Reason Only in Divinity great offence is taken at the multitude of Controversies wherein yet difference of opinions is by so much more tolerable then in other sciences by how much the things about which we are conversant are of a more sublime mysterious and incomprehensible nature then are those of other Sciences 21. Truly it would make a religious heart bleed to consider the many and great distractions that are all over the Christian world at this day The lamentable effects whereof scarce any part of Christendome but feeleth more or less either in open warrs or dangerous seditions or at the best in uncharitable censures and ungrounded jealousies Yet the infinite variety of mens dispositions inclinations and aimes considered together with the great obscurity that is in the things of God and the strength of corruption that is in us it is to be acknowledged the admirable work of God that these distractions are not even much more and greater and wider then they are and that amid so many sects as are in the world there should be yet such an universal concurrence of judgement 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 awhit in the belief of our Religion that Christians differ so much as they do in many things but rather mightily confirme 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 soule 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 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 it 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 wholsome 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 sense 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 comprehendeth 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 neer 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 sanctifie the heart with grace as well as to enlighten the minde 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 Godlinesse 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 termes 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 aime 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 rigor and curse of the Law so to turne 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 mysterie 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 godlily in this present world 25. It is not to be wondred 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 leud example The gods of the Pagans were renowned for nothing so much most of them as for their vices Mars a bloudy 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 evill 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 binde himself to depart from all iniquity nor so only but to endeavour also after the example of him whose
on ours And well it is for us that we have to do with so gracious a God Go to an officer and who can promise to himself any ordinary favour from him without a fee Go into the shops and what can ye take up without either mony or credit or security for it Si nihil attuleris bring nothing and have nothing Only when we have to do with God Poverty is no impediment but rather an advantage to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Gospel belongeth to none but the poor only The tidings of a Redeemer most blessed and welcome news to those that are sensible of their own poverty and take it as of Grace But who so thinketh his own penny good silver and will be putting in and bidding for it will stand upon his terms as David did with Araunah and will pay for it or he will not have it Let that man beware lest his mony and he perish together and lest he get neither part nor fellowship in this Business 39. Yet this I must tell you withall there is something to be done on our part for the applying of this gracious redemption wrought by Christ to our own souls for their present comfort and future salvation We must repent from dead works believe the Gospel and endeavour to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world The grace of God is proclaimed and as it were exposed to sale in the preaching of the Gospel there is an offer made us of it there and we are earnestly invited to buy it Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters and buy But he that cometh to buy must bring his manuprecium with him or he were as good keep away He that cometh to this market without a price in his hand and the price is faith repentance and godliness it is a sign he hath no heart and he is no better then a fool saith Solomon Prov. 17. But still we must remember that this is but conditio non causa a condition which he requireth to be performed on our part not any just cause of the performance on his part And he requireth it rather as a testimony of our willingness to embrace so fair an offer then as a valuable consideration in any proportion at all to the worth of the thing offered What we bring if it be tendred kindly and as it ought in sincerity and humility he kindly accepteth of it But if we bring it either in Pride or would have it taken for better then we know it is which is our hypocrisie we quite marr our own market and shall be sent away empty 40. The sum of all is this and I have done Let us take the whole shame of our inexcusable baseness and folly in this Sale to our selves and let us give to God the whole glory of his admirable power and grace in our Redemption Non tibi Domine non tibi not unto thee O Lord not unto thee but unto us be all the shame that had thus wretchedly sold our selves for nought Non nobis Domine non nobis not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all the glory that thou hast thus graciously redeemed us without money Amen So be it AD AULAM. Sermon VIII THEOBALDS JULY 1638. Rom. 15.5 Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus 1. SAint Paul had much laboured in the whole former Chapter and in the beginning of this to make up that breach which by the mutual judgings of the Weak and despisings of the Strong had been long kept open in the then Church of Christ at Rome and was likely if not timely prevented to grow wider and wider to the great dishonour of God dis-service of his Church and discomfort of every good man He had plied them with variety of Arguments and Perswasions spent a great deal of holy Logick and Rhetorick upon them and now to set all that home and to drive the naile as it were to the head that so he might at length manum de tabula he concludeth his discourse about that argument with this votive Prayer or Benediction Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus That ye may with one minde and with one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. Wherein we may observe first the formality of the Prayer in those first words Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you And then the matter or substance of it in the rest Wherein we have expressed with their several amplifications first the Thing desired their Vnity in the remainder of the fifth verse secondly the End for which it is desired Gods glory in the sixth verse But that I shall not have time at this present to enter upon Confining our selves therefore to the fifth verse only and therein beginning with the formality of the Prayer observe first the connexion of this period with the precedent discourse in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now or But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the God c. Secondly the Party whose help is implored and from whom the blessing must come even God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grant Thirdly the speciall Attributes whereby that party is here described 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The God of Patience and Consolation 3. Of the Connexion first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now God grant In effect as if he had said I have endeavoured what in me lay to bring you to be of one minde and of one heart I have planted unity among you by my Doctrine and watered it with my Exhortations using the best reasons and perswasions I could devise for that end What now remaineth but that I second my labours with my prayers and commend what I have planted and watered to his blessing who alone is able to give the encrease I have shewen you what you are to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant it may be done 4. The Apostle saw it needful he should pray for the people of God as well as instruct them and therefore he sealeth up the word of Exhortation with a word of Benedection He had spoken written expostulated disputed reproved besought and what ever els was to be done in the way of Teaching but he knew there was yet something more to be done to make the work compleat lest els he should have run in vain either laboured in vain That therefore he might not give out in extremo actu nor having brought his building to some perfection then to let it stand at a stay and so decay and drop down for want of laying on the roof he turneth himself from them to God is instant with him another while as hitherto he had been with them in hope that some good effect might follow A course
any of the passages or rites thereunto belonging to those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not initiated whom in that respect they counted prophane To do otherwise was reputed so heinous a crime that nothing could be imagined in their superstition more irreligious and piacular then that Quis Cereris ritus audet vulgare profanis He knew not where to finde a man that durst presume so to doe Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum Vulgarit arcanae sub ijs Deus Sit trabibus He would be loath to lodge under the same roof or to put to sea in the same vessel with him that were guilty of such an high provocation as the divulging abroad of the sacred mysteries lest some vengeance from the offended Deities should overtake them for their impiety and him for company to their destruction It was in very deed the Devils cunning one of the depths of Satan and one of the most advantagious mysteries of his arts by that secrecy to hold up a reverend and religious esteem of those mysteries which were so repleat with all filthy and impious abominations that if they should have been made known to the world it must needs have exposed their whole religion to the contempt of the vulgar and to the detestation of the wiser sort 6. Such and no better were those mysteria sacra among the Heathens whence the word Mystery had its birth and rise Both the Name and Thing being so viâ—ely abused by them it yet pleased the holy spirit of God to make choise of that word whereby usually in the New Testament to express that holy Doctrine of Truth and Salvation which is revealed to us in the Gospel of grace By the warrant of whose example the ancient Church both Greek and Latine took the liberty as what hindereth but they might to make use of sundry words and phrases fetcht from the very dregs of Paganism for the better explication of sundry points of the Christian Faith and to signifie their notions of sundry things of Ecclesiastical usage to the people The Greek Church hath constantly used this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heathenish superstitious word and the Latine Church in like manner the word Sacramentum a heathen military word to signifie thereby the holy Sacraments of the Christian Church I note it the rather and I have therefore stood upon it a little longer then was otherwise needfull to let you know that the godly and learned Christians of those Primitive times were not so fondly shy and scrupulous as some of ours are as to boggle at much less so rashly supercilious I might say and superstitious too as to cry down and condemn for evil and even eo nomine utterly unlawful the use of all such whether names or things as were invented or have been abused by Heathens or Idolaters 7. But this by the way I return to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which being rarely found in the Greek version of the Old Testament indeed not at all so far as my search serveth me save only some few times in Daniel is frequently used in the New and that for the most part to signifie for now I come to the Quid Rei either the whole Doctrine of the Gospel or some special branches thereof or the dispensations of Gods providence for the time or manner of reveiling it To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God Mat. 13. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery 1 Cor. 2. So the Gospel is called the mystery of Christ Col. 4. mystery of Faith in this chapter at the ninth verse and here in the Text The Mystery of Godliness 8. But why a Mystery That I shall now shew you First when we see something good or bad done plainly before our eyes yet cannot imagine to what end or purpose it should tend nor can guess what should be the designe or intention of the doer that we use to call a Mystery The Counsels of Princes and affairs of State Ragioni di stato as the Italians call it when they are purposely carried in a cloud of secrecy that the reasons and ends of the actions may be hidden from the eyes of men are therefore called the Mystery of State and upon the same ground sundry manuall crafts are called Mysteries for that there belong to the exercise of them some secrets which they that have not been train'd up therein cannot so well understand and they that have been trained up therein could like well that none but themselves should understand In a worser sense also it is not seldome used If some crafty companion with whom we have had little dealings formerly should begin of a sodain to apply himself to us in a more then ordinary manner with great shews and proffers of kindness and we know no particular reason why he should so do we presently conclude in our thoughts that sure there is some mystery or other in it that is that he hath some secret ends some designe upon us which we understand not Iosephus writing of Antipater the son of Herod who was a most wicked mischievous person but withall a notable dissembler very cunning and close and one that could carry matters marvelous smoothly and fairely to the outward appearance so that the most intelligent and cautious men could not escape but he would sometimes reach beyond them to their destruction he saith of him and his whole course of life that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but a very mystery of wickedness 9. In this notion in the better sence of it may the great work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ which is the very pith and marrow of the Gospel be called a Mystery Who that should have seen a childe of a span long to be born in an Inne of a mean parentage coursely swadled up and cradled in a manger and then afterwards to be brought up under a Carpenter and to live in a poor and low condition scarce worth a room where to rest his head and after all that to be bought and sold buffeted spit on reviled tortured condemned and executed as a Malefactor with as much ignominy and despightfulness as the malice of Men and Divels could devise Who that should have seen all these things and the whole carriage thereof could have imagined that upon such weak hinges should have moved the greatest act of Power Wisdom and Goodness that ever was or ever shall be done in the world that such contemptible means should serve to bring about the eternal good will and purpose of God towards mankinde yet so it was whiles Iudas was plotting his treason and the Iews contriving Christs death he to satisfie his Covetousness and they their Malice and all those other that had any hand in the business were looking every man but at his own private ends all this while was this Mystery working Unawares indeed to them and therefore no thanks to them for
some few respects Take them super totam materiam and they are starke fools for all that Very Naturals if they have no Grace The Limitation here in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terminus diminuens and must be understood accordingly The Children of this world are said to be wiser then 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 kinde of wisdome such as it is in worldly things and for worldly ends a very mean kinde of wisdom in comparison For such kinde 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 apposito He that saith a dead man or a painted Lion by saying more saith less then if he had said but a man or a lion only without those additions it is all one upon the point as if he 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 not titular and by a naked profession only whatsoever he is taken for is clearly the wiser man And he that is no more then worldly or carnally wise is in very deed and in Gods estimation no better then a very fool Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the disputer of this World hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world saith the Apostle That interrogative form of speech is more emphatical then the bare Categoricall had been it signifieth as if it were so clear a truth that no man could reasonably deny it What Solomon saith in one place of the covetous rich man and in another place of the sluggard that he is wise in his own conceit is true also of every vitious person in every other kinde Their wisdom is a wisdom but in conceit not in truth and that but in their own conceit neither and of some few others perhaps that have their judgments corrupted with the same lusts wherewith theirs also are Chrysippus non dicet idem Solomon sure had not that conceipt of their wisdom and Solomon knew what belonged to wisdom as well as another man who putteth the fool upon the sinner I need not tell you indeed I cannot tell you how oft in his writings 34. His judgment then is clear in the point though it be a Paradox to the most and therefore would have a little farther proof for it is not enough barely to affirm paradoxes but we must prove them too First then true saving wisdom is not to be learned but from the word of God A lege tuâ intellexi By thy commandements have I gotten understanding Psal. 119. it is that word and that alone that is able to make us wise unto salvation How then can they be truly wise who regard not that word but cast it behinde their backs and despise it They have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them saith Ieremy Again The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome and a good understanding have they that do thereafter Psal. 111. How then can we allow them to passe for wise men and good understanding men that have no fear of God before their eyes that have no minde nor heart to do thereafter that will not be learned nor understand but are resolvedly bent to walk on still in darkness and wilfully shut their eyes that they may not see the light 35. Since every man is desirous to have some reputation of wisdom and accounteth it the greatest scorn and reproach in the world to be called or made a fool it would be very well worth the labour but that it would require as it well deserveth a great deal more labour and time then we dare now take to illustrate and enlarge this point which though it seem a very paradoxe as was now said to the most is yet a most certain and demonstrable truth That godliness is the best wisdom and that there is no fool to the sinner I shall but barely give you some of the heads of proof and referr the enlargement to each mans private meditation He that first is all for the present and never considereth what mischiefs or inconveniences will follow thereupon afterwards that secondly when both are permitted to his choise hath not the wit to prefer that which is eminently better but chuseth that which is extremely worse that thirdly proposeth to himself base and unworthy ends that fourthly for the attaining even of those poor ends maketh choise of such means as are neither proper not probable thereunto that fifthly goeth on in bold enterprises with great confidence of success upon very slender grounds of assurance and that lastly where his own wit will not serve him refuseth to be advised by those that are wiser then himself what he wanteth in wit making it upon in will no wise man I think can take a person of this character for any other then a fool And every worldly or ungodly man is all this and more and every godly man the contrary Let not the worldly-wise man therefore glory in his wisdom that it turn not to his greater shame when his folly shall be discovered to all the world Let no man deceive himself saith S. Paul but if any man among you seem to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise That is let him lay aside all vain conceit of his own wisdom and learn to account that seeming wisdom of the world to be as indeed it is no better then folly that so he may finde that true wisdom which is of God The God of light and of wisdom so enlighten our understandings with the saving knowledge of his truth and so enflame our hearts with a holy love and fear of his Name that we may be wise unto salvation and so assist us with the grace of his holy spirit that the light of our good works and holy conversation may so shine forth both before God and men in the mean time that in the end by his mercy who is the Father of lights we may be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in the light of everlasting life and glory and that for the merits sake of Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. To whom c. AD AULAM. Sermon XVI Newport in the Isle of Wight Decemb. Heb. 12.3 Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself that ye be not wearied and faint in your mindes 1. THere is scarce
and he should not love him faithfully but foolishly if he should out of fond indulgence let him go on in an evil way without due correction He that spareth the rod hateth his childe saith Solomon he meaneth it interpretativè that is he doth his childe as much hurt out of his fond love as he could not do him more harm if he were his enemies childe whom he hateth Will not a mother that loveth her childe with all tenderness if it have got some hurt with a fall lay on a plaster to heal it though it smart and though the child cry and struggle against it all it can yet will shee lay it on for all that ey and binde it too to keep it on and all out of very love and faithfulness because she knoweth it must be so or the childe will be the worse for it I use these comparisons the rather not onely because they are familiar and the more familiar ever the better if they be fit but because the Lord himself also delighteth to set forth his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and love to us by the love of a discreet father and the affection of a tender mother towards the fruit of their own loins 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 disgressed for can we have any better friends then our parents If any of us have a friend that is lethargique or lunatique 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 ey 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 livelyhood that will not be advised by us but will flee out into bad company drink and quarrell and game will we not pinch him in his allowance refuse to give him entertainment set some underhand to beate 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 sence 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 then open hostility Let not their precious balmes 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 towards 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 so 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 penitent 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 stedfastness and faithfulness therein Never giving it over till he 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 thornes 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 of 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 knowledg 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 knowledg 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 knowledg 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 cariage and deserving and we shall finde enough I doubt not to satisfie us fully in that point and therefore there need no more be said of it All the skill is about the later branch how we may know that it is done out of very love and faithfulness whensoever God causeth us to be troubled 25. For which purpose the best help I can commend unto you for the present is to observe how variously Almighty God manifesteth his love and faithfulness to his children in all their tribulations especially in three respects every one of which marvellously setteth forth his gracious goodness towards us First the End that he aimeth at in them secondly the Proportion that he holdeth in them and thirdly the Issues that he giveth out of them 26. For the End first He aimeth alwayes at our good Our earthly friends do not ever so no not our Parents that love us best The Apostle telleth us and experience proveth it that they chasten us sometimes for their own pleasure He meaneth that sometimes when they are distempered with passion and in an outragious mood they beat the poor childe either without cause or more then there is cause rather to satisfie their own fury then to benefit the childe But he doth it alwayes for our profit saith he Heb. 12. If I should enter here into the Common-place de bono afflictionis I should not well know either where to begin or when to make an end In the whole course of Divinity I finde not a field of larger scope then that is I shall therefore bring you but into one corner of it and shew you how God out of very faithfulnesse maketh use of these troubles for the better draining out of some of those evil corruptions that would otherwise so abound in us like noysome humours in the body that they would endanger a plethory in our souls especially these four Pride security worldly-mindednesse and In-compassion 27. Pride must be first else is it not right And we have store of that in us Any toy puffeth us up like a bladder and filleth us full of our selves Take the instance but in our knowledg A sorry thing God knoweth he that hath most what he knoweth is not the thousandth part of what he knoweth not and yet how strangely are some overleavened with a very small pittance of it Scientia inflat the Apostle might well say knowledg puffeth up So doth riches and honour and praise and valour and beauty and wit or indeed any thing A bush of hair will do it where it groweth ey and where it groweth not Now prosperity cherisheth this corruption wonderfully as ill humours abound most in full bodies and ill weeds grow rankest in a fat earth and setteth a man so far from God and above himself that he neither well knoweth the one nor the other Our Lord then when he seeth us thus high set sendeth afflictions and troubles to take down these unkindly swellings to prick the bladder of our pride and let out some of the winde and so he bringeth us into some better acquaintance with our selves again King Philip had a cryer to put him daily in remembrance that he was but a man lest he should forget it and think himself a little God as his son Alexander did soon after But there is no remembrancer can do this office better then afflictions can Put them in fear O Lord that the heathen may know themselves to be but men Psal. 9. If afflictions were not would not even that be soon forgotten 28. Security is next Ease and prosperity fatteneth the heart and maketh us drousie and heavy in Gods service It casteth us into a spiritual Lethargie maketh us settle upon our lees and flatter our selves as if we were out of gun-shot and no evil could reach us Soul take thine ease eat and drink thou hast provision laid up before-hand for many years yet to come Marvel not to hear ungodly men vaunt it so in a vapouring manner Psalm 10. Tash I shall never be removed there shall no harm happen unto me when holy David upon some little longer continuance of prosperity then usual did almost say even as they he thought his hill so strong that he should never be removed Psalm 30. When God seeth us thus setling upon our lees he thinketh it high time to pour us from vessel to vessel to keep us from growing musty He laieth his hand upon us and shaketh us out of our dead sleep and by laying trouble upon our loynes driveth us to seek to him for remedy and succour He dealt so with David when in his prosperity he had said he should never be removed as we heard but now out of Psalm 30. the next news we hear of him is He was removed God out of very faithfulness caused him to be troubled and he was the better for it Thou didst turn away thy face from me and I was troubled Then cried I unto thee O Lord and gat me to my Lord right humbly as it there followeth in that Psalm In the time of my trouble I sought the Lord saith he elswhere Belike in the time of his ease he either sought him not or not so carefully In their afflictions they will seek me diligently Hosea 5. but negligently enough out of affliction Absolon had a mind to speak with Ioab but Ioab had no mind to speak with him Absolon sendeth for him one messenger after another still Ioab cometh not Well thinketh Absolon he will not come but I will fetch him and so he sendeth some of his people to fire his corn-fields and that fetcheth him then he cometh running in all haste to know what the matter was So God sendeth for us messenger after messenger one sermon after another to bring us in we little regard it but sit it out and will not come in till he fire our corn or do us some