vanity or the next business will drive it away and take its place Nor let us make a room for it in our Phansie For it is an easie matter to think we are free when we are in chains Who is so wicked that he is not ready to persuade himself he is just And that false persuasion too shall go for the dictate of the Holy Ghost Paganism it self cannot shew such monsters as many of them are who call themselves Saints But let us gird up our loins and be up and doing the work those works of piety which the Gospel injoyneth It is Obedience alone that tieth us to God and maketh us free denisons of that Jerusalem which is above In it the Beauty the Liberty the Royalty the Kingdom of a Christian is visible and manifest For by it we sacrifice not our Flesh but our Will unto God and so have one and the same will with him and if we have his will we have his power also and his wisdom to accompany it and to to fulfil all that we can desire or expect Servire Deo regnare est To serve God is to reign as Kings here and will bring us to reign with him for evermore Let us then stand fast in our obedience which is our liberty against all the wiles and invasions of the enemy all those temptations which will shew themselves in power and craft to remove us from our station In a calm to steer our course is not so difficult but when the tempest beateth hard upon us not to dash against the rock will commend our skill Every man is ready to build a tabernacle for Christ when he is in his glory but not to leave him at the Cross is the glory and crown of a Christian And first let us not dare a temptation as Pliny dared the vapour at Mount Vesuvius and died for it Let us not offer and betray our selves to the Enemy For he that affecteth and loveth danger is in the ready way to be swallowed up in that gulf Valiant men saith the Philosopher are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiet and silent before the combat but in the trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready and active But audacious daring men are commonly loud and talkative before encounters but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flag and fail in them The first weigh the danger and resolve by degrees the other are peremptory and resolve suddenly and talk their resolution away It is one thing to talk of a tempest at sea another to discourse of it leaning against a wall It is one thing to dispute of pain another to feel it Grief and Anguish hath not such a sting in the Stoicks gallery as it hath on the rack For there Reason doth fight but with a shadow and a representation here with the substance it self And when things shew themselves naked as they are they stir up the affections When the Whip speaketh by its smart not by my phansie when the Fire is in my flesh not my understanding when temptations are visible and sensible then they enter the soul and the spirit then they easily shake that resolution which was so soon built and soon beat down that which was made up in haste Therefore let us not rashly thrust our selves upon them But in the second place let us arm and prepare our selves against them For Preparation is half the conquest It looketh upon them handleth and weigheth them before hand seeeth where their great strength lieth and goeth forth in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ and so maketh us more then conquerers before the sight And this is our Martyrdom in peace For the practice of a Christian in the calmest times must nothing differ in readiness and resolution from times of rage and fire As Josephus speaketh of the military exercises practised amongst the Romans that they differed from a true battel only in this that their battel was a bloudy exercise and their exercise a bloudless battel So our preparation should make us martyrs before we come to resist ad sanguinem to shed a drop of bloud To conclude as the Apostle exhorteth let us take unto us the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand to stand against the horrour of a prison against the glittering of the sword against the terrour of death to stand as expert souldiers of Christ and not to forsake our place to stand as mount Sion which cannot be moved in a word to be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed The Seven and Fortieth SERMON PART VII JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed TO Persevere or continue in the Gospel and To be blessed for ever are the two stages of a Christian the one here on earth the other in heaven and there is scarce a moment but a last breath between them nothing but a mouldering and decaying wall this tabernacle of flesh which falleth down suddenly and then we pass and enter And that we may persevere and continue means are here prescribed first assiduous Meditation in this Law we must not be forgetful hearers of it but look into it as into a glass vers 23 24. yet not as a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass and then goeth away and forgetteth himself not as a man who looketh carelesly casteth an eye and thinketh no more of it but rather as a woman who looketh into her glass with intention of mind with a kind of curiosity and care stayeth and dwelleth upon it fitteth her attire and ornaments to her by a kind of method setteth every hair in its proper place and accurately dresseth and adorneth her self by it And sure there is more care and exactness due to the soul then to the body Secondly that we may continue and persevere we must not only hear and remember but do the work For Piety is confirmed by Practice To these we may now add a third which hath so near a relation to Practice that it is even included in it and carrried along with it And it is To be such students in Christ's School as S. Paul was Acts 24.16 To study and exercise our selves to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Not to triflle with our God or play the wanton with our Conscience Not to displease and wound her in one particular with a resolution to follow her in the rest Not to let our love of the world or fear of danger make that a truth which we formerly
yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than those that do who bear but their own burthen whereas he lay pressed under the sins of the whole world God in his approaches of Justice when he cometh toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rods and his Axes carried before him Many sinners have felt his Rods And his Rod is comfort his Frown favour his Anger love and his Blow a benefit But Christ was struck as it were with his Ax. Others have trembled under his wrath Psal 39.10 but Christ was even consumed by the stroke of his hand Being delivered to God's Wrath that wrath deliverth him to these Throws and Agonies delivereth him to Judas who delivereth nay betrayeth him to the Jews who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangeth between thot Thieves I mention not the shame or the torment of the Cross for we Thieves endured the same But his Soul was crucified more than his Body and his Heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his Hands or Feet TRADIDIT ET NON PEPERCIT He delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more TRADIDIT ET DESERVIT He delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew comfort stood as it were afar off and let him fight it out unto death He looked about and there was none to help Isa 63.5 even to the Lord he called but he heard him not Psal 18 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God Matth. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me And could God forsake him Psal 38.8 When he hung upon the cross did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did Heb. 12.2 but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in poenam saith Leo By the counsel of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should add to his Punishment that his knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happiness his Misery that there should not only be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Myrrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Myrrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could Sin do And can we love it This could the Love and tht Wrath of God do his Love to his Creature and his Wrath against Sin And what a Delivery what a Desertion was this which did not deprive Christ of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light What a strange Delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves What misery equal to that which maketh Strength a tormenter Knowledge a vexation and Joy and Glory a persecution There now hangeth his sacred Body on the cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jews who pierced him for whom he prayeth when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles Tantam patientiam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproach of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrows not only which himself then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall sound and he shall come again in glory The last Delivery was of his Soul which was indeed traditio a yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father He preventeth the spear and the hand of the executioner and giveth up the ghost What should I say or where should I end Who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth openeth her mouth and the Grave hers and yieldeth up her dead the veyl of the Temple rendeth asunder the Earth trembleth and the Rocks are cleft But neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this Wisdom and Love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of Men nor Angels is able to express it The most powerful eloquence is the threnody of a broken heart For there Christ's death speaketh it self and the virtue and power of it reflecteth back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of Love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love we have passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calverie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World is nailed to the cross and being lifted up upon his cross looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looketh upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us Which is one ascent more and bringeth in the Persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all III. Now that he should be delivered FOR VS is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest For if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask the question Why for us Why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortal Spirits we as the grass withered before we grow Yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 and chained them up in everlasting darkness We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us No it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meer compassion of our wants With the Angels God dealeth in rigor and relenteth
separate our selves from our selves from our wilfulness and stubbornness and animosities and so place Christ in his throne Eph. 3.15 reinstate our selves into his house his family his kingdom that Christ may be all in all And thus it is Whilst this fighting and contention lasteth in us which will be as long as we last in our mortal bodies something or other will lay hold on us and have command over us There is no aequilibrium in a Christian man's life no time when the scales are even when he hangeth as Solomon is pictured between heaven and hell but one side or other still prevaileth Either we walk after the Flesh Rom. 8.1 when that is most potent or after the Spirit when that carrieth us along in our way against the solicitations and allurements of the Flesh One of them is alwayes uppermost It will therefore concern us to take a strict account of our selves and impartially to consider to which part our Will inclineth most whether it be hurried away by the Flesh or led sweetly and powerfully on by the Spirit which of these beareth most sway in our hearts whether we had rather be led by the Spirit Rom. 13.14 or obey the Flesh in the lusts thereof whether we had rather dwell in the world vvith all its pomp and pageantry in a Mahometical Paradise of all sensual delights or dwell with Christ though it be with persecutions Suppose the Devil should make an overture to thee as he did once to our Saviour of all the kingdoms of the world Matth. 4.8 and the Flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee Honour and Power all that a heart of flesh would leap at in those Kingdoms and on the other side the Spirit thy Conscience enlightned should check thee and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that Death and Destruction are in these kingdoms veiled and drest up with titles of honour in purple and state that in this terrestrial Paradise thou shalt meet with a fiery sword the wrath of God and from this imaginary painted heaven be thrown into hell it self Here now is thy tryal here thou art put to thy choice If thy heart can say I will have none of these If thou canst say to thy Flesh What hast thou to do with me who gave thee authority who made thee a ruler over me If thou canst say to the Spirit Thou art in stead of God to me If thou canst say with thy Saviour Avoid Satan I know no power in heaven or in earth no dominion but Christ's then thou art in his house in his service which is no service Rom. 8.21 but the glorious liberty of the sons of God then thou art in him thou mayest assure thy self thy residence thy abode thy dwelling is in Christ 3. If we dwell in Christ we shall rely and depend on him as on our tutelary God and Protectour And so we may be said to dwell in him indeed as in a house which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saiâ—h the Civilian our fort and sanctuary commune perfugium saith Tullie our common place of refuge And what is our hope whither should we fly but to him I am thine Psal 119.94 Psal 73.25 save me saith David because I am thine because I have none in heaven but thee and on earth desire none besides thee Thou art my house my castle my fortress and defense thou art my hope to the end of the world thou art my Christ And this is a principal mark of a true Christian of a man dwelling in Christ that he wholly flingeth himself into his protection that he here fixeth his hope and doth not busie himself to find any shelter but here For as the full perswasion of the almighty power of God was the first rise to Religion the fountain from which all worship whether true or false did flow for without this perswasion there could be none at all and we find this relying on God's power not onely rewarded but magnified in Scripture so the acknowledgment of God's wonderful power in Christ by which he is able to make good his rich and glorious promises to subdue his and our enemies to do abundantly above all that we can conceive to work joy out of sorrow peace out of trouble order out of confusion life out of death is the foundation the pillar the life of all Christianity And if we build not upon this if we abide not if we dwell not here we shall not find a hole to hide our heads For man such is our condition even when he maketh his nest on high when he thinketh he can never be moved when he exalteth himself as God is a weak indigent insufficient creature subject to every blast and breath subject to misery as well as to passion subject to his own and subject to other mens passions when he is at his highest pitch shaken with his own fear and pursued with other mens malice rising and soaring up aloft and then failing sinking and ready to fall and when he falleth looking about for help and succour When he is diminished and brought low by evil and sorrows he seeketh for some refuge some hole some Sanctuary to fly to as the Wise-man speaks of the Conies They are a generation not strong and therefore have their burrows to hide themselves in Prov. 30.26 Now by this you may know you dwell in Christ If when the tempest cometh you are ready to run under his wing and think of no house no shelter no protection but his Talk what we will of Faith if we do not trust and rely on him we do not believe in him For what is Faith but as our Amen to all his promises our subscription to his Wisdome and Power and Goodness And here we fix our tabernacle and will abide till the storm be overpast Believe in him and not trust in him You may say as well the Jews did love him when they nayled him to the cross Matth. 8.26 Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith said Christ to his Disciples That Faith was little indeed which would let in fear when Christ the Wisdome of the Father and the mighty Power of God was in the ship little less then a grain of mustard-seed which is the least of seeds so little that what Christ calleth there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little faith he plainly calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelief Matth. 17.20 The faith of this world the weak and cowardly faith of this world speaketh of principalities and powers great swelling words yet at the sight of a cloud not so big as a mans hand striketh in and is not seen but leaveth us groaning under every burden for to such a faith every light affliction is a burden leaveth us to complaints and despair or to those inventions which vvill plunge us in greater evils then those we either suffer or fear
by them who will receive her nor dwell with those persons which contemn her nor save those who will destroy themselves To conclude this He is most unworthy to receive Grace who in the least degree detracteth from the power of it And he is as unworthy who magnifieth and rejecteth it and maketh his life an argument against his doctrine saith Grace cannot be resisted and resisteth it every day He that denieth the power of God's Grace is scarse a Christian And he is the worst of Christians who will not gird up his loins and work out his salvation but loitreth and standeth idle all the day long shadoweth and pleaseth himself under the expectation of what God will do and so turneth his grace into wantonness Let us not abuse the Grace of God and then we cannot magnifie it enough But he that will not set his hand to work upon a phansie that he wanteth Grace he that vvill not hearken after Grace though she knock and knock again as Fortune vvas said to have done at Galba's gate till she be vveary hath despised the Grace of God and cannot plead the vvant of that for any excuse vvhich he might have had but put it off nay vvhich he had but so used it as if it had been no Grace at all They that have Grace offered and repel it they that have antidotes against Death and vvill not use them can never ansvver the expostulation Why will ye die And certainly he that is so liberal of his Grace hath given us knovvledge enough to see the danger of those vvayes vvhich lead to Death And therefore in the next place Ignorance of our vvayes doth not minuere voluntarium make our sin less vvilful but rather aggrandize it For first vve may if vve vvill knovv every duty that tendeth to life and every sin that bringeth forth death 2 Cor. 2.11 We may know the Devils enterprises saith S. Paul And the ignorance of this findeth no excuse when we have power and faculty light and understanding When the Gospel shineth brightly upon us to dispell those mists which may be placed between the Truth and us Sub scientiae facultate nescire repudiatae magìs quà m non compertae veritatis est reatus Hil. in Psal 118. then if we walk in darkness and in the shadow of death we shall be found guilty not so much of not finding out the truth as of refusing it as Hilary speaketh of a strange contempt in not attaining that which is so easily atchieved and which is so necessary for our preservation I know every man hath not the same quickness of apprehension nor can every man make a Divine and it were to be wisht every man would know it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not for him that thresheth out the corn to resolve controversies or State questions But S. Peter requireth that every man should be able to give an answer 1 Pet. 3.15 a reason of his faith And if he can do that he knoweth the will of God and is well armed and prepared against death and may cope with him and destroy him if he will And this is no perplext nor intricate study but fitted and proportioned to the meanest capacity He that cannot be a Seraphical Divine may be a Christian He that cannot be a Rabbi may be an honest man And if men were as diligent in the pursuit of the truth as they are in managing their own temporal affairs if men would try as many conclusions for knowledge as they do for wealth and were as ambitious to be good as they are to be rich and great if they were as much afraid of Gods wrath as they are of poverty and the frown of a mortal this pretense of want of knowledge would be soon removed and quite taken out of the way Tit. 2.11 Acts 17.30 For now the Grace of God hath appeared unto all men and commanded all men every where to repent and turn from their evil wayes What apologie can the Oppressour have when Wisdome it self hath sounded in his ears and told him Lev. 19.18 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self for even flesh and bloud would soon conclude that no man will oppress himself What can the Revenger plead after the thunder Rom. 12.19 Vengeance is mine What can the Covetous pretend when he heareth Go sell all and give to the poor What can the Seditious say Matth. 19.21 when he is plainly told He that resisteth shall receive damnation Rom. 13.2 Can any man miss his way where there is so much light to direct him when he brought a great part of his lesson along with him into the world which he may run and read and understand How can he there erre dangerously where the Truth is fastned to a pillar where there is such a Mercury to shew him his way And therefore in the second place if we be ignorant it is because we will be ignorant If we could open a window into the breasts of men we should soon perceive a hot contention between their Knowledge and their Lusts strugling together like the twins in Rebekah's womb till at last their Lust supplanteth their Knowledge and gaineth the preeminence Nolunt intelligere nè cogantur facere saith Augustine They will not understand their duty lest that many draw upon them an obligation to do it nor will they see their errour because they have no mind to forsake it For their Knowledge pointeth towards life but not to be attained to but by sweat and blood which their Lust loatheth and trembleth at And therefore this knowledge is too wonderful for them Psal 139.6 nay it is as the gall of bitterness unto them As Nero's mother would not suffer him to study Philosophy quia imparaturo contraria Suet. Nerone c. 25. because it prescribeth many moral virtues as Sincerity Modesty and Frugality which sort not well with the Crown and must needs fall cross with those actions which Politie and Necessity many times ingage the Monarchs of the earth so do these look upon the Truth as a thing contrary to them as checking their Pride bridling their Malice bounding their Ambition chiding their Injustice threatning their Tyranny and so they study to unlearn suppress and silence it and will not hear it speak to them any more but set up a Lie first the childe then the parasite of their Lusts and enthrone it in its place to reign over them and guide them in all their waies I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles telleth us that he observed many cast down and very sad and dejected upon the knowledge of the Truth not so much for that it did shew them the danger they were in and withal an open and effectual door to escape but that it choaked the passages and stopped up the way to their old asylum and sanctuary of Ignorance For Truth is not onely a light but a fire to scorch and burn
and casteth us on the ground and maketh us fome at our mouths fome out our own shame it casteth us into the fire and water burneth and drowneth us in our lusts And if it bid us Do this we do it We are perjured to save our goods beat down a Church to build us a banquetting-house take the vessels of the Sanctuary to quaff in fling away eternity to retain life and are greater devils that we may be the greater men Whilest Sin reigneth in our mortal bodies the curse of Canaan is upon us we are servi servorum the slaves of slaves And if we will judge aright there is no other slavery but this Now empti estis By the power of Christ these chains are struck off For he therefore bought us with a price that we should no longer be servants unto Sin but be a peculiar people unto himself full of good works which are the ensigns and flags of liberty which they carry about with them whose feet are enlarged to run the wayes of God's commandments Again there is a double Dominion of Sin a dominion to Death and a dominion to Difficulty a power to slay us and a power to hold us that we shall not easily escape And first if we touch the forbidden fruit we dye if we sin our sin lieth at the door ready to devour us For he saith our Saviour that committeth sin is the servant of sin obnoxious to all those penalties which are due to sin under the sentence of death His head is forfeited and he must lay it down Ye are dead saith S. Paul in trespasses and sins not onely dead as having no life no principle of spiritual motion not able to lift up an eye to heaven but dead as we say in Law having no right nor title but to death we may say heirs of damnation And then Sin may hold us and so enslave us that we shall love our chains and have no mind to sue for liberty that it will be very difficult which sometimes is called in Scripture Impossibility to shake off our fetters Sin gaining more power by its longer abode in us first binding us with it self and then with that delight and profit which it bringeth as golden chains to tye us faster to it self and then with its continuance with its long reign which is the strongest chain of all But yet empti estis Christ hath laid down the price and bought us and freed us from this dominion hath taken away the strength of Sin that it can neither kill us nor detain us as its slaves and prisoners There is a power proceedeth from him which if we make use of as we may neither Death nor Sin shall have any dominion over us a power by which we may break those chains of darkness asunder Look up upon him with that faith of which he was the authour and finisher and the victory is ours Bow to his Sceptre and the Kingdom of Sin and Death is at an end For though he hath bought us with a price yet he put it not into the hands of those fools who have no heart but laied it down for those who will with it sue out their freedom in this world For that which we call liberty is bondage and that which we call bondage is freedom Rom. 6.20 When we were the servants of sin we were free from righteousness and we thought it a glorious liberty But this Liberty did enslave us Prov. 10.24 For that which the wicked feared shall come upon him They that built the tower of Babel did it that they might not be scattered and they were scattered say the Rabbies in this world and in the world to come So whilest men pursue their unlawful desires that they may be free by pursuing them they are enslaved enslaved in this world and in the world to come But let us follow the Apostle But now being made free from sin Rom. 6.22 you are servants unto God See here a service which is liberty and liberty which is bondage the same word having divers significations as it is placed And let us sue out Liberty in its best sense in foro misericordiae in the Court of Mercy Behold here is the price the bloud of Christ And you have your Charter ready drawn If the Son make you free John 8.36 Acts 16. that is buy you with a price ye shall be free indeed Which words are like that great earthquake when Paul and Sylas prayed and sung Psalms At the very hearing of them the foundation of Hell shaketh and every mans chains are loosed For every man challengeth an interest in the Son and so layeth claim to this freedom Every man is a Christian and so every man free The price is laid down and we may walk at liberty It fareth with us as with men who like the Athenians hearken after news Whilest we make it better we make it worse and lose our Charter by enlarging it But if we will view the Text we may observe there is one word there which will much lessen this number and point out to them as in chains who talk and boast so much of freedom And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall be free indeed not in shew or persuasion For Opinion and Phansie will never strike off these chains but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really substantially free and indeed not free 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in appearance or in a dream which they may be whose damnation sleepeth not Many persuade themselves into an opinion they call it an Assurance of freedom when they have sold themselves Many sleep as S. Peter did between the two souldiers bound with these chains Many thousands perish in a dream build up to themselves an assurance which they call their Rock and from this rock they are cast down into the bottomless pit and that which is proposed as the price of their liberty hath been made a great occasion to detain them in servitude and captivity which is the more heavy and dangerous because they call it Freedom Therefore we must once more look back upon that place of S. John and there we shall find that they shall be free whom the Son maketh free So that the reality and truth of our freedom dependeth wholly upon his making us free If he make us free if we come out of his hand formed by his Word and transformed by the virtue of the price he gave for us then we shall be free indeed If we have been turned upon his wheel we shall be vessels of honour And now it will concern us to know aright what the meaning of his buying is and the manner how he maketh us free 1 Cor. 7.23 By Purchase by buying us with a price and so it is here Col. 2.14 By Taking away the hand-writing which was against us and nailing it to his cross Eph. 5.2 By Satisfaction being made a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God for us But then also
matter that is combustible into it self a man begetteth a man a sheep a sheep and a lion a lion So the natural and proper effect of God's Mercy to us should be Mercy in us and of it self it can produce nothing else The goodness of God cannot make us evil nor his Mercy harden our hearts nor can any poison be drawn from the Fountain of life When we walk in the midst of God's mercies compassed about with rayes and yet breathe nothing but fire and ruine to our brethren when we are compassed about on every side with mercy and yet carry with us no smell or savour of that mercy when God sheweth himself a Father and we are no more like him then a Tiger is to a Man the defect is not in the Agent or Example but in the Matter it worketh upon not in God's Mercy but our Will which is various and mutable and like the Chamaeleon taketh any colour which the next object presenteth and is sooner drawn to fashion and apply it self to the world then to God and so resisteth the force of his example and by that means many times draweth gall and wormwood out of the very bowels of Mercy For when vve say that God's Forgiveness of our sins hath povver to vvork in us the like compassion to others vve do not give it that causality vvhich doth necessarily and irresistibly produce such an effect For though it be povverful in it self yet it doth not so vvork as the Sacraments by some are said to do ex opere operato His infinite Mercies may leave our hearts as stone The promise of Remission of sins doth not as naturally beget love in us as Fire doth heat but it is powerful tanquam ordinatum ad hoc as the Schools speak as ordained to this end It hath the power of an object or exemplary cause I confess objects have a moving and attractive force but no invincible operation The heavens are a fair sight but they do not make a blind man see I may read of Julius Caesar and not be valiant of Solomon and not be vvise of Aristides and not be just But yet they have the power of an object vvhich is to present themselves to our very eye to dart light even in our faces to pierce the very inwards of our hearts to besiege and beleaguer us to beseech and persuade us and prevaile they will if vve stand not out vvilfully and fight against them What power vvhat commanding eloquence is there in them Hovv are vve able to stand out against those everlasting burnings Why should not God's mercy be more prevalent then any injury Why should not his example have more force then a temptation Why should not Reason be a better oratour then Sense Why should not Christ's Mercy bring forth my Love and his Death my Mortification For as S. Peter telleth us that the long-suffering of God is repentance because indeed it should produce no other effect so might I as properly say God's readiness to forgive is our mercy and charity to our brother because it is profered for this end Nor is it of less power and energy because through our default it vvorketh no such effect If the earth be as brass shall vve say the devv of heaven hath no virtue If we put out our eyes shall we say the Sun doth not shine Because we make God's Mercy but as a shadow to cover us shall we also count it no more then a Type which signifieth much but worketh nothing at all That it may therefore have its proper effect in us we must consider what it is that hindereth its operation and what is required of us that it may work kindly in us and so bring forth that effect which is natural what is the reason why it doth not alwayes prevail and what we must perform on our parts that it may And we may plainly see that we our selves harden our faces and our hearts against it that we are busie in the works of darkness when God's Mercy shineth round about us that we have decked our selves for harlots and wooe and draw them to us whilest God's Mercy standeth at the door and knocketh and can find no admittance that we have firted our minds for those guests alone which will defile them how one piece of silver can force our hand to our brother's throat when all the commands of God cannot take us off how the glory the vanishing glory of the world is the lamp we walk by and not the everlasting word of God how our hearts are stone and can Mercy make an impression and set the image of God upon a stone Besides one great hindrance and impediment is begot within us and derived from our selves For at the very name of Mercy as at the sound of musick we lie down and rest in peace and sleep as if Mercy had no other work to do but to save us And thus we make our selves the worse for the mercies of God shut up our bowels because he openeth his make no conscience of sin because he is ready to forgive will not be rich in good works because he is bountiful of his merits as if we onely were the adequate objâ—ct of mercy even then when we return with the spoil with our feet died in the bloud of our brethren It fareth with us as with the children of rich parents we are prodigal upon presumption of supply revel licentiously upon hope of sanctuary and patronage and like Nero spend all upon the false hope of treasure Non tam malè nobiscum ageretur si non tam bene It would not have been so ill with us if it had not been so well That which should make us happy maketh us miserable We read of a Gaoler and Torment but we soon forget that and when we bear about with us malice enough to constitute a Devil we relie still on a merciful Lord. Again we are like to those Sophisters in Aristotle who to that which was first proposed would soon yield assent That God is merciful and will forgive is most plain even written with the Sun-beams but when we should apply our wills to this rule and consider this position not onely as a principle in Divinity but also as a didactical example we presently fall off hunt out tricks and evasions and are very wise to deceive our selves Whatsoever the premisses are though drawn out of the very bowels of Mercy yet flesh and bloud are very apt and ready to deny the conclusion Christ loved us Therefore we must love one another Ephes 5. it is S. Pauls Enthymeme or argument And this Petition may be resolved into the very same God forgiveth us Therefore we must forgive one another But such is our blindness and perversness that though we are willing to subscribe to the Antecedent for we would sin still and be forgiven yet we are ready in our practice to deny the Consequence We have faith enough to see the riches of the Gospel to
unto death There is lex Factorum the Law of Works For they are not all Credenda in the Gospel all articles of Faith there be Agenda some things to be done Nor is the Decalogue shut out of the Gospel Nay the very articles of our Creed include a Law and in a manner bind us to some duty and though they run not in that imperial strain Do this and live yet they look towards it as towards their end Otherwise to believe them in our own vain and carnal sense vvere enough and the same faith vvould save us vvith vvhich the Devils are tormented No thy Faith to vvhich thou art also bound as by a Law is dead that is is not faith if it do not vvork by a Law Thou believest there is a God Thou art then bound to vvorship him Thou believest that Christ is thy Lord Thou art then obliged to do what he commandeth His Word must be thy Law and thou must fulfill it His Death is a Law and bindeth thee to mortification His Cross should be thy obedience his Resurrection thy righteousness and his Coming to judge the quick and the dead thy care and solicitude In a word in a Testament in a Covenant in the Angel's message in the Promises of the Gospel in every Article of thy Creed thou mayest find a Law Christ's Legacy his Will is a Law the Covenant bindeth thee the Good news obligeth thee the Promises engage thee and every Article of thy Creed hath a kind of commanding and legislative power over thee Either they bind to some duty or concern thee not at all For they are not proposed for speculation but for practice and that consequence vvhich thou mayest easily draw from every one must be to thee as a Law What though honey and milk be under his tongue and he sendeth embassadours to thee and they intreat and beseech thee in his stead and in his name Yet is all this in reference to his command and it proceedeth from the same Love which made his Law And even these beseechings are binding and aggravate our guilt if we melt not and bow to his Law Principum preces mandata sunt the very intreaties of Kings and Princes are as binding as Laws preces armatae intreaties that carry force and power with them that are sent to us as it were in arms to invade and conquer us And if we neither yield to the voice of Christ in his royal Law nor fall down and worship at his condescensions and loving parlies and earnest beseechings we increase our guilt and make sin sinful in the highest degree Nor need we thus boggle at the word or be afraid to see a Law in the Gospel if either we consider the Gospel it self or Christ our King and Lord or our selves who are his redeemed captives and owe him all service and allegeance For first the Gospel is not a dispensation to sin nor was a Saviour born to us that he should do and suffer all and we do what we list No the Gospel is the greatest and sharpest curb that was ever yet put into the mouth of Sin The grace of God saith S. Paul hath appeared unto all men teaching us that is commanding us Tit. 2.11 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Libertas in Christo non fecit innocentiae injuriam saith the Father Our liberty in Christ was not brought in to beat down innocency before it but to uphold it rather and defend it against all those assaults which flesh and bloud our lusts and concupiscence are ready to make against it Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world He taketh away those sins that are past by remission and pardon but he setteth up a Law as a rampire and bulwork against Sin that it break not in and reign again in our mortal bodies There Christ is said to take away not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin of the world that is the whole nature of Sin that it may have no subsistence or being in the world If the Gospel had nothing of Law in it there could be no sin under the Gospel For Sin is a transgression of a Law But flatter our selves as we please those are the greatest sins which we commit against the Gospel And it shall be easier in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah then for those Christians who turn the grace of God into wantonness who sport and revel it under the very wings of Mercy who think Mercy cannot make a Law but is busie onely to bestow Donatives and Indulgences who are then most licencious when they are most restrained For what greater curb can there be then when Justice and Wisdom and Love and Mercy all concur and joyn together to make a Law Secondly Christ is not onely our Redeemer but our King and Law-giver As he is the wonderful Counsellour Isa 9 6. Psal 2.6 so he came out of the loyns of Judah and is a Law-giver too Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion The government shall be upon his shoulder He crept not to this honour Isa 9.6 but this honour returned to him as to the true and lawful Lord With glory and honour did God crown him and set him over the works of his hands Heb. 2.7 As he crowned the first Adam with Understanding and freedom of Will so he crowned the second Adam with the full Knowledge of all things with a perfect Will and with a wonderful Power And as he gave to Adam Dominion over the beasts of the field so he gave to Christ Power over things in heaven and things on earth And he glorified not himself Heb. 5.5 but he who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he it was that laid the government upon his shoulder Not upon his shoulders For he was well able to bear it on one of them For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily And with this power he was able to put down all other rule autority and power 1 Cor. â—5 24 to spoil principalities and powers and to shew them openly in triumph to spoil them by his death and to spoil them by his Laws due obedience to which shaketh the power of Hell it self For this as it pulleth out the sting of Death so also beateth down Satan under our feet This if it were universal would be the best exorcism that is and even chase the Devil out of the world which he maketh his Kingdom For to run the way of Christ's commandments is to overthrow him and bind him in chains is another hell in hell unto him Thirdly if we look upon our selves we shall find there is a necessity of Laws to guide and regulate us and to bring us to the End All other creatures are sent into the world with a sense and understanding of the end for which they come and so without particular direction and yet unerringly
and whatsoever the Premisses are stand out against the Conclusion Of God's Power we may cry out with the Prophet Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And his Will we do but pray it may be done and fulfil our own What now will move us Our last part presenteth a most winning motive And it is God's hand still but his hand not armed with a thunder-bolt but holding out a reward an Exaltation stronger then a Demonstration Goodness is more persuasive then Power and a Promise more rhetorical then a Command Omnes mercede ducimur He that commandeth with promise he that cometh with a reward shall more prevail then seven wise men that can render a reason Of the Duty we have spoken already in general We called it an Exercise and we shewed you in what it doth consist We gave you the extent of it and told you that it is an exercise full of pain and toilsome in which we fight against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness and against the wantonness of the flesh beating down imaginations all aversness in the Understanding and all frowardness in the Will subduing both Soul and body to the obedience of the truth working wonders in the Soul and manifesting it self also in the outward man in a cast-down eye in a weak hand in a feeble knee glorifying God both in soul and body Let us now descend to a more particular delineation And there is a word in my Text which if well and rightly placed giveth all the lines and dimensions of it and that word is but a Preposition and the Preposition but a monosyllable But the sound of it is harsh in our ear and findeth no better entertainment and welcome with us then if it were a Satyre or a Libel It is the Preposition SUB We must humble our selves under Et quantum turbat monosyllabon How are we troubled with this one monosyllable Our nature is stiff and stubborn and this Preposition this monosyllable is a yoke SUB TUTORIBUS under tutors a hard Text for the Heir G l 4.2 O how doth he expect and long for the appointed time when he shall be his own man and Lord of all SUB POTESTATE DOMINI under the power of the Master so should Servants be Eph. 6.5 But they are not so alwayes with good will doing service It is many times but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the down-cast of the eye You see them on the ground at your feet but in their mind they are on horse-back SUB POTESTATE VIRI under the power of the husband Gen. 3.16 is scarce good Scripture with every Wife No set the Servant on horse-back make the Heir a Lord and the Wife the head either no coming under no SUB at all or else misplace it But SUB PRAECEPTO under the Command there we should be For as that was made for us so were we elemented and made up and sitted for that for a Law and Precept Which whilest we keep under we are in the way to perfection In Religion there is Order and in Order there is a SUB a coming under Here there is a precept Humble your selves How come we under it No otherwise then if we were brought under a yoke Every command is our captivity every injunction an imprisonment Lex ligat Enact a Law and we are in fetters Nay Lex occidit the Law is a killing letter in this sense too He that bringeth us a command might as well present us with poison or a sword and bid us kill our selves At the first hearing one goeth away sorrowful another angry another laborem fingit in praecepto hath seen a lion some perillous difficulty in the way Every man is ill-affected and wisheth him silenced that bringeth it Nay further yet The Gospel of peace an Angel bringeth it yet we know what enterâ—ainment it found Nay how was he intreated who is α and ω the Beginning and the End the Author and Finisher of the Gospel Let him be crucified say the Jews Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabula say the Heathen Away with Christ and his Legend And now we who name Christ and delight in that name and make our boast of the Gospel all our life long how do we struggle and strive under it as dying men do for breath Deny your selves Take up your cross they are the voice of Wisdom crying out unto us and no man regardeth it Not SUB LEGE under the Law the Gospel hath taken away that SUB but not SUB GRATIA we are unwilling to come under Grace and SUB CHRISTO under Christ himself The shadow of his wings is as full of terrour to us as the shadow of Death This this was it which killed God's Prophets stoned his Messengers burned his Martyrs crucified the Lord of life himself and at this day crucifieth him afresh and putteth him to open shame our want of Humility our falling out with and not obeying the Gospel of Christ. It is the Apostle's phrase 2 Thes 1.8 This trampleth under foot the bloud of the new Testament as if it were a profane and unholy thing But we must remember that this SUB this neglected and scorned Preposition is that we hold by all we can shew all the Patent we have for heaven Had not Christ come SUB TEGMINE CARNIS as Arnobius speaketh under the covert of our flesh in the form of a servant had he not been made SUB LEGE under the Law had he not been brought SUB CULTRO under the knife at his circumcision had he not been SUB CRUCE undergone the Cross we had been SUB PECCATO under sin under the cross and as low as Hell it self It it most true Nothing but Humility could save us And when we could not bring an Humility equal to our Pride nor a Repentance answerable to our Disobedience then He that was above all was made under the Law Col. 1.24 and humbled himself But yet there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something behind of the afflictions and humility of Christ Not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours be also his required For an humble Head and proud Members an humble Christ and a stiff necked Christian is a foul incongruity a monster made up of God and Belial Something then of Christ's Humility is behind not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours is also requisite not ex parte operationis suae as if he had not fully accomplished the work of our Redemption but ex parte cooperationis nostrae in respect of something to be performed by us not that it was his Talent and our mite his three parts and our one No he payed down the price of our Redemption at one full and entire payment and that de suo of his own he borrowed not of us His SUB his Humility was able to raise a thousand worlds and yet our Humility must come in with a SUB too we must be under his
yoke under his afflictions under his cross and under him in all obedience that so we may be conformable to his death and die to sin as he died for it Humility without Obedience without a SUB without Subjection is a cross Humility nay it is the very height of pride In Humility there is a SUB Heb. 10.20 a coming under and by it the Christian liveth and moveth and hath his being His whole life is Humility every motion of his is in Humility and his very essence and being is Humility This is the new and living way hard and rough but leading to life And in this the Christian moveth and walketh humbly before his God not opening his eyes but to see the wonders of his Law not opening his mouth but in Hallelujahs not opening his ears but to his voice not ordering his steps but with fear and trembling being as he defined a Monk assidua naturae violentia nothing else in himself but a continued and assiduous violence and beating down of the corruptions and swellings of the flesh This spreadeth and diffuseth it self through every vein and branch through every part and action of his life When he casteth his bread upon the waters his hand is guided by Humility When he speaketh to God in prayer Humility conceiveth the Petition When he fasteth Humility is in capite jejunii beginneth the fast When he exhorteth Humility breatheth the exhortation forth When he instructeth Humility dictateth When he correcteth Humility maketh the rod. Whatsoever he doeth he doeth as under God Nay in his Faith is Humility for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret a voluntary submission of his soul In his Hope is Humility for it waiteth in expectation Rom 4.18 waiteth even against Hope it self In his Charity is Humility a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it endureth all things Proprii actus singularum virtutum say the Schools Virtues both Moral and Theological like the celestial Orbs have their peculiar motion proceeding from their internal forms but Humility is the Intelligence which keepeth and perpetuateth that motion as those Orbs by some are said to have the conservation of their motion by some assistent Form without Behold I shew you a Paradox A Christian is the freest and the most subject creature in the world set at Liberty and yet kept under Even our Christian Liberty hath its SUB admitteth of a restraint is brought under and bindeth us ab illicitis semper quandoque à licitis from unlawful things alwayes and sometimes from that which is lawful S. Paul I am sure was as free as we and yet he nameth some case wherein he humbleth and abridgeth himself so far as not to eat flesh whilest the world standeth I say 1 Cor. 8.13 our Christian Liberty hath its SUB Nay it hath many And it is the greatest part of our Humility to confine it First it cometh SUB SOBRIETATE Sobriety and Temperance must bound and limit the outward practice of it Gen. 9.3 God hath given every moving thing that liveth to be meat for us He hath opened the Heavens and and let all creatures down to us as he did to Peter in his trance and biddeth us rise kill and eat All meats all drinks are lawful But there is a SUB Humility must be our Carver and our Cup-bearer And we must so eat and so drink that our hearts be not over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness that our table become not a snare and that we make not those things which God hath ordained for our health an occasion of falling So for apparel we have freedom to use any cloth any colour but Humility must come in and check and limit this Liberty that we abuse not the creature to pride and vanity Next our Christian Liberty cometh SUB CHARITATE under Charity both to my self and to my brethren For our selves we must remove every thing out of the way which may offend us though as useful as our right Hand or as dear as our right Eye And so for others we must not use the creature with offence or scandal to our weaker brethren LICET is a word of enlargement and giveth us elbow-room but NON EXPEDIT It is not expedient cometh in case of scandal to pinion us that we reach not out our hand to things otherwise lawful A NON EXPEDIT maketh a NON LICET The questions and cases are infinite in particular and multiplied more then needs by the pride not weakness of men who will startle and cry out at a thing indifferent in it self and laudable in its use and yet greedily swallow down the most mortal sin But yet the position in general is plain That in some things our Humility must pity others Pride and that for their sakes we may and ought to condescend and for Charitie 's sake abridge our selves of some part of our Christian Liberty which cometh SUB CHARITATE under Charity the mother of Humility There is another SUB SUB AUTORITATE under Autority And this if you please to consult the verse immediately before my Text you will think the Apostle especially meant For he exhorteth the younger to submit themselves to the elder and all of them to be subject one unto another and to be clothed with Humility And this may seem to be the most proper SUB of all For our Sobriety we too often get above it and tread it under our feet and the bond of Charity we break as it were a thread at pleasure But Autority carrieth with it a command and when our Christian Liberty like a floud casteth down all before it this steppeth in and speaketh in the voice of God himself Hitherto thou shalt go and no further It is true where the Spirit is there is freedom and it is as true where the Spirit is there is obedience and he is a Spirit of Obedience as well as of Truth And if we make no better use of our Liberty then to fling it over our shoulders and wear it is a cloke of maliciousness he is ready to pull it off and tell us our duty That for all our Liberty we are to serve one another That Christianity destroyeth not relations of Son to Father of Servant to Man of Wife to Husband of Inferiour to Superiour but establisheth them rather 1 Pet. 2.13 That we must submit to every ordinance of man and that it is his will it should be so Vers 15. The rule is certain and everlasting Omne verum omni vero consonat Not onely in Arts and Sciences but in matters of practice and Christian discipline there is a kind of harmony and dependency of Truths one devoureth not another Nor is my Duty to my Superiour lost in my Christian Liberty Beloved the want of this SUB of so much Humility as to keep our own place hath cost Christiendom dear and so shaken the Church of Christ that she hath fallen asunder by Schisms mouldred into Sects and crumbled into Conventicles and