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A79474 The man of honour, described in a sermon, preached before the Lords of Parliament, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, March 26. 1645. The solemn day of the publique monethly-fast. / By Francis Cheynell, minister of Gods Word. Die Jovis, 27. Martii, 1645. It is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament, that this House doth hereby give thanks to Master Cheynell for his great pains, taken in the sermon, he preached on the 26. of this instant March, in the Abbey Church Westminster, before the Lords of Parliament, it being the day of the publique fast. John Brown, Cler. Parliament. Cheynell, Francis, 1608-1665. 1645 (1645) Wing C3812; Thomason E279_3; ESTC R200026 64,263 74

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heart even before the man hath any cleer bright evidence of his own election that there are better things laid up for the elect in Christ then any the world can bestow upon them better honour better riches better glory Christ is a pretious Christ to all true beleevers to you who beleeve he is an Honour 1 Pet. 2. 7. The originall will bear it for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the word Would ye then my Lords and you dear Christians gain an immortall glorious Honour you see the ready way beleeve beleeve and Jesus Christ will be an Honour to you But remember that your Faith must be the Faith of Christians not the faith of Divels it must be such a pretious faith as purifies the heart purges the conscience assents and consents to Christ such a faith as overcomes the world and quenches the fiery darts of the divell by resting upon Christ and drawing vertue from him But I must not forget in the next place that your faith must work by love and therefore as you must have a victorious faith so you must have a transcendent an heroicall Love to the Lords Jesus you must love him better then your friends better then your estates better then your honour for you must lay down all your Coronets all your Honour at the feet of Christ nay you must love Christ better then your lives Christ turned to the great multitudes and said to them If any man come to me and hates not his own life in comparison of me for my sake and the Gospels he cannot be my Disciple Luke 14. 25 26. And again Verse 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he hath he cannot be my Disciple Our Saviour doth not mean such a Disciple as Peter and the rest but by Disciple he means Scholar Subject Member Servant Friend Heir for he speaks to the multitude and therefore the meaning is That one of the poorest and meanest men in the throng could not have any interest in Christ or benefit by him unlesse he love the Lord Jesus better then his estate and life better then all the world and can men in Honour think to go to Heaven upon cheaper and easier terms then one of the multitude No sure where God gives more he requires more Come then my Brethren Let this day of sorrow be a day of Love or else it will not be a day of godly sorrow for godly sorrow arises from the love of God from Faith working by love from Faith in Christ and love to him The bitterest tears flow from the sweetest Love Come you that have any tender hearts or rowling bowels let me this day speak to your hearts and bowels and cast you into the melting pangs of a divine and Christian love Consider your want of Christ and the worth of Christ Oh consider the benefits of Christs death the sweetnesse of Christs promises the pleasantnesse of his commands the pretiousnesse of his graces and above all the infinitenesse of his love And you cannot but love him your hearts must needs be ravished into an extasie if you consider that soul-ravishing Text Revel. 1. 5 6. And you cannot but cry out with the ardency of affection with the strength the zeal of love Oh to him to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion love and subjection for ever and ever Amen Come you that never studied the Art of spirituall love Consider that Jesus Christ saw your distressed souls weltring in blood and filthinesse and his bowels were turned his compassions were kindled within him and he said unto you even then when you were polluted in your own blood live yea when you were polluted in your own blood and filthinesse he said Live and Live eternally Was not that a time of love with him Why now turn your eyes inward and look upon your own souls sprinkled with the blood the heart-blood of Jesus Christ that they may be purged and you may be saved and tell me is it not a time of love now with your beloved souls Do you not feel your hearts begin to burn within you Are you not transported beyond your selves are you not even mounting up to Heaven and flying into the Arms and Bosome of your beloved Lord Come give up your hearts to Christ for I must prevail I am sure you are convinced that Jesus Christ is the best husband in the world for your pretious souls for he is the onely All-sufficient Saviour there is no choice you must have him or none Come be not thus dull of understanding or affection be not carelesse and peevish in a businesse which concerns the happy welfare of your eternall souls Away with all prejudicate opinions and vain conceits Come let us be setled men and spend some sad thoughts about the saving excellencies of Jesus Christ Be not so impudently presumptuous as to imagine That you love Christ well enough already if you have not as yet sufficiently known or judiciously considered what reason and equitie there i● that you should love Christ better then all the World Come let me close with you a little and speak home to every one of your souls in particular Friend be not such a sott as to doate upon trifles I le shew thee wonders The wonder of our redemption the most admirable and most astonishing Plot of the blessed Trinitie sitting in counsell about the Salvation of thy beloved soul A mystery which the Angels stoop down to pry into an Orient Pearl that will out-shine all the sparkling Jewels of the whole Creation if they should be digged out of Natures Cabinet and hung up with such advantage that they might all unite their beams upon some day of triumph Hear what a worthy Divine of ours saith Our slighting the offers of Grace and not laying to heart what God hath done for us is a sin next to wilfull apostasie and malicious blasphemy For he who doth not see such glorious miracles of love and inestimable treasures of grace in Christ as to take of his minde and heart from the glittering vanities of the world that he may fix his thoughts and setle his affections upon God in Christ as an all-sufficient Portion and Inheritance That man doth offer an affront to the majestie of Heaven he befools the Wisdom and scorns the love of the blessed Trinity for he slights the most excellent wonder that ever the Wisdom of God contrived or his power compassed or his goodnesse bestowed upon the sons of men And what reason hath such a soft to expect favour from God mercy from Christ or comfort from the Holy Ghost Do ye beleeve the Scriptures Why then tell me Whether the favour of God will not comfort the heart better then corn and wine Psal. 4 6 7. Then sheep and oxen strong sons and polished daughters full barns and
wealth and glory of the world as drosse and dung in comparison of Jesus Christ A Believer is strong in Christ rich in faith because rich in Christ he is wise in Christ and noble in Christ he is nothing in himself and all things in Christ for Christ is all in all unto him Believers are the Members of Christ and the Apostle shews that the Head and Members make but one Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. and therefore all Believers must needs be Noble by their intimate relation to Christ this glorious Title of Christ being imposed upon them as united in one Body to their Head the Lord Jesus Christ This one Title of Honour doth outshine and eclipse all the admired Titles of Honour in the most flourishing Common-wealths Once more Faith i a noblegrace if it be faith of the right strain the faith of Gods elect a faith that is not built upon Quicksands upon Hearsays and Fancies upon the Authority of man much lesse upon the Authority of the Man of sin the Pope or Church of Rome nay the true Church the Church of Christ is not the foundation of our Noble faith for an Implicite faith though grounded upon the Authority of the true Church is but an Ignoble faith because it leads men hood winked to a blinde obedience The Disciples of Berea were noble Christians because they were endued with a faith that was truely Noble a searching faith a busie faith an examining faith they were ready to receive any Scripture-truth but they loved to be sure and therefore compared even the Apostles Doctrine with the written word You may read the story Acts 17. 11. These were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} better born more Noble then those in Thessal●nica But wherein did their Noblenesse consist Why in that they received the Word with all rea lin●…ss● of minde and searched the Scriptures d●…ly whether those things were so They were not slow to believe what the Apostles taught for they received the Word with all readinesse of minde but they made no more haste then good sp●ed they searched the Scriptures and search●d them daily there 's work for Noble-men that know not how to passe away their time Search the Scriptures that 's a Noble employment On that Noble-men would make it both their businesse and their recreation also that they might be fitted with the Noble Science of Christ and Heaven * I desire to close up this point in a word All reall Christians are spirituall Kings the Prince of the Kings of the earth loved us so well as to wash us in his own pretious blood that he might make us Kings unto God Revel. 1. 5 6. We are kings by birth born to a Kingdom by a new and miraculous birth We are kings by purchase the Kingdom cost Christ dear but it cost us nothing and therefore the Kingdom comes to us by deed of gift also We are kings by conquest our Lord and Master hath conquered principalities and powers for us he hath conquered the World and t●● Devil for us nay he hath conquered even our own selves for us by mortifying our lusts within us and therefore we are more then conquerours thorow him that loved us and overcame our spirituall enemies for us Finally We are kings by marriage the soul of every beleever is married to the King of Kings and is attended with a guard of Angels This is not onely a Noble but a Royall marriage If a woman that was Noble by marriage marry a second husband that is no Nobleman she looses her nobilitie and becomes ignoble If our souls fall into a league with Sin and Satan Death and Hell our souls are made ignoble we are servants of sin slaves of Satan the undoubted heirs of Hell and damnation But if when Christ makes love to our souls we do with all humilitie and thankfulnesse embrace the offer and take him for our Lord and our Love our King and our Husband We have Heaven made over to our souls for ever not as a Joynture but an Inheritance We are Kings to God and Heirs Coheirs with Christ Such Honour have all the Saints for they are the men whom the King of Kings doth delight to honour and they shall continue in their honour because they understand their dependance and will continue in their adherence to the fountain of honour They shall not be like the Beasts of the field but like the Angels of Heaven satisfied with honour and crowned with glory And so I passe to my second observation which is briefly this Doctrine Men that are in Honour do too often behave themselves more like Beasts then Men They are Beasts for want of understanding and Beasts in regard of perishing as it is in my Text Man that is in Honour and understandeth not is like the Beasts that perish 1. They are Beasts for want of understanding or for want of consideration for they will not understand so Arias Montanus renders it They are so wilfully inconsiderate that they become like bruite Beasts that have no understanding Men in Honour are very bruitish if they understand nothing concerning the eternall welfare of their pretious soul nothing concerning Religon and Happinesse Heaven and Holinesse Surely saith that ingenuous man Prov. 30. 2 3. I am more brutish then any man I have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisedom nor have the knowledge of the holy Though a man hath a deep reach and be endued with strong and happy parts though he be an able Statesman a profound Politician yet if he hath not the knowledge of the holy a spirituall practicall experimentall saving knowledge the knowledge of a Christian the knowledge of a Saint he is but a brutish man he hath no knowledge of that grace and glory of which the pretious soul of a man is capable and therefore if he be a man he is but a brutish man nay he hath not the understanding of a man and therefore may well be compared to the Beasts that perish He that knows nothing after the right manner nothing as he ought to know it Is not he a Beast And doth not the Apostle point at such Beasts 1 Corinth 8. 2. How little is it that great men understand of those great Things of Eternitie And yet how many great men of the world who understand Religion no more then Beasts being steeled with ignorance impudence and Atheism do take the boldnesse to censure what they understand not These men should learn the wisedom and modesty of Socrates who when he met with an obscure Book passed his judgement thus The things in this Book saith be as far as I understand are generous and truely noble and for the rest I have no reason to censure it because I do not understand it Saint Jude gives two Characters of men that are transformed into Beasts The first is this They speak evil of those things they know not the second is this What they
full b●gs Read and consider the four last verses of the 144. Psalm Is not the loving kindnesse of God better then life Psal. 63. 3. Can a man gain any thing though he gain the whole world if he loose his own soul Or is there any thing to be given in exchange for the soul Canst thou set thy heart upon that which thou beleevest to be drosse and dung Phil. 3. 8. And art thou not ashamed to prefer the ●asest trash and dung before Jesus Christ It is impossible that our affections should for any long time together stand in aequilibrio even-ballanced between Christ and the World Because every little trifle would turn the scales there being so many cases in which a man must either renounce Christ or the World and if there were but one thing in all the world which a man loves better then Christ if that come to stand in competition with Christ he will as basely deny and betray Christ for that one thing be it profit honour pleasure be it what it will as if he preferred many other things before him Beloved I propound these considerations to you That you may ponder them well in your cool blood and morning thoughts and so come on to firm purposes and stedfast resolutions to settle your affection upon Jesus Christ for beleeve it such thoughts as these must go before purposes and consultation before resolution or else all your good purposes without counsell will be vain they will be frustrated and disappointed as the Wise-man for●-warns you Prov. 15. 22. Go home then and read nay peruse the love-letters of Christ in his glorious Gospel and review all the love-tokens which he hath sent to thy dear soul and then fall in love with him nay before thou goest home let me gain a promise from thee That thou wilt have no other Saviour or Husband for thy soul but Jesus Christ that thou wilt receive him for thy Lord with the thankfull affections of Love and Reverence that thou wilt take an unmixed delight and compleat content in him as thy Treasure thy Happinesse thy All Suffer me now then even now whilest thy judgement is convinced and thy heart warmed to cast thee into a lovetrance into the Seraphicall flames of conjugall affections Come art thou ready is thy spirit raised thy heart enlarged thy minde fixed thy soul in tune to say after me O my blessed Lord I have been too proud and pervish heretofore but thy free-grace and undeserved love hath beaten me out of all my pride and naturall enmitie I fall down at thy foot-stool and lay my self flat before thee At first I wondered to hear Preachers talk so much of Christ and I was bold to ask thy friends What their beloved was more then another beloved But now I wonder that I could endure to be so long without thee my fervent desires of thee were at first grounded on a thorough sence of the extreme misery of all my happinesse without thee But now I have renounced all my self-love and abhor all self-ends as base and mercenary being fully convinced that thou hast bought me out of my selfe and all that I called mine and therefore out of a well-advised dislike and disesteem of all worldly profit honour pleasure or any other admired vanitie I make a full and absolute Resignation of my self and make over all that is dear and pretious to me in the world to thee my Lord and Saviour For truely Lord I am thine onely thine ever thine all that I am is at thy command and all I have is at thy disposing be pleased to command both it and me With all humilitie and thankfulnesse I accept thy pretious offers of grace and mercy and do confesse them to be offers worthy of all acceptation because I know that whatsoever I adventure or loose for thy sake I shall receive with infinite advantage in thy blessed Self I dare trust my dear Lord with the best thing that ever he gave me my pretious soul Oh my bleeding heart and broken spirit doth languish in a thirsty love panting and gasping after thee my beloved Saviour Oh let me taste how gracious thou art by some reall experiments in mine own heart smile upon me from Heaven answer me with some assuring whispers of the Spirit of Adoption Kisse me with the kisses of thy mouth for thy love is sweeter then the taste of wine or the love of women Oh let me bathe my soul in the delicious intimacies of a spirituall communion with thee my God and Saviour that I may for ever adhere unto thee with a sincere constancy and rest in thee with a love of complacencie for I feel I finde my soul cast into a longing sweat for thee and nothing can satisfie the importunate longing of my perplexed soul but thine onely Self for thou art my Lord my love my life and thou art altogether lovely And now Lord I have found thee whom my soul loves I will let go any thing in the world to take better hold of thee Now I have embraced thee I will not let thee go untill thou blesse me nay I will not let thee go then but hold thee fast for ever that thou maist for ever blesse me If thou killest me I will trust in thee nay I will love thee for thy love is better then life therefore my lips shall praise thee If I live I will live serving thee if I die I will die praising thee Whether I live or die let me be ever thine and then I know thou wilt be an advantage to me both in life and death To this effect the soul that is in love with Christ doth usually expresse it self for such souls are commonly cast into an agony into pangs of love and therefore the Scripture hath describ'd the out-goings of such a soul by severall similitudes By the gasping of the parched ground the panting of a chased Hart the longings of a teening woman by the fainting and swowning of one that is in good earnest sick of Love What say you then beloved Christians are you willing to live to him who died for you Will you indeed live to him and if he calls you to it die for him Beleeve it He dies the noblest death who dies a Martyr And if you talk of Honour you cannot be preferred to an higher degree of Honour then to be esteemed the Friends of Christ here and made Coheirs with Christ in glory Beloved Such as our affections are such are we It our affections be right set on things above we are Saints if they be set on the things below we are Beasts or Devils Come then ye men of Honour come set your affections upon the noblest and most honourable object the highest chiefest good God in Christ If you do not set your affections upon Christ you will have no place with Christ in glory and in Hell men loose the sweetest and comfortablest part of their affections or at least the use and exercise of them