moone a sabboth or a peece of an holy day Euery day is a feast to a Christian man euery day is Alleluia praise the Lorde and euery time is a rest and a saboth vnto God and therefore the Galathians in restraining mē to such strict obseruations did Iudaize therein and it was not conuenient The ciuil vse is stil expedient 2 The ciuill vse of the saboth was to prefixe a set rest to men euen to thy seruant yea for the very beast for God is a gracious God respecting the basest of his creatures And continuall toyle hath no continuance As the moth breedeth in the garment that is not worne so the garment is soone worne-out that is euer worne and where there is no change at al. Wherefore ceremonieus circumstances being taken away the ciuill vse of the saboth standeth in force and effect as before The ecclesiastical vse is continuall 3 The ecclesiastical vse of the saboth remaineth also much more with vs. For wee haue but changed the Iewes saboth which was Saturday into our Christian saboth which is the lorde day wherein the Lord rose from the death and which wee call Sunday retaining the name gentility was accustomed to at the first But that forceth not for christianity goeth not by names In truth our Sunday is our saboth and therein albeit a Christian life bee a continuall saboth and albeit the Iewish ceremonies be repealed and cancelled as appeire either by our altering the day notwithstanding because God is the author of order and because he should not bee serued vncertainly in our publicke seruice our saboth as a set time is wisely set downe and relligiously shoulde bee obserued We read of the Lacedemonians that by common exercise and continuall endeuour could dehaue and demeane themselues very warlickly in the camp but to vse the time of peace they had vtterly no skill as if their hands had bin made only to handle their weapons and themselues born to liue and dye in the leager semblably many if yet many can tell meetely well I dare not say well but some can tell right-well howe to trade in the working dayes but how the saboth and holy-day shoulde bee holily passed ouer al as poore soules scant the thowsanth man knoweth The couetous man hath euer a geob of woork to doe at Church time the wanton person chuseth that time for his sinnes when others are best occupied vaine men and idle fukes either house it in the Ale-house or houle it in the Alley passe the time at some inordinate and vnlawful disport or other while the calues of our lips are in sacrifieng while the incence of our praying is a burning while the minister standeth at the Lordes table Nehem. 8.4 while Esdra is in the pulpit reading and expounding the Law of God Priuate praiers exclude not the church-seruice I knowe men may pray and read at home and at what howre they list among their priuate families But doe you or dare they contemne the Lords ordinance There is no ceremonious difference of daies true Yet principally certaine times are fixed to raise vp a mount as it were or to build vp a high tower whither mē may ascend and many eies togither may looke round about and take a full view of the goodnes and benefits of God laid foorth and displaid by the interpretation of the Scriptures You say yow read at home and pray at home If you did yet is not the congregation to be thus shunned say so who will whom I see not vsually at Church I dare say and do vouch that his so saying is an vntru saying If it be night it may be thou sleepest if woorking day it may bee thou art occupied if it be holy-day neuer tel me thou praiest duely at home that wilt not voutsafe to step out of doores to ioine in prayers with the assembly of Gods children and thy fellow brethren Parlor praying and secret preaching at times of publicke seruice And of al things that is a singuler pride nicenes that is grown in to turn the Church-seuice only into parlar prayeng and priuate preaching euen at those times when the congregation is gathered together in publique place If Elias were in flyght from the face of Iezabel if Ionas be cast into the Sea Ieremy into the miry dungeon or Daniel into the den in the time of persecution whether in caues marishes or in places whereuer there is no difference of places Vnder a Iuniper tree on the mountaine in the wildernesse out of the whalles belly in euerie place pure handes may be helde vp to that hand that giueth most richly and casteth no man in the teeth But still I speake of the Church-prayers of publique places in times of peace and of set times in publique places and that the Church-minister put in vse the practise of his Church vocation then and there especially when it is most seemely and where the woord it selfe would bee preached and the sacraments ministred That the husband man praise God in the field the girle at her needle the maid at her wheel the weauer at his loome euery artisan at his trade or that the father and master of his children and whole housholde reade a chapter distinctly sing psalms deuoutly pray togither hartily at home at entry of their labors and end of their daily worck is an exercise much wanting greatly esteemed of God and comfortable to the soule and by these good meanes the very working-daies after a sort are turned into a religious continual kind of Saboth vnto such But still I missike that sancifull demeanour in some in not keeping the publicke Saboth in publick fort The prayer of one godly man is forceable but virtus vnita fortior God who that heareth one wil heare many and the praiers of many ioyned in one make a more forcible entraunce to the throne of grace and there is singular comfort in this coniunction When we eate or when wee drinke to satisfie hunger and thirst it skilleth not but when similiars meete their meat and drink to them a great deale more good In the church meetings if men could tast spirituall ioy as well as they can corporal meats in sociable companies the comparison is vnequal I might enlarge and speake directly But I feare me I haue lost my way if not my labor and intent herein therefore to return For you my good breethren that seeme to keep and I hope obserue the saboth as you should you who ioin in praiers with vs who frequent our sermons partake gods sacraments who rest frō sinne vnto God the seuenth day make ye also the rest of the weeke suceable to this beginning For otherwise were it not more than a folly to rest one day in body from labor in soul from sin that the six daies folowing we might run to al excesse of riot weary our selues more thā before as it were resting our selues our horse a litle to
Pauls conuersion what it was 2. The end why 3. And his obedience thereto The cause of mans conuersion is not found at al in man 1 In the search of the cause of mans conuersion a proud Papist would seeke after some puritie in nature some preparation in man and for some fauorable willingnes thereunto in himselfe but looke wee vpon Paul being left to himselfe and see this one man and know al men what we are Nature worketh alike in al whereuer it worketh For if there be any oddes the difference is not in men naturally wherein we agree but aboue and beside our nature where lieth the ods Paul rideth a maine his commission is in his bozom and care at his hart for the ouerthrow of Christians and Christian profession when it pleased God here is the cause when it pleased God euen then to alter him wholely and cal him effectually here is the cause and in nothing else Nay from the wombe was Paul segregated by the prouidence and wil of God and here is the sole and onely cause both in the wombe where there neither was nor could bee cause at al and afterward in the world when there was great cause to the contrarie but that so great was Gods goodnes so good his pleasure The fruite of this example and of the lesson therein is double both for an assured confirmation of our faith and also to imprint a necessary remembrance of our duetie to so prouident and louing a God that not onely careth for * Gen. 39.20 Ioseph in the pit and prison or * Exod. 2.6 Moses in the flags c. but hath a special purpose in his chosen before he framed and when he fashioned them in the womb 2 The ende why God called Paul is apparent to reueale his sonne in Paul which was his special and priuate and endlesse comfort But the vse God would put him to was the commoditie and instruction of the Gentiles Neither could the Apostle haue reuealed that vnto others if it had beene hid from himselfe And therefore as it were to tinde the candle that should light a house was Christ reuealed to Paul that Paul might in preaching reueale Christ to them that should beleeue God vseth ordinarilie external and ordinarie meanes And thus it pleaseth God as without meanes to cal Paul at the first so afterward by meanes of Paul to win others Pharao himselfe could haue deliuered out of his Kingly prouision corne to his subiects but he sent them to Ioseph and said to his people * Gen. 41.55 Go to Ioseph Our Sauiour when by miracle he multiplied the fiue Loaues and the two Fishes Hee gaue to his Disciples and his Disciples I say his * Iohn 6.11 Disciples gaue to them that were set down Likewise in spiritual foode and releefe externally and in publique order by the ministerie of men and by the meane of preaching both then it pleased God to recal the Iews and cal the Gentiles and now * Eph. 4.13 stil hee vouchsaueth vs that his accustomed goodnes by men to deale with men and to anner this outward mean of preaching to the inward woorking of his holie spirit Ready and resolute obedience where God warranteth without al respects 3 For my third note Paul being thus freely called and fully illuminated not to shine onely to himselfe or to some fewe but purposely for the instruction of many and namely of the Gentiles for so general was his commission obedientlie immediatly and strait way as it were an arrowe out of a bowe or a boole downe a hil or a lightening out of the Heauens he hasteth about his busines and incontinently without farther debate or delaie iournieth but whither To Ierusalem To the holie Citie To his ancesters To them that were Apostles before him Nothing lesse He neither regarded the place nor respected their persons but the mightie and merciful God that called him and sent him sufficiently warranted and he went accordingly about his calling 1 Sam. 3.8 Young and yet ignorant Samuel when God called him could not tel what the calling went and went to Ely when he should haue harkened vnto God But Paul knoweth what hee doth he consulteth not with any at al neither with the Apostles that might seeme to aduise him better or authorize him farther neither with flesh and bloode kif or kin one man or other that could affection him best or affect him most but as it is storied of the * 1 Sam. 6.12 newe milch-kine that caried home the Ark whē their calues were shut vp that they went straight turned neither to the right hand nor to the left so Paul shutting resigning vp al his thoughts directly and foorth right respecting no one consideration at all what euer vnder heauen resolueth himselfe most readily vpon the obsequent and due performance of his Apostolicke office And great reason for he had warrant alsufficient and ability most conuenient The expresse warrant of God needeth not the allowance of men few or many And why should men then depend vpon farther councels and consultations of men either prouincial or els general when they are expressely commaunded enabled from God himselfe either immediatly speaking or in his Scriptures directing 18 Then after three yeares I came againe to Ierusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteene daies 19 And none other of the Apostles sawe I saue Iames the Lords brother 20 Nowe the thinges which I write vnto you behold before God I lie not 21 After that I went into the coasts of Syria and Cilicia for I was vnknowen by face vnto the Churches of Iudea which were in Christ 22 But they had heard only he which persecuted vs in time past now preacheth the faith which before he destroyed 23 And they glorified God for me Paul went to Ierusalem when you see three yeares passing betweene his calling and his going thither and why to see Peter and al the midle while he wanted neither abilitie nor authority in the trade of his function In the remnant of this Chapter would be obserued two matters 1. First a doubt which must be resolued 2. And then a duetie that ought to be learned 1 The doubt is why Paul shoulde goe to see Peter * Stapleton de do prin l. 6. c. 13. For our aduersaries reason herehence in effect thus Paul went to see Peter ergo Peter was better than Paul and if Peter were better than Paul then Peters successors are also better than Pauls and the * The Popes supremacie deriued from Peter Pope succeedeth Peter therfore the Pope is better than any els head of al. I will not dispute the question whether the Pope if but locally and in place onely and why more at Rome he than others at Antioch succeedeth Peter whether so or no I dispute not nowe Suppose he there succeedeth what then Personal priuileges are nothing to him who hath nothing but a local
than al they And a great deale of labour in a shorter time is more worth than lesse labour in a longer space And as it is this in teachers so generally may it bee and sometime is my brethren among the rest of beleauers one beleeueth sooner another later God can teach him in one daie as much as thou hast learned in tenne before An olde and an humble graie whiteheadead Latimer or Whitehead to mention these two onely in steede of manie is a venerable spectacle and a reuerend sight but a conuerted soule saued out of the fier and thus to become a preacher of the Gospel is a most admirable mirror in mine eyes And yet thus can the spirite of Christ blow and purifie and woorke euen thus mightily where and vpon whom it wil and therefore it was not preiudicial at al to Paul that hee was no sooner called that was so effectually called in the end Iames and Iohn Andrew and Peter because of their calling before Paul were growen in good credit True And therefore Paul telleth them that notwithstanding that God doth not accept mens persons and external credit God can and doth raise vp instrumentes of his glory in latter daies some passing and exceeding many of former tymes Wherefore Paul with great right and reason setteth it down that he borowed not his light of others who were before him but ascribeth al to God almightie whom he sheweth to be no respecter of persons How God accepteth and accepteth not of persons Yet herein may arise some question For doth not God accept persons Who then shal be accepted if he accept none That that wee are we are by grace by fauor and by acceptation Then certainly he accepteth some He accepted Iacob when hee reiected the elder Brother Esau Yea whom hee accepteth not he doth reiect Therefore in this sense it is true he accepteth persons to wit according to his good will purpose choise and pleasure But for any thing acruing to man or rising in him externally by meane of ordinary circumstances God is not respectiuely partial to prefer one person before another the rich before the poore Peter before Paul for that cause and therefore because Peter was first called because many had a better opinion of the one than of the other And this is Saint Pauls meaning in these words God is no accepter of persons 2 In the second point I obserued a declaration of the Apostles friendly and full consenting to Paul As there was great reason why hee should stand vpon the authoritie he had receaued of God so when the Apostles saw 1. His commission in the Gospel and 2. the grace of God in him among the Gentiles they strait ioyned mutually togither in one societie Wherein you marke plainly 1. the euidence of Pauls authoritie 2. the limits of his charge 3. and their equality and association among themselues Triall and prouing goeth before consenting 1. They first saw and knew so much before they yeelded The eye commonly is a true informer of true knowlege when they saw they knew But seeing knowing here may be alone the outward sense for the inward vnderstanding but til they knewe they did not ioyne Ios 9.14 The Gibionits deceaued Iosue because Iosue was ouer-credulous but they vpon thorough triall found Pauls euidence good and found 1 Tim. 2.7 2. the limits and bounds of his calling reached vnto the vtmost partes and as it were to the hems and skirts of al the woorld and namely and chiefly to the Gentiles Chiefly to them not folely among them for he had a harty consideration and desire for * Rom. 10.1 Israel also But the Iewes were rather Peters charge and the Gentiles were chiefly committed to Paul and the Iewes more chiefly to Peter Wherefore the papacy that claimeth from Peter may better seeke a chiefly among the Iewes than among vs the Gentiles 3. And this was concluded among them that neither should more than was conuenient put sickle in the others haruest and that all should in their lot labour and he rein they agreed and they which were reputed pillars gaue to Paul and Barnabas their right hands vpon it How Ministers are wel resembled to the pillars in a building It were not amuse ouer and aboue to note how the Apostles and after them the ministers of Gods Church may be called and should be reputed and he indeed the pillars of their congregations The staie of an house are the pillars thereof euen as the strength of mans body are his hones And such should men of our vocation be the wals and watchmen of a cuy the beautie the strength the defence 2 King 2.12 the horse and chariot of Israel as was Elias Of old such were the olde Patriarches and Prophets afterwarde such were the Apostles and Euangelists and such are now good Bishops and vigilant Pastors and Teachers till the comming of Christ whom in the meane while he * Ephes 4.11 gaue to his Church for the gathering togither of his Saintes for the worke of the ministery for the building vp of his bodie Iudg. 16.29 It is storied of Sampson that hee tooke the midle pillars of the Philistines temple and pulled them both downe at once These pillars are stronger than so They shal not faile they cannot fal God that hewed them out wil hold them vp and who shal pul them downe Iob. 1.19 The wind out of the wildernes ouer-turned Iobs house It is not so with Gods house it is founded on a rocke and fixed on sure pillars and these pillars are fixed Sampsons strength wil not and Sathans cannot pul them downe Fugitiues and lookers-back from the plough they once laid their hands vnto For if al these pillars yeelde the whole edifice followeth after When but a minister shrinketh the faith of many is much weakned But dearly beloued be not deceaued Al should be pillars firme and strong that seeme to bee some seeme and bee as they seeme some onely seeme to bee and bee not indeede And what if some such haue defected What if some certaine haue gone out of the dore that came in at the window What if certaine that were among vs but neuer of vs Acts. 1.25 haue gone into their own place and shewed themselues as Iudas among the Apostles What if certaine haue with-drawen their shoulders from Gods labour and being but greene timber and that not of the Lordes hewing haue shrunck away misliking this great duety yet good seruice of ours in humility to support and stand vnder others to doe them good Nay what if some in steede of holding vp hale and pul downe Certainly the iudgementes of God are iust and will be hard and heauy toward al these in that daie And yet for al this the Lords house shal stil stand vpon hir pillars vpon such pillars as are of imputrible wood of wood that wil not rotte well seasoned by the Lord and therefore cannot
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely expect we in patience the Lordes leasure knowing assuredly that God wil make vs a forth and a way amids al temptations Neither wil hee suffer his children to be tempted aboue their measure Dauid had his Goliath Sampson his Lion to encounter with God knew the measure of Dauids courage and Sampsons strength Physitions giue the strongest potions to the strongest bodies And health is most acceptable after the greatest sicknes And the ioy of the sick soule is then enlarged when it returneth after sorrowe and then is the cry of the spirite heard with a quicker sense when for a while it had not beene heard at al. And thus much for the consequent that because we are sonnes wee are therefore endued with his spirite assuring vs though not euer alike Rom. 9. that we are his sonnes and heires because it crieth and certifieth our harts that God through Christ is become our father 8 But euen then when ye knew not God yee did seruice vnto them which by nature are not Gods 9 But now seeing yee know God yea rather are knowen of God how turne yee againe vnto impotent and beggerly rudiments wherunto as from the beginning yee wil be in bondage againe 10 Yee obserue daies and moneths and times and yeares 11 I feare of you least I haue bestowed on you labour in vaine The best way of discerning is euer to compare matters times persons causes condicions and circumstances together Paul taketh this course and sheweth them 1. What they were they knew not God c. 2. What they are they know God or rather are knowen of God c. 3. And therefore their relapse is strange to the beggerly Elementes and thereupon hee feareth their greater danger to ensue The effectes of Ignorance The condicion and state wherein the Galathians liued was in ignoraunce and liuing in ignorance of the liuing God they serued them which by nature were no Gods For certes if they had knowen the true God they woulde haue serued him Ioh. 4. The woman of Samaria if she had known with whom she talked as Christ requested water of hir so would shee haue craued of him the waters of eternal life Mat. 25. The wise Virgins had their entrance with the bride and haue their due commendation for they were wise But the folish virgins though virgins yet because they were fooles and ignorant reaped the sour fruit of their security are reputed thereafter were excluded when the bride was entred Ephes 2. The Ephesians to whom our Apostle writeth the next Epistle what were they How liued they Read the second chapter They folowed the sway of this sinful woorld Sathan ledde the dance hee went before and they thronged after their whole conuersation was altogether in the lusts and wil of the flesh Aske yee the reason They were Aliants from the common wealth of Israel they were strangers from the couenant of the promise they were in the same case were these Galathians and al the Gentils else they had no hope and were very Atheists that is men without God Aske yee why they were Atheists why they hoped not why they trusted not in God The answere is easie and was laide downe in the woordes before because they were strangers and vnacquainted with gods promises Testimonies and Lawes because they were Aliantes from the statutes and ordinances of his church and common wealth because in one woord they knew not God therefore they serued false Gods and by name Diana and cried out like man men Acts. 19. Magna est Diana Ephesiorum Great is Diana the Goddes of the Ephesians Read the thirteenth and the fourteenth Chapters of Wisedom and you should see it vouched that many inconueniences specially Idolatry and the seruice of strange gods and very Idols came in by Ignorance And were mens eies in their heads and their sight cleared and enabled so as to discerne but indifferently it were impossible that the wicked inuention the doctrine of lying the discipline of vanity the multitude of Idolatrous seruices shoulde so preuaile and that men shoulde serue as God that which is incomparably woorse than man that man made by his creation after the Image of God shoulde creepe to a materiall crosse gad to a shrine say my father to a peece of wood yea that a man purposing to saile the Seas should call vpon a stocke and a rotten Roode more rotten than the vessel that carieth him But ignorance is the mistres the mother and the nurse of this deuotion or rather superstition Rom. 4.21 The Romanes because they knewe not God they glorified him not but became vnthankful vanishing away in their Imaginations And why Their foolish harts were ful of dareknesse And being fooles they turned the glory of God into the similitude of innumerable increadible and corruptible vanities In this state at the first were the Romans the Ephesians the Galathians c. And al through ignorance I could dilate and be long and enter disputation with our known and neerest aduersaries because of their introducing and bringing in because of their maintenance and supportation of intolerable Ignorance and Idolatry I know they haue shiftes and distinctions curiously wrought but spiders webs cannot holde out winde or weather The worshipping of Images The ignorant is ignorant hee knoweth not the difference they vainely make of Douly and Latry and Hyperdouly and it is a toy and greeke as we say to the people And it is greeke indeede and that to the English man that knoweth nothing but his owne language And in his ignorance hee creepeth and croucheth lifteth vp handes and falleth downe and adoreth all the Images in their Temples and knoweth litle God knoweth what these sorry proportions and terms meane I aske you do you know them Douly Latry Hyperdouly I know you know them not O learne to know God and thou will worship God alone and in such sort as himselfe hath prescribed But liue in Ignoraunce and straite thou rangest inordinately and seruest straunge gods euen as the children of Israel when the onely God had wrought their strong delyuerance yet sacrificed and gaue the praise thereof euen to a Calfe that eateth hey And say not say not brethren that you you serue not strange gods for all this The Israelites sayde they worshipped God when they adored a Calfe you say you worship God when you fal downe before the Image of the father before the picture of his sonne or of his Saintes but they worshipped strange gods notwithstanding and so doe you in that you worshippe God after a straunge manner which is not Gods-worshippe but a wil-worship and an idol of your owne deuising and that expresly against the scriptures and all for want of true knowledge and by reason of ignorance The making of Images Moses conuenting the people of Israel togither commandeth on gods behalfe on this wise In the day the Lord spake vnto you out of the mids of the fier in
shrewd affection and it sauoreth of an Anti-Christian pride to sit in the consciences of men to affect a Rabbinisme and a Masterdome in the Church of God to desire to carry Disciples personally after them little caring if they set al on fier so they may gather the ashes of their fond conceat and make a flash of a foolish reioycing And in this vanitie is alwaies through hypocrisie interlaced a shew as if themselues would performe that which they require of other which in trueth they neither * Act. 15 10. could nor * Ioh. 7.19 did performe Vain feare 2 Againe mark it and lightly you shall find that the ambitious heade hath a trembling heart there where he should least fear If is a trueth hee that looketh into his duety through the running water of an aspiring minde or a timerous thought can neuer go vpright What is the cause that the trueth of Christ Iesus at this day amongst vs is so slowly embraced and so coldly professed What is the cause that in Gods causes there are found so manie hares that run away so many timerous hearts and so fewe Lions of couragious stoutnes in the Lord He that watcheth the wind wil neuer sow hee that obserueth the cloudes will neuer mow There is the cause and this feare I meane the feare which is not of God is alwayes the euill counseller But can you not chuse but feare Then feare THE FEARE OF IACOB the Lord of hostes and the God of heauen If I bee your Lord where is my Fear Saith the Lord in the Prophet Why feare yee the frouning face of frail man His life is in his breath and his breath is in his nostrils Clauus clauum Let the fear of God as the stronger pron driue out the fear of man as the weaker nail It is a Proclamation in the booke of Iudges Iudg. 7.3 that trembling minds and fearful harts should depart from the Lords camp The feare that troubleth many at this day if we looke vpon things but with a mans ey and if my simplenes beguile me not euen that fear will beguile as many as so fear And he that feareth a frost shal bee couered with snow But he who feareth the Lord is a fenced tower And come what come can the momentany persecution in this mortall life is no way comparable to the life to come Vaine hope vain fear are vain affections If the Machiuelian Pragmatique the bold Iesuit the busie priest could consider thus much if the silly reede and the vnstable soule and the simple subiect could conceaue this much that there is no hope but in God no feare but in and for the Lord no trust in a single threed no hope by villanies no feare of trecheries no harme from Amelec no hurt from the proud Priest I doubt not I knowe by vndoubted circumstaunces what I say Recusantes which now are in respect of the truth would then as resolutely many of them refuse many points of Popery which now they embrace with litle adoe When I behold the state of Christendome at this day so farre forth as a weake ey can ken and discerne mee seemeth I see the sight that Abraham saw in the mountain when he looked toward Sodom and Gomor and saw nothing but smoke and fier Warres and rumors of wars anguish and tribulations such as haue not beene since the beginning are the portion the end of the world must be prepared vnto Hitherto aboue desert and against the innumerable instrumentes of Sathan and of the man of sinne God hath defended vs and his trueth and shall we for a little cloud of fear or flash of fier forsake the sincerity of his Gospell now Suppose they should I trust they shall not for though wee bee sinners they be diuels but suppose they should kil our bodies our soules they cannot kill I hope they shal do neither if we faithfully fear and serue our God and not them But suppose they should preuaile against this temporal life of ours As in shooting sometimes when the bowe is cut shortest yea when the bow bow-string break the arrow flyeth farthest and winneth at length so when the righteous is kept in the narrowest straits when body and soule both break and part asunder then is our God most glorified the righteous proued their patience tried their faith experienced and their hope extended vnto and their feare occupied about better matters Solon an heathen beeing demaunded how hee durst so boldly resist the tyrant Pisistratus aunswered fretus senectute mea His olde age made him bold And shal old age encourage an heathen man and what shoulde the faieth of a Christian man doe what should the diuine prouidence and feare of the Lord effect in our hearts Shall the corne feare the flaile the goold the fier the grape the presse Et facere pati fortia Christianum est Shal any man be strong and stout and shal not a Christian Let vs consider Pauls example herein 13 But God forbidde that I should reioice in anie thing but in the crosse of our Lorde Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified vnto me and I vnto the world 15 For in Christ Iesus neither circumcision auaileth anie thing nor vncircumcision but a new creature 16 And as manie as walcke according to this rule peace shal be vpon them and mercie and vpon the Israel of God The crosse of Christ. Paul maketh an open detestation against their vaine desire of reioycing in the flesh and sheweth wherein true ioy consisteth not in a thwart cut of the flesh but in the crosse of Christ that is in Christ crucified and herein is true ioy This is as Barnard speaketh musick to the eare honnie to the tast and a most good iubilie and perfect ioy to the mournful hart When our Sauiour suffered we read that the sun was darckned the earth moued the powers of heauen and earth were shaken the rock did riue asunder the vaile was rent and the graues were opē al things felt a sympathy a compassion at the passion of Christ and shal not man haue a feeling of these sufferings for whom onely hee suffered them Shal he not should hee not mourne for these sins that caused the son of God to take vpon him the shape of man and the shame of the crosse And yet because he hath been crucified for our sins and hath cancelled the hand-writing that was against vs and hath triumphed euen on the crosse wherein should Christians ioy and reioice but in his conquest And their greatest comfort is euen in the crosse of their redeemer whereby Paul addeth that the whole woorlde is vnto him and should be vnto vs as a crucified thing and that we againe are crucified to the world that we may liue in him who hath died for vs. The effects of Christes passion And this is the double effect of our Sauiours passion 1. First to redeeme vs from sinne death and the world 2.