hard a thing it is for Churches to keep within their proper bounds and what great care Ministers ought to have to use all means lawfull to promote the Churches which they have relation to 2 COR. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth THis clause hath been fruitfull for much spiritual and edifying matter I shall conclude it at this time There are three things more which are to be deduced from this subject And First Whereas you see that the Epistle is not directed to the Magiâ—â—â— or Civil Governours of the City neither is the least notice taken of their wealth oâ— external pomp We may observe That the Church of God as it is a Church doth farre surpass all Civil Societies and temporal Dignities The Apostle owneth nothing in this famous City but their faith their profession of Christ and subjection to him A Church is a supernatural Society for supernatural and spiritual ends where God is in a more special manner present and therefore though the civil Magistrate be also of God and civil Societies they are of him yet not in that peculiar relation as a Church is Thus the Psalmist saith Psal 87. 2. The Lord loveth the 〈◊〉 of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jerusalem that is the Assemblies of his people met together in holy Ordinances above all other their civil meetings though never so pompouâ— and magnificent Therefore it 's good to consider that in all the inscriptions which the Apostle 〈◊〉 to any Churches he doth not at all speak of any civil or temporal Dignities that the places where the Churches were had but only â—…on of their spiritual titles as a Church Saints Believers Beloved of God And certainly if we do truly consider things these Titles do as farre transâ—â—nd all civil glory as the Heavens do the Earth The Apostle writing to the 〈◊〉 in all that Epistle takes no notice of the glory of that City which was the Orbis Domina and which they usually called aeterna Urbs he mentioneth their faith which was known to the whole world Rom. 1. 8. not the Roman and warlike power whereby they were so terrible to all Nations It is good to consider this for how few Churches do esteem of or judge themselves by their Church consideration but by their civil respects As they are such a City such a Corporation glorying in their Liberties and Charters whereas the consideration of themselves as a Church should far more possess their hearts Briefly to understand this consider First That the Church and Commonwealth or any civil Society are two distinct things the Church is one thing and the State another thing In the times of Heathen Magistrates and while there was outward persecution by the civil Powers which then ruled it 's plain for the City of Rome and the Church of Rome in Paul's time were wholly different So at Corinth the civil Magistracy of the Town did not seem to be Christians the Corporation of the Town was not as I may say made a Church The Christian Religion was not at this time established in Corinth by the City-Laws and Government only many in Corinth were become believers So that it 's plain The same Corinthians as they were a Church lived by other Laws and by different principles then as members of the City of Corinth As he was a Citizen so he met in their civil Judicatories so he acted according to the Laws of the City provided nothing was against Gods command but as a member of the Church there so they meet with others in spiritual communion for holy and spiritual ends Thus it is in a State while they are generally Heathenish But some have doubted Whether if a Commonwealth become Christian then there is any difference there between the Church and such a Christian State Whether then they are not all one But certainly by the first Institution and plantation of Churches by Christ and the Apostles Churches were founded and imbodied their Officers imploiment and the end of their Society appointed without any relation to the civil State and Government where they lived And therefore a Christian State doth not civilly govern nor bear the Sword punishing with death neither are there supream Governours Lords or Noblemen in it as a Church for then these should be Church-officers and instituted by Christ a Justice of Peace is not of Christ as a Pastor in the Church Neither on the other side are the preaching of the Word the administration of Sacraments the exercising of Church-censures the effects of a Christian State but as a Church So that it 's necessary by Scripture to acknowledge these two a Church and the State as two distinct Societies though the same men may be members of the same Secondly It 's a most blessed thing when the civil State and Church are
happily united together so that both in their several stations do promote the Kingdom of Christ There are extremities on both sides some exclude all civil Government from the matters of the Church or Religion as if the Magistrate and the civil power had nothing to do to appoint any thing in reference to these spiritual matters which if so then Kings and Queens could not be nursing Fathers and Mothers in the Church Then the Magistrate should not be the Custos utriusque tabulae then holy Magistrates should sinne in reforming abuses and corruptions which are crept into the Church of God which yet Hezekiah and Josiah did and so likewise Constantine did to his great praise saying to the Officers of the Church he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had an external Episcopacie and Superintendency Then in the second place there is another extream errour which is to confound the State and the Church as if Christ had appointed no distinct Officers or work but that any man authorized by a commission from the civil power was hereby inabled to do any Office in the Church and that Christ had not set Pastors or Teachers in his Church but civil Governours Now how blessed and happy hath it been when these Societies have been friendly complying and furthering one another The Commonwealth helping and furthering defending and protecting the Church The Church also performing all Church-Ordinances in such a manner that God may bless that state and make it to be as Obed-Edoms house while he entertained the Ark Quamdiu respublicae manent hospitia Ecclesiae tamdiu suns duraturae Hence in the third place The Devil and his instruments have alwayes laboured the ruine of godliness by making divisions and using several stratagems to overthrow the harmonious Unity that ought to be in the Church of God and civil State In Popery we see abominable mischief came to Religion by the usurping of the name of the Church for they excluded the Magistrates and supream Governours from any Government therein and at last pleading exemption from all Obedience and Subjection to the chief powers though so expresly contrary to Paul Rom. 13. Thus they make a few only yea but one the Pope at last to be the Church and then attribute to him a power to dispose of Kingdoms and States where and to whom he pleaseth directly and immediately say some and those who do most mince it say indirectè and in ordine ad spiritualia On the other side sometimes the civil State hath been jealous yea and violently perscuting the Church of God as if that of Julian were true A Church and a civil Society could not stand together as if Christ had commanded such things of his Church that were inconsistent with and would utterly overthrow all civil Government Thus Pilate he was jealous because he heard of Christs Kingdom and although it be known that his Kingdom is not of this world that Church power is wholly spiritual in order to mens souls yet how often are the Governours suspicious about it But these particulars are of large consideration and handled by learned Authours I come therefore to shew That a peoples consideration of themselves as a Church should be preferred above all their civil Glory and Dignity It ought to be more as one Emperour said to be a Member of the Church then an Emperour of the whole world The Church of Rome in Pauls time while pure in the faith was more admirable then the City of Rome which was Queen over the whole world The Grounds why we are to give this preheminence to a Church-consideration are First Because a Church-constitution is supernatural all is of God in a more special manner then in civil Societies For although all civil Powers be of God and the making of civil Societies of making Nations and Kingdoms be in an extraordinary manner attributed to him in the Scripture yet still this is in the course of Nature but a Church is planted by the grace of God and it 's above the work of Nature either ordinary or extraordinary to be made such a Society Secondly As we are a Church we have the nearest relation and reference to God not as a City or a Corporation are but as a Church are we his House his Body his Vinyard Neither can we expect such presence of God in our civil Assemblies and Judicatories as in Church-meetings The power and grace of God is in a more powerfull and special manner discovering it self there Thirdly Hereby we have greater Titles and more noble Dignity Although it 's true in the account of the world nothing is more contemptible The Church is called the Kingdom of God we are hereby the children of God the Covenant of Grace is made with us So that all who are not of the Church be they never such glorious victorious and wise Nations yet they are without God and they are under the Kingdom of Satan whereas Gods Church is the Object of his love there he is said to delight to dwell Use of Instruction to Believers who are the Church of God to consider that title and relation they are in as such Though great though rich though honourable yet let it not be accounted equal to the being one of Gods Church If the Devil should shew thee the glory of all the world promising to bestow it on thee upon condition thou renouncest thy Church interest and Church membership with great indignation refuse it What high esteem was put upon the being a Roman Citizen Paul stood upon his Roman freedom in a particular case but this is nothing to be of that free City which is Jerusalem from above even in this Earth By meditating on this thou wilt be more thankfull to God that he hath made thee one of his Church than if he had given all the Turkish Empire to thee for that is but as Luther said Mica cani a crum to the dog in respect of the childrens bread Again The consideration of a Church-priviledge and interest will make thee most to attend to that in disposing and setling thy self when at liberty Most people look to live where the best trading is the greatest priviledges or best earthly accommodation But if thou art one free to settle thy self where thou mayest thou that fearest God will look upon Church advantages as the greatest glory and profit of all Lastly This will take off all those general thoughts which do almost reign every where to consider of men by their Cities and Townes not by their Churches It 's the Town at such a place the Corporation at such a place but no attending to that place as it is a Church of God Hence it is that we are wholly drowned in the thoughts of our selves as a Town as a Parish in civil respects but never considering the relation of a Church and what duties we are obliged unto thereby The two other Observations are to be dispatched in a little room as
in Christ and submission unto his will For a Church being a visible Society there must be some external and visible sign whereby we may demonstrate our selves to be of the Church Hence Rom. 10. it 's said That with the mouth confession is made to salvation There may be many secret and hidden Atheists in the Church of God yet because they do externally profess the Christian Religion therefore it is that they are of the Church in respect of the external and visible state of it Thus Simon Magus and others while they did profess their faith in Christ they were under the name of a Church and believers and so of Saints 4. There is yet a further degree in this Church-Saintship and that is When besides this sacramental and external holiness there are some workings of Gods Spirit upon their souls So that the Christian Religion hath some kind of influence upon them They are not only titular Saints but they have some kind of inchoate and imperfect workings of Gods Spirit upon their souls which have a tendency to godliness or at least a resemblance and shew of it So that in the opinion of others and many times in their own perswasions likewise they are true Saints Now these may well enough be stiled Saints because the Scripture attributes to them such acts as have the name of holiness So Mat. 13. the temporary believer likened to the thorny ground is said to have faith and to receive the Word with joy Some are said in 2 Pet. 2. To escape the pollutions of the world Yea Heb. 6. some are said to be enlightned to have tasted the good Word of God to partake of the holy Ghost c. and yet for all that such were never true Saints For such that are so can no more finally apostatize than true starres can fall from the Heavens Comets and blazing Stars may have a great lustre for a while but being composed of terrestrial exhalations at last they fall into the womb of that Earth from whence they sprang Thus those who have only some imperfect common works of Gods Spirit abounding in gifts and many admirable abilities these may seem in Saintship to exceed many that are truly so but because there was never true and deep rooting when the storms and tempests shall arise this glorious building will not have so much as a stone left upon a stone Those uncomfortable Teachers injurious to the grace of God that do so peremptorily dogmatize the Apostasie of the Saints do yet never bring such Texts of Scripture or instances that do necessarily prove those to be true Saints that are spoken of Saul was never a true Saint Judas was never a true Saint and so no wonder of hopefull beginnings degenerated into such tragical and horrid beginnings Now whereas the former mentioned viz. those that are only baptized that give an external submission to Christs Laws especially if as too many do wallowing in all the wayes of the flesh and carnal excess if these I say may by all be proclaimed to be no real but nominal Saints all the world seeth they are Christians in name but beasts and devils in respect of real Saintship Yet the great difficulty and the constant wisdome of a Christian is exercised about the discerning this later holiness from that which is true To know when I am gone further than any hypocrite or reprobate can attain unto This as we are greatly to study and examine our selves in so we are to know that it is better to be deceived in any worldly matter than in this Lastly The ultimate and most compleat step of Church-Saintship in this life is When we go beyond all the former and are made partakers of the Spirit of God in the powerfull renovation of us so that from that holy and new creature within us our lives and actions are made really and solidly holy And this is indeed the true and proper Saintship to which only the promise of Justification and Glorification is made So that if thou didst enjoy the greatest Church-priviledges yea and the most admirable gifts therein yet if destitute of this Saintship thou art but a tinkling cymbal and the hottest place in hell will be filled with such seeming Saints SERM XX. External Holiness is not enough to bring us to Heaven without the inward renovation of the Heart 2 COR. 1. 1. With all the Saints that are in all Achaia VVE have heard what is the last and ultimate step in Church-Saintship without which all the former though they be in themselves great mercies yet because we take them in vain do become in some respect in the number of those whom God will not hold guiltless They are I say in themselves great mercies For when we are thus called by God unto the external means of holiness there is some hope and a possible way for salvation whereas without this there is necessary destruction It is here as in blind Bartimeus his case Mark 10. 49. for when Christ commanded him to be called to him presently some said to the blind man Be of good comfort he calleth thee that was a good encouragement Christ called him so whereas there are many thousands in the world that are left alone in their state of darkness but he vouchsafeth the means of grace to thee We may say Be of good comfort there is some hopes Christ calleth thee yet because many are called and of those many called few are chosen therefore this external holiness and Saintship is not enough unless there be the inward renovation of the whole man Unless thou art holy inwardly as well as outwardly this will make to thy greater condemnation That therefore which is the essential form and gives a constrtutive being to Church-Saintship is Regeneration or the work of grace upon a mans heart Indeed to an external state and visible condition of Church-holiness a profession of faith with submission unto Christs wayes is enough but that which maketh us indeed members of the body of Christ and invests us with right to all saving benefits that is only this inward real Saintship And to clear this more you must take notice First That even in real Saintship there is a great latitude and difference All are not Saints alike The Scripture speaks of babes of young men of old men It speaks of some that are spiritual and perfect others are imperfect and even carnal 1 Cor. 3. comparatively so that we must alwayes distinguish between the truth of grace and the degrees of it A Saint is a Saint though but a bruised reed and a smoaking flax This is good to be observed that we may not judge of Saintship by such degrees and high attainments but by truth and sincerity No there will be alwayes difference both in Illumination and Sanctification and that amongst the Saints themselves And this should teach a mutual bearing and forbearing of one another Let not him that is strong who doth farre surpass others though
zealous was Paul in desiring this for the Jews We read of a notable expression Epist 3. of John ver 2. There he wisheth Gaius as much health to his body as he had in soul How excellent was his soul that was in better condition than his body SERM. XXIII Of the Name Nature and Preheminence of the Grace of God above all other things 2 COR. 1. 2. Grace be to you and Peace c. THe next thing considerable in these words are the particular mercies prayed for in this Salutation The first whereof and that which is the efficient cause of all other things is Grace The Common-place in Divinity De Gratia Dei of the grace of God is of a very vast extent and most of the Popish Arminian and Socinian errours arise from the mistake of the use of this word in the Scripture but it would be impertinent to grasp that whole controversie I shall not treat any more of it then what may relate to this Text. We may therefore briefly take notice of the use of it to our purpose That the first and most principal signification of it is the favour and mercy of God towards us for it answereth the Hebrew word Chen which comes of a root that signifieth to have mercy So that when the Scripture faith We are justified by grace we are called by grace we are saved by grace The Popish party doth grosly erre taking grace there for something in us wrought by the Spirit of God whereas it is indeed without us even the Attribute of mercy and grace in God So that the meaning is We obtain such glorious priviledges not because of any thing in our selves though never so holy but because of the meer grace and favour of God without us Grace then in the most frequent and principal signification of it denoteth the favour and goodness of God But then In the second place It is used sometimes for the Effects of this Grace For as mercy is sometimes taken for the attribute in God and sometimes for the effects of it So likewise is grace Hence it is that Gods grace is sometimes put for the Gospel and the preaching of the Word This being meerly from his grace that he vouchsafeth such a mercy to his people Act. 20. 24. Tit. 2. 11. Sometimes it is taken for the good success and special assistance that God giveth unto the preachers of it Act. 14. 26. 1 Cor. 15. 10. Yet not I but the grace of God viz. assisting and giving success to my ministerial labours Again It 's applied to those common gifts of Gods Spirit which were so wonderfully vouchsafed in those dayes To speak with tongues to work miracles these are called the grace of God though some would distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 10. Yea the very function and offices in the Church are called Gods Grace as Paul did his Apostleship Rom. 1. 5. because it's the meer grace of God that hath appointed such Offices in the Church Lastly That which the Roman Church makes the more ordinary sence that indeed is sometimes but seldom to be found in Scripture viz. to signifie those habits and principles of holiness which are with in us There are some indeed who say The Scripture never useth the word Grace in this sense but some places seem to be clear Col. 3. 16. Col. 4. 6. Heb. 13. 9. 2 Pet. 3. 18. And therefore we may truly call that work of God in us Grace so that we do not make it to justifie or save for that is the grace of God without us Observe That the grace of God is to be desired by every one in the chiefest and first place This we should earnestly pray for that whatsoever God would deny us yet that he would give us his grace and favour We are I say to desire it not only above all temporal and earthly comforts above riches honours and long life but even above the sanctification and holiness of our souls which God worketh We are to desire his grace more than grace in our own hearts for this is the effect of that and this alone being imperfect in us could not justifie or save us Let us discover this rich treasure of Gods grace though the Apostle Ephes 2. 5. calls it The exceeding riches of his grace so that we can never speak to the full of it though we had the tongue of men and Angels still there is more in the grace of God than we are able to fathom We must therefore speak and understand as children about it till in Heaven this imperfection be done away And First We must know that God hath several attributes tending to the same thing yet do not ionally differ There is his Goodness whereby he is willing to communicate of his fulness to the creature Thus he was good to Adam making him so glorious a creature There is his Mercy and that is whereby he pitieth his creature being cast into misery There is also his Patience and Long-suffering which is extended to sinners that do for a long time rebell against him when he could if he pleased destroy them every moment in hell And lastly here is this property of Grace whereby he is called a gracious God And this the Scripture doth speak of as the most glorious and comfortable attribute and that doth imply these things 1. That whatsoever good God doth bestow upon us it cometh solely and originally from his meer bounty and good pleasure So that there is nothing in us that may in the least manner either merit with God or move him to be thus gracious So that we can never hear of this word Grace but it should presently humble and debase us it should make us condemn our selves and give all to God For if it be of grace than there was no motive in us God out of his own bowels doth this for us Rom. 1. 5 6. The Apostle speaketh very fully to this If of grace than it is not of works otherwise grace is no more grace So that to acknowledge the grace of God as Pelagians were forced to do and so Papists and Arminians do yet at last to divide between grace and our selves to make us co-workers with it yea to make it effectual this is to take all away really that we had given verbally before So that if it be Gods grace we must not give so much as the least sigh and desire to our selves all cometh meerly from the good pleasure of his own will 2. Grace doth not only thus imply a pure and only original from God himself excluding us but it supposeth also a manifest unworthiness in us and a contrary desert to what God bestoweth upon us Therefore grace in the Scripture language supposeth sinfulness in us that we deserve to be abhorred and cast out of Gods presence Hence justification and pardon of sinne are attributed to the grace of God
the Gospel is though to some a savour of life yet to others a savour of death Thus afflictions and troubles to some do discover their hypocrisie and guile as winnowing doth the chaâ—â— but to others they are blessed either to conversion or to edification So that in all the sufferings of the Church we are by prayer to importune God that by these means greater glory may come to Christ and that these waters of persecution may be like those to the Ark which could not drown it but exalted it nearer to Heaven Hence Fourthly We may admire the wisdome power and goodnesse of God that wherein the enemies of Gods Church deal craftily and cruelly in that very thing he is above them working the contrary to that which they are intending For how many persecutors hath the Church had who like Haman resolved to root out the very name of Christianity and their persecutions have increased the number of Christians Thus it must needs be madness and torment to the Churches enemies to see that the wayes they take to demolish is indeed to build up the Church of God Even as it was with Pharaoh when he called a counsel to deal craftily with the Israelites to oppress and diminish them then they were the more multiplied Thus Act. 12. 24. when Herod set himself to kill the eminent servants of the Lord and thereby weaken the Church of God for when the shepherds were dissipated what would become of the flock it is said But the word of God grew and multiplied See how the contrary fell out to Herods design These things premised Let us consider What is the general good promoted by the Churches sufferings And 1. Hereby the glory of God and Christ is the more exalted amongst all that fear him For when the Churches of God shall see the wisdome and goodness of God thus to his people turning all the cruelty and craft of their adversaries to their own good that what they could never do their enemies do for them What glory and praise doth this cause in all Congregations How is the Church indeared hereby to God to trust in him to continue faithfull to him in all exercises God hath been good and will be good God hath turned the greatest evil of men to the greatest advantage and he will do it As Christs death is called a glorifying of him Thus also are the sufferings for Christ the believers glory and not only so but the glory of Christ also What saith Paul Phil. 1. 20. Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or death But 2. The great good overflowing to the Church by its sufferings are the propagation and enlargement of the Gospel thereby Phil. 1. 13. Paul there sheweth how his troubles fell out to the furtherance of the Gospel for his bonds were made manifest in Caesars palace and in all other places That of Tertullian is known The blood of Martyrs is the seed of the Church When men did behold their faith the râ—patience their constancy and courage it made them enquire into the cause of their sufferings what it was that could make them so constantly endure all kind of torments Insomuch that this was in stead of the working of miracles to bring men to faith So that as the shaking of a ripe flower maketh many seeds fall to the ground and in stead of that one flower many come up in the room of it or as when the Vine hath its branches cut off there come farre more in stead thereof Thus it hath also been by all the troubles on the Church of God by afflictions and by patience under them How numerous did the Church of God grow even like the stars in Heaven Let the Use be To consider those examples of all such worthies who have suffered for Christ whether recorded in Scripture or in Ecclesiastical History read them for thy comfort and thy salvation The word of God and the lives of Martyrs bearing witness to it may much prevail over a stony heart It hath been a good blessing of God that the Names and Histories of most Martyrs have been preserved and recorded for the good of the Church of God to come The lives and sufferings of our Martyrs here in England what influence may they not make upon thee What patience what heavenly mindedness what courage should this put into thee As Abel though dead speaketh Thus do all the godly Martyrs the Bradfords the Ridleys the Latimers they all speak still and God suffereth such persecutions to be as perpetual Sermons to teach us SERM. LI. The Afflictions which others suffer for Christ make much for our Comfort and Salvation 2 COR. 1. 6. And whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation THe second particular in this Text as it stands divided is the Consequent or Effect of this tribulation which is set down in a particular and special manner above any other fruit of it and that is two-fold Consolation and Salvation Of the word Consolation enough hath already been said For the other viz. Salvation we shall remit it to the end of the verse where it is again specified So that our work is immediately to proceed to the Observation which is That sufferings for Christ should be so farre from disheartning and offending others that a true and right consideration of them may much provoke our comfort and salvation This truth is of great use For the afflictions accompanying the wayes of Christ have been an offence and a stumbling block to many Now when a curb shall be made a spur when an hinderance a furtherance and we shall be encouraged from those particulars which should drive back this consideration must be very profitable Before we come to amplifie in what manner in what respects persecutions are made thus serviceable to others Let us take notice First That the sufferings of others do work good only occasionally or by way of example We must not conceive any merit or causality as was declared before in Martyrs They are Examples not Mediators Their light did shine that we might thereby glorifie God So that we must take heed that the sufferings of the godly do not obscure the sufferings of Christ that they should not be accounted the only treasure of Christ But as Luther was afraid lest his books should take men off from meditating on the Bible Or as Paul was afraid men should judge of him as if he by his own power had done that miracle and therefore told them It was onely by the Name of Christ. So also it was with all the true Martyrs of Christ they were humble looking upon themselves as unworthy of the name of a Martyr neither would they have their blood derogate from the blood of Christ Hence Secondly We may greatly deplore and bewail the Apostasie of the Church concerning those that were Martyrs and sufferers for Christ in what superstition and sinfull devotion were they plunged in about
imprison and destroy those that do yet truly fear God This ignorance upon them though it may excuse in some degree and make them lesse sinners then such who do wilfully oppose and do despite maliciously against the Spirit of grace yet it doth not totally free them nay they are persecutours for all that as you see Paul acknowledged concerning himself Now such enemies as these are acted by religious principles but in a false way they commonly are more zealous and implacable than any other Paul because it was not any carnal advantage or profit he sought after but a meer zeal for the Religion he had by tradition from his fathers therefore did he pursue the Christians in such a bloody furious manner Tantum Religio potuit c. said the Poet Oppositions against the wayes of God from such who are zealous and devout in their false wayes are constantly more dreadfull and terrible than any others So that we are again and again to try what spirit we are of to examine Whether it be the true Religion indeed that we give our selves up to the profession thereof For if it be not the greater zeal the greater forwardnesse therein is but the greater condemnation and like the Traveller out of the way the more thou runnest the further thou goest from the true way But The second sort of enemies to the truths of Christ which are farre the more numerous part is of such Who are addicted to such a way and perswasion in Religion not because of any Divine worke of Gods Spirit upon them but because it suiteth with their carnal interest it agreeth with their external profit and therefore they cry out Great is Diana when indeed in their heart they say Great is their wealth great is their gain this is the Diana We may justly charge this upon Popery What was it that made Luther and the other Reformers so odious to the Popish party What made the Pope with his adherents to breath nothing but fire and sword Was it not because they touched the Popes Crowne and the Monkes belly Hence Secondly The faithfull Ministers of the Gospel meet with opposition not from the Pagans only that are without but from the sonnes of the Church which are within from those who professe the same God the same faith the same Christ with them And the reason is because many that professe Christ do so for earthly and carnal respects and such titular and counterfeit Christians as these cannot but hate those that are genuine The Apostle in the large Catalogue of his manifold sufferings reckoneth this up amongst the rest Perils from false brethren 2 Cor. 11. 26. Thus in Abrahams family there will be an Ishmael to persecute Isaac because one is of the bond-woman and the other of the free Think not then that the Pagan or Jew will become enemies to the powerfull preaching of the Gospel for every false Christian will Every one that followeth Christ onely because of loaves or with Judas becometh a Disciple because of the bagge Doth not experience confirme this that the prophane Christian doth as bitterly rage at and oppose the holy wayes of Christ as any Heathen would doe Thus the godly Ministers have trouble as it were from their own flock their Sheep sometimes becomes Wolves and Beares to them and with Ezekiel They dwell among Scorpions Ezekiel 2. 6. Thirdly The carnal interest and earthy sinfull respects are of divers sorts even as the creeping things that are produced from the earth are innumerable As 1. He knoweth Religion onely for carnal ends though it be the true one that turns the grace of God into wantonnesse That cryes up Gospel truths onely to encourage themselves in a licentious way As many of the mixed multitude went out with the Israelites from Aegypt yet kept their old and corrupt natures still So in the first Reformation many came out of Rome with the blessed Reformers many gloried in the name of Evangelici that they had shaken off the yoke of Antichristianisme but at the same time they did not cast off the yoke of sinne The first Reformers sadly complained of such that looked upon the Gospel as the casting off not onely the Popes Laws but Gods Law also as if to renounce the Images and Masse had been enough though in the mean time they did securely sleep in all wickednesse Now from such as these the Ministers of the Gospel have found as much unkindnesse and malice as from their Popish adversaries So that both ot home and abroad the Prophets of the Lord have been greatly afflicted These spots in our feasts these lovers of pleasures more than God these are they that have in all places withstood the power and life of godlinesse the holy Order and Discipline Christ hath instituted as if the liberty Paul bids us stand fast in were a liberty to sinne without controll and an indulgence in all licentiousnesse Such as these when they come into the warme Sunne when they have Summer an opportunity in their hand will discover that they are Serpents and will sting Tertullian apologized of old That the Christian Religion had her greatest enemies in Ale-houses and Brothel-houses and thus still the powerfull way of godlinesse is opposed by those monsters in Christianity that have the head of a Christian but the heart and life of beasts Mulier formosa supernè desinit in piscem Like those Locusts Revel 9. 6. that had faces like men but teeth like Lions and tailes like Scorpions Thus how many have the face of Christians but in heart in lives are beasts all over From these the Ministers of God have received much opposition 2. They know Religion onely after carnal respects who intend to enrich and to advance themselves by it take up the profession of it for no other end but to gain thereby As this Demetrius made him shrines not so much out of devotion to Diana as to increase his wealth Our Saviour knowing such a self-seeking disposition was predominant in many who proffered to be his Disciples he therefore prevents their Hypocrisie and Apostasie by telling them The Foxes have holes but the Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head and requireth it as a fundamental qualification That he who would be his Disciple must loue Christ more than father and mother and life it self Yea must not venture to winne the whole world if thereby he should lose his soul Oh take heed of this Judas this treacherous disposition in thee to be of the mind with those Paul speaketh of who supposed That gain is Godlinesse 1 Tim. 6. 5. Yea such are worse than Judas for he sold Christ but once thou doest continually and he was grieved and troubled for what he had done but thou though thou preferrest earthy things all the day long before Christ yet art not grieved in heart Well such as these are will in case of profit and advantage make all opposition against the preaching of
by himself Whereby the same Authour concludeth That there would be no blame or fault to be found with that man who should say Paul had as much grace here in this life as some shall have in the world to come But although we grant Paul to be among other Christians like Saul among other men higher by the shoulders yet that he did find the rebellion and corruption of the flesh debasing his best duties appeareth by his accounting all things drosse and desiring to be found in the righteousnesse of Christ Phil. 3. 8. So that while these endeavour to exalt the sanctifying grace of God in Paul they eclipse his justifying and while they advance his inherent righteousnesse they obscure his imputed righteousnesse Whether Paul then or any other eminent servant of God They all find a law of sinne within them rebelling against the law of the mind by which they look upon themselves as miserable captives and do groan for a perfect and full redemption by Christ Thirdly These two principles therefore not onely residing in them but acting contrarily it is very necessary in a Christian exactly to observe to what mother as it were the child doth belong To which principle thou art to attribute thy actions For the not duly dividing and separating here doth many times cause great confusion in the godly soul We see it many times in David's Psalmes that there are such different expressions sometimes of faith and joy and then again of diffidence and dejection that we would not think the Psalme was made by the same man we would think there were contradictions and all because sometimes it is the voice of Esau and sometimes the voice of Jacob as I may so say Sometimes grace speaketh and sometimes the filth speaketh In the Disciples also our Saviour taketh notice of this and thereby excuseth them saying The Spirit is willing Matth. 26. 41. Now although it is very necessary in all our practicals to go to the bottome to know what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit yet in the matter of afflictions and our bearing of them there we are much more to attend to it For afflictions being grievous to flesh and blood draweth out the corruptions thereof very much So that the voice of the flesh is many times farre louder than the voice of the Spirit which maketh the godly ready to conclude that they are nothing but flesh that they have not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them because they feel so much distrust so much diffidence and disquietness of heart within them More usefull particulars are to be insisted upon only for the present let those who truly fear God make this Use of the Doctrine viz. Not to conclude concerning their estate as if it were wholly carnal because they feel the struglings and motions of sinfull flesh within them let them not despair if they feel that they cannot alwayes keep up spiritual apprehensions about their afflictions if they cannot say I bless God for these chastisements I see the great advantage cometh to me by them Though they appear like anger yet they are indeed the effects of love If this be not alwayes the blessed and serene disposition of thy soul but thy flesh like Job's wife provoketh thee to charge God foolishly to be impatient and diffident remember that you have a two-fold self a carnal self and a spiritual self one saith one thing and another saith another thing It is as impossible to have a mans own heart free fâ—om divisions as it is for the Church of God That which faith saith is light flesh saith is heavy That which faith rejoyceth at flesh repineth at Thus it hath been and thus it will be with the generation of those that seek God SERM. LXII How the voice of the Spirit and the voice of the Flesh differ in Afflictions And why it is necessary a man should know them asunder 2 COR. 1. 8. That we were pressed above measure FRom the Explication of this passage we have observed That it is one thing what a godly man speaketh according to the principle of flesh and blood within him and another thing what he saith according to faith and the principle of grace And because this truth is of perpetual practical use let us a little more dilate upon it And First Let us instance in some discoveries whereby we may know when flesh speaketh and when the Spirit doth For these though contrary one to another yet are not discerned without spiritual illuminations and senses exercised to know things that differ And First The voice of flesh and blood in such kind of troubles is to make a final conclusion and sentence upon our selves That God hath forsaken us that we are cast out from his love Insomuch that did not the principle of grace in some measure withstand and at some times overcome these temptations the soul would be swallowed up in this whirlpool but let the godly know that this is not the voice of Jacob but of Esau The regenerate principle will not dare not give in such false testimony Isai 49. 14 15. Zion hath said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me But in the next verse we see God expresly denying it and that not only he had not forsaken her but that he could not forsake her for his affections were more to her then any mothers to her sucking child The Church then was too hasty and precipitate she should have considered Gods Word before she passed such a peremptory sentence concerning her self Therefore when God saith one thing and thy heart another when the Scripture speaketh one thing and thy flesh another thing which is more to be regarded See this distemper likewise in Jonah Chap. 2. 6. Then I said I am cast out of thy sight Here the corrupt part in Jonah made quick his desperate work He was cast out of Gods sight but Nubecula fuit cito transivit it was a little storm it was presently over for immediately he doth as it were contradict himself and saith I will look again toward thy holy Temple So that it was with corruption and grace at this time as it was with Rebeccah in her child-bearing the first came out red and hairy but the second came out smooth and holding Esau by the heel Thus the first motion of Jonah's heart cometh forth red and hairy bloody and rough but then faith like Jacob followeth this Esau immediately and supplants it When therefore the godly do at any time find such motions and workings of heart as if their troubles were a demonstration of Gods desertion of them that if he loved them he would never let it be so with them rebuke these immediately and be as much affected as Hezekiah was when he heard Rabshakeh blaspheme God For indeed such thoughts do highly dishonour God and represent him otherwise than he is For the Apostle directed by the Spirit of God which searcheth the deep things of
but in quiete The very nature then of trusting and the actings thereof do proclaime thy inability and insufficiency It is because thou art a depending Creature and not like God allsufficient that thou art necessitated to trust in some thing without 2. This trusting by originall sinne is horribly corrupted and perverted as well as the other actings and powers of the soul for it is wholely perverted in respect of the object We trust in that we ought not to do setting a Creature in the roome of God and thereby become guilty of secret but horrible idolatry and that which is the true and adequate object of our trusting that we neglect Insomuch that there is no man living till regenerated that doth put his trust in God but trusteth in man in the second causes in his own selfe Thus like a Worme he is alwayes crawling upon the ground and therefore if the Creatures and humane helps are removed from him he looketh upon himselfe as undone he hath no more hope abiding in him This argueth the Creature not God is the object of our trusting whereas there ought to be the same object of faith and trust I speake as these are divine acts not of humane faith and hope and therefore as we may not believe in any but God so neither trust in any Every thing that is divine and supernaturall must be terminated upon God himselfe Therefore we say that the Church of Rome by her principles can teach no higher a faith then what is meer humane because the ultimate motive in which they resolve their belief is the Authority of the Church which though they would make a divine motive yet cannot by any more then humane This it is in Practicalls as well as Doctrinalls A man carried by no higher principle then nature can never trust in any thing but a Creature There is required as much supernaturall and divine influence to trust in God as to the exercise of any other grace yea in some respects more But man being so inslaved to lust and to a concupiscentiall love of the Creature some way or other Hence it is that a great part of his sinfullness against God is in perverse and corrupted trusting which is a sin that doth not make such a terrible guilt and noise in the Conscience of a man but it is that which is almost the life and vigor of every sinne All sinne is therefore committed because a man doth trust in some Creature or other and that admirable choice way of Evangelicall Righteousnesse of Gospell justification yea and the whole treasury of riches of grace in Christ is opposed by no sinne so much as a self righteousness as we see in Paul before his conversion Paul was no prophane man no lover of excesse and riot his conversation was very holy and unblameable as to the Law But his selfe-trusting his selfe-righteousnesse made him a greater enemy to the Gospell-grace then any propaneness did most enormious men 3. Our trusting and confidence being naturally thus put from God the right object hence it is that it emptyeth it selfe into many streames insomuch that we have as many sinfull confidences almost as there are Creatures in the world As the Prophet told the people of Israel that his gods multiplyed acording to their Cities they had as many Idols as such places so we may inlarge it about carnall confidence and say it is according to all the Creatures and comforts we do enjoy Insomuch that when our Saviour said Mark 10. 24. That it was impossible for such who trust in riches to be saved the Disciples cry out Who then can be saved signifying thereby that every man hath somewhat he doth trust in as well as the rich man his riches And because particular things do most affect let us instance in some things which are commonly made the objects of mens trust And do you apply which of all these thy heart is fixed upon by trusting in it for thou wilt find whatsoever it is beside God it will prove a lye to thee and as they did by imsultation say to Christ he trusted in God let him save him so this will be a true derision at the day of judgement to every man offending this way Thou didst trust in the power and favour of men let them save thee from Hell let them free thee from damnation Another he did put his trust in his wealth he boasted himselfe of that now let thy wealth save thee let that make thee escape those everlasting torments if they can Every man hath some thing or other in his heart he trusteth to as the Ivy that textilis silva a weaved wood as Tertullian calls it cannot grow without some Tree or Wall to leane upon so neither can the heart of a man move or stirre without dependance upon some Creature or other They did in their Sacrifice for the Muses and Learning offer Ivy to Apollo to shew that Learning would not or could not grow without civill incouragement yea and the Scripture doth often compare the Church of God to a Vine and amongst other reasons this may be one because the Vine cannot grow unless something else beare it up It is not like other Trees that beare up themselves Thus both the world and the Church of God one is like a Vine the other like Ivy. They cannot like the earth be centred on nothing there must be suppeditaments to beare them up And because a naturall man wants the life of faith which would settle him on God only therefore he runeth out to innumerable Crutches to help himselfe with as some Creatures for want of bloud abound with many feet to help them in their motion Now the Scripture doth suggest most of these to us And 1. Which is indeed the worst of all is When a man trusteth in his own wickednesse and beareth himselfe up with that There are such Sonnes of Belial such monsters of impiety that do only comfort and support themselves with the iniquities they have committed Isai 30. 12. Some are there shrapely reproved for trusting in oppression in perverseness and fraud and stay thereon An expression the Scripture doth much delight to use when it speaketh of trusting Here you see because men are subtile and powerfull and successefull in wickednesse they are apt to trust in this but see what bitternesse will be in the latter end Verse 13. Their iniquity should be like a Wall swelling out ready to make a breach when a man thinketh to lean on it presently it falleth and overwhelmeth him The Psalmist also Psalme 62. 10. speaking of the vanity of men even in the highest degree he adviseth them not to trust in oppression and robbery in unjust and sinfull wayes Not to say with him in the Poet Virtus mihi numen ensis quem teneo My Manhood and my Sword is my God for how often hath God by tragicall instances in the world made it appeare that such mighty Nimrods had
their rust cleansing out their spots they would quickly become very loath some and unclean Now in the pursuing of this Doctrine because I have already opened the nature of this self-trusting I shall only aggravate the evil of it that because the godly are so prone to it they may the more bewail it and watch against it And certainly the people of God doe not thinke and meditate upon the evil of this sinne enough you heare them complaining often of other sinnes they lie heavy upon their hearts but very little of this whereas this is like sweet poison it destroyeth and you feele it not And First It must nneds be a sinne highly displeasing God Because he doth so severely chastise his own people to prevent this sinne The sharper physick is given the greater danger of the disease God would not have exercised Paul thus above his strength but that he might see his own feebleness and infirmity and might accordingly trust in God onely Lighter and lesser afflictions do not drive thee out of all humane props thou hast some creature-consideration or other that doth make thee bear up thy heart but when God cuts every rope and drives the ship into the midst of the Sea among waves and tempests then thou art provoked to look up unto God Let then the children of God lay to heart this sinne more and examine themselves in every affliction that doth befall them Thou many times sayest Oh that I could find out the sinne the Jonah that hath raised this tempest Oh that I knew what was the peculiar corruption God would bring me in mind of by this trouble upon me Why try and search whether thou hast not secretly trusted in thy own self or in some earthly hopes Whether thy heart hath been weaned from all things It may be there is this or that creature thou doest inordinately lean upon and therefore because thou doest not yet trust in God with all thy heart he doth thus imbitter thy condition to thee Insomuch that were the children of God in no danger of self-dependance or creature-dependance they should seldome meet with the rod of God upon their backs Who was a man of greater afflictions and exercises than David was And who speaketh more of trusting in God than he doth This he learned by all his temptations Secondly This sinne is to be aggravated Because it is such a secret close imbred sinne it is the last sinne that will be mortified There is a difficulty of finding it out and a difficulty of overcoming it when it is discovered and both these make it the more dangerous and damnable sinne It is difficult to find it out This sinne like Saul hideth it self behind the stuff you may search and search as they did for the Spies in Rahab's house but because something or other covereth this sinne therefore you passe it by undiscerned How apt are we to say I do not trust in my graces I do not trust in my gifts Would you not have me to take notice of them How can I then be thankfull to God How can I bless God for them And for my graces Do not all Divines say though they may not trust in them yet they may take them as comfortable signs of Gods favour and thereupon rejoyce before God yea and plead them against the accusation of Satan or as an argument to God not by way of merit but because of the gracious promise made by God to our graces after this manner Hezekiah under the sentence of death prayed Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with an upright heart 2 King 20. 3. Thus also Paul did I have fought a good fight henceforth is laid up for me a crown of glory 2 Tim. 4. 7. All this is true godly men are allowed to take comfort from their graces and thankfully to receive the evidences of Gods love thereby but how hard a matter is it to stay there and go no further How difficultly are consolations from them and confidence in them separated one from another Even as to have riches and not to trust in riches so to have grace and not trust in grace and the rather by how much grace is accounted a more excellent thing then wealth As it is hard to find it out so no lesse difficult to overcome it Caesar had some enemies of whom he said it was Difficilius invenire quam vincere but it is not so with this corruption Paul himself cannot so quickly shake off this viper that sticketh not to his hand but close to the heart For as faith is therefore the most difficult grace because it carrieth us out of our selves out of the creatures out of all things and fixeth the heart upon God alone So on the contrary this is the sinne that is most easie and where unto we are most propense with the worme we crawl upon the ground our feeblenesse and infirmity is such that we must have churches to rest upon and till faith be made perfect we cannot but catch hold upon some reed or other though never so weak Thirdly It being an heart-sinne It may be frequently committed in a day in an hour Thy heart is alwayes in motion it never lieth still now every time it moveth it may put forth some carnal dependance or other upon the creature Thus whereas many sins cannot be often committed there are many things concurrent ere they can be accomplished This may be committed as often as there is the twinkling of the eye The air then may not be fuller of Atomes or the sea of water than thy heart of carnal confidences And certainly every time God is not made thy refuge every time thou doest not rest under his shadow so often doest thou put trust in something else than God onely Take heed then of that sinne which like the Poets Hydra as often as thou cuttest off their Heads new ones arise again in the room thereof That the emptying of thy heart is like emptying of a lively and quick spring the more water is cast out the more new cometh in immediately Fourthly This trusting in any thing but God is a very great sinne Because it is a making of the creature a God and so a breach of that first Commandment wherein we are forbidden to have any other gods but the true one Now how great a sinne Idolatry is the Scripture doth every where speak Thou therefore that abhorrest to worship a stock or a stone who darest not fall down before an Idol to doe reverence thereunto How often doest thou as bad in thy heart to the creatures Yea many times some Idolaters did worship the true God they did not erre in the object onely they formed sinfull representations of God to themselves As the Israelites in that Calf which they made crying out These are thy gods O Israel And this Idolatry is not so bad as when that which is not the true God is set up for him
dead can be proved possible by naturall reason but whether it can or no we are sure the Scripture doth so positively and plainly affirme it that it must be bold Atheisme to deny it Now do but consider how great a matter it is to exercise faith in this particular how improbable yea and impossible doth it seem to naturall reason All those who have dyed ever since Adam so many thousand yeares ago who have been for so long a time consumed into ashes All such bodies which have been eaten with fish or beasts yet God will raise the same body again the same bones and flesh again What amazement and astonishment may this raise in thee yet it is clear by Scripture God can and will do this Oh then that the godly did more vigorously exercise their faith in this fundamentall point of Religion What canst thou believe in God concerning this great and admirable truth yet doubtest whether he can raise thee out of those petty and minute troubles thou art exercised with When was news brought to the Pope of the murther of Henry the fourth of France he was exceedingly affected with it in his speech in the conclave blaspemously aggravating the mercie as he thought and among other particulars said the fact was so incredible that had he not used himself to believe the high and mysterious points of Religion he could not have believed this fact Thus he in a wretched manner but thou maist in a true and godly sense say Oh Lord this temptation is so great this trouble is so pressing I am so greatly overwhelmed that did I not believe those wonderfull Principles of Religion were I not used all the day long to things above humane reason and expectation I could not be able to beare up my self in these extremities 2. This Doctrine is metaphorically true also God raiseth from the dead and that again in a twofold extremity externall and internall externall troubles the Scripture doth delight to represent the great and extreame troubles of the Church when it hath visible help or deliverance under the name of death Isaiah 26. 19. We have the Prophet comforting the Church in her desolate estate Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise It is true many Interpreters expound this as if properly and immediately spoken of the Resurrection and it should seem our Translators understood it so when they render it together with my body but the context maketh it cleare God speaketh of their deliverance from captivity wherein he calleth his people Cadaver meum my dead body because in outward appearance so now the reason of this may be because Gods power would be to them as the dew to herbs ready to perish which doth revive them Thus their deliverance out of their calamity is described Hosea 6. 2. After two dayes he will revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight This Text is literally and immediately to be understood of the Jewes yet by consequence it may be applyed to Christ so that it argueth the calumniating spirit of Hunnius who would make Calvin to jadaize because he doth not expound it as a promise of Christs Resurrection God will do with his Church as he did with the body of Christ he would not suffer it to see corruption but within three dayes raise it again Thus saith the Church though we be in a dead condition yet he will within two or three dayes within a short time revive us again But above all you have a most evident allusion to this Ezek. 37. Where the Prophet in a vision saw a Valley full of dry bones and breath from the Lord brought sinews and flesh upon these bones and the bones came together and lived Now what the meaning of this parabolicall vision is appeareth Verse 11. These bones are the whole house of Israel Behold they say our bones are dryed up our hope is lost we are cut off from all parts but saith God I will open your Graves and you shall come out By these expressions you see how true the Doctrine is that in the Churches extreame calamities God raiseth the dead neither was this opening of the graves and making dry bones to live once done by God only for that people of that time But such hath been the condition of the Church in severall Ages It hath been the dry bones and God hath breathed life into them Now the Child of God should daily meditate upon these great workes of God to his People and then he will be ashamed to see himselfe so much dejected about his own particular What thou art but one dry bone and cannot God restore thee when he doth help so many Can he deliver his whole Church and not a particular Member therein More faith in the generall affaires of the Church would facilitate thy particular Come we then to internall extremities and exigences and there in a two-fold sense likewise we shall find it is God that raiseth the dead In the first place If you consider man in his state by nature he is wholly dead in sinne and therefore when God by his grace doth correct him then he raiseth the dead Thus every godly man in this spirituall change wrought upon him can experimentally say God who raiseth the dead I was senselesse in sinne I was stupid I felt no burden I desired no deliverance but God raised me from the dead Even as the Father said of his Prodigall Sonne converted this our Sonne was dead but is alive This expression in a spirituall sense the Scripture doth much delight in Ephes 2. You who were dead in sinne hath he quickned and therefore the work of grace is compared to a Resurrection and from this similitude we justly urge against the Arminians that man hath no active power to prepare himselfe for grace or to turne himselfe to God no more then a dead Lazarus did dispose himselfe to a Resurrection Thou then who labourest under many temptations about the weaknesse of thy graces that bewaile thy dead heart thy dead duties thy dead Religion Oh thou art withered and hast no life in thee Remember it is God that raiseth the dead And certainly if he did infuse the life of grace into thee at first when thou wast wholly dead can he not much more now thou art quickned recover thee out of thy decayings and swounding fits he that hath spirituall life at first can much more recover thee out of thy consumptions he that delivered from death can much more from sickness 2. There is another internall exigency upon the soul which may be called a spirituall death and that is the sad desolations and terrible blackness that may cover the soul because of desertions God may have forsaken thee thou maist not only look upon thy selfe as a dead man but as a damned man Oh this temptation when God sets himselfe against a broken soul shootes his arrowes into his heart
particular act had some immediate inspiration and divine instinct upon his soul whereby he was raised up to trust in God assuredly for that particular deliverance And this is the more probable because of the manner he did encounter Goliah with going out against him In the Name of the Lord with a sling and stones out from the brook By which preparation it is plain that David was therein guided by immediate revelation And happily Paul in this act of trusting which here he professeth he might have more than the general and ordinary promises which all the people of God have to relie upon there might be some special assurance and revelation vouchsafed to him that he had more work to do for God that all his enemies could not for the present take away his life Therefore he addeth He will yet deliver not alwayes but as yet he will till he had finished his course and fought the good fight of faith he was called to Thus we read that Paul had a vision Acts 18. 9 10. while he was at this Corinth commanding him Not to be afraid for no man should set on him to hurt him Thus many of the people of God in former times they had immediate revelations and personal discoveries made to them whereby they were called to believe in God for such a particular temporal mercy and that every way absolutely But then 2. There are common general mercies which are to work upon all the godly and such are those universal propositions revealed in Gods word whereby we are antidoted against diffidence and distrust in any estate whatsoever So that although thou hast not that peculiar revelation made to thee for such mercies as those Ancients had yet thou hast as sure a word of promise to depend upon For it is the same God which speaketh in a general promise to thee that did in a particular to them Hence we find the Apostle comforting and encouraging the godly by such a promise as was peculiarly made to Joshua in that extraordinary Office he was called unto Heb. 13. 5. For he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee from this see what he inferreth So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper which proveth that even particular promises made to any godly man do in the general reason of them belong to every believer Even as we say of the Judicial Law though the particular duty or punishment may not oblige us Christians yet the moral equity and reason upon which it was grounded doth So though the very particular thing promised belong not to thee yet that protection support and preservation which is necessary to thee in thy way that thou mayest relie upon God for Know then that it is but the deceitfulness of thy heart when thou thinkest Oh if God would speak from Heaven to me or if an Angel should come from God and bid me Be of good comfort this or that shall be done for thee then I could rest satisfied For if thou doest not believe God speaking in a general promise neither wouldst thou in a particular one Mary Magdolen and some others had a peculiar particular testimony from Christ That her sinnes were forgiven her yet every humbled and repenting sinner may apply the promises of pardon to his own soul as fully and as boldly as she did For Christ doth still in the world speak so to every unfeigned convert It is true we grant that in the Apostles dayes when the gift of miracles was necessary for the Church then some had a peculiar command and promise by faith and trusting wherein they were able to do miracles and wonders and this was called The faith of miracles And for any to conceive such a thing of himself now and to trust in God for to performe some miracle is to be ignorant of what spirit we are yet still we are called to a faith and trust in God which is almost as wonderfull as that of Miracles The trusting in God for the pardon of thy sinnes for thy preservation in temptations for thy safe conducting thee to Heaven through all the oppositions in the way is as difficult as miraculous faith So also the trusting upon God in temporals when thy condition hath been like a wilderness when no visible hopes or props have appeared is like a miraculous faith Hence there are learned Divines Synopsis puri Theol. that do grant there is still in the godly a faith though not miraculous yet answering that which they call Fides specialis whereby the Spirit of God doth in a peculiar manner raise up the soul to trust in God For this particular God sometimes when he provideth a mercy for his people doth prepare their hearts to expect it Onely we must take heed that we do not baptize our delusions and the strong conjectures of our humane perswasions with the name of this special faith The summe of this head is to informe the people of God that the general promises are as sure an anchor to fasten thy soul in the midst of waves as particular are Secondly It is good to consider What are the immediate opposites and contraries to this grace of trusting in God that so we may avoid those rocks from splitting our souls thereat The first enemy to it is Presumption and that is When men do not trust in God in his way We represent God to our selves in our own carnal imaginations and then we trust in him which is indeed nothing else but to trust in our vaine lying hearts Now this presumption which hath the appearance of trusting in God but is not so may be discovered these wayes 1. When we do not judge of God according to the Scripture-discovery made of him when we walke not by Scripture-light There can be no trusting in God without a true knowledge of him out of his Word Now if you observe ignorance herein is the cause of all that presumption which drowneth many souls in perdition Take the most prophane and profligate wretch who like Cain almost have the marks of Gods displeasure against them palpably manifesting themselves yet they will tell you they trust in God for mercy they rest on Christ to be saved Is not all this because they do not know God out of his Word If they did would not they find there that he is angry with the wicked every day That he is a consuming fire That if a man regard iniquity in his heart God will not hear such a mans prayer Are not these so many thunder-bolts to strike thee out of thy presumption 2. It is not trusting in God but presumption When we are confident and bold where we have no promise from God For this you heard That Gods promise and our trust doth necessarily respect each other So that if you take away the promise you remove the foundation and so faith must fall to the ground And this doth plainly also discover that that which some call their
Christ have had their private meetings and have fled from the wrath of Magistrates which the Apostle attributeth to the faith of the godly not their fear Heb. 11. 37. Only when it was a case of confession and their duty publickly to give testimony to the truths of God then no torments could make them decline it SERM. XCIV Principles of Fleshly Wisdome used in the Propagation of the Gospel 2 COR. 1. 12. Not with fleshly wisdome WE are describing the several particulars of fleshly wisdome which men have made in the matters of Religion all which are renounced by the Apostle in this Text. The first in order I shall now propound is To advance those men who have been of their way by lies attributing glorious things to them and as much disparaging and falsly accusing all such who have been in a contrary way of Religion to them This hath been the subtil policy and stratagem in the Church of Rome For no Church in the world hath abounded more in fleshly wisdome then she hath done How notoriously absurd and ridiculous are they in relating many foolish miracles done by their Saints Yea they attribute many wonderfull things to some as Saints when there were never any such persons in the world as many learned Writers hold there were never such persons as St George and St Christopher and yet what fabulous miracles are reported of them And truly to read the lives of their Popish Saints would make a man nauseate their Religion they are written by such who did so much serve their affections and drive on their designes Which made Canus even a Papist complaine of it though he saith he doth Dolenter dicere magis quam contumeliose speake it with grief rather than with reproach The lives of Heathens saith he Canus loc Theolog. Lib. 11. cap. 6. are written with more truth by Heathenish Writers then of Saints by Catholicke Writers Laertius hath more faithfully related the lives of the Philosophers and Suetonius the lives of the Caesars then ours have done the lives of Saints Which maketh him goe on and say That he who wrote that Booke which is called Aurea Legenda was a man Perrei oris and Plumbei cordis He that wrote the Golden Legend was a man of an iron Fore-head and a leaden-Heart Now all this is nothing but fleshly wisdome not to regard the truth But onely what will make for advantage whereas we may see wonderfull sincerity in the Apostles in this very matter They did use no fleshly wisdome at all but doe record their owne infirmities as well as miracles Doth not the Evangelist Matthew relate how he was a Publican Is not Peter's deniall of his Master in all the aggravations of it recorded Are not the strifes of the Disciples about primacy mentioned Doe we not read of Paul and Barnabas their sharp contention Did not Paul withstand Peter to the face because he was worthy to be reproved Certainly the want of fleshly wisdome and carnall policy in the Apostles doing all things with sincerity and integrity as well when it maketh against them as for them doth plainly evidence that they were of God Christ doth not need the concealement of our imperfections The more unworthy the instruments are the more is his glory in bringing about his ends by them Thus Austin was not ashamed to leave to the world a publick confession of his youthfull vanities and follies And Beza doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expose himselfe to shame upon that very word Matth. 1. 19. where shewing that in Plutarch one Archilochus a Poet for dishonest verses which he had made he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expose himselfe to shame Quod mihi aliquando accidit c. Which was once my case saith he while a young man and not yet admitted into the Church which blot I hope I have washed away both by sayings and deeds He was a Papist while he made those wanton verses Therefore they need not upbraid him so for them especially seeing he manifested his repentance for them Therefore Beza did say of his adversaries Isti homines invident mihi gratiam Dei These men envy me the grace of God As fleshly wisdome is seene thus in an hyperbolical admiration of men of our own way not at all taking notice of their imperfections so is it no lesse manifest in the dispraising disgraceing and falsely traducing those who are dissentients from us This is fleshly wisdome to disgrace and calumniate those who are against us by forged lies As the Heathens of old said The Christians worshipped an Asses head and that at their love-feasts all wantonnesse and uncleannesse were committed It is Bellarmine's boast That no Catholickes are found to praise the Doctrine or lives of Heretickes which is it selfe false For to omit many instances Stapleton saith of Calvin though he subjoyneth enough to marre all That he is an Interpreter for the letter of the Scripture Ita diligens ita elegans ita suavis c. In Antid Evang. in Praefat. So diligent so elegant so sweet that many Papists did reade him Yea saith he I have heard many wish that those things which are disputed in his Commentaries against the Church and its faith were taken out and then they would be very greatly usefull But if it were true that no Papists did praise the Protestants this is not for their honour but reproach it being a duty to acknowledge the gifts and abilities that are in men though we abominate their errours and vices So that it is wholly fleshly wisdome in them thus to suppresse the excellency of those who are against them Yea if they stayed here it were pardonable but they doe most prodigiously vent and publish horrible lies about Luther and Calvin as if they had beene monsters of men for their impieties But all this is wisdome from the Devil and God hath turned all their cursing into blessing In the second place It is fleshly wisdome to maintaine any such pernicious and deceitfull Doctrines as doe maintaine falshood and deceit and thereby as much as lieth in them overthrow all humane societies The Priscillianists of old did maintaine That it was lawfull to lie and sweare and say any thing so that they kept the heart pure And the Papists I meane the Jesuited ones they come neare them for they doe professedly dipute for the lawfullnesse of Equivocation and Mental Reservation yea they call it prudence And as the Pelagians of old who privately to their Disciples did plainly declare their opinions but in publick spake craftily and ambiguously thereby to deceive others as if they were Orthodox alledging Christs example who to the multitude spake in Parables but opened them plainly to his Disciples so would these fasten upon Christ and holy men recorded in Scripture instances of equivocation But the Scripture commands us To lay aside lying speaking every man the truth to his neighbour Ephes 4. 25. And this is subjoyned as a necessary consequent of
with God So that the Israelites are a perpetual instance to confirme this Doctrine that it is not so much to be regarded how holy and repenting we may appear sometimes but what we are constantly that is to be regarded To clear this take notice First That the Scripture speaketh of a two-fold conversation and the one directly contrary to the other whose ends also are contrary The first of these is A wicked carnal and natural one which all live in till God by his gracious power deliver us from it What is every mans conversation till grace change him but a continual road of evil actions he goeth from one sinne to another he is alwayes like himself as the worm is ever creeping upon the ground you never see it flying like a bird up to the clouds This is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our former conversation Ephes 4. 22. which is corrupt according the deceitfull lusts thereof The first conversation then of every one by nature is that of the old man original and actual sinnes conjoyned together into one body as it were so that he is a masse or lumpe of sinne This is daily corrupted by deceitfull lusts That as worms are continually eating into the Tree till they have destroyed it Thus are lusts constantly breeding in a man even till they have devoured him Now saith the Apostle This must be put off we must leave this former life and take up a new one Oh how few are there that can say They have put off their former conversation As they were prophane proud earthly so they are still They cannot say It was indeed their former drinking their former swearing but it is their present praying their present humiliation of themselves Their latter conversation differeth from the former as much as the day doth from the night that went before it This is also called a vain conversation received by tradition from our fathers 1 Pet. 1. 18. It is a vain one for all the life we live till regenerated is spent in vain we attain not to the true and proper end of living Thy eating thy drinking thy buying and selling is all in vain by none of these things wilt thou please God and so arrive at last at eternal glory Yea it were well if it were only vain missing its end but it 's meritorious of eternal flames in hell This conversation is said to be traditional by our fathers If the Apostle speak of Gentiles then it is true that children follow the evil and ungodly examples of their parents they will not seem to be better and wiser than they are if of the Jewes which is more probable then it relateth to those superstitious exercises of Religion which their fathers added to the command of God And although they rested and gloried in these as thereby highly honouring of God yet all was but a vain worship a vain Religion So then a mans evil conversation is not only to be extended to his vices and sinnes but also to his religious duties when either not instituted or if commanded yet not performed in that spiritual manner which the Law of God doth require So that a mans conversation in his praying in his coming to Church in his religious deportments must be altered as well as prophane wayes Thou must leave off thy former way of praying thy former way of hearing The second kind of conversation mentioned in the Scripture is A godly and an heavenly one So that although we live upon the earth yet our principles aims and ends carry us up to the enjoyment of God This is called a good conversation Jam. 3. 13. where all divine faith and spiritual wisdom is said to be demonstrated by a good conversation It is not Doctrine faith profession or gifts that men look at but the conversation that speaketh a Christian that speaketh a Minister more than ten thousand excellent discourses Plus oculis quam auribus creditur said Seneca So that a good conversation is more demonstrative of godlinesse then good gifts good parts a good faith Thy prayers are good thy conference and discourse is good Is thy conversation also Hence Paul exhorteth Timothy as a Minister to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An example 1 Tim. 4. 12. to believers in word in conversation In word that is in his Doctrine and preaching In conversation that is in the exercise of all holy duties So that you see a man is above all things to look to his convesation that it be good For as this is a special means to edifie and build up others so none can take comfort from the choisest abilities the most fervent duties the purest Church-wayes unlesse there be a good conversation to uphold him Hence you see Paul doth not runne to his Apostolical Office to his great miracles to the wonderfull revelations and gifts bestowed upon him but to his conversation in the world as if that were a greater conviction of all adversaries then the most glorious Church-prerogatives or priviledges that can be Hence a godly conversation is a special means to convert others The Apostle speaketh fully to this concerning godly women who have Heathen or wicked and ungodly husbands that they should look to their duty That they may without the Word be wone by the conversation of their wives while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear 1 Pet. 3. 1 2. he saith Without the Word not but that the Word is the onely ordinary means of conversion but because their conversation may be an occasion and introductory meanes to bring them to the Word As Austin said He should not have believed the Scriptures but for the Church because that was the introductory motive though the Scriptures themselves were the cause of his faith By this we see how much regard we are to have to our conversation for by it many may be converted or be subverted What a wofull thing will it be if thou by thy life hast given a just occasion to drive men off from godlinesse They were coming on but thy conversation drove them back It is true when wicked men doe wickedly from their owne corrupt hearts take an occasion to be offended at Gods wayes as some did when they heard Christ preach saying It was an hard saying who can bear it And from thence took an occasion never to follow Christ more John 6. 60. then the guilt of such men lieth at their owne doore They are offended where there is no just cause it 's Scandalum acceptum not datum But if thou doest by any sinfull and unwarrantable practises alienate men from Religion make them think the worse of godlinesse for thy doings then remember that dreadfull sentence of our Saviour Woe be to that man by whom offences come Matth. 18. 7. This is likewise called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your good conversation in Christ A Scripture-conversation is a conversation in Christ that is partly by the rule and guidance of Christ We live not according
Chap. 3. he sheweth their folly by many convincing and piercing arguments in falling off thus from him and Chap. 4. 15. puts them in mind that they had other thoughts of him once Paul was once a blessed man and his preaching blessed preaching Where is the blessedness you once spake of Yea he saith their affections were so vehement and hyperbolical That they would have pluckt out their eyes their dearest and tenderest part and have given them him if this could have done him good yet how quickly did these boiling affections turn into ice They will receive other mens doctrines rather than his And if we see the Apostles of Christ that had their call immediately from him that were furnished with a large measure of the Spirit and inabled to do such wonderfull miracles before their eyes may come to be contemned and vilified and that by their own people who had once so highly honoured them No wonder if ordinary Pastors and Officers do often meet with such entertainment in the world Yea was it not thus with Christ himself Did not he find the grosse mutability of the people when one while they honour him crying Hosanna and at another time Crucifie him If they do thus to the green tree will they not much rather to the dry And shall the servant be above his master To inlarge this Consider First That it is an imbred corruption in all inferiours to be mutable and changeable to their Superiours Wise men do observe this mobility in the people even to their best Governours so unthankfull and ingratefull are people by nature Is not this plain in Moses What a faithfull Governour had he been to the people of Israel like a tender father he even carried them in his arms God had honoured him exceedingly before their eyes working many miraculous mercies for them by his means yet how often did they murmure against him which was a great sinne because as Moses telleth them Exod. 16. 8. Your murmurings are not against us but the Lord. Yea they are ready to fall off from Moses and to make themselves a Captain that they may go again into Aegypt Thus the people also dealt with David when they were in bitterness of spirit for the losse of their wives they spake of stoning David Among the Heathens there are plentifull examples of this unthankfull mutability Camillus and Themistocles with others which made the latter say when they had cast him off after all the good service he had none for them That they did with him as beasts doe in a storm runne to a tree to shelter themselves and when that is over they fall a browzing on it and breaking the boughs thereof How many of their famous Worthies have the Heathens banished most ingratefully and then in their necessities intreated them to come again Which made one wise Roman say when perswaded to enter upon some publick design for the common good but dangerous deny saying Why should wise men venture themselves for fools The Athenians were impetuous to put Socrates to death and after he was dead then they were grieved and impatient till they had destroyed those that were the Authors of it Now if it be thus in civil affairs no wonder if there be more changeableness and more ingratitude in Church-matters For in the faithfull discharge of our spiritual office there we directly oppose the natural inclination and love of men to their sinfull pleasures we deal chiefly with the inward man and the matter we propound for the Doctrine of it to be believed is wholly transcendent to their humane apprehensions and the goodness of it is altogether supernatural Yea contra-natural take man in his sinfull naturals Hence it is that spiritual governing is far more difficult than civil men being more willing to receive what maketh for their bodily good and welfare then for their souls and spiritual estate Secondly This inclination to changeablenesse and mutability in matters of Religion hath greater temptations in rich and famous Cities than in villages and small parochial places Now Corinth as you heard was a famous and rich City eminent for trading yea and for earning and gifts Hence Paul doth in none of his Epistles so much debase the wisdome of the world indeavouring to exalt Christ above all things as in his Epistles to these Corinthians and it seemeth they did a bound with many excellent gifts and abilities as the Apostle many times witnesseth Now this was their snare and temptation this made them proud of their knowledge this made them admire gifts more than grace this caused them to make parties and factions some cried up one teacher some another So that their wealth and gifts did prove a great temptation to them and by this means Paul came to be undervalued Thus it falleth out many times in great and populous places where are variety of Ministers and of gifts and a people raised up in knowledge and wealth it is very hard for them to keep in a constant real esteem of sound and soul-saving truths but with the people of Israel to be weary of Manna to desire even garlick and onyons above it The Gospel was at first preached and planted in Cities and their Churches were first constituted it being a long time ere the little villages in the Countrey did receive the Christian faith Hence to this day say some we call Heathens Pagans à pagis from villages because they did last of all receive the Christian faith But then they have this advantage that they are freed from those many temptations that are in the Churches of Cities for they having not many Officers nor hearing variety of gifts are not so tempted to be alwayes lusting after some new thing as in the fore-mentioned places yet for all this they have the same corrupt inclination and if they have not the temptation brought to them they will seek out for the temptations and hence many villages are quickly poisoned with corrupt and erroneous wayes For the Devil he goeth up and down roaring to seek whom he may devour whether in Cities or villages Now let us consider of the Causes which make such a change and alteration and that many times in those who are very good or at least apparently so And 1. This ariseth from the ficklenesse and inconstancy that is in many men There are few that profess Religion that do obtain to a sound mind that are well rooted in the first principles of Religion They content themselves with general and confused apprehensions and therefore can speak of those things which yet they have no clear understanding about Now how can such straws and feathers as these but be blown away with every wind of doctrine It is the Apostles expression Ephes 4. 14. implying that it is childishness levity want of a serious weighty and solid judgement that maketh us leave the faithfull Ministers of God and greedily run after false teachers 2. An overhasty and unadvised receiving of the
People 1 COR. 1. 14. That we are your rejoycing as ye also are ours THis is the Second particular in the Text and doth contain the Specification wherein this acknowledgment of the Corinthians did consist viz. That he was their Rejoycing However some false teachers had endeavoured to take off their affections from him yet they had acknowledged him to be their Father and Master by whom they were faithfully instructed in the wayes of Godliness and for this they did blesse God and rejoyce that they had such a Teacher which was so great a mercy that few did enjoy the like Now the Apostle addeth That this rejoycing was mutual he did as well rejoyce in such apt and obedient Schollars Chrysostome observeth this Addition to be a great Expression of Pauls Modesty and Humility for that the Corinthians should glory and rejoyce in such an eminent Teacher as Paul was It is no wonder but that he should rejoyce in them who were so inconstant and so uncertain in their affections to him yea who were to be blamed so much in Doctrinalls and practicalls This may make us admire But sayes Chrysostome This Paul doth for humility sake that he might not procure envy us if he thought two arrogantly of himself therefore he assumeth them into a co-partnership with his glory and rejoycing The Original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lieth already bear opened There is nothing difficult in the words onely when Paul and the Corinthians are thus said to be one anothers rejoycing we are to understand that the Act is here put for the Object of it as often in the Scripture Thus rejoycing is put for the Object Matter and Cause of our rejoycing and if you say We are to rejoyce in God onely in the Lord not in men that is true We are to rejoyce in God onely as the Author of all our good yet we may in men as they are instruments used by God to communicate his benefits to us Thus a people may rejoyce in a faithfull Minister not principally and originally but secondarily as the Instrument which God hath made very successfull to their souls The Observation then is That it is a most happy and blessed thing when Minister and people can upon just and holy grounds rejoyce mutually in each other When the people can bless God for the Ministerial gifts and graces bestowed upon their Pastor and he again can praise God that he hath a willing teachable and obedient people ready to receive the Ordinances of Christ in the power and purity of them This is a rare priviledg Oh there are but few Churches of which the Ministers may say as Paul to the Colossians Chap. 2. That he doth rejoyce in beholding their order and faith in Christ To meet with a people that are neither ignorant heretical nor prophane but willing to walk according to Christs rule and his order this is to see heaven upon earth The Apostle findeth such matter of joy not onely in those Corinthians but in many other Churches For as he had more Labours more Oppositions more Persecutions than others so also God gave him more joy and comefort in beholding the spiritual successe of his Labours for this was the onely comefort of his spiritual heart to see men imbrace Christ and to live worthy of the Gospel it was not his own Glory Honor and greatness that he aymed at which is an excellent example to us Ministers of the Gospel that our Matter of joy should not be any earthly riches or wealth any great fame or worldly esteem but that we are to win people to Christ alone not our selves Thus the Apostle calleth the Philipians his joy and crown Phil. 4. 1. and 1 Thes 2. 19 20. speaking of his ardent affections to see their face by way of interrogation the more emphatically to express himself he saith What is our hope or joy or crown of rejoycing Are not even ye And then addeth positively the same thing for or rather surely certainly ye are our rejoycing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not a note of reasoning for then the Apostle would prove Idem for Idem as they say but of Affirmation and asseveration Ye are our crown of rejoycing Grotius saith It is an allusion to Kings who on their solemn festival dayes have not an ordinary but extraordinary Crown to wear for the greater pomp and glory Such extraordinary honor would the Thessalonians be to Christ at the great day But let us consider this in the general and then amplifie it respectively to Minister and people And First The Relation of Pastor and people is by divine Institution Christ himself hath appointed the Office it self and the application of it to this or that man through the desire of the Church so that as Churches are of Gods gathering They are his creature in a more special manner than the world is so likewise are the Officers and spiritual Guides to teach them 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set in his Church Apostles and Teachers Thus Act 20. 28. The Holy Ghost is said to set them Overseers over their flock â—eeing therefore that this relation is built on a Divine Foundation no wonder if managed according to Divine Rules that it is the cause of exceeding great joy These Relations are respectively for supernatural and spiritual ends and effects The Minister is for illumination Conversion Edification for the destroying of the power and Kingdome of Satan as also the establishing and promoting the Kingdome of grace in the hearts of the people The people also they are to be matter of encouragement to him they are to be helpfull and assistant in their way that Godliness may flourish that the ends of the Ministry may not be frustrated The Apostle sometimes taketh notice of the great usefulness and serviceableness even of some women in that kinde For though Ministers be compared to Light to the Sun and Starrs yet in this there is a difference The Starrs give Light and Influence into these sublunary things but receive no benefit at all from them again but the Ministers of the Church even though as eminent as Paul yet they acknowledg the manifold benefits and that in a spiritual way which they may receive from their people again now then how happy is it when there is a reciprocal and circular helping of each other when spiritual guides do convert edifie and quicken up their people and again the people do assist help and quicken up their Officers certainly as spiritual delights are greater than any bodily ones because the objects are more excellent and usefull so should this mutual rejoycing in our spiritual joy surpass all the delight that we take in our natural and civil relation neither the delight of a Wife in her Husband or of a Childe in his Father should be equal to the joy of a people in Faithfull Officers And so è contra the Reason is evident because the effects of this Relation are spiritual heavenly and
go rather than peace and quietness of a good conscience A Second Principle of the flesh which maketh men inconstant is An inordinate desire of Greatness and Honour above others They that walk by this must be black and white now say and than deny according as those are affected from whom they exspect Advancement This secret Ambition is accompanyed with a vehement heat and drought of the soul making a man restless till their desires be accomplished Neither may we think the Heathens onely to be blamed for these proud affectations We see even the Apostles twice contending about Primacy and Superiority which is the greater wonder if we consider the meanness of their own condition they were in as also of Christ their Master and yet more wonder it is if we remember how frequently our Saviour did inform them of Persecutions and saddest Calamities for his sake We read likewise of Diotrephes 3 John 9. who loved to have the preheminence and would not own no not the Apostle John himself Now those that walk by such Principles of pride and ambition they must needs be like a materia prima ready to receive any form They flatter they dissemble they commend they dispraise and thus debased they are that afterwards they may be exalted Now nothing is more odious and abominable to a sincere man than such mutability and uncertainty Hence Christians of old were called the just and holdfast men It was not thus with John Baptist of whom saith our Saviour What went ye out to see a read shaken with the winde No he did faithfully and constantly discharge his duty without any fear of men But how many may we go out to see as reeds shaken with every winde And as the reed must grow in some mire so must such mutable persons have some carnal respect to encourage them Those that climbe up to high places are apt to have their heads grow giddy and to be unsteadfast so that when men lay this as a foundation I will have Preferment I will have Honor and greatness though it damn me this man walketh upon slippery ice and no wonder if he often fall 3. Another carnal Principle which maketh Inconstancy in all our wayes is Pleasing of men When a man maketh this his Rule he must change often and be as a shadow which moveth whoily according to the motion of the body stoopeth when that stoopeth and is upright when that is upright The Apostle doth notably disclaim such a sinfull distemper saying Galat. 1. 10. If I should please men I could not be the servant of Christ Man is a mutable creature subject to different apprehensions to different affections loving one thing one day and hating it at another Then must they also who would please men be prepared for all formes and postures insomuch that a man cannot live in greater bondage and slavery tan to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a peoples ape or to study the humouring of those we have to deal with If thou art guilty of this man-pleasing thou art never able to do thy duty thou canst not reprove and punish sin thou canst not be just and righteous in thy place Our Saviour said to his Disciples How can you belive which receive glory of one another John 5. 44. and do not seek the glory of God only Certainly till we study to please God alone in our lives and aim at his glory who is alwayes the same we must be unstable as water and be a lyar to every man We read of some who did believe in Christ yet dared not to make Profession thereof for fear of the Jews Here was a desire to please men rather than God But can the good word and favour of men deliver thee from the wrath of God in thy conscience and eternal torments hereafter When Judas pleased the Chief Priests in betraying of Christ could they comfort him in the Agonies of his conscience yea when he bewailed his sin They say What is that to us look thou to that Mat. 17. 4. Such miserable tormentors instead of comforters will all those men be whom thou hast pleased to displease God 5. Time-serving is a Principle which whosoever walketh by must be as a weather-Cock that is turned with every winde The people of Israel are remarkeable for this Inconstancy under wicked and Idolatrous Kings then they erected Altars they adorned Images and then immediately under Religious and Reforming Kings they would destroy the Idolls and deface the Images they had set up It is true all change and alteration in Religion is not to be blamed yea sometimes it is to be encouraged When Luther and Melancton gave over their former corrupt Doctrines and superstitious Practices the Papists condemned them for Turn-coats and Apostate persons when yet this change was necessary So that as they say in Philosophy there is alteratio corruptiva and perfectiva a destructive change and a perfective change thus it is also in Divinity and the Latter is absolutely commanded by God when Errors or Prophaneness have like a gangrene spread over the whole Church but of that in its time We are now speaking of that sinfull change whereby people accommodate themselves to the times they live in and therefore judg of truth judg of the holy things of God as Jeroboam did with subordination to State-Interests This is the great carnal Policy that the Wise-men of the world admire as if the true Doctrines of Christ were not alwayes the same as if a thing might be the worship of God one time and Idolatry at another as if the same thing might be the Doctrine of Christ at one time and Heresie at another as if that of Cusanus were true though otherwise not a very bad man That the Scripture is to be understood according to the present state and Affairs of the Church and therefore saith he We are not to wonder if at one time some Customes and Usages be exacted in a Church which at another time are to be decryed and refused But certainly the Scripture is a Rule of Faith and Manners in all Ages in all Changes and Revolutions Though Kingdomes and States may alter yet the Scriptures are the same still and what was once the Doctrine Worship and Order of Christ is still the same Lastly That all Particulars may be comprehended in one To live according to the Principles of the Flesh is To set up our selves as the Alpha and Omega to enjoy our selves and to use all things yea God himself in subordination thereunto Thus this love of a mans self even to the hatred of God is that which maketh us put on multiform shapes it is that which maketh us bend and bow and comply in all things For if we did love the Honour and glory of God more than our own selves as we ought to do then we should not attend to self-advantages but Gods glory and honor So that we may say This Self-love is the Beelzebub sin it
when an adult person so did God with his Church But then if we come to the Doctrinals we shall finde that the same truths necessary to salvation were in the Old Testament as the New Abraham David and all the Godly were justified by faith in Christ as well as the Believers in the Gospel This indeed is that which the Socinians pertinaciously deny they think that the Godly in the Old Testament did not believe in Christ that this is a peculiar new duty required under the Gospel and never before viz. to believe in Christ But the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews doth admirably open the mysterious signification of those Jewish ceremonies and sacrifices shewing that Christ was represented therein and that it was not the blood of Rams and goats but of Christ that did take away sin Hence Abraham is said to see Christs day and rejoyce 1 Cor. 10. they are said to drink of the spiritual rock which was Christ and Act. 15. 10 11. Peter and the Councel speaking of the yoke laid upon our fathers addeth But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they The Doctrine then of Jesus Christ of the Trinity of eternal Life were in the old Testament as well as the New only more implicitely and obscurely the Old Testament being the New hidden and covered the New being the Old revealed and explained so that the Old and New Testament do not contain old and new Doctrine essentially but gradually as we say the old and new moon not meaning two moons but distinct discoveries of light therein 2. We are to distinguish between progress and growth in the same truth and the alteration or change of truth into errour And truly this is of great consideration for this very particular will obviate all the calumnies of the Papist Let it be granted that the first Reformers did not did not at first view see all the truths of the Christian Religion but that by degrees they had scales fall off from their eyes and some things that at first they thought true or tolerable afterwards they rejected as false and abominable And thus Calvin de scandalis answereth the Papists who calumniate us saying If you had the spirit of God why did ye not see all truth presently Why was it that some things did appear false to you afterwards which did not so at first This saith he is to envy us proficiency in the truth and to expect that the Sun in the morning should shine as gloriously as at noon day So that it is one thing addere aedificium fundamento as Austin calleth it and another thing to make a new Foundation Thus Lyrinensis when he made this Objection To what use are Doctors and Officers of the Church if so be they must only receive the Doctrine delivered and not excogitate new by their own wit He answereth There is profectus but not permutatio allowed a growth but not a change The work of the Ministers of the Gospel is not to finde out new real fundamental truths no more than a new Christ or a new Bible he that cannot see by one Sun would not by twenty and he that will not be convinced by one Bible would not if there were more Yet they are not useless for these Fundamentals they are dayly to confirm to explain to polish and affectionately to improve for Sanctification more and more so that as he saith they must not deliver nova yet they may nova not new things but in a new manner When a childe groweth up into a man he still retaineth his humane nature though there be an increase in his stature but if this childe should grow into a horse or a bear then this would be a change of his species and his naâ—uâ—e Thus the Church and her Officers they are to grow in more light in more knowledg in more faith but still in the same truth whereas if they degenerate into Errors and false Doctrines then the species is altered now it is not hony but gall it is not gold but dross not meat but poyson So that if we see eminent men growing out of those errors and those Superstitions they were once intangled in you must not call this yea and nay but a laudable duty for we see the spirit of God communicating it self by degrees Even as the Sun doth not presently arise to its vertical point so neither doth the spirit of God reveal all things at once It cometh in by degrees he could perfect our understandings even in this life as much as they shall be in heaven so that we shall no longer know in part but he is pleased to work gradually even as he did make the world not in an instant but successively Thus we see he did to the very Apostles they were under his Instruction and Government a good while and yet were ignorant in many particulars till at last he confirmed them from his spirit from above The Protestants then are not guilty of yea and nay though they did not at first dâ—scover all the abominations of Popery Neither may we charge any particular Minister for yea and nay if out of error he proceed to truth if from darkness he attaineth to more light For although many Heretical persons may shrowd themselves under the serious name of new light yet it is plain that both Pastors and people are to grow in new light gradually though not specifically Thus the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 1. 19. commendeth the believers for attending unto the word of God as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawn and the day-starre arise in their hearts not as if ever they could come to light enough that they need not to attend to Scripture any further that they may throw away the Bible as useless having light enough within them No but that donec that until is continual and alwayes as sometimes it is used 3. We are to distinguish between Yea and Nay indeed and a seeming yea and nay between 〈◊〉 constant new Doctrines indeed and those that are apparently so We grant that such corruptions such darkness may cover the face of the Church that the true Doctrines of Christ may seem new and be condemned for novelllsm and the Doctor who preached them be thought to come with his yea and nay And thus again Luther and Melancthon with many others are condemned for their inconstancy They were once ours say the Papists they did once believe as we believed worship as we worshipped but now they are a nay to their yea This calumny will easily vanish if you distinguish between new things indeed and new things appearingly so The Protestant Doctrine was not new indeed if you look to the Scripture and Christ it is old as they are but then we grant that if we consider the Chaos the Church was in at that time what superstitious abominations did then prevail we grant what the Reformers
did all was new their service new their Doctrine new but the iniquity and the corruption of the times made it appear to be so And indeed Popery is properly the great Novellisme for the Popish Doctrines the Popish Worship began to creep in when the Churches of Christ began to degenerate from their Primitive Institution The change then that is many times in the face of Religion which doth so offend many is not indeed so but in appearance Those truths of God were formerly professed in the Church only an Eclipse did arise which obscured the light of the Sun As then the Sun is not changed after an Eclipse we do not see a new Sun thus it is also with the truths of Christ the Reformers do not bring new truths only the darkness is dispelled and we see them which were long before It is with us as with men whose heads are distempered we think such and such things run round whereas indeed it is a distemper upon us and it is a signe that we have been corrupted when old truths seem new to us 4. We may therefore truly conclude that antiquity and consent are inseparable properties of a true Church That Church which retaineth Doctrines of the greatest Antiquity and which doth agree with the Primitive Apostolical Churches that must needs be a true Church for truth is alwayes alike That cannot be true Doctrine in one age which is not in another though men are apt to be changed by the times they live in yet Gods truth cannot be When therefore the Papists bring antiquity and consent as notes of a true Church we deny they can or are to be called notes because it is not Antiquity barely but antiqvity in the true Doctrine nor Consent meerly so but consent with the Primitive Churches Doctrine So that True Doctrine is properly the note of the Church only we add that Antiquity and Consent with the Primitive times do inseparably follow the true Doctrine Now the ground of this certainty and equality of the truths of Christ is because they are Gods truths Christs truths if they were the truths of mens making then they might alter and change as they please then it might be formed reformed and transformed into all the shapes that mens Interests could put them upon then truth might alter according to the climates customes and advantages of men then truth might be one thing at Rome and another thing at Constantinople then we might say such things were truth in one age and ye the contrary truth in another Popery was truth in Queen Maries dayes and Protestantisme in Queen Elizabeths And truly some men are so Atheistical or self-seeking that they account truth as the Apostle said some did godliness even outward gain and therefore when such an opinion is gainfull then it is truth but when not so then it is Heresie Use of Instruction How odious Instability and Inconstancy is in matter of Religion whether it be in private Christians or publick Officers It plainly discovereth that not the truth of Christ but some other uncertain motive prevaileth with thee either thy profit or thy applause or the times or customes or the Lawes of the Land or some other mutable respect doth work upon thee and if so then thou canst not but be a reed shaken with every winde of Doctrine Thou art then but as an Instrument of musick making no other sound nor no longer then thou art breathed into Profit will make thee a Papist profit will make thee a protestant profit will make thee an Heretick How contrary is such a fickle temper to the nature of Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Use 2d of Instruction How false that position is of some Papists That the Church may make Articles of Faith and that the Authority of the Church maketh the Authority of the Scripture at least towards us So that the Scriptures would have no more authority then Titus Livius or Aesops fables in respect of our duty to believe were it not for the Churches Authority No less blasphemous is that other comparison of another Papist resembling the Scripture to a nose of wax If so then no wonder if they make what truths and what religions they please then we may call it the Popes truth the Churches truth and not the truth of God It is a ridiculous passage of a Papist Ford against Taylor saying that it is probable the Church will make that Opinion about the immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary to be an Article of Faith As if the Church could make that necessary to be believed if we would be saved that was not alwayes so Why may she not as well make a new Bible set up a new Christ as they establish a new Article of Faith SERM. CXXIV Of Gods Promises to man 2 COR. 1. 20. For all the Promises of God in him are yea and in him amen unto the glory of God by us THis Verse is a further confirmation of the constancy and immutability of the Lord Christ and so by consequence of Pauls doctrine For that Christ is unchangeable he proveth in that all the promises which God hath made they receive their fullnesse and complement in him and so are therefore true because fullfilled both in him and by him This is the Apostles sence in this assertion which Calvin doth well call memorabilis sententia c. a memorable sentence and one of the chiefest Articles of our Religion for herein is all our faith and confidence seated that in Christ God maketh his gracious promises to us by whose efficacy and impetration they be accomplished so that a promise is fullfilled not because of any worth or dignity in us but because of of the fulnesse and worth that is in Christ 1. The words may be taken as an entire Proposition wherein we have the subject and predicate with the amplification of it from the finall cause The subject is described from the nature of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promises 2. From the universality and extent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all promises as many as are made 3. From the efficient cause the promises of God 4. The predicate are yea and are amen in him Of which in their order Let us begin with the Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the promises many times in the plurall number at other times in the singular for indeed the covenant of grace is but one large promise or an ocean emptying it self into many streams yet sometimes called promises because of the many things both spirituall and temporall that are particularly promised by God the summe whereof is contained in that great promise or Magna Charta of the Church I will be their God and they shall be my people or else it may be promises in the plurall number because of the frequent repetition and reiteration of the grand promise of Christ to the Church Now the word promise is sometimes used for the
the surety if he hath undertaken for thee and performed for thee what was required by the Law then thou maist pleade though not for my sake yet for Christs sake let thy promise be made good to me But the troubled soul will object very plausibly against this Though Gods promises are made good in Christ yet there is the duty of faith and repentance required of me so that if I do not beleeve if I do not repent there is no promise through Christs blood established that will do me any good what is it your meaning that though I am a sinner and while I abide in my sins I should pleade the promise of God in Christ Is not this to dash my soul at the Antinomian rock This deserveth a full answer And first It must be acknowledged that in this point it is hard to sail between the Scylla and Charybdis of the Arminian errour on one hand and Antinomian on the other side For the Arminians they indeed make Christ to be the atonement for our sins but so that we must beleeve and repent all which is true But then if it be asked how come we to beleeve and to repent here they fly in part at least to our own free will for they deny that faith is purchased by Christs death so that by their doctrine the whole fruit of Christs death standeth suspense and indeterminate till it be determined by our faith Christs death is made effectuall to us by our beleeving and this beleeving is not wrought in us by Christs Spirit nor is it bestowed on us as the fruit of his death but only we joyning with the grace of God do make the redimibility which was before faith by faith to be actual redemption And the Papist he erreth more grosly herein for he addeth further that our faith and repentance yea all holy works are causal conditions such as are meritorious and have an inward condignity and proportion to the reward Thus generally the Papists though some of them deny this merit and causality But the Antinomian falleth into another extremity for he doth so offer Christ and his promises to a man as if nothing at all were required on mans part and therefore tels a sinner that it is his duty while a sinner and abiding in that state to receive the promise yea one goeth so far as to say that Christ did beleeve for us Christ did repent for us and therefore that we are not bound to beleeve or repent but only to rest on Christ that he hath done these things for us Thus you see here are two extreme opinions and it is very hard for the soul in its first troubles and pangs to be guided out of this wildernesse how many have been seduced by Antinomian errours under the specious pretence of free grace and how many again have fallen into Armintan and Popish principles thinking that way to asswage their bleeding hearts but the Scripture truth doth lie between these two for Christ and so the promises are not applicable to sinners as sinners whether they beleeve or not beleeve whether they repent or not repent but do require indispensably of all grown persons faith and repentance but yet on the other side this faith and repentance of ours have no merit or dignity in them nor are they the effect and fruit of our own will and power but are the gifts of Gods grace and the consequent of Christs death so that Christ did not only die for our sins he did not only dye to confirm the promises to us but he died also to give us faith and repentance that by them we might be qualified subjects for such glorious mercies Hence the Scripture maketh faith and repentance to be the gifts of Gods grace as well as remission and pardon of sinne These duties then are necessarily required of us that the promises may be made good to us against the Antinomians yet these duties are Gods gift and the work of his spirit not the issues of our free-will against the Arminians Therefore in the second place when a Christian cometh to make use of a promise he must not oppose Christ and his duties but compose them together he must subordinate his duties to Christ We complain that the Popish doctrines oppose Christ and duties even as the Apostle argueth against the Galathians who by works of the Law made Christ of none effect and we cannot deny but the heart of man is so prone to put confidence in what we do and although we disclaim the merit of works yet to have a secret rest of the soul upon them that it is very difficult to keep within our bounds but yet we are also to know that every thing in Christianity is very hard to flesh and bloud Any thing graciously done is exact and accurately commensurated to the rule of God whereas such is the instability and unrulinesse of man naturally that he is apt to run from one extreme to another and while he seeketh to avoid one to fall into another our duty therefore is to rest upon Christ alone in the promises as the meritorious and fundamentall cause yet diligently to pursue after holinesse as that which qualifieth the subject for the glorious things promised God hath required these duties of thee therefore be thou as faithful and diligent in the performance of them as if there were no Christ no Mediatour And again be thou as wholly recumbent on Christ as if thou hadst no faith no repentance at all distinguish between the necessary presence of them and the causality of them Thus it ought to be the wisedome and skill of Ministers so to preach and exalt Christ as thereby no duties are to be omitted or neglected And again so powerfully and exactly to presse duties that Christ be not in the least manner disrobed of his glory for although Christ interposeth between the Fathers wrath and us yet you must not so understand it as if by our sins we could not provoke Christ as if through our unbeleef and impenitency we might not cause him of a lamb to be like a roaring lion We must not apprehend Christ to have only mercy in him and all wrath to be in God the Father only for observe that counsel given to the people of Israel concerning this Angel who was to guide them which is Christ Exod. 23. 21. Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for my Name is in him Though then the promises are established upon Christ yet take heed of provoking him by impenitency for even Christ will be a judge against thee because of thy disobedience Well let all this be granted yet still the tender and broken heart will object I dare not lay hold on the promises they do not belong to me I finde so much unworthinesse so much dulnesse and stupidity that though others may pleade the promise yet my heart is so full of fears and confusion that I dare not do it What
glory than if there were no promise no grace no mercy and pardon Let not then the People of God have low thoughts of Faith No thou dost more in beleeving and bâ—ingest more glory to God thereby than thou couldest do by all thy other obedience Shouldest thou mortifie sinne to thy desire Shouldest thou dye a Martyr for the Cause of God thou wouldest not so glorifie God as thou dost by beleeving I know this seemeth very Paradoxall to the humbled sinner I know he is difficultly perswaded that by trusting in God he doth thus glorifie God but if thou understandest the Scripture-way then thou wilt quickly see as to beleeve is the most difficult duty so it is the most consequentiall for Gods glory And indeed what have other Duties admirable in them that Faith it self in the Promise hath not in beleeving the understanding is mortified in beleeving the will is crucified in beleeving the Heart and Affections are martyred So that faith maketh a man to be offered up as an whole burnt-offering unto God Use of Instruction That the onely way to make a man live a joyfull life in himself and a glorifying life of God is by faith in the Promises This is that Faith by which a just man is said to live so that thy doubts thy fears thy unbeleeving thoughts these bring a dishonour to God these reproach the Gospel-way these obscure the honour of Christ Let then the godly soul take heed how it giveth way unto such temptations if your own consolation if the glory of God be dear unto you then bolt out unbeleef No wonder if the devil that is so great an enemy to the glory of God doth assault your souls most in this if he have broken down this part of the wall what legions of other sinnes may not he bring with them For this reason many Divines say Sola infidelit as damnat which is not to be understood as if other sinnes were not meritorious of damnation yea and did actually damn only that opposeth the Physician that would heal us that refuseth the atonement that is made for us Secondly As the Promises are thus to be improved for Gods glory by beleeving so also attend to another effect which the Scripture doth inferre from them and that is to cleanse our selves to be every day perfecting holinesse For so the Apostle notably exhorts us 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit Promises are no waies incentives to sinne or encouragements to evil works No but a strong antidote against them Neither is faith in them a light superficiall assent swimming upon the heart as a fowl in the water said Luther but as water calefied doth no more manifest its own coldnesse but the heat of the water so doth faith fermentate and leaven the whole soul of a man that humane things do not so much appear as divine things in him As the Apostle expresseth the energy of it when he said I no longer live but Christ in me and that life is by faith in the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. Thou then that sayest all thy trust is in the Promises thou hopest in them for mercy and pardon Are they cleansing Promises purifying Promises Do they perfect holinesse every day in thee through the fear of God SERM. CXXIX Our Settlement and establishment in the faith of the Promises is the gracious work of God alone 2 COR. 1. 21. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God THe Apostle having formerly spoken of his constancy and unchangeableness in the preaching of the Gospel lest this should be attributed to his own power he informeth them who is the fountain of this strength even God himself For the Apostle doth upon all occasions delight to exalt grace having experimentally found the mighty work of it upon his own soul Or we may make the coherence this The Apostle in the verse preceding spake of the certainty of Gods Promises in themselves they were in themselves Yea and Amen which is called certitudo objecti though some learned men think that it is not a proper expression Now in this Verse he cometh to the certitudo subjecti or to show whence it is that the children of God have this assured perswasion in their own hearts that they are true and constant whence it is that we are able to give our Amen as a note of confirmation to them and therefore in the words we may take notice of The blessed and happy Effect it self and that is 1. Confirmation he which stablisheth 2. The Subject of this us with you 3. The Object in whom in Christ 4. The efficient Cause of this is God 5. The Illustration of this Establishment by a threefold Similitude of anointing sealing and giving the earnest 6. By whom God doth this and that is by his Spirit as it followeth in the next verse So that in these two Verses is the proper seat of that excellent and precious Doctrine Which is The assuring and sealing of the Spirit of God that is given unto Believers But I begin with the First It is God that establisheth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we render it now yet some make it causal for he that stablisheth us c. and that seemeth more probable The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Varinus maketh the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the Adjective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle 2 Pet. 1. 10. is made the same by Hesychius with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which cannot be shaken or altered this word is sometimes used of the Doctrine of Christ when that was confirmed and made sure by miracles or otherwise Mark 16. 20. Thus an oath is said to be the confirmation of the end of a strife Heb. 6. 16. or else of persons as here in the Text and Col. 2. 7. stablished in the Faith which being used passively denoteth that this strength and power we have cometh from God only That we of our selves are like reeds shaken with every winde It is the grace of God that maketh us pillars in his Church So that from the Text we may observe That our establishing and confirming in the faith of the promises is alone the gracious work of God Though the Promises be never so lovely and precious though never so profitable and necessary for us yet we are not able to rest our selves upon them but by the power of God strengthening us Our hearts do so quake and tremble with the consideration of our own sinnes and unworthiness that unless the Lord make it stedfast and immoveable we are tossed up and down like the leaves of a tree That it is God alone who doth thus preserve and confirm us is plain by that notable place 1 Pet. 5. 10. where the Apostle prayeth that God who had called them would make
were accustomed to bodily exercises did make much use of it It was necessary to combate and conflict with enemies Thus also it is here all Christians are called to a spiritual wartare and that with principalities and powers in high places as well as with flesh and blood They are continually to put on their armour against all the assaults of the Devil Now this could not be done unlesse we had this oyle this anointing from the Spirit of God In the Spirit of God we are to goe out against all the assaults and temptations of Satan In the name of Christ we are to set upon these Goliahs How many have been overcome in this battel even of Gods own people because they had not this establishing grace ready at hand Doe not thinke to get into Heaven without a sore conflict with Anakims in the way There must be a wildernesse and a red Sea to passe through before thou canst enter into Canaan And therefore for this end have we this anointing whereby we may be the more confirmed and having done all things to stand as it is Ephes 6. 13. What more is to be said to this point will come in upon the other metaphorical termes Therefore let us improve this And First We see what a glorious and excellent title the name of a Christian is for that signifieth as much as one anointed If thou art a Christian in deed as well as in name thou hast this anointing and unction that is here spoken of How farre then are all prophane and wretched sinners from the reality of this name What have they to doe with the name who are so contrary to the thing it self Art thou anointed that smellest of the very flames of hell Thy tongue thy actions doe all discover it There are no sonnes of Boanerges that can thunder terribly enough against such reproaches and dishonours yea blasphemies to the holy name and profession of Christianity Use 2. Of Instruction What is a special preservative against all heresies and damnable opinions even this spiritual unction For that doth not onely illuminate the minde but sanctifie the heart also And if a man have never so much knowledge by education and other meanes if he hath not also this spiritual teaching he is a ready prey for the Devil Onely you must know that this unction is not speedily and in an instant accomplished in the people of God it is successively and by degrees Even as it was with the Lord Christ though he was anointed to be the Lord of his people and he had the right to this even from his Incarnation yet the actual exercise and manifestation of this was not compleated till his Ascension into his glory Thus the spiritual unction of Gods people will not be fully finished till they are made perfect in Heaven And therefore for the present both their knowledge and their graces are but in part which consideration should keepe us from being scandalized if we see that even those believers who yet have all received this unction from God if in things not fundamentall they differ from one another Use 3. Of Exhortation To wicked men to take heed how they persecute or oppose these anointed ones how contemptible and vile they may be in thy eyes it is no matter you see how the Lord hath dignified them he hath set his mark upon them what you doe against them he taketh as done against himselfe they are as the apple of his eye David when but cutting off a piece of Saul's garment was smitten in his heart because he was the Lords anointed yet that was onely an external unction Saul had not the spiritual anointing Do thou therefore take heed of reproaching deriding and persecuting such as God hath anointed with the graces of his Spirit Use 4. Of Admonition to all the Godly that they should doe nothing unsuitably to this anointing Heresies and impieties doe not agree with this excellent composition Thy spiritual ointment is to discover it selfe in all companies in all temptations in all exercises The more precious ointment is stirred the sweeter it smelleth So the more God afflicteth thee chastizeth thee the more he doth pound thee as it were in the mortar the more doth thy preciousnesse manifest thy selfe We reade Matthew 26. 7 13. that when a woman poured an Alabaster box of precious ointment upon Christs head that Christ did so farre encourage her that he said Wheresoever the Gospel should be preached there also should this that the woman had done for a memorial of her And yet when thou confessest Christ in the midst of a wicked generation when thou art ready to part with all for Christ when he requireth it thou doest more for Christ than this woman did Look then to thy self that all thoughts all words and actions favour of this ointment whatsoever is of sinne and lust within thee thinke that is of the dung-hill that is of vomit and filthy mire SERM. CXXXIII Gods People are his sealed ones 2 COR. 1. 22. Who hath also sealed us WE come to the second noble Priviledge which the Apostle attributeth to the Corinthians for although we told you the same benefit is represented under three metaphoricall similitudes yet every one of them hath a distinct notion as this of sealing hath from that of anointing though both intend the confirmation and establishment mentioned in the former verse Some Popish Writers would from hence prove their spurious non-instituted Sacraments as by anointing they would have their oylin baptism as also in their extreme unction established and by sealing their Sacrament of Confirmation wherein likewise they use their chrisme and oil blasphemously calling it oleum salutis the oyl of salvation Hence they tell us confirmation is usually called in antiquity signaculum and the obsignation of the holy Ghost bringing this Text for the proof thereof as Vicecomes a great Popish Ritualist lib. 1. 2. de confirmatione would make us beleeve but first this Interpretation confuteth that of Stapleton who limits the interpretation to Ministers only whereas Baptism Confirmation and extreme Unction were applyed to private Christians and secondly they are never yet able to prove any such Sacrament of confirmation as they speak of Indeed in Antiquity there was Confirmation used in the Church of God When persons baptized in their infancy were afterwards by Church-officers called to account about their knowledge and Christian life wherein if approved they were commended by prayer to God for their establishment in the Christian faith against all persecutions and oppositions The use whereof Calvin wisheth were brought again into the Church of God as being advantagious to prevent heresies as also to reprove the carelesnesse and negligence of parents about the education of their children but as for that abominable abuse of this afterwards in Popery making a Sacrament thereof adding thereunto many Popish and ridiculous ceremonies This is a noisome weed not any plant of Gods planting We are therefore to enquire what
dominion over your faith Because in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erasmus thinketh the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood as if the sense were We have not dominion over you for your faiths sake Whereupon he enlargeth himself that none is to be compelled to the faith and those saith he who are vehement herein it is that their Kingdom might be more enlarged Hence he wisheth that Text in Peter 1 Pet. 5. 3. Not being lords over Gods heritage c. were written upon all Bishops halls or palaces Vel aureis literis even in golden letters The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore when we urge that place of our Saviours reproving the ambition of the Disciples Mat. 20. 25. The Gentiles exercise dominion but so shall not ye against the political dominion of the Pope and his Bishops Bellarmines solution is frigid It is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek which signifieth a tyrannical exercise of any power as if such an imperious abuse of power not the power it self were condemned But though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sometimes aggravate yet that it doth not there appeareth in that the same passage in Luk. 22. 25. is related by the simple Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and here in the Text is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle then doth here disclaim all absolute dominion over their faith all lordlinesse over their consciences he may not dictate or prescribe to them what he pleaseth Now if Paul so eminent an Apostle made so not by men but having immediate revelation from God who was also infallible in his Doctrine doth yet disclaim this dominion What mortal man may do it What Minister is equal to Paul Yea this Church of Corinth was wholly planted by him they were converted by him and therefore he might plead more sovereignty over them being not an instructer but a father rather than other yet for all that he challengeth no such primacy So that this Text confoundeth all Papal Church-government with the upholders thereof For how abominable are the expressions of the Popish flatterers affirming That the Pope hath the same tribunal with Christ that he can dispense against Paul ' s Epistles that he can do any thing praeter super and extra jus and that he is to judge all but to be judged of none with such kind of blasphemies Yea Bellarmine doth apply that prophecy of Isaiah Behold I lay in Sion a foundation-stone which doth directly belong to Christ even unto the Pope though secondarily but most blasphemously The Observation is That though Christ hath invested the Officers of the Church with some kinde of ministerial power yet they have not thereby any dominion over the faith of believers They may not preach what they will nor command and dictate what they will Insomuch that although their Pastors say Virtue is a vice and vice a virtue yet the people are bound to believe it as Bellarmine in his first Edition affirmed but afterwards left it out That all such dominion by compulsion and force is excluded from the Ministry appeareth plainly by those two Texts Luk. 22. 15. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Those places do not forbid such a fatherly pastor-like power that Christ hath bestowed upon his Church-officers but a civil domination as also an ecclesiastical-magisterial power in the Church as if we were to believe because they say so No our Saviour absolutely prohibiteth that when he saith Be ye not called masters for one is your master even Christ Mat. 23. 10. Where also we are commanded to call no man father Hence the Papists exceedingly erre in calling those Ancients Fathers thereby urging their dominion over our faith as if we were bound to believe what ever a Father saith Indeed if by Father we mean no more than an Ancient who hath lived long before us so the word may be allowed but they call them so in a doctrinal and authoritative respect as if we might not gain-say them no more than sonnes their father but this doth contradict our Saviours command Christ then is the onely Lord and Head of his Church whatsoever he saith we are commanded to hear him and that for his own authority there is no disputing no doubting no examination allowed of what he saith but all Ministers since the Apostles dayes are subject to errour and may be deceived and withall by their office they are stewards not lords in the family they are Embassadours onely not Princes Now such have a limited power they cannot do any thing of themselves any further than their Commission extends their power doth not extend And truly as was said if the Apostles though infallible would not challenge such a dominion such a commanding power in the Church 1 Cor. 7. 6. I speak this not by commandment but referreth all his doctrine his power and what he did to Christ as the original yea Christ as Mediator referred his doctrine and will to the Father What shall become of those ambitious Diotrephesses who affect a greater power in the Church But the Doctrine needeth explication in several particulars And First Let us see negatively What is not forbidden or disclaimed by the Apostles and then positively What is for the negative 1. The Apostle doth not here exclude that lawfull Ecclesiastical power which the Ministers of God have after a spiritual manner in dispensing of the Ordinances appointed by Christ Some indeed think it is not power or authority but a gift Others that all their power is swallowed up by the Magistrate when he becometh Christian but certainly Christ appointed Pastors and Teachers in his Church till his second coming and gave them power to preach the Word to administer Sacraments to exercise Church-discipline as might at large be proved if this were a fit occasion The Apostle attributeth to himself a power once or twice only he saith it is for edification not destruction 2 Cor. 13. 10. And he telleth these Corinthians If he come again he will not spare 2 Cor. 13. 2. 2 Cor. 10. 6. he saith He was in a readinesse to revenge all disobedience And that command of his To cast out the incestuous person argued his power Yea the names given them that they are called Pastors and Rulers and that the people are to obey them argue plainly there is a spiritual ministerial power appointed by Christ in his Church Of which more largely God assisting in subsequent passages 2. Neither doth this expression imply That the Ministers of the Gospel have their power from the people As if they were Embassadonrs in their name and acted with a power derived from them as some have pleaded for the office is of Christ the designation and application of the person to the office is by the Ministry of the Church but they have not the office it self from them It 's true they are sometimes called The servants of
their Religion but onely are perswaded herein by external motives very few being able to give a reason of the faith or hope that is in them which yet the Apostle Peter requireth of every man and woman 1 Pet. 3. 15. What reason have they but their fathers example and the Lawes of the Land So that it is meerly accidental that they do receive a true Religion for it had been Heretical and Idololatrical it had been all one to them they would have entertained it however But to this particular you must observe one Caution It 's one thing to speak of the Introductory and Preparatory means of faith and another thing of the ultimate and formal motive or reason why I do believe We do readily grant That the true Churches Ministery may prepare for a divine faith What is Paul and what is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believe saith the Scripture 1 Corinth 3. Thus Timothy had his faith by the godly education of his Mother and Grandmother Yea John 4. we reade of the woman of Samaria instrumental to bring many people to believe on Christ onely yet observe that expression vers 42. Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves Godly Ministers then and godly parents may be greatly helpfull to us in true believing but then the reason and chief motive is from the Divine Authority of the Scripture declaring this truth We doe not believe in Ministers nor in the Church And thus you must understand that passage of Jehoshaphats Chron. 20. 20. Believe in the Lord your God so shall ye be established believe the Prophets so shall ye prosper Believe in God ultimately but believe the Prophets ministerially So that it would be a fanatick presumption out of a perswasion that onely worketh faith thereby to cast off those usefull helps and means which he hath appointed for the producing of faith In the next general place we are to know That two things are necessarily required to the working of a divine faith The one Effectively The other Objectively The principle that worketh faith in us and the reason or motive thereof The principle that worketh faith in us is God alone None can make the heart of man to believe Scripture-truths but God onely Hence Faith is the gift of God so some are said To believe through grace Act. 18. 27. Is it not plain in the Pharisees notwithstanding they heard our Saviour preach and also saw his wonderfull miracles yet to them it was not given to believe or to know the mysteries of God but to others more unlearned and contemptible it was Hence it falleth out that the most learned men are many times most Atheistical or at least Sceptical and doubting in Religion Insomuch that we are to be importunate with God in prayer that he would both work and increase faith in us Hence Christ is said to be both the authour and finisher of our faith Hebr. 12. 2. It 's the mighty power of God so enlightning and enabling thee that thou doest adhere to the truth For how many specious arguments may be produced against the faith How mutable are many in forsaking the faith they once professed and turn Heretical So that it is a special work of Gods grace to make thee stand firme in the faith especially in times of temptation To be a pillar in the Temple of the Lord and not a reed shaken with every winde is a glorious preservation For it 's plain that it's fancy errour or humour that lead many in Religion and not this holy precious faith Again The second thing necessarily concurring to a divine faith is a Divine testimony it must be Gods word We must have the Doctrine from Christ else our faith is but an humane faith and so our Religion but an humane Religion The Thessalonians are commended by Paul That they received the Word not as the word of men but as it is indeed the word of God and when so received it effectually worketh in those that believe Alas what is the reason there is so little holinesse so little godlinesse It is because there is so little divine faith The truths we preach are not received as the word of God we look no further or higher than to a man in these things we doe not hear and tremble we doe not beleeve and tremble we rise not up with heart-reverence as Eglon though an Heathen did to Ehud when he said He had a message from the Lord. In the third place In that the true Christian faith floweth from such a divine principle and ariseth from such a divine motive Hence it is that no kinde of persons have an absolute Sovereignty over the faith of a believer and whosoever doe arrogate it to themselves they assume the property of the Almighty and most infinite God They arrogate to themselves the peculiar and incommunicable property of Christ which is to be the Head of the Church and a Law-giver in respect of any Doctrine Worship or Ordinances It is true there have been such especially the Pope of Rome who hath thus arrogated to himself setting himself in the Temple of God as God but the blasphemies of such have been written as it were in their fore-heads and hereby they are justly deemed to be a Political or Church-Antichrist as there is a Doctrinal Antichrist But we affirme That no kinde of persons can have dominion over a mans faith seeing it hath such a peculiar reference to God First Not spiritual and Church Rulers or Ecclesiastical Governours If the Apostles would not assume it who then may It is true there are several Texts in Scripture which command us to hear our Pastours to obey them to submit unto them to have them highly in esteeme for their workes sake Such as doe not hear them are to be accounted as Heathens and Publicans They are endowed with power to Admonish and rebuke sharply Yea where obstinacy is in sinners To cast them out of the Church But all this doth not arise to a Magisterial Domination over mens consciences And although they have power to binde and loose which God himself promiseth to confirme in Heaven yet all this is declaratively and ministerially onely How farre there is a decisive power in Councils to extinguish all errours and heresies is not here to be debated This is enough that as no particular person so no Councils though never so oecomenical can say we have dominion over your faith And Secondly No civil power hath dominion over any mans faith No Magistrate can make Articles of Faith can appoint another worship of God or other Sacraments than Christ hath appointed Faith is not Caesar's gift neither can any man believe Praecisè quia vult as Mirandula declareth meerly because he will How farre Magistrates have power in matters of Religion is greatly disputed and determined by the excesse in some and by the defect in others But however no Kings or Emperours can say
We have dominion over your faith no more than they can say We are the true and great Jehovah They cannot make a Religion make Sacraments but enjoyn the observance of that which is required in the Word and the reason which excludeth both spiritual and civil Governours is general to all We are not baptized into any mans name neither hath any Emperour or Church-officer died for us they have not been crucified for us neither have they power over our hearts to impose a command upon them which must necessarily be in the duty of faith neither can they damne or save men Hence the Apostle saith There is one Law-giver which is able to save and to destroy Jam. 4. 12. Fourthly Although divine faith be such a noble and excellent work coming from Heaven and ascending up to Heaven againe Yet it doth admit of degrees in the subject where it is Some have stronger faith some weaker some have more explicite and extensive faith than others yea and the most setled beleevers are subject to temptations they are often assaulted and that even in their faith about the principles and fundamentals about God about the Scriptures about the immortality of the Soul about the state of Glory and eternal Torments Fiery darts are sometimes injected for which the people of God doe abhorre and loath themselves Therefore we must distinguish between little faith and no faith between doubtings and Atheisme And truely for this end doth God suffer errours and heresies to arise in his Church that truth may be more confirmed and the approved may be made manifest It 's to exercise the spiritual wisdome and faith of the godly whether they can discerne of things that differ and can tell which is the strangers voice and which is the true shepherds It is a very grievous temptation to be assaulted about fiducial faith whether the promises belong to thee in particular but in some respects it is farre more terrible to be exercised in doubts about dogmatical faith for this tendeth to the razing of the foundations and the arguments or remedies to cure this distemper are more difficult Use of Instruction Is faith thus immediately respecting God above all instruments though making use of them Then First Theirs is not faith which doth wholly depend upon the Authority of a man though never so eminent We may not relie on Austine on Chrysostome neither doe we owne those expressions of Lutherans and Calvinists For although we acknowledge them eminent instruments in propagating of the Gospel yet we believe not upon their authority meerly because Luther and Calvin saith so It is true nothing is more ordinary than to admire mens persons and while we extoll their gifts and abilities we are secretly enticed to thinke of worthy menâ— above what we ought and finde an awe in our consciences to recede from any opinion they have delivered But we must take heed we doe not hereby become guilty of spirituall Idolatry setting up men as Idols in our hearts Secondly This instructeth that grosse ignorant men cannot have any divine faith for they feel nothing of any work of Gods Spirit or illumination upon their understandings hence they believe as other men believe as if a man were not to be saved by his own faith Thirdly It sheweth the Sceptical and Pyrrhonian man in Religion the meer Seeker that he hath no faith If he had the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen upon his soul he would not be tossed up and down as he is Fourthly It sheweth that the meer carnal Politician hath no divine faith for he looketh upon Religion but as an humane device or a State-engine and therefore can transforme into all shapes and times How contrary is this to true faith FINIS AN Alphabetical Table CONTAINING The chief Heads of this Treatise A Administrations THe godly sometimes deceived about Gods Administrations towards them pag. 293 294 295 296 297 Reasons of it 298 Rules for the preventing it 299 300 Afflictions God comforts his people in all their Afflictions both spiritual 167 And temporal 168 'T is a special duty to comfort the Afflicted See Comfort The most eminent Saints when Afflicted need comfort 188 189 190 See Sufferings 'T is of great use to know what are the Afflictions of the people of God 256 Reasons of it ibid. What use is to be made of preaching about those Afflictions which Paul and others suffered from the Heathens 257 258 259 The Afflictions of the godly heavy and yet light 270 Faith and flesh passe different judgements upon Afflictions 270 271 Propositions clearing it 271 272 How we may know when flesh and when faith speaketh in Afflictions 274 275 276 'T is very usefull to know that 277 Natural strength not able to carry a man through all Afflictions 280 Propositions clearing it 280 281 282 See Troubles and Sufferings Anointing All true believers have a spiritual Anointing from God 620 Propositions clearing it 620 621 Apostle What an Apostle was 15 Two kinds of them ibid. They were appointed by Christ in the first building of the Church 16 The properties of an Apostle 16 17 18 19 Of the difference betwixt the Office of an Apostle and of an ordinary Pastour 506 507 Assurance A believer may be Assured he performeth duties with an upright heart 394 What is required to an Assurance of our being in a state of grace 395 396 The impediments of Assurance 400 401 Gods command to look after it 401 402 The effects of it 402 Cautions about it 403 B Blessing A Threefold Blessing mentioned in Scripture 127 Christians ought to Blesse God for all his mercies ibid. What is required to our Blessing God aright 128 129 130 131 We should Blesse God more for spiritual mercies than for other 134 See Praising God C Call THe divine Call of Ministers necessary to be known 19 Two things premised concerning a Ministers Call 20 What are the practical concernments which will follow those who have a true Call from God to the Ministers 21 To the people 22 The Call to Church-offices proceeds meerly from the will and pleasure of God 33 34 What is there meant by the will of God 34 35 36 Changing Of Changing in matters of Religion 546 Christ Why our Saviour called Christ 36 What it doth imply 27 He is the Sonne of God 135 Propositions explaining how Christ is the Sonne of God 136 137. 561 562 563 564 This truth is the foundation of all Christian comfort 138 139 Christ the onely object of all preaching 557 When Christ is preached 557 558 559 560 Jesus is the Christ the anointed of God 569 See Jesus Church Of the name Church 50 51 The nature and description of a Church 51 It is a society 52 Called of God 52 53 54 By the preaching of the Word to the profession of Christ and Church-communion 55 56 Wherein Church communion consisteth 56 57 The notes and signs of a Church 58 59 Why necessary
damned Jesus is the Christ the anointed of God Where Ministerial labours are great there needeth the more help from others Where there is any fault in one Minister the people are apt to charge it upon all The grounds of it 1. The policy and enmity of false Teachers 2. The indiscretion of the people 3. The natural enmity in man against the Ministry 'T is an happy thing when all the Ministers of God agree to advance Christ The effects of this Agreement 1. The greater confirmation of the truth 2. The greater defence of the truth 3. The greater conviction of the impenitent and unbelieving Gods truth and so the true Preachers of it are alwayes the same 1. We must distinguish between the external formes of Gods worship and doctrinals 2. Between the growth and the change of truth 3. Between a seeming and a real yea and nay 4. Antiquity and consent are properties of a true Church God hath made many promises in Christ to us 1. God might have dealt with man by absolute soveraignty 2. The promises of God are properly promises 3. Gods promises do not adde to his simple affirmation but only are to confirm our faith 4. The rise of all Gods promises is his free mercy 5. Therefore the fullfilling of his promises is only of grace 6. The promises of God are absolute or conditional 7. There may be reasons given why God made such promises As 1. To exercise our faith 2. To teach us humility 1. Of the several sorts of promises 1. The promises of God are either Legal or Evang elical 2. Promises are either spiritual or temporal 2. Gods promises are the executions of his Decrees 3. No wicked men have any promises belong to them 4. Gods promises to us suppose faith in us 5. God hath sealed his promises to us 6. 'T is great skill to make use of promises In Christ alone are all the promises of God confirmed and made good 1. By the promises of God here are meant only tis promises of grace 2. Promises are fulfilled either in Christ or by him 3. There could have been no promises without Christ 4. And therefore is the covenant of grace called a testament Ans 1. It is hard to sail between the Arminian and Antinomian rock * Saltmarsh 2. A Christian in making use of a promise must not oppose it to Christ nor Christ to it What a Christian ought to do in his doubtings of his interest in the promises 1. He is not to ascend into the high points of predestination and universal redemption 2. He should make Gods command and invitation his ground of drawing nigh to a promise The promises being â—ounded upon will never be altered or changed The promises of God are made and are to be beleeved to his glory Wherein the glory of God is manifested in his promises 1. Hereby his goodnesse is known 2. His love 3. The freenesse of his grace How faith in Gods promises gives glory to him 1. Hereby we acknowledge our dependance upon him 2 Hereby we manifest him to be the truth it self 3. Hereby we exalt Gods way of justification Our establishing in the faith of the promise is the gracious work of God alone 1. God may be said to establish us either in the grace it self or in our apprehension of it 2. We are not able of our selves to do any thing towards the work of grace 3. Wherein lieth the establishing work of Gods grace 1. In preparing the understanding to it How God prepares the understanding 1. By discovering our own infirmity 2. The acceptablenesse of the work of saith 3. The evangelicall way of Gods vouchsafing mercy to the soul 2. In setling the and removing the impediments 1. Presumption 2. Despair Wherein Gods confirmation of us upon the promises consisteth 1. In working principles of grace 1. Faith 2. Love 3. Heavenly courage and spiritual fortitude 4. Divine â—opâ— 5. Spiritual joy 2. By actual motions of his Spirit upon us Arguments that all our establishment is from God It appears 1. From that unevenness that is in the godly themselves 2. In that weak Christians have gone through great temptations when strong ones have failed 3. It appears from the prayers of Gods people The strongest Christians need Gods establishing grace as well as the weakest 1. It appears from the falls the strongest have had 2 From Gods dispensations towards them 3. From the Devils malice against them more than others 4. From Gods leaving them oft to themselves that they may see their strength to be only in him 5. From the nature of the grace within us In Christ alone we are established 1. By grace are Christians united to Christ 2. From this union followeth our establishment 3 Our establishment comes from Christ 1. By meritorious impetration 2. By effectual application All true believers have a spiritual anointing from God 1. Who is the fountain of this ointment even God and Christ 2. The comparison betwixt material and this spiritual oyl They are like 1. As oyl was used in the consecration of things to God 2. As it comforts the heart and beautifies the countenance 3. As it refreshed the weary 4. As it healeth wounds 5. In that it is delightsom to the nostrils 6. As it mollifies 7. As it strengthens and comforts the limbs The people of God are his sealed ones 1. There is an active and a passive sealing 2. Gods sealing of his people is either vifible or invifible What the sealing of tee godly implys 1. The great esteem with God 2. Their safety 3. Security 4. Their difference from others 6. Secrecy and privacy 7. Confirmation Scriptures equivalent to the text Rom. 8. 18. Gal. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 2. 12. 1 Joh 3. 24. 1 Ioh. 5. 8 9 10. The description of the sealing of Gods spirit The description of the sealing of Gods spirit 1. It is a supernatural and gracious work 2. Of Gods spirit Reasons why it is the spirit alone that thus sealeth 〈◊〉 This sealing of Gods spirit is in the hearts of the sanctified 4. It confirms and establisheth the heart Reasons why we cannot confirm our selves 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The Spirit seals the promises of grace to a believer The division of faith as to the object it is 1. General 2. Special 3. Particular How the Spirit seals even by the means that God hath appointed Which means are either external as 1. The Sacraments 2. By the marks of such to whom the promises belong Or else internal The signes whereby we may know the spirit witnesses our interest in the promises 1. The sanctified improvement of afflictions 2. The experience of Gods gracious presence with us 3. The antecedent works of sanctification Of the end of the spirits sealing even that we might live godly and thankfully Whether all Gods people be his sealed ones 1. It belongs to all the godly 2. Primitive Christians did more partake of it then Christians do uow 3. It is not so necessary to