entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it For even those Jews had a promise of Canaan and in it of the eternal rest whose Carcasses notwithstanding for their disobedience fell short of it in the desert and God sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest And therefore though the passion and death of Christ be absolute and in it self belonging to all yet there may be but a few to whom the good and benefit of it shall redound For remission of sins doth not immediately flow from his blood without intercedent obedience in us the next effect of it is not presently Salvation but a way and means whereby non obstante justitiâ without any impeachment to his justice we may now attain unto Salvation It doth not instantly convey us again into Paradise but only gives us the word whereby we may if we will safely and without impeachment pass the Angel and his flaming Sword that guards the entrance thither so that by it non solvitur omnibus captivitas sed solvitur omnibus captivitati necessitas though all be not actually loosed from Captivity yet all are loosed from the necessity of Captivity as the late and learned Writer of the Pelagian Story The gates of Brass and bars of Iron are smitten in sunder and so a way opened unto the Captives who notwithstanding if they be so far enamoured with their misery and captivity may for all that lie still in their Prison It is a potion for the good of all that are sick sed si non bibitur non medetur if it be not faithfully drank it shall never effectually cure saith◠Prosper And therefore we need not be anxious or doubtful on Gods behalf but only careful and solicitous for our selves what he hath promised in Baptism that he for his part will not be wanting sure he will never break in his Supper He will not fail to perform his promise if we but seriously bewail the breach of ours It is a Spiritual Banquet whereunto there never came any sorrowful and hungry Soul that ever departed empty And therefore let us draw near in full assurance of Faith no way wavering for he is faithful that hath promised saith St. Paul And as he is faithful that hath promised yet because he promiseth nothing here but to the faithful we must bring this with us though it be not of us a living Faith that only can work Repentance from dead works not to be repented of And this Faith only once thoroughly rooted begets that other confidence and fullness of Faith the Apostle speaks of which if it hath any other Parent is illegitimate ill born and falsly termed Faith when the true Father's name is Presumption And for this cause those that the Apostle exhorts to draw near with full assurance of Faith he thus qualifies having a true heart an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Then we go on rightly and orderly when we come not to the confident faith but by the penitent and as we go from faith to faith here so we shall appear before the God of Gods in Sion hereafter if therefore our heart within be true an upright within us if by a deep and entire Repentance it be sprinkled from an evil Conscience let us draw near in full assurance of faith as being most confident that our lips do not more truly drink the fruit of the Vine than our Souls do the blood of our Saviour the effect and merit of his blood whereby that which before was but sprinkled shall now be drenched and thoroughly cleansed from all the stains and impurities of Sin Our heart is ready O God our heart is ready only come thou and dwell in our hearts purge them and cleanse them wholly with thy blood and being cleansed keep and preserve them by thy Spirit spotless and blameless until the day of thy second coming in the Clouds with Glory That we who receive thee with fulness of faith now may stand before thee with the same confidence then and be received by thee and with thee into those eternal habitations at the right hand of God where is fulness of joy an pleasure for evermore To whom with thee and the Holy Ghost three Persons c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum THE WAY TO HAPPINESS SERMON VII Upon MAT. vi 33. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you IT is a part of our Saviours Sermon in the Mount and the conclusion of a larger discourse in the precedent Verses whereto it refers And indeed it is or should be the Conclusion of all our discourses For all are little material and to no purpose unless they tend unto this issue The Kingdom of God and his righteousness Let us hear the Conclusion of all saith Solomon of all not only discourses but humane endeavours upon Earth Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man The second Solomon infinitely wiser than that first strikes here but on the same string though by his double touch it receives an air and relisheth more evangelical Unto the Righteousness of God adding the reward of it the Kingdom of God That so the works which the Law requires might be rightly wrought in the hope and faith of that immortality and glory which the Gospel proposeth However then we busy our selves about many things this is that unum necessarium the one thing that is necessary able to resolve Parmenides his Riddle Unum omnia one thing necessary wherein all necessaries are included whatsoever is necessary for the body or the soul whatsoever concerns either imployment here or felicity Eternal hereafter the whole perfection of man and the whole goodness of God If these things be all all these are enclosed in this one this one little exhortation Seek ye first c. The communication of divine goodness besides that of hypostatical union particular and supereminent hath generally but three degrees of participation Nature Grace and Glory And here they are all three either in their utmost extent or in their highest exaltations First all the necessaries of Nature pertaining to the body but slightly indeed inferred as deserving our least and slightest care These things shall be added unto you but though slightly yet fully All these things all that are requisite shall be added Secondly the utmost improvement of Grace that cannot farther adorn and beautify the Soul than with the righteousness of God His Righteousness And lastly the highest degree of glory nothing can be higher than participation with God in his own Kingdom The Kingdom of God The less marvel therefore that our search and travel for these these latter yea our utmost industry and endeavour be so carefully called led upon and inculcated with a Quaerite and a Primum quaerite seek and first seek Seek ye first the Kingdom of God c. Wherein the division is as plain as the
hard man as that lazy fellow in the Gospel would make him to reap where he did not sow or else like Pharaoh requiring his Brick where he doth not afford Straw for the making Not therefore according to the Faith which they knew not but according to the good and evil which they knew so shall all be judged by him who now comes to reward every man according to his works From the opera now if we come to the sua remove the Accent thither we shall but remove from one difficulty to another For some there are that have no works of their own How many that die as soon as born and not a few before and both before they have done either good or evil for which they may be rewarded It may be said peradventure that yet even these have one work of their own for being all in Adams loins when he sinned his Sin by virtue of the first Covenant becomes theirs and theirs therefore by St. Paul it is expresly termed in quo omnes peccâ—verunt in whom all have sinned This is right and hath nothing but truth in it if we consider only the Nature of the first Covenant and go no farther than so But farther I suppose we are to go for since there is a second Covenant passed and the second as the Apostle to the Hebrews and reason it self will tell us must disanul the fâ—rst A second strucken even with the same Adam and in him we all were at the transaction of the one as well as of the other and reputed in his loyns when he was restored as well as when he fell for that is the perpetual nature of Gods Covenants Vobis liberis vestris Deus tuus seminis tui And sure if we make our stay in the old Testament the Father must have come in his own glory the Son of man could never have come in the glory of the Father to render unto every man his own works for had he not first been our Mediatour he had never been our Judge Now therefore we are to look up unto him contemplate the person before whose seat of Judgment we are to appear even Christ our blessed Lord that innocent Lamb that was slain from the beginning that Lamb of God which by his blood being slain took away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sin of the world in the singular and other such singular sin of the world but there was not any And for this cause is rightly termed Adam secundus a second Adam a second through whom all receive justification unto life that became lyable unto death and condemnation in the first This is our Judge even the Author of the second Covenant who therefore will not sentence men as those Apostate Angels strictly after the Law of the first but as St. Paul speaks secundùm Evangelium meum according to my or rather his own Gospel Before this Judge when St. Paul cites every man he assures us no man shall answer but for what himself hath done or be rewarded with punishment but as my text hath it secundùm opera sua according to his own works and those his own not because acted in the loyns of another but because done in his own body for so saith St. Paul expresly and purposely it seems to prevent the interpretation we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things done in his body or rather not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some of the best Copies read and ancient Fathers cite and the vulgar doth render propria Corporis the proper things done in the body This therefore will not satisfy the doubt and were it admitted would yet satisfy but on one part the part that perish still the difficulty would remain how those on the other side that are saved by Sacrament should be rewarded with heaven secundum opera sua according to their own works But not to meddle any farther in this matter the truth is and it is the fullest answer I can give it That we may not measure such ignorant Innocents either always by the common rules of doctrine or at any time by the general precepts of duty For those the Scriptures are usually spoken of and these perpetually directed unto none but the full-grown and adult as they that alone are capable of them The not observing whereof is the chief cause I conceive of the great variety of opinions and intricate difficulties which this point of Infants hath begotten Some excluding them utterly from this day and seat of judgment because without Works either good or bad to be then discussed Others admitting of their presence there but yet neither among those on the right hand or yet on the left and so not liable to either of these two grand Sentences which shall then be pronounced A third sort subjecting them unto a Sentence and of these some unto such a Sentence as shall carry them to beatitude but in a Paradise apart others conveying them thence directly to heaven A fourth sort even to Hell and a fifth unto a middle state a condition between both But yet among all these varieties this is remarkable not any one of the Antients was ever so severe unto any of these whether baptized or otherwise as to cast them into that nethermost Hell and those torments which he suffers there of whom our Saviour said it had been better for him if he had never been born No not that learned and holy man who was esteemed durus Infantum Pater of all others a hard Father unto infants for even he though he placed them in a Region of Hell yet in such a tolerable condition therein as it were better for them to be even there than not to be at all August lib. 4. cont Julian cap. 8. But for my part I determine nothing amidst so many doubts and distractions 't were best leave them to stand or fall to their own Master especially since my Text which speaks of works rewardable like other general Scriptures doth not as I said concern impotent and ignorant Infants but grown Men knowing and operative for whoever of such receives the Kingdom of Heaven must receive it meerly as an Inheritance without any respect of works They are exempted from such common rules and so not included in this every man here that shall now be rewarded secundùm opera sua according to his own works And now in the last place let us come to this secundùm the first of the words and then sure we shall find our selves in no less streights than any of the former yea ut unda undam so one doubt and difficulty seems here to drive on another For first since the good shall now be rewarded ultra meritum beyond their merit and the evil citra condignum short of their desert which is a Maxime in Divinity they may well be rewarded for but not
sensum Apostolo defuisse non miretur Who can chuse but wonder the Apostle should not see this subtilty saith St. Austin For had he known it to have been so eodem modo solveret istam quaestionem he would soon have answered the question immo nullam quam solvi opus esset faceret quaestionem Nay he had then never made any such question that should need an answer For there had not remained so much as any shew of injustice where Love or Hatred doth proceed according to good or evil deserts But now that there should be a different judgment where there is no difference in merit there cannot but seem a just occasion of making the demand Nunquid iniquitas Whereunto leaving this vain gloss as directly contrary unto his purpose he reduceth all unto the meer will of God I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion An answer sounding to this effect That since both were equally conceived in original sin deserved his Justice his Love unto one was an act of Mercy and in Mercy there is no cause of his will but his will nor of his Mercy but his Mercy I will have mercy c. And then quis nisi insipiens Deum iniquum putet sive judicium poenale ingerat digno sive misericordiam praestet indigno Because as before was noted though the one obtain free favour yet the other receives no injury By which answer he doth at once free God from all injustice towards the Reprobate and withal withdraws all merit from the Elect who have that Name and Grace for no other cause but only because he had a will to shew Mercy special Mercy unto them which he did not unto others to whom notwithstanding they were of themselves in all things equal and with whom they were in like sort obnoxious unto the revenge and power of Justice False therefore and vain and very derogatory unto the goodness of that God in whom is our help are their conceipts that build Election upon a foreseen good or evil use of a general and sufficient Grace to the prejudice of that which is special and particular For however we deny not but rather piously believe that his Providence doth sufficiently help all those whom his mercy doth vouchsase to call yet withal we acknowledge it to be such an help as whereâ— withal God when he looked down from Heaven saw there was none did good no not one A help therefore which in effect doth not give Salvation but takes away excuse and seems not so much to justify them as to make their Condemnation more just who notwithstanding that they might not all perish and that he might yet shew his Mercy of his infinite goodness freely elected some to such special Grace whereby they should not perish a Grace effectual receiving the rest unto endless punishment for abusing that which was sufficient So that God doth not only give such Grace whereby we may be able to do and then elect us for doing what we were able but contrarily foreseeing that we would not do what we were able with that sufficient Grace to do of his absolute Mercy did decree to give us such powerful and efficacious Grace whereby we certainly should do what otherwise without this special help he knew we should not For had not he by this means as the Scripture testifies reserved unto himself a Remnant notwithstanding the former Grace we had been all as Sodom and perished as Gomorrha And therefore Reliqui mihi saith God unto Elias It is not there are or there remains unto me but I have reserved unto my self seven thousand which never bowed the knee unto Baal And from this Reliqui they are termed Reliquiae secundùm electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt A Remnant only are saved according to the Election of Grace And if of Grace surely not of foreseen works yea so far is God from respecting the will or work of Man in the dispensation of his Grace as he sometimes denies that help unto those that would use it well which notwithstanding he offers and exhibits unto others that he knew before would reject it Had those great works saith our Saviour upbraiding the Jews been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented in Sackcloth and Ashes Lo how God ploughs the Sand and scatters his good seed upon the dry and barren hearts of the Jews fitter for salt and in the mean time withholds it from another soil that would have fructified and brought forth the fruit of Repentance unto eternal life What shall we say unto this Two things occur which I only am willing to answer saith St. Austin in the like case and are very fit for this nunquid iniquitas apud Deum And O alâ—itudo divitiaerum An Interrogation and an exclamation the one out of the ninth and the other out of the eleventh to the Râ—m And both joined tend unto this That being assured there is no injustice with God we should not search the cause but admire the depth of his Wisdom whose judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out For he often treads on water that leaves no path or impression behind He walks upon the great deep saith Daâ—id and his footsteps are not known And whom this will not satisfy I must advise with the same Father Quaerat doctiorer seâ—b caveat nè inoeniat praesumptiores Let him seek those that are more learned but take heed he doth not meet with those that are too presumptuous Such surely as these conditional Electioners are who as if they were fore runners of the second coming of Christ endued with the Spirit of Elias have cast down every Hill and filled up every Valley made whatsoever seemed crooked streight and whatsoever was rough smooth and plain and by this means they though but lambs can easily wade where those Elephants the Fathers of the Primitive Church found such Pits and Pools as they were glad to swim For what is there in their Doctrine not easie and even obvious and open if God hath diversly determined of none but such as are of divers and different merits what room then is there left for O altitudo For they that give a cause of Election take away all cause of the Apostles exclamation because none do admire an effect but they that are ignorant of the cause as here all must needs be when of those that have one and same cause there is not one and the same regard but the one is justly exposed unto hatred the other vouchsafed love without all cause at least that we can search out and inquire The head of Nilus may be sooner found than the Spring and Fountain of Election the eye of the Eagle that looks on the Sun cannot discover it because it remains in his bosom that dwells in inaccessible light And yet notwithstanding we do not make the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrational For
shedding of it which was purposely shed to cleanse them from the guilt of their sins if instead of sealing salvation to their own Souls they do but eat damnation to themselves for not discerning the body of their Lord. For did they discern it did they understand and conceive it to be there they could not but approach unto it with greater reverence with much more heed and awful regard When it was at the worst and lowest estate the malicious Jews could bring it to bereaved of all form and beauty yea and of that blessed Soul which dwelt within it and now remained only a dead and crucified Carkase all over gaping with wounds and gored with blood yet even then with what care and reverent respect was it handled by the good Arimathean It was wrapt up in fine and clean Linnen imbalmed with sweet Oyntmens and perfumes and laid in a new Sepulcher hewen out of the Rock How then and with what high esteem should we we that are to be made not Sepulchers but Shrines and Temples not of his ignominious but glorified body not of his body only but of his whole person of his body and blood and Soul and Divinity and all how I say and with what diligent preparation should we see that all things be pure and clean and sweet and new where such a guest is to be entertained where he is not to be lodged for a night or two but to inhabit where he is not to lye a while as in the grave but to dwell and live for ever This were something to the purpose and we should then shew we discerned the Lords body which now we seem not at all to regard eating and drinking of his flesh and blood with no more reverence and respect than if we were at an ordinary Table of Bread and Wine Nay I assure my self many of us make more preparation being but to dine with some Neighbour than they do to come to the great Kings supper They can with all diligence apparel and trim up the outward man against every ordinary feast in the mean time neglecting the inward man of the Soul little regarding how foul and slovenly that comes to the holy Banquet But let such careless men in time take heed the wrath of the Lord hath never shown it self more terribly than on the profaners of holy things especially his own holy presence Many and fearful are the examples in this kind The great King of Babel no sooner polluted the Sanctified Vessels but even whilst he is carrouzing in the bowls of the Temple a strange hand from heaven writes his doom on the wall before him the terror whereof looseth the joints of his loyns and makes his knees knock one against another which was but a forerunner of his ruine who that night lost at once both his Kingdom and his life But how dreadful was that judgment in the 1 of Sam. vi where fifty thousand Souls are suddenly struck dead for but looking irreverently into the holy Ark and Uzzah instantly smitten with the like vengeance for but touching it with profane hands though with a good intent to hold it up when in his judgment it was like to fall And shall we who are permitted I say not to touch or to look into the moveable but to walk into the standing Ark the Temple of the Lord yea to enter in within the Vail and approach up even to the Mercy-seat and eat of the holy shew bread that stands before the Lord if we continue to pollute that sacred place and banquet with our unwasht feet unclean and impure affections shall we think to escape alone without wrath from Heaven Let no Soul flatter it self with such a bold and mad presumption The divine indignation that in former times was wont ever almost to follow such profanations at the heels though in these later ages the great day of final accounts drawing on it seem to slacken the pace yet it will certainly overtake them one time or other if not here in this world yet infallibly in that other hereafter though oftentimes even in this also Even at this instant when the Apostle wrote this very Chapter the Lord had sent a fearful sickness amongst the Corinthians and that for this very cause their profaning of the Sacrament as you may read the words immediately following my Text. For this cause saith he some are even now sick others weak and many amongst you fallen asleep that is taken away by bodily death But however it go with us now yet at that day when the great King shall come to take a particular view of his guests he will not fail to find out all those careless people that have presumed to sit down at his table without their wedding garments and pronounce upon them that heavy doom in the Gospel take them bind them hand and foot and cast them into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth So necessary is this duty of reverent preparation and so great the necessity urged upon the high terms of no less than plagues and punishments here and destruction for ever hereafter So true is that of our Apostle he that eateth unworthily doth but eat judgment unto himself so the word imports judgment temporal though he repent and without repentance damnation eternal and that in so heinous a manner as if he were guilty of the very body and blood of the Lord no less than the cruel Jews that shed the one and crucified the other or treacherous Judas that betrayed both Well then necessary it is and highly But to come to the second point let us now see what the preparation is that is so necessary wherein it consists and how far it extends that must denominate and make a worthy Receiver Surely though no Man living be absolute worthy in himself or can by any means attain unto that entire and compleat worth which is fully answerable unto the dignity and holiness of those sacred mysteries yet it pleaseth God of his grace to accept of him for a worthy Receiver of them that doth truly and faithfully endeavour to receive them with a competent measure of that reverence and those qualifications which he hath prescribed in his word amongst which Knowledge Faith Repentance Love and Charity Love to God and Charity to our Brethren I suppose are the chief if not all And these sure at least are simply necessary by them we must examine and with them we must prepare our selves whosoever will be worthy Receivers First with Knowledge an honest degree of knowledge what the mysteries are what they signifie and exhibite for what purpose they were ordained of God and are received by our selves Thus much seems requisite in the meanest capacity for so long as we are ignorant of the substantial parts and fundamental doctrine of the Sacrament so long as we neither know nor consider the main ends and purposes for which it was instituted how can we possibly prepare our selves worthily to