garment may be called a winters garment quia tegit because it covers vs. The second may be called a summers garment quia ornat because it adorneth vs and maketh vs fine The third may bee called a stand of armour quia protegit because it protecteth vs. And the fourth may bee called our Wedding garment because wee must not put it on till our Marriage day with the Lambe The first three garments may bee called our work a day suites because euery good Christian must put them on euery day so long as hee remaineth in this valley of teares here belowe But the fourth must bee called our holidayes suite because wee must not put it on till the weeke of our Pilgrimage in baca bee ended and the day of our appearance before GOD in Sion in that new Ierusalem in which no arrow can bee shot begin I returne to the first garment the garment of CHRISTS imputed Righteousnesse The first Garment Christs righteousnesse and our Saviour himselfe speaketh of it Revel 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of mee white rayment that thou mayest bee cloathed and that thine filthy nakednesse doe not appeare The Prophet Esay speaketh of this garment too but more plainly GOD hath cloathed mee with the garments of Salvation and covered me with the robes of Righteousnesse Esay 61.10 But what righteousnesse is this What righteousnesse this is Is it not the righteousnesse of his Diuine nature No for that is not communicable but the glory which hee will not giue vnto another What then Is it not the righteousnesse of his Humaine nature consisting in a perfect obedience of the morall Law No not that alone neyther for that alone were perbrene too short non vult tegere it will not cover vs from the frostie blasts of Gods wrath and from the fearefull winter tempests of his infinite Iustice What righteousnesse then I pray you A righteousnesse neuer imposed to Man nor Angell euen that righteousnesse which hee as our Mediator by fulfilling the singular law of a Redeemer hath purchased and acquired to the end that hee might communicate it and giue it freely vnto his Church for her justification by which shee is absolued from death whereunto by reason of sinne both originall and actuall she was subject and is adjudged vnto life And this is CHRISTS imputed righteousnesse wherewith hee first couers those that puts him on How it couers vs. euen our winters garment which is so perfect and so compleat that it covereth all our nakednesse from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote both of body and soule for in both our Mediator suffered his blessed Head was crowned with thornes to satisfie for the proud Imaginations of our stout braines his sacred hands and feete which neuer offended were pierced with nailes of Iron to satisfie for the wicked deeds which wee haue done with our hands and runne to with our feet and alas daily by our sinnes wee draw him againe to the same torture and crucifie againe to our selues the Sonne of God and make a mockerie of him Heb. 6.6 Hee suffered the wrath of GOD in his soule so heauily as that both heauen and earth did stand amazed to behold it The Heauens did draw their curtaine and darknesse was vpon the face of the earth that they should see their maker in such paine the Sunne for shame would not looke vpon the Sonne of GOD in such a case the vayle of the Temple rent it selfe in two for griefe to see its Lord so dishonoured the Stones in the street did cleaue a sunder for woe to see that Stone refused of the builders which is the head of the corner And finally the Bodies of the dead rose out of their graues astonished to behold the Lord of life so troubled in soule that their soules might in joy perpetuall peace with GOD and be cloathed with the garments of his imputed righteousnes The second garment is a garment of Sanctification The second garment Sanctification Now wee are cloathed with this garment when like the Elect wee put on tender mercy kindnesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse and long suffering Col. 3.12 But specially when wee put on loue When it is put on 1. Thes 5.8 Or to say with St PETER When wee decke the hidden man of our heart with a quiet and meeke spirit 1. Pet. 3.4 This is our summers garment which adorneth vs and maketh vs fine this is that pure fine and shining linnen which is the righteousnesse of the Saints A garment not partie coloured as IOSEPHS was but made of many vertues and graces of IESVS CHRIST These are the badges and cognisances by which wee are knowne to bee his seruants and the putting on thereof is the putting on of Iesus Christ These are the graces by which the Holy Ghost translateth vs out of nature transformeth vs into the Image of the Sonne of GOD and maketh vs become one with our Redeemer When it is giuen vs. This garment and the former are both giuen vs at one time The former garment of CHRISTS imputed Righteousnesse defendeth vs from the fierie flames of Gods burning wrath This garment of Sanctification reformeth our corrupted nature renueth the same These 2. What it worketh garments both cures and couers our filthy nakednes they turne our sicknesse into health and our darknesse into light for whosoeuer putteth on IESVS CHRIST for righteousnes to Iustification puts him likewise on for holinesse to Sanctification So full of grace and vertue is the Lord that hee not onely by the merit of his sufferings pacifieth the wrath of God toward all those in whom hee is but likewise by this vertue sanctifieth them and by creating a new heart within their breast and a right spirit within their bowels maketh them new creatures changing them from one thing to another both in body and soule Act. 26. from sinne to sanctification from darknesse to light from death to life and finally from the power of Sathan to the power of God That is to Righteousnes Iustice and soberly to walke in this life in which except our sanctified carriage neyther is that compleat for man heere is but onely in a part sanctified otherwise hee were more then a man but is perfectly justified or else were hee no more then a sinner all things are not onely transitorie and vayne But vanitie it selfe The 3. Garment and its 3. names The third garment wherewith CHRIST cloatheth his Church and those that put him on is a suite of compleat armour hoc protegit this protecteth the Christian man against all the assaults of Sathan and maketh him stand out against all the invasions of his Spirituall enemies Sathan enuying this vnion betweene CHRIST and his Church endeuoreth incessantly to defile the members of the same to rent them a sunder and teare them in peeces sometime assaulting their Patience Iob. 1. Gen. 9.21 Gen. 19.33 2. Sam. 11.4 as he did IOBS sometime their
fulnesse of grace which is in him thorow the secret conduits of the spirit How and when this ingrafting is manifest by which hee causeth vs to grow and preserueth our soules in life Now albeit this ingrafting bee manifest and done in time yet it is not manifest to every one but onely to the graft and branch himselfe for to him the spirit of God beareth witnesse with his spirit that hee is the child of GOD Rom. 8.16 Rom. 8.16 But to none other howsoeuer that his faith fructifying in charitie in loue and in euery manner of good worke may make others presume that he is ingraft in this root by the holy Spirit after which he is and therefore savoureth the things of the Spirit Rom. 8.5 Rom. 8.5 And I say it is done in time not that all Christians are ingraft that is that there ingrafting is made manifest vnto them at one certaine time or in one speciall yeare of there time No such matter but at such time when it pleaseth that great husbandman the Eternall GOD and in what age or yeare of their life vnto him it seemeth most fit but sure in what time soever it bee it is ever in due season and in good time albeit it were not till the very last article of aspiration as it fell out to one of the evill doers that was crucified with our Saviour in the 23. of St Luke verse 42. Luk. 23.42 But sometimes hee will ingraft and sanctifie his Children from their mothers belly as hee did SAMVELL IOHN the Baptist and others and sometimes hee will let them alone till their middle age come and after this manner hee dealt with St. PAVL in the 9. of the Act. Act 9. Obscuring from him his ingrafting and Election till his Almond tree began to flourish and at such a time as when hee was even breathing out Persecutions against some of those whose ingrafting was already made knowne vnto them even the Christian Church in her infancie O the riches of the wonderfull and incomprehensible mercy of GOD declared vnto Mankinde who hath for our salvation that before were cast-awayes and the Children of wrath Ephes 2. ingrafted vs in his owne Sonne by which hee hath put vs in a better estate then wee were created in for albeit that hee made vs before in a most glorious manner altogether according to his owne Image illuminated our will with Knowledge and adorned our soules with Holinesse and Iustice yet hee gaue vs Naturam flexibilem a mutable and changeable Nature creating vs In potestate standi seu posse cadendi in power standing or possibility of falling and therefore as wee had a possibilitie of falling so wee fell indeed and by an apostate Angell was drawne to apostacie But it is farre otherwaies with vs now by this our ingrafting in this stocke and vnion with CHRIST for as the grafts beare not the stocke and roote but are borne by the same and by consequence our saluation dependeth not vpon our selues as ADAMS did but vpon CHRIST which is the stocke in which wee are ingraft who one day shall make vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter gratiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qua nobis ab illo tribuetur vnchangeable farre aboue that estate in which the Angels themselues were created by reason of that immutable grace which shall bee giuen vnto vs by him and in this life it selfe he will never suffer vs finally and totally to bee cut off from him by sinne nothing else can doe it albeit we fall in sinne yet God will lift vs vp againe and raise vp our soules to a liuely confidence in our all-sufficient Redeemer In the 37. Psal 24. Psal 37.24 verse Though the Iust man falleth hee shall not be vtterly cast downe for the Lord vpholdeth him with his hand And whereas other branches may bee cut off and pulled away from their stocke eyther by the violence of boysterous and tempestuous windes or by the force of men or at least consumed by time yet it shall not bee so with vs that are ingraft in CHRIST because wee doe not keepe him but are kept by him and so long as hee is vnchanged saith Malac. 3.6 Malac. 3.6 Wee cannot be consumed but the older wee be in him the more wee flourish for those that are planted in the courts of the Lord flourish in their old age and bring forth fruit saith DAVID Psal 92.13.14 Psal 92.13.14 But as to those that are not ingraft in Christ how great how tall soever they bee yea albeit they were like the sonnes of ANAK in stature or in height like the Oakes of Basan or like NABVCHADNEZZAR that grew vp like a great tree so high that the fowles of the heaven made their nests vnder him yet they shall bee pulled away from their stocke they shall not remaine in honour they shall be brought to the graue like abominable branches In the 40. Chapter of Esay the 24. verse Esay 40.24 The Princes of the earth their breath shall decay they shall returne to their earth and their thoughts shall perish the Iudges thereof shall bee made a vanitie as though they were not planted or sowne or as if their stocke tooke no roote in the earth the Lord shall blow vpon them and they shall wither the whirle-wind shall take them away as stubble O pitifull glory of worldlings which often dyeth vnto them before they die themselues at least continually with themselues their beautie consumeth in going from the house to the graue neyther doth their pompe descend after them Onely happie is the estate of those that are ingrafted in CHRIST Rom. 8. Neither life nor death principalities nor powers things present nor thinges to come shall bee able to separate them from the loue of God in CHRIST IESVS their stocke and roote And thus much for the first similitude of the roote and the grafts by which the vnion betweene CHRIST and his Church is expressed As to the second it is the similitude of Garments The second similitude of Garments and looke what straitnesse what neerenesse and how great a conjunction is betweene our bodies and our garments which is exceeding neere yet such is the vnion betweene Christ and vs and more strait too which when the Apostle in the 13. to the Rom. 24. verse desired most richly to expresse and most liuely to shew forth he exhorteth vs to put on the Lord Iesus to put him on as a vesture and garment to be so vnited to him as we possesse him and haue him in vs and wee in him Now those that put on IESVS CHRIST are clothed with a fourefold garment Those that put in Christ are cloathed with a fourefold garment first with a garment of CHRISTS imputed Righteousnesse Secondly with a garment of Sanctification Thirdly with a garment of Protection and fourthly Three names giuen vnto euery one of the foure garments with a garment of Glory The first
SPIRITVAL MARRIAGE OR THE VNION betweene CHRIST and his CHVRCH As it was delivered in a Sermon at WESTMINSTER the first of Ianuarie ANNO DOM. 1626. By IAMES BAILLIE Master of Arts. LONDON Printed by B.A. and T. FAVVCET for ROBERT ALLOT and are to be sold at his Shop at the blacke Beare in Pauls Church-yard 1627. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE IAMES Marquis of HAMMILTON WILLIAM Earle of MORTON WILLIAM Earle of LAVTHIAN THOMAS Earle of KELLIE IAMES Earle of CARLILL RICHARD Earle of DESMONT IOHN Earle of ANNANDAILL WILLIAM Vice count of AIRE GEORGE Lord BRVCE And to the Right Worshipfull Sr. IAMES FVLLERTON Groome of his Maiest Stoole Sr. ROBERT CAR Gentleman of his Maiest Bed-chamber and Keeper of the Privie-purse Mr. IAMES MAXVVELL Mr. KIRKE Mr. WILLIAM MVRRAY Mr. IAMES LEVINGSTON and Mr. PIT CARNE Groomes of his Maiesties Bed-chamber And to all other Hon and Wor Scotsmen remaining at the Court of England that professe the true Ancient Catholike and Apostolike faith all blessed Happinesse in this life and Eternall blisse in the life to come Right HONOVRABLE and WORSHIPFVLL SOme perhaps may thinke that I haue done an absurd thing in prefixing so many illustrious Peeres prudent Nobles and Gentlemen of his Maiesties Bed-chamber of high and great desert to so little and so slender a worke But from the learned I hope for a lesse critick censure and from the wise for a more judicious sentence first because I know that this weake treatise hath need not only of one strong pillar but of many to vphold it against the ruine which both by Papists and false Brethren will maliciously bee threatened against it and against their subterranian plots by which at every corner they will intend to vndermine it Neverthelesse I will never deny but any one of your Hon or Wor is a prop more then sufficient enough to sustaine a more decaying edifice if any such can be apprehended and a booke of greater worth should haue but too much honour to haue any one of your names in its frontispiece Secondly because I would encourage you and rouze vp your spirits to a liuelie confidence that by adoption you are the sonnes of Gods right hand members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone a part of that chosen generation The Church of the elect and spouse of Christ by marriage vnited vnto him and freed from that Antichristian slaverie and Babilonian bondage with the wine of whose fornication a great part of the world these many ages past haue beene made drunke and therefore God hath made you strong strong for himselfe in this time of triall when the sonnes of Anti-christ breathes nothing but blood against the Church of Christ and against her in many places of Germany haue preuailed casten out Christ and in his place set vp that abominable Idoll their Masse and now threaneth our Church the Church within this Island with the like to extinguish the lampe of the glorious Gospell which God hath lighted amongst vs to remoue our candlestick and in lieu thereof to light false lights to set vp rusty darke candlesticks Their seruice in an vnknowne tongue their Idols in stead of instructions and their Apostles bones and clothes in place of the writings of Christs Apostles But God hath made you strong for himselfe to fight in his warre to hold the wild Boares out of his vineyard and in his cause neither to spare your bodies nor goods even in his cause which your Fathers as his instruments did re-establish in the Monarchie of Scotland expelling the children of Dagon 2. Thes 2. which had come in by the effectuall working of Sathan with all power and signes and lying wonders and in all deceiueablenesse of vnrighteousnesse and you honoring the Lord after this manner he will multiply honours vpon you keepe you as a signet vpon his hand Ezech 34. and vpon you and euery one of you there shall be raine of blessings the eye of the Lord shall watch ouer you for good his mighty hand and out stretched arme shall bee ready to protect you in euery danger and to appoint most glorious victories for you for Babylon is now toward the falling her sins are come vp to heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities shee must drinke in that cup that she hath filled to others and as she hath shed our blood so now must she be repayed and drinke a double draught Thirdly I haue presumed to dedicate this Treatise vnto your Hon and Wor not onely for the excellencie of the subiect The vnion betweene Christ and his Church of which you are a part But likewise because I am a Scotsman that haue the honour to belong to euery one of you either by blood or affinitie and to many of you by both whereof I hope you shall neuer be ashamed and therefore I thought it not amisse to let this Sermon go vnder the shadow of your Honorable protections that now remaine at the Court of England as an argument of my loue toward my Country and as a pledge of my seruice toward you all in generall euery one of you in particular In the meane season continuing my prayers that such a vertuous emulation may alwaies remaine among you as is to day that is first of all to aduance Gods glory secondly to be loyall to your King that by innumerable predecessors hath swayed your Scepter and lastly some of you with Pompie to study to preserue your Dignitie others with Crassus to augment it and the third sort with Caesar to acquire Dignitie not by vsurpation as he did But in your Soueraignes seruice vnder the banner of CHRIST Farewell Your Honours and Worships most humble Seruant IAMES BAILLIE To the Christian Reader CHristian Reader J haue not vsed as many doe in this Sermon the neat Tenour of ISOCRATES the ample Sublimitie of DEMOSTHENES the Majestie of THVCYCIDES the Dignitie of PLATO nor that most full and copious stile of declamation which TVLLIE vsed before the Senate yea I haue shunned them as by a good Master SCILLA and CARYBDIS will bee eschewed because I know that such garulitie such fallible inticements of words and such vaine ostentation in Preaching sauoureth the flesh and hath no power no vertue nor efficacie to wound a proud minde and to cast it downe nor to be a balme for the curing and raising vp of the same againe to a liuely confidence in CHRIST Jt onely tendeth to tickle the auditors eares for the present to enter at the one and goe forth at the other but neuer to descend into the heart for its circumcision and molification in time to come A simple stile without superfluitie in words fertile in sentences which doth not so much smell of humaine prudencie as sauour the vertue of the holy Spirit is the onely eloquence that penetrates the soules of Christian men and searcheth to the inward marrow of the same It is truth that an Orator once perswaded CAESAR to retreit
oile in our lampes into his chamber into the kingdome of heauen and in a word we must haue heauen in inchoation in this life if we will haue it in perfection after this life The 4. Circumstance Fourthly as there are mutuall gifts betweene two persons to be joyned in the honourable and vndefiled bed of marriage so is there betweene Christ and his Church Christs guifts to the Church twofold CHRIST giueth his first which are twofold for his Church and to his Church for his Church he sendeth to his father the gifts of his righteousnesse and meretorious satisfaction for her justification To his Church he sendeth the gifts of his mercy compassion of Election Predestination justification Vocation Sanctification and hope of Glorification The Church is not ingratefull The Churches guifts twofold but hath her two-fold gifts too Contrition and Thankesgiuing the first is a composition the second a simple without ingredients The ingredients whereof Contrition is composed The ingredients thereof Contrition is composed 〈◊〉 two are our sinnes and a godly sorrow for the same for the child of God a member of this Church and everie member of the same takes all their sinnes at least so many of them as they know and in a sorrowfull heart as in a morter beateth them so as they are borne downe in some measure yea in a great measure never riseth vp so high therafter and therof is Contrition composed made which is sent vp by deuout prayer and innumerable sighes which cannot be vttered whereof the Lord most willingly accepteth for the Sacrifices of the Lord are a contrite spirit saith DAVID Psal 51.17 A contrite and a broken heart O God thou wilt not despise The other gift Thankesgiuing Thankesgiuing the greatest gift which wee can giue vnto God is a simple and hath none ingredients But is a voluntarie a willing retribution of one good thing for another a sweet and a godly reioycing in the vndeserued mercies of God which is one of the greatest gifts which we can or are able to offer vnto God in which regard the Apostle exhorts vs alwaies in all things to giue thankes 1. Thes 5.18 Prayer and Thankesgiuing paralelled Prayer Thanksgiuing are two notable parts of diuine worship but of the two Thankesgiuing is the most heavenly and Angelike for in Prayer we respect our selues and haue regard vnto such things as wee desire to haue But by Thankesgiuing we retribute vnto God what is competent vnto him only regards his Divine essence Prayer againe properly pertaines to vs whilest we are in baca this valey of teares Et est egentium ac miserorum and belongs to wanting and miserable people But Thankesgiuing shall pertaine to vs when all teares shal be wiped from our eyes Et est angelorum ac glorificatorum and belongs vnto vs when we shall raigne like Angels and be joyned to the fellowship and societie of the glorified Church the spirits of perfect and blessed men that sings continually Praise bee vnto God and Glory to the Lambe that sitteth vpon the throne for evermore Fiftly there is a contract The 5. Circumstance a matrimoniall written and sealed in which it is contracted that God shall be out God and we shall bee his people that whosoeuer is wearie and laden Math. 11. that in comming to our redeemer he shall be eased and refreshed which is he shall be purged from all his sinnes in the blood of his Sauiour for in the 3. of St. Iohn 36. The blood of Christ purgeth vs from all sinne This contract is written by the Apostles the penmen of the holy Ghost that led them in all truth and veritie sealed with the blood of our Saviour and ratified by the blood of many a Martyr since both vnder the first and the second beast vnder the cruell Emperours and raging antichristian Popes The 6. Circumstance Sixtly as the procreation of children is necessarie in Earthly marriage so is it in this spirituall marriage In earthly marriage this was the blessing of God in the beginning Gen. 2.15 Increase and multiply Gen. 2.15 And without this there is often but little content in marriage when the Lord had promised to ABRAHAM twise the land of Canaan to be his buckler and exceeding great reward all was nothing there could be no true contentment because said he I goe childlesse But when IZACK was promised when the Lord told him that SARAH should beare him a sonne then ABRAHAM fell vpon his face and laughed Gen. 17.17 and when he was borne SARA confessed that the Lord had made her to rejoyce Gen. 21.6 * RACHELL was more impatient for in the 30. of Gen. 1. she would either haue children or die but when IOSEPH was borne she was content that God had taken away her rebuke And in the 1. of Samuel HANAH one of the wiues of ELCANAH did weepe because she was barren but when Samuel was borne she rejoyced and brake out in this glorious triumph mine heart reioyceth in the Lord mine horne is exalted in the Lord mine mouth is enlarged over mine Enemies 1. Sam. 2.1 Iust so there could be no peace if in this spirituall marriage the spouse should be barren and howsoeuer that in some earthly marriages for other respects there may be peace with barrennesse and loue too Yet in this spirituall marriage the procreation of children is of an absolute necessitie and must not cease nor leaue off till the consummation of the world neither shall the world subsist any longer then till the Church be barren for then the whole and full number of those whose names are written in the booke of life are brought out and come into the world and then shall the world end and not till then Who are our Father and mother in this spirituall Marriage Now our Parents in this spirituall marriage is Christ and Ierusalem the Church militating here below the procreation is made at the preaching of the Gospell by the operation of the holy Spirit and after this manner at one Sermon made by St. PETER Act. 2. there was 3. Thousand children procreated vnto Christ three thousand soules turned to the faith of IESVS and wheresoever this Gospell is preached or shall be preached the Church will never be barren because the Lord addeth daily vnto his Church such as should bee saved Act. 2. and in whatsoever place of the world there is any of those whose names are written in the booke of life for their cause conversion the Gospell shall be preached in that same place that piece that is called their hearts shall be disforested put to tillage and turned into a fertile field or a fruitfull garden and if there were but one elected Familie in a whole Citie the Gospell will come to that City for that one families vocation Luk. 19.1 as it did * to Ierico for the vocation of Zacheus and his familie and wheresoever