in Prosperity Polycrates of Samos was sure the man Who yet was so far from being the happier for his felicities that his felicities did afflict him more than any thing else could It did not trouble him a little That he had nothing to vex him and that the Goods he would part with he could not lose Nor was it strange or without reason that his Felicities were so irksom and grievous to him For his Friend Amasis King of Aegypt had told him the danger of his Successes and that he took them for the Prognosticks of he-knew-not-what Miseries in time to come He told Polycrates in Effect the same that Solon told Croesus and what is now a By-word in our Ethick Systemes Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera felix None can be certain of his Happiness before his Death He said he never knew any so over-fortunate in his life who did not come to some dismal End And as he chose for himself an wholsom Mixture of Adversity with good Success so he durst not continue Friendship with one condemn'd to have his Portion of Good things Here with one who was doom'd to a praeproperous untimely Bliss He having a dread and an abhorrence of too much Happiness upon Earth as that which he thought provok'd the Anger and the Iealousy of Heaven if not the Envy Now 't is observable in Herodotus who gives us the History of it at large That what was prophesy'd by Amasis was by Oraetes made good For all the Felicities of Polycrates did justly end in his Crucifixion So true is That of the Philosopher however most persons may think it strange Res inquieta felicitas est ipsa se exagitat movet Cerebrum non uno genere alios in Cultum irritat alios in potentiam alios inflat alios mollit If English can express it perhaps it may be thus rendred Worldly Greatness is a restless unquiet thing a Plague and Affliction unto it self and to all that own it It exagitates the Heads and Hearts of men several ways some it intoxicates with Cruelty and some with Pride some it stirs up to Luxury and some to Lust some it swells up and some it softens As the Sun at the same time does harden Clay and melt Wax some it makes so obdurate as to turn them into a Rock and some it dissolves into arrant loosness § 7. Which by the way suggests to us a Third Reason for the Dissuasive from any man's seeking Great Things for himself and for God's Prohibition Seek them not They being treacherous and deceiptful not only to the outward but inward man not only in a Secular but moral Sense not only to the Bodies but Souls of men They are corruptive even of Principles as making their owners to imagin that Honour Intitles them to Ambition that Pride belongs to men of Power that Greatness gives them a Right to Arrogance From which Corruption of Judgment it comes to pass that many others as well as Baldwin That most famously devout Cistercian Monk have been observ'd by Historians to lose their Sanctity with their Obscureness and after the measure of growing Greater to grow in all kinds the worse In so much that Pope Urban directed his Letters very fitly to Baldwin Thus Monacho ferventissimo Abbati calido Episcopo tepido Archiepiscopo remisso Salutem plurimam impertimus It is so common for men to change from good to bad or from bad to worse with the change of their Conditions from bad to good or from good to better and when they are lifted up in Honour to be elevated in Mind too that Titus Vespasian is the one Emperour at least within my present memory who was moulded by his Empire from bad to better from having been both a proud and a cruel Subject to his being both a mild and an humble Soveraign Of most other Emperours it may be said as 't was by Tacitus but of one Imperio digni nisi imperâssent They might have been worthy of their Empires if they never had been Emperours Temporal Happiness having This of malignant in it in the Judgment of Agur the Son of Iakeh that it makes men forgetful of Him that made them Deut. 32. 15 18. It breeds ingratitude disaffection and at last a disbelief of their Soveraign Good Prov. 30. 8 9. 'T was the Opinion of St. Chrysostom upon St. Paul to the Ephesians that as nothing can so highly provoke the Wrath of the Almighty as the Sin of breeding Factions in Church and State So there is nothing that can so easily beget such Factions in either of them as the Seeking of Preferments and Greatness in it For where the most of men are seeking Great Things for Themselves there are Few to take care of the Common Good either in relation to Church or State And the way to Advancement through such an excess of Self-seeking becomes too Narrow which 't is the Interest of the Publick to make as Broad as it is possible that so the Candidates going towards it may not tread on one another for want of Room to go by or at least for want of Room to go by quietly and without jostling Lord what Armies have been defeated if not destroy'd too by the chief Officers great Envy and malignant Aemulations of one another We need not go far abroad for Examples of it if we are not utter Strangers to things which have happen'd here at Home And Christians one would think should All take warning by Christ's Disciples who were impertinently disputing which of Them should be the greatest when nothing but Pains and Persecutions and Death it self did await them All. There was a Time when great Numbers did take fair warning by That Example But not to spend time in the Enumeration of Particulars for the enumerating of which my time would fail me it shall suffice me to say in general and by the Authority of St. Austin that most of the better sort of men who had the Happiness to live in those better Times did suffer violence and force in their vast Promotions For being exceedingly afraid of the great Dignities they were offer'd and much more ready to quit their Country than to run the great risque of Advancement in it they were fain to be press'd and kept in Prison 'till they could bring their Wills down to admit of Greatness Thus the most Modern of our Great Doctors of the most Primitive Simplicity a man as wise as he was learned and as good as good Nature by Grace could make him was truly afraid to live so long as to see the happy Day he had daily pray'd for partly for his own sake lest the bettering of the Times should possibly make him grow worse than he was before and lest Advancement should corrupt him whom the contrary Condition had kept Intire partly for the sake of the Publick also lest a Deluge of Prosperity overflowing all the Borders of Church and State might
and Cross of Christ If he be but once brought to an inviolable Belief without all Scruples or Peradventures That every man shall live eternally either in Heaven or in Hell And that 't is clearly for his Interest to do or suffer as Christ commands him because in order to his Escape from all the miseries of the one and in order to his Attainment of all the Beatitudes in the other He will presently break off his Sins by Righteousness as Daniel charged Nebuchadnezzar He will be ready for Restitution to every one whom he hath injur'd as Zachee the Publican when He repented He will bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance as the Jews were admonished by Iohn the Baptist. He will be glad to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake as the Apostles at Ierusalem Acts 5. 41. The Consideration of his Interest will give an high Relish to all his suffrings making his Torments and his Tormentors to become his great Instruments and means of pleasure § 22. Thus we see in all cases both Temporal and Spiritual every man is for himself and intends his own Interest in whatsoever it is which he undertakes either the Interest of his Profit or of his Pleasure and Reputation The Interest of his Flesh or of his Spirit his present Interest or his future still 't is one Interest or other which leads him on unto the best or the worst Performances in the World Is any man Covetous and extremely close sisted He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to be Rich in mony which is the only Grand Project that he is driving Or is he Free and open-handed He thinks it for his Interest because it is the ready way to make him Rich in good Works which is the highest and noblest end at which he ayms in this World Is there any man running headlong into a Customary Contempt of his Saviour's Yoke He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to live merrily and in Prosperity here on Earth which is the Soveraign Allective of his Desires Or does any man take pleasure in supporting both the Burden and Yoke of Christ He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to dye safely and to live after Death a life of Bliss and Immortality which is the utmost Atchievement his heart is set on Lastly would ye know the Reason why I have meditated so much upon this kind of Subject why I have struck so many Blows upon this great Anvil made so many long Discourses though on occasion of divers Texts touching the Equity and the Law of our Saviour's Gospel and indispensable Necessity of our obedience unto the end The Reason of it is truly This Because I have thought it most mine own and other men's Interest so to do And till we are able to be so happy as to convince our selves and others that 't is most for our Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Law and the Burden of his Cross when 't is laid upon us 'T is very sure that neither of us shall bear the one or the other as is requir'd Whereas 't is as sure on the other side That as we never neglect our Interest in what is Secular or Carnal as touching our Credits or our Estates or our Temporal Preservation so as little shall we indure to start aside from the Burden or Yoke of Christ if indeed we do believe it our greatest Interest to bear them as He requires For can the very same man who is sollicitously careful to get a Trifle be as perfectly careless to gain a Talent or stand in very great Dread of a lesser Punishment But of an infinitely greater in none at all If we are strict in our conforming to the Commandments of men with whom the Penalties are but Temporal and the Recompenses but finite we cannot sure be Non-Conformists to the Commandments of Christ on a Supposal that we believe it as great a Truth as any is That his Punishments and Rewards are both Immortal and Immense Nor can I think of a more rational or a more satisfactory Accompt why the Commandments of men should be so commonly heeded by us with more circumspection than those of Christ but that we fear Them more and believe Him less or value the Interest of our Bodies above the Interest of our Souls or prefer the seeming certainty of what is Present before the Hope and Expectance of what is future And had rather become the owners of Earthly Contentments in Possession than to be dealing for Reversions in Heaven it self § 23. And therefore to the end we may be able even to feel and by consequence to arrive at the Conviction of Experience That the Yoke of Christ's Law is really Easy in it self and the Burden of his Cross is in comparison very light And that they have Both a secret vertue of giving Rest unto the Souls of Them that labour and of Refreshing the heavy laden for so our Saviour tells us expresly in the two next Verses before the Text let us be Conversant incessantly in all the means of attaining to a True Christian Faith That so by cordially believing we may passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that loving him as we ought we may by consequence delight in doing that which he requires and by consequence may attain to that Reward which he hath Promis'd For as our Faith and our Love do what we can will beget obedience if the first is unfeigned and the second without Dissimulation So 't is sure that our obedience will end in bliss Not in bliss whilst we are Passengers but when we shall arrive at our Iourneys end For here we are Dead saith our Apostle and our life is yet hid with Christ in God But when the Lord Iesus Christ who is our life shall appear Then shall We also appear with Him in Glory Which God the Father of his mercy prepare us for through the working of his Spirit and for the worthiness of his Son To whom be Glory for ever and ever THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under the GOSPEL THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under The GOSPEL HEB. XII 28 29. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear For our God is a Consuming Fire THere is something Difficult in the Text which will I think be best explain'd by way of Answer to an Objection For why is it said here Let us have Grace It may seem at first hearing a strange expression whether we have it or have it not For if we have it it seems superfluous and if we have it not it seems as vain We need not say Let us have what 't is plain we have already before we say it And we say to no purpose Let us have this or that which whilst we have not it is not in our power to have For Is
in vain Philip. 2. 16. that we do not faint as we are running and possibly miss of the Prize within a stride of the Goal For though we work for Salvation whole years together and work for it never so hard yet whilst we are in the Body and compass'd about with a Tempting world we cannot say we have work'd it out So that That is a Thing to be still in doing and to be done with Fear and Trembling For as there are a sort of Labourers who do not come into the Vineyard until the ninth or tenth hour so there are that fall off in the very Evening and lose the benefit of their Labour during the heat of the Day For when they cease from being Righteous all their pass't Righteousness shall not be mention'd Ezek. 18. Had not Iudas been worthy Christ had not made him an Apostle and had he not been a good Apostle he had hardly been trusted with the Bag much less had he been sent to dispense the Gospel 'T is very late e're we read the Devil enter'd into Iudas hardly sooner than a day or two before his Death And though our Saviour said he chose twelve whereof one was a Devil yet did he not say He chose a Devil For Iudas was not a Devil that is a Traytor 'till some time after he had been chosen Which fitly serves to put us in mind that if we know what we are we are not sure of what we shall be What our last days will be we cannot tell till we have liv'd them We may speak out of Hope but out of Certainty we cannot I know who they are who breath nothing but Assurance of Life eternal as if That were the english of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as if their Rebellions were meritorious mistake the sturdiness of their Presumption for the stability of their Faith So little or nothing are they concern'd in St. Paul's Exhortation to Fear and Trembling that supposing they are sure they think it below them to be solicitous I would to God that such Professors had but the patience to consider that St. Peter doth not exhort us to make our selves sure of our Election but to make our Election sure The vvord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not meant in an Active but Passive sense nor of the Person but of the Thing St. Paul had sure as much reason not to doubt of his Election to life Eternal as any meer mortal before or after And yet vvith vvhat a deal of fear and trembling did he run the Race that was set before him how did he strive for the Mastery And in order thereunto how very temperate was he in all things How did he keep under his body how did he bring it into Subjection and all for fear left whilst he was preaching unto others He himself might be a Castaway How did he suffer the loss of all things and count them but Dung for the winning of Christ who was at once his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at once his Rewarder and his Reward the setter out of the Prize and the Goal it self 'T is true indeed He wins that loses who loses All to win Christ. But in order unto this end with what fear and trembling did he press towards the Mark and reach forth to those things that were before him embracing a fellowship with the Sufferings of Christ and being conformable unto his Death if by any means he might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead if by any means he might apprehend That for which he was also apprehended of Christ Iesus And here to anticipate an Objection which very easily may be made by a sort of men I think it of use to be observ'd That He first had fought the good Fight and finished his Course before he durst presume to say in the following words Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness It was not till after his Perseverance with Faith and Patience unto the end that is but a little before his Death when the Axe and the Headsman stood ready for him at least when both were within his Prospect that he was able to speak with so great Assurance For before that Season whilst he was yet but in his Course and had not fought to a perfect Victory he flatly told his Philippians He did not speak of his Proficiency in the School of Christ as if he counted himself to have apprehended or as if he thought he were already made perfect But on the contrary He did so work out his Salvation with Fear and Trembling as that he macerated himself and what with fasting and watching and other Austerities of Life he did bear in his body the Dying of the Lord Iesus lest whilst he preach'd to save others he himself might not be sav'd He had not yet endured unto the end and so he was not yet free from Fear For he that endureth unto the end the same is he saith our Saviour who shall be sav'd Matth. 24. 13. It was the voice of God himself reveal'd from Heaven five several Times He that overcometh shall inherit all things Rev. 21. 7. He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the Tree of Life Rev. 2. 7. He that overcometh is He that shall not be hurt with the second Death v. 11. He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the hidden Manna v. 17. And who is he that overcometh but he that keepeth God's works unto the end v. 26. To Apply this now unto our selves If we can say with St. Paul that our Battle is quite fought against the World the Flesh and the Devil And that our Course is quite finished in so much that we are able to lay our hands upon the Goal we then may say with him too Henceforth is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness We may say we have a Right to the Tree of Life That God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a righteous Iudge who will not be so Unfaithful having given us a Promise as to forget our work and labour of love Heb. 6. 10. And so being sure to be with Christ we may desire to be dissolv'd too But whilst we are upon the way and we cannot tell how far from our Iourneys end Nor what may happen 'twixt This and That sure the use we are to make of our present standing is to take great heed that we do not fall We must beware if we are righteous that we do not return from righteousness to sin The higher we stand in God's Favour we must beware so much the more that we be not high-minded but rather fear lest for having like Capernaum been lifted up to Heaven we be the rather like Capernaum cast down to Hell There was a Proverb among the Iews The Sow is turned being wash't to her wallowing in the Mire And St. Peter applys it to certain Christians who have made it good in the Application even by
assent unto the Creed do still confute their own Belief of the two last Articles The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting For is it possible that a man should very seriously believe he shall last for ever and not be vehemently solicitous whether in Heaven or in Hell or that he really should believe there is a Heaven and a Hell without a minutely concernment to which of the two he must needs belong If a man's Neck be but obnoxious to the Gallows or the Block or his Goods but in danger of Confiscation sleep it self will not be strong enough to give him rest until he has us'd his whole strength to purchase a Pardon or a Reprieve And did he as really believe that he shall rise after Death to a Day of Iudgment when evil Doers shall be cast into a Bottomless Asphaltites a Lake which evermore is burning with Fire and Brimstone ô with what Horror and Indignation would he look back upon his Sins with what Remorse and Self-Revenge would he afflict himself for them in Soul and Body with what a vehement desire would he demonstrate his Repentance by Change of Life ô with what Carefulness and Concernment would he endeavour to make his Peace with abused Iustice with what strong crying and Tears would he sue for Mercy Not in the language of St. Peter when transported out of his wits by his great Amazement Depart from me ô Lord for I am a sinful man But rather with Christ upon the Cross where he recited in Syriac those words of David My God my God why hast thou forsaken me How much rather would he choose to do it now to some purpose and that but once than at last to no purpose and that for ever Say then good Reader and say without Partiality Can a man in good earnest believe his own Immortality whilst he so seldom or never mindes the future condition of his Soul and is not solicitous what to do that he may be sav'd There can be nothing more incredible than that a man of such a Faith should be so destitute of Fear For what accompt can be given why a man should shrink at Death a great deal more than at Damnation and more provide against the pains of a dying Life than the Torments of a Death which will live for ever that is more against the first than the second Death but that he steadily believes the first may easily come to pass whilst he hopes that the second is but a Fable They who hitherto have thought they were True Believers whilst yet their Infidel Lives have strongly prov'd that they were none will confess what I say if they ever shall have Patience enough to meditate and shall meditate long enough to comprehend the whole force of my present reason Now in order to my purpose which is to rouze up some or other out of the Lethargie they are in and to set them on work in this Grand Inquiry I shall reason a little farther with the Paganish Professors of Christianity And first of all let it be granted what ought not yet to be suppos'd That what they have not in Themselves an active Power to demonstrate cannot have a passive Power of being demonstrated by others that so they may not be offended at the uncivil possibility of other mens being deeper or quicker sighted than Themselves For some are so strongly of opinion that their particular Comprehension is the Adaequate measure of all Existence that they are apter to deny and to disbelieve that there is any thing in the World beyond the Horizon of their Conceipt than to suspect or confess that their Souls are short-sighted Not vouchsafing to consider how great a number of Things there are about the Body of a Flea which are invisible to their Eyes whilst unassisted and yet are evident unto any who shall behold them through a Microscope And if to the natural Eye of Reason we add the Telescope of Faith which is the Evidence of Things not seen we shall have an easy Prospect of that Salvation which the Iailour of Philippi enquired after And discern the true reason why the Sciolists of the Age who are call'd the Wits do first contend there are no Spirits and thence infer there is no Hell and so conclude they need not ask what it is they must do that they may be saved even because they have too much and too little wit For if they had less they would not raise their Objections and if they had more they would be able to refute them But be it so that they themselves are not able to demonstrate there is a Hell to be saved from Dare they say they are better able to demonstrate that there is none Can they say that they have dyed to make a Decision of the Question And been restored again to life to declare the Negative by Experience Do they suspect the Galilaean whom we commonly call Iesus in what he saith of an outer Darkness and therein of a Worm which never dyes and of a Fire which is not quenched And do they so far suspect him that they resolve to make an Essay of his Veracity and therefore trust not his Doctrin till they have try'd it will they admit of no Philosophy but what they call Experimental and therefore stay till they are dead for a Determination of their Doubt because forsooth until the time that they have tasted the first Death they know not if they can feel a second I say admit they do not know that there are Torments after Death to indure for ever Should not this suffice to Awe them that such there are for ought they know Or are their Souls so wholly drown'd and swallow'd up in Sensualities as that they have not any leisure wherein to consider their latter End Have they not Melancholy enough in their Constitutions to fix their volatil spirits no not so much as for an hour upon that which concerns them the most that may be even the Subject of a joyful or sad Eternity Or have they the leisure to consider their latter end but only want sufficient Courage and Resolution to indure it as being a pungent and a dismal and not only a sad but an insupportable Consideration This methinks is as absurd as whatsoever it is that hath been alledg'd For if they have not the patience to think or meditate upon Hell for a little season How much less will they be able to undergo it with Patience to all Eternity If the wages of Sin is such whilst it is yet but in the earning Lord how terrible will it be at the Time of Payment And what a strange Contradiction does this imply in some mens humours That they should dare incur the danger of induring those Torments of Hell it self whereof they dare not indure so much as a deep consideration no not long enough to inquire what they must do to be saved from them But all this is no more than an
Mouths to confess him our Heads to believe him our Hands and Feet to serve him our Wills to be ruled and our Wits to be captivated by him our Hearts to love him and our Lives to dye for him All which though it is All is still too little if we impartially consider the Disproportion of our Reward that blessed Parallel drawn out for us by God's own Compass Life and Aeternity A man you know would do any thing whereby to find Life though in our Saviour's Oxymôron it is by losing it Matth. 10. 39. And as a man will part with any thing to save his life so with life too to eternize it If therefore our Saviour does bid us follow him let us not venture to choose our way And if we can but arrive at Heaven it matters not much though we go by Hell For comparing his Goodness with his Mastership his Promises with his Precepts and the Scantling of our Obedience with the Immenfity of our Reward we shall find that our work hath no proportion with our wages but that we may inquire when all is done Good Master what shall we do And this does prompt me to proceed to my last Doctrinal Proposition That when all is done that can be we are unprofitable Servants Our Obedience is not the Cause but the meer Condition of our Reward And we arrive at Eternal Life not by way of Purchase as we are Servants but of Inheritance as we are Sons It is not here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to deserve but to inherit Eternal Life As Christianity like Manhood hath its several steps and degrees of growth so the Soul as well as the Body doth stand in need of Food and Raiment And agreable to the Complexion of immaterial Beings she is not only bedeck't but sustain'd with Righteousness Now as none can inherit Eternal Life but He that is born of the Spirit And as he that is born of the Spirit must also be nourished with the Spirit before he can possibly live an holy and spiritual Life so it is only God the Spirit that gives us Birth God the Son that gives us Breeding and God the Father that gives us the privilege of Adoption The Spirit feedeth us as his Babes the Son instructs us as his Disciples the Father indows us as his Heirs It is the Spirit that fits us for our Inheritance the Son that gives us a Title to it And 't is especially the Father who doth invest us with the Possession But now of all God's External and Temporal Blessings which have any Resemblance unto his Spiritual methinks the Manna that fell from Heaven is the liveliest Embleme of his Grace Of which though some did gather more and some less yet they that gather'd most had nothing over and they that gather'd least had no lack Thus as Manna like Grace is the Bread of Heaven so Grace like Manna is also measur'd out by Omers For even they that have least of the Grace of God have enough if well us'd to inherit Heaven and even they that have most have not enough to deserve it But still the Parallel goes on For the reason why the Manna which God sent down to the People Israel would not indure above a Day was saith Philo upon the Place lest considering the Care by which their Manna was preserv'd more than the Bounty by which 't was given they might be tempted to applaud not God's Providence but their own Thus if God had bestow'd so full a measure of his Grace as to have left us altogether without our Frailties perhaps our very Innocence might have been our Temptation We might have found it an Inconvenience to have been dangerously Good Like those once happy but ever-since unhappy Angels whose very excellency of Nature did prove a kind of Snare to them even the purity of their Essence did give occasion to their defilement Their very Height and Eminence was that that helpt to pull them down and one reason of their falling was that they stood so firmly For though they were free from that Lust which is the Pollution of the Flesh yet they were lyable to Ambition which is the Filthiness of the Spirit As if their Plethory of Goodness had made them Wantons or the Unweildiness of their Glory had made them Proud 't was from a likeness to their Creator that they aspir'd to an Equality and so they were the first of all the Creatures as well in their Fall as their Perfections Now adding to this the consideration that Ingratitude does gather Increase of Guilt from a greater abundance of Obligations so as the Angels falling from Heaven could not fall less than as low as Hell we may perhaps find a reason for which to congratulate to our selves that Dimensum or Pittance of God's free Grace which hath left us our Infirmities as fit Remembrancers to Humility That being placed in a condition rather of Trembling than of Security every Instance of our defect may send us to God for a Supply God hath given us our Proportion that we may not grumble or despair but not such a Perfection as once to Adam and the Angels before their Fall that we may not like Them be either careless or presume So that making a due comparison of that faint measure of Goodness which now we possibly may have by the Grace of God with that full measure of Glory which now at least we hope for we must be fain to acknowledge when all is done that the greatest measure of our obedience is far from deserving the least of Bliss For as the Sun appears to us a most glorious Body and yet is look't upon by God as a spot of Ink so though the Righteousness of men doth seem to men to be truly such yet compar'd with our Reward it is no more than as filthy Rags That other promise of our Lord Never to see or to taste of Death had been sufficiently above our merits But to inherit Eternal Life too though I cannot affirm it above our wishes yet sure it is often above our Faith Had we no more than we deserv'd we should not have so great Blessings as Rain and Sunshine and God had still been Iust to us had he made our best wages to be as negative as our work For as the best of us all can boast no more than of being less guilty than other men so we can claim no other Reward than to be somewat less punish't that is to be beaten with fewer stripes As the Ox amongst the Iews being unmuzzl'd upon the Mowe by the special appointment of God himself at once did eat and tread the Corn whereby he received his Reward at the very same Instant in which he earn'd it so the Protection of such a Soveraign is Reward enough for our Allegiance and the present Maintenance of a Servant is the usual Recompence of his labour Whatsoever God
his Reason For of this sort are they who creep into Houses and lead captive silly women laden with Sins and led away with divers lusts Ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth After this they are compared to Iannes and Iambres withstanding Moses men of corrupt minds or men of no judgment and Reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3. from the first verse unto the ninth This is St. Paul's Exact Description of wicked Doers in the last Days and that in the Bosom of The Church too as learned Beza expresly words it Now whether the last Days refer to the Destruction of Ierusalem or to the End of the World or have an Aspect upon Both which I conceive to be the Best of the Three Opinions we cannot but say it suits well a great deal too well with the Days we live in For § 4. If we consider the Faith of Christ in the first general sense I lately mention'd How is it totally rejected or most wretchedly depraved by the Mahomedans in the Eastern and by the Multitude of Fanaticks in the Western parts of the World what with Heathens and Iews arrant Atheists and empty Theists modern Arrians or Socinians what with Dogmatists and Scepticks and the more brutish Acatalepticks and damnable Hypocrites in Religion who if it is possible may be thought worse than the worst of These How few in Christendom are Christians or more than Professors of Christianity And even of Professors how many are there who in their words do own Christ whilst in their works they quite deny him like Those concerning whom St. Paul saith to Titus They are Abominable Disobedient and to every good work Reprobate Do not the Turks use our Saviour with much more reverence and respect thô they believe him but a meer Prophet than many Thousands of Verbal Christians who do profess him to be a God The Turks chastize their Christian Slaves whensoever their Anger or Impatience moves them to swear or to blaspheme A Turkish Sultan could afford a good Admonition to a Pope and a Christian Emperour that Iesus Christ had commanded them to put up Injuries and Affronts but not to offer or to revenge them How like an Heathen did Iustinian break his Contract with the Mahomedans and how sadly did they make an Example of him How did Nicephorus do the like with the Turkish Aaron and how was he made a like Example A whole victorious Christian Army dead in Drunkenness and Sleep was so cut off by the Saracens during the Reign of Michael Ducas that only a man was left alive to carry home Tidings of that Calamity The Christian Emperour Diogenes found as much Faithfulness and Humanity from the most admirable Axan a Turkish Sultan and an Enemy who took him Pris'ner as he found Falsness and Barbarity from his own Christian Subjects at his Enlargement Lord the wonderful difference between these Two His Turkish Enemy sav'd his life his Christian Subjects took it away And the most Scandalous * Violation of Christian Faith with the Mahomedans to which the impious Pope Eugenius had most unchristianly exhorted the King of Poland cost Ladislaus the signal loss of more than Thirty thousand Soldiers whom their good Father of the Papacy may well be esteemed to have slain To deal impartially with our selves as well as honestly with our Enemies and religiously with our Saviour whose Praediction in my Text I am now justifying and proving what Incouragement have the Turks to joyn themselves with the Christians whilst they observe so many Christians wearing Religion as a Cloak a Cloak to cover Irreligion a Cloak of Maliciousness and Hypocrisie to be put off and on as occasion serves a Cloak for Knavery and Sedition and Violation of Oaths What Invitations or Inducements have the Worshippers of Mahomed to be converted to Christianity whilst for one Drunkard in Turky They see there are Multitudes in Christendom or whilst they fear by turning Christians they shall be under the Persecution of Fellow Christians whereas continuing to be Turks the Christians can do them but little Hurt or whilst they find Christian Princes buying Peace of the Great Turk that they may break it with one another or whilst they hear that Prosperity is avowed by many Christians to be a Mark of the True Religion or whilst they read that a most gracious and religious Christian King Charles the First of Great Britain was cruelly kill'd in cold Blood by his Christian Subjects and by the best sort of Christians as some esteem them at least as They esteem Themselves Dissenting Protestants and Reformers Refiners of The Reformation and even Menders of the Magnificat Now what says The Mahomedan within himself and to others on this occasion If such as These are the Characters whereby Christians are to be known and Christians of the purer sort too Christians tenderer in Conscience than others are Christians scrupling at a Surplice or Cross in Baptism sit Anima mea cum paganis The Turkish Musulman will say Let my Soul be with Theirs who never once heard of the Christian Creed O my Soul says the Infidel come not Thou into their Secret to their Assembly mine Honour be not Thou united For in their Anger they slew a Man and in their self-will they digged down a strong Wall Him who was to His People for Walls and Bulwarks Cursed be their Anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Such is the Infidel's Indignation thô expressed in the words of a most Faithful dying Iacob concerning two of his own Sons Unto which may be added That other Prophecy of the same Iacob touching the same combining Sons as Sons of Violence and Bloodshed that sooner or later God will divide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israel § 5. But let us consider whether The Iews have greater incouragement than The Turks to unite with Those Christians in point of Faith who hold that None is to be kept with their Fellow-Christians if forsooth they are not fully of their Perswasion and for That reason only are called Hereticks The Italian Iews at this day do hate Adultery to the Death whilst they observe Italian Christians do hardly accompt it a greater Crime than to eat Flesh upon a Friday The Iews are so much at unity within themselves that as covetous as they are and how much soever scatter'd abroad they have a kind of Community of Goods and Fortunes in that they leave not their Poor ones without Relief nor their Captives without a Ransom Whereas the Christians they observe and as well Protestants as Papists are full of Enmity and Strife and perhaps of somewhat more than Vatinian Hatreds from whence arise their Departures and Separations from one another They will not meet to serve God under one and the same Roof with their Christian Brethren for fear they should obey Man and the Laws in force Now the Iews cannot
and absolute Belief both in his words and in his works both in his Counsels and his Commands both in his Promises and his Threats For He who Thus is believing is ipso facto and eo ipso at once an Obedient and Loving Christian. A Christian so loving that the longer he lives the more he lives the Life of Faith the more he is weaned and sequestred from the things here below the more he is wedded and betrothed unto those things that are above His Affections are taken off from the beggarly Elements of the World and fix't entirely upon God as his soveraign Good I mean they are set upon God in Christ reconciling the World unto Himself And overcome The world he does as St. Iohn must needs mean by overcoming its Temptations its Pomps and Vanities its Smiles and Flatteries nor only the Pleasures but Terrors of it He overcometh That world which St. Iohn has comprized under three general Heads to wit the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life For a sincere Faith in Christ in his Death and Resurrection and in the Consequences of Both gives us a much greater Byass a stronger Bent and Inclination to all good Things than the whole World can to the contrary by all its flatteries or its frights It possesseth us immediately with Inward Ioy in the Holy Ghost and praepossesseth us with an Antepast of The Glory to be reveal'd It praesentiates unto us such Joys to come as do exceedingly over-weigh the frowns and favours of the world It is expressed by St. Iohn in the place before-cited not only as the means whereby we grow Victors But as the Victory it self This saith he is The Victory which overcometh the world even our Faith As if it were not only the Instrument but Essence of it § 10. It follows then that we must distinguish with exceeding great Care and every minute of our Lives between two things which do extremely much differ like Heaven and Hell and yet are commonly confounded to admiration I say we must carefully distinguish not only between an Idle and an Operative Faith a Faith which works and a Faith which works not But withal between a working and working Faith between a Faith which only works by the Love of a man's self and a Faith which duly works by the Love of others For when the Son of Man shall come with his holy Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance of them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Iesus Christ He will find enough idle unactive Faith which either works not at all or not at all by Love or else by none but Self-love which is the worst and greatest Evil that can possibly come to pass in the last and worst Times St. Paul sets it down in his long Catalogue of Impieties which shall be in the last Days as The Ring-leader and Head of All the Villanies which ensue as the first and greatest Link of that Chain of Darkness which draws the other Links after it and reacheth as far as from Hence to Hell In the last days says he to Timothy perilous Times shall come For men shall be Lovers of their own selves and in consequence of That All the Devilish Things that follow from the First Verse unto the Ninth of that Third Chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy A Chain of Darkness almost as long as That the Devils themselves are held in and reserved saith St. Iude until the Iudgment of the Great Day Nor is it my opinion only But that of Estius Simplicius and Strigelius that the Sin of Self-love is set down First in The Black List as The Head-spring and Fountain of all the Rest. For I think I may challenge any man living without immodesty to Name any one Actual and Damning Sin which has not the Sin of Self-love for its most execrable Original It was meerly Self-love which turned Luciser into a Devil and made the Son of the Morning The Prince of Darkness It was the Sin of Self-love which turned those Protoplasts Adam and Eve out of their Innocence and by consequence out of their Paradise which they held and possessed by That one Tenure It was at first the Love of Self and of Self-preservation which moved Peter to renounce and abjure his Master And it was first a Self-love which produced in Iudas a love of Mony wherewith he was tempted to betray and to slay his Master Thence it was that Self-denial or Self-abnegation was the very first Lesson our Saviour taught his first Disciples And 't is the first we are to learn in the School of our Master Iesus Christ. It being the Causa-sine-qua-non of all other Duties in a Christian. For whosoever has once attain'd a good Degree of Self-denial or of Self-hatred for Sins committed can fast from eating when he is hungry and even from drinking when he is dry from stealing when he is Poor and from coveting when he is Rich from repining when he is low and from oppressing when he is lofty and so from every thing else which either is sinful in it self or so much as a Temptation inducing to it How did St. Peter when he repented revenge himself upon himself for his having so basely out of Self-love not only disown'd but forsworn his Lord He did not only deny Himself in opposition to his Denial of Jesus Christ But abhorr'd himself too in opposition to his Self-love which betray'd him to it How triumphant was his Faith and his Self-denial how triumphant over Himself and his former Cowardize how did he preach up Christ Crucified for which he was Crucified with his Head downwards and in All he did or suffer'd how did he bear down all before him not only all the World but the Flesh and the Devil too as mighty Cataracts and Torrents do sticks and straws So did Peter as well as Paul courageously sight the good sight of Faith Such in Him was That Faith which overcometh the World And when the Son of Man cometh to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Lord how much or rather how little shall he find of such fighting and conquering Faith upon the Earth § 11. This is infinitely far from That Carnal Faith which only works by Self-love All the Degrees of Disobedience to Christ's Commands No The Faith which He shall find in comparatively None that is to say in very few at his second Coming is such a Faith as strongly works by a Love of others which is said with great reason to be The fulfilling of the Law in Both the Tables of The Decalogue which our Blessed Lord came to fulfil and perfect not to abrogate or to destroy because 't is hard if not impossible for us to name any one Duty incumbent on us as Men or Christians which is not the Necessary Production of such a Love as Faith works by For as immoderate Self-love which consists with an human and worthless Faith is the Root
of such as serve him Who cannot say that the Tempter does irresistibly debauch them though with the Vanities of the World he does assault them from without and with the Treacheries of the Flesh he does surprise them from within For the Devil 's very utmost is but to tempt us And let the matter of Temptation be what it will whether Honour or Disgrace whether Pain or Pleasure whether Frights or Flatteries whether want or superfluity or even the same in the Text wherewith he tempted our Blessed Saviour All the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them Yet because by all These he can but solicite and intice us we cannot say he does ravish but court our Wills 'T is true the Devil is represented by many terrible Appellations throughout the Scriptures as that of Abaddon and Apollyon a Murderer from the Beginning a Lyon and a Red Dragon a Roaring Lyon and a Serpent And in one respect or other he is indeed each of These But yet he carrys away the Wills and Assents of men not as a Lyon only by Strength nor as a Roaring one by Rapacity but rather as a Serpent by Circumvention § 3. Now then let us return to see how the Argument will go on having seen enough already upon what foot it stands and put a Block out of the way too at which too many are wont to stumble can we imagin it to be likely that the old experienced Serpent the subtlest Creature under Heaven could be so stupid and obtuse in the Art of Mischief as to employ his chief strength upon a Design of less importance and to reserve his weakest force for his very last Onset or Assault At first he tempted our Blessed Saviour to nothing else but Distrust and therefore only made use of his being hungry v. 3. Next he tempted him to Praesumption which is the opposite Provocation and thought it enough for that Effect to put him in mind of his Praerogative v. 6. But now at last he runs higher and seeks to bribe the most righteous Iudge to the greatest unworthiness in the World an Idolizing the unworthiest of all his Creatures He knew that Christ was the Son of God because he heard him so declared by God the Father Chap. 3. v. 17. He also knew the Son of God to be God the Son too And he knew that God the Son was even the Wisdom of the Father And when he would tempt Wisdom it self to Idolize the very Tempter he could not but know he was to use the highest Allective to be imagin'd Which by what other means should he hope to do than by taking up our Lord to an exceeding high Mountain shewing him there as in a Synopsis All the Kingdoms of the World with the Glory of them and then by making this lusty Proffer All These will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me § 4. This then does lead us to see the reason why 't is said by St. Paul That the love of mony is the Root of all Evil. And why by St. Iames Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for the Miseries that shall come upon you And why 't is said by our Saviour of whom we believe that he shall come to be our Judge Wo to you that are Rich for ye have received your Consolation Wo to you that are full for ye shall hunger Wo to you that laugh for ye shall mourn and weep And why 't was said by the Spanish Friar That Few Potentates go to Hell because comparatively speaking they All are but Few And why we vowed in our Baptism to fight manfully under Christ's Banner as well against the World as the Flesh and the Devil And why we pray in our publick Litany not only In all Time of our Tribulation of Lightning and Tempest of Plague Pestilence and Famine of Battle and Murder and suddain Death But as a Danger if not a Mischief as great as either In all Time of our WEALTH Good Lord deliver us Nor can we render a better reason as long as Charity sits as Iudge why so many who have been placed upon exceeding high Mountains a great deal higher even than That on which the Devil here placed our Blessed Saviour from whence they could not only see but injoy the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them have gladly laid down those Kingdoms and divorc'd themselves from those Glories as having known them by sad experience to be but exquisite Temptations and pleasant Snares § 5. But here I would not be so mistaken as our Lord was by his Disciples when he pronounced it impossible for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God For when I say that worldly Greatness is one of the Devil 's most cogent Engines whereby to batter down the Castle or Soul of Man I am far from implying 't is irresistible Though I argue that the Devil is then the greatest Poliorxetick as Soldiers word it when he lays Siege to a man's Soul with All the Kingdoms of the Earth yet can it not therefore be deny'd but that we may beat him out of his Trenches through him that strengthneth us and that as He did with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 get thee hence Satan Honour and Riches are but Temptations and Temptations in Themselves are but Things Indifferent which accordingly as they are us'd do administer a Nourishment to Vice or Vertue Just as the very same Sword is of it self apt to serve to the most contrary Effects as well to punish as to protect the Guilty and either to defend or to kill the Innocent And thus the same Meat and Drink as it meets with an immoderate or sober Appetite serves for the Mischief of a Surfeit or for a necessary Refection The strength of a Temptation as it does in part lessen the Sinner's Guilt when yielded to and comply'd with so does it heighten the vertue too when victoriously resisted And as the Angels who fell from a state of Innocence and Bliss were the less capable of rising in that they fell without a Tempter so the Angels who never fell are the less capable of the Coronets which Virgins and Martyrs shall wear in Heaven because they are pure and impassive and so exempted by God Almighty from the Dignity and Privilege of suffering for him This then we must confess is the great Benefit of Temptations to give our Enemies their Due that by resisting them to the end we manfully fight under Christ's Banner conform our selves to his Example and suffer for his sake as He for ours In which respect no doubt it was as before I noted that St. Iames began his Epistle with this remarkable Exhortation Brethren count it all Ioy when ye fall into divers Temptations Some may wonder at the Expression and think it impious that at the instant in which we pray lead us not into Temptation we should be glad of those things we daily deprecate But St. Iames
we are glued in our Affections to the things here below we think the World to be a Great and a Glorious thing so the higher we fly above it the more contemptibly Little 't is natural for it to appear And therefore § 17. Secondly let us consider That as the way whereby to escape the glorious Dangers of which I speak is to sequester our Affections from the Things of this World and to take wing towards a Better so that our Flight may be the higher we are to take some ready Course whereby to make our selves light For however it is natural for Birds to fly yet the most they can do is but to flutter if they are laden with thick Clay a Phrase by which the Prophet Habakkuk describeth Mony and denounceth a Woe to them that load themselves with it The reason of which is very obvious For notwithstanding it is natural for the spirit of man to fly upwards yet what in one Case is natural may be impossible in an other A man may fly just as soon with a weight of Lead at his Feet as with a Burden of Silver upon his Back The lightest Birds commonly do fly the highest And considering 't is a Duty for a man so to buy as if he were never to possess To deny his dear self and to take up Christ's Cross and to follow Him it seems to follow thereupon that He who hath least of this World and the least to do in it is probably the fittest for That great Duty Though 't was not meerly for being poor that Lazarus was carried to Abraham's Bosom yet 't was That that his Poverty dispos'd him for And St. Peter said fitly touching Himself and his Condisciples Lo we have left All and followed Thee Because they could not follow Christ and carry all they had with them For every Follower of Christ has a very narrow way wherein to walk and a very strait Gate whereat to enter So that the Body of a Christian is Load enough unto the Soul and therefore many more Impediments may well be spar'd Our Bodies saith St. Paul are but Earthen Vessels but Dust and Ashes saith Abraham Gen. 20. 27. And sure the way to keep our selves unspotted from the World is not to bury our selves alive even by adding Earth to Earth Ashes to Ashes Dust to Dust. That being the way of our being buried not in sure and certain Hope but in sure and certain Fear of a Resurrection For when the Minions of this World who are dead whilst they live shall by the just Judgment of God live again when they are dead too and shall be summon'd out of their Graves as Malefactors out of a Dungeon they will say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Hills cover us that is they will desire to be once more buried Now to prevent so sad a Rising we are to Rise whilst we are here from the Death I mean of Sin and from the Grave of Carnality And that we may rise the more nimbly we must be Levis Armaturae must not lay upon our selves too great a load of thick Clay which commonly brings with it another load whether it be of worldly Cares or of Carnal Pleasures Whatsoever most Christians may think of This 't was sadly consider'd by many Heathens of which I shall but instance in four or five Diogenes was a poor but yet a very great Man because his Poverty was his choice and he was one who did not want but contemn the Gayeties of the World How did he fly above the Vices and Follies of it by stripping himself of its Impediments and by imping the wings of his brave Ambition 'T was his Ambition to be at Liberty not to give Hostages to Fortune to live a life disingaged from things below him He found that one Tub was enough to lye in and one wooden Dish enough to drink in and was resolved that his Housholdstuff should hold proportion with his House Yea even That he thought too much for its being somewhat more than was strictly needful And therefore he brake his wooden Dish upon his first consideration That the Hollow of his Hand had made it needless Now I the rather choose to instance in this remarkable Philosopher because I know him very much censur'd and think him as little understood For that which is taken by a Proverb to be the Cynicalness and sowrness was thought by diverse ancient Authors the lovely Nobleness of his Temper His choice of Poverty was the result of his very deep Knowledge and Contemplation Nature and Industry had both conspir'd to his Perfections of which it was not the least that he knew the whole World and always had it under his Feet too as having weigh'd it in a Ballance and found its lightness He had been sued to and courted by the Great Potentates of the Earth whose Prosperities stoop't down to receive the Honour of his Acceptance But what Solomon out of his Wisdom both infused and acquired acquir'd both by joious and sad experience the same Diogenes concluded I shall not dare to say how That All is vanity under the Sun Now we all know that Vanity is of extremely little weight if put in the Ballance of Diseretion and in the Ballance of the Sanctuary of none at all Nay the Psalmist concludes that Man himself is but Vanity who yet is very much the noblest of any Creature under the Sun And sure if every man is Vanity and the greater he is the greater Vanity and not only Vanity but Vexation of Spirit how could Godfrey Duke of Bulloin have done more prudently for himself than in refusing to accept a Crown of Gold where Christ Himself wore one of Thorns or why should any of Christ's Followers buy the Friendship of a Prince when Xenocrates an Heathen would not deign to sell His no not to Alexander Himself who would fain have bought it Why should a Christian affect Dominion when Atilius an Heathen made choice to leave it why should one of Christ's Disciples court and covet That Plenty which was despis'd by Fabricius an arrant Heathen Why should a Christian set his Heart upon the getting and leaving a vast Revenue to his Posterity when the Heathen man Socrates thought it a Charity to his Children to leave them none Not that he thought it a Breach of Charity to make Provision for his Family but that he durst not betray them to great Temptations As He himself had refused half the Kingdom of Samos when offer'd to him so was he willing that his Children should inherit his Temper and Frame of Mind He knew the Providence of God was the surest Patrimony And had been taught by his experience that Friends well got were the next great Treasure 'T was his Duty as a Father to leave his Children very well and by consequence in a condition not the richest but the most suitable and safest for them and therefore
Worldlings If the Devil shall say to us All this will I give you if falling down ye will worship me lay we back again to the Devil This we give unto the Poor because we fall down to and worship God We do not sanctifie the Day though we do never so much observe it if to all our Acts of Sacrifice in Prayer and Sermon we add not Works of Mercy too As we hope that our Prayers shall fly to Heaven we must lend them our Charity to imp their Wings For what said the Angel to Cornelius though but a Proselyte of the Gates half a Gentile and half a Jew Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before the Lord. Mark the Copulative And betwixt Prayers and Alms implying the Energy of the former by help and vertue of the later Not his Prayers without his Alms. For God heareth not Sinners who draw near with their Lips when their Hearts are far from him And such are their Hearts which break not out into their Hands There are but Three Courses imaginable to be taken with our Riches in case we have them Our being liberal to our Coffers in the laying up Riches and this for no-body-knowswhom or very bountiful to our Lusts in laying them out upon our Vanities and costly Vices which we solemnly have vow'd the forsaking of or being merciful to our Saviour who takes our Charity to his Members as freely bestow'd upon Himself In so much that the Question is now but This Whether we choose to be the Children of God or Belial I make no doubt but I am speaking to an intelligent sort of People and that rightly understanding our greatest Interest we need the less to be perswaded that we will do our selves Good by making others to partake of the good we do Should any here be full as sinful as was Nebuchadnezzar I might adventure That to Them which Daniel said unto the King Let my Counsel be acceptable to you Break off your sins by righteousness and your Iniquities by shewing mercy to the Poor If we desire a good Provision against the Winter of Adversity and to find out our Bread after many days Let us cast it with Solomon upon the Waters If we will settle our Estates either in whole or in part so as to free them from Plunder or Sequestration Let us put them into Bags which wax not old into the Treasury of Heaven which faileth not where neither Moths can corrupt nor any Thieves break through and steal The poor righteous man must needs be one of God's Treasuries wherein whatsoever is laid up by us shall be repaid to us again with immense advantage Especially when the Worms which feed on the Body after Death shall give it all up at the Day of Iudgment This is a pious Frand indeed without either Ironie or Oxymoron For 't is honestly to beguile the Grand Deceiver of Mankind and to make the Devil's Malice propitious to us 'T is to extract the greatest Good out of the Evil of his Temptations to wit a Soveraign Praeservative from the great Instrument of Death as skilful Chymists are wont to draw the most healthful Medicines out of those which in themselves are the hurtfull'st Minerals Thus the skin of a Scorpion becomes an Antidote to his Teeth And thus the Block at which we stumble may be used as a step for our Rise to Heaven Thus the Ocean may be as modest in the keeping of its Bounds as the smallest Rivulet And the man of greatest Wealth as poor in Spirit as any Lazar. Thus a Ioseph and a Moses may be Favorites of God in the Court of Pharaoh And thus if the more we have of lading to press our Vessel into the Sea the more we also have of Sails to give it motion or if the larger our Revenues and Fortunes are we have the larger Elevation of Heart and Soul to Liberality and pay the larger Taxes of Charity laid upon us by a Law from the King of Kings we convert our poorest Beadsmen into our richest Benefactors and reap by far the greater good from the good we do them Yea we make our selves such Friends of our greatest Enemies which our Saviour expresses fitly by the Mammon of Unrighteousness as will receive us when we fail into eternal Habitations Whither God of his Mercy conduct us All for the Glory of his Name and for the Worthiness of his Son to whom be Glory both now and for ever AN AMULET OR PRAESERVATIVE Against the Prurigo of Ambition THE DANGER Of Seeking Great Things FOR ONES SELF JER XLV 5. And seekest Thou Great Things for thy self Seek them not § 1. BEtween the Prophecies of Ieremy in all the Chapters going before All belonging to the Iews And other Prophecies coming after concerning Nine other Nations from hence-forwards unto the end This before us appertains unto Baruch only Baruch the Scribe of Ieremiah and a Servant of the most High one who had faithfully served Both at the utmost peril of his Life and yet at last became liable to great Exception Therefore God by Ieremiah rebukes the man for his Anxiety for the disquietness of his Spirit and discontentedness in his Condition for his distrust of God's Providence and his dissatisfaction in God's oeconomy for being querulous and complaining that Grief was added to his Sorrow and Tears to Sighing and that after all his labour when he thought to be rewarded he found no Rest for being afflicted and perplex't he could not reach to those Talents his Master had as Ioshua did to those of Moses and Elisha to those of the Great Elijah last of all God rebukes him for not sufficiently resenting the most deplorable Estate of the King and Kingdom with the Calamities then impendent on God's own House and the Publick Worship and for having no prospect beyond Himself his private Liberty and Safety his Ability like Ionas to sleep securely in a Tempest and sensless of Danger in a Shipwrack his getting a quiet Habitation in Peace and Plenty when he saw All round about him as it were upon the Borders and Brink of Ruin § 2. Now to Baruch thus flinching in Times of Trial and Temptation reserving an Angle in his Heart for secret Avarice and Ambition and a particular design on his private Interest as if he thought it not sufficient to have his Life for a Prey in all places whither he went or not an Happiness great enough to serve and suffer for his Creator to fare no worse than his Soveraign to live in Loyalty and Honour and dye in Innocence God sends his Prophet Ieremiah with a most vehement Dehortation or to speak more exactly with a most forcible Prohibition sitting close upon the Neck of a sharp Reproof And seekest Thou Baruch Great Things for thy self Seek them not An Exprobration and a Reproof enough to stab him into the Heart as being very sharply pointed in four respects In respect of the Person vext