garment may be called a winters garment quia tegit because it covers vs. The second may be called a summers garment quia ornat because it adorneth vs and maketh vs fine The third may bee called a stand of armour quia protegit because it protecteth vs. And the fourth may bee called our Wedding garment because wee must not put it on till our Marriage day with the Lambe The first three garments may bee called our work a day suites because euery good Christian must put them on euery day so long as hee remaineth in this valley of teares here belowe But the fourth must bee called our holidayes suite because wee must not put it on till the weeke of our Pilgrimage in baca bee ended and the day of our appearance before GOD in Sion in that new Ierusalem in which no arrow can bee shot begin I returne to the first garment the garment of CHRISTS imputed Righteousnesse The first Garment Christs righteousnesse and our Saviour himselfe speaketh of it Revel 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of mee white rayment that thou mayest bee cloathed and that thine filthy nakednesse doe not appeare The Prophet Esay speaketh of this garment too but more plainly GOD hath cloathed mee with the garments of Salvation and covered me with the robes of Righteousnesse Esay 61.10 But what righteousnesse is this What righteousnesse this is Is it not the righteousnesse of his Diuine nature No for that is not communicable but the glory which hee will not giue vnto another What then Is it not the righteousnesse of his Humaine nature consisting in a perfect obedience of the morall Law No not that alone neyther for that alone were perbrene too short non vult tegere it will not cover vs from the frostie blasts of Gods wrath and from the fearefull winter tempests of his infinite Iustice What righteousnesse then I pray you A righteousnesse neuer imposed to Man nor Angell euen that righteousnesse which hee as our Mediator by fulfilling the singular law of a Redeemer hath purchased and acquired to the end that hee might communicate it and giue it freely vnto his Church for her justification by which shee is absolued from death whereunto by reason of sinne both originall and actuall she was subject and is adjudged vnto life And this is CHRISTS imputed righteousnesse wherewith hee first couers those that puts him on How it couers vs. euen our winters garment which is so perfect and so compleat that it covereth all our nakednesse from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote both of body and soule for in both our Mediator suffered his blessed Head was crowned with thornes to satisfie for the proud Imaginations of our stout braines his sacred hands and feete which neuer offended were pierced with nailes of Iron to satisfie for the wicked deeds which wee haue done with our hands and runne to with our feet and alas daily by our sinnes wee draw him againe to the same torture and crucifie againe to our selues the Sonne of God and make a mockerie of him Heb. 6.6 Hee suffered the wrath of GOD in his soule so heauily as that both heauen and earth did stand amazed to behold it The Heauens did draw their curtaine and darknesse was vpon the face of the earth that they should see their maker in such paine the Sunne for shame would not looke vpon the Sonne of GOD in such a case the vayle of the Temple rent it selfe in two for griefe to see its Lord so dishonoured the Stones in the street did cleaue a sunder for woe to see that Stone refused of the builders which is the head of the corner And finally the Bodies of the dead rose out of their graues astonished to behold the Lord of life so troubled in soule that their soules might in joy perpetuall peace with GOD and be cloathed with the garments of his imputed righteousnes The second garment is a garment of Sanctification The second garment Sanctification Now wee are cloathed with this garment when like the Elect wee put on tender mercy kindnesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse and long suffering Col. 3.12 But specially when wee put on loue When it is put on 1. Thes 5.8 Or to say with St PETER When wee decke the hidden man of our heart with a quiet and meeke spirit 1. Pet. 3.4 This is our summers garment which adorneth vs and maketh vs fine this is that pure fine and shining linnen which is the righteousnesse of the Saints A garment not partie coloured as IOSEPHS was but made of many vertues and graces of IESVS CHRIST These are the badges and cognisances by which wee are knowne to bee his seruants and the putting on thereof is the putting on of Iesus Christ These are the graces by which the Holy Ghost translateth vs out of nature transformeth vs into the Image of the Sonne of GOD and maketh vs become one with our Redeemer When it is giuen vs. This garment and the former are both giuen vs at one time The former garment of CHRISTS imputed Righteousnesse defendeth vs from the fierie flames of Gods burning wrath This garment of Sanctification reformeth our corrupted nature renueth the same These 2. What it worketh garments both cures and couers our filthy nakednes they turne our sicknesse into health and our darknesse into light for whosoeuer putteth on IESVS CHRIST for righteousnes to Iustification puts him likewise on for holinesse to Sanctification So full of grace and vertue is the Lord that hee not onely by the merit of his sufferings pacifieth the wrath of God toward all those in whom hee is but likewise by this vertue sanctifieth them and by creating a new heart within their breast and a right spirit within their bowels maketh them new creatures changing them from one thing to another both in body and soule Act. 26. from sinne to sanctification from darknesse to light from death to life and finally from the power of Sathan to the power of God That is to Righteousnes Iustice and soberly to walke in this life in which except our sanctified carriage neyther is that compleat for man heere is but onely in a part sanctified otherwise hee were more then a man but is perfectly justified or else were hee no more then a sinner all things are not onely transitorie and vayne But vanitie it selfe The 3. Garment and its 3. names The third garment wherewith CHRIST cloatheth his Church and those that put him on is a suite of compleat armour hoc protegit this protecteth the Christian man against all the assaults of Sathan and maketh him stand out against all the invasions of his Spirituall enemies Sathan enuying this vnion betweene CHRIST and his Church endeuoreth incessantly to defile the members of the same to rent them a sunder and teare them in peeces sometime assaulting their Patience Iob. 1. Gen. 9.21 Gen. 19.33 2. Sam. 11.4 as he did IOBS sometime their
SPIRITVAL MARRIAGE OR THE VNION betweene CHRIST and his CHVRCH As it was delivered in a Sermon at WESTMINSTER the first of Ianuarie ANNO DOM. 1626. By IAMES BAILLIE Master of Arts. LONDON Printed by B.A. and T. FAVVCET for ROBERT ALLOT and are to be sold at his Shop at the blacke Beare in Pauls Church-yard 1627. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE IAMES Marquis of HAMMILTON WILLIAM Earle of MORTON WILLIAM Earle of LAVTHIAN THOMAS Earle of KELLIE IAMES Earle of CARLILL RICHARD Earle of DESMONT IOHN Earle of ANNANDAILL WILLIAM Vice count of AIRE GEORGE Lord BRVCE And to the Right Worshipfull Sr. IAMES FVLLERTON Groome of his Maiest Stoole Sr. ROBERT CAR Gentleman of his Maiest Bed-chamber and Keeper of the Privie-purse Mr. IAMES MAXVVELL Mr. KIRKE Mr. WILLIAM MVRRAY Mr. IAMES LEVINGSTON and Mr. PIT CARNE Groomes of his Maiesties Bed-chamber And to all other Hon and Wor Scotsmen remaining at the Court of England that professe the true Ancient Catholike and Apostolike faith all blessed Happinesse in this life and Eternall blisse in the life to come Right HONOVRABLE and WORSHIPFVLL SOme perhaps may thinke that I haue done an absurd thing in prefixing so many illustrious Peeres prudent Nobles and Gentlemen of his Maiesties Bed-chamber of high and great desert to so little and so slender a worke But from the learned I hope for a lesse critick censure and from the wise for a more judicious sentence first because I know that this weake treatise hath need not only of one strong pillar but of many to vphold it against the ruine which both by Papists and false Brethren will maliciously bee threatened against it and against their subterranian plots by which at every corner they will intend to vndermine it Neverthelesse I will never deny but any one of your Hon or Wor is a prop more then sufficient enough to sustaine a more decaying edifice if any such can be apprehended and a booke of greater worth should haue but too much honour to haue any one of your names in its frontispiece Secondly because I would encourage you and rouze vp your spirits to a liuelie confidence that by adoption you are the sonnes of Gods right hand members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone a part of that chosen generation The Church of the elect and spouse of Christ by marriage vnited vnto him and freed from that Antichristian slaverie and Babilonian bondage with the wine of whose fornication a great part of the world these many ages past haue beene made drunke and therefore God hath made you strong strong for himselfe in this time of triall when the sonnes of Anti-christ breathes nothing but blood against the Church of Christ and against her in many places of Germany haue preuailed casten out Christ and in his place set vp that abominable Idoll their Masse and now threaneth our Church the Church within this Island with the like to extinguish the lampe of the glorious Gospell which God hath lighted amongst vs to remoue our candlestick and in lieu thereof to light false lights to set vp rusty darke candlesticks Their seruice in an vnknowne tongue their Idols in stead of instructions and their Apostles bones and clothes in place of the writings of Christs Apostles But God hath made you strong for himselfe to fight in his warre to hold the wild Boares out of his vineyard and in his cause neither to spare your bodies nor goods even in his cause which your Fathers as his instruments did re-establish in the Monarchie of Scotland expelling the children of Dagon 2. Thes 2. which had come in by the effectuall working of Sathan with all power and signes and lying wonders and in all deceiueablenesse of vnrighteousnesse and you honoring the Lord after this manner he will multiply honours vpon you keepe you as a signet vpon his hand Ezech 34. and vpon you and euery one of you there shall be raine of blessings the eye of the Lord shall watch ouer you for good his mighty hand and out stretched arme shall bee ready to protect you in euery danger and to appoint most glorious victories for you for Babylon is now toward the falling her sins are come vp to heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities shee must drinke in that cup that she hath filled to others and as she hath shed our blood so now must she be repayed and drinke a double draught Thirdly I haue presumed to dedicate this Treatise vnto your Hon and Wor not onely for the excellencie of the subiect The vnion betweene Christ and his Church of which you are a part But likewise because I am a Scotsman that haue the honour to belong to euery one of you either by blood or affinitie and to many of you by both whereof I hope you shall neuer be ashamed and therefore I thought it not amisse to let this Sermon go vnder the shadow of your Honorable protections that now remaine at the Court of England as an argument of my loue toward my Country and as a pledge of my seruice toward you all in generall euery one of you in particular In the meane season continuing my prayers that such a vertuous emulation may alwaies remaine among you as is to day that is first of all to aduance Gods glory secondly to be loyall to your King that by innumerable predecessors hath swayed your Scepter and lastly some of you with Pompie to study to preserue your Dignitie others with Crassus to augment it and the third sort with Caesar to acquire Dignitie not by vsurpation as he did But in your Soueraignes seruice vnder the banner of CHRIST Farewell Your Honours and Worships most humble Seruant IAMES BAILLIE To the Christian Reader CHristian Reader J haue not vsed as many doe in this Sermon the neat Tenour of ISOCRATES the ample Sublimitie of DEMOSTHENES the Majestie of THVCYCIDES the Dignitie of PLATO nor that most full and copious stile of declamation which TVLLIE vsed before the Senate yea I haue shunned them as by a good Master SCILLA and CARYBDIS will bee eschewed because I know that such garulitie such fallible inticements of words and such vaine ostentation in Preaching sauoureth the flesh and hath no power no vertue nor efficacie to wound a proud minde and to cast it downe nor to be a balme for the curing and raising vp of the same againe to a liuely confidence in CHRIST Jt onely tendeth to tickle the auditors eares for the present to enter at the one and goe forth at the other but neuer to descend into the heart for its circumcision and molification in time to come A simple stile without superfluitie in words fertile in sentences which doth not so much smell of humaine prudencie as sauour the vertue of the holy Spirit is the onely eloquence that penetrates the soules of Christian men and searcheth to the inward marrow of the same It is truth that an Orator once perswaded CAESAR to retreit
Temperancie as hee did to NOAH and LOT sometime their Continencie as hee did to DAVID sometime their Humilitie as hee did to HEZIKIAH 2. King 20. And made him in the pride of his heart which of all vices is the first to shew the treasure of his house to the Ambassadours of BERODACH BALADAN King of Babell which thereafter produced a strange effect even that not only his treasure but the fruites of his loynes in the reigne of IEHOIACHIN the people and all the strongest men of warre were carried vnto Babell and Captiuitie 2. King 24. Somtime againe Satan assaults vs in our religion and former zeale and it is wonderfull how almost he euer preuailes once against Gods children howsoeuer it be true that in the end he is euermore repulsed and driuen backe againe And in this manner he besieged SALOMON the ornament of the world both for knowledge and godlinesse prevailed against him caused him commit Idolatry and his Idolatrous wiues to turne his heart after other Gods ASHTAROTH the god of the Zidonians and MILCOM the abomination of the Ammonites 1. King 11. 1. King 11. And lastly Sathan labours much to steale from Gods children their honest name this is one of his most subtle assaults and vseth the tongues of his owne instruments to effect his purpose against the enemies of his kingdome Vt qui conscientiae suae luce clarescunt falsis rumoribus sordidentur Nazian that those who through the testimonie and light of their innocent consciences shines like the sunne in his meridian may be made blacke like the night filthy as a puddle by the false reports of others Good IOSEPH in the 39. chapter of Gen. was after this manner set vpon by one of Satans owne instruments POTIPHARS wife for when she could not arriue at the intended end of her naughtie thoughts come and lie with me she stole from him his good name this Hebrew seruant would haue mocked me and so made him odious and filthie in his maisters eyes and in the sight of his friends and after this manner are many chosen vessels set vpon by the souldiers of Satan so as it is impossible for vs to keepe the whole peeces of our bodie together except we put on the suite of protection that suite of compleat armor in the 〈◊〉 the Ephes And stand with our loines girded about with veritie hauing on the brest-plate of righteousnesse and the shooes of the preparation of the Gospell of peace he must haue in the one hand the shield of Faith and in the other the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God vpon our head we must put on the hope of Saluation for an helmet and the sling of Prayer must be in our mouthes or rather in our hearts with strong cryings inward groanings as MOSES had it at the red Sea Exod. 14.15 when PHARAOH pursued after him his people and to these pieces I could yet adde one further another paire of shooes the Prophet EZEKIEL speaketh of those shooes in his 16. Chap. and they are made ex pellibus melium of Baggets skins The shooes of the Baggets skin why assigned to the Church Elinie in the 38. chap. of his 8. booke Records that melis is a beast not only of great innocencie but of such singular prudencie too quod sufflatae cutis distentione ictus hominum ac canum morsus arcere solet that by the extension of its skin it can shun both the strokes of men and bites of dogs and therefore among many more tokens of Gods fauor bestowed vpon his spouse the Church for her preseruation he likewise hath assigned vnto her the shooes of this beasts skin to teach her both innocencie and prudencie to be innocent like a Doue but wile like a Serpent for her protection against all her malignant enemies whatsoeuer Thus must we walke armed continually armed so long as we are in this life 2. Tim. 2.3 as the good Souldiers of IESVS CHRIST Iob. 7.1 because our life as saith IOB is a warfare Ephes 6. and wee must fight against Principalities powers and spirituall wickednesse and not only fight but must ouercome anquish and subdue them and thus much for the three first suites of apparell our workadayes suites which euery good Christian must put on every day so long as he is in this life heere belowe But as to the 4. and last it is a garment of Glory The 4 Garment and its 3. names our wedding garment and our holy dayes suite but when the weeke of our warfare shall end and the day of our refreshment Act. 3.20 the day of our eternall peace appeare and begin which is our euerlasting Sabbath Revel 19.7 our marriage day with the Lambe after which shall neuer come a night then shall our father cause this suite our holy dayes suite our best robe to be brought out and cover vs with white raiment 1. Cor. 15. then shall this mortall put on immortalitie and this corruptible incorruptibilitie then shall we be couered with brodered worke and the LORD shall put frontlets vpon our faces eare rings in our eares Esay 26. bracelets about our armes chaines about our necks Esay 61.10 and crownes vpon our heads yea the Lord himselfe shall be vnto vs a crown of Glorie and a diadem of beautie Thus will he deck vs as a Bride attired with Iewels 2. Cor. 11. as a chaste Spouse to be presented to our immortall husband without spot or wrinkle in whose face is the fulnesse of Ioy and at whose right hand are pleasures for euermore rivers of pleasure in which wee shall bath our selues for all eternitie And so haue you briefly the similitudes of the Garments Now resteth the similitude of Marriage The similitude of Marriage and indeed this Spirituall vnion betweene CHRIST and his Church is very often expressed by Marriage in the old and new Testament In the 45. chapter of Esay fifth verse Isay 45.5 hee who made thee is thy husband whose name is the Lord of hostes And in the 9. of Math. 15. Can the children of the marriage chamber mourne so long as the bridgroome is with them Math. 9.15 And yet more plainely in the 19. of the Reuel 17. Revel 19.17 The marriage of the 〈◊〉 hath come and the bride hath made her selfe readie And againe Reuel 21.9 Revel 21.9 I will show thee the bride the Lambes wife And here in my text as plainely as liuely and more liuely then in any other place Hosea 2.19 I will marrie thee vnto me for ever In all which our most gracious God willing to expresse and desirous to shew foorth both that loue which hee beareth vnto vs and that too which he looketh for at our handes compares this most strait vnion this most neere coniunction betweene CHRIST and his Church vnto the sacred bond of Marriage by which two persons the man and the woman the husband