Dust into a Living and Glorious Body as by a double Resurrection from the Dead O! that it may now appear that Jesus hath been this Resurrection that he is the Root out of which you are now the third time sprung up that it is He who is risen in you Then are you risen unto Honor and not unto Shame Then shal you exalt Jesus Christ in his Members Truth and Love in the Presence and Out-shinings of His Heavenly Person as the Head of your Union So shal he be in the midst of you a Head of Union to the Saints and to these Nations You shal go forth as his Angels to gather his Saints from the four winds to which they are dispersed and to Him in you shal the gathering of the People be Suffer him then to display his Banners freely choose him for your only Standard bearer Sin no more against him who hath thus wonderfully appeared unto you Twice lest a worse scattering and death come upon you This is the First Way of Vnion The Second Way Cherish the Spirit as the only Band of Vnion Ephes 4.3 Endeavoring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace The Unity of the Spirit is the Bond of Peace 1 Cor. 12.13 By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body To make way for that which I am to say of the Spirit I have two Cautions to interpose to prevent Objections First I intend not any thing that I shal plead for the Spirit as a pretence to the Flesh I humbly conceive a fleshly licentiousness justified by the name of the Spirit to be if not that sin it self yet the next step to the sin against the Holy Ghost Secondly I would not have the Glory which I give to the Spirit interpreted as a laying aside of the Ordinances or a reflection upon the Forms of Godliness While we have the Life of Christ in these Earthly Bodies and the manifestations of the Spirit in this flesh Ordinances and outward Forms wil be of necessary use Only these Rules are carefully to be observed First That our Ordinances and outward Forms flow naturally kindly and freely from the Spirit Secondly That we behold them in the Light and enjoy them in the Life of the Spirit Thirdly That we rest not in them but make use of them to grow up through them into the invisible and Heavenly things themselves I have premised this to the Second Way which I have propounded for the uniting of the People of God which is this Fix no Principle of Vnion among the Saints but only the Holy Spirit This one Spirit is that which baptizeth us into one body and by its unity preserveth us in the Bond of Peace Give me leave to insert here three Observations Two of which I have often heard made upon these Times One my self have made upon my self Obs 1. As the Spirit in the simplicity and liberty of it hath been held forth and asserted in our Supreme Counsels and Forces for the Bond of our Union so they have prospered they have not been only as stars in a cloudy night now appearing for a little while and then suddenly lost but as the Stars in the Revelation held cleerly forth held unmovably fast in the right hand of Jesus Christ But when they have declined this Interest when they have disowned or confined this Spirit as God is said to have set an ambush in the midst of Edom Moab and Ammon when they came against Jehoshaphat that they divided and destroyed one another so as by an invisible ambush from Heaven have they been broken to pieces Obs 2. When any persons have fixt to themselves any thing visible any thing besides this invisible anointing the blessed Spirit for a principle of Unity a dividing wrathful desolating Spirit hath sprung up into the midst of them All pretended Bonds of Union in this kind have been like the Formal names of Christ and Paul in the mouths of the Sons of Sheva instead of casting out they conjure up a fierce and fiery Spirit These are the Observations which I have heard made by others upon these Times Obs 3. That which I have observed in my self is this While I at any time in any measure have been back-sliding and warping from the simplicity and purity of the Spirit unto Sensuality or Formality of any kind I have found those satisfactions which I have sought like Jonahs Gourd a worm sent into them by which they have been unexpectedly eaten and withered What would I infer from al this Thus much That We should set up the Spirit alone as the Principle of our Unity and so of our Prosperity and so much the rather in that the day of the Spirit is upon us when as the Father hath been glorified in the Son so the Father and the Son wil have their ful and final Glory in the Spirit How long is it since our Lord Jesus told us that the Father sought such Worshippers as should worship him in Spirit and Truth opposing the Spirit to the Letter Truth to the Shadows and figures of Divine Things The Psalmist reciting the story of the Patriarks and the Israelites in the Wilderness hath this passage Psal 105. ver 14 15. He reproved Kings for their sakes then we interpose saying but the sentence follows as a dreadful admonition upon occasion of that example fixt there from the mouth of God for all Powers to the end of the World Touch not my Prophets do mine anointed no harm The Spirit is this anointing This Anointing is that which makes Prophets as it doth Kings and Priests to God It hath been for this Anointing's sake for these Anointed Ones that the Lord hath reproved Princes in the midst of us and gone before us through this Wilderness Es 4.5 It is spoken of the last daies God will create upon the Assemblies of Mount Sion a Cloud by day and a shining fire by night for upon all the Glory shal be a Defence Would you know what this Glory is that thus shal be a Defence upon al the Assemblies in the times of the Gospel St. Peter tels us 1 Pet. 4.14 The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you You to whom God hath given Spiritual Senses and in whom he keeps those hitherto exercised and awake see the glory which rests upon us which is our Pillar of a cloud by day and our shining flame of fire by night the Holy Spirit This hath been this alone is our Guide our Defence our Resting place our Glory is the midst of all the Nations Say not how shal we discern this Spirit As a Cloud by day and a Fire by night so will the Lord make him evident to the seeing Eye and to every one that waits for him To conclude this Particular In the Bowels of Christ and by the Consolations of this Spirit as I am able I earnestly beseech all that cal upon the Name of the Lord Jesus in these Nations together with their
THE TRUE WAY Of Uniting the People of God In These NATIONS Opened in a Sermon Preached in the Chappel at White-Hall Jan. 1. 1659. By PETER STERRY LONDON Printed by Peter Cole Printer and Book-seller at the sign of the Printing-press in Cornhill neer the Royal Exchange 1660. TO THE Christian Reader Christian Reader I Thought not of troubling the Press with this Sermon untill I had that Task imposed upon me by some worthy Persons and Honorable Members of this present Parliament who were Auditors When I have been meditating upon the Works of God with us in these Daies that Scripture hath come into my mind which our Savior propounds to his Apostles as a Cure of their Ambition and a quickening Cordial for their Mutual Love The first shal be last and the last shal be first As the Apothecary beats his rich Spices very a Compositio perfecta per minimas partes smal to the finest pouder then turns them often over from top to bottom from the bottom to the top again that so he may make a perfect mixture of them into one Body Thus the Lord beateth and bruiseth his People in these Nations thus he raiseth up and casteth down he sets them up over the heads he laies them low under the feet of each other by many Changes and Vicissitudes The end of all is that He may hide Pride Ambition and the Love of this World from our Eyes that He may work us through Humility Meekness and Mutual love unto the Unity of the Spirit and the sweet Fellowship of one Mystical Body in our Lord Jesus The little pleasure which I take in as also the little profit which for the most part redounds from Verbal Apologies have made me long silent while thou mayest perhaps have read or heard reported words as having proceeded from me in a publick Sermon which were absolutely untrue both for the form of Expression and the Sense It seems not unfit upon this occasion of appearing in Print nor improper for my present Subject to give thee this Account of my self First It appears to me a very vain thing for any person in this world to determine with an infallible Assurance the state of any person in the next world without a particular infallible and extraordinary Revelation from Heaven in the case which I never pretended to Secondly According to my poor measure of Understanding in the Gospel nothing can more fundamentally subvert the whol Mystery of Christ together with all Evangelical Spiritual Principles and Truths nothing can more directly oppose the Supream Design of the Father the Peace and Comfort of all his Children than to joyn any Creature with our Lord Jesus in the Great Work of his Mediation a principal part whereof his Intercession is the value and Vertue of which Part as of the whol Mediation consists in this That our Lord Jesus our only and ever blessed Mediator and Intercessor is the only true Eternal God of one undivided Essence with the Father and in all things equal to Him I humbly intreat thee Christian Reader to judg of me according to these Maxims and to beleeve that I never did and through Grace hope that I never shall express any thing unsuitable to them But it is good for us to say to all in all Cases as St. Paul saith to the Galatians You have not b Injury is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the privation of some good but the good things of a good man can never be taken from him Maxi. Tyr. injured me I am as you are be you as I am I am as you are I set my soul in your souls stead Be you as I am in the fellowship of the same Grace and Love of the Father in the Unity of the same Spirit through our Lord Jesus in whom I am for his sake Thy Servant PETER STERRY A Sermon Preached in White-Hall Chappel on the Lords day in the afternoon January 1. 1659. Psal 134.3 the latter part of the verse For there the Lord hath commanded the Blessing and Life for evermore THe Subject of this Psalm is the Vnity of Brethren In the first verse you have a Contemplation of the Beauty Profite or Pleasantness of this Unity with a high Admiration Behold how good and how pleasant is is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity This is illustrated by a double Similitude The first is taken from the precious Oyntment upon the Head that ran down upon the Beard even Aarons Beard that went down to the Skirt of his Garment This costly Oyntment was a figure of the Holy Ghost poured forth upon our Lord Jesus our true high Priest and from him as from the Head running down upon his whole Mystical Body and going down even to the lowest Member of Christ which is but as the Skirt of his Garment This Annoynting makes them all One Spirit and from this unity of the Spirit as from a rich Oyntment goes forth a sweet savor of Love Spiritual Delight and Joy into the Nostrils of God the Father our Lord Jesus the Holy Angels and all the Saints This is the sence of the second verse In the third verse you have the second Similitude borrowed from the Dew of Hermon and that Dew that descends upon the Mountains of Sion As these Hills ow all their freshness and flourishing to the Dew or Rain that comes down from Heaven upon them so doth all the Beauty Pleasantness Fruitfulness of the Saints proceed from the Unity of the Spirit After this comes in the Conclusion of the Psalm which like a ful Close in Musick brings a fulness of Blessings along with it There the Lord hath commanded the Blessing even Life for evermore There that is where Brethren dwel together in Vnity there God hath commanded Blessing the fulness of all blessings which according to the Language of the Jews the Holy Scriptures is wont to be expressed by the single term of Life Together with all this goes the Establishment and Everlastingness of these Blessings Life for evermore It is manifest by what hath been spoken that the Brethren here mentioned are the Brethren of our Lord Jesus the Children of God his Father and their Father For among these Brethren alone is the true Vnity every Unity of every other sort of men being only a Conspiracy and Combination of Enmity and upon the Vnity of these Brethren alone is founded the Everlastingness of Life and Blessing The Doctrine which I shal from these words insist upon is this That God hath there ordained Establishment and a Lastingness of Blessing where his People dwel together in Vnity I shal satisfie my self with one full and clear Scripture for the opening and proving of this point 1. John 4.16 God is Love he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God dwelleth in him There is a threefold Love First There is Love in the Fountain which is the Love of God to us the Riches of free Grace Secondly There is Love in the
and hastens the end of all But besides this Solomon hath a Proverb which I humbly pray that it prove not a Prophesie concerning us The Beginning of strife is as the letting out of Waters I know the common interpretation of this Scripture yet may I without wresting apply it to this sence also The People of God in these nations are as a little Medow encompassed on every side with a stormy Sea of raging Spirits at home and abroad The only Sea-wall that defends this Meadow from these multitudes of waters roaring round about it is the Unity of these Brethren in one Spirit If the least breach be in this our Sea-wall and not suddenly made up How will that Sea of domestick Enemies and foraign Nations break in with its waves foaming and roaring upon us untill it have overwhelmed us so that our place shall know us no more To conclude this first part of my Vse God promiseth by Zachariah to pour out upon his Children a Spirit of Grace that they shal see him whom they have pierced and mourn over him O! that the Lord would at this day fulfil this Scripture in the midst of these Nations that he would pour forth upon al the Members of Christ in England Scotland and Ireland such an Enlightning Spirit such a Melting Spirit of Grace that they may see whom they have pierced even their own Heart their own Life the Lord Jesus in their own Bosomes and in the Bosomes of their Brethren while they pierce one another that they may see how they pour Coals of fire rak't from Hel below upon the Head and into the Bosom of that Body of His of which they are al fellow-members and that having our Eyes opened to see this our hearts might be touch't to mourn kindly over this Jesus over our selves and over each other in Him The second Head Thus I have shewn Why we should mourn Now it follows to let you know What we should mourn for I shal divide this into four Particulars First Let us mourn for the Causes of these Divisions St. James teacheth us Jam. 4.1 that Warrs and Fighting among us are from hence even of our Lusts Let every one now go home into his own Soul and where he finds Covetousness Ambition Self-love Love of Pleasure Love of this World or any other Lust let him bring it forth before the Lord and say This is that Fire-brand which I have brought to kindle or encrease this flame of Contention that devours us Then let him give no rest to himself until he have quench't this Fire-brand and contributed to the quenching of the universal Burnings by repentant Tears and the Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 3.3 St. Paul thus expostulates For ye are Carnal For whereas there are amongst you Envying and Strife and Divisions are ye not Carnal and walk as men See the Reason of our Divisions our want of Spirituality our Carnality O that there were a man whose voyce were heard in the ears of the Lord saying If I had been Spiritual if I had walked in the Image and Likeness of God according to the vertues of God according to the Divine Nature I might have been that poor wise man spoken of by Solomon that might have Saved the City of God among us from these Desolations by its Divisions But now Alas I have been carnal and walked as a man I have been so far from suffering injury that I have done wrong Instead of Beleeving all things for Good I have been swift to hear and to beleeve Evill and have rejoyced in the Evill of others which I have heard When I should have born my own Burthen my self and have born my Brother's burthen too I have cast the whol weight of my own burthen upon others til they have been opprest with it but have refused to touch their burthens with my little Finger In the place of blessing those who cursed and praying for those that persecuted me and this way heaping Coals of the Fire of a Spiritual Love from Heaven upon their Heads Have I not cursed those who have blessed persecuted those who have prayed for me and as I have thought any man mine Enemy cal'd for a Fire of wrath and Vengeance from Hell to take hold of him This this Carnality in my Heart and Life is that Seed out of which Strife and War are grown up to this Heigth and Greatness The Living Viper carries a mortal poyson about with him but being dead as Physitians say makes an excellent Antidote and Cordial By being alive in the flesh and in Carnal Principles we are become a generation of Vipers O! that our Hearts broken and Spirits mortified through an Evangelical Repentance and a lively Faith in the Cross of Christ might now through the Grace and Spirit of Christ become saving Antidotes or reviving Cordials to the poor dying cause of God Interest of his People and the whol Three Nations Secondly Let us grieve for having ministred any Occasion to our Contentions The Fire is lodg'd in the Flint and comes forth from that but it is the striking of the Steel upon the Flint which makes it to fly out Perhaps the Fire of Strife hath come forth from other Spirits but if my want of care and caution my want of exactness and integrity my failing in prudence and tenderness have made me as the Steel which by striking upon another mans Spirit hath drawn forth sparks of Fire or if I by my Over-credulity or Incredulity by my slackness or hast have been as Tinder to receive and cherish those Sparks which otherwise might have dyed I am not to hold my self guiltless but to repent of this also as a Sore Evil among the Saints while they live under the Sun Moses fell in the Wilderness only for the unadvisedness of his words from impatience and hastiness of Spirit under the greatest provocations Thirdly We are to weep for our having been Actors in our Divisions Who can wash his hands in Innocency and say that he hath not been in som kind an Accessary in the Guilt of our confusions although he hath been no Principal Hast thou not contributed to them by advising abbetting encouraging countenancing of them at least by withdrawing that Barr which thou might'st have put in their way by thy Counsel Assistance and Interest Hast thou not been pleasing thy self to think of making out thine own Interest by the publick Discord by a violent and bloody Change when thou shouldst like Curtius have cast thy self with that which was dearest to thee into the Gulf to have stopt the flowing forth of these waters of strife or like Paul been ready to have offered thy self up upon this service of Love to have become a Sacrifice for the Peace of the Church and Nation Fourthly Let us weep and bleed for this if we have been the Authors of these Differences Solomon brings this in as the Highest and Last of those things which the Lord most eminently hates and which are the
Leaders and Rulers that for their Brethren sake and for the Peace of Jerusalem they would cherish advance contend for this Band of Unity and Peace the blessed Spirit in four things First In the Person of the Spirit Himself Secondly In Spiritual Worshippers Thirdly In Spiritual Worships Fourthly In Spiritual Appearances flowing forth through the Person of the Spirit upon Spiritual Worshippers in their Spiritual Worship that the Purity of the Spirit be not stained nor the Liberty of the Spirit restrained in these Particulars which make that true Mount Sion that Heavenly Jerusalem that Church of the First-born where alone Brethren dwel together in Unity and where God hath appointed the Blessing and Life for evermore The Third Way This is the last Way of Uniting to Sweeten one another unto a Union I shall point you here to one Instance of many Be ready to forgive be apt to pardon one another To move you to this and direct you in this I shal set before you three examples Joseph David Jesus Christ First Joseph had received as great injuries from his Brethren as can be imagined Out of envy and malice they designed his death sold him from his Fathers house into the hands of strangers to be a Bond-slave for his whol life He becomes great sees his Brethren lying at his Feet entirely at his Mercy the power of a mighty Nation in his hand to avenge himself of them at his pleasure without the least fear of any Evil returning to himself by it Yet now he prevents their asking of pardon by pardoning them first and freely He sweetens the Pardon by owning the Dearness of the Relation between himself and them at the very first Discovery of himself to them saying with Embraces and Tears I am your Brother Joseph He lightens the burthen of their Guilt and Shame by a sweet Interpretation of all into a Divine Design You intended it for Evil but God hath turned it to Good You designed Dissolutions and Desolations but God hath by it brought forth to me a wonderful Increase of Power Authority and Glory This is the Example of Joseph Let us go and do the like Let the sight of Jesus in the midst of our Brethren and a respect to God our Father and their Father prevail as much with us as the presence of Benjamin and the remembrance of his old Father Jacob did with him Gen. 45.4 5. How moving are those words Come neer I pray you Be not angry or grieved that you sold me into Egypt But how melting is that after Jacob's death when his Brethren sent to him saying Forgive us now the trespass of the Servants of the God of thy Fathers And Joseph wept when they spake unto him Gen. 50.17 Secondly Shimei had reviled David in his low Estate with the bitterest Reproaches and blackest Crimes of Blood and Death At his return Abishai moves to have him put to Death David replies What have I to do with you ye Sons of Zerviah Ye are alwaies adversaries to me Shal then any man be put to Death this day in Israel For do not I know that I am this day King in Israel 2 Sam. 19.22 How good how great how like to God is this in David to make the day of his Power a Day of Grace to make use of the Establishment of his Greatness to pardon the greatest Crimes committed against him Lastly Jesus Christ in the case of Mary Magdalen upon occasion of a Parable put to Simon gives the account of his Way with Men in that Maxime He to whom much is forgiven wil love much This is Christ's way O! that this were Christians way of subduing their Brethren and the People to them of winning Love To forgive much This is the Divine way of making our Brethren Captives in a noble War of Love and binding them to us in Golden Chains of Affection To forgive much It is said that we should make a Golden Bridg for a flying Enemy By retaining our Anger we force our Brethren to retain their Enmity So we bring upon our selves the Danger of a Desperate Enemy But by pardoning freely speedily sweetly we make a Golden Bridg for our Brethren to pass over from their Enmity to Love When we have an offending Brother at our Mercy let us think we hear Jesus Christ from Heaven pleading for him as Paul did for Onesimus to Philemon Receive him that is my Bowels once unprofitable but now by mine and thy pardoning him made profitable and faithful to thee and to me I shal wind up al with that of St. John who when he was very old went up into the Pulpit said no more but Little Children Love one another thrice over So he came down again We are Children having al the same Father Therfore once let us love one another We are little Children apt to fal out Therefore a second time Let us love one another We are little Children al of us subject to failing faults and falls Therefore a third time let us love one another Let us love one another by that Twofold measure Freely forgiving one another as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.32 Receiving one another into the Glory of God as Christ also hath received us Rom. 15.7 There is a Divine Speech reported of Constantine the Great If I should see an Eminent Christian committing a great Crime I would cover him with my purple Robe to hide his shame even from mine own Eyes You who have bin great sinners thus hath Christ received you You who are grear sinners thus stands Christ this day this hour this moment while you are hearing these words Ready longing to receive you to cover all your Guilt and Shame with the Robe of the Righteousness and Glory of God in Himself Thus let us receive one another into the Glory of God hiding all our mutual shame in the Brightness of our Father's and our Savior's Glory FINIS Books Printed by Peter Cole Printer and Bookseller of LONDON at the Exchange Twenty one several Books of Mr. William Bridge Collected into two Volumns Viz. 1 Scripture Light the most sure Light 2 Christ in Travel 3 A Lifting up for the Cast-down 4 Sin against the Holy Ghost 5 Sins of Infirmity 6 The false Apostle tried and discovered 7 The good and means of Establishment 8 The great things Faith can do 9 The great things Faith can suffer 10 The Great Gospel Mystery of the Saints Comfort and Holiness opened and applied from Christs Priestly Office 11 Satans power to Tempt and Christs Love to and Care of his People under Temptation 12 Thankfulness required in every Condition 13 Grace for Grace 14 The Spiritual Actings of Faith through Natural Impossibilities 15 Evangelical Repentance 16 The Spiritual Life and in-being of Christ in all Beleevers 17 The Woman of Canaan 18 The Saints Hiding place c. 19 Christ Coming c. 20 A Vindication of Gospel Ordinances 21 Grace and Love beyond Gifts New Books of