there is neither profit nor credit in them we love things that will bring us profit though possibly neither delightfull greatly nor seemly and we love things that we think will do us honesty oftentimes without regard either of pleasure or profit How should we then be affected to this duty of giving thanks and singing praises unto our GOD wherein all these doe joyntly concurr and that also in an excellent measure David hath wrapped them all together in one verse in the beginning of Psalm 147 Praise ye the Lord for it is good yea it is a pleasant thing and praise is comely It is good it will bring you profit it is pleasant it will afford you delight and it is comely it will do you honesty and what can heart wish more Again many good vertues and graces of God in us shall expire together with us which though they be eternal in their fruit and reward yet are not so as to their proper Acts which after this life shall cease because there shall be neither need nor use of them then Whether there be Prophesies they shall fail or whether there be tongues they shall cease or whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away There shall be no use of taming the flesh by Fasting or of supplying the want either of others by Almes or of our selves by Prayer Nay even Faith and Hope themselves shall have an end for we shall not then need to believe when we shall see nor to expect when we shall enjoy But giving of Thanks and praise and honour and glory unto God shall remain in the Kingdome of heaven and of glory It is now the continual blessed exercise of the glorious Angels and Saints in Heaven and it shall be ours when we shall be translated thither O that we would learn often to practice here what we hope shall be our eternal exercise there O that we would accustom our selves being Filled in the spirit to speak to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord giving thanks alwaies for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ as speaketh our Apostle Ephes. 5. Consider secondly the multitude and variety and continuance of Gods blessings and let that provoke thy thankfulness If thou hadst received but one or a few benefits yet thanks were due even for those few or for that one more than thou art able to return But what canst thou allege or how excuse thy unthankfulness when his mercies are renewed every morning nay every moment when he is ever opening his hand and powring out his blessings and loading and even overwhelming thee with his benefits as if he did vye with thee and would have thee see how easily he can overcome thy evill with his goodness and infinitely out-strip thine infinite ingratitude with his more infinite munificence His Angels are about thee though thou knowest it not from a thousand unknown dangers he delivereth thee which thou suspectedst not he still continueth his goodness unto thee and repriveth thy destruction though thou deservedst it not What should I say more thy very life and being thou owest to him In whom we all live and move and have our being thence resolve with holy David to sing praise unto the Lord As long as thou livest and to sing praise unto thy God whilest thou hast thy being Many and continual receipts should provoke many and continual thanks Consider thirdly thy future necessities If thou wert sure of that thou hast that thou and it should continue together for ever and never part and that thou couldest make prety shift to live upon the Old stock hereafter and never stand in need to him for more there might be so much less need to take care for giving thanks for what is past But it is not so with any of us of what we have we are but Tenants at Courtesie and we stand continually upon our good behaviour whether we should hold of him any longer or no and much of our future happiness standeth upon our present thankfulness And with what face can we crave to have more and yet more we must have or we cannot subsist if we be not thankfull for what we have Peremptoria res est ingratitudo saith Saint Bernard it cutteth it of all kindnesse Ventus urens exiccans like that strong East-winde which in a night dryed up the Red-sea it holdeth off the streams of Gods bounty from flowing and dryeth up those Channels whereby his mercies were wont to be conveyed unto us Certainly this is one special cause why God so often saith us Nay and sendeth us away empty when we aske even because we are so little thankfull to him for former receipts The Rivers return all their waters to the Sea from whence they had them and they gain this by the return that the Sea feedeth them again and so by a continual fresh supply preserveth them in perpetual being and motion If they should withhold that tribute the Sea would not long suffice them nourishment So we by giving receive and by true paying the old debt get credit to run upon a new score and provoke future blessings by our thankfulnesse for former as the Earth by sending up vapours back to Heaven from the dew she hath received thence filleth the bottels of Heaven with new moysture to be â—owred down upon her again in due season in kindly and plentifull showers By our Prayers and Thanksgiving we erect a Ladder like that which Iacob saw whereon the Angels ascended and descended we preserve a mutual entercourse betwixt Heaven and earth and we maintain a kind of continual trading as it were betwixt God and us The Commodities are brought us in they are Gods blessings for these we traffique by our Prayers and Thanksgivings Let us therefore deal squarely as wise and honest Merchants should do Let us keep touch and pay it is as much as our credit is worth Let us not think to have commodities still brought us in and we send none out omnia te advorsùm spectantia this dealing cannot hold long Rather let us think that the quicker and speedier and more returns we make our gains will be the greater and that the oftner we pray and praise God for his blessings the more we secure unto our selves both the continuance and the increase of them Consider fourthly thy misery if thou shouldst want those things which God hath given thee Carendo magis quà m fruendo Fools will not know that true worth of things but by wanting which wiser men had rather learn by having them Yet this is the common folly of us all We will not prise Gods blessings as we should till he for our unthankfullness take them from us and teach us to value them better before we have them again We repine at Gods great
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the whole counsel of God In my Application of this Instance and Case blame me not if I do it with some reference to my self Being heretofore by appointment as now again I was to provide my self for this place against such a meeting as this is as in my conscience I then thought it needful for me I delivered my mind and I dare say the Truth too for substance something freely touching the Ceremonies and Constitutions of our Church And I have now also with like freedome shewed the unlawfulnesse of the late disorderly attempts in this Town and that from the ground of my present Text. I was then blamed for that I think unjustly for I do not yet see what I should rerract of that I then delivered and it is not unlikely I shall be blamed again for this unless I prevent it You have heard now already both heretofore that to judge any mans heart and at this time that to slander any truth are without repentance sins justly damnable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that offend either in the one or the other their damnation is just To preserve therefore both you from the sin and my self from the blame consider I pray you with reason and charity what I shall say You that are our hearers know not with what hearts we speak unto you that is onely known to our own hearts and to God who is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things That which you are to look at and to regard is with what truth we speak unto you So long as what we preach is true agreeable to Gods Word right reason you are not upon I know not what light surmizes or suspicions to judge with what spirits or with what dispositions of heart we preach Whether we preach Christ of envy and strife or of good will whether sincerely or of contention whether in pretence or in truth it is our own good or hurt we must answer for that and at our perill be it if we do not look to that But what is that to you Notwithstanding every way so long as it is Christ and his truth which are preached it is your part therein to rejoice If an Angel from Heaven should preach any untruth unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him be accursed but if the very Devil of hell should preach the truth he must be heard and believed and obeyed So long as Scribes and Pharisees hold them to Moses's Text and Doctrine let them be as damned Hypocrites as Scribes and Pharisees can be yet all whatsoever they bid you observe that you are to observe and do Let me then demand Did I deliver any untruth It had been well done then to have shewn it that I might have acknowledged and retracted it Did I speak nothing but the truth with what conscience then could any that heard me say as yet I heard some did that I preached factiously That I came to cast bones among them That I might have chosen a fitter Text That I might have had as much thanks to have kept away For Faction I hate it my desire and aim next after the good of your souls was above all the Peace of the Church and the Unity of Brethren For casting bones if that must needs be the phrase they were cast in these parts long before my coming by that great enemy to peace and unity and busie sower of discord the Devil otherwise I should not have found at my first coming such snarling about them and such biting and devouring one another as I did My endeavour was rather to have gathered up the bones and to have taken away the matter of difference I mean the errour in judgement about and inconformity in practice unto the lawfull Ceremonies of the Church that so if it had been possible all might hâ—ve been quiet without despising or judging one another for these things For thanks I hold not that worth the answering alas it is a poor aim for Gods Minister to preach for thanks For the choyce of my Text and Argument both then and now how is it not unequall that men who plead so as none more for liberty and plainness in reproving sin should not allow those that come amongst them that liberty and plainness against themselves and their own sins I dare appeale to your selves Have you never been taught that it is the Ministers duty as to oppose against all errors and sins in the general so to bend himself as neer as he can especially against the apparent errors and sins of his present auditory And do you not believe it is so Why then might I not nay how ought I not bend my speech both then against a common errour of sundry in these parts in point of Ceremony and now against the late petulancy or at least oversight of some mis-guided ones The noise of these things abroad and the scandall taken thereat by such as hear of them and the ill fruits of them at home in breeding jealousies and cherishing contentions among neighbours cannot but stir us up if we be sensible as every good member should be of the damage and loss the Church acquireth by them to put you in minde and to admonish you as opportunities invite us both privately and publickly Is it not time trow ye to thrust in the sickle when the fields look white unto the harvest Is it not time our Pulpits should a little eccho of these things when all the Countrey far and neer ringeth of them For my own part however others censure me I am sure my own heart telleth me I could not have discharged my Conscience if being called to this place I should have balked what either then or now I have delivered My Conscience prompting me all circumstances considered that these things were pro hîc nunc necessary to be delivered rather than any other if for any outward inferiour respect I should have passed them over with silence I think I should have much swerved from the Rule of my Text and have done a great evil that some small good might come of it But many thousand times better were it for me that all the world should censure me for speaking what they think I should not than that my own heart should condemn me for not speaking what it telleth me I should And thus much of things simply evil I should proceed to apply this Rule We must not do evil that good may come unto evils not simply but accidentally such and that both in the generall and also in some few specials of greatest use namely unto evils which become such through Conscience Scandall or Comparison In my choice of the Scripture I aimed at all this and had gathered much of my provision for it But the Cases being many and weighty I foresaw I could not go onward with my first project without much wronging one or both either the things themselves if I should
liberty we have in Christ and of the respects we owe unto men we must evermore remember our selves to be and accordingly behave our selves as those that are Gods servants but as the servants of God The sum of the whole three points in brief this We must be careful without either infringing or abusing our liberty at all times and in all things to serve God Now then to the several points in that order as I have proposed them and as they lye in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As free Which words have manifest reference to the exhortation deliâ—vered three verses before the text as declaring the manner how the duty there exhorted unto ought to be performed yet so as that the force of them stretcheth to the exhortations also contained in the verses next after the text Submit your selves to publick governours both supreme and subordinate be subject to your own particular masters honour all men with those proper respects that belong to them in their several stations But look you do all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as slaves but as free doe it without impeachment of the liberty you have in Christ. Of which liberty it would be a profitable labour but that I should then be forced to omit sundry other things which I deem needful to be spoken and more neerly pertinent to the points proposed to discover at large the nature and parts and causes and effects and adjuncts that we might the better understand the amplitude of that dower which Christ hath setled upon his Church and thence learn to be the more careful to preserve it But I may not have time so to do it shall therefore suffice us to know that as the other branches of our liberty whether of glory or grace whether from the guilt of sin in our justification or from the dominion of sin in our sanctification with the several appendices and appurtenances to any of them so this branch of it also which respects the use of indifferent things First is purchased for us by the bloud of Christ and is therefore usually called by the name of Christian liberty Secondly is revealed unto us outwardly in the preaching of the Gospel of God and of Christ which is therefore called the law of liberty And thirdly is conveighed unto us inwardly and effectually by the operation of the Spirit of God and of Christ which is therefore called a free spirit O stablish thou me with thy free spirit because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Now this liberty so dearly purchased so clearly revealed so firmly conveyed it is our duty to maintain with our utmost strength in all the parts and branches of it and as the Apostle exhorteth to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and not to suffer our selves either by the devises of other men or by our own sloth and wilful default to be intangled again with the yoak of bondage And namely in this particular branch whereof we now speak whatsoever serviceable offices we do to any of our brethren especially to those that are in authority we must perform our duty therein with all cheerfulness of spirit and for Conscience sake but still with freedom of spirit with liberty of Conscience as being servants to God alone and not to men We finde therefore in the Scriptures a peremptory charge both ways that we neither usurp mastership nor undergo servitude A charge given by our Saviour Christ to his Disciples in the former behalf that they should not be called Rabbi neither Masters Matth. 23. and a charge given by the Apostle Paul to all believers in the latter behalf that they should not be servants of men 1 Cor. 7. God forbid any man of us possessed with an Anabaptistical spirit or rather frenzy should understand either of those passages or any other of like sound as if Christ or his Apostle had had any purpose therein to slacken those sinews and ligaments and to dissolve those joynts and contignations which tye into one body and claspe into one structure those many little members and parts whereof all humane societies consist that is to say to forbid all those mutual relations of superiority and subjection which are in the world and so to turn all into a vast Chaos of Anarchy and Confusion For such a meaning is contrarious to the express determination of Christ and to the constant doctrine of S. Paul in other places and we ought so to interpret the Scriptures as that one place may consist with another without clashing or contradiction The true and plain meaning is this that we must not acknowledge any our supreme Master nor yeeld our selves to be wholly and absolutely ruled by the will of any nor enthral our Iudgements and Consciences to the sentences or laws of any man or Angel but only Christ our Lord and Master in Heaven And this interpretation is very consonant to the Analogy of Scripture in sundry places In Ephes. 6. to omit other places there are two distinctions implyed the one in the 5. the other in the 7. verses both of right good use for the reconciling of sundry texts that seem to contradict one another and for the clearing of sundry difficulties in the present argument Servants saith S. Paul there be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh Which limitation affordeth us the distinction of Masters according to the flesh only and of Masters after the spirit also Intimating that we may have other Masters of our flesh to whom we may and must give due reverence so far as concerneth the flesh that is so far as appertaineth to the outward man and all outward things But of our spirits and souls and consciences as we can have no fathers so we may have no Masters upon earth but only our Master and our Father which is in heaven And therefore in Mat. 23. Christ forbiddeth the calling of any man upon earth Father as well as he doth the calling of any man Master And both the prohibitions are to be understood alike and as hath been now declared Again saith S. Paul there with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men which opposition importeth a second distinction and that is of Masters into supreme and subordinate those are subordinate Masters to whom we do service in ordine ad alium and as under another Those are supreme Masters in whom our obedience resteth in the final resolution of it without looking farther or higher Men may be our Masters and we their servants the first way with subordination to God and for his sake And we must do them service and that with good will but with reservation ever of our bounden service to him as our only supreme soveraign and absolute Master But the later way it is high sacriledge in any man to challenge and it is high