at vers 11. and therefore we must not quarrel with the wisdome of God in it 2. the end for which God hath designed this variety viz. our profit at vers 7. there are not the meanest gifts but an humble self-denying Christian may make use of and profit by 2. This prejudice reflects dishouourably upon God and takes his glory and gives it to the instruments God will have the glory of his power and mercy to be magnified and therefore sometimes uses the meanest gifts to the greatest ends As this advanced his glory at the first that the Gospel should be propounded by such inconsiderable persons as a few fisher-men God consulted his glory when he put this heavenly treasure in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4. 7. Look not on glittering of the sword but to the hand that weilds it look up from men to God as S. Peter spake to the men of Israel Act. 3. 12. concerning the cure wrought upon the lame man Why gaze ye on us it was not we but God God often uses feeble instruments that himself may have the greater glory and layes aside great parts when men begin to glory too much in them The same truth is John 3. 8. preached by all and the Spirit bloweth where he listeth 3. Perhaps he denies his abilities for thy good He could be Seraphicall and in the clouds but he stoops and descends to thy capacity and denies himself that he may gain thee S. Paul was wrapt up into the third heaven and could speak with tongues more then all 1 Cor. 14. 18. and yet desired to speak rather to edification Judge charitably it is likely the Minister denyes his excellency as desirous that thou shouldst be brought in love with the naked truth of the Gospel and not with the dresse it comes in that the Gospel may come by its own power and efficacy upon thy soul therefore he studies a familiar plainness 4. The abler thy Preacher is if thou profit not so much the more by him the greater will be thy condemnation Satisfie not thy self therefore with this that thou livest under an able Minister men may affect this more for their credit then aiming thereby atttheir profit nor let this exalt thee in contempt of others thy account will be the greater and if thou profitest not so much the more very sad How sad will it be for Jerusalem who had Christ preaching amongst them yet refused and rejected him and those against whom the Apostles shaked of the dust of their feet for the not-entertaining of the Gospel and for you Brethren who enjoy as much of Gospel-light as ever appeared upon the world if you shall be found unprofitable at that day when many who have lived under less means shall be found improved suitable to the means they lived under and so consequently rewarded and you who have been under the richest dews of heaven be found unfruitfull you shall be dispatched with the unprofitable servant Matth. 25. 30. Take you and cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth Away then with these prejudices which must needs make the word unprofitable while one quarrels with the method another with the expression a third with the matter a fourth with the delivery the word is like to profit little Seventhly The seventh ground is hardness of heart That natural hardness which is in every one of us much hinders the working of the word of God in us that heart of stone resists the divine impressions of the word and therefore God when he promises to write his Law in our hearts he first promises to take away this heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26 27. One thing in the stonie heart is impenitrableness and this makes men threatning-proof and judgement-proof they tremble not at the one nor are broken by the other And this especially when the soul comes to be hardned by custome in sin the seed you know which fell on this ground perished Hardned Pharaoh slighted all Moses's messages and remains hard under varietie of Gods judgements both threatned and inflicted Observe the exhortation of the Apostle Heb. 3. 13. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as if he had said If once your heart be hardned it will be to little purpose to exhort A hard heart may be moved by the word of God but still remain and afterward message of God but still remain and afterward grow more obdurate Pharaoh is a sad example whom every message of God hardned more As rain may wet a stone outwardly but still it retains it's innate hardness so it is possible a hard heart may seem outwardly to melt into some tears the effect perhaps of a mans natural temper and constitution yet remain hard and unbroken as it was with those in the Prophet Jerem. 5. 3. Thou hast smitten them yet they have not grieved c. Notwithstanding the varietie of Gods providences the Prophets solicitations to return they remained hard The Scripture calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 8. the spirit of slumber so deep and dead a slumber that the threatnings of the word cannot raise or awaken them out of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks of the Ephesians in chap. 4. 19. they feel no impressions of the word upon them nay it makes them to rage against it as the Jews did Acts 7. 51. Ye do alwaies resist the holy Ghost that is speaking by the Prophets and Apostles as appears verse 32. The hard earth must be broken up e're your seed will thrive in it so must the hard heart that the seed of Gods word may take rooting in it The word is the instrument of the Spirit to break up the heart and therefore compared to a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces Jerem. 23. 29. and till this be done there can be no profiting by the word Josiah was of a tender heart and so melted at the word of God in 2 Chron. 34. 27. so must all be who intend savingly to profit by the word There is indeed a hardness of heart which excludes all possibilitie of profiting by the word I mean when God seals up men judicially under unprofitableness for their former resisting and opposing the word of God Of which I understand that place John 12. 40. He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their heart that they should not see c. This was Pharaoh's case when he had hardned himself God at last hardned him so that he refused the messages of God to him by Moses till he was utterly ruined when mens consciences as the Apostle saith are cauterized and seared they grow insensible under the word of God and the shinings of the Gospel as the Sun the clay more hardens them as it fared with the Jews Ezek. 2. 4. for all his oft speaking unto them they were impudent or as it is in the margin Hard of face Eighthly The eighth ground is unbelief This
Center wherein all these lines of revealed truth meet and when a Minister hath discovered Christ he hath done all and this he cannot do without the Scriptures Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me saith Christ John 5. 3. We are Embassadors for Christ and 2 Cor. 5. 20. the Scriptures are our Credential letters which contain all the terms of reconciliation and peace upon which we must treat with rebellious sinners and act for the interest of our great Lord and Master 2. That he may preach according to the analogie of faith which is the Apostles exhortation Rom. 12. 6. let him that prophesieth prophesie according to the analogie of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the scope consent and harmonie of Scripture Scripture is its own best interpreter one Scripture gives light to another as it was an ordinance of old for the Priest in the Temple to light one lamp by another and the Jews were wont when they read Moses to read so much of the Prophets as was most answerable to that part of the Law To observe the consent of Scripture is an excellent means of understanding Christ The Apostles themselves though acted by the same infallible Spirit yet alwaies quote Scripture not so much to confirm their doctrine as to demonstrate the harmonie of revealed truth and so to explain obscurer Scripture by plainer as S. Peter having alleadged that place Psal 16. Acts 2. from v. 25. to 32. 10. Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell c. which might seem obscure he presently adds other Scriptures to prove that this could not be understood of David but of Christ as you may see Acts 2. verse 30. A Timothy must have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of sound 2 Tim. 1. 13. words not onely some loose scattered confused notions of Truth but a methodical orderly Systeme of Scripture-truth that hereby discovering the dependance of one upon another he may the more fully understand all This notion of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly to divide the word of ruth to wit according to Scripture-analogie and consent canâ—not 2 Tim. 2. 15. be done without a laborious studie and perfect knowledge of the Scripture 3. That he may convince gainsayers which is a dutie the Apostle requires of every Minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two sorts of Gainsayers a Minister is to grapple with 1. Gainsayers in Opinion 2. Gainsayers in Practise By Scripture-knowledge he may be able to convince both these 1. Gainsayers in Opinion whose errours contradict the truth of Scripture And if ever it were necessarie to be armed against such most certainly in our daies wherein it is the height of many mens ambition and a great attainment to be a Gainsayer to received and acknowledged truth None so successfull conviction of such as by Scripture-argument if you alleadge and urge Reason some of our Gainsayers are uncapable of it and will cast it of as Carnal if Learning too much say they makes you mad but as David said of 1 Sam. 21 9. Goliah's sword there is none like that no sword fitter to fight with these opposers then the sword of the Spirit the word of God none like this with this our Saviour routed Satan the Prince of darkness the father and patron of errour in three onsets Scriptum Mat. 4. 7. est c. as thus afterwards our Saviour dealt with Satans complices and abettors as the Sadduces who denied the resurrection Have ye not read he confutes them from Exod. 3. 6. I am the God Mat. 22. 3â— 32. of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living So the Pharisees errour concerning the lawfulness of divorce Christ confutes from Genes 1. and 2. Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made Mat. 19. 4. 5 6. them male and female and they twain shall be one flesh and so forth The Apostles afterwards trod in their Masters steps and wrote after his Copie Stephen confutes the Jews by epitomizing the historie Acts 7. of the Old Testament S. Paul confutes the Idolatrie of the Athenians from Psal 50. 8. Who giveth us life and breath and all Acts 17. 25. things as you may see And this was one effect of Apollos his accuratness in the Scripture that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he convincèd the contradicting Acts 18. 29. and gainsaying Jews that Jesus was Christ So true is that of Tertullian that Hereticks are lucifugae Scripturarùm they De resur câ—r hate the light of the Scriptures lest their errours should be detected and reproved The Papists denie the people the use of Scripture upon this pretence lest it should breed errours the truth is lest it should discover and confute them He that doth truth comes to the light but errour hates it Thus the Manichees errour of God being Psal 5. 4. Habak 1. 13. the cause of sin flees the light of those Scriptures Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness and A God of purer eyes then to behold sin and He that doth sin is of his father the devil So the Pelagian 1 John 3. 8. errour of Free-will and the Power of corrupted nature flees the light of those Scriptures Without me you can do nothing saith John 15. 5. Phil. 2. 13. Christ and God worketh both to will and to do of his good pleasure The Antinomian doctrine cannot bear the light of those Scriptures Mat. 5. 17. Rom. 3. 31. I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it and Do we make void the Law by faith God forbid nay we stablish the Law An induction of particulars would be too tedious but this in general that opinion which the Scripture confutes not either is no errour at all or be sure of no dangerous consequence in point of salvation 2. Gainsayers in practise who contradict the purity of the Gospel by holding the truth in unrighteousness and turning Gospel-grace into wantoness and these are more frequent then the former Many profess Gospel-truth yet do not embrace Gospel-holiness these are to be convinced by Scripture as our Saviour did Mat. 15. 7. Esay 29. 13. the Pharisees of hypocrisie from the Prophet Esay This people draweth near unto me with their mouth and their lip but their heart is far from me All things which are reproved are made manifest by the Ephes 5. 13. light that is to say by the light of the Scriptures There is a searching power in the word of God which is quick and powerfull and sharper then any two-edged sword and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and if it be powerfully and wisely managed Hebr. 4. 12. how may a Moses make the heart of a Pharaoh sometimes â—elent a Nathan make a David weepe a Paul put a Felix into a 〈◊〉 of trembling and a Peter make the
through with many sorrows as the Apostle assures us 1 Tim. 6. 10. Vexation of spirit is entail'd inseparably upon this earthly portion Vexation in the procuring of it Eccles 2. 22 23. What disquieting plottings and contrivances to get this portion and when he hath it how disquieted is he distracted and divided between care to keep and enlarge it and fear to loose it besides how oft doth some outward cross embitter his portion As the Saints in their greatest afflictions have their lucida intervalla comfortable refreshings intervals of joy and comfort Prov. 10. 22. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it So he that enjoys the most full portion in this life meets oft with that cross which robs him of the comfort of his enjoyments as the rich man's summons Luke 12. dampt his joy in his full barns 2. Because of the sting of conscience which if once awakened gnaws and secretly eats out all the comfort of his earthly portion whose secret suggestions and whisperings in the fullest enjoyments oft surprizeth and fills the soul with sadness and horrour The hand-writing against Belshazzar makes him tremble amidst all his carouzes in the cups of the Temple Dan. 5. 5 6. Judas threw away the thirtie pieces Matth. 27. 5. no comfort in them when summoned to the tribunal of conscience as guiltie of the bloud of Christ Multos fortuna liberat poenâ metu neminem saith Seneca What Tacitus Senec. ep 98. Tacit. Annal. lib. 6. saith of Tyrants is true of all wicked men Si recludantur mentes posse aspici laniatus ictus Though God reprieves wicked men from present execution yet they are oft disquieted with inward fear this vultur at the heart preys upon their inward comfort and thus in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowfull Prov. 14. 13. and the greatest portion in the world is no more solace or comfort then a velvet slipper to a goutie foot or a crown to an aking head 3. Because of the secret curse of God which is entailed upon a wicked mans portion in this life what ever he enjoys he hath the curse of God going along with it hath he a fair estate that is a curse to him Deut. 28. 17 18. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store Cursed shall be the fruit of thy land the encrease of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep Hath he plentifull and delicious fare and provision this is accursed too Job 20. 23. When he is about to fill his belly God shall cast the furie of his wrath upon him and shall rain it upon him while he is eating This curse appears sometime in the insensible wasting and decay of his portion that the rich worldling puts money into a bagge with holes Hagg. 1. 6. and it runs out he knows not how sometimes by blasting their comfort in them stopping them in their most eager carrier and hottest pursuit of the world and when they have riches they have no heart to use them which Solomon takes notice of as the greatest vanity of the world Eccles 6. 2. It is the blessing of the Lord that maketh rich Prov. 10. 22. From this it was that Daniel's countenance after ten daies living with pulse and water look't fairer and fatter then those who eat the portion of the kings meat Dan. 1. 15. So on the contrarie it is the secret curse of God which blasts a wicked mans portion in the world we read Levit. 16. of two goats the goat for the sin offering and the scape-goat the first sacrificed to God the other dismissed into the wilderness with all the sins and curses of the children of Israel upon his head Origen after his usual manner allegorizing on that Orig. Hom. 9. place makes these two goates representations of good and wicked men the godly being oft sors Domini are martyred and persecuted but by it they are made an acceptable sacrifice to God the wicked qui sunt de hoc mundo the men of the world are set at libertie have their freedom and enjoy enlargement in the wilderness of the world but laded with their own sins and the curses of God upon their heads And how miserable is this for the Israelites to have Quails and the wrath of God overtaking them while they were eating them Numb 11. 32. for men to have their tables richly spread with dainties and that table to become a snare to them must needs be Psal 69. 22. miserable and yet thus it is with all those who have their portions onely in this life V. Because he enjoys it to his real hurt and mischief It was that sore evil which Solomon observed under the sun that riches were kept for the owners thereof to their hurt Eccles 5. 13 Periculosissima est felicitatis intemperantia saith Seneca Dives est aliquis malus habet sibi in curam angorem ruinam saith the same Authour Wealth is the worldlings vexation here and ruine hereafter A wicked mans portion in the world tends to his mischief four waies 1. As it estranges him from God We read of the Prodigal Luke 15. that when he had got his portion he ran away from his father into a far countrie and spent it in riotous living v. 12 13. so doth the portion of wicked men here set them at a distance and enmitie to God and truely nothing sooner alienates mens souls from God and goodness then a great portion in the world The devil offered this as a suitable temptation to prevail with Christ himself Matth. 4. 9. All these things c. He hath kept this as his reserve as his last temptation if this will not do he knew his other assaults would be to little purpose It was a seasonable admonition which Moses gave to Israel Deut. 8. 10 11 When thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee c. there was great danger that the milk and honey of Canaan might make them forget God and again Deut 6. 12. Beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage And this is none of the least mischiefs of that portion wicked men have in this life 2. As it betraies them and laies them open to abundance of sin their worldly abundance is but fewel to their lust exalts them in pride as the Psalmist saith Psal 73. 5 6. As Alexander's victories caused him to subscribe himself The son of Jupiter it heightens them into contempt and forgetfulness of God According to their pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me Hosea 13. 6. It oft makes them more hardned at heart and resolved in sin with Pharaoh to say Who is the Lord that I should obey him Exod. 5. 2. It makes them unfruitfull under the means of grace as Luke 8. 14.
Jews pricked at the heart and a John Baptist convince a Herod of his unlawfull and wicked enjoyment of his beloved Herodias How doth the word of God oft drive men from those forts and succours and delusions which they had framed to deceive themselves and encourage themselves in the ways of sin as others sin as well as I what saith Scripture to this Follow not a multitude to commit iniquity and Though hand Exod. 23. 2. Prov. 11. 21. joyn in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished I may deferre my repentance from youth to old age saith another See what Scripture saith to this Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth c. and Eccles ' 12. 1. Hebr. 3. 15. Rom. 6. 23. To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts This is but a peccadillo saith another Scripture saith The ways of sin is death Such flatteries and deceits the deceitfull heart of man is apt to gull it self with The power of the word is to such as the voice of God was to Adam Where art thou and then he could lie hid no longer it convinceth and discovers them This is the effect of preaching the word as the Apostie saith If all prophesie to wit of the nature of sin Gods wrath against it and the like as Pareus glosses if there come in one that believeth not he is convinced of all he is judged of all and the secrets of his heart are Mr. Dod. made manifest When a reverend Divine amongst our selves had by a powerfull Sermon convinced a licentious wretch who heard him he fretting and very angry as wicked men cōmonly are at a convincing Minister came to him and charged him with preaching that Sermon against him out of malice and envy he returned him this answer If this Sermon had been preached in the dark when I could not have seen my Auditors this very word of God would have found thee out and convinced thee of thy sins In a word Rectum verum est mensura sui obliqui therefore Scripture containing all fundamental doctrines of faith and essential duties of holiness necessary to salvation must consequently be sufficient to confute and reprove all contrary sin and errour 4. That he may instruct the people and inform them of their whole duty Here they must expect and require their knowledge for The Mal. 2. 7. Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and the people shall require it at his mouth Unless their doctrine distill as the dew the field of the Lord the Church must needs be barren in holiness and fruitless in knowledge This is the last vse the Apostle saith the Scripture is profitable for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3. 18. True indeed may the people say it is fit and necessary that Objection Apollos's Ministers should be mighty in the Scriptures but we hope we may be excused from searching the Scriptures it is not our duty we are to expect it from our teachers Indeed this is Rome's language If you were at Rome you might Answer be exempted that Church will gratifie you in this and thank you too they account it no better to suffer lay-men to read the Bible then sanctum canibus margaritas ante porcos projicere it is the expression of Hosius to cast pearles before swine or that which is holy to dogs you are little beholding to them for this But believe it though Antichrist will exempt you from reading the Scripture Christ will not who enjoynes it as a duty upon all to search the Joh. 5. 39. Scriptures and observe the argument he useth to enforce this duty for in them ye think to have eternal life If then you expect any interest in that happiness you are concerned and engaged in this duty of Scripture-search which is both commanded and cōmended in Scripture Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdome Coloss 3. 16. Acts. 17. 11 saith S. Paul and it was the commendation of the Bereans that they searched the Scriptures daily whether the things that Paul and Silas preached were true or no. The Church of Rome accuse and charge this promiscuous searching of the Scripture as the cause of Heresy pride and faction I deny not Scripture misunderstood is sometimes abused to promote these ends but this is not the natural and proper effect of reading the Scripture the ignorance of which if we believe our Saviour is the cause of Heresy and error Ye erre saith Christ to Matt. 22. 29. the Sadduces not knowing the Scriptures and indeed if wee be robbed of the Compass of Scripture we must needs split upon the rock of errour In a word then it is the Tyrannie of Rome to withhold it and it will be your sin to neglect it Application 1. This condemns and corrects that general neglect and undervaluing of Scripture which now Atheisme is justly feared to be growing upon us prevailes in the world men preferring every thing else before this The Papist exalts his unwritten Tradition above the written Word Pari pietatis affectu suscipimus veneramur may seem a modest determination of the Tridentine convention and much less then their practise speaks The Enthusiast magnifies his pretended revelation and Scripture to him is but a dead letter and the searcher of it but literalis and vocalis too But let us return home and see whither we can plead not guilty where are our Nepotians who by diligent perusal of the Scripture make their souls Bibliothecam Christi as Hierom saith of him Where shall we finde an Alphonsus who is reported to have read the Bible ten times over with a comment or like that Transylvanian Prince whom Maccovius reports to have read the Bible over twentie seven times Where shall we finde a David who meditates in the Law of God day and night preferring it before the honey and the honey-combe Psal 19. 10. Psal 119. 72. Job 23. 12. before thoughts of gold and silver or a Job who esteemeth the words of Gods mouth more then his necessarie food Nay have we not many proud cursed Politians who think it a disparagement to their parts and learning to condiscend to the studie of Scripture and as he said think they never spend their time worse then in reading it Do not idle Romances and lascivious Poems and the like take up the most of our youth-studies nay amongst us who look towards the Ministrie doth not a nice and intricate School-man an uncertain Father an antiquated Rabby justle out the Scripture I speak not against those in their due order and measure but I would not have Hagar drive Sarah out of doors I would not have the Hand-maids courted and the Mistress neglected If they be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let Scripture be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Preposterous studying these before we be well grounded and setled in Scripture-knowledge doth oft fill the soule with such