and power which he receives from thence The virtue of Baptism follows the Believer as the water of the Rock did the Israelites in all the travels of this World even to his dying hour at which the oldest highest Saint may refresh himself by running back to his Baptism When temptations come and assault the Believer when Satan casts in his fiery darts to inflame the Corruption of the Heart the Believer is the stronger to repulse them because of Baptism A pious Virgin as Luther relates used to oppose this to every Temptation Baptizata sum mhil facis Satan I am Baptized O Satan thou canst do nothing In the African Persecution under Hunericus one Majoricus a fine young Man being brought forth to suffer for the Truth was thus confirmed therein by his Mother Dionysia Memento mi sili nos in nomine Sacro-sanciae Triadis in Ecclesia esse Baptizatos ah ne perdamus illud preciosissimum indumentum ne veniens qui ad nuptias nos vocavit non reperiat vestem nuptialem in tenebras exteriores ejiciamur Remember O my Son that we were Baptized in the Name of the Sacred Trinity let us not lose this precious Garment lest when he comes who called us to the Wedding he find no Wedding garment and we be cast into utter darkness This so strengthened the Young Man that he suffered as a glorious Martyr for the Truth In Baptism we are listed land enrolled into Christs Militia and so go not to war at our own charge but the great Captain of Salvation is with us and strengthens us against Temptation About the year of our Lord 433 the Burgundiuns were grievously afflicted by the Huns and finding no relief among Mortals they applied themselves to the gods and there being a great crond of Numens at last they pitched on the God of the Christians as most potent and present in Perils and were Baptized giving up themselves to Christ after their Baptism they went to fight with the Huns and with a few overcome many thousands of them And I suppose they fought as well and were as good Soldiers against inward Temptations as against outward Enemies for the Story saith Ab eo tempore ardenti amore flagrabant in conservando Christianismo From that time they burned with ardent love to Christianity Thus they had a double signal proof of their Baptism in the strength and Divine assistance afforded them against outward and in ward Enemies Moreover the Believer may find in himself those Divine Blessings which are sealed up in Baptism and so prove it to be of God Baptism seals up Regeneration and is therefore called by the Apostle the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 And the Believer may find the New-birth in himself We know that we are of God saith St. John 1 Joh. 5.19 Baptism seals our Vnion with Christ and hence we are said therein To put on Christ Gal. 3 27. and To be buried with Christ and risen with Christ Col. 2.12 Which two are notably adumbrated in the Baptismal Immersion into the water and Eduction out of it And the Believer may know his Union with Christ he may not only believe That Christ is come in carne Mariae but shew that he is come in carne sua as Origen speaks he may not only believe That Christ died and rose again in the flesh which he took of Mary but shew that he is dead and risen in the Believer that is Christs Death and Resurrection are selt in his Mortification and Vivification Baptism seals Remission and divine Favour hence we read of Baptising for the remission of sins Act. 2.38 and the Believer may be able to read his Pardon and see Heaven as it were open to him in the gracious favour of God Thus by experiencing the Divine Blessings sealed in Baptism he may satisfactorily prove to himself That Baptism is an Ordinance of God In the next place I shall instance in the Preaching of the Word This however slighted of late some Papists calling the Protestant Ministers in a scoff Praedicantici and some Protestants such as they are calling Preaching Prating is yet a great Ordinance of God such as hath had a standing in the Church in all Ages God himself was the first Preacher first promulgating to Man his solemn Command touching the forbidden fruit and after the Fall that Protevangelium in the Promise of the seed of the woman that is the Messias Adam as Franzius probably conjectures was wont at his Sacrifices for nine hundred years to preach of the Messias promised Enoch as early as he was in the World preached of the last day Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints Jude v. 14. Noah was a preacher of righteousness 2 Pet. 2.5 and without doubt told them of the approaching Deluge Abraham had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Incipients or initiated Ones whom he taught in the Divine Law as well as in arms Afterwards in Moses's time there were Priests and Levites to expound the Law to the people In Samuel's time there were Colledges of Prophets and there the Word was preached to the people In these Colledges was the first rise of Synagogues and that of Naioth in Ramah 1 Sam. 19.18 20. is translated by the Chaldee Paraphrast Domus Doctrinae the House of Learning because there the Word of God was taught The Great Solomon was a Coheleth or Preacher his Ecclesiastes is a Penitential Sermon of the Vanity of all things The Prophets were Preachers of the Word and so were the Scribes who were therefore called Text-Men or Masters of the Text and said to sit in Moses's Chair because they expounded the Law Also in the Jewish Church they did by the Imposition of hands called Semiea ordain Presbyters some of whom were for Judicature and others for Teaching the Law Thus Preaching came down successively to the Times of the Gospel in which we have a solemn Command To Preach to every Creature To be instant in season out of season To labour in the Word and Doctrine nay To travail in birth till Christ be formed in men The Apostles after their Master Jesus Christ who was the greatest of all Preachers dispersed themselves up and down the world to propagate the Gospel Paul went Preaching from Jerusalem to Illyricum Mark was in Egypt Matthew in Ethiopia Thomas in India Simon Zelotes in Britam and others in other places all labouring in the same Work After the Death of the Apostles this Ordinance was much esteemed in succeeding ages Anciently the very Bishops of Rome were wont to Preach and in the supposed Epistle of Clement to James the Brother of the Lord mention is made of quotidiana Praedicatio Tertullian speaks of feeding the peoples Faith Sanctis Vocibus with holy Words And Origen saith Omnes Episcapi erudiunt all the Bishops Preach In the Old though not as they are called Apostolical Canons we have this Episcopus non docens deponatur Let the not-preaching Bishop be deposed and in
divided Christ as this is is not the Christ of God but a Christ of his own fancy one that will save him in his sins and justifie him in his ungodliness he that believes in such a Christ doth at once miserably cheat his own soul and as much as in him lieth profanely trample on the blood of Christ as if it were shed on purpose that sinful men might have the reins laid down on their necks to riot in their cursed lusts with all impunity Moreover as to the word of God the believer is for all of it he is not only for cordials and pots of Manna and distillations of grace in the promises but for precepts also his meat and his drink is to do the will of his Father in heaven whilest his eyes are on the Land of promise his feet are in the Land of uprightness Antinomians boast themselves to be above the Law and as free as if they were in heaven and that their sins are but seeming sins sins to sense and to the world outwardly but no sins to faith and before God who seeth no sin in them But alass these are but swelling words of vanity to be above the Law is Antichrist-like to be above God himself whose Majesty and holiness break forth in it and if sins be but seeming sins the Law is but a seeming Law and God whose authority and sanctity shine forth in it is but a seeming God Promises and Precepts run together in the Scripture and must be taken together into the heart by faith Promises are effluxes out of Gods grace and faith takes them in by recumbency Precepts are effluxes out of Gods holiness and faith takes them in by obediential subjection both must continue and be owned by faith as long as there are grace and holiness in God The true believer neither with the Antinomian picks out the promises from the precepts nor yet with the Hypocrite doth he pick out only such commands as do not cross his beloved lusts as the Papists have razed out the second Commandement in some of their Catechisms because of their outward images so the Hypocrite razes out the displeasing Commandements in his practice because of the Idol-lusts in his heart but the true believer as David is for all the wills of God without any salvoes because without any indulged lusts Thirdly This resignation is made purely upon a Scriptural warrant There may be hay and stubble in the believer but there is none in his faith which so far as it is faith stands only upon holy ground All faiths assents stand upon Scripture-propositions all its affiances upon Scripture-promises and all its obedience upon Scripture-precepts What Balaam said by an over-ruling providence that saith the believer by the instinct of faith I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord to do less or more Num. 22.18 he would not as to doctrinals be wise above what is written nor as to worship be religious above what is written nor as to mercies and comforts be an expectant above what is written He would not as to doctrinals be wise above what is written when the Lutherans and Papists met at Ratisbon the Papists would first dispute about the Canon of Faith the Lutherans replyed that the Scriptures were the only rule at which the Papists cried out that it was very unequal to tye them to one kind of weapon only but faith is content with Scriptural doctrines only There is one Mediator in Scripture and faith dares not multiply them there is one Scripture purgatory in Christs blood and faith will not invent another there is one propitiatory sacrifice offered up once for all upon the Cross and faith will not seek after any more All the points in Popery are but so many additions to the word and upon that account insignificant to faith The first error in the first sin was an addition to the word the woman saying ye shall not touch it Gen. 3.3 whereas Gods word only was ye shall not eat of it Gen. 2.17 and the first and primordial error which hath ushered in all the Romish doctrines into the Church hath been the very same thing and because they are additions faith cannot own them no not faith in a Papist opinion may own them but faith cannot for it is but the souls Eccho to the voice of God in Scripture and where there is no voice there can be no return humane doctrines found not at all to faith Scripture is all Bishop Fisher a little before his suffering lighting on that one sweet passage this is life eternal to know thee and Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 brake out into these words here 's learning enough for me the believer who hath the whole Scripture before him may well say here 's doctrine enough for me faith will not turn vagrant and lye about at humane doors for doctrines there is enough in the word Again the believer would not as to worship be religious above what is written that of the Schoolmen cultus est à naturâ modus à lege virtus à gratiâ worship is from nature the manner from the Law the power from grace is very excellent The very light of nature saith God is to be worshipped but faith goes to the word for the manner and to free-grace for the power God in the second Commandement forbids graven Images not as false objects of worship which are forbidden in the first Commadement but as false means and manner of worship and under graven Images as being the chiefest and groffest kind of false worship God doth forbid all other false worship humanely devised such as these were hence true faith looks on all humanely devised worships as so many graven Images a kind of Teraphim expressing though not as they did an humane shape yet an humane devise and invention things void of God without institution and without benediction That of the Prophet who hath required this at your hand Isa 1.12 falls like thunder on all the imagery of humane inventions dashing them to pieces in a moment Quintinus the Libertine being present at a solemn Mass with a Cardinal boasted that he saw the glory of God I suppose according to his loose principles of being under no outward Law he would have said as much if he had been among Pagans at their Idolatrous worship but the true believer looks for that glory only in the Sanctuary of Divine Institutions there and there only God records his Name and commands the blessing even life for evermore Moreover the believer as to mercies and comforts would not be an expectant above what is written 'T is said of Moses that he died according to the word of the Lord Deut. 38.5 or as the Original may be read he died upon the mouth of the Lord the believer loves to live and dye upon Gods mouth in the promises there watching for the sweet words of grace dropping from him he walks among the Promises as the Physitian among his herbs and by a divine
the Old though not as named Apostolical Constitutions the manner was first one Presbyter preached then another and last of all the Bishop At this time there was good store of Preaching Damasus the First Bishop of Rome in his Epistle de Chorepiscopis shews how unlike Christ they are who preach not Ipse enim docuit ipse ovem perditam quaesivit ipse propriis humeris reportavit Christ did all himself St. Austin and St. Chrysostom preached every day ye heard yesterday ye shall hear to morrow is common in their Homilies Many of the Writings of Ambrose Nazianzen Basil and Cyril were only their Sermons to the People and therefore in Concilio Vasensi held about the Year of our Lord 440 it was ordered That if the Presbyter were sick and unable to Preach Sanctorum Patrum Homiliae à Diaconis recitentur The Deacons should read the Homilies of the holy Fathers Gregory the Great in his Pastoral saith Qui verbum praedicationis subtrabunt animabus morientibus vitae remedia abscondunt The unpreaching Minister hides the Bread of Life from dying souls The fourth Toletan Council which was a little after Gregory saith Omne opus Sacerdotum in praedicatione consistit Preaching is a Ministers All. In the Council of Mentz under Charles the Great It was Ordered Can. 25. Nunquam desit diebus Dominicis qui Verbum Dei Praedicet On Sabbath days a Preacher must not be wanting No though the Bisliop be sick it must not as that Can. saith In the Oxford Constitutions made by Archbishop Stephen Preaching is enjoined ne canes muti merito judicentur Nay the very Council of Trent saith that Preaching is praecipuum munus Episcopi the chief work of a Bishop Such an Ordinance is this and so highly esteemed in all Ages no wonder if Bishop Morton said The custom of not-Preaching is but a Babe in Christianity and the defence thereof a new point of Learning in Christs School But to return to the Point in hand after this long digression the Believer may experience this Ordinance to be of God That it is so is in part expermented before Conversion Whilest St. Paul but a Prisoner preached of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix though a Judg trembled feeling moral bonds cast on his Conscience by the Power of that Word which is never bound It is yet more fully experimented in Conversion in which there is a wonderful change wrought the dead being raised new Creatures formed Lyons turned into Lambs and hearts of Stone into Flesh all proclaiming that the Finger of God is in it of a Truth Johannes Speicerus as Scultetus relates Preached so powerfully That the very Strumpets leaving their lewdness returned home unto God After Conversion the Experiment is yet more compleat the Word works effectually in them that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The glory of the Divine Attributes break forth in this Ordinance out of the seeming weakness a Majesty appears in some sort much as Christs Deity sparkled out of his Humane Flesh It is not the meer Voice of Man but of God coming with an Authority more than Humane and setting the heart made like Josiah's tender by Faith into an holy trembling at it as a signal proof that the Lord is the Speaker One who hath the Keys of Heaven and Hell in his own hand and upon Obedience or Rebellion is able to save or destroy The Believer by the command and reverential awe put upon his Conscience finds That there is a Divine Presence and Grandeur in it which to oppose is to strive and make War with God himself Again out of the seeming foolishness wisdom discovers it self Whilest but a man is teaching outwardly to the ear there is an inward Teacher in the heart The Spirit of Revelation uncovers the holy things and brings forth this or that sacred Mystery to the View Intus datur intus coruscat intus revelatur as St. Austin expresses it The Father of Lights shews himself there in sacred Revelations Christ seals up the Ordinance by the dropping of the holy Unction A Believer meets with such illuminations as are far more precious than all the Lights in Nature Hence St. Chrysostom's Auditors when he was like to be silenced cried out Satius est ut Sol non luceat quam ut Chrysostomus non doceat It were better to lose the Sun than such a burning shining light as he was The entrance or opening of thy words giveth Light saith the Psalmist Psal 119.130 When the Word preached is admitted into the heart by Faith and there opened by the Holy Spirit a celestial Light rises up and bears Witness to the Ordinance Again in the midst of plainness Divine Omniscience shews forth it self the Minister stands without but the Word enters in and anatomizes the heart Elisha proved himself a Prophet in telling what the King of Syria spake in his Bed-chamber Our Saviour manifested his Deity in answering to the thoughts of Men. When the Word preached penetrates into the retiring-rooms and inmost chambers of the heart and there rifles the very thoughts and unriddles the purposes and inclinations It is an infallible Sign that the Great Searcher of hearts hath sent a Beam of Omniscience along with it The Believer who above all other men studies himself most desires much to know two things viz. What of secret sin there is in him and what of truth of Grace And under this searching Ordinance he comes to see many a mote or black spot in his heart such as he never dream't of and withal some marks and characters which to his comfort shew him his uprightness and in such Discoveries he sees the Great Revealer of Secrets co-operating with the Word Moreover whilest the Minister is unfolding the Gospel such are the ravishing savours of Christ and Grace as if a box of Heavenly Spikenard were broken in the Believers Heart Pardon and Peace smell out of the odours of Christs Merits and Heaven it self out of his pure Righteousness Through this lattice how contemptible soever it be to carnal Men Christ shews his all-desirable self and full treasures Free-Grace communicates pardons and love-tokens the Divine Spirit breaths life and power into Believers quickning and awakening to answer the pure Commands with Obedience and this and that Promise le ts out its sweetness and flows as a Conduit of Coelestial Wine with admirable Suavities and Consolations In such things as these Faith hath sweet Communion with God and a sure seal set to this Ordinance In the Preaching of the Gospel the Kingdom of Heaven comes nigh even to rejecters Luk. 10.11 Much more doth it do so unto Believers who take the holy Mysteries and Promises into the bosom and complex of Faith and thereby inflame their Hearts with the Love of Christ and Grace as a sure witness that this Ordinance which carries so much of Heaven in it is from thence Next to the Preaching of the Word I shall set the Ordinance of Prayer This is the ascent of