the Gospell begin to cast wanton eyes upon their glorious superstitions and contrary to the lawes of God and our Soveraign throng to their exoticall devotions What shall we say Increpa Domine Master rebuke them And ye to whom God hath given grace to see and bewail the lamentable exorbitances of their superstitions settle your souls in the noble resolution of faithfull Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free Hath the Gospell of God freed us from the worship of stocks and stones from the mis-religious invocation of those who we know cannot hear us from the sacrilegious mutilation of the blessed sacrament From the tyrannical usurpations of a sinfull vice-god From the dangerous relyance upon the inerrable sentence of him that cannot say true from the idle fears of imaginary Purgatories from buying of pardons and selling of sins shortly from the whole body of damnable Antichristianisme and shall our unstable mouths now begin to water at the Onions and Garlick of our forsaken Egypt Oh Dear Christians if ye love your solus if ye fear hell stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free What mercy soever may abide well-meaning ignorance let the wilfull revolter make account of damnation I cannot without yearning of bowels think of the dear price that our holy fore-fathers stak't down for this liberty of the Gospel no lesse then their best and last blood And shall we their unthrifty progeny lavish it out carelessly in a willing neglect and either not care to exchange it for a plausible bondage or squander it out in unncecessary differences Do but cast your eyes back upon the fresh memory of those late flourishing times of this goodly kingdome when pure religion was not more cheerfully professed then inviolably maintained how did we then thrive at home and triumph abroad How were we then the terrour the envy of Nations Our name was enough to affright to amate an enemy But now since we have let fall our first love and suffered the weak languishments and qualmes of the truth under our hands I fear and grieve to tell the issue Oh then suffer your selves O ye noble and beloved Christians to be rouzed up from that dull and lethargick indâ—fferencie wherein ye have thus long slept and awake up your holy courages for God and his sacred truth And since we have so many comfortable and assured ingagements from our pious Soveraign Oh let not us be wanting to God to his Majesty to our selves in our utmost endeavours of advancing the good successe of the blessed Gospell of Christ Honour God with your faithfull and zealous prosecutions of his holy truth and he shall honour you and besides the restauration of that antient glory to our late-clouded Nation shall repay our good Offices done to his name with an eternal weight of glory in the highest heavens to the possession whereof he that hath ordained us in his good time mercifully bring us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the just To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen DIVINE LIGHT AND REFLEXIONS IN A SERMON Preacht to his MAJESTY at WHITE-HALL On Whitsunday 1640. By JOS. EXON 1 John 1.5 God is Light IF ye mark it your very Calender so as the wisdom of the Church hath contrived it is a notable Catechism And surely if the plain man would but ply his Almanack well that alone would teach him Gospell enough to show him the history of his Saviour If one day teach another all dayes would teach him There should he see his blessed Saviours conception Annuntiated by the Angel March 25. Fourty weekes after that he should see him born of the Virgin accordingly at the feast of the Nativity eight dayes after that circumcised on New years day then visited and adored by the Sages in the Epiphanie then presented into the Temple on the day of Purification then tempted and fasting fourty dayes in Lent He should see him usher'd in by his fore-runner the holy Baptist six Moneths before his Nativity attended by his twelve Apostles in their severall ranks and Thomas the last for his unbelief And at last after infinite and beneficiall miracles he should see him making his Maundy with his disciples on the Thursday and crucified on Good Friday he should see that on Easter Morning God the Father raises up his Son Jesus from the dead Act 5.30 On Ascention day God the Son mounts up to Heaven in glory Act. 1.9 On Whitsunday God the holy Ghost descends upon the Apostles Act. 2.3.4 And his belief in all these summed up in the celebration of the blessed Trinity the Sunday following I shall not over-labour to reduce the Text to the day Fire and light have so near affinity that they are scarce ever separated The same Spirit of God who appeared as this day in the shape of fierie tongues to the disciples may be now pleased by my tongue to manifest himself to your souls in light And as that fire was very lightsome else it could not have been seen in the day-time so may this exhibition of light be accompanied with a fire of holy zeal both in my tongue and your hearts In my last Sermon at the Court I gave you the Character of man I shall now indeavour to give you some touches of the Character of God There is nothing in this world so much concerns a man as to settle his heart in a right apprehension of his God which must be the ground of all his piety and devotion without which all his pretenses of Religion are so nothing worth as that in them God is made our Idoll and we the mis-worshippers of him without which shortly our whole life is mis-spent in error and ignorance and ends in a miserable discomfort Whence it is that this dear disciple makes it the summ of all the Apostolicall mission which he had from his Lord and Saviour to informe the World what to think of God This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare to you that God is light Would ye know the message which the Apostles received from Christ would ye know the message which they delivered from Christ to the World it is in these three syllables of my Text. God is light It is not possible that our finite conceit should comprehend God essentially as he is in himself No motion of our weak humanity can thus reach his infiniteness our ambition must be only to conceive of him according to those expressions which he hath made of himself wherein it hath pleased his wisdom to condescend to our shallow capacity by borrowing from those creatures which come nearest to his most pure simple spirituall nature Amongst which none is more proper or more frequent then this of Light Not only therefore hath it pleased God to expresse those Heavenly
Spirit of God by which ye are sealed to the day of Redemption IT was a rule of some wise Heathen of old That he was a great Master of Morality that had learn'd to govern his Tongue his Gut his Concupiscence these three And well might it be so when Christianity hath so farr seconded it as that the Spirit of God hath singled out one of these for a Triall of the rest He that offends not with his Tongue is a perfect Man James 2.2 So as that triplicity is reduced to an Unitie and indeed if a man have attained to an exact government of this loose and busie filme which we carry in our mouths it is a great argument of his absolute Mastership over himself in the other particulars whereupon it is that the Apostle hath hedged in my Text with this Charge Before my Text inhibiting all corrupt Communication after it all bitternesse and Clamour and evill speaking and betwixt both enforcing this vehement and Heavenly dehortation And grieve not the holy Spirit Intimating in the very contexture of the words that that man can never hold good terms with the Spirit of God what profession soever he makes that lets his tongue loose to obscene and filthy Communication or to bitter or spightfull words against his Brethren and in these words disswading us both from this and all other before mentioned particularities of wickednesse by an argument drawn from unkindnesse look to it for if you shall give way to any of these vicious courses ye shall grieve the holy Spirit of God and that will be a shamefull and sinfull ingratitude in you forasmuch as that holy Spirit hath been so gracious unto you as to Seale you to the day of Redemption a motive which how sleight soever it may seem to a carnall heart and by such a one may be past over and pisht at in imitation of the carelesse note of Pharaoh Who is the Spirit of God that I should let my Corruptions go yet to a regenerate man to such our Apostle writes it is that irresistible force whereof Nahum speaks that rends the very Rocks before it Nahum 1.6 And indeed an ingenuous Spirit is more moved with this then with all outward violence The Law of Christ both constraines and restraines him constraines him to all good Actions and restraines him from all evill The good Patriark Joseph when his wanton Mistresse solicited him to her wicked lust Behold saith he My Master hath committed all that he hath to my hand there is none greater in his house then I neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee because thou art his wife how then can I do this great wickednesse and sin against God Gen. â—â— 8.9 wherein ye see he hath a double Antidote for her poysonous suggestion the one his Masters favour and trust which he may not violate the other the offence of his God Joseph knew he could not do this wickednesse but he must bring plagues enough upon his head but that is not the thing he stands upon so much as the sin against God A Pilate will do any thing rather then offend a Cesar that word thou art not Cesars friend if thou let him go John 19.12 strikes the matter dead Thou art not Gods friend if thou entertain these sins cannot but be prevalent with a good heart and bear him out against all Temptations and this is the force of our Apostles inference here who after the enumeration of that black Catalogue of sins both of the whole man and especially those of the Tongue infers And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are Sealed to the Day of Redemption The Text you see is a dehortatory charge to avoid the offence of God wherein we have the Act and the subject the Act Grieve not the subject set forth by his Title by his Merit his Title The holy Spirit of God his Merit and our obligation thence arising By whom ye are sealed to the day of Redemption the subject is first considerable both in Nature and Act as that the knowledg and respect whereof doth both most disswade us from the offence and aggravate it when it is committed The holy Spirit of God which when we have shortly meditated on apart we shall joyne together by the Act inhibited in this holy dehortation That this is particularly to be taken of the third person of the blessed Trinity to whom this day is peculiarly devoted there can be no doubt for both the Title is his The holy Spirit of God not absolutely God who is an holy Spirit but the holy Spirit of God and the effect attributed to him is no lesse proper to him for as the contriving of our Redemption is ascribed to the Father the atchieving of it to the Son So the Sealing confirming and applying of it to the Holy Ghost There are many Spirits and those holy and those of God as their Creator and Owner as the enumerable Company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Hebr. 12. but this is set forth as Zanchius notes well with a double Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy Spirit by a transcendent eminence by a singularity as that which is alone The holy Spirit of God Now why the third Person should specially be denominated a Spirit a title no lesse belonging to the Father and the Son to the whole absolute Deity as being rather Essential then Personal or why an holy Spirit since Holinesse is as truly Essentiall to the other Persons also as their very being Or why being coequal and coessential with God the Father and the Son he should be called the Spirit of God though they might seem points incident into the Day yet because they are Catechetical heads I hold it not so fit to dwell in them at this time Only by the way give me leave to say that it had been happy both for the Church of England in general and this Diocesse in particular that these Catechetical Sermons had been more frequent then they have been as those which are most usefull and necessary for the grounding of Gods People in the principles of saving Doctrine and I should earnestly exhort those of my Brethren of the Ministry that hear me this day that they would in these perilous and distractive times bend their labours this way as that which may be most effectuall for the setling of the Soules of their hearers in the grounds of true Religion that they may not be carried about with every winde of Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cockboat of mens fancies as the Apostle speak but this by the way I shall now only urge so much of the Person as may add weight to the dehortation from the Act Grieve not the holy Spirit of God and every notion of it adds a several weight as a Spirit as the Spirit of God as the holy Spirit of God It is a rule not capable of contradiction that by how much more
God hath taken at our thus Grieving of him his Indearments our Ingagements his Expectation were we a people that God had no whit promerited by his favours that he had done nothing for us more then for the savage Nations of the World surely the God of Heaven had not taken it so deeply to heart but now that he hath been more kind to us then to any Nation under Heaven how doth he call Heaven and Earth to record of the justnesse of his high regret Hear O Heaven and hearken O Earth for the Lord himself hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Esa 1.2 and excellently Jerem. 2.31 O generation see the word of the Lord have I been a wilderness to Israel a land of darkness therefore it followes Behold I will plead with thee ver 35. Neither are his indearments of us more then our ingagements to him for what Nation in all the World hath made a more glorious profession of the name of God then this of ours What Church under the cope of Heaven hath been more famous and flourishing Had we not pretended to holiness and purity of religion even beyond others the unkindness had been the lesse now our unanswerablenesse calls God to the highest protestation of his offence Be astonished O Heavens and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters and have hewen them out Cisternes broken Cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2.11 And who is so blind as my servant Esa 42.19 Now according to his Indearments and our Ingagements hath been his just expectation of an answerable carriage of us towards him the Husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desart but where he hath Gooded and plowed and Eared and Sowne why should not he look for an harvest And this disappointment is a just heightner of his griefe what could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done I looked for grapes and it brought forth wild grapes And now I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and I will lay it wast Esa 5.4 5. Wo is me we do not hear but feel God making his fearfull word good upon us I need not tell you what we suffer the word of Esay is fulfilled here It shall be a vexation onely to understand the report Esa 28.19 Alas we know it too well what rivers of blood what piles of Carcasses are to be seen on all sides would God I could as easily tell you of the Remedy and why can I not do so Doubtlesse there is a remedy no lesse certain then our suffering if we had but the grace to use it too long alas too long have we driven off the applying of our redress yet even still there is Balme in Gilead still there is hope yea assurance of help if we will not be wanting to our selves we have grieved our God to the height Oh that we could resolve to make our peace with our provoked God at the last Excellent is that of Esay 27.5 Let him take hold of my strength and make Peace with me and he shall make peace with with me Oh that we could take hold of our strong Helper who is mighty to save that we would lay hold on the strength of his marvellous mercies Oh that we could take Benhadads course here as they said of the King of Israel much more may I say of the God of Israel He is a merciful God let us put sackcloth upon our loynes and ropes upon our heads and go to the God of Israel and say Thy servants say I pray thee let us live 1 K. 20.31 Oh that it could greive us thoroughly that we have greived so good a God that we could by a sound and serious humiliation and hearty Repentance reconcile our selves to that offended Majesty we should yet live to praise him for his mercifull deliverance and for the happy restauration of our peace which God for his mercies sake vouchsafe to graunt us Thus much for the grieving of the holy Spirit in himself by way of allusion to humane affection Now followes that grievance which by way of Sympathy he feels in his Saints Anselme Aquinas Estius and other latter Interpreters have justly construed one branch of this offence of the Holy Spirit to be when through our leud despightful words or actions we grieve and scandalize those Saints and Servants of God in whom that Holy Spirit dwells It is true as Zanchius observes well that it is no thank to a wicked man that the Spirit of God is not grieved by him even in person he doth what he can to vex him the Impossibility is in the Impassiblenesse of the Spirit of God not in the Will of the Agent But although not in himself yet in his faithful Ones he may and doth grieve him They are the Receptacles of the Holy Ghost which he so possesses and takes up that the injuries and affronts done to them are felt and acknowledged by him As when an enemy offers to burn or pull down or strip plunder the house the Master or Owner takes the violence as done to himself We are the Temples the Houses wherein it pleaseth the Spirit of God to dwell what is done to us is done to him in us He challengeth as our Actions The Spirit of God prayes in us Rom. 8.26 so our Passions also he is grieved in our grief such an interest hath God in his that as Christ the second person in the Trinity could say to Saul why persecutest thou me So the Holy Ghost appropriates our injuries to himself If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye saith S. Peter for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified 1 Pet. 4.14 Lo the Holy Spirit is glorified by our sufferings and is evil spoken of in our reproaches the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is blasphemed so as it is a fearful thing to think of to speak contumelious words against Gods children is by the Apostles own determination no better then a kinde of blaspheming the Holy Ghost See then consider ye malicious uncharitable men your wrongs reach further then ye are aware of ye suffer your tongues to run ryot in bitter Scoffs in spightful slanders in injurious raylings against those that are truly conscionable ye think ye gall none but men worse then your selves but ye shall finde that ye have opened your mouthes against Heaven I speak not for those that are meer outsides visors of Christianity making a shew of Godliness and denving the power of it in their lives I take no protection of them God shall give them their portion with Hypocrites But if he be a true childe of God one that hath the true fear
Spirit leads no man but by a just rule That rule is the word of truth in all matter of judgment that must direct us uncertain and variable Traditions private and ungrounded Revelations which are any way crosse to this recorded will of God are the deceitful guides of the spirit of errour If then any frantick or superstitious person shall pretend any other direction then God hath given us in his revealed will well may I say of him as St. Paul dares say of an Angel from Heaven if any such could be guilty of that offence Let him be Anathema Thirdly Gods Spirit leads his sweetly and gently disponit omnia suaviter not in a blustring and hurrying violence but by a leasurely and gracious inclination so in Elijahs vision There was fire wind Earthquake but God was in none of them these were fit preparatives for his appearance but it was the still soft voice wherein God would be revealed 1 Kings 19.12 Those that are carried with an heady and furious impetuousnesse and vehemence of passion in all their proceedings which are all rigour and extremity are not led by that good spirit which would be styled the spirit of meekness who was pleased to descend not in the form of an Eagle or any other soul of prey but in the form of a meek and innocent dove Fourthly Gods Spirit leads on in a constant way of progression from grace to grace from vertue to vertue like as the sun arises by degrees to his full meridian whereas passion goes by suddain flashes like lightning whereof the interruptions are as speedy and momentany as the eruptions The very word of leading implies a continuance neither can they be said to be led on that make no proceedings in their way if either therefore we go backward or stand still in goodnesse if we promove not from strength to strength we have no ground to think we are led by the Spirit of God Lastly Flesh and Spirit are ever opposite one to the other and go still contrary wayes and lead to contrary ends If ye walk after the flesh ye shall dye saith our Apostle Nature and Grace which have their hands in this manuduction both wayes stand in perpetual opposition to each other If therefore we be led by our sensual appetite to do and affect that which is pleasing to corrupt nature we are led by that blind guid the flesh and if the blind lead the blind it is no marvell if both of them fall into the pit of perdition but if we mortify our evil and corrupt affections crossing and curbing our exorbitant and sinful desires and bringing them forceably under the subjection of Gods Spirit Now we may be assured to be led by the Spirit of God Other particularities of discovery might be urged whereby we might easily judg of our own conditions but these are enow whereby we may try our selves our guides and wayes It is cleare then to summe up these proofes of our estate that only they who walk in the wayes of Gods commandements who are directed by the revealed Will and word of God who are sweetly inclined by the gracious motions of his Spirit who go on in a constant fashion through all the degrees of grace and obedience who restrain their own natural desires and affections submitting themselves wholy to the government of the Holy Ghost onely they I say are led by the Spirit of God Five sorts of men there are therefore who what challenge so ever they may pretend to make are not led by the Spirit of God First those that go on in a known evil way Lead me O Lord in the wayes of thy righteousnesse saith the Psalmist Lo they are only the pathes of righteousnesse in which God leads us the rest are false wayes as the Psalmist justly calls them which every good heart and much more the holy God utterly abhors wo is me that I have lived to see those dayes wherein any that looks with the face of a Christian should maintain that sins are no sins to the faithful and that he is the holiest man that can sin the boldlyest and with the greatest freedom from reluctancy Did ever any man look for Heaven in Hell before Did ever any seek for the greatest good in the worst of evils This is not heresie but meer Devilisme wherewith yet it seems some ungrounded soules are wofully tainted God be merciful to them and reclaim them ere it be too late from so damnable an impiety Secondly those that are led by their own vain imaginations and illusive dreams in the wayes of error raising unto themselves new and wild opinions and practises without any warrant from the written word of God Thirdly those that are carried by passion and distemper though even in good waies turning a religious heat into fury and uncharitable rage Fourthly those that make no progresse at all in good but either decay in grace or thrive not And lastly those that humour and sooth up corrupt nature careing only to fulfil the lusts of their own flesh All these whereof God knowes there are too many in the World yea in the Church of God making a fair flourish of Christianity are nothing lesse then led by the Spirit of God and therefore can lay no claim to the state or title of the Sons of God which is inferred in the connexion of this qualification with the priviledg being the third head of our discourse So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God The Spirit of God is God neither is mention made here of the Spirit only as by way of exclusion of the other persons No what one doth all do according to the old maxime All the external works of the Trinity are indivisible it is good reason then that God should lead his own and so he doth But here it will be fit for us to consider How far this leading of Gods Spirit will argue and evince this son-ship and whether every conduct thereof will do it There is a work of the Spirit of God at large The Spirit of God fills all the World saith the Wiseman Wisdom 1.7 Not so yet as was the errour of P. Abailardus in Bernard That Gods Spirit is anima mundi as the God of the World not as the soul of the World As in the state of the first Tohu and Bohu the Spirit of God sluttered upon the Waters as it were to hatch the creature which should be produced Gen. 1.2 so doth he still fill the world for the preservation of this universse But in this all he works in man especially There is a spirit in man saith Elihu in Job 32.8 and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding yet this is not the leading of this holy Spirit that we are in hand with lower then this there are certain common graces wrought in men by the Spirit of God as some general iluminations in the knowledg of divine things some good moral dispositions some restraints
excellent the Person so much more hainous is the offence done to him As to offend an Officer is in the eye of the Law more then to offend a private Subject a Magistrate more then an inferiour Officer a Peere more then a Magistrate for that is Scandalum Magnatum a Prince more then a Peere a Monarch more then a Prince Now in very nature a Spirit is more excellent then a Body I could send you higher but if we do but look into our own breasts we shall finde the difference There is a Spirit in Man saith Elihu Job 32.8 The Spirit of Man is as the Candle of the Lord saith Wise Solomon Prov. 20.27 without which the whole House is all dark and confused Now what comparison is there betwixt the Soul which is a Spirit and the Body which is Flesh even this which Wise Solomon instanceth in may serve for all The Spirit of a Man sustains his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can hear Lo the Body helps to breed infirmities and the Spirit bears them out to which add the Body without the Spirit is dead the Spirit without the Body lives more It is a sad word of David when he complaines My bones are vexed Ps 6.2 and cleaves to my skin Psal 102.5 yet all this is tolerable in respect of that My Spirit faileth me My Spirit is overwhelmed within me my heart within me is desolate Psal 143.4 they were sore strokes that fetcht blood of our blessed Saviour but they were nothing to these inward torments that wrung from him the bloody sweat in his Agony when he said my soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy unto the Death could we conceive that the Body could be capable of pain without the Spirit as indeed it is not since the Body feeles only by the Spirit that pain were painlesse but this we are sure of that the Spirit feels more exquisite pain without the Body in the state of separation from it then it could feel in the former conjunction with it and the wrong that is done to the Soul is more haynous then that which can be inflicted on the Body By how much then more pure simple perfect excellent the Spirit is whom we offend by so much more grievous is the offence to offend the Spirit of any good Man one of Christs little ones is so hainous that it were better for a man to have a milstone hanged about his neck and to be cast into the bottom of the Sea Mat. 18.6 To offend an Angel which is an higher degree of spirituality is more then to vex the Spirit of the best man Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy Flesh to sin neither say before the Angel that it was an errour Eccles 5.6 Hence St. Paul heightens his adjuration to Timothy I charge thee before the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 And giving order for the decent demeanure of the Corinthian Women in the Congregation requires That they should have power on their head because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 To offend therefore the God of Spirits the Father of these spirituall Lights must needs be an infinite aggravation of the sin even so much more as He is above those his best Creatures and there cannot be so much distance betwixt the poorest worme that crawles on the Earth and the most glorious Archangel of Heaven as there is betwixt him and his Creator One would think now there could be no step higher then this yet there is our Saviour hath so taught us to distinguish of sins that he tells us All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven Matth. 12.31 and Marc. 3.29 Not that we can sin against one Person and not offend another for their essence is but one but this sin is singled out for a special obstruction of forgivenesse for that it is done against the illumination and Influence of that Grace whereof the Holy Ghost is the immediate giver and worker in the Soul who is therfore called the Spirit of Grace hereupon is Stevens challenge to the stiff-necked Jews Act. 7.51 Ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost And his charge to Ananias Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Act. 5.3 Ye see then how this charge riseth and what force is put into it by the condition of the Person A Spirit the holy Spirit the holy Spirit of God enough to make way for the consideration of the Act inhibited Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Grieve not c. How incompatible are the termes of this charge That which makes the sin as it is set forth more sinfull may seem to make it impossible If a Spirit how is it capable of passion and if it be impassible how can it be grieved Alas we weak mortalls are subject to be hurried about with every blast of passion The Almighty is above all the reach of these unquiet perturbations Lo that God which mercifully condescended because his infinite glory transcends our weaknesse to speak unto us men by man and by Angels in the forme of Men speaks to us men in the style and language of Men Two wayes then may the Spirit of God be said to be grieved in Himself in his Saints in himself by an Anthropopathie as we call it In his Saints by a Sympathie the former is by way of Allusion to humane passion and carriage so doth the Spirit of God upon occasion of mens sins as we do when we are grieved with some great wrong or unkindnesse And what do we then First we conceive an high dislike of and displeasure at the Act Secondly we withdraw our countenance and favour from the offender Thirdly we inflict some punishment upon the offence and these are all of them dreadfull expressions of the grieving of Gods Spirit even these three displeasure aversion punishment For the first Esay expresseth it by vexation Esay 63.10 A place so much more worthy of observation for that some judicious interpreters as Reverend Calvin Zanchius Pagnine and Cornelius a Lapide think very probably that this text is borrowed from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they rebelled and vexed the Spirit of his holinesse Where such an Act is intimated as compriseth both grief and Anger surely we do not think it safe to irritate the great and if it be but a man a little bigger then our selves we are ready to deprecate his displeasure but if it be a man that is both great and dear to us with whom we are faln out how unquiet are we if we have any good nature in us till we have recovered his lost favour do ye not see with what importunity good David seeks to appease the wrath of his incensed Father in Law none of the best men and causelesly provoked Let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if they
we finde the face of God clouded from us let our souls refuse comfort till we have recovered his favour which is better then life do we find our selves upon our sound repentance received to grace and favour of the Almighty and that he is well pleased with our persons and with our poor obediences and that he smiles upon us in Heaven courage dear Brethren in spight of all the frowns and menaces of the World we are safe and shall be happy here is comfort for us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 with that chosen vessel we are troubled on every side yet not distressed â—e are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken 2. Cor. 4.8 cast down but not destroyed for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish 16. yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us 18. a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory to the full possession whereof the God that hath ordained us graciously bring us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost three persons and one glorious God be given all praise honour glory and dominion now and for evermore A Second SERMON In prosecution of the same Text PREACHT AT St. GREGORIES CHURCH IN NORWICH July 21. 1644. By JOS. B. of N. EPHES. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption WE have done with the Dehortation it self and therein with the Act forbidden Grieve not and with the title of the Subject the Holy Spirit of God We descend to the inforcement of the Dehortation by the great merit of the Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption Those that are great and good we would not willingly offend though meer strangers to us but if they be besides our great friends and liberal Benefactors men that have deserved highly of us we justly hold it a foul shame and abominable ingratitude wilfully to do ought that might affront them It is therefore added for a strong disswasive from Grieving the Spirit of God that by him we are sealed to the day of redemption All the world shall in vain strive to do for us what our great Friend in Heaven hath done our loathness therefore to grieve him must be according to the depth of our obligation to him Cast your eyes then a little upon the wonderful Benefit here specified and see First what this day of Redemption is Secondly what is the sealing of us to this day and Thirdly why the sealing of us to this day should be a sufficient motive to withhold us from grieving the Holy Spirit of God These three must be the limits of my Speech and your Atrention Redemption signifies as much as a Ransome A Ransome implies a Captivity or Servitude There is a threefold Captivity from which we are freed Of Sin of Misery of Death For the first We are sold under sin saith our Apostle No Slave in Argier is more truly sold in the Market under a Turkish Pyrate then we are naturally sold under the Tyranny of sin by whom we are bound hand and foot and can stir neither of them towards God and dungeon'd up in the darkness of our ignorance without any Glimpse of the vision of God For the second the very name of Captivity implyes Misery enough what outward evil is incident into a man which bondage doth not bring with it Wo is me there was never so much captivity in this land since it was a Nation nor so woful a Captivity as this of brethren to brethren Complaints there are good store on both sides of restraint want ill-lodging hard and scant diet Irons insultations scornes and extremities of ill usage of all kindes and what other is to be found in the whole course of this wretched life of ours the best whereof is vanity and the worst infinite vexations But Thirdly if some men have been so externally happy as to avoid some of these miseries for all men smart not alike yet never man did or can avoid the third which is obnoxiousness to death By the offence of one saith the Apostle judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 Sin hath raigned unto death Ps 21. It is more then an Ordinance a statute law in Heaven Statutum est c. It is enacted to all men once to dye Heb. 9.27 This then is our bondage or captivity now comes our redemption from all these at once when upon our happy dissolution we are freed from sin from misery from death and enter into the possession of glory thus our Saviour Lift up your heads for the day of your redemption draweth nigh thus saith St. Paul The creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 It is the same condition of the members of Christ which was of the head that they overcome death by dying when therefore the bands of death are loosed and we are fully freed from the dominion of the first death and danger of the second and therein from all the capacity not only of the rule and power of sin but of the life and in-dwelling of it and from all the miseries both bodily and spirituall that attend it and when in the same instant our soul takes possession of that glory which shall once in the consociation of it's glorious partner the body be perfectly consummated Then and not till then is the day of our redemption Is there any of us therefore that complaines of his sad and hard condition here in the world paines of body grief of mind agonies of soul crosses in estate discontentments in his families suffering in his good name let him bethink himself where he is this is the time of his captivity and what other can be expected in this case Can we think there is no difference betwixt liberty bondage Can the slave think to be as free as his Patron Ease rest liberty must be lookt for elsewhere but whiles we are here we must make no account of other then these varieties of misery our redemption shall free us from them all But now perhaps some of you are ready to say of the Redemption as they did of the Resurrection that it is past already and so indeed it is one way in respect of the price laid out by the Son of God the invaluable price of his blood for the redemption of man but so that it must be taken out by and applied to every soul inparticular if we will have the benefit redound to us It is his Redemption before it is now only our Redemption when it is brought home to us Oh then the dear and happy day of this our finall redemption wherein we shall be absolutely freed from all the miserable sorrowes paines cares fears
be and be acknowledged the sons of God Let us put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another forgiving one another if we have a quarrell against any even as Christ forgave us and above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse Colos 3.12 13 14. And lastly forsaking the mis-guidance of Satan the World and our corrupt nature which will lead us down to the chambers of death and eternal destruction let us yield up our selves to be led by the holy Spirit of God in all the wayes of righteousnesse and holynesse of piety justice charity and all manner of gracious conversation that we may thereby approve our selves the sons and daughters of God and may be feoffed in that blessed inheritance which he hath laid up for all his to the possession whereof may he happily bring us who hath dearly bought us Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the blessed spirit one infinite God be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen THE MOURNER IN SION ECCLESIASTES 3.4 There is a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance I Need not tell you that Solomon was a wise man his wisdom as it was in an extraordinary measure put into him by him that is wisdom it self so was it in a more then ordinary way improved by his diligent observation his observation was Universal of times things persons actions events neither did he look his experiments up in the closet of his own brest but by the direction of Gods Spirit laid them forth to the World in this divine sermon which not as a King but as a Prophet he preach't to all posterity Every sentence here therefore is a dictate of the holy Ghost it is not Solomon then but a greater then Solomon even the holy Spirit of the great God that tells you there is not a time onely but a season too for every thing and for every purpose under Heaven that is as I hope you can take it no otherwise for every good thing or indifferent as for evill things or actions if men find a time yet sure God allowes no season those are alwayes damnably-unseasonable abuses of times and of our selves not to meddle with other particulars our thoughts are now by the divine providence pitch't upon a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance or rather onely upon the time to weep and mourn for our time of laughing and dancing is past already and perhaps we have had too much of that in our former times which makes the causes and degrees of our now weeping and mourning as more uncouth so more intensive we must be so much deeper in our mourning by how much we have been more wild and wanton in our laughter and dancing To fall right down therefore upon our intended discourse without any previous circumlocutions There is a threefold time of just mourning 1. When a man is sensible of his punishments 2. Of his sins 3. Of his dangers Of his punishments first or rather which is more general of his afflictions for all afflictions are not intended for punishments some are fatherly chastisments onely for our good whereas all punishments are afflictive when we are whip't then when we smart with the rod we have cause to weep and if in this case we shed no tears it is a sign of a gracelesse heart It is time therefore to mourn when we are pressed by sufferings whether from the immediate hand of God or mediately by the hands of men whether by private or publique calamities are we smitten in our bodies by some painfull and incurable diseases Doth the pestilence rage in our streets Hath God forbidden us the influence of Heaven and curst the Earth with barrennesse Hath he broken the staffe of bread and sent leannesse into our souls Hath he humbled us with the fearfull casualties of fire or water by wracks at Sea by lightnings and tempests by land hath he sent murrain amongst our cattle and destroying vermine into our barnes and fields now God tells us it is a time to mourn are we disquieted in our minds by some over-mastering passions of griefe for the miscarriages of children for the secret discontents of domesticall jars for unjust calumnies cast upon our good name are we molested in our mindes and spirits with impetuous and no lesse importune then hatefull Temptations now it is a time to mourn do we find in our souls a decay and languishment of grace a prevalence of those corruptions which we thought abated in us Do we find our selves deeply soul-sick with our sinfull indispositions Shortly do we find the face of our God for the time withdrawn from us Now now it is a time to mourn If we turn our eyes to those evils which are cast upon us by the hands of men Do men find themselves despoyled of their estates restrained of their Liberties tortured in their bodies Do they find the wofull miseries of an intestine war killings burnings depopulations do they find fire and sword raging in the bosom of out Land now it is a time to mourn Were these evils confined to some few persons to some special families they were worthy of the tears of our compassion for it is our duty to weep with them that weep but where they are universal and spread over the whole face of any Nation there cannot be found tears enough to lament them Punishments then are a just cause of our sorrow and mourning but to a good heart sin is so much greater cause of mourning by how much a moral evil is more then a natural and by how much the displeasure of an Almighty God is worthy of more regard then our own smart Doth thine heart then tell thee that thou hast offended the Majesty of God by some grievous sin now is thy time to weep and mourne as thou wouldest for thy only son Zechar. 12.10 now it is time for thee to be in bitternesse as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne Thy soul is foul wash and rince it with the tears of thy repentance go forth with Peter and weep bitterly Dost thou finde in the place where thou livest that sin like some furious torrent bears down all before it now it is time for thee to mourne for the sins of thy people and to say as the holy Psalmist did Psal 119 136. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law Lastly as our sufferings and our sins make up a due time for our mourning so do our dangers also for fear is no lesse afflictive then pain yea I know not whether there can be a greater pain then the expectation of imminent mischiefs Do we therefore see extremities of judgments hovering over our heads ready to fall down like Sodoms fire and
herein Interpreters differ ut qui maxime For those late writers which have read the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because of the young Men I must needs say they would make a clear sense if we might take their words for the use of any such word in the Greek Tongue which for my part I must confess never to have met with To pass over the improbable guesses of many The words are taken by some in a borrowed sense by some others in a naturall In a borrowed sense by those either who by Angells here understand Gods Ministers or as those that take it for holy men of what ever profession These latter seem not to have any fair warrant for their interpretation since however we find somewhere that the Saints shall be in a condition like to the Angels yet no where do we find them called Angels the former want not good probability for their construction neither is it an unusuall thing with the Spirit of God to call his Ministers by the name of Angels So Malachy 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he is the Angel or Messenger of the Lord and of John the Baptist the same Prophet can say Malâ—c 3.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will send my messenger or Angel yea the very name of the Prophet that writes is no other then Malachy My Angel And ye know in the Apocalypse how oft the prime Governors of the Church are called Angels whereupon St. Chrysostome as I remember makes the reason of that full expression of St. Paul If an Angel from Heaven Galat. 1. to allude unto this distinction that even Gods Ministers are his Angels too though upon Earth a title given them both in regard of their mission and of their near relation to God and of those qualities which these Men of God should imitate in those blessed Spirits The very name is doctrinall and teacheth us both what God expects from us both to himself and you and what he expects from you to us From us faithfullnesse and diligence in his holy errands whereabouts we are sent to the World from you love and reverence to those Messengers which he imployes about your Salvation but it was my meaning only to call to this sense at the window in my passage as that which I hold not within the compasse of the holy-Holy-Ghosts intention Doubtless the sense is naturall and proper not of men by way of allusion but of those which are Spirâ—ts by essence and yet even in this sense there is some variety of judgment whiles some take this to be spoken of evill Angels others of good Those which apply this to evill Angels are likewise in a double opinion For some take it passively least even those Angels should be tempted others actively least they should take occasion to tempt The former conceit is as gross as it hath been ancient of Tertullian and some others that even spirits to whom they ascribe a kind of materiality may be taken with the immodest venditation of a fleshly beauty to which purpose they do ignorantly mistake that of Genes 6.2 That the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men that they were fair not considering the sequel that they took them wives of all that they chose Surely if ever spirits have affected these fleshly sins yet of marryed Spirits there was never dream in any sober head This fancy is too absurd to merit a confutation No doubt wicked spirits take delight in drawing the Sons of men to inordinate affections and beastly practises but that themselves place any pleasure in bodily obscenities is a matter not easie to be believed Or if they should be obnoxious to those carnall desires that the interposing of a vail should any way avail to the restraint of their wicked inclinations and purposes it is too poor a thought to enter into any wise understanding The other viz. least those Spirits should take this occasion of tempting might pass for currant if ever we could find in the whole body of the Scripture where the evill spirits are absolutely called Angels without some addition of distinction which is learned Camerons observation except only that one 1 Cor. 6.3 where they are so stiled for the greater honour of the Saints that shall judge them However the truth of the proposition is undeniable that so we ought to habit and order our selves that we may not give advantage to the evill Spirits either to our temptation or their prevalence we may be sure those tempters will omit no occasion of winning us to filthiness Do you not think that when they see wanton dames come disguised into Gods house as it were into the box of the play-house with their brest bare almost to the Navel their armes to the elbow their necks to the shoulder-points darting their lascivious eyes every way and in their whole fashion and gesture bewraying such lightness as might be able to debauch a whole assembly think ye not I say that they applaud themselves in so rich a booty as knowing that every eye that is transported and every heart that is fired with that immodest gazing-stock are so many spoiles and trophees of their Temptations It is a true and seasonable word that holy Cyprian said to the dames of his time that it was not enough for them to keep themselves from being corrupted by others solicitations unless they took care so to dress and deport themselves that they might not be occasions of raysing wanton thoughts in the beholders For surely we can not free our selves from those sins wherein others by our means though besides our particular intentions are insnared there is much liberty I confess in matter of attire but let me withall give you St. Pauls Item to his Galathians Brethren ye have been called to liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another Galat. 5.13 When and how is our liberty an occasion to the flesh but when we do so pranck up and pamper our flesh as that we regard not therein any others dangers which when soever we are drawn to do we may be sure we have so wary and vigilant spirits to watch us as that no advantage can be let fall against our souls as therefore wise and carefull commanders do not only cast how to impugne oppresse and annoy an enemy but also how to remove those helps which might be advantageous to him in his siege even to the demolishing of Suburbs and stopping up of Fountaines and the like so must we do in this spirituall warfare of ours we must not only stir up our courage and indevors to resist and vanquish tentations but we must bend our utmost care upon the prevention and removall of whatsoever in our apparell carriage diet recreations may be likely to give furtherance to their assault or prevalency and in the whole practise of our lives so demean our selves as that we may according to the charge of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not