forth and grow as calves of the stall and Mal. 4. ◠they are planted in the house of the Lord who flourish in the Courts Psal 92. 13 14. of our God and still bring forth fruit even in old age and are fat and flourishing As on the contrary it is but bad soile in which good plants are starved or cankered Is it likely to be wholesome diet which men otherwise well and healthfull do not thrive on But it is no other then heavens shine and showers that make the plants of righteousness grow and bud and flourish and bring forth fruit for I cannot in this respect assent to the Remonstrants dictates Ex fructibus aestimandi sunt homines non semper doctrina it 's a good tree our Saviour Mat. 7. 17. tells us which bringeth forth good fruit and the same may be said of good doctrin too and al though by the corruption of mens hearts good doctrine may not al wayes bring forth good fruit in their lives yet it 's bad doctrine which naturally bringeth forth what is bad and and abominable But wholsome food even the bread of life let us ever esteem that by which the man of God liveth and thriveth cheerfully doth and suffereth Gods will and constantly holdeth on in Gods way and in the strength of it with Elijah 1 King 19. 8. walketh 40. days and 40. nights through the wilderness of this world till he come to the mount of God In a word that is sound doctrine which a sound heart relisheth and thrives by But because man liveth not by bread only Matth. 4. 4. but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God it is not sufficient that these sound words have mans approbation if not withall Gods institution that as they are acceptable words so also words of truth words of the wise Eccles 12. 10 11. but withall given by one Shepheard Which leads to the 3d. particular 3. Which thou hast heard of me in the Text viz. the Speaker by whom they were delivered in those words which thou hast heard of me Non à quocunque magistro as Lombard and Espencaeus paraphrase it not from every dogmatizing Master but from an Apostle of Christ infallibly directed by the Spirit of Christ Such truths as have been delivered to us by Christ himself the Prophets and Apostles immediately inspired by the Spirit of God and now recorded in the Scriptures of truth either expressed in them or plainly and directly by good and strong consequence drawn from them these are those words and formes of sound words which we are to hold fast and abide by as a light to our feet Psal 119. 105. 2 Pet. 1 19. the rule of our faith and life Gal. 6. 16. and therefore called Canonical the Foundation on which we are to build Ephes 2. 20. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mould of doctrine into which we are to be cast Rom. 6. 17. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Form of knowledge and truth by which we are to be informed No other fallible Land-mark but the holy Scriptures Card and Compass and Pole-star which we are to steer our course by if we would not make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience These these onely are the words of this life Act. 5. 20. what ever therefore either they expressely affirm or is from them soundly and directly gathered and commended to us whether by whole Churches or particular Persons although they be not expressed wholly in Scripture words yet if according to the Analogy of faith for the further clearing of Scripture sense and the better discovering of errors and heresies as they arise we willingly accept and carefully hold fast But what ever Creeds Canons Confessions Constitutions Catechismes c. either of private men or of whole Churches yea of that Church which now nameth it self Catholick shall obtrude upon us any thing directly or by good consequence contrary to the Scripture in any thing yea or but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides what the Gal. 1. 9. 10. Scripture teacheth us in the parts and essentials of Gods worship or in any thing in doctrine or practise pretended as necessary to salvation eadem facilitate contemnitur Hieronym in Matth. qua probatur we stick not easily to reject it and being backed with the Apostles authority to pronounce him whether man or Angel Anathema who shall teach and impose it and in hoc sensu we particularly especially reject 1. All humane unwritten Traditions 2. All feigned Divine Revelations For humane unwritten Traditions Bellarmine indeed applieth Traditions De verbo Dei non scripto cap. 5. to them this Text and maketh them at least a part of that Depositum in the following verse nor can I deny but that Chrysostom upon the Text and other Greek Interpreters after their manner following him run their descant upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thou hast heard as relating to what Paul had delivered to Timothy by word of mouth from which Canus loc com lib. 3. Corn. à Lapide Estius Alii in Textum Popish writers take a rise to cry up their unwritten Traditions which being the strongest stake in their rotten hedge they most highly cry up and most earnestly contend for In their Elogiums which they give them they are their Homericum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Antidote against all infections Lydius Lapis by which they will try all doctrines Sacrum Thesei filum safely to guide you in all Labyrinths and Meanders Gladius Goliath non est similis ei the sword of their Goliah Pope to offend and strike down all opposors Ajacis Clypeus to defend them and to ward off all blows from eheir enemies Nay Fidei fundamentum the very foundation of their Popish faith and the onely foundation of it so far as Popish which if overturned their Babel cometh down and take but away what partly we hold with them agreeable to Scripture and what they maintain only by Tradition and what is besides left of Popery would be a poor thin nothing and therefore here they fight tanquam pro aris focis or if you will we may leave out the tanquam Elabor andum est ut hic locus quà m diligentissimè Loc. com lib. 3. cap 6 ad fiuem explicaretur muniretur saith Canus and good reason when he had before cap. 3. said Traditiones majorem vim habere ad Haereticos refellendos quà m Scripturas good reason that they should so earnestly fight for Traditions because by them they can better confute us whom they call Hereticks then by Scriptures We kindly thank him for this fair acknowledgement they are not so much the Scriptures as their Traditions which they must knock us poor Hereticks down with By which they rather appear to be the Hereticks for of such Tertullian of old said Lib. de Resur carni nec stare se posse si de solis
fair weather as I said before is the fittest time to build both our own and Gods house in Solomon saith There is a time to break down there is a time Eccles 3. 3. to build We have had a time of too much breaking down in time of war and therefore now if ever is a time to build up in time of peace A clear shining after rain 2 Sam. 23. 4. makes a growing season such is ours for the present and therefore let us up and be doing Gods Temple was built without axe and hammer 1 King 6. 7. but it was beat down by both Psal 74. 6. War hindreth the building of Gods house 1 King 5. 3. but Peace should further it v. 4. 5. And therefore let us lay hold of this happy opportunity In Heathen Rome Janus his temple stood open onely in time of war to sue to their gods for peace which they then wanted most disingenuous like a man that openeth the door onely so far to his friend as to put out his hand to take in something from him which he standeth in need of and then to shut it upon him again But true Christians are more ingenuous and therefore would have the Church doores opened as much in time of Peace that they may go in and return thanks for mercy received Thus we read of Asa 2 Chron. 14. 5 6. That the kingdom was quiet before him and the land had rest and he had no war in those years because the Lord had given him rest whereupon it 's immediatly added v. 7. Therefore he said unto Judah Let us build while the land is yet before us for we have sought the Lord our God and he hath given us rest on every side and so they built and prospered And so let us say and do who have the like occasion that we may have the same blessing Thus let us build and so let us prosper and this in building not so much our own houses as Gods This was wont to be the care of Gods people in former times upon the like occasions Israel when got out of Egypt and through the Red sea and have not we reared up the Tabernacle Solomon when in peace and no evill or adversary occurrent builds God a Temple which although afterward their sins ruined yet upon their return from Babylon it was their first work to build it again the second time and the like was the Christian Churches care upon the ceasing of the primitive persecutions And so God now by our present rest from former troubles tryeth Both our ingenuity and gratitude whether when he hath thus wrought for us we will work and build for him And also our wisdom whether we will take the fittest time for so needfull a work What more necessary to be done then to build up Gods house that thereby we may edifie our selves in faith and grace to salvation and what fitter time can we either have or wish to do it in then when the coast is clear and we may be at leisure for it and have nothing but our own naughty hearts to hinder us in it But when shall we set about it if not now God hath given us Rest but not to be restive rest from outward trouble that so we might be more expedite and ready thus to set upon his work and so to work out our own salvation Having Rest as there is a fit season of it so there is all reason that we should labour to be edified which was one Reading of the Words And being edified we shall Motive 3. have rest which was the other Reading of them and affordeth another strong argument to inforce the duty If edified it will be a certain pledge and meanes of the continuance settlement and establishment of our begun rest and peace Read over Judahs story and you shall ever finde that all prospered while the Temple and Ordinances of God were upheld and honoured and it is to be observed that when David had settled the Ark 1 Chron. 16. 1. how in the sequele of that Chapter he calleth upon heaven and earth Sea and fields and trees of the wood to rejoice v. 31 32 33 c. and how he puts together many parcels out of severall other Psalmes unto that one as though all were not sufficient to praise God for such a mercy into which so many are crowded And how v. 30. when the Ark and Church was thus settled he makes account that the whole world with it were established and no wonder Isa 48. 18. seeing that for its sake it is continued in this case the Prophet Isaiah saith Their peace should be not as a brook which is soon dried up but as a River continually flowing and their righteousnesse as the waves of the sea one still coming on in the neck of another Were it our case we might expect an uninterrupted series of mercies But never shall I expect that at the long run it shall be well with the State if the Church continue to fare ill or that our houses will stand firm whiles Gods lieth waste we may in that case build castles in the air or upon a sandy foundation which will not abide when the storm cometh with Cain Gen. 4. 7. 15. 5. and Nimrod we may build Nods and Babels which according to the signification of those names will end in unsettlement and confusion They shall build and I will throw down saith the Lord Mal. 1. 4. The Jews tell us that the three last Prophets died all on one day and that on the very same day See Schinler ad vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexander as a Conquerour entred Jerusalem whether true or not we may make this use of it to think and conclude upon it that when thorugh the unworthines of a people true Prophets cease outward peace useth to cease with them and when the Church is not edified fear lest the State be not thereby ruined But work we with God as the Scriptures phrase is and God will 1 Sam. 14. 45. work for us Build we up our selves in our holy faith and build up his house according to his holy Word and then prove him if he will not open to us the windows of heaven and pour us out such a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3. 10. Build upon it that he will Ier. 42. 10. then build us and not pull us down plant us and not pluck us up even plant us assuredly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in truth and stability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his whole heart and with his whole soul Let but the Churches of God be edified and then according to the Text we shall have rest and that continued and established and our Churches not onely settled but also multiplied Were multiplied THis was the second choice blessing which accompanied The 3d Sermon preached at St. Maries in Cambridge Feb. 25. 1654. or followed upon their
word the less peace and rest but the more trouble and persecution they suffer for it Matth. 13. 21. Yet it is pity that grace peace should be parted and therefore it is the sweetness of Gods goodness when we have as it 's said Nehem. 4. 6. a mind to work and to edify our selves and his Church to grant us fair weather to build in So Solomon while he was building the Temple had peace and Israel in Canaan when they thrice a year left their houses to come up to the Temple were not Exod. 34. 24. assaulted by enemies as at their first entrance into it when they set upon that intermitted ordinance of Circumcision which how Josh 5. painfull it was and how it exposed them to danger when they were soar of it the Instance of the Schechemites tells us when Gen. 34. 25. two men Simeon and Levi could come on a whole city and destroy it but God secured them that in that time none of the Nations of Canaan set upon them whilest they had been so unable to have resisted them and all this because God delighteth not to pluck the child from the breast when it thriveth by it nor to send nipping May frosts to blast a growing and forward spring It is certainly the best way to keep our candle light to do our work by it Take we but care of our edification and building up in faith and grace and then let us trust God for our rest and setlement in either inward or outward peace This the former Reading of the words affordeth But I rather pitch upon the latter which maketh their being edified a fruit and consequent of their having rest that was their happinesse and it is our duty to improve our peace to our edification Doct. 2 It were well that our material Churches which were battered and demolished in our late wars might be repaired and rebuilt now in times of peace but how much better if the spirituall true Churches of Christ were indeed savingly edified in their holy faith now that there are foundations layd of our outward peace God I know can lay the beams of his Chambers in the waters Psal 104. 3. a strange foundation you would think of any firme building He can build up his Church in the midst of stormes and tempests but as for us it is ill to lay our foundations or to build upon quick-sands or in an Earth-quake fair weather is the fittest time for us to build in which whilest God for the present sends us and hath built our Scaffold for us it 's best for us to get the trowell into our hand and to ply our work for although David in his trouble may prepare much for the house 1 Chr. 22. 14. of the Lord and desired to find him a Tabernacle yet a peaceable Solomon built him an house Act. 7. 46 47. what therefore David said to Solomon let me to you now when as in Solomons time God hath given you rest almost on every side so that there is neither Adversary 1 King 5. 4. 1 Chr. 22. 16. nor evill occurrent Arise and be doing and the Lord will be with you In the prosecuting of this particular I shall endeavour to clear those two things 1. What it is to be edified 2. What great reason there What 's to be edified is now that God hath given us peace and rest that we should so be First then for this Phrase of being edified all know it is a Metaphor taken from materiall buildings in which upon a foundation first laid the superstructure is laid on and carried up till the top-stone added compleat all So in this our Spiritual Architecture Christ being first laid for the foundation there can and therefore must be no other 1 Cor. 3. 11. and we being spiritually but really united to him we come to be setled on him and in him to grow up in grace and peace to everlasting life For edification in general importeth Indicat augmertum stabilimentum Camer Genev. setlement and growth establishment and increase Setlement as when our Saviour saith On this rock I will build my Church there is edification so as the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it Matth. 16. 18. there is setlement Growth and Setlement together we have in Col. 2. 7. in those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 built up and established not onely established or setled but built up built and built upon as the word is i. e. the whole building upon the foundation and one grace and degree of grace upon another that at length we come to be built up even to everlasting life when thus confirmed and improved then in the general we may be said to be edified But more particularly this Edification is Either of the whole Church Or of particular beleevers The Church is Gods house 1 Tim. 3. 15. and so he is said to build it Matth. 16. 18. And Beleevers are Gods Temple 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods building 1 Cor. 3. 9. and accordingly they as lively stones are said to be built up a Spirituall house 1 Pet. 2. 5. And accordingly The Church is said to be built up and edified when either in the first founding and erecting or in after repairing and reforming 1. His word is purely and orderly dispensed when upon Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11 12. the foundation is built no wood hay stubble of false or frothy Doctrines but gold silver and precious stones of solid and spiritual Ephes 4. 21. truth as it is in Jesus So we finde true instruction to be called edification as 1 Cor. 14. 4. where he that Prophesieth i. e. instructeth the people is said to edify the Church 2. Sacraments and Church Censures are duly administred and as is in a true wrought building Col. 2 5. a due order and Symmetry kept and observed 3. In a word when the Church in all the Ordinances and outward constitution and state of it is set up and held up enlarged and setled as we have it fitly to our present purpose expressed of the Temple in Joash his time 2 Chron. 24. 15. where it is said that the work was perfected by them or healing went up upon the work when all the ruines and breaches were repaired and they set the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 house of God in his state or forme or upon his firm basis or foundation and strengthened it So now when the Church of Christ shall prove so unhappy as to have the breaches and decayes of it made up shall be firmly setled on its true foundation and raised up to its just stature and constitution then it is more compleatly built up and edified And the like proportionably is to be said of particular Believers the true members of the Church for they also are edified when by the Word and other Ordinances by which the Church it self was before said to be built up they are 1.
Brought to Christ and built upon him as the onely true Foundation 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. and in reference onely to him upon the doctrinall foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ mean while continuing the corner-stone Eph. 2. 20. 2. And thereupon are confirmed and grow up in grace both in themselves and with one another as it 's added Eph. 2. 21. in whom all the building fitly framed together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. And thus we are said to be edified in knowledge 1 Cor. 14. 4. in faith Jude v. 20. in love 1 Cor. 8. 1. Eph. 4. 16. and the like may be said of all other gaces 3. So that a good life as the topstone is laid upon good doctrine an outward holy conversation is added to all our inward grace and holy profession then and truly not till then may we cry Grace grace to it as in the building of the second Temple Zechariah 4. 7. 4. And when we are thus converted and edified we further labour to strengthen and build up our Brethren Luke 22. 32. 1 Thes 5. 11. And therefore now for the applying Vse of this to our selves In the forementioned particulars we have our work cut out to our hand and laid before us we now have rest as these here had it concerneth us therefore not now to be negligent 2 Chron. 29. 11. and idle but to get up and be doing that we may be edified as they were And here our first great care must be that Christ in all be laid for the only foundation You may possibly think this a strange lesson to be taught them who already professe themselves Christians as though we had need to lay again the foundation as the Apostle speaketh Heb. 6. 1. but that our unhappy times are most unhappily become like those which the Psalmist in his dayes spake of in which Psal 11. 3. Foundations were destroyed For now that I may use the Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very principles of the doctrine of Christ the most Fundamental Scripture-truths such I mean as are not onely sufficient to build us up in a good life as some now Dr H. of Fundam cap. 1. mince it but such as are absolutely to be believed and practised to salvation are not onely doubted of but boldly and blasphemously denyed and impugned and this for the most part impunè and without controul Whilest the Papist robs Christ of his offices the Socinian spoileth him of his Deity the Antiscripturist of the Scepter of his Kingdom and others blaspheme him into a Notion a Forme a very Impostor Lord is thy Church edified when foundations are thus overturned and what can what should the righteous now do But the more that others pull down the more they should labour to build up both themselves and others in their most holy faith upon the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Jude 20. Eph. 2. 20. Christ himself being the corner-stone with whom whosoever gathereth Math. 12. 30. not scattereth and on whom whosoever be he othrewise never so great a master builder buildeth not besides what he doth to others is certain to ruine himself unavoidably irrecoverably we know to this purpose what became of those Builders that rejected this precious Corner-stone Matth. 24. 42 43. and still and ever that will prove true which followeth v. 44. That whosoever falleth on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grinde him to powder He is sure to build a Babel of confusion who layeth not Christ first for the onely foundation It is said Luke 17 28. that in the dayes of Lot they planted they builded but fire and brimstone from heaven soon consumed all those buildings and in this busie age of ours we are as intent to raise up Fabricks of our own both in our opinions and judgements and in our other designes and practises thereby to advance our estates or esteemes and because Christ and his Truth and Grace will not cannot square with them with those Builders we leave him out and lay him aside as not for our turn But what Castle-come-downs will all such buildings prove that are daub'd with such Ezek. 13. 10 11. untempered morter Certainly such wood hay and stubble will burn Such buildings will not stand that are built upon the sand Mat. 7. 24 25 26 27. and not on this rock In the close it will be found that this is not to edification but to destruction let our first care therefore be to make Christ our ground-work and foundation And then the second should be that the Ordinances of Christ be set up and kept up in their purity and power This is Gods building up of Zion when he Psal 102. 16. builds a Tower a Temple in the midst of his vineyard Isa 5 2. and setleth all the Formes Ordinances Ezech. 43. 11. and offices of his house This is the building of the Church both in reference to the generall constitution of the whole as also to the saving edification of the severall members of it When the wholesome word of God is dispensed according to his will for it is able to build us up Acts 20. 32. And when Sacraments and Censures are administred according to his Word for in the stedfast continuance and communion in these Ordinances the first and best Believers grew up increased and multiplied Acts 2. 41 42 c. And from hence take we notice of our sin and duty 1. Our sin in this particular is Our sin very great for although through Gods mercy the State hath some rest yet the Church according to those particulars is very far from being edified We are still on the pulling-down hand or if building up it is of Babels in which we cannot agree or understand one another nay of Temples and Altars to Idols which was not only Manassehs sin 2 Chron. 33. 3 4 5. but even Solomons 1 Kings 11. 7. which the Prophets up and down cry out of in Israel and Judah and in the mean while of the neglect and ruine of Gods Temple a sin which we are sadly and deeply guilty of whilest 1. The Fanatick Enthusiast is caught up so high in the Spirit that he now is gotten above all Ordinances and doth tanquam ex alto despicere undervalue and despise them as poor empty Formes and weak beggerly Rudiments and elements for those of lower Attainments as they in their gibberish are pleased to phrase them to be trained up with The Lord humble the blasphemous pride of these self-conceited men who thus attempt to spurn down as much below them Christs own Institutions which he hath appointed as fit and able by his blessing to build up his people in faith and love and by an humble and faithful improvement whereof many of their betters both dead and alive have attained to so much inward settlement and peace and far
make if many and laid together Jor and Dan though lesser Rivolets whilest asunder when met and joyned in one Current make an overflowing Jordan How fast might this Church-work go up if many hands though but weak ones would joyne in it The children gathered wood whilest the fathers kindled the fire and the women kneaded dough to make Cakes Iet 7. 18. for the Queen of heaven and if many weaker hands with those that are stronger were joyntly put to this work the house of the King of heaven would more speedily be built up and edified 5. Although it should be little or nothing that either singly or together we could do of our selves yet it might do much in setting others on work who are able to do more as the Corinthians zeal provoked many 2 Cor. 9. 2. little stickes use to kindle great ones In the Church of Christ there are not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 12. 28. but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Helps as well as Governments and such helpers weak Inferiors may prove and so Paul the great Apostle calleth Aquila and Priscilla that were but Tent-makers his helpers Rom. 16. 3. Weak ones may help those that are more able Either by incouraging them in their work as Paul when he doth but see the Brethren is thankfull and taketh courage Act. 28. 15. Or at least by shaming their backwardness with their forwardness and that with this advantage that herein the weakest are able to do the most in that the weaker they are the more they shame the stronger if they fall short of their activity and diligence 6. And yet the more in that by provoking their strength we shall improve our own weakness to be able to act the more strongly our little wheels being carried about by their great ones which we have set a going and the great sluce opened and set a running turneth about our Mill and the great Ship now under Sail carrieth the Cock-boat along with it which helped to weigh its anchor So Aquila and Priscilla by helping Apollos Act. 18. 24. 26. v. 27. mightily helped themselves and others by his greater abilities for it is added that he helped them much who had beleeved through grace So that from these and the like considerations we see that private Christians and even the weakest of them are ingagâ—d in this great good work of edifying the Church of God in which if they ply it they may do much good I am sure that by their contrary neglect or practise they may both much hinder it and at last ruine all For 1. It is but a very weak hand that cannot more powerfully draw a great weight down the hill then a very strong arme can pull it up How doth a little Remora stay a great ship in her full speed and one stop in the least wheel or pin make an huge engine stand still in its swiftest motion Very sorry men have proved sad hinderances to the advance of the things of Christ and his Church through their boldness and others baseness whilest the devil can have more active Agents against the Church then Christ can have for it 2 Or although such sorry adversaries strength and ability may be little yet their sins may be very great they weak men but theirs may be mighty sins Amos. 5. 12. and so although in their private low standing they can do little with men yet by their horrid abominations they may most highly provoke God and so one Achan may trouble all Israel Iosh 7. 25. Eccles 10. 1. and one sinner destroy much good one otherwise weak hand pull down more then many abler can build up And thus we see that not onely Magistrates and Ministers but all even the most private and meanest Christians have an interest and share in this blesed work of edifying and building up the Church of Christ which was the first lesson we were to learn from the example of those repairers of Jerusalems walls in Nehe. 3. But so as that we must herewith take in the second which was that although all are ingaged to act yet every one according to his rank and in his own proper calling and station for so we find it was in that pattern held out to us in the place before mentioned where we find that several persons and companies had their several lots and quarters and so they repaired their parts Nehem. 3 20 21. 31. and especially that part of the wall which was over against their houses as you may observe v. 10. 23. 28 29. which teacheth us that although in this common work we should all of all sorts join thy agree to be acting yet so as that every one of us keep within the bounds of our own stations and callings and so hold our selves to our own particular alotments that we do not either out of a vain conceit of our own sufficiency or a rash head precipitancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldly intrude into other mens places and employments Col. 2. 18. which we are not sitted to and so neither by God or man called to I would have the house of God built the Church of Christ edified but I would not therefore have all Ignaroes prove Preachers or privy counsellors and every Jac Ket get up into his Quercus Reformatoria which will as much advance the work as Vzza did the setling of the Ark by laying hold 2 Sam. 6. 6 7. Num. 45. 5. of it who by the Law should not have touched it who stop't it and not furthered it or as much as a whole army will help on the victory by running all on heaps in a confusion and so rather tread down themselves then their enemies Mistake me not therefore I onely bid you all march on but yet so as that you keep your ranks And for that purpose mind and weigh well the abilitie God hath given you the calling in which he hath set you and that particular work and cue in it both in your private and publick relation as may keep you from invading an others province which intrusions are usually accompanied with the neglect of our own lot and so with the publick detriment as had Ierusalems repairers bin busy to look to other mens alotments the enemie might soon have come in at their breach which they never looked to Let us therefore with them labour to build up Ierusalems wall but so as that our care be to look to our own Frontage to that part of it which is over against our own houses which fitly leads me from this 2d part of edifying the Church in setting up and setling publick ordinances to the Third and that is the edifying of our selves in our establishment and growth in faith and all other saving graces for the whole is made up of the parts and the growth of the body is in a proportionable increase of all the members If
ever therefore we would according to the square of the word edify the Church we must take care to build up our selves in our most holy faith as Iude exhorteth us v. 20. that by faith coming to Christ the living stone we also as lively stones may be built up a Spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. Otherwise we may gather Churches as many now do and build material Churches as in and after Constantines time both He and many others did and yet for all this the Church of God may be but a very little edified They do very ill who cry down all Formes although of Gods own making and institution and they do little better who make them indeed but bare Formes like painted Churches in a Lantskip So the Iewes of old made a charme of the Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Ier. 7. 4. as before they made the Ark of God a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bug-bear to fright enemies which they themselves so long played with that at last both They and It were carried away captive 1 Sam. 4. 3 4 5. It is not the crying up Holy Church with Papists or Reformed Churches in the most refined Formes of them with Protestants these rested in are but Names and Notions Names indeed of God by which in our walking answerable to them he is known but horribly taken in vain whilest rested in and will do us no more good then Gehezies laying the staff on the dead 2 King 4. 31. 1 King 1. 1. child could bring life into it or Davids cloathes warmth to his spent body nay we shall prove worse by them as they say the Cypress tree the more it 's watred the more barren it groweth worst men have often been found under best Ordinances So in Penuel which signifieth the face and presence of God we meet with scornfull Neuters Iudg. 8. 8. and in Bethel the house of God with scoffing Idolaters 2 King 2. 23. Bethel proveth Beth-aven Hos 10. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcision the Concision Philip. 3. 2. and the nearer we are to the Church the further from God and nearer to a curse and our end is to be burnt when after all shoures and Sunshines we bring forth onely bryars and thornes Heb. 6. 7. 8. The Church is indeed then built when the members of it are truely and savingly edified and are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as lively or living stones which do not onely lye in the wall but grow in the building When inward grace thrives according to outward meanes and when our communication and whole conversation is good to the use of edifying as the Apostle speaketh Eph. 4. 29. When a good life is built upon good Doctrine then is the Church indeed edified But so as in the last place that we labour to do as much for others as that last mentioned place intimateth That we edifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one another Singuli singulos 1 Thes 5. 11. and this mutually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 14. 19. that by our miscarriages we do not edifie them in sin for such 1 Cor. 8. 10 a kinde of untoward edifying the Scripture somewhere speaks of but by pious admonitions and holy examples and all other good meanes we endevour to bring men to Christ the foundation and that then they may be settled upon him and grow up in him and this also is held out unto us in that former expression of living stones which do not onely live and grow our selves but are also lively and active to draw on others to the building such a care the Apostles had of any where they found any hopes or beginnings and therefore as soon as ever they heard that Samaria had received the word of God they presently sent unto them Peter and John further to bring them on and build them up Acts 8. 14 15. which is excellently set down in that place of the Canticles where Chap. 8. 9. we see what tender care the elder Churches had of their little sister in this holy Oecodomy If she were a wall they would build upon her a palace of silver If a door they would inclose her with boards of cedar If a door that See Merce in locum had opened to Christ their inclosing her with boards or barres of Cedar which never rotteth expresseth what care they had in confirming and strengthning her If a wall i. e. more confirmed and settled their building upon her a palace of silver holds forth their further endevour for her continued growth ornament and perfection and these two take up what before I said was generally contained in this duty of edification and in particular 1. When Christ as the foundation is first laid 2. His Ordinances are set up and setled according to his Word 3. We in the injoyment of them established and grow in grace our selves 4. And are means and instruments busily imployed for the effecting of the like in others then in the sense of the Text and other Scriptures the Church is edified Which should the more earnestly be desired and endevoured by us 1. As knowing the time as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 13. 11. Motive 1. for it is a duty very much incumbent on us in these last Ages to be indevoured because it is on Gods part a mercy frequently promised to these latter dayes If you look into the severall books of the Isa 58. 12. 61. 4. Ier. 31. 4 Ezech. 36. 36. Prophets in the end of many if not of most of them you shall finde many gracious and glorious promises made of the then building of the Church In this respect it is the work of the day and therefore I hope we will not stand all the day idle but that it may be our happinesse that these Prophesies and promises may be most happily fulfilled not onely upon us but also by us whilest we thus diligently act for their accomplishments But in two other respects it is the work of this our day in England according to the two readings of the Text which I before mentioned Either they then had rest and thereupon were edified Or they were edified and thereupon had rest and accordingly we have two strong arguments yet further to presse this duty We have already through Gods mercy some rest and therefore there is all reason that we should now be edified according to the first reading And again we have need to be edified that so we may have our rest confirmed and our begun peace continued according to the second reading We have with them attained Motive 2 to some rest and therefore in point of ingenuous gratitude and that we may answer Gods gracious providence we are now in so fit a season to endevour that we may be edified For
Church which was when the Ordinances of Christ are set and held up in power and purity the word being purely preached the Sacraments and other holy things of God duly dispensed and administred For as when God had at first created and set all creatures in their severall rankes and orders He then said Increase and multiply Gen. 1. 22. So when all things in his house are duely ordered and dispensed then we may expect a multiplied increase for the Ordinances are Christs bed of love Cant. 3. 1. in which many are begotten to him and when that Mariage feast is made ready and guests are invited then the house is filled and the mariage furnished with guests Matth. 22. 10. So it was in the first preaching of the Gospel there went out Jerusalem and all Judea and all the Regions about to John Baptist Matth. 3. 5 6. Matth. 11. 12. Luke 16. 16. and in that crowd the Kingdome of Heaven suffered violence and every one pressed into it and afterward Christ said that when He should be lifted up as on the Cross so in the ministry of the Gospel He would draw all men John 12. 32. unto him which was fully made good in that wonderfull confluence of numberless numbers of Beleevers which all the world over even upon the swords point crowded in to Christ and to martyrdome together when once in the ministry of the Gospel He was lifted up as an Ensigne to Isa 11. 10. 12. Gen. 49. 10. this our Shiloh were then the gatherings of the people as of Souldiers to the colours of the Captain of their Salvation Peters net was then full and he taketh 153 great fishes at one Iohn 21 6. 11. Act. 2. 41. draught nay some thousands of Souls at one Sermon when Ordinances were rightly dispensed But as Peter at an other time Luke 5. 5. toiled all the night and took nothing So now with us while the word and Ordinances of Christ have so wofully been either corrupted or despised and trampled upon and so the house of God rather ruinated then built up and edified we have had Professors enow but how few sincere ones but thin congregations and but slender account of any saving conversion and coming on to Christ in those few the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have been of another way Multitudes have been and are the badge of Mahomets heard and the Popes Synagogue and with us of such as have been the frequent followers of greatest Seducers and Corrupters as where the Carion is there the Kytes are gathered together And therefore the greater is our Vse sin and matter of our moan and should be of all our cares and endevours especially of such with whom God hath betrusted the care of his Church and People that his house may once be built and at length better frequented and filled and that not by flights of Kytes to the Carion but of Eagles to that dead body that saw no corruption and of Doves Isa 60. 8. to the windowes for such promises there are made and yet in part nay it may be in a great measure if not wholly to be accomplished that all Nations shall come flying and slowing into Christ when the mountain of the Isa 2. 2. Lords house shall be establâ—shed in the top of the mountains They then shall be multiplied when in this sense the whole Church shall be thus edified 2. As also when the particular members of the Church shall themselves hereby come savingly to be edified in faith and love then and thereby Churches and Beleevers come to be multiplied For as it is their duty so it will be their care and indevour with Peter when converted to strengthen their brethren and Luke 22. 32. when they themselves are once edified and built upon Christ to do what they can as we heard out of 1 Thes 5. 11. mutually to edify one another for they come to Christ as before we shewed out of 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. as living stones not to lye still as in a dead wall no nor onely to live and grow themselves but also to draw on others to the building as in the place of Isaiah 2. when all Nations are promised to flow to the house of the Lord v. 2. it is added v. 3. And many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord as before it was said of Zebulun and Issachar Deut. 33. 19. that they should call the people to the mountain i. e. those two Tribes being in the utmost Coasts and so at a far distance from the Ark and Temple shall yet through their own pains and diligence in coming to it by their example invite and shew others that dwell nearer to do the like yea and call on other Nations with whom by reason of their situation on the Sea coast they had occasion to traffique to bear them company so studious were they and so carefull should we be when we have acquaintance with Christ to draw on others to like communion with him Our Saviour saith that the Scribes and Pharisees compassed Matth. 23 15. sea and land to make Proselytes to themselves and Paul foretold Act. 20. 30. that after his departure Seducers would be studious to speak perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and what Quoy-ducks Jesuites and other Popish Emissaries now are and how busy to bring whole Sholes and flights into their Nets we in part see and I wish that we here were more aware of their present practises But all that they do is only to fill the Synagogue of Satan by the emptying what they can the Church of Christ O that we might once prove as wise and faithfull and diligent for God and Christ as they are for Satan and Antichrist that by building up our selves and one another the Churches of God may be so edified that at last they may be more multiplied But this tendeth to the 3d part of the Text in these words Walking in the fear of the Lord c. VVHich words have a double aspect and 4. Sermon preached in Pauls April 1655. look either 1. To the peace they had as the happy fruit of it having rest they walked in the fear of the Lord c. 2. Or to their edification and multiplication as the cause or means of them so as the whole verse may be thus expressed Having peace they upon it walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost and thereupon it came to passe that they were edified and multiplied which double respect that these words bear as coming between their peace and their edification and multiplication as the effect of the one and the cause or means of the other in the handling of them will hold out unto us 1. Our duty viz. that upon our injoying of peace and rest we then especially then if ever then more then ever should labour to walk in the
whose joy in God addeth wings to their hands and maketh their feet sparkle for haste as we have it in Ezekiels vision even so would this oyle Ezek. 1. 7 8. of gladnesse oyle our wheels in any way that God should send us and in particular in this great work of building up and edifying the Church of Christ 1. Whether it be in helping up and settling his House and Ordinances for it never goeth faster up than when his servants lay the foundations of it with joyful shoutings and praises as it was Ezr. 3. 11. and so at last bring forth the top-stone of it with like shoutfull acclamations crying Grace Grace to it as we finde it Zech. 4. 7. So then in that second Temple as before the people were joyfull and glad of heart in the dedication of the first Temple 1 Kin. 8. 66. as the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off when the walls of it were afterward built up and finished Nehem. 12. 43. Thus under the Law And in the beginning of the Gospel they were these that here in the Text walked thus in the comfort of the holy Ghost who were the first happy promulgers of it And blessed Paul though he came in to this work after them yet in this as in all else he came no whit behinde them But he that laboured more abundantly then 1 Cor. 15. 10. they all was as his story and Epistles every where testifie as chearfull rejoicing yea triumphing 2 Cor. 2. 14 in God as any Which in part may be the reason why more ordinarily Gods Ministers are lesse foiled with uncomfortable dejections and more inlarged with the consolations of his Spirit then divers others viz. That they may be in better case more effectually to comfort others 2 Cor. 1. 4. and more ably to help up the house of God in the more lively dispensation of his Ordinances 2. Or if we consider the edification of the Church in the building up of our selves in our most holy faith and the Graces of Gods Spirit truely the comfort of the holy Ghost is a very great heartner and furtherer of those graces which as sweet flowers open themselves and flourish most in this happy Sunshine but too often close up and droop and hang down the head in a cloudy rainy day so that if this part of the Churches edification consist in pulling down the old building and setting up the new in our establishment and growth in grace and mortification of sin nothing more effectually conduceth to it then this joy and comfort 1. Nothing more furthereth the mortification of sin and corruption Repentance indeed and godly sorrow doth very much this way whilest it maketh us sensible of the loathsomness and bitterness of sin but this joy and comfort of the spirit doth more by its presenting us with the unconceiveable sweetness of Gods favour and grace in Christ as Paul when he had been wrapped up to heaven was then most impatient of a thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12. In heaven where there is all joy there is no sin and had we here more of heavenly joyes we should be less troubled with sinfull corruptions these spirituall comforts would so satisfie yea swallow us up with delight in them that we should not need the supply of any sensuall or sinfull contentments but they would make us despise them as low poor and empty yea abhor them as most loathsome and abominable in themselves especially to us then when we are ravished with more high and holy and heavenly delights such foggs would quite vanish in the Noon-day Sun and this Summers heat would dry up even the springs of these polluted streams When a peaceable Solomon is setled on the Throne all enemies are subdued 1 King 5. 4. and 9. 21. and never more than when we are setled and established in the peace of God and the comfort of his Spirit are our corruptions mortified 2. Or our Graces confirmed and increased The fruits of the spirit saith the Apostle Gal. 5. 22 23. are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance See what a duster there is of them but mark how love joy and peace are set in the head of them as animating actuating and giving life to all the rest The cheerfull Christian is the fruitfull Christian most agile and active for God And although in his more nimble speed he may have oftner trips yet the melancholick spirit though it 's possible he may have fewer yet usually they are more sad and heavy falls The sad Christian may by reason of his watchfulness feldome do evill but the cheerfull Christian by reason of his activeness usually doth the most good When the Sun of righteousness thus ariseth on us with healing in his wings we then go forth and grow as calves of the stall Mal. 4. 2. not for wantonness but for lively activity So in nature our cheerfull youth is the growing and active age and part of our life whereas sad old age sitteth still shrinks up and groweth but it 's downward But as to the life and vigour of Grace blessed bee God that the aged decrepit Christian may bee a hearty old man and his setting Sun may shine bright and warm so that he may be warm at heart in that cold winter of his old age the comforts of Gods Spirits in the decay of all other naturall vitall and animall Spirits may be then greater then ever and thereupon his Graces more lively then ever before and so this plant of righteousness which shot up so in the spring doth still grow even in winter and brings forth more fruit in old age and is fat and Psal 92. 14. flourishing and so like the Crocodile groweth as long as he liveth and the more peace and joy and comfort of the Spirit that he hath the more grace he hath the good old man thriving well with so good a Nurse the more fruit he beareth and the more sweetness and less harshness it hath and thereby this sweet comfort doth not only thus help us to edifie our selves but Which is the 3d part of the edification of the Church it much helpeth us also to edifie others For as in Nature grief and sadness make's us heavy and listless to stirre abroad it contract 's the spirits whilest joy and cheerfulness dilate's them and send 's them out so here whilest the drooping sinner sitteth moping in a corner and the sorrowfull Christian is retired in private with Ephraim bemoaning himself Ier. 31. 18. and weeping over his own sins the cheerfull Beleever inlivened and inlarged with the comforts of the holy Ghost with Elihu is Iob. 32. 18 19. full and must have vent is lively and so becomes active to do good to others as well as to himself and as the forehorse with the bells lead's on the rest of the Teame Thus David as the choragus with the voice of joy and praise went in the head of the multitude that kept
into them So with these in the Text in outward peace we may maintain yea and advance in our Hearts the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the holy Ghost But there is yet one word more which we must think of and that Ambulans Vulgat Vergentes Beza is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost and that containeth and holdeth forth to us Assiduity constancy and Progress It was 1. their daily practise 2. And this in their constant continued course and 3. Which they advanced in and so should we joyn both holy fear and heavenly joy together and then labour to be assiduous and constant and increasing in both for else either suddain uncertain pangs of fear or flashes of joy will be no evidence of such as walk with God to heaven and happiness but if both be joyned and dayly and constantly held on and advanced in it will be the due temper of a right travelour in the way and a sure pledge and first fruits of what we shall come to and meet with at our journeys end where our fear shall be only and yet most fully reverential and our comfort and joy most spiritual full and eternal The form of Sound Words 2 Tim. 1. 13. Hold fast the form of sound Words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus IN the 4th verse we find young Timothy weeping not out of a childish weakness but from a sad apprehension of real danger He a young Steersman in his new office of an Evangelist was lanched out into the deep when windes were loud and seas went high and it may be he might think of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of some making shipwrack of the faith which he had read of in the first chapter of the former Epistle And then wonder not if Moses be loath that Jethro who might Numb 10 31. be in stead of eyes to him should have been in a wilderness if the Disciples cry out for fear in the Matth. 14. 26. Tempest when they think Christ is absent if Aeneas sigh when Multa gemens casus animum concussus amici he hath lost his Palinurus and if Timothy weep when Paul his former Pilot had left him So hardly is this Nursling snatched Aeneid 5. from the breast ready if not with the Galatians to pluck out Gal. 4. 15. yet to weep out his eyes for such a loss And therefore to buoy up his spirit that it might not sink in these deep waters he writes this second Epistle to him in which He Partly incourageth him to keep up his heart and to bear up against the storme that lay upon him in the foregoing verses and partly he directs him in This to have his eye fixed on the card and compass which he had left with him Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus In which words we have these particulars 1. A forme of words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Set out by their excellent quality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are sound ones 3. By the speaker or utterer of them Paul himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thou hast heard of me 4. From the Subject matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in faith and love 5. From the Principall Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in Christ Jesus 6. By the Adjunct duty which we owe and must performe to them in that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold fast It is to have and to hold so have it that he hold it and so hold it that he may ever have it Hold fast the forme of sound words c. From the first it seemeth that 1 A form of words Formes so much decryed in our times were not so undervalued in Pauls who you see had left with Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forme of words which the Greek Interpreters paraphrase Chrysost Theophylact Oaecumen Theodoret by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. a picture or pattern c. and make account that He alluded to the Painters or Limmers Art as Polycletes made a Statue according to the rules of his Art which he called his Canon to be the stander or standing rule and Sampler which others should work by Such a copy had Paul written Timothy both for matter and forme things and words in his doctrine and preaching that indeed it was not so much like the Painters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most properly signifieth the first lines or ruder draught as the Orators Grotius rather which the Rhetoricians describe to be a Representing a thing Aretius by words so fully to the life that it is not so much heard as seen Such was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that forme of knowledge and truth Rom. 2. 20. and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that System or short Modell of the Principles of the doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. 1. Such were of old their ancient Creeds Canons of Councils and since the Confessions and Catechismes whither of whole Churches or of particular men their Summes Institutions Systems Syntagmes Synopses or by what ever other name you call such Modells of Divinity as orderly lay down together such divine truths as are scattered up and down in the Scripture or explain such as there seem to be something obscure and so present them in a full and clear distinct view for the better help especially of a weaker eye against the fascinations of jugling Impostors A practise 1. Ever in use since God himself Exod. 20. 31. 18. wrote the Decalogue as the Summary of things to be done And Christ taught us his own Mat. 6. 9. prayer as a Pattern of ours in what is to be desired And the Apostles their Canons Act. 15. and the Primitive Churches and Fathers their Creeds and so along till the Arians and other Hereticks who were pinched by them did therefore complain of them as in our times of deformity and confusion we have systems and confessions of faith often twitted and slighted but the best is that it is by such as will in this as other things tread in their dear friends the Socinians and Arminians steps who cannot indure such checks of their extravagant corruptions and it is but the wild ass that brayeth against such inclosures and treades down all fences because she meaneth to run wild in the wilderness Of great use 1. Not with the widow of 2 Sam. 14. 20. Tekoah to fetch about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of speech the better to deceive or to train up men to rest in Formalities as the Jews did in that Form of knowledge Rom. 2. 20. or as those Deceivers in a forme of godliness 2 Tim. 3. 5. who yet are not there blamed because they had a forme but because they wanted life and power we very readily subscribe to
will not smart and we think Paul was a sufficient answer Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me I only here add Acts 24. 13 that whilest this liberty of conscience and Prophesying is so tendred in this particular by those honest holy men the Remonstrants spake of we may conclude that they themselves were those holy men they meant because as I shewed before they have impropriated this plea for this liberty to themselves and therefore we onely bring home these stray goods from the common to the true owners inclosure But to return from this digression the 3d danger of Schismes and Factions which they suggest wil be the fruit of those Formes and Confessions is that which in this particular I am especially to take notice of and all that I shall now say to it is that when they have put the pen into an Episcopius his hand He knoweth how to flant and flourish it make a great letter of it and make a terrible Gorgons head in it and his pen and tongue here runs riot To all which it will be sufficient onely to say Verba quid audio facta quum videam Whatever either He or any of His may in umbra Philosophare vel Rhetoricare either write in his study or talk to them that will believe him I suppose they that will believe him are such as are blinde and so cannot see what is done in the world and so cannot disprove him but that confessions breed Schismes and Divisions whilest that liberty and Toleration which they so much plead for will conjoyn all in peace and Christian union yet the sad experience of the whole Church in several Ages we might put them in minde of their own we are too sure that Ours in these wofully distracted times doth too sadly inform us of the contrary cryeth aloud that the not keeping more close to such Formes of sound Words which our Church was sometimes famous for in point of Doctrine but every one may speake and write the vain Phansies of his own heart and impunè spread foulest heresies and blasphemies hath miserably torn us in pieces and divided us in semper divisibilia The Lord in mercy speedily heal these gashes and ruptures Of which cure this will be one special meanes of holding fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of sound and wholsome words for so 5. That is a further spiritual end and use of it that by the help thereof present controversies as they arise may be the better understood and determined So Acts 15. 6. And so also they may be as memorials to posterity of their forefathers faith and be left as depositums as they are called in the verse following the Text to be kept as their legacies or inheritances and so to be intailed as to be transmitted from father to son ad natos natorum qui nascuntur Psal 78. 2 3 4. ab illis in all successions to the preventing of after innovations and corruptions But more particularly they are especially usefull 1. To weak ones it was in relief to such the Apostles that first framed their Cannons Acts 15. 24. whilest what is more diffusedly scattered up and down in the whole Scripture is gathered together in a Synopsis for their better view and what may be there by reason of some Words or Phrases which we now are lesse acquainted with more obscurely expressed is here more familiarly presented to their weaker understanding a right and fit closing of such weak infants heads as a Festuke in their hand to help them to spell and pronounce right Such fluid mettall hath need of a mould to bring it to a consistent forme such weak lambs and silly sheep need to be put into such inclosures which loose heads and hearts will call and esteem pinfolds which otherwise will be ready to wander and go astray in the broad Common 2. To discover and repulse Seducers and subverters of the souls of Gods people Acts 15. 24. As the same pale which keeps in the Deer keeps out the ravenous wilde beast and therefore although we do not make them either first or second rules of faith as the Remonstrants are ready to asperse us yet for Them to allow them ne quidem ullum quantumvis infimum in Ecclesia locum as their Vbi prius words are we cannot but think is too too illiberal at least in Clemens Alexandrinus his phrase with their good leave let them be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A fence to the vineyard and so they will be in some place in the Church and of some very good use too indeed of more then they would willingly have them and hinc illae lachrymae Because the foot is swoln it therefore complains of the shoo as too strait and so none more cry out of these Formes then they who have formed to themselves some deformed monsters in opinion or practise and then the crooked piece of timber would have the square and straight rule cast away as the painter drave away the true Cock that it might not discover the fillinesse of his painted one There are few but know what made the Remonstrants such enemies to Synods and their determinations whilest they cryed up the liberty of Prophesying And with us when times were fast hasting to Popery the word Institutions because Calvins was scorned as proud with more pride and of late since Church affairs have been in a confusion we here have had Confessions of Faith and such like Formes at every turn so taken up and flurted and all upon the same account which will make me like Formes never the worse because men of corrupt judgements and such as make Grace and Scripture yea Christ himself but Formes think and speak slightly of them but rather the better because they who would manifestly bring in corruption and all confusion are against them because indeed such Formes are against them The dam stops and checks the violent stream and that is it which makes it swell and murmur The eye is sore and therefore cannot endure the Light the wares they would put off are sophisticate and therefore like not too light a shop It 's a sign of the better physick and that it meets with the peccant humour if it makes the distempered Patient sick of it and the foul stomack ready to cast it up with loathing But then the Physick must in it self be wholesome Which is the second particular 2. Sound Words in the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of words we would have but then they must be sound ones A word which our Apostle oft makes use of twice in the former Epistle Chap. 1. 10. and 6. 3. and twice in this here in the Text and Chap. 4. 3. and four times in that to Titus Chap. 1. 9. 13. and Chap. 2. 2. 8. in all which that we may be sound in the faith He calleth for sound words Sani and Sanantes Sound and
Bellarmine made more use of traditions then of the Scripture so the Papists plainly shew that they set more by them then they do by the written Word of God whilest they plead more earnestly for them and are more sedulous and copious in this controversie then in most do most rigorously presse them and more severely punish the neglect and transgression of them then of the expresse commands of God in Scripture as the profaning as they call it one of their Traditionary Saints dayes much more heavily then of the Lords own Day and a Priests marrying then the committing of fornication or adultery in this imitating not the true Israelites indeed but the degenerate Jews who made the word of God of none effect through their Traditions But Mat. 15. 3. ◠those who have been savingly taught as the truth is in Jesus abhor such blasphemies and by all their sweet words cannot be brought to relish their Traditions which as Irenaeus and other of the Ancients plainly shew have been all along the subterfuge of Hereticks and of which for many of them it is uncertain from whom in particular they first sprang and for all of them it is most certain that coming from men at best they are but fallible and that in continuance of time they may be much altered from what they were at first nor can Bellarmines four preservatives be able so to keep them in pickle as to prevent it And therefore although the Truth of God was delivered from hand to hand before Moses first writ the Law and that Christ delivered to his Apostles and they to others the Doctrine of the Gospel before the signing of the Canon of the New Testament which we grant and although the Apostle 2 Thes 2. 15. a place which the Papists much triumph in commandeth his Thessalonians to stand fast and to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or his Epistle yet for all that they must give us leave to hold fast to the Scripture till they shall be able fully and clearly to prove 1. That there is the same use and need of Traditions now that the Canon of the Scripture is perfected as there was before 2. That there are now as immediate and infallible inspirations and manifestations of Gods will as there was to the faithfull before the writing of the Old Testament and to the Apostles before the writing of the New viz. Infallibly to direct about these Traditions and to correct in case there should be any failure or corruption Such extraordinary Manifestations we for our parts do not pretend to and that we cannot think that they are made to the Romish Antichrist it is not from want of charity but of ground of faith to believe it and indeed from sense and evident experience of the contrary 3. That for the substantials of faith and life for of eternall circumstantials I now speak not there be any such Divine or Apostolicall Traditions which the Apostles vivâ voce preached and delivered from hand to hand which were not for substance written in the Old Testament before Acts 26. 22. or not in the New Testament afterwards Many indeed of their Traditions which they obtrude are not as holding forth not Apostolical divine Truth but partly such errors and superstitions and partly such ridiculous fooleries as are not fit to be much lesse in the sacred writings much lesse in the sacred Writ But for what ever is necessary to be known or practised in order to salvation we must believe Irenaeus saying Quod tunc praeconiaverunt postea per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt till Lib. 3. cap. 1. they be able to prove the contrary and mean while we are confident that this expression of Irenaeus in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt and yet more evidently that place to the Thessalonians which they so much urge where they are exhorted to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or Epistles fully evinceth that what is written in Scripture may be and is there called Tradition Such traditions and so written we allow to be within the compasse of this Form of sound Words but not first Humane unwritten or Popish forged Traditions Nor 2dly The Enthusiasts feigned and Divine Revelations Feigned Revelations These the Papists decry as loud as we Non enim novis revelationibus Deverbo Dei non scripto cap. 9. nunc regitur Ecclesia saith Bellarmine though by their favour they cannot so easily wash their hands of them whilest according to their Doctrine the last resolution of matters of faith is to be made into the determination of the Pope and that as infallibly directed by Divine Revelation as his Sycophants would flatter him So that thereby he is made the prime and greatest Enthusiast An artifice which seducers in all ages have made use of to conciliate the more credit to their delusions by intituling them to Divine Revelation I do not here speak of Numae's Aegeria or Mahomets Dove or the practises of other Heathen Founders of Commonwealths who out of craft and policy to gain more reverence and obedience to their lawes and government have deluded their silly people into a belief of their being appointed by divine inspirations But even in the Church of God the Apostles in their times gave warning of such as pretended the Spirit 2 Thess 2. 2. As also charge and direction how to try them 1 Tim. 4. 1. 1 John 4. 1 2 3. 6. The Nicholaitans of old Swenckfield and the Familists of Germany in the former age and their spawn both in Old and New England in this age have been all for immediate Revelations with a supine nay a most scornfull neglect not onely of other studies and learning but even of the holy Scriptures also which to them is but a dead Letter a Covenant of works c. And before their new lights such shadows must fly away They are but History to their mystery and as the Papists in their way and Castellio in his so these in theirs make account that the Spirit revealeth to them higher and more hidden mysteries then the Scriptures teach or contain such indeed as are not onely besides and as they think above it but sometimes nay oftentimes quite contrary to it a most proud and dangerous delusion and therfore Austins watch-word Prolog ad Doctrinam Christianam in regard of such is Caveamus tales tentationes superbissimas periculosissimas the direct inlet of all corruption into the Church and confusion into the Commonwealth as other places have felt and the Lord grant that we who in this kind have already found so much may not yet feel much more Purest Primitive times have been defiled with them The darkest and blindest times have talked much of such visions In the times of in-breaking light and Reformation still a great noise of Revelation But for our better settling in the Truth know that Revelation we acknowledge and humbly blesse God