be fetcht from heaven to consume them For which though they pretend the Example of Elijah yet their Lord observed the distemper and rebukes it Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of q. d. Alas you are mistaken in the frame of your own hearts this impression is not zeal but anger It was another kind of spirit which acted Elijah when he call'd for fire from heaven upon the two Captains and their fifties an invisible flame of just zeal first fell from heaven upon his heart before he satcht those visible flames from heaven upon their heads There was cause enough to justifie so severe an execution The wicked King Abaziah which sent those Pursevants for Elijah with his Grand-father Saul had forsaken the Oracle of God to consult with the Devill 2 Kings 1.6 The Servants of the same spirit with their Master come in a proud imperious way The King saith come down with the Kings mandamus they think to command heaven it selfe Yea while they seem to give him his title thou man of God they do at once deride his function and blaspheme his God q. d we will see what a man-God you are and whether your God can deliver you out of our hand will ye obey the King or will ye not Come down or we will fetch you down now there is nothing to determine the controversie but a signal testimony from God himself And therefore to vindicate Gods glory and his own Commission Elijah imprecates fire from heaven and God by this flaming answer bears witnesse to the just frame of his spirit in so direfull a revenge This our Saviour found wanting in his disciples and therefore rebuketh their passion rather then commendeth their zeale Ye know not what spirit ye are of It were easie to multiply instances but much work is yet behind I would speak somewhat I say concerning our deceased brother and there is need of it for many there be I have too much cause to fear who themselves transported with passion and prejudice while they study parties more then truth having mens persons in admiration because of advantage would make others and themselves believe that there was no other parallel to be found between these venerable servants and Saints of God and our deceased brother save only in their sinful infirmities and especially that of passion It cannot be denied but that as he was in the general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of like passions with other men so in speciall that that black adust humour of choler held the predominacy in his individual Constitution which many times gave a tincture to his discourse action and which standers-by more censorious then candid interpreted to his unjust prejudice But there is two things I shall without blushing take the liberty to speak by way of just vindication both to his person and the doctrine before us sc 1. That blessed be God there is another and more honourable parallel to be held out to the world between these Saints of God and our beloved brother 2. That the affection of Anger rightly qualified and managed is of singular use in the life and work of a Christian especially of a Minister of the Gospel First The Parallel I shall now for the just and necessary vindication of his Name and Ministry hold out to the world a Parallel between Elias and our Reverend Brother A Parallel not of Equality but Conformity not of Rivalry but of Reality to which my conscience doth subscribe as in the presence of God and to which I am confident the consciences also of all judicious and impartial Christians that knew him will bear witness And why should any man conceive it a presumption in me and a boldness almost to sacriledge to mention a parallel between Elijah and this servant of Jesus Christ Considering 1. They were both but Men. The Text saies Elias was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man of like passions with us It is no in jury to persons of the highest sanctity to look upon them as men like our selves since the Holy Ghost himself is here our president 2. It is the same Grace of God which we eye honour in both One star differs from another in glory yet it is the same light which fills the stars though of different magnitude 3. Sic parvis componere magna solebam Such comparisons do not level them in full and just proportions but compareth them in a gradual and Evangelical Analogy and likeness 4. Especially above all in as much as the Children of God even in their state of mortality are not onely exhorted to but celebrated for Conformity and likeness to their Heavenly Father Be you perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Matth. 5. ult 1 Pet. 1.15 And be ye Holy as he that hath called you his Holy ther 's the exhortation And 2 Cor. 3. ult We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory ther 's their commendation Warranted by these and the like scriptural considerations I address my self to the Parallel A Parallel 1. Elias was a man of Extraordinary sanctity and holiness Enoch-like he walked with God a man of much acquaintance and converse in Heaven even while he was on earth Such in his degree was our Reverend Brother He was a man of singular piety he could say with as much simplicity as most of his brethren in the flesh I believe truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 John 1.3 I am not afraid on his behalf to appeal to his Adversaries as once Christ did to his hearers setting aside humane frailties John 8.46 which of you could convince him of sin I am confident he is gone to Heaven with as unsteined an holiness as most of the servants of Christ ever did within our knowledge Secondly Par. 2 Elias was an eminent Prophet of God to whom God did in a special manner reveal and communicate his counsels and secrets This faithful servant of Christ was a Minister of the Gospel de Arcanis Dei a Minister I say by Scriptural ordination no intruder or up-start of the times who like the false Prophets of old run before they are sent Jer. 23.16 and speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. This servant of God was not so but as his Call was from God both inward and outward so the secret of the Lord was with him God was pleased to reveal much of himself and of the mysteries of the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ unto him which he did faithfully communicate to the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made him overseer Act. 20.20 and kept back nothing that was profitable unto them but shewed them and taught them publickly and from house to house a man he was of more then ordinary
soul and his doxologie together THANKS BE TO GOD FOR JESVS CHRIST And yet let us follow Elias a step or two further with Elishah his servant Paral. 14 2 Reg. 1.6 Elias went up to heaven in a fiery Chariot our Brother was carried up in a burning fever or rather he ascended up into glory in the triumphant Chariot of victorious assurance of the love of God in Jesus Christ Rom. 8.37 Lastly Paral. 15 Elijah let fall his mantle upon his servant Elishah who followed him in his ascension both with his eye and voyce My Father my Father 2 Rings 2.12 the Chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof This good man let fall the mantle of blessings and prayers upon his dear Friends and Relations that stood crying about him in some such kind of phrase My Father my Father c. a blessing suitable to the state condition of every stander-ly And thus this servant of Christ made his LAST Will and Testament if I be not mistaken his ONLY Will Testament of Praise and Prayer praising God and blessing men And thus much for the Parallel between Elijah and our Reverend Brother I come now to the second thing propounded for the just vindication of our Brother of the truth it self and that is to shew you That the affection of Anger rightly qualified and managed is of singular use and advantage in the life and work of a Christian especially of a Minister of the Gospel which ought in no wise to be branded with the usual scandal of choler and passion I make no question the false prophets and their seduced proselytes stuck not to blast the holy Prophet in my Text with the same reproach a furious man a man of an intemperate and unbridled spirit that valued not mens lives but in his anger would not stick to call down fire from Heaven to destroy an hundred men at a time c. The very meek Spirit of God records it here in my Text that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of like passions with us and yet without any disparagement to his memorial in the land of the living To which end let me 1. in general put you in mind of this viz. That the passion of anger with other affections in nature at what time the person in whom they are is regenerate they do change their nature and become regenerate too and being baptized with the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ they receive Divine impressions and so pass into the catalogue of gracious affections and dispositions and become instruments of exceeding honour and service in the hand of Jesus Christ Jam. 3.17 who is pleased to make use of them in his own work ex gr WIT regenerate becometh Heavenly wisdom LOVE sanctified Gal. 5.6 Faith working by Love becomes an active principle in the hand of Faith FEAR besprinkled with the blood of Christ becomes a notable Andidote and prefervative against sin Hate I not them that hate thee c. Psal 139.21 HATRED spiritualized an holy Antipaethy with any thing or person contrary to God COVRAGE sanctified by the Holy Ghost Zach. He that is as David shall be like an Angel of God is turned into a kind of Angelical fortitude And thus to be short PASSION born again of water and the spirit becometh the grace of Zeal and holy jealousy for God and for the interest of Jesus Christ Anger sanctified is that to the affections which edge is to the instrument which varnish is to colours which wind is to the sails of a ship judgment is the ballast but zeal is the full gale it is as mettle to the horse it is the activity of every grace every affection red hot for Jesus Christ Cant. 8.7 which much water cannot quench neither can the floods drown it In a word passion refined and spiritualized is every faculty of the Soul acting to its height for the glory of God The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up Psal 69 9. To be short Sanctified anger in the Saints of God is not that which the world takes it to be a short madness Psal 31. Furor ira brevis but a grace of the Spirit of God yea it is a compound and temperament of all graces acting in summo gradu in the height of intention for the promoting of the concernments of Christs Kingdom I told before that Elijah was an useful man though he was subject to passion I shall tell you more now He was therefore so useful BECAVSE he was subject to passion his anger and passion being sanctified made him so abundantly active for God and the reformation of the publick worship doctrine and ordinances in his generation had he wanted his passion he had wanted some of his zeal for God And so it was with our worthy brother deceased That which an idle wanton loose luke-warm generation of professors as well as prophane persons for the palliating of their own hypocrisie and Gallio-like-indifferency in matters of religion called passion and choler in him was in deed and in truth nothing but his zeal and courage and activity for Jesus Christ which truly did even consume him Alas in this apostate generation all things have lost their proper names the Devil appears in Samuels mantle Satan in the form of an Angel of light and sin puts on the habit of vertue that it may deceive the more safely Thus Luke-warmness and cursed neutrality in religion passeth abroad for meekness and sweetness of Spirit Carnal Policy for Christian Prudence Cursed Compliance with the lusts of men for moderation and command of a mans spirit sic in coeteris While zeal and fidelity to the truth ordinances and government of Jesus Christ heare ill in the world and suffer all the odium and scandal that a reviling world and the venemous wit of malice can heap upon it Truly the earth is not able to bear their words And therefore Jam. 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you that fear God be instructed and take heed how ye became Judges of evil thoughts that ye do not judge perversly according to your own corrupt thoughts or according to the corrupt thoughts of the men of the world whose judgment is totally perverted by carnal interest and vile affections Take heed Isa 5. ye do not call good evil and evil good put light for daokness and darkness for light and so condemn the generation of Gods Children and bless the proud whom the Lord abhorreth And thus having premised thus much in general concerning anger and passion in the Saints Because indeed even where this affection is sanctified it is not sanctified quite through but may have even in the best of Saints and without question in this servant of Christ had some mixtures of the old corrupt nature troubling and distempering it sometimes which makes the Saints go mourning and sighing within themselves and wishing to be dissolved and to be with Christ Let me come
God and of Religion the concernments of Jesus Christ and of mens immortal soules Indignities and affronts offered to himself did not tempt out the fervour and acrimony of his spirit as those which were put upon Christ and his precious Truths If so your consciences cannot gainsay it call him no more an angry passionate cholsrick man but call him a faithful plain-dealing zealous Minister of Jesus Christ lest otherwise God hear and be angry and judge you for your passion and partialty And lastly Rule 5 When the warmth and keennesse of a mans spirit is acted not so much against the persons as against the wickedness of men who hold the truth of God in unrighteousnesse Call it not anger and passion bat zeal for God and compassion on mens souls Passion le ts flye its arrows against the persons of men zeal only against their sins Indeed sins and persons are so near that a man can hardly distinguish sometimes between the person and the sin to avoyd the danger therefore let men stand furtther off from their sins that he that strikes at their sins may not with the same blow be judged to strike at their persons also But this is that which I say the heat of anger must be against the crime rather then against the person and when it is mixt with grief which sets pity and prayer on work for the offending party as it is said of Christ Mark 3.5 then it is pure zeal and not distemper'd anger I have done both with the Sermon and with the occasion Onely in as much as the Passions of the Regenerate as I hinted before are not all over regenerate nor have I made this Apology for the Saints in general or this our brother for whose loss we mourn this day in particular as if I conceived there were no sin in their Anger no strange fire in their passion yea because the Saints of God discover much distemper in their affections and passions sometimes even when they act for God for which they judge themselves bitterly in the presence of God for the preventing of mistakes on the right hand or on the left give leave to adde a word or two of Direction now in the close for your better improvement of the doctrine It is twfold sc 1. A word of Caution 2. A word of Comfort Caution 1. To all in general 2. To the Saints in particular To all in generall First 1. Caution general take heed of mistaking your infirmities take heed of putting a softer name upon your Corruptions then God doth and the Scripture doth this is the general deceit amongst Christians Sin takes sanctuary under infirmity Every wicked man calls his Iusts his gross sins his infirmities The Drunkard sayes it is my infirmity the Swearer sayes it is my infirmity the Adulterer alas what would you have him do it is his infirmity sic in caeteris Every prophane wretched miscreant hath taken hold of the horns of the Altar and there he cries alas this is my infirmity Brethren take heed say not infirmity when it is more then infirmity Quest When is that When sin is more then infirmity Answ 1. When men are more sollicitous for pardon then for Cure they are more then infirmities if pardon alone would quiet thy spirit without healing thou art under a mortall disease The Saints cry heal me O Lord and I shall be healed and this is an argument of their sincerity desire of pardon only argueth Self-Love desire of Cure argueth love to Jesus Christ desire of pardon argueth men fear hell only but desire of healing argueth men fear God defire of pardon only sheweth men would be content to live in sin if they durst desire of Cure shewes men would not live in sin if they might Secondly much more when men study the satisfaction of their lusts In exordio adolescentrae petieram à te castitatem continentiam c. more then the mortification of them they are more then infirmities Augustine confesseth of himself before Coversion he prayed sometimes for the gift of chastity but there was something within that secretly whispered Timebam si neâ—citò exaudires sanares me à morbo boncupisâ—entiae quam expleri malebam quam extingui not yet Lord for sayes he I was afraid lest God should hear me too soon and cure in me that distemper which I had rather should have been saisfied then mortified This is the temper of every unregenerate person Conviction may make them pray against their lusts sometime but love of sin makes them indulge them they cannot find in their hearts to lay violent hands upon them they be yet as their own flesh and no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it when men are so tenderly affected to their Corruptions they are more then infirmities sin reigns when men dare not displease it nor rise up in opposition against it Thirdly Third note of reigning sin sin is more then infirmity when men are impatient of Conviction when men are so tender of their corruptions that a man must not touch them He that toucheth them toucheth the apple of their eyes Gracious hearts are glad of conviction let the righteous smite me Psal 141. it shall be a precious oyle c. When reproof is a wound which men cannot bear it is a sign sin is alive and whole within them Sin is then King â—worâ— the soul Eccles 8.4 when a man must not say unto it what dost thou Prov. 3.31 and against which there is no rising up The more any corruption is indulged the lesse infirmitie is in it Fourthly Fourth note when a man or a woman is never troubled with their corruptions but when wrath is upon them then they are more then infirmities The godly go mourning under their secret corruptions when the Sun shines upon their Tabernacles with the warmest influences yea when God is pleased to shine into their hearts with the clearest beams of love the more sensible the Saints are of Gods love the more they hate their own corruptions because they make them unlike to God They that are never troubled with corruption but when wrath is upon them it is wrath that troubles them and not corruption this is not infirmity Carnal people are never good but when they are under the rod and then not because their sins displease God but because Gods judgements displease them Fiftly when Infirmities serve men only for apologies they are more then infirmities when a man can say of any corruption it is my infirmity and acquiesce there it is very dangerous This is certain men in nature do not sit down patient under infirmities because infirmities Corruption is all wed where infirmity is the apology and allowed corruption is more then infirmity The Saints infirmites are their afflictions their burdens not their apologies Oh wretch that I am Rom 7.24 who shall deliver me c. Sixthly Sixth note when
Haec sunt quae homines faciunt invitos mori 2 Cor. 5.2 3 4. Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech and have my habitation in the tents of Keder the Septuagint render it Woe is me that my pilgrimage is prolonged Wicked men their lusts are so far from making weary of the world that there is nothing makes them so unwilling to die They would fain live for ever here that they might sin for ever But under the burden of Corruption it is that the Saints groan die they would that they might sin no more Other advantages there are which God makes of the remainders of Corruption in the godly but these may serve for a taste You may enlarge in your own meditations by all which God expounds and fulfills Sampsons riddle to them Out of the Eater comes meat and out of the strong comes sweetnesse God maketh oyle of these scorpions and antidotes of poyson The Lord keep us from turning these antidotes into poyson Jude 4. this grace of God into lasciviousnesse this Doctrine of free grace into occasions and snares for the flesh this were to imitate the Devil not to imitate God God bringeth good out of evill the Devill brings evill out of good So it is with wicked men that which they call infirmity exposeth them to temptation 2 Tim. 3.13 and is an encouragement to them to sin evil men and seducers grow worse and worse deceiving Evidence 5 and being deceived A fifth evidential difference is this the Prophets and servants of God notwithstanding their sinful distempers are very serviceable in their generations Moses notwithstanding his Anger of what a choyce influence amongst the people How oft did he stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God Job notwithstanding his fits of jmpatience of what use He was eyes to the blinde feet to the lame The poor mans Advocate in the gate to plead his cause David for all his slips surprises what a Reformer what an admirable Ruler in his Kingdome In his Family Psal 101. per totum sic in â—aeteris Thus Elias a man subject to passion and yet what service did he do for God for his generation wicked men while full of lusts are an uselesse generation good for nothing Mat 5.13 as our Lord saith of unsavoury salt but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men They are serviceable neither to God nor man like the withered vine of which you cannot make a pin to hang a vessel on they are of no support or service meer Cumber-grounds they are and the place where they live longs for a vomit to spew them out Their sins are reigning sins and they are meer slaves to their corruptions Tit. 3.2 3. serving divers lusts and pleasures Gods children though they have their decayes and feeble times yet are like the living vine which brings forth fruit to make glad the heart of God and man This speaks nothing in them but humane frailty A sixth and last differentiall note 6. Signall Difference Gods dear and precious servants though full of infirmities yet they are a praying people full of weaknesses but full of prayer too Of Saul it is said As soon as ever converting grace took hold of his heart Acts 9.11 Behold he prayeth This is the eminent instance in the Text. Elias had his passions but Elias was a mighty man in prayer he could shut and open heaven at his pleasure He could do what he would with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in praying Rom. 12. he prayed the righteous pray and are fervent in prayer their very infirmities set them a praying to pray down their passions and to pray out their sinful distempers Carnal persons are full of passions but empty of prayers they can swear but they cannot pray they can curse but they cannot pray say prayers possibly they may as they call it but they cannot make prayers they may say Our Father c. but they have not the spirit of adoption to cry Abba Father to pour out their souls to God in child-like supplications and importunities Yea some there be that instead of making prayers are more ready to Curse prayer tantum non to blaspheme the spirit of prayer in the children of adoption This evidences them to be under the power and command of sin And now to apply our selves and the Text The Application to the particular occasion to the sad occasion before us the death of our dear and Reverend brother Mr. Walter Roswel I told you in the entrance that besides the two former acceptations of the word passions sc natural affections and sinful perturbations there was a third acception of the word namely as it denoteth more specially the affection of wrath sudden and irregular Anger And this the best of Gods Saints and servants have not been without Numb 20.11 Moses whom before you saw defective in faith at another time you may behold excessive in his passion He smiteth the rock when he was but to speak to it and his anger maketh him double his stroke He smote the rock twice He revileth the people when he should have convinced them hear ye Rebells And offended as it seems at his Commission he hardly forbeareth to murmur must we bring water out of this rock MVST WE And thus while he smiteth water out of the rock he striketh fire out of his own heart Behold and tremble Numb 12.3 The meekest man upon the face of the earth is transported into passion and his passion hurrieth him into such indecencies Numb 20.12 that hereupon God denieth him entrance into the land of Promise The Israelites whom he brought out of Egypt could not enter in because of their unbelief and Moses himself must not enter because of his Anger Rom. 11 3â— How swift and severe was God in this Censure how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out David was under a very sinful passion 2 Sam. g 4. when he would have the people numbred all the rational and religious dissuasives which Joab the then Generall of his army did use could not allay the storm nor divert him from his sinful purpose Nothing can stand before the flame of his passion Psal 4. The Kings word prevailed against Joab though that flame consumed seventy thousand of his Subjects vers 16. Nor was that the onely instance of Davids distempered anger there was a time when the same fire had devoured and burnt down an whole innocent family to the ground 1 Sam. 25.22 cum 18. for the unnaturalnesse of a Churlish Master had not the wisdom of a prudent Governesse timely intervened The Disciples of our Lord because the Samaritans did not entertain Christ according to their expectations Luke 9.53 Ver. 54. although the Holy Ghost seems to make some apology for the refusal his face was as if he would go to Jerusalem they break out into Passion and fire presently must