fragrant field unto the Lord. I speak not this to perswade any man wilfully to make himself miserable for our Saviour himself hath pronounced it to be A more blessed thing to give then to receive Neither doe I speak to commend or justifie the counterfeit zeal of those that mock the world with a false shew of wilfull poverty whiles shutting themselves up in a Cloister that they may seem to forsake the world they do indeed enjoy it in all superfluity Or at the least the worst of their misery is no more then that which that holy man prayeth for Pro. 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me If they have no excesse they are sure to feel no want but to be sufficiently provided for both for back and belly so long as they live there and are they not then very zealous think you in binding themselves to such a misery But my speech is to hearten all those with comfort on whom God hath layd affliction that they may bee so far from impatience as rather to rejoyce in tribulation Rom. 5.3 because it was their Masters common lot and portion for the Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord it is enough for the Disciple to be as his Master and the servant as his Lord. Yea not onely the afflictions of life but death it self and the grave should be welcom and acceptable to us for Christ also hath passed them and by suffering hath sanctified them unto us so that the curse of death is turned into a blessing and the grave is become a bed of rest Rev. 14.13 and that Prophecie Is 11.8 is fulfilled The sucking child shall play upon the holt of the Asp and the weaned child shall put his hand upon the Cockatrice hole There is now no danger to Gods children in the hole of death that is the Grave for death hath lost his sting and cannot hurt us so that we may triumph and say O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. In the last place let us learn not onely to admire Christs love to us nor onely to love him again nor only to love those that are like to him in suffering nor onely to love his sufferings themselves but withall to hate sin which was the occasion of his sufferings Sin was the occasion of Christs sufferings for had not Adam sinned Christ had had no cause or need to suffer If therefore wee love him wee cannot chuse but hate that which was to him the occasion of such a miserable life and such a shamefull painfull and cruell death David 2 Sam. 23. being an high Captaine though he longed for the water of Bethleem yet would not tast it when hee had it because it cost his three souldiers the hazard of their lives thathe might have it Much more we being servile souldiers though our soules long for the sweet waters of sin yet should we forbear to tast it because it cost our high Captaine Christ not the hazard but the very loss of his life that we might not have it God shewed Moses a tree wherewith he might make the bitter waters sweet Exo. 15.25 but behold I shew you a tree wherewith ye may make the sweet waters of sin to become bitter Look upon the tree of Christ remember his Cross and the pains he suffered thereon and the false sweetnesse of sin will quickly vanish and ye shall rightly rellish the bitterness of it If the delight of any sinne offer it self unto you cast Christ his Cross into it do but remember his sufferings for sin and all sin will presently grow distastfull For how can it choose but be hatefull to us if we consider how hurtfull it was to him The Jews would not put those thirty peeces into their Treasury because they thought them to bee the price of blood Mat. 27.6 but therein I must say they were deceived for Judas for that money did rather sell himself and his own soul then Christ or Christs blood For Christ was sold before even God had sold him before to death for the sin of man For when in the fall of man the devil offered sin unto God then did God threaten Christ unto him namely That the seed the woman should break the serpents head Gen. 3. And had not Christ been so sold before to death for sin not all the treasure in Jerusalem nor in all the world could have bought him Seeing then that Sin was the true and proper price for which Christ was sold how unworthy are wee the name of Christians yea how much worse are we then Jews if we suffer this price of blood to come into the treasury of our hearts If therefore any motion of pride arise in thy mind answer and tell it thou art the price of blood If any temptation of lust be offered to thine eyes answer and tell it thou art the price of blood If any provocation of anger or revenge be urged to thy hands answer and tell it thou art the price of blood If any greedinesse of gain move thee to wrong or oppression answer and tell it thou art the price of blood And whatsoever sin thou art tempted to answer and tell it thou art the occasion of my Saviours death thou art the price of Christs blood thou mayst not therefore come into the treasury of my heart O blessed Lord and sweet Saviour we do even with astonishment admire thy passing great love towards us we pray thee also by the fervent fire of thy great love that is upon us to kindle in us true love to thee again yea to all that are like thee in thy sufferings yea to thy sufferings themselves that we may patiently bear them whensoever they befall us But make us truly to hate sinne that was the occasion of thy sufferings We beleeve O Lord that by thy blood thou hast washt us from the guilt of sin wee beseech thee also make us more and more effectually find and feele that by thy spirit thou doest purge us from the love of sin that so our consciences may be comforted in all our life and especially in our death and our soules and bodies eternally saved in the life to come by and thorough thy all-sufficient sufferings and satisfactions For which unto thee with the Father and the Holy Ghost three persons one eternall God wee render all possible praise and thanksgiving and desire all honour and glory might and majesty may be ascribed for ever and ever Amen Finis Serm. 2. Trino-uni gloria Per me Gulielmum Gaium Martial At male si recites incipit esse tuus A SERMON preached at the Visitation held at Campden May 4. 1636. Text. JOH 13.17 If ye know these things blessed or happy are ye if ye doe them
XI CHOICE SERMONS Preached upon Severall Occasions With a CATECHISME Expounding the Grounds and Principles of Christian RELIGION By WILLIAM GAY B. D. Rector of Buckland LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his Shop at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO THE HONORABLE Sr Henry Frederick Thinne Knight and Baronet continuall increase of Honour and Happiness SIR THese following papers have long been design'd to kiss your hand where if they now find acceptance I shal conceive them the better able to weather those stormes which they may expect to meet withall abroad You are not ignorant how the injurious malice of some men which though divers years are past hath not sufficiently evaporated its malignity hath subjected the Author to an hard and yet honorable suffering his innocence may perhaps be the more conspicuous to cādid judgments when these his meditations shal appear under the shelter of your honored Name and his opposers may be lesse forward to blast his memory It was his intention to have presented it with his own hand but death prevented it and providence hath cast this as a necessary duty upon me all his ambition was to acknowledge to the world his many deep obligements hoping this might remain as an undoubted testimony that his earnest desires to honor and serve you could not expire but with his breath and mine shall be no other then to have the honor to be esteemed Sir Your devoted Servant W. G. Sep. 27. 1654. A CATECHISM The First Section Of Catechising 1. Quest WHat is the title of your common Catechism A. An Instruction 2. Q. What doth it concern A. The Principles and Grounds of Religion and it is therefore called the laying of the foundation Heb. 6.1 3. Q. In what manner or kind is it A. By Questions and Answers and it is therefore called Catechism which signifies resounding or answering again 4. Q. Who must be the Learners A. Children whether they be so in age Prov. 22.6 or in understanding 1 Cor. 14.20 Heb. 5.12 1 Pet. 3.15 5. Q. Who must be the Teachers A. Masters to their Families Eph. 6.4 Gen. 14.14 18.19 but especially Ministers to their flocks 1 Cor. 3.2.10 Acts 5.42 20.20 6. Q. What reason can you shew that this work belongeth to Masters of families A. Because they are bound to provide for their Families corporally 1 Tim. 5.8 therefore spiritually 7. Q. Have women any part or share in this work A. No doubt they have whether they be Wives or Widdows Tit. 2.3 4. Prov. 31.1 26. 8. Q. Is Catechising to be preferred before Preaching A. Yes for order though for honour Preaching excelleth it as the compleat habitation excelleth the foundation 9. Q. What learn you out of all aforesaid A. To love this exercise because it is instruction Prov. 15.32 and the foundation of building me up to God and the surest way for Teacher and Learner to understand one another Sect. 2. Of our spiritual danger or miserie 1. Q. WHat are the chiefest parts or points of this foundation A. The knowledge of our danger of our remedy of our receiving the remedy and of the proof of our receiving it 2. Q. What is our common danger in our spirituall estate A. That we are by nature subject to Gods wrath Eph. 2.3 3. Q. What is the especial effect thereof to us A. A threefold death Gen. 2.17 Rom. 6.23 viz. a naturall Gen. 3.19 spirituall Eph. 2.1 eternal which is called the second death Rev. 2.11 20.6 and eternall damnation Mar. 3.29 and eternall judgement Heb. 6.2 4. Q. Can you declare and expresse what that second death is A. No more then its opposite or contrary the joyes of heaven can be expressed 1 Cor. 2.9 But it is summed in poena damni poena sensus both everlasting all included Mat. 25.41 5. Q. How comes this so infinite punishment to be due to us A. For Adams first sin and for every sin of our own 6. Q. How in point of Justice for Adams sin A. Because we were then all in him not only as the root from which we were to spring but as the body in which we were included and represented hee being though but one man yet that publick one that stood for all so that both his receipt and breach of the Covenant was ours 1 Cor. 15.22 Rom. 5.18 19. 7. Q. How in point of Justice for every sin of our own seeing to us many sins seem light and small A. Because God is infinite therefore every sinne being the transgression of his will 1 Joh. 3.4 deserveth infinite punishment Rom. 6.23 8. Q. How came Adam by sin was he created sinful A. No but by Satans temptation to the Woman and by her to him he fell into it Gen. 3.1 2 Cor. 11. 9. Q. Who or what was Satan and how came he to be sinfull A. Satan is a name implying and including all and every of the Devils who being with infinite other Angels created in glory and Angels of light of themselves and through their own frailty and presumption fell in sin and became eternally reprobated Angels of darknesse Joh. 8.44 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. 10. Q. What can you gather out of this doctrine of our danger and fall of the creatures A. 1. That there is but one unchangeable Essence one God Deut. 6.4 Jam. 1.17 2. That we should not be proud of ourselves nor scornfull of others 1 Cor. 4.7 Rom. 14.10 Gal. 6.1 2. 3. That we can never be too watchfull or carefull of ourselves 2 Pet. 3.11 4. That we have no help in our selves but must look it without us Rom. 7.14.18 2 Cor. 3.5 Sect. 3. Of our Remedy 1. Q. BY whom are we delivered from our foresaid danger A. By Jesus Christ Rom. 5.9 1 Thes 1.10 2. Q. How did he deliver us A. By making satisfaction to God for us 1 Joh. 2.2 3. Q. How did he make satisfaction for us A. By his sufferings Is 53.5 1 Pet. 2.24 and by his doings Jtr. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 4. Q. What needed any satisfaction seeing God is mercifull A. Because he is also just and cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2.13 5. Q. But how could Christs doing and suffering in Justice stand and passe for ours A. Because he was our voluntary surety Gal. 1.4 our head answerable to the first Adam Rom. 5.18 19. Col. 1.18 our husband Eph. 5.23 24. 6. Q. But how could Christs satisfaction be sufficient for all men A. Because he was God as wel as man therefore the virtue and value of it was infinite Acts 20.28 Acts 3.15 1 Cor. 2.8 7. Q. What followeth for our instruction in point of practise out of this doctrine of our redemption by Christ A. Great provocation of our love to God to our self and our neighbour 8. Q. Why to God A. Because we are not our own but his bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 and that a precious one 1 Pet. 1.19 9. Q. Why to our self A.
suffer Indeed such a true and proper sufferer he was for so himself confesseth I lay down my life no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Joh. 10.17 And again to say plainly he suffered what is it but to shew his innocencie that he had not offended For if hee had been a malefactor or offender it should have been said rather he was punished or he was executed And so it is most true for so it followeth in the next words of the Text the just for the unjust And again to say peremptorily he suffered what is it but to set him forth by the way of excellency for the chief and archsufferer and that not onely in respect of the manner of his sufferings that he suffered absolutely so as never did any but also in respect of the measure of his sufferings that he suffered excessively so much as never did any And so also wee may well understand and take it For to him doth well belong that lamentation of the Prophet Lam. 1.12 O vos omnes qui transitis attendite videte si dolor est ullus sicut dolor meus O all yee that passe by attend and see if there be any sorrow like to mine Behold then in saying nothing else but Christ hath suffered 1. He implyeth that he alwaies suffered constantly without intermission 2. That he onely suffered patiently without opposition 3. That he properly suffered voluntarily without compulsion 4. That he innocently suffered wrongfully without just condemnation 5. That he principally suffered excessively without comparison And is it not enough then that he saith Christ hath suffered but will ye yet ask what Nay but I pray you be satisfied and rather of the two ask what not For what sufferings can ye think on which he suffered not Sufferings in birth he suffered them Sufferings in life he suffered them Sufferings in death he suffered them Sufferings in body he was diversly tormented Sufferings in soul his soul was heavie unto death Sufferings in estate he had not where to rest his head Sufferings in good name he was counted a Samaritane and a devillish Sorcerer Sufferings from heaven he cryeth out My God my God why hast thou for saken me Sufferings from the earth he findeth for his hunger a fruitlesse Fig-tree Sufferings from hell he is assaulted and encountred with the Devill himself He began his life meanly and basely and was sharply persecuted he continued his life poorly and distressedly and was cruelly hated hee ended his life wofully and miserably and was most grievously tormented with whips thorns nails and above all with the terrors of his Fathers wrath and horrors of hellish agonies Ego sum qui peccavi I am the man that have sinned but these sheep what have they done So spake David when he saw the Angel destroying his people 2 Sam. 24.17 And even the same speech may every one of us take up for our self and apply to Christ and say I have sinned I have done wickedly but this sheep what hath he done Yea much more cause have we then David had to take up this complaint For David saw them die whom he knew to be sinners we see him dye who we know knew no sin David saw them dye a quick speedy death we see him die with lingering torments David saw them dye who by their own confession was worth ten thousand of them wee see him dye for us whose worth admitteth no comparison David saw the Lord of glory destroying mortall men we see mortall men crucifying the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 How then have not wee more cause then David to say I have sinned I have done wickedly but this innocent lamb what hath he deserved to be thus tormented But let us not goe on with Davids words to adde as he doth there Let thy hand I pray thee be against me and against my Fathers house Let us not desperately offer our selves to condemnation when we see redemption fairly freely fully offered unto us rather let us sing Maries Magnificat My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour Let us take heart of grace courage and comfort in faith for Christ hath blotted out the hand-writing that was against us and hath nailed it to his crosse and hath spoyled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in the same cross Col. 2.14 And so much for the second generall part or branch of the Text his sufferings hath suffered The third and last part is the occasion of his sufferings for sins Look how largely he spoke before of his sufferings in a generall word hath suffered meaning all sufferings so largely he also speaketh of the occasion of his sufferings in a generall word for sinnes meaning all sins But take this all with this restraint namely for all mens sins And let this all againe bee thus expounded for all mens sins competently and sufficiently but onely for all the Elects sins actually and effectually For first it appeareth that he suffered for no sinnes of his own for the Text here denyeth him to have any in that it calleth him just the just for the unjust And it is also plain that he suffered not for lost Angels sins for he in no sort took the Angels but he took the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 And why not them as well as us seeing they were the more noble and excellent creatures They were celestial spirits we earthly bodies dust and ashes They were immediate attendants upon God as it were of his privy chamber we servants of his lower house of this world farther remote from his glorious presence Their office was to sing Haleluiahs songs of praise to God in the heavenly Paradise ours to dresse the Garden of Eden which was but an earthly Paradise They sinned but once and but in thought as is commonly held but Adam sinned in thought by lusting in deed by tastting in word by excusing Why then did not Christ suffer for their sinnes as well as for ours or if for any why not for theirs rather then ours Even so O Father for so it pleased thee Mat. 11.26 We move this question not as being curious to search thy secret counsels but that wee may the more fill our hearts with admiration of thy goodnesse towards us and be the more tankfull for thy favour joyfull in thy mercy and cheerfull in thy love acknowledging ourselves more bound unto thee for that we have received more bounty from thee then even thine Angels thy noblest creatures So then Christ hath suffered for the sinnes of Mankind onely and that as aforesaid of all Mankind if we respect the sufficiency of his sufferings so that if any be not benefited by it the defect and fault is not in it but in their not apprehending and applying it Else why is it thus largely said in this indefinite speech