in his last book of Confessions at the twenty sixth chap. I have learned it of thee O my God to put a difference betwixt gifts and fruits What may the difference be good Father Datum est res ipsa quam dat qui impartitur haeâ—… necessaria Fructus recta voluntas Datoris est A gift is no more than the bare thing it self which is bestowed Fruit is the good intent oâ—… him that gives it To afford a Disciple a cup of cold water is a gift But to do it in the name of a Disoiple that argues a Religious inclination and then 't is fruit too To sustain a prophet that 's a gift and so the Ravens did feed Eliah But to give him entertainment in the name of a Prophet because he is a man of God This is fruit it self and so he was nourished onely by the good widdow of Zarephah Didici a te Deus meus saith the devout Father this have I learn'd of thee my God He thought it worth the registring that he had received so usefull a Doctrine from so great an Authour For throughout the various passages of our doubtfull life what more universally profitable what more applyable Each humane Action admits of this mixture there 's a gift and there should be fruit in it your very approach into these Assemblies what is it but a gift you give unto God your paines you give him your presence you afford him the knee the eye the hand with those other complements of Religious honour If these be done onely upon some false respects as either to purchase an opinion of Holinesse or to avoid the threats of the law if they be done either for fear of Superiours or to keep correspondency with those of your own Rank they make but a bare gift onely and are as farre from the nature of a good work as truth is from hypocrisie That these gestures may become fruits too make Religion the Mistresse of your outward Actions let her prompt your feet to go your eyes to look upward subject all your members unto the Scepter of her direction Be indeed what you would seem to be For 't is a shame that your bodies should be more Christian than your soules that your tongues should be more ready to praise than your hearts to conceive the Lord Your knees more officious to bow to him than your souls to adore him Let that Kingly votary be your guide and instruction Come says he let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker First worship that 's the Fruit of a Religious intent and then fall down and kneel those are the gifts of our outward Actions and therefore that the service of your knees eyes hands may be acceptable first take order that your Souls do worship My Text commands yet further and will needs sit in judgment even with this exercise at which we are present it claimes rule in the Pulpit too and requires that our Sermons be composed of its two ingredients that they have in them both gift and fruit They must be gifts to others and fruits to our selves If we preach rather to insnare mens â—…ares than to correct their affections if in stead of censuring mens sins we defame their persons if our intent be not so much to winne Souls as followers and that we preach ac si deus numeraret tantum non aestimaret as if God were able onely to number our Sermons but not to weigh and judge of them if thus we offer gifts only and those as displeasing in the eyes of the eternal God as they are oft times ridiculous unto the eares of a mortal Auditor But when with an upright and pure heart we intend and endeavour the health of Israel when our reprehensions do as much move our selves while we meditate them as we desire they should work upon our hearers when we deliver them if Iudah hear of her sins not from our passion but our conscience and the house of Iacob of their transgressions not to vilifie but to reform her people then our discourses and exhortations to you become Fruits too and then are they no lesse pledges of our own salvation than they are the means of yours Happy Preacher who endeavours this composition who affects that his Sermons may appear to be as well the Fruits of faith as the Gifts of learning for in so doing he shall both save himself and them that hear him The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is yet more Doctrinal Good works are here called Fruits 't is to let us understand that as fruits keep a due proportion to the tree that beares them so should our works be still answerable to our ability In this way to heaven the blind mans fight as it is expressed in the Gospell must be our direction I see men as trees walking we must walk like trees you know 't were unnatural for a pomegranate to bear fruits no bigger than a grape and 't is no lesse unseemly for a man of large Revennew to give Almes like his meaner neighbour Neither must our charity exceed our Estate for when a man grows liberal beyond his means t is as if a vine in stead of its proper grape should bring forth a gourd We read Exod. 35. 20. at the building of the Tabernacle some brought Gold and precious Stones some Purple and Fine twined linnen others Badgers skins and Goats hair to the Sanctuary all these were Fruits Gold and precious Stones fit for the Nobles of Israel to bear Purple and Fine linnen for persons of middle rank Skins and Goates haire for the poorer sort Iael may give Milk to drink and bring forth butter in a Lordly dish 't is well if the poor widdow can give a little Cake and a draught of water to Eliah Thus let each tree bring forth its own Fruit let each mans wisdome proportion his contribution to his Estate Great men must do great works and God may as well expect that a rich man should build a Church where there is need as that another should adorn it Should Caithas have cast in those Two mites into the Treasury men might rather have scorn'd his basenesse than commended his charity mites did well become the widdow but the high Priest must bring a larger offering I know 't is not our substance but our Faith which commends the work but yet we may well suspect the Niggards faith when he gives too little of his substance and he 's to be counted a very weak Christian whose covetousnesse shuts his purse so close that his Faith cannot open it There are some that can speak great store of charity they can give good words to people in want Alas my brother Alas poor man I am sorry for you yea they can be content to pray sometimes that God would help them but it is with reservation so that they be not his instruments But such Trees as these bear not fruit but leaves and as you
Dr. Stewards Sermons TRIAS SACRA A Second Ternary OF SERMONS PREACHED Being the last and best Monuments that are likely to be made publique of that most learned pious and eminent Dr. Richard Stuart DEAN of St. Pauls afterwards Dean of Westminster and Clark of the Closet to his late Majesty King CHARLES Being Dead he yet speaketh LONDON Printed by T. L. for Hen. Brome at the Gun in Ivy lane 1659. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Have almost protested against Printing in such a Time as this wherein a most ingenuous invention was never more abused and 't is doubtful whether this or that of Powder have hurted the modern world most I dare believe had the Founders of them had so much of Providence as Invention they had stifled their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the birth and never bequeathed such dangerous VVeapons into the hands of such mad men as we are who abuse both the Powder and the Press as that cursed Assasine to kill body and soul too But since the soul must have her Mess without which she cannot live and that is best and soonest carved out to her from the shops of Intellectuall provisions And since too many sawcy and capricious Peasants have kickt down her dishes as they were serving in and most of her entertainment has contracted much dirt about it and is rendered unfit for her Table Reader take this as a part of the cleanest Divinity that is left us being I think disht out to thee before the sâ—…uffle began and is sent to thee by A Steward who when alive loved to serve those of the houshold with clean dyet and well drest and now dead is entred into the joy of his Lord It has no other plot upon thee but to save thee there be other Tables spread for thee in the world but 't is foul meat ill drest hard to digest will lie heavy on thy Stomack which thou must disgorge or die for it and a very hard reckoning at last Use the Steward God hath sent thee who brings thee this Angels food and bread from Heaven and taking what is carved thee go on eating till thou come where thou shalt read all in God A Table of the Texts PHILIP 4. 17. Not because I desire a gift but I desire Fruit that may abound to your account MARK 6. 20. For Herod feared Iohn knowing that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly HEBREWS 10. 1 2. For the Law having a shadow of good Things to come and not the very Image of the Things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the commers thereunto perfect For then would not they have ceas'd to be offered because the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of Sin The First SERMON PHILIPIANS 4. 17. Not because I desire a gift but I desire Fruit that may abound to your account GODS vineyard had for some certain years been now planted at Philippi and therefore no marvail if the labourers did both desire and expect fruit Indeed should those Disciples have believed onely it would have argued that the vines had taken root but yet except they also bring forth fruit with patience the Apostle who cultivated them might well conclude the ground of their hearts was but unprofitable The Philippians then must be working and their works must be fruits too answerable to those rootes of Faith which they had received by Saint Pauls plantation For if a Christian soul bring forth the works of darknesse being himself a child of light it is no lesse unnaturall than for a vine to beâ—…r Thorns or a Fig tree Thistles If it yeeld works in themselves good yet without the culture and help of faith it is but like some hollow stump which the bees have chosen to be their store house it may afford honey a gift perhaps and yet in it self be both dead and fruit That the Philippians were to abstain from works of impiety both nature and Saint Paul had taught them My Apostle here becomes more punctual and admits not of all those works which yet in mans judgment perhaps might seem approvable he is more curious in his choice and like those Fishermen in Saint Matthews Gospell Chap. 13. He accepts not of all that comes to hand but takes the good and refuseth the bad I desire fruit saith he thus with them he puts the good into vessels but I desire not a gift saith he again so he casts the bad away In the whole there are these things considerable First A distinction of works they are either gifts or fruits or to speak more properly to this text a division of paris within the same good work For either we consider the matter whereof it consists and so 't is a gift or else the root from whence it takes life and so 't is fruit Secondly A direction for our practice The Axe is laid to the root of the tree bring forth therefore fruits not gifts onely And this truth stands here Armed with a double weapon the first is the judgment of mine Apostle I desire not a gift but I desire fruit The Second is the nature of â—…he things themselves fruits abound to your account saith my Text and thereby intimates that what is but gift onely comes not into the reckoning My discourse then must consist of these three parts First I am to shew you the conditions requisite to the perfection of a good work it must not onely be the gift of the man but the fruit of his Faith Next I must inform you how to esteem of a good work you must not so much respect the gift it self as the Faith of him that gives it for so my Apostle is resolute I desire not a gift c. He was in want and penury at this time and yet takes more delight that his Philippians are good than that they are liberal joyes more to see their Faith than to feel their bounty In the last place I must acquaint you with the value and price of good works We have an account to make with the King of Heaven and at his great Audit such â—…oyn as this good works will be passable Strengthen me O Lord while I treat of these particulars in their order and you my beloved Here and 〈◊〉 likewise Not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit c. Gifts and fruits As the man is so is his strength was the Speech of those Midianitish Princes unto Gideon the revenger of Israel Iudg. 8. 21. And 't is no lesse true in the Acts of Religion than those of valour as is the man so are his works There are some you know who want as much Faith as they have Hypocrisie men that desire not so much to be as to be accounted Religious in whose mouths there is a God sometimes but their hearts are farre from him Such as
to what he doth not yet possesse and a man may wrongfully possess that to which he hath no just Title Nabouh had to his vineyard to wit Title of inheritance the Lord forbid saith he to Ahab that I should give the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee 1. of Kings 21. Yet at length Ahab possest it without a Title for ought we find unlesse perhaps it were some new Law of Iezabels enacting that the Husband should succeed him whom the Wife had murthered We may get a right of Title by others for so Isaack had it to his Inheritance because he was the Son of Sarah the wife of Abraham and Mephibosheth to his possession because he was the Son of Ionathan the Friend of David But 't is the Act of their own Body usually whereby men take possession Possessio quasi pedis positio say the learned Lawyers 't is gotten by setting our foot and seeming to take up our rest upon the ground which we meant to possesse You may remember Ahab went down in person to take possession of Nabaoths vineyard in the Text before cited So then we may get a right of Title from the bounty of others but possession is the Fruit of our own endeavours I apply it the practice of this legal course is no lesse observable in the attainment of the Everlasting Kingdom for to have a Title to it is one thing the manner of possessing it another If we be Sons then are we also heirs Saith the Apostle there 's our Title 't is by a right of Inheritance Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy masters joy there 's the manner of possessing it 't is per pedis positionem by setting our feet and putting our selves resolutely into that narrow way which leadeth unto life by bringing forth the Fruits of Faith which may abound and advance us unto this possession Calvin himself hath intimated what I now observed in his third Book of Institutions chap. 17. In his locis in these Texts saith he where Eternal life is called the reward of good works the Holy Ghost speaks not of life it self but of the form of enjoying it that is as I understand him he speaks not of our Title to the Kingdom but of the manner how we must possesse it Without Fruits then our Account will not be taken or to speak plainly and leave this Metaphor without good works there 's no Salvation They are not indeed the cause but they are the way to life They are not the Title whereby we lay claym to Heaven but yet they serve instead of that legal form whereby we must take possession of Heaven Nor is my Text any way injurious to Faith while it holds good works in so great esteem for if you observe the word here used by my Apostle when he mentions the one he implyes the other yea and chiefly extolls Faith though he doth not name it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he saith not I desire good works but I desire Fruit They are not esteem'd then for their own sakes but because they grew upon the Stemm of Faith He that loves an Israelite because he is the Son of Abraham loves Abraham more than he doth the Israelite and so he that desires good works because they are the Fruits of Faith honours Faith more than he doth good works For our affection looks chiefly at that which first moves it and therefore the cause why we respect any thing is still more in our account than the Thing it self Names of Relation alwayes busie our understanding and by a silent kind of Command make us to search farther than the Thing we hear If we call the Rechabites no more but good men our apprehension confines it self unto their persons only but when we Stile them obedient Sons we can hardly abstain from making some farther enquiry touching their Father Ionadab So had it been here said Good works abound we might perhaps have sought no further than into their desert but the name of Fruit which is given them makes us enquire for the Tree on which they grow and silently enformes our understanding that good works do therefore abound to our account because they are the Fruits of Faith that saves us So then 't is Faith that justifies both our selves and our works too it makes us of Sinfull men become the children of God and it makes our works of unprofitable Actions become Fruits abounding unto our Eternal Freedome Where 's now the forehead of that Romish strumpet who dares affirm that our Doctrine hinders good works and that without blushing too Indeed we must not say they merit that were as false as dangerous and the ready way to make us men become rather proud than honest yet we averr without good works there 's no Salvation and in mine Apostles phrase that without such Fruit we shall fail in our account our Master will be wroth with us and deliver us over to the Tormentor to lye in prison till we pay all that 's due to him which will be to eternity If this be not a sufficient inducement to good works what is who can move him that regards neither the losse of Heaven nor the gaining of hell nor do I well see how our adversaries themselves should present us with a greater motive unlesse perhaps they will have the confidence to tell us that the Fire of Hell is not so hot but burns more gently and softly than that of Purgatory 'T were to be wished indeed that in this point our lines were as well able to give Rome the lye as our Doctrine is she might then see as well as read that the reformed Church can be both good and humble too and knows both to be rich in the Fruits of Faith and yet to rely onely upon Christs satisfaction I conclude with that of Saint Austin in the 23th chapter of his Confession Germinet anima nostra opera misericordiae Let our souls Bud and Bring forth the works of mercy pitty the Fatherlesse have compassion on the poor relieve those that are in distresse lend a tender and favourable ear to the widdows groanes Be ye members one of another by compassion and a lively sense of your Brethrens sufferings and be ye members one to another by the free help of your Benevolence and Chatity Be Eyes to the blind be Feet to the lame be Hands to them that cannot through age or other impotency labour for themselves In a word give Almes every man according to his Estate liberally frequently constantly worship God humbly and devoutly do all kind of good works with Diligence Faithfullnesse and Sincerity So shall your Fruit abound not onely to your own but to the Churches account the Church shall have wherewith to answer her Adversaries in this world and your selves wherewith to satisfy that great Judge of account in the world to come which God of his mercy grant c. The Second SERMON MARK 6. 20. For Herod feared Iohn knowing
know it follows their end is to be burnt If our good works be fruit it follows they ought not to make us proud nor to puff us up with any vain imaginations as though they had deserved that God should favour us For tell me when Noah had bestowed great paines in planting a vineyard do you think he was beholding to his slips that they brought forth graps Beloved we are Gods vineyard he hath planted us he hath set an hedge about us and therefore to bring forth the fruits of a Godly life is not our kindnesse but our duty This truth is yet further manifested by the verse next following My Apostle had lately received a contribution from Philippi and yet thus he speaks of it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I have received all things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is a word very emphatical it signifies to receive by way of due debt as a Prince receives his Tribute or a Lord his rent for so 't is expounded by Saint Chrysostome a Greek Father and therefore one that knew well the property of my Apostles language Observe hence when you minister â—…nto the Saints necessities you do but pay what you owe and such works I hope you will confess are not to be accounted as your liberality but as Gods Tribute You have heard the difference between Gifts and Fruits and I doubt not but the bare Narration of it hath soon taught you which to practise For Iacob needed no other inducement to chuse Rachel before her Sister Leah than that the one was bleare-eyed but the other beautifull The disproportion here is of a farre greater consequence bare Gifts are dead and unprofitable but Fruits are of a weighty value the Testimonies of our Faith and the pledges of our Salvation If neither Grace nor yet Reason hath taught you which to chuse learn at least to rely upon Saint Pauls Authority I desire not a Gift but I desire Fruit which I call'd my Second part and I must now explain it to you I desire not a Gift but I desire Fruit To know the true worth of this Apostolique assertion we must as well enquire how Saint Paul then liv'd as what he wrote we must look as well into his life as his Epistle You must understand therefore that he was now at â—…ome a prisoner under Nero the Emperor whither the Jews malice constrained him to appeal as Saint Luke relates it from his own confession in the last of the Acts at the 19th verse He was now indeed in a very Strange Land forc'd to converse with Romans Strangers to his person with Gentiles Strangers to his Religion and which makes his case farre more lamentable There was a Nero and a Paul together the most Zealous Apostle under the most Savage Tyrant You see Beloved he is a miserable object his condition and in all likely hood his wants also not unfit for a whole Church to exercise their charity upon Here 's an Apostle in necessity in prison and that under a cruel Prince among Strange people The Philippians hear news of his Estate and presently in a Religious bounty they make Collections for him and dispatch them to him by Epaphroditus who in their names was both to Salute and relieve the prisoner It may be thought nothing could be more welcome to the Apostle at this time nothing more welcome than wealth in stead of want than the Almes of Philippi in the midst of his great extremity But men of that opinion are ignorant of Saint Pauls abundance He could truely say of himself what the Comaedian put into the mouth of his Actor omnia habeo nec quicquam habeo nihil cum est nihil deest tamen I have all things and yet possesse nothing there 's nothing about me and yet I want nothing For contentment is a large possession and the man truly full is not he that hath eaten most but he that 's satisfied They are his own words in this present Chapter I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me How all things hear ye Elders of Philippi what need is there of your Churches bounty Saint Paul wants nothing he hath already all the wealth he desires and 't is but a Thanklesse expence to enrich a man beyond his wishes Indeed had these Philippians in a seeming Holinesse sent but their wealth a bare Gift onely his chain had been more welcome than their Benevolence Saint Paul would have more esteem'd the bonds of Christ than the riches of hypocrisie But when under the shadow of this outward bounty he descryes the inward Truth of a Sincere affection when he perceiv'd it an odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God then he breaks out I rejoyced in the Lord greatly that your care of me hath Flourished not because I desire a Gift but I desire Fruit not that I coveâ—… my own wealth but your Salvation A generous mind you see and fit for an Apostles breast he scorns to be relieved but by the hand of Faith and can be as well content with the pangs of hunger as the Gifts of Infidelity Indeed had the Philippians been yet but hypocrites my Apostle might with a good conscience have used their bounty for it came to him by deed of Gift and there is no fairer Title to any possession But he is not so content to please him they must send as well Fruits as Gifts they must send such presents as may abound no lesse to their accounts than to his necessity otherwise they may satisfy his wants perhaps but not his desire 'T is a rule in the Mathematicks that Rectum est index curvi the best way to discover a Crooked line is to compare it with one that is straight You know 't is a straight square that must tell the workman whether his timber be straight or uneven The case is with us as with Lines Beloved Men of a crooked disposition are then best known when they are compared with others of an upright heart and the onely way to discover a false Philippian is to examine his Actions by Saint Pauls example He was in want you heard and yet desires not Gifts except they were Fruits too How farre then do those poor decline from the straight steps of his Apostle who scarse either desire the one or respect the other but had rather be beholding to their own theft and cousenage than either to the Fruits of other mens Faith or to the Gifts of their vain Glory Indeed such men may usurp upon that speech of Saint Paul these hands minister to my necessities but 't is not of their own but their neighbours goods The covetous person may here examin himself and strait way discover the errour of his life Saint Paul was poor and yet desires not wealth