then with Micaiah wee must alwayes prophesie evil unto them In this I prayse you not Ministers must not commend their people when they doe ill 1. Dishonourable to God 2. Dangerous to the Ministers That Embassadour who being sent to proclaime warre pronounceth peace to Rebels There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Esay 57.21 deserves at his returne to bee preferred to the Gallowes 3. Dangerous to the people who are soothed in their sinnes Honey-dewes though they be sweet in taste doe black and blast the corne So those who prayse their people without cause are cruelly kind unto them it is pleasant to the pallate of flesh but destroyeth and damneth the soule It were to be wished that as those that live under the Equinoctiall at Noon-day have no shadowes at all so great men should have no shadowes no Parasites no Flatterers to commend them when they least deserve it But why doth Saint Paul deale so mildly with the Corinthians I prayse you not Me thinkes hee should have made his little finger as heavie as his loynes O yee Corinthians I excommunicate every mothers child of you I damne you all to the pit of hell and deliver you to Satan for your sinne of Drunkennesse at the receiving of the Sacrament never to be absolved but on your most serious and solemne repentance Otherwise considering the corrupt humour in the Corinthians the Apostles purge was too gentle for them Theophylact answers that Saint Paul reproves the rich men the more mildly lest otherwise they should be implacably incensed against the poore fretting against them as the causers of the Apostles anger 2. It was the first time hee told the Corinthians of their fault and therefore used them the more gently on hope of their amendment This corrupt humour in the Corinthians was not as yet growne tough bak't and clodded in them by custome and therefore the easier purged and removed Ministers must use mildnesse especially at their first reproving of a sinne Yea God so blest the mild serveritie of Saint Paul that the Corinthians reformed all their errours for no fault reprehended by the Apostle in them in this first Epistle is taxed againe in the second Epistle a very strong presumption that all those faults were amended Now whereas wee find such abuses in the Church of Corinth presently after it was newly planted we may learne Corruptions will quickly creepe into the best Church Thus Saint Paul no sooner went back from the Galatians but they went back from his Doctrine Gal. 5.7 Yee did run well who did hinder you And as we reade of Mezentius a cruell Tyrant who joyned dead corpes to living men and so killed them with lingering torments So some Seducers in the Church of Galatia sought to couple the lively grace of God and active faith with the dead Letter of the Law and old legall Ceremonies long since dead buried and rotten in the Grave of our Saviour If it be done thus to the greene Tree what shall be done to the dry If Primative Churches whilst the Apostles which planted them were alive to pruine them had such errours in them no wonder if the Church at sixteene hundred yeares of age may have some defaults Moses said unto the Israelites Deut. 31.27 Behold while I am alive with you this day yee have beene rebellious against the Lord and how much more when I am dead So if while Saint Paul survived Churches were so prone to decline what can be lesse expected in our dayes It was therfore well concluded in the 39. Session of the Councell of Constance * That every ten yeare at the farthest there should bee a Generall Councell held to reforme such errours in the Church as probably in that time would arise VERSE 23. For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Iesus the same night in which hee was betrayed tooke bread AFter hee had fully reproved the corruptions of their Love-feasts commeth he now to reduce the receiving of the Sacrament to the first Institution of Christ It is the safest way to correct all the Errata's in the Transcript according to the Originall Copie Thus did Christ in the matter of Divorce Mat. 19.8 But from the beginning it was not so Excellently Saint Cyprian Wee must not heed what others did who were before us but what Christ did who was before all Were this used betwixt us and the Papists to cleare the streame of Gods service by the Fountaine of its first Institution how soone would seven Sacraments shrinke to two how quickly would Creame Oyle and Spittle fly out of Baptisme and leave nothing but faire water behind How soone c. For I have received of the Lord How could Saint Paul receive it of the Lord with whom hee never convers't in the flesh being one borne out of time as he confesseth of himselfe He received it 1. Mediately by Ananias who began with him where Gamaliel ended Besides lest the Corinthians should say that they received it likewise at the second hand as well as Saint Paul he had it immediately from God Gal. 1.12 For I never received it of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Iesus Christ I also delivered unto you The Greeke is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Latine Tradidi vobis English it as you please I traditioned it unto you Nota saith A Lapide on this place Hunc locum pro traditionibus quas Orthodoxi verbo Dei scripto adjungendas docento Bellarmine also starts Traditions out of the same place What eye-salve are their eyes anoynted with that can see unwritten Traditions here when the Apostle delivereth nothing but is recorded in 3. Evangelists Mathew Marke Luke However hence we will take occasion briefly to speak of unwritten Traditions the Church of Rome maintayning that the Scriptures of themselves are too scant to salvation except the course list of unwritten Traditions be cast in to make measure and this they will have of equall authority with the written Word Marke by the way 1. This is the Reason why Romanists are so zealous for Traditions for finding themselves cast by the Scriptures they would faigne appeale to another Judge yea hereon are founded those points which get them their gaine as Purgatory and the Appurtenances thereof Hath not Demetrius then reason to stand for Diana Act. 19.25 when his goods and her Godship must go together 2. Though they lock up the Scriptures in an unknowne language and forbid the Laity to reade them yet they suffer Traditions to bee preached and published to all in generall Such woodden Daggers will never hurt Popery to the heart and therefore they suffer their children to play with these dull tooles though not to handle the two-edged Sword of Gods Word 3. Romanists will never give us a perfect List and Catalogue of their Traditions that we may know
for what he hath done in the spring of his age and as those which have beene given to violent exercises in their youth when they are old reade the admonitions of their former folly in the aches of their bones so they who have prodigally ryoted their youth out in vitious courses in their old age find the smart of it in their weak and diseased bodies Doe wee then desire to lead our old age in health I know no better preservative or dyet drinke can bee prescribed then in our youth to keepe our soules from sin for now wee sow the seeds of health or sicknesse which perchance wee shall reape twenty yeares after But how came Saint Paul to know that this sicknesse of the Corinthians proceeded from the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament especially sithence there were four other grand sinnes which then raigned in their Church each whereof upon hew and cry might be taken as suspitious to be the cause of this disease 1. Factious affecting of one Minister above another to the disgrace of God and the Gospel 1 Corinthians 1.12 Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas and I am of Christ 2. Suffering an incestuous person husband to his mother and sonne to his wife to live amongst them without publike penance and punishment For though this incest as it was committed but by one man was but a particular and personall sin yet as it was connived at and not punished it began gangreenlike to spread and leaving its nature of personality it intituled it selfe to be a publike generall Church-sin of the Corinthians 3. Going to law one with another under heathen Iudges 1 Cor. 6.1 Dare any of you having busines against another be judged by the unjust and not by the Saints 4. Denying the Resurrection of the body 1 Cor. 15.12 How say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the dead Sithence therefore at the same time the Corinthians were guilty of factious affecting of their Ministers going to law under Pagan Iudges suffering an incestuous person to live amongst them unpunished denying of the Resurrection of the body why might not Saint Paul thinke that any one or all of these might be the cause of this disease in the Church of Corinth as well as the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament Because this sinne was the sinne paramount like Saul higher then his fellowes from the shoulders upwards the other four sins were fellony robbing God of his glory but the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament was high treason against the person of Christ so against God himselfe The other for sins were Tetrarchs raigning over the Corinthians but this was as Augustus the Emperour over the Tetrarchs more conspicuous then any of the rest Learn we then that though God of his goodnesse may be pleased graciously to pardon and passe by sins of an inferior nature and meaner alloy yet he wil not hold them guiltless let them escape unpunished who irreverently receive the body and blood of his Sonne This stentor sin shouts in Gods eares for revenge Saint Anselme saith that many diseases that raigne in the summer though Physicians may impute them to other second causes proceeds from peoples irreverent receiving the Sacrament at Easter Because the Apostle perceived some resemblance betwixt the sin committed and the punishment inflicted For as a Physician when he comes to his Patient and finds him strangely affected so that the disease puzles al his rules of art to reduce it to some naturall cause then he will be ready to suspect that his Patient hath eaten some poyson which hath strangely invenomed the estate of his body so Saint Paul seeing the Corinthians to be punished with a strange and unusuall sicknesse some conceive it was the plague presently suspected that they had eaten some poysenous thing and on inquiry he finds that it was the Sacrament irreverently received It being just with God to turne that which was appoynted to bee preservative for the soule to prove poyson to the body being not received with due preparation And here I may adventure upon a profitable discourse how a man in his sicknesse may come to know the very particular sin for which God hath inflicted that sicknesse upon him It is not a meer curiosity which will afford the ground work of much good meditation nor an impossibility though a difficulty to arrive at the knowledge of it Wherefore let a man in such a case summon all his great sins to make a personall appearance in his memory and not onely those of the last edition but even those whose impression is almost out of the date of his memory such as were committed long agoe in his youth This done all the matter will bee to find out which is the veriest sinne for which God punisheth him at that time and here I must confesse my candels to be but dim but I will light the more of them First see to which sin the punishment thou sufferest bears the most proportion of resemblance for God commonly punisheth like with the like Thus one may see Gods hand in the cutting of one of Adonibezecks fingers he being served as hee had served 72. Kings And thus King Ioram who had cruelly slaughtered his brethren on a stone was troubled with an incurable disease that his bowels fell out and just it was that he should have no bowels that had no compassion 2. See if thou canst not find some proportion in the disproportion and likenesse in the unlikenes of some sin to this punishment God oft times punishing by the contrary Thus those who out of nicenesse and curiosity have tooke more then comes to the share of a corrupt creature are commonly sent to their graves by some nasty and loathsome disease as proud Herod whom the wormes impatient to stay so long till death had dished him for their palate devoured him alive 3. Something may be gathered from the place or part wherein the disease lieth For if it be in the eyes it is probable it s inflicted for the shooting out of lustfull lascivious glances or looking with envious and covetous sight on the meanes of others if in the eares for giving audience to wanton sonnets or for being over credulous in the hearing ill reports of others if in the tongue for lying swearing c. 4. See whether Chronology or the time wherein the sicknesse seizeth upon thee will not something advantage thee for the discovering the cause thereof Thus as one observes the Lord Hastings was beheaded at London that very selfe-same day twelve-moneth yea the same houre and if curiosity may goe further the same minute wherein he had conspired the death of the Queenes kinred at Pomfret Castle 5. Consider what sinne it is for the committing whereof thou hast conceived the least sorrow For though wee can never bee condignly sorry for our least sinne yet we may be more penitent for
am of Christ The Staple Doctrine herein to be observed is this The factious affecting one Pastor above another is very dangerous Indeed wee may and must give a famous part of Reverence and a Benjamins Portion of respect to those who Data paritate in ceteris excell in age paines Parts and Piety In Age for hee is a Traytor against the Crowne of old Age who payeth not the Allegeance of respect due thereunto Such Reverence the hoary haires of Gousartius did deserve when for more then fifty yeares hee had beene a Preacher in Geneva In Paines being such as have borne the heate of the day so that the stresse of the Ministery hath layen heaviest on their shoulders such an Elder is worthy of double honour In Parts being stars of the first Magnitude brightly shining with their rich endowments In Piety which setteth a lustre on all the former But the factious affecting of Ministers lavishing by whole sale all honour on one and scarce Retaliating out any respect to the other raysing high Rampires to the prayse of the one by digging deepe Ditches to discredit and disgrace an other is that which Saint Paul doth reprove in my Text and wee must confute at this time Foure great mischiefes will arise from this practise First it will set enmity and dissention betwixt the Ministers of Gods Word I confesse wee that either have or intend to take on us the high calling and holy Function of the Clergy ought to endeavour by Gods Grace so to qualifie our selves that our affections never mistake the true object nor exceed their due measure But alas such is our misery rather to bee bemoaned then amended the perfect removing whereof is more to be desired then hoped for that as long as wee carry Corruption about us wee are men subject to like Passion with others Hence is it come to passe that as the Grecians Act. 6.1 Murmured against the Hebrewes Because their Widdowes were neglected in the daily Ministration So Ministers will find themselves agrieved that people in the partiall dispencing of their respect passe them by unregarded Perchance the matter may fly so high as it did betwixt Moses and Aaron Numb. 12.2 And they said hath the Lord indeed spoken onely by Moses Hath hee not spoken also by us It will anger not only Saul a meere carnall man but even those that have degrees of Grace Hee hath converted his thousands but such a one his ten thousands These discords betwixt Ministers I could as heartily wish they were false as I doe certainely know they are too true It will set dissention amongst people whilst they violently engage their affections for their Pastors The woman that pleaded before Salomon 1 King 3. The living Child is mine said shee but this dead Child is thine Nay said the other but thy sonne is dead and my sonne is the living Thus will they fall out about their Pastors The living Minister is mine he that hath life spirit and Activity in the manner and matter of his Delivery but the dead Minister is thine Flash in his matter confused in his Method dreaming in his utterance hee commeth not to the quicke hee toucheth not the conscience at the most with Ioash King of Israel 2 King 13.18 He smites the Aramites but thrice Leaves off reproving a vice before people bee fully reformed Nay saith the other my Minister is the living Minister and thine is the dead one Thy Pastor is like the fire 1 King 19.12 Flashing in the flames of ill tempered and undiscreet zeale But the Lord was not in the fire or like the Earthquake shaking his Auditors with ill applyed terrors of the Law but the Lord was not in the Earth-quake whilest my Minister is like to a still voyce and the Lord was in the still Voyce stanching the Bleeding hearted Penitent and dropping the Oyle of the Gospel into the wounded Conscience It will give just occasion to wicked men to rejoyce at these dissentions to whose eares our discords are the sweetest Harmony O then let not the Herdsmen of Abraham and Lot fall out whilst the Canaanites and Peresites are yet in the Land Let not us dissent whilest many Adversaries of the truth are mingled amongst us who will make sport thereat Lastly it will cause great Dishonour to God himselfe his Ordinance in the meane time being neglected Heare is such doting on the Dish there is no regarding the Dainties Such looking on the Embassadour there is no notice taken of the King that sent him Even Maries Complaynt is now verified They have taken away the Lord and placed him I know not where And as in times of Popery Thomas Becket dispossessed our Saviour of his Church in Canterbury instead of Christ's Church being called Saint Thomas Church And whereas rich Oblations were made to the Shrine of that supposed Saint Summo Altari nil Nothing was offered to Christ at the Communion-Table So whilest some Sacrifice the Reverence to this admired Preacher and others almost adored this affected Pastor God in his Ordinance is neglected and the Word being the savour of life is had in respect of persons To prevent these mischiefes both Pastors and people must lend their helping hands I begin with the Pastors and first with those whose Churches are crowded with the thickest audience Let them not pride themselves with the bubble of popular applause often as causelesly gotten as undeservedly lost Have wee not seene those that have preferred the Onions and Flesh-pots of Egypt before heavenly Manna Lungs before Braynes and sounding of a voyce before soundnesse of matter Well let Princes count the credit of their Kingdomes to consist in the multitude of their Subjects Farre bee it from a Preacher to glory when his Congregation swels to a Tympany by the Consumption of the Audience of his Neighbour Minister Yea when Pastors perceive people transported with an immoderate Admiration of them let them labour to confute them in their groundlesse humours When Saint Iohn would have worshipped the Angel See thou dost it not saith hee worship God So when people post head-long in affecting their Pastors they ought to wave and decline this popular honour and to seeke to transmit and fasten it on the God of Heaven Christ went into the Wildernesse when the people would have made him a King Let us shun yea fly such dangerous Honour and teare off our heads such wreathes as people would tye on them striving rather to throw Mists and Clouds of Privacy on our selves then to affect a shining appearance But know whosoever thou art who herein art an Epicure and lovest to glut thy selfe with peoples applause thou shalt surfet of it before thy death it shall prove at the last pricks in thy eyes and thornes in thy side a great affliction if not a ruine unto thee because sacrilegiously thou hast robbed God of his Honour Let them labour also to ingratiate every Pastor who hath tolerability of desert with his owne
IOSEPH'S PARTIE-COLORED COAT CONTAINING A COMMENT ON Part of the 11. Chapter of the 1. Epistle of S. Paul to the CORINTHIANS Together with severall Sermons namely 1 Growth in Grace 2 How farre Examples may be followed 3 An ill Match well broken off 4 Good from bad Friends 5 A Glasse for Gluttons 6 How farre Grace may be Entayled 7 A Christning Sermon 8 Faction confuted By T. F. IOHN 6.12 Gather up the Fragments that remaine that nothing be lost LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Iohn Williams and are to be sold at his shop at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church yard 1640. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL the Lady IANE COVERT of Peper Harrow in Surry MADAM CVstome hath made it not only pardonable but necessary to flatter in Dedicatory Epistles Epitaphs and Dedications are credited alike But I will not follow the streame herein First because I account it beneath my calling to speake any thing above the truth Secondly because of you it is needlesse Let deformed Faces be beholding to the Painter Art hath nothing to doe where Nature hath prevented it Wherefore I will turne my praysing of you into prayer for you desiring God to strengthen and increase all goodnesse in you and give you perseverance that golden Claspe which joynes Grace and Glory together Thus desiring to shroud my weake labours under your favourable Patronage I rest Your Ladiships in all service Thomas Fuller A COMMENT on 1 COR. 11.18 c. For first of all when you come together in the Church I heare there be divisions among you and I partly beleeve it THE Apostle calleth the Corinthians to an account and readeth his black Bill unto them It containeth severall Items which you may reade in the following chapters but the Imprimis is in the Text For first of all c. When you come together in the Church c. Even in the non-age and infancy of Christianity there were Churches appointed for Gods holy service True some take Church here pro caetu fidelium yet Theophylact and all Greeke Writers generally expound it the materiall place of meeting Two things then were chiefly aymed at in Churches 1. Receipt that the place were capable to containe the people 2. Privacie Being then under persecution they built not their Churches to be seene but not to be seen and then were as plaine in their houses as in their dealing Beauty and Magnificense were of later date in Christian Temples when Religion grew acquainted with peace and prosperity and good reason Gods house now should bee decently garnished Some shunning whorish gaudinesse leave the Church to sluttish nastinesse The Font our Iordan having more mud than water in it the Communion-table unseemingly kept Withall let us take heed lest as it hath been observed in England that great House-building hath beene the bane of good Hous-keeping So let us take heed lest piety in us bee so much the worse by how much our Churches are better then they were in the time of Saint Paul What a shame would it be if there should be more light in the Church windows than in our understanding more pious sentences written in their wals than in our hearts more uniformity in the building than in our behaviours I heare there be divisions among you How came Saint Paul by this intelligence Was not hee at Philippi when hee wrote this Epistle as appears by the Postscript which was many miles from Corinth How heard the Apostle of these divisions at such a distance Saint Paul was cunning in a kind of Christian and lawfull Magick All the world was his circle for so he saith of himselfe The care of all Churches lyeth upon me 2 Cor. 11.28 and some faithfull friends in every Church were his familiar Spirits in this circle to inform him of all considerable passages So that Saint Paul was at Corinth when hee was not at Corinth absent in person present by Proxies these Intelligencers which kept correspondencie with him Men in authority have quick eares to heare at a great distance The mutterings of Malefactors are hollowings to Magistrates who heare distinctly what offenders but whisper to themselves Let none therefore be encouraged to sinne through a confidence to be concealed What though Sinners be the servants of the Prince of darkenesse and therefore hope to obtaine from their Lord and Master a protection that no punishment may arrest them yet let them know that though the place wherein they sin seeme to them as darke as Egypt it is as light to men in authority as the land of Goshen Lyons sleepe with their eyes open Magistrates with their eyes both open and seeing when wee thinke them blind they Behold when deafe with Saint Paul they Heare Did these men whosoever they were well in telling Saint Paul these discords of the Corinthians had they not better have gone backward and covered the nakednesse of their neighbours with the cloake of silence Pitty it is but that his tongue should bee for ever bound to the peace who will prate of every fault hee finds in another and at the best they are but clacks and tel-tales for their paines Had they told it to some scoffing Cham or mocking Ismael who would have made musick to himselfe of the Corinthians discords then they had been faulty in relating the faults of others Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in Askalon lest the c. 2. Sam. 1.20 but it being told to S. Paul who would not mock but be moan not defame but reform these offenders it was no breach but a deed of charity and the doers hereof benefactors herein to the Chuch of Corinth It is both lawfull and laudable to discover the faults of our dearest friends to those who have power and place to reforme them Thus Ioseph brought to his father Iacob the evill deeds of his brethren Gen. 37.2 Indeed the Devill is called the Accuser of the brethren Revel. 10.12 but he accuseth them often without cause even without charity who since hee hath been cast into hell knowes no other heaven then to doe mischiefe But for a man to open the sins the wounds of his neighbour not with desire to put him to torment but that the Chyrurgion may search and salve them is an action most charitable There are divisions But did not Saint Paul in the 2. verse of this Chapter prayse the Corinthians Now I commend you brethren that you remember me in all things and keepe the Ordinances as I delivered them to you Were they growne so bad since the beginning of this Chapter or doth Saint Paul with Saint Augustine write a retractation of what hee had written before Is this faire dealing that hee who formerly had by his commendations given the Corinthians a generall Acquittance from al their faults should now come over them with an after-reckoning and charge them with the sin of divisions 1 Some answer * Omnia id
devotion and diligence as they ought and God requires they did not call on God in the same sense as Saint Paul speaketh This is not to eate It will abate their pride who rest on Opus operatum as bad Divinity as Latine For a deed done is a deed not done where the manner of the doing confutes and confounds the matter of the deed Yea in the best of Gods children as Gideons Army of two and thirty thousand did shrinke to three hundred Iudg. 7.6 So it is to bee feared that their so many Sermons heard prayers made Almes given which they score up to themselves and reckon upon will shrinke in the tale when God takes account of them and prove Sermons not heard prayers not made Almes not given because not done in forme as he requires Yet it is some comfort unto us if all our actions proceed from faith and ayming at Gods glory so that the faylings be rather in the branches and leafes than in the roots of our performances As for the Vnregenerate they so remayning have in them laesum principium of all true pious workes all their divine actions are none at all It being true of their whole list what * one writes of the yeare of our Lord 903. Annus sua tantum obscuritate illustris famous only for this that nothing famous was done in it and the whole story thereof a very Blanke For in eating every one taketh before other his owne Supper Herein the Apostle reproveth their abuses in their Love-feasts whose Institution Declination and Corruption we will briefly describe Their Institution Love-feasts were founded on no expresse command in Holy Write but only on the Custome of the Church who immediatly before the receiving of the Sacrament as appears both by the Text and S. Augustines * Comment on it though Saint Chrysostome makes these Love-feasts to bee after the taking of the Eucharist used to have a great Feast to which all the poore people were invited on the charges of the rich This they did partly in imitation of our Saviour who instituted the Sacrament after a full Supper and partly in expression of their perfect love and charity towards all men Their Declination But the number of the rich men encreased not proportionably with the poore 1 Cor. 1.26 Behold your calling that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called The Church in time of persecution especially is like a Copse wherein the under-wood growes much thicker and faster than the Oakes Hence came it to passe that there were few Hosts many Guests few Inviters many to be invited and the burden growing heavie lying on few backs they wholly omitted the poor who loath to come without any invitation the warrant to keepe a Guest from trespassing on good manners were excluded from their Feasts Their Corruption Thus love to men in want was quickly turned into want of love Mare Euxinum into Mare Axinum Love-feasts into No-love-fasts Thus too often Charity is changed into bargaining Hospitals turned into Exchanges wherein those are taken in that can give and those left out that have nothing The poore people in Corinth did see and smell what the rich men tasted Tantalizing all the while and having their penury doubled by the Antiperistasis of others plenty yea ryot and excesse for some of them were drunken Yet marke by the way that Saint Paul doth not plant his Arguments poynt-blanke to beat these Love-feasts downe to the ground wholly to abrogate and make a nullity of them but onely to correct and reforme the abuses therein that there might be lesse ryot in the Rich and more charity towards the poore Let not things simply good in themselves be done away for their abuses Abraham said unto God Gen. 18. To slay the righteous with the wicked that be farre from thee and farre be it from us to casheare the good use of a thing with the ill abuses annexed thereunto Hee is a bad husband that having a spot in his coat will cut out the cloath not wash out the dirt Wherefore in matters of a mixt nature wherin good and bad are confusedly jumbled together let us with the fire of judgement try the drosse from the gold and with the fanne of discretion winnow the chaffe from the corne For in eating every one taketh c. By Every one understand not every particular person in the Church of Corinth for then how could some bee hungry But every division the faction of Paul a part of Apollo a part the sect of Cephas by it selfe His owne Suyper Meaning that Love-feast or plentifull Supper whereof formerly therefore called their Owne both because severally provided for their Owne faction as also in distinction of the Lords Supper which they tooke afterwards And one is hungry Here is nothing in the poore to be condemned For that they were hungry was no sinne in them but their punishment Gods pleasure and the rich mens fault Poverty sometimes keeps men innocent whiles abused wealth makes rich men to offend Something is here in the poore to bee commended that they would be hungry Our age affords such unmannerly Harpies they would have snatched the meat out of the rich mens mouthes Some will not want a fire if there be fewell in their neighbours yard But O let us not unlawfully remove the Land-mark of our estates Let us rather trespasse against modesty than honesty goe naked than steale clothes be hungry and fast than feast on forbidden food And another is drunken Is it credible that any of the Corinthians being about to receive the Sacrament would be so farre overtaken as to be drunken Surely not so drunken as he Prov. 23.35 They have stricken mee said hee and I was not sicke they have beaten me and I felt it not They pronounced not Siboleth for Shiboleth so that it might have beene said to them as it was to Saint Peter Thy very language betrayeth thee Sure their tongues eyes and feet were loyall enough to preserve their Masters credit So then by Drunken here understand the highest flight and pitch of mirth And as hearbs hot in the fourth degree are poyson so Summa hilaritas is Ima ebrietas the highest staire of mirth is the lowest step of drunkennesse There is a concealed Drunkennesse which no Informer can accuse no witnesse can testifie no earthly Iudge can punish yet is it lyable to a censure in the Court of Heaven and counted Drunkennesse in the eyes of God And though others cannot perceive it in us wee may take notice of it in our selves especially if wee examine our selves 1. By our unaptnesse to serve God in our generall or particular callings 2. By the quantity of the liquor wee have drunke 3. By the company with whom wee drinke For as some who of themselves never take notice of their owne fast going yet are sensible of it when they heare some of their company whose legs
as a most hainous and horrible sinne yet shee propounds it as an heroick act and the unworthy President for her imitation O Lord God of my Father Simeon to whom thou gavest the Sword to take vengeance on the strangers which opened the wombe of a Maid and defiled her c. Well if the Arme of Iudith had beene as weake as her judgement was herein I should scarce beleeve that shee ever cut off the head of Holophernes Actions which are onely good as they are qualified with such a circumstance as Davids eating the Shew-bread in a case of absolute necessity which otherwise was provided for the Priests alone Such are the doing of servile workes on the Lords day when in case of necessity they leave off to bee Opera servilia and become opera misericordiae Let us bee sure that in imitating of these to have the same qualifying circumstance without which otherwise the deed is impious and damnable In those which imitate the example without any heeding that they are so qualified as the action requires The ninth and last sort remaines and such are those which are eminently good as the Faith of Abraham the Meeknesse of Moses the Valour of Ioshua the Sincerity of Samuel the plaine Dealing of Nathaniel c. Follow not then the Infidelity of Thomas but the Faith of Abraham the Testinesse of Ionah but the Patience of Iob the Adultery of David but the Chastity of Ioseph not the Apostasie of Orpa but the Perseverance of Ruth here in my Text AN ILL MATCH VVEL BROKEN OFF 1 IOHN 2.15 Love not the World THe Stoicks said to their affections as Abimelech spake to Isaac Gen. 26.16 Get you out from amongst us for you are too strong for us Because they were too strong for them to master they therefore would have them totally banisht out of their soules and labour to becalm themselves with an Apathy But farre be it from us after their example to root out such good herbes instead of weeds out of the Garden of our nature whereas affections if well used are excellent if they mistake not their true object nor exceed in their due measure Ioshua killed not the Gibeonites but condemned them to bee Hewers of wood and Drawers of water for the Sanctuary Wee need not expell passions out of us if wee could conquer them and make Griefe draw water-Buckets of teares for our sinnes and Anger kindle fires of zeale and indignation when wee see God dishonoured But as that must needs be a deformed face wherein there is a transposition of the colours the blewnesse of the vines being set in the lips the rednesse which should be in the cheeks in the nose so alas most mishapen is our soule since Adams fall whereby our affections are so inverted Ioy stands where Griefe should Griefe in the place of Ioy Wee are bold where wee should feare feare where we should be bold love that wee should hate hate what wee should love This gave occasion to the blessed Apostle in my Text to disswade men from loving that whereon too many dote Love not the World For the better understanding of which vvords knovv that the Devill goes about to make an unfitting match betwixt the soule of a Christian on the one party and this world on the other A match too likely to goe on if wee consider the simplicity and folly of many Christians because of the remnants of corruption easily to be seduced and inveagled or the bewitching entising alluring nature of this world But God by Saint Iohn in my Text forbiddeth the banes Love not the world In prosecuting whereof wee will first shew the worthinesse of a Christian soule then wee will consider the worthlesnesse of the world and from the comparing of these two this Doctrine will result that It is utterly unfitting for a Christian to place his affections on worldly things Let us take notice of a Christians Possessions and of his Possibilities what he hath in hand and what he holdeth in hope In possession he hath the favour of God the Spirit of Adoption crying in him Abba father and many excellent graces of sanctification in some measure in his heart In hope expectance he hath the reversion of Heaven and happinesse a reversion not to be got after anothers death but his owne and those happinesses which eye cannot see nor eare heare neither it can enter into the heart of man to conceive Now see the worthlesnesse of the World three Load-stones commonly attract mens affections and make them to love Beauty Wit and Wealth Beauty the world hath none at all I dare boldly say the world put on her Holy-day Apparell when shee was presented by the Devill to our Saviour Matth. 4.9 She never looked so smug and smooth before or since and had there beene any reall beauty therein the Eagle-sight of our Saviour would have seene it yet when all the glory of the world was proffered unto him at the price of Idolatry hee refused it Yet as old Iezabel when shee wanted true beauty stopt up the leakes of age with adulterated complexion and painted her face so the world in default of true beauty decks her selfe with a false appearing fairenesse which serves to allure amorous fooles and to give the world as well as the Devill her due shee hath for the time a kind of a pleasing fashionablenesse But what saith Saint Paul 1 Corinth 7.31 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the fashion of this World passeth away The wit of the World is as little as her beauty how ever it may bee cryed up by some of her fond Admirers yet as it is 1 Cor. 3.19 The wisedome of this World is foolishnesse with God and Cuilibet artifici credendum est in sua arte what wisedome it selfe counts foolishnes is folly to purpose her wealth is as small as either what the world cals Substance is most subject to Accidents uncertaine unconstant even lands themselves in this respect are moveables Riches make themselves wings and fly away they may leave us whilst wee live but wee must leave them when wee dye Seeing then the World hath so little and the Christian foule so much let us learne a Lesson of Holy Pride to practise heavenly Ambition Descend not so farre O Christian beneath thy selfe remember what thou art and what thou hast loose not thy selfe in lavishing thy affections on so disproportioned a Mate There is a double Disparity betwixt thy soule and the world first that of Age Perchance the world might make a fit mate for thy old Man thy Vnregenerate halfe thy Reliques of sinne but to match the old rotten withered worme-eaten World to thy new Man thy new Creature the regenerated and renewed part of thy soule gray to green is rather a torture then a marriage altogether disproportionable Secondly that of quality or condition thou art Gods Free-man If I have freed you saith Christ then are you free indeed the world is or
condemned to dye for our necessity or pleasure and these condemned persons desire not a pardon but deserve a Reprive that they may be respited and reserved so long till they bee good and wholesome food and not clapt into the Gluttons bowels before they be scarce out of their Mothers belly Secondly when the meat is too costly thus Cleopatra macerated an Vnion a Pearle of an inestimable worth and dranke it in a health to Marke Anthony a deed of hers as vaine as the other wicked when she poysoned her selfe Thirdly when the meats are onely incentives and provocations to lusts in some kind thereof I could instance were I not afraid to teach sin by confuting it Why is the Furnace made seven times hotter then ever it was before Is not the Devill of himselfe sufficiently mischievous Is not our owne corruption of it selfe sufficiently forward yea head-long to evill But also wee must advantage them by our owne folly Have wee vowed in our Baptisme to fight against and doe wee our selves send Armour and Munition to our Enemy yea many set their owne houses on fire and then complaine they burne Labor est inhibere volantes parcere puer stimulis fortiùs utere loris Lastly when the Meat is such as is onely to increase Appetite when one before is plentifully fed Such is the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition that when they have brought a man to the doore of death they will not let him goe in when by exquisite tortures they have almost killed him then by comfortable Cordials they doe againe revive him And whereas of God it is appoynted for all men once to dye these mens cruelty makes men to dye often Thus men when they have stabbed and killed hunger with plentifull eating with sauce and salt meats of purpose they restore it againe to life and for severall times according to their owne pleasures kill and recall stab and revive their appetites 3. In the manner of eating 1. Greedily without giving thankes to God Like Hogs eating up the Maske not looking up to the hand that shaketh it downe It is said of the Israelites Exod. 32.6 The people sate downe to eate and to drinke there is no mention of Grace before Meate and rose up to play there is no mention of Grace after Secondly Constantly Dives fared deliciously every day there was no Friday in his weeke nor Fast in his Almanack nor Lent in his yeare whereas the Moone is not alwayes in the full but hath as well a wayning as a waxing the Sea is not alwayes in a Spring-tide but hath as well an Ebbing as a Flowing and surely the very Rule of Health will dictate thus much to a man not alwayes to hold a constant tenure of Feasting but sometimes to abate in their dyets Lastly when they eat their meats studiously resolving all the powers of their mind upon meat singing Requiems in their soul with the Glutton in the Gospel Soule take thine ease c. And whereas we are to eat to live these only live to eat Let us therfore beware of the sin of Gluttony and that for these Motives 1. Because it is the sin of England for though without Vsurpation we may intitle our selves to the pride of the Spanish Jealousie of the Italian Wantonnesse of the French Drunkennes of the Dutch and Lazinesse of the Irish and though these out-landish sins have of late bin naturalized and made free Denisons of England Yet our ancientest Carte is for the sinne of Gluttony It is the sinne of our age our Saviour saith Mat. 24.37 But as it was in the dayes of Noah so likewise shall the comming of the Sonne of Man be They did eate and drinke c. That is excessively for otherwise they did eate in all ages It is said of old men that they are twise children the same is true of this old doting World it doth now revert and relapse into the same sinnes whereof it was guilty in the Infancy wee on whom the ends of the World are come are given to the sinnes of Gluttony as in the dayes of Noah The third Motive is from the time These seven full Eares these seven fat Kine these seven weekes of Feasting betweene Christmas and Shrovetide are past these seven leane Eares these seven leane Kine the seven Fasting Weeks in Lent are now begun Practise therefore the counsell which Salomon gives Prou. 23.1 When thou sittest to eate with a Ruler consider diligently what is before thee and put thy knife to thy throat if thou beest a man given to thy appetite This is thy throat that narrow passage of Importance guard it with thy knife as with a Halbert that no superfluous meat passe that way to betray thy soule to Gluttony But it is to be feared that wee will rather turne the backs of our knifes then the edges I meane we will use little violence to represse and restraine our owne Greedinesse that our knifes may therefore bee the sharper let these Whet-stones set an edge on them 1. Consider the Bread that thou eatest is the Bread that perisheth And our Saviour saith Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Biscate is but perishing Bread though it may laste two yeares for what is two yeares to Eternity 2. We shall perish that eate the meat but God shall destroy both it and that And then the Glutton which hath playd the Epicure on meat whist he lived the wormes shall play the Epicures on him when he is dead and whilst the temperate Man shall give them but ordinary commons the larded Glutton shal afford them plentifull exceedings To conclude this point wary was the practise of Iob Iob 1.5 Who after the dayes of his sons feasting were gone about offered burnt Offerings to God for them for he said it may be my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts So sith Gluttony is so subtill a sinne and so hard to be discerned when we have beene at a great Feast in the day Let us sacrifice our prayers to God and sue out a Pardon from him lest peradventure in the heart of our mirth without our knowledge and against our will we have inseverably been overtaken with the sin of Gluttony HOVV FARRE GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED 2 TIM. 1.5 When I call to remembrance the unfained faith which is in thee which dwelt first in thy Grand-mother Lois and thy Mother Eunice and I am perswaded that it is in thee also WHEN I call to remembrance It is good to feed our soules on the memories of pious persons Partly that we may be moved to prayse God in and for his Graces given to his Saints and partly that we may bee incited to imitate the vertues of the deceased Ahaz was so taken with the Altar at Damascus 2 King 16.10 that hee would needs have one at Ierusalem made according to all the worke-manship thereof When we call to mind the vertues of the
deceased and cannot but be delighted with their Goodnesse let us labour to fashion our selves after their frame and to erect the like vertues in our owne soules Godly Children occasion their Parents to bee called to memory Saint Paul beholding Timothies Goodnesse is minded thereby to remember his Mother and Grand-mother Eunice and Lois they can never bee dead whiles hee is alive Good children are the most lasting monument to perpetuate their Parents and make them survive after death Dost thou desire to have thy memory continued Art thou ambitious to be revenged of death and to out-last her spight It matters not for building great houses and calling them after thy name give thy children godly education and the fight of their goodnesse will furbish up thy memory in the mouthes and minds of others that it never rusts in oblivion Which dwelt first That is which was an Inhabitant in their hearts Faith in temporary Believers is as a Guest comes for a night and is gone at the best is but as a Sojourner lodges there for a time but it dwelleth maketh her constant residence and aboad in the Saints and servants of God Grand-mother Lois and Mother Eunice Why doth not Saint Paul mention the Father of Timothy but as it were blanch him over with silence First it is probable that Saint Paul had not any speciall notice of him or that hee was dead before the Apostles acquaintance in that Family 2. Likely it is he was not so eminent and appearing in Piety the weaker vessell may sometimes be a stronger vessel of honour yea the Text intimateth as much Act. 16.1 Behold a certaine Disciple was there named Timotheus the sonne of a certaine woman which was a Iewesse and beleeved but his Father was a Greeke Let women labour in an holy Emulation to excell their husbands in Goodnesse it is no trespasse of their modesty nor breach of the obedience they vowed to their husbands in marriage to strive to bee Superiours and above them in Piety 3. Eunice and Lois the Mother and Grand-mother are onely particularly mentioned because deserving most commendation for instructing Timothy in his youth as it is in the Chap. 3. ver. 16. Knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast knowne the Holy Scriptures For the same reason the names of the Mothers of the Kings of Iudah are so precisely recorded for their credit or disgrace according to the goodnesse or badnesse of their sonnes Let Mothers drop instruction into their children with their milke and teach them to pray when they beginne to prattle Though Grace bee not entayled from Parent to Child yet the Children of goldy Parents have a great advantage to Religion yea that five-fold 1. The advantage of the promise yea though they come but of the halfe blood much more if true borne on both sides if one of their Parents bee godly 1 Corinth 7.14 For the unbeleeving Husband is sanctified by the unbeleeving Wife and the unbeleeving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children uncleane but now they are holy 2. Of good Precepts some taught them in their Infancy so that they can easier remember what they learned then when they learned it Gen. 28.19 For I know Abraham that hee will command his children and his Houshold after him to feare the Lord 3. Of good Presidents Habent domi unde discant whereas the children of evill Parents see daily what they ought to shun and avoyd these behold what they should follow and imitate 4. Of Correction which though untoothsome to the palat to taste is not unwholsome to the stomacke to digest 5. Of many a good prayer and some no doubt steept in teares made for them before some of them were made Filius tantarum lachrymarum non peribit said Saint Ambrose to Monica of Saint Augustine her son Disdaine thou then out of an holy pride to bee the vitious sonne to a vertuous Father to bee the prophane Daughter of a pious Mother but labour to succeed as well to the lives as to the Livings the Goodnesse as the Goods of the Parents Yea but may the Children of bad Parents say This is but cold comfort for us and they may take up the words of the Souldiers Luke 3.14 And what shall wee doe First if thy Parents be living conceive not that their badnesse dispenceth with thy duty unto them thou hast the same cause though not the same comfort with good children to obey thy Parents this doe labour to gaine them with thy conversation It was Incest and a fowle sinne in Lot to bee Husband to his Daughters and beget children on them but it would bee no spirituall Incest in thee to be Father to thy Father to beget him in grace who begat thee in nature and by the Piety and Amiablenesse of thy carriage to be the occasion by Gods blessing of his Regeneration and what Samuel said to the people of Israel 1 Sam. 12.23 God forbid that I should sinne against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you so God forbid thou shouldest ever leave off to have thy knees bended and thy hands lifted up for the conversion of thy bad Father Moreover labour more especially to shun and avoyd those sinnes to which thy Father was addicted and chiefly such sinnes the Inclination whereto may depend from the temper and constitution of the body so that a pronenesse thereto may in some sort seem to be intayled to Posterity Was thy Father notorious for wantonnesse strive then to be noted for chastity was hee infamous for Pride Labour thou to be famous for Humility And though thou must not be dejected with griefe at the consideration of the badnesse of thy Parents yet mayest thou make a Soveraigneuse thereof to bee a just cause of Humiliation to thy selfe If thy Parents bee dead and if thou canst speake little good of them speake little of them What Sullennesse did in Absolon 2 Sam. 13.22 Hee spake to his Brother Amnon neither good nor bad Let Discretion do in thee seale up thy lips in silence say nothing of thy Parents He is either a Foole or a mad man who being in much company and not being urged thereunto by any occasion will tell others My Father lyes in the Fleet my Father lyes in Prison in the Counter More witlesse is hee who will speake both words Vncharitable and Vnnaturall concerning the finall estate of his Father in an eternall bad condition And I am perswaded there is a three-fold kind of Perswasion whereby one may be perswaded of good in another man 1. The perswasion of Infallibility and this onely God hath Act. 5.18 Knowne unto God are all his workes from the beginning of the World hee alone searcheth and tryeth the hearts and reines And they also have it to whom God immediately reveales it Thus Ananias knew that Paul was a true servant of God after it was revealed to him Act. 9.15 For hee is a chosen
prick or poynt which can bee made with a pen extends to five mile at the least But I say the smallest Deviation and Declination the least imaginable Deflection from the commanded will of God is an infinite distance from it as breaking the command of an infinite God and deserveth infinite punishment Observe therefore not onely all things considerable but all things in Gods will For indeed all things therein are considerable not onely every Syllable but every Iota the least Letter yea every prick Comma and Accent hath his Emphasis and must bee pronounced in our practise As Moses therefore in making the Tabernacle made it in all things alike to the Patterne hee saw in the Mount not a Knop or a Bole or an Almond in the Candlestick under or over not a Bell or a Pomegranate in Aarons Coat more or lesse but Concordat Copia cum Originali The transcript agreed with the Originall in all things so let us precisely follow the instructions God giveth us let us not willingly bee Hetroclites from his will either Defectiues to doe too little or Redundants to doe too much but let us bee truely regular not washing more then seven times with the superstitious man nor lesse then seven times with the prophane man but with Naaman in my Text just seven times VVhen I compare our present occasion with this History wee have treated of I find a great Resemblance betwixt them Here is a little Child to bee cured of a Leprosie For so may Originall Corruption fitly bee called First for the Hereditarinesse of it it is a successive disease entayled from Father to Child ever since the fall of our first Parent Adam Secondly from the over-spreading nature thereof the Infection defiling all the powers of our soules and parts of our bodies Here also is the water of Iordan to wash it away since Christ washed Iordan by being washed in it hee hath given it a power to cleanse our Originall Corruption Some Theeves have eat off their Irons and fretted off their Fetters with Mercury water but there is no way to worke off the Chaines of our Naturall Corruption whereby our feet are hurt in the Stocks the Irons have entred into our soules but onely by the VVater in Baptisme Onely the Maiden-head and Virginity of the water in the Poole of Bethesda was medicinall to cure Diseases hee that came first was cured the second got no profit But in our Iordan our Water in the Font the vertue thereof is not lessened in the using the Child that is last baptized shall receive as much benefit as that which is first washed therein But herein I must confesse there is a difference on the cure of Naaman and this Child he was totally and perfectly cleansed from his Leprosie but this Child is wash't but in part so farre as is Gods pleasure The condemning power of Originall Corruption is drowned in the Font but though the bane be removed the blot doth remaine the guilt is remitted the blemish is retayned the sting is gone the staine doth stay which if not consented to cannot damne this Infant though it may hereafter defile it Secondly the finall peaceable-commanding power is washed away in the Laver of Regeneration though afterwards it may dwell in us it shall not domineere over us it may remaine there as a slave not as a Soveraigne sure not as a lawfull one be he ever resisted often subdued though never expelled These things deserve larger Prosecution but this is none of Ioshua's day wherein the Sunne standeth still and therefore I must conclude with the time FACTION CONFVTED 1 COR. 1.12 Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul and I am of Apollo and I am of Cephas and I am of Christ SVch is the subtilty of Satan and such is the frailty of the flesh though things be ordered never so wel they wil quickly decline Luther was wont to say hee never knew as good order last above fifteene yeares This speedy decaying of goodnesse you may see in the Church of Corinth from which S. Paul was no sooner departed but they departed from his Doctrine Some more carried by fancy then ruled by reason or more swayed by carnall Reason then governed by Grace made choyse of some particular Pastor whom they extoll'd to the great disgrace of his fellow Ministers and greater dishonour of God himselfe Now Saint Paul not willing to make these Ministers a publike Example concealeth their persons yet discovereth the fault and making bold with his Brethren Apollo and Cephas applyeth to them and himselfe what the Corinthians spake of their fancied Preachers Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul and I am of Apollo and I am of Cephas and I am of Christ But the Apostle herein hath made no good choyce to mention Cephas For hee was onely knowne to the Corinthianss by his fame not by his person seeing it appeares not either in Scripture or Ecclesiasticall Story that ever Cephas that is Saint Peter was ever at Corinth This hinders not the Application of the Apostle Granting Saint Peter was never there For many Ministers are most admired at distance Major è longinquo reverentia Like some kind of stuffe they have the best Glosse a good way off more then a Prophet in his owne Countrey Thus the good esteeme which Forrainers have conceived of the Piety and Learning of the Geneva Ministers hath been the best stake in the hedge of that State I need not divide the words which in themselves are nothing else but division and containe foure sorts of people like the foure sorts of Seed Mat. 13. The three first bad the last only I am of Christ being good and commendable I am of Paul as if they had said there is a Preacher called Paul his matter is so powerfull his Methods so pleasing his Doctrine so sound his Life so sincere his Preaching I affect or his person I preferre I am of Paul Tush saith another what talke you of Paul Indeed his Epistles are powerfull and strong but his bodily presence is weake and his speech of none effect there is one Apollo an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures hee stands highest in my esteeme I am of Apollo Fie saith a third why name you Apollo one that learnt the best part of his Divinity from Aquila and Priscilla a Lay-man and a weake woman There is one Cephas that caught three hundred soules at the preaching of one Sermon that is the man for my money I will say of him as Gehazi did of Naaman As the Lord liveth I will run after him I am of Cephas Well saith a fourth Paul I know and Apollo I know and Cephas I know men endowed with great Grace and eminent Instruments of Gods glory I acknowledge them as the Channell but on God alone as the Fountaine of Faith and Conversion and doe attend on him alone in these his Instruments I