Secondly we must deny our selves as in our great places and honours and dignities so likewise in our profits pleasures in all our carnal worldly enjoiments Oh how hard is it for a poor crcature to deny himself in this How hard is it for a rich man saith our blessed Saviour to enter into the kingdom of heaven Luk. 18. 24. The world is a common bait wherewith the Divel enticeth men to fin as Judas Ananâ—as nay Christ himself is set upon with this temptation Mat. 4. But when Christ comes into a soul he teacheth that soul to deny it self to look upon the world as Christ did as a very emptie thing he gives power to overcome the world 1 Joh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world All our worldly desires therefore and pleasures and enjoiments must be denied by us we must use the things of the world as though wee us'd them not We must be so dead to the world as to see all things that are now in our possession to be none of ours so that the very worst things in the world that can befall us will be good to us all that before were crosses and afflictions now will be joy and comfort ' cause wee shall see it to be the will of the Father and we shall have peace in every condition We shall have as much comfort in a dungeon as in the possession of the greatest state in the world We shall cast our care upon God and trust him as well with our bodies as with our souls We shall not so much care for to morrow we shall see enough in God to satisfie us both for to morrow and for ever For the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof saith the Psal 24. 1. All the labour of men under the Sun is but for two things food and raiment now when we are ascended to God by denying our selves we shall know that God is able to feed us and cloath us as miraculously as he did the children of Israel in the wildernesse And thus much shall suffice for our first step or stair of self-denial the denial of our honors preferments riches pleasures lusts all our carnal sinful enjoiments The second now followes which is the denyall of our will and affections First then for our will we must deny our selves in that as well as our Saviour did If we will come after Christ be followers of Christ we must tread in this step and follow him in this track and path as wel as the former And indeed our blessed Saviour began betimes in the denyall of his own will For when he was but twelve yeares old we find him at this work doing the will of his Father Luke 2. 49. And he said unto them how is it that ye sought me wist yee not that I must be about my Fathers businesse not fulfilling his own will or doing his own businesse but both were his Fathers And as he began this course betimes when he was but twelve yeares old so he continued it likewise through the whole course of his life In his preaching as you heard before he did not his own worke nor fulfilled his own will but his Fathers and as in his preaching so in his praying like-wise one of his first petitions was Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and this petition was made good even through his whole life and death Through his life John 4. 34. Jesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his woâ—k And Secondly in his very death Passion which was full of this self-denying Spirit For even there also his saying was Not my will but thine be done Luke 22. 42. Thus you see that our Saviour both praying preaching living and dying denied himselfe and his â—own will now let us go and do so likewise let us learn â—ather to deny our selves and our own wils then Gods Christ who is the Saints patterne did alwaies so walke as to please God John 8. 29. And hee that sent mee is with me the Father hath not left me alone for I do always those things that please him And as he was our pattern so he teacheth us by his Apostle the same lesson 1 Thess 4. 1. Furthermore then wee beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye Would abound more and more As if the Apostle had said that which you receive of us is that you ought to walk according to the example of Christ to please God though you thereby should displease your selves And this is a soul taught by Gods Spirit when he prefers the pleasing of the Lord before himselfe the fulfilling of his will before his own This being once learned is that which would carry you along through all oppsition in a way of truth Perhaps the poor creature resolving with flesh blood may be reedy to conclude somtimes if I submit to this way to this truth I must expect reproach persecution Now it would wonderfully please carnall will and reason to conceal such a truth in unrighteousoesse but when a Soul comes to this it is my duty to fulfil Gods will and not my own O then I dare not but do it come what will come I cannot but do it Truely you who indeed love the Lord Jesus that love will constrain you to please him though you displease your selves to fulfill his will by denying your own This Christ himselfe teacheth and by his own example hath given us an example so to do John 4. 34. Jesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work Oh blessed example to be imitated by all the Saints what shal Jesus Christ when he was but twelve yeares old dony himselfe his own will and shall not the Saints do it his disciples his followers at fiftie and sixtie and eighty do as much But Christ hath not onely given us his example and paterne but hath enjoyned us thereunto also under penalty of damnation Matt 7 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven And the Apostle Ephe. 6. 6. exhorting servants to be obedient to their Masters saies Not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart This selfe-will is the cause of much stir and division in the world What is the cause of this war among us but selfe-will One will establish one religion another another religion or else the Nation must rue it This selfe-will is it that causes discontents and troubles in Families The husband will have his will and the wife her will This causes contention in Churches among the Saints when every one will have his own mind his own way his own
will new trim and varnish it hereafter turning these lights into Glories and everlasting shines and those shadows into utter darknesse Thus have you from a rude pencil the chief lines of this Landskip of the Church and my present discourse of all which as they lie in the frame of the text where you are first presented with the lights of this piece the Lillie and the Spouse As the Lillie so is my Love The Lillie is a flower of that brightnesse not Solomon saies our Saviour exalted on his throne shin'd with that majestie as one of these humbled in the valley noâ— were his robes half so glorious as their leaves And as this flower excels in an outward bravery and gadâ—nesse of leaves so in an inward goodnesse of the stemme out-shining not onely the King but all his plants from his Cedar of Lebanus to the Hisope that groweth on the wall being of that medicinall virtue with the Herbalist idolatrous Israell might have receiv'd from hence an antidote against the Serpents sting and rebellious Pharaoh a new skin for his blister'd flesh Now though Christs spouse in the text answers all and more then hath been spoken of the Lilly yet for the present I will drawe out this paralel but onely in two lines the one pointing to the humility of Christs Chuch in the groweth of the Lilly which is but low and therefore called the Lilly of the vallies the other to her Virgine purity and innocency of life from the whitenesse of the same flower a colour nature doth die simple and so fittest for religion I 'le take my rise from the humility of Christs spouse As the lilly so is my love Aquinas his humility the lowest of acts and yet the highest of virtues would scarce speake good schoole divinity had not our Saviour preached it by his actions who not onely died but lived for our salvation teaching us a way to mount upwards by descending and to be exalted through humility Thus he that was the fullnesse of the Godhead exinanivit se emptied himselfe into a man he that dwelt in the highest regarded the lowlinesse of his Handmaiden as 't is in the Magnificat and the brightnesse of the Father became over-shadowed with a vaile of flesh And as if for a God to be borne and a Diety to enter a body were not sufficient humiliation his whole life was but the Schooles twelve rounds or degrees of humility For though we hear Christ preaching upon the mount in the 5. of Saint Matth yet were his doctrines there onely of the vallies To rejoice when men shall revile to bee exceeding glad for a persecution so the twelâ—t period of that sermon again to have a cheeke to receive an injury to go to law not to recover but give away a garment in the 40 ver of the same chap last of all to blesse for a curse to wish heaven to such as desire your damnation to deny even our selves that is saies a Father our great parts and eminent endowments duri sermones hard lessons and yet all tooke out by our Saviour his hand directing the same way with his voice and what he taught was but his owne example shewing he enioyn'd no impossibilities in that he acted his owne commands Thus I find him on the crosse in the greatest agony for his persecutors their blasphemies wrestling with his benedictions the Jewes curse ascending heaven and Christs blessing keeping it downe who not suffering them to enjoy their damnation resolved upon with so much plaudite acclamation his blood be upon us and our children opened the mouth of that blood into a praier and made it crie Father forgive them for they know not what they do And this my God was according to thy promise the giving of a new commandement for whereas the old runns I will visit the sinns of the fathers upon the children thy law of the Gospell proclaimes I will remit those sinns unto the third and fourth generation I will shew mercy upon thousands of them that hate me and not keepe my commandements Now for the second act of our Saviours humility the deniall of his eminent gifts what greater could there be then the forbidding his patients to declare their cure and desiring his miracles might be as invisible as his Godhead As if a miraculous health were the shame of the physitian and a Lazarus raised to life the spoiling of his practise Or else how is it we read in the Gospell of our Saviours unlocking the mouth of the dumb and then crying See you tell no man which was to tie up that organ which he had before loosed as he did in drawing the curtaine from the blind mans eyes yet commanding him not to see and take notice of his physitian or in restoring the withered hand and straitway drying it up againe in forbidding it's use and saying point not at me And therefore learn of me was our Saviours saying to his Church for I am lowly in heart Mat. 11. In heart aflecting no vain glory in my miracles no high opinion of my great parts which instructs us not to commit Idolatrie with our own bosom and to fall down to the thoughts of our hearts by which wee deifie these moulds of earth as if we could raise eternitie out of ashes or build immortalitie on pillars of dust wherefore learn of Christ to think meanly of our selvs and mistrust even what we know and this saies Aquinas refraenat animum is a bridle to curb and keep in our hot-mettel'd and unweighed minds from running upon every dangerous precipice the want of humility expelled our first parents paradise the angeltheaven and may us too from the same joyes for som mens eminencies are their vices and a good name as dangerous to them as a bad their greatest parts being made their greatest sins and the rationall soul to answer more at the last day for it's knowledg then ignorance Hence it is we hear Phisophy turned into Atheism and a deep discourse to subtle blasphemy which dares censure the holy Ghost for no good Philospher in placing the waters above the firmament cause all their elements are sublunary to dispute the first Chap. of Gen. out of the Canon for that it is no where to be found in the Physicks Thus they cry down Moses by Aristotle as iâ— the Divel were as great a mover of sedition in the study as in the shop they raise a Brownisticall mutiny of the Arts against Divinity setting up that to preach which never tooke Orders Nor stop we here but upon the same proud dotage of our able parts presume to remove those Land-marks in Divinity our Fathers have set to leave the old beaten way of the Church trod by so many ages of Divines and follow a peculiar tracke of our private fancy leading to the-by wayes of heresy and schisme God in his just judgement making all the travel and throwes of our braine abortive like those untimely miscarriages of the wombe not
sufficient argument why others should not Thus if Jeroboam transgresse he makes an Israel to sinne and if Aaron set up an idol a whole nation will worship it Holinesse then becomes every man wel but best of all publick persons and that not onely for example of good but liberty of controlling ill The snuffers of the sanctuary made to purge others must be of pure gold themselvs Thus Herod feared John not ' cause he was a powerful teacher but a Just man This holinesse casts a more dazleing lustre then any other accomplishment what-ever But let that passe and suppose this Thummim be not with the holy One admit the Priest sinnefull shall the people notwithstanding follow his doctrine his doctrine whose life is not the use his voice whose hand points a contrary way Nothing more for what if the sacrificer bee unclean is the offering so was the glory of Israel the Arke any whit lessened when it came from the Philistines did the breath of the Lord his answers passe by the lesse regarded ' cause a Saul Prophesied Scripture is scripture though the Divell speake it no mans sinns should bring the service of God into contempt nor may good be refused ' cause the meanes are accidentally evill Non ergomerita personarum sed officia sacerdotum considerentur saies Ambrose in his 5 Chapter de iis qui mysteriis initiantur and 't is a grosse dull capacity that can't distiuguish 'twixt the worke and the instrument the weakenesse of the person and the power of the function You know no unclean viands were for the table of an Israelite no birds of prey â—it company for a Prophet yet Sampson made much of his hony though in a putrified Lion and if Ravens are sent to preserv an Eliah he willingly accepts their courtefie and dislikes not the meat ' cause the waiters were black These then of the Law are lesse scrupulous then some of the Gospell who disdaine the graces of God when not served in the pureâ—t vessels that loath their Mannah if not out of the Tabernacles golden pot all Urim not coupled with Thummim The other part of the Donative Urim is a large word and reciprocal with sapience in Tully the science of humane and divine matters whence it seems the Levites divinity and scholarship are not synonima's at least not this and preaching Lo a vision appeared to me saies Ezekiel a whirlwinde and a fire to â—hew the Prophets of the Lord must have light with them as well as noise understanding as tongue Gods Ministers are Angels and these called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their manifold knowledg I speak this meerely for that there is a generation which square out the Divines studie by the Scripture Canon onely all other rules being crooked and of no use Would you know the reason The lesse learning the lesse stipend and indeed good Letters have not a little pined away since Divinity began to officiate at the tables end for the trencher Now 't is true Scripture was ever the Levites predominant element but if you 'l make him a perfect mixt body the Arts too are necessary ingredients And therefore though Hadrian the sixt in his tract de ver a philsophia cries down humane learning with a noise of Fathers yet he concludes utilem esse scientiam gentilium dummodo in usum christianum convertatur that to shave and parâ— the captive woman then espouse her was ever held lawfull matrimony Look backe upon the two famous patterns of Jewish and Christian divines Moses learned in all the wisdom of the Aegyptians and S. Paul wise in all the learning of the Grecians a great artist and a good lingâ—iâ—â— and no lesse may we expect from the rest of the Apostles to whom it was not said â—ollow me and strait way be fishers but follow and I will make you fishers They were to learne ere they were to teach to be Discipls before Apostles No man is born an Arâ—isicer his soul coming as naked into the world as his body not having so much freedome as to set up in the meanest-trade without serving an apprenticeship And for that dabitur in illa hora to speake without conning was a promise made to the Twelve when they should be called to the barre not to the pulpit This place how ever some have made it scandalous requires both learning and industry and thus much S. Paul intimated when he sent for his bookes finding as great want of them as his cloak in winter Yet here notwithstanding this Urim is os so large an extent as compassing the whole body of knowledge we must remember that our most acute and clearest illumination is but dull and glimmering and though it be said to be Gods yet 't is not meant of that light which is tanquam lux in lucido sed lumen in diaphano not as the Sun but as the shine And therefore if any in this fraile tenement of flesh shall dare to hope for the masterreach in Gods secrets of state such I mean as put the great Apostle to his gaze with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee mistakes his measure and forgets that his dwelling is in the dust And why should I call for day where God will have night and covet to see that brightnesse whose least ray will instantly blind me it being too strong an object for the weake eye of mans understanding I will rather admire God in his actions and be content to know the Almighty no farther then his Word shall reveal where this light leaves mee I will cease the quest and boast of my ignorance never desiring that Urim that illumination which leades to utter darkenesse nor that Thummim that holinesse which will unholy mee And this points at my last particular the party endowed with this giâ—t the Holy One. Wee are all Gods but not all Gods holy Ones This title is proper to the Priests hiraldry a jewel only for Aarons brest-plate And certainly the office being sacred the name must be answerable Now the Levite was thus styl'd from a two-fold holinesse that of his life which you have heard and another of his person For all sanctity is not inward nor is all Thummim perfection that of the soule Gods holy one must be his faire one too without blemish no lesse in body then in mind Thus under the law no monstrous issue no blind seer might offer the bread of his God Levit. 21. And shall the Evengelicall Ministration be worse served then the Legall while the Sacrifice is more noble shall the Priest be lesse onely the fattest in the herd the fairest in the flock were the oblations of the Law and shal the poorest onely of the Tribe the most deâ—ormed of all the issue be the offerings of the Gospel The Lords house is no hospital neither the sacrifice nor the Priest must be admitted unsound or imperfect and if not a maim'd lambe much lesse a maim'd Levite God of all things will
the way to the next and that by way of commendation quia prudenter â—git non quia fraudulenter not cause he dealt dishonestly but wisely so the verse before my text that he carried the businesse cleanly handsomely the manner how you may read from the 5 to the 8 ver of this Chapter and therefore make you friends learn of him saith Christ Had it been learn of me as our Saviours precept was Matth. 11. 29. it had been an admirable pattern nay had it been but Solomon's lesson Go to the pismire Pro. 9. I should not have marvelled for she would have taught honest providence but learn of an unjust Steward can there come any goodthing from one so evil Yes For the children of this world are in their generation wiser then the children of light so the 8 ver of this Chapt. therefore learn of him what to do To make you friends How Of the unrighteous Mammon Why That when yee faile they may c. Which three Queries will direct us to three General Parts for our division The first is the quid the matter to provide for our selves by making us friends The second the cujus the manner to use the best means to get them unrighteous Mammon The third the cuibono the end that when yee faile they c. Of which in their order beginning with the first the quid the mattor to provide for our selves by making us friends And that I think is good counsel at any time and as ever so most especially now when brotherly affection is become so changeable and double-faced as 't is hard to find a true friend and liberalitie is grown so indirect and improper that 't is shewen now adaies rather to enrich a Closet or Parlour then a Christian in clothing of walls sooner then men Now the friends here meant are the Angels say some who are made out friends by works of mercie towards our brethren but the common tenet is the friends in my text are the poor quos Deus permisit egere ad illorum nostram probationem whom God suffers to want for the exercise of their patience and our charitie and the ordinarie exposition of make you friends it give Alms make you friends by works of Charitie which shall be the subject of the first part of my discourse and so much the rather because the doctrine as well as the practice of it is almost forgot The Divinity of Justification by Faith alone like one of Pharaoh's lean kine hath clean devoured the fat ones And therefore my first particular position or doctrine rais'd from this general thesis shall be to rectife your understanding in this deep point of Justification by Faith and Justification by Works to reconcile these two and make them one The Position is this That Faith Works must alwaies be united ever go hand in hand in a believer It is evident to all except they be blinde that the eie alone seeth in the bodie â—et the eie which seeth is not alone in the bodie without the other sences the fore-finger alone pointeth yet that finger is not alone on the hand the hammer alone striketh the bell yet the hammer that striketh the bell is not alone in the clock the heat alone in the fire burneth and not the light yet the heat is not alone without the light the helme alone guideth the ship and not the tackling yet the helme is not alone nor without the tackling Thus we are to conceive that though Faith alone doth justifie yet that Faith which justifies is not alone but join'd with Charitie and good Works Saint Bernard's distinction of via râ—gni and causa regnandi cleareth the truth in this point Though good Works are not the cause why God crowns us in heaven yet we must take them in our way to heaven Mat. 5. 16. It is as impious to deny the necessitie as to maintein the merits of good Works The first reason of the point wherfore Faith and good Works must alwaies be united alwaies go hand in hand in a Believer is because that God hath joined good works and salvation together in his Word and what God hath join'd let not man put asunder Now doing and life working and salvation running and obteining winning and wearing overcoming and reigning in holy Seripture evermore follow one the other wherefore the young man puts the question to our Saviour Mar. 10. 17. and the people likewise and the Publicans and the Souldiers to Saint John Luk. 3. 10 12 14. and the Keepers of the prison to Saint Pauâ— Act. 16. 30. and the Jewâ— to Saint Peter Act. 2. 37. What shall we do Not what shall we say or what shall we believe but what shall we do This is the tenour of the Law Do this and thou shalt live Levit. 18. 5. Deut. 5. 33. And the Gospel also runs in the same tune Mat. 7. 24. And again Noâ— the hearers but the doers of the Law shall bee justified James 1. 22. A second reason of the point is because that though Faith justifie our Works before God yet our Works justifie our Faith before men Though the just shall live by his Faith Hab. 2. 4. Yet this his Faith must live by his Charitie Let us therefore take from hence first a word of Cantion not to turn the doctrine of Free Justification into carnal libertie nor impose upon Christ's mercie what it will not bear nor indeavour to sever faith from good Works least we sever our soul from life I grant when we have done all we can we may nay we must say we are unprofitable servants Luke 17. 10. None may trust in their own righteousnesse but on the contrary all ought to pray that they may bee found in Christ not having their own righteousnesse Epb. 3. 9. yet their righteousnesse must exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees or else they shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 5. 20. In the second place this will serve for a word of Reproof for all those that separate Faith and Works Tell not me whoever thou art of Faith without thy Works nor of Praiers without thy Almes nor of piety without thy compassion nor of real without thy charitie if the hands be not Jacob's as well as the voice I fear thou wilt appear before God for no better then a meer Impostor and Cheat. If wee are good trees by our fruit men shall know us Mat. 7. 15. by your fruit not by your blossoms of good purposes or your leaves of good profession but by the fruit of your actions What is your devotion when it is peevish or your zeal when it is malicious or your puritie when it is schismatical or your conscience when it is factious a mover a ring-leader of sedition Too too many in this rotten age wherein we live are speakers not workers as if ostendere fidem the Apostle Saint James his shew thy Faith by thy Works were oâ— tendere
all the furniture and provision of it both all the moveables So Psal 50. 11. 12. the cattel and the fowles upon a thousand hills are mine saith he and also all the standing goods the corne and the oyle which you set and plant are mine Hos 2. 9. yea and the Psalmist in the same 24. Psal adds further that they who dwell therein are his also not the house and furniture only but the inhabitants themselves And this by the most sure and most Soveraigne title that can be better then that of purchase or inheritance of and from another for he hath made them all is thine because all comes of thee saith the same David 1 Chron 29. 11 12. And all things are not only of him but through him Rom. 11. 36. i e. they cannot stand nor subsitst without him Thirdly he must give largely it is not bounty else now God is therefore said to be rich in goodnesse because he is abundant in it so we find it comparing Psal 33. 5 with Psal 104. 24. in which it is said that the earth is full of his goodnesse and his riches which we may judge of by what he saies vers 27. of Psal 104. of what an house he keepes and what multitudes he feedes all these saith the Psalmist wait on thee c. King Ahasuerus to shew his bounty made a feast to his cheife Subjects but it was but for halfe a yeare and not to all some few halfe yeares more would well nigh have beggard him but God doth this continually The greatest and most bountifull of men when they would expresse the largest of their bounty speake but of giving halfe of their Kingdomes so Herod and he did but talke so neither but God bestowes whole worlds and Kingdomes as Daniell speakes Dan. 4. 35. and gives them to whom hee pleases Fourthly he that is bountiful must give all he gives freely and willingly which though I put together yet may imply two distinct things as first that he that gives must be a free agent in it who is at his choice whether he would give any thing away or no. The Sun doth much good to the world it affords a large light and even half the world at once is full of its glorie yea and all this light is its own not borrowed as that of the Moon and Stars is yet this Sun cannot be called good or bountiful because it sends forth this light necessarily and naturally and cannot chuse but do so neither can it draw in its beames but God is a free giver hee was at his choice whether he would have made the world or no and can yet when he pleaseth withdraw his Spirit and then all things perish Psal 104. 29. Secondly it must be willingly also i. e. no way constreined or wrung from him who is to be called bountiful Now of God it is said that he gives all away with delight for Psal 104 31. having spoken of â—eeding every living thing and of other the like works of his goodness he concludes with this God rejoiceth in all his works i. e. doth all the good he doth with delight It doth him good as it were to see the poor creatures feed The last requisite in bountie is to look for no recompence for the time to come So saith Christ Luke 6 34. If you give c. but ver 35. So doth not your heavenly father For saith hee Do good and hope for nothing againe so shall you bee like your Father and the reason is because he is so great and so high a God as nothing we do can reach him as David speaks Psal 16. 2. My goodnesse extends not unto thee hee is too high to receive any benefit by what we do And this shall suffice for the four General Rules of giving Alms and also of the first general part which we observed in the division of these words the quid the matter what we are to do and that is to provide for our selves by making us friends The second General that we held out to you in the division was the Manner to use the best means to get these friends unrighteous Mammon Where in the first place I shall resolve a doubt and withall the meaning of this expression The Mammon of unrighteousnesse How comes it to passe that this Mammon which is the subject of so much good should deserve a name so bad why is it styled the Mammon of unrighteusnesse you are to know therefore that wealth is call'd the Mammon of unrighteousnesse for two reasons the first taken from the cause the other from the effect 1. First from the cause for that wealth is an instrument and cause of much iniquity In Cyrus his Court the Counsellours shall be fee'd that the building of the Temple may not go on Ezra 4. and if Saint Paul would but have said tantum dabo to Felix in the Acts there had been more Rhetorick in the Apostles fee then in all Tertullus his starched Oratory For this reason Simon Magus when he sued in the 8 of the Acts for the holy Ghost trusted more to his Mammon then his Familiars being consident there was greater power in money then in all the Devills in hell to have conjured if it might have been even the Apostles themselves And therefore it was the Devills last assault and battery against our Saviour in the 4 of St. Matt For it any promise could have seduced Christ it had been that of the worlds Kingdome and glory he is the Sonne of God indeed that for such againe will not cast himselfe from the pinacles of the Temple It would be no hard work to manifest this truth through every age of the Church were it not too visible in our own And therefore I shall from hence in the first place draw an use of reproofe for the Ministers of these times I would to God I could not say but I must even of our own divine Profession that which our Saviour of his Twelve Yee are clean but not all for how many have these few yearâ— brought forth which having been heretofore forward and eager for conformitie to the doctrine and discipline of this Church do now seek to wave and decline both and that not out of malice or ambition vices that move with a kinde of life and spirit but out of that base earthie dunghil-sin Avarice These are they that long for the Wedge of gold more then the Babilonish garment and so themselves may put up the means of a Bishop care not who puts on the robes These are they which make use of the Priest's office like him in Samuel onely for a piece of bread and will with that Chaplain of Micah's Judg. 17 set you up Idols if you give them but silver Men that measure their religion by their fortunes inclining ever not to what weighs most but what advantageth Saint Augustines Amphibions in Christianitie Hermophrodite Divines now a Sectarist and then a Conformist and next a Sectarist
said to give almes of what they have cheated and robbed unlesse they cannot tell the persons whom they have injured or the proportions in such cases they are to give those unknown portions to the poore by way of restitution for it is no almes Onely God is the supreme Lord to whom those escheats devolue and the poor are his receivers And therefore are said in my Text to receive you into everlasting habitations which is my last generall part of the division beeing the end and motive to good works That when yee fail c. In the handling of which part I shall First propose to your consideration three brief positions and then proceed to a more full explication of this generall head For the Positions the First is this that if men were their own friends they would make others so with their Mammon and while they are on earth provide for heaven Blessed are the mercifull for they shall receive mercy was our Saviours in the Gospell God's promises though they be gracious yet they are confined and he onely shall receive mercy that shewes it The Almighty being therefore bountifull to us that we might be so to others promising that if we feast those that cannot bid us againe and build for those that cannot lodge us againe We shal be made partakers of that Mariage-feast and those habitations whose maker and builder is God If men then were their owne friends they would make others so with this Mammon Why should the rust of that gold rise up in judgment against thee the right use of which will place thee with those that shall sit in judgment Turning thy Talents into Cities and saying the foundation of that building whose walls reach up to heaven And that is our First Poâ—ition But can good workes purchase these eternall habitations By no meanes And therefore Our Second Position is this That not our good workes But Christ's merits are the formall cause of our Salvation For neither the vertue of the works they bee but the fruits of charity nor the vertue of charity that is but the fruit of faith nor the vertue of faith that 's but an instrument to apprehend Christ but he alone our Saviour alone by his merits hath made this purchase and prepared those mansions for us And yet mistake me not there is no lesse necessity of good workes then if you should be saved by them that though you cannot be saved by them as the meritorious causes of your glory yet that you cannot be saved without them as the necessary effects and arguments of that grace which brings glory Which is our Second Position upon the point Our third runns thus The poor by their praiers receive us into those eternall habitations which Christ bestowes and confers upon us Now the poor here meant in the Text are either Pauperes spiritu the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God Mat 5. or Pauperes sacculo the poor in purse and these by their prayers shall receive thee into heaven For as Christ is said to receive those almes on earth which the poor put up and not he so the poor in heaven are said to receive us into everlasting habitations which Christ shall bestow and not they Can you conceive how the Queen of Sheba and men of Nineve shall rise up at the last day In the same manner but for a better end shal the men women and children of your Hospitals rise up and testify on your behalf saying Sweet Jesus had it not been for these and these Benefactors we had perished for want As therefore Saint Paul said to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 1. Ye are our hope cause these at the last day would witnesse how he had laboured for their salvation so may every one of you say of all those to whom you have done good You are our hope for that they shall testifie your good works before men and Angels justifie that sentence which shal receiv you into everlasting habitations These are the three brief Positions I mentioned Now that we may come to a more full explication of the point these everlasting habitations according to several Expositors are severally interpreted for first to be received into these everlasting habitations is to be taken into the protection of God according to Psal 90. 1. which is interpreted by the next Psal 1 ad 4. ver from which first interpretation our position shall be That it is better to give away all that wee have to the poor and have God with nothing then all the world without God To have God with nothing did I say Nay in having him wee have all things saith Saint Cyprian de Coen Dom. cum Dei sint omnia Since all things are God's to him that hath God nothing can be wanting except he be wanting unto God nothing saith the Father no good thing saith the Prophet the young Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall want nothing that is good Psal 34. Though all earthly persecutions entrench thee and miserie seems to come upon thee like an armed man and thou art fallen into the jawes of those enemies whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword yet Angels shall encampe about thee and the Lord of Hosts shall be thy buckler and thy shield the neighing of the horse the noise of the trumpet shall not invade thee or if they do and at such a strait that the arme of flesh growes weak yet his mercie is great unto the heavens and his truth reacheth unto the clouds the glorious hoste above shall muster all their forces to assist thee the starrs shall fight for thee and thunder speak loud unto thy enemies Thus in the height of miseries God shall be thy castle and strong tower and under the shadow of his wings shall bee thy refuge till these calamities bee overpast God never leaveth his in their extremities whether in the Cave or in the Mountain in the Den or in the Dungeon hee is alwaies there both in his power and assistance and somtimes in his person too when all natural supplies grow hopelesse God purveies for his children by his miracles rocks shall burst with water and Ravens provide bread and clouds drop fatnesse and heavens shower mannah and Angels administer comforts which when we are naked shall cloath us and receive us or rather usher us into these everlasting habitations Now besides this exposition of the words these everlasting habitations may receive a double interpretation one in respect of the everlasting fame and glorie of your name in this world the other in regard of your everlasting reward in the next and that first branch hath a double relation one to your self the other to your posteritie truly even this part of the reward and retribution namely in this life is worth a great deal of your cost and alms that God shall establish your posteritie in the world and in the