may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. iii. 16 17. Inspir'd purposely by this Spirit to be a way to guide us into all truth and goodness But this may all pretend to and every one turns it how he lists We must adde a second And the second is the Church for we must know this says St. Peter know it first too 2 Pet. i. 20. That no Scripture is of any private interpretation There are some things so hard to be understood both in St. Pauls Epistles and also other Scriptures says he that they that are unlearned and unstable wrest them unto their own destruction 2 Tim. iii. 16. and therefore presently his advice follows to beware least we be led away with that error the error as he calls it of the wicked and so fall from our own stedfastness ver 17. When men unlearned or ungrounded presume to be interpreters or even learned men to prefer their private senses before the received ones of the Church 't is never like to produce better The pillar and ground upon which truth stands and stays is the Church if St. Paul may be allowed the judge 1 Tim. iii. 16. The pillar and ground of truth In matters of discipline when a brother has done disorderly tell it to the Church says Christ St. Mat. 18. 17. and if he neglect to hear that let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a Publican He is no Christian. In matters 2. of doubt and controversie send to the Church to Hierusalem to the Apostles and Elders there conven'd in Counsel and let them determine it so we find it done Acts xv 2 28. In a lawful and full assembly of the learned Fathers of the Church such shall be determined that 's the was to settle truth In matters 3. of Rites and Ceremonies the Spirit guides us also by the Church If any man seem to be contentious about them St. Pauls appeal is presently to the Churches Customs We have no such custom neither the Churches of God that 's answer enough full and sufficient thinks the Apostle 1 Cor. xi 16. If the Churches custom be for us then 't is good and true we think or speak or do If against us 't is all naught and wrong whatever purity or piety be pretended in it Nay so careful was the Apostle to preserve the publick Authority of the Church and beat down all private ways and fancies by which ways only Schism and Heresie creep in that he tells Timothy though a Bishop and one well read and exercised in the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. iii. 14. of a form of sound words he would have even him hold fast to 2 Tim. i. 13. and the Romans he tells of a form of Doctrine to be obeyed Rom. 6. 17. so far was that great and eloquent Apostle from being against forms any forms of the Church though he could have prayed and preached ex tempore with the best had tongues and eloquence and the gift of interpretation to do it too so far from leaving truth to any private interpretation or sudden motion whatsoever Nor is this appeal to the Fathers any whit strange or in Christian Religion only first to be heard of it was Gods direction from the first For ask now says Moses of the days that are past that were before thee Deut. iv 32. Stand you in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way says God Ier. vi 16. As if he had said Look about and see and examine all the ways you can yet the old way that 's the good one For enquire I pray thee of the former Age and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing Iob viii 8. See how slightly things of yesterday new interpretations new devices new guides are accounted of And indeed in it self 't is most ridiculous to think the custom and practice and order and interpretation of all times and Churches should be false and those of yesterday only true unless we can think the Spirit of truth has been fifteen or sixteen hundred years asleep and never wak'd till now of late or can imagine that Christ should found a Church and promise to be with it to the end of the World and then leave it presently to Antichrist to be guided by him for above fifteen hundred years together Nor can I see why the Spirit of truth should now of late only begin to move and stir except I should think he were awak'd or delighted with noise and fury Nor is it reasonable to conceive a few private Spirits neither holier nor wiser than others for ought appears nor arm'd with Miracles to confirm their Doctrines should be more guided by the Spirit of truth than the whole Church and succession of Christians and Christian Fathers especially wherein at any time they agree Yet 3. not always to go so high Thou leadest thy people like sheep says the Psalmist by the hand of Moses and Aaron Psal. lxxvii 20. Moses and Aaron were the Governours of the Church the one a Priest the other a Prophet by such God leads his People by their lawful Pastours and Teachers The one the Civil Governour is the cloud to cover them from the heat The other the Spiritual is the light to lead them in the way The first protects the other guides us and we are bid to obey them those especially that watch for our souls Heb. xiii 17. Such as labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. v. 17. By such as God sets over us in the Church to teach and guide us into truth we must be guided if we will come into it In things unlawful nor one nor other is to be obeyed In things indifferent they always are In things doubtful 't is our safest course to have recourse to them provided that they be not of Corahs company that they exalt not themselves against Moses and Aaron nor draw us to it If they do we may say to them as Moses did to those Ye take too much upon you you Sons of Levi. God leads his People like a flock in peace and unity and by the hands of Moses and Aaron Thus 3. the Spirit guides into all truth because the Spirit is God and God so guides You have heard the way and means the first part of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Spirits guiding The Second follows his act and motion 1. He leads or guides us only he does not drive us that 's not the way to plant truth by force and violence fire and fagots not the Spirits sure which is the Spirit of love 2. Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is we told you in it Some Act of the Spirit He moves and stirs up to it enlightens our understandings actuates our wills disposes ways and times occasions and opportunities to it that 's the reason we hear the truth more willingly at some time than other Paul
as they pleas'd Non ita sane non ita est says he It is not so indeed it is not so Hoc plane est quod evertit orbem universum 'T is this It is plainly this this false opinion or fancy that ruines all the world Behold the multitudes here going before crying and the multitudes following after answering them in their Hosanna to the Son of David all ranks of people the most secular so religious grown since Christs coming 'T is to be fear'd he is going from us or will be quickly if we omit our parts if we forget our duties if we once begin to think too much of bearing part or share in his Service either in the Congregation or out of it But 5. however they that pretend to go out to meet Christ to have more sense of Devotion and Zeal to it then others they above all surely will be easily heard in their Hosanna's or Benedictus The more devout we are we sing the louder the more earnest we be to meet our Lord the more welcome will we give him the higher gratulations and acclamations to him Whoever fail in their parts methinks such should not If we pretend to love him more then others then more prayers and praises to him then others if we love him more they will be more and we will not be ashamed to profess it in the multitude nor think much to be in the multitude among the meanest or poorest at it Surely not seeing 6. the Iews themselves think not much to do so seeing them so ready so eager so violent in giving honour to him can it be expected that Christians should be behind but they before and we not behind Too much it is that they before and we behind it should be rather we before and they behind though they got the start in time to get before us we should sure in measure get it go there before them Christ came to them and they go out to meet him He comes to us and we go from him He came to them at this time with a sad message of destruction and therefore weeps in the mount of his triumph to look upon the City and yet they entertain him with Hosanna's Blessed be the name of the Lord so come things to pass He comes to us with tydings of great joy such the Angels term it his Birth no other coming yet we think much to sing Hosanna's for it to keep a day of praise or a song of praise or a face and garb of praise the more unchristian they that do so less sensible of Christs favours then the very multitude then the Jew himself Rare Christians the while that think no better speak no better rejoyce no better at Christs coming at his greatest and most gracious coming I cannot say this multitude to the Letter and in the Story are any unanswerable argument for our Hosanna's Yet when a multitude does well 't is good to follow them but take it now 2. in the mystery and there needs no greater to perswade us The multitudes before are in the mystery the Holy Patriarchs and they that followed are the Prophets Now what the Patriarchs and Prophets have rejoyc'd at that must we Abraham says Christ himself rejoyced to see my day he saw it and was glad Yes your Father Abraham was glad He was glad to see Christ a coming S. Iohn viii 56. The Prophets are every where full of joyful expressions at the mention of the Messia's coming their eyes lookt and their hearts long'd for him and the Prophet Zachary calls to us to tell it out with Joy to the Daughter of Sion tells punctually even of this very joy and coming too Zach. ix 9. And what was written before time either by Patriarch or Prophet was written for our learning says the Apostle Rom. xv 4. We may do what they did what they would have us Or 2. The multitudes before in the mystery are the Iews the multitudes that follow are the Gentiles Both bidden by the Apostle to rejoyce Rom. xv 10. Rejoyce ye Gentiles with his people his people the Iews before and the Gentiles behind all shall rejoyce in his salvation for glory is now coming to the Iews glory to his people Israel and light unto the Gentiles to light them by his coming So sang old Simeon in his Song S. Luke ii 32. 3. The multitudes before is the Iewish Synagogue the multitudes behind the Christian Church a multitude indeed that cannot be numbred Revel vii 9. of Emperours and Kings and Princes Bishops and Priests Doctors Martyrs Confessors and Virgins all in their several Orders and Generations crying Hosanna to the Son of David the whole world gone after him Before indeed only Notus in Iudaea Deus God only known in Iury Psal. lxxvi 1. his coming only talkt of in Israel but after quam admirabile nomen tuum in universa terra Psal. viii 1. O Lord our Governour how wonderful or excellent is thy name in all the world All these multitudes the Iew with his multitude of Patriarchs Priests and Levites and Singers and Prophets with his Sacrifices of Bulls and Rams and Goats and Sheep of Types and Figures all crying out Messiah's coming The Christians Apostles Martyrs Confessors Doctors Virgins Bishops Priests and Deacons and all several Orders in their Choirs and Churches throughout the world crying out he is come all the corners of the earth resounding out Hosanna's and Allelujahs to him Vna est fides praecedentium at que sequentium populorum says St. Gregory all believing and professing the same he that cometh here they the Iews before crying he that cometh we the Christians crying he that is come or rather he that cometh still that every day comes to us by his Grace and through his Word and in his Sacraments Blessed is he that cometh still not a tense or tittle chang'd he that comes being the same for ever eternity and things eternal being ever coming never gone or going So now the Congregation is full what should we do but begin our Service when we have Law and Prophets and Gospel to countenance and bear us company in our Te Deum and Benedictus at our Prayers and Praises in our Joys and Festivals all of them crying nothing but Christ nothing but Christ blessed be he blessed be he and blessed be his coming and blessed be his day and blessed be his deeds the whole practice of all Christian Churches and Congregations that ever were gathered together in nomine Domini in the name of the Lord till these meer nominal verbal Christians that are afraid of the name of him that cometh of the name of Iesus of blessing it or bowing at it all Christians all that came before in the name of Christ till these pretenders that follow no body but their own fancies all agreeing in the same welcome to their Redeemer joyning in the same prayers and praises what should we do but add our voices and sing with them better sure
to digest as well as tast there in the mouth is a kind of first digestion made Ruminate we then and meditate upon Christ when we have tasted him Let it be our business to spend much of our time and days henceforth in meditation of him that 's the way indeed to be filled with his Spirit while we thus digest him and chew upon him in our spirits Nor is 3. fire improper any way to bring to that holy Table The fire of charity is to kindle our devotion there to warm our affections and desires to it There 4. our tongues are to be warm'd into praises that they may run a nimble descant upon his benefits and move apace to the glory of his Name Thus are our tongues to be imployed and thus is the fire to be kindled in us that we may speak with our tongues This is the way to be filled with the Holy Spirit this blessed Sacrament the means to it Come thou therefore O blessed Spirit into our hearts and tongues lighten our understanding with thy heavenly light warm our affections with thy holy fire purge away all our dross burn up all our chaff renew our spirits separate our sins and evils from us unite us in thy love subdue us to thy self teach our hearts to think our tongues to speak our hands to act our feet to move only to thy will settle thy self in us hence forward and dwell with us so teach us with all our tongues and powers to praise thee here upon earth that we may one day praise thee with them in Heaven for evermore A SERMON UPON Trinity Sunday REV. IV. 8. And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come I Need not stretch the Text to reach the Time The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Holy Holy in it is plain enough to teach the Trinity An Anthem sung here by the Angels and Saints in heaven done so here also by four of the chief Apostles and the Bishops of Iudea signified by the four beasts and twenty four Elders taken up after generally by the Saints on earth commended to us by the Church to day as our Epistle sent from heaven with a pattern in it for our Hymns and Praises to the blessed Trinity Lord God Almighty For 't is a part I must tell you of one of St. Iohn's Visions presenting to us what is done in heaven what Good would have done on earth and what should there be done ere long throughout it beginning at Hierusalem Glory and honour and thanks should be given unto God for the wonders he was doing for his servants for the deliverance he was working for his Church for the judgments he was bringing on their enemies as glory had been of old given him by his Saints and Prophets was now given him by his Apostles and Bishops so it should be given still by the whole Christian Church for ever as he himself was and is and is to come so was his praise and is and is to come we therefore all to learn to bear our parts in that heavenly Anthem against the time we come thither to bear them company Example you see we have here set before us to do it by and a form to do it in better we cannot wish the four Beasts or Cherubims Angels Saints and the Apostles there 's our Pattern for they rest not day and night saying it and Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and is to come there 's the form we best do it in In each Part we shall observe a kind of Trinity or three Parts in each In the Pattern 1. the Persons 2. their earnestness and 3. their continuance 1. The persons praising God and saying it They the four beasts or living creatures as the words tell us just before 2. Their earnestness in it They rest not saying they cannot rest for saying it cannot rest without the saying it unless they say it say it over and over Holy Holy Holy cannot rest but doing it that 's their rest they take their praising God ◠Their continuance at it day and night it is and without rest and pause is it they are continually doing it saying and doing all to his honour and glory In the Form of Praise we have a sort of Trinity too three things observable 1. The glory or honour given Holy Holy Holy 2. The Persons to whom it is Lord God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost yet all three in one one single Lord one only God one alone Almighty and no more so there 's the Vnity in Trinity into the bargain And 3. here are the benefits intimated we praise him for He was our Creator He is our Redeemer He will be our Glorifier So you see Trinities enough in the Text to make it Trinity Sunday in it to fill all the Trinity Sundays after it The sum is that we are all to bear our parts in this holy Doxology to give glory and honour and power to the blessed Trinity with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders from time to time for evermore and that which may here serve well to perswade us to it is the Company and with them we will begin And they c. But who are they The beginning of the verse tells us the four beasts or as it may more genuinely and handsomly be translated the four living creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what or who are they That 's the question and a hard one too it seems by the variety of opinions probably to be answered rather by conjecture than resolution We shall take the likeliest of them and pass the rest 1. Some by the four living Creatures this they would have the four Cardinal vertues understood by the Lion fortitude by the Calf or Oxe justice by the Eagle temperance and by the Man prudence And then the sense will be that God is most signally prais'd and glorified by a vertuous life no way like that to praise him To do righteousness to walk wisely to live soberly to stand stoutly to God and goodness that 's the true way to give glory to the whole Trinity 2. Others by the four living Creatures apprehend the four chief faculties of our souls to be insinuated with which we are to praise him The irascible intimated by the Lion the concupiscible by the Oxe the rational by the face of man and the Spirit by the Eagle And here the Lesson is that we are to do it to praise God with all our powers set our affections and desires upon it be moved and angry at every thing that comes in to hinder it search all the means our reason can find out to perfect praise and raise up our Spirits upon Eagles wings to perform it to the highest pitch 3. Some by these four conceive the whole world consisting of the four Elements represented to us as praising God The fire by the Lion whose nature is hot
and fiery the earth by the Ox that tills it the air by man that breaths it the water by the Eagle which as other fowl was made out of it Gen. i. 20. All these indeed we find called in by the holy Psalmist to make up the song of praise Psal. cxlviii and by the three Children in the fiery furnace to make up theirs that we may know the Fire and all the Elements Beasts and all Creatures praise him as well as man nay better are readier commonly to do it than he that he is fain even the devoutest he of all of us to cry out to them to come in with their notes to help him out and fill up the Choir 4. Some think Gods title of slow to anger and swift to mercy is by these four here exprest by way of Hieroglyphick by the Oxe slowness by the Lion anger by the Eagle swiftness and by the Man mercy represented to us And without doubt or question in this slowness to wrath and swiftness to have mercy is Gods greatest glory and for them we most willingly give him glory must not cease at any time to give him glory 5. Others suppose it an Hieroglyphick of Christ himself who in his Incarnation appear'd in the form or face of a man in his Passion like a Calf or Oxe for sacrifice in his Resurrection like a Lion the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah in his Ascension like an Eagle and if this pass the meaning is that by Christ Gods glory is most advanced by his Incarnation Passion Resurrection and Ascension heaven and earth is filled with his glory and for this above all the rest for him and his benefits we are to give God the greatest glory there as it were begins all our praise thence the twenty four Elders first throw down their Crowns and fall down and worship as it were acknowledging him the beginning of all the good we receive both of grace and glory Christ the Author and Original of them all But 6. to come a little near These four living Creatures say others represent the four Evangelists that preach Christs Life and Death Resurrection and Ascension into glory The Lion St. Mark for he begins his Gospel as it were with the voice of a Lion roaring in the Wilderness The Calf or Oxe St. Luke who begins his with the story of a Levitical Priest whose Ministry was about the Sacrifice of Calves and Oxen. The Man St. Matthew who takes his rise from the Genealogy of men The Eagle St. Iohn who at the very first soars up on high that we had need of Eagles wings and eyes to follow and discern him By these four indeed Gods grace and mercy Christs name and glory is spread over the face of all the earth and by this we learn that to preach and teach and publish the things of Christ is to give God praise and glory a singular and notable way to do so 7. Some that suppose they yet hit it nearer conceive God here brought in in the Vision sitting as the Bishop of Ierusalem with all the Bishops of Iudea in council all about him as Acts xv it seems they did and these four living Creatures about the Throne to be those four chief Apostles St. Peter St. Iohn St. Barnabas and St. Paul there present rank'd here higher than the rest St. Peter for his primacy set first and resembled by the Lion for his fiery zeal and fervour St. Paul deciphered by the Oxe in respect of his labours more abundantly than they all St. Barnabas intimated by the Man as being a Son of consolation humanity and mercy by the interpretation of his name St. Iohn pointed at by the Eagle for those sublime and high speculations of the Divinity of Christ above all the rest These were the four great Standard-bearers of the Christian Israel for these four living Creatures were born in the standard of old Israel and here alluded to these the four great Champions and Defenders the Planters and Propagators of the Christian Faith of the blessed Trinity of the glory of God and Christ throughout the world And thus we see to undertake the business of the Gospel to take pains and labour to defend and propagate it with all our might and main is an actual and real glorifying of God and Christ. Yet lastly whatever these may be imagined to represent to us or whomsoever to point out or what council or persons or judicature soever to resemble Angels to be sure they were that thus represented the Vision to St. Iohn and as such if we consider them we may conclude all the business with this Lesson that the business of heaven as well as earth of Angels as well as men is to be imployed in Praises and thanksgivings to the Almighty an imployment therefore well worth our time and pains and study Now put all these together and I cannot give you a fuller description of the way to praise and glorifie him than these have given you For to do it as we should is 1. to live vertuously 2. To employ all the powers and faculties of soul and body to his service 3. To call in all the Creatures to help us to do it and to use them to it 4. To reflect often upon both his mercies and his judgments and acknowledge his goodness in them both 5. To meditate upon the Life the Death the Resurrection the Ascension of Christ with all devotion and humility 6. To preach and publish it what we can 7. To defend and maintain it to our utmost power 8. To reckon it lastly an Angels work a heavenly piece of business thus to spend our days and years in giving glory to the most highest And if heaven and earth and all the creatures else besides sinful man become thus the Trumpets of their Creators glory and in all their several ways and orders ambitiously contrive themselves into the instruments of it what strange creatures must we needs be that either neglect it or forget it Heaven and earth says our morning Hymn are full of the Majesty of thy glory we can be no other than hell then that are empty of it that do not resound it Dragons and all deeps says the Psalmist Psal. cxlviii 7. all but the old Dragon and the bottomless deep the deep of hell all praise him else You see what we bring our selves to by our unthankfulness what a sad condition they are in who give not glory unto God who delight not in magnifying and praising him who are against the Hymns and Anthems to that purpose Thus you see it done in the Text by Saints and Angels in the Heavens by Apostles and Evangelists on the Earth Thus de facto so it was then But 't is as well a Prediction of what should be after that not only the present Age of the Apostles and holy Bishops then but the succeeding Ages also of the Church should acknowledge the glory of the undivided Trinity And it fell out accordingly Not
own desires our goods and estates and repute and ease and quiet and life and all whensoever he pleases to call for it This is truly following Christ. And whatsoever else we have in St. Andrew following him as an Apostle is particular and concerns not any at all but those who by some signal outward visible Call are commanded to a more immediate attendance on their Master To thrust our selves into that without that ground is both impudence and presumption to follow our own proud hearts and giddy heads and not him that they here followed who followed him not either as Disciples or Apostles without good ground Let 's else examine it He came himself and publickly and professedly called them to him In secret he tells Pilate he had said nothing St. Iohn xviii 20. All the people could bear witness to his doings that his Followers might know for ever he would have none to enter into such offices without a solemn and publick calling To his Doctrine to be his Scholars and Disciples perhaps he will admit us in private or by night as he did Nicodemus or in the croud and multitude together but to be Apostles and Preachers of that Doctrine not without a publick and particular ordination and authority that shall equivalently say as he did to these Brothers in the verse before the Text Follow me and I will make you fishers of men Nay more St. Mark iii. 13 14. he picks them out that he calls Apostles does it with great solemnity Goes up into a mountain that was then as it were his Church and calls unto him whom he would not who would themselves And they came unto him they and none else And them he ordained the very word the Church uses still He ordained twelve that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach Lo here what a solemnity Christ makes of it of making Ministers who certainly had he intended any should make themselves or any Ministers but those Teachers and Preachers who from him and his Apostles derive their power the Bishops and Fathers of his Church would not with so much solemnity so ceremoniously so publickly so punctually have thus ordained those whom he intended should be in nearer attendance to him than others to whom he would commit the preaching of his Gospel and the dispensation of his Ordinances to the world This is not all They had another ground of their calling a second reason of their following They were enabled to it by a strange and sudden change within them whereby they found they could now already do what he called them to They were now become quite other men meerly spirituall no longer Seculars away with temporal business they minded worldly things no more but straightway to him without delay This inward Call though alone it be not sufficient yet joyn'd together with the outward is good ground indeed to follow Christ any whither soever And unless thus God either on a sudden or by time by extraordinary or ordinary means shall enable any man for his service and Ministry and by the outward power also call him to it he shall bear his sin that undertakes it whoever he be that he did not send he is one of those that God complains of that runs when he is not sent and though the pretence be to stay the falling Ark the Church from perishing for want of teaching his sin is Uzzahs that touches holy things without this double Commission Perez Vzzah is his place a breach he makes in the Church and God will one day break out upon him that thus breaks into the Church not by the door but some other way that neither being enabled within nor from without or within and not from without or without only and not from within whom God has not given both inward abilities and outward calling to the handling of his holy mysteries and dispensations They have a third ground yet why they leave their nets and 't is to follow Christ. They know and are assured who it is they do it for and why they do it It is the Messias it is the Christ says St. Andrew to his Brother Simon St. Iohn i. 41. And so stands the case they can no longer tend his business and their nets together This is the third time they were called we told you To the meer knowledge of him they were called first in that place of St. Iohn to a nearer familiarity St. Luke v. where though they leave their nets yet 't is only for a while but here being called to follow him to the Apostleship they wholly leave them altogether They saw his power before in the miraculous draught of fishes which made them leave their work for a time to follow him but now they feel it warm within them they cannot stay shall I say to draw up their nets or to cast them in though they were now casting and about it but straightway the word no sooner out of his mouth but they at his heels When we are sure it is Christ that calls that him we follow no hast too much no leaving too much no following too much for him For him if it be we may leave all without danger but if we be not sure it is it would do well to have a net to take to I speak this for that too many leave their nets their business their work and bestow themselves and theirs upon things that are not him nor his upon false Christs upon deceivers upon such as what ever shew they make will be found upon examination to seek their own and not Jesus Christ. 'T is fit we should look it be Christ indeed not our own ends not leave catching fishes to go lead silly women captive laden more with sins than ever St. Andrews Net with Fishes If it be for some new device of late which our Fathers have not known which Christs Church has not received some new sprung pattern in the Mount it is some New Christs not the old ones some false ones not the only true ones who being God blessed for ever is always like himself He that leaves any thing to follow those new calls or callers either to be a Teacher or a follower of them had better keep his nets though broken ones The Sum is we are to have good ground for what we do an And to begin with and a him to end in good authority to go upon and the right end to go to sufficient abilities and lawful authority to send us if it be as labourers into the Vineyard and a true Christ to serve with them good reason too 2. we must shew for all our actions in Christs Religion and Worship though we be but to follow only as Disciples just power to commend it and the infallible glory of Christ and his Church to design it to So our obedience to be ready sincere and upright when we can perform and are required it by Christ and those that under him have the
after those things which shall come upon the earth what are all these together to them who are thus by those very things redeem'd out of all their troubles Saint Paul is bold to set up a challenge Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these we are more then conquerours through him this him in the Text that loved us Rom. viii 35. 37. And he goes on yet higher For I am perswaded says he that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus ver 38 39. And if thus nothing can ever separate us from Christs love what should trouble us at his coming whose coming is but to draw us nearer to himself Be not troubled be not terrified says he ver 9. but in patience possess your souls ver 18. for there shall not a hair of your heads perish ver 17. Others may fall and sink and perish but do they what they can against you those that hate you yet care not for it look up look up to me I am coming to redeem you lift up your heads and behold the glory into which I am at hand to lift you up The sum of all now is that in the midst of all your troubles all your amazements all your fears and dangers you first still lift up your heads and look to Heaven for comfort and fetch it thence by prayers and petitions 2. That in the midst of all calamities you yet remember your redemption is a coming and so lift up your heads with joy in the heat and fury of them all knowing that they are nothing else but so many forerunners of your glory Lastly that you look up and lift up your heads with thankfulness that he has thus accounted you worthy to see him in his glory and that your redemption is no further off That having thus begun to look up and lift up your voices in praises and thanksgiving upon earth he may lift you up into Heaven in soul and body at his coming there to sing Allelujahs with the Saints and Angels and the four and twenty Elders to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore there to be partakers of all his Glory A SERMON ON The Fourth Sunday in Advent PHILIPPIANS iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand THE Text is a part of the Epistle for the day chosen you may conceive because the Lord that is the time of his coming is at hand A fit preparation thought by the Church for Christmas now so near to prepare us how to entertain the happy day the joyful news of our Lord Christs coming in the flesh To entertain it I say not with excess and riot but moderation not with rude tricks and gambols but softness and meekness not in vanity of clothes but modesty not in iniquity but equity somewhat departing from our own right and seeking occasions to do others right that all men may see and know we behave our selves like Servants expecting their Lords coming according to all the several senses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated moderation in the Text but stretching further then any one English word can express it A word chosen by the Apostle to comprehend the whole duty if it might be of a Christian preparing for his Lord in the midst of much affliction and long wearied expectation back'd with an assurance that the Lord was now hard by a coming to deliver them The poor Philippians were somewhat sad or sad-like by the persecutions they suffered from the unbelieving Iews and Gnostick Hereticks that were among them many were daily falling off by reason of them ver 18. of the former Chapter and much hurt those dogs as the Apostle calls them ver 2. of that Chapter the concision that is those Hereticks had done or were like to do them But for all that says he Rejoyce and again Rejoyce in the verse before the Text rejoyce too that all men may see it see your joy in the Lord and in your sufferings for him yet so that they may see your moderation in it too that as you are not sad like men without hope so you are not merry like men out of their wits but as men that know their Lord is nigh at hand as well to behold their actions as to free them from their sufferings to see their patience and moderation as well as their trouble and persecution A perswasion it is or exhortation to patience and meekness and some other Christian Vertues which by examining the word you will see anon from the forementioned consideration A perswasion to moderation from a comfortable assurance of a reward the Lord at hand to give it A perswasion to prepare our selves because our Lord is coming A perswasion so to do it that all may know what we are a doing and what we are expecting that they may see we are neither asham'd of our Religion nor of our Lord that we neither fear mens malice nor our Lords mercy that we are confident he is at hand ready to succour and rescue all that patiently and faithfully suffer for him to take vengeance on his enemies and deliver his Servants out of all The time is now approaching even at the doors And if we apply this as we do all other Scriptures to our selves to teach us moderation and whatever else is contain'd under the word which is so rendred and draw down the Lords being at hand in the Text to all Christs comings in Flesh in Grace in Glory it will no way disadvantage the Text but advance it rather improve the Apostles sense and meaning to all Churches and times to prepare them all to go out to meet the Lord when or howsoever he shall come unto them And moderation must be it we must meet him with be the times what they will come the Lord how or when he please know we time or know it not be what will unknown our moderation must be known and yet his coming as unknown as it may be must be consider'd always in our minds it must be that the Lord is one way or other continually at hand Indeed I must confess the times were troublesom and dangerous when the Apostle thus exhorted and comforted the Philippians but the best times are dangerous danger there is as much of forgetting Christ in prosperity as of falling from him in adversity and as much need there is of moderation when all happinesses flow in upon us as when all afflictions fall upon us so the advice cannot be unseasonable And though we call'd the Text St. Pauls advice or the Christians duty in sad times and his comfort in them and so divide the words yet they will reach
known It were strange to hear of equity or civility or modesty or moderation that could not be seen ridiculous to call him merciful or equitable that shews it not by some condescension to stile him civil whose behaviour is nothing less him modest who shews nothing but immodesty him meek who expresses nothing but fury and impatience These are vertues we must needs see where e're they be It is reported of S. Lucian the Martyr that he converted many by his modest cheerful and pious look and carriage and of S. Bernard that In carne ejus apparebat gratia quaedam spiritualis c. There appeared a kind of spiritual grace throughout his body there shone a heavenly brightness in his face there darted an Angelical purity and Dove-like simplicity from his eyes so great was the inward beauty of his inward man that it poured out it self in his whole outward man abundantly over all his parts and powers No motion in them but with Reason and Religion Where such vertue is it will be known must be too must so be exprest that men may know and feel the benefits and effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let your moderation speak for you whose servants you are what Lord you are under what is your expectation and your faith 3. Nor is it thirdly enough to have it known to one or two to a few or to the houshold of faith alone To all men says the Apostle Iew and Gentile Friend and Foe Brethren and Strangers the Orthodox and Hereticks good and bad Christian and Infidel Condescend to men of low estate the very lowest says our Apostle Rom. xii 16. Provide things honest in the sight of all men ver 17. live peaceably with all men ver 8. do all possible to live so having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that by your good works which they shall behold they may glorifie God in the day of visitation 1 Pet. ii 12. full of equity that they may not speak evil of you as rigorous and unmerciful full of courtesie and civility that the Doctrine of Christ be not blasphem'd for a Doctrine of rudeness and incivility full of modesty that the adversary speak not reproachfully of the word of truth have no occasion to do so by your immodesty full of moderation that all good men may glorifie God for your professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ to those hard points in hard times to meekness and moderation when your adversaries are so violent and immoderately set against you Known must our moderation be in all its parts that all may know the purity of our profession the soundness of our Religion the Grace of God appearing in us the adversary be convinced the Christian Brethren incited by our examples to the same grace and vertue One note especially we are to carry hence that it is no excuse for our impatience harshness or any immodest or immoderate fierceness against any that they are men of a contrary opinion we use so ill Men they are and even under that notion moderation to be used towards them much more if we acknowledge the same Lord or his being any way near either to reward or punish And so I pass to the second General the Christians comfort that holds up his head in the bitterest storms and makes him moderate quite through them all The Lord is at hand Now the Lord is several ways said to be at hand many ways to be near us He is at hand or near us by his divine essence not far says S. Paul from every one of us Acts xvii 27. he is every where we therefore no where but that he is near us He is near us 2. by his Humanity The taking that upon him has brought him nigh indeed to be bone of our bone and flesh of our slesh He is nearer us yet 3. by his Grace One with us and we with him one Spirit too he in us and we in him S. Iohn xiv 20. He is at hand and nigh us 4. in our Prayers So holy David The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him all such as call upon him faithfully He is nigh us 5. in his Word in our Mouths and in our Hearts by the word of Faith that is preached to us Rom. x. 8. we need not up to heaven nor down to the deep says the Apostle to find out Christ that eternal word is nigh enough us in his word He is nigh us 6. in the Sacraments so near in Baptism as to touch and wash us especially so near in the Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood as to be almost touched by us there he is truly really miraculously present with us and united to us 'T is want of eyes if we discern not his Body there 1 Cor. xi 29. in that or see not his power in the other He is at hand 7. with his Iudgments Behold the Iudge standeth at the door S. James v. 9. Just before he had said the coming of the Lord draweth nigh but at the second look he even sees him at the door Now of this coming two sorts we find expected even in the Apostles times his coming in judgment against Ierusalem to destroy his Crucifiers the unbelieving Iews and the Apostate Christians the Gnostick Hereticks that together with the Iews persecuted the Church of Christ and his last coming at the general Judgment We may add a third his being always ready at hand to deliver his faithful servants out of their troubles and to revenge them in due time of all those that causlesly rise up against them The first kind of his coming to Judgment that against Ierusalem is the coming by which the Apostle comforts his Philippians that the Lord was now coming to deliver the persecuted Saints out of their hands The third is that by which our drooping spirits are supported in all distresses that he is near to help us in them all The second his coming at last in the general Judgment then howsoever to make a full amends for all is the great stay of all our hope all Christians from first to last No great matter how we are here from time to time driven to our shifts the time is coming will pay for all Nor do any of the other comings want their comfort 'T is a comfort that God is so near us in his essence so that in him we live and move and have our being our life and being are surely the better by it 2. 'T is a great comfort that our Lord would vouchsafe us so great an honour as to become like one of us to walk and speak and eat and drink and be weary and weep and live and die like one of us 3. 'T is an inward and inexpressible comfort that he will dwell in us by his Grace and Holy Spirit make us Holy as himself is Holy 4. 'T is a gracious comfort that he suffers us so ordinarily to discourse with him in our Prayers 5. 'T is an especial
us stand up to it and stand for it to the last A Souldier will venture all to save his colours rather wrap himself up in them and dye so than part with them For Christ for his Word for his Sacraments for his Cross for our Gospel and Religion we should do as much But I am asham'd the age has shewed us too many cowards that have not only run away from this Standard but betray'd it too the more unworthy certainly that they should ever reap fruit or benefit twig or branch from the root of Iesse The very Gentiles in the next words will sufficiently shame them For to it to this Ensign do all the Gentiles seek III. Shail it is I confess in the future tense here reach'd no further in the Prophets time but now it does the Prophesie is fulfill'd it so came to pass And it quickly came so after the Ensign was set up the Cross reared and the Resurrection had display'd it For I if I be lifted up from the earth says he himself will draw all men to me St. Iohn xii 32. Parthians and Medes and Elamites the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia Egypt and Lybia Rome and Cyrene as well as the dwellers in Iudea Cretes and Arabians as well as Israelites Proselites as well as Iews he will draw all in to him The vast multitudes that came daily in from all quarters of the world so many Churches of the Gentiles so suddenly rais'd and planted are a sufficient evidence to this great truth And the term the Iews at this day give the Christians of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word in the Text for Gentiles confirms as much by their own confession So true was both Isaiah's Prophesie here and Father Iacob's so long before that to him should the gathering of the people be Gen. xlix 10. But that which is an evidence as great as any if not above all is St. Paul applies the Text as fulfilled then Rom. xv 12. And there is this only to be added for our particular that we still go on and continue seeking him IV. But there is Rest and Glory here added to the success of this great design His rest shall be glorious Now by his Rest we in the first place understand the Church the place where the Psalmist tells us his honour dwells Psal. xxvi 3. the place of which himself says no less than This shall be my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have delight therein Psal. cxxxii 14. And glorious it is the Apostle tells us a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle Ephes. v. 27. glorious all over so glorious that the Prophet says the Gentiles shall come to its Light and Kings to the brightness of its rising Isa. lx 3. they shall bring Gold and Incense from Shebah the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth shall come with acceptance to his Altar ver 7. the glory of Lebanon shall come unto it ver 13. They shall call the walls of it salvation and the gates praise ver 18. The Lord is an everlasting light unto it and God is its glory ver 19. So that we may well cry out with David Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God thy Church thy Congregation O thou root of Iesse thou Son of David which thou hast gathered and thy Churches or holy Temples too which are rais'd to thee exceed in glory the beauty of Holiness thy holy mysteries thy blessed self art there And indeed in the holy Mysteries of the Blessed Sacrament is his second place of Rest. There it is that the feeds his flock and rests at noon Cant. i. 7. And he is glorious there glorious in his Mercies illustrious in his Benefits wonderful in his being there No such wonder in the world as his being under these consecrated Elements his feeding our souls with them his discovering himself from under them by the comforts he affords us by them His Cratch to day was a third place of his Rest glorious it was because 1. the God of Glory rested there because 2. the glorious Angels displaid their Wings and gave forth their light and sung about it St. Luke ii 13 14. because 3. Kings themselves came from far to visite it and laid all their glories down there at his feet There his rest was glorious too Nay 4. his Sepulchre the place of his rest in Death was as glorious is as glorious still as any of the other And I must tell you the Latin reads it Sepulchrum ejus Gloriosum From thence it is he rose in glory by that it was he gain'd the glorious victory over Death and Hell from thence he came forth a glorious Conqueror Thither have devout Christians flock'd in incredible numbers There have Miracles been often wrought there have Kings hung up their Crowns there have millions paid their homage And thence have we all receiv'd both Grace and Glory from his Sepulchre where he lay down in Death and rose again to Life There is one Rest still behind and it is not only glorious but it self is glory His rest himself calls it Heb. iii. 11. yet a rest into which he would have us enter too Heb. iv 9 11. And in Heaven it is no rest to this no rest indeed any where but there and perfect glory no where else And now to wind up all together This rest and glory or glorious rest which ends the Text and 't is the best end we can either make or wish springs from the root at the beginning The Church it self and all the rest and glory the Churches ever had or have or shall enjoy grows all from that Our Holy Temples our Holy Sacraments our Holy Days this day the first of all the rest all the benefits of his Death Resurrection and Ascension into Glory nay our greatest glory in Heaven it self comes from this little Branch of Iesse this humble Root and the way to all is by him and his humility And the time suits well and the day hits fair for all In that day says the Text all this you have heard shall be and that day now is this To day the Root sprang forth the Branch appeared To day the Ensign was displaid to all the people From this day the Gentiles began their search This day he began to call in his Church and the Shepherds were the first To day he first was laid to mortal rest To day the glory of his Star appeared to wait upon his Cradle To day we also may enter into his rest one or other of them One of his places of rest we told you was in the Church or holy place let us seek him there Another Rest of his we mentioned to be in the Blessed Sacrament let us seek him there His Ensign is there set up let us go in to him and offer our lives and fortunes at his feet proffer to fight his Battels and obey his Commands strive we
receiving in the Text with the receiving in the day receive we him and his fulness him and his graces him with all thankfulness reverence and devotion Set we our selves to do it to draw waters out of these wells of salvation Isa. xii 3. by the hand of Faith and bucket of Humility out of these Fountains of our Saviour So the Latin reads it whose side runs out blood and water full streams of grace and pardon and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit if we will but come hither to draw or drink them We call it a receiving and so it is the most signal receiving that we have a receiving him full and whole Body and Blood Flesh and Spirit really though not corporally both let us therefore receive it Open we but our mouths wide and he will fill them open we our mouths to beg and we shall receive open them wide and full and we shall be fill'd with fulness too to day at this full table a table at this time full of all heavenly delicates and dainties Yet as we must open our mouths so we must open our hands too our mouths to receive our hands to give We receive of Christ 't is fit we give somewhat out of our receipts we receive of his fulness 't is but proportionbale that we give out of our fulness to those that are not full that our abundance may be the supply of others want as Christs fulness is of ours 'T is a day of fulness and all would be full the poor as well as the rich that all mouths might this day be filled with his praise 1 Cor. xi 20. This is not to eat the Lords Body for one to be full I give it the easiest word another to be hungry the poor must have their share they that have not says the Apostle that is the poor 'T is a Communion and all must communicate one way or other poor and all 'T is a feast of fulness both in the Church and in the House all must communicate of this days fulness one way or other in one sort or other and surely when we have filled our selves with the fulness of this house we cannot but fill others with the fulness of ours And yet there is one more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another fulness to which this grace and fulness leads us to be filled henceforward with goodworks to be filled with the fruits of Righteousness and all the knowledge of Christ. For this it is that this fulness is received that this grace is received that this Grace-cup the cup of Salvation is received that all gifts and graces are received that we increase in grace go on in goodness proceed in all kinds of holy vertues till we come to the fulness of Christ to the fulness of his grace here and of his glory hereafter Send down thy Grace O heavenly Father that we may all receive this fulness at thy hand empty us of our sins empty us of our selves that we may henceforward be only fill'd with thee fill us this day with the plenteousness of thy table and reject us not though too unworthy fill us every day with the plenteousness of thy Grace and leave us not to our own weakness that we may go on from grace to grace from strength to strength from vertue to vertue till we come to be filled with the plenteousness of thy house to the fulness of joy and pleasure and grace and glory for evermore Amen Now to the God and Author of all this fulness all our receipts all good gifts and graces to the Father that gives to the Son that purchas'd to the Holy Ghost that conveys them to us be all the fulness of thanks and praise and honour and glory for ever and ever THE FOURTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day 1 TIMOTHY i. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Iesus came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief THis is a faithful saying And this is the day that made it so faithful and true wherein it could first be truly said that Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners for which both Text and Day are well worthy of acceptation Turn the whole Scripture over you will find no saying there more faithful that speaks God more faithful more to have kept his promise than this that tells us that Christ Jesus is come into the world He in whom all his promises are fulfilled And run through the year you will find no day more faithful than this that presents us the ground of all our Faith Christ Iesus come to save sinners Worthy of all acceptation too they must needs be both both Text and Day that brings salvation above all to sinners of which ye are a part and the Preacher chief I cannot but with gladness preach it nor you but with joy and attention hear it especially to day the day he came in in a time accepted in the day of salvation when Text and time so happily meet The day makes the Text seasonable The business of the Text makes the Day acceptable The necessities of poor sinners make both comfortable God make the Sermon profitable too and we have all we can desire to day The Text to be sure promises fair and St. Paul himself finds so much comfort in it by his own experience of the truth and sweetness of it in the former verses 12 13. that he here commends it to us as a saying worthy all the respect that we can give it worthy to be preach'd worthy to be believed worthy to be laid hold on worthy to be laid up faithfully and remembred That Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners After which saying nor he nor we have any more to say then that we are the chief of them so particularly to apply it And that I hope we will to day For the whole end both of the saying it self and S. Paul's saying it is but to dispose and move us worthily to accept Christ now he is come for whose coming the Church and we have been this month preparing And the sum of it to put us 1. in comfort first that how sadly soever things look'd with us before his coming by his coming now we may be sav'd for Christ Iesus came to save sinners and to put us secondly in the way how we may by believing 1. this faithful saying for a truth by accepting it 2. for a word worthy all acceptance by confessing lastly our selves the most unworthy of it yet the chief that need it Thus you have the full sense of the Text and both the Doctrine and Vse of Christmas in it The Doctrine that Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners the Doctrine of Christmas The Vse of it to take it every one of us to himself take himself to be the quorum primus the chief of the quorum concerned in it the chief of sinners and therefore chiefly interessed in Christs coming This
their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more ver 10. 12. a Covenant of pardon and remission such as the Sacrifices of the Law could not give were not able And new Books we have it written in as authentick as those old ones in the Iewish Canon where we may find all seal'd by the testimony of the Spirit Heb. vi the Author of the new Testament as well as of the old 6. The new Church has its new Sacraments Ite Baptizata for Ite Circumcidite Baptism for Circumcision and the Lords Supper for the Passeover in both which of ours there is more than was in theirs in those legal Ceremonies not only outward signs as they but inward graces 7. New Sacrifices the calves of our lips instead of Calves and Goats the sacrifices of Praises and Thanksgivings nay the sacrifice of a contrite heart and humble spirit the sacrificing of our lusts and the offering up of our souls and bodies a living holy acceptable Sacrifice Rom. xii 1. 8. A new Priesthood to offer them an unchangeable Priesthood now Heb. vii 24. Christ our High-Priest and the Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. iii. 6. as so many under-Priests to offer them up to God Christ offer'd himself a Sacrifice offers up also our Prayers and Praises to his Father has left his Ministers in his Name and Merits to do it too and this a lasting Priesthood to last for ever 9. We have a new Altar too so St. Paul Heb. xiii 10. an Altar that they which serv'd the Tabernacle have no power to eat of Take it for the Cross on which Christ offered up himself or take it for the holy Table where that great Sacrifice of his is daily commemorated in Christian Churches Habem says the Apostle such an one we have and I am sure 't is new 10. Temples we have many new the Temples of our bodies 1 Cor. vi 19. those both to offer in and offer up and 2. Churches many for that one Temple so long since buried in dust and rubbish 11. There is above these a new Spirit Ezek. xxxvi 26. not the spirit of bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. viii 15. the spirit of love and not of fear the spirit of Sons and not of Servants a spirit that will cause us to walk in Gods Statutes keep his Commandments and do them Ezek. xxxvi 27. a new thing indeed that can make the Beasts of the Field to honour him as the Prophet speaks of it Isa. xliii 19. the Dragons and the Owls to do so the most sensual fierce cruel and dullest natures bow unto him that gives waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart Isa. xliii 19. 20. that blows but with his wind and these waters flow Psal. cxlvii 18. this is a new spirit that is so powerful And from this spirit it is that we 12. receive new life and vigour that we walk not under the Gospel so dully and coldly as they under the Law where the outward work to the letter serv'd the turn but according to the spirit in the inward purity of the heart as well as in the outward purity of the body To which lastly there is a new inheritance annexed a new Heaven and a new Earth which we may look for according to his promise 2 St. Pet. iii. 13. And are not these new things all good news worth our rejoycings Can we be ever old that enjoy such mercies are they not enough to revive the dying spirit nay to raise the dead one to set forth his praises who thus renews us as the Eagle renews his mercies to us every morning makes us Kings and Priests gives us easie Laws and pleasing Covenants effectual Sacrifices and saving Sacraments turns our bodies into his Temples and our hearts into Altars makes us a glorious Church and builds us Churches inspires us with a new Spirit and gives us a second life gives us a Kingdom gives us Heaven and all This is the new state under Christ since his coming ended and renewed our years unto us And therefore says our Apostle just before the Text If any man be in Christ he is a new creature all this new work is done upon him that 's the second way we are now to consider the words That in the Christian truly such all old things are past away and all things become new He is dead to sin Rom. vi 2. and he is dead to the Law Rom. vii 4. or if you will sin and the Law are both dead to him they can hold him no longer he is alive unto God Rom. vi 11. new created in righteousness and true holiness Will you have it more particular Why first then the Heathen ignorance and error that is past with them they are enlightned Heb. vi they know God and are known of him they are light in the Lord the very children of it The Heathen sins they are past with them in them they walkt once Ephes. ii 2. such they were some of them 1 Cor. vi 11. but now they are washt but now they are sanctified but now they are justified Nor are they now 2. under so slender a providence as the poor Heathen were God visits them often now and not only now and then and suffers them not to go on or fall back again into the old ways of infidelity But they are not only out of the Heathen condition but out of the Iewish too no more in bondage to the Law The sacrificing of Rams and Goats of all sensual affections is done already the unreasonable part is mortified in them they have been washt and need be wash'd no more they are oblig'd to no differences of meats no Iewish Sabbatizing no Circumcision no one particular place of Worship no legal Rites or Ceremonies Christ having abolished in his flesh the Law of Commandments says S. Paul contained in ordinances Ephes. ii 15. We are now at liberty he has made us free And we are now 3. under a new course of providence God leads us now by spiritual and eternal promises he threatens spiritual and everlasting punishments guides us by a clearer light than Prophesie the evidence of the Word and Spirit ties us not up to the Covenant of Works nor empty Ceremonies these things are past Makes us not rich that he may accept us but accepts us as we are He reckons not of us by our wealth or honour or learning or our parts we know no man so now ver 16. not Christ so now according to the flesh we value not any man now for any thing but holiness and righteousness for so much as he is in Christ. Nor does the Christian value himself now for any thing but for that of Christ which is in him riches he contemns honour he despises learning he submits all outward and externall priviledges and commendations he lays at the foot of Christ devotes them to his commands
and hope believe what here they saw that such a thing there was a Star lighted up on purpose to lead the Gentiles to Christ hope what here they felt within them some spiritual ray and guidance to him both believe and hope that as an outward visible Star there was to them so an inward and invisible Star still there will be to us by the light of which we may all come to the knowledge of Christ. We are next to see it what it is what it is to them what it is to us how this star looks to them how it looks to us To them this Star was a material Star to us 't is a spiritual and both bring their joy with them The Psalmist seems to be ravish'd with joy upon the sight of the Stars of Heaven when he considered the Heavens the works of Gods fingers the Moon and the Stars that he had ordained Psal. viii 3. Then in a kind of Extasie he cries out Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him That thou thus spanglest the Heavens with Stars for him That thou thus visitest him by the Stars Methinks the very beholding of that golden Canopy now our covering hereafter to be our footstool the casting up of our eyes to heaven in a bright starry night and considering that all those glorious Lamps are for the use of us poor men here and for our glory too hereafter cannot but raise a sweet delight and pleasure in the devout and pious soul and force out an ejaculation of thankfulness and joy to God that made them for us Sure I am that when neither Sun nor Stars appeared Acts xxvii 20. it follows presently that all hope of being saved was then taken away O the joy of a Star then the appearing of a Star would have made them then have leapt for joy We see them commonly that makes us so little to regard them If we behold them seriously we would sing together with them as Iob says they do together Job xxxviii 7. and praise him together as the Psalmist speaks with those stars of light But yet if we should have a Star made on purpose for us we would be gladder that God should descend to so immediate and special a care of us as to light up one of those bright Candles for some particular intent and service to us and such an one this is great reason therefore sure to rejoyce in it So much the more in that commonly the new raised Stars portend mischiefs and misfortunes to us but this was as all the Astrologers and Wise men then observed a healthsom gladsom star that brought health and happiness and saving in its wings never any such or like it before or since When God thus vouchsafes to make heaven dance attendance on us make all the Stars and Lights speak good to us some of them more than others those heavenly Creatures thus wait upon earth dust who is now so dull and earthy as not to rejoyce and glory in it Yet if the star not only portend happiness but eternal happiness besides if it foretell not only earthly but heavenly blessings too if it be a Star that leaves us not till it have brought us to the Child Iesus till it hath brought us to God himself there is matter indeed of great exceeding joy So a fourfold ground of joy you have in this very Star First Gods general providence over man to make even the heavenly Creatures serve him Secondly God's special Providence in it now and then sending a Star some special token to forewarn or guide him Thirdly God's comfortable Providence in so doing sometimes to bless and comfort us to uphold and chear us Fourthly Gods saving Providence thus to make all things though never so distant from us signally instrumental to our eternal happiness and salvation making the Stars and Heavens thus minister unto us For these four we may well take up St. Paul's resolution Phil. i. 18. We therein do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce And yet I must give you a fifth ray of this Star God's particular Providence over the Gentiles strangers from the Covenant of Promise aliens from the Comman-wealth of Israel men without promise without hope that had neither promise nor hope of mercy Eph. ii 12. that to them this Star should appear for them be made and sent is such a ground of joy to us that are of the same stock and lineage that without it we had had no joy at all who ever had 'T is upon this title we have our share in this happy Star upon this particular dispensation of thus gathering the Gentiles to him by it as by a Standard or Ensign for them to flow in unto him as the Prophet Phrases it This is the fifth ray of the material Star and it may go for a sixth That the Gentiles not then only but even to this day still enjoy the benefit of that Star have oftentimes material and sensible convoys unto Christ are often by the things of sense by sensible blessings drawn and perswaded to his service Thus you have the six Rays of the Star six comfortable Rays to ground our joys upon in the material Star We come now to the mystical or spiritual those Stars and Lights which yet remain even to this day to guide us to the same Iesus For more than one there is of this sort and all sufficient grounds of Ioy. 1. The first sort of Stars are devout and holy men shining as Daniel represents them like the Stars Dan. xii 3. Stars they are in this world whilst they live burning and shining Lights the very light and life and glory of the earth while they are upon it and Stars they shall be in the heavens when they come thither Here they go before us with the light of good examples to lead us to Christ and his righteousness to all holy and heavenly conversation And for it they shall one day shine as Stars for ever and ever A ground of joy it is to us that this Star we have that such guides we have by whose examples to conform our selves to the obedience of Christ in whose light to walk to him 2. A second sort of Stars are the Bishops and Pastors of the Church For however men now reckon them or however now much darkned in their heaven in this our Church in our Hemisphere Stars they are in the hand of Christ Rev. i. 16. in his right hand too the vision so interpreted v. 20. the seven Stars the seven Angels of the Churches the Church it self crown'd with twelve such Stars Rev. xii 1. the twelve Apostles All crowned Churches all that are compleat and perfect are crowned with such Stars with Bishops Pastors and Teachers And a solid ground of joy it is that we have such Stars to guide and direct us into the knowledge of Christ into the ways and means of salvation Let Hereticks and Schismaticks think their pleasure an exceeding joy it is to all that
establish him a throne for ever 2 Sam. vii 11 12 13. God will be behind hand with none that do good to his Habitation or really intend or go about it Nay the very Sparrow is blest and the Swallow is blest that love but his House that sing their Mattens and Vespers at his Altars the devout Prophet even envies them for it Psal. lxxxiv 3. So great are the blessings of the House of God and so ever are those persons under his eye so in the eye of blessing whose good deeds are there continually putting God in mind of them If you would but remember how God forgets his mercy or which is the same how he remembers them in Iudgment who do ill to his House or to the Offices how he strikes Vzzah dead for an irreverent touch of the Holy Ark how he smites Vzziah with a leprosie for an encroachment upon the sacred Office 2 Chron. xxvi 19. and turns Saul out of his Kingdom for the like fault 1 Sam. xiii 14. How he thrusts Nebuchadnezzar out of doors Dan. iv 33. because he had burnt up his Houses in the Land 1 King xxv 9. 'T is just indeed he should have no House who will let God have none How he despoils Belshazzar of his Kingdom because he had spoild his Temple and was now prophaning those holy spoils carouzing in the sacred bowles Dan. v. 30. How he quite forgets all mercy to the Iews and casts them out as soon as they prophaned his holy Temple and abused his Messengers Priests and Prophets 2 Chron. xxxvi 14. and professes he could hold no longer when they had arrived at that height of insolent wickedness How he makes the Heavens forget their dew and the earth her fruit because they let his house lie waste Hag. i. 9 10. you will readily conclude how he remembers those that raise the Walls and repair the Ruines and reverence the Sanctuaries and love the Priests If them with Curses then these with Blessings if them with diseases then these with health if them with exile these with quiet dwellings if them with scarcity these with plenty Vbertate Domus the plenty of his house if them with desolate and decaying Families these with happy and full Posterities if them with death then these with life even for ever and ever VI. But 't is time now to remember our selves And many things we are here to be remembred of That 1. We have a House of God as well as Nehemiah to do good to Many houses of God in the Land now as well as in the Psalm lxxiv. 9. This above the rest whose decay'd Towers and ruin'd Pinacles and ragged Walls and open Windows and falling Roofs and broken Pavements call loud for a Repairer of the breaches And 't is not Nehemiahs Mercy and Bounty nor the Levites thin revenue added that can do it Blessed indeed be God that he hath put it into the heart of the King to begin and offer so freely to the Work But I hope we shall ere long have reason to bless him for your offerings too This House is Gods all such houses Gods as well as that of Bethel or that of Sion or those Synagogues of the Iews stiled several times his houses That they are so the solemn Dedications always of them to his Name with so much glory say enough And if Domus orationis be Domus mea the House of Prayer be Gods and Christ says it is and sure he knows both what is his own and how to call it the daily celebration of that Publick Worship there will give a second proof That some such there were even in the Apostles times some house besides such as we eat and drink in that must not be so used must not be so despised the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. xi â—â— and that it was then called the Church of God in the same verse is to tell you in plain English our Churches are Gods houses And God has in our days own'd them for his own That signal preserving them in the heat of War and Plunder rage and fury when men were so wrathfully displeased at them and so implacably set against them That protecting them 2. through all the Triumphs of a godly Atheism and a sacriledge out of Conscience both as unsatisfied as the grave so miserably greedy that they would violate their Fathers Sepulchres and scatter their ashes in the air and wind for an inconsiderable piece of lead or brass or stone That miraculous restoring them 3. to all the holy Offices this Church in particular destined to a sale and deferred only to see who would give most are evidences of it too great to be disputed that God has vindicated his right and kept it for himself And I hope you will all remember it and now help him in it Court and City both of you And remember 2. These Houses have their Officers their Offices their Ceremonies as well as that here in the Text. Offices to be performed Officers to perform them and Ceremonies to perform them with Your countenancing your encouraging your protecting them are the good deeds you may do to them Remember therefore 3. I beseech you that you do so Three arguments there are in the Text to perswade it 1. Good it is to do so good deeds they are God 2. will remember them when they are done God 3. will remember you for doing them 1. Good they are remember that And good works are a good foundation 1 Tim. vi 19. a foundation upon which you may lay hold on eternal life says St. Paul there and can you desire a better Indeed Iudas tells us it would do better upon the poor But had he had the selling of the Ointment then or when some of his Disciples had the selling of it since Were the poor ever the better for it Were not thousands sent a begging by it Sure sure he that can be content to see the Church in ruines will not much pass to see the poor in rags He that envies the Church-mans wealth will never pity the poor mans want and he that one time sells the Church will next time sell the poor if he can get by him But we will not set good deeds together by the ears 'T is enough that these are good but 't is more 2. that God remembers them that he takes a particular notice of them 2. I may say too a notice of the particulars The Scrowles of them are laid up for an everlasting remembrance Feasts of Dedication have been always kept for a memorial of them and Christ himself vouchsafed to be present at them St. Ioh. x. 22. And if the Syriac Translator may be allowed to read the last verse of the Chapter Et ad oblationes ad sacra temporibus Festis Statutis memoriam hujus rei mihi serva we see these good deeds were solemnly remembred in those solemn Feast and Nehemiah expected his should be so Their persons have anciently been remembred
same Chapter the perswading us not to receive this grace in vain ver 1 of this the time certainly wherein we may thus be reconciled thus accepted to salvation is worth the seeing worth a Behold and a Behold worth laying hold on too a time to be accepted being a day of salvation And now is the time says the Text we are fallen upon And now is the Time say the Days we are faln among Times of reconciliation both Days of Salvation both Indeed the whole Time of the Gospel is no other Yet the Apostle applies it here to the Age he wrote in We may draw it down to ours we live in But the Church more particularly yet applies it to the time we are now in keeping the holy time of Lent a time wherein the Office of Reconciliation is set open to receive sinners in a time when the Embassadors for Christ as the Apostle stiles us ver 20. of the foregoing Chapter we that are workers together with him ver 5. are more earnestly to beseech the people and the people more especially to bestir themselves by the works of mortification and repentance to reconcile themselves to God a time when in the Primitive Church notorious sinners were put to open penance and punished in this world that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord says our Church in the Commination and she her self by making these words part of her Epistle for the First Sunday in Lent she cries out to us as it were Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation this very time make much of it and lay hold upon it I shall give all their right take in all the time we can that seeing an accepted time there is a day of salvation to be had still to be had we may be sure not to miss it 'T is no idle trivial business this We cannot be too careful for it General and particular days and times all to be taken and all little enough to obtain salvation not to be thought much of though it were much more so we may but compass that at last I shall not therefore spend so precious time to study curiosity in a business so serious or to torture the Text into nice Divisions It shall suffice to shew you in these particulars 1. That an accepted time there is some time above others wherein God is most ready to accept us 2. That this accepted time is a day of salvation too wherein we shall not only meerly be accepted but accepted so far also as to salvation one or other Now is the day of c. 3. That Now is the Time this is the Day It is before us it is in present we need look no further 4. That God himself here points us to it bids us behold it sets an Ecce a mark upon it a red Letter as it were upon the Day that we might mark and mind it mind it above all other days besides 5. That we are therefore to do accordingly Behold and behold it now and again behold it again and again and so behold it as to accept it and apply us to it bring all ends of the Text together that we may find Salvation in the end 'T is an accepted Time we therefore to make it so as well as count it so make it perfectly accepted by accepting it These shall be the Particulars and of them all this is the sum That God in his goodness allowing us time to repent to receive his grace to reconcile our selves to him and lay hold upon salvation giving us daily deliverances and salvations too nay shewing and setting and pointing us out here a time to accept and save us in It is certainly our duty to take notice of it even now to do it even as soon as may be to accept his goodness and not neglect the day of salvation And That we may not but both accept and be accepted we shall shew you first that such a time there is wherein we may A time 1. still wherein we may find acceptation that God has not shut up the day and shut us out A time 2. wherein God is readiest to accept us readier than at other times That there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a season as well as time for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a seasonable opportunity when it will be the easier done The accepted time A time 3. yet so confin'd and limited that for ought we know there may be none beyond it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not always the season holds not ever And Now is the Time says in effect anon perhaps it will not be for this time in the next words is expounded into a day and we know the day spends and night will come on apace So that a time a ready time a limited time there is for our repentance and Gods accepting us These three make up our first Particular we are now to begin with And 1. that God still allows us time is worth a note He does not owe it us He might snatch us away in the height and fulness of our sins with as much justice as he does it not in mercy But he deals not with us after our sins nor rewards us according to our wickedness says Holy David Psal. ciii 10. Twelve hours of the day there are St. Joh. xii 9. and every one of them God is not only ready to receive us but goes out to seek us St. Mat. xx 3. and so on And at what time soever a Sinner doth repent so it ran of old and when he does so it runs now and both the same he shall save his soul God will accept him Ezek. xviii 32. 2. Yet for all that .2 all times are not alike We will not always find admittance at the same rate with the same ease As he will not always be chiding so he will not always be so pleasing neither We may knock and knock again and yet stand without a while sometimes so long till our knees are ready to sink under us our eyes ready to drop out as well as drop with expectation and our hearts ready to break in pieces while none heareth or none regardeth We should have come before or pitcht our coming at a better time God is in bed as it were and at rest with his Children cherishing and making much of them he is not a◠leisure to open to such strangers We must knock hard and importunately too to get him to open to us We are out of time But is he who is no accepter of persons become now an accepter of times Or would he have us turn observers of them Is there ever a star in heaven that can bring us into favour with the Father of lights Any so lucky an aspect there that can guide us up into his presence Can any or all the Planets in Sextile Trine or Square or any position else make us
fool-hardy as not to fear where there are so many in-lets and out-lets so many windows and posterns so many gaps and breaches and easie batterings and easier underminings to let in the enemy But 2. bring up now the forces that are laid against it the strong enticements and allurements the hopes the fears the desires the joys the sorrows that on this or that side do continually assault it the innumerable occasions the infinite opportunities that are against it and who is it that dares think to withstand them all Add thirdly the strongest titles that we hold by and we have yet a cause to fear Saints and Servants and Sons and Heirs and being sealed to the day of Redemption these and all those happy names and interests beâ—ides we read of cannot put us above fear Servants may be turned away Saints may turn sinners Sons may be cast off Heirs may be disinherited Seals may be broken up Elect we are no further than good works created ordained predestinated no further Eph. i. 4 5. and ii 10 and good works I am sure have uncertainty enough Verebar omnia Iob fear'd the best of them nothing will more assure us than this godly fear Nay add we lastly the very way of the working of Gods Graces in us and yet we have reason to fear still We are told indeed by some his Grace is irresistible but God knows we find it otherwise Why does S. Stephen tell us else that we resist the Holy Ghost Acts vii 51. or St. Paul wish us not to quench the Spirit if we cannot do it 1 Thess. v. 19. Do it alas we do too often One there was that said he should never be removed God of his goodness had made his Hill so strong Yet remov'd he quickly was fell and fell fouly too and had he not wept and chastned himself to purpose had lain low enough for ever for all his Hill so strong Nemo tantâ est firmitate suffultus ut de stabilitate suâ debeat esse securus says St. Aug. Ser. 72. Who can look upon Noahs Drunkenness Lots Drunkenness and Incest Davids Adultery and Murther Solomon's Carnality and Idolatry Adam's fall in Paradice and the Angels in Heaven it self and not fear his own poor easie brittle earth We may well fear being castaways upon such grounds as these and fear the very grounds that thus sink under us not only the sad upshot at the last but the means that bring us to it all the way 3. But besides if there be no way of keeping from being castaways without this keeping under of the body if all our preaching and our great doings will not do without it we have a third reason to fear our selves and set seriously about it For if St. Paul here 3. not only fear his being a castaway and fear that by some means he may come to it but fear also that all means besides this harshness towards his body will scarcely hinder it if after all his preaching from Ierusalem round about unto Ilyricum his preaching gratis too after all his labours all his sufferings all his persecutions upon the Gospel score he fears yet that the best he has done else the best he can do else will not save him for all his haste where are our great assurers of themselves and others of Heaven and Glory Why 't is not our preaching 't is not our praying 't is not our prophesying 't is not our doing wonders neither even to the casting out of Devils that can save us from being cast out our selves at last with a Non novi the sad sentence of I never knew you depart from me St. Mat. vii 23. Indeed we have so little reason to be confident that we shall not be castaways by reason of any of those performances that our very preaching or prophesying as we call it nay and praying too may bring us to it We may preach Rebellion Heresies and Schisms nay and pray them too some have done so long and so preach away both our selves and others Nay though we preach others into Heaven we may preach out our selves We may preach freely and preach constantly and preach long and preach sound doctrine too preach with the tongues of Angels and yet prove Devils at the last grow proud upon it light others up to Heaven and yet go down to Hell our selves shine gloriously for a blaze and go out in a stench have our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever have our reward and glory here and be cast away for ever And now if the strongest Cedars shake what shall the Reeds do If the first preachers of the Gospel the grand Apostles those Stars and Angels of the Churches stand so trembling and must deal so roughly with their bodies for fear of being castaways who is it can dream himself exempt unless ye mortifie the deeds of the body 't is to all of us it is said so Rom. viii 13. there is no living If we keep not ous bodies low they will keep us low if we bring not them into subjection they will bring us into slavery they will cast us away if we cast away too much upon them There 's no way to cure our fears to confirm our hopes to help our weaknesses to beat back temptations to establish our titles and rights to Heaven to make Gods Grace effectual upon us to sanctifie our prayers and preachings and all our labours to the glory of a reward but to watch and fast and deal severely with our bodies to study temperance and exercise our selves to do and suffer hard things 'T is no will-worship surely as men brand it that is prest and practis'd here under so great danger of being castaways if we do it not it is not sure Nor is it so hard a business as men would seem to make it None of all the ways I told you of for the subduing of the body are so at all We can sit up whole nights to Game to Dance to Revel to see a Mask or play make nothing of it We can rise up early and go to bed late for months together for our gain and profit and be never the worse We can fast whole days together and nor eat nor drink when we are eager upon our business or sport and never feel it We can endure pain and cold and tendance affronts and injuries and neglects slightings and reproaches too to compass a little honour and preferment and not say a word We can be temperate too when we please for some ends and purposes Only the souls business is not worth the while whether cast-aways or no is not considerable all 's too much on that accompt Mole-hills are Mountains and there is a Lion always in the way watching will kill us fasting will destroy us any kind of strictness will impair us temperance it self will pine us into Skeletons every good exercise takes up too much time every petty thing that crosses but the
the Angel the Herauld of it 3. It intimates health as well as peace we were all sick till this day came the best with the Spouse sick of love Cant. v. 8. the worst sick of somewhat else none well till this news came till the next morning after this great Conception rose with healing in his wings Now all hail and whole and well again 4. It signifies a wish of salvation too Ave says one piously though not learnedly a vae all woe now away temporal and eternal Eva spell'd backwards all Eves ill spun web unravel'd undone roul'd backward by the Conception of this blessed Virgin here foretold temporal and eternal woes taken all away nothing but joy and salvation to us if we will hear it with the Blessed Virgin and accept it The second salutation is The Lord is with thee and it may be either an apprecation or wishing that he would be or an Annunciation or affirmation a declaring and affirming that he is or a prediction or foretelling that he will be with her It was an apprecation when Boaz gave it to the Reapers Ruth ii 4. that God would be with them It was an apprecation and an affirmation both when the Angel gave it to Gideon Judg. vi 12. The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour It is affirmation apprecation and prediction all three here to our Blessed Lady a wish that the Lord would an assurance that he is a prediction that he will be yet more signally and more particularly with her by and by 'T is somewhat to be saluted by an Angel and 't is not common we hear often of their coming with a message seldom with a salutation 't is sign of more then ordinary acquaintance and familiarity with God and of his respect particular unto us when he sends his Angels not only upon errands but how-do-yous to us With such a salutation too as the Lord is with thee The hand of the Lord was with him 't is said of St. Iohn Baptist and that was well his hand and not himself and yet the greatest of them that was born of women was not greater than he St. Matth. xi 11. But here 't is he himself with the greatest among women It is a great favour to have his hand but it is an high one to have himself with us Yet the Angel says to Gideon Judg. vi 12. The Lord be with thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 't is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Article an Emphasis put upon it he is not with her as he is with any else Tecum in mente tecum in ventre as the Fathers gloss it Tecum in spiritu tecum in carne with her he was or would be presently as well in her body as in her soul personally essentially nay bodily with her and take a body from her a way of being with any never heard before or since a being with her beyond any expression or conception whatsoever And the Lord thus being with her all good must needs be with her all the gracious ways of his being with us are comprehended in it so the salutation no way to be exceeded And well may he chuse to be with her even make haste and prevent the Angel as St. Bernard speaks to be with her He is with the pure in heart with the humble spirit and piously retired soul and she is all And though by the Angels words ver 31. we cannot conceive that the Lord was yet conceived in her he speaking in the future yet as sure it was even whilst the Angel was in his salutation as if he were already incarnate in her flesh upon this may well follow the third salutation Blessed art thou or be thou blessed Yet I shall not here say much of this I reserve it to be handled amongst the titles onely tell you it may as well pass for a salutation as the other We still sometimes use it in our salutations use to say God bless you when we salute sometimes so the mowers to Boaz return his salutation of the Lord be with you with The Lord bless thee Ruth ii 4. And Gen. xlvii 7. we read that Iacob blessed Pharaoh when he came before him that is saluted him in a form of blessing All the famous salutations now you see of all former and latter times are here rallied up in this Daniel's Live for ever for life and health and safety the Angels to Gideon The Lord is with thee Boaz his to Ruth Blessed be thou of the Lord my daughter Ruth iii. 10. Tobit's to the Angel Gaudium tibi Tob. v. 11. Ioy be unto thee Christ's to his Disciples Peace be unto you The Apostles grace and peace and salvation to their Churches all in this of the Angel to the Virgin now in treaty about Christs Incarnation To shew us 1. all these are in Christ all now coming to us by his coming to us to be found altogether no where but in him joy and peace and health and salvation and blessedness first rising on us by this days business his Incarnation To teach us 2. good forms of salutation blessing and not cursing though there are some so peevish to say no worse to tell us they had as lieve we should say the Devil take them as God bless them or God be with them It seems they had rather imitate the bad Angel than the good I hope we had not Good words if it be no more are fittest sure for Christian mouths but yet good wishes too for he that forbids to say to some God speed you 2 John x. intimates we should say so to others And though the Disciples are bid to salute no man by the way St. Luke x. 4. that is when it will retard or hinder their holy business they are yet bid when they come into a house say Peace be to it ver 5. And if the Angel do it and Christ bid it and do it too as he does St. Luke xxiv 35. I hope we may and will do too Nay and give good titles too upon the same account the Angel does so to the blessed Virgin and we hasten to them Thou that art highly favoured blessed blessed among women Thou that art highly favoured but why thou without a name why not Mary here as well as after ver 30. Why there he used her name so to dispel her fear as it were by a kind of friendly familiarity here he forbears it in his reverence to her We use not to salute great persons by their Names but by their Titles and the Mother of God is above the greatest we here meet with upon the earth We must not be too familiar with those whom God so highly favours that 's our lesson hence We are not to speak of the Blessed Virgin the Apostles and Saints as if we were speaking to our Servants Paul Peter Mary or the like 'T is a new fashion of Religion neither taken from Saints nor Angels nor any of Heaven or heavenly spirits
the Saints arising and coming out of their Graves 2. In their coming into the holy City and there appearing unto many telling and declaring it The Evidence of the power of his Resurrection to be seen 1. in opening the Graves 2. In raising the Saints bodies that slept there 3. In sending them into the holy City 4. sending them thither to appear to many The Pledge of our Resurrection it is 1. that they that rise are of those that slept Saints and members of the same body with us that 2. 't is no phantasm no phantastick or meer imagined business for they appeared to many The whole business of their Resurrection is a Symbol and signification of ours both of that to grace and that to glory 1. Of that to grace the grave and sleep the Symbols of sin and sleeping in it the bodies rising thence of the souls rising out of sin their going into the holy City of the souls passing from sin to righteousness and holiness their appearing to many of this righteousness manifested and appearing unto all A Symbol 2. it is of the Resurrection unto glory where the Grave first opens then the body rises then into the holy City into new Hierusalem it goes and there appears and shines for ever Thus you have the Text opened as well as the Graves we must now go on to raise such bodies of doctrine and comfort out of it as may bring us all into the holy City serve to make us holy here and happy hereafter partakers here of the First Resurrection and hereafter in the Second He that here opened the Graves and raised the dead bodies out of their sleep open your ears and hearts and raise your understandings and affections that we may all of us have our share in both rise first to righteousness then to glory Christs Resurrection is the pattern and ground of both we therefore begin with that with those words first that bear witness to the truth of it that Christ is risen A double Testimony we gather of it in the words from the rising of the dead Saints and from their appearing It was a sign indeed that the Resurrection was well towards when the Graves began to open we could not but see somewhat of it even in those dark Caverns when they once began to let in the light some hope of rising even when a body begins to yawn some hope the body might come ere long to recover its long lost liberty when the prison doors were wide set open and the shackles of death knockt off the legs some sign and hope I say it would be so that there would be a resurrection of some of some one or other by and by But the Graves being opened at Christs Passion they could be but hopeful prognosticks at most of his Resurrection a Testimony it could not be but when out of these opened Graves the Saints arose out of their sleep they could tell us more certain news of it than so And being but members of that body of which Christ Iesus was the head we must needs know the head is risen when the body is got up the head first ere any member could be it never so holy never so much Saint He is the head of the Church says the Apostle Eph. v. 23. and the Church the body and if any part of the body be raised to life the head you may be sure is first too For if Christ be the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. xv â—0 and the first begotten from the dead as he is stiled Rev. â— 5. If we see others risen other dead bodies walking and alive there is no witness more true than that he is The first fruits ever before the crop Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs says St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 23. out of order else and the first begotten ever before all the rest second and third and fourth and all witness the first begotten was before them the first begotten from the dead risen before the other dead And it seems 't is not a single witness they were many dead bodies here that rose and in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established Deut. xvii 6. much more in the mouths of many Witnesses And if these be from the dead surely then the most incredulous will believe Nay Father Abraham says Dives but if one come from the deaâ— they will believe yea and repent too Luke xvi 30. Here 's more than one here 's many that not so much as any of Dives his brethren the most voluptuous secure customary and obstinate sinner can be incredulous after this or have reason to doubt the truth or have the power to contradict it To satisfie either particular curiosity or infidelity God does not use to send us messengers from the dead he sends us to Moses and the Prophets there ver 29. for our instruction does not press men from hell or heaven or raise them out of their beds of rest to send them on an errand to us though perhaps little can be universally though ordinarily it perhaps may be defin'd in this particular for the ignorance we are under of the condition of the bounds and limits of the dead If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets says Father Abraham neither will they believe if one rise from the dead If they will not believe the living word the word of the living God no likelihood that they should believe the word of a dead man especially when they cannot be certain but it may be the devil the father of lies and falshood But not of one only rising from the dead that to be sure no man so simple to venture his faith upon a single Testimony and such a one as that Or if he would God does not use to do extraordinary miracles where the ordinary means of probation or information are sufficient But in this great business that concerns all mankind he is pleased to step out of his ordinary course to give us for once some extraordinary satisfaction that all Ages afterward might be sufficiently convinced of the truth of Christs Resurrection from heaven and earth by the Testimony of the dead and living that there might be no occasion hereafter to doubt for ever He raises therefore a great company to attend the triumph of his Sons Resurrection and to bear witness to it 2. And as it is not a single witness so it is not secondly a single testimony 't is not from their rising only but from their going into the City and there appearing unto many For sure neither their journey nor appearance was to tell stories of the dead what is done either in the grave or heaven or hell to satisfie the curious soul with a discovery of those Chambers of silence or the Land where all things are forgotten and therefore all forgotten that we may know they remember when they come thence to tell us nothing that is there their business was
and the Morning came light and darkness succeeded one another so the day came no making else But of this 't is punctually said that it was made something in it or in the making more than ordinary Made 1. that is made famous by something done upon it death and hell and all the terrours of darkness this day put to flight for ever by Christs only Resurrection Made 2. that is appointed and ordained for something So Deus fecit Dominum Christum God is said to have made our Saviour Lord and Christ Acts ii 36. and of Christ that fecit nos Reges Sacerdotes that he made us that is ordained us Kings and Priests as God had him both Lord and Christ and upon this day both so that 't is no wonder if the day too be said to be made made or ordained and appointed to be remembred Made 3. to be celebrated too to be kept aniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness of Praises and Thanksgivings Thus facere diem Sabbati Deut. v. 15. Pascha facere St. Mat. xxvi 18. is to keep the Sabbath and the Passeover what is there in Latine to make the Sabbath and the Passeover in our English is to keep them to make up or make out the day in Gods Worship and Service When God is said to make a day 't is for himself and we can make none but to him mar days we do when we spend them upon any thing or any else they are never made but when on him The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made that both unsaint the Saints and unhallow the days and prophane both that make them for all but him all business but his as if the holiness of the Holiday were the only offence of it that which made the day or for which the day was made the only reason to them to unmake it 3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made yet made days there have been many are and shall be Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all not the Lords days yet which yet are but so many little models of this great day But of made days all are not alike some high days some not so high though the one and the other made and constituted for Gods service Of made days this is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day so we told you out of Ignatius so we now tell you out of St. Augustine Principatum tenet 't is the prime As the blessed Virgin among women so this blessed day among the days says he The most holy Feast of Easter the good Emperour Constantine calls it four times in one Epistle to all the Churches Solenne nostrae religionis festum a little after the solemn Feast of our Religion by which we hold our hopes of immortality the very day of all our Religion and our hope Illa videtur dies clarior illuxisse sings Lactantius The fairest day that ever shone The Sun which so many hours withdrew its light and hid its face in sable darkness went down sooner into night at our Saviours Passion and to day rose so much sooner restored those hours to lengthen or encreased it beams to enlighten this glorious Day in the opinion or else Rhetorick of Chrysologus Eusebius and St. Augustine If so it was The Day indeed none like it ever since but if not There were two Suns rose to day to enlighten it the Sun of Heaven and the Son of God who is also stiled the Sun in the strictest spelling The Sun of righteousness needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light so many glorious Rays All days were night before nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the Law of Moses nothing but a long unevitable night under the Law of nature nothing but a disconsolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness this was the first bright day that dispell'd all darkness quite A kind of spring of day or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel but men could scarce see any thing not the Disciples themselves their eyes were ever and anon held not fully opened till the grave it self was this day opened and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the day when all this was done when this marvelous light shone forth to enlighten all the world The day of all the days before or since 4. And now 4. it may well be so when the Lord made it All his works are wonderful all perfect and complete deserve Articles and Notes to be set upon them But when he sets the Note himself and gives the Article then to be sure 't is somewhat more than ordinary somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest And when he entitles himself to it or challenges it unto himself day it self is not more clear than that such a day must be observed Things that are exceding eminent and full of greatness wonder or perfection are commonly attributed unto God This day is such at least because 't is said God made it a peculiar work and Ordinance of his more than the common Ordinance of day and night and if God made it what is man that he should mar it or the son of man that he should unmake it Or how dares man or Son of man make little of that which God made so great So great as to call it his so great as to make it the mother of one and fifty daughters of all the Lords days in the year besides This is the Lords doing indeed None could alter the Sabbath into the Lords day but he None put down that and set up another abolish the Seventh and set up the First but the Lord of all and may do all what he pleases in heaven and earth Lord it every where how he will Herein he shews he is the Lord and this day the Lady of the year from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name All the former days God made the Lord made this the Lord Christ the ground and Author of this day Christs rising raising this to that height it is Now God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority So Christ tells us St. Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that heareth his Apostles his Church his Ministers heareth him himself their commands are his their orders his so long as they are not contrary to his word And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making From the Apostles times it came Palicarpus that Angel as is conceived of the Church of Smyrna Rev. ii 8. kept Easter saith Ireneaeus with St. Iohn and with the
rest of the Apostles Euseb. l. 5. c. 26. The great difference about the time of keeping Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches was grounded upon the different keeping of it by the two great Apostles St. Peter and St. Iohn St. Iohn keeping it after one reckoning St Peter after another St. Iohn keeping it after the Jewish reckoning upon the fourteenth of the month Abib St. Peter much after the accompt as now it stands upon the Sunday following but all the controversie was about the time not about the keeping it none denied or questioned that but Aerius none left it at liberty but the Cathari both registred for Hereticks about it So confident were they 't was from the Lord. And that from him at least by the Apostles Constantine in Eusebius is direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which day says he ever since the first day of his Passion we have kept untill this present We have received it of our Saviour says he a little after And again which our Saviour deliver'd to us Thus Dominus fecit then indeed And that so it was either from his own command or from his Apostles the whole practise of the Church is ground enough in all Ages still observing it even in the hottest times of persecution some in Caves and some in Woods and some on Shipboard and some in Barns and Stables and some in Goales keeping it as they could says Eusebius so scrupulous were they of omitting that day upon any hand that the Lord had made them and the great contentions about the time of keeping it shews as plain they thought it more than an humane institution they might else have easily ended all the Controversie and laid down the day But they had not then so learned Christ had not learned the trick of lightly esteeming days and places and things and persons and offices dedicated to Gods service which God had made or were made to him 5. Especially made upon such an occasion as this day was This day What day is this The day wherein the Stone that was disallowed by Men was approved of God and exalted to the head of the corner Wherein the chief corner stone of Sion was laid and Sion begun to be built upon it when we had ground given to build upon and stones to build with by Christs Resurrection that 's the ground and occasion of the day And a good one too For had he not risen we had had no ground to build upon we had perish'd in our sins been swept all away like so many houses builded upon the sand We had had neither place for faith nor ground for hope nor room for preaching our preaching vain your faith also vain all vaine all come to nothing His being delivered for our offences had been nothing if he had not been raised again for our Iustification as it is Rom. iv 25. 'T is to this day we owe our Justification 't is from this day we are made just and holy from this Stones being made the head stone of the corner we made lively stones built up into a spiritual house or building as St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. ii 5. From his becoming this day the chief corner stone it is in that we now have confidence as St. Iohn speaks and creep not into corners to hide our faces that we dare boldly look up to heaven and come unto him and that we call not to the Hills to hide us or to the Mountains to cover us from the presence of God or the face of man or devil Our faith and hope our souls and spirits are all raised by this days raising we are all made by this days being made we had else better never have been made for we had been marr'd and undon for ever 6. But by this day it seems we are not for this rejoycing and gladness that now follows close upon it shews what a kind of day it is for what 't is made even to be glad and to rejoyce in a Feast or Festival God is no enemy to the Churches Feasts whoever be calls to us to blow up the Trumper for Feasts as well as bid us to proclaim a Fast. Indeed he more properly makes the Feast and we the Fast for he only gives the occasion of the one and we of the other he benefits and we sins Deus nobis haec otia fecit So no wonder that the day that he has made be a good day a day of good things such as we may well rejoyce in a Festival Yea and a set one too His making you heard was an appointing or instituting it Though God would sometimes have free-will Offerings he will not always trust to them If he leave all to the wills of men the fires will oft go out upon his Altars his house stand thin enough of people and his Priests grow lean for all the fall of his Sacrifices if he come once to the mercy or courtesie of men They would quickly starve him and his Religion out of doors But set Feasts he always had set Services and offerings would not leave himself or his Worship to mans devotion for he knew what was in man He made this day made it a Feast a day of joy and gladness Let us now therefore to our Office to rejoyce and be glad in it that 's the second General thither now are we come Three Points we told you we would consider in it Exultemus laetemur and in eâ Three parts in our Office rejoycing gladness and the right ordering both Outward expression inward gladness and right placing them Both words I confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint eâ—ultemus laetemur in the Latine have something outward in them yet exultemus is more for the outward laetemur somewhat more within a joy of the heart with some dilatation only of it Laetitia quasi latitia a stretching out the heart and sending forth the Spirits exultatio of saltatio a kind of skipping or leaping for joy the Spirits got into all the parts and powers ready to leap out of them for joy Being thus both involv'd one in the other I shall not trouble my self to distinguish them but only tell you hence that first The joy that God requires in the things that he has made or any time makes for us is not only inward it must out into outward acts Out into the mouth to sing forth his praise in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Eph. v. 19. Out into the hands to send portions to the poor for whom nothing is prepared Nehem. viii 10. Out into the feet to go up to the House of God with the Posture as well as the voice of joy and gladness to go up with haste to worship with reverence to stand up chearfully at the Hymns and Songs of Praise Our very bones as David speaks to rejoyce too the very clatter'd bones to clatter together and rejoyce all the parts and powers of
dead Earth into Herbs and Flowers Such a wind is this Spirit that gives life to every one that comes into the world for he is the Spirit of Life Rom. viii 2. But that which adds somewhat still to the fuller glory of these effects and must not be pass'd without a note is that 't is Spirit still this wind blows still For however the winds are not always in a noise and bustle yet some spirit of air there is that moves in the deepest stillness Spiritus there is always though not ventus some tender breeze though no gale of wind there is always stirring And if there were not continually some such sweet breathings of the Holy Spirit upon us when those strong and louder blasts seem to be lull'd asleep we were but dead men and might sleep for ever but such there are and we live by them I might but I will not add any more to the Effects either of the Wind or of the Spirit I pass on to their Course and Compass to shew you how far their effects and powers reach The Wind bloweth where it listeth and the Spirit where he willeth And here I must tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vbi vult is a large circuit Vbi is where and Vbi is when and Vult is what you will especially when 't is his who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will Ephes. i. 11. So that 't will be no stretching to say either of the Wind or of the Spirit that it bloweth 1. Where it lists and 2. How it lists and 3. As much as it lists and 4. On whom it lists and 5. When it lists 1. The Wind blows where it lists on this side or on that side or on any side any where and every where The Spirit does so too only with more propriety to Vbi vult doing out of the liberty of its own will what the wind only does out of the subtilty of its nature No place lies exempted from the power of his will It finds St. Paul and Silas in the prison and blows up the organs of their voices into Songs and Hymns It finds Manasses in the dungeon blows there with his wind and the waters flow out of his eyes It finds St. Matthew at the receipt of Custom and blows him out of a Publican into an Apostle It blows St. Peter and St. Andrew out of their Boat to the stern of the Church of Christ. He blows upon some in their journey as upon St. Paul upon others at home as upon Cornelius upon one in the bed upon another at the Mill upon Ionas in the Whales belly No place beyond his compass not the Isles of the Gentiles not the land of Vz not the Deserts of Arabia Here and there even amongst them he blows some into his Kingdom In a word no chamber so secret but it can get into no place so remote but it can reach none so private but it can find none so strong but it can break through none so deep but it can fathom none so high but it can scale no place at all but it can come into and none so bad but some way or other it will vouchsafe to visit It makes Holy David cry out as in an extasie Psal. cxxxix 6. Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit or Whether shall I go then from thy Presence If I climb up into Heaven thou art there if I go down to Hell thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the earth even there also shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me No place it seems in Heaven or Earth or Sea or Hell it self can hold him out Nor can any hold him to this or that way of working neither for He bloweth 2. How he lists sometimes louder sometimes softer sometimes after this manner sometimes after that He raises new inclinations or he cherishes the old He changes the tempers of men or disposes them He removes opportunities of doing ill or he propounds opportunities of doing good he scares us with threats or allures us with promises he drives us with judgments or he draws us with mercies he inflames us within or he moves us from without which way soever it pleases him No wind so various in its blowing Different ways he has to deal with divers men and diversities of gifts he has for them too differences of Administrations diversities of Operations 1 Cor. xii 5. To one he gives the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge to another faith to another the gift of healing to another the working of miracles to another prophesie to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues all from the Spirit says the Apostle in the forecited Chapter Nor was this only for those times He still breaths diversities of gifts and graces as he pleases On some sanctifying graces on others edifying On others both To some he gives a cheerful to others a sad spirit to some a kind of holy lightness to others a religious gravity to one a power wholly to quit the World to another power to stand holy in it to one an ability to rule to another a readiness to obey to one courage to another patience to a third temperance and so to others other graces as he thinks fittest 3. Yet of these gifts to some more to some less not to all alike nay not to the same person always alike neither but 3. as much only as this Spirit will All have not faith alike nor hope alike nor charity alike nor courage alike nor patience alike neither all vertues nor any vertues all alike Upon some the abundance of the Spirit dwells upon others he breaths only some have had exstasies others but only moderate breathings Eliah had abundance of the Spirit yet Elisha has it doubled 2 Kings ii 9. And yet this very same Elisha that presently upon it divides Iordan with the wind of a Mantle and restores waters to their sweetness and earth to its fruitfulness by a cruse of Salt 2 Kings ii 21. in but the very next Chapter cannot so much as prophesie without a Minstrel ver 15. is not so much as in a disposition to receive this divine Spirit without the help of an Instrument of Musick to rally his spirits into harmony and order St. Paul who was but even now caught up into the third Heavens 2 Cor. xii 1. feels by and by such a thorn in the flesh ver 7. that of all that great extraordinary proportion he has no more left him than a poor pittance a mere sufficiency ver 9. 4. And the Person is as much in his own power as the measure is He blows not only what but upon whom he will He is no mans debtor Rom. xi 35. He will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy Rom. ix 18. What
and rule these resolutions desires and endeavours two Lights he makes true rectified reason and supernatural grace to guide them what to do at all seasons days and years and many little Stars many glimmerings of truth begin then to discover themselves which before did not After all this 5. the sensitive faculties in their course and order bring forth their living creature according to their kind submit themselves to the command of the superiour reason And then lastly when the Spirit has thus totally renewed the face of the earth of our mind and affections is the new man created after the likeness and image of God in righteousness and true holiness This the course this the order of the Spirits coming He comes moving upon the waters of repentance and first enlightens the darkness of our souls he orders all our faculties and powers he makes us fruitful to good works he daily encreases divine light and heat within us he reforms our sense subdues our passions regulates our reason sanctifies them all comes in light comes in grace comes in truth comes in strength comes in power that we might in his strength and power come one day all in glory And now he that thus created the old World and still creates the new new create and make us new and pray we all with holy David Psal. li. 10. Create O Lord in us new hearts and renew right spirits within us Cast us not O Lord for ever though we are now full of errors from thy presence and keep not thy holy Spirit from us but let thy Spirit of truth come down and guide us out of our wandrings give us the comfort of his help again guide us again into the ways of truth and stablish us there with thy free Spirit and that for the merits and mercies of thine only Son who here promised to send him and this day accordingly sent him to guide us to himself from grace to grace from truth to truth from truth below to true happiness above Jesus Christ our Saviour To whom c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON Whitsunday St. JOHN xvi 13. Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all truth AND He this day began to guide has continued guiding ever since will go on guiding to the end began it with the Apostles continued it to the Church and will continue it to it to the end of the World Indeed he that looks upon the face of the Christian Churches now would be easily tempted to think that either the time was not yet come that it should be fulfilled or that it had been long ago and his promise come utterly to an end for evermore For so far are we from a guide into all truth that we have much ado to find a guide in truth false guides and false spirits are so rise so far from being guided into all truth that 't is neerer truth to say into all error as if this guide had quite forsaken us or this promise belong'd not at all to us Yet for all that to us it is For the truth is 't is not this Guides this Spirits fault but ours that this all truth is so nigh none at all He will guide still but we will not be guided And into all truth too he will but we will not we will have no more than will serve our turn stand with our own humour ease and interest that 's the reason why he guides not now as in the days of the Apostles the first times the times of old We will not let him we cannot bear it as it is in the verse before or worse we will not bear we will not endure it every one will be his own guide go his own way make what truth he pleases or rather what him pleases the only truth every one follow his own spirit that 's the reason why we have so little of the Spirit of Truth among us There are so many private spirits that there is no room for this Yet if into all or indeed any truth that 's worth the name of saving we would be guided to this One we must return to one spirit or to no truth There is but one Trurth and one Spirit all other are but fancies He that breaks the unity of the Spirit that sets up many spirits sets up many guides but never a true one chance he may perhaps into a truth but not be guided to it and as little good come of it where the analogie of Scripture and Truth must needs be broken by so many differing and divided spirits 'T is time we think of holding to one Spirit that we may all hold the same Truth and in time be led into it all The only question is Whether we will be led or no If we will not the business is at an end If we will we must submit to this Spirit and his guidance his manner and way of guiding By so doing we shall not fail in any necessary saving truth He will guide us into all truth Which that he may as I have heretofore out of the former words told you of his coming so shall I now by his assistance out of these latter tell you of his guiding for to that intent and purpose he came to day and comes every day came at first and comes still comes 1. to guide to guide 2. into truth 3. into all truth 4. even you and all into it yet 5. to guide only not to drive or force us to guide after his own way and fashion not our fancie of which lastly we need not doubt or make a question he will do it So that now the Parts of the Text will plainly rise into these Propositions 1. That though Christ be gone he has not left us without a guide but has sent Him that shall guide us still 2. That He that shall do it is He that very He that is the Spirit of Truth just before No other can 3. That guide therefore into truth he will no other will 4. That he will guide not into this truth or that truth only but into all 5. That he will guide even us too You and you and you us as well as those that were before us all 's but You. 6. That he will do it yet but after his own way and fashion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the way he comes after as he comes so will he guide set us a way to find the truth and guide us after that way and no other 7. That for certain so it is He will Howbeit he will though yet he has not though yet we peradventure will not or cannot endure to be guided yet when we will set our selves to it He will guide us into c. it shall be no fault or failure of his for he for his part will is always willing The sum of all is this to assure us 1. that notwithstanding all the errors and false spirits now abroad there is a Spirit of Truth still
for the business of Christ. 3. Yet cloven they must be too 'T is not a single tongue will do it The Apostles were to preach to the world and in the world there were a world of tongues that they might therefore so preach as to be understood as many tongues were necessary to be given them as there were people with whom they were to deal Behold the greatness of Gods goodness here Tongues were divided for a curse at first lo he turns them into a blessing then they were sent to divide the world now they are given to unite it then they wrought confusion now they are given to unite it Thus God can turn our curses into blessings when he pleases And fit it is that we then should turn our tongues to his praise and glory This we may do with one tongue alone But they who would be Preachers and teach others had need of more Tongues though they come not now suddenly like the wind yet come they must as they can come by our industry and Gods blessing God would not have sent so many tongues if more then one had not been necessary for his work though not now perhaps to preach yet to understand surely what we preach 'T is a bold adventure to presume to the office of a Teacher with a single tongue He is not able to teach children to spell true that knows no more much less to spell the mysteries of the Gospel to men who understands not so much as that one tongue he speaks if he understand no more Unless we be wiser than Christ and his Holy Spirit we cannot think any sufficiently endued to preach them but such as have received the gift of tongues more then one or two the gift I say for though to speak with tongues be not given now miraculously as it was here yet given it is to us it is the gift still of the Holy Spirit as a blessing upon our labours But there are other tongues besides which come from this days mercy The tongue that speaks right things the tongue that comforts the afflicted soul the tongue that recals the wandring step the tongue that defends the fatherless and widow the tongue that pours it self out in prayers and praises the tongue that speaks continually of holy things the tongue that speaks no evil nor does no hurt the tongue that speaks nothing but a meek and humble and obedient spirit these are the tongues of the Holy Spirit and even from this day they have their rise these are for all orders and sorts of men and if those men who now take to themselves to be Teachers had but learnt to speak with these tongues they would have spoke to far better purpose and more to Gods acceptance than now they do in speaking as they do they had not thus blasphemed the Holy Spirit to entitle him to the extravagancy of their tongues Yet fire and tongues and tongues of fire are not all the wonders that this day produced These fell not only like a flash of Lightning upon the Apostles but they sate upon them or rather It sate upon them says the Text. All these tongues as divided and cloven as they were like so many flames or tongues of fire at top they were all united in one root below with one mouth Rom. xv 6. with one voice Chap. iv 24. they spake all but the same thing They are not the tongues of the Spirit that speak now one thing now another that agree not in the foundation at the least Nor is that fire of the Holy Ghosts enkindling that cannot sit for to the fire we may 2. refer this It. The holy flame is not like the fire of thorns that are always crackling making a noise it can sit quietly in the heart and on the lips and on the head sometimes in the one and sometimes on the other it sits upon the heads and singes not a hair it sits in the heart and scalds it not at all it sits upon the lips yet makes them not burst out into a heat the firy zeal that is so much cried up for spirit in the world is too unquiet too hot too raging to be of this days fire Yet 3. we may refer this It to the Holy Spirit it self That sate upon each of them too It sate first upon each of them as a crown of glory so St. Cyril The Apostles were the Crowns and Glory of the Churches and so this install'd them It sate 2. upon them as in a Chair of State to fix authority upon them to set them in their Chairs to give them power to govern and guide the Church It sate 3. upon them so to call into their mind the promise of their Master that he would send one to sit in counsel with them and be with them always to the end of the world for sitting is a posture to denote constancy establishment and continuance It sate 4. as it were to teach us to be setled and constant too to be establisht and grounded in our faith not to be wavering and carried about with every wind of doctrine There is no greater evidence against error then that it is not constant to it self no greater argument against these great pretended spirits then that they cannot sit know not where to fix are always moving as if the Psalmists curse had taken hold upon them as it does and will do without doubt upon all that take the houses of God in possession Psal. lxxxiii 12. that usurp upon the office or portion of the Church as if God had made them like a wheel and as stubble before the wind that can sit no where rest at nothing but turn about from one uncertainty to another The Holy Spirit is a Spirit that will sit still and be at peace continue and abide It sate 5. upon each to teach each of us peace and quiet in all our passions constancy and continuance in truth and goodness and a setled and composed behaviour in all conditions blow the winds never so high burn the fires of persecution never so hot against us It were well now if we could say as it follows next concerning the Apostles that we were filled with this Spirit that we were filled with the Holy Ghost that we might arrive at that point within our selves though we cannot now arrive at that particular in the Text. The only filling now that I have time to tell you of is that before us and 't is a good one the filling us with the body and bloud of Christ which is a signal filling us with the Spirit Go we will then about it so to fill our our souls The tongues and fire in the Text we may well apply to it we may have use of there For tongues are not to speak with only but tast with two O tast we then how good and gracious the Lord is there that vouchsafes so graciously to come under our roofs to come upon tongues And Tongues 2. are to help
may not live in honour why being departed hence they should be forgotten when their vertues and good works as St. Paul says of Abels faith Heb. xi 4. though they be dead yet speak unto us And if they yet speak we may speak too speak of them to their praise for to honour them is to commend them so God is said to be honoured Psal. xxii 24. So Christ to receive honour from his Father 2 Pet. i. 17. So men are said to be honoured Prov. xiii 18. and xxvii 18. that is praised or commended To this purpose it is that the holy Scripture relates their Histories To this intent St. Paul reckons up a whole Catalogue of them Heb. xi and would do more but that the day would fail him After the same sort he honours Lois and Eunice the Grandmother and Mother of the blessed Timothy 2 Tim. i. 5. And an ancient custom it was among the Saints of God it seems by the Son of Syrach Ecclus. xliv 1. to praise famous men and the Fathers that begat us to make a solemn commemoration of them The Primitive Church was not behind in this duty neither but in the Prayer for the holy Catholick Church recited the names of the most famous Saints and Martyrs and gave God thanks for their good examples even at the Altar it self nay brought in the command of the Apostle 1 Tim. ii 1. for intercessions and giving thanks for all men for the Preface of it as a Text to authorize their so doing Evidences these sufficient to honour the Saints with all our praises With our Praises I say but not our Prayers our Praises of them not our Prayers unto them that 's a piece of honour God has no where in Scripture any way allowed them Prayers I find not that they are to have Praises I find they may And which yet makes more to their honour than such Prayers could do that they should be the Conduits of Gods honour to convey it to him God is now 3. to be praised for them He praised in his Saints he honoured in their honour honor servorum redundet ad Dominum so St. Hierom. God to have the honour of their honour He who bestowed so excellent graces upon them so excellent examples in them unto us he to be blessed for them Blessed too for the honour he has done to take them hence out of this vale of misery to himself to glory and honour this is to season the Saints honour right to give it as we should when the Author of it is thus honoured by it But there is an honour still behind that makes up all We are said to honour those whom we follow with our attendance He that is highest in honour has the most followers the greatest attendance If we will therefore honour the Saints indeed we must honour them by following their vertues and examples This is that the Church principally intends by all the Saints it sets before us by all its Festivals and Holidays to put us in mind of the Patience of St. Stephen of the Repentance of St. Paul of the Faith of St. Peter of the Purity of St. Iohn of the holy Chastity and Humility of the Virgin Mary of the ready following of our Saviour in St. Andrew of the leaving and forsaking all for Christ in St. Matthew of a holy boldness to profess the truth in St. Iohn Baptist and so of the rest and of the love and charity and communion the Saints ought to hold together in this days Feast where they are all as it were joyn'd together that we might learn never to make a separation from this communion never to break off from the doctrine once delivered to the Saints nor leave one single vertue unpractised which we find in any of them This is truly honour to them to have a multitude of followers the honour of all his Saints And it will be our honour too to follow them and do like them to make our selves honourable by these vertues patience obedience chastity holiness great piety which have rendred them so renowned through the world so famous in this and so glorious in the other And all these together are all the honour lastly the Saints expect or require from us besides that of our Prayers for their consummation that they with us and we with them may in due time obtain the fulness of this honour the completion of this glory at the Resurrection of the Saints By this honour this reverent esteem of them by this honourable mention of them by the devout praises of God for them by our diligent imitation of their vertues and our Prayers for their perfection and consummation and our own for they without us shall not be made perfect by thus giving honour where honour is due as the Apostle speaks we shall give God his honour the Church her honour our selves honour and one day be made partakers of that honour and glory which all his Saints that are departed hence in his faith and fear enjoy already and reign with him and them in honour and glory for evermore Amen THE SECOND SERMON UPON All Saints HEB. xii 1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race which is set before us SEing we also What we also under the cloud Indeed our Fathers were 1 Cor. x. 1. yea and were baptized in the cloud Christianity then in clouds in shadows But when the Sun displays his mid-day glories the clouds vanish out of sight what then means this Nubem tantam How comes this cloud Is it because that Majesty is yet too glorious for our weak eyes to look upon without a veil Is it still videmus tanquam in speculo See we nothing here but through this watry glass 'T is so Viatores they and we and the Sun in a cloud fittest for travellers Thus distinguished from the Saints in bliss we for nubem they for lumen we compassed about with clouds they with light And as nubem makes the difference between Viator and Comprehensor so circumpositam for so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between Viatores Legis and Evangelii those Pilgrims of old and our travellers They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cloud above they under it so under it that they could not look up to the end of that which was to come This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about us we in it and so see the easier through it The Apostles by a figure first entring it at the transfiguration when Moses and Elias Law and Prophets were departed not before Yet should we grant them circumpositam to be in it too 't would prove but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little cloud to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or but a dark one to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cloud of Martyrs whose flames out-shine the brightness of the Sun The
Sometimes again it may be lawful for us to leave both Estates and Callings though we be not bound to it as when we plainly see we can thereby serve our Master better and he seems to point us to it when we perceive we cannot else perform the Task or Calling he has designed us to or the business he has already set us upon Otherwise let every man says the Apostle abide in the Calling wherein he is called and stir not from his station but when he may lawfully and orderly be made free from it 'T is not presently from the Counter to the Desk from the Loom into the Pulpit from the Shop into the Church from our Nets to our Books from secular Trades to the holy Function that we are to run there is something more than so when the Apostle bids men stay and continue in their Callings And to follow Christ is not only to be Apostles and Teachers for who then shall there be to be taught And to satisfie all from the example in the Text this is the third time of St. Andrews being call'd To the knowledge of Christ he was call'd St. Iohn i. 38. To his familiar acquaintance St. Luke v. 10. and here thirdly and St. Mark i. 17. to the Apostleship so many steps even these here made ere they came to be Apostles and not till now threw they quite away their nets to return no more unto them 'T is no such hasty business to become Apostles or succeed them in any point of their office Yet truly when Christ shall give any of these hasty heads power to do wonderfully to shew miracles to manifest their calling and to do extraordinarily as he did to these then we were much to blame if we would not allow them that God has extraordinarily call'd them to it and what were we that we should oppose against it But in the mean time le ts see them leave their nets their private interests and hopes of gain and repute and fame that we may have reason to think they follow Christ and not their own bellies fancies and humours Yet we can tell them too of those who have done more than the most they dare pretend have left all expresly all and yet no followers of Christ. Heathens have done it Socrates and Bias and Thales and Crates the Theban and Fabricius the Roman yet Christ not followed by it And I know they will say as much of the Hermits of the Desart and the Brethren of the Cloyster that though they have done what they dare not think for Christ yet they have not followed him And could these great Confidents shew what they have done or suffered or lost or left for Christ yet by the same Argument their own they cannot prove they follow him the while But alas they have left nothing but what they should not their proper Callings wherein St. Paul would have them abide with God And it is not Christ but the loaves they follow not Gods glory but their own For if we but examine what was their following in the Text and the grounds of their so doing as we shall anon it will appear quickly whom they seek what they follow too who pretend only or rather only pretend so much now adays to follow Christ. Let 's next see whom St. Andrew followed when he left his nets and how he followed Christ it was he follow'd for this Him is He. 1. Not his own profit sure he could hope for little from him who had not where to lay his own head 2. Not his ease and pleasure in his company who was always hungring and thirsting and yet had scarce bread to eat or water to drink or time to do either watching and walking up and down about his Fathers business till he was faint and weary and yet nor place nor time to rest in not to sleep but he must be awak'd as soon almost as he is laid down 3. Not his own honour certainly under a Master who was the most rejected and despised of men as the Prophet stiles him called Wine-bibber and a friend of sinners and deceiver of the people and a worker by the devil Not his own humour or fancy but Christs powerful Call that so straight transform'd his mind and raised him to a faith that could so suddenly part with all without murmuring reasoning or taking care for a future living In a word not any thing but Him But him then how did he follow 1. He followed him with his body gives himself to be one of his menial Servants and continual Attendants content with such course fare and cloathing as his poverty would allow him partaker of his fastings and watchings and journeyings and hard lodgings and painfulness and weariness and reproaches to teach what our bodies must be content to endure for his service and in following him 2. He followed him with his mind gave up his understanding to be informed his will to be directed his affections to be ordered by his Doctrine and Precepts for to follow Christ is to resign up our understandings to the obedience of faith 3. He followed him in his life in patience and meekness in humility in poverty of spirit in mercifulness and doing good in the life and practice of Christian vertues liv'd an admirable holy life went up and down from Country to Country into Macedonia and Achaia into Scythia and Ethiopia preaching Christ and following Christ whithersoever he call'd him and this is properly to follow Christ to imitate him And 4. He followed him in his death too was also crucified for him followed him so chearfully to that that says St. Bernard and the Story of him He seeing the Cross afar off thus joyfully saluted it Salve crux diu desiderata jam concupiscenti animo praparata ecce gaudens exultans ad te venio Welcome sweet Cross so long desired and wish'd and long'd for and now come at last I come rejoycing I come leaping to thee I come I come Thus I have shew'd you how St. Andrew followed Christ how we also are to follow him to throw away our Nets not only all unlawful ways of gain and preferment nor all things that stay and hinder us from the service of our Master but any thing every thing that may entangle us or keep us from the readiness and exactness of our attendance and having so prepared our selves to conform our selves presently after his example to humility to patience to meekness to doing good to obedience to acts of mercy to fastings to watchings to praying to any hardship or affliction no more now to seek our selves but him not our own praise but his glory not our own profit but the profit of our Brethren not our own private fancies but Christs Precepts and the Saints examples so to follow in their track in the ways and orders and obediences that they have traced us and to be content to part with any thing with all our own magnified imaginations all our
you all tell us in your Tenures in your Lands in your Corporations How comes it about they do not in the Church I am sure you plead them on all sides strong enough against it And has the Church none Or hath it none to plead Yes both It was St. Paul's Plea no meaner mans We have no such Custom nor the Churches of God 1 Cor. xi 16. Many indecencies were then crept into the Church of Corinth about Prayers about Preaching about Sacraments about Gestures and Ceremonies The Rule that he confutes them by is They had no such nor the Churches of God The contrary then they had and that he thought conviction enough for Christians yea for the contentious too If any man be contentious will hear no reason this the way to answer him 'T was so then 't is so still They the Apostles and the Churches of God Customs they had and made this use of them so may we Customs we have and we may plead them Some deriv'd from them so high others later yet of age enough to speak for themselves Such as only directing all into order and beauty stood still unquestioned till of late a subtle prophaneness creeping in under a pretence of Law though obeying none would fain accuse for illegal Tyrannies But let me argue it with this kind of man May not I as lawfully serve my God in a reverent posture as thou in a sawcy and irreverent garb Is it Superstition in me to stand because thou sittest or leanest on thy elbow Is it Idolatry in me to kneel because thou wilt not foul thy clothes or vex thy knees Strange must it needs be that sitting leaning lolling must be Law and Canon where no set behaviour is expressed and my reverence only be against it made Innovation which Law never forbad Custom has retain'd When you can bring me Law against my standing bowing kneeling which your selves know Custom hath observed where uniform order has been kept I shall either submit or answer Else I must ask by what Law I am bound to sit or lean and not to stand or kneel or bow though I urge thee only to Charity and Reverence This for some reverent Customs which hadst thou any equal to for age or reason in thy Civil Affairs thou wouldst plead against the Law I here only wish it where there is nought against them that they may stand still if not under the notion of obedience yet far enough from Innovation or Disobedience And I believe in cold bloud it would be found so Well now All for the matter though never so hard According to all for the manner though never so troublesom and inconvenient if commanded by good Law or Custom must be the compass of your Obedience If any man teach otherwise says St. Paul Otherwise Than what Than all honour that is obedience in all things What then He is proud knowing nothing how much soever he seems to know doting about questions and strife of words whence cometh envy strife railings evil surmises perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness You see the times and you may see the place 1 Tim. vi 3 4 5. How these rules have been kept amongst you towards the command of your King and Church I leave to the scrutiny of your own bosoms If you find it otherwise as surely you will let it be mended or get St. Paul and St. Peter made Apocrypha and scrape out Dicit Dominus here Gods Approbation of the Rechabites for observing all for doing all I have been so long about our selves I had almost forgotten them But I return and now enquire upon their last Commendation Whom they obeyed Ionadab their Father Their Father by nature He from whose loyns they descended Their Civil Father and Prince He that had power over their estates so it appears by his ordering their temporal affairs their new kind of Common-wealth Their Spiritual Father by his Decrees disposing all for the freer exercise of their Piety and Religion By commanding abstinence from wine and the delights of sense to refine their understandings for heavenly thoughts by forbidding them houses putting them in mind of better dwellings by the oft removal of their Tents to keep them in continual thoughts they had here no abiding City by a voluntary resignment of all earthly accommodations to teach them the contempt of worldly things a total vacancy to their Religion and Order So you have them here lastly commended for three kinds of Obedience to three kinds of Fathers their Natural Civil Ecclesiastical Father which is the right directing their Obedience Yet I meet here Three other Commendations from the words Your Father 1. That they obeyed their right Father Your Father Sought them out no new ones neither in Church nor State Kept as you would say to their own King to their own Bishop their own Priest wandred not out of their Diocess gadded not out of their own Parish to find one of their own choosing 2. That they acknowledged him for a Father and so used him with all honour and respect not a word against him for all the difficulties of his Injunctions 3. That they obeyed him under that name because a Father upon no other ground though he was but one man This indeed is that which formally constitutes Obedience when we do any thing for no other reason but because commanded by our Father To do it for other ends for the justice equity or goodness of it may bring it under the title of some other virtue This only because commanded by our Father makes it Obedience You have seen the last part of the Rechabites Obedience Shall we see whether you have any better luck in this than in the rest Whether you can here say any thing for your selves that you have obeyed the command of your Father Yet we must see first what Fathers we acknowledge take heed we are right lest God answer us as he answered those by the Prophet Ye have set up Kings but not by me Ye have made Princes but I knew it not Hos. viii 4. To begin then righ◠Kings they are our Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nursing Fathers God hath set them over us Prov. viii 15. Per me Reges Made them Supreme too 't is St. Peters 1 Pet. ii 13. To the King as Supreme Mark that No earthly Power above him nor Pope nor People Be not we fallen into strange times in the interim that God must be driven to recant and we learn a new Supermacy The Kings Preeminence is expresly a part of your Oath of Allegiance And for the Oath of God says Solomon Eccles. viii 2. so think of him so obey him Next to him those that are sent by him says St. Peter of no bodies sending else of whose soevers choosing not so properly Fathers as hands and fingers of that great Father Pater Patriae Those to govern under him not above him so we pray in our