Reason Only in Divinity great offence is taken at the multitude of Controversies wherein yet difference of opinions is by so much more tolerable then in other sciences by how much the things about which we are conversant are of a more sublime mysterious and incomprehensible nature then are those of other Sciences 21. Truly it would make a religious heart bleed to consider the many and great distractions that are all over the Christian world at this day The lamentable effects whereof scarce any part of Christendome but feeleth more or less either in open warrs or dangerous seditions or at the best in uncharitable censures and ungrounded jealousies Yet the infinite variety of mens dispositions inclinations and aimes considered together with the great obscurity that is in the things of God and the strength of corruption that is in us it is to be acknowledged the admirable work of God that these distractions are not even much more and greater and wider then they are and that amid so many sects as are in the world there should be yet such an universal concurrence of judgement as there is in the main fundamental points of the Christian Faith And if we were so wise as we might and should be to make the right use of it it would not stumble us awhit in the belief of our Religion that Christians differ so much as they do in many things but rather mightily confirme us in the assurances thereof that they agree so well as they do almost in any thing And it may be a great comfort to every well-meaning soule that the simple belief of those certain truths whereon all parties are in a manner agreed may be and ordinarily is sufficient for the salvation of all them who are sincerely careful according to that measure of light and means that hath vouchsafed them to actuate their Faith with piety charity and good works so making this great mystery to become unto them as it is in it self Mysterium pietatis a Mystery of Godliness Which is the last point proposed the Quale to which I now pass 22. As the corrupt doctrine of Antichrist is not only a doctrine of Error but of Impiety too called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mystery of Iniquity 2 Thes. 2. So the wholsome doctrine of Christ is not only a doctrine of Truth but of Piety too and is therefore termed here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mystery of Godliness Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Godliness since there appeareth not any great necessity in the Context to restrain it to that more peculiar sense wherein both the Greek and English word are sometimes used namely to signifie the right manner of Gods worship according to his word in opposition to all idolatrous superstitious or false worships practised among the Heathens I am the rather enclined to understand it here as many Interpreters have done in the fuller latitude as it comprehendeth the whole duty of a Christian man which he standeth bound by the command of God in his Law or of Christ in his Gospel to perform 23. Verum and Bonum We know are neer of kin the one to the other And the spirit of God who is both the author and the revealer of this mystery as he is the spirit of Truth Joh. 14. so is he also the spirit of Holiness Rom. 1. And it is part of his work to sanctifie the heart with grace as well as to enlighten the minde with knowledge Our Apostle therefore sometimes mentioneth Truth and Godliness together teaching us thereby that we should take them both into our care together If any man consent not to the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the doctrine which is after Godlinesse 1 Tim. 6. And Tit. 1. according to the Faith of Gods elect and acknowledging of the Truth which is after Godliness And here in express termes The Mystery of Godliness And that most rightly whether we consider it in the Scope Parts or Conservation of it 24. First the general Scope and aime of Christianity is by the mercy of God founded on the merits of Christ to bring men on through Faith and Godliness to Salvation It was not in the purpose of God in publishing the Gospel and thereby freeing us from the personal obligation rigor and curse of the Law so to turne us loose and lawless to do whatsoever should seem good in our own eyes follow our own crooked wills or gratifie any corrupt lust but to oblige us rather the faster by these new benefits and to incite us the more effectually by Evangelical promises to the earnest study and pursuit of Godliness The Gospel though upon quite different grounds bindeth us yet to our good behaviour in every respect as deep as ever the Law did if not in some respects deeper allowing no liberty to the flesh for the fulfilling of the lusts thereof in any thing but exacting entire sanctity and purity both of inward affection and outward conversation in all those that embrace it The grace of God appearing in the revelation of this mysterie as it bringeth along with it an offer of salvation to all men so it teacheth all men that have any real purpose to lay hold on so gracious an offer to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously and soberly and godlily in this present world 25. It is not to be wondred at if all false Religions give allowance to some ungodliness or other when the very gods whom they worship give such encouragements thereunto by their leud example The gods of the Pagans were renowned for nothing so much most of them as for their vices Mars a bloudy God Bacchus a drunken God Mercury a cheating God and so proportionably in their several kinds all the rest Their great capital God Iupiter guilty of almost all the capital vices And where the Gods are naught who can imagine the Religion should be good Their very mysteria sacra as they called them were so full of all wickedness and filthy abominations as was already in part touched but is fully discovered by Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius Arnobius Tertullian and other of the Ancients of our religion that it was the wisest point in all their religion to take such strict order as they did for the keeping of them secret 26. But it is the honour and prerogative of the Christian Religion that it alone alloweth of no wickedness But as God himself is holy so he requireth an holy worship and holy worshippers He exacteth the mortification of all evill lusts and the sanctification of the whole man body soul and spirit and that in each of these throughout Every one that nameth himself from the name of Christ doth ipso facto by the very taking of that blessed name upon him and daring to stile himself Christian virtually binde himself to depart from all iniquity nor so only but to endeavour also after the example of him whose
ever asking his consent If God were pleased to leave us at first in manu consilij and to trust us so far as to commit the keeping of our selves to our selves he had no meaning therein to turn us loose neither to quit his own right to us and our services Nay may we not with great reason think that he meant to oblige us so much the more unto himself by making us his depositaries in a trust of that nature As if a King should commit to one of his meanest servants the custody of some of his Royal houses or forts he should by that very trust lay a new obligation upon him of fealty over and above that common allegiance which he oweth him as a Subject Now if such a servant so entrusted by the King his Master should then take upon him of his own head without his Masters privity to contract with a stranger perhaps a Rebel or Enemy for the passing over the said house or fort into his hands Who would not condemne such a person for such an act Of ingratitude injustice and presumption in the highest degree Yet is our injustice ingratitude and presumption by so much more infinitely heinous then his in selling our selves from God our Lord and Master into the hands of Satan a Rebel and an Enemy to God and all goodness By how much the disparity is infinitely more betwixt the eternall God and the greatest of the sons of Men then betwixt the highest Monarch in the world and the lowest of his Subjects 7. So much for the Act the other particulars belong to it as circumstances thereof To a Sale they say three things are required Res Precium and Consensus a Commodity to be sold a Price to be pai'd and consent of Parties Here they are all And whereas I told you in the beginning that in this Sale was represented to us Mans inexcusable baseness and folly You shall now plainly see each particle thereof made good in the three several Circumstances In the Commodity our Baseness that we should sell away our very selves in the Price our folly that we should do it for a thing of naught in the Consent our inexcusableness in both that an act so base and foolish should yet be our own voluntary act and deed And first for the Commodity You have sold your selves 8. Lands Houses Cattel and other like possessions made for mans use are the proper subject matter of trade and commerce and so are fit to pass from man to man by Sales and other Contracts But that Man a Creature of such excellency stamped with the image of God endowed with a reasonable soule made capable of grace and Glory should Prostâ—are in foro become merchantable ware and be chaffered in the markets and fayres I suppose had bin a thing never heard of in the world to this houre had not the overflowings of pride and Cruelty and Covetousness washed out of the hearts of Men the very impressions both of Religion and Humanity It is well and we are to bless God and under God to thank our Christian Religion and pious Governours for it that in these times and parts of the world we scarce know what it meaneth But that it was generally practis'd all the world over in some former ages and is at this day in use among Turks and Pagans to sell men ancient Histories and modern relations will not suffer us to be ignorant We have mention of such Sales even in Scripture where we read of some that sold their own brother as Iacobs sons did Ioseph and of one that sold his own Master as the traitor Iudas did Christ. Basely and wretchedly both Envy made them base and Covetousness him Only in some cases of Necessity as for the preservation of Life or of liberty of Conscience when other means fail God permitted to his own people to sell themselves or Children into perpetual bondage and Moses from him gave Laws and Ordinances touching that Matter Levit. 25. 9. But between the Sale in the Text and all those other there are two main differences Both which do exceedingly aggravate our baseness The first that no man could honestly sell another nor would any man willingly sell himself unless enforced thereunto by some urgent necessity But what necessity I pray you that we should sell our selves out of Gods and out of our own hands into the hands of Sin and Satan Were we not well enough before sull enough and safe enough Was our Masters service so hard that it might not be abiden Might we not have lived Lived Yea and that happily and freely and plentifully and that for ever in his service What was it then Even as it is with many fickle servants abroad in the world that begin in a good service cannot tell when they are well but must be ever and anon flitting though many times they change for the worse so it was only our Pride and folly and a fond conceit we had of bettering our condition thereby that made us not only without any apparent necessity but even against all good reason and duty thus basely to desert our first service and to sell our selves for bondslaves to Sin and Satan 10. The other difference maketh the matter yet a great deal worse on our side For in selling of slaves for so much as bodily service was the thing chiefly looked after therefore as the body in respect of strength health age and other abilities was deem'd more or less fit for service the price was commonly proportioned thereafter Hence by a customary speech among the Grecians slaves were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is bodies and they that traded in that kinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say merchants of bodies And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Rev. 18. Mancipia or slaves Epiphanius giveth us the reason of that use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he c. because all the command that a man can exercise over his slaves is terminated to the body and cannot reach the soule And the soule is the better part of man and that by so many degrees better that in comparison thereof the body hath been scarce accounted a considerable part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Greek Philosopher say and the Latin Orator Mens cujusque is est quisque The soule is in effect the whole man The body but the shell of him the body but the casket the soule the Jewel It is observable that whereas we read Matth. 16. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soule in stead thereof we have it Luke 9. thus if he gain the whole world and lose himself So that every mans soule is himself and the body but an appurtenance of him Yet such is our baseness that we have thus trucked away our selves with the appurtenances that is both our soules and our bodies We detest Witches and
any of the passages or rites thereunto belonging to those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not initiated whom in that respect they counted prophane To do otherwise was reputed so heinous a crime that nothing could be imagined in their superstition more irreligious and piacular then that Quis Cereris ritus audet vulgare profanis He knew not where to finde a man that durst presume so to doe Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum Vulgarit arcanae sub ijs Deus Sit trabibus He would be loath to lodge under the same roof or to put to sea in the same vessel with him that were guilty of such an high provocation as the divulging abroad of the sacred mysteries lest some vengeance from the offended Deities should overtake them for their impiety and him for company to their destruction It was in very deed the Devils cunning one of the depths of Satan and one of the most advantagious mysteries of his arts by that secrecy to hold up a reverend and religious esteem of those mysteries which were so repleat with all filthy and impious abominations that if they should have been made known to the world it must needs have exposed their whole religion to the contempt of the vulgar and to the detestation of the wiser sort 6. Such and no better were those mysteria sacra among the Heathens whence the word Mystery had its birth and rise Both the Name and Thing being so viâ—ely abused by them it yet pleased the holy spirit of God to make choise of that word whereby usually in the New Testament to express that holy Doctrine of Truth and Salvation which is revealed to us in the Gospel of grace By the warrant of whose example the ancient Church both Greek and Latine took the liberty as what hindereth but they might to make use of sundry words and phrases fetcht from the very dregs of Paganism for the better explication of sundry points of the Christian Faith and to signifie their notions of sundry things of Ecclesiastical usage to the people The Greek Church hath constantly used this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heathenish superstitious word and the Latine Church in like manner the word Sacramentum a heathen military word to signifie thereby the holy Sacraments of the Christian Church I note it the rather and I have therefore stood upon it a little longer then was otherwise needfull to let you know that the godly and learned Christians of those Primitive times were not so fondly shy and scrupulous as some of ours are as to boggle at much less so rashly supercilious I might say and superstitious too as to cry down and condemn for evil and even eo nomine utterly unlawful the use of all such whether names or things as were invented or have been abused by Heathens or Idolaters 7. But this by the way I return to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which being rarely found in the Greek version of the Old Testament indeed not at all so far as my search serveth me save only some few times in Daniel is frequently used in the New and that for the most part to signifie for now I come to the Quid Rei either the whole Doctrine of the Gospel or some special branches thereof or the dispensations of Gods providence for the time or manner of reveiling it To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God Mat. 13. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery 1 Cor. 2. So the Gospel is called the mystery of Christ Col. 4. mystery of Faith in this chapter at the ninth verse and here in the Text The Mystery of Godliness 8. But why a Mystery That I shall now shew you First when we see something good or bad done plainly before our eyes yet cannot imagine to what end or purpose it should tend nor can guess what should be the designe or intention of the doer that we use to call a Mystery The Counsels of Princes and affairs of State Ragioni di stato as the Italians call it when they are purposely carried in a cloud of secrecy that the reasons and ends of the actions may be hidden from the eyes of men are therefore called the Mystery of State and upon the same ground sundry manuall crafts are called Mysteries for that there belong to the exercise of them some secrets which they that have not been train'd up therein cannot so well understand and they that have been trained up therein could like well that none but themselves should understand In a worser sense also it is not seldome used If some crafty companion with whom we have had little dealings formerly should begin of a sodain to apply himself to us in a more then ordinary manner with great shews and proffers of kindness and we know no particular reason why he should so do we presently conclude in our thoughts that sure there is some mystery or other in it that is that he hath some secret ends some designe upon us which we understand not Iosephus writing of Antipater the son of Herod who was a most wicked mischievous person but withall a notable dissembler very cunning and close and one that could carry matters marvelous smoothly and fairely to the outward appearance so that the most intelligent and cautious men could not escape but he would sometimes reach beyond them to their destruction he saith of him and his whole course of life that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but a very mystery of wickedness 9. In this notion in the better sence of it may the great work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ which is the very pith and marrow of the Gospel be called a Mystery Who that should have seen a childe of a span long to be born in an Inne of a mean parentage coursely swadled up and cradled in a manger and then afterwards to be brought up under a Carpenter and to live in a poor and low condition scarce worth a room where to rest his head and after all that to be bought and sold buffeted spit on reviled tortured condemned and executed as a Malefactor with as much ignominy and despightfulness as the malice of Men and Divels could devise Who that should have seen all these things and the whole carriage thereof could have imagined that upon such weak hinges should have moved the greatest act of Power Wisdom and Goodness that ever was or ever shall be done in the world that such contemptible means should serve to bring about the eternal good will and purpose of God towards mankinde yet so it was whiles Iudas was plotting his treason and the Iews contriving Christs death he to satisfie his Covetousness and they their Malice and all those other that had any hand in the business were looking every man but at his own private ends all this while was this Mystery working Unawares indeed to them and therefore no thanks to them for
word sufficiently to save our souls if we will believe but not to solve all our doubts if we will dispute The Scriptures being written for our sakes it was needfull they should be fitted to our capacities and therefore the mysteries contained therein are set forth by such resemblances as we are capable of but farr short of the nature and excellency of the things themselves The best knowledge we can have of them here is but per speculum and in aenigmate 1 Cor. 13. as it were in a glass and by way of riddle darkely both God teacheth us by the Eye in his Creatures That is per speculum as it were by a glass and that but a dimme one neither wherein we may read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of the invisible things of God but written in small and out-worne characters scarce legible by us He teacheth us also by the Eare in the preaching of his holy word but that in aenigmate altogether by riddles darke riddles That there should be three distinct persons in one essence and two distinct natures in one person That virginity should conceive Eternity be born Immortality dye and Mortality rise from death to life That there should be a finite and mortall God or an infinite and Immortall man What are all these and many other more of like intricacy but so many riddles 16. In all which that I may from the premises inferr something of Use we should but cum ratione insanire should we go about to make our Reason the measure of our Faith We may as well think to graspe the earth in our fists or to empty the sea with a pitcher as to comprehend these heavenly mysteries within our narrow understandings Puteus altus the well is deep and our buckets for want of cordage will not reach neer the bottome We have use of our Reason and they are unreasonable that would deny us the use of it in Religion as well as in other things And that not only in Agendis in matters of duty and morality wherein it is of a more necessary and constant use as the standard to regulate our judgements in most cases but even in Credendis too in such points as are more properly of Faith in matters doctrinal and dogmatical But then she must be imployed only as an handmaid to Faith and learn to know her distance Conférre and Inférre those are her proper tasks to conferr one Scripture with another and to inferr conclusions and deduce instructions thence by clear Logical discourse Let her keep within these bounds and she may do very good service But we marr all if we suffer the handmaid to bear too great a sway to grow petulant and to perke above the Mistress 17. It hath been the bane of the Church and the original of the most and the most pernicious errors and heresies in all ages that men not contenting themselves with the simplicity of beleeving have doated too much upon their own fancies and made Reason the sole standard whereby to measure both the Principles and Conclusions of Faith It is the very fundamental errour of the Socinians at this day No less absurdly then as if a man should take upon him without Mathematical instruments to take the just dimensions of the heavenly bodies and to pronounce of altitudes magnitudes distances aspects and other appearances only by the scantling of the Eye Nor less dangerously then as if a Smith it is S. Chrysostomes comparison should lay by his tongs and take the iron hot from the forge to work it upon the anvil with his bare hands Mysteries are not to be measured by Reason That is the first Instruction 18. The next is That forasmuch as there are in the mystery of Christianity so many things incomprehensible it would be safe for us for the avoiding of Errors and Contentions and consequently in order to those two most precious things Truth and Peace to contain our selves within the bounds of sobriety without wading too farr into abstruse curious and useless speculations The most necessary Truths and such as sufficed to bring our forefathers in the primitive and succeeding times to heaven are so clearly revealed in scripture and have been so universally and constantly consented unto by the Christian Church in a continued succession of times as that to doubt of them must needs argue a spirit of pride and singularity at least if not also of Strife and Contradiction But in things less evident and therefore also less necessary no man ought to â—e either too stiffe in his own private opinion or too peremptory in judging those that are otherwise minded But as every man would desire to be left to his own liberty of judgement in such things so should he be willing to leave other men to their liberty also at least so long as they keep themselves quiet without raising quarrels or disturbing the peace of the Church there-abouts 19. As for example Concerning the Entrance and Propagation of Original sin the Nature Orders and Offices of Angels The Time Place and Antecedents of the last judgement The consistency both of Gods immutable decrees with the contingency of second causes and of the efficacy of Gods grace with the freedom of Mans will c. In which and other like difficult points they that have travelled farthest which desire to satisfie their own curiosity have either dasht upon pernicious Errors or involved themselves in inextricable difficulties or by Gods mercy which is the happiest loose from such fruitless studies have been thereby brought to a deeper sense of their own ignorance and an higher admiration of the infinite majesty and wisdome of our great God who hath set his counsels so high above our reach made his wayes so impossible for us to finde out That is our second Instruction 20. There is yet another arising from the consideration of the greatness of this Mystery That therefore no man ought to take offence at the discrepancy of opinions that is in the Churches of Christ amongst Divines in matters of Religion There are men in the world who think themselves no babes neither so deeply possest with a spirit of Atheisme that though they will be of any Religion in shew to serve their turns and comply with the times yet they are resolved to be indeed of none till all men be agreed of one which yet never was nor is ever like to be A resolution no less desperate for the soul if not rather much more then it would be for the body if a man should vow he would never eat till all the Clocks in the City should strike Twelve together If we look into the large volumes that have been written by Philosophers Lawyers and Physicians we shall finde the greatest part of them spent in disputations and in the reciting and confuting of one anothers opinions And we allow them so to do without prejudice to their respective professions albeit they be conversant about things measurable by Sense or
the glory of the great God of heaven and earth which is the most sacred thing in the world as to engage it in our quarrels and to make it serve to our humours or ends when and how we list Were it not a lamentable case if it should ever come to that that Religion should lye at the top where avarice ambition or sacriledge lye at the bottome and perhaps malice partiality oppression murther some wicked lust or other in the midst Yet is not any of this impossible to be yea rather scarce possible to be avoided so long as we dare take upon us out of the furiousness of our spirits and the rashness of a distempered zeal to be wiser and holier then God would have us I mean in the determining of his glory according to our fancies where we have no clear texts of Scripture to assure us that the glory of God is so much concerned in these or those particulars that we so eagerly contend for Nay when there seem to be clear Texts of Scripture to assure us rather of the contrary and that the glory of God doth not consist therein but in things of a higher nature For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink saith the Apostle in the next former chapter It consisteth not in this whether such or such meats may be eaten or not for neither if we eate nor if we eate not are we much either the better or the worse for that But the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost It consisteth in the exercise of holy graces and the conscionable performance of unquestioned duties Sincere confession of sin proceeding from an humble and contrite heart constancy in professing the true faith of Christ patience in suffering adversity exemplary obedience to the holy laws of God fruitfulness in good works these these are things wherein God expecteth to be glorified by us But as for meats and drinks and all other indifferent things in as much as they have no intrinsecal moral either good or evil in them but are good or evil only according as they are used well or ill the glory of God is not at all concerned in the using or not using of them otherwise then as our Faith or Temperance or Obedience or Charity or other like Christian grace or vertue is exercised or evidenced thereby 23. I have now done with the first thing and of the most important consideration proposed from the Text to wit the End it self the Glory of God The amplifications follow the former whereof containeth a description of the party to be glorified That ye may glorifie God If it be demanded which God For there be Gods many and Lords many It is answered in the Text God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Of which title there may be sundry reasons given some more general why it is used at all some more special why it should be used here First this is Stylo novo never found in the Old Testament but very often in the New For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Ehpes 3. The God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ knoweth that I lie not 2 Cor. 11. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. As the old Covenant ceased upon the bringing in of a new and better Covenant so there was a cessation of the old style upon the bringing in of this new and better style The old ran thus The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob proclaimed by God himself when he was about to deliver the posterity of those three godly Patriarchs from the bondage of Egypt But having now vouchsafed unto his people a far more glorious deliverance then that from a far more grievous bondage then that from under Sin Satan Death Hell and the Law whereof that of Egypt was but a shadow and type he hath quitted that style and now expecteth to be glorified by this most sweet and blessed Name The Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Exchanging the Name of God a name of greater distance and terrour into the Name of Father a name of more neerness and indulgence And taking the additional title or denomination not from the parties delivered as before who were his faithful servants indeed yet but servants but from the person delivering his only begotten and only beloved Son It is first the Evangelical style 24. Secondly this style putteth a difference between the true God of Heaven and Earth whom only we are to glorifie and all other false and imaginary titular gods to whom we owâ— nothing but scorn and detestation The Pagans had scores hundreds some have reckoned thousands of gods all of their own making Every Nation every City yea almost every House had their several gods or godlings Deos topicos gods many and lords many But to us saith our Apostle to us Christians there is but one God the Father and one Lord Iesus Christ his Son This is Deus Christianorum If either you hope as Christians to receive grace from that God that alone can give it or mean as Christians to give glory to that God that alone ought to have it this this is he and none other God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. It is a style of distinction 25. These two Reasons are general There are two other more special for the use of it here in respect of some congruity it hath with the matter or method of the Apostles present discourse For first it might be done with reference to that Argument which he had so lately pressed and whereof also he had given a touch immediately before in the next former Verse and which he also resumed again in the next following Verse drawn from the example of Christ. That since Christ in receiving us and condescending to our weaknesses did aim at his Fathers glory so we also should aim at the same end by treading in the same steps We cannot better glorifie God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ then by receiving one another into our charity care and mutual support as Iesus Christ also received us to the glory of his heavenly Father 26. Secondly since we cannot rightly glorifie God unless we so conceive him as our Father If I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. That they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. it may be the Apostle would have us take knowledge how we came to have a right to our son-ship and for that end might use the title here given to intimate to us upon what ground it is that we have leave to make so bold with our great Lord and Master as to call him our Father even no other but this because he is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the onely Son of God by nature and generation and
delicate eare But if it should be very much out of tune it would be harsh and grate even a thick and vulgar eare But say all the instruments should be perfectly well tuned yet if the men should not agree what to play but one would have a grave Pavane another a nimbler Galliard a third some frisking toy or Iigg and then all of them should be wilful none yield to his fellow but every one scrape on his own tune as loud as he could what a hideous hateful noise may you imagine would such a mess of Musick be No less odious to God and equally grievous to every godly man it is when such voices as these are heard in the Church I am of Paul and I of Cephas and I of Apollo When as it is now growen with us one Pamphleter must have the Church governed after this fashion another after that Twenty several models and platforms of government just as one of our own Poets of good note in his time hath long since described Errours Children a numerous brood but never a one like other saving only in this that they were all ill-favoured alike And these Models printed and published to the world and dispersed through all parts of the kingdom and ecchoed in the pulpits to the manifest dishonour of God the deep scandal of the reformed Religion and eternal infamy both of our Church and State and God knoweth what other sad and desperate consequents in future if some speedy and effectuall course be not taken to repress the unsufferable licenciousness both of our Presses and Pulpits 31. But I will repress my self howsoever Indignation though just may carry a man into a digression ere he be aware though I do not perceive that I have yet digressed very much To return therefore As I have heard those words of the last Psalm read monethly in our Churches Praise him upon the well tuned Cymbals praise him upon the loud Cymbals it hath often come into my thoughts that when we intend to glorifie God with our Cymbals it should not be our only care to have them loud enough but our first care should be to have them well-tuned els the lowder the worse Zeal doth very well there is great yea necessary use of it in every part of Gods service The Cymbal will be flat it will have no life nor spirit in it it will not be loud enough without it But if meekness peaceableness and moderation do not first put the Cymbal into good tune the loudness will but make it the more ungraceful in the player the more ungrateful to the hearer 32. But I will pursue this Metaphor no further There is another Metaphor also much used by our Apostle that of Edification He would have all things in the Church done to Edifying And if you will take the pains to examine it you shall finde that most times where he speaketh of glorifying God he doth it with reference to Edification and most times where he speaketh of Edifying he doth it with reference to those mutual respects and charitable offices whereby we apply our selves to our brethren for the maintenance of peace and unity That passage for example before mentioned and of all other the most obvious in this argument Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever else ye do let all be done to the glory of God is meant especially in the case of brotherly condescension in yielding somewhat to the infirmities of our brethren for charities sake where in godly wisdom we shall see it expedient so to do for theirs our own or the common good as is evident from the whole frame of his discourse there And so it is here also He speaketh of bearing the infirmities of our weaker brethren vers 1. of not pleasing our selves but each man pleasing his brother for his good unto edification vers 2. of receiving one another by Christs example vers 7. and he cometh in among with this votive prayer that God would grant them to be like minded one unto another that so by their unanimity they might glorifie God That is that their like-mindedness might serve to Gods glory in the edification of their brethren 33. Now if that which best edifieth the Church do also most glorifie God as these and the like passages seem to import then certainly not by many things is God more glorified then by Peace Love and Concord sith few things edifie more then these do As to the use of Edification Knowledge that seemeth to be all in all with some is very little or nothing in comparison or but a puffe to Charity It may swell look big and make a shew but Charity doth the deed S. Paul was a wise Master-builder and knew what belonged to the worke as well as another and he when he speaketh of compacting the Church into a building mentioneth the edifying of it selfe in love Eph. 4. It hath been my hap heretofore more then once yet both times led thereunto by the Texts to insist somewhat upon this Metaphor which maketh me the unwillinger to dwell upon it the third time Yet sith it appeareth to have been of so frequent and familiar use with our Apostle and is withall so pertinent both to the process of his discourse in this place and to the business now in hand I cannot but desire to press it a little farther and that in two respects especially and both of them very considerable in building to wit Dispatch and Strength 34. For Dispatch first No man that goeth about a building but would willingly get it up as fast as he can without any delay or let more then needs must Now where the workmen and labourers layers fillers servers and the rest agree fairely first to do every man what belongeth to him in his own office and then to further every one another in theirs the work goeth on and getteth up apace But if they once begin to fall out one with another then are they ready to hinder and to cross one another and then the work standeth When one of them hath laied a course in the wall up steppeth another and pulleth the stones all asunder and throweth them down One saith it shall be thus another starteth up and sweareth it shall not be so but thus and then they grow to hot words and from words to blowes and so instead of pointing the wall fall a thrusting their trowels in one anothers faces How should the work go an end now think you with any good expedition When one buildeth and another pulleth down what profit have they then but labour saith the wise son of Sirac Eccl. 34. A great deal of noise and a great deal of bustle but little worke done It is even so in all other things distraction ever hindereth business The vessel must needs move slowly when some of them that sweat at the Oare ply with all the strength they have to thrust her Eastward and other some of them ply