Saviours birth when they shared heaven and earth their several portions alloted us our part in peace and the good will of God but with reservation of the whole glory to him Glory be to God on high and in earth peace and towards men good will It is well and happy for us if we may enjoy our own peace and his good will full little have we deserved either of both but much rather the contrary but we were best take heed how we meddle with his glory All other things he giveth us richly to enjoy many a good gift and perfect giving He hath not with-held from us any thing that was his and useful for us no not his only begotten Son excepted the best gift that ever was given and a pledge of all the rest Yea and he will give us a kind of glory too the Lord will give grace and glory Psal. 84. and that not a light one neither nor fading away but such as neither eye nor ear nor heart of man can comprehend so massie and so durable an eternal and exceeding weight of glory But that divine infinite incomprehensible glory that belongeth to him as supream King of kings as his peculiar Prerogative and the choicest flower in his Crown of that he is most jealous in that he will brook no sharer And he hath made known to us his royal pleasure in that point Isa. 42. My glory will I not give to another 7. He will part with none you see it seemeth rather fifthly by the form of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he looketh for some from us For what else is it to glorifie but to make one glorious by conferring some glory upon him which he had not or not in that degree before And to God how can that be done whose glory is perfect essential and infinite and to what is perfect much less to what is infinite can nothing be added What a great admirer of Virgil said of him tanta Maronis gloria ut nullius laudibus crescat nullius vituperatione minuatur was but a flaunting hyperbole far beyond the merit of the party he meant it to But the like speech would be most exquisitely true of him of whom we now speak indeed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than an hyperbole Whose Glory is truly such as all the creatures in the world should they joyn their whole forces together to do it could not make it either more or less than it is 8. We must therefore of necessity forsake the proper signification of the word Glorifie which is to add some glory to another either in specie or in gradu which before he had not and understand it in such a sence as that the thing meant thereby may be feasible And so to glorifie God is no more than to shew forth his glory and to manifest to our own consciences and to the world how highly we praise and esteem his glory and how earnestly we desire and as much as in us lieth endeavour it that all other men would also with us acknowledge and admire the same Sing praise to the honour of his name make his praise glorious Psal. 66. Not make his essence to be more glorious than it is in it self but make his praise to be more and more glorious in the eye and esteem of men That so his power his glory and mightiness of his Kingdom might be known unto men and that men might ascribe unto the Lord the honour due unto his name and that men might sing in the way of the Lord that great is the glory of the Lord. To endeavour by our thanksgivings confessions faith charity obedience goodworks and perseverance in all these to bring Gods true Religion and Worship into request to win a due reverence to his holy name and word to beget in others more high and honourable thoughts concerning God in all those his most eminent Attributes of Wisdom Power Iustice Mercy and the rest that is in Scripture language to glorifie God 9. One thing more from the Person of the Verb and then you have all It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God may be glorified and so leave it indefinite and uncertain by whom it should be done but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye may glorifie him The thing to be done and they to do it One would think the glorious Angels and Saints in heaven were fitter instruments for such an employment than we poor sinful worms upon earth Very true they in heaven are fitter to do it and it is best done there but there is more need of it upon earth and if it be done here in truth and singleness of heart it is very well accepted Poor things God knoweth our best services are if God should value them but according to their weight and worth But in his mercy and that through Christ he graciously accepteth our unfeigned desires and faithful endeavours according to that truth we have be it never so little and not according to that perfection we want be it never so much Alas what is the tinkling of two little bells in a Country-steeple or the peoples running to the Towns end and crying God save the King to add any honour or greatness to the Majesty of a Potent Monarch Yet will a gracious Prince take those mean expressions of his subjects love as an honour done him because he readeth therein their hearty affections towards him and he knoweth that if they knew how to express themselves better they would So it is here It is not the thing done that is looked at so much as the heart Set that right first and then be the performance what it can be God is both pleased and honoured therewithal Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me Psal. 50. That is so he intendeth it and so I accept it 10. You have now all I would say by way of explication from these words The particulars are six First we should propose to our selves some end Therein Secondly look at God Thirdly that God may have glory and that he alone may have it Fourthly Fifthly that something be done for the advancement of his glory and Lastly that it be done by us The result from the whole six taken together is That the Glory of God ought to be the chiefest end and main scope of all our desires and endeavours In whatever we think say do or suffer in the whole course of our Lives and Actions we should refer all to this look at this as the main Whatsoever become of us and our affairs that yet God may be glorified Whether ye eat or drink saith St. Paul or whatsoever else ye do let all be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. He would have us not only in the performance of good works and of necessary duties to intend the Glory of God according to that of our Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they way see your good
with the intolerable weight of our sins whereby we have deserved them or secondly with the weight of those everlasting grievous pains in Hell which by the sharpness of our short sufferings here if we make the right use of them to be thereby humbled unto repentance by the mercy of God we shall escape or thirdly with that so exceeding and eternal weight of glory and joy in the Kingdom of Heaven which by the free goodness of our God we expect in compensation of our light and momentany afflictions here or fourthly with the weight of those far greater and heavier trials which other our brethren and fellow servants either of our own or former times have undergone before us and gone through them all with admirable patience and courage 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None of all these singly but are of singular virtue towards the desired effect but all of them together if aptly applied can hardly fail the cure Especially if you add thereunto that one Ingredient more which is alone here expressed indeed the most soveraign of all the rest as the object of this analogy or consideration in the Text to wit the incomparable bitter sufferings of our ever blessed Lord and Master Iesus Christ. 47. Then farther in this Objection as it is amplified in this short Text only there are sundry particulars considerable As namely First Who it was that suffered Consider him his Greatness his Innocency his Goodness Secondly how he suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he endured also not suffered it only Consider him that endured such contradiction endured it so willingly so patiently so chearfully Thirdly from whom he suffered it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From sinners Sinners in their nature sinful men Sinners in the Jews esteem Heathen men Sinners in the inward constitution of their own hearts Hypocrites and Malignants Sinners in their outward carriage toward him and their undue and illegal proceedings against him no just cause no just proofs but clamours and outcries raiâ—ing and spitting and buffeting and insulting and all manner of contumelious and despiseful usage Fourthly what he suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such opposition and contradiction of sinners against himself Contradictions manifold of all sorts and in all respects To his person denied to be the Son of God To his Office not received as the promised Messias To his Doctrine given out as a deceiver To his Miracles disgraced as if he had been a Conjuror and dealt with the Devil To his Conversation defamed as a glutton and a wine-bibber a prophane fellow and a Sabbath-breaker a companion of Publicans and Sinners To his very life and being Not him but Barabbas Away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him 48. These are the heads Many they are you see and of worthier consideration than to be crouded into the latter end of a Sermon Therefore I must of necessity forbear the enlargement of them at this present leaving that for every man to do in his private meditations For a conclusion then let us all I beseech you first consider actually and throughly consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself and having so done applyingly consider whether it can be reasonable or almost possible for any of us to faint under our petty sufferings What are we the best of us the greatest of us to him Or what our sufferings the worst of them the greatest of them to his I have done AD AULAM. Sermon XVII Newport in the Isle of Wight Octob. 1648. Gal. 5. 22 23. But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law 1. HE that shall impartially look upon former and the present times shall find that of Solomon exactly true There is no new thing under the Sun Vetus fabula novi histriones The things we see done are but the same things that have been done only acted over again by new Persons and with a few new circumstances It was in the Apostles times and the Churches of Galatia even as it is with us in these days False Teachers had crept in among them who by their hypocrisie and pretensions of the Spirit had so corrupted their Faith that they were removed after a fort unto another Gospel and so extremely sowred their Charity that from provoking and envying they were now grown to biting and devouring one another 2. The Apostle wondring at this so unexpected a change I marvel you are so soon removed Gal. 1. 6. to see them so befooled in their understandings and bewitched in their affections as to suffer so sore and sudden a decay in the two most essential parts of Christian Religion Faith and Charity thought it high time for him after he had first well schooled them O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you to offer his advice towards the allaying of those heats and distempers that were the causes of this so sad and dangerous an alteration 3. The remedy he prescribeth for that end vers 16. is short but very sure if they will but follow it Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh As if he had said You talk much of the Spirit but you make it little appear in the fruit of your lives that you are led by the spirit The Spirit and the Flesh are contraries and they lust contrary things vers 17. If you were as careful to walk in the Spirit as you are to boast of it you would not be so forward as now you are by cherishing unbrotherly contentions and sundry other ways to fulfil the lusts of the flesh 4. A hard thing it is to bring an overweening Hypocrite to a true understanding of himself for Pride and Hypocrisie are two such things as few men are willing to own That they might therefore with better certainty be able to discern whether they were indeed Spiritual or but yet Carnal the Apostle proceedeth to describe the Flesh and the Spirit by sundry their different effects A Catalogue we have for that purpose of the works of the Flesh in seventeen particulars in the three next verses before the Text and then another Catalogue of the Fruits of the spirit in nine particulars in the Text it self Wherein we may observe three things First the Notion or general description of Spiritual Graces as they are here proposed they go under this name The fruit of the spirit Secondly the particular Species given under that Name or Notion they are these nine Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance Thirdly a special priviledge belonging to all and every the aforesaid particulars to wit Exemption from the Law Against such there is no Law 5. In the general description which is like to be our only business at this time the thing we are to take notice of is the differences that may be observed between the Titles under which St. Paul hath entred the several particulars of
are left to their own liberty in the use of indifferent things the Romans Corinthians and others to whom S. Paul wrot about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling authority But where the Magistrates have interposed and thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgment but only limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions will not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike and with such meet qualifications and mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the authority of the Magistrate intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free and we are bound for the reasons already shewn which now I rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loth to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our consciences concerning the lawfulness of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better cheerfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their governours who can scarcely brook their Governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we would first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what governours are bound to do or what is â—it for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their failing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are always bound to inform the consciences of their inferiours concerning the lawfulness of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needful sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety only to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the reasons thereof I am sure in the point of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and Constitutions in which case the aforesaid allegations are usually most stood upon this hath been abundantly done in our Church not only in the learned writings of sundry private men but by the publick declaration also of Authority as is to be seen at large in the Preface commonly Printed before the Book of Common-prayer concerning that argument enough to satisfie those that are peaceable and not disposed to stretch their wits to cavil at things established And thus much of the second Question touching a doubting Conscience whereon I have insisted the longer because it is a point both so proper to the Text and whereat so many have stumbled There remaineth but one other Question and that of far smaller difficulty What is to be done when the conscience is scrupulous I call that a scruple when a man is reasonably well perswaded of the lawfulness of a thing yet hath withal some jealousies and fears lest perhaps it should prove unlawful Such scruples are more incident to men of melancholy dispositions or of timorous spirits especially if they be tender conscienced withal and they are much encreased by the false suggestions of Satan by reading the Books or hearing the Sermons or frequenting the company of men more strict precise and austere in sundry points than they need or ought to be and by sundry other means which I now mention not Of which scruples it behoveth every man first to be wary that he do not at all admit them if he can chuse or if he cannot wholly avoid them that secondly he endeavour so far as may be to eject them speedily out of his thoughts as Satans snares and things that may breed him worser inconveniences or if he cannot be so rid of them that then thirdly he resolve to go on according to the more probable perswasion of his mind and despise those scruples And this he may do with a good conscience not only in things commanded him by lawful authority but even in things indifferent and arbitrary and wherein he is let to his own liberty Much more might have been added for the farther both declaration and confirmation of these points But you see I have been forced to wrap things together that deserve a more full and distinct handling that I might hold some proportion with the time I had a purpose briefly to have comprised the sum of what I have delivered concerning a gainsaying a doubting and a scrupulous conscience in some few conclusions for your better remembrance and to have added also something by way of direction what course might be the most probably taken for the correcting of an erroneous conscience for the setling of a doubtful conscience and for the quieting of a scrupulous conscience But it is more than time that I should give place to other business and the most and most material of those directions have been here and there occasionally touched in that which hath been delivered already In which respect I may the better spare that labour Beseech we God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so to endue us all with the grace of his holy Spirit that in our whole conversations we may unfeignedly endeavour to preserve a good conscience and to yield all due obedience to him first and then to every Ordinance of man for his sake Now to this Father Son and blessed Spirit three persons and one eternal God be ascribed all the Kingdom the Power and the Glory both now and for evermore Amen AD CLERUM The fifth Sermon At a Visitation holden at Grantham Lincoln Octob. 8. 1641. MATTH XV. 9. But in vain they do worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men OUR Saviour sometimes forewarneth his Disciples to beware of the leaven of Pharisees Which leaven as he expoundeth himself
it is not much better now nay God grant it be not generally even much worse Receive now in the last place and as the third and last inference a word of Exhortation and it shall be but a word You whom God hath called to any honour or office appertaining to justice as you tender the glory of God and the good of the Commonwealth as you tender the honour of the King and the prosperity of the Kingdom as you tender the peace and tranquillity of your selves and neighbours as you tender the comfort of your own consciences and the salvation of your own souls set your selves throughly and cheerfully and constantly and conscionably to discharge with faithfulness all those duties which belong unto you in your several stations and callings and to advance to the utmost of your power the due administration and execution of justice Do not decline those burdens which cleave to the honours you sustain Do not post off those businesses from your selves to others which you should rather do than they or at least may as well do as they Stand up with the zeal of Phinees and by executing judgment help to turn away those heavy plagues which God hath already begun to bring upon us and to prevent those yet heavier ones which having so rightly deserved we have all just cause to fear Breathe fresh life into the languishing laws by mature and severe and discreet execution Put on righteousness as a Garment and cloath your selves with Iudgment as with a Robe and Diadem Among so many Oppressions as in these evil days are done under the Sun to whom should the fatherless and the Widow and the wronged complain but to you whence seek for relief but from you Be not you wanting to their necessities Let your eyes be open unto their miseries and your ears open unto their cries and your hands open unto their wants Give friendly Counsel to those that stand need of your Direction afford convenient help to those that stand need of your assistance carry a Fatherly affection to all those that stand in need of any comfort protection or relief from you Be eyes to the Blind and feet to the lame and be you instead of Fathers to the poor But yet do not countenance no not a poor man in his cause farther than he hath equity on his side Remember one point of wisdom not to be too credulous of every suggestion and information But do your best to spie out the chinks and starting holes and secret conveyances and packings of cunning and crafty companions and when you have found them out bring them to light and do exemplary justice upon them Sell not your ears to your servants nor tie your selves to the informations of some one or a few or of him that cometh first but let every party have a fair and an equal hearing Examine proofs Consider circumstances be content to hear simple men tell their tales in such language as they have think no pains no patience too much to sift out the truth Neither by inconsiderate haste prejudice any mans right nor weary him out of it by torturing delays The cause which you know not use all diligence and covenient both care and speed to search it out But ever withal remember your standing is slippery and you shall have many and sore assaultâ— and very shrewd temptations so that unless you arm your selves with invincible resolution you are gone The wicked ones of this world will conjure you by your old friendship and acquaintance and by all the bonds of Neighbourhood and kindness bribe your Wives and Children and Servants to corrupt you procure great mens Letters or Favorites as engines to move you convey a bribe into your own bosoms but under a handsomer name and in some other shape so cunningly and secretly sometimes that your selves shall not know it to be a bribe when you receive it Harden your faces and strengthen your resolution with a holy obstinacy against these and all other like temptations Count him an enemy that will alledge friendship to pervert justice When you sit in the place of justice think you are not now Husbands or Parents or Neighbours but Iudges Contemn the frowns and the favours and the Letters of great ones in comparison of that trust which greater ones than they the King and State and a yet Greater than they the great God of heaven and earth hath reposed in you and expecteth from you Chastise him with severe indignation if he begin and if he continue spit defiance in his face who ere he be that shall think you so base as to sell your freedom for a bribe Gird your sword upon your thigh and keeping your selves ever within the compass of your Commissions and Callings as the Sun in the Zodiack go through stitch right on in the course of Iustice as the Sun in the firmament with unresisted violence and as a Giant that rejoyceth to run his race and who can stop him Bear not the sword in vain but let your right hand teach you terrible things Defend the poor and fatherless and deliver the oppressed from them that are mightier than he Smite through the loyns of those that rise up to do wrong that they rise not again Break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of his teeth Thus if you do the wicked shall fear you the good shall bless you the poor shall pray for you posterity shall praise you your own hearts shall â—hear you and the great God of Heaven shall reward you This that you may do in some good measure the same God of Heaven enable you and give you and every of us grace in our several places and callings to seek his glory and to endeavour the discharge of a good conscience To which God blessed for ever Fathers Son and Holy Ghost three Persons and one eternal invisible and only wise God be ascribed all the Kingdom Power and Glory for ever and ever Amen AD MAGISTRATUM The Second Sermon At the Assises at Lincoln 7 March 1624. at the request of William Lister Esq then high Sheriff of the County EXOD. XXIII ver 1 2 3. 1. Thou shalt not raise a false report â—ut not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness 2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment 3. Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause THere is no one thing Religion ever excepted that more secureth and adorneth the State than Iustice doth It is both Columna and Corona Reipublicae as a Prop to make it subsist firm in it self and as a Crown to render it glorious in the eyes of others As the Cement in a building that holdeth all together so is justice to the publick Body as whereunto it oweth a great part both of its strength for by it
Isaac he kept with him and gave him all that he had Right so God giveth temporal gifts to Hypocrites and Cast-aways who are bastards and not sons and not sons of the freewoman not sons of promise not born after the spirit and that is their portion when they have gotten that they have gotten all they are like to have there is no more to be looked for at his hands But as for the Inheritance he reserveth that for his dear Children the godly who are Born after the Spirit and Heirs according to promise on these he bestoweth all that ever he hath all things are theirs for on them he bestoweth his Son the heir of all things in whom are hid all the treasures of all good things and together with whom all other things are conveyed and made over unto them as accessories and appurtenances of him and on them he bestoweth Himself which is All in all in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore To which joy unspeakable and glorious O thou the Father of mercies who hast promised it unto us bring us in the end for thy dear Son's sake Jesus Christ who hath purchased it for us and given into our hearts the earnest of his and thy holy Spirit to seal it unto us To which blessed Son and holy Spirit together with thee O Father three persons and one only wise gracious Almighty and eternal Lord God be ascribed by us and all thy faithful people throughout the world the whole kingdom power and glory for ever and ever Amen Amen AD POPULUM The Second Sermon At Grantham Linc. Feb. 27. 1620. 3 KINGS 21. 29. because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days I Will not so far either distrust your Memories or straiten my self of Time for the delivery of what I am now purposed to speak as to make any large Repetition of the Particulars which were observ'd the last time from the consideration of Ahab's Person and Condition who was but an Hypocrite taken joyntly with his present Carriage together with the Occasion and Success thereof He was humbled It was the Voice of God by his Prophet that humbled him Upon his humbling God adjourneth his Punishment From all which was noted first That there might be even in Hypocrites an Outward formal Humiliation secondly the Power and Efficacy of the Word of God able to humble an Oppressing Ahab thirdly the boundless Mercy of God in not suffering the Outward formal Humiliation of an ungodly Hypocrite to pass altogether unrewarded All this the last time by occasion of those first Clauses in the Verse Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not We are now next to consider of the Great Favour which it pleased God to shew to Ahab upon his humiliation what it was and wherein it consisted It was the Removal at least for a time that is the suspension of an heavy judgment denounced against Ahab and his house most deservedly for his bloody and execrable oppression Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days The Evil which God now promiseth he will not bring I will not bring the evil in his days is that which in vers 21. he had threatned he would bring upon Ahab and upon his house Behold I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the Son of Abijah for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin A great Judgment and an heavy But the greater the Judgment is when it is deserved and threatned the greater the mercy is if it be afterwards forborn as some of this was But whatsoever becometh of the Iudgment here we see is Mercy good store God who is rich in mercy and delighteth to be stiled the God of mercies and the Father of mercies abundantly manifesteth his mercy in dealing thus graciously with one that deserved it so little Here is mercy in but threatning the punishment when he might have inflicted it and more mercy in not inflicting the punishment when he had threatned it Here is mercy first in suspending the punishment I will not bring the evil and mercy again in suspending it for so long a time I will not bring the evil in his days Of these two points we shall entreat at this time and first and principally of the former I will not bring the evil It is no new thing to them that have read the sacred Stories with Observation to see God when men are humbled at his threatnings to revoke them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom more than once this is ever Gods manner when men change their deeds to change his doom when they renounce their sins to recal his sentence when they repent of the evil they have done against him to Repent of the evil he had said he would do against them Search the Scriptures and say if things run not thus as in the most ordinary course God commandeth and Man disobeyeth Man disobeyeth and God threatneth God threatneth and man repenteth Man repenteth and God forbeareth Abimelech thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken but Abimelech restoreth the Prophet his Wife untouched and God spareth him and he dieth not Hezekiah make thy Will and Put thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live but Hezekiah turneth to the Wall and prayeth and weepeth and God addeth to his days fifteen years Nineveh prepare for desolation for now but forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed but Nineveh fasted and prayed and repented and Nineveh stood after more than forty years twice told Generally God never yet threatned any punishment upon person or place but if they repented he either withheld it or deferred it or abated it or sweetned it to them for the most part proportionably to the truth and measure of their repentance but howsoever always so far forth as in his infinite wisdom he hath thought good some way or other he ever remitted somewhat of that severity and rigour wherein he threatned it A course which God hath in some sort bound himself unto and which he often and openly professeth he will hold Two remarkable testimonies among sundry other shall suffice us to have proposed at this time for the clear and full evidencing hereof The one in Ier. 18. 7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and pull down and to destroy If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will
Mystery that driveth at all this must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest degree the great mystery of Godliness That for the scope 27. Look now secondly at the parts and parcels the several pieces as it were whereof this mystery is made up those mentioned in this verse and the rest and you shall find that from each of them severally but how much more then from them altogether joyntly may be deduced sundry strong motives and perswasives unto Godliness Take the material parts of this Mystery the Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Baptism Temptation Preaching Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascension Intercession and Second coming of Christ. Or take if I may so call them the formal parts thereof our eternal Election before the World was our Vocation by the Preaching of the Gospel our Iustification by Faith in the merits of Christ our Sanctification by the Spirit of grace the stedfast Promises we have and hopes of future Glory and the rest It would be too long to vouch Texts for each particular but this I say of them all in general There is not one link in either of those two golden chains which doth not straitly tye up our hands tongues and hearts from doing evil draw us up effectually unto God and Christ and strongly oblige us to shew forth the power of his Grace upon our souls by expressing the power of Godliness in our lives and conversations That for the parts 28. Thirdly Christian Religion may be called the Mystery of Godliness in regard of its Conversation because Godliness is the best preserver of Christianity Roots and Fruits and Herbs which let alone and left to themselves would soon corrupt and putriâ—ie may being well condited with Sugar by a skilful Confectioner be preserved to continue for many years and be serviceable all the while So the best and surest means to preserve Christianity in its proper integrity and power from corrupting into Atheism or Heresie is to season it well with Grace as we do fresh meats with salt to keep them sweet and to be sure to keep the Conscience upright Holding the mysteries of faith in a pure Conscience saith our Apostle a little after at verse 9. of this Chapter and in the first Chapter of this Epistle vers 19. Holding faith and a good Conscience which latter some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack Apostasie from the faith springeth most an end from Apostasie in manners And he that hath but a very little care how he liveth can have no very fast hold of what he believeth For when men grow once regardless of their Consciences good affections will soon languish and then will noysom lusts gather strength and cast up mud into the soul that the judgement cannot run clear Seldom is the head right where the heart is amiss A rotten heart will be ever and anon sending up evil thoughts into the mind as marish and fenny grounds do foggy mists into the air that both darken and corrupt it As a mans taste when some malignant humour affecteth the organ savoureth nothing aright but deemeth sweet things bitter and sowre things pleasant So where Avarice Ambition Malice Voluptuousness Vain-glory Sedition or any other domineering lust hath made it self master of the heart it will so blind and corrupt the judgment that it shall not be able to discern at any certainty good from evil or truth from falshood Wholsome therefore is St. Peters advice to add unto faith Vertue Vertue will not only keep it in life but at such a height of vigour also that it shall not easily either degenerate into Heresie or languish into Atheism 29. We see now three Reasons for which the Doctrine of Christianity may be called The mystery of Godliness because it first exacteth Godliness and secondly exciteth unto Godliness and is thirdly best preserved by Godliness From these Premisses I shall desire for our nearer instruction to infer but two things only the one for the trial of Doctrines the other for the bettering of our lives For the first St. Iohn would not have us over-forward to believe every spirit Every spirit doth he say Truly it is impossible we should unless we should believe flat contradictions Whilst one Spirit saith It is another Spirit saith It is not can a man believe the one and not disbelieve the other if he hear both Believe not every spirit then is as much in St. Iohn's meaning as if he had said Be not too hasty to Believe any Spirit especially where there appeareth some just cause of Suspicion but try it first whether it be a true spirit or a false Even as St. Paul biddeth us prove all things that having so done we may hold fast what upon trial proveth good and let the rest go 30. Now holy Scripture is certainly that Lapis Lydius that Test whereby this trial is to be made Ad legem ad testimonium when we have wrangled as long as we can hitherto we must come at last But sith all Sectaries pretend to Scripture Papists Anabaptists Disciplinarians All yea the Devil himself can vouch Texts to drive on a Temptation It were good therefore we knew how to make right applications of Scripture for the Trial of Doctrines that we do not mistake a false one for a true one Many profitable Rules for this purpose our Apostle affordeth us in sundry places One very good one we may gather from the words immediately before the Text wherein the Church of God is said to be the pillar and ground of truth The Collection thence is obvious that it would very much conduce to the guiding of our judgments aright in the examining of mens doctrines concerning either Faith or Manners wherein the Letter of Scripture is obscure or the meaning doubtful to inform our selves as well as we can in credendis what the received sence and in agendis what the constant usage and practice of the Church especially in the ancient times hath been concerning those matters and that to consider what conformity the Doctrines under trial hold with the principles upon which that their sence or practice in the Premisses was grounded The Iudgment and Practice of the Church ought to sway very much with every sober and wise man either of which whosoever neglecteth or but slighteth as too many do upon a very poor pretence that the mystery of iniquity began to work betimes runneth a great hazard of falling into many errors and Absurdities If he do not he may thank his good fortune more than his forecast and if he do he may thank none but himself for neglecting so good a guide 31. But this now mentioned Rule although it be of excellent use if it be rightly understood and prudently applied and therefore growing so near the Text I could not wholly baulk it without some notice taken of it it being not within the Text I press it no farther but come to another that springeth out of the very Text it self And
works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven but even in the use of the Creatures and of all indifferent things in eating and drinking in buying and selling and in all the like actions of common life In that most absolute Form of Prayer taught us by Christ himself as the Pattern and Canon of all our Prayers the Glory of God standeth at both ends When we begin the first Petition we are to put up is that the Name of God may be hallowed and glorified and when we have done we are to wrap up all in the Conclusion with this acknowledgment that to him alone belongeth all the kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever 11. The Glory of God you see is to be the Alpha and the Omega of all our votes and desires Infinitely therefore to be preferred not only before Riches Honour Pleasures Friends and all the comforts and contentments the World can afford us in this life but even before life it self The blessed Son of God so valued it who laid down his life for his Fathers Glory and so did many holy Martyrs and faithful Servants of God value it too who laid down their lives for their Masters Glory Nay let me go yet higher infinitely to be preferred even before the unspeakable joys of the life to come before the everlasting salvation of our own souls It was not meerly a strain of his Rhetorick to give his brethren by that hyperbolical expression the better assurance of his exceeding great love towards them that our Apostle said before at Chap. 9. of this Epistle that he could wish himself to be accursed to be made an Anathema to be separated and cut off from Christ for their sakes Neither yet was it a hasty inconsiderate speech that fell suddenly from him as he was writing fervente calamo and as the abortive fruit of a precipitate over-passionate zeal before he had sufficiently consulted his reason whether he should suffer it to pass in that form or not for then doubtless he would have corrected himself and retracted it upon his second thoughts as he did Acts 23. when he had inconsiderately reviled the High-Priest sitting then in the place of Judicature But he spake it advisedly and upon good deliberation yea and that upon his conscience yea and upon his Oath too and as in the presence of God as you may see it ushered in there with a most solemn Asseveration as the true real and earnest desire of his heart I speak the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Not that St. Paul wished their salvation more than his own understand it not so for such a desire neither was possible nor could be regular Not possible by the Law of Nature which cannot but begin at home Omnes sibi melius esse malunt quam alteri Nor regular by the course of Charity which is not orderly if he do not so too That is not it then but this That he preferred the Glory of God before both his own salvation and theirs Insomuch that if Gods Glory should so require hoc impossibili supposito he could be content with all his heart rather to lose his own part in the joys of heaven that God might be the more Glorified than that God should lose any part of his Glory for his salvation 12. And great reason there is that as his was so every Christian mans heart should be disposed in like manner that the bent of his whole desires and endeavours all other things set apart otherwise than as they serve thereunto should be the Glory of God For first all men consent in this as an undoubted verity That that which is the chiefest good ought also to be the uttermost end And that must needs be the chiefest good which Almighty God who is goodness it self and best knoweth what is good proposeth to himself as the End of all his Actions and that is meerly his own glory All those his high and unconceiveable acts ad intra being immanent in himself must needs also be terminated in himself And as for all those his powerful and providential acts ad extra those I mean which are exercised upon and about the creatures and by reason of that their efflux and emanation are made better known to us than the former if we follow them to their last period we shall find that they all determine and concentre there He made them he preserveth them he forgiveth them he destroyeth them he punisheth them he rewardeth them every other way he ordereth them and disposeth of them according to the good pleasure of his Will for his own names sake and for his one glories sake That so his Wisdom and Power and Truth and Iustice and Mercy and all those other his divine excellencies which we are to believe and admire but may not seek to comprehend might be acknowledged reverenced and magnified Those two great acts of his most secret and unsearchable councel than the one whereof there is not any one act more gracious the Destination of those that persevere in Faith and Godliness to eternal happiness nor any one act more full of terrour and astonishment than the other the designation of such as live and die in Sin and Infidelity without repentance to eternal destruction the Scriptures in the last resolution refer them wholly to his Glory as the last End The glory of his rich mercy being most resplendent in the one and the glory of his just severity in the other Concerning the one the Scripture saith that he predestinated us to the praise of the Glory of his grace Eph. 1. Concerning the other The Lord made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16. He maketh it his End we should make it ours too if but by way of Conformity 13. But he requireth it of us secondly as our bounden Duty and by way of Thankfulness in acknowledgement of those many favours we have received from him Whatever we have nay whatever we are as at first we had it all from him so we still holdit all of him and that jure beneficiario as feudataries with reservation of services out of the same to be performed for the honour of the Donor Our Apostle therefore in our Lords behalf presseth us with the nature of our tenure and challengeth this duty from us by a claim of right Ye have them of God saith he and ye are not your own therefore glorifie God in your body and in your Spirit which are Gods Glorifie him in both because both are his As the rivers return again to the place whence they came Eccl. 1. they all come from the Sea and they all run into the Sea again So all our store as it issued at first from the fountain of his grace so should it all fall at last into the Ocean of his Glory For of him and through him and
or we expected if they be taken from us before we be grown up If our friends whom we trusted have proved unfaithful and shrunk from us when we had use of them if those proportions of Wealth Honour Reputation Liberty or whatsoever other worldly conveniences and contentments we have formerly enjoyed be pared away to very little or even to nothing we have yet one reserve that we dare rest surely upon one anchor of hope that will hold in despight of all the World even the goodness and faithfulness of our gracious Lord God To him have we been left ever since we were born and he hath not hitherto failed nor forsaken us but hath preserved us in being in such a being as he who best knoweth what is fit hath thought fit for us It is our fault if the experience of the time past do not breed in us hope for the time to come and that a lively hope a hope that will never shame either him or us even this That he Will also be our guide unto death that he will not fail or forsake us henceforth for ever but will preserve us still in such a condition as he shall see good for us Persecuted we may be and afflicted but forsaken we shall not be 32. We ought therefore to possess our souls in patience whatsoever shall betide us in the World and not to consult with flesh and blood in seeking to relieve our selves in our distresses by engaging in any unworthy or unwarrantable practice or by siding partaking or but basely complying with the workers of wickedness that we may eat of their dainties Is it possible we should be so ill advised as to think to escape the storm when it approacheth towards us by making shipwrack of a good Conscience If we go after lying vanities and such are all Creatures all men lyars all things vanity do we not ipso facto forsake our own mercy and willfully bring ruine upon us The short and sure way is when any danger any distress is upon us or maketh towards us to run to our heavenly Father as young birds do to their Dam for succour He will gather us under his wings and we shall be safe under his Feathers his faithfulness and truth shall be our shield and buckler If we commit our ways to him cast our selves upon him by a thorough reliance resign all our desires wills and interests into his hands he will certainly bring to pass aut quod volumus aut quod malumus either what we like best or what he knoweth is best 33. Only let us resolve to perform our part do faithfully what he commandeth shun carefully what he forbiddeth suffer patiently what he inflicteth and we may then be confident he will perform his part to the uttermost That when all the World forsaketh us he will take us up take us into his care and protection here and if by patient continuance in well-doing we seek it take us up at the last into the fellowship of that glory and honour and immortality and eternal life which his only beloved Son hath purchased and his ever blessed Spirit consigned to all them that love him and put their trust in his mercy To that only beloved Son and ever-blessed Spirit together with the eternal Father three Persons and one undivided Trinity be rendered by us and the whole Church all the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AD AULAM. Sermon XV. STOKE POGEYS 1647. Luke 16. 8. For the Children of this World are in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light 1. THe fore-going verses contain a Parable this the Application of it The Parable that of the unjust Steward a faithless and a thriftless man He had wronged his Master without any benefit to himself as prodigals are wont to do other men harm and themselves no good The Master coming at length and with the last to have some knowledge of his false dealing dischargeth him his office and calleth on him to give in his accounts The Steward awakened with that short and unexpected warning began now to think in good earnest what before he never thought of to purpose what should become of him and his for the future he knew not which way in the world to turn himself to get a living when he should be turned out of service He had not been so provident an husband as to have any thing before-hand to live upon He could not frame to handle a spade he had not been brought up with pains-taking And for him that had so long born sway in such a house and like enough with insolence enough now to run craving a small piece of Money of every Traveller by the high-way or stand at another mans door begging a morsel of bread shame and a stout heart would not suffer him to think of that Well something he must do and that speedily too or starve He therefore casteth about this way and that way and every way and at last bethinketh himself of a course and resolveth upon it to shew his Master a trick at the loose that should make amends for all and do his whole business He therefore sendeth for his Masters Debtors forthwith abateth them of their several Sums and makes the Books agree in hope that having gratified so many Persons by such large abatements some of them would remember it sure though others should prove ungrateful and make him some part of requital for the same The Master vexed to see himself so palpably cheated and knew not how to help it for he could require no more of the Debtors than was upon the foot of their Bills could not yet but commend the mans wit howsoever And the Lord commended the unjust Steward because he had done wisely in the former part of this verse 2. Having thus framed the body of the Parable our Saviour now giveth it a soul in this latter part of the verse breatheth into it the breath of life by applying it Application is the life of a Parable The commending of the Stewards wisdom was with the purpose to recommend the example to us that we might from it learn to provide against the time to come as he did and that also by such like means as he did So that the Application hath two parts The one more general respecting the End that as he was careful to provide maintenance for the preservation of his natural life so we should be careful to make provision for our souls that we may attain to everlasting life The other more special respecting the Means that as he provided for himself out of his Masters goods by disposing the same into other hands and upon several persons so we should lay up for our selves a good foundation towards the attainment of everlasting life out of the unrighteous Mammon wherewith God hath intrusted us by being rich in good works communicating and distributing some of that in
a fitter similitude whereby to express the miseries of the hell within us that of an evil conscience or of the hell without us that of eternal torments than by inner and outer darkness But light is a most glorious creature than which none fitter to express to our capacities either the infinite incomprehensible Glory and Majesty of God He clotheth himself with light as with a garment and dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto or that endless glory and happiness which the holy Angels do now and all the Saints in their due time shall enjoy in heaven Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 14. In these respects he that hath the honour to be stiled a Christian in any degree hath also a title so far forth to be stiled a child of light Whether it be by the outward profession of the Christian faith only or by the inward sanctification of the Spirit also Those are nomine tenus Christiani Christians but in name and shew equivocal Christians these only are Christians indeed and in truth Of these is made up the Church of Gods Elect otherwise called the invisible Church of Christ and not unfitly because the persons appertaining to that Church as members thereof are not distinguishable from others by any outward infallible Character visible to us but by such secret and inward impresses as come not within the cognizance of any creature nor can be known by any creature otherwise than conjecturally only without special revelation from God The foundation of God standeth firm having this seal Dominus novit The Lord knoweth who are his Should we take these here meant the opposition between the children of this world and the children of light would be most perfect Those who remain in the state of depraved nature and so under the dominion of Sin and Satan being the children of this world in the strictest notion and those whom God hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light that is brought out of the state of Nature into the state of Grace and translated into the Kingdom of his Son Iesus Christ being the children of light in the stricter notion also 15. But forasmuch as we who cannot look beyond the outside are no competent judges of such matters It will best become us to make use of that judgment which alone God hath allowed us I mean that of Charity And then it will be no hard business for us to pronounce determinately applying the sentence even to particular persons who are to be esteemed the children of light Even all those that by outwardly professing the name and faith of Christ are within the pale of the visible Church of Christ. The holy Apostle so pronounceth of them all 1 Thes. 5. Ye are all the Children of the light and of the day And Eph. 5. Yea were sometimes darkness but now are light in the Lord. Our very Baptism entitleth is hereunto which is the Sacrament of our initiation whereby we put on Christ and are made members of Christ and Children of God Whence it is that in the Greek Fathers Baptism is usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an enlightening and persons newly baptised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Officer in the Greek Church to whom it belonged to hear the confessions of the Catechumeni and after they were approved to present them to Baptism with many other phrases and expressions borrowed from the same metaphor of light and applied in like manner to Baptism 16. Now to bring all this long and as I fear tedious discourse home to the Text the question here resolved seemeth in the right stating thereof to come to this issue whether natural and worldly men in the managery of their worldly affairs to the best temporal advantage or they that profess themselves Christians in the business of their souls and pursuit of everlasting salvation do proceed the more rationally and prudentially in their several ways towards the attainment of their several ends How the question is resolved we shall consider by and by In the mean time from this very consideration alone that the children of light and the children of this world stand in mutual opposition one to the other we may learn something that may be of use to us We would all be thought what I hope most of us are not nomine tenus only by outward profession and at large but in very deed and truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Christians and children of light in the stricter and nobler notion Yet were it but the other only our very Baptism and profession of Christianity would oblige us to a holy walking sutable to our holy calling and Profession and to the solemn vow we took upon us at our Baptism It were a base yea a very absurd thing for us to jumble and confound what we find here not only distinguished from but even opposed against the one the other Children of God and of the Church by profession and yet children of Satan and of the world in our conversation Children of light and yet hold fellowship with and take delight in the unfruitful works of darkness Quae communio saith St. Paul It astonisht him that any man could think to bring things so contrary as Light and Darkness to any good accord or but tolerable compliance When we were the children of this world and such we were as soon as we were born into the world by taking Christendom upon us at our Baptism we did ipso facto renounce the world with all the sinful pomps and vanities thereof and profess our selves children of the God of light If now being made the children of God and of the light we shall again cast back a longing eye after the world as Lots wife did after Sodom or Demas-like embrace this present world clasping our hearts and our affections about it how do we not ipso facto renounce our very Christendom with all the blessed comforts and benefits thereof return with the dog to lick up our old vomit and reduce our selves to that our former wretched condition of darkness from which we had so happily escaped Can any of us be so silly as to think the Father of lights will own him for his child and reserve for him an inheritance in light who flieth out from under his wing and quite forsaketh him to run after the Prince of darkness The Apostles motion seemeth very reasonable Eph. 5. that whereas whilst we were darkness we walked as children of darkness now we are become light in the Lord we should walk as children of the light The children of the world perfectly hate the light why should not the children of light as perfectly scorn the world We have not so much spirit in us as we should have if we do not nor so much wisdom neither as we should have if we do not no nor