Iovis 27. Novemb. 1645. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament That M. Burroughes who Preached yesterday in the Abby-Church Westminster before the Lords in Parliament being the day of the Publique Fast is hereby thanked for the great pains he took in the said Sermon And desired to Print and Publish the same which is onely to be Printed by Authority under his own hand Io Browne Cleric Parliamentorum I appoint Robert Dawlman to print this Sermon and no other Jer Burroughes TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE The House of PEERES assembled in PARLIAMENT Right Honourable GOd calls you to dayes of Fasting and Prayer you call his Ministers to joyn with you to be helpfull to you in them When should you ever think to be dealt faithfully with if not now How can we recompence better any faithfulnesse of yours to God and the State but by being faithfull to your soules These Prayers and Sermons passe away moneth after moneth but know that God will call them all over againe he will require an account of them one day It is a happinesse you have beyond the greatest part of the Nobility of the Christian world that you have the Word in the plainnesse and power of it administred to you You cannot honour the Word so much as it honours you the Preachers of the Word have not so much need of you as you have of that Word they preach to you Your Honours have the largest opportunities to honour God and to doe good to his Saints that ever Noblemen had since the world began God hath laid out work for you fit for truly noble spirits you have as many Saints to take care of in these Kingdomes as ever any on earth had use them kindly that they may blesse you and blesse God for you be not exasperated against any of them by those who know not or consider not of what spirits they are Although we should account it a heaven upon earth that there were nothing but wheat growing in that part of the field where we live yet seeing there are many tares sprung up many errors and sinfull practices if your Lordships should now be put upon such severity as out of zeale to pluck up all the errors which are not venemous weeds destroying but tares onely some way disturbing the growth of the wheat you shall as much as in you lies pluck up much of the wheat denying such as are godly and peaceable the enjoyment of the Ordinances of Christ for so it is if they cannot partake of them without that which is sinne to them and as some would have it cast them out of the Kingdome This I feare will not be acceptable to the meek gentle forbearing spirit of Jesus Christ in the day of your account For connivence at Blasphemies or damnable Heresies God forbid any should open his mouth those who are guilty herein against the light of nature should be taken off from the face of the earth and such as are guilty against supernaturall light are to be restrained and kept from the society of men that they infect not others But if on the other side your Lordships be put upon this principle that those who appeare to be men holy and gracious yet must not be suffered in opinion or practice wherein they differ from what such a company of learned and godly men shall determine The Lord prepare me for himselfe and quickly call me out of this world that my eyes may not behold such a sad spectacle as the hard usage to say no worse of so many thousands of Saints and that by such who are also I beleeve the true Saints of God When I look upward to God to your Honours and the Honourable House of Commons I see lesse cause of feare God is full of mercy love patience and tendernesse towards those who are godly and desire to walk peaceably with his Saints if they can appeale to him Oh Lord the searcher of the secrets of hearts thou knowest not onely our desires but our painfull sincere endeavours are to find out thy mind and to submit our understandings wills affections practises to whatsoever in the use of any means we can see to be thy will but after all our diligent endeavours we yet cannot apprehend such opinions and practises which our brethren hold forth to us to be what thou requirest of us and thou chargest us not to acknowledge or practise any thing where we feel not a bottome of thy Word to rest upon therefore if it be through our weaknesse that we doe not joyne with our brethren in what they would have yet out of a sincere desire that we may doe nothing displeasing to thee Lord pardon this to us Surely God in this case will pitty his people he will not charge such errour in judgement or practice upon them And as for your Honours together with the Honourable House of Commons we have that which cannot but be a comfort to thousands of truly godly people in the land for which they praise God Namely an Order from you that the Committe of Lords and Commons appointed to treat with the Commissioners of Scotland and the Committee of the Assembly doe endeavour the finding out some way how farre tender consciences who cannot in all things submit to the common rule may be tolerated according to the word of God Wee see in your Lordships and the Honourable House of Commons a Noblenesse joyned with much tendernesse to the godly party whom God hath made so instrumentall for you for which the blessing of God be upon you and your posterities But it cannot but much sadden our hearts that any party in the Kingdom should seek to quench that sparke of favour and hope that so good a hand of God hath begun to kindle for his people who feare him Yea that so many of our brethren who lately were under bondage with whom we joyned in fasting and prayer crying to heaven for deliverance from our yokes and that those who awhile since were left destitute and fled to this City for refuge from the rage of the enemy yet as soon as they have found succour here that they should rise up to oppose a forbearance of their brethren who together with them love Iesus Christ and agree with them in the substance of worship and the doctrinall part of Religion yea and in matter of Discipline differ not from them but in that which is controversall not so cleare to themselves but that they will acknowledge godly and peacable men may mistake in what no forbearance in these things How comes this hardnesse this severity into those hearts where the spirit of Iesus Christ rules where are those bowels those bowels they say are so stirred in them surely there is want of bowels or if they be there Oh that they would worke some other way then yet they have done Nay further this cannot but goe to our hearts to see these brethren to stirre up the Assembly and City against them who
love them in the Lord Si tantū habet pondus aliquod verum ut vires discentis excedat suspendendum est ut extendat crescentem non imponendum ut obterat parvulum August Quest in Mat. 11. and to be so vehement to promote that which very lately many if not most of them understood not of which they have given out no Modell to the Kingdome with proofes and reasons If I know mine own heart I can say Peace is dearer to me then my life I could joyfully lay down my life to procure peace between brethren but surely this is not the way It is a good rule of Augustine If any truth hath that weight that it exceeds the strength of the learner it is to be suspended that that which is little and tender may have liberty by degrees to put forth it selfe it must not be imposed left it bruise and oppresse it and so hinder the growth Whatsoever liberty shall be granted according to the Word I hope there is a generation that will not abuse it but will in the middest of their liberties be servants to Peace and Concord according to that I find in an Epistle of Master Calvins to Farell Nos liberi Servi sumus Pacis Concordiae And my Lords seeing there is such an out-cry against Toleration and Schisme I beseech your Honours that there may be a full debate how far Christ would have Brethren tolerate one another both in matters of judgement and practice and what that Schisme is which the Scripture condemnes as a thing not to be suffered and that the result of this debate may be published to the Kingdome for their satisfaction We know what abuse there hath been of words by them a spirit of opposition hath been stirred up in people against they know not what And I the rather humbly beseech this because many presume to interpret the Covenant against all kind of Toleration and whatsoever they are pleased to call Schisme and so they make the Covenant which we have made with the high God to become a snare to many thousand consciences of godly and peaceable men The Lord God guide your Honours and give unto every one of you the wisdome of an Angel of God in these miserable distracting times that you may doe worthily in your generation that in all your wayes Christ may owne you and all the godly of the Land may with one spirit joyne together and blesse you which is and shall be the prayer of him who is Your Honours In all humble service for Christ Jer Burroughes A SERMON PREACHED at a late FAST before the Right Honourable the House of PEERES PHILIP 4.12 I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed BEsides the Apostolicall call Paul had to preach to all Nations he had a speciall extraordinary call to preach to these Philippians Act. 16.9 A man of Macedonia appeares in a vision and prayed him saying Come over into Macedonia and help us By which ver 10. he assuredly gathered that the Lord had called him to preach the Gospel there The first place in Macedonia where he preached was Philippi a chiefe City in that part of Macedonia ver 12. But was Pauls encouragement according to what might have been expected from his extraordinary call one would have thought the people should have come presently in to embrace the Gospel And when I consider of this place Westminster the extraordinary hand of God in bringing the Gospel to be preached to you here in power these thoughts presently arise there is hope that there are many soules here that belong to Gods election surely many will come in and embrace the Gospel here Who could have thought six yeeres since that instead of every mornings chanting this place should be the most eminent for having the Gospel preached in it I think I may say of any place in all the world How extraordinary hath the providence of God been towards you in working thus for you One would think now the hearts of people should be mightily stirred God forbid the successe here should be no better then Pauls preaching at Philippi was at the first For the first Sabbath he came thither he went to a Rivers side to preach and what did the Nobles the Magistrates the Gentry the chiefe Citizens come out to heare him No onely a few women came to him ver 13. We spake sayes he to the women which resorted thither Paul is a womans Preacher Well but did the Word work upon any of the women Yes There was a certaine woman named Lydia a trades-woman a seller of purple whose heart the Lord opened But though he had no better successe at the first yet after perhaps he might The next thing that you heare of him is that he together with Silas who went along with him is dragged before the Magistrates for factious troublers of the Citie the rude multitude are raised against them The Magistrates look upon them as men most vile and guilty of horrid things so as they are inraged against them they rend off their clothes and whip them they put them into prison they are thrust into the dungeon and put into the stocks and is this the fruit of that wonderfull call of God of that vision from heaven that did so encourage Paul a man of such a mighty Apostolicall spirit as he had to come to this place to preach Oh the sad discouragements that some meet with in works that God calls them unto Learn by this never to conclude that a work is not of God because you meet with discouragements at the first Bare your hearts upon Gods call there will come forth good at the last The spirits of Paul and Silas were not daunted by this hard successe for 1 Thes 2.2 he tells us that After they were shamefully intreated at Philippi they were bold in their God There was as famous a Church gathered in Philippi at the last as free from mixture as eminent in godlinesse as any That way men sleight contemne cast dirt upon stirre up Magistrates and people against may prevaile at last Phil. 1.3 4 5. Paul thanks God for them upon every remembrance of them alwaies in every prayer he makes his request for them with joy Oh that those Ministers whom God sends to you to preach every morning might from that they see in you say thus Every time we think of Westminster we give God thanks we cannot but remember that place with joy in regard of the happy successe of our Ministery there But though these Philippians were stirred at first did those workings of the Gospel upon them hold Many have hopefull workings upon them when the Gospel comes first among them but after a while all vanishes and comes to nothing but it was not so here for ver 5. he sayes Their fellowship in the Gospell had continued from the first day untill now which was about ten yeares For Pauls
your lusts consider sayes he of the filth and deformity of Paul in prison Would you have sweet oyntments and powders choose rather Pauls tears And for dishonour he tells us that he and those who joyned with him were accounted the off-scouring filth of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejectamentū so Erasmus it signifies the dirt scraped off mens shooes or from the pavement of the ground he hath reference to that Lam. 3.45 Thou hast made us the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nauseam so Arias Montanus turnes it the loathing of the people their stomachs were ready to turne when they saw them when they thought or spake of them as when a man is ready to vomit And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the filth gathered by sweepings up and downe and cast upon the common dung-cart in the street Budaeus thinks these words have reference to the custome of the Heathens who in times of infectious diseases or publike calamitie sacrificed certaine men to their gods for the removing those evils that were upon them and upon these men they lay all the execrations of the people as if they had been the causes of all their misery So are we accounted sayes Paul men cry out of us as the plague of the world they curse us as the plague of all their misery At other times Paul had honour enough Gal 4.15 Where is the blessednesse I beare you record you would have plucked out your owne eyes and have given them to me They turned upon their owne heads sayes Luther upon the place the cruell hatred and indignation both of Jews and Gentiles because they were the receivers and countenancers of Paul So at this day sayes he the name of Luther is most odious in the world he that praiseth me sinneth worse then an Idolater blasphemer perjurer adulterer murtherer theefe it must needs be therefore sayes he the Galatians were well established in the faith of Christ seeing they with so much danger received Paul It hath been the honour of some of you heretofore to receive and countenance godly Ministers who suffered under the tyrannie of Prelates you were willing to venture the discountenance of the times in owning them This Christ hath owned you for and we hope it shall be remembred for good to you and yours Let not your hearts be changed towards these men If you think or say Now the case is altered they stood out then against Prelates and Innovations now they hinder Reformation Ans That which some call a hinderance of Reformation it may be Christ another day will call by another name a conscientious seeking to know his mind and a sincere endeavour to come up the nearest to the rule of his Word Doe not these men in the change of times and variety of conditions that God hath cast them into keep a constant evennesse in their respects to God and their holy walking before him It argues an excellency of spirit to be acted by such principles as carries the heart and life on in a gracious even course through changes of times and variety of conditions Some men know not how to manage any condition they are never well either full or fasting as we use to say As Hannibal said of Marcellus Nec bonam nec malam fortunam ferre potuit but Grace knowes how to manage every condition That Ship is well ballasted that sayles cleaverly though never so much tossed with winds and waves It is the excellency of grace to be able to turne this way or that way as God calls to make use of the weapons of righteousnesse both on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.7 Truth and falshood good and evill are at such a distance as by the same principle a man cannot apply himself to either side but as for honour or dishonour poverty or riches liberty or restraint they are at no such distance but that the same grace may apply it selfe this way or that way as occasion serves We reade of that Grace Hope sometimes it is called a Helmet sometimes an Anchor if you be at land and meet with enemies Hope is your Helmet if at sea and meet with stormes Hope is your Anchor Like Mertylus his shield which after the use he had of it in the field having it with him at sea and suffering ship-wrack it served him for a boat to waffe him to shore Compare Psal 57. with Psal 108. you shall find Davids condition various but his spirit the same In the 57. he is fled for his life from the rage of Saul and hid in a cave in 108. he is triumphing God hath spoken in his holinesse I will rejoyce I will divide Shechem I will mete out the valley of Succoth Gilead is mine Manasseh is mine Ephraim is the strength of my head Moab is my washpot c. yet a great part of these Psalmes is in the very same words My heart is fixed my heart is fixed to God will I sing and give praise c. from the 7. ver in the 57. to the end and in Psal 108. from the 1. to the 7. ver It is a great part of the glory of God to be unchangeable and yet to operate in all changes It is a great excellency of the image of God in the hearts of the Saints that in the variety of conditions it stil abides the same to know how to be abased and how to abound These are the two great Lessons in the Text Paul had learned them both We reade Prov. 30. Agur though wise and godly yet he desired to have neither riches nor poverty he was afraid of abasement or abounding but the Gospel gives higher degrees of grace Paul was afraid of neither he knew how to manage either abasement or abounding Both these Lessons doe nearly concern this Honourable Auditory of both the second is most difficult in which we shall be largest The greatest on the earth had need learn how to be abased God knowes how to abase you thousands of wayes but you must know how to be abased it were happy if you did 1. Know therefore that there is an infinite distance between God and you What are you though Nobles Earles yea though you were the Lords of the whole earth but poore vile wormes under the feet of the Almighty You love to have men know their distance between you and them it is fit it should be so it is your due their duty but doe you know also the infinite distance there is between the high God and you Constantinus Valentinianus Theodosius three Emperours called themselves Vasallos Christi Christs vassals such is the distance between him and the greatest Emperours as it is their honour to stand even in that relation to him Had you all your former Lands Possessions Honours were they encreased a thousand fold yet one sight of the glory of the great God were enough to abase your hearts to the dust
not forget him when they enjoyed abundance of all good things Ver. 13. he addes as a meanes thereunto Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and serve him You must not presume to doe what you list let the feare of God be upon you to keep you from pride wantonnesse and licentiousnesse We reade of Nehemiah Chap. 5. though he were in honour and had much power in his hands to satisfie his will upon men as others did they made their servants rule over the people ver 15. but so did not I sayes he why because of the feare of God My Lords God hath raised you high above others much power is in your hands take heed of abusing it to oppression If your spirits be too generous and noble to oppresse any your selves take heed that your servants be not made to rule with rigour over the people That great out-cry against Committees for rigorous oppressing partiall wayes and against some of your servants for exacting extreame fees comes not it may be so high as to your eares of all oppressions the oppressions by servants by men of meane quality is the worst Oh that you all could say If others doe thus as for us we doe not so because of the feare of God whatsoever other Lords have done doe or shall doe in the abuse of their power and the great trust committed to them God forbid we should doe so for the feare of God is upon us 2. Learne the lesson of the different principles from whence creature comforts come sometimes from Love sometimes from Anger and hatred AdmoneÌ„di sunt qui hoc mundo prosperantur ut solerter considerent praesâ—rti vitae prosperitas aliquando datur ut ad meliorem vitam provocet aliquando ut in aeternum plenius damnet Greg. the right understanding this would cause you to be unsatisfied in all your abundance till you know from what principle it flowes The very searching for satisfaction in this would have great power upon your spirits to order and regulate them in the enjoyment of your abundance 3. Learne the lesson of your own unworthinesse why should God give you rather then others who hath made you to differ 4. Learne that all you have are talents that your great Lord hath betrusted you with to trade for him you are but Stewards of what you have you are to give an account of all you had need then keep your books even How can you give account of your mercies when you cannor count them 5. Learne that man is borne to labour yea the greatest upon the earth not exempted none of you are born to live like the Leviathan Psal 104.26 There is the Leviathan whom hou hast made to play in the sea You came not into the world your lives are not continued for this end there are other labours in the world besides servile that God hath fitted for the most noble spirits 6. Learne the excellency of spirituall riches of true riches the least degree of grace yea every gracious work is more worth then heaven and earth sayes Luther He professed he preferred the understanding of one of the Psalmes above all the riches of the world If we were got up to heaven the earth would seeme as little to us as now we being upon the earth the starres seeme to be 7. Learne that the least sinne is a greater evill then all earthly prosperity can be good When you commit any one sinne in that you are more miserable then you can be happy in all your honours estates If you were throughly instructed in this then 1. you would take heed of getting or preferring riches or honours by any way of sinne Abraham would not have it said that the King of Sodome made him rich let it never be said that sinne hath made me rich or preserved me being so 2. If you had learned this whatsoever you have or shall get by sinne you will certainly restore to the uttermost of your power 3. This would make you take heed of the abuse of what you have to sinne for it tells you you shall doe your selves more hurt by any sinne then all you have in the world can doe you good 8. Learne this time of your life is the time that God hath set to provide for eternity This would make you serious and see need so to be it would take off much of the vanity and jollity of your spirits whereas now every thought that does but tend to any seriousnesse you think is melancholy This would make you take heed how you spend so much time in the enjoyment of the things of this world or make any use of them that might be the least hinderance to you in that great work you live for this would cause you to improve all you have to the uttermost for the furtherance of the Gospel and your owne spirituall good In doing thus you will learne how to abound APPLICATION FIrst you see of what great use Religion is to great men You who are Noblemen and Gentlemen who have great estates to leave to your children are not your desires and endeavours that they may have breeding sutable to your estates you intend to leave them how vile a thing is it in the eyes of all men for one to have a great estate but no breeding he is a foole he knowes not how to manage his estate now hee hath it he will quickly embezell it away and undoe himselfe Why should you not then account it a great evill for your selves or children to have honours and estates but no skill to know how to use them for God and the furtherance of your or their eternall good It is onely godlinesse learned in the schoole of Christ teacheth this This is the most necessary the most honourable breeding Breed up your young heyres and the rest of your children in the knowledge and as much as in you lies in the love of godlinesse that when they come to enjoy those faire estates they succeed you in they may be eminent for the honour of God and the good of their Countrey in their generation Be in love with godlinesse ye rich men and especially the Nobles of our Land how happy were we if there were a hopefull succession of Nobility and Gentry our sufferings are from the disaffection so many of these have had to Religion I hope there is yet a time when godlinesse shall bee honoured upon the earth by great ones Seek for grace for your selves and posterity God hath given you plenty of the lower springs seek the upper Vse 2 2. Those are rebuked who onely take care to get abundance but are not at all solicitous to learne how to abound Jude 12. this among other characters is given of a wicked man that he eates without feare he takes in freely the delight of the creature but there is no feare lest God should not have that glory that is due to him from it this he mindes not at all we have not