The Merchant Real, Sermon · Proem
The Proëme.
BLeſſed & beloued in the Lord JESUS. Mine enterance into this text I made at London before thoſe of your moſt vvorthy companie, that are your carefull maſters, Creditors of your truſts, & your louing brethren. Maſters to ſeruants, creditors of truſts to factors, & brethren both of companie, & of communion. Of companie, as you are all marchants Adventurers, of communion as you are all orthodoxe Chriſtians.
Mine enterance vntounto you here, is, & vvas, both ciuill, & honeſt. Firſt by free election of your ovvne fellovvshipe. Secondly by approbation of the ſtate vvhence I came. Thirdly by recommendation of his ſacred majeſtie vnderunder his ovvne hand, vvho pleaſed to grace me his vnvvorthy ſeruāt vvith his Royall letters, & of the moſt reuerēd Archebishope of Cāterbury, who patriarchally tendered your peace. Fourthly vvith atteſtatiō from the famous Vniverſitie of Oxford vnderunder their ſeale, & from the Cathedrall Church, vvhere I hauehave bene a mēber tvvo & tvventy yeares, & one of the maſters ſeuenteene yeares. Thus from others had I enterance, of vvhoſe recommēdations I acknovvledge my ſelfe moſt vnvvorthy. Concerning my ſelfe I demurred after mine election a vvhole yeare, & halfe, & begged of god to reſolue me touching my coming vntounto you; & novve being come I doe proteſt in the ſight of god, & his holy angells that I come not vntounto you vvith any Italionated hart of implacabillity that cannot be appeaſed, nor vvith any Hiſpaniolized hart of Ieſuited nouelty, nor vvith a Frenchified hart of ſingularitie, nor yet vvith a Dutchified hart of neutrality (all vvhichwhich I ſpeake not as of any nationall diſgrace for the fineſt cambrick may hauehave many fretts, & frayes) but I am come vvith a good, & an honeſt Englishe hart of Orrthodoxe, & Catholike ſyncerity. Of the profeſſors vvhereof there are tvvo mayne ſorts, vvhichwhich I hauehave obſerued in the Chriſtian vvorld, both of them ſtriuing, & ſtrugling for purity, but in a differēt, & diſſonant māner. The one are ſeeming Puritans altogether led by faction.Puritans in Actiō Puritans in Factiō The other are reall Puritans to vvhom all things are pure, altogether buſie in honeſt Actiō. Puritans in factiō are all Papiſts Anabaptiſts, Brovvniſts, Separatiſts, & all ſingulariſts vvhatſoeuer,Tit. 1.15. & ſectaries vvhoſoeuer, that are merely nominalls. Puritans in Action are all the pure in hart,Matth. 5.8. vvho ſee god in his vvord, in his vvorkes (vvhile they are in this vvorld) & shall ſee him in the other vvorld in his diſplayed glory in the beatificall viſion of Ieſus Chriſt our bleſſed ſauiour. Into this bleſſed viſion doe I deſire to bring you (Maſters, mortalls, & my louing countrymen (bleſſed, & beloued in the lord Ieſus.) And this text doth ſeeme punctually, & praeciſely to point you Marchants out. Wherein you may Firſt ſee the Object of your pure faith,Diuiſion. vvhichwhich S. Peter Calls the end of faith, & the end of eueryevery thinge vviſe men doe reſpect in all things, & this maine Obiect, or end is the Kingdome of heauen, euen euerlaſting life the Cataſtrophe of your Apoſtolike Creede. Secondly the reſemblance ſpecified in the text is the Word of your pure faith, or the manner hovv you may be vvorded vntounto this bleſſed end of your faith the Kingdome of heauen. It only remayneth both for you, & me to beg of our god the ſpirit of faith, vvhichwhich vvill lead vsus to this end, & guid vsus into all truth by this meanes to the atchiuement of our bleſſed end.
If therefore there be here amongſt you any one preſent of a regall, & royall diſpoſition,1. foreign. here is a kingdome for him, or if there be any of a celeſtiall cōceipte, here is the kingdome of heauen for him vvhichwhich is more. If any be curious to knovve vvhat this kingdome is like, I vvill tell him, It is like (ſaith my text to a Mā.2. foreign 3. foreign. 4. foreign. Indeed for mā it vvas prepared by the merritts of the life, & death of a true man, although not a meere man Ieſus Chriſt both god, & man. And it is like to a marchant mā vvhichwhich vvord you ought to liſtē vntounto, for albeit eueryevery Marchant is a mā yet eueryevery mā is not a Marchāt. Hovvbeit reall Marchāts principally in all their negotiations & affaires doe not only attend, but intēd this, that ſo by any meanes they may attayne vntounto it.5. foreign. And not only to a Marchant man is this kingdome reſembled, but to a Marchant man that is a Ievveller. For it is the moſt pretious Marchant-dizing in the vvorld to trade for this kingdome. Moreouer it is not reſembled only to a Marchant-man that is a Ievveller, but to ſuch a Marchant Ievveller that hath endovvments of grace. As firſt dilligence to ſeeke,6. foreign. 7. foreign 8. foreign 9. foreign. 10. foreign. 11. foreign. 12. foreign. 13. foreign. ſecondly Iudgment to choſe, thirdly Conſtancie to perſeuere ſeeking vntill he find, fouerthly skil to knovve vvhen he hath founde, & Laſtly reſolution, both of readines to proſecute, then contempt of the vvorld to abandon, thirdly of full perſvvaſion to ſettle his hart & Laſtly of purchaſe to enioy that one, & only Ievvell of peareles, & priceles vvorth to vvit, Chriſt in heauen, & Charity on earth, the one apprehended by the acte of pure faith, the other comprehended by the pure effecte of the ſame. In compariſon vvhereof ten thouſand millions of vvorlds, & all the pearls that might be therein are not of any eſteeme, or valuation in a reall, & religious Marchants accōpt. Theſe are the ſeuerall paſſages chouched in this text of the vvhichwhich ſeuerally, & in order.