For why should that be urged with that vehemency to which mens natural bent and inclination carrieth them and would certainly continue them and hold them up in eaven course of Justice and Honesty did not education and their familiar converse and dalliance with the world corrupt and blind them To this Law of Nature S. James seemeth to call us back chap. 3. where he maketh it as a strange thing to be wondred at James 3.9 c. that the same tongue that blesseth God should yet curse men who are made after the similitude of God As if he should have said Curse him not Deceive him not for if thou curse him if thou deceive him thou cursest and deceivest God after whose similitude he is made My brethren these things ought not so to be They are as much against Nature as for the same fountain to send forth sweet and bitter water or for a fig-tree to bear olives or a vine figs. S. Paul shutteth up the Lyars mouth with the same argument Ephes 4 25. Wherefore cast off lying and speak truth every one to his neighbour The reason followeth For we are members one of another Thou art a part of him and he is a part of thee being both hewn out of the same rock formed and shaped of the same mould therefore by lying to thy brother thou puttest a cheat upon thy self and as far as in thee lyeth upon that God that made you both and gave you Tongues not to lye but to instruct and Wits not to deceive but counsel and help one another And therefore he deterreth men from fraud and violence by no other argument then this That God is the avenger of such things 1 Thess 4.6 as if the Lye had been told unto and the Cheat put upon him When Mans Justice to man faileth there Gods vengeance is ready to make a supply For saith Clemens Vidisti fratrem tuum vidisti Deum tuum Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. When thou lookest upon thy brother thou seest God himself as near as Mortality can discover him He is the fairest copie thou canst see him by fairer then the Heaven of heavens and those ministers of light fairer then the fairest Star then the Sun in the Firmament when he rejoyceth to run his race 1 John 4.20 Hence S. John concludeth positively and peremptorily If a man say he loveth God and hateth his brother and he that deceiveth him he that oppresseth him hateth him or else despiseth him which is worse he is a lyar And his reason is irrefragable For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen in whom he seeth himself in whom he seeth his God and so hath Love conveyed into his heart by his very eye many visible motives to win him to this duty how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Tim. 6.16 whom no man hath seen or can see but as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 13.12 through a glass darkly in his Words and in his Works of which Man is the brightest mirrour and giveth the fairest and clearest representation of him So that now we may see all Mankind tyed and united together in this love-knot of Nature knit together as Men that they should not fly asunder and then return again one upon another not as Men but as Snakes and Vipers look back but with an evil eye approch neer but in a cloud or tempest not look but envy not speak but lye not touch but strike not converse with but defraud and oppress one another Which is against that Law with which we were born and which we carry about with us whithersoever we go and whatsoever we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How gratious and helpful a creature is one man to another if he continue so a Man and receive no new impression from the Flesh from Self-love and those transitory Vanities below if he be not byassed and wheeled from this natural motion by the World and so fit to be driven into the field with Nebuchadnezzar being turned Fox or Lion or Tiger or Panther or worse then any of those Beasts because he is a Man For so many forms he may receive having once degenerated from his own And then it is not Look upon men as of the same mould and frame as brethren by nature as auxiliaries and supplyes as keepers and guardians but CAVETE AB HOMINIBVS Beware of men Matth. 10.7 A warning and caution given by our Saviour himself and a strange caution it is from him who so loved men that he dyed for them Beware of men beware of them thus transformed thus brutifyed That smiling friend may be a tempter He that calleth himself a Saint may be a seducer His oylie tongue may wound thee his embrace crush thee to pieces that demure countenance shadow a legion of Devils Look not upon his phylacteries the Man is a Pharisee and this Angel-keeper may be thy murderer And thus it is when the course of nature is turned backward and Man degenerateth from himself and maketh his Reason which should be an instrument and promoter of Justice a servant to Sin and a weapon of Unrighteousness This the Love of the world and the Wisdome of the flesh can do Victrix etiam de Natura triumphat When it prevaileth it moveth and troubleth the wheel as S. James calleth it the whole course of our Nativity and triumpheth over Nature it self Now to draw this yet nearer to our purpose Speak what we will of Profit and Commodity the Heathen Oratour by the very light of Nature hath told us That they who divide Profit from Justice and Honesty and call that profit and advantage which is unlawfully gotten or detained with the same hand lift at the very foundation of Nature and strive to put out that light which they cannot utterly extinguish Ista duo facimus ex uno saith Seneca Though we make Profit and Honesty two things yet they are but one and the same And therefore to rise upon another mans ruines Subvertunt homines ea quae sunt sundamenta Naturae cùm utilitatem ab honestate sejungunt Tull. De Off. l. 3. to enrich our selves by fraud and deceit is as much against Nature saith Tully as Poverty which pincheth it or Grief which afflicteth it or Death which dissolveth it For Poverty may strip the body Grief may trouble it and Death may strike it to the ground but yet they leave a soul and Injustice is its destruction and leaveth a dead soul in a living body For as we have already shewn Man is naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable creature but Violence and Deceit quite destroy all society And Tully giveth the same reason in his Offices which S. Paul doth against Schisme in his Epistles 1 Cor. 12.26 If one member suffer all the members suffer with it and therefore the intent and purpose of all must be saith the Oratour ut eadem sit utilitas uniuscujusque
under the Law alone but also under the Gospel as a motive to turn us from sin and as a motive to strengthen and uphold us in the wayes of righteousness not onely as a restraint from sin but as a preservative of holiness and as a help and furtherance unto us in our progress in the wayes of perfection It may indeed seem a thing most unbefitting a Christian who should be led rather then drawn and not a Christian alone but any moral man Therefore Plato calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiberal and base disposition to be banisht the School of Morality And our great Master in Philosophy maketh Punishment one of the three things that belong to slaves as the rod doth saith Solomon to the fools back To be forced into goodness Prov. 26.3 to be frighted into health argueth a disposition which little setteth by health or goodness it self But behold a greater then Plato and Aristotle our best Master the Prince of Peace and Love himself striveth to awake and stir up this kind of fear in us telleth us of hell and everlasting darkness of a flaming fire of weeping and gnashing of teeth presenteth his Father the Father of Mercies with a thunderbolt in his hand Luk. 12.5 with power to kill both body and soul sheweth us our sin in a Deaths head and in the fire of hell as if the way to avoid sin were to fear Death and Hell and if we could once be brought to fear to die we should not die at all Many glorious things are spoken even of this Fear The Philosopher calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Psal 31 Tert. De poenit c. 6. the bridle of our Nature S. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of our lusts Tertullian Instrumentum poenitentiae an instrument to work out Repentance Pachomius placeth it supra decem millia paedagogorum maketh it the best Schoolmaster of ten thousand Hearken to the Trumpet of the Gospel be attentive to the Apostles voice What sound more frequent then that of Terrour able to shake and divide a soul from its sin Had Marcion seen our Saviour with a whip in his hand had he heard him cursing the Fig-tree and by that example punishing our sterility had he weighed the many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods For though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still as terrible to sinners that will not turn as when he thundered from Mount Sinai 2 Cor. 5.11 And if we will not know and understand these terrours of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing letter For again as humane laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment And to this end we find not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Juvenat â—at Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna That there remain punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen And we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the world had been far more wicked then it is We see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunteth and pursueth them This may be so There is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sin and this though it do not make them good yet restraineth them from being worse Quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium Freedom from punishment maketh sin pleasant and delightsome and so maketh it more sinful but fear of punishment maketh it irksome bringeth reluctancies and gnawings and rebukes of conscience For without it there could be none at all Till the whip is held up there is honey on the harlots lips and we would tast them often but that they bite like a cockatrice Non timemus peccare timemus ardere It is not sin we so much startle at but hell-fire is too hot for us And therefore S. Peter when he would work repentance and humility in us placeth us under Gods hand 1 Pet. 5. â— Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his Power his commanding attribute His omniscience findeth us out his wisdome accuseth us his justice condemneth us Potentia punit but it is his Hand his Power that punisheth us Take away his Hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his Wisdome or tarrieth for the twilight to shun his all-seeing Eye But cùm occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God early Psal 78.34 Again as the Fear of death may be Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an antidote and preservative against it It may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way As it is an introduction to piety so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregorie Nyssene Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. a watch and a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offense make me turn back again into my evil wayes For we must not think that when we are turned from our evil wayes we have left Fear behind us No she may go along with us in the wayes of righteousness and whisper us in the ear that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared She is our companion and leaveth us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our journeys end Our Love such as it is may well consist with Fear with the Fear of judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysostome L. 1. De compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 6.1 Isa 38.14 15. Rom. 14 10. the memory of Gods judgements written in his very heart His thoughts were busied with it his meditations fixt here and it forced from him DOMINE NE IN FVRORE Correct me not O Lord in thy anger nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walked in the bitterness of his soul did mourn like a dove and chatter like a Crane S. Paul buildeth up a tribunal and calleth
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
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
without which it cannot be so Thy Charity must be active in thy Hands in casting thy bread upon the waters vocal in thy Tongue in ministring a word of comfort in due season compassionate in thy Heart leading thee to the House of mourning and making thee mourn with them that mourn and lament with them that lament It must be like the Sun which casts its beams and influence on every man Semper debio charitatem quae cùm impenditur debitur saith Augustine Love is a debt we owe one to another that we may be one a debt every man owes to every man a debt which though I alwayes pay I alwayes owe and even when I pay it I remain still a debtor For again if we be Christians then though we are many members yet are we many members of that body 1 Cor. 12.12 which is one partakers of the same bread of life 1 Cor. 10.17 nay being many we are one bread and one body That which was disperst into many being gathered thus is but one Partakers of the same Sacraments which our Saviour did not onely institute as memorials of his death and as channels and conveyances of comfort to our sick and weary souls but also as remembrances unto us of that debt of Charity which unless we will forfeit our title of Christian we are bound with cheerfulness to pay one to another Multa sunt sed illa multa sunt hoc unum ONE ANOTHER includes many but those Many are but this one mystical body Each member is lame and imperfect by it self and stands in need of this uniting What the Hand is that is the Foot and what the Eye is that is the Hand in that respect it is a member for all are members S. Paul in the Pulpit was no more a member then the Thessalonians to whom he writ He that is a perfect man is no more a member then he that is a new born babe in Christ and he that is least holds his relation as well as he that is greatest in the kingdome of Christ Now if all be members and the same body each must concur to cherish each other that the whole may be preserved Take but an Arm from the body but a Hand from that arm but a Finger from that hand and the blemish is of the whole In the Church of Christ communis metus gaudium timor here we are all one and all mens joys and sorrows and fears are one and the same As each Man as I told you before so each Christian is as a glass to another and they are mutually so I see my sorrow in my brothers tears and he sees his tears in my sorrow He sees my Charity in my alms and I see his Devotion in his prayers I cast a beam of comfort upon him and he reflects a blessing upon me There is a preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture which joyns men together makes ONE ANOTHER as one and draws a multitude to unity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. Let us weep with them that weep and lament with them that lament Luc. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the woman in the Parable Rejoyce together with me Eph. 2. for I have found my groat And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are fellow-citizens with the Saints They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together upholding and rejoycing one another in every function Phinehas is meek with Moses and Moses is zealous with Phinehas A Christian is chast with Joseph and repents with Peter is rich with his brothers wealth prudent with his brothers wisdome mighty with his power and immortalized with his eternity The Angels rejoyce at our conversion and we praise God for the Angels joy they ministring to us on earth and we converse with them to heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are together in what estate soever in joy together and in grief together rising and drooping both alike suffering together mourning together praying together And if we observe that form of prayer which Christ hath taught us our prayer is not then private when we pray in private OUR FATHER takes in ONE ANOTHER even the whole Church We cannot pray for our selves unless we pray for others also Nay he prayes not well saith Calvine that begins not with the Church The Church prayes for every man and every man for the whole Church Quod est omnium est singulorum that which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongs unto the whole And thus much we have found in the Object in ONE ANOTHER even enough to draw on the Act For on these three our common Condition our Relation as Men and our Relation as Christians as on a sure foundation doth our Saviour and his blessed Apostles build us up in our holy love build us up as so many parts mutually upholding one another and growing up into a Temple of the Lord. These are the Principles and the Premises and from these they draw this Conclusion That being thus linked and united and built together we should uphold and comfort one another Which is my second part the Act it self to Comfort and offers it self next to your Christian consideration CONSOLEMINI ALII ALIOS Comfort one another To comfort is a word of a large and much extended sense and signification spreading it self equally with all the army of sorrows and with all the evils in the world and opposing it self to all To comfort may be to be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame to cloth the naked and feed the hungry and to put the hand to uphold that which is failing Sustentanda domus jam ruitura saith Tully It is as the underpropping of a house ready to sink Comfort you comfort you my people saith God Isa 40.1 speak comfortably to Jerusalem LOQUIMINI AD COR Speak to the heart of them Speak and do something which may heal a wounded heart rowse a drooping spirit give it a kind of resurrection and restore it to its former estate which may work light out of darkness content in poverty joy in persecution and life in Death it self To Renew Restore Quicken Lift up Refresh Encourage Sustein all those are in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comfort ye For Alass my brother or Ah his glory are but words verba sine penu pecuniâ as he in Claudius speaks words without help prescripts without medicine most unactive and unsignificant words To a man naked and destitute of food Depart in peace Be warmed Be filled are but words but faint and liveless wishes especially if they proceed from him who can do more and yet will do no more then speak and wish They are the dialect of the Hypocrite whose religion floats on his tongue or is written in his forehead whose heart is marble when his words are as soft as butter whose Charity is onely in picture and shew and whose very Mercy is cruelty For what greater
prince of this world above every high thing that exalteth it self against Christ and the knowledge of God He is not partiarius divinae sententiae a divider with God and the World in one part from the heaven heavenly and in the other part from the earth earthy but he is awake and alive and active in the performance of every good duty His obedience is universal and equal like unto a Circle and consists in an equality of life in every respect answering to the rule the command of God as a Circle doth in every part equally look upon the Point or Center And being thus qualified we may say of him as the Disciples did of Christ SVRREXIT VERE Luke 24.34 He is risen indeed Thus then you see our Regeneration is here expressed by our rising with Christ We might afford you many other resemblances but we must hasten But here some man may say How are the dead raised and by what power do their souls come to this state of life I will not say with the Apostle Thou fool But certainly there is no man so weak in faith but must confess that he that raiseth our vile bodies must also raise our vile and unclean souls he that calleth us from the dust of the grave must also call us from the death of sin he that changes our bodies must renew our minds In our corporal resurrection and in our spiritual resurrection God is all in all But yet the Soul doth not rise again as the Body which is dust and near to nothing but as a soul which hath an Understanding though darkned and a Will though perverted and Affections though disordered And as we pray Turn us so vve promise that vve vvill turn unto the Lord. He purgeth us and vve clense our selves He breaks our hearts and vve plow them up We are told that he createth a new heart in us and vve are exhorted to be renewed in our minds But solus Deus for all this God doth all For this New creature springeth up indeed out of the earth and groweth up and flourisheth illapsa maturantis gratia by the influence of Gods maturing and ripening grace vvhich drops upon our hearts as the rain and distills as the dew upon the tender herb Take if you please S. Bernards determination and it is this This our rising saith he is from God and from Man from Gods grace and from Mans will but not so as if these two were coordinate but subordinate Grace and our Will do not share the work between them sed totum singula peragunt but each of them perform the whole work Grace doth it wholly and our Will wholly God doth save us and vve vvork out our salvation sed ut totum in illo sic totum ex ipso but so that it is vvrought by the Will of man so is mans Will vvholly enabled thereunto by the Grace of God vvhich determineth the vvill if not physically at least morally And this may satisfie any but those qui vinci possunt persuaderi non possunt vvho may be overcome vvith the force of truth but not persuaded We may ask the question How we are raised Divines may dispute and determine at pleasure But it vvould be a more profitable question to ask our selves Whether we are willing to be raised Whether when God calls us and the Angel is ready to roll away the stone when his countenance shines upon us and when all lets and impediments are removed we had not rather still rot in our graves then be up and walking We may ask with the woman that went to the sepulchre Who shall roll away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre but we must ask and examine our selves also Whether we are well content it should be removed and not rather defer our rising in hope that a time will come when we shall be pluckt out of our graves whether we will or no and vainly think that we had not lain so long in the dust had God been willing to raise us This is not to magnifie the Grace of God but to turn it as S. Jude speaks into wantonness v. 4. and in a manner to charge God with our death as if he were well pleased to see us in the grave who calleth on us and commands us to come out and threatens a worse place if we make not haste to come out To attribute good by our Rising to God is our duty and we deserve not his grace if we will not acknowledge it but to attribute our not Rising to him is a sin and a sin which we must rise from or we shall never rise Hos 13.14 Wherefore as he says I will ransome thee from the power of the grave I will redeem thee from death so he says also by the Prophet Esay and the Apostle repeats it Ephes 5. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give the light That this our Conversion or our Rising with Christ must be like Christ's Resurrection early and without delay The Apostle's word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are risen with Christ This manner of speech which the Apostle uses is a most effectual persuasion In civil business we have a rule Fides habita saepe obligat fidem It is a good means to make one an honest man to pretend that we take him to be a very honest man and deal with him as if indeed he were so For shame to fail of that expectation which goes of a man many times makes him do better then he would With this art doth S. Paul deal with his Colossians and by pretending that he supposeth them to be already risen he doth most effectually persuade them to rise For they cannot rise too soon they cannot rise soon enough For it is not here as it is in other affairs It is a property of things belonging to the world not to be seasonable but at certain times and there is nothing which doth so much commend our actions as the choice of fit times and seasons in which they are done Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intempestivenes and to be ignorant of times and occasions fitting every business is counted amongst men a great vice and imperfection For the World is like a Theatre in which all things cannot come at once upon the stage and every thing hath but its part its proper scene and time of action It is with the things of this world as with harps and other curious instruments of musick which are put out of order with every change of weather So the alteration of every circumstance brings them out of tune But the things of God are of another nature As himself is such are they alwayes the same Pietas omnium horarum res est omnium aetatum The practice of Godliness is at all times seasonable That precept of S. Paul Be instant in season and out of season concerns not onely the Preacher of the word but also every person that
Our Sins were they that crucified Christ 29. The Gospel is the sharpest curb of Sin 1065. Of Speculative Sins and Sinners 172. Sincerity necessary in all our actions 369. Slavery None comparable to that under Satan and Sin 740 741. v. Redemtion Sluggards awakened 220. Sobriety to be observed in our diet and Modestie in our attire 639. 1101 1102. Socrates how jeered by Aristophanes 372. Solitary Whether the solitary Retiredness of Monks be as they count it Perfection 1089. Solomon how painted 1069. Of his ECCLESIASTES 534. SON The Son of all the three Persons fittest to be our Mediatour 4. 13. God hath four sorts of Sons 4. Sophocles reproched Euripides 372. He thanked his Old age for freeing him from Lust 593. Sorrow good and bad 338. Worldly S. worketh death 564. Sometimes it ushereth-in Repentance and Comfort 564. Soul v. Body The Soul should be set on heavenly not earthly things 646 c. The Scripture commandeth so 646. The Soul is too noble to mind the earth 647. Nothing below proportionable to it nothing satisfactory 648 c. Every man ought to take care of his brother's Soul 576. The Soul is far more excellent then the Body and therefore chiefly to be cared for 886. Its riches and ornament what 78 79. It s original hard to know 94. Souldiers What S. should do what not 920 Speach The manner of ouâ— Speach varieth with our mind 385. Out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh 976. Many speak fair and mean foul 764 c. It is a shame to pretend Religion and to be ashamed to speak out 981 982. v. Confess Spirit That the SPIRIT worketh is evident but the manner of his working cannot be discerned 315. Some presume the Sp. teacheth them immediately without yea against the Word 683 684. What it is to Glorifie God in the Sp. 744. 748. A pretense of the Sp. and a pretended Zele the two grand impostures of the world 528. Many laying claim to the S. we are to try them by the Scripture 527 529. v. H. Ghost Spirits cannot be defiled by intermingling with bodies 166. The fight between the Spirit and the Flesh described 159. 312. 632. 707. Spiritual things far transcend temporal 884 c. 887 895. Stimula a Goddess among the Romans 341. Stoicks condemned for choosing Death rather then Miserie 1011. Strangers We all are but Strangers on earth 530 c. The Word of God is our best supply in this condition 531. That we are S. here proved by Scripture 536. and by reason drawn from the Insufficiency of all things here to satisfie Man's mind 537. Yet few believe the point 538 539. Our Enemies in this our Pilgrimage 539. Our provision and our defense 540. How we should behave our selves as S. 540. We ought to look on all things in the world with the suspicious and jealous ey of a Stranger 541. Strength Attempt nothing above thy Strength 249. 250. Student The Student's calling not so easy as other men think 223. SUB the Preposition much descanted upon 637 c. Subjection we like not but must yield it 637 c. Subordination necessary in Bodies natural Civile Ecclesiastical 640. Success many make an argument to prove themselves and their wayes good 684. But good or ill Success is not an argument of God's love or dislike 712. Sudden surprisalls what effect they have upon us 254. Sufferings for Christ's sake most comfortable 568. Suffering for Righteousness is the highest pitch of a Christian 695. One may suffer for one virtue neglect the rest 704 c. One may suffer for Pleasure for Profit for Humour for Fear for Honour and yet be no Martyr 705 706. v. Martyrdom What shall he do who having not yet repented of his grievous sins must either suffer present death or deny the Truth he believeth 707 c. Superiours v. Obedience Superstition what 462. We must not cry it down in others and cherish it in our selves 462. Many for fear of S. shipwreck on Profaneness 982. But we must shun them both 758. Supper the LORD's Supper not absolutely necessary 81. not to be given to Infants nor to the Dead 81. How slight a preparation serveth many mens turn 81. It is ridiculously abused by the Papists and very grosly by others 449. 462. In this Sacrament we must look I. on the Authour Christ 450. and not be offended at the meanness either of the Minister or of the Elements 451. II. on the Command of Christ 451. which must be so observed as not to rest in the outward action 452. Motives to invite us to the Lord's S. 452. This holy Sacrament fitteth our present condition 452. The manifold and great benefits we receive by it 453. 473. 490. 493. 495. The heavenly joy it putteth into our hearts 453 It is necessary for us to come and that often to the Lord's Table 454. How oft the primitive Christians did receive how oft we should now 454 455. Excuses for not communicating removed 456. He that loveth his sin and will live in it sinneth if he come and sinneth if he come not 456. Every Penitent is a fit Communicant 456. and so is every true Believer 456. Not onely great Proficients but even Beginners in Christ's School whatever some say to the contrary may yea ought to come to the holy Table 458. A conceit of our own Infirmity should not keep us away 456-459 463. Neither should a conceit of the high Dignity of the Sacrament do it 459 c. 476. They who abstein out of reverence seem to condemn them that are more forward 461. and their refraining may keep others away 462. How we ought to remember Christ at his Table 463 c. 473 c. Then especially is our Faith to be actuated 465. 475 489. Then we must examin and renew our Repentance 465. 476. 489. This Sacrament if received to a wrong end is not food nor physick but poison 467. Christ's Body and Bloud are not received corporally but spiritually 468. To receive Christ's flesh corporally would profit us nothing 468. Three manners of eating Christ's Body Sacramental Spiritual Sacramental Spiritual 473. We must come with Faith Hope Love Repentance Reverence 475 c. 489 Preparation necessary 478. 487. How negligently and inconsiderately many come to this Sacrament 479. 487. v. Examination What our Preparation should be 485 c. 834. This Sacrament is a feast of Love â—92 and none but they that are in Charity should come to it 490 c. 834. whether some should be set apart to examin others before admission to the Lord's Supper 494. With what reverence the antient Christians received 768. Wretched we if feeding so oft on Christ in the Sacram. we continue in our sins 813. Coming to the Lord's Table is a protestation of Faith and Repentance 769. 814. What kind of Protestants then are they who neither repent nor believe 814. We should at the H. Table be like unto men on their death-beds 814. Suspicion We
saith Calvine Harmon in locum His pain was so great that it gave no time or leisure to his Reason to weigh what he said Which in effect is He spake he knew not what But we may truly say Non fuit haec Interpretis meditata oratio This Author did not well understand nor consider what he wrote and may seem not well to have advised with his Reason that would leave Wisdome it self without the use of it No question it was the language of a bleeding heart and the resultance of Grief For grieve Christ did and fear He who as God could have commanded a Legion of Angels as Man had need of one to comfort him He was delivered up to Passions to afflict not to swallow him up There was no disorder no jar with Reason which was still above them There was no fullenness in his grief no dispair in his complaints no unreasonableness in his thoughts not a thought did rise amiss not a word misplaced not a motion was irregular He knew he was not forsaken when he asked Why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 The bitterness of the cup struck him into a fear when his Obedience called for it He prayed indeed Let this cup pass from me But that was not as some think Matth. 26.39 the cup of his Cross and Passion but the cup of his Agony And in that prayer it is plain he was heard for the Text telleth us Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven to strengthen him Being of the same mould and temper with man he was willing to receive the impressions which are so visible in man of Sorrow and Fear even those affections which are seated in the Sensitive part and without which Misery and Pain have no tooth at all to bite us Our Passions are the sting of Misery nor could Christ have suffered at all if he had been free from them If Misery be a whip it is our Passion and Phansie that make it a Scorpion What could Malice hurt me if I did not help the blow What edge hath an Injury if I could not be angry What terror hath Death if I did not fear It is Opinion and Passion that make us miserable take away these and Misery is but a name Tunde Anaxarchum enim non tundis You touch not the Stoick though you bray him in a mortar Delivered then was the Son of God to these Passions to Fear and to Grief These strained his body rackt his joynts stretched his sinews these trickled down in clods of blood and exhaled themselves through the pores of his flesh in a bloody sweat The fire that melted him was his Fear and his Grief Da si quid ultrà est Is there yet any more or can the Son of God be delivered further Delivered he was Not to Despair for that was impossible nor to the torments of Hell which could never seize on his innocent soul But to the Wrath of God which withered his heart like grass Psal 102.3 4. and 22.15 burnt up his bones like a hearth and brought him even to the dust of death Look now upon his Countenance it is pale and wan upon his Heart it is melted like wax upon his Tongue it cleaveth to the roof of his mouth What talk we of Death The Wrath of God is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the terriblest thing in the world the sting of Sin which is the sting of Death Look into our own souls That weak apprehension of it which we sometimes have what a night and darkness doth it draw over us nay what a hell doth it kindle in us What torments do we feel the types and sad representations of those in the bottomless pit How do our delights distast us and our desires strangle themselves What a Tophet is the world and what Furies are our thoughts What do we see which we do not turn from what do we know which we would not forget what do we think which we do not startle at Or do we know what to think Now what rock can hide us what mountain can cover us We are weary of our selves and could wish rather not to be then to be under Gods wrath Were it not for this there would be no Law no Conscience no Devil but with this the Law is a killing letter the Conscience a Fury and the Devil a Tormenter But yet there is still a difference between our apprehension and Christ's For alas to us God's wrath doth not appear in it its full horror for if it did we should sooner dye then offend him Some do but think of it few think of it as they should and they that are most apprehensive look upon it as at a distance as that which may be turned away and so not fearing God's wrath treasure up wrath against the day of wrath To us when we take it at the nearest and have the fullest sight of it it appeareth but as the cloud did to Elijah's servant 1 Kings 18.44 like a man's hand but to Christ the heavens were black with clouds and winds and it showred down upon him as in a tempest of fire and brimstone We have not his eyes and therefore not his apprehension We see not so much deformity in Sin as he did and so not so much terror in the Wrath of God It were Impiety and blasphemy to think that the blessed Martyrs were more patient than Christ De patient Cujus natura patientia saith Tertullian whose very nature was patience yet who of all that noble army ever breathed forth such disconsolate speeches God indeed delivered them up to the saw to the rack to the teeth of Lions to all the engines of cruelty and shapes of death but numquid deseruit they never cryed out they were forsaken He snatched them not from the rage of the persecutor by a miracle but behold a greater miracle Sil. Ital. l. 1. Rident superántque dolores Spectanti similes In all their torments they had more life and joy in their countenance than they who looked on who were more troubled with the sight than the Martyrs were with the punishment Their torture was their triumph their afflictions were their melody Of weak they were made strong Prudent Hymn in laudem Vincentii M. Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridensque flammis lamina Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est Torments Racks Strappadoes and the last enemy Death it self were but a recreation and refreshment to Christians who suffered all these with the patience of a stander-by But what speak we of Martyrs Divers sinners whose ambition never reach at such a crown but rather trembled at it have been delivered up to afflictions and crosses nay to the anger of God But never yet any nay not those who have despaired were so delivered as Christ We may say that the Traytor Judas felt not so much when he went and hanged himself For though Christ could not despair
We have also the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their Blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance and that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased and multiplyed it We see him in his Word we see him through the Blood of Martyrs and we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen and alive 1 Cor. 15.3 4. secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeateth it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Augustines and let it pass for his sake When the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appeareth as visible as a mountain There is more in this VIVO than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He liveth in as much as He giveth life There is vertue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls He will raise them nay he hath done it already Col. 2.12 3.1 We are risen together with him and we live with him We cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this VIVO it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christ's Living breatheth life into us In his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca And this is such a one an eternal pattern Plato 's Idea or common Form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this This is a true and real an efficacious and working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ lose his power when he had raised himself but as he is so it is everlasting and worketh still to the end of the world Perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which Christ wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he meaneth to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now VIVO I live is as loud to raise our Hope as the last trump will be to raise our Bodies And how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour Christ's life derives its vertue and influence on both Soul and Body on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath both Understanding and Will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made We do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel â—o perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be it will be done whether we will or no But to Awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be Renewed and raised in the inward man to Die to sin and Live to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept And though this Life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 Phil. 2.13 yet a necessity and a law lieth upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner There will be a change in both As the flesh at the second so the soul at the first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata If I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but Christs Phil. 2.5 Job 17.13 14 having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst Corruption is our father and the Worm our mother and sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the World and it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it self Death hath dominion over us For let us call the World what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christ's life we shall rise fairly not with a mouth which is a sepulchre but with a tongue which is our glory not with a withred hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient ear not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our Life Col. 3.3 saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it thereby a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practical application of his glorious resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the love of the world the Devil who is the Prince of the world is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idleness we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self But when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings Mal. 4.2 When we worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands 2 Cor. 4.11 then the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh then we have put off the old man yea in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertullian speaketh Candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead Matth. 21.32 but of the living We see now what virtue and power there is in this VIVO in the Life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as Eternity it self Hebr. 6.20 Hebr. 7.16 For as he liveth so behold he is alive for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever being made not after the law of a carnal commandment after that law which was given to
second Apol c. 4. Lycurgi leges emendatae saith Tertullian Lycurgus his Laws were so imperfect so ill fitting the Commonwealth that they were brought under the hammer and the file to be beat out and fashioned in another form more proportionable to that body for which they were made were corrected by the Lacedemonians Which undervaluing of his wisdom did so unman him that he would be a man no longer but starved himself to death Vetus squalens sylva legum edictorum securibus truncatae the whole wood of the old Laws now sullied and weakned with age was cut down by the edicts and escripts of after-Emperours at the very root as with an ax All of them are in the body of time and worn out with it either fail of themselves or else are cast aside humane Laws being but as shadows cast from men in power and when they fall to the ground are lost with them and are no more to be seen Gel. Noct. Att. l. 20. c. 1. nec uno statu consistunt sed ut coeli facies maris ità rerum atque fortunae tempestatibus variantur nor do they remain in one state but alter as the face of the Heavens and the Sea now smile anon frown now a calm and by and by a tempest Now the strong man saith Do this anon a stronger then he cometh and I forfeit my head if I do it Laws are too oft written with the point of the sword and then the character followeth the hand that beareth it Thus it is with the Laws of men But the Laws of this our Law-giver can no more change then he that made them No bribe can buy out their power no dispensations wound them no power can disannul them but they are the same Dispensationes vulnera legum and of the same countenance They moult not a feather they alter not in one circumstance but direct the obedient and stare the offender in the face and by the power of this Lord kindle a hell in him in this life and will appear at the great day to accuse him For we either stand or fall in judgment according to these Laws In a word humane Laws are made for certain climates and fitted to the complexion and temper of certain Commonwealths but these for the whole world Rome and Brittany and Jerusalem all places are bound alike and as his Dominion so his Laws reach from one end of the earth to another And these which he publisht at the first are not onely Laws but promises and pledges of his second coming For he made them not for nought but hath left them with us till he come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead according to his Gospel Besides the Laws of men are too narrow and cannot reach the whole body of Sin cannot comprehend all not the inward man the thoughts and surmises of the heart no not every visible act Leges non omnia comprehendunt non omnia vetant nec absolvunt Sen. they forbid not all they absolve not all Some irregularities there be which these Laws look not upon nor have they any other punishment then the common hatred of men who can pass no other sentence upon them then this That they dislike them and we are forced to leave them to the censure and anger of the Highest saith Seneca Quoties licet non oportet Every thing that is lawful for me to do is not fit to be done And his integrity is but lame that walketh on at pleasure and knoweth no bounds but those which the Laws of men have set up and never questioneth any thing he doth till he meeteth with a check is honest no further then this that he feareth not a prison nor the gibbet is honest because he deserveth not to be hanged How many are there who are called Christians who yet have not made good their title to that honour which we give to a just man How many count themselves just men yet do those things which themselves if they would be themselves would condemn as most unjust and do so when others do them and how many have carried so much honesty with them into hell The Laws of men cannot reach home to carry us to that height of innocency to which no other Law but that within us might lift us up But the Laws of this Lord like his Power and Providence reach and comprehend all the very looks and profers and thoughts of the mind which no man seeth which we see not our selves which though they break not the peace nor shake any pillar of the Commonwealth for a thought troubleth no heart but that which conceiveth it yet stand in opposition to that policy which this our Lord hath drawn out and to that end for which he is our Lord and are louder in his ears then an evil word in ours and therefore he looketh not onely on our outward guilt but also on the conscience it self and pierceth to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and regulateth the very thoughts and intents of the heart which he looketh upon not as fading and vanishing characters in the soul but as killing letters imprinted and engraven there as S. Basil speaketh De virgin as full and complete actions wrought out in the inward man S. Bernard calleth them passivas actiones passive actions which he will judge secundum evangelium according to these Laws which he hath published in his Gospel Secondly that he is a Lord appeareth by the virtue and power of his Dominion For whereas all the power on earth which so often dazleth us can but afflict the body this woundeth the soul rippeth up the very heart and bowels and when those Lords which we so tremble at till we fall from him Matth. 10.28 can but kill the body this Lord can cast both soul and body into hell nay can make us a hell unto our selves make us punish and torment our selves and being greater then our Conscience can multiply those strokes Humane Laws have been brought into disgrace because they had not power enough to attend and hold them up and even the common people who fear them most have by their own observation gathered the boldness to call them cobwebs for they see he that hath a full purse or a good sword will soon break through them or find a besome to sweap them away What speak you of the Laws I can have them and bind them up in sudariolo saith Petrus Damianus in the corner of my handkerchief Nay many times for want of power victae leges the Laws must submit as in conquest and though they have a tongue to speak yet they have not a hand to strike And as it is in punishment so it is sometimes in point of reward Men may raise their merit and deserts so high that the Exchequer it self shall not find a reward to equal them We have a story in our own Chronicles of a Noble-man who
see danger and by this we avoid it By this we see beauty in ashes and vanity in glory And as other Creatures are so made and framed that without any guide or leader without any agitation or business of the mind they turn from that which is hurtful and chuse that which is agreeable with their nature as the Goddess which saith Pliny Nat. Hist l. 9. c. 30. carent omni alio sensu quà m cibi periculi have no sense at all but of their food and danger and naturally seek the one and fly the other So this Light this Power is set up in Man which by discourse and comparing one thing with another the beginning with the end shews with realities and fair Promises with bitter effects may shew him a way to escape Death and pursue Life through rough and rugged wayes even through the valley of Death it self And this is it which we call Vigilancy or Watchfulness Deut. 4.9 Take heed to thy self saith Moses Tom. 1 and Basil wrote a whole Oration or Sermon on that Text and considereth Man as if he were nothing else but Mind and Soul and the Flesh were the garment which clotheth and covereth it and that it is compast about with Beauty and Deformity Health and Sickness Friends and Enemies Riches and Poverty from which the Mind is to guard and defend it self that neither the glory nor terrour of outward objects have any power or influence on it to make a way through the flesh to deface and ruine it and put out its light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed to thy self PRAE OMNI CVSTODIA SERVA COR TVVM Keep thy heart with all diligence AB OMNI CAVTIONE Prov. 4.23 so it is rendred by Mercer out of the Hebrew from every thing that is to be avoided AB OMNI VINCVLO so others from every tye or bond which may shackle or hinder thee in the performance of that duty to which thou art obliged whether it be a chain of gold or of iron of pleasure or of pain whether it be of a fair and well promising or a black temptation keep it with all diligence and keep it from the incumbrances And the reason is given For out of it are the issues of Life PROCESSIONES VITARVM the Proceedings of many lives So many conquests as we gain over temptations so many lively motions we feel animated and full of God which increase our crown of joy All is comprehended in that of our Saviour Watch Matth. 26.41 and prâ—y lest you enter into temptation If you watch not your heart will lie open and tentations will enter and as many deaths will issue forth Evil thoughts Fornications Murders Adulteries Blasphemy as so many locusts out of the bottomless pit To watch then is to fix our mind on that which concerneth our peace to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Philip. 2.12 to perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 12.28 2 John 8. to serve him with reverence and godly fear to look to our selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought So that by the Apostle our Caution and Watchfulness is made up of Reverence and Fear And these two are like the two pillars in the porch of the Temple of Solomon 1 Kings 7.11 Jachin and Boaz to establish and strengthen our Watch. This certainly must needs be a sovereign antidot against sin and a forcible motive to make us look about our selves when we shall think that our Lord is present every where and seeth and knoweth all things when we shall consider him as a Witness who shall be our Judge that all we do we do as Hilary speaketh in Divinitatis sinu in his very presence and bosome that when we deceive our selves when we deceive our brethren when we sell our Lord to our Fears or our Hopes when we betray him in our craft crucifie him in our Revenge defile and spit upon him in our Uncleanness we are even then in his presence If we did firmly believe it we would not suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye lids to slumber How careful are we how anxious how solicitous in our behaviour how scrupulous of every word and look and gesture what Criticks in our deportment if we stand before them whom we call our Betters indeed our fellow dust and ashes And shall we make our face as adamant in the presence of our Lord shall we stand idle and sport and play the wantons before him Shall we beat down his Altars blaspheme his Name beat our fellow servants before his face Shall we call him to be witness to a lie make him an advocate for the greatest sin suborn his Providence to own our impiety his Wisedome to favour our craft his Permission to consecrate and ratifie our sin Can we do what a Christian eye cannot look upon which Reason and Religion condemn and even Pagans tremble at Eccl. 23.17 Tertul. de Testm animae c. 2. Vnde haec tibi anima non Christiani can we do it and do it before his face whose Eye is pure and ten thousand times brighter then the Sun DEVS VIDET and DEVS JVDICAT God will see and God will Judge is taken out of the common treasury of Nature and the Heathens themselves have found it there who speak it as their language And if his awful Eye vvill not open ours our Lethargie is mortal We are Infidels if vve believe it not and if vve do believe it yet dare do those things vvhich afflict his eye vve are vvorse then Infidels Let us then look upon him think him present and stand upon our guard Psal 4.4 Let us stand in aw and not sin Let one Fear call upon another the Fear of this Lord upon the Fear of cautelousness and circumspection which is as our angel-keeper to keep us in all our vvayes in the smooth and even vvayes of peace and in the rough and rugged vvayes of adversity to lead us against our enemies vvhich are more then the hairs of our head as many as there are temptations in the world and to help us to defeat them to be our best buckler to keep off the darts of Satan and as a canopy to keep our virtues from soyl to keep our Liberality cheerful our Chastity fresh and green our Devotion fervent our Religion pure and undefiled to wast the body of Sin and perfect and secure our Obedience in a vvord to do that vvhich the Heathens thought their Goddess Pellonia did to drive and chase all evil out of our coasts For let us well weigh and consider it let us look upon our enemies the World with all its pageantry the Flesh with all its lusts the Devil with all his snares and wiles and enterprises let us look upon him coming towards us either as an Angel of light to deceive us or as a Lion to devour us and then let us consider our Lord and
of us And first we may lay it as a ground That nothing properly provoketh it self as Fire doth not provoke it self to burn nor the Sun to shine For the next and necessary causes of things are rather Efficients then Provocations which are alwayes external either to the person or principal or part which is the principal and special agent And so the Will of man doth consummate and finish sin but provoketh it not but is enticed to that evil or frighted from that which is good by some outward object which first presenteth it self unto the Sense which carrieth it to the Phansie which conveyeth it to the Understanding whence ariseth that fight and contention between the inferiour part of the Soul and the superiour the Sensual appetite and the Reason not to be decided or determined but by the Will And then the Will like Moses Exod. 17.11 holdeth up his hands as it were and is steady and strong the Reason prevaileth and when it letteth them down the Sense The Senses then are as Hierome calleth them fenestrae animae the windows of the Soul through which tentations enter to flatter and woo the Phansie and Affections to joyn with the principal faculties of the Soul to beget that Sin which begetteth Death And if you will observe how they work by the Senses upon the Soul you will soon find that they do it not by force and battery but by allurement and speaking it fair or else by frowns and terrours that there is no such force in their arguments which spiritual wisdome and vigilancy may not assoil that there is no such beauty on them which may not be loathed no such horrour which we may not slight and contemn First they work us occasions of sin And all the power that Occasion hath is but to shew it self If it kill it is as the Basilisk by the eye by looking towards us or indeed rather by our looking towards it Occasion is a creature of our own making we give it being or it would not be and it is in our power as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 11 12. to cut it off When we see the Golden wedge we know it is but a clod of earth Wee see beauty and can call it the colour and symmetry of flesh and bloud of dust and ashes and unless we make it so it is no more Indeed we commonly say Occasio facit furem that Occasion maketh a thief but the truth is it is the Thief that maketh the occasion For the Object being let in by the Senses calleth out the Soul which frameth and fashioneth it and bringeth it to what form it please maketh Beauty a net and Riches a snare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Psal 1 Hieron And therefore bonum est non tangere it is not safe to see or touch There is danger in a very touch in a cast of the eye Upon a look or touch the Soul may fly out to meet the Object and be entangled unawares Vtinam nec videre possimus quod facere nobis nefas est We may sometimes make it our wish not to see that which we may not do not to touch that which may be made an occasion of sin not to look upon wine when it is red Prov. 23.31 nor the strange woman when she smileth For in the second place Objects are not onely made occasions of sin but are drest up and trimmed by the Father of lies who taketh up a chamber in our Phansie in that shape and form in those fair appearances which may deceive us There is a kind of Rhetorick and eloquence in them but not that of the Oratours of Greece which was solid and rational but that of the later Sophisters which consisted in elegancies and figures and Rhetorical colours that which Plato calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flattery and popular eloquence For as they who deliver up themselves to Fortune and tread the wayes to honour and the highest place do commonly begin there with smiles where they mean to shake a whip and cringe and bow and flatter the common people whom they intend to enslave stroke and clap them and so get up and ride the Beast to their journeys end so do these tentations insinuate and win upon the weaker part of man whilst the stronger is left to watch work upon that part first which is easier to be seduced then the Reason or Will which must needs deny them admittance if they came and presented themselves in their own shape and were not first let in by the Senses and Phansie and there coloured over and beautified and in this dress sent up unto them Indeed the Senses are merely passive receive the object and no more The Eye doth see and the Ear hear and the Hands feel and their work and office is transacted And thus if I be watchful I may see Vanity and detest it I may hear Blasphemy and abhorre it I may touch and not be defiled But as the Prophet speaketh Death cometh in at the windows Jer. 9.21 and so by degrees entreth into the palace of our Mind The Civilians tell us Possessio acquiritur etiamsi in angulo tantùm ingrediamur We take possession of a house though we come but into a corner of it So through our negligence and unwariness many times nay most times it falleth out that when the temptation hath gained an entrance at the eye or ear it presseth forward to the more retired and more active faculties and at last gaineth dominion over the whole man from the Senses it is transmitted to the Phansy which hath a creating faculty to make what she pleaseth of what she list to put new forms and shapes upon objects to make Gods of clay to make that delightful which in it self is grievous that desirable which is lothsome that fair and beautiful which is full of horrour to set up a golden calf and say it as a God August lib. Music c. 11. Et habentur phantasmata pro cognitis These shews and apparitions are taken for substances these airy phantasmes for well-grounded conclusions And the Mind of man doth so apply it self unto them ut dum in his est cogitatio ea intellectu cerni arbitramur that what is but in the Phansy and wrapped up in a thought is supposed to be seen by the eye of the Understanding in the same shape What we think is so and with us in these our distempers Opinion and Knowledge are one and the same thing And this inflameth and maddeth the Affections that they forget their objects and look and run wild another way Our Hatred is placed on that which we should love and our Love on that which we should detest we fear that which we should embrace and we hope for that which we should fear we are angry with a friend and well pleased with an enemy Now profaneness soundeth better then a hymn or a Psalm of thanksgiving Hilar in Psal
throat But this is not that Confession which ushereth in Repentance or forwardeth and promoteth our Turn It is rather an ingredient to make up the cup of stupefaction which we take down with delight and then fall asleep and dream of safety and peace in the midst of a tempest yea even when we are on the brink of danger and ready to fall into the pit David it is true 2 Sam. 12.13 Aug. Hom 4.1 In his tribus syllabis flamma sacrificii coram Domino ascendit in coelum said no more but Peccavi and his sin was taken away Tantum valent tres syllabae saith S. Augustine Such force there was in three syllables And can there be virtue in syllables No man can imagin there can But David's heart saith he was now a sacrificing and on these three syllables the flame of that sacrifice was carried up before the Lord into the highest heavens If our Knowledge of our sins be clean and affective if our Grief be real then our Confession and Acknowledgment will be hearty Isa 16.11 Job 30.27 Lam. 1.20 our bowels will sound as a harp our inwards will boyl and not rest our heart will tremble and be turned within us our sighs and grones will send forth our words as sad messengers of that desolation which is within Our heart will cry out as well as our tongue My heart my heart is prepared saith David Psal 57.7 which is then the best and sweetest instrument when it is broken 4. And these three in the fourth place will raise up in us a Desire to shake off these fears Heb. 12 1. and this weight which doth so compass about and infold us For who is there that doth see his sins weep over them exsecrate them by his Tears and condemn them by his Confession that doth see Sin clâ—thed with death the Law a killing letter the Judge frowning Fletus humanaâ—um necessitatum verecunda exsecratio Sen. Contr. 8.6 Death ready with his dart to strike him through that would be such a beast as to come so near and hell opening her mouth to take him in and doth not long and grone and travel in pain and cry out to be delivered from this body of death Who would live under a conscience that is ever galling and gnawing him What prisoner that feeleth his fetters would not shake them off Certainly he that can stand out against all these terrours and amazements that can thwart and resist his Knowledge wipe off his Tears fling off his Sorrow baffle and confute his own Acknowledgement slight his own Conscience mock his Distaste trifle with the Wrath of God which he seeth near him and play at the very gates of Hell he that is in this great deep and will not cry out he that knoweth what he is and will be what he is knoweth he is miserable and desireth not a change such an one is near to the condition of the damned Spirits who howl for want of that light which they have lost and detest and blaspheme that most which they cannot have who because they can never be happy can never desire it But to this condition we cannot be brought till we are brought under the same punishment which nevertheless is represented to us in this life in the sad thoughts of our heart in the horrour of sin and in a troubled conscience that so we may avoid it The type we see now that we may never see the thing it self And the sight of this if we remove not our eye at the call and enticement of the next approching vanity which may please at first but in the end will place before us as foul an object as that we now look upon will work in us a desire to have that removed which is now as a thorn in our eyes a desire to have Gods hand taken off from us and those sins too taken away which made his hand so heavy a desire to be freed from the guilt and from the dominion of sin a desire that reacheth at liberty Tusc q. l. 5. and at heaven it self Eruditi vivere est cogitare saith Tully Meditation is the life of a Scholar If the mind leave off to move and work and be in agitation the man indeed may live but the Philosopher is dead And Vita Christiani sanctum desiderium saith Hierom The life of a Christian is nothing else but a holy desire drawn out and spent in prayers deprecations wishes obtestations pantings and longings held up and continued by the heat and vigour and endless unsatisfiedness of the desire which if it slack and fayl or end in an indifferency or lukewarmness leaveth nothing behind it but a lump and mass of corruption for with it the life is gone the Christian is departed 5. But in the last place this is not enough nor will it draw us near enough unto a Turn There is required as a true witness of our Convincement of our Sorrow of the heartiness of our Confession of the truth of our desire a serious Endeavour an eager contention with our selves an assiduous violence against those sins which hath brought us so low even to the dust of death and the house of the grave and Endeavour to order our steps to walk contrary to our selves to make a covenant with our eye to purge our ear to cut off our hand to keep our feet to forbear every act which carrieth with it but the appearance of evil to cut off every occasion which may prompt us to it an Endeavour to work in the vineyard to exercise our selves in the works of piety to love the fair opportunities of doing good and to lay hold on them to be ambitious and inquisitive after all those helps and advantages which may promote this endeavour and bring it with more ease and certainty to the end This is as the heaving and strugling of a man under a burden as the striving in a snare as the throws of a woman in travail who longeth to be delivered this is our knocking at the gates of heaven our flight from the wrath to come Thus do we strive and fight with all those defects which either Nature began or Custome hath confirmed in us Thus do we by degrees work that happy change that we are not the same but other men Val. Max. l. 8. c. 7. As the Historian speaketh of Demosthenes whose studiousness and industry overcame the malignity of nature and unloosed his tongue Alterum Demosthenem mater alterum industria enixa est The mother brought forth one Demosthenes and industry another so by this our serious and unfeigned endeavour eluctamur per obstantia we force our selves out of those obstacles and encumbrances which detained us so long in evil waies we make our way through the clouds and darkness of this world and are compassed about with raies of light Nature made us men evil Custome made us like the beasts that perish Grace and Repentance make us Christians and
Matth. 6.7 And happy we for whose sake God who hateth babling will yet multiply words nay reiterate the same but most unhappy we if we hearken not to his voice if our Turn and conversion be not as real as the ingemination is loud and vehement if there be not a religious Tautology a constant reinforced continued Turn in our Repentance To draw then the lines by which we are to pass We may observe There be two main lets and hinderances of our conversion I may call them retinacula poenitentiae that hang upon us and hold us back when we should turn Despair on the one side and Presumption on the other Despair maketh it too late to repent Presumption maketh it soon enough though it be never so late Presumption maketh and breaketh a resolution every day Despair will make no more Presumption maketh an evening a bed-time Repentances She will turn at last Despair no Repentance at all Never never Now this ingemination is as thunder to them both loud in the ears of those that despair Turn ye turn ye It is not too late and terrible in the ears of those that presume Turn ye turn ye It cannot be soon enough And as lightning it flasheth in the face of the presumptuous sinner shewing him the horrour of his waies and that Death is in the way and it discovereth to the drooping or rather dead soul the riches of God's mercy that though Death be in the way at the very door yet Death is not unavoidable From this Ingemination then we may gather First Gods love to Repentance to rowse us from Despair Secondly the necessary and essential Properties of Repentance It must be 1. matura conversio a speedy and sudden Turn Turn ye turn ye lest it be too late 2. Sincera conversio a real Turn a Turn in good earnest 3 Plena poenitentia as the Antients used to speak a full Repentance a total Repentance a Turn from all our evil wayes a Turn never to look back again And these will keep us from Presumption Of these in their Order Turn ye turn ye is a vehement ingemination to rowse us from Despair And indeed no greater argument can be brought against Despair then Gods Bowels and Compassion then his loud and open proffer of mercy For if it were too late to Turn he would not thus call after us If we could not turn at all one call were too many and then what need this noyse this ingemination Bring in the most despairing Christian living and if this voice from heaven awake him not I must pronounce him not onely dead in sin but in hell already For it is easie to observe that the ground of all despair is not from hence that we cannot but that we will not turn Which much resembleth that despair which chaineth the damned Spirits in the place of torment So far we are like to them that we despair for want of Charity which they can never have nor the despairing sinner as he thinketh and therefore will not have not for want of Faith which they have as well as he Jam. 2.19 and tremble We despair not I say for want of faith For it is plain if we did not believe we could not despair unless peradventure we do with some conceive of Faith as that instrument or habit by which we apply and appropriate Christs merits and promises to our souls which indeed is rather an act of our hope then of our Faith Despair being nothing else but the disability of applying Christs merits to our selves which is the effect not of Infidelity but ungodliness For we believe This is the way and we know we have not walked in it Isa 30.21 and so despair We are no where in Scripture commanded to be assured of our salvation 2 Pet. 1.10 but we are enjoyned in plain terms to make our election sure Nor are we any where in Scripture forbid to despair but if we make not good the condition we are forbid to hope and in that commanded to love Christ and keep his commandments Joh. 14.15 1 Joh. 5.2 that we may never despair Miserable Dilemma when I must neither despair nor hope for I cannot let in Despair till I have let in that monster sin which begat it and when that is let in and hath gained the dominion there is no room for Hope Ask Judas himself and he will tell you there is a God For if there were no God no Heaven no Hell there could be no such thing as Conscience Ask him again and he will tell you he is true or he denieth him to be God Coloss 1.27 He will tell you of the riches of the glorious mystery of our redemption and that in Christ remission of sins is promised Luk. 24.47 But his many sins and his late sin of betraying his Master cast so thick a cloud over his judgement that he cannot see any beam of mercy cast towards him and so he concludeth both against God and himself There is mercy for thousands but none for Judas Exod. 20.6 34 7. Matth 9.13 Matth. 27.5 God calleth sinners to repentance but not Judas and when all the world may turn he will go and hang himself Thus may our sins go over our heads and over those mercies too which might be over our sins and make us very witty to argue and dispute against our selves even to dispute our selves into hell A neglect of our duty begat Despair and Despair basely disproveth and augmenteth our neglect And if we judge rightly our non posse is a nolle we cannot turn because we will not turn For if we would but turn which we may if we will Despair would sink and vanish out of sight and Mercy would shine forth through the cloud and give light enough to fly far from that evil the fear of which had covered our faces and in a manner buried us alive for a despairing man is but a dead carcass actuated not by a Soul but by a Devil We need not seek far for arguments Despair is an argument against it self For if there could never be any The best that we have heard of is but the Logick of Fools which is Logick without reason I cannot hope because I cannot hope It is true a despairing person cannot hope in statu quo nunc as they speak in the state and condition he is now in And there is reason for that For why should an enemy to God hope for his favour Why should Dives hope for a place in Abraham's bosome And yet he may hope for Gods favour resolve to turn from his evil wayes and this will first build up him in righteousness and then build up a Hope upon the ruins of Despair Sin is the foundation of Despair and if we repent not will bear it up But upon our Turn Righteousness casteth down the foundation it self and with it Despair and in the fall grindeth it to pieces and in the place of it
out of which we shall have neither power nor will to come that it is a leading sin the forerunner to the sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven And shall we yet delay Mat. 12.31 We have been taught that it is high presumption to leave Christ working out his part of the covenant in his blood once shed for us Non expectat Deâ—s frigescentes senectâ—â—is annos nec â—mortuam jam per aetatem vitiorum consâ—etudinem Vult longi pâ—aelii militem Hilar. in Psal 118. Beth. and interceding for us for ever and wilfully to neglect our part and drive it off from time to time from the cheerfulness and vigour of youth to the dulness and laziness of old age to withered hands and trembling joynts to weak memories heavy hearts and dull understandings to unactive amazedness to the Would but Cannot of a bedrid-sinner then to strive against Sin when we are to struggle with our disease then to do it when we can do no thing and when we cannot finish and perfect our Repentance to fill and make it up in a thought or sigh in a faint and sick acknowledgement which are rather sad remonstrances against our former neglect and delay then infallible testimonies of demonstrative declarations of a wounded and broken heart This we have been told and shall we yet delay In brief we have been taught that Delay if we cut it not off betimes will at last cut us off from the Covenant of Grace 2 Cor. 1.20 that it will make the Gospel as killing as the Law the promises which are Yea and Amen Hebr 12.19 nothing to us that it will make a gracious God a consuming fire Psal 115.17 Agens poenitentiam reconciliatus cùm sanus est postea bene viveus securus hinc exit Agens poenitentiam ad ultimum reconciliatus si ecurus hinc exit ego non sum securus Aug. Hom. 41. and Jesus a destroyer That a dying man can no more turn to God then the dead can praise him That after we have thus seared our consciences and drawn out our life in a continued disobedience the Gospel is sealed up and concerneth us not at the hour of death who would not lay hold of one hour of our life to turn in That such cannot go the same ordinary way to heaven with the Apostles and Martyrs and the souls of just men made perfect with those who put off the old man and put on the new with those who escaped the pollutions of the world and were never again entangled in them but are left to that Mercy which was never promised and which they have little reason to hope for having so much abused it to their own perdition All that can be said is scarce worth their hearing Non dico Salvabuntur non dico Damnabuntur We cannot say they shall be saved we cannot say they shall be damned They may be safe but of this we cannot be sure because we have no revelation for it but rather for the contrary Onely God is not bound to rules and Laws as Man is no not to his own but keepeth to himself his supreme right and power entire may do what he will with his own take that for a Turn which he hath not declared to be so and do that which he hath threatned he will not do But it is ill depending upon what God may do For for ought that is revealed he will never do it He will never do it to him who presumeth he will because he may and so putteth off his Turn and Repentance to the last leaveth the ordinary way and trusteth to what God may do out of course He will never do it to a man of Belial who runneth on in his sins yet looketh for a chariot to carry him into heaven We have no such doctrine nor the Church of Christ Her voice is Turn ye now at last will be too late This is the doctrine of the Gospel But yet the judgement is the Lords All this we have heard and we cannot gainsay or confute it And shall we yet delay Certainly if we know these terrours of the Lord and not turn now we shall hardly ever turn If we hear and believe this and do not repent we are worse then Infidels Our Faith shall help the Devil to accuse us and it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha then for us If we hear this and still fold our hands to sleep still delay if this noise do not stir and move us if this do not startle us in our evil wayes we have good reason to fear we shall never awake till the last Trump till that day till the last day which is a day of Judgement as this our day is of Repentance We say we believe that now heaven is offered and now we must strive to enter in we say we pray for it we hope for it we long for it If we do then Now is the time Festina fides alacris devotio spes impigra saith S. Ambrose Epist c. 10. Ep. 82. Faith is on the wing and carrieth us along with the speed of a thought through all difficulties through all distasts and affrightments and will not let us stay one moment in the house of vanity in any slippery place where we may fall and perish Devotio est actualis voluntas prompte faciendi quae ad Dei cultum spectant Aquin 22. q. 82. art 1. Praepropera velocitate pietatis pene aute coepit perfectus esse uam disceret Pontius Diaconus de Cypriani vita Devotion is full of heat and activity and Hope that is deferred is an affliction If we are led by the Spirit of God we are led apace drawn suddenly out of those wayes which lead unto death called upon to escape for our lives and not to look behind us and as it was said of Cyprian we are at our journeys end as soon as we set out God speaketh and we hear he begetteth good thoughts in us and we nourish them to that strength that they break forth into action he poureth forth his grace and we receive it he maketh his benefits his lure and we come to his hand he thundereth from heaven and we fall down before him In brief Repentance is as our Passeover By it we sacrifice our heart and we do it in the bitterness of our soul and in hast and so pass from death to life from darkness to light from our evil wayes to the obedience of Faith and God passeth over us seeth the blood our wounded spirits our tears our contrition and will not now destroy us but seeing us so soon and so far removed from our evils wayes will favour us and shine upon us and in the light of his countenance we shall walk on from strength to strength through all the hardship and troubles of a continued race to that rest and peace which is everlasting Thus much of the first property of Repentance
him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 We force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh not till we provoke him His Justice and Severity are the same as everlasting as Himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams bosome yet were he good Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his exhortations and expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. ◠seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils is still the same And his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced in a damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit And so to receive his glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde ad mortem sed antè ad vitam The sentence of death was pronounced against Man almost as soon as he was Man but he was first created to life We are punished for being evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 But if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his glory out of that which dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more power then the Sword In heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is to see it in the Church of the first
though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion That he was ever willing to die Tert. Apol c. 1. Nolumus nostrum quia malum agnoscimus We will not call sin ours because we know it evil and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself It is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is comfort soundeth every where but we are deaf and cannot hear it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fettered Jer. 8.22 and can make no use of it There is balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our natural weakness of our want of grace and assistance When we might know the danger we are in we plead ignorance When we willingly yield our members servants unto sin Rom. 6.13 19. we have learnt to say We did not do it plenâ voluntate with full consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the fair gloss of a good intention and meaning We complain of our bodies and of our souls as if the Wisdome of God had failed in our creation We would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we may be good we will be evil And these webs a sick and unsanctified phansie will soon spin out These are receipts and antidotes of our own tempering devised and made use of against the gnawings of conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience beginneth to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and put it to silence We carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostom's time bound the coins of Alexander the Great or some part of S. John's Gospel to ease them of the head-ach For by these receipts and spells we more envenom our souls and draw nearer to Death by thinking to fly from it and are tenfold more the servants of Satan because we are willing to do him service but not willing to wear his livery And thus excusando exprobramus our apologies defame us our false comforts destroy us and we condemn our selves with an excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to pass we will first take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from our Natural weakness and from the Deficiency of Grace For neither can our natural weakness betray nor can there be such a want of grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much power as to force the Will and so there will be no necessity of dying either in respect of our natural weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his grace And then in the next place we will shew that neither Ignorance of our duty nor Regret or Reluctancy of Conscience nor any Pretense or good Intention can make Sin less sinfull or our death less voluntary And so we will bring Death to their doors who have sought it out who have called it to them vvho are confederate vvith it and are vvorthy to be partakers thereof And First Why will ye die O house of Israel Why will ye die vve may perhaps ansvver vve are dead already Haeret lateri lethalis arundo The poysoned and deadly dart is in our sides Adam sinned and vve die Omnes eramus in illo uno cum ille unus nos omnes perdidit We vvere all the loins of that one man Adam vvhen that one man slevv us all And this we are too ready to confess that we are born in sin Nay we fall so low as to damn our selves before we were born This some may do in humility but most are well content it should be so well pleased in their pedegree well pleased to be brought into the world in that filth and uncleanness which God doth hate and make the unhappiness of their birth an advocate to plead for those pollutions for those wilfull and beloved sins which they fall into in the remaining part of their life as being the proper and natural issues of that Weakness and Impotency with which we were sent into the world But this is not true in every part That vveakness vvhatsoever it is can dravv no such necessity upon us nor can be vvrought into an apology for sin or an excuse for dying For to include and vvrap up all our actual sin in the folds of original vveakness is nothing else but to cancel our own debts and obligations Licentiam usurpare praetexto necessitatis Tert. De cult Faemin and to put all upon our first parents score and so make Adam guilty of the sins of the whole world Our natural and original weakness I will not now call into question since it hath had such Grandees in our Church men of great learning and piety for its nursing Fathers and that for many centuries of years but yet I cannot see why it should be made a cloak to cover our other transgressions or why we should miscarry so often with an eye cast back upon our first fall which is made ours but in another man nor any reason though it be a plant watered by the best hands why men should be so delighted in it why they should lie down and repose themselves under its shadow why they should be so willing to be weak and so unwilling to hear the contrary why men should take so much pains to make the way to happiness narrower and the way to death broader then it is in a word why we should thus magnifie a temptation and desparage our selves why we should make each importunate object as powerful and irresistible as God himself and our selves as idoles even nothing in this world Petrarch 1.3 R. S. c. 1. Magna pars humanarum que relarum non injusta modò materiâ sed stulta est The world is full of complaints and excuses but the complaints which the world putteth forth are for the most part most unjust and void of that reason which should present and commend them For when our souls are pressed down and overcharged with sin when we feel the gripes and gnawings of our conscience we commonly lay hold on those remedies which are worse then the disease and suborn an unseasonable and ill-applied conceit of our own natural weakness which is more dangerous then the temptation as an excuse and comfort of our overthrow We fall and plead we were weak and fall more then seven times a day and hold up the same plea still till we fall into that place where we shall be muzled and speachless not able to say a word where our complaints will end in curses in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Hieron Amando Omnes nostris vitiis favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem We are
all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our Lusts conceived and brought forth by the midwifery of our Will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this complaint against Nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and Nature hath imprinted in our souls those common principles of goodness That good is to be embraced and evil to be abandoned That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst as the Stoicks call them of the mind and preparations against Sin and Death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke them might lift up our souls far above those depressions of Self-love and Covetousness and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which Reason with the help of Grace overcometh at once For Reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but also when we are beat to the ground it checketh and upbraideth us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation Psal 62.1 121.1 is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam And when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weakness as well as we do with the temptation Psal 103.14 then if we fall God remembreth whereof we are made considereth our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever But to think of our weakness and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves Wisd 1.12 to seek out Death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approch as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weakness is to charge God and Nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself And thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fall willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anak too strong for such grashoppers as we We delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the mother of all those mishapen births and monsters which walk about the world we dress and deck up and give it a fair and glorious name and call it Humility Which is Humilitas maximum fidei opus Hil. in Psal 130. saith Hilary the hardest and greatest work of our faith to which it is so unlike that it is the greatest enemy it hath and every day weakneth and disenableth it that it doth not work by charity but leaveth us Captives to the world and sin which but for this conceit it would easily vanquish and tread down under our feet We may call it Humility but it is Pride a stubborn and insolent standing out with God that made us upon this foul and unjust pretense That he made us so humilitas sophistica saith Petrus Blesensis the humility of hypocrites which at once boweth and pusheth out the horn in which we disgrace and condemn our selves that we may do what we please and speak evil of our selves that we may be worse Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are we groan it out and there is musick in the sound which we hear and delight in and carry along in our mind and so become wretched indeed even those miserable sinners which will ever be so And shall we call this Humility If it be Col. 2.18 it is as the Apostle speaketh a voluntary humility but in a worse sense He is the humblest man that doth his duty For that Humility which is commended to us in Scripture letteth us up to heaven this which is so epidemical sinketh us into the lowest pit That Humility boweth us down with sorrow this bindeth our hands with sloth that looketh upon our imperfections past this maketh way for more to come that ventureth and condemneth it self condemneth it self and ventureth further this runneth out of the field and dare not look upon the enemy Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt And it is no marvel they should fall and perish whom their own so low and groundless opinion hath already overthrown For first though I deny not a derived Weakness and from Adam though I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self or bound to the centre of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with others yet it is easie to deceive our selves and to think it more contagious then it is more operative and more destructive then it would be if we would shake off this conceit and rowse our selves and stand up against it Ignaviâ nostrâ fortis est It may be it is our sloth and cowardise that maketh it strong Certainly there must be more force then this hath to make us so wicked as many times we are and there be more promoters of the kingdom of Darkness in us then that which we brought with us into the world Lord what a noise hath Original sin made amongst the sons of Adam and what ill use hath been made of it When this Lion roareth all the Beasts of the forrest tremble and yet are beasts still We hear of it and are astonished and become worse and worse and yet there are but few that exactly know what it is When we are Infants we do not know that we are so no more then the Tree doth that it grows Much less can we discover what poyson we brought with us into the world which as it is the nature of some kind of poyson though it have no visible operation for the present may some years after break forth from the head to the foot in swellings and sores full of corruption and not be fully purged out to our
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
but at the word 's speaking He crieth Lo I come to do it my self Look upon this object of Majesty and Humility yet once again and see the power and omnipotencie of his Love In this laying down his life for us he was pleased to give a price infinitely above the merchandize and as in the world some buyers are wont to do to buy his own affection to us to pay down not a talent for a talent but a talent for a mite Himself for a worm and his Love for the world nay by his infinite Love to bound as it were his infinite Power his infinite Wisdom and his illimited Will For here his Power Wisdom and Will find a NON ULTRA and are at the furthest He cannot do He cannot find out He cannot wish for us more then he hath done then being equal with God to take upon him the form of a servant and in that form to humble himself to the death of the cross How should this spectacle of Love and Power of Majesty and Humility affect and ravish our souls How should this fire of Love these everlasting burnings kindled in our flesh enflame us That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers That is greater which is above our hope That is greatest which pre-occupateth and forestalleth our desires But what is that which over-runneth our opinion and even swalloweth it up in victory Had not he revealed his will and told us he would die we could not have desired it but our prayers had been turned into sin our hope had been madness and our opinion impiety All that we can say is that it was his infinite Love And his Love defendeth his Majesty and exalteth the Humility of his Cross and maketh it as glorious as his Throne For when he was fastned to it when he died it was his Throne and from it he threw down Principalities and Powers and Sin and Death it self Love hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law it hath the prerogative of Honour and maketh Bondage free Disgrace honourable Infirmity omnipotent Death life it worketh a harmony out of these two inconsistent terms Death and the Lord which is the joy of the whole earth Thus is Christ's Death made a spectacle unto us and his Love bespeaketh us to behold it and there needeâ—h no other Oratour to perswade us For where Love is denied the tongues of Men and of Angels are but as a tinckling cymbal But this is not all For In the second place Christ hangeth not on the cross onely as a sacrifice That every eye is willing to behold even the eye of flesh the eye that is full of adulteries But he standeth there as an Ensample to us of Humility Patience Obedience Love This Altar hath an inscription TOLLITE CRUCEM Take up your cross and follow me Not an Ensample alone that cometh too short Nor a Sacrifice alone for shall he be offered up for those who deny him Not an Ensample alone For flesh and bloud may follow him but never overtake him no not in those wayes which he marked out with his bloud of Obedience and Love Nor Satisfaction alone For how can he satisfie for those who will be in evil what he is in good yesterday and to day and the same for ever 1 Pet. 2.21 Christ suffered for us saith S. Peter leaving us an ensample that we should follow his steps Can an humble Saviour be a sacrifice for the proud Can a meek Saviour dye for a revenger Can a poor Christ give himself for him who will neither clothe nor feed him Can he in whom there was found no guile plead for him who is full of deceit Can a Lamb be a sacrifice for a Fox a Wolf or a Lion He is sacrificed and all is done on his part There is a CONSUMMATUM EST It is finished But our Obedience is not shut up in that but beginneth where Christ's did end and by the power and force of his Love must be carried on in an even and constant course unto our Consummatum est till we end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have redemption Ephes 1.7 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pattern Jussit fieri qui fecit He sacrificed himself for us 1 Tim. 1.16 that we might offer our selves a lively sacrifice to the Lord. Jesus Christ is a pattern to them who shall believe on him to life everlasting We dare not say with some that Christ came into the world non ad satisfactionem sed exemplum not to satisfie at all but to direct us by his example in the wayes of life not to pay down our debts but to teach us an art of thrift to be able to pay them our selves But most true it is if we make him not an ensample he will not be a sacrifice nor will there remain any sacrifice for sin God forbid that our Malice should shelter it self in his Love that his Meekness should be a buckler for our Revenge that his Righteousness should shadow our Unrighteousness that all our Obedience should be lost in his Sacrifice that because he suffered so much to lead us the way we should take the less care to follow after him that by the Gospel as by the Law Sin should revive that the Law should convince the conscience and the Gospel flatter it that the Law should affright sinners and Christ encourage them that the Cross of Christ which is a School of virtue should be made a Sanctuary for wilful offenders that Christ should nail the handwriting against us to his cross and then let fall a Dispensation from all righteousness and make it less necessary for us to observe so strictly the moral Law that this ease and benefit should accrue to Christians by the death of Christ that we may be more indulgent to our selves do what we list Pardon lying so near at hand that we should destroy our selves because he is a Jesus pollute our selves because he is Christ to anoint us be more rebellious because he is our Lord and live in sin because he died for it A conceit so unreasonable that even common reason abhorreth it Had our Saviour given up his ghost and left no precept behind him had his Apostle been silent and said no more but that he died for our sins the weakest understanding might easily draw out this conclusion that we are to forsake them For why should he dye for that which he was willing should survive Or who would lay his axe to the root of the tree and not cuâ— it down to the ground And yet as gross a conceit as it is we open our hearts to receive it And it is summus seculi reatus the great guilt of the age the pit out of which locusts swarm which are as scorpions to bring evil on the earth Were it not for this Physick men would not be so sick were it not for hope of reconciliation men would
not dare so oft to offend and which is most strange had not Christ so loved us we had not persecuted him had he not been a sacrifice we had been more willing to have made him an ensample For we hope his Love that nailed him to the cross will be ready to meet and succour and embrace us in any posture in any temper whatsoever though we come towards him clothed with vengeance Zeph. 1.8 in anger and fury with strange apparel in wantonness and lust polluted and spotted with the world Thus doth the sophistry of our Sensual part prevail against the demonstrations of Reason which doth bring Christ in as dead for our sins but withall as a Lord to help us to destroy Sin by the power of his death For both these are friendly linked together in the Lord's Death his Love and his Ensample Et magnum nobis quà m parvo constat exemplum And this great example how little doth it cost us Not to be spit upon and buffeted and crucified not to suffer and die It is no more then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew it forth in our selves till he come Which is the Act here required and my next Part. And this we must do if we will be fitted for this Feast and be welcome guests at the Lord's Table Divines have told us of a threefold manner of feeding on the flesh of Christ a Sacramental alone a Spiritual alone and a Sacramental and Spiritual both Which distinction may not be rejected if it be rightly understood 1. They that come to this Table and receive the Sacrament without faith and devotion may be said indeed to eat the Body of Christ as that name is usually given to the Sacrament and sign and the Sacrament of the body of Christ after a manner is the Body of Christ and yet that of S. Augustine is true He that sheweth not forth his death eateth not his flesh but is guilty of the body and bloud of Christ a Communicant and no Communicant an enemy and not a guest fitter to be dragged to the bar then to be placed at his Table And what a morsel is that with which we take down Death and the Devil together 2. Some there be whom not contempt and neglect but necessity the great patroness of humane infirmitie keepeth from the Lord's Table and Sacrament and yet they shew his death look up upon his cross draw it out in their heart in bleeding characters apply it by faith and make it their meditation day and night And these though they feed not on him Sacramentally yet spiritually are partakers of his body and bloud and so made heirs of salvation though they eat not this bread nor drink of this cup. For what cannot be done cannot bind Some Actions are counted as done though they be never brought forth into act If the heart be ready though the tongue be silent as a viol on the wall yet we sing and give praise Persecution may shut up the Church-doors yet I may love the place where God's honour dwelleth Persecution may seal up the Priest's lips shut me up in prison and feed me with no other bread then that of affliction yet even in the lowest dungeon I may feed on this Bread of life I may be valiant and not strike a blow I may be liberal and not give a mite hospital when I have not a hole to hide my head in He that taketh my purse from me doth not rob me of my piety he that sequestereth my estate yet leaveth me my charity and he that debarreth me the Table cannot keep me from Christ As I told you out of Ambrose Manducans non manducat I may eat the Bread and not be partaker of the Body so Non Manducans manducat Though I take not down the outward elements yet I may feed on Christ But happy yea thrice happy is their condition who can do both so receive panem Domini the Lord's bread that they may receive also pane 〈◊〉 Dominum be partakers of the Lord himself who is the Bread of life Blessed is he that thus eateth Bread with him at his Table For he feedeth on him Sacramentally and spiritually both Here he findeth those gracious advantages his Faith actuated his Hope exalted his Charity dilated the Covenant renewed the Promises and Love of Christ sealed and ratified to him with his bloud And this we shall do this comfort and joy we shall find even a new heaven in our souls if we shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and publish his death Which we may look upon at first as a duty of quick dispatch but if we look upon it again well weigh and consider it we shall find that it calleth for and requireth our greatest care and industry For it is not to turn the story of Christ's passion into a Tragedy to make a scenical representation of his death with all the art and colours of Rhetorick to declaim against the Jews malice or Judas's treason or Pilate's in justice but rather to declaim preach against our selves to hate and abhor crucifie our selves Nos nos homicidae We we alone are the murtherers Our Treachery was the Judas that betrayed him our Malice the Jew which accused him our Perjury the false witness against him our Injustice the Pilate that condemned him Our Pride scorned him our Envy grinned at him our Luxury â—pit upon him our Covetousness sold him Our corrupt bloud was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thorns our sores lanced with his spear and the whole body of Sin stretched out and crucified with the Lord of life This indeed doth shew his death This consideration doth present the Passion but in a rude and imperfect piece The death of the Lord is shewn almost by every man and every day Some shew it but withal shew their vanity and make it manifest to all men Some shew it by shewing the Cross by signing themselves with the sign of it Some to shew it shew a Body which cannot be seen being hid under the accidents of Bread and Wine Some shew their wit instead of Christ's Passion lift it up as he was upon the cross shew it with ostentation Some shew their rancour and malice about a feast of Love and so draw out Christ with the claw of a Devil Phil. 1.15 Some preach it as S Paul speaketh out of envy and strife and some also of good will Some preach it and preach against it Some draw out Christ's Passion and their Religion together and all is but a picture and then sound a trumpet make a great cry as the painter who had drawn a Souldier with a sword in his hand did sound an alarm that he might seem to fight But this doth not shew the Lord's death but as Tertullian speaketh id negat quod ostendit denieth what it sheweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew to preach the death of the Lord is more We may observe that
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
delivered from this body of death Nor is it enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stoop and look into it as Peter and John did into our Saviours For quod ferè fit non fit A perfunctory and flight examination is none at all and that which is but almost done is not done No. Scelera propiùs admovet Thou must draw thy sin nearer and nearer unto thee that it may appear in its full horrour without its dress and paint that monster which it is that thou mayest revile and destroy it When the Patriarchs had sold their brother Joseph into Egypt for ten years space and above they saw it not to be a sin or at such a distance that it never troubled them but when affliction drew it nearer to them they then cried Guilty We are verily guilty said they of our bother's bloud How still and quiet are the most crying sins because we will not hearken to them and what a Nothing is the greatest sin because we will not look stedfastly upon it Nor is it enough to look upon it thy self with distaste as upon a loathsom and stinking carcase for Sin cannot but work some distaste if it be looked upon But thou must try it by all the killing circumstances which made it a sin and made it more sinful that Contrariety it beareth to God and his purity that huge Incongruity it carrieth to that image after which thou wert created that Opposition it standeth into a most just Law so fitted and proportioned to thee and that sting it hath nay that Sting it is for it is the very sting of Death And then if thou grone in the spirit and trouble thy selfe as thy Saviour did at Lazarus's tomb if thou cry loud unto the Lord and send up strong grones and supplications this Lazarus this dead sinner will come forth And this thou must do in every sin Find it out and so find out and deprehend thy self Not onely those grosser sins which are open as the Apostle speaketh and manifest to all men and carry shame in their very foreheads as Adultery Drunkenness Murther quae suâ se corpulentiâ produnt which betray themselves by their bulk and corpulency which are like those rocks that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminent in sight above the waters But those sins also which are as rocks covered with waves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 close and invisible as Malice Revenge Ambition Love of the world Evil thoughts Loose desires which are of a closer and more retired nature and so much the more dangerous by how much they are the less sensible even all those speculative sins which are acted within the compass of the heart and which no man can see and as they are espied by none so neither can they be restrained by any but our selves Those grosser sins which commonly disturb and break the peace of that Commonwealth whereof we are a part outward Laws and the authority of those who are set over us may cut down as the Angel did the branches and the body of the Tree Dan. 4. but we may bind the stump and preserve it in our hearts For to grub up the root to rectifie the heart to take away speculative and secret sins which no other eye can search and find out but our own this every man after due examination must do himself every man must be his own Angel For In the next place to draw out the full compass of this Duty and so give it you in its utmost extent and latitude this Examination reacheth further then the word in its native signification can import For To Examine is but To weigh and ponder To bring thy self and thy actions to a trial To behold thy own shape To see what thou art and in what state and condition and in what relation towards thy God To open and spread thy conscience which S. Augustine calleth stolam animae the garment of the soul and observe what is loose and ravelled by negligence what is stained and defaced by luxury what is sindged by anger what is cut and mangled by envy what is sullied by covetousness This is a good and advantageous work But then this work must not end in it self but we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propose the true end and draw all up to it which is To purge the conscience To supply what is defective To repair what is defaced To beautifie what is slurred To complete what is imperfect which is to renew our selves in the inward man Finis specificat actionem It is the end that commendeth the action and giveth it its perfection Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prove and examine here in the Text the Apostle ver 31. interpreteth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is here to examine is there to judge our selves Which includeth Repentance Revenge on our selves Tears and Fasting and Contrition and Humiliation all that severe discipline of Striving and Fighting with our selves of Denying our selves of Demollishing imaginations and of Crucifying our flesh that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great Circumcision of the heart all this we must pass through before we have brought our Trial and Examination to an end before we can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect fit to be received into the presence of God and admitted to his Table For what a vain work were it to examine a thief if we do not judge him to implead him and bring witnesses if after the bill is found we proceed not to sentence and condemn him Or wouldest thou find a thief lurking in a corner of thy house and not drive him out Canst thou see a sin rising up in thy soul ready to devour thee and not drown it with thy tears behold Oppression and not strike out its teeth Adultery and not stone it Deceit and Fraud and not put it to shame Hast thou found out the Devil in a garment of light and wilt thou still be a Pharisee Or again after a survey hast thou found thy soul run to ruine and decay and wilt not thou take pains to repair it a feeble Faith and not strengthen it A wavering Hope and not uphold and support it Or canst thou see thy Charity waxing cold and not stir it up and enliven it Shall thy House the Temple of the holy Ghost fall upon thee whilest thou standest and lookest on and at last art sunk and lost in the ruines This were like that unwise builder to begin and not be able to make an end or as the custom at feasts was at the beginning to bring forth good wine and when we have well tasted of it then that which is worse Which is to make the beginning nothing nay worse then nothing For it is the greatest folly in the world to discover an ambush and yet fall into it to see an enemy and not avoid him The sin groweth greater if we look upon it and not run from it If we behold its ugly threatning countenance and not bid defiance to it
To whatsoever it turneth it self it turneth from that which it first lookt upon and loseth one engagement in another because it cannot fit and apply it self to both How then can one and the same man bestow himself upon Christ and upon the World It is not with the Will and Affections as it is with the Intellectual faculty The Understanding may easily sever one thing from another and understand them both nay it hath power to abstract and separate things really the same and consider them in this difference but it is the property of the Will and Affections in unum ferri se in unitatem colligere to collect and unite and become one with the Object Nor can our Desires be carried to two contrary objects at one and the same time We may apprehend Christ as righteous and holy and the World and the Riches of it as Vanity it self but we cannot at once serve Christ as just and holy and love the World and the vanities thereof Our Saviour telleth us we shall love the one and hate the other lean to the one and despise the other If it be a love to the one it will be at best but a liking of the other if it be a will to the one it will be but a velleity to the other if it be a look on the one it will be but a glance on the other And this Liking this Velleity this glance are no better then Disservice then Hatred and Contempt For these proceed from my Understanding but my Love from my Will which is fixed not where I approve but where I choose It is easie to say and we say it too often for the Divil is ready to suggest it It is true we set our affections upon things below but yet so that we do not omit the duties of Divine worship We are willing to please men but we doubt not but we may please Christ also We are indeed time servers but we are frequent hearers of the Word We pour oyl into our brothers ears but we drop sometimes a peny into the Treasury Thus we please others and we please our selves we betray others and are our own parasites But Christ is ready to seal our lips with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man can serve two Masters So that you see what a weak foundation that Hope hath which is thus built up upon a divided Love and Service It is built in the air nay it hath not so sure a basis it is built upon nothing it is raised upon Impossibility Secondly the Servant must have his eye upon his Master and as he seeth him do must do likewise Isai 62.10 Now Christ is called Gods Servant and he broke through Poverty Disgrace and the terrours of Death it self that he might do his Fathers will omitted no tittle or Iota of it But he that would not break a bruised reed shook the cedars of Libanus pronounced as many woes to the Pharisees as they had sins called Herod Fox pluckt off every visour plowed up every conscience and thus shook the powers of Hell Joh. 6.38 and destroyed the Kingdome of Satan for he came not to do his own but his Fathers will Look upon his acts of Mercy even them he did not to please men De Trin. l. 2. Non habent Divina adulationem saith Hilary His Divine works his works of Love and Compassion had nothing of Flattery in them Joh 8 50. He did them not as seeking his own glory For he had a quire of Angels to chant his praise He did them not to flatter men For he needed not that which is ours Psal 24.1 50.12 for the world was his and all that therein is Power cannot flatter and Mercy is so intent on its work that it thinketh of nothing else To work wonders to please men were the greatest wonder of all And thus should we look upon him and teach our brethren as he wrought miracles not for praise which may make us worse not for riches which may make us poorer then we were 2 Cor. 2.10 5.20 but beseech them in Christs stead and in the person of Christ and speak like him in whose mouth there was neither flattery nor gâ—ile speak the truth though it dispease speak the truth though the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing speak the truth though for ought we know it may be the last word we speak speak the truth though it nayl us to the cross where we shall most resemble him with this title THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST as his was THE KING OF THE JEWS He that taketh nothing but his name that serveth the world that flattereth when he biddeth him rebuke and pleaseth others when they displease Christ is not his servant but his enemy one of those many Antichrists or if his servant such a servant as Peter was when he denied him as Judas when he betrayed him And he will take it for more disservice to betray him in his members then in his person and is troubled more at the sight of those wounds which were made in his mystical body then he was at those which were made in his flesh He willingly suffered the pains of death that they might not die Isa 53.7 Himself was lead to death as a sheep to the slaughter and opened not his mouth Acts 8.32 Acts 8.3 9.4 but when he saw havock made of his Church he cryed out Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And in this every false Teacher is worse then Peter when he was at the worst every flatterer is worse then Judas every seducer is worse then the Jews when they nayled Christ to the cross For lastly Servus pro nullo est A Servant is nothing is no person in law hath no power of his own Servitus morti aequiparatur say the Civilians A Servant is as a dead man and cannot act nor move of himself but is actuated as it were by the power and command of his Lord and Master and never goeth but when he saith Go never doth but what he biddeth him do and doth not interpret but execute his will Non oportet villicum plus sapere quà m dominum saith Columella It is a most unfit and disadvantageous thing for the Farmer or Husbandman to be wiser then his Lord. For when the Lord commandeth one thing and the Servant thinketh it fitter to do another the crop and harvest will be but thin And it is so in our spiritual Husbandry It savoureth of too much boldness and presumption for the Servant to be wiser then his Master and there will be but small increase when the Master calleth for the whip and the Servant bringeth the merry harp and the lute when he calleth for a talent to reckon but a mite and when he writeth an hundred to take the bill and set down fifty It is the greatest folly in the world to be thus wise when wisdome it self prescribeth when he condemneth the Love of
sojourners and strangers in the earth It is true strangers we are for all are so and passing forward apace to our journeys end but not to that end for which we were made Therefore that we may reach and attain to it we must make our selves so Eph. 4.22 put off the old man which loveth to dwell here take off our hopes and desires from the world look upon all its glories as dung look upon it as a strange place Phil. 3.8 upon our selves as strangers in it and look upon the place to which we are going fling off every weight shake off every vanity Hebr. 12.1 every thing that is of the earth earthy make haste delay not but leave it behind us even while we are in it for a Christian mans life is nothing else but a going out of it And to this end in the last place you must take along with you your viaticum your Provision the Commandments of Gods Hide not thy commandments from me saith David And he spake as a stranger and as in a strange place as in a place of danger as in a dark place where he could not walk with safety if this light did not shine upon him Here we meet with variety of objects Here are Serpents to flatter us and Serpents to bite us here are Pleasures and Terrours all to deceive and detein us Here we meet with that Archenemy to all strangers and pilgrimes in several shapes now as a roaring Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 and sometimes as an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 And though we try it not out at fists with him as those foolish Monks boasted they had often tried this kind of hardiment though we meet him not as a Hippocentaur Hic on de vita Pauli Eremitae Malchi Hilarionis as the story telleth us Paul the Hermite did or as a Satyre or she-Wolf as Hilarion did to whom were presented many fearful things the roaring of Lions the noise of an Army Chariots of fire coming upon him Wolves Foxes Sword-plaiers and I cannot tell what though we do not feel him as a Satyre yet we feel him as voluptuous though we do not see him as a Wolf yet we apprehend him thirsting after bloud though we meet him not in the shape of a Fox yet non ignoramus versutias 2 Cor. 2.11 we are not ignorant of his wiles and enterprises though we do not see him in the Tempest we may in our fear and though his hand be invisible yet we may feel him in our impatience and falling from the truth We cannot say in our affliction This is his blow but we may hear him roar in our murmuring Or we may see him in that mongrel Christian made up of Ignorance and Fury of a Man and a Beast which is more monstrous then any Centaure We may see him in that Hypocrite that deceitful man who is a Fox and the worst of the cub We may meet him in that Oppressour who is a Wolf in that Tyrant and Persecutour who is a roaring Lion In some of these shapes we meet him every day in this our Pilgrimage And here in the world we can find nothing to secure us against the World Adversity may swallow up Pleasure in victory but not the Love of it Impotency and Inability may bridle and stay my Anger but not quench it Providence may defend me from evil but not from Fear of it Nor can the World yield us any weapon against it self Therefore God hath opened his Armoury of heaven and given us his Commandments to be our light our provision our defense in our way to be as our Pilgrimes staff our Scrip our Letters commendatory Ps 91.11 to be our Angels to keep us in all our waies And there is no safe walking for a stranger without them And as when the children of Israel were in the wilderness God rained down Manna upon them and led them as it were by the hand till he brought them to the land of promise so he dealeth still with all that call upon his name whilest they are in via in this their peregrination ever and anon beset with temptations which may detein and hinder them He raineth down abundance of his grace Wisd 16.20 which like that Manna will serve the appetite of him that taketh it is like to that which every man wanteth and applieth it self to every tast to all callings and conditions to all the necessities of a stranger Thus we walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Festina fides Faith is on the wing and leaveth the world behind us Heb. 11.1 is the substance and evidence of things not seen It looketh not on those things which are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 and please a carnal eye or if it do it looketh upon them as Joshua did upon Ai Josh 8.5 c. first turneth the back and then all its strength against them maketh us fly from them that we may overcome them 1 Joh. 5.4 For this is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith Hebr. 6.19 20 And Festina spes Hope too is in her flight and followeth our Forerunner Jesus to enter with him that which is within the veil even the Holy of holies Heaven it self Spe jam sumus in coelo We are already there by hope And to him that hath seen the beauty of Holiness the World is but a loathsome spectacle to him that truly trusteth in God it is lighter then Vanity and he passeth from it And then our Love of God is our going forth our peregrination It is a perishing a death of the soul to the world If it be truly fixt no pleasure no terrour nothing in the world can concern us but they are to us as those things which the traveller in his way seeth and leaveth every day and we think no more of the glory of them then they who have been dead long ago Col. 3.3 For we are dead saith the Apostle and our life is hid hid from the world with Christ in God Our Temperance tasteth not our Chastity toucheth not our Poverty in spirit handleth not those things which lye in our way but we pass by them as impertinencies as dangers as things which may pollute a soul more then a dead body could under the Law The stranger the pilgrime passeth by all His Meekness maketh injuries and his Patience afflictions light and his Christian Fortitude casteth down every strong hold every imagination which may hinder him in his course Every act of Piety is a kind of sequestration and driveth us if not from the right yet from the use of the world Every Virtue is to us as the Angel was to Lot Gâ—n 19.14 17. and biddeth Arise and go out of it taketh us by the hands and biddeth us haste and escape for our life and not look behind us And with this Provision as it were with the two Tables in our hands we
the grim visage of Anger and the horrour of Cruelty Pleasure boweth the Covetous for he loveth to look upon his wealth It lifteth up the head of the Proud for he is his own paradise and walketh in the contemplation of himself as in the palace which he hath made It whetteth the sword of the Revenger for his delight is in bloud It grindeth the teeth of the Oppressour for the poor are his bread It is the first mover I may say the form of every sin From hence arise those motions contrary to Reason which dâ—stroy all sanctified thoughts which do as the Philosopher speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rob us of consultation oppress and put out the light of the soul and leave us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were fighting in the dark in the midst of Ignorance and Confusion Like those Egyptian thieves they first embrace and then strangle us The Sun now affordeth no light the heaven is not spangled with stars but filled and veiled with clouds And as Diomedes could not see the Goddess in the cloud no more can we see the face of Truth and beauty of Virtue in this darkness and confusion And can we now expect comfort from those whose very comforts are mortal which please with hurting and hurt with pleasing and their end is desolation and mourning Occidua res est omnis voluptas All sensual delight even when it riseth is in its setting and going down and then casteth a long shadow which is nothing but grief And as when the Sun setteth the shadows increase and the shadow of an infant presenteth a giant-like shape so the least pleasure when it declineth portendeth a sorrow far greater and larger then it self Besides this sorrow not onely followeth at the heels of pleasure but keepeth pace with her For every pleasure resisteth it self is impatient of it self and when it increaseth it self it destroyeth it self becometh offensive and maketh men weak and impotent in their embraces and so turneth enemy unto it self We read in Epiphanius that the Egyptians having put into one vessel many serpents together and shut them up close to try the event in time one stronger then his fellows having consumed all the rest when now no more remained began to eat up himself So Pleasure is a serpent to deceive us and a serpent to destroy it self For when we have spent our time and spirits in luxury and riot to please our sensual and brutish part at last Pleasure reflecteth upon it self and wasteth it self For it is not onely true that Tully saith Liberalitas liberalitatem exhaurit that Liberality indiscreetly used destroyeth and exhausteth it self but we find it as true Voluptas voluptatem exhaurit Pleasures immoderately taken consume themselves and return upon us nothing but pain and misery and voluptas voluptate perit by Pleasure Pleasure dieth We will now leave this theatre of Pleasure whereon whosoever acteth faileth and is thrown off and for a while walk amongst the tombs I called it Pleasure but it deserveth not that name which being lost leaveth an eternal loss behind it For who would so affect a feast as to forfeit his health and appetite but to tast it and for one dram for go all gust and delicacy Let us then enter the house of Mourning and see what glorious effects it doth produce And we shall find it a friend to virtue the guard of our life and a kind of Angel to guide us in all our wayes And in this respect God may seem to have preferred us before the Angels in that he hath built us up of flesh and bloud in that he hath given us so many senses and so many powers of our souls as so many crosses For an Angel cannot mourn cannot fast cannot suffer persecution but the soul of man being united to the body is carried up by those to an Angelical estate I know S. Paul brandeth worldly sorrow and maketh the effect of it no better then death 2 Cor. 7.10 And a better effect it cannot have whilst it is worldly and sensual Grief for a disgrace received may make me dishonour my self more to speak and do those things which are not seemly Sorrow for the loss of my goods may distract me leave me miserable but scarce a man The loss of a friend may draw on the loss of my life For when we find nothing but misery in misery we are willing to run from it though we run out of this life and this whilst our sorrow is fixed upon that evil that raised it But the devout School man will tell us Luctus sensualis trahit perâ—ccidens in luctum bonum that this grief may draw on also repentance unto salvation not to be repented of that is a repentance that will comfort us For comfort may be brought to us in a stream of bitterness The rod of God is a rod of iron to bruise us to pieces till we hearken to it and obey it But when I understand its language and discipline when I see the plague of my heart in the distemper of my body my lust in a fever and my intemperance in a dropsie when I discover greater evils then those I mourn for then I devert my grief upon these where it may be laid out with more advantage then this rod is no more a rod but a staff to comfort me Thus we may be drowned and we may be washed and refreshed in our tears and the house of Mourning may be our prison and it may be our school and by the help of that Spirit who is the Comforter we may work comfort out of that grief which was ready to swallow us up Our own experience will teach us that one of the greatest provocations to sin is not to feel the wrath of God in those outward calamities which produce this mourning The Pythagoreans where they speak of the Affections call them virtues and do thus distinguish them Some they say are virtutes animi purgati signs and indications of a mind clensed and renewed already Hope and Joy cannot be but in a virtuous soul For as where health is there is chearfulness where youth is there is comliness where Musick is there is an exsultancy so where goodness is there is joy Others are virtutes animi purgatrices virtues which purge and clense the soul as Fear and Grief For like Physick by degrees these purge out ill humours raise the soul to a kind of health and make it at length a mansion for Joy and Comfort As we see clothes deeply stained will not let go their spots without the loss of some part of their substance so when those maculae peccati as the Schools call them the spots and pollutions of sin have sunk down far and deeply stained and fullied us they will hardly be washed out without some loss and impairing of our selves without these purgatives of Grief and Mourning which bring leanness into our souls Haud levioribus remediis restinguendus est animus quà m
libidinibus exarsit The Physick must be proportioned to the disease if that be violent the Physick must needs be strong that purgeth it Dei sancti infirmiores sunt quia si fortes sint vix sancti esse possunt saith Salvian The Saints of God do many times lose their joy and strength because it is a very hard matter to be in prosperity and to be Saints It is observed that in Common-wealths dissensions seditions and luxury are longae pacis mala the issues of a long-continued peace And many times States are rent in pieces through civil dissentions if outward wars hinder not S. Augustine telleth us Plùs nocuit eversa Carthago Romanis quà m adversa that Carthage in her rubbish brought more disadvantage to Rome then when she stood out in defiance as an enemy And were it not for this outward jarre in our bodies by sickness and in our souls by disgrace and other calamities we should find no peace within for the soul hath no such practising enemy as the body wherein she liveth And as Cato thought it good husbandry to maintain some light quarrels and jarres amongst his houshold-servants lest their agreement amongst themselves might prejudice their master so it may seem spiritual wisdom for the Soul that the body and inferiour faculties be kept in perpetual jarre that there be a thorn in the flesh something set up in opposition against it lest it prove wanton and hold out too stubbornly against the Spirit Febris te vocare potest ad poenitentiam saith Ambrose It may so fall out that the sight of a Physician may more promote thy conversion then the voice of a Preacher a Fever then a Sermon The heathen Oratour could tell us Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus that we are never well but when we are sick never better then when we are worst In this case saith he who sendeth his hopes afar off who waiteth upon his ambitious and covetous desires◠who thinketh of his pleasure and wantonness who shutteth not up his ears against detraction and malicious speech how do we betake our selves to our beads and prayers so that if you would look out the perfect pattern of a true Christian you shall find it no where so soon as on the ground and on the bed of sickness The heathen shutteth up all in this conclusion Look saith he what the Philosophers with many words and large volumes do endeavour to teach that can I most compendiously teach both my self and you Tales esse sani perseveremus quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi Let us be indeed such when we be well as we promise we will be when we are sick A lesson almost equivalent to that great commandment and contains in it all the Law and the Prophets We mourn I am sure in our sickness For what is sickness but the very drooping and languishing of our spirits And it may seem to be a part of that discipline by which the Apostles did govern the primitive Church For when S. Paul had delivered over the incestuous person to Satan for the mortifying of the flesh that the spirit might be saved S. Chrysostom and S. Ambrose do joyntly interpret it that S. Paul did with him as God did with Job deliver him to Satan to be afflicted with diseases and sickness under which he might mourn And this is the reason why our Saviour thus joyneth Blessedness and Mourning together because this is the end for which we are delivered up to sorrow and grief ad interitum carnis for the mortifying of the flesh and the refreshing of the spirit ut in ipsa sit censura supplicii in qua fuit causa peccati that that part may smart with sorrow which hath offended with pleasure and riot Look back upon the ancient Worthies of the Church and you would think they made Sorrow a science and studied the art of mourning For as if the Devil had not been the Devil still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostom calleth him a spiritual executioner to afflict them as if the World had left off to be the World an enemy and had not misery enough to fling on them as if there had not been an Ismael left to persecute Isaac nor a Dragon to pursue the Woman in the wilderness they did sit down and deliberate and condemn themselves to sorrow and mourning Ingrediatur utique putredo in ossibus meis saith Bernard Let infirmity seise upon my body let rottenness enter and fill up my bones let it abound in me onely let me find peace of conscience in the day of my tribulation The Heathen conceived they did it not for the exercise of virtue but as Philosophers did abstain from pleasures that death might be less dreadful nè desiderent vitam quam sibi jam supervacuam fecerant that they might not nourish too much hope of life which they had now made superfluous and unnecessary to them by a voluntary abdication of all delights Indeed this might be one reason And Tertullian replieth Si ita esset tam alto consilio tantae obstinatio disciplinae debebat obsequium If it were so yet this was the power of Christian discipline to learn to contemn death by the contempt of pleasure Jejuniis aridi in sacco cinere volutantes saith the same Father We are dried up with fasting and debarred of all the comforts of this life we roll in sackcloth and ashes What should I mention their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their minds dejected their bodies macerated their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufferings in secret which was saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of pain and grief You might behold them kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple-doors on their knees begging the prayers of the Saints You might see them stript and naked their heir neglected their bodies withered and their knees of horn as Nazianzene speaketh Orat. 12. But what do I mention these This would go for superstition in these dayes as every thing else doth that hath but any savour of dejectedness and humility Religion then hung down the head and went in blacks it is now grown lofty and bold walketh in purple and fareth deliciously every day The way to comfort was streit and narrow then it is made broader now even the same broad way which leadeth to destruction There were some of old who so far exceeded in fasting and austerity ut indigerent Hippocratis fomentis that they stood more in need of the counsel of a Physician then of a Divine but few now-a-dayes are like to offend this way we stand in need rather of the spur then of the bridle Their austerity may at least commend unto us Sadness and Mourning as a thing much be fitting a Christian and very conduceable to happiness The Philosopher will tell us Melancholici sunt ingeniosi that melancholick men are most commonly witty and ingenious because their thoughts are
bring him forward to that end for which the miracle was wrought Therefore the same providence and mercy which raised him up at the pool's side found him out in the Temple to make yet deeper impressions in him to open his understanding that he might know what he was yet ignorant of who it was that had made him whole and so believe in him and be saved For indeed we are too ready to gaze so long on the miracle till we forget the hand that wrought it to delight our selves so much in health as not to think of the Physician and to lose a benefit by our enjoying of it Christ must therefore appear a second time again and again and find us out or we shall lose him and our selves for ever Christ will find them will be found of them that seek him not that they may learn to seek him His love is never weary and yet never resteth but in its end He worketh miracles and can he do more Yes give light to the miracle and make it a lesson to instruct us even sow his miracles that we may reap the fruit of them cure our eyes that our understandings may be opened to know him give us ears that we may hearken to his word restore our limbs that we may take up our cross and follow him that the diseases of our bodies being cured may be to us as the serpent in the wilderness was to the Israelites to be looked upon that we may be healed that our former deafness may make us more ready to hear what God will say our former blindness may make us more delight to behold the wonders of his Law our former palsie may teach us not to be wavering or double-minded but to move regularly in the wayes of God and to persevere therein unto the end The miracle is even cast away if it have no further operation then on our bodies Christ's love is cast away if we take his loaves and feed not on him if we behold his miracles and not believe if he give us sight and we see him not if he give us life and we be dead to him if he give us health and we make our strength the law of unrighteousness if we draw not down his miracles to that end for which he wrought them Rise saith he take up thy bed and walk The lame impotent man doth so and goeth his way but Christ followeth him as if the miracle were yet nothing followeth him to the Temple and then beginneth his cure when the man was whole Mark 8. When he first put his hands upon the blind man he saw men walking as trees This was miraculous but not a miracle But Christ again put his hands upon his eyes and then he looked up and saw every man clearly Christ ever worketh to perfeâ—â—â—on He came into the world that they that see not may see and that they that are lame may go but he doth not leave them when they but see men walk like trees in a weak and uncertain knowledge of him he doth not begin and desist but followeth his cure presseth upon us giveth us daily visits leaveth no means unassayed no way untroden nothing unattempted which his wisdom thinketh fit His end is to drive up every thing to the end to make his miracles his benefits his miraculous birth his glorious oeconomy his victorious death and passion powerful to attain their end to wit the glory of his Father and the salvation of our souls If I do not love the Creatouâ—â—â—â—t is all the beauty of the Universe If I do not repent what are a◠〈◊〉 glories of the Gospel If I do but walk and go and rejoyce in my health what is the miracle of curing How should this love of Christ affect and ravish our souls how should this fire kindled in our flesh inflame and incite us to cooperate with him and to help him to his end Nor will he take it as a disparagement if when he hath wrought what he pleased we put to our hand and work what we ought if when he hath wrought a miracle we do our duty if when he hath made us whole we flye that sin as a serpent which first bit us and struck us lame if when he hath provided us materials to our hand and taught us to be workmen we build up our selves in our most holy Faith Oh it is a foul and sad ingratitude to defeat Christ of his end and when he would finish his work to hinder him when he maketh his benefits a reason why we should sin no more to be so unreasonable as to sin more and more to look no further then the miracle which is done then the benefit we receive to feel our blood dancing in our veins to see our garners full to have our bodies cured and our estates cured and then think all is done Behold Christ still followeth after us to find us out nor will he leave us so For most true it is he would not work miracles but for this end Where he saw unbelief ready to step in between the miracles and the end he would not do them Matth. 13.58 He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief No whatsoever he did whatsoever he spake was for us men and for our salvation As he said of the voice of the Angel which was heard as thunder from heaven Joh. 12.29 30. This voice came not for me but for your sakes so all his miracles all his benefits even the Creation it self are for our sakes He made not the world for himself For his happiness is in himself Patuit coelum antè quà m via saith the Father He made heaven for Man and then shevved him the way to enter into it and take possession of it Whatsoever he doth in heaven and in earth tendeth to dravv us nearer to him He vvould not thunder but to make us melt he would not come towards us in a tempest but to teach us to bow to his power and so make it a buckler to defend us he would not shine upon us but to draw us to the true light he would not have sent his Prophets he would not have sent his Son to vvork vvonders amongst us but to dravv us vvith these cords of love to himself and that we might believe God to be the onely true God and him whom he hath sent Jesus Christ For this end Christ found this man and for this end he seeketh out us that all his miracles and benefits and promises may have their end And why then should he still suffer such contradiction of sinners Why do we then rejoyce at our health and be afraid of his precepts be willing to be raised and yet stiâ—â— carry that enemy about with us which first cast us down rise and walk and then sin again This is to defeat the miracle to abuse the mercy and to resist the power of Christ that though it work what we wonder at yet it shall
of a virtue and call it our Humility For that is true Humility with God quae caeteris cingitur virtutibus which is compassed about and guarded with the troop of all other virtues not which walketh securely in the midst of a multitude of transgressions When Christ biddeth us sin no more shall we be so humble as to sin more and more Pusillanimitas fingit quod sit Humilitas This is not Humility but base Pusillanimity and supine Negligence an Humility wrought in us by the love not of God but of the world not any one of the fruits of the good Spirit but of the Prince of darkness who careth not in what demure posture we fall so we fall into his snare Pure Humility before God and the Father is this Wholly to rely on him who is our strength and salvation and will never fail us unless we shrink and turn the back To adore him in his precepts and embrace him in his promises To lay hold on every good thought and inclination to foment and cherish it and not to make darkness our pavilion when he walketh in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks and speaketh unto us by his Spouse the Ministery of his Church To consider that as there be many temptations to sin so there be many fair allurements and provocations to obedience that as our Senses be the doors and portals by which Satan entereth so Reason is made to stand as a Sentinel and the Will by the assistance of God's Grace hath power to shut them up against him and not to shape a weakness in our Phansie which will make us weaker and carry it about with us as our Bona Dea or tutelary Saint to intercede for us and defend us from the guilt of sin Not to suppose that impotency which will quite disenable us Not so to acknowledge our sinful disposition as to make it either an occasion or apology for sin but as we have vowed and are bound by Covenant to strive and fight against it with all our heart and soul and with all the faculties we have To confess and bewail our weakness and look up to the God of all power and then advance and press forward as if we were strong Thus our obedience will stretch it self to the extent of the precept in that sense it is prescribed and we shall sin no more To this end thirdly let us not flatter our selves in a kind of ordinary course in a kind of fashion and formality of religion and bless and applaud our selves if we stand innocent from great transgressions from scandalous sins such as have shame written in their foreheads and such as the laws of men make dangerous or fatal As if to escape the prison were to be redeemed from hell and as if no disease were killing but the Plague when yet we see common diseases bring the heads of thousands into the grave If God could be held upon such easie and cheap terms if to abstain from great sins were not to sin at all then were the greatest Saints of God most miserable who made no end of cleansing their hearts and washing their hands in innocency Paul was a chosen vessel and Daniel greatly beloved these were the great favourites of God and likely of all others to find their Lord must indulgent yet they watched and prayed and were frequent in prayer which they needed not have done if their obedience might have been accepted at a cheaper rate Oh if this be the case of men so just so careful so high in the favour of God what then shall be the end of our partial imperfect and broken service If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear Now the reason of this is plain It is obedience onely that commendeth us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requireth And then every degree of sin is rebellion and can we raise rebellion and yet not forfeit our obedience Sin no more and your obedience is perfect If you sin again you are but rebels Watch therefore and pray lest thou enter into temptation Strive and fight against that sin which hath the Dominion over thee Thou sayest thou dost But how long How many moneths how many weeks how many dayes how many hours hast thou set apart for this spiritual exercise for this agony and contention And if thou canst not name a moneth a week a day an hour in which thou hast bid defiance to thy sin thou hast no reason to wonder that that sin should prevail against thee which thou never yet hadst will or courage to fight against in any one the least part of thy span of time Lastly take the Father's counsel Nè sit tibi minimum non negligere minima Let it not seem a small thing to thee to watch and fight against the smallest and least sins even those which are as nothing in thy eyes For even these may make a breach to let in Death upon thee Therefore thou must take up the whole armour of God to resist and keep them out One evil humour unpurged may be the death of the body one cranny unstopt may be the drowning of the ship one little sin unrepented of may be the destruction of the soul Then take heed thou make not use of thy father's art of hiding thy sin of paring and filing it till what was great be nothing How soon will a sin vanish out of sight in a clear day What a force have Profit and Power and Prosperity to make the greatest sin invisible or set it out of sight Profit persuadeth Power commandeth Prosperity flattereth and at this musick Conscience falleth asleep A rich Oppressour is just a cunning Politician is honest and a prosperous gallant Villain is a Saint What need we fear to sin again when Sin it self is made a virtue These Profit Power Prosperity are the Devils carpets which he spreadeth in our way or his green pastures through which he leadeth us to the chambers of Death Let us then take heed of these as of Hell it self and not sin again though it may make me rich not sin again though it may make me great not sin again though it may raise me to the highest place from thence to look down upon our shame and count it glory But let us abstain from all appearance of sin from the face and representation of it and hate it in a picture Thus if we watch over our selves if we seriously strive and fight against sin we shall sin no more or if we do we shall sin as men not Angels fall of frailty not as Lucifer from heaven And then if after a strict watch and guard set upon our selves we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the propitiation for our sins Now from the Extent of this Precept and the Possibility of observing it we come in the last place to discover the Danger of not observing
it threatned in these words Lest a worse thing come unto thee That these words Sin no more are plain and that Christ meant as he spake appeareth by this Commination Lest a worse thing come unto thee For if we will read his meaning in his words we may say this is machaera conditionalis his conditional sword as the Father calleth it which if we sin again will be latched in our sides If one evil will not cure us God's quiver is full and he hath more arrows to shoot Sin no more Take heed thou be not the same thou wert before those thirty eight years nor commit that sin again which crippled thee and brought thee to the pool's side If thou darest yet venture a worse punishment standeth at thy doors ready to seize upon thee Now a Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one living creature made up of two diverse substances the Soul and the Body so the danger which besetteth him the evils which compass him about and threaten him are of a diverse nature Some strike at the body others enter the soul There are terrours by night and the arrow that flyeth by day and there is another plague the plague of the Heart A worse thing will come unto thee worse to thy Body and worse to thy Soul Thou shalt be a worse Paralytick and a worse Man nearer to death and nearer to hell The reiteration of thy sin shall awake heavier judgments which shall fall both on thy outward and on thy inward man We shall speak something of them both and first of God's Temporal judgments The last is the worst It was so with Pharaoh The death of the First-born in Egypt was more terrible then the Frogs or the Locusts or the Hail or the Murrain It was so with God's own people He punished them and they sinned still and he increased their punishment When they were fed to the full they did commit adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots houses As fed horses in the morning they neighed after their neighbours wives God hireth out forein enemies Egypt and Assyria he sendeth out his great army his Caterpillars and Palmer-worms he hireth out Nebuchadnezzar and calleth him his servant and payeth him his wages How oft did they provoke him and how oft did he punish them He leadeth them into Captivity and bringeth them back again For all this they sinned yet more against him and committed those sins which even the Heathen were ashamed of And at last they killed the Prince of life and crucified their Messias who was manifested unto them by signs and wonders And now behold their house is left desolate and they are become the scorn of Nations and a proverb to all the world Afflictions and calamities sometimes are corrections sometimes executions In the first God cometh as a Father in the last as a Judge God goeth like the Consuls of Rome Virgas habet secures He hath a Rod and an Axe carried before him At first he chastiseth us with his Rods and then with his Axe Job on the Dunghil David flying before Absalom these felt his Rod But the old World before the Floud the Cananite and the Amorite when their wickedness was full the Jews and Jerusalem these were hewen down with the Axe This impotent man at the pool's side was but under the Rod but when Christ telleth him if he sin again a worse thing should fall unto him he sheweth him the Axe and holdeth it over his head Quod solus fulmen mittit Jupiter placabile est saith Seneca perniciosum de quo deliberat The first thunderbolt God sendeth carrieth not so much fire with it but rather light to shew us our danger But if we put him to deliberate and to enter into controversie with us if we put him to the question What shall I do that I have not done the next will scatter us and dash us to pieces The first is light the second is a consuming fire Correct us O Lord in thy judgment not in thy fury is a prayer for the first kind against the second Pius Quintus lying on his death bed grievously tormented with the Stone was often heard to send forth this pious prayer Domine addas ad dolorem modò addas ad patientiam Lord adde unto my grief so thou adde unto my patience Patience in this kind as it is the best remedy of a disease so doth increase our crown and glory O felicem servum cujus emendationi instat Dominus cui dignatur irasci Oh happy servant whom the Lord taketh such pains to correct whom he loveth so well as thus to be angry with him But if we will not hearken to his Rod then he whetteth his Axe and maketh it ready Perdidimus utilitatem calamitatis We have lost all the profit which we might have received He hath spent his rods in vain and therefore if we take not heed he will strike us so as to cut us off and will give us our portion with sinners The judgments of God are like unto the Waters which came out of the Temple At first they are shallow and come up but to the ankles anon they are deeper Ezek. 47. and come up to the loins and at last they are so deep that we can gain no passage over them Thus doth the Justice and Providence of God follow us in all our wayes Aeschylus calleth it the harmony of God others his Geometry by which he observeth a kind of method and measure and proportion Librat iter ad iram suam saith the Psalmist Psal 78.50 He maketh a way to his anger He weigheth the Punishment and the Sin as in the scales He correcteth us if we fall and if we will fall again Hos 5.5 he layeth on heavier strokes He maketh our iniquity testifie against us maketh what we do witness and proclaim that to be just which we suffer Which though it be not alwaies visible to the eye for Deo constat justitiae suae ratio The reason as of God's Mercy so also of his Justice is ever with himself yet is it certain and judgment followeth the wicked whithersoever they go and hangeth over them as the sword did over Damocles by a hair ready to fall And that it falleth not but leaveth them in their ruff and jollity in their pride going on in their sin is to their greatest punishment Nam quanta est poena nulla poena Not to be punished at all is the greatest punishment of all and nothing is more deplorable then the happiness of a wicked man For the delay of punishment is but to make it more seasonable to stay it now and inflict it at such a time and in such a place and after such a manner as God's wisdome knoweth to be fittest God's wayes are in the whirlwind saith Nahum and his footsteps are not known saith the Psalmist yet his end is certain to work an harmony out of the greatest disorder to raise beauty
God 1. by the Knowledge not onely of natural and transitory things but also of those which pertain to everlasting life Col. 3.10 Being renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him 2. in the Rectitude and Sanctity of his Will Put on the new man Eph. 4.24 which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 3. in the ready Obedience of the outward parts and inward faculties to the beck and command of Reason which being as a spark from the Divine nature a breathing from God should look forward and upward upon its Original and present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God I say Rom. 12.1 God hath imprinted his image on Man And what communion hath God with Belial or the image of God with the fashion of this world What relation hath an immortal substance with that which passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 Take Man for that Miracle of the world as Trismegistus calleth him for that other that Lesser world the very tye and bond of all the other parts for whose sake they were made and in whose Nature the nature of the Universe is in a manner seen which order and harmony being disturbed was renewed and restored again by Christ who is the perfect Image of God the express character of his Person and brightness of his glory Rom. 8. And what conversation should we have but in heaven And if the whole nature of created things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the creature it self groneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption certainly Man the compendium and tie of all the Little world which by his default made the other parts subject to vanity must needs grone in himself waiting for the adoption and redemption of his body not onely from corruption but from temptation when his eye shall behold no vanity his ear hear nothing but Hallelujahs and his very body become in a manner spiritual Or take man as made after God's Image by which he hath that property which no other creature hath to Understand and Will and Reason and Determine by which he sendeth his thoughts whither he pleaseth now beyond the seas by and by back again and then to heaven it self as Hilary speaketh by which he is capable of God and may be partaker of him And we cannot think we had an Understanding given us onely to forge deceit to contrive plots to find out the twilight an opportunity to do mischief to invent instruments of musick new delights to frame an art a method a craft of enjoying the pleasures which are but for a season we cannot think our Will was given us to catch at shadows and apparitions to wait upon the Flesh which fighteth against the Spirit and this Image within us we cannot think God gave us Reason to distinguish us from the other creatures that it should subject us to the creature that it should make us worse then the beasts that perish And therefore Christ the end of whose coming was to renew God's Image decayed and defaced in Man did lay the ax to the root of the tree did level all spreading and overtopping imaginations all thoughts which bowed themselves and inclined to the world 2 Cor. 10.5 bringing them into captivity unto the obedience of the Gospel put out our eyes and cut off our hands so far as they might be occasional to evil and nailed not onely our sins but our flesh to his cross For as we are risen with him so are we crucified with him who being lift up himself did draw us after him to heavenly things to heavenly places brought back the Lost sheep Psal 23. the soul into green and fat pastures out of the way of the world the way that leadeth to Death to the paths of righteousness bringeth back the Soul to its original to that for which it was made James 1.25 Hence the Gospel is called a perfect Law of Liberty Whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty A perfect Law because it barreth up every passage and rivulet shutteth up every crany that may let the soul out to wander after the things of this world tieth us up closer then humane Reason could and improveth and exalteth our Reason to busie it self on its proper object those things which are above And it is called a Law of liberty because they who will be subject to this Law who will be Gospellers indeed must free themselves from those defects and sins which no humane Law nor yet the Law of Moses did punish So that Christian Religion doth in a manner destroy the world before its dissolution maketh that which men so run after so wooe so lay hold on a thing of nothing or worse then nothing maketh that which we made our staff to lean on a serpent to run from or maketh the world but a prison which we must struggle to get out of but a Sodom out of which we must haste to escape to the holy hill to the mountain lest we be consumed or at best but as a stage to act our parts on where when we have disgraced reviled and trode it under our feet we must take our Exit and go out And indeed secondly there is no proportion at all between sensible things and a Soul which is a Spirit and immortal And in this also it resembleth that God who breatheth it into us As Lactantius saith God is not hungry that you need give him meat he is not thirsty that you need pour out drink to him nor is he in the dark that you need light up tapers The world is the Lord's and all that therein is So it is with the Soul What is a banquet of wine what is musick what is a feast what is beauty what is a wedge of gold to a Soul The world is the Soul 's and all that therein is And to behold the creature and in the world as in a book to study and find out the Creator to contemplate his Majesty his Goodness his Wisdom to discover that happiness which is prepared for it to find out conclusions to behold the heavens the work of God's fingers and to purchase a place there to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim elevated thoughts towring imaginations holy desires these are fit food for the Soul and proportioned to it And again as the things above are proportioned to the Soul so they alone can satisfie it The things below are too narrow too transitory Beauty like the Rainbow is oculi opus the work of the eye of the imagination Specta paulisper non erit Do but look a little longer and it will not be seen Riches bring care and torment as well as delight and when they have for a while mocked us they take the wing and flee away Honour I cannot well tell you what it is it is so near to Nothing But whatsoever it be it commonly falleth to the dust and findeth no better sepulchre then disgrace The fashion of
thou beatest them down as a whirlwind carrieth them to heaven but driveth thee back to the pit of destruction Thou makest them the off scouring of the world which will quickly loath vertue in such a dress but thou makest them glorious in the sight of God Thou wreakest thy wrath upon them but treasurest up wrath for thy self Thou spoilest them that is makest them richer thou disgracest them that is makest them more honourable thou tormentest them that is increaseth their joy thou sendest them into their graves that is into heaven An eye of flesh cannot discern this but the eye of faith glorieth in the Martyr and pitieth the murtherer For when he looketh upon those he hath oppressed and pleaseth himself in it So so thus would I have it he doth but subscribe to the sentence which is already past against him and in effect triumpheth in his own damnation Nor can this help him although sometimes it doth comfort him That God hath delivered them into his hand and so make power an argument of justice and good success a sign and mark of a predestinate Saint For God may deliver the soul of his turtle-doves into the hand of the wicked and yet they be as wicked as before Psal 71.11 You know who they were that cryed God hath forsaken him God may deliver the Jews into captivity and yet the Heathen be aliens still He doth not onely deliver up Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Basan but his own people into his enemies hands For it is one thing what God is willing to permit another what he is willing should be done He permitteth all the murthers and massacres and tragedies that have been acted in the world but his permitting them is no Plaudite no approbation of them He permitteth all the sin that hath or shall be committed from Adam the first man to him that shall stand last upon earth and yet that conclusion standeth firm The wages of sin is death Rom. 8.32 He delivered up his Son for us all and yet his bloud was upon those Jews that spilt it Neither is good success or ill success an argument of God's favour or dislike Lazarus was not in Abraham's bosome onely because he was poor nor Dives in hell for that he was rich Josiah did not fall to hell when he fell in battel nor was Pharaoh-Necho a Saint because he slew him But yet I should sooner suspect prosperity then adversity because it hath slain so many fools Blessed are they that are persecuted the words are plain But where do we read Blessed are they that prosper in their wayes Go and prosper and that shall be a sign to thee that thou art highly beloved Let this either in terms or by deduction be produced out of Scripture and I will straight subscribe to a conclusion which may canonize Infidels and Turks Cain and Nimrod and those brethren in evil Judas and the Jews and the Devil himself who too often prevaileth in his wiles and enterprizes and leadeth us captive according to his will Then that of Christ will be true in this sense also That Publicans and sinners harlots and men of Belial shall enter the kingdom of heaven and the children of the kingdom the poor unfortunate children shall be shut out I am weary of this argument And I hope there is none amongst us which will nourish such a serpent in his bosom which may at first flatter him shew him an apple something that is fair to look upon but at last sting him to death an opinion which may drive him upon any pricks on those sins which the righteous do tremble to think of an opinion which may waste and consume a soul and make it like to the souls of the beasts that perish I had rather turn my speech to them that suffer and so conclude and exhort them to humility and patience under the cross For Patience is one of the fairest branches of Righteousness the proper effect of Faith Rom. 5.3 for which we suffer all things and by which we suffer nothing which maketh tribulation joyful the cross a crown and persecution a blessing Adam brought in Labour and Abel Patience Sin invented the one and Righteousness the other Phil. 4.13 And by the virtue of it S. Paul professeth he could do and suffer all things And this the omnipotency of Patience is demonstratively true For if the eye of our faith were as clear as the reward is glorious we should not be either dazled with the smile and beauty of a flattering nor dismayed with the terrour of a black temptation but pleasure would be vanity and persecution a crown For what is this span of misery to bliss without end Persecution strippeth thee and Persecution clotheth thee Persecution beateth at the door of life to let out thy soul and it openeth the gates of heaven to place it there It is that violence which taketh the Kingdom of heaven He that is persecuted for righteousness beleaguereth Heaven undermineth it payeth down a price for it his sufferings Which though they be but momentany and too light yet are accepted as full weight To sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give saith Christ Vendit Matth. 20.23 non intuitu consanguinitatis dat He doth not give it saith Augustine for relation and kindreds sake but he selleth it Coelum venale Deúsque see Heaven is set at a price and the price is thy bloud As there is a covenant so there is a contract a bargain between God and man and the covenant is a contract My son saith God give me thy heart Give me a contrite heart a bleeding heart a broken heart and thou shalt have for grief joy for labour rest for dishonour glory for ignominy honour for death life and for poverty a Kingdom For Persecution which is but momentany advanceth to a Kingdom which shall have no end The Thirteenth SERMON PHILIPP III. 10 11. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead THat I may know him carrieth but an imperfect sense and sendeth us back to that which goeth before Where we shall find our blessed Apostle at his holy Arithmetick at a strict computation ad digitos calculos cogentem casting up his accounts as it were at his fingers ends He beginneth with Circumcision ver 2. proceedeth to the Law ver 5. riseth up to the Righteousness which is in the Law ver 6. He taketh in his Stock his Tribe his Sect his Zele his unblameable Course of life And that his Audite may be exact ver 8. he bringeth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things These be the Particulars But what is the Sum Circumcision the Law Zele Righteousness All things a large account and which is strange the sum is Nothing And will Nothing make a sum
the highest heavens for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's THese words are a Logical Enthymeme consisting of two parts an Antecedent Ye are bought with a price and a Consequent naturally following Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's God's by Creation and God's by Redemption the Body bought and redeemed from the dust to which it must have fallen for ever and the Soul from a worse death the death of sin from those impurities which bound it over to an eternity of punishment and therefore both to be consecrated to him who bought them How God is to be glorified in our spirit we have already shewn to wit by a kind of assimilation by framing and fashioning our selves to the will and mind of God He that is of the same mind with God glorifieth him by bowing to him in his still voice and by bowing to him in his thunder by hearkening to him when he speaketh as a Father and by hearkening to him when he threatneth as a Lord by hearkening to his mercy and by hearkening to his rod. For the Glory of a King is most resplendent in the obedience of his subjects In a word we glorifie God by Justice and Mercy and those other vertues which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions and emanations from his infinite goodness and light In a just and perfect man God shineth in glory and all that behold him will say that God is in him of a truth The Glory of God is that immense ocean into which all streams must run Our Creation our Redemption are to his glory Nay the Damnation of the wicked at last emptieth it self and endeth here This his wisdom worketh out of his dishonour and forceth it out of blasphemy it self But God's chief glory and in which he most delighteth is from our submissive yielding to his natural and primitive intent which is that we should follow and be like him in all purity and holiness In this he is well pleased that we should do that which is pleasing in his sight Then he looketh with an eye of favour and complacency upon Man his creature when he appeareth in that shape and form which he prescribed when he seeth his own image in him when he is what he would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him and that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should wait upon him alone when he falleth not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as God is merciful perfect as God is perfect Then is he glorified then doth he glory in him Deut. 30.9 and rejoyce over him as Moses speaketh as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted not defaced Then is Man taught Canticum laudis nothing else but the Glory and Praise of his Maker Thus do we glorifie God in our spirit Now to pass to that which we formerly did but touch upon Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made up of both of Body and Spirit and therefore must glorifie God not onely in the spirit but in the body also For such a near conjunction there is between the Body and the Soul that nothing but Death can divorce them and that too but for a while a sleeping-time after which they shall be made up into one again either to howl out their blasphemie or to sing a song of praise to their Maker for evermore If we will not glorifie God in our body by chastity by abstinence by patience here we shall be forced to do it by weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter It is true the body is but flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 yet the life of Jesus may be made manifest in this our flesh It is but dust and ashes but this dust and ashes may be raised up and made a Temple of the holy Ghost a Temple in which we offer up ch 6.19 not beasts our raging lusts and unruly affections nor the foul stench and exhalations of our corrupted hearts but the sweet incense of our devotion not whole drink offerings but our tears and strong supplications such a Temple which it self may be a sacrifice a holy and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 post Dei templum sepulcrum Christi saith Tertullian and being a Temple of God be made a sepulchre of Christ by bearing about in it the dying of our Lord Jesus For when we beat it down and bring it in subjection when we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep it chast and pure quench those unholy fires which are even ready to kindle and flame up in it bind and tye it up from joyning with that forbidden object to which its bent and natural inclination carrieth it when we have set a watch at every sense at every door which may be an in-let to the Enemy when we have learned so far to love it as to despise it to esteem of it as not ours but his that made it to be macerated and diminished to be spit upon and whipt to be stretched out on the rack to be ploughed up with the scourge to be consumed in the fire when his honour calleth for it when with S. Paul we are ready to offer it up then is the power of Christ's death visible in it and the beauty of that sight is the glory of God First we glorifie God in our bodies when we use them for that end to which he built them up when we make them not the weapons of sin but the weapons of righteousness when we do not suffer them to make our Spirit and Reason their servants to usher in those delights which may flatter and please them but bring them under the law and command of Reason Touch not Taste not Handle not which by its power may check the weakness of the Flesh and so uphold and defend it from those allurements and illusions from that deep ditch that hell into which it was ready to fall and willing to be swallowed up Now saith S. Paul vers 13◠the body is not for fornication It was not created for that end For how can God who is Purity it self create a body for uncleanness Not then for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Who made it as an instrument which the mind might use to the improvement and beautifying of it self as a vessel to be possest by us in holiness and honour 1 Thes 4.4 his Temple and thy vessel his Temple that thou mayest not profane it and thy vessel that thou mayest not defile and pollute it nor defile thy soul in it For this kind of
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
peculiar precepts quibus respondere liberum est Nolo which some must keep and others may answer they will not but universal and common and binding all alike Haec obligationis nostrae ratio est secreto fidelissimo hunc thesaurum depositi commendati nobis praecepti reservare saith Hilary This is the nature and force of our obligation to God to keep his commandments and faithfully to preserve that rich treasure which he hath deposited and laid up with us and commended to our charge For In the next place not to keep covenant with God but prodigally to misspend that substance which he gave us nay not to improve it but when he cometh to ask for his Talent to shew him a Napkin is a plain Forfeiture and bringeth us in danger of the Law And though we did owe our selves before even all that we have yet we were never properly Debtors till now But now it is debitum liquidum a plain and manifest Debt because we can give no account of what we have received at God's hands For what account can he give of his Soul who hath sold it to sin What tender can he make of his Affections who hath buried them in the world What Love can he present that hath pawned it to vanity What Fear can he make shew of who lived as if God could not be angry Or how should he appear before God who is long since lost to himself For St. Augustine needed not to have retracted that speech of his UT REDDERER MIHI CUI ME MAXIME DEBEO That I might be restored to my self to whom I did especially owe my slf and changed it into this UT REDDERER DEO that I might be restored and paid back unto God unto whom alone I am due The truth is Till Man be quite lost to himself to his Reason and Obedience and all that may style him Man he is still in manutenentia Dei in the hands and power and protection of God But when Man prodigally spendeth his estate amongst harlots and breaketh his covenant with God he maketh another contract with the World the Flesh and the Devil For Sin as it is in one respect a forfeiture and bringeth us in debt so on the other side it is a contract and bargain such as it is For can we call Death and Hell a purchase What hath Luxury brought in but rottenness to my bones and emptiness to my purse What hath my Soul gained but blackness and darkness and deformity What have I for my Trust in the world but Despair in God for my Integrity and Honesty which I flung away but Wealth perhaps or Honour or Pleasures which are but for a moment Which all are but speciosa supplicia Though we look upon them as glorious and gawdy ornaments and wear them as chains about our necks yet are they but shackles and the very chains of darkness In a word what have we for the Favour of God which we slighted but a gnawing Worm and a tormenting Conscience For In the last place the Penalty followeth Qui autor legis idem est exactor He that lent me these sums cometh to require and exact them at my hands and I have nothing to give him which I may call my own but the breach of his Law and he hath power not onely to sell me to Punishment for sin and to Sin for punishment but to expose me to shame not onely to kill the body but to put both body and soul into hell The penalty cometh in close upon the breach of contracts We have not such a God in the New Testament as Marcion the heretick phansied to himself qui solis literis prohibet delinquere who giveth no further check and restraint unto sin then by letters and words that doth fear to condemn what he cannot but disapprove that doth not hate what he doth not love and who beareth with that being done which he forbad to be done No He whose voice was in the thunder This thou shalt do thundereth still Ego condo mala It is I that create all those evils which flesh and bloud trembleth at His Sword hath still this inscription SI NOLUERITIS HIC GLADIUS VOS COMEDET If you will not obey this sword shall devour you Now in Obligations between man and man the Forfeiture and Penalty are expresly set down and the Creditor cannot exact two talents where the penalty is but one but here though the penalty is exprest yet not the measure unless in those comfortless terms That they are immeasurable Which when God remitteth and forgiveth to the penitent he manifesteth his infinite Goodness but when he inflicteth it as due to him who would needs die in his debt he magnifieth his Justice And S. Augustine giveth the reason Quia meliùs ordinatur natura ut justè doleat in supplicio quà m ut impunè gaudeat in peccato Because it is far better ordered that Justice should bring the impenitent to smart in punishment then that Impunity should encourage him forever to triumph in sin And he that peremptorily will offend doth by consequent will also the punishment which is due unto him Thus he that would not give God his obedience and so pay him his own must give himself to be dragged into prison He that would not be brought under the power of the Law must be brought under the stroke of the Law He that would not once read it when it is written for our instruction and presented in a golden character with precious promises must look upon it when it is a killing letter and as terrible as Death For Divines will tell us Per peccatum homo Dei potestati non est subtractus Man though by sin he runneth away from his God yet is still in his chain and though he have put on the Devil's livery yet he is still within the verge and reach of God's power who can deliver him up to Satan and make his new master whom he serveth his goaler and executioner For the Obligation still holdeth and God hath the hand-writing against us as S. Paul calleth it Which whether we term the Decalogue with some which was written with the finger of God or our own Memory with others which is nothing else but a gallery hung round about with our own deformities or whether with Aquinas we call it the Memory of God where our sins are written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond whatsoever it is and wheresoever you place it it still looketh towards us In the Law there is horror and in God's memory our sins where they are sealed up as in a bag Job 14.17 where he keepeth them as his proofs and evidences by which he may convict us and that they may be in a readiness Lam. 1.14 hath bound our transgressions by his hands And lastly in our own memories are the very same bills and accusations which are in the register of God Nam qui peccat peccati sui
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
word which is a work which will break forth into action a word like unto that of God who spake and it was done Psal 33.9 Psal 62.11 who speaketh and repenteth not God hath spoken once that is immobiliter saith a Father His word is immutable IBIMUS We will go Here is their Resolution a strong will begotten of Love vehemens bene ordinata voluntas a vehement and well-ordered will Lord Psal 26.8 I have loved the habitation of thy house saith the Psalmist This is invictissimè constantissimè velle as S. Augustine speaketh a preserving and unconquered will a resolution taken up once for all not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speak an assent that it is fit so to do but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an active motion by which the mind is carried along and in a manner forced to that it desireth a full perswasion as that of Abraham Rom. 4. as that of S Paul Acts 21. who Rom. 4.21 Acts 21 11-14 though he was so sure to be bound and put in fetters by the Jews at Jerusalem yet he would go up thither and by no arguments nor intreaties nor tears be persuaded to the contrary as that of Martine Luther who would enter the city Wormes though every tile on every house were a devil as that of the blessed Martyrs whom neither threats nor flatteries could at all work upon but their firm and setled purpose of mind added strength to the weaker part animated and quickned and as it were spiritualized their bodies and made them subservient and ministerial to bring their resolution into act Hence in a manner they suffered as if they suffered not They seemed to be ignorant of their stripes senseless of their wounds unconcerned in their torments Death appeared to them in as fair a shape as Life it self yea was desired before it This is it we call Resolution to will and do or to will which is to do For quicquid imperavit sibi animus obtinuit Whatsoever the mind commandeth it self whatsoever it resolveth on is as good as done already For when we have looked upon the object and approved it when we have beheld its glory and confirmed our selves in the liking of it when we have cast by all objections which flesh and bloud may bring in of danger or difficulty when we have fastned the thing to our soul and made it as it were a part of it when it is become as Christ saith our meat John 4.34 then there is such an impression of it made iâ—â—he heart such a character as is indeleble and we are as violently carried towards it as an hungry man is to his food and refreshment neither difficulty nor danger neither principalities nor powers neither life nor death can so stand between as to keep us from it My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed saith David Psal 57.7 and then he cannot but sing and give praise The heart being fixed to the object carrieth it about with it is joyned to it even when it is out of sight when at the greatest distance Finis operi adulatur The end we propose and the glory thereof doth give light and lustre to our endeavours yea and cast a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and loveliness even on that which would deterre us from it and leaveth not in us the consideration or memory of any thing besides it self This is Resolution This maketh an IBIMUS We will go significant without this we cannot clearly pronounce IBIMUS we cannot truly say We will go into the house of the Lord. Such a resolution David here observed at least supposed in the people of Israel For whether the Ark were to be setled or the Temple to be edified or re-edified any of these might well stir up a desire in them and a resolution to see it done For the Ark was a Sam. 4.21 22. Psal 78.61 the glory of Israel and b Jer. 7.4 The Temple of the Lord was a frequent and solemn word in their mouthes they c Psal 44.8 made it their boast all the day long their long absence therefore could not but whet their desire raise their expectation fix and setle their will and make them impatient of delay Oh when shall we appear in the presence of God! When shall we go into the house of the Lord Thence we heard the oracles of God There is the mercy-seat There we offered sacrifices and burnt-offerings There we called upon God's name There are set thrones of judgment the thrones of the house of David There the glory of the Lord appeared and made it as heaven it self We will go This was their Resolution We now pass to behold 3. Their Agreement and joynt Consent Which is visible in the pronoun WE We will go Much hath been said of Pronouns of the power and virtue of them of Meum and Tuum what swords they have whet what bloud they have spilt what fires they have kindled what tumults they have raised in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene How long shall we hear in the Church these quarrelsome words Mine and Thine My understanding and Thy understanding My wit and Thy wit My preacher and Thy preacher My Church and Thy Church It is not Mine or Thine but Ours WE is a bond of peace and love that tieth us all together and maketh us all one We are all Israelites we are one people we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow-citizens and members of the same body We have one Law one Temple one Religion one Faith one God one Heaven cur non omnes unus dicantur saith Origen and why may not all then be one Yes we are all one And there is as great unity between us if we be of the same body saith Cyprian as there is between the beams and the Sun between rivers and their fountain between branches and their root WE taketh in a whole nation a whole people the whole world and maketh them one DECERNIMUS We decree We ordein is taken for a word of state and majesty but it is indeed a word of great moderation and humility an open profession that though Princes command yet they do it not alone but by the advise and counsel of others For in making a Law the King and his Counsel are but one So WE maketh Manasseh and Ephraim all Israel all the Tribes one WE maketh a Common-wealth and WE maketh a Church Though there be Lords and peasants Pastours and people Acts 1.15 though the number of the names together be an hundred and twenty yea many millions yet WE by interpretation is but one 1 Cor. 12.8 c. To one is given the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge to another faith to another the gifts of healing to another the working of miracles c. But it is by one and the same Spirit And as there is but one Spirit so there is but one Christ and in
greater preferment then to be a Saint Indeed these things are nothing Nihil habent solidi nihil firmi There is no solidity no hold-fast in them When vve see them vve do not see them vvhen vve feed on them vve are not satisfied vvhen they are they are not Vanae spes hominum The hopes of men are vain vvhen they seek these things that are not as if they vvere Vanae rerum species the species and shew of these things are vain They appear to us as in a dream they come and are gone and stand by us and vanish and behold when vve awake all is but a dream No glory on Honour no brightness on Gold no lustre on Beauty but that vvhich in my dream vvas all vvhen my eyes are open is nothing but vanity of vanities all is vanity Eccles 1.2 Excude aliquid quod sit perpetuò tuum said Pliny to his friend If thou wilt spend thy time upon any thing spend it upon that which shall be alwayes thine Now temporal things are neither ours nor are they lasting Apud te sunt sed tua non sunt They are vvith thee but they are not thine Dum placent transeunt When they most please thee they pass away In thy youth they please thee and that dyeth into age In thy age they please thee more For covetousness as it increaseth vvith our heaps so it doth with our age and we then love riches most when they are even upon the vving ready to flie away And then Death unladeth the Ass taketh thee from thy vvealth vvhen thy soul is even bound vvith it cutteth off a thousand hopes defeateth a thousand purposes and when thou art joyning land to land leaveth thee no more then will serve to bury thee and then Earth to earth All thy huggings of thy self all thy pride all thy busie and fore-casting thoughts all thy delights perish Our lands and possessions are but the way in which we set our foot but keep footing we cannot others come apace after us and take them up Nunc ager Vmbreni sub nomine nuper Ofelli Dictus erit nulli proprius sed cedit in usum Nunc huic nunc alii He that hath a Lordship or a Mannour hath but his footing there possession he hath not Another cometh after and after him another whilest that remaineth like the way and delivereth up all alike to their last home Onely Righteousness is that jewel which none can rob us of nec unquam definit esse nostra postquam coeperit nor will it ever leave us when we have once made it ours There are little stones we are told lying in some fields which Philosophers call lapides speculares which at some distance sparkle and send forth light but when we come near them have no appearance at all nor can they be found Like to those are these things our Saviour would not name them Riches and Honour when we stand at distance and do not enjoy them present themselves in glory and in a shape of allurement but when we come near them when we are possessed of them they have not the same countenance nor are so glorious A Crown hath cares Honour hath burthen and Riches anxiety and danger Envy and malice wait close upon them ready to sweep them away Taedet adeptos quod adepturos torfit That which set my desires on fire bringeth smoke enough with it to smother them That which I bowed to as to a God I am now ready to run from I looked upon them as upon a staff but when I had taken them up into my hand they proved a Serpent But in the third place there is great danger in seeking them at all and though we seek them as we think in the second place we may seek them too soon For our advancement in temporal things may prove a hinderance to our improvement in spiritual But if the last be first the first will be none at all In illis opera luditur We lose time in getting them and when we have got them we lose them or if we do retain them non sunt subsidia sed onera they are rather burthens then helps and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instruments of sin S. Basil asking the question why God made Adam naked in Paradise and withall gave him no sense of his nakedness telleth us the reason was that he might not be distracted nor called away from meditating upon God For these arts saith he which provide for the flesh have been occasion of care and business then which nothing could have been more noxious to that state in which then Adam was Had it so pleas'd God saith he it had been much better that the soul had been left naked in the day of her creation and never been clothed with this garment of flesh For from hence hath proceeded that swarm of cares and business with which our life is overrun which draweth us from Divine speculation and meditation upon the things of God which is the proper work of the soul For consider the Soul in it self and what relation or reference hath it to any earthly thing Care for meats and drinks and apparel for posterity to heap up riches to be ambitious of honours all these rigid Publicanes which demand and exact so much of our time and labour befell the Soul upon the putting on of this clothing of the body At what time the earth received the Curse that it should bring forth briars and thorns at the same time sprang there up this abundance of Arts and Trades this variety of callings and occupations with which the world is overrun as with briars and thorns For had we stood in our original integrity we had had but one care but one art one common trade and calling the worship and service of God Cain aedificavit civitatem pessimorum more stabile hujus seculi domicilium putantium saith Gregory Cain was the first that built a city upon a groundless conceit which possesseth the hearts of many that the houses they build are not of clay but to stand and last for ever Josephus telleth us he was the first that ever found out weights and measures and he passeth this severe censure upon it That by this he did pristinam sinceritatem ignaram talium artium in novam quandam versutiam depravare corrupt the former innocency and sincerity by bringing in a new kind of providence and craft which before as it stood in no need so was it altogether ignorant of any such art The Philosopher will tell us that the use of these common things is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hinderance to contemplation and S. Basil that we cannot well pray for spiritual graces unless the mind be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclouded of the mist and fog of the cares of this world Haec sunt vincula hae catenae saith S. Cyprian These be the bonds and chains with which the soul is still clogged that she cannot mount and seek those things
man thus qualified is fitted for the highest imployment in the Church even for the glory of Martyrdom Yea he is a Martyr already sine sanguine though he come not under the sword nor shed his bloud This is an addition indeed greater then that in kind This maketh our very poverty as rich as the greatest wealth a dungeon more honourable then the highest place and that a heaven upon earth which carnal men tremble at and run from even into hell it self In a word this blesseth our store promoteth our counsels maketh profit it self profitable this taketh away the name of Rich and Poor and maketh them both the same For betwixt Rich and Poor in this world in respect of our last landing as it were and entrance into our haven it is but as in S. Paul's broken ship Acts 27.43 44 Some by swimming some on broken parts of the ship some this way some that some in one condition some in another but all by the conduct of Righteousness come safe to land rich and poor high and low weak and strong the brethren of low degree and they in the highest seat all at last meet together in the haven in the Kingdom of heaven For conclusion then You have seen Righteousness what it is and that it is desireable in it self that it is desireable before all things and that it draweth all things after it not onely the dew of heaven but the fatness of the earth in her womb like Rebecca bearing twins a Jacob and an Esau spiritual and temporal blessings the Kingdom of heaven and the world with all that therein is as an appendix or addition This is the Object And this is Christ's method that Righteousness should be first in our desires because it is all in all and bringeth the rest along with it And this method we must exactly follow For why should not we think Christ a perfect Methodist Why should the Flesh and the World so prevail with us as to persuade us that Wisdom it self may be deceived Our own experience might easily confute us For we see men are never more fools never more foully fail of their ends then when they will be wiser then God and prescribe to Wisdom it self then they seek out many inventions follow their uncertain providence through the many turnings and windings and mazes and labyrinths which it hath made please themselves in their own wayes dream of happiness and in the end meet with ruine and destruction They seek for meat and are more hungry then before they pursue Honour and lye in the dust they are greedy of Riches and become beggers they cry they fight for Liberty and are made slaves Their craft deceiveth them their policy undoeth them their wisdom befooleth their strength ruineth them They think they are making a staff to lean on and when they have shaped and fashioned it behold it is a rod to scourge them This we have seen with our eyes folly shamed and defeated in her own wayes and confounded in her method and course of proceeding The thoughts of men are perverse and their method contrary to that which true Wisdom prescribeth For it proceedeth ab apparentibus ad vera from apparent good things to real evils from that which may satisfie my Envy or feed my Covetousness or flatter and fulfil my Lusts to that which â—ill destroy both body and soul It beginneth in honour and endeth in dishonour it beginneth in pleasure and endeth in torment it beginneth in visions and dreams and pleasant speculations of what may be and endeth in bitterness and horrour and amazement The method of this world is no method and the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God And it would appear so to us too if it had not first blinded us and put out our eyes For how do the children of this world who are wise in their generation every day fail under their own wisdom fall under their own strength and that before the sun and the people Let us then forsake our own wayes and method and follow that which is prescribed by Wisdom it self which proceedeth ab asperis ad laeta from that which appeareth irksom to that which is truly delightful which leadeth us through rough and rugged wayes into a paradise of pleasure through the valley of death into the land of the living through many tribulations into heaven This one would think were a strong motive and inducement to follow it But there is more yet Our Saviour doth even blandiri condescend to flatter our infirmity and provideth for our bodies as well as our souls For the same method will serve both The love of Righteousness is our purveyour here for these things and our harbinger for the Kingdom of God Would you see this miracle wrought It is daily wrought And if it be not wrought on you it is because of your unbelief Faith is required as a condition not onely for the working of miracles but also for the procuring of every blessing of God And if we believe if we distrust not if we question not the providence and promise of God it will be made good upon us and we shall have enough here and more then we can desire hereafter we shall receive these things and make of them such friends as when all these things shall fail will receive us into everlasting habitations Which God grant unto us for Jesus Christ's sake The Eight and Twentieth SERMON PART I. GALAT. VI. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap WE shall not take these words in that reference they bear to the foregoing verse in which they that are taught in the word are exhorted to communicate to those who teach them in all good things For this is a Doctrine not so sutable to these times And were S. Paul now alive to preach it he would be set to his old trade of making of Tents his practice would be turned upon him to confute his doctrine and that made a duty which was but a charitable yielding and condescension for the Churches sake If for their sakes and to take off all scandall and offense from the Gospel of Christ he will labor with his hands this his voluntary submission shall be made a Law to bind him and his posterity for ever Teach he should and labor he should with his hands He that teaches must labor and every laborour may teach Every man may teach and none communicate So that Text of communicating is lost quite and the duty of Teaching left to every one that will take it up Every man may be a teacher every man a S. Paul though he never sate at the feet of Gamaliel We will not then take our rise here but call your thoughts rather to a view of my Text as it looks forwards to the next verse He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption which presents the shew of a reason but is indeed no more
in evil as from Gods Grace in good proceed both the Will and the Deed. For when this Persuasion is wrought in us when by degrees we have lessened that honour and detestation of Sin which God hath imprinted in the mind of every man when we have often tasted those delights which are but for a season when this false inscription From hence is our gain hath blotted out the true one The wages of Sin is Death for we seldom take down this sop but the Devil enters when either Fear of inconvenience or Hope of gain hath made us afraid of the Truth and by degrees driven us into a false persuasion and at last prevailed with us to conclude against our own determinations and to approve what we condemn then every part of the body and faculty of the soul may be made a weapon of unrighteousness then we rejoyce like giants to run our race though the way we go be the way that leads unto Death Good Lord what a world of wickedness may be laid upon a poor thin and groundless Persuasion What a burden will Self-deceit bear What mountains and hills will wilfull Errour lie under and never feel them Hamor and Shechem must fall by the sword Gen. 34.26 and their whole city must be spoyled and what 's the ground Nothing but a mongrel Persuasion made up of Malice and Religion vers 31. Should he deal with our Sister as with an harlot Joseph must be sold and what 's the reason Behold the dreamer cometh Absalom would wrest his fathers sceptre out of his hand What puts him in arms Ambition and that which commends Ambition a thought that he could manage it better Oh that I might do justice King and Nobles and Senators all must perish together at one blow For should Hereticks live Holy things must be devoured For should Superstition flourish Such inconsequences and absurdities doth Self-deceit fall upon having no better props and pillars to uphold her then open Falshood or mistaken or misapplied Truth For as we cannot conclude well from false premisses so the premisses may be true and yet we may not conclude well For he that saith Thou shalt not commit adultery hath said also Thou shalt not kill He that condemns Heresie hath made Murder a crying sin He that forbids Superstition abhorreth Sacrilege All that we call Adulterers are not to be slain All that we term Hereticks are not to be blown up All that is or seems to be abused is not presently to be abolished For Adulterers may be punished though not by us Hereticks may be restrained though not by fire and things abused may be reserv'd and put to better uses And yet see upon what a Nothing this Self-deceit upholds it self For neither were they all adulterers that were slain by those brethren in evil nor were they Hereticks who were to be blown up nor is that Superstition which appears so to them whom the prince of this world hath blinded Oh what a fine subtle webb doth Self-deceit spin to catch it self What a Prophet is the Devil in Samuels mantle How do our own Lusts abuse us when the name or thought of Religion is taken in to make up the cheat How witty are we to our own damnation O Self-deceit from whence art thou come to cover the earth the very snare of the Devil but which we make our selves his golden fetters which we bear with delight and with which we walk pleasantly and say The bitterness of death is past and so we rejoyce in evil triumph in evil boast of evil call evil good and dream of paradise when we are falling into the bottomless pit Secondly this Self-deceit which our Apostle forbiddeth hath brought an evil report upon our Profession upon Christianity it self there having scarce been found any of any Religion who have so wilfully mistaken and deceived themselves in the rules of their Profession as Christians Christianity is a severe Religion and who more loose then Christians Christianity is an innocent Religion and full of simplicity and singleness and who more deceitful then Christians The very soul of Christianity is Charity and who more malitious then Christians The Spirit that taught Christianity came down in the shape of a Dove and who more vultures then Christians What an incongruity what a soloecism is this The best Religion and the worst men Men who have learnt an art to make a Promise overthrow a Precept and one precept supplant another sometimes wasting and consuming their Charity in their Zeal sometimes abating their Zeal with unseasonable Meekness now breaking the second Table to preserve the first and defying the image of God in detestation of Idolatry now losing Religion in Ceremony and anon crying down Ceremony when all their Religion is but a complement Invenit diabolus quomodo nos boni sectationibus perdat saith Tertullian By the deceit of the Devil we take a fall many times in the pursuit of that which is good and are very witty to our own damnation What evasions what distinctions do we find to delude the precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles As it hath been observed of those God-makers the Painters and Statuaries of the Heathen that they were wont to paint their Goddesses like their mistresses and did then think them most fair when they were most like that which they most loved so hath it been with many professors of Christian Religion they temper the precepts of it to their own phansie and liking they lay upon them glosses and interpretations as it were colours to make them look like unto that which they most love So that as Hilary observes quot voluntates tot fides there be as many Religions as there be Tempers and Dispositions of men as many Creeds as Humours We have annuas menstrnas fides We change our Religion with our Almanach nay with the Moon and the rules of Holiness are made to give attendance on those sick and loathsome humours which do pollute and defile it If I will set forth by the common compass of the world I may put in at shore when my vessel is sunk I may live an Atheist and dye a Saint I may be covetous disobedient merciless I may be factious rebellious and yet religious still a religious Nabal a religious Schismatick a religious Traytor I had almost said a religious Devil For this saith S. Paul the name of Christ is evil spoken of that worthy Name as S. James calleth it by those who by our conversation should be won to reverence that Name For this that blessed Name is blasphemed by which they might be saved Omnes in nobis rationes periclitantur that I may use Tertullians words though with some change We are in part guilty of the bloud of those deceived Jews and Pagans who now perishing in their errour might have been converted to the faith had not the Christian himself been an argument against the Gospel It might well move any man to wonder that well
foretold for the Tares as well as for the Wheat Poena sequitur culpam Punishment follows close upon Sin And this is Gods mocking of us which consists in giving every seed it s own body If we sow to the Flesh he clothes it with Death And herein consists his Justice and his Providence 1. in punishing of sin 2. in fitting and proportioning the punishment to it First Sowing implyes labour and industry This Phrase is often used They have sowen the wind and shall reap the whirle-wind Hos 8.7 They have laboured much to little purpose And Job 4.8 They that plow wickedness and sow iniquity reap the same As they that expect the year and a good Harvest first manure and plow the ground then scatter their seed upon it so do wicked men first turn their thoughts as the Husbandman doth the earth lutosas cogitationes saith Bernard earthly dirty thoughts busily tending the Flesh as if it were a field to be tilled racking their memory calling up their Understanding debauching their Reason fitting their instruments watching opportunities putting all things in readiness to bring their purposes about which is as it were their Plowing and then they break forth into action which is their Sowing and then springs up either Adultery or Murder or Oppression Behold he travaileth with iniquity he hath conceived mischief He is in as great pain as a woman with travail And all this trouble is to bring forth a Lye Psal 7.14 Scarce any sin but costs us dear For first as there is lucta a kind of contention in doing a good work an holding back of the Flesh when the Spirit is ready for when the Spirit is ready the Flesh is weak saith our Saviour So in the proceedings of wicked men there is also lucta some secret strugling and complaining of the Spirit when the Flesh is ready When the Hand is held up to strike the Eye open to gaze and the Mouth to blaspheme there be fightings within and terrours without there is a Law staring in our face like a Tribune with his Veto to forbid us a Conscience chiding a Judge frowning a Hell opening its mouth to devoure them all which must be removed as Amasa's body or else they will stand still 2 Sam. 20 1◠and not pass and venture on to that which they intended These Fightings must cease these Terrours be abated their Conscience slumber'd the Law nulled the Judge forgot Hell fire put out or sow they cannot For if these did appear in their full force and vigour did they look upon these as truths and not rather as our mormos and illusions how could they put such seed into the ground Again secondly though their Will have determined its act yet there may be many hinderances and retardancies many cross accidents intervene to hinder the work The child may be brought to the birth and there may be no strength to bring forth The Seed may be ready to be sown and the hand too weak to scatter it For the Will is not alwayes accompanied with Power God forbid it should It was but a weak argument which Luther brought against the Freedom of the Will from the Weakness and inability of performance Ostendant saith he magni illi Liberi arbitrii ostentatores Let them saith he who boast of Freewill shew any power they have to kill so much as a fly For a limited Power is no argument of a limited Will He that cannot get his bread may wish for a Kingdom and he that cannot kill a fly may will the destruction of the whole vvorld Novv this limitation of their Povver this weakning their strength in the way makes them go forth vvith sorrovv carrying their seed of iniquity and not able to scatter it This makes them mourn and cover the Head as Haman flings them on the bed with Ahab makes them hang themselves as Ahithophel did This many times puts them on the rack strikes them with care and anxiety fills them with distracted thoughts which choke one another The Covetous man would be rich but he must rise up early and lye down late and eat the bread of sorrow The Ambitious would climb but he must first lick the dust The Seditious would trouble the waters but is afraid they may drown him Nemo non priùs peccat in seipsum There is no man sins but first he offends and troubles himself before he conveys the poyson of his sin on others He that hurts his brother felt the blow first in his own bosome We read of the work of Faith and labour of Charity And it is true it is not so easie a matter to believe nor so easie a matter to be charitable as many suppose who cannot be brought to study either but must have them on gift Virtus duritiâ exstruitur A Christian is a Temple of the holy Ghost but it is Hardness and Industry that must help to build him up But yet we cannot but observe that there is as much care taken I am unwilling to say more in the sweeping and garnishing a habitation for Satan What Gibeonites are we in the Devils service and what lazy dreamers in the family and house of God More cost is bestowed in sowing to the Flesh then in sowing to the Spirit It is the service of Christ but Drudgery of Satan both are sowing but we make that of the Flesh the more laborious of the two To apply this in a word We read in our books of a devout Abbot who beholding what cost and art a woman had bestowed in attiring her self fell a weeping and Oh said he what a misery is this that a woman should bestow more labour upon the dressing of her body then we have done in the adorning of our souls that she should put more ornaments on her head then we have been careful to put into our hearts What a misery is it that we should wish for heaven and contend for earth that Mary's part should be the better but Martha's the greater Oh what a sad contemplation is it that many men will not be perswaded to take so much pains to go to heaven and eternal rest as many thousands do to go to hell and everlasting Torments that we should sweat for the bread that perisheth and but coldly and faintly ask for the bread of life that we should heap up riches James 5 3. which will eat our flesh as it were fire and be ever afraid of that Grace which will raise us from the dead that we should watch for the twilight an opportunity to do evil and let so many opportunities of doing good fly by us not marked nor regarded lay hold on any opportunity to destroy our brother and let pass any that prompts us to help him that we should labour and travel and spend our selves in the one and be so weary and faint and dead in the other that we should take more delight to feed with swine then to eat at Christs Table that the way
welcome Come ye Blessed children of my Father receive the kingdome and Blessedness which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world The Five and Thirtieth SERMON COLOS. III. 1. If then you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God THe Resurrection of the dead is the prop and stay the very life and soul of a Christian Illam credentes sumus saith Tertullian By believing this we have our being and are that which we are and without this it were better for us not to be If there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle then are we of all men most miserable Now much better were it for us not to be at all then to be miserable For let us take a general survay not as Solomon doth in the book of the Preacher of all the pleasures in the world but of all the virtues of a Christian onely deny the Resurrection of the dead and what are they else but extreme vanity and vexation of the spirit To cleanse our hearts and wash our hands in innocency to hold a strict watch over all our ways to deny unto our selves the joyes and pleasures of the world to pine our bodies with fasting to bestow our hours on devotion our goods on the poor and our bodies on the fire this and whatsoever else is so full of terrour to the outward man and so full of irksomness to the flesh what may it seem to be but a kind of madness if when this little span of our life be measured out there remain no crown no reward of it if after so many strivings with our selves so many agonies so many crucifyings of our selves so many pantings for life we must in the end breath out our last But beloved Christ is risen and our faith in his Resurrection is an infallible demonstration and a most certain pledge to us that we shall rise as he hath done Of which that we may the better assure our selves we must observe that as S. Paul tells us As we have born the image of the earthy so must we bear the image of the heavenly so on the contrary we must make an account that as we hope to bear the image of the heavenly so must we first bear the image of the earthy and if we will bear a part in the resurrection to glory which is a heavenly resurrection we must have our part in a resurrection to grace which is a resurrection here on earth S. John distinguishes for me in his Revelation Ch. 20.5.6 Blessed is he that hath his part in the first resurrection And he that hath none there shall bear at all no part in the second resurrection As it is with us in nature at the end of our dayes there is a death and after that a resurrection so is it with us in grace yet the days of sin can have an end in us there is a death For the Apostle tells us we are dead to sin and we are buried with him in Baptisme Then after this death to sin cometh the resurrection to newness of life Mors perire est resurgere restingui nisi mors mortem resurrectio resurrectionem antecedat To die is quite to perish to rise again worse then to have lien for ever rotting in the grave if this first death go not before a second death and this first resurrection before the second Secondly as in our life time we die and rise again with Christ so do we likewise in a manner ascend with him into heaven For to seek those things which are above is a kind of flight and ascension of the Soul into heavenly places And as God commanded Moses before he died to ascend up into the mountain Deut. 32.49 to see a far off and discover that good land which he had promised to the Jews So it it his pleasure that through holy conversation and newness of life we should raise our selves far above the rest of the world and in this life time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks as it were from an exceeding high mountain discover and have some sight of that good land and of those good things which God hath laid up for those which are his Hebr. 6. So by the Apostle our regeneration and amendment of life that is our first resurrection is called a taste of the good spirit and word of God a relish and taste of the powers of the world to come Now of this first Resurrection doth our blessed Apostle speak in these words which I have read unto you If you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Which speech though it go with an If and therefore seems to be conditional yet if we look neerer into it we shall find that indeed it is a peremptory and absolute command in effect as if he had said Rise with Christ and seek the things which are above Acts 12. And as the Angel said to Peter being in prison Arise up quickly at which words the chains fell off from Peters hands so God by his blessed Apostle comes to us who are in a stricter prison and commands us in the first words Arise quickly and in the next seek the things which are above and so makes as it were the chains fall off our hands and delivers us out of prison into the glorious liberty of the Saints of God For the things of this world and our love unto them are fetters to our feet and manacles to our hands holding us down groveling on the earth And except these chains fall off we can never Arise and follow the Angel as Peter did When Elias in a whirlwind went up to heaven the text tells us that his mantle fell from him And he that will go up into heaven with Elias 2 Kings 2. and seek the things that are above cannot go with his cloke thither he must be content to leave his mantle below forgo all things that are beneath and as S. Hierome speaks nudam crucem nudus sequi follow the naked cross naked and stript from all the glory and pomp of the world Now this part of Scripture which I have read is a part of the practice of our spiritual Logick for it teacheth us to frame an argument or reason by which we may conclude unto our selves that our first resurrection is past For if we seek the things which are above then are we risen with Christ if not we are in our graves still our souls are putrified and corrupt And again If we be risen with Christ then as Christ at his resurrection left in his grave the cloths wherein he was buried so these things of the world in which we lye as it were dead and buried at our resurrection to newness of life we must leave unto the world which was the grave in which we lay As it is in arched buildings all the stones do enterchangeably and mutually rest upon and hold
up one another and if you remove and take one away the rest will fall So it is here These two especial stones of our spiritual building our first Resurrection and our Seeking of things above do mutually hold up and mutually prove one another For take away but the stone of our first Resurrection and that of Seeking the things above will immediately fall and take away the Seeking of the things above and there is no first Resurrection Let us but grant that we are risen with Christ and certainly we shall seek the things above and if we find our minds fixed on the things above we may infallibly conclude unto our selves that we are risen with Christ But I must come to my Division These words as all other conditional speeches and propositions do naturally divide themselves into these two parts 1. the Antecedent or foregoing part If thou be risen with Christ 2. the Consequent or following part then seek those things which are above We shall limit and bound our discourse within these three considerations 1. That our conversion and newness of life is a Rising which we ground upon these words If you be risen 2. That this our conversion and rising must be early without delay for which we have warrant in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle speaks in the time past For he saith not If you do rise or If you will rise but If you are risen as supposing it to be already done 3. Lastly That the manifestation of our conversion of this our rising with Christ consists in our seeking of those things which are above as Christs was by appearing to his Disciples and shewing to them his hands and his feet If you be then risen with Christ seek those things which are above Of these in their order Though there be many words in Scripture by which our Newness of life is exprest yet our Apostle in divers places of his writings makes especial choice of this of rising as Ephes 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins and v. 5. even when we were dead in sins he hath quickned us together in Christ and hath raised us up together with Christ And again chap. 5. he maketh use of that of the Prophet Isaiah Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Omnis causa eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo râ—â—â—â—atur saith Tertullian Every soul is dead with the first Adam 〈◊〉 it be raised up to life with the second We may truly say of it that it is departed because God who is the life of the Soul is departed from it And it being destitute of the favour of God which should actuate and quicken it the stench of Sin seizeth upon it the worm of Conscience gnaws it the horrour of Infidility makes it like unto the fiends of Hell fit in sepulcro corporis vivo funus animae jam sepultum and a living body is made the sepulchre to a dead soul a soul that is dead and yet dies every moment multiplies as many deaths as sins and if that of the Schools be true Peccator peccat in suo infinito would be dead and dying to all eternity Son of man can these bones live as the Spirit of God says unto the Prophet Ezek. 37. Can these broken sinews of the Soul come together and be one again Can such a disordered Clock where every whele is broken be set again Can this dead Soul be made a Saint and walk before God in the land of the living We may answer with the Prophet Lord God thou knowest Thou knowest that this dissolved putrified carcass may see the light again that Mary Magdelene may rise from sin as well as her brother Lazarus from the grave that as we are fallen with Adam so we may rise again with Christ that these Stones being formed into the faith of Abraham may be made the children of Abraham and this generation of vipers having spit out their venome may bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life And this our conversion may well be stiled a Rising for many reasons for many waies it resembles it First the World may well go not onely for a Prison but a Grave All the pomp and glory of it are but as dust and ashes wherein we are raked up and buried All the desires all the pleasures of it are but as the grave-cloths wherewith we are bound And in the midst of these allurements in the midst of these glories and sensual objects the Soul rots and corrupts and even stinketh in the nostrils of God In the midst of all the greatness the world can cast upon us the Soul becomes worse then nothing The Love of the world is as unsatiable as the Grave and devours souls as that doth bodies But when through the operation of the Spirit we are taken out of the world we have our resurrection Then it may be said of us as Christ said of his disciples They are not of the world for I have chosen them out of the world John 17. I have set them apart and made them my peculiar people that they may escape the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 They are born in the world and in the world they are born again unto me In the world they are but not of the world In the world they are and in the world they traffick for another world passing by this as not worth the cheapning looking upon Beauty as upon a snare loathing Riches as dung and afraid of Pleasures as of Hell it self They have a being but not living in the world for their life is hid with Christ in God But as Christ when he was risen staid yet a while upon earth before he ascended so do Christians make a short abode and sojourn for a time in it as in a strange country looking for a city whose builder and maker is God In the world they have nothing for they have forsaken all surrendred all the things of the world to the world Matth. 16. Luke 14. earth to earth dust to dust ashes to ashes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are our Saviours own words by which not onely the act of forsaking is signified but such an affection of the mind as placeth all things under Christ is ready to fling them away if they cannot keep them with Christ having as if they had not possessing as if they possest not having stept into the world as mariners do sometimes out of their ship to the shore there gathering these cockles but ready upon the sign given to cast them away and return with hast into the ship So that in respect of the world it may be said of them as the Angel said of Christ Why seek you the living amongst the dead they are risen they are not here Secondly at our Resurrection there will be a great change For though we shall not all sleep we shall all be changed This corruptible
this they did contradict themselves who brought in their Wiseman sensless of pain even on the rack and wheel When the Body is an unprofitable burden unserviceable to the Soul oportet educere animam laborantem we ought to do drive the Soul out of such an useless habitation Cum non sis quod esse velis non est quod ultrà sies When thou art what thou shouldst be there is no reason thou shouldst be any longer Quare mori voluerim quaeris En quia vivam Would you know the reason why I would dye The onely reason is because I do live These were the speeches of men strangers from the common-wealth of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those who were without without Christ and so without God in this world But the Christian keeps his station and moves not from it injussu Imperatoris but when the Lord of all the world commands who hath given us a Soul to beautifie and perfect with his graces but hath not given us that power over it when it is disquieted and vexed as he hath given to the Magistrate over us if we offend and break the peace of the common-wealth Qui seipsum occidit est homicida si est homo He that kills himself is a murderer and homicide if he be a man And he that thus desires death desires it not to that end for which it is desireable to be with Christ but to be out of the world which frowns upon him and handles him too roughly which he hath not learnt to withstand nor hath will to conquer This desire is like that of the damned that hills might cover them and mountains fall on them that they migâ—â— be no more No this desire of S. Paul is from the heaven heavenly drawn from that place where his conversation was wrought in him by the will of God and bowing in submission to his will a longing and panting after that rest and sabbath which remains after that crown which was laid up for him And this Desire filled the hearts of all those who with S. Paul loved God in sincerity and truth in whom the Soul being of a divine extraction and like unto God and cleaving and united to him had a kind of striving and inclination to the things above and was restless and unquiet till it came to rest in him who is the centre of all good Here they acted their parts in the world as on a stage contemned hated reviled it trod it under foot and longed for their exit to go out Vae mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est saith David Wo is me that I sojourn in it any longer So Elias who could call down fire from heaven give laws to the clouds and shut and open heaven when he would cryes out unto God It is enough Take away my life for I am not better then my fathers And this affection the Gospel it self instills into us in that solemn Prayer Thy kingdome come wherein we desire saith Tertullian maturius regnare non diutiùs servire to reign in heaven sooner and not to stay longer and serve and drudge upon the earth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death this whole state and generality of sins of Calamities and those evils which the world swarms with life brings along with it So Pharaoh speaking of the Locusts which were sent Intreat saith he the Lord your God to take away this death from me This desire that vvas in S. Paul in some degree possesseth the heart of every regenerate person and is nourished and fomented in them by the operarion of the blessed Spirit as a right spirit a spirit of Love vvorking in us the Love of God and as a spirit of Peace filling our hearts vvith Peace making our conscience a house of Peace as the Ark of God as the Temple of Solomon where no noise was heard We love Christ and would be there where his honour dwelleth our conscience is at rest and we have confidence in God Now first to love God is not a duty of so quick despatch as some imagin It is not enough to speak good of his name to call upon him in the time of trouble to make laws against those which take his name in vain to give him thanks for that he never did and will certainly punish to make our boast of him all the day long For do not even hypocrites and Pharisees the same But to love him is to do his will and keep his commandments John 17. By this we glorifie him I have glorified thee on earth saith Christ and the interpretation follows I have finished the work thou gavest me to do that is I have preached thy law declared thy will publisht both thy promises and precepts by the observation of which men may love thee and long after thee and be delivered from the fear of death Idem velle idem nolle ea demùm est firma amicitia then are we truly servants and friends to God when we have the same will when we have no will of own The sting of Death is sin and there is no way to take it out to spoil this King of terrour of his power but by subduing our Affections to our Reason the Flesh to the Spirit and surrendring up our wills unto God Then we dare look Death in the face and ask him Where is thy terrour Where is thy sting God loves them that love him nay he cannot but love them bearing his Image and being his workmanship in Christ And he that is thus loved and thus loves cannot but hasten and press forward and fly like the Doves as the Prophet speaketh to the windows of heaven It is a famous speech of Martin Luther Homo perfectè credens se esse haeredem Dei non diu superstes merueret A man that perfectly and upon sure grounds doth believe himself to be the child and heir of God would not long survive that assurance but would be swallowed up and dye of immoderate joy This is that transformation and change by which our very nature is altered Now Heaven is all and the World is Nothing All the rivers of pleasures vvhich this world can yield cannot quench this love What is Beauty to him that delights in the face of God what is Riches to him vvhose treasure is in heaven vvhat is Honour to him vvho is candidatus Angelorum vvhose ambition is to be like unto the Angels This true unfeigned Love ravisheth the soul and setteth it as it were in heavenly places This makes us living dying men nay dead before we depart not sensible of Pleasures which flatter us of Injuries vvhich are thrown upon us of Miseries vvhich pinch us having no eye no ear no sense no heart for the world vvilling to loose that being which vve have in this shop of vanities and to be loosed that vve may be with Christ Secondly this Love of God and this Obedience to his will
Church and we grope as in darkness and follow meteors and illusions and false lights That we should read of Joseph's Chastity and be caught with every smile of Mose's Meekness and storm at every breath that crosseth us of Job's Patience and when calamity is but in the approch roar as upon a rack of Paul's Beating down his body and pamper ours of Paul's Keeping a good conscience and lay down ours at every beck That we should read of the acts of so many Saints and do contrary and yet hope to be as good Saints as they That we should do the works of the Father of lyes and yet call him our Father who is the Good of Truth Beloved if we look upon the command we shall find that every man should be a Joseph a Moses a Job a Paul For it looketh alike upon all The same Law bindeth us the same reward inviteth us the same promises allure us the same heaven openeth to receive us if we obey Our God is the same and we are the same and heaven is the same Our great mistake is that we conceive that a demensum a certain measure of saving and sanctifying grace is given to every man and so no man can be better then he is that God hath set a bound to Piety as he hath done to the Sea Hitherto it shall go and no further Hereupon we lye down and comfort our selves and turn the grace of God into wantonness as if it were our duty not to be the best and God would take it ill at our hands if we were as good as S. Paul Be not deceived We are called here to follow S. Paul not as Peter did Christ a far off but to come up close to him as near as we can in all holiness and righteousness to stretch our endeavours to the farthest and with him to press on towards the mark We may come too short it is impossible we should exceed For though there be degrees of Holiness and the Saints as the Stars differ from each other in glory yet his light will soon be put out that maketh it not his ambition to be one of the greatest magnitude If we come short God will accept us but not if we fall short because we thought it as needless as troublesom to mend our pace consulting with flesh and bloud which soon concludeth It is enough and will teach us to ask our selves that unprofitable question What should we be as good as S. Paul Fear not It is no presumption to follow Paul in all the wayes of holiness it is no presumption to exceed him Not to follow him and expect the same crown is great presumption But to strive to follow him to the highest pitch is that holy Ambition which will fit our heads for a diadem And it was his wish whilst he was on earth that every man were as he was except his bonds To conclude then Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise in any Saint let us think on these things Let us chew and digest and turn them into good bloud let us shape and fashion them in our hearts till they break forth into the like actions that we acting the Saints and following them here on earth may with them follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth that our good works by which we resemble them whilest we live may follow us when we are dead and make us like unto the Angels of heaven blessed as they are and blessing God for evermore But so it is Good examples glitter in our eyes and we look up and gaze upon them as little children do upon a piece of gold which they are ready to exchange for a counter We are swift enough to follow the Saints of God in their errours and deviations but are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill expressers of their piety and religion And there is as great danger in their examples where they betray themselves to be men as there is profit where they are led by the Spirit of God Therefore S Paul putteth in a Caution commendeth Imitation but limiteth it exhorteth the Corinthians to follow him but withall restraineth them with a SICUT Be ye followers of me but even as I also am of Christ My last Part Of which briefly Those things which degenerate are so much the worse by how much the more useful they had been if they had been levelled by the rule Therefore in Imitation besides the Persons we must also consider What it is we must imitate in them We must no farther follow them then they do the Rule Ut in pessimis aliquid optimi ita in optimis aliquid pessimi saith St. Hierom. The best men are not priviledged from sin and errour And as in the most men there is some good thing though clouded with much corruption so in the best Saints of God there may be something amiss though scarcely seen because of the splendor of those many vertues with which it is incompassed For as many vices do darken one single vertue so many vertues may cast a colour upon some one sin and errour and make it in appearance fair and beautiful even like unto them and commend it to our imitation Here then is need of a SICUT of a Caution and Limitation For proclivis malorum imitatio Men are too prone to follow that which is evil especially where the person by his other better endowments not onely palliateth but addeth authority to his fault or errour Examples of famous men are like unto two-edged swords which cut deep both wayes both for the good and for the bad Against good examples we too oft hold up some buckler of defence that they may not reach us but evil examples we receive toto corpore with an open body and with a willing mind and are well pleased they should wound us unto death The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many times of good men those actions which fall from them by chance or inadvertency we are more ready to take out then their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the works which made them famous to all the world and canonized them for Saints Saepe vitium pro exemplo est If there be any thing irregular in them that we set up for a patern and example Tully telleth us of Fusius that he fell short of those sinews and strength of eloquence which was in Caius Fimbria and atteined nothing but a bad gesture and the distortion of his countenance And Quintilian observeth that there were many in his time who thought they had gained a Kingdom in Eloquence if they shut up every period and clause with esse videatur But that is most remarkable which Gregory Nazianzene relateth of divers who were admirers of Basil that they did imitate in their behaviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his corporal defects and blemishes his paleness
it run disorderly and break foâ— Anger of biles and ulcers into that which we call our Glory but it is our fâ—â— noise Pride maketh us to forget our dependance on God and to hate an â—e quality with our brethren It turneth our loudest thanks into ingratitude I fast and I am not an adulterer leaveth God in the rear to help vvhen all is done I am a great faster that engageth his God and I am not as this Publican that excommunicateth his brother Pride is a sin vvhich indeed had its birth in heaven in Lucifer but as if it had forgot vvhich vvay it fell it never had the power to return thither again but here on earth remaineth the Devil's emissary to betray Vertue it self to spoil and rob us of our spiritual endowments to poison each stream to defile each action to turn our prayers into sin to make our good deeds stink in the nostrils of the Almighty to corrupt a fast to blow our alms before the vvind vvith the breath of a trumpet to make a sacrifice murther and a gift an injury Sin hath a foul face and of it self is mis-shapen therefore the Devil's art and labour is to make Goodness so too to set his inscription upon God's coyn his Devil's face upon Angelical perfections Ignorance begetteth Pride and Pride increaseth ignorance This maketh us leave God behind us to vvhom vve should cleave tanquam principio as the beginner and donour of all good things and to think that the fountain and original of all good is in our selves to think so vvhen vve do not think so It maketh us like Ananias Acts 5. give God a part but keep back the greatest part to our selves The proud is as he that transgresseth by wine He doth not see vvhat he seeth Hab. 2 nor understand vvhat he knoweth but speaketh and judgeth of things most absurdly Pride is the Drunkenness of the soul And it is the Idolatry of the soul making us bow to our selves and burn incense to our own yarn as the Prophet speaketh It is a kind of Murther it maketh us kill our selves vvith smiling and dote our selves to death It is the Adultery of the soul it divorceth us from God and maketh us couple and ingender vvith our own phansies Adulteri sumus nos amari volumus non sponsum saith Augustine We are plain adulterers vve vvould have our selves to be loved and not the bride-groom It is a False witness and a lying glass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a witness drawn out of our own house our own corrupt hearts giving us for men vvhen vve are but children in understanding vvitnessing either not the truth or not the whole truth bringing in the flesh for the spirit a ceremony for the substance a rite for religion hearing for obedience profession for practice the lesser things of the Law mint and cumin for the weightier things of the Law and a part for the vvhole And indeed these formalities oftner swell us up then sincere obedience For obedience if it be sincere is humility and keepeth us under God's hand but Pride commonly buildeth all its glorious superstructures upon defect upon appearances and shews He vvho is onely a Jew outwardly boasteth more then he vvho is a Jew invvardly and the formal Christian is more supercilious then he that mindeth the things of Christ and is more â—aken vvith the hearing of a Sermon then the other vvith doing of the Word If he can pray and fast and hear he is more exalted in himself then he that denieth himself and taketh up Christ's cross and followeth him Knowledge falsly so called puffeth up but charity edifieth Lastly I may say Pride is covetous and envious Amat avaritia unitatem Covetousness vvould draw all and make it one in it self The Pharisee in the Text had a deep dye and tincture of it So blinded he was that he saw none but himself I am and I alone I fast twice in the week and what is this Publican So he standeth as upon terms with God and defieth his brother First he attributeth to himself though not the total yet the principal cause of that good was in him and then looketh down and contemneth the low dejected estate of the poor Publican Thus whilest other sins fly the presence of the Almighty Pride dareth oppose him to his face and maketh even Ruine it self the foundation of her tabernacle Next to the sin of Pride followeth Vain glory the daughter of Pride An hateful mother and an hateful daughter As Choler is nothing else but spuma sanguinis the froth of Bloud so is Vain-glory nothing else but spuma superbiae the froth of Pride Pride like the foolish woman in the Proverbs is loud and talkative She speaketh in our garments in our gestures in every motion in every look When the heart is full of it the tongue will be as the pen of a ready writer Doth a Pharisee give alms You shall hear a trumpet Doth he pray You shall see him in the corners of the streets Doth he fast You shall see it in his countenance or he will proclaim it in the Temple I fast twice in the week Let a Monk but for some time cloister up himself and fast and straight saith S. Hierom putat se esse alicujus momenti he beginneth to contemplate himself and thinketh him his enemy that doth not admire him He one day's retirement must not lye hid for he will speak it by not vouchsafing a word to his equal Let a blind Votary devote himself to poverty or go in pilgrimage to some Saint and his own opinion full soon will canonize him and he will write it on the cloister-walls Let the formal Christian keep the Sabbath day holy though not more holy then the devotion or rather itch of his ear can make it let him keep this one commandment though he break all the rest let him keep the feast though with the leven of malice and wickedness and he will make this one day the boast and comfort of every day of the week and vent himself in a censure which is the voice and language of Vain glory publishing his own praise in a sharp reprehension of others and proclaiming his piety in the sentence of their condemnation For Vain-glory cannot speak more plainly then thus I am not as that Publican Indeed a good name is as a pretious ointment Eccl. 7. and every Christian is bound to preserve it Quisquis famam custodit in alios misericors est I am merciful to others when I am careful of the preservation of my own good name for by this I let fall no spark to kindle a suspicion in him which may flame out at last into an uncharitable censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praise is a sweet and delightful note but if I sing it my self or take delight in hearing it I may take in death at my ears This Siren's song may slumber me but I may dye in this slumber For as is
an Ear listening after lies are the faculties and passions and members or rather the marks and reproches of a stigmatized slave For can he be thought free who imployeth all the power he hath to make himself a prisoner No liberty then without subordination and subjection to this Law Behold I shew you a mystery which you may think rather a paradox A Christian a Gospeller is the freest and yet the most subject creature in the world the highest and yet the lowest delivered out of prison and yet confined set at liberty and yet kept under a Law S. Paul saith to the Galatians Brethren you have been called unto liberty Gal. 5.13 He meaneth Liberty in things indifferent neither good nor evil in their own nature There our fetters are broken off Onely use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh There we are limited and confined So that Christian Liberty it self is under a Law which bindeth us ab illicitis semper quandoque à licitis from unlawful things alwayes and sometimes from that which is lawful Nay it is under many Laws 1. The Law of Sobriety and Temperance which must bound and limit the outward practice of it God hath given as I told you before every moving thing that liveth to be meat for us Gen. 9. â— All meats under the Gospel all drinks are lawful fish and flesh bread and herbs and the rest But there is a Law yet to bound us We are free but not so free as to surfeit and be drunken and to devour our souls with care for our bodies to make an art of eating and indulge so long to luxury till we can indulge no more Wine is from the vine In which saith S. Augustine God doth every year work a miracle and turn water into wine But if Sobriety be not the cup bearer if we look not on Temperance as a Law it may prove to us what the Manichees feigned it to be fel principis tenebrarum the gall of the Prince of darkness Again all apparel all stuff all cloth all colours are lawful Foâ— he that clotheth the grass of the field will doe much more for us But this Liberty doth not straight write us Gallants nor boulster out our excessive pride and vanity this doth not give us power to put the poor's and Christ's patrimony on our backs Modesty must be our Tire-woman to put on our dress and our garments and not Phansie and Pride Tertullian thought it not fit to supplicate God in silk or purple Cedò acum crinibus distinguendis Bring forth saith he your crisping-pins and your pomanders and wash your selves in costly baths and if any ask you why you do so Deliqui dicito in Deum say I have offended against God Itaque nunc maceror crucior ut reconciliam me Deo and therefore I thus macerate and afflict my self and am come in this gay and costly outside that I may reconcile my self to God Thus did he bitterly and sarcastically lâ—sh the luxury of his times What think you would he say if he saw what we see every day even when the dayes are gloomy and black Ecclesia in attonito when mens hearts even fail them for fear and Vengeance hovereth over us ready to fall upon our heads But if he were too streight-laced we ought to remember that Apparel was for covert and not for sight to warm the body that weareth it and not to take the eye of him that beholdeth it We have freedom to use but Modesty and Temperance must be as Tribunes and come in with their Veto and check and manage this Liberty that we abuse not the creature 2. Our Liberty is bounded with another Law even the Law of Charity Of Charity I say both to my self and to my brethren For our selves A right hand is to be cut off and a right eye plucked out if they offend us We must remove every thing out of the way which may prove a stone to stumble at though it be as useful as our Hand and as dear as our Eye at least make a covenant with our Eye and with our Hand to forbear those lawful things which may either endanger the body or occasion the ruine of the soul For what is an Eye a Hand to the whole And what a serpent is that occasion which If I touch it will sting me to death And as for our selves so also for others we must not use the creature with offence or scandal of our weaker brethren LICET It is lawful is the voice of Liberty but the Charity of the Gospel which is as a Law to a Christian bâ—â—ngeth in an EXPEDIT and maketh onely that lawful in this case which is expedient For as every thing which we please as Bernard speaketh is not lawful so every thing that is lawful is not expedient Nihil charitate imperiosius There is nothing more commanding then Charity and no command fuller of delight and profit then hers For how quickly doth she condescend to the weakness of others How willing is she to abridge her self rather then they should fall What delight doth she take to deny her self delight that she may please them She will not touch nor taste that they may not be offended And then thus in matters of this nature to restrain Liberty bringeth with it huge advantage For how will he flie with ease from that which â—e may not do who can for another's sake abstain from that which he may Liberty is a word of enlargement and giveth us line biddeth Rise and eat but a NON EXPEDIT It is not expedient which is the language of Charity putteth the knife to our throat cometh in case of scandal to pinion us that we reach not our hand to things otherwise lawful A NON EXPEDIT maketh a NON LICET It is not expedient in matters of this indifferencie is the same with It is not lawful The Gospel you see then is a Law of liberty but it is also a Law to moderate and restrain it Lastly as it is a Law of liberty so it limiteth and boundeth it in respect of those relations which are between man and man between Father and Son Master and Servant Superiour and Inferiour For Christ came not to shake these relations but to establish them He left the Servant the Son the Subject as he found them but taught them to bow yet a little lower before their Master their Father their Lord for the Gospel's sake to do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with fear and reverence as to the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as the heathen slaves in chains but in simplicity and truth as unto Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good will not driven on with the goad and whip and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as servants not of men but of Christ He giveth them liberty yet tieth them up and confineth them in the Family in the Commonwealth in the Church A Christian is the most free and the most
said nothing else but Love one another 491. A reason given why some are so slow to actions of Ch. 281 282. Rules to try our Ch. by 492. v. Faith and Mercy Charles the V. quitted his Palace for a Cell 284. Children if virtuous are blessings if wicked curses 987. Chiliasts errour confuted 243. Choice We are here put to our choice 767 CHRIST The miserable estate of Man without him 2 3. If he had not been God he could not have saved us 3 4. How he is the Son of God 4 5. His Generation a mystery to be believed not curiously inquired into 5. ¶ His Incarnation the greatest expression of God's Love and bond of ours 6 22. His wonderful humility in taking our nature 6. He representeth himself to us three wayes 7. Christ's Incarnation by many thought absurd and unworthy of God 8. but we must not out of good manners either abuse God's love or make shipwrack of our own faith 8. 20 21. He took not onely our Flesh but our Soul also with the Affections 9. but without that disorder that our Passions are guilty of 10. 25. Of the manner how the two Natures are united 11. This is a mystery not impossible yet inexplicable 11. It behoved Christ for our redemtion to become Man 13 14. The other persons wrought in the Incarnation but were not incarnate 14. Christ's Incarnation was most free yet in some sense also necessary 14 15. ¶ As Christ was made like unto us so must we be like unto him 16. No easie matter to be like him 16. How we may be made like him 16. Nothing so absurd and mis-becoming as for a Christian to be unlike Christ 17. Conformity to him is that one thing necessary 17. It is a joy to God and his holy Angels 18. ¶ Christ is the chief of God's gifts and the fountain of all the rest 19 20. 33 34. God's Love to us in giving his Son is highly to be admired but upon no pretense to be denied 20 c. 470. This act flowed from God's mere pleasure 22. 28. God herein appeared more kind to us then to his own dear Son 20. and Christ to have loved us more then himself 29. God's Love herein exceeded his Power Wisdome Will yea far exceeded our Hopes Desires Opinion 22. 471. His Mercy alone was it that moved his Will to send C. 23 24. ¶ The manifold wayes that C. was delivered for us 24 c. ¶ Of his Fear and Grief at his Passion 25. Of his desire that the Cup might pass from him 266. How the Martyrs seemed more couragious at their deaths then He 26. In his greatest extremity he despaired not 25. yet were his sufferings without the least allay of comfort 27. Why He died for us Men and for our salvation and not for the Angels some conjectures are produced 28. The true cause is shewn 29. We had more hand in our Saviour's death then his Judge or Executioners 29. It was Love that made him die for us 470. 492. How since he died for all all are not saved by him 29 c. There is no difficiencie in him the fault is wholely in us 30 31. ¶ Every worldly thing is good with Christ but nothing without him 32. All things are loss and dung without him 714 715. How all things are ours by our being Christ's 33. We have all things by him which tend to our salvation 33. His Death the strongest motive to holiness and righteousness of life 872 c. From his Cross as from a Professor's chair we may learn Innocencie Obedience Humility Patience Love 34. He died not for us that we might live as we list 38. He died not onely to be a Sacrifice for us but also an Example to us 471 472. His Death should not make any but it doth make many presume 472. What it is to shew forth Christ's Death 473 c. Our part is to condemn our selves rather then to declaim against the Actors in that Tragedy 473. His Humility doth not empair his Majesty but exalt it 470. His experience of sufferings taught him to compassionate ours 39 40. His Compassion not to be denied but followed 147 148. What hand God had in Christ's death 301. What we should behold and admire in Christ's Cross 310. His Death and our Repentance must go together 327. ¶ Why Christ after his Resurrection would not shew himself openly 41. Arguments to prove his Resurrection 42 718. The efficacie of his Resurrection on our Bodies and on our Souls 43. 719 c. Christ and all that floweth from him everlasting 44 45. 48. ¶ Of Christ's Ascension 726 c. Why the Disciples were present at their Master's Ascension 727. They are checked at their wondring at it 728. Now Christ is ascended what it is that we must look upon and look to 731 732. Why He abode not still upon earth 733 734. ¶ How and why Christ is said to sit at God's right hand 229. ¶ Of his Intercession 45. ¶ Of his Dominion over Hell and Death 49 49. He hath bought us 739 c. It cost him more to redeem us then it did to create us 763. v. Redemtion That Jesus is the Lord his Resurrection declared 759. v. JESVS If we make him our Lord he will be our Jesus else not 760 c. 1069. What contradiction of sinners Christ suffereth in all ages 761. Few love to hear of his Lordship 761 c. The Arians less e-enemies to Christ then many Christians now 762. Many confess Christ but few do it heartily 763 c. What a shame it is to own any other for our Lord but Christ 768. The Devil brought in bragging he hath more Disciples then Christ 768. His humility offendeth many 560. The Majesty of Christ is to be discovered and admired by us even amidst the scorn and disgrace the world casteth upon him 311. 493. Of his Dominion 762. its nature 228 c. its power 232. 240. its extent 233. How he is Lord of all though most refuse him 234. 240. The acknowledgment of God's power in Christ is the foundation of Christianity 313. He is our Lawgiver 1066. v. Law They grosly erre who think Christ came to be our Redeemer but not our Lawgiver 1068. How his Laws excel all humane Laws 240 c. How men are wont to deal with his precepts 823. We must be ruled by his command 312. and depend on his protection 313. He is terrible to his enemies and gratious to his servants 37. ¶ How we must receive Christ 35. What it is to dwell in him 310 c. The benefits we have by his dwelling in us 314 c. Power and virtue still go out of him 314 315. He quickneth our Knowledge 315. and our Faith 316. and worketh in us an universal constant and sincere Obedience 316 317. There is a reciprocation between Christ and the Soul 317 318. Christ may bear with our infirmities but not with wilfulness and hypocrisie 319. No Church can
should be What vvill become us 17. Comfort is for the godly not for sinners 1114 1115. Some little comfort from Philosophy none true and solid 949 950. 954 v. Scripture If vve perform the conditions the comforts of the Gospel shall be made good to us 953. Comforting of others what 941 c. Our Comforting of others must not proceed from Pride Hypocrisie Vain-glory or Fear 942. Motives to the duty 943 944. We seek Comfort and miss it because vve seek amiss 945. 948. 953. Where true Comfort is to be had 946 c. Commandments of God our light our provision our defense in our way to heaven 540 c. Common people v. Deceit Common-wealth to be preferred before private 544. Common-wealth and Kingdomes whether they have a fatal period 213. The respect Church and Common-wealth have each to other 224 225. Communion v. Lords Supper Communion of Saints 420. 840 c. 861. 939 c. Compassion though by the Stoicks cried down is a very divine virtue 147 148. Without it a man cannot be a part of the Church 148. V. Mercy Complaint and murmuring vvhence 937. Confession of sin vvhen hearty vvhen not 333. Be not ashamed to confess thy sins now lest thou be confounded hereafter 1039 1040. The vvay to have our sins hid is to confess them 1040 1041. ¶ We must confess the truth not onely in times of peace but even to the face of its enemies 982 983. Confidence must be in God alone 807. Conformity to Christ how necessary 15 16. v. Christ Congregation Every particular C. commonly damneth all for hereticks that cast not in their lots vvith them 319 320. 455. 682. 1060. v. Faction Conscience how little regarded 169. To sin against C. aggravateth sin fearfully 441. C. cannot erre in that vvhich is plain and evident 892. but Love of the vvorld vvill make a man run into that his C. starteth at 892 893. C. may sleep but not die in us 330. 502. Reluctancie of C. is no certain sign of a child of God 439 c. The force of C. 499. 1037. No torment like to a bad C. 740 741. The courses vvicked men take to silence it 449. 503. 688. 922. 948. 1037. If vve vvound our C. in one particular though but a little vve are in the vvay to vvound her deeper 1120. Every vvilfull violation of C. is a step to Apostasie 1121. How C. is to be honoured 1121 1122. When she is dishonoured 1122. Them that honour her she vvill honour 1122. The best vvay to calm a raging C. 946 947. A good Conscience is the product of Faith and Obedience 1013. It armeth us against the fear of Death 1013. v. Cases Consider We behold the Heavens our selves our Sins but consider them not aright 595 596. 1106. What it is to consider a thing devoutly 596 597. 1107. It is of singular use 597 598. 1108. Consolation for disconsolate souls 347. Conspiracy v. Vnion Contentions Of the C. among Christians 557. Contentment not to be found on earth 537. Contemplation v. Joy Controversies of these times of what sort 304. 1071. 1084. Their best Judge 287. Their original 665. Convenience v. Necessity Conversion of a sinner as great a miracle as Raising of the dead or Creating of the world 56. Vide pag. 587. 375. v. Resurrection What is God's part and what ours in it 587 588. 628 629. 722. A Christian's life beginneth at his Conversion 1003. Corban what 132. 1 Cor. i. 26. 974. 1071. 1084. ¶ 30. 871. ¶ iii. 22 23. explained ¶ iv 4. 347. ¶ v. 5. 565. 592. ¶ vii 20. 521. ¶ ix 22. 505. ¶ x. 13. 604. ¶ xi 10. 857. ¶ xiii 4. 1077. 2 Cor. v. 14. 67. Corrections God's C. are the blows of a Father and great arguments of his love 365. Covetousness and Ambition encrease by enjoyment 537. 887. How C. beginneth and groweth in the heart 625. v. Hope This sin emasculateth and weakeneth both mind and body 751. It is an enemy to Peace 208. the main cause of Persecution 700. and of Divisions in the Church 842. 845. 856. What will not C. make a man do 507 508. It is idolatry 623. v. Riches Some Covetous men doubt not to be saved because Abraham a Rich man is in heaven 618. The Covetous man's Texts cleared 222. Councels too much cried up by them of Rome 681. Counsel is like good Physick 842. Countrey v. View Court v. View Creation and Conservation but one continued act 104. v. God World Creatures Since all are clean in themselve why divers Cr. were forbidden as unclean 1098. Sin now disordereth and defileth all but the last day will reduce all to order and beauty 246. The Creature therefore longeth for the day of judgment 302. Creatures good in themselves we abuse to evil 897. Creed Truth was purest when there was but one short Creed 665. Cross the way to the Crown 174. 571. v. Affliction Crucifying our flesh what 725. Cujacius 2. 8. Cure of souls though in some sense impropriate to the Priest alone yet in some sense it is committed to every man 293 294. Curiosity a busie idleness punishing it self 1074. It is a busie and toilsome thing 730. Curious gazing where God hath drawn a veil unlawful fruitless dangerous 94 95. 164. 248 249 729. 1076. Custome in sinning how got and how hard to break 357. It maketh sin natural 793. v. Sin Cyprian 1003. 1023. D. DAngers and difficulties try and discover a Christian 982 983. Daniel Porphyrie's judgment of his Prophesie 166. David how devout and pious 860. Of his professing himself a stranger on the earth 531-536 His sin and Saul's compared together 1030. He seemeth to have gone further then he needed in confessing his sin 1040. Nathan's plain dealing with him 1115. Death once terrible now profitable and desirable to a Christian 48 49. To the godly it is a passage to heaven to the wicked the contrary 295. v. Obedience Why the Stoicks did desire D. 1011. and how Christians may do it lawfully 1011 1012. How to get rid of the fear of D. 543. 1012 c. Nothing more common more certain then Death yet nothing less thought on 538 539. 596. Arguments to moderate our grief for the D. of friends 543. Sin carrieth D. in its womb 445. We are dying continually 538. ¶ Death of the Soul v. Resurrection Whether God desire or decree the Death of Man 403 c. Man's D. proceeded not from God's primary but secondary will 405. If we die it is for no other reason but because we will die 424-446 Debt one easily runneth into but hardly creepeth out 809 810. How troublesome a thing it is to be in Debt 809. Debtours sometimes pay their Creditours with ill language 810. What Debtours Matth. vi 12. signifieth 816. We are all Debtours to God 806. v. Sin Obligation Deceit v. Oppression Common people how easily deceived 557. Men are cautelous that they be not deceived in worldly matters yet apt to deceive themselves in
down before Him 642 643. But his Mercy is of most force to humble us 643. ¶ God is uncapable of defilement 166. That which cometh from God is to be received with all reverence 285. 847 c. what God once saith shall infallibly be done 288. His Decrees cause not our wickedness 290. His Promises are conditional and oblige us to duty 290. Godly A Godly man will be a godly man in any place whether alone or in company 1089. v. Religion How meek under sufferings 176. The Godly not onely submit to but favour and applaud whatsoever God doth 307. They are not exempted from poverty and common casualties 901. But in general calamities God taketh extraordinary care of them 901. The different condition of the Godly and ungodly here and hereafter 561. Good is ex causa integra but any one point amiss is enough to make a thing evil 444. That which is good in it self is good alwayes and every where 73. and cannot be used to an evil end 85. Worldly things how good 85 86. v. World Nothing Good without God every thing Good with him 784. ¶ Good men may be full of doubts and suffer fits of despair 344 c. Comforts for such 347. Good partake with the bad in common calamities and why 291 c. ¶ A Good name carefully to be preserved 1054. ¶ Good works how far esteemed by God and how far advantageous to us 812. They cannot justifie the worker 812 813. Doing Good and Eschewing Evil must be inseparably joyned 281 282. Many do Good works by halves 160. Goodness is God's chief property 404 405. If it were essential to Man there would have been neither Law nor Gospel 410. 586. It is not necessary but voluntary 587. 628 629. It forceth approbation even from bad-men 500 551. 518. 1125. v. Necessity Piety Gospel far more excellent then either Philosophy or the Law 201 202. Though all its rules are not juris naturalis yet some are 224. The G. is much talked of much mistook and abused 1062. 1105 1106. The G. is a Law 1063 c. yea the strictest Law 1065. How we are to look upon it 1072. Of the Perfection of the Gospel 1073 c. 1094. It is perfect in respect of the End and of the Means 1073. It alone can fill and fit a man in any condition 1074. It ordereth every part faculty act motion inclination 1076. It reacheth all cases that be necessary 1077. It forbiddeth all sins great and small 1094. It is not onely perfect it self but far more perfect then the Law of Moses 1078 1079. It requireth more of us then the Law did 1078. The Papists and Libertines censured for arguing the G. of imperfection 1079 c. The G. carrieth us much higher then the Moral Heathen could sore or ken 1084. There is neither defect nor obscurity in it 1084. Since the G. is perfect we must square out our actions by it 1085. 1098. Though it be plain and easie yet we must carefully read and hear and pray that we may understand it 1094 1095. The G. not onely restraineth gross offenses but idle words wanton looks and thoughts 1095 1096. Why called by St. James a perfect law of liberty 648. Before we were captives under Sin and Satan 1097. but by it we are freed from the Guilt of Sin 1097. from the Power of Sin 1098. from the Rigour of the Moral and the Servitude of the Ceremonial Law 1098. VVhat it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into the Gospel 1105 c. The singular use of looking into it aright 1108. How few do so 1108. We must not onely look upon the G. consider it but continue it 1110 c. VVe must not forget but remember it 1116. VVe must turn the words into works 1117 c. God hath fitted the G. to us and us unto it 1124. Being looked into and persevered in it filleth the soul with light and joy 1125 c. Goths VVhen they sacked Rome they spared those who fled into Churches 501. Grace much talked of little understood 433. VVhat it is 433. God will not leave us destitute of it 433 434. Though infused into us it is not infused without us 667 c. It is an errour to think every man hath a certain measure of saving Grace 1024. 1096. Saving Gr. hath its degrees 458. 1086. It encreaseth by exercise 1117 Grace onely bringeth to God and to Glory 106. Many lay all the stress upon the power of God's Grace and do nothing themselves 434 435. 588. 628 629. 667. 722. 1001. Gr. doth not force a man to be good 435 436. 584. 1022. 1115. Our duty is to use Gr. aright and by no means to abuse it 435. 629. 1022. Some pretending to magnifie the Gr. of God turn it into wantonness 1001. 1022. Gr. worketh in us by means 1022. Graces must be tried 38. Gr. never appeareth so bright as in time of trial 698 699. Riches but trash if compared with Gr. 619. Many phansie they have Graces which they have not 668 669. Some hold that Grace can neither be resisted at first nor lost afterwards 683. Of total and final falling from Grace 1112 1113. Grief v. Joy Mourning Repentance Sorrow Grief a heavy burden 936. One cannot properly be bid to grieve 331. Grief at the death of friends is lawful but it must be moderate 543. Grief wholesome for the soul 563 c. What Grief is godly and what not 331 332. Grow in grace 578. 606. H HAbits of virtue how acquired 205. 667. Habits of grace though infused into us are not infused without us 667. Hannibal 1066. Happiness to be attained neither by the light of Reason nor by the Law but by Christ alone 716 717. v. Heathen Harden How God is said to harden hearts 412. Hast is not good in a wrong way 855. Hatred transformeth men yea and the Truth it self 670 671. We must not hate any man much less the Truth for the man's sake 672 673. Health how excellent a blessing 591. It is the fittest time to serve God in 592. If it be not employed in the service of God it will be of the devil 594. Hearing of Sermons without doing far from Religion 221. 277. 303. 304. 522. 790 701. 990. 1060. It is a sin and flat mockery of God 877. What God meaneth when he biddeth us hear 876. How th◠Word is to be heard 512. v. Prayer Heart As the H. is affected so the Tongue speaketh 976 977. Heathen How far they went in the doctrine of Repentance 324. and in moral Righteousness 868. Many of them have outgone most Christians in the way of righteousness 128. 663. What was the happiness they could teach and reach unto 324 325. 716 717. They reteined some seeds of Truth 371. By the light of Nature they hated hypocrisie 372. Whether their virtuous actions were sins 375. Their moral virtues advantaged them but little because they were destitute of saving truth 663 868. Heaven
c. He who hath no part in the first R. shall have none in the second 996. Newness of life often called Rising 997. The woful state of a Soul not yet risen from the death of Sin 997. Our Conversion may be stiled Rising because this World may go for a grave 998. and because as in that of the Body so in this of the Soul there will be a change 999. and that universal of every part 1000. In both our corporal and spiritual R. God is all in all 1001. yet in that of the Soul we are bid to do something 1001. It behoveth us rather to enquire Whether we are willing to be raised then How we are raised 1001. Our spiritual R. should be early and without delay 1002. c. We must manifest our spiritual R. by our good Works 1004. and by our Affection to the things above 654. Revelation Of the Book of the Revelation and its Interpreters 244. Rev. i. 12-18 paraphrased 36. ¶ xiv 13. 709. ¶ xx 6. 244. Revenge though perhaps allowed by the Old T. is forbidden by the New 1079. It is allowed by Philosophers c. is forbidden by the Gospel 202. It is an act and argument of impotency 820. Reverence What 460. Some allege Reverence to excuse their neglect of Communicating 459 460. Reverence and Obedience must go together 462. Reverent gestures in God's service not to be blamed as Idolatrous Popish superstitious 963. R. though by some held superstitious is comely and necessary 162 163. 745. 755 c. and to be used in our service of God 634 635. v. Form Humility Worship Where there is Devotion there is also a Reverent deportment 755. 757 758. 981. It is due in God's house in respect of the Angels 857. and of Men both good and bad 858. Covetousness and Sacriledge drive Reverence out of the Church 755. Some questions for them to answer who scruple outward R. in the Church 757. Irreverent persons arguments answered 859. v. Irreverence The Papists say of us That having no Reverence we have no Church 757. The Reverence of the primitive times and that of this Age how different 757 758. 981. Rewards the most powerful Rhetorick 636. v. Laws Riches and Honours and Pleasures the creatures of our Phansie 32. v. World These even Reason teacheth us to contemn 126. 134. Why God giveth Riches 139 c. Neither do Riches invite Christ nor Poverty exclude him 974. Our Riches are then most ours when we part with them to the poor 142. For we are Stewards rather then Proprietaries 140. 142. The best use of Riches 143. R. how abused 594. 620. c. As Riches may be a snare so Poverty may be a gulf 1089. R. may be an instrument of Perfection as well as Poverty 1090. R. are not as the World accounteth them certain signs of God's love 619. They are held Necessaries and Ornaments of Virtue yet are not so 620. but rather an hindrance to it 620. and helps to evil 621. Yet they are not so in themselves but men make them so 621. 897 898. Rich men are admired and even adored in the world 616 617. but a Wo is denounced against them by God 616 c. Pelagius's opinion That no Rich man can be saved is a wholsome errour 618. What it is that draweth the Wo upon the Rich 622. That Rich men may escape the Wo they must cast away their Riches but how 622. 1090. Riches must be brought into subjection to Christianity 622. We must not set our hearts on them 623. 1090. We must contemn them 623. or else they will make us contemn our brethren 623. and draw contempt on us 624. We must be jealous of our selves that we love them too well 624. How R. should be looked upon and handled and used by us 625. 896 c. Right hand v. Christ Righteous The R. sometimes suffer with the wicked and why 291 c. They are often preserved in publick calamities 294. Though they tast of the same cup with others yet it hath not the same tast to both 294. v. God's people Righteousness Many call that Righteousness which is quite another thing 867. 883. 891 892. The R. of the Heathen though it could not save them yet shameth many among us 868. The R. of the Jews very weak and imperfect 869. The R. of the Scribes and Pharisees what 869. Legal and Evangelical R. how different 870. Christ's imputed R. vindicated from mis-interpretations 870 c. The R. of Faith what 872. What R. the Gospel requireth of us 873. Many challenge the name of R. who bid defiance to the thing 873. Imputed R. should be a motive to Inherent R. 872 c. 993. Many conceit they are Seekers of Righteousness vvhen they are not 875. To name R. yea to commend it is not enough 876. Neither is Hearing of R. as many think enough 877. No nor bare Praying for it 877 878. Seeking of R. is To have a Will ready to entertein it 878. and that a chearful quiet Angelical Will 879 880. and a Will that is constant and regular that will make us seek R. sincerely as God seeketh our happiness 880 881. If vve seek R. aright we shall still be sensible of our want of it 881 882. we shall love and affect it exceedingly 882 and shall be kept from it neither by flattery nor affrightments 883 884. R. is to be sought in the first place before the things of this life 884 c. If we seek it not first vve seek it not at all 890. What a world of wickedness proceedeth from seeking these things before Righteousness 891 c. But they who first seek R. cannot doubt of a sufficient portion of these things 900. Rom. i. 28. 3. 9. ¶ vii 19. 879. ¶ viii 15. 397. ¶ 28 29 30. 697. ¶ ix 3. 1007 1008. ¶ xi 20 21. 392. Romanes They having been at first all for handsome servants were afterwards as much for dwarfs applied 651. Romish The R. Church counteth all goats that are not within her fold 319. S. SAbellius 5. Sabinus Calvisius Sabinus a man strangely conceited 870. 993. Sacraments A Sacrament must be immediately instituted by Christ himself 451. Out of Christ's side came both the Sacraments 469. How quarrelled by many 582 583. They are highly to be honoured 303. v. Word They are too highly esteemed by some too little by others 81. Sacrifices no essential part of God's service 70 71. not really good in themselves but onely as commanded 72. Why the Jews vvere commanded to offer S. to God 72. v. Ceremonies Outward worship The Sacrifices of Christians 83 84. A broken heart the best S. 325. Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies as a S. unto God 749 754. Sacrilege once was a sin now some count it a virtue 581 582. Against S. 848 849. 854. Saints as St. Hierome saith never called in Scripture inhabitants of the earth 536. How to be honoured by us 1021. Some forsooth will not allow the title
Reformed Church 401. Regeneration v. Resurrection Regenerate men may sin with a full consent 439 c. Relapses into sin how dangerous 380 c. 614. Whether they cancel God's former pardon 381 c. 613 614. How apt men are to relapse 383. Religion much talked of little understood 273. Religion indeed what it is not and what it is 70 c. v. Piety It s essential parts are To do good and To eschew evil 274. Why St James in his description of pure Religion doth not mention Faith 275. nor Prayer nor Hearing of the Word 276 277. True R. is pure simple solid ever the same 282. undefiled 282 283 It hath God alone for its Authour 284. From the corruption of mens lives proceed the corrupt mixtures in Religion 283. Popish R. is the invention of men 284. and so is that of hypocritical Zelots 284. Religions that comply with the Sense are to be abhorred 650 751. R. is to be taken up upon better inducements then Law and Custome and Education 756. 760. How shameful and sinful it is not to love and embrace the R. which hath its original from God 285. The perswasion of God's almighty Power the first rise to R. 313. True R. is never the less true though none profess it 286. 298. If it were in power it would put an end to wars and contentions 286. It should direct us in all our wayes 653. It is the same in Riches or Poverty in Marriage or Virginity in a Cell or a City 1091. v. Godly All sorts of men may be Religious if they will 88. Religion cannot suffer with the professors of it 298. If it could suffer it would suffer more by the sins of its professours then by the sword of its enemies 298 299. Why R. hath many professours but few friends 75. 77. Many of the Reformed Church make R. serve their corrupt ends 651. Some mens R. dwelleth only in the ear 221. Against such as place R. in Fasting Prayer Hearing and Formalities 1060. Religion sometimes made a pretense for most irreligious practices 287. 1060. Of such as alter their R. according to the times 98. Alterations of Religion difficult 968. The world is wont to judge of R. by its state and spreading 298. v. Church Remembrance of Christ at the Communion what 463. If we remember him he will be sure to remember us 466. The Word must be remembred by us 1116. Remission Great difference among Christians about it 811. The Heathen counted it a folly in Christians to believe it 811. It is not the effect of our Merits but of God's free Mercy in Christ 811 c. How comfortable how inestimable a favour 813. Into what posture we must put our selves to receive it 813. It most strongly obligeth us to duty 822 c. Repentance a lesson too high for the School of Nature and the books of the Heathen 324. Tully thought it impossible 325. Julian scoffeth at it 326. It is God's own invention and injunction 325. Nothing pleaseth God like it nothing without it 325. It is a precept not absolute but upon supposition 352. He is best who needeth it least 350. R. is a Turning from our evil wayes to the Lord 328. 374 375. v. Turning Knowledge of Sin and a necessary ingredient of R. 329 c. and so is Grief 331. and Confession 333. and Desire to be rid of sin 333 334. and a serious Endeavour to leave off sinning and to live well 334. What true Repentance is 335. 340 341. It includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 335. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 336 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 336. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 336. In R. the main Turn is of the Will 336 c. Many aim at R. few hit it 339 340. There is an outward and an inward part of R. and we must perform both 340 341. Why God calleth so earnestly for it 341 c. Two great lets of R. Despair and Presumtion removed 342 c. How late and false and lame most mens R. is 354. We must repent without delay 335. 360. 1002 c. v. Advise Delay Opportunity To do otherwise is to be guilty of extreme folly 356. 366 367. Delay maketh the duty more difficult 356 357. 366 367. 793. Yea if the present time be not taken a time may come when thou mayest not be able to repent 359. 794. Arguments to make the opinion probable that such a time there is 357. 360. 365. 795 c. Though it be an errour it may be happy for thee to believe it 359 c. 795. Now even now without procrastination let us repent 361. 366 c. 373 c. 1001. We must hearken to good motions that God stirreth in us and not check and choke them 361 c. 798 799. Better to repent when God shineth upon us then when he thundereth against us 363. 799 800. But if that acceptable time have been let slip yet at least let us turn to him in our trouble 364. 800 801. v. Judgements God hath promised a blessing to R. at all times but not power to repent when we list 797. What use we are to make of the example of the good Thief and other late Penitents 797. It is just with God to punish continuance in sin with final impenitency 797. Our R. must be sincere 369 c. Feigned R. hath its rise from false grounds may make a fair shew but is soon at an end 370 371. It is worse then no R. 372. An Ahab's an Herode's a S. Magus's R. will not must not serve our turn 372 373. Our R. must be total and universal 373. 600 c. It must be lasting and hold out to the end 380. Relapses into sin after R. very grievous 380 c. v. Relapses The course God taketh to bring us to R. 385. Fear first setteth us on repenting 389. How necessary a qualification R. is of a worthy Communicant 489. Some make R. an occasion of sinning more 614 615. The doctrine of R. to be preached warily 349 350. Whether the Papists do well to make R. a Sacrament 340. Reprehension is a duty incumbent on all 293. Neglect hereof interesteth a man in the sins of others and also in their plagues 293 294. Reproof seemeth to be against us but its end is peace 841. Resolution The mighty force of a well-setled Resolution 839. We are for the most part resolute in evil but weak and wavering in good things 852 853. Respect No Respect of persons with God 213. Resurrection v. Christ Christ's Resurrection an examplary and efficient cause of ours 719 720. Our dead bodies notwithstanding all alterations and dispersions shall be raised again 720. R. of the dead is the very life and soul of a Christian 995. Deny this all is vanity and vexation 995. The R. of the Soul that was dead in sin by the power of Christ's Resurrection described 721. In this we must do something though we are meerly passive in that of our Bodies 722