Josephs Party-Colored Coat, Text 3
VERS. 30. For this cause many are weake and sicke among you, and many sleepe.
RIght at this time, there raged and raigned in the Church of Corinth, an Epidemicall disease; and my Apostle in my Text tels them the Fountaine from which it flowed, namely from the unprepared, and unreverent receiving of the Sacrament. The words containe the punishment, and the cause thereof; I must confesse in the Heraldry of nature, the cause is to be handled before the effect; but because the punishment being the effect, discovered it selfe first while the cause was yet unknown, we will first treat thereof. The punishment containes three steps to the Grave. 1. Weaknesse. 2. Sicknesse. 3. Temporal death called sleep. Learne,
God inflicteth not the same punishment for all, but hath variety of correction. In his Quiver some Arrowes are blunt, some sharpe, and of these some he drawes halfe way, some to the head. And the Reason is, because there are divers degrees of mens sinnes, some sinne out of Ignorance, others out of Knowledge, some out of Infirmity, others of Presumption, some once, others often, some at the seducing of others, others seduce others. God therefore doth not like the unskilfull Empiricks, who prescribe the same quantity of the same receit at all times, to all ages, tempers and diseases. But wisely he varieth his physick, few strips to those that knew not his will, and many stripes for them, who knew his wil, and did it not. Sometimes hee shooteth halfe canon, weaknesse, sometime full canon sicknesse, sometimes murthering Peeces, death it selfe.
Let us endeavour to amend,Vse 1. when God layeth his least judgement upon us; let us humble our selves with true Repentance under his hand, when hee layeth his little finger upon us, lest we cause him to lay his loynes on us: let us be bettered, when he scourgeth us with rods, lest we give him occasion to Sting us with Scorpions, for light punishments neglected, wil draw heavier upon us.
Let Magistrates,Vse 2. and men in authority mitigate or increase the punishment, according to the nature of the offence. Let there be as well the stocks for the Drunkard, the house of correction for the idle Drone, the whip for the petty Lassoner, as the brand for the fellon, and the Gallowes for the Murtherer. Let mercy improve it selfe, to obtaine, if not a pardon, yet a lighter punishment for those, in vvhose faces are read the performance of present sorrovv, and promise of future amendment. Let severity lay load on their backs, vvhichwhich are old and incorrigable sinnes, so that there is more feare of their perverting others, than hope of their converting. Then shal the gods in earth, be like to the God in Heaven, and Magistrates here imitate the patterne, which God setteth in my Text. For probable it is, that those Corinthians, who are least offenders in the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament, were punished with weaknesse, the greater with sicknesse; the greatest of all with death temporall, called Sleepe in my Text.
The death of the Godly in Scripture language, is often stiled sleepe. And indeed sleepe and death are two twins; sleepe is the elder brother, for Adam slept in Paradise, but death liveth longest; for the last enemy that shall bee destroyed is death. But some will object, was Saint Paul so charitably opinioned to these Corinthians, as to thinke that they, some wereof were drunken at the receiving of the Sacrament, that they slept; that is, dyed and went to Heaven? me thinkes so strong a charity argues too weake a judgement: I answer, the Apostle had perceived in these mens lives, the strength of unfained piety, and though God suffered them to fall into a sin of so high a nature, as this must be confest to be, yet Saint Paul did Christianly beleeve, that this sinne by Repentance, and faith in Christ was pardoned, and their soules eternally saved. Let us measure the estates of men after death, by the rule of their lives; and though wee see some commit grievous sinnes; yea such sinnes for which they are brought to exemplary death (perchance by the orderly proceeding of the Law) yet withall, if wee had knowne, that the drift and scope of their lives had beene to fear God, wee may and must charitably conceive of their finall estate, and that with the Corinthians in my Text, they are fallen asleepe. So much for the punishment, wee come now to the cause. For this cause many are weake.
All sicknesses of the body proceed from the sinne of the soule: I am not ignorant that the Lethurgy ariseth from the coldnesse of the braine, that the dropsie floweth from waterish blood, in an ill affected Liver, that the spleen is caused from melancholly wind, gathered in the midriffe; but the cause of all these causes, the Fountaine of all these Fountaines is the sinne of the soule. And not onelyonly the sinnes, which wee have lately committed, and still lye fresh bleeding on our consciences, but even those which wee have committed long agoe, and which processe of time hath since scarred over, Iob 13.26. For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me possesse the sinnes of my youth. So that Iob being gray is punished for Iob being greene; Iob in the autumn of his age, smarts for what he hath done in the spring of his age; and as those which have beene given to violent exercises in their youth, when they are old reade the admonitions of their former folly in the aches of their bones; so they who have prodigally ryoted their youth out in vitious courses, in their old age find the smart of it in their weak and diseased bodies. Doe wee then desire to lead our old age in health, I know no better preservative, or dyet drinke can bee prescribed, then in our youth to keepe our soules from sin; for now wee sow the seeds of health or sicknesse, which perchance wee shall reape twenty yeares after.
Quest.But how came Saint Paul to know that this sicknesse of the Corinthians proceeded from the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament, especially sithence there were four other grand sinnes, which then raigned in their Church, each whereof upon hew and cry, might be taken as suspitious, to be the cause of this disease. 1. Factious affecting of one Minister above another, to the disgrace of God and the Gospel, 1 Corinthians, 1.12. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, I am of Apollo, I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ. 2. Suffering an incestuous person husband to his mother, and sonne to his wife, to live amongst them without publike penance and punishment: For though this incest, as it was committed but by one man, was but a particular and personall sin, yet as it was connived at, and not punished, it began gangreenlike to spread, and leaving its nature of personality, it intituled it selfe to be a publike generall Church-sin of the Corinthians. 3. Going to law one with another under heathen Iudges, 1 Cor. 6.1. Dare any of you, having busines against another be judged by the unjust, and not by the Saints? 4. Denying the Resurrection of the body, 1 Cor. 15.12. How say some among you, that there is no Resurrection of the dead? Sithence therefore at the same time, the Corinthians were guilty of factious affecting of their Ministers, going to law under Pagan Iudges, suffering an incestuous person to live amongst them unpunished, denying of the Resurrection of the body; why might not Saint Paul thinke, that any one, or all of these might be the cause of this disease in the Church of Corinth, as well as the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament?
Because this sinne was the sinne paramount,Answ. like Saul, higher then his fellowes, from the shoulders upwards, the other four sins were fellony, robbing God of his glory; but the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament, was high treason against the person of Christ, & so against God himselfe. The other for sins were Tetrarchs raigning over the Corinthians; but this was as Augustus the Emperour over the Tetrarchs more conspicuous then any of the rest. Learn we then, that though God of his goodnesse may be pleased graciously to pardon, and passe by sins of an inferior nature and meaner alloy, yet he wil not hold them guiltless, & let them escape unpunished, who irreverently receive the body and blood of his Sonne. This stentor sin shouts in Gods eares for revenge. Saint Anselme saith, that many diseases that raigne in the summer (though Physicians may impute them to other second causes) proceeds from peoples irreverent receiving the Sacrament at Easter.
Answ. 2.Because the Apostle perceived some resemblance, betwixt the sin committed, and the punishment inflicted. For as a Physician when he comes to his Patient, and finds him strangely affected, so that the disease puzles al his rules of art to reduce it to some naturall cause, then he will be ready to suspect, that his Patient hath eaten some poyson, which hath strangely invenomed the estate of his body; so Saint Paul seeing the Corinthians to be punished, with a strange and unusuall sicknesse (some conceive it was the plague) presently suspected, that they had eaten some poysenous thing, and on inquiry he finds that it was the Sacrament irreverently received: It being just with God to turne that which was appoynted to bee preservative for the soule, to prove poyson to the body, being not received with due preparation. And here I may adventure upon a profitable discourse, how a man in his sicknesse may come to know the very particular sin, for which God hath inflicted that sicknesse upon him. It is not a meer curiosity, which will afford the ground work of much good meditation; nor an impossibility, though a difficulty to arrive at the knowledge of it: Wherefore let a man in such a case summon all his great sins to make a personall appearance in his memory, and not onelyonly those of the last edition, but even those whose impression is almost out of the date of his memory, such as were committed long agoe in his youth: This done, all the matter will bee to find out, which is the veriest sinne for which God punisheth him at that time; and here I must confesse my candels to be but dim, but I will light the more of them.
First,Rea 1. see to which sin the punishment thou sufferest, bears the most proportion of resemblance, for God commonly punisheth like with the like. Thus one may see Gods hand in the cutting of one of Adonibezecks fingers, he being served, as hee had served 72. Kings. And thus King Ioram, who had cruelly slaughtered his brethren on a stone, was troubled with an incurable disease, that his bowels fell out, and just it was that he should have no bowels, that had no compassion.
2. See if thou canst not find some proportion in the disproportion,2. and likenesse in the unlikenes of some sin to this punishment; God oft times punishing by the contrary. Thus those who out of nicenesse, and curiosity, have tooke more then comes to the share of a corrupt creature, are commonly sent to their graves, by some nasty and loathsome disease; as proud Herod, whom the wormes impatient to stay so long, till death had dished him for their palate, devoured him alive.
3. Something may be gathered from the place or part, wherein the disease lieth; For if it be in the eyes, it is probable, its inflicted for the shooting out of lustfull & lascivious glances, or looking with envious and covetous sight on the meanes of others; if in the eares, for giving audience to wanton sonnets, or for being over credulous in the hearing ill reports of others; if in the tongue, for lying, swearing, &c.
4. See whether Chronology, or the time wherein the sicknesse seizeth upon thee, will not something advantage thee, for the discovering the cause thereof. Thus as one observes, the Lord Hastings was beheaded at London, that very selfe-same day twelve-monethmonth, yea the same houre; and if curiosity may goe further, the same minute, wherein he had conspired the death of the Queenes kinred at Pomfret Castle.
5. Consider what sinne it is, for the committing whereof thou hast conceived the least sorrow. For though wee can never bee condignly sorry for our least sinne, yet we may be more penitent for one sinne, than for another, and that sinne which hath cost us the slightest and shallowest Repentance, is most likely to be the cause of our present sicknesse.
6. Hearken chiefly to the Inditement of thy conscience; for when wee hunt after that sin, which causeth our disease, and wee find our selves to be either at a losse, or at a cold sent, if once our conscience begin to spend her open mouth, wee may certainely conclude, that the game went that way, and that that is the very sin for which at that time wee are punished. Thus the Patriarks, Gen. 42 21. Said one to another, we have verely sinned against our Brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soule, where hee besought us, and wee would not heare, therefore is this evill fallen upon us. Reuben did not impute it to the defiling of his Fathers bed, nor Iudah to his Incest, nor Simeon and Levi to their murthering of the Shechemites, for these were but personall sinnes; but all joyntly agreed, that it was for their cruelty to their Brother, a sin wherein all they were equally ingaged, as they were equally inwrapt in the punishment.
If by these or any other meanes we attaine to the knowledge of that particular sinne, for which wee are punished; let us drown that sin in penitent teares, and in the blood of our Saviour; but if we cannot find it out, let us imitate the example of Herod, Mat. 2. Who that he might make sure work to kil our Saviour, slew all the children in Bethelem, and the countrey about it, from two years old and under; a plot probable to have taken effect, if heaven had not beene too wise for hell. In like manner, let us indifferently, and impartially repent for all our sins in generall: if wee know not which was the Bee that stung us, let us throw downe the whole Hive; if wee know not which was the thorne, that prickt us, let us cut downe the whole hedge, and so wee shall bee sure that sinne shall not escape, which hath caused our present sicknesse.
Now whereas God might have tumbled the Corinthians down into hell-fire, for their irreverent receiving of the Sacrament, and yet was pleased to inflict on them bodily weakenesse and sicknesse, and death, we learn.
God oftentimes with his Saints commuteth eternall torments into temporall punishments. Hee is therefore angry in this world, that hee might not be angry in the world to come, Et misericorditer adhibet temporalem paenam, ne juste inferat aeternam ultionem. If any object, but why will God pardon talents, and not tokens, pounds, but not pence; and for Christs sake forgive, and strike off eternall torment, and yet not crosse the score of temporall punishment? I answer, 1. To make us take notice that wee have beene offenders. 2. That by feeling the smart of what hee inflicteth on us, wee may bee the more sensible of his favour, how much paine he hath forgiven us. 3. To make us more wary and watchfull in time to come. But farre bee it from us, to conceive that there is any satisfactory, or expiatory power in the afflictions which wee suffer. Satisfaction for sinne could not be but once, and once was fully made, when Christ offered himselfe upon the Crosse.
Let us therefore learne patience under Gods afflicting hand, when hee layeth any sicknesse upon us. Solomon said to Abiathar, 1 King. 2.26. Get thee to Anathoth, to thine owne fields, for thou art worthy of death; but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the Arke of my Lord God before David my Father: Thus God dealeth with us, when hee might justly deprive us of our life, yea of our eternall life; yet if wee have borne his Arke, if wee can plead any true reference, or relation to Christ our Saviour; God will be graciously pleased, not to take away our lives, but onelyonly to send us to our Anathoth, to confine us to our beds, to keepe us his close Prisoners, and onelyonly to deprive us of our health, pleasure and delight. Let us therefore patiently endure the aking of the teeth; wee have all deserved the gnashing of the teeth. Let us patiently endure a burning Fever; for wee have all deserved Hell-fire. Let us … a bodily Consumption; for wee have deserved to bee consumed, and brought to nothing.