usque ad aras Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars but nothing of Gods neither ours to give nor his to receive For for this Cause you pay tribute also This the Apostle gives as a sign of that confest right that Magistrates have to the subjection and obedience of people that in all Nations this Homage and Acknowledgment is due to them Tribute payed which it may be he the rather mentions because some question might be what might Christians do concerning this however this according to the Constitution of several places he takes as granted to be not only lawful but due to be rendred Here we are not to insist on the seanning of this but certainly as the power of a Magistrate is not in this nor in any other thing absolute and unbounded so the legal and just paying of Tribute and other Revenues by the people argues their engagement to these set over them and is not as Wages to a Mercenary servant but an Honorary due to their place and calling who are the Ministers of God in civil Government so also convenient yet liberal maintenance to the Ministers of Gods own house is their right yet not to inrich them nor yet ought it to be given grudgingly as undue or superciliously as to servants but with the chearfulness and respect agreeable to the Lords servants watching for their Souls All Tribute and Obedience still relates to this and is grounded on it the Lords Institution of Power and Government for the good of Men though it sometimes prove otherwise in the exercise of it yet the Ordinance is pure and most wisely suited to its end from which the Sin and Corruption of Men turns it but too often so that one Man Rules over another to his hurt to the hurt of both the Ruler himself and of the Ruled Eccl. 8. 9. There is a time wherein one Man ruleth over another to his own hurt each proving a scourge to the other in the Just Judgment of God upon both for their Iniquities making a fire from Abimelech to devour the Men of Shechem and the Men of Shechem deal treacherously with Abimelech Yet still the thing it self remains good many skilful Physicians may kill instead of curing yet it is but a caprice to decry all Remedies and the use of things Medicinal that the God of Nature hath furnisht for that use Men may and alas most do prejudice their own health by either intemperate or some way irregular Diet yet this makes nothing against the continual necessity and use of Food nor can disswade any from using it Thus the abuses of Authority infringe not this That Magistrates are a publick good yea the Unjust better than none Tyranny better than Anarchy there is some Justice done in the most Unjust Government But thus they that are exalted to Rule ought to consider who raised them and for what they are raised and so faithfully to do Justice They are raised high as the Stars are set in their Orbs for influence and the good of the Inferiour World and as the Mountains which rise above the Vallies not to be places of Prey and Ruin but by the streams they send out to refresh them So from Magistrates Judgment ought to run down as Water and Justice as a mighty Stream they ought to consider themselves as Ministers though called Magistrates with relation to the people yet Ministers in relation to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the people's in him as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports being constant Labourers for their good Even the Sun a Minister Gods Minister of Heat and Light to the Earth Would they look up thus to God it would make them look down on their Inferiours not with the ill aspect of Pride and Cruelty but the benign looks of Good Will Fidelity and Vigilancy for their Welfare knowing that they are appointed for this very use in the World not referring to that which is nearest here and nearest themselves The receiving of Tribute but the remotest good which is the chief for which their Tribute and themselves are appointed The punishing of the Wicked and encouragement of the Good Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute c. The Apostle enlarges his Exhortation to the general Rule of Equity the humble upright mind will willingly suit with this and pay respect to men in obedience to God and therefore primarily to him which the most neglect Honour and fear are due to him as to our Father and Master and yet where is it to be found If I be a Father where is mine honour And if I be a Master where is my fear c. Mal. 1. The Tribute of Praise and Glory in all these is due and ought not to be purloyned nor any part detained but how few are faithful in this Much Uncustom'd Goods pass among our hands in the course of our Lives many things wherein we are not mindful to give Glory entire Glory to God but he cannot be deceived if we go on he will take us in our quietest conveyance and all will be forfeited We shall certainly lose all if all Glory return not to him all that we have and are should we daily and heartily offer up to him from whom we have life and breath and all things Owe no man any thing but to love one another c. That which the Apostle set before himself as his own study and exercise Act. 24. he doth in the latter part of this Epistle set forth at large as the Duty of every Christian to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and Men. And having in the former part of it treated amply and excellently of the Doctrine of Christians Faith and Salvation and ascended to its highest cause he descends from thence to give the Rules of a Christian Life and he reduces them to those two To give the Lord his due which is our selves entire Our Bodies ought to be a living Sacrifice Chap. 12. ver 1. And that they are not without the Soul and it is Love in the Soul that offers up this whole burnt offering to God the fire that makes it ascend Towards men likewise Love is all of which in many several acts of it he spake likewise in the former Chapter verse 9. c. And having inserted an exhortation to Subjection to Humane Authority as a Divine Institution he now returns to that main Comprehensive and Universal Duty of Love and passes fitly from the mention of other particular Dues to Superiours to this as the general Due or standing Debt all men owe one to another So I conceive this is not intended for the further pressing of that particular Duty of Subjection by reducing it seeming hard in it self to the sweet and pleasant Rule or Law of Love but that he passes wholly from that particular to this common Duty so as that is not excluded but comprehended here with the rest though not specially aimed at but a
the Descriptions of two several Women the one riding in State arrayed in Purple deckt with Gold and precious Stones and Pearl Rev. 17. 3. The other in rich attire too but of another kind Cloathed with the Sun and a Crown of twelve Stars on her head the others decorement was all Earthly this Womans is all celestial what need she borrow Light and Beauty from precious Stones that 's Cloathed with the Sun and Crowned with Stars she wears no sublunary Ornaments but which is more noble she treads upon them the Moon is under her Feet now if you know as you do all without doubt which of these two is the Spouse of Christ you can easily resolve the question The truth is those things seem to deck Religion but they undo it Observe where they are most used and we shall find little or no substance of Devotion under them as we see in that Apostate Church of Rome This Painting is dishonourable for Christ's Spoâ—se and besides it spoils her natural Complexion The superstitious use of Torches and Lights in the Church by day is a kind of shining but surely not commanded here No it is an affront done both to the Sun in the Heaven and to the Sun of Righteousness in the Church What is meant then when the Church is Commanded to shine or be enlightened These two readings give the entire sense of the word first for having no light of her self she must receive light and then shew it be enlightened and then shine she is enlightened by Christ the Sun of Righteousness shining in the Sphere of the Gospel This is that Light that comes to her and the Glory of the Lord that arises upon her hence she receives her Laws and Form of Government and her shining is briefly the pure exercise of those and conformity to them And the personal shining of the several Members of a Church is a comely congruity with pure worship and discipline and it is that which now is most needful to be urged every Christian Soul is personally engaged first to be enlightened and then to shine and we must draw our Light for our selves from that same source that furnishes the Church with her publick Light There is a word in the Civil Law Uxor fulget radiis mariti the Wife shines by the rays of her Husbands Light Now every faithful Soul is espoused to Christ and therefore may well shine seeing the Sun himself is their Husband he adorns them with a double Beauty of Justification and Sanctification By that they shine more especially to God by this to Men And may not these two be signified by a double Character given to the Spouse in the Cant. 6. 20. She is fair as the Moon and clear as the Sun The lesser Light is that of Sanctification Fair as the Moon That of Justification the greater by which She is as clear as the Sun The Sun is perfectly Luminous but the Moon is but half enlightened so the Believer is perfectly justified but sanctified only in part his one half his flesh is dark and as the partial illumination is the reason of so many changes in the Moon to which changes the Sun is not subject at all so the imperfection of a Christians holiness is the cause of so many waxings and waneings and great inequality in his performances whereas in the mean while his Justification remains constantly like it self This is imputed that inherent The Light of Sanctification must begin in the understanding and from thence be transfused to the affection the inferiour parts of the Soul and from thence break forth and shine into Action This is then the nature of the Duties Arise and Shine The Universality of the subject which was the second head is this That every Man that knows Christ is here engaged to shine too neither grandeur exempts from the duty of shining nor doth meanness exclude from the priviledge of shining Men of low condition in this World need not despair of it for it is a spiritual Act great Men need not despise it for it is a noble Act to shine by Christ's Light In the 3 verse of this Chap. it is said to the Church Kings shall come to the brightness of thy rising To what end but to partake of her Light and shine with her And indeed the regal attire of Christ's Righteousness and the white Robes of Holiness will exceeding well become Kings and Princes Give the King thy Judgements O Lord and thy Righteousness to the King's Son The Third and Last thing propounded was the force of the reason that Christ's presence engages to Arise and shine wherein it is supposed that Christ declared in the Gospel is the Light which is said here to come and the Glory of the Lord which is said to be risen so that now it should be more amply cleared how Christ is Light and the Glory of the Lord and what his coming and rising is but of these afterwards I shall close now with a word of exhortation Arise then for the Glory of the Lord is risen The day of the Gospel is too precious that any of it should be spent in sleep or idleness or worthless business worthless business detains many of us Arise immortal Souls from moyling in the dust and working in the Clay like Egyptian captives Address your selves to more noble work there is a Redeemer come that will pay your ransome and rescue you from such vile service for more excellent employment It is strange how the Souls of Christians can so much forget their first original from Heaven and their new hopes of returning thither and the Rich price of their Redemption and forgetting all these dwell so low and dote so much upon triffles how is it that they hear not their well beloved's voice crying Arise my love my fair one and come away Though the eyes of true Believers are so inlightened that they shall not sleep unto death yet their spirits are often seized with a kind of drowsiness and slumber and sometimes even then when they should be of most activity The time of Christ's check to his three Disciples made it very sharp tho'the words are mild What could you not watch with me one hour Shake off believing Souls that heavy humour Arise and satiate the eye of faith with the contemplation of Christ's Beauty and follow after him till you attain the place of full enjoyment And you others that never yet saw him Arise and admire his matchless excellency The things you esteem great are but so through ignorance of his greatness his brightness if you saw it would obscure to you the greatest splendor of the World as all those Stars that go never down upon us yet they are swallowed up in the surpassing light of the Sun when it arises Stand up from the dead and he shall give you light Arise and work while it is Day for the Night shall come wherein none can work says our Saviour himself Happy are
motion Thus heady Zeal often mistakes and flatters it self we find not here a desire of fire to come down from Heaven upon the breakers of the Law but such a grief as would rather bring Water to quench it if it were falling on them Rivers of Waters c. The degree of this sorrow it 's vehement not a light transient dislike but a deep resentment such as causeth not some few sighs or some drops of tears but Rivers It is true The measure and degree of sorrow for Sin whether their own or others are different in divers Persons that are yet true mourners and they are also different in the same Person at divers times not only upon the difference of the cause but even where the cause is equal upon the different influence and working of the Spirit of God Sometimes it pleaseth him to warm and melt the heart more abundantly and so he raises these Rivers in these Eyes to a higher Tide than ordinary Sometimes they remove again but yet this Godly sorrow is always serious and sincere and that 's the other Quality here remarkable in it It is not a Histrionical weeping only in publick for the speech is here directed to God as a more frequent witness of these tears than any other who is always the witness of the sincerity of them even when they cannot be hid from the Eyes of Men for I deny not but they may and should have vent in publick especially at such times as are set a part for solemn Mourning and Humiliation yet even then usually these streams run deepest where they 're stillest and most quietly conveyed but howsoever sure they would not be fewer and less frequent alone than in company for that 's a little subject to suspition Jer. 9. 1. Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people And 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away captive The Subject of this affection is not the Ungodly themselves that are profest transgressors of this Law they rather make a sport of sin as Solomon speaks they play and make themselves merry with it as the Philistines did with Sampson till it bâ—ing the House down about their ears But the Godly are they that are affected with this sorrow such as are careful observers of the Law themselves and mourn first for their own breaches for these are the only fit mourners for the transgression of others Now to enquire a little into the cause of this Why the breaking of God's Law should cause such sorrow in the Godly as here breaketh forth into abundant of Tears we shall find it very reasonable if we consider 1. The Nature of Sin which is the transgression or breach of the Law as the Apostle defines it 2. The Nature of this Sorrow and these Tears 3. The Nature of the Godly 1. Sin is the greatest Evil in the World yea truly in comparison it alone is worth the Name of Evil and therefore may justly challenge Sorrow and the greatest Sorrow the greatest of Evils it is both formally in that it alone is the defilement and deformity of the Soul and casually being the root from whence all other Evils spring the fruitful Womb that conceives and brings forth all those miseries that either Man feels or hath cause to fear Whence are all those personal Evils incident to Men in their Estates or in their Bodies or Minds outward Turmoils and Diseases and inward Discontents and Death it self in all the kinds of it Are they not all the fruits of that bitter root Whence arise these publick miseries of Nations and Kingdoms but from the Epidemick National Sins of the People as the deserving and procuring cause at God's Hand And withal oftentimes from the ambitious and wicked practices of some particular Men as the working and effecting Causes so that every way if we follow these evils home to their original we shall find it to be Sin or the breaking of God's Law Ungodly men though they meddle not with publick affairs at all yea though they be faithful and honest in meddling with them yet by reason of their Impious Lives are Traytors to their Nation they are truly the Incendiaries of States and Kingdoms And these Mourners though they can do no more are the Loyallest and serviceable Subjects bringing tears to quench the fire of Wrath Rivers of Waters And therefore sorrow and tears are not only most due to sin as the greatest of evils but they 're best bestowed upon it if they can do any thing to its redress because that is both the surest and most compendious way to remedy all the rest sin being the source and spring of them all This is the reason why Jeremiah 9. ver 1. when he would weep for the slain of his people is straightway led from that to bâ—wail the sin of his people ver 2 3 c. And in his Book of Tears and Lamentations he often reduces all these sad evils to Sin as causing them particularly chap. 5. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head Woe unto us that we have sinned He turns the complaint more to the Sin than to the Affliction Secondly Consider the Nature of these Tears Tears spent for worldly Câ—osses are all lost They run all to waste they are Lachryâ—nae inanes empty fruitless things but tears shed for the breach of God's Law are the means to quench God's Wrath. The Pravers and Tears of some few may avert the punishment of many yea of a whole Land and if not so yet are they not lost the Mourners themselves have always benefit by them as you have it in that known place Ezek. 9. They that mourned for the common Abominations were marked and the common Desolation took not hold on them This mourning for other Mens wickedness both testifies and preserves the Godly man's Innocence I say it preserves it as well as testifies it it keeps them from the Contagion of that bad Air they live in for without this Sin would soon grow familiar It is good for men to keep up and maintain in their Souls a dislike of Sin for when once it ceaseth to be displeasing to a Man it will ere long begin to be pleasing to him If we consider the Nature of the Godly we shall see this mourning suit with it exceedingly both in regard of his relation to God and to man God is his Father and therefore it cannot but grieve him much to see him offended and dishonored Love to God and consequently to his Law and love to Men and desire of their good is the spring of these Rivers A Godly man is tender of Gods Glory and of his Law every stroke that it receives striketh his heart and he hath bowels
should easily confess nor I think can any deny it but that there is in the very ruines of our Nature some Character left of a tendency to God as our chief and only satisfying good which we may call a kind of love and when we hear him spoken of find it flutter and stir and hence men so abhor the imputation of hating God and being enemies Yet this is so smothered under sensuality and flesh that until we be made spiritual nothing appears but practical and as they call it Interpretative Enmity There is one thing stains them enough they were all as that Father speaks Animalia Gloriae They aimed not in their study of Vertue at God's glory but at their own and is not that quarrel enough and matter of enmity Says not he My glory I will not give unto another c. But that is most useful for you to convince you of that too good conceit men have of their natural condition you would take it hardly the most prophane of you all if any should come to you in particular and tell you you are an enemy to God But I answer there is none of you if you believe the Scriptures but will confess that all men are naturally such and therefore except we find in our selves a notable alteration from the condition of Nature we must take with it that we are Enemies yea Enmity to God Of strangers to become acquainted with him yea which is more of enemies to become friends is a greater and more remarkable change than to be incident to a man without any evidence and sign of it I know there is very great variety in the way and manner of Conversion and to some especially if it be in their tender years Grace may be instilled and dropt in as it were insensibly But this I may confidently say that whatsoever be the way of working it there will be a wide and apparent difference betwixt friendship with God and the condition of Nature which is Enmity against him Do not flatter your selves so long as your minds remain Carnal ardent in love to the World and cold in love to God Lovers of pleasures more then of God as the Apostle speaks You are his Enemies for with him there is no neutrality That which they say taxing it as a weakness in the Sex Aut amat aut odit nihil est tertium is in this case necessarily true of all And this is Gods peculiar that he can judge Infallibly of the inside those shadows of friendship men use one with another will not pass with him deceived he cannot be but men may easily and alas too many do deceive themselves in this matter to their own ruin We may learn hence how deep Sin goes in our Nature and consequently that the cure and remedy of it must go as deep That all the parts of our Bodies and powers of our Souls are polluted originally our very mind and conscience as the Apostle speaks for it is immersed in flesh and inslaved to flesh naturally and therefore goes under its name We are become all flesh That is the spring of our mischiefs we have lost our likeness with our Father the Father of Spirits the purest and most Spiritual Spirit till renewed by participation of his Spirit on our Flesh. And it is the Errour not only of Natural Men but somewhat of the Godly too that in Self-reformation they set themselves against actual sin but they lay not the Ax to the root of the Tree this root of bitterness this our inbred and natural enmity against God And till this be done the lopping off of some branches will do no good while the root is in vigour those will grow again and possibly faster than before Bewail every known act of sin as much as you can for the least of them deserves it but withal let the consideration of them lead you into thoughts of this seed of Rebellion the wickedness of our Nature that takes life with us in the Womb and springs and grows up with us and this will humble us exceedingly and raise our Godly sorrow to a higher tide We find David taketh this course Psal. 51. 5. where he is lamenting his particular sin of Adultery and Murder it leads him to the sinfulness of his Nature I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me or warm me which he mentions not to extenuate and diminish his sin no he is there very far from that strain but adds it as a main aggravation Indeed the power of Original Sin in the Regenerate is laid very low yet not altogether extinct which they find often to their grief and makes them cry out with our Apostle in the former Chapter O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death The Converted are already delivered as he adds from the Dominion of it but not from the Molestation and Trouble of it though it is not a quiet and uncontroulled Master as it was before yet it is in the House still as an unruly Servant or Slave ever vexing and annoying them And this Body of Death they shall have still cause to bewail till Death release them This Leprosie hath taken so deep in the Walls of this House that it cannot perfectly be cleansed till it be taken down and it is this more than any other sorrows or afflictions of life that makes the Godly man not only content to die but desirous longing with our Apostle To be dissolved and be with Christ which is far better As this teaches us the misery of Mans Nature so it sets off and commends exceedingly the riches of Gods Grace Are men naturally his Enemies Why then admire his patience and bounty a little and then we will speak of his Saving-Grace Could not he very easily ease himself of his Adversaries as he says by the Prophet Wants he power in his right hand to find out and cut off all his Enemies Surely no not only he hath power to destroy them all in a moment but the very withdrawing of his hand that upholds their being though they consider it not would make them fall to nothing yet is he pleased not only to spare Transgressours but to give them many outward blessings rain and fruitful seasons as the Apostle speaks Act. 14. And the Earth that is so full of mans Rebellion is yet more full of his Goodness The earth is full of thy goodness It is remarkable that that same reason which is given Gen. 6. 5. of the Justice of God in drowning the World is Chapter 8. 21. rendred as the reason of Gods resolved patience ever since His Grace in finding a way of Reconcilement and not sparing his own Son his only begotten Son to accomplish it nor did he spare himself O matchless Love to lay down his life not for Friends but for Strangers Not only so but Enemies for Unrighteous and Ungodly Persons such as be at enmity against him Rom. 5. 7 8
of a humbled heart in the lowest deep of his sorrow and his Arm long enough to reach them and strong enough to draw them forth He that comes unto God must believe that he is says the Apostle So certainly he that believes that must come it will sweetly constrain him he cannot but come that is so perswaded Were mens hearts much imprest with that belief in all their troubles they would eye men less and God more and without delay they would fasten upon the Churches resolution Hosea 6. 1. Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up c. And this is the very thing that the Prophet would here perswade to by this present Doctrin and having impleaded them guilty he sets them a Copy of humble Confession ver 12. c. Hence the frequent complaints in the Psalm Why hidest thou thy self So Psal. 22. 2. I cry but no hearing In the words of these two Verses these two things appear A sad condition and the true cause of it The condition I think I have reason to call sad 't is God hiding his face that he will not hear This may be the personal estate of his Children or the publick estate of his Church From a Soul he hides his face not so much in the withdrawing of sensible Comforts and sweet tastes of Joy which to many are scarce known and to such as do know them commonly do not continue very long but it is a suspension of that lively influence of his Divine power for raising the mind to the Contemplation of him and Communion with him in Prayer and Meditation which yet may be were those relishes and senses of Joy are not and the returns of it appear in beating down the power of Sin or abating and subduing it making the heart more pure and heavenly more to live by Faith in Christ to be often at the Throne of Grace and to receive gracious answers supplies of wants and assistances against tentations Now when there is a cessation and obstruction of these and such like workings the face of God is hid the Soul is at a loss seeks still and cannot find him whom it loveth And in this condition it cannot take comfort in other things they are too low 't is a higher and nobler desire than to be satisfy'd or diverted with the Childish things that even men delight in that know not God 't is a Love sickness which nothing can cure but the presence and love of the party loved yea nothing can so much as allay the pain and give an interval of ease or recover a fainting Fit but some good word or look or at least some kind message from him Set thee in a Palace and all delights about thee and a Crown on thy Head yet if his love has ceas'd on thy heart these are all nothing without him It was after David was advanc'd to his Kingdom Psal. 30. And is in the Psalm of the Dedication of his Royal House that he said Thou hidst thy face and I was troubled All is dark all the shining Marble and the Gold and Azure lose their lustre when thou aâ—t not here dwelling with me And thus for the Church God is the proper light the beauty the life of it deck it with all this Worlds splendour with all the dresses of pompous Worship these are not its genuine beauty and they provoke him who is its ornament as is Jer. 2. 32. to depart but give it the native purity and beauty of holy Ministers and Ordinanâ—es well regulated yet even that is but a dead comeliness proportion and feature without life when God is absent And for matter of deliverances and working for her which is here the thing in hand none can do any thing in that not the wisest nor the best of men with all their combined Wit and Strength when he retires and comes not forth doth not shew himself on the behalf of his people and work their works for them These have it may be some kind of Prayer possibly they offer at extraordinaries and yet obtain nothing are not heard the sadest note in all the Song of Lament 3. 43 44. Thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us thou hast slain thou hast not pitied Thou hast â—overed thy self with a Cloud that our Prayer should not pass through Still while that Door stands open there is hope and remedy for other evils but that being shut what can a People or a Soul expect but growing troubles one sorrow upon the back of another yea that is the great trouble the hiding of his face and refusing to hear Observe Job 34. 29. When he giveth peace who then can make trouble Now the other in the same terms would have been when he makes trouble who can give peace But instead 't is when he hides his face who then can behold him No peace but in beholding him and nothing but trouble that is the grand trouble when he hides his face and it is express'd in both cases whether it be Personal or National whether against a Nation or a man only This is the thing wherein the strength of other troubles lie that gives them weight when they impart and signifie thus much that the face of God is hid from a Soul or a People We ought to enquire if this be not our condition at this time hath he not hid his face from us Are we not left in the dark that we know not which way to turn us Either we must sit still and do nothing for if we stir we do but rush one upon another as in darkness contesting each to have the way and yet when we have it given us we know not well which way to go And we think to be cleared but it fails us as in this Chapter ver 9. We wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness we grope for the Wall as blind and stumble at Noon day as in the Night our Counsels strangely darkened and no right understanding one of another By all debates little or no clearing of things attained but our passions are more enflamed and parties are further off the light of sound Judgment gone and with it the heat of Love instead of which that miserable Infernal heat heat without light mutual hatreds and revilings both sides verbally at least agreeing in the general terms both of their desires and designs and yet falling out about modes and fashions of them And to say no more of Parties the Enemies of Religion on both hands right and left in action and in power and only those that love that we conceive is the way of truth standing as a naked prey to whether of the two shall prevail Desires and Prayers we have presented and see as yet no appearance of an issue but further confusions even fasting to strife and debate And where are there any that look like persons