THE WORKES OF EPHESUS EXPLAINED IN A SERMON BEFORE THE HONOVRABLE House of Commons at their late Solemne Fast April 27th 1642. By IOSEPH CARYL Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolnes INNE 1. SAM 2. 30. Them that honour me I will honour MAT. 24. 46. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he commeth shall find so doing Printed for Iohn Bartlet and William Bladen and are to be sold at the Signe of the Guilt Cup neare Saint Augustines Gate 1642. TO THE HONOVRABLE House of COMMONS now assembled in PARLIAMENT TWo things mightily advance any Worke. A true Patterne and a due Encouragement I conceive there is no one Text in Holy Scripture in which both are more closely or more clearely laid together then in that handled in the following Sermon There you have a Patterne for your Degrees in Working Most cases call you up to labour and some to patience There you have a Patterne for the speciall kindes of your worke The removing of those both Things and Persons which you cannot but see are evill The trying of those which say they are or are said to be Good and are not There you have a Patterne for the Acceptation of your Persons with God in those workes The spiriting of them with Sincerity and the crowning of them with Constancy There you have an encouragement unto all such works Iesus Christ observes and highly approves them All. Your Constancy and Sincerity your Trying of Hypocrisie and removing of Impiety The sweat of your Labours and the exercise of your Patience are most pleasing unto Him Work by these Rules Worthy Senators and Peace shall be upon you and upon the English-Israel of our God It were very incongruous to detaine you long in the Suburbs of an Epistle to whom I feare time can hardly be dispenc'd to looke into the City The uncessant importunity of the Kingdomes worke tooke off some part of it and obscured others in the Delivery Worke then presses the soule indeed when it comes so fast that it shortens communion with God A day with whom Fasting is infinitely better then a thousand Feasting-dayes though with an Abasuerus I have againe repaired those breaches with Hest 1. the pen and have sent it somwhat fuller with this second message to your eyes then it came with the first unto your eares The Lord make way for it both as heard and read into all your hearts and make you faithfull ever in doing his worke as he will be for ever more then Faithfull Royall in providing you and yours a reward I will not interrupt your Great affaires in a Preamble further then by reading subscrib'd Your servant in the Faith of Christ IOSEPH CARYLL Die Mercurij 27o. Aprilis 1642. IT is this day ordered by the House of Commons in Parliament that M. Goodwyn and M. Caryl shall be desired to publish in Print the Sermons they preached at the Fast before the House of Commons And it is further ordered that none shall presume to print them for the space of two Moneths but such as they shall appoint H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. de Com. I Appoint Iohn Bartlet and William Bladen to print my Sermon JOSEPH CARYL Errata Pag. 5. lin 1. nine read ninth p. 16. l. 5. her r. you l. 15. r. the comma after also p. 43. l. 16. carkasse r. carkasses A SERMON PREACHED At the late FAST before the Commons House of PARLIAMENT REV. 2. v. 2 3. I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not beare them which are evill and hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them lyars And hast borne and hast patience and for my name sake hast laboured and hast not fainted THat ancient Character of this Book quot verba tot Sacramenta as many Hier. in praef ad Bib. mysteries as words like that flaming Sword in the 3d. of Genesis which stopt the way to the tree of life may here seeme to stoppe the way to this Tree of Knowledge Time hath alwayes proved the surest Interpreter of a Prophecy and the event expounds more in one day then the Comment of many Ages Yet as the greatest Rivers so the most mysterious bookes of Scripture runne not in the same continued depth Though in some places they can scarce be sounded yet in others they shew their bottome and may be waded This is evident as in others so in this Booke of Revelation most of whose Truthes as some have said of all truth lie in a deepe pit yet even here we may sometime discover truth in the superficies of the letter even here are many plaine Doctrines and practicall observations Such the Text now read holds forth unto us about such waving all Quaeries concerning the Prophecy I intend Honourable and Beloved through the assistance of Christ and your Christian patience to speake at this time not unsutably I hope to this great presence and solemne occasion The words are part of that Epistle written to the Angell of the Church of Ephesus and with him to the whole body of that Church and in them to all Christian Churches v. 7. He that hath an eare to heare let him heare what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Integris igitur Ecclesias haec scribuntur saith Paraeus and whatsoever things were written aforetime were writen Par. in loc Rom. 15. 4 for our learning saith the Apostle I need not therefore trouble my self about a paralell It is enough that the common sence and abstracted construction of this Scripture is very applyable both to the businesse of this day and to the businesses of these if ever any busie times The Text containes in Generall the Observation which Christ tooke of the Approbation which Christ gave unto the workes of that Church in and about which workes Christ observes and approves three things First a double Gradation 1. Labour 2. Patience Some in working doe not labour and most in labouring are not put to the use of patience in these works of theirs both are joyned the paines of labour and the exercise of patience Secondly Christ observes and approves a double Specification of these workes or what these workes were 1. The removall of those who were apparantly naught Thou canst not beare them which are evill 2. The Tryall of those who had an appearance of being good Thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast sound them lyars Thirdly Christ observes and approves a double qualification of these workes 1. The sincerity and uprightnesse of them Thou hast borne and hast patience and hast laboured Why not to make thy self great or thy name glorious but for my names sake 2. The Constancy courage and unweariednesse of them thou hast done all this and yet thou hast not fainted I begin with the Observation which Christ takes of their works in generall I know thy workes To whom this I relates we may read in the former verse These
reason of wine and he smote his enemies in their hinder parts they fled he put them to perpetuall shame Then his people with an Ecce of admiration cry him up Loe this is our God we have waited for him They who but a season wait for God shall have matter of glorying in him for ever Secondly beare I beseech you with patience the reproach of men For reproach is a great proof of sincerity Work on though men scoffe on And hereby you shall as the Apostle speaks of himself and his Fellow-labourers 2 Cor. 6. 4 8. in the Gospell approve your selves as the Ministers of God in this your worke for the Church and Common-wealth in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses by honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as deceivers and yet true It hath been said that to doe well and heare ill is Kingly I am sure it is Christianly Christ never did more or better for us then when he was most derided Here was the patience of Christ here the strength and victory of his Love It had shewed the mighty love of Christ in the worke of our redemption if when he came into the world the world had entertained him with honour and had put him to death onely as Caiaphas gave counsell because it was expedient that one should dye for the people Ioh. 18. 14 but to come and dye for those who he knew before would mocke and revile him yea to doe the worke while they actually reviled him This was stupendious love and patience to a miracle It is commendable to do good while all praise commend approve and honour but to doe good while multitudes of all sorts and sizes reproach revile scoffe and slander is admirable is quid divinum and bids up faire to the love of a Saviour No man ever undertook a great work but he was mis-understood Wilt thou kill me saith that Iew to Moses when he came onely to pacifie him and save them all If your worke Act. 7. 25. be misscalled or mis-reported by men patience will make this a vantage ground for the raising of your acceptation with God What the Apostle speaks of Domesticke servants is as true of the Publicke servants of a State If when ye doe well and suffer for it the tongue is 1 Pet. 2. 20. a persecutor Gal. 4. 29. ye take it patiently tbis is acceptable with God Or as the Greeke more elegantly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thanks with God that is certainly for this God will thanke you But such who can endure most reproach can least of all endure impiety He who is a very Atlas in bearing a world of shame cannot with any liking beare a grain of sinne And when sinne growes great he hath no patience to beare it Such was the holy and zealous temper of these Ephesians though they had unconquered patience for waiting and suffering yet they had none for sinning Thou canst not beare them that are evill This is the first sort or kind of their works here specified and by Christ approved the removing or taking away of the evill Hence observe That It is as an Argument so the duty of those who are Doct. 4 good not to beare them that are evill It is an Argument for from hence this Church receives Letters Testimoniall from Heaven of their goodnesse The height and elevation of grace may well be taken by our opposition against evill The more holy any man is the lesse can he beare with his owne sinne For this I conceive to be an experimentall truth That the lesse corruption any one hath remaining in him the greater burden it is unto him And they who have most corruption in them feele it least Now as it is in reference to the evill in our selves so proportionably to that in others The more holy any man is the lesse he can beare with those who are unholy and prophane But I shall prosecute the point onely under the Notion of a duty It is the duty of those who are good not to beare such as are evill Evill men and evill manners are heavy burdens They are burdens to God I am pressed under you saith Am. 2. 13. Isa 1. 24. God to such as a Cart is pressed with sheaves God will not beare them I will ease me of mine adversaries They are burdens to whole Kingdomes and Churches they cannot beare them they sinke and ruine under them if not removed They are burdens to all good men they must not beare them it is their duty to remoove them For the clearing of this point I shall open those two principall termes in it First who these evill ones are that must not be borne Secondly what it imports Not to beare them To the former In a sence all men living on the face of the earth are evill men Why callest thou me good saith Christ to one who knew no more of him then Man There is none good but God scil essentially perfectly and independantly Mat. 19. 17. There is none that is good and sinneth not there is none that doth good and sinneth not Now though every evill man be a burden yet there is a necessity of bearing many and a duty of bearing some We that are strong saith Saint Paul ought to beare the infirmities Rom. 151. of the weake Infirmity is a degree of evill And these weake ones troubled themselves about things they needed not about the things they had no just cause to be troubled at for to be troubled at any thing which gives a just cause of offence is not weaknesse but strength yet they must be borne with We must therefore distinguish of evill men First some are private and close offenders others are publicke and scandalous Secondly some are weake and scrupulous others are obstinate and pertinacious Thirdly some are evill-doers and evill-practisers onely others are evill-promoters and evill-plotters Fourthly some are seduced and misled others are seducers and leaders into mischiefe Fifthly some are curable and willing to be reformed others are incurable and hate to be reformed Such as are publicke and scandalous such as are obstinate and pertinacious such as are evill-plotters and evill-promoters such as are seducers and misleaders such as are incurable and hate to be reformed these and if there be any like unto them ought not to be borne As for those who are close and private offenders they come not under any legall Cognizance and though many offences of such may be insufferable in their owne nature yet there is a necessity of bearing them For such as are weake and scrupulous it was a little before proved a duty to beare them For those who are onely evill-doers and seduced they being willing to reforme and be cured in some cases I say in some cases Iustice may beare them and charity in all For as it was in the Lawes of Leprosie among the Jewes Many who had risings and scabs or spots in
gave place by subjection Gal. 2. 5. no not for an houre His imprecation in the same Epistle goes deeper then his practise I would they were even cut Gal. 5. 12. off which trouble you The truth is First such evill men will not long be Reason 1 evill alone Evill men endanger the good As weeds the corne or bad humours the bloud or an infected house the neighbourhood Nemo errat sibi ipsi sed dementiam spargit in proximos The Apostle compares them Sen Ep. 94 to Leven which quickly sowreth the whole Lump On this ground he adviseth Timothy to shun prophane and 1 Cor. 5. 6. vaine bablings that is prophane and vaine bablers for 2 Tim. 2 16 â—7 they will increase unto more ungodlinesse and their word will eat as doth a Canker or a Gangrene This is often given as a reason why the Iewes might not beare the Canaanites Thou shalt make no Covenant with them nor Exod. 23. 32. 33. with their gods they shall not dwell in thy Land lest they make thee sinne against me And when contrary to this rule they did beare them the event is answerable to that minatory praediction They did not destroy the Nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them but were mingled Psal 106. 34 35 36. with the heathen then immediately followes and learned their works He means not works of Art or Agriculture of war or peace but of false worship and Idolatry They served their Idols which were a snare unto them It was an ancient heresie of the Pelagians denying the Aug Tom. 7. lib â— de pec mer c. 9. propagation of sin that all sinne is handed from one to another by example and taken in by imitation But it is a too much experienced truth that sinne is mightily increased and spread by example and imitation We have seen dangerous if not destructive errours and vain superstitions spreading farre and neare when countenanced with the practise and by the tenets of some in great place Those opinions and innovations which at first were begun by a few and hist at by many grew suddenly into credit with most and would in time have invaded all Secondly if we beare such though we could escape Reason 2 the pollution yet we shall fall under the guilt of their sins We sinne in others while we suffer them to sinne We commit all the evill which is in our power to hinder if we hinder it not Vitia aliorum si feras facis tua We become guilty of other mens sinnes not onely by commanding counselling and approving them but if wee may by not stopping and restraining them I will judge the house of Eli for ever saith the Lord for the iniquity which he knoweth because his sons made themselves 1 Sam. 3. 1â— vile and he restrained them not He gave them fatherly advice but he did not use his Fatherly Authority When Christ cals his people out of Babylon this Rev. 18. 4. is added as a reason that ye be not partakers of her sinnes Which partaking in her sinne as it notes danger of infection of getting some taint and spots in Babylon so it notes also danger of contracting some guilt by not opposing or protesting against the Idolatry there practised and heresie there maintained though they keepe themselves pure from all practise of the one or maintenance of the other And that Thirdly which is an inevitable consequent of the two Reason 3 former if we either way-beare their sinne we shall likewise beare their punishment This is joyned as a further reason of their comming out of Babylon in the place before cited that ye receive not of her plagues And Rev. 18. 4. when the people of God have strength and power they are as much obliged to cast Babylon out from amongst them least they be partakers of her plagues For God will plague Babylon wheresoever he finds her There is no safety in being near them who are under the curse of God Escape for thy life say the Angels to Lot looke not behind Gen. 19. 17. thee neither stay thou in all the plaine Escape to the mountaine left thou be consumed Depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men saith Moses to the Congregation Num. 16. 26. and touch nothing of theirs left ye be consumed in all their sinnes And if there be so much danger in being neare them what danger is there in bearing them A companion of fooles shall be destroyed When an overflowing Pro. 13. 20. storme sweeps away the wicked the taile of it may dash their best neighbours Fourthly when God doth not punish them with the Reason 4 wicked he usually punishes them by the wicked If they are not scourged with them these become their scourges Especially when for feare of trouble we beare them God to confute our policies makes them both our burden and our trouble Take heed unto your selves saith Ioshuah to Israel that ye love the Lord your God Else if ye doe in any wise goe backe and cleave to the remnant of those Nations even those that remaine among Iosh 23. 11 12 13. you and shall make marriages with them and goe in unto them and they to you Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these Nations from before you but they shall be snares and traps unto you and scourges in your sides and thornes in your eyes untill you perish from off this good Land which the Lord your God hath given you A Text whose Comment in a great part hath lately been made in Ireland and is written to us in the bloud of many thousands Of all the evill which hath fallen upon them we may say this is your bearing with evill You have borne them and they have broken you It is better to learne by other calamities then our owne And to take Example then be made One Lastly Not to beare the evill is mercy not onely to Reason 5 the good but to the evill You cannot be more cruell to them then in sparing them The greatest stroake that ever Israel felt from the hand of God was this Why Isa 1. 5. should they be stricken any more Ephraims sorest judgement for Idolatry was this Let him alone If you would Hos 5. 17. be a friend to evill men wound them A kisse is enmity Favour and complyance fattens their sinnes and hardens their hearts whereas reproofe and punishment may possibly reforme and heale them It was the wish of that good King Let the righteous smite me it shall Ps 141. 5. be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oyle which shall not breake my head There is no standing still in evill the best if let alone when they doe amisse will be worse How bad then will the worst be if they be let alone And when they are at the worst it is worst for themselves Is it not then
By the maine truths M. F Rom in his great Oracle saith he found in the whole Scripture the single and scattered places which make some shew of disproportion to the whole must be expounded and resolved Or if the way of reconciling them be doubtfull and difficult as who can deny but the infinite wisedome of the Creator may far exceed all the wisedome of the creature those places may stand as secrets not understood but they may not breake in peeces that body of truth which we finde by joynts fitly and proportionably ioyned together in the body of Scripture Seeing then the command of God the practise of all good Kings Magistrates Ministers and people according to their severall places recorded in Scripture are cleare that evill persons as limited and explained must not be borne This or the like Texts may not be interpreted against them but by them One Scripture often expounds but never contradicts another The point carries in it first a reproofe and conviction Vse 1 of those who will by no meanes beare the infirmities Ro. 15 1. of the weake which in duty they ought But can well enough beare the iniquity of the strong which in duty they ought not If a tender conscience did but scruple a Ceremony or but stop it may be at some of their yester nights dreames a late upstart Innovation Such were cast in their opinion presently and it may be it would not be long before they heard on 't as persons intolerable as men not to be borne But as for idle ignorant blinde covetous Shepheards these were no burthen to some and too much borne by all As for swearers drunkards scoffers at that which is Religion indeed prophaners of the Lords day these were no burdens they were the companions or followers of some and too much borne by all even there where they are the greatest burden of all at the Lords Table As Neh. 13. 24. for professed Papists and such as were Popishly affected Who like that impure off spring in Nehemiah spake half in the speech of Ashdod and could not speake in the Iewes Language but according to the Language of both people these were no burdens to some and too much borne by all the men of that Generation Yea what discernable paines did some take to make them light enough for all to beare Had not some studied a complyance and accomodation with Rome Had they not almost beaten out a middle way which yet would have proved no better then that broad way which leads to the chambers of everlasting death What a cry was there by some for peace and unity And why Not that Ierusalem might be a City Ps 122. 3. compacted or at unity within it selfe as the Psalmist speakes which ought to be not onely the prayer but the earnest endeavour of us all and is one of the most desireable and comely things in the world But that Ierusalem and Babylon Sion and Sodome might be compacted and at unity one with another Hence their blending of truth and errour of superstition and holy worship Hence their mincing and mangling our Doctrines and Tenets and handling of controversies as if they handled thornes which they were afraid to touch Hence their gentle dealing with errour and speaking Popery so faire What could all this portend but a hope yea a designe that at last unrighteousnesse and peace might embrace that truth and a lye might kisse that light and darknesse might mingle that Christ might have communion with him whom our Fathers called Antichrist and we beleeve he hath given us no cause to mend his Titles Gen. 49. 15. Surely that which was prophecied of Issachar in reference to civill burdens will be the History of such men in reference to spirituall they crouched betweene two burdens and bowed their consciences to beare and were angry with all that bowed not with them possibly for Issachars reason too though I judge no mans intentions because they saw that rest was good and the Land that it was pleasant Good Hezekiah once offered himselfe to beare any burden of fine or ransome 2 Kin. 18. 14. that he might purchase his peace with the King of old Babylon I have offended saith he return from mee that which thou puttest upon me I will beare We have cause to feare that some men have offered to beare much and lay downe great prices for the purchase of peace with the King of new Babylon It is a good bargaine to buy truth with the expence of peace but it is a miserable an undoing a breaking bargaine to buy peace with the expence or rendering up of any truth though without question peace is a richer commoditie then should be bangled away upon trifeling niceties or the crochets of Schoole-men Such as are properly called Dissidia Scholarum non Ecclesiarum Secondly this truth wipes off that false and scandalous Vse 2 aspersion which is so commonly cast in the faces of the best as if they were the people whom the Psalmist Ps 68 30. describes that delight in warre as if they were all for troubled waters and the fire of contention as if they were indeed like Solomons froward man that soweth strife Yea Pro. 16. 28. some will not feare to fasten that wickednesse upon them which God by his Propher justly charges upon those Hypocrites Yee Fast for strife and debate yee Is 58. 4. pray for strife ye preach for strife ye consult for strife And what is taken for the occasion of all these hard speeches which ungodly sinners as S. Jude speakes Iud. v. 15. have spoken against them Nothing but their answerablenesse to the duty of this Text They cannot beare 1 Kin. 18. 17. them that are evill Elijah was traduced for the Troubler of Israel only because he could not beare idolatrous Priests and Idol-worship The Prophet Ieremy was accounted a man of strife and a man of contention to the Ier. 15. â—â— whole Earth A man of strife there is much in that expression Christ was called a man of sorrowes to note the multitude of his sorrowes or as if he had bin compos'd Isa 53. 3. of all kinds and degrees of sorrow Antichrist is called a man of sinne to note him Merum scelus 2 Thes 2. 3 as Beza gives the emphasis of such forms of speaking a man made up of wickednesse or evill in the abstract So when Ieremy was called a man of strife it sets him forth for a common Barretour the veriest wrangler in a Country As if he were another Ismael his hand against Gen. 16. 12. every man and every mans hand against him And how got he this stile Only because he could not beare the prophanenesse of some and the will-worship of others His service among the Iewes was in this sence like that of Manlius Torquatus among the Romans who gave it over saying Neither can I beare their manners neither can they beare my government The Iewes could