did they fell downe flat as it were and worshipped the God of Israel I made choise of these the rather among infinite examples because I may paralell both with the thing in hand for the Preaching of the Word is but like the sounding of Rams-hornes in the judgement of carnall men towards the shaking of the wals of Iericho towards the casting downe the strong holds of sinne And the former would make a sweet Embleme of it A Souldier with a Trumpet in the right hand and an earthen Pitcher with a Lamp in the left hand lively representing the Minister who doth both in his ministery sound the Trumpet of the Gospell and in his martyrdome break his body like some earthen pitcher that the glory of God might breake forth through the humane frailtie like a Lamp and shine more bright and cleare But I must passe over these I will touch but one thing and so conclude for there is yet another respect in which God gets glory by this order and that is because by this meanes he takes try all of the obedience of his children whether they will entertaine such homely messengers for his sake who sends them and yeeld obedience to him whose will they publish But too much of this argument which I am affraid some may think needlesse or fruitlesse and the truth is I should not have gone so farre in this path if I had not observed some worthies of Israel all the way before me 2. CORINTH 5. 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God IT is reported of a Saracen Ambassador to Charles the Great that sitting in the Emperors Hall at dinner with him and observing two tables full of guests the lower of poore people invited according to his accustomed manner in ragged weeds and simple apparell he asked what they were the Emperor answered These are the Servants of our God whom we Christians worship and I entertaine them for his sake the upper full of gallants Courtiers in gold chains and gay attire he asked also what they were the Emperor answered these are my servants that attend upon my person O said the Saracen if you preferre your servants before the servants of your God that they be brave and costly and these be base and beggarly I will never embrace your religion I may not thinke there is any sonne of scoffing Ismael here any bastard Saracen among these true sonns of Abraham sonnes of Promise sonnes of the Prophets that will pick a hole in the coat of Gods true servants his Ambassadors that so they may picke a quarrell with Gods true religion I may not thinke so And yet I thinke I may take occasion here to take away all occasion of doubting that may perhaps arise in some weake judgements For as Aristotle could not better apprehend or expresse the magnitude of God then by the magnificence of the King of Persia so there may be some babes in Christ not throughly weaned from the vanities of this world that would require some outward eminencies in the Ministers of the Word to prove that they are Gods Ambassadors which if they be wanting though they dare not contradict the truth because they professe to believe so much yet they cannot conceive the mystery because they do not believe so much as they professe And therefore having cleared this the last time why God made choise of meane men for this honourable office rather then of the Glorious Cherubims and Seraphims rather then of the sonnes of the mighty give me leave now to produce some few evidences by which it may appeare that these men are indeed Gods Ambassadors The ground of this is plaine as I touched also before for this great world is a little Kingdome wherein God is the soveraign Lord the King of Kings and all men for their possiessions are his tenants for their functions his Lievtenants and in this great world the little flock of Christ is a great family in which God is the great Master of the family There can nothing be done in this family in this Kingdome without the authority of this Master of this King and therefore the Ministers of the Word must needs be dispensers of his speciall favour in the great family of his Church from him as from the great Master of this family And againe Ambassadors of his Royall pleasure in his Kingdome of the world from him as from their supreme Lord the King of Kings But why doe I produce the ground the Text is plaine We are Ambassadors for Christ and if you cast your eyes back to the foregoing verse you shall see from whom namely from God And the same Apostle in the last of the Ephesians useth the same word to the same purpose For whom I am an Ambassador in chaines where a man would think hearing of an Ambassador that he spake of a golden chaine and in some kind of vanity boasted of it And indeed the servants of God are noble and free though fettered in chaines of Iron as the slaves of sinne are base prisoners though in chaines of Gold And in this sense I thinke I may allude to the story and custome of wearing chaines and say the Divell deales with them as the Aetoli scoffingly said of Titus Flaminius the Romane Generall who pretended liberty to the Graecians but yet held some principall Cities by Garrisons that he made their clog smoother indeed than it was under Philip King of Macedon's tyranny but as heavie as it was And again Their feet are free from the stocks but their necke is under the yoke but this by the way The same thing is affirmed every where through the Scripture in equivalent termes Prophets are called Men of God in the Old Testament and Timothy in the New is stiled a Man of God and all Apostles Servants of Iesus Christ the Servants of God and Angels of the Churches for this reason But why do I enforce the Text the truth is plain and who is there here that doth not acknowledge it Who is such a fresh Proselyte in the Lords familie that doth not know his cognizance his livery As the Disciples said ignorantly to Christ himself Art thou only a stranger in Israel and knowest not these things So it may be truly said to that Christian if there be such an one Who is such a novice in Gods schoole that if he hath but learned the Alphabet of the language of Canaan cannot tell that they speak the language of Canaan Thou art a Galilean thy very speech bewrayes thee said the maid to Peter So may every Christian see the Minister by his speech as Socrates did and know where they are and from whom they come or if any doe not understand them when they tell them whose Ambassadors they are it is because they have not an interpreter as the Eunuch said to Philip they have not the Spirit of God which
by Christ did overflow and superabound and the riches of grace the exceeding great love of Christ and the bredth and the length and the height and the depth of love A man would thinke that Paul had spent all his Arts all his Rhetorick in Pleonasmes and Hyperbolies his Geometry in taking the height of his desert and could not attaine it And indeed they are words of wonder wondrous words or rather as he sayes wonders not words to expresse his absolute perfection to omit all these I say I will content my selfe with two or three witnesses to ratifie it which shall be past exception Iohn 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sinne of the world saith Iohn Baptist of Christ Will you believe the Lords Messenger Behold the Lamb what shall we behold in a Lamb Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Iohn 19. 30. It is finished saith Christ Iesus himselfe It what the Redemption of mankind what of the Redemption It is finished will you believe the Lord and Master Let no man think to thrust his Sickle into another mans harvest for it is finished Matth. 3. last This is my welbeloved sonne in whom I am well pleased saith God the Father This which even Christ Iesus what of Christ This is my welbeloved sonne in whom I am well pleased will you believe the Lord and Maker Let no man feare any after reckoning the Lord will looke for no more he will take no more for he is already pleased for in his welbeloved sonne he is well pleased I thinke there 's no man can slight the credit of these witnesses for Iohn hee said no more then he saw and Christ he affirmed no more then he performed and God spoke that which be received his acquittance could be no larger then his acceptance and therefore needs must all these make it irrefragable Neither was their witnesse a perfunctory testimoniall but a peremptory proofe of his fufficiencie for Iohn was nothing but a voice and the voice of a cryer and yet this is all that he said with such earnest contention and God said it not in a silent manner whispering not in a secret place but it was a voice from Heaven and Christ said it not in his ordinary speech but when he was upon the Crosse then he said a great voice as S. Matthew and S. Marke note then he said it with his last breath and seald it with his dearest blood And therefore I hope that this will suffice to have spoken of his sufficiencie I come now to the second point That Faith is sufficient to make him our Saviour which I will handle according to my former order but exceeding briefly 1. What faith is viz. out of the true sence of our own misery by nature and sweet apprehension of Gods mercy offered an humble denyall of our selves and all creatures and confident relying on the mercy of the Lord in Christ Iesus This may serve for a weake delineation of that worthy grace framed according to the proportion of my former principles And that this is sufficient needs no more proof but to point at that which ye have heard already for seeing our Salvation must be wrought by another and he that wrought it is Christ what can be further requisite then that Christ and his merits be made ours which can be done by faith only beside which there can be no other affection betweene God and man for the Spirit of God is the bond that unites and knits us to Christ by faith and faith is the hand that receives the treasure of Christs merits that inrich us and Christ is all our riches for being once transplanted out of the old Adam and ingrafted into the new which is Christ and made one with him the Lord cannot chuse but repute us righteous through the imputation of his righteousnesse Hence it is that all our sinnes are remitted and blotted out of the booke of remembrance and our selves re-admitted into his favour and into his family hence it is that we are adopted to be his sonnes and adorned with his sonnes holinesse hence it is that the curse of our sinnes is take away and we have peace with God and all his creatures the Angels pitch their Tents about us and the stones of the field are in league with us for it is written He hath given his Angels charge over us to preserve us in all our wayes least at any time we should hurt our foot against a stone hence it is that the old man with the lusts of the same dye in us and decay and the new man is renewed daily As soone as we begin to believe in the Lord Iesus the scales fall from our eyes that we can not only read in the book of the Scripture the will of God which before was a booke closed a booke sealed up to us but also lift up our eyes to Heaven and looke into the volumes of eternitie and read our names written in the booke of life The shackels also fall from our feet and we being inlarged are enabled not only to walk in the Lords Statutes but also to run the way of his Commandements And though we groane under the burden of our sinnes so long as we live here cloathed with this body of death yet we are freed from the bondage of them and still grow on to perfection which then wee shall attaine when we shall bee translated into the Heavens where we shall receive the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls through his mercy who hath so dearely bought us and brought us thither where we shall enjoy the blessed presence of God in whose presence there is fulnesse of joy and pleasure for evermore Blessed are the people that are in such a case in such a place yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. But all this is made ours by faith only which entitles us to the merits of Christ who purchased it for us therefore faith is sufficient I should now justifie this by Scripture but to say truth this truth and this Text is the only scope of the Scripture the theme of Theologie the pith of all piety and therefore because it deserves some better observation I will deferre it to some better opportunitie Μόνῳ τῷ Θεῷ δόξα 1 Corinth 2. 2. For I determined to know nothing among you but Christ Jesus and him Crucified WHen I first tooke this place in hand I thought to have finished it out of hand the same time I began but it fared with me as it did with Simonides who the more time they gave him to assoyle the question what God was the more he craved And what marvaile since Christ is the argument we have in hand They talk of a fabulous purse of Fortunatus I thinke few are so credulous to believe it but this we may and must believe for the Spirit of truth avouches
of man which is 1. The most noble and necessary worke 2. Most beseeming the greatnes goodnes and wisdome of God 3. Most distant from the reach of reason 3. Efficacy of their Ministerie shewed 1. In generall 2. In particular 1. Exten sively 2. Intensively it workes 1. In the heart 2. A strange worke in the heart both those in regard 1. Of the act it selfe 2. Of the manner of working 1. Without any helpe ex parte subjecti 2. Without any helpe ex parte medii or thus 1. They worke upon the heart which is 1. The most free 2. The most hard of any thing to work upon 2. They work upon the heart in a speciall and strange manner consider 1. Act it selfe it is 1. A Resurrection 2. A Generation 3. A New creature 2. Effect 3. Termes betweene which this mutation runs 3. The heart conferres nothing to this worke not so much as a naturall receptivitie 4. All this is done with weake meanes 1. Not with inticeing words of eloquence 2. But with humility simplicity and plainnesse of speech Extensively the efficacy of it 1. Extends to all Nations 2. In despite of all opposition 3. Application 1. In respect of those that enter into the Ministerie 1. To those that are in authority they must keepe out such as are defective 1. In sound understanding 2. Insyncere affection 3. In unblameable conversation 2. To those that have children to bring up and doe dedicate them to Gods service let them not be the gift of 1. Some infirmitie or 2. Deformitie 3. To those that are entring into the ministerie they must bethinke themselves of all 1. Helps 2. Ornaments that may 1. Grace 2. Expedite their function 1. A rich invention 2. A solid judgement 3. A faithfull memorie 4. The skill of Arts and Tongues 4. To those that are too forward in this kinde 2. In respect of those that are already in the Ministerie 1. For instruction 1. For their life it must be 1. Holy 2. Exemplary els they 1. Dishonour 1. The Countrey from whence they come 2. The Person from whom they come 2. Dishearten the people in their way 2. For their Doctrine the title of Ambassadors commends many things unto them 1. Fidelity they must not goe beyond their Commission 2. Humility 3. Diligence inforced from 1. The nature of their Service 2. The authority of their Master 3. The necessity of their Errand 4. The Reward of their service 5. The Punishment of their neglect 4. Courage and resolution against 1. Feare 2. Flattery 1. Feare of reproaches nick-names 2. Feare of the frownes of men 3. Feare of the greatest sufferings feare how of these for 1. If wee perish wee flourish 2. Cowardise is crueltie 2. To those that are eminent in the Church they must consider 1. That no dignitie can make them so truly honourable as the preaching of the Gospell 2. The frequencie of this dutie is no disparagement to their greatnes 3. To the people 1. Offer no discourtesie to those Ambassadors for 1. God gives charge they should be inviolable 2 It will pull all Gods judgements upon us 2. Receive them as the Angels of God give 1. Attention 2. Credit 3. Obedience to their words 1. When we go to Gods house say I go to heare what Gods Ambassadors will say unto me 2. When we returne with benefit say Blessed be thou and Blessed be thy counsell and Blessed be the Lord that sent thee to meet me this day 2. CORINTH 5. 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God I Purposed to have entred into these words abruptly but the first words which stand as it were in the porch being particles of speciall inference from the former and therefore of necessary reference to them tell me that I must borrow light at the next doore that I may walke inoffensively To give a touch then of the coherence You may take notice of it either as they depend upon the next verses immediately going before or as they stand in the whole building and are as it were woven into the whole frame of the Apostles discourse The connexion with the precedent verses is very easie and perspicuous you may areed the meaning if you will but read the words And all things are of God c. these are the words out of which you may easily draw and with a little turning of the wheele of your understanding as it were spin the words that I have read thus We have a commission to preach the word of reconciliation that is the good will of God for reconciling man to himselfe by the bloud of Iesus Christ We have such a commission from God Ergo we are Ambassadors for Christ But there is something more difficulty to observe how these make to the generall end and scope of the Apostle give me leave to go back a little and take the advantage of a run that I may the better open the meaning of these words The faithfull Apostle as it is the condition of all that will be faithfull met with many rubs and much opposition at Corinth especially from the Colledge of proud Pharisees and learned Rabbins among them among other things his afflictions were laid in his dish and that scandall of the meanenesse of his person was interpreted as a reall prejudice against the truth of his profession You will say a brutish collection and against a common rule of humanity and yet to say truth it is the common opinion of carnall men they judge of Religion by these outward impertinencies rather than appurtenances they cannot fancy the truth because of the ragged garment that she weares As on the contrary the tyrant boasted that the Gods approved of his sacriledge because he sailed home with a faire gale of wind Foelix scelus virtus vocatur Mischief happy in the successe is called vertue and with the Papists the ostentation of the prosperity of their estate is the best demonstration of the sincerity of their religion belike they have clipt the wings of prosperity as the Athenians did the wings of victory that she cannot flie away from their Church so in this Iobs friends reason thus surely thou art an hypocrite or else thou hadst never come to this And the Barbarians in the Acts conclude thus in their countrey barbarous Mood and Figure when they saw a viper upon Pauls hand surely that man is a malefactor justice pursues him and that vermin as an officer of justice hath arrested him So do they of Corinth according to their barbarous divinity seeing Pauls misery as they conceived it call his ministery into question But the Apostle wipes away both these imputations the one cast upon his person the other on his calling with one answer and stops two gaps with one bush looke 4. Chap. 7. Vers But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be
a double illustration and so altogether make a treble attribution as I told you First from the Object about which they are employed for Christ We are Ambassadors for Christ The second from the Author by whom they are imployed from God We are Ambassadors for Christ from God indeed this is implyed in the text but must be supplyed out of the context as you may see easily and shall see shortly This is the first part and the second is like unto it as our Saviour said of the Commandements for there we have one proposition likewise which hath a sensible proportion with the former but yet accompanied with some remarkable alterations for 1. It consists of a triple antecedent and a simple consequent cleane contrary to it 2. That which was the consequent before hath shifted his place and is now become the antecedent the whole being enriched with a new consequent which was not in the former 3. The three parts of the consequent have had a remove that which was last is commended and preferred to be first and which was first is degraded and rejected to be last only the middle as the center is unmooved And now thus it is We are Ambassadors for Christ from God ther 's the antecedent peeced out with the three parts of the former consequent pray you be ye reconciled to God ther 's the consequent but the order of the parts are inverted for they should run as I propounded them but they are propounded so that they run cleane backward in a retrograde motion as the Artists speake We as Ambassadors for Christ from God comming from God as though God did beseech you by us comming for Christ in Christs stead or in Christs name comming as Ambassadors or Orators do play the Orators we pray you be ye reconciled to God The last point of the first is the first of the last and the last of the last is the first of the first and so they close together much like the figure which the Rhetoricians called a circular figure and more like the yeare of which the Poet Atque in se sua per vestigia vertitur annus So that ye have in these words two propositions like two Semicircles and we is the Center upon which they both move like two Hemisphears and we is the Horizon which divides the superiour from the inferiour both which together make one solid Globe and we is the Diameter that cuts it into equall portions a Semicircle of being and a Semicircle of operation an Hemisphear of office and an Hemisphear of action The first We are Ambassadors for God The second We as Ambassadors pray you to be reconciled to God The contriving of these rooms was so perplexed that I am afraid my speech hath not given window enough to let in light enough to cleare the passages I am sure I am glad that I have wound my selfe out of this intricate Labyrinth though I were to breake the clue that guided me and the thread of my discourse presently But now we have cut out the stuffe we must goe about to make up the garment To begin with the first As the Stars in the Firmament have a double vertue of illumination and influence whereby they communicate themselves to the inferiour bodies So hath every text in holy writ an illumination of truth upon the understanding and an influence of grace and goodnesse upon the will and therefore I will endeavour to shew your apprehensions the light of truth in the explication of the words so that they may shed their influence of grace upon your affections in their application The first word that offers it selfe to our confideration is the subject we which though it be so concrete with that which followes in the originall that it hath lost it selfe for there all that sentence is wrapped up in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the lesser Starres when they have approached in too near a degree of propinquity to the Sunne as it were conscious of their own presumption they dare not be seene or else they forfeit their light to the Sunne their soveraigne and are eclipsed Yet a good Logician with his Prometheus fire would sever these heterogeneals and resolve them into their pure and primitive natures and then would appeare a paire of arguments besides the yoke that holds them together as our translation renders it We are Ambassadors Well then that first word that we may take the just measure of the meaning of it must be considered in three degrees of latitude 1. It respects himselfe 2. All his fellow Apostles 3. All his Fellow-labourers in the Lords harvest The body of it moves within himselfe as in his proper and particular Spheare the beames are cast abroad upon all the Apostles in a direct and perpendicular line the beautie and lustre diffuseth it selfe yet further in an unpartiall liberality to every Minister of the Word I and they and all we are Ambassadors for Christ. 1. Himselfe I who was an abortive birth a stranger a wolfe a persecutor a traitor an enemy to the grace of God in my best principles of nature I am become by the rich mercy of God a darling sonne a Subject a Shepheard a Preacher a Favourite an Ambassador of the grace of God in Iesus Christ I am an Ambassador Thus the Apostle chewes as it were upon his office as the wounded Hart upon the famous Dictamum and all the poisoned Arrowes of reproach and obloquy drop off Thus he shakes the Viper off his hand which those barbarous enemies thought to have beene deadly but the reason why he speakes in the plurall number is because of humility partly and partly of wisedome It is the language of humility when a man is urged to a necessary selfe-praise and forced by the importunity of others to vindicate himself yet to qualifie his speech as much as may be So doth the Apostle here excellently it seemes good to him to distribute this honour to many that he may not seeme to attribute too much to himselfe and this plurall number is a phrase of singular humility and thus the stile of Princes runnes we will and our pleasure joyning their Counsell or the whole State with themselves For I rather take that frequent anomalie for an intimation of modesty then of majestie though I am not ignorant how others apprehend it Again here is a mystery of wisdome in this word For as a Deere that is eagerly pursued will immerse it selfe into the whole heard that so she may suspend the violence of the chase by the ambiguity of the choise in such variety of game So Paul being singled out by calumny doth mingle himselfe with the whole fellowship of Apostles Or as one in danger of arresting will take sanctuary in some priviledged place So Paul takes sanctuary at the Colledge of Apostles 2. This word besides the particular appropriation which it hath to Paul himselfe must needs be interpreted according to the true propriety
of the number and meaning and so it extends it selfe 1. To all the Apostles 2. To all Ministers of the Word both of them are Ambassadors for they agree in the substance of their commission though there be some difference in the circumstance of the execution the Apostolike office indeed carried a more lively resemblance of an Ambassage then the ordinary Ministery in two regards 1. They were authorized by Christ himselfe and so received their instructions immediately from his mouth who is the King of the Church and accordingly were furnished with all sufficiencies by the inspiration of his Spirit they bestowed not much time and travaile to speake forreine languages a thing necessary for Ambassadors but as Esaie's tongue was touched by a Seraphim with a cole from the Altar so they had cloven and fiery tongues bestowed on them by the Spirit beside that they had the gift of miracles as it were the broad seale of Heaven annexed to their letters of credit But with our Ministers it is not so but they are brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and trained up in the Schooles of the Prophets and purchase their abilities as he in the Acts did his freedome with a great summe of labour and time and cost and then the Church the Spouse of Christ since her Lords departure as a Matron weares the keyes of authority at her girdle opens to them a doore of utterance and admits them to the service of the Altar As they had a more authenticall mission so they had a motion more observable which addes as it were life and spirit to the image and picture of Ambassadors They were dispatched into all coasts and corners of the world but ours are fastned to some one place like pillars of residence but notwithstanding these petty differences seeing they have the same sphear of activity in which they moove to reconcile men to God and the same Sun of authority by which they moove the power of the Church being the power of Christ derived to her as we call them the Kings officers who are created not immediately by his Majestie but in vertue of his power and in subordination to his Royall prerogative And lastly seeing the similitude may be preserved entire in both though this variety be confessed there being a difference in the type Ambassadors much like that in the antitype of Ministers so that either may answer the patterne And our ordinary Ministers sute with agents or leiger Ambassadors as the Apostles came neerer to extraordinary In all these respects they also being included the whole extent of this word We hath three degrees 1. Himselfe 2. All his fellow Apostles 3. All his fellow-labourers in the Lords harvest I have made some haste but the time I feare hath over runne me much and therefore for that which is behind of the explication I will lay downe but the rude lineaments and proportion and leave the perfect colours and complexion to another time The second word Ambassadors is a speech borrowed from Princes Courts and applyed to Christ his Church by a decent analogy Ambassadors are messengers from one Prince or State to another about such affaires as concerne both You may observe three moments of being in this rude description and accordingly draw out three paralell lines in which the termes of comparison do runne along one by another in a sweet proportion 1. They are both Messengers 2. They are both from Princes 3. They are both about matters of mutuall behoofe But because you know a similitude is a tender thing and must be gently handled you must not squeize it too much and stretch it too farre lest you breake the harmony and analogy the Musicke and Logicke of the parts I shall pray you to carry along with you three maine discords in which they jarre least promising your selves an harmony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every note and point you be offended too much with every harshnesse and inequality 1. Ambassadors are therefore sent from Princes because them selves cannot be present every where but the Lord of these Ambassadors as he is in no predicament of time because he inhabiteth eternity so he is in no vbi but ubiquity 2. Ambassadors are directed to Princes only or free Estates and that from some Peere who can neither claime subjection of them nor superioritie over them to whom he sends But these are sent to subjects to vassalls to rebels from him to whom all owe an oath of allegiance to whose supremacy the highest must subscribe to whose soveraigntie all the sonnes of the mighty are obnoxious in a politicall naturall essentiall order of dependance 3. Ambassadors are set forth with some beseeming port and pompe that they may sustaine the person of majestie and support the majestie of the person whom they represent But with these it is nothing so the Chariots of their glory are the shame of their Lords house who to speak with reverence is like some rich Gentleman in the Countrey who in a bravery scornes to bee brave The third word of the Text remaines for Christ which may beare a threefold construction wherein Christ may be conceived either as the author or the end the Alpha and Omega of this Ambassage or thirdly the object of these Ambassadors the center and circumference of their imployment But I promised but a delineation of these things only give me leave to close up all with one observation out of the words I noted before that this sentence We are Ambassadors is closer trussed up in the Originall into one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of a precious emphasis which is much abated and very dilute almost lost in the translation for that word of action signifying the office may tell us so much in our eares that those officers must be men of action they must be of a nimble and active constitution The men of the earth may be of a more dull and sad temper they may fold their armes they may stretch themselves upon their beds of Ivory and turne themselves upon them as the doore turnes upon the hinges But these Messengers of Heaven must be like Heaven in perpetuall motion They may well fall to a motus trepidationis if they but once forget their daily progresse They that preach Christ the Sonne of righteousnesse must be like the Sunne who commeth forth of his chamber like a bridegroome and rejoyceth to runne his race as a mighty man and yet when they have done all there will be many sonnes of darknesse that will live in a night of security and sleepe and snort in sinne there will be many cold professors that are frozen to their lusts and will not be thawed by that Divine Lamp and melted into the teares of true repentance And therefore this translation We are Ambassadors nimis lentum est We ergo Ambassadors hoc quoque est nimis lentum These Ministers must fly like the Cherubims that give attendance in the presence of God they must have
lookes for no other reward but this And therefore the Psalmist repeates it very often and very pathetically O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wondrous workes that he doth for the children of men Psalme 107. He gives all the commodity of the world to the sonnes of men receiving only this Royaltie to himselfe he cals for no other tribute but that we attribute all to him Now when he workes by simple meanes all the glory comes entirely to him there is none to share with him none to cry halfes with him mens mindes cannot rest in the inferiour causes they must needs looke higher and say This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes whereas if the meanes had many faire probabilities in them God must needs be robbed of a great part of his honour both because men are ready to thinke highly of themselves and magnifie their owne actions and also because others are ready to ascribe much to the immediate agent who is intituled to the honour by the suffrage of the senses too Is not this great Babell that I have built for my owne magnificence said Nebuchadnezzer strouting in his Palace and the proud Physitian wrote thus to King Philip Menecrates a god to Philip a King what title then might the spirituall Physitian challenge that revives soules either arrogating all to themselves or else dividing as the Asse in the Fable did to the Lion an equall portion to God and themselves and as the Jesuites now doe Laus Deo virgini Marieae and then they would fall soone into the Cardinals method Ego Rex meus Besides you see how fond men are of the instruments of their good how ready they are to deifie them most of the Heathen gods have beene dubbed so because they have been beneficiall to men Communicative bonitie which we call bountie hath such a lively resemblance of the Divinitie that weake eyes can hardly know them asunder it was once Dionysius his sophistry Dii boni sunt eorum ergo bonitate utendum but it is almost all mens naturall Logick Boni sunt ergo dii sunt according to that in the Poet Deus nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus And therefore the Lord to prevent all such injurious usurpation and vindicate his owne title effects great things sometimes without meanes sometimes with very small meanes that in all matter of praise the image and superscription may be his only And therefore as when Caesar and Bibulus were Consuls together and Bibulus did nothing being over-awed by Caesar they were wont to write in jesting manner Iulio Caesare Consulibus So if it please God at any time to assume man to be his colleague in any great action we must not say God and man did such a thing but God and his grace did such a thing And it may be said well enough of him as it was of Caesar in in another cause Socium habet neminem he may have a companion but he must not have a competitor Perhaps indeed the foolish Epicure that cousened himselfe with a silly Paralogisme and concluded that God did not create the world because he had nothing to create it withall Quae ferramenta quae machinae qui vectes qui ministri tanti operis fuerunt perhaps I say he when he heard of Ambassadors from a God and a new creation and saw nothing but men and weak men Gods Ministers would make a scoffe againe at qui Ministri and would either denie the thing because he did not like the meanes or would hardly be perswaded that such Atomes could do such great wonders But God sees not as man sees he in his wisdome uses this course for the cause alledged It is time to conclude but yet give me leave to confirme this with two places of Scripture and two examples The first is the 2 Corinth 4. 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellencie of the power may be of God and not of us I will not urge it because I have used it before since I entred into this argument The second is the 1 Corinth 1. from 17. to the end of the Chapter a known Text where as Apostle discourses this at large The summe is this It pleased God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that believe And againe Brethren you see your calling how not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble that are called And wherefore is this God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weake things of the world to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are and what of this That no flesh should glory in his presence and the conclusion of all is according as it is written He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. The words need no Commentary and therefore I passe to the examples The first you shall finde in the 7. of Iudges There the Lord overthrowes the Midianites by Gideon who at first had gathered thirty two thousand men but these were too many for the Lord to worke with therefore he will have them as it were boyled by two decoctions till they sunke first to ten thousand but there were yet too many then to three hundred and then they march against the enemy who were more then one hundred and thirty thousand and covered the land like Grashoppers but I pray how were these three hundred appointed we doe not read so much as of a sword they had but they carried a Trumpet in their right hand and emptie Pitchers with a Lampe in their Pitchers in their left hand and what did they we cannot find a stroke they strooke but only they blew their Trumpets and brake their Pitchers and cryed The sword of the Lord and of Gide on and their enemies fell downe dead or fled before them and the end of all is couched in the beginning of the Chapter Lest Israel should vaunt himselfe against nee and say mine owne hand hath saved me The second is the 6. of Ioshua where the Israelites beseiged Iericho and won it a strange seige and a strange victory the Priests carried the Arke of God about the Citie and blew with Rams-hornes they compassed it about six dayes and seven times the seventh day and this was all there was no other seige laid but the Arke of God no other Arietes to batter the wals but the Rams-hornes no Ordnance but the ordinance of God that commanded this they did not lift up an hand against it only they lifted up their voyces they did not shoot once but only shout and the wals of Iericho as it were willing to doe some holy service on Gods holy Sabboth did obeysance to the Arke of God as Dagon
measure of his fall and therefore could not measure nor comprehend the height and depth of Gods mercy in Christ they had not heard of Gods mercy in Christ and therefore could never teach or thinke of the profunditie of humiliation the latitude of sanctification the altitude of glory but vanishing in their imaginations instead of these groped in the darke to find mans Summuns bonum in himselfe and dreamed a pretty dreame of a shadow of happinesse man is a dreame of a shadow as Pindar speakes which they meant to purchase with a shadow of wisdome and vertue and riches and honour and pleasure and in this respect we must doe with their bookes as they say the Iewes did with the book of Hester The Iewes read the booke of Hester indeed because they account it Canonicall Scripture but before they read it they let it fall to the ground because they doe not finde the name of God once mentioned in it as their Rabbins have observed So for the morall treatises of Philosophers we must read them because they speak of vertue and happinesse but we should let them fall to the ground before we read them because they doe not give glory to the glorious name of God I come to the third which I meane to draw from the efficacy of their Ministery for which purpose I might produce many expresse places of Scripture and many plaine experiments for this respect the Lord Iesus is represented in a Vision to Saint Iohn in the Revelation With a sharpe two edged sword proceeding out of his mouth and when he talked with his Disciples going to Emaus Did not our hearts burne within us said they while he talked with us In this respect the Psalmist saith of him Psalme 45. Thou art fairer then the children of men Grace is powred into thy lips Suada in labris sessitat Apes in ore mellificant t is true of him for Grace is powred on his lips a sweete attractive Grace which is an eloquent beautie as they say that beautie is a dumbe eloquence and therefore Thou art fairer then the children of men and it followes Thy arrowes are sharpe in the heart of the Kings enemies his lips and mens hearts are chained together as you have heard the Embleme of the French Hercules In this respect the Prophet Ieremy saith His Word was like a burning fire shut up in his bones and he could not stay the Prophet Esay had his tongue touched with a cole from from the Altar The Apostles had the gift of fiery tongues and what was the succeesse at one Sermon of Peter three thousand were set on fire and inflamed with the love of God and come rather bleeding then breathing forth these words to the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe What should I tell you the voyce of God is mighty the voyce of God breaketh the Cedars the Cedars of Lebanon which is not only true of thunder as interpreâ—ers expound it but of the Word of God For if Caligula trembled at that I am sure Felix did at this Act. 24. when Paul reasoned of righteousnes and temperance and judgement to come Felix trembled a strange thing that the accused party triumphed and the Judge trembled if being touched with his affecting words and trembling he had turned to Christ as the Needle touched with the Loadstone turnes to the North and had shaped his course accordingly Felix had beene happy as one saith But this is the more remarkable because in the same place Tertullus a curious Oratour had made a quaint oration with no such successe as if the Lord would compare as it were with humane faintly eloquence and teach us that all is but painted eloquence in comparison of the divine power of his Word Indeed they report that when Tully pleaded for Ligurius I thinke Caesar trembled and the bils of accusations fell out of his hands as it were wrested out by Tullies eloquence but you shall see the difference anon Yea and Paul himselfe felt the force of this thunder for in the very heat of his persecution as he marched furiously like Iehu to Damascus he was arrested by a messenger from Heaven a great light shone round about him and he heard a voyce from Heaven the light like lightning flashed in his face and dazeled his eyes and laid him flat on his backe But will you heare a terrible thunder-clap Saul Saul why persecutest thou me this was the thunder that boared his eares as Scaliger reports of a countrey fellow that had his eares boared with thunder and this was the lightning which as the Naturalists say melts the Sword and hurts not the Sheath that breakes the bones and bruises not the flesh this was the lightning that broke Pauls heart and melted his very soule within him and made him that was yet breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord Iesus breath out more gentle and humble words Who art thou Lord what shall I doe Lord and the like I cannot stand to presse these and yet I cannot passe over one place because it is most effectuall looke Heb. 4. 12. For the Word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Who hath any gold weights and a ballance of the Sanctuary that we may expend and weigh these golden words exactly I pray marke it is a living Word yea more a working Word yet more a cutting Word yea and more yet a piercing Word it is not as other written words are mutus magister but viva vox a living word it is not living as some do of whom it may be truly said Hic situs est as Seneca said of Vatia but it is an effectuall working word it is not working as some do till they be cold again or as we say as good never the whit as never the better but it is a cutting word it is cutting not lightly to raze the skin and scratch a little but it bites sore it is a piercing word it is like a sword a bloody instrument but that it is sharper for the Apostle saith sharper the word is a word of comparison but the thing is above compare for it is sharper then a sword it is like a two edged sword as I told you of Christ in the Revelation it will cut which way soever it lights either a savour of life to salvation or a savour of death unto condemnation as the Apostle speaks but it is sharper then any two edged sword It was once said of the sword of Goliah by David There is none to it but I dare say it is true of the sword of God and of Gideon the sword of God and his Ambassadors for it pierces to the dividing of the soule and spirit who is so acute
workes that I doe shall he doe also and greater workes then these shall he doe greater workes then these O blessed Saviour might the Disciples say how can that be Thy name is Wonderfull the great Counsellor and thou dost wonders alone and is not this one of thy great wonders how we should conceive the wonder of this speech greater workes then these O blessed Saviour The Schooles of men have an Axiom among them indeed Many Schollers are better than their Masters but we have learned another lesson in thy Schoole The Disciple is not above the Master and it is enough the Disciple be as the Master is it is enough O humble Saviour among proud sinners it is too much greater workes then thou O Lord didst not thou cure all diseases cast out Divels didst not thou rebuke the Feaver and it durst not stay chide the winds not as he in the Poet expostulate with them but chids them with authority rebuk't the winds and they were silent calmed the Sea and walked upon the swelling waves as it were upon some Marble pavement and can there be greater works then these But who was that O Lord was it not thou that diddest raise the dead that Rulers daughter at the house the Widows sonne at the Hearse the two sisters brother I meane Lazarus in the grave when he that stunk was revived with thy sweet voyce and he that was bound hand and foot with linnen cloaths which was a miracle in a miracle as a Father speakes came forth and walked and can we do greater works then these Now we have begun to speak unto our Lord suffer us to speake once more though we be but dust and ashes Didest not thou feed five thousand men with five loaves five loaves which by a strange Arithmetick were so multiplied by Division and so augmented by Substraction that five loaves sufficed five thousand guests and yet twelve baskets full were gathered up for thy twelve Apostles Didest not thou cure the poore woman of her incurable issue of blood with a touch of the hemme of thy garment only it was her contactus but thy vertue O blessed Lord that did it and shall we doe greater workes than these Yes they doe greater miracles saith Augustine Majus enim est quod sanet vmbra quà m quod sanet fimbria comparing the last I mentioned with that which is recorded of Peter in the Acts that those which had diseases were healed by his shadow as he passed by and they did greater workes that were no miracles then all the miracles that Christ wrought and they were the conversion of many soules to God by their ministery and good reason it should bee thought so for if a shadow a privation a nullity may produce such a reall effect then what shall we think of the light of the Gospell the most beautifull the warmth the most active the truth of the Gospell the most powerfull quality in the world if we believe the Wiseman and two of which are so transcendently excellent that it hath beene said that if God himselfe would take a visible shape he would make a body of light which should be acted and animated by truth as by a soule Thou hast made light thy garment and thou lovest truth in the inward parts Yea and that same Father affirmeth that the justification of a sinner is a greater worke then the creation of a World Aut si aequalis sit utrumque potentiae certè hoc est majoris misericordiae as he concludeth it The Schoole follow him in this and dispute whether it be not simply the greatest worke that ever was and determine that it is ex parte effectus averring that the least worke of grace is greater then the greatest in nature they doubt also whether it be miraculous and leave it doubtfull Our moderne Divines give a reason of it because in creation there is only a negative indisposition of nothing to being but in regeneration there is besides a positive opposition of sinne to grace I will not now discusse whether this be precisely true or no but a great work it is without question as may appeare by the act which is called in Scripture a rising from the dead Blessed are they that have their part in the first resurrection saith the Spirit in the Revelation a generation except a man be borne againe he can never see the kingdome of God saith Christ to Nicodemus a new creation saith Paul to the Corinthians it appeares likewise by the effect the which is called the new heart Create in me O Lord a new heart A new man That the new man may be renewed daily A new creature Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new creature It appeares lastly by the terms between which there is as much difference as betweene light and darknes death and life Heaven and Hell the Divell and God immane quantum for these are the termes betweene which this mutation runnes as the Scripture teaches us Who can bring to passe this true transmigration Pythagoras dreamed of another but he that is the Father of Spirits and th◠Word that doth it must needs be the breath of his mouth This divine Conversion as Plato calls it speaking admirably of it though he knew it not but he to whom the Prophet goeth in this case turne us O Lord and we shall be turned this wondrous change as Clemens cals it as I noted but he that formed the mountaines and of whom the Psalmist Manus tuae plasmaverunt me he that formed man after his owne image Dii coeptis nam vos mutâstis illas aspiratemeis figmentum cordis saith Moses The imagination of mans heart is only evill and that continually but as for the heavenly work of grace of holinesse of a new man is as the Heaven is said to be and as the Protoplast was figmentum manuum tuarum the workmanship of thy hands O Lord. In a word none can restore or vindicate a man from the servitude of sinne into the libertie of Gods children and of a miserable bond-slave make one a royall man as Clemens cals his Gnostick but the great King of whom it is said if his Spirit make us free then are we free indeed the knot in which we were tyed is dignus vindice nodus and our desperate case doth require a strong helpe according to the use and phrase of Tragedies I could be infinite in this theme if I would tell you all the wonders that they worke in the heart of man the terrours of the Law which make a man think that he is in Hell more truly and more profitably then the Jesuites doe their Clients in their chamber of meditation by the consolations of the Gospell which gives a man wings to flie into Heaven and take sanctuary there from all afflictions from whence he lookes downe upon this lower world with heroicall contempt and scorne wondring at the
to the Sepulcher but Peter went first into the Sepulcher and saw all things In a word let them be sure to take their instructions with them that desire to goe Ambassadors I come now to the second observation which concernes those that are in the Ministerie and that divers wayes both for instruction and first for their life If Vzzah must die but for touching the Arke of God and that to stay it when it was like to fall if the men of Bethshemesh but for looking into it if the very beasts that doe but come neere the holy Mount bee threatned then what manner of persons ought they to be who shall be admitted to talke with God familiarly to stand before him as the Angels doe and behold his face continually to beare the Arke upon their shoulders to beare his name before the Gentiles in a word to be his Ambassadors Holinesse becommeth thy house O Lord and were it not a ridiculous thing to imagine that the Vessels must be holy the Vestures must be holy all must be holy but only he upon whose very garments must be written Holinesse to the Lord he might be unholy that the bels of the horses should have an inscription of holinesse upon them in Zechariah and the Saints-Bells the Bels of Aaron should be unhallowed No they must be shining and burning lights or else their influence will dart some malignant quality they must chew the cud and divide the hoofe or else they are uncleane they must divide the Word aright and walke uprightly in their life joyne life to learning or either of them single like the solitary Helena to the Mariners will be unhappy they must be such as he sayes of zealous Christians which unwisely opposed their Pastor which had a conversation perswading to godlinesse they must be such of which that may be verified his degree credited his life and his life graced his degree then shall all the world know them to be Gods servants Gods Ambassadors they shall be like Innes which have their Signes on both sides like those which you have seene of the Kings Guard which have the Armes of the Crown on their brests and on their backes they carry about them a double demonstration of their office à priori à posteriori If they meet with you in their doctrine you know them for Gods servants If you follow them in their steps in their example you know them for Gods servants either way they beare the stampe and cognisance of Heaven upon them Excellently Nazianzen of Athanasius he was rich for the theorick and rich for the practick in his life and he linckt both as in a golden chaine manifesting it by using his conversation as a guide of his speculation and his speculation as a seale of his conversation where the reading I thinke may be better inverted If this be wanting they dishonour the countrey from whence they come the Prince from whom they come and this dead Amasa this dead Doctrine not quickned with a good life lying in the way stops the people of the Lord that they cannot goe on cheerefully in their spirituall warfare They would be wished therefore to preach no otherwise then Origen did you know the storie Origen after his foule fall when put to his choise whether he would defile himselfe with an Aethiopian woman or sacrifice to the Heathen gods he had done the latter comming to the Church at Ierusalem and being requested to preach there he opened the booke and fell upon that in the Psalme What hast thou to doe to take my words into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed which when he had read he closed the booke againe and sate downe and wept and all the congregation wept with him and this was all his sermon And thus in my opinion would these men be counselled to repent of their preaching and so as it were preach of their repentance The second instruction followes for their doctrine For this title of Ambassadors commends many things unto them as 1. Fidelitie Ambassadors have a commission beyond which they must not go and I thinke it is disputed and determined by Lawyers that a Legate may not transgresse it though he might in probability advantage his master more otherwise I am sure it must be so with Gods Ambassadors the Word is their commission from which if they swerve the Lord will commence an Action concerning their Embassage against them And if it were possible that traditions and humane inventions could gain more glory then this yet they that presumed to use them might justly looke to be handled as the Triumvirs did the servant of a noble Senator of Rome that betrayed his Master whom they had proscribed they rewarded him for his service to them because he delivered him who was proscribed they proving him guilty and then they rewarded him for his treachery to his master whom he should have preserved they cast him down headlong from the Capitoll and brake his neck 2. Humility They go for another they must not wo for themselves Non nobis Domine non nobis not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be given all the praise and glory must be their song They may take up the Embleme that a noble Lady of France being suspected of a crime and not well knowing how to wash it away otherwise used a watering Pot dropping with this Motto Nil mihi praeterea praeterea mihi nil The Ministers I say may well use this watering pot for Paul may plant and Apollo water but it is God that giveth the increase In a word because I am forced to post over these things as Peter and Iohn having healed a lame man that lay at the beautifull gate of the Temple said to the people that beheld it and began to have them in some admiration Why gaze you upon us as if we had done this by our owne power c And as the King Canutus in our English Historie tooke off the Crowne from his owne head and set it upon the Crucifixe at Westminster So Gods Ambassadors must not receive honour for themselves but must be like the Mercuriall Statues to point men the right way to Christ. 3. Diligence Cursed be he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently especially they that are is Ambassadors they must not say as Iustin Martyr speakes in a case not much different we know not how to worke but as the heroicall Prince professeth so their Arms must be the feathers and their word I serve and who is so dull a Gramarian that cannot put these together and make this easie construction That the nature of their service requires much diligence and expedition Their master and their errand the authority of the one the necessity of the other the reward the punishment the horrour of the one the hope of the other will compell them to discharge their office with all possible industrie Who would not runne
A Lacedaemonian slave standing to be sold in the market and asked of a chapman what Art he knew I am a free man said he and shall Gods Ambassadors bee the greatest slaves whose very speech being but attired and attended as they ought to be with that majesty and authority which Divine truths carry in their very countenance should command as much reverence as the Pontificall garments in which Iuddus the high Priest met with Alexander the Great who was so affected with that auguste state and bravery of them that he fell downe at his feet and worshipped him as Iosephus records I have done with the instructions a word or two of incouragement I will not be so bold my selfe but I would commend any thing to some that were worthy to put our great Rabbins in mind wherein their honour lies it is not Silks nor Velvets nor Scarlet nor a goodly traine what doe I speake of these it is not Throns nor Dominations nor Powers nor any dignities that can make a man so truly honourable as the preaching of the Gospell to poore soules to be Gods Ambassadors surely they are mistaken they need not feare the frequency in this duty should prove a disparagement or imminution to greatnesse Excellently saith our Saviour All power is given unto me both in Heaven and Earth I will now prefer all my servants and make you Lords and Rulers but wot yee how it followes Go preach to all Nations but this by the way I conclude this with a word to some with whom I may be bold Let no man here that is in a way to the Ministery believe the false spies that raise an ill report upon that good land that flowes with milk and honey I will say no more now but is it thinke you a base thing and sordid to be Ambassadors to the King of Heaven I will repeat it once more because I can scarce heare without some indignation that that should be a maxime in the worlds Heraldrie for earthly Kings once Ambassador ever honourable And it is a base thing to be Ambassadors for the King of Heaven And now I come to the third deduction concerning the people which I must run over I shall not need to tell you that you must not offer any discourtesie to these Ambassadors Ambassadors are inviolable by the law of Nations and the Lord hath set a better mark then Cain had and given them a better pasport touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm And if any should rise up against them I would tell them boldly what one whispered in the Captains eare when he was somthing too busie with Paul Take heed what thou doest this man is a Romane Take heed what thou doest this man is an Ambassador The Romans sacked the famous Corinth and razedit to the ground for a little discourtesie they offer'd to their Ambassadors And what shall the Lord of the Vineyard doe to those husbandmen that beat and ston'd and killd his servants that he sends unto them It is a symptome of a disordered and desperate estate When these Ambassadors are violated we pull all Gods judgements upon our heads with the chaines of our sinnes but this is the linke of the chaine that immediately drawes them It is a remarkable place in the last of the Chronicles Moreover all the chiefe of the Priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the Heathen and polluted the house of the Lord that he hallowed at Ierusalem here be many links but observe that followes And the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets this is the last linke and ye see judgement fastned chained and linked to it untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedie Therefore he brought upon them the Chaldees c. I passe from this When Ehud told the King of Moab I have a Message to thee from God O King he rose from his thron and bowed himself I think it was Francis that said if he should meet a Preacher and an Angell together he would first salute the Preacher and the Angell after I am sure Paul saith of the Galathians that they received him as an Angell of God yea as Iesus Christ and that they would have plucked out their eyes for him how beautifull are the feet of those upon the mountaines that bring the glad tydings of Peace saith the Church in the Prophet the Spouse of Christ is so humble or modest or both that shee dares looke no higher then the feet and yet she spies beautifull written in the very dust of their feet as you have seene a contrary word other where and that in such legible characters that she reads it afar off before they come neare her upon the mountaines as though it had beene written with a Sun beame upon some Easterne hill in a goodly morning and those letters printed such affection in her that being not able to expresse it by art shee throwes down her pensill as you have heard of the Painter and expresses it with a passion or rather she shadowes that she could not set forth in a patheticall exclamation How beautifull are the feet of those upon the mountaines that bring glad tydings of peace and what she did in speeches Mary in the Gospell spake in deed she fell downe at the feet of Christ she broke her box of precious ointment and powred it upon them she let fall a shower of more precious tears penitent teares are something like to pearls but that they are more precious with which she washed them she wiped them with a most precious towell the haires of her head me thinks these golden haires were like to threads of gold with which Mary tyed her self as it were in a true lovers knot to her best beloved Saviour Would you know plainly what entertainment you must give these Ambassadors I will tell you in a word Give attention credit obedience to their words if they thunder and lighten out of Mount Sinai if the Lion roare let the proudest beast in the forrest quake and tremble if Mount Sion let fall her silver drops if the silver trumpet of the Gospell sound peace and comfort let the poorest worm forget that he creeps upon the earth and think he hath a title to Heaven I know you long till I make an end and so do I too To conclude therefore I wish you could forget all that hath beene spoken and blot it out of your memory to fasten this one thing which I am now to say Let this be our remembrance when we go to the Lords house I go now to heare what Gods Ambassadors shall say unto me they that dresse themselves to go with any colder or baser conceits may well bee checked as Caligula
was wont to say tyrannically what Antidotum contra Caesarem and that is a reall crime in them only which was a ridiculous accusation of Trebonius Quod telum toto pectore non exceperit Again let this be our meditation when we returne from thence with benefit Blessed be thou and blessed be thy counsell and blessed be the Lord that sent thee out to meet me this day Surely this is a man of God a man of Heaven tell me O you that are cunning linguists did he not speak with the tongue of Angels was not I in heaven while I heard him is it but an imaginary fancie or did I heare the more then Pythagorean harmony of the sphears His words like Soveraigne balme dropt into my wounded soule like the sweet influence of the Pleiades upon this lower world me thought I felt my heart while he spake shoot up into my eares as it were to meet and kisse the blessed lips which distilled such gracious dew such golden showres and drinke them as the parched and thirsty earth the dew of Heaven and yet in the sweet remembrance thereof My soule magnifieth the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Blessed be the Lord that hath sent his Angels as he did to Peter to draw me out of the dungeon of sinne and misery that hath sent his Ambassadors as David did to Hanun to comfort me Signa Deum agnosco per sua Christus adest only Christ the munificent God as Nazianzen cals him could go to the cost of these precious and cordiall words he hath put them into the mouths of his Ambassadors The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the comfortable fellowship of the blessed Spirit be with all those blessed soules that by the grace of God and power of his Spirit love the Lord Iesus Deo soli gloria SIXE SERMONS ON I COR. II. II. Preached at Cambridge BY JOHN STOUGHTON Doctor in Divinitie sometimes Fellow of Immanuel Colledge in Cambridge late of Aldermanbury LONDON Perfected by the Author in his life time COLOS. 3. 11. But Christ is all and in all LONDON Printed by R. B. for Iohn Bellamie Henry Overton Iohn Rothwell and Ralph Smith 1640. A methodicall Analysis of the chiefe heads treated on in these Sermons upon the 1 CORINTH 2. 2. 1. Context 1 Occasion of the Epistle ministred by 1. Information of those of the house of Cloe. 2 Inquiry of those of the Church of Corinth 2. Argument of the Epistle 1. Complaint of corruptions to Chap. 7. 2. Resolution of questions Complaint of corruptions 1. Persons guiltie 1. Magistrates 2. Preachers 3. Whole Presbyterie 2. Severall maladies 1. Permitted 1. Schisme 1. Broken out with arrogancy 2. Not bound up with charity 2. Incest 1. Committed by vilanie 2. Not controlled by authority 3. Law suits 1. Prosecuted at heathen Courts 2. Not taken up by Christian care 3. Cure 1. Of Schisme from 10. vers of 1. Chap to 5. 1. Intimated 1. Premises his Letter sent by Timothie 4. 17. 2. Promises to come himselfe 19. 2. Expressed 1. Summe of the Letter an exhortation to unitie 1. Proposition supposed 10. 2. Assumption whetted with interrogations v. 13 3. Conclusion 1. Proposed 1. Sweet intreatie 2. Sound authoritie vers 10. 2. Iterated 14. vers of 4. Chapter 2. An objection 1. Insinuated vers 12. 2. Removed where 1. Causes of their disorder 1. Bewitching tongues of teachers 2. Itching eares of hearers 2. Cure where is expressed 1. Dutie of people they must not esteeme too highly of their Ministers for 1. They are but the Lords Servants 2. The Corinthians servants in the Lord. 2. Duty of Ministers in Pauls example in which 1. Efficient 1. God peremptorily commanding 2. Paul voluntarily obeying 2. End 1. God intends his glory Chap. 1. 2. Paul attends the Peoples good Chap. 2. 1. God commands Paul so to doe v. 17. of 1. Chap. to the end 2. Paul determines to do so 3. He did so 2. Text with the context containes 1. A generall precept 1. What they must preach in the Text. 1. For matter Christ Iesus only 2. For manner with all humilitie 2. Why they must preach in the text and context 1. God commands it 2. It is the Ministers duty from the ends he seekes 1. Gods glory not his owne applause 2. The peoples salvation not his approbation 3. How they must preach 1. Not in humane wisdome 2. Plainly and humbly 2. An illustrious example of Paul 3. Text alone where 1. The Ministers duty which is more naturall to the scope 1. Expressed in Pauls example 2. Enforced as it containes 1. A precept concerning the argument of preaching 2. An argument to provoke us to that precept 1. Paul did thus therefore none exempted 2. He did this not out of rashnesse but deliberated what to do 3. He determined not so much as to know 4. Not any thing 5. No not amongst the Corinthians save Christ crucified Observe That if Paul upon these termes would not then no Minister upon any termes must preach any thing but Iesus Christ and him crucified 2. The duty of every man which is more generall in the order of nature Doct. That the knowledge of Iesus Christ crucified is sufficient to Salvation 2 Explication two things to be considered 1 Appretiation 2. Appropriation 1. Gift 2. Conveyance 1. Gift Christ is a sufficient Saviour 1. What is meant by salvation where is considered 1. The utmost end and chief happinesse of man 2. His present state by nature 2. How Christ hath sufficiently wrought salvation for us 1. Explained 1. He hath redeemed us from all misery 1. Of sin 1. Original impuritie 2. Actualimpiety 2. Of punishment 2. He hath filled us with all good things 1. Holines 2 Happines 2. Proved 1. By 3. things in the text 1. He is Christ 2 He was crucified forus 3. He is Iesus 2. Scripture 2. Conveyance Faith is sufficient to make him our Saviour 1. Explication 1. What faith is 2. How it comes to be sufficient 2. Prooved 1. Faith in Christ is the summe of Divinity 1. Doctrine of Divinity Christ being 1. The foundation of faith 2. The fountaine of obedience 2. The rule of Divinity considered in a double difference 1. Before Christ 1. Before the Law 2. Vnder the Law 2. After Christ 1. Before the Law this was the Religion of 1. Adam 2. Abraham 2. Vnder the Law they were lead to Christ by 1. Their Sacraments 1. Ordinary 2. Extraordinary 2. Ceremonies 1. Sacrifices 1. Propitiatory 2. Gratulatorie 2. Holy persons 3. Holy places 3. In the times of the Gospell 2. Christ is the scope of all the Scripture in Generall 1. As the immutable substance of the Rule is considered 2 As it may bee accommodated to the mutable circumstances of the rule according to the difference of time He is the summe 1. Of the old Testament in 1. Propheticall 2. Historicall Scriptures 2. New Testament Application 1. Confutation of
with a sound authority By the name of the Lord Iesus Christ being as it were edged with the one the sweet entreatie and backed with the other the sound authority that it might the better peirce into the very tower of their affections and force them with a sure charme to all syncere obedience and this conclusion iterated in the 14. of the 4. closes up the whole argument The Assumption follows in the 13. of the 1. whetted as it were and pointed with nimble interrogations which all speake as Spaniards in the language of Pike with invincible power and unavoidable necessity that Christ is the onely one and undivided Saviour But here the Corinthians barre up the way with an objection which is insinuated in the 12. verse and is but insinuated in the whole progresse yet so that you may easily perceive that all Pauls paines in the foure first Chapters is spent in the remoovall of this rub the anticipation of this objection Now this it is Though there be but one Christ one Master yet there be many of Christs Ministers and they have different gifts one likes Pauls simple perspicuitie others Apollos ample plentie a third Cephas solid potency and therefore why may not I apply my self to Paul I to Apollo I to Cephas This their discourse if you marke it is a discovery of all the causes of their disorder They are two the bewitching tongues of the teachers and the itching eares of the people the teachers arrogance the peoples ignorance The teachers faithlesse teachers wooe for themselves instead of their Lord the people foolish people fall in love with the man instead of the master the servant instead of the soveraigne And therefore Paul instructs them both the teachers what they should do from the 14. of the 1. to the 5. of the 3. where imbracing an occasion he sweetly passes to the people what they should doe the people must not account too highly of their Ministers for two reasons 1. They are but the Lords servants They may well take up the embleme of a watering-Pot dropping with this word Nil mihi praeterea praeterea mihi nil For Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is the Lord that gives the increase And therefore they must not set up the labourer against the Lord. Nay secondly the Ministers they are the Corinthians servants in the Lord For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods And therefore you must not make them lords of your faith and therefore Let no man glory in men Now for the Ministers duty It is not to seeke themselves but the glory of God and the good of the people and therefore not to preach themselves in quaint words and curious eloquence but to preach both for matter Christ Iesus and for manner with all plainnesse and without all affectation nothing but Christ Iesus with all humility and without all ostentation nothing but Christ Iesus crucified Christ Iesus must be the argument of their preaching for in him God will be glorified Christ Iesus must be the ornament of their preaching that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord. This is the Summe of that which is laid downe at length in Pauls example his story reports both the fact that he did so and the causes both efficients and ends efficients God peremptorily commanding Paul voluntarily obeying God as a royall Soveraigne Paul as a loyall subject God imperio Paul obsequio both which have their ends the same to wit the glory of the eternall God and the eternall good of the Corinthians yet with this different distinction God independently Paul in dependency God as supreme head prescribing Paul as subordinate subscribing to his holy pleasure and with this disposition God intending his glory is specially treated of in the first Chapter Paul attending the peoples good specially propounded in this Chapter This is the series rei but the series historiae consists in three steps 1. God commanded Paul and all so to do from the 17. verse of the 1. to the end 2. Paul determined so to doe in the verse of my Text. 3. He did so in the first verse for thus they lie in order and therefore you must observe two things for the method 1. That the first verse of this Chapter holds hands with the 17. of the 1. and all which is inserted is but a commoration in the storie illustrating the command of God from the cause of his counsell and the contrary conceit of the worldlings 2. That the order of the two latter parts in his determination and action inverted this being placed after the 1. verse which in the accurate method should have had the precedencie To contract all that hath beene said two things may be observed here a Precept and an Example The Precept is a description of a Minister of the Gospell to be such an one as now being sent of God is to preach the glad tydings of Christ Iesus come into the World for the redemption of mankinde for the glory of God and the salvation of his people This description containes the chiefe causes as is shewed The example is Paul in whom as in a glasse all this is represented for three Reasons 1. For Pauls own sake to vindicate his integritie with the Corinthians inveigled with their Rabbinicall Doctors and thence offended with Pauls simplicitie began to call in question as you may see 2. For the Doctors sake that if they would not learne their duty from God they might learne it from him so lofty a patterne of so lowly a pietie as you may see 3. For the Corinthians sake to provoke them to a filiall imitation by the patriall example of his humilitie To draw now to a conclusion You see the context is a Commentary upon the Text and the Text is a Compendium of the context for the Text is a recapitulation of all the severalls above mentioned the very quintessence of all the simples afore unfolded and the Context is a light discovering what is contained in the Text both for words and meaning and what may be collected out of the Text for instruction The words may now be easily interpreted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be rendred either with Calvin in precio habui or with Beza decrevi for it signifies Paul acting consilio rei in all actions and the word of judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be rendred by a Metonymy of the Cause for the Effect by the word Preaching or some such like for you see it notes Pauls ministeriall function and it is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as know even as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeme to be not any thing that is not in comparison or in competition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Synechdoche for all that was to be taught concerning
And now I hope though this my discourse bee very imperfect yet it will not bee altogether impertinent or unprofitable for this one point that faith in Christ crucified is the summ of al the Scripture well considered must needs give very much light to the reading of every part thereof it will be like a key to unlock the meaning and so make way to the rich treasure therein like a clue of thread to lead us thorow many intricate Labyrinths therof And this makes me call to mind what I forgat even now that the red thread that Rahab hung out of her window when Iericho was beseiged was an Embleme of Christ Crucified by whom all the faithfull must be saved from eternall death as she was then preserved from present destruction much bettet then Leucotheae vitta or Ariadnes filum Let me wind up all that hath beene said Christ is the summe of all Divinity me thinks the Clypeus fidei is like that Clypeus Phidiae the Buckler of faith like the buckler of Phidias that Historians speake of I meane the Buckler of Minerva which Phidias made for as in it he had so curiously intrailed his owne name that it could not be taken out without the dissolution of the whole frame so hath Christ so divinely wrought his name in the worke of salvation the rule of Divinitie that it cannot be taken out but that golden chaine that series causarum will all fall in sunder The Ephesians when Croesus beseiged them chained their City to the Temple of Diana the Tyrians theirs when Alexander to the Statue of Hercules and so all the precepts of Divinitie seem to be chained to the Crosse of Christ he is the umbilicus where all the intrails are knit together the Center where all lines meet and therefore in the Creed of twelve Articles ten of them concern him and beside the other two of God the Father and the Holy Ghost have their dependance on him too for he hath obtained the Spirit for us and by him we have accesse unto the Father as I shewed before And therefore as in the first book we learn the Crosse begins the row as though all the 24. Letters were but Commentaries upon the Crosse so surely this is the summ of all our learning to learn to know Christ Iesus and him Crucified Againe Christ is the Scope of all the Scriptures Me thinks the Scripture is a Ring of Gold which Christ hath given his Spouse the Church as a token of his love and himselfe like the Diamond in the Ring the Scripture is the field mentioned in the Gospell and Christ like the jewell in the field which a wise Merchant knowing of would sell all he hath to purchase the Scripture the box and Christ the ointment preciosum opobalsamum in gemmeo myrothecio and therefore Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word as though every word sounded of Christ and all the Word of God were nothing else and Christ is the Alpha and Omega thereof as himself sayes Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end for all the Letters without which the Spirit in the Scripture breaths not for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies or Alpha and Omega the two principall for all the Vowels without which all the Scripture is but a mute Letter a dead Letter I may say a killing Letter and for him the Scripture it selfe is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bible the booke because it is the only book containing this knowledg which alone is sufficient and which is only necessary to eternall salvation In a word to close up all the knowledge of Christ crucified is the Theme of Theologie the Scope of the Scripture the Pith of all Pietie as Paul excellently layes it downe Ephes 2. 19. For through him we have accesse by one Spirit to the Father being no more strangers and forreiners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. c. you see the knot that holds all together And thus much for the explication of this Text. 1 Corinth 2. 2. For I determined to know nothing among you but Christ Jesus and him Crucified THe handling of the Word of God is a divine kinde of husbandry And this portion of Scripture is that parcell of holy ground which I began to till long agoe but have not yet finished I have hitherto broken up the ground only it remaines that I should now breake the clods which might hinder the fruitfulnesse and cast out the stones that so at last I may sowe the blessed seed of exhortation in hope of a blessed harvest Or rather this portion of Scripture is the seed for so saith Christ the seed is the Word and I have hitherto beat this seed out of the eare onely and must now winnow and fanne it out of the chaffe that at the last I may cast it again into the ground of your heart for so saith Saint Paul you are the Lords husbandrie in hope of a fruitfull increase from the blessing of the Lord the Lord of the harvest for Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is the Lord that gives the increase he that planteth is nothing and he that watereth is nothing but the Lord that giveth the increase for without him the seeds-man is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semini verbius a babler according to our translation as the Epicures scoffed at Paul or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seminilegus such an one as they that stood in the Corne-markets and gathered up the Corne that fell beside the Sacks in emptying as Casaubon observes that is a man of no worth an earthen vessell as the Apostle cals Ministers elsewhere and the word will beare it I presume the meanest in this place conceives my meaning yet I will endeavour to speake more plainly that if there be any seeming riddle you may plow with my Heifer as Sampsons companions did and reed the interpretations I have hitherto given you the explication of these words and so as it were threshed the Corne out of the eare with the flaile of the Spirit I come now to the application in two parts 1. For confutation of popish errors and so I will chide away the chaffe out of this stoore with the fanne of Christ 2. For exhortation and so I will cast the seed into your eares and charme it in the phrase of the Spouse in the Canticles Arise ô North and come ô South and blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow forth In the Explication I have handled alreadie these three points 1. That Christ crucified is a sufficient Saviour 2. That Christ Crucified is the summe of the Scripture 3. That Christ Crucified is the summ of Religion Which may stand as so many
their Catholick abominations in the false worship of Saints and vindicate the glory of God from their impudent impostures Me thinks this preface is like the Painters Table One spake to a Painter to draw him a Horse running in full speed he did and gave it him but gave it with the wrong side upward the man disliked it and told him he spake for a runner this was a tumbler no hurt quoth the Painter turne the Table and this will runne so in that Preface all may be true but all is turned upside downe like the Horse with his heeles upward sprawling toward Heaven but change the persons and let that bee said of the Papists that hee would faine make the world believe is true of the Protestants and I blame not the Picture or as the Painter said turne the Table and all may runne well enough or at least go currant But what if we should let the Jesuite goe perhaps he had as live be some where else and as live be doing something else as bee brought in for a tumbler to play tricks if you thinke so I am content to dismisse him well then to leave the Cardinall and come to the cause The Papists have brought in so many new Saviours that the true Saviour is gone out I know not how they will find Heaven but I am sure they have lost Christ they have lost the way to Heaven for he is the way And if there be any spark of faith any remnant of the faithfull flocke among them they may well complain as Mary did to the Gardener when she went to visite the sacred body of the Lord and found it not Sir they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him if there be I say any faithfull Mary among them like a Lilie among thornes which led with an holy zeale indeed but misled by ignorance should thinke to find him in their crowd of Saints wrapt up in some of their reliques as he was once in linnin cloaths I thinke some Angell would tell her as he did He is not here I thinke Christ himselfe would take the paines to meet her and instruct her thus Mary I see thou meanest well but yet thou missest much thou art in a right mind but thou art in a wrong box it is but lost labour to seeke the living among the dead the living Saviour among the dead Saints I would have thee know therefore I have retired my selfe from this Garden and shall not feed any more among these Lillies but untill the day breake and the shadowes flee away I go my wel-beloved I go to the mountain of spices But why do I presume as it were to teach Christ to speake who is the word in whom God speakes to us or why doe I relate his speech who am a child and know not how to speake I know the Criticks taxe Homers rashnesse in reporting the song of the Sirens because it cannot be thought how it should be done but it must needs fall many bowes short of expectation such things are better suppressed then expressed or if expressed better velo then penicillo that veile of silence is the best attire of sobrietie and I may feare a more just censure that have reported what Christ said to Mary since never man spake as he spake but you know the Lord himselfe vouchsafes bal butire nobiscum and therefore hee will beare with Moses stammering tongue if he goe on his errand nay which is more though it do stammer he will have it go on his errand on his Embassage nay he will admit of no excuse neither as you see in Moses so that I hope I shall need no other Apologie or excuse The word of God in the description of the holy Land hath foure things observable in the golden line that directs our passage thither two for the way and two for the end for the way 1. That it is streight without crooke 2. That it is narrow without croud For the end that the gate of the Royall City 1. Is narrow 2. Is one but the Popes Itinerary made out of the lying Legend the cosoning Calender the Ephemerides of the Saints contradicts the Kings map the word of God in all these there is a lying spirit gone out and gone into the mouths of the Prophets of Iezebel to send Ahab upon an unhappy voyage and as the Israelitish spies all beside Caleb and Ioshua spake evill of the good Land so the Romish spies which they have sent to view this Land speake false of the true way which the Israel of God must walke in if they meane to come to the God of Israel 1. They have made the way crooked As the man in the Gospell that offered himself to follow Christ would faine have taken a vagarie and fetched a circuit by his fathers house that hee might have saluted him and bidden him farewell with a kisse and another would have visited his fathers tombe and seen him honourably interred whereas they should have followed Christ directly so the Papists will not goe the nearest way to Heaven by Christ but will needs coast about by the Sepulchers of Saints for feare belike that if they should make too much haste they should come too soone thither But the Lord commands us to make streight ways for our steppes and to make streight steps in that way but the crooked crabs in the dead Sea of Rome will not learn to go streight their crooked lives must needs runne on in crooked lines and their blind workes will needs finde blind wayes rather then they will keepe the Kings high-way to Heaven as superstitious travellers that turne aside to worship every greazie stone or as the Iewes perhaps as they went to the Temple would make a stay at every greene hill and everyshadie grove the Lord complains thus as ye have seen some hackney Jades at every green banck with a moneths minde to bait there and steale a sweet bit a mouthfull of Idolatry 2. They have made the way wide You know the man who said he would not leave his part in Paris for his part in Paradise And I thinke it not impossible to finde some daintie minion in the Whores lap that would not exchange his Cardinals Hat for a Martyrs Crowne But for this time we will thinke that they thinke at least that they would come to heaven But when they heare Christ saying I am the way they thinke in their conscience that 's too narrow and when they heare him say plainly that the way is narrow they say plainly that 's an hard saying who can beare it And as the young man that came to Christ went away griev'd at a like speech so they are grieved indeed because they were as covetous as he was but they will not goe away because they are not so ingenuous as hee was But why was the young man grieved and why are they grieved as the young man was because he was rich because they
it is to be feared that it is not because they are afraid-least he but lest she be angry or according to our commonspeech many kisse the child for the nurses sake they kisse the child but their mouth waters at the mothers lips they make much of the child and dandle it in their armes but it is but to insinuate themselves into the sweet embraces of the mother And yet these filthie monsters of lust for they are no better then monsters bewitched out of the shape of men by the powerfull charmes of the Romish Circe and her golden Cup offornication these filthie monsters do so please themselves in their filthinesse that as the Apostle Peter speakes they speake evill of us as of those that do evill and thinke it strange that we doe not runne with them into the same excesse of riot Like some fond and amorous Bridegroome newly wedded that dotes may chance upon an homely spouse and wonders that all his neighbours doe not meet him with their mouths full of wonder and gratulation that they doe not worship her whom he adores because forsooth shee is written for a Saint in the Calender of his heart he thinks she should be received for a Queene in the Charter of their Parish because she is the Idoll of his fancie he thinks she should be the goddesse of their faith he is so well acquainted with the zeale of his owne private devotion that hee cannot but admire what cold blast of stupid ignorance or envie for he hath not the power to think it any other hath so frozen and congeald them that they do not melt into his mold that they will not be reduced to his temperature But to give them their answer The Old Iewes baked for the Queene of Heaven and the New Collyridians did the like for the Virgin Mary whom they cald the Queene of Heaven and so do the Papists the sole heires of both their follies But let Epiphanius answer them all The Virgin is to bee honoured she is not to be adored shee is blessed among woemen but not God blessed for ever or that I may allude to those cakes shee may be honoured that is frumentum corne that growes in Scripture a Christian stomack may digest it but she must not bee adored that 's fermentum it is so sowre of the leven of the Pharisees that a Christian stomack as Erasmus said he had Animum Catholicum stomachum Lutheranum a Catholike minde and a Lutheran maw because he loved no fish I say a Christian stomack cannot brooke it in a word their Cake as we use to say is dow baked and it were to be wished that these blinde Collyridians if their mouth be out of taste at least would annoint their eyes with that Collyrium commended to the Angell of Laodicea Revelation 3. some eye-salve of the Scripture that they might see the grossenesse of their Idolatrie If they could but open their eyes I doubt not but they might see that we give more to the Virgin then they that we are not Hereticks because wee doe not give so much to the Virgin as they doe but they are Atheists that give so much as they do and yet to say truth we give her more then they do they would make her worshipfull we would have her honourable an easie Herauld would decide the controversie which is the better title and so would an easie Divine which are the Antidicomarianites they or we But if they will needs sleep still loth to part with this pleasant dreame let us call and see if we may awaken them Behold thy gods ô thou sonne of the rebellions woman thy gods in whom thou trustest Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light But why doe I spend so much breath in vain they are not deafe but dead in sinne let me rather speak to you that heare me Son of man seest thou these abominations then learne to say with me O the patience and long sufferance and gentlenesse of our God toward vile sinners I am come you see to the highest step I have now finished my narration or generall explication of Popish Idolatry and I stand as it were upon the highest pinacle of the Tower of Babel I should begin to pull downe but the time will not suffer 1 Corinth 2. 2. For I determined to know nothing among you but Christ Iesus and him Crucified BEfore I proceed any further I must beseech you all to heare with wisdome and love Let no man thinke these fowle Idolatries either lesse abominable because they are so ridiculous or more â—amiable because the phrase of my speech hath seemed hitherto to smile upon them I thought I must confesse the Nature of this exercise especially in a controversie admitted of some libertie and I wish I have not taken too much and beseech you so to interpret me But as the picture of a Goddesse in a certaine Temple was so contrived that she fround on men as they went in and smiled as they came out as though they had wonn her good wil with gifts and offerings the Priests they did indeed whose devise it was and therefore I think the men clean contrary to their Goddesse smiled when they came in as knowing nothing but fround when they went out so cheated so though yet my entrance hath seemed to smile yet I meane to learne to frown before I go out of this Temple of Idols I meane to whip out these cheaters though I came in like a Lamb as they say of Moneths I will endeavour to goe out like a Lion I meane to walk with a fiery tongue among this stubble and if this fat superstition begin as Agag did to walk delicately and say with her selfe surely the bitternesse of death is past let her know I owe a sacrifice to the God of Israel and that must and shall be paid with her blood gratior nullus liquor tinxisset aras as hee said Now I proceed I had brought you to the gates of this Babel we must cast a mount against and plant our batterie I will tell you before hand what you shall see afterward that when you see it you may observe all things more exactly 1. You shall see the Armie then 2. The successe The Armie shall be distinguished into Captaine and Soldiers The Captaine shall be the Word of God even God the Word who is the Captaine of the Lords Hosts so stiled in Iosua and the Lord of Hosts whose name is written in his thigh Revel 19. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords The Souldiers shall be valiant reasons that have sworne fealtie to him and put their neck under his yoke that will fight manfully under his banner The Successe I need not tell you you know alreadie by the Armie yet I will tell you that you may know the better 1. Victorie Not a blow shall be given not a stroke struck but the Priests shall march before the Arke of God round about
the Citie they shall blow their Trumpets at the command of their great Commander at whose shrill voice the tender women shall teare their haire and howle as you have heard paltrie curs when a bell rings feare shall come upon the inhabitants of the land their hearts within them shall melt like water and their feeble knees shall knock together the foundations of the City shall shake and the whole frame tremble yea their mightie champions shall fall low and like the dust that is under his feet their paper wals and painted castles shall fall low and kisse the ground on which he treads 2. We will erect a stately Trophee for a monument wherein shall be ingraven in indeleble Characters for all eternity the true storie of their pride the just cause of their fall the true storie of their sin the just cause of their shame 3. We will sack the houses and ransack the store-houses and see what treasures we may cary away for our owne use to enrich our selves withall Briefly and plainly I will 1. Confute this their opinion by Scripture and reason out of Scripture 2. Refute their weake arguments 3. Observe the causes of this grosse superstition 4. Collect some uses This is the summe of all that followes The first place of Scripture shall be against the mediation and invocation of Saints Iohn 2. 4. Iesus said unto her Woman what have I to do with thee c. You may read the Story at large I will run over my meditations Observe with me 1. Out of the Story Mary was not sent here to Christ by any to mediate for them but she went of her owne accord 2. Out of the words 1. Severally Woman not Queene of Heaven not Mother of Grace nor Mother by nature though that were by grace too for the Angell stiles her as one that had received grace not so much as Mother but plaine Woman What have I to doe with thee or what hast thou to do with me according to the sense as if he should have said as he did This my command from me receive Thine own work do thine own web weave Meddle with that you have to doe you have nothing to do with me 2. Joyntly out of the connexion Woman what have I c. as if he had said Thou art a woman therefore thou hast nothing to doe with me thou hast nothing to doe with me because thou art a woman or thou hast nothing to do with me why because thou art a woman Thou art a woman what then Thou hast nothing to do with me But imagine a Jesuite had stood behinde her when she heard this no doubt but he would have prompted her thus What be thus taken up Woman it might have beene Mother What have I to doe with thee then tell him thou hast something to doe with him uncover thy breasts Mary they be their phrases and conjure him by the Roses of thy cheekes and the Lilies of thy hands by the wombe that bare him and the paps that gave him suck by the sacred name of a mother to give thee better respect nay they be their owne words Imper a redemptori jure matris impera thus the Jesuite would have tutor'd her But you must know she had a better master even the Spirit of God within her that taught her a better lesson and therefore shee stands not to contend or contest with him she makes no replys she knowes what the Psalmist said He is thy Lord and thou must worship him and shee thinkes with her selfe I was rightly called woman for I have spoken once like a foolish woman but I will make a covenant with my lips that I offend no more with my tongue and then as though shee did remember her selfe that she had forgotten her selfe when she attempted to prescribe to him that is above prescription she turnes to the servants and commands them to do whatsoever he should command them But O Blessed Saviour suffer the sonne of thine handmaid to speake a word unto my Lord in the behalfe of thine handmaid Thou bidst us Learne of me that I am humble and meeke and why art thou so cruel to thy Mother thou wast as a sheepe that is dumbe and openeth not his mouth before the shearer and why art thou so harsh to her that bare thee How many Lord how many meaner sutors have requested greater matters at thy hand and obtained and why must a Mother only go away with a denyall or if she must needs have a denyall why was not the bitternesse of the thing sugred with the sweetnesse of words or why must that denyall bee embittered with a check but suppose her rashnesse deserved might not her relation deserve a mitigation why then was that check whetted and sharpned with a question the servant of war and wrath Thy words ô thou fairest among the children of men thy words were wont to distill like the honey and thy lips to drop like the honey combe and yet thou hadst not tasted that potion of gall and vinegar and whence then is this tang of tartnesse But vaine man that I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doe I disease my master why do I say who shall ascend into heaven to bring a resolution of this difficultie from him behold the meaning is neare and the word is in thy mouth and if you will give mee leave I will tell you She presumed because shee was his mother and therefore he thinkes it fittest not to call her mother she knew too well he was her sonne but she did not thinke that hee was the sonne of God and therefore he thinkes it fittest to call her Woman O the sweetnesse of the wisdome and providence of our Lord he gives a preservative long before hand against that poyson which he foresaw the Italian Divell would temper long after to the perdition of many poore Christian soules if it should not have beene prevented with a preservative He cals her but woman that was his Mother that we might not call her Goddesse that was but a woman he vilifies her that we might not deisie her he tels her that she had nothing to doe with him that we might have nothing to doe with her And as Paul writes Be angry and sinne not so he who was the patterne of meekenesse was angry that we who are the Embleme of weaknes might not sinne he was angry and denyed her petition that we might not sinn and dote on her intercession he denyed her to her rebuke that wee might not dote on her to his dishonour he rebuked her sharply in a question that he might teach us sweetly that it was out of question that she can have no stroke no hand not so much as a little finger in the divine worke of mediation To wind up all that hath beene spunne out of this Context of Scripture Maries accesse to Christ was such and such was her successe with Ghrist that if I would goe to her I thinke