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A01344 Ioseph's partie-colored coat containing, a comment on part of the 11. chapter of the 1. epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians : together with severall sermons, namely, [brace] 1. Growth in grace, 2. How farre examples may be followed, 3. An ill match well broken off, 4. Good from bad friends, 5. A glasse for gluttons, 6. How farre grace may be entayled, 7. A christning sermon, 8. Faction confuted / by T.F. Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661. 1640 (1640) STC 11466.3; ESTC S4310 83,852 200

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their set number how many there be of them but still reckon them up with an Et Caetera leave still a Plus ultra to place more in if need require And as the Athenians for feare they should omit any Deity erected an Altar to the unknowne God So the Papists in summing up their Traditions will not compleat their number but are carefull to leave Blankes and void places for a Refuge and Retreating Place that in case they be prest in Disputation and cannot prove their point by places of Scripture they may still plead it is a Tradition 4. Whereas the word Tradition is taken in severall senses and there be many kinds of them Papists jumble and confound them together As Cheaters use to cast their counterfeit coyne amongst good gold hoping so to passe it away currant and undiscovered So they shuffle false and true Traditions together in one heape that the bad may goe off under the countenance and protection of the good Wee will marre their Mart by sorting them into these severall Rankes 1. Traditions in a generall sense are taken for things delivered though in Scripture by Christ and his Apostles thus Saint Basil cals Baptising In the name of the F S. and H G. a Tradition 2. For such matters of Faith which are not found in Scripture totidem verbis in the words and sound but yet in the same sense and substance or at least may by faithfull consequence bee thence deduced as the Trinity of Persons two wils in Christ his Consubstantiality with God the Father Thus Lindan a Papist cals Originall sinne a Tradition 3. For such opinions against which nothing appeares in Scripture and the Church in all times and ages have maintained them condemning the Opposers for erroneous As that the Mother of Christ was ever a Virgin 4. For such Rites and Ceremonies of the Church no matters of Faith which therein have beene used from great Antiquity and therefore probably might have their Original from the Apostles As Fasting in Lent though the manner time and continuance in keeping it was very different in severall Churches Take Traditions in the first and second acception wee account them to have equal force and authority with the Written Word In the third sense wee honour and embrace them as true In the last Acception wee approve and practise them as decent and ancient provided alwayes they be not obtruded as things necessary to salvation but indifferent in their nature But all this makes nothing for the blacke Guard of Romish Traditions which lag still behind some of them frivolous As this Apostolical Tradition That a Priest if against their wils they receive any money from wicked men they must in no case expend it on meat but to buy wood coals Some impious and blasphemous worshipping of Images prayers to Saints the Sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory c. having nothing for them much against them in Gods written Word To draw to a conclusion Scriptures besides many others have two most principall priviledges above Traditions First their Infallibilitie as being inspired by the Spirit of God 2 Pet. 1.20 So that yee first know this that no prophecie of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation vers. 21. For the Prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost As for the authors of Traditions they might both falli and fallere be deceived themselves and deceive others They might be deceived themselves either by mis-understanding the Traditions delivered unto them or by mis-remembring or by mis-relating them againe They might deceive others either unwillingly by these forenamed slips and infirmities or else willingly and wittingly by venting those things as received from the Apostles which they had not received from them And by usurpation intitling the fancies of your owne heads to bee Apostolicall Precepts 2. The Providence of God plainely appeares in his preserving of the Scriptures against all oppositions Many a time from my youth up may the Scriptures now say yea many a time have they fought against me from my youth but they could not prevaile against me Neither Antiochus before Christ nor Iulian the Apostate since him nor the force of Tyrants nor the fraud of Heretikes though the world of late hath scarce yeelded a wicked sharpe wit that hath not given the Scriptures a gash could ever suppresse them Their treading on this Cammimell made it grow the better and their snuffing of this candle made it burne the brighter Whereas on the other side the Records of Traditions are lost and those bookes wherein they where compiled and composed Aut in curia hominum aut injuria temporis or by some other sinister accident are wholly miscarried and no where appeare Papias is reported by * Eusebius in five bookes to have contained all the Apostolicall Traditions which they call the Word not written by Bellarmine himselfe confessed that these are lost Likewise Clemens Alexandrinus as the same Eusebius storieth it wrote in a booke those Traditions which hee received from the Elders and they from the Apostles which booke the Papists themselves at this day cannot produce I will conclude all with Gamaliels words Act. 5.39 But if it be of God yee cannot destroy it Had these bookes beene inspired by Gods Spirit no doubt the same Providence would have watched to preserve them which hath protected the Scripture Let us therefore leaving uncertaine Traditions stick to the Scriptures alone trust no Doctrine on its single band which brings not Gods word for its security Let that Plate be beaten in peeces which hath not this Tower-stampe upon it That the Lord Iesus the same night wherein he was betrayed Christ bestowed the greatest courtesie on mankind when hee foresaw that hee should receive the greatest cruelty from them O that wee were like minded with our Saviour to move fastest in Piety when wee draw neerest the Center of Death and then chiefly to study to fasten favours on our Enemies Why did Christ institute it then and not before Because dying men bequeath not their Legacies till they make their wils nor departing friends bestow their tokens till they take their farewell 2. Because till then the Passeover a Sacrament in the same kind did continue in full force and the Lords Supper was not to bee lighted til the Passover was first fairly put out Seeing Christ appoynted it a Supper how comes it now to be a Dinner God hath instrusted the discretion of his Church on just occasion to alter some circumstances in the Sacrament True it is such circumstances as are Sacramental not only of the Commission at large but also of the Quorum nomina whose absence or alteration maims and mangles the Sacrament are unchangeable But Common and ordinary circumstances such as is the Time Place Kind of Bread and Wine the Church hath power to alter by vertue of a Warrant left
then with Micaiah wee must alwayes prophesie evil unto them In this I prayse you not Ministers must not commend their people when they doe ill 1. Dishonourable to God 2. Dangerous to the Ministers That Embassadour who being sent to proclaime warre pronounceth peace to Rebels There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Esay 57.21 deserves at his returne to bee preferred to the Gallowes 3. Dangerous to the people who are soothed in their sinnes Honey-dewes though they be sweet in taste doe black and blast the corne So those who prayse their people without cause are cruelly kind unto them it is pleasant to the pallate of flesh but destroyeth and damneth the soule It were to be wished that as those that live under the Equinoctiall at Noon-day have no shadowes at all so great men should have no shadowes no Parasites no Flatterers to commend them when they least deserve it But why doth Saint Paul deale so mildly with the Corinthians I prayse you not Me thinkes hee should have made his little finger as heavie as his loynes O yee Corinthians I excommunicate every mothers child of you I damne you all to the pit of hell and deliver you to Satan for your sinne of Drunkennesse at the receiving of the Sacrament never to be absolved but on your most serious and solemne repentance Otherwise considering the corrupt humour in the Corinthians the Apostles purge was too gentle for them Theophylact answers that Saint Paul reproves the rich men the more mildly lest otherwise they should be implacably incensed against the poore fretting against them as the causers of the Apostles anger 2. It was the first time hee told the Corinthians of their fault and therefore used them the more gently on hope of their amendment This corrupt humour in the Corinthians was not as yet growne tough bak't and clodded in them by custome and therefore the easier purged and removed Ministers must use mildnesse especially at their first reproving of a sinne Yea God so blest the mild serveritie of Saint Paul that the Corinthians reformed all their errours for no fault reprehended by the Apostle in them in this first Epistle is taxed againe in the second Epistle a very strong presumption that all those faults were amended Now whereas wee find such abuses in the Church of Corinth presently after it was newly planted we may learne Corruptions will quickly creepe into the best Church Thus Saint Paul no sooner went back from the Galatians but they went back from his Doctrine Gal. 5.7 Yee did run well who did hinder you And as we reade of Mezentius a cruell Tyrant who joyned dead corpes to living men and so killed them with lingering torments So some Seducers in the Church of Galatia sought to couple the lively grace of God and active faith with the dead Letter of the Law and old legall Ceremonies long since dead buried and rotten in the Grave of our Saviour If it be done thus to the greene Tree what shall be done to the dry If Primative Churches whilst the Apostles which planted them were alive to pruine them had such errours in them no wonder if the Church at sixteene hundred yeares of age may have some defaults Moses said unto the Israelites Deut. 31.27 Behold while I am alive with you this day yee have beene rebellious against the Lord and how much more when I am dead So if while Saint Paul survived Churches were so prone to decline what can be lesse expected in our dayes It was therfore well concluded in the 39. Session of the Councell of Constance * That every ten yeare at the farthest there should bee a Generall Councell held to reforme such errours in the Church as probably in that time would arise VERSE 23. For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Iesus the same night in which hee was betrayed tooke bread AFter hee had fully reproved the corruptions of their Love-feasts commeth he now to reduce the receiving of the Sacrament to the first Institution of Christ It is the safest way to correct all the Errata's in the Transcript according to the Originall Copie Thus did Christ in the matter of Divorce Mat. 19.8 But from the beginning it was not so Excellently Saint Cyprian Wee must not heed what others did who were before us but what Christ did who was before all Were this used betwixt us and the Papists to cleare the streame of Gods service by the Fountaine of its first Institution how soone would seven Sacraments shrinke to two how quickly would Creame Oyle and Spittle fly out of Baptisme and leave nothing but faire water behind How soone c. For I have received of the Lord How could Saint Paul receive it of the Lord with whom hee never convers't in the flesh being one borne out of time as he confesseth of himselfe He received it 1. Mediately by Ananias who began with him where Gamaliel ended Besides lest the Corinthians should say that they received it likewise at the second hand as well as Saint Paul he had it immediately from God Gal. 1.12 For I never received it of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Iesus Christ I also delivered unto you The Greeke is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Latine Tradidi vobis English it as you please I traditioned it unto you Nota saith A Lapide on this place Hunc locum pro traditionibus quas Orthodoxi verbo Dei scripto adjungendas docento Bellarmine also starts Traditions out of the same place What eye-salve are their eyes anoynted with that can see unwritten Traditions here when the Apostle delivereth nothing but is recorded in 3. Evangelists Mathew Marke Luke However hence we will take occasion briefly to speak of unwritten Traditions the Church of Rome maintayning that the Scriptures of themselves are too scant to salvation except the course list of unwritten Traditions be cast in to make measure and this they will have of equall authority with the written Word Marke by the way 1. This is the Reason why Romanists are so zealous for Traditions for finding themselves cast by the Scriptures they would faigne appeale to another Judge yea hereon are founded those points which get them their gaine as Purgatory and the Appurtenances thereof Hath not Demetrius then reason to stand for Diana Act. 19.25 when his goods and her Godship must go together 2. Though they lock up the Scriptures in an unknowne language and forbid the Laity to reade them yet they suffer Traditions to bee preached and published to all in generall Such woodden Daggers will never hurt Popery to the heart and therefore they suffer their children to play with these dull tooles though not to handle the two-edged Sword of Gods Word 3. Romanists will never give us a perfect List and Catalogue of their Traditions that we may know
hand but it concernes every one of us to make a punctuall and direct answer thereunto Vpon examination all will confesse themselves guilty except a dumbe Devill or a Pharisaicall spirit hath possessed any Yet are there degrees of guiltinesse Some are guilty that they have not these graces at all but the opposite vices in stead of them in stead of knowledge ignorance All the reason Laban could render Iacob in cozening him with the elder sister for the younger was but pleading the custome of the countrey Gen. 29.26 And this is the best account some can giue why they receive the Sacrament It is an old ceremony a fashion of their Fore-fathers a custome of the Church that young men and maidens at such an age use to receive and so of the rest in stead of repentance obstinacy in sin in lieu of faith unbeliefe in place of charity malice an indifferency for desire and ingratitude for thankfulnesse these in no case must presume to receive but tarry till these vices are amended and graces in some degree begotten in them Others are guilty that though they have them in sincerity yet they have them not in perfection these are bound to come to Gods table his dainties are provided properly for such guests by his blessing these holy mysteries may worke in them what is wanting and strengthen what is weak And to conclude as the father of the lunatick child cryed out Mar. 9.24 Lord I beleeve help my unbeliefe so may the best of us all when we come to communicate call out with teares Lord I come with knowledge helpe my want of knowledge Lord I come with repentance help my want of repentance Lord I come with faith helpe my want of faith Lord I come with love help my want of love Lord I come c. VERS 30. For this cause many are weake and sicke among you and many sleepe RIght at this time there raged and raigned in the Church of Corinth an Epidemicall disease and my Apostle in my Text tels them the Fountaine from which it flowed namely from the unprepared and unreverent receiving of the Sacrament The words containe the punishment and the cause thereof I must confesse in the Heraldry of nature the cause is to be handled before the effect but because the punishment being the effect discovered it selfe first while the cause was yet unknown we will first treat thereof The punishment containes three steps to the Grave 1. Weaknesse 2. Sicknesse 3. Temporal death called sleep Learne God inflicteth not the same punishment for all but hath variety of correction In his Quiver some Arrowes are blunt some sharpe and of these some he drawes halfe way some to the head And the Reason is because there are divers degrees of mens sinnes some sinne out of Ignorance others out of Knowledge some out of Infirmity others of Presumption some once others often some at the seducing of others others seduce others God therefore doth not like the unskilfull Empiricks who prescribe the same quantity of the same receit at all times to all ages tempers and diseases But wisely he varieth his physick few strips to those that knew not his will and many stripes for them who knew his wil and did it not Sometimes hee shooteth halfe canon weaknesse sometime full canon sicknesse sometimes murthering Peeces death it selfe Let us endeavour to amend when God layeth his least judgement upon us let us humble our selves with true Repentance under his hand when hee layeth his little finger upon us lest we cause him to lay his loynes on us let us be bettered when he scourgeth us with rods lest we give him occasion to Sting us with Scorpions for light punishments neglected wil draw heavier upon us Let Magistrates and men in authority mitigate or increase the punishment according to the nature of the offence Let there be as well the stocks for the Drunkard the house of correction for the idle Drone the whip for the petty Lassoner as the brand for the fellon and the Gallowes for the Murtherer Let mercy improve it selfe to obtaine if not a pardon yet a lighter punishment for those in vvhose faces are read the performance of present sorrovv and promise of future amendment Let severity lay load on their backs vvhich are old and incorrigable sinnes so that there is more feare of their perverting others than hope of their converting Then shal the gods in earth be like to the God in Heaven and Magistrates here imitate the patterne which God setteth in my Text For probable it is that those Corinthians who are least offenders in the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament were punished with weaknesse the greater with sicknesse the greatest of all with death temporall called Sleepe in my Text The death of the Godly in Scripture language is often stiled sleepe And indeed sleepe and death are two twins sleepe is the elder brother for Adam slept in Paradise but death liveth longest for the last enemy that shall bee destroyed is death But some will object was Saint Paul so charitably opinioned to these Corinthians as to thinke that they some wereof were drunken at the receiving of the Sacrament that they slept that is dyed and went to Heaven me thinkes so strong a charity argues too weake a judgement I answer the Apostle had perceived in these mens lives the strength of unfained piety and though God suffered them to fall into a sin of so high a nature as this must be confest to be yet Saint Paul did Christianly beleeve that this sinne by Repentance and faith in Christ was pardoned and their soules eternally saved Let us measure the estates of men after death by the rule of their lives and though wee see some commit grievous sinnes yea such sinnes for which they are brought to exemplary death perchance by the orderly proceeding of the Law yet withall if wee had knowne that the drift and scope of their lives had beene to fear God wee may and must charitably conceive of their finall estate and that with the Corinthians in my Text they are fallen asleepe So much for the punishment wee come now to the cause For this cause many are weake All sicknesses of the body proceed from the sinne of the soule I am not ignorant that the Lethurgy ariseth from the coldnesse of the braine that the dropsie floweth from waterish blood in an ill affected Liver that the spleen is caused from melancholly wind gathered in the midriffe but the cause of all these causes the Fountaine of all these Fountaines is the sinne of the soule And not onely the sinnes which wee have lately committed and still lye fresh bleeding on our consciences but even those which wee have committed long agoe and which processe of time hath since scarred over Iob 13.26 For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me possesse the sinnes of my youth So that Iob being gray is punished for Iob being greene Iob in the autumn of his age smarts
as a most hainous and horrible sinne yet shee propounds it as an heroick act and the unworthy President for her imitation O Lord God of my Father Simeon to whom thou gavest the Sword to take vengeance on the strangers which opened the wombe of a Maid and defiled her c. Well if the Arme of Iudith had beene as weake as her judgement was herein I should scarce beleeve that shee ever cut off the head of Holophernes Actions which are onely good as they are qualified with such a circumstance as Davids eating the Shew-bread in a case of absolute necessity which otherwise was provided for the Priests alone Such are the doing of servile workes on the Lords day when in case of necessity they leave off to bee Opera servilia and become opera misericordiae Let us bee sure that in imitating of these to have the same qualifying circumstance without which otherwise the deed is impious and damnable In those which imitate the example without any heeding that they are so qualified as the action requires The ninth and last sort remaines and such are those which are eminently good as the Faith of Abraham the Meeknesse of Moses the Valour of Ioshua the Sincerity of Samuel the plaine Dealing of Nathaniel c. Follow not then the Infidelity of Thomas but the Faith of Abraham the Testinesse of Ionah but the Patience of Iob the Adultery of David but the Chastity of Ioseph not the Apostasie of Orpa but the Perseverance of Ruth here in my Text AN ILL MATCH VVEL BROKEN OFF 1 IOHN 2.15 Love not the World THe Stoicks said to their affections as Abimelech spake to Isaac Gen. 26.16 Get you out from amongst us for you are too strong for us Because they were too strong for them to master they therefore would have them totally banisht out of their soules and labour to becalm themselves with an Apathy But farre be it from us after their example to root out such good herbes instead of weeds out of the Garden of our nature whereas affections if well used are excellent if they mistake not their true object nor exceed in their due measure Ioshua killed not the Gibeonites but condemned them to bee Hewers of wood and Drawers of water for the Sanctuary Wee need not expell passions out of us if wee could conquer them and make Griefe draw water-Buckets of teares for our sinnes and Anger kindle fires of zeale and indignation when wee see God dishonoured But as that must needs be a deformed face wherein there is a transposition of the colours the blewnesse of the vines being set in the lips the rednesse which should be in the cheeks in the nose so alas most mishapen is our soule since Adams fall whereby our affections are so inverted Ioy stands where Griefe should Griefe in the place of Ioy Wee are bold where wee should feare feare where we should be bold love that wee should hate hate what wee should love This gave occasion to the blessed Apostle in my Text to disswade men from loving that whereon too many dote Love not the World For the better understanding of which vvords knovv that the Devill goes about to make an unfitting match betwixt the soule of a Christian on the one party and this world on the other A match too likely to goe on if wee consider the simplicity and folly of many Christians because of the remnants of corruption easily to be seduced and inveagled or the bewitching entising alluring nature of this world But God by Saint Iohn in my Text forbiddeth the banes Love not the world In prosecuting whereof wee will first shew the worthinesse of a Christian soule then wee will consider the worthlesnesse of the world and from the comparing of these two this Doctrine will result that It is utterly unfitting for a Christian to place his affections on worldly things Let us take notice of a Christians Possessions and of his Possibilities what he hath in hand and what he holdeth in hope In possession he hath the favour of God the Spirit of Adoption crying in him Abba father and many excellent graces of sanctification in some measure in his heart In hope expectance he hath the reversion of Heaven and happinesse a reversion not to be got after anothers death but his owne and those happinesses which eye cannot see nor eare heare neither it can enter into the heart of man to conceive Now see the worthlesnesse of the World three Load-stones commonly attract mens affections and make them to love Beauty Wit and Wealth Beauty the world hath none at all I dare boldly say the world put on her Holy-day Apparell when shee was presented by the Devill to our Saviour Matth. 4.9 She never looked so smug and smooth before or since and had there beene any reall beauty therein the Eagle-sight of our Saviour would have seene it yet when all the glory of the world was proffered unto him at the price of Idolatry hee refused it Yet as old Iezabel when shee wanted true beauty stopt up the leakes of age with adulterated complexion and painted her face so the world in default of true beauty decks her selfe with a false appearing fairenesse which serves to allure amorous fooles and to give the world as well as the Devill her due shee hath for the time a kind of a pleasing fashionablenesse But what saith Saint Paul 1 Corinth 7.31 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the fashion of this World passeth away The wit of the World is as little as her beauty how ever it may bee cryed up by some of her fond Admirers yet as it is 1 Cor. 3.19 The wisedome of this World is foolishnesse with God and Cuilibet artifici credendum est in sua arte what wisedome it selfe counts foolishnes is folly to purpose her wealth is as small as either what the world cals Substance is most subject to Accidents uncertaine unconstant even lands themselves in this respect are moveables Riches make themselves wings and fly away they may leave us whilst wee live but wee must leave them when wee dye Seeing then the World hath so little and the Christian foule so much let us learne a Lesson of Holy Pride to practise heavenly Ambition Descend not so farre O Christian beneath thy selfe remember what thou art and what thou hast loose not thy selfe in lavishing thy affections on so disproportioned a Mate There is a double Disparity betwixt thy soule and the world first that of Age Perchance the world might make a fit mate for thy old Man thy Vnregenerate halfe thy Reliques of sinne but to match the old rotten withered worme-eaten World to thy new Man thy new Creature the regenerated and renewed part of thy soule gray to green is rather a torture then a marriage altogether disproportionable Secondly that of quality or condition thou art Gods Free-man If I have freed you saith Christ then are you free indeed the world is or