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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60588	A sermon preached before the right worshipful company of merchants trading into the Levant, at St. Olaves Hart-Street London, Tuesday June, 2. M.DC.LXVIII. By Tho. Smith, M.A. fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, and chaplain to the right honourable Sr. Daniel Harvey, His Majesties embassadour to Constantinople.	Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710.	1668 (1668)	Wing S4252; ESTC R222747	24,313	60

A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Company OF MERCHANTS Trading into the LEVANT AT St. OLAVES HART-STREET LONDON Tuesday JVNE 2. M.DC.LXVIII BY THO. SMITH M. A. Fellow of MAGDALEN COLLEGE in OXFORD and Chaplain to the RIGHT HONOURABLE Sr. DANIEL HARVEY His MAJESTIES EMBASSADOVR to CONSTANTINOPLE LONDON Printed by T. Roycroft for S. Mearn Book-binder to the KING' 's most Excellent Majesty 1668. INSIGNISSIMO VIRO Domino ANDREAE RICCARD Equiti Aurato Amplissimae Societatis Mercatorum Cum Imperatoris TURCARUM subditis In Oriente Commercia exercentium Praesidi longè dignissimo Clarissimo D. Vice-Praesidi D. ASSISTENTIBVS Reliquisque ejusdem Mercaturae Sociis Viris Eximiis Clarissimis Humanissimis THO. SMITH Hanc Concionem qualē qualem brevì ac tumultuariò conceptam Et coram Iis nuper habitam In 1 D. Pet. III. cap. 19 20. v. Quem difficilem locum pro pio erga Sacras literas amore Discutiendum voluere Jamque eorundem jussu Publici Juris factam L. MQ D. D. CQ IMPRIMATUR Sam. Parker RRmo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Archi-Episcopo Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis Ex. Aedibus Lambeth Jun. 15. 1668. A SERMON Preached before the Levant-Company 1. St. Peter III. 19 20. By which also he went and Preached unto the Spirits in Prison Which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the daies of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight Souls were saved by Water THE First times of Christianity were times of great tryal and danger and the Gospel though it brought along with it the glad tydings of Salvation and laid down rules of Life beyond the strictest institutions of Philosophy so conducive to the improvements of reason which was Clouded and be-nighted with Error and had lost its command in the Soul and was become subject to the Sensitive appetite so directly tending to the advance of Humane nature and the peace and quiet and benefit of the Universe beyond the highest reaches and fetches of State-Policy yet every where met with opposition from the Civil Powers which might be enough to stagger and shake the weake faith of the newly-converted Christians and prove a dangerous temptation to make them Renounce that Christian Profession they had so lately taken up which they saw was pursued with Scorn and Persecution and Death To Obviate and prevent which is the design of St. Peter in this Epistle inscribed to the believing Jews and especially those of the Asian dispersion his peculiar charge and care as being the Apostle of the Circumcision and to encourage them to constancy and perseverance notwithstanding their present sufferings and hardships they were forced to indure and undergo Which as he does throughout the whole so especially he urges upon them in this Chapter from a double Consideration The one That to Suffer for righteousness sake and the Gospel to endure Persecutions and Crosses upon the accompt of the true Religion to bear witness to the Truth though it cost them their lives was indeed a seeming misery but a real happiness Verse 14. If ye suffer for Righteousness sake happy are ye In the eye of the World their condition might seem dolorous and sad but to them it was to be esteemed a matter of joy and triumph that They were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ. A good Conscience and the honour of being a Martyr and the hope of Glory promised as a reward of their sufferings and constancy should carry them through all difficulties only they were to be very sollicitous that they suffered as Christians that no base or unlawfull Act brought them into those sad instances that their Accusers objected to them no other crime but their Religion that they were not haled to the Barr and arraigned as Murderers or as Thieves or evil doers or busy-bodies in other mens matters not as Enemies to the Government under which they lived not as Seditious nor Pragmatical not as Invaders of other mens lives or Civil Rights and Proprieties nor as guilty of any of those flagitious Crimes that are justly punishable by Humane Laws The other From the Example of our Blessed Saviour in the verse before the Text For Christ also hath once suffered He came down from his Glory wherewith he was encircled and assumed our Nature and all its infirmities and was content to be cloistered up Nine months in a Virgins Womb and then came into the World a poor helpless Infant exposed to all the hardships and miseries of life to Hunger and Thirst and Cold and all the inconveniencies that attend Poverty and at last after he had spent very nigh Four and thirty years in sadness and disgrace was condemned to the ignominy and torment of the Cross. They could not faint so long as they had his blessed Example in their eye this must needs put life into them and add strength to their Faith and constancy to their Resolutions and especially if they would reflect for whose sake Christ underwent with such un-wearied patience all these sufferings Christ also hath once Suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the Flesh Innocence it self was arraigned that the Criminal might be acquitted and Justice condemned to dye that We that were the only Guilty might survive It was his Love to man even when at enmity with God that brought him dowm from Heaven and fastened him to the Cross and laid him in the Grave and all this that he might reconcile us to our Maker whom we had offended and bring us to God and shall not we follow after the Author and Finisher of our Faith this Captain of our Salvation who was thus consecrated by Suffering and endure a little for his sake that Suffered so much for ours The Apostle having pursued his Argument thus far from the Sufferings and Death of Christ immediately subjoyns the Article of his Resurrection Being put to Death in the Flesh but quickened by the Spirit that is though Christ as man died and there was a real disunion of Soul and Body yet he revived again by his Eternal Power and God-head for so much we must understand by those words quickened by the Spirit which cannot be meant of the Soul of Christ the other part of the Humanity which being immortal can in no wise whatever be said to be made alive but are in a direct opposition to the former Clause where Flesh signifies The whole Humane Nature as it doth in several places of Scripture which refer particularly to our Saviour 1 Tim. III. 16. Without controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in Flesh St. John I. 14. The Word was made Flesh that is the two Natures Divine and Humane were both united in the Person of Christ Rom. IX 5. Of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came and Rom. I. 3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the

Rom. IX 5. speaking of the Jews and their Privileges by reason of the Covenant God made with the Patriarchs Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever A Text able to confound all the Sophistry and blasphemyes of Socinus and his Party who deny the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour and put them to an eternal silence who very presumptuously reject the Mysteries of Faith because they cannot fully comprehend them as if the shallow capacity of a man were to be the measure and standard of divine Truth when they can give no satisfactory Accompts of the ordinary Phaenomena of Nature much less of its secret operations and least of all of the Mysteries of Providence And if this were a sufficient reason to deny the Articles of Faith because They are above our capacity They may as well deny the being of a God because they cannot have full and comprehensive Notions of Infinity Eternity Omnipresence and the like But certainly we have the highest reason in the World to believe the Articles of the Christian Faith which are so plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures because whatsoever God has been pleased to reveal is infallibly certain and therefore when proposed to me I am bound to believe it though I cannot comprehend the modus how it is so This for the Person He went and preached 2. The manner or means by which Christ is said to Preach by which Spirit that is by His eternal Power and Godhead as was shewn in the beginning and now shall be further proved For by the same Spirit by which Christ rose from the Dead He preached to the Spirits in Prison But Christ rose from the dead by virtue of his Godhead and divine Power Rom. I. 4. Declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead Heb. IX 14. How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God that is How much more available then the bloud of Bulls and Goats and Calves and all the Sacrifices offered up under the Mosaical oeconomy for the cleansing from sin and delivering from its Guilt and condemning Power and in order to the serving of God acceptably is the Bloud of Christ shed upon the Cross who after he had raised his Body out of the Grave by his divine Power presented himself a perfect Mediator to God in our behalf 3. That Hell is meant by this Prison is very easy to conceive having before proved it could not be meant of the Body much less can it of the Grave for the Soul at its departure takes a flight beyond the Grave and Regions of Death and cannot be pent up in those Charnel houses under ground nor does it sleep as some have fondly dreamed that is remain in a state of dulness and inactivity without any apprehension or knowledge till the Resurrection as we shall see anon but goes to the place and state allotted for it according to its deserving And the resemblance and comparison between Hell and a Prison is very fit and proper When men are legally Imprisoned it is either for their Crimes or for their Debts Now evey un-repenting Sinner that dyes in his Sins hath broken the Law of God hath made assaults upon his Attributes and rebelled against Heaven and by this means has contracted a guilt upon his Soul which binds over to punishment is a debtor to God and has forfeited his Soul to Justice and because He took no care to agree with God who was become his Adversary and impleaded him While He was in the Way with him did not in his life time compound for the Debt and get the Bond Cancell'd is justly cast into Hell A Prison because 1. Without Light which must needs add to the horrour of it There is utter darkness and the blackness of darkness for ever 2. Without Liberty Here Malefactors are secured and kept safe till their tryal Thus hath God reserved the Apostate Angels and the Souls of wicked men in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day But with this vast and great difference that They shall be remanded and sent back to this Prison where there will be no possibility of escape or ransom where they must undergo an eternal Imprisonment 3. Without Comfort Prisons usually are dismal and loathsom Places To be immured and shut up from company to be deprived of the benefits of converse and of the sweets and pleasures of liberty to spend ones days in sadness and melancholy and to measure out the slow minutes of ones wearisome life with sighs and Groans This is That that troubles nature and puts her into a fright to think of How dismal then How insupportable must it be to lye under the wrath of God under the quick apprehension of a guilty mind under the sting of Conscience to be gnawed upon by that worm that never dyes to have no other company but Fiends and damned Spirits equally miserable with themselves and to be in a continual expectation of the great Day of Accompt when the Body shall be raised to be partaker of the Punishment as it was of the Sin 4. Christ preached to the Spirits in Prison that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those men whose Souls are now in Prison cast into Hell but then were alive in their Bodyes those being long since dissolved and consumed in the Waters that overwhelmed them while their Souls survive as being immortal and are reserved in Hell for Judgement So that the Prison plainly refers to the place and condition in which their Souls are as a just punishment of their disobedience and not at all to the Preaching which will yet further appear from the IV. Chap. of this Epistle Vers. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause also was the Gospel Preached to the dead that is to those who are now dead but then were alive when the Gospel was preached to them Where that I may note this by the way the Apostle speaks not in general of Gods making known his will to the Ages before Christ but particularly mentions the Preaching of the Gospel which must be limited to the times of Messias and therefore those in that verse that are dead to whom the Gospel was Preached must be supposed to have lived since the coming of Christ in the Flesh and consequently this place is not parallel but only in the Phrase or form of speech with the Text as some imagine the one respecting the times of the Gospel the other the Age before the Floud It only remains to be satisfyed How Christ can be said to preach to those that lived in the Old World I Answer That it must not be understood as if Christ did actually preach and appear to the men of that Generation though

some of the Antients have thought that Christ did often appear to the Patriarchs in humane shape as a Praeludium to his Incarnation which Opinion I shall not now stay to examine but that he did it by the Ministery of Noah who is called 2 Pet. II. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Preacher of Righteousness that is He denounced the Judgements of God against them for their sins fore-warned them of the danger and ruine They were bringing down upon their own Souls and continually sounded in their ears an alarm of judgment that would infallibly overtake them except they repented and did by their unfeigned humiliations and amendment of life stop and prevent the Anger of God which otherwise would break out upon them and overwhelm them in an Universal Deluge So that by the same divine Power by which He preached in the Apostles after the Resurrection who preached in his name by virtue of that Commission and Authority They received from Him and upon this very accompt He is said to come a Phrase like this in my Text and preach peace to the Ephesians Ch. II. v. 17. as several have well observed He Preached in the Prophets that lived before his Coming in the Flesh. 1. Pet. I. 10 11. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who Prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testifyed before hand the Sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow The Prophets and Apostles were the Ministers and Ambassadours of Christ and therefore what They do He is said to do and the dishonour that is done to Them God takes as done to himself 1 Sam. VIII 7. They have not rejected you saith God to Samuel but They have rejected me and our Saviour told his Disciples when He commissioned them to Preach in his name He that receiveth you receiveth me and He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me St. Matth. X. 40. according to that usual saying among the Jews Every mans Delegate or Messenger is as himself As here upon Earth the respect or affront that is done to an Ambassadour interpretatively is done to the Person whom He represents and the King is said in our ordinary discourse to do that that his Commissioned Minister does in his Name Let none therefore be so vain as to say in their hearts Had we lived in the times of Messiah when he was upon Earth Had we heard those powerfull Oracles of Truth drop from his sacred lips Had we heard him Preaching to us the Great mysteries of God how affected should we have been What deep impressions would his Preaching have made upon our Souls For Christ still Preaches from Heaven to you by his Ministers He hath appointed several Orders and hath setled a Sacred Ministery in his Church and hath provided also for a constant succession to the Worlds end 2 Cor. V. 20. We are Ambassadours for Christ as though God Christ the Son of God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead by ye reconciled to God Every Sermon you hear is the voice of Christ speaking to you in his Minister And let me add As They that heard not Moses and the Prophets would not have been perswaded though one had arose from the Dead so it may be feared that those that are deaf to so many admonitions to such continued and earnest entreaties that they would repent and lead better lives that are resolved to continue in their sins notwithstanding the frequent and often repeated importunities of Gods Ministers in his Name to the contrary would even reject the Preaching of Christ himself if He were upon Earth He hath left his Gospel among us which is vox Scripta his Word put into Writing and to that he does require our faith and our obedience as much as if He was actually present He Preached to the Old World by the Ministery of Noah and still Preaches to us by the Ministery of his Word Their disobedience to Him for which They were thrust into that infernal Prison consisted in this That They contemptuously refused his mercy which was offered to them and disbelieved the Word which Noah Preached and how shall we escape if amidst all those frequent invitations that are made us we neglect so great Salvation Thus I have removed the difficulties and cleared the words with as much brevity as I could The Propositions which are deducible hence are these Four which I shall but briefly touch I. That God is graciously pleased to use all means to bring men to repentance before He cuts them off by his Judgments He went and preached II. That the Souls of the disobedient are now shut up in Hell He went and preached to the Spirits that now are in Prison which sometimes were disobedient III. That God notwithstanding the daily and great Provocations of sinfull men doth oftentimes give them time and space to repent The long suffering of God once waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing IV. That in the midst of the severest and terriblest Judgments that befall the World there is a mixture of mercy or That his Judgments are never so general but he spares some In this Vniversal Deluge as it is justly called few that is Eight Souls were saved by Water 1. That God is graciously pleased to use all means to bring men to repentance before he cuts them off by his Judgments He went and Preached God hath set up a light in every mans Soul to direct him in all his waies Reason is given to him for a guide and Natural Conscience tells him his duty and how he ought to behave himself in all capacities whatsoever without any institution or teaching every one sees by an innate internal light the Essential and Fundamental differences of good and evill and none can pretend ignorance He hath shewed thee O man what is good even by those deep impressions he hath made upon thee which can never be totally effaced and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And what is or can be more agreeable to nature then for a man to do as he would be done to to be sociable and kind and loving to men of the same nature with himself and to crouch and humble himself before his Maker and adore his Goodness and his other divine Perfections Yet so foolish so vain so inconsiderate a thing is Man that he is wilfully forgetfull of his duty that he throws off those restraints which Nature hath laid upon him breaks through all obligations of Religion and Conscience refuseth the conduct of his Reason and gives himself over to the hurry of his Passions and foolish Lusts and thus puts out his eyes to be lead by a blind guide till he loseth himself in a maze of errour and vanity But