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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96973	Five sermons, in five several styles; or Waies of preaching. The [brace] first in Bp Andrews his way; before the late King upon the first day of Lent. Second in Bp Hall's way; before the clergie at the author's own ordination in Christ-Church, Oxford. Third in Dr Maine's and Mr Cartwright's way; before the Universitie at St Maries, Oxford. Fourth in the Presbyterian way; before the citie at Saint Paul's London. Fifth in the Independent way; never preached. With an epistle rendring an account of the author's designe in printing these his sermons, as also of the sermons themselves. / By Ab. Wright, sometimes Fellow of St John Baptist Coll. in Oxford.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3685; Thomason E1670_1; ESTC R208406	99,151	247

all the furniture and provision of it both all the moveables So Psal 50. 11. 12. the cattel and the fowles upon a thousand hills are mine saith he and also all the standing goods the corne and the oyle which you set and plant are mine Hos 2. 9. yea and the Psalmist in the same 24. Psal adds further that they who dwell therein are his also not the house and furniture only but the inhabitants themselves And this by the most sure and most Soveraigne title that can be better then that of purchase or inheritance of and from another for he hath made them all is thine because all comes of thee saith the same David 1 Chron 29. 11 12. And all things are not only of him but through him Rom. 11. 36. i e. they cannot stand nor subsitst without him Thirdly he must give largely it is not bounty else now God is therefore said to be rich in goodnesse because he is abundant in it so we find it comparing Psal 33. 5 with Psal 104. 24. in which it is said that the earth is full of his goodnesse and his riches which we may judge of by what he saies vers 27. of Psal 104. of what an house he keepes and what multitudes he feedes all these saith the Psalmist wait on thee c. King Ahasuerus to shew his bounty made a feast to his cheife Subjects but it was but for halfe a yeare and not to all some few halfe yeares more would well nigh have beggard him but God doth this continually The greatest and most bountifull of men when they would expresse the largest of their bounty speake but of giving halfe of their Kingdomes so Herod and he did but talke so neither but God bestowes whole worlds and Kingdomes as Daniell speakes Dan. 4. 35. and gives them to whom hee pleases Fourthly he that is bountiful must give all he gives freely and willingly which though I put together yet may imply two distinct things as first that he that gives must be a free agent in it who is at his choice whether he would give any thing away or no. The Sun doth much good to the world it affords a large light and even half the world at once is full of its glorie yea and all this light is its own not borrowed as that of the Moon and Stars is yet this Sun cannot be called good or bountiful because it sends forth this light necessarily and naturally and cannot chuse but do so neither can it draw in its beames but God is a free giver hee was at his choice whether he would have made the world or no and can yet when he pleaseth withdraw his Spirit and then all things perish Psal 104. 29. Secondly it must be willingly also i. e. no way constreined or wrung from him who is to be called bountiful Now of God it is said that he gives all away with delight for Psal 104 31. having spoken of ●eeding every living thing and of other the like works of his goodness he concludes with this God rejoiceth in all his works i. e. doth all the good he doth with delight It doth him good as it were to see the poor creatures feed The last requisite in bountie is to look for no recompence for the time to come So saith Christ Luke 6 34. If you give c. but ver 35. So doth not your heavenly father For saith hee Do good and hope for nothing againe so shall you bee like your Father and the reason is because he is so great and so high a God as nothing we do can reach him as David speaks Psal 16. 2. My goodnesse extends not unto thee hee is too high to receive any benefit by what we do And this shall suffice for the four General Rules of giving Alms and also of the first general part which we observed in the division of these words the quid the matter what we are to do and that is to provide for our selves by making us friends The second General that we held out to you in the division was the Manner to use the best means to get these friends unrighteous Mammon Where in the first place I shall resolve a doubt and withall the meaning of this expression The Mammon of unrighteousnesse How comes it to passe that this Mammon which is the subject of so much good should deserve a name so bad why is it styled the Mammon of unrighteusnesse you are to know therefore that wealth is call'd the Mammon of unrighteousnesse for two reasons the first taken from the cause the other from the effect 1. First from the cause for that wealth is an instrument and cause of much iniquity In Cyrus his Court the Counsellours shall be fee'd that the building of the Temple may not go on Ezra 4. and if Saint Paul would but have said tantum dabo to Felix in the Acts there had been more Rhetorick in the Apostles fee then in all Tertullus his starched Oratory For this reason Simon Magus when he sued in the 8 of the Acts for the holy Ghost trusted more to his Mammon then his Familiars being consident there was greater power in money then in all the Devills in hell to have conjured if it might have been even the Apostles themselves And therefore it was the Devills last assault and battery against our Saviour in the 4 of St. Matt For it any promise could have seduced Christ it had been that of the worlds Kingdome and glory he is the Sonne of God indeed that for such againe will not cast himselfe from the pinacles of the Temple It would be no hard work to manifest this truth through every age of the Church were it not too visible in our own And therefore I shall from hence in the first place draw an use of reproofe for the Ministers of these times I would to God I could not say but I must even of our own divine Profession that which our Saviour of his Twelve Yee are clean but not all for how many have these few year● brought forth which having been heretofore forward and eager for conformitie to the doctrine and discipline of this Church do now seek to wave and decline both and that not out of malice or ambition vices that move with a kinde of life and spirit but out of that base earthie dunghil-sin Avarice These are they that long for the Wedge of gold more then the Babilonish garment and so themselves may put up the means of a Bishop care not who puts on the robes These are they which make use of the Priest's office like him in Samuel onely for a piece of bread and will with that Chaplain of Micah's Judg. 17 set you up Idols if you give them but silver Men that measure their religion by their fortunes inclining ever not to what weighs most but what advantageth Saint Augustines Amphibions in Christianitie Hermophrodite Divines now a Sectarist and then a Conformist and next a Sectarist

FIVE SERMONS IN Five several Styles OR Waies of Preaching The First in B p ANDREWS his Way before the late King upon the first day of Lent The Second in B p HALL'S Way before the Clergie at the Author 's own Ordination in Christ-Church Oxford The Third in D r MAINE'S and M r CARTWRIGHT'S Way before the Universitie at S t Maries Oxford The Fourth in the PRESBYTERIAN Way before the Citie at Saint Paul's London The Fifth in the INDEPENDENT Way never preached With an Epistle rendring an Account of the Author's Designe in Printing these his Sermons as also of the Sermons themselves By AB WRIGHT somtimes Fellow of S t John Baptist Coll. in Oxford 1 Cor. 9. 22. I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some Printed for Edward Archer at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain 1656. TO THE Christian Reader SIR IT is that Man I mean whose life speaks the same Creed with his mouth and whose Actions are the Christian and not your Chymical Professor of Religion that hath been twice Dipp'd yet never Baptized whose deeds of darknesse Eclipse his New Lights or rather whose very Lights are a cloud to conceal that darknesse which is daily mask'd and vail'd and foil'd off to the world even with Light it self Being therefore such a Christian as I suppose thee you are to know something as to the Designe of printing these Sermons and something also as to the Sermons themselves And first for my Designe I hope thou wilt not put any such vain-glorious thoughts upon me nor uncharitable upon thy self as to say it was to appear in Print a most ridiculous piece of Fopperie especially in this Age and this Way too the Way of Preaching which I do acknowledge as 't is generally used in this Nation to be the lowest part of a Scholar if indeed it be any part at all and that it is much harder to teach to Spell according to the right rules of Spelling then to make every day of the week a sermon as sermons are usually now made Much lesse Reader would I have thee censure my Designe here to be guilty of that unpardonable ambition as to make thee believe I were able to pen either like that incomparable Pair of Bishops or the other incomparable Pair of Students who were the Prime Masters of this Nation in their several Waies of Preaching The chiefe thing then that I drive at in printing these sermons is to shew the difference betwixt Universitie and Citie-breeding up of Preachers and to let the people know that any one that hath been bred a Scholar is able to preach any way to the capacitie and content of any Auditorie And secondly that none can do this but they onely that have had such Education For truly as to those so much talked of now-adaies extraordinarie Inspirations this Age is so excessively sinfull and notoriously wicked beyond the daies of our Fore-fathers that I cannot see that man that is any waies fit for such Revelations And therefore upon this account there will appear to be a very great conveniencie if not necessitie of Humane Learning especially forasmuch as it is too clear and evident since these Times that all men will not be brought by the same way of preaching to heaven some are well satisfied with the plain easie way of Doctrine and Use others are not taken with any sermon but what is fill'd with depth of Matter height of Fancie and good Language And therefore I think it were not an ill wish for the Church of England if all her Preachers were Scholars likewise able to deliver themselves upon any occasion any way to take every ear and prevail upon every minde and fancie So should I see an English Clergie-man to equal at the least the Jesuite or Capuchine who by his exact skill in the Arts and Oratorie can command a confused Rabble met to see an Interlude or Mountebank from their sport to a sermon and change the Theater into a Church having a greater power over the passions of their Auditorie then the Actor hath upon the Stage being able to turn even the Player himself into a Monk and the Mimical Jester into a religious Votarie By this time Christian friend I hope thou seest that my designe in making these few sheets publick was not in any vain-glorious way for thy applause but instruction onely to teach thee the necessitie of that known distinction between a Scholar and a Preacher Not that I assume to my self the first no more then I dare the Learning of any of those whom I have here proposed to thy imitation but to shew thee what a Scholar may do more then a meer Preacher and that there is a vaste difference betwixt Shop-board-breeding and the Universities the preaching of the one being hardly learn'd under a double Apprenticeship whereas the other Knack may be compass'd far sooner then the easiest Trade a truth which these Times have abundantly clear'd and this I look upon as a just judment upon some Predicants in this Nation who held the people in hand they were the onely deserving Church-men among us because somewhat more forward then the rest of their Brethren in a popular way of preaching when now a company of Cloaks scarce free of the Citie have yet made themselves free of the Pulpit and have out-done those other Predicants even in their own way both of Praying and Preaching And truly were it not for the ill example in the Church of God those bad cousequences that might follow upon such an example I would teach my very Barber and Shoomaker and Tailor the Preaching-trade that so the Common people should see how slight and easie and contemptible a thing it is to be a Preacher as Preachers are now adaies and that their God-amighties of the Pulpit which for these late years they have so much adored are of no higher Gifts nor of a more divine Mission then what may proceed from a Thimble a Shuttle or a Last And therefore say I were it not for the scandal I would teach my Mechanick Relations to preach by which Act though 't is confess'd I should appear no good Church-man yet herein I should perchance shew my self no bad Common-wealths man forasmuch as there is no way left under heaven to undeceive the people and take them off from their superstitious idolizing this kinde of Preaching but this For when they shall clearly see that any one of any Trade and he too sometimes very deboist and vicious can serve the turn of the Pulpit they will then begin also to know that it is not Gi●ts but impudence not the Spirit of God but a frontlesse ignorance that calls out these men to Humor and in humoring to divide and confound the people And this the Jesuite knows full well and accordingly doth make this use of it at this day in this Nation Which sad truth as often as I seriously think upon I am instantly brought

upon my knees and to my praiers for God's mercie and forgivenesse of our Pulpit-sins in that we have praied and preach'd the Doctrine and Discipline of three flourishing Nations into complicated Heresies and Confusion this too mingled with the blood of near upon an hundred thousand Protestant Christians so much is the number of the Church of Romes Adversaries lessened since the year 1640 I would to God that all such of my own Coat whom this concerns would but cordially think upon it and know for certain that though their bonus Genius the conscience of these Acts hath fled them now iterum tamen Philippis yet it will meet them again with horror upon their death beds I speak not this in malice or revenge as if any of those men had robb'd me of a Living or Church-preferment but meerly out of a deep Christian sence of that common calamitie which they have brought upon the three Nations and that fearful judgment which will fall upon themselves being already begun in a contempt of their Praying and Preaching-trade by those that have out-praied and out-preach'd them even from the Shop and Stall and will end upon their Persons Families in such a way as I tremble even to think o● And let this suffice Christian Reader for the reason of my Designe in publishing these Sermons As for the Sermons themselves bee pleased to take notice that not so much the Doctrine though that also will not be disliked by peaceable sober-minded Christians as the Style and manner of them is offered to thy view And here I shall not make any comparison between the several Styles nor determine which Way is best because I will not prejudice the sincere conscientious endeavours of any that with an upright unbyass'd spirit labour in God's vineyard but shall in my daily praiers desire Gods daily blessing upon them But then also for the Doctrine of these Sermons in general however particular Judgments may like or dislike of some particular doctrines For as I do not expect that those of the Episcopal perswasion should allow of every expression in the last so neither do I look that those of the contrary judgment will approve of every period in the first Sermon You are to know further that this Tract is so far for these Times as these Times are preaching times and this Tract a preaching Tract and yet in this agreement there is a vaste difference For this Pulpit age hath so much of the New light as it hath almost none of the Old day of the Gospel but the Tract before you discovers this day to you without that Light Again the present Times have preach'd Congregations into Armies and Churches into Garrisons making the Pulpit a Magazine or store-house for the War and the Minister both the old Trumpet of the Law and the new Drum of the Gospel whose Sermons are the great Artillery made use of not so much to beat down vice as Cities and men so that what heretofore was spoken of the true Prophets may now be applied to these False ones without a figure The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof But Sir in these peaceable Sermons you shal meet with no armor but that of Gods no strong holds taken and sack'd unlesse those of hell The lines here speak not Petars and Granado's nor are the Doctrines delivered in a whirlewinde or tempest but in a soft still voice and answerable are the Applications for meeknesse and peace and brotherly love and not under pretence of cursing Meroz to murther Christians You have here indeed many of the Primitive Doctors of the Church drawn up like so many Commanders as it were into an Armie yet not one of that long robe did change his Miter for an Helmet nor his Crosier for a Sword I do not finde in Ecclesiastical storie that old Anselme did ever command a troop of horse or Nazianzene a regiment of foot neither do I meet with among the Records of the Church for 1500 years together that though the Ministers of the Gospel were back and breast proof they were ever clad in Armour never did they preach or pray in Buffe and yet even those naked praiers of theirs could subdue heaven it self never as I read of did those Primitive Saints gather their People into Regiments nor the Catholick Church into a Catholick Armie and yet that Church was an Armie too and that Armie had its weapons and its war but both spiritual The breathings of the Holy Ghost though sometimes they might come as a mighty rushing winde that fill'd both houses and hearts likewise yet never did that winde blow down the one into ruine nor the other into despair and if at any time that winde was cleft into Tongues of fire those tongues were onely to warm and enlighten not to burn down and consume Cities You are also taught from these leaves that Secular Learning is not so heathenish but it may be made Christian Plato and Socrates and Seneca were not of such a reprobate sence as to stand wholly Excommunicate The same man may be both a Poet a Prophet a Philosopher and an Apostle Virgil's fancie was as high as the Magi's Star and might lead Wisemen in the West as clearly to their Saviour as that Light did those Eastern Sages And so likewise Seneca's Positions may become Saint Paul's text Aristotles Metaphysicks convince an Atheist of a God and his Demonstrations prove Shiloes Advent to a Jew That great Apostle of the Gentil es had never converted those Nations without the help of their own Learning It was the Gentiles Oratorie yet ●ot without the Holy Ghost's Rhetorick that did almost perswade Agrippa to be a Christian and it was the Gentiles Poetrie but not without a Dietie in the Verse that taught the Athenians to know an unknown God By which you see it is possible that Gamaliel's feet may be a step to an Apostleship and that there is no such necessary relation betwixt the Stall and the Pulpit but that gifted men may proceed from either of the Universities as well as from the Shuttle or the Laste And I do believe that within these very few years when the Vail and Vizard of these Times shall be laid aside all our New lights and gifts and inspirations will appear to the world to have a greater mystery in them then that of a Trade to be forg'd in no Shop but a Studie and by no handicraft Company or Corporation but a Societie and a College And remember you were told this sad truth by him who foretold it twelve years since in his private discourse and now as if the Transactions of these daies had turn'd that prophesie into storie dares publish it to this credulous abused Age as an experimented truth which notwithstanding is still contradicted by the Praiers though it cannot be by the Reason of SIR Your Christian friend and Servant AB WRIGHT THE First Sermon Which is that in B p ANDREWS His Style or Way of