and slanders they doe loade the sacred Scriptures onely to this ende to make way for their owne deuises and to establish their vnwritten traditions which they are not ashamed to match and equall with the word of God But let vs learne as it becommeth vs to put as great difference between the sacred and written word of God and the vnwritten doctrines and traditions of men as there is betweene golde and brasse betweene siluer and the dust of the earth And howsoeuer there was a time wherein our Forefathers and Ancetors were gulled and deceiued with the fopperies and delusions of vnwritten verities and traditions yet let not vs be so deluded For want of bread made of wheat men are content to eat bread made of rie for want of bread made of rie to eate oaten-cakes but yet it doth not follow that the one is as wholesome as the other and when you may haue of the best that you should choose the worst So it is betweene the word of God and traditions of men when bread of wheate that is the worde of God was kept away from our fathers in an vnknowne tongue then was bread of rie and oates sauorie to their hungry soules for the soule is like the stomacke it must be fed and it euermore desireth somewhat that belongeth to religion and saluation but now seeing bread of pure wheat that is the word of God is by Gods mercy set before vs let vs not inuentis frugibus glandibus vesci eate acornes when we may eate wheate and forsaking the holy and wholesome written word of God basely feede vpon the vnsauorie vnwholsome vnwritten traditions of inconstant and corruptible men But rather as it is said Act. 19. Paul I know and Iesus I know but who are yee So let vs say to Traditions the olde Testament wee knowe and the new Testament wee knowe but who are yee We know the olde Testament and the new the Law and the Gospell to be those two dugges or breasts which yeeld milke sufficient for the nourishment of any that are babes and children in Christ We know the olde Testament the new the Law and the Gospell to be those two pence spoken of Luke 10.35 which are able to pay for and to discharge any surgerie and physicke which our sicke soules may need and to heale all the wounds all the sinnes and transgressions thereof We know the olde Testament and the new the Law and the Gospell to be those two swordes spoken of Luk. 22.38 of which our Sauiour there said They are enough for indeed they are enough both for the assaulting of whatsoeuer enemies and for the defence of our selues And therfore let them speake as gloriously as they can of their vnwritten traditions and magnifie them as they list we will onely build our faith vpon the holy and written worde of God this shall bee our onely guide in matters of faith Sic dicit Dominus thus saith the Lord. And yet wee doe not contemne the voyce of Antiquitie wee scorne not either the writings or opinions of the Fathers but gladly vse them and reuerently esteeme of them and giue vnto them as much credit as themselues desire should bee giuen vnto them that is as farre forth as they agree with Gods word wee reuerence them and subscribe vnto them no further because we dare not vnder their banner fight against God or vnder their countenance out-face his truth This is a good rule In the writings of the Fathers that which is prooued out of the Scriptures is Vox Dei the voyce of God that which is probably spoken and deliuered is Vox hominis the voyce of man that which is affirmed falsly is Vox serpētis the voyce of the Serpent And as wee are to stop our ears to deny all consent to that which is falsely deliuered so are wee not to open our eares or to giue any farther consent to those things which are probably deliuered in the case of Religion and matters of Faith than as they may bee either directly prooued or necessarily and strongly collected and deduced out of the written word of God In the 3. of King 1. when contention was between Adoniah and Salomon who should bee King after Dauid with Adoniah stoode Abiathar the Priest and Ioab the Captaine with Salomon stood Zadock the Priest and the mighty men which were with Dauid Here were Priests against Priests mighty men against mighty men Bathsheba the mother of Salomon seeing this contention knew not what to doe Nathan the Prophet therefore said vnto her Come I wil giue thee counsell to saue thy life and the life of thy sonne Salomon so hee willed her to goe to Dauid the King and of himselfe to learne his pleasure in that businesse Thus the case standeth with Relion at this day Adoniah standeth against Salomon Antichrist against Christ Ioab the Captaine and Abiathar the Priest are on the one side and Zadock the Priest and the mighty men of Dauid on the other side mighty men against mighty men Priests against Priests great men on both sides You therefore like Bathsheba are diuided in your opinions and distracted in your iudgement harken therefore to Nathan the Prophet who doth giue you counsell to saue your liues and the liues of your sons and daughters In these matters of controuersie in these matters of faith goe to Dauid himselfe goe to God himselfe looke and obserue what he hath set downe in his holy word and what hee hath decreed touching matters of faith and hold that fast and as for vnwritten traditions and vnwritten verities let them passe for they are not of necessitie to be beleeued they binde not your consciences He preached vnto him Iesus Secondly by occasion of these words I obserue that the summe and substance of Philips Sermon to this Eunuch is cōtained in this one word Iesus It is most true indeed that the sum and substance the marrow and pith the power and life of all our Sermons and preaching vnto you is grounded and contained in this one word Iesus the second person in Trinitie the Son of God For as all the lines which either are or may be drawn in a round or circular figure though they be infinit yet all of them haue terminum suum in centro they all meet and are terminated in the middle point or center of the circle so all the lines and rules of faith and of religion and all the parts of Gods holy diuine truth though they be otherwise and in themselues infinite yet all of them haue terminum suum in centro they all meet and are terminated in Christ Iesus who is the very center and foundation of all truth And as all the Axioms precepts of euery Art and Science if they be rightly and duly deliuered haue relationem ad subiectum a true dependence or necessary reference to the Subiect of euery the said Arts Sciences so all the axioms of pietie and godlinesse all the
THE EVNVCHE'S CONVERSION A Sermon preached at Paules Crosse the second of February 1617 By Charles Sonnibank Doctor of Diuinitie Canon of Windsor COR VNVM VIA VNA LONDON Printed by H. L. for Richard Fleming and are to be sould at his Shop at the great South doore of Paules on the right hand going vp the steps 1617. To the Right Worshipfull my worthie Friend William Allen Esquire Sonne and Heire to the Right Worshipfull Sir William Allen Knight sometimes Lord Maior of the Honourable Citie of London C. S. wisheth all the blessings of this and of the better life THis meane labour and work of mine Right Worshipfull and my worthie Friend framed onely for the Pulpit not for the Presse and intended onely to the eares not to the eyes of men had not at this time in this shape and forme presented it self to your view If either I could haue satisfied the importunitie of many of my Friends which did earnestly solicite me to print the same or could haue preuented the purpose of others whom without breach of charitie I may in some sense tearme my Foes who as I had a watch-word giuen me were minded in case I could not bee thereunto entreated to set forth in print those broken and vnperfect notes which they tooke from my mouth at the time when I deliuered this Sermon And here I confesse I was brought into a strait by my Friends on the one side my Foes on the other So that although I had long since put on a settled purpose to publish no Pamphlets in this Scribbling Age wherein so much paper is blotted and wherein so many as soone as they haue but laid an egge do presently cackle and bewray an itching humour of beeing in print yet as one that had forgot himselfe I haue relapsed and by a kinde of constraint haue fallen as you see from my first and best resolution and so by pleasing others haue displeased my selfe But howsoeuer I rest assured your loue to mee will excuse mee and will take in good parte this Paper-Present which reacheth out the hand vnto you for acceptance the rather for that in one part and passage thereof it putteth you others of your ranke in mind of that which You seldome forget namely that as God hath been very gratious to you in blessing you not only with great abundance of temporall blessings nor onely with a wise vnderstanding but with a pious and religious heart and in these respects hath made you great so you should striue by all means to blesse honor him from whom you haue your greatnesse as also for that it commeth from such a one whose desire is that all they who vouchsafe to reade these lines should knowe that the Author of them is one of those many which honour your Vertues and loue your Person Yours in all Christian offices of loue CHARLES SONNIBANK The Authors Post-script In page 114. line 14. these words 1. Effect He beleeued would haue been placed in page 112. immediately before the last line Faults of the Presse in some few Copies Page Line 26. 10. 11. For comforth read comfort 32. 1. For their read in their 33. 17. For way read may 94. 1. For came read ranne 108. 5. For on read onely THE EVNVCH'S Conuersion Acts 8.26.27.28 c. 26. Then the Angel of the Lord spake vnto Philip saying Arise and goe toward the South vnto the way that goeth downe from Ierusalem vnto Gaza which is waste 27. And he arose and went on and beholde a certaine Eunuch of Aethiopia Candaces the Queene of the Aethiopians chiefe gouernour who had the rule of all her treasure and came to Ierusalem to worship 28. And as he returned sitting in his chariot he read Esaias the Prophet c. AS we may cleerly see and behold with the eyes of our bodies the power and goodness of God in the creation of the worlde by his Sonne by whom hee made the world Hebr. 1.2 So may wee with the eyes of our soules much more cleerely see behold his more powerfull omnipotencie and goodnes in the recreating and new making thereof by the same his Sonne by whom he remade that is to say he redeemed the world Iohn 3.16 In the former Dixit formata sunt omnia Hee spake the word and all things were formed in the later passus est Christus reformata sunt omnia Christ suffered all things were made anew and reformed In the former hee shewed digitum potentiae the finger of his power in the later hee shewed manum misericordiae his whole hand of mercy In the former he breathed into the world the breath of life in the later it pleased him that his Sonne should expirare should breathe out his owne breath and lay downe his owne life for the world that so it might haue eternall life Thereby verefying vnto vs the comfortable trueth of that assertion which reuerend and Christian antiquity hath from age to age commended vnto vs to wit that God hath shewed himselfe more glorious in redeeming than in making the world and mankinde Now that this great work of mercy wrought by God in the person of Christ for the saluation of man might bee made knowne to all men it pleased God to make that great persecution mentioned in the beginning of this chapter to be a very effectuall meanes For whereas the godly and faithfull beleeuers in Christ were all gathered together in Hierusalem as it were so many Bees in one Hiue God beeing pleased that the hony sweetness of his sauing truth and the knowledge of his Sonne should be no longer shut vppe in that one Hiue but should bee imparted to others both men and nations suffered them to be scattered and dispersed in similitudinem granorum seminis vt ex ipsis magna seges fidei multiplicaretur that so of their sowing the seedes of faith of the knowledge of Christ there might follow a great haruest of beleeuers vnto God Which thing did accordingly fal out Nam vt ex grano spica as of one graine commeth a whole eare and sometimes many eares of corne so was it in them for many times one of their Sermons did beget and bring forth a multitude of faithfull beleeuers Among those faithfull beleeuers which by reason of this great persecution were driuen from Ierusalem beeing scattered abroad went to and fro preaching the word as appeareth in the fourth fift verses of this chapter Philip was one not that Philippe which was one of the twelue Apostles for they all as appeareth in the first verse of this chapter stayed still at Ierusalem but it was that Philip which is the second in the Catalogue of the seauen Deacons Act. 6.5 And this Philip after that hee had preached and conuerted the City of Samaria as it is set downe in the former part of this chapter was imploied and vsed as you see in the wordes of my Text for the conuersion of this
liued in the time of ignorance but that as many among vs liuing in the light of the Gospell descend notwithstanding into the darknesse of hell so there were many liuing in the darknes of Poperie who ascended vp to the place of light to the kingdome of heauen and were partakers of eternall blessednesse To conclude this point Let vs not rashly enter into the iudgements of God for he saith I will haue mercy on whom I will haue mercy Sometimes God refuseth the father and chooseth the sonne as in Salomon to build the Temple and not Dauid Sometimes hee sheweth his iudgements on the sonnes and mercy on the father as in the children of Iob Sometimes he cutteth off both the father and the sonnes as he did Elie his children Sometimes hee saueth both the father and his children as Noah and his children in the Arke and this hee doth to the end that be we fathers or be we children be wee many or be we few we should learne to submit our selues to him and rather be carefull to obtaine our owne saluation than to bee curious in the disputing of the saluation of others I will close and shut vp this point with a saying of Ciprian in his 3. Epi. If any that went before vs either of ignorance or of simplicity hath not obserued that which the Lord commanded his simplicity through the Lords indulgence may bee pardoned but we whom the Lord hath taught and instructed cannot be pardoned 3 In the third place of my first generall diuision I thought it fit that we should cōsider how this noble Eunuch was busied imployed in his return homewarde and that is set downe in the 28. verse And as he returned sitting in his chariot he read Esaias the Prophet The Lord hauing touched the heart of this noble Eunuch and finding that hee desired to taste of the bread of life resolued in great mercy to feede him plentifully therwith and finding him to haue a holy thirst after the water of life was pleased to set open vnto him the very fountaine or conduits thereof and prouided that hee should bee fed with the very marow and fatness of his holy truth and that hee should drinke de torrente voluptatis at the very well-head the water of life and the sweet wine of the sauing knowledge of his Son Christ He prouided in his gratious prouidence that the booke of the Prophesie of Esay should come to his hands which he ioyfully receiued reuerently accounted of making it as Alexander did Homer his companion in his iourney and diligently read the same He read Esaias the Prophet And what followed thereof The Lord who as the blessed Virgin speaketh filleth the hungry with good things did fill his hungry soule with the best things and verefied in him that saying of Salomon Non perdet Dominus animam iusti fame The Lord will not famish the soule of a righteous man with hunger but will feed it for he fed him with the richest and most precious cates and iunkets of his most holy and heauenly truth Neither did it only please God that the Booke and Prophesie of Esay should onely and alone come to the hands and sight of this noble Personage but heerein also did Gods gratious goodnesse and rich mercy plainly appeare vnto him in that not by chance or at aduenture but by the prouidence of God his hand was turned and his eye directed to the reading of such a part and portion of that Prophesie as contained in it the summe and substance of the Gospell and from whence Philip might haue a good ground and take iust occasion beginning as hee did at that Scripture to open and expound vnto him the whole mystery of Gods mercy in Christ and mans saluation by Christ The words of the place he read are these ver 32. and 33. Hee was led as a sheep to the slaughter c. In which words the Prophet sheweth the manner and order which it pleased God to vse in the redeeming of his Church namely by the death of Christ as of a Lambe slaine as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sinnes of mankinde That as a sheepe he was led to the slaughter and like a lambe dumbe before his shearer hee opened not his mouth c. Whereby is signified that he willingly offered vp himselfe as a voluntary sacrifice or free-will offering for mans redemption vnto God More briefly in a word for I purpose not at this time to make any stay in the interpretation of these wordes in my Text howsoeuer they be most worthy to bee largely entreated of more briefly I say and in a word In these words of Esay which the Ennuch was now in reading when Philip came and spake vnto him two things especially are mystically and prophetically deliuered concerning the person of Christ the first his Humiliation and Passion the second his Exaltation or Glorification and that not for himselfe onely but for vs also Which words beeing a prophesie or prediction of a thing then to come when they were written by Esay are in effect repeated by Saint Paul who speaketh thereof as of a thing done past and now performed Hee was deliuered to death for our sinnes and is risen againe for our iustification Romans 4.25 And both of these appeare most plainely in the 53. of Esay through that whole chapter Of this argument or of this matter Esay speaketh as a Prophet Saint Paul as an Euangelist the one speaketh de futuro the other de praeterito the one of that which should come to passe the other of that which is come to passe and yet which is worthy your marking Esay though he speak thereof as of a thing long to come yet hee speaketh of it in the Preterperfect-tense or in the time past to shew the certainty thereof You see how this noble Eunuch was busied and you see also what end the Lord made and what course hee tooke with him He went vp to Ierusalem to worship and in his returne hee read the Prophet Esay and it pleased God that being so busied and imployed the foundation and ground-work of the sauing truth and knowledge of God in Christ should be laid and built in his soule to his eternall comfort and saluation Iesus Christ beeing the chiefe corner-stone of that holie and blessed building Tu vade fac similiter Goe thou and doe the like goe thou whosoeuer thou art that hearest me this day and doe the like goe vp to Ierusalem that is worship God in his holy Temple reade the Prophesie of Esay or some other part of the booke of God reade it when thou art at home reade it when thou art abroad reade it earely reade it late reade it with reuerence reade it with diligence reade it with an humble minde reade it with an hungry appetite reade it with a deuout desire to vnderstand it to conclude reade it with the like mind with which this noble Eunuch read it and thou shalt be partaker