for this end and so intended by the giver to be imployed for the the benefit of others and for the edifying of the Church they were given to profit withall It then remaineth to understand this Text and Chapter of that other and latter kind of spirituall Gifts Those Graces of Edification or Gratiae gratis datae whereby men are enabled in their severall Callings according to the quality and measure of the graces they have received to be profitable members of the publick body either in Church or Common-wealth Under which appellation the very first naturall powers and faculties of the soul onely excepted which flowing à principiis speciei are in all men the same and like I comprehend all other secondary endowments and abilities whatsoever of the reasonable soul which are capable of the degrees of more and lesse and of better and worse together with all subsidiary helps any way conducing to the exercise of any of them Whether they be first supernaturall graces given by immediate and extraordinary infusion from God such as were the gifts of tongues and of miracles and of healings and of prophesie properly so called and many other like which were frequent in the infancy of the Church and when this Epistle was written according as the necessity of those primitive times considered God saw it expedient for his Church Or whether they be Secondly such as Philosophers call Naturall dispositions such as are promptnesse of Wit quicknesse of Conceit fastnesse of Memory clearnesse of Understanding soundnesse of Iudgement readinesse of Speech and other like which flow immediately à principiis individui from the individuall condition constitution and temperature of particular persons Or whether they be Thirdly such as Philosophers call Intellectuall habits which is when those naturall dispositions are so improved and perfected by Education Art Industry Observation or Experience that men become thereby skilfull Linguists subtile Disputers copious Orators profound Divines powerfull Preachers expert Lawyers Physicians Historians Statesmen Commanders Artisans or excellent in any Science Profession or faculty whatsoever To which me may adde in the fourth place all outward subservient helps whatsoever which may any way further or facilitate the exercise of any of the former graces dispositions or habits such as are health strength beauty and all those other Bona Corporis as also Bona Fortunae Honour Wealth Nobility Reputation and the rest All of these even those among them which seem most of all to have their foundation in Nature or perfection from Art may in some sort be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts in as much as the spirit of God is the first and principall worker of them Nature Art Industry and all other subsidiary furtherances being but second Agents under him and as means ordained or as instruments used by him for the accomplishing of those ends he hath appointed And now have we found out the just latitude of the spiritual gifts spoken of in this Chapter and of the manifestation of the spirit in my Text. From whence not to passe without some observable inferences for our Edification We may here first behold and admire and magnifie the singular love and care and providence of God for and over his Church For the building up whereof he hath not onely furnished it with fit materialls men endowed with the faculties of understanding reason will memory affections not onely lent them tools out of his own rich store-house his holy Word and sacred Ordinances but as sometimes he filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with skill and wisdome for the building of the materiall Tabernacle so he hath also from time to time raised up serviceable Men and enabled them with a large measure of all needfull gifts and graces to set forward the building and to give it both strength and beauty A Body if it had not difference and variety of members were rather a lump than a Body or if having such members there were yet no vitall spirits within to enable them to their proper offices it were rather a Corps than a Body but the vigour that is in every part to do its office is a certain evidence and manifestation of a spirit of life within and that maketh it a living Organicall body So those active gifts and graces and abilities which are to be found in the members of the mysticall body of Christ I know not whether of greater variety or use are a strong manifestation that there is a powerfull Spirit of God within that knitteth the whole body together and worketh all in all and all in every part of the body Secondly though we have just cause to lay it to heart when men of eminent gifts and place in the Church are taken from us and to lament in theirs our own and the Churches loss yet we should possess our souls in patience and sustain our selves with this comfort that it is the same God that still hath care over his Church and it is the same Hâ—ad Iesus Christ that still hath influence into his members and it is the same blessed Spirit of God and of Christ that still actuateth and animateth this great mysticall Body And therefore we may not doubt but this Spirit as he hath hitherto done from the beginning so will still manifest himself from time to time unto the end of the world in raising up instruments for the service of his Church and furnishing them with gifts in some good measure meet for the same more or less according as he shall see it expedient for her in her severall different estates and conditions giving some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all meet in the unity of the Faith of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. He hath promised long since who was never yet touched with breach of promise that he would be with his Apostles and their successors alwayes unto the end of the world Thirdly where the Spirit of God hath manifested it self to any man by the distribution of gifts it is but reason that man should manifest the Spirit that is in him by exercising those gifts in some lawfull Calling And so this manifestation of the Spirit in my Text imposeth upon every man the Necessity of a Calling Our Apostle in the seventh of this Epistle joyneth these two together a Gift and a Calling as things that may not be severed As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one Where the end of a thing is the use there the difference cannot be great whether we abuse it or but conceal it The unprofitable servant that wrapped up his Masters talent in a napkin could not have received a much heavier doom had he mis-spent it O then up and be doing
strength though it be never so great that he shall be able to avoid any sin though it be never so foul When a Heathen man prayed unto Iupiter to save him from his Enemies one that overheard him would needs mend it with a more needful prayer that Iupiter would save him from his Friends he thought they might do him more hurt because he trusted them but as for his Enemies he could look to himself well enough for receiving harm from them We that are Christians bad need pray unto the God of Heaven that he would not give us up into the hands of our professed enemies and to pray unto God that he would not deliver us over into the hands of our false-hearted Friends but there is another prayer yet more needful and to be pressed with greater importunity than either of both that God would save us from our selves and not give us up into our own hands for then we are utterly cast away There is a wayward old-man that lurketh in every of our bosoms and we make but too much of him than whom we have not a more spightful enemy nor a more false friend Alas we do not think what a man is given over to that is given over to himself he is given over to vile affections he is given over to a reprobate sense he is given over to commit all manner of wickednesse with greedinesse It is the last and fearfullest of all other judgements and is not usually brought upon men but where they have obstinately refused to hear the voice of God in whatsoever other tone he had spoken unto them then to leave them to themselves and to their own counsels My people would not hear my voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and let them follow their own imaginations As we conceive the state of the Patient to be desperate when the Physician giveth him over and letteth him eat and drink and have and doe what and when and as much as he will without prescribing him any diet or keeping back any thing from him he hath a minde unto Let us therefore pray faithfully and fervently unto God as Christ himself hath taught us that he would not by leaving us unto our selves lead us into temptation but by his gracious and powerful support deliver us from all those evils from which we have no power at all to deliver our selves Lastly since this Restraint whereof we have spoken may be but a common Grace and can give us no sound nor solid comfort if it be but a bare restraint and no more though we ought to be thankful for it because we have not deserved it yet we should not rest nor think our selves safe enough till we have a well grounded assurance that we are possessed of an higher and a better grace even the grace of sanctification For that will hold out against temptations where this may fail We may deceive our selves then and thousands in the world do so deceive themselves if upon our abstaining from sins from which God with-holdeth us we presently conclude our selves to be in the state of Grace and to have the power of godlinesse and the spirit of sanctification For between this restraining Grace whereof we have now spoken and that renewing Grace whereof we now speak there are sundry wide differences They differ first in their fountain Renewing grace springeth from the special love of God towards those that are his his in Christ restraining grace is a fruit of that general mercy of God whereof it is said in the Psalm that his mercy is over all his works They differ secondly in their extent both of Person Subject Object and Time For the Person restraining Grace is common to good and bad Renewing Grace proper and peculiar to the Elect. For the Subject Restraining Grace may binde one part or faculty of a man as the hand or tongue and leave another free as the heart or ear Renewing Grace worketh upon all in some measure sanctifieth the whole man Body and soul and spirit with all the parts and faculties of each For the Object Restraining Grace may withhold a man from one sin and give him scope to another Renewing Grace carrieth an equal and just respect to all Gods Commandements For the Time Restraining Grace may tye us now and by and by unloose us Renewing Grace holdeth out unto the end more or lesse and never leaveth us wholly destitute Thirdly they differ in their Ends. Restraining Grace is so intended chiefly for the good of humane society especially of the Church of God and of the members thereof as that indifferently it may or may not do good to the Receiver but Renewing Grace is especially intended for the Salvation of the Receiver though Ex consequenti it do good also unto others They differ fourthly and lastly in their Effects Renewing Grace mortifieth the corruption and subdueth it and diminisheth it as water quencheth fire by abating the heat but Restraining Grace only inhibiteth the exercise of the corruption for the time without any real diminution of it either in substance or quality as the fire wherein the three Children walked had as much heat in it at that very instant as it had before and after although by the greater power of God the natural power of it was then suspended from working upon them The Lions that spared Daniel were Lions still and had their ravenous disposition still albeit God stopped their mouthes for that time that they should not hurt him but that there was no change made in their natural disposition appeareth by their entertainment of their next guests whom they devoured with all greedinesse breaking their bones before they came to the ground By these two instances and examples we may in some measure conceive of the nature and power of the restraining grace of God in wicked men It bridleth the corruption that is in them for the time that it cannot break out and manacleth them in such sort that they do not shew forth the ungodly disposition of their heart but there is no reall change wrought in them all the while their heart still remaining unsanctified and their natural corruption undiminished Whereas the renewing and sanctifying Grace of God by a reall change of a Lion maketh a Lamb altereth the natural disposition of the soul by draining out some of the corruption begetteth a new heart a new spirit new habits new qualities new dispositions new thoughts new desires maketh a new man in every part and faculty compleatly New Content not thy self then with a bare forbearance of sin so long as thy heart is not changed nor thy will changed nor thy affections changed but strive to become a new man to be transformed by the renewing of thy minde to hate sin to love God to wrastle against thy secret corruptions to take delight in holy duties to subdue thine understanding and
Why stand you all the day idle Do not say because you heard no voyce that therefore no man hath called you those very gifts you have received are a Reall Call pursuing you with continual restless importunity till you have disposed your selves in some honest course of life or other wherein you may be profitable to humane society by the exercising of some or other of those gifts All the members of the Body have their proper and distinct offices according as they have their proper and distinct faculties and from those offices they have also their proper and distinct names As then in the Body that is indeed no member which cannot call it self by any other name than by the common name of a member so in the Church he that cannot style himself by any other name than a Christian doth indeed but usurp that too If thou sayest thou art of the body I demand then What is thy office in the Body If thou hast no office in the body then thou art at the best but Tumor praeter naturam as Physicians call them a scab or botch or wenne or some other monstrous and unnaturall excrescency upon the body but certainly thou art no true part and member of the body And if thou art no part of the body how darest thou make challenge to the head by mis-calling thy self Christian If thou hast a Gift get a Calling Fourthly we of the Clergy though we may not ingrosse the Spirit unto our selves as if none were spirituall persons but our selves yet the voyce of the World hath long given us the Name of the Spiritually after a peculiar sort as if we were spirituall persons in some different singular respect from other men And that not altogether without ground both for the name and thing The very name seemeth to be thus used by S. Paul in the 14. Chapter following where at ver 37. he maketh a Prophet and a Spirituall man all one and by prophesying in that whole Chapter he mostwhat meaneth Preaching If any man think himself to be a Prophet either spirituall let him acknowledge c. But howsoever it be for the title the thing it self hath very sufficient ground from that form of speech which was used by our blessed Saviour when he conferred the Ministerial power upon his Disciples and is still used in our Church at the collation of Holy Orders Accipite spiritum sanctum Receive the Holy Ghost Since then at our admission into holy Orders we receive a spirituall power by the imposition of hands which others have not we may thenceforth be justly styled spirituall persons The thing for which I note it is that we should therefore endeavour our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to stir up those spirituall gifts that are in us as that by the eminency thereof above that which is in ordinary temporall men we may shew our selves to be indeed what we are in name Spirituall persons If we be of the spiritualty there would be in us another gates manifestation of the spirit then is ordinarily to be found in the Temporalty God forbid I should censure all them for intruders into the Ministry that are not gifted for the Pulpit The severest censurers of Non-preaching Ministers if they had lived in the beginning of the Reformation must have been content as the times then stood to have admitted of some thousands of non-preaching Ministers or else have denied many Parishes and Congregations in England the benefit of so much as bare reading And I take this to be a safe Rule Whatsoever thing the help of any circumstances can make lawfull at any time that thing may not be condemned as universally and de toto genere unlawfull I judge no mans conscience then or calling who is in the Ministry be his gifts never so slender I dare not deny him the benefit of his Clergy if he can but read if his own heart condemn him not neither do I. But yet this I say As the Times now are wherein learning aboundeth even unto wantonness and wherein the world is full of questions and controversies and novelties and niceties in Religion and wherein most of our Gentry very Women and all by the advantage of long Peace and the customes of modern Education together with the help of a multitude of English books and translations are able to look through the ignorance of a Clergy-man and censure it if he be tripping in any point of History Cosmography Moral or Natural Philosophy Divinity or the Arts yea and to chastise his very method and phrase if he speak loosely or impertinently or but improperly and if every thing be not point-vise I say as these times are I would not have a Clergy-man content himself with every mediocrity of gifts but by his prayers care and industry improve those he hath so as he may be able upon good occasion to impart a spirituall gift to the people of God whereby they may be established and to speak with such understanding and sufficiency and pertinency especially when he hath just warning and a convenient time to prepare himself in some good measure of proportion to the quickness and ripeness of these present times as they that love not his Coat may yet approve his labours and not find any thing therein whereat justly to quarrell Shewing in his Doctrine as our Apostle writeth to Titus uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of him They that are called spirituall persons should strive to answer that name by a more than ordinary manifestation of spirituall gifts And thus much shall suffice us to have spoken concerning the name and nature of these spirituall gifts by occasion of the title here given them The manifestation of the spirit Consider we next and in the second place the conveyance of these gifts over unto us how we come to have a property in them and by what right we can call them ours The Conveyance is by deed of gift the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man Understand it not to be so much intended here that every particular man hath the manifestation of the spirit though that may also be true in some sense as that every man that hath the manifestation of the Spirit hath it given him and given him withall to this end that he may do good with it Like as when we say Every man learneth to read before he learn to write it is no part of our meaning to signifie each particular person so to do for there be many that learn neither of both but we onely intend to shew the received order of the things to be such as that every man that learneth both learneth that first As we conceive his meaning who directing us the way to such or such a place should tell us Every man rideth this way and as we conceive of that speech
contract my speech to the scanting of time or you if I should lengthen it to the weight of the matter And therefore I resolved here to make an end and to give place as fit it is to the businesse whereabout we meet The Total of what I have said and should say is in effect but this No pretension of a good end of a good meaning of a good event of any good whatsoever either can sufficiently warrant any sinfull action to be done or justifie it being done or sufficiently excuse the Omission of any necessary duty when it is necessary Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things Now to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit c. AD CLERUM The Third Sermon At a Visitation at Boston Lincoln 13. March 1620. 1 COR. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall IN the first Verse of this Chapter S. Paul proposeth to himself an Argument which he prosecuteth the whole Chapter through and after a profitable digression into the praise of Charity in the next Chap. resumeth again at the 14. Chapter spending also that whole Chapter therein and it is concerning spirituall gifts Now concerning spirituall gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant c. These gracious gifts of the holy Spirit of God bestowed on them for the edification of the Church the Corinthians by making them the fuell either of their pride in despising those that were inferiour to themselves or of their envy in malicing those that excelled therein abused to the maintenance of schisme and faction and emulation in the Church For the remedying of which evils the Apostle entreth upon the Argument discoursing fully of the variety of these spirituall gifts and who is the Author of them and for what end they were given and in what manner they should be imployed omitting nothing that was needfull to be spoken anent this subject In this part of the Chapter entreating both before and after this verse of the wondrous great yet sweet and usefull variety of these spirituall gifts he sheweth that howsoever manifold they are either for kind or degree so as they may differ in the materiall and formall yet they do all agree both in the same efficient and the same finall cause In the same efficient cause which is God the Lord by his Spirit ver 4 6. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And in the same finall cause which is the advancement of Gods glory in the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church in this ver But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall By occasion of which words we may enquire into the nature convenience and use of these gifts First their nature in themselves and in their originall what they are and whence they are the works of Gods Spirit in us the manifestation of the Spirit Secondly their conveyance unto us how we come to have them and to have property in them it is by gift It is given to every man Thirdly their use and end why they were given us and what we are to do with them they must be employed to the good of our Brethren and of the Church is given to every man to profit withall Of these briefly and in their order and with speciall reference ever to us that are of the Clergy By manifestation of the Spirit here our Apostle understandeth none other thing then he doth by the adjective word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first and by the substantive word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last verse of the Chapter Both which put together do signifie those spiritual gifts and graces whereby God enableth men and specially Church-men to the duties of their particular Callings for the generall good Such as are those particulars which are named in the next following verses the word of Wisdome the word of Knowledge Faith the gifts of healing workings of miracles prophecy discerning of spirits divers kinds of tongues interpretation of tongues All which and all other of like nature and use because they are wrought by that one and self-same Spirit which divideth to every one severally as he will are therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall gifts and here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit The word Spirit though in Scripture it have many other significations yet in this place I conceive to be understood directly of the holy Ghost the third Person in the ever blessed Trinity For first in ver 3. that which is called the Spirit of God in the former part is in the latter part called the Holy Ghost I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus accursed and that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Again that variety of gifts which in ver 4. is said to proceed from the same Spirit is said likewise in ver 5. to proceed from the same Lord and in ver 6. to proceed from the same God and therefore such a Spirit is meant as is also Lord and God and that is onely the Holy Ghost And again in those words in ver 11. All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will the Apostle ascribeth to this Spirit the collation and distribution of such gifts according to the free power of his own will and pleasure which free power belongeth to none but God alone Who hath set the members every one in the body as it hath pleased him Which yet ought not to be so understood of the Person of the Spirit as if the Father and the Son had no part or fellowship in this business For all the Actions and operations of the Divine Persons those onely excepted which are of intrinsecall and mutuall relation are the joynt and undivided works of the whole three Persons according to the common known maxime constantly and uniformly received in the Catholike Church Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa And as to this particular concerning gifts the Scriptures are clear Wherein as they are ascribed to GOD the Holy Ghost in this Chapter so they are elsewhere ascribed to God the Father Every good gift and every perfect giving is from above from the Father of Lights Jam. 1. and elsewhere to God the Son Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Eph. 4. Yea and it may be that for this very reason in the three verses next before my text these three words are used Spirit in ver 4. Lord in ver 5. and God in ver 6. to give us intimation that these spirituall gifts
you as unto his first-born a double portion of his Spirit as Elisha had of Eliah's or perhaps dealing with you yet more liberally as Ioseph did with Benjamin whose messe though he were the youngest he appointed to be five times as much as any of his brethrens It is needfull that you of all others should be eft-soones put in remembrance that those eminent manifestations of the Spirit you have were given you First it will be a good help to take down that swelling which as an Aposteme in the body through ranknesse of blood so is apt to ingender in the soul through abundance of Knowledge and to let out some of the corruption It is a very hard thing Multum sapere and not altum sapere to know much and not to know it too much to excell others in gifts and not perk above them in self-conceipt S. Paul who in all other things was sufficiently instructed as well to abound as to suffer need was yet put very hard to it when he was to try the mastery with this temptation which arose from the abundance of revelations If you find an aptnesse then in your selves and there is in your selves as of your selves such an aptnesse as to no one thing more to be exalted above measure in your own conceipts boastingly to make ostentation of your own sufficiencies with a kind of unbecoming compassion to cast scorn upon your meaner brethren and upon every light provocation to fly out into those termes of defiance I have no need of thee and I have no need of thee to dispell this windy humour I know not a more soveraign remedy then to chew upon this meditation that all the Abilities and perfections you have were given you by one who was no way so bound to you but he might have given them as well to the meanest of your brethren as to you and that without any wrong to you if it had so pleased him You may take the Receipt from him who himself had had some experience of the infirmity even Saint Paul in the fourth of this Epistle What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why doest thou boast as if thou hadst not received it Secondly Every wise and conscionable man should advisedly weigh his own Gifts and make them his Rule to work by not thinking he doth enough if he do what Law compelleth him to do or if he do as much as other neighbours do Indeed where Lawes bound us by Negative Precepts Hitherto thou mayest go but further thou shalt not we must obey and we may not exceed those bounds But where the Lawes do barely enjoyne us to do somewhat lest having no Law to compell us we should do just nothing it can be no transgression of the Law to do more Whosoever therefore of you have received more or greater Gifts then many others have you must know your selves bound to do so much more good with them and to stand chargeable with so much the deeper account for them Crescunt dona crescunt rationes When you shall come to make up your accounts your receipts will be looked into and if you have received ten talents or five for your meaner brothers one when but one shall be required from him you shall be answerable for ten or five For it is an equitable course that to whom much is given of him much should be required And at that great day if you cannot make your accounts straight with your receipts you shall certainly find that most true in this sense which Salomon spake in another Qui apponit scientiam apponit dolorem the more and greater your gifts are unlesse your thankfulnesse for them and your diligence with them rise to some good like proportion thereunto the greater shall be your condemnation the more your stripes But thirdly though your Graces must be so to your selves yet beware you do not make them Rules to others A thing I the rather note because the fault is so frequent in practice and yet very rarely observed and more rarely reprehended God hath endowed a man with good abilities and parts in some kind or other I instance but in one gift onely for examples sake viz. an Ability to inlarge himself in prayer readily and with fit expressions upon any present occasion Being in the Ministry or other Calling he is carefull to exercise his gift by praying with his family praying with the sick praying with other company upon such other occasions as may fall out He thinketh and he thinketh well that if he should do otherwise or less than he doth he should not be able to discharge himself from the guilt of unfaithfulnesse in not employing the talent he hath received to the best advantage when the exercise of it might redound to the glory of the giver Hitherto he is in the right so long as he maketh his gift a Rule but to himself But now if this man shall stretch out this Rule unto all his brethren in the same Calling by imposing upon them a necessity of doing the like if he shall expect or exact from them that they should also be able to commend unto God the necessities of their families or the state of a sick person or the like by extemporary prayer but especially if he shall judge or censure them that dare not adventure so to do of intrusion into or of unfaithfulnesse in their Callings he committeth a great fault and well deserving a sharp reprehension For what is this else but to lay heavier burdens upon mens shoulders then they can stand under to make our selves judges of other mens consciences and our abilities Rules of their actions yea and even to lay an imputation upon our Master with that ungracious servant in the Gospel as if he were an hard man reaping where he hath not sown and gathering where he hath not strewed and requiring much where he hath given little and like Pharaoh's task-masters exacting the full tale of bricks without sufficient allowance of materialls Shall he that hath a thousand a year count him that hath but a hundred a Churl if he do not spend as much in his house weekly keep as plentifull a table and bear as much in every common charge as himself No less unreasonable is he that would bind his brother of inferiour gifts to the same frequency and method in preaching to the same readiness and copiousness in praying to the same necessity and measure in the performance of other duties whereunto according to those gifts he findeth in himself he findeth himself bound The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man let no man be so severe to his brother as to look he should manifest more of the Spirit then he hath received Now as for you to whom God hath dealt these spirituall gifts with a more sparing hand the freedome of Gods distribution may be a fruitfull meditation for you
profitable to his brethren and fellow-servants in Church and Common-wealth It is an old received Canon Beneficium propter officium No man seetteth a Steward over his house onely to receive his rents and then to keep the moneys in his hand and make no provision out of it for his Hines and servants but it is the office of a good and wise Steward to give every one of the houshold his appointed portion at the appointed seasons And who so receiveth a spirituall gift ipso facto taketh upon him the office and is bound to the duties of a Steward As every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one unto another as good stewards of the manifold graces of God 1 Pet. 4. It was not onely for orders sake and for the beautifying of his Church though that also that God gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers but also and especially for more necessary and profitable uses for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephs. 4.11 12. The members of the body are not every one for it self but every one for other and all for the whole The stomach eateth not to fill it self but to nourish the Body the Eye seeth not to please it self but to espie for the Body the foot moveth not to exercise it self but to carry the Body the Hand worketh not to help it self but to maintain the body every joynt supplieth something according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part for the fit joyning together and compacting and encreasing of the body to the edifying it selfe in love Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular Now this necessity of employing spirituall gifts to the good and profit of others ariseth first from the will and the intent of the Giver my Text sheweth plainly what that intent was The manifestation of the Spirit was therefore given to every man that he might profit withall Certainly as Nature doth not so much lesse doth the God of Nature make any thing to no purpose or barely for shew but for use and the use for which all these things were made and given is edification He that hath an estate made over to him in trust and for uses hath in equity therein no estate at all if he turne the commodities of the thing some other way and not to those speciall uses for which he was so estated in it So he that employeth not his spirituall gift to the use for which it was given to the profit of the Church he hath de jure forfeited it to the giver And we have sometimes known him de facto to take the forfeiture as from the unprofitable servant in the Gospel Take the talent from him We have sometimes seen the experiment of it Men of excellent parts by slackning their zeal to have lost their very gifts and by neglecting the use to have lost the Principall finding a sensible decay in those powers which they were slothfull to bring into act It is a just thing with the Father of Lights when he hath lighted any man a candle by bestowing spirituall gifts upon him and lent him a candlestick too whereon to set it by providing him a stay in the Church if that man shall then hide his candle under a bushel and envy the light and comfort of it to them that are in the house either to remove his candlestick or to put out his candle in obscurity As the intent of the Giver so secondly the nature and quality of the gift calleth upon us for employment It is not with these spirituall gifts as with most other things which when they are imparted are empaired and lessened by communicating Here is no place for that allegation of the Virgins Ne non sufficiat Lest there be not enough for you and for us These graces are of the number of those things that communicate themselves by Multiplication not Division and by diffusion without waste As the seal maketh impression in the wax and as fire conveyeth heat into Iron and as one candle tindeth a thousand all without losse of figure heat or light Had ever any man lesse knowledg or wit or learning by teaching of others had he not rather more The more wise the Preacher was the more he taught the People Knowledge saith Salomon Eccles. 12. and certainly the more he taught them knowledge the more his own wisdome increased As the Widows oyle increased not in the vessell but by powring out and as the barly bread in the Gospel multiplyed not in the whole loaf but by breaking and distributing and as the grain bringeth increase not when it lyeth on a heap in the garner but by scattering upon the land so are these spirituall graces best improved not by keeping them together but by distributing them abroad Tutius in credito quà m in sudario the talent gathereth nothing in the napkin unlesse it be rust and canker but travelling in the bank besides the good it doth as it passeth to and fro it ever returneth home with increase Thirdly our own unsufficiency to all offices and the need we have of other mens gifts must enforce us to lend them the help and comfort of ours GOD hath so distributed the variety of his gifts with singular wisdome that there is no man so mean but his service may be usefull to the greatest nor any man so eminent but he may sometimes stand in need to the meanest of his brethren of purpose that whilest each hath need of other each should help none should despise other As in a building the stones help one another every lower stone supporting the higher from falling to the ground and every higher stone saving the lower from taking wet and as in the body every member lendeth some supply to the rest and again receiveth supply from them so in the spirituall building and mysticall body of the Church God hath so tempered the parts each having his use and each his defects that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another Such a consent there should be in the parts as was between the blind and lame man in the Epigram mutually covenanting the Blind to carry the Lame and the Lame to direct the Blind that so the Blind might find his way by the others eyes and the Lame walk therein upon the others legs When a man is once come to that all-sufficiency in himself as he may truly say to the rest of his brethren I stand in no need of you let him then keep his gifts to himself but let him in the mean time remember he must employ them to the advantage of his master and to the benefit of his brother The manifestation of the spirit is
more to expresse their sorrow lay grovelling upon the Earth mourning and sorrowing for their sin and for the Plague it could not be but the bold lewdnesse of Zimri in bringing his strumpet with such impudence before their noses must needs adde much to the grief and bring fresh vexation to the soules of all that were righteous among them But the rest continued though with double grief yet in the same course of humiliation and in the same posture of body as before Onely Phinehes burning with an holy indignation thought it was now no time to sit still weept but rowzing up himself and his spirits with zeal as hot as fire he stood up from the place where he was and made haste to execute judgement Here is a rich example for all you to imitate whom it doth concern I speak not onely nor indeed so much to you the Honourable and reverend Iudge of this Circuit of whose zeal to do justice and judgment I am by so much the better perswaded by how much the eminency of your place and the weight of your charge and the expectation of the people doth with greater importunity exact it at your hands But I speak withall and most especially to all you that are in Commission of the Peace and whose daily and continuall care it should be to see the wholesome lawes of the Realme duly and seasonably executed Yea and to all you also that have any office appertaining to justice or any businesse about these Courts so as it may lie in you to give any kind of furtherance to the speeding either of Iustice in Civil or of judgement in Criminall causes Look upon the zeal of Phinehes observe what approbation it had from God what a blessing it procured to his seed after him what glorious renown it hath won him with all after-ages what ease it did and what good it wrought for the present state and think if it be not worthy your imitation It is good saith the Apostle to be zealously affected alwaies in a good thing And is it not a good thing to do justice and to execute judgement nay Religion excepted and the care of that is a branch of justice too do you know any better thing any thing you can do more acceptable to God more serviceable to the State more comfortable to your own soules If you be called to the Magistracie it is your own businesse as the proper work of your calling and men account him no wiser then he should be that sluggeth in his own businesse or goeth heartlesly about it It is the Kings businesse who hath entrusted you with it and he is scarce a good subject that slacketh the Kings businesse or doth it to the halves Nay it is the Lords businesse for Ye judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the cause and in the judgement and Cursed is he that doth the Lords businesse negligently That you may therefore do all under one your own businesse and the Kings businesse and the Lords businesse with that zeal and forwardnesse which becometh you in so weighty an affaire lay this pattern before your eyes and hearts See what Phinehes did and thereby both examine what hitherto you have done and learn what henceforth you should do First Phinehes doth not post off the matter to others the fervency of his zeal made him willing to be himself the Actor He harboured no such cool thoughts as too many Magistrates do Here is a shamefull crime committed by a shamelesse person and in a shamelesse manner pitty such an audacious offender should go unpunished My heart riseth against him and much adoe I have to refrain from being my self his executioner rather then he should carry it away thus But why should I derive the envy of the fact upon my self and but gain the imputation of a busie officious fellow in being more forward then others A thousand more saw it as well as I whom it concerneth as neerly as it doth me and if none of them will stirre in it why should I Doubtlesse my uncle Moses and my father Eleazar and they that are in place of authority will not let it passe so but will call him to account for it and give him condigne punishment If I should do it it would be thought but the attempt of a rash young fellow It will be better discretion therefore to forbear and to give my betters leave to go before me Such pretentions as these would have kept off Phinehes from this noble exploit if he had been of the temper of some of ours who owe it to nothing so much as their lukewarmnesse that they have at least some reputation of being moderate and discreet men But true zeal is more forward then mannerly and will not lose the opportunity of doing what it ought for waiting till others begin Alas if every man should be so squeamish as many are nothing at all would be done And therefore the good Magistrate must consider not what others do but what both he and they are in conscience bound to do and though there should be many more joyned with him in the same common care and with equall power yet he must resolve to take that common affaire no otherwise into his speciall care then if he were left alone therein and the whole burden lay upon his shoulders As when sundry persons are so bound in one common bond for the payment of one entire summe conjunctim divisim every one per se in toto in solidum that every particular person by himself is as well liable to the payment of the whole as they altogether are Admit loose or idle people for who can hold their tongues shall for thy diligence say thou art an hard and austere man or busiest thy self more then thou hast thank for thy labour First that man never cared to do well that is afraid to hear ill He that observeth the wind saith Salomon shall not sow and the words especially of idle people are no better Secondly He maketh an ill purchase that forgoeth the least part of his duty to gain a little popularity the breath of the people being but a sorry plaster for a wounded conscience Thirdly what a man by strict and severe execution of Iustice loseth in the breadth he commonly gaineth it all and more in the weight and in the length of his Credit A kind quiet Man that carrieth it for the present and in the voice of the multitude but it is more solid and the more lasting praise to be reputed in the opinion of the better and the wiser sort a Iust man and a good Patriot or Common-wealths-man Fourthly if all should condemn thee for that wherein thou hast done but well thy comfort is thine own conscience shall bestead thee more then a thousand witnesses and stand for thee against ten thousand tongues at that last day when the hearts
that all his Threatnings are to be understood with such clauses and conditions and reservations it is needlesse to repeat them in every particular As amongst Christian men who acknowledge Gods providence to rule in all things and to dispose of all actions and events it is needlesse in every speech de futuro contingenti to expresse this clause if God will we will go to such or such a place or do such or such a thing if God will because we readily conceive it as a clause which either is or should be understood in every such speech as St. Iames requireth And so in many promises amongst men this clause though not expressed is yet allowed of course and to common intendment understood Rebus sic stantibus things standing and continuing as now they are so as if a man make a promise absolutely without expressing that or any other like clause of Limitation or Exception if in the interim some such unexpected accident befall as maketh that either he cannot or may not do what he promised we may not in right reason charge such a man with breach of promise if he perform not all he promised because the foresaid clause though not expressed is yet presumed to have been intended by the promiser And that Gods Threatnings as de jure they ought to be by us when we hear them so de facto they were understood by him when he made them with a secret clause of reservation and exception in case of Repentance appeareth by the usual practice of many upon such threatnings and the use they made of them The Ninevites when Ionah preached destruction within forty dayes without any expresse clause of Repentance yet understood it so else had it been in vain for them to have repented at all out of an hope of preventing the judgement by their repentance as their speeches shew they did For who can tell say they if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not The like may be said of Abimelech Hezekiah and others and of Ahab in this place Again as it is sometimes needless so it is alwayes bootlesse to expresse this clause of repentance in the threatnings of God The expressing of it can do little good secure ones will repent never the sooner for it but it may do much harm secure ones may thereby put themselves in fairer hope of forbearance and so linger their repentance till it be too late Beloved it is admirable to observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods gracious courses which he useth for the calling of men to repentance In this particularity whereof we now speak see how his Mercy and truth are met together and do most lovingly embrace each other Where he spareth in the end it is most certain he ever meant to spare from the beginning but that his everlasting purpose is part of his secret counsel and unrevealed will which as we cannot learn so we may not seek to know till the event declare it Now to bring this his secret purpose about he must work those men to repentance whom he hath thus everlastingly purposed to spare else his justice should become questionable in finally sparing the impenitent Amongst other meanes to work men to repentance this is one to threaten them with such judgements as their sins have deserved which threatning the more terrible it is the more likely it is to be effectual and the more peremptory it is the more terrible it is So then God to bring those men to Repentance whom he meaneth to spare in his word and by his messengers denounceth against them such judgements as their sinnes have deserved and as his Iustice without their Repentance would bring upon them denounceth them I say absolutely and in a peremptory form without any expresse clause of reservation or exception the more to terrifie and affright them and to cast them down to the deeper acknowledgement of his Iustice and their own unworthinesse which are yet to be understood conditionally and interpreted with reservation and exception of Repentance You have heard evidence enough to acquit Gods Truth and do by this time I doubt not perceive how as in all other things so in the revoking of his threatnings Gods Mercy and his Truth go hand in hand together Let us now see what profitable Inferences may be raised hence for our use The summe of all we have said is but this Gods threatnings are terrible but yet conditional and if he spare to execute them when we are humbled by them it is a glorious illustration of his Mercy but without the least impeachment of his truth Here is something for the Distressed something for the Secure something for All to learn First for the Distressed Consider this and take comfort all you that mourn in Sion and groan under the weight of Gods heavy displeasure and the fearfull expectation of those bitter curses and judgements which he hath threatned against sinne Why do you spend your strength and spirit in gazing with broad eyes altogether on Gods Iustice or Truth take them off a little and refresh them by fastening them another while upon his mercy Consider not only what he threatneth but consider withall why he threatneth it is that you may repent and withall how he threatneth it is unlesse you repent He threatneth to cast down indeed but unto humiliation not into despair He shooteth out his arrowes even bitter words but as Ionathans arrowes for warning not for destruction Think not he aimeth so much at thy punishment when he threatneth alas if that were the thing he sought he could lay on load enough without words No it is thy amendment he aimeth at and seeketh therein and therefore holdeth not his tongue that if thou wilt take it for a warning he may hold his hand If the Father do but threaten the Child when the Rod lyeth by him it is very likely he meaneth not to correct him for that time but only to make him the more carefull to obey and the more fearfull to offend for the time to come Canst thou gather hope from the chiding of thy earthly father and wilt thou find no comfort in the chidings and threatnings of thy heavenly Father whose bowels of tender compassion to us-ward are so much larger than any earthly Parents can be by how much himself the Father of spirits is greater than those fathers of our flesh Yea but who am I will some disconsolate soul say that I should make Gods threatnings void or what my repentance that it should cancell the Oracles of truth or reverse the sentence of the eternal Judge Poor distressed soul that thus disputest against thine own peace but seest not the while the unfathomed depth of Gods Mercy and the wonderfull dispensations of his Truth Know that his threatnings are not made void or of none effect when thou by thy repentance stayest the execution of them yea rather
afflictions in sundry kinds too long to rehearse And all these temporal judgements their fathers sinnes might bring upon them even as the faith and vertues and other graces of the fathers do sometimes conveigh temporal blessings to their posterity So Ierusalem was saved in the siege by Senacherib for Davids sake many yeares after his death Esay 37.35 And the succession of the Crown of Israel continued in the line of Iehu for four descents for the zeal that he shewed against the worshippers of Baal and the house of Ahab So then men may fare the better and so they may fare the worse too for the vertues or vices of their Ancestors Outwardly and temporally they may but spiritually and eternally they cannot For as never yet any man went to heaven for his fathers goodnesse so neither to hell for his fathers wickednesse If it be objected that for any people or person to suffer a famine of the word of God to be deprived of the use and benefit of the sacred and saving ordinances of God to be left in utter darknesse without the least glimpse of the glorious light of the Gospel of God without which ordinarily there can be no knowledge of Christ nor meanes of Faith nor possibility of Salvation to be thus visited is more than a temporal punishment and yet this kind of spiritual judgement doth sometimes light upon a Nation or people for the unbelief and unthankfulnesse and impenitency and contempt of their Progenitors whilest they had the light and that therefore the Children for their Parents and Posterity for their Ancestry are punished not only with Temporal but even with Spiritual judgements also If any shall thus object one of these two answers may satisfie them First if it should be granted the want of the Gospel to be properly a spiritual judgement yet it would not follow that one man were punished spiritually for the fault of another For betwixt private persons and publick societies there is this difference that in private persons every succession maketh a change so that when the Father dyeth and the son cometh after him there is not now the same person that was before but another but in Cities and countries and Kingdomes and all publick societies succession maketh no change so that when One generation passeth and another cometh after it there is not another City or Nation or People than there was before but the same If then the people of the same land should in this generation be visited with any such spiritual judgment as is the removal of their Candlestick and the want of the Gospel for the sinnes and impieties of their Ancestors in some former generations yet this ought no more to be accounted the punishment of one for another than it ought to be accounted the punishing of one for another to punish a man in his old age for the sinnes of his youth For as the body of a man though the primitive moysture be continually spending and wasting therein and that decay be still repaired by a daily supply of new and alimentall moysture is yet truly the same body and as a River fed with a living spring though the water that is in the chanel be continually running out and other water freshly succeeding in the place and room thereof is truly the same River so a Nation or People though one generation is ever passing away and another coming on is yet truely the same Nation or People after an hundred or a thousand yeares which it was before Again secondly The want of the Gospel is not properly a spiritual but rather a temporal punishment We call it indeed sometimes a spiritual Iudgement as we do the free use of it a spiritual Blessing because the Gospel was written for and revealed unto the Church by the Spirit of GOD and also because it is the holy Ordinance of GOD and the proper instrument whereby ordinarily the Spiritual life of Faith and of Grace is conveyed into our soules But yet properly primarily those only are Spiritual blessings which are immediately wrought in the soul by the spirit of God and by the same Spirit cherished and preserved in the heart of the receiver for his good and are proper and peculiar to those that are born again of the spirit and all those on the contrary which may be subject to decay or are common to the reprobate with the Elect or may turn to the hurt of the receiver are to be esteemed temporal blessings and not spiritual And such a blessing is the outward partaking of the word and Ordinances of GOD the want thereof therefore consequently is to be esteemed a temporal judgement rather than spiritual So that notwithstanding this instance still the former consideration holdeth good that GOD sometimes visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children with outward and temporal but never with spiritual and eternal punishments Now if there could no more be said to this doubt but only this it were sufficient to clear Gods Iustice since we have been already instructed that these temporal judgements are not alwayes properly and formally the punishments of sinne For as outward blessings are indeed no true blessings properly because Wicked men have their portion in them as well as the Godly and they may turn and often do to the greater hurt of the soul and so become rather Punishments than Blessings so to the contrary outward punishments are no true punishments properly because the Godly have their share in them as deep as the Wicked and they may turn and often do to the greater good of the soul and so become rather Blessings than Punishments If it be yet said But why then doth God threaten them as Punishments if they be not so I answer First because they seem to be punishments and are by most men so accounted for their grievousnesse though they be not properly such in themselves Secondly for the common event because ut plurimùm and for the most part they prove punishments to the sufferer in case he be not bettered as well as grieved by them Thirdly because they are indeed a kind of punishment though not then deserved but formerly Fourthly and most to the present purpose because not seldome the Father himself is punished in them who through tendernesse of affection taketh very much to heart the evils that happen to his child sometimes more than if they had happened to himself See David weeping and puling for his trayterous son Absalom when he was gone more affectionately than we find he did for the hazzards of his own person and of the whole State of Israel whiles he lived For if it be a punishment to a man to sustain losses in his cattel or goods or lands or friends or any other thing he hath how much more then in his children of whom he maketh more account than of all the rest as being not only an Image but even a part
posterity together with thy estate the wrath and vengeance and curse of God which is one of those appurtenances Haddest thou not a faithfull Counsellor within thine own brest if thou wouldest but have conferred and advised with him plainly and undissemblingly that could have told thee thou hadst by thy oppression and injustice ipso facto cut off the entail from thy issue even long before thou haddest made it But if thou wouldest leave thy posterity a firm and secure and durable estate doe this rather Purchase for them by thy charitable works the prayers and blessings of the poor settle upon them the fruits of a religious sober and honest education bequeath them the legacie of thy good example in all vertuous and godly living and that portion thou leavest them besides of earthly things be it much or little be sure it be well gotten otherwise never look it should prosper with them A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and sowreth it and a little iâ—l gotten like a gangrene spreadeth through the whole estate and worse than aqua fortis or the poysoned shirt that Deianira gave Hercules cleaveth unto it and feedeth upon it and by little and little gnaweth and fretteth and consumeth it to nothing And surely Gods Iustice hath wonderfully manifested it self unto the world in this kinde sometimes even to the publike astonishment and admiration of all men that men of antient Families and great estates well left by their Ancestors and free from debts legacies or other encombrances not notedly guilty of any expencefull sinne or vanity but wary and husbandly and carefull to thrive in the world not kept under with any great burden of needy friends or charge of children not much hindred by any extraordinary losses or casualties of fire theeves suretiship or sutes that such men I say should yet sink and decay and runne behind hand in the world and their estates crumble and milder away and come to nothing and no man knoweth how No question but they have sinnes enough of their own to deserve all this and ten times more than all this but yet withall who knoweth but that it might nay who knoweth not that sometimes it doth so legible now and then are Gods judgements come upon them for the greediness and avarice and oppression and sacrilege and injustice of their not long foregoing Ancestors You that are parents take heed of these sinnes It may be for some other reasons known best to himself God suffereth you to goe on your own time and suspendeth the judgements your sins have deserved for a space as here he did Ahab's upon his humiliation but be assured sooner or later vengeance will overtake you or yours for it You have Coveted an evil covetousness to your house and there hangeth a judgement over your house for it as rain in the clouds which perhaps in your sons perhaps in your grand-childs daies some time or other will come dashing down upon it and over-whelm it Think not the vision is for many descents to come de male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres seldom doth the third scarce ever the fourth generation passe before God visit the sinnes of the Fathers upon the Children if he doe not in the very next generation In his sons dayes will I bring the evil upon his house Secondly if not onely our own but our fathers sinnes too may be shall be visited upon us how concerneth it us as to repent for our own so to lament also the sins of our forefathers and in our confessions and supplications to God sometimes to remember them that he may forget them and to set them before his face that he may cast them behind his back We have a good president for it in our publike Letany Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers A good and a profitable and a needfull prayer it is and those men have not done well nor justly that have cavilled at it O that men would be wise according to sobriety and allow but just interpretations to things advisedly established rather than busie themselves nodum in scirpo to pick needlesse quarrels where they should not What unity would it bring to brethren what peace to the Church what joy to all good and wise men As to this particular God requireth of the Israelites in Lev. 26. that they should confesse their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers David did so and Ieremy did so and Daniel did so in Psal. 106. in Ierem. 3. in Dan. 9. And if David hought it a fit curse to pronounce against Iudas and such as he was in Psal. 109. Let the wickednesse of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord and let not the sinne of his mother be done away why may we not nay how ought we not to pray for the removal of this very curse from us as well as of any other curses The present age is rise of many enormous crying sinnes which call loud for a judgement upon the land and if God should bring upon us a right heavy one whereat all ears should tingle could we say other but that it were most just even for the sinnes of this present generation But if unto our own so many so great God should also adde the sinnes of our forefathers the bloudshed and tyranny and grievous unnatural butcheries in the long times of the Civil warrs and the universal idolatries and superstitions covering the whole land in the longer and darker times of Popery and if as he sometimes threatned to bring upon the Iews of that one generation all the righteous bloud that ever was shed upon the earth from the bloud of the righteous Abel unto the bloud of Zacharias the sonne of Barachias so he should bring the sinnes of our Ancestors for many generations past upon this generation of ours who could be able to abide it Now when the security of the times give us but too much cause to fear it and the regions begin to look white towards the harvest is it not time for us with all humiliation of Soul and Body to cast down our selves and with all contention of voice and spirit to lift up our prayers and to say Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our sinnes Spare us good Lord spare the people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud and be not angry with us for ever Spare us good Lord. Thirdly Since not only our fathers sinnes and our own but our Neighbours sinnes too aliquid malum propter vicinum malum but especially the sinnes of Princes and Governours delirant reges plectuntur Achivi may bring judgements upon us and enwrap us in their punishments it should reach every one of us to seek his own private in the common and publike good and to endeavour if but for our own security from
wrong way These would be fairly checkt turned into the right way and guided with a steddy and skilfull hand A third sort and I think the greatest through unsetledness or discontentedness or other untoward humour walk not soberly and uprightly and orderly in their Calling like an unruly Colt that will over hedge and ditch no ground will hold him no fence turn him These would be well fettered and side-hanckled for leaping The first sort are to be taught the Necessity of a Calling the second to be directed for the Choice of their Calling the third to be bounded and limited in the Exercise of their Calling Of which three in their order and of the First first the Necessity of a calling The Scriptures speak of two kinds of Vocations or Callings the one ad Foedus the other ad Munus The usual known terms are the General and the Particular Calling Vocatio ad Foedus or the General Calling is that wherewith God calleth us either outwardly in the ministery of his Word or inwardly by the efficacy of his Spirit or joyntly by both to the faith and obedience of the Gospel and to the embracing of the Covenant of grace and of mercy and salvation by Iesus Christ. Which is therefore termed the General Calling not for that it is of larger extent than the other but because the thing whereunto we are thus called is one and the same and common to all that are called The same duties and the same promises and every way the same conditions Here is no difference in regard of Persons but One Lord one Faith one baptism one body and one spirit even as we are all called in one hope of our Calling That 's the General Calling Vocatio ad Munus Our Particular Calling is that wherewith GOD enableth us and directeth us and putteth us on to some special course and condition of life wherein to employ our selves and to exercise the gifts he hath bestowed upon us to his glory and the benefit of our selves and others And it is therefore termed a Particular Calling not as if it concerned not all in general for we shall prove the contrary anon but because the thing whereunto men are thus called is not one and the same to all but differenced with much variety according to the quality of particular persons Alius sic alius vero sic Every man hath his proper gift of God one man on this manner another on that Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some called to be Magistrates some Ministers some Merchants some Artificers some one thing some another as to their particular Callings But as to the General Calling there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common Salvation all called to the same State of being the servants and children of God all called to the performance of the same duties of servants and to the expectation of the same inheritance of children all called to be Christians Of both which Callings the General and Particular there is not I take it any where in Scripture mention made so expresly and together as in this passage of our Apostle especially at the 20 ver Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called Where besides the matter the Apostles elegancy is observable in using the same word in both significations the Noun signifying the Particular and the Verb the General Calling Let every one abide in the same calling wherein he was called bearing sense as if the Apostle had said Let every man abide in the same Particular Calling wherein he stood at the time of his General Calling And the same and no other is the meaning of the words of my Text. Whence it appeareth that the Calling my Text implyeth and wherein every man is here exhorted to abide is to be understood of the Particular and not of the General Calling And of this Particular Calling it is we now intend to speak And that in the more Proper and restrained signification of it as it importeth some setled course of life with reference to business office and imployment accordingly as we say a man is called to be a Minister called to be a Lawyer called to be a Tradesman and the like Although I cannot be ignorant that our Apostle as the stream of his argument caryed him here taketh the word in a much wider extent as including not only such special courses of life as refer to imployment but even all outward personal states and conditions of men whatsoever whether they have such reference or no as we may say a man is called to Marriage or to single life called to riches or poverty and the like But omitting this larger signification we will hold our selves either only or principally to the former and by Calling understand a special setled course of life wherein mainly to employ a mans gifts and time for his own and the common good The Necessity whereof whilst we mention you are to imagine not an absolute and positive but a conditional and suppositive necessity Not as if no man could be without one de facto dayly experience in these dissolute times manifesteth the contrary but because de jure no man should be without one This kind of Calling is indeed necessary for all men But how Not as a necessary thing ratione termini so as the want thereof would be an absolute impossibility but virtute praecepti as a necessary duty the neglect whereof would be a grievous and sinfull enormity He that will doe that which he ought and is in conscience bound to doe must of necessitity live in some calling or other That is it we mean by the Necessity of a Calling And this Necessity we are now to prove And that First from the Obedience we owe to every of Gods Ordinances and the account we must render for every of Gods Gifts Amongst those Ordinances this is one and one of the first that in the sweat of our faces every man of us should eat our bread Gen. 3. The force of which precept let none think to avoid by a quirk that forsooth it was layed upon Adam after his transgression rather as a Curse which he must endure than as a Duty which he should perform For first as some of Gods Curses such is his goodness are promises as well as Curses as is that of the Enmity between the Womans seed and the Serpents so some of Gods Curses such is his Iustice are Precepts as well as Curses as is that of the Womans subjection to the Man This of eating our bread in the sweat of our face is all the three it is a Curse it is a Promise it is a Precept It is as Curse in that God will not suffer the earth to afford us bread without our sweat It is a promise in that God assureth us we shall have bread for our sweat And it is a Precept too in that God enjoyneth us if we will have bread to
sweat for it Secondly although it may not be gainsayed but that that injunction to Adam was given as a Curse yet the substance of the Injunction was not the thing wherein the Curse did formally consist Herein was the Curse that whereas before the fall the task which God appointed man was with pleasure of body and content of mind without sweat of brow or brain now after the fall he was to toyl and forecast for his living with care of mind and travel of body with weariness of flesh and vexation of spirit But as for the substance of the Injunction which is that every man should have somewhat to do wherein to bestow himself and his time and his gifts and whereby to earn his bread in this it appeareth not to have been a Curse but a Precept of divine institution that Adam in the time and state of innocency before he had deserved a Curse was yet enjoyned his Task To dress and to keep the Garden And as Adam lived himself so he bred up his children His two first born though heirs apparent of all the world had yet their peculiar employments the one in tillage the other in pasturage And as many since as have walked orderly have observed Gods Ordinance herein working with their hands the thing that is good in some kind or other those that have set themselves in no such good way our Apostle elswhere justly blaming as inordinate or disorderly walkers And how can such disorderly ones hope to find approvance in the sight of our God who is a God of Order He commandeth us to live in a Calling and woe to us if we neglect it But say there were no such expresse Command for it the very distribution of Gods gifts were enough to lay upon us this necessity Where God bestoweth he bindeth and to whom any thing is given of him something shall be required The inference is stronger than most are aware of from the Ability to the Duty from the Gift to the Work from the Fitting to the Calling Observe how this Apostle knitteth them together at the 17. Verse As God hath distributed to every man as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk God hath distributed to every man some proper gift or other and therefore every man must glorifie God in some peculiar Calling or other And in Eph. 4. having alleged that of the Psalm He gave gifts unto men immediately he inferreth He gave some Apostles some Prophets c. as giving us to understand that for no other end God did bestow upon some Apostolical upon others Prophetical upon others gifts in other kinds but that men should imploy them some in the Apostolical some in the Prophetical some in Offices and Callings of other kinds And if we confesse that Nature doth not we may not think the God of Nature doth bestow abilities whereof he intendeth not use for that were to bestow them in vain Sith then he bestoweth gifts and graces upon every man some or other and none in vain let every man take heed that he receive them not in vain let every man beware of napkening up the talent which was delivered him to trade withall Let all As every one hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold graces of God The manifestation of the Spirit being given to every man to profit withall he that liveth unprofitably with it and without a Calling abuseth the intent of the giver and must answer for his abuse Secondly the necessity of a Calling is great in regard of a mans self and that more wayes than one For man being by nature active so as he cannot be long but he must be doing he that hath no honest vocation to busie himself in that hath nothing of his own to doe must needs from doing nothing proceed to doing naught That saying of Cato was subscribed by the wiser Heathens as an oracle Nihil agendo malè agere disce◠Idleness teacheth much evil saith the wise son of Syrac nay all kind of evil as some copies have it It hath an ear open to every extravagant motion it giveth entertainment to a thousand sinfull fancies it exposeth the soul to all the assaults of her Ghostly enemies and whereas the Devils greatest businesse is to tempt other men the idle mans only businesse is to tempt the Devil Experience of all histories and times sheweth us what advantages the Devil hath won upon godly and industrious men otherwise as upon David in the matter of Uriah and many others onely by watching the opportunity of their idle hours plying them with suggestions of noysom lusts at such times as they had given themselves but some little intermission more than ordinary from their ordinary imployments How will he not then lead captive at his pleasure those whose whole lives are nothing else but a long vacation and their whole care nothing but to make up a number and to waste the good creatures of God There is no readier sanctuary for thee then good Christian when the Devil pursueth thee than to betake thy self at once to prayer and to the works of thy Calling flye thither and thou art safe as in a Castle Non licet is a very good and proper and direct answer when the Devil would tempt thee to sin it is evil and I may not doe it but yet Non vacat is the stronger answer and surer I am busie and I cannot do it That giveth him scope to reply and it is not safe to hold argument with the Devil upon any terms he is a cunning Sophister and thou mayest be circumvented by a subtilty before thou art aware But this stubborn and blunt answer cutteth off all reply and disheartneth the Tempter for that time It was Saint Hieroms advice to his friend Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut Diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum Be always doing something that the Devil may never finde thee at leisure There is no Crosse no Holy-water no Exorcism so powerful to drive away and to conjure down the Fiend as Employment is and faithfull labour in some honest Calling Thirdly Life must be preserved Families maintained the poor relieved this cannot be done without Bread for that is the staff of life and Bread cannot be gotten or not honestly but in a Lawfull vocation or Calling Which who ever neglecteth is in very deed no better than a very thief the Bread he eateth he cannot call his own We hear saith Saint Paul writing to the Thessalonians That there are some among you that walk inordinately and work not at all but are busie-bodies Them therefore that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Iesus Christ that they work with quietnesse and eat their own bread As if it were not their own bread if
see the Vsurer hugging himself and clapping his sides that he hath come off so fairly surely his Calling is absolute good whereon none of these Rules could fasten But it is indeed with the Vsurer in this case as with the Drunkard If the Drunkard should ask me against which of the ten Commandements he offended I confesse I could not readily give him a direct punctual answer Not that he sinneth not against any but because he sinneth against so many of them that it is hard to say against which most He sinneth against the sixth Commandement by distempering his body he sinneth against the seventh by enflaming his lust he sinneth against the eighth by making waste of the good Creatures of God Right so is it with our Usurer in this case He would pose me that should ask me the Question which of these three Rules fetcheth-in the Usurer and his Calling Verily I cannot well tell which most I think every one of the three may howsoever among the three I am sure I have him If Vsury be simply unlawfull as most of the learned have concluded then the first Rule hath him I should be very tender to condemn any thing as simply unlawfull which any even imaginary conjuncture of Circumstances would render lawfull and would chuse rather by an over-liberal Charity to cover a multitude of sins if I may abuse the Apostles phrase to that sense than by a too superstitious restraint make one Yet the Texts of Scripture are so expresse and the grounds of Reason brought by learned men seem so strong against all Vsury that I have much adoe to find so much charity in my self as to absolve any kind of Vsury properly so called with what cautions or circumstances soever qualified from being a sin But I will suspect mine own and the common judgement herein and admit for this once dato non concesso that Vsury be in some case lawfull and so our Vsurer escape the first Rule which yet cannot be till his teeth be knocked out for biting But you must knock out his brains too before he escape our second Rule I dare say the most learned Vsurer that liveth and they say some learned ones are Vsurers will never be able to prove that Vsury if it be at all lawfull is so lawfull as to be made a Calling Here all his Doctors and his Proctors and his Advocates leave him For can it possibly enter into any reasonable mans head to think that a man should be born for nothing else but to tell out mâ—ny and take in paper which if a man had many millions of gold and silver could take up but a small portion of that precious time which God would have spent in some honest and fruitfull employment But what doe I speak of the judgement of reasonable men in so plain a matter wherein I dare appeal to the conscience even of the Vsurer himself and it had need be a very plain matter that a man would referre to the conscience of an Vsurer No honest man need be ashamed of an honest Calling if then the Vsurers Calling be such what need he care who knoweth or why should he shame with it If that be his trade why doth he not in his Bills and bonds and Noverints make it known to all men by those presents that he is an Vsurer rather than write himself Gentleman or Yeoman or by some other stile But say yet our Vsurer should escape at least in the judgement of his own hardned conscience from both these Rules as from the sword of Iehu and Hazael there is yet a third Rule like the sword of Elisha to strike him stone-dead and he shall never be able to escape that Let him shew wherein his Calling is profitable to humane society He keepeth no Hospitality if he have but a barr'd chest and a strong lock to keep his God and his Scriptures his Mammon and his Parchments in he hath house-room enough He fleeceth many but cloatheth none He biteth and devoureth but eateth all his morsels alone He giveth not so much as a crumme no not to his dearest Broken or Scrivener only where he biteth he alloweth them to scratch what they can for themselves The King the Church the poor are all wronged by him and so are all that live near him in every common charge he slippeth the collar and leaveth the burden upon those that are lesse able It were not possible Vsurers should be so bitterly inveighed against by sober Heathen Writers so severely censured by the Civil and Canon Lawes so uniformly condemned by godly Fathers and Councels so universally hated by all men of all sorts and in all ages and countries as Histories and experience manifest they ever have been and are if their Practice and calling had been any way profitable and not indeed every way hurtfull and incommodious both to private men and publike societies If any thing can make a Calling unlawfull certainly the Vsurers Calling cannot be lawfull Our first care past which concerneth the Calling it self our next care in our choice must be to enquire into Our selves what Calling is most fit for us and we for it Wherein our Enquiry must rest especially upon three things our Inclination our Gifts and our Education Concerning which let this be the first Rule Where these three concurre upon one and the same Calling our consciences may rest assured that that Calling is fit for us and we ought so far as it lyeth in our power to resolve to follow that This Rule if well observed is of singular use for the setling of their consciences who are scrupulous and doubtfull concerning their inward calling to any office or imployment Divines teach it commonly and that truly that every man should have an inward Calling from God for his particular course of life and this in the calling of the Ministery is by so much more requisite than in most other Callings by how much the business of it is more weighty than theirs as of things more immediately belonging unto GOD. Whence it is that in our Church none are admitted into holy Orders until they have personally and expresly made profession before the Bishop that they find themselves inwardly called and moved thereunto But because what that inward Calling is and how it should be discerned is a thing not so distinctly declared and understood generally as it should be it often falleth out that men are distressed in conscience with doubts and scruples in this case whilst they desired to be assured of their inward Calling and know not how We are to know therefore that to this inward calling there is not of necessity required any inward secret sensible testimony of Gods blessed sanctifying Spirit to a mans soul for then an unsanctified man could not be rightly called neither yet any strong working of the Spirit of Illumination for then a meer heathen man could not be rightly called both which consequents are false For Saul
and Iudas were called the one to the Kingdom the other to the Apostleship of whom it is certain the one was not and it is not likely the other was endued with the holy Spirit of Sanctification And many Heathen men have been called to several imployments wherein they have also laboured with much profit to their own and succeeding times who in all probability never had any other inward motion than what might arise from some or all of these three things now specified viz. the Inclination of their nature their personal Abilities and the care of Education If it shall please GOD to afford any of us any farther gracious assurance than these can give us by some extraordinary work of his Spirit within us we are to embrace it with joy and thankfulness as a special favour but we are not to suspend our resolutions for the choice of a course in expectation of that extraordinary assurance since we may receive comfortable satisfaction to our souls without it by these ordinary means now mentioned For who need be scrupulous where all these concurre Thy Parents have from thy childhood destinated thee to some special course admit the Ministery and been at the care and charge to breed thee up in learning to make thee in some measure fit for it when thou art grown to some maturity of years and discretion thou findest in thy self a kind of desire to be doing someting that way in thy private study by way of tryal and withall some measure of knowledge discretion and utterance though perhaps not in such an eminent degree as thou couldest wish yet in such a competency as thou mayst reasonably perswade thy self thou mightest thereby be able with his blessing to doe some good to Gods people and not be altogether unprofitable in the Ministery In this so happy concurrence of Propension Abilities and Education make no farther enquiry doubt not of thine inward calling Tender thy self to those that have the power of Admission for thy outward calling which once obtained thou art certainly in thine own proper Course Up and be doing for the Lord hath called thee and no doubt the Lord will be with thee But say these three doe not concurre as oftentimes they doe not A man may be destinated by his friends and accordingly bred out of some covetous or ambitious or other corrupt respect to some Calling wherefrom he may be altogether averse and whereto altogether unfit as we see some Parents that have the donations or advocations of Church livings in their hands must needs have some of their Children and for the most part they set by the most untoward and mis-shapen chip of the whole block to make timber for the Pulpit but some of their children they will have thrust into the Ministery though they have neither a head nor a heart for it Again a man may have good sufficiency in him for a Calling and yet out of a sloathfull desire of ease and liberty if it seem painfull or austere or an ambitious desire of eminency and reputation if it seem base and contemptible or some other secret corruption cannot set his mind that way as Salomon saith there may be A price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom and yet the fool have no heart to it And divers other occurrents there may be and are to hinder his happy conjuncture of Nature Skill and Education Now in such Cases as these where our Education bendeth us one way our Inclination swayeth us another way and it may be our Gifts and Abilities lead us a third in this distraction what are we to doe which way to take what Calling to pitch upon In point of Conscience there can no more be given General Rules to meet with all Cases and regulate all difficulties than in point of Law there can be general Resolutions given to set an end to all sutes or provisions made to prevent all inconveniencies Particulars are infinite and various but Rules are not must not cannot be so He whose Case it is if he be not able to direct himself should doe well to take advice of his learned Counsel This we can readily doe in matters of Law for the quieting of our Estates why should we not doe it at least as readily in matter of Conscience for the quieting of our souls But yet for some light at least in the generality what if thou shouldest proceed thus First have an eye to thy Education and if it be possible to bring the rest that way do so rather than forsake it For besides that it would be some grief to thy Parents to whom thou shouldest be a comfort to have cast away so much charge as they have been at for thy education and some dishonour to them withall whom thou art bound by the law of God and Nature to honour to have their judgements so much slighted and their choice so little regarded by their child the very consideration of so much precious time as hath been spent in fitting thee to that course which would be almost all lost upon thy change should prevail with thee to try all possible means rather than forgoe it It were a thing indeed much to be wished that Parents and Friends and Guardians and all those other whatsoever that have the Education of young ones committed unto them all greedy desires to make their Children great all base penurious nigardnesse in saving their own purses all fond cherishing of their children in their humours all doting opinion of their forwardnesse and wit and towardlinesse all other corrupt partial affections whatsoever laid aside would out of the observation of their natural propensions and inclinations and of their particular abilities and defects frame them from the beginning to such courses as wherein they were likeliest to goe on with chearfulnesse and profit This indeed were to be wished but this is not alwaies done If it have not been so done to thee the fault is theirs that should have done it and not thine and thou art not able now to remedy that which is past and gone But as for thee and for the future if thy Parents have not done their part yet doe not thou forget thy duty if they have done one fault in making a bad choice doe not thou adde another in making a worse change disparage not their Iudgements by misliking neither gain-say their Wils by forsaking their choice upon every small incongruity with thine own Iudgement or Will If thine Inclination draw thee another way labour throughly to subdue thy nature therein Suspect thine own corruption Think this backwardness proceedeth not from true judgment in thee but issueth rather from the root of some carnal affection Consider thy years are green affections strong judgement unsetled Hope that this backwardnesse will grow off as years and stayednesse grow on Pray and endeavour that thou maist daily more and more wain thy affections from thine own bent and take liking to that
The Points then that arise from this part of my Text are these 1. Men do not always commit those evils their own desires or outward temptations prompt them unto 2. That they do it not it is from Gods restraint 3. That God restraineth them it is of his own gracious goodness and mercy The common subject matter of the whole three points being one viz. Gods restraint of mans sin we will therefore wrap them up all three together and so handle them in this one entire Observation as the total of all three God in his mercy oftentimes restraineth men from committing those evils which if that restraint were not they would otherwise have committed This Restraint whether we consider the Measure or the Means which God useth therein is of great variety For the Measure God sometimes restraineth men à Toto from the whole sin whereunto they are tempted as he with-held Ioseph from consenting to the perswasions of his Mistress sometimes only à Tanto and that more or less as in his infinite wisdom he seeth expedient suffering them perhaps but only to desire the evill perhaps to resolve upon it perhaps to prepare for it perhaps to begin to act it perhaps to proceed far in it and yet keeping them back from falling into the extremity of the sin or accomplishing their whole desire in the full and final consummation thereof as here he dealt with Abimelech Abimelech sinned against the eighth Commandement in taking Sarah injuriously from Abraham say he had been but her brother and he sinned against the seventh Commandement in a foul degree in harbouring such wanton and unchaste thoughts concerning Sarah and making such way as he did by taking her into his house for the satisfying of his lust therein but yet God with-held him from plunging himself into the extremity of those sins not suffering him to fall into the act of uncleanness And as for the Means whereby God with-holdeth men from sinning they are also of wonderful variety Sometimes he taketh them off by diverting the course of the corruption and turning the affections another way Sometimes he awaketh natural Conscience which is a very tender and tickle thing when it is once stirred and will boggle now and then at a very small matter in comparison over it will do at some other times Sometimes he affrighteth them with apprehensions of outward Evils as shame infamy charge envy loss of a friend danger of humane lawes and sundry other such like discouragements Sometimes he cooleth their resolutions by presenting unto their thoughts the terrors of the Law the strictness of the last Account and the endless unsufferable torments of Hell-fire Sometimes when all things are ripe for execution he denyeth them opportunity or casteth in some unexpected impediment in the way that quasheth all Sometimes he disableth them and weakeneth the arm of flesh wherein they trusted so as they want power to their will as here he dealt with Abimelech And sundry other ways he hath more than we are able to search into whereby he layeth a restraint upon men keepeth them back from many sins and mischiefs at least from the extremity of many sins and mischiefs whereunto otherwise Nature and Temptation would carry them with a strong current Not to speak yet of that sweet and of all other the most blessed and powerful restraint which is wrought in us by the Spirit of Sanctification renewing the soul and subduing the corruption that is in the Flesh unto the Obedience of the Spirit at which I shall have fitter occasion to touch anon In the mean time that there is something or other that restraineth men from doing some evils unto which they have not only a natural proneness but perhaps withal an actual desire and purpose might be shewn by a world of instances but because every mans daily experience can abundantly furnish him with some we will therefore content our selves with the fewer Laban meant no good to Iacob when taking his Brethren with him he pursued after him seven days journey in an hostile manner and he had power to his will to have done Iacob a mischief Iacob being but imbellis turba no more but himself his wives and his little ones with his flocks and herds and a few servants to attend them unable to defend themselves much more unmeet to resist a prepared enemy yet for all his power and purpose and preparation Laban when he had overtaken Iacob durst have nothing at all to do with him and he had but very little to say to him neither The worst was but this Thus and thus have you dealt with me And It is in the power of mine hand to do you hurt but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight saying Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad See the story in Gen. 31. The same Iacob had a Brother as unkinde as that Uncle nay much more despightfully bent against him than he for he had vowed his destruction The days of mourning for my Father are at hand and then I will slay my Brother Jacob and although the Mother well hoped that some few days time and absence would appease the fury of Esau and all should be forgotten yet twenty years after the old grudge remained and upon Iacobs approach Esau goeth forth to meet him with 400. men armed as it should seem for his destruction which cast Iacob into a terrible fear and much distressed he was good man and glad to use the best wit he had by dividing his Companies to provide for the safety at least of some part of his charge And yet behold at the encounter no use at all of the 400. men unless to be spectatours and witnesses of the joyful embraces and kinde loving complements that passed between the two brothers in the liberal offers and modest refusals each of others courtesies in the 32. and 33. of Genesis A good Probatum of that Observation of Solomon When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him Balaam the Conjurer when the King Balac had cast the hook before him baited with ample rewards in hand and great promotions in reversion if he would come over to him and curse Israel had both Covetousness and Ambition enough in him to make him bite so that he was not only willing but even desirous to satisfie the King for he loved the wages of unrighteousness with his heart and therefore made tryal till he saw it was all in vain if by any means he could wring a permission from God to do it But when his eyes were opened to behold Israel and his mouth open that he must now pronounce something upon Israel though his eyes were full of Envy and his heart of Cursing yet God put a parable of Blessing into his mouth and he was not able to utter a syllable of any thing other than
liberty we have in Christ and of the respects we owe unto men we must evermore remember our selves to be and accordingly behave our selves as those that are Gods servants but as the servants of God The sum of the whole three points in brief this We must be careful without either infringing or abusing our liberty at all times and in all things to serve God Now then to the several points in that order as I have proposed them and as they lye in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As free Which words have manifest reference to the exhortation deliâ—vered three verses before the text as declaring the manner how the duty there exhorted unto ought to be performed yet so as that the force of them stretcheth to the exhortations also contained in the verses next after the text Submit your selves to publick governours both supreme and subordinate be subject to your own particular masters honour all men with those proper respects that belong to them in their several stations But look you do all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as slaves but as free doe it without impeachment of the liberty you have in Christ. Of which liberty it would be a profitable labour but that I should then be forced to omit sundry other things which I deem needful to be spoken and more neerly pertinent to the points proposed to discover at large the nature and parts and causes and effects and adjuncts that we might the better understand the amplitude of that dower which Christ hath setled upon his Church and thence learn to be the more careful to preserve it But I may not have time so to do it shall therefore suffice us to know that as the other branches of our liberty whether of glory or grace whether from the guilt of sin in our justification or from the dominion of sin in our sanctification with the several appendices and appurtenances to any of them so this branch of it also which respects the use of indifferent things First is purchased for us by the bloud of Christ and is therefore usually called by the name of Christian liberty Secondly is revealed unto us outwardly in the preaching of the Gospel of God and of Christ which is therefore called the law of liberty And thirdly is conveighed unto us inwardly and effectually by the operation of the Spirit of God and of Christ which is therefore called a free spirit O stablish thou me with thy free spirit because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Now this liberty so dearly purchased so clearly revealed so firmly conveyed it is our duty to maintain with our utmost strength in all the parts and branches of it and as the Apostle exhorteth to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and not to suffer our selves either by the devises of other men or by our own sloth and wilful default to be intangled again with the yoak of bondage And namely in this particular branch whereof we now speak whatsoever serviceable offices we do to any of our brethren especially to those that are in authority we must perform our duty therein with all cheerfulness of spirit and for Conscience sake but still with freedom of spirit with liberty of Conscience as being servants to God alone and not to men We finde therefore in the Scriptures a peremptory charge both ways that we neither usurp mastership nor undergo servitude A charge given by our Saviour Christ to his Disciples in the former behalf that they should not be called Rabbi neither Masters Matth. 23. and a charge given by the Apostle Paul to all believers in the latter behalf that they should not be servants of men 1 Cor. 7. God forbid any man of us possessed with an Anabaptistical spirit or rather frenzy should understand either of those passages or any other of like sound as if Christ or his Apostle had had any purpose therein to slacken those sinews and ligaments and to dissolve those joynts and contignations which tye into one body and claspe into one structure those many little members and parts whereof all humane societies consist that is to say to forbid all those mutual relations of superiority and subjection which are in the world and so to turn all into a vast Chaos of Anarchy and Confusion For such a meaning is contrarious to the express determination of Christ and to the constant doctrine of S. Paul in other places and we ought so to interpret the Scriptures as that one place may consist with another without clashing or contradiction The true and plain meaning is this that we must not acknowledge any our supreme Master nor yeeld our selves to be wholly and absolutely ruled by the will of any nor enthral our Iudgements and Consciences to the sentences or laws of any man or Angel but only Christ our Lord and Master in Heaven And this interpretation is very consonant to the Analogy of Scripture in sundry places In Ephes. 6. to omit other places there are two distinctions implyed the one in the 5. the other in the 7. verses both of right good use for the reconciling of sundry texts that seem to contradict one another and for the clearing of sundry difficulties in the present argument Servants saith S. Paul there be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh Which limitation affordeth us the distinction of Masters according to the flesh only and of Masters after the spirit also Intimating that we may have other Masters of our flesh to whom we may and must give due reverence so far as concerneth the flesh that is so far as appertaineth to the outward man and all outward things But of our spirits and souls and consciences as we can have no fathers so we may have no Masters upon earth but only our Master and our Father which is in heaven And therefore in Mat. 23. Christ forbiddeth the calling of any man upon earth Father as well as he doth the calling of any man Master And both the prohibitions are to be understood alike and as hath been now declared Again saith S. Paul there with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men which opposition importeth a second distinction and that is of Masters into supreme and subordinate those are subordinate Masters to whom we do service in ordine ad alium and as under another Those are supreme Masters in whom our obedience resteth in the final resolution of it without looking farther or higher Men may be our Masters and we their servants the first way with subordination to God and for his sake And we must do them service and that with good will but with reservation ever of our bounden service to him as our only supreme soveraign and absolute Master But the later way it is high sacriledge in any man to challenge and it is high
given to every man to profit withall Surely then those men first of all run a course strangely exorbitant who instead of employing them to the profit bend those gifts they have received whether spirituall or temporall to the ruine and destruction of their brethren Instead of winning souls to Heaven with busie and cursed diligence compassing Sea and Land to draw Proselytes to the Devil and instead of raising up seed to their elder brother Christ seeking to make their brethren if it were possible ten times more the children of hell then themselves Abusing their Power to oppression their wealth to luxury their strength to drunkennesse their wit to Scoffing Atheism Prophanenesse their learning to the maintenance of Heresie Idolatry Schism Novelty If there be a fearfull woe due to those that use not their gifts profitably what woes may we think shall overtake them that so ungraciously abuse them But to leave these wretches be perswaded in the second place all you whom God hath made Stewards over his houshold and blessed your basket and your store to bring forth of your treasures things both new and old manifest the spirit God hath given you so as may be most for the profit of your brethren The spirit of God when he gave you wisdome and knowledge intended not so much the wisdome and the knowledge themselves as the manifestation of them or as it is in the next verse the Word of Wisdome and the Word of Knowledge as Christ also promised his Apostles to give them Os sapientiam A mouth and wisdom Alas what is wisdom without a mouth but as a pot of treasure hid in the ground which no man is the better for Wisdom that is hid and a treasure that is not seen what profit is in them both O then do not knit up your Masters talent in a Napkin smother not his light under a bushell pinch not his servants of their due provision pot not up the Manna you have gathered till it stink and the worms consume it but above all squander not away your rich portions by riotous living Let not either sloth or envy or pride or pretended modesty or any other thing hinder you from labouring to discharge faithfully that trust and duty which God expecteth which the necessity of the Church challengeth which the measure of your gifts promiseth which the condition of your calling exacteth from you Remember the manifestation of the Spirit was given you to profit withall Thirdly since the end of all gifts is to profit aim most at those gifts that will profit most and endeavour so to frame those you have in the exercise of them as they may be likeliest to bring profit to those that shall partake them Covet earnestly the best gifts saith my Apostle at the last verse of this Chapter and you have his Comment upon that Text in the first verse of the fourteenth Chapter Covet spirituall gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rather that ye may prophecy And by propecying he meaneth the Instruction of the Church and people of God in the needfull doctrines of faith towards God Repentance from dead works and new and holy Obedience It is one Stratagem of the Arch-enemy of mankind and when we know his wiles we may the better be able to defeat him by busying men of great and useful parts in by-matters and things of lesser consequence to divert them from following that unum necessarium that which should be the main in all our endeavours the beating down of sin the planting of Faith and the reformation of manners Controversies I confesse are necessary the Tongues necessary Histories necessary Philosophy and The Arts necessary other Knowledge of all sorts necessary in the Church for Truth must be maintained Scripture-phrases opened Heresie confuted the mouths of Adversaries stopped Schisms and Novelties suppressed But when all is done Positive and Practique Divinity is it must bring us to Heaven that is it must poise our judgements settle our consciences direct our lives mortifie our corruptions encrease our graces strengthen our comforts save our souls Hoc opus hoc studium there is no study to this none so well worth the labour as this none that can bring so much profit to others nor therefore so much glory to God nor therefore so much comfort to our own hearts as this This is a faithfull saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly saith S. Paul to Titus that they which have believed in God might be carefull to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men You cannot do more good unto the Church of God you cannot more profit the people of God by your gifts then by pressing effectually these two great points Faith and good works These are good and profitable unto men I might here adde other Inferences from this point as namely since the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one of us chiefly for this end that we may profit the people with it that therefore fourthly in our preaching we should rather seek to profit our hearers though perhaps with sharp and unwelcome reproofs then to please them by flattering them in evil and that fifthly we should more desire to bring profit unto them then to gain applause unto our selves and sundry other more besides these But I will neither adde any more nor prosecute these any farther at this time but give place to other businesse God the Father of Lights and of Spirits endow every one of us in our Places and Callings with a competent measure of such Graces as in his wisdome and goodnesse he shall see needfull and expedient for us and so direct our hearts and tongues and endeavours in the exercise and manifestation thereof that by his good blessing upon our labours we may be enabled to advance his Glory propagate his Truth benefit his Church discharge a good Conscience in the mean time and at the last make our account with comfort at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom c. FINIS AD CLERUM The Fourth Sermon At a Metropoliticall Visitation at Grantham Lincoln 22. August 1634. ROM 14.23 For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin ONE remarkable difference among many other between Good and Evil is this that there must be a concurrence of all requisite conditions to make a thing good whereas to make a thing evil a single defect in any one condition alone will suffice Bonum ex causa integra malum ex partiali If we propose not to our selves a right end or if we pitch not upon proper and convenient means for the attaining of that end or if we pursue not these means in a due manner or if we observe not exactly every materiall circumstance in the whole pursuit if we fail but in any one point the action though it should be in every other respect such as it ought to be by that one defect