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A43607 Syntagma theologicum, or, A treatise wherein is concisely comprehended, the body of divinity, and the fundamentals of religion orderly discussed whereunto are added certain divine discourses, wherein are handled these following heads, viz. 1. The express character of Christ our redeemer, 2. Gloria in altissimis, or the angelical anthem, 3. The necessity of Christ's passion and resurrection, 4. The blessed ambassador, or, The best sent into the basest, 5. S. Paul's apology, 6. Holy fear, the fence of the soul, 7. Ordini quisque suo, or, The excellent order, 8. The royal remembrancer, or, Promises put in suit, 9. The watchman's watch-word, 10. Scala Jacobi, or, S. James his ladder, 11. Decus sanctorum, or, The saints dignity, 12. Warrantable separation, without breach of union / by Henry Hibbert ... Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678.; Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678. Exercitationes theologiae. 1662 (1662) Wing H1793; ESTC R2845 709,920 522

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of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2.4 5. Thirdly What we teach we must press home to the Conscience as an arrow to the mark It is not the pleasing volubility of a superficial tongue olt-times exorbitant that doth the work of the Lord or makes a good Preacher or found Christian it must be toucht with a coal from the Altar that it may infuse into the cold hearts o● men the true zeal of perfect godliness The Word of God well prest well applied is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword Heb 4.11 piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart It swims not in the brain as the Prophets axe did upon the water but enters into the conscience and the very bowels as I may so say of the soul What humane Eloquence hath such effectual operation Surely it tickles the ear but toucheth not the heart Men may be never the wiser I am sure never the better where tickling words are preferr'd before solid matter and where men endeavour to please the ear more than to edifie the soul or to comfort a distempered or distracted Conscience or to inform a misled one God never condemns but he first indicts and arraighs He never punisheth but he first forewarns He never rejects but he first respects He never sends misery but he first offers mercy He puts the way of life and the way of death before all take which they will for better or worse Such is Gods good will to man that seeing man cannot or will not come to him he vouchsaseth to come to man such is his goodness either in his Divine person as he did to Adam or in his Messengers bidding them turn to him that he might turn to them that they might have experience of Gods mercy not of his judgments that He wills not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live Herein he useth not the extremity of the Law against man neither deals he as an unjust Judge first hang then examine the cause But he opens the case shews the cause sets their sins in order before their eyes and makes known the dangers they lie in by a Proclamation Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet Isa 58.1 and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins Such therefore are only fit for Gods people who can cry aloud and spare not Spare not For 1. Love Or 2. Fear Spare not for love Not for love of any Open rebuke is better than secret love Pro. 27.5 Not for love of money or reward lest it be said to thee as Simon Peter said to Simon Magus Thy money perish with thee For he that hath my Word saith the Lord let him speak my Word faithfully Not adde not diminish not put false glosses thereon Cursed be such Revel ult Jer. 23.28 Spare not Spare not sin spare no sin cry against all When the Lord brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan he gave them charge not to leave a mothers son of them alive They did not so they spared them but God spared not them when they fell into their Idolatry So God will not spare to plague those Messengers of his that spare to cry against sin and to cut it from off the earth Woe be to them saith the Prophet that sow pillows under all elbows Ezek. 13.18 Who say peace peace when there is no peace Jer. 16.14 for there is no peace saith my God to the wicked These like Hananiah make the people to trust in a lye Jer. 28.15 causing them to erre But Gods true Prophets and Messengers are against all sin and sinners without sparing or excepting any For Gods Word is in them as it was in Jeremy His Word was in my heart as burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary of forbearing I could not stay cap. 20.9 It was Christs speech to the Pharisees concerning his Apostles If these should hold their peace or spare speaking the stones would cry out Therefore beloved Brethren cry aloud spare not cap. 62.1 Imitate that Angelical Doctor and Evangelical Prophet Isaiah For Zion's Jake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth And again I have set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem which shall never hold their peace day nor night Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence Spare not for fear Fear not little flock Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee Jer. 1.8 Do they contend with thee do they condemn thee fear not spare not He is near that justifieth thee who will contend with thee Tua causa erit mea causa as the Emperor said to one so saith Christ to all his servants Causa ut sit magna magnus est actor author ejus neque enim nostra est saith Luther to Meloncthon Isa 50.8 Do they reproath thee do they revile thee Fear not spare not Be not dismaid at their reproachings or revilings Isa 51. Do they despise thee Fear not spare not He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me saith our Saviour Luk. 10.16 Do they forbid thee beat thee do they seek to stone thee as they did Christ as they did Paul and the rest of the Apostles Fear not spare not but be like blind Bartis meus who the more the people charged him to hold his peace the more he cryed a great deal Mar. 10.48 Do they say they 'll kill thee Fear not spare not they may kill the body but cannot the soul Remember The righteous are bold as a Lion that turns not away at any Ministers as Luther said of Historians must have the hearts of Lions Thou shalt have thy reward Vincenti corona To him that overcometh will I give a crown Rev. 3. And they their punishment for Qui vos tangit pupillam oculi mei tangit He that toucheth you or any of mine toucheth the apple of mine eye Zach. 2.8 Touch not mine Anointed and do my Prophets no harm Psal 105.15 Do they provoke me to anger saith the Lord Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces They do they do Witness the Primitive times wherein such as envied or hindred the prosperity of Gods Church never prospered Pharaoh sunk in the Red sea like a stone Ahab Elias enemy was shot with an arrow and died Nebuchadnezzar grievously punished Antiochus Epiphanes died in most miserable torments Herod the Great Christ's enemy perished with a lousie disease Herod Antipas that put John Baptist to death overcome by
the two Altars in Solomons Temple in the outer Court whereof beasts were sacrificed in the inner Court an Altar of Incense The first representing mortification or slaying of our beastly appetites The second the offering up our prayers Without our spirits be mortified we neither can love to pray nor God love to hear us It was Bishop Hoopers speech before a Christian can be brought to perfection Sic mihi res eadem vulnus opemque feret Ovid. he must first be brought to nothing Unmortified men and women are no creatures fit for God Origen through a grosse mistake made himself an Eunuch Demosthenes put out his own eyes Crates cast his money into the Sea And Thracius cut down his own vines Peccata sepae raduntur sed non eradicantur Sin hath a strong heart and is not easily brought down It is the hardest task in all Christianity yet must be none or we are undone Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication c. Colos 3.5 Solitude A solitary condition is a sad condition a sorrowful condition Indeed there is a solitarinesse which is the sweetest part of our lives when we retire awhile from the world from the throng of men and businesse that we may be more intimate with Christ and take our fill in communion with him This is to go alone that we may meet with God in heaven upon earth But to be so left alone that we cannot meet with men is one of the greatest afflictions upon the earth Such solitary times are sad times There is an elective alonenesse or retirednesse at sometimes very useful for contemplation and prayer and thus we are never lesse alone than when we are alone for then God is more specially with us and we with him It is said Gen. 32.24 Jacob was left alone that is he stayed alone purposely that he might have freer communion with God in that recesse and retirement from the creature So the Church gets her into the clefts of the roks Cant. 2.14 Sed quid prodest solitudo corporis si non sit solitudo cerdis Greg. Isaac into the fields Daniel to the rivers side Christ into the Mount Peter up to the leads or house top that they might pour out their prayers and solace themselves with God in secret Thus it is good for man to be alone from the company of man that he may enjoy more fully the presence of God It 's a desirable solitarinesse to talk with God and with our selves Yet solitarinesse is to be well and carefully managed for Satan is readiest to assault when none is by to assist Neither is there a greater tye to constancy than the society of the Saints This the Heathen Persecutors perceived and therefore banished and confined the confessors to Isles and Mines where they could not come together for mutual edification Communion of Saints is to be accounted a point of practice as well as an Article of belief All solitarinesse therefore is not to be affected because it is the hour of temptation I watch Psal 102.7 and am as a Sparrow alone upon the house top Society God is for society he is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints Psal 89.7 Christ sent out his Disciples by two and two Mark 6.7 He himself came from heaven to converse with us therefore we may not like Stoicks stye up our selves A mild affablenesse and amicable conversation is to be preferred before a stern froward austerity or wild retirednesse Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher a sociable creature or Natures good-fellow A●ist Polit. 1. He that loves to be alone is either a beast or a God Yea one subordinate end of mans creation is that man might live with man in holy society and communion Let two cold flints be smitten together and fire will come forth so let two dul Christians conferre and communicate their soul-secrets and they shall find the benefit of it We see saith a late writer that God will have the sweetest works in nature to be performed with natural help Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades Saith God to Job Chap. 38.21 These Pleiades be the seven starres that have all one name because they all help one another in their work which is to bring on the spring and like seven sisters so are they joined together in one constellation and in one company Now the best time of the year the sweetest warmth cometh with those Pleiades And the best time of our life cometh when we keep together in true love and fellowship Optimum solatium sodalitium There is great comfort in good company Quid sit vera amicitia nondum novit qui vult alium esse mercedem quam ipsam saith Austin Lib de Amicitia What true friendship is he doth not as yet know who desireth any other reward than it self No sooner had the Philippians received the Gospel but they were in fellowship to a day Cap. 1.5 Noscitur ex socio qui non dignoscitur exse As sincerity is the life of Religion so is society the life of sincerity Besides Vis unita fortior Jonathan will not go without his Armer-bearer Christ when to begin his passion in the garden took Peter James and John with him for the benifit of their prayers and company though they served him but sorrily Christs Dove is but one Jerusalem is a City compact together The Church is terrible as an Army with banners the gates of hell cannot prevail against her Unity hath victory but division breeds dissolution Quanto plures boni in amicitia constituti sunt tanto status corum melioratur The more they are that unite so they be good the better it is with them We lose much of our strength in the losse of friends our Cable is as it were untwisted Hence David so much bemoans the losse of Jonathan and Paul counts it a special mercy to him that Epaphroditus recovered 2 Sam. 1. Phil. 1.27 I conclude then It s not so much perfection to live immur'd in a cell as to converse with the world and yet live abstracted from it and dead to it for so did Christ Two are better than one Eccl. 4.9 Way Domine sequemur te per te ad te te quia veritas per te quia via ad te quia vita saith Bernard Christ hath paved us a new and living way to God with his own meritorious blood Heb. 10.20 And his flesh stands as a skreen betwixt us and those everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 There are the wayes of Gods 1. Counsel and Decrees past finding out Rom. 11.33 2. Providence and outward administration Psal 145.17 Psal 77.19 3. Commandments or rules of life of two sorts Ways of 1. Worship 1. Practice Furthermore the way of a man in his walking with God is twofold 1. Internal there is a secret path which the soul treads in converse with God which no eye
suffered for me We are all as an unclean thing Isa 64.6 Luk. 17.10 and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants Rom. 3.20 We have done that which was our duty to do Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight The Church true and false Ecclesia WHen the Original world was overwhelmed with waters Ecclesia Coetus est hominum è turbâ reliquorum mortatium ●vocatus advitam aeternam none were saved but such as were in the Ark when Sodom was burnt with sire none were saved but those of the family of Lot when Jericho was destroyed none were preserved but those which were in the family of Rahab These are figures shadowing to us that when the Lord comes to cut down the wicked to cast them for ever into the wine-presse of his wrath Salvation shall belong to the houshold of faith even that family whereof God in Christ Jesus is the Father Ecclesia 1. Invisibilis 2. Visibilis But when we say Extra Ecclesiam non est salus it is not ment of a visible but of the invisible or universal Church which is the whole company of the elect in heaven in earth and not yet born for the visible Church or particular Congregations it may be said there are many Wolves within and Sheep without Therefore it is not satisfactory to us to be gathered out of the general masse of mankind into the fellowship of the Church visible but we must examine how we are in the Lords floor whether as Chaffe or Corne for a day of winnowing will assuredly come wherein the Lord shall gather his good Corne into his Garner and the cast Chaffe into unquenchable fire Many would deal with the Church as Amnon with his sister Tamar first ravish her then defile her and then turn her out of doors The Church of God in this world is like a man of war at sea whose Master is Christ whose Mast his Crosse whose Sails his Sanctimony whose tackle patience and perseverance whose cast-peeces the Prophets Apostles Preachers Premuntur justi ut pressi clament clamentes exaudiantur exauditi glorificent Deum Quint. Cur● 1.8 whose Mariners the Angels whose Fraught is the souls of just men whose Rudder is Charity whose Anchor is hope whose Flag in the top of her is Faith and the word written in it is this Premimur non opprimimur we are cast down but we perish not 2 Cor. 4.8 The Church Militant is sometime fluctuant as the Ark of Noah sometime movable as the Ark in the Wildernesse sometime at rest as the Ark in the Temple In persecution in removes in peace What is the colour of the Church saith one but black her armes but the Crosse her song but the note the oppressed servant in Aristophanes sung I suffer affliction For the world is a Sea a threshing-floore a Presse a Furnace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church the Ship the Wheat the Grape the Gold and afflictions the winds the waves the flaile the fire O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted Isa 54.11 Yet Built upon the rock that the gates of Hell shall not prevail aaginst Mat. 16.18 And Glorious things are spoken of thee dicta praedicta O City of God Psal 87.3 Saints The word signifies a thing or person separated or set a part from common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dedicated to a special especially a holy use Holinesse in the general nature of it is nothing else but a seperation from common and dedication to a divine service such are the Saints persons separated from the world and set apart unto God The Church in general which is a company of Saints is taken out of and severed from the world The Church is a fountain sealed and a Garden inclosed so also every particular Saint is a person severed and inclosed from the common throng and multitude of the world 2 Cor. 6.17 Or thus A Saint is an holy one or a person called to holinesse having the perfect holinesse of Christ put upon him by imputation of faith and the quality of imperfect holinesse poured into his heart by the spirit of sanctification Unless even ancient professors saith a Divine look very well to themselves they may take a great deal of p●ins and when all com● to all after all their praying fasting hearing c. they may be found to be nothing in the world but men that walk after the flesh that is according to the refined and well educated Principles of old Adam Men may be Ishmaels brought up in Isaach's family and yet be built upon Mount Sinai when all is done Now the way that God judgeth of all men is as they are the Children either of the old or of the new Adam and not as men do according to such a proportion of strictness in their lives for the Pharisees went beyond many weak Professours in common righteousness Saints therefore are not to be judged according to some kind of holinesse they may come up to but according to the Principles they walk by either as they walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit And thus Paul distinguisheth Saints and others 2 Cor. 5.16 Saints are called Eagles for their 1. Delight in high flying 2. Sharp-sightednes and stedfast looking into the sun of righttousness 3. Singular sagacity in smelling out Christ and resenting things above 4. Feeding upon the bloody sacrifice of Christ Mat. 24.28 Saints must walk in a divers way to a world of wicked people as Noah did really reproving their darkness by his light Solus ipse diversâ ambulavit viâ Chrys their pride by his lowliness their vain-glory by his modesty their ostentation by his secret devotion Not onely Planet-like keeping a constant counter-motion to the corrupt manners of the most but also shining forth fair with a singularity of heavenly light spiritual goodness and Gods sincere service in the darkest mid-night of damned impiety True Saints of God are earthly Angels So Chrysostom calleth Paul Angelum terrestrem And Dr. Taylor Martyr blessed God that ever he came in company with that Angel of God John Bradford A●● Mon. Saints may be called Heaven and that in a double respect 1. Because God is said to dwell in the Saints they are his habitation And wheresoever God dwells he makes a Heaven 2. Because the Saints not onely those of Heaven but they on earth have their conversation in heaven Phil. 3.20 So that as carnal and earthly minded men are called earth because their hearts and conversations are fixed to the earth so spiritual and heavenly-minded men may be called Heaven because their hearts and conversations are fixed in heaven Thus Saints are glorious wonderful magnificent Princes in all lands of an excellent spirit more excellent than their neighbours A Crown of glory a
royal Diadem higher than the Kings of the earth greater than the four famous Monarchies c. And yet these worthies of whom the world is not worthy these precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold these Jewels of Jesus Christ which are his very glory 2 Cor. 8.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forti animo mala fer nec his miser esto dolore Are counted the off-scouring of all things esteemed as earthen Pitchers shamefully slighted and trampled upon with the feet of insolency and cruelty Howbeit as stars though we see them sometimes in a puddle though they reflect there yet have their scituation in Heaven so Gods Saints though in a low condition yet they are fixed in the Region of happinesse The Saints that are in the earth Psal 16.3 The excellent Foundation There is 1. Fundamentum fundatum Eph. 2.20 2. Fundamentum fundans 1 Cor. 3.11 The first is a scriptural foundation the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles the other is a personal foundation Christ himself Be sure to adde practice to these Mat. 7.24 Fundamentals are few in number Certa semper sunt in pu●is Tertul. but many in vertue Small in sight but great in weight Every particle of truth is precious as the filings of gold neither may we alter or exchange a letter or syllable in Fundamentals Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2.20 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Rome Rome hath left her seaven mountains to plant her self in Campo Martio Lips de Mag. Rom. lib. 3. Cap. 11. who lyes as it were entombed in her own ruines Lipsius cannot so much as trace the ancient tract of he● walls So in respect of her state Ecclesiastical that which was the garden of Eden is now over-grown with weeds and the Daughter of Zion is now become the Whore of Babylon Rome of Christs Spouse is become the strumpet of Sathan of the school of Simon Peter whose being there is yet questionable the school of Simon Magus of the Temple of the Holy Ghost a cage of impure spirits She calls her self Queen but Hierom the purple Whore Once the Church of Rome wrote her lawes in milk but now she writes them in Sunday letters Prayers and teares were once her weapons but now fire and sword And if in shew of peace she turn he● destructive instruments into mattocks it is but to play the Pioner and make way for death Roma radix omnium malorum It is the City that is mounted on seven hills and cannot be hid but is apparently discerned and described to be the great City Babylon the seat of Antichrist The sweetest wine turns into the sowrest vineger the whitest ivory burnt into the blackest coale So about the year 1414. Theodoricus Vrias in Germany Iohn Man● lo● com 226. an Augustine Fryar complained not without cause Ecclesiam Romanam ex aureâ factam argenteam ex argenteâ ferream ex ferreâ terream superesse ut in stercus abiret Yea Diput de Rep. l. 1. c. ●● Matchiavel observed that there was no where lesse piety than in those that dwelt neerest Rome If Franciscus de sanctâ clara and his fa●tors were the wisest men under heaven and should live to the worlds end they would be brought to their wits end before they could accomplish this works end to make a reconciliation betwixt Christ and Antichrist betwixt Rome and us for what concord hath Christ with Belial They can never fall in or make musick in one Quire For grosse Idolatry or for fundamental errours onely must we seperate Corruption grew so great in the Church of Rome that it justly occasioned first the Seperation of the Greek Churches from the Latine and then of the Reformed Churches from the Roman And Bellarmine bewails it that ever since we cryed up the Pope for Antichrist his Kingdom hath not onely not increased but hath greatly decreased Dent. on Apoc. 9.11 Certainly the date of her reign is almost out and the time draweth on apace wherein both she and her King Abaddon shall be laid in the dust Esto procul Romà qui cupis esse pius Roma vale vidi satis est vidisse c. Rome hath fallen culpably and shall fall penally Sibylla long since foretold this Tota eris in Cineres quasinunquam Romà faisses in the eight book of her Oracles The ruine of Rome must be like the ruine of Jericho which can never be re-edefied There was something surely in that which we have read that when the warres began in Germany Anno 1619. A great brass image of the Apostle Peter that had Tu es petrus c. fairly embossed upon it standing in St Peters Church in Rome there was a great and massie stone fell down upon it and so shattered it to pieces that not a letter of all that sentence whereon Rome founds her claim was left whole so as to be read saving that one peece of the sentence Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam I will build my Church which was lest fair and entire True it is no easy thing to overturn the Kingdom of Antichrist which like an huge tree hath taken deep root in the earth for many ages and men need not marvel that it is so long a cutting down Especially if we consider that the Lord will still have his Church in combate here in this world to shake it from security Again the Lord for the sins of the Church and want of care of through Reformation in those to whom the Lord hath detected their abominations stayeth the good speed of this glorious deliverance Besides the Lord will have the destruction of Antichrist and his Kingdom wrought by leisure that so man may make due regard and consider of so great a work Yet let us cast our eyes upon Gods word and promise and firmly beleeve if Agag be to be slain God is raising up some Samuel to do it Yea let us cast our eyes on Gods work already and we shall see him gone a great way in the accomplishing of his word Whereby we may strengthen our saith in that which remaineth For how hath the word preached discovered him to be that man of sin detecting his fraudes and impostures with which for many ages he deluded the blind world How are his Bulls and Excommunications which in former ages seemed to shake the Kingdomes of the earth esteemed but as wind Moreover how have all the reformed Churches shaken off with detestation his Antichristian yoke and usurped power over the Scripture Church mens Consciences c. And how have many Princes already disclaimed and despised his clawes over them Keeping from him those summes which were wont to warm his holinesse kitchin c. I might also adde how weak all their endeavours and meanes are to prevent finall ●uine viz. Sophistry Knotty distinctions to hide and delude the plain sense of Scripture threatnings treacheries Machivilian contrivances warres treasons murders Massacres Powder-plots