earth they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness l Ezek. 14. 14. Well may the good m Non possunt in die judicii aliorum virtutes aliorum vitia sublevare Hier. lives and deeds of others be matter for thy imitation or a relief to thy necessities they cannot answer for thy sinful security Though born of Religious Parents disposed in a Religious Familie seated under a Religious Pastor of acquaintance with religious People all this wil not serve to excuse thy barren profession No the righteousnesse of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him n Ezek. 18. 20. and the righteous Judge give every man according to the fruit of his own doings o Jer. 17. 10. Presume not then with those foolish Virgins upon the oyl in others vessels p Mat. 25. 8. Think not saith the Baptist to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father q Mat. 3. 9. It was but a sorry commendation of Lewis the Eighth of France that he was son to an excellent Father and Father to an excellent son r Isaacsons Chron. ad an 1223. Nam quae non fecimus ipsi vix ea nostra voco s Ovid. Those things which ye have heard and seen in me do saith the Apostle Phil. 4. 9. So the laudable things of others do in your own persons and call them not yours till ye exemplifie them in your practise For that 's the first importment of Fructum suum a personal fructification He brings forth his own fruit 2. It imports a genuine correspondencie his fruit that is secundum speciem suam according to his kinde That as the Earth was appointed to bring forth the Fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kinde t Gen. 1. 11. So a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things saith our Saviour u Mat. 12. 35. And the wisedom that is from above is full of mercy and good fruits w Jam. 3. 17. 'T is true the choisest Saints upon Earth have their aylings their failings In many things we offend all x Jam. 3. 2. Not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not y Eccl. 7. 20. Nor from the first transgression of the first man can it be said of any save Him who is God and Man non nvoit pecatum he knew no sin Howbeit the sincere Believer is in a different habitude to the products of Corruption and the proper fruits of Regeneration Consider him according to the New Creature or as he is born of God 't is plain upon the Tables 1 John 2. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin Non facit peccatum quia patitur potiùs saith Bernard z De nat dignit Divin amoris cap. 6. He is rather passive then active in the businesse of sin He acknowledgeth to his grief peccatum inhabitans the sin that dwelleth in him a Rom. 7. 17. 24 but he cannot own the works thereof as his genuine and proper fruit b Rom 7. 15. 17. No that 's of another nature Rom. 7. 25. I my self saith the Apostle serve the Law of God That 's Repentance and Mortification and Newnesse of life Rom. 6. That 's vertue and temperance and patience and godlinesse and brotherly-kindnesse and charity 2 Pet. 1. And these not after the rigour of the Law in the perfect performance of duty but in the truth and sincerity of a Christians desires in the uprightnesse and integrity of his will and purpose in his careful pursuances and daily endeavors after all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth For in these consists the fruit of the Spirit Eph. 5. 9. And in the practice of a sound Believer these only appertain to Fructum suum to his suitable and proper fruit He is born of the Spirit and to answer his spiritual birth is careful to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit Now the due consideration hereof as it should humble the holiest in the consciousnesse of whatsoever unkindlike and unanswerable fruit work them to a self-confusion for the surreptitious inordinancies of the Old Man continue them in a stedfast reliance upon the righteousnesse of the Tree of Life So it may serve to arm them against the proposals of the World and provoke them to an Examination and Trial of their fruit For 1. Whereas the World would alienate us from the vertues and life of God and would gain our consent to bring forth heterogeneous fruit c Qui genitoris opera non facit negat genus Chrysol Ser. 123. lust of the eye alledging It will be for your Profit lust of the flesh suggesting It will be for your Pleasure pride of life pretending It will be for your Advancement the truly regenerate Soul may hence be sufficiently furnished and prompted to answer That great God whose I am by his grace and whom I serve with my Spirit hath not been as a Wilderdesse or barren heath unto me but having mercifully chosen me out of the Commons of the World he hath planted me in his inclosed Garden ingraffed me into a Noble Stock supplied me with Rivers of Living Water And is it equitable after all this to yield him no better fruit Is this correspondent to the nature of so high a Calling Is it Fructus meus a kindlike fruit consentaneous to a spiritual state As Nehomiah d Neh. 6. 11. Should such a man as I flee No the time past of my life may suffice me to have wrought the will of the Gentiles e 1 Pet. 4. 3. to have brought forth laâ—ruscas four grapes those wilde fruits of the Old Man Haec vita aelios mores postulat It must be otherwise now that I am planted in the house of the Lord In the words of Leo f Serm. 1. in Nativ Dom. Agnosce O Christiane dignitatem tuam c. Acknowledge O Christian thine own dignity and being made partaker of the Divine Nature return not into thy former vilenesse by a degenerate conversation But then In the second place whereas there may be much mistaking in the account of kindlike fruit a way that may seem right unto a man when the end is the wayes of death g Pro. 16. 25. It therefore neerly concernes us to search and try our wayes h Lam. 3. 40. and every man to prove his own work i Gal. 6. 40. For the fruit which thou mayst think to be right say it be of likely appearance yet if destitute of divine allowance either expresse or by derivation what can it be deemed but either the fruit of an ignorant phantasie or an arrogant superstitious vanity And thy greatest diligence in bringing it forth only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a laborious losse of time Again admit it be of Gods commanding yet if it arise not from a Supernatural root from a Principle of special grace from faith working by love
The New PARADISE OF GOD. OR The Regenerate and his Fruit. Set forth In a SERMON to the Hertfordshire-Citizens at Bow-Church in Cheapside London July 2. 1657. being the day of their publick FESTIVAL BY ISAAC CRAVEN Minister of the Gospel at Aston in Hertfordshire Cant. 4. 13. Thy Plants are an Orchard of Pomegranats with pleasant fruits LONDON Printed for J. Rothwell at the Fountain in Cheapside 1658. TO MY Honoured Friends and Countreymen of Hertfordshire inhabiting or sojourning in the City of LONDON More particularly TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sir Thomas Dacres Knight Edward Laurence Esq Mr. Francis Kirby Mr. Henry Clarke Mr. John Christian Mr. William Brewer John Jesson Esq Mr. Blunt Sadleir Mr. John Howland Mr. Dudley Short Mr. Charles Read Mr. Richard Weedon The worthy Stewards of their late FESTIVAL Honoured Sirs AN inbred affection to my Native Countrie a civil respect to your Vnanimous consent may suffice to justifie the readiness of my complyance in undertaking this late service Which having found the favour of your courteous acceptance attested by those after-intreaties in order to a publication inclines me to hope that the Doctrine then delivered will be drawn into some Vse by Your care to practice it I confesse my private genius stands little affected to the mode of appearing in print Nor do I value my pains at so high a rate as to judge them worthy of the publick view Howbeit to compleat my respects to those who imploy'd me I have so far prevail'd against all reluctancies as to gratifie Your desires though to my own dissatisfaction Beseeching the Almighty to blesse the expence of that hour with successe of eternity That it may prove in the issue as profitable to Your souls as it was judged suitable to the season And now dear Countrie-men having met with so fair an opportunity give me leave to remember You that this Your earthly Countrie can contribute nothing of it self to the illustration of Your persons a Nisi per te fulseris quid tibi lux patriae praeter tenebras allatura est Petrarch but waits to receive some rayes of splendour from the reflections of your own worth Be it therefore Your holy ambition so to excell in vertue and goodnesse that as it was anciently foretold what should be said of Rahab and Babylon b Psal 87. 4. c. This man was born there so it may reflect with honour upon the places of Your first breathing that this and that faithfull Christian was born there Nor will it a little advantage You to recount in Your meditations how in the Land of Your first Nativity Ye did but begin Your Pilgrimage Yea the World it self is but the place of Your exile c Quid aliud terra quà m Exilium Calv. Heaven onely deserves to be esteemed Your Countrie d Patriam nostram Paradisum computamus Cypr. Let Your conversation therefore be in Heaven And that You may speed in Your motions thither save Your selves from this untoward generation e Acts 2. 40. Buy the truth and sell it not f Pro. 23. 23 Maintain good works for necessary uses g Tit. 3. 14. Follow after the things which make for peace and wherewith Ye may edifie one another h Rom. 14. 19. To forbear any larger prefacing and to give You a summarie abridgement of all that I would say Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest Phil. 4. 8. whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think of these things And accept the poor endeavours of Your humble and faithfull Remembrancer IS CRAVEN THE NEW PARADISE Of GOD. OR The Regenerate and his Fruit. PSAL. 1. 3. And he shall be like a Tree planted by the Rivers of Water which bringeth forth his fruit in his season THis Book of the Psalms is a little Bible saith Luther An Epitome saith Athanasius of the whole Scripture a Ep. ad Marcellin A Compendium saith Basil of all Divinity b In Ps 1. With such high Encomiums have divers Expositors diversly magnified it none undeservedly For as the Scriptures in general are able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make a man wise unto salvation c 2 Tim. 3. 15. So the drift and scope of this in particular is to teach us the way to be truly blessed Insomuch as this first Psalm which I take to be the Preface to all the rest begins with blessedness yea by the word there used a plurality of blessedness as the portion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the man that walketh uprightly A Psalm whose Author and occasion the Original hath not hinted there being no Title prefixt for intimation of either Indeed the very notion of a Preface is enough to discover the occasion And being a precious piece of the Divine Canon it must have the Spirit of God for its prime Author by whose inspiration all Scripture is given d 2 Tim. 3. 16. And so it hath Title enough to our faith and obedience though the Front of the Psalm be without a Title Yet rather then it should absolutely passe without Athanasius was pleased from the first word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blessed to intitle the whole Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Psalm of blessedness e Ep. ad Marcell Not as if the proper businesse of it were to open the nature of blessedness but because having proposed it for our encouragement in the practice of true Religion f Vt humanam infirmitatem per spem beatitudinis ad innocens religionis studium hortaretur Copen in Ps 1. de Tit. it purposely deciphers and pourtrayes the person to whom it pertains For to inform us whose portion it is the Psalmist hath most exactly charactered him 1. Negatively or by what he abandons ver 1. He walks not in the counsell of the ungodly he stands not in the way of sinners he sits not in the seat of the scornfull Neither is nor does any of these 2. Positively or by what he takes pleasure in ver 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And this not dimidiatim with a halving partiality like that counterfeit mother that would have the child divided g 1 King 3. 26. but in a blessed juncture of Theory and practice of contemplation and conversation both For first he delights in the speculative part In his Law doth he meditate day and night And then for the practick He shall be like a tree planted by the Rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season It is the wisdom of the Holy Ghost in the volume of holy Writ to illustrate heavenly truths by earthly resemblances partly for their easier conveyance to our dark understandings and partly for their deeper impression in our hearts and memories And accordingly the words before us are a Similitudinary
of this world for did they truly apprehend and rightly value it they would be more in their desires and motions towards it If thou knewest the gift of God said our Saviour to the woman of Samaria and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink thou woulst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water t John 4. 10. But poor sinful creature she knew it not Nor was it her case alone 1 Cor. 2. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Balaam indeed had a kind of glympse of it in the 24. of Numbers How goodly saith he are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel As gardens by the river side as the trees of Lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar-trees beside the waters Yea but the knowledge he professeth hereof was not by faiths apprehension or upon personal experience or with a cordial valuation only by the vision of the Almighty u Num. 24. 16. Whereas the knowledge which the faithful have is fiducial experimental appretiative delightful They speak but first they have believed Psal 116. 10. I believed therefore have I spoken They see but first they have tasted w Ejus dulcedinem non cogniscitis quia minime degustatis Greg. Psal 34. 8. Tast and see that the Lord is gracious And then for appretiation and delight O how great is the goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee x Psal 31. 19. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts y Psal 84. 1. A day in thy Courts is better then a thousand z ver 10. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy Temple a Psal 65. 4. The consideration whereof may serve in the first place to depretiate the adored excellencies and perfections of this world and to take off our spirits from discontentative emulation at the sight of prosperous sinners For alas in the greatest fulness of their external accommodations in the height of their glory and the exquisitenesse of their delights yet for lack of these rivers of water they are but a drie ignoble generation not worthy to be compared with the plants of Christ even in the worst of their outward condition For as he in Plutarch said of the Scythians that although they had not Musick nor Vines among them yet they had gods b Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Regenerate in their greatest want of outward supplies yet so long as they have the Spirit of God and their situation by these still waters c Ps 23. 2. they are not destitute of true felicity Yea by the benefit of those holy streams they are happy in the exercise happy in the increase in the assurance and continuance of received graces In the due valuation whereof the treasures of Egypt were but trash to Moses d Heb. 11. 26. the priviledges of a Jew but dung to St. Paul e Phil. 3. 8. the Tents of Kedar but a prison to David f Ps 120. 5. I had rather saith he be a door-keeper in the house of my God then to dwell in the Tents of wickednesse g Ps 84. 10. And accordingly the Emperour Theodosius rejoyced more in his Ecclesiastical membership then in all his Imperial Majesty Wherefore 2. say now ye that are planted in the house of the Lord is it not good being here to keep close to him that hath thus disposed us and tendred our spiritual accommodation O let it engage us and strengthen our resolutions to persevere in the faith of Jesus Christ Remember the trees in Jotham's parable h Jud. 9. 8. c. which being severally courted with the proffer of a Kingdom should I saith the Olive-tree leave my fatnesse Should I saith the Fig-tree forsake my sweetnesse Should I saith the Vine leave my Wine So against all the allurements and temptations of the world should we forsake these rivers of living water these peerlesse priviledges for the momentany pleasures of sin No take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God i Heb. 3. 12. Lord saith Peter to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life k John 6. 68. I will dwell saith David in the house of the Lord for ever l Psal 23. 6. And Let their money perish m In vit Galeac Caracc with them said that noble Marquesse of Vico that esteem all the gold in the world worth one dayes society with Jesus Christ and his holy Spirit Now in the sense of this blessed accommodation what remaines but that we return those Rivers to their Ocean n Suae reddantur origini fluenta gratiae Bern. and improve them to answerable Fruit Who plants a Vineyard and eats not of the fruit thereof o 1 Cor. 9. 7. And that 's our last particular in this description of a blessed man as he is represented in his fructification that bringeth forth his fruit in his season Which words although in a Grammatical Consideration they relate to the Tree yet intentionally to the Regerate compared to it And they lie to be taken up in a four-fold gradation He bringeth forth His fruit Bringeth forth fruit In his Season 1. Edit He bringeth forth is not meerly for receiving but as well for yielding not barely for taking in but joyntly for giving forth for the actus elicitus believing with the heart and for the actus imperatus confessing with the mouth p Rom. 10. 10. For receving by Faith of Christ's fulness and for disbursing by Love to Christ's glory that as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh q Mat. 12. 34. so the sap of infused grace will soon finde vent for its own disclosure In the place before alledged I believed therefore have I spoken And in 2 Cor. 4. We also believe and therefore speak Howbeit whereas verbal profession is but the leaf of the tree the honest sincere Christian determines not his faith in leaves stopps not there but 2. Edit fructum He bringeth forth fruit renders his faith visible by the adjuncture of New Obedience his profession honourable by translating the form into Power his graces observable by drawing them out into Works As his faith into the work of faith his love into the labour of love his hope into the patience of hope 1 Thess 1. That as Jacob allegorically prophecieth of Joseph A fruitful bough by a Well Gen. 49. 22. So it is the prayer and care of an Israelite indeed that in some correspondencie to his gracious supplies he may be filled with the fruits of righteousnesse r Phil. 1. 11. and fruitful in every