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A93880 The teachings of Christ in the soule. Opened in a sermon before the Right Honble House of Peers, in Covent-garden-Church, upon the solemne day of their monthly fast, March 29. 1648. / By Peter Sterry, M.A. sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge: and now preacher of the Gospel in London. Published by order of that House. Sterry, Peter, 1613-1672. 1648 (1648) Wing S5486; Thomason E433_30; ESTC R204205 36,001 61

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of colours It must have pleni-potency an all-sufficiency a Divinity of certainty and clearnesse in and of it self No other thing can ever make the soul fully sure without trembling or wavering A man must be of necessity double-minded and like a wave of the Sea as Saint James speaks Iames 1. till he come to the Corner stone the Bottom reason of truth because the whole Building of truth stands on this That only is a Demonstrating Principle an assuring a quieting truth which is so first of all that there lies no appeale from it to any it self being the Fountain which gives testimony to all truths but receives or needs a testimony from none 2. Immediate truths These are such as have an immediate Vnion with the Soul that there may be no dispute about their Evidence or diminution or danger of corruption by any second hand Saint Paul calls it a Demonstration of power when the first Light the first Truths communicate themselves nakedly to the naked soule of man both being uncloth'd of any intervening representations or reports Thus the Soul receives the Light of truth in the dignity of its strength in the excellenty of its might as Iacob speaks of his First-born The power of Truth is the first and highest Appearance which is proper perfect substantiall All inferiour appearances are Truth in its weakness and shadowy God made man and woman One that they might have a Holy Seed a Sead of God in the Hebrew Malac. 2. 15. The first Truth as the Man the Soule as the Woman must be espoused and married joyn'd without a Deputy or a Third they must be immediately entirely One that they may have a Seed of God a race of Truths cleer and Sure having the full brightnesse of a Demonstration shining in their faces If any thing come between your understanding or belief and the first Truths you doe not trust to their Testimony but to the report of some other thing concerning them The men of Samaria said to the Woman Now we believe not because of thy saying For we have heard Him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Iohn 4. 42. If thy Soul will have any one truth in the demonstration of power it must be able to say to the Principle of Truth the highest Truth Now I believe not because of any other testimony proof or evidence For I have heard and seen and handled thee in my self and so I know that thou art indeed in substance and power the anointing Truth the only Light and Anointing of all truths 2. Quest What is the Spirit Answ The Spirit is a name of essence or subsistence in God of the divine Nature or one of the three divine Persons I wil speak of it now as it signifies the essence or nature of God God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth Iohn 4. 24. The Spirit is God unveil'd and shining out in his true Appearance above all the shadows types and Images of him in the Creatures The Flesh profits not but the Spirit quickneth Ioh. 6. 63. Thus our Saviour opposeth the Created and Uncreated part of things in his owne Person under the names of Flests and Spirit Divines say that every Creature even the highest A●●el hath something of materiality darknesse grosnesse composition carnality and so it is Flesh compared with God who only is a Spirit as the Spirit is a name of unity simplicity purity The Spirit then is God in the simplicity of his own Person abstracted from all mixture or composition with the Creature 3. Quest What is the Demonstration of the Spirit God in his Spirituall appearance to the Soul is the first Truth For He is above All. He is the Immediate Truth For he alone is most intimate with all things Nothing can unite it selfe to the Soul so inwardly so immediately as God For all things are by Him This is the onely Demonstration of every of any Truth the Spirituall appearance of God in the Soul holding forth that Truth in his own Light When Saint Paul had spoken of the Demonstration of the Spirit he adds that your faith might be not in the Wisdome of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. The Demonstration of the Spirit is above nature reason and all Principles of Wisdome or Truth in any Creature It is the power of God as God bringing forth the discovery of himself and all Truths as particular discoveries in that Vniversall One like branches in the stock of a tree or beames in the body of the Sun In thy light shall we see light Psal 36. 9. In the manifestation of God within us shall we see the manifestation of each Truth You are Light in the Lord Ephes 5. 8. Every Person every appearance is Light hath a power of evidencing and manifesting it self so far only as it is in the Light of God 4. Quest How is the Demonstration of the Spirit appropriated to Jesus Christ Answ Saint Paul shall answer this question Acts 3. 3. Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which we now see The Spirituall manifestation of God is the onely distinguishing character the demonstration of every spirituall truth This appearance is the Promise the great and last promise of the Father the great and last expectation of all the Saints The Lord Jesus received this manifestation of God in the Person of the Holy Ghost immediately We all receive it or wait for it in the Person of Jesus Christ by His Mediation This Spirit or this Spirituall shining out of the divine Majesty is the onely Seale of truth Ephes 1. 13. Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise in the former part of the Verse were these words after that ye received the word of truth They were sealed that is the truth of the Gospel was sealed in and to and on them by the Seale of the Spirit which is the Ingraving of the first Truth upon each truth or heart The Lord Jesus is the Angel that hath this Seale of the living God in his hand Revel 7. 2. For He himself is first sealed with it and all other Members of this Truth or Disciples of this Master are sealed by and in Him Him hath the Father sealed Joh. 6. 27. The Father is the Sealer primitively by power and authority The Son as he is the second Person in the Trinity is the Image which the Father sets on when he seals Heb. 1. 3. the expresse Image of his Person the Sealing Image The Holy Spirit is the Impression of this Image in and by the Father In this sense the Holy Ghost is said to be received as the Wax receives Impression of the Image in sealing So he is called the Sealing wherewith we are sealed in that fore-quoted place of the Ephesians The Person of the Lord Jesus as he is Mediatour God-man is the Sealer by place and
manifestly declare not only a Negation but a Privation of some Great Light which should by It's Immediate Presence rule the Day of our Religion and by Its Beams falling upon our Reason as the Lesse Light rule the Night of of Nature and Civill Affairs The Watch-men watch for the Morning so doth my Soule wait for the Rising of the Lord Jesus upon Her and upon the whole Earth He is the Image of the Invincible God the Light that is Sowne even in This our Darkness But He shall breake these Chains of Darkness For it is not Possible that He should be Holden by them I have onely One Thing more to say which is this that There are Some things which I could not speake before your Lo ps though I had prepared them These things I have now taken the Boldness to present to your Lo ps Eyes together with those which I had formerly offered to your Lo ps Ears That Jesus Christ may discover Himself a Living Corner-stone in your Hearts out of which may grow up a Building of Eternall Peace to your own Persons and Present Peace to This Kingdome is My Lords the Prayer of Your Honours most humble Servant in the Lord Jesus PETER STERRY A SERMON Preached at the Monthly Fast before the Right Honourable House of Lords MATTH 23. 10. Neither be ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ THE CONTEXT OUr blessed Saviour directs his discourse in this Chapter against the Scribes and Pharisees men of principall esteem among the Jewes for piety and learning for Exactnesse in the letter of the Scriptures Eminency of skill to Interpret and Comment upon the letter Austerity of Life Thus much they arrogated to themselves and had ascrib'd to them by the people Precious things these are where they are true and no more to be undervalued because they have their Counterfeits than Jesus Christ is because there are Anti-Christs The Lord notes Three things in these men 1. Their Practice 2. Their Principle 3. Their End 1. Their Practice This is Two-fold 1. Practice Imposalls upon men They require Vniversall Obedience Men must Believe all that they Say though Themselves Believe it not Men must Observe their Rules though themselves neglect and break them v. 4. They bind heavy burthens and grievous to be borne on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers Thus it is for the most part They are such as have too little in them who take too much upon them 2. Practice Industry among men v. 15. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye compasse Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when he is made you make him two-fold more the Child of Hell than your selves They spare no Care Cost or Pains to make a Convert but it is to themselves by a Blind obedience and Implicite Faith While they promise to bring a man to Heaven they make his heart like Hell full of bitter zeale a violent heat without any light at all This was their Practice 2. Their Principle which is Hypocrisie Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites v. 13. They pretended to come in the Name of God as sent forth from God yet they had nothing of the Divine Presence resting on them working in them or going forth by them but were as other men It is a vain thing to hope to put Life into the Dead child by the Staffe without the Person of Elisha or to divide the Waters with the Mantle without the God of Elijah Whoever attempts to conjure down any Devill by the sound of Christ's name without his Spirit and Presence let him take heed lest the Devil flie in his face more enraged This is the second thing which our Saviour notes in these men 3. Their End This is Two-fold 1. Vainglory v. 5. All their Works they doe to be seen of men 2. Covetousnesse v. 14. Ye devoure Widows houses and for a pretence make long Prayers Gold and Glory are the baites which the Devill layes for men He hath escaped the hooke of the Devill who cares not for these He that cares not to have any Possession or to make any Appearance in this World he is already in Heaven and dwells with God This is the Way of these men whom the Lord reproves and condemns He warns his own Disciples to take heed that they follow not their Examples He gives them two Cautions to this purpose The first Caution is in the Verse before my Text And call no man your Father upon the Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven The second Caution is my Text Neither be ye called Masters for ye have one Master which is Christ You see the Context THE TEXT THese words with those foregoing them are to be opened by a two-fold Distinction 1. Distinction between Naturall and Spirituall things These Cautions concern the Latter of these but reach not to the First The Heaven even the Heavens the true Heaven of Spirituall things are the Lord's but the Earth all things of Nature hath he given to the Children of Men Ps 115. 16. Naturall things are shadows of Spirituall The Naturall man is an Image of God and no more An Image may raigne as Father and Master among shadows But in Spirituall things which are substantiall God himself who is the only substance and truth will be and appear All alone 2. Distinction The second Distinction is a two-fold Consideration of man one as he is in God the other as he is in himself As man is in God so he may be owned and acknowledged for a Father or Master in Spirituall things themselves Saint Paul attributes so much to himself but marke how he doth it For though you have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have you not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you thorow the Gospell 1 Cor. 4. 15. Saint Paul hedgeth in his expression on both Sides with Christ and the Gospell that the Glory might be all given to God In Jesus Christ I have begotten you thorow the Gospell I as I am not in my self but comprehended in one Spirit with Christ in one Mysticall Person which is Christ thorow the Gospell that is thorow the presence power and appearance of Christ Jesus in me Paul is ever carefull to speak with abundance of caution in things of this nature Now I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 1. 20. I wrought more abundantly then they all Yet not I but the Grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15. 10. So here I have begotten you yet not I but a man in Jesus Christ yet not I but the Gospel the power of Christ which was in me Man in this sence is but the Garment and God is the Person that comes cloth'd with this garment While we call any man Master or Father in this sence we do as Thomas who put his hand upon the fraile the humane part of Christ his wounds and
speak two or three and let the rest judge Ver. 30. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace Ver. 31. For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted A Prophet is the Oracle of God for the delivery of Divine Discoveries to men And in this sense God speaketh of Christ Hebr. 1. 2. God hath spoken in these last times by his Sonne Glorious truths laid up in God concerning Himselfe and the Heavenly estate of things are revealed first to Jesus Christ and by him to us The Lord Jesus is God-man God and Man in Vnion As God he possesseth eternally all Divine Truths in Himself then by vertue of the Vnion he drawes forth these Truths out of the Depth of the Divine nature into the Humane as it were to the top of the water that they may be visible there Divine Truths can live no where but in the Divine nature neither can they appeare to us but in the Humane nature Therefore can there be a Spirituall Discovery no where but in Jesus Christ where he goes along with it and carryes it on in his owne Person Because in Him alone is the Vnion betweene both Natures Object But you may say May we heare no Person in Divine things May no man speak to us the things of God besides Jesus Christ Were there not Prophets before his Being in the flesh Have there not been Prophets and Teachers in the Church since his fleshly comming Ans You shall have an Answer to this Objection from the mouth of an Angel Rev. 19. 10. Saint John would have worshipt the Angel which ministred to him the revelations of Jesus Christ But he forbade it in these words See thou doe it nor I am thy fellow-servant and of thy Brethren that have the Testimony of JESUS worship God For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesie Prophesie is a Discovery of Divine things by a Divine light This is that which is called a Revelation Ephes 1. 17. The Spirit of Wisdome and Revelation in the Knowledge of Him that is Jesus Christ And 1 Cor. 14. 30. If any thing be revealed to another let the first hold his peace Nothing can come to us in a Divine light except it come in Christ and his Appearance For this is that which makes the Day in Divine things Ye are Children of the Light and of the Day We are to take nothing for a Divine Light a Prophesie or a Revelation except the Lord Jesus give his Testimony to it by his Appearance in it Worship God saith the Angel I am a servant who beare the Image of the Living God which is the Appearance of Jesus Christ in me I am no more than the Precious Stones were under the Law on which a Light from Heaven shone forth to give answers from God I am onely the Lanthorne that carry the Light in me which sends forth its Beames to you The Prophet saith To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to these they have no Light in them Esay 8. 20. This he speaketh of the Prophets No Light that is no Morning All Prophesies or Spirituall Discoveries before Christ appeared were as Morning light which flowes from the Sun though that be not yet seene it selfe All since Christ are as Beames falling from his Face S. Paul calls all Gospel-discoveries The Glory of God in the Face of Christ 2. Cor. 4. 6. Thus much for the Answer to this Objection and the Reason of the Point The Application Use 1 FOr Humiliation Right Honourable Can you weep with your Saviour one houre You have set this Day and many your Saviour hath set this Yeere and many such Yeeres apart to this end Long did our Lord Jesus pipe to us with the sweet sounds of Peace Plenty Pleasures But we danced not to the Musick of his Love Now he hath long wept to us he comes forth cloth'd with red garments riding on the pale horse of Death in the midst of us If we now mourne not to him it is a Rebellion as the sinne of Witchcraft it is to make merry with Devils and exalt our selves with Lucifer My Lords If a sense of your Saviour's frownes and the sorrowes of your people have wrought your soules to a mourning temper I humbly beg two things of you One that you would mourne seriously the other that you would mourne spiritually 1. Mourne seriously The Lord Jesus is our Master He sets us serious Lessons of Sorrow Let us raise our Spirits to their Watch-tower to a wakefull temper What doe we now see The Lord Jesus making three Kingdomes in a view as three Wine-presses Himselfe treading them where the Grapes are men the Wine the precious blood and the deare lives of many thousands of men Yet his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Still he seemes to be gathering together under his feet the remaining Clusters to tread them into streams of blood till there be none left till the dry land of Peace or Hope be no more to be seene but a deluge of blood swallow up all But What doe we see The Lord Jesus making three Kingdomes as Bottles filling them first with the winde of Vanity and Pride then with the Wine of their owne Fury and his Wrath so dashing them in pieces one against another till they become as broken Pot-sheards Yet his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Still he seemes to be hissing fot a troupe of fiercer spirits from the darke and fiery corners of hell below to enter into these Pot-sheards that they may make a more confused and crueller Warre each with other Are these things Dreames and Fancies or are they seriously thus We reade of a Law which God made among the Jewes Levit. 23. 29. that if any one afflicted not himselfe on a solemne day of Humiliation that soule should be cut off from his people O God! let not this curse fall upon my Spirit or upon any Spirit here present this day to be so far cut off from being a living member of Jesus Christ or a naturall member of his native countrey as to mourne but in shew or slightly now when the Lord Jesus riseth upon us in such a Cloud of deepe and reall Sorrowes If any man at this time regardlesse of that storme which he sees in his Saviour's face or of the sufferings of his Brethren shall make himselfe red with Wine and Laughter when Jesus Christ is red with anger and blood is it not O God because thou hast made the heart of that man fat for a sudden Slaughter Let us then mourne seriously 2. Mourne spiritually Imitate Jesus Christ make him your Master this way in your Griefes We reade of him Mar. 14. 33 34. He began to be heavy and sore amazed And he said My soule is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death Alas our Brethren our Country
can set themselves up in the highest places of Scripture 4. The Scriptures in the Letter are but a Shadow The Law having a Shadow of good things to come but not the very Image it self Hebr. 10. 1. I have already said that the Law and the Letter are much one thing The Person of Jesus Christ in the Spirit is the Image it self of all good things The Scriptures are the Shadow which this Image casts from it self in the Light of the Spirit All creatures are Shadows of those good things which are in God and Christ The Scriptures are the largest the exactest the nearest the best Shadow and such a one as is rightly seen only in the Eternall light of Christ It vanishes into a confused spot when he withdraws and is clear again when he appears Saint Paul puts Timothy in mind of studying the Scriptures but then lest he should mistake them he gives him this Vniversall Caution 2 Tim. 3. 19. Knowing that every Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by inspiration of God Vnhappy is he that trusts himself to any thing as Scripture any further than it carries a Divine inspiration the breathings of God or his Spirit along with it That is Scripture which is the Word of God and that the Word which is in union with the immortall Word This Word hath the words of everlasting life John 6. 68. I will conclude this particular head of the Scriptures with an Answer to an Objection which the Papists make against us So shall we fall upon the last Master the Spirit Object They say we run in a Circle while we make not the Church the ground of our belief For we pretend to Know all things by the Scriptures But how the Scriptures by the Spirit And how the Spirit by the Scriptures Thus we run round Answ But if a man say he converseth with my body by my soule and with my soule by my body doth he run in a circle or speak vainly No for both are true in a distinct and proper sense The Body is the appropriate and immediate Instrument of the Soule the Soule is the Breath that fills that Instrument and gives it a distinct sound The Spirit quickneth As the Humane nature to the Divinity of Christ so the Scriptures are a kind of Incarnation or as a Body to the Holy Ghost which alone is their proper Soule The Scriptures are the materiall object of our Faith the Spirit the formall both the ultimate the last object in their kind The Truths which I am to believe lie in Scripture as Colours in the wall or in a Picture The Spirit is as the Light I see the coloured wall by the Light for that enlightens it actuates its shape and colours brings them unites them to my eye enlightning and actuating that also I see the Light by the Wall for it reflects and directs it self from that to my eye So the Spirit and the Scriptures as Light and Colours on a Picture are mutually seen in and by one another without any Maze or endlesse Circle Thy Word is a Light to my feet and a Lanthorn to my paths saith David Psal 119. The Eternall Word in the Written Word is the Light in the Lanthorne The Scriptures are my Spectacles though the Spirit of Christ be my Light or my Eye and his Person the Word which I read My God! Let me not want thee in the Humanity while I am a Creature Blessed Spirit let me enjoy thee in the Scriptures while I am in the flesh 5. Master the Spirit This is the Christ the true Master 1 Tim. 3. 13. Great is the mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit The Spirit is God and Christ in their Divine appearance as they are invisible to carnall eyes pure simple perfect in one All Flesh is a Manifestation of God and each Manifestation which is not the Substance it self is but Flesh The Spirit that is the Spirituall appearance of God in Christ tries and justifies or condemns all Appearances of Truth or Falshood This is the onely Judge at whose Bar every Manifestation of God in the flesh receives its Justification even the Spirit The Lord Jesus is that Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. 1 John 5. 6. The Spirit is Truth that is the Highest Truth Reason saith There must be One there can be only One first and last Truth from which all Truths primitively derive themselves into which they all ultimately resolve themselves for certainty and evidence Reason saith This Truth can be no other than the Highest of all the only true God as he is in his own Spirit and Spirituall appearance Thus the Spirit which is above Reason and can reveal it self at pleasure without Reason is witnest to by Reason This Spirit is the most high God This God is our Jesus as he stoops into our Natures as he puts forth himself in our Persons to become the Fountaine the Glasse of truth love life joy within us This is He who calls to our fluttering wandring Spirits and points them to himself and saith Here shall be your Rest build your nests on this Rock His Name is I am that I am I am Certainty I am Truth All other things are so far certain and true as they have a Certainty and Truth in him being comprehended in his Appearance or carrying forth his Appearance in themselves Come then all that hunger and thirst after Truth sit downe at the feet of this Master as Mary did There are many Objections made against these inward Teachings of Christ by the Evidence of the Spirit 1. Object How shall I know this Spirit Answ If you ask me how you shall see other things I answer by the Light But if you ask me how you shall see the Light I have nothing to say but the same thing again by the Light That which makes manifest is Light The Light comprehends the object in it self flowes with it into my eye unites it self to my eye informs it immediately with it self and with all shapes and colours in it self Thus if you ask me how you shall know Divine things I answer by the Spirit But you reply how shall I know the Spirit Still I answer by the Spirit 'T is the rule of School-Divines when you come to objectum quo sistendum est when you come to the first Principle of seeing or knowing you must stop there For that discerns and judges all but is discern'd and judg'd only by it self Saint Paul joynes them two a Spirit of Revelation and the opening the eyes of our understanding Ephes 1. 17 18. 2. Object But how can this be seeing my Soule knows not this Spirit hath no sense of it no suitablenesse to it Answ Saint John satisfies you in this doubt 1 Joh. 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true Looke upward to the Mountaine of the Godhead from whence Salvation comes Jesus Christ