an universal concurrence of judgment as there is in the main fundamental points of the Christian Faith And if we were so wise as we might and should be to make the right use of it it would not stumble us a whit in the belief of our Religion that Christians differ so much as they do in many things but rather mightily confirm us in the assurances thereof that they agree so well as they do almost in any thing And it may be a great comfort to every well meaning soul that the simple belief of those certain truths whereon all parties are in a manner agreed may be and ordinarily is sufficient for the salvation of all them who are sincerely careful according to that measure of light and means that God hath vouchsafed them to actuate their Faith with Piety Charity and good Works so making this great Mystery to become unto them as it is in its self Mysterium Pietatis a Mystery of Godliness Which is the last point proposed the Quale to which I now pass 22. As the corrupt Doctrine of Antichrist is not only a Doctrine of Error but of Impiety too called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mystery of iniquity 2 Thes. 2. So the wholsom doctrine of Christ is not only a doctrine of Truth but of Piety too and is therefore termed here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mystery of Godliness Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Godliness since there appeareth not any great necessity in the Context to restrain it to that more peculiar sence wherein both the Greek and English word are sometimes used namely to signifie the right manner of Gods Worship according to his word in opposition to all idolatrous superstitious or false Worships practised among the Heathens I am the rather enclined to understand it here as many Interpreters have done in the fuller Latitude as it comprehenderh the whole duty of a Christian man which he standeth bound by the command of God in his Law or of Christ in his Gospel to perform 23. Verum and Bonum we know are near of kin the one to the other And the spirit of God who is both the Author and the Revealer of this Mystery as he is the spirit of truth Joh. 14. so is he also the spirit of holiness Rom. 1. And it is part of his work to sanctific the heart with grace as well as to enlighten the mind with knowledge Our Apostle therefore sometimes mentioneth Truth and Godliness together teaching us thereby that we should take them both into our care together If any man consent not to the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the doctrine which is after Godliness 1 Tim. 6. And Tit. 1. according to the Faith of Gods Elect and acknowledging of the Truth which is after Godliness And here in express terms The Mystery of Godliness And that most rightly whether we consider it in the Scope Parts or Conservation of it 24. First the general Scope and aim of Christianity is by the mercy of God founded on the merits of Christ to bring men on through Faith and Godliness to Salvation It was not in the purpose of God in publishing the Gospel and thereby freeing us from the personal obligation rigour and curse of the Law so to turn us loose and lawless to do whatsoever should seem good in our own eyes follow our own crooked wills or gratifie any corrupt lust but to oblige us rather the faster by these new benefits and to incite us the more effectually by Evangelical promises to the earnest study and pursuit of Godliness The Gospel though upon quite different grounds bindeth us yet to our good behaviour in every respect as deep as ever the Law did if not in some respects deeper allowing no liberty to the flesh for the fulfilling of the lusts thereof in any thing but exacting entire sanctity and purity both of inward affection and outward conversation in all those that embrace it The grace of God appearing in the revelation of this mystery as it bringeth along with it an offer of salvation to all men so it teacheth all men that have any real purpose to lay hold on so gracious an offer to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously and soberly and godly in this present world 25. It is not to be wondered at if all false Religions give allowance to some ungodliness or other when the very Gods whom they worship give such encouragements thereunto by their lewd examples The Gods of the Pagans were renowned for nothing so much most of them as for their vices Mars a bloody God Bacchus a drunken God Mercury a cheating God and so proportionably in their several kinds all the rest Their great Capital God Iupiter guilty of almost all the Capital vices And where the Gods are naught who can imagine the Religion should be good Their very mysteria sacra as they called them were so full of all wickedness and filthy abominations as was already in part touched but is fully discovered by Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius Arnobius Tertullian and other of the Ancients of our Religion that it was the wisest point in all their Religion to take such strict order as they did for the keeping of them secret 26. But it is the honour and prerogative of the Christian Religion that it alone alloweth of no wickedness But as God himself is holy so he requireth an holy Worship and holy Worshippers He exacteth the mortification of all evil lusts and the sanctification of the whole man body soul and spirit and that in each of these throughout Every one that nameth himself from the name of Christ doth ipso facto by the very taking of that blessed name upon him and daring to stile himself Christian virtually bind himself to depart from all iniquity nor so only but to endeavour also after the example of him whose name otherwise he unworthily usurpeth to be just merciful temperate humble meek patient charitable to get the habits and to exercise the acts of these and all other holy graces and vertues Nay more the Gospel imposeth upon us some moral strictnesses which the Stoicks themselves or whoever else were the most rigid Masters of Morality never so much as thought of Nay yet more it exalteth the Moral Law of God himself given by Moses to the People of Israel to a higher pitch than they at least as they commonly understood the Law took themselves thereby obliged unto That a man should forsake all his dearest friends yea and deny his own dearest self too for Christs sake and yet for Christs sake at the same time love his deadliest enemies That he should take up his Cross and if need were lay down his life not only for his great Master but even for the meanest of his fellow-servants too That he should exult with joy and abound in hope in the midst of tribulations of persecutions of death it self Surely the
of a discreet Father and the affection of a tender Mother towards the fruit of their own loyns and womb And the Apostle at large prosecuteth the resemblance and that in this very matter whereof we now speak of our heavenly Fathers correcting his children in love and for their good most accurately and comfortably in Heb. 12. 22. But to return back to the relation of friendship from which yet I have not digressed for can we have any better friends than our Parents If any of us have a friend that is lethargick or lunatick will we not put the one from his drousie seat and shake him up and make him stir about whether he will or no and tie the other in his bed hamper him with cords yea and with blows too if need be to keep him quiet though it be death to the one to be stirred and to the other to be tied Or if we have some near friend or kinsman that we wish well to and partly dependeth upon us for his livelihood that will not be advised by us but will flie out into bad company drink and quarrel and game will we not pinch him in his allowance refuse to give him entertainment set some underhand to beat him when he quarrels in his drink or to cheat him when he gameth too deep and if he will not be reclaimed otherwise get him arrested and laid up and then let him lie by it till shame and want give him some better sight and sense of his former follies Can any man now charge us truly with unfaithfulness to our friend for so doing Or is it not rather a good proof of our love and faithfulness to him Doubtless it is You know the old saying Non quòd odio habeam sed quòd amem it hath some reason in it For the love and faithfulness of a friend is not to be measured by the things done but by the affection and intention of the doer A thing may be done that carrieth the shew of much friendship with it yet with an intent to do the party a mischief Eutrapelus cuicunque nocere volebat c. As if he should put his friend upon some employment he were unmeet for of purpose to disgrace him or feed him with money in a riotous course to get a hanck over his Estate like Sauls friendship to David in giving him his Daughter to wife that she might be a snare to him to put him into the hands of the Philistines This is the basest unfaithfulness of all other sub amici fallere nomen and by many degrees worse than open hostility Let not their precious balms break my head Let the righteous rather smite me friendly saith David There may be smiting it should seem by him without violation of friendship And his wise Son Solomon preferreth the wounds of a Friend before the kisses of an Enemy These may be pleasanter but those will prove wholsomer there is treachery in these kisses but in those wounds faithfulness 23. You may perceive by what hath been said that God may cause his servants to be troubled and yet continue his love and faithfulness to them nevertheless yea moreover that he bringeth those troubles upon them out of his great love and faithfulness toward them It should make us the more willing whether God inflict or threaten whether we feel or fear any either publick calamity or personal affliction any thing that is like to breed us any grief or trouble to submit our selves to the hand of God not only with patience because he is righteous but even with thankfulness too because he is faithful therein Very meet we should apprehend the wrath of God and his just indignation against us when he striketh for he is righteous and will not correct us but for our sin Which should prick our hearts with sorrow nay rend them in pieces with through contrition that we should so unworthily provoke so gracious a God to punish us But then we must apprehend his wrath that we doubt not of his favour nor despair of staying his hand if we will but stay the course of our sins by godly repentance and reformation for he is faithful and correcteth us ever for our good Doth he take any pleasure think you in our destruction He hath sworn the contrary and dare you not believe him Doubt ye not therefore but that humility and confidence fear and hope may consist together as well as justice and mercy may in God or repentance and faith in us Presume not then to continue in sin but fear his judgments for he is righteous and will not acquit the guilty Neither yet despair of finding pardon but hope in his mercy for he is faithful and will not despise the peâ—itent I forbid no man but charge him rather as he meaneth to build his after comforts upon a firm base to lay a good foundation of repentance and godly sorrow by looking first upon Gods justice and his own sins that he may be cast down and humbled under the mighty hand of God before he presume to lay hold of any actual mercy But after he hath by this means assured the foundation let him then in Gods name proceed with his work and bring it on more and more to perfection by sweet meditations of the great love and gracious promises of our good God and his undoubted sted fastness and faithfulness therein Never giving it over till it come to that perfection of art and skill that he can spy love even in the very wrath of God Mel de petra suck honey out of the stony rock gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles Till we attain to this I say not but we may have true hope and comfort in God which by his mercy may bring us to salvation but we have not yet that fulness of joy and peace which because by Gods grace if our own endeavours be not wanting it is attainable in this life we should press hard after of rejoycing in tribulation and counting it all joy when we fall into divers temptations 24. Somewhat a hard lesson I grant yet if we can but learn some of Davids knowledge it will be much the easier He speaketh not here you see out of a vain hope because he would fain have it so nor out of some uncertain conjecture as if perhaps it might be so but out of certain knowledge gotten by diligent and attentive study in the Word of God and by his own experience and observation I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled For the former branch of this knowledge that concerneth the righteousness of Gods judgments it is a thing soon learned I have shewed you the course already There is no more to be done but to examine our own carriage and deserving and we shall find enough I doubt not to satisfie fully in that point and therefore
Multiplication not Division and by diffusion without waste As the seal maketh impression in the wáx and as fire conveyeth heat into Iron and as one candle tindeth a thousand all without loss of figure heat or light Had ever any man less knowledge or wit or learning by teaching of others had he not rather more The more wise the Preacher was the more he taught the people knowledge saith Solomon Eccles. 12. and certainly the more he taught them knowledge the more his own wisdom increased As the Widow's oil increased not in the Vessel but by pouring out and as the barley bread in the Gospel multiplied not in the whole loaf but by breaking and distributing and as the Grain bringeth increase not when it lyeth on a heap in the garner but by scattering upon the land so are these spiritual Graces best improved not by keeping them together but by distributing them abroad Tutius in credito quà m in sudario the talent gathereth nothing in the napkin unless it be rust and canker but travelling in the bank besides the good it doth as it passeth to and fro it ever returneth home with increase Thirdly our own unsufficiency to all offices and the need we have of other mens Gifts must enforce us to lend them the help and comfort of ours God hath so distributed the variety of his gifts with singular wisdom that there is no man so mean but his service may be useful to the greatest nor any man so eminent but he may sometimes stand in need of the meanest of his brethren of purpose that whilst each hath need of other each should help none should despise other As in a building the stones help one another every lower stone supporting the higher from falling to the ground and every higher stone saving the lower from taking wet and as in the body every member lendeth some supply to the rest and again receiveth supply from them so in the spiritual building and mystical body of the Church God hath so tempered the parts each having his use and each his defects that there should be no Schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another Such a consent there should be in the parts as was between the blind and lame man in the Epigram mutually covenanting the Blind to carry the Lame and the Lame to direct the Blind that so the Blind might find his way by the others Eyes and the Lame walk therein upon the other's Legs When a man is once come to that all-sufficiency in himself as he may truly say to the rest of his brethren I stand in no need of you let him then keep his gifts to himself but let him in the mean time remember he must employ them to the advantage of his master and to the benefit of his brother The manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal Surely then those men first of all run a course strangely exorbitant who instead of employing them to the profit bend those gifts they have received whether spiritual or temporal to the ruine and destruction of their brethren Instead of winning souls to Heaven with busie and cursed diligence compassing Sea and Land to draw Proselytes to the Devil and instead of raising up seed to their elder brother Christ seeking to make their brethren if it were possible ten times more the children of Hell than themselves Abusing their power to oppression their wealth to luxury their strength to drunkenness their wit to scoffing Atheism Prophaneness their learning to the maintenance of Heresie Idolatry Schism Novelty If there be a fearful woe due to those that use not their gifts profitably what woes may we think shall overtake them that so ungraciously abuse them But to leave these wretches be perswaded in the second place all you whom God hath made Stewards over his houshold and blessed your basket and your store to bring forth of your treasures things both new and old manifest the Spirit God hath given you so as may be most for the profit of your brethren The Spirit of God when he gave you wisdom and knowledge intended not so much the wisdom and the knowledge themselves as the manifestation of them or as it is in the next verse the Word of Wisdom and the Word of Knowledge as Christ also promised his Apostles to give them Os sapientiam a mouth and wisdom Alas what is wisdom without a mouth but as a pot of treasure hid in the ground which no man is the better for Wisdom that is hid and a treasure that is not seen what profit is in them both O then do not knit up your Masters talent in a Napkin smother not his light under a bushel pinch not his servants of their due provision put not up the Manna you have gathered till it stink and the worms consume it but above all squander not away your rich portions by riotous living Let not either sloth or envy or pride or pretended modesty or any other thing hinder you from labouring to discharge faithfully that trust and duty which God expecteth which the necessity of the Church challengeth which the measure of your gifts promiseth which the condition of your calling exacteth from you Remember the manifestation of the Spirit was given you to profit withal Thirdly since the end of all gifts is to profit aim most at those gifts that will profit most and endeavour so to frame those you have in the exercise of them as they may be likeliest to bring profit to those that shall partake of them Covet earnestly the best gifts saith my Apostle at the last verse of this Chapter and you have his Comment upon that Text in the first verse of the fourteenth Chapter Covet spiritual Gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rather that ye may prophesie And by prophesying he meaneth the instruction of the Church and people of God in the needful doctrines of Faith towards God Repentance from dead works and new and holy Obedience It is one stratagem of the Arch enemy of mankind and when we know his wiles we may the better be able to defeat him by busying men of great and useful parts in by matters and things of lesser consequence to divert them from following that unum necessarium that which should be the main in all our endeavours the beating down of sin the planting of Faith and the reformation of manners Controversies I confess are necessary the tongues necessary Histories necessary Philosophy and the Arts necessary other Knowledge of all sorts necessary in the Church for Truth must be maintained Scripture-phrases opened Heresie confuted the mouths of Adversaries stopped Schisms and Novelties suppressed But when all is done Positive and Practick Divinity is it must bring us to Heaven that is it must poise our judgments settle our
rest as I have done in this my Meditations would swell to the proportion rather of a Treatise than a Sermon and what patience were able to sit them out therefore I must not do it And indeed if what I have spoken to this first point were duly considered and conscionably practised I should the less need to do it For it is the Accuser that layeth the first stone the rest do but build upon his Foundation And if there were no false reports raised or received there would be the less use of and the less work for false and suborned Witnesses ignorant or pack'd Iuries crafty and sly Pleaders cogging and extorting Officers but unto these I have no more to say at this time but only to desire each of them to lay that portion of my Text to their hearts which in the first division was allotted them as their proper share and withal to make application mutatis mutandis unto themselves of whatsoever hath been presently spoken to the Accuser and to the Magistrate from this first Rulē Whereof for the better furtherance of their Application and relief of our memories the summ in brief is thus First concerning the Accuser and that is every party in a Cause or Trial he must take heed he do not raise a false report which is done first by forging a meer untruth and secondly by perverting or aggravating a truth and thirdly by taking advantage of strict Law against Equity any of which whoever doth he first committeth a heinous sin himself and secondly grievously wrongeth his neighbour and thirdly bringeth a great deal of mischief to the Commonwealth All which evils are best avoided first by considering how we would others should deal with us and resolving so to deal with them and secondly by avoiding as all other inducements and occasions so especially those four things which ordinarily engage men in unjust quarrels Malice Obsequiousness Coverture and Greediness Next concerning the Iudge or Magistrate he must take heed he do not receive a false report which he shall hardly avoid unless he beware first of taking private informations secondly of passing over Causes slightly without mature disquisition and thirdly of countenancing accusers more than is meet For whose discountenancing and deterring he may consider whether or no these five may not be good helps so far as it lyeth in his power and the Laws will permit first to reject informations tendered without Oath secondly to give such Interpretations as may stand with Equity as well as Law thirdly to chastise Informers that use partiality or collusion fourthly to allow the wronged party a liberal Satisfaction from his Adversary fifthly to carry a sharp Eye and a strait Hand over his own Servants Followers and Officers Now what remaineth but that the several Premises be earnestly recommended to the godly consideration and conscionable practice of every one of you whom they may concern and all your persons and affairs both in the present weighty businesses and ever hereafter to the good guidance and providence of Almighty God we should humbly beseech him of his gracious goodness to give a Blessing to that which hath been spoken agreeably to his Word that it may bring forth in us the fruits of Godliness Charity and Iustice to the Glory of his Grace the Good of our Brethren and the Comfort of our own Souls even for his blessed Son's sake our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with c. AD MAGISTRATUM The Third Sermon At the Assises at Lincoln August 4th 1625. at the Request of the High-Sheriff aforesaid William Lister Esquire Psal. CVI. 30. Then stood up Phinees and executed Iudgment and the Plague was stayed THE Abridgment is short which some have made of the whole Book of Psalms but into two words Hosannah and Hallelujah most of the Psalms spending themselves as in their proper Arguments either in Supplication praying unto God for his Blessings and that is Hosannah or in Thanksgiving blessing God for his goodness and that is Hallelujah This Psalm is of the latter sort The word Hallelujah both prefixed in the Title and repeated in the close of it sufficiently giveth it to be a Psalm of Thanksgiving as are also the three next before it and the next after it All which five Psalms together as they agree in the same general Argument the magnifying of God's holy Name so they differ one from another in choice of those special and topical Arguments whereby the Praises of God are set forth therein In the rest the Psalmist draweth his Argument from other Considerations in this from the Consideration of God's merciful removal of those Iudgments he had in his just wrath brought upon his own People Israel for their Sins upon their Repentance For this purpose there are sundry instances given in the Psalm taken out of the Histories of former times out of which there is framed as it were a Catalogue though not of all yet of sundry the most famous rebellions of that people against their God and of Gods both Iustice and Mercy abundantly manifested in his proceedings with them thereupon In all which we may observe the passages betwixt God and them in the ordinary course of things ever to have stood in this order First he preventeth them with undeserved favours they unmindful of his benefits provoke him by their rebellions he in his just wrath chastiseth them with heavy Plagues they humbled under the rod seek to him for ease he upon their submission withdraweth his judgments from them The Psalmist hath wrapped all these five together in Vers. 43 44. Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their Counsels and were brought low for their iniquity the three first Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry the other two The particular rebellions of the people in this Psalm instanced in are many some before and some after the verse of my Text. For brevity sake those that are in the following verses I wholly omit and but name the rest which are their wretched Infidelity and Cowardice upon the first approach of danger at the Red Sea vers 7. Their tempting of God in the desert when loathing Manna they lusted for flesh vers 13. Their seditious conspiracy under Corah and his confederates against Moses vers 16. Their gross Idolatry at Horeb in making and worshipping the golden Calf ver 19. Their distrustful murmuring at their portion in thinking scorn of the promised pleasant land ver 24. Their fornicating both bodily with the daughters and spiritually with the Idols of Moab and of Midian ver 28. To the prosecution of which last mentioned story the words of my Text do appertain The original story it self whereto this part of the Psalm referreth is written at full by Moses in Numb 25. and here by David but briefly touched as the present purpose and occasion led him yet so as that the most
in any heavy Affliction or by the voice of God threatning it with vengeance It pursueth the guilty soul with continual and restless clamours and he seeth that something he must needs do if he knew what to stop the mouth of Conscience and so he falleth a repenting and reforming and resolving of a new Course which though it be not sincere and so cannot work a perfect Cure upon a wounded Conscience but that still it rankleth inward yet it giveth some present ease and allayeth the anguish of it for the time Secondly God will have the Power of his own Ordinance sometimes manifested even upon those that hate it as he got himself honour upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians that his own faithful ones may see and admire the Power of that holy Seed whereby they are begotten again from the dead not doubting but that the Gospel will prove the power of God unto Salvation to all that believe when they behold in it the power of conviction upon many that believe not Thirdly God in his most wise and unsearchable providence so ordereth and disposeth not only outward things but even the Hearts and Wills and Thoughts and Actions of Men permitting his children to to fall backwards into sins and bringing on his Enemies towards goodness so far as he thinketh good as for other purposes so for this end also among the rest that man might not be able from those things he seeth happen unto other men or done by them to judge infallibly of the state of his brothers soul. God reserving this Royalty unto himself to be the only Searcher of the hearts and reins of others For these and sundry other Reasons it cometh to pass that Hypocrites and Cast-aways do oftentimes go so far as they do in the outward performances of holy duties Now if men may go thus far and yet be in the state of Damnation what hope then first of Heaven for such profane ungodly wretches as are so far from having the power as that they have not so much as the least shew of godliness what will become of those that sit them down in the chair of Scorners and despise the good Word of God and make a Scoff of those men that desire to square their lives by that rule when some of them that hear it gladly and receive it with joy and are content to be ordered by it in many things shall yet go to Hell Certainly Ahab and Herod and such cursed miscreants shall rise up in judgment against these men and condemn them and they shall have their portion with Hypocrites shall I say Alas woful is their case if their portion fall but there let them take heed lest their portion be not so good as the Hypocrites and that it be not ten times easier for Ahab and Herod and the whole crew of such Hypocrites at the day of Judgment than for them Secondly what a stark shame would it be for us who have received the first fruits of the spirit not to bring forth the fruits of the spirit in some good abundance in the frequent and comfortable and actual exercises of those habitual graces that are in us of Faith Repentance Love Reformation Zeal and the rest seeing the counterfeits of these Graces are oftentimes so eminent even in Hypocrites and Cast-aways Shall a piece of rotten wood or a Glow-worm shine so bright in the dark and our holy Lamps fed with Oyl from Heaven burn so dim Nay let our lights also as well as theirs shine before men yea and out-shine theirs too that men may see our truly good works as well as their seeming ones and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Although all be not Gold that glistereth yet pity it is that true Gold should gather rust and lose the lustre for want of using when Brass and Copper and baser metals are kept bright with scowring Let not blèar-eyed Leah have cause to rejoyce against beautiful Rachel or to insult over her barrenness neither let us who profess our selves to be Wisdom's Children suffer our selves to be out-stript by Nature's Brats in justifying our Mother rather let their splendida peccata provoke us to a godly jealousie and emulation and spur us up to the quickning of those Graces God hath given us that the power of godliness in us may be at least as fruitful in all outward performances as the shew of it is in them Thirdly This should teach us caution in our judging of other mens Estates We are apt to offend both ways If we see a man overtaken with some gross scandalous sin as Drunkenness Adultery Oppression or Perjury but especially if he live long therein by and by he is a Reprobate with us or at least he is not yet in the state of Grace Thus we speak thus we judge but we consider not the whilst how far and how long God in his holy wisdom may suffer foul temptations to prevail against his chosen ones On the other side if we see a man forward in the Duties of Religion charitably affected to the Poor just and upright in his dealings with men stoutly opposing against common corruptions suffering for the Profession of the Truth by and by he is a Saint with us and we stick not sometimes in our Folly to wish that our Souls might speed as that mans Soul at a venture But we consider not the whilst how far the force of natural Conscience and common moral Grace if you will allow me to speak so improperly may lead a man on-ward unto all outward performances who was yet never effectually called nor truly sanctified And yet busie Fools that we are we cannot keep our selves in our own bounds but we must be medling with God's Prerogative and thrusting our selves in his Chair and be judging of our Brethren whose hearts we are so far from knowing as that we are scarce well acquainted with our own But what have we to do either with one or other what lawful Commission have we at all to judge or what certain Evidence have we whereby to judge Infallible Signs we cannot have from any outward things either of the want or of the having of Grace in other men yet of the two far more pregnant probabilities of the want than of the having of Grace because there may be such an open course held in evil things as we may justly doubt whether such a course can stand with Grace or no whereas there cannot be any course held in good things outwardly but such as may stand with Hypocrisie What are we then to do even this to use the Judgment of Probability hoping with chearfulness that there is Grace where we see comfortable signs of it and to use the Judgment of Charity still hoping the best though not without some fear that there may be Grace where we see fearful signs of the want of it But for the
daily for mercy upon the Land and that weep and mourn in secret and upon their beds for your Abominations whom you hate and despise and persecute and defame and account as the very Scum of the People and the refuse and off-scouring of all things to whom yet you owe your Preservation Surely if it were not for some godly Iehoshaphat or other whose Presence God regardeth among you if it were not for some zealous Moses or other that standeth in the gap for you God's wrath had entred in upon you long ere this as a mighty breach of water and as an overflowing deluge overwhelmed you and you had been swept away as with the Besom of Destruction and devoured as stubble before the fire It is the innocent that delivereth the Land and reprieveth it from Destruction when the Sentence of Desolation is pronounced against it and it is delivered by the pureness of his hands O the goodness of our God! that would have spared the five Cities of the Salt-Sea if among so many thousands of beastly and filthy Persons there had been found but Ten righteous ones and that was for each City but two Persons nay that would have pardoned Ierusalem if in all the Streets and broad places thereof replenished with a World of Idolaters and Swearers and Adulterers and Oppressors there had been found but one single man that executed Iudgment and sought the truth from his heart But Oh the madness of the men of this foolish World withal who seek to do them most Mischief of all others who of all others seek to do them most good thirsting most after their Destruction who are the chiefest Instruments of their preservation O foolish and mad World if thou hast but wit enough yet yet to hug and to make much of that little flock the hostages of thy Peace and the earnest of thy tranquillity if thou wouldest but know even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace Thou art yet happy that God hath a remnant in thee and if thou knewest how to make use of this happiness at least in this thy day by honouring their persons by procuring their safety and welfare by following their examples by praying for their continuance thou mightest be still and more and ever happy But if these things that belong unto thy peace be now hidden from thine eyes if these men that prolong thy peace and prorogue thy destruction be now despised in thy heart in this day of thy peace God is just thou knowest not how soon they may be taken from thee and though he do not bring the evil upon thee in their days when they are gone thou knowest not how soon Vengeance may overtake thee and then shall he tear thee in pieces and there shall be none left to deliver thee I have now done Beseech we God the Father of mercies for his dear Son Jesus Christ his sake to shed his Holy Spirit into our hearts that by his good Blessing upon us that which hath been presently delivered agreeably to his holy Truth and Word may take root downwards in our hearts and bring forth fruit upwards in our lives and conversations and so to assist us ever with his Grace that we may with humble confidence lay hold on his Mercies with chearful reverence tremble at his Iudgments by unfeigned Repentance turn from us what he hath threatned and by unwearied Obedience assure unto us what he hath promised To which Holy Father Son and Spirit three Persons and c. AD POPULUM The Third Sermon At Grantham Linc. Iun. 19. 1621. 3 KINGS 21. 29. I will not bring the evil in his days but in his sons days will I bring the evil upon his house I Come now this third time to entreat of this Scripture and by God's help to finish it Of the Three parts whereof heretofore propounded viz. 1. Ahab's Humiliation 2. The suspension of his judgment for his time 3. And the Devolution of â—t upon Iehoram the two former having been already handled the last only now remaineth to be considered of In the prosecution whereof as heretofore we have cleared GOD's Holiness and Truth so we shall be now occasioned to clear his Iustice from such imputations as might seem to lie upon it from this Act. And that in three respects accordingly as Iehoram who standeth here punishable for Ahab's sin may be considered in a threefold reference to Ahab that is to say either relate as the son of Ahab or disparate as another man from Ahab or comparaâ—â— as a man not altogether so bad as Ahab Now what Justice first to punish the Son for the Father or indeed secondly any one man foâ— another but most of all thirdly the less Offender for the greater It is not a matter of so much difficulty as at the first appearance it seemeth to clear these doubts if all things thereto appertaining be duly and distinctly considered The greatest trouble will be the things being of more variety than hardness to sort them in such manner as that we may therein proceed orderly and without confusion Evermore we know Certainties must rule Uncertainties and clear truths doubtful it will be therefore expedient for us for the better guiding of our Judgments first to lay down some Certainties and then afterwards by them to measure out fit Resolutions to the Doubts and then lastly from the premises to raise some few instructions for our use The first Certainty then and a main one is this Howsoever things appear to us yet God neither is nor can be unjust as not in any other thing so neither in his punishments Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance God forbid for then how shall God judge the world shall not the Iudge of all the earth do right Indeed the Reasons of his Iustice oftentimes may be oftentimes are unknown to us but they never are they never can be unrighteous in him If in a deep point of Law a learned discreet Iudge should upon sufficient grounds give sentence flat contrary to what an ordinary by stander would think reason as many times it falleth out it is not for the grieved party to complain of injustice done him he should rather impute what is done to want of skill in himself than of Conscience in the Judge Right so if in many things Gods Proceedings hold not proportion with those characters of Justice and Equity which our weak and carnal reason would express we must thence infer our own ignorance not his injustice And that so much the rather because those matters of Law are such as fall within the comprehension of ordinary Reason whereas the ways of God are far removed out of our sight and advanced above our reach and besides an Earthly Iudge is subject to misprison mis-information partiality corruption and sundry infirmities that may vitiate his Proceedings whereas no such thing can possibly fall upon
with it as if it were his own personal debt so Christ becoming surety for our sins made them his own and so was punishable for them as if they had been his own personal sins Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree 1 Pet. 2. That he was punished for us who himself deserved no punishment it was because He was made sin for us who himself knew no sin So that I say in some sence the assertion may be defended universally and without exception but yet I desire rather it might be thus Christs only excepted all the Pains and Evils of men are brought upon them for their own sins These three Points then are certain and it is needful they should be well understood and remembred because nothing can be objected against Gods Iustice in the punishing of sin which may not easily be removed if we have recourse to some one or other of these Three Certainties and rightly apply them All the Three Doubts proposed in the beginning have one and the same Resolution answer one and answer all Ahab here sinneth by Oppression and yet the evil must light though not all of it for some part of it fell and was performed upon Ahab himself yet the main of it upon his Son Iehoram I will not bring the evil in his days But in his Sons days will I bring the evil upon his house It is not Iehoram's case alone it is a thing that often hath and daily doth befal many others In Gen. 9. when Noah's ungracious Son Ham had discovered his Fathers nakedness the old man no doubt by Gods special inspiration layeth the Curse not upon Ham himself but upon his son Canaan Cursed be Canaan c. And God ratified the Curse by rooting out the posterity of Canaan first out of the pleasant Land wherein they were seated and then afterwards from the face of the whole Earth Ieroboam's Idolatry cut off his Posterity from the Kingdom and the wickedness of Eli his Sons theirs from the Priesthood of Israel Gehazi with the bribe he took purchased a Leprosie in Fee simple to him and his heirs for ever The Iews for stoning the Prophets of God but most of all for Crucifying the Son of God brought blood-guiltiness not only upon themselves but upon their Children also His Blood be upon us and upon our Children The wrath of God therefore coming upon them to the utmost and the curse of God abiding upon their Posterity even unto this day wherein they still remain and God knoweth how long they shall a base and despised people scattered almost every where and every where hated Instances might be endless both in private Persons and Families and in whole Kingdoms and Countries But it is a needless labour to multiply instances in so confessed a point especially God Almighty having thus far declared himself and his pleasure herein in the Second Commandment of the Law that he will not spare in his Iealousie sometimes to visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation There is no question then de facto but so it is the sins of the Fathers are visited upon the Children but de jure with what right and equity it is so it is as Saint Chrysostom speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a question famous and much debated The Considerations which I find given in for the resolution of this question by those that have purposely handled it are very many But multitude breedeth confusion and and therefore I propose no more but two only unto which so many of the rest as are material may be reduced and those two grounded upon the certainties already declared The former concerneth the Nature of those Punishments which are inflicted upon the Children for the Fathers sins the latter the Condition of those Children upon whom such punishments are inflicted As to the first The punishments which God bringeth usually upon the Children for the Fathers sins are only temporal and outward punishments Some have been plagued with infectious diseases as Gehazi's posterity and Ioab's also if that curse which David pronounced against him took effect as it is like it did Some have come to untimely and uncomfortable ends as David's children Ammon and Absalom and the little ones of David and Abiram and others Some have had losses and reproaches and manifold other distresses and afflictions in sundry kinds too long to rehearse And all these temporal judgments their fathers sins might bring upon them even as the Faith and Vertues and other graces of the Fathers do sometimes convey temporal blessings to their posterity So Ierusalem was saved in the Siege by Senacherib for David's sake many years after his death Esay 37. 35. And the succession of the Crown of Israel continued in the line of Iehu for four descents for the zeal that he shewed against the worshippers of Baal and the house of Ahab So then men may fare the better and so they may fare the worse too for the Vertues or Vices of their Ancestors Outwardly and Temporally they may but Spiritually and Eternally they cannot For as never yet any man went to Heaven for his Fathers goodness so neither to Hell for his Fathers wickedness If it be objected that for any people or person to suffer a famine of the Word of God to be deprived of the use and benefit of the sacred and saving Ordinances of God to be left in utter darkness without the least glimpse of the glorious light of the Gospel of God without which ordinarily there can be no knowledg of Christ nor means of Faith nor possibility of Salvation to be thus visited is more than a temporal punishment and yet this kind of Spiritual judgment doth sometimes light upon a Nation or People for the Unbelief and Unthankfulness and Impenitency and Contempt of their Progenitors whilest they had the light and that therefore the Children for their Parents and Posterity for their Ancestry are punished not only with Temporal but even with Spiritual judgments also If any shall thus object one of these Two Answers may satisfie them First if it should be granted the want of the Gospel to be properly a Spiritual Judgment yet it would not follow that one man were punished spiritually for the fault of another For betwixt private persons and publick societies there is this difference that in private persons every succession maketh a change so that when the Father dieth and the Son cometh after him there is not now the same person that was before but another but in Cities and Countries and Kingdoms and all publick societies succession maketh no change so that when One generation passeth and another cometh after it there is not another City or Nation or People than there was before but the same If then the people of the same land should in this
any one man for another and to the third Why God should punish the lesser offender for the greater In which and all other doubts of like kind it is enough for the clearing of God's justice to consider that when God doth so they are first only temporal punishments which he so inflicteth and those secondly no more than what the sufferer by his own Sins hath most rightfully deserved All those other considerations as that the Prince and People are but one Body and so each may feel the smart of others sins and stripes That oftentimes we have given way to other mens sins when we might have stopped them or consent when we should have withstood them or silent allowance when we should have checked them or perhaps furtherance when we should rather have hindred them That the punishments brought upon us for our fathers or other mens sins may turn to our great spiritual advantage in the humbling of our Souls the subduing of our Corruptions the increasing of our Care the exercising of our Graces That where all have deserved the punishment it is left to the discretion of the Iudge whom he will pick out the Father or the Son the Governour or the Subject the Ring-leader or the Follower the Greater or the Lesser Offender to shew exemplary justice upon as he shall see expedient I say all these and other like Considerations many though they are to be admitted as true and observed as useful yet they are such as belong rather to God's Providence and his Wisdom than to his Iustice. If therefore thou knowest not the very particular reason why God should punish thee in this or that manner or upon this or that occasion let it suffice thee that the Counsels and purposes of God are secret and thou art not to enquire with sorupolous curiosity into the dispensation and courses of his Providence farther than it hath pleased him either to reveal it in his Word or by his manifest Works to discover it unto thee But whatsoever thou dost never make question of his Iustice. Begin first to make inquiry into thine own self and if after impartial search thou there findest not corruption enough to deserve all-out as much as God hath laid upon thee then complain of Injustice but not before And so much for the Doubts Let us now from the premises raise some instructions for our use First Parents we think have reason to be careful and so they have for their children and to desire and labour as much as in them lieth their well-doing Here is a fair course then for you that are parents and have children to care for do you that which is good and honest and right and they are like to fare the better for it Wouldest thou then Brother leave thy lands and thy estate to thy Child entire and free from Incumbrances It is an honest care but here is the way Abstineas igitur damnandis Leave them free from the guilt of thy sins which are able to cumber them beyond any statute or mortgage If not the bond of God's Law if not the care of thine own Soul if not the fear of Hell if not the inward checks of thine own Conscience At peccaturo obstet tibi filius infans at the least let the good of thy poor sweet infants restrain thee from doing that sin which might pull down from heaven a plague upon them and theirs Go to then do not applaud thy self in thy witty villanies when thou hast circumvented and prospered when Ahab-like thou hast killed and taken possession when thou hast larded thy leaner Revenues with fat collops sacrilegiously cut out of the sides or flanks of the Church and hast nailed all these with all the appurtenances by Fines and Vouchers and Entails as firm as Law can make them to thy child and his child and his childs child for ever After all this stir cast up thy bills and see what a goodly bargain thou hast made thou hast damned thy self to undo thy Child thou hast brought a curse upon thine own Soul to purchase that for thy Child which will bring a curse both upon it and him When thy Indentures were drawn and thy learned Council fee'd to peruse the Instrument and with exact severity to ponder with thee every clause and syllable therein could none of you spy a flaw in that clause with all and singular th' appurtenances neither observe that thereby thou didst settle upon thy Posterity together with thy Estate the wrath and vengeance and curse of God which is one of those appurtenances Hadst thou not a faithful Counsellor within thine own Breast if thou wouldst but have conferred and advised with him plainly and undissemblingly that could have told thee thou hadst by thy Oppression and Injustice ipso facto cut off the entail from thy Issue even long before thou hadst made it But if thou wouldst leave to thy posterity a firm and secure and durable estate do this rather purchase for them by thy charitable works the prayers and blessings of the poor settle upon them the fruits of a religious sober and honest education bequeath them the legacy of thy good example in all vertuous and godly living and that portion thou leavest them besides of earthly things be it much or little be sure it be well-gotten otherwise never look it should prosper with them A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and sowereth it and a little ill gotten like a Gangreen spreadeth through the whole estate and worse than Aqua fortis or the poisoned shirt that Dejanira gave Hercules cleaveth unto it and feedeth upon it and by little and little gnaweth and fretteth and consumeth it to nothing And surely God's Iustice hath wonderfully manifested it self unto the World in this kind sometimes even to the publick astonishment and admiration of all men that men of ancient Families and great Estates well left by their Ancestors and free from Debts Legacies or other Encumbrances not notedly guilty of any expenceful sin or vanity but wary and husbandly and careful to thrive in the World not kept under with any great burden of needy friends or charge of Children not much hindred by any extraordinary losses â—or casualities of fire thieves suretiship or sutes that such men I say should yet sink and decay and run behind hand in the World and their Estates crumble and moulder away and come to nothing and no man knoweth how No question but they have sins enough of their own to deserve all this and ten times more than all this but yet withal who knoweth but that it might nay who knoweth not that sometimes it doth so legible now and then are Gods Iudgments come upon them for the greediness and avarice and oppression and sacrilege and injustice of their not long foregoing Ancestors You that are parents take heed of these sins It may be for some other reasons known best to himself God suffereth you to go
to God and the fairest requital we can make for them If we withdraw our obedience and fall into open rebellion against God if we abuse them in making them either the occasions or instruments of sin to the dishonour of God and damage of his Servants we repay him ill and unworthily for the good we have received and are guilty of Unthankfulness in this foulest and highest degree Now we have seen what we are let us say the worst we can by unthankful ones call them Wretches Caitiffs Churles any thing load them with infamies disgraces contumelies charge them with Injustice Prophaneness Atheism condemn them and with them the vice it self Unthankfulness to the pit of Hell do all this and more and spare not and as David did at Nathan's Parable when we hear any case or example of ingratitude in any of the former degrees whether really done or but in a Parable pronounce sentence upon the guilty The man that hath done this thing shall surely die But withal let us remember when we have so done that our hearts instantly prompt us what Nathan told David Thou art the man We we are the men we are these unthankful ones unthankful to God first in passing by so many of his blessings without taking any consideration of them unthankful secondly in ascribing his Blessings wholly or partly to our selves or any other but him unthankful thirdly in valuing his Blessings so lightly as to forget them unthankful fourthly in diminishing the worth of his Blessings and repining at our portion therein unthankful fifthly in not rendring to him and his according to the good he hath done for us but sixthly and most of all unthankful in requiting him evil for good and hatred for his good will Dealing thus with him let us not now marvel if he begin to deal something strangely and otherwise than he was wont with us If he deny us his Creatures when we want them if he take them from us when we have them if he withhold his blessing from them that it shall not attend them if we find small comfort in them when we use them if they be unanswering our expectations when we have been at some pains and cost with them if as the Prophet speaketh We sow much and bring in little we eat and have not enough we drink and are not filled we cloath us and we are not warm and the wages we earn we put into a bag with holes if any of these things befal us let us cease to wonder thereat our selves are the causers of all our woe It is our great unthankfulness that blasteth all our endeavours that leaveneth with sowerness whatsoever is sweet and turneth into poison whatsoever is wholesom in the good Creatures of God It is the Word of God and Prayer that sanctifieth them to our use and they are then good when they are received with thanksgiving So long as we continue unthankful we are vain if we look for any sanctification in them if we expect any good from them I have now done with my first Inference for Trial or rather Conviction I add a second of Exhortation The duty it self being so necessary as we have heard Necessary as an Act of Iustice for the receipt of the Creature and necessary as an Act of Religion for the sanctifying of the Creature how should our hearts be enflamed with an holy desire and all our powers quickned up to a faithful endeavour conscionably to perform this so necessary a duty One would think that very necessity together with the consciousness of our former unthankfulness should in all reason be enough to work in us that both desire and endeavour In all reason it should so but we are unreasonable and much ado there is to perswade us to any thing that is good even when we are perswaded Wherefore to enforce the exhortation more effectually I must have leave to press the performance of this duty upon our Consciences with some farther Inducements and important Considerations Consider first the excellency of the Duty There are but three heads whereto we refer all that is called good Iucundum Utile Honestum Pleasure Profit and Honesty There is nothing desirable and lovely but in one or other of these three respects Each of these singly we account good but that excellently good wherein they all concurr We love things that will give us delight sometimes when there is neither profit nor credit in them we love things that will bring us profit though possibly neither delightful greatly nor sâ—emly and we love things that we think will do us honesty oftentimes without regard either of Pleasure or Profit How should we then be affected to this duty of giving thanks and singing Praises unto our GOD wherein all those do jointly concurr and that also in an excellent measure David hath wrapped them all together in one verse in the beginning of Psal. 147. Praise ye the Lord for it is good yea it is a pleasant thing and praise is comely It is good it will bring you profit it is pleasant it will afford you delight and it is comely it will do you honesty and what can heart wish more Again many good virtues and graces of God in us shall expire together with us which though they be eternal in their fruit and reward yet are not so as to their proper Acts which after this life shall cease because there shall be neither need nor use of them then Whether there be Prophecies they shall fail or whether there be tongues they shall cease or whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away There shall be no use of taming the flesh by Fasting or of supplying the want either of others by Alms or of our selves by Prayer Nay even Faith and Hope themselves shall have an end for we shall not then need to believe when we shall see nor to expect when we shall enjoy But giving of Thanks and Praise and Honour and Glory unto God shall remain in the Kingdom of Heaven and of Glory It is now the continual blessed exercise of the glorious Angels and Saints in Heaven and it shall be ours when we shall be translated thither O that we would learn often to practise here what we hope shall be our eternal exercise there Oh that we would accustom our selves being filled in the Spirit to speak to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making Melody in our hearts to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ as speaketh our Apostle Ephes. 5. Consider secondly the multitude and variety and continuance of God's Blessings and let that provoke thy Thankfulness If thou hadst received but one or a few benefits yet thanks were due even for those few or for that one more than thou art able to return But what canst thou alledge or how excuse thy unthankfulness when
his observation be sound it may then well pass for a double mercy of God to a sinner if he both respite his destruction and withal restrain him from sin for by the one he giveth him so much longer time for repentance which is one Mercy and by the other he preventeth so much of the increase of his sin which is another Mercy Thirdly it may be called Grace in respect of other men For in restraining men from doing evil God intendeth as principally his own glory so withal the good of mankind especially of his Church in the preservation of humane society which could not subsist an hour if every man should be left to the wildness of his own nature to do what mischief the Devil and his own heart would put him upon without restraint So that the restraining of mens corrupt purposes and affections proceedeth from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle somewhere calleth it that love of God to mankind whereby he willeth their preservation and might therefore in that respect bear the name of grace though there should be no good at all intended thereby to the Persons so restrained Just as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those spiritual gifts which God hath distributed in a wonderful variety for the edifying of his Church though they oftentimes bring no good to the receiver are yet stiled graces in the Scriptures because the distribution of them proceedeth from the gracious love and favour of God to his Church whose benefit he intended therein God here restrained Abimelech as elsewhere he did Laban and Esau and Balaam and others not so much for their own sakes though perhaps sometimes that also as for their sakes whom they should have injured by their sins if they had acted them As here Abimelech for his chosen Abraham's sake and Laban and Esau for his servant Iacob's sake and Balaam for his people Israel's sake As it is said in Psal. 105. and that with special reference as I conceive it to this very story of Abraham He suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm He reproved even Kings by restraining their power as here Abimelech but it was for their sakes still that so Sarah his anointed might not be touched nor his Prophet Abraham sustain any harm We see now the Observation proved in all the points of it 1. Men do not always commit those evils they would and might do 2. That they do not it is from Gods restraint who with-holdeth them 3. That restraint is an act of his merciful providence and may therefore bear the name of Grace in respect of God who freely giveth it of them whose sins and stripes are the fewer for it of others who are preserved from harm the better by it The Inferences we are to raise from the Premisses for our Christian Practice and comfort are of two sorts for so much as they may arise from the consideration of Gods Restraining Grace either as it may lye upon other men or as it may lye upon our selves First From the consideration of Gods restraint upon others the Church and Children and servants of God may learn to whom they owe their preservation even to the power and goodness of their God in restraining the fury of his and their enemies We live among Scorpions and as sheep in the midst of Wolves and they that hate us without a cause and are mad against us are more in number than the hairs of our heads And yet as many and as malicious as they are by the mercy of God still we are and we live and we prosper in some measure in despight of them all Is it any thanks to them None at all The seed of the Serpent beareth a natural and an immortal hatred against God and all good men and if they had horns to their curstness and power answerable to their wills we should not breath a minute Is it any thanks to our selves Not that neither we have neither number to match them nor policy to defeat them nor strength to resist them weak silly little flock as we are But to whom then is it thanks As if a little flock of sheep escape when a multitude of ravening Wolves watch to devour them it cannot be ascribed either in whole or in part either to the sheep in whom thereis no help or to the Wolf in whom there is no mercy but it must be imputed all and wholly to the good care of the shepherd in safe-guarding his sheep in keeping off the Wolf so for our safety and preservation in the midst and in the spight of so many Enemies Not unto us O Lord not unto us whose greatest strength is but weakness much less unto them whose tendrest mercies are cruel but unto thy Name be the Glory O thou Shepherd of Israel who out of thine abundant love to us who are the flock of thy Pasture and the sheep of thy hands hast made thy power glorious in curbing and restraining their malice against us Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men Wonders we may well call them indeed they are Miracles if things strange and above and against the ordinary course of Nature may be called Miracles When we read the stories in the Scripture of Daniel cast into the Den among the Lions and not touched of the three Children walking in the midst of the fiery furnace and not scorched of a viper fastning upon Pauls hand and no harm following we are stricken with some amazement at the consideration of these strange and supernatural accidents and these we all confess to be miraculous escapes Yet such Miracles as these and such escapes God worketh daily in our preservation notwithstanding we live encompassed with so many fire-brands of hell such herds of ravening Wolves and Lions and Tygers and such numerous generations of vipers I mean wicked and ungodly men the spawn of the old Serpent who have it by kind from their father to thirst after the destruction of the Saints and servants of God and to whom it is as natural so to do as for the fire to burn or a Viper to bite or a Lion to devour O that men would therefore praise the Lord for this his goodness and daily declare these his grea◠wonders which he daily doth for the children of men Secondly since this restraint of wicked men is so only from God as that nothing either they or we or any Creature in the world can do can with-hold them from doing us mischief unless God lay his restraint upon them it should teach us so much wisdom as to take heed how we trust them It is best and safest for us as in all other things so in this to keep the golden mean that we be
because he hath not so full and absolute command of some of his subjects as before he had or seemed to have Fifthly much of the hurt that might come by evil example is hereby prevented Sixthly the people of God are preserved from many injuries and contumelies which they would receive from evil men if their barbarous manners were not thus civilized as a fierce Mastiff doth least hurt when he is chained and muzled Seventhly and lastly and which should be the strongest motive of all the rest to make us industrious to repress vicious affections in others it may please God these sorry beginnings may be the fore-runners of more blessed and more solid graces My meaning is not that these Moral restraints of our wild corruption can either actually or but vertually prepare dispose or qualifie any man for the grace of Conversion and Renovation or have in them Virtutem seminalem any natural power which by ordinary help may be cherished and improved so far as an Egg may be hatched into a Bird and a kernel sprout and grow into a tree far be it from us to harbour any such Pelagian conceits but this I say that God being a God of Order doth not ordinarily work but in order and by degrees bringing men from the one extreme to the other by middle courses and therefore seldom bringeth a man from the wretchedness of forlorn nature to the blessed estate of saving grace but where first by his restraining grace in some good measure he doth correct nature and moralize it Do you then that are Magistrates do we that are Ministers let all Fathers Masters and others whatsoever by wholsom severity if fairer courses will not reclaim them deter audacious persons from offending break those that are under our charge of their wills and wilfulness restrain them from lewd and licentious practices and company not suffer sin upon them for want of reproving them in due and seasonable sort snatch them out of the fire and bring them as far as we can out of the snare of the Devil to God-ward and leave the rest to him Possibly when we have faithfully done our part to the utmost of our power he will set in graciously and begin to do his part in their perfect conversion If by our good care they may be made to forbear swearing and â—ursing and blaspheming they may in time by his good grace be brought to fear an Oath If we restrain them from gross prophanations upon his holy-day in the mean time they may come at length to think his Sabbath a delight If we keep them from swilling and gaming and revelling and rioting and roaring the while God may frame them ere long to a sober and sanctified use of the Creatures and so it may be said of other sins and duties I could willingly inlarge all these points of Inferences but that there are yet behind sundry other good Uses to be made of this restraining Grace of God considered as it may lye upon our selves and therefore I now pass on to them First There is a root of Pride in us all whereby we are apt to think better of our selves than there is cause and every infirmity in our Brother which should rather be an item to us of our frailty serveth as fuel to nourish this vanity and to swell us up with a Pharisaical conceit that forsooth we are not like other men Now if at any time when we see any of our brethren fall into some sin from which by the good hand of God upon us we have been hitherto preserved we then feel this swelling begin to rise in us as sometimes it will do the point already delivered may stand us in good stead to prick the bladder of our pride and to let out some of that windy vanity by considering that this our forbearance of evil wherein we seem to excel our brother it not from nature but from grace not from our selves but from God And here a little let me close with thee whosoever thou art that pleasest thy self with odious comparisons and standest so much upon terms of betterness Thou art neither extortioner nor adulterer drunkard nor swearer thief slanderer nor murtherer as such and such are It may be thou art none of these but I can tell thee what thou art and that is as odious in the sight of God as any of these Thou art a proud Pharisee which perhaps they are not To let thee see thou art a Pharisee do but give me a direct answer without shifting or mincing to that Question of St. Paul Quis te discrevit Who hath made thee to differ from another Was it God or thy self or both together If thou sayest It was God thou art a dissembler and thy boasting hath already confuted thee for what hast thou to do to glory in that which is not thine If thou hadst received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it If thou sayest it was from thy self what Pharisee could have assumed more All the shift thou hast is to say it was God indeed that made the difference but he saw something in thee for which he made thee to differ thou acknowledgest his restraint in part but thine own good nature did something If this be all thou art a very Pharisee still without all escape That Pharisee never denied God a part no nor the chiefest part neither he began his vaunting prayer with an acknowledgment of Gods work I thank thee O God that I am not like other men It was not the denial of all unto God but the assuming of any thing unto himself that made him a right Pharisee Go thy way then and if thou wilt do God and thy self right deny thy self altogether and give God the whole Glory of it if thou hast been preserved from any evil And from thy brothers fall besides compassioning forlorn Nature in him make a quite contrary use unto thy self even to humble thee thereby with such like thoughts as these Considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Am I any better than he Of better mold than he Or better tempered than he Am not I a Child of the same Adam a vessel of the same clay a chip of the same block with him Why then should I be high-minded when I see him fallen before me Why should I not rather fear lest my foot slip as well as his hath done I have much cause with all thankfulness to bless God for his good Providence over me in not suffering me to fall into this sin hitherto and with all humility to implore the continuance of his gracious assistance for the future without which I am not able to avoid this or any other evil Secondly since all restraints from sin by what second means soever they are conveyed unto us or forwarded are from the merciful providence of God whensoever we observe that God hath vouchsafed
should repose upon such things must needs rise and fall ebb and flow just as the things themselves do Which is contrary to the state of a true contented mind which still remaineth the same and unchanged notwithstanding whatsoever changes and chances happen in these outward and mutable things 7. We see now the unsufficiency of Nature of Morality of Outward things to bring Contentment It remaineth then that it must spring from Religion and from the Grace of God seated in the heart of every godly man which casteth him into a new mould and frameth the heart to a blessed calm within whatsoever storms are abroad and without And in this Grace there is no defect As the Lord sometimes answered our Apostle when he was importunate with him for that which he thought not fit at that time to grant sufficit tibi gratia My Grace is sufficient for thee He then that would attain to St. Pauls learning must repair to the same School where St. Paul got his learning and he must apply himself to the same Tutor that St. Paul had He must not languish in Porticu or in Lycaeo at the feet of Plato or Seneca but he must get him into the Sanctuary of God and there become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must be taught of God and by the anointing of his holy Spirit of grace which anointing teacheth us all things 1 Ioh. 2. All other Masters are either Ignorant or Envious or Idle Some things they are not able to teach us though they would some things they are not willing to teach us though they might but this Anointing is every way a most compleat Tutor able and loving and active this anointing teacheth us all things and amongst other things this Art of Contentation also 8. Now as for the means whereby the Lord traineth us up by his holy grace unto this learning they are especially these three First by his spirit he worketh this perswasion in our hearts that whatsoever he disposeth unto us at any time for the present that is evermore the fittest and best for us at that time He giveth us to see that all things are guided and ordered by a most just and wise and powerful providence And although it be not fit for us to be acquainted with the particular Reasons of such his wise and gracious dispensations yet we are assured in the general that all things work together for the best to those that love God That he is a loving and careful Father of his children and will neither bring any thing upon them nor keep back any thing from them but for their Good That he is a most skilful and compassionate Physician such an one as at all times and perfectly understandeth the true state and temper of our hearts and affections and accordingly ordereth us and dieteth us as he seeth it most behoofeful for us in that present state for the preservation or recovery of our spiritual strength or for the prevention of future maladies And this perswasion is one special means whereby the Lord teacheth us Contentment with whatsoever he sendeth 9. Secondly whereas there are in the word scattered every where many gracious and precious promises not only concerning the life to come but also concerning this present life the spirit of grace in the heart of the Godly teacheth them by faith to gather up all those scattered Promises and to apply them for their own comfort upon every needful occasion They hear by the outward preaching of the Word and are assured of the truth thereof by the inward teaching of the Spirit That God will never fail them nor forsake them That he is their shepherd and therefore they shall not want but his goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives That his eye is upon them that fear him to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of dearth That he will give grace and Worship and with-hold no good thing from them that live a godly life That though the Lions the great and greedy Oppressours of the world may lack and suffer hunger yet they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and a thousand other such like Promises they hear and believe The assurance whereof is another special means by which the Lord teacheth his children to repose themselves in a quiet content without fear of want or too much thoughtfulness for the future 10. Thirdly for our better learning besides these Lectures of his Providence and Promises he doth also both appoint us Exercises and discipline us with his Rod By sending changes and afflictions in our bodies and in our names in our friends in our estates in the success of our affairs and many other ways but always for our profit And this his wise teaching of us bringeth on our learning wonderfully As for those whose houses are safe from fear neither is the Rod of God upon them as Iob speaketh that are never emptied nor poured from vessel to vessel they settle upon their own dregs and grow muddy and musty with long ease and their prosperity befooleth them to their own destruction When these come once to stirring and trouble over-taketh them as sooner or later they must look for it then the grumbles and mud of their impatience and discontent beginneth to appear and becometh unfavoury both to God and man But as for those whom the Lord hath taken into his own tuition and nurturing he will not suffer them either to wax wanton with too long ease nor to be depressed with too heavy troubles but by frequent changes he exerciseth them and inureth them to all estates As a good Captain traineth his Souldiers and putteth them out of one posture into another that they may be expert in all so the Lord of hosts traineth up his Souldiers by the armour of righteousnes on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evil Report and good Report by health and sickness by sometimes raising new friends and sometimes taking away the old by sometimes suffering their enemies to get the upper hand and sometimes bringing them under again by sometimes giving success to their affairs even beyond their expectation and sometimes dashing then hopes when they were almost come to full ripeness He turneth them this way and that way and every way till they know all their postures and can readily cast themselves into any form that he shall appoint They are often abased and often exalted now full and anon hungry one while they abound and they suffer need another while Till with our Apostle they know both how to be abased and how to abound Till every where and in all things they be instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Till they can at least in some weak yet comfortable measure do all things through Christ that strengtheneth them These exercises
of both Laws Civil and Canon with the vast Tomes of Glosses Repertories Responses and Commentaries thereon and take in the Reports and year-books of our Common-Law to boot for Divinity get through a course of Councils Fathers School men Casuists Expositors Controversers of all sorts and Sects When all is done after much weariness to the flesh and in comparison thereof little satisfaction to the mind for the more knowledge we gain by all this travel the more we discern our own Ignorance and thereby but encrease our own sorrow the short of all is this and when I have said it I have done You shall evermore find try it when you will Temperance the best Physick Patience the best Law and A good Conscience the best Divinity I have done Now to God c. AD AULAM. The Tenth Sermon WHITE-HALL at a publick Fast JULY 8. 1640. Psal. 119. 75. I know O Lord that thy Iudgments are right and that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled 1. IN which words the holy Prophet in two several Conclusions giveth unto God the Glory of those two his great Attributes that shine forth with so much lustre in all the Works of his Providence his Iustice and his Mercy The glory of his Iustice in the former conclusion I know O Lord that thy judgments are right the glory of his Mercy in the latter And that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled And to secure us the better of the truth of both Conclusions because flesh and blood will be ready to stumble at both We have his Scio prefixed expresly to the former only but the speech being copulative intended to both I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and I know also that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled Our order must be to begin with the Conclusions first as they lie in the Text and after that to proceed to David's knowledg of them although that stand first in the order of the words In the former Conclusion we have to consider of Two things First what these judgments of God are that David here speaketh of as the Subject and then of the righteousness thereof as the Praedicate I know O Lord that thy judgments are right 2. What Iudgments first There are judicia oris and there are judici◠operis the judgments of Gods mouth and the judgments of Gods hands Of the former there is mention at Verse 13. With my lips have I been telling of all the judgments of thy mouth And by these Iudgments are meant nothing else but the holy Law of God and his whole written Word which every where in this Psalm are indifferently called his Statutes his Commandments his Precepts his Testimonies his Iudgments And the Laws of God are therefore amongst other reasons called by the name of Iudgments because by them we come to have a right judgment whereby to discern between Good and Evil. We could not otherwise with any certainty judg what was meet for us to do and what was needful for us to shun A lege tuâ intellexi at verse 104. By thy Law have I gotten understanding St. Paul confesseth Rom. 7. that he had never rightly known what sin was if it had not been for the Law and he instanceth in that of lust which he had not known to be a sin if the Law had not said Thou shalt not covet And no question but these judgments these judicia oris are all right too for it were unreasonable to think that God should make that a rule of right to us which were it self not right We have both the name that of judgments and the thing too that they are right in the 19th Psalm Where having highly commended the Law of God under the several appellations of Law Testimonies Statutes and Commandments ver 7 and 8. the Prophet then concludeth under this name of Iudgments ver 9. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether 3. Besides these Iudicia Oris which are Gods judgments of directions there are also Iudicia Operis which are his judgments for correction And these do ever include aliquid poenale something inflicted upon us by Almighty God as it were by way of punishment something that breedeth us Trouble or Grief The Apostle saith Heb. 12. that every chastening is grievous and so it is more or less or else it could be to us no punishment And these again are of two sorts yet not distinguished so much by the things themselves that are inflicted as by the condition of the persons on whom they are inflicted and especially by the Affection and Intention of God that inflicteth them For all whether publick calamities that light upon whole Nations Cities or other greater or lesser Societies of men such as are Pestilences Famine War Inundations unseasonable Weather and the like or private Afflictions that light upon particular Families or Persons as sickness poverty disgraces injuries death of friends and the like All these and whatsoever other of either kind may undergo a two-fold consideration in either of both which they may not unfitly be termed the Iudgments of God though in different respects 4. For either these things are sent by Almighty God in his heavy displeasure as Plagues upon his Enemies intending therein their destruction Such as were those publick judgments upon the Old World swept away with the flood upon Sodom and the other Cities consumed with fire from Heaven upon Pharaoh and his Host over-whelmed in the Red Sea upon the Canaanites spewed out of the Land for their abominations upon Ierusalem at the final destruction thereof by the Romans And those private judgments also that befel sundry particular persons as Cain Absolon Senacherib Herod and others Or else they are laid by Almighty God as gentle Corrections upon his own Children in his Fatherly love towards them and for their good to chastise them for their strayings to bring them to repentance for their sins to make them more observant and careful of their duty thence-forward to exercise their Faith and Patience and other Graces and the like Such as were those distresses that befel the whole people of Israel sundry times under Moses and in the days of their Iudges and Kings and those particular Trials and Afflictions wherewith Abraham and Ioseph and Iob and David and Paul and other the holy Saints and Servants of God were exercised in their times 5. Both the one sort and the other are called Iudgments but as I said in different respects and for different reasons Those former Plagues are called Gods Iudgments because they come from God not as a loving and merciful Father but as a just and severe Iudg who proceeding according to course of Law giveth sentence against a malefactor to cut him off And therefore this kind of judgment David earnestly deprecateth Psal. 143. Enter not into judgment with thy servant for then neither can I nor any flesh living be
and fears within insomuch as he was troubled on every side and his flesh had no rest at the fifth verse there Nevertheless saith he God that comforteth those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus at vers 6. 35. Thirdly God manifesteth his love and faithfulness to his children in their troubles by the issues that he giveth out of them Deliverance and Honour Deliverance first That God hath often promised Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will hear thee Psal. 50. And he hath faithfully performed it Many or great are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all Psal. 34. And he delivereth him safe and sound many times without the breaking of a bone yea sometimes without so much as the loss of a hair of his head How oft do we hear it repeated in one Psalm and made good by sundry instances So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them from their distress 36. Some evidence it is of his love and faithfulness that he delivered them at all but much more that he doth it with the addition of honour Yet hath he bound himself by his gracious promise to that also He shall call upon me and I will hear him yea I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and bring him to honour Psal. 91. As gold cast into the furnace receiveth there a new lustre and shineth brighter when it cometh forth than it did before so are the Saints of God more glorious after their great afflictions their graces ever more resplendent and many times even their outward estate also more honourable We may see in the examples of Ioseph of Iob of David himself and others if we had time to produce them that of Psal. 113. verified He raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the mire and from the dunghil that he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people But we have an example beyond all example even our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ. Never any sufferings so grievous as his never man so emptied and trodden down and made a man of sorrows as he never any issues so honourable as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess to his honour And what hath befallen him the head concerneth us also his members not only by way of merit but by way of conformity also Si compatimur conregnabimus If we be partakers of his sufferings we shall be also of his glory God as out of very faithfulness he doth cause us to be troubled so will he out of the very same faithfulness give an honourable issue also to all our troubles if we cleave unto him by stedfast faith and constant obedience possibly in this life if he see it useful for us but undoubtedly in the life to come Whereunto c. AD AULAM. The Eleventh Sermon WHITEHALL JULY 5. 1640. 1 Cor. 10. 23. All things are lawful for me But all things are not expedient All things are lawful for me But all things edifie not 1. IN which words the Apostle with much holy wisdom by setting just bounds unto our Christian Liberty in the Power first and then in the exercise of that power excellently preventeth both the Error of those that would shrink it in and the Presumption of those that would stretch it out more than they ought He extendeth our Liberty in the Power but restraineth it in the Use. Would you know what a large power God hath permitted unto you in indifferent things and what may be done ex plenitudine potestatis and without scruple of conscience For that you have Omnia licent All things are lawful But would you know withal with what caution you ought to use that power and what at all times is fit to be done ex intuitu charitatis and for the avoiding of offence You have for that too Non omnia expediunt All things are not expedient All things edifie not If we will sail by this Card regulate our judgement and practice by our Apostles rule and example in the Text we shall neither dash against the Rock of Superstition on the right hand nor fall into the Gulph of Profaneness on the left we shall neither betray our Christian Liberty nor abuse it 2. In the words themselves are apparently observable concerning that Liberty two things the Extension first and then the Limitation of it The extension is in the former clause Wherein we have the Things and the Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things lawful and All lawful for me The Limitation is in the latter clauses wherein is declared first what it is must limit us and that is the reason of Expediency But all things are not expedient And secondly one special means whereby to judge of that Expediency which is the usefulness of it unto Edification But all things edifie not I am to begin with the Extension of which only at this time And first and chiefly in respect of the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are lawful 3. What All things Simply and â—ithout exception All What meant Iohn Baptist then to come in with his Non licet to Herod about his Brothers Wife It is not lawful for thee to have her Mat. 14. Or if Iohn were an austere man and had too much of Elias's spirit in him Yet how is it that our blessed Saviour the very pattern of love and meekness when the Pharisees put a question to him Whether it were lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause resolveth it in effect as if he had said No it is not lawful St. Peter saith the wicked Sodomites vexed the righteous soul of Lot daily with their unlawful deeds And who that hearkneth to the holy Law of God or but to the dictates of natural conscience will not acknowledge Blasphemy Idolatry Sacriledge Perjury Oppression Incest Parricide Treason c. to be things altogether unlawful And doth St. Paul now dissent so far from the judgement of his Master of his Fellow-Apostle of the whole world besides as to pronounce of all these things that they are lawful 4. Here the rule of Logicians must help Signa distributiva sunt intelligenda accommodatè ad subjectam materiam Notes of Universality are not ever to be understood in that fulness of latitude which the words seem to import but most often with such convenient restrictions as the matter in hand will require Now the Apostle by mentioning Expediency in the Text giveth us clearly to understand that by All things he intendeth all such things only whose Expediency or Inexpediency are meet to be taken into consideration as much as to say All indifferent things and none other For things absolutely necessary although it may
not fashion themselves according to this present evil world But as at their Baptism they renounced the world with all the Pomps Lusts and Vanities of it so they take themselves bound in the whole course of their lives to be as unlike the evil world as they can by walking in all holiness and purity of conversation So long as they continue in this Vale of misery and live here in the world they must have to do in the world and the world will have to do with them and daily occasion they shall have for the necessities of this life to use the things of this world But then they are careful so to use them as neither to abuse themselves nor them Going through the vale of misery they use it for a Well drawing out thence a little water as occasions require for their needful refreshing but they will take care withal to drain it well from the mud to keep themselves so far as is possible unspotted with the World and to escape the manifold pollutions and defilements that are in the World through lust But the children here spoken of immerse and ingulf themselves in the affairs of this world with all greediness walking as the Apostle expresseth it Eph. 2. after the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air in the lusts of the flesh doing the will of the flesh and of the mind There is a combination you see of our three great Spiritual Enemies The Devil the Flesh and the World against us and these three agree in one to undo us and to destroy us Now he that yieldeth to the temptations of the Devil or maketh provision for the Flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof or suffereth himself to be carried with the sway of the world to shape his course thereafter preferring his own will before the known will of God is a child of this world in respect of his Conversation 8. Thirdly The Children of this World are so called in regard their Portion is in this World The children of Light content themselves with any small pittance which it pleaseth their heavenly Father to allow them here being assured they shall be provided for with so much as shall be sufficient for them to maintain them during this their minority with a kind of subsistence But the main of their portion their full childs-part their rich and precious inheritance they expect not in this world They well know it is laid up for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is laid up for me the Crown of righteousness and that in a safe place reserved in the heavens and that in safe hands kept by the power of God till they be grown up to it As Ioseph gave his brethren Provision for their Journey but the full sacks were tied up not to be opened till they were gotten home Indeed rather God himself is their portion both here in part and hereafter in full But the Children we now speak of if there be any natural or moral goodness or usefulness in them by the superabundant bountifulness of a gracious God in any respect or degree rewardable habent mercedem They have all they are like to have in hand there is nothing for them neither for the most part do they expect any thing in reversion which have the portion in this life saith David Psal. 17. If they have done him any small piece of service though unwittingly they shall have their wages for it paid them to the uttermost as Nebuchadnezzar had Aegypt assigned him as his wages for the service he did against Tyrus If they be but bastard-sons they shall yet have their portion set out for them far beyond what they can either challenge as of right or pretend to as by desert But yet in this world only The heavenly inheritance in the world to come which is to descend unto the right heir when he cometh to age is preserved for the legitimate Children only such as are become the Sons of God by faith in Christ Iesus As Abraham gave gifts to the Sons of his Concubines and sent them away and so we hear no more of them nor of any thing their father did for them afterwards but Isaac in fine carried the inheritance though he had not so much as the other had in present 9. Those are the children of this World but the Children of Light who are they I should enter into a very spacious field if I should undertake to declare the sundry significations of the word Light as it is metaphorically used in the Scriptures or pursue the resemblances between the metaphorical and spiritual Light and the natural To our purpose briefly Light is either spoken of God or of the things of God First God himself is light a most pure clear and simple light without the least allay or mixture of darkness God is light and in him is no darkness saith St. Iohn The Father of lights without so much as the least shadow of turning saith St. Iames. And if God be rightly stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the father of lights it cannot be unproper that his children be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of light 10. Next the Word of God that is a light too Thy Word is a light unto my feet Psal. 119. so called from the effect because when it goeth forth it giveth light and understanding to the simple The Law which is but a darker part of that word enlightneth yet the eyes Psal. 19. Lex lux The Prophecies the darkest part of all yet are not without some degree of lustre they shine saith St. Peter though but as a candle in a dark place But then the light of the Gospel that is a most glorious light shining forth as the Sun when he is in his greatest strength at noon day in Summer 11. Hence also ariseth as one light commonly begetteth another a third light the light of grace and saving knowledge wrought in the hearts of men by the holy word of God set on by his holy Spirit withal accompanying it God who bringeth light out of darkness hath shined in your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 12. And where the light of grace is there is another light also fourthly that always attendeth thereupon the light of comfort For Grace and Comfort are Twins the blessed inseparable effects of one and the same blessed Spirit Lux orta est justo there is sprung up or as some translate it there is sown a light for the righteous and joyful gladness for such as be true hearted Psal. 97. The true heart that is the light heart indeed Light in both significations light without darkness and light without sadness or heaviness 13. There is yet remaining a fifth light the light of Glory Darkness is an Emblem of horror We have not
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
of it briefly First let me say with St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marvel not my brethren when you see an evil cause prosper it may be for a long time together and the better side go down as if some strange thing had happened unto you and such as never had been heard of in the World before neither be troubled or scandalized at it Fret not thy self saith David at him whose way doth prosper against the man that doth after evil counsels If you would but well consider how solicitous how industrious how smooth and cunning how unanimous they are on the one side how far short they on the other side are in all these and all other like advantageous respects you would soon find that in the saddest events that ever your eyes beheld there is no matter of wonderment at all Yea did not the powerful hand of Gods over-ruling providence sometimes interpose giving the enemy now and then a sudden stop when they are in their full career in the height of their pride and jollity and making good his promises to his poor distressed Church by sending unexpected help and deliverance when they are brought very low both in their estates and hopes we might rather wonder that it is not even much worse with the people of God than it is and how they should be able at all to subsist their enemies having all the advantages in the world against them 30. Let not their successes therefore trouble us Rather in the second place let their wisdom quicken us to a holy emulation Not to imitate their ways nor to joyn with them in their wicked enterprises God forbid no nor so much as to encourage them therein by any unworthy compliances It was not the Stewards injustice but his wisdom that his Master commended him for in the Parable and that our Master in the application of the Parable intended to commend to us for our imitation His example should kindle a holy zeal in us and an endeavour to be as wise for spirituals and in the business of our souls as he was and as the children of this world usually are for temporals and in the affairs of the world It is no shame at all for us to learn wisdom of any whomsoever 1. Of a poor irrational contemptible Creature Vade ad formicam Go to the Pismire O sluggard and learn her ways learn wisdom of her 2. Of an enemy Books have been written by Moralists de utilitate ab inimicis capienda We curse our Enemies many times unchristianly whereas did we seriously consider how much we are beholding to them for the greatest part of that wisdom and circumspection we shew in the managery of our affairs we would not only bless them as we are in Christian Charity bound but heartily bless God for them also by way of Gratitude for the great benefit we reap by them 3. Yea of the Devil himself Watch saith St. Peter for your adversary the Devil goeth about c. As if he should say He watcheth for your destruction watch you therefore for your own security and preservation Thus may we from the worldlings wisdom learn something that may be of use to us and that in each of the fore-mentioned particulars 31. From their Sagacity 1. Learn to fore-cast how to please God to fore-arm our selves against all assaults and wiles of Satan to fore-think and to be in some measure provided before-hand of needful and proper expedients for any exigent or cross accident that may probably befall us 2. From their Industry learn not to be slothful in doing service not to slack the time of our repentance and turning to God to run with constancy and courage the race that is set before us to think no pains no travel too much that may bring us to heaven to work out our salvation to the uttermost with fear and trembling 3. From their Hypocrisie and outward seeming Holiness learn to have our conversations honest towards them that are without not giving the least scandal in any thing that may bring reproach upon the Gospel to shun the very appearances of evil and having first cleansed the inside well to keep the outside handsome too that by our piety devotion meekness patience obedience justice charity humility and all holy graces we may not only stop up the mouth of the Adversary from speaking evil of us but may also win glory to God and honour and reputation to our Christian profession thereby 4. From their Unity learn to follow the truth in love to lay aside vain janglings and opposition of science falsly so called to make up the breaches that are in the Church of Christ by moderating and reconciling differences rather than to widen them by multiplying controversies and maintaining hot disputes to follow the things that make for peace and whereby we may edifie one another This doing we may gather grapes of thorns make oyl of Scorpions extract all the medicinal virtue out of the Serpent and yet leave all the poisonous and malignant quality behind 32. Emulate them then we may nay we ought It is the very main scope of the Parable to provoke us to that But sure envy them we must not indeed we need not if we will but take the Limitation along with us which now only remaineth to be considered and that the time so requiring very briefly How much wiser soever these worldly-wise men seem to be or indeed are as we have now heard it is but quadrantenus and in some few respects Take them super totam materiam and they are stark fools for all that Very Naturals if they have no Grace The Limitation here in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is terminus diminuens and must be understood accordingly The Children of this world are said to be wiser than the Children of light But how wiser Not in genere simply and absolutely and in every respect wiser but in genere suo wiser in some respect wiser in their kind of wisdom such as it is in worldly things and for worldly ends a very mean kind of wisdom in comparison For such kind of limiting and diminuent terms are for the most part destructive of that whereunto they are annexed and contain in them as we use to say oppositum in opposito He that saith a dead man or a painted Lion by saying more saith less than if he had said but a man or a Lion only without those additions it is all one upon the point as if he had said no man no Lion For a dead man is not a man neither is a painted Lion a Lion So that our Saviour here pronouncing of the Children of this world that they are wiser but thus limited wiser in their Generation implieth that otherwise and save in that respect only they are not wiser 33. The truth is simply and absolutely considered the child of light if he be truly and really such and
Semen Dei as St. Iohn calleth it the seed of the second Adam Iesus Christ God blessed for ever derived unto us by the communication of his holy Spirit inwardly renewing us together wherewith is also derived a measure of inherent supernatural grace as the inward principle whence all these choice fruits of the Spirit do flow 11. So that upon the whole matter these two Points are clear First clear it is that all the wicked practices recited and condemned in the foregoing verses with all other of like quality do proceed meerly from the corruption that is in us from our own depraved minds and wills without any the least cooperation of the holy Spirit of God therein It cannot stand with the goodness of God to be the principal and neither with his goodness nor greatness to be an Accessory in any sinful action He cannot be either the Author or the Abettor of any thing that is evil Whoso therefore hath committed any sin let him take heed he do not add another and a worser to it by charging God with it rather let him give God and his Spirit the glory by taking all the blame and shame of it to himself and his own Flesh. All sinful works are works of the Flesh. 12. Secondly it is clear also that all the holy affections and performances here mentioned with all other Christian vertues and graces accompanying Salvation not here mentioned though wrought immediately by us and with the free consent of our own wills are yet the fruit of Gods Spirit working in us That is to say They do not proceed originally from any strength of nature or any inherent power in mans free-will nor are they acquired by the culture of Philosophy the advantages of Education or any improvement whatsoever of natural abilities by the helps of Art or Industry but are in truth the proper effects of that supernatural grace which is given unto us by the good pleasure of God the Father merited for us by the precious blood of God the Son and conveyed into our hearts by the sweet and secret inspirations of God the holy Ghost Love Ioy Peace c. are fruits not at all of the Flesh but meerly and entirely of the Spirit 13. All those very many passages in the New Testament which either set forth the unframeableness of our nature to the doing of any thing that is good Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good thought In me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing and the like or else ascribe our best performances to the glory of the grace of God Without me you can do nothing All our sufficiency is of God Not of your selves it is the gift of God It is God that worketh in you both the will and the deed and the like are so many clear confirmations of the Truth Upon the evidence of which truth it is that our mother the Church hath taught us in the Publick Service to beg at the hands of Almighty God that he would â—ndue us with the grace of his holy Spirit to amend our lives according to his holy Word And again consonantly to the matter we are how in hand with almost in terminis that he would give to all men encrease of grace to hear meekly his word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit As without which grace it were not possible for us to amend our lives or to bring forth such fruits according as God requireth in his holy Word 14. And the Reason is clear because as the tree is such must the fruit be Do men look to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles Or can they expect from a salt Fountain other than brackish water Certainly what is born of Flesh can be no better than Flesh. Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean Or how can any thing that good is proceed from a heart all the imaginations of the thoughts whereof are only and continually evil If we would have the Fruit good reason will and our Saviour prescribeth the same method that order be taken first to make the tree good 15. But you will say It is as impossible so to alter the nature of the Flesh as to make it bring forth good spiritual fruit as it is to alter the Nature of a Crab or Thorn so as to make it bring forth a pleasant Apple Truly and so it is if you shall endeavour to mend the fruit by altering the stock you shall find the labour altogether fruitless A Crab will be a Crab still when you have done what you can and you may as well hope to wash an Ethiopian white as to purge the Flesh from sinful pollution 16. The work therefore must be done quite another way not by alteration but addition That is leaving the old principle to remain as it was by superinducing ab extra a new principle of a different and more kindly quality We see the experiment of it daily in the graffing of trees A Crab-stock if it have a Cyen of some delicate apple artly grafted in it look what branches are suffered to grow out of the stock it self they will all follow the nature of the stock and if they bring forth any fruit at all it will be sowre and stiptick But the fruit that groweth from the graft will be pleasant to the taste because it followeth the nature of the Graft We read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an engrafted word Jam. 1. Our carnal hearts are the old stock which before the Word of God be grafted in it cannot bring forth any spiritual fruit acceptable to God But when by the powerful operation of his holy Spirit the Word which we hear with our outward ears is inwardly grafted therein it then bringeth forth the fruit of good living So that all the bad fruits that appear in our lives come from the old stock the Flesh and if there be any good fruit of the Spirit in us it is from the virtue of that word of grace that is grafted in us 17. It should be our care then since the Scriptures call so hard upon us for fruits to be fruitful in good works to bring forth fruits meet for repentance c. and threaten us with excision and fire if we do not bring forth fruit and that good fruit too it should be our care I say to bestow at least as much diligence about our hearts as good husbands do about their fruit-trees They will not suffer any suckers or luxuriant branches to grow from the stock but as soon as they begin to appear or at least before they come to any bigness cut them off and cast them away By so doing the grafts thrive the better and bring forth fruit both sooner and fairer God hath entrusted us with the custody and culture of our own hearts as Adam was put into â—he Garden to keep
consciences direct our lives mortifie our corruptions encrease our graces strengthen our comforts save our souls Hoc opus hoc studium there is no study to this none so well worth the labour as this none that can bring so much profit to others nor therefore so much glory to God nor therefore so much comfort to our own hearts as this This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly saith S. Paul to Titus that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men You cannot do more good unto the Church of God you cannot more profit the people of God by your gifts than by pressing effectually these two great points Faith and good Works These are good and profitable unto men I might here add other Inferences from this point as namely since the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one of us chiefly for this end that we may profit the people with it that therefore fourthly in our preaching we should rather seek to profit our hearers though perhaps with sharp and unwelcome reproofs than to please them by flattering them in evil and that Fifthly we should more desire to bring profit unto them than to gain applause unto our selves and sundry other more besides these But I will neither add any more nor prosecute these any farther at this time but give place to other business God the Father of Lights and of Spirits endow every one of us in our Places and Callings with a competent measure of such Graces as in his wisdom and goodness he shall see needful and expedient for us and so direct our hearts and tongues and endeavours in the exercise and manifestation thereof that by his good blessing upon our labours we may be enabled to advance his Glory propagate his Truth benefit his Church discharge a good Conscience in the mean time and at the last make our account with comfort at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom c. AD CLERUM The Fourth Sermon At a Metropolitical Visitation at Grantham Lincoln August 22 d. 1634. ROM XIV 23. For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin ONE remarkable difference among many other between Good and Evil is this That there must be a concurrence of all requisite conditions to make a thing good whereas to make a thing evil a single defect in any one condition alone will suffice Bonum ex causa integra Malum ex partiali If we propose not to our selves a right end or if we pitch not upon proper and convenient means for the attaining of that end or if we pursue not these means in a due manner or if we observe not exactly every material circumstance in the whole pursuit if we fail but in any one point the action though it should be in every other respect such as it ought to be by that one defect becometh wholly sinful Nay more not only a true and real but even a supposed and imaginary defect the bare opinion of unlawfulness is able to vitiate the most justifiable act and to turn it into sin I know there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean at the 14. verse of this Chapter Nay yet more not only a setled opinion that the thing we do is unlawful but the very suspension of our judgment and the doubtfulness of our minds whether we may lawfully do it or no maketh it sometimes unlawful to be done of us and if we do it sinful He that but doubteth is damned if he eat Because he eateth not of faith in the former part of this verse The ground whereof the Apostle delivereth in a short and full Aphorism and concludeth the whole Chapter with it in the words of the Text For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Many excellent Instructions there are scattered throughout the whole Chapter most of them concerning the right use of that Liberty we have unto things of indifferent nature well worthy our Christian Consideration if we had time and leisure for them But this last Rule alone will find us work enough and therefore omitting the rest we will by Gods assistance with your patience presently fall in hand with this and intend it wholly in the Explication first and then in the Application of it For by how much it is of more profitable and universal use for the regulating of the common offices of life by so much is the mischief greater if it be and accordingly our care ought to be so much the greater that it be not either misunderstood or misapplyed Quod non ex fide peccatum that is the rule Whatsoever is not of faith is sin In the Explication of which words there would be little difficulty had not the ambiguity of the word Faith occasioned difference of interpretations and so left a way open to some misapprehensions Faith is verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most other words are There be that have reckoned up more than twenty several significations of it in the Scriptures But I find three especially looked at by those who either purposely or occasionally have had to do with this Text each of which we shall examine in their Order First and most usually especially in the Apostolical writings the word Faith is used to signifie that Theological vertue or gracious habit whereby we embrace with our minds and affections the Lord Iesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God and alone Saviour of the World casting our selves wholly upon the mercy of God through his merits for remission and everlasting Salvation It is that which is commonly called a lively or justifying Faith whereunto are ascribed in holy Writ those many gracious effects of purifying the heart adoption justification life joy peace salvation c. Not as to their proper and primary cause but as to the instrument whereby we apprehend and apply Christ whose merits and spirit are the true causes of all those blessed effects And in this notion many of our later Divines seem to understand it in our present Text whilst they alledge it for the confirmation of this Position that All the works even the best works of Unbelievers are sins A position condemned indeed by the Trent Council and that under a curse taking it as I suppose in a wrong construction but not worthy of so heavy a censure if it be rightly understood according to the doctrine of our Church in the thirteenth Article of her Confession and according to the tenour of those Scriptures whereon that doctrine is grounded viz. Matth. 12. 33. Rom. 8. 8. Tit. 1. 15. Heb. 11. 6 c. Howbeit I take it with subjection of judgment that that Conclusion what truth soever it may have in it self hath yet no direct foundation in this Text. The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉