Talent put into your hand and suffer his Holy Spirit to blow up those sparks of Grace ye have covered o're with ashes in your hearts O let not that Blessed Comforter depart finally from you for the World as he did from Saul for then an Evil Spirit will soon possess and vex and send you to Endor But if ye have neglected his Grace and fallen into sin as who can plead Not-guilty Who can tell how oft he offendeth implore his assistance heartily wait his approach humbly and attend his motions earnestly and he will raise you again to Newness of Life he will bring you fresh Auxiliaries from your glorified Saviour and in due time unite you so firmly unto Him that your sins shall be chargeable only upon Him His Merits put on your Accompt and sufficient Vertue shall go out of Him to cleanse you from all Unrighteousness 2. And lastly be their Address never so humble it runs in a more then Humane stile for We pray you in CHRIST'S stead and however you put us off till a a more convenient season Yet as the voice from Heaven said hear HIM HIM that once took the Curse of God upon him for you and is ever at his right hand interceding for his Blessings on you HIM to whom all power is committed both in Heaven and Earth who even as Son of Man is now Lord of Angels Lord of all The Requests of Kings have been used to go for Commands with dutiful Subjects And when the KING OF KINGS prays and begs but one thing of you can ye possibly deny Him Sure no Man can be so much a Monster no Gentleman so much a Jew We pray you in Christ's stead What shall I say more Yes not only the glorified Son of Man but GOD himself doth beseech you by us too Wonder not that he speaks to you by men of like-passions with your selves unless you wonder at his infinite Mercy For ye can neither see nor hear HIM and live one glimpse ye know even of CHRIST'S glorious Body struck Saul to the ground blind and half dead Speak Thou with us said Israel to Moses and let not GOD speak with us lest we Die. Besides it is GOD'S Prerogative alone to shew his own Strength by the most weak Instruments It was not a man of mean Person and Presence and then a Prisoner at the Bar too that made the stout Felix shake and tremble It was not Elijah's word a silly plain Prophet that fell like Thunder upon the great guilty Ahab and struck a Palsie into his Joynts and forc'd him to his Sackcloth and Ashes but the Word of the Living God which if as soft Fire it cannot melt like a strong Hammer oft breaks the Rocky Heart in pieces The same GOD doth not now thunder and threaten but pray and beseech you by us Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth The Almighty Creator becomes as it were an humble Petitioner to his own Creature and to shew he is in good earnest because he could not swear by a greater he hath sworn by himself upon his own Life and Honour As I live saith the LORD I will not the death of a sinner Who can despise such ardent Love Who can spurn at such infinite tender Bowels Who can resist that still small Voyce the secret but piercing and importunate whispers of his Holy SPIRIT in your hearts which the Tongue of Men and Angels cannot express no nor all the powers of Men and Devils without your own consent render ineffectual And what doth the Lord thy God thus require nay request and beseech of thee O Man If he had bid thee do some great thing to cure thy natural Leprosie wouldst thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith unto thee only wash in the blood of the Covenant and he clean Only be reconciled be hearty friends with thy God make what returns thou canst of his wonderful Love Indeed the tinckling of three little Bells in a Country Steeple and the Peasants flocking to the Towns end and crying GOD SAVE THE KING adds not much to the Majesty of a Potent Monarch yet as that great Preacher and Prelate observes it is all they can do it shews their honest love and hearty affections and so sounds well and pleases the Royal ear Much more will your merciful God accept the will for the deed And let but men husband their proportion of Grace as well as they can let them but shew their integrity of heart and earnest desires and then do their faithful endeavours to serve love and honour Him and he asks no more being ready to supply all their defects and imperfections out of the inexhaustible Fountain of CHRISTS Righteousness This is all that God doth beseech you by us and if any man will deny him this he must needs confess his Damnation is just which GOD forbid and I have done For we are Ambassadors for CHRIST as though GOD the HOLY GHOST did beseech you by us We pray you in CHRIST GOD THE SON'S stead be ye reconciled to GOD THE FATHER To which Eternal TRINITY ONE GOD be the Eternal Kingdom Power and Glory AMEN FINIS A Catalogue of some Sermons c. printed for and sold by Henry Brome since the dreadful Fire of London to 1675. A Guide to Eternity by John Bona useful for Families and fit to be given at Funerals Dean W. Lloyd's Sermon before the King about Miracles 6 d. His Sermon at the Funeral of John Lord Bishop of Chester 6 d. His Sermon before the King in Lent 1673. 6 d. The Seasonable Discourse against Popery in quarto 6 d. The Defence of it quarto 6 d. The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome in quarto 6 d. The Papists Apology to the Parliament answered 6 d. Mr. Naylor's Commemoration Sermon for the Honorable Col. Cavendish 6 d. Mr. Sayers Sermon at the Assizes at Reading 6 d. Mr. Tho. Tanner's Sermon to the scattered Members of the Church 6 d. Mr. Stanhop's four Sermons on several Occasions octavo bound 1 s. 6 d. Papal Tyranny as it was exercised over England for some Ages with two Sermons on the fifth 〈◊〉 November by Dr. Du Moulin in quarto 1 s. 6 d. His Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Turner Dean of Canterbury 6 d. Bishop Lany's last Sermon preached before the King against Comprehension Principles and Duties of Natural Religion By John Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester Mr. Farindon's 130 Sermons in Folio
his own Graces to us and derive certain measures of the same holy Spirit upon us which himself as man had without measure because in him the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily Why should it be thought strange that this holy Spirit that united GOD and Man in one Person should as really unite us to our own Nature in CHRIST the Body to the Head the Branches to the Vine and make him dwell in us and us in him him one with us and us with him as the Scripture speaks If any man think our Union with CRIST to be merely Political that is no more than you may conceive between King Bramble in the Parable and the rest of the Trees his Subjects he is in a very novel and gross mistake To which I shall at present only oppose the words of two or three sound Divines of our own Church Though the Holy Ghost doth work Faith and other Graces in our Souls yet he doth not by these unite our Souls or Spirits immediately to himself but unto CHRISTS Humane Nature So the profound Dr. Jackson CHRIST is as truly united to me and I to him as my arm is united and knit to my shoulder So the Judicious Hooker in plain English By the influence of his present life CHRIST undergoes as it were a second Incarnation living and dwelling in our hearts by his Grace and reigning powerfully in our souls by Faith So the Learned Chillingworth to add no more So that upon the whole matter the sum of our Ambassy is this That JESUS CHRIST is both the Author and finisher of our Faith that he hath solemnly promis'd to give his holy Spirit to them that ask him that if men be not wanting to themselves but resign their hearts to his Conduct nay if they don't forcibly resist him and quench the holy flames he kindles in their Souls through his Servants Ministry he will make them real partakers of the Grace of CHRIST by working in them a firm Hope fervent Love pure Conscience clean Heart sober Mind chast Body pious Soul holy Life and first and last a true Faith in JESUS CHRIST without which it is impossible to please or to be reconciled to GOD. And if these things be so I cannot but animadvert a while upon those false Apostles and deceitful Workers who instead of building are ever pecking at the Foundation of our Faith with their Axes and Hammers in great Blasphemies and lesser Criticisms to change the old sound word of Reconciliation for new Ideas and devices of their own and other mens Brains That would supplant Christian Religion with Natural Theologie and turn the Grace of God into a wanton Notion of Morality that impiously deny both the Lord that bought them and his Holy Spirit that should seal them to the day of Redemption making Reason Reason Reason their only Trinity and sole Standard whereby to measure both the Principles and Conclusions of Faith that preach up Natural and Moral Religion without the Grace of God and Faith in Christ which is at best beginning at the wrong end and making Superstructures without a Foundation For the Jew cannot be saved by the Law of Moses much less the Gentile by all the Works of the Law of Nature which unless actuated by a lively Faith are no better than the cutting off a Dogs neck or the Sacrifice of a Fool. A Truth that Socrates himself in an ancient Dialogue ascribed to Plato makes no scruple to consent unto when he says ingenuously that no man can be good and vertuous by Nature Art Discipline Example or any other manner of way but only by Divine Inspiration So far do they out-strip a very Heathen that teach a good Life will carry men to Heaven though they be Jews Turks Antichristians or never such damnable Hereticks in point of Faith If any such as these be crept in among us unawares I am sure there is as much need of a Test for them how slily soever they carry it by amusing the World with other fears as for the rankest Errour in all the Pope's Dominions And I beseech you Brethren in our LORD beware of them Ye shall know them by their Fruits as He Himself foretels you He does not mean the Fruits of their Lives for they are the closest of all other Hypocrites they go demurely in Sheeps clothing too But the Fruits and Consequents of their Doctrine which are dismal enough one would think to make themselves afraid as Moses was of his own Rod turn'd into a Serpent For they are such as these That there is no such thing as supernatural Grace That CHRIST dyed in vain That ye are yet in your sins and every man must be his own Saviour or he is damn'd for ever From which Good LORD deliver us and GOD grant that by the Wisdom and Vigilance of the Defender of our Faith and his Prelates under Him no such Foreign Poyson may be privily conveighed through Press or Pulpit into our Church That those black-mouth'd Authors bearing date from Irenopolis may receive so timely and publick a check as that we shall not need to fear their growing the only Divines in Vogue by the next Age That we may never live to see our Youth trained up in the Cracovian Catechism never live to hear our selves called by any other New Name but that of GOD'S own giving That as the Disciples were first called at Antioch so they may be last called CHRISTIANS here in England And now I come to the third and last part of my Text The manner of the true Ambassadors Address in those words As though GOD did beseech you by us We pray you in CHRIST'S stead Which is first modest and humble We pray and beseech Let those Haughty Polish Envoys swagger themselves and others out of their Creed Let the Disciplinarian Agents Reprobate all the World but their own private Elect Let the Pope's Legates à Latere Lord it over mens Estates and Consciences let Them will and require all upon pain of Damnation to put their necks under his feet who in the Pride of his heart writes himself Servus Servorum that is in the Vulgar Translation Lord of lords As for us we have no such Message we have not so learned Christ We only pray you as men for whom CHRIST died quit your selves like men and fly to Mercy speedily lest you fall into the hands of Justice by letting your Sun go down upon the Wrath of God You have all a merciful Saviour who never did never will refuse a sincere Penitent if you will take his own word for it Him that cometh unto me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will in no wise by no means cast out We beseech you as Christians who have not only heard there is a Holy Ghost but are baptized into the name of the Eternal TRINITY have often tasted of the heavenly Gifts and Powers of the World to come We beseech you let the love of CHRIST constrain you to improve the
is too light and jocular when he 's for sending them that most desire and least deserve it that so they may be expos'd and laugh'd at For it is no laughing matter sure when Crowns and Kingdoms lie at stake They had more need be men of good Wisdom and Brains that can discern and nick the different Humour and Guise of divers Countries can soar aloft and treat the Italian in a Circuit of Pompous words before they stoop to the Point and be as blunt with the Switzers that hate all Language That understand the great Art of Timing things well there being says Solomon a proper season for every purpose under Heaven I am sure our Lord charges his Ambassadors saving their Innocence to be wise as Serpents as being to deal with that Politick Old Serpent and countermine the depths of Satan On this account St. Paul became all things to all men that he might by all means save some For one Remedy will not serve for every Disease nor are all Truths proper to be spoken at all times Our Saviour did not challenge the Jews for Idolatry or Usury but for spiritual Pride Hypocrisie and Traditions where the shooe pincht But then his Apostles turning to the Gentiles fell foul upon Superstition and Idolatry their common Distempers the first thing they did to inform their Successors that they should not spend their breath in declaiming against sins quite out of fashion or confuting old obsolete Heresies which were much like killing a man that was dead before or treating Christian Assemblies with the same Discourse that might better serve to convert the Great Turk They should not handle professed Christians though never so Carnal as Origen Justin Martyr or Tertullian did rank Heathen nor lay out all their pains and oyl about the first Elements though it be to demonstrate our Religion to be the best of all others and most perfective of Humane Nature For Principles are not to be made cheap and every day brought upon the Stage specially where they were never denied What though one man commit Murther another Adultery a third Treason a fourth Blasphemy must I go prove in all haste and upon every turn that there is a GOD They all know that as well as I unless they will in their Huffs deny their own Being and belye their own Consciences by Arguments too far fetch'd or proving too much we prove nothing at all or that which no man questions Prudence should rather teach us with due regard to time place and persons to bend our utmost strength and main counsels against the present and most predominant Errours whether in Faith or Morals 3. An Ambassador should have compentent Eloquence a Tongue well hung we say for that his proper business is to speak and he is said to have his Audience as an Orator He is to effect that which equity perswades or necessity requires by force of Argument to prevent the force of Arms and that is not to be done by a mere noise and flood of words without one drop of sense but he must be able to speak powerfully to move charm lead mens hearts in triumph and conquer minds with the pleasing Arms of Eloquence Antipater therefore desir'd the Athenians to send their Orator no more to Him because by his prodigious Art of speaking were the cause right or wrong he baffled and topp'd all offers made against him Now that St. Paul alludes here prfessedly to this property I appeal to the very stile of the Text Only there is this difference between CHRISTS Ambassadors and all others that they rely not upon their own strength of parts and Oratory nor take up with the common Artifices and enticing words of mans wisdom but their chief Rhetorick and height of Eloquence lies in the Demonstration of the Spirit Power and Wisdom of God 4. Lastly An Ambassador yet lacks one thing more before he goes that is a Commission to make his Acts Authentick which were otherwise null and void and himself a great Cheat. Demosthenes hath left a lasting Brand of Infamy upon Aeschines for going Ambassador to Philip on his own head But whether we should take the Orator for a faithful Historian in the case may be perhaps a question No question such an Act were crimen laetae Majestatis in all Empires nay Treason in a very high degree it being a greater affront to Sovereignty to counterfeit a King's Person than either his Royal Coyn Hand or Seal Thus St. Paul demands peremptorily How shall they preach except they be sent that is they are false Apostles Traytors to God's everlasting Crown and Dignity that do presume it Be a man never so gifted and able never such a Son of Thunder never so Eloquent and Mighty in the Scriptures yet without due Authority he hath no part or lot in this matter For no man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5. Now as the Apostles were in quality of Ambassadors extraordinary commissioned immediately by CHRIST himself and endued with mighty gifts of the Spirit necessary for the first planting of the Christian Faith So their lawful Successors are Leigers and in ordinary called also of God but by the Mediation of those Men on whom the Apostles derived their Mission and Unction they received from CHRIST Thus we see in what sense they are Ambassadors and pardon me if I hence infer that they ought to be received as such and accounted worthy of single honour and respect at least for their very Work and Office sake To assert the Dignity of this Holy Calling amongst Christians was once indeed superfluous when men were ready to adore and sacrifice to them as Gods and pluck out their own eyes for them But is perhaps as necessary now when the World is run into the other extreme and so far from communicating to them all good things Gal. 6. that they will hardly give them one good word When the Apostate Emperours Scoff is so often laid in their dish That CHRIST and his Apostles despised the Wealth and Honours of this World Though the arguing is most inconsequent from their times of Persecution to ours of Peace from Heathen Empires to Christian Monarchies Besides if they take the Context along with them they will find that in those days Lay-Christians had as little repute or wealth as the Clergy all they had though ne're so much was freely laid down at those poor Apostles feet for the publick service of the Church As for those little mighty Wits and goodly Masters of Reason that are ever whetting their Tongues and Pens to expose them to contempt alas they utterly miss their aim for it is the credit of our Religion and its Ministers that Nero spake Celsus wrote and Julian acted against them They are not moved at Celsus his prodigious Calumny that they conjured and dealt with familiar Spirits when God knows they only cast them out in the Name of JESUS They rejoyce to