THE Burning Light. A SERMON PREACHED at a Visitation in Christ's Church, London. LONDON, Printed by Thomas Cotes for Daniel Frere. 1640. A SERMON PREACHED AT THE VISITATION IN Christchurch, LONDON. SERM. 3 John 5. 35. He was a burning and a shining Light, and ye were willing to rejoice in his Light for a season. THey say of the Nightingale, Introductio. 1. Apologia. that when she is solitary in the Woods, she is careless of her note; but composes herself more quaintly and elegantly, if she conceives there be any Auditors, or if she be near houses: she can chirp it in a corner and chant it in a choir more delicately. Though I had thought to have accommodated myself, in some respect to the Auditory (for I know there is a great difference to which due respect may be had; Modus orationis est auditor) Yet as the Martyr said, I shall cozen many this day, meaning the worms, whom (saith he) I shall deceive of this fat carcase (which they would have made a feast on) it being likely to be offered in Sacrifice to God with fire. If there be any here that bring a worm of Curiosity in their ear, expecting quaint and elegant strains, I shall deceive them, I make no provision for them; I must confess as Nazianzen said of himself, he never affected in his life the glory or pomp of the world, or riches and great estate; but (saith he) learning and eloquence I must confess I have affected, but I set no other price upon that, but only this, that I have something of worth to esteem as nothing for Christ, I have laid all these low at the feet of Christ to advance his kingdom, though in a plain and homely manner. I list not to speak in a vie; as the two Artificers who contended for the mastery in their Art and faculty; the first drawing Grapes so lively that he cozened the birds; the other a veil so exquisitely that he cozened the Artificer himself. But if I may have so much Eloquence and learning, as to draw the attentions of the godly, I shall not be solicitous nor ambitious, to attain to such a pitch, as to exceed the expectation of the learned. So much by way of apology. To come towards of the Text, 2. Technologia capitis. not to stay in the entrance; but to give a little touch of the coherence of the Chapter. The whole Chapter consists of an historical narration, 1. Historica. and an apologetical Sermon of our Saviours. 2. Apologetica. There is a Narration of a glorious miracle done on a poor Cripple 38. years lame; and our Saviour is fain to make an apology for this gracious work of his; and so in the latter part of the Chapter, he justifies his authority and power, by which he took upon him that Office in the execution of which he did this Miracle. This speech of our Saviour his Sermon, is partly Didascalicall doctrinal, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: , partly Elenchticall reproving their fault and their sin? In the doctrinal part you have a plain and vehement assertion of his power and authority in the 19 verse and so following, 1. Assertio Potestatis. where he affirms a greater power than yet they have seen him exercise. Secondly we have a Confirmation from two sorts of Testimonies. First of John, John bare witness of me, from 31. verse, of which the words of the Text are a part: and partly of his works, his works bear a greater, and more clear Testimony and evidence, Iohannis. Operum. The works I do they bear witness of me. And secondly a Testimony more remote, yet more pregnant, 2. Remolo potenti. Patris. Scripturae. the The Testimony of his Father; The Father he beareth witness of me: the 37. and 38. v. and the testimony of Scripture, in the 39 v. Search the Scriptures for they bear witness of me too: 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. All these evidences and seals he brings to justify his Commission: and therefore in the latter part he falls to Reprehension, 1. Culphr. 2 Causa triplex. he reprehends their fault, pointing at the Cause, 1. Malignitas. likewise the fault was, they did not believe to eternal life: the causes, partly because they wanted the love of God, they had a kind of malignity against his heavenly Father, and being leavened with an ill humour, and ill disposition towards him; they did not receive nor entertain him; 2. Superbia. and partly by reason of their pride and self-seeking, in the 42 vers. You seek the glory of men, and can you believe then; you seek glory one from another: and ambition stopped their cares, closed up and hedged up the way from giving entertainment to Christ. 3. Infidelitas. And lastly the root and ground of all, was Infidelity, You believe not Moses and the Prophets, and therefore no wonder you believe not me, and my works: If you believed them, 2. Tractatio. they would give witness of me, as in the close of the Chapter. These words contain a Noble elegy which our Saviour doth most candidly give to John, He was a burning and a shining light, &c. I purpose briefly to run through the words, there be many things will offer themselves, but I will not insist nor pitch upon any in particular, but take the generality, and so draw to an Application. There be two main things observable in the words. First, 1. Ministri. the Office of the ministry (for I will take it rather in the generality, than fall into any thing personally on John) And secondly the entertainment which they must look for. The Office of the Ministry, represents both their Qualities, how they must be qualified: 1. Qualitas. and their Dignity, how they are to be dignified; all in the same words a little varied in their consideration. The Qualities and Endowments which a minister ought to have, are represented here in this Picture of John; wherein our Saviour describes the Character of a Minister. Like as it is in the heavenly bodies, There be three things, Light, and heat, and Influence; We have proportionable here, three Endowments of the Ministers. 1. They must have the Light of Knowledge. 2. They must have the heat of zeal. 3. They must have the Influence of virtue both in life and Doctrine. They must be Lights. They must be burning Lights. First, They must be endued with Knowledge, 2 Lux scientiae eruditio. and understanding, furnished with Abilities for the discharge of that Office; their Office being to guide and to lead men in their way, in their path. The light that furnishes, 1. Modus. 1. Pulchritudo, Savitas. and endues them for that knowledge, which for the manner of it (for I do but touch things) requires First that there be a beauty and soundness of the light, that there be orthodox knowledge, not tainted, and leavened with corruption in Doctrine. And there must be a plenitude and sufficiency of knowledge, 2 Plenitudo, Sufficientia. that it euqnires too, enough to enlighten themselves, and to enable and enlighten others, and to guide and direct others. And for the degrees of that sufficiency, 2. Gradus. 1. Proportionatus. it must be proportionable to the excellency of their Office, to the propriety of their place; Proportionable likewise to the rice and growth of time. 1. Muneri. Iter caeeos Rex luscus est. Amongst blind men, 2. Tempori. he that is purblind is a King, he may serve for a guide; But where the light is grown to a higher improvement and generality, there must be a proportionable improvement, a proportionable degree of sufficiency is required in the Minister: the lesser light will serve to rule the night, the greater light God hath made to rule the day. In the night of ignorance a little spark may shine, a little Candle, a little star may do some service, but there must be a sun, in the sunshine of the gospel, when all men are grown to ripeness, and maturity of Knowledge, Ministers must still keep their distance. Secondly as it is proportionable so it is very variable, 2. Variegatus. a man cannot set one Homer to be a standard and measure of all men, that all must needs attain the same pitch and perfection: There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another glory of the stars; although they be all heavenly and glorious lights, yet they have different degrees and measures, so it is with Ministers; All stars are not of the primae magnitudinis, there be divers Magnitudes of stars; and there may be in the Ministers divers degrees of glory, and all in the compass of that sufficiency, that may be proportionable to their Office, and the time and place wherein they are employed, so they keep within those bounds, wherein that Latitude, there may be a great deal of difference, there must not be such a strictness and rigour here to stretch men as Procrustes the thief did, all he took he stretched upon his bed, if they were too long, he cut them shorter, and if they were too short, he put them upon the racks and drew them to his own stature and measure: but there may be a fair, and a decent, and severe stretching according to Paul's Canon, as the Father speaks. That all Ministers should be able to Teach and to Instruct, and to Convince errors, to be stretched according to Paul's Canon, is no tyranny. In the second place, 2. Calor Zeli. light of Knowledge, and sufficiency is not sufficient to qualify a Minister enough, that light must be animated with the heat of zeal. The philosopher's dispute (and if I mistake not, I rather think they be in an error) and conceive that those celestial bodies, the sun and the moon, are not Actu Calidi only they have a virtue, and by way of eminency as it were, they do produce heat below, and are not hot themselves. I rather think that to contain any thing by way of Eminency, is a property of God, God contains all things Eminenter: these faculties which he hath not actually, habitually, and subjectively in himself as faculties, yet he contains them eminently, as being able to produce all; but no creature can produce any thing but by some virtue put into it, which is enabled: but these lights, howsoever these heavenly lights must be Actu Calidi, they must have a heat in themselves, viz. heat of zeal: let it be the stile of the False Church to be Filii Carbonis, sons of the coal, as Job calls the sparkles, so hot, as they be all for burning, all for Inquisitions, and blood and martyrdom; let it be the Commendation of the true Church, and true profession, that they be Filij Lucis, Children of Light, rather inlightners than consumers, by way of burning: though that spirit you know suits not the state of the gospel, that calls for fire from heaven: though there be difference between calling for fire from heaven, and fetching fire from hell to consume States and parliaments. There is a difference between being touched with a coal from the Altar, and being kindled with a match from the vault to set on fire. There must be a heat, but a regular and true heat,; 1. Pro. A heat of zeal carried with Pro and Con, as the form and difference, as they also call, is both Constitutive and Divisive, or Distinctive. So than they that are informed (or inflamed rather) with this heavenly heat have a double property, 1. Gloria Dei. positive and oppositive. A zeal for God's glory, not for a man's own ends: a zeal for the Salvation of the people, 2. Salute hominum. to have a tender, and compassionate affection to their souls: and not to ascend this hill, this Pulpit without such a Meditation as Zerxes had, who when he beheld his Army from an hill, wept that so many should die within the compass of so few years? So they must have a tender thought that any poor soul should perish that's under their view, under their Charge: and as for these there must be a zeal Positive, 2. Contr. so a zeal against all error and Corruption in Doctrine. 1. Errors. It is the Commendation of a Christians heart, to be impatient in the point of heresy: 2. Mores. and a zeal against Corrupt manners: not to be able ostrich-like to digest Iron, to digest oaths, to digest all filthiness and profaneness, but to have the spirit burn within them as Paul's was at Athens, against all sin, and against all superstition, and Idolatry. And yet this is not all, as there must be Light of Knowledge, 3. Influentia virtutis. and heat of zeal to animate and quicken, so these two must have an Influence of virtue: The world, the vulgar know no great matter of use, that the stars and these glorious lights have, and therefore will hardly be induced to believe that they are of that Magnitude that Philosophers and mathematics teach, divers of them to be as big or bigger than the whole Earth, they think that such great bodies should be made only for show, for that's all the use they can see of them, to beautify and bespangle the firmament, to be an ornament to the world and to give light, but it is not credible there should be so mean a use of such great and glorious bodies; for besides that, they have an Influence on the earth, those stars of light, the flowers that we see here below, are begotten by those flowers of lights, the stars which are above in the Firmament, they are the means and the Instruments for the helping forward of the generation, and production of all these lower things here, by having an Influence on them. And so the heavenly lights (as we are now speaking of) The Ministers, their Light of Knowledge, and their heat of zeal, must have an Influence upon the people that be committed too them, both in Integrity of life, and Diligence of Doctrine and Instruction; 1. Assiduitate Doctrinae. they must be Trees of Knowledge, and Trees of Life to in God's garden, to build up to both, and with both. Our Saviour that was the highest in his own Church, in his own house, made that the highest of his Offices, to employ himself diligently in his father's work. We read of nothing, nor hear of nothing, but Preaching and doing good, nothing but of his Influence continually. And Paul (as the Father speaks) like some winged Triptolemus that went about in his Chariot to teach men the Art of sowing corn throughout the world; he went about spreading, and sowing, and planting the gospel everywhere he came, with infinite diligence, and pains: there must be holiness and integrity of Life added to it. (I will not enlarge myself in an Argument so common, 2. Integritate vitae. and which would afford so many and so full discourses, of wit and illustration as all know) Ministers must not be like the drug that the physician says (or at least the world takes it so ordinarily) is hot in the mouth, and cold in the operation; hot in the Pulpit, and zealous there, and frequent there, but careless and unconscionable in their lives: Origen coming to Jerusalem, and being desired to Preach; after he had denied the truth, and his ungodly offering Sacrifice to an idol; (though he was constrained, and constrained on hard terms) the book happens to open upon that place of the Psalmist, What hast thou to do to take my word into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest to be reformed? The remembrance of his own fault reflected upon his Conscience, and made him close the book, and sit down and weep: so these that are not content to join holiness of life, to their diligence of Preaching, the best way for them is to repent of their Preaching; and so to Preach Repentance to the people. But to come to the second; besides the Qualities of the Minister in these three properties expressed. There is the dignity of a Minister, secretly coutched, and the true degrees and distances of that dignity: A Minister is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, 2. Dignitas. 1. Gradus sub Deo. a Light, but an inferior light. Not the sun, the Fons caloris, the fountain of life and heat, the Minister must know his distances, he is but under God, Viri radiis chorus can●● mulier●s: as the lawyer saith, the Minister shines as the moon, with borrowed beams from the sun; all his light is kindled at God's fire, it is derived from him. Secondly, 2. Ort●● a Deo. there is an inferior light, but yet set up by God {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, kindled and tinded by God, God sets it up. It is his Ordinance, his Institution, and his hand holds these Lights. And in the last place he is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, 3. Actus ad Deum. a Light burning and kindled by God, and a shining light. This is the same, the Aspect of all the ministerial dignities: as they are under God and from God, so they are guides to God, shining and leading us in the way to happiness and eternity, this is the dignity of the ministry. There is another thing which I will run over briefly, 2. Hospitium in mundo apud. besides the office: The Hospituim, the entertainment of the ministry in the world. If we look upon the people we have that expressly set down, 1. Populum. besides the degrees of extremity which are past over and omitted here, sometimes they meet with better entertainment than our Saviour expresses here, 1. Meliusculè. 2. Duriusculè. so that their Doctrine is embraced faithfully, and men bring forth fruit with patience, having not only a flashing Joy in the light of it, but fruitfulness with patience; so sometimes they meet with better entertainment, and sometimes they meet with worse entertainment, men do not always gather about the light, and dance about it, as boys about the bonfire, making glee, and being jolly at it, glad of it; but go about to quench the light, to extinguish it, to persecute it, and to labour to oppress and overwhelm it; sometimes they meet with such. But these extremities are not here expressed in the Text. A middle kind of entertainment is here noted, 2. Mediocre propositum. I will instance but in three particulars, which comprise all that is here expressed with an intimation of defence. First of all, 1. Actu. the first thing is in the Act of that entertainment given, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: It signifies in the original, as it were to dance a Galliard, you are willing to dance a Galliard, as I observed in the emblem before which notes some defect, some external and formal Joy, and jollity rather. As learned Calvin doth sweetly express it, Externè potius from the place; As servants that have a Candle allowed them by their Master, to work by at night; they spend the Candle not in doing their Master's work, but in dancing about it, and making good cheer, and revelling and sporting, and so wear and tear out the light that way; Quam Juteru. rather I say such a jolly rejoicing at the light, a vain sinful thing, than any inward solid sincere joy seems to be noted. Secondly, 2, Ortu. I do observe the rice of this joyful entertainment, in which also there may seem something defective, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, In his light you rejoiced: Many rejoiced in the light, Luce potius q0uam calore. in an innocent and harmless light, that will not bite, that hath no teeth, that cannot burn, that is plausible, men rejoice in it. But it was his light that they rejoiced in rather than his heat, yea John's light rather than Christ's: Iohannis quam Christi. so a man may reverence such a man's strain, rather than the Word of God, to receive it as the Word of God; whereas they should pass by, and overlook men, and submit to it, yield to it as the Word of God, 2. Exitio. man being but the Instrument. In the last place do but mark the issue, or the degree of duration, and stability in this joyful entertainment, and there is something defective likewise there {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. It was but a fit, and unsettled, unconstant, ungrounded joy: Fast and loose, backward and forward, as men do at dancing, one step forward and two backward: as the grasshopper, that jumps, and falls again to the ground, leaps a little up, and then dies and goes out again, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, for an hour. Many men are content for an hour to bestow it, Horam non ultra but if the hour be out, if the glass be out, than they be quickly a weary of John: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies the season and the flower of a thing. Florem non facem. Many Ministers have their prime, and have their flowers, and many are willing to flock about him, till they have got a little taste of their gifts, for curiosity and novelty; to know what's in him: And then the prime is quickly gone; nothing fades sooner than a Ministers reputation, and respect in his case, it is too frequent in the world. As they say of another thing, of inferior nature, gold in the morning, and silver at noon, and lead at night: men decline and fall, much a do, much exalting and much joy about the light, when it is first set up, but it quickly wears itself out, men be quickly tired like horses, that be mettled at first, but at length grow tired and give out. The last branch of the Text, which is not directly in the words, 2. Hospitium apud Christum. yet couched in them too, besides the entertainment, Ministers are like to find in the world with the people; here is an express intimation what acceptance they shall find with Christ. Christ gives a Noble and royal Testimony of John. Now if you will consider Christ in a threefold relation, and threefold respect, it may suggest good Items, and occasious to us, (I will but touch things.) 1. Christ in some respect is a Fellow servant with his Ministers, 1. Consorium. a joint Commissioner, he the Minister of the New Testament, though he be the Prince: And he had no envy at the flourishing of John, at the flocking about his light, but envy was banished: And he gives a liberal and a candied testimony, he was a burning and a shining light. Will you know Christ's Testimony of him, he will not take him down and make him lower, to raise on his body a greater reputation, to raise a greatness on the ruins of others, but gives him an honourable Testimony. He was a burning and a shining Light. Take him more than an ordinary Minister, 2. Praelatum. he was likewise the Prince of Pastors, The Archbishop of our souls: the great shepherd that had power, directive and corrective, and the Censurer of the Ministers. John came under his censure and jurisdiction, but he doth not bite and snib, and curb and trample upon John; but gives him fair Quarter and fair respect, a due Testimony, He was a burning and a shining light. Consider him as the Lord, 3. Dominum. the supreme Lord and judge of all, though the world doth not acknowledge them, nor those that should have jurisdiction do not acknowledge them, yet Christ will acknowledge and own his faithful Ministers and Servants at that great Day, we shall be sure to have him keep to his word: as he doth freely here, so he will freely there, he will give an Absolution and discharge; He was a burning and a shining light. I have run over many things and shall now desire to come to some application of the point, I will only fasten upon a few. First the consideration of this what Ministers are and aught to be; Applicatio. and what entertainment they may look for with Christ, and in the World May serve for Instruction; 1 Instructio. we may learn what is the glorious state of the Church when it is in the prime and highest pitch of beauty. 1. Ecclesiae gloria. Not when it is adorned with Purple and Scarlet, and jewels and Gold: as the woman in the 17. Revel. That's an Argument of a true spouse of Christ, of a beautiful and glorious Church, these outward earthly ornaments. As he said of a Painter that made the Picture of a woman, he aimed to have made her beautiful, but not reaching that, he made her gaudy, he daubed her with laces, and with rich apparel. Non potuit pulchram, pinxit divitem. The whorish Church could not attain to the pure beauty of the Spouse Christ: and therefore they have daubed it over in Gallantry and bravery. But will you have the Church represented in her beauty, you have it in Revel. 12. There is the true Spouse of Christ with no earthly Ornaments about her indeed, but all heavenly a crown of 12. stars on her head, the Doctrine of the 12. Apostles; clothed with the sun; the sun of Christ's righteousness, the doctrine of justification by faith, as some have interpreted it, and the moon, all these mutable and earthly things under her feet; it is her crown to have them her footstool; when the Church is beautified with burning and shining lights, that's the greatest glory and beauty of the Church. And concerning the Ministers we understand here the nobleness, 2. Ministri. and necessity of the Ministry. 1. Nobilitas. Herod promised Herodias (on her dancing) John Baptists head, and would not refuse (for he had bound it with an oath) for his oaths sake, though he was sorry for it afterwards: but as the Father notes he need not to have held his bargain, for he promised but half his kingdom; but John Baptists head was more worth, a faithful Minister is worth a kingdom: Satius Solem non lucere quam Chrysostomum non docere: as they said sometimes at Constantinople, better the sun should be taken out of the firmament, than Chrysostom our worthy and faithful Minister should be taken out of the Pulpit, better to lose the Lights of heaven, than these lights that guide to heaven: there is a great deal of nobleness and excellency in them, they be heavenly Lights. The saying is, if God should take a shape to represent himself visibly to men, the outward part of it, as it were the Garment, should be light animated and quickened with truth for our souls. They that have the light of divine Knowledge, in the purity of Divine Truth, these Messengers and Ambassadors, Types and representations of God, they have a great deal of glory in them, 2. Necescilas'. And there is a great necessity of it, for Ministers, burning and shining Lights are as Necessary as lights in a dark place, in a dark room, upon which the soul and the safety, the walk and the journey, and the good issue of all Christians doth depend; as he makes the sum of his story, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. The lamps went out, and Leander was drowned: for want of provision the people perish. We may note here the condition of the world, the malignity of it, 2. Mundi. the true rice of this malignity. What's the reason that men rise up in arms against the Ministers of God's Word, 1. Malignitus unde. as it is too frequent, they are Lights, and these love the works of darkness: the thief cares not to come at the light: they say when Hercules drew up Cerberus from hell, he led him in a chain, and he went quietly till he came to the Horizon, and saw the peeping of the light; but than he pulled so strongly that he had like to have pulled the conqueror and all back again. Cerberous his hellish brood cannot endure heavenly light; they stumble at that light it is offensive: though the sweetest and gratefullest thing in the world, to the eyes that be sound and whole, yet to the eyes that be not sound, light is troublesome; or if a man have a mind to sleep on securely in courses of darkness and sin, light is offensive, and that's the Reason of this malignity. The world hath thought (though experience hath confuted it) that the Torrid Zone is uninhabitable, it is so hot that there is no inhabitation there. Men think a burning light is too hot, it is not habitable, not able to be dwelled in and endured, the burning is so offensive: and therefore as they that dwell under the line (they say) curse the rising of the sun, they are glad when it sets and rids them of their burning, and when it rises fall a cursing, fretting, and chasing; men are angry at the light▪ when it begins to scorch and burn, to come near and close to sin, when it meets with their corruptions; the true Reason why there is such a repugnancy is we see it in the light, and we feel it in the heat. And would you see their foul deformity, what they do that oppose the Light, what a foul sin it is: It is as if they should go about to deprive us of the light of the sun, 2. Caecitas & Deformitas quarta. that we may live in perpetual darkness, and what would we think of such persons: None but such as are kin to darkness can count the light grievous, be weary of light, and complain of too much light: not to endure burning and shining lights, it is an Argument they be very near a kin to darkness that hate it so: the light must needs be gracious and acceptable to the children of the light only: they were wont to Father it on the Christians, that in their meetings they meet by night; as they were fain to do in persecution, and so used Candles: at last towards the close of all, they put out the Candles and fell to promiscuous mixtures, and commixtures: No it concerns them that be Children of darkness to put out the light, then Crescite & multiplicamini, then they breed and multiply in the dark, but the Children of God multiply and grow in the light, and increase and flourish there. Secondly, Commiseratio. this may serve for gratulation, (for the other branch of it for commiseration to stir up a tender compassion towards those many people in the world, under heathenism or Superstition and Popery, or Mahometanism, or against ourselves that have not these burning and shining lights I shall pass by) and for reproof and reprehension, I will not take so much upon me to meddle with reproving of such as are not lights. I know the snuffers of the Temple should be of pure gold. I am not of mettle good enough to take on me to do that. But I hope you will all join with me in gratulation, Gratulatio. to bless and magnify God that he hath raised up, and kindled and set up amongst us, so many bright and so many shining lights, though not in every point of heaven (as it is not in the clearest night when the most stars appear, every point hath not a star in it) but in every quarter there be stars. Though every candlestick, every place hath not such a burning and shining light, yet so many burning and shining lights are in every quarter of the kingdom as the world affords not the like. 2. Exhortatio. In the last place this may serve for exhortation (I know not how I may encroach upon the occasion, and therefore I do but touch things briefly) First to the people, 1. Populumtales honorant▪ are Ministers burning and shining lights, then honour the Ministers, give them double honour; it is worth the while to afford maintenance to them: he that makes use of the light to work by it, 2 Alant. it is hard if he cannot get so much by his work, as will pay for his light. And especially honour them in walking according to the light, and according to their direction, 2. Audiunt●. and in yielding and submitting to them when they come in God's name, and convey God's light to convince us. When God's heat warms us let us not resist and oppose but submit: as a Father speaks of fire and light, the light is most sweet and gracious, but the burning most terrible; so if we misuse the gospel, and misuse the light, only to play with the light and please ourselves with light, and will not be set on fire, will not be inflamed, it will scorch in the end, it will bring burning, judgements, and calamities, to contemn and trample upon God's Word and Ministers. In the second place Magistrates and those in Authority, 2. Ad Magistratum tales. are Ministers burning and shining Lights; 1. Tueantur Intueantur. then those that are such it becomes Magistrates very well to advance, to protect; to set a burning and shining light upon a Golden candlestick, and to make a Castle, a Castle at least of horn-work, to defend and protect them, that these lights may be according to that in the story; the lamp that never went out: that they may not easily be puffed or blown out, by those that do malign and oppose them; and those that have power in this kind of jurisdiction, influence and oversight, should remember they may be snuffers to make the light burn more clear; they must not be extinguishers to extinguish and to quench the light, they themselves should be lights, lamps; take heed, take order that such persons be not damps to put out the light. The fly whether busily or enviously, clings about the light, but sings his own wings with it, and they that think to extinguish the light will but burn their own wings. And to add one word to the particular occasion, that which Parisiensis said sometimes concerning excommunicating of men for trifles, it is (saith he) as if a man should see a fly or flea on a man's forehead, and for that should presently take a beetle and knock him in the head to kill the fly: It must not be for toys and trifles; and so likewise not for every small failing and exorbitancy or defect in the light, presently to extinguish and put out the light, but rather to recover and to help it. And for such as are not such, 2. Non tales amoveant. not burning and shining lights. The Canon law, as it is reported out of that and it is very pertinent to make this order and constitution (according to the Popish fashion) if the host be consumed (say they) in a night's visitation, the Priest shall be bound to put out the Candle, lest the people should worship an empty Pix so if there be any that have consumed integrity, and holiness of life, if the host be gone, it is fit that the Candle should be put out, that men do not worship an empty cask, which hath no worth answerable. In the last place (I see I must of necessity be forced to contract things, but I had rather break off abruptly, than encroach too much on the time, 3. Ad Clerum. and other occasions) the last concerns the Ministers and the clergy: I should have prescribed something both concerning their duty; 1. Officia. a little to have pressed home the things that are contained in the application of their duty: 1. Splendour vitae. For holiness of life for diligence of Doctrine: to be painful and industrious in Preaching, joined with a holy life, 2. Fulgor Doctrinae. for otherwise, as it is said of a ghost, a lean meager ghost, with a Torch in the hand, it makes it look more ghastly; so to have a Minister that hath light in his Doctrine, and yet an ugly and filthy life, there is not a more gast and ugly sight in the world: and for another thing too: 3. Candor Animi. to have commended that candidness, and that ingenuity of brethren towards their brethren, which we see our Saviour affords to John, that not to backbite, or detract, or draw down the price and excellency of our fellow Ministers, suppose they do as they may outstrip us, but candidly an ingenuously to give them their due; He is a burning and a shining light, and to agree unanimously, and lovingly, and Christianly; there is nothing of more consequence, nor more use than for Ministers to cohere, and so to stregthen and fortify themselves. The scales of the Leviathan (as Luther makes the comparison) stick close together, wickedmen in their projects and their designs, stick close like the scales of the Leviathan, representing the devil as most interpreters express it. And the stones of the Temple (they say) were so close, so simented together, as if there were but one stone, there was no pieecing appeared or was seen by any, though they looked narrowly. The stones of the Temple, they that would help to build up God's Temple, should stand close together, and remove bones of contentions, and difference, and rivality, and emulation. It was a Noble speech of but a Heathen man: a Lacedaemonian, when he happened not to be chosen (where the city expected it should be so) into the number of the 30. to be one of the principal officers of the city, when all the rest of his friends were discontent and angry to see that he the most noble and worthy of all the rest (as they thought) was past over, he himself took it well; I am glad says he that the city hath so many men of more worth than myself. It should be the honour and ingenuity of every one to rejoice that there be those that do excel them, not to desire the priority, or precedency themselves, but to be content to put it where God hath given it. And in the last place principally for zeal, to have pressed that, 4. Ardour. Zeli. all light, and all diligence, and all holiness, and all unanimity, except there be some edge of zeal put upon it, is nothing worth: and I thought to add some directions: 2. Incentivum. 1. Tempus erigit. Peccantes Gigantes. and in the last place some Incentives that might stir and kindle all to the exercise of this heavenly grace; the time requires it, sin is giantlike, Popery grows bold, witness the late fire (I thought to have added something more concerning it.) If they be bold to claim kin of us, and to bear the world in hand, that our own Articles maintain a secret correspondence with Popery, it is time for our zeal to break out to quit the Church, this Noble and honourable Church, from such a dishonourable imputation: The Act itself of zeal is very opportune and seasonable: Nunc si unquam, 2. Actus. 1. Oportunus. nisi nunc quando? as the saying is: if not now when shall we show ourselves zealous; when Popery grows so bold and so high, shall we expect greater matters, and is it not time to make an opposition against them, and now if ever. They that write the story of the travails of the Apostles report that Simon zealots, preached here in England; if ever there needed some zealots to come again it is now, such as Epiphanius speaks of Eliah, that he sucked fire out of his mother's breast, that have been moulded to a holy heat and fire: nothing else can defend and preserve the chastity and integrity of the Church. A cold modesty betrays a woman invites, and provokes an impudent solicitor, a coy magnanimous countenance must vindicate her assaulted Chastity. An angry countenance drives away fleerers, and fauners, and flatterers, it hinders so much as the attempt, whereas coldness gives way, and hope and possibility. Again, 2. Fructu osus. as the time requires it, and the act very seasonable, I will add this too; Our timely and seasonable zeal may be more effectual than perhaps we may imagine. The least beam of light is able to break through the thickest darkness, to shine in the darkest place. The least spark of fire is enough (if well husbanded and improved) to kindle the whole world. And as at the day of Conflagration, that purgatory fire that shall purge and refine all the elements, is conceived it shall be out of a contribution and commixion of stars. That of all the burning and shining lights, there shall be made that great heat that shall consume all the burning and shining lights of Satan's kingdom, if they would contribute and make a shot together of their zeal, to make an opposition of sin and superstition. And in the last place, 3. Munus. our duty and office doth require it, it is as proper for to have zeal in the Ministry, 1. Necessarium in nos incumbit. as to have fire in the Altar. We are the keepers (as it were) of the fire, to see that the fire goes not out; as those of Athens in the Games in which they run with, 1. Cura. lamps in their hands, One ran as far as he could and there delivered it to another, to carry farther, and to a third, and so the succession was continued. We have received the lamp of God's Word and truth from our Predecessors, who have delivered it us: let us run on cheerfully and courageously, to deliver it to our successors, and so to all posterity. Though fire in the house may be dangerous, there's no man but desires to have fire on the hearth that's useful: though among inferior and ignorant people, heat with light may be dangerous, yet among the clergy, among the Judicious and able clergy, if their light were quickened to heat, there would be no danger but excellent use of it. And the world expects so much of us, 2. Culpa: and will be ready to lay all the blame on us; that which Luther said sometimes Nunquam periclitatur Religio nisi inter Reverendissimos: The vulgar are ready enough to take this up as a maxim, as an Oracle. It is observed when Christ was Crucified, Pilate the civil Magistrate absolved him, Caiphas the high Priest condemned him, Judas his Disciple he betrayed him to the People: the Laity are willing to wash their hands as Pilate did, and think they have done all well enough, if they can lay the blame at the door of the Clergy: all the blame will lie on the unfaithful Ministers that should be burning and shining lights if sin grow to a height, if superstition increase all will lie there, it concerns therefore and God expects it, as having laid the charge upon us, I will add this one thing by way of conclusion, I have not yet spoken one strong line, (as they say) affectedly▪ but give me leave to conclude with one strong line drawn out of the proverb of the Germans, the pavement of hell (say they) is made of the bare skulls of the Priests, or shaved Priests, & the glorious Crests of great gallants. The meaning is, the greater and more eminent any one is in the Church, and doth not employ his Eminency for the maintenance of God's truth, they shall lie lowest in hell, they will have the deepest condemnation: and now the choice is betwixt these two, we must either burn in zeal or hazard it to burn in hell: and therefore to conclude all, I know not whether is more admirable, the resolute message that Mordecai sent to Hester, (Let not the Queen think that she shall escape in the King's house, more than the rest of the Jews, for if thou hold thy peacnow, deliverance shall come from another place but thou and thy house shall perish) or the Noble resolution of Hester upon this message, (If I perish, I perish, I will go to the King though contrary to the Law, I will intercede and interpose the utmost grace that I have with the King, casting away all care, and committing unto God in a holy, pious, and zealous way) I know not whether is more admirable: but I will wind up all; let us all learn to be burning and shining lights, so to consume and chase away the darkness of Ignorance, the dregs of sin, and all the stubble of Superstition; and then though the people should be inconstant and profidious, though our fellow brethren should be malignant and censorious, though our fathers should not be so benign norr opitious: yet who is such a Coward that dares not venture all upon the expectation of a Christian and gracious absolution from our Saviour; though all fail, misjudge, mm-report, and misthink, we shall be sure to have a free, a candid testimony from our Saviour at the great Day: He was a burning and a shining Light. FINIS.