Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
Body and his Bloud and S. Paul calleth it the Bread and the Cup Nor is S. Paul contrary to Christ but determineth and reconcileth all in the end both of Christ's suffering and our receiving in the words of my Text As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come In which words the Death of the Lord of life is presented to us and we called to look up upon him whom our sins have pierced through to behold him wounded for our transgressions ex cujus latere aqua sanguis Isa 53.5 utriusque lavacri paratura manavit as Tertullian out of whose side came water and bloud to wash and purge us which make the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper And the effect of both is our Obedience in life and conversation that we should serve him with the whole heart who hath bought us at so dear a price that we should wash off all our spots and stains and foul pollutions in the laver of this Water and the laver of this Bloud And therefore as he offered himself for us on the Cross so he offereth himself to us in the Sacrament his Body in the Bread and his Bloud in the Cup that we may eat and drink and feed upon him and taste how gracious he is Which is the sum and complement and blessed effect of the duty here in the Text to shew the Lord's death till he come For he that sheweth it not manducans non manducat eating doth not as Ambrose doth eat the Bread but not feed on Christ But he that fully acquitteth himself in this shall be fed to eternal life Let us then take the words asunder And there we find What we are to do and How long we are to do it the Duty and the Continuation of it the Duty We must shew forth Christ's death the Continuation of it We must do it till he come again to judgment In the Duty we consider first an Object what it is we must shew the death of the Lord Secondly an Act what it is to shew and declare it The death of the Lord a sad but comfortable a bloudy but saving spectacle And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew a word of as large a compass as Christianity it self And the duration and continuation of it till he come that is to the end of the world Of these in their order The object is in nature first and first to be handled the death of the Lord. And this is most proper for us to consider For by his stripes we are healed and by his death we live And in this he hath not onely expressed his Love but made himself an example that we may take it out and so shew forth his death First it is his Love which joyned these two words together Death and the Lord which are farther removed then Heaven is from the Earth For can the Lord of life die Yes Amor de coelo demisit Dominum That Love which brought him down from his throne to his footstool that united the Godhead and Manhood in one Person hath also made these two terms Death and the Lord compatible and fastned the Son of God to the Cross hath exprest it self not onely in Beneficence but also in Patience not onely in Power but also in Humility and is most lively and visible in his Death the true authentick instrument of his Love He that is our Steward to provide for us who supplieth us out of his rich treasur◠who ripeneth the fruit on the trees and the corn in the fields who draweth us wine out of the vine and spinneth us garments out of the bowels of the worm and the fleece of the flock will also empty himself and pour forth his bloud He who giveth us balm for our bodies will give us physick for our souls will give up his ghost to give us breath and life And here his love is in its Zenith and vertical point and in a direct line casteth the rayes of comfort on his lost creature This Lord cometh not naked but clothed with blessings cometh not empty but with the rich treasuries of heaven cometh not alone but with troops of Angels with troops of promises and blessings Bonitas foecunda sui Goodness is fruitful and generative of it self gaineth by spending it self swelleth by overflowing and is increased by profusion When she poureth forth her self and breatheth forth that sweet exhalation she conveyeth it not poor and naked and solitary but with a troop and authority with ornament and pomp For Love bringeth with it whatsoever Goodness can imagine munera officia gifts and offices doth not onely give us the Lord but giveth us his sufferings his passion his death not onely his death but the virtue and power of it to raise us from the lethargy and death of Sin that we may be quick and active to shew and express it in our selves Olim morbo nunc remedio laboramus The remedy is so wonderful it confoundeth the patient and maketh health it self appear but fabulous Shall the Lord of Life die why may not Man whose breath is in his nostrils be immortal Yes he shall and for this reason Because it pleased the Lord of Life to die We need not adopt one in his place or substitute a creature a phantasm as did Arius and Marcion in his office For he took our sins and he will take the office himself Isa 63.3 he will tread the wine press alone and will admit none with him Nor doth this Humility impair his Majesty but rather exalt it Though he die yet he is the Lord still The Father will tell us that they who denied this for fear were worse then those who denied it out of stomach and the pretense of his honour is more dangerous then perversness For this is to confine and limit this Lord to shorten his hand palos terminales figere to set up bounds and limits against his infinite Love and absolute Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shape and frame him out to their own phansie and indeed to blaspheme him with reverence to take from him his heavenly power and put into his hand a sceptre of reed His Love and his Will quiet all jealousies and answer all arguments whatsoeever It was his will to die and he that resteth in God's Will doth best acknowledge his Majesty For all even Majesty it self doth vail to his Will and is commanded by it What the Lord of life equal to the Father by whom all things were made shall he die Yes quia voluit because he would For as at the Creation he might have made Man as he made other creatures by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the clay and fashioned him with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send an Angel one of the Seraphim or Cherubim or any finite creature which he might have done
Heaven before the tribunal of Christ let us change our plea and let us answer the last part of the Text with the first the Moriemini with the Convertimini answer God that we will turn and then he will never ask any more Why will ye die but change his language and assure us we shall not die at all And our answer is penned to our hands by the Prophet Behold Jer. 3.22 23. we come we turn unto thee for in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel And our Saviour hath registred his in his Gospel and left it as an invitation to turn Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that be weary of your evil wayes and are heavy laden feel the burden you did sweat under whilest you were in them and I will ease you that is I will deliver you from this body of Sin Rom. 7.24 fill you with my Grace enlighten your Understandings Hebr. 10.22 sprinkle your hearts from an evil Conscience direct your Eye level your Intentions lead you in the wayes of life and so fit and prepare you for my kingdom in Heaven To which he bring us c. The Four and Twentieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 25. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me THat which is made to degenerate from its first institution is so much the worse by how much the better it would have been if it had been levelled and carried on to that end for which it was ordained The truth of this is plain and visible as in many others so in this great business of the Administration of the Lords Supper Which in its right and proper use might have been as Physick to purge and as Manna to feed the soul to eternal life but being either raised higher or brought lower than it self either made more or less then it is either made miraculous or nothing hath become fatall and destructive and hath left most men guilty of the body and blood of our Lord. 1 Cor. 11.27 Some we see have quite changed and perverted the Ordinance of Christ scarce left any shadow or sign of its first institution have made of a Supper for the living a Sacrifice for the dead turned the Minister into a sacrificing Priest Bread and Wine into very Flesh and Blood and Bones the Remembrance of Christs death into the Adoration of the outward elements have written books filled many volumes in setting out the miraculous virtue it hath of which we may say as Pliny did of the writings of those magical Physicians that they have been published non sine contemtu irrisu generis humani not without a kind of contempt and derision of all the world as if there breathed not in it any but such who were either so brutish as not to know or such fools as to believe whatsoever fell from the pen of such idle dreamers Others fall short are more coldly affected and lose themselves in a strange indifferency as not fully resolved whether it be an institution that bindeth or no and look upon it rather as an invention of man than the word and command of Christ Others run far enough from Superstition as they think and are great enemies to Popery and yet unawares carry a Pope with them in their belly lean too much to the opus operatum to the bare outward action think what they will not say that if they come to the Feast it is not much material what garment they come in the outward elements are of virtue to sanctifie the profaner himself that though they have been haters of God yet they may come to his Table though they have crucified Christ yet here they may taste and see how gracious he is These extremes have men run upon whilst they did neglect the plain and easie rule by which they were to walk the one upon the rock of Superstition the other as it fâ—lleâ—h out most commonly not only from the Errour which they were afraid of but from the Truth it self which should be set up in its place We see at the first institution almost and when this blessed Table was as it were first spread that many abuses crept in to poyson the Feast Some by factiousness others by partiality and some by drunkenness profaned it v. 21. did come and sit down and eat and drink but to their punishment and damnation Therefore S. Paul having laid open their gross errours and profanations and set their irregularities in order before them prescribeth the remedy and calleth them back to the first institution and the example of Christ himself First he sheweth the Manner of Christs institution v. 23-25 He took the bread and gave thanks brake it and gave it them and secondly the Mystery signified thereby The breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine represent the bruising of his Body and shedding of his Bloud for the remission of sins Last of all the End of the institution and celebration of the Lord's Supper in the words of my Text This do ye as oft as ye do it in remembrance of me These vvords I read to you as S. Pauls but indeed they are Christ's delivered by Paul but received from Christ as he telleth us v. 23. In them you may behold Christ's Love streaming forth as his bloud did on the cross For not content once to die for us he vvill appear unto us as a crucified Saviour to the end of the vvorld and calleth upon us to look upon him and remember him whom our sins have pierced presenteth himself unto us in these outvvard elements of Bread and Wine and in the breaking of the one and pouring out of the other is evidently set forth before our eyes Gal. 3.1 and even crucified amongst us as S. Paul speaketh thus condescending and applying himself to our infirmities that he may heal us of our sins and make and keep us a peculiar people to himself And since the vvords are Christ's vve must in the first place look up and hearken to him who breatheth forth this Love secondly consider what task his Love hath set us what we are to do thirdly ex praescripto agere since it is an injunction whose every accent is Love do it after that form which he hath set down after the manner which he hath prescribed So the parts are four 1. the Authour of the institution 2. the Duty enjoyned to do this 3. to do it often 4. Lastly the End of the institution or the Manner how we must do it we must do it in remembrance of him i. e. of all those benefits and graces and promises which flowed with his bloud from his very heart which was sick with Love And with these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion at this time First we must look upon the Authour of the institution For in every action we do it is good to know by what authority we dot it And this is the very order of Nature Lib
is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. Micah 6.8 What doth the Lord require of thee c. Micah 6.8 But to do justly c. Micah 6.8 To love Mercy c. Micah 6.8 And to walk humbly with thy God Gal. 4.29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now 1 Thes 4.11 And that yee study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you 1 Thes 4 11. And to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you Matth. 24.42 Watch therefore for yee know not what hour your Lord doth come Matth. 24.42 Yee know not what hour your Lord doth come Matth. 24.42 Watch therefore c. Jam. 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the World 1 Sam. 3.18 And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him And he said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good John 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turn yee turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye c. Ezek. 33.11 From your evil wayes c. Ezek. 33.11 From your evil wayes c. Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye c. Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Why will ye dye c. A Preparation to the holy Communion 1 Cor. 11.25 This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come 1 Cor. 11.28 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Gal. 1.10 the last part of the ver For do I now perswade men or God or do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Coloss 2.6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Sir George Whitmore Knight Psal 119.19 I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me A SERMON Preached on Christmas-Day HEBR. II. 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren THis high Feast of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour is called by S. Chysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Metropolitane Feast For as to the chief City the whole Countrey resorts Thither the Tribes go up saith David even the tribes of the Lord Psal 122. so all the Feast-dayes of the whole year all the passages and periods of the blessed oeconomy of that great work of our Redemption all the solemn commemorations of the Saints and Martyrs meet and are concentred in the joy of this Feast If we will draw them into a perfect circle we must set the foot of the compass upon this Deus homini similis factus God was made like unto Man But if we remove the compass and deny this Assimilation the Incarnation of Christ there will be no room then for the glorious company of the Apostles for the goodly fellowship of the Prophets for the noble army of Martyrs the Circumcision is cut off the Epiphany disappears our Easter is buried and the Feast of the holy Ghosts Advent is past and gone from us as that mighty wind which brought it in Blot out these two words PVER NATVS A Child is born The Son of God is made like unto us and you have wip'd the Saints all out of the Kalendar at once We will not now urge the solemn celebration of the Day That hath been done already by many who have thought it a duty not only of the closet but the Church and a fit subject for publick devotion And upon this account Antiquity lookt upon it with joy and gratitude as upon a day which the Lord had made And S. Augustine commends this anniversary Solemnity as either delivered to after-ages by the Apostles themselves Vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenariis Conciliis instituta c. Aug. p. 118. or decreed by Councels and devoutly retained in all the Churches of the world But we do not now urge it For when Power speaks every mouth must be stopped Logick hath no sinews an Argument no strength Antiquity no authority Councels may erre the Fathers were but children all Churches must yeild to one and the first age be taught by the last Job 12.20 Speech is taken away from the trusty and understanding from the aged But yesterday that monstre was discovered which the Churches for so many centuries of years heard not of and so made much of it and embraced it but they must have run from it or abolisht it if their eye had been as clear and quick as theirs of after-times I do not stand up against Power I say I should then forget him whose memory we so much desire to celebrate who was the best teacher and greatest example of obedience What cannot be done cannot oblige And where the Church is shut up every mans chamber every mans breast may be a Temple and every day a Holy-day and we may offer up in it the sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to the blessed Son of God who came and dwelt amongst us and was made like unto us which is the only end of the celebration of this Feast Christ is made like unto us is as true when every man tells himself so and makes melody in his heart as when it is preached in the great congregation But it is heard further and soundeth better and is the sweeter Musick when all the people say Amen when with one heart and soul and in one place they give glory to their Saviour who that he might be so factus est similis was made like unto them My Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a principle in Divinity and is laid down unto us in the form of a Modell proposition Which as we are taught in Logick consists of two parts the Dictum and the Modus Here is 1. the Proposition CHRISTVS FACTVS SIMILIS Christ is made like us 2. the Modification or Qualification of it with an OPORTVIT or DEBVIT It dehoved him so to be In the Proposition our meditations are directed to Christ and to his Brethren And we consider Quid Christus Quid nos What Christ is and What we we were God he was
Dei posse velle est non posse nolle Advers Praâ—eam c. 10. saith Tertullian He can do what he will and what he will not do we may say he cannot do Quod voluit potuit ostendit What he would do he could and did What his Son his own Son his beloved Son infinite and omnipotent as himself shall he be delivered Yes he delivered him because he would His will is that which openeth the windows of heaven and shutteth them again that bindeth and looseth that planteth and rooteth up that made the world and will destroy it His will it was that humbled his Son and his Will it was that glorified him He might not have done it not have delivered him He might without the least impairing of his Justice have kept him still in his bosome and never shewed him to the world Jam. 1.18 But as of his own will he begat us of the word of truth so he delivered up his owo Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 QVIA VOLVIT because he would For as in the Creation God might have made Man as he made the other Creatures by his dixit by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the earth and like a Potter formed and shaped him out of the clay with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send a Moyses or an Angel but delivered up his own Son and so gave a price infinitely above that which he bought mortal and sinful men being of no value at all but that he made them He payed down not a Talent for a Talent but a Talent for a Mite for Nothing for that which had made it self worse than Nothing He delivered up his Son for those who stood guilty of rebellion against him and thus loved the World which was at enmity with him Thus he was pleased to buy his own will and to pay dear for his affection to us And by this his incomprehensible Love he did bound as it were his almighty Power his infinite Wisdome and his unlimited Will For here his Power Wisdome and Will may seem to have found a non ultrá He cannot do he cannot find out he cannot wish for us more than what he hath done in this Delivery of his Son How should this affect and ravish our souls how should this flame of Gods Love kindle love in us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers that is greater which is above our hope that is yet greater that exceedeth our desires But how great is that which over-ruunneth our opinion yea swalloweth it up Certainly had not God revealed his will we could not have desired it but our prayers would have been blasphemie our hope madness our wish sacriledge and our opinion impiety And now if any ask What moved his Will Surely no loveliness or attractiveness in the object In it there was nothing to be seen but loathsomness and deformity and such enmity as might sooner move him to wrath than compassion and make him rather send down fire and brimstone then his Son That which moved him was in himself his own bowels of mercy and compassion Ezek. 16.6 He loved us in our blood and loving us he bid us Live and that we might live delivered up his own Son to death His Mercy was the onely Orator to move his Will Being merciful he was also willing to help us Mercy is all our plea and it was all his motive and wrought in him a will a cheerful will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. James Mercy rejoyceth against judgment Jam. 2.13 Though we had forgot our duty yet would not he forget his Mercy but hearkned to it and would not continere misericordias Psal 77.9 shut up his tender mercies in anger which is a Metaphor taken from Martial affairs When in a siege an Army doth compass-in a Town or Castle that they may play upon it in every place the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shut it up as in a net This is it which the Prophet David calleth CLAVDERE or CONTINERE to shut up mercy in anger The Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make a trench about and besiege it Now the Goodness of God and his Love to his Creature would not suffer him thus to shut up his tender Mercies as a sort or town is shut up to be undermined and beat up and overcome But as the besieged many times make sallyes upon the enemy so the Love and Mercy of our God brake forth even through his Anger and gained a conquest against the legions of his Wrath. Let the World be impure let Men be sinners let Justice be importunate let Power be formidable let Vengeance be ready to fall yet all must fall back and yield to the Mercy and Love of God which cannot be overcome nor bound nor shut up but will break forth and make way through all opposition through Sin and all the powers of Darkness which besiege and compass it about and will raise the siege drive off and chase away these enemies and to conquer Sin will deliver up his Son for the Sinner And this was aenigma aemoris saith Aquinas the riddle or rather the mystery of Love to pose the wisdome of the World I may say Being Love and infinite it is no riddle at all but plain and easie For what can Love do that is strange what can it do amiss That which moved God to do this sheweth plainly that the end for which he did it was very good DILEXIT NOS He loved us is the best commentary on TRADIDIT FILIVM He delivered his Son for us and taketh away all scruple and doubt For if we can once love our enemies it is impossible but that our bowels should yern towards them and our will be bent and prone to raise them up even to that pitch and condition which our Love hath designed And if our love were heavenly as God's is or but in some forward degree proportioned to his we should find nothing difficult account nothing absurd or misbecoming which might promote or advantage their good If our Love have heat in it our Will will be forward and earnest and we shall be ready even to lay down our lives for them For Love is like an artificial Glass which when we look through an Enemy appeareth a Friend Disgrace Honour Difficulties Nothing When God saw us weltring in our blood his Love was ready to wash us When we ran from him his Love ran after us to apprehend us When we fought against him as enemies his Love was a Prophet Lo all these may be my children What speak we of Disgrace God's Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Son Love as Plato saith hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed and by a kind of law hath this huge advantage to make Bondage Liberty Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Who can stand up against Love and
defective in humanity Christians are the parts of the Church and all must sustein one another And this is the just and full interpretation of that of our Saviour Matth. 19.19 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self then thou wilt pity him as thy self Tolle invidiam tuum est quod habet Take away Envy and all that he hath is thine And take away Hardness of heart and all that thou hast is his Take away Malice and all his virtues are thine and take away Pride and thy glories are his Art thou a part of the Church Thou hast a part in every part and every part hath a portion in thee Eph. 4.16 We are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compacted together by that which every joynt supplies A similitude and resemblance taken from the Curtains of the Tabernacle saith learned Grotius whereof every one hath its measure Exod. 26.2 3 5. but yet they are all coupled together one to another by their loops which lay hold one of another And like those curtains we are not to be drawn but together not to rejoyce not to weep not to suffer but together The word Church is but a second notion and it is made a term of art and every man almost saith Luther abuseth it draweth it forth after his own image taketh it commonly in that sense which may favour him so far as to leave in him a perswasion that he is a true part of it and thus many enter the Church and are shut out of heaven We are told of a Visible Church and the Church in some sense is visible But that the greatest part of this Church hath wanted bowels that some parts of it have been without sense or feeling besmeared and defiled with the bloud of their brethren is as visible as the Church We have heard of an Infallible Church we have heard it and believe it not for how can she be infallible who is so ready to design all those to death and hell who deny it If it be a Church it is a Church with horns to push at the nations or an army with banners and swords We have long talked of a Reformed Church and we make it our crown and rejoycing But it would concern us to look about us and take heed that we do not reform so as to purge out all Compassion also For certainly to put off all bowells is not as some zealots have easily perswaded themselves to put on the new man Talk not of a Visible Infallible or a Reformed Church God send us a Compassionate Church a title which will more fit and become her then those names which do not beautifie and adorn but accuse and condemn her when she hath no Heart What Visible Church is that which is seen in blood What Infallible Church is that whose very bowels are cruel What Reformed Church is that which hath purged out all Compassion Visible and yet not seen Infallible and deceived Reformed and yet in its filth Monstrum horrendum informe This is a mis-shapen monster not a Church The true Church is made up of bowels Every part of it is tender and relenting not onely when it self is touched but when others are moved as you see in a well-set instrument if you touch but one string the others will tremble and shake And this Sense and this Fellow-feeling is the fountain from whence this silver stream of Mercy floweth the spring and first mover of those outward acts which are seen in that bread of ours which floats upon the waters in the face and on the backs of the poor Luk. 10.31 c. For not then when we see our brethren in affliction when we look upon them and pass by them but when we see them and have compassion on them we shall bind up their wounds and pour in oil and wine and take care for them For till the heart be melted there will nothing flow We see almes given every day and we call them acts of piety but whether the hand of Mercy reach them forth or no we know not Our motions all of them are not from a right spring Vain-glory may be liberal Intemperance may be liberal Pride may be a benefactour Ambition must not be a niggard Covetousness it self sometimes yieldeth droppeth a peny and Importunity is a wind which will set that wheel a going which had otherwise stood still We may read large catalogues of munificent men but many names which we read there may be but the names of Men not of the Merciful Compassion is the inward true principle begetting in us the Love of Mercy which completeth and perfecteth crowneth every act giveth it its true form denomination giveth a sweet smel and fragrant savour to Maries oyntment Luk. 7.47 for she that poured it forth loved much I may say Compassion is the love of Mercy Et plus est diligere quà m facere saith Hilary It is a great deal more to love a good work then to do it to love Virtue then to bring it into act to love Mercy then to shew it It doth supply many times the place of the outward act but without it the act is nothing or something worse It hath a privilege to bring that upon account which was never done to be entitled to that which we do not which we cannot do to make the weak man strong the poor man liberal and the ignorant man a counsellor For he that loveth Mercy would do and therefore doth more then he can do As David may be said to build the Temple though he laid not a stone of it for God telleth him he did well that he had it in his heart 1 Kings 8.18 Thus our Love may build a Temple though we fall and dye before a stone be laid Now this Love of Mercy is not so soon wrought in the heart as we may imagin as every glimering of light doth not make it day It is a work of labour and travel of curious observance and watchfulness over our selves It will cost us many a combat and luctation with the World and the Flesh and many a falling out with our selves Many a Love must be digged up by the roots before we can plant this Love in our hearts It will not grow up with Luxury and Wantonness with Pride or Self-love you never see these together in the same soyl The Apostle telleth us we must put it on Col. 3.12 And the garments which adorn the soul are not so soon put on as those which clothe the body We do not put on Mercy as we do our mantle for when we do every puff of wind every distast bloweth it away But Mercy must be so put on that it may even cleave to the soul and be a part of it that every thought may be a melting thought every word as oyl and every work a blessing Then we love Mercy when we fling off all other respects whatsoever may either shrink up or
Ishmael Thus by looking on the Persons in the Text you may plainly see the face and condition of the Church and that no priviledge she hath can exempt her from persecution This will yet more plainly appear from the very Nature and Constitution of the Church which is best seen in her blood when she is Militant Which is more full and expressive then any other representation or title that she hath The Church of Christ and the Kingdomes of the earth are not of the same making and constitution have not the same soul and spirit to animate them These may seem to be built upon Air they are so soon thrown down That is raised upon a holy Hill These have a weak and frail hand to set them up and as weak a hand may cast them down That is the work of Omnipotency which fenceth it about and secureth it from Death and Hell These depend upon the Opinions upon the Affections upon the Lusts of men which change oftner then the wind upon the breath of that monster the Multitude which is any thing and which is nothing which is it knoweth not what and never agreeth with it self is never one but in a tempest in tumult and sedition That is founded upon the eternal Decree and Will of God and upon Immutability it self and shall stand fast for ever These when they are in their height and glory are under uncertainty and chance The Church under the wing and shadow of that Providence which can neither erre nor miscarry but worketh mightily and irresistibly to its end His evertendis una dies hora momentum sufficit These are long a raysing and are blown down in a moment But the Church is as everlasting as his love that built it In a word these are worn out by Time The Church is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most glorious when Time shall be no more I know well Persecution appeareth to us as a Fury sent from hell and every hair every threat is a snake that hisseth at us but it is our Sensuality and Cowardise that whippeth us Yet the common consent of all men hath given her a fairer shape and they that run from her do prefer the suffering part And as our Saviour said Acts 20.35 It is more blessed to give then to receive so is it vox populi the voice of the People though they practice it not It is better to suffer then to oppress Even they who have the sword in their hand and breath nothing but terrour and death will rage yet more if you say they persecute you and either magnifie their cruelty with the name of Justice or else seek to perswade the world that they and they alone suffer persecution Every man flieth persecution and every man is willing to own it The Arians complained of the cruelty of the Orthodox and the Orthodox of the fury of the Arians Epist 48 68. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem saith Augustine to the Manichees You say you suffer but our houses are laid wast by you You say you suffer but your armed men put out our eyes You say you suffer but we fall by the sword What you do to us you will not impute to your selves but what you do to your selves you impute to us Thus it was then And how do we look back upon the Marian daies as if the bottomless pit did never smoke but then And are not they of the Romish party as loud in their complaints as if the Devil were never let loose till now We bring forth our Martyrs with a faggot on their shoulder and they theirs with a Tiburn-tippet as Father Latimer calleth it and both glory in Persecution We see then every party claimeth a title to Persecution and counteth it honour to be placed in the number of those that suffer And indeed Persecution is the honour the prosperity the flourishing condition of the Church for it maketh hâ—r indeed visible Nazianzene I remember calleth it the Sacrament and mystery of blood a visible sign of invisible grace where one thing is seen and another thing done where the Christian suffereth and rejoyceth is cast down and promoted falleth by the sword to rise to eternity where Glory lieth hid in Disgrace Advantage in Loss and Life in Death a Church shining in the midst of all the blackness and darkness and terrours of the world Epist 20. â—â— Floridi Martyres they are called by S. Cyprian But this you may say is true if we take the Church as Invisible made up of Sheep onely as Collection of Saints To speak truly Charity buildeth up no other Church For all she beholdeth are either so or in a possibility of having that honour though the eye of Faith can see but a small number to make up that body But take the Church under what notion you please yet it will be easie to observe that Persecution may enlarge her territories increase her number and make her more visible then she was when the weather was fair and no cloud or darkness hung over her that when her branches were lopt off she spread the more that when her members were dispersed there were more gathered to her that when they were driven about the world they carried that sweet-smelling savour about them which dtew in multitudes to follow them that in their flight they begat many children unto Christ Apolog. Crudelitas vestra illecebra est sectae saith Tertullian In the last place As it was then so it is now S. Paul doth not say It may be so or It is by chance but so it is by the Providence of God Provedentia ratio ordinis rerum ad finem Aquin. which is seen in the well ordering and bringing of every motion and action of man to a right end which commonly runneth in a contrary course to that which Flesh and Blood humane Infirmity would find out Eternity and Mortality Majesty and Dust and Ashes Wisdome and Ignorance steer not the same course nor are they bound to the same point My wayes are not your wayes nor my thoughts yours Isa 55.8 saith God by his Prophet to a foolish Nation who in extremity of folly would be wiser then God Mine are not as yours not such uncertain such vain such contradictory and deceitful thoughts but as far removed from yours as heaven is from the earth God hideth himself under a veil Deus tum maximè magnus eum homini pusillus tum maximè optimus cum ho â—ini non bonus Tert l. 2. adv Marcion c. 2. and is merciful when he seemeth angry and just when in outward appearance he favoureth oppression he shadoweth us under his wings when we think he thundreth against us and raiseth his Church as high as heaven when we tremble and imagin he hath opened the gates of hell to devour her Were Flesh and Blood to build a Church we should draw our lines out in a pleasant place It should
not be a House subject to weather but some house of pleasure a Seraglio not in Egypt or Babylon but in the Fortunate Islands or in Paradise Our Lily should be set far enough from the Thorns We would go to Heaven without any Ifs or And 's without any Buts or difficulties We would be eased but not weary be saved but not believe or believe but not suffer Acts 14.22 We would enter into Gods Kingdome but not with tribulation that is we would have God neither provident nor just nor wise that is which is a sad interpretation we would have no God at all But Gods method is best Honorem operis fructus excusat Tâ—rtul Scorpiac c. 5. Luk. 17 25. 24.46 And that which we call Persecution is his art his way of making of Saints De perverso auxiliatur He raiseth us by those evils we labour under As in his manifold wisdome he redeemed mankind so the manner and method of working out our salvation is from the same Wisdome and Providence which as it set an Oportet upon Christ to suffer for us so it set an Oportet upon the Church to have a fellowship in his sufferings â—ct 14 22. We must through many afflictions be consecrated be made perfect and so enter into the Kingdome of God We must first be made more spiritual by the contradiction of those who are born after the flesh more Isaacs then before for the many Ishmaels So Perfection is not onely agreeable to the wisdome of God but convenient to the weakness of Man God will not save us we cannot be saved any other way Phil. 1.29 Oportet we must go this way Nay Datum est It is a gift It is given not onely to believe but to suffer a gift for which heaven it self is given Matth. 5. And it is a Beatitude Blessed poverty blessed mourning blessed persecution Blessedness is set upon these as a Crown or as â—ich embroyderie upon sackcloth or some courser stuff Thus you see the Church is not cannot be exempt from Persecution if either we consider the Quality of the Persons themselves or the Nature and Constitution of the Church or the Providence and Wisdome and Mercy of God As it was then so is it now In Abraham's family Ishmael mocketh and persecuteth Isaac In the world the Synagogue persecuteth the Church and in the Church one Christian persecuteth another It was so it is so and it will be so to the end of the world Let us now look back upon this dreadful but blessed sight and see what advantage we can work what light we can strike out of this cloud of blood to direct and strengthen us in this our warfare Revel 2.10 that we may be faithful unto death 1 Pet. 4.12 and so receive the crown of life And first let us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Peter speaketh think it strange or be amazed at the fiery trial not be dismayed when we see that befall the Church which befalleth all the Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the world when we see the face of the Church gather blackness and not shine in that beauty in which formerly we beheld her For what strange thing is it that Ishmael should mock Isaac The Church so far as she is visible in respect of her visibility and outward form is as subject to change as any other thing that is seen as those things which we use to say are but the balls of Fortune to play with For those things of the Church which are seen are but temporal 2 Cor 4.18 those which are eternal are not seen 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away saith S. Paul and so doth the fashion of the Church And when the scene is changed it cometh forth with another face and speaketh now like a servant who spake before like a Queen In brief the Church turned about on the wheel of change is subject to the same storms to the same injuries to the same craft and violence which the Philosopher saith make that alteration in States change them not into those which may bear some faint resemblance of them but into that which is most unlike and contrary to them setteth up that in their place leaving them lost and labouring under the expectation of another change Thus it is and ever was and ever shall be with the Church in respect of outward profession Gen. 3.15 which is the face of the Church nor hath the Seed of the woman so bruised the Serpents head but that he still biteth at the heel Exod. 17. Behold the children of Israel in the wilderness sometimes in straits anon in larger wayes sometimes fighting sometimes resting as at mount Sinai sometimes going forward and sometimes turning backward sometimes on the mountains and sometimes in the vallies sometimes in places of sweetness as Mithkah and sometimes in places of bitterness as Marah Behold them in a more settled condition when their Church had Kings for her nursing-fathers how did Idolatry follow Religion at the heel and supplant it And of all their Kings how few of them were not Idolaters How many professours were there when Elijah the great Prophet could see but one And how can that have alwayes the same countenance which is under the powers and wills of mortal men which change so oft sometimes in the same man but are never long the same in many amongst whom one is so unlike the other that he will not suffer that to stand long which a former hand hath set up but will model the Church as he please and of those who look upon it with an eye of distast will leave so few and under such a cloud that they shall be scarce visible Not to speak of former times of those seven golden Candelsticks which are now removed out of their place Rev. 1.12 20. nor of those many alterations in after-ages but to come home to our selves Our Reformed Religion cannot boast of many more years then make up the age of a Man That six years light of the Gospel in the dayes of Edward the Saint was soon overspread and darkned with a cloud of blood in Queen Maries reign Since when we have been willing to believe for we made our boast of it that it shined out in beauty to these present times which have thought fit to reform the Reformation it self And now for the glory of it for its Order and Discipline which is the face of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is it to be seen We may say of it as Job doth of frail Man It dieth it wasteth it giveth up the ghost Job 14.10 and where is it Talk what we will of Perpetuity of Visibility of outward Profession quod cuiquam accidere potest cuivis potest What we have seen done to one Church may certainly be done to another may be done to all What was done in Asia may be done in Europe and if the Candlestick
did such service for his friend then but a private man that he made him first a Conquerour then a King the Historian giveth this note That Kings love not to be too much beholding to their Subjects nor to have greater service done then they are able to reward and so how truly I know not maketh the setting on of the Crown on his friends head one cause of the losing of his own But it is not so with this our Lord who being now in his throne of Majesty cannot be outdared by any sin be it never so great never so common and can break the hairy scalp of the most giant-like offender and shiver in pieces the tallest cedar in Libanus Who shall be able to stand up in his sight In his presence the boldest sinner shall tremble and fall down and see the horrour of that profitable honourable sin in which he triumpht and called it Godliness The Hypocrite whose every word whose every motion whose every look was a lye shall be unmaskt And the man of Power who boasted in malice and made his Will a Law and hung his sword on his Will to make way to that at which it was levelled shall be beat down into the lowest pit to howl with those who measured out justice by their sword and thought every thing theirs which that could give them Before him every sin shall be a sin and the wages thereof shall be Death Again he hath rewards and his Treasury is full of them Not onely the powring forth my blood as water for the Truths sake Matth. 10.42 but a cup of cold water shall have its full and overflowing recompense nor shall there ever any be able to say What profit is it that we have kept his Laws No Mal 3.14 saith S. Paul Non sunt condignae Put our Passions to our Actions Rom. 8.18 our Sufferings to our Alms our Martyrdome to our Prayers they are not worthy the naming in comparison of that weight of glory which our Lord now sitting at the right hand of God 1 Cor. 2 9. hath prepared for them that fear him Nec quisquam à regno ejus subtrahitur Nor can any go out of his reach or stand before him when he is angry He that sitteth on the throne and he that grindeth at the mill to him are both alike Psal 76.7 And now in the third place that every knee may bow to him Rom. 14.11 and every tongue confess him to be the Lord let us a little take notice of the large compass and circuit of his Dominion The Psalmist will tell us that he shall have dominion from sea to sea Psal 72 8. and from the river unto the ends of the earth Adam the first man and he that shall stand last upon the earth every man is his subject For he hath set him Eph. 1.20 21. saith S. Paul at his right hand in heavenly places and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to his Church And what a thin shadow what a Nothing is all the overspreading power of this world to this All other Dominion hath its bounds and limits which it cannot pass but by violence and the sword Nor is it expedient for the world to have onely one King nor for the Church to have one universal Bishop or as they speak one visible Head For as a ship may be made up to that bulk that it cannot be managed so the number of men and distance of place may be so great that it cannot subsist under one Government Thus it falleth out in the world but it is not so in the Kingdom of this our Lord. No place so distant or remote to which this Power cannot reach Libyam remotis Gadibus jungit All places are to him alike and he sees them all at once It is called the Catholick Church and in our Creed we profess we believe SANCTAM CATHOLIC AM ECCLESIAM the holy Catholick CHVRCH that is That that Church which was shut up within the narrow confines of Judea now under the Gospel is as large as the world it self The invitation is to all and all may come They may come who are yet without and they might have come who are bound hand and foot and cannot come The gate was once open to them but now it is shut Persa Gothus Indus philosophantur saith S. Hierom The Persian and the Goth and the Indian and the Egyptian are subjects under this Lord. Barbarism it self boweth before him and hath changed her harsh notes into the sweet melodie of the Cross Judg. 6.37 â—0 There was dew onely upon the Fleece the people of the Jews but now that flâ—ece is dry Matth. 24.14 and there is dew upon all the earth The Gospel saith our Saviour must be Preached to all nations And when the holy Ghost descended to seal and confirm the Laws of this Lord there were present at this great sealing or confirmation some Acts 2.5 11. saith the Text of all nations under heaven that did hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wonderful things of God every one in his own language so that the Gospel might seem to have been Preached throughout the world before the Apostles did stir a foot from Jerusalem But here we may observe that Christ who hath jus ad omnem terram hath not in strictness of speech jus in omni terrâ The right and propriety is his for ever but he doth not take possession of it all at once but successively and by parts It is as easie for him to illuminate all the world at once as the least nook and corner of it but this Sun of righteousness spreadeth his beams gloriously but is not seen of all because of the interposition of mens sins who exclude themselves from the beams thereof John 1. This true Light came into the world but the world received him not But yet what our sensuality will not suffer him to do at once he doth by degrees and passeth on and gaineth ground that so successively he may be seen and known of all the world But suppose men shook off their allegiance as too many the greatest part of the world the greatest part of Christendome do suppose there were none found that will bow before him which will never be suppose they crucifie him again yet is he still our King and our Lord the King and Lord of all the world Such an universal falling away and forsaking him would not take away from him his Dominion nor remove him from the right hand of God and strip him of his Power If all the world were Infidels yet he were a Lord still and his Power as large and irresistible as ever For his Royalty dependeth not on the duty and fidelity of his subjects If it did his Dominion would be indeed but of a very narrow compass the Sheep not so many as the Goats his flock but little Indeed he could have
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
God This added to the rest maketh up a number an account Without this our joyning with such a body or company nay our appearing in his Courts our naming him and calling upon his name are but cyphers and signifie nothing It is not the Church but the Spirit of Christ and our own consciences which can witness to us that we are inhabitants of the new Jerusalem and dwell in Christ We read Gen. 45. that when Jacob had news that his son Joseph lived his heart fainted for he believed them not but at the sight of the chariots which Joseph sent to carry him his spirit revived So it is here When we shall be told or tell our selves for our selves are the likeliest to bring the news that we have been of such a Church of such a Congregation and applaud our selves for such a poor and unsignificant information bless our selves that the lines are fallen unto us in so goodly a place Psal 16.6 when we shall have well looked upon and examined all the priviledges and benefits we can gain by being parts of such a body all this will not assure us nor fix our anchor deep enough but will leave us to be tossed up and down upon the waves of uncertainty fainting and panting under doubt and unbelief For to recollect all in a word our admiring the Majesty of Christ our loving his command our relying on his protection and resting under the shadow of his wing again our sense and feeling of the operation of the Spirit of Christ by the practick efficacy of our knowledge the actuation and quickning of our faith and the power of it working an universal constant sincere obedience these are the chariots which Christ sendeth to carry us out of Egypt unto our celestial Canaan And when we see these and by a sweet and well-gained experience feel the power of them in our souls then we draw neer in full assurance then we joyfully cry out with Jacob It is enough then we know that our Joseph is alive and that Christ doth dwell and live in us of a truth And now to conclude and by way of conclusion to enforce all these to imprint and fasten them in your hearts what other motive need I use then the thing it self Christ in Man and Man in Christ For if honour or delight or riches will move us here they are all not as the world giveth them but as Truth it self giveth them A sight into which the Angels themselves stoop and desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 To be in Christ to dwell in Christ if a man did perfectly believe it of himself that he were the man non diu superstes maneret said Luther he would even be swallowed up and die of immoderate joy Here now is Life and Death set before us Heaven and Hell opened to our very eye If we do not dwell in Christ if we be not united to him we shall joyn our selves with something else with flesh and blood with the glory and vanity of the world which will but wait upon us to carry us to our grave feed us up and prepare us for the day of slaughter Oh who would dwell in a land darker then darkness it self who would be united with Death But if we dwell in Christ and he in us if he call us My little children and we cry Abba Father then what then Who can utter it The tongue of Men and Angels cannot express it Then as he said to the Father All mine are thine and thine are mine so all his is ours John 17.10 Col. 1.24 and all ours is his Our miseries are his and when we suffer we do but fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ He is in bonds in disgrace in prison with us and we bear them joyfully for we bear them with him who beareth all things Our miseries nay our sins are his He took them upon his shoulder upon his account He sweat he groned he died under them and by dying took away their strength Nay our good deeds are his and if they were not his they were not good Hebr. 13.15 for by him we offer them unto God by his hand in his name He is the Priest that prepareth and consecrateth them Our Prayers our Preaching our Hearing our Alms our Fasting if they were not his Nazianz. were but as the Father calleth the Heathen mans virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair name a title of health upon a box of poison the letter Tau written in the forehead of a reprobate Again to make up the reciprocation as all ours are his so all his are ours What shall I say His Poverty his Dishonour his Sufferings his Cross are ours Yes they are ours because they are his If they had not been his they could not be ours none being able to make satisfaction but he none that could transfer any thing upon man but he that was the Son of man and Son of God His Miracles are ours for for us men and for our salvation were they wrought His Innocency his Purity his Obedience are ours For God so dealeth with us for his sake as if we were innocent and pure as if we our selves had satisfied Let S. Paul conclude for me in that divine and heavenly close of the third chapter of his former Epistle to the Corinthians Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods And if we be Christs Rom. 8.17 then we be heirs joynt-heirs with Jesus Christ As he is heir so have we in him right and title to be heirs and so we receive eternal happiness not onely as a gift but as an inheritance In a word we live with him we suffer with him we are buried with him we rise with him and when he shall come again in glory we who dwell in him now shall be ever with him even dwell and reign with him for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART I. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye die O house of Israel WE have here a sudden and vehement out-cry Turn ye turn ye And those events which are sudden and vehement the Philosopher telleth us do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leave some notable mark and impression behind them An earthquake shaketh and dislocateth the earth a whirlwind rendeth the mountains and breaketh in pieces the rocks What is sudden at once striketh us with fear and admiration Greg. in loc Certainly reverenter pensandum est saith the Father This call of the Prophet requireth a serious and reverent consideration For if this vehement ingemination be not sharp and keen enough to enter our Souls and divide asunder the joynts and the marrow here is a Quare moriemini a Reason to set an edge
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
Pharaonis Dominum obdurasse c. As often as it is read in the Church that God did harden Pharaoh's heart some scruple presently ariseth not onely in the minds of the ignorant Laity but also of the learned Clergy And for these very words the Manichees most sacrilegiously condemned the Old Testament And Marcion rather then he would yield that Good and Evil proceeded fâ—om the same God did run upon a grosser impiety and made another two Principles one of Good another of Evil. But we may lay this saith he as a sure ground an infallible axiome Deus non deserit nisi priùs deserentem God never forsaketh any man till he first forsake God When we continue in sin when the multitude of our sins beget Despair Despair Obduration when we add sin to sin to make up the weight that sinketh us when we are the worse for Gods mercy the worse for his judgments when his mercy hardeneth us and his light blindeth us God then may be said to harden our hearts as a father by way of upbraiding may tell his prodigal and thriftless son Ego talem te feci It is my love and goodness hath occasioned this I have made thee so by sparing thee when I might have struck thee dead I have nourished this thy pertinacy although all the father's love and indulgency was grounded upon a just hope and expectation of some change and alteration in his son Look upon every circumstance in the story of Pharaoh and we cannot find one which was not as a hammer to malleate and soften his stony hearts nor do we read of any upon whom God did bestow so much pains His ten plagues were as ten commandments to let the people go And had he relented at the first saith Chrysostome he had never felt a second So that it will plainly appear that the induration and hardning of Pharaoh's heart was not the cause but the effect of his malice and rebellion Magnam mansuetudinem contemtae gratiae major sequi solet ira vindictae The contempt of Gods mercy and there is mercy even in his judgements doth alwaies make way for that induration which calleth down the wrath of God to revenge it We do not read that God decreed to harden Pharaoh's heart but when Pharaoh was unwilling to bow when he was deaf to Gods thunder and despised his judgments and scorned his miracles God determined to leave him to himself to set him up as an ensample of his wrath to work his Glory out of him to give him up to his own lusts which he foresaw would lead him to ruine and destruction But if we will tie our selves to the letter we may find these several expressions in several texts 1. Pharaoh hardned his heart 2. Pharaoh's heart was hardned 3. God hardned Pharaoh's heart and now let us judge whether it be safer to interpret God's induration by Pharaohs or Pharaoh's by God's If God did actually and immediately harden Pharaoh's heart then Pharaoh was a meer patient nor was it in his power to let the people go and so God sent Moses to bid him do that which he could not and which he could not because God had hardned him But if Pharaoh did actually harden his own heart as it is plain enough he did then God's induration can be no more then a just permission and suffering him to be hardned which in his wisdom and the course he ordinarily taketh he would not and therefore could not hinder Sufficit unus Huic operi One is enough for this work of induration and we need not take in God To keep to the letter in the former shaketh a main principle of truth That God is in no degree Authour of sin but to keep to the letter in the latter cleareth all doubts preventeth all objections and openeth a wide and effectual door to let us in to a clear sight of the meaning of the former For that Man doth harden his own heart is undeniably true but that God doth harden the heart is denied by most is spoken darkly and doubtfully by some nor is it possible that any Christian should speak it plainly or present it in its hideous and monstrous shape but must be forced to stick and dress it up with some far-fetcht and impertinent limitation or distinction For lastly I cannot see how God can positively be said to do that which is done already to his hand Induration is the proper and natural effect of Sin And to bring in God alone is to leave nothing for the Devil or Man to do but to make Satan of a Serpent a very Flie indeed and the Soul of man nothing else but a forge and shop to work those sins in which may burn and consume it everlastingly God and Nature speak the same thing many times though the phrase be different That which the Philosopher calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arâ—stot l. 7. Eth c. 1. ferity and brutishness of nature and in Scripture is called hardness of heart Every man is shaped formed configured saith Basil to the actions of his life whether they be good or evil One sin draweth on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by the force of a natural inclination till we are brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calleth Ferity a shaking off all that is Man about us and the holy Ghost Rom. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind And such a mind had Pharaoh who was more and more enraged by every sin he had committed as the Wolf is most fierce and cruel when he hath drawn and tasted blood For it is impossible that any should accustome themselves to sin and not fall into hardness of heart and indisposition to all goodness Therefore we cannot conceive that God hath any hand in our death if we die and that Dereliction Incrassation Excaecation Hardness of heart are not from God further then that he hath placed things in that order that when we accustome our selves to sin and contemn his grace blindness and hardness of heart will necessarily follow but have no relation to any will of his but that of Permission And then this Expostulation is reall and serious QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die Now to conclude I have not been so particular as the point in hand may seem to require nor could I be in this measure of time but onely in general stood up in defense of the Goodness and Justice of God For shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 Shall he necessitate men to be evil and then bind them by a law to be good Shall he exhort and beseech them to live when they are dead already Shall his absolute Dominion be set up so high from thence to ruine his Justice This indeed some have made their Helena but it is an ugly and ill favoured
one For this they fight unto death even for the Book of life till they have blotted out their names with the blood of their Brethren This is drest out unto them as savoury meat set for their palate who had rather be carried up to heaven in Elias fiery chariot then pace it thither with trouble and pain That GOD hath absolutely decreed the salvation of some particular men and passed sentence of death upon others is as musick to some ears like David's harp to refresh them and drive away the evil spirit Et qui amant sibi somnia fingunt Mens desires do easily raise a belief and when they are told of such a decree they dream themselves to heaven For if we observe it they still chuse the better part and place themselves with the Sheep at the right hand and when the controversie of the inheritance of Heaven is on foot to whom it belongeth they do as the Romanes did who when two Cities contending about a piece of ground made them their Judge to determin whose it was fairly gave sentence on their own behalf and took it to themselves Because they read of Election they elect themselves which is more indeed then any man can deny and more I am sure then themselves can prove And now O Death 1 Cor. 15.55 56 where is thy sting The sting of Death is Sin but it cannot reach them and the strength of Sin is the Law but it cannot bind them For Sin it self shall turn to the good of these elect and chosen Vessels And we have some reason to suspect that in the strength of this Doctrine and a groundless conceit that they are these particular men they walk on all the daies of their life in fraud and malice in hypocrisie and disobedience in all that uncleanness and pollution of sin which is enough to wipe out any name out of the book of Life Sen. Controv. Hoc saxum defendit Maulius hinc excidit For this they rowse up all their forces this is their rock their fundamental doctrine their very Capitol and from this we may fear many thousands of souls have been tumbled down into the pit of destruction at this rock many such elect Vessels have been cast away Again others miscarry as fatally on the other hand For when we speak of an absolute Decree upon particulars unto the vulgar sort vvho have not cor in corde as Augustine speaketh who have their judgement not in their heart but in their sense they soon conceive a fatal necessity and one there is that called it so fatum Christianum the Christian mans Destiny tâ—ey think themselves in chains and shackles that they cannot turn when they cannot be predestinate not to turn but to die because they will not turn I will give you a remarkable instance and out of Mr. Calvine Quintinus Contr. Libertin c. 13. And yet his own followers use the same words bring the same Texts and apply them as the Libertines did Vide Piscat Aphorismos the Father of the Libertines as Calvine himself calleth him as he rideth in company by the way lighteth upon a man slain and lying in his gore and one asking Who did this bloody deed he readily replyeth I am he that did it if thou desire to know it And art thou such a villain saith the party again to do such an act I did it not my self saith he but it was God that did it And being ask't again Whether may we impute to God those hainous sins which in justice he will and doth so severely punish So it is said he Thou didst it and I did it and God did it For what thou or I do God doth and what God doth that thou and I do for we are in him and he in us he worketh in us he worketh all in all Quintinus is long since dead but his errour dyed not with him Fortaliter constitutum est quando quantoperè unus uisque nostrûm pietatem colere vel non colere debeat Piscator ad Duplicat Vorstii p. 228. For it is the policy of our common Enemy to remove our eye as far as he can from the Command and he cannot set it at a greater distance then by fixing it on Eternity that so whilst we think upon the Decree we may quite forget the Command and never fly from Death because for ought we know we are killed already never do our duty because God doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth never strive to be better then we are because God is all in all Let us then walk on in a middle way and neither flatter nor afflict our selves with the thought of what God may do or what he hath done from all eternity Let us not busy our selves in the fruitless study of the Book of life Rev. 5.3 5. which no man in heaven or in earth is able to open and look into but only the Lion of the tribe of Judah In that book saith S. Basil Comment in Isai 10. no names are written but of them that repent Let us not seek what God decreeth which we cannot find out but hearken to what he commandeth which is nigh us even in our mouthes Rom. 10.8 The book of Life is shut and sealed up but he hath opened many other Books to us and biddeth us sit down and read them The book of his Works of which the Creatures are the leaves and the characters the Goodness and Power and Glory of God The book of his Words Matth. 1.1 2 Cor. 3.2 The Book of the Generation of JESVS CHRIST to be known and read of all men and if these words be written in thy heart thy name is also written in the book of Life And the book of thy Conscience for the information of which all the Books in the world were made And if thou read and study this with care and diligence and an impartial eye and then find there no bill or indictment against thee then thou maist have confidence towards God that he never past any decree or sentence of death against thee and that thou art ordained to life This is the true method of a Christian mans studies not to look too stedfastly backward upon Aeternity but to look down upon our selves and ponder and direct our paths and then to look forward to eternity of bliss We read of the Philosopher Thales that lifting up his eyes to observe the course of the stars he fell into the water Which gave occasion to a damsell called Thressa of an ingenious and bitter scoff That he who was so busy to see what was done in heaven could not observe what was even before his feet And it is as true of them who are so bold and forward in the contemplation of God's eternal Decree many times they fall dangerously into those errours which swallow them up They are too bold with God and so negligent of themselves talk more what he doth or hath
his Topick and hopeth it will melt him he beggeth of into compassion and yet he hath not power to unfold his hands to work that he may need no relief Grace soundeth in every ear and every ear is delighted with it and it is to them as the sound of a consecrated Bell is to the superstitious and they conceive it hath power to drive the Devil out of their coast whilst they not fall but run into those temptations which they might have overcome by that Grace they talkt of What speak we of these Even they who have a great name for learning and are of the first rank and file have not brought it forth â—o the Sun and to the people in that simplicity and nakedness that upon the first sight they may say This is it Sometimes it is an infused Habit sometimes it is a Motion or Operation sometimes they know not how to distinguish it from Faith and Charity It is one and the same yet it is manifold It exciteth and stirreth us up it worketh in us and it worketh with us it preventeth and followeth us And thus they handle Grace as the Philosophers do the Soul they tell us what wonders it worketh but not its essence they tell us what it doth but not plainly what it is But let us take it in its most plain and vulgar sense for that special and supernatural assistance which promoteth and upholdeth us in that course and those actions which carry us on to a supernatural end but not shut out that Grace of God by Christ Jesus by which we are justified which in Scripture is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace and favour of God and in most places is opposed to the Works of the Law nor those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those gifts and graces as Quickness of wit Depth of understanding and the like nor Gods Mercies by which we are so often intreated nor his promises which do even woo and allure us nor any beams of the glory of that Gospel which are all agents and instruments in working us out a crown in bringing us to that end for which we were made and designed And he that shall look back upon these cannot conceive that God will shorten his hand and be deficient and wanting to us in that help and assistance which is fit and necessary for us in this our race that he will speak to us by his Son speak to us by his blood speak to us by his mercies speak to us from heaven and then leave us as the Ostrich doth her young ones in the sand open to injuries and temptations naked and without help to defend us against that violence which may tread us to death This certainly cannot consist with his Justice and his Goodness Rom. 8.32 who having given us Christ will with him give us all things for how should it be otherwise saith S. Paul who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not Jam. 1.5 saith S. James To pretend a want of Grace and assistance from God what is it but to cast all our imperfections upon him as well as upon Adam as if we sinned and were defective in our duty not through our own negligence and corrupt and perverse wills but because God refused to give us strength to do it gave us a Law and left us in fetters bid us go and meet him in our obedience 2 Sam. 19.26 when we were as lame as Mephibosheth and had no servant to help us as if the heavens were as brass and denied their influence and God did on purpose hide himself and withdraw his grace that we might fall from him and perish And therefore Hilary passeth this heavy censure upon it Impiae est voluntatis It is the sign of a wicked heart and one quite destitute of those graces and riches which are the proper inheritance of believing Christians to pretend they therefore want them because they were not given them of God A dangerous errour it is And we have reason to fear it hath sunk many a soul to that supine carelessness and deadness from whence they could never rise again For this is one of the wiles of our enemy to make use not onely of the flying and fading vanities of this world but even of the best graces of God to file and hammer them and make them snares and so work temptations out of that which should strengthen us against them Faith is suborned to keep out Charity the spirit of Truth is named to lead us into errour and the power of Gods Grace hath lost its authority and energy by our unsavoury and fruitless panegyricks We hear the sound and name of it we bless and applaud it but the power of it is lost not visible in any motion in any action in any progress we make in those wayes in which alone Grace will assist us It floateth on the tongue but never moveth either heart or hand Non est bonae solidae fidei omnia ad voluntatem Dei referre ut non intelligamus aliquid esse in nobis ipsis Tertull Exhort ad castitatem For do we not lie still in our graves expecting till this trump will sound Do we not cripple our selves in hope of a miracle Do we not settle upon our lees and say God can draw us out wallow in our blood because he can wash us as white as snow Do we not love our sickness because we have so skilful a Physician and since God can do what he will do what we please This is a great evil under the Sun and one principal cause of all that evil that is upon the earth It maketh us stand still and look on and delight in it and leave it to God alone and his power to remove it as if it concerned us not at all and it were too daring an attempt for us mortals the sons of Adam to purge and clense that Augean stable which we our selves have filled with dung as if Gods Wisdom and Justice did not move at all and his Mercy and Power were alone busie in the work of our salvation Busie to save the adulterer 1 Cor. 6.15 for though he be the member of an harlot yet when God will he shall be made a member of Christ to save the seditious for though he now breath nothing but hail-stones and coals of fire yet a time will come where he shall be made peaceable whether he will or no to save them who resolve to go on in their sin for God can check them when he please and bring them back to obedience and holiness in a word 2 Pet. 2.3 to save them whose damnation sleepeth not I may say with the Father Vtinam mentirer Would to God in this I were a lier But we have too much probability to induce us to believe it as a truth that they who are so ready to publish the free and irresistible power of God's Grace and call it his honour dishonour him more
the heart with so much joy in the doing it Shall we not take and eat that which is so pleasant to the tast Last of all it is not onely convenient pleasant and profitable but it is necessary to do it For if this Sacrament could have been well spared that men might have well kept the Law of the inward man without it our Lord who came to beat down all the rites and ceremonies of the Law would not have raised up this But he knew it necessary and therefore left it upon record as binding as a Law and for ought we find nay without all doubt did never recall or dispense with it Do this is plain and Do it often is plain enough but Do it not or Do it seldome is never read But he calleth and commandeth us to his Table to feed on the Body and Bloud of Christ and in the strength thereof to walk before him and be perfect that when our souls be run to decay when good habits are weakned and the graces of God discoloured and darkned in us when our knees are enfeebled and our hands hang down when our faculties begin to shrink and be parched as with the drought of summer we may come to this fountain and fill our cisterns and recover our former strength and beauty Our fault it is and a great one to be ever enquiring what bindeth and what is necessary and if Necessity drive us not like dull beasts we will not mend our pace and are more led by Omri's statutes by humane laws then Christs instituitions when if we rightly weigh it whatsoever is convenient for us whatsoever may be advantageous to us in the service of our Lord should be as powerful with us as if it came under the imperial form of a Law and what is convenient and fitted to us in such a case is also necessary for us in the same condition necessary I say if a more violent necessity come not to cross and hinder it for when nothing is wanting but a will then a necessity lyeth upon us and wo unto us if we do it not So now you have them all four And to conclude this if these will not quicken and move us to come we are dead in sin and have lost our tast Will convenience move us We talk much of it Here is a duty fitted and proportioned to our present condition Will Profit move us and whom doth not Profit add a wing to Lo here it is in this duty the due performance of which repayeth all our cost and pain with interest Will Pleasure move us and whom doth not Pleasure transport Here is Joy here is Paradise here is Pleasure and there is none but it Last of all will Necessity move us It is said that will drive us and if the rest be but gentle gales this is as a whirlwind Behold here is Necessity a duty as necessary as our own wants and the authority of our High Priest and King can make it who hath not onely commanded us to do it but to do it often Which now offereth it self to our consideration As often as you do it implyeth a doing it often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 includeth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth not leave it at large to our will and pleasure as an arbitrary thing to be taken up when our discretion shall appoint the time I will not be so bold as to prescribe how often nor is it necessary to be determined Every mans want and necessity in this should be a law unto him and as oft as he findeth his soul to droop and faint here he is to refresh it as oft as he feeleth the inward man to decay here to repair it as oft as he seeth the temple of the holy Ghost to gather dust and filth here to sweep and purge it when his faith beginneth to fail here to confirm and strengthen it If we come like rude and unmannerly guests once is too often but if we purge and cleanse our hearts if our stomachs be clean if we come prepared for the feast often we may come but we cannot come too often Sic vive saith S. Ambrose Si quotidianus est cibus cur post annum sumis Amb. l. 6. de Sacram. c. 4. Cypr. ep 54. 69. ut quotidie mereare accipere So pass every day of thy life that thou mayest be fit to do it every day I will not urge nor bind you to the practice of the first Christians who received every day because in time of persecution as children appointed to dye they looked upon every day as their last Although S. Cyprian will tell us they did it also in times of peace and Sanit Augustine calleth it Quotidianum ministerium Dominici corporis Epist 180. a dayly office and ministery The truth is the Sacrament is fit for every day but we are not every day fit for it And in this different variety of circumstances of time and the dispositions and qualifications of men every man must be his own judge and lawgiver and yet the royal Law bindeth him to be fit every day A great shame it is that any man should be dragged to a feast For what a strange law would that seem which should bind a hungry man to eat or a sick man to take physick or a dying man to tast of the water of life Look upon the primitive Christians whose practice hath been accounted the best interpreter of Scripture and if thou canst not with them do it every day yet let every fair opportunity set thy day Christ's dead yet all-quickning Carkase is the same still Matth. 24.28 and we should be Eagles as well as they to fly to it The Bloud of Christ is the same his death as full of virtue and efficacy he is still a fountain of life to them who will tast him nor was his most pretious Bloud shed for the first Christians and in tract and continuance of time dryed up At this fountain we may draw as well and as oft as they if our pitcher be as fit And if we loved the cup of blessing 1 Cor. 10.16 we should not fear how oft it came into our hands But to speak truth we have degenerated from that Devotion that Love that Zeal which inflamed their breasts and retain nothing but the memory of their exceeding piety which we look upon rather as a pious errour then a just and regular devotion And because we are unfit and therefore unwilling to do it we perswade our selves that Superstition had an early birth and did follow Religion at the heels to supplant it that by their busie and too frequent remembrance of Christ the primitive Christians did rather flatter then worship him or at best that they did that which with more Christian prudence they might have left undone For if it were Devotion then it could not be lost in the body and flux of time which could have no such influence upon it as to change
not dare so oft to offend and which is most strange had not Christ so loved us we had not persecuted him had he not been a sacrifice we had been more willing to have made him an ensample For we hope his Love that nailed him to the cross will be ready to meet and succour and embrace us in any posture in any temper whatsoever though we come towards him clothed with vengeance Zeph. 1.8 in anger and fury with strange apparel in wantonness and lust polluted and spotted with the world Thus doth the sophistry of our Sensual part prevail against the demonstrations of Reason which doth bring Christ in as dead for our sins but withall as a Lord to help us to destroy Sin by the power of his death For both these are friendly linked together in the Lord's Death his Love and his Ensample Et magnum nobis quà m parvo constat exemplum And this great example how little doth it cost us Not to be spit upon and buffeted and crucified not to suffer and die It is no more then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew it forth in our selves till he come Which is the Act here required and my next Part. And this we must do if we will be fitted for this Feast and be welcome guests at the Lord's Table Divines have told us of a threefold manner of feeding on the flesh of Christ a Sacramental alone a Spiritual alone and a Sacramental and Spiritual both Which distinction may not be rejected if it be rightly understood 1. They that come to this Table and receive the Sacrament without faith and devotion may be said indeed to eat the Body of Christ as that name is usually given to the Sacrament and sign and the Sacrament of the body of Christ after a manner is the Body of Christ and yet that of S. Augustine is true He that sheweth not forth his death eateth not his flesh but is guilty of the body and bloud of Christ a Communicant and no Communicant an enemy and not a guest fitter to be dragged to the bar then to be placed at his Table And what a morsel is that with which we take down Death and the Devil together 2. Some there be whom not contempt and neglect but necessity the great patroness of humane infirmitie keepeth from the Lord's Table and Sacrament and yet they shew his death look up upon his cross draw it out in their heart in bleeding characters apply it by faith and make it their meditation day and night And these though they feed not on him Sacramentally yet spiritually are partakers of his body and bloud and so made heirs of salvation though they eat not this bread nor drink of this cup. For what cannot be done cannot bind Some Actions are counted as done though they be never brought forth into act If the heart be ready though the tongue be silent as a viol on the wall yet we sing and give praise Persecution may shut up the Church-doors yet I may love the place where God's honour dwelleth Persecution may seal up the Priest's lips shut me up in prison and feed me with no other bread then that of affliction yet even in the lowest dungeon I may feed on this Bread of life I may be valiant and not strike a blow I may be liberal and not give a mite hospital when I have not a hole to hide my head in He that taketh my purse from me doth not rob me of my piety he that sequestereth my estate yet leaveth me my charity and he that debarreth me the Table cannot keep me from Christ As I told you out of Ambrose Manducans non manducat I may eat the Bread and not be partaker of the Body so Non Manducans manducat Though I take not down the outward elements yet I may feed on Christ But happy yea thrice happy is their condition who can do both so receive panem Domini the Lord's bread that they may receive also pane 〈◊〉 Dominum be partakers of the Lord himself who is the Bread of life Blessed is he that thus eateth Bread with him at his Table For he feedeth on him Sacramentally and spiritually both Here he findeth those gracious advantages his Faith actuated his Hope exalted his Charity dilated the Covenant renewed the Promises and Love of Christ sealed and ratified to him with his bloud And this we shall do this comfort and joy we shall find even a new heaven in our souls if we shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and publish his death Which we may look upon at first as a duty of quick dispatch but if we look upon it again well weigh and consider it we shall find that it calleth for and requireth our greatest care and industry For it is not to turn the story of Christ's passion into a Tragedy to make a scenical representation of his death with all the art and colours of Rhetorick to declaim against the Jews malice or Judas's treason or Pilate's in justice but rather to declaim preach against our selves to hate and abhor crucifie our selves Nos nos homicidae We we alone are the murtherers Our Treachery was the Judas that betrayed him our Malice the Jew which accused him our Perjury the false witness against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him Our Pride scorned him our Envy grinned at him our Luxury â—pit upon him our Covetousness sold him Our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thorns our sores lanced with his spear and the whole body of Sin stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life This indeed doth shew his death This consideration doth present the Passion but in a rude and imperfect piece The death of the Lord is shewn almost by every man and every day Some shew it but withal shew their vanity and make it manifest to all men Some shew it by shewing the Cross by signing themselves with the sign of it Some to shew it shew a Body which cannot be seen being hid under the accidents of Bread and Wine Some shew their wit instead of Christ's Passion lift it up as he was upon the cross shew it with ostentation Some shew their rancour and malice about a feast of Love and so draw out Christ with the claw of a Devil Phil. 1.15 Some preach it as S Paul speaketh out of envy and strife and some also of good will Some preach it and preach against it Some draw out Christ's Passion and their Religion together and all is but a picture and then sound a trumpet make a great cry as the painter who had drawn a Souldier with a sword in his hand did sound an alarm that he might seem to fight But this doth not shew the Lord's death but as Tertullian speaketh id negat quod ostendit denieth what it sheweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew to preach the death of the Lord is more We may observe that
in Scripture words of Command and Duty carry with them more then they shew and have wrapped up in them both the Act and the End and are of the largest signification in the Spirit 's Dictionary To HEAR is to Hear and to Doe To KNOW is to Know and to Practice To BELIEVE is to Believe and to Obey The Schools will tell us FIDES absque addito in Scriptura formata intelligitur Where Faith is named in Scripture without some addition as a dead Faith a temporary Faith an hypocritical Faith there evermore that Faith is commended which worketh by Charity And so to shew or to preach the death of the Lord is more then to Utter it with the tongue and Profess it For thus Judas might shew it as well as Peter thus the Jews might shew it that crucified him Thus the profane person that crucifieth him every day may shew it Yea Christ's death may be the common subject for discourse and the language of the whole world Therefore our shewing must look farther even to the end For what is Hearing without Doing What is Knowledge without Practice What is Faith without Chariâ—y What is shewing the death of the Lord if we do it not to that end for which he did die Our hearing is but the sensuality of the ear our Knowledge but an empty speculation our Faith but phansie and our shewing the death of the Lord a kind of nailing him again to the cross For to draw his picture in our ear or mind to character him out in our words and yet fight against him is to put him to shame We must then understand our selves when we speak to God as we understand God when he speaketh to us and in the same manner we must shew him to himself and the world as he is pleased to shew and manifest himself unto us Christ did not present us with a picture with a phantasm with a bare shew and appearance of suffering for us Nor must we present him with shadows and shews And what is God's shewing himself Psal 80. Thou that sittest between the Cherubims shew thy self saith the Psalmist shine thou clearly to our comfort and to the terrour of our enemies God manifesteth his Power and breaketh the Cedars of Libanus He maketh known his Wisdom and teacheth the children of men He publisheth his Love and filleth us with good things His Words are his blessings and his demonstrations in glory He speaketh to us by peace and shadoweth us by plenty and our garners are full And see how the creature echoeth back again to him The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth welleth out speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge God's language is Power God's language is Love and God's language is Hope God planted a vineyard Isa 5. that expresseth his Power and built a tower in it and made a wine-press therein there is his Love and he lookâ—d for grapes there Hope speaketh for he that planteth planteth in hope He spake by his Prophets he spake by his judgments and he spake by his mercies but still he spake in hope for he doth neither shine nor thunder but in hope This is the heavenly dialect and we must take it out We must not speak as one that beggeth on a stage but as he that beggeth on the high way naked and cold and pinched with hunger Verba in opera vertenda By a religious Alchymie we must turn words into works and when God speaketh to us by his Prophets answer him by our obedience when he speaketh to us in Love give him our hearts and when he looketh for grapes be full of good works This is Christ's own dialect and he best understandeth it and his reply is a reward But from shews and words he turneth away his ears and will not hear that is for still in God's language more is understood then spoke he will bring us to judgment And now we see what it is to shew the death of the Lord not to draw it out in our imagination or to speak it with the tongue but to express the power and virtue of it in our selves to labour and travel in birth till Christ be fully formed in us till all Christian virtues which are as the spirits of his bloud be quick and operative in us till we be made perfect to every good work And thus we shew his death by our Faith For Faith if it be not dead will speak and make it self known to all the world speak to the naked and clothe him to the hungry and feed him to those who erre and are in darkness and shine upon them This is the dialect of Faith But if the cold frost of temptations as S. Gregorie speaketh hath so niped it that it is grown chil and cold and can speak but faintly if we have talked so long of Faith till we have left her speechless if she speak but imperfectly and in broken language now by a drop of water and now by a mite and then silent shew the death of Christ onely in some rare and slender performance behold this is your hour and the power of light this your time of receiving the Sacrament is the time to actuate and quicken your Faith to make it more apprehensive more operative more lively to give it a tongue that it may shew and preach the wonderful works of the Lord. And as we shew the Lord's death by our Faith so we shew it by our Hope which if it be that Hope which purifieth the heart will awake our glory the Tongue If it be well built and underpropped with Charity it will speak and cry and complain And the language is the same with that of the souls under the Altar How long Lord Rev. 6. How long shall the Flesh fight against the Spirit How long shall we struggle with temptations When wilt thou deliver us from this body of death When shall we appear in the presence of our God Though we fall we shall rise again Though we are shaken we shall not be overthrown Though thou killest us yet we will trust in thee This is the dialect of Hope And here at this Table we must learn to speak out to speak it more plainly to raise and exalt it to a Confidence which is the loudest report it can make Thirdly we shew and preach the Lord's death by our Love Which is but the echo of his Love And we speak it fully as he doth to us fill up the sentence and leave not out a word make it manifest in the equality and universality of our obedience as he offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for us Quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit Our love to Christ must be equal and like himself not meet him at Church and run from him in the streets not embrace him in a Sermon and throw him from us in our conversation not flatter him with a peny
and grind him with our oppression not build him a tabernacle in his glory and deny him at his cross No Love speaketh to Christ as the Israelites did to Joshua Josh 1. Whatsoever he commandeth it will do and whithersoever he leadeth it will go against powers and principalities against tribulation and persecution against the power of darkness and the Devil himself This is the dialect of Love And if Love wax cold that it doth not plainly speak this holy tongue here is the Altar and from it thou mayst take a live cole to touch it that it may revive and burn within thee And that heart is not cold but dead which the Love of Christ presented and tendered in the Sacrament cannot quicken and stir up into a flame If this work not a miracle in us and dispossess us of the dumb spirit it is because of our unbelief Again we shew the Lord's death by our Repentance which speaketh in grones and sighs unutterable When we dye to sin we then best shew the death of the Lord. Then his sorrow is seen in ours and his agony in our strugling and contention with our selves His complaints are heard in ours and are the very same My God my God why hast thou forsaken me We are lifted up as it were on a cross the powers of our soul are stretched and dilated our hearts are pierced our Flesh is crucified and Sin fainteth and when all is finished will give up the ghost And then when we rise to newness of life it will be manifest that Christ is in us of a truth A penitent sinner is the best shew of the best Sermon on a crucified Saviour And here in this so visible presentment of his Body and Bloud our wounds must needs bleed afresh our Anger be more hot our Indignation higher our Revenge more bitter and our Complaints louder Here we shall repent of our Repentance it self that it is not so serious so true so universal as it should be Here our wounds as David speaketh will corrupt and putrefie But the bloud of Christ is a precious balm to cure them Christ shall wash away our tears still our complaints take away our sorrow and by the power of his Spirit seal us to the day of Redemption Last of all we must shew the Lord's death with Reverence With Reverence why the Angels desire to look into it Thrones and Dominations bow and adore it and shall not Dust and ashes sinning dying men fall down and worship that Lord who hath taken away the sting of Death which is Sin and swallowed up Death it self in victory Let us then shew the Lord's death with fear and rejoyce with trembling By Reverence I do not mean that vain unnecessary apologizing Reverence which withdraweth us from this Table and detaineth us amongst the swine at the husks because we have made our selves unworthy to go to our Father's house a Reverence which is the daughter and nurse of Sin begot of Sin and multiplying Sin the Reverence of Adam behind the bush who was afraid and hid himself unwilling to come out of the thicket when God called him a Reverence struck out of these two Conscience of sin and Unwillingness to forsake it And what Reverence is that which keepeth the sick from the Physician maketh the wounded afraid of balm and a sinner run from his Saviour This Reverence we must tread under foot with the mother that bare it and dash it against the Rock the Rock Christ Jesus First be reverent and sin no more and then make our approches to Christ with reverence Shew our death to sin that we may shew the death of the Lord for it First leave our sin behind us and then draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith When as Job speaketh we are afraid of all our works of our Faith that it is but weak and call to him to strengthen it of our Love that it is not hot enough and then stir it up of our Hope that it is but feeble and then feed it with the bloud of Christ of our Sorrow that it is not great enough and then drop a tear of our Repentance that it is not sincere enough and then smite our hearts look upon the wounds of Christ and then rip up our own that they may open and take in his bloud when we are afraid of our Reverence that it is not low enough and then lay the cross of Christ upon it all the benefits of a Saviour and our own sins to press it down lower and make him more glorious and us more vile in our own eyes When we have thus washed our hands in innocencie and our souls in the bloud of the immaculate Lamb then Faith will quicken us and Hope embolden us and Love encourage us and Repentance lead us on with fear and reverence to compass his Altar For these are operative and will evaporate will break thy heart humble thy look cast down thy countenance bow thy knee and lay thee prostrate before the Mercy-seat the Table of the Lord. Thus if we shew his Death he will shew himself to us a Lord and a Saviour he will shew us his hands and his side he will shew his wounds and his bloud the virtue of his sufferings shall stream out upon our souls and water and refresh them and we shall return from his Table as the Disciples did from his sepulchre with great joy even with that joy which is a pledge and type of that eternal jubilating joy at his Table in the Kingdom of Heaven The Six and Twentieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 28. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. AMongst all the duties of a Christian whether Moral or Ceremonial there is not one but requireth something to be done before it be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Those velitations and trials which are before the sight are a part of that exercise and they are called Mysteries which do but make way and lead us to the mysteries themselves Preparation to the duties of Christianity we must count as a part of those duties or else we shall come short in the performance of them so do them as that it had been better we had left them undone Eccl. 5.1 It is good to go up to the house of the Lord but we must first keep our feet subdue our foul and irregular affections It is good to offer sacrifice but we must first clense our hands or else we shall but give the sacrifice of fools It is good to give alms with our right hand but so that our left hand know it not It is good to pray but not standing in the synagogues or the corners of the streets It is good to fast but vvithout a disfigured face In all our approches to God vve must keep our feet vvalk forvvard vvith reverence and preparation for the place is not onely holy but dangerous to stand in
come nearer and nearer to the end of our Faith the end of our Hope and the end of our Love For he that looketh upon the commandments and keepeth them hath the will of God and he that hath his will hath all that Wisdome can find out or Power bring to pass hath Gods Providence and Almightiness his companions his guides his protection in his way and the World the Pomp and Vanity of it can no more prevail against him then against God himself but where God is there shall this stranger be also when passing through all these he shall come to his journeys end For first that we may make some use of this and so conclude this our conformity to the will of God in keeping his commandments will make us observe a decorum and being strangers in the earth to behave our selves as strangers in it for necessities sake give a perfunctory and slight salute not look upon it as a friend not trust in uncertain riches but in the living God 1 Tim. 6.17 as S. Paul exhorteth suspect and be jealous of every thing in it as we use to be of every man we meet in a strange place and as plain country-men Theoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are ignorant of coins suspect and try every piece they see and though it be current yet fear it may be counterfeit So to say within our selves This Beauty which smileth may bite as cockatrice This Wine which looketh red may be a mocker These Riches may be my last receit This Strength may ruine me This Wit may befool me That which maketh me great in my own eyes that for which I flatter and worship my self and tread all others with scorn under my feet may make me the least in the Kingdom of heaven nay quite shut me out This Beauty may bring deformity into my soul This Wine may be as the Manichees called it Fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darkness These Riches may beggar me and my Perfections undo me Far better is it for a stranger to be cautelous and wary then venturous and fool-hardy better for him to fear where no fear is then to be ready to meet and embrace every toy and trifle that smileth and killeth Now by this we arm our selves against all casualties and misfortunes which is more then all the Conveyances and Devises of the Law more then the providence of the wisest can do For what can fall out by chance to him who is ever under the wing of the Almighty Or what can he lose who hath denied all unto himself and himself too in every aspect and relation to the world This is our Provision this is our security He that will be secure must learn to be a stranger He that will lose nothing must learn to have nothing And then as our Obedience to Gods will doth keep us in a decorum so it teatheth us by looking on the World with an eye of jealousie to make it our friend a friend of Mammon and a friend of a Temptation For so we make that which was dangerous beneficial unto us and rise up as high as heaven upon that which might have been our ruine by looking upon it with the suspicious and jealous eye of a stranger Secondly it supplieth us with arms and strengthneth us against all afflictions which may beat upon us all miseries which befal us all contumilies which may affront us in our way For what are all these poor sprinklings these weak breathings of wind and air to us when we remember we are but strangers in the world The world knoweth us not 1 Joh. 3.1 because it knoweth not God as S. John telleth us We are peregrini deorsum cives sursum strangers here below but citizens above What can they who are so unlike to the world who contemn the world expect less Here there will be Shimeis to revile us Zedekiahs to smite us on the cheek Oppressours to grind us and Tyrants to rob and spoil us when they please and if we will have them our friends we must make our selves like them and go to hell along with them But the commandments of God are an antidote against all these For these evils cannot trouble us if we make use of the right remedy which is no where to be found but in Christ Col. 2.3 in whom all the treasuries of wisdome are hid But one errour of our lives it is and a great one to mistake the remedy of evils nec tam morbis laboramus quà m remediis nor doth our disease and malady so much molest us as the remedies themselves The Poor man thinketh there is no other remedy for poverty but riches the Revenger cannot purg his gall and bitterness but with the bloud of his enemy the Sick is quieted with nothing but with health But indeed these are not remedies answerable to the nature and operation of these several diseases for the Poor man may become rich and be poorer then before the Revenger may draw bloud and be more enraged then before the Sick man may be restored to health and be worse then before The Will of God is the truest and most soveraign physick And his will is that we estrange our selves from the world that our hearts be fixed on him and on those pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore Ps 16.11 And then there will be no such things as Poverty or Injuries or Sickness or at least they will not appear so to us which is all one Nay which is more now they are not what they are unto us nor do we see that horour in them which they that dwell in the world do but as S. Paul speaketh when we are poor â— Cor. 6 â—0 12.10 then we are rich when we are weak then we are strong when we are in disgrace then we are honourable when we are persecuted then we are happy when we are sick then we are best in health and even see our journeys end Nihil imperitius impatientia Impatience which ever accompanieth the neglect of Gods commands is the most ignorant unskilful unexperienced ungodly thing in the world For these complaints in poverty this impatience of injuries this murmuring in our sickness are ill signs that we love the pleasures of the world more then the will of God that we see more glory in a piece of earth then in virtue that we are more afraid of a disgrace then of sin that we bow with more devotion and affection to the World then to God and so cannot make this glorious confession with our Kingly Prophet that we are accolae and peregrini strangers and pilgrimes upon the earth Thirdly our Conformity to the will of God is a pretious antidote against the Fear of Death Hebr. 2.14 15. The Fear of Death why we were delivered from that when Christ took part with us of flesh and bloud and through death destroyed him who had the power of death
plain How many truths now-a dayes are taken for the inventions of brain-sick men by those who have little brains and scarce common sense to judge of them And as it is in points of speculation so by the disorder of our passions it falleth out in matters of practice For he that will be evil will be ignorant He that knoweth well enough that Gold is but earth looketh upon it as upon a God He that knoweth well enough that Honour is but a breath yet is still climbing up to the pinnacle He that can declaim against Covetousness studieth wealth more then the Bible He that cryeth down Hypocrisie may be a very Pharisee He that knoweth that without holiness we cannot see God promiseth to himself the beatifical vision though a little holiness serveth his turn and he delighteth to call and make himself an unprofitable servant And all this is because men will not take notice of what they cannot but see in Wealth uncertainty in Honour vanity in Hypocrisie the Devil himself This their way uttereth their foolishness saith the Psalmist For a great folly it is thus wilfully to mistake Imperitia nonnullorum Catholicorum venatio est Haereticorum The ignorance of many saith Augustine that call themselves Catholicks hath made them a prey to Hereticks Uncautelous Christians void of spiritual wisdom expose themselves to that great Nimrod the Devil who hunteth after their souls to drive them into his toil For let us but appeal to our own experience and we cannot but confess that they are not the greatest sins but the weakest that have this power over us Murthers and Parricides and Rapes and Treasons and the rest of that rabble of arch-sins are not the strongest for then sure they would reign with the greatest latitude But Wandring thoughts Idle words Petty lusts Inconsiderate wrath Immoderate love to the things of this world and the rest of that swarm of ordinary sins these are they which have the largest extent and dominion and some of these or all of these more or less prevail with every man Now there can be no reason given why we should stand strong against the greater sins and fail and yield at the approach of the lesser unless we were like that fabulous rock in Pliny which if a man thrust at with his whole body he could not move it yet a man might shake it with one of his fingers unless the Laws of men have more force then the statutes of God a prison be more terrible then hell and the anger of a mortal man more formidable then the wrath of the Almighty Certainly thus to walk and to think we are in our way if greater sins assault us not and to go on chearfully with the burthen of the lesser about us as if they were no hinderance at all and we could not remove them is to deceive our selves to walk upon that Lion which will devour us to tread upon that Basilisk whose very eye will infect and poyson us and to run upon that Sword which will pierce through our hearts I have on purpose enlarged my self upon this point because I would not be misunderstood nor that doctrine should seem strange which is so profitable and requireth no more at our hands but this to stand upon our guard to be sedulous and serious in fighting against our lusts and in the duties of Christianity not to neglect the grace of God nor to receive it in vain not to wihstand the power of the Gospel and the rich alluring promises of Christ not to let this dull earth prevail with us more then the beauty and glory of heaven which if it were performed as under the penalty of eternal Death we are bound we should not then complain or rather be glad of our weakness nor think that impossible which we are bound by covenant and vow to perform Satanae nullae sunt feriae The Devil keepeth no Holy day No more should we but be as ready to observe him in his march as he is to invade us So necessary is cautelousness and circumspection that if we had no other buckler or defence yet we should not fall so often as we do Fortis saepe victus est cautus rarissimé The strong man hath often been ruined with his own strength but he who hath his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel though the enemy set hard at him yet is he seldom overthrown Without this we lie open and naked to him but with it no violence can hurt us If we watch and prepare our selves we shall sin no more or if we do not remain in sin in any one sin which is inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel of Christ Ye have seen the Extent of this Command Sin no more and the Possibility of keeping it Let us now draw all nearer to our selves by way of application And first let us take heed that we build not our hopes on air on phansie but on a sure foundation one of the seals and inscriptions whereof is 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity It is one of the subtilest of the Devil's stratagems to make him believe he is the child of God who is his vassal The Roman Story telleth us that an army of theirs having by night fallen into a place of great disadvantage and danger whilst the night lasted the souldiers were quiet but no sooner did the light appear and shewed them the peril and hazard wherein they stood but they fell to tumult and combustion Assurance is not the work of phansie but of the heart to be wrought out with fear and trembling How easily do men fall into sin and then lift themselves up with this thought and so go in peace but when this thought shall perish they fall again like a dead man held up a while by violence who can stand no longer then he is held up Thus every man may commit sins and yet not be the servant of sin and whatsoever the premisses be they are bold to make this conclusion That they have their part in Christ It is a great deal more common to infer what pleaseth us upon a gross mistake then upon a truth and to assure our selves of peace upon no better evidence then that which flesh and bloud and the love of our selves is ready to bring in and to persuade our selves the sting of Death is out and sin cannot hurt us when we are full of nothing but malice and envy and uncleanness And what an assurance is this An assurance without a warrant an assurance which our selves have onely subscribed to with hands full of bloud Sin no more and then you may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God 1 John 3 21. Therefore in the next place let us confess our weakness to the glory of God's Grace but not suborn it to shadow and countenance our negligence and wilful disobedience and then give it the name
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
of themselves but he that thus findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it The loss of our lives for righteousness sake is a purchase Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven For this Stephen was stoned Paul beheaded the Martyrs tortured So persecuted they the Prophets which were before you In the next place as a good Cause so a good Life doth fit and qualifie us to suffer for righteousness sake Non habent martyrum mortem qui non habent Christianorum vitam saith Augustine He dieth not the death of a Martyr who liveth not the life of a Christian An unclean beast is not fit to make a sacrifice Nor will the crown of Martyrdome sit upon his head who goeth on in his sin It is to the wicked that God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes and What hast thou to do to suffer for them For he that suffereth for them declareth them Therefore S. Augustine calleth the Donatists who in a perverse emulation of the glory of the true Martyrs leapt down from rocks and flung themselves into the water and were drowned sceleratos homicidas wicked homicides and unnatural murtherers of themselves What Cyprian speaketh of Schism is as true of other mortal sins not repented of Non Martyrium tollit not Martyrdom it self can expiate or blot it out For can we think that he that hath taken his fill in sin all his life long and still made his strength the law of unrighteousness should in a moment wash away all his filth and pollutions baptismo sanguinis with his own bloud It may supply for those other pious souls who were never washed in the other laver that of Baptism because persecution or death deprived them of that benefit for what cannot be done cannot oblige But how a man should draw out his life in an open hostility to Christ and trifle with him and contemn him all his dayes and then before repentance and reconciliation which indeed is in the very act of hostility bow to him and die for him I cannot see Take S. Pauls black catalogue of the works of the flesh Adultery Gal. 3. fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkenness revellings and not one of these but will infringe and weaken the testimony of any man and render him a suspected witness in our Courts on Earth And shall the truth of Christ stand in need of such Knights of the post who will speak for her when they oppose her Take that bed-roll of wicked men which the Apostle prophesied should come in these last and perilous times 2 Tim. 3 1-5 Lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Disobedient to parents Vnthankful Vnholy Without natural affection Truce-breakers False accusers Incontinent Fierce Despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High minded Lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof and may not the Gospel be ashamed of such Professors and Martyrs as these Or shall we look for heaven in hell and hope to find a Martyr amongst a generation of vipers Or is he fit to be advocate for any truth who hath the faith of Christ with respect of persons Then we shall have factious Martyrs seditious Martyrs malicious Martyrs profane Martyrs sacrilegious Martyrs And if these be Martyrs we may say of them as Tertullian did of the Heathen Gods Potiores apud inferos There be honester men in hell then these No a good Cause and a good Life must be our conductors to the Cross must lead us by the hand to the fiery trial must as it were anoint us to our graves and prepare us for this great work Otherwise whatsoever we suffer is not properly Persecution but an execution of justice It may be here perhaps demanded What then shall he do who having fettered himself in the snare of the Devil hath not yet shaken it off by true repentance whose conscience condemneth him of many gross and grievous sins which yet himself hath not condemned in his flesh by practising the contrary vertues What shall a notorious sinner do if he be called to this great office if his fortunes and life be brought in hazard for the profession of some article of faith or some truth which he believeth is necessary to salvation What shall he do being shut up between these three a bad conscience assurance of that truth he professeth and the terrour of death Shall he hold fast the truth or subscribe to the contrary Shall he suffer without true repentance of his former sins or repent of the truth which he professeth Shall he deny against his conscience what he knoweth to be true or shall he suffer and comfort himself in this one act as a foundation firm enough to raise a hope on of remission of sin Here is a great streight a sad Dilemma like that of the servant in the Comedy Si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat If he do it he may perish and if he do it not he may be beaten He may suffer for the truth and yet suffer for his sins and if he do it not he hath denied the faith and is worse then an infidel But beloved this is an instance like that of Buridan's ass between two bottles of hay knowing not which to chuse an instance of what peradventure never or very seldom cometh to pass We may suppose what we please we may suppose the heavens to stand still and the earth to move and some have thought so we may suppose what in nature is impossible And this if it be not impossible yet is so improbable that it hardly can gain so much credit as to win an assent For that he who all his life long hath cast Christ's word 's behind him should now seal them with his bloud that they are true that a conscience so beaten so wasted so overwhelmed with the habit of sins should now take in and entertain a fear of so little a sin as the denial of one truth in respect of the contempt of all that he that hath swallowed this monstrous camel should strain at this gnat that he that hath trampled Christ's bloud under his feet should shed his own for some one dictate of his is a thing which we may suppose but hardly believe Or tell me Where should this sting and power of conscience lye hid Or can conscience drive us to the confession of one truth which had no power to withhold us from polluting our selves with so many sins Holding faith saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.19 and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made ship-wreck So near an alliance there is between Faith and a good Conscience that we must either keep them both or lose them both Faith as Saint Paul intimateth in that Text is as the
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
their eternal rest For such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 separate from the Gentile's blindness and separate from the Jew's stubbornness and imperfection of a transient mortality and a permanent beatitude a God and a Man that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather together into one both Jew and Gentile Law and Reason make the Law Natural useful and the Law written useful that so those fair whispers of Truth which mis-led the Gentile and that loud accusing Truth which affrighted the Jâ—w may be in subserviency and attendance on Christ himself that the light of Nature and the light of the Law which were but scattered beams from his eternal Brightness may be collected and united in Christ again who is Α and Ω the Beginning and the End in which Circle and Compass they are at home brought back again to their Original And do we not now begin to look upon our Reason as useful indeed but most insufficient to reach unto the End Do we not renounce the Law our selves all things Do we not melt in the same flame with our Apostle Is it not our ambition to be lost to all the world that we may be found in Christ Shall we not cast all things behind us that we may look forward upon him What would we not be ignorant of that we may know him That we may know him we will know nothing else Our understandings here are fixed and cannot be removed Nor shall our contemplation let him go till we have seen him rising from the dead and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of his resurrection Which is the next Object we are to look upon and our next Part. That Christ is risen from the dead is an article of our Faith fundatissimae fidei saith the Father a principle of the Doctrine of Christ a truth so clear and evident that the malice and envy of the Jew cannot avoid it For let them be at charge to bribe the watchmen and let the watchmen sleep so soundly that an earthquake cannot wake them and then say his Disciples stole him away this poor shift is so far from shaking that it confirmeth our faith For if they were asleep how could they tell his Disciples stole him away Or if they did steal him what could they take away more then a carcase He is risen he is not here If an Angel had not said it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the Grave it self did speak without an epitaph Or if these were silent yet where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote it a Lie doth confute it self and Malice helpeth to confirm the Truth For it we have a verdict given up by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 15.5 we have a cloud of witnesses even five hundred brethren and more who saw him We have a cloud of bloud too the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on it so certain of this Truth that they sealed to it with their bloud and because they could not live to publish it proclaimed it by the loss of life And can we have better evidence Yes we have a surer word the word of God himself a surer verdict then of a Jury a better witness then five hundred a louder testimony then the bloud of Martyrs And we have our Faith too which will make all difficulties easie and conquereth all And therefore we cannot complain of distance or that we are so many ages removed from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object then before The diversity of the Mediums have increased and multiplied him We see him through the bloud of Martyrs and we see him in his Word and we see him by the eye of Faith Christ is risen according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem saith S. Augustine When the Jews stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity can find no excuse if we see him not now he appeareth as visible as a mountain Christ then is risen from the dead And we have but touched upon it to give you one word of the day in the Day it self But that our Easter may be a feast indeed and our rejoycing not in vain let us as the Apostle speaketh go on to perfection and make a further search to find the reason of our joy in the power of his resurrection And what is the power of his resurrection The Apostle telleth us it was a mighty power Eph. 1.19 Indeed it rent the rocks and shook the earth and opened the graves and forced up the dead bodies of the Saints We may adde It made the Law give place and the Shadows vanish it abolished the Ceremonies broke down the Altars levelled the Temple with the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonders all Magnitudo virtutis ostenditur in effectu The greatness of power is most legible in the effects it worketh And here the volume is so great that the world cannot contain it Come see saith the Angel the place where the Lord lay A Lord he was though in his grave And by the same power he raised both himself and us By the same power he shook the earth and will shake the heaven also Heb. 13. disannulled the Law and established the Gospel broke down one alter and set up another abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 shall raise our vile bodies and shall raise our vile souls Shall raise them He hath done it already Conresuscitavit saith the Apostle Eph. 2.6 we are raised together with him both in soul and body and all by the power of his resurrection For 1. Christ's Resurrection is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least an exemplary cause of our spiritual rising from the death of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Christ is risen from the dead that we may follow after him we who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. 6.5 dead to our lusts as he was to the functions and operations of life and planted with him in the likeness of his resurrection rising and exalting our selves and triumphing over Sin and Death so grafted in him that we may spring and grow green and blossom and bring forth fruit both alike and by the same power Now as Christ's Resurrection is a patern of our soul's resurrection so is it of our bodie 's also For we are not of Hymenaeus and Philetus mind to think the resurrection past already and make it but an Allegory No Christ hath cast the model of our bodie 's Resurrection also Plato's Idea and common Form by which he thought all other things had their exsistence was but a dream This is a real patern The Angel descended at his and shall at ours He is risen in our nature Isaac's figurative Resurrection
wherein Sin and Satan have laid us For this is the end of both For this end Christ suffered and for this end he rose again For this end he payed down a price even his bloud to strike off those chains and bring us back into the glorious liberty of the sons of God to gain a title in us to have a right to our souls to guide them and a right to our bodies to command them as he pleaseth But though the price be payed yet we may be prisoners still if we love our fetters and will not shake them off if we count our prison a paradise and had rather sport out our span here in the wayes of darkness then dwell for ever in the light Christ hath done whatsoever belongeth to a Redeemer but there is something required at their hands who are redeemed namely when he knocketh at our graves and biddeth us come forth to fling off our grave-clothes and follow him not to stay in our enemy's hands and love our captivity but to present our selves before our Captain and shew him his own purchase a soul that is his and a body that is his a soul purged and renewed and a body obedient and instrumental to the soul both chearful and active in setting forth his glory This is the conclusion of the whole matter this is the end of all not onely of our Creation which the Apostle doth not mention here although even by that God hath the right of dominion over us but also of our Redemption which is later and more special and more glorious as one star differeth from another in glory Take all the Articles of the Creed take Christ's Birth his Death his Resurrection his Glory is the Amen to all Take all God's Precepts all his Promises and let them stand as they are for the Premisses and no other Conclusion can be so properly drawn from them as this That we should glorifie God The Premisses are drawn together within the compass of the first words of my Text EMPTI ESTIS PRETIO Ye are bought with a price and the Conclusâ—â—n in the last ERGO GLORIFICATE Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's So the Parts you see are as the Persons are the Redeemer and the Redeemed two 1. a Benefit declared Ye are bought with a price 2. a Duty enjoyned Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's The first remembreth us what God hath done for us the second calleth upon us to remember what we are to do for him to give unto God those things which are God's to glorifie him in our body and in our spirit which are God's These are the parts and of these we shall speak in their order First of the Benefit Ye are bought with a price This Purchase this Redeeming us supposeth we were alienated from Christ and in our enemy's hand and power 2 Tim 2.26 in the snare of the Devil and taken captive by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken by him as it were in war And indeed till Christ bought us his we were even made servants to him as servants use to be venditione by sale and jure belli by right of war We had sold our selves as S. Paul speaketh unto him sold our birth-right for a mess of pottage sold our selves for that which is not bread for that Pleasure which is but a shadow for those Riches which are but dung for that Honour which is but air Every toy was the price of our bloud He opened his false wares and we pawned and prostituted our souls and gave up our hope of eternity for his pianted vanities and a glittering death His was but a profer and we might have refused it But we believed that Father of lies and so gave up our selves into his power and his we were by bargain and sale And as we were his by sale so we were his in a manner by right of war For he set upon us and overcame us not so much by valour as by stratagem by his wiles and devices as S. Paul calleth them For not onely the Sword but those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Polybius speaketh deceits and thefts of war work out a way to victory And he that faileth in the battel is as truly a captive when art and cunning as when force and violence maketh him bow the knee and yield This our enemy setteth upon a soul as a soul with forces proportioned to a soul which cannot be taken by force no though he were ten times more a Lion more roaring then he is He hath indeed rectas manus some blows he giveth directly striking at our very face And he hath aversas tectásque others he giveth cunningly and in secret But when we see the wounds and ulcers which he maketh we cannot be ignorant whose hand it is that smote us He is that great invisible Sophister of the world saith Basil He mingleth himself with our humour and inclination and so casteth a mist before us and cloudeth our understanding that we may be willing to lay hold of Falshood for Truth of Evil for Good and by a kind of legerdemain he maketh Vertue it self promote sin and Truth errour And as there so in his wiles and enterprises ipsa fallacia delectat we are willing to be deceived and taken because the sleights themselves are delightful to us The Devil's Temptations are in this like his Oracles full of ambiguities And as Demosthenes said of Apollo's Oracle that it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak too much to the desire and mind of Philip so do these flatter each humour and inclination in us and at last persuade us that that which we would have true is true indeed And thus do we give up all into the Enemies hands and are taken captive and brought under the yoke sub reatu peccati under the guilt of sin which as a poisoned dart sticketh in our sides and galleth and troubleth us wheresoever we go I canâ—ot better call a bad conscience then flagellum Diaboli the Devil's whip with which he tormenteth his captives and maketh large furrows in their soul As the Roman lords did over their slaves in terga cervices saevire imprint marks and characters and as the Comedian speaketh letters on their backs so doth this laniatus ictus wounds and swellings and ulcers He is not so much a slave that is chained to an oar as he that liveth under a bad conscience Now empti estis From this slavery we are redeemed by Christ For being justified by faith we have peace with God and the noise of the whip is heard no more Next we were sub dominio peccati we were under the power and dominion of Sin so that it was a Tyrant and reigned in us If it did say Go we did go even in slippery places and dangerous precipices upon the point of the sword and death it self Like that evil spirit in the Gospel it rendeth and teareth us
we sit down aâ—d dispute As he is a Saviour we will find him work enough but as he is a Lord we will do nothing When we hear he is a Stone we think onely that he is LAPIS FUNDAMENTALIS a sure stone to build on or LAPIS ANGULARIS a corner stone to draw together and unite things naturally incompatible as Man and God the guilty person and the Judge the Sinner and the Law-giver and quite forget that he may be LAPIS OFFENSIONIS a stone of offence to stumble at a stone on which we may be broken and which may fall upon us and dash us to pieces And so not looking on the Lord we shipwreck on the Saviour For this is the great mistake of the world To separate these two terms Jesus and the Lord and so handle the matter as if there were a contradiction in them and these two could not stand together Love and Obedience nay To take Christ's words out of his mouth and make them ours MISERICORDIAM VOLO NON SACRIFICIUM We will have mercy and no sacrifice We say he is the Lord it is our common language And though we are taught to forget our Liturgy yet we remember well enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord have mercy And here Mercy and Lord kiss each other We say the Father gave him power and we say he hath power of himself Psal 2. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance saith God to Christ And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe that he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed this judgment to the Son Dedit utique generando non largiendo God gave him this commission when he begat him and then he must have it by his eternal generation as the Son of God So Ambrose But S. Augustine is peremptory Whatsoever in Scripture is said to be committed to Christ belongeth to him as the Son of Man Here indeed may seem to be a distance but in this rule they meet and agree God gave his commission to Christ as Man but he had not been capable of it it he had not been God As he is the Son of God he hath the capacity as the Son of man the execution Take him as Man or take him as God this Jesus is the Lord. Cùm Dominus dicatur unus agnoscitur saith Ambrose There is but one Faith Vers 4 5 6. and but one Lord. In this chapter operations are from God gifts from the Spirit and administrations from the Lord. Christ might well say You call me Lord and Master and so I am a Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by the right of Redemption and jure belli by way of conquest His right of Dominion by taking us out of slavery and bondage is an easie Speculation For who will not be willing to call him Lord who by a strong arm and mighty power hath brought him out of captivity Our Creation cost God the Father no more but a DIXIT He spake the word and it was done But our Redemption cost God the Son his most precious bloud and life onely that we might fall down and worship this our Lord A Lord that hath shaken the powers of the Grave and must shake the powers of thy soul A Lord to deliver us from Death and to deliver us from Sin to bring life and immortality to light and to order our steps and teach us to walk to it to purchase our pardon and to give us a Law to save us that he may rule us and to rule us that he may save us We must not hope to divide Jesus from the Lord for if we do we lose them both Save us he will not if he be not our Lord and if we obey him not Our Lord he is still and we are under his power but under that power which will bruise us to pieces And here appeareth that admirable mixture of his Mercy and Justice tempered and made up in the rich treasury of his Wisdom his Mercy in pardoning sin and his Justice in condemning sin in his flesh Rom 8.3 and in our flesh his Mercy in covering our sins and his Justice in taking them away his Mercy in forgetting sins past and his Justice in preventing sin that it come no more his Mercy in sealing our pardon and his Justice in making it our duty to sue it out For as he would not pardon us without his Son's obedience to the Cross no more will he pardon us without our obedience to his Gospel A crucified Saviour and a mortified sinner a bleeding Jesus and a broken heart a Saviour that died once unto sin and a sinner dead unto sin Rom. 6.10 these make that heavenly composition and reconcile Mercy and Justice and bring them so close together that they kiss each other For how can we be free and yet love our fetters how can we be redeemed from sin that are sold under sin how can we be justified that resolve to be unjust how can we go to heaven with hell about us No Love and Obedience Hope and Fear Mercy and Justice Jesus and the Lord are in themselves and must be considered by us as bound together in an everlasting and undivided knot If we love his Mercy we shall bow to his Power If we hope for favour we shall fear his wrath If we long for Jesus we shall reverence the Lord. Unhappy we if he had not been a Jesus and unhappy we if he had not been a Lord Had he not been the Lord the world had been a Chaos the Church a Body without a Head a Family without a Father an Army without a Captain a Ship without a Pilot and a Kingdom without a King But here Wisdom and Mercy and Justice Truth and Peace Reconcilement and Righteousness Misery and Happiness Earth and Heaven meet together and are concentred even in this everlasting Truth in these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And thus much of the Lesson which we are to learn We come now to our task and to enquire What it is to say it It is soon said It is but three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. The Indian saith it and the Goth saith it and the Persian saith it totius mundi una vox CHRISTUS est Christ Jesus is become the language of the whole world The Devils themselves did say it Matth. 8.29 Jesus thou Son of God And if the Heretick will not confess it dignus est clamore daemonum convinci saith Hilary What more fit to convince an Heretick then the cry of the Devils themselves Acts 19. The vagabond Jews thought to work miracles with these words And we know those virgins who cried Lord Lord open unto us were branded with the name of fools and shut out of doors Whilest we are silent we stand as it were behind the wall we lie
jurisdiction something or other will have the command of us either the World or the Flesh or Jesus Therefore we ought to consider what it is that beareth most sway in our hearts what it is we are most unwilling to lose and afraid to depart from Whether we had rather dwell in the world with all its pomp and pageantry in the flesh in a Mahumetical paradise of all sensual delights or with Jesus the Lord though it be with persecutions Suppose the Devil should make an overture to thee as he did to our Saviour of all the Kingdoms of the world and the Flesh should plead for her self as she will be putting in for her share and shew thee Pleasure and Honour and Power and all that a heart of flesh can desire in those Kingdomes and on the other side Jesus the Lord should check thee as he doth in his Gospel and pull thee back and tell thee that all this is but a false shew that this present shew will rob thee of future realities that the pleasures which are but for a season are not to be compared to that eternal weight of glory that in this terrestriall Paradise thou shalt meet with the sword and wrath of God and from this seeming painted heaven fall into hell it self Here now is thy trial here thou art put to thy choice If thy heart can now truly say I will have none of these if thou canst say to thy Flesh Who gave thee authority over me What hast thou to doe with me if thou canst say with thy Jesus Avoid Satan and then bow to Jesus and acknowledge no power in heaven or in earth no Dominion but his then thou hast learned this holy language perfectly and mayst truly say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And now to apply it in a word Is it not pity nay a great shame that Man who was created to holiness who was made for this Lord as this Lord was made man for him whose perfect liberty is his service whose greatest honour is to be under his Dominion and whose crown of glory it is to have Jesus to be his King should wait and serve under the World which passeth away should be a parasite to the Flesh which hath no better kin then Rottenness and Corruption should yield and comply with the Devil who seeketh to devour him and fling off the service of Christ as the most loathsome painful detestable thing on earth who is a Jesus to save him and a Lord that hath purchased him with his bloud Is Jesus the Lord Nay but the World is the Lord and the Flesh is the Lord and the Devil is the Lord. This is Vox populi the language of the world And therefore Saint Cyprian bringeth in the Devil thus bragging against this Jesus and magnifying his power above his and laughing us to scorn whom he hath filled with shame Ego pro istis sanguinem non fudi I have not spent one drop of bloud for these I gave them wine to mock them I presented them beauty to burn them I made riches my snare to take them I flattered them to kill them All my study was to bring them to death and everlasting destruction Tuos tales demonstra mihi Jesu Thou that openedst thy bowels and pouredst forth thy bloud for them shew me so many servants of thine so ready so officious so ambitious to serve thee And what a shame is this to all that bear the name of Christ and call him both their Jesus and their Lord that the malice of an enemy should win us and the love of a Saviour harden us that a Murtherer should draw us after him and a Redeemer drive us from him that Satan an Adversary and the Devil an Accuser should more prevail then Jesus the Lord Lacrymis magìs opus est quà m verbis Here let us drop our tears and lay our hands upon our mouths and abhor our selves in dust and ashes go into the house of mourning the school of Repentance and there learn this blessed dialect learn it and believe it and speak it truly JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. For conclusion Ye that approch the Table of the Lord to receive the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud consider well whose Body and Bloud it is Draw near for it is Jesus but draw near with reverence for it is the Lord. And as he was once offered upon the Cross so in these outward elements he now offereth himself unto you with all the benefits of his death For here is comprehended not onely Panis Domini but Panis Dominus not onely the bread of the Lord John 6. but also the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from heaven And how will ye appear before your Jesus but with love and gratitude and with that new song of the Saints and Angels Rev. 5.12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And how will ye appear before your Lord but with humility and reverence with broken hearts for your neglect and strong and well-made resolutions to fall down and worship and serve him all the dayes of your life For if the ancient Christians out of their high esteem of the Sacrament were scrupulous and careful that not one part of the consecrated Bread nor one drop of the consecrated Wine should fall to the ground but thought it a sin though it were but a chance or misfortune quanti piaculi erit Deminum negligere what an unexpiable crime will it be to neglect the Lord himself If the Sacrament hath been thought worthy of such honour what honour is due to Jesus the Lord Bring then your offerings and oblations and offer them here as he offered himself upon the cross your Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh your Temporal goods your Prayers your Mortification that this Lord may hold forth his golden sceptre to you that you may touch the top of it and be received into favour For what else doth the Eucharist signifie We call the Sacraments the signs and seals of the Covenant of Grace But they are also saith Contarene the protestations of our Faith by which we believe not onely the articles of our Creed but the Divine Promise and Institution And Faith is vocal and will awake our Viol and Harp our Tongue and all the powers and faculties of our soul and breathe it self forth in songs of thanksgiving And they are the protestations of our Repentance also which will speak in sighs and grones unutterable And they also are the protestations of our Hope which is ever looking for and rejoycing in and talking of that which is laid up And they are the protestations of our Charity which maketh the tongue and hand as the pen of a ready writer whose words are more sweet whose language is more delightful then that which is uttered by the tongues of men and of Angels And if ye thus
esse Caesar sed tunc maximè occidi videretur that they conceived it not as a thing done and past as if he were killed already but as if he were now under the parricides hands Certainly no blot can be great enough for injuries nor are they truly and sincerely forgiven till we are willing till we study to forget them Nemo diu tutus periculo proximus There is no long safety to be expected where danger is at hand Therefore we must in this as in all other duties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow God as the Pythagoreans counselled For if we measure our selves by our selves if we raise not the SICUT as high as our Father of whom we beg mercy we shall fail of the condition and so bring upon our selves an uncapability of pardon But to forgive freely and voluntarily to forgive sincerely and fully to take off not onely our anger from injuries but to drive them out of our memory is Divino more ignoscere to forgive as God And indeed in the next place this maketh us like unto God and investeth us with his power by which we overcome all injuries whatsoever and scatter them as dust before the wind By this we break the cedars of Libanon in pieces the tallest enemies we have by this we â—ill the raging of the sea and the madness of the people Fot who would 〈◊〉 forgive a bedlam by this we pour coals of fire upon our most obdurate enemies and melt and thaw them by this we work miracles And indeed Mercy is a great miracle For Beloved that power which we use in resistance and revenge is not power but weakness Vera magnitudo est non posse nocere verior nolle The true power by which a Christian prevaileth is seen in this not to be able to do hurt the greatest power not to be willing And if we will make a truce with our Passions and a while consult with Reason we shall soon discover that the desire to shew our power in revenge of an injury hath its beginning from extreme weakness Omnis ex infirmitate feritas saith Seneca All fierceness and desire of revenge is from infirmity and proceedeth from that womanish and brutish part of man nay from those vices which make us worse then the beasts that perish Chap. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings saith S. James from whence contentions and strifes come they not from hence even from your lusts which war in your members from Pride Covetousness Luxury Ambition and Self-love In urbe luxuria creatur saith Tully ex luxuria exsisttat avaritia necesse est ex avaritia erumpat audacia unde omnia scelera gignuntur In the city Luxury is begot and that calleth in Covetousness as a necessary supply to feed and nourish it Covetousness bringeth in Audacious and impudent behaviour and this filleth all with Bloud and Oppression Ambition giveth the stab for a lye Covetousness layeth hold on the throat for a peny Luxury will wade to pleasure though it be through bloud and Self-love maketh every look a frown every frown a blow and every blow death And this is extreme weakness and infirmity We may think indeed we have done wonders when we have laid our brother at our feet when we have put him in fetters and ript up his bowels and made him pay his debt with his bloud but in all this our glory is our shame For in this contention we never triumph till we yield When we are weak then are we strong when we suffer disgrace then are we honourable and we overcome not when we resist but when we dye By this an enemy is a friend By this saith the Father the Mother in the Macchabees priùs viscera carnifici quam verba impendit gave the executioner her bowels but not a word This restoreth what was stoln from me bringeth back what the robber taketh keepeth my name when it is most defiled as a precious ointment and maketh the day of death better then the day of my birth In a word this Deus averruncus chaseth away all evil whatsoever cancelleth all debts is a severe act and the onely antidote against Malice which cannot be overcome saith the Apostle but with good and sheweth from whence it hath its original by manifesting it self in a full and plenary forgiveness of all injury and oppression and contumely of all that cometh under the name of debt I may now seem perhaps to have stretched this Condition too far For we are very willing that God should enlarge his mercy but that ours be drawn into as narrow a compass as may be We would clip our wings to cover but a few but call upon him to spread his wings to cover all offences And therefore it is safer to stretch the condition then to contract and confine it because we are so ready transilire lineas to leap over the bounds which are set us and so take line and liberty to exact some debts and at last break loose upon all and when our revenge hath its full swinge say we seek but our own I had rather therefore tell you what you may not do then what you may And if you shall ask me whether it be not lawful in some cases to fetch back and exact your own I shall say as St. Augustine do of Time If you ask me once I can tell you but if you ask me again I can give you no answer For I fear such a question proceedeth from an evil disposition which would fain break its bounds For can Charity ask how far she may molest a brother and be Charity Would Mercy which should run like a river and overflow to refresh every dry place seek out inventions to divert or dam up her self Shall we strive to make the condition easier which in respect of the promise would be very easie though it were much harder then it is But yet by this I neither strike the sword out of the Magistrate's hand nor make the Laws of men void and of no effect For the Condition here is put in respect of injuries For though it be far better I should lose my coat then revenge my self because by the law of equity no man can be judge in his own cause yet let the Magistrate restore my coat to me and the act is not revenge but justice Justice saith Plutarch accompanieth God himself and breatheth revenge against those who break his Law which men also by the light of nature use against one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are citizens and members of a body politick This SICUT therefore this Condition is laid down to order and compose our minds to the pardon of those wrongs which are offered to our private persons but it bindeth not the Judge who is a publick person and standeth in the midst as it were between two opposite sides to draw them together and make them one again to use his power not onely rescindendo peccatori to cut of the wicked
behold God's precious promises but when we are urged with this undeniable Consequence That we must therefore forgive we start back and will not yield to the Conclusion nor be convinced by that evidence which is as clear as the day So prevalent is the flattery of this world above the Mercy of God! so powerful is a gilded vanity above the glory of the Mercy-seat It is argument of great force à majori ad minus If Christ forgave us who were his enemies then ought they that take his name upon them to forgive them who are their Brethren And he that is Christ's and truly religious must needs see the force of this argument and confirm and make it good by practice To this end in the next place we must make use of those helps which will draw this consequence out of these premisses which will so fit and prepare us that the Mercy of God may work kindly in us to bring its power into act that as God's Mercy is a convincing argument that we must be merciful so our Compassion to our brother may be as a strong confirmation and full assurance to us that God hath forgiven us First then as the Psalmist speaketh let us have God's Mercy in everlasting remembrance to curb our appetite to check our lusts to bridle our tongue to stay our hand to beat down all our animosity and to make our anger set before the Sun For the Memory saith S. Bernard is stomachus animi the stomach of the soul to make all God's benefits become food and nourishment to turn them into good bloud that we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of the Spirit strong to the casting down of all imaginations which may stand in opposition to the Mercy of God when it is begetting something in us like unto it self to turn them into the very bloud and substance of our soul that she shall not breath nor think nor speak nor actuate the hand but in a way of mercy And in this respect that of Plato may be true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We learn and are instructed by those notions which were formerly imprinted in our memory This is as it were parturire misericordiam to conceive and be in travel with Mercy till it be fully formed in us to work it out first in the elaboratory of our heart to have this article of our faith Remission of sins before our eyes that may check us at every turn that may break the bow and snap the spear asunder and burn every instrument revenge that may scatter those thoughts which warm our bloud and raise our spirits and make our glory and triumph to tread down our enemies under our feet The frequent meditation of this begat a love in many which was stronger then death This was the chain which bound the Martyrs to the stake this sealed up their lips when they were laughed to scorn Sic posuerunt animas suas With the remembrance of God's mercy in Christ they laid down their lives praying for their enemies with their last breath as Christ did for his commending their souls to the mercy of God whose bloudy cruelty had devoted their bodies to the fire By frequent contemplation of God's love we draw our soul from out of those incumbrances which many times involve and fetter her we recollect our mind into it self and do not let it out to our passions to be torn and distracted but fasten it upon the Goodness of God where it resteth as upon a holy hill from whence looking down it beholdeth every object in its proper shape It looketh upon the World as upon a a shop of vanity upon Riches as that which may be lost and we never the worse upon Beauty as that which is lost whilest we look on it upon Honour as on a falling star which shineth and falleth and is turned into dung upon Injury as a benefit upon Persecution as a blessing upon Contempt as upon that sword which will slay none but the scornful upon Oppression as that which shall undoe none but the covetous Yea it seeth Life in the face and countenance of Death Oh it is a sad speculation that our Memory should keep its retentive faculty to preserve that which is poisonous and deleterial but that we should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leak and let out the water of life which should quicken and refresh the soul and make it grow in grace that at the impression of a wedge of gold our Memory should conceive theft or fraud or rapine at the sight of a face bring forth lust at the shew of an injury set the soul on fire but be as marble to receive the signature of God's goodness that it should be a well-lockt treasury to every fading vanity but a through-fare for those lasting and powerful objects which should work and fashion the soul to a mild and heavenly constitution Oh that we should never call our Memory good but in evil Therefore in the second place it is not enough to behold these glorious phantasms and for a while to carry them about with us as precious antidotes unless we mould and fashion and rightly apply them For many times nitimur infirmamur saith Hilary Contemplation bringeth us forward but then letteth us fall to the ground we profer and look back we put on resolutions and fling them off again before they are well on we remember God's mercy and when our bloud is a little chafed study to forget it The good which we would which we approve that do we not and soon learn not to think it good Et mentis judicium rectitudinem conspicit sed ad hoc operis fortitudo succumbit We fall short of that rectitude which the eye hath discovered and which we have but weakly framed and set up in our mind and so leave the truth behind us and go on undauntedly to that which our Anger or Lust doth hurry us to We do not so place God's Mercy before our eyes as to conceive something like unto it as Jacob's sheep did amongst the rods This hindereth the powerful operation of Mercy that we see it as the Jews did their Manna and know not what it meaneth But if we will put on the bowels of mercy we must contemplate Mercy in its own sphere in that site and aspect in which it looketh upon us deliberare causas expendere deliberate and question with our selves for what cause it was thus set up and draw it down to the right end and use of it Now to what end was the hand of Mercy reached out unto us Questionless to work in us peace of conscience and save us But if we look again and view it more nearly and considerately we shall find another use namely to make us fruitful in every good work O thou wicked servant saith the Lord in the Gospel Matth. 18. I forgave thee all thy debt shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as
nudam a common and naked will or rather a faint and feeble desire or a forced approbation of Righteousness but it is of a poisonous nature and infecteth the whole soul and at last leaveth not so much as an inclination lameth and cripleth us and turneth our weak desire to Righteousness into a strong resolution against it At first we applaud the precept as just and we think we are bound to do it nay perhaps faintly determine to betake our selves to action but as water taken from the fire groweth colder and colder and at last by some circumsistent cold is congealed into ice so this resolution waxeth fainter and fainter and in the end per frigus tentationum as Gregory calleth it by the chill cold of some tentation is bound up and we who before had Righteousness in our wish have it not now in all our thoughts but set all the powers of our soul against it If the will be not chearful it is not Angelical it is no will at all Again it must be Constant as also the Angels is They are pictured out unto us in those mystical Wheels Ezek. 1. to shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their perpetual and constant motion and in the shape of Young men to express the vigorous force and continual instauration of their obedience For an Angel cannot wax old or weary and faint He doth not minister to day and to morrow slack his obedience is not to day an Angel of light and to morrow a devil but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constant and immoveable in his ministerial office which is his Righteousness So should our will to Righteousness be constant and ever the same not a good intention and then flag We must not have those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immutations and reflexions in our proposals and desires which Nazianzene observed in Julian the Apostate to night passing a just sentence and the next morning reversing it not to day fasting and to morrow thirsting after bloud not setting the knife to our own throats now and anon to our brothers heri in ecclesia hodie in theatro yesterday in the Church and to day in the theatre now humbling our selves and within a while swelling above measure For if we have these ebbings and flowings in our pursuit of Righteousness now swelling towards it anon falling back it is manifest we never sought it Quae modò sunt modò non sunt is qui verè est non acceptat saith the Father He that is truly and everlastingly doth not accept of those desires which now are and anon are not of those fits in devotion those transitory offers which like some creatures appear not but at some times of the year For if we look towards Righteousness if we begin to move towards it and some black or smiling tentation strike as it were the hollow of our thigh and put our desires out of joynt that they either move not at all or move irregularly we may flatter our selves that we are still in our quest after Righteousness but indeed we are posting to the gates of death Did I say our will should resemble the will and motion of Angels Our seeking of Righteousness should be like Gods seeking of us which is real and hearty and ever the same For he would save us when we will perish and it is not he but we that in a manner alter his decrees change his counsels reverse his purposes break his promises For how oft would he and we would not We talk much of God's decrees I am sure he hath decreed it shall be to us even as we will If we will be saved he is ready to crown us But if instead of Righteousness we seek death in the errour of our life if we will perish we perish but it is against his first and primitive will which was serious and without dissimulation to save us And such should our wills be to Righteousness For if we can flatter our selves and think that God will be content with our faint desires and feeble wishes we cannot in any reason expect any other comfort from him then that he should tell us that he also did desire our salvation did wish that we would be wise If we pretend we are willing to be gathered into his garner what other answer can he give but this Oh how oft would I have gathered you and you would not How willing was I to have set the crown of glory upon your heads which yet I will not do against your wills Oh that there were that proportion and analogy which is meet and which even common reason requireth between our desire of Righteousness and God's desire of our Happiness between his will to do us good and our will to do our duty Oh that we were as willing to be righteous as he is we should be glorious What a shame is it that he should bow the heavens and come down and we run into holes and caverns and with Dathan and his complices bury our selves quick in the earth for so every covetous man doth saith Origen that he should appear in his glory and beauty and we should dote on that which is of near alliance to the worm and rottenness for so every lustful man doth that he should look upon us and woe us in our bloud and we wallow still and not once look up upon him for this every unrepentant sinner doth that he should wait and we delay that he should bid us live and we love death that he should be sorry for our sin and we triumph in our sin that he should long and we lothe that his bowels should yern and our hearts be stone that Righteousness should spread her beams display all her beauty and we turn away from it and joyn our selves with Deformity and Death that God should bid us seek him and we should seek Bethel and Gilgal the vanities of the world which shall come to nought This this is it which will draw the hand-writing against us in capital letters and be as terrible as Hell it self That we may then raise our desires and level them with the Object that we may not deceive our selves and think we seek Righteousness when our desires are carried another way let us as the Stoicks admonish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 check and stay our phansie prove and examine it by the right rule By this men may know you are my disciples saith our Saviour and by this you may know you do indeed seek Righteousness First there will be in us a sense and feeling of vacuity The fuller we are of Righteousness the more sensible we are of want Nor do any more earnestly seek it then they who have made it theirs and hold it as it were in possession I have not yet attained saith S. Paul when he had attained but I press forward The Pharisee is ever full but to the righteous ever something is wanting And this putteth a difference between our spiritual
our carnal desires The body is mortal and changeable decayeth and is repaired and therefore hath an appetite which is soon dulled or changed The soul is of a more refined essence and hath an appetite fitted and proportioned to it infinite and unsatiable and made so by its very object which raiseth a desire when it is received which is favourable and benevolent and admitteth at once of content and desire The more Righteousness we have the more we desire and when we have found most we seek most Therefore the Philosophers rules of moderation have here no place For when the desire is turned towards the right object there can be no excess nor can we give it wing enough Our Love cannot be too ardent nor our Sorrow too great nor our Anger too loud Nor can we fear that should be too much which cannot possibly be great enough We cannot knock too hard at â—he gates of heaven nor seek too earnestly after Righteousness I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing was the boast of lukewarm Laodicea Rev. 3.17 Rev. 18.7 1 Sam. 15.13 who was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I sit as a queen and shall know no sorrow was the boast of Babylon I have fulfilled the commandement of the Lord was the voice of Saul a rejected King I am and I alone I am more righteous then thou I am a Saint is commonly the language of those who are children of the Father of lies These sounds we hear not but from empty vessels But the holy language is not so high and lofty nor do we hear from the righteous what they are but what they would be When they are rich then are they poor when they are strong then are they weak when they are full then are they empty and when they have found then they seek How have the perfectest men in Christ Jesus the fairest plants in the paradise of Righteousness deplored their want and emptiness How when they embrace this object do they look upon it as if it were at distance almost quite out of sight How they still bargain for the rich pearl in the Gospel even when they have bought it Nihileitas mea My nihileity My nothingness saith one Postremissimus omnium the last of the last even behind the last of all saith another a superlative of a superlative The least of the Apostles The chiefest of sinners saith another the best servant that Christ Jesus ever had upon earth Lord how long have I been absent from this beauty of holiness how little have I enjoyed it How ignorant is my knowledge how feeble my devotion how cold my charity How farre am I from being like unto an Angel but then how far am I from being like unto God! How much do I want of that Righteousness which becometh the Gospel of Christ In a word when we truly seek Righteousness we seek it with that heat and eagerness as if we had never sought it never panting more after the water of life then when vve are full For in the second place where there is this desire there is a taste and a savour of the power of Righteousness What we seek we seek for some good we find in it The Philosopher calleth it a pregustation as in a new-born babe of milk which maketh it so greedy of the teat Ex quibus sumus ex illis nutrimur We are nourished with something which is congruous and proportionable to that of which we consist And that is the reason why one man is affected with this another with that and every object doth not please every eye alike It is so with the body and it is so with the soul In the ways of evil we find it The Envious man hath an evil eye an evil disposition and if full of envy then followeth murther deceit malignity The Wanton hath an eye full of the adulteress and he waiteth for the twilight The Revenger hath a sanguine soul and he thirsteth for bloud And it is so in the vvayes of Righteousness For as they who are after the flesh savour the things of the flesh Rom. 8.5 so they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit They that have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soft and sweet disposition are ever pouring themselves forth in mercy and seeking the opportunity to do good They that have a broken heart breathe forth nothing but grones and prayers and supplications David was described to be a man after God's own heart and Procopius telleth us that was seen in his bounty and liberality For where the heart is of a Divine constitution there will follow the labour and pain or as Tertullian calleth it the operation of love Nihil incongruum appetitur We seek and desire that most which is most proportioned and agreeable to our disposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and temper of our soul If the same mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus if Christ as Paul speaketh be fully formed in us we shall seek the things of Christ which have near relation to those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and every thing which standeth in opposition to Christ will be as distasteful to us as if it were Antichrist In a word if we love Righteousness we shall seek it For in the last place this will force a boldness upon us to venture upon any thing how terrible soever which the World and the Devil can place between us and Righteousness Be it Pleasure we slight it be it Wealth we count it dung be it Honour we disgrace it We shall lose all that we have rather then our honesty be poor rather then perjured forfeit our life rather then our fidelity deliver up our bloud to the persecutor rather then our conscience be any thing that his power can make us rather then be those unrighteous persons which none can make us but our selves We shall seek Righteousness through good report and evil report through honour and dishonour through the valley of tears and shadow of death through hell it self even that hell which wicked men and atheists make upon earth Righteousness is most amiable and lovely and attractive in it self but it doth not appear so to flesh and bloud but to men of divine constitution who can receive it with the greatest horrour can be put upon it with poverty and contempt with mockings and scourgings with imprisonment and death it self When we are carnal and our wills perverse then we turn away from the precepts of Righteousness our spirits fail us and our hearts are dead within us as if Righteousness were a Medusa's head to turn us into stones Then we begin to paint it over to make restrictions and limitations that we may seem to come near unto it we call Evangelical precepts counsels we make that which is necessary arbitrary and call great plagues peace What lesser sin do we not dispense with
that deceived me every man vvould be ready to say Ah my brother or Ah his glory but vvhen it is I my self deceive my self when I my self am the cheater and the fool and never think my self vviser then vvhen I beguile my self it is a thing indeed to be lamented with tears of bloud but yet it deserves no pity at all Nulla est eorum habenda ratio qui se conjiciunt in non necessarias angustias saith the Civilian The Law helps not those vvho entangle themselves with intricate perplexities nor doth the light of the Gospel shine comfortably upon those vvho vvill not see it It is a true saying He that will not be saved must perish Dyed Abner as a fool dyeth saith David Doth this man erre as a fool erreth or is he deceived for want of understanding or because of the remoteness and distance of the object Then our Saviour himself will plead for him John 9. If you were blind you should have no sin But in the Self-deceiver it is not so His hands are not bound nor his feet tyed in fetters of brass His eye is clear but he dimms it The object is near him even in his mouth and his heart but he puts it from him The law is quick and lively but he makes it a dead letter He turns the day into darkness gropeth at noon as at midnight and turns the morning it self into the shadow of death We have a worthy Writer who himself was Ambassadour in Turky that hath furnisht us with a polite narration of the manners of the people and the customes of the places Amongst the rest he tells us what himself observed that when the Turks did fall to their cups and were resolved to fill themselves with such liquor as they knew would intoxicate and make them drunk they were wont to make a great and unusual noyse with which they called down their Soul to the remotest part of their bodies that it might be as it were at distance and so not conscious of their brutish intemperance Beloved our practice is the very same When we venture upon some gross notorious sin which commends and even sanctifieth it self by some profit or pleasure it brings along with it we straight call down our Reason that it may not check us when we are reaching at the prey nor pull us back when we are climbing to honour nor work a loathing in us of those pleasures which we are drinking down as the ox doth water we say unto it Art thou come to blast our riches and to poyson our delights Shall we now part with the wedge of gold shall we fly the harlots lips as a cocatrice Shall we lay our honour in the dust Shall every thing which our soul loveth be like the mountain which must not be toucht Avoid Reason not now Reason but Satan to trouble and torment us What have we to do with thee Thou art an offense unto us a stone of offense a scandal And now if there be a Dixit Dominus against us if the Lord say it he doth not say it if a Prophet speak it he prophesies lyes if Christ speak it we bid him Depart from us for we will be sinful men And hence it comes to pass that our errour is manifest and yet not seen that our errour is known but not acknowledged that our errour is punisht but not felt Hence it comes to pass that we regard not the truth we are angry with the truth we persecute the truth that admonitions harden us that threatnings harden us that judgments harden us that both the sunshine and the storm when God shines upon us and when he thunders against us we are still the same knowing enough but basely prostituting our knowledge and experience to the times and our lusts false to God and our selves and so walking on triumphantly in the errours of our life dreaming of eternity till at last we meet with what we never dreamt of death and destruction Read 2 Kings 8. and see the meeting of Elisha and Hazael The Text saith v. 11 12 13. The man of God wept And when Hazael askt him Why weepeth my Lord the Prophet answered Because I know the evil that thou wiâ—t do to the children of Israel Their strong holds thou wilt set on fire and their young men thou wilt slay with the sword and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child What did Hazael now think Even think himself as innocent as those children What is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing Should the same weeping Prophet have wept out such a Prophesie to some of after ages and have told them Thus and thus you shall do actions that have no savour of Man or Christian actions which the Angels desire not to look upon and which Men themselves tremble to think on would they not have replied as Hazael did Are we Dogs and Devils that we should do such things And yet we know such things have been done I might here enlarge my self and proceed to discover yet a further danger For Errour is fruitful and multiplies it self It seldom ends where it begins but steals upon us as the Night first in a twilight then in thicker darkness Onely the difference is it is commonly night with us when the Sun is up and in our hemisphere We run upon Errour when Light it self is our companion and guide First we deceive our selves with some gloss some pretense of our own Our passion our lust our own corrupt heart deceiveth us And anon our Night is dark as Hell it self and we are willing to think that God may be of our mind well pleased with our errour Now against this we must set up the Wisdom of God Be not deceived It is not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not mocked saith our Apostle This I call'd the Vindication of Gods Wisdom my second part Of which in the next place The Nine and Twentieth SERMON PART II. GALAT. VI. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap HAving done with the first part of the Text a Dehortation from Errour in these words Be not deceived I proceed to the second which I call a Vindication of God's Wisdome in the next words God is not mocked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an undeniable position The eyes of the Lord saith the Prophet 2 Chron. 16.9 run to and fro throughout the whole earth Deus videt and Deus judicat are common notions which we receive è censu naturae out of the stock and treasury of Nature there being such a sympathy betwixt these principles and the mind of Man that so far forth as the acknowledgment of these will bring us the soul is naturaliter Christiana a Christian by nature it self without the help of Grace There was no man ever who acknowledged a God but gave him a bright and piercing eye This is
Joh. 2.6 when in all our carriage and behaviour we can truly say Sic oculos sic Ille manus sic ora ferebat Thus did or thus said my Saviour The lives and actions of men are subject to errour and the best of God's Saints in all ages have had their falls David is said to have been a man after God's own heart yet if we should follow David in all his paths he would lead us into those two fearful precipices Adultery and Murther Peter was a great Apostle but if we should imitate all Peter's actions we should not follow Christ but deny him In our imitation therefore of men we must observe the Apostles Caution here in the Text and be followers of the Saints even as they also are followers of Christ and no further When they go awry from Christ's example we must leave them be they what they will and carefully follow the presedent that our Lord hath set us He is the Way and the Truth and the Life He never went astray himself Joh. 14.6 neither can he mislead us He will be unto us as the Pillar of the cloud and of sire was to the Israelites a sure Guide to the Land of promise to the heavenly Canaan If we keep our eye still fixed upon him and heedfully and constantly follow his conduct we shall walk in the wayes of Truth and Peace walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called worthy of the name whereby we are called CHRISTIANS we shall give testimony of the truth and sincerity of our Faith and perform the promise and profession made at our Baptism which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and be made like unto him we shall adorn the Gospel honour our Master and glorifie our Father which is in heaven in a word we shall guide others in the way to happiness by our good example shining among them as lights in the world and we our selves having served our own generation by the will of God shall in the regeneration and the times of restitution of all things be received by him whom we have followed into those mansions of rest and glory which he is gone to prepare for us that where he is there we may be also The Eight and Thirtieth SERMON PROV XXVIII 13. He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Rom. 12.16 Prov. 3.7 Prov. 26.12 BE not wise in your own conceits It is St. Paul's counsel And it is the Wisemans counsel also And he giveth the reason for it Seest thou a wise man in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of him more hope of him that hath no use of reason then of him that hath and abuseth it that draweth it down to vile and base offices that maketh it ministerial and serviceable to his lusts that first imployeth it as a midwife to bring forth that sinne which his lust hath conceived and then when it hath brought it forth maketh it as a nurse to cherish it first to find out wayes to mature and perfect it and then to cast a shadow to cover it Certainly there is more hope of a fool then of him For a fool setteth not up to himself any end and so is not frustrate or defeated of it But he that is wise in his own conceit is the more unhappy fool of the two for he proposeth to himself an end and doth not only fail and come short of it but falleth and is bruised on a contrary He promiseth to himself glory and meeteth with shame he looketh towards Prosperity and is made miserable he flattereth himself with hope of Life and is swallowed up by death he smileth and pleaseth and applaudeth himself and perisheth he lifteth up himself on high and falleth and is buried in the mire and filth of his own conceits That which he seeketh flyeth from him and that which he runneth from overtaketh him The truth of which hath been visible in many particulars and written as it were with the bloud of those who have sought death in the errour of their lives and here Solomon hath manifested it in this Proverb or wise sentence which I have read unto you For how happy do we think our selves if we can sin and then hide and cover our sin from our own and others eyes and yet Wisdom it self hath said He that doth so shall not prosper What a disgrace do we count it to confess and forsake sin and yet he that doth so shall find mercy Our wayes are not as God's wayes That which we gather for a flower is a noysome and baneful weed that which we make our joy is turned into sorrow that which we apply to heal doth more wound our balm is poyson and our Paradise Hell Ye have heard of the wisedom of Solomon Hearken to it in this particular which crosseth the wisedom of this world He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Which words teach us these two things 1. The Danger of covering or excusing our sins He that covereth his sins shall not prosper 2. The Remedy or way to avoid this danger but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy The first we shall especially insist upon and shew it you in respect 1. of God 2. of our selves First the danger of covering our sins appeareth in this that sin cannot be covered cannot admit of excuse Omnis excusatio sui aequitate nititur say the Civilians All excuse is founded on equity and none is good but so far as equity commendeth it As far then as Sin may be covered or excused so far it is not sin at least not lyable to punishment For our own experience will tell us that where excuse with reason may run there it exempteth the accused both from fault and punishment We read Levit. 10. Vers 19. that when Aaron's sons had not eaten the goat of the sin-offering according to the Law and Aaron had made that reasonable excuse which we find that his sorrow for his two sons Nadab and Abihu had made him unfit to eat of those Holy things vvhich they vvere to do rejoycing Deut. 12.7 Deut. 26.14 and vvhen they brought their sanctified things they vvere to say I have not eat thereof in my mourning vvhen he had made this excuse the Text telleth us When Moses heard that he was content And this is the difference betwixt Moral and Ceremonial Laws Aliud sunt imagines saith Tertullian aliud definitiones Imagines prophetant definitiones gubernant We are governed not by Ceremonies vvhich pass away as a shadow but by Laws vvhich are immutable and indispensable Ceremonies are arbitrary and not only Reason but God himself doth in this case frame excuses and putteth them in our mouth and covereth what deformity soever they may present to men that cannot but misinterpret what they understand not David in his Hunger eateth of the shew-bread
in the Gospel as it were with the Sun-beams S. Paul giveth it this character that it is profitable that is 2 Tim. 3.16 17. sufficient for doctrine which is either of things to be believed or of things to be done for reproof of greater and more monstrous crimes for correction of those who fall by weakness or infirmity for instruction in righteousness that those who have begun well may grow up in grace and every vertuous work that the man of God may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect and consummate throughly furnished unto all good works Take him in what capacity you please there in the Scripture in the New Testament especially yea and in that alone he may find what will fill and qualifie him and fit him in every state and condition Take him in the worst condition as an unbeliever there is that will beget faith and form Christ in him as wavering in the faith there is that will confirm him as believing and fallen into errour or sin there is that will restore him as rooted and built up in Christ there is that will settle and establish him as under the cross there is that will strengthen him as crowned with peace there is that will crown that crown and settle it on his head as in health there is that will make him run the wayes of God's commandments as in sickness there is that will tune his grones and quicken him even when he is giving up the ghost as a King there is that which will manage his sceptre as a Subject there he may learn to bow Take him as a Master or a Servant as Rich or Poor as in prison or at liberty living or dying there he shall find what is necessary for him in that condition of life even to the last moment and period of it and not onely that which is necessary but under that formality as necessary so fitted and proportioned to the end that without it we can never attain it They that lay hold of it shall have peace with God and they who despise it shall have a worm ever gnawing them These shall go away saith our Saviour into everlasting punishment but the righteous who look into this perfect Law into life eternal Will you behold the Object of your Faith There you shall see not onely a picture of Christ but Christ even crucified as S. Paul speaketh to the Galatians before your eyes Will you behold that Faith which shall save you There you shall behold both what she is and what wonders she can work Have you so little Charity as not to know what she is There you may see her in every limb and lineament in every act and operation which is proper to her her Hand her Ear her Eye her Bowels There you may see what is worth your sight Et quod à Deo discitur totum est We can learn no more then God will teach us When we affect more and pour forth all the lust of our curiosity to find it out we at last shall be weary and sit down and complain that we have lost our labour For thus Curiosity which is a busie Idleness punisheth it self as a frantick person is punished with his madness Quicquid nos beatos facturum est aut in aperto est saith Seneca aut in proximo Whatsoever can make us happy is either open to the eye or near at hand We will instance but in one and that the main point Justification because the Church of Rome hath set it in the front of those points of doctrine which are imperfectly or obscurely delivered in the Gospel and therefore require a visible and supreme Judge of controversies to settle and determine them It is true indeed The Gospel hath been preached these sixteen hundred years and above and many questions have been started and many controversies raised about Justification For though men have been willing to go under the name of Justified persons yet have they been busie to enquire how Justification is wrought in them They are justified they know not how Many and divers opinions have been broached amongst the Canonists and Confessionists and others Osiander nameth twenty And there are many more at this day And yet all may consist well enough for ought I see and still that sense which is delivered in Scripture as necessary remain entire For 1. it is necessary to believe that no man can be justified by the works of the Law precisely taken And in this all agree 2. It is necessary to believe that we are not justified by the Law of Moses either by it self or joyned with Faith in Christ And in this all agree 3. It is necessary to believe that Justification is by Faith in Christ And in this all agree 4. That Justification is not without Remission of sins and Imputation of righteousness And in this all agree 5. That a Dead Faith doth not justifie And here is no difference 6. That that is a Dead faith which is not accompanied with Good works and a holy and serious purpose of good life And in this all agree 7. Lastly that faith in Christ Jesus implieth an advised and deliberate assent that Christ is our Prophet and Priest and King Our Prophet who hath fully delivered the will of his Father to us in his Gospel the knowledge of all his precepts and promises Our Priest to free us from the guilt of sin and condemnation of death by his bloud and intercession Our King and Law-giver governing us by his Word and Spirit by the vertue and power of which we shall be redeemed from death and translated into the Kingdom of heaven And in this all agree Da si quid ultrà est And is there yet any more All this which is necessary is plainly delivered in the Gospel And what is more is but a vapour from Curiosity which when there is a wide door and effectual is ever venturing at the needles eye This is so plain that no man stumbleth at it But those interpretations and comments and explications which have been made upon this nihil ampliùs quà m sonant make a noise but no Musick at all nec animum faciunt quia non habent nor can they add spirit to us in the way to bliss because they have none And as we find them not in the Scripture so have we no reason to list them amongst those doctrines which are necessary As to instance for the act of Justification what mattereth it whether I believe or not believe know or not know that our Justification doth consist in one or more acts so that I certainly know and believe that it is the greatest blessing that God can let fall upon his creature and believe that by it I am made acceptable in his sight and though I have broke the Law yet shall be dealt with as if I had been just and righteous indeed whether it be done by pardoning all my sins or imputing universal obedience to me or the active
and Monarch of the Church who hath full and absolute power to determine of those things which concern our peace and to judge the Law it self to discover its defects and to supply and perfect it And here upon this foundation what a Babel of confusion may be built Upon these grounds what errour what foul sin may not shew its head and advance it self before the Sun and the people and outface the world With the one Scripture is no Scripture but a dead letter And with the other it hath no life but what they put into it With the one it is nothing and with the other it is imperfect which in effect is nothing For what difference in matters of this nature and in respect of a Law between being nothing and not being what it is For to take away the force of a Law is in a manner to annihilate it With them as Calvin speaketh of those in his time St. Paul was but a broken vessel John a foolish young man Peter a denier of his Master and Matthew a Publican And the language of ours at this day is little better And with the other they are little less For when they speak plainest they teach them how to speak And now that which was a sin yesterday is a vertue to day vertue is vice and vice vertue as the one is taught within and the other is bold to interpret it The Text is Defraud not thy brother The inward Word biddeth thee spoil him The Text is Touch not mine anointed By the autority of the Church thou mayest touch and kill him And let me tell you the inward Word will do as much Deceit Injustice Sacrilege Rebellion Murther all may ride in in triumph at this gate for it is wide enough to let them in and the Devil together with all his wiles and enterprises withall his most horrid machinations He did but mangle and corrupt the Scripture to make a breach into our Saviour These take it away or make it void and of no effect to overthrow his Church Must the Church of Rome be brought in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp and state with Supremacy and Infallibility Then Peter is brought out and his Rock nay his Shadow to set out the Mask and the Autority of the Church leadeth him on And they open their vvardrope and shew us their Traditions such deceitful ware that we no sooner look upon it but it vanisheth out of sight Again must some new phansie be set up which will not bear the light of Scripture but flieth and is scattered before it as the mist before the Sun Must some horrid fact be put in execution which Nature it self trembleth at and shrinketh from and which this perfect Law damneth to the lowest hell Then an inward Word is pretended and God is brought in to witness against himself to disanul his own Law and ratifie the contrary to speak from heaven against that which he declared by his Son on earth to speak within and make that a duty which he openly threatned to punish with everlasting fire What is become now of our perfect Law It is no Law at all but as the Son came down to preach it so there is a new holy Ghost come into the world to destroy it Which is to do worse then the Jews did For they only nailed Christ's body to the cross these crucifie his very mind and will Which yet will rise again and triumph over them when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his Gospel For what man of Belial may not take up this pretence and leave Nature and Grace Reason and Religion behind them and walk forward with it to the most unwarrantable and unchristian designs that a heart full of gall and bitterness can set up Ahithophel might have taken it up and Judas might have taken it up even parricides have taken it up And if every inward persuasion the off-spring of an idle phansie and a heart bespotted with the world be the voice of God then Covetousness may be a God and Ambition may be a God and the Devil himself may be a God For these speak in them these speak the word which they hear which because they are ashamed to name they make use of that Name which is above every name to usher in these evil spirits in which Name they should cast them out In the name of Piety what is this inward Word this New light It may be the echo of my lust and concupiscence the resultance of an irregular appetite the reflexion of my self upon my self It is the greatest parasite in the world For it moveth as I move and sayeth what I say and denieth what I deny As inward as it is its original is from without The Object speaketh to the Eye and the Eye to the Heart and the Heart hot with desire speaketh to it self A rent and divided Church will make up my breaches A shaken Commonwealth will build me up a fortune A dissolved College will settle me in an estate And I hear it for I speak it my self And it is the voice of God and not of man Of this they have had sad experience in forein parts in both the Germanies and in other places And we have some reason to think that this monster hath made a large stride and set his foot in our coasts But if it be not this it is Madness Nay if this Word within may not be made an outward word it is Nothing For this Word within as they call it bringeth with it either an intelligible sense or not intelligible If it bring a sense unintelligible and which may not be uttered and expressed then it is no Word or the Word of a fool that uttereth more then his mind and speaketh of things which he knoweth not For what Word is that which can neither be understood nor uttered But if it bear a sense intelligible then it may be received of the understanding and uttered with the tongue and written in a book and then the same imputation will lye upon it which they lay upon the outward Word that it is but an ink-horn phrase And written with ink it may be For with amazed eyes we have seen it written with bloud I am even weary of this argument But men have not been ashamed openly to profess what we blush within our selves to confute And this Word within this loathsom phansie this Nothing hath had power to invenom the Word of life it self and make it the savour of death unto death For conclusion then Let us not say Lo here is Christ or Lo there is Christ Let us not frame and fashion a Christ of our own For if he be of our making he is not the Son of God but a phantasm And such a Christ may speak what we will have him speak to our hearts our lusts our vices Such a Christ will flatter us deceive us damn us But let us behold him in
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
There onely is blessedness to be found 986. Heaven-gate not so easie to be entred as some men dream 1070. 1078. Heaven will not be atteined by a phansie a thought a wish a bare profession 1067. The way to Heaven though rough haply at first smooth and pleasant afterwards 60. Hebr. xiii 21. 588. Hell no place for a true Christian 48. Sin an embleme of Hell 932. St. Basil's opinion of Hell-torments 380. Heresies Their original 263. Hertha 462. Hieroglyphicks of great use in Egypt of old and still in China 1017. St. Hierome 391. Hilarion 539. Holy Ghost v. Ghost Holiness It s large extent 196. Many mistakes about it 196. It pleaseth even them that oppose it 553. How Churches Dayes Means c. are holy 847. c. v. Churches Honest v Profitable It is a good way to make one an honest man to pretend we take him to be so 1002. Honours v. Riches That which the world counteth Honourable is quite contrary with God 210. Why and how we ought to honour our selves and how not 318. Honour a vain thing to satisfie the soul 648. Hope is a necessary companion of Faith 242. 736. It is best allayed with Fear 399. How a firm Hope is gained 669. Bad men oft hope too much and good men in a manner despair 344 c. 351. v. Assurance Presumtion We must hope well of every man endeavour his salvation 576 577. How Hope of Wealth or Honour enslaveth and deceiveth us 671. Nothing in this world worthy to place our Hope on 674. Humility Christ's H. the onely remedy for Man's Pride 6. Man's heart naturally averse from it 157 630. It is the door-keeper in Christ's School 159. 631. It appeareth in every action of a Christian 156. 638. VVherein it consisteth 159. 631. Many practice it by halves 160. 632. Humility of the Soul the cheif H. 160 c. 633. But that of the Body must not be wanting 162. 634. Many praise H. few practice it 630. It s proper vvork 631. Many look to have this grace vvrought in them vvithout striving for it but this is a dangerous errour 628 629. Humility twofold Forced and Voluntary 629. God's Power should move us to H. 642. but his Mercy is the most powerful motive 643. H. is the next step to Honour 644. Exceeding great advantages vve receive by it 644 645. Humbling our selves is a most Christian exercise 627. A blameworthy Humility 428. 459. That is bad H. that keepeth us from doing our duty 459 c. 609. Husband A Christian H. is soli uxori masculus 1078. Hypocrisy not dead vvith the Pharisees but alive at this day 1059. How to be discovered 64. v. Formality H. set-forth in its colours 1055. The Hypocrite set-forth 171. 777. 780. A character of the Hypocrites of this Age 1060. Hypocrites like the vvheels of a Clock or motions by Water-works 370. They deceive others and themselves 919. Let them not think to hide themselves from God's all-seeing ey 1059. Their portion in hell the saddest 372. What instruction may be received even from Hypocrites 373. H. is most odious 369 372. It is often witty and laborious but quickly at an end 370. It is most hateful to God as being most opposit to his Justice 1058. and to his Wisdome 1059. Hypocritical Fasting Hearing Praying v. Fasting c. I. IDleness is contrary to the dictate not onely of the Spirit but even of Nature 220. It is the mother and nurse of pragmatical Curiosity 218. It maketh more Monks then Religion 220. Idle Gallants reproved 222. Idle and unactive souls deserve not to be accounted peaceable 199. The Idle Sluggard is a thief robbing both the Common-wealth and himself 220. The Idle man's Texts vindicated 222. Ignorance v. Malice Nature hath annexed a shame to Lust and Ignorance 500. Ignorance by some accounted holiness 97. There were of old some who professed Ignorance 1095. We have some now that are Ignorant but would not be held so 1095. Many mens Ignorance is a wilfull and proud Ignorance 437 438. Some pretend knowledge but are grosly ignorant 97. Ignorance a slight excuse 437. 447. No Ign. is an excuse but what is irresistible 439. Ignorance in a Physician is a cheat 439. Ign. of our selves the worst Ign. 481. Ignorance of some things better then skill in them 131. Affected Ignorance is most fearful 688 689. Image of God defaced in Man renewed by Christ 13. Wherein it consisteth 647. Imitation of the Saints must be with caution and limitation 1025 c. v. Examples How foolishly some imitated Basil 1025. Impatience a sign of a worldly man 542. Impenitence after deliverances will pull down greater judgments 610 c. Impenitence and Infidelity the onely unpardonable sins 29 c. Impossibilities are not required of us by God 109 c. 602 c. If exact Obedience were indeed impossible whether it be fit the people should be told so 111. 605. Imputation v. Righteousness Many lay claim to Christ's Imputed Righteousness vvho have none of their own 993. Incarnation v. CHRIST Inclination v. Affections Thoughts No natural Inclination or Appetite is evil in it self 265. Good Inclinations are from God 361 362. Inconstancie in mens actions whence 317. To â—lter ones opinion upon clearer evidence is not Inconstancie 678. Indifferent things become necessary when commanded by lawful Autority 59. 1077. These are the onely sphere that Autority moveth in 60. In things Indifferent vve must follow the rules of Charity and Prudence 1077. We must abstein from things otherwise lawful if not expedient 639. 1102. Induration v. Hardning Industrie It s efficacie 1066. Industrie and Pains-taking often frustrate in temporal matters alwayes speed in search of the Truth 67. It is the way to Knowledge 96 97. v. Calling Labour Infidelity is in every sin 100. This sin onely maketh Christ's bloud ineffectual 29 c. The cause of it 41 42. Ingratitude a most odious vice 363. 799. Injustice Many talk of Honesty and Religion and live unjustly 134. Injustice is far worse then Poverty Grief Death 126. It can have no good pretense to excuse it 127. It is a most unmanly quality 135. It floweth from Distrust of God and Love of the World 136. v. Oppression The dismal doom of Injustice 136 137. Intention As is the Intention so is the action how to be understood 444. v. Meaning Sin Interest Private Interest of how great sway in the vvorld 1071. Irreverence in the house of God springeth from Covetousness 755. and from Pride 859. It offendeth God Angels and good Men and encourageth the Profane 858. Many are so Irreverent in the Church as if they thought God vvere not there 920. Their pretense vvho place Religion in Irreverence 757 v. Reverence Arguments of profane Irreverent men answered 859. Isa v. 3 4. 486. ¶ vi 9 10. 411. ¶ lv 8. 189. 703. ISRAEL The very name is a great motive to obedience and a sore aggravation of sin 402. 417. v. Jews The state of
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
saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Hebr. 2.10 Christ and his Church are in computation but one person He ought to suffer and they ought to suffer They suffer in him and he in them Luke 24.26 to the end of the world Nor is any other method answerable either to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indeleble characters or to our mortal and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up Quicquid Deo convenit homini prodest saith Tertullian that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us That which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head There is an oportet set upon both Luke 24.26 He ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again First it cannot consist with the Wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and that we might live as we please and then reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Devil for those who will be his vassals that he should foil him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble and beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this we could not have taken him for our Captain and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers Non novimus Christum si non credimus We do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captain that leadeth us as Moses did the children of Israel through a wilderness full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposeth some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looketh back into some grave Tolle certamen nè virtus quidem quicquam erit Take away this combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations and Religion it self will be but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it but a fable What were my Patience if no Pain did look towards it What were my Faith if there were no Doubt to assault it What were my Hope if there were no Scruple to shake it What were my charity if there were no Misery to urge it no Malice to oppose it What were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead I was dead saith the Lord of life And his speech is directed to us who do but think we live being indeed in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils that are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit Rev. 9 3. And when we hear this voice and by the virtue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ 1 John 5.4 our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcomeh the world Nor need this method seem grievous unto us For these very words I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plain and easie method For by Christ's Death we must understand all those miseries that he suffered before which were as the train and ceremony of his Death as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as Poverty Scorn and Contempt the Burden of our sins his Agony and bloody Sweat These we must look upon as the principles of this heavenly Science by which our best Master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to raise us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings For we have not such an High priest who will not help us Hebr. 4.15 2.17 but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is merciful and faithful hath not only power for that he may have and not shew it but will and propension also desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the gates of death Indeed Mercy without Power can beget but a good wish S. James his complemental charity Be ye warmed and Be ye filled and Be ye comforted Jam. 2.16 which leaveth us cold and empty and comfortless And Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heal a broken heart It may as well strike us dead as revive us But Mercy and Power when they meet and kiss each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and raise us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a bath a rack a bed and persecution a blessing will call those sorrows that are as if they were not Such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his Compassion and Mercy were coeternal with him as God yet as Man he learnt them He came into the world as into a school and there learnt them by his sufferings and death Hebr. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feel it our selves It must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggeth of me Luke 16. Luke 10.30 34. and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way-side and then I powre my oyl and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feel the Hell of sin in my self before I can snatch my brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walketh abroad Job 29.15 and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and so healeth two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him They were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffered are the main strength of our salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be merciful then he could leave off to be