so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
and speak more faintly and remisly when we call after the Presumptuous sinner to turn as if his last period were near and it were almost too late for him to begin We must not magnifie Repentance too much lest he make it a Pass and Warrant to sin again and so have more need of it We may tell him what is most true Repentance is a command indeed but praeceptum ex suppositione as Aquinas speaketh a command not absolute but upon a Si a supposition We are not commanded to repent as we are to believe as we are to fear God and to honour our Parents but upon supposition If we sin we have an Advocate that will plead for us if we repent The command which is absolute is to do Gods will Repentance is tabula post naufragium saith S. Hierom a plank reacht out after shipwrack But it is better to ride in the ship in a calm then to hang on the mast in a tempest Repentance is a virtue but of that nature that the less we stand in need of it the more virtuous we are It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a purgative potion but it is better never to be sick then to rise from our beds by the help of a Physician It was commendable in him that could say He thanked God he was now reconciled to his mother but he was more praise-worthy who replyed that he thanked God that he was never reconciled to his for he never offended her It is good to repent but it is better not to sin Oh it is a great happiness to be restored to the favour of God but it is a greater never to lose it It is good to appease him but it is our safest course never to anger him In a word It is better to be ever with God then by famine or pestilence to be forced to return better not acquire an evil habit then shake it off better never set a step in evil wayes then be called out of them with so much noise better never erre then turn It will concern us then not to put too much trust and confidence in our helps not to be careless of our health upon presumption of remedy Rom. 6.1 not to sin because grace hath abounded not to spend prodigally upon hope of supply not to oblige our selves too far because we see a hand of Mercy ready to cancel the bill How many have these hopes deluded How many have been betrayed by their helps How many Cities had now stood Fit ut ea parte capiantur urbes qua suut munitissime Polyb l. 7. had they had no other walls but their men Whilest we trust in these we neglect our selves and so make them not onely useless but disadvantagious to us We are foyled by our strength poysoned with our physick lost and betrayed in the midst of our fort with all our succours and artillery about us We trust in God and offend him look stedfastly towards the Mercy-seat and fall into the bottomless pit Therefore let us not be too bold with God's Mercy but learn to fear the Lord and his goodness Hos 3.5 not make Mercy an occasion of sin and so consequently of judgment which she is so ready to remove At the very name of Mercy at the sound of this Musick we lie down and rest in peace It is Mercy that saveth us and we wound our selves to death with Mercy As he that looketh upon the Sun with a steady eye when he removeth his eye hath the image of the Sun presented almost in every object so when we have long gazed on the Mercy-seat our eye beginneth to dazzle and Mercy seemeth to shine upon us in all our actions and at all times and in every place We see Mercy in the Law quite abolishing and destroying it silencing the many Woes denounced against sinners When we sin Mercy is ready before us that we may do it with less regret that no worm may gnaw us When our Conscience chideth Mercy is at hand to make our peace And this in the time of health And when our strength fayleth and sickness hath laid us on our bed we suborn and corrupt Mercy to give us a visit then when we can scarce call for it to stand by us in the evil day when we can do no good that we may die in hope who had no charity and be saved by that Jesus whom we have crucified And as it falleth out sometimes with men of great learning and judgement who though they can resolve every doubt and answer the strongest argument and objection yet are many times puzzled with a piece of Sophistry so it is with the formal Christian He can stand out against all motives and beseechings against all the batteries of God all his Calls and Obtestations against the terrours of hell and sweet allurements of promises but is shaken and foyled with a Fallacie with the Devils Fallacie à dicto secundùm quid ad dictum simpliciter That Mercy doth save sinners that repent and therefore it saveth all And upon this ground which glideth away from us upon this reason which is no Reason the Pleasures which are but for a season shall prevail with us Hebr. 11.25 when Heaven with its bliss and eternity cannot move us and the trouble which Repentance bringeth to the flesh shall affright us from good more then the torments which are eternal can from sin And therefore to conclude let us fear the Mercy of God so fear it that it may not hurt us so fear it that it may embrace us on every side so fear it that it mave save us in the day of the Lord Jesus Let our song be made up as David's was of these discords Mercy and Judgment Psal 101.1 Let us set and compose our life by Judgment that we may not presume and tune our Fear by Mercy that we may not despair Remember we were prisoners and remember we were redeemed Remember we were weak and impotent and remember we were made whole Remember what Christ hath done for us and remember what we are to do for our selves Phil. 2.12 and so work out our salvation with fear and trembling and then draw near with a true heart Hebr. 10.22 in full assurance of faith to the throne of Grace that Gods Wisdom and Justice and Mercy may guide us in all our wayes till they bring us into those new heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness where God shall be glorified in us 2 Pet. 3.13 and we glorified in him to all eternity The Eighteenth SERMON PART III. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes c. THE word is loud the call sudden and vehement And we have heard it loud in the ears of them that despair Turn ye turn ye it is not too late and terrible to them that presume Turn ye turn ye it is not soon enough And to these it cannot sound with terrour enough For we see Presumption is a
as it is void of reason of no use at all but to make us favour our selves and ingage and adventure further in those vvayes vvhich lead unto death I deny not but as there is great difference in sins so there may be a difference also in committing them that the righteous person doth not drink dovvn sin vvith that delight and greediness vvhich the vvicked do that they do not sport themselves in the vvayes of death nor fall into them vvith that easiness and precipitancy that they do not count it as a purchase to satisfie their lusts and that most times the event is different for the one falleth dovvn at the feet of God for mercy the other hardneth his heart and face and vvill not bovv But yet I cannot number it amongst the marks and characters of a righteous man or as some love to speak and may so speak if they well understood what they said of one of the elect when he falleth into any mortal grievous sin as Adultery Murder and the like that he doth not fall plenâ voluntate with full consent and will but more faintly and remissly as it were with more gravity then other men that he did actually fall but was not willing to fall that is that he did will indeed the sin which he did commit but yet did commit it against his will Nor can I think our consent is not full when we chide and rebuke the tentation and yet suffer it to win ground and gain more and more advantage against us when we have some grudgings some petty murmurs in our selves and in our hearts defame those sins which wâ— shew openly in our actions For when we have done that which is evil we cannot say we would not have done it when we have made room for Sin to enter we cannot say that we would have excluded it For first I cannot see how these two should meet so friendly a double Will nay a contrary Will in respect of one and the same act especially when Sin is not in fieri but in facto esse when the temptation hath prevailed and the Will determined its act Indeed whilst the act was suspended and our mind wavering and in doubt where to fasten which part to embrace whether to take the wedge of gold or to withdraw whether to smite my brother or to sheath up my Sword and Anger together whether to taste or not to taste the forbidden fruit when it was in labour as it were and did strive and struggle between these two the Delightfulness and Unlawfulness of the object between the Temptation and the Law Gal. 5.17 whilest the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh there may be such an indifferency a kind of willing and nilling a profer and distast an approch and a pawse an inclination to the object and a fear to come near But when the Sense hath prevailed with the Will to determin for it against the Reason James 1.15 when Lust hath conceived and brought forth then there is no room for this indifferency because the Will hath determined its act and concluded for the Sense against the Reason for the Flesh against the Spirit For we must not mistake the fluctuations and pawses and contentions of the mind and look upon them as the acts of the Will which hath but one simple and indivisible act which it cannot divide between two contraries so as to look stedfastly on the one and yet reflect also with a look of liking upon the other Matth. 6.24 Our Saviour hath fitted us with an instance Ye cannot serve God and Mammon If we know then what the Will is we shall know also that it is impossible to divide it and shall be ashamed of that apologie to say we sin semi-plenâ voluntate with an imperfect with an half Will we know not how There may be indeed a kind of velleity and inclination to that which is good when the Will hath embraced that which is evil there may be a probo meliora a liking of the better when I have chosen the worser part But this is not a willing but an approbation and an allowing of that which is just which ariseth from the light of our Mind and the law of our Understanding from that natural Judgment by which we discern that which is evil from that which is good and it is an act of our Reason not of our Will And thus I may will a thing and yet dislike it I may embrace and condemn it I may commend Chastity and be a Wanton Hospitality and be a Nabal Clemency and be a Nero Christianity and be worse then a Jew I may subscribe to the Law that it is just and break it I may take the cup of Fornication and drink deep of it for some pleasant taste it hath when I know it will be my poyson And therefore in the second place this renitency and resistency of Conscience is so far from apologizing for us as for such as sin not with a full consent that most times it doth add weight to our sin and much aggravate it and plainly demonstrate a most violent and eager consent of the will which would not be restrained but passed as it were the rampier and bulwark which was raised against it to the forbiddâ—n object Neither the Law nor the voice and check of Conscience which is to us in the place of God could stop or restrain us but we play the wantons and dally with Sin as the wanton doth with his strumpet we do opponere ostium non claudere put the door gently to Senec. N. Q. l. 4. 2. but not shut and lock it out but it is welcome to us when it knocketh but more welcome when it breaketh in upon us We frown and admit it chide and embrace it bid it farewell vvhen vve are ready and long to joyn vvith it make a shew of running from it when we open our selves to receive and lodge it in our heart Again if the pravity and obliquity of an act is to be measured and judged by the vehement and earnest consent of the will then the sin which is committed with so much reluctancy will prove yet more sinful and of a higher nature then those we fell into when we heard no voice behind us to call us back For here the will of the sinner is stubborn and perverse and maketh hast to the forbidden object against all opposition whatsoever against the voice of the Lâ—â— which is now loud against him against the motions of the Spirit which he striveth to repell against the clamours of Conscience which he heareth and will not hear even against all the artillery of Heaven It doth not yield to the tentation when no voice is heard but the Tempter's nothing discovered but the beauty and allurement of the object nor upon strategeme or surprisals but it yieldeth against the thunder of the Law and dictate of Conscience it admitteth Sin not in its
beauty and glory when it is drest up with advantage and cometh toward us smiling to flatter and woo us but it joyneth with it when it is cloathed with Death when it is reviled by Conscience and hung round about with all the curses of the Law it swalloweth down Sin not when it is as sweet as honey but when it hath a mixture and full taste of the bitterness of gall and so though our sin be against our Conscience yet it is not against our Will and therefore is the more voluntary Besides in the last place this is a thing which almost befalleth every man that is not delivered over to a reprobate sense whose eye of Reason is not quite put out vvho is not unmanned and hath quite lost all feeling or sense of that vvhich is evil and that vvhich is good Nay it vvas in Cain it vvas in Judas it is in every despairing sinner or else he could not despair These pauses and deliberations these doubtings and disputes and divided thoughts are common to righteous and to vvicked persons Duplici in diversum scindimur hamo Pers sat 5. Hunccine an hunc sequimur Most men are more or less thus divided in themselves And as Plautus observeth that it is the humour of some men when they are at a feast to dislike the dishes but no whit the more to abstain Culpant sed comedunt tamen they find fault with their meat and yet eat it up so it is with us We oft disrelish Sin and swallow it down we cannot but condemn Sin and we are as ready to commit 〈◊〉 and with him in the Comedy ask Quid igitur faciam What shall we now do when we are knocking at the harlots door and ready to break forth into action And therefore this conceit That a regenerate man doth not sin with a full consent in that his conscience calleth after him to retire in the very adventure is very dangerous and may be mortal to the heart that fostereth it For when this conceit hath filled and pleased us we shall be ready with Pilate to wash our hands when they are full of blood Matth. 27.24 and cry out we are innocent when we have released Barabbas let loose our Sense Appetite and Affections to run riot and delivered Jesus the Just one to be scourged and crucified delivered up our Reason to be a slave and ministerial to all those evils which the Flesh or Devil can suggest and delivered up our Affections to be torn and scattered as so many straws upon a wrought sea and never at rest in a word we shall contemnere peccata quia minora putamus slight and pass by our sins in silence because we will not behold them in their just shape and proportion in that horrour and terrour and deformity which might fright us from them And this conceit is a greater tentation then that which first took us for it bringeth on and ushereth in the tentation taketh from it all its displacency that it may enter with ease and when it hath prevailed it shutteth out Repentance which should make way for that mercy and forgiveness which alone must make our peace Every man favoureth himself and is very open to entertain any doctrine which may cherish and uphold this humour and make him less wicked or more righteous then he is And though at first we find no reason which commendeth it to us and craveth admittance for it â—et because it speaketh so friendly to our infirmities and helpeth to raise up that which we desire to see in its height we take it upon trust and believe it to be true indeed and stand up and contend for it as a part of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And having this mark of the righteous That we sin but check our selves in it we take our selves to be so righteous persons though we be so ill qualified that an impartial eye beholdeth it and findeth so much probability as pointeth to it as to the mark of the Beast It is with many of us as it was with the slave in Tacitus Annal. 2. who being like Agrippa in outward favour and the lineaments of his body did also take upon him to counterfeit his person and being asked by Caesar How he came to be Agrippa stoutly answered As thou camest to be Caesar Nemo non benignus sui judex There are but few or none at all that are not too favourable judges in their own cause and though they be slaves and servants unto Sin yet will be ready to put on the person of a Prince of a Saint of a chosen vessel and by the help of Imagination and the frequency of those pleasing and deceitful thoughts at last verily believe himself to be so And if reluctancy and regret and the turning away of the face of the soul the Conscience at the evil we do be a mark of a regenerate man then certainly a very Pagane a notorious sinner may find this mark about him and though he commit sin with greediness yet may he lay him down and rest and sleep upon this conclusion That hating sin as he doth and committing that sin which he thinketh he hateth his name may be written in heaven and he be also one of the elect But then to conclude this a strange thing it may seem that we should first wound our Conscience and then force her to pour in this balm first not hear her speak and then bring her in to make this plea that we did not hear her first slight and offend her and then make her our advocate I spake unto you and you heard not It is your happiness Had I not spoken your sin had been greater then it is And thus we do evil with less danger That is our â—â—â—ught because we first told our selves that we should not do it But call we our sin what we please a sin of infirmity or a sin with a half-will with a half consent with a will and no will Non mutatur vocabulis vis rerum Quintil. l. 9. Inst. c. 1. Words and names have no power to change and alter the nature of our sin or to abate any degree of its poyson and malignity And pretend we what we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sentence and judgment is the Lord's and in his sight even those sins which we do with reluctancy and some contention with our selves are voluntary and without repentance bind us over to death Even of them who sin though they check and condemn themselves before the act who say they would not and yet do it this Question may be asked Why will ye die We come now to the last pretense which is commonly taken up by men who are willing to be evil but not willing to go under that name And we shall but touch it for it will soon fall to pieces with a touch This pretense is made up of a bad will and a good intention or
but at the word 's speaking He crieth Lo I come to do it my self Look upon this object of Majesty and Humility yet once again and see the power and omnipotencie of his Love In this laying down his life for us he was pleased to give a price infinitely above the merchandize and as in the world some buyers are wont to do to buy his own affection to us to pay down not a talent for a talent but a talent for a mite Himself for a worm and his Love for the world nay by his infinite Love to bound as it were his infinite Power his infinite Wisdom and his illimited Will For here his Power Wisdom and Will find a NON ULTRA and are at the furthest He cannot do He cannot find out He cannot wish for us more then he hath done then being equal with God to take upon him the form of a servant and in that form to humble himself to the death of the cross How should this spectacle of Love and Power of Majesty and Humility affect and ravish our souls How should this fire of Love these everlasting burnings kindled in our flesh enflame us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers That is greater which is above our hope That is greatest which pre-occupateth and forestalleth our desires But what is that which over-runneth our opinion and even swalloweth it up in victory Had not he revealed his will and told us he would die we could not have desired it but our prayers had been turned into sin our hope had been madness and our opinion impiety All that we can say is that it was his infinite Love And his Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Cross and maketh it as glorious as his Throne For when he was fastned to it when he died it was his Throne and from it he threw down Principalities and Powers and Sin and Death it self Love hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law it hath the prerogative of Honour and maketh Bondage free Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Death life it worketh a harmony out of these two inconsistent terms Death and the Lord which is the joy of the whole earth Thus is Christ's Death made a spectacle unto us and his Love bespeaketh us to behold it and there needeâ—h no other Oratour to perswade us For where Love is denied the tongues of Men and of Angels are but as a tinckling cymbal But this is not all For In the second place Christ hangeth not on the cross onely as a sacrifice That every eye is willing to behold even the eye of flesh the eye that is full of adulteries But he standeth there as an Ensample to us of Humility Patience Obedience Love This Altar hath an inscription TOLLITE CRUCEM Take up your cross and follow me Not an Ensample alone that cometh too short Nor a Sacrifice alone for shall he be offered up for those who deny him Not an Ensample alone For flesh and bloud may follow him but never overtake him no not in those wayes which he marked out with his bloud of Obedience and Love Nor Satisfaction alone For how can he satisfie for those who will be in evil what he is in good yesterday and to day and the same for ever 1 Pet. 2.21 Christ suffered for us saith S. Peter leaving us an ensample that we should follow his steps Can an humble Saviour be a sacrifice for the proud Can a meek Saviour dye for a revenger Can a poor Christ give himself for him who will neither clothe nor feed him Can he in whom there was found no guile plead for him who is full of deceit Can a Lamb be a sacrifice for a Fox a Wolf or a Lion He is sacrificed and all is done on his part There is a CONSUMMATUM EST It is finished But our Obedience is not shut up in that but beginneth where Christ's did end and by the power and force of his Love must be carried on in an even and constant course unto our Consummatum est till we end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have redemption Ephes 1.7 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pattern Jussit fieri qui fecit He sacrificed himself for us 1 Tim. 1.16 that we might offer our selves a lively sacrifice to the Lord. Jesus Christ is a pattern to them who shall believe on him to life everlasting We dare not say with some that Christ came into the world non ad satisfactionem sed exemplum not to satisfie at all but to direct us by his example in the wayes of life not to pay down our debts but to teach us an art of thrift to be able to pay them our selves But most true it is if we make him not an ensample he will not be a sacrifice nor will there remain any sacrifice for sin God forbid that our Malice should shelter it self in his Love that his Meekness should be a buckler for our Revenge that his Righteousness should shadow our Unrighteousness that all our Obedience should be lost in his Sacrifice that because he suffered so much to lead us the way we should take the less care to follow after him that by the Gospel as by the Law Sin should revive that the Law should convince the conscience and the Gospel flatter it that the Law should affright sinners and Christ encourage them that the Cross of Christ which is a School of virtue should be made a Sanctuary for wilful offenders that Christ should nail the handwriting against us to his cross and then let fall a Dispensation from all righteousness and make it less necessary for us to observe so strictly the moral Law that this ease and benefit should accrue to Christians by the death of Christ that we may be more indulgent to our selves do what we list Pardon lying so near at hand that we should destroy our selves because he is a Jesus pollute our selves because he is Christ to anoint us be more rebellious because he is our Lord and live in sin because he died for it A conceit so unreasonable that even common reason abhorreth it Had our Saviour given up his ghost and left no precept behind him had his Apostle been silent and said no more but that he died for our sins the weakest understanding might easily draw out this conclusion that we are to forsake them For why should he dye for that which he was willing should survive Or who would lay his axe to the root of the tree and not cuâ— it down to the ground And yet as gross a conceit as it is we open our hearts to receive it And it is summus seculi reatus the great guilt of the age the pit out of which locusts swarm which are as scorpions to bring evil on the earth Were it not for this Physick men would not be so sick were it not for hope of reconciliation men would
that of the Asp 1037. Death is the wages of Sin 445. It is the nature of S. to dig a pit for it self 931. It resembleth Hell and naturally tendeth to it 932. Sinners wilfully run into hell 932. We should not sin though we might gain heaven by it 378. Though thou have but one sin turn from it for it is of a monstrous aspect 378. Though but one it is fruitful and may beget another 379. Though but one it deserveth and may pull down temporal punishment 379. Though but one if not forsaken God will punish thee eternally in hell for it 380. 610. And thy punishment shall be the greater there by reason of the sins of others whom thy example shall have made to sin 380. Sinners oft escape mens laws 233. but Christ's they shall not 233 The sinner is most fo to himself 119. Sinful lusts drown and darken the mind 97. quite transform a man 125. Little difference betwixt a Devil and an obstinate Sinner 722. Better to suffer then sin 126 131. There is a proportion between Sin and Punishment 929. 931. Punishment of Sin manifesteth the Justice of the Providence of God 930. and conduceth to the good of the Universe 930. ¶ How Sin gaineth strength by delay and groweth upon us 357. 414. 793. 922. 983. If we give way to one Sin we are likely to give way to more 1120 1121. Sins of Omission lead to sins of Commission 456 What an empire Sin hath and exerciseth 358. 741. 767. Sin the worst Tyrant 741. 1098. How old men act over their sins in their age 357. How bold men make nothing of Sin 923. ¶ Divers names that Sin hath in Scripture 805. None expresseth it so lively as Debts 805. A fourfold analogy between Sins and Debts 805 c. An account of the wofull gain we make by Sin 807 808. The penalty of Sin 808. The fearful gashes and torments that Sin maketh in the heart of a sinner 809. 1097. What miserable remedies Sinners use to appease their unquiet consciences 946. v. Conscience It is far easier to avoid Sin then to get rid of it 809 810. One difference between Sins and Debts 810. What we do when we pray Forgive us our trespasses 811. v. Remission God when he forgiveth doth not make that to be no sin which was a sin 871. All the virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin 375 376. 378. 812. 813. Mortall Sins will not be blotted-out by Martyrdome 707. What S. Christ will bear with what not 319. God's pardoning of former Sins maketh those we commit afterwards more grievous 380. 612 613. Sins after reconcilement revive those that Repentance had covered 381. 613 614. ¶ Original Sin alledged to excuse actual more then is fitting 427 428. 446. Our being bidden daily to beg pardon implieth not a Necessity of sinning 110 111. 604. v. Vice Some call their obstinate perseverance in sin Infirmity and Weakness 456 457. Men are wont to cloke their Sins with honest names 499. For none so much a Sinner as to be willing to be accounted so 500. Some say that the foulest Sins advantage rather then endanger the Elect 755. Many applaud themselves that they abstein from some Sins they observe in others 601. God's Permission of Sin how understood by some 407 c. How God permitteth Sin since he hateth it 410 584 c. Other apologies that men use to shift-off their Sin 432 c. as I. Want of help and assistance against it 433. 447. II. Ignorance 436. c. 447. v. Ignorance III. Checks of Conscience Remorse and Unwillingness 439. 447. The different way of Sinning of the Righteous and the Wicked 439. The Godly when they have sinned cannot plead that they have sinned against their will 440. Sin against Conscience is exceedingly the more sinful 441. IV. A Good meaning cannot palliate Sin 443. 447 448. How men are wont to excuse their Sins 171. 499. 1034 c. That which can be excused is not a Sin 1029. Excuse aggravateth Sin 1029. 1040. To seek to hide our Sin is far worse then to commit it 933. Sinners either despair or deny or lessen or confess or excuse their Sins whereof Confession is good the rest naught Excusing worst 1035 1036. To excuse Sin is natural 1036. more natural then to commit it 1038. ¶ Every man is not equally inclined to every Sin 376 377. 601. 1038. Every man hath his beloved Sin 378. What sins be inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace 603. How far a Saint may abstein from Sin 603. A little Sin may become a great one 603. How it cometh to pass that lesser Sins have more power over us then greater 607 608. Many content themselves with avoyding great and gross Sins 607 610. We must watch and fight against the least Sin 610. It is easier not to tast Sin at first then to forbear it afterwards 614 Men will revile Sin and pray against it and yet not leave it 787. Many are forward censurers of the Sins of others and take no notice of their own 377. We must not so shun one Sin as to dash upon another 374. Sick and aged persons do not so much forsake Sin as it forsaketh them 592 593. All Sins must be forsaken 600. Sin is most sinful in a Christian 417 418. ¶ Tentations to Sin how to be overcome 270. Sin appeareth ugly even by the light of Nature 325. 330. Sin must be known before it can be left 329. We do know many Sins and might know more 330. Many Sins are secret and not taken notice of 331. but these we must fear and hate and beg pardon of 331. Secrecy is the nurse of Sin 167. Men study to conceal it 167. We must search and find out our Sins of what sort soever 483 484. It is an easy thing to see Sin but hard to leave it 484 485. Affliction bringeth Sin to remembrance 567 568. All punishments suppose Sin 586. Fear bringeth us to the sight of our Sins 387 388. Fear curbeth us from sinning 390. Prosperity maketh Sin not appear 610. Sin cannot be sufficiently curbed prevented by humane Laws 168. nor by checks of Conscience 169. Many condemn Sin in others and practice it themselves 169. Hard-hearted sinners nothing will work upon 253. Causes of mens growing resolute in sinning 90. ¶ The way to get rid of our Sins is penitently to confess them 1040 1041. David thought to have gone rather too far in confessing his sins 1040. Saul's Sin and David's compared 1030. Whether one in the state of some mortal Sin can perform a good action 375. 601. Many men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin and repent and sin again 383. Relapses make us more inclinable to Sin and backward to Piety 614. To sin without shame is to be like the Devil 1038. v. Shame Every wilfull Sin a step to Apostasie 1121. To have sin what in St. John 602. Sinners themselves cannot but think well of Virtue 89 90. v. Piety
saith Calvine Harmon in locum His pain was so great that it gave no time or leisure to his Reason to weigh what he said Which in effect is He spake he knew not what But we may truly say Non fuit haec Interpretis meditata oratio This Author did not well understand nor consider what he wrote and may seem not well to have advised with his Reason that would leave Wisdome it self without the use of it No question it was the language of a bleeding heart and the resultance of Grief For grieve Christ did and fear He who as God could have commanded a Legion of Angels as Man had need of one to comfort him He was delivered up to Passions to afflict not to swallow him up There was no disorder no jar with Reason which was still above them There was no fullenness in his grief no dispair in his complaints no unreasonableness in his thoughts not a thought did rise amiss not a word misplaced not a motion was irregular He knew he was not forsaken when he asked Why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 The bitterness of the cup struck him into a fear when his Obedience called for it He prayed indeed Let this cup pass from me But that was not as some think Matth. 26.39 the cup of his Cross and Passion but the cup of his Agony And in that prayer it is plain he was heard for the Text telleth us Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven to strengthen him Being of the same mould and temper with man he was willing to receive the impressions which are so visible in man of Sorrow and Fear even those affections which are seated in the Sensitive part and without which Misery and Pain have no tooth at all to bite us Our Passions are the sting of Misery nor could Christ have suffered at all if he had been free from them If Misery be a whip it is our Passion and Phansie that make it a Scorpion What could Malice hurt me if I did not help the blow What edge hath an Injury if I could not be angry What terror hath Death if I did not fear It is Opinion and Passion that make us miserable take away these and Misery is but a name Tunde Anaxarchum enim non tundis You touch not the Stoick though you bray him in a mortar Delivered then was the Son of God to these Passions to Fear and to Grief These strained his body rackt his joynts stretched his sinews these trickled down in clods of blood and exhaled themselves through the pores of his flesh in a bloody sweat The fire that melted him was his Fear and his Grief Da si quid ultrà est Is there yet any more or can the Son of God be delivered further Delivered he was Not to Despair for that was impossible nor to the torments of Hell which could never seize on his innocent soul But to the Wrath of God which withered his heart like grass Psal 102.3 4. and 22.15 burnt up his bones like a hearth and brought him even to the dust of death Look now upon his Countenance it is pale and wan upon his Heart it is melted like wax upon his Tongue it cleaveth to the roof of his mouth What talk we of Death The Wrath of God is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the terriblest thing in the world the sting of Sin which is the sting of Death Look into our own souls That weak apprehension of it which we sometimes have what a night and darkness doth it draw over us nay what a hell doth it kindle in us What torments do we feel the types and sad representations of those in the bottomless pit How do our delights distast us and our desires strangle themselves What a Tophet is the world and what Furies are our thoughts What do we see which we do not turn from what do we know which we would not forget what do we think which we do not startle at Or do we know what to think Now what rock can hide us what mountain can cover us We are weary of our selves and could wish rather not to be then to be under Gods wrath Were it not for this there would be no Law no Conscience no Devil but with this the Law is a killing letter the Conscience a Fury and the Devil a Tormenter But yet there is still a difference between our apprehension and Christ's For alas to us God's wrath doth not appear in it its full horror for if it did we should sooner dye then offend him Some do but think of it few think of it as they should and they that are most apprehensive look upon it as at a distance as that which may be turned away and so not fearing God's wrath treasure up wrath against the day of wrath To us when we take it at the nearest and have the fullest sight of it it appeareth but as the cloud did to Elijah's servant 1 Kings 18.44 like a man's hand but to Christ the heavens were black with clouds and winds and it showred down upon him as in a tempest of fire and brimstone We have not his eyes and therefore not his apprehension We see not so much deformity in Sin as he did and so not so much terror in the Wrath of God It were Impiety and blasphemy to think that the blessed Martyrs were more patient than Christ De patient Cujus natura patientia saith Tertullian whose very nature was patience yet who of all that noble army ever breathed forth such disconsolate speeches God indeed delivered them up to the saw to the rack to the teeth of Lions to all the engines of cruelty and shapes of death but numquid deseruit they never cryed out they were forsaken He snatched them not from the rage of the persecutor by a miracle but behold a greater miracle Sil. Ital. l. 1. Rident superántque dolores Spectanti similes In all their torments they had more life and joy in their countenance than they who looked on who were more troubled with the sight than the Martyrs were with the punishment Their torture was their triumph their afflictions were their melody Of weak they were made strong Prudent Hymn in laudem Vincentii M. Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridensque flammis lamina Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est Torments Racks Strappadoes and the last enemy Death it self were but a recreation and refreshment to Christians who suffered all these with the patience of a stander-by But what speak we of Martyrs Divers sinners whose ambition never reach at such a crown but rather trembled at it have been delivered up to afflictions and crosses nay to the anger of God But never yet any nay not those who have despaired were so delivered as Christ We may say that the Traytor Judas felt not so much when he went and hanged himself For though Christ could not despair
as under heaven the Throne of God which shall stand fast for ever When we walk with men we walk as with them whom we can sometimes delude sometimes muzzle and bind But when we walk with God we walk with him who is every where and seeth every event whose eye is ever open whose hand is ever stretched out Psal 29.5 and whose voice breaketh the cedars of Libanus But now secondly as the Laws of men do not so aw and regulate us but that we break out too oft beyond those bounds which Reason and Religion hath set up no more doth the Law within us the Law of our Vnderstanding as Damascene calleth the Conscience command or confine us in our walk Sometimes we gloss it sometimes we slight it sometimes we silence it and some there be that seal it up and sear it as S. Paul speaketh as with a hot iron If it speak to us we are deaf 1 Tim. 4.2 if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul beat and wound it more and more Multi famam 1 Cor. 8.12 pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny The loudest noise our Conscience can make is not heard but the Censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we hear it and we tremble We are led like fools with melody to the stocks What others say is our motion and turneth us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we hear it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of Conscience is Defraud not your brother nay 1 Thes 4.6 but we will over-reach him The voice of Conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self Lev. 19.18 nay but we will oppress him The voice of Conscience is Love Mercy nay Matth. 19.19 but we will love our selves What we speak to our selves our selves soon make heretical How ambitious are we to be accounted just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against Sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it What a sin is Uncleanness in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet With what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death He whippeth the Thief and hangeth the Murderer and indeed whippeth and hangeth himself by a proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we ow to our selves are of any great force to prevail with us to order our steps aright Walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give ear to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusual that there is little hope that it will complete and perfect our walk and make us Just and Merciful men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God And to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion That whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he maketh is infinitely and incomparably more clear and certain then that which we make by our senses That we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts That thou seest not the birds fly in the ayr so distinctly as he seeth thy thoughts fly about the world to those several objects which we have set up for our delight That he seeth and observeth that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Though we are in the flesh and so led by Sense were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That God doth but see us as Man seeth us or were this as evident to our Faith as that is to our Sense we should be more watchful over our selves and more wary of the Devils snares and baits then we commâ—â—ly are Magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary There is a necessity laid upon us of fear and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe that he now standeth by as a Witness who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be and what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly believed Glorious things are spoken of Faith We call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 11.1 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask Is ours so Would to God it were Nay would for many of us we did but believe that God is present with us and seeth what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye Matth. 17.20 Would our faith were but as a grain of mustard seed Even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but should run from as from Serpents as from the Devil himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and power were so near Now in the last place let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion do walk on in the haughtiness of their hearts bow neither to the Laws of God nor men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerful Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Phil. 3.18 Many walk saith S. Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the Presumptuous sinner walketh not with God who hath first hardned his heart Zech. 7.12 Isa 3.9 and then his face as an adamant whose very countenance doth witness against him who declareth his sins as Sodome and hideth them not These first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself First they lose their Reason in their lusts and then their Modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil They do that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain They first make
strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonour to his Majesty to manage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every hair of our head and observe the Sparrow that falleth from the house-top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresie and Schism Profaneness and Atheism Sin and Death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Cross and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finished his victory and triumph complete and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense triumph Coloss 2.15 and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more The Eleventh SERMON PART II. MATTH XXIV 42. Yee know not what hour your Lord doth come WE have already beheld the Person Your Lord and we have placed him on his tribunal as a Judge John 5.22 For the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son You have seen his Dominion in his Laws which are fitted and proportioned to it Psal 45.6 As his sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness so his Laws are just No man no Devil can question them We approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience giveth us is an approbation You have seen the Virtue and Power of his Dominion For what is Regal right without Regal power What is a Lord without a sword Or what is a sword if one cannot manage it What is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he cometh upon him Es 9.6 Psal 76.7 But our Lord as he is called Wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God Who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large Compass and Circuit of his Dominion No place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him and over them that put him to open shame Luke 1.33 And last of all you have seen the Durability or rather the Eternity of his Dominion Of his Kingdome there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary And take the words going before He shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain For as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign Hebr. 7.24 As his Priesthood so his Dominion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never pass away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversûs settled in his place but upon his return The Lord will come It is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of efficacy and virtue 1. to awake and stir up our Faith 2. to raise our Hope and 3. to inflame our Charity It is an object for our Faith to look on for our Hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace First it offereth it self to our Faith For ideo Deus abscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur Therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our Faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon earth And he is therefore absent and in a manner lieth hid that this eye might find him out For Faith is a kind of prospective or optick instrument by which we see things afar off as if they were near at hand things that are not yet as if they were It turneth venturus est into the present tense It beholdeth Christ not onely sitting at the right hand of God but as now already descending with a shout With this eye of faith I see new heavens and a new earth a new face of every thing I see what a nothing that is which mortals sweat and fight for what a nothing the world is for I see it on fire I see Righteousness peace order constancy duration even whilst I walk in this shop of vanities this world of wickedness this Chaos and confusion this seat of change I see honesty pitied scorned baffled Honesty lifted up on high far above reproch or injury I see Injustice powerful all-conquering triumphant Injustice trembling before this Lord arraigned condemned flung down into the lowest pit there to be whipt with many stripes I see now the wisdome of men made foolishness 1 Cor. 1.20 25 and the foolishness of God wiser then men I see that restored which I saw lost I see the eye that was bored out in its place again I see the plowed back with no furrow on it I see Herod in prison and John Baptist with his head on I see my goods restored before I lose them and I am in heaven before the blow is given in bliss when every eye doth pity me And what is now left for the boasting Tyrant to do What can he take from me that is worth a thought What can he strip me off but that which I have laid down and left already behind me Will he have my goods The treasury where they are kept is out of his reach Will he take from me my good name It is written in the book of life Or will he take my life He cannot For it is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 This is sancta impudentia Fidei the holy boldness and confidence of Faith to break through flesh and blood all difficulties whatsoever to draw down heaven to earth and if the object be invisible to make it visible if it be at distance to make it present If the Lord say he will come to Faith he is come already This operation Faith will have if it be not dulled and deaded by our sensuality For what Faith is that which is not accompanied with these high apprehensions and resolutions equal to them What Faith is that which leaveth us weary of the truth and ashamed of our profession What Faith is that which we are so ready at every frown to renounce Shall I call that Faith which cannot strike the timbrel out of our hands nor the strumpet out of our arms that sheweth Christ coming to the Covetous yet leaveth him digging in the earth to the Ambitious and cannot stop
was muzled he was silent he could not speak a word For conclusion then Let us as the Wise-man counselleth keep our heart Prov. 4.23 our Will with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and out of it are the issues of Death Let us take it from Death and confine and bind it to its proper object bind it with those bonds which were made to bind Kings and Nobles the most stout and stubborn and imperious heart bind it with the Fear of Death with the Fear of that God which here doth ask the question and not seek to ease our selves by an indiscreet and ill-applied consideration of our natural Weakness For how many make themselves wicked because they were made weak How many never make any assay to go upon this thought That they were born lame Original Weakness is an article of our Creed and it is our Apologie but it is the Apologie of the worst of the Covetous 1 John 2.16 of the Ambitious of the Wanton when it is the lust of the eyes that burieth the covetous in the earth the lusts of the flesh that setteth the Wanton on fire the pride of life that maketh the Ambitious climb so high Prima haec elementa these are the first Elements these are their Alphabet They learn â—â—â—m their Parents they learn from their friends they learn from servants to raise a bank to enoble their name to delight themselves in the things of this world These they are taught and they have their method drawn to their hands By these evils words which are the proper language and dialect of the world their manners are corrupted And for this our father Adam is brought to the bar when it is Mammon Venus and the World that have bruised us more then his fall could do Secondly pretend not the Want of Grace For a Christian cannot commit a greater soloecisme then to pretend the want of that which hath been so often offered which he might have had if he would or to conceive that God should be unwilling he should do his will unwilling he should repent and turn unto him This is a charge as well as a pretense even a charge against God forbidding us rise up and walk when we were lame and not affording us a staff nor working a miracle Grace is of that nature that we may want it though it be not denied we may want it when we have it and indeed we want Grace as the covetous man wanteth money we want it because we will not use it and so we are starved to death with bread in our hands For if we will not eat our daily bread we must die In the next place let us not shut up our selves in our own darkness nor plead Ignorance of that which we were bound to know which we do know and will not which is written with the Sun-beams which we cannot say we see not when we may run and read it For what mountainous evils do men run upon what gross what visible what palpable sins do they foster quae se suâ corpulentiâ produnt sins which betray themselves to be so by their bulk and corpulency Sacrilege is no sin and I cannot see how it now should for there is scarce any thing left for its gripe Lying is no sin it is our Language and we speak as many lies almost as words Perjury is no sin for how many be there that reverence an oath Jura perjura Iusjurandum rei servandae non perdendae conditum est Plaut Rud. Act. 5. sc 3. Mantile quo quotidianae noxae extergentur â—aber is an Axiome in our Morality and Politie and secureth our estates and intaileth them on our posterity Deceit is no sin for is is our trade Nay Adultery is no sin you would think with the Heathen with those who never heard of the name of Christ nay but with those who call upon it every day and call themselves the knowing men the Gnosticks of this age And whilst men love darkness more then light with some men there will scarce be any sins upon that account as sins till the day of judgement Next bring not in thy Conscience to plead for that sin which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat and wound thy Conscience For the office of thy Conscience is before the fact to inform thee and after the fact if it be evil to accuse thee and what comfort can there be in this thought That thou didst not follow her information That she called it a sin and thou didst it That she pointed out to it as to a rock and thou wouldst needs chuse it for thy haven No commonly this is the plea of those whose hearts are hard and yet will tell you they have a tender conscience And so they have tender in respect of a ceremony or thing indifferent Here they are struck in a manner dead quite beside themselves as if it were a basilisk here they are true and constant to their conscience which may erre but not tender in respect of an eternal Law where it cannot mistake Here they too often leave their conscience and then excuse themselves that they did so In the one they are as bold as a Lion in the other they call it the frailty of a Saint This they do with regret and some reluctancy that is by interpretation against their will Last of all do not think thy action is not evil because thy Intention was good For it is as easie to fix a good intention upon an evil action as it is to set a fair and promising title on a box of poison Hay and stubble may be laid upon a good foundation 1 Cor. 3.12 but it will neither head vvell nor bed vvell as they say in the vvork of the Lord. We must look as vvell to vvhat vve build as to the Basis vve raise and set it on or else it vvill not stand and abide We see vvhat a fire good Intentions have kindled on the earth and vve are told that many of them burn in hell I may intend to beat down Idolatry and bury Religion in the ruines of that I beat down I may intend the establishing of a Common-wealth and shake the foundation of it I may intend the Reformation of a Church and fill it with Locusts and Caterpillars innumerable I may intend the Glory of God and do that for which his Name shall be evil spoken of and it will prove but a poor plea when we blasphemed him to say we did it for his Glory Let us then lay aside these Apologies for they are not Apologies but accusations and detain us longer in our evil wayes then the false beauty and deceitful promises of a tentation could which we should not yield to so often did not these betray us nor be fools so long if we had not something to say for our selves And since we cannot answer the Expostulation with these since these will be no plea in the court of
opportunities of Time and Place to serve him in bless him for those who erected these fabricks and bless him for those who repair and adorn them and by the right use of these means build we up our selves on our most-holy fâ—ith Jude 20. and so deck and beautifie our souls that they may be fit temples of the holy Ghost And then whensoever we spread forth our arms in this place God will stretch forth his hand and help us when our prayers ascend as incense he will receive them as a sweet-smelling savour when we bow our knees to him he will bow down his ear to us when we speak he will hear and return our prayers back again into our bosom when we pour out our petitions he will pour down his blessings peace of conscience with all things necessary for this life which are a pawn and pledge and earnest of those everlasting blessings glory honour and immortality Thus we have led you into the house of the Lord the main circumstance in the Object of the Psalmists joy The place we are going to and the thing we are about may be of such a nature that Many may be worse then none Resolution may be pertinacie and madness Agreement and Union may be conspiracy and Hast may be precipitancie A man had better in some things be like Mephibosheth lame on both his feet then like Asahel light of foot as a wild roe 2 Sam 9.13 2.18 Ye have read how that pursuing after Abner he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner 19. and so ran straight to his own death Psal 1.1 There be too-too many who walk in the counsel of the ungodly and stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful There may be a Synod of Hereticks a Senate of rebells as ye know there is a Legion of Devils Pliny telleth us Mark 5.9 Major coelitum populus quà m terrae that there were more people in heaven then on earth and it might be true when they made God's for they might make as many as they pleased But the broad way hath most travellers Matth. 7.13 there they go in sholes in bodies in companies in Societies and some under the name of JESUS And our Saviour saith that many there be which go in at the wide gate Secondly resolve men may and oftentimes resolve they do and are resolute in that which they should abhor Their Dixit is a Factum est they say and do it no law no conscience no thunder from heaven can deter them from it Matth. 2 6. Give me money enough and I will betray my Master said Judas and he did do it betray him into the hands of his enemies Thirdly men may gather together and be united to do mischief thieves and murderers may cast in their lots together and have all one purse Prov. 1.14 Yea men of disagreeing and different principles may agree and combine in the same wicked design though they have severall judgements yet may they be brethren in iniquity Gen. 49.7 Judg. 15.4 5 they may be tied together as Samson's foxes were though their heads look divers wayes and one be an Anabaptist another a Brownist a third a Disciplinarian a fourth a Seeker a fifth a Quaker a sixth but there are so many Sects that I cannot tell you their names though their looks and language be never so opposit yet they may be linked together by the tails and carry those firebrands between them that may burn up the harvest As Paterculus said of Jugurtha and Marius In iisdem castris didicere quae postea in contrariis facerent They learnt their skill in arms both in the same camp which they afterwards practised in divers even one against the other So have the Jesuites and these Sectaries taken up some common principles and we know in whose camp they learnt them which they make use of to drive on their purposes and yet defie one another as much as Jugurtha and Marius ever did Many wicked men ye see may agree we see too many do and their agreement breaketh the peace and maketh the body of Christendome fly asunder into so many pieces and parts with that noise and confusion that we tremble to behold it ridente Turcâ nec dolente Judaeo whilest the Turk laugheth and a Jew pulleth the veil closer to his face and comforteth and applaudeth himself in his errour Last of all as men may resolve and agree so may they encourage themselves in evil Rom. 1.32 and not onely do the same thing but as S. Paul speaketh have pleasure in them that do it they may go together with a shout and with a merry noise sport in the miseries dance in the ruines and wash their feet in the bloud of the innocent and their word still be So Psal 35.25 so thus we would have it Thus I say the Many may resolve agree and delight in that which is forbidden they may have a firm heart they may have but one heart they may have a merry heart in that which is evil their hearts may be fixed their hands joyned and their feet swift to shed bloud Prov. 1.16 Isa 59.7 Rom. 3.15 Therefore we must look forward to the last circumstance the Place the house of the Lord the Service of God This shineth upon all the rest and beautifieth them Many here make a Church To Resolve here is obedience To Agree here is peace the peace of God which maketh us one of the same mind of the same will To be one in place and not in mind is poena saith a Father it is not a blessing but a punishment To be one in mind and not in place is bonitas goodness To be one in place and in mind both is felicitas greatest happiness Then in the last place to Go together chearfully to the house of the Lord is an expression of that joy which is a type and earnest of that which is in the highest heavens There is nothing here we told you which a religious mind can check at No just scruple can arise concerning the place seeing we have God's word for it under the Law and Christs word for it under the Gospel that it is God's house If any do arise it riseth like a fog it steameth from a foul and corrupt heart from Pride and Covetousness the mothers of Pertinacy and Contradiction Which cannot be brought to conform to the counsels of the wise no not to the wisdom of God himself but call Truth heresie because others speak it Bounty wast because others lay it out Reverence superstition because others bow would pull down Churches because others build them spurn at every thing nihil verum putant nisi quod contrarium think nothing true but what is diverse and contrary and breatheth opposition against the Truth This is a great evil under the Sun to quarrel even the blessings of God to be angry with
calleth it is very likely I shall fall fast asleep at the voice of Christ The reason is plain and evident For it is not with the Will and Affections as it is with the Understanding The Understanding can easily sever one thing from another and apprehend them both yea it hath power to abstract and separate things really the same and consider the one as different from the other but it is the property of the Will and Affections in unum ferri se in unitatem colligere to unite and collect themselves to make themselves one with the object so that our desires cannot be carried to two contrary objects at one and the same time We may apprehend Christ as just and holy and the world and the riches of it as vanity it self but we cannot at once love Christ as just and holy and adhere and cleave to the world and the vanities thereof Our Saviour hath fully expressed it where he telleth us we shall hate the one and love the other or else lean to the one and despise the other If it be a love to the one it will be at best but a liking of the other if a will to the one but a villeity and faint inclination to the other if a look on the one but a glance on the other And this glance this villeity this inclination are no better then hatred and contempt For these proceed from my Understanding but my love from my Will which is fixed not where I approve but where I chuse For what is it to say This is beauty and then spit upon it to say Righteousness is hominis optimum as Augustine calleth it the best thing that man can seek and yet chuse a clod of earth before it What is it to call Christ Lord and crucifie him For reason will tell us even when we most dote upon the world that Wisdom is better then rubies that Christ is to be preferred to Mammon that it is better cum Christo affligi quà m cum aliis deliciari to be afflicted with Christ then to enjoy the pleasures of this life and sport away our time with others but this will not make it Love which joyneth with the object which swalloweth it up is swallowed up by it What love is that to Righteousness which putteth it post principia in the second file behind the World and in this placeth all its hope of happiness seeing Righteousness if it be not sought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place is lost for ever For last of all if we seek any thing before Righteousness that must needs be predominant and give laws to Righteousness square and fashion Religion as it pleaseth and so Religion being put behind will be put also to vile offices to swell our heaps to promote our lusts to feather our ambition to enrage our malice to countenance that which destroyeth her to follow that which driveth her out of the world And whereas Righteousness should be as the seal to be set upon all our intendments and upon all the actions of our life that they may go for warrantable being stamped and charactered as it were with the Image of the King of glory Christ Jesus Righteousness will be made as wax to receive the impression of the World and whatsoever may prove advantageous will go current for Righteousness and every thing will be Righteousness but that which is Whereas Righteousness should be fixed as a star in the firmament of the soul to cast its influence upon all we think or speak or do we shall draw up a meteor out of the foggy places of the earth a blazing and ill-boding comet and call it by that sacred name This this hath been the great corrupter of Religion in all the ages of the Church This was that falsary which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adulterate the truth of the Gospel This hath made that desolation which we see upon the earth For if the eye be first fixed on the things of this world it will be so dazled as not to see Righteousness in her own shape nor discern her unless she be guilded over with vanity My Covetousness now looketh like Christian providence for my love of these things must Christen the Child My Ambition now is the Honour of God My malice cannot burn hot enough for I seek the Lord in the bowels of my brethren My Sacrilege is excessive piety for though it is true that I fill my coffers with the shekels of the Sanctuary yet I beat down Baal and Superstition But if we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first seek Righteousness our Covetousness would not dig and drudge with such a fair gloss our ambition would flag and stoop to the ground our Malice would dye never to be raised again and our Sacrilege would find no hand to lay hold on the axe and the hammer the power of Righteousness and not her bare name would manifest it self in our actions and all excuses and pretences and false glosses would vanish as a mist before the Sun the World would be but a great dunghil Honour but air Malice a fury and the Houses of God would stand fast for ever But this misplacing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath put all out of order divided the Church shaken the Pillars of the earth ruined nations and left nothing of Righteousness but the name when that which indeed is Righteousness doth make and preserve a Church uphold the world and is the alone thing which can perpetuate a Government and continue a Commonwealth to last so long as the Moon endureth If this did prevail there could be no wars nor rumours of wars no violence in the form of a law no injury under pretence of conscience no beating of our fellow-servants no murthering of our brethren in the name of the Lord. I say the casting Religion behind and making it wait upon us in all our distempers is that which hath well-near cast all Religion out of the world This hath raised so many sects which swarm and buzze about us like flies in Summer This is the coyner of Heresies which are nothing else but the inventions of worldly-minded men working out of the elaboratory of their phansie some new Doctrine which may favour and keep pace with their humour and lift them up and make them great in the world This built a Throne for the Pope and a Consistory for the Disciplinarian This hath stated many Questions and been President at most Councils For be the man what he will private interest is commonly the Doctor and magisterially determineth and prescribeth all If a thing be advantageous it must also be orthodox and hath on the one side written RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO THE LORD on the other FROM HENCE WE HAVE OUR GAIN We cannot be too charitable yet you know charity may mistake Peradventure weakness of apprehension may leave some naked to errour conscience may sway and bow others in some things from the truth but let me tell you in
that which is plain and evident in the open and bright way of Righteousness the conscience never did never can err Did ever any mans conscience persuade him against a manifest law Did reason ever tell any Thou mayest kill Thou mayest be perjured Thou mayest bear false witness No It is not conscience but the love of this world that maketh a negative precept affirmative That is the Tribune that setteth us at liberty and letteth us loose against the Law it self though it be written with the Sun-beams before which we draw a cloud of excuses or pretences and fight against Righteousness with its name From the corruptions of mens lives have corruptions crept into Religion which carry with them a near likeness and resemblance to those lusts and desires which are mighty and prevalent in us to carry us with a swindge into those enormities and irregularities which Righteousness forbiddeth Vt in vita sic in causis spes improbas habemus saith Quintilian Those unlawfal hopes and foul affections which sway us in our lives appear again and shew themselves as full of power to pervert and mislead us in point of doctrine and for a while to take all scruple from the conscience Conscience may err and persuade me that is Superstition which is indeed Devotion But when I raise my own house upon the ruines of God's house it is not Conscience but Covetousness that is the architect Conscience may incite me to redeem my brother from errour when he is as free as the truth can make him But it is the love of the world that is the persecutour which strippeth him of his possessions For if he were guilty yet a tender conscience would shrink at such an intrusion Conscience may check at the gold of the Temple but it is the love of these things which putteth it into the bag Conscience not well informed may startle at the one but it would run from the other did not the love of the world draw it back and lay it asleep with the musick it maketh But it will awake again if not with a pinch from a tedious disease or some other calamity yet most certainly at the sound of the last trump and be that worm which shall gnaw the dreamer for ever Let us not deceive our selves The Kingdom of God and his Righteousness were the alone desirable object and first to be sought after before that faction and schism did rend divide the Church before it mouldred into sects and crumbled into conventicles before the Pope King'd it and the Disciplinarian Pope'd it in the house of God beating their fellow-servants not for being unrighteous but for not being righteous after their form and prescript for not setting their Religion to their mode and fashion For when men did look and like and delight in the things of this world then was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this First blotted out and Righteousness left behind and in the place thereof succeeded Ceremony Formality Superstition Faction then Godliness was gain and private interest conscience then that divided voice was heard Lo here is Christ and there is Christ here in this Congregation or there in that Conventicle here in this government or there in that or here in no government here in this secret chamber and there in that desart in that wilderness of beasts of Tygers and Bears which bite and devour each other Then did men lye down and sleep on those heaps which they had gathered in the name of Righteousness then did they batten in their wealth then did they bless and say an Ave an Hail to themselves as highly favoured then did they flatter themselves when this golden showr fell into their laps as if Righteousness had poured it down and God himself were in it Then injustice was counted Righteousness faction Zeal and humane policy Religion This mischief this ruine hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 want of method beginning where we should end wrought amongst Christians and made our very name to be lothed of those who are without the Turk and the Jew who can say no worse of us then this and think that this they may say truly That we follow Christ to gain the world and give Righteousness the fairest title but the lowest place Pudet hoec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli And is it not a shame for us that this may be said and said truly that Christianity should be thus scorned and blasphemed for their sakes who profess it For conclusion then Let us not think our selves wiser then Wisdom it self let us not count our selves better Methodists then our Saviour but let us keep the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where it should be and where Christ hath placed it on Righteousness Let us observe exactly in our spiritual building what Vitruvius requireth in Architecture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 order and disposition that in our Religion there may be nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-placed Why should Righteousness come after these things and God after Mammon There is not there canâ—t be a greater absurdity a greater solecism then this an absurdity which maketh men and Angels and God himself ashamed of us a thriftless destructive absurdity which maketh us poorer by making us rich more vile by making us honourable and which â—hen we think it lifteth us up tumbleth us down into the lowest pit For as the School-man telleth us to follow too much the sway of our sensuality and to neglect the direction of Reason which is the best methodist tam sensualitatem quà m rationem extinguit doth not onely put out the eye of our reasonable part and leave that dark but at last extinguisheth the very power of sense it self so our devotion and desires if they waste and consume themselves where they should not shew themselves if vve place them on these things on temporal and not spiritual or on temporal before spiritual they never fly to the mark but miss of both they neither fill our hands with plenty nor our souls with that spiritual Manna which should nourish us to eternal life or if they do come home and reach these things they serve us to no other purpose then the Tyrant's daggers of silver and ropes of silk ut cariùs pereamus that we may fall and perish with more state and cost and pomp then other men But Christ's method is de schola coeli from heaven heavenly and will lead us thither through poverty and riches through honour and dishonour and never fail In a word Righteousness if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first in our desires if it have the upper room and a throne in our heart bringeth with it both the promises of this life and that which is to come and will make us happy here in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgment it will open the gates of heaven and let us in to that happiness
foretold for the Tares as well as for the Wheat Poena sequitur culpam Punishment follows close upon Sin And this is Gods mocking of us which consists in giving every seed it s own body If we sow to the Flesh he clothes it with Death And herein consists his Justice and his Providence 1. in punishing of sin 2. in fitting and proportioning the punishment to it First Sowing implyes labour and industry This Phrase is often used They have sowen the wind and shall reap the whirle-wind Hos 8.7 They have laboured much to little purpose And Job 4.8 They that plow wickedness and sow iniquity reap the same As they that expect the year and a good Harvest first manure and plow the ground then scatter their seed upon it so do wicked men first turn their thoughts as the Husbandman doth the earth lutosas cogitationes saith Bernard earthly dirty thoughts busily tending the Flesh as if it were a field to be tilled racking their memory calling up their Understanding debauching their Reason fitting their instruments watching opportunities putting all things in readiness to bring their purposes about which is as it were their Plowing and then they break forth into action which is their Sowing and then springs up either Adultery or Murder or Oppression Behold he travaileth with iniquity he hath conceived mischief He is in as great pain as a woman with travail And all this trouble is to bring forth a Lye Psal 7.14 Scarce any sin but costs us dear For first as there is lucta a kind of contention in doing a good work an holding back of the Flesh when the Spirit is ready for when the Spirit is ready the Flesh is weak saith our Saviour So in the proceedings of wicked men there is also lucta some secret strugling and complaining of the Spirit when the Flesh is ready When the Hand is held up to strike the Eye open to gaze and the Mouth to blaspheme there be fightings within and terrours without there is a Law staring in our face like a Tribune with his Veto to forbid us a Conscience chiding a Judge frowning a Hell opening its mouth to devoure them all which must be removed as Amasa's body or else they will stand still 2 Sam. 20 1◠and not pass and venture on to that which they intended These Fightings must cease these Terrours be abated their Conscience slumber'd the Law nulled the Judge forgot Hell fire put out or sow they cannot For if these did appear in their full force and vigour did they look upon these as truths and not rather as our mormos and illusions how could they put such seed into the ground Again secondly though their Will have determined its act yet there may be many hinderances and retardancies many cross accidents intervene to hinder the work The child may be brought to the birth and there may be no strength to bring forth The Seed may be ready to be sown and the hand too weak to scatter it For the Will is not alwayes accompanied with Power God forbid it should It was but a weak argument which Luther brought against the Freedom of the Will from the Weakness and inability of performance Ostendant saith he magni illi Liberi arbitrii ostentatores Let them saith he who boast of Freewill shew any power they have to kill so much as a fly For a limited Power is no argument of a limited Will He that cannot get his bread may wish for a Kingdom and he that cannot kill a fly may will the destruction of the whole vvorld Novv this limitation of their Povver this weakning their strength in the way makes them go forth vvith sorrovv carrying their seed of iniquity and not able to scatter it This makes them mourn and cover the Head as Haman flings them on the bed with Ahab makes them hang themselves as Ahithophel did This many times puts them on the rack strikes them with care and anxiety fills them with distracted thoughts which choke one another The Covetous man would be rich but he must rise up early and lye down late and eat the bread of sorrow The Ambitious would climb but he must first lick the dust The Seditious would trouble the waters but is afraid they may drown him Nemo non priùs peccat in seipsum There is no man sins but first he offends and troubles himself before he conveys the poyson of his sin on others He that hurts his brother felt the blow first in his own bosome We read of the work of Faith and labour of Charity And it is true it is not so easie a matter to believe nor so easie a matter to be charitable as many suppose who cannot be brought to study either but must have them on gift Virtus duritiâ exstruitur A Christian is a Temple of the holy Ghost but it is Hardness and Industry that must help to build him up But yet we cannot but observe that there is as much care taken I am unwilling to say more in the sweeping and garnishing a habitation for Satan What Gibeonites are we in the Devils service and what lazy dreamers in the family and house of God More cost is bestowed in sowing to the Flesh then in sowing to the Spirit It is the service of Christ but Drudgery of Satan both are sowing but we make that of the Flesh the more laborious of the two To apply this in a word We read in our books of a devout Abbot who beholding what cost and art a woman had bestowed in attiring her self fell a weeping and Oh said he what a misery is this that a woman should bestow more labour upon the dressing of her body then we have done in the adorning of our souls that she should put more ornaments on her head then we have been careful to put into our hearts What a misery is it that we should wish for heaven and contend for earth that Mary's part should be the better but Martha's the greater Oh what a sad contemplation is it that many men will not be perswaded to take so much pains to go to heaven and eternal rest as many thousands do to go to hell and everlasting Torments that we should sweat for the bread that perisheth and but coldly and faintly ask for the bread of life that we should heap up riches James 5 3. which will eat our flesh as it were fire and be ever afraid of that Grace which will raise us from the dead that we should watch for the twilight an opportunity to do evil and let so many opportunities of doing good fly by us not marked nor regarded lay hold on any opportunity to destroy our brother and let pass any that prompts us to help him that we should labour and travel and spend our selves in the one and be so weary and faint and dead in the other that we should take more delight to feed with swine then to eat at Christs Table that the way
is the root and foundation of all obedience Ephes 3 1◠upon which we build up as high as heaven For with such a Look we see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God nay coming and having his reward with him It is the same method which our Saviour teacheth Luke 14.28 For you must do in Looking as you do in Building Which of you saith Christ intending to build a house sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it If you will look into this Law of liberty you must count what it may cost you It may cost you your goods It may cost you your credit even with those who profess the same thing with you who are ready to forsake you It may cost you your bloud But all these losses shall be made up and recompensed with eternity Canst thou see that smiling Beauty and turn away the eye Canst thou see that Honour ready to crown thee and defie it Canst thou behold Riches and esteem them as dung Canst thou meet the raging persecutor and pity and pray for him Canst thou meet Death it self with all its pomp and horrour and through all these undauntedly press forward towards Heaven Then thou hast stooped down inclined thy self and looked into this Law of liberty For if we have not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and full persuasion if we have not laid this foundation and approved this Law of liberty both in our understanding and practice as the onely way to happiness we may look and look again upon it and be stark blind see nothing in it nothing of that heaven and bliss which is promised And then every breath is a storm every temptation will be an overthrow then every light affliction every evil that cometh towards us will remove the eye from this Law and place it on it self which we shall look on till we faint and fall down for fear and forfeit our obedience even study how to make that false which is so contrary to our lusts and affections Faith and a good Conscience make it a just and full look If we put that away 1 Tim. 1.19 presently concerning faith we make shipwreck For as in Scripture we are then said to know God when we love him so do we truly look into and consider this Law not when we make mention of it with our lips when we think of it remember it meditate of it which is but the extension of our thoughts but when we draw it fasten it to our soul make it as our form and principle of motion to promote those actions that obedience in us for which the Law was made This the Fathers call the circular motion of the mind which first settleth upon the object then is carried back into it self and there boweth and swayeth the powers of the soul and collecteth it self into it self from all forein and impertinent occurrences and then joyneth all its forces and faculties its Will and Affections to the accomplishing of that Good to which the Law of liberty inviteth us To look into the Law ye see is of larger extent then the words do import at first sight and is of singular use It poiseth and biasseth us in all our wayes that we may run evenly to that Blessedness which is set before us It is our Compass to steer our course amidst the waves the ebbings and flowings the changes and chances of this world It is our Angel to keep us in all our wayes It is as the opening of a window into the closet of our souls that that light may enter which may manifest every mote and atome where there was nothing before but vacuity It is our Spy to discover the forces of our Enemy and it is the best strength we have against him It is as the balance of the Sanctuary to weigh every blessing in the Gospel to a grain It is the best divider giving to God those things that are God's and to man those things which are man's It wipeth the paint off from sin and discovereth its horrour It taketh temptation from Beauty and sheweth us fading flesh dust and ashes It strippeth Riches of their glory and pointeth unto their wings It seeth a deceiver in the Devil in Christ a Lord and Saviour and in his royal Law it beholdeth Heaven and eternity of bliss All this virtue and power hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this looking into the Law and due considering of it Which by being looked into becometh the savour of life unto life but when we take off our eye is made the savour of death unto death A steddy and heedful look purchaseth and a careless glaunce forfeiteth our Liberty To look is to be free and not thus to look is to have Canaan's curse upon us to be servants of servants for ever And now tell me how many be there that thus look into the Gospel how many that thus weigh and consider it Many walk saith S. Paul Many look we may say of whom we may speak weeping that they are enemies to the Law of liberty The Papist looketh into it and there he findeth a Triple crown The Schismatick looketh into it and he findeth a sword to divide him from his brethren The Anti-papist Jesuite looketh into it and findeth the draught and model of a new Discipline The Enthusiast and Spiritual man looketh into it and findeth nothing but Ink and Words The Libertine looketh into it For the Law is in himself Quarunt quod nusquam est inveniunt tamen They look and seek that which cannot be found and yet they find it every man his humour and the corruption of his own heart There is much in the Eye For the Law of liberty is still the same It moulteth not a feather changeth not its shape and countenance But it may appear in as many shapes as there be tempers and constitutions of the eyes that looketh into it An Evil eye seeth nothing but faction and debate A lofty eye seeth nothing but priority and preeminence A Bloud-shot eye seeth nothing but cruelty which they call Justice All the errours of our life as the Philosophers speak of the colours of the Rainbow are oculi opus the work of the Eye For the Law it self can lend nothing towards them but stareth them in the face when the eye hath raised them to shake and demolish them It were good then to clear our eye before we look into the Law lest whilest we find what pleaseth us we find what will ruine us But oh that we should have such Eagles eyes in the things of this world and be such Batts in the Gospel of Christ The Covetous looketh into the world and that hath power to transform his soul into earth The wanton looketh upon beauty and that turneth his into flesh David beholdeth Bathsheba in her bath and is on fire Ahab looketh upon Naboth's vineyard and is sick The eye of flesh pierceth deep into
Every wilful sin is fruitful and seldom endeth in it self He that telleth a lie is in a disposition to betray a Kingdom He that slandereth his neighbour is in an aptitude to blaspheme God We may see Wantonness even budding out of Luxury Strife shooting forth out of Covetousness out of Strife Murther He that yieldeth up his Conscience for his flesh and State will be the more pliable to yield it up when they call for it upon the hardest terms Take heed of these yieldings and condescensions Saepè peccat qui semel One fall naturally draweth on another and that a third till we come in profundum to the very bottom Every little sin if we commit it because we think it little is a great one and carrieth as it were written in its forehead BEHOLD A TROOP COMETH Therefore to conclude this let us not trifle with our conscience but honour it And we honour our Conscience as we do our God for she is as our God upon earth We honour her when we observe her and bow to every beck hearken what she will say and do it and what she forbiddeth avoid not touch not taste not handle â—â—ye from it as from a serpent that doth now flatter but will hereafter sting us to death It is no honour to commend Conscience and wound her to call her a Temple of Solomon a Paradise of delights the Court of God and the Habitation of the Spirit as Bernard calleth a good Conscience Then we honour her when we make her so when we let her keep her throne when we bow to her sceptre when the image of her Dictates is visible in all the emanations of our Soul in our Thoughts when they are such as she would mould in our Words when we speak after her and in our Works when she doth begin and finish them When we subscribe to her first commands which we received when we were free from all interpellations of Fear or Hope and fall not off at their after-solicitations to the contrary and then build up a false persuasion in honour of it and call it Conscience offend and sin against her and then give up her name to an Idol When she commandeth silence and we blaspheme when she lifteth up our heart to heaven and our thoughts are full of adulteries when she prescribeth patience and we strike when she bindeth our hands and we break loose when she sealeth up our lips and we will open them to perjury when by-respects shall win us to that of which she hath said see you do it not when vve are not vvhat she would have us to be but fashion our selves to the world and yet bear her image and superscription are the worst of men with a Good conscience then we dishonour her place her under our lusts and most loathsome desires take her from her throne and lay her in a Golgotha They who look as she looketh and speak as she speaketh and do as she commandeth they vvho obey her these alone are they vvho honour her And then as she is our God on earth that is as she is in the place of God so vvhat God spake of himself will be verified of our Conscience also They that honour her she will honour She will be as our Angel to keep us in all our wayes that we hurt not our foot against any stone of offence She will root and build us up in the faith and in a constant obedience to this perfect law of liberty She vvill settle and establish us to remain in it and set the crown upon our heads even all the Blessedness this life is capable of and that Blessedness which remaineth for ever in the life to come And so we have brought you to the last and best of all the Reward set down in the last words This man shall be blessed in his deed This is the End of all and the End is the crown of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle The End is that which all look upon In this all our desires and endeavours and counsels meet and rest It is that which giveth force to a Law which maketh Perfection something and Liberty a gift And vvithout it a Law vvere void and no Law Perfection vvere nothing and Liberty but a name The end shineth and casteth an influence and lustre upon all upon the Law upon Perfection upon Liberty For we are obedient to the Law we strive forward to Perfection we stand fast in our Liberty for some end and that is Blessedness Reward and Punishment are the two adamantine pillars saith Plato of a Commonwealth And they are the two pillars vvhich uphold the Church Democritus called them Gods that bear and uphold all things These lead us under a Law guide us to Perfection and uphold us in Liberty If those were not these could not be but all Law Perfection and Liberty would fall to the ground If Heaven were not happiness it were not worth a thought much less our violence To enjoy something better then what we do is the basis and foundation on which every action is raised For who doeth any thing onely that he may do it That action is vain that endeth in it self Fruition is the ultimus terminus the last end of all Knowledge and Volition For To know onely to know is no better then Ignorance And in every act of the Will it is manifest For no man willeth onely that he may will no man loveth onely that he may love no man hateth onely that he may hate no man hopeth onely that he may hope but in every proffer inclination and determination of the Will we look further then the act in which it endeth When we desire any thing we do it with an intent to be united to it to meet and embrace it and from that union something else in which the desire may rest and be fully satisfied This made Moses meek Abraham obedient David devout Job patient This made Apostles and Martyrs this led them through honour and dishonour through good report and evil report and at last brought them to the cross and to the block the next stage unto Blessedness For that which moveth the Will to obedience of the Law is before the obedience it self as that which exciteth and worketh it If this be not set up there is no such thing as Conscience or Obedience at least our Conscience would lose its office and neither accuse nor excuse us neither be our comforter nor tormenter If there were no Hell there were no worm and if there were no Heaven in the next there were no joy in this life The Apostle is plain Without faith that is Heb. 11.6 without a full persuasion of a future estate it is impossible to please God And He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And in this appeareth the glory and excellency of the Gospel of Christ of this Law of Liberty that
it requireth no more at our hands for the obtaining of eternity of bliss but this Faith this persuasion If so be we be holy and innocent and remain in this Law and by this faith overcome the world BLESSEDNES then is as the Sun and looketh and shineth on all putteth life in the Law raiseth our Perfection begetteth and upholdeth our Liberty maketh Conscience quick and lively either to affright or joy us either to seourge or feast us If in this life onely we had hope our faith were vain nay this Law the Gospel were vain And therefore in every storm and tempest under the shadow and wings of this Hope we find shelter We flie for refuge saith the Apostle to lay hold upon the hope which is sâ—t before us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We flie out of the world a shop of vanity and uncertainty the region of changes and chances to this Hope as to an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast which cannot deceive us if we lay hold on it for it entereth into that within the veil and so is firm and safe fastened on this Blessedness as an anchor that reacheth to the bottom and sticketh fast in the ground Blessedness upholdeth and setleth our Hope and on our Hope our Obedience is raised to reach that Blessedness on which our Hope is setled In a word Blessedness like Christ himself is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first and the last the end and yet the first mover of us in those wayes which lead unto it Christiano coelum antè patuit quà m via Heaven is opened to a Christian and then the way And he that walketh in it shall enter in he that doeth the work shall be blessed in it Now BEATUS ERIT He shall be blessed may either look upon this span or upon that immeasurable space of eternity And it is true in both both here where we converse with Men and Misery and there where we shall have the company of Seraphim and Cherubim and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Here we have something in hand there the accomplishment some ears we have we shall have the whole sheaf Here we have one part of Blessedness peace of conscience there remaineth the greater the reversion in the highest heavens As Christ said of the two Commandements This is the great Blessedness and the other is like unto it that Joy which is the resultance of every good work which we call our Heaven upon earth That which is to come is a state of perfection an aggregation of all that is truly good without the least tincture and shew of evil as Boethius speaketh This cannot be found here on earth in the best Saint whose joy and peace is sometimes interrupted for a while by the gnawings of some sin or other which overtaketh him or by the sight of imperfection which will not suffer his joy to be full The best peace on earth may meet with disturbance Therefore Peace is found alone in the most perfect Good even God himself who is Perfection it self whose delight and paradise is in his own bosom Which he openeth and out of which he poureth a part of it on his creature and of which we do in a manner take possession when we look into and remain in the perfect Law of Liberty which is an emanation from him a beam of that Law which was with God from all eternity and by which as we are made after the image so are we transformed after the similitude of God which Plato himself calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assimilation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 union with God In whom alone those two powers of the soul those two Horseleaches which ever cry Give Give the Understanding which is ever drawing new conclusions and the Will which is ever pursuing new objects have their eternal sabbath and rest He that doeth the work shall be blessed in the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this man and none but this shall be blessed So then this is the conclusion That Evangelical Obedience the constant observation of this Law of Liberty of the doctrine of Faith and Good works is the onely and immediate way to Blessedness For not the hearers of the word but the doers shall be justified saith S. Paul And indeed there is no way but this For First God hath fitted us to this Law and this Law to us He hath fitted us for this heavenly treasure For can we imagine that God did thus build us up and stamp his own Image upon us that we should be an habitation for owles and satyres Rom. 12 3. for wild and brutish imaginations that he did give us Understandings to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out an art of pleasure a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season that he did give us Wills to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and his Image which is in us Was the Soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow and is no more or hath he given us dominion over the beasts of the field that we should fall and perish with them No We are ad majora nati born mortal but to eternity And we carry an argument about us against our selves if we remain not in this Law For take it in credendis in those conclusions which it commendeth to our Faith though Faith indeed in respect of the remoteness of its object and its elevation be above Nature yet in the soul God hath left a capacity to receive it and if the other condition of persevering in it did not lie heavy upon the flesh the brutish part we should be readier scholars in our Creed then we are If we could hate the world we should soon be in heaven If we could embrace that which we cannot but approve our Infidelity and Doubtings would soon vanish as the mist before the Sun S. Augustine hath observed it in his book De Religione that multitudes of good moral men especially the Platonicks came in readily and gave up their names unto Christ The Moral man did then draw on the Christian But now I know not how the Christian is brought in to countenance those who deserve another name But then for the Agenda and precepts of practice They are as the seed and the Heart of man the earth the Matrix the womb to receive them And they are so proportioned to our Reason that they are no sooner seen but approved they bring as it were of near alliance and consanguinity with those notions and principles which we brought with us into the world Onely those are written in a book these in the heart indeed the one are but a commentary on the other What precept of Christ is there which is not agreeable and consonant to right Reason Doth he prescribe Purity The heart applaudeth it Doth he bless Meekness The mind of man soon sayeth Amen Doth he enjoyn Sobriety We soon subscribe