embrace us and restore us to our rest again For doth a Father pity his owne child and will not the Lord bee mercifull to them that feare him nay call no man Father upon earth for beyond all naturall affection we have a Father in Heaven and his love is like that of Ionathan and David even greater then the love of women WheÌ„ Abraham intercedeth for Sodom you see hee puts in many doubts and feares I have taken upon me to speake who am but dust and ashes and let not my Lord be angry and once more and once more let me speake and still hee feareth and still hee speaketh and still he obtaineth what he speaketh for neither doth God in mercy cease to grant his petitions till he in modesty giveth them over Thus sometime if the conscience of our sinnes and terrour of the throne of Iustice and those terrible names of Lord and jealous God shall make us to tremble and be exceedingly afraid as indeed in this confident age it is good that we should sometime bee frighted yet upon our true humiliation and contrition we may boldly appeale from the throne of Iustice to the throne of Grace and that gracious name of Father and then â—nough the flesh have been a Sodome yet if the spirit now become an Abraham dust and ashes as we are we may speake and once more and once more may we speake til we bring our sins from fifty shall I say nay from an innumerable number for who knowes how oft he offends to forty to twenty to tenne to nothing and blot them out of the booke of Gods remembrance Let me then say once againe Why art thou so disquieted O my soule and why art thou so troubled within me put thou thy trust in the Lord and bee doing good implore the adoption of a sonne and get thy soule seal'd unto the day of redemption and then with confidence maist thou appeare before the Tribunall of God where thou shalt finde the Iudge thy Father thine Advocate thy Brother But let us beware that we doe not please and content our selves with a titular alliance for it is not a Lord Lord nor my Father Salvian ad Eccles Cathol l. 3 my Father will suffice Assumptio religiosi nominis sponâ—â—o devotionis Our challenging of God to bee our Father chalengeth from us the duty of his Sonnes For as under the Law if they were obedient unto his will and with care and conscience did performe their service to their Lord he did shew himselfe a Father to his servants so under the Gospell if like gracelesse children wee shall neglect the will of our heavenly Father he will shew himselfe a Lord unto his Sonnes and as then not every one that cryed Lord so nor now every one that prayeth Father but he that doth the will whether of Lord or Father he and he alone shal be acceptable in his sight So then to draw all to a conclusion As wee are all already filii regni children of the Kingdome and called to be Saints so because wee know such children for their disobedience may in the end bee shut out of this Kingdome let us strive to be filii regnantes to reign as children in this Kingdome and make our calling sure CHRIST is now ascended up on high unto his Father and hath given guifts to us such as will inable us to follow him let us then bee carefull so to improve these guifts to adde to our Faith vertue to vertue knowledge temperance patience godlinesse and charity that as our graces rise so may our hope of glory rise withall and when age and death shall presse downe our bodies to the grave our soules may be lifted up to Heaven and take a comfortable farewell of our friends even in the very language of our Saviour Weepe not for mee but for your selves for I am now ascending to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Amen FINIS Errata FOr Iohanni read Iohanne pag 8. necessitude read vicissitude p. 11 so r. and p. 25 last r. left p. 46 that dele p. 47 1. dele p. 53 for dele p. 63 our r. one p. 72 strong r. strange p. 77. beneficii r. beneficiis p. 111 partunebat r parturiebat p. 122 filiis r. filium p. 143 succentunate r. succenturiate p. 150 Those r. these p 153 heavie and r. and heavie p. 177 Nor r. nor ibid. vvherever r. wheÌ„ever p 183 punisheth r. pincheth p 203 this r the p 208 an r on p 212 custodivi r custodiri p. 216 that thou r that so alwayes thou p 223 hold r hold p 225 have r but have p 227 We r. we p 32 dele 2. p 256 favorâ—â— r foenoris p 258 nor r nor
FIVE SERMONS PREACHED upon severall Occasions The Texts whereof are set downe in the next Page By IOHN SELLER Aug. de Doct. Christ lib. 1. cap. 1. Omnis res quae dando non deficit dum habetur non datur non dum habetur LONDON Printed for IOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under St. Peters Church in Cornehill 1636. The Texts of the severall Sermons Serm. I. PSAL. 116.16 O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant Preached before the King at Bagshow upon Tuesday Septemb. 15. 1635. Serm. II. IOHN 21.22 If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee Follow thou mee Before the King at Hampton Court upon Sunday Septemb. 27. 1635. Serm. III. IOHN 1.16 And Grace for grace To the Houshold at White-Hall Novemb. 29. 1629. IV. ECCLES 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth V. IOHN 20.17 Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father QVinque has Conciones â Domino Iohanni Sellero habitas perlegi nec in iis quicquam reperio quò minùs Cum utilitate publicâ imprimantur SA BAKER Ex aedibus Londin Martii die ultimo 1636. Serm. I THE FIRST SERMON PSAL. 116.16 O Lord truely I am thy servant I am thy servant THe feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome and the end of all things is this Feare GOD and keepe his Commandements Nay the meanes which happily joyneth together this beginning and this end is still the same Blessed is the man that alwayes feareth This is the Alpha and Omega the entrance the progresse the close of all true practicall Religion and this happy beginning and this happy end is the subject which I shall now commend unto you from the example of the Prophet in my text O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant In the handling of which words three pious observations there are which I shall now present unto you The first is this Go◠is our Lord and Master and we must doe him service O Lord I am thy servant an argument wherin I shall not so much need proofes as perswasions Whom have I in Heaven but thee and whom on earth in comparison of thee He that knoweth there is a God cannot but acknowledge the onely difficultie is to winne our hearts to proportion our service to his love Thou art my God and I will thanke thee thou art my God and I will praise thee We all know there was a time if I may so speake before all time a time of Eternitie before all time of succession when GOD by himselfe inioyed all fulnesse of complacencie in himself For as the Sunne in the Heavens shineth in its full brightnesse though there were no earth to shine upon so the brightnesse of Gods glory was then it its full lustre when Trinity in Vnitie and Vnitie in Trinity as it is now all things to all was then all things to it selfe Angels and men and for their sakes Heaven and earth when in the powerfull and gracious counsell of his will with a word speaking onely he created all this was done not that thereby he might augment his glory but communicate it For can a man be profitable unto God Iob 22. and yet who is there to whom God hath not beene profitable He stands not in need of our service but we cannot live without his command When one man waites upon another there is for the most part a mutuall dependance on each other the servant cannot live without his Master the Master knowes not how to want his servant The glory of a King is upheld by the multitude of his people for let Subjects withdraw their alleagiance and we see Princes themselves are but private men and therefore we reade in the state of Rome that when the commons upon termes of discontent withdrew themselves from the Nobles the Nobles were forc't to become petitioners unto the commons and to remit somewhat of the rigour of their command that they might hold them afterward more constant in their service But looke upon our great Master the King of Kings and wee shall finde no such depending references Let all the world withdraw themselves from him yet still Deus solus is Deus sufficiens God alone by himselfe is all sufficient to himselfe so that the lesse necessary our service is the more necessary is it wee should serve if not for Gods sake yet for our owne hee can loose nothing by us but wee loose all things in the losse of him And yet strange it is and wonderfull to consider thereby with all cheerefulnesse to draw us to his service how carefull he hath beene of us who are yet so little usefull unto him Looke upon our Creation when wee first came into the world and you shall see that as God made all other creatures for men so man because for himselfe he would make like himselfe that as often as wee view our owne soules and see whose image and superscription they have this might perswade us to give them up unto God from whom and for whose service they were first receiv'd Looke upon our preservation since wee came into the world and but that In Iohan Tract 8. Quod omni anno fit assiduitate amittit admirationem as St. Augustine complaineth the continuall injoying of these great blessings lessens our admiration with what joy might wee behold the Heavens spread over us like a curtaine the Sun the Moone like two unwearied Gyants alwayes for our sakes rejoycing to runne theyr course by vertue of whose severall motions and influence while the earth remaines Seed-time and harvest Summer and Winter night and day shall not cease that so the necessitude of the different seasons of the yeare may give us contentment in them all And if all this be yet too little looke upon his preparation for our safe conduct to another world and there behold the word of Life The sincere milke of the Word for children strong meate for men food cōvenient for us all behold the Sacraments of life the signes the seales the pledges of the Love of God behold the Spirit of life the power of the Holy Ghost overshadowing our soules and by an immortall seed begetting us again unto a lively hope of immortality surely then well may the eyes of all men waite upon him whose eyes runne through the whole earth nay through the whole heaven too to shew themselves powerfull and gracious unto them that serve him And indeed if we shall consider the severall attributes of God how they are fitted to the severall necessities of men this might be a strong perswasion also to draw us to his service For God is a powerfull God and what more fitting for our weaknesse when the Prince of this world like the strong man hath by his subtle temptations got footing in our soules unlesse CHRIST IESVS the Prince of Princes and Captaine of our Salvation shall make re-entry and cast him
not onely for feare of our day of death but out of some respect also even unto the day of judgment with the wife Virgins to begin betimes to prepare oyle ready for our lamps seriously oft times to catechise our soules w th the like question of the Psalmist Wherwithall shal a yong man clense his wayes and make answer with my Text Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth In the handling of which words three things I shall breefly commend unto you First I will propose some reasons and motives to perswade the young man to be thus mindfull of his Creator Secondly I will remove those excuses which all youth for the most part are ready to pretend for the neglect of this duty Lastly I will close up all with some short and usefull remembrances which may serve to imprint and fasten this so necessary duty into the meditation and practise of our Soules In the handling whereof though I have here a young man onely to remember yet you shall see no age shall be forgotten to begin then with the first Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth and even for this cause in the dayes of thy youth because thou knowest not whether ever thou shalt live till thou art old For the life of man it is as a Shadow and our dayes are now but a spanne long nay even this short measure as by sad experience wee have too frequent triall wee see so much contracted as that wee injoy oft-times but some few inches even of this Spanne neither Few and evill are the dayes of our Pilgrimage heere on earth have wee now more reason to complaine then IACOB had Now because our dayes are evill wee had need to remember our Creator to amend them because few we were best doe it quickly lest we forgetting him he may prove too mindfull of us and in his justice cut off those few dayes of ours wherein wee have beene so evill as not to flie unto his Mercy And hence is it I should think that St. IOHN in his first Epistle doth so often stile the Saints of GOD by the name of little Children My little Children these things I write unto you Little children keepe your selves from Idols little children it is the last time not onely to expresse his fatherly and tender affection over them with whom like PAVL hee did even goe in travaile till CHRIST should bee formed in them not onely to teach them gentlenesse and humility and that hee that will enter into the Kingdome of Heaven must first stoop to the confession of the Psalmist LORD I am not high minded but even as a Child weaned from his Mothers breast so doe I behave my selfe but even in this respect also to let us understand by reason of the shortnesse and uncertainty of the life of man that even from our Childhood wee are to be trayn'd up with the childe SAMVEL to minister unto the Lord girt with a linnen Ephod while our garments are yet white and spotlesse that both Body and Soule too may as it were hand in hand grow up from strength to strength till of Children wee become perfect Men and atteyne unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of CHRIST For wee are all by Nature the children of wrath all lyable to those everlasting chaynes prepared for the Divell and his Angels and as long as this state continueth wee may complaine with REBECCA I am weary of my life and wee may sit downe with IOB and curse the day that wee were borne in and can we then think any time too soone to begin to make an agreement with our adversary by the way by our Prayer our repentance our faith in the washing of the Bloud of IESVS get the hand-writing of tne Law cancell'd and washt off that as with PAVL and SILAS in the Prison our fetters may fall away and of the children of wrath we may be redeem'd into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of GOD. For was it not madnesse in PHARAOH when as the Frogges were now swarming in the Land in his Court in his Bedchamber in his bosome and MOSES came kindly to him and when sayth hee shall I intreat for thee to destroy these Frogs was it not madnesse I say to put him off and bid him come To morrow Surely wee would thinke even but that one nights torture hee would have redeem'd rather though with the one halfe of his Kingdome and are not our Sinnes as noysome companions as those unwelcome guests of his When then our conscience like Moses shall say unto our Soules when shall I intreat the Lord to destroy these sinnes should wee not be more mad then Pharaoh did we reply To morrow no To day if you will heare his voyce harden not your hearts For the life of man as it is sweet so it is short too and though but one onely way wee have into the world yet many out Whether this or that shall be our end whether sooner or later it shall come this is a secret which GOD hath purposely reserv'd unto himself that so wee may ever be prepared for that from which we can never be secure Let us not then put off necessary duties to uncertaine times let us not turne Prodigals in our youth in hope of I know not how many yeares are yet to come to cry Peccavi in our age For what know wee but that even in the midst of our jollitie when we shall say unto our soule Take thy ease and be merry what know wee but that even then we may be arrested with a Thou foole this night shall thy Soule be taken from thee and then as the Tree falls so it must lye Quid enim saeculi potest esse diuturnum Ambros in Luc. lib. 4. cap. 5. cum ipsa saecula non sint diuturna For why should wee presume of our life or any thing else to continue long in this world when as the world it self hath not long to continue Secondly Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth because though thou wert sure to live and wert resolv'd to sinne when thou art young yet thou art not sure to repent when thou art old and therefore why shouldst thou venture on a certaine disease upon so uncertaine a remedy For the Grace of GOD it is like the Poole of Bethesda and cureth but at set times and therefore with the Cripples in the Gospell we must waite all opportunities and call upon the name of the LORD not when our selves at leysure shall bee pleas'd to seeke after him but when hee in his mercy will vouchsafe to be found of us Indeed some Examples wee finde in holy Scripture of men who have made but a short passage unto Heaven and having not set forward toward CHRIST till they came unto full yeares have yet liv'd to overtake him before they came unto the grave The Thiefe we reade it in the Gospell in one and the same day