esse Caesar sed tunc maximè occidi videretur that they conceived it not as a thing done and past as if he were killed already but as if he were now under the parricides hands Certainly no blot can be great enough for injuries nor are they truly and sincerely forgiven till we are willing till we study to forget them Nemo diu tutus periculo proximus There is no long safety to be expected where danger is at hand Therefore we must in this as in all other duties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow God as the Pythagoreans counselled For if we measure our selves by our selves if we raise not the SICUT as high as our Father of whom we beg mercy we shall fail of the condition and so bring upon our selves an uncapability of pardon But to forgive freely and voluntarily to forgive sincerely and fully to take off not onely our anger from injuries but to drive them out of our memory is Divino more ignoscere to forgive as God And indeed in the next place this maketh us like unto God and investeth us with his power by which we overcome all injuries whatsoever and scatter them as dust before the wind By this we break the cedars of Libanon in pieces the tallest enemies we have by this we â—ill the raging of the sea and the madness of the people Fot who would 〈◊〉 forgive a bedlam by this we pour coals of fire upon our most obdurate enemies and melt and thaw them by this we work miracles And indeed Mercy is a great miracle For Beloved that power which we use in resistance and revenge is not power but weakness Vera magnitudo est non posse nocere verior nolle The true power by which a Christian prevaileth is seen in this not to be able to do hurt the greatest power not to be willing And if we will make a truce with our Passions and a while consult with Reason we shall soon discover that the desire to shew our power in revenge of an injury hath its beginning from extreme weakness Omnis ex infirmitate feritas saith Seneca All fierceness and desire of revenge is from infirmity and proceedeth from that womanish and brutish part of man nay from those vices which make us worse then the beasts that perish Chap. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings saith S. James from whence contentions and strifes come they not from hence even from your lusts which war in your members from Pride Covetousness Luxury Ambition and Self-love In urbe luxuria creatur saith Tully ex luxuria exsisttat avaritia necesse est ex avaritia erumpat audacia unde omnia scelera gignuntur In the city Luxury is begot and that calleth in Covetousness as a necessary supply to feed and nourish it Covetousness bringeth in Audacious and impudent behaviour and this filleth all with Bloud and Oppression Ambition giveth the stab for a lye Covetousness layeth hold on the throat for a peny Luxury will wade to pleasure though it be through bloud and Self-love maketh every look a frown every frown a blow and every blow death And this is extreme weakness and infirmity We may think indeed we have done wonders when we have laid our brother at our feet when we have put him in fetters and ript up his bowels and made him pay his debt with his bloud but in all this our glory is our shame For in this contention we never triumph till we yield When we are weak then are we strong when we suffer disgrace then are we honourable and we overcome not when we resist but when we dye By this an enemy is a friend By this saith the Father the Mother in the Macchabees priùs viscera carnifici quam verba impendit gave the executioner her bowels but not a word This restoreth what was stoln from me bringeth back what the robber taketh keepeth my name when it is most defiled as a precious ointment and maketh the day of death better then the day of my birth In a word this Deus averruncus chaseth away all evil whatsoever cancelleth all debts is a severe act and the onely antidote against Malice which cannot be overcome saith the Apostle but with good and sheweth from whence it hath its original by manifesting it self in a full and plenary forgiveness of all injury and oppression and contumely of all that cometh under the name of debt I may now seem perhaps to have stretched this Condition too far For we are very willing that God should enlarge his mercy but that ours be drawn into as narrow a compass as may be We would clip our wings to cover but a few but call upon him to spread his wings to cover all offences And therefore it is safer to stretch the condition then to contract and confine it because we are so ready transilire lineas to leap over the bounds which are set us and so take line and liberty to exact some debts and at last break loose upon all and when our revenge hath its full swinge say we seek but our own I had rather therefore tell you what you may not do then what you may And if you shall ask me whether it be not lawful in some cases to fetch back and exact your own I shall say as St. Augustine do of Time If you ask me once I can tell you but if you ask me again I can give you no answer For I fear such a question proceedeth from an evil disposition which would fain break its bounds For can Charity ask how far she may molest a brother and be Charity Would Mercy which should run like a river and overflow to refresh every dry place seek out inventions to divert or dam up her self Shall we strive to make the condition easier which in respect of the promise would be very easie though it were much harder then it is But yet by this I neither strike the sword out of the Magistrate's hand nor make the Laws of men void and of no effect For the Condition here is put in respect of injuries For though it be far better I should lose my coat then revenge my self because by the law of equity no man can be judge in his own cause yet let the Magistrate restore my coat to me and the act is not revenge but justice Justice saith Plutarch accompanieth God himself and breatheth revenge against those who break his Law which men also by the light of nature use against one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are citizens and members of a body politick This SICUT therefore this Condition is laid down to order and compose our minds to the pardon of those wrongs which are offered to our private persons but it bindeth not the Judge who is a publick person and standeth in the midst as it were between two opposite sides to draw them together and make them one again to use his power not onely rescindendo peccatori to cut of the wicked
looked upon as a foul and pernicious errour to be afraid of it in a calm and ready to embrace it in a tempest Not to dispute and persuade our selves to that which nothing but the horrour and advantage which attendeth it could make lawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Do not play the Sophister against thy self nor invent an art and method to hasten thy ruine and destruction These petty concessions as we think these easie but base condescensions are ominous and prophetical and presage and foretel a greater fall They look towards the lowest pit to the very abyss and depth of sin and thither they tend What may not he be induced in time to do who upon no better reason or motive then the love of himself and the suggestion of the flesh is ready to put up the question to himself May I not do this a question which he never thought of before How far may he run in the wayes of Errour when but to ask the question is to go too far This is the first knock at the gates of Death and he that is so bold as to knock will venture further even into her chambers For when our fears or hopes either flatter or affright us to chuse that which before we looked upon with some distaste and had set up a resolution though but a weak one against it we then begin to guild it over with some fair pretence and would fain learn how to make it good and so approve our choice which appeared in another shape unto us before the course of the world and of things was altered I would not engage my self now and within a while I think I am bound to it It is now Perjury anon a lawful and a necessary Oath Now I cannot look upon the Idol my present Interest calleth upon me and cajoleth me I soon learn to look and at last fall down and worship it Thus it falleth out when we are not strict observers of our Conscience in the least commands for then we soon put her off and fling her by in her greatest and as fools as the Father speaketh Ludimus adversûs nos ipsos we play and sport our selves and with danger and are witty and subtle to our own destruction We do more then the Pope ever did though he be liberal of his Pardons We grant our Indulgences to our selves We graze and play and run at large and when the tempest approcheth we run to the burroughs of excuses as those little beasts in the Proverbs do to the holes of the rocks We do that which we should not do and which at first we would not do and then say God be merciful to us in this We venture upon that which we once thought a sin and though that thought will not quite leave us yet we say of it as Lot did of Zoar Is it not a little one and my soul shall live A little one it may be but as little as it is the very condescension to it under that name may prepare the way and make the path smooth to let in the greatest O quà m parvis veniunt summa mala principiis How great a matter doth a little fire kindle How doth he that is willing now to slip at last fall and bruise himself to pieces For the same motive which brought me thus far may yet carry me further out of my way That which brought me to sleep on the bank may at last tumble me into the stream and drown me especially if it arise out of worldly respects That which maketh me slight my Conseience in the least may gain advantage and strength by that neglect and have force to debauch and prostitute her in the greatest sin That which maketh me lie may make me steal That which maketh my countenance fall may make me a murtherer It is not the last cup that intoxicateth It is not the last day that bringeth on age My age began in the womb When I began to live I began to die It is not the last sin that hardeneth us For Induration came in and began with our first yielding and condescension It was a high strain of the Orator accusing Popilius for Cicero's death Occisurus Ciceronem incipere deâ—uit à patre He could not have killed Cicero if he had not begun with his own father and first murthered him But a lesser sin then that might have led him to it That boy that hath heart enough but to put out a Quail's eyes may at last take courage and embolden himself to imbrue his hands in the bloud of his father The Thurificatores amongst the Ancients did not renounce their faith when they offered up a little incense to heathen Gods yet were they counted as Idolaters and cast out of the Church The names of the Libellatici and Traditores are infamous to this day whereof the one signed their Apostasie with their own hand and the other with their own hands gave up Gods Word to be burnt in the fire And some there were amongst them who bought it out with their money and purchased a license not to do it yet these were numbered amongst the Lapsi those that were fallen away and passed with the heaviest censure of the Church upon them And what shifts what evasions what witty witless devices have we heard of in these our dayes How have men studied perdition and gloried in their shame What would they do What would they not do How have they grown worse and worse deceiving and being deceived learning this cursed art of cheating themselves and teaching it others and then applauding each other in this their discretion and wisdom and laughing at and despising those simple and self-will'd souls that had so much conscience and so little wit as not to save themselves that is not to serve Christ and the world And these are CHRISTIANS They profess Christ's name they hear his Word and they never hear enough They talk of Heaven but mean their Purse and to safeguard this will forfeit that to save a peny will give up their reason and to satisfie their appetite deny their conscience Christians they are but such Christians that if they retire not and repent may in time become circumcised Jews There is as fair or rather as foul a probability for the one as the other Dost thou startle at the name of Jew Thou didst so at first and wast as much afraid of that which now thou embracest and hast conscience to defend even against thy conscience Beloved Conscience was never given us to toy withall but to hold and possess and keep unspotted which when once upon low and base respects we put away we are straight in danger concerning faith and our profession to make shipwreck and so be fit to be delivered to Satan to fill us with all iniquity 1 Tim. 1.19 2â— Every wilful sin every wilful violation of conscience if deliberately drawn on by the love of the world is a step and degree to Apostasie
from all eternity but in the fulness of time made like unto us But we viles pulli nati infelicibus ovis were miserable naked sinners enemies to God at such a distance from him and so far from the least participation of the Divine nature that we were fallen from our own integrity and first honor and facti similes made like indeed but if a Prophet and a King if David draw our picture similes jumentis quae pereunt Psal 49.20 Let our sorrow and shame interpret it like to the beast that perish But now by Christs assimilation to us we are made like unto God we are exalted by his humiliation raised by his descent magnified by his minoration we are become candidati Angelorum lifted up on high to a sacred emulation of the Angelical estate Yea with songs of triumph we remember it and it is the joy of this Feast we are fratres Domini the brethren of Christ With a mutual aspect Christs Humility looks upon the Exaltation of our nature and our Exaltation looks back again upon Christ and as a well-made picture looks upon him that looks upon it so Christ drawn forth in the similitude of our flesh looks upon us whilst we with joy and gratitude have our eyes set upon him Each answereth other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are parallels Christ made like unto Men and again Men made like unto him so like that they are his Brethren Christ made like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things which fill up the office of a Redeemer and Men made like unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things which may be required at the hands of those who are redeemed His obedience lifted him up to the cross and ours must lift us after him and be carried on by his to the end of the world And as we find that Relatives are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of convertency in these terms Christ and his Brethren Christ like unto his Brethren and these Brethren like unto Christ Christ is ours and we are Christs 1 Cor. 3.23 saith the Apostle and Christ is God's In the next place the Modification It behoved him carries our thoughts to those two common heads or places the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Convenience and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Necessity of it And these two in civil acts are one For what becomes us to do we must do and it is necessary we should do it What should be done is done Impossibilitas juris and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians because the Law supposeth obedience which is the complement and perfection of the law Now this Debuit again looks equally on both on Christ and on his Brethren If in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto his brethren which is the Benefit Heaven and Earth will conclude Men and Angels will infer That it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ which is the Duty My Text ye see is divided equally between these two terms Christ and his Brethren That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is 1. his Divine 2. his Humane nature 3. the Union of them both First his Divine nature For we cannot but make a stand and enquire Who he was who ought to do this Secondly his Humane nature For we find him here flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones made like unto us in our flesh in our souls Da siquid ultrà est What can we say more Our Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things And then thirdly will follow the Vnion exprest in the passive fieri in his assimilation and the assumption of our nature All these fill us with admiration but the last raiseth it yet higher and should raise our love to follow him in his obedience that it behoved him that the dispensation of so wonderful and catholick a benefit must be thus transacted tanquam ex officio as a matter of duty The end of all is the end of all our Salvation the end of our Creation of our Redemption of this Assimilation and the last end of all the Glory of God This sets an oportet upon Man as well as upon Christ and then his Brethren and He will dwell together in unity Only here is the difference Our obligation is the easier It is but this to be bound and obliged with Christ to set our hands to that bond which he hath sealed with his blood it is no heavy Debet to be like unto him and for his condescension so low to us to raise our selves neerer to him by a holy and diligent imitation of his obedience This will make up our last part and serve for application In the first place in an holy extasie we cry out with the Prophet Isa 63.1 Quis ille qui venit Who is he that cometh Quis ille qui similis Who is he that must be made like unto us Quis fecit is but a resultance from Quid factum est What is done and Who did it are of so neer relation that we can hardly abstract one from the other If one eye be leveld on the fact the other commonly is fixed on the hand that did it Magnis negotiis ut magnis Comoediis edecumati apponuntur actores saith the Orator Great burthens require great strength to bear them Matters of moment are not for men of weak abilities and slight performance nor every Actor for all parts To lead captivity captive to bring prisoners to glory to destroy Death to shut up the gates and mouth of Hell these are Magnalia wonderful things not within the sphere of common activity We see here many sons there were to be brought unto Glory v. 10. but in the way there stood Sin to intercept us the fear of Death to enthral us and the Devil ready to devour us And we what were we Rottenness our mother and worms our brethren lay us in the balance Psal 62.9 lighter then vanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men fallen below the condition of Men lame and impotent not able to move one step in these wayes of glory living dead men Quis novus Hercules Who will now stand up for us who will be our Captain We may well demand Quis ille who he is Some Angel we may think sent from heaven or some great Prophet No. Inquest is made in this Epistle and neither the Angels nor Moses returned The Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise Glorious creatures indeed they are celestial spirits but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring spirits o Nazianz. Orat 43 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 103.21 in all purity serving the God of purity saith Nazianzene not fit to intercede but ready at his beck with wings indeed but not with healing under them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but second lights too weak to enlighten so great a darkness Their light is their obedience and their fairest elogigium
narrow understandings could receive it would not add one hair to our stature and growth in grace That Christ is God and Man that the two Natures are united in the Person of thy Saviour and Mediatour is enough for thee to know and to raise thy nature up to him Take the words as they lye in their native purity and simplicity and not as they are hammered and beat out and stampt by every hand by those who will be Fathers not Interpreters of Scripture and beget what sense they please and present it not as their own but as a child of God Then Lo here is Christ and there is Christ This is Christ and that is Christ Thou shalt see many images and characters of him but not one that is like him an imperfect Christ a half-Christ a created Christ a phansied Christ a Christ that is not the Son of God and a Christ that is not the Son of Man and thus be rowled up and down in uncertainties and left to the poor and miserable comfort of conjecture in that which so far as it concerneth us is so plain easie to be known Do thoughts arise in thy heart do doubts and difficulties beset thee doth thy wit and thy reason forsake thee and leave thee in thy search at a loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr Thy Faith is the solution and will soon quit thee of all scruples and cast them by thy Faith not assumed or insinuated into thee or brought in as thy vices may be by thy education but raised upon a holy hill a sure foundation the plain and express word of God and upheld and strengthned by the Spirit Christian dost thou believe Thou hast then seen thy God in the flesh from Eternity yet born Invisible yet seen immense yet circumscribed Immortal yet dying the Lord of life yet crucified God and man Christ Jesus Amaze not thy self with an inordinate fear of undervaluing thy Saviour wrong not his Love and call it thy Reverence Why should thoughts arise in thy heart His Power is not the less because his Mercy is great nor doth his infinite Love shadow or eclipse his Majesty For see he counteth it no disparagement to be seen in our flesh nor to be at any loss by being thus like us Our Apostle telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a Decorum in it and it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren That Christ was made like unto us is the joy of this Feast but that he ought to be so is the wonder and extasie of our joy That he would descend is mercy but that he must descend is our astonishment Oportet and Debet are binding terms words of duty Had the Apostle said It behoved us that he should be made like unto us it had found an easy belief the Debuit had been placed in loco suo in its proper place on a sweating brow on dust and putrefaction on the face of a captive All will say it behoved as much But to put a Debet upon the Son of God and make it a beseeming thing for him to become flesh to be made like unto us is as if one should set a Rubie in clay a Diamond in brass a Chrysolith in baser metall and say they are placed well there as if one should worry the lambs for the woolf or take the master by the throat for the debt of a Prodigal and with an Opertet say it should be so To give a gift and call it a Debt is not our usual language On earth it is not but in heaven it is the proper dialect fixed in capital letters on the Mercy-seat It is the joy of this Feast the Angels Antheme SALVATOR NATVS A Saviour is born And if he will be a Saviour an Undertaker a Surety such is the nature of Fidejussion and Suretiship DEBET he must it behoveth him he is as deeply engaged as the party whose Surety he is And oh our numberless accounts that engaged God! Oh our prodigality that made him here come sub ratione debiti Adam had brought God in debt to death to Satan to his own Justice and God in Justice did ow us all to the Grave and to Hell Therefore if he will have us if he will bring his children unto glory he must pay down a price for us Heb. 2.14 he must take us out of his hands who hath the power of death if he will have his own inheritance he must purchase it And let us look on the aptness of the means and we shall soon find that this Foolishness of God as the Apostle calls it is wiser than men 1 Cor. 1.26 and this weakness of God is stronger than men and that the Debuit is right set For medio exsistente conjunguntur extrema If you will have extremes meet you must have a middle line to draw them together And behold here they meet and are made one The proprieties of either Nature being entire yet meet and concentre as it were in one Person Majesty putteth on Humility Power Infirmity Eternity Mortality By the one our Saviour dyeth for us by the other he â—â—seth again By the one he suffereth as Man by the other he conquereth as God by both he perfecteth and consummateth the great work of our Redemption This Debuit reacheth home to each part of the Text First to Christ as God The same hand that made the vessel when it was broken and so broken that there was not one sherd left to fetch water at any pit ought to repair and set it together again that it may receive and contain the water of life Qui fecit nos debuit reficere Our Creation and Salvation must be wrought by the same hand and turned about upon the same wheel Next we may set the debuit upon Christ's Person He is media Persona a middle Person the office therefore will best fit him even the office of Mediatour Further as he is the Son of God and the Image of his Father most proper it may seem for him to repair that Image which was defaced and well near lost in us We had not onely blemished God's Image but set the Devil's face and superscription upon God's coyn For righteousness there was sin for purity pollution for beauty deformity for rectitude perversness for the Man a Beast scarce any thing left by which God might know us Venit Filius ut iterum signet The Son cometh and with his blood reviveth the first character marketh us with his own signature imprinteth the graces of God upon us maketh us current money and that his Father may know us and not cast us off for refuse silver sheweth him his face Indeed the Father and the holy Ghost dignified the Flesh but took it not filled it with their Majesty but not with their Persons wrought in the Incarnation but were not Incarnate As three may weave a garment and but one wear it as Hugo And as in Musick saith St.
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
the sea in the deluge of our lusts if we do not bury our selves alive in stubborn impenitency if we do not stop up all the passages of our souls if we do not still love darkness and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and affection He will look upon us as his purchase and he that delivered his Son for us will with him also freely give us all things Which is the End of all the End of Christ's being delivered and offereth it self to our consideration in the last place IV. God delivered God sent God gave his Son All these expressions we find to make him a Gift He is the desire and he is the riches of all Nations As whatsoever we do we must do so whatsoever we have we receive in his name The name of Jesus saith S. Peter of the impotent man Acts 3.13 1 Cor. 6.11 Col. 2.3 hath made this man strong By his name we are justified by his name we are sanctified by his name we shall enter into glory With him we have all things for in him are all the treasures of riches and wisdome We may think of all the Kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them but these come not within the compass nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow that it is wrought in our eye and not in the cloud and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches and glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our phansie and have no worth or price but what our lusts and desires set upon them Luxuria his pretium fecit It is our Luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My Covetousness maketh that which is but earth a God my Ambition maketh that which is but air an heaven and my Wantonness walketh in the midst of pleasures as in a paradise There is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and Pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction There are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a king in his tub when Great Alexander was but a slave in the world which he had conquered How many Heroick persons lie in chains whilest Folly and Baseness walk at large And no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out Riches and the things of this world from the sum For with Christ they are somthing and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away It is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift By this power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing If we look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the Rich mans bosome In the night there is no difference to the eye between a pearl and a pibble between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulness of Riches and the glory of Affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or of glory where it is not to be found But when the light of Christ's countenance shineth upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulness in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compass large enough to take in the whole world But then it is the world transformed and altered the world conquered by faith i Cor. 3.21 22 23. the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christ's There is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation Psal 24.1 115.16 For the earth is the Lord's and he hath given it to the sons of men And there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to God's glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it He did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places Such a Messias did the Jews look for and such a Messias do some Christians worse than the Jews frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they phansie themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile They are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore Every ship every house every Lordship is theirs And indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember S. Paul calleth the Devil the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world For as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the cross for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape They conceive him giving gifts unto men not spiritual but temporal not the graces of the Spirit Humility Meekness and Contentedness but Silver and Gold dividing inheritances removing of land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheth's land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth Thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth That all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ A Doctrine which bringeth with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and giveth men power to spoyl whom they please to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his Charter larger than it is In the Gospel we find none of such an
saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Hebr. 2.10 Christ and his Church are in computation but one person He ought to suffer and they ought to suffer They suffer in him and he in them Luke 24.26 to the end of the world Nor is any other method answerable either to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indeleble characters or to our mortal and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up Quicquid Deo convenit homini prodest saith Tertullian that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us That which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head There is an oportet set upon both Luke 24.26 He ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again First it cannot consist with the Wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and that we might live as we please and then reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Devil for those who will be his vassals that he should foil him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble and beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this we could not have taken him for our Captain and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers Non novimus Christum si non credimus We do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captain that leadeth us as Moses did the children of Israel through a wilderness full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposeth some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looketh back into some grave Tolle certamen nè virtus quidem quicquam erit Take away this combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations and Religion it self will be but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it but a fable What were my Patience if no Pain did look towards it What were my Faith if there were no Doubt to assault it What were my Hope if there were no Scruple to shake it What were my charity if there were no Misery to urge it no Malice to oppose it What were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead I was dead saith the Lord of life And his speech is directed to us who do but think we live being indeed in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils that are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit Rev. 9 3. And when we hear this voice and by the virtue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ 1 John 5.4 our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcomeh the world Nor need this method seem grievous unto us For these very words I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plain and easie method For by Christ's Death we must understand all those miseries that he suffered before which were as the train and ceremony of his Death as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as Poverty Scorn and Contempt the Burden of our sins his Agony and bloody Sweat These we must look upon as the principles of this heavenly Science by which our best Master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to raise us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings For we have not such an High priest who will not help us Hebr. 4.15 2.17 but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is merciful and faithful hath not only power for that he may have and not shew it but will and propension also desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the gates of death Indeed Mercy without Power can beget but a good wish S. James his complemental charity Be ye warmed and Be ye filled and Be ye comforted Jam. 2.16 which leaveth us cold and empty and comfortless And Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heal a broken heart It may as well strike us dead as revive us But Mercy and Power when they meet and kiss each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and raise us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a bath a rack a bed and persecution a blessing will call those sorrows that are as if they were not Such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his Compassion and Mercy were coeternal with him as God yet as Man he learnt them He came into the world as into a school and there learnt them by his sufferings and death Hebr. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feel it our selves It must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggeth of me Luke 16. Luke 10.30 34. and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way-side and then I powre my oyl and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feel the Hell of sin in my self before I can snatch my brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walketh abroad Job 29.15 and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and so healeth two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him They were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffered are the main strength of our salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be merciful then he could leave off to be
it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any Keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these Keyes too long in our hands For though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romish party wheresoever they find keys mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the Keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the key of David Rev. 3.7 which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth was not given to the Apostles but is a regality and prerogative of Christ who only hath power of Life and Death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calleth himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings Phil. 2.8 9. He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2.7 11. He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable and fit subjects for his power to work upon which nevertheless will have its operation and effect either let us out or shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death Were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darkness and oblivion for ever But Christ living infuseth life into us that the bands of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place For it is impossible it should hold them You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell For how can Light dwell in Darkness How can Purity mix with stench How can Beauty stay with Horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and be both true yet this is such a contradiction as unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Matth. 5.18 Heaven and earth may pass away but Christ liveth for evermore and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self Rev. 6.8 And again There was a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and he had power to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth But now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger us and fling us down that we may rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self Job 18.14 Death was the King of terrors and the fear of Death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures less delightful and our virtues more tedious made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own dare look upon Death in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertullian and are ready to meet him in his most dreadful march with all his army of Diseases Racks and Tortures Man before he sinned knew not what Death meant then Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so do Christians with Death Having that Divine Image restored in them they are secure and fear it not For what can that Tyrant take from them Col. 3.3 Their life That is hid with Christ in God Psal 37.4 It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord. Matth. 6.20 It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified Gal. 5.24 their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keyes in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing as troubled S Augustine to define what it is We call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses and of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death because it is so profitable and advantageous to us It was indeed threatned but it is now a promise or the way unto it for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised It was an end of all it is now the beginning of all It was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it We may say it is the first point and moment of our after-eternity for it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them We live or rather labour and fight and strive with the World and with Life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and press forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the Spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our souls and we from our miseries and temptations and this living everliving Christ gathereth us together again breatheth life and eternity into us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the main articles of our Faith 1 Christs Death 2. his Life 3. his eternal Life and last of all his Power of the Keyes his Dominion over Hell and Death We will but in a word fit the ECCE the Behold in the Text to every part of it and set the Seal Amen to it and so conclude And first we place the ECCE the Behold on his Death He suffered and dyed that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and raise thee from both and wilt thou learn nothing from his compassion
that where the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there we are to understand the Person of the Holy Ghost yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When He the Spirit of truth shall come He shall lead you which pointeth out to a distinct Person If as Sabellius saith our Saviour had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts or some effect of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough but ILLE He designeth a certain Person and I LLE He in Christ's mouth a distinct Person from himself Besides we are taught in the Schools Actiones sunt suppositorum Actions and operations are of Persons Now in this verse Christ sayth that he shall lead them into all truth and before he shall reprove the world v. 8. and in the precedent chapter he shall testifie of me v. 26. which are proper and peculiar operations of the blessed Spirit and bring him in a distinct Person from the Father and the Son And therefore S. Augustine resteth upon this dark and general expression Lib. 6. De Trinit Spiritus S. est commune aliquid Patris Filii quicquid illud est The Holy Ghost communicateth both of the Father and the Son is something of them both whatsoever we may call it whether we call him the Consubstantial and Coeternal communion and friendship of the Father and the Son or nexum amorosum with Gerson and others of the Schools the essential Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations in which if we speak not in the Spirit 's language we may sooner lose than profit our selves and speak more than we should whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough It will be safer to walk below amongst those observations which as they are more familiar and easy so are they more useful and to take what oar we can find with ease than to dig deeper in this dark mine where if we walk not warily we may meet with poysonous fogs and damps in stead of treasure We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the Spirit of Truth Divers attributes the Holy Ghost hath He is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace Hebr. 10.29 c. For where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation Rom. 12.9 our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great Gal. 5.6 Isa 6.6 Rom. 10 2. our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coal from the altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge He maketh no shadows but substances no pictures but realities no appearances Luke 1.28 but truths a Grace that maketh us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith 1 Pet. 1.7 8. full and unspeakable Joy Love ready to spend it self and Zeal to consume us Psâ—l 69.9 of a true existence being from the Spirit of that God who alone truly is But here he is stiled the Spirit of Truth yet is he the same Spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begetteth our Faith dilateth our Love worketh our Joy kindleth our Zeal and adopteth us in Regiam familiam into the Royal family of the first-born in heaven But now the Spirit of Truth was more proper For to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and somtimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance that they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but All truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and having the veyl taken from it be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this Spirit of Truth as he thus presenteth and tendereth himself unto us 1. He standeth in opposition to two great enemies to Truth Dissimulation and Flattery By the former I hide my self from others by the later I blindfold another and hide him from himself The Spirit is an enemy to both he cannot away with them 2. He is true in the Lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he cometh First dissemble he doth not he cannot For Dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us It bringeth in the Devil in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend It speaketh the language of the Priest at Delphos As to King Philip whom Pausanias slew playeth in ambiguities promiseth life when death is neerest and biddeth us beware of a chariot when it meaneth a sword No this Spirit is an enemy to this because a Spirit of truth and hateth these involucra dissimulationis this folding and involvedness these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others And they by whom this Spirit speaketh are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftiness 2 Cor. 4.2 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.14 not in the slight of men throwing a die and what cast you would have them not fitting their doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of heaven when their thoughts are in their purse Wisd 1.5 6. This holy Spirit of Truth flieth all such deceit and removeth himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words There is nothing of the Devil's method nothing of the Die or Hand no windings or turnings in what he teacheth He speaketh the truth and nothing but the truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our Teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot This is the inseparable mark and character of the evil Spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smileth upon us that he may rage against us lifteth us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foils whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds Flattery is as a glass for a Fool to look upon and behold that shape which himself hath already drawn and please himself in it because it is returned upon him by reflection and so he becometh more fool than before It is the Fools
not as warrantably conceive so of the other Persons For God wrought in the Creation and the Heavens are the work of his hands Nay with reverence to so high a Majesty we may say God serveth us more then we do him who are nothing but by his breath and power Dust and ashes can do him no service But he serveth us every day He lighteth us with his Sun he raineth upon us he watereth our plants Luke ◠53 Psal 47.9 he filleth our granaries He feedeth the hungry with good things nay he feedeth the young ravens that call upon him He knocketh at our doors he intreateth waiteth sufferreth commandeth us to serve one another commandeth his Angels to serve and minister unto us res rationésque nostras curat he keepeth our accounts numbreth our tears watcheth our prayers If we call he cometh if we fall he is at hand In our misery in the deepest dungeon he is with us And these are no disparagements but arguments of his excellency and infinite goodness and fair lessons to us not to be wanting to our selves and our brethren who have God himself thus carefully waiting upon us and to remember us That to serve our brethren is to exalt and advance and raise us up to be like unto him When we wash our brethrens feet bind up their wounds sit down in the dust with them visit them in prison and minister to them on their beds of sickness we may think we debase our selves and do decrease as it were but it is our honour our crown our conformity to him who was the Servant of God and our Servant and made himself like unto us that he might serve us in his flesh and doth so to the end of the world invisibly by his Spirit It is the Spirit 's honour to be sent to be a Leader a Conduct and though sent he be yet he is as free an Agent as the Son and the Son as the Father Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth to supply his place But that argueth no inequality for then the Son too must be unequal to the Father for his Angel his Messenger he was and went about his Father's business Luke 2.49 To conclude this In a farr remote and more qualified sense we are his Vicar's his Deputies his Steward 's here on earth and it is no servility it is our honour and glory to do his business to serve one another in love Gal. 5.13 to be Servants to be Angels I had almost said to be holy Ghosts one to another As my father sent me saith our Saviour to his Disciples John 20.21 so send I you And he sendeth us too who are haereditarii Christi discipuli Christ's Disciples by inheritance and succession that every one as he is endowed from above should serve him by serving one another And though our serving him cannot deserve that name Judg. 5.23 yet is he pleased to call it helping him that we should help him to feed the hungry to guide the blind and teach the ignorant and so be the Spirit 's Vicars as he is Christ's that Christ may fill us more and more with his Spirit which may guide and conduct us through the manifold errours of this life through darkness and confusion into that truth which may lead us to bliss For as he is the Spirit of truth so in the next place the Lesson which he teacheth is Truth even that Truth which is an Art S. Augustine calleth it so and a law to direct and confine all other arts quâ praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus which goeth before us in our way and through the surges of this present world bringeth us to the presence of God who is Truth it self A Truth which leadeth us to our original to the Rock out of which we were hewen and bringeth us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself An Art to cast down all Babels all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our souls powr them out upon variety of unlawful objects and deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this Spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 for whatsoever the Prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of Immortality was but darkness in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth Luxury place on Wealth and Riches What horror on Nakedness and Poverty What a heaven is Honour to my Ambition and what an hell is Disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a Jewel glitter in my eyes and what a slur is there upon Virtue What a glory doth the pomp of the World present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath Righteousness How is God thrust out and every Idol every Vanity made a God But the Truth here which the Spirit teacheth discovereth all pulleth off the veyl sheweth us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived sheweth us Vanity in Riches folly in Honour death and destruction in the pomp of this World maketh Poverty a blessing and Misery happiness and Death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and Man where he should be at his footstool bowing before him Which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a Truth that hath power to unite us to our God that bringeth with it the knowledge of Christ and the wisdome of God and presenteth those precepts and doctrines which lead to happiness a Truth that goeth along with us in all our wayes waiteth on us on our beds of sickness leaveth us not at our death but followeth us and will rise again with us unto judgment and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate If we make it our friend here it will then look lovely on us and speak good things for us if we make it our Counsellor here it will then be our Advocate but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this Truth to them that love it But to those who will not learn shall be Tribulation and anguish Rom. 2.9 Acts 2.20 2 Thes 4.16 The Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into blood the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this Truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of them Rom 2.16 acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this Truth which the Spirit teacheth
it self and vvill meet and cope vvith him though he cometh towards us on his pale horse vvith all his pomp and terrour Love saith a devout Writer is a Philosopher and can discover the nature and qualities the malignity and weakness of those evils which are set up to shake our constancy and strike us from that rock on which we are founded Who is a God like unto our God saith David What can be like to that we love what can be equal to it If our hearts be set on the Truth to it the whole World is not worth a thought Nullum spectac lum â—incâ—â—cussione spiritus Tert. de Spect. c. 15. nor can that shop of vanities shew forth any thing that can shake a soul or make the passions turbulent and unruly that can draw a tear or force a smile that can deject the soul with sorrow or make it mad with joy that can raise an Anger or strike a Fear or set a Desire on the wing Every object is dull and dead and hath nothing of temptation in it For to love the Truth is all in all and it bespeaketh the World as S. Paul did the Grave Where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 Rom. 8 35-39 Nor height nor depth can separate us from that we love Love is a Sophister able to answer every argument wave every subtilty and defeat the Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wiles and crafty enterprizes Nay Love is a Magician and can conjure down all the terrours and noyse of Persecution which are those evil Spirits that amaze and cow us Love can rowse and quicken our drooping and fainting spirits Heb. 12.12 and strengthen the most feeble knees and the hands that hang down If we love the Truth if Truth be the antecedent the consequent is most natural and necessary and it cannot but follow That therefore we will when there is reason lay down our lives for it For again what is said of Faith is true of Love It purifieth the conscience and when that is clean and pure the soul is in perfect health chearful and active full of courage either to do or suffer ready for that disgrace which bringeth honour for that smart which begetteth joy for that wound which shall heal for that death which is a gate opened to eternity ready to go out and joyn with that peace which a good conscience which is her Angelus custos her Angel to keep her in all her wayes hath sealed and assured unto her A good conscience is the foundation of that bliss which the noble army of Martyrs now enjoy But if in our whole course we have not hearkened to her voice when she bid us do this but have done the contrary if in our ruff and jollity we have thus slghted and baffled her it is not probable that we shall suffer for her sake but we shall willingly nay hastily throw her off and renounce her when to part with her is to escape the evil that we most fear and avoid the blow that is coming towards us We shall soon let go that which we hold but for fashions sake which we fight against while we defend it and which we tread under foot even then when we exalt it which hath no more credit with us then what our parents our education the voice of the people and the multitude of professours have even forced upon us If the Truth have no more power over us if we have no more love for the Truth but this which hath nothing but the name of Love and is indeed the contrary if we bless it with our tongue and fight against it with our lusts if at once we embrace and stifle it then we are Ishmaels and not Isaacs And can an Ishmael in the twinkling of an eye be made an Isaac I will not say it is impossible but it carrieth but little shew of probability and if it be ever done it is not to be brought in censum ordinariorum it falleth not out in the ordinary course that is set but is to be looked upon as a miracle which is not wrought every day but at certain times and upon some important occasion and to some especial end For it is very rare and unusual that Conscience should be quiet and silent so long and then on the sudden be as the mighty voice of God that it should lie hid so long and then come forth and work a miracle Keep faith saith S. Paul and a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 which some having put away concerning faith have made ship-wrack Faith will be lost in the wayes and floods of this present world if a good Conscience be not kept If then thou wilt stand up against Ishmael be sure to be an Isaac a child of promise and an heir to the faith of Abraham If thou wilt be secure from the flesh be renewed in the spirit If thou wilt be fit to take up the cross first crucifie thy self thy lusts and affections This is all the preparation that is required which every one that is born after the spirit doth make And there needeeh no more For he that is thus fitted to follow Christ in the regeneration against the Ishmaelites of this world is well qualified and will not be afraid to meet him in the clouds and in the air when he shall come in terrour to judge both the quick and the dead And now to conclude What saith the Scripture Cast out the bond woman and her son Gen 21.14 for the son of the bond woman shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman It is true Ishmael was cast out into the wilderness of Beersheba Advers Judaeos c. 13. Apolog 21. And the Jew is cast out ejectus saith Tertullian coeli soli extorris cast out of Jerusalem scattered and dispersed over the face of the earth and made a proverb of obstinate Impietiy so that when we call a man a Jew putamus sufficere convitium we think we have railed loud enough But now how shall the Church cast out those of her own bowels of her house and family And such enemies she may have which hang upon her breasts called by the same Word sealed with the same Sacraments and challenging a part in the same common salvation To cast out is an act of violence and the true Church evermore hath the suffering part But yet she may cast them out and that with violence but then it is with the same violence we take the kingdome of heaven Matth. 11.12 a violence upon our selves 1. By laying our selves prostrate by the vehemency of our devotion by our frequent prayers that God would either melt their hearts or shorten their hands either bring them into the right way Matth. 17 21. or strike off their chariot wheels For this kind of spirit these malignant spirits cannot be cast out but by prayer and fasting which is energetical and prevalent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eusebius a most
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
no right at all if it could be taken from him Neither deceit nor violence can take away a right No man can lose his right till he forfeit it which was impossible for this supreme Lord to do All the contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his title or contract his power If all should forsake him Luke 19.14 if all should send this message to him We will not have thee reign over us yet in all this scorn and contempt in this open rebellion and contradiction of sinners he is still the Lord. And as he favoureth those subjects who come in willingly whom he guideth with his staff so he hath a rod of iron to bruise his enemies And this Lord shall command and at his command his servants and executioners shall take those his enemies who would not have him reign over them 27. and slay them before his face He will not use his power to force and drag them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offereth them and turn his grace into wantonness then will he shew himself a King and his anger will be more terrible then the roaring of a lion They shall feel him to be a Lord when it will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and howl under that Power which might have saved them For the same Power openeth the gates of heaven and of hell Psal 75.8 In his hand is a cup saith the Psalmist and in his hand is a reward and when he cometh to judge he bringeth them both along with him The same Power bringeth life and death as Fabius did peace or war to the Carthaginians in the lap of his garment and which he will he powreth out upon us and in both is still our Lord. When Faith faileth and Charity waxeth cold and the world is set on wickedness when there be more Antichrists then Christians he is our Lord yesterday and to day Hebr. 13.8 and the same for ever In the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is it most lasting and shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 It shall break in pieces and destroy all the Kingdoms of the earth but it self shall stand fast for ever No violence shall shake it no craft undermine it no time wast it but Christ shall remain our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaketh of an end of delivering up his Kingdom 1 Cor. 15.24 28. and of subjection It is true there shall be an end but it is when he 〈◊〉 delivered up his Kingdom and he shall deliver up his Kingdom but not till he hath put down all authority Finis hic defectio non est nec traditio amissio nec subjectio infirmitas saith Hilary This end is no fayling this delivery no loss this subjection no weakness nor infirmity Regnum regnans tradet He shall deliver up his power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzen's interpretation and then this Subjection is nothing else but the fuâ—filling of his Father's will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36th Oration which he made against the Arians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in computation is but one Person with Christ and when his Church is perfected then doth he deliver up his Power and Dominion But let us but observe the manner of the ending of this Kingdom and the fayling and period of others and we shall gain light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties Either Kingdoms are undermined by craft and shaken by the madness of the people who shun the whip and are beaten with Scorpions cast off one yoke and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complained or Kingdoms are changed and altered as it pleaseth those who are victorious whose right hand is their God But the Power of this Lord is then and onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of laws when the subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and crown them with glory and honour for ever Here is no weakness no infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crown and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in chains and his subjects free free from the fear of Hell or temptations of the Devil the World or the Flesh And though there be an end yet he reigneth still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaineth a Lord and King for evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God his Right and Power of government his Laws just and holy and wise the Virtue and Power the Largeness and the Duration of his government A sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the coming of this Lord. For they that long to meet him in the clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right hand of God Look upon him then sitting in majesty and power and think you now see him moving towards you and descending with a shout For his very sitting there should be to us as his coming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great day Look upon him and think not that he there sitteth idle but beholdeth the children of men those that wait for him and those that think not of him And he will come down with a shout not fall as a timber-log for every frog every wanton sinner to leap upon and croak about but come as a Lord with a reward in one hand and a vengeance in the other Oh it is far better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Laws and write them in your hearts For the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consisteth not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them For Obedience is the best seal and ratification of a Law Christ is Lord from all eternity and cannot be devested of his Royal office yet he counteth his Kingdome most complete when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold
ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse upon them and death upon himself Num. 31.8 for he was slain for it with the sword What evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knoweth well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come And he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breathe vengeance in his face For howsoever we pretend ignorance yet most of the sins we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the Foolish man that the lips of the harlot will bite like a Cocatrice he knoweth it well enough and yet will kiss them Prov. 20.1 Tell the Intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived The cruel Oppressour will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eateth bread Psal 14.4 53.4 Matth. 7.12 Who knoweth not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice Who knoweth not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 and yet how many seek it out and are willing to travail with it though they die in the birth Cannot the thought of judgment move us and will the knowledge of a certain hour awake us Will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and would he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined hour were upon record No they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.13 Earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the Devil avoid though they knew the very hour I might say though they now saw the Lord coming in the clouds For wilt not thou believe God when he cometh as near thee as in wisdome he can and as his pure Essence and infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou wilt believe him if he would please to come so near as thy sick phansie would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dream of a sick and ill-affected mind that complaineth of want of light when it shineth in thy face For that information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same lethargicks which we were In a word if Christ's doctrine will not move us the knowledge which he will not teach would have little force And though it were written in capital letters At such a time and such a day and such an hour the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this death in sin till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam and so conclude We may learn even from our Ignorance of the hour thus much That as the Lords coming is uncertain so it will be sudden As we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we do not think on it cum totius mundi motu Apol. c. 33. cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tertullian with the shaking of the whole world with the horrour and amazement of the Vniverse every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did wait for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1 Thes 5.2 3. Luke 21.35 1. of travel coming upon a woman with child 2. of a Thief in the night and 3. of a Snare Now the Woman talketh and is chearful now she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff and now she groaneth Now the Mammonist locketh his God up in his chest layeth him down to sleep and dreameth of nothing else and now the Thief breaketh in and spoileth him Now our feet are at liberty and we walk at large walk on pleasantly as in fair places Now the bitterness of death is past and now the Snare taketh us Now we phansie new delights send our thoughts afar off dream of Lordships and Kingdoms Now we enlarge our imaginations as Hell anticipate our honours and wealth and gather riches in our mind before we grasp them in our hand Now we are full now we are rich now we reign as Kings now we beat our fellow-servants and beat them in our Lord's name and in this type and representation of hell we entitle our selves to eternity of bliss we are cursed and call our selves Saints and now even now he cometh Now sudden surprisals do commonly startle and amaze us but after a while after some pause and deliberation we recover our selves and take heart to slight that which drove us from our selves and left us as in a dream or rather dead But this bringeth either that horrour or that joy which shall enter into our very bones settle and incorporate it self with us and dwell in us for evermore Other assaults that are made upon us unawares make some mark and impression in us but such as may soon be wiped out We look upon them and being not well acquainted with their shapes they disturb our phansie but either at the sight of the next object we lose them or our Reason chaseth them away Aul Gel. Noct. Att l. 19. c. 1. The tempest riseth and the Philosopher is pale but his Reason will soon call his blood again into his cheeks He cannot prevent these sudden and violent motions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not consent he doth not approve these unlookt-for apparitions and phantasies He doth not change his counsel but is constant to himself Sudden joy and sudden fear with him are as short as sudden But this coming of our Lord as it is sudden so it bringeth omnimodam desolationem an universal horrour and amazement seiseth upon all the powers and faculties of the Soul chaineth them up and confineth them to loathsome and terrible objects from which no change of objects can divert no wisdome redeem them No serenity after this darkness no joy after this trembling no refreshing after this consternation For no coming again after this coming for it is the last Ser. 140. de Tempore And now to conclude Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine He shall come he shall come my brethren His coming is uncertain and his coming is sudden
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
the wayes of righteousness and yet drooped how many have fainted even in their Saviours arms when his Mercies did compass them in on every side how many have been in the greatest agony when they were nearest to their exaltation how many have condemned themselves to hell who now sit crowned in the highest heavens I know nothing by my self 1 Cor. 4.4 saith S. Paul yet am not thereby justified Hoc dicit Dialogo adv Pelagium nè forte quid per ignorantiam deliquisset saith S. Hierom Though he knew nothing yet something he might have done amiss which he did not know Though our conscience accuse us not of greater crimes yet our conscience may tell us we may have committed many sins of which she could give us no information And this may cast a mist about him who walketh as in the day Rom. 13.13 In a word a man may doubt and yet be saved and a man may assure himself and yet perish A man may have a groundless hope and a man may have a groundless fear And when we see two thus contrarily elemented the one drooping the other cheerful the one rejoycing in the Lord whom he offendeth the other trembling before him whom he loveth we may be ready to pity the one and bless the condition of the other cast away the elect and chuse the reprobate Therefore we must not be too rash to judge but leave the judgment to him who is Judge both of the quick and dead and will neither condemn the innocent for his fear nor justifie the man that goeth on in his sin for his assurance Take comfort then thou disconsolate soul Psal 44.19 which art strucken down into the place of dragons and art in terrour and anguish of heart This fear of thine is but a cloud and it will drop down and distill in blessings upon thy head This agony will bring down an Angel This sorrow will be turned into joy this doubt be answered this despair vanish that Hope may take its proper place again the heart of a penitent Thy fear is better then other mens confidence thy anxiety more comfortable then their security thy doubting more favoured then their assurance Timor tuus securitas tua Thy fear of death will end in the firm expectation of eternal life Though thou art tost on a tumultuous sea thy mast spent and thy tackling torn yet thou shalt at last strike in to shore when those proud Saylers shall shipwrack in a calm Misinterpret not this thy dejection of spirit thy sad and pensive thoughts nor seek too suddenly to remove them An afflicted conscience in the time of health is the most hopeful and soveraign Physick that is Thy fear of death is a certain symptome and an infallible sign of life There is no horrour of the grave to him that lieth in it Death onely is terrible to the living And then there can be no stronger argument that thou art alive then this that thou doubtest thou art dead already And lift up thy head too thou despairing and almost desperate sinner whom not thy many sins but thy unwillingness to leave them hath brought to the dust of death who first blasphemest God Psal 22.15 and then drawest the punishment nearer to thee then he would have it and art thy own hangman and executioner not that pardon is denyed but that thou wilt not sue it out Look about thee and thou mayest see Hope coming towards thee and many arguments to bring it in An argument from thy Soul which is not quite lost till it be in hell and if thou wilt possess it it shall not be lost An argument from thy Will which is free and mutable and may turn to good as well as evil An argument from the very habit of Sin that presseth thee down which though it be strong yet is it not stronger then the Grace of God and the activity of thy Will It is very difficult indeed but the Christian mans work is to overcome difficulties An argument from those sholes and multitudes of Offenders who have wrought themselves out of the power of death and the state of damnation from many who have committed as many sins as thou but this one of Despair from those Publicanes and sinners who have entred into the kingdome of heaven An argument from thy own Argument which thou so unskilfully turnest against thy self It is no argument it is but a weak peremptory Conclusion held up without any Premisses or Reason that can enforce it For Despair is but Petitio principii proveth and concludeth the same by the same maketh our Sins greater then Gods Mercies because they are so and Repentance impossible because it is so Though the Soul be not quite lost till it be lost for ever though the Will be free and Grace offereth it self though the voice of God be Turn though multitudes have turned and that which hath been done may be done again though the argument be no argument yet Despair doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against what reason soever hold up the Conclusion Thou sayest that God cannot forgive thee If he cannot then he is not merciful neither is he just and so he is not God and then what needest thou despair We begin in sin proceed to blasphemy and so end in despair But a God he is and merciful But thy sins are greater then his mercies which is another blasphemy and bringeth in something more infinite then God taketh Gods office from him dispenseth his Mercies of which he alone is Lord shutteth up his rich treasury of Goodness when he is ready and willing to lay it open and so ruineth us in despite of God But thou sayest thou canst not repent which is thy greatest errour and the main cause of thy despair For when the heart is thus hard it beateth off all succours that are offered all those means that might be as oyl to supple it Thou canst not is not true Thou shouldst say Thou wilt not repent for if thou wilt thou mayest For thou canst not tell whether thou canst repent or no because thou never yet didst put it to the tryal but being in the pit didst shut the mouth of it upon thy self and stop it up with a false opinion of God and of thy self with dark notions and worthless conceits of impossibilities Behold God calleth after thee again and again His Grace as a devout Writer speaketh is most officious to take thee out his Mercy ready to embrace thee if thou do not stubbornly cast her off Behold a multitude of Penitents who having escaped the wrath to come becken to thee by their example to follow after them and retire from these hellish thoughts and conclusions unto the same shadow and shelter where they are sale from those false suggestions and fiery darts of the enemy And if this will not move thee then behold the blood of an immaculate Lamb streaming down to wash away thy sins and with them thy despair
wrote no more but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herode to Cassius Thou art mad So God may seem to send to his people GOD by his Prophet to the Israelites You are mad Therefore do my people run on in their evill wayes because they have no understanding Isa 5.13 For now look upon Death and that affrighteth us Look upon God and he exhorteth us Reflect upon our selves and we are an Israel a Church of God There is no cause of dying but not turning no cause of destruction but impenitency If we will not die we shall not die and if we will turn we cannot die at all If we die God passeth sentence upon us and condemneth us but killeth us not but perditio tua ex te Israel our destruction cometh from our selves It is not God it is not Death it self that killeth us but we die because we will Now by this touch and short descant on the words so much truth is conveyed unto us as may acquit and discharge God as no way accessory to our death And to make our passage clear and plain we will proceed by these steps or degrees and draw out these three Conclusions 1. That God is not willing we should die 2. That he is so far from willing our death that he hath plenteously afforded sufficient means of life and salvation which will bring in the third and last That if we die our death is voluntary that no other reason can be given of our death but our own will And the due consideration of these three may serve to awake our Shame as Death did our Fear which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 20. as Nazianzene speaketh another help and furtherance to work out our salvation And that God is not willing we should die is plain enough first from the Obtestation or Expostulation it self secondly from the Nature of God who thus expostulateth For 1. Why will ye die is the voice of a friend not of an enemy He that asks me why I will die by his very question assureth me he intendeth not to destroy me God is not as man Numb 23.19 that he should lie What he worketh he worketh in the clear and open day His fire is kindled to enflame us his water floweth to purge and cleanse us his oyl is powred forth to supple us His commands are not snares nor his precepts accusations He stampeth not the Devil's face upon his coyn He willeth not what he made not Wisd 1.13 and he made not Death saith the Wise man He wisheth he desireth we should live he is angry and sorry if we die He looketh down upon us and calleth after us he exhorteth and rebuketh and even weepeth over us Luk. 19.41 as our Saviour did over Jerusalem And if we die we cannot think that he that is Life it self should kill us If we must die why doth he yet complain why doth he expostulate For if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us How can a desire or command breathe in those coasts which the power of an absolute will hath laid waste already If he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the contrary that his Decree be not void and of no effect Otherwise to pass sentence and irrevocable sentence of death and then bid us live is to look for liberty and freedome in Necessity for a sufficient effect from an unsufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a dead man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcass and bid it walk Indeed by some this Why will ye die is made but sancta simulatio a kind of holy dissimulation so that God with them setteth up Man as a mark and then sticketh his deadly arrows in his sides and after asketh him why he will die And Why may he not saith one with the same liberty damn a soul as a hunter killeth a deer A bloody instance As if an immortal soul which Christ set at a greater rate then the world itself nay then his own most pretious blood were in his sight of no more value then a beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy mens souls for delight and pleasure Thus though they dare not call God the Authour of sin for who is so sinful that could hear that and not anathematize it yet others and those no children in understanding think it a conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloody premisses And they are more encouraged by those ill-boding words which have dropt from their quills For say some Vocat ut induret He calleth them to no other end but that he may harden them He hardeneth them that he may destroy them He exhorteth them to turn that they may not turn He asketh them why they will die that they may run on in their evil wayes even upon Death it self When they break his command they fulfil his will and it is his pleasure they should sin it is his pleasure they should die And when he calleth upon them not to sin when he asketh them why they will die he doth but dissemble for they are dead already horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous decree of Reprobation And now tell me If we admit of this what is become of the Expostulation what use is there of the Obtestation why doth he yet ask Why will ye die I called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason unanswerable But if this phansie this interpretation take place it is no reason at all Why will ye die The answer is ready and what other answer can a poor praecondemned soul make Domine Deus tu nôsti Lord God thou knowest Thou condemnedst us before thou madest us Thou didst destroy us before we were And if we die even so good Lord For it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur It is our destiny Or rather Est Deus in nobis Not a Stoical Fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistable arm hath destroyed us And so the Expostulation is answered and the Quare moriemini is nothing else but Mortui estis Why will ye die that is the Text The Gloss is Ye are dead already But in the second place that this Expostulation is true and hearty may be seen in the very nature of God who is Truth it self who hath but one property and quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness Therefore he cannot bid us live when he intendeth to kill us Consider God before Man had fallen from him by sin and disobedience and we shall see nothing but the works of Goodness and Love Psal 8.3 The heavens were the works of his fingers He created Angels and Men He spake the word and all was done Hom. in Famem siccitatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil What necessity was there that he should thus break forth into action Who compelled
Truth Let us therefore fontem à capite fodere as near as we can lay open the ground of this mistake and errour and we shall find it to be an errour as great as this and to have the same tast and relish with the fountain from whence it flowed They who make Gods permissive will effective at the very mention of Gods will think of that absolute will of his which cannot be resisted by which he made the heavens and the earth and so acknowledge no will of God but that which is absolute and effective as if that will of his by which he would have us do something were the same with that by which he will do something himself and so in effect they make not onely the conversion but the induration of a sinner the work of Omnipotency But were not men blind to all objects but those they delight to look on they might easily discern a great difference and that Gods will is broken every day His natural Desire which is his will to save mankind is that fulfilled If it were there could be no hell at all His Command that is his will what moment is there wherein that is not resisted We are those Devils who kindle that fire which he made not for us We are those sons of Anak those giant-like fighters against Heaven who break his commands with as great ease as Samson did his threads of tow We are those Leviathans who break the bounds he hath set us Job 14.27 29. who esteem iron as straw with whom the threatnings which he darteth at us are accounted as stubble And can we who so often break his will say that his will is alwayes fulfilled Again we must not imagin that all things that are done in the world are the work of his hand or the effect of that power by which he bringeth mighty things to pass Nor can we so much forget God and his Goodness as to imagin that upon every action of man he hath set a DIXIT ET FACTVM EST He spake the word and it was done he commanded and it became necessary For some actions there be which God doth neither absolutely will nor powerfully resist but in his wisdome permitteth to be done which otherwise could dot be done but by his permission Nor doth this will of Permission fall cross with any other will of his Not with his Absolute will for he absolutely permitteth them Not with his Primary and Natural will for though by his Natural will he would bring men to happiness though he forbid sin though he detest it as that which is most contrary to his very nature and which maketh Men devils and enemies to him yet he may justly permit it And the reason is plain For Man is not as God qui sibi sufficit ad beatitudinem who is all-sufficient and Happiness it self and therefore he was placed in an estate where he might work out his own happiness but still with a possibility of being miserable And herein was the Goodness and Wisdome of God made visible As from his Goodness it was that he loved his creature so in his Goodness and Wisdome he placed before him good and evil that he might lay hold on happiness and be good willingly and not of necessity For it is impossible for any finite creature who hath not his completeness and perfection in himself to purchase heaven but upon such terms as that he might have lost it nor to lose it but upon such terms as that he might have took it by violenee For every Law supposeth as a possibility of being kept so also a possibility of being broken which cannot be without permission of sin 1 Tim. 1.9 Lex justo non est posita If Goodness had been as essential to Man as his nature and soul by which he is if God had interceded by his Omnipotenty and by an irresistable force kept Sin from entring into the world the Jews had not heard the noise of the trumpet under the Law nor the Disciples the sermon on the mount under the Gospel there had been no use of the comfortable breath of Gods Promises nor of the terrour of his Threatnings For who would make a law against that which he knoweth will never come to pass A Law against sin supposeth a permission to sin and a possibility of sinning Lastly it standeth in no shew of opposition to Gods Occasioned and Consequent will For we must suppose sin before we can take up the least conceit of any will in God to punish Omnis poena si justa est peccati poena est saith Augustine in his Retractations All punishment that is just is the punishment of sin and therefore God who of his natural goodness would not have man commit sin out of his justice willeth man's destruction and will not repent L. 2. adv Marcion Sic totus Deus bonus est dum pro bono omnia est saith Tertullian Thus God is entirely good whilest all he is whether merciful or severe is for good Minus est tantummodò prodesse quia non aliud quid possit quà m prodesse His reward might seem too loose and not carry with it that infinite value and weight if he could not reach out his hand to punish as well as to reward and some distrust it might work in the creature that he could not do the one if he could not do both So then sin is permitted though God hate sin That which bringeth us to the gates of Death is permitted though God hath tendered his will with an oath that he will not have us die Though he forbiddeth sin though he punisheth it yet he permitteth it I have said too little Nay he could not forbid and punish it if he did not permit it Yet Permission is permission and no more nor is it such a Trojane horse nor can it swell to that bulk and greatness as to hide and contein within it those monsters of Fate and Necessity of Excaecation and Excitation of Incliation and Induration which devour a soul and cannot be resisted which bind us over unto Death when the noise is loud about us Why will ye die For this Permissive will of God or his will of Permission is not operative or efficacious Neither is it a remitting or slackning of the will of God upon which sin as some pretend must necessarily follow nor is it terminated in the thing permitted but in the permission it self alone For to permit sin is one thing and to be willing that sin should be committed is another It is written in the leaves of Aeternity that God will not have sin committed as being most abhorrent and contrary to his nature and will and yet this permission of sin is a positive act of his will for he will permit sin though he hath clothed it with Death to make us afraid of it and upon pain of eternal damnation he forbiddeth us to sin though it were his will to permit it These two
faction What press on to make thy self better and make thy self worse go up to the Temple to pray and profane it What go to Church and there learn to pull it down Why Oh why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are that we are a House and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and mutually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep Death from entring in that we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves 1 Tim. 3.15 that we are his Church which is the pillar and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have God's Word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us We have many helps and huge advantages And if we look up upon them and lay hold on them if we hearken to his Word resist not his Grace neither idolize nor profane his Sacraments but receive them with reverence as they were instituted in love if we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another Rom. 6.9 Gal. 7.16 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can have no more dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves If we die it is quia volumus because we will die For look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is Death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us and there are armouries of weapons treasuries of wisdome shops of physick balm and ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which openeth its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not dig it our selves The Church exhorteth instructeth correcteth God calleth inviteth expostulateth Death it self threatneth us that we may not come near Thus are we compassed about auxiliorum nube with a cloud of helps and advantages The Church is loud Death is terrible God's Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner Ezek. 33.11 and confirmed with an oath As he liveth He would not have us die And it is plain enough in his lightning and in his thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it And it excludeth all Stoical Fate all necessity of sinning or dying There is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or bind us over to Death so that if we die it is in our volo in our Will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason Quia volumus Because we will die We have now brought you to the very cell and den of Death where this monster was framed and fashioned where it was first conceived brought forth and nursed up I have discovered to you the original and beginnings of Sin whose natural issue is Death and shut it up in one word the Will That which hath so troubled and amused men in all the ages of the Church to find out that which some have sought in heaven in the bosome of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked hell and made the Devil the authour of who is but a perswader and a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the phansie alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to bind men much less the Gods themselves as it is said that which many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to find out openiâ—g the windows of Heaven to find it there running to and fro about the Universe to find it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own breasts in our own heart The Will is the womb that conceiveth this monster this viper which eateth through it and destroyeth the mother in the birth For that which is the beginning of action is the beginning of Sin and that which is the beginning of Sin is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit saith Hilary In Psal 118 There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death And in homine quicquid est sibi nocet There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and instrument of sin That which hurteth him may help him That which circumspection and diligence may make an antidote neglect and carelesness may turn into poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil As Goodness so Sin is the work of our Will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither good nor evil I call heaven and earth to witness Deut. 30.19 said GOD by his servant Moses I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing And what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sin Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weak Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of dying For the Question or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law Why are you weak or Why are you dead for reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisdome of God will stand up to defend them But the Question is Why will ye die for which there can be no other reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will For upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a temple of the Lord or into that tower of Babel and Confusion which God will destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our folly and madness so full of contradictions is a wilfull sinner Wisd 1.16 that
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
by them who will receive her nor dwell with those persons which contemn her nor save those who will destroy themselves To conclude this He is most unworthy to receive Grace who in the least degree detracteth from the power of it And he is as unworthy who magnifieth and rejecteth it and maketh his life an argument against his doctrine saith Grace cannot be resisted and resisteth it every day He that denieth the power of God's Grace is scarse a Christian And he is the worst of Christians who will not gird up his loins and work out his salvation but loitreth and standeth idle all the day long shadoweth and pleaseth himself under the expectation of what God will do and so turneth his grace into wantonness Let us not abuse the Grace of God and then we cannot magnifie it enough But he that will not set his hand to work upon a phansie that he wanteth Grace he that vvill not hearken after Grace though she knock and knock again as Fortune vvas said to have done at Galba's gate till she be vveary hath despised the Grace of God and cannot plead the vvant of that for any excuse vvhich he might have had but put it off nay vvhich he had but so used it as if it had been no Grace at all They that have Grace offered and repel it they that have antidotes against Death and vvill not use them can never ansvver the expostulation Why will ye die And certainly he that is so liberal of his Grace hath given us knovvledge enough to see the danger of those vvayes vvhich lead to Death And therefore in the next place Ignorance of our vvayes doth not minuere voluntarium make our sin less vvilful but rather aggrandize it For first vve may if vve vvill knovv every duty that tendeth to life and every sin that bringeth forth death 2 Cor. 2.11 We may know the Devils enterprises saith S. Paul And the ignorance of this findeth no excuse when we have power and faculty light and understanding When the Gospel shineth brightly upon us to dispell those mists which may be placed between the Truth and us Sub scientiae facultate nescire repudiatae magìs quà m non compertae veritatis est reatus Hil. in Psal 118. then if we walk in darkness and in the shadow of death we shall be found guilty not so much of not finding out the truth as of refusing it as Hilary speaketh of a strange contempt in not attaining that which is so easily atchieved and which is so necessary for our preservation I know every man hath not the same quickness of apprehension nor can every man make a Divine and it were to be wisht every man would know it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not for him that thresheth out the corn to resolve controversies or State questions But S. Peter requireth that every man should be able to give an answer 1 Pet. 3.15 a reason of his faith And if he can do that he knoweth the will of God and is well armed and prepared against death and may cope with him and destroy him if he will And this is no perplext nor intricate study but fitted and proportioned to the meanest capacity He that cannot be a Seraphical Divine may be a Christian He that cannot be a Rabbi may be an honest man And if men were as diligent in the pursuit of the truth as they are in managing their own temporal affairs if men would try as many conclusions for knowledge as they do for wealth and were as ambitious to be good as they are to be rich and great if they were as much afraid of Gods wrath as they are of poverty and the frown of a mortal this pretense of want of knowledge would be soon removed and quite taken out of the way Tit. 2.11 Acts 17.30 For now the Grace of God hath appeared unto all men and commanded all men every where to repent and turn from their evil wayes What apologie can the Oppressour have when Wisdome it self hath sounded in his ears and told him Lev. 19.18 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self for even flesh and bloud would soon conclude that no man will oppress himself What can the Revenger plead after the thunder Rom. 12.19 Vengeance is mine What can the Covetous pretend when he heareth Go sell all and give to the poor What can the Seditious say Matth. 19.21 when he is plainly told He that resisteth shall receive damnation Rom. 13.2 Can any man miss his way where there is so much light to direct him when he brought a great part of his lesson along with him into the world which he may run and read and understand How can he there erre dangerously where the Truth is fastned to a pillar where there is such a Mercury to shew him his way And therefore in the second place if we be ignorant it is because we will be ignorant If we could open a window into the breasts of men we should soon perceive a hot contention between their Knowledge and their Lusts strugling together like the twins in Rebekah's womb till at last their Lust supplanteth their Knowledge and gaineth the preeminence Nolunt intelligere nè cogantur facere saith Augustine They will not understand their duty lest that many draw upon them an obligation to do it nor will they see their errour because they have no mind to forsake it For their Knowledge pointeth towards life but not to be attained to but by sweat and blood which their Lust loatheth and trembleth at And therefore this knowledge is too wonderful for them Psal 139.6 nay it is as the gall of bitterness unto them As Nero's mother would not suffer him to study Philosophy quia imparaturo contraria Suet. Nerone c. 25. because it prescribeth many moral virtues as Sincerity Modesty and Frugality which sort not well with the Crown and must needs fall cross with those actions which Politie and Necessity many times ingage the Monarchs of the earth so do these look upon the Truth as a thing contrary to them as checking their Pride bridling their Malice bounding their Ambition chiding their Injustice threatning their Tyranny and so they study to unlearn suppress and silence it and will not hear it speak to them any more but set up a Lie first the childe then the parasite of their Lusts and enthrone it in its place to reign over them and guide them in all their waies I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles telleth us that he observed many cast down and very sad and dejected upon the knowledge of the Truth not so much for that it did shew them the danger they were in and withal an open and effectual door to escape but that it choaked the passages and stopped up the way to their old asylum and sanctuary of Ignorance For Truth is not onely a light but a fire to scorch and burn
as we please and bulge but swell our sayls and bear forward boldly till at last we are carried upon that rock which sinketh us for ever And therefore to conclude this a good Intention cannot pull out the sting from Death nor the guilt from Sin but if we sin though it be with an honest mind we sin voluntarily In brief though we know it not to be a sin though from the tribunal of Conscience we check our selves before we commit it though we do evil but intend good though we see it not though we approve it not though we intend it not as evil yet evil it is and a voluntary evil and without repentance hath no better wages then death and this Expostulation may be put up to us QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die For we cannot say but they are willing to die who make such hast to the pit of ruine and in their swift and eager pursuit of Death do but cast back a faint look toward the land of the living We must now draw towards a conclusion and conclude and shut up all even Death it self in the Will of man We cannot lay it upon any natural Weakness nor upon the Want of grace and assistance We cannot plead Ignorance nor the Distaste and Reluctancy of our mind Nor can a good Intention name that Will good which is sixt on evil nor the Means which we use commend and secure that end which is the work of Sin and hath Death waiting upon it If we die we can find no other answer to this question Why will ye die but that which is not worth the putting up It is quia volumus because we will die Take all the Weakness or Corruption of our nature look upon that inexhaustible fountain of Grace but as we think dryed up take the darkness of our Understanding the cloud is from the Will Nolumus intelligere We will not understand Take all those sad symptomes and prognosticks of death a wandring unruly phansy it is the Will whiffeth it about Turbulent Passions the tempest is from the Will Etiam quod invitus facere videor si facio voluntate facio even that which I do with some reluctancy if I do it I do it willingly All provocations and incitements imaginable being supposed no Love no Fear no Anger not the Devil himself can determin the Will or force us into action and if we die it is quia volumus because we will die If Death be the conclusion that which inferreth it is the Will of man which brought Sin and Death into the world And this may seem strange that any should be willing to die Ask the profanest person living that hath sold himself to wickedness and so is even bound over to Death and he will tell you he is willing to be saved Heaven is his wish and eternal happiness his desire As for Death the remembrance of it is bitter unto him Death Eccl. 41.1 if you do but name it he trembleth The Glutton is greedy after meat but loatheth a disease The wanton seeketh out pleasures but not those evils they carry with them under their wing The Revenger would wash his feet in the bloud of his enemy but not be drowned in it The Thief would steal but would not grind in the prison But the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Eth. 2.1 The beginning of all these is in the Will He that will be intemperate will surfet he that will be wanton will be weak he that taketh the sword will perish by the sword Matth. 26.52 he that will spoil will be spoiled and he that will sin will die Every mans death is a voluntary act not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. out of any natural appetite to perish but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his own choice who did chuse it though not in se not in it self which is so terrible but in causis as the Schools speak in its causes in those sins in which it is bound up and from which it cannot be severed Sin carrieth Death in its womb and if we sin we are condemned and dead already We may see it smile upon us in some alluring pleasure we may see it glitter in a piece of gold or woo us in the rayes of Beauty but every smile every resplendeney every raie is a dart and striketh us through Why will we dye Why The holy Ghost is high and full in the expressing it We love Death and Love saith the Father Prov. 8.36 is vehemens voluntas a vehement and an active will It is said to have wings and to flie to its object but it needeth them not for it is ever with it The Covetous is kneaded in with the world they are but one lump It is his God one in him and he in it The Wanton calleth his strumpet his Soul and when she departeth from him he is dead The Ambitious feedeth on Honour as it is said Chamelions do on air a disgrace killeth him Amamus mortem we love Death which implyeth a kind of union and connaturality and complacency in Death Again exsultamus rebus pessimis Prov. 2.14 we rejoyce and delight in evil Ecstasin patimur so some render it we are transported beyond our selves we talk of it we dream of it we sweat for it we fight for it we travel for it we triumph in it we have a kind of traunce and transformation we have a jubile in sin and we are carried delicately and with triumph to our death Isa 28.15 Nay further yet we are said to make a covenant with Death We joyn with it and help it to destroy our selves As Jehoshaphat said to Ahab 1 Kings 22.4 I am as thou art and my people as thy people we have the same friends and the same enemies we love that that upholdeth its dominion and we fight against that that would destroy it We strengthen and harden our selves against the light of Nature and the light of Grace against Gods whispers and against his loud calls against his exhortations and obtestations and expostulations which are strength enough to discern Death and pull him from his pale horse And all these will make it a Volumus at least not a Velleity as to good but an absolute vehement Will After we have weighed the circumstances pondered the danger considered and consulted we give sentence on Death's side and though we are unwilling to think so yet we are willing to die To love Death to rejoyce in Death to make a covenant with Death will make the Volumus full To the question Why will ye die no other answer can be given but We will For if we should ask further Yea but why will ye here we are at a stand horrour and amazement and confusion shut up our mouth in silence as Matth. 22.12 when the Guest was questioned how he came thither the Text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capistratus est he
Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
Body and his Bloud and S. Paul calleth it the Bread and the Cup Nor is S. Paul contrary to Christ but determineth and reconcileth all in the end both of Christ's suffering and our receiving in the words of my Text As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come In which words the Death of the Lord of life is presented to us and we called to look up upon him whom our sins have pierced through to behold him wounded for our transgressions ex cujus latere aqua sanguis Isa 53.5 utriusque lavacri paratura manavit as Tertullian out of whose side came water and bloud to wash and purge us which make the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper And the effect of both is our Obedience in life and conversation that we should serve him with the whole heart who hath bought us at so dear a price that we should wash off all our spots and stains and foul pollutions in the laver of this Water and the laver of this Bloud And therefore as he offered himself for us on the Cross so he offereth himself to us in the Sacrament his Body in the Bread and his Bloud in the Cup that we may eat and drink and feed upon him and taste how gracious he is Which is the sum and complement and blessed effect of the duty here in the Text to shew the Lord's death till he come For he that sheweth it not manducans non manducat eating doth not as Ambrose doth eat the Bread but not feed on Christ But he that fully acquitteth himself in this shall be fed to eternal life Let us then take the words asunder And there we find What we are to do and How long we are to do it the Duty and the Continuation of it the Duty We must shew forth Christ's death the Continuation of it We must do it till he come again to judgment In the Duty we consider first an Object what it is we must shew the death of the Lord Secondly an Act what it is to shew and declare it The death of the Lord a sad but comfortable a bloudy but saving spectacle And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew a word of as large a compass as Christianity it self And the duration and continuation of it till he come that is to the end of the world Of these in their order The object is in nature first and first to be handled the death of the Lord. And this is most proper for us to consider For by his stripes we are healed and by his death we live And in this he hath not onely expressed his Love but made himself an example that we may take it out and so shew forth his death First it is his Love which joyned these two words together Death and the Lord which are farther removed then Heaven is from the Earth For can the Lord of life die Yes Amor de coelo demisit Dominum That Love which brought him down from his throne to his footstool that united the Godhead and Manhood in one Person hath also made these two terms Death and the Lord compatible and fastned the Son of God to the Cross hath exprest it self not onely in Beneficence but also in Patience not onely in Power but also in Humility and is most lively and visible in his Death the true authentick instrument of his Love He that is our Steward to provide for us who supplieth us out of his rich treasur◠who ripeneth the fruit on the trees and the corn in the fields who draweth us wine out of the vine and spinneth us garments out of the bowels of the worm and the fleece of the flock will also empty himself and pour forth his bloud He who giveth us balm for our bodies will give us physick for our souls will give up his ghost to give us breath and life And here his love is in its Zenith and vertical point and in a direct line casteth the rayes of comfort on his lost creature This Lord cometh not naked but clothed with blessings cometh not empty but with the rich treasuries of heaven cometh not alone but with troops of Angels with troops of promises and blessings Bonitas foecunda sui Goodness is fruitful and generative of it self gaineth by spending it self swelleth by overflowing and is increased by profusion When she poureth forth her self and breatheth forth that sweet exhalation she conveyeth it not poor and naked and solitary but with a troop and authority with ornament and pomp For Love bringeth with it whatsoever Goodness can imagine munera officia gifts and offices doth not onely give us the Lord but giveth us his sufferings his passion his death not onely his death but the virtue and power of it to raise us from the lethargy and death of Sin that we may be quick and active to shew and express it in our selves Olim morbo nunc remedio laboramus The remedy is so wonderful it confoundeth the patient and maketh health it self appear but fabulous Shall the Lord of Life die why may not Man whose breath is in his nostrils be immortal Yes he shall and for this reason Because it pleased the Lord of Life to die We need not adopt one in his place or substitute a creature a phantasm as did Arius and Marcion in his office For he took our sins and he will take the office himself Isa 63.3 he will tread the wine press alone and will admit none with him Nor doth this Humility impair his Majesty but rather exalt it Though he die yet he is the Lord still The Father will tell us that they who denied this for fear were worse then those who denied it out of stomach and the pretense of his honour is more dangerous then perversness For this is to confine and limit this Lord to shorten his hand palos terminales figere to set up bounds and limits against his infinite Love and absolute Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shape and frame him out to their own phansie and indeed to blaspheme him with reverence to take from him his heavenly power and put into his hand a sceptre of reed His Love and his Will quiet all jealousies and answer all arguments whatsoeever It was his will to die and he that resteth in God's Will doth best acknowledge his Majesty For all even Majesty it self doth vail to his Will and is commanded by it What the Lord of life equal to the Father by whom all things were made shall he die Yes quia voluit because he would For as at the Creation he might have made Man as he made other creatures by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the clay and fashioned him with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send an Angel one of the Seraphim or Cherubim or any finite creature which he might have done
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
enemies we have who are our own seducers our own deceivers our own parasites our own murtherers soon pleasing our selves and afraid of that truth which may displease us receiving the kiss of flattery as a debt ready to take names and titles which are not due unto us and never thinking of any change to the better quia nos optimos credimus because we believe our selves to be good in the highest degree And the reason is plain For it is not with the soul as with the body saith Theodoret. The diseases of the body for the most part steal upon us and invade us against our will but the maladies of our soul are voluntary Those besiege us as enemies but we set open the gates to the other as to friends Nor are we so jealous of the one as of the other which maketh them the less visible and our search and examination more necessary Omnem corporis calorem calumniamur We are jealous and suspicious of the least heat we feel in our bodies and call it a Fever we muster up all our forces we diet our selves we ask counsel of the Physician But sin moveth and reigneth in our hearts is obeyed and bowed to and served and yet not seen Who maketh any provision against Sin Who seeketh any antidote or preservative against the plague of the heart We wallow in our own bloud as on a bed of roses Prov. 23.34 We lie down in Sin as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea or on the top of a mast in the greatest danger and perceive it not We swill down Sin and think no more of it then the drunken man when he hath slept out his wine thinketh of what he hath spoken or done Vers 35. They have stricken me shalt thou say and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt it not When shall I awake I will seek it yet again The drunkard after his sleep calleth again for his liquor We are various and manifold in our wayes and every day most unlike our selves now lifted up with pride anon cast down vvith sorrow now presuming anon despairing now triumphing anon howling the same men but never our selves driven on as by so many contrary vvinds into the same gulf of destruction And all this for vvant of due and frequent examination of our selves For from this proceed first Ignorance secondly Self-love thirdly Pride and Pertinacy comes fomes ignorantiae the daughter and nurse of them both Which carry men blindfold in dark and slippery places now casting them into the water and then into the fire driving them on against every rock and stone of offence and at last dashing them to pieces From this I say proceedeth 1. Ignorance the worst kind of ignorance ignorance of our selves a false persuasion that all is well because we cannot see what we want For what though I knew not any truth in Philosophy What though I knew not many truths in Divinity What though I knew not the natural causes and events of things the course of the Sun and the Moon This ignorance can lay no imputation but on those who profess those Arts. But to be a stranger at home to draw that curtain which hideth me from my self to be going with the fool to the stocks when I think I am in the way to honour to have an host of enemies a legion of Devils within me and entertain them as friends to be a forward Scholar foris in the things of this world and a non-proficient in conclavi in the closet of my heart to know all things but those which most nearly concern me and to study every man but my self is the grossest and most dangerous Ignorance in the world not ignorantia purae negationis an ignorance unavoidable but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ignorance which proceedeth from a depraved disposition wrought in us by some sophism and delusion by a careless and customary embracing of appearances for truths and catching at shadows whilst we mind not the substance Whilst we neglect that candle within us and the light of Scripture with which we should survey and try our wayes there must needs follow that darkness which will cover the face of the soul and we must walk in darkness as S. John speaketh and not know whither we go Sometimes Sin clotheth it self with excuses sometimes with the mantle of Vertue it self Every sin is a little sin a sin of infirmity a sin with half a will compensativum peccatum a sin to a good end which will expiate the sin and make it a vertue We sin and know it not or we know it but will not understand it And at last the heaven is black with clouds and it is night with us and we see no sin at all Phrensie is zele because it is like it Faction is Christian animosity because it resembleth it Sacriledge is true devotion because it cometh with a besome to sweep away those things which Superstition hath abused and whatsoever the Devil's claw doth is done in nomine Dei in the name of the Lord of hosts In this night of Ignorance we cannot do the thing that is right because we cannot see our selves but even these palliations and excuses which aggravate our guilt are made current and authentick and taken for vertues For In the second place from this root of bitterness springeth up that noisom and venemous weed of Self-love which spoileth us of all our crop and harvest making our heaven as brass and our earth as iron our intellectuals stupid and our wills perverse so that we become deaf to the Truth and to the wisest charmer and will sooner hearken to a false Prophet that will become our Advocate and plead for us and acquit us then to seven nay seventy times seven men who can render a reason Prov. 26.16 Caro quotidianis adulationum cuneis appetit constipari saith Gregory Flesh and bloud could not subsist nor stand out against the Spirit of God and the power of the Gospel if it were not compassed about and shadowed with troops of such flatteries as these of pleasing but false comforts which at last will fail and never lead us into everlasting habitations I charge you O you daughters of Jerusalem O ye Prophets of the Lord that you stir not up nor awake this Self-love till she please There is no milstone nor adamant more unyielding to the stroke of the hammer then the heart of man once possessed with love of it self Do you check it It will revile you Do you prophesie evil unto it It will imprison you Do you condemn it It will murther you Do you bring a trumpet A whisper is too loud Do you speak of danger Security is its cushion and it resteth and sleepeth upon it and dreameth of Paradise in the very chambers of Death 2 Tim. 3.1 Our blessed Apostle S. Paul foresaw this and prophesied of such perilous times and but that I love not to speak evil of
into the Memory where it is as operative to destroy as it was in the Affection to increase it self For but to remember sin and to contemplate the horrour of it and the Hell it deserveth is enough to bow our wills and break our hearts and lay them open that they may be fit receptacles of comfort He were a bold sinner that durst look his sin full in the face Now affliction and mourning bring us to this sight wipe off the paint of Sin strip her of her scutcheons and pendants of her glory and beauty and shew her openly in all her deformity not with Pleasure and Honour and Riches but with the Wrath of God Death and Hell waiting upon her that we may defie and mortifie Sin and then triumph over it And then we are brought back from the valley of the shadow of death into green pastures and led beside the still waters the waters of rest and refreshing for God is with us and his rod and his staff with which he guideth us comfort us as it is Psal 23. And now in the last place you see the rock out of which you must hew your Comfort even out of Sorrow it self Or you may see Joy and Comfort shoot forth from Mourning as lightning from a thick and dark cloud Or rather this Consolation ariseth not so much from Affliction and Mourning it self as from the cause of it Sometimes we mourn in prison and in torments for righteousness sake And there cannot be a greater argument out of which we may conclude in comfort then this that at once we are made witnesses and examples of righteousness at once glorifie God and purchase a crown of Glory for our selves And thus comfort is conveyed to us through our own bloud Sometimes we suffer disgrace and loss of goods because we had rather be poor then be as rich and evil as they that make us poor and sit in the lowest form then be higher and worse This troubleth us and this comforteth us For thus to be poor is to be in the Rich mans bosome thus to be in the dust is to be in Heaven Sometimes we mourn as under the rod and are brought to Affliction as to a School of discipline And if we can read and understand the mystery of Affliction as Nazianzene calleth it if we can see mercy in anger a Father in a Lord if we can behold him with a rod in his hand and healing under his wings and so learn the lesson which he would teach us learn by poverty to enrich our selves with grace by disgrace to honour our selves by imprisonment to seek liberty in Christ if we can learn by those evils which can but touch us to chase away those which will destroy us if we can be such proficients in this School this also may trouble us and this will comfort us If we hearken not to the rod it may prove a Scorpion But if we thus bow and kiss it it will not onely bud and blossome as Aaron's did but bring forth the sweet fruit of Consolation And thus this miracle of Consolation is wrought in us first by the power of God's Grace which maketh his smitings healings and his wounds kisses and then by a strong actuating and upholding our Reason in the contemplation of God's most fatherly power and wisdome which will check and give lawes to the inferiour powers and faculties of the soul and draw them in obedience unto it self that all melancholick fancies may vanish all sensual grief may be swallowed up in victory in this in the content and rest we find in the end which we obtain or for which we suffer and mourn So the blessed Virgin had comfort even when she stood by the Cross vveeping and her soul was filled with it even then when it was pierced through as with a sword In a word mourning is a remedy and all remedies bring comfort And this is of the number of those remedies quae potentiae suae qualitate consumptâ desinunt cùm profuerint which having consumed and spent its virtue vanisheth away and leaveth to be when it hath wrought its just effect For he that is comforted feeleth not what he feeleth but his contemplation carrieth his mind to heaven when his senses peradventure labour under those displeasing objects which are contrary to them At the same time Moses may be in the Mount and the common people rebell and commit idolatry below At the same time the Martyr may roar on the rack and yet in his heart sing an hymn of praise to the King of Glory Reason may so far subdue the Flesh as to make it suffer but it cannot make it senseless for then it could not suffer then it were not flesh Affliction will be heard and felt and seen in its violent operation seen in its terrour heard in contumelies and reproaches and felt in its smart but in all these the Spirit is more then conquerour and delighteth it self with terrour feedeth and feasteth on reproaches and findeth a complacency in smart and pain it self And then when we are under the rod and suffer for sin and not for piety as sensual grief may occasion spiritual so spiritual sorrow and displacency hath alwaies comfort attending it For sorrow and comfort in course affect the soul and with such dispatch and celerity that we rather feel then discern it The devout School-man giveth the instance in the quavering and trembling motion of a Bell after the stroke or of a Lute string after the touch and observeth such an Harmony in the heart by the mutual touch of Sorrow and Comfort And David hath joyned them together in the second Psalm Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling When Affliction striketh the heart the sound will end in Joy and Comfort will be the resultance Mourning is a dark and melancholick thing and maketh a kind of night about us but when the Spirit saith Let there be light there will be light light in the Understanding rectitude in the Will order and peace in the Passions serenity in the Soul sin not in the Affection but in the Memory where it is kept to be whipt and crucified health in the Soul strength in our spiritual Pulse chearfulness to run the wayes of God's commandments the best and onely comforts in the world true symptomes of a spiritual health and fair pledges and types of that everlasting comfort which the God of all consolation will give to those who thus mourn in Sion For conclusion to apply all to our selves in a word I need not exhort you to hang down the head and mourn and walk humbly before your God Behold God himself hath spoken to us in the whirlwind He hath spoken in thunder and shaken our Joyes beat down all before our eyes in which our eyes took pleasure and of which we could say we had a delight therein He hath shaken the pillars of the earth He hath shaken the pillar of Truth the Church He hath shaken
plain How many truths now-a dayes are taken for the inventions of brain-sick men by those who have little brains and scarce common sense to judge of them And as it is in points of speculation so by the disorder of our passions it falleth out in matters of practice For he that will be evil will be ignorant He that knoweth well enough that Gold is but earth looketh upon it as upon a God He that knoweth well enough that Honour is but a breath yet is still climbing up to the pinnacle He that can declaim against Covetousness studieth wealth more then the Bible He that cryeth down Hypocrisie may be a very Pharisee He that knoweth that without holiness we cannot see God promiseth to himself the beatifical vision though a little holiness serveth his turn and he delighteth to call and make himself an unprofitable servant And all this is because men will not take notice of what they cannot but see in Wealth uncertainty in Honour vanity in Hypocrisie the Devil himself This their way uttereth their foolishness saith the Psalmist For a great folly it is thus wilfully to mistake Imperitia nonnullorum Catholicorum venatio est Haereticorum The ignorance of many saith Augustine that call themselves Catholicks hath made them a prey to Hereticks Uncautelous Christians void of spiritual wisdom expose themselves to that great Nimrod the Devil who hunteth after their souls to drive them into his toil For let us but appeal to our own experience and we cannot but confess that they are not the greatest sins but the weakest that have this power over us Murthers and Parricides and Rapes and Treasons and the rest of that rabble of arch-sins are not the strongest for then sure they would reign with the greatest latitude But Wandring thoughts Idle words Petty lusts Inconsiderate wrath Immoderate love to the things of this world and the rest of that swarm of ordinary sins these are they which have the largest extent and dominion and some of these or all of these more or less prevail with every man Now there can be no reason given why we should stand strong against the greater sins and fail and yield at the approach of the lesser unless we were like that fabulous rock in Pliny which if a man thrust at with his whole body he could not move it yet a man might shake it with one of his fingers unless the Laws of men have more force then the statutes of God a prison be more terrible then hell and the anger of a mortal man more formidable then the wrath of the Almighty Certainly thus to walk and to think we are in our way if greater sins assault us not and to go on chearfully with the burthen of the lesser about us as if they were no hinderance at all and we could not remove them is to deceive our selves to walk upon that Lion which will devour us to tread upon that Basilisk whose very eye will infect and poyson us and to run upon that Sword which will pierce through our hearts I have on purpose enlarged my self upon this point because I would not be misunderstood nor that doctrine should seem strange which is so profitable and requireth no more at our hands but this to stand upon our guard to be sedulous and serious in fighting against our lusts and in the duties of Christianity not to neglect the grace of God nor to receive it in vain not to wihstand the power of the Gospel and the rich alluring promises of Christ not to let this dull earth prevail with us more then the beauty and glory of heaven which if it were performed as under the penalty of eternal Death we are bound we should not then complain or rather be glad of our weakness nor think that impossible which we are bound by covenant and vow to perform Satanae nullae sunt feriae The Devil keepeth no Holy day No more should we but be as ready to observe him in his march as he is to invade us So necessary is cautelousness and circumspection that if we had no other buckler or defence yet we should not fall so often as we do Fortis saepe victus est cautus rarissimé The strong man hath often been ruined with his own strength but he who hath his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel though the enemy set hard at him yet is he seldom overthrown Without this we lie open and naked to him but with it no violence can hurt us If we watch and prepare our selves we shall sin no more or if we do not remain in sin in any one sin which is inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel of Christ Ye have seen the Extent of this Command Sin no more and the Possibility of keeping it Let us now draw all nearer to our selves by way of application And first let us take heed that we build not our hopes on air on phansie but on a sure foundation one of the seals and inscriptions whereof is 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity It is one of the subtilest of the Devil's stratagems to make him believe he is the child of God who is his vassal The Roman Story telleth us that an army of theirs having by night fallen into a place of great disadvantage and danger whilst the night lasted the souldiers were quiet but no sooner did the light appear and shewed them the peril and hazard wherein they stood but they fell to tumult and combustion Assurance is not the work of phansie but of the heart to be wrought out with fear and trembling How easily do men fall into sin and then lift themselves up with this thought and so go in peace but when this thought shall perish they fall again like a dead man held up a while by violence who can stand no longer then he is held up Thus every man may commit sins and yet not be the servant of sin and whatsoever the premisses be they are bold to make this conclusion That they have their part in Christ It is a great deal more common to infer what pleaseth us upon a gross mistake then upon a truth and to assure our selves of peace upon no better evidence then that which flesh and bloud and the love of our selves is ready to bring in and to persuade our selves the sting of Death is out and sin cannot hurt us when we are full of nothing but malice and envy and uncleanness And what an assurance is this An assurance without a warrant an assurance which our selves have onely subscribed to with hands full of bloud Sin no more and then you may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God 1 John 3 21. Therefore in the next place let us confess our weakness to the glory of God's Grace but not suborn it to shadow and countenance our negligence and wilful disobedience and then give it the name
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
this world saith the Apostle passeth away And what is that that passeth away to that which is immortal The Heart of man is but a little member It will not saith S. Bernard give a Kite its break fast and yet it is too large a receptacle for the whole world In toto nihil singulis satìs est There is nothing in the whole Universe which is enough for one particular man in which the appetite of any one man can rest And therefore since Satisfaction cannot be had under the Sun here below we must seek for it above And herein consisteth the excellency the very life and essence of Christian Religion To exalt the Soul to draw it back from mixing with these things below and lift it up above the highest heavens To unite it to its proper object To make that which was the breath of God Gen. 2.7 breathe nothing but God think of nothing desire nothing seek for nothing but from above from whence it had its beginning The Soul is as the Matter the things above the Form The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Plato calleth Matter the receptacle of things above as the Matter is of Forms And it is never rightly actuated or of a perfect being till it receiveth the heavenly graces The Soul is the Pot the Vial so Chrysostom calleth it not wherein is put Manna but the Son and the holy Ghost and those things which they send from above The Soul is as the Ground and these the Seed the Soul the Matrix the Womb to receive them Matth. 13. And there is a kind of sympathy betwixt the immortal Seed and the Heart and Mind of Man as there is between Seed and the Womb of the earth For the Soul no sooner seeth the things above unveiled and unclouded not disguised by the interveniencie of things below by disgrace poverty and the like but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with their eye and beauty Heaven is a fair sight even in their eyes whose wayes tend to destruction For there is a kind of nearness and alliance between the things above and those notions and principles which God imprinted in us at the first Therefore Nature it self had a glimpse and glimmering light of these things and saw a further mark to aim at then the World in this span of time could set up Hence Tully calleth Man a mortal God born to two things to Vnderstand and Do. And Seneca telleth us that by that which is best in Man our Reason we go before other creatures but follow and seek after the first Good which is God himself Again as these things bear a correspondence with the Mind and Soul of man as the Seed doth with the Womb of the earth so hath the Soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative faculty to shape and fashion them and by the influence of God's Grace and the kindly aspect of the Spirit to bring forth something of the same nature some heavenly creature to live in the world and hate it to walk in it and tread it under its foot THE NEW MAN which is renewed after the image of God Vers 1◠made up in righteousness and holiness The beauty of Holiness may beget that Violence in us which may break open the gates of heaven the virtue of Christ's Cross may beget an army of Martyrs and the Glory above may raise us up even out of the dust out of all our faculties to lay hold on it that so we may be fitted as with planes and marked out as with the compass as the Prophet Esay speaketh in another sense that we may be fitted to glory and those things above as others are to destruction Rom. 9.22 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 2.9 John 14.3 And hence this glory is said to be laid up and to be prepared for them which love God And our Saviour now sitteth in heaven to prepare a place for them even for all those who by setting their affections on things above are fitted and prepared for them Thus you see it is the chief work and end of Christian Religion to abstract and draw the Soul from sensual and carnal objects and to level and confine it to that object which is fitted and proportioned to it even the things above This is the work of the Gospel by which if we walk we shall suspect and fear the things below the pleasures and glory of this world as full of danger and set our affections on those things which are above and so have our conversation in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Let us now see what use we can make of this and draw it near to us by application And certainly if Christian Religion doth draw the Soul from that which is pleasing to the Sensitive part then we ought to try and examine our selves and our Religion by this touch-stone by this rule and be jealous and suspicious and afraid of that Religion which most holdeth compliance with the Sense and with our worldly desires which flattereth and cherisheth that part at which the Soul goeth forth and too often bringeth back Death along with her which doth miscere Deum seculum joyn God and Mammon the Spirit and the Flesh Christ and the World together and maketh them friendly to communicate with each other and so maketh the Christian a monster crying Abba Father but honouring the world falling down and worshipping Christ not in a stable but in a palace taking him not with persecution and self-denial but with honours riches and pleasures which in true esteem are but as the Apostle termeth them dung I will not mention the Heathen For what Religion can they have who are without God in the world Nor yet Mahumetism although wee see with what ease it prevailed and got a side and overflowed the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of lusts and such alluring promises as the sensual part could relish and digest well enough though they were never fo absurd If from these we pass over into Christendom we shall soon see Christian Religion falling from its primitive purity remitting much of its rigour and severity painted over with a smiling countenance made to favour that which formerly it looked upon as capital and which deserved no better wages then death For how hath the Church of Rome fitted and attempered it to the sensitive part and most corrupt imaginations pulled off her sackcloth put on embroidery and made her all glorious without Allaying it with Worshipping of Saints which is but a carnal thing and Worshipping of Images a carnal thing Turning Repentance into Penance Fasting into Difference of meats Devotion into Numbering of beads Shutting up all Religion in Obedience and Submission to that Church Drawing out Religion from the heart to the gross and outward act With what art doth she uphold her self in that state and
of themselves but he that thus findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it The loss of our lives for righteousness sake is a purchase Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven For this Stephen was stoned Paul beheaded the Martyrs tortured So persecuted they the Prophets which were before you In the next place as a good Cause so a good Life doth fit and qualifie us to suffer for righteousness sake Non habent martyrum mortem qui non habent Christianorum vitam saith Augustine He dieth not the death of a Martyr who liveth not the life of a Christian An unclean beast is not fit to make a sacrifice Nor will the crown of Martyrdome sit upon his head who goeth on in his sin It is to the wicked that God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes and What hast thou to do to suffer for them For he that suffereth for them declareth them Therefore S. Augustine calleth the Donatists who in a perverse emulation of the glory of the true Martyrs leapt down from rocks and flung themselves into the water and were drowned sceleratos homicidas wicked homicides and unnatural murtherers of themselves What Cyprian speaketh of Schism is as true of other mortal sins not repented of Non Martyrium tollit not Martyrdom it self can expiate or blot it out For can we think that he that hath taken his fill in sin all his life long and still made his strength the law of unrighteousness should in a moment wash away all his filth and pollutions baptismo sanguinis with his own bloud It may supply for those other pious souls who were never washed in the other laver that of Baptism because persecution or death deprived them of that benefit for what cannot be done cannot oblige But how a man should draw out his life in an open hostility to Christ and trifle with him and contemn him all his dayes and then before repentance and reconciliation which indeed is in the very act of hostility bow to him and die for him I cannot see Take S. Pauls black catalogue of the works of the flesh Adultery Gal. 3. fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkenness revellings and not one of these but will infringe and weaken the testimony of any man and render him a suspected witness in our Courts on Earth And shall the truth of Christ stand in need of such Knights of the post who will speak for her when they oppose her Take that bed-roll of wicked men which the Apostle prophesied should come in these last and perilous times 2 Tim. 3 1-5 Lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Disobedient to parents Vnthankful Vnholy Without natural affection Truce-breakers False accusers Incontinent Fierce Despisers of those that are good Traitors Heady High minded Lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof and may not the Gospel be ashamed of such Professors and Martyrs as these Or shall we look for heaven in hell and hope to find a Martyr amongst a generation of vipers Or is he fit to be advocate for any truth who hath the faith of Christ with respect of persons Then we shall have factious Martyrs seditious Martyrs malicious Martyrs profane Martyrs sacrilegious Martyrs And if these be Martyrs we may say of them as Tertullian did of the Heathen Gods Potiores apud inferos There be honester men in hell then these No a good Cause and a good Life must be our conductors to the Cross must lead us by the hand to the fiery trial must as it were anoint us to our graves and prepare us for this great work Otherwise whatsoever we suffer is not properly Persecution but an execution of justice It may be here perhaps demanded What then shall he do who having fettered himself in the snare of the Devil hath not yet shaken it off by true repentance whose conscience condemneth him of many gross and grievous sins which yet himself hath not condemned in his flesh by practising the contrary vertues What shall a notorious sinner do if he be called to this great office if his fortunes and life be brought in hazard for the profession of some article of faith or some truth which he believeth is necessary to salvation What shall he do being shut up between these three a bad conscience assurance of that truth he professeth and the terrour of death Shall he hold fast the truth or subscribe to the contrary Shall he suffer without true repentance of his former sins or repent of the truth which he professeth Shall he deny against his conscience what he knoweth to be true or shall he suffer and comfort himself in this one act as a foundation firm enough to raise a hope on of remission of sin Here is a great streight a sad Dilemma like that of the servant in the Comedy Si faxit perit si non faxit vapulat If he do it he may perish and if he do it not he may be beaten He may suffer for the truth and yet suffer for his sins and if he do it not he hath denied the faith and is worse then an infidel But beloved this is an instance like that of Buridan's ass between two bottles of hay knowing not which to chuse an instance of what peradventure never or very seldom cometh to pass We may suppose what we please we may suppose the heavens to stand still and the earth to move and some have thought so we may suppose what in nature is impossible And this if it be not impossible yet is so improbable that it hardly can gain so much credit as to win an assent For that he who all his life long hath cast Christ's word 's behind him should now seal them with his bloud that they are true that a conscience so beaten so wasted so overwhelmed with the habit of sins should now take in and entertain a fear of so little a sin as the denial of one truth in respect of the contempt of all that he that hath swallowed this monstrous camel should strain at this gnat that he that hath trampled Christ's bloud under his feet should shed his own for some one dictate of his is a thing which we may suppose but hardly believe Or tell me Where should this sting and power of conscience lye hid Or can conscience drive us to the confession of one truth which had no power to withhold us from polluting our selves with so many sins Holding faith saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.19 and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made ship-wreck So near an alliance there is between Faith and a good Conscience that we must either keep them both or lose them both Faith as Saint Paul intimateth in that Text is as the
so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
it What is comfort to him that will not be comforted What is heaven to a child of perdition It is a word of the future tense as all promises are of things to come And it is verbum operativum a word full of efficacy and virtue to awake and stir up our Faith to raise our Hope and enflame our Charity It hath a kindly aspect upon all these And first upon our Faith For ideò abcessit Dominus ut fides nostra aedificetur Our Saviour was therefore taken up into heaven that our faith which may reach him there may be built up here on earth He therefore lay hid that this eye might search him out Faith is a kind of Prospective or optick instrument by which we see things afar off as if they were near at hand and things that are not yet as if they now were It turneth Veniet into the present tense and beholdeth Christ as â—ow already descending with a shout And this is sancta impudentia fidei the holy boldness and confidence of Faith to break through all difficulties whatsoever if the object be in heaven to place it on earth if it be invisible to make it visible and if Christ say he will come to say he is come already And now Beloved try and examine your selves whether ye be in this faith In other things how cautelous we are what counsel do we ask how do we use our own and other mens eyes and how are we grieved how crest-fallen if we be over-reached as one that is beaten in battel and hath lost the day But then how easily are we abused how willing to deceive our selves how well pleased to erre where the errour is fatal and deleterial to the soul Will not a weak and groundless opinion a phansie a shadow be taken for that Faith which is the substance of things not seen Glorious things are spoken of Faith It is called a full assent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full assurance a full persuasion of mind And is ours so Nay for the most of us would we did but believe the second coming of Christ as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we believe a lie Would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed Even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would level many would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those sins which have nothing of the pain but are as loathsome as Hell it self Nequicquam segniùs credita movent quà m cognita saith one Those things which are but credible and believed move and set us a working many times as powerfully as those things which we know What maketh us venture our selves by sea and by land rise up early and lie down late bear all things endure all things but a firm belief that this is the way to honour and wealth What Faith then is that which cannot strike the timbrel out of our hands nor the strumpet out of our arms which cannot make us displease our selves nor unfold our arms not silence a word not stifle a thought but leaveth us with as little life and motion as those who have been dead long ago although the VENIET the doctrine of Christ's second Advent sound as loud as the Trump shall do at the last day Faith shall we call this or a Dream or an Echo from a sepulcher of rotten bones which when all the world proclaimeth Christ's second coming resoundeth it back again into the world a Faith that can speak but cannot walk nor work a Faith that may dwell in the heart of an hypocrite a murtherer a traitor a Devil For all these may believe or at least profess that Christ will come again and yet be that liar that Antichrist which denieth Jesus to be the Christ or that he ever came in the flesh Secondly as this VENIET casteth an aspect upon Faith so it doth upon Hope which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bloud of our soul saith Clement without which it will be faint and pale and languish Therefore oportet habere aliquem spei cumulum saith Terrullian this addition of Hope to Faith is most necessary For if we had all Faith and had no Hope this all would profit us nothing Faith without Hope may be in hell as well as on earth For magnifie Faith as much as you please and make it an Idol and fall down and worship it It is a true saying and worthy of all acceptation BY FAITH WE ARE SAVED But we have reason to fear that this true saying hath damned many not in it self for so Tâ—uth can bring forth nothing but life but through the corruption of mens hearts which turneth Manna it self into poison and Life into Death And let me tell you Hope will not raise it self upon every Faith nor is Faith alvvayes a fit basis for Hope to build on He that despaireth believeth or he could not despair For vvho can droop for fear of that VENIET that Judgment vvhich he believeth vvill never come Oh foolish men that vve are who hath bewitched us that vve should glory in Faith and Hope make them the subject of our songs of praise and rejoycing when our Faith is but such a one as is dead and our Hope at last will make us ashamed when our Faith is the same which is in hell and our Hope vvill leave us vvith the Devil and his Angels a Faith vvorse then Infidelity and a Hope as dangerous as Despair and that serve onely to adde to the number of our stripes yet this is the Faith this is the Hope of the world These are thy Gods O Israel Therefore in the third place that vve may joyn these tvvo together Faith and Hope vve must dravv in that excellent gift of Charity which is copulatrix virtus the coupling vertue not onely of Men but of these two Theological vertues For as I told you though Hope do suppose Faith yet Faith may shew it self vvhen Hope is thrust out of doors and many there be vvho have subscribed to the VENIET that Christ will come again vvho have small reason to hope for his coming How many believe that he will come and bring his reward with him and yet strike off their own chariot-wheels and drive but heavily towards it How many believe there is a Judge to come and wish there were none Faith and Hope dwell not in the heart till Charity hath taken up the room But when she is shed and spred abroad in our hearts then they are in conjunction and meet together and kiss each other Therefore this promise of Christ's coming is a threat a thunderbolt if these three Graces meet not if Faith work not by Love and both together raise a Hope And as VENIET here looketh upon our Faith and Hope so it calleth for our Charity For velimus nolimus veniet whether we will or no whether we bâ—lieve or no whether we hope or no he will certainly come But when
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
matter that is combustible into it self a man begetteth a man a sheep a sheep and a lion a lion So the natural and proper effect of God's Mercy to us should be Mercy in us and of it self it can produce nothing else The goodness of God cannot make us evil nor his Mercy harden our hearts nor can any poison be drawn from the Fountain of life When we walk in the midst of God's mercies compassed about with rayes and yet breathe nothing but fire and ruine to our brethren when we are compassed about on every side with mercy and yet carry with us no smell or savour of that mercy when God sheweth himself a Father and we are no more like him then a Tiger is to a Man the defect is not in the Agent or Example but in the Matter it worketh upon not in God's Mercy but our Will which is various and mutable and like the Chamaeleon taketh any colour which the next object presenteth and is sooner drawn to fashion and apply it self to the world then to God and so resisteth the force of his example and by that means many times draweth gall and wormwood out of the very bowels of Mercy For when vve say that God's Forgiveness of our sins hath povver to vvork in us the like compassion to others vve do not give it that causality vvhich doth necessarily and irresistibly produce such an effect For though it be povverful in it self yet it doth not so vvork as the Sacraments by some are said to do ex opere operato His infinite Mercies may leave our hearts as stone The promise of Remission of sins doth not as naturally beget love in us as Fire doth heat but it is powerful tanquam ordinatum ad hoc as the Schools speak as ordained to this end It hath the power of an object or exemplary cause I confess objects have a moving and attractive force but no invincible operation The heavens are a fair sight but they do not make a blind man see I may read of Julius Caesar and not be valiant of Solomon and not be vvise of Aristides and not be just But yet they have the power of an object vvhich is to present themselves to our very eye to dart light even in our faces to pierce the very inwards of our hearts to besiege and beleaguer us to beseech and persuade us and prevaile they will if vve stand not out vvilfully and fight against them What power vvhat commanding eloquence is there in them Hovv are vve able to stand out against those everlasting burnings Why should not God's mercy be more prevalent then any injury Why should not his example have more force then a temptation Why should not Reason be a better oratour then Sense Why should not Christ's Mercy bring forth my Love and his Death my Mortification For as S. Peter telleth us that the long-suffering of God is repentance because indeed it should produce no other effect so might I as properly say God's readiness to forgive is our mercy and charity to our brother because it is profered for this end Nor is it of less power and energy because through our default it vvorketh no such effect If the earth be as brass shall vve say the devv of heaven hath no virtue If we put out our eyes shall we say the Sun doth not shine Because we make God's Mercy but as a shadow to cover us shall we also count it no more then a Type which signifieth much but worketh nothing at all That it may therefore have its proper effect in us we must consider what it is that hindereth its operation and what is required of us that it may work kindly in us and so bring forth that effect which is natural what is the reason why it doth not alwayes prevail and what we must perform on our parts that it may And we may plainly see that we our selves harden our faces and our hearts against it that we are busie in the works of darkness when God's Mercy shineth round about us that we have decked our selves for harlots and wooe and draw them to us whilest God's Mercy standeth at the door and knocketh and can find no admittance that we have firted our minds for those guests alone which will defile them how one piece of silver can force our hand to our brother's throat when all the commands of God cannot take us off how the glory the vanishing glory of the world is the lamp we walk by and not the everlasting word of God how our hearts are stone and can Mercy make an impression and set the image of God upon a stone Besides one great hindrance and impediment is begot within us and derived from our selves For at the very name of Mercy as at the sound of musick we lie down and rest in peace and sleep as if Mercy had no other work to do but to save us And thus we make our selves the worse for the mercies of God shut up our bowels because he openeth his make no conscience of sin because he is ready to forgive will not be rich in good works because he is bountiful of his merits as if we onely were the adequate objâ—ct of mercy even then when we return with the spoil with our feet died in the bloud of our brethren It fareth with us as with the children of rich parents we are prodigal upon presumption of supply revel licentiously upon hope of sanctuary and patronage and like Nero spend all upon the false hope of treasure Non tam malè nobiscum ageretur si non tam bene It would not have been so ill with us if it had not been so well That which should make us happy maketh us miserable We read of a Gaoler and Torment but we soon forget that and when we bear about with us malice enough to constitute a Devil we relie still on a merciful Lord. Again we are like to those Sophisters in Aristotle who to that which was first proposed would soon yield assent That God is merciful and will forgive is most plain even written with the Sun-beams but when we should apply our wills to this rule and consider this position not onely as a principle in Divinity but also as a didactical example we presently fall off hunt out tricks and evasions and are very wise to deceive our selves Whatsoever the premisses are though drawn out of the very bowels of Mercy yet flesh and bloud are very apt and ready to deny the conclusion Christ loved us Therefore we must love one another Ephes 5. it is S. Pauls Enthymeme or argument And this Petition may be resolved into the very same God forgiveth us Therefore we must forgive one another But such is our blindness and perversness that though we are willing to subscribe to the Antecedent for we would sin still and be forgiven yet we are ready in our practice to deny the Consequence We have faith enough to see the riches of the Gospel to
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
he hath put a pardon into our hands We must therefore seek out another Righteousness And we may well say we must seek it for it is well near lost in this Imputed Righteousness is that we hold by and Inherent righteousness is Popery or Pâ—lagianism We will not be what we ought because Christ will make us what we would be We will not be just that he may justifie us and we will rebell because he hath made our peace As men commonly never more forfeit their obedience then under a mild Prince But if the love of the world would suffer us to open our eyes we might then see a Law even in the Gospel and the Gospel more binding then ever the Law was Nor did Christ bring in that Righteousness by faith to thrust out this that we may do nothing that we may do any thing because Faith can work such a miracle No saith S. Paul he establisheth the Law He added to it he reformed it he enlarged it made it reach from the act to the look from the look to the thought Nor is it enough for the Christian to walk a turn with the Philosopher or to go a Sabbath-day's journey with the Jew or make such a progress in Righteousness as the Law of Moses measured out No Christ taught us a new kind of Righteousness and our burthen is not onely reserved but increased that this Righteousness may abound a Righteousness which striketh us dumb when the slanderer's mouth is open and loud against us which boundeth our desires when vanity wooeth us setteth a knife to our throat when the fruit is pleasant to the eye giveth laws to our understanding chaineth up our will when Kingdoms are laid at our feet shutteth up our eyes that we may not look upon a second woman which a Jew might have embraced calleth us out of the world whilest we are in the world and maketh us spiritual whilest we are in the flesh Justitia sincera a sincere Righteousness without mixture or sophistication and justitia integra an entire and perfect Righteousness Righteousness like to the love of our Saviour integros tradens integrum se danti a Righteousness delivering up the whole man both body and soul unto him who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world For conclusion of this point and to make some use of it Beloved this is the Object we must look on And we must use diligence and be very wary that we mistake it not that we take not that to be our Juno which is but a cloud that to be Righteousness which flesh and bloud our present occasions our present necessities our unruly lusts and desires may set up and call by that name This is the great and dangerous errour in which many Christians are swallowed up and perish not to take Righteousness in its full extent and compass in that form and shape in which it is tendered and so fulfil all righteousness but to contract and shrink it up to leave it in its fairest parts and offices and to vvork all unrighteousness and then make boast of its name And thus the number of the Righteous may be great the Goats more then the Sheep the gate vvide and open that leadeth unto the Kingdom of God Thus the Hypocrite vvho doth but act a part is righteous the Zelote vvho setteth all on fire is righteous the Schismatick vvho teareth the seamless coat of Christ is righteous he whose hands yet reek vvith the bloud of his brethren is righteous righteous Pharisees righteous Incendiaries righteous Schismaticks righteous Traitours and Murtherers not Abel but Cain the righteous All are righteous For this hath been the custom of vvicked men to bid defiance to Righteousness and then comfort themselves with her name We vvill not mention the Righteousness of the heathen For they being utterly devoid of the true knowledge of Christ it might perhaps diminish the number of their stripes but could not adde one hair to their stature or raise them nearer to the Kingdom of God Nor will we speak of the Righteousness of the Jew For they vvere in bondage under the Elements of the world nor could the Lavv make any of them perfect We Christians on vvhom the Sun of Righteousness hath clearly shined depend too much upon an Imputed Righteousness An imputed Righteousness why that is all It is so and will lift us up unto happiness if we adde our own not as a supplement but as a necessary requisite not to seal our pardon for that it cannot do but to further our admittance For we never read that the Spirit did seal an unrighteous person that continued in his sin to the day of his redemption No Imputed Righteousness must be the motive to work in us inherent Righteousness and God will pardon us in Christ is a strong argument to infer this conclusion Therefore we must do his will in Christ. For Pardon bringeth greater obligation then a law Christ dyed for us is enough to win Judas himself those that betray him and those that crucifie him to repentance The death of Christ is verbum visibile saith Clement a visible word For in the death of Christ are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Righteousness If you look upon his Cross and see the inscription JESUS OF NAZERETH KING OF THE JEWS you cannot miss of another HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE LORD There hung his sacred body and there hung all those bracelets and ornaments as Solomon calleth them those glorious examples of all vertues There hung the most true and most exact pictures of Patience and Obedience and unparallel'd Love And if we take them not out and draw them in our selves imputed Righteousness will not help us or rather it will not be imputed What Righteousness imputed to a man of Belial Christ's Love imputed to him that hateth him his Patience to a revenger his Truth to the fraudulent his Obedience to the traitour his Mercy to the cruel his Innocency to the murtherer his Purity to the unclean his Doing all things well to those who do all things ill God forbid No let us not deceive our selves Let us not sleep in sin and then please our selves with a pleasant dream of Righteousness which is but a suggestion of the enemy whose art it is to settle that in the phansie which should be rooted in the heart and to lead us to the pit of destruction full of those thoughts which lift us up as high as heaven Assumed names false pretences forced thoughts these are the pillars which uphold his kingdom and subvert all Righteousness Vera justitia hoc habet omnia in se vertit True Righteousness complieth with nothing that is contrary or diverse from it It will not comply with the Pharisee and make his seeming a reality it will not comply with the Schismatick and make his pride humility it will not comply with the prosperous Traitour and make him a Father of his
that which is plain and evident in the open and bright way of Righteousness the conscience never did never can err Did ever any mans conscience persuade him against a manifest law Did reason ever tell any Thou mayest kill Thou mayest be perjured Thou mayest bear false witness No It is not conscience but the love of this world that maketh a negative precept affirmative That is the Tribune that setteth us at liberty and letteth us loose against the Law it self though it be written with the Sun-beams before which we draw a cloud of excuses or pretences and fight against Righteousness with its name From the corruptions of mens lives have corruptions crept into Religion which carry with them a near likeness and resemblance to those lusts and desires which are mighty and prevalent in us to carry us with a swindge into those enormities and irregularities which Righteousness forbiddeth Vt in vita sic in causis spes improbas habemus saith Quintilian Those unlawfal hopes and foul affections which sway us in our lives appear again and shew themselves as full of power to pervert and mislead us in point of doctrine and for a while to take all scruple from the conscience Conscience may err and persuade me that is Superstition which is indeed Devotion But when I raise my own house upon the ruines of God's house it is not Conscience but Covetousness that is the architect Conscience may incite me to redeem my brother from errour when he is as free as the truth can make him But it is the love of the world that is the persecutour which strippeth him of his possessions For if he were guilty yet a tender conscience would shrink at such an intrusion Conscience may check at the gold of the Temple but it is the love of these things which putteth it into the bag Conscience not well informed may startle at the one but it would run from the other did not the love of the world draw it back and lay it asleep with the musick it maketh But it will awake again if not with a pinch from a tedious disease or some other calamity yet most certainly at the sound of the last trump and be that worm which shall gnaw the dreamer for ever Let us not deceive our selves The Kingdom of God and his Righteousness were the alone desirable object and first to be sought after before that faction and schism did rend divide the Church before it mouldred into sects and crumbled into conventicles before the Pope King'd it and the Disciplinarian Pope'd it in the house of God beating their fellow-servants not for being unrighteous but for not being righteous after their form and prescript for not setting their Religion to their mode and fashion For when men did look and like and delight in the things of this world then was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this First blotted out and Righteousness left behind and in the place thereof succeeded Ceremony Formality Superstition Faction then Godliness was gain and private interest conscience then that divided voice was heard Lo here is Christ and there is Christ here in this Congregation or there in that Conventicle here in this government or there in that or here in no government here in this secret chamber and there in that desart in that wilderness of beasts of Tygers and Bears which bite and devour each other Then did men lye down and sleep on those heaps which they had gathered in the name of Righteousness then did they batten in their wealth then did they bless and say an Ave an Hail to themselves as highly favoured then did they flatter themselves when this golden showr fell into their laps as if Righteousness had poured it down and God himself were in it Then injustice was counted Righteousness faction Zeal and humane policy Religion This mischief this ruine hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 want of method beginning where we should end wrought amongst Christians and made our very name to be lothed of those who are without the Turk and the Jew who can say no worse of us then this and think that this they may say truly That we follow Christ to gain the world and give Righteousness the fairest title but the lowest place Pudet hoec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli And is it not a shame for us that this may be said and said truly that Christianity should be thus scorned and blasphemed for their sakes who profess it For conclusion then Let us not think our selves wiser then Wisdom it self let us not count our selves better Methodists then our Saviour but let us keep the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where it should be and where Christ hath placed it on Righteousness Let us observe exactly in our spiritual building what Vitruvius requireth in Architecture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 order and disposition that in our Religion there may be nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-placed Why should Righteousness come after these things and God after Mammon There is not there canâ—t be a greater absurdity a greater solecism then this an absurdity which maketh men and Angels and God himself ashamed of us a thriftless destructive absurdity which maketh us poorer by making us rich more vile by making us honourable and which â—hen we think it lifteth us up tumbleth us down into the lowest pit For as the School-man telleth us to follow too much the sway of our sensuality and to neglect the direction of Reason which is the best methodist tam sensualitatem quà m rationem extinguit doth not onely put out the eye of our reasonable part and leave that dark but at last extinguisheth the very power of sense it self so our devotion and desires if they waste and consume themselves where they should not shew themselves if vve place them on these things on temporal and not spiritual or on temporal before spiritual they never fly to the mark but miss of both they neither fill our hands with plenty nor our souls with that spiritual Manna which should nourish us to eternal life or if they do come home and reach these things they serve us to no other purpose then the Tyrant's daggers of silver and ropes of silk ut cariùs pereamus that we may fall and perish with more state and cost and pomp then other men But Christ's method is de schola coeli from heaven heavenly and will lead us thither through poverty and riches through honour and dishonour and never fail In a word Righteousness if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first in our desires if it have the upper room and a throne in our heart bringeth with it both the promises of this life and that which is to come and will make us happy here in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgment it will open the gates of heaven and let us in to that happiness
to Death should be to us as the strait and narrow way and that onely broad and easie which leadeth to life in a word that we should sow so sparingly in the one and so plentifully in the other so cheerfully in the one and so grudgingly in the other when the harvests are so different when the one shall bring us full sheaves of Comfort the other yield us nothing but Corruption and that Corruption which is worse then Nothing And so I pass from the Labour of the wicked in sowing to their Harvest I would not call it so but something it is they shall receive answerable to their labour For whatsoever a man sâ—wes that shall he also reap James 1.15 The Seed is sowen Lust hath conceived and brought it forth and with it brought forth Death something answerable to it Generat mortem It begetteth Death as a mother bringeth forth a child like unto her self And what more natural and more congruous then that a Mock should beget a Mock and Laughter Scorn and Neglect Anger and Sin Death If you set at naught all my counsel I also will laugh at your calamity Prov. 1.25 saith the Wisdom of God If you forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15.2 saith Azariah If you will walk contrary to me Lev. 26.27 28. I will walk contrary to you also in fury saith God by Moses If they stand out with him Jer. 44.11 he will set his face against them Such a reciprocation there is between the Seed and the Harvest between Sin and Punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher as in all contracts there is a giving and receiving He that receiveth by theft dat poenas That is the phrase must give punishment Ipse te subdidisti poena It is the stile of the Imperial Law You have sinned and brought your self under punishment you have sinned and must pay for it He that tasts the lips of the Harlot must feel the biting of the Cockatrice He that eateth stolne bread shall find it gravel in his mouth to break his teeth It was suavis sweet it will in the end be lapidosus as Seneca renders it stony bread Pride goeth before Destruction Prov. 16.18 saith Solomon goeth before it and ushereth it in The wages of sin is Death saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a metaphor taken from war which is a kind servitude for which they received diarium bread every day so that Punishment is the Sinners allotted daily bread The Latine word is merces Wages as due to the Sinner as Hire is to the Labouror and follows as naturally as Harvest doth the Seed-time Sin and Punishment are bound up as it were in the same volume in the beginning Sin in the close Punishment as the Seed-time and the Harvest are in the compass of the same year Nay Sin carries Punishment in its very womb and can be delivered of nothing else So that when the sinner is punished that is but done which in a manner is done already The Hebrew Doctours say Molitur farina molita That corn is ground which was ground before a dead lion is killed and a burning torch is put to the city which is on fire already And if we observe it the metaphor of Sowing doth speak so much For the Seed-time is but a kind of prophesie or rather an exspectation of the Harvest The husbandman is said exspectare annum to exspect the year in proximum annum dives rich upon the next year For he that plows 1 Cor. 9.10 plows in hope saith S. Paul and he that sows sows in hope The Seed lies in the womb of the Earth and Sin in the womb of Time and yet a little while and the harvest will come Onely the one is more certain then the other and here the metaphor will not hold For he that sows corn doth not alwayes reap The heavens may be as brass and the earth as iron Terra eunucha as one speaks the earth may be barren and not bring forth But he that sows to the flesh shall certainly reap corruption He smote the people in his wrath and none hindreth Isa 14.6 some time there is indeed between the Stripe and the Punishment but what is some time to eternity For as sinners mock God so God may seem in a manner to mock their security with his delay admonendi dissimulatione decipere not to favour them so much as to be angry with them as to give them any warning to use the same method in punishing which they do in sinning They defer their repentance and God deferreth his punishment They say Tush he doth not see and he is as still and silent as if he did not see indeed They are stubborn in their ways and he prepares his deadly weapons Cum perversis perversè ages saith the Prophet David by a kind of a Catachristical metaphor With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward or perverse and obstinate as they He will deal with them by law of Retaliation that there shall be a kind of analogy and proportion of conveniency and likeness between the fact and the punishment that is their wayes were crooked though they seemed strait so the punishment which he inflicts shall be just though it seem perverse as being of another hue and colour from his behaviour to them in the time of their ruff and jollity that as they once judged their actions good because they felt no smart so now they shall know them to be evil by the smart which they shall feel and find what seed they sowed by the harvest which they shall reap And in this is seen first the Justice and secondly the Providence of God For first though God delight not in the death of a sinner though he made not Hell for Men nor Men for Hell yet he is delighted in his own Justice according to which punishment is due to sinners For is it not just that he that sows should reap I say God is delighted in his Justice He cloths himself with it as with a garment as with a robe of honour is clad with Zeal as with a cloak he puts it on as an helmet of salvation upon his head he rowseth himself up as a mighty man he cries out Ah I will be avenged of my enemies Though the pillars of the earth shake and the world be burnt with fire and the Heavens gathered together as a scroll yet Gods Justice is as eternal as himself and stands fast for evermore Dives's wealth cannot bribe it Tertullians's eloquence cannot charm it Herods glory cannot bow it all the power and wealth and eloquence of the world cannot move it but it is levelled at Sin and through all these sends its arrow to it as to a mark And neither God nor Man deny but that it is just saith Plato that he that sins should be punished that he that sows should reap Secondly here is manifestly seen God's Providence which brings Sin
there been no Sin there had been no Hell at all And therefore as it resembles it so it tends to it as naturally as a Stone doth to the centre Against the righteous the gates of Hell will not open but they are never shut to the wicked ever ready to receive him and take him in as his due and portion For again is it not fit that they who have made an agreement with it that with their words and works have called it to them that have studied and laboured for it all their life long that have made it their business that have broke their sleep for it that have had it in their will and desire should at last be thrown into that place which they have chosen and which they have made such hast to all the daies of their life Is it not fit that what they sow that they should also reap You will say This is impossible impossible that any man should will it should desire it should be ambitious of that place of horrour and count it a preferment But beloved as much as it may be this is the case and condition of every obstinate and unrepenting sinner For he that counts Sin a preferment must count Punishment a preferment too which can no more be separated from Sin then Poyson from a Serpent When thou first sinnest thou bowest towards Hell when thou goest on in thy sin thou runnest to destruction and to die and to be in Hell are the same period and term of thy motion Prov. 8.36 When thou lovest Sin thou lovest Death When thou drawest in Sin as the Oxe doth water thou drawest in the flames of Hell When thou thinkest thy self in Paradise thou art falling into the pit of Hell The Philosopher gives the reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning is from thy self if therefore the end is from thy self the cause is from thy self and therefore the effect is from thy self For will any man say that the Glutton is sick the Wanton rotten the Sluggard poor against his will when they greedily do those things which naturally bring along with them Sickness Rottenness and Poverty Will you say he had a mischance that wilfully leapt into the Sea We will Death we love Death nay further yet exsultamus rebus pessimis we rejoyce to do evil Prov. 2.14 We are in an exstasie transported beyond our selves in our third heaven as S. Paul was in his we talk of it we dream of it we sweat for it we fight for it we travell for it we embrace it we have a kind of exsultation and jubilee in Sin And what is this but to hoyse up our sails and make forward towards the gulf of Destruction and the bottomless pit So that to conclude this by the Justice of God by the Providence of God by our own Wills as by so many winds by the tempest of our Passions as well as that of Gods Wrath we are driven to our end to the place prepared and fitted for the Devil and his Angels and for all those who have loved their tentations and embraced them with more affection then they have the oracles of God For if we thus deceive our selves and mock God God will mock us to our own place Still it is What a man soweth that shall he also reap We will but look back and so hasten to our journeys end adde one word of application and so conclude And 1. that we be not deceived let us as S. Augustine exhorts operam dare rationi let us therefore diligently observe the dictates of Reason and be attentive to the Spirit speaking in the Scripture not neglect the light of the one nor quench the heat of the other The Scripture cannot deceive us but when we are willing to deceive our selves When we are averse from that it bids us love and place our love where it commands our hatred then we are not interpreters but fathers of the Word as he spake of Origine and put what shape and sense we please upon it Nor can we urge the obscurity of the Text especially in agendis in matters of practice for I never thought it a matter of wit and subtilty to become a Christian And if we weigh the plainness and easiness of Scripture and the time and leisure which most have but mispend upon their lusts and the world I might bespeak them as Chrysostome bespake his auditory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What need have you of a preacher For why should our Wit serve us rather to make us rich then good Why may we not try out as many conclusions for saving Knowledge as we do for Riches and Honour and the things of this world 2. Let us not seek death in the errour of our lives Let us not plunge our selves in errour and then study to believe that which we cannot believe without fear and trembling Let us not present God unto us in a strange and aliene shape in that monstrosity which we affect and so make him like unto our selves Quid tibi cum Deo si tuis legibus What hast thou do with God if thou wilt be thy own Lawgiver and wilt live and be judged by no other Laws but those which thy self makest This is indeed to take the place of God whilst we give him but the name Oh beloved it is ill trying conclusions with him who tryeth both the heart and the reins From him no cloud can shadow us no deep can cover us no secret grot or cave can hide us And if we act by our own laws yet we shall be judged by his And what paint soever we put upon our sins he that numbreth the stars will number them all and call them by their right names What we call Religion shall be with him Profaneness What we call Faith with him shall be but Phansie What we call the Cause of God shall be the cause of our Damnation Quantas cuncque tenebras superfuderis Deus lumen est Cast what mists you will build what labyrinths you please God is Light and will find out thy Sin that monster that Minotaur Be not deceived God is not mocked but is rather more jealous of his Wisdome then of his Power At the very sight of Sin his Anger waxeth hot but when vve vvould hide our sin from his sight his Jealousie burneth like fire For he that sinâ—eth dallieth with God's Power but he that palliateth his sin playeth with his Wisdome and tryeth whether he can fraudulently circumvent and abuse him He who sinneth would be stronger then God but he who shifteth a sin into the habit of Holiness by a pretense would be wiser then God potior Jupiter quà m ipse Jupiter Then vvhich no impiety can be greater 3. And last of all let us remember the end When vve sow look forward toward the Harvest Say vve vvithin our selves What may this vvhich I now sow bring forth Will Light grow up here and Joy or shall I reap nothing but Darkness and Corruption
Murderer with his sword in his Hand the Sacrilegious person with his axes and hammers should he come and find thee chipping and commixting his coyn abusing his Comforts should he come and find thee drawing him on to countenance those sins which he first came to destroy Shall he come and find thee more hypocrite then the Pharisees that opposed him more bloudy then the Jews that crucified him Shall he come and see thee not casting out Devils but doing their works in his name Can there be any ccmfort now to hear the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God Can there be comfort in that fire which shall devour before him or in that Tempest which shall be round about him Hilary mistook that place of David My soul breaketh for the desire it hath to thy judgements alwayes yet his sense is good Non desiderat judicium David sed ut desideret concupiscit David doth not here desire that the day of judgement should come but his desire is that his innocency may so qualifie him that he may safely desire it He doth not so much comfort himself that it will come as he longs to be prepared that it may come with comfort That these words then that all the comforts of the Gospel which are upheld by this of the coming of the Lord may prove comfortable and physical we must use them as physick be very wary in applying them We talk much of Applying the promises and comforts of the Gospel and I should not much mislike the phrase if either men understood what they said or did not so dangerously abuse it But how easie is it to bring that to us by our phansie which will never come near us how easie to apply that which will not fit us May not a beggar phansie himself into the royal apparel of a King Phansie makes Saints every day more then the Truth doth and yet Heaven is never a whit the fuller Men may think they have a place there may say they are assured of it who if they shake not off their presumption and fall down in all the Humility of repentance will never come there The Truth is If we perform the condition the promises and comforts will apply themselves and be made good unto us If we be righteous God will not suffer us to perish if we faint he will uphold us if we be troubled he will comfort us if we beleeve comfort is at hand if we be risen with Christ here we shall leave our miseries behind us and rise with him in glory Then we may wait upon his descent with joy and make the showt and the voice of the Archangel Musick and the doctrine of his Coming cordial and comfortable to our souls we may then comfort our selves with these words which breath nothing but Majesty and Terrour to others For conclusion Let us seek Comfort in loco suo in its proper plaâ—e let us draw it out of its true fountain E coelo misericordia the seaâ— of Mercy is Heaven and from thence are all those comforts derived which refresh a weary soul labouring under the burden of misery and sorrow even from the Wisdome and Goodness and Providence and Justice of God who preserves our tears registers every groan can tell the number of our sufferings looks on and behold us stemming the waters of bitterness and strugling with injuries and will not forget the work and labour of our love Heb 6.10 Let us not seek it in the Earth that sends forth nothing but noysome vapours and corruption the region of change and uncertainty The comfort that grows there is but Herba solstitialis springs up and blossoms and fades and all in the twinckling of an eye Let us not dig for it in the Minerals seek for it in the Riches and Glory of the world for they have wings and all the comfort they bring flies away faster than they When our Sins shall compass us about when our Conscience shall pursue us and Death come towards us when we bear about with us the sharp rebukes of the one and fear the terrours of the other it will yield us but small comfort to sit down and think that we are rich Let us not place it in Hopes in hopes that our misery will end for this is rather to delude then comfort our selves Hope sees afar off not that which is but that which may be and most times falls off from the object whilest it looks on it as it is in the picture of a Battel not a stroke strook nothing gained What redemption is that which is made in a thought let us not seek it in the bowels of our Enemies and wish them out for what will it profit us to see them spoyled who spoyled us them destroyed who destroyed us This is but the comfort of Devils and will but torment us more as it doth them They would bring others to the same condemnation and are deeper in themselves But let us seek for it in the bowels of that Lamb which took away the sins of the world in the bowels and mercy of a God of consolation Let us wait upon his Justice his Wisdom his Providence with patience till our appointed time shall come and if in our span of time it come not yet this is comfort enough that our redemption draweth very near and that comfort will come when there will be no span no measure of time when Time shall be no more Here if we fix our hope it will be spes viva a living substantial hope but if we fix it not here it will be but a faint representation of comfort that will pass away like a shadow and be no more Here then let us build it up let us lay it upon this foundation upon the Apostles and Prophets the word of God Jesus Christ himself being the Head corner-stone who shall descend and come again male judicata rejudicaturus who shall reverse every false sentence and condemn the Judge that gave it and manifest his Justice and Providence in setting all at rights in the punishment of the triumphant sinner and the exaltation of the innocent who is trod under feet in changing the scene and face of things and shewing Dives in Hell and Lazarus in Abrahams bosom Here we may find physick for every disease and comforts for all maladies Here the sick may find a bed the feeble a staff the hungry bread the prisoner liberty Here the disconsolate may find what the Philosopher professed but could not teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an art to forget all grief With these words well understood and well applied we may bathe our selves in our tears we may feed our selves with hunger cloth our selves with nakedness and make our selves rich with nothing we may descant on our misery and make each sigh and grone Musical With these words we may comfort one another the rich may comfort the poor that he shall want nothing and the poor the rich that he shall
with admiration then it speaketh nay it cryeth unto the Lord. When S. Paul was caught up into paradise and heard those unspeakable words which he could not utter his admiration supplyed that defect and was as the lifting up of his voice unto God For what is a Miracle if it be not wondered at Or is it fit a Miracle should pass by us as a shadow unregarded Is it fit that that which was done for us men and for our salvation should not move us so much as those common things which are done before our eyes every day that we should be little affected with that Gospel which was thus confirmed by signs and wonders that nothing should be wonderful in our eyes but that which is not worth a thought For what is that we wonder at Even that from which we should wean our affection we wonder at those things in the pursuit of which we our selves become monsters We wonder at Wealth and are as greedy as the Horseleach We wonder at Beauty and become worse then the beasts that perish We wonder at Honour and are those Chamelions that live on air We have mens persons in admiration Jude 16. and make our selves their Horse or Mule which they may ride at pleasure We wonder at Power and become stocks or stones and have no more motion of our own then they These appear to us in glory these dart their beams upon us and we are struck with admiration But mirabilia legis the wonderful things of the Law the wonderful things of the Gospel we scarce open our eyes to behold them and but faintly desire God to do it for us His wonderful counsel in sending his Son we do but talk of The mystery of our Redemption is hidden still God's eternal will that is our sanctification we scarce spare an hour to think on his precepts are not in so much esteem as the statutes of Omâ—i What a glorious spectacle is a clod of earth and what a Nothing is Heaven Behold these are the wonderful things of Christ To unite God and Man to tye them together by a new covenant to raise dust and ashes to heaven this is a great miracle indeed To draw so many nations and people to the obedience of faith to convert rich men by poor learned men by illiterate and by those whom they persecuted and put to death so that they brought in their riches and honours and usual delights and laid them down as it were at the feet of those poor instructers whom they counted as the off-scouring of the world To make not onely his Precepts but the Meekness the Patience the Silence the very Death of his Professors as so many Apostles and Messengers to win them to the faith this if we did truly consider and weigh as we should would busie and intend our thoughts and raise and improve them into that amazement and admiration which would joyn us to that innumerable company of just men and make us of the number of those who shall be saved Many things saith Hillary Christ hath done for the sons of men the blessed effect of which is open as the day though the cause be bid and where Nature comes short Faith steps forward and reacheth home In his quoque quae ignoro non nescio Even in those which my understanding is too narrow to receive I am not utterly ignorant but walk by faith and admire that vvhich my good Master doth and yet vvill not let me know It is no miracle no mystery at all vvhich deserveth not admiration Secondly by her lifting up her voice and blessing the womb that bare Christ vvhich vvas a kind of adoration for Admiration had not so shut up her devotion and love but that it vvas vocal and reverent vve are taught to magnifie our Saviour vvith the Tongue and Hand and Knee and every member vve have as David speaketh For these also have their voice and vve may confess Christ not onely vvith the tongue but vvith our adorations and genuflexions and those outward expressions vvhich are equivalent to it Auditur philosophus dum videtur Though he hold his peace yet the Philosophers very gesture is a lecture of morality Therefore where we read that Man was made a living soul Gen. 2.7 the Chaldee renders it factus est in spiritum loquentem He was made a speaking soul to speak the praises of his Maker with every faculty and part he hath For as God made both Body and Soul so he requires both the inward devotion of the one and the outward expressions of the other a Soul saith Isidore which may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by its operative devotion call down God from heaven and in her self frame the resemblance of his presence and a Body which may make that devotion and love visible to the very eye It is S. Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5. â—3 that God would sanctifie them wholly that the soul and body may be blameless in the day of the Lord that Holiness might be as an impression which from the soul might work upon the body and give force and motion to the whole man This is to sanctifie them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in part but all of them not to sprinkle but to baptize them with holiness Profanus and non integer are the same in Tertullian and it is profaneness not to give God all Athanasius makes the Soul as a Musician and the Body which consists of the Tongue and other members as a Harp or Lute which she may tune and touch till it yield a celestial harmony a song composed of divers parts of Spirit and Flesh of Soul and Body of every faculty of the soul and every part of the body must accord with the elevation of the soul Certainly a sweet note But then the lifting up of the voice mends it and makes it far more pleasant An ejaculation from the Soul yea and the sound thereof from the Tongue and Hands and Knees a holy Thought yea and a zealous and reverent depottment these make a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks perfect and complete Otherwise as the Poet spake of the beggar half wrotten and consumed he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an half-strung and half-tuned instrument Look back unto former and purer times and you shall see Devotion visible in every gesture in their Walking in their sitting in their Bowing in their Standing up you shall hear it in their Hymns and Psalms in their Hallelujahs and Amens which were saith Hierome as the voice of many waters or as a clap of thunder You shall hear the Priest blessing the people and the people echoing it back again unto the Priest the Priests praying and the people answering the Priests which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Antiphones or Responsals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us stand decently They did spake it and they did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us stand with the
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
not onely placeth us upon but as Solomon speaks makes us an everlasting foundation by raising up in us a good conscience And this it doth as necessarily as fire sendeth forth heat or the Sun light For it is impossible to love God sincerely and not to know it and it is as impossible to know it and not to speak it to our own heart and comfort our selves in it For Conscience follows Science A light it is which directs us in the course of our obedience and when we have finished our course by the Memory it is reflected back upon us It tells us what we are to do and what we have done We have a kind of short but useful Genealogy in S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned From Faith unfeigned ariseth a good Conscience from that the Purity of the inward man from that that Peace which maketh us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace A golden chain where every link fits us in some degree for a dissolution nay where every link is unseparably annexed to each other and with it we cannot but tend naturally and cheerfully yea and hasten to our place of rest For our Conscience is our Judge our God upon earth And if it be of this royal extraction the product of our Faith and Obedience it will judge aright it will draw the Euge to us and tell us what sentence the Judge will pass at the last day and we even now hear in our ears Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy masters joy And when our Conscience hath past this sentence upon us we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God This this is an everlasting foundation and upon it we build as high as Heaven Our thoughts and desires our longings and pantings soar up even to that which is within the vail which is yet hidden and we are earnest to look into Let us then exercise our selves to have alwaies a conscience void of offense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word intimates the clearness of a way where no spy can discover any thing amiss For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas is speculator explorator a Scout a Spy So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a conscience clear and free from offense The want of this makes Death a King of terrours and puts more horrour in the Grave then it hath When Death comes towards wicked men on his pale horse it comes as a Serjeant to arrest them to put them out of possession of that which they had taken up as their habitation for ever to banish them out of the world which they made their paradise and to let them into eternity of torment If we love the world how can the love of God abide in us We plead for titles saith a learned Gentleman of our own who had large experience of the vanity and deceitfulness of the world and was exemplum utriusque fortunae an example of both fortunes good and evil We plead for titles till our breath fails us we dig for riches whilst strength enables us we exercise malice whilst we can revenge and then when Age hath beaten from us both youth and pleasure and health it s lf and Nature it self loatheth the House of old Age we then remember when our memory begins to fail that we must go the way from whence we must not return and that our bed is made ready for us in the grave At last looking too late into the bottom of our conscience which the Vanities of the world had lockt up from us all our lives we behold the fearful image of our actions past and withal this terrible inscription THAT GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JVDGMENT Thus he And this our vvay uttereth our foolishness in increasing the fear of Death and Judgment by striving to chase it away never thinking of Deaths sting till vve feel it putting by all sad and melancholy thoughts in our way till they meet us again vvith more horrour at our journeys end This is it which makes Death vvhich is but a messenger a King yea a King of terrours We can neither live nor are vvilling to dye vvith such a conscience vvhereas had vve learnt as Seneca speaks and studieâ— Death had vve not fed and supplyed this enemy with such vveapons a make him terrible had we cut from him now this now that desire an anon another for Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fights against us with our selves vvith our Wantonness and Luxury and Pride and Covetousness haâ— vve spoiled him of those things vvhich make Death terrible and the Dâ—â—vil our accuser vve might have boldly met him nay desired to meet him For vvhy should they fear Death vvho may present themselves vvith comâ—fort before God and shall meet Christ himself in all his glory coming iâ— the clouds To conclude Death shall be to them vvho love God and keep a good conscience a messenger of peace a gentle dismission into a better vvorld an Ostiary to let us in to the presence of God vvhere there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Our Apostle here calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a departing or dissolution To vvhich vve should lead you but vve cannot now so fully speak of it as vve vvould and as the matter requires vve will therefore reserve it for some other time The Seven and Thirtieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 1. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. THat which the Philosopher telleth us in the first of his Ethicks that we must not look for that certainty in Moral Philosophy which we do in the Mathematicks is most true And the reason is as plain For the Mathematician separateth and abstracteth the forms and essences of things from all sensible matter And these forms are of that nature for the most part that they admit not of the interposition of any thing Inter rectum curvum nihil est medium Between that which is straight and that which is crooked there is no medium at all for there is no line which is not either straight or crooked But in Morality and in the duties of our life the least circumstance varieth and altereth the matter and the forms there handled have something which cometh between so that there is an inclination which draweth us near sometimes to the right hand sometimes to the left sometimes to one extreme sometimes to another And in respect of this variety of circumstances it is that the Philosopher telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a hard matter many times to make our choice or in our judgment to prefer one thing before another Therefore they who have given us precepts of good life have also delivered us rules to guid us in this variety of circumstances that we swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left For as in artificial works the
them nay the very same the Faith that must qualifie and prepare us for Christ's second coming must be like his coming full of glory and power must shake the powers of the Grave must awake those that sleep must demolish Sin must make us like unto Christ not onely in his passion but also in his rising from the dead must be to us as the trump of God to call us out of our graves not fides inermis a weak and unarmed faith which hath neither buckler nor sword which can neither defend nor strike a stroke but is well content to stand by and see our Saviour fight it out but fides pugnax a faith armed against the day of trial that can fight it out against principalities and powers and against all the fearful signs which shall be set up and fides vincens a faith that overcometh the world and the love of the world and fides triumphans a faith that every day triumpheth over Sin and the Devil maketh a shew of them openly and manifesteth it self to God to Angels to men This Faith hath a clear and strong eye and can look upon these terrible signs By this faith Christ doth dwell in our hearts and if Christ dwell there Ephes 3.17 he bringeth with him courage and resolution How fit is he to behold the Sun darkned who hath this light in him to see the falling of the Stars who hath this bright Morning-star fixed in his heart And what if the world end if he be with him who is the Begining and the End This Faith will make us fit to behold any object will settle us in the knowledge of the providence of God of which we had before but certain confused notions little better then dreams This Faith is like the Emperour 's large Emerald in which he beheld wars and ruine slaughter and desolation whose colour tempered the object and made it appear less terrible then it was This Faith heareth a voice from heaven speaking to the whole host and army of calamities to all these fearful signs which shall usher in the end of the world as David did concerning Absalom Do the young man no harm Do my anointed my peculiar people no harm In a word this Faith will stay with us will wait and attend us in the midst of all this tumult and confusion And when the powers of heaven are shaken and the elements melt with fire and the world is ready to be dissolved it will bring us good news of help at hand Fear you not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. For this Faith alwaies bringeth with it Repentance which is another end why we are called upon to behold these things For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that long-suffering of God's which calleth us to repentance improveth and increaseth the means as we increase our hardness The more heavy our sleep is in sin the more noise and stir God maketh to awake us After we have spent our estate amongst harlots and fed with swine yet if we return he will receive us If we will not behold and consider him when he shineth upon our tabernacles yet if we fall down before him when these signs appear when he cometh with a tempest round about him then he will receive us When the world regardeth us not when it frowneth upon us when it is ready to be dissolved yet if we return he will receive us In wars and rumours of wars when the Sun is darkened and the Moon turned into bloud yet if we return he will receive us Never was the world so full of wickedness as in this last age of it for as our forefathers went before us in time so do we before them in iniquity And therefore were there never greater means to reclaim it So that this time of judgement is a time of mercy wherein Mercy even whilest Justice holdeth up the sword whilest she is striking spreadeth her wing and waiteth till we come under the shadow of it And these signs if we will behold them as we should and make them so may be signs of the dissolution of the body of Sin as vvell as of the frame of the Universe For the long-suffering of God is repentance saith S. Peter and will bring forth the fruits of it if it be not abused and hindered And the destruction of a sinner is never so absolutely decreed by God but that there is still hope of recovery even then when his foot is upon the very brink of death and desolation Let him then pull back and return to his God and he shall find that with him there is mercy and plentiful redemption Behold I have told you before And I have told you that you may behold and consider it that you may excutere veternum awake from that sleep in which security and self-love have lulled you that you may quicken your faith and perfect and complete your repentance and so be signed with these signs that the Spirit may sign and seale you to the day of redemption And this is the compasse of the Ecce And in this compasse we may walk and behold these signes behold them with a watchful eye with a believing eye with a repentant eye washing off all their malignity with tears These are the several rayes of consideration And if we thus behold these signs we shall be also fitted and prepared to meet Christ at his second coming Being thus qualified we shall look upon all the ill-boding calamities in the world which appear unto us in a shape of terrour as upon so many John Baptists telling us that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand we shall-look upon Death when he cometh towards us on his pale horse and not fear him we shall look upon the Son of man when he cometh towards us with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and it shall be as musick to us For he hath promised that where he is we shall be also and he hath made death and these signes and the dissolution of the world it self a promise For if we should not dye if the world should not be dissolved we could not enjoy the promise But when these signs shall usher him in when he shall come again then shall he free us from the yoke and harrow from oppression and tyranny Then the meek shall be higher then the proud and Lazarus richer then Dives Then that bloudy hypocrite which called himself a Saint shall have his portion with the Devil and his Angels and the innocent the despised condemned innocent shall look up and lift up his head Then though the heavens be shaken he shall stand fast as Mount Sion though the sea roar he shall be at peace though the Stars fall his heart shall be fixed Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae And when the Son of man shall come in the clouds he shall be ready to meet him and when the heavens shall be gathered
omnem which undergoeth the shock of the whole war observeth the enemy in all his stratagems wiles and enterprises meeteth and encountereth him in all his assaults meeteth him as a Serpent and is not taken with with his flattery meeteth him as Lion and is not dismayed at his roarring but keepeth and guideth us in an even and constant course in the midst of all his noise and allurements and so bringeth us though shaken and weather-beaten unto our end to the haven of rest where we would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience Quid enim malum nisi impatientia boni saith Tertullian For what is Evil but an impatience of that which is good What is Vice but an impatience of vertue Pride will not suffer us to be brought low Covetousness will not suffer us to open our hand Intemperance will not suffer us to put our knife to our throat The Love of the world is impatient of God himself His Word is a sword and his commands thunderbolts At the sound of them we are afraid and go away sorrowful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience For we must run our race in a constant and uninterrupted course in an awful reverence to our Law-giver living and dying under the shadow of his wings that whether we live or die we may be the Lord's Non habitat nisi qui verè habitat say the Civilians He is not said to dwell in a place who continueth not in it And he doth not remain in the Gospel who is ready upon every change of weather upon every blast and breathing of discontent to change his seat He doth not remain in it who if the rain descend and the flouds come and the winds blow will leave and forsake it though it be a rock which will easily defend him against all these For what evil can there be against which it hath not provided an antidote what tempest will it not shroud us against Bring Principalites and Powers the Devil and all his artillery unus sufficit Christus the Gospel alone is sufficient for us And in this we see the difference between the World and the Church The world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion of the world the scene is every day changed and presenteth things in another shape But the Church is built upon a Rock Matth. 16. upon CHRIST that is upon that Faith in Christ which worketh by charity And he who is built upon this Rock who is fully persuaded that Christ is the best Master and that those duties which he teacheth are from heaven heavenly and will bring us thither is sufficiently armed against the flattery of Pleasure the lowring countenance of Disgrace the terrours of Poverty and Death it self against all wind and weather whatsoever that might move him from his place Look into the world There all things are as mutable as it self Omnia in impia fluctuant All things ebbe and flow in wicked men flie as a shadow and continue not Their Righteousness is like the morning dew Hos 13.3 dried up with the first Sun their Charity like a rock which must be strook by some Moses some Prophet and then upon a fit or pang no gushings forth but some droppings peradventure and then a dry rock again their Vows and Promises like their shadows at noon behind them their Friendship like Job's winter-brooks overflowing with words and then in summer when it is hottest in time of need quite dried up consumed out of its place their Temperance scarce holding out to the next feast nor their Chastity to the next twilight The world and the fashion of it passeth away but on the contrary the Gospel is the eternal word of God And as the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 Prov. 8.18 so his graces are durable riches opes densae firm and well compacted such as may be held against all assaults like him from whom they descend yesterday and to day and the same for ever Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfeigned Love abiding Hope an anchor He that is a true Gospeller doth remain and continue and not wander from that which is good to that which is evil is not this day a Confessor and to morrow an Apostate doth not believe to day and to morrow renounce his Creed doth not love to day and loath to morrow doth not hope to day and droop to morrow but unum hominem agit he is the same man and doth the same things assiduè aequaliter constantly and equally He remaineth not in the Gospel in a calm onely and leaveth it when the winds rise but here he will remain fixed to those principles and acting by them vvhen the Sun shineth and vvhen the storm is loudest By the Gospel he fixeth and strengthneth all his decrees and resolutions and determinations that they are ever the same and about the same now beating down one sin anon another now raising and exalting this vertue anon that If you ask him a question saith Aristides the Sophister of Numbers or Measures he vvill give you the same answer to day vvhich he vvill give you to morrow and the next day and at the last breath that he draweth In the next place if we do not remain in the Law of liberty vve do not obey it as we should For to remain in the Gospel and to be in Christ are words of stability and durance and perpetuity For vvhat being is that vvhich anon is not What stability hath that vvhich changeth every moment What durance and perpetuity hath that vvhich is but a vapour or exhalation drawn up on high to fall and stink To remain in the Gospel and to remain for ever may seem two different things but in respect of the race vve are to run in respect of our salvation they are the very same We vvill not here dispute Whether Perseverance be a vertue distinct from other graces Whether as the Angels according as some Divines teach vvhich stood after the fall of the rest had a confirming grace given them from God which now maketh them utterly uncapable of any rebellious conceit so also the saving graces of God's Spirit bring vvith them into the soul a necessary and certain preservation from final relapse For there be vvho violently maintain it and there be vvho vvith as great zele and more reason deny it To ask Whether we may totally and finally fall from the grace and favour of God is not so pertinent as it is necessary to hearken to the counsel of the Apostle and to take heed lest we fall to take heed lest we be cut off and to beware of those sins vvhich if vve commit vve cannot inherit the kingdom of God For vvhat vvill it avail if vve be to every good work reprobate to comfort our selves that vve are of the number of the elect What vvill it help us if by adultery and murther and pride
vanity or the next business will drive it away and take its place Nor let us make a room for it in our Phansie For it is an easie matter to think we are free when we are in chains Who is so wicked that he is not ready to persuade himself he is just And that false persuasion too shall go for the dictate of the Holy Ghost Paganism it self cannot shew such monsters as many of them are who call themselves Saints But let us gird up our loins and be up and doing the work those works of piety which the Gospel injoyneth It is Obedience alone that tieth us to God and maketh us free denisons of that Jerusalem which is above In it the Beauty the Liberty the Royalty the Kingdom of a Christian is visible and manifest For by it we sacrifice not our Flesh but our Will unto God and so have one and the same will with him and if we have his will we have his power also and his wisdom to accompany it and to to fulfil all that we can desire or expect Servire Deo regnare est To serve God is to reign as Kings here and will bring us to reign with him for evermore Let us then stand fast in our obedience which is our liberty against all the wiles and invasions of the enemy all those temptations which will shew themselves in power and craft to remove us from our station In a calm to steer our course is not so difficult but when the tempest beateth hard upon us not to dash against the rock will commend our skill Every man is ready to build a tabernacle for Christ when he is in his glory but not to leave him at the Cross is the glory and crown of a Christian And first let us not dare a temptation as Pliny dared the vapour at Mount Vesuvius and died for it Let us not offer and betray our selves to the Enemy For he that affecteth and loveth danger is in the ready way to be swallowed up in that gulf Valiant men saith the Philosopher are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiet and silent before the combat but in the trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready and active But audacious daring men are commonly loud and talkative before encounters but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flag and fail in them The first weigh the danger and resolve by degrees the other are peremptory and resolve suddenly and talk their resolution away It is one thing to talk of a tempest at sea another to discourse of it leaning against a wall It is one thing to dispute of pain another to feel it Grief and Anguish hath not such a sting in the Stoicks gallery as it hath on the rack For there Reason doth fight but with a shadow and a representation here with the substance it self And when things shew themselves naked as they are they stir up the affections When the Whip speaketh by its smart not by my phansie when the Fire is in my flesh not my understanding when temptations are visible and sensible then they enter the soul and the spirit then they easily shake that resolution which was so soon built and soon beat down that which was made up in haste Therefore let us not rashly thrust our selves upon them But in the second place let us arm and prepare our selves against them For Preparation is half the conquest It looketh upon them handleth and weigheth them before hand seeeth where their great strength lieth and goeth forth in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ and so maketh us more then conquerers before the sight And this is our Martyrdom in peace For the practice of a Christian in the calmest times must nothing differ in readiness and resolution from times of rage and fire As Josephus speaketh of the military exercises practised amongst the Romans that they differed from a true battel only in this that their battel was a bloudy exercise and their exercise a bloudless battel So our preparation should make us martyrs before we come to resist ad sanguinem to shed a drop of bloud To conclude as the Apostle exhorteth let us take unto us the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand to stand against the horrour of a prison against the glittering of the sword against the terrour of death to stand as expert souldiers of Christ and not to forsake our place to stand as mount Sion which cannot be moved in a word to be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed The Seven and Fortieth SERMON PART VII JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed TO Persevere or continue in the Gospel and To be blessed for ever are the two stages of a Christian the one here on earth the other in heaven and there is scarce a moment but a last breath between them nothing but a mouldering and decaying wall this tabernacle of flesh which falleth down suddenly and then we pass and enter And that we may persevere and continue means are here prescribed first assiduous Meditation in this Law we must not be forgetful hearers of it but look into it as into a glass vers 23 24. yet not as a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glass and then goeth away and forgetteth himself not as a man who looketh carelesly casteth an eye and thinketh no more of it but rather as a woman who looketh into her glass with intention of mind with a kind of curiosity and care stayeth and dwelleth upon it fitteth her attire and ornaments to her by a kind of method setteth every hair in its proper place and accurately dresseth and adorneth her self by it And sure there is more care and exactness due to the soul then to the body Secondly that we may continue and persevere we must not only hear and remember but do the work For Piety is confirmed by Practice To these we may now add a third which hath so near a relation to Practice that it is even included in it and carrried along with it And it is To be such students in Christ's School as S. Paul was Acts 24.16 To study and exercise our selves to have alwayes a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Not to triflle with our God or play the wanton with our Conscience Not to displease and wound her in one particular with a resolution to follow her in the rest Not to let our love of the world or fear of danger make that a truth which we formerly