where the text is dark and obscure suspend thy judgement and where it is plain and easy expresse and manifest it in thy conversation which is the best descant on a plain song Thou readest there are vessels made to dishonour whether God made them so as some will have it or they made themselves so as Basil and Chrysostome interpret it it concerns not thee That which concerns thee is plain thou mayest run and readit that thou must possesse thy vessel in honour and build up thy self in this holy faith the Quare moriemini is plain it is plain that God is not willing thou shouldest die but hath shewed thee a plain passage unto life hath not indeed supplied thee with means to interpret riddles and untie knots and explain and resolve hard texts of Scripture but he hath supplied thee with meanes of life brought thee to the gates of paradise to the wayes of life and the wells of salvation The lines are fallen to thee in a faire place Behold he hath placed thee in Domo Israelis in the house of Israel in domo salutis in the house of salvation Which is next to be considered THE ELEVENTH SERMON PART VII EZEKIEL 33.11 For why will you die Oh House of Israel GOD is not willing we should die for he is goodnesse it self and no evil can proceed from him Or. quod Deus nonsit Autor mali no not the evil of punishment for it is his strange work and rather ours then his saith Basil for if our sins did not call and cry out for it he would not do it as delighting rather to see his glory in that Image which is like him then in that which is defaced and toru and mangled and now burning in hell Ipse te subdidisti poenae that 's the stile of the imperial Law his wrath could not kindle nor Hell burn till we did blow the coals we bring our selves under punishment and then he strikes and we die and are lost for ever It was his goodnesse that made us and it was his goodness which made a Law and made it possible to be kept and in the same streame of goodnesse were conveighed unto us sufficient and abundant means by the right use of which we might be carried on in an even and constant course of obedience to that Law and so have a clearer knowledge of him a neerer union with him a taste of the powers of the world to come a share and part in that fulnesse of joy which is at his right hand for evermore And why then will you die Oh House of Israel And indeed why should Israel why should any of the House of Israel die For take it in the letter for the Jews Take it in the application for us Christians take it for the Synagogue which is the Type Rom. 9.6 or take it for the Church which is Israel indeed as the Apostle calls it and a strange thing it is and as full of shame as wonder that any one should die in domo Israelis in the house of Israle or perish in the Church Si honoratior est persona major est peccantis invidia Salvian l. 1. de Gub. M. the malice of sin is proportion'd to the person that commits it not so strange a thing to die in the streets of Askelon as in the house of Israel nor for a Turk or Infidel to be lost as a Christian For though the condition of the person cannot change the species of the sin for sin is the same in whomsoever it is yet it hath not so foul an aspect in one as in another cries not so loud in the dark as in the light and is most fatal and destructive where is most means to avoid it is most mortal there where there is most light to discover its deformity A wicked Israelite is worse then an Edomite and a bad Christian worse then a Turk or a Jew In domo Israelis to be in the house to be a member of the Church is a great priviledge but if we honour not this priviledge so far as to make our deportment answerable even our priviledge it self being abused and forfeited will change its countenance and accuse and condemn us We finde it as a positive truth laid down in the Schools and if it were not in our Books common reason would have shewed it us in a character legible enough Gravius peccat fidelis Aquin. 2.2 q. 10 art 3. quam Infidelis propter Sacramenta fidei quibus Contumeliam facit of all Idolaters an Israelite is the worst and no swine to the unclean Christian no villain to him if he be one for here sin makes the deeper tincture and impression leaves a stain not onely on his person but his profession Flings contumely on the very Sacraments of his faith and casts a blemish on his house and family whereas in an Infidel it hath not so deadly an effect but is vailed and shadowed by ignorance and borrows some excuse from Infidelity it self For first to speak a word of the house of Israel in the letter and so to passe from the Synagogue to the Church the Jews were Domestica Dei gens as Tertullian calls them Tert. Apolt c. 18. the Domestick and peculiar people of God like Gideons fleece full of the dew of Divine Benediction when all the world was dry besides to them were the Oracles given those Oracles which did foretel the Messias Rom. 2.3 and by which they might more easily know him then the Gentiles Rom. 9.4 to them pertained the adoption for they were called the Children of God Deut. 14.1 They had the Covenant written in Tables of stone and the giving of the Law and constitutions which might link and unite them together into a body and society and the service of God they had their sacrifices but especially the Paschal Lamb and that their memory might not let slip his statutes and Ordinances he doth even Catechize their eyes and makes the least Ceremony a busie remembrancer Behold a Tabernacle erected Aaron and his sons appointed the Sacrifices slain the Altars smoking all so many Ocular Sermons They may behold Aaron and his sons ascending the Temple laying all their sins upon the head of a sacred Goat and so carrying them out of the City they might behold him entring the vail with Reverence His garments Hier. ad Fabiol de vestit sacerd his motion his Gesture all were vocal quicquid agebat quiequid loquebatur doctrina erat populi saith Saint Jerom his Actions were Didacticall as well as his Doctrine and the priest himself was a Sermon and these were as so many antidotes against death The 23. and 26. v. of this Chapter the Prophet reproveth them for their capital and mortal sins Adultery murder and Idolatry and God had sufficiently instructed and fortified them against these He forbad lust not onely in the Decalogue but in the Sâ—arrow Levit. 11. murder in the Vulture and Raven
with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things we have with Christ and the Apostle doth not onely tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt puts up a quomodo non challenges as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him give us all things And this question addes energy and weight and emphasis and makes the position more positive the affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should more possible for a City upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or Hell to raise it self up to his Mercy-seat than for him to with-hold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome Naz. Or. 36. his Justice his Goodnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his will to deny us any thing In brief if the Earth be not as Iron the Heavens cannot be as Brasse God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable and when he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive when he descends Mercy descends with him in a ful shower of Blessings to make our Souls as the Paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouze up our Hope and in this Light in this Assurance in this Heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the question against all Doubts all Feares all Temptations that may assault us He that sparede not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things The Conclusion And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the Crosse and from thence he looks down and speaks to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit Cathedra docentis the Crosse on which he suffered was the Chaire of his profession and from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience and perfect Obedience an exact art and method of living well drawn out in severall lines so that what was ambitiously said of Homer that if all Sciences were lost they may be found in him may most truly be said of his Crosse and Passion that if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World yet now nailed to the Crosse Let us then with Love and Reverence look upon him whothus looks upon us put on our Crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrys every Vertue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord and draw the picture of a Crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth for Gods Glory and our Salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thred are linked together in the same bond of Peace I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runs and it runs on evenly in a stream of love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of Glory may come in If you seek Salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your Salvation Thou may'st cry loe here it is or loe there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily exercise the Zelot in the Fire and in the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the profane Libertine in Hell it self Then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the glory of God which shines most gloriously in a Crucified Christ and an Obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the markes of the LORD JESUS To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him that is Believe in his name that is be faithfull to him that is love him and keep his Commandements which is our conformity to his Death and then he will give us what will he give us he will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive him take in Christ take him in his Shame in his Sorrow in his Agony take him hanging on the Crosse take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our Teares with his Blood drag our Sin to the Bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its Face at the fairest presentment it can make and then naile it to the Crosse that it may languish and faint by degrees and give up the Ghost and die in us and then lye down in peace in his Grave and expect a glorious Resurrection to eternall life where we shall receive Christ not in Humility but in Glory and with him all his Riches and Abundance all his glorious Promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternall life HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask of whom speaketh S. John this or who is he that speaks it for we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meanes the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse tells us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God Leâ— 26.11,12 that they might be his people Will ye see his Robes
in his hand For the state and face of things may be such as may warrant Demosthenes wish and choice and make it more commendable in exilium ire quà m tribunal to go into banishment then to ascend the tribunal for he best deserves honour who can in wisdome withdraw himself he can best manage power who knows when to lay it down Bring him now from the publick stage of honour to his private house and there you might have seen him walking as David speaks in the midst of his house in innocency and with a perfect heart as an Angel or intelligence moving in his own sphere and carrying on every thing in it with that order and Decorum which is the glory of a stranger whose moving in it is but a going out of it to render an account of every act and motion you might have beheld him looking with a settled and immoveable eye of love on his wife walking hand in hand with her for forty foure yeares and walking with her as his fellow-traveller with that love which might bring both at last to the same place of rest You might behold him looking on his children with an eye of care as well as of affection initiating them into the same fellowship of pilgrims and on his servants not as on slaves Quid Servus Amicus humilis but as his humble and inferiour friends as Seneca calls them and as his fellow-pilgrims too and thus he was Domesticus Magistratus a Domestick Magistrate a lover and example of that truth which Socrates taught that they who are good Fathers of their family will make the best and wisest Magistrates they who can manage their own cock-boat may be fit at last to sit at the stern of the common-wealth for a private family is a type and representation of it nay saith Eusebius in the life of Constantine of the Church it self I confesse I knew but in his evening when he was neer his journeys end and then too but at some distance but even then I could discover in him that sweetnesse of disposition that courteous affabibility which Saint Paul commends as virtues but have lost that name with Hypocrites with proud and supercilious men who make it a great part of their Religion to pardon none but themselves and then think that they have put off the old man when they have put off all humanity In these Omilitick vertues I could discern a fair proficiency in this reverend Knight and what my knowledg could not reach was abundantly supplied and brought unto me by the joynt testimony of those who knew him and by a testimony which commends him to heaven and God himself the mouthes of the poor which he so often filled Thus did he walk on as a stranger comforting and supporting his fellow-Pilgrims and reaching forth his charity to them as a staffe Thus he exprest himself living and thus he hath exprest himself in his last Will which is voluntas ultra mortem the Will the Mandate the Language of a Dead man Speculum morum saith Pliny the Glasse wherein you may see the Charity that is the Face the Image of a Pilgrim by which he hath bequeathed a Legacy of Comfort and Supply a plain acknowledgement that he was but a stranger on the earth to every Prison and to many Parishes within this City and remembers them who are in bonds as one who himself was in the body and sometimes a prisoner as they I know in this world it is a hard thing Justum esse sine infamia to be good and not to heare ill expedit enim malis neminem esse bonum for evil men make it their work to deface every faire image of virtue and then think well of themselves when they have made all as evil as themselves but it was this our honoured brothers happinesse to find no accuser but himself I may truly say I never yet heard any but report hath given him an honourable passe the voice of the poor was He was full of good works the voice of the City he was a good Magistrate the voice of his equalls he was a true friend the voice of all that I have heard he was a just man and then our charity will soon conclude he was a good Christian for he lived and died a son of the Church of the reformed and according to the way which some call Heresy some Superstition so worshipped he the God of his Fathers And now he is gone to his long home and the mourners go about the streets He is gone to the grave in a full age when that was well neer expired which is but Labour and sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril speaks grown in wisdom and grace which is a fairer testimony of age then the gray haires or fourscore yeares his body must return to the dust and his soul is return'd to God that gave it and being dead he yet speaketh speaketh by his Charity to the Poore speaketh by his faire example to his Brethren of the City to honour and reverence their Conscience more then their Purse vitamque impendere vero and to be ready to resign all even life it self for the truth he speaks to his friends and he speaks to his relict his virtuous and reverend Lady once partner of his cares and joyes his fellow-travellour and to his children who are now on their way and following a pace after him weep not for me why should you weep I have laid by my Staff my Scrip my provision and am at my journeys end at rest I have left you in a valley in a busie tumultuous world but the same hand the same provision the same obedience to Gods commands will guide you also and promote you to the same place where we shall rest and rejoyce together for evermore There let us leave him in his eternall rest with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob with all the Patriarchs and prophets and Apostles all his fellow-Pilgrims and strangers in the Kingdom of Heaven FINIS By the forced absence of the Author from the Presse besides many points mistaken these Errata have escaped which the Reader is desired to amend as he finds them PAg. 4. l. 12. r. Transacted p. 12. l. 23. r. riddle p. 25. l. 7.5 These will bring in p. 26. l. 39. r. not because he cannot but because he will not p. 27. l. 13. r. bought mortall pag. 33. marg Eulalia p. 39. l. 10. not p. 65. l. 14. cast himself into hell p. 83. ult this noise when PAg. 10. l. 5. for that hath p. 13. l. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. l. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14. l. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. marg Tit. for Tim. ibid. l. 7. in them p. 16. c. 6. entered p. 17. l. 21. Sublunary p. 23. l. 39. be the cause p. 24. l. 25. founded on p. 35. l. 40. beautifying p. 45. l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 54. l. 30. for and are p. 58. l. 27. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 19. affectuall p. 75. l. 9. about p. 78. marg for Deus Duos p. 89. l. 30. breath of fooles p. 89. l. 32. abfuerunt p. 99. l. 8. of the object p. 100. l. 27. for innocence justice p. 104. l. 27. start back ibid. l. 30. intention ibid. l. 33. shunk p. 108. l. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 118. l. 27. victo viâ for victoriâ p. 121. l. 4. worn out with p. 122. l. 7. steame p. 125. l. 32. maintaining some errours p. 126. l. 35. that which was p. 136. l. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. l. 42. measured out p. 137. l. 25. Adde that which is done often with that which is done alwaies p. 161. l. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 192. l. 18. aegris p. 168. l. 33. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 178. l. 13. adde many times makes us speak what otherwise we would not p. 207. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 208. l. 25. r. shines p. 228. l. 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 230. l. 16. r. the memory p. 241. l. 5. r. lifts us p. 242. l. 37. r. over that p. 244. l. 5. r. non exercere p. 240. l. 25. r. not his mercies p. 250. l. 13. r. to file and hammer them p. 251. l. 39. r. of their faith ibid. l. 43. r. and now this heartlesse p. 252. l. 25. r. but then p. 253. l. 6. r. God will do p. 260. l. 9. r. reviled p. 264. l. 1. r. usurp p. 266. l. 18. r. disarme death p. 283. l. 23. r. Salviguardium ibid. l. 34. Dele The third inference p. 300. l. 33. r. Petrus Damiani p. 304. l. 44. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 306. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 307. l. 41. r. faceremus p. 325. l. 30. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 331. l. 24. r. wasting ourselves p. 337. l. 46. r. For want of this p. 338. marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 343. l. 9. r. the love of that p. 344. l. 3. r. sound p. 345. l. 3. r. as the occasion of sinne p. 350. l. 10. r. define them p. 351. l. 30. r. see in them p. 353. l. 37. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 354. l. 14. r. if he be p. 359. l. 20. r. and last of all p. 362. l. r. r. make us feel p. 363. l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 364. l. 14. adde which when we cannot fill up c. ibid. l. 41. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 368. l. 34. r. tune p. 370. l. 41. r. sticks it in them p. 373. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 374. l. ult r. 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