Send me and is accepted But before his setting forth He has his Mission Go and say unto the People The Reason is given by St. Paul No man â—aketh this Honor to himself but he who is called of God as was Aaron Nay saith he Christ took not to Himself this Honor to be made the High priest But He who said to Him Thou art my Son This day begat I thee Gave it to him I fear there be some Straglers in our Church who as they speak what Christ and his Apostles ne'r taught so they have done what they did not I mean Invested themselves in the Ministerial Function before Lawfully Ordained and Run on God's Errand before he sent them Of which sort were Those Obscure men Hierom speaks of Qui de cavernis cellularum damnant orbem who from their dark Corners and close Angles wherein they lurk breathe out the Sentence of Damnation against all that are not of their Opinion and Sect. VVould that unruly violence which transports them stop a little at the Book of Jeremy They should find their giddy zeal waited on by as much rebuke and danger as the false Prophets who are first Degraded and then Cursed God disclames their service I have not sent them neither did I command them neither spake unto them And after condemns them to Sword and Famin. I am sure that Prophet was so tender of himself in this particular That lest he might be suspected for an Intruder upon his Office He makes a voluntary protestation He had not thrust in himself for a Pastor So St. Paul before he delivers any Message by his Pen to the Corinthians opens his Commission Vocatus ad Apostolatum Paul called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God Nor doth he keep it back from Timothy but shews it although he required it not Whereunto I am appointed a Preacher The Minister is Sagitta electa a chosen Shaft drawn from the Quiver of God An Arrow doth not flie of it self unless sent from the Bow by that hand which fits it to the String How disordered then must their motion needâ— be who leap out of the Quiver and fly without their Mission St. Paul doth not onely ask why any should do this but how they should perform the scope of this Message Quomodo praedicabunt nisi missi How shall they preach unless they be sent The Apostles never spake with power until they had received the holy Ghost And then see how St. Peters first Sermon like a sharp Sword peirces to the quick The Hearers were pricked to the heart and said to the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do Those who preach without this Spirit may preach the dead Letter or rather not Praedicare but Sonare not Preach but make a noise VVe are perswaded that in the Lawful Ordination in our Church the Spirit of God is imparted in those words Accipite Spiritum Sanctum Receive the holy Ghost Nor must we judge them Ministers who want these Seals of Ordination to their Patent God touched the lips of Esay And Ezekiel must have remained still dumb had not the hand of God opened his mouth Christ our Blessed Saviour signed the Apostles Commission in his Gospel Go out and preach to all Nations But he sealed not that Commission until the day of Pentecost wherein He gave the Holy Ghost as the Seal of his love and favour to them Those Preachers who have this Hand to their Patent and this Seal to their Commission can onely call themselves Preachers VVhen they have this warrant it will not onely be seasonable to speak but necessary For their Commission then becomes a Charge and this Loquere speak Thou is not so much a License as a Mandat There was no Vessel of the Sanctuary but had its peculiar use There is no Priest but is or should be a Sanctuary like it holy and furnished like it I know my Heart is my Portable Oratory but if my Tongue be tied up to the Roof of my mouth I am onely a Chapell without the Service and an Altar without the Sacrifice The Praise and glory of God is a Stock entrusted to the world Every Creature hath a Talent from this Treasury and with it drives this pretious Trade Therefore David musters up the Elements as well as the Bodies formed out of them and will have every Letter in the Creature 's Alphabet as well as the VVords made out of those Letters to Praise God Shall every Creature in his way and every Beast in his Dialect Praise God And shall the world's Interpreter Man be mute If God will not dispence with this want of service in those Creatures which want Speech how can he whom alone he hath made Vocal excuse his silence Where is the Tribute of the Tongue due but from him who is endued with Organs of speech Or where is speech significant as when the Tongue is prompted by a knowing heart The Prophet says that the Lips of the Priest preserve knowledge And therefore Speech as it is most profitable so most warrantable from Him He who lets not down his Pitcher into this Well As he refused now to draw water for the Thirsty's relief so he must hereafter look to thirst for his punishment The first thing Christ did when he came to Jacob's well was to ask the courtesie of the Samaritan's pitcher Give me water And Abraham's Servant concluded from the ready letting down of Rebekkah's Pitcher into the well that God was with his Errand God's Messages are like refreshâ—â—g Dews to a barren and thirsty Land There is none then that derives himself from Christ who is not as liberal of his Comforts as Christ of his Living waters when he proclames Qui sâ—it veniat Let every one that thirsts come God grant our Wells never want these Waters nor that the Wells prove so illiberal to deny them When Fountains of knowledge restrain their waters not pouring out by the Tongue which is the Conduit of speech to fill the Cisterns I mean the ears and hearts of the Congregation that dearth threatens drought to the Fountain it self The Preacher says There is a time to speak and a time to be silent But the Apostle brings not the Minister within the compass of this Interpretation No time must silence him no respite no privation of speech but he must preach in season and out of season Or if he do make any pause in this service it must be onely Caution must stop him not Silence Sit Rector discretus in silentio utilis in verbo ne aut tacenda preferat aut proferenda reticescat is Gregory's Rule There is no Law bids him repress his words But both the Law of God and the Law of Reason bids him weigh them before he speaks When David resolves upon his Dixi Custodiam St. Ambrose glosses upon it Rectè David
non silâ—ntiam sibi sed Custodiam indixit He doth not silence but bridle his tongue from offence The Prophets Charge was the same Clama nè cesses Cry and cease not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet so must a Preacher who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Apostolical â—rump And he must remember that whosoever shall give an account for an idle word must render it also for a slothful silence St. Ambrose tells Him Si pro otioso verbo reddemus rationem videamus ne reddamus pro otioso silentio If Hierom in his Epistle to Damasus approves that speech of Damasus for good Qui lectionem sine stylo somnum putet That held reading without making use of it onely a studious Sleep or rather a learned Lethargy sure I may term a speechless Calling such a sleep which is next of kin to Death Silent folly is better than concealed wisdom saith the Son of Syrach and safer it is never to have known any thing than to lock up that gift of knowledge in the breast and either wilfully lose the Key of that Cabinet or let it for lack of use Rust in neglect and sloath Well did St. Bernard call the Ministery Opus Angelicis humeris formidandum A fearful and weighty task which would make an Angel shrink under it Indeed it is as full of danger as of burthen The Lips are the Soul's snare and oft-times words are like nets to ensnare the speaker So that which to other men is onely a single danger is doubled to us We are in equal hazard to betray our selves by silence as by our speech And our not speaking contracts as certain ruine to us as our speech Miserable streight wherein our Calling is concluded we can neither speak safely nor yet with safety hold our peace VVhen we speak every hearer is a Judge to arraign or censure or traduce our meaning And when we speak not God threatens to condemn us Yet we must on Resolving with our selves that though it be sometimes Offensive to speak it is ever Dangerous to hold our peace for There is a necessity laid on me Wo to me if I preach not Where speaking is so needful there can be no greater sin than silence nor Solecism than to speak vainly To prevent which the next Circumstances direct both What and How to speak Speak Thou the Things When the Voice bade the Prophet Cry It there directs him what he should Cry 'T was the same Spirit which commanded the Prophet there to write and the Apostle here to speak And he who gave Authority to his Calling teacheth him to give weight to his words As Judgment is the Ballast of Wit so Matter of Words A Vessel at Sea which bears more Sail than Ballast is ever apt to over-set so they whose Phantasie is stronger than their Religion whose words more full of sound than devout sense for want of just poise lose their own Adventure and endanger others There is a great deal of difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Speak and to Prate The one hath Reason on its side The other onely Noise The first part of the Preachers care must therefore be to avoid that Scoff which Lactantius gives those idle Philosophers Multa loquantur nihil dicunt who though they spake much yet they said nothing because nothing to purpose Words are excellent tinctures so that like Metalls in the Alembeck they have their just fixation else like unclosed Distillations They breathe out in Fume In our Alchimy wherein we labour to make Gold out of Clay and by perswasions to prepare that Earth which we bear about us for final glory The subject we undertake must fix our words else we do but beat the air forming those empty shadows which vanish as they appear and expire with the voice which delivered them This were to assail the Auditory Verbis tiâ—nulis emendicatis with tinkling words Those who affect them are ill husbands for the Church instead of Corn onely sowing Chaff and instead of Devotion Words truly Semini-verbii as Gregory calls them Sowers of words whose fruit like that in the Parable perisheth for want of Root It teacheth not farther than the Ear but as it springeth up in the present delight of the hearers so it vanisheth with their Applause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidor Peleusiot Such as these may be good Grammarians not good Preachers good Criticks not good Apostles Christ told Peter when admitted his Disciple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That He should from thenceforth catch men But the Commendation of Those I speak of as that they are at best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hunters of words To say no more As our Religion consists not in Saying but Doing so the subject of those who are Agents for the Establishment of Religion must not be words but matter Though Philosophy might allow the divided Sects of Nominals and Reals Divinity owns none but Reals Men so sincere and real and material in their Discourses That speak Things yet Bodies are allowed their Shadows nor doth Divinity disprove a Dress of Decent Circumstance Therefore it follows Loquere quae decent Speak things which become To apparel our Discourses in more Ceremony than becomes the subject or to use none at all are Extremes alike culpable To put upon a small body more clothes than it can bear is to smoother our Conceptions and stifle the Argument we preach with multiplicity of words yet to put on None at all were to establish the Heresie of the Adamites in the Pulpit and to dogmatize Nakedness Good matter clad in very thin or ill words is one of the strangest most mishapen things that may be Adam knew not He was naked until he had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge and then his Knowledge made him ashamed of his Nakedness Ignorance may without blushing walk naked for darkness needs no Mantle and night is Covering to it self But knowing Arguments sent abroad without a decent apparel like Tapers set up in sluttish Candlesticks bear Light about them onely to shame the Author Words are the Interpreters nay the Robes of Knowledge without which it will not appear unto the world and being best clad is most amiable Knowledge in its own disposition is very coy and reserved like the nice Venetian who never shews Himself undress'd If it be presented naked not cloathed in fit words It is so bashful or so disdainful that it hides it self from every Apprehension For mine own part I never liked him who serv'd up more Sauce than Meat more Words than Matter or Wit than Religion But yet I have ever thought Choise Matter ill dress'd like good Meat ill Cook'd which neither credits the Bidder nor pleases the Guest Truth is the Pulpit's object Decency the Attire of Truth yet as I would not speak all truths so neither apparel the truth I speak
in every dress An Egyptian Mantle or a Babylonish Garment were sin to an Israelite As every Light Tune would not go well with the Grave Dorick Harp so every Dialect would not fit the Church That Language which commends the Stage would misbecome the Pulpit Light conceits or flashes of unseason'd wit prophane that holy ground And again that bitter Style which in a Declamation were an ingenious Satyre translated into a Sermon might prove a Libel That Rule which St Paul gave the Church must be as well observed in the Pulpit Let all things be done decently and in order If you ask by what Rule we must measure this Decency Surely not by Theirs who condemn or laugh at all the world who are not in their fashion Decency was never measured by Singularity or Affectation Many have been more factiously proud and phantastical and therefore more ridiculous in an affected Plainness than others in their studied Curiosity Hierom says Superba Rusticitas was the garb of some in his time who had nothing but a rude Insolence to bear out their want of Knowledge for Ignorance and Boldness commonly go together The most unexcepted and safe Rule of Decency is Religious discretion When God's Messages want neâ—ther fit Ornament to set them forth nor Integrity to apply them I have it from the Prophet David This is that Beauty He loves and Holiness that He commends when he tells you both these conjoyning become the House of the Lord. For those therefore who quarrel with Learned Elaborate Sermons And are so Umbragious to boggle at any thing which is not presented to them in their Mother-Tongue Who give Sentence against a Preacher for a Latine Sentence or Authority out of a Father alleged in a Sermon I shall truly pity them for that they disallow what St Paul in his practice justifi'd Though that Spiritus Anabaptisticus Anabaptistical spirit that reigns amongst many in these latter days dares affirm Qui in Scholis Academiis Theologiam discunt tantum tenent Literam mortuam non etiam Spiritum vivificantem Quare nec possunt esse Ministri Novi Testamenti quos Paulus dixit esse Ministros non Literae sed Spiritus Those who in our Universities and Schools study Divinity grasp oâ—ely the Dead Letter attain not the Quickning Spirit and therefore cannot be Ministers of the New Testament who are styled by St. Paul Ministers not of the Letter but the Spirit Yet they may see that St. Paul Himself whom they dare not deny to be a Minister of the New Testament makes use of Human Learning and cites some Verses out of Epimenides Araâ—us and Menander which shewed that He had studied the Greek Poets as Moses the Learning of the Egyptians and Daniel the Wisdom of the Caldeans Moses disciplinas Egyptiorum Daniel sapientiam Chaldaeorum Beatus Paulus Epimenidis Arati Menandri carmina didicerunt ut his veram Religionem locupletiorem redderent supposing Religion to receive much advantage by the study of Human Learning For which cause Petrus Cunaeus writes that the Old Levites challenged as their right an universal knowledge of all Laws and all Sciences Humane or Divine Legum omnium â—erum Humanarum Divinarumque summam scientiam sub quodam sibi jure Levitae vendicabant Indeed St. Augustine invites us to the reading of Ethnick Authors upon this motive That they were Usurpers and unjust Possessors of Knowledge whereof Christians onely could make the best use This apprehension caused Porphyrius as Eusebius tells to complain of Origen That he had robb'd the Greek Philosophers of their Treasure to enrich his own Religion Therefore Julian the Apostate observing the great advantage Christians made by reading the Works of those Learned Heathens who in many things were by Them confounded and wounded by their own Pens peremptorily forbad all Christians the use or study of Human Authors How well doth this suit the humor of our late Levites quite differing from those Elder by me alleged who account Ignorance a mark of the Spirit and none so fit for the Ministery as those who never took Degree in the Schools I shall not trouble my self or you with more words in this Argument but onely say If there be any who so much dote upon their lack of Learning accounting it an Holy Ignorance to know nothing which belongs to worldly Science If there be any so wedded to their sudden Conceptions or praecipitate Barbarism that they cry down all Learning or Elegance in Pulpits Or imagine that the spirit of Elocution speaks best from the worst Interpreters As if Gods Messages could be delivered in too good Language God forgive them I have heard a woe denounced against Those that do the work of the Lord negligently but never against any who perform it with too much care Erasmus well said Eloquentiam non pugnare cum simplicitate Religionis Eloquence is not inconsistent with Religion And Severus Sulpitius gratulated the accurate and elegant Style of St. Augustine as an improver of that devout Subject whereon he treated Quicquid de ejus plenitudine ad nos usque redundat jucundius efficitur gratius per tuum elegantem famulatum Nay St. Ambrose is said to have converted St. Augustine then a Manichee to the Christian Faith by his great Eloquence which wrought so powerfully when he onely out of curiosity went to hear Him at Millain That taken by the bait of his Elocution this great Champion was drawn into the Net of the Church Nor is this strange As St. Paul told the Corinthians That he had taken them by deceit so oft-times it falls out that the Preachers Eloquence by perswasion wins the Auditory to the Confession of some Truths which plain reason or force of Argument could not before evince 'T is true David says The King's Daughter is all glorious within and yet in that place she is presented in Garments embroidered and wrought with the needle Indeed it had been an unsuitable mismatched Beauty had not Her outward Ornaments held some proportion with Her inward Perfections I apply it thus Good Matter and sound Doctrine were unfashionable Virtues if not set out so as Becomes Sound Doctrine This is our Issue and your Fruit That Fruit whose Leaves under which it grows are our Words For this cause is Paul a Planter Apollos a Waterer that the Congregation may gather the Blessings of this Husbandry And as the Tree whereon it grows hath many Branches so the Fruit hath many Species even so many as there be Virtues Moral or Theological This is the Treasure for which we dig whose Mine is the Scripture whose Mint the Church whose Stamp Christ Himself By whose Impression in our Baptism we are coined and become Current Christians As every Vein of Ore hath a Test to try it so this hath a Touch stone joyned to the Metall which warrants both the Value and the Truth St. James defines Pure Religion by Charity