Moore Major Cura Specialitent Die Dominico XXX Octob. 1681. Anno. R. R. Caroli Secundi Ang. c XXXIII This Court doth desire Dr. Hooper to print his Sermon preached this morning at the Guild-Hall Chappel before the Lord Major and Aldermen of this City Wagstaff A SERMON Preach'd before my Lord Major AT GUILD-HALL CHAPPEL ON The 30th of Octob. 1681. By GEORGE HOOPER D. D. LONDON Printed for Mark Pardoe at the Sign of the Black Raven over against Bedford House in the Strand 1682. To the Right HONOURABLE Sir JOHN MOORE Knight Lord Major OF THE City of London My Lord THis Discourse as it doth justifie its becoming now more Publick by so good an Authority as that which it hath Prefixed so is too to confess that it owes that Honour to the Subject of which it treats Those Graces of the Blessed spirit were likely to procure favour from your Lordship to One that did but mention their Names and might be understood well enough tho in an Imperfect Description by Such as were no Strangers to them That the Holy Ghost may proceed to exhibit them to your Lordship and your Brethren in their own Life and full Power that by the Influence of your Government Love and Joy and Peace may be once again Restor'd amongst us that by such Fruit your City may flourish Now and your selves be everlastingly happy hereafter is the Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant George Hooper 5 GALAT. 22 23. But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Longsuffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance I Will not leave you comfortless 14 S. Joh. 18. said our Blessed Saviour upon his Departure to the disconsolate Disciples I will come unto you And this promise he afterwards graciously verified in the Mission of the Holy Ghost when the Divine Nature came yet nearer to them then it had before done in the Incarnation did not take flesh apart and constitute a distinct man but United it self in particular to each Believer came in unto them and dwelt within them not now to work its wonders in its own Person or only to declare Laws but to endue others with that Power of Miracles and to enable us all for the mighty works of Obedience to perform those his commands That is the Manifestation of the Spirit spoke in the same Chapter and given to every one to profit withal But because too there are Differences of Spirits and those as great as between the Holy and the Wicked the Blessed and the Accurs'd because it is necessary to know which to ask of God and cherish in our selves which we should command to avoid and get behind us And the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 This manifestation is not yet clear till we are taught to discern the Spirit and till the Holy Ghost in farther favour to us shall have inform'd us of the Manner and Signs of it's blessed Presence How it operates and where it is to be presum'd And if the Operation of our Souls the Apprehension of the Understanding and Inclination of the Will afford such Advantagious and delightful Speculation to Rational minds Our thoughts being no other way better entertain'd nor further improv'd then by such Reflections The motions of the holy Spirit within us the Actings of that new Divine Soul as they are infinitely more exalted and more Concerning so are they a far Nobler and much more necessary Subject for our most attentive Consideration Our Saviour entred upon this Subject in Answer to Nicodemus 5. Joh. 3.8 The wind saith he bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof c. Not to direct us to know the Holy Spirit by the sound for we may hear of it loudly where it is not Nor that we should expect it always in Storms and Tempests but to inform us that it 's Sustance is Invisible and that it is discernable only by the Effects And after those Effects we are now to inquire That therefore we may know how to stir up the gift of God that is in us and may duely thank him for those Graces of his we find in our selves or in our Brethren that we may not be deluded by our own Imaginations or others Pretences let me engage you a little while into so noble so useful a Contemplation while the Spirit in St. Paul tells you what Fruit of it ye are to expect in your selves and others The Fruit of the Spirit saith the Apostle is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance And in these words you may consider 1. The Natures of these Graces and their orderly Production 2. Their Beauty and Advantage and 3. Our obligation to Produce them I. The Love here first mentioned is the same with that you find throughout the whole New Testament sometimes under it's own Name sometimes under that of Charity and is nothing else but the Love with which the Christian is affected to God first and then for God's sake to his Brethren This Fruit contains the Seeds of those that follow the Holy Spirit producing the rest from it in a most Natural manner And this how it is raised it self we are first to Consider And in order to this it will be necessary to Premise that one of those Graces which results from Love and is here rendred Faith ought not to be taken for that Faith by which we become Christians but for Faithfulness or Fidelity as will appear hereafter The initiating Faith whereby we assent to the Gospel being here presuppos'd and leading us to Love as Love will afterwards incline us to Fidelity For the Apostle begins here 1 Cor. 13.13 where he ended in his Epistle to the Corinthians There after he had discover'd the Temporary Instrumental use of those Miraculous gifts which Shin'd out in some Christians for the Benefit of others he directs them earnestly to covet the Better those which were to abide and were necessary to their own Salvation And now says he abideth Faith Hope Charity these three And as these three have the preserence before those other afore mentioned For they tended only to excite Faith the first of these so amidst these too the Preeminence is given to the Last But the greatest of these is Charity Faith and Hope themselves being but of a Transitory Nature in respect of Love they serving only to create that and not Continuing in the next World And this Love he there largely Commends by the Effects of which he here gives us a more Particular enumeration For this Reason the Apostle mentions here neither Faith nor Hope the Preparatory Graces But begins with Love their Perfect work and this agreeably to the ordinary Method of the blessed Spirit whose Gifts he now describes For so in the Acts of the Apostles after the New Convert had given Assent to the Doctrine of Christianity and in Hope of it's Promises had been Baptiz'd then it was that
are become like Gods and we shall live for ever We have a Heaven in our Breasts we make the Sphere of our Conversation so to all about us We are only less happy now then we shall be hereafter but in a Felicity begun already of the same kind For let us suppose that God would appear bountiful to some Fortunate man here below What Present should we expect from Heaven Power or Honour or Riches they are not necessary Causes of a happy Life are not inconsistent with Trouble and Vexation They are what the World Chance or the Devil may bestow But a gift fit for a God to give what can it be but himself what can it be But to bless our sight with Moses his view Exod. 33.19 a Display of all his Excellencies to Proclaim himself and cause his Glory to pass before us To proclaim our style too to call us his Friends and adopt us for his Sons to publish our Pardon aloud from Heaven and declare his Love before all the Creation to discover too to us as to St. Paul his future Glories and to open his third Heaven to our view and our Expectations and Lastly till he shall take us up thither to come down himself to come unto us and make his abode with us to bring his Heaven here In what trouble now shall that Breast be that is secur'd of the affection of a God and what other thing will he desire that Loves him His present Fruition is greater then any thing but his Hopes And of those too he is as well assured as of what he now enjoys His Peace no man can take from him his Joy must be perfectly Compleat and his Satisfaction infinite This inward Joy when it fills and overflows the Heart how will it Cheer and enliven the Countenance What an agreeable Lustre and divine Brightness will it cast Then will the Face of man look indeed like the Image of God and discover by the Glory who it is that dwells within This Love burning inward when it sends forth its Light and its Heat and shines out on others in Kindness Long-suffering Gentleness and Goodness must too engage and warm their mutual Affections Nothing can appear so Attractive nothing so Lovely The Temple of Salomon in all its Beauty overlay'd with Gold within and without and fill'd with the Glory of the Lord was not so glorious as one of these Houses under the second Dispensation as one of these Temples of the Holy Ghost You have the Pourtraiture of this in the Description of St. Stephen He was full of the Holy Ghost and all that sat in the Council looking stedfastly upon him Act. 6.15 saw his Face as it had been the Face of an Angel These Graces if Vouch-safe'd to any Family would recommend it in the Eyes of a discerning Heathen to be more happy then Plenty Authority or Greatness of Blood could make them The Gentleness Goodness and Meekness of the Master the Fidelity and Affectionate concern of the Inferior relations Temperance in all their Lives and Joy in all their Faces the Peace of man and of God the Correspondence betwixt themselves and the Intercourse of Love betwixt them and Heaven all this must make the admiring Spectator take up Jacob's saying Gen. 28.17 Surely the Lord is in this Place this is no other but the House of God and this the Gate of Heaven And were there but a City compos'd of such Families this yet would be but one Family and like that now described the Spirit of God dwelling in it and his holy Protection watching over it Peace within its Walls and Plenteousness within its Palaces All the Inhabitants nearer in their Persons then their Dwellings the City esteem'd not from the beauty proportion or order of the Buildings but from the symmetry the Harmony of the Inhabitants Such an Union as this is to make the true Neighbourhood and the Happiest Commerce So compacted it would have a surer strength then from Walls and Bulwarks This would make it the Fairest the strongest the best order'd the Richest City of the World It would be like the Great City the Holy Jerusalem descending from God out of Heaven at each Gate an Angel its building of precious stones For all Policies and Ordinances of the best constituted Cities are but faint imitations of the Graces of the Spirit are set up to procure the Shadow of Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness c. Joyning of Houses designs uniting of Minds a Corporation speaks it self to be one body Companies and fraternities are appointed for nearer associations to make yet a firmer tye then what results only from common interest There are seasons of Cheerfulness and days of Joy Civility thence call'd and there learnt affected Gentleness and customary complaisance artificial Goodness and Pretended Love There is the profession of faithful dealing Order and Obedience are own'd and Intemperance as well as other Filth remov'd out of sight and from the observation of these rules and the benefit of Peace and security arises Wealth and Plenty As on the contrary when the manners of men are distant from any likeness of these Graces when Hatred Discontent Variance Spite Insolence even in subjects Faithlessness Fraud and Luxury come together and take place a City then is only an Association of Evils and the Nuisance as great as the advantage that was intended As Neighbouring houses at other times a common strength are found too nigh in a Fire and Company the Comfort and convenience of mankind is dangerous in time of Infection and it is their Wisdom then to live at distance If intemperance prevails in the Town It is no better then a common receptacle of Impurity if Fraud and Perjury it is but as a Den of Thieves If Malice Revenge and Mutiny it is as a place of Battle If ye bite and devour one another take heed says the Apostle in this Chapter to the Galatians that ye be not Consumed one of another Neither is it needful to shew how Dammageable these Vices are to Commerce and how impossible it is to manage it in that Company We may only observe that Tumultuousness and Sedition are as great Enemies to Trade as they are to Government while they are growing they disturb and hinder it as hereafter when they are form'd into a War they will plunder its Effects Parties and Animosities take off mens Minds from the Business of their Imployment and Faction grows up to be a Trade Men are Apprentices to other Mysteries and set up for Politicians and then no wonder if our Commerce flourishes not if Honesty and Lawful Industry Riches and Plenty go seek out other Dwellings After a great and general Judgement of God the Children of men went to make Bricks to build a City Gen. 11. and a Tower that should reach to Heaven But when by another just Judgement from the same righteous Hand they begun to vary and spake not the same Language they were
scattered abroad and left to the Place the name of Confusion So that altho it is not fit to perswade to these Graces from the advantages of Commerce for they are gifts of the Holy Spirit and to desire them on any Temporal account and to make Merchandize of them would be a Crime against the Holy Ghost and truely Simony yet however their proper Intrinsick worth may be sensibly understood by their visible Consequences and their Beauty will appear by the Comparison of their opposite Vices The certain Effects of the one are Poverty Ruin and Desolation And the natural tendency of the other to Riches Honour and Prosperity With these the spiritual Graces will probably bless us but they will too make us Happy without them for they are able alone to give us the best Joy and surest Satisfaction â—here and they only can consign to us Everlasting Happiness hereafter III. We shall therefore in the third Place consider the greater Obligations we have to beg of the holy Spirit to produce this Fruit in us And 1. As Christians in general For this is the Fruit which if the Tree beareth not it will hereafter be hew'd down and cast into the Fire And indeed we take only a Name in Baptisme and begin thence to be called Christians only for distinction sake on Earth for in Heaven it will give none except a real Change is made in the Person said to be regenerate and the Holy Ghost enters into the Temple so purified by Sprinkling For by Baptisme we are cut off from the Old stock and grafted into the Body of Christ but so as to close and grow and bear Fruit. By it we are indeed dead unto all former Sin but dead too and Lifeless we continue except we are quickned by his free Spirit Man in Baptism being like Adam new form'd and as yet but Clay expecting the breath of his No 〈…〉 and this we have seen was the Method of the 〈◊〉 our Saviour received and the Apostles gave when the new planted Disciples were Watered then 〈◊〉 the Spirit and gave the Increase We therefore that have not been baptized with the Baptism of John only Act. 19. but know there is a Holy Ghost ought to know our selves for true Christians by the true distinctive Character its proper Fruit not by a search into a Baptismal Register but by what we find in our selves of these Graces by the Seal of the Spirit Our Title to the Name is not good but after this Confirmation Neither are we at our grown Age to take our selves for Believers if we stood at the Creed not only to declare our Assent but in the posture of those Warlike Christians with Swords drawn in its desence the true judgement of our Faith is not only whether it be Resolute and Obstinate for that may be from a willful Mind but whether the belief of the Divine Existence be so Lively the Representation of his Perfections so clear and distinct the Sence of his Love to us so great and engaging as to oblige our mutual Affection to Possess us with a delight no oother Joy can equal a Quiet and Satisfaction not to be interrupted here below to inflame us with a Love for all his Images the whole Race of mankind to disengage our Minds from all earthly Pleasures and meaner Satisfactions admitting no Rival with our God This is the Catholick Apostolick Faith and who ever believes so shall not perish everlastingly Such a Faith as this so well Rooted and so Fruitful if it does differ in some lesser Speculative points yet is not like to be mis-informed long Its Meekness disposes it for Instruction Philip. 3.15 and its Fidelity is ready to Confess the mistake And if in any thing he is otherwise minded yet God the giver of all good and perfect Gifts and who has given to him those other already will reveal even this unto him And however if the Error shall be suffer'd to continue it will produce no ill Effect under the Governance of Peace Long-suffering and Gentleness And this stain may be Purg'd at last by the Fire of Love as others are said to be by that of Martyrdom If then we find those Qualities bestow'd upon us happy are we for the present and secure for the Future they are Gifts in their own Value inestimable but they are too Earnests of a greater of our eternal Inheritance the Redemption of the purchas'd Possession And as the first of these Graces the Love of God is the most natural Effect the most certain Argument of a Christian Faith So that we love God intirely and solidly not in Fancy only and conceit in a holy Dream the best Proofs we can produce are its genuine results the Fruit here mentioned Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Fidelity c. And if in this age of Distinctions we would discriminate betwixt those that are Christians and those that are not Our Saviour has given us a Text St. Joh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another In vain shall ye pretend the love of God or of his Son St Joh. 4.20 if it be not seen on your Brethren He that says he loves God and hates his Brother is a Lyar. Says the loving and beloved Apostle A Lyar as great as he that should say he loved his Brother and yet was provoked on the next Occasion never would Pardon him the least fault and refus'd him the smallest kindness as great a Lyar as he that should pretend Meekness and Faithfulness and yet be guilty of Treason and Rebellion By that Mark the Christians of old were known Behold how they love one another said the Heathen admiring their Unanimity ignorant of the Spirit by which they were lead of the Graces which so inclin'd them but if one of those Heathen had been acquainted with their powerful principle of Love and yet had afterwards found them Discontented Mutinous Revengefull Factious Passionate he might have cryed out Behold how they hate one another with greater Admiration The Qualities of the Text are the proper disposition of a Christian Mind They are the Life and Soul of our Holy Religion all its Precepts all its Institutions tend only to produce and cherish this Fruit. For all the Revelations of the Scripture are nothing else but Discoveries of God's Love to us to create in us a Love for him and all its commands have no other intention then that this our Love to God should be exemplifi'd in Affection to our Brethren and demonstrated by our Indifference for all worldly Pleasures This is the sum the spirit of the Christian Religion into this we are baptiz'd for this the Holy Ghost descends and this Love the Blessed Supper feeds by the pledges of Christ's Love the continual remembrance of his Death to our great and endless comfort And however men may refine in their pretences and be singular in their Denominations and titles of purer Professions if
complexion and shape of this Fruit something the Holy Ghost may own and they may then have leave to think Charitably and to presume from what they do see of what they cannot that the Spirit dwells there But to believe the Spirit to be where there appears nothing but the works of the Flesh is the same absur'd Creed with that of Transubstantiation it is to subdue our Reason and Sence so far as to take that for a Sheep which has the shape and qualities of a Wolf to think that a Dove that you see hiss and bite and sting This was the case of the Church of Rome When its Bishops first began to Change their Title into an Inherent Quality to challenge Holyness to their Persons as well as in their style when they pretended the Holy Ghost and Claim'd to be infallible and rested so far on that Presumption as to justifie their Actions by the Pretence and not to take Care to make their Pretences good by Actions answerable the World tho held in by all Arts of Policy and force of Power yet could not but discover and reject the Imposture rather then believe the Spirit should dwell in such restless ambitious bloody men they abjudged it from the See and thought it more reasonable the Pope might err then that the Doctrines of Image-Worship Indulgences and Transubstantiation should be True that Decrees for Perjury Rebellion desposing and Murdering of Princes should come from God This certainly What ever sort of men Attribute to themselves the Spirit of God in them should be seen nothing but what is agreeable to it nothing whereby it should be grieved within or dishonoured without Pure they should be within as those that Lodge a God And Careful of their outward Actions as of such as may be imputed to the Holy Ghost For to use our Apostles argument Profess ye That ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 3.16 If any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy For the Temple of God is Holy which Temple ye are It is Holy not so as to bring a Necessity of Holiness on your Actions but to affect you with an unpardonable Guilt if ye unhallow and profane it The pretence to the Spirit so is it to be Examin'd by man And when false is in their sight a bold Presumption But can it impose upon the Holy Ghost himself Or will the unlike Counterfeit appear less impudent before him The divine Nature had before an irreconcileable Aversion to Wrath Anger and Hatred But what an indignity and Provocation must this be to find it self entitled to it That instead of mans being chang'd by the Spirit the Spirit of God should have received new impressions from Man Ananias and Saphira were struck Dead for telling a single untruth concerning the Value of an Estate They lye boldly to the Holy Ghost whose Fashoods are concerning himself And till Interpreters shall be agreed what hainous Crime is that Sin against him well may this bear the Name And may not the strangeness of our present Temper prompt us to suspect that the blessed Spirit has not only deserted us but abandon'd us to the Wicked one For if our Luxury Variance Aemulations Perverseness and Discontent consisted with our Interest if there were no temporal Danger that they threatned were these Divisions in a time of Confessed safety and general Security and we at leisure and Liberty to Quarrel We might then be content to say that those things were not the Fruit of the Spirit were the Works of the Flesh and the fulfilling the Lusts thereof But when common Danger alarms us continually within and threatens terribly from abroad when the interest of the Liberty of our Native Country calls upon us to unite and arm against the growing strength of a Violent forraigner and a Tyrannical Religion presented upon the Point of his Sword when all Moral Considerations joyn in with the Suggestions of the Spirit and call for Love and Peace or we are utterly ruin'd here and for ever then not to hearken to continue this unnatural feud is not from the Flesh only from a Carnal mind for that would have at least Carnal prudential Thoughts but is one would fear from the Prevalence of the Evil Spirit There must be something more then Humane that is the cause of all this Infatuation enough to justifie the Liberty of the Speaker if he should take up that of the Prophet Micaiah I saw the Lord sitting on the Throne of Heaven and all the Host of Heaven by him 1 Kings 22.9 on his right Hand and on his left And the Lord said who shall perswade Ahab to go up and fall Who shall perswade a Country full of the blessings of God but ungrateful and unworthy to give up what they have forfeited and execute God's wrath upon themselves Who shall perswade a Country of so much Strength Riches Laberty and Peace to fall Voluntarily under Dishonour Poverty and a forrain Yoak In the Text there came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him And the Lord said wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a Lying Spirit in the Mouth of his Prophets And what is it but a Lying Spirit That shall accuse the best reform'd Church of Popery the easiest Government under the Sun of Tyranny that shall talk now of Grievances and Impositions and shall speak of want of Trade in times of the most flourishing Commerce that shall haunt Places of publick resort and fly about the Land in Libellous Prints with false Tales and mishapen Truths to enrage the Minds of men against lawful Government their only common Security to confound our just fears with Ridiculous jealousies and distract us in the Face of an Enemy with false Alarms And if to this Spirit God shall have added seven more as wicked as the other If he has mingled a perverse Spirit in the midst of us a Spirit deaf to the Voyce of the Charmer charme he never so wisely hearkening to no Accommodation submitting to no Terms of Communion fearful in things indifferent and bold in things unlawful a Conscience tender at one time and fear'd at another easie of belief in Surmises against Authority but difficult and beyond all Precedent scrupulous in Poofs that are for it a Spirit of Revenge and Ambition in the Great of Mutiny and Sedition in the Meaner a Spirit of Schisme in matters Ecclesiastick and of Faction in Temporals if to all these the Lord shall have said as to that you shall perswade and Prevail go forth and do so They will then effect their Errand By our Hatred of one anoother by our Frowardness and disobedience they seem to be now at Work by these they will engage us into a Civil War and expose us to a forain and then will Arbitrary Government and Popery things of forain growth and Strangers to our Land come in with Armed force through the wide Breaches we have made our selves But may God be more merciful yet to us that so little deserve it check these unruly Spirits that are gone out in the mid'st of us and give us of his Holy Spirit May He that commands the Wind and the Sea and they obey him He that is not in tempests nor earthquakes but in the still voyce restrain the striving lay the swelling of the Waves compose our minds and asswage our animosities turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children and of the Children to the Fathers lest he come and smite the Earth with a curse May he that has graciously joyn'd us in so many common advantages Spiritual and Temporal shed his love abroad in our hearts by his Holy Spirit that as we have one Baptism one Spirit one Faith one hope of our calling so we may be before Him as one holy congregation that as we have one Prince one Law one Interest so we may be as a City at Unity in it self God unite us before himself in his worship and before the face of our enemies for our Defence that we may be an Example to those of our Religion that yet enjoy it undisturb'd and a Refuge to those that are Distressed that we be not the Scandal now and a little after the Ruin of the Protestant Profession To this effect let us beseech Him that by his spirit he would give our Governours an affectionate zeal for his honour for the good of his People Long-suffering and Gentleness towards those who much need it that He would possess the People with a reverent Love for the Majesty of God for his Vicegerent with Meekness Faithfulness and Goodness that he would endue all subordinate Magistrates with proper graces with the steady resolution of a true Fidelity to God their Prince and the Law that he would grant that we abuse not wantonly the blessed means of our reformed Religion to Schism or Heresie the Publick Quiet to Civil Discord our Liberty to Faction nor our Plenty to Luxury and Intemperance That the Peace of God maybe on all our Consciences and the Joy of the Holy Ghost on our Minds that our Fruit may be unto Holyness and our end Everlasting Life FINIS