and opposite to his Wisdome and Goodness and which his soul hateth as That he did decree to make some men miserable to the end he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heal them That he did threaten them with death whose names he had written in the book of life That he was willing Man should sin that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our duty which himself will work in us by an irresistable force That he commandeth intreateth beseecheth others to turn and repent whom himself hath bound and fettered by an absolute decree that they shall never turn That he calleth them to repentance and salvation whom he hath damned from all eternity If any certainly such beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a dart No it is not boldness Exod. 19.12 Hebr. 12.20 but humility and obedience to God's will to say He doth nothing but what becometh him and what his Wisdome doth justifie Eph. 1.8 He hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in all wisdome and prudence His Wisedome findeth out the means of salvation and his Prudence ordereth and disposeth them His Wisdome sheweth the way to life and his Prudence leadeth us through it to the end Wisdome was from everlasting Prov. 8.23 And as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of God's wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God And she fitted and proportioned means to that end means most agreeable and connatural to it She found out a way to conquer Death and him that hath the power of Death the Devil Hebr. 2.14 with the weapons of Righteousness to dig up Sin by the very roots that no work oâ— the flesh might shoot forth out of the heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done again Immutabile quod factum est Quint. l. 7 to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kiss each other in Christ's Satisfaction and ours for our Turn is our satisfaction all that we can make Condigna estsatisfactio mala facta corrigere correcta non reiterare Bern. de â—ust Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antioch â—â—neil can 2. These she hath joyned together never to be severed Christ's Sufferings with our Repentance his agony with our sorrow his blood with our tears his flesh nailed to the cross with our lusts crucified his death for sin with our death to it his resurrection with our justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away he shed his blood to melt our hearts he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose again for our justification and to gain authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our CONVERTIMINI our Turn is the best Commentary on his CONSVMMATVM EST It is finished for that his last breath breathed it into the world We may say it is wrapt up in the Inscription John 19.19 JESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS For in him even when he hung upon the cross were all the treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge hid Col. 2.3 In him his Justice and Mercy are at peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seal our pardon we were in our blood and her voice was Live we were miserable Ezek. 16.6 and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowels yerned But then Justice held up the sword ready to latch in our sides God loveth his Creature whom he made but hateth the Sinner whom he could not make And he must strike and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevailed Mercy had been but as the morning dew Hos 6.4 13.3 and soon vanished before this raging heat And if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory God's hatred of sin and his fearful menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and portended nothing but been void and of none effect Psal 130.3 Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. If God had been extreme to mark what is done amiss men would have sinned more and more because there would have been no hope of pardon And if his Mercy had sealed an absolute pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their evil wayes because there would have been no fear of punishment And therefore his Wisdome drew his Justice and Mercy together and reconciled them both in Christ's propitiatory Sacrifice and our duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the guilt the other from the dominion of sin And so both are satisfyed Justice layeth down the sword and Mercy shineth in perfection of beauty Rom. 3.3 God hateth Sin but he seeth it condemned in the flesh of his Son and fought against by every member he hath He seeth it punisht in Christ and punisht also in every repentant sinner that turneth from his evil wayes He beholdeth the Sacrifice on the Cross and the Sacrifice also of a broken heart and for the sweet savour of the one he accepteth the other and is at rest Christ's death for sin procureth our pardon and our death to sin sueth it out Christ suffereth for sin we turn from it His satisfaction at once wipeth out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees destroyeth Sin it self Tert. De anima c. 1. Haec est sapientia de schola caeli This is the method of Heaven This is that Wisdome which is from above Thus it taketh away the sins of the world And now Wisdome is compleat Justice is satisfied and Mercy triumpheth God is glorified Man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Heus tu peccator De poenit c. 8. bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tertullian Take comfort sinner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy return What musick there is in a Turn which beiginneth on earth but reacheth up and filleth the highest heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed image on which God delighteth to look for there he beholdeth his Wisdome his Justice his Mercy and what wonders they all have wrought Behold the Shepherd of our souls see what lieth upon his shoulders Luke 15.5 6. You would think a poor Sheep that was lost Nay but he leadeth Sin and death and the Devil in triumph And thou mayest see the very brightness of his glory and the express image of his three most glorious
and catechise our Faith and enquire whether we remember Christ as we should whether our Faith be as strong our Hope as stedfast our Charity as fervent as so great Love requireth whether it be such a Faith and such an Hope and so intensive a Charity as Christ and his love thus diffused abroad might beget whether Christ be hung up in this gallery of our soul onely as a picture or whether he be a living Christ and dwelleth in us of a truth For the Memory as it is the womb to form and fashion Christ so it may yield good bloud to nourish him And in this sense that of Plato may be true Plato solus in tanta gentium sylvâ in tanto sapientum prato idearum oblitus recordatus est Tertull De anim c. 12. Gal. 4.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We learn and are instructed by those notions which were formerly imprinted in our Memory We do conceive and are in travel as S. Paul speaketh with Christ till he be fully formed in us We work him out in cogitatorio in the elaboratory of our Hearts When we have Christ in our thoughts and his precepts alwaies before our eyes as in a book which checketh us at every turn and by a frequent contemplation of them draw our souls out of those encumbrances which many times involve and fetter them when we recollect our Mind into it self and fasten it to this Rock where it may rest as upon a holy hill from whence it may look down and behold every object in its proper shape look upon an Injury as a benefit or Persecution as a blessing and see Life in the face and countenance of Death then and not till then we may be said to remember Christ For can he remember a meek Christ who will be angry without a cause Can he remember a poor Christ that maketh Mâ—mmon his God Can he remember the Prince of peace who is wholly bent to war Can he remember Christ who is as ready to betray him as Judas and nail him to the cross as Pilate Better he were quite raced out of our memory then that we should thus set him there as a mark to be shot at then to be thus set up to be scorned and reviled and spit upon and crucified again better never to have known him then to know and put him to shame And therefore if we will remember him we must contemplate him in his own sphere in that site and aspect which he looketh upon us deliberare causas expendere well weigh and consider upon what terms and conditions we did first receive and entertein him in our thoughts and memories And this will drive Christianity home make it enter into the soul and spirit fasten and rivet Christ into us and make him a part of us that his promises and precepts and the virtue of his death and passion may be in our memory as vessels are in a well-ordered family whence upon every occasion we may readily take them out for our use find a defense against every temptation a buckler for every dart that so the Love of Christ may swallow up all reluctancy in us in victory This giveth us a true tast and relish of the sweetness of those blessings and benefits which we receive in the Sacrament The sweetness of honey saith Basil is not known so well by the Philosophers discourse as by the tast which is a better and surer judge then the most subtile Naturalist No more are the benefits of Christ and his Gospel though uttered by the tongue of Men and Angels understood so well by the words which convey them as in a heart melted and transformed into the Love of Christ as in the mind of man when it is the same mind which is in Christ Jesus There Christ is remembred indeed there he is placed not as in the high-Priests hall to be mockt and derided and blasphemed but as in his throne in his heaven where he dispenseth his light his joy his glory such glory as no Elequence is equal to no language can express not S. Paul himself who was caught up into Paradise and tasted the sweetness of it but telleth us no more then this that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12.4 the words were unspeakable words words which it was not possible for a man to utter Which was in effect to tell us he did feel but could not tell us what it was And thus to tast Christ is to remember him And first this taketh in our Faith I do not mean a dead and unactive faith For that leaveth us dead and buried in a land of Oblivion never looking upon Christ or his benefits not gathering any strength or virtue from him no more considering this our High-Priest then if he had never offered himself never satisfied never been But I mean a faith that worketh by love a faith that followeth Christ through every period and stage and passage of his blessed oeconomy a faith that is a disciple and followeth him whithersoever he goeth looketh upon him in time of prosperity and clotheth him in the dayes of affliction forgetteth them remembring him in injuries and forgiveth them in death it self and maketh him our Resurrection maketh us one with him that we cannot think or speak or move that we cannot live nor dye without him Now the time of receiving the Sacrament of receiving these pledges of Christs Love and these pledges of our Faith is the time of actuating and quickning and increasing our Faith that it may be more apprehensive more opperative more lively that it may even spring in our hearts at the mention of Christ at this representation of his Body and Bloud Luke 1.48 as the babe did in Elisabeths womb at the Virgin Mary's salutation For our Faith as it may have its increasings and improvements so it may have its decreasings and failings It may be weakned by the daily incursions which the World and the Devil make upon it by presenting objects of terrour to daunt and enfeeble it objects of delight to slumber and charm it It may be weakned by the daily avocations and common actions of our life that we may not cleave so close unto Christ not eye him with that intention not love him with that fervour not obey him with that chearfulness which we should but be in a disposition ready to fall off and let go our hold of him And therefore as we must at all times stir it up and actuate it so especially in our approches to the Lords Table For in this doth our preparation to it in this doth the benefit and power of the Sacrament principally consist Here our Saviour as it were doth again present himself to us open his wounds shew us his hands and his side speak to us as he did to Thomas Reach hither your fingers John 20.27 and behold my hands and reach hither your hands and thrust them into my side Take eat
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
Though it cannot yet better Nothing then be at loss But our Accountant here S. Paul when he hath reckoned all sitteth down a loser For you see his Particulars are many but his Sum is Nothing and which is worse then Nothing Loss and lower yet but Dung ver 8. the most unsavoury loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcision is concision and the teachers of it dogs ver 2. that will not onely bark but bite evil workers that work to pull down and build to ruine His confidence in the flesh he castest away his privileges disenable him his zele is madness the Law and the righteousness thereby oh he is ashamed of it He will by no means be found in it ver 9. His gain is loss all things but dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 garbage and filth to be thrown to dogs ver 8. Obsecro expone te paululum saith the Father Good Apostle what paradoxes what riddles are these Unfold thy self What Circumcision Nothing Thy self bledst under the knife The Law Nothing Why it was just and true and holy and good And Righteousness the very name is pretious Expone te paululum We are in a cloud and besieged with darkness we cannot believe S. Paul himself without an exposition Verily a strange contemplation it is and we may at first conceive S. Paul now to have been not in the third heaven but in a cloud Every step is in darkness every word a mystery But yet follow him to ver 8. and some day appeareth the day-spring from on high hath visited us And then the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is most excellent is most desirable Bring in the knowledge of Christ and righteousness by faith and the righteousness which is of the Law is not a wish nor worth the looking on In Comparisons it is so One object may carry that lustre and eminency above another that they will scarce stand together in comparison What is a Bugle to a Crown What is a Cottage to a Kingdom What is Gold to Virtue What is unrighteousness to the Law And what is the Law to Christ My Apostle then concludeth well Circumcision is nothing and the Law is nothing and gain is loss and all things are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. It is now day with us and Christ himself appeareth But every dawning is not a day Every apparition is not a full manifestation A general notion of Christ is not light enough but leaveth him still as it were in shadows and under the veil To know him is life but to know him crucified saith S. Paul As Apelles in every line so Christ is most clearly seen in the several passages of his glorious dispensation and oeconomy Christ crucified Christ risen from the dead Christ on the wings of the wind in his ascension is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great spectacle worthy our contemplation an object as full of light as comfort Who would not go forth to see such a sight Behold then Faith ver 9. draweth and openeth the veil and presenteth Christ not onely in his bloud and sufferings but in his triumph and resurrection with the keyes of Hell and of Death with power and authority And can we wonder to see S. Paul contemn and spurn at all that he hath to sell all that he hath for this Pearl Should he take up dung and leave a diamond Can we think he forgetteth himself when he desireth to be forgetful of those things which he hath cast behind him Or what posture can we think to behold him in but in that of Extension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 13. stretched forth and earnestly reaching at the object For see his supply far exceedeth what before he could not want and the gain answereth and confuteth each particular of his loss Do the evil workers cry up Circumcision S. Paul doth so little need it that himself is the supply For we our selves are the circumcision ver 3. That which maketh and constituteth a Christian is the Circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 Do they thunder out the Law He is as loud for the knowledge of Christ. Do they plead Righteousness He pleadeth it too but his plea is stronger the Righteousness through the faith of Christ they plead the Law which worketh wrath and cannot give life In a word He will renounce his stock his tribe his sect the Law and will be no more a Jew or Pharisee that he may be a Christian That he may know him and the power of his resurrection c. This is the dependence of my Text. Apart it affordeth thus much variety We have here our Apostle's desire levelled on two things To attain and To know To attain to the resurrection of the dead and To know Christ and the virtue of his resurrection and passion The first is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime architectonical end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher would call it that which setteth all a working a Resurrection to glory The second comprehendeth those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intermediate operations which lead us to this end To rise to glory is a glorious end and it is proposed to all but none attain to it but by the knowledge of Christ and by the power of his resurrection and by the fellowship of his sufferings and conformity to his death I know there is a subordination of Ends but here we cannot suddenly determine which is S. Paul's principal and chief end his desire is carried with that vehemency and so fixed on both He desireth to attain and he desireth to know and he would not know but that he might attain nor attain without this knowledâ—â— He would rise with Christ in glory but he would rise and suffer with him here first in this life He would be a Saint in heaven but first a Christian on earth His desire is eager on both and it is not easie to discern where the flame is hottest I told you he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extended and stretched forth And so he is like Elijah on the child on each part and limb of Christ's oeconomy For though he mention onely his Passion and Resurrection yet he includeth the rest And we must remember to take the great work of our Redemption though the passages and periods of it be various for one continued act S. Paul would be born with Christ and he would die with Christ that he might rise with Christ and that he might reign with Christ His desire is eager but not irregular He would not be with Christ if he were not first like him nor have Glory without Grace nor attain if he did not know nor go to heaven without Christ's unction which may make him conformable to him My Division now is easie Our Apostle desireth to know and to attain And as Knowledge hath its Object
with a dropping eye novv filling his mouth vvith laughter and anon roaring for the very grief of his heart Men are happy saith Aristotle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as men as Men vvho are turned upon the vvheel of Change now looking tovvards heaven and anon on the ground Such is Man and such is every man And every man may see himself in every man He may see himself in anothers Fear vvhich betrays the soul I may say scarce leaves a soul leaves not as Augustine speaks cor in corde a heart in a heart betrays it of all its succours of those helps which Reason or Scripture brings and therefore in Scripture it is said to lay hold on us to come upon us to fall upon us to fall upon us as a mountain or Hill A burden certainly it is and we lye buried under it not able to move hand or foot not able to look towards that which might rid and ease us of it but looking towards some Hill to hide us or mountain to cover us Doth any man ly under this weight Every man may One tells another what his condition is Again one may see himself in anothers Grief which is another burthen that presseth down Why art thou cast down Psal 42. saith David O my soul bowed down as with a burden And Psalm 40. Innumerable evils have taken hold of me I feal the weight upon my Head for so the phrase signifies For heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop saith his son Solomon incurvat bows it crookeneth it casts it down it dries the bones it dims the eyes it dulls the spirits it deads the Heart it weakens the memory it takes the man from the man and makes him like unto those who have been dead long ago In grief we know not what to do we do we know not what The hands hang down the knees are weak the eye is on the ground What part is there of the body what faculty of the soul that can look up And such is Man such is every man Is any man then every man may be thus cast down Alii alios one tells another what his condition is Yet turther one may see himself in anothers Complaints and Repinings Fear and Sorrow are the mother and the nurse that begin and foment all Murmuring which is nothing else but a kind of distaste and grudging of the mind Why dost thou set me up as a mark saith Job Why do thy terrours affright me Why hast thou cast me off saith David Why go I so heavily all the day long Imperari dolori silentium non potest Fear and Grief will be asking of questions cannot be silent This is the foul ill-favoured issue of Fear and Grief a Giant that fights against Heaven a Monster that breaths its poyson in the very face of God I call it a Monster For it is begotten of divers passions which meeting and ingendring in the heart bring it forth to quarrel the wisdome and question the providence of God to censure his counsels and condemn his proceedings Why should the heathen and the people imagine a vain thing Why should my enemy live and my friend dye why should wicked men prosper in their wayes and the righteous be trodden under foot Why should Pharaoh sit on a throne and the Israelites labour at the brick-kil This doth Fear and Grief force out of the heart and out of this abundance the mouth speaketh And such is man such is every man Doth one man complain and murmur Another may And he that speaks to his heart to comfort him may have the same luctations and swellings in his which may at last break forth into the like murmurings and complaints One man sees the changeableness of his mortal condition in another sees that he may be every thing and that as the Psalmist speaks he is nothing In his best condition and in his worst condition another man is his glass In anothers sickness he may see that disease which may seize on himself In anothers poverty he may behold his own riches with winges In anothers disgrace he may perceive his own honour falling to the ground And in anothers death he may read his own mortality and look upon himself as a living dying man In what appearance or representation soever he beholds another he sees either a picture or prophesie of himself When he sees a Man a man of sorrows a man of fears a man breathing forth complaints a man washing his couch with his tears those streams of bloud which issue forth from a wounded heart he beholds himself One mans necessities are but a lesson and an argument which plainly demonstrate what another man may be They are also a silent and powerful appeal to his Compassion and a secret beseeching him to do unto him as he would be done unto in the like case to be of the same mind which certainly he will be when with this Lazar he lyes at the gates of another ONE ANOTHER is of a large extent and compass takes in the whole Church I may say takes in the whole world makes it a Church without which it were but a scatterd multitude makes it a World without which it were but a Chaos and a confusion One is divers from another and that we can hardly distinguish them they are so like a circle whose every part is like unto every part and whose every part should be united in love as in a point I need not carry this consideration further It is so obvious and visible that every eye sees it which the God of this world hath not blinded We may run and read it in that relation in which men stand one to another as Men. Nature it self hath hewed and fashioned out all mankind as it were out of the same quarry and rock into a body or society as a City Compact within it self Isay 51 1. Look unto the rock out of which you are hewn and to the hole of the pit whence you are digged Look to the common seed-plot and matter out of which you were all extracted and there you shall see that neer relation which is between one and the another how one man and every man which makes one man as every man and every man as that one is not onely a child of Corruption and kin to the Worm and Rottenness but the workmanship of an immortal Hand of an unlimitted Power who hath built up one and every one in his image and according to his likeness Which image though it may be more resplendent and improved in one then another yet is that impression which is stampt on all One man and every man hath the same image and superscription From the same rock and vein are hewn out the weak and feeble man and Ish the man of strength From the same hand is the face we turn away from and the face which we so gaze on Of the same extraction are the poor and the rich For we are neither
is the root and foundation of all obedience Ephes 3 1◠upon which we build up as high as heaven For with such a Look we see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God nay coming and having his reward with him It is the same method which our Saviour teacheth Luke 14.28 For you must do in Looking as you do in Building Which of you saith Christ intending to build a house sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it If you will look into this Law of liberty you must count what it may cost you It may cost you your goods It may cost you your credit even with those who profess the same thing with you who are ready to forsake you It may cost you your bloud But all these losses shall be made up and recompensed with eternity Canst thou see that smiling Beauty and turn away the eye Canst thou see that Honour ready to crown thee and defie it Canst thou behold Riches and esteem them as dung Canst thou meet the raging persecutor and pity and pray for him Canst thou meet Death it self with all its pomp and horrour and through all these undauntedly press forward towards Heaven Then thou hast stooped down inclined thy self and looked into this Law of liberty For if we have not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and full persuasion if we have not laid this foundation and approved this Law of liberty both in our understanding and practice as the onely way to happiness we may look and look again upon it and be stark blind see nothing in it nothing of that heaven and bliss which is promised And then every breath is a storm every temptation will be an overthrow then every light affliction every evil that cometh towards us will remove the eye from this Law and place it on it self which we shall look on till we faint and fall down for fear and forfeit our obedience even study how to make that false which is so contrary to our lusts and affections Faith and a good Conscience make it a just and full look If we put that away 1 Tim. 1.19 presently concerning faith we make shipwreck For as in Scripture we are then said to know God when we love him so do we truly look into and consider this Law not when we make mention of it with our lips when we think of it remember it meditate of it which is but the extension of our thoughts but when we draw it fasten it to our soul make it as our form and principle of motion to promote those actions that obedience in us for which the Law was made This the Fathers call the circular motion of the mind which first settleth upon the object then is carried back into it self and there boweth and swayeth the powers of the soul and collecteth it self into it self from all forein and impertinent occurrences and then joyneth all its forces and faculties its Will and Affections to the accomplishing of that Good to which the Law of liberty inviteth us To look into the Law ye see is of larger extent then the words do import at first sight and is of singular use It poiseth and biasseth us in all our wayes that we may run evenly to that Blessedness which is set before us It is our Compass to steer our course amidst the waves the ebbings and flowings the changes and chances of this world It is our Angel to keep us in all our wayes It is as the opening of a window into the closet of our souls that that light may enter which may manifest every mote and atome where there was nothing before but vacuity It is our Spy to discover the forces of our Enemy and it is the best strength we have against him It is as the balance of the Sanctuary to weigh every blessing in the Gospel to a grain It is the best divider giving to God those things that are God's and to man those things which are man's It wipeth the paint off from sin and discovereth its horrour It taketh temptation from Beauty and sheweth us fading flesh dust and ashes It strippeth Riches of their glory and pointeth unto their wings It seeth a deceiver in the Devil in Christ a Lord and Saviour and in his royal Law it beholdeth Heaven and eternity of bliss All this virtue and power hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this looking into the Law and due considering of it Which by being looked into becometh the savour of life unto life but when we take off our eye is made the savour of death unto death A steddy and heedful look purchaseth and a careless glaunce forfeiteth our Liberty To look is to be free and not thus to look is to have Canaan's curse upon us to be servants of servants for ever And now tell me how many be there that thus look into the Gospel how many that thus weigh and consider it Many walk saith S. Paul Many look we may say of whom we may speak weeping that they are enemies to the Law of liberty The Papist looketh into it and there he findeth a Triple crown The Schismatick looketh into it and he findeth a sword to divide him from his brethren The Anti-papist Jesuite looketh into it and findeth the draught and model of a new Discipline The Enthusiast and Spiritual man looketh into it and findeth nothing but Ink and Words The Libertine looketh into it For the Law is in himself Quarunt quod nusquam est inveniunt tamen They look and seek that which cannot be found and yet they find it every man his humour and the corruption of his own heart There is much in the Eye For the Law of liberty is still the same It moulteth not a feather changeth not its shape and countenance But it may appear in as many shapes as there be tempers and constitutions of the eyes that looketh into it An Evil eye seeth nothing but faction and debate A lofty eye seeth nothing but priority and preeminence A Bloud-shot eye seeth nothing but cruelty which they call Justice All the errours of our life as the Philosophers speak of the colours of the Rainbow are oculi opus the work of the Eye For the Law it self can lend nothing towards them but stareth them in the face when the eye hath raised them to shake and demolish them It were good then to clear our eye before we look into the Law lest whilest we find what pleaseth us we find what will ruine us But oh that we should have such Eagles eyes in the things of this world and be such Batts in the Gospel of Christ The Covetous looketh into the world and that hath power to transform his soul into earth The wanton looketh upon beauty and that turneth his into flesh David beholdeth Bathsheba in her bath and is on fire Ahab looketh upon Naboth's vineyard and is sick The eye of flesh pierceth deep into
words and syllables so that at last it was shut up and lost in phrases and second notions and terms of art which brought little improvement to the better part and made men rather talkative then wise For we may observe that the same noysome and pestilent wind which so withered Philosophy till it was shrunk up into a name being nothing but a body of words hath blown also upon Divinity and blasted that which was ordained to be the very life of our souls Which was more pure and plain when mens lives were so but is now sullied with much handling and made much unlike it self daubed over with glosses as with untempered morter wrought out into Questions beat out into Distinctions and is made an Art which is the Wisdome of God to Salvation The Schoolmen did toze and draw it out and then made it up in knots The Postillers played with it and made it well-neer ridiculous And we have seen some such unseemly Jigs in our dayes And there have been too many Theorical Divines who have stretched beyond their line beyond the understanding of their hearers and beyond their own wrought darkness out of light made that obscure which was plain that perplexed which was easie have handled Metaphors as Chymists do metals and extracted that out of them which Christ never put into them made them less intelligible by pressing them so far and by beating them out have made them nothing made them more obscure then the thing which they should shew yield us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sea of words but not a word of sense To be regenerate is something more then to be made good who were evil To be a new creature is something more if we could tell what it were then to be a just and righteous man and we are born and made what we are against our will And what hath followed this bold obtruding of our own thin and forced conceits upon the Church under the high commanding form of necessary truths Even that which hath been observed of Philosophy When men made Wisdom the only aim and end of their studies then Philosophy was it self in its prime and natural glory being drawn up unto its proper end But when they applied themselves to it only to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or delight their wits then she lost her native complexion or strength and degenerated into folly then Epicurus raised a swarm of Atomes Diogenes made him a Tub and the Stoicks brought in their Decrees and Paradoxes then were there Mille familiarum nomina so many sects that it is not easie to draw them into a catalogue some there were who declared their different opinions and disputed one against the other by outward signes alone as by Weeping and Laughing So we find it also in the Church of Christ that Divinity never suffered so much as when it was made matter of wit and ambition and Policy and Faction became moderatours and staters of questions Then every man became an interpreter of Scripture and every interpreter had need of another to interpret him Then men taught the Law as Moses received it out of a thick cloud and Darkness was drawn over the face of Life it self and men received it as it was taught and did understand them who did not understand themselves received it as newes out of a far country and conceived of it either more or less then it vvas received it in parcels and fragments which hung like meteors in their phansie or as indigested lumps in their minds which soon broke out into sores and ulcers and one was a Libertine another an Anabaptist another a Leveller and some there were vvho did distinguish themselves by the motion and gesture and some vvhich is strange by the nakedness of their bodies And thus mischief grew up and multiplied through the blindness or deceitfulness of teachers and the folly and madness of the people Which evil had not certainly so far over-run the Church if men vvould have kept themselves vvithin their own limits and not took upon them to be vviser then God if the Truth had been as plainly taught as it vvas first delivered and not held out by mens ignorance or ambition and set forth vvith vvords and phrases and affected notions of our own if all men would have contended for and rested in that Faith alone which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And this I markt and avoided and in the course of my Ministery run from as far as a good will with my weakness could carry me And as I strook at those errours which are most common and did strive to set up in their place those truths which are most necessary so I did indeavour to do it to the very eye with all plainness and evidence and as near as I could in the language of him who for us men and for our salvation did first publish them to the world To which end and to which alone next to the glory of God these my rude and ill-polished papers are consecrate And if they attein this in many or few or but one I have a most ample recompense for my labour and Praise and Dispraise shall be to me both alike for the one cannot make these Sermons better nor the other worse I know others before me have raised themselves up to a higher pitch and strook at Errour with more art and brought more strength to the building up of the Truth and I have seen Truth exalted and Falshood led in triumph gloriously by those whom God and their industry hath more fitted to the work I have therefore offered my self up to it but as some Succours which come when the day and heat is over who though they do not help yet shew their good will And we know that even they who bring on the baggage do some service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 20. The God of patience and consolation grant that we may be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.5 6. A Table directing to the Texts of Scripture handled in the following Sermons Four Festival Sermons ON Christmass-day Hebr. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be like unto his brethren On Good Friday Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things On Easter-day Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death On Whitsunday Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Twenty eight Sermons more Micah 6.6 8. WHerewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what
Christ in his shame in his sorrow in his agony take him hanging on the cross take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our tears with his blood drag Sin to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face at the fairest presentment it can make and then nail it to the cross that it may languish and faint by degrees till it give up the ghost and die in us Then lye we down in peace in the grave and expect a glorious resurrection when we shall receive Christ not in humility but in Majesty and with him all his riches and abundance all his promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternal life A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. I. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask Of whom speaketh S. John this or Who is he that speaketh it For we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meaneth the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse telleth us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church Lev. 26.11 12. setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God that they might be his people Will you see his robes and attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot v. 13. which was the garment of the High Priest Hebr. 7.24 And his was an unchangeable Priesthood He had also a golden girdle or belt as a King For he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Luk. 1.33 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loyns and faithfulness the girdle of his reins Isa 11.5 His head and his hairs were white as woll and as white as snow v. 14. his Judgment pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth and even as waters are when no wind troubleth them His eyes as a flame of fire piercing the inward man searching the secrets of the heart nor is there any action word or thought which is not manifest in his sight His feet like unto fine brass v. 15. sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy His voyce as the sound of many waters declaring his Fathers will with power and authority sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world And last of all out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword v. 16. not onely dividing asunder the soul and the spirit Hebr. 4.12 but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortal eye his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength And now of him who walketh in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power and clothed with Justice whose Wisdome pierceth even into darkness it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayeth its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confess with Peter This is Christ Matth. 16.16 John 6.69 Hagg. 2.7 the Son of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the Desire of all nations the Glory of his Father Beauty it self appear in such a shape of terrour Shall we draw out a merciful Redeemer with a warriours belt with eyes of fire with feet of brass with a voyce of terrour with a sharp two-edged sword in his mouth Yes Such a High Priest became us Hebr. 7.26 who is not onely merciful but just not onely meek but powerful not only fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darkness of Humility but with the shining robes of Majesty who can dye and can live again and live for evermore who suffered himself to be judged and condemned and shall judge and condemn the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and biddeth him shake of that fear For he is terrible to none but those who make him so to Hereticks and Hypocrites and Persecutors of his Church to those who would have him neither wise nor just nor powerful Non accepimus iratum sed fecimus He is not angry till we force him It is rather our sins that run back again upon us as Furies than his wrath These make him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all sweetness all grace all salvation and upon these as upon S. John he layeth his right hand quickneth and rouzeth them up Fear not v. 17. neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brass nor my mighty voyce nor my two-edged sword for my Wisdom shall guide you my Power shall defend you my Majesty shall uphold you and my Mercy shall crown you Fear not I am the first and the last more humble than any more powerful than any scorned whipped crucified and now highly exalted and Lord of all the world I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore c. These words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lord's Prayer breviarium Evangelii the Breviary or Sum of the whole Gospel or with Augustine Symbolum abbreviatum the Epitome or Abridgement of our Creed And such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable and unalterable rule of Faith And then the Articles or parts will be 1. The Death of Christ I was dead 2. The Resurrection of Christ with the effect and power of it I am he that liveth 3. The Duration and continuance of his life It is to all eternity I am alive for evermore 4. The Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the Power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And all these are 1. ushered in with an ECCE Behold that we may consider it and 2. sealed and ratified with an AMEN that we may believe it that there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaketh an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God Hebr. 3.11 I am he that liveth and was dead Of the Death of Christ we spake the last day Par. 1. We shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection and consider it as past For it is FVI MORTVVS I was dead And in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour which he drew out in his blood which must sprinkle those who are to be
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
can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast himself into hell and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glory He cannot say Amen to Life who killeth himself For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith but Phansie When we are told that Honour cometh towards us that some Golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that Content and Pleasure will ever be near and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemeth to make its approach towards us is as uncertain as Uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaveth a noysome and unsavoury sent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more But when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox faucibus haeret we can scarce say Amen So be it To the World and the pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our Assurance together so to study the Death and the Life the eternal Life and the Power of our Saviour that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.11 to meet the Resurrection to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousness sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed Psal 105.15 and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory when that Ear which hearkned to his voice shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everling powerful Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN XVI 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth WHen the Spirit of truth is come c. And behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memorial of his Coming a memorial of that miraculous and unusual sound Acts 2.2 3. that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as the holy Ghost came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our very souls are shaken no fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the holy Ghost descendeth both as an Instructer and as a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul and imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing or drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth In the words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzene speaketh or rather the Promise of his coming and appearance And if we will weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40.7 For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Isa 11.2 and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus Legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christ's Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christ's Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ Isa 61.2 Luke 4.19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it For we may soon see that the one will little avail without the other Christ's Birth Death and Passion and glorious Resurrection are but a story in Archivis good news sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him and the virtue and power of his resurrection and make us conformable to his death Phil 3.10 This is the sum of these words And in this we shall pass by these steps or degrees First we will carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirit 's Advent the miracle of this day Cùm venerit When he the Spirit of truth is come in a sound to awake the Apostles in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Acts 2.2 3. Secondly we will consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost He shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen Personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his Person the demonstrative pronoun ILLE when He 2. nomen Naturae a name expressing his Nature He is the Spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose Spirit he is In the second we shall find nomen Officii a name of Office and Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way For so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be the Apostles leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a straight and even course in the way And in this great Office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the Lesson he teacheth It is Truth Secondly of the large Extent of this Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He leadeth into all truth Thirdly of the Method and Manner of his discipline It is a gentle and effectual leading He driveth us not he draweth us not by violence but he taketh us as it were by the hand and guideth and leadeth us into all truth Cùm venerit ille Spiritus veritatis First though we are told by some
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
little thought of but trampled under foot in the quarrel If this should take place amongst the sons of men we should have more religion and less noise This is it which alone is able to slumber this noise to still the raging of the sea and the tumults of the people This would make the hand of the Scribe write less and to more purpose This would break the bows and cut the spears and burn the chariots with fire Could this Religion could the Gospel of Christ prevail could we deny our selves and take up the cross and keep our selves unspotted from the world there would be then no wars nor rumours of wars Let us not deceive our selves It is the neglect and want of this that hath been the main cause of all the hot contentions and digladiations which have been and as yet are in the Church of Christ I mean amongst those who call one another Christians whose mark and badge it is to love one another but they lie one to another and love the world and in a base but fierce emulation justle one another out of it and so lose the thing and retain nothing but the name which is less then a shadow rejoyce together at the news of a Saviour and neglecting this Religion in the Text are all lost are disciples of Christ but such disciples as shall be punished with more stripes then they that never heard of his name Luke 12.47 48. This this is it that condemneth the world that maketh it an Aceldama a field of blood an hell it self full of confusion For if men had been careful to walk by the same rule which was as plain and manifest as if it had been written with the Sun-beams and kept themselves in a joynt obedience to this Religion to those truths wherein they could not but agree and not sought out many inventions the seed-ploots and nurseries of contention and debate for from hence they spring and here they will grow and grow thick and multiply if our Religion had been pure and undefiled it had saved many a poor carkass from the fire and I may be bold to say many a soul from hell And though mens opinions in other matters had been as different as their shape and complexion yet their agreement in the known duties of Religion would have been a fence and bulwork strong enough to have kept Contention from breaking in with fire and sword But when Ambition and Covetousness and other low and vile respects had taken possession of the hearts of men then matter of Religion became matter of faction and the fuel of that fire which consumed many but troubled all Then began men to rack the Scriptures to make them speak what they would have them even that which might dilate their phylacteries and stretch forth the curtains of their habitation and feed that noxious humour in them which was most predominant and like those souldiers in Tacitus malle victoriam quà m pacem to desire not peace but victory though most times which side soever prevailed it was not so much against an adverse party as the Truth it self This hath been a great nay the greatest evil under the Sun and hath brought in so many Religions into the world that many men are not as yet well resolved which to chuse the Devil 's subtilest engine to bring in at last an opinion That there is no Religion at all By this you may see of what soveraign use my Text is even as a pretious balm which can easily allay the swelling and raging controversies with which the Church is so much troubled Mare oleo tranquillatur Plin. Nat. hist l 2. c. 103. as some Philosophers have told us that Oyl powred into the sea when it is most tempestuous doth presently calm it Many have wished that there were a Judge of controversies which might appease the broyls with which Christendome is distracted and some have thought it necessary and therefore have set one up and built a chair with this priviledge That he that sitteth in it though he be an Heretick can never erre Behold here is a Judge of controversies teaching every man to judge and give sentence of life or death in himself If this be his Religion he is alive and shall live for evermore But if he cast this behind him and shut Charity out of doors he is condemned already This is our Judge of controversies and I think we need no more The Jews say that when Elias shall come he shall resolve all their doubts Lo Matth. 17.10 11 Elias is come already and in these words of my Text hath sufficiently resolved all controversies in Divinity so far forth as is necessary for our information Thou canst not now ask What lack I yet for here are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that Jesus did teach And if we can interpret this Text that is express and manifest it in our lives and conversation then have we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confidence with God and the Father Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded Phil. 3.15 Let us cleave to this and make it our guide and angel in our way And if you be otherwise minded if in other things less necessary you erre as men God shall reveal even the same unto you as far as his wisdome seeth it necessary It is the excellent counsel of S Paul Let us be thus minded and let us have this picture of Religion drawn out by S. James ever hanging before our eyes Let us look upon it let us walk with it let us go to bed with it let us carry it about with us withersoever we go I was about to say Let us fall down and worship it You need not fear superstition for this is the worship of God himself Oh let it be as an ornament to our heads let us hang it up in our best room our hearts but so as to shew it to the widow and the fatherless Let us make it Plin. Nat. h. l. 38. c. 8. as Polycletus called his most excellent piece Canona a rule and pattern by which we may draw and express it and make it visible in our life and conversation Matth. 5.16 that Men may see it and glorifie God even the Father which is in heaven that Angels may see it and applaud it that God himself may see it and fix an Euge upon it Well done for it is done before me and according to the pattern which I set up And this shall keep us at peace within our selves this shall make our enemies at peace with us Prov. 16.7 this shall be to us righteousness and peace and glory and peace shall be upon us as many as walk according to this rule Gal. 6.16 and mercy and upon the Israel of God Which God grant c. The Fourteenth SERMON 1 SAM III. 18. And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him And he said It is the Lord let him do what
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
Key still a golden Key but to open no gates but those of Death Power is a gift of God for there is no power but of him to shadow the innocent to take the prey from the oppressour to stand between two opposite parties till it draw them together and make them one to work equality out of inequality to give Mephibosheth his own lands to be the peace of the Church the wall of the Common-wealth and the life of the Laws This is the end why power is given And what may it be made Of a Sword it may be made a Rasor to cut deceitfully to cut a purse nay to cut a throat to kill and take possession as Ahab did to make Virtue vice and Vice virtue to condemn the innocent bloud and make him a Saint who hath no other father then him who was a murtherer from the beginning to make the Law a nose of wax and the Scripture as pliable as that to make that Religion not which is best but which is fittest for it self to make Men beasts and God nothing in this world to make the Common-wealth an asylum and Sanctuary for Libertines a nest of Atheists a Synagogue of hypocrites in a word a map and representation of Hell it self This I say Power may be And so may every blessing of God be drawn from that end for which it was given Wit may make us fools Riches may beget pride Power confusion and Peace it self war Health may breed wantonness and that which was made to be the womb of good may be the mother of evil as we read in Aelian that Nicippus's Sheep did yean a Lion God oft complaineth of this in holy Scripture And indeed this abuse of God's gifts is the seed-plot and cause of all the evil in the world Were it not for this we should not hear such complaints from such a place of peace as Heaven is I have brought thee out of the land of Egypt and thou breakest my statutes I took thee from the sheepcoat 2 Sam. 12. and anointed thee King and gave thee thy masters house and thou hast despised my command I washed thee with water I decked thee with ornaments Ezek. 16. I gave thee beauty and thou playedst the harlot I have chosen you twelve John 6. chosen you all to the same end Judas as well as Peter and yet one of you is a Devil It is indeed a complaint but if we slight and neglect it it will end in judgment God will confound our Wisdom blow upon our Riches and shake our Power and our Wit shall ruine us our Riches undo us our Power crush us to pieces and our Greatness make us nothing And if this were all yet it might well deserve an Ecce and be an object to be looked upon even by Atheists themselves But there is another end an end without end a fire ready kindled to devoure these adversaries a worm that shall gnaw their hearts who received the gifts of God and corrupted them torment for Health poverty for Riches and everlasting slavery for Power abused And then how happy had it been for Ahitophel if he had not been wise for Dives if he had not been rich for Hereticks if they had not been witty for Ahab and Nero if they had not been Kings how happy for the swaggerer and wanton if he had been a Clinick or a Recluse confined to his bed or shut up between two walls all the dayes of his life And now I think you will say we may well fix an Ecce to remember us of that we have received whether Health or Wit or Riches or Power that what was meant for our good turn not to our destruction So from the object considerable we pass to the Act What it is to behold and consider it ECCE Behold is as an asterisk or a finger pointing out to something remarkable some object that calleth for our eye and observation and that is already held up and we behold it That is soon done you will say for what is more sudden then the cast and twinckling of an eye If a thing be set up and placed before us we cannot but behold it But we shall find that this Ecce is of a large extent and latitude and very operative to awake all the powers and faculties of our souls to excite our faith and to enflame our love that it requireth the sedulous endeavour the contention the labour the travel of the mind Many times we do not know what we know and what we behold we do not behold because we do not rightly consider it Tantum valet unum vocabulum Of such force and energy is this finger this star this one word Behold John 1. Behold the Lamb of God saith the Baptist He points out to Christ as with a finger Why they could not but behold him But they are called upon with an ecce to behold him better The Pharisees beheld Christ the Jews beheld him but they did not behold and consider him as the Lamb of God For had they thus beheld him they had not blasphemed him 1 Cor. 2.8 they had not butchered him as they did Had they known him they had not crucified the Lord of glory We behold the heavens the work of God's fingers the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained Rom. 1.19 We behold this wonderful frame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be known of God God hath shewed us But we do not as David speaketh consider it It doth not raise us up to the admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our subjection We are no more affected with it then as if it were still without form and void a lump a Chaos We behold our selves and we behold our selves mouldring away and decaying and yet we do not behold our selves For who considereth himself a mortal We carry our tombs upon our heads like those aves sepulcrales those sepulcral birds which Galen speaketh of we bear about with us our own funerals Every place we stand in is our grave for in every place we draw nearer to corruption Yet who considereth he is a living-dying man Dives in his purple never thought how he came into the world or how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We dye daily and yet think we shall not dye at all The Certainty of death may stand for an article of our faith and as hard a one almost as the Resurrection In a word we are in our consideration any thing but what we are We sin and behold it and sin again but never look upon Sin as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the soul as that which hath no better wages then death Our Paralytick did rise and walk and could not but behold it yet Christ here in the Temple calleth upon
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
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
Joseph's Pit and Prison Jonah's Whale Daniel's Den were but types and bare resemblances This is a patern with power He hath shewed it us already and at his second coming he will give us power to take it out For as an artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ his power when he raised himself No it worketh still even to the end of the world Perfectissimum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which he wrought upon himself was most exact and perfect a fit patern for that he means to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious Not that Christ is so like us that he cannot work but by a patern nor raise us out of our graves unless he look back into his own Our imaginations are not so gross But Christ hath drawn forth his Resurrection as exemplary ex parte resuscitandorum for us to shew how we should rise and that upon our graves shall be written too the epitaph of Resurrection They are risen they are not here Thus is Christ the exemplary cause of our resurrection But this indeed demonstrateth not a power nor will a patern raise me I may have the copy of the Universe but I cannot make another world I may behold the picture of Christ rising from the dead and not be able to draw a line after it Christ is risen I read it in Scripture and believe it too but this will no more raise me up then it will make me valiant to read of Scipio or of Julius Caesar I confess Objects have a moving and attractive force but no such forcible causality The Heavens are a fair sight but they will not make a blind man see And shall a bare patern then make a dead man rise again It is true If it were onely a patern and no more it could not or if he who gave us the patern who was the patern had not given us an instrument to work by even Faith the instrumental cause of our spiritual Resurrection And now it doth raise us up as the object of our Faith merely by being looked upon as the brasen serpent did heal those who were bitten in the wilderness Besides this we may boldly say there is a proper efficiency in Christ's Resurrection an influence and virtue flowing from it upon us a dew as the Prophet calleth it a dew on our souls and a dew on our bodies a dew which will recover a withered soul and make a dead body grow again Our Apostle plainly saith Rom. 4.25 By it we are justified and by it we are raised For if there went forth virtue from his very garment why may not a power proceed also from his Resurrection I know Christ is all in all not bound nor confined to any instrument If he had not risen yet as God he might have raised us But when he dieth and riseth again for our sakes when he useth this to this end we may well call it an efficient cause because he made it so But did not Christ finish all upon the cross Nor do I attribute all to his Resurrection but a power to perform something after the Consummatum est when all was done a power to apply his merits and make his satisfaction sure pay as the stamp and character doth not better a piece of gold but make it current I told you before the whole work of our Redemption though the passages be various is in esteem but one continued act Nor in laying out the causes of our salvation must we sever and divide the Passion from the Resurrection And yet we never read that either the Resurrection did satisfie or the Passion raise us and we may be bold to say without any derogation to Christ's Death and Passion that we are raised again by the power of his Resurrection And now Come see in Christ's Resurrection thy own Nostra natura in Christi hypostasi revixit saith the Father Our nature was united in Christ's Person and in him revived As he took of us To die once so we take from him To rise again and live for ever Son of man can these bones live Ezek. 37.3 it was said to the Prophet in the valley of bones Can these dry bones this dust scattered before the wind this flesh burnt to ashes or devoured by fishes or digested by Cannibals after so many alterations and dispersions and assimilations live Yes He will prophesie upon these bones and call them from the four winds and the breath of Christ's Resurrection shall revive them And this is not a bold presumption as the Heathen termed it For though my flesh be eaten by a Cannibal and that Cannibal by a beast and that beast by fishes and those fishes by men and those men by fishes again though I have all these dispersions and transmigrations of my flesh yet am I still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the storehouses of a powerful Lord and he will recollect and restore me to my own substance again de Caio Caius reducetur as Tertullian speaketh the same Caius that died shall be raised up Think saith he what thou wert before thou wert and then thou canst not doubt but that he that made thee by his word of Nothing can gather thy sacttered parts again by the power of his resurrection But if power be most seen in the performance of the greatest difficulties see yet a more uncouth and horrid spectacle more irrecoverable then rottenness more sensless then a carcase Behold a dead Soul in a living body which is dead and yet dieth every moment behold a man who if he were not mortal would be dead and dying to all eternity You will say the man liveth and eateth and talketh and is in health I but his Soul is dead by which he liveth and then what life is that which Death it self doth actuate For see a Man the statue of himself who being destitute of Grace hath lost his Reason or maketh no other use of it but to mislead him Aures assunt sed migravit auditor His Ears are open but his hearing is gone Eyes he hath but seeth no more then a dead corpse with the eyes open His Tongue is nailed to the roof of his mouth and he keepeth silence but onely from good No action no motion no affection His Understanding is the house of darkness and oblivion his Will a wandering shadow his Affections distracted and blown before the wind scattered like so many straws on a wrought sea from billow to billow from vanity to vanity from one excess to another Son of man can these bones live Can these broken sinews of the soul come together again Can such a disordered clock where every wheel is broken be set again Can this dead soul this almost a Devil be made a Saint and walk before God in the land of the living We stand amazed and must answer with the Prophet O Lord God thou knowest This knowledge is too
him in the Sacrament we many times leave our callings but to hear of him But yet all these may be rather profers then motions rather pleasing thoughts then painful strugglings with our selves rather a looking upwards then a rising cogitationes similes conatibus expergisci volentium as S. Augustine speaketh of himself in his Confessions thoughts like unto the endeavours of men half-asleep who would and would not be awaked who seem to move and stir and lightly lift up the head and then fall down fast asleep fall back again into their graves and into the place of silence Nay 3. This Speculation this naked approbation is but a dream Visus adesse mihi Christ may seem to rouze us when he moveth us not at all And as in dreams we seem to perform we do every thing and we do nothing Nunc fora nunc lites we plead we wrastle we fight we triumph we sail we flie and all is but a dream So when we have seen the Gospel as in a map when we have made a phansiful peregrination through all the riches and glories and delights it affordeth when we have seen our Saviour in the cratch led him into the High priest's hall followed him to mount Calvary seen him on his cross brought him back again with triumph from his grave we may think indeed we are risen with him But when Conscience shall begin to be enlightned and dart her piercing raies upon us and plainly tell us that we have not fasted with him that we have not watched with him that we have not gone about with him doing good that we have been so far from crucifying our flesh for his sake that we have crucified him again to fulfil the lusts thereof that the World and not Christ hath been the form that moved us in the whole course of our life that our rising hath been nothing else but deceptio visûs an apparition a phantasm a jugling and Pharasaical vaunting of our selves behold then it will appear that all was but a dream that we have seen Christ rising from the dead and acknowledged the power of his resurrection but are no more risen our selves then our pictures that we have but dreamed of life and are still under the power of Darkness and in the valley and shadow of Death For conclusion then What saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead For this is to know and feel the power of Christ's resurrection Let us not please our selves with visions and dreams with the flattery of our own imaginations Let us not think that if we have magnified the power of the Resurrection we are therefore already risen For we can never demonstrate this power till we actually rise Let Knowledge beget Practice and Practice encrease our Knowledge Let us know Christ that is obey him Let us know the power of his resurrection that is rise from the death of Sin to walk in righteousness For this is with open face to behold the glory of Christ and his Resurrection This practick and affective Knowledge maketh us one with Christ Col 3.5 Rom 6.6 Col. 3 3. 2 Cor. 5.15 giveth us a fellowship of his sufferings conformeth and fashioneth us to his death mortifieth our earthly members destroyeth the whole body of sin maketh us die with Christ and live unto Christ unto him who died for us and is risen again By this we are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 limmers nay the very pictures of the Passion and Resurrection that we may be dead to sin and alive to righteousness that we may deal with our Sin as â—â—e Jews did with Christ hate and persecute it lay wait for it send forth a band of souldiers all the strength we have to apprehend and take it drag it to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face that there may be vinegar in our tears and gall in our Repentance that we may nail Sin to the cross and put it out of ease that it live but a dying life not able to move our members more then he can his who is nailed to a tree that it faint and languish by degrees and at last give up the ghost and then that we may rise again that the good Spirit may descend from heaven and remove the many stones the many vicious habits and customs that lie heavy upon us that we may leave our graves and our grave-cloths behind us all pretenses and palliations all ties and bonds of sin and whatsoever hath any sent or savour of corruption To conclude This is truly to know Christ and the power of his resurrection And this Knowledge will melt us this liquefaction will transform us and this transformation unite us to Christ and this union will be our exultation and this exultation an everlasting jubilee In a word This will quit us of all uncertainties lead us through all difficulties and by these means we shall attain to not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full resurrection which no death no evil shall follow a Resurrection to eternity of life of bliss and glory The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS I. 10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven 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 HEaven is a fair sight and every eye beholdeth it but without Jesus we would not look upon Heaven it self Here we have them both presented to the eye This Jesus was taken up into heaven and that tâ—â— Disciples might see it he led them out as far as to Bethany Luke 24.50 he brought them to mount Olivet to an open and conspicuous place and made them spectators of his Triumph that they might preach it to the whole world Christ was willing to imploy their sight to confirm this main Article of the Ascension But yet as Christ liketh not every touch but there is a NOLI ME TANGERE Touch me not because I am not yet ascended so there is a QUID STATIS INTUENTES a check given to the eye because he is ascended already When the cloud hath taken him up no looking after him He loveth to be seen not to be gazed after Our love he approveth but not our curiosity Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were looking stedfastly toward heaven there stood by them saith the Text two men IN ALBIS in white apparel in the same colour they saw them in at his Tomb and as there so here they came not by chance but were dispatched as messengers from heaven at once to draw the Disciples eyes from needless gazing and to confirm them in the belief of their Master's Ascension The one they do by way of Question Why stand ye gazing into heaven the other by a plain and positive
time of age it was best for men to marry it was answered That for old men it was too late and for young men too soon This was but a merry reply But the truth is many of our civil businesses whensoever they are done are either done too soon or too late for they are seldome done without some inconvenience But this our Rising may peradventure be too late for old men but it can never be too timely for the young It is a lesson in Husbandry Serere nè metuas Be not afraid to sow your seed when the time comes delay it not And it is a good lesson in Divinity Vivere nè metuas Be not afraid to live You cannot be alive too soon Vult non vult He wills and he wills not is the character of a Sluggard which would rise and yet loves his grave would see the light and yet loveth darkness better then light like the twin Gen. 38. puts forth his hand and then draws it back again doth make a shew of lifting up himself and sinks back again into his sepulchre Awake then from this sleep early and stand up from the dead at the first sound of the trump at the first call of grace But if any have let pass the first opportunity let him bewail his great unhappiness that he hath stayed longer in this place of horrour in these borders of hell then he should and as travellers which set out late moram celeritate compensare recompense and redeem his negligence by making greater speed And now we should pass to our last consideration That the manifestation of this our Conversion and Rising consists in the seeking of those things which are above But the time is welnear spent and the present occasion calls upon me to shorten my Discourse For conclusion Let me but remember you that this our Rising must have its manifestation and as S. James calls upon us to shew our faith by our works so must we shew and manifest our Resurrection by our seeking those things which are above It is not enough with S. Paul to rise into the third heaven but we must rise and ascend with Christ above all heavens Nor can we conceal our Resurrection and steal out of our graves but as Christ arose and was seen 1 Cor. 15. as S. Paul speaks of above five hundred brethren at once and as S. Luke having told us of Christ The Lord is risen presently adds and hath appeared unto Simon so there must be after our Resurrection an Apparuit we must appear unto our brethren appear in our Charity forgiving them in our Patience forbearing in our Holiness of life instructing them in our Hatred of the world and our Love of those things which are above Indeed some mens rising is but an apparition a phantasme a shadow a visour and no more But this hinders not us when we are risen but we may make our appearance nor must the Pharisee fright away the Christian Quaedam videntur non sunt Many things appear to be that which indeed they are not But this action cannot be if it do not appear If there be no apparition there is no Resurrection It is natural to us when we rise to shâ—w our selves If we rise to honour Acts 25. you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great pomp If we rise in our Estates for that is the Worldlings Resurrection and not to rise thus with him is indeed to be dead you may see it in the next purchase If we rise and increase in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then scire meum nihil est we are even sick till we vent knowledge is nothing it the world cry us not up for men of knowledge And shall we be so ready to publish that which the world looks upon with an evil eye and conceal that from mens eyes which onely is worth the sight and by beholding of which even evil-doers may glorifie God in the day of visitation Shall Dives appear in his purple and Herod in his royal apparel and every scribler be in print and do we think that rising from sin is an action so low that it may be done in a corner that we may rise up and never go abroad to be seen in albis in our Easter-day-apparel in the white garment of Innocency and Newness of life never make any shew of the riches and glory of the Gospel have all our Goodness locked up in archivis in secret nothing set forth and publisht to the world What is this but to conceal nay to bury our Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with Christ let us be seen in our march accoutred with the whole armour of God Ephes 2. â—0 Let us be full of those good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them for by these we appear to be risen and they make us shine as stars in the firmament We may pretend perhaps that God is the searcher and seer of the heart Well he is so sed tamen luceat opera saith the Father yet let thy light shine forth make thy apparition For as God looketh down into thy heart so will thy good works ascend and come before him and he hath pleasure in them Lift up your hearts They are the words we use before the Administration and you answer We lift them up unto the Lord. Let it appear that you do And therefore as you lift up your hearts so lift up your hands also Lift up pure and clean hands such hands as may be known for the hands of men risen from the dead Let us now begin to be that which we hope to be spiritual bodies that the Body being subdued to the Spirit we may rise with Christ here to newness of life which is our first Resurrection and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second Resurrection to glory in that place of bliss where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God To which he bring us who is our Resurrection and Life even Jesus Christ the righteous who died for our sins and rose again for our justification To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for evermore The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PHILIPP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Or For I am greatly in doubt on both sides desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all WE may here behold our blessed Apostle S. Paul as it were between heaven and earth doubtfully contemplating the happiness which his Death and the profit which his Life may bring perplexed and labouring between both and yet concluding for neither side To be with Christ is best for him to remain on earth is best for the Philippians
What can be better for him then heaven and what can be better for his brethren then by his ministery to be fitted and prepared for heaven It is much better saith he for me there he laies hold on Abrahams bosome v. 24. But it is more needful for you and I know I shall abide with you all v. 25. there he doth as it were pull his hand back again as willing to loose so much time out of paradise to serve his brethren on earth a valley of tears and misery There be poor to be fed poor souls to be delivered out of the snare of the Devil and snatcht out of the fire the Church to be increased God to be honoured in his Saints and now though pressing forward to the prize and price of his high calling he stayes and demurs he checks his desires he desires and he desires not he is in a great streight he feels a double motion in himself and in appearance a contrary motion a desire to live and a desire to be dissolved a desire to be with Christ and a desire to remain with his brethren both springing from the same principle the Love of God He would lay down his earthly tabernacle because he loves him and he would abide in the flesh because he loves him Mortem habet in desiderio vitam in patientiâ saith S. Hierome He desires to dye and yet is willing to live and to both the love of Christ constraineth him For saith he I am in a great strait desiring to depart or to be loosed and to be with Christ which is far better In this speach S. Paul presents unto us his Doubt and his Desire his Doubt which to chuse Life or Death and his Desire fixt on the last his Departure and Dissolution a desire so reasonable that it leaves no room for doubt For 1. he doth not simply and absolutely desire it but upon reason and his reason is most warrantable most undeniable he would depart to be with Christ 2. That reason is backt with another with a MVLTO MAGIS MELIVS It is far better These carry strength enough one would think to deliver S. Paul out of his strait to redeem him from all perplexed doubtings For it is an easie matter to chuse when we know what is best When the object appears unto us with a multò magis melius it is a foundation sure and firm enough and we may soon build a resolution on it What doubt when the object appears in such beauty and excellency When heaven gates stand open who can doubt to go in When Christ is so near a man as but to be dissolved and loosed is to meet him shall he draw back and doubt and yet S. Paul doubts and is in a great strait and professeth he knows not what to choose We will therefore in the first place behold him in his Srait and consider his Doubt and then in the second commend to you his Desire And the topicks or reasons to commend it by are wrapt up in the object even in Death it self For 1. it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dissolution a resolving of the whole into its parts 2. It brings us to Christ and then we cannot but conclude that that is much the best and the fittest object for our desire to fasten it self upon These are the particulars and with these we shall exercise your devotion at this time First let us behold S. Paul in his strait and there see him ignorant and yet knowing what to chuse doubting and yet resolving what is best What to chuse I wot not and to be with Christ is best in the Text v. 21. and in the next verse to abide in the flesh is more needful for you And we may say with Bernard Affectus locutus est non intellectus that it was the language of his Love and Affection not of his Understanding Yet he spake with the spirit and he spake with his understanding also His Understanding did dictate what was best for himself and he well understood what was best for them but his Love to Christ and them put upon him these golden fetters bound him within this strait and swallowed up his Love to himself nay to his Will and Understanding in victory And now he will not have what he desires he knows not what he knows and cannot chuse that which he cannot but chuse Such riddles doth Love make and yet unfolds them such perplexities doth it bring us to and yet resolves them such seeming contradictions doth it put us upon and yet makes them plain The Apostle would be with Christ and yet remain with the Philippians he would be dissolved and yet live he would be in paradise and yet stay on earth he would have what is best for himself and yet will have what is best for the Philippians furtherance and joy of faith and his Love of Gods glory and the Churches good reconciles all This hath the praeeminence in all this bows and swayes his will from that which was best for himself to that which was best for others this answers all objections this is able to justifie the greatest soloecisme this hath a priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law Love hath the prerogative of Honour makes slavery free and disgrace honourable makes earth a fitter place for a Saint then heaven makes service more necessary then reward and made this Apostle willing to retire even when he was entring into his Masters joy The Glory of God and the Good of his Church being put in the scales outweigh our Will and earnest Desire and make us willing prisoners for a while longer in these tabernacles of flesh S. Paul here was willing to prolong his trouble to defer his joy and to stay some time from Christ that he might carry more company along with him From this heroick spirit and height of love was that strange wish of his to be accursed from Christ for his brethrens sake Pro amore Christi noluit habere Christum Rom. 9.3 saith Hierom his Love of Christ did seem so far to transport him that no honour him he would even loose him And so some of latter time have interpreted those words That he was willing to purchase the salvation of his brethren with the loss of his own and to redeem them from destruction to fall into it himself But this had been such a love cujus non audeo dicere nomen a love which was never yet heard of in the world This had been a wish inconsistent with Love For how can one mans soul be the price of another Nor can it be lawful for any Christian to wish the loss of that which he is bound to work out with fear and trembling Or if it were it would far exceed the love of Jesus Christ himself who was Love it self The Apostles love was great unto his brethren but not irregular It laid aside all
not onely placeth us upon but as Solomon speaks makes us an everlasting foundation by raising up in us a good conscience And this it doth as necessarily as fire sendeth forth heat or the Sun light For it is impossible to love God sincerely and not to know it and it is as impossible to know it and not to speak it to our own heart and comfort our selves in it For Conscience follows Science A light it is which directs us in the course of our obedience and when we have finished our course by the Memory it is reflected back upon us It tells us what we are to do and what we have done We have a kind of short but useful Genealogy in S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned From Faith unfeigned ariseth a good Conscience from that the Purity of the inward man from that that Peace which maketh us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace A golden chain where every link fits us in some degree for a dissolution nay where every link is unseparably annexed to each other and with it we cannot but tend naturally and cheerfully yea and hasten to our place of rest For our Conscience is our Judge our God upon earth And if it be of this royal extraction the product of our Faith and Obedience it will judge aright it will draw the Euge to us and tell us what sentence the Judge will pass at the last day and we even now hear in our ears Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy masters joy And when our Conscience hath past this sentence upon us we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God This this is an everlasting foundation and upon it we build as high as Heaven Our thoughts and desires our longings and pantings soar up even to that which is within the vail which is yet hidden and we are earnest to look into Let us then exercise our selves to have alwaies a conscience void of offense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word intimates the clearness of a way where no spy can discover any thing amiss For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas is speculator explorator a Scout a Spy So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a conscience clear and free from offense The want of this makes Death a King of terrours and puts more horrour in the Grave then it hath When Death comes towards wicked men on his pale horse it comes as a Serjeant to arrest them to put them out of possession of that which they had taken up as their habitation for ever to banish them out of the world which they made their paradise and to let them into eternity of torment If we love the world how can the love of God abide in us We plead for titles saith a learned Gentleman of our own who had large experience of the vanity and deceitfulness of the world and was exemplum utriusque fortunae an example of both fortunes good and evil We plead for titles till our breath fails us we dig for riches whilst strength enables us we exercise malice whilst we can revenge and then when Age hath beaten from us both youth and pleasure and health it s lf and Nature it self loatheth the House of old Age we then remember when our memory begins to fail that we must go the way from whence we must not return and that our bed is made ready for us in the grave At last looking too late into the bottom of our conscience which the Vanities of the world had lockt up from us all our lives we behold the fearful image of our actions past and withal this terrible inscription THAT GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JVDGMENT Thus he And this our vvay uttereth our foolishness in increasing the fear of Death and Judgment by striving to chase it away never thinking of Deaths sting till vve feel it putting by all sad and melancholy thoughts in our way till they meet us again vvith more horrour at our journeys end This is it which makes Death vvhich is but a messenger a King yea a King of terrours We can neither live nor are vvilling to dye vvith such a conscience vvhereas had vve learnt as Seneca speaks and studieâ— Death had vve not fed and supplyed this enemy with such vveapons a make him terrible had we cut from him now this now that desire an anon another for Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fights against us with our selves vvith our Wantonness and Luxury and Pride and Covetousness haâ— vve spoiled him of those things vvhich make Death terrible and the Dâ—â—vil our accuser vve might have boldly met him nay desired to meet him For vvhy should they fear Death vvho may present themselves vvith comâ—fort before God and shall meet Christ himself in all his glory coming iâ— the clouds To conclude Death shall be to them vvho love God and keep a good conscience a messenger of peace a gentle dismission into a better vvorld an Ostiary to let us in to the presence of God vvhere there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Our Apostle here calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a departing or dissolution To vvhich vve should lead you but vve cannot now so fully speak of it as vve vvould and as the matter requires vve will therefore reserve it for some other time The Seven and Thirtieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 1. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. THat which the Philosopher telleth us in the first of his Ethicks that we must not look for that certainty in Moral Philosophy which we do in the Mathematicks is most true And the reason is as plain For the Mathematician separateth and abstracteth the forms and essences of things from all sensible matter And these forms are of that nature for the most part that they admit not of the interposition of any thing Inter rectum curvum nihil est medium Between that which is straight and that which is crooked there is no medium at all for there is no line which is not either straight or crooked But in Morality and in the duties of our life the least circumstance varieth and altereth the matter and the forms there handled have something which cometh between so that there is an inclination which draweth us near sometimes to the right hand sometimes to the left sometimes to one extreme sometimes to another And in respect of this variety of circumstances it is that the Philosopher telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a hard matter many times to make our choice or in our judgment to prefer one thing before another Therefore they who have given us precepts of good life have also delivered us rules to guid us in this variety of circumstances that we swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left For as in artificial works the
vanity or the next business will drive it away and take its place Nor let us make a room for it in our Phansie For it is an easie matter to think we are free when we are in chains Who is so wicked that he is not ready to persuade himself he is just And that false persuasion too shall go for the dictate of the Holy Ghost Paganism it self cannot shew such monsters as many of them are who call themselves Saints But let us gird up our loins and be up and doing the work those works of piety which the Gospel injoyneth It is Obedience alone that tieth us to God and maketh us free denisons of that Jerusalem which is above In it the Beauty the Liberty the Royalty the Kingdom of a Christian is visible and manifest For by it we sacrifice not our Flesh but our Will unto God and so have one and the same will with him and if we have his will we have his power also and his wisdom to accompany it and to to fulfil all that we can desire or expect Servire Deo regnare est To serve God is to reign as Kings here and will bring us to reign with him for evermore Let us then stand fast in our obedience which is our liberty against all the wiles and invasions of the enemy all those temptations which will shew themselves in power and craft to remove us from our station In a calm to steer our course is not so difficult but when the tempest beateth hard upon us not to dash against the rock will commend our skill Every man is ready to build a tabernacle for Christ when he is in his glory but not to leave him at the Cross is the glory and crown of a Christian And first let us not dare a temptation as Pliny dared the vapour at Mount Vesuvius and died for it Let us not offer and betray our selves to the Enemy For he that affecteth and loveth danger is in the ready way to be swallowed up in that gulf Valiant men saith the Philosopher are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiet and silent before the combat but in the trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready and active But audacious daring men are commonly loud and talkative before encounters but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flag and fail in them The first weigh the danger and resolve by degrees the other are peremptory and resolve suddenly and talk their resolution away It is one thing to talk of a tempest at sea another to discourse of it leaning against a wall It is one thing to dispute of pain another to feel it Grief and Anguish hath not such a sting in the Stoicks gallery as it hath on the rack For there Reason doth fight but with a shadow and a representation here with the substance it self And when things shew themselves naked as they are they stir up the affections When the Whip speaketh by its smart not by my phansie when the Fire is in my flesh not my understanding when temptations are visible and sensible then they enter the soul and the spirit then they easily shake that resolution which was so soon built and soon beat down that which was made up in haste Therefore let us not rashly thrust our selves upon them But in the second place let us arm and prepare our selves against them For Preparation is half the conquest It looketh upon them handleth and weigheth them before hand seeeth where their great strength lieth and goeth forth in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ and so maketh us more then conquerers before the sight And this is our Martyrdom in peace For the practice of a Christian in the calmest times must nothing differ in readiness and resolution from times of rage and fire As Josephus speaketh of the military exercises practised amongst the Romans that they differed from a true battel only in this that their battel was a bloudy exercise and their exercise a bloudless battel So our preparation should make us martyrs before we come to resist ad sanguinem to shed a drop of bloud To conclude as the Apostle exhorteth let us take unto us the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand to stand against the horrour of a prison against the glittering of the sword against the terrour of death to stand as expert souldiers of Christ and not to forsake our place to stand as mount Sion which cannot be moved in a word to be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed The Seven and Fortieth SERMON PART VII JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed TO Persevere or continue in the Gospel and To be blessed for ever are the two stages of a Christian the one here on earth the other in heaven and there is scarce a moment but a last breath between them nothing but a mouldering and decaying wall this tabernacle of flesh which falleth down suddenly and then we pass and enter And that we may persevere and continue means are here prescribed first assiduous Meditation in this Law we must not be forgetful hearers of it but look into it as into a glass vers 23 24. yet not as a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass and then goeth away and forgetteth himself not as a man who looketh carelesly casteth an eye and thinketh no more of it but rather as a woman who looketh into her glass with intention of mind with a kind of curiosity and care stayeth and dwelleth upon it fitteth her attire and ornaments to her by a kind of method setteth every hair in its proper place and accurately dresseth and adorneth her self by it And sure there is more care and exactness due to the soul then to the body Secondly that we may continue and persevere we must not only hear and remember but do the work For Piety is confirmed by Practice To these we may now add a third which hath so near a relation to Practice that it is even included in it and carrried along with it And it is To be such students in Christ's School as S. Paul was Acts 24.16 To study and exercise our selves to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Not to triflle with our God or play the wanton with our Conscience Not to displease and wound her in one particular with a resolution to follow her in the rest Not to let our love of the world or fear of danger make that a truth which we formerly
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