Reason Only in Divinity great offence is taken at the multitude of Controversies wherein yet difference of opinions is by so much more tolerable then in other sciences by how much the things about which we are conversant are of a more sublime mysterious and incomprehensible nature then are those of other Sciences 21. Truly it would make a religious heart bleed to consider the many and great distractions that are all over the Christian world at this day The lamentable effects whereof scarce any part of Christendome but feeleth more or less either in open warrs or dangerous seditions or at the best in uncharitable censures and ungrounded jealousies Yet the infinite variety of mens dispositions inclinations and aimes considered together with the great obscurity that is in the things of God and the strength of corruption that is in us it is to be acknowledged the admirable work of God that these distractions are not even much more and greater and wider then they are and that amid so many sects as are in the world there should be yet such an universal concurrence of judgement as there is in the main fundamental points of the Christian Faith And if we were so wise as we might and should be to make the right use of it it would not stumble us awhit in the belief of our Religion that Christians differ so much as they do in many things but rather mightily confirme us in the assurances thereof that they agree so well as they do almost in any thing And it may be a great comfort to every well-meaning soule that the simple belief of those certain truths whereon all parties are in a manner agreed may be and ordinarily is sufficient for the salvation of all them who are sincerely careful according to that measure of light and means that hath vouchsafed them to actuate their Faith with piety charity and good works so making this great mystery to become unto them as it is in it self Mysterium pietatis a Mystery of Godliness Which is the last point proposed the Quale to which I now pass 22. As the corrupt doctrine of Antichrist is not only a doctrine of Error but of Impiety too called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mystery of Iniquity 2 Thes. 2. So the wholsome doctrine of Christ is not only a doctrine of Truth but of Piety too and is therefore termed here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mystery of Godliness Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Godliness since there appeareth not any great necessity in the Context to restrain it to that more peculiar sense wherein both the Greek and English word are sometimes used namely to signifie the right manner of Gods worship according to his word in opposition to all idolatrous superstitious or false worships practised among the Heathens I am the rather enclined to understand it here as many Interpreters have done in the fuller latitude as it comprehendeth the whole duty of a Christian man which he standeth bound by the command of God in his Law or of Christ in his Gospel to perform 23. Verum and Bonum We know are neer of kin the one to the other And the spirit of God who is both the author and the revealer of this mystery as he is the spirit of Truth Joh. 14. so is he also the spirit of Holiness Rom. 1. And it is part of his work to sanctifie the heart with grace as well as to enlighten the minde with knowledge Our Apostle therefore sometimes mentioneth Truth and Godliness together teaching us thereby that we should take them both into our care together If any man consent not to the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and to the doctrine which is after Godlinesse 1 Tim. 6. And Tit. 1. according to the Faith of Gods elect and acknowledging of the Truth which is after Godliness And here in express termes The Mystery of Godliness And that most rightly whether we consider it in the Scope Parts or Conservation of it 24. First the general Scope and aime of Christianity is by the mercy of God founded on the merits of Christ to bring men on through Faith and Godliness to Salvation It was not in the purpose of God in publishing the Gospel and thereby freeing us from the personal obligation rigor and curse of the Law so to turne us loose and lawless to do whatsoever should seem good in our own eyes follow our own crooked wills or gratifie any corrupt lust but to oblige us rather the faster by these new benefits and to incite us the more effectually by Evangelical promises to the earnest study and pursuit of Godliness The Gospel though upon quite different grounds bindeth us yet to our good behaviour in every respect as deep as ever the Law did if not in some respects deeper allowing no liberty to the flesh for the fulfilling of the lusts thereof in any thing but exacting entire sanctity and purity both of inward affection and outward conversation in all those that embrace it The grace of God appearing in the revelation of this mysterie as it bringeth along with it an offer of salvation to all men so it teacheth all men that have any real purpose to lay hold on so gracious an offer to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously and soberly and godlily in this present world 25. It is not to be wondred at if all false Religions give allowance to some ungodliness or other when the very gods whom they worship give such encouragements thereunto by their leud example The gods of the Pagans were renowned for nothing so much most of them as for their vices Mars a bloudy God Bacchus a drunken God Mercury a cheating God and so proportionably in their several kinds all the rest Their great capital God Iupiter guilty of almost all the capital vices And where the Gods are naught who can imagine the Religion should be good Their very mysteria sacra as they called them were so full of all wickedness and filthy abominations as was already in part touched but is fully discovered by Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius Arnobius Tertullian and other of the Ancients of our religion that it was the wisest point in all their religion to take such strict order as they did for the keeping of them secret 26. But it is the honour and prerogative of the Christian Religion that it alone alloweth of no wickedness But as God himself is holy so he requireth an holy worship and holy worshippers He exacteth the mortification of all evill lusts and the sanctification of the whole man body soul and spirit and that in each of these throughout Every one that nameth himself from the name of Christ doth ipso facto by the very taking of that blessed name upon him and daring to stile himself Christian virtually binde himself to depart from all iniquity nor so only but to endeavour also after the example of him whose
bone in his body And so a man had better receive twenty wounds in his good name then but a single raze in his conscience But yet here the recovery is easier then there A broken bone may be set again and every splinter put in his due place and if it be skilfully handled in the setting and duly tended after it may in short time knit as firm again as ever it was yea and as it is said firmer then ever so as it will break any where else sooner then there But as for the shivers of a broken glass or earthen dish no art can piece them so as they shall be either sightly or serviceable they will not abide the file nor the hammer neither soader nor glue nor other cement will fasten them handsomly together The application is obvious to every understanding and therefore I shall spare it If Simon be once a leper the name will stick by him when the disease hath left him Let him be cleansed from his leprosie never so perfectly yet he will be called and known by the name of Simon the Leper to his dying day Envious and malicious persons apprehend the truth hereof but too well one of whose Aphorismes it is and they practise accordingly Calumniare fortiter aliquid adhaerebit Come and let us smite with the tongue and be sure to smite deep enough and then though the grief may be cured and perhaps the skin grow over again 't is odds but he will carry some mark or print of it to his grave It should make us very careful to preserve names from foul aspersions because the stains will not easily if at all be scoured off again 37. But how may that be effectually done may some say Absolutely to secure our selves from false aspersions truly it is not in our power and therefore I can prescribe no course to prevent it If malice or envy be minded to throw them on there is no help for it but patience But so far as dependeth upon our selves and the likeliest way withall to counter-work the uncharitableness of others to give you a very general answer is By eschewing evil and doing good by walking warily and circumspectly by living soberly righteously and Godly in this present world Praise is the reward of vertue as you heard and the foundation of a good name is a good life If any man desire yet more particular directions as namely what kinds of actions are especially to be practised and what kinds especially to be shunned in order to this end I shall commend unto his consideration these five Rules following which I shall but briefly point at the time not suffering me to insist 38. First Let him look well to his particular calling and the duties that belong to him in it bestirring himself with all diligence and faithfulness and carrying himself uprightly and conscionably therein and be sure to keep himself within the proper bounds thereof This Rule is given us 1 Thes. 4. That you study to be quiet and to do your own business Why so That ye may walk honestly towards them that are without 39. Secondly Let him carry himself lowly dutifully and respectfully to all his superiours and betters to Magistrates to Ministers to his Parents to his Masters to the aged and to all others agreeably to their respective conditions and relations And this Rule we have as in other places so in 1 Pet. 2. Honour all men be subject even to your froward masters submit to the King as supreme and to governours sent of him c. Why For so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 40. Thirdly Let him be wise charitable and moderate with all brotherly condescension in the exercise of his Christian liberty and the use of indifferent things Not standing alwayes upon the utmost of what he may or what he may not do but yielding much from his own liberty for his brothers sake considering as well what as the case presently standeth is expedient for him to do in relation to others as what is simply and in it self lawful to be done St Paul giveth us the Rule Rom. 14. If thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably c. Let not your good be evil spoken of 41. Fourthly Let him be milde gentle a lover and maintainer of peace and concord not violent or boysterous or peremptory either in his opinions or courses but readier to compose then to kindle quarrels and to qualifie then to exasperate differences This Rule we have Phil. 2. Do all things without murmurings and disputings And why so That you may be blameless and harmless and without rebuke 42. Fifthly Let him be liberal and merciful willing to communicate the good things that God hath lent him for the comfort and supply of those that stand in need This Rule I gather out of Psal. 112. The righteous shall be had in an everlasting remembrance He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the poor His righteousness shall endure for ever his horn also shall be exalted with honour 43. Whoso observeth these directions his memory shall if God see it good for him be like the remembrance of good Iosiah in Ecclesiasticus like the composition of the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary sweet as honey in the mouths of all that speak of him and as musick at a banquet of wine in the ears of all that hear of him Or if it be the good pleasure of God for the trial of his faith and exercise of his patience to suffer men to revile him and to speak all manner of evil against him falsely in this world it shall be abundantly recompensed him in the encrease of his reward in heaven at the last great day when every man whose name shall be found written in the boook of life shall have praise of God and of his holy Angels and of all good men AD AULAM. Sermon II. WHITE HALL November 1632. Proverbs 16.7 When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him 1. THe words contain two blessed fruits of a gracious conversation the one more immediate and direct Acceptance with God the other more remote and by consequence from the former Peace with men Or if you will a Duty and the Benefit of it and these two coupled together as they seldome go single in one conditionall proposition consisting of an Antecedent and a Consequent wherein we have Gods part and ours Our part lieth in the Antecedent wherein is supposed a Duty which God expecteth from us ex debito and that is to frame our wayes so as to please the Lord. Gods part lieth in the Consequent wherein the benefit is expressed which when we have performed the Duty we may comfortably expect from him ex promisso and that is to have our enemies to be at
Brotherhood of Grace by profession of the faith of Christ as we are Christian men As men we are members of that great body the World and so all men that live within the compass of the World are Brethren by a more general communion of Nature As Christians we are members of that mystical body the Church and so all Christian men that live within the compass of the Church are Brethren by a more peculiar communion of Faith And as the Moral Law bindeth us to love all men as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common Nature in Adam so the Evangelical Law bindeth to love all Christians as our Brethren and partakers with us of the same common faith in Christ. 25. In which later notion the word Brother is most usually taken in the Apostolical writings to signifie a professor of the Christian Faith and Religion in opposition to heathen men and unbeleevers The name of Christian though of commonest use and longest continuance was yet but of a later date taken up first at Antioch as we finde Act. 11. whereas believers were before usually called Disciples and no less usually both before and since Brethren You shall read very often in the Acts and Epistles of the holy Apostles How the Brethren assembled together to hear the Gospel preached to receive the Sacrament and to consult about the affairs of the Church How the Apostles as they went from place to place to plant and water the Churches in their progress every where visited the Brethren at their first coming to any place saluting the Brethren during their abode there confirming the Brethren at their departure thence taking leave of the Brethren How collections were made for relief of the Brethren and those sent into Iudea from other parts by the hands of the brethren c. S. Paul opposeth the Brethren to them that are without and so includeth all that are within the Church What have I to do to judg them that are without 1 Cor. 5. As if he had said Christ sent me an Apostle and Minister of the Churches and therefore I meddle not but with those that are within the pale of the Church as for those that are without if any of them will be filthy let him be filthy still I have nothing to do to meddle with them But saith he if any man that is within the Christian Church any man that is called a Brother be a fornicator or drunkard or rayler or otherwise stain his holy profession by scandalous living I know how to deal with him let the censures of the Church be laid upon him let him be cast out of the assemblies of the Brethren that he may be thereby brought to shame and repentance 26. So then Brethren in the Apostolical use of the word are Christians and the Brotherhood the whole society of Christian men the systeme and body of the whole visible Church of Christ. I say the visible Church because there is indeed another Brotherhood more excellent then this whereof we now speak consisting of such only as shall undoubtedly inherit salvation called by some of the ancients The Church of Gods Elect and by some later writers the Invisible Church And truly this Brotherhood would under God deserve the highest room in our affections could we with any certainty discern who were of it and who not But because the fan is not in our hand to winnow the chaff from the wheat Dominus novit The Lord onely knoweth who are his by those secret characters of Grace and Perseverance which no eye of man is able to discern in another nor perhaps in himself infallibly we are therefore for the discharge of our duty to look at the Brotherhood so far as it is discernable to us by the plain and legible characters of Baptism and outward profession So that whosoever abideth in areâ Domini and liveth in the communion of the visible Church being baptized into Christ and professing the Name of Christ let him prove as it falleth out chaff or light corn or wheat when the Lord shall come with his fan to purge his floor yet in the mean time so long as he lieth in the heap and upon the floor We must own him for a Christian and take him as one of the Brotherhood and as such an one love him For so is the Duty here Love the Brotherhood 27. To make Love compleat Two things are required according to Aristotle's description of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Affectus cordis and Effectus operis The inward affection of the heart in wishing to him we love all good and the outward manifestation of that affection by our deed as occasion is offered in being ready to our power to do him any good The heart is the root and the seat of all true love and there we must begin or else all we do is but lost If we do never so many serviceable offices to our brethren out of any by-end or sinister respect although they may possibly be very usefull and so very acceptable to him yet if our heart be not towards them if there be not a sincere affection within it cannot be truly called Love That Love that will abide the test and answer the Duty required in the Text must be such as the Apostles have in several passages described it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfained love of the brethren 1 Pet. 1. Love out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1. Love without dissimulation Rom. 12. 28. Of which inward affection the outward deed is the best discoverer and therefore that must come on too to make the love perfect As Iehu said to Ionadab Is thy heart right If it be then give me thy hand As in the exercises of our devotion towards God so in the exercises of our charity towards men heart and hand should go together Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis Good works are the best demonstrations as of true Faith so of true love Where there is life and heate there will be action There is no life then in that Faith S. Iames calleth it plainly a dead faith Iam. 2. nor heate in that Love according to that expression Matth. 24. the love of many shall wax cold that doth not put forth it self in the works of righteousness and mercy He then loveth not the Brotherhood indeed whatsoever he pretend or at least not in so gracious a measure as he should endeavour after That doth not take every fit opportunity of doing good either to the souls or bodies or credits or estates of his Brethren That is not willing to do them all possible services according to the urgency of their occasions and the just exigence of circumstances with his countenance with his advice with his pains with his purse yea and if need be with his very life too This is the Non ultra farther then this we cannot goe in the expressing of our love Greater love
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas there is ever some deficiency or other in the things desired What man had ever all things so sortable to his desires but he could spy some thing or other wanting tamen Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei And many times all he hath doth him not so much pleasure as the want of that one thing tortureth him As all Hamans wealth and honours and favour with the King and power in the Court availed him nothing for want of Mordecay's knee And Ahab could not be merry nor sleep nor eat bread though he swaied the Scepter of a mighty Kingdom for want of Naboths vineyard Or if we could suppose contentment should arise from the things yet fourthly it could have no stability nor certainty of continuance because the things themselves are subject to casualties and vicissitudes And the mind of a man that should repose upon such things must needs rise and fall ebb and flow just as the things themselves do Which is contrary to the state of a true contented mind which still remaineth the same and unchanged notwithstanding whatsoever changes and chances happen in these outward and mutable things 7. We see now the unsufficiency of Nature of Morality of Outward things to bring Contentment It remaineth then that it must spring from Religion and from the Grace of God seated in the heart of every godly man which casteth him into a new mould and frameth the heart to a blessed calme within whatsoever stormes are abroad and without And in this Grace there is no defect As the Lord sometimes answered our Apostle when he was importunate with him for that which he thought not fit at that time to grant sufficit tibi gratia My grace is sufficient for thee He then that would attain to St Pauls learning must repair to the same school where St Paul got his learning and he must apply himself to the same tutor that St Paul had He must not languish in porticu or in Lyceo at the feet of Plato or Seneca but he must get him into the sanctuary of God and there become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must be taught of God and by the anointing of his holy spirit of grace which anointing teacheth us all things 1. Ioh. 2. All other masters are either Ignorant or Envious or Idle Some things they are not able to teach us though they would some things they are not willing to teach us though they might but this Anointing is every way a most compleat tutour Able and loving and active this anointing teacheth us all things and amongst other things this Art of Contentation also 8. Now as for the means whereby the Lord traineth us up by his holy grace unto this learning they are especially these three First by his spirit he worketh this perswasion in our hearts that whatsoever he disposeth unto us at any time for the present that is evermore the fittest and best for us at that time He giveth us to see that all things are guided and ordered by a most just and wise and powerful providence And although it be not fit for us to be acquainted with the particular reasons of such his wise and gracious dispensations yet we are assured in the general that all things work together for the best to them that love God That he is a loving and careful father of his children and will neither bring any thing upon them nor keep back any thing from them but for their good That he is a most skilfull and compassionate Physitian such a one as at all times and perfectly understandeth the true state and temper of our hearts and affections and accordingly ordereth us and dieteth us as he seeth it most behoofefull for us in that present state for the preservation or recovery of our spiritual strength or for the prevention of future maladies And this perswasion is one speciall means whereby the Lord teacheth us Contentment with whatsoever he sendeth 9. Secondly whereas there are in the word scattered every where many gracious and precious promises not only concerning the life to come but also concerning this present life the spirit of grace in the heart of the godly teacheth them by faith to gather up all those scattered promises and to apply them for their own comfort upon every needfull occasion They heare by the outward preaching of the word and are assured of the truth thereof by the inward teaching of the spirit That God will never faile them nor forsake them That he is their shepheard and therefore they shall not want but his goodness and mercy shall follow them all the dayes of their lives That his eyes is upon them that fear him to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time dearth That he will give grace and worship and withhold no good thing from them that live a godly life That though the Lions the great and greedy oppressors of the world may lack and suffer hunger yet they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and a thousand other such like promises they hear and beleeve The assurance whereof is another special means by which the Lord teacheth his children to repose themselves in a quiet content without fear of want or too much thoughtfulness for the future 10. Thirdly for our better learning besides these lectures of his providence and promises he doth also both appoint us exercises and discipline us with his rod. By sending changes and afflictions in our bodies in our names in our friends in our estates in the success of our affairs and many other wayes but alwayes for our profit And this his wise teaching of us bringeth on our learning wonderfully As for those whose houses are safe from feare neither is the rod of God upon them as Iob speaketh that are never emptied nor powred from vessel to vessel they settle upon their own dregs and grow muddy and musty with long ease and their prosperity befooleth them to their own destruction When these come once to stirring and trouble over-taketh them as sooner or later they must look for it then the grumbles and mud of their impatience and discontent beginneth to appear and becometh unsavoury both to God and man But as for those whom the Lord hath taken into his own tuition and nurturing he will not suffer them either to wax wanton with too long ease nor to be depressed with too heavy troubles but by frequent changes he exerciseth them and inureth them to all estates As a good Captain traineth his souldiers and putteth them out of one posture into another that they may be expert in all so the Lord of hosts traineth up his souldiers by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evil report and good report by health and sickness by sometimes raising new friends and sometimes taking away the old
but commodata When God lent us the use of them he had no meaning to forgoe the property too and therefore they are his goods still and he may require them at our hands or take them from us when he will and dispose of them as he pleaseth I will return and take away my corn and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wooll and my flax Osee 2. What we have we hold of him as our creditor and when he committed these things to our trust they were not made over to us by covenant for any fixed term Whensoever therefore he shall think good to call in his debts it is our part to return them with patience shall I say ey and with thankfulness too that he hath suffered us to enjoy them so long but without the least grudging or repining as too often we do that we may not hold them longer Non contristor quòd recepisti ago gratias quòd dedisti Thus did Iob when all was taken from him he blessed the name of the Lord still and to his wife tempting him to impatience gave a sharp but withall a most reasonable and religious answer Thou speakest like a foolish woman Shall we receive good things at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil also As who say shall we make earnest suite to him when we would borrow and be offended with him when we are called on to pay again We account him and so he is an ill and unthankful debter from whom the lender cannot ask his own but he shall be like to lose a friend by it Add yet how impatiently oftentimes do we take it at our Lords hand when he requireth from us but some small part of that which he hath so freely and so long lent us 21. Try thy self then Brother by these and the like signes and accordingly judge what progress thou hast made in this so high and useful a part of Christian learning 1. If thou scornest to gain by any unlawfull or unworthy means 2. If thy desires and cares for the things of this life be regular and moderate 3. If thou canst finde in thy heart to take thy portion and to bestow thereof for thine own comfort 4. And to dispense though but the superfluities for the charitable relief of thy poor neighbours 5. If thou canst want what thou desirest without murmuring and lose what thou possessest without impatience then mayest thou with some confidence say with our Apostle in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content But if any one of these particular signes be wholy wanting in thee thou art then but a truant in this learning and it will concern thee to set so much the harder to it and to apply thy self more seriously and diligently to this study hereafter then hitherto thou hast done 22. Wherein for the better guiding of those that are desirous of this learning either to make entrance thereinto if they be yet altogether to learn which may be the case of some of us or to proceed farther therein if they be already entred as the best-skilled of us all had need to do for so long as we are in the flesh and live in the world the lusts both of flesh and world will mingle with our best graces and hinder them from growing to a fulness of perfection I shall crave leave towards the close of this discourse to commend to the consideration and practise of all whether novices or proficients in this Art of Contentation some usefull Rules that may serve as so many helps for their better attaining to some reasonable abilities therein The general means for the obtaining of this as of every other particular grace we all know are fervent Prayer and the sincere love of God and goodness Which because they are general we will not now particularly insist upon it shall suffice without farther opening barely to have mentioned them 23. But for the more special means the first thing to be done is to labour for a true and lively Faith For Faith is the very basis the foundation whereupon our hearts and all our hearts-content must rest the whole frame of our contentment rising higher or lower weaker or stronger in proportion to that foundation And this Faith as to our present purpose hath a double Object as before was touched to wit the Goodness of God and the Truth of God His Goodness in the dispensation of his special providence for the present and his Truth in the performance of his temporal promises for the future First then labour to have thy heart throughly perswaded of the goodness of God towards thee That he is thy Father and that whether he frown upon thee or correct thee or howsoever otherwise he seem to deal with thee he still beareth a Fatherly affection towards thee That what he giveth thee he giveth in love because he seeth it best for thee to have it and what he denieth thee he denieth in love because he seeth it best for thee to want it A sick man in the extremity of his distemper desireth some of those that are about him and sit at his bed-side as they love him to give him a draught of cold water to allay his thirst but cannot obtain it from his dearest wife that lieth in his bosome nor from his nearest friend that loveth him as his own soul. They consider that if they should satisfie his desire they should destroy his life they will therefore rather urge him and even compel him to take what the Doctor hath prescribed how unpleasant and distastful soever it may seem unto him And then if pain and the impotency of his desire will but permit him the use of his reason he yieldeth to their perswasions for then he considereth that all this is done out of their love to him and for his good both when he is denied what he most desireth and when he is pressed to take what he vehemently abhorreth Perswade thy self in like sort of all the Lords dealings with thee If at any time he do not answer thee in the desire of thy heart conclude there is either some unworthiness in thy person or some inordinacy in thy desire or some unfitness or unseasonableness in the thing desired something or other not right on thy part but be sure not to impute it to any defect of love in him 24. And as thou art stedfastly to beliéve his goodness and love in ordering all things in such sort as he doth for the present so oughtest thou with like stedfastness to rest upon his truth and faithfulness for the making good of all those gracious promises that he hath made in his word concerning thy temporal provision and preservation for the future Only understand those promises rightly with their due conditions and limitations and in that sense wherein he intended them when he made them and then never doubt the performance
extremes contrary causes for different reasons producing one and the same evil effect Extreme cold parcheth the grass as well as extreme heat and lines drawn from the opposite parts of the circumference meet in the Center Although the prodigal man therefore utterly disclaim Covetousness and profess to hate it yet doth he indeed by his wastfulness pull upon himself a necessity of being Covetous and transgresseth the Commandement which saith Thou shalt not covet as much as the most covetous wretch in the world doth The difference is but this the one coveteth that he may have it the other coveteth that he may spend it as St Iames saith He coveteth that he may consume it upon his lusts He that will fare deliciously every day or carry a great port in the world and maintain a numerous family of idle and unnecessary dependants or adventure great summes in gaming or upon matches or bring up his children too highly or any other way stretch himself in his expences beyond the proportion of his revenues it is impossible but he should desire means wherewithall to maintain the charges he must be at for the aforesaid ends Which since his proper revenues according to our supposition will not reach to do his wits are set on work how to compass supplies and to make it out out of other mens estates Hence he is driven to succour himself by frauds and oppressions and all those other evils that spring from the root of covetousness And when these also fail as hold they cannot long there is then no remedy but he must live the remainder of his dayes upon borrowing and shifting whereby he casteth himself into debts and dangers loseth his credit or liberty or both and createth to him a world of discontents He that would live a contented life and bear a contented mind it standeth him upon to be Frugal 30. Temperance also is of right good use to the same end that is to say a moderate use at all times and now and then a voluntary forbearance of and abstinence from the Creatures when we might lawfully use them If we would sometimes deny our appetites in the use of meats and drinks and sleep and sports and other comforts and refreshments of this life and exercise our selves sometimes to fastings and watchings and other hardnesses and austerities St Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we should be the better able sure to undergo them stoutly and grudg and shrink less under them if at any time hereafter by any accident or affliction we should be hard put to it We should in all likelihood be the better content to want many things when we cannot have them if we would now and then inure our selves to be as if we wanted them whilest we have them 31. Lastly for I may not enlarge that meditation which was so frequent with the godly Fathers under both Testaments and whereof the more sober sort among the heathens had some glimmering light That we have here no abiding City but seek one to come That we are here but as strangers and pilgrimes in a forraign land heaven being our home and that our continuance in this world is but as the lodging of a traveler in an Inne for a night this meditation I say if followed home would much further us in the present learning The Apostle seemeth to make use of it for this very purpose 1 Tim. 6. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and thence inferreth in the very next words Having food and raiment let us be therewith content We forget our selves very much when we fancy to our selves a kinde of perpetuity here as if our houses should continue for ever and our dwelling places should remain from one generation to another We think it good being here here we would build us Tabernacles set up our rest here And that is it that maketh us so greedy after the things that belong hither and so sullen and discomposed when our endeavours in the pursuit of them prove successless Whereas if we would rightly informe our selves and seriously think of it what the world is and what our selves are the world but an Inne and our selves but passengers it would fashion us to more moderate desires and better composed affections In our Innes we would be glad to have wholsome diet clean lodging diligent attendamce and all other things with convenience and to our liking But yet we will be wary what we call for that we exceed not too much lest the reckoning prove too sharp afterwards and if such things as we are to make use of there we finde not altogether as we would wish we do not much trouble our selves at it but pass it over chearing our selves with these thoughts that our stay is but for a night We shall be able sure to make shift with mean accommodations for one night we shall be at home ere it be long where we can mend our selves and have things more to our own hearts-content Satiabor cum apparuerit gloria The plenteousness of that house when we shall arrive at our own home will fully satiate our largest desires In the mean time let the expectation of that fulness and the approach of our departure out of this sorry Inne sustain our soules with comfort against all the emptinesses of this world and whatsoever we meet with in our passage through it that is any way apt to breed us vexation or discontent that we may learn with S. Paul in whatsoever estate we are to be therewith content God vouchsafe this to us all for his Dear Sons sake Jesus Christ c. AD AULAM. Sermon VII GREENWICH JULY 1638. Esay 52.3 For thus saith the Lord Ye have sold your selves for nought and ye shall be Redeemed without Money 1. THe Speaker is God that is plain For thus saith the Lord. And he speaketh to us Not to the Iews only as some perhaps might imagine but to all mankinde And so to us as well as them if not in the Literal and immediate sense which to me seemeth so probable that I make little doubt of it yet at leastwise which I finde not gain-said by any in the Anagogical and Spiritual Sence The speech it self presenteth to our view a Sale and a Redemption and under those Metaphors representeth to our thoughts Mans inexcusable baseness and Folly in the Sale Gods admirable power and goodness in the Redemption The most wretched Sale that ever was all passed away and nothing coming in But the most blessed Redemption that ever was all fetch'd back again and nothing laid out A Sale without any profit to us it got us nought in the former part of the verse You have sold your selves for nought A Redemption without any charge to us it cost us nought in the latter part ye shall be redeemed without money These are the two points we are to hold us to at this
ever asking his consent If God were pleased to leave us at first in manu consilij and to trust us so far as to commit the keeping of our selves to our selves he had no meaning therein to turn us loose neither to quit his own right to us and our services Nay may we not with great reason think that he meant to oblige us so much the more unto himself by making us his depositaries in a trust of that nature As if a King should commit to one of his meanest servants the custody of some of his Royal houses or forts he should by that very trust lay a new obligation upon him of fealty over and above that common allegiance which he oweth him as a Subject Now if such a servant so entrusted by the King his Master should then take upon him of his own head without his Masters privity to contract with a stranger perhaps a Rebel or Enemy for the passing over the said house or fort into his hands Who would not condemne such a person for such an act Of ingratitude injustice and presumption in the highest degree Yet is our injustice ingratitude and presumption by so much more infinitely heinous then his in selling our selves from God our Lord and Master into the hands of Satan a Rebel and an Enemy to God and all goodness By how much the disparity is infinitely more betwixt the eternall God and the greatest of the sons of Men then betwixt the highest Monarch in the world and the lowest of his Subjects 7. So much for the Act the other particulars belong to it as circumstances thereof To a Sale they say three things are required Res Precium and Consensus a Commodity to be sold a Price to be pai'd and consent of Parties Here they are all And whereas I told you in the beginning that in this Sale was represented to us Mans inexcusable baseness and folly You shall now plainly see each particle thereof made good in the three several Circumstances In the Commodity our Baseness that we should sell away our very selves in the Price our folly that we should do it for a thing of naught in the Consent our inexcusableness in both that an act so base and foolish should yet be our own voluntary act and deed And first for the Commodity You have sold your selves 8. Lands Houses Cattel and other like possessions made for mans use are the proper subject matter of trade and commerce and so are fit to pass from man to man by Sales and other Contracts But that Man a Creature of such excellency stamped with the image of God endowed with a reasonable soule made capable of grace and Glory should Prostâ—are in foro become merchantable ware and be chaffered in the markets and fayres I suppose had bin a thing never heard of in the world to this houre had not the overflowings of pride and Cruelty and Covetousness washed out of the hearts of Men the very impressions both of Religion and Humanity It is well and we are to bless God and under God to thank our Christian Religion and pious Governours for it that in these times and parts of the world we scarce know what it meaneth But that it was generally practis'd all the world over in some former ages and is at this day in use among Turks and Pagans to sell men ancient Histories and modern relations will not suffer us to be ignorant We have mention of such Sales even in Scripture where we read of some that sold their own brother as Iacobs sons did Ioseph and of one that sold his own Master as the traitor Iudas did Christ. Basely and wretchedly both Envy made them base and Covetousness him Only in some cases of Necessity as for the preservation of Life or of liberty of Conscience when other means fail God permitted to his own people to sell themselves or Children into perpetual bondage and Moses from him gave Laws and Ordinances touching that Matter Levit. 25. 9. But between the Sale in the Text and all those other there are two main differences Both which do exceedingly aggravate our baseness The first that no man could honestly sell another nor would any man willingly sell himself unless enforced thereunto by some urgent necessity But what necessity I pray you that we should sell our selves out of Gods and out of our own hands into the hands of Sin and Satan Were we not well enough before sull enough and safe enough Was our Masters service so hard that it might not be abiden Might we not have lived Lived Yea and that happily and freely and plentifully and that for ever in his service What was it then Even as it is with many fickle servants abroad in the world that begin in a good service cannot tell when they are well but must be ever and anon flitting though many times they change for the worse so it was only our Pride and folly and a fond conceit we had of bettering our condition thereby that made us not only without any apparent necessity but even against all good reason and duty thus basely to desert our first service and to sell our selves for bondslaves to Sin and Satan 10. The other difference maketh the matter yet a great deal worse on our side For in selling of slaves for so much as bodily service was the thing chiefly looked after therefore as the body in respect of strength health age and other abilities was deem'd more or less fit for service the price was commonly proportioned thereafter Hence by a customary speech among the Grecians slaves were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is bodies and they that traded in that kinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say merchants of bodies And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Rev. 18. Mancipia or slaves Epiphanius giveth us the reason of that use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he c. because all the command that a man can exercise over his slaves is terminated to the body and cannot reach the soule And the soule is the better part of man and that by so many degrees better that in comparison thereof the body hath been scarce accounted a considerable part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Greek Philosopher say and the Latin Orator Mens cujusque is est quisque The soule is in effect the whole man The body but the shell of him the body but the casket the soule the Jewel It is observable that whereas we read Matth. 16. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soule in stead thereof we have it Luke 9. thus if he gain the whole world and lose himself So that every mans soule is himself and the body but an appurtenance of him Yet such is our baseness that we have thus trucked away our selves with the appurtenances that is both our soules and our bodies We detest Witches and
on ours And well it is for us that we have to do with so gracious a God Go to an officer and who can promise to himself any ordinary favour from him without a fee Go into the shops and what can ye take up without either mony or credit or security for it Si nihil attuleris bring nothing and have nothing Only when we have to do with God Poverty is no impediment but rather an advantage to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Gospel belongeth to none but the poor only The tidings of a Redeemer most blessed and welcome news to those that are sensible of their own poverty and take it as of Grace But who so thinketh his own penny good silver and will be putting in and bidding for it will stand upon his terms as David did with Araunah and will pay for it or he will not have it Let that man beware lest his mony and he perish together and lest he get neither part nor fellowship in this Business 39. Yet this I must tell you withall there is something to be done on our part for the applying of this gracious redemption wrought by Christ to our own souls for their present comfort and future salvation We must repent from dead works believe the Gospel and endeavour to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world The grace of God is proclaimed and as it were exposed to sale in the preaching of the Gospel there is an offer made us of it there and we are earnestly invited to buy it Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters and buy But he that cometh to buy must bring his manuprecium with him or he were as good keep away He that cometh to this market without a price in his hand and the price is faith repentance and godliness it is a sign he hath no heart and he is no better then a fool saith Solomon Prov. 17. But still we must remember that this is but conditio non causa a condition which he requireth to be performed on our part not any just cause of the performance on his part And he requireth it rather as a testimony of our willingness to embrace so fair an offer then as a valuable consideration in any proportion at all to the worth of the thing offered What we bring if it be tendred kindly and as it ought in sincerity and humility he kindly accepteth of it But if we bring it either in Pride or would have it taken for better then we know it is which is our hypocrisie we quite marr our own market and shall be sent away empty 40. The sum of all is this and I have done Let us take the whole shame of our inexcusable baseness and folly in this Sale to our selves and let us give to God the whole glory of his admirable power and grace in our Redemption Non tibi Domine non tibi not unto thee O Lord not unto thee but unto us be all the shame that had thus wretchedly sold our selves for nought Non nobis Domine non nobis not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all the glory that thou hast thus graciously redeemed us without money Amen So be it AD AULAM. Sermon VIII THEOBALDS JULY 1638. Rom. 15.5 Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus 1. SAint Paul had much laboured in the whole former Chapter and in the beginning of this to make up that breach which by the mutual judgings of the Weak and despisings of the Strong had been long kept open in the then Church of Christ at Rome and was likely if not timely prevented to grow wider and wider to the great dishonour of God dis-service of his Church and discomfort of every good man He had plied them with variety of Arguments and Perswasions spent a great deal of holy Logick and Rhetorick upon them and now to set all that home and to drive the naile as it were to the head that so he might at length manum de tabula he concludeth his discourse about that argument with this votive Prayer or Benediction Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus That ye may with one minde and with one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. Wherein we may observe first the formality of the Prayer in those first words Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you And then the matter or substance of it in the rest Wherein we have expressed with their several amplifications first the Thing desired their Vnity in the remainder of the fifth verse secondly the End for which it is desired Gods glory in the sixth verse But that I shall not have time at this present to enter upon Confining our selves therefore to the fifth verse only and therein beginning with the formality of the Prayer observe first the connexion of this period with the precedent discourse in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now or But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the God c. Secondly the Party whose help is implored and from whom the blessing must come even God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grant Thirdly the speciall Attributes whereby that party is here described 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The God of Patience and Consolation 3. Of the Connexion first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now God grant In effect as if he had said I have endeavoured what in me lay to bring you to be of one minde and of one heart I have planted unity among you by my Doctrine and watered it with my Exhortations using the best reasons and perswasions I could devise for that end What now remaineth but that I second my labours with my prayers and commend what I have planted and watered to his blessing who alone is able to give the encrease I have shewen you what you are to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant it may be done 4. The Apostle saw it needful he should pray for the people of God as well as instruct them and therefore he sealeth up the word of Exhortation with a word of Benedection He had spoken written expostulated disputed reproved besought and what ever els was to be done in the way of Teaching but he knew there was yet something more to be done to make the work compleat lest els he should have run in vain either laboured in vain That therefore he might not give out in extremo actu nor having brought his building to some perfection then to let it stand at a stay and so decay and drop down for want of laying on the roof he turneth himself from them to God is instant with him another while as hitherto he had been with them in hope that some good effect might follow A course
to justifie themselves will not stick to repine even at God himself and his judgments as if he were cruel and they unrighteous like the slothful servant in the parable that did his master no service at all and yet as lazy as he was could blame his master for being an hard man Cain when he had slain his righteous brother and God had laid a judgment upon him for it complained of the burden of it as if the Lord had dealt hardly with him in laying more upon him then he was able to bear never considering the weight of the sin which God in justice could not bear Solomon noteth it as a fault common among men when by their own sinful folly they have pulled misery upon themselves then to murmur against God and complain of his providence The folly of a man perverteth his wayes and his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19. As the Israelites in their passage through the wilderness were ever and anon murmuring and complaining at somewhat or other either against God or which cometh much to one against Moses and Aaron and that upon every occasion and for every trifle so do we Every small disgrace injury affront or losse that happeneth to us from the frowardness of our betters the unkindness of our neighbours the undutifulness of our children the unfaithfulness of our servants the unsuccesfulness of our attempts or by any other means whatsoever any sorry thing will serve to put us quite out of patience as Ionas took pet at the withering of the gourd And as he was ready to justifie his impatience even to God himself Doest thou well to be angry Ionas Ey marry do I I do well to be angry even to the death so are we ready in all our murmurings against the Lords corrections to flatter our selves as if we did not complain without cause especially where we are able to charge those men that trouble us with unrighteous dealing 11. This is I confess a strong temptation to flesh and bloud and many of Gods holy servants have had much ado to overcome it whilest they looked a little too much outward But yet we have by the help of God a very present remedy there-against if blinde self-love will but suffer us to be so wise as to make use of it and that is no more but this to turn our eye inward and to examine our selves not how well we have dealt with other men who now requite us so ill but how we our selves have requited God who hath dealt so graciously and bountifully with us If we thus look back into our selves and sins we shall soon perceive that God is just even in those things wherein men are unjust and that we have most righteously deserved at his hands to suffer all those things which yet we have no ways deserved at their hands by whom we suffer It will well become us therefore whatsoever judgments God shall please at any time to lay upon us or to threaten us withall either publick or private either by his own immediate hand or by such instruments as he shall employ without all murmurings or disputings to submit to his good will and pleasure and to accept the punishment of our iniquitie as the phrase is Levit. 26. by humbling our selves and confessing that the Lord is righteous as Rehoboam and the Princes of Iudah did 2 Chron. 12. The sence of our own wickednesse in rebelling and the acknowledgment of Gods justice in punishing which are the very first acts of true humiliation and the first steps unto true repentance we shall find by the mercy of God to be of great efficacy not only for the averting of Gods judgments after they are come but also if used timely enough and throughly enough for the preventing thereof before they be come For if we would judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. But because we neglect it and yet it is a thing that must be done or we are undone God in great love and mercy towards us setteth in for our good and doth it himself rather then it should be left undone and we perish even as it there followeth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world And this is that faithfulnesse of God which David acknowledgeth in the later Conclusion whereunto I now pass 12. And that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused me to be troubled In which words we have these three points First David was troubled next God caused him to be so troubled last and God did so out of very faithfulness No great newes when we hear of David to hear of troubles withall Lord remember David and all his troubles Psal. 132. Consider him which way you will in his condition natural spiritual or civil that is either as a man or as a godly man or as a King and he had his portion of troubles in every of those conditions First troubles he must have as a man Haec est conditio nascendi Every mothers childe that cometh into the world falleth a childs-part of those troubles the world affordeth Man that is born of a woman those few dayes that he hath to live he shall be sure to have them full of trouble howsoever In mundo pressuram saith our Saviour In the world ye shall have tribulation Never think it can be otherwise so long as you live here below in the vale of misery where at every turn you shall meet with nothing but very vanity and vexation of spirit 13. Then he was a Godly man and his troubles were somewhat the more for that too For all that will live godly must suffer persecution and however it is with other men certainly many are the troubles of the righteous It is the common lot of the true children of God because they have many outflyings wherewith their holy Father is not well-pleased to come under the scourge oftner then the bastards do If they do amisse and amisse they do they must smart for it either here or hereafter Now God meaneth them no condemnation hereafter and therefore he giveth them the more chastening here 14. But was not David a King and would not that exempt him from troubles He was so indeed but I ween his troubles were neither the fewer nor the lesser for that There are sundry passages in this Psalm that induce me to believe with great probability that David made it while he lived a yong man in the Court of Saul long before his coming to the Crown But yet he was even then unctus in Regem anointed and designed for the Kingdom and he met even then with many troubles the more for that very respect And after he came to enjoy the Crown if God had not been the joy and crown of his heart he should have had little joy of it so full of trouble and
his conclusions he is easily carried away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As S. Augustine said of Donatus Rationes arripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a small thing rather then yield from their opinions quas considerantes verisimiles esse potiùs quà m veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance then substance of truth after they were well considered of And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judicious and unpartial eye most of those Pamphlets that in this daring age have been thrust into the World against the Ceremonies of the Church against Episcopal government to passe by things of lesser regard and usefulness and more open to exception and abuse yet so far as I can understand unjustly condemned as things utterly unlawful such as are lusorious lots dancing Stage-plays and some other things of like nature When he shall have drained out the bitter invectives unmannerly jeers petulant girding at those that are in authority impertinent digressions but above all those most bold and perverse wrestings of holy Scripture wherewith such books are infinitely stufft he shall finde that little poor remainder that is left behinde to contain nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain words and empty arguments For when these great undertakers have snatcht up the bucklers as if they would make it good against all comers that such and such things are utterly unlawful and therefore ought in all reason and conscience to bring such proofs as will come up to that conclusion Quid dignum tanto very seldom shall you hear from them any other arguments then such as will conclude but an Inexpediency at the most As that they are apt to give scandal that they carry with them an appearance of evil that they are often occasions of sin that they are not commanded in the Word and such like Which Objections even where they are just are not of force no not taken altogether much lesse any of them singly to prove a thing to be utterly unlawful And yet are they glad many times rather then sit out to play very small game and to make use of Arguments yet weaker then these and such as will not reach so far as to prove a bare inexpediency As that they were invented by Heathens that they have been abused in Popery and other such like Which to my understanding is a very strong presumption that they have taken a very weak cause in hand and such as is wholly destitute of sound proof For if they had any better arguments think ye we should not be sure to hear of them 27. Marvel not therefore if I charge them with Ignorance although in their writings some of them may shew much variety of reading and other pieces of learning and knowledge For if their knowledge were even much more then it is yet if it should not hold pace with their zeal but suffer that to out-run it there should be still in them that disproportion that before I spake of and they might so far forth be ranked with those silly women our Apostle speaketh of for such disproportion is very incident to the weaker sex that are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth And this kinde of Ignorance is evermore very troublesome and hath been the raiser of most of those stirs that so much disquiet either whole Churches or particular congregations as the lame Horse ever raiseth the most dust and the faster he putteth on still the more dust Have you observed any men to be fuller of molestation in the places where they live then those that have been somewhat towards the Law or having some little smattering therein think themselves for that a great deal wiser then the rest of their neighbours Although such busie spirits for the most part make it appear to the World before they have done that they had but just so much Law as would serve them to vex their neighbours withal in the mean time and undo themselves in the end Zeal is a kinde of fire An excellent creature Fire as it may be used but yet may do a great deal of mischief too as it may be used as we use to say of it that it is a good servant but an ill Master A right zeal grounded upon certain knowledge and guided with godly discretion like fire on the hearth is very comfortable and serviceable but blinde or undiscreet zeal like fire in the thatch will soon set all the house in a combustion 28. So much for Ignorance the first great Fountain of Errour the other is Partiality And this is causa causarum much of that ignorance and ill-governed zeal from which so many other errours spring doth it self spring from this corrupt Fountain of Partiality Which maketh the Errour so much the worse and the judgement so much the more unrighteous For where an Errour proceedeth meerly from weakness though it cannot be therefore excused much lesse ought to be therefore cherished yet may it be even therefore pitied horum simplicitas miserabilis and the rather born with for a time But if it shall once appear that partiality runneth along with it or especially that it proceedeth from partiality this renders it odious both to God and man S. Paul therefore well knowing what mischiefs would come of it if Church-governours in the administration of their weighty callings should be swayed with partial affections either for or against any layeth a great charge upon Timothy whom he had ordained Bishop of Ephesus and that with a most deep and solemn obtostation by all means to beware of Partiality I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality 1 Tim. 5. 29. And reason good there being scarce any thing more directly contrarious to the rules of Charity Equity and Iustice then Partiality is as might be easily shewen if we had time for it And yet as unjust unequal and uncharitable as it is the world aboundeth with it for all that Not to instance in the writing of histories handling of Controversies distribution of rewards and punishments and other particulars take but a general view of the ordinary passages of most mens lives either in the carriage of their own or in the censuring of other mens actions and you shall finde partiality to bear no little sway in most of the things that are done under the sun The truth is we are all partiall and shall be as long as we live here more or less For Partiality is the daughter of Pride and Hypocrisie both which are as universally spread and as deeply and inseparably rooted in our nature as any other corruptions whatsoever Pride ever maketh a man to look at himself and his own party
both And so taken that we may understand what it is we speak of the difference that is between lawfulness and expediency consisteth in this that lawfulness looketh but at the nature and quality of the thing in it self considered in the kinde and abstractedly both from the end and circumstances but expediency taketh in the end also and such other circumstances as attend particular actions 14. That expediency ever relateth to the end we may gather from the very notion of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek is as much as to confer or contribute something to bring in some help or furtherance towards the attainment of the desired end And Expedire in the Latin is properly to speed a business as the contrary thereof Impedire is to hinder it The word Expedition cometh thence and so doth this also of expediency That thing then may not unfitly be said to be expedient to any end that doth expedire give any furtherance or avail towards the attaining of that end and that on the contrary to be inexpedient that doth impedire cast in any let rub or impediment to hinder the same It must be a mans first care to propose to himself in all his actions some right end and then he is to judge of the expediency of the means by their serviceableness thereunto 15. It is no doubt lawful for a Christian being that God hath tied him to live out his time in the world therefore to propose to himself in sundry particular actions of this life worldly ends gain preferment reputation delight so as he desire nothing but what is meet for him and that his desires thereof be also moderate And he may consequently apply himself to such means as are expedient and conducing to those ends But those ends and means are but the Bye of a Christian not the Main He liveth in the World and so must and therefore also may use it But woe unto him if he have not far higher and nobler ends then these to which all his actions must refer and whereto all those worldly both means and ends must be subordinate And those are to seek the glory of God and the salvation of his own soul by discharging a good conscience and advancing the common good In the use therefore and choice of such things as are in themselves lawful as all indifferent things are we are to judge those means that may any way further us towards the attainment of any of those ends to be so far forth expedient and those that any way hinder the same to be so far forth inexpedient and by how much more or lesse they so either further or hinder to be by so much more or less either expedient or inexpedient 16. Besides the End the reason of Expediency dependeth also very much upon such other particular circumstances as do attend humane actions as times places persons measure manner and the rest By reason of the infinite variety and uncertainty whereof it is utterly impossible to give such general rules of Expediency as shall serve to all particular cases so that there is no remedy but the weighing of particular circumstances in particular actions must be left to the discretion and charity of particular men Wherein every man that desireth to walk conscionably must endeavour at all times and in all his actions to lay things together as well as he can and taking one thing with another according to that measure of wisdome and charity wherewith God hath endowed him to resolve ever to do that which seemeth to him most convenient to be done as things then stand Only let him be sure that still his eye and aim be upon the right end in the main and that then all things be ordered with reference thereunto 17. This discovery of the nature of Expediency what it is and what dependence it hath upon and relation unto the End and Circumstances of mens actions discovereth unto us withall sundry material differences between lawfulness and expediency and thence also the very true reason why in the exercise of our Christian liberty it should be needful for us to have regard as well to the Expediency as to the lawfulness of those things we are to do Some of those differences are First that as the natures of things are unchangable but their ends and circumstances various and variable so their lawfulness which is rooted in their nature is also constant and permanent and ever the same but their Expediency which hangeth upon so many turning hinges is ever and anon changing What is expedient to day may be inexpedient to morrow but once lawful and ever lawful Secondly that a thing may be at the same time expedient in one respect and inexpedient in another but no respects can make the same thing to be at once both lawful and unlawful Because respects cannot alter the natures of things from which their lawfulness or unlawfulness ariseth Thirdly that the lawfulness and unlawfulness of things consisteth in puncto indivisibili as they use to speak even as the nature and essence of every thing doth and so are not capable either of them of the degrees of more or less all lawful things being equally lawful and all unlawful things equally unlawful But there is a latitude of expediency and inexpediency they do both suscipere magis minus so as one thing may be more or less expedient then another and more or less inexpedient then another And that therefore fourthly is is a harder thing to judge rightly of the Expediency of things to be done then of their lawfulness For to judge whether a thing be lawful or no there need no more be done but to consider the nature of it in general and therein what conformity it hath with the principles of reason and the written word of God And universalia certioria a man of competent judgement and not fore-stalled with prejudice will not easily mistake in such generalities because they are neither many nor subject to much uncertainty But descendendo contingit errare the more we descend to particulars in the more danger are we of being mistaken therein because we have both far more things to consider of and those also far more uncertain then before And it may fall out and not seldome doth that when we have laid things together in the ballance weighing one circumstance with another as carefully as we could and thereupon have resolved to do this or that as in our judgment the most expedient for that time some circumstance or other may come into our minds afterwards which we did not fore-think or some casual intervening accident may happen which we could not foresee that may turn the scales quite the other way and render the thing which seemed expedient but now now altogether inexpedient 18. From these and other like differences we may gather the true reason why the Apostle so much and so often presseth the point of Expediency as meet to be
not how to help it for he could require no more of the debtors then was upon the foot of their Bills could not yet but commend the mans wit howsoever And the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely in the former part of this verse 2. Having thus framed the body of the parable our Saviour now giveth it a soul in this latter part of the verse breatheth into it the breath of life by applying it Application is the life of a Parable The commending of the stewards wisdom was with the purpose to recommend the example to us that we might from it learn to provide against the time to come as he did and that also by such like means as he did So that the Application hath two parts The one more general respecting the End that as he was careful to provide maintenance for the preservation of his natural life so we should be careful to make provision for our souls that we may attain to everlasting life The other more special respecting the Means that as he provided for himself out of his Masters goods by disposing the same into other hands and upon several persons so we should lay up for our selves a good foundation towards the attainment of everlasting life out of the unrighteous Mammon wherewith God hath intrusted us by being rich in good works communicating and distributing some of that in our hands towards the necessities of others Of the temporals we here enjoy we are not to account our selves proprietaries but stewards and such as must be accountable It should be our wisdom therefore as it will be our happinesse to dispose them into other hands by almes-deeds and other charitable works and so to improve these temporals which we cannot properly call our own to our own spiritual and eternal advantage That later and more special application is in the next verse Make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon c. The words proposed contain the more general application our business at this time delivered here by way of comparison a way more effectual ordinarily to provoke endeavour then bare exhortations are For the children of this world are in their generation wiser then the children of light 3. In which comparison there are observable first and secondly as the terms of the comparison two sorts of persons distinguished either from other by their several appellations and compared the one with the other in the point of wisdom The children of this world on the one part and the children of light on the other between these the question is whether sort is wiser Thirdly the sentence or judgement given upon the question clearly on behalf of the former sort they are pronounced the wiser The children of this world wiser then the children of light Lastly the limitation of the sentence how far forth it is to be understood They wiser true but then you must take it right wiser in their generation not simply and absolutely wiser Of which in order 4. The persons are children of this world and children of light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both sons or children That is terminus convenientiae as opposites have alwaies something wherein they agree Men of some special countrey profession quality or condition are by an usual Hebraism in the Scriptures expressed by this word children with some addition thereunto as children of Edom children of the Prophets children of death From the Hebrews other languages have by derivation entertained the same Pleonasm as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so frequent in Homer filii medicorum and the like In the Scriptures it is very usual both in the good part and in the bad In the good part you have children of Abraham children of wisdom children of God in the evil part children of Belial children of disobedience children of hell Here are both Children of the World and Children of Light 5. For the World first the Greeks have two words for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one importing more properly the frame of the creatures the other some space or duration of time rather That propriety is not alwayes observed by writers yet here it is for the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath respect unto Time Next whereas it is said this World that implyeth there is another set oppositely against this distinguished Luke 20. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this world and that world otherwhere by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world that now is and the world to come Again this world so taken to wit as it standeth distinguished from that world or the world to come is yet capable to be understood in a double notion For it may be taken either in a more general sence with respect to the common affairs of this life without difference of good or bad as it is taken in that place of Luke now mentioned The children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they that shall be counted worthy of that world c. The children of this world that is men that live here on earth whilest here they live and the children of that world they that hereafter shall live for ever in heaven Or it may be taken in a narrower and more restrained sense as the world is opposed and contra-distinguished to the Church And the opposition of the children of this world to the children of light sheweth it must be so taken here in effect as if he said the children of darkness Those then are the children of this world here meant who as subjects serve under the Prince of darkness the God of this world live in the works of darkness the employment of this world and when they dye unless God in special mercy deal otherwise with them and that will not be done but upon the condition supposed that of their repentance shall be cast into outer darknesse at the end of the world 6. And this title we may conceive to belong unto them in a threefold respect in as much as 1. their affections are bent upon this world 2. their conversations are conformed to this world and 3. their portion is allotted them in this world First children of this world for that their affections are wholly set upon the world The godly are in this world tanquam in alieno as strangers and pilgrims in a forraign yea in the enemies countrey and they look upon the world and are looked upon by it as strangers and are used by it accordingly If they were of the world the world would own them and love them as her own party and they would also love the world again as their own home But because they are not of the world though they be in it but are denizons of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. therefore the world hateth them and
they on the other side are weary of the world and long after heaven their own countrey where their treasure is laid up and where their hearts and affections also are Like an English factor in Turky that hath some dealings there if not rather like an English captive that is held prisoner there but still professeth himself a subject of England and his heart and desires are there But the Children spoken of here in the Text are in the world tanquam in proprio as in their own country at their own homes where if they might they would willingly set up their rest for ever As Socrates being asked what Country-man he was answered that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Citizen of the world so but in another and a worse sence are they No marvel then if they doate so much upon the world as bad as it is and settle their hearts and affections so intirely thereupon saying as S. Peter did when he said he knew not what bonum est esse hic It is good being here Their soules cleave to the world and it is death to them to part from it 7. And as for their Affections so secondly children of this world in respect of their Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle fashion not your self after this present world The godly being changed in the renewing of their minds do not fashion themselves according to this present evil world But as at their baptism they renounced the world with all the pomps lusts and vanities of it so they take themselves bound in the whole course of their lives to be as unlike the evil world as they can by walking in all holiness and purity of conversation So long as they continue in this vale of misery and live here in the world they must have to doe in the world and the world will have to doe with them and daily occasions they shall have for the necessities of this life to use the things of this world But then they are careful so to use them as neither to abuse themselves nor them Going through the vale of misery they use it for a well drawing out thence a little water as occasions require for their needful refreshing but they will take care withall to drain it well from the mud to keep themselves so far as is possible unspotted with the world and to escape the manifold pollutions and defilements that are in the world through lust But the children here spoken of immerse and ingulfe themselves in the affairs of this world with all greediness walking as the Apostle expresseth it Eph. 2. after the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the aire in the lusts of the flesh doing the will of the flesh and of the minde There is a combination you see of our three great Spiritual Enemies The Devil the Flesh and the World against us and these three agree in one to undoe us and to destroy us Now he that yieldeth to the temptations of the Devil or maketh provision for the Flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof or suffereth himself to be carried with the sway of the world to shape his course thereafter preferring his own will before the known will of God is a childe of this world in respect of his conversation 8. Thirdly the children of this world are so called in regard their Portion is in this world The children of light content themselves with any small pittance which it pleaseth their heavenly father to allow them here being assured they shall be provided for with so much as shall be sufficient for them to maintain them during this their minority with a kinde of subsistence But the main of their portion their full childs-part their rich and precious inheritance they expect not in this world They well know it is laid up for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness and that in a safe place reserved in the heavens and that in safe hands kept by the power of God till they be growen up to it As Ioseph gave his brethren provision for their journey but the full sacks were tied up not to be opened till they were gotten home Indeed rather God himself is their portion both here in part and hereafter in full But the children we now speak of if there be any natural or moral goodnesse or usefulnesse in them by the superabundant bountifulness of a gracious God in any respect or degree rewardable habent mercedem They have all they are like to have in hand there is nothing for them neither for the most part do they expect any thing in reversion Which have their portion in this life saith David Psalm 17. If they have done him any small piece of service though unwittingly they shall have their wages for it paid them to the uttermost as Nebuchadnezzar had Egypt assigned him as his wages for the service he did against Tyrus If they be but bastard-sons they shall yet have their portions set out for them far beyond what they can either challenge as of right or pretend to as by desert But yet in this world onely The heavenly inheritance in the world to come which is to descend unto the right heir when he cometh to age is preserved for the legitimate children only such as are become the sons of God by faith in Christ Iesus As Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his Concubines and sent them away and so we hear no more of them nor of any thing their father did for them afterwards but Isaac in fine carried the inheritance though he had not so much as the other had in present 9. Those are the children of this world but the children of light who are they I should enter in a very spacious field if I should undertake to declare the sundry significations of the word Light as it is metaphorically used in the Scriptures or pursue the resemblances between the metaphorical and spiritual light and the natural To our purpose briefly Light is either spoken of God or of the things of God First God himself is light a most pure clear and simple light without the least allay or mixture of darkness God is light and in him is no darkness saith S. Iohn The Father of lights without so much as the least shadow of turning saith S. Iames. And if God be rightly styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the father of lights it cannot be unpropâ—r that his children be styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of light 10. Next the Word of God that is a light too Thy word is a light unto my feet Psal. 119. So called from the effect because when it goeth forth it giveth light and understanding to the simple The Law which is but a darker part of that word enlighteneth yet the eyes Psal. 19. Lex lux The