our carnal desires The body is mortal and changeable decayeth and is repaired and therefore hath an appetite which is soon dulled or changed The soul is of a more refined essence and hath an appetite fitted and proportioned to it infinite and unsatiable and made so by its very object which raiseth a desire when it is received which is favourable and benevolent and admitteth at once of content and desire The more Righteousness we have the more we desire and when we have found most we seek most Therefore the Philosophers rules of moderation have here no place For when the desire is turned towards the right object there can be no excess nor can we give it wing enough Our Love cannot be too ardent nor our Sorrow too great nor our Anger too loud Nor can we fear that should be too much which cannot possibly be great enough We cannot knock too hard at â—he gates of heaven nor seek too earnestly after Righteousness I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing was the boast of lukewarm Laodicea Rev. 3.17 Rev. 18.7 1 Sam. 15.13 who was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I sit as a queen and shall know no sorrow was the boast of Babylon I have fulfilled the commandement of the Lord was the voice of Saul a rejected King I am and I alone I am more righteous then thou I am a Saint is commonly the language of those who are children of the Father of lies These sounds we hear not but from empty vessels But the holy language is not so high and lofty nor do we hear from the righteous what they are but what they would be When they are rich then are they poor when they are strong then are they weak when they are full then are they empty and when they have found then they seek How have the perfectest men in Christ Jesus the fairest plants in the paradise of Righteousness deplored their want and emptiness How when they embrace this object do they look upon it as if it were at distance almost quite out of sight How they still bargain for the rich pearl in the Gospel even when they have bought it Nihileitas mea My nihileity My nothingness saith one Postremissimus omnium the last of the last even behind the last of all saith another a superlative of a superlative The least of the Apostles The chiefest of sinners saith another the best servant that Christ Jesus ever had upon earth Lord how long have I been absent from this beauty of holiness how little have I enjoyed it How ignorant is my knowledge how feeble my devotion how cold my charity How farre am I from being like unto an Angel but then how far am I from being like unto God! How much do I want of that Righteousness which becometh the Gospel of Christ In a word when we truly seek Righteousness we seek it with that heat and eagerness as if we had never sought it never panting more after the water of life then when vve are full For in the second place where there is this desire there is a taste and a savour of the power of Righteousness What we seek we seek for some good we find in it The Philosopher calleth it a pregustation as in a new-born babe of milk which maketh it so greedy of the teat Ex quibus sumus ex illis nutrimur We are nourished with something which is congruous and proportionable to that of which we consist And that is the reason why one man is affected with this another with that and every object doth not please every eye alike It is so with the body and it is so with the soul In the ways of evil we find it The Envious man hath an evil eye an evil disposition and if full of envy then followeth murther deceit malignity The Wanton hath an eye full of the adulteress and he waiteth for the twilight The Revenger hath a sanguine soul and he thirsteth for bloud And it is so in the vvayes of Righteousness For as they who are after the flesh savour the things of the flesh Rom. 8.5 so they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit They that have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soft and sweet disposition are ever pouring themselves forth in mercy and seeking the opportunity to do good They that have a broken heart breathe forth nothing but grones and prayers and supplications David was described to be a man after God's own heart and Procopius telleth us that was seen in his bounty and liberality For where the heart is of a Divine constitution there will follow the labour and pain or as Tertullian calleth it the operation of love Nihil incongruum appetitur We seek and desire that most which is most proportioned and agreeable to our disposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and temper of our soul If the same mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus if Christ as Paul speaketh be fully formed in us we shall seek the things of Christ which have near relation to those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and every thing which standeth in opposition to Christ will be as distasteful to us as if it were Antichrist In a word if we love Righteousness we shall seek it For in the last place this will force a boldness upon us to venture upon any thing how terrible soever which the World and the Devil can place between us and Righteousness Be it Pleasure we slight it be it Wealth we count it dung be it Honour we disgrace it We shall lose all that we have rather then our honesty be poor rather then perjured forfeit our life rather then our fidelity deliver up our bloud to the persecutor rather then our conscience be any thing that his power can make us rather then be those unrighteous persons which none can make us but our selves We shall seek Righteousness through good report and evil report through honour and dishonour through the valley of tears and shadow of death through hell it self even that hell which wicked men and atheists make upon earth Righteousness is most amiable and lovely and attractive in it self but it doth not appear so to flesh and bloud but to men of divine constitution who can receive it with the greatest horrour can be put upon it with poverty and contempt with mockings and scourgings with imprisonment and death it self When we are carnal and our wills perverse then we turn away from the precepts of Righteousness our spirits fail us and our hearts are dead within us as if Righteousness were a Medusa's head to turn us into stones Then we begin to paint it over to make restrictions and limitations that we may seem to come near unto it we call Evangelical precepts counsels we make that which is necessary arbitrary and call great plagues peace What lesser sin do we not dispense with
Ye Angels that do his will They are but finite agents and so not able to make good an infinite loss They are in their own nature mutable and so not fit to settle them who were more mutable more subject to change then themselves not able to change our vile bodies much less to change our souls which are as immortal as they yet lodged in tabernacles of flesh which will fall of themselves and cannot be raised again but by his power whom the Angels worship In prison we were and CVI ANGELORVM written on the door miserable captives so deplorably lost that the whole Hierarchie of Angels could not help us And if not the Angels not Moses sure though he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nearest to God and saw as much of his Majesty as Mortality was able to bear Heb. 3.5 6. The Apostle tells us he was faithful in all his house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a servant but Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Son Smite he did the Aegyptians and led the people like sheep through the wilderness But he who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Captain of our salvation as he is stiled v. 10. was to cope with one more terrible then Pharaoh and all his host to put a hook into the nostrils of that great Leviathan to lead not the people alone but Moses also through darkness and death it self able to uphold and settle an Angel in his glorious estate and to rayse Moses from the dead Not Moses then but one greater then Moses Not the Angels but one whom the Angels worship who could command a whole Legion of them Not a Prophet Or if a Prophet the great Prophet which was to come If an Angel the Angel of the Covenant Certè hic Deus est even God himself Now Athanasius's Creed will teach us that there is but one God yet three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We must then find out to which of the Persons this oeconomie belongeth Not to the Father That great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is his He bringeth his first begotten into the world ch 1.6 that he may declare his name unto his brethren ch 2. Not the Holy Ghost We hear him ch 3. as an Herald calling to us To day if yee will hear his voyce And he is Vicarius Christi Christs Vicar on earth supplyeth his place in his absence and comforteth his children It must needs then be media Persona the second and middle Person the Son of God Matth. 8.29 Luke 4.41 The office will best fit him to be a Mediatour Ask the Divels themselves when he lived they roared it out Ask the Centurion and them that watched him at his death they speak it with fear and trembling Matth. 27.54 Truly this was the Son of God Christ then our Captain is the Son of God But God hath divers Sons some by Adoption and they are made so some by Nuncupation and they are but called so and some by Creation and they are created so They who rob and devest Christ of his Essence yet yeild him his Title and though they deny him to be God yet call him God's Son We must follow then the Philosophers method in his description of moral Happiness proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of negation and to establish Christ in his right of Filiation tell you 1. he is not a Son not adoptivus filius God's adopted Son who by some great merit of his could so dignifie himself as to deserve that title This was the dream or rather invention of Photinus A very dream indeed For then this Similation were not of God to Man but of Man to God the Text inverted quite No Imitatur adoptio prolem Adoption is but a supply a grafting of a strange branch into another stock But he whose name is The Branch grows up of himself of the same stock and root God of God very God of very God made manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 2. not Filius nuncupativus God's Son by nuncupation his nominal Son Such a one Sabellius and the Patro-passiani phansied as if the Father had been assimilated and so called the Son impiously making the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost not three Persons but three Names 3. Lastly not Filius creatus God's created Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mere Creature and of a distinct essence from his Father as the more rigid Arians nor the most excellent Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in substance like unto the Father but not consubstantial with him as the more moderate whom the Fathers called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 half-Arians conceived To these Hereticks we reply Non est Filius Dei He is not thus the Son of God And as Aristotle tells us that his Moral Happiness is the chief Good but not that Good which the Voluptuary phansieth the Epicures Good nor that which Ambition flyes to the Politicians Good nor that which the Contemplative man abstracteth an universal notion and Idea of Good So may the Christian by the same method consider his Saviour his chief bliss and happiness and by way of negation draw him out of those foggs and mists where the wanton and unsanctified wits of men have placed him and bring him into the bosome of his Father and fall down and worship God and man Christ Jesus Behold a voyce from heaven spake it Matth. 3.17 17.5 This is my beloved Son We may suspect that voice when Photinus is the Echo An Angel from heaven said He shall be called the Son of the most High Luke 1.32 Our Faith starts back and will not receive it if Sabellius make the Glosse Our Saviour himself speaks it I and my Father are one John 10.30 The Truth it self will be corrupted if Arius be the Commentator To these we say He is not thus the Son of God Naz. Orat. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To contract the Personality with Sabellius or to divide the Deity with Arius are blasphemies in themselves diametrally opposed but equally to the truth The Captain of our salvation is the true Son of God begotten not made the Brightness of his Father streaming from him as Light from Light his Image not according to his humane Nature as Osiander but according to his Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image and Character not of any qualities in God but of his Person the true stamp of his substance begotten as Brightness from the Light as the Character from the Type as the Word from the Mind Which yet do not fully declare him Quis enarrabit saith the Prophet Who shall declare his generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 53.8 Thy faith is thy honour a great favour it is that thou art taught to believe that he is the eternal begotten Son of God The manner is known only to the Father who begat and to the Son who is begotten If thy busy curiosity lead thee further 〈◊〉
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
We have also the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their Blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance and that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased and multiplyed it We see him in his Word we see him through the Blood of Martyrs and we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen and alive 1 Cor. 15.3 4. secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeateth it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Augustines and let it pass for his sake When the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appeareth as visible as a mountain There is more in this VIVO than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He liveth in as much as He giveth life There is vertue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls He will raise them nay he hath done it already Col. 2.12 3.1 We are risen together with him and we live with him We cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this VIVO it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christ's Living breatheth life into us In his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca And this is such a one an eternal pattern Plato 's Idea or common Form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this This is a true and real an efficacious and working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ lose his power when he had raised himself but as he is so it is everlasting and worketh still to the end of the world Perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which Christ wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he meaneth to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now VIVO I live is as loud to raise our Hope as the last trump will be to raise our Bodies And how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour Christ's life derives its vertue and influence on both Soul and Body on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath both Understanding and Will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made We do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel â—o perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be it will be done whether we will or no But to Awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be Renewed and raised in the inward man to Die to sin and Live to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept And though this Life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 Phil. 2.13 yet a necessity and a law lieth upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner There will be a change in both As the flesh at the second so the soul at the first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata If I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but Christs Phil. 2.5 Job 17.13 14 having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst Corruption is our father and the Worm our mother and sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the World and it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it self Death hath dominion over us For let us call the World what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christ's life we shall rise fairly not with a mouth which is a sepulchre but with a tongue which is our glory not with a withred hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient ear not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our Life Col. 3.3 saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it thereby a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practical application of his glorious resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the love of the world the Devil who is the Prince of the world is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idleness we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self But when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings Mal. 4.2 When we worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands 2 Cor. 4.11 then the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh then we have put off the old man yea in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertullian speaketh Candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead Matth. 21.32 but of the living We see now what virtue and power there is in this VIVO in the Life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as Eternity it self Hebr. 6.20 Hebr. 7.16 For as he liveth so behold he is alive for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever being made not after the law of a carnal commandment after that law which was given to
it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any Keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these Keyes too long in our hands For though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romish party wheresoever they find keys mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the Keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the key of David Rev. 3.7 which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth was not given to the Apostles but is a regality and prerogative of Christ who only hath power of Life and Death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calleth himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings Phil. 2.8 9. He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2.7 11. He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable and fit subjects for his power to work upon which nevertheless will have its operation and effect either let us out or shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death Were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darkness and oblivion for ever But Christ living infuseth life into us that the bands of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place For it is impossible it should hold them You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell For how can Light dwell in Darkness How can Purity mix with stench How can Beauty stay with Horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and be both true yet this is such a contradiction as unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Matth. 5.18 Heaven and earth may pass away but Christ liveth for evermore and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self Rev. 6.8 And again There was a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and he had power to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth But now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger us and fling us down that we may rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self Job 18.14 Death was the King of terrors and the fear of Death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures less delightful and our virtues more tedious made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own dare look upon Death in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertullian and are ready to meet him in his most dreadful march with all his army of Diseases Racks and Tortures Man before he sinned knew not what Death meant then Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so do Christians with Death Having that Divine Image restored in them they are secure and fear it not For what can that Tyrant take from them Col. 3.3 Their life That is hid with Christ in God Psal 37.4 It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord. Matth. 6.20 It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified Gal. 5.24 their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keyes in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing as troubled S Augustine to define what it is We call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses and of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death because it is so profitable and advantageous to us It was indeed threatned but it is now a promise or the way unto it for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised It was an end of all it is now the beginning of all It was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it We may say it is the first point and moment of our after-eternity for it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them We live or rather labour and fight and strive with the World and with Life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and press forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the Spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our souls and we from our miseries and temptations and this living everliving Christ gathereth us together again breatheth life and eternity into us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the main articles of our Faith 1 Christs Death 2. his Life 3. his eternal Life and last of all his Power of the Keyes his Dominion over Hell and Death We will but in a word fit the ECCE the Behold in the Text to every part of it and set the Seal Amen to it and so conclude And first we place the ECCE the Behold on his Death He suffered and dyed that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and raise thee from both and wilt thou learn nothing from his compassion
Reproch then Misery and Affliction then Persecution and Death being compassed about with these terrours is a matter of difficulty in regard of our Weakness and Frailty which loveth not to look upon Beauty in such a dress and of that domestick war which is within us and that fight and contention which is between the Flesh and the Spirit And in this respect it is a narrow way and we must use a kind of violence upon our selves to work through it to our end But yet it is shewn and manifested and the knowledge of the way is not shut up and barricadoed except to those who are not willing to find it but run a contrary way by some false light which they had rather look upon and follow then that which leadeth them upon the pricks upon labour and sorrow and difficulty Whatsoever concerneth a Man is easie to be seen for it is as open as the Day In other passages and dispensations of himself in other effects of his power and wisdome God is a God afar off but in this which concerneth us he is near at hand Jer. 23.23 he is with us about us and within us In other things which will no whit advantage us to see he maketh darkness his pavilion round about him Psal 18.11 but in this he displayeth his beams His way is in the whirlwind Nah. 1.3 Psal 77.19 and his footsteps are not known Why he lifteth up one on high and layeth another in the dust Why he now shineth upon my tabernacle and anon beateth upon it with his tempest Why he placeth a man of Belial in the throne and setteth the poor innocent man to grind at the mill Why he passeth by a brothel-house and with his thunder beateth down his own temple Why he keepeth not a constant course in his works but to day passeth by us in a still voice and to morrow in an earthquake as it is far removed out of our ken and sight so to know it would not promote or forward us in our motion to happiness We are the wiser that we do not know these things For there is no greater folly in the world then for a mortal finite creature to discover such a mad ambition as to desire to know as much and be as wise as his Creatour This was my infirmity Psal 77.10 saith David I was even sick when I did think of it and he checketh himself for it Behold the world is my stage and here I must move by that light which God hath offered me and not be put out of my part to a full shame by a bold and unseasonable contemplation of his proceedings not run out of my own wayes by gazing too boldly on his My business is to embrace this Good Psal 91.11 12. and that will be my Angel to keep me in all my wayes that I dash not my foot against a stone against perplext and cross events which are those stones we so hardly digest I cannot know why God lifteth up one and pulleth down another but if I cleave to this Psal 75.7 this will lift up my head even when I am down It is not fit I should know why the wicked prosper Jer. 12.1 but by this light I see a Serpent in their Paradise which will deceive and sting them to death Why they prosper I cannot find out but he that seemeth to hide himself cometh so near me as to tell me that their prosperity shall slay them Prov. 1.32 that their greatest happiness is their greatest curse and if there be a hell on earth it is better then their heaven It is not convenient for me to know things to come quem mihi Horat. l. i. od 11. quem tibi Finem Dii dederint what will be my end and what will be theirs to know the number of their dayes how long they shall rage and I suffer These are like the secrets of great Princes and they may undo us and therefore they are lockt up from us in the prescience and bosome of God and he keepeth the key himself and will not shew them But cast thy burden upon him Psal 55.22 do thy duty exercise thy self in that which he hath shewn and then thou mayest lye down and rest upon this that their damnation sleepeth not 2 Pet. 2.3 that their rage shall not hurt thee and that thy patience shall crown thee In a word If it be evil and thou foreseest it it may cast thee down too low and if it be good it may lift thee up too high and thy exaltation may be more dangerous then thy fall Psal 34.14 1 Pet. 3.11 but eschew evil and follow that which is good and this will be a certain prophesie and presage of a good end be it what it will whether it come to meet thee in the midst of rayes or of a tempest These things God will not shew thee because thy eye is too weak to receive them Nor in the next place will he answer thy Curiosity and determin every question which thou art too ready to put up nor redeem thee from those doubts and perplexities which not Knowledge but Ignorance hath led thee into and so left thee in that maze and labyrinth out of which thou canst not get For it favoureth more of Ignorance then of Knowledge to venture in our search without light to conclude without premisses and to affect the knowledge of that which we must needs know was yet never discovered and therefore can never be known That Good which is good for us God bringeth out of the treasurie of his Wisedome Psal 34.8 and layeth it before us and biddeth us come and see how gracious he is But that which is curiosae disquisitionis as Tertullian speaketh of a more subtle nature he keepeth from our eyes For Religion may stand fast as mount Sion though it have not those deeper speculations to support it which many times supplant and undermine it and rob it of that precious time and those earnest endeavours which were due and consecrated to it alone What a fruitless dispute might that seem to be between S. Hierome and S. Augustine concerning the Original of the Soul when after long debate and some heat and frequent intercourse of letters S. Augustine himself confesseth in his Retractations De origine animae nec tunc sciebam nec adhuc scio Concerning the Soul's original I knew nothing then and know as little now What a needless controversie arose between the Eastern and the Western Bishops concerning the time of the keeping of the Feast of Easter when whensoever they kept it they gave some occasion to standers by of fear that they kept it both with the leaven of malice and uncharitableness And what a weakness is it to put that to the question which before inquiry made we may easily know we shall never find Many such questions have been in agitation many such inquiries made and some others of another
We cover the naked with our cloth and God clotheth us with joy We convert a sinner and shine as stars We part with a few shekels of silver and the hand of Mercy worketh and turneth them into a crown We sow temporal and transitory things and the harvest is Eternity Whilest we make them ours they are weak and impotent but when we part with them they work miracles and remove mountains all that is between us and blessedness Matth. 6.27 All the riches in the world will not add one cubit to our stature but if we thus tread them under our feet they will lift us up as high as heaven Nulla sunt potiora quà m de misericordia compendia The best gains are those we purchase with our loss and the best way to find our bread is to cast it upon the waters Eccl. 11.1 Will you see the practice of the primitive Christians I do the rather mention it because methinketh I see the face of Christendome much changed and altered and Christians whose plea is Mercy whose glory is Mercy who but for Mercy were of all men most miserable who have no other business in the world then to save and help themselves and others using all means to dry up the fountain of Mercy shaping to themselves virtutem duram ferream bringing forth Mercy in a coat of a mail and like Goliath with an helmet of brass standing as Centinel as a Guard about our wealth with this loud prohibition to all that stand in need Col. 2.21 Touch not Tast not Handle not Let us therefore look back and see what they were in former times and we shall find them so unlike to those of succeeding generations that they will rather be brought under censure then set up as a pattern for imitation For we are as far removed from their Piety as we are from the times wherein they lived They I am sure thought Mercy a virtue and the chief virtue of the Gospel a virtue in which they thought it impossible to exceed They made it their daily bread to feed others Melior est racematio c. Their gleaning-grapes were much better then our Vintage Justine Martyr in his Apology for the Christians telleth us that that which they possessed they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. bring it into a common treasury Tertullian calleth it arcam communem a common chest Nor was this Benevolence exacted as a tribute from those who desired to be joyned with them in communion as the Heathen did calumniate but every man did sponte conferre saith Tertullian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr voluntarily and what he would And that which was gathered was committed to the hands or trust of the Bishop and after when he was taken up with other matters more proper for his calling to the Deacons which by them was laid out for the clothing of the naked the maintenance of the poor of orphans and of old men to redeem captives to succour men who had been shipwrackt by sea and those who were in prison for their profession and the Gospel of Christ Plus nostra misericordia insumit vicatim quà m vestra superstitio templatim saith Tertullian Our Mercy layeth out more in the streets on the poor then your Superstition doth on your Gods in your Temples our Religion hath a more open hand then your Idolatry And to this end they had matriculas egenorum certain Catalogues of the names of their poor brethren personarum miserabilium persons as thy termed them miserable How many of them were there who Eth. l. 10. as Aristotle speaketh did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatly exceed in their liberality and did seem to be more merciful then the Lord requireth Orat. 10. Nazianzene telleth us of his Mother Nonna that she was possest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an immoderate and unmeasurabâ—e desire of bestowing her goods that she was willing not onely to sell all that she had but even her very children for the use and relief of the poor Gorgonia her daughter suckt this pious and melting disposition though not from her breasts yet from her good example Who stript her self of all committed her body to the earth and left no other legacy to her children but her great example and the imitation of her virtues which she thought was enough to enrich them though they had nothing else S. Hierome telleth us of his Paula that though she were eminent in many virtues yet her Liberality did exceed and like a swelling river could not be kept within the banks Hoc habebat voti ut mendica moreretur She wisht for that which most men do fear as much as Death it self and her great ambition it was that she might dye a begger We might instance in more And these examples have shined in the Church as stars of the fairest magnitude But after-ages have thought them but comets looked upon them and feared them And though they know not well how to condemn this exceeding piety yet they soon perswade themselves and conclude that they are not bound to follow it and so are bound up as in a frost in the coldness and hardness of their hearts because some did seem to overflow and pass their limit These indeed are strange examples but yet S. Basil delivereth a doctrine as strange Orat. in famem siccitat for he would not give it as his counsel if it had not truth to commend and confirm it If thou hast but one loaf left in thy house saith he yet if a poor man stand at thy doors and ask for bread bring it forth and give it him with thy hands lifted up to heaven whilest thou doest that which God requireth and for thy own supply reliest on the Providence of thy Father which is in heaven Do it in his name and in his name thou shalt be fed assuredly Thou hast parted with thy one loaf here but his Power to whom thou givest it can and will multiply it For they that thus give are as wells which are soon drawn dry but fill the faster and the more they are exhausted the fuller they are I know not whether it may be safe to deliver such a doctrine in these daies and therefore we will not insist upon it and these examples which I have held up to you may be transcendent that we may not bind every man to reach them These pious Women may seem perhaps to have stretcht beyond the line and exceeded the bounds of moderation but yet we cannot but think that this was truly to go out of the world whilest they were in it And we may observe that this excess is incident to great and heroick spirits who as it is said of Homer and Sophocles sometimes swelling above that proper and ruled sublimity of speach wherein they did excell do generosè labi erre and fall more nobly and with-greater commendation then others who spin an even but course thread and are so far
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
delightful but what is it to the splendour of Virtue who would look upon a face that could see Virtue naked What is Honour that is blasted with a breath with a frown to immortal Glory What is the Merchants Pearl to the Kingdome of Heaven What are Pleasures which are but for a season to those which are for evermore Hebr. 11.25 What is a span of Time a Moment to Eternity And certainly were these outward things which do but please and tempt and withdraw us from better the onely reward of goodness these aery fugitive envenomed glories all that we should find at the end of our race no wise man vvould stoop to reach them up If these vvere the end of our hopes we were of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 If this vvere all the heaven that vvere promised vve should not believe there vvas either a God or Heaven Compare them if you please vvorldly glories vvith spiritual blessings The one come tovvard us smiling and make us mirth and melody but they soon turn their back and leave us sad and disconsolate in the very shadovv of death The other present themselves at first with great distast to flesh and bloud because we look upon them through a sad and dark medium through Disgrace and Affliction and Death it self but if we look often and converse familiarly with them we shall see in them Beauty and Riches and Heaven and God himself And is it not a great deal better for a while to watch and strive and fight it out and afterwards rejoyce and triumph as conquerours then by the impatience of one hour to be slaves for ever De Patientia Quid enim est malum nisi impatientia boni saith Tertullian For what is evil what is our yielding to temptations what is the slacking of our watch but our want of patience towards that which is good Thus if we compare them we shall soon discover their deformity and on holy desires and strong resolutions as with the wings of a dove fly swiftly away that we may be at rest Thus if we know them they can hardly hurt us For what Pliny spake of Monsters and Prodigies is true either of fair or black Tentations Ostentorum vires in eorum potestate sunt quibus portenduntur Prout quaeque accepta sunt ità valent Plin. Nat. hist l. 28. c. 3. As of the one so of the other their power is no greater then they would have it to whom it is shewed and presented and are of force onely so far as they are received have no power to hurt us but from our selves And therefore we must deal with them as they did with those prodigies neglect and flight them that they may not hurt us beat down crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts disgrace and vilifie every imagination that exalteth it self against God hath them with a perfect hatred For not to yield is to overcome To study and learn and know temptations and find out where their great strength lyeth and cut it off to consider them as they are not in appearance but reality to contemn and put them by is that which maketh way to victory and prepareth us for the coming of the Lord. Nihil in bello oportet contemni But thirdly let us not so neglect and slight them as to let them come up too near us for so to neglect an enemy is to strengthen him But let us stand at the doors and repress and put them back at the first sight either of their false glory or their borrowed terrour Psal 119.37 Let us turn away our eyes Nemo diu tatus periculo proximus Cypr. Epist 61 that they behold not vanity Periculosum est crebrò videre per quae aliquando captus sis A dangerous thing it is nay a folly to behold those objects and look upon them often which may be a snare unto us to dally with the point of that sword which may enter our bowels to sport with that serpent which may sting us to death What should they do long in the Eye Why should they stay so long in the Phansie till she gild and beautifie them and set them up as an idole to worship No let us watch and rowse up our selves and beat down every altar as soon as it is erected there Nay stay the Phansie in its work repress them here in causis in their beginnings take these Babylonish brats and dash them against the stones Psal 137.8 9. For he that doth not meet and withstand an evil in the approch hath fairly invited it to come forward Qui morbo non occurrit sibi manus infert He that doth not use speedy means to keep back a disease is as he that killeth himself A thought begetteth Delight Delight begetteth Consent Consent is seen in Action Action begetteth Custome Custome Necessity Necessity Death It was but an Object but an Apparition but a thought at first and now it is Death And he that was willing a Thought should lead in the front was willing also that Death should come in the rear It is not safe thus to dally with a Temptation to resolve not to act it and yet to act in the mind which will soon make the basis and ground-work of a resolution to be afraid of the action and yet commit the sin to nourish that sin in my bosome which I am ashamed to be seen with abroad which will yet at last break forth before the Sun and the people to harbour that in my closet which within a while will be on the house top That of Bernard is most true though it be in rhythme Non nocet sensus ubi non est consensus The sense hurteth not where there is no consent It is no sin for the Eye to see or for the Ear to hear or for the Phansie to set up objects within her in that shape in which they appear But it is a hard matter as S. Hierome speaketh integritate mentis abuti voluptatibus to abuse those pleasures which daily present themselves to a good end to have them as Aristippus had his Lais and not to have them to live in pleasure without that delight which maketh tentation a sin We may say of Temptations as he did of Fortune Vna est ad illam securitas non toties illam experiri The best security we have against Fortunes fickle inconstancy is not to make tryal of her too often not to want her So of Tentations It is not good to look too often upon them when they flatter not to see too often not to hear too often not to open our eyes or our ears to vanity For as they who busie themselves in worldly affairs when all things succeed prosperously do begin at last to dote on riches and love them for themselves which they sought for at first but for their necessity so what we look upon at first as a common object by degrees insinuateth it self and
attributes which are not onely visible but also speak unto us to follow this heavenly method His Wisdome instructeth us his Justice calleth upon us and his Mercy his eloquent Mercy bespeaketh us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us to turn from our evil wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance It hath these three Gods Wisdome Justice Mercy to seal and ratifie it and make it authentick We come now to the Dictum it self It being God's we must well weigh and ponder it And we shall find it comprehendeth the duty of Repentance in its full latitude As Sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore conversio ad creaturam an aversion and turning of the soul from God and an inordinate conversion and application to the Creature so by our Repentance we do referre pedem start back and alter our course work and withdraw our selves from evil waies and turn to the Lord by cleaving to his laws which are the mind of the Lord and having our feet enlarged we run the way of his commandments A straight line drawn out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further you draw it the weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bowed and brought back again towards its first point The Wise man telleth us that God at first made man upright Eccles 7.29 that is simple and single and sincere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many inventions mingled himself and ingendered with divers extravagant conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines drawn out now to this object by and by to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh sometimes on the world now on Idolatry anon on Oppression and so at a sad distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his centre Therefore God seeing Man gone so far seeing him weak and feeble wound and turned about by the activity of the Devil and sway of the Flesh and not willing to lose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as in instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistency in his former and proper place to draw him back from those objects in which he was lost and to carry him on forward to the rock out of which he was hewed Whilest he is yet in his evil wayes all is out of tune and order for the Devil who hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost hom de Paenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon Repentance and boldness and senslesness upon Sin But Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our turn we see the danger we plaid with and the horrour of those paths in which we sported we see in our flight a banishment in every sin a hell and in our turn a Paradise Divers words we have to express the true nature of Repentance but none more usual full and proper then this of Turning This includeth all the rest It is more then a bare Knowledge of our sins more then Grief more then an Acknowledgement or Confession more then a Desire of change more then an Endeavour For if we do not turn a termino ad terminum from one term or state to another from every sin we now embrace to its contrary if we do not fly and loath the one and rest and delight in the other our Knowledge of sin is but an accusation our Grief is but a frail and vanishing displacency Lugentibus lachryma quietis recreationis loco sunt Moses Mairmon Doct. perplex l. 3. c. 41. our Tears are our recreation our Desires but as thought and our endeavours proffers But if we turn and our turn be real these instruments or antecedents These disposing and preparing acts must needs be so also true and real We talk much of the Knowledge and Sense of our sin when we cannot be ignorant of it of Grief when we have no feeling of Confession and Acknowledgement when the heart is not broken of a Desire to be good when we resolve to be evil of an Endeavour to leave off our sins when we feed and nourish them and even hire them to stay with us In udo est Maenas Attis Pers sat 1. Our Repentance is languid and faint our Knowledge without observation our Grief without compunction our Acknowledgement without trepidation our Desire without strength and our Endeavour without activity But they are all complete and made perfect in our Turn and Conversion If we turn from our sins then we know them and know them in their deformity and all those circumstances which put so much horrour upon them If we turn our head will be a fountain of tears Jer. 9.1 and the eye will cast out water our Confession will be loud and hearty Lam. 1.16 our Desire eager and impatient our Endeavours strong and earnest and violent This Turn is as the hinge on which all the rest move freely and orderly Optima paenitentia nova vita saith Luther The best and truest repentance is a new life A Turn carrieth all the rest along with it to the end the end of our Knowledge of our Grief of our Acknowledgement of our Desires and Endeavours For we know our sins we bewail them we acknowledge them we desire and endeavour to leave them in a word we turn that we may be saved First it includeth the Knowledge of our sins He that knoweth not his malady will neither seek for cure nor admit it He that knoweth not the danger of the place he standeth in will not turn his face another way Isid Pelusiot l. 1111. ep 149 He that dwelleth in it as in a paradise will look upon all other that yield not the same delight as upon hell it self He that knoweth not his wayes are evil will hardly go out of them Malum notum res est optima saith Luther It is a good thing to know evil For the knowledge of that which is evil can have no other end but this To drive us from it to that which is good When Sin appeareth in its ugliness and monstrosity when the Law and the Wrath of God and Death it self display their terrours that face is more then brass or adamant that will not gather blackness and turn it self But this prescript To know sin one would think should rather be tendred to the Heathen then to Christians Act 15.29 Quando hoc factum non est quando reprehensum quando non permissum Cic. pro M. Caelio Rom. 1.31 To them some sins were unknown as Revenge Ambition Fornication and therefore they are enjoyned to abstein from them yet even those which the light of Nature had discovered to them they did commit though they knew that they who did commit them were worthy of death But to Christians it may seem unnecessary For they live in the Church which is
more general and spreading evil It lameth and cripleth us maketh us halt in our Turn that we turn not soon enough Or if some judgment or affliction turn us about our Turn is but a profer a turn in shew not in reality Or if we do turn indeed it is but a Turn by halves a Turn from this sin but not from all Or a false hope deludeth us and we are ever a turning and never turn Our December is our January our last moneth is our first day of the year our thirty dayes hence Cato cras proficiscetur h e. post triginta dies Plutarch in vita Cat. Utic nay our last hour is to morrow is now as Cato's servants used to say of him Our picture is a man our shadows substances our feigned repentance true our limb a body our partial Repentance a complete one and a single Turn from one sin universal Therefore the Schools tell us that Presumption standeth at greater opposition with Hope then with Fear One would think indeed that Presumption did include Hope and shut out Fear and so she doth even lead us madly over all over the Law and over the Gospel over the threatnings of God and the wrath of God upon the point of the sword upon death it self But yet Presumption is a deordination of Hope rather a brutish temerity and a wilful rashness then Hope It moveth contrary to her Hope layeth hold on the promises but it is the condition that stretcheth forth her hand she looketh up to heaven but it is this Turn it is Repentance that quickneth her eye But Presumption runneth hastily to the Promises but leapeth over the condition or treadeth it under her feet Presumption is in heaven already without grace without Repentance without a Turn Or at best it is serotina latewards in the evening in the shutting up of our dayes or ficta a formal repentance or manca a lame and imperfect Repentance A false Hope it is and therefore most contrary to Hope and therefore no Hope at all Now this sudden and vehement call should have moâ—e force and energy with it then to awake and startle us onely and make us for a while look about It is so loud to hasten our Repentance to give it a true being and essence to complete and perfect and settle it for ever Our Repentance is our Sacrifice And it must be 1. Matulinum sacrificium a morning early Sacrifice 2. Vivum a living Sacrifice breathing forth piety and holiness not a dead carcase or the picture of Repentance 3. Integrum a Sacrifice without blemish perfect in every part and 4. Juge a continued sacrifice a Repentance never to be repented of a Turn never to turn or look back again I. There is a time for all things under the Sun saith the Wiseman Eccles 3. and it is a great part of wisdome occasionem observare properantem to watch and observe a fair opportunity and not to let it slip away between our fingers to hoyse up our sailes dum ventus operam dat Sin ep 7. as he in Plautus speaketh whilst the winde sitteth right to fill them And as it is in civil actions so it is in our Turn in our Repentance If we observe not the wind if we turn not with the wind with the first opportunity we set out too late When another wind will come towards us is most uncertain the next cannot be so kind and favourable We confess Nullus cunctationis locus est in eo consillo quod non potest landari nisi peractum Otho apud Tac. l. 11. Hist Advise and Consultation in other things is very necessary but full of danger in that action where all the danger is not to do it Before we enter upon an action to sit down and cast with our selves what may follow at the very heels of it to look well upon it to handle and weigh it to see whether life or death will be the issue of it is the greatest part of our spiritual wisdome But after sin to demur and when we are running on in our evil wayes to consult what time will be best to turn in what opportunity we shall take to repent bewrayeth our ignorance that when time is we know it not or our sloth that though we see the very nunc the very time of turning though opportunity even bespeaketh us to turn yet we carelesly let it fly from us even out of our reach and will not lay hold on it Thus saith Solomon The desire of the slothful slayeth him Prov. 21.25 He desireth but doth nothing to accomplish his desire and so he desireth to be rich and dieth poor He thinketh his Ambition will make him great his Covetousness rich his Hope happy that all things will fall into his lap sedendo votis by sitting still and wishing for them and this keepeth his hands within his bosome Not so much his Sloth as his Desire killeth him Turn ye turn ye the very sound of it might put us in fear that Now were too late that the present time were not soon enough But the present is too soon with us We will turn We will find a convenient time All our turning is in desire Desire delayeth our Turn and Delay multiplyeth it self to our destruction We will then inforce this duty 1. from the Advantage and benefit we may reap from our strict observing of opportunity 2. from the Danger of delay First Opportunitas à Portu saith Festus Festus verbo Opportunes Dicitur ab eo qâ—òd navigantibus maximè utiles optatique siut portus Opportunity hath its denomination from the word which signifieth a haven I may say Opportunity is a haven We see they who are tossed up and down on the deep make all means stretch their endeavours to the farthest to thrust their torn and weather-beat vessel into the haven where they would be Quà m optati portus How welcome is the very sight of the shore to ship-wrackt persons what can they wish for more Behold saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation Here is a haven and the tide is now Now put in your broken vessel now thrust it into the haven Opportunity is a prosperous gale Delay is a contrary wind and will drive you back again upon the rocks and dash you to pieces Indeed a strange thing it is that in all other things Opportunity should be a haven but in this which concerneth us more then any thing a rock Job 14.15 Prov. 7.9 Gen. 27.41 The twilight for the Adulterer Isaac's funeral for Esau's murder Felix his convenient time for a bribe Acts 2â— 25 26. And to Opportunity they fly tanquam ad portum as to a haven The Adulterer waiteth for it Esau wisht for it Felix sought for it What should I say Opportunity worketh miracles It filleth the hands with good things raiseth the poor out of the dung defeateth counsels
forward in the wayes of righteousness till we are brought to that place of rest where there is no evil to turn from but all shall turn to our salvation Thus much of the Exhortation Turn ye turn ye The next is the Reason or Expostulation For why will ye die O house of Israel The Twentieth SERMON PART V. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye die O house of Israel WHY will ye die is an Obtestation or Expostulation I called it a Reason and good reason I should do so For the moriemini is a good reason That we may not die a good reason to make us turn But being tendered to us by way of expostulation it is another reason putteth life and efficacy into it and maketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason invincible and unanswerable The Israelite though now in his evil wayes dareth not say he will die and therefore must lay his hand upon his mouth and turn God who is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free from all passion being to deal with Man subject to passion seemeth to put on Passion Exprimit in se ut exprimat de te saith S. Augustine He expresseth a kind of anger that thou mayest abhorre thy self for sin He seemeth sorrowful that thou mayest be melted into tears He putteth on a kind of wonder that thou mayest have confusion of face Will ye die why will ye die It moveth him much that Israel his chosen people should die that his house that he built upon a strong foundation and strengthened and supported on every side should even whilest he shined upon it sink and swerve and fall to ruine that the signature on his right hand should be defaced that the apple of his eye should be thus toucht This is enough to put God himself into passion to make him cry out and complain QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die O house of Israel Certainly the manner of speach maketh it evident that moved he was So it is Affections are commotions saith the Philosopher and many times make us speak what otherwise we would not Figura dictionis the tenour of our speach varieth with our mind and our very action and gesture and voice put on the shape of our affections The language here is sharp and violent not per rectam orationem by way of a plain and positive declaration of our mind but by a sudden and well-prest interrogation It is quick and round and leaveth a mark and imputation behind it He saith not The wayes ye walk in are evil turn from them If ye turn not ye run upon your death but QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die The question putteth it out of all question that God was either angry or sorrowful or struck with admiration The language of a quiet mind is as quiet as the mind This is sudden and vehement the very dialect of one in passion What coast soever the wind came from the storm is raised the tempest is high QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die is the voice of anger and sorrow the breathings and noise of a troubled mind Indeed all those attributes of Gods Will which we call affections from some likeness and analogy they bear with ours his Goodness and Love his Anger and Hatred his Fear and Grief may seem to meet here in this Obtestation His Love speaketh for he would not have us die His Anger speaketh for he is angry with us because we will not live He hateth Death and therefore would destroy it His Hope speaketh Isa 3◠1◠for he doth expect and wait that he may be gratious And he is even jealous of men that they will yet run on in their evil wayes and then he speaketh in his Fear and is brought to his Nè fortè I will not do this lest they sin Exod. 33.3 and I consume them in the way He is brought lower yet even to a kind of Despair QVID FACIENDVM What should I do to my vineyard Isa 5.4 which I have not done He loveth us even when we are his enemies that we may be his friends He is afraid of our ruine when we run boldly toward it He is troubled at our folly when we pride our selves and triumph in it He serveth with our sins and is wearied with our iniquities Isa 43.24 when we run at large and feel them not He is sorry for our transgressions when we leap and rejoyce in them He would be our God and we will not be his people He would have us live and we will die Good God! what an horrid spectacle is an Israelite a Christian in viis malis that runneth on in his evil wayes God cometh not near him but in a tempest at the very first sight of him he is in passion beginneth to ask questions is at his QVARE Why will ye do this And we cannot easily discern whether it be Quare exprobantis an upbraiding question or Quare indignantis an angry question or Quare dolentis a question raised and forced out by grief or Quare admirantis a question of one amazed at such extremity of folly or Quare accusantis whether it be not the form of a Bill of accusation and he draw articles against them Indeed this last includeth all For by way of upbraiding in grief and anger full of astonishment seeing such strange contempt he proceedeth against them ex formula formally and legally as we use in our Courts of Justice So that here as Rhetoricians will tell us Interrogatio pro accusatione est this Question is a plain Indictment And the arguments to convince them are drawn 1. Ab Inutili from the danger of the way Ducit ad mortem It leadeth unto death 2. Ab absurdo from the incongruity and absurdity which apparently followeth if they turn not That any should be willing to die is a great folly but nothing more absurd then that Israel should that the house of Israel should fall to pieces and ruine it self So then for the Convertimini or Repentance a reason we find but for the Moriemini for Death none at all nay many reasons there are we should not die First Gods Goodness who calleth after us warneth us of the danger qui minatur mortem nè inferat who threatneth death that we may not die Secondly He hath made us an house built us together on a sure foundation that we may mutually support each other from ruine and destruction Thirdly Death as the Philosopher calleth it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most terrible thing that can shew it self to flesh and blood able to fright any man from those wayes which lead unto it So that the conclusion which can follow hence can be no other then this If we die it will be in nobis ipsis in our selves and we shall be found guilty of our own destruction and the onely murderers of our own souls We have here a large field to walk over but we must
a sin against their brother We are doubtless guilty of our brothers death say they one to another And Said I not saith Ruben that you should not offend against the lad Thus whilst our Sun shineth clear without cloud or tempest all conscience of sin is asleep and we forget what we have done even as soon as we have done it and it is to us as if it never had been or appeareth in such a shape as we can delight in But when the weather changeth and the tempest is loud when the pale countenance of Death is turned towards us then our countenance changeth because our mind doth so we have other thoughts and other eyes and by the very sight of Death are led to the sense of sin Now our sin which was buried in oblivion is raised again and appeareth in its own shape with that terrour and deformity that we begin to hate and at last are willing to destroy it Death hath a terrible look but the sight of Death may make us live Numb 21.9 as the brazen serpent did heal those who were bitten in the Wilderness onely by being looked upon For Secondly having a sense and feeling of our sin we begin to advise with our selves and ask counsel of our Reason which before we had left behind us and our thoughts which were let loose and sent abroad after every vanity that came near us are collected and turned inward upon themselves to revolve and see what an ill flight they made and what poyson they gathered where they sought for Manna and how they were worse then lost in such deceitful objects Aristot Rhet. 2. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear bringeth us saith the Philosopher to consultation Call the steward to account Luke 16 3. and he is presently at his What shall I do When a King goeth to war and War is a bloody and fearful trade the Text telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 14.31 he sitteth down first and taketh counsel Fear is the mother of a Device and Consultation dieth with Fear When we presume counsel is but a reproch and is taken as an injury and when we despair it is too late There be three things saith S. Basil which perfect and consummate every consultation and bring it to the end for which it was held First we consult secondly we settle and establish our consultations and last of all we gain a constancy and perseverance in those actions which our consultations have engaged and encouraged us in And all these three we ow to Fear Did we not fear we should not consult did not Fear urge and drive us on we should not determin and when this breath departeth our counsels fall and all our thoughts perish Present Christ unto us in all his beauty with his spicy cheecks and curled locks with hony under his tongue as he is described in the Canticles present him as a Jesus and we grow too familiar with him Present him on the mount at his Sermon and perhaps we will give him the hearing Present him as a Rock and we see a hole to run into sooner then a foundation to lay that on which is like him and we run on with ease in our evil wayes having such a friend such an indulgent Saviour alwayes in our eye 1 Thes 4.16 But present him descending with a shout and with the trump of God and then we begin to remember that for all these evil wayes we shall be brought into judgement Eccl. 11.9 Our counsels shift as the wind bloweth and upon better motion and riper consideration we are ready to alter our decrees For these three follow close upon each other Pâ—llemus horrescimus circumspicimus Epist saith Pliny First Fear striketh us pale then putteth us into a fit of trembling at last wheeleth us about to see and consider the danger we are in This consideration followeth us nor can we shake it off longiorÃsque timoris causa timor est This wind increaseth as it goeth driveth us to consultation carrieth us on to determin and by a continued force bindeth and fasteneth us to our counsels And therefore Aquinas telleth us that our Turn proceedeth from the fear of punishment tanquam à primo motu as from that which first setteth it a moving For though true Repentance be the gift of God yet fear worketh that disposition in us by which we turn when God doth turn us The Fear of punishment restraineth us from sin In that restraint a Hope of pardon sheweth it self Upon this Hope we build up and strengthen our Resolution And at last we see the horrour of sin not in the punishment but in the sin hate our folly more then the whip and our evil wayes more then Death it self And this we call a filial Fear which hath more of Love then Fear and yet doth not shut out Fear quite For a good son may fear the anger of a good father And thus God is pleased to condescend to our weakness and accept this as our reasonable service at our hands though our chiefest motive to serve him at first were nothing else but a flash from the Quare moriemini nothing else but a Fear of Death For in the last place this is a principal effect of the fear of punishment In Psalm 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil As it bringeth us to consultation so is it a fair introduction to piety it self Fear taketh us by the hand and is a Schoolmaster unto us And when fear hath well disciplined catechized us then Love taketh us in hand and perfecteth our conversion So that we may seem to go from Fear to Love as from a School to an University Gen. 28.12 Jacob seeth a Ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reaching up to heaven And we may observe that Jacob maketh Fear the first step of the ladder For when he awaketh as in an ecstasie he cryeth out How dreadful is this place v. 17. So that Fear is as it were the first rung and step of the ladder God is on the top and Angels ascend and descend Love and Zeal and many Graces are between Think what we please disgrace it if we will and fasten to it the badge of Slavery and Servility yet it is a blessed thing thus to fear it is the first step to happiness and one step helpeth us up to another and so by degrees we are brought ad culmen Sionis to the top of the ladder to the top of perfection to God himself whose Majesty first woundeth us with fear and then gently bindeth us up and maketh us to love him who leadeth us through darkness through dread and terrour into great light maketh us tremble first that we may at last be as mount Sion and stand fast and firm for ever Psal 125.1 We now pass and rise one step higher to take a view of this Fear of punishment not onely as useful but lawful and commanded not
all men to behold it We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ 1 Tom. ep 141. S. Hierom had the last trump alwayes sounding in his ears And declaring to posterity the strictness of his life his tears his fasting his solitariness he confesseth of himself Ille ego qui ob gehennae metum tali me carcere damnaveram scorpiorum tantùm socius ferarum I that condemned my self to so strait a prison as to have no better companions then scorpions and wild beasts for fear of hell and judgement did all this And he was not ashamed to acknowledge that not so much the love unto piety nor the Authour of it as the dread of hell and punishment confined and kept him constant in the practice of it And what should I say more Hebr. 11.32 for the time would fail me to tell you of other Saints of God who through fear wrought righteousness obtained promises out of weakness were made strong Behold Love in its highest elevation in its very Zenith behold it when it was stronger then Death Cant. 8.6 look upon the glorious army of Martyrs They had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings Heb. 11.36 37 yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment They were stoned and slain with the sword And greater love hath no man saith our Saviour then this John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friend In Psal 118. And yet S. Ambrose will tell us that this great love was upheld and kept in life by this gale of wind by Fear that the fear of one death was swallowed up in the fear of another the fear of a temporal in the fear of an eternal The bloody Pagans to weaken their faith urged the fear of present death Consule tibi Pont. Diac. vit Cypriani Noli animam tuam perdere Favour your self Cast not away your life Reverence your age And these they thought suggestions strong enough to shake their constancy and resolution But the consideration of the wrath of God and eternal separation from him did strengthen and establish them What is my breath to eternity What is the fire of persecution to the fury of Gods wrath What is the rack to hell Et sic animas posuerunt With these thoughts they laid down their lives and were crowned with Martyrdome We cannot now think that these Martyrs sinned in setting before their eyes the horrour of death and fear of hell or think their love the less because they had some fear or that their love was lost in that which was ordained and commanded as a means to preserve it Their love we see was strong and intensive and held out against that which laid them in the dust but lest it should faint and abate they borrowed some heat even from the fire of hell and made use of those curses which God hath denounced against all those who persevere not to the end The best of men are but men but flesh and blood subject to infirmities so that in this our spiritual warfare and navigation we should shipwrack often did we not lay hold on the anchor of Fear as well as on that of Hope Each temptation might shake us each vanity amaze us L. 6. Mor. c. 27 each suggestion drive us upon the rocks but ancora cordis pondus timoris saith Gregory the weight of Fear as an ancor poyseth us and when the storm is high settleth and fasteneth us to our resolutions We walk in the midst of snares Ecclus 9.13 saith the Wise man and if we swerve never so little one snare or other taketh us for there be many a snare in our lusts a snare in the object a snare in our religion and a snare in our very love If Fear come not in to cool and allay it to guide and moderate it our Love may grow too warm too saucy and familiar and end in a bold presumption Therefore S. Paul in that his parable of the Natural and Wild Olive advising the new-engrafted Gentile not to wax bold against the Root Rom. 11.20 maketh Fear a remedy Be not high minded saith he Trust not to your love of God nor be over-bold with Gods love to you because he hath grafted you in but fear And he giveth his reason v. 21. For if God spared not the natural branches much less will he spare you Fear then of being cut off if S. Paul's reason be good is the best means to repress in us all proud conceits and highness of mind which may wither the most fruitful and flourishing branch and make it fit for nothing but the fire Thus is fear necessary and prescribed to all sorts of men to them that are fallen that they may rise and to them that are risen that they may not fall again to them that are weak that they may be strong and to those that are strong that their strength deceive them not And yet an opinion is taken up in the world That Fear was onely for Mount Sinai that it vanisht with that smoke and was never heard of more when that Trumpet was laid by Hebr. 12.18 19 We will not have this word spoken to us any more There is no blackness nor darkness nor tempest in the Gospel but all is to be done out of pure love Luke 1.74 that we being delivered from our enemies may serve him without fear Nor is this conceit of yesterday but the Devil hath made use of it in all ages as an engine to undermine and blow up the Truth it self and so supplant the Gospel which is the wisdome of God unto salvation that so he may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory Nyssen speaketh sport with us in our evil wayes lead us on in our dance and wantonness of sin and so carry us along with musick and melody to our destruction Tertullian in his book De Praescriptionibus adversùs haeret c. 43. mentioneth a sort of Hereticks who denyed that God was to be feared at all unde illis libera omnia soluta whence they took a liberty to sin and let loose the rains to all impiety Saint Hierome relateth the very same of the Marcionites and Gnosticks In 4. Hos and it is probable Tertullian meant them For say they Iis qui fidem habent nihil timendum If we have Faith we may bid Fear adieu how many and how foul soever our sins be God regardeth what we believe not what we do and if our faith be true the obliquity of our actions cannot hurt us J. Gers T. 1. After these ex eodem semine from the same root sprung up the Begardi and Begardae and others who from their opinion That no sin could endanger the state of those who were predestinated and justified took their name and were called Praedestinatiani the Praedestinarians After these the Libertines breathed forth their blasphemy with the like impudence Calvin contra Errores Anabaptistarum whom Calvin wrote
Supper They had Moses preacht in their Synagogues every Sabbath day so have we I speak like a fool we have more the Gospel interpreted or abused every Sabbath-day nay every day of the week I had almost said every hour of the day We are baptized with a Sermon and we are married with a Sermon and we are buried with a Sermon When we take our journey a Sermon is our farewell and when we return it is our welcome home If we feast a Sermon is the Grace before it If we sayl a Sermon must weigh ancor And if we fight a Sermon is the alarum to battel If we rejoyce we call to the Preacher to pipe to us that we may dance for many times we chuse our Preachers as we do our Musicians by the ear and phansie not by judgment And it must needs be a rare choice which a Woman and Ignorance makes and such an one is to us as a lovely song of one that hath a very pleasant voice And if we be in grief he must turn the key Ezek. 33.32 and change his note and mourn to as that we may lament A Sermon is the grand Sallet to usher in every dish like Sosia or Davus in the Comedy scarce any scene or part of our life without it It is Prologus galeatus a Prologue that will fit either Comedy or Tragedy every purpose every action every business of our life In a word What had the House of Israel which we have not in measure pressed down They had the favour and countenance of God they had the blessings of the Basket So had we if we could have pinned it and kept them in and not plaid the wantons in this light and so let them fly away from us that we can but look after them and sadly say We had them They had Temporal blessings we have Graces and Spiritual endowments more Light richer Promises mo and more gracious Privileges then they Their administration was with glory but ours is more glorious 2 Cor. 3.7 c Glorious things are spoken of this City glorious things are seen amongst us able to deceive a Prophet nay if it were possible the very Elect. For he that shall see our outward formality the earnestness the demureness the talkativeness of our looks and behaviour when we flock and press to Sermons he that shall hear our noyse and zeal for Religion our anger and detestation against Idolatry even where it is not he that shall scarcely hear a word from us which soundeth not as the word of God he that shall see us such Saints abroad will little mistrust we come so short of the honesty of the Pagans in our shops and dealings He that shall see such a promising form of godliness cannot presently discover the malice the fraud the uncleanness the cruelty that lieth wrapt up in it like a Devil in light He that shall see this in the City cannot but say of it as the Prophet Samuel did of Eliab Surely the Lords anointed is here This is the faithful City 1 Sam. 16.7 This is the City of the Lord. But God who seeth not as man seeth nor looketh on the outward appearance but on the heart may account us dead for all these glories this pageantry this noise which to him is but noise as the found of their trumpet who will not fight his battels but fall off and run to the enemy as a song of Sion in a strange land psal 137.3 4. even in the midst of Babylon We read in our books that it was a custome amongst the Romanes when the Emperour was dead in honour of him to frame his image of wax and to perform to it all ceremonies of state as if the image were the living Emperour The Senate and Ladies attended the Physicians resorted to him to feel his pulse and Doctorally resolved that he grew worse and worse and could not escape a Guard watcht him Nobles saluted him his dinner and supper at accustomed hours was served in with water with sewing and carving and taking away his Nobles and Gentlemen waited as if he had been alive there was no ceremony forgot which State might require Thus hath been done to a dead carcase and if we take not heed our case may be the same All our outward shews of Churches of Sermons of Sacraments our noyse and ostentation which should be arguments of life and antidotes against death may be no more then as funeral rites performed to a carcase to a Christian to a City whose iniquities are loathsome of an ill-smelling savour to God The great company of Preachers whereof every one choseth one according to his lusts may stand about it and do their duty but as to an image of wax or a dead carcase the Bread of life may be served in and divided to it by art and skill as every man phansieth it may be fitted and prepared for every palate when they have no tast nor relish of it and receive no more nourishment then they that have been dead long ago Be not deceived Psal 68.19 Benefits are burdens God loadeth us daily with benefits saith David burdens which if we bear not well and as we should do will grind us to pieces All prerogatives are with conditions and if the condition be not kept they turn to scorpions They either heal or kill us they either lift us up to bliss or throw us down to destruction There is heaven in a privilege and there is hell in a privilege and we make it either to us We may starve whilst we hang on the breasts of the Church we may be poisoned with antidotes Those mouthes that taught us may be opened to accuse us the many Sermons we have heard may be so many bills against us the Sacraments may condemn us the blood of Christ cry loud against us and our profession our holy profession put us to shame John 14.9 Have I been so long with you and knowest thou not me Philip saith our Saviour Hast thou had so good a Master and art thou yâ—t to learn Hast thou been so long with me and deniest thou me Peter Hast thou been so long with me and yet betrayest me Judas Hath Christ wrought so many works among us and do we go about to kill and crucify him Hath he planted Religion true Religion amongst us and do we go about to dig it up by the roots Hath the Gospel sounded so long in our ears and begot nothing but words words that are deceitful upon the balance words which are lies So many Sermons and so many Atheists So much Preaching and so much defrauding So many breathings and demonstrations of love and so much malice in the house of Israel So many Courts of justice and so much oppression So many Churches and so few Temples of the Holy Ghost What profess Religion and shame it cry it up and smother it in the noise and for a member of Christ make thy self the head of 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
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
not dare so oft to offend and which is most strange had not Christ so loved us we had not persecuted him had he not been a sacrifice we had been more willing to have made him an ensample For we hope his Love that nailed him to the cross will be ready to meet and succour and embrace us in any posture in any temper whatsoever though we come towards him clothed with vengeance Zeph. 1.8 in anger and fury with strange apparel in wantonness and lust polluted and spotted with the world Thus doth the sophistry of our Sensual part prevail against the demonstrations of Reason which doth bring Christ in as dead for our sins but withall as a Lord to help us to destroy Sin by the power of his death For both these are friendly linked together in the Lord's Death his Love and his Ensample Et magnum nobis quà m parvo constat exemplum And this great example how little doth it cost us Not to be spit upon and buffeted and crucified not to suffer and die It is no more then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew it forth in our selves till he come Which is the Act here required and my next Part. And this we must do if we will be fitted for this Feast and be welcome guests at the Lord's Table Divines have told us of a threefold manner of feeding on the flesh of Christ a Sacramental alone a Spiritual alone and a Sacramental and Spiritual both Which distinction may not be rejected if it be rightly understood 1. They that come to this Table and receive the Sacrament without faith and devotion may be said indeed to eat the Body of Christ as that name is usually given to the Sacrament and sign and the Sacrament of the body of Christ after a manner is the Body of Christ and yet that of S. Augustine is true He that sheweth not forth his death eateth not his flesh but is guilty of the body and bloud of Christ a Communicant and no Communicant an enemy and not a guest fitter to be dragged to the bar then to be placed at his Table And what a morsel is that with which we take down Death and the Devil together 2. Some there be whom not contempt and neglect but necessity the great patroness of humane infirmitie keepeth from the Lord's Table and Sacrament and yet they shew his death look up upon his cross draw it out in their heart in bleeding characters apply it by faith and make it their meditation day and night And these though they feed not on him Sacramentally yet spiritually are partakers of his body and bloud and so made heirs of salvation though they eat not this bread nor drink of this cup. For what cannot be done cannot bind Some Actions are counted as done though they be never brought forth into act If the heart be ready though the tongue be silent as a viol on the wall yet we sing and give praise Persecution may shut up the Church-doors yet I may love the place where God's honour dwelleth Persecution may seal up the Priest's lips shut me up in prison and feed me with no other bread then that of affliction yet even in the lowest dungeon I may feed on this Bread of life I may be valiant and not strike a blow I may be liberal and not give a mite hospital when I have not a hole to hide my head in He that taketh my purse from me doth not rob me of my piety he that sequestereth my estate yet leaveth me my charity and he that debarreth me the Table cannot keep me from Christ As I told you out of Ambrose Manducans non manducat I may eat the Bread and not be partaker of the Body so Non Manducans manducat Though I take not down the outward elements yet I may feed on Christ But happy yea thrice happy is their condition who can do both so receive panem Domini the Lord's bread that they may receive also pane 〈◊〉 Dominum be partakers of the Lord himself who is the Bread of life Blessed is he that thus eateth Bread with him at his Table For he feedeth on him Sacramentally and spiritually both Here he findeth those gracious advantages his Faith actuated his Hope exalted his Charity dilated the Covenant renewed the Promises and Love of Christ sealed and ratified to him with his bloud And this we shall do this comfort and joy we shall find even a new heaven in our souls if we shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and publish his death Which we may look upon at first as a duty of quick dispatch but if we look upon it again well weigh and consider it we shall find that it calleth for and requireth our greatest care and industry For it is not to turn the story of Christ's passion into a Tragedy to make a scenical representation of his death with all the art and colours of Rhetorick to declaim against the Jews malice or Judas's treason or Pilate's in justice but rather to declaim preach against our selves to hate and abhor crucifie our selves Nos nos homicidae We we alone are the murtherers Our Treachery was the Judas that betrayed him our Malice the Jew which accused him our Perjury the false witness against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him Our Pride scorned him our Envy grinned at him our Luxury â—pit upon him our Covetousness sold him Our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thorns our sores lanced with his spear and the whole body of Sin stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life This indeed doth shew his death This consideration doth present the Passion but in a rude and imperfect piece The death of the Lord is shewn almost by every man and every day Some shew it but withal shew their vanity and make it manifest to all men Some shew it by shewing the Cross by signing themselves with the sign of it Some to shew it shew a Body which cannot be seen being hid under the accidents of Bread and Wine Some shew their wit instead of Christ's Passion lift it up as he was upon the cross shew it with ostentation Some shew their rancour and malice about a feast of Love and so draw out Christ with the claw of a Devil Phil. 1.15 Some preach it as S Paul speaketh out of envy and strife and some also of good will Some preach it and preach against it Some draw out Christ's Passion and their Religion together and all is but a picture and then sound a trumpet make a great cry as the painter who had drawn a Souldier with a sword in his hand did sound an alarm that he might seem to fight But this doth not shew the Lord's death but as Tertullian speaketh id negat quod ostendit denieth what it sheweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew to preach the death of the Lord is more We may observe that
down to meat and will come forth and sâ—rve thee that is will fill thee with all those comforts enrich thee with all those blessings give thee all that honour which he hath promised to those who trie and examine and make themselves fit to be guests at his Table I must conclude though I should proceed to the second Part the Grant and the Privilege But he that hath performed the first is already intitled to the second and may nay ought to eat of that bread â—nd drink of that cup For even the Privilege it self is a Duty But the time is spent and I fear your patience I will but re-assume my Text and there needeth no more Use For you see my Text it self is an Exhortation Let a man examine himself A man that is every man Let him that taketh the tribunal and sitteth upon the life and death of his brethren that exalteth himself as God and taketh the keyes out of his hand and bindeth and looseth at pleasure that wondereth how such or such a man who is not his brother in evil as factious as himself dareth approch the Table of the Lord let him examine himself Let him look into himself and there he shall see a great wonder a Wolf and a Lamb a John Baptist and a Herod a Devil and a Saint bound up together in one man the greatest prodigy in the world and as ominous as any ominous to his neighbours ominous to Commonwealths and ominous to all that live in the same coasts And let them examine themselves who with their Tribunitial VETO forbid all to come to this Feast who will not submit to their Examination Young men and maids old men as well as children they that have been catechised and instructed in season and out of season whom they themselves have taught for many years all must pass by this door of Trial to the Table of the Lord. I shall be bold to ask them a question since they ask so many WHERE IS IT WRITTEN Ostendat scriptum Hermogenis officina It is plain in my Text that we are bound to examine our selves but that some should be set apart to examine others we do not read And quorsum docemur si semper docendi simus why are we taught so much if we are ever to learn Certainly that Charity believeth little which will suspect that a man full of years and who hath sate at his feet many of them should now in his old age and gray hairs be to be instructed in the principles of faith It is true we cannot be too diligent in instructing one another in the common salvation we cannot labour enough in this work of building up one another in our holy faith and it concerneth every man to seek knowledge at those lips that preserve it and if he doubt to make them his oracle who are set over him in the Lord For Ignorance as well as Profaneness maketh us uncapable of this Privilege unfit to come to this Feast But this formal and magisterial Examination for ought we can judge can proceed from no other Spirit then that which was sent from Rome to Trent in a Cloke-bag and there at the XIII Session made Auricular Confession a necessary preparative for the receiving of the Sacrament Sacramental Confession and Sacramental Examination may have the same ends and the same effects and there may be as idle and as fruitless questions asked at the one as at the other But I judge them not onely call upon them in the Apostle's words Let them examine themselves whether Love of the world Love of preeminence or Love of mens souls do fan that fiery zele which is so hot in the defence of it Let them also examine themselves who are God's familiars and yet fight against him who know what is done in his closet and do what they please at his footstool and so upon a feigned assurance of life build nothing but a certainty of death who think nay profess and write it that the Elect of which number you may be sure they make themselves may fall into the greatest sins Adultery Murther and Treason and yet still remain men after God's heart and the members of Christ and that to think the contrary is an opinion Stygiae infernalis incredulitatis which upholdeth a Stygian and hellish incredulity and can proceed from none but the Devil himself Let these I say examine themselves And if this Luciferian pride will once bow to look into this charnel-house of rotten bones if the hypocrite will pluck off his visour and behold his face naked as it is in the glass of God's Word we need not call so loud on open and notorious offenders Intestinum malum periculosius These intestine secret applauded errours are most dangerous and that wound which is least visible must be most searched But the exhortation concerneth all Let the Pharisee examine himself and let the Publican examine himself Let the Oppressour examine himself and melt in compassion to the poor Let the Intemperate examine himself and wage war with his appetite Let the Covetous person examine himself and tread Mammon under his feet Let the Deceitful man examine himself and do that which is just Let him that is secure and let him that feareth Let him that is confident and let him that wavereth Let the proud spirit and let the drooping spirit examine himself Let every man examine himself Let every man that nameth Christ and in that Name draweth near to his Table depart from all iniquity And then behold here is a Grant passed over to them a Privilege enrolled and upon record They may eat of this bread and drink of thiâ— cup taste and see how gracious the Lord is be partakers of his body and bloud that is of all the benefits of his Cross Redemption Justification his continued and uninterrupted Intercession for us Peace of conscience unspeakable Joy in the holy Ghost And when he shall come again in glory they shall have a gracious reception and admittance to sit down at his Table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs and all the Apostles and that noble army of Martyrs in the Kingdom of heaven And with these ravishing thoughts I shut up all and leave them with you to dwell and continue and abound in you and to bring you with comfort on the next great Lord's day to the Table of the Lord. The Seven and Twentieth SERMON GAL. I. 10. The last part of the Verse For do I now perswade men or God or do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ WHich words admit a double sense but not contrary for the one is virtually included in the other As first If I should yet do as I did when I was a Jew seek to please men and to gain repute and honour and wealth fit my doctrine to their corrupt disposition I should never have entred into Christs service which setteth
through which we are to pass It shall be a Rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it It shall be a Shop of pretious receipts proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium Mortis a place where Death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and its terrour It shall be the Temâ—le of God an House of feasting and joy where Sorrow may look in at the window at the sensitive part but be soon chased away It shall be even ashamed of its tabernacle of flesh 2 Cor. 5.4 and pant and beat to get out that it may be clothed upon and mortality be swallowed up of life In brief this will make us strangers and keep us strangers even such strangers as shall be made like unto the Angels and whom when they come to their journeys end the Angels shall meet and welcome and receive into their Fathers house where they shall rest and rejoyce for evermore I have done with my Text and now must turn your eyes and thoughts upon this Pilgrime here this Honoured and worthy Knight who hath now passed through the buisie noise and tumults of this world to his long home and rest In which passage of his as I have received it from men of place and worth and unquestioned integrity he hath so exactly performed the part and office of a stranger and Pilgrime that he is followed with the applause of them that knew him And as in his death he is become an argument to prove the doctrine which I have taught so in his life he made himself a great ensample for them to look upon who are now travelling and labouring in the same way Look upon him then in every capacity and relation either as a part of the Common-wealth or a member of the City or a Father of a Family and you shall discover the image and fair representation of a Stranger in every one of these relations For no man can take this honour to himself to be a good Common-wealths-man or a good Master of a family but he who is as David was a Stranger All the ataxie and disorder all the noise we hear and mischiefs we see in the world are from men who love it too well and would live and dwell and delight themselves in it for ever For the first I may truly say as Lampridius did of Alexander Severus He was vir bonus Reipublicae necessarius a good man and of necessary use in the Common-wealth He laid all the strength he had to uphold it and preferred the peace and welfare of it to his own as well knowing that a private house might sink and fall to the ground and yet the Common-wealth stand and flourish but that the ruine of the whole must necessarily draw with it the other parts and at last bury them in the same grave And here he found as rough a passage as Aufidienus Rufus in Tacitus did in that commotion and Rebellion of Percennius l. 1. Annal. who was pulled out of his chariot loaden first with scoffs and reproches and then with a fardel of stuff and made to march foremost of all the company and then asked in scorn whether he bore his burden willingly or whether so long a journey was not tedious and irksome to him So was this worthy Knight taken from his wife whom he entirely loved and from his children those pledges of his love and conveyed to ship and by ship to prison in a remote City where he found some friends and then was brought back from thence to a prison nearer home where if the Providence of God had not gone along with him and shadowed him he had met the plague So that in some measure that befell him which S. Paul speaketh of himself 2 Cor. 11.26 He was in journeying often in perils of waters in perils of his own country-men in perils in the city in perils on the sea in perils amongst false brethren But it may be said What praise is it to suffer all this 1 Pet. 4.15 2 19 20. if he suffer as an evil-doer and not for conscience towards God I come not hither to dispute that but am willing to refer it to the great Trial which shall open every eye to behold that truth which now being dâ—zled with fears and hopes and even blinded with the love of the world it cannot see But if it were an errour and not knowledge but mistake that drove him upon these pricks yet sure it was an errour of a fair descent begot in him by looking stedfastly on the truth and by having a steady eye on the oath of God Eccl. 8.2 And if here he fell he fell like a Christian who did exercise himself to keep a good conscience Acts 24.16 For he that followeth not his Conscience when it erreth will be as far from hearkning to it when it speaketh the truth For even Errour it self sheweth the face of Truth to him that erreth or else he could not erre at all And yet I need not fear to say it it is an errour of such a nature that it may rather deserve applause then censure even from those who call it by that name For we do not use to fall willingly into so dangerous vexatious and costly errours errours which will strip us and put a yoke upon us errours which will put us in prison No to fly from these we too oft fly from the Truth it self when it is as open as the day and commandeth our faith though not our tongue and forceth our assent when we renounce it Private Interest Love of our selves Fear of restraint Hope of advancement these are the mothers commonly of this monster which we call Errour when we do not erre and in these it is ingendred and bred as serpents are in carrion or dung He that erreth and loseth by it erreth most excusably and sheweth plainly that he would not erre For who would do that which will undo him Again take him in the City In this he bore the highest honour and filled the greatest place yet was rather an ornament to it then that unto him For he sate in it as a stranger and a pilgrime as a man going out of the world nor did so much consider his power as his duty which lookt forward and had respect to that which cannot be found in this but is the riches and glory of another world Therefore this world was never in his thoughts never came in to sowr Justice to turn Judgment into wormwood by corrupting it or into vinegar by delaying it There were no cries of orphans no tears of the widow no loud complaints of the oppressed to disquiet him in his passage which use to follow the oppressour even to the gates of hell and there deliver him up to those howlings which are everlasting How oft hath he been presented to me and that by prudent and judicious men as the honour and glory of
any one of these Amalekites live and reign in us and escape our hands even this one will find time and place to be our executioner We read that Tully had learnedly defended Popilius and saved his life and he for a reward afterwards cut off his Patrone's head You may easily apply it God grant we may never feel it applied He that cherisheth his sin which he should extirpate he that favoureth his sin he that defendeth his sin which he should arraign and condemn shall meet the same fate and fall as Tully did have no fairer a return made All he shall have from it is it will find a time to be his headsman If you will yet sin again you let that in to dwell and be familiar with you which the more friendly it is used the more enemy it will be and through all its smiles and flatteries make a way to fall upon you and destroy you Let us now pass from the Extent of the words to the Possibility of keeping them And if it were impossible to keep them our Saviour who is Wisdom it self would not leave it as a prescript He must needs be a good interpreter of Christ's words who lay in his bosom John the Disciple whom he loved 1 John 1.8 And he though he tell us that if we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves that is If we say we have no need of Christ and the knowledge of the Gospel to purge us from our sins yet chap. 5.18 is positive that whosoever is born of God sinneth not So that a difference we may observe between peccata habere and peccare between To have sin and To sin Joh. 9.41 As you may find it also If ye were blind ye should have no sin John 15 22. that is your sin would he padonable and If I had not come they had not had sin but now they have no cloke for their sin So that To have sin is not to remain in sin but To be guilty of those sins which God doth not but might punish if he would be extreme to mark what is done amiss To sin by ignorance or subreption to feel those sudden motions and perturbations those ictus animi those sudden blows and surprisals of the mind but then to mark and watch them and to be ready against them at the next assault For the less voluntary sin is the less sin it is And even these suggestions and motions are not so natural and rooted in us but that by long custom and violence upon our selves they may be so subdued as they shall not or but seldom rebel and assault and beat down the power of Reason It may be done and no doubt in many Saints of God it hath been done Which perfection though others attain not to they do not therefore presently come under the sentence of death For all sin doth not lay waste the conscience All sin is not inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace which presupposeth a possibility of avoiding all those sins which are repugnant to it as great sins and little sins if we be bold to commit them because they are little For thus a little sin little I mean in comparison may become a great sin Nay every sin which we carelesly admit of which we say as Lot did of Zoar Is it not a little one and my soul shall live even this may wound us to death For should we wilfully succour that enemy which he who made so gracious a Covenant with us came to destroy No If we fail by infirmity yet we must not fail through want of care and diligence Fot he that is born of God saith S. John keepeth himself that is setteth a watch and court of guard upon himself and that Wicked one toucheth him not For he is ready upon his guard with his buckler of faith to quench and repel the fiery darts of Satan And though he be tempted yet he falleth not into tentation It is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father speaketh Man who is of a compounded nature is the subject of that discord which Sin bringeth in God onely who is of a simple and uncompounded essence is impeccable For Simplicity and Indivisibility of essence is alwayes at peace with it self and cannot receive any change or alteration That Man is peccable himself doth plainly demonstrate by being a Man But that he should sin that is remain in sin is rather a matter of history then prophesie For he that forbiddeth him to sin prophesieth nay telleth him plainly that he may not sin The Law supposeth a possibility of being kept And that we sin is made good by the event rather then by reason For what reason can there be given that we should sin since nothing is more contrary to Reason then Sin A necessity there was that Man should be subject and obnoxious to sin for otherwise he had not been capable of virtue but that he should break out actually into sin there was no necessity Nulla necessitas delinquendi quibus una necessitas non delinquendi saith Tertullian There was no tie of necessity lay upon him to offend who was fenced and bound in by a Law that he might not offend But the Scripture saith S. Paul hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3 22. Rom. 3.23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God The Apostle delivereth this as matter of fact not as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles For he doth not say All must sin but All have sinned Therefore we may observe in that hot contention between the Orthodox and Pelagians when to build up Perfection in this life the Pelagians brought in the examples of the Saints of God which either had committed no mortal and devouring sin in the whole course of their lives or else had broke off their sins by repentance and afterward persevered to the end in holiness of life they found opposition on all hands not one being found who would give this honour to the Saints But where they urge that Perfection is not impossible where they speak not de esse but de posse not that it is so but that it may so not that men do not sin but that they may not S. Augustine himself joyneth hands with them Nam qui dicunt esse posse hominem in hac vita sine peccato non est illis continuò incantâ temeritate resistendum We must not be so rash as unwarily to oppose them who say it is possible for a man to live without sin in this life De peccator remiss l. 2. c. 6. And he addeth this reason For if we deny a possibility we at once derogate from the Will of man which inclineth to it and from the Power and Mercy of God who by his helping hand and gracious assistance may bring it to pass So that the onely difference between them was but this The one thought it possible by the power of Nature the other by
of a virtue and call it our Humility For that is true Humility with God quae caeteris cingitur virtutibus which is compassed about and guarded with the troop of all other virtues not which walketh securely in the midst of a multitude of transgressions When Christ biddeth us sin no more shall we be so humble as to sin more and more Pusillanimitas fingit quod sit Humilitas This is not Humility but base Pusillanimity and supine Negligence an Humility wrought in us by the love not of God but of the world not any one of the fruits of the good Spirit but of the Prince of darkness who careth not in what demure posture we fall so we fall into his snare Pure Humility before God and the Father is this Wholly to rely on him who is our strength and salvation and will never fail us unless we shrink and turn the back To adore him in his precepts and embrace him in his promises To lay hold on every good thought and inclination to foment and cherish it and not to make darkness our pavilion when he walketh in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks and speaketh unto us by his Spouse the Ministery of his Church To consider that as there be many temptations to sin so there be many fair allurements and provocations to obedience that as our Senses be the doors and portals by which Satan entereth so Reason is made to stand as a Sentinel and the Will by the assistance of God's Grace hath power to shut them up against him and not to shape a weakness in our Phansie which will make us weaker and carry it about with us as our Bona Dea or tutelary Saint to intercede for us and defend us from the guilt of sin Not to suppose that impotency which will quite disenable us Not so to acknowledge our sinful disposition as to make it either an occasion or apology for sin but as we have vowed and are bound by Covenant to strive and fight against it with all our heart and soul and with all the faculties we have To confess and bewail our weakness and look up to the God of all power and then advance and press forward as if we were strong Thus our obedience will stretch it self to the extent of the precept in that sense it is prescribed and we shall sin no more To this end thirdly let us not flatter our selves in a kind of ordinary course in a kind of fashion and formality of religion and bless and applaud our selves if we stand innocent from great transgressions from scandalous sins such as have shame written in their foreheads and such as the laws of men make dangerous or fatal As if to escape the prison were to be redeemed from hell and as if no disease were killing but the Plague when yet we see common diseases bring the heads of thousands into the grave If God could be held upon such easie and cheap terms if to abstain from great sins were not to sin at all then were the greatest Saints of God most miserable who made no end of cleansing their hearts and washing their hands in innocency Paul was a chosen vessel and Daniel greatly beloved these were the great favourites of God and likely of all others to find their Lord must indulgent yet they watched and prayed and were frequent in prayer which they needed not have done if their obedience might have been accepted at a cheaper rate Oh if this be the case of men so just so careful so high in the favour of God what then shall be the end of our partial imperfect and broken service If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear Now the reason of this is plain It is obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth And then every degree of sin is rebellion and can we raise rebellion and yet not forfeit our obedience Sin no more and your obedience is perfect If you sin again you are but rebels Watch therefore and pray lest thou enter into temptation Strive and fight against that sin which hath the Dominion over thee Thou sayest thou dost But how long How many moneths how many weeks how many dayes how many hours hast thou set apart for this spiritual exercise for this agony and contention And if thou canst not name a moneth a week a day an hour in which thou hast bid defiance to thy sin thou hast no reason to wonder that that sin should prevail against thee which thou never yet hadst will or courage to fight against in any one the least part of thy span of time Lastly take the Father's counsel Nè sit tibi minimum non negligere minima Let it not seem a small thing to thee to watch and fight against the smallest and least sins even those which are as nothing in thy eyes For even these may make a breach to let in Death upon thee Therefore thou must take up the whole armour of God to resist and keep them out One evil humour unpurged may be the death of the body one cranny unstopt may be the drowning of the ship one little sin unrepented of may be the destruction of the soul Then take heed thou make not use of thy father's art of hiding thy sin of paring and filing it till what was great be nothing How soon will a sin vanish out of sight in a clear day What a force have Profit and Power and Prosperity to make the greatest sin invisible or set it out of sight Profit persuadeth Power commandeth Prosperity flattereth and at this musick Conscience falleth asleep A rich Oppressour is just a cunning Politician is honest and a prosperous gallant Villain is a Saint What need we fear to sin again when Sin it self is made a virtue These Profit Power Prosperity are the Devils carpets which he spreadeth in our way or his green pastures through which he leadeth us to the chambers of Death Let us then take heed of these as of Hell it self and not sin again though it may make me rich not sin again though it may make me great not sin again though it may raise me to the highest place from thence to look down upon our shame and count it glory But let us abstain from all appearance of sin from the face and representation of it and hate it in a picture Thus if we watch over our selves if we seriously strive and fight against sin we shall sin no more or if we do we shall sin as men not Angels fall of frailty not as Lucifer from heaven And then if after a strict watch and guard set upon our selves we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins Now from the Extent of this Precept and the Possibility of observing it we come in the last place to discover the Danger of not observing
and bring forth fruit Matth. 13 5-8 For that is good ground not onely where Truth groweth but which is fit to receive it All forestalled imaginations and prejudicate opinions are as thorns to choke it up or they make the heart as stony ground in which if the Truth spring up it is soon parched for lack of rooting and withereth away What can that heart bring forth or what can it receive which is full already Ye have heard what Prejudice is In the next place consider the danger of it how it obstructeth and shutteth up the wayes of Truth and leaveth them unoccupied or to allude to the words of my Text how it spoileth the market I have shewed you the Serpent I must now shew you its Sting And indeed as the Serpent deceived Eve Gen. 3 1-5 so Prejudice deceiveth us It giveth a No to God's Yea maketh Men true and God a liar nulleth the sentence of death and telleth us we shall not die at all Ye shall die if this be the interpreter is Your eyes shall be opened and to deceive our selves is to be as Gods knowing good and evil I do not much mistake in calling Prejudice a Serpent For the biting of it is like that of the Tarantula the working of its venome maketh men dance and laugh themselves to death How do we delight our selves in errour and pity those who are in the Truth How do we lift up our heads in the wayes that lead unto death and contemn yea persecute them that will not follow us What a paradise is our ditch and what an hell do we behold them in who are not fallen into it Our flint is a diamond and a diamond is a flint Virtue is vice and vice virtue Errour is truth and truth errour Heaven is covered with darkness and hell is the kingdome of light Nothing appeareth to us as it is in its own shape but Prejudice turneth day into night and the light it self into darkness A setled prejudicate though false opinion will build up as strong resolutions as a true one Saul was as zelous for the Law as Paul was for the Gospel Hereticks are as loud for a fiction as the Orthodox for the Truth the Turk as violent for his Mahomet as the Christian for Christ Habet Diabolus suos martyres Even the Devil hath his Martyrs as well as God Mark 9.22 And it is Prejudice that is that evil Spirit that casteth them into fire and into water that consumeth or drowneth them 1 Sam. 15.32 that leadeth them forth like Agag delicately to their death If this poison will not fright us if these bitings be insensible and we will yet play with this Serpent let us behold it as a fiery Serpent stinging men to death enraging them to wash their hands in one anothers bloud turning plow shares into swords and fithes into spears making that desolation which we see on the earth beating down Churches grinding the facc of the innocent smoking like the bottomless pit breathing forth Anathemaes proscriptions banishment death If there be war this beateth up the drum If there be persecution this raised it If a deluge of iniquity cover the face of the earth this brought it in Is there any evil in the City which this hath not done This poison hath spread it self through the greatest part of mankind yea even Christendome is tainted with it and the effects have been deadly Errour hath gained a kingdome and in the mean while Truth like Psyche in Apuleius is commended of all yet refused of most is counted a pearl and a rich merchandise yet few buy it Ye have seen it already in general and in gross We will make it yet more visible by pointing as it were with the finger and shewing you it in particulars And first its biting is most visible and eminent in those of the Church of Rome For ye may even see the marks upon them Obstinacy Perverseness Insolency Scorn and Contempt a proud and high Disdain of any thing that appeareth like reason or of any man that shall be so charitable as to teach them which are certainly the signs of the bitings of this Serpent Prejudice if not the marks of the Beast Quà m gravis incubat How heavy doth Prejudice lie upon them who have renounced their very Sense and are taught to mistrust yea deny their Reason Who see with other mens eyes and hear with other mens ears nec animo sed auribus cogitant do not judge with their mind but with their ears Not the Scripture but the Church is their oracle And whatsoever that speaketh though it were a congregation of hereticks is truth And so it may be for ought they can discover For that theirs is the true Catholick Church is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which must be granted and not further sought into Once to doubt of it is heresie This prejudice once taken in That that Church cannot erre and though not well digested yet in a manner consubstantiated and connaturalized with them frustrateth yet forbiddeth all future judgment yea inhibiteth all further search or enquiry which may uncloud the Reason and bring her into that region of light where she may see the very face of Truth and so regain her proper place her office and dignity and condemn that which she bowed and submitted to when she was made a servant and slave of men and taught to conclude with the Church though against her self to say what that saith to do what that biddeth to be but as the echo of her decrees and canons though it be but in one as in her Bishop in many as in the Consistory in more as in a general Councel though it be but a name For they that lie under this prejudice in a manner do profess to all the world that they have unmanned themselves Prov. 20.27 blown out that candle of the Lord which was kindled in them that they received eyes but not to see ears but not to hear and reason but not to understand and judge that they are ready to believe that that which is black is white and that snow it self is as black as ink as the Academick thought if the Pope shall think good so to determine it To dispute with these is operam ludere to lose our labour and mispend our time It is altogether vain to seek to perswade those who will not be perswaded though they be convinced nor yield when they are overcome Though seven yea seventy times seven wisemen bring reason and arguments against them they do but beat the air What speak we to him of colours who must not see or urge him with reason who hath renounced it There cannot be a more prevalent reason given then that which Sense and Experience bring yet we see Bread and it is flesh we see Wine and it is very Bloud because the Church saith it There cannot be a more reasonable thing then that Reason should be our judge yet Reason
bargain who wanteth his eye-sight Again let not the authority of any man be the compass by which we steer For it may point to Beth-aven and call it Beth-el present us with a box whose title is TRUTH when it containeth nothing but the poyson of Falshood Why should there be such power such a spell such witchcraft in a name Why should the Truth be built upon a Church which must be built upon it or else it is not a Church Or why upon a name which though it be glorious in the world is but the name of a man who is subject to errour Tolle mihi è causa nomen Catonis saith Tully Cato was a name of virtue and that carried authority with it and therefore the Oratour thought him not a fit witness in that cause against Muraena So tolle è causa nomen Augustini Take away the name of Augustine of Luther Acts 4.12 of Calvine of Arminius when ye come to this mart There is but one name by which we can be saved and his name alone must prevail with us Hebr. 12.2 He onely hath authority who is the Authour and Finisher of our faith Let us honour others but not deifie them not pull Christ out of his throne and place them in his room There is not there cannot be any influence at all in a name to make a conclusion true or false If we have fixed it on high in our mind as in its firmament it will sooner dazle then enlighten us And it is not of so great use as men imagine For they that read or hear can either judge or are weak in understanding To those who are able to judge and discern Errour from Truth a Name is but a name and is no more esteemed For such look upon the Truth as it is and receive it for it self But as for those who are of a narrow capacity a Name is more likely to lead them into errour then into truth or if into Truth it is but by chance for it should have found the same welcome and entertainment had it been an errour for the Names sake All that such gain is They fall with more credit into the ditch Wherefore in our pursuit of Truth we must fling from us all Prejudice and keep our mind even after sentence past free and entire to change it upon better evidence and not tye our faith to any man though his rich endowments have raised his name above his brethren follow no guide but him that followeth right Reason and the Rule not be servants of men for though they be great yet there is a greater then they though they be wise yet there is a wiser then they even he that is the Truth it self Let Augustine be a friend and Luther a friend and Calvine a friend but the Truth is the greatest friend without which there is no such thing as a friend in the world When the rule is fixed up in a plain and legible character though we may and must admit of the help of advice and the wisdome of the learned yet nothing can fix us to it but right Reason He who maketh Reason useless in the purchase of Truth maketh a Divine and a Christian a beast or a mad man Suprae hoc non potest procedere insania It is the height and extremity of madness to judge that to be true and reasonable which is against my Reason For thus we walk amongst Errours as Ajax did amongst the Sheep and take this or that Errour for this or that Truth as he did the Rams one for Menelaus another for Ulysses and a third for Agamemnon It hath been said indeed that right Reason is not alwaies one and the same but varieth and differeth from it self according to the different complexions of times and places But this even Reason it self confuteth For that which is true at Rome is true at Jerusalem and that which was true in the first age of the world is true in this and will be true in the last though it bind not alike That Truth which concerneth our everlasting peace Hebr. 13.8 that which we must buy is the same yesterday and to day and for ever And as the Truth so our Reason is the same even like the decrees proposed to it Prov. 20.27 it never changeth This candle which God hath kindled in us is never quite put out Whatsoever agreeth with it is true and whatsoever dissenteth from it is false Affectus citò cadunt aequalis est ratio saith the Stoick The Affections alter and change every day but Reason is alwaies equal and like unto it self or else it is not Reason The Affections like the Moon now wax anon wane and at length are nothing They are contrary one to another and they fall and end one into another What I loved yesterday I lothe to day and what now I tremble at anon I embrace What at the first presentment cast me down in sorrow at the next may transport me with joy But the judgement of right Reason is still the same She is fixed in her tabernacle as the Sun still casteth the same light spreadeth the same beams rejoyceth to run her race from one object to another and discovereth every one of them as it is When we erre it is not Reason that speaketh within us but Passion If Pleasure have a fair face it is our Passion that painteth it If the world appear in glory it is our Passion that maketh it a God If Death be the terriblest thing in the world it is our Fear and a bad Conscience that make it so Right Reason can see through all these and behold Riches as a snare Pleasure as deceitful and Death though terrible to some yet to others to be a passage into endless life We may erre with Plato and we may erre with Socrates we may erre out of Passion and Prejudice these being the Mother and Nurse of Errour But that we should erre and yet have right Reason on our side is an errour of the foulest aspect for it placeth errour in Truth it self which is not Truth but as it agreeth with right Reason It is true indeed right Reason hath not power enough of it self to find out every Truth For as Faith Eph. 2.8 so all the precepts of Truth are the gift of God commentum Divinitatis saith Tertullian the invention of the Deity But it is true also that Reason is sufficient to judge and discern them when they are revealed according to his mind who revealed them and set up this light within us to this end Though the thing be above Reason yet Reason can judge it true because God who is Truth it self revealed it Take away the use of Reason ye take away all election and choice all obedience all virtue and vice all reward and punishment For we are not carried about in our obedience as the Sphears are in their motions or the brute creatures in theirs as natural or irrational
forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee Beloved the Truth is our lot our inheritance Agnoscite haereditatem in Christo saith the Father Acknowledge and keep the inheritance ye have by Christ not Peace onely but Truth also which is the mother of Peace Let no temptation though as strong as the King as Money as Profit make us yield to the sale of it but let our answer be like that of Naboth God forbid that we should give away the inheritance of Christ God forbid that when the World proferreth fairly to us we should give it for a smile or when our Lusts solicit we should give it up to satisfie them or when the Persecutor breatheth nothing but terrour we should sell it to our fears and at every question that is asked us deny and forswear it God forbid we should sell it as bankrupts do their lands for want or as wantons do for pleasure or as cowards do for safety or as Esau did his birthright for hunger or as the Patriarchs sold Joseph for envy For this were to sell our selves for that which is not bread Isa 55.2 Let the Truth be like the Land of promise which might not be sold for ever Levit. 25.23 because it was the Lord's and so Truth is the Lords and to be destitute of the Truth Ephes 2.12 is to be without God in this world Let us therefore love the Truth and keep it and hold it fast and we shall find the merchandise thereof better then the merchandise of silver Prov. 3.14 and the gain thereof then fine gold Isa 23.8 The merchants hereof are princes and the most honourable traffickers of the earth even Kings and Priests unto God The Lawyers question to Christ was Revel 1.6 What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life Matth. 19.16 17. The answer whereunto is Keep the commandments that is being interpreted the Truth for they both interpret each other This is the price of eternity With this in our hearts in our inward parts but made manifest by our hands in our outward actions we draw near unto happiness in full assurance of faith With this we purchase peace here for it is one seal to the covenant of peace and it shall open the gates of heaven and give us possession of the kingdome of peace with the God of Truth and Peace for evermore Which God grant Amen The Twelfth SERMON MATTH V. 10. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven THis is the last Beatitude of the eight and looketh back upon all the rest For by this the Christian is brought to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his height and perfection being never nearer heaven then when he is trod under foot upon earth never more righteous then when he suffereth for righteousness never more glorious then in his bloud The first seven consist in action Where we may behold the Poor man fighting against the Pomp of the world the Mourner slighting of Pleasure the Meek subduing his Anger the Just man hungring and thirsting after righteousness feeding on it himself and commending it as the best food to others working it himself and promoting it in others the Merciful binding up wounds and scattering his bread the Pure man washing his hands in innocency and clensing his heart and the Peace-maker closing up every breach and tying the bond of love at peace with himself and all men drawing all men together as far as in him lieth to be of one mind and one heart This last which I now propose unto you consisteth in passion in a willingness and readiness of mind to suffer for all these And this is the seal and ratification of the rest an argument a protestation a demonstration that the rest were in us of a truth And as the first fit us for the last so this declareth and manifesteth the first Then we may know we are righteous when we are ready to suffer for righteousness sake then our Love is made known when we bear about with us the marks of the Lord Jesus For it is a higher degree of perfection to suffer for doing of good then it is to do it In the first we stand out against our selves in the last against our selves and others In the first we fight against our lusts and affections in the last against principalities and powers against fire and sword against the king of terrours Death it self Greater love then this hath no man John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friends And therefore Aquinas telleth us that this last Beatitude carryeth with it the perfection of all the rest For he that to nourish and uphold the rest is ready as S. Paul speaketh to spend himself and to be spent to lose his own head and life rather then one hair one tittle or Iota should fall from them doth manifest to God and proclaim to the world that he hath discovered beauty and glory and a heaven in them that his body and goods and life laid in the scales are found too light in comparison of them that they are of no use unless it be to make up a sacrifice to be offered for them When we are willing to part with our goods when we can leave the pleasures which last but for a season and go into the house of mourning when we can chase away our anger and make it set before the Sun when we can make righteousness our daily bread and long for it more then for the honey or the honey comb when we have melting and compassionate hearts when we have clean hearts unspotted of the world when we are at peace with all men and strive to make all men at peace with one another we have made a fair progress in the waies of righteousness But nondum ad sanguinem Hebr. 12.4 we have not yet resisted unto bloud When we can lay down our lives for righteousness sake when we can do that which is just and suffer for that we do then have we crowned the rest and fitted our own heads for a crown of glory He that can suffer what the rage of man or Devil can inflict rather then let go his righteousness he maketh it plain that it is his possession his inheritance his life fastned to his soul never to be divorced his honour when he is in disgrace his riches when he hath not a hole to hide his head in his tabernacle in a storm his delight in torment and when the sword shall part the soul from the body ascending up to heaven and accompanying it to the place of bliss For when the man is killed the Saint is gone home and is escaped to the holy hill In this relation and dependance doth this Beatitude stand with the rest If we be not righteous we cannot suffer for righteousness sake and if we be truly righteous Persecution is a
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
say are yet visible on the Mount For this were to fall upon the Disciples errour and to gaze still this were quite to forget the Angels Question Why stand ye gazing here and to lose our selves in the by-wayes and mazes of vain curiosity The Philosopher will tell us that that which is best in Kings their Magnificence Bounty Clemency is open to the view and made common and publick to every eye but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is hidden is dangerous their secret intents and counsels we do not know but with some hazard of our lives and states The holy Father Nâ—zianzene maketh the application for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is our King and he hath made his Law his Grace his Gospel his Oracles his Sufferings his Resurrection his Ascension as common to us as the Sun Faith Hope and Charity who may not look on these But those things which he hath veiled and drawn a cloud over as they are concealed so are they unnecessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are saith he to be placed in the last rank Why stand ye gazing here where the ground is so unsettled It is the observation of Aristotle that Place must be immoveable For if the thing on which we are seated be fluid and slide away from under us it is impossible it should serve us either for motion or rest And it is easie to observe how these unnecessary niceties and speculations glide and slide away from under us so that to endeavour to overtake them and rest and fix our selves upon them is as if we should strive to tread the waters and walk upon the wind No doctrine to be raised here no satisfaction to be had We may search but we shall never find we may gaze our eyes out and see no more of Christ then the Disciples here did when he was in the cloud To conclude this Let us remember Christ's words remember what he hath said unto us and do it Let us go with him to Bethany and see him in his ascent but when the cloud hath received him let us gaze no more but return to Jerusalem Let us see as much of Christ as he is pleased to shew us and rest in that and by that light walk before him as becometh Disciples have our conversation worthy of the Gospel of Christ. And so from the Angels Question Why stand ye here gazing into heaven we pass to the Resolve This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven Here are many Particulars observable and we cannot but glance upon them and touch them as we go First the Person who ascended JESUS a Saviour That is his name given indeed unto others as the name of God was to Moses to Judges to Kings but then it is but a deputative or assumed appellation For it is one thing to be called Jesus another really and essentially to be so one thing to be so in type and figure another to be so from all eternity Indeed saith Nyssene in respect of his various operations upon men he hath many names He is a Sword to divide asunder the soul and the spirit He is a Light to dispell the mist of ignorance He is a Lamb for meekness and innocency and a Lion for power But facilè intelliges quomodo multa bona sit Jesus saith Origen In this one name of JESUS all is contained For if he be a Sword it is to pierce and wound our souls with remorse that he may heal them if Light not to dazzle but to lighten those that sit in darkness if a Lamb it is to make himself a sacrifice if a Lion it is to destroy the Destroyer Whether he be a Sword or a Fire or a Light or a Lamb or a Lion all is that he may be JESUS a Saviour Whether he shine or burn strike or heal whether he humble himself to death or triumph over Death whether he be born or suffer or dye or rise again or ascend all is to open the gates of glory and perfect the great work of our Salvation All that he said all that he did is comprised in this word JESUS SOTER saith Tully hoc quantum est Ita magnum est ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non potest This name JESUS this name Saviour how great is it Even so great that in Latine we cannot find any one word to express it The best expression we have is our joy and gratitude as the Prophet Habakkuk speaketh GAUDERE IN DEO JESU NOSTRO to rejoyce in God our JESUS our salvation For consider what was taken up His Body even that Body that was plowed upon spit upon whipt nailed to the cross sealed up in the grave JESUS taken up in our nature taking with him the earnest of our flesh and nature and carrying it to heaven pignus-totius summae illuc quandoque redigendae a pledge and certain assurance that the whole lump all his members shall follow after And may not they now awake and sing that dwell in the dust who are buried alive in the scorn of the world and who are raked up in the pit of oblivion Behold JESUS is taken up And if he be taken up in our nature he will draw all men after him the prisoner to a place of liberty his despised servants to sit at his table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob the poor into Abraham's bosom and them that mourn to his right hand where there are pleasures for evermore And that Jesus ascended in the next place the Angels themselves appeal to the Disciples eye and sense Which appeal is left as a fair testimony of his Ascension and as a strong confirmation of faith Ye have seen him thus taken up And it is left upon record for our sakes who notwithstanding are too ready to dispute our selves out of our faith and to require stronger proofs and fairer evidence then the matter and object can afford and are still driving forward towards Impossibilities We would see God who is invisible know Christ in the flesh who is now in heaven call back the times past to present us with the sight of Christ and his Apostles and all his miracles and make that which Faith onely can apprehend the object of our Sense For this temptation hath taken hold on many who have been ready to ask why Christ did not in every age of the world most gloriously shew himself unto the world who would have matters of Faith written with the Sun-beams and the Ascension of Christ made manifest to the eye Thus whilest they seek to establish they take away the nature of Faith quite For if these mysteries of salvation were as evident to the Sense as it is that the Sun doth shine the apprehension of them would not be an act of our Faith but of our Knowledge and not to believe without such an evidence is as great an errour as to believe without any
He is an enemy who telleth me the truth he is an enemy who is not a parasite Can we look for forgiveness out of that breast which is as a troubled sea ever casting out mire and dirt Or have we read of or have we seen the man that will not be pious yet can forgive that can be so cruel to himself and yet mild and merciful to his brother No it requireth a mind well exercised and brought under crucified to the world weaned from vanity the love of which maketh us impatient of others and impatient of our selves yea such haggards as to check at every feather We must know our brother in another shape in another relation before we shall forgive him We must know him in Christ the fountain of love who brought forgiveness into the world when he brought immortality to light And then if we know him in him we shall know nothing in him which may not command our pardon We shall know him in him who purchased our pardon with his bloud we shall forgive him as we are forgiven we shall cover our brother's trespasses for his sake who hath prepared a robe of righteousness to cover ours and for his sake forgive ours brother's debts who payed down our debts to the utmost mite Then shall we feel the power of this virtue and how prevalent it is with God Then as we have manifested our selves to be his children by the performance of the Condition so will he manifest himself to be our Father in removing our transgressions from us as far as the East is from the West Now for conclusion I cannot better bespeak you then in the words of S Paul I pray you brethren in Christ's stead be reconciled unto God And that is done by acknowledgement of the forfeiture by confessing your debts There is no hinderance of it but in your selves for if you will he is presently reconciled He calleth for it he desireth it he waiteth for it and if you arise and go towards him he runneth to meet you falleth on your neck and kisseth you It is but to leave off fighting against him and he is reconciled It is but to run no further in arrears and the writing is cancelled Wash every character the least sin with your tears and Christ's bloud is shed already and floweth as fresh as from the cross to blot them out Tu agnosce Deus ignoscet Do thou acknowledge the debt and God hath forgiven it Perform the condition and the promise will apply it self nay it is applied already At what time soever a sinner repenteth And again I pray you be reconciled unto your brethren You have for that the strongest and most winning motive the Mercy of God the best Topick we can find more persuasive in it self then all the eloquence of the learned then the tongues of men and of Angels of power to ravish a soul and transport it beyond it self and leave it deaf and dead to the flattery of the flesh and to the killing musick of the world For what can move me to pardon if Pardon cannot move me What can make me if Mercy cannot make me merciful And shall my Wealth or Reputation kindle that fire within me which the bowels of God and the bloud of Christ cannot quench Bring not then hither any lurking unrepented sin but bury it in the clifts of a broken heart and in the wounds of thy Saviour Bring not a grudging mind nor the least surmise against thy brother but smother it and bury it in the land of oblivion Leave not thy sin to day to resume and embrace it to morrow nor let thy wrath so set as to rise with more horrour hereafter But destroy the whole body of sin and purge out all the leaven of maliciousness Be reconciled unto God and be reconciled to your brethren and then come and draw near to this feast of Love Take eat This is his body which was broken for you and Take drink This is the New Testament in his bloud which was shed for you and for many for the remission of sins These are the pledges of his love and withall pignora fidei the pledges of our faith to actuate and quicken it to make it more apprehensive more operative more lively Here then confirm your faith exalt your hope enlarge your charity and so declare the Lord's death till he come And when he that came to visit us in great Humility and visiteth us again and again in his Sacrament and by the sweet operation of his blessed Spirit sealeth our pardon and sealeth us up to the day of our redemption shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead we shall be ready to meet him as fearing no bill no indictment against us and we shall be ever with him who hath payed our ransome and he shall call us his friends his children his brethren and he shall make us partakers of that glory which he hath prepared for us from the beginning of the world To which he bring us who dyed for us Jesus Christ the righteous The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART I. PSAL. CXXII 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us or We will go into the house of the Lord. WHether this Psalm of degrees or excellent Song as some term it were a Psalm of David or to David or delivered to the Masters of Musick by the hands of David Whether it was penned by him when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem and there seated as in its certain place which before had been carried up and down now to this place anon to another as several occasions and the exigence of the times required and so was fitted for the people publickly to sing when they should go up to their solemn Feasts Or whether it was penned by a prophetick spirit for those Jews who being returned out of Babylon should repair Jerusalem and build the second Temple Whether this Psalm were fitted for the Tabernacle or for the first Temple or for the second it is not much material to enquire Nor will it advantage to make diligent search where there is not so much light as that of conjecture to direct us The Psalm might well serve for all for the Tabernacle for the first Temple for the second And almost all agree that it was composed by David And he beginneth it as a Song should begin with LAETATUS SUM I was glad or I rejoyced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint Jucundatus sum so St. Augustine I was merry at heart as those who meet at a costly banquet I may entitle this Psalm David's Delight or his Triumph or his Jubilee Now when the heart is glad when the countenance shineth when the tongue is loud we may well think there is something more then ordinary presented to the sight For Joy when it is visible in the face when it is set to Musick is a manifest indication and a loud proclamation that there
man thus qualified is fitted for the highest imployment in the Church even for the glory of Martyrdom Yea he is a Martyr already sine sanguine though he come not under the sword nor shed his bloud This is an addition indeed greater then that in kind This maketh our very poverty as rich as the greatest wealth a dungeon more honourable then the highest place and that a heaven upon earth which carnal men tremble at and run from even into hell it self In a word this blesseth our store promoteth our counsels maketh profit it self profitable this taketh away the name of Rich and Poor and maketh them both the same For betwixt Rich and Poor in this world in respect of our last landing as it were and entrance into our haven it is but as in S. Paul's broken ship Acts 27.43 44 Some by swimming some on broken parts of the ship some this way some that some in one condition some in another but all by the conduct of Righteousness come safe to land rich and poor high and low weak and strong the brethren of low degree and they in the highest seat all at last meet together in the haven in the Kingdom of heaven For conclusion then You have seen Righteousness what it is and that it is desireable in it self that it is desireable before all things and that it draweth all things after it not onely the dew of heaven but the fatness of the earth in her womb like Rebecca bearing twins a Jacob and an Esau spiritual and temporal blessings the Kingdom of heaven and the world with all that therein is as an appendix or addition This is the Object And this is Christ's method that Righteousness should be first in our desires because it is all in all and bringeth the rest along with it And this method we must exactly follow For why should not we think Christ a perfect Methodist Why should the Flesh and the World so prevail with us as to persuade us that Wisdom it self may be deceived Our own experience might easily confute us For we see men are never more fools never more foully fail of their ends then when they will be wiser then God and prescribe to Wisdom it self then they seek out many inventions follow their uncertain providence through the many turnings and windings and mazes and labyrinths which it hath made please themselves in their own wayes dream of happiness and in the end meet with ruine and destruction They seek for meat and are more hungry then before they pursue Honour and lye in the dust they are greedy of Riches and become beggers they cry they fight for Liberty and are made slaves Their craft deceiveth them their policy undoeth them their wisdom befooleth their strength ruineth them They think they are making a staff to lean on and when they have shaped and fashioned it behold it is a rod to scourge them This we have seen with our eyes folly shamed and defeated in her own wayes and confounded in her method and course of proceeding The thoughts of men are perverse and their method contrary to that which true Wisdom prescribeth For it proceedeth ab apparentibus ad vera from apparent good things to real evils from that which may satisfie my Envy or feed my Covetousness or flatter and fulfil my Lusts to that which â—ill destroy both body and soul It beginneth in honour and endeth in dishonour it beginneth in pleasure and endeth in torment it beginneth in visions and dreams and pleasant speculations of what may be and endeth in bitterness and horrour and amazement The method of this world is no method and the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God And it would appear so to us too if it had not first blinded us and put out our eyes For how do the children of this world who are wise in their generation every day fail under their own wisdom fall under their own strength and that before the sun and the people Let us then forsake our own wayes and method and follow that which is prescribed by Wisdom it self which proceedeth ab asperis ad laeta from that which appeareth irksom to that which is truly delightful which leadeth us through rough and rugged wayes into a paradise of pleasure through the valley of death into the land of the living through many tribulations into heaven This one would think were a strong motive and inducement to follow it But there is more yet Our Saviour doth even blandiri condescend to flatter our infirmity and provideth for our bodies as well as our souls For the same method will serve both The love of Righteousness is our purveyour here for these things and our harbinger for the Kingdom of God Would you see this miracle wrought It is daily wrought And if it be not wrought on you it is because of your unbelief Faith is required as a condition not onely for the working of miracles but also for the procuring of every blessing of God And if we believe if we distrust not if we question not the providence and promise of God it will be made good upon us and we shall have enough here and more then we can desire hereafter we shall receive these things and make of them such friends as when all these things shall fail will receive us into everlasting habitations Which God grant unto us for Jesus Christ's sake The Eight and Twentieth SERMON PART I. GALAT. VI. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap WE shall not take these words in that reference they bear to the foregoing verse in which they that are taught in the word are exhorted to communicate to those who teach them in all good things For this is a Doctrine not so sutable to these times And were S. Paul now alive to preach it he would be set to his old trade of making of Tents his practice would be turned upon him to confute his doctrine and that made a duty which was but a charitable yielding and condescension for the Churches sake If for their sakes and to take off all scandall and offense from the Gospel of Christ he will labor with his hands this his voluntary submission shall be made a Law to bind him and his posterity for ever Teach he should and labor he should with his hands He that teaches must labor and every laborour may teach Every man may teach and none communicate So that Text of communicating is lost quite and the duty of Teaching left to every one that will take it up Every man may be a teacher every man a S. Paul though he never sate at the feet of Gamaliel We will not then take our rise here but call your thoughts rather to a view of my Text as it looks forwards to the next verse He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption which presents the shew of a reason but is indeed no more
well observeth that none can tast and judge of that sweetness which Truth affords but the Philosopher because they want that organ or instrument of judgment which he useth And that organ which he useth cannot be applyed by Covetousness Ambition and Lust which are the onely Jacobs staves the Many use to take the altitude of Truth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosophers instrument is Reason So in Divine mysteries and miracles we cannot reach the sense and meaning of them we cannot raise our selves to them without an humble pure free and unengaged spirit which is the best instrument of a Christian When our tast faileth us and we cannot distinguish that which is sweet from that which is sowre nor relish meats as they are it is a sure symptome and indication of some a crasie and distemper in the body and when Gods blessings and graces are not relisht when his Manna is Gall when we cannot digest his Miracles we may be sure the Soul wants that temper and disposition which is salus nay anima animae not onely the health but the very soul of the soul Indeed Reason might have taught these men that this was a miracle For rude and illeterate men to speak on a sudden all languages was more then all the Linguists in the world could teach And I persuade my self that from no other principle arose that question of those amazed doubters vers 12. What meaneth this But to read the riddle we must plow with another heifer then Reason To dive into the sense of the miracle can proceed from no other Spirit then that whose miracle it was even him who enlightens them that sit in darkness and who makes the humble and docile soul the seat of his habitation both his School and his Scholar Reason is a light but obnoxious to damps and fogs and mists till this great Light dispell and scatter them Julian was a man as well furnisht with natural endowments as any Emperour of them all yet we see he used it as a weapon against the Truth and wounded Religion more with his scoffs then with his sword His Comical part saith the Father wss far worse then his Tragical When he had received his deaths wound as some have thought by a dart from Heaven he confest that wound came from the hand and power of Christ and he did it in a phrase of scorn VICISTI GALILAEE The day is thine O Galilean Indeed the greatest scoffers at Religion have been men for the most part eminent in natural abilities whose Reason notwithstanding could not shew them their own fluctuations the storms and tempests of their souls she being eclipsed with her own beams Passions and private concernments make her not a servant but an enemy to the Truth not to give sentence for but to plead against it nay to make it ridiculous Some think these mockers here were Pharisees the great Doctours and interpreters of the Law And of them the question was asked Do any of the Pharisees believe in Christ And the reason is most pregnant for though the acts of the Understanding be natural and not arbitrary and though it apprehend things necessarily in those shapes in which they are represented yet when a perverse Will rejects those means which are offered when by-respects call loud upon us to be heard then the mist falls and Darkness is as a pavilion round about us then the object is removed out of sight or appears in that false shape which must needs deceive us by pleasing us because it is that shape which we our selves have given it From hence it is that as it is in the deformity of the body so it is also in that of the soul Nothing is so deformed in the one but some man loves and dotes upon it as we read of one that did love and imitate the distortion of his friends countenance so nothing is so false in the other but some man hath put it into his Creed as it was noted of the Philosophers the great Wisards and Clerks of the world that there was no opinion so absurd and dissonant from reason that found not amongst them some to defend it who would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep the conclusion and maintein it against all evidence whatsoever The miracle here was done before the sun and the people yet Malice could find nothing but matter of mirth in it They did not onely deny but slight it against evidence as clear as the Day it self Now that men bear themselves so stiff upon their opinion beyond the strength of evidence is from the Will over-laid with Passions Hence proceeds the strength of Faction in all decisions the continuance and growth of Errour this is it which enlarges the courtains of its habitation every man supplying by his Will what is wanting in his evidence Hence it is that the most plain truths meet with contradiction that great plagues are called Peace that absurdities are reverenced that miracles are ridiculous that most things are unlike themselves and appear in new shapes every day and seldome in their own Hence is all errour all misprision all derision all blasphemy Hence Evil is good and Good evil Truth falshood and Falshood truth that which is not worth a thought is deified and that which is Divine is contemned With this fire from hell were these scoffers enflamed and whilst this fire burned they spake with their tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Others mocking said These men are full of new wine And so we come to our last part to examine the Mock it self This was not onely a Scoff but an Accusation And the Oratour will tell us that there be divers reasons which make men take upon them the person of an Accuser Sometimes Ambition draws the libell sometimes Hatred sometimes Hope of reward And if we enquire what moved the Scoffers here to lay this foul imputation on the Apostles Oecumenius will tell us that it was nothing else but Perversness and Aversness of disposition which commonly takes non causam pro causâ and indifferently passeth censure upon any cause or do cause at all And this is bred by Opinion and not by Truth If they understood not when the Apostles spake how could they say they were drunk and if they did understand why did they scoff They were men setled in the very dregs of Error and Malice and having taken up an opinion they would not let it go no not at the sight of a miracle Could that Fire be from heaven which must consume the Law Can that Wind blow out of Gods treasury which scatters their Ceremonies Can those Tongues be toucht with a coal from the altar which prophesie against the Altar Do you wonder At what do you wonder It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the gibbrish of men cupshot When the fit is over and their heads composed they will be silent enough and speak neither Greek nor Persian but be as very idiots as before Perniciosissimum humano generi
them nay the very same the Faith that must qualifie and prepare us for Christ's second coming must be like his coming full of glory and power must shake the powers of the Grave must awake those that sleep must demolish Sin must make us like unto Christ not onely in his passion but also in his rising from the dead must be to us as the trump of God to call us out of our graves not fides inermis a weak and unarmed faith which hath neither buckler nor sword which can neither defend nor strike a stroke but is well content to stand by and see our Saviour fight it out but fides pugnax a faith armed against the day of trial that can fight it out against principalities and powers and against all the fearful signs which shall be set up and fides vincens a faith that overcometh the world and the love of the world and fides triumphans a faith that every day triumpheth over Sin and the Devil maketh a shew of them openly and manifesteth it self to God to Angels to men This Faith hath a clear and strong eye and can look upon these terrible signs By this faith Christ doth dwell in our hearts and if Christ dwell there Ephes 3.17 he bringeth with him courage and resolution How fit is he to behold the Sun darkned who hath this light in him to see the falling of the Stars who hath this bright Morning-star fixed in his heart And what if the world end if he be with him who is the Begining and the End This Faith will make us fit to behold any object will settle us in the knowledge of the providence of God of which we had before but certain confused notions little better then dreams This Faith is like the Emperour 's large Emerald in which he beheld wars and ruine slaughter and desolation whose colour tempered the object and made it appear less terrible then it was This Faith heareth a voice from heaven speaking to the whole host and army of calamities to all these fearful signs which shall usher in the end of the world as David did concerning Absalom Do the young man no harm Do my anointed my peculiar people no harm In a word this Faith will stay with us will wait and attend us in the midst of all this tumult and confusion And when the powers of heaven are shaken and the elements melt with fire and the world is ready to be dissolved it will bring us good news of help at hand Fear you not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. For this Faith alwaies bringeth with it Repentance which is another end why we are called upon to behold these things For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that long-suffering of God's which calleth us to repentance improveth and increaseth the means as we increase our hardness The more heavy our sleep is in sin the more noise and stir God maketh to awake us After we have spent our estate amongst harlots and fed with swine yet if we return he will receive us If we will not behold and consider him when he shineth upon our tabernacles yet if we fall down before him when these signs appear when he cometh with a tempest round about him then he will receive us When the world regardeth us not when it frowneth upon us when it is ready to be dissolved yet if we return he will receive us In wars and rumours of wars when the Sun is darkened and the Moon turned into bloud yet if we return he will receive us Never was the world so full of wickedness as in this last age of it for as our forefathers went before us in time so do we before them in iniquity And therefore were there never greater means to reclaim it So that this time of judgement is a time of mercy wherein Mercy even whilest Justice holdeth up the sword whilest she is striking spreadeth her wing and waiteth till we come under the shadow of it And these signs if we will behold them as we should and make them so may be signs of the dissolution of the body of Sin as vvell as of the frame of the Universe For the long-suffering of God is repentance saith S. Peter and will bring forth the fruits of it if it be not abused and hindered And the destruction of a sinner is never so absolutely decreed by God but that there is still hope of recovery even then when his foot is upon the very brink of death and desolation Let him then pull back and return to his God and he shall find that with him there is mercy and plentiful redemption Behold I have told you before And I have told you that you may behold and consider it that you may excutere veternum awake from that sleep in which security and self-love have lulled you that you may quicken your faith and perfect and complete your repentance and so be signed with these signs that the Spirit may sign and seale you to the day of redemption And this is the compasse of the Ecce And in this compasse we may walk and behold these signes behold them with a watchful eye with a believing eye with a repentant eye washing off all their malignity with tears These are the several rayes of consideration And if we thus behold these signs we shall be also fitted and prepared to meet Christ at his second coming Being thus qualified we shall look upon all the ill-boding calamities in the world which appear unto us in a shape of terrour as upon so many John Baptists telling us that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand we shall-look upon Death when he cometh towards us on his pale horse and not fear him we shall look upon the Son of man when he cometh towards us with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and it shall be as musick to us For he hath promised that where he is we shall be also and he hath made death and these signes and the dissolution of the world it self a promise For if we should not dye if the world should not be dissolved we could not enjoy the promise But when these signs shall usher him in when he shall come again then shall he free us from the yoke and harrow from oppression and tyranny Then the meek shall be higher then the proud and Lazarus richer then Dives Then that bloudy hypocrite which called himself a Saint shall have his portion with the Devil and his Angels and the innocent the despised condemned innocent shall look up and lift up his head Then though the heavens be shaken he shall stand fast as Mount Sion though the sea roar he shall be at peace though the Stars fall his heart shall be fixed Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae And when the Son of man shall come in the clouds he shall be ready to meet him and when the heavens shall be gathered
we hold up our obedience and carry it on in a continued course that he is with us whilest we are with him But we cannot be certain that we shall persevere when we do not persevere that God's grace and favour is the same when we kiss him and when we oppose him when we bow before him and when we lift up our selves against him He doth indeed look upon us in our bloud but we cannot be sure of his favour and loving kindness till we be cleansed The ground of all comfort is to remain in this Law of liberty but what comfort is it to persuade my self I do remain in it even then when I am an enemy to the Gospel of Christ I say this taketh not one drop of comfort from those who love Christ and keep his commandments For their comfort is that they do persevere in the grace and favour of God and that as long as they are obedient they are under his wing If our conscience condemn us not then have we boldness and confidence with God And what greater consolation can there be then this that whilest I remain in the Law of liberty I shall be blessed whilest I abide in the Vine I cannot wither whilest I am built upon the Rock I cannot be shaken And if I seek not my comfort here where shall I find it All the comfort which a Christian can have in this life is that he is in Christ Jesus and by his power hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And it will be in vain to look back on Eternity For in the leaves of Eternity it is written in a character indeleble that none but they that repent shall be saved Thus the fountain of comfort lieth open to those who are obedient to the Gospel but is shut to those who stand out No drop of comfort is due to them who are free from righteousness and servants to sin To these and whilest they are in this condition to these and as they are such belong reprehensions and comminations and woes as the whip is most proper for the fool's back and not a robe of honour tribulation and anguish upon every soul that sinneth and repenteth not that he may repent When Nathan came to David after that complication of sins he doth not smooth him up and tell him Thou art a man after God's own heart Thou art a child of God an elect vessel Be of good comfort thou art faln into this great sin but not from the favour of God thou art fallen but if thou fall never so oft thou canst not fall for ever But when David himself had pronounced the sentence of death against the offendor he telleth him to his face Thou art the man that hast given great ocâ—asion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme and with this rod he smote the rock a heart unsensible of sin and the waters gushed forth and watered his couch and being open to let out those waters of bitterness it was open also to receive those of comfort which stream from the rivers of the Lord and make glad the heart Comfort is the inheritance of him that abideth in Christ not of him that departeth from him and leaveth him upon his Crosâ— and crucifieth him again To say we are certain of perseverance in what condition soever is to say we are certain to persevere when we do not persevere and so maketh Solicitude and Watchfulness in the wayes of Christianity unnecessary divideth and separateth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maketh a look enough and leaveth remaining as a thing arbitrary or at least maketh them both one so that to look into the Gospel will be to remain in it For according to this new doctrine the same certainty of perseverance belongeth to them who fall and to them who stand to them who are weary and to them who continue in well-doing the same certainty may be had without which is and must be acquired and maintained by the exercise of piety alone And this is to tread the air or fluctuate upon the waters when we shall find no rest for our foot but on the Ark This is to set up a heaven in our phansie and gaze upon it till we quite lose the sight of that which is the portion of the Saints This is to build without a foundation or a foundation which is but air But no other foundation can any man lay but that which is laid which is Jesus Christ that is the doctrine of the Gospel of Christ And upon due obedience to this vve may raise our certainty as high as heaven Here it will lye firm and sure no wind shall scatter it no tempest shake it but it will remain in us as long as vve remain in our obedience to this Law of liberty the Gospel of Christ To remain in it and To be certain of happiness are joyned together by God and no man no Devil can put them asunder In a word To fall away and To be certain are incompatible but To remain and To be certain stand fast together for ever and are unseparable I might here enlarge my self and shew you that this denial of the certainty of our Perseverance as it doth not any way deprive the true Christian of his spiritual comfort but is rather an helper or promoter of it so neither doth it derogate from God's power For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene he doth not uphold us against our will And it is power he useth and not violence a power which may beget but not destroy obedience which cannot consist with violence and necessity Nulla laus non facere quod facere non potes It is no commendation not to do that which thou canst not do And what vertue vvhat obedience is it to do that which thou canst not but do The precept or Law supposeth a power left in him to vvhom it is made either to obey or disobey Nor doth it defeat God of his end and purpose For his end was upon condition and his end was to punish him that remaineth not and to crown him that persevereth But I am unwilling to lead you into the briars The truth is the vvay is plain and easie but some men have made it rugged and uneven by walking in it as he told the Orator vvho complained he was fallen in locum spinosum into a thorny and difficult place Pedes hîc non spinas calcant sed habent The thorns were on his feet not in the way Men have raised that dust with vvhich they vvere troubled and made that difficult which vvas easie by groundless and unnecessary doubts For vvhat should we talk of Not-falling vvhen vve see a man lying in the pit of Certainty of standing when he is most certainly on the ground of Remaining when he is gone away of his Perseverance who hath committed those sins of vvhich S. Paul saith He that doeth them shall not inherit the kingdom of
said nothing else but Love one another 491. A reason given why some are so slow to actions of Ch. 281 282. Rules to try our Ch. by 492. v. Faith and Mercy Charles the V. quitted his Palace for a Cell 284. Children if virtuous are blessings if wicked curses 987. Chiliasts errour confuted 243. Choice We are here put to our choice 767 CHRIST The miserable estate of Man without him 2 3. If he had not been God he could not have saved us 3 4. How he is the Son of God 4 5. His Generation a mystery to be believed not curiously inquired into 5. ¶ His Incarnation the greatest expression of God's Love and bond of ours 6 22. His wonderful humility in taking our nature 6. He representeth himself to us three wayes 7. Christ's Incarnation by many thought absurd and unworthy of God 8. but we must not out of good manners either abuse God's love or make shipwrack of our own faith 8. 20 21. He took not onely our Flesh but our Soul also with the Affections 9. but without that disorder that our Passions are guilty of 10. 25. Of the manner how the two Natures are united 11. This is a mystery not impossible yet inexplicable 11. It behoved Christ for our redemtion to become Man 13 14. The other persons wrought in the Incarnation but were not incarnate 14. Christ's Incarnation was most free yet in some sense also necessary 14 15. ¶ As Christ was made like unto us so must we be like unto him 16. No easie matter to be like him 16. How we may be made like him 16. Nothing so absurd and mis-becoming as for a Christian to be unlike Christ 17. Conformity to him is that one thing necessary 17. It is a joy to God and his holy Angels 18. ¶ Christ is the chief of God's gifts and the fountain of all the rest 19 20. 33 34. God's Love to us in giving his Son is highly to be admired but upon no pretense to be denied 20 c. 470. This act flowed from God's mere pleasure 22. 28. God herein appeared more kind to us then to his own dear Son 20. and Christ to have loved us more then himself 29. God's Love herein exceeded his Power Wisdome Will yea far exceeded our Hopes Desires Opinion 22. 471. His Mercy alone was it that moved his Will to send C. 23 24. ¶ The manifold wayes that C. was delivered for us 24 c. ¶ Of his Fear and Grief at his Passion 25. Of his desire that the Cup might pass from him 266. How the Martyrs seemed more couragious at their deaths then He 26. In his greatest extremity he despaired not 25. yet were his sufferings without the least allay of comfort 27. Why He died for us Men and for our salvation and not for the Angels some conjectures are produced 28. The true cause is shewn 29. We had more hand in our Saviour's death then his Judge or Executioners 29. It was Love that made him die for us 470. 492. How since he died for all all are not saved by him 29 c. There is no difficiencie in him the fault is wholely in us 30 31. ¶ Every worldly thing is good with Christ but nothing without him 32. All things are loss and dung without him 714 715. How all things are ours by our being Christ's 33. We have all things by him which tend to our salvation 33. His Death the strongest motive to holiness and righteousness of life 872 c. From his Cross as from a Professor's chair we may learn Innocencie Obedience Humility Patience Love 34. He died not for us that we might live as we list 38. He died not onely to be a Sacrifice for us but also an Example to us 471 472. His Death should not make any but it doth make many presume 472. What it is to shew forth Christ's Death 473 c. Our part is to condemn our selves rather then to declaim against the Actors in that Tragedy 473. His Humility doth not empair his Majesty but exalt it 470. His experience of sufferings taught him to compassionate ours 39 40. His Compassion not to be denied but followed 147 148. What hand God had in Christ's death 301. What we should behold and admire in Christ's Cross 310. His Death and our Repentance must go together 327. ¶ Why Christ after his Resurrection would not shew himself openly 41. Arguments to prove his Resurrection 42 718. The efficacie of his Resurrection on our Bodies and on our Souls 43. 719 c. Christ and all that floweth from him everlasting 44 45. 48. ¶ Of Christ's Ascension 726 c. Why the Disciples were present at their Master's Ascension 727. They are checked at their wondring at it 728. Now Christ is ascended what it is that we must look upon and look to 731 732. Why He abode not still upon earth 733 734. ¶ How and why Christ is said to sit at God's right hand 229. ¶ Of his Intercession 45. ¶ Of his Dominion over Hell and Death 49 49. He hath bought us 739 c. It cost him more to redeem us then it did to create us 763. v. Redemtion That Jesus is the Lord his Resurrection declared 759. v. JESVS If we make him our Lord he will be our Jesus else not 760 c. 1069. What contradiction of sinners Christ suffereth in all ages 761. Few love to hear of his Lordship 761 c. The Arians less e-enemies to Christ then many Christians now 762. Many confess Christ but few do it heartily 763 c. What a shame it is to own any other for our Lord but Christ 768. The Devil brought in bragging he hath more Disciples then Christ 768. His humility offendeth many 560. The Majesty of Christ is to be discovered and admired by us even amidst the scorn and disgrace the world casteth upon him 311. 493. Of his Dominion 762. its nature 228 c. its power 232. 240. its extent 233. How he is Lord of all though most refuse him 234. 240. The acknowledgment of God's power in Christ is the foundation of Christianity 313. He is our Lawgiver 1066. v. Law They grosly erre who think Christ came to be our Redeemer but not our Lawgiver 1068. How his Laws excel all humane Laws 240 c. How men are wont to deal with his precepts 823. We must be ruled by his command 312. and depend on his protection 313. He is terrible to his enemies and gratious to his servants 37. ¶ How we must receive Christ 35. What it is to dwell in him 310 c. The benefits we have by his dwelling in us 314 c. Power and virtue still go out of him 314 315. He quickneth our Knowledge 315. and our Faith 316. and worketh in us an universal constant and sincere Obedience 316 317. There is a reciprocation between Christ and the Soul 317 318. Christ may bear with our infirmities but not with wilfulness and hypocrisie 319. No Church can
mind whence 554. Men love to hide their sins and to make shew of their good deeds 167 168. Man is never free but while he is obedient to Law 1100 c. v. Liberty How Man is Lord of all his actions 257. Man ever laid open to tentations how and why 280. Few Men fully perswaded of their mortality 250 251. Manichees 8. 165. 171. 412. 705. 752. Many v. Multitude Marcion 8 9. 21. 23. 246. 390. 412. 808. Marie the Mother of our Lord a blessed person 985. Some will not call her Saint 986. Others make her more 986. Mark xiv 36. expounded 25. Marriage v. Husband Perfection may be had as well in a Married as in a single life 1090. The inconveniencies of Marriage nothing so dangerous as Sin 1090. Martyrdome An excellent encomium of it 754. How to be armed for Martyrdome 192. A good life and a good cause go to the making of a Martyr 705. Their gallant and triumphant carriage in their sufferings 26. 568 569. Fear of hell made them so couragious 391. v. Sufferings Every Christian is designed to Martyrdome 573. There may be a Martyrdome before Martyrdome 82. The Devil and Errour have their Martyrs as well as God and the Truth 704 705. 912. Some slain for throwing down Images not allowed the title of Martyrs 215. Massalians 705. Mass-book Some condemn some truths because they are in the Mass-book 671. Masters of families Their Duty 545. Mathematicks No such certainty to be looked for in Ethicks as in M. 1015. Matth. v. 22 28 32 34 39 44. 1079. ¶ 48. 1087. how eluded 690. ¶ vi 25 34. 222. ¶ vii 12. 127. ¶ viii 26. 314. ¶ x. 16. 130. ¶ xi 30. 481. ¶ xxii 30. 939. ¶ xxiv Christ's Sermon in this chapter concerning the signes of his second coming nearly concerneth us 1042 1043. Matrimonie and Virginity weighed together 1090. Meaning A good Meaning or intention a poor excuse for sin 443. 447 448. Means v. End Many gaze and dote on the Means and regard not the end 988 989. Means if not made good use of turne to our great disadvantage 424. 555. Measures v. Weights Meats now under the Gospel may be indifferently used or not used 1098. Mecenas 383. Mechanick A witless etymon of the word 522. Meddling with other mens matters reproved 212. 640 641. It is against not onely the laws of Christianity 213. but also the method of Nature 214 216. Meddling busy-bodies are enemies to others and themselves also 215. They are ridiculous and prodigious 216. Idleness is the root of this vice 218. Meditation on good things how advantageous 206. 691. It is to be seconded by Practice 207. Meditation what 597. 1107. Memorie Of the Memorie 828. What a gratious efficacie the Memorie of God's Mercy hath upon the soul 828 829. Our Memories are apt to forget God's mercies and have need of reviving 589. 596. ¶ What care vvas taken to preserve the Memorie of the Saints 1019. Mercy praised 138. 147. It is an inseparable companion of Justice 138 139. We are as much bound to do acts of Mercy as not to do an injurie 139. 142 143. Nothing more sutable to the Nature of Man then Mercy 140. Mercy maketh Man like unto God 279. What influence God's Mercy and ours have one upon another 815. v. Forgiveness Mercy maketh a sympathie and harmonie in the Church 141. Why worldly men like it not 142. It is often rewarded in this life but in the next infallibly 143. The M. of the primitive Christians how far beyond ours 144 145. Less danger to exceed herein then to fall short 145. Distinctions coyned to elude Texts that enjoyn Mercy 146. Compassion the spring of Mercy 147. 149. v. Almes To love Mercy what 150. Mercie is natural 150. constant 151. sincere 152. delightful 153. Objects of Mercy appear every where 154. Motives to Mercy 153. Our Mercy to others is the rent God respecteth for his M. to us 154. God's Mercy and his Justice reconciled by Christ's Death and our Repentance 347. Why the antient Fathers were so profuse yet sparing tenderers of God's Mercy 349 350. The Mercy of God fearfully abused by some 276. Make not Mercy an occasion of sin 352 353. Mercy and Judgment should compose our song 353. Judgement followeth Mercy at the heels 360. v. GOD. The use we should make of God's Mercies 579. 590. 1072. Sins after Mercy the greater 612 613. Mercy is of most efficacie to humble our hearts 643. Merits The doctrine of Merits overthrown 812 813. 1126. All we can do or suffer is far short of meriting heaven 233. 993. 1126. Messias Christ is not such a Messias as the Jews looked for and as some worldly-minded Christians frame to themselves 33. A glorious Messiah was exspected by the Jews 553 554. 559. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 336. Metaphors fruitfull of controversie 46. Their use 229. Metellus Numidicus 668. Method and Order how necessarie to be followed 885. as necessarie in Christ's School as in humane Arts and Sciences 68. 947. Want of Method what mischief it worketh in the world 892. c. 945 946. Meum and Tuum quarrelsome vvords 840. Milk by some not allowed to be eaten 752. Mind v. Man The Mind is the Man and the action too 622 623. It cannot intend several things at once 509. Whether it be not necessarie that the Mind should still fluctuate and be lost in uncertainties 678. The Mind is apt to be dazled with some lesser good vvhen it should be intent upon far greater 988 989. Ministers must not flatter 511 512. v. Flattery Miracles v. Conversion The end and use of Miracles 572 c. 957 c. 968 969. 978. 988. In respect of the Agent properly there is no Miracle 969. Why M. are now ceased 970. Of Popish Miracles 970. He that will not believe the Word vvould not believe a Miracle 734. 970. What Christ did in person he doth still spiritually by his Church 970. Christ's Miracles preferred before Moses's 978. Christ's M. were supernaturall publick quick perfect 979. Miracles should fill us with admiration 979. Miracles may be scoffed at by profane men 956 c. Miserie to be chosen rather then Iniquity 127. Mockery Most mens conversation is but a Mockery of God 919 c. 958. How vvicked men are said to mock God vvho in very deed cannot be mocked 923 c. God will return the Mock upon them that mock him 925. v. Scoff Moderation to be observed 56. Moderation in the pursuit of Knowledge commended 248. Modestie in apparel to be used 1101. Monitours vve should be to one another 576. Monks and Friars censured 220. v. Perfection Solitarie Montanus 65. 752. Morality scorned and derided by speculative hypocrites 83. Morall Laws v. Ceremonie Morall virtues are not natural 199. but must be studied and laboured for 205. Of the Morall virtues of the Heathen 663. v. Heathen Morose v. Christianity Mortality Of our Mortality 538. How little believed
bound our discourse within the compass of those observations which first offer themselves and without any force or violence may naturally be deduced from the words And we shall first take notice of the course and method God taketh to turn us He draweth a sword against us he threatneth Death and so awaketh our Fear that our fear may carry us out of our evil wayes Secondly God is not willing we should die Thirdly He is not any way defective in the administration of the means of life Last of all If we die the fault is onely in our selves and our own wills ruine us Why will ye die O house of Israel We begin with the first the course that God taketh to turn us He asketh us Why will ye die In which we shall pass by these steps or degrees Shew you 1. what Fear is 2. how useful it may be in our conversion 3. that it is not onely useful but good and lawful and injoyned both to those who are yet to turn and those who are converted already The fear of death and the fear of Gods wrath may be a motive to turn me from sin and it may be a motive to strengthen and uphold me in the wayes of righteousness God commendeth it to us timor iste timendus non est we need not be afraid of this Fear Death is the King of terrours to command our Fear that seeing Death in our evil wayes ready to destroy us Job 18.14 we may look about and consider in what wayes we are and for fear of death turn from sin which leadeth unto it Thus God doth amorem timore pellere subdue one passion with another drive out Love with Fear the Love of the world with the Fear of death He presenteth himself unto us in divers manners according to the different operations of our affections sometimes with his rich promises to make us hope and sometimes with fearful menaces to strike us with fear sometimes in glory to encourage us and sometimes in a tempest and whirlwind Clem. Alexandr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to affright us He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in the dispensation of his goodness that if Hope drive us not to the promises yet fear might carry us from death and Death from sin and so at last beget a Hope and delight and ravish us with the glory of that which before we could not look upon Now what Fear is we may guess by Hope for they are both hewed as it were out of the same rock Expectation is the common matter out of which they are framed As hope is nothing else but an expectation of that which is good so Fear saith the Philosopher hath its beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the imagination of some approching evil Arist Rhet. 2. c. 6. Where there is Hope there is Fear and where there is Fear there is Hope For he that doth fear some evil may befal him retaineth some hope that he may escape it and he that hopeth for that which is desirable standeth in some fear that he may not reach and possess it So you see Hope and Fear though they seem to look at distance one upon the other yet are alwayes in conjunction and are levelled on the same object till they lose their names and the one end in Confidence the other in Despair Now of all the passions of the mind Fear may seem to be the most unprofitable Wisd 17.12 Curt. l. 3. For the Wise man will tell us it is nothing else but the betraying of those succours which Reason offereth And the Historian speaking of the Persians who in their flight flung away their weapons of defence shutteth up all with this Epiphonema Adeò pavor ipsa auxilia formidat Such is the nature of Fear that it disarmeth us and maketh us not onely run from danger but from those helps and succours which might prevent and keep it off It matureth and ripeneth mischief anticipateth evil and multiplieth it and by a vain kind of providence giveth those things a being which are not Spe jam praecipit hostem saith the Poet It presenteth our enemy before us when he is not near and latcheth the sword in our bowels before the blow is given And indeed such many times are the effects of Fear But as Alexander sometimes spake of that fierce and stately steed Bucephalus Curt. l. 1. Qualem isti equum perdunt dum per imperitiam mollitiem uti nesciunt What a brave Horse is spoiled for want of manning so may we of Fear A most useful passion is lost because we do not manage and order it as we should We suffer it to distract and amaze when it should poyse and byas us We make it our enemy when it might be our friend to guard and protect us and by a prophetical presage or mistrust keep off those evils which are in the approch ready to assault us For prudentia quaedam divinatio est Vit Pompon Attici our Prudence which alwayes carrieth with it Fear is a kind of divination Our Passions are as winds and as they may thrust us upon the rocks so they may drive and carry us on to the haven where we would be All is in the right placing of them Passiones aestimantur objectis Our passions are as the objects are they look on and by them they are measured and either fall or rise in their esteem To fear an enemy is Cowardise to fear labour is Slothfulness to fear the face of man is something near to Baseness and Servility to be afraid of a command because it is difficult is Disobedience but Pone Deum saith S Augustine place God as the object and to fear him not onely when he shineth in mercy but when he is girded with Majesty to fear him not onely as a Father but as a Lord nay to fear him when he cometh with a tempest before him is either a virtue or else leadeth unto it Now to shew you how fear worketh and how useful it may be to forward our Turn we may observe first that it worketh upon our Memory reviveth those characters of sin which long custome had sullied and defaced and maketh that deformity visible which the delight we took in sin had vailed and hid from our sight When the Patriarchs had sold their brother Joseph into Egypt for ten years space and above whilst they dreaded nothing they never seemed to have any sense of their fact but looked upon it as lawful or warrantable sale or made as light of it as if it had been so Joseph was sold and they thought themselves well rid of a Dreamer But when they were now come down into Egypt Gen. 42.21 22 and were cast into prison and into a fear withall that they should be there chained up as captives and slaves then and not till then it appeared like an ill bargain then they could give it its right name and call it