A Spiritual Propine of a Pastor to his People, Section 14 – Section 15
Textes of Scripture.
TRy your selues,2 Cor. 13. 5 if ye be in the faith, proue your selues: do yee not acknowledge your selues that Christ Iesus is in you, and if not, that year reprobates.
If any man think himselfe to be some thing,Gal. 6. when he is nathing, his awin heart deceaues him, let ilk man therefore trye himselfe.
Be commoo…ed and sinne not,Psal. 4. examine your hearts in your bed and leaue of to do euill.
Wash your selues,Esay▪ … purge your selues, cast away the wickednes of your actions from before my face, leaue off to doe euill, learne to do gud, seeke right, come and let vsus reason togidder. If your sinnes were as Scarlet, they sall be white as snaw: If yee apply and heare, ye sall inioy the gud things of the land: but if ye refuse and rebell, ye salbe consumed by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hes spoken it.
Thou hes heard mee recken my waies,Psal. 119. teach me thy statutes.
I take count of my waies, that I may bring againe my feete to thy testimonies.
Blessed is that man,Psal. 1. that walkes not in the counsaile of the wicked, and insists not in the way of sinners▪ & sittes not in the seate of scorners, if sa be his delight be in the law of the Lord, & in that law meditates day and night.
For he sal be as the tree planted by the riuers of water, whilk brings forth fruct in the awin time, whase leafe fades not & whatsoeuer he dois sall prosper.
Bot the wicked sal not be sa, bot as the chaffe whilk the wind driueth, therefore the wicked sall not stand in that Iudgement, nor the sinners in the company of the iust, for the Lord acknawledges the way of the iust, bot the way of the wicked sall perish.
The lute,Esay. 5 the harpe, the timbrell, and shalme, and gud wine aboundeth in your bankets: bot the warks of God, you respect not, nor yet hauehave ye consideration of his doings. Therefore hes hell enlarged her selfe, and opened her mouth without al measure, and the stoute, high, and glorious of the people sal discend thereinto.
The heart is a deceatful and deadly thinge aboue all,Ier. 17. wha can knaw it, I IEHOVAH the searcher of the heart & reines, that I may giuegive to euerie ane according to their waies, according to the fruite of their actiones.
My little children,1. Ioh. 3. let vsus not louelove in word, neither in tongue onelie, but indeede and in trueth, for thereby we knaw, that we are of the trueth, and sall assure our hearts before him, for if our heartes condemne vsus, God is greater then our heartes, and knawes all things.
Beloued, if our hearts condemn vsus not, then hauehave we baldnes toward God, and vvhatsoeuer we aske we receaue of him, because we keepe his commandement, and do the things quhilk are pleasand in his sight.
This is then his commandement, that yee beleeue in the name of his son Iesus Christ, and louelove ane another, as he gaue commaundement, for hee that keepes his commaundements dwellis in him, & hee in him, hereby knavv wee that hee abides in vsus, euen be that spirite whilk he hes giuen vsus.
Deerely beloued, beleeue not euerie spirit, bot try the spirits if they be of God.
Aboue all things that thou takes heed to keepe thy hearte, for thereout springs the actiones of life,Prov. 4. remooue from thee the peruersitie of the mouth, & set far from thee thrawardnes of the lippes.
Let thy eyes luke right before thee, & thy eye-liddes behauld things that are right before thee, wey the pathes of thy feete that all thy waies may be streight.
Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left, set away thy feete from euill.
Let vsus try and ripe out our waies,Lament. 3. & turne vntounto the Lord, let vsus lift vp our hearts with our hands, vntounto the strong God of heauen, and say, we hauehave made a defection & rebelled, therfore thou spares not.
When the Pharisees saw the Disciples eate with vnwashen hands.Mark. 7. &c.
Christ calling togidder the haill multitude: Saide, heare me all and vnderstand, there is nathing without a man, that entring within him can pollute him, bot the things that comes out of him, thy are the things that pollute him. If any hes eares to heare, let him heare.
Then the disciples asked him the parable; and he said, vnderstand yee not? The things that outwardly comes into man, cannot pollute him, for it enters not in his heart, but in his womb, and goes to the closet, purging all meates: bot he saide, that whilk comes out of man defiles him, for from within, out of the heart of man, comes out euill thoughts, adulteries, harlatries, slaughter, thifts, couetousnes, wickednes, deceitfulnes, vncleannes, a wicked eye, pryd, backbiting, foolishnes, all these euil things comes from within, and defiles the man.
Verely, verely, I say vntounto you (sayes Christ) of eueryevery ydle word that comes out of mans mouth,Math. 12. they sall rander a compt thereof, at the day of iudgement.
We mon all appeare before the tribunall of Christ, that eueryevery ane may receaue in his body,2. Cor. 5. according to that he hes done whidder euill or gud.
Behauld,Reul. 3. I stand at the dore, if any heare my voice & open, I will come into him, and sup with him, and he with me.
Behauld, I come shortly, hauld that whilk thou hes, that nane take thy crowne fra thee.
We mon fight, we mon big, Luck. 14, we mon giuegive a compt of our talent, we mon hauehave our lampes light to meete the bridgroome. Mat. 25. & therefor prepare, try, & take heede to your selues, with watching sobrietie, and cairfull consideration: finally for special tryall & searching out of thy sinnes, vse thir texts quoted. Rom. 12. and 3. Ephe. 4. & 5. Col, 5. 3. 2. Pet. 2
Before the Communion.
I Wald not ye should bee ignorant brethren,1. Cor. 10. that all our fathers were vnderunder that cloud, and all past throw the sea, and all were Baptised in Moyses, with the cloud & sea, & al eate the same spiritual fude, & al dranke the same spiritual drink, for they drank of the spirituall rock that followed, & the rocke was Christ, but God approued not manie of them: for they were casten downe in the desart. Now thir vvere exampls vntounto vsus, that we suld not couet euill things as they coueted, be not therfore Idolaters as some of them, nether let vsus commit fornication as some of them did, and fell in a day three and twenty thousand, neither tempt Christ as some tempted & perished be serpents. Neither murmure ye, as some of them murmured & perished be the destroyer, al these things came on them for example, and are written for our admonition, on whome the endes of the warld are fallen; therefore let him that thinks he standes, bewar he fall not.
Let eueryevery ane proue himselfe, and sa eate of that bread, and drink of that cup. For who so eates & drinkes vnworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to themselues, for not discerning the Lords bodie.
Therefore is there many weake amang you and diseased,1. Cor. 11. & manie sleepe, for if we suld iudge our selues, we suld not be punished, but when we are punished, we are chastised be the Lord that we be not condemned with the warld.