for which he gave it and so as it be withal subservient to his glory that gave it And the law of Charity binding us to honour all men and to preserve the just reputation of our meanest neighbour must consequently bind us to do our selves right in the point of honour for as much as we also as men are included in that generality Yea and that à fortiori too in as much as the duty of Charity to be performed to our selves is to be the rule and measure of that Charity which we owe to our neighbour and it is not supposable that he that hath little care of his own should be meetly tender of his brothers reputation 34. Consider secondly as but now I touched that it is partly in our own power what other men shall speak and think of us Not that we are Lords either of their tongues or thoughts for men generally and wicked men especially challenge a property in these two things as absolute Lords within themselves Our tongues are our own say they and Thought is free But that we may if we behave our selves with godly discretion win good report even from those that in their hearts wish no good to us or at least put such a muzzle upon their tongues that whereas they would with all their hearts speak evil of us as of evil doers they shall not dare for shame to accuse our good conversation in Christ. For who is he that will harm you saith St Peter if ye be followers of that which is good as if he had said Men that have any shame left in them will not lightly offer to do you any harme or to say any harme by you unless by some miscariage or other of your own you give them the advantage The old saying that every man is Fortunae suae faber and so Famae too is not altogether without truth and reason For seldome doth a man miscarry in the success of his affairs in the world or labour of an ill name but where himself by some sinful infirmity or negligence some rashness credulity indiscretion or other oversight hath made a way open for it This I note the rather because it falleth out not seldome to be the fate or fault of very good men biassed too much by selfe love and partiality to impute such crosses and disgraces as they sometimes meet withall wholy to the injuries of wicked men which if they would search narrowly at home they might perhaps finde reason enough sometimes to impute at least in part unto themselves When by busie intermedling where they need not by their heat violence and intemperance of spirit in setting on those things they would fain have done or opposing those things they would faine hinder by their too much stiffeness or peremptoriness either way concerning the use of indifferent things without due consideration of times places persons and other circumstances by partaking with those they think well of so far as to the justifying of their very errors and exorbitances and denying on the other side to such as are not of their own way such faire and just respects as to men of their condition are in common civility due or by some other like partialities and excesses they provoke opposition against themselves their persons and good names from such men especially as do but wait an opportunity and would greedily apprehend any occasion to do them some displeasure or disgrace 35. That it may be otherwise and better with you Beloved ponder well I beseech you what our Solomon wrote long since Prov. 19. The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord or which cometh to one against such persons as the Lord is pleased to make use of as his rods wherewith to give him due correction Neither cast off this care of your good names by any pretensions of impossibility which is another Topique of Sophistry wherewith Satan teacheth us to cheat our selves It is indeed and I confess it something a hard thing and not simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have every mans good word but I may not yield it impossible Demetrius hath good report of all men and of the truth it self saith S. Iohn Do you what in you lyeth towards it and if then men will yet be unjust and speak evil of you undeservedly you have your comforts in God and in Christ and some comfort also in the testimony of your own hearts that you have faithfully done what was to be done on your part to prevent it and by walking honestly and wisely to cut off occasion from them that seek occasion But so far as you have been wanting to your selves in doing your part so much you take off both from their blame and from your own comfort It concerneth you to have a great care of preserving your good names because by your care you may do much in it 36. Consider thirdly that a good name is far easier kept then recovered Men that have had losses in sundry kinds have in time had some reparations Sampsons locks were shorne off but grew again Iobs goods and cattel driven but restored again the widows childe dead but revived again the sheep and the goat in the parable lost but found again But the good name once lost the loss is little better then desperate He had need be a good gamster they say and to have very good fortune too that is to play an after-game of reputation The shipwrack of a good Name though in most and the most considerable respects it be incomparably less yet in this one circumstance it is in some sort even greater then the shipwrack of a good Conscience The loss there may be recovered again by Repentance which is tabula secunda post naufragium as in Act. 27. some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship got all safe to land But when our good names are shipwrackt all is so shattered in pieces that it will be hard to finde so much as a board or plank to bring us ashore And the Reason of the difference is manifest which is this When we have made shipwrack of our Consciences we fall into the hands of God whose mercies are great and his compassions fail not and who if we timely and unfainedly repent is both able and willing to restore us But when we make shipwrack of our good names we fall into the hands of men whose bowels are narrow their tenderest mercies cruel and their charity too weak and faint to raise up our credit again after it is once ruined I have some times in my private thoughts likened a flaw in the Conscience and a flaw in the good name to the breaking of a bone in the body and the breaking of a Chrystal glass or China dish at the table In the mischance there is no comparison a man had better break twenty glasses or Dishes at his table then one
peace with us The Antecedent in those former words when a mans wayes please the Lord The Consequent in these latter He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him Of the Antecedent first wherein three things are observable The Subject the Act and the Object The subject A mans wayes The act Pleasing The object the Lord. Each of which are first to be open'd apart for the clearer understanding of the words and then to be lay'd together again for the better enforcement of the thing contained therein when a mans wayes please the Lord. 2. A man's wayes That is the subject A man's whole carriage in the course of his life with all his thoughts speeches and actions whether good or bad are by an usual Metaphor in the Scriptures called The wayes of a Man And of these Wayes Solomon speaketh rather then of his Person Because it is possible the Lord may graciously accept some man's person and yet take just exception at some of his wayes 1. For thus it is When a man walketh in the beaten track of the world without ever turning his feet into God's testimonies neither that man nor his wayes can please the Lord. 2. Again when a man walketh conscionably and constantly in the good wayes of God without turning aside either on the right hand or on the left both that man and his wayes are pleasing unto God 3. But then again thirdly when a man in the more constant course of his life walketh uprightly and in a right way but yet in some few particularities treadeth awry either failing in his judgment or transported with passion or drawn on by the example or perswasion of others or miscarrying through his own negligence incogitancy or other subreption or overcome by the strength of some prevalent temptation or from what other cause soever it may proceed I say when a man thus walking with God in the main hath yet these outsteppings and deviations upon the by neither acted presumptuously nor issuing from a heart habitually evil although the person of such a man may still be accepted with God in Christ and his wayes also be well pleasing unto God in regard of the main bent thereof yet in regard of such his sinful deviations those particular passages in his wayes do not at all please but rather highly displease the sacred Majesty of God 3. That for the Subject The Act is Pleasing and pleasing hath reference to acceptation Wherein the endeavour is one thing and the event another Fortuitum est placere we use to say A man may have a full intention and do his best endeavour to please and yet fail of his end the event not answering his expectation Which is most apparent when we have to deal with men For not only mens dispositions are various one from another and so there is no possibility of pleasing all because what would please one man perhaps will not please another But even the same man is not alike disposed at all times and so there can be no certainty of pleasing any Because what would please him at one time perhaps will not please him at another Now in propriety of speech to please signifieth rather the event in finding acceptance then the endeavour in seeking it But when it undergoeth a moral consideration it is quite contrary Then it importeth not so much the event which being not in our power ought not to be imputed to us either to our praise or dispraise as the intention and endeavour So as he may be said to please in a moral sense that doth his best endeavour to please however he speed as S. Paul saith of himself that he pleased all men in all things which in the event doubtless he neither did for we know he had many adversaries neither could do the thing it self being altogether impossible But he did it in his intention and endeavour as he sundry times expoundeth himself If it be demanded whether of the two is rather meant in the Text I answer both are meant The endeavour principally and consequently also the event For by reason of Gods goodness and unchangableness there may be a good assurance of the event where the desire of pleasing is unfained and the endeavour faithful As it was told Cain in Genesis If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted We may do well and not finde acceptance with men but was there ever any thing in the world well done and the Lord accepted it not That for the Act Pleasing 4. But actus distinguuntur secundùm objecta Whatsoever the ways are it is a part of every mans intention to please howsoever it is the Object especially that maketh the difference All men strive to please but some to please themselves some to please other men and some few to please the Lord. There be that regard not either the displeasure of God or man so they may but please themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is S. Peters word it signifieth as much as self-pleasers Translations have well rendred it self-willed men that will have their own way in every thing that will speak their pleasure of every man that will say what they list and do what they list let who will take offence at it S. Peter in the same place where he hath given us the name hath also given us part of their character Presumptuous are they saith he and they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities For commonly you may observe it they that love to please themselves seldome please themselves better then when they have with most petulancy of spleen vented their disaffection towards them that are in authority Which for the most part proceedeth from an overweening conceit they have of their own either wisdom or wit although in S. Augustines judgement they are quite devoid of both whose censure of them is sharp Vade stulto homini placet qui sibi placet He that casteth to please himself casteth to please a very foole Nor are they only void of wisdome in his but in S. Paul's judgement also of Christianity who voucheth against them Christ's example For even Christ pleased not himself Rom. 15. 5. Beside S. Peters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these self-pleasers there are also Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men-pleasers And what is that a fault to To please other me◠out of a Christian indulgence by condescending to their weakness and gratifying them in the exercise of that liberty and power we have in things of indifferent nature is so far from being a fault that it is rather a commendable office of Christian charity which every man ought to practice Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good unto edification But that must be only in lawful things and so far forth as may tend to edification and subordinately to a greater care of pleasing God in the first place But if we shall seek to please men beyond this by doing for their
sakes any unlawful thing or leaving undone any necessary duty by accompanying them in their sins or advancing their designes in any thing that may offend God then are we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men-pleasers in an evil sense and our wayes will not please the Lord. S. Paul who in one place professeth men-pleasing Even as I please all men in all things taking it in the better sence protesteth against it as much in another place If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ. taking it in the worse sense 6. To draw to a head then we may please our selves and we should seek to please our brethren where these may be done and the Lord pleased withal But when the same wayes will not please all we ought not to be carefull to satisfie others in their unreasonable expectancies much less our selves in our own inordinate appetites but disregarding both our selves and them bend all our studies and endeavours to this one point how we may approve our hearts and our wayes unto the Lord that is to God the only Lord and our Lord Iesus Christ. God and Christ must be in the final resolution the sole object of our pleasing which is the substance of the whole words of the Antecedent laid together which we have hitherto considered apart and commeth now to be handled The handling whereof we shall despatch in three enquiries whereof two concern the Endeavour and one the event For it may be demanded first what necessity of pleasing God and if it be needfull then secondly how and by what means it may be done and both these belong to the endeavour and then it may be demanded thirdly concerning the event upon what ground it is that any of our endeavours should please God Of which in their order 7. First that we should endeavour so to walk as to please God The Apostle needed not to have prayed so earnestly as he doth Col. 1. and that without ceasing neither to have adjured us so deeply as he doth 1 Thes. 4. even by the Lord Iesus if it did not both well become us in point of Duty and also much concern us in point of wisdome so to do First it is a Duty whereunto we stand bound by many obligations He is our Master our Captain our Father our King every of which respects layeth a several necessity upon us of doing our endeavour to please him if at least there be in us any care to discharge with faithfulness and as we ought the parts of Servants of Souldiers of Sons of Subjects 8. First he is our Master Ye call me Lord and Master and ye say well for so I am and we are his Servants O Lord I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid And he is no honest servant that will not strive to please his Master exhort servants to obey their own Masters and to please them well in all things Tit. 2. Next he is our Captain It became him to make the Captain of their salvation perfect and we are his Souldiers thou therefore endure hardness as a good souldier of Iesus Christ saith St. Paul to Timothy We received our prest-mony and book'd our names to serve in his wars when we bound our selves by solemn vow and took the Sacrament upon it in our baptism manfully to fight under his banner against sin the world and the Devill and to continue his faithful souldiers unto our lives end And he is no generous Souldier that will not strive to please his General No man that warreth entangleth himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a Saviour 2 Tim. 2. Thirdly He is our Father and we his Children I will be a father to you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty and when we have any thing of him we readily speak him by the name of Father and that by his own direction saying Our Father which art in heaven And that Son hath neither grace nor good nature in him that will not strive to please his Father It is noted as one of Esau's impieties whom the Scripture hath branded as a profane person that grieved and displeased his parents in the choice of his wives If I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. Lastly He is our King The Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods and we are his subjects his people and the sheep of his pasture and he is no loyal Subject that will not strive to please his lawful Soveraign That form of speech if it please the King so frequent in the mouth of Nehemiah was no affected strain of Courtship but a just expression of duty otherwise that religious man would never have used it 9. And yet there may be a time wherein all those obligations may cease of pleasing our earthly Masters or Captains or Parents or Princes If it be their pleasure we should do something that lawfully we may not we must disobey though we displease Onely be we sure that to colour an evil disobedience we do not pretend an unlawfulness where there is none But we can have no colour of plea for refusing to do the pleasure of our heavenly Lord and Master in any thing whatsoever in as much as we are sure nothing will please him but what is just and right With what forehead then can any of us challenge from him either wages as Servants or stipends as Soldiers or provision as Sons or protection as Subjects if we be not careful in every respect to frame our selves in such sort as to please him you see it is our duty so to do 10. Yea and our Wisdom too in respect of the great benefits we shall reap thereby There is one great benefit expressed in the Text If we please the Lord he will make our enemies to be at peace with us of which more anon The Scriptures mention many other out of which number I propose but these three First if we please him he will preserve us from sinful temptations Solomon Eccles. 7. speaking of the strange woman whose heart is as nets and snares and her hands as bands saith that whoso pleaseth the Lord shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her He that displeaseth God by walking in the by-paths of sin God shall with-hold his grace from him and he shall be tempted and foyled but whoso pleaseth God by walking in his holy wayes God shall so assist him with his grace that when he is tempted he shall escape And that is a very great benefit Secondly if we please him he will hear our prayers and grant our petitions in whatsoever we ask if what we ask be agreeable to his will and expedient for our good whatsoever we ask we know we receive of him because we keep his
to be jealous over our selves with a godly jealousie would not only work in us a due consideration of our wayes that so we might amend them if there be cause but would be also of right use to prevent two notable pieces of sophistry two egregious fallacies wherewith thousands of us deceive our selves The former fallacy is that we use many times especially when our enemies do us manifest wrong to impute our sufferings wholy to their iniquity whereof we should do wiselier to take some of the blame upon our selves Not at all to excuse them whose proceedings are unjust and for which they shall bear their own burthens But to acquit the Lords proceedings who still is just even in those things wherein men are unjust Their hearts and tongues and hands are against us only out of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that superfluity of maliciousness wherewith their naughty hearts abound and for to serve their own cursed ends which is most unjust in them But the Lord sundry times hardneth their hearts and whetteth their tongues and strengtheneth their hands against us in such sort to chasten us for some sinfull error neglect or lust in part still remaining in us unsubdued which is most just in him 32. For as I touched in the beginning a mans heart may be right in the main and his wayes well-pleasing unto God in regard of the general bent and intention of them and yet by wrying aside in some one or a few particulars he may so offend the Lord as that he may in his just displeasure for it either raise him up new enemies or else continue the old ones As a loving father that hath entertained a good opinion of his son and is well pleased with his behaviour in the generality of his carriage because he seeth him in most things dutifull and towardly may yet be so far displeased with him for some particular neglects as not only to frown upon him but to give him sharp correction also Sic parvis componere magna Not much otherwise is it in the dealing of our heavenly Father with his children We have an experiment of it in David with whom doubtless God was well pleased for the main course of his life otherwise he had never received that singular testimony from his own mouth that he was secundum cor a man after his own heart yet because he stepped aside and that very foulely in the matter of Vriah The Text saith 2 Sam. 11. that the thing that David had done displeased the Lord and that which followed upon it in the ensuing chapters was the Lord raised up enemies against him for it out of his own house 33. The other fallacy is when we cherish in our selves some sinful errors either in judgement or practice as if they were the good wayes of God the rather for this that we have enemies and meet with opposition as if the enmity of men were an infallible mark of a right way The words of the Text ye see seem rather to incline quite the other way Indeed the very truth is neither the favour or disfavour of men neither their approving nor opposing is any certain mark at all either of a good or of a bad way Our Solomon hath delivered it positively and we ought to believe him Eccl. 9. that no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them It is an error therefore of dangerous consequence to think that the enmity of the wicked is an undoubted mark either of truth or goodness Not only for that it wanteth the warrant of truth to support it which is common to it with all other errors but for two other especial reasons besides The one is because through blinde selfe-love we are apt to dote upon our own opinions more then we ought How confidently do some men boast out their own private fansies and unwarranted singularities as if they were the God! The other reason is because through wretched uncharitableness we are apt to stretch the title of the wicked further then we ought How freely do some men condemne all that think or do otherwise then themselves but especially that any way oppose their courses as if they were the wicked of the world and Persecutors of the godly 34. For the avoiding of both which mischiefs it is needful we should rightly both understand and apply all those places of Scripture which speak of that Opposition which is sometimes made against truth and goodness which opposition the holy Ghost in such like places intended not to deliver as a mark of godliness but rather to propose as an Antidote against worldly fears and discouragements That if in a way which we know upon other and impregnable evidences to be certainly right we meet with opposition we should not be dismaid at it as if some strange thing had befallen us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beloved think it not strange saith S. Peter concerning all such trials as these are as if some strange thing had hapned because it is a thing that at any time may and sometimes doth happen But now to make such opposition a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mark whereby infallibly to judge of our wayes whether they be right or no as some out of the strength of their heat and ignorance have done is to abuse the holy Scriptures to pervert the meaning of the Holy Ghost and to lead men into a maze of uncertainty and error We had all of us need therefore to beware that we doe not like our own wayes so much the better because we have enemies it is much safer for us to suspect lest there may be something in us otherwise then should be for which the Lord suffereth us to have enemies 35. And now the God of grace and peace give us all grace to order our wayes so as may be pleasing in his sight and grant to every one of us First perfect peace with him and in our own consciences and then such a measure of outward peace both publick and private with all our enemies round about us as shall seem good in his sight And let the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep our hearts and mindes in the knowledge and love of him and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord And let the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the holy Ghost be upon us and upon all them that hear his word and keep it at this present time and for evermore Amen Amen AD AULAM. Sermon III. NEWARKE 1633. 1 Pet. 2.17 Honour all men Love the Brotherhood 1. WHen the Apostles preached the Doctrine of Christian liberty a fit opportunity was ministred for Satans instruments to work their feats upon the new-converted Christians false Teachers on the one side and false Accusers on the other For taking advantage from the very name of Liberty the Enemies of their Souls were ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to teach them under that pretence
and to break the confederacies of the ungodly Destroy their tongues O Lord and divide them is holy Davids prayer Psal. 55. And S. Paul when he stood before the Sanhedrim at Ierusalem to take off his malicious accusers the better perceiving both the Iudges and by-standers to be of two different factions some Pharisees who beleeved a resurection and other-some Sadduces who denied it did very wisely to cast a bone among them When by proclaiming himself a Pharisee and professing his belief of the resurrection he raised such a dissension between the two factions that the whole multitude was divided insomuch as the chief Captain was fain to use force to get Paul from amid the uprore and to carry him away by which means all their intended proceedings against him were stopt for that time 40. But the Vnity that is to be prayed for and to be laboured for in the Christian Church is a Christian Vnity that is to say a happy concord in walking lovingly together in the same path of Truth and Godliness The word of Christ is the word of truth and the mystery of Christ the mystery of Godliness Whatsoever therefore is contrary to either of these Truth or Godliness cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Christ but rather altogether against him Here then we have our bounds set us our Ne plus ultra beyond which if we pass we transgress and are exorbitant Alas for us the while when ever our good desires may deceive us if they be inordinate and the love of so lovely a thing as Peace is mis-lead us The more need have we to look narrowly to our treadings lest the tempter should have laid a snare for us in a way wherein we suspected it not and so surprise us â—re we be aware Vsque ad aras The altar-stone that is the meer-stone All bonds of friendship all offices of neighbourhood must give way when the honour of God and his truth lye at the stake If peace will be had upon fair terms or indeed upon any terms salvis veritate pietate without impeachment of either of these it ought to be embraced But if it will not come but upon harder conditions better let it goe A man may buy gold too dear Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. The gender of the article there sheweth the meaning not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which Peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which holiness no man shall see the Lord. Without peace some man may having faithfully endeavoured it though he cannot obtain it for that is not his fault but without holiness which if any man want it is through his own fault only no man shall see the Lord. Our like-mindedness then must be according to Christ Iesus in this first sense that is so far forth as may stand with Christian truth and godliness 41. But very many Expositors do rather understand the phrase in another sense According to Christ that is according to the example of Christ which seemeth to have been the judgement of our last Translators who have therefore so put it in the margent of your Bibles His Example the Apostle had reserved unto the last place as one of the weightiest and most effectual arguments in this business producing it a little before the Text and repeating it again a little after the Text. So as this Prayer may seem according to this interpretation to be an illustration of that argument which was drawn from Christs Example as if he had said Christ sought not himself but us He laid aside his own glory devested himself of Majesty and Excellency that he might condescend to our baseness and bear our infirmities he did not despise us but received us with all meekness and compassion Let not us therefore seek every man to please himself in going his own way and setting up his own will neither let us despise any mans weakness but rather treading in the steps of our blessed Lord Iesus let every one of us strive to please his neighbour for his good unto edification bearing with the infirmities of our weaker brethren and receiving one another in our inwardest bosomes and bowels even as Christ also received us to the glory of God 42. If the examples of the servants of Christ ought not to be lightly set by how much more ought the Example of the Master himself to sway with every good Christian In 1 Cor. 10. St Paul having delivered an exhortation in general the same in effect with that we are now in hand withall verse 24. Let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth he doth after propose to their imitation in that point his own particular practise and example in the last verse of the Chapter Even as I please all men in all things saith he not seeking mine own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved But then lest he might be thought to cry up himself and that we might know how unsafe a thing it were to rest barely upon his or any other mans example in the very next following words the first words of the next Chapter he leadeth them higher and to a more perfect example even that of Christ Be ye followers of me saith he as I also am of Christ. As if he had said Although my example who am as nothing be little considerable in it self yet wherein my example is guided by the example of Christ you may not despise it The original record only is authentical and not the transcript yet may a transcript be creditable when it is signed and attested with a Concordat cum originali under the hand of a publick notary or other sworn officer I do not therefore lay mine own example upon you as a Rule I only set it before you as a help or Encouragement that you may the more cheerfully follow the Example of Christ when you shall see men subject to the same sinful infirmities with your selves by the grace of God to have done the same before you My example only sheweth the thing to be feisable it is Christs Example only that can render it warrantable Be ye therefore followers of me even as I also am of Christ. 43. Here just occasion is offered me but I may not take it because of the time first and more generally of a very profitable Enquiry in what things and how far forth we are astricted to follow the example of Christ. And then secondly and more particularly what especial directions to take from his example for the ordering of our carriage towards our brethren in order to the more ready attaining of this Christian unanimity and likemindedness one towards another of which we have hitherto spoken But I remit you over for both to what our Apostle hath written Phil. 2. in the whole fore-part of the Chapter The whole passage is very well worthy the pondering
feet or our wayes will not please the Lord. Deus non volens iniquitatem he is a God that hath no pleasure in wickednesse Ps. 5. 17. We have hitherto enquired into the Reasons why we should endeavour to please the Lord and into the Means how it may best be done There remains yet a third enquiry which concerneth the success or the Event and that is how it commeth about that such poore things as our best endeavours are should so far find acceptance with the Lord as to please him Likenesse indeed will please and Obedience will please But then it should be such a likenesse as will hold at least some tolerable proportion with the exemplar such Obedience as will punctually answer the command and such is not ours True it is if the Lord should look upon our very best endeavours as they come from us and respect us but according to our merit he might finde in every step we tread just matter of offence in none of acceptance If he should mark what is done amiss and be extreme in it no flesh living could be able to please him It must be therefore upon other and better grounds then any desert in us or in our wayes that God is graciously pleased to accept either of us or them The Apostle hath discovered two of those grounds and joyned them both together in a short passage in Heb. 13. Now the God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ. Implying that our good works are pleasing unto him upon these two grounds First because he worketh them in us Secondly because he looketh upon us and them in Christ. 18. First because he worketh them in us As we see most men take pleasure in the rooms of their own contriving in the engines and manufactures of their own devising in the fruits of those trees which themselves have planted Now the crooked wayes of evil men that walk according to the course of the world are indeed the works of the Devil he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes. 2. such works there fore may please the Devil whose they are But it is not possible they should please God who sent his Son into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the Devil And as for those strayings also and outsteppings whereof Gods faithfullest servants are now and then guilty although they be not the works of the Devil for he hath not now so much power over them as to work in them yet are they still the works of the flesh as they are called Gal. 5. such works therefore may be pleasing to the flesh whose they are but they are so far from being pleasing unto God that they rather grieve his holy Spirit The works then that must please God are such as himself hath wrought in us by that his holy Spirit which are therefore called the fruits of the spirit in the same Gal. 5. as it is said by the Prophet O Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us And again in the Psalm The Lord ordereth a good mans wayes and maketh them acceptable unto himself they are therefore acceptable unto him because they are ordered by him 19. That is one ground The other is because God looketh not upon us as we are in our selves neither dealeth with us according to the rigour of a legall Covenant but he beholdeth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the face of his beloved one even Jesus Christ his onely son and as under a Covenant of Grace He is his beloved Son in whom alone he is well pleased for his own sake and in whom and for whose sake alone it is if at any time he be well pleased with any of us or with any of our wayes For being by him and through faith in his Name made the children of God by adoption and grace he is now pleased with us as a loving father is with his beloved childe As a loving father taketh in good part the willing endeavors of his childe to do whatsoever he appointeth him though his performances be very small So the Lord is graciously pleased to accept of us and our weak services according to that willingness we have and not according to that exactness we want not weighing our merits but pardoning our offences and passing by our imperfections as our loving Father in Iesus Christ. That is the other ground 20. And we doubt not but the acceptance we finde with God upon these two grounds if seasonably applied will sustain the soul of every one that truly feareth God with strong comfort against two great and common discouragements whereunto he may be subject arising the one from the sense of mens displeasure the other from the conscience of his own imperfections Sometimes God and his own heart condemn him not and yet the world doth and that troubleth him Sometimes God and the world condem him not yet his own heart doth and that troubleth him more If at any time it be either thus or so with any of us Let us remember but thus much and we shal find comfort in it That although we can neither please other men at all nor our selves sufficiently yet our works may for all that be graciously accepted by our good God and so our wayes may please the Lord. 21. But I forbeare the amplification of these comforts that I may proceed from the Antecedent in those former words when a mans wayes please the Lord of which I have spoken hitherto unto the consequent in the remaining words he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him Wherein also as in the former part we have three things observable The Persons The effect The Author The Persons a mans enemies The effect Peace The author the Lord. He maketh a mans enemies to be at peace with him The words being of an easie understanding will therefore need the less opening Onely thus much briefly First for the persons they that wish him ill or seek to do him harm in his person estate or good name they are a mans enemies And Solomon here supposeth it possible that a man whose wayes please the Lord may yet have enemies Nay it is scarce possible it should be otherwise Inimici Domestici rather then fail Satan will stir him up enemies out of his own house 2. And these enemies are then said to be at pleace with him which is the Effect when either there is a change wrought in their affections so as they now begin to bear him less ill will then formerly they have done or when at leastwise their evil affections towards him are so bridled or their power so restrained as not to break out into open hostility but whatsoever their thoughts are within to carry themselves fairly and peaceably towards
him outwardly so as he is at a kinde of peace with them or howsoever sustaineth no harm by them Either of which when it is done it is thirdly Mutatio dexterae excelsi it is meerly the Lords doing and it may well be marvelous in our eyes It is he that maketh a mans enemies to be at peace with him 22. The scope of the whole words is to instruct us that the fairest and likeliest way for us to procure peace with men is to order our wayes so as to please the Lord. You shall therefore finde the favour of God and the favour of men often joyned together in the Scriptures as if one were and so usually it is a consequent of the other so it is said of our blessed Saviour Luke 2 that he encreased in favour with God and men My son let not mercy and truth forsake thee c. so shalt thou finde favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man saith our Solomon Prov. 3. And S. Paul Rom. 14. he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men In all which places favour and acceptation with God goeth before favour and approbation with men followeth after 23. You may see the proof of it in the whole course of the sacred story wherein the lords dealing with his own people in this kinde is remarkable When they started aside to walk after their own counsels displeased him how he stirred them up enemies round about them how he sold them into the hands of those that spoiled them how he hardned the hearts of all those that contended with them that they should not pitty them Againe on the other side when they believed his word walked in his wayes and pleased him how he raised them up friends how he made their enemies to bow under them how he enclined the hearts of strangers and of Pagans to pitty them Instances are obvious and therefore I omit them 24. Of which Effect the first and principall cause is none other then the overruling hand of God who not only disposeth of all outward things according to the good pleasure of his will but hath also in his hands the hearts of all men even of the greatest Kings as the rivers of water to turn them which way soever he will as our Solomon speaketh at the 21th ch of this Book The original there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Palge maijm as you would say the divisions of waters Which is not to be understood of the great rivers though the greatest of them all even the wide and great Sea also is in the hands of God to turne which way soever he will as he turned the waters of the red sea backwards to let his people goe through and then turned them forward again to overwhelme their enemies But the allusion there is clearly to the little trenches whereby in those drier Eastern countries husbandmen used to derive water from some fountain or cistern to the several parts of their gardens for the better nourishing of their herbs and fruit-trees Now you know when a gardner hath cut many such trenches all over his garden with what ease he can turne the water out of any one into any other of those channels suffering it to runne so long in one as he thinketh good and then stopping it thence and deriving it into another even as it pleaseth him and as he seeth it most conducible for the necessities of his garden With much more ease can the Lord stop the current of any mans favour and affections in the course wherein it presently runneth and turne it quite into another channel drying it up against one man and deriving it upon another even as it seemeth good in his sight and as will best serve other his holy and just purposes whether he intend to chastise his children or to comfort them or to exercise any other part or passage of his blessed providence upon them Thus he gave his people favour in the sight of the Egyptians so as they lent them all their precious things at their departure who but a little before had consulted the rooting out the whole generation of them And thus after that in his just displeasure against them for their sins he had given them over into captivity into their enemies hands when he was pleased again with their humiliations he not only pittied them himself according to the multitude of his mercies but he turned the hatred of their enemies also into compassion and made all those that had led them away captives to pitty them as it is in Psalm 106. 25. The Lord is a God of power and therefore can work such effects as he pleaseth for our peace without any apparent means on our parts But being withall a God of order for the most part therefore and in the ordinary course of his providence he worketh his own purposes by second causes and subordinate means At least he hath so tied us to the use of probable means for the bringing about of what he hath promised that although we ought to be perswaded he can yet we may not presume he will work our good without our endeavours Now the subordinate means to be used on our part without which we cannot reasonably expect that God should make our enemies to be at peace with us is our faire and amiable conversation with others For who will harme you if ye be followers of that which is good saith S. Peter As if he had said so long as you carry your selves graciously and wisely if the hearts of your enemies will not be so far wrought upon as to love and affect you yet their mouths will be muzled and their hands manacled from breaking out into any outragious either tearms or actions of open hostility so as you shall enjoy your peace with them in some measure Though they meane you no good yet they shall doe you no harme 26. But it may be objected both from scripture and experience that sundry times when a mans wayes are right and therefore pleasing unto God his enemies are nothing less if not perhaps much more enraged against him then formerly they were Our Saviour often foretold his Disciples that they should be hated of all men for his sake And David complaineth in Psalm 38. of some that were against him eo nomine and for that very reason because he was a follower of that which was good What a seeming distance is there between the Prophets and the Apostles speeches or else how may they be reconciled Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good saith the one Yea saith the other there are some agaiâ—st me even therefore because I follow that which is good As if by seeking to please God he had rather lost his friends then gained his enemies 27. There are sundry considerations that may be of good use to us
wealthy and with the despitefulness of the proud but he doth not say it should be so Iobs carriage was otherwise in so far that he disavoweth it and protesteth against it utterly If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they contended with me c. He would affoord the meanest servants he had the honour to debate the matter with them and if there were reason on their side to allow it The greatest subject in the land need not think it any disparagement to him to give a just respect to a very mean person if he will but remember that it is the duty even of the King himself to vouchsafe that honour to the poorest begger within his Realm as to protect him from violence and to require an account of his bloud though it should be spilt by the hand of a Lord. 17. And yet behold a greater then Iob although I take it he was a King too within his own territories a greater then any of the great Kings of the earth ready to teach us this duty by his example even our Lord Iesus Christ and the same minde should be in us that was in him And what was that He was pleased so far to honour us base sinful unworthy creatures as we were as for our sakes to lay aside his own greatness emptying and devesting himself of glory and Majestie making himself of no reputation and taking upon him the form of a servant Ill do they follow either his Example or his Apostles Doctrine here who think themselves too good to condescend to men of low estate by doing them any office of service or respect though they need it never so much crave it never so oft deserve it never so well And they who look another way in the day of their brothers distress as the Priest and Levite passed by the wounded man in the parable without regard And not to multiply particulars all they who having power and opportunity thereunto neglect either to reward those that have worth in them according to their merit or to protect those that are wronged according to their innocency or to relieve those that are in want according to their necessity 18. There are a third sort that corrupt a good Text with an ill gloss by putting in a conditional limitation like the bodging in of a course shred into a fine garment as thus The Magistrate shall have his tribute the Minister his tythe and so every other man his due honour if so be he carry himself worthily and as he ought to do in his place and so as to deserve it In good time But I pray you then first to argue the cause a little with thee who ever thou art that thus glossest Who must judge of his carriage and whether he deserve such honour yea or no Why that thou hopest thou art well enough able to do thy self Sure we cannot but expect good justice where he that is a party will allow no other to be judge but himself Where the debter must arbitrate what is due to the creditor things are like to come to a fair reckoning 19. But secondly how dar'st thou distinguish where the Law distinguishes not Where God commandeth he looketh to be answered with Obedience and doest thou think to come off with subtilties and distinctions The precept here in the Text is plain and peremptory admitteth no Equivocation Exception or Reservation suggesteth nothing that should make it reasonable to restrain the Vniversality expressed therein by any such limitation and therefore will not endure to be eluded with any forced Gloss. 20. Least of all thirdly with such a Gloss as the Apostle hath already precluded by his own comment in the next verse where he biddeth servants to be subject to their Masters not only to the good and gentle but to the froward also and such as would be ready to buffet them when they had done no fault Such Masters sure could challenge no great honour from their servants titulo meriti and as by way of desert But yet there belonged to them jure dominij and by vertue of their Mastership the honour of Obedience and Subjection Which honour due unto them by that right they had a good title to and it might not be detained from them either in part or in whole by cavilling at their desert 21. But tell me fourthly in good earnest dost thou beleeve that another mans neglect of his duty can discharge thee from the obligation of thine dic Quintiliane colorem Canst thou produce any publick Law or private Contract or sound Reason wherenn to ground or but handsome Colour wherewith to varnish over such an imagination Fac quod tuum est do thou thy part therefore and honour him according to his place howsoever He shall answer and not thou for his unworthiness if he deserve it not but thou alone shalt answer for the neglect of thine own duty if thou performest it not 22. Lastly ex ore tuo When thou sayest thou wilt honour him according to his place if he deserve it dost thou not observe that thou art still unjust by thy own confession For where place and merit concur there is a double honour due The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour 1 Tim. 5. There is one honour due to the place and another to merit He that is in the place though without desert is yet worthy of a single honour for his place sake and justice requireth he should have it But if he deserve well in his place by rightly discharging his duty therein he is then worthy of a double honour and justice requireth he should have that too Consider now how unjust thou art If he deserve well sayest thou he shall have the honour due to his place otherwise not Thou mightest as well say in plain terms If he be worthy of double honour I can be content to afford the single otherwise he must be content to goe without any Now what justice what conscience in this dealing where two parts are due to allow but one and where one is due to allow just none 23. But I proceed no further in this argument having purposely omitted sundry things that occurred to my meditations herein and contracted the rest that I might have time to speak something to the later precept also Love the brotherhood To which I now pass hoping to dispatch it with convenient brevity observing the same method as before Quid nominis Quid juris Quid facti What we are to do and Why and how we performe it 24. First then for the meaning of the words we must know that as Adam and Christ are the two roots of mankinde Adam as in state of Nature and Christ as in a state of Grace so there is a twofold Brotherhood amongst men correspondent thereunto First a Brotherhood of Nature by propagation from the loines of Adam as we are men and secondly a
of God and that of Scripture or of the Word of God In that he readeth the Power in this the Will of his Maker That declareth his Glory this revealeth his Pleasure That from the beginning of the Psalm The heavens declare the glory of God c. to the end of the sixth verse This from the beginning of the seventh verse The Law of the Lord is perfect c. to the end of the eleventh verse 3. Hence coming to reflect upon himself he hath now use of a third Book that of his own conscience wherein are enrolled the principal acts and passages of his whole life That by a just service of the particulars therein enregistred he might observe what proportion he had held in the course of his by-past life both with that actual obedience which some other creatures perform in their kindes as also and that especially with that exact obedience which the Law of God requireth in his word At the very first opening whereof before he read a line of the particulars his known sins presenting them in such numberless troops unto his thoughts besides a world of unknown ones as not a little agast to see so large a Roll so full and so thick written intus à tergo he is forced to break out into this passionate acknowledgment Quis intelligit What living soule is able to understand all his errors Who can tell how oft he hath offended in the next former verse 4. But quid tristes querimoniae Misery findeth small ease in bare and barren complaints it rather craveth real and speedy succour The Prophet therefore upon the first apprehension of the multitude of his sins instantly addresseth himself unto God for remedy by Prayer And his suit therein is double the one for Mercy for the time past the other for Grace for the time to come The one that he might be freed from the guilt and defilement of the sins he had hitherto done known or unknown O cleanse thou me even from my most secret sins in the remainder of that verse The other that he might be preserved from contracting the guilt or falling under the dominion of any sin thence forward especially of any high grievous presumptuous sin in this thirteenth verse keep back c. 5. The words then are a Prayer wherein we may observe distinctly and apart the Object matter of the Prayer the Petitions made concerning that Object and the Reasons brought to enforce those Petitions The Particulars in all five First and principally the Object matter of the whole Prayer those sins concerning and against which the Prayer is made stiled here in our translations Presumptuous Sins Secondly and Thirdly two Petitions concerning those sins The one antecedently that God would not suffer him to fall into them keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins 3. The other by way of reserve that at least he would not suffer him to fall under the dominion of them Let them that have dominion over me Fourthly and fifthly two Reasons fitted to the aforesaid Petitions The one fitted to the former Petition taken from his relative condition as being one of Gods servants Of all sorts of men Presumption is most hatefull in a servant and such am I to thee O Lord keep back thy servant therefore from presumptuous sins 5. The other Reason fitted to the later Petition taken from the benefit he should reap by the grant If God should please to keep him free from the dominion of those sins he should not doubt his many failings otherwise notwithstanding but by his mercy to stand rectus in curiâ innocent and upright through his gracious acceptation from the great transgression of totall and finall Apostacy Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression 6. My purpose is not to treat of each of those particulars as I have proposed them apart but to insist principally upon that which is the most principal to which also as being the common matter or argument of the whole verse they do all in some sort referr and upon that account will be occasionally taken in every one of them somewhere or other in our passage in the handling thereof I mean the Object here expressed by the name of Presumptuous sins Wherein I know not how to proceed more pertinently to the scope of the Text and profitably to edification then by making this threefold plain discovery First of the Nature of these sins that we may the sooner learn to know them Secondly of their danger that we may be the more carefull to shun them and Thirdly of the means of their prevention that by the help of God we may be the better able to escape them 7. Some difference there is in the reading Which as I may not wholy baulke for without the clearing of that all the ensuing discourse might be suspected to labour of impertinency so I shall not long insist upon for the profit would not countervail the pains The Septuagint have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Vulgar Latine following them ab alienis parce c. Some of the Fathers and most of the Expositors of the middle and later Ages led as commonly they are by one of those Translations conceive the meaning as if David had here prayed to be kept from communicating with other men in their sins and from enwraping himself by any kinde or degree of consent within the guilt of their transgressions Which truly is a very needfull prayer and the thing it self worthy the care of every good man But this difference needeth not hinder us in our proposed passage First because although that were granted the truer reading the words might yet without much enforcement bear a construction agreeable to our present entendment and accordingly some that follow that reading have so understood them But secondly and especially because the mistake in the Greek and Latin translations grew apparently from the neer affinity of character between the two Hebrew letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath occasioned the like mistake in sundry other words noted in the Hebrew Lexicons and some also between these very words Zarim and Zadim in other places of Scripture as well as in this But since the constant reading in all Copies extant is with Daleth and not Resh and so not onely the old Hebrew Doctors with the learnedest Expositors of this last Age but some of the ancient Fathers also St Hierom by name who was among them all incomparably the best skilled in the Original have expounded it we need not put our selves to any farther business for this matter but take the common reading as it is in our English translations both Old and New Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins 8. And then the first thing we have to do is to lay open the Nature of these presumptuous sins for that is ever the first question that every man will ask concerning
quotations with him But as there Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avoid Satan non-plust the Tempter beyond all the Reasons and Authorities that could be produced so the safest way for us to come off clear from him is to give him a flat deniall without further reason and let him take that for an answer if he will any Thus to be Wilful is a blessed Wilfulness a resolution well becoming the servant and childe of God and a strong preservative against wilfull Presumption The fort is as good as half lost having to treat with such a cunning enemy if you do but once admit of a Treaty therefore stand off 46. But when we have done all we must begin again When we have resolved and endeavoured what we can unless the Lord be pleased to set his Fiat unto it and to confirm it with his royall assent all our labour is but lost As he is the Alpha so is he to be the Omega too and therefore we must set him at both ends And as we were to begin with him so are we to conclude with him pray first pray last Pray before all that we may have grace to do our Endeavours Pray after all that he would give a blessing to our endeavours That so when Satan the World and our own Flesh shall all conspire against us to drive us forward to the works of sin we may by his grace and blessing be kept back therefrom and enabled to persevere in true faith and holiness all the dayes of our lives Which God our heavenly Father grant us for his mercies sake and for the merits of Iesus Christ his only son our Lord to both whom with the Holy Ghost c. AD AULAM. Sermon V. GREENWICH JULY 1637. Philip. 4.11 Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 1. SAint Paul found much kinndesse from these Philippians and took much comfort in it And because it was more then ordinary and beyond the kindness of other Churches he doth therefore sometimes remember it with much thankfulness both to God and them Even in the beginning of the Gospel that is presently after his first preaching it among them the story whereof is laid down Acts 16. when having passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia he came and preached at Thessalonica which was another principal City of Macedonia these Philippians hearing belike that the Apostle had little other means for his maintenance there then what he got by his hand-labour wherein both for examples sake and because he would not be chargable to the Thessalonians he employed himself diligently both day and night they sent over and so did no other Church but they and that once and again to supply his necessities there 2. And as they began it seemeth they continued to shew forth the truth of their Faith and to adorn their Christian profession by their cheerfulness and liberality in contributing to the necessities of their brethren upon every good occasion For at Corinth also the year following where for the space of a year and half together he did for good considerations forbear as he had before done at Thessalonica to challenge that maintenance from the people which by Gods ordinance he had a right unto the supplies he had he acknowledgeth to have come from these brethren of Macedonia As if he had even robbed the Philippians it is his own word in taking wages of them for the service done to other Churches 3. Not to speak of their great bounty some three or foure years after that towards the relief of the poore brethren that dwelt in Iudea wherein they were willing of themselves without any great solicitation and liberall not only to the utmost of but even somewhat beyond their power Now also again after some three or foure years more S. Paul being in durance at Rome their former charitable care over him which had not of a good while shewen it self forth for lack of opportunity began to re-flourish and to put forth with a fresh verdure as a tree doth at the approach of Summer For they sent him a large benevolence to Rome by Epaphroditus of the receipt whereof he now certifieth them by the same Epaphroditus at his return expressing the great joy and comfort he took in those gracious evidences of their pious affections to the Gospel first and then to him He highly commendeth their Charity in it and he earnestly beseecheth God to reward them for it 4. Yet lest this just commendation of their beneficence should through any mans uncharitableness whereunto corrupt nature is too prone raise an unjust opinion of him as if he sought theirs more then them or being crafty had caught them with guile to make a prey or a gain of them so sinisterly interpreting his extolling of their charity for the time past as if it were but an artificiall kinde of begging for the time to come He thought it needfull for him by way of Prolepsis to prevent whatsoever might be surmised in that kinde which he beginneth to do in the words of the Text to this effect 5. True it is nor will I dissemble it when I received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you it was no small rejoycing to my heart to see your care of me after some years intermission to flourish again And I cannot but give an Euge to your charity for truly you have done well to communicate with my afflictions Yea I should derogate from the grace of God which he hath bestowed upon you and worketh in you if I should not both acknowledge your free benevolence towards me and approve it as an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God Which I speake not out of a greedy minde to make a gain of you nor for a cloak of covetousness God is my witness nor any other way so much in reference to my own private interest as for the glory of God and to the comfort of your consciences In as much as this fruit of your Faith thus working by Love doth redound to the honour of the â—ospel in the mean time and shall in the end abound to your account â—n the day of the Lord Iesus Otherwise as to my own particular altâ—ough my wants were supplyed and my bowels refreshed through your liberality which in the condition I was in was some comfort to me yet if that had been all I had looked after the want of the things you sent me could not have much afflicted me The Lord whom I serve is God All-sufficient and his grace had been sufficient for me though your supplies had never come He that enableth me howsoever of my self vnable to do any thing yet to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me hath framed my heart by his holy spirit and trained me up hereunto in the school of Experience and Afflictions to rest
tedious and bootless work Non si te ruperis We may tug hard at it sweat till our hearts ake but it will not be Why do we not rather begin at the other end do that rather which is not only possible but the grace of God assisting easie also in striving to fit our mindes to the things Non augendae res sed minuendae cupiditates that is the way To work our own Contentment we should not labour so much to encrease our substance that is a preposterous course as to moderate our desires which is the right way and the more feizible Iacob did not propose to himself any great matters fat revenues and large possessions but only bread to eat and rayment to put on Gen. 28. No matter of what course grain so it were but bread to give nourishment and maintain life No matter for the stuff or fashion so it were but raiment to cover nakedness and to keep off heat and cold Neither doth St Paul speak of any choicer or costlier matter Having food and raiment saith he let us be therewith content 1 Tim. 6. He saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicates but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 food nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ornaments but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raiment coverings Any filling for the belly any hilling for the back would serve his turn 47. Thirdly since it is a point of the same skill to do both to want and to abound we should do well whilest the Lord lendeth us peace and plenty to exercise our selves duly in the Art of abounding that we be the better able to manage the Art of wanting if ever it shall please him to put us to it For therefore especially are we so much to seek and so puzzled that we know not which way to turn us when want or afflictions come upon us because we will not keep within any reasonable compass nor frame our selves to industrious thrifty and charitable courses when we enjoy abundance It is our extreme insolency and unthankfulness when we are full that maketh our impatience and discontentedness break forth with the greater extremity when the Lord beginneth to empty us Quem res plus nimio delectavêre secundae Mutatae quatient As in a fever he that burneth most in his hot sit shaketh most in his cold so no man beareth want with less patience then he that beareth plenty with least moderation If we would once perfectly learn to abound and not ryot we should the sooner learn to want and not repine 48. But how am I on the sodain whilest I am discoursing of the Nature fallen upon some of the Rules of the Art of contentment And yet not besides the Text neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containeth that too Yet because to lay down the grounds and method of that Art and to do it to purpose another hours work would be but little enough I shall therefore forbear to proceed any further at this time Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost c. AD AULAM. Sermon VI. OTELANDS JULY 1637. Philip. 4.11 for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content 1. TO omit what was observed from the Apostles Protestation in those first words of the verse Not that I speak in respect of want from these words in the later part of the verse we have proposed formerly to speak of two things concerning Christian Contentment first of the Nature of it and wherein it consisteth and then of the Art of it and how it may be attained The Nature of it hath been not long since somewhat opened according to the intimations given in the Text in three particulars Wherein was shewen that that man only liveth truly contented that can suffice himself first with his own estate secondly with the present estate thirdly being his own and the present with any estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I am now by the laws of good order and the tye of a former promise to proceed to the like discovery of the Art of Contentment by occasion of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I heve learned in whatsoever estate I am to be therewith content 2. Saint Paul was not framed unto it by the common instinct of nature neither had he hammered it out by his own industry or by any wise improvement of nature from the precepts of Philosophy and Morality nor did it spring from the abundance of outward things as either an effect or an appurtenance thereof It was the Lord alone that had wrought it in his heart by his saving and sanctifying Spirit and trained him up thereunto in the school of experience and of afflictions The Sum is that True contentedness of minde is a point of high and holy learning whereunto no man can attain unless it be taught him from above What the Apostle saith of Faith is true also generally of every other Grace and of this in particular as an especial and infallible effect of Faith Not of your selves it is the gift of God And of this in particular the Preacher so affirmeth in Eccles. 5. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoyce in his labour this is the gift of God 3. Neither is it a common gift like that of the rain and Sun the comfort whereof are indifferently afforded to good and bad to the thankless as well as the thankful but it is a special favour which God vouchsafeth to none but to those that are his special favourites his beloved ones he giveth his beloved sleep Psal. 127. whiles others rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of sorrows restlesly wearing out their bodies with toyle and their minds with care they lay them down in peace and their minds are at rest They sleep But it is the Lord only that maketh their rest so soft and safe he giveth them sleep And the bestowing of such a gift is an argument of his special love towards them that partake it He giveth his beloved sleep It is indeed Gods good blessing if he give to any man bare riches but if he be pleased to second that common blessing with a farther blessing and to give contentment withall then it is to be acknowledged a singular and most excellent blessing as Solomon saith The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it In Eccles. 2. the same Solomon telleth us that contentment cometh from none but God and is given to none but the godly For saith he God giveth to a man that is good in his sight and that is the godly only wisdom and knowledge and joy But as for the sinner none of all this is given to him What is his portion then even as it there followeth But to the
by sometimes suffering their enemies to get the upper hand and sometimes bringing them under again by sometimes giving success to their affairs even beyond their expectation and sometimes dashing their hopes when they were almost come to full ripeness He turneth them this way and that way and every way till they know all their postures and can readily cast themselves into any form that he shall appoint They are often abased and often exalted now full and anon hungry one while they abound and they suffer need another while Till with our Apostle they know both how to be abased and how to abound Till every where and in all things they be instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Till they can at least in some weak yet comfortable measure do all things through Christ that strengtheneth them These exercises are indeed the most unpleasing part of this holy learning especially to a yong novice in the school of Christ the Apostle saith truly of it Heb. 12. that for the present it is not joyous but grievous But yet it is a very necessary part of the learning and marvelously profitable after a time for as it there also followeth Nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the quiet and peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby 11. We have hitherto seen the point opened and proved that true Christian contentment springeth not first from Nature nor secondly from Morality nor thirdly from Outward things but is taught only by God himself Who first perswadeth the hearts of his children out of the acknowledgement of his fatherly providence that that estate is ever presently best for them which they have for the present and assureth them secondly by faith in his temporal promises that they shall never want any thing that may be good for them for the time to come and thirdly exerciseth and inureth them by frequent enterchanging of prosperity and adversity and sanctifying both estates unto them both to glorifie him and to satisfie themselves by and with either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and in the next verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have learned and have been thereunto instructed and as it were initiated into it as into an art or mystery in whatsoever state I am therewithall to be content Now for the Vses and Inferences hence 12. First S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here notably discovereth both the vanity of those men who boast as if they had minds richly content when as yet they never knew what grace and godliness meant and withall the folly of those men that seek for or promise to themselves contentment but seek for it other where then where alone it is to be found that is to say in the school of Christ and of his holy Spirit In all learnings it is a point of special consequence to get a good Master He hath half done his work that hath made a happy choyce that way And the more needfull the learning is the greater care would be had in the choyce Here is a piece of excellent learning every man will confess Why should any of us then trifle away our time to no purpose and put our selves to a great deal of fruitless pains to learn contentment from those that cannot teach it Yet such is the folly of most of us we seldome look farther then our selves seldome higher then these sublunary things for this learning It is one of our Vanities that we love to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we glory not a little in that knowledge which we have hammered out by our own industry without a teacher But that which we use to say in other learnings is indeed most true in this He that scorneth to be taught by any but himself shall be sure to have a fool to his Tutor Cato and Seneca and other the wisest and learnedst among Philosophers ever shrunk when they came to the triall and by their timerousness and discontentedness sufficiently discovered the un-usefulness or at least the unsufficiency of their best precepts to effect that blessed tranquillity of minde which they promised Professing themselves in their speculations to be wise in their practise they became fools and were confounded in the vanity of their own imaginations It was a vain brag of him that said it Hoc satis est orare Iovem qui donat aufert Det vitam det opes animum mî aequum ipse parabo He would pray to Iupiter to give him health and to give him wealth but as for Contentment he would never put him to trouble for that If he might have health and wealth he doubted not but he could carve out his own contentment well enough without any of Iupiters help Little did he know the cursed corruption of his own heart and that he stood rather in more need of God for this then for those other things A far wiser man then he hath told us from his own experience and observation and that not in one or two or a few particulars but he saith it is a common evil among men A man to whom God hath given riches wealth and honour so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth yet giveth him not power to eat thereof Eccles. 6.1 2. But admit his brag had been as true as it was vaine and that he could indeed have wrought his own contentment if Iupiter should give him the things he required yet still he had come far short of St Pauls learning in the Text. For even by his own confession he could not raise himself a contentment out of nothing He must have wealth and health to work upon or else he could do nothing He had not yet attained to that high pitch of learning as in whatsoever state he should be to be therewith content Which yet every poor simple Christian that truly feareth God hath in some measure attained unto who can find contentment also in sickness and in poverty if the Lord be pleased to send them as well as in health and plenty and bless his Name for both in the words of holy Iob The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. 13. Secondly since Contentment is a point of learning as we see and we know also where it is to be learned or not at all it were well we would all of us be perswaded in the next place to be willing to learn it St Paul had never had it if he had never learn'd it and you see what use he had of it and how mightily it did bestead him the whole course of his life after he had learn'd it And the more to quicken you hereunto take into your consideration amongst other these inducements Consider first the excellency and difficulty of this learning Most scholars will not satisfie themselves with the knowledg of ordinary and obvious things but are desirous to learn
fumum accepit fumum vendidit as it is in the Apothegme Or in an Epigram I have heard of two Dunces and their disputation Attulit ille nihil rettulit ille nihil we are yet upon even terms and that can deserve no great imputation of folly 17. Indeed should we speak of our bodies only these mortal corruptible vile bodies as we finde them termed by all those Epithets or look upon our whole nature as it is now embased by Sin or even taken at the best and set in comparison against God in one of which three respects it must be understood where ever the scriptures speak of our worthlesnesse or nothingnesse there might then be some place for these allegations But take the whole Man together soule as well as body yea chiefly that and state him as he was before he was sold as so we must do if we will give a true judgement of the fact and compare it but with other creatures which is but reasonable and then all the allegations aforesaid are quite beside the purpose The Soule is a most rich indeed an inestimable commmodity Preciosa anima saith Solomon Prov. 6. the precious Soule So he saith but that speech is somewhat too generall he doth not tell us how precious Indeed he doth not for in truth he could not it is beyond his or any mans skill to give an exact praisment of it There is somewhat bidden for it Mic. 6. But such a contemptible price that it is rejected with scorn though it seem to sound loud thousands of Rams and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyle He that alone knew the true worth of a soule both by his natural knowledge being the eternall wisdom of God and by his experimental knowledge having bought so many and pai'd a full price for them our blessed Redeemer the Lord Iesus assureth us there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the universal world affordeth not a valuable compensation for it Mat. 16. We will rest upon his word for this as well we may and spare further proof 18. And then the inference will be clear that there never was in the world any such folly as sin is any such fools as sinners are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said and Solomon putteth the soole upon the sinner I am not able to say how oft That we should thus sell and truck away these precious souls of ours the very exhalations and arrachements if I may so speak of the breath of God not estimable with any other thing then with the precious blood of God and that not for the whole world which had been to our incomparable disadvantage no nor yet for any great Portion thereof but for a very small pittance of it whereof we can have no assurance neither that we shall hold it an houre and which even whil'st we have it and think to enjoy it perisheth in the using and deceiveth our expectations Which of us laying the promises to heart can do less then beshrew his own grievous folly for so doing and beg pardon for it at the hands of God as David did after he had numbred the People I have sinned greatly in that I have done and now I beseech thee O Lord take away mine iniquity for I have done very foolishly 19. And the more cause have we most humbly to beg pardon for our baseness and folly herein by how much less we are any way able to excuse either of both it being our own voluntary act and deed For so is the next Particular Ye have sold your selves Naturally what is blameworthy we had rather put off upon any body else light where it will then take it home to our selves Translatio criminis the shifting of a fault is by Rhetoricians made a branch of their Art We need not go to their schools to learn it Nature and our mother-wit will prompt us sufficiently thereunto we brought it from the womb suck'd it from the breasts of our mother Eve This base and foolish act whereof we now speak how loath are we to own it how do we strive to lay the whole burden and blame of it upon others or if we cannot hope to get our selves quite off yet as men use to do in common payments and taxes we plead hard to have bearers partners that may go a share with us and ease us if not à toto yet at leastwise à tanto and in some part But it will not be Still Perditio tua ex te it will fall all upon us at the last when we have done what we can 20. We have but one of these three wayes to put off a fourth I cannot imagine By making it either Gods act who is the original owner or Adams act who was our Progenitor or Satans act who is the Purchaser If any of these will hold we are well enough Let us try them all It should seem the first will for is there not Text for it How should one of them chase a thousand saith Moses except their rock had sold them Deut. 32. and God was their rock So David Psalm 44. Thou hast sold thy people for nought and sundry times in the book of Iudges we read how God sold Israel sometimes into the hands of one enemy and sometimes of another Very right But none of all this is spoken of the sale now in Question it is meant of another manner of Sale which is consequent to this and presupposeth it God indeed selleth us over to punishment which is the sale meant in those places but not till we have first sold our selves over to sin which is the sale in this place We first most unjustly sell away our souls and then he most justly selleth away our bodies and our liberty and our peace and our credit and the rest 21. Let us beware then whatsoever we do that we do not charge God wrongfully by making him in the least degree the author of our sins or but so much as a party or an accessory to our follies either directly or indirectly Himself disclaimeth it utterly and casteth it all upon us Esay 50.1 Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you if it were my deed deal punctually tell me when and where and to whom But if it were not why do you lay it to my charge Behold for your iniquities have you sold your selves It was meerly your own doing and if you suffer for it blame your selves and not me 22. Hâc non successit We must try another way and see if we can leave it upon Adam For did not he sell us many a fair year before we were in rerum naturâ And if the Father sell away the inheritance from his unborn childe how can he do withall and if he cannot help it why should he be blamed for it Must our teeth be set on edge with the grapes our grand-father ate and not we It must be confest
patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever Psal. 9. St Iames would have us set before our eyes the Prophets and Saints for a generall example of suffering affliction and of patience and he commendeth to us one particular example there as by way of instance namely that of Iob. You have heard saith he of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is pitiful and of tender mercy Iob held out in his patience under great trials unto the last and God out of pity and in his tender mercy towards him heaped comforts upon him at the last in great abundance It would be well worthy our most serious meditation to consider both what by Gods grace he did and how by Gods mercy he sped His example in the one would be a good pattern for us of Patience and his reward in the other a good encouragement for Consolation This we may bide upon as a most certain truth that if we do our part God will not faile on his Be we first sure that we have Patience we must look to that for that is our part though not solely for we cannot have it without him as was already said but I say be we first sure of that and then we may be confident we shall have comfort sooner or later in some kinde or other trust God with that for that is solely his part and he will take order for it without our further care 21. Lastly for the Order It may be demanded why the Apostle joyning both together The God of Patience and Consolation giveth patience the precedency of Patience first and then of Consolation Is not that also to teach us that as it is a vain and causeless feare if a man have patience to doubt whether he shall have comfort yea or no so on the contrary it is a vain and groundless hope if a man want patience to presume that yet he shall have comfort howsoever Certainly no Patience no Consolation It is the Devils method to set the fairer side forwards and to serve in the best wine first and then after that which is worse He will â—ot much put us upon the triall of our Patience at the first but rather till us on along with semblances and promises of I know not what comforts and contentments but when once he hath us fast then he turneth in woe and misery upon us to overwhelme us as a deluge But God in his dispensations commonly useth a quite contrary method and dealeth roughliest with us at the first We hear of little other from him then self-deniall hatred from the world taking up the Cross and suffering persecution exercise enough for all the patience we can get But then if we hold out stoutly to the end at last cometh joy and comfort flowing in upon us both seasonably and plentifully like a river You have need of patience saith the Apostle that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise Patience first in doing ey and suffering too according to the will of God and then after that but not before the enjoying of the Promise Would you know then whether the Consolations of God belong unto you yea or no In short if you can have patience never doubt of it if you will not have patience never hope for it 22. Thus much concerning the formality of the Prayer in those former words of the verse Now the God of Patience and of Consolation grant you Proceed we now to the Matter thereof in the remainder of the verse To be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus Where the particulars are three First the thing it self or grace prayed for which is Vnity or Like-mindedness To be like-minded Secondly and Thirdly two Conditions or Qualifications thereof the one in respect of the Persons One towards another the other in respect of the maner According to Christ Iesus Of which in their order 23. The thing first To be like-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek A phrase of speech although to my remembrance not found elsewhere in holy Scripture yet often used by S. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans to the Corinthians and especially to the Philippians more then once or twise I spare the quotations for brevity sake S. Peters compound word cometh neerest it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Finally be ye all of one minde 1 Pet. 3. New these words both the noune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the minde and the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to minde this or that or to be thus or so minded although often used with speciall reference sometimes to the understanding or judgement sometimes to the inward disposition of the heart will and affections and sometimes to the manifesting of that inward disposition by the outward carriage and behaviour yet are they also not seldome taken at large for the whole soule and all the powers thereof together with all the motions and opperations of any or each of them whether in the apprehensive appetitive or executive part And I see nothing to the contrary but that it may very well be taken in that largest extent in this place And then the thing so earnestly begged at the hand of God is that he would so frame the hearts of these Romanes one towards another as that there might be an universal accord amongst them so far as was possible both in their opinions affections and conversations Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded 24. Like-minded first in Opinion and judgement It is a thing much to be desired and by all good means to be endeavoured that according to our Churches prayer God would give to all Nations unity peace and concord but especially that all they that do confess his holy name may also agree in the truth of his holy word at least wise in the main and most substantial truths I beseech you brethren saith S. Paul by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement That is the first Like-mindedness in judgement 25. Like-minded secondly in heart and affection Mens understandings are not all of one size and temper and even they that have the largest and the clearest understandings yet know but in part and are therefore subject to errors and mis-apprehensions And therefore it cannot be hoped there should be such a consonancy and uniformity of judgement amongst all men no not amongst wise and godly men but that in many things yea and those sometimes of great importance they may and will dissent one from another unto the worlds end But then good heed would be taken lest by the cunning of Satan who is very forward and expert to work upon such advantages difference in judgment should in process of
on that behalf But he that suffereth for his errour or disobedience or other rashness buildeth his comfort upon a sandy foundation and cannot better glorifie God and discharge a good conscience then by being ashamed of his fault and retracting it 21. Seventhly hereby we expose not our selves onely which yet is something but sometimes also which is a far greater matter the whole Reformed Religion by our default to the insolent jeers of Atheists and Papists and other profane and scornful spirits For men that have wit enough and to spare but no more religion then will serve to keep them out of the reach of the Laws when they see such men as pretend most to holinesse to run into such extravagant opinions and practises as in the judgement of any understanding man are manifestly ridiculous they cannot hold but their wits will be working and whilest they play upon them and make themselves sport enough therewithal it shall go hard but they will have one fling among even at the power of Religion too Even as the Stoicks of old though they stood mainly for vertue yet because they did it in such an uncouth and rigid way as seemed to be repugnant not only to the manners of men but almost to common sence also they gave occasion to the wits of those times under a colour of making themselves merry with the Paradoxes of the Stoicks to laugh even true vertue it self out of countenance 22. Lastly for why should I trouble you with any more these are enow by condemning sundry indifferent things and namely Church-Ceremonies as unlawful we give great scandal to those of the Separation to their farther confirming in that their unjust schisme For why should these men will they say and for ought I know they speak but reason why should they who agree so well with us in our principles hold off from our Conclusions Why do they yet hold communion with or remain in the bosome of that Church that imposeth such unlawful things upon them How are they not guilty themselves of that luke-warme Laodicean temper wherewith they so often and so deeply charge others Why do they halt so shamefully between two opinions If Baal be God and the Ceremonies lawful why do they not yield obedience cheerful obedience to their Governours so long as they command but lawfull things But if Baal be an Idol and the ceremonies unlawfull as they and we consent why do they not either set them packing or if they cannot get that done pack themselves away from them as fast as they can either to Amsterdam or to some other place The Objection is so strong that I must confesse for my own part If I could see cause to admit of those principles whereon most of our Non-conformers and such as favour them ground their dislike of our Church-Orders and Ceremonies I should hold my self in all conscience bound for any thing I yet ever read or heard to the contrary to forsake the Church of England and to fly out of Babylon before I were many weeks older 23. Truely Brethren if these unhappy fruits were but accidentall events onely occasioned rather then caused by such our opinions I should have thought the time mis-spent in but naming them since the very best things that are may by accident produce evil effects but being they do in very truth naturally and unavoidably issue therefrom as from their true and proper cause I cannot but earnestly beseech all such as are otherwise minded in the bowels and in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ and by all the love they beare to Gods holy truth which they seem so much to stand for to take these things into their due consideration and to lay them close to their consciences And as for those my brethren of the Clergie that have most authority in the hearts of such as byasse too much that way for they only may have some hope to prevail with them the rest are shut out by prejudice if I were in place where I should require and charge them as they will answer the contrary to God the Church and their own consciences that they would approve their faithfulness in their ministry by giving their best diligence to informe the judgments of Gods people aright as concerning the nature and use of indifferent things and as in love to their souls they are bound that they would not humour them in these their pernicious errours nor suffer them to continue therein for want of their rebuke either in their publick teaching or otherwise as they shall have opportunity thereunto 24. But you will say If these things were so how should it then come to passe that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty Gods permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and schisms and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whither way our hearts incline most to looseness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affection of singularity to goe beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest servants and children are in this life wholy exempted 25. Ignorance first is a fruitful mother of Errour Ye erre not knowing the scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much grosse Ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they erre they erre for company they judge not all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are lead be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withall very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falsehood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth
the Foxes Both are hateful both to God and man Sed fraus odio digna majore saith the Oratour of the two Deceit is the baser and more hateful Because men had rather be thought to want strength for that begetteth pity then to want wit which doth but expose them to scorn thence it is that usually they complain more of treachery then they do of open hostility and take it deeper to heart to be defrauded then to be oppressed The loss troubleth them not so much they say but they cannot endure to be couzened Samuel you see disclaimeth this in the first place Whom have I defrauded 28. He knew the Law of God and the Law of Equity the written and the unwritten Law both were altogether against it Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour Levit. 19. and after in the same Chapter Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgement in mete-yard in weight or in measure In the sixth Chapter of the same book it is declared that he that committeth a trespass by deceiving his neighbour sinneth therein and the Law there enjoyneth an offering to be made for the expiating of that sin How often doth Solomon condemn false weights and false ballances as foul abominations And how frequently do the Prophets object it as a main provocation of Gods heavie judgements upon the Land That they set traps and laid snares for men That their houses were full of deceit as a cage is full of birds That they were as crafty Merchants in whose hands are the ballances of deceit That they made the Ephah whereby they measured out the commodities they sold small and the Shekel wherewith they weighed the money they were to receive for that they sold great and falsified the ballances and the like S. Paul also if the translations speak his sence aright laieth a charge upon the Thessalonians That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter Both because it is the will of God sufficiently revealed in his Word that men should not do so and because God will be a sure and severe avenger of those that do so 1 Thess. 4. And he chideth the Corinthians for doing wrong and defrauding one another 1 Cor. 6. And lest in what he either forbiddeth to or reproveth in others himself should prove guilty he protesteth against all such dealings more then once Receive us we have wronged no man we have defrauded no man 2 Cor. 7. And again 2 Cor. 12. Be it I did not burden you as the false Apostles for filthy lucre and to serve their own bellies did nevertheless it may be you will think I was crafty and caught you with guile No such matter saith he I abhor it I never made gain of you either by my self or by my Agents Titus or any other that I sent unto you Much like Samuels challenge here Whom have I defrauded 29. A very grievous thing it is to think of but a thing meerly impossible to reckon up how much less then to remedy and reform all the several kindes of frauds and deceits that are used in the world Wherein men are grown wondrous expert and so shameless withal that they think it rather a credit to them as an argument of their perfect understanding in their several mysteries and particular professions then any blemish to them in their Christian profession to cheat and cozen they care not whom nor how so they may get gain and gather wealth by it In the way of trade in buying selling and other bargaining what lying dissembling and deceiving It is stark naught saith the buyer it is perfect good saith the seller when many times neither of both speaketh either as he thinketh or as the truth of the thing is False weights false measures false thumbs false lights false marks false wares false oathes in the Markets and Shops In the common offices of neighbour-hood friendship service or trust false gloses false promises false tales false cracks false shews false reckonings In the Courts of Law and all juridical proceedings false Bills false answers false suggestions false counsels false accusations false pleas false testimonies false records false motions false verdicts false judgements The hour would fail me to mention but the chief heads of those falsehoods that are common and notorious but no mans experience would serve him to comprehend no mans breath to declare the infinite variety of those more secret and subtil falsehoods that are daily invented and exercised every where under the Sun 30. Yet are they all in the mean time abominable to God that beholdeth them The Lord will abhor both the blood-thirsty and deceitful man and will prove in the end unprofitable to those that use them and without repentance damnable He that beguileth another however he may please himself therewithal onward yet shall finde at length that he hath most of all beguiled himself deceiving and being deceived as the Apostles words though spoken to another purpose are According to that of Solomon The wicked worketh a deceitful work but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward Blessed is the man then in whose heart and tongue and hands there is found no deceit That walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth from his heart That hath not stretched his wits to hurt his neighbour nor made advantage of any mans unskilfulness simplicity or credulity to gain from him wrongfully That can stand upon it as Samuel here doth and his heart not give his tongue the lie that he hath defrauded no man 31. The other kinde of Injury here next mentioned is Oppression wherein a man maketh use of his power to the doing of wrong as he did of his wits in defrauding Which is for the most part the fault of rich and great men because they have the greatest power so to doe and are not so easily resisted in what they will have done Doe not not the rich men oppress you Jam. 2. For riches and worldly greatness lift up the hearts of men and swell them with pride Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded saith S. Paul and pride bringeth on Oppression let not the proud oppress me saith David Psal. 119. They are the large fat kine of Basan that is the Princes and Nobles and great ones of the land those that dwell in the mountains of Samaria that oppress the poor and crush the needy Amos 4. Yet not they only for even poor and mean men also are in their dispositions as proud and as merciless as the greatest if their powers were answerable to their wills and their hornes to their curstness and they are as ready to shew it too so oft as their power will serve them so to doe Now this also Samuel disclaimeth as well as the former Although he had a large power having been chief governour for many years together and so not
or that danger how to compass this or that designe how to gratifie this friend or advance that childe how to counter-work or defeat this or that enemy or competitor when we have summoned all our powers and set all our wits on work to manage the designe we have pitched upon and made all so sure that there seemeth nothing wanting to bring our intentions to the wished end Vnless God say Amen that is unless it please him either in mercy to blesse our endeavours with successe for our comfort or at least for some other secret ends agreeable to his wisdom and justice suffer them to take effect they shall all come to nothing and be as the untimely fruit of a woman which after much pain and anguish to her that conceived it perisheth in the wombe and never seeth the Sunne Secondly what God hath in his everlasting counsell determined either to do himself or to suffer to bee done by any of his Creatures shall whether we like it or dislike it whether we will or no undoubtedly even so come to passe as he hath appointed The Lord will be King Fremat licèt orbis and do whatsoever pleaseth him in heaven and earth in the sea and in all deep places be the earth never so unquiet and all the people that dwel therein never so impatient 6. Which two points to wit the vanity of our devices and the stability of Gods counsels by reason of the opposition that is betwixt them whereby they mutually give and receive light and confirmation either to and from other are therefore very frequenly joyned together in sundry places of Scripture As in Psal. 2. the rage and fury of Jews and Gentiles of Princes and People against the Lord and his anointed their imaginations insurrections and joynt consultations to effect their intendments theâ—r professed resolutions to break the bonds and to cast away the cords of their bounden allegiance how vain and ineffectual they are and instead of that liberty and advantage they had promised to themselves procure them nothing but scorn and vexation is largely declared in the beginning of the Psalm and then followeth in few words how effectual notwithstanding all their imaginations and endeavours to the contrary the purpose of God was in setting up the kingdom of Christ Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Sion So in Iob 5. Eliphaz sheweth the great power of God first in disappointing the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprize but the wise are taken in their own craftiness and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong and then in fulfilling his own counsel of saving the poor from the sword the mouth and the hand of the mighty And the like doth David again in Psam 33. fully and in words agreeable to these of Solomon even in terminis The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought and maketh the devices of the people of none effect That for the first point then followeth for the second in the very next words The counsel of the Lord shall stand for ever and ever and the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation 7. For the better evidencing and enforcing of both which points I shall proceed in this order First to consider of the three differences formerly mentioned and contained in the Text each of them severally and apart then taking the whole together Secondly to shew some Reasons or grounds thereof and lastly to propose some profitable Inferences from the same 8. The first Difference is in the Names Mans Devices but the Counsel of the Lord. Our most serious thoughts the most mature and best digested deliberations and advices of the sons of men and all the most exquisite resolutions and advantagious endeavours ensuing thereupon are but devices in comparison Imaginations Fancies or if you can finde any lighter or emptier name whereby to call them Indeed all these expressions are but too high to render to the full the extreme vacuity and nothingness of all humane devices Very Chimeraes they are Castles in the aire that have no reall existence in them no base or bottom under them to uphold them 9. I know not readily how to represent them unto you better then under the notion of Fancies and so might the word be well enough here rendred There are many fancies or fantastical devices in a mans heart Now the vanity of mens fancies may something appear in mad men in whom the inflammation of bloud distempering the brain as it hindereth the operation of the minde and depriveth them of all solidity of judgment so it addeth strength and nimbleness to the fancy Whence it cometh to pass that the sharpest Satyrical wits with all the help of Art and study cannot ordinarily invent such shrewd and stinging answers nor make such quick and smart returns of wit to those that talk with them as a mad man sometimes in a frantick fit will hit upon of a sudden 10. But in nothing is the Vanity of mens fancies more apparent then in our ordinary dreams Wherein we often fancy to our selves golden mountains and many other such things as never were nor ever shall be in rerum natura such as have neither coherence nor possibility in them and such as when we are awake we doe not only finde to be void of all truth and reality but we laugh at as ridiculous and wonder how such senceless and inconsistent imaginations should ever come into our heads And yet whilest we are dreaming we entertain them with as ful a perswasion of the truth and reality of them as we do those things whereof we have the greatest assurance in the world without any the least suspition to the contrary and are accordingly affected with them mightily pleased or displeased even as they suite with or goe cross to our natural desires But when we awake we many times can scarce well tell what we dreamed of much less do we finde our selves possest of those things which in our dreams we fancied to be ours 11. As these dreams of one asleep or those flashes of wit that come from a mad man such are all the plots and projects the thoughts and purposes of men wherewith they so much please or disquiet themselves about any thing that is done under the sun Of all which our Solomon out of his great wisdom and much experience pronounceth often and peremptorily that they are but vanity and folly and madness They that applaud themselves in their cunning and deep contrivances that trust to their wealth power strength or policy that think they are able to carry all before them and to doe what they list are all the while but in a dream So David affirmeth of the wicked in the middest of their greatest prosperity and successes Like as a dream when one awaketh so shalt thou make their Image to vanish out of the City Psal. 73.
artificial engine consisting of many wheels one within another some bigger some lesser but all depend upon the first great wheel which moveth all the rest and without which none of the rest can move In him we live and move and have our being and in his hands are the hearts of the greatest Kings and how much more then of meaner persons which he turneth bendeth which way soever he pleaseth Prov. 21.1 Be the Ax never so sharp and strong yet can it not cut any thing unless the hand of the workman move it and then it cutteth but where he would have it and that more or less as he putteth more or less strength unto it No more can Men whatsoever strength of wit or power they are endued with bring their own devices to pass but when and where and so far forth only as the Lord thinketh fit to make use of them Pharaohs Chariot may hurry him apace to the place of his destruction because God had so appointed it but anon God taketh off the wheels and the Chariot can move no farther but leaveth him helpless in the midst of the chanel 24. So vain are all mens devices as to the serving of their own ends and the accomplishment of their own desires Yet doth Almighty God so order these otherwise vain things by his over-ruling providence as to make them subservient to his everlasting counsels For all things serve him Psal. 119.91 Happy thrice happy they that do him voluntary service that can say with David and in his sence Behold O Lord how that I am thy servant Psal. 116. that have devoted themselves faithfully and accordingly bend their endeavours to do him true and laudable service by obeying his revealed will But certainly whether they will or no though they think of nothing less they shall serve him to the furthering and accomplishing of his secret will As we finde my servant David often as his servant in the one kinde so we sometimes meet with my servant Nebuchadnezzar as his servant in the other kind 25. Another Reason of the differences aforesaid is from Gods Eternity Man is but of yesterday and his thoughts casual They go and come as it happeneth without any certain rule and order And as himself is mutable fickle and uncertain so are the things he hath to do withal and whereabouts he is conversant subject to contingencies and variations Tempora mutantur So many new unexpected accidents happen every hour which no wit of man could foresee that may make it necessary for us many times to depart from our former most advised resolutions as the Mariner must strike sail again perhaps when he hath but newly â—oyst it up if the winde and weather change Sometimes a very small inconsiderable accident in it self may yet work a very great turn in a business of the greatest moment A Smith in setting on a shoe chanceth to drive the nail a little aside the Horse is prickt the prick endangereth the Horse and the Horse the Rider upon the defeat of the Rider suppose the General or some Commander of special use the battel is lost upon the issue of that battel may depend the state of a whole Kingdom and in the state of that may the interest of so many Princes and Kingdoms be involved that a very little oversight in a very mean person may occasion very great alterations in a great part of the world So easily may mens devices be disappointed and their expectations frustrated 26. But the Counsels of God are as himself is Eternal and unchangeable Ego Deus non mutor I am God and am not changed as if he had said The nature of the Godhead is not capable of any change nor subject to mutability All change is either for the better or for the worse but God cannot change for the better because he is already best nor for the worse for then he should cease to be best It is therefore impossible he should change at all His determinations therefore are unalterable more then the laws of the Medes and Persians for time hath long since altered those Laws but his counsels remain yesterday and to day the same and for ever Chance and if you will Fortune also may have place in the affairs of men and the things that are done under the Sun But to him that dwelleth in heaven that inhabiteth Eternity that knew from the beginning and before the beginning of the world all things that are done in heaven and earth nothing can be casual new or unexpected to cause any change of purpose in him 27. A third Reason there is from the wisdom of God There is folly in all the sons of men They know but a very small part of the things that are in the world and those things they do know they know but in part Besides their natural ignorance through precipitancy mis-information prejudice partial affections and sundry other causes they are subject to very many mistâ—kes and aberrations whereby it cometh to pass that the wisest men sometimes are foully overseen and are fain to take up the Fools plea and to cry Non putaram 28. But as for God he and he alone is wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the onely wise God 1 Tim. 1. As we are sure he will not deceive any being of infinite goodness so we may be sure he cannot be deceived by any being of infinite wisdom There is such a fulness of wisdom in him that it hath left no room for second thoughts or after-counsels nor can there be imagined any cause why he should retract or reverse any of that he hath determined to do either in part or in whole 29. Lastly as his Wisdom so is his Power also infinite Man may devise purpose and resolve upon a course for the obtaining of his intentions and that possibly with so good advice and upon such probable and rational grounds that there appeareth no reason to the contrary why he should not persist in the same minde still and pursue that his said resolution And yet there may a thousand impediments intervene to obstruct the business so that it shall not be in the power of his hand to remove those obstacles whereby to accomplish the desires of his heart O Lord saith the Prophet Jeremy I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps And our Solomon a little before in this book A mans heart deviseth his way but the Lord directeth his steps 30. But as for the Lord his Power hath no bars or bounds other then those of his own will Quicquid voluit fecit Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven and in earth in the sea and in all deep places For who hath ever resisted his will Rom. 9. Doth he mean his revealed will think you Surely not thousands have resisted and daily do resist that will the will and
the commandments of God But he meaneth it of his secret will the wil of his everlasting Counsels and purposes and that too of an effectual resistance such a resistance as shall hinder the accomplishment of that will For otherwise there are thousands that offer resistance to that also if their resistance could prevail But all resistance as well of the one sort as of the other is in vain as to that end Though hand joyn in hand it will be to no purpose the right hand of the Lord will have the preheminence when all is done Associate your selves O ye people and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand Esay 8.9 10. But the counsel of the Lord that shall stand and none shall be able to hinder it 31. Lay all these together the Soveraignty the Eternity the Wisdom and the Power of God and in all these God will be glorified and you will see great reason why the Lord should so often blast mens devices bring all their counsels and contrivances to nought and take the wise in their own craftiness Even to let men see in their disappointment the vanity of all humane devices that they might learn not to glory in or trust to their own wisdome or strength or any thing else in themselves or in any creature but that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord only 32. Let every one of us therefore learn that I may now proceed to the Inferences from the consideration of what we have heard First of all not to trust too much to our own wit neither to lean to our own understandings Nor please our selves over-much in the vain devices imaginations fancies or dreams of our own hearts Though our purposes should be honest and not any wayes sinfull either in Matter End Means or other Circumstance yet if we should be over-confident of their success rest too much upon our own skill contrivances or any worldly help like enough they may deceive us It may please God to suffer those that have worse purposes propose to themselves baser ends or make use of more unwarrantable means to prosper to our grief and loss yea possibly to our destruction if it be but for this only to chastise us for resting too much upon outward helps and making flesh our arme and not relying our selves intirely upon him and his salvation 33. Who knoweth but Iudgment may nay who knoweth not that Iudgment must saith the Apostle that is in the ordinary course of Gods providence usually doth begin at the house of God Who out of his tender care of their wel-doing will sooner punish temporally I mean his own children when they take pride in their own inventions and sooth themselves in the devices of their own hearts then he will his professed enemies that stand at defiance with him and openly fight against him These he suffereth many times to goe on in their impieties and to climbe up to the height of their ambitious desires that in the mean time he may make use of their injustice and oppression for the scourging of those of his own howshold and in the end get himself the more glory by their destruction 34. But then Secondly howsoever Judgment may begin at the house of God most certain it is it shall not end there but the hand of God and his revenging justice shall at last reach the house of the wicked oppressour also And that not with temporary punishments only as he did correct his own but without repentance evil shall hunt them to their everlasting destruction that despise his knowen Counsels to follow the cursed devices and imaginations of their own naughty hearts The Persecutors of God in his servants of Christ in his members that say in the pride of their hearts with our tongues with our wits with our armes and armies we will prevail We are they that ought to speak and to rule who is Lord over us We have Counsel and strength for war c. what do they but even kick against the pricks as the phrase is Act. 9. which pierce into the heels of the kicker and worke him much anguish but themselves remain as they were before without any alteration or abatement of their sharpnesse God delighteth to get himself honour and to shew the strength of his arm by scattering such proud Pharaohs in the imagination of their hearts and that especially when they are arrived and not ordinarily till then almost at the very highest pitch of their designes When they are in the top of their jollity and gotten to the uppermost roundle of the ladder then doth he put to his hand tumble them down headlong at once and then how suddenly do they consume perish and come to a fearful end Then shall they finde but too late what their pride would not before suffer them to believe to be a terrible truth that all their devices were but folly and that the Counsel of the Lord must stand 35. A terrible truth indeed to them but Thirdly of most comfortable consideration to all those that with patience and cheerfulness suffer for the testimony of God or a good conscience and in a good cause under the insolencies of proud and powerful persecutors When their enemies have bent all the strength of their wits and power to work their destruction God can and as he seeth it instrumental to his everlasting counsels will infatuate all their counsells elude all their devices and stratagems bring all their preparations and enterprizes to nought and turn them all to their destruction his own glory and the welfare of his servants 1. Either by turning their counsels into folly as he did Achitophels 2. Or by diversion finding them work elsewhere as Saul was fain to leave the pursuit of David when he and his men had compassed him about and were ready to take him upon a message then brought him of an invasion of the land by the Philistines And as he sent a blast upon Senacherib by a rumour that he heard of the King of Ethiopia's coming forth to war against him which caused him to desert his intended siege of Ierusalem 3. Or by putting a blessing into the mouth of their enemies instead of a curse as he guided the mouth of Balaam contrary to his intendment and desire 4. Or he can melt the hearts of his enemies into a kinde of compassion or cause them to relent so as to be at peace with them when they meet though they came out against them with mindes and preparations of hostility as he did Labans first and Esaus afterwards against Iacob 36. Howsoever some way or other he can curb and restrain either their malice or power or both that when they have devised devices against them as they did against
bone in his body And so a man had better receive twenty wounds in his good name then but a single raze in his conscience But yet here the recovery is easier then there A broken bone may be set again and every splinter put in his due place and if it be skilfully handled in the setting and duly tended after it may in short time knit as firm again as ever it was yea and as it is said firmer then ever so as it will break any where else sooner then there But as for the shivers of a broken glass or earthen dish no art can piece them so as they shall be either sightly or serviceable they will not abide the file nor the hammer neither soader nor glue nor other cement will fasten them handsomly together The application is obvious to every understanding and therefore I shall spare it If Simon be once a leper the name will stick by him when the disease hath left him Let him be cleansed from his leprosie never so perfectly yet he will be called and known by the name of Simon the Leper to his dying day Envious and malicious persons apprehend the truth hereof but too well one of whose Aphorismes it is and they practise accordingly Calumniare fortiter aliquid adhaerebit Come and let us smite with the tongue and be sure to smite deep enough and then though the grief may be cured and perhaps the skin grow over again 't is odds but he will carry some mark or print of it to his grave It should make us very careful to preserve names from foul aspersions because the stains will not easily if at all be scoured off again 37. But how may that be effectually done may some say Absolutely to secure our selves from false aspersions truly it is not in our power and therefore I can prescribe no course to prevent it If malice or envy be minded to throw them on there is no help for it but patience But so far as dependeth upon our selves and the likeliest way withall to counter-work the uncharitableness of others to give you a very general answer is By eschewing evil and doing good by walking warily and circumspectly by living soberly righteously and Godly in this present world Praise is the reward of vertue as you heard and the foundation of a good name is a good life If any man desire yet more particular directions as namely what kinds of actions are especially to be practised and what kinds especially to be shunned in order to this end I shall commend unto his consideration these five Rules following which I shall but briefly point at the time not suffering me to insist 38. First Let him look well to his particular calling and the duties that belong to him in it bestirring himself with all diligence and faithfulness and carrying himself uprightly and conscionably therein and be sure to keep himself within the proper bounds thereof This Rule is given us 1 Thes. 4. That you study to be quiet and to do your own business Why so That ye may walk honestly towards them that are without 39. Secondly Let him carry himself lowly dutifully and respectfully to all his superiours and betters to Magistrates to Ministers to his Parents to his Masters to the aged and to all others agreeably to their respective conditions and relations And this Rule we have as in other places so in 1 Pet. 2. Honour all men be subject even to your froward masters submit to the King as supreme and to governours sent of him c. Why For so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 40. Thirdly Let him be wise charitable and moderate with all brotherly condescension in the exercise of his Christian liberty and the use of indifferent things Not standing alwayes upon the utmost of what he may or what he may not do but yielding much from his own liberty for his brothers sake considering as well what as the case presently standeth is expedient for him to do in relation to others as what is simply and in it self lawful to be done St Paul giveth us the Rule Rom. 14. If thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably c. Let not your good be evil spoken of 41. Fourthly Let him be milde gentle a lover and maintainer of peace and concord not violent or boysterous or peremptory either in his opinions or courses but readier to compose then to kindle quarrels and to qualifie then to exasperate differences This Rule we have Phil. 2. Do all things without murmurings and disputings And why so That you may be blameless and harmless and without rebuke 42. Fifthly Let him be liberal and merciful willing to communicate the good things that God hath lent him for the comfort and supply of those that stand in need This Rule I gather out of Psal. 112. The righteous shall be had in an everlasting remembrance He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the poor His righteousness shall endure for ever his horn also shall be exalted with honour 43. Whoso observeth these directions his memory shall if God see it good for him be like the remembrance of good Iosiah in Ecclesiasticus like the composition of the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary sweet as honey in the mouths of all that speak of him and as musick at a banquet of wine in the ears of all that hear of him Or if it be the good pleasure of God for the trial of his faith and exercise of his patience to suffer men to revile him and to speak all manner of evil against him falsely in this world it shall be abundantly recompensed him in the encrease of his reward in heaven at the last great day when every man whose name shall be found written in the boook of life shall have praise of God and of his holy Angels and of all good men AD AULAM. Sermon II. WHITE HALL November 1632. Proverbs 16.7 When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him 1. THe words contain two blessed fruits of a gracious conversation the one more immediate and direct Acceptance with God the other more remote and by consequence from the former Peace with men Or if you will a Duty and the Benefit of it and these two coupled together as they seldome go single in one conditionall proposition consisting of an Antecedent and a Consequent wherein we have Gods part and ours Our part lieth in the Antecedent wherein is supposed a Duty which God expecteth from us ex debito and that is to frame our wayes so as to please the Lord. Gods part lieth in the Consequent wherein the benefit is expressed which when we have performed the Duty we may comfortably expect from him ex promisso and that is to have our enemies to be at
time the Sale first by Sin and then the Redemption by Christ. 2. You have sold your selves for nought Words not many in our Translations But in the Original as also in the Greek as few as can be to be a Number but two Yet do they fairly yield us these four Particulars 1. The Act and that is a Bargain of Sale ye have sold 2. The Object of that Act the Commodity or thing sold and that is themselves sold your selves 3. The Consideration or Price if you will allow that Name to a thing of no Price and that is nothing or as good as nothing sold for nought 4. The Agent the Merchant or Salesman and that is themselves too Ye have sold your selves To sell and that themselves and that for nought and to do all this themselves of these in order 3. The Act is first it is a Bargain of Sale Ye have sold your selves If we had but deposited our selves with Satan being so perfidious as he is it had been hazard enough and but too much For even among Men if the party that is trusted have but the Conscience to deny the trust and the face to forsweare it he that trusteth him may soon come to lose all But yet in point of right and to common entendment he that depositeth any thing in the hand of another doth only commit it to his custody both property and use still reserved to himself 2. In a Demise a man parteth with more of his interest he transmitteth together with the possession the use also or fruit of the thing letten or demised so as the ususructuarius or tenant may during his Terme use it at his Pleasure and so far as he is not limited by special Covenant make benefit of it to his own most advantage But here is yet no Alienation it is but jus utendi salvâ substantiâ Still the Property remaineth where it was and the Possession too after a time and when the terme is expired reverteth to the first owner 3. A Mortgage indeed hath in it something of the Nature of an Alienation in as much as it passeth over Dominium as well as Rem and Usumfructum that is property and as you would say Ownership as well as Possession Use and Benefit Yet not absolutely any of these but with a defeisance and under a Condition performable by himself so as the Mortgage is upon the point the proprietary still if he will himself because it is in his own power by performing the Condition to make a defeisance of his former act and consequently to make the alienation void and then he is in statu quo 4. But in a Bargain of Sale there is a great deal more then in all these There the Alienation is absolute and the contract Peremptory Wherein the Seller transferreth and maketh over to the Buyer together with the Possession use and profits the very property also of the thing sold with all his right title claim and interest therein for ever without power of revocation or any other reservation whatsoever And this is our Case this the fact whereof we stand indited in the Text. What the Scripture chargeth upon Ahab for his particular that he had sold himself to work wickedness is though not in the same height of sence yet in some degree more or less chargeable upon all Man-kinde We have all sold our selves to Sin and Satan Venundati sub peccato saith St Paul and he seemeth to speak it of the better sort of Men too in the judgment of many good interpreters Rom. 7. And then how much more is it true of the rest that they are Carnall sold under sinne 5. The greater is our Misery and the more our Presumption which are the two Inferences hence Our Misery first For by selling ourselves over to sin and Satan we have put our selves out of our own into their Dominion and during that state remain wholly to be disposed at their pleasure They are now become our Lords and it is not for us to refuse any drudgery be it never so toilsome or irksome whereabout they shall list to employ us How should it else be possible for men endowed with reason some to melt themselves away in Luxury and Brutish sensuality as the Voluptuous othersome to pine themselves lean with looking at the fatness of anothers portion as the Envious othersome to run themselves out of breath sometimes till they burst in the pursuit either of shadows as the Ambitious or of smoak as the Popular or vain-glorious othersome like those that in old time were damnati ad Metalla to moyl perpetually in lading themselves with thick clay whereof it could give them to think that ever they should have use as the Covetous were it not that they are put upon such drudgeries by their imperious Masters Sin who raigneth like a tyrant in their mortall Bodies and will have all his lust obeyed and Satan who grown great by this new purchase for by it it is that he claimeth to be Prince of the world sitteth in the hearts of ungodly men as in his Throne and there commandeth like an Emperour and who may be so bold as to contradict or but to say Domine cur ita facis Acti agimus is a true saying in this sence howsoever He must needs go we say whom the Devil driveth and St Paul saith he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience It is but an empty flourish then that licentious men sometimes stand so much upon their liberty saying with them Iohn 8. we were alwayes free and were never in bondage unto any or with them in Psalm 12. Our lips are our own who is Lord over us who is Lord over you do you say No hard matter to tell you that Even Satan your lips and your tongues are his your hearts and your hands his your bodies and your souls his all you have all you are wholy and entirely his You have sold your selves to him and Emptum cedit in jus emptoris He hath bought you and his you are to have and to hold he may now do what he will with you if God suffer him and you must abide it This being the case of us all by reason of Sin till we be restored by Grace I need say no more to let us see what misery we have pulled upon our selves by this Sale 6. But there is another thing too in this Sale besides our Misery meet for us to take knowledge of and that is our high and intolerable Presumption joyned with extreme injustice and unthankfulness God made us to do him service and his we are his Creatures his Servants Now then Quis tu What hast thou to do to judge saith S. Paul may not I say much more what hast thou to do to sell anothers servant and that invito nay inconsulto Domini without any Licence of Alienation from the chief Lord nay without so much as
ever asking his consent If God were pleased to leave us at first in manu consilij and to trust us so far as to commit the keeping of our selves to our selves he had no meaning therein to turn us loose neither to quit his own right to us and our services Nay may we not with great reason think that he meant to oblige us so much the more unto himself by making us his depositaries in a trust of that nature As if a King should commit to one of his meanest servants the custody of some of his Royal houses or forts he should by that very trust lay a new obligation upon him of fealty over and above that common allegiance which he oweth him as a Subject Now if such a servant so entrusted by the King his Master should then take upon him of his own head without his Masters privity to contract with a stranger perhaps a Rebel or Enemy for the passing over the said house or fort into his hands Who would not condemne such a person for such an act Of ingratitude injustice and presumption in the highest degree Yet is our injustice ingratitude and presumption by so much more infinitely heinous then his in selling our selves from God our Lord and Master into the hands of Satan a Rebel and an Enemy to God and all goodness By how much the disparity is infinitely more betwixt the eternall God and the greatest of the sons of Men then betwixt the highest Monarch in the world and the lowest of his Subjects 7. So much for the Act the other particulars belong to it as circumstances thereof To a Sale they say three things are required Res Precium and Consensus a Commodity to be sold a Price to be pai'd and consent of Parties Here they are all And whereas I told you in the beginning that in this Sale was represented to us Mans inexcusable baseness and folly You shall now plainly see each particle thereof made good in the three several Circumstances In the Commodity our Baseness that we should sell away our very selves in the Price our folly that we should do it for a thing of naught in the Consent our inexcusableness in both that an act so base and foolish should yet be our own voluntary act and deed And first for the Commodity You have sold your selves 8. Lands Houses Cattel and other like possessions made for mans use are the proper subject matter of trade and commerce and so are fit to pass from man to man by Sales and other Contracts But that Man a Creature of such excellency stamped with the image of God endowed with a reasonable soule made capable of grace and Glory should Prostâ—are in foro become merchantable ware and be chaffered in the markets and fayres I suppose had bin a thing never heard of in the world to this houre had not the overflowings of pride and Cruelty and Covetousness washed out of the hearts of Men the very impressions both of Religion and Humanity It is well and we are to bless God and under God to thank our Christian Religion and pious Governours for it that in these times and parts of the world we scarce know what it meaneth But that it was generally practis'd all the world over in some former ages and is at this day in use among Turks and Pagans to sell men ancient Histories and modern relations will not suffer us to be ignorant We have mention of such Sales even in Scripture where we read of some that sold their own brother as Iacobs sons did Ioseph and of one that sold his own Master as the traitor Iudas did Christ. Basely and wretchedly both Envy made them base and Covetousness him Only in some cases of Necessity as for the preservation of Life or of liberty of Conscience when other means fail God permitted to his own people to sell themselves or Children into perpetual bondage and Moses from him gave Laws and Ordinances touching that Matter Levit. 25. 9. But between the Sale in the Text and all those other there are two main differences Both which do exceedingly aggravate our baseness The first that no man could honestly sell another nor would any man willingly sell himself unless enforced thereunto by some urgent necessity But what necessity I pray you that we should sell our selves out of Gods and out of our own hands into the hands of Sin and Satan Were we not well enough before sull enough and safe enough Was our Masters service so hard that it might not be abiden Might we not have lived Lived Yea and that happily and freely and plentifully and that for ever in his service What was it then Even as it is with many fickle servants abroad in the world that begin in a good service cannot tell when they are well but must be ever and anon flitting though many times they change for the worse so it was only our Pride and folly and a fond conceit we had of bettering our condition thereby that made us not only without any apparent necessity but even against all good reason and duty thus basely to desert our first service and to sell our selves for bondslaves to Sin and Satan 10. The other difference maketh the matter yet a great deal worse on our side For in selling of slaves for so much as bodily service was the thing chiefly looked after therefore as the body in respect of strength health age and other abilities was deem'd more or less fit for service the price was commonly proportioned thereafter Hence by a customary speech among the Grecians slaves were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is bodies and they that traded in that kinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say merchants of bodies And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Rev. 18. Mancipia or slaves Epiphanius giveth us the reason of that use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he c. because all the command that a man can exercise over his slaves is terminated to the body and cannot reach the soule And the soule is the better part of man and that by so many degrees better that in comparison thereof the body hath been scarce accounted a considerable part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Greek Philosopher say and the Latin Orator Mens cujusque is est quisque The soule is in effect the whole man The body but the shell of him the body but the casket the soule the Jewel It is observable that whereas we read Matth. 16. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soule in stead thereof we have it Luke 9. thus if he gain the whole world and lose himself So that every mans soule is himself and the body but an appurtenance of him Yet such is our baseness that we have thus trucked away our selves with the appurtenances that is both our soules and our bodies We detest Witches and