A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL Being the last Sermon preached at COURT By the Right Reverend Father in God BENJAMIN LANEY Late Lord Bishop of ELY LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West end of S. Pauls 1675. Imprimatur THO. TOMKYNS Ex. Aed Lambethanis Maii. 18. 1675. A SERMON Preached Before His MAJESTY AT WHITE-HALL GAL. vi v. 7.8 Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting BEfore we look into the particulars of the Doctrine of this Text we may from the Preface Be not deceived learn so much of the nature of it that we are either in danger to be deceived or in great danger if we should be deceived or both It will therefore be necessary first to implore the aid and assistance of Gods grace which is the best Guide to lead us through the intricate ways of Errour and Deceit c. The Text it self seems not at first sight to answer the expectation which the Preface hath raised of Danger to us It hath but one purpose but that is carried upon two Propositions One General That whatsoever a man sows he shall reap The other Particular of what shall be reaped from the Flesh or from the Spirit For the General I must confess it is a truth wherein few or none are deceived not any Gardener or Plough-man never so simple that looks to reap what he hath not sown God gave that vertue in the Creation to all living things to bring forth after their kind And our Saviour himself made use of it to a higher purpose we cannot gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figgs of Thistles So far we may possibly digest this truth in the General and fear not much to be deceived but when we come to Particulars where it touches our own flesh and spirit though it be as true as the General and must be so being contained in it yet because in this case it mixeth with our own Interest and Affection what we wish may not be true we are easily misled to think it so To this therefore at least the Caution in the Preface is proper and necessary though not in the General For this reason I shall lay that aside as lefs liable to fraud and bestow our care at this time upon this to which the Apostle directs his where we are in danger to be deceived He that soweth to the flesh c. And here our first care must be that we be not deceived in the meaning of the words which look so like a Description of the Day of Judgment that some Expositors have taken them for it and to be the same with that 2 Cor. 5.10 We shall all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every man may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad I do not refuse this Exposition for any danger that might come by mistaking for it would howsoever lead us to a point of great consequence and not a little necessary for these times in which our beloved Liberty hath rifled so far into the Mysteries of Religion and digged so much about the Foundation that the House is in danger where they say all depends upon the report of others who know as little as our selves whether there be a Heaven or Hell or Day of Judgment or no. The detection of so dangerous a Deceit had been necessary if the occasion had been as fit I shall therefore leave it to other Texts which are more proper for it then this is knowing well that Truth receives not more prejudice any way then when it is set upon weak and uncertain Foundations Now the reason why I take not that sense in here is because the words will not fairly bear it If it had been sowing the sins and lusts of the flesh whereupon the last Judgment shall be given it had been clear for that but the words are to the Flesh and to the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so must have another meaning And as the Sowing so the Reaping also differs from that at the Day of Judgment for he that sowes to the flesh shall reap corruption and it will be hard to find Everlasting burnings in that word which naturally signifies no more then privation of Life or Being Now they that give themselves over all their lives to the lusts of the flesh without remorse would be content with this doom and hear no quit all scores with Dying if they might more of it What other sense then will the words more properly bear To the flesh and to the spirit imply rather the soil wherein they are to sowe then the seed and are as two Fields in which God sets all men to work Every one hath two Ploughs going one to the flesh and another to the spirit For the Flesh first it must be taken abstractly from the sins of the flesh though it be hard parting them as the best of us know yet we may consider them apart and so we saw them in our Saviour who took our flesh upon him that is our natural and civil condition of life he had all the infirmities of the one except sin and the burthens of the other he was born under the Law and paid obedience and tribute to the Civil Power This is that flesh which God hath given us as a stock to be imployed but upon account He hath not given us our natural lives to fling away at our pleasures by disorders distempers or quarrels Nor hath he put us here into the World into the societies of men to live in want and contempt but to improve our industry to the best advantage both to our selves and others and may by that attain to some luster and splendor of riches honour and command to which no oppression or extortion or any lucky sin hath advanced us and that is though we have brought no corruption into the flesh yet we shall reap corruption from it This is a Doctrine which our daily experience abundantly confirms by the frequent turnings changes and vicissitude of things But that our desires should be so unchangeably fixed upon things so mutable must be some great delusion or in the Apostles phrase in a like manifest case a bewitching not to trust our own eyes in what we see every day But because though the World be full of Deceivers we are still the greatest deceivers of our selves let us take it upon the credit of others and those the wisest Kings Solomon and his Father David who may be the better trusted in this for that neither of them were any great enemies to the flesh Solomon when he had run through all the glories pleasures and delights of the world never any King drank deeper in that cup yet he at last wearied sate down to
write a Book to teach others that all was Vanity and that is but another word to signifie Corruption And David as well of observation as experience I my self have seen the ungodly in great power flourishing like a green Bay tree I went by and lo he was gone I sought him and his place could no where be found Psal 37.36 And least we should think this the portion onely of the ungodly Psal 49.9 Wise men also die and perish together as well as the ignorant and foolish and leave their riches for others and it may be not that neither For riches saith the Wise man Prov. 23. make themselves wings and fly away from the owner And at another time the Owner too makes himself wings and flies away from them All things in the World are upon the Wing And it is a strange deceit the Prophet observes vers 11. And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever And to give themselves a kind of Immortality they call them after their own names But they are oft times deceived in that too so far doth Corruption eat into all our designs The lewd people will be the Gossips and name the Child in despite of the Father and that little to his liking or honour We are not sure to enjoy that poor vanity to leave a name behind us upon that which cost us so much care and expense Lastly How well soever he speeds here and that the Glory of his house be increased yet this will be certain vers 17. He shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth neither shall his pomp follow him I do not think by this or any thing that can be said more to make you out of love with the flesh it is neither possible nor needful I shall only for a conclusion of this first part beg in the Apostles name that ye would not be deceived as all are who give more for a thing then it is worth To spend all our time and cost upon that which will be worth nothing or as ill no better then rottenness and corruption I make the more haste through this Field of the Flesh that we may stay the longer in that of the Spirit where our labour and tillage will be to better purpose for ye see the best that can be hoped for from the other is but to flourish as a Flower of that Field and that Psal 103.19 as soon as the wind goeth over it is gone Nullus flos nisi novus Corruption bloweth upon the most florid condition in it But the growth and increase from the field of the Spirit is incorruptible that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.4 for he that soweth c. When we see so great a Harvest and yet so few Labourers in the Field some strange delusion there must be wheresoever it lies we must confess the Apostles caution here was no more then needs Be not deceived God is not mocked For is it possible where so good wages are so few should set themselves at work unless they either mistrusted their pay Eternal Life and so mocked God that promised it or mistook the sowing and so deceived themselves Both these would deserve to be well considered but because they who have some diffidence of a life hereafter to come have not the confidence to say so I have not so much spare time as to spend in proving that which they will be ready to say they do not deny I shall therefore now endeavor only to undeceive them if it may be in the vain pretences they make to it in the sowing That here first it will be necessary that whatever else deceives them to see that a misunderstanding of the words give no occasion to it to know what this sowing to the Spirit is and how it comes to make a Title to Everlasting Life for there are no mean Competitors in the same Claim For 1. Christ is the Author of this life For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.4 And 2 Tim. 1.10 Our Lord Jesus Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light 2. Another Competitor with the Spirit is the Gospel that is the immortal seed of this life Being born again by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 It is the Power of God to Salvation 3. Faith puts in to the same Claim The Just shall live by Faith Rom. 1.17 And 1 Tim. 1.16 St. Paul professeth that Jesus Christ had set forth him as a Pattern to all them who should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life Is there yet another way to Everlasting life by sowing to the Spirit It is happy for us that there is any way to it but yet we may be at a loss and confounded where there are so many To remove that fear we must know that all these are but several names of the same thing though in divers appearances and Phases as the Astronomers word is Christ the Gospel Faith and the Spirit do all relate to life everlasting Christ as the Author of it provided all things necessary to it The Gospel as the Register of all that is to be known or done to attain it Faith is our submission and obedience to the Gospel The Spirit is the publisher and preacher of it Ephes 3.5 The mysteries of Christ which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as it is now revealed unto the Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit And for this reason the Apostle expresly calls the Gospel the Spirit Gal. 3.3 For whereas they having already embraced the Gospel fell back to Circumcision and other rites of the Law severely charges them with folly Are ye so foolish having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh The Spirit is the Gospel and the Law the Flesh they are so called Heb. 9.10 Carnal Ordinances and the reason why is intimated because they were temporal imposed upon them until the time of Reformation and no longer whereas the Gospel abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 Thus we see that Christ and Faith and the Gospel and the Spirit must all meet in the title to everlasting life if we separate and divide them we are certainly deceived it is a fallacy à compositis ad divisa dividing those things which the Spirit hath joyned together And by this we may trie and examine the sufficiency of their Pleas apart and divided First For those that make their title to life from Christ alone that they are Christians at large not to be tied up by any particular rules of Faith or Obedience that is to divide Christ from his Gospel against his own will who promised to reward them that forsook any thing for his sake and the Gospel he joins them both together Mark 10.29 and will not own them for his friends that do not all that he commands them John 15. and they shall find
10.8 is that which we preach and that was the Gospel Our particular election may be written in the Book of Life in Heaven but it is no where to be found written in the Book of the Gospel True Faith is that which we preach saith the Apostle but this Faith of Election no man can preach for who can say and say truly of his own knowledge that I or you or any man by name is elected Now if this Faith cannot come by hearing what will become of our Sermons indeed of any thing that can be called Religion or Sowing to the Spirit for that leads us a way to Heaven through believing some mysteries we understand not through many a heavy and hard law of mortification and denying our selves whereas this Faith cuts off all that and may well go for sowing to the flesh For first in favour to this it shrinks up all the duties of the Gospel into Faith and then all Faith into one Article and that not in the Creed neither and something they pare from that too it works not as an act which we may call ours for that will prejudice Gods free Grace but as a relation to Christ and in the Logick Schools it is disputed whether Relations have any real being or no. And thus all hangs upon a Pins point and leaves not a Corn to be sown to the Spirit We may therefore conclude that this and the other Pretenders are all deceived mistake the Field of the Spirit which is the Gospel and sowe quite beside it It will be now time to enter into the Field it self and see what work the Spirit there sets us to It is a large Field and reaches as far as the Gospel indeed too large to be passed through at one time But this as a great Country may be seen in a little Chart. 1. One of the works and a chief design of the Spirit in the Gospel is a godly righteous and vertuous life 2. And a second is like to it A right Faith in the Mystery of Christ and Salvation 3. A third is a devout and reverent worship of God in Prayers Praises and Confessions 4. A fourth is a careful use of the auxiliaries of Grace Sacraments Fastings and other acts of Humiliation 5. Fifthly Then we have the adorning all these with comely and decent Ceremonies This last though far from the Heart of Religion is yet within the Body of it as well as the rest One thing more I have not yet named which seems at a farther distance from the great duties of the Gospel and yet hath the advantage above the rest that it is here expresly called sowing to the Spirit and what that is we shall learn from the Verse precedent where 6. The Apostle exhorts him that is taught in the Word to communicate to him that teacheth in all good things If there be any coherence in the discourse any reason in the rational Particle for For he that soweth unto the Spirit The communicating our Goods for the Gospel is true sowing to the Spirit This duty therefore together with those already named are all Sowing to the Spirit and have a joint tendency to life everlasting For the meaning is not that any of them apart make a full Title to it but according to their quality and degree carry us their part in the way towards it It is therefore but a piece of fraud and Sophistry to discountenance one duty by setting up a greater against it as the manner is that the main purpose of the Gospel looks another way And so run down one duty with another the less with the greater as Great Persons do their Inferiors This is not onely a Deceit but plain mocking of God who commands both and a setting him against himself I note this Fallacy in common that it be not made use of here on our particular to mislead us from the due regard ought to be given to the maintenance of those that minister in the Gospel though it be not the accomplishment of the great dutie◠〈◊〉 â—ath a remote instuence upon all Sâ—â—â—â— in as low a place in Gods House as you please but for the Spirits sake let it not be turned out of dores I single out this duty from the rest that may deserve our care more and need it less It hath fewer friends to speak for it I confess but the true reason why I do it is because it was the particular occasion of the Apostles delivering this doctrine and in this I shall keep both a better measure with the Time and with the Apostles intention and it is a point too wherein we are as much deceived as in any Our worldly Goods by nature and kind are Carnal yet being sown to the Spirit become spiritual they are infranchised and incorporate into the Family and Retinue of the Spirit they alter their property not by imprinting any real indelible character into them as envy and ill-will objects but giving onely the respect that persons of low birth have when they are adopted or affianced into a more noble Stock When the Flesh serves the Spirit it is advanced above her condition the Volatile nature of the Flesh is fixed by the Spirit and helps to make up the title to everlasting life This is warrant enough for me to make a Suit and reward enough for those that grant it That for Gods sake and the Spirits when the Church Revenue comes into your thoughts to cast an eye if not of duty of compassion upon such miserable places where there is but too much necessity for it I can speak of my own knowledge that there are many hundreds of Parishes in this Kingdom where there is not so much yearly maintenance for serving the Cure as one of your Foot-men stand you in If so great a scandal to Religion and real obstruction to it be in these indigent Times too heavy a burthen to be removed and therefore unseasonable also to be moved Though this be no time of sowing to the Spirit it can be no season to pull up that which hath been already sown by the devotion of others 'T is strange that the Church maintenance should be thought to hang so loose more then other mens Estates as that any man when the sullen humour takes him can think to blow them away with a Motion Let the Church Lands be sold If they were held onely upon Frank almoign it is as firm a Tenure as any is in Law But it is more strange that they should think to mock and elude God who once declared it to be a robbing of him also When he charged the Jews for detaining Tithes and Offerings from the Priests of that Altar What reason can be given that the Ministers of a better Covenant should have a worse title There are not many Estates in the World besides which God himself owns this bears the Image and Superscription of the Spirit It must be a desperate boldness to break into his peculiar to stir
any thing that is sown in his Field And that it may not seem strange that Carnal things should be thus advanced to spirituals for by a like conversion Spiritual things degenerate into Carnal This likewise will be worth our observation Religion is out of doubt a Spiritual thing yet if that spread and run into Schisms it grows Carnal For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal 1 Cor. 3.4 So Rom. 16.17 They who cause divisions among you serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies if any thing be flesh sure the Belly is If there be so much malignance and sowreness in Schisms and Divisions to turn Religion into Flesh what shall we think of a Religion in Design that is made up all of Sects and Divisions that must be all Flesh I say no more it is in private Design onely as when St. Paul charged the Corinths with strife and schism it was but upon report onely It is reported saith he by them of the house of Cloe that there are contentions among you So I say onely it is reported from a house of Cloe how these Schisms shall be disposed of A Church shall be contrived that will give room and Liberty to them all But if the Church must be new modelled for their sakes they must new model the Rules of Wisdom and Government too For by that it was ever thought necessary that the People should conform to the Laws of the Church never that a Church should conform to the humours of the People This is so irregular a thing that it will not be labour lost to take a little farther notice of it And first that you may know it by name it is to be called a Comprehensive Church a name I must confess not unfit for the purpose though I think it might have been better called a Drag-net that will fetch in all kind of Fish good or bad great or small there will be room enough for Leviathan to take his pastime therein But how shall the Church be drawn out to such a bredth and latitude That will be no hard matter to do It is but pulling down the Old Walls the Confession of Doctrine and Canons of Discipline Lay all common and then no doubt there will be room enough for all But will these prove so good company when they are in for whose sake this should be done Will they not rather give us cause to fear what the poor Trojans found when they broke down the old Walls of their City to let in a Horse with a Comprehensive Belly that carried armed enemies enough to ruine them and their City And least we should think this done for love of their company they let us know they have no meaner inducement to it then that which governs all the World Gain and Profit advancement of Trade and increase of Money This is plain dealing they profess to sowe the Spirit to the Flesh They will make a Church that shall make us rich But can there be any blame or harm in this Can we not be Religious and rich too I will not dispute that if we bring riches up to Religion But I will dispute it and deny it too if we bring Religion down to Riches Godliness may be Gain but Gain will never be Godliness Riches may be a good Nurse to cherish it but an ill Mother to bring it forth for whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh It is the greatest dishonour that can be to the Spirit to make it serve for Compost onely to lay in the Field of the Flesh But these you say though carnal things may be secondary ends which do not make void the spiritual Peace and Charity are the two Pillars whereon this Church is to be built and they will serve to keep up the Spirit in it We cannot deny but that they are true spiritual things but if both these Pillars should fail there would nothing be left in the Church but Flesh For Peace and Union that which feeds the hope of that is taking down the Walls that divide them that is removing the Confessions and Canons and all will naturally fall in together For answer to this we must distinguish the quality of the persons for whom this room is to be made And they are either such as will be content to leave their faults and errours behind them and to those we shall do well to set our gates wide open and need not pull down our Walls Or they are such as bring their errours animosities and divided judgments along with them And to pacifie these the taking away the Walls will do no good for they bring their Divisions with them into the Bowels of the Church where the flame will be more fierce and dangerous then when it burnt onely without All the benefit can be hoped for by taking away the Confessions and Canons is but to secure them from punishment but leaves them free to all other causes of dissention or rather fortifies and animates them to pursue their differences with more violence Impunity and Authority will not cool their zeal of advancing the Interest of their Sect for it is not Toleration but Mastery they aim at In the mean time our Sowing will be turned into Fighting our Plough-shares into Swords the field of the Spirit into a field of War and thus we shall live in a perpetual storm This is all the hope we have of Peace by it And for Charity we shall find it hath as little to do here It will be neither want of Charity to leave them out nor a work of Charity to take them in 1. It will be no want of Charity to leave them out if by that we condemn them not And condemn them we do not if we keep St. Pauls rule Schismaticks are without the Church we judge not them Those that are without the Church God judgeth 1 Cor. 5.13 They must stand or fall to God And when we do refuse them we do not condemn them to Hell All we say is if they will not go to Heaven our way they shall not go in our company and in truth they cannot 2. It is no work of Charity to take them in with all their faults For though Charity be a good natured Vertue and covers a multitude of sins but when they are not known abroad but cherisheth none that are I could never think it a breach of Charity to condemn Heresie or Schism which are known sins though it be against Charity to condemn any person of either of whose guilt there may be doubt Charity may sometimes absolve the Offender but never the Offence When the Offence is known to us and the Fact avowed by them they cannot be taken in for Charity sake if we love our own quiet and Charity begins at home Now if neither Peace nor Charity have any share in framing this New Church I may for a Conclusion ask the question our Saviour did the Jews concerning John's Baptism Is it from Heaven or of men or which is all one is it from the Flesh or from the Spirit If they shall say from the Flesh all men will adjudge it to Corruption If they shall say from Heaven or from the Spirit I will ask them another question Whether a Church without out Walls can be of Gods making His Church is a garden enclosed Cant. 4.12 And when he planted a Vineyard Esay 5.2 and that was his Church he fenced it in But when he saw it brought forth wild Grapes then he threatens them with this Judgment I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the Wall thereof and it shall be trodden down Can it be wisdom to draw that upon our selves which God would not inflict but in vengeance To make the Field of the Spirit no better then the Field of the Sluggard Prov. 24.31 I went by it and lo it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down Nothing can be liker then Schisms to Thorns and Liberty from Laws to a broken Wall If I had kept my self to the proper work of the Preacher this day which is Palm Sunday I should have carried a Palm to the triumph of our Saviour entring into Jerusalem But finding some so busie in strewing our way with THORNS in stead of PALMS I thought it fitter first to clear the way of them to prepare it this day for a greater Triumph at Easter over Sin Death and Hell I have no more to say but to end as I began Be not deceived God is not mocked That which is dearest to us our own Credit that we be not men deceived and that which ought to be Gods honour that he be not mocked are both engaged in the Truth of this Doctrine that we do not rashly adventure to sowe what we would be loath to reap and unwisely prefer that which will certainly and suddenly fade away before that which will last for ever He that soweth to the flesh c. FINIS A Catalogue of some Books printed for and sold by H. Brome since the dreadful Fire of London to 1675. A Guide to Eternity by John Bona octavo 2 s. Dean W. Lloyd's Sermon before the King about Miracles 6 d. His Sermon at the Funeral of John Lord Bishop of Chester 6 d. His Sermon before the King in Lent 1673. 6 d. The Seasonable Discourse against Popery in quarto 6 d. The Defence of it quarto 6 d. The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome in quarto 6 d. The Papists Apology to the Parliament answered 6 d. Mr. Naylor's Commemoration Sermon for Col. Cavendish 6 d. Mr. Sayers Sermon at the Assizes at Reading 6 d. Mr. Tho. Tannet's Sermon to the scattered Members of the Church 6 d. Mr. Stanhopp's four Sermons on several occasions octavo bound 1 s. 6 d. Papal Tyranny as it was exercised over England for some Ages with two Sermons on the fifth of Nov. by Dr. Du Moulin in quarto 1 s. 6 d. His Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Turner Dean of Canterbury 6 d.