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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13010	XI. choice sermons preached upon selected occasions, in Cambridge. Viz. I. The preachers dignity, and duty: in five sermons, upon 2. Corinth. 5. 20. II. Christ crucified, the tree of life: in six sermons, on 1. Corinth. 2. 2. By John Stoughton, Doctor in Divinity, sometimes fellow of Immanuel Colledge in Cambridge, late preacher of Aldermanburie, London. According to the originall copie, which was left perfected by the authour before his death.	Stoughton, John, d. 1639.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.	1640 (1640)	STC 23304; ESTC S100130	130,947	258

lookes for no other reward but this And therefore the Psalmist repeates it very often and very pathetically O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wondrous workes that he doth for the children of men Psalme 107. He gives all the commodity of the world to the sonnes of men receiving only this Royaltie to himselfe he cals for no other tribute but that we attribute all to him Now when he workes by simple meanes all the glory comes entirely to him there is none to share with him none to cry halfes with him mens mindes cannot rest in the inferiour causes they must needs looke higher and say This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes whereas if the meanes had many faire probabilities in them God must needs be robbed of a great part of his honour both because men are ready to thinke highly of themselves and magnifie their owne actions and also because others are ready to ascribe much to the immediate agent who is intituled to the honour by the suffrage of the senses too Is not this great Babell that I have built for my owne magnificence said Nebuchadnezzer strouting in his Palace and the proud Physitian wrote thus to King Philip Menecrates a god to Philip a King what title then might the spirituall Physitian challenge that revives soules either arrogating all to themselves or else dividing as the Asse in the Fable did to the Lion an equall portion to God and themselves and as the Jesuites now doe Laus Deo virgini Marieae and then they would fall soone into the Cardinals method Ego Rex meus Besides you see how fond men are of the instruments of their good how ready they are to deifie them most of the Heathen gods have beene dubbed so because they have been beneficiall to men Communicative bonitie which we call bountie hath such a lively resemblance of the Divinitie that weake eyes can hardly know them asunder it was once Dionysius his sophistry Dii boni sunt eorum ergo bonitate utendum but it is almost all mens naturall Logick Boni sunt ergo dii sunt according to that in the Poet Deus nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus And therefore the Lord to prevent all such injurious usurpation and vindicate his owne title effects great things sometimes without meanes sometimes with very small meanes that in all matter of praise the image and superscription may be his only And therefore as when Caesar and Bibulus were Consuls together and Bibulus did nothing being over-awed by Caesar they were wont to write in jesting manner Iulio Caesare Consulibus So if it please God at any time to assume man to be his colleague in any great action we must not say God and man did such a thing but God and his grace did such a thing And it may be said well enough of him as it was of Caesar in in another cause Socium habet neminem he may have a companion but he must not have a competitor Perhaps indeed the foolish Epicure that cousened himselfe with a silly Paralogisme and concluded that God did not create the world because he had nothing to create it withall Quae ferramenta quae machinae qui vectes qui ministri tanti operis fuerunt perhaps I say he when he heard of Ambassadors from a God and a new creation and saw nothing but men and weak men Gods Ministers would make a scoffe againe at qui Ministri and would either denie the thing because he did not like the meanes or would hardly be perswaded that such Atomes could do such great wonders But God sees not as man sees he in his wisdome uses this course for the cause alledged It is time to conclude but yet give me leave to confirme this with two places of Scripture and two examples The first is the 2 Corinth 4. 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellencie of the power may be of God and not of us I will not urge it because I have used it before since I entred into this argument The second is the 1 Corinth 1. from 17. to the end of the Chapter a known Text where as Apostle discourses this at large The summe is this It pleased God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that believe And againe Brethren you see your calling how not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble that are called And wherefore is this God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weake things of the world to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are and what of this That no flesh should glory in his presence and the conclusion of all is according as it is written He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. The words need no Commentary and therefore I passe to the examples The first you shall finde in the 7. of Iudges There the Lord overthrowes the Midianites by Gideon who at first had gathered thirty two thousand men but these were too many for the Lord to worke with therefore he will have them as it were boyled by two decoctions till they sunke first to ten thousand but there were yet too many then to three hundred and then they march against the enemy who were more then one hundred and thirty thousand and covered the land like Grashoppers but I pray how were these three hundred appointed we doe not read so much as of a sword they had but they carried a Trumpet in their right hand and emptie Pitchers with a Lampe in their Pitchers in their left hand and what did they we cannot find a stroke they strooke but only they blew their Trumpets and brake their Pitchers and cryed The sword of the Lord and of Gide on and their enemies fell downe dead or fled before them and the end of all is couched in the beginning of the Chapter Lest Israel should vaunt himselfe against nee and say mine owne hand hath saved me The second is the 6. of Ioshua where the Israelites beseiged Iericho and won it a strange seige and a strange victory the Priests carried the Arke of God about the Citie and blew with Rams-hornes they compassed it about six dayes and seven times the seventh day and this was all there was no other seige laid but the Arke of God no other Arietes to batter the wals but the Rams-hornes no Ordnance but the ordinance of God that commanded this they did not lift up an hand against it only they lifted up their voyces they did not shoot once but only shout and the wals of Iericho as it were willing to doe some holy service on Gods holy Sabboth did obeysance to the Arke of God as Dagon

wanton and lascivious Rhetorick makes the immortall seed of Gods Word more unfruitfull like a sword wrapped in wooll that cannot cut like an Oke embraced with the flattering Ivie that will not thrive and prosper I doe not condemne Rhetorick the genuine tropes and figures in a solid speech are like arrowes in the hand of a mighty man as the Psalmist saith in another case blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them And as the Philosopher said of Oyle observing the use to be good but the abuse to be great Male sit illis cinaedis said he qui rem optimam pessime infamârunt so may I say the use is good but the abuse is great of eloquence and therefore away with these effeminate and unmanly Orators that have cast a shrewd aspersion upon a noble profession As for the modest and sober use that is true of Divinitie which Seneca said of Philosophy that is true of eloquence which he said of wit Philosophia non renunciat ingenio Theologianon renunciat eloquentiae for there is an eloquence in the Scripture which is more then eloquence the Rhetoricians may call theirs an Allurement of the soule but this is a transmigration as I told you theirs may perfundere animum but this doth perfringere they may delight but this doth ravish with a divine Enthysiasme theirs is properly oratory but this is to speake more properly Imperatory which is then most full of Affection when it is most free from affectation theirs is more Scholasticall but this is more majesticall as best becomes the mouth of Princes as the noble Lord of Plesis hath well noted of the stile of the Scripture But the best of their nervi and t●ri the best sinewes and strength is but as Longinus observs of some childish Orators their schoole wit through curiosity ends in folly or frigidity and chilnesse in comparison of this To end this I can beare well that they brag of their Arculae Myrothesia and Lecythi like some deformed woemen of their boxes out of which they draw a painted and greasie beautie But I cannot brook that they should speake of thunder and lightning in their Orators ignorant and silly men as though these fiery Meteors were bred or did appeare in this lower Region so far from Heaven No no as they said once of Christian Souldiers that they were Fulminatrix Legio so I may say of the celestial Hierarchie of the Angels of the Churches the Lords Ministers that is Fulminatrix Regio and if I be not deceived he should not be much amisse that should call the Pulpit the shop of thunder all other Pericles have but brutum fulmem in comparison of that as you may conceive out of that which hath beene spoken and that which is the wonder in this all this is without any pomp or shew not with great pompe but with great weaknesse and infirmity rather which argues the evidence of the Spirit and the power of God the more strongly I conclude therefore As one said of Demetrius Pompeii libertus who spake much but had nothing to doe when Pompey himselfe who did all but said but little I regard not said he what thou sayest but what he doth silently so may we say it skils not so much what the Minister said outwardly as what the Spirit workes inwardly since the efficacie of their words depend not so much upon themselves because they are good orators as upon the Spirit of God because they are Gods Orators Gods Ambassadors I have finished now the explication of the intensive efficacie I must adde a word of their extensive for so I was constrained to call them for distinction sake I meane it thus If you take a view of the whole world you shall scarce find a region of which the Ministers of the Gospell may not say as he in the Poet Quae Regio in terris nostri non plena laboris The Sects of Philosophers were distinguished by the names of Italick and Ionick as Laertius tels us but Religion is characterized and known by the name of Catholike Now wee know there is nothing commonly received but either by the law of nature in morall or by the law of nations in politicall affaires Now the faith of Christ preached by the Ministers being dispersed over all and not imprinted in all by either of those it cannot be but probable that it proceeds from the grace of God who is the God of nature Againe as the great Mathematician said once to the King let me have a place to stand on and I will move the earth implying that the moving of this earth could not be supposed without a firme standing on some other earth granted so the moving of the whole earth by the Ministers to the embracing of the faith must needs evince a fixing of them in Heaven from whence they are sent and the rather because of that great opposition which they find every where which will compell us to grant the former supposition You have seene the Embleme of an earth beseiged round with many windes the Devill on the one side blowing and the Pope the Divels instrument on the opposite side blowing and the Cardinals the Popes agents on each side betweene them blowing and the Turke at another corner blowing and all to shake this earth and yet notwithstanding all these the word is written in it immobilis the word is written in indeleble characters and it is unmoovable and it may well be said of all these blowers as the Orator said of the Athenians comparing them to men running up an Hill they blow hard but runne slow The Earth is the Ministers of the Gospell and that Word which they preach all those and many other lay their heads together to blow it away but all in vaine for the finger of God hath written immobilis upon them and his decree is like the Medes and Persians that cannot be changed but what he hath written he hath written Nulla litura in Decretis sapientum t is true of God and good reason the Spirit as the wind bloweth where it listeth as Christ saith and it is folly at least if not madnesse as Pythagoras speaks to blow against the winds The Word is like the Lampe that is unquenchable in the storie which laughs at the winds ridebis ventos saith he that swell and puffe and blow against it but it cannot blow it out and they that carry it are like the Persian Souldiers which they call immortall of whom the world may say as they did once of the Grecians in that Epigramme whom they thought invulnerable we shoot at them but they fall not downe we wound them and not kill them In a word as Gamaliel said of the Apostles preaching if it be of God it will prevaile we may invert it and say most truly if it prevaile thus against all opposition surely it is of God they are men of his right hand

owne brewing and they are like to drinke as they brew faint beere faint prayers thin beere thin prayers What if they be strong of the Hop of Saints yet when there is no graine of faith in Christ not so much as a graine of Mustard-seed in them I hope I may well terme them thin beere thin prayers faint beere faint prayers Let me then say to them Behold these are thy Saviours ô thou sonne of the rebellious woman ô thou daughter of Rome thy Saviours in whom thou trustest and let mee say to you Sonne of man seest thou these abominations then learne to say with me O the patience and long sufferance and gentlenes of God toward vile sinners Follow me but a little further with your attention and I will shew you greater abominations then these for now I come to the third step concerning their Idolatry with the Virgin Mary in particular Revelation 9. There is mention made of a bread of Locusts out of the smoake of the bottomlesse pit which are at large described there among other this is one particular that they have womens haire according to the judgement of learned Interpreters these Locusts typifie the flocks of Easterne Saracens ' and the Westerne swarmes of Monkes but how can shaven crownes for so Monkes are and it went before that they had like crownes upon their heads which notes that round shaving in forme of a crowne which was indeed as precious as a crowne to them to keepe them sacred and inviolable how can those bald-pates be said to have womens haire yes not litterally but mystically because they gloried in womens haire the thing is plaine in storie The Saracens descended indeed of Hagar the bond-woman as it were of purpose to verifie this type will needs be called Saracens of Sarah the free woman and so they boast of their womens haire And who knowes not how the Monks brag of the Virgin Mary and so their bare skuls have borrowed a periwig as it were of womens haire But what doe they with it As the Carthaginian Matrons once suffered themselvs willingly to be shorne that the men might make Engines of their haire for the defence of their Citie so the Carthusian Monkes and other of the same rabblement have made an engine an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Virgins haire to take heaven withall and let me tell those bold climbers in what danger they are of an irrecoverable fall as the Proverb is the sword hangs over their head in a slight haire as it did for Dionysius his Parasites let them looke backe to their originall the rocke out of which they were hewen the pit from whence they came If the clew of the Virgins haire hath led them to a posterne doore of Heaven the key of him that is the Angell of the bottomlesse pit must open it but let me tell them that pit is bottomlesse there is no hope of getting out and therefore that key is bootlesse there is no hope of getting in The Helvidians of old cal'd the perpetuall virginitie of the Virgin Mary into question but shee might have beene a perpetuall Virgin as well as she was borne of God if she had not falne into the Priests hands they have shrived her but ill favouredly for though her spotlesse virgin-soule injoy an innocent sleep I do not meane an everlasting soule-sleep in the bosome of Abraham yet these artificiall leachors have made shift to find a trick by a vertuall I cannot say because it is most vicious by a spirituall I cannot say because it is most carnall but by that which the sonnes of the Philosophers call a vtrtuall or spirituall contact to contaminate her memorie which should be blessed and to commit folly with hervery name For what I pray you are those flattering titles which they give her in their prayers Queene of Heaven Mother of grace Port of Paradise c. but such uncleane and unchast names for a Virgin that if she should heare them with patience I would not be afraid to say she were the most impure harlot that ever was but her blessed spirit abhorres their cursed breath and they while they thinke to sowe these ungracious seeds of spirituall whoredome in her most gracious eares doe but imbrace a cloud instead of a Queene a Ione instead of a Iuno as he did and so beget mishapen Centaures I may say centuries of misbegotten Orizons Or what are their strange devices that God hath given her his Kingdome and reserved only that other halfe to himself the half of mercy to her and the halfe of justice to himselfe that he contents himselfe with his Bench of Iustice and hath placed her in the Mercy seat and that this was prefigured in Ahasuerosh who promised Hester the halfe of his Kingdome a goodly stratagem to drive men from God to Mary Againe that there are two Ladders up to Heaven a red Ladder by Christs blood and a white Ladder by Maries beautie which is farre the easier me thinks these men mistake Iacobs Ladder but yet something like it was for they are in a dreame as Iacob was But I will not rake this dunghill of stinking blasphemies Yet if a man would take the paines to turne over their stinking Rosaries but as often as they do their beads in a day he should soone perceive that the name of Christ is out of fashion out of date and the name of the Virgin in the freshest honour the withered Lawrels of Christ are faine to vaile the Bonnet and give place to the flourishing prime and greene Garlands of the Virgin as Lucullus did once to Pompeys and some merrie Courtier might aske no more whether Mary were gracious with Christ but whether Christ were with Mary as they did scoffingly whether Alexander were gracious with Hephaestion Mary hath all the sutors Mary hath all the presents Mary doth all in the Court of Heaven It is not here as it was once said of Themistocles his sonne that he ruled all Greece because his father ruled all and his mother ruled his father and he ruled his mother For the Popes Sophisti call Logick in a Sorites and ambitious Rhetorick in a Climax is cleane contrary God rules the World his Sonne rules him and Mary rules his Sonne therefore Mary rules the World She is become against the Lex Salica I am sure against the Lex Coelica the new Queene of Heaven at least as though her sonne were in his minority the Queene Regent She complaines her self in Erasmus that she hath so many Clyents so much custome tantum non enecant shee hath much adoe to take respite enough to take breath enough to keepe life and soule together belike they meane to kill her with kindnesse to presse her to death with loads of honour as the perfidious Virgin was served that betrayed the Capitoll they come something neare alreadie tantum non enecant But if there be any that make shew to kisse the Sonne as the Psalmist speakes