fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost 2. An effectual argument to inforce it because thus doing will be the most effectual way and means to have the Churches of Christ edified and multiplyed I begin with the duty and first with the first part of it in those words walking in the fear of the Lord and the Note thence is this That when God vouchsafeth to Doct. his Churches rest and peace it is their duty then especially to walk in his fear And here I shall not need by way of explication to hint that 1. By walking is meant their diligent and constant practise and course of life 2. And by Gods fear Primarily and most properly is meant that sanctified affection or sanctifying grace both in the habit and act of it whereby out of a filial and ingenuous awfulness we are afraid to offend God by sinning against him And Tropically the whole Eccles 12. 13. Deut. 6. 2. 13. See Cartwright on Prov. 1. 7. worship and service of God of which this fear as it is one great and especial part so also it awfully commandeth and putteth us upon all the rest and withholds us from the contrary So that this their walking in the fear of the Lord was their diligent and constant course of obedience and service out of an awfull and reverential respect to him and an ingenuous and filial fear to offend him This was their practise when God had given them rest and it is the duty incumbent now on us when the like mercy is vouchsafed to us viz. now upon consideration of it to Heb. 12. 28. serve him with reverence and godly fear indeed it must be without unbeleeving and slavish fear of man Luke 1. 74. but with as much nay with more Reverential fear of God then ever for although perfect love casteth out fear 1 John 4. 18. yet in true filial fear there is as much nay more love then fear and so they who are said to fear God Psal 145. 19. are in the 20th verse immediately following styled such as love him To have fear and joy meet is a riddle to a carnal heart yet to rejoyce with Psal 2. 11. trembling is a peece of the mystery of godliness which Grace teacheth and a godly heart is acquainted with And especially upon the receipt of any greater mercy as at the Resurrection of our Saviour it is said of the two Maries that they departed from the Sepulchre with fear and great joy Matth. 28. 8. So in any other kinde of Resurrection wherein God pleaseth to raise us as it were from the grave such a sweet mixture of those seemingly contrary graces should be felt in our hearts and expressed in our carriages so as at the same time to rejoyce in his goodness Nehe. 9. 25. yet to fear him and his goodness Hos 3. 5. Slavish spirits may fear his greatness but a good heart will fear him for his goodness will fear when inlarged Isa 60. 5. and with such a Systole and Diastole doth it breathe and live This being a great part of that Tribute which our Soveraign Lord requireth for all his bounty and blessings And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God c. Deut. 10. 12. and which a soul truly subjected to Christ doth most freely pay from mercy takes an argument of fear There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Psal 130. 4. it saith Let us fear the Lord who giveth unto us rain and reserveth to us the appointed weeks of the harvest Jer. 5. 24. fear's him for plenty and fear's him for peace as in a peaceable Solomons reign when the mountains shall bring peace to the people Psal 72. 3. and so you might think to find them most secure it is added that they shall fear him as long as the Sun and Moon indure v. 5. the less that in their peace they fear their enemies the more they fear their peaceable King That in Solomon as a type fore-prophesied what should be under the more peaceable government of Jesus Christ and in this Text that prophecy was fulfilled for when these his best subjects had rest and were still even then they trembled walking in the fear of the Lord. But you will say Is fear consistent Quest with the security of peace or rather is it not an aguish distemper to stand quaking and trembling in the Summers warm Sunshine The Psalmist saith when the Sea-man when he Psal 107. 27. is tossed and reeleth to and fro and staggers in a tempest is like a drunken man but is it not right out drunkenness or rather madness to do so in a calme and when gotten on the shoare To which I answer It is so Answ indeed to do so out of a slavish or unbelieving distraction or despondency which yet the best of Gods servants are sometimes overtaken with yea and that sometimes when both for inward and outward man they have all cause of joy and an holy confidence and security But as the Schoole observeth Biel. there is a double act of a chast and filial fear 1. One when we avoid sin for fear of offending God and so of being in any measure separated or estranged from him and thereby of losing of any either measure or manifestation of that good which we injoy through communion with him And thus Austin Tractat. in Johan defineth fear to be Fuga animi ne perdat quod diligit 2. The other is an awfull Reverence of God not as to any fear in us of our loss of him but onely as in himself he is the most perfect and absolute good and so most worthy of all humble observance The first of these they truly say is only here in via whilest we are here travellers in our way because when we come to our journies end and confirmed in glory there will be no danger and therefore no fear of any such offence and loss and disjunction But the latter abideth yea is perfected in heaven and so is both of in via and in Patria I am sure both of them are or at least should be found in us whilest we are here in the way and that not only in the foulest but even in the fairest plat of it where we should not onely be afraid of Gods judgements Psal 119. 120. but also of his tenderest mercies not only in the time of our danger and trouble but of our greatest rest and security even then we should walk in the fear of the Lord and that upon a twofold ground answerable to that forementioned double act of this godly fear 1. In the time of our rest and peace we have great need to put forth the first Aâ—t of it in taking heed of offending God and so of being estranged from him because Then we are in the greatest danger of it 2. And as great cause we have Then also to put forth that second
wicked we did not know them nor that bottomlesse depth of abominable wickednesse that was in them Well but our sin hath found us Num. 3â— 23. Psal 36. 2. out or rather God hath found it out and that to be very hatefull He hath discovered to us as the most base and unworthy ingratitude and disingenuity of our Spirits so our invincible perversness when neither mourning to us will make us weep nor piping dance Mat. 11. 17. He expected that our former peace should have quited our lusts at least that our after wars should have subdued them as Austine observeth quae solit corruptos hominum De civit Dei lib. 1. cap. 1. mores bello emendare c. But both he and we find that war cannot mend us and peace maketh us worse O foolish people and unwise Deut. 32. 6. But do we thus requite the Lord by waging open war against him when he hath made peace for us with our neighbours Do we turn spiritual grace into wantonnesse and temporall peace Jude v. 4. into rebellion but what in the close of all will come of this or as the Prophet said What shall we do in the end of it Unlesse we betimes Ier. 5. 31. bethink our selves and repent will not God be provoked Psal 18. 26. with the froward to deal frowardly 1. With such disingenuous ones not to deal may I with reverence so speak so ingenuously Ingenuity doth not use to upbraid courtesies vouchsafed nor doth God who giveth to all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberally upbraid any for often either asking or receiving Jam. 1. 5. But yet such unworthy and base ingratitude doth inforce him and so he did often to Israel and not Deut. 32. 26. Iudg 2. 1 2 3. 6. 8 9. 10. 11 12 1 Sam. 10 18 19. onely to Baasha 1 King 16. 2. and Jeroboam 1 Kings 14. 7 8. and Saul 2 Sam. 15. 17. but also to David himself who was more ingenuous and therefore such upbraiding of him could not but be very grievous and yet He had it 2 Sam. 12. 7 8 9. and when he so inculcateth his mercies favours to Eli and his house and aith Did I appear to the house of thy Father and did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel and did 1 Sam. 2. 27 28. I give him all the offerings Every such question especially so reiterated Did I and Did I and Did I had a sharpned point and no doubt gave a deep thrust and wound in Elies tender heart told him that whereas God had done so and so and so for him he did not expect that he should have done so and so and so against him for which he thus sadly upbraided him And may not God more often and more sadly repeat over and over the same or like words to us of this Nation But did I not in answer to the Martyrs prayers and hopes after the popery and persecution of those dayes restore the Gospel once more agan to England and gave peace and plenty with it And when upon your wantonnesse some Task masters grew corrupt and cruell did I not hear your cries and eased you of those burdens And when in those changes your dangers grew greater did I not make bare my arm in the sight of all Nations to pluck you as brands out of the fire and to reserve you to be a people nay a praise as at this day This I have done and what have you done Have you not as the Lord said there to Eli 1 Sam. 2. 29. kicked at my sacrifice trampled under foot all my holy Things Truth Worship Ordinances All and do you murder commit adulteoy Ier. 7. 9 10 and swear falsly c. as though you were delivered to do all these abominations And is this my requitall As it 's said of Abimelechs speech to Sarah thus she was reproved So truly with such Gen. 20. 16. like as these if we have any ingenuity in us we may be even consounded and all this because that with our most unworthy carriage we inforce God to upbraid us with his mercies which an ingenuous Christian should blush at 2. Nay to deprive us of them which a more servile spirit may tremble at this we may the rather fear because the faithfull and true God hath in good earnest threatned it that because they served him not for the abundance of all things they should serve their enemies in Deut. 28. 47 48. hunger and thirst and nakedness and in the want of all things and truly then why may we not justly fear because in this our peace and rest we will not fear God that worse times will come in which we shall fear and feel something else which will be more uncomfortable And to this purpose let me end this with these two conclusions 1. As on the one side our fear of God is our security our treasure Isa 33. 6. and the best meanes to secure it According to that of Austin Homo time Deum minantem mundum ridebis Man fear God and then thou mayest laugh at a threatning of a persecuting world or if you will according to that of Moses Exod. 20. 20. When at Sinai it so terribly thundred and lightned c. He then saith to the People Fear not for God is come to prove you that his fear may be before your face that you sin not as though he had said Fear not other things that you may fear God and fear but him and then you need not fear any thing else fear God and fear not thuâ—der which some of the great Emperours were so terrified with As Gods fear I say on the one hand is our great security 2. So on the other the want of Gods fear hath these two undoing mischiefs accompanying it It makes way for all the most fearfull evils for by this daring impudence we inforce God to shew himself that he may assert his soveraignity which by such Braves is affronted And it also maketh them most terrible and overwhelming when they come as not feared to be either prevented or provided for And so this careless security as that of Laish when such unexpected evills do indeed come it Iudg. 18. 7. 28. makes them more astonishing and dreadful Which therefore should alarm Vse 2 and awaken us out of this supinity and calleth loud upon us in the words of the Psalmist Stand in awe and sin not our wars Psal 4. 4. have made us souldiers and so less afraid of dangers from men but let them not withall make us Rebells in hardning us against God but let us be so wise as in good earnest to be afraid of those terrible judgements which God useth to inflict for mercies abused nay let us prove more ingenuous and with these in the Text let us walk in the fear of the Lord for these favours vouchsafed and injoyed for at the same time God is fearful in praises as well
as our Translators do The Comfort of the holy Ghost in which sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mâ—st commonly taken in the New Testament it runn's more smoothly and is understood more easily and so I shall crave leave to take it and accordingly the meaning is that they conversing as in Gods fear so in the comfort and joy of the Spirit viz. which he worketh and maintaineth felt in their hearts and expressed to one another and to all in their lives they thereupon were edified themselves and were multiplied by the accession of others The Second thing therefore which we have now to do is to shew that as it was here with these happy Christians in the Text so it is incumbent on us now in this time of our peace to indevour to walk in the comfort of the holy Ghost This the Scripture elsewhere calleth the walking in the light of Gods countenance as Psal 89. 15 16. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk ô Lord in the light of thy countenance and in thy name They shall rejoyce all the day That joyfull sound signifieth the presence of God with his people as the sounding of the trumpets did in the Law when they went out to battell When therefore Gods people hear and take notice of such a joyfull sound so that as Balaam said Numb 23. 21. God is with them and the shoute of a King is among them as over-mastering their enemies and giving them rest and peace then they are to walk and march on in the light of his countenance so as in his name to rejoyce all the day By it we should be able to do as much in the darkest night as Job saith when Gods candle show upon his head by his light he walked through darkness Job 29. 3. but with how much more joy in God when in a brighter day the Sun of righteousness shineth out in brighter beams of love and mercy In outward peace we should have inward joy and spiritual comfort in temporal Psal 18. 19. refreshments and when in times of peace we may walk abroad at large we should have hearts inlarged to walk as in the fear of the Lord so in the comfort of the holy Ghost First that this tcomfort Reas 1 may qualify that Fear and characterize and evidence it to be the fear of God when joyned with the peace and comfort and joy of the holy Ghost a slavish fear hath torment saith the Apostle 1 John 4. 18. and therefore no joy but in heavenly and more ingenuous tempers Godly fear and spiritual joy know the way how to meet and imbrace and uphold one the other Natural fear contracteth the heart but an holy fear inlargeth it Isa 60. 5. in those happier days of the Church it is said Thy heart shall fear and be inlarged when taken with a reverential awe and admiration of Gods wonderfull goodness then most inlarged in joyfull praises and thanksgivings So it is and will be most fully in heaven God no where else so reverentially feared nor no where so much rejoyced in and praysed such a blessed heavenly temper we should be aspiring to here below to fear God and his goodness Hos 3. 5. and to rejoyce in his goodness Nehem. 9. 25. together Then especially we ought to fear him that our joy may not prove light and wanton and yet even then to rejoyce in him that our fear may manifest it self not to be slavish but filial becoming such blessed children of so great and good a Father Thus first in times of rest and peace we should walk in the comfort of Gods Spirit to qualify that former fear Secondly to answer and to Reas 2 suite with our present peace and so it proveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a duty Eccles 3. 11. in its season which maketh every thing beautifull God expecting that his severall dispensations should be intertained with sutable affections and deportments In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity Eccles 7. 14. consider and as there is a time to weep so there is a time to laugh Eccles 3. 4. And what time more fit for that then when God smiles As it is said of the Jewes upon the restoring and settling of Jerusalems peace That they rejoiced because God had made them to rejoice Neh. 12. 43. The contrary hereunto is one kinde of taking Gods name in vain in crossing one of those ends which he intendeth in bestowing such mercies which is that we should serve the Lord with joyfulnesse and gladnesse of heart for the abundance of all things Deut. 28. 47. and to delight our selves in the abundance of peace Psal 37. 11. which being neglected Gods end is frustrated and so his Name is taken in vain for that is in vain which falleth short of its end And therefore it is that there are so many and frequent commands of God to his people Israel to rejoice Deut. 12. 7 12. 18. 14. 26. 16. 11. 27. 7. before him in their Festivals and in every good thing which he gave them Deut. 26. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 16. 15. Thou shalt surely or onely rejoice Now this a sowre lowring either out of discontent or dejectednesse wholely frustrateth and takes out as to us the sweetnesse of Gods goodnesse by the bitternesse of our spirits For what good will a costly rich suite do on his back all whose bones are broken within and although it be never so fair weather above head yet deep foul way will make but uncomfortable travelling and therefore such uncomfortablenesse of spirit under such chearing providences is as sutable as a mourning suite on a marriage day or fasting on a Festivall or on a Lords day in the Die dominico jejunium nâ—sas ducimus Tertul. de corona Milit cap. 3. esteem of the primitive Christians It shutteth out clear day-light that we may mope in the dark and sendeth up foggs from a muddled heart to obscure the clear Sun-shine This Nehemiah forbad his people and would have them be of good cheer on a good day and told them that the joy of the Lord would be their strength Neh. 8. 9 10. God would have our hearts keep time with his hand when there is peace without would have aâ— answerable serenity within Job expected that his bed should comfort him Job 7. 11. and so they here in the Text when they had rest they walked as in the fear of the Lord so in the comfort of the holy Ghost And it s well said in the comfort Reason 3 of the holy Ghost that it might not onely be sutable to their outward peace but that it might also sanctifie it and spiritualize all the comfort and joy which they had in it For otherwise most commonly in outward peace and prosperity we are ready to take comfort enough and in some kindes and cases too much as we shall see more afterward in the application
whose joy in God addeth wings to their hands and maketh their feet sparkle for haste as we have it in Ezekiels vision even so would this oyle Ezek. 1. 7 8. of gladnesse oyle our wheels in any way that God should send us and in particular in this great work of building up and edifying the Church of Christ 1. Whether it be in helping up and settling his House and Ordinances for it never goeth faster up than when his servants lay the foundations of it with joyful shoutings and praises as it was Ezr. 3. 11. and so at last bring forth the top-stone of it with like shoutfull acclamations crying Grace Grace to it as we finde it Zech. 4. 7. So then in that second Temple as before the people were joyfull and glad of heart in the dedication of the first Temple 1 Kin. 8. 66. as the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off when the walls of it were afterward built up and finished Nehem. 12. 43. Thus under the Law And in the beginning of the Gospel they were these that here in the Text walked thus in the comfort of the holy Ghost who were the first happy promulgers of it And blessed Paul though he came in to this work after them yet in this as in all else he came no whit behinde them But he that laboured more abundantly then 1 Cor. 15. 10. they all was as his story and Epistles every where testifie as chearfull rejoicing yea triumphing 2 Cor. 2. 14 in God as any Which in part may be the reason why more ordinarily Gods Ministers are lesse foiled with uncomfortable dejections and more inlarged with the consolations of his Spirit then divers others viz. That they may be in better case more effectually to comfort others 2 Cor. 1. 4. and more ably to help up the house of God in the more lively dispensation of his Ordinances 2. Or if we consider the edification of the Church in the building up of our selves in our most holy faith and the Graces of Gods Spirit truely the comfort of the holy Ghost is a very great heartner and furtherer of those graces which as sweet flowers open themselves and flourish most in this happy Sunshine but too often close up and droop and hang down the head in a cloudy rainy day so that if this part of the Churches edification consist in pulling down the old building and setting up the new in our establishment and growth in grace and mortification of sin nothing more effectually conduceth to it then this joy and comfort 1. Nothing more furthereth the mortification of sin and corruption Repentance indeed and godly sorrow doth very much this way whilest it maketh us sensible of the loathsomness and bitterness of sin but this joy and comfort of the spirit doth more by its presenting us with the unconceiveable sweetness of Gods favour and grace in Christ as Paul when he had been wrapped up to heaven was then most impatient of a thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12. In heaven where there is all joy there is no sin and had we here more of heavenly joyes we should be less troubled with sinfull corruptions these spirituall comforts would so satisfie yea swallow us up with delight in them that we should not need the supply of any sensuall or sinfull contentments but they would make us despise them as low poor and empty yea abhor them as most loathsome and abominable in themselves especially to us then when we are ravished with more high and holy and heavenly delights such foggs would quite vanish in the Noon-day Sun and this Summers heat would dry up even the springs of these polluted streams When a peaceable Solomon is setled on the Throne all enemies are subdued 1 King 5. 4. and 9. 21. and never more than when we are setled and established in the peace of God and the comfort of his Spirit are our corruptions mortified 2. Or our Graces confirmed and increased The fruits of the spirit saith the Apostle Gal. 5. 22 23. are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance See what a duster there is of them but mark how love joy and peace are set in the head of them as animating actuating and giving life to all the rest The cheerfull Christian is the fruitfull Christian most agile and active for God And although in his more nimble speed he may have oftner trips yet the melancholick spirit though it 's possible he may have fewer yet usually they are more sad and heavy falls The sad Christian may by reason of his watchfulness feldome do evill but the cheerfull Christian by reason of his activeness usually doth the most good When the Sun of righteousness thus ariseth on us with healing in his wings we then go forth and grow as calves of the stall Mal. 4. 2. not for wantonness but for lively activity So in nature our cheerfull youth is the growing and active age and part of our life whereas sad old age sitteth still shrinks up and groweth but it 's downward But as to the life and vigour of Grace blessed bee God that the aged decrepit Christian may bee a hearty old man and his setting Sun may shine bright and warm so that he may be warm at heart in that cold winter of his old age the comforts of Gods Spirits in the decay of all other naturall vitall and animall Spirits may be then greater then ever and thereupon his Graces more lively then ever before and so this plant of righteousness which shot up so in the spring doth still grow even in winter and brings forth more fruit in old age and is fat and Psal 92. 14. flourishing and so like the Crocodile groweth as long as he liveth and the more peace and joy and comfort of the Spirit that he hath the more grace he hath the good old man thriving well with so good a Nurse the more fruit he beareth and the more sweetness and less harshness it hath and thereby this sweet comfort doth not only thus help us to edifie our selves but Which is the 3d part of the edification of the Church it much helpeth us also to edifie others For as in Nature grief and sadness make's us heavy and listless to stirre abroad it contract 's the spirits whilest joy and cheerfulness dilate's them and send 's them out so here whilest the drooping sinner sitteth moping in a corner and the sorrowfull Christian is retired in private with Ephraim bemoaning himself Ier. 31. 18. and weeping over his own sins the cheerfull Beleever inlivened and inlarged with the comforts of the holy Ghost with Elihu is Iob. 32. 18 19. full and must have vent is lively and so becomes active to do good to others as well as to himself and as the forehorse with the bells lead's on the rest of the Teame Thus David as the choragus with the voice of joy and praise went in the head of the multitude that kept
can perfectly rejoice in that person who is not sufficiently and perfectly possessed of that thing in which he most rejoiceth 4. It is the signe and evidence of a good conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. that our debts are discharged when we can be so merry and that we have no inward gripings when we have so cheerfull a countenance 5. It is that which will inable us to service Neh. 8. 10. 6. And render both us and it amiable and acceptable both to God and man For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men saith the Apostle Rom. 14. 18. And those things which he so commendeth in the 17. v. immediatly going before you shall read to be righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost 7. In which he there saith the kingdom of God consisteth most fully in the state of glory where there is all joy and no grief where David doth not groan nor Psal 6. 6. Isa 38. 14. Mat. 26. 75. Hezekiah chatter nor Peter weep bitterly Sighs are then turned into Hallelujahs most fully I say in the kingdom of glory hereafter But very comfortably yea and gloriously now also in the estate of grace where righteousnesse is the root and peace the pleasant blossom and joy the sweetest fruit Make we therefore sure of the first that we begin with it but rest not till we attain to the last till we be possessed of all that which this blessed Kingdom consists in For if Kings will fight and meaner men will sue for the least part of their kingdom and inheritance why should not we as earnestly sue to God and fight against all the powers of darknesse for the whole of ours not onely for righteousnesse but also for peace and joy in the holy Ghost But here that last clause must especially be taken notice of and answerable care taken that it be the joy of the holy Ghost which the kingdom of God there we see in part consists in and so here it was comfort but the comfort of the holy Ghost which these Churches in the Text walked in which leadeth me to the consideration of The second part both of our sin Vse 2 and duty for we live in too merry Our Sin a world in which although there be too little of the comfort and joy of the holy Ghost yet there is too too much of other mirth and jollity Hilary somewhere distinguishes of a Palace and a Prison joy Not onely kings and great ones can be merry in their Palaces but even condemned malefactors can in their prisons sometimes make a desperate mad merriment and frollick immedidiatly before their execution as we see in the example of Belshazzar Dan. 5. and the rich Glutton in the Gospel Luke 12. 91 20. most joviall at their feasts the very same night that they were called to their last great reckoning Particularly There is a feather-joy as when two fools who are used to be painted alwayes laughing make themselves sport in blowing a feather from the one to the other to which I cannot but compare the vain froth of your Jokes and leasts as in other places so especially in the Universities and this both in private meetings and publick Schools without which Sales in this wanton age all exercises a most are accounted insipid and this not onely by Juniors but also by others whose greater standing should perswade them to give better example for the honour of God and of the University These which savour onely and that so rankly of the vanity and rottennesse of our hearts are for certain none of the Divine Spirits breathings Do you in your consciences think that these vain jeasts and merriments have the least savour of the comfort of the holy Ghost which these best Christians walked in had their communications one with another been at the rate of these our vain and frothy jeastings the vying and bandying of which is like Solomons Prov. 21. 6. vanity tossed to and fro of those that seek death they might have gathered company enough to them but it would have been no gathering of Churches as the Text here calls these but as Abimelecks Judg. 9. 4. was of light and vain persons and if by them they might have been multiplied yet surely not so as therewith to be edified There is a Tavern or more profane mirth in drinking and roaring and revelling and in stead of another Minstrell David must Psal 69. 12. be the song of the drunkards nor can the Philistines be merry unless Samson be made the fool in Iudg. 16. 25. the Play unless they scoff and jear the wayes and servants of God as Mr Greenham saith the fools cannot tell how to be merry and then the Devill is merry with them for company But what not merry without abusing their hoste This some must dearly pay for when a reckoning is called for or they rather called to make it Then they will be off from their merry pinnes and will find that this was very far from being the comfort of the holy Ghost wherein and whereby that good Spirit and our comforter was grieved and holinesse scoffed and laughed at And the like we may say of all those joyes and comforts which men take in any sinfull wayes and practises as in this kind Esau comforted himself in his thoughts of revenge Gen. 27. 42. The King of Israel was made glad with lyes Hos 7. 3. And when the Chaldeans could oppresse it 's said that then they rejoiced and were glad Hab. 1. 11. But as the Lord said of his peoples idolatries Should I have comfort in these Isa 57. 6. So may such say to these their Idols but can we have comfort in these which provoke God and greive his Spirit and for which we our selves also must grieve either here bitterly or in Hell eternally That was a smart expression of the Jesuite Cotton in one of his Epistles to Chamier Non est mi Chamire non est Salus ruere in Epist Iesuit pag. 97. sempiternum interitum alacriter It is no true mirth thus to go leaping merrily into hell It is no comfort of the Spirit which grieves the Spirit no joy of the holy Ghost that is thus fed with such unholy practises And then as Joab asked David Why delightest thou in this thing 2 Sam. 24. 3. canst thou give a good reason for it Me thinks this is a very strong one against it That in any thing wherein God giveth thee leave to rejoyce and take comfort thou not onely mayest but thou oughtest before thy setting upon it to pray to him for a blessing upon it and afterwards to return him thanks and praise for it But canst thou darest thou do so in these thy sinfull delights although thou beest so sensual and profane as to make bold with them yet I hope thou art not become so impudently bold and desperate as to pray to God or to praise him for them Remember that the
Endlesse Genealogies 1 Tim. 1. 4. like some of our hot disputes about some Punctilio in Chronologie Jewish and profane old wives fables 1 Tim. 1. 4. 4. 7. Tit. 1. 14. It may be not much worse then the dust that is raised about some old Legend or some doubtfull or false passage in Church History strife about words and Logomachies 1 Tim. 6. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 14. Such Tully saith made up the greatest part of the sage Stoicks disputations and how much better are the high and proud contests of those who account themselves the greatest Scholars about their verball Criticismes Oppositions of science falsly so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6. 20. answerable to the ancient and our now present Gnosticks high flown sublimated speculations Foolish and unlearned questions and perverse disputations and contentions about the Law 2 Tim. 2. 23. 1 Tim. 6. 5. Tit. 3. 9. paralleled by our busie Questionists and Querists with whom all that should prove fruit runs up into the blade the power of godlinesse evaporating into debates debates indeed in more senses then one who study to dispute more then to live and that usually about doubtfull Queries whilest they deny confessed and grounded even fundamentall truths or about the Mint and Anise of Church Discipline Mat. 23. 23. and Ceremonies and such Accessories with the neglect of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weightier things of the Law more solid and substantiall truths and such as contain in them the life and power of godlinesse Quantum est in rebus inane O the vanity of corrupt mindes and destitute of the 1 Tim. 6. 5. truth that kindle such fires in chips and straw to set all in a combustion Our Apostle in one 1 Tim. 6. 4. place calleth it a disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our times are very sick of in another an Itch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 4. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as that is seated in the outward parts of the body so this in the tongues and fancies of superficiall Christians who after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers not being able to endure sound doctrine But it is firm ground that a wise man treads hard on good food that a good stomach feeds heartily on that which the faithfull soul must hold fast is the faithful word Tit. 1. 9. The Form of sound Words as here in the Text. First Sani in themselves Sound and not trash Sanantes in their use wholsom 2 and not poison for too many such destructive words and doctrines there are which eat like a canker and subvert the hearers 2 Tim. 2. 14. 17. make them erre from the faith yea so as to make shipwrack of it 1 Tim. 1. 19. 6. 21. Trent Canons are a Form of words but so far from sound ones that some have not amiss expounded Brightman that in Revel 16. 3. of them that they made the sea become as the blood of a dead man that every living thing died in it H. Nichols his Evangelium Regni A Raccovian Catechism the Remonstrants Confession are formes of words too but many of them dangerous ones Many such Formes are in these times of Deformation rather then Reformation minted daily which He would ingage very far who should give his word that they are such words of truth and sobernesse that the soul which hungers Act. 26. 26. after Christ may have wholsome food or Physick from them Some of them swelling the soul with the proud doctrines of perfection and self-exaltation Others nay some of the same 2 Pet. 2. 19 rendring it very caryon and rottennesse with their ranting Principles and answerable practises of Libertinisme and loosnesse Some starving it by corrupting or denying the food of it the holy Scriptures and Sacraments All so poysoning it that you may see those of this diet like Amnon 2 Sam. 13. or some other man who hath some foul disease upon him ill thriving colour fading hair shedding flesh decaying and putrifying even his bones and marrow consuming the very outward profession of godlinesse blasted and the inward power of it not so much neglected as despised witnesses from Heaven against such corrupt doctrines and saddest evidences of Gods wrath from heaven Rom. 1. 18 against such wretched men whilest he thus sends leannesse into Psal 106. 15. their souls But is this wholesome food that they no better thrive by No but such as 1. A true savoury spirit relisheth for although some poyson be so subtile as it 's hardly at first discovered yet as the ear tryeth words and the mouth tastes its meat so Job 12. 1◠34. 3. the sheep of Christs pasture even by a divine instinct discern what food is wholesom and what is otherwise and not onely they who have their senses exercised to discern good and evil but even the Heb. 5. 14. new-born babe hath such a taste as soon as it 's made partaker of the divine nature that it can tell 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 2. 3 4. when the sincere milk of the word is adulterated though it may be it cannot tell wherein or wherewith as that godly Christian who had a better heart then head had his spirit rising against something which he heard in a Sermon but he could not tell why which afterward was made out to him to be very corrupt doctrine and I think He said not amisse who said that in judging doctrines and practises he gave much though not to vain Enthusiasmes yet to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or propension of the spirits of sober believers for although the Scripture be the Rule or the Pole-starre yet the spirits of the faithfull savingly touched from heaven point to it so that it is likely to be an unsavoury or poysonous weed which the flock of Christs sheep generally will let stand and not feed on and I should much suspect that either Doctrine or practise which the hearts of the godly universally have an inward Antipathy against as on the contrary It seemed good to the holy Ghost and us was the ground and tenor of a Synodical decision in the best times Act. 15. 28. and proportionably the hearty complacential closing of those who have the Spirit of God though not in the same kind or measure which those had is a great help and a good guide to a right judgment of discretion and to this conclusion that it 's like to be wholsome food which healthfull sound men do generally and in a manner naturally relish and feed on 2. Especially that which they recover and gain health and strength and so thrive by It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere milke which the new-born babe batten's and growe's by 1 Pet. 2. 2. Jerichoes waters were healed when the 2 King 2◠21. Lands barrenness was removed and the Sun of righteousnenss is then risen with healing in his wings when they who are under his beams and influence go
forth and grow as calves of the stall and Mal. 4. ◠they are planted in the house of the Lord who flourish in the Courts Psal 92. 13 14. of our God and still bring forth fruit even in old age and are fat and flourishing As on the contrary it is but bad soile in which good plants are starved or cankered Is it likely to be wholesome diet which men otherwise well and healthfull do not thrive on But it is no other then heavens shine and showers that make the plants of righteousness grow and bud and flourish and bring forth fruit for I cannot in this respect assent to the Remonstrants dictates Ex fructibus aestimandi sunt homines non semper doctrina it 's a good tree our Saviour Mat. 7. 17. tells us which bringeth forth good fruit and the same may be said of good doctrin too and al though by the corruption of mens hearts good doctrine may not al wayes bring forth good fruit in their lives yet it 's bad doctrine which naturally bringeth forth what is bad and and abominable But wholsome food even the bread of life let us ever esteem that by which the man of God liveth and thriveth cheerfully doth and suffereth Gods will and constantly holdeth on in Gods way and in the strength of it with Elijah 1 King 19. 8. walketh 40. days and 40. nights through the wilderness of this world till he come to the mount of God In a word that is sound doctrine which a sound heart relisheth and thrives by But because man liveth not by bread only Matth. 4. 4. but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God it is not sufficient that these sound words have mans approbation if not withall Gods institution that as they are acceptable words so also words of truth words of the wise Eccles 12. 10 11. but withall given by one Shepheard Which leads to the 3d. particular 3. Which thou hast heard of me in the Text viz. the Speaker by whom they were delivered in those words which thou hast heard of me Non à quocunque magistro as Lombard and Espencaeus paraphrase it not from every dogmatizing Master but from an Apostle of Christ infallibly directed by the Spirit of Christ Such truths as have been delivered to us by Christ himself the Prophets and Apostles immediately inspired by the Spirit of God and now recorded in the Scriptures of truth either expressed in them or plainly and directly by good and strong consequence drawn from them these are those words and formes of sound words which we are to hold fast and abide by as a light to our feet Psal 119. 105. 2 Pet. 1 19. the rule of our faith and life Gal. 6. 16. and therefore called Canonical the Foundation on which we are to build Ephes 2. 20. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mould of doctrine into which we are to be cast Rom. 6. 17. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Form of knowledge and truth by which we are to be informed No other fallible Land-mark but the holy Scriptures Card and Compass and Pole-star which we are to steer our course by if we would not make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience These these onely are the words of this life Act. 5. 20. what ever therefore either they expressely affirm or is from them soundly and directly gathered and commended to us whether by whole Churches or particular Persons although they be not expressed wholly in Scripture words yet if according to the Analogy of faith for the further clearing of Scripture sense and the better discovering of errors and heresies as they arise we willingly accept and carefully hold fast But what ever Creeds Canons Confessions Constitutions Catechismes c. either of private men or of whole Churches yea of that Church which now nameth it self Catholick shall obtrude upon us any thing directly or by good consequence contrary to the Scripture in any thing yea or but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides what the Gal. 1. 9. 10. Scripture teacheth us in the parts and essentials of Gods worship or in any thing in doctrine or practise pretended as necessary to salvation eadem facilitate contemnitur Hieronym in Matth. qua probatur we stick not easily to reject it and being backed with the Apostles authority to pronounce him whether man or Angel Anathema who shall teach and impose it and in hoc sensu we particularly especially reject 1. All humane unwritten Traditions 2. All feigned Divine Revelations For humane unwritten Traditions Bellarmine indeed applieth Traditions De verbo Dei non scripto cap. 5. to them this Text and maketh them at least a part of that Depositum in the following verse nor can I deny but that Chrysostom upon the Text and other Greek Interpreters after their manner following him run their descant upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thou hast heard as relating to what Paul had delivered to Timothy by word of mouth from which Canus loc com lib. 3. Corn. à Lapide Estius Alii in Textum Popish writers take a rise to cry up their unwritten Traditions which being the strongest stake in their rotten hedge they most highly cry up and most earnestly contend for In their Elogiums which they give them they are their Homericum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Antidote against all infections Lydius Lapis by which they will try all doctrines Sacrum Thesei filum safely to guide you in all Labyrinths and Meanders Gladius Goliath non est similis ei the sword of their Goliah Pope to offend and strike down all opposors Ajacis Clypeus to defend them and to ward off all blows from eheir enemies Nay Fidei fundamentum the very foundation of their Popish faith and the onely foundation of it so far as Popish which if overturned their Babel cometh down and take but away what partly we hold with them agreeable to Scripture and what they maintain only by Tradition and what is besides left of Popery would be a poor thin nothing and therefore here they fight tanquam pro aris focis or if you will we may leave out the tanquam Elabor andum est ut hic locus quà m diligentissimè Loc. com lib. 3. cap 6 ad fiuem explicaretur muniretur saith Canus and good reason when he had before cap. 3. said Traditiones majorem vim habere ad Haereticos refellendos quà m Scripturas good reason that they should so earnestly fight for Traditions because by them they can better confute us whom they call Hereticks then by Scriptures We kindly thank him for this fair acknowledgement they are not so much the Scriptures as their Traditions which they must knock us poor Hereticks down with By which they rather appear to be the Hereticks for of such Tertullian of old said Lib. de Resur carni nec stare se posse si de solis