5. Thou art a cruell and bloody hypocrite Prov. 11. 9. A hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour it shews thy nature to be brutish and bloody to judge mens soules to eternall ruine and destruction and to have no thoughts of pitty towards them Didst thou ever see a Judge passe sentence upon a poore malefactor for the death of his body without teares or sorrow how canst thou so readily and rejoycingly passe sentence on their soules But to drive home this naile to the head and heart the persons thou judgest either are Elect or Reprobate 1. Elect wilt thou condemne them whom God hath not will not condemne Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus v. 34 Who is he that condemneth The glove is cast downe by way of a challenge and thou darest to take it up Our Saviour when he saw no man condemned the woman in adultery would John 8. 11. not condemne her But now God hath not condemned his Elect yet thou O vaine man wilt condemne them Who art thou that judgest another James 4. 12. 2. Reprobate persons thou condemnest them before their time 1 Cor. 4. 5. Let us judge nothing before the time There is a time for every purpose under heaven Eccles 3. 1. Now to meddle with any thing before that time as it is unseasonable so it is unsafe Our Saviour would not torment the Devils before their time and wilt thou condemne thine own flesh before its time Oh grutch them not an inch of time they are shortly to be tormented eternally in hell Be not so cruell a hangman as to hasten a malefactor that is to suffer within an houre 6. Thou shalt have the hypocrites portion Hell is the hypocrites Fee simple Matth. 24. 51. And appoint him his portion with hypocrites Hypocrites are Free-holders of hell others are but terants Judas that grand hypocrite Acts 1. 25. He went to his owne place Christ will be as forward to send them to hell as they have been forward to send others Matth. 7. 2. With what judgement you judge you shall be judged and with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you againe My brethren be not many Masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation James 3. 1. All that a man gets by such judgement is greater judgement thou provokest Christ as Lot did the Sodomites to deale worse with thee then with them Thus the Pharisees those eminent hypocrites are threatned with greater condemnation Math. 23. 14. God heats the Furnace of hell as Nebuchadnezzar did his Furnace for the Dan. 3. 19. three Children seven times hotter for hypocrites than for other sinners Inform. 8. See what little cause Saints have too much and too immoderately to lament the death and departure of their deare and neare relations either by the flesh or spirit they are not lost but laid downe in a full and firme assurance of coming againe this Judge will send his Writ of Habeas Corpus to remove them from the prison of the grave See how forcibly the Apostle presses this argument on the Thessalonians 1 Ep. 4. 13. That they mourn not as those that have no hope He renders the reason v. 14. Those that sleepe in Jesus will God bring with him Every one that sleeps shall be awakened the Curtaines of the grave shall be drawn and every Lazarus shall come forth then shall that Scripture be litterally true Eph. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee ligbt Lumen gloriae 2 Vse Is of examination To try our selves by this Touchstone whether we are in the number of those that do believe this truth That Christ shall shortly come to be a Judge I shall propose four Questions to be resolved by your own hearts 1. What interest have you in him 2. What influence have you from him 3. What affections beare you to him 4. What preparations make you for him 1. What interest have you in him Hath a true and lively saith entituled you to invested you with all his glorious benefits Hath a surpassing love matcht and married you to his person Doth faith make him your head Doth love make him your husband Can you not only say with Ignatius our Love is crucified but also our Love is Judge Hear the not triumphant but triumphing Spouse Cant. 6. 2. I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Hast thou resigned up thy selfe to be his and accepted him to be thine and that by a matrimoniall Covenant Doest thou love him as a husband and not feare him as a Judge then thou expectedst him to come as a Judge 2. What influence have you from him Are you ingrafted branches in that Vine which suck all their sap John 15. 4 5. strength sweetness from it whereby you bring forth all those delightfull fruits of prayer fasting hearing meditation conference doe you doe all in the name of Christ Col. 3. 19. Are you perswaded you can do all things through Christ Phil. 4. 13. 3. What affections do you beare to him 1. To his person 2. To his people 3. To his appearing 1. To his person Is his person the feate and centre of thy affection the height and heaven of thy love Canst thou really and experimentally use the Spouses sweet Periphrasis as being ravished with his person Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. Four times in four verses Thou whom my soule loveth Is Christ all the love of thy soule hath he the love of all thy soul do all the parts and powers of thy soul meet as the beames of the Sun in a burning Glasse in the person of Christ Then is thy love pure and pretious love such as is in those believers who shall admire the glorious coming of Christ as a Judge 2 Thess 1. 10. 2. To his people have the Saints the chiefe roome in thy heart and house as they had with Ingo King of the Draves who placed his Peeres in his hall but believers in his parlour because they were to be Peeres with him in a better Kingdome 1 John 4. 17. Herein is love made perfect with us that we may have boldnes in the day of judgement Those that truly love their brethren shall not only dwell in God here but also dwell with God hereafter Cotton in loc for the words are nothing else but an argument deduced from v. 12. on which these words have their dependance 3. To his appearing 1. Doest thou love it are the thoughts thereof delightfull would the sight thereof be joyfull 2 Tim. 4. 8. Vnto them that love his appearing the day of judgement will be a day of coronation to all them that love his appearing 2. Doest thou look for it expecting and waiting for it as the Indians do for the Sunnes rising in the morning Tit. 2. 13. Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ 3. Doest thou labour
when this subject was lesse beleeved or lesse beloved Certainly if Chrysostome were according to his then fancy to preach to the whole world he would leave his old text of Psal 4. 2. How long will you love vanity and preach Christs judiciary power and proceedings against carnall formall and hypocriticall Gospellers it were very needfull to preach on this subject every Sermon to print every Sermon that is preached to fill Churches shops stalls houses holes with them to dog cursed miscreants as that good man did his Atheistical son Junius with Bibles untill they are apprehended with this Hue and Cry But to close and conclude there is enough in that text to answer all cavills and scruples Act. 10. 42. And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he which was ordeined of God to be the Judge of quicke and dead If Christs coming be so nigh as 1656. as was strongly though strangely asserted by an admired Rabbi at Pauls not long since as you may finde it quoted in the Atheist Bible I meane in Lillyes Almanacke then surely it is high time to alarum dead and drowsie sinners by the Gospels Trumpet before they are summoned by the Archangels Trumpet Inform. 2. That few persons will be found judgement-proof when they hold up their hands at the Bar before this so rigid and so righteous a Judge Most men and women will not know as Bellizarius Procop. once told the proud Embassadors of the Goths where to hide their heads Hear that dreadfull and direfull text able to strike you dead for fear which I take with learned Diodate to be understood of this Judge and judgement Rev. 6. 12 13 14 15 16 17. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth Seal and lo there was a great Earth-quake and the Sun became black as Sackcloth of haire and the Moon became as blood And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a Fig-tree casteth her untimely Figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together And every Mountain and Island were moved out of their places And the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men and every bond-man and every free-man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the face of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Those men that when on earth were not afraid of the noyse of a Lion are now affrigted at the voice of a Lamb. Those before whose wrath none were able to stand themselves now are not able to stand before the wrath of Christ But not to insist on generals to descend to particular Generalia non pungunt persons as they are expressed and implied in this text 1. To begin with Ministers that you may see I am not partiall do we make such full proof of our Ministery as 2 Tim. 4. 5. that we may be judgement-proof How few of us that are able Ministers of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 6. That study to approve our selves to God workmen that need not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth 2 Tim. 2. 15. That preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1. 23. that make manifest the mystery of Christ as we ought to speak Col. 4. 4. not with enticing words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. that cry aloud and spare not and lift up our voyces like trumpets and shew the people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins Isai 58. 1. That make a difference and distinction in our praying and preaching and take forth the pretious from the vile Jerem. 15. 19. that will not give the childrens bread to doggs In a word that can wade through honour and dishonour evill report and good report 2 Cor. 68. not puft up with the one nor dejected by the other But to use Pompey's verses Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt Proh dolor How few Luthers shall you find that weigh Satanas sit Lutherus modo Christus regnet nor value not their names Ridleies that repent of spending too much of their time at Chesse-playing Ignatius's so studious and yet so pious that every time they hear the clock strike say there is one hour more for them to answer for Chrysostom's that had rather have their bodies torn asunder with wild beasts than give Christs body to be torn asunder by men worse than wild beasts Augustin's that desire God may finde them preaching or praying in that day Cyprians whose thoughts of the day of judgement make them forget the day of their martyrdome Nazianzens whose thoughts of their last accounts dry up their marrow and wast their bones Though I would not make that doubt which Chrysostome did in a Sermon of his to the Ministers Whether any of them could possibly be saved yet this I may safely say that every one of us have great cause to fear who have not preached to others or not preached to others as we ought that we shall be found cast-awayes 1 Cor. 9 27. 2. Kings and supream Magistrates who are mentioned in the text how few of them are Patres Patriae as the Heathen called them and as the holy Ghost explains it Isai 4 23. Nursing-fathers whose care of and compassion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their people is the same with Fathers to their children that impoverish them not by taxes excises oppressions but endeavour to enrich them counting their peoples wealth their best treasury as King James gives advice to his son Prince Henry in his book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc illae lachrymae Most of supream Rulers are as Pliny spake of the Roman Emperours Nomine Dii natura Diaboli monsters not men murtherers not Magistrates witness Saul who when he had forfeited his Kingdome by sparing Agag how doth he hunt David as a Partridge in the mountains slayes the innocent Priests runs to a Witch at Endor Witness Herod who preferred one Coranto of that Minion Herodias daughter before the pretious life of John Baptist of whose godlinesse he was convinced in his own conscience Besides this our English Chronicles afford us too much sad matter for this subject witness Henry 4. and Richard 3 I profess I have often admired at the madness and folly of many who will jeopardize their estates lives and souls for such persons who came to their places by unjust deposings poysonings perjuries murder incest who carried themselves in their places with pride prophaness lust and luxury tyranny oppression exaction their lives being the best comment on that text Dan. 4. 17. God setteth
over Kingdomes the basest of men God gives the kingdomes of the earth to them he never intends to give the Kingdom of heaven To conclude this truth with that message which godly Mr. Buchanon sent to King James when he lay a dying Remember me to him and tell him I am going to a place where few Kings come Kings are as rare meat in heaven as Venison in poor mens kitchins as it is in the Dutch Proverb 3. Judges how few of them that find others not judgement-proof will be found judgement-proof themselves they are Kings creatures who as their masters and makers are usually bad so they are seldome good Zeph 3. 3. Her Princes within her are roaring Lions her Judges are evening Wolves Where Princes are Lions for their power and roaring for their prey there likewise are the Judges Wolves crudelium emblemata they fleece they flaw they feed they feast themselves upon the poor Clients as Wolves do upon sheep and Lambs and they are evening Wolves that have had no prey very ravening and rapacious Luke 18. 2. Our Saviour tells us there was in a Citie a Judge that feared not God nor regarded man Oh how happy had the world been if there had been but one Judge thus corrupted and one Citie thus abused but alas how have all Kingdomes Cities Counties been pestered with multitudes of such Judges as have neither piety towards God nor pitie towards man Divine writ humane Histories yea our own Chronicles abound with Exempli gratia's of them Psalm 82. 2 3 4 5. How long will yee judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked Defend the poor and fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy deliver the poor and needy rid them out of the hand of the wicked They know not neither will they understand they walk on in darkness all the foundations of the earth are out of course What should I trouble you with them who troubled others while they lived with injustice oppression as Felix who looked for a bribe of Paul Acts 24. 25 26 27. Ananias who commanded Paul to be smitten Acts 23. 2 3. Gallio who suffered Paul to be beaten and cared not for it Acts 18. 17. But especially above all the Lord chief Justice of unjust Judges Pilate who was warned of his wife knew that out of malice the Jewes had delivered Christ professed upon all he heard and had examined he found no fault in him yea he had terrors of conscience upon him that made him afraid and yet to continue Caesars friend he is an enemy to Christ justice and his own soul John 19. 6 Matth. 27. 18 19. 8 12 13 14 15. As for humane Histories Surely Persia was pestred with multitudes of such Judges that Cambyses their King was forced to put Silanes to death and command his skin to be pluckt off and to be nailed to the Tribunall and put Olanes his son to be set on his Fathers Throne that both he and all other Judges might ever after be afraid to be unrighteous Judges Surely Rome was much infected that Alexander was forced according to his Sur-name to be Severus Lamprid. in Sever. to smother Taurinus a corrupt Judge with smoak commanding the Praeco to cry Fumo pereat qui fumum vendidit But our histories afford us too too many instances of the bribery injustice partiality of Judges I shall read their charge in the words of the Author Britannia habet Judices Gild. de excid Brit. orth pag. 1010. protegentes c. Britain hath Judges protecting but to wit protecting the guilty robbers adulterers swearers forswearers I am loath ulcus refricare else I could easily prove that one of the greatest causes of our late miseries was the corruption of our Judges But dis-gratias a Writ of ease is issued out against such Judges 4. Lawyers how few of them that truly plead the causes of their Clients without fraud or falshood How few of them do as Pericles did to his gods pray to the Lord to set a watch before their mouth and to keep the door of their lips How do they make the Law which is the Wall to fence off the people propriety a broken bowing bending Wall sometime to this side sometime to that to this sense and that sense as it will at that time best fit their turns How few but make Candida de nigris de candentibus atra Evill good and good evill make darkness light and light Isai 5. 2. darkness How few but parget over rotten causes with the made mortar of the Law whereby they appear white and sound I have often admired why the Lawyer in behalf of his fraternity took distaste at our Saviours reproving the Scribes and Pharisees for being graves that which appears not and the men that walk over them are not aware of them and all that satisfies me is that his conscience flew in his face and accused him that he and they were those graves that with flourish't words as with grasse did cover rotten and stinking carcasses and Causes of which Juries were not aware they care not what cause they plead in nor who the Client is they plead for nor who the party they Acts 24. 12. plead against Aperi bursam ego aperiam buccam If the client will open his purse mouth wide for his Lawyer his Lawyer wil open his mouth wide for his Client and so make good that sad and strange saying of that famous Lawyer Nevessan He that will not venture his body will never be valiant and he that will not venture his soul will never be wealthy 5. Souldiers how degenerated are they from the first Army of believers that was raised as we read of in the Scripture Gen. 14. 14. Abraham Captain General of all those forces that rescued Lot Where take notice of two particulars 1. The Generall doth not detain nor suffer to be detained any of Lots or of the King of Sodoms goods It 's a Martiall law made since Abrahams time that goods of their own party taken by the enemy and retaken by their own forces should lose their propriety See v. 16. 2. He doth not plead nor pretend an absolute conquest he would have smiled at such a Riddle yea hist at such a paradox that those who went out with him in their persons or staid at home and sent to him their purses and sent up to heaven for him their prayers should be accounted a conquered nation Caesar wished he had such Souldiers as were in Alexanders dayes we may say oh that we had such Souldiers as were in Abrahams dayes But we find the Poet a Prophet Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur Lucan lib. 10. Bell. civil Venalesque manus ibi fas ubi maxima merces Luke 3. 14. When the Souldiers had some desire to know of John Baptist what to do that they might be saved he tells them that they must do violence to no man neither accuse any falsly