of digniâ—ies acts of Jewish Zelots c. to the favouring or authorizing of any kinde of lust of divorces forbidden by Christ c. to the nourishing of rash anger uncharitable either timerarious or unmercifull censuring envie emulation variance strife malice revenge contumelious speaking whispering backbiteing c. to the excusing or justifying of piracy rapine oppression fraud violence any kinde of injustice c. to the spreading of lies slanders defamations c. to covetousnesse unsatisfiednesse uncontentednesse in our present condition desire of change casting the crosse on other mens shoulders that we may free our owne from it to dealing with others as we would not be well pleased to be dealt with our selves or in a word if they tend to the discouragingor discountenancing any Christian virtue set downe in this or any other sermon of Christ or by his Apostles or to the granting any dispensation or liberty from that Christian strictnesse in these duties or in those other of repentance selfe-denyall meekenesse mercifullnesse peaceablenesse c. by these markes and characters you may know this to be a False Teacher Yet not so farre this as that whosoever is guilty himselfe of any of these sins shall be if he be a Teacher a false one for 't is possible his Doctrine and Actions may be contrary but that if these be the fruits and naturall effects of his Doctrine then shall his Doctrine be thus condemned otherwise an ill man he may be and yeta teacher of truth a wicked but not a false Prophet S. But is it not said of these False Prophets that they come in sheepes clothing which sure signifies their outward actions to be innocent How then can they be discerned by their fruits C. I answer first that the fruits of their Doctrine may be discerned though their owne evill Actions be disguised and varnished over 2. That though their Actions most conspicuous and apparent be good yet their closer Actions which may also be discerned by a strict observer are of the making of the wolfe ravenous and evill 3. That though they begin with some good shewes to get authority though they enter as sheep doe some specious acts of piety at first yet they continue not constant in so doing within a while put off the disguise and are discernible S. What now is the fourth or last generall Precept C. The summe of it is that it is not the outer profession of Christianity or Discipleship though that set off by prophecying doing miracles c. in Christs name i. e. professing whatsoever they doe to be done by Christs power which will availe any man toward his account at that great day without the reall faithfull sincere universall impartiall performing of obedience to the lawes of Christ S. But can or doth God permit any wicked man to doe such miracles c C. Yes he may for the end of miracles and preaching c. being to convince men of the truth of the Doctrine of Christ that may well enough be done by those that acknowledge that truth though they live not accordingly the miracles done by them being not designed by God to the commendation of the instruments but to the perswading of the spectators S. § 3 Having received from you the full tale of the precepts you proposed there now remaines onely the conclusion of the whole Sermon to be discharged and then you have paid me all that your promise hath obliged you to C. It is this occasioned by the last precept of doing as well as professing Gods will that the profession of Christianity lending a patient eare to those doctrines will if it be as oft as it is trusted to and depended on to render us acceptable to Christ prove a very fallacious and deceitfull hope Whensoever any storme comes any shaking disease or affliction which gives us occasion to awake throughly and examine our selves to the bottome we are not then able to retaine any hope or comfortable opinion of our selves although in time of quiet and tranquillity before we were thus shaken we could entertaine our selves with such flattering glozes Hearing of Sermons and professing of love to and zeale for Christ may passe for piety a while but in the end it will not be so 'T is true Christian practice that will hold out in time of triall and that hope of ours which is thus grounded will stand firme and stable in time of affliction and temptation at the houre of death and the day of judgement This doctrine of Christian duty and obedience is such that can never deceive any man that is content to build upon it Nor infirmity nor sin committed but repented of and forsaken nor Devill shall ever shake any mans hold that is thus built endanger any mans salvation that lives according to the rule of this Sermon nor shall all the flattering deceitfull comforters of the world bring in any true gaine to any other And it came to passe when Jesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at his doctrine For he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes OHoly Jesu that camest downe from heaven and wert pleased to pay that deare ransome on the Crosse for us on purpose that thou might redeeme us from all iniquity and purify unto thy selfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes we beseech thee to write thy law in our hearts that most excellent divine law of thine that we may see it and doe it that we may know thee and the power of thy resurrection and expresse it in turning every one of us from his iniquities That we no longer flatter our selves with a formall externall serving of thee with being hearers of thy word partakers of thy Sacraments professours of thy truth knowers or teachers of thy will but that we labour to joine to these an uniforme faithfull obedience to thy whole Gospell a ready chearefull subjection to thy Kingdom that thou maiest rule and reigne in our hearts by Faith and that we being dead unto sinne and living unto righteousnesse may have our fruit unto holinesse may grow in Grace and in the practicall knowledge of thee Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and at last persevering unto the last attaine to that endlesse glorious end the reward of our Faith the fruit of our labours the perfection of our Charity and the crowne of our Hope an everlasting blessed life of love and holinesse with thee O Father of mercies O God of all consolations O holy and sanctifying spirit O blessed Trinity coeternall To which one Infinite Majesty We most humbly ascribe the honour glory power praise might majesty and dominion which through all ages of the world have beene given to him which sitteth on the Throne to the Holy Spirit and to the Lambe for evermore Amen FINIS Theologia est scientia affectiva non speculativa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glem Al. in pedag Of the first Covenant Of the second Covenan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
so had both equall right to it but being but one and undividible could not both enjoy and therefore to make them freinds he having two peices of silver doth upon contract divide them betwixt the pretenders and hath the stone in exchange from them having it he goes on his journey and coming to Ierusalem shewes it the Goldsmith who tells him that it was a jewell of great value being a stone falne and lost out of the high Preists Ephod to whom if he carried it he should certainly receive a great reward he did so and accordingly it proved the high Preist tooke it of him gave him a great reward but withall a box on the eare bidding him trust God the next time The story if true is an instance of the matter in hand if not yet an embleme or picture of it So againe Prov. 22. 9. He that hath a bountifull eye shall be blessed for he giveth of his bread to the poore Where the affirmative promise is most punctuall and the reason to confirme it most remarkeable being but the repetition of the thing it selfe as principles are faine to be proved by themselves the bountifull minded man shall be blessed why because he is bountifull i. e. no other argument needfull to prove it but this the promise infallible promise belonging peculiarly to such And Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth to the poore shall not lacke A most definitive large rule from whence no exception is imaginable if we had but faith to depend upon it And lest you should thinke that this referred onely to the state of the Iewes under the Old Testament and belonged not at all to us Christians you may first observe that these Proverbs of Solomon are not truths peculiar to that state but extensive even to us Christians and more purely so then to them many of them 2. That in the Gospell one place there is that repeates in sence one part of these places that of 19. 17. He that giveth to the poore lendeth to the Lord. to wit Mat. 25. 43. In as much as ye did it to one of these you did it unto me And then why may not the latter part belong to us also 3. One plaine promise of temporall things there is in the Gospell also to those that part with any of their goods for Christs sake and such sure are the Christian Almes-givers that doe it in obedience to Christs law and charity to fellow Christians Mat. 19. 29. and that in a generall unlimited stile excluding all exception Mark 10. 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren c. and lands i. e. worldly goods but he shall receive an hundred sold now in this time this first lower harvest this season of retributions houses c. i. e. temporall blessings here and then over and above in another world everlasting life Onely with a mixture of persecutions as Saint Marke or Saint Peter who had asked the question which occasioned this speech of Christs and whose Amanuensis Saint Marke was hath it as before I told you Prov. 11. 31. after all those temporall promises to the Almes-giver it is added He shall be recompenced or receive his portion of afflictions in the earth By all these testimonies from the word of God both in New and Old Testament I conceive this doctrine as cleare as any in the Scripture That the promise of temporall plenty to the liberall is so distinct and infallible that it can be no lesse then grosse ignorance of plaine Scripture not to observe it and arrant infidelity not to beleive it and strange Vn-Christian sinne not to practice that so amiable a duty that to him that beleives this there is not the least temptation imaginable against it even the covetous man himselfe being allowed to be the objector S. I cannot but acknowledge the truth of your premises and reasonablenesse of the conclusion from them and onely mervaile what artifice the Devill hath gotten to ensnare men by and keepe them from doing that which is so agreeable to their humours and dispositions even as they are partakers of but ingenuous nature God melt the heart and open the hand of the obdurate world and teach us the due practice of it I shall presume you have no more necessary to be added to the explication of the duty here supposed and thou when thou doest almes I shall call you from thence to the second particular mentioned The Caution interposed and desire to know what that it C. The Caution is that we do not our almes to be seene of men or use any meanes in the doing of them to have glory of men to be praised or commended by them For this is an infirmity very ordinarily insinnuating it selfe in our best actions to blast and defame them in the eyes of God every man being apt to desire to be better thought of by man for the performance of this duty especially if he be an exceeder in it S. But were we not commanded before that our light should shine before men What is that but to do our good workes so that men might see them C. To this I shall answer 1. By telling you that the performance of duties to God may be either publicke or private the one in the congregation the other in the closet the former ought to be as publicke as it may that so they may be more exemplary and tend more to the glorifying of God to that the shineing of our light belongs the second as private as it may to approve our selves the more to God and to that this caution here pertaines And though this be more illustriously observable in the two following duties of prayer and fasting yet will it hold in some measure in this also the Church being designed for giving also and every Christian antiently wont to bring some what to the Corban every time he came to Church a remainder of which custome we have still in the offertory 2. That there is great difference betwixt doing our good workes so that men may see them and doing them to be seene of men and againe betweene doing them so before men that they may see and glorifie our father in heaven and that we may have glory of men The former if it have not the latter to blast it and if it be truly so it excludes the latter is only a Christian charitable care that my good actions may be exemplary to others the second that they may be matter of reputation to my selfe The former respects only God's glory and not mine owne the second mine owne vaine aiery credit here and not or more then God's The first a most divine Christian act expression of great love of God and desire to propagate his Kingdome of great love of my brother and desire to make all others as good as my selfe by setting them such copies on purpose to transcribe the second is an evidence of great passion and selfe-love and impatience of having our reward put
care of our selves and those things wherein we are most concerned the summe of the three latter To which if we annex the Doxology for thine is the Kingdome c. which is the reflecting on God's gloryagain the observation will be enlarged that the glory of God c ought to be our first and last care and all that is good to our selves taken in only as it may best consist with that on each side limited with it Just as we read of the Liturgy used by the Jewes that of the eighteen prayers used in it the three first and three last concerned God and the rest betweene themselves and their owne wants But the truth is the ancientest Greeke copies have not those words of Doxology and there is reason to thinke that they came in out of the Liturgies of the Greeke Church where as now in many places the custome was when the Lords prayer had beene recited by the Presbyter for the people to answer by way of Doxology as after the reading of every Psalme a Glory be to the Father c. For thine is the Kingdome the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen S. Please you then to enter on the particular survey of this prayer Where first occurres the title which we bestow on God in it which I already conceive as a meanes to raise up our hearts to him and a ground of confidence that he can and will heare our prayers But what is the particular importance of it C. 1. That we looke on God as children on a father with all reverence and love and gratitude as on him who is 1. Our creatour and father of our being 2. More peculiarly set out to us in that relation then to any other sort of creatures as Plato said God was a maker of other things but a father of men 3. That all the acts of a father on earth are by him performed to us but in a farre higher and more excellent degree as farre as heaven is above earth Such are 1. His begetting us a new to a lively hope i. e. his giving us his spirit the principle of spirituall and celestiall life 2. His continuance of assisting grace to preserve what he hath begotten 3dly His 1 preventing 2 exciting 3 illuminating grace as a kinde of education to our suoles fourthly His providing an inheritance for us in another world not by the death of the father but by the purchase of the sonne to be enstated on us at our death which is the comming out of our nonage as it were And besides all this wherein he is a Father to our soules and spirits many nay all kind of paternall acts to our very bodies which we owe more to him then to our earthly parents who begat them as also the feeding preserving maintaining adorning and at last crowning of them 2. By this title and in it that particle Our we 1. signifie our beleife of Gods free bounty and fatherly respect to all our kind and labour not to ingrosse or inclose it to our selves 2. We extend our prayers to them as well as to our selves 3. We expresse our faith and relyance and totall plenary dependance on him as Ours and without whom we can hope nothing 3. By the adjunct of this title which art in heaven we celebrate his infinity immensity all sufficiency and all the rest of his attributes whereby he differs from our fathers on earth i. e. from men and the honourablest of creatures S. From the title you may please to descend to the petitions and first to those which concerne God of which all together if you would teach me any thing I shall be ready to receive it C. I shall onely trouble you with this from thence That the forme of wish rather then prayer retained in all those three different from the stile of the three latter doth conteine under it a silent prayer to God to take the meanes or way of performing this into his owne hands and by his grace or providence or however he shall see fit to take care that by us and all mankind His name may be hallowed His Kingdome may come His will be done c. S. What is meant by the first petition hallowed be thy name And 1. what by Gods name C. By his name is meant himselfe God in his essence and attributes and all things that have peculiar relation to him It being an ordinary Hebraisme that thing and word doing and speaking being called and being name and essence as his name shall be called Wonderfull i. e. he shall be a wonderfull one should be taken promiscuously the one for the other S. What is meant by hallowing C. The Hebrew word or Syriacke dialect in which Christ delivered it signifies to seperate from vulgar common use to use in a seperate manner with that reverence and respect that is not allowed to any thing else in that notion that holy is opposed to common or profane Thus is God hallowed when he is used with a reverence peculiar to him above all other things when such power majesty dominion goodnesse c. are attributed to him that are compatible to nothing else Thus is his Name hallowed when it is reverently handled His word or Scripture when weighed with humility received with faith as the infallible fountaine of all saving truth applied to our soules and the soules of our hearers as the instrument designed to our endlesse good the power of God unto salvation Thus is his House consecrated to his service his Preists designed to wait on him and officiate the Revenues of the Church instated on God for the maintenance of his lot or Clergy the first day of the weeke among us as among the Jewes the last set a part for the worshipping of God publickely and solemnely And every of thesâ— is hallowed when it is thus according to the designe used separately when none of these mounds to fence each are broken downe but all preserved from the inrode of sacrilegious profaners S. Having explained the single termes what is now the meaning of the complex or petition C. I pray to God that he will be pleased by his grace poured into my heart and the hearts of all men and by the dispensation of his gracious providence to worke in all our hearts such a reverence and aw and separate respect unto him his Majesty his attributes his workes of grace his name his word his day his Ministers his consecrated gifts the patrimony of the Church divolved from him upon them that the sinnes of sacriledge and profanenesse and idolatry and irreverence and in devotion c. may be turned out of the world and the contrary virtues of Christian piety set up and flourish among us S. O blessed Father Thus be thy name hallowed by me and all mankind Please you now to proceed to the second Thy Kingdome come And 1. What is meant by Gods Kingdome C. The exercise of Christs spirituall Regall power in the