faithfully or to divide the Word rightly or to deal as a Workman that needeth not to be asham'd Is this to press and to be instant in season out of season or to rebuke and exhort with all long suffering Is this to watch in all things to do the work of an Evangelist and to make full proof of the Ministery Is this to labour in the Word and Doctrine and so to be worthy of double honour Is this to give our selves continually to the Ministry of the Word to be fervant in spirit or to stir up the gift of God which is in us by the laying on of the Bishops Hands when the Harvest is plenteous and the Labourers are few The Lord of the Harvest is to be pray'd not that He will send forth Idle Truants but painful Labourers into his Harvest Mark 9. 37 38. And in the Day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ it will perhaps be more tolerable for a gifted Lay Brother who adventures to be busy in another mans Calling than for a giftless Ecclesiastick who chooseth rather to injoy than to use his own When God shall call us to a reckoning not only for our Evil but Idle Lives not only for our injurious but idle words a strict accompt is to be made of our Silence too For the Prophet's Dumb Dogs which cannot bark are the Apostle's Dumb Teachers who cannot speak And they that are Dumb ones in the tenth verse are also greedy ones in the eleventh whereby t is intimated unto us that such as deserve not the least Revenues are hardly satisfied with the greatest Wo to me saith the Apostle if I Preach not the Gospel And wo to me saith the Prophet because I Preach not the Law Because I am a man of unclean Lips that is in the Judgment of Learned Grotius because I have not dar'd to speak against the Iniquities of the Mighty I have either been so lazy as not to speak in my Course or else so cowardly and so base as to speak Placentia But the Apostles in my Text were not lyable to either The Love of Christ did so constrein them as St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians that they long'd to be deliver'd like a Woman in Travel and to that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very properly allude They were not able to hold their Peace though Death it self lay before them with all its grim Train And yet they did not turn Preachers without Ability for the work As appears by the Order wherein the Narrative is express't For first they were fill'd with the Holy Ghost And then it follows in the Text They began to speak There are that speak whilst they are empty and that as well of Inspiration as human Learning Such Sermons do proceed from a private spirit and so at best they are but words and such words are but wind in proportion to the Spirit that gives them utterance When windy Vessels give Vent we know their Spirit cannot fill them unless with Wind. But These were fill'd with another Spirit a Spirit proving what he was by his miraculous Indowments For as our Saviour foretold that he would give them a Mouth and Wisdom not a Mouth only but Wisdom too and so much wisdom in such a Mouth as their Adversaries should not be able to resist Luk. 21 15 So here in answer to that Prophecy They did not only begin to speak but they spake with Tongues And with such Tongues too as were the Instruments of Wisdom as well as Knowledge And yet that Knowledge is another important Requisite to make a Professor of Divinity and such you know is every Doctor or a publick Preacher of the Gospel which every Doctor is not may appear by the Curse of the Foolish Shepherd whose Right Eye was darkned that is to say as the most learned do Interpret who had not the Knowledge of human Learning And as evident it is by what the Prophet Isaiah spake at once of himself and our blessed Saviour The Lord God hath given me the Tongue of the Learned And to what end hath he given it to the end that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary Isa. 50 4. This indeed should be the end of all our eloquence and Learning not the venting such things as smell of nothing but study and Affectation but The Glory of God and the good of Men. Of the first I shall speak in its proper place And here observe touching the Second That as Isaiah after Moses was the most Learned and the most eloquent of all the Prophets so his best use of both was to speak a word in Season to any Soul that should want it in any kind And this is certainly the Trade we are all to drive because for this end especially we were bound over unto the Muses and serv'd Apprentiships in the Schools that we might duly serve God by being eminently useful to all our Neighbours As by instructing the Ignorant by admonishing the negligent by reproving the guilty by counselling the doubtfull by comforting the Afflicted and by giving good example to each of These which way soever our Learning lies and whatsoever our skill in the Tongues may be we must put a right Byass and Bent upon it we must study to make it serve and not to rule us And we must study to make it serve not for ornament but use And but that there is use somtimes of Ornament not for an Ornament to our selves but the use of others In a word if we are sharers of any good parts whether natural or acquir'd we must not think them good enough until the use and the end have made them eminently better That is until they are employed as by God they are intrusted for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for the edifying of the Body of Christ Eph. 4. 11. But then for the bringing of this about it is not enough that we speak with Tongues no nor with fiery Tongues neither nor yet with fiery cloven Tongues unless they are cleft and set on fire by the Spirit of Unity and Truth For it is many times don by the Spirit of Error and Division There are Tongues that are cloven even by him that is known by his cloven Feet And there are Tongues set on fire not from Heaven but of Hell such is the cloven and fiery Tongue wherewith a man does bless God and either Curse or belie his Neighbour v. 9. Nor is such a Tongue better'd by skill in Arabick or Hebrew in Coptick or Syriack in Greek or Latin but the more it is cloven 't is still the worse because by so much the abler to set on fire the Course of Nature 'T is never enough to be deplor'd and in this place especially That since the Iesuits and their Apes have made use of their
members Colos. 3. 5. we know in our Captain 's Interpretation Mat. 5. 29. that to part with an Avarice is to pluck out an eye and to cast away a lust is to cut off a hand That as in our Military Oath we Swore to fight under his Banner so as often as we part with a sinful passion we are reputed in his accompt to lose a Limb in his Battle Self-denial it seems being one kind of Martyrdom a dying daily for his sake who as the Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through sufferings 'T is very true in this sense that the valiantest Souldier is the very best Man For no mau living is truly valiant but he who bravely dares be good when the Times are evil and dares not be evil when Times are good who stands the shock of temptations not only in the worst but the best of daies bravely holding out his Fort against the batteries and assaults not of poverty only and pain and other effects of persecution but against plenty also and pleasure and other Fruits of a Restauration To sum up all in a word and to carry on my Metaphor the most I can to Their advantage who will not be carried to any duty which is not honourable and brave The Battles of Leuctra and Mantinea were not half so full of glory to that immortal Theban Epaminondas as the two victories of a Christian over his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That unruly Element of double fire his anger and his lust which his greatest felicities do most enkindle And this I hope may be enough for the second importance of the word Then as 't is a particle of connexion betwixt the business of the Time and the Time it self LAst of all let us beware that the manifold injoyments of our Deliverance do not make us forgetful of our Deliverer because of the greatness of the Danger of not performing the Duty THEN when it becomes incumbent on us by many unspeakable Obligations For let a man's sin be never so great in point of nature or degree Ingratitude will give it an Aggravation And Ingratitude taking its stature from precedent obligations so as the sins we commit run higher or lower as the graces we receive have been more or less there are not any so very capable of provoking Gods Fury as the men whom he hath pleas'd to take the most into his favour The reason of it may be taken from the Athenians in Thucydides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The least unkindness from a Friend is of greater smart than the hardest usage from an Enemy The very sight of Brutus more wounded Caesar to the heart than all the rest of his Assassinates had don with Daggers David indeed was somewhat troubled that they who hated him did whisper together against him Psal. 41. 7. but 't was his greatest cross of all that they who had eaten of his Bread should ingratefully lift up the heel against him For in that he said He could have born it from an enemy he did significantly imply he could not bear it from a friend And as it was David's Cordolium the Type of Christ so also was it Christ's the Son of David who did not weep over other Cities from which he met with an ill Reception but he wept over Ierusalem the Royal City which he had so much obliged yet found so cruel And no doubt but our Saviour is so much more keenly and nearly touch'd that the most obliged Christians should break his Precepts than that the ignorant Iews should offer violence to his Person that we may rationally suppose him thus speaking to us Had the Iews or the Heathens spit upon me by their impurities and buffeted me by their blasphemies and stript me by their sacriledge and murder'd me by their rage from such as These I could have born it But that ye should war against me and in the behalf of that base Triumvirate the World the Flesh and the Devil having sworn to me in Baptism that Ye would fight under my Banner against all Three That Ye who have the priviledge to be call'd by my Name to be admitted into my House to have a place at my Table to hear my Word and to partake of my Supper to be miraculously brought from the house of Bondage injoying your Kings at the first and your National Councils as at the beginning and sitting your selves as 〈◊〉 many Princes under your Vines and Fig-trees injoying the liberty of your persons the propriety of your estates the important benefit of your Laws and the glory to be subjected by a most honourable obedience that such as Ye should despise me and cast my Law behind your back this is that I can least indure My greatest favour thus abus'd will be converted into fury And indeed if we consider that as God on the one side accepteth according to what a man hath so withal on the other side of them who have received much much in proportion shall be required we may with good Logick infer and strongly argue within our selves that an honest Heathen is far better than a Christian Knave And if an Heathen shall be extirpate for being barren much more the Christian if He is fruitless shall be cast into the fire A fruitless Tree which should by nature bear fruit being fit to make fewel and nothing else According to that of our Blessed Saviour which is at once of universal and endless verity Every Tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire And we who are grafted into the Vine must not only bear fruit but such fruit too as Christ expects to râ—ap from us A Bramble cannot be censur'd for not bearing fruit because it is in its nature to bring forth none It was therefore the Fig-tree and not the Bramble on which our Saviour bestow'd a Curse Mat. 21. 19. Nor was it the Bramble but the Fig-tree which he commanded to be cut down Luk. 13. 7. we must one day be call'd to a dreadful reckoning for all the uses we have made of our this days Talent God's injur'd Iustice must needs be satisfied and sure much more his injur'd Mercy either sooner or later either in this or another world And if instead of being thankful for all the blessings we now injoy more especially for That which we this day Celebrate we shall but turn them into wantonness and grow the worse for the effects of so great a Goodness what can we reasonably expect but that the powers of Hell should once again be let loose upon us and ours For since to continue in our impieties is the greatest dishonouring of God that can be a filling up the measure of our Iniquities and so the vials of his wrath He must destroy us se dâ—fendendo if for nothing but to defend and secure his Glory What then remainâ—s but that we take up the Words of the Royal Prophet and together with Them his
Tongues to conceal their meanings which by God were intended to lay them open a sadder confusion hath been made of the distinctest Languages and Tongues than that which was given for a Defeat at the Tower of Babel St. Iames does put such a stresse upon it as if on the Tip of a mans Tongue stood all Religion For let his Almes be never so great his Fastings never so many his Prayers never so long and other Actions never so specious yet if he bridleth not his Tongue from injurious Calumnies and falshoods He is a man either of none or a vain Religion Iam. 1. 26. The reason of which is very evident For a lye standing singly is Breach of Truth and joyn'd to witnesse is Breach of Iustice and referring to Neighbour is Breach of Charity And by the Breach of all three down goes Religion If it is flatly contumelious or but by way of obtrectation it is not nakedly a lye but an arrant slander which if maliciously committed and so committed by a Person whose knowledge is great and his Calling sacred makes the Top of that Ladder whereupon so many thousands have climb'd to Ruin Now for the Cure of this in some and for the Prevention of it in others presse we our selves to an Improvement of the next observable in the Text. For the Apostles being fill'd with the holy Ghost did not only begin to speak and to speak with Tongues but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with other Tongues I mean not only in the literal but moral sense of that word For St. Peter who had spoken with a Tongue of Tergiversation by denying and forswearing his master Christ did now at last begin to speak with another Tongue a Tongue that honour'd him and own'd him and preach't him up to every Creature This alone was the change that enrich't his mouth Not his wonderful Ability to speak in all sorts of Language but his Preaching of the Gospell in every one Many Gracelesse men have Tongues wherewith they speak as they are prompted by learned Heads But His was prompted by an honest and Zealous Heart too There are that come to the University who without either study or Inspiration do learn to speak with other Tongues Yet I cannot say with more much lesse with better but with Tongues much worse than they did before Nor is there any where so sad and so deplorable a Spectacle as that which sometimes appeares in this House of Prayer when in the solemnest Assembly of all the Year a Son of God shall be so transform'd into the absolute Guise of a Son of Belial as to despise his own Soul in the defiling of Himselfe and the House of God by an applauded Defamation of his Superiours by subjecting them to the Contumelies and Asperities of his Tongue which is not only the unruliest but in that case also the filthiest member of his Body In such a place as this is It were to be wish't that men would speak with other Tongues than those are even with Tongues which may demonstrate if not that they are fill'd yet at least that they are Season'd and not quite void of the Holy Ghost And here I cannot I dare not forbear to say to as many as fear God and are afraid to fear men in this Congregation That when a Cato shall have been able to keep a Zanie more in awe on a Heathen Theatre than many Doctors now can in a Christian Church when under one and the same Roof Dagon is coupl'd with the Ark Iehovah with Mercury The Pulpit with the Stage and Divinity with Prophaneness It will become as many of us as are not only Followers but Embassadours of Christ even to imitate his Example who beat the Hucksters out of the Temple by our well meant Indeavours to whip the Scoffers out of the Church And if He used a Rod of Cords well may we use one of Scorpions Because Prophanesse in a Christian is very much worse than in a Iew and This withall a worse Prophanenesse Such scandalous Sins as are but chargable to others are in reason to be punish't with greater pungency in Us In as much as being Priests we have received the holy Ghost So that we Sin when we Sin against greater Light and against greater Obligations to cease from Sinning We do the Devil greater Service by the Impurity of our Lives than we can possibly do God by our purest Doctrins When secular Jews were mutineers against the King and the Priest for Moses and Aaron were nothing else God Almighty was so patient as to punish them by Degrees But when Corah and the rest of the holy Tribe began to speak against their Governours the Earth could no longer indure to bear them The Heavens could no longer indure their sight and Hell could no longer sustein their Absence Then let all of this Place which was intended by God and our pious Founders for a Nursery of Vertue as well as Learning addict Themselves and prevail with others to speak henceforward with other Tongues than they were wont Let them that have spoken either with wanton or slanderous Tongues now speak with Tongues that are modest and void of malice For if Luther and Melancthon who were men of great Learning and Academically bred were yet provo'kt into an Enmity to publick Academies and Schools meerly in hatred to the Corruptions continuing in them uncontroul'd How much more will They be tempted to greater Enmity than others who cannot distinguish the Abuse from the use of Things we know that many Persons of Honour do send their Sons to this place not to learn a little Logick with a great measure of Prophannesse and so to go the more Learnedly not the lesse surely to destruction not to Swear or talk loosely in Greek and Latin for of that there is enough in their Mother Tongue But to speak modestly and fitly and without disparagement be it spoken religiously too upon all occasions to gather Siens as well as Fruit from the Tree of knowledge and ingraft them into the stock of the Tree of Life The University can make us but learned Fools as Petrarch word's it in case we speak only with other Tongues and not as the Spirit does give us utterance Which to the end that we may do we are to speak of such things as the Spirit can delight to assist us in The Apostles themselves in their common Talk had but an usual and common Assistance too which yet may be called not improperly the Assistance of the spirit But when the Assistance was extraordinary Then they could speak of nothing lower than of the glorious and wonderful works of God v. 12. That indeed should be the subject of all our publick Discourses and Undertakings Not a pitiful ostentation of a little unsanctified Wit or Learning not a deplorable Ability to speak of things Sacred like a Buffon to purchase the lamentable Repute of being a Drolling Ecclesiastick by being ingeniously Scurrilous and very