and sever it from the two next Petitions which bear that nearness and affinity to it that for ought I can perceive most men in their discourses have made them the very same The Sanctifying of Gods Name is annexed to his Kingdom and the fairest part of his Kingdom is the fulfilling of his Will He that halloweth Gods Name doth advance his Kingdom and he that advanceth his Kingdom doth his Will And this last includeth and comprehends both the former so that Bradwartine will tell us that a Christian man needs no other prayer but this FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA Thy will be done which in force and virtue conteins all other prayers whatsoever And this is true in sensu quem faciunt in that sense which every one of them will bear but in sensu quo fiunt in that sense in which our Saviour spake and taught them it is most probable they have their proper bounds and limits And for our more plain and orderly proceeding we will confine this first Petition to our Words and outward Gesture by which we do expresly honour God and hallow him as it were before the Sun and the People the second to our Hearts which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of God in which he delights to dwell his very throne wherein he sits It is our Saviours speech The Kingdom of God is within you the last to our Actions Luke 17. 21. and Works of Piety which are the proper language of the Heart Haec tria sunt omnia These three are all the whole body of our Devotion To hallow God with our tongue and outward deportment To yield him the subjection and true allegiance of our hearts and To be ready and active to execute his will These take up all that we have all that we are the inward and the outward and the outward man We are taught to sanctifie the Lord God which at the first 1 Pet. 3. 15. we may easily be perswaded to be the very same with this Petition But the addition in your hearts pointeth out some difference It is not there in terms that we should sanctifie and honor God with our deeds and words and writing and the like but with that which is proper to the Heart Which indeed doth necessarily shew it self in outward action For presently the Apostle adds as an effect of this sanctifying of God being ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope which is in you So that this place of Peter may seem rather to belong to the next Petition Thy Kingdom come But to close in a little nearer with these words we will first ask What is meant here by the Name of God and then What it is to sanctifie it For the first We are informed by those who have skill in that language that by the propriety of the Hebrew the Name of God is God himself So to call upon his Name is to call upon him to speak good of his Name is to speak good of him to magnifie his Name is to magnifie him And it is most usual to take the Name for the person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome in his Preface to the Romans The Apostles had the whole world committed to their charge I am not sufficient for twenty names that is for twenty men Indeed God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hidden saith Justine Martyr we cannot see him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Damascene incomprehensible we cannot lay hold on him Nec nomen Dei quaeras DEUS nomen est illi saith Minutius Do not ask what is Gods Name His Name is GOD. There is need of words and names where diversity of things are to be distinguished by several appellations Deo qui solus est DEUS vocabulum totum est God is most One nay Unity it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most alone nay Aloneness it self All that you can say of him is That he is GOD. The heathen Gods saith Theodoret had many names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indeed they were nothing else but names But the true God who is of infinite essence can have no name at all Dei nomen semper fuit apud semetipsum in semetipso saith Tertullian against Hermogenes Gods Name was alwayes with himself and in himself DEUS nomen Divinitatis DOMINUS Potestatis GOD signifies his Divinity and LORD his Power But yet as the Creature doth but faintly represent God so there are names which do but weakly and imperfectly express him For as Names import composition of substance and quality so they cannot sute with the Simplicity of Gods Essence but as they signifie notitiam something by which he is notified So we say God is just wise true eternal and the like Now to acknowledge these is to hallow his Name We hallow him as Wise when we count Honesty the best policy as Just when the put the Sword into his hand and leave all Vengeance to him as Omniscient when we are as much afraid of the twilight as of the noon-day as True when in all our miseries we distrust him not as Aeternal when we seek for an abiding City whose builder is God But we will confine our selves and take the Name of God for God himself and in the next place enquire What it is to sanctifie him Now SANCTUM quod separatum that is Holy which is separated from common use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Three and Thirtieth SERMON MATTH VI. 10. Thy Kingdome come IN this Petition we have three words and all very observable a Noun Kingdome a Pronoun Thy and a Verb Come The Kingdome which here we are commanded to pray for is not that which the Chiliasts or Millenaries fondly dream of the enjoyment of pomp and pleasure and all temporal happiness upon earth for a thousand years together after the resurrection This phansie they fetch from Revel 20. and other places And this error as gross as it is spread so far in the very infancie and best times of the Church as to find entertainment with many with Papias St. Johns Scholar as Hierome tells us in his Book De viris illustribus with Iraeneus Apollinarius Tertullian as some think Victorius Pectaviensis Lactantius as appears in his seventh Book of Institutions Nay it was of so great account that St. Augustine himself did once embrace it as himself confesses in his twentieth Book De Civit. Dei and St. Hierome dared not to condemn it as he records it himself in his Commentaries upon Jeremie A wonder this is when St. John there plainly mentions the first Resurrection which is of the Soul alone But men easily perswade themselves they see the image of their own conceits in those parts of Scripture where they walk as Antipheron in Aristotle thought he saw his own shape and picture wheresoever he went Men take the Kingdome of Christ to be like unto the Kingdome of the World Avaritia nostra nobis non sufficit nisi avarum quoque
made easier every day by the word of the Spirit by the Gospel of Christ by the power of which the Eye that was open to vanity is pluckt out the Hand that was reaching at forbidden things is cut off the Ear which was open to Every Sirens song is stopped the Phansie checked the Appetite dulled the Affections bridled and the whole man sequestred and abstracted out of the world And now in the second place if we consider the nature of the Spirit what should he inspire Man with but with that which fits him and his condition Whither can he who made him lead him but to himself to his original To all that are in the world the voice of the Spirit is Come out of it escape for your lives Look not behind you neither stay in it Fly into the wilderness Rest your selves in the contemplation of the Goodness and Mercy of God This is the dialect of the Spirit nor can he speak otherwise For Heaven and Earth are not so opposite as the Prince of this world and the Spirit of God Who hates Mammon till we make it our friend reviles the things of this world till they help to promote us to things above forbids those things which are without till we make them useful to those things which are within Who convinceth reproveth condemneth and will judge the world If you are so greedy of the things of this world that you would have stones made bread if you go into the City and climb the pinacle of the Temple if from the mountain you take a survey of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them you may know who hath you by the hand The Text doth intimate that the Devil doth then take us up The Spirit of God leads us in the wayes of Gods Providence unknown to the world he takes us into the wilderness far from the noyse and business of this world he leads us not to the mountain to view kingdoms but draws us down into the valley there by an humble dependance on God to learn to contemn the world The Flesh fighteth against the Spirit and so doth the world and these are contrary And as many as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God saith St. Paul Which they cannot be till they renounce the World For what is our Filiation our Adoption but a receiving us out of the world into his family We must leave the world behind us before we can say Abba Father In a word the Spirit of God doth in a manner destroy the World before its dissolution makes that which men so run after so wooe so fight for as dung or at best it makes the world but a Prison which we must struggle to get out of but a Sodom out of the which we must haste to escape to the holy Hill to the mountain lest we be consumed or but a Stage to act our parts on where when we have reviled disgraced and trod it under foot we must take our Exit and go out Let us now draw down all this to our selves by use and application Here we may easily see what it is to which the Spirit leads us It leads us out of the world into the wilderness from the busie noyse and tumults there to the quiet and sweet repose we may find in the contemplation and working of a future estate He leads the carnal man to make him spiritual For what Ezek. 2. 6. is a Christian mans life but a going out of a world full of Scorpions a leaving it behind him by the Conduct of the Spirit The Spirit leads us not cannot lead us to the Flesh nor to the World which spreads a bed of roses for the Flesh to lye down and sport in For this is against the very nature of the Spirit as much as it is for light bodies to descend or heavy ones to move upwards Fire may descend the Earth may be removed out of its place the Sun may stand still or go back the sweet influences of the Pleiades may be bound and the bonds of Orion may be loosed Nature may change its course at the word and beck of the God of Nature But this is one thing which God cannot do He cannot change himself The Spirit of God is a lover of Man a hater of the World and from the World he leads Man to himself He led not Cain into the field it was a field of bloud He led not Dinah to see the daughters of the land she went out and was defiled He led not David to the roof of his house it was a fatal prospect it was but a look and it let in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life even all that is in the world at once into his heart But he leads thee to thy chamber there to commune with thy own heart He leads thee to the house of mourning to learn the end of all men He leads thee to the Temple to behold the beauty of the Lord. He leads thee from Bethaven to Bethel from the world to the place where his honor dwelleth These are the Spirits leadings His Dictons are Blessed are the poor Blessed are the meek Blessed are they that mourn This is no part of the musick of this World We find in our books of that Semiramis that famous Queen of Babylon caused this inscription to be written on her Tomb THAT HE THAT OPENED IT SHOULD FIND IN IT GREAT TREASURE which when Darius had read allured by this fair and promising inscription he brake it up but within found no treasure but a writing that told him that if he had not been a notorius wicked person he would not have broken-up the sepulchres of the dead to look for treasure We may indeed when we read of Riches and Pleasure and Glory in the Word of great Riches lasting Pleasures infinite Joy feed our selves with false hopes here but these are but as a fair inscription upon a Tomb when we have broken them up read them uncovered in their proper sense we shall find nothing but Poverty and Sorrow and Dishonor within and withal a sharp reproof for those who search the Gospel to find the World there or walk to Ophir to the hills of the robbers to a Mahumetical Paradise a Kingdome of Saints upon earth a Thousand years pleasure and perswade themselves the Spirit hath them by the hand and leads them to it Beloved Sensuality and Ambition are two the greatest enemies the Spirit hath and the Spirit fights against them If Diotrephes will have the highest seat the Spirit leads him not If the ground of our Religion be From hence have we our gain it is the Prince of this world and not the Spirit who leads us If we make Religion to Lackey it after us and accomplish our lusts we have left the Spirit behind us Mammon is our guide If the Bishop of Rome dream of Kingdoms of Universal power and Infallibile judgment
in every part and then write underneath THIS IS A CHRISTIAN Hitherto the Devil will suffer us to name Christ if we will but name him For by this he hath advantage and our guilt is encreased Reatus impii pium nomen saith Salvian Nothing condemns an evil man more then a good name A common thing it is in the world to prefix a fair and promising title to books of no worth And this art the Devil is busie to teach us to put a trick upon God and deceive him with a fair title page He cares not how glorious the frontespiece be so the work be course Look into the book of a formal Christians life and you shall find many leaves but blanks a great part of his life lost in sleep some blurred and blotted with the Love of this world some leaves polluted with Uncleanness others stained with Bloud You shall see it full of Soloecisius of gain-sayings and contradictions of Christ Only there is a fair title page and the name of this Book is THE CHRISTIAN SOULDIER And therefore one rule of our Enemy is to begin with us to entangle us at our first setting out He deals with us as we are commanded to deal with him As we are to break his head to suppress the beginnings of Sin so doth he break ours and suppress the beginnings of Goodness For in the second place the one will encrease as well as the other Festucam si nutrias trabs erit si evellas projicias nihil erit If you nourish a mote it may become a beam but if you pluck it out presently and cast it from you it will be nothing This evil thought may grow up to Murder but if you check it it is nothing So this good thought may be Religion but if the Devil stifle it it will be nothing These beginnings may bring-on perfection but if you stop them they are nothing This grain of mustard-seed this little grain this least of seeds if you suffer it to grow may become a tree but if you choak it at first it is nothing Nihil est fertilius sanctitate Nothing is more fruitful and generative then Goodness For God doth not set us upon vain and fruitless designs he sets us not to plow the winds or cast our seed upon the barren rocks he doth not tie us by a blind obedience to water a dry stick but as the Prophet David speaks our line is fallen unto us in a pleasant place and we have a goodly heritage a fruitful soyl where every seed may increase into many ears of corn and every eare multiply into a harvest where increase makes us more fruitful where the liberal soul is made fat and Prov. 11. 25. he that waters is watered again Every good thought may beget a good Intention every good Intention may raise it self up to the strength of a Resolution every Resolution may bring on Perseverance every good Action looks forward to another and that to a third Patience begets experience Experience Hope Hope Confidence As it was said of Alexander Quaelibet victoria instrumentum sequentis that every conquest he made made way to a second So every step we make makes the way more easie every conquest we gain over Satan enables us to chase him again If we overcome him in our Creed and believe against all temptations to Infidelity we may overcome him also in our Decalogue and bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life against all temptations to Profaneness He that names Christ may believe in him and he that believes in him may dye for him He that gives a peny to the poor may in time sell all that he hath and at last lay down his life for the Gospel And therefore in the last place timet nè virtus convalescat the Devil is unwilling to suffer Goodness to gather any strength lest when it is grown up and settled and establisht in the heart it may prove too hard a matter for him to remove it lest what he might at first have stoln away as a Serpent he shall not be able to take from us though he come like a Lyon For as it is in Sin so is it also in Goodness It grows up by degrees Our first onset is with some difficulty we are almost perswaded to be Christians After some bruises and some recoveries some slips and some risings some struglings and some victories the way is more pleasant and at last we run the way of Gods commandments and make haste to Happiness as to our center That Fasting which was my melancholy is now my joy that Reproof which was a whip is now as oyl that Prophet whom I persecuted is now an Angel What doth God exact at our hand saith Salvian but Faith and Chastity and Humility and Mercy and Holiness quae utique omnia non onerant nos sed ornant all which are not as burdens to oppress us but as rich jewels to adorn us What doth Christ require but those things which are convenient and agreeable with our nature the love of God and the Love of men And certainly the custom of doing good if it be equal to the custom in evil is far more pleasant Far more content is to be found in virtue then in vice more pleasure in temperance then in surfetting more complacencie in justice then in Partiality more delight in piety then in lust When I have raised my self so high as to delight in the dictates of Nature and in the precepts of the God of Nature then I may look into my heart reflect upon my self with joy and say I am a man and I perswade my self that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now I can labor in his hard work and my labor is my joy Those virtues which seem to run from me are my familiars my friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil my possessions which none can take from me Non videtur perfectè cujusquam id esse quod casu auferri potest say the Civilians We cannot be said to have sure possession of that which may be taken away by some chance What we are surely possessed of we can hardly lose And such a possession such an inheritance is true Piety when we are once rooted and built up and establisht in it It is a treasure which no chance can rob us of no thief take from us A habit well confirmed is an object the Devil is afraid of O the power of an uninterrupted obedience of a continued course in the duties of holiness it is able to puzzle the great Sophister the great God of this world Deorum virtus naturâ excellit saith Tully hominum industriâ Nature confirms virtue to the Gods but Industry to Men. The Gods cannot possibly be otherwise then good and
and there discourse with none but God and Angels Thus we may shame a Tyrant and puff at his Terrors For what I beseech you can the most subtle in curses invent against such who call Banishment a going to travel Imprisonment a getting out of a throng who say to dye is to lye down to sleep It is as impossible to torment these as to confine a Spirit or to lay shackles upon that thing which has no Body to bear them For you must not esteem these kind of expressions the heat only of a luxuriant wit because whatever happens in this life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one most excellently calls it whose whole being consists meerly in Relation seems good to such as like it and evil to such as think the contrary just like meat which though it nourish one may kill another His Brethren thought they had sold Joseph into a strange Country to destroy him but he says God sent him before to provide for their whole Family So this Apostle collects with himself that if he dy'd he should go to his Saviour and if he liv'd he should serve his Brethren If he were at liberty his tongue should preach but being in prison his sufferings did further the Gospel much more If he met with all friends they would receive the Truth chearfully and if he found enemies they would preach Christ for him though out of strife and envy With him to dye was gain and to live was gain He took every thing by the right ear and found some benefit in every condition whatsoever whether by good report or by disgrace whether by the left hand or by the right whether by hatred 2 Cor. 6. or out of good will whether by life or death if Christ were preached he lookt no farther he had his end that unum necessarium the advancement of the Gospel and whatsoever happened besides this he esteemed as an additional complement which he might very well spare and yet remain an Apostle still But now on the other side what a continued torment is a mans life without this spiritual carelesness this holy neglect of our earthly Being Then are we born to misery indeed if a moth rust or canker can make us wretched If the trouble which as our Saviour says belongs to every single day can sully our mirth and cast us down If every wind and breath of an insulting Tyrant can twirl us about to all points of the Compass If we make our selves the shadow of the times and take both form and figure only as men do Rise and Set like some flowers if we shut and open just as they shine or not upon us 't were better a Mill-stone were tyed about our neck and we were cast into the midst of the Sea for that would keep us steddy Thus to halt to be divided as the word imports between Heaven and Earth Light and Darkness God and Mammon It breeds the same deformity in the Soul as would appear in the Body If you fancied a man lookt with one ey directly up to the skie and at the same time pitched the other ey streight down upon the ground how ugly would such a one seem unto you This this is the carefulness or rather this denying of Gods Providence which makes so many desire a gift desire it Nay most impudently make it their whole design and business of their lives to get it mounting the Pulpit as they would do a Bank and there sell of their Drugs for Medicines when in truth they poyson the very Soul Whence is it else that they preach their dreams calling that the word of God which hits in their heads when they cannot sleep Who bite with their teeth as Micha says eat on and talk as the company will have it and as it follows in the same verse who puts not into their mouths and gives not what they expect they even prepare a war against him Micha 3. 5. nay blot him out of their book of life Doggs 't is St. Pauls word to them or else I durst not use it Phil. 3. 2. that divine for money who will be rich whose greatest triumph is to lead captive silly women Men that will help up a sin into your bosome which otherwise perhaps a tender Conscience would keep down and set a whole City a fire and then like Nero stand by and play to it Men without whom no mischief ever had a beginning nor by whom shall ever any have an end Give me leave I beseech you to bend this crooked bough as much the other way and call such to St. Pauls example who when he was to preach a new Law preach'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel without charge 1 Cor. 9. who put his hands to work night and day that they might not receive any thing but from himself And I heartily wish what the Apostle did here of choice the Civil Magistrate would whip them to for they are a scandal to their beautiful Profession to preach Providence and at the same time scrape together as if God who provides for all things would have more care of a crow or the grass of the field then of man whom he created after his own Image as if he who sent forth his Disciples without scrip or penny did it only to destroy them and how shall the people credit those who preach the contempt of the world to their Congregations when they see these Foxes would only have their Auditors leave the world that they may enjoy it wholly to themselves calling that the Kingdom of Christ when they themselves raign or rather when Lust raigns in them Whereas St. Paul often urg'd this as an Argument to confirm his Doctrine that he took nothing for it Thirdly St. Paul did not desire a Gift because their Benevolence kept him still alive heartned his body up and prolong'd his days which considering St. Pauls condition was cruel mercy the greatest injury they could possibly do him to hold him thus from his Saviour with whom he long'd to be For the Apostle had fully weigh'd the poizes both of life and death concluded the most beneficial thing to him if he lookt only after his own advantage was Death having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is the better Phil. 1. 23. For pray resolve me what kindness is it to fetch a wretch devoted and given up to affliction necessity and distresses to stripes imprisonment tumults to fasting watching and all kind of labours 2 Cor. 6. to make much of a man only that he may last out to torment to set his joynts that he may go on upon the rack again to strengthen and enable him that he may suffer yet more to bind up his wounds as they did the Slaves in Rome meerly that he might fight with more beasts This is the same pity simply so considered as if you should give strong Cordials to one irrecoverably sick to lengthen and draw out his pain least he
a Good name but will wallow still in their own mire And therefore you may observe it Matth. 4. that the Devil sets not upon our Saviour with Lust or Luxury or Covetousness or any such vulgar and inferior vice but carries him to an exceeding high mountain and from thence shews him the kingdome of the world to see whether he will stoop at the prey Secondly It is a vice to which the world is much beholding and therefore finds more countenance then any Look upon the works of mens wits their Books and Writings look upon the works of mens hands their Charity and Alms-deeds and Hospitality and we shall quickly discover that Honor and Desire to transmit their names to posterity have been in many for to say in all were the greatest uncharitableness in the world but in many they have been the chiefest fires to set these alembicks a work We will not now dispute the truth of that which the Schools teach That Evil could not subsist if it were not founded in Good but we may be bold to say that this evil of Ambition could hardly subsist if it were not maintained and rooted in Virtue Other weeds will grow of themselves finding matter within us to feed and nourish them Murder is but the ebullition of our Choler Luxury a very exhalation of our Flesh Lust boyles in our very bloud But this vice like unto Ivy or Woodbind will hardly grow unless it fix it self upon the Oke upon some strong and profitable matter If you see Absalom in Hebron paying his vow it is to gain a kingdome If 2 Sam 15. 7. the Pharisee fast and pray it is to be called Rabbi if he gives alms it is with a trumpet If Simon Magus desire to turn Apostle it is to be some great one If Diotrephes be of the Church it is to have the praeeminence Last of all it is a vice which amongst many men hath gained the reputation of Virtue And if it be not a virtue saith the Orator yet it is many times the cause of it Ambition and Aemulation have ever been accounted the nurses of wit the kindlers of industry the life of studies and the mothers of all famous actions And this is it which hath raised their price and estimation But it here falls out as it doth with bodies which are nourisht with unwholsome meats They are in a short time corrupted with diseases and dye by those meats they lived on Wit and Industry which are mainteined by these vices do at last run to ruin by those vices which maintein them How many an alms is blown away with the breath of the Trumpet How many a Prayer is the shorter for its length is not heard for its noyse and is lost in the open streets How many a Fast is buried in a disfigured face How many a Good deed had been registred in heaven if it had not been first written on the walls But as we read in the Historian that Thievery and Piracy were so commonly practised amongst the Grecians that men made publick profession of them neither were they taken to be vices so we find it by daily experience that Ambition is so like to Virtue that the world hath even taken her to be one and made much of her and extolled her because she is so common Disciples themselves will be talking of Kingdomes and Greatness will be asking the question Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven And yet it is as impertinent a question as could have been put to Christ And of this we are to speak in the next place But first we will draw such inferences out of that which hath been spoken as may be useful for our instruction And first if we look back upon the Disciples we cannot but look into our selves and seeing what it was that kept them so long from the true knowledge of the Messias who had been so long with them with whom they ate and drank and conversed and whose miracles they were eye-witnesses of we cannot but search and ransack our inward man empty it of all extravagant and heterogeneous matter dispossess it of every evil spirit of every carnal conceit which may shut out Christ sweep and garnish it that the Truth may enter and dwell there Prejudice puts â—ut the eye of our Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Opinion is a great retarder of proficiency it being common to men to be jealous of every word that breaths in opposition to what they have already received as of an enemy and though it be truth to suspect it because it breaths from a contrary coast Moab is setled on his lees hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel therefore his Jer. 48. 11. taste remained in him and his sent is not changed He hath ever the same taste and the same sent and this makes every thing promises and threatnings judgments and blessings doctrines and miracles relish and taste and sent as he doth He is the same under the rod and the same under blessings the same in a calm and the same when it thunders He is setled on his lees and no change can change him It is a world to see what power Prejudice hath to change the face and countenance of objects and shape them like unto it self It makes a shadow a man and a man a hobgoblin it mistakes a friend for an enemy It puts horror upon Virtue and makes Vice it self of a ruddy countenance It makes God the Author of sin and the Devil a worker of miracles It makes the Prince of peace a man of war beholds a poor Christ and makes him a King receives him in the form of a servant and builds him a Throne dreams of Kingdomes in the house of mourning and of triumph in persecution makes Christs Humility an occasion of pride makes a new Religion a new Christ a new Gospel and thus gropes at noon-day is deaf to thunder is surly against good counsel and thrusts him away that gives it is an enemy to a friend is a fiery furnace to devour those that minister unto it When God opens the gates of heaven this shuts them when he displayes his rayes of mercy this puts them by when he would enter this shuts the door when he is ready to let fall his dew this will not suffer him to be good unto us will not suffer him to bless will not suffer him to teach will not suffer him to save us This killed the Prophets and stoned them that were sent This whipped and spet upon and crucified the Lord of Life himself For all mistakes is from the Eye all error from the Mind not from the Object If the Eye be goggle or mis-set if the Mind be dimm'd with Malice or Ambition and Prejudice it puts upon things what shape it pleaseth receiveth not the true and natural species they present but views them at home in it self as in a false glass which renders them back again as it were by reflexion which
lusts And if there be aged men amongst them you may soon discover that their greatest wisdom is their grey hairs And will Peace rest upon these It will rest as soon in a whirlwind or in St. Judes cloud without Water or in St James wave of the Sea tossed up and down with every wind But I forbear for I list not to be too particular We read in our Books of one Timotheus an excellent Musician that he was wont to require a greater pay from those who had been taught by others before than from those who came unto him rude and untaught And his reason was Dedocendi officium gravius prius quà m docendi That it was a greater task to unteach them what they had already ill learnt and a necessity to be done before he could teach them his skill Beloved it is so with those who are to instruct others in the way of Peace Geminatur onus Whatsoever their reward is their burden is doubled It is not only enough to say Peace be unto this House but they must cleanse and purge the house that Peace may enter It is not enough only to salute but they must make way for the Salutation The Jew must be untaught his beggerly elements and rudiments of the world before he can be taught and instructed for the kingdom of Heaven His Ceremonies and the Law must be rased out before he can be the Apostle of Cbrist before the Gospel of Peace can be written in his heart The Gentile must be untaught those lessons which even Nature is ashamed of before he can receive the doctrine of Grace The Carnal man must learn to crucifie the flesh before he can become spiritual False principles must be destroyed before you can build up true ones in their place Whilst we please our selves in the errors of our life whilst we rejoyce in our selves and as the Apostle speaks measure our selves by our selves we are not fit for this Evangelical Salutation Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ No These strong holds must be pulled down these imaginations cast to the ground and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God every thought must be brought into captivity 2 Cor. 10. 5. unto the obedience of Christ Scio quibus viribus opus sit saith St. Augustine I know what power it must be that must perswade proud men that Humility is a virtue And I know what power it must be that must perswade a carnal man that there is no peace but where the spirit fights and overcomes the Flesh But non aliter haec sacra constant This Salutation will not pass where this preparation is not made This Peace will not enter into that Soul where there are tumults and thunders noyse and destruction Never did any plant grow up and flourish in the field of the Church which was not ramus propendens as Nazianzene speaketh of his Father a branch or bough hanging over and looking that way Nor doth Gods saving Grace bring Peace till his exciting and preparing Grace hath made a way for it When we are Sons of Peace when we have some title to the inheritance of Peace when our hearts are hammer'd and softned and subjugated when we are willing hearers then this Salutation is brought home to our doors and Peace will enter and rest upon us If the son of peace be there your peace shall rest upon him if not it shall return to you again And so I pass to my last Position That though it do not rest yet it shall not be lost but shall return to those that publish it The word is spoken the Salutation past Peace be to this house On the sons of peace it will rest but on others it will not And this is enough to take the word out of the Disciples mouths and stop the message for there is in every one of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of flitting humour which will not hold out long but faints and falls to the ground at the sight of some gross event which may fall out What plow the winds and sow the rocks bring Peace to them who will not receive it bring it thither where it will not rest Who would willingly be employed in such a Message For all this the word must be spoken and the Salutation given And that no groundless fear may seal up the Disciples lips they are told that even there where the Salutation will not rest it is not lost but will return again as David Psal 35. 13. spake of his prayer for his malicious enemies Though peradventure it do not prevail yet it will return into their bosom And this is it which stays and upholds us in the performance of all the duties of our life the Assurance that nothing that we do is lost Commonly upon a pretense of doing little Good we affect a kind of intempestive prudence and unseasonable discretion in performing that little good we do which shews it self in us like the Sun in winter long ere it arise and quickly gone We are unwilling to bear the Salutation and at the first rub and opposition we are weary of it If all be not Sons of Peace we will no longer be preachers of Peace But this Return of the Salutation adds spirit and courage to us and makes us venture into every house even into his who is an enemy to Peace First then for our comfort lost this Salutation cannot be For every good deed pays it self in the very doing And therefore saith the Orator Interest omnium rectè facere It concerns every man to do his duty and when he can reap no other fruit to content himself with the very doing of it Do not say the Word is cast away because it met not with a son of Peace It cannot be spoken and cast away For when it is spoken all is done Fac quod debes eveniat quod vult it is an Arabick Proverb Do that which thou shouldest and let the Event be what it will In the second place to do our duty is all that is required at our hands We are but to plant and water the increase is from another hand We can but say Peace be to this House It is not in our power to make it rest there Laus imperatori victo A skilful and wise Captain may deserve high honour and commendations though he fall before his enemy and an Orator may be famous for his eloquence though his Client be condemned The Philosopher in his Topicks will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not exacted from an Orator that he perswade but that he frame those arguments and motives which are perswasive nor of a Physitian to heal those who are ill affected but to prescribe those medicines which are soveraign If the earth be brass we cannot say the dew of Heaven hath no virtue nor if we put out our eyes can we say the Sun doth
noxious and malignant humor It is but a word but a syllable but as the cloud in the Book of Kings as big as a mans hand but as that anon covered all the heavens over and yielded great store of rain so may this word this syllable yield us plenty of instruction But we will confine and limit our discourse and draw those lines which we will pass by and which we will not exceed We shall shew 1. how Sin is ours 2. That all sins are ours 3. That they are only ours and lastly That they are wholly and totally ours that so we may agere poenitentìam plenam as the Ancients used to speak that our exomologesis may be open and sincere and our repentance full and compleat And of these in their order There is nothing more properly ours than Sin Not our Bodies For God formed Man of the dust of the ground de limo terrae quasi ex utero matris Gen. 2 7. saith Tertullian shaped him out of the earth as out of his mothers womb Not our Souls For he breathed into us the breath of life Not our Understandings For he kindled this great light in our souls Not our Affections For he imprinted them in our nature Not the Law For it is but a beam and a radiation from that eternal Law which was alwayes with him Quòd lex bona est nostrum non est quòd malè vivimus nostrum That the Law is just and holy and true is not from us but that we break this law this we can attribute to none but our selves Nec nobis quicquam infoelicius in peccato habemus quà m nos auctores And this may seem our greatest infelicity that when Sin lyes at our doors we can find no father for it but our selves and that we are the authors of that evil which destroys us Now this propriety which we have to Sin ariseth from the very nature of Man who was not made only Lord of the world but had free possession given him of himself and that freedom and power of Will which was libripens emancipati à Deo boni which doth hold the balance and weigh and poise both Good and Evil and may touch and strike either skale as he pleaseth For Man is not good or evil by necessity or chance but by the freedom of his Will quod à Deo rationaliter attributum ab homine verò quà voluit agitatum which was wisely given him of God but is managed by man at pleasure and levelled and directed to either object either good or evil either life or death So that it is not my Knowledge of evil it is not my Remembrance of evil it is not my Contemplation of sin nay it is not my Acting of sin I mean the producing of the outward act which makes Sin mine but my Will Voluntas mali malos efficit sed scientia mali non facit scientes malos saith Parisiensis Sin may be in the understanding and in the Memory and yet not mine I may know it and loath it I may remember and abhor it I may do some act which the Law forbids and yet not break that Law But when my Will which doth reign as an Empress over every faculty of the soul and over every part of the body which saith unto this part Go and it goes and to another Do this and it doth it when this commanding faculty doth once yield and give her assent against that Law which is just fit jam proprietas mali in homine quodammodo natura saith Tertullian then Sin is our choice our purchase our possession and there ariseth a kind of propriety and it is made in a manner natural unto us because we receive and admit it into our very nature at that gate which we might have shut against it The Adulterer may think that he is not guilty of sin till he have taken his fill of lust but that sin was his when his will first yielded An putas tunc primùm te intrare meritorium cùm fornicem meretricis ingrederis saith St. Ambrose Dost thou think thou then first entredst the stews when thou didst first set foot in the harlots house Intrasti jam cùm cogitationes tuas meretrix intravit Thou wert in already when the strange woman entred thy thoughts And when thy will had determined its act thou wert an adulterer though thou knewest no woman And St. Augustine gives the reason Nihil enim aliud quà m ipsum velle est habere quod volumus For to have that which I will it is enough to will it Villicus si velit nihil peccat saith Columella The Steward or Farmer doth nothing amiss unless he will Homo potest peccare sed si nolit non facit saith the Father Man may sin but if he sin there can be no other reason given but his Will For the Will is of that power as to entitle me to sin though I break not forth into action and when I am forced to the outward act to quit me from the guilt of sin to denominate me either evil or good when I do neither evil nor good and when my hands are shackled and bound Lucrece was ravisht by Tarquin and yet was as chast as before and the Oratour said well Duo fuerunt adulterium unus admisit There were two in the fact and but one committed adultery For natural Reason did suggest this Mentem peccare non corpus That it is the Mind and Will and not the Body which sins and where there is a strong resolution not to offend there can be no offense at all For it is not in my power what to do or not to do but it is in my power to will or not to will to make choice or refuse And therefore there is no such danger in the doctrine of Freewill as some have phansied to themselves and brought it in as an argument against it that it is dangerous For though my Will be free my Power is restrained and hath bounds set it Thus far shall I go and no farther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hierocles Those things which are before me I may choose but those I cannot which are out of my reach I may will the ruin of a Kingdom when I am not able to destroy a cottage I may will the death of my brother and yet not be able to lift up my finger against him My Will is illimited but my Power hath bounds And indeed it was not an argument against Freewill but a Rhetorical flourish and empty boast which we find in Martin Luther Veniant magnifici illi liberi arbitrii ostentatores saith he Let those loud and glorious upholders of Freewill come and shew this freedom but in the killing of a flea For he mistook and made our Power and Will to an act all one when it is plain and manifest that he who cannot challenge a power to kill a flea yet may put on a will and resolution to murder a