to die because they will not Turne I will give you a remarkable instance and out of Mr. Calvin Quintinus Cont. Libertin And yet his own followers use the â—am words bring the same Lexis and Apply them as the Libertines did vide Piscat Aphorismos the Father of the Libertines as Calvin himself calls him as he rides in company by the way lights upon a man slaine and lying in his goare and one asking who did this bloody deed he readily replies I am he that did it if thou desire to know it and art thou such a Villaine saith the party againe to doe such an Act I did it not my self saith he but it was God that did it And being askt againe whether we may impute to God those hainous sinnes which in Justice he will and doth so severely punish So it is said he Thou didst it and I did it and God did it for what thou or I do God doth and what God doth that thou and I do for we are in him and he in us he worketh in us he worketh all in all Quintanus is long since dead but his error dyed not with him Fataliter constiâ—utam est quando quantâ—perè unusquisque nostrum pietatem colere vel non colere 〈◊〉 Piscator ad â—uplicat Vorstij p. 2â—8 for it is the policy of our common Enemy to remove our Eye as farre as he can from the Command and he cannot set it at a greater distance then by fixing it on Eternity that so whilst we think upon the Decree we may quite forget the Command and never fly from Death because for ought we know we are kill'd already never doe our Duty because God doth whatsoever he will in Heaven and in Earth never strive to be better then wee are because God is all in All. Let us then walk on in a middle way and neither flatter nor afflict our selves with the thought of what God may doe or what he hath done from all Eternity let us not busy our selves in the fruitlesse study of the Book of Life which no man in Heaven or in Earth is able to open and look into but only the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah Revel 5.3,5 in that Book saith Saint Basil Comment in 10. c. Isai no names are written but of them that Repent Let us not seek what God Decrees which we cannot find out but hearken to what he Commands which is nigh us even in our mouthes The Book of Life is shut and sealed up but he hath opened many other Books to us and bids us sit downe and read them The Book of his Works of which the Creatures are the leaves and the Characters the Goodnesse and Power and Glory of God and the Book of his Words the Book of the Generation of JESVS CHRIST to be known and read of all men and if these Words be written in thy Heart thy name is also written in the Book of Life And the Book of thy Conscience for the information of which all the Books in the world were made and if thou read and study this with care and diligence and an impartiall eye and then find there no Bill or Indictment against thee then thou maist have confidence towards God that he never past any Decree or Sentence of Death against thee and that thou art ordained to Life This is the true method of a Christian mans studies not to look too stedfastly backward upon Aeternity but to look down upon our selves and ponder and direct our paths and then look forward to eternity of Blisse For Conclusion we read of the Philosopher Thales that lifting up his eyes to observe the Course of the Starres he fell into the water which gave the occasion to a Damsell called Thressa of an ingenious and bitter scoffe That he who was so busy to see what was done in Heaven could not observe what was even before his feet and it is as true of them who are so bold and forward in the Contemplation of Gods Eternall Decree many times they fall dangerously into those Errours which swallow them up they are too bold with God and so negligent of themselves Talke more what he does or hath done or may doe then do what they should are so much in Heaven and to so little purpose that they lose it But the Apostles method is sure to use diligence to make our Election sure and so read the Decree in our Obedience and syncere conversation and if we can perswade our selves that our Names are written in the Book of Life yet so to behave our selves so to work on with Feare and Trembling as if it were yet to be done as it was told the Philosopher that he might have seen the figure of the Starres in the water but could not see the water in the starres All the knowledge we can gaine of the Decree is from our selves it is written in heaven and the Characters we read it by on Earth are Faith and Repentance if we beleeve and repent then God speaks to us from heaven and tells us we shall not die If we be dead to sinne and alive to Righteousnesse we are enrolled and our names are written in the book of Life here here alone is the Decree legible and if our eye faile not in the one it cannot be deceived in the other If we love Christ and keep his Commandements we are in the number of Elect and were chosen from all Eternity Be not then cast downe and dejected in thy self with what God hath done or may do by his absolute Power for thou maist build upon it He never saved an Impenitent nor will ever cast away a Repentant sinner Behold he calls to thee now by his Prophet Quare morieris Why wilt thou die didst thou ever heare from him or from any Prophet a morieris that thou shalt die or a Mortuus es that thou art dead already Thou hast his Prayers his intreaties and besseechings Expandit manus he spreads forth his hands all the day long Thou hast his wishes Oh that thou wert wise so wise as to look upon the moriemini to consider thy last end Thou hast his Covenant Deut. 23.29 which he sware to our fore-fathers Abraham and his seed for ever His Comminations his obtesTations his expostulations thou mayest read but didst thou ever read the book of life Look on the moriemini look on the deaths head in the Text look not into the book of life thou hast other care that lies upon thee thou hast other businesse to do thou hast an understanding to adorn a will to watch over affections to bridle the flesh to crucifie temptations to struggle with the devil to encounter Think then of thy duty not of the decree and the syncere performance of the duty will seal the decree and seal thee up to the day of redemption It is a good rule which Martin Luther gives us Dimitte Scripturam ubi obscura est tene ubi certa
the Apostle tells us he was Faithfull in his House 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a servant but Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a sonne smite he did the Aegyptians Heb. 3.5 and led the people like sheep through the wildernesse but he who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Captaine of our salvation as he is stiled at the 10. v. was to cope with one more terrible then Pharoah and all his Host to put a Hook into the Nostrills of that great Leviathan to lead not the people alone but Moyses himself through darknesse and death it self able to uphold and settle an Angel in his Glorious estate and to rayse Moyses from the dead Not Moyses then but one greater then Moyses not the Angels but one whom the Angels worship who could command a whole Legion of them or if a Prophet the great Prophet which was to come if an Angel the Angel of the Covenant Certe hic Deus est Ask the Divells themselves and when he lived they roard it out Ask the Centurion and they that watched him at his Death and they speak it with Feare and Trembling Truly this was the Sonne of God Christ then our Captaine is the Sonne of God but God hath divers sonnes some by Adoption and then he is made so some by Nuncupation and then he is but called so and some by Creation and then he is created so for they who rob and devest him of his Essence yet will yeild him his Title and though they deny him to be God yet will call him his Sonne We must follow then the Philosophers Method in his description of morall happinesse proceed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Negation and to establish him in his right of filiation tell you he is not a Sonne not Adoptivus filius his Adopted sonne who by some great merit of his could so dignifie himself as to deserve that Title which was the Dreame or rather Invention of Photinus Imitatur adoptio prolem Adoption is but a supply a grafting of a strange Branch into another stock but he whose name is the Branch growes up of himself of the same stock and root Deus de Deo God of God very God of very God made manifest in the flesh 2. not Nuncupativus his son by Nuncupation his Nominall sonne such a one as Sabellius and the Patro-passiani fancied as if the Father had been assimilated and so called the sonne impiously making the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost not three persons but three names Lastly not filius Creatus his Created Sonne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meere Creature and of a distiraâ—t Essence from his Father as the more riged Arians nor the most excellent Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in substance like unto the Father but not consubstantiall with him as the more moderate whom the Father 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 halfe Arians conceived To these Heretiques we reply non est Filius Dei he is not thus the sonne of God and as Aristotle tells us that his Morall happinesse is the chiefest good but not that good which the voluptuary fancieth the Epicures good nor that which ambition flyes to the Politicians good nor that which the contemplative man abstracteth an universal Notion and Idea of Good so may the Christian by the same Method consider his Saviour his chiefest blisse and happinesse and by way of Negation draw him out of these foggs and mists where the wanton and unsanctified wits of men have placed him and bring him into the bosome of his Father and fall down and worship God and man Christ Jesus Behold a voyce from Heaven spake it This is my beloved sonne we may suspect that voyce when Photinus is the Echo an Angel from Heaven said vocabitur he shall be called the sonne of the most High Our Faith starts back and will not receive it if Sabellius make the Glosse our Saviour himself speaks it Ego pater unum sumus I and the Father am one The truth it self will be corrupted if Arius be the Commentator to these we say he is not thus the Sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to contract the personality with Sabellius or to divide the Deity with Arius are blaspemies in themselves Diametritrically opposed but equally to the truth The Captaine of our salvation is the sonne of God begotten not made the brightnesse of his Father streaming from him as light from light his Image not according to his humane Nature but according to his divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image and Character not of any qualities in God but of his person the true stamp of his substance begotten as brightnesse from the light as the Character from the Type as the word from the mind which yet doe not fully declare him quis enarrabit saith the prophet who shall declare his generation And who more fit to teach us then he who came out of the bosome of God who more fit to give us laws then God himself what tongue of men or Angels can so well expresse his will as the word which was made flesh and pitcht his tent dwelt amongst us opened a Schoole as it were to teach all that would learn the way unto Happinesse or what expectient could Wisdome have found out so apt and powerfull to draw our Love out of these labyrinths and mazes wherein it wanders and divides it self to take it from these painted and false Glories and bring it back and fix it on that which is eternall as this to bow the Heavens and come down and in our flesh and as man to instruct men to gaine them in their own likenesse to tell them he was not that onely which they saw but of the same essence with his Father which they could not see so that here is Majesty and Humility joyned and united in one to draw them out of darknesse into that great light which shall discover and lay open unto them the deformity the ugliness the deceitfulness of those flattering objects in which our thoughts desires and endeavours met as in their center And if this infinite and unconceivable love of God in manifesting himself in our flesh doe not draw and oblige us if these bonds of love will not hold and fetter us to a regular obedience which must begin and perfect our peace then we are past the reach of any Argument which men or Angels can bring and no chaines can hold us but those of Everlasting Darknesse And indeed his eternall Generation by it selfe would but little avail us for Majesty is no medicine for our Malady we who are children of the Time have need of a Captaine which must be born in Time we were sick of an Eritis sicut Dii a bold and foolish ambition and affectation to be Gods and this disease became Epidemicall we all would be Independent be our owne Law-givers our owne God Pride threw us down and Nothing but
are seated in the sensitive part and without which misery and paine have no tooth at all to bite us for 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 't is our passion and fancy that make it a Scorpion what could malice hurt me if I did not help the blow what edge had an injury if I could not be angry what terror had death if I did not feare It is opinion and passion that makes 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 morter Deliverd then he was to these passions to feare and to grief which strein'd his body which rackt his joynts which stretched his sinews which trickled down in clods of bloud exhaled themselves through the pores of his flesh in a bloudy sweat the fire that melted him was his feare and his grief Da si quid ultra est is there yet any more or can he be delivered further not to despaire for it was impossible not to the torments of Hell which could never seize on his innocent soule but Irae Dei to the wrath of God which wither'd his heart like Grasse and 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 look upon his Tongue it cleaves to the roof of his mouth what talk we of Death the wrath of God is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fearfullest and terriblest thing in the world the sting of sin which is the sting of Death Look into your own soules That weake apprehension of it which we sometimes have what a night and darknesse doth it draw over us what a night nay what a Hell doth it kindle in us what torments do we feele the Types and sad representations of those in the bottomlesse pit how do our delights distast us our desires strangle themselves what a Tophet is the world and what Furies are our Thoughts what do we see which we do not turne 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 mountaine can cover us we are wearie 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 Divell but with this the Law is a killing letter the Conscience a Fury and the Divell a Tormentor But yet there is still a difference between our apprehension and his for alas to us his wrath doth not appeare in 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 distance as that which may be turned away and so not fearing his 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 appears but as the cloud did to Elias servant like a mans 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 terrour in the wrath of God It were Impiety and Blasphemy to think that the blessed Martyrs were more patient than Christ Cujus natura patientia Tert. de patient saith Tert. whos 's 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 wrack 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 perescutor by a miracle but behold a greater miracle Rident superantque dolores Spectanti similes Sil. It 〈◊〉 1. In all their Torments they had more life joy in their countenance than they who looked on who were more troubled with the sight-than they were with the punishment their Torture was their Triumph their Afflictions were their Melody of Weak they were made Strong Tormenta carcer ungulae Prudent Eubal Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est Torments Racks and Strapadoes and the last Enemy Death it self were but a recreation and refreshment to the Christians who suffered all these with the patience of a stander by But what speak we of Martyrs Divers sinners whose ambition never reacht 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 Traitor Judas felt not so much when he went and hanged himself For though Christ could not despaire yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than to those that doe who beare but their owne burden when he lay pressed under the sinnes of the whole world God in his approches of Justice when he comes toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rod and his Axes carried before him many sinners have felt his rod and his Rod is Comfort in his Frown Favour and in his Anger Love and his Blow may be a Benefit but Christ was struck as it were with his Axe others have trembled under his wrath but Christ was even consumed with the stroke of his hand For being delivered to his wrath his wrath delivers him to these Throwes and Agonies delivers him to Judas who delivers nay betrayes him to the Jewes who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangs betweene two Thieves I mention not the Shame the Torment of the Cross for the Thieves endured the same But his soul was crucified more than his body and his heart had sharper nailes to pierce it than his hands or his feet Tradidit non pepercit he delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more Tradidit deseruit he delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew his comfort stood as it were a far off and let him fight it out unto death he looked about and there was none to help even to the Lord he called but he heard him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 27.46 he roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And could God
we could not have taken him for our Captaine 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 Captaine that leads us as Moses did the children of Israel through the Wildernesse 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 supposes some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looks back into some grave Tolle certamen ne virtus quidem quicquam erit take away his combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations Religion it self were but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it a fable What were my Patience if no misery did look towards it what were my Faith if there were no doubt to assoile 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 Fui mortuus I was dead saith the Lord of life and it is directed to us who do but think we live but are 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 which are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomlesse pit when we hear this voice by the vertue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcometh the world Nor need this Method seeme grievous unto us for these very words Fui mortuus I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plaine and easie method For by his Death we must understand all those fore-running miseries all that he suffer'd before his death which were as the Traine and Ceremony as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as poverty scorne and contempt the burden of our sinnes his Agony and bloudy sweat which 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 rayse 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 but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touch'd with the feeling of our Infirmities and is mercifull and faithfull Heb. 2.17 hath not onely power for that he may have and not shew it but a will and propension a 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 Saint James his complementall charity Be ye warmed and be ye filled and be ye comforted which leaves us cold and empty and comfortlesse and Power without mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heale a broken heart may as well strike us dead as revive us but Mercy and Power when they meet and kisse each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and rayse 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 sorrowes 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 coeternall with him as God yet as man didicit he learnt it He came into the world as into a Schoole and there learnt it by his sufferings and death Heb. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feele it in 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 beggs of me and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way side and then I powre my oyle and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feele the Hell of sinne in my self before I can snatch my Brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walks abroad and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and heales two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him for they were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffer'd are the maine strength of our Salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be mercifull then he could leave off to be the sonne of God yet before he emptyed himself and took upon him the forme of a servant sicut miseriam expertus non era ita nec miscricordiam experimento novit saith Hilary as he had no experience of sorrow so had he no experimentall knowledge of mercy and compassion his own hunger moved him to work that miracle of the loaves for it is said in the Text He had compassion on the multitude his poverty made him an Crator for the poore and he begs with them to the end of the world He had not a hole to hide his head and his compassion melted into tears at the sight of Jerusalem When he became a man of sorrowes he became also a man of compassion And yet his experience of sorrow in truth added nothing to his knowledge but rayseth up a confidence in us to approach neer unto him who by his miserable experience is brought so neer unto us and hath reconciled us in the Body of his flesh Coloss 1.21 for he that suffer'd for us hath compassion on us and suffers and is tempted with us even to the end of the world on the Crosse with Saint Peter on the Block with S. Paul in the fire with the Martyrs destitute afflicted tormented would you take a view of Christ looking towards us with a melting eye you may see him in your own soules take him in a groane mark him in your sorrow behold him walking in the clefts of a broken heart bleeding in the gashes of a wounded spirit or to make him an object more sensible you may see him every day begging in your streets when he tells you He was dead he tells you as much In as much as the children were partakers of flesh and Bloud he also himself took part of the same and in our flesh was a
prevaile and procure us admittance into his presence who onely hath immortality and can give eternall life This is the vertue and operation of this vivo in aeternum I live for evermore for though a time will come when he shall not govern and a time when he shall not intercede yet the power of his Scepter the vertue of his Intercession is carried on along with the joy and happiness of the Saints as the cause with the effect even to all eternity and shall have its operation in the midst of all our glorious ravishments and shall tune our Halellujahs our songs of Thanksgiving to this our Priest and King that lives for evermore We pass now from the duration and continuance of his life to his power He hath the keyes of Hell and of Death Habeo claves I have the keyes is a metaphoricall speech Et metaphorae feracissimae controversiarum saith Martin Luther Metaphors are a soyl wherein controversies will grow up thick and twine and plat themselves one within the other whilest every man manures them and sowes upon them what seed he please even that which may bring forth such fruit which may be most agreeable to his taste and humour Lord what a noyse have these keyes made in the world you would think they were not keyes but bells sounding terrour to some and making others more bold and merry than they should be Some have gilded them over others have even worn and filed them quite away put them into so many hands that they have left none at all For though they know not well what they are yet every man takes courage enough to handle them and let in and let out whom they please one faction turns them against another the Lutheran against the Calvinist and diabolifies him and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and superdiabolifies him The Church of Rome made it a piece of wisdome to shut us out and all that will not bow unto her as subordinate and dependent on that Church which was but idle physick which did neither hurt nor good but was as a dart sent after those who wee gone out of reach a curse denounced against those who heard it and blest themselves in it indeed a point of ridiculously affected gravity such as that Church hath many for what prejudice could come to us by her shutting us out who had already put our selves out of her Communion unlesse you will think the valour of that Souldier fit for Chronicle who cut off the head of a man who was dead before I have the keyes saith Christ and it is most necessary he should keep them in his hands for we see how dangerous it may prove to put them into the hand of a mortall man subject to passions and too often guided and commanded by them and we know what Tragedies the mistaking of the keyes have raised in the world And yet he that hath these keyes this power hath delegated also a power to his Apostles not onely to preach the Gospel but to correct those who disobey it I would not attribute too much to the Pastors of the Church in this dull and iron or rather in this wanton age where any thing where nothing is thought too much for them where all hath been preaching till all are Preachers yet I cannot but think they have more than to speak in publick which 't is thought every Christian may do They are the Ambassadours of Christ set apart on purpose in Christs stead to minister to his Church nay but to rule and govern his Church it is S. Pauls phrase and they carry about with them his commission a power delegated from him to sever the Goats from the Sheep even in this life that they may become sheep to segregate them Abstinâ—râ— Cyp. Segregare exauctorare virgâ Pastorali serire Hier. c. to abstein or withhold them to exauctorate them to throw them out to strike them with the pastorall rod to anathematize them c. this was the language of the first and purest times which by degrees fell in its esteem by some abuse of it by being drawn down from that most profitable and necessary end for which it was given which at last brought all Religion into disgrace nor indeed could it be otherwise for if upon the abuse of a thing we must straight call for the beesome to sweep it away what can stand long in its place the Temple is prophaned that must down to the ground Liberalty is abused shut up your purse and your bowels together Prayer is abused and turned into babling tack up your tongues to the roof of your mouth nay every thing in the world is abused if this argument be good the world it self should long since have had its end But such a power Christ did leave unto his Church and the neglect of it on the one side and the contempt of it on the other hath brought in that lukewarmness that indifferency amongst the professors of Christianity which if God prevent not will at last shake and throw down the profession 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 Romishparty wheresoever they find the keyes mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven 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 keyes of David which opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens were not given to the Apostles but are a regality and prerogative of Christ who onely hath power of life and death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calls 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 Scepter out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant but he hath delegated a power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable sit subjects for his power to work upon which neverthelesse will have its operation and effect either let us out ot 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 darknesse and oblivion for
Celantiam Isai 5.7 as he in Plautus speaks whilst the winde sits right to fill them and as it is in civil actions so is it in our turn in our repentance if we observe not the winde if we turn not with the wind with the first opportunity we set out too late when another will come towards us is most uncertain the next winde cannot be so kinde and favourable We confesse Nullus cunctationis locus est in eo consilio qued non potest laudari nisi peractum Otho apud Tac. l. 11. Hist advise and consultation in other things is very necessary but full of danger in that action where all the danger is not to do it Before we enter upon action to sit down and cast with my self what may follow at the very heels of it to look upon it to handle and weigh it to see whethere life or death will be the issue of it is the greatest part of our spiritual wisdom but after sin to demur when we are running on in our evil wayes to consult what time will be best to turn in what opportunity we shall take to repent betrayes our ignorance that when time is we know it not or our sloth that though we see the very nunc the very time of turning though opportunity even bespeaks us to turn yet we carelesly let it fly from us even out of our reach and will not lay hold on it Thus saith Solomon the desire of the slothful slayeth him he desires Prov. 21.25 but doth nothing to accomplish his desire and so he desires to be rich and dies poor he thinks his ambition will make him great his covetousnesse rich his hope happy that all things will fall into his lap sedendo votis by sitting still and wishing for them and this keeps his hands within his bosom not so much his sloth as his desire kills him Turn ye turn ye the very sound of it might put us in fear that now were too late that the present time were not soon enough but the present is too soon with us we will turne we will finde a convenient time all our turning is in desire desire delayes our turn and delay multiplies it self to our destruction We will then enforce this duty 1. From the advantage and benefit we may reap from our strict observing of opportunity 2. from the danger of delay And first opportunitas à portu saith Festus Opportunity hath its denomination from the word which signifies a haven I may say Festus verbo Opportune dicituâ— ab eâ— quod navigantibus maximè uâ—iles optatique sint portus opportunity is a Haven we see they who are tossed up and down on the deep make all means stretch their endeavours to the farthest to thrust their torne and weather-beat vessel into the Haven where they would be quam optati portus how welcom is the very sight of it littus Naufragis the shore for ship-wrackt persons what can they wish for more Behold saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation here is a Haven and the Tide is now Now put in your broken vessel now thrust in into the Haven opportunity is a prosperous gale delay is a contrary winde and will drive you back again upon the rocks and dash you to pieces And indeed a strange thing it is that in all other things opportunity should be a Haven but in this which concerns us more then any thing a Rock The twilight for the Adulterer Isaacs funeral for Esaus murder Felix his convenient time for a bribe and to opportunity they fly tanquam ad portum as to a Haven the Adulterer waits for it Esau wisht for it Faelix sought for it what should I say Opportunity works Miracles fills the hands with good things Raiseth the poor out of the Dung defeateth Counsells conquers Kingdoms is the best Physitian and doth more then Art can doe and without it Art can do nothing is the best Politician and without it Wisedome can doe nothing is the best Souldier for without it Power can doe nothing It is all in all in every thing but in our Spirituall Politie and Warrefare it hath not strength enough to Turn us about it is not able to bow our knee or move our Tongue much lesse to rend a heart but such is our extremity of folly such is the hardness of our hearts Ipsa opportunitas fit impietatis patrocinium one opportunity raises in us a hope of another makes us waste our time in the waies of Evill which should be spent in our Returne extends our hopes from day to day from year to year from one houre to another even till our last minute till Time flies from us and opportunity with it till our last sand and when that is run out there is no more Time for us and so no more opportunity The voice of Opportunity is To day now if you will heare his voice harden not your Hearts this is his voice Now 't is true but there may be more nows then this and it is but There may be to morrow may yeeld an opportunity Thus we corrupt her language In my youth 't is true but I may recover it in my riper Age my feeble Age will have strength enough to Turne me or I may Turne in my bed when I am not able to Turn my self Now there be more Nows then Now what need such haste my last prayer my last Breath my last gasp may be a Turne Now this our way uttereth our Foolishnesse for what greater folly can there be then when Grace and Mercy when Heaven is offered now to refuse it Plutar. in vita Pelopidae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let sinne devour the opportunity and to morrow we will Turne is a speech that ill becomes a mortalls mouth whose breath is in his Nostrills for it may be his last His age is but a span long but a hand-breadth pro nihilo as nothing in respect of God the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian Nullificamina others Nihilitudines or Nihilietates which is Nothings and in such a Nothing shall I let slip that opportunity which may make me something even eternal Shall I make so many removes so many delayes within the compasse of a Span whatsoever my span my nothing may be my opportunity is not extended beyond this span is no larger then this nothing And here is the Danger whether this Span be now at an end and measure out I cannot tell My span may be but a fingers breadth my age but a minute That which I fill up with so many Nows so many opportunities Nothing and then if I turn not Now I am turned into Hell where I can never Turne care not then for the morrow let the morrow care for it self There is no Time to Turne from thy Evill wayes but now 2. The Danger of Delay And First It is the greattest folly in the
many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods for though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still 2 Cor. 5.11 as terrible to sinners that will not Turne as when he thundred from Mount Sinai and if we will not know and understand these Terrors of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing Letter For again as Humane Laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment and to this end we finde not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna Juvenal That there remained punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen and we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the World had been far more wicked then it is we see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunts and pursues them This may be so there is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sinne and this though it do not make them good yet it restraines them from being worse quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium freedom from punishment makes sin pleasant and delightsome and so makes it more sinful but the fear of punishment makes it irksome brings those reluctancies nd gnawings those rebukes of Conscience for without it there could be none at all till the whip is held up there is honey on the Harlots lips and we would taste them often but that they bite like a Cockatrice 1 Pet. 5.6 non timemus peccare timemus ardere it is no sin we so much startle at but Hell fire is too hot for us And therefore Saint Peter when he would work repentance and Humility in us placeth us under Gods hand Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his power his commanding Attribute his Omniscience findes us out his Wisdom accuseth us his Justice condemns us potentia punit but 't is his hand his power that punisheth us Psal 78.34 Take away his hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his wisdome or tarrieth for the twi-light to shun his alseeing eye but cum occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God Early Again as the fear of death may be as Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an Antidote and preservative against it it may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way as it is an introduction to piety Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gr. Nyssen a watch a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offence make me turn back again into my evil waies For we must not think that when we are Turned from our evill wayes we have left feare behind us no she may goe along with us in the wayes of Righteousnesse and whisper us in the eare that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared she is our Companion and she leaves us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our Journeys end Our love such as it is may well consist with Feare Chrysost l. 1. de compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Feare of Judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysost the memory of Gods Judgements written in his very heart his thoughts were busied with it his Meditations fixt here and it forced from him à Domine nè in furore Correct me not O Lord in thy angeer nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walkt in the bitterness of his soul did mourne like a Dove Isa 38.14 and chatter like a Crane Saint Paul builds up a Tribunal and calls all men to behold it Rom. 14.10 Wee shall all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ Saint Hierom had the last Trump alwayes sounding in his eares and declaring to Posterity the strictnesse of his life his Teares his fasting his solitarinesse confesses of himself Hier. 1. Tom. ep 141. Ille ego qui ob Gehennae metum tali me carcere damnaveram Scorpiorum tantum socius ferarum I that condemned my self to so straight a prison as to have no better companions then Scorpions and wild Beasts for fear of Hell and Judgement did all this and was not ashamed to acknowledge that not so much the love unto it nor the Author of it as the dread of Hell and punishment confin'd and kept him constant in the practise of it And what should I say more for the time would faile me to tell you of other Saints of God who through feare wrought Righteousness obtained Promises out of weakness were made strong Behold love in its highest elevation in its very Zenith behold it when it was stronger then Death look upon the Glorious Army of Martyrs they had tryall of cruell mockings and scouragings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonment they were stoned and slaine with the sword And greater love then this hath no man saith our Saviour then this that a man lay downe his life for his friend and yet Saint Ambrose upon the 118. Psalme will tell us that this great love was upheld and kept in life by this gale of wind by Feare That the feare of one Death was swallowed up in the feare of another the feare of a temporall ion the feare of an Eternal The bloody Pagans to weaken their faith Pont. Diac. vit Cypr. urged the feare of present Death Consule tibi Noli animam tuam perdere favour your self cast not away your life Reverence your age and these they thought suggestions strong enough to shake their Constancy and Resolution but the consideration of the wrath of God and eternall separation from him did strengthen and establish them what is my breath to Eternity what is the fire of Persecution to the fury of Gods wrath what is the rack to hell sic animas posuerunt and with these Thoughts they laid down their lives and were
himself out of the snare of the Devill maternus ei non deest assectus she is still a Mother even to such Children her shops of spirituall comfort lie open there you may buy Wine and Milk Indulgences and Absolution but not without money or money-worth be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will There is Physick there are Cordialls to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a Schoole of Virtue then a Sanctuary for Offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to conveigh their Merits to us on Earth wee cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them downe in Pardons and Indulgences but yet though we cannot finde this power the re which is a Power to doe nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my Brother yet I may beare for him Gal. 6.2 even portare onus fratris beare my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my Death nor profit in my Dust yet there may be in my memory of my good Counsel my Advice my Example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae Consult Cass c. de Relig. 5. saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints and though my Death cannot satisfy for him yet it may Catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever and by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in Turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry Hand and a narrow Heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant wavering mind we cure the palsie for we can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of Lyes For as there is an Invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves which union though the Eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appeare and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which doe attend this union which are as so many Hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigor into the whole body so must the members also annoynt each other with this Oyle of Gladnesse Each member must be Active and Industrious to expresse that Virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his owne but every man anothers Wealth saith the Apostle not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more naturall to man or who is neerer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his owne but as it may bring advantage and promote the Good of others not presse forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not goe to Heaven but saving some with feare and pulling others out of the fire Ep. Iud. 23. and gathering up as many as his Wisedome and care and zeal towards God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane Societies and those Politick Bodies which men build up to themselves for their Peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non Convenit that is a most unnecessary superfluous part or Member for which the whole is not the better ut in sermone literae saith Austin as letters in a word or Sentence so men are Elementa Civitatis the principles and parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republique and he that endeavours not the advancement of the whole is a Letter too much fitt to be expung'd and blotted out but in the Church whose maker and Builder is God it is required in the highest degree especially in those transactions which may enlarge the Circuit and glory of it here every man must be his own and under Christ his Brothers Saviour for as between these two Cities so between the happinesse of the one and the happinesse of the other there is no Comparison As therefore every Bishop in the former Ages called himself Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae a Bishop of the Catholick Church although he had Jurisdiction but over one Diocesse so the care and Piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive Operation is as Catholick as the Church every soul he meets with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul in saving a soul from Death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit or ascend the Chaire I may be eyes unto him Numb 10.31 as it was said of Hobab I may take him from his Error and put him into the way of truth if he feare I may scatter it If he grieve I may wipe off his Teares If he presume I may teach him to feare and if he despaire I may lift him up to a lively Hope that neither feare nor grief neither Presumption nor despaire swallow him up thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sinne and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by his friendly communication transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so runne hand in hand from the Chambers of Death And thus farr we dare extend the Communion of Saints place it in a House a Family a society of men called and gathered together by Christ raise it to the participation of the Priviledges and Charters granted by Christ calling us to the same faith leading us by the same rule filling us with the same Grace endowing us with severall Gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in thoe Offices and Duties which Christianity makes common and God hath registred in his Church which is the Pillar of Truth where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Feares and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these Helpes and Advantages of God above ready to Help us of men like unto our selves prest out as auxiliaries to succour and relieve us of Precepts to guide us of Promises to encourage us of Heaven even opening it self to recerve us then to die is to die as fools die to suffer their hands to be bound and their feet put in fetters and to open their Breast to the sword for to die alone is not so grievous not so imputable as to die in such Company
appearance but the Heart and may account us dead for all these glories this Pageantry for all this noise which to him is but noise as the sound of their Trumpet who will not fight his battels but fall off and runne to the Enemy but as a song of Sion in a strange Land even in the midst of Babylon We read in our Books that it was a custome amongst the Romans when the Emperor was dead in honor of him to frame his image of wax and to perform to it all Ceremonies of state as if the image were the living Emperour The Senate and Ladies attended the Physitians resorted to him to feel his pulse and Doctorally resolved that he grew worse and worse and could not escape A guard watcht him Nobles saluted him his Dinner and Supper at accustomed hours was served in with water with sewing and carving and taking away His Nobles and Gentlemen waited as if he had been alive there was no Ceremony forgot which state might require Thus hath been done to a dead carcase and if we take not heed our case may be the same All our outward shewes of Churches of Sermons of Sacraments our noyse and ostentation which should be arguments of life and Antidotes against death may be no more then as funeral rites performed to a carcase to a Christian to a City whose iniquities are loathsome of an ill smelling savour to God the great company of preachers whereof every one chuseth one according to his lusts may stand about it and do their duty but as to an image of wax or a dead carcase the bread of life may be served in and divided to it by art and skill as every man fancies it may be fitted and prepared for every palate when they have no tast nor relish of it and receive no more nourishment then they that have been dead long ago Be not deceived benefits and burdens thou hast laden me daily with thy benefits saith David and burdens which if we bare not well and as we should do will grinde us to pieces All prerogatives are with conditions if the condition be not kept they turn to scorpions they either heal or kill us they either lift us up to Blisse or throw us down to destruction there is Heaven in a priviledge and there is Hell in a priviledge and we make it either to us We may starve whilest we hang on the brests of the Church we may be poisoned with Antidotes those mouthes that taught us may be opened to accuse us the many Sermons we heard may be so many Bills against us the Sacraments may condemn us the blood of Christ cry loud against us and our profession our holy profession put us to shame Hast thou been so long with me and knowest thou not me Philip saith our Saviour John 14.9 Hadst thou so good a Master and art yet to learn hast thou been so long with me and deniest thou me Peter hast thou been so long with me and yet betrayest me Judas hath Christ wrought so many works amongs us and do we go about to kill and crucifie him hath he planted Religion true Religion amongst us and do we go about to digg it up by the roots hath the Gospel sounded so long in our Eares and begot nothing but words words that are deceitful upon the Ballance words which are lies so many Sermons and so many Atheists so much Preaching and so much defrauding so many breathings and Demonstrations of love and so much malice in the house of Israel so many Courts of Justice and so much oppression so many Churches and so few Temples of the Holy Ghost what professe Religion and shame it cry it up and smother it in the noise and for a member of Christ make thy self the head of a Faction what presse on to make thy self better and make thy self worse Go up to the Temple to pray and prophane 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 murually 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 That we are his Church which is the pillar 1 Tim. 3.15 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 his 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 of them If we harken to his word not resist his grace if we neither Idolize not prophane 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 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can nave 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 The introductîon to the last part And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves for 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 there are armories of weapons treasuries of wisdom 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 opens its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not digg it our selves The Church exhorts instructs corrects God calls invites expostulates death it self threatens us that we may not come neer Thus are we compast about auxiliorum nube with a Cloud of helps and Advantages the Church is loud death is terrible Gods Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner and confirmd with an Oath As he lives 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
them For if the man be Ignorant if he will administer Physick he will kill if the man be ignorant if he will Preach he will also Prophesie lies If he be a Magistrate if he will Govern he will also shake the pillars of the Common-wealth If he be a Christian if he be ignorant then as he will professe so also will he run into the snares of the Devil and this his ignorance is no plea against that Law which he was bound to know Sen. Contr. l. 5. c. 5. as well as to keep it Ex toto noluisse debet qui Imprudentiâ defenditur he that will plead Ignorance or error for an excuse must have his whole will strongly set up against it and then the great difficulty or impossibility of avoiding it may be his Advocate and speak for him but if he make room for it when he might exclude it if he Embrace that which may let it in or make no use of the light that detects it if he will or reject not or be indifferent if he distast the truth for some crosse aspect it hath on his designes and love a lie because it smiles upon them and promotes them then this ignorance is a sin and the last the greatest and therefore cannot make up an excuse for another sin for those sins which it brings in in Triumph but is so much the more Malignant in that we had light but did turn our face away and would not see it or did hate and despise it and blow it out For he that will not know the wayes of life or calls his evil wayes by that name may well be askt the question why he will die Ignorance then is not alwayes an excuse for some are negligent and indifferent will not take the pains to lift themselves up to the truth by those steps and degrees which are set for them and are the way unto it and so walk as in the night which themselves have made because they would not look upon the Sun Others study and affect it and when the truth will not go along with them to the end of their designes perswade themselves into those errours which are more proportioned to it and will friendly wait upon them and be serviceable to fill and answer that expectation which their lust had raised and call them by that name They will not know what they cannot but know nor see death though he stand before them in their way and so are lead on with pomp and state with these false perswasions with these miserable Comforters to their grave The fourth pretence But in the next place when we finde some check of Conscience some regret some gain-sayings in our minde that we are unwilling to go on in these evil wayes and yet take courage and proceed we are ready to please our selves with this thought and are soon of the Opinion that what we are doing or have done already if it be evil yet is done against our will and if destruction overtake us it seises on them that did so much hate and abhor it that we shook and trembled when it did but shew it self to us in a thought And this I take to be an errour as full of danger as it is void of reason of no use at all but to make us favour our selves and ingage and adventure further in those wayes which lead unto death I deny not but as there is great difference in sins so there may be a difference also in committing them that the righteous person doth not drink down sin with that delight and greedinesse which the wicked do that they do not sport themselves in the wayes of death nor fall into them with that easinesse with that precipitancy that they do not count it as a purchase to satisfie their lusts and that most times the event is different for the one falleth down at the feet of God for mercy the other hardens his heart and face and wil not bow but yet I cannot number it amongst the marks and characters of a righteous man or as some love to speak and may so speak if they well understood what they said of one of the elect when he falls into any mortal grievous sin as Adultery Murder and the like that he doth not fall plenâ voluntate with a full consent and will but more faintly and remissly as it were with more Gravity then other men that he did actually fall but was not willing to fal that is that he did wil indeed the sin which he did commit but yet did commit it against his will Nor can I think our consent is not full when we chide and rebuke the tentation and yet suffer it to win ground and gain more and more Advantage against us when we have some grudgings some petty murmurs in our selves and in our heart defame those sins which we shew openly in our Actions for when we have done that which is evil we cannot say we would not have done it when we have made roome for sin to enter we cannot say that we would have excluded it For 1. I cannot see how these two should meet so friendly a double Will nay a contrary will in respect of one and the same Act especially when sin is not in fieri but in facto esse when the temptation hath prevailed and the will determined its act Indeed whilst the Act was suspended and our minde wavering and in doubt where to fasten or which part to embrace whether to take the wedge of Gold or to withdraw whether to smite my brother or to sheath up my sword and anger together whether to taste or not to taste the forbidden Fruit when it was in labour as it were and did strive and struggle between these two the delightfulnesse and unlawfulnesse of the Object between the temptation and the Law whilest the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh there may be such an indifferency a kinde of willing and nilling a profer and distast an approach and a pawse an inclination to the object anda fear to come neer But when the sense hath prevailed with the will to determine for it against the reason when lust hath conceived and brought forth then there is no room for this indifferencie because the will hath determined its act and concluded for the sense against the reason for the Flesh against the spirit For we must not mistake the fluctuations and pawses and contentions of the minde and look upon them as the Acts of the will which hath but one simple and indivisible act which it cannot divide between two contraries so as to look stedfastly on the one and yet reflect also with a look of liking upon the other our Saviour hath fitted us with an instance you cannot serve God and Mammon if we know then what the will is we shall know also that it is impossible to divide it and shall be ashamed of that Apologie to say we sin semiplenâ
this operation nor thus work upon us sapiens est cui res sapiunt ut sunt he is a prudent man to whom things savour and relish as they are and our vigilancy and spiritual wisdom consists in this in distinguishing one thing from another in abstracting that evil that may be from that good that appears in discovering a sophisme from a demonstration in being able to sever the colour and appearance of a thing from the thing it self glory from riches misery from poverty for truly these are not in them but are to be lookt for and feared in something else Did we contemplate onely that which is properly theirs which is onely theirs and not that which they have not but ex dono by our gift we should not so often stoop and submit to these vile offices nor forsake our reason to joyn with our sense we should then look through the flatteries of the world and behold the inward horrour they conceal we should look through the terrours of the world and consider that inward sweetnesse and light which many times breaks through them like lightning through a dark and sullen cloud we should not thus honour them with our fear nor would our hearts so often fail at the very sight of them we should not forfeit our souls to save our estates wound our Conscience to secure our purse be perjured rather then imprisoned and so run into Hell from the face and frown of a Tyrant but as Gregory observes Hom. 39. in Isa Anima rebus praesentibus dedita abscondit sibi mala sequentia when the Soul mixes with the world and cleaves to these temporary things when it is buried as it were in the flesh and carnal pleasures it draws the vaile before its face and obscures and hides from it self those evils which are sure to follow which could she truly discern she would watch and take courage against that temptation which she now not onely yeelds to but embraceth And that we may throughly discern them which is the office of our Christian vigilancy it will be necessary for us to compare them for the Orator will tell us Facilius latent M. Seneca Cont. 164. quae non comparantur Those things which we look upon with a single eye but once doe commonly lye hid and we see them as if we saw them not but when we look them over againe and compare them with something better then they then we see them neerer and have a more direct and fuller view of them we see they are nothing or nothing what they seem'd as when the Sunne is up the lesser lights are obscured and the glory of the starrs is not seene Beauty is delightfull but what is it to the splendor of Virtue who would look upon a face that could see her naked what is Honor that is blasted with a breath with a Frowne to immortall Glory what is the Merchants Pearle to the Kingdome of Heaven what are pleasures which are but for a season to those which are for evermore what 's a span of time a moment to Eternity And certainly were these outward things which doe but please and tempt and withdraw us from better the onely reward of goodness these Aery fugitive envenom'd Glories all that we should find at the end of our Race no wise man would stoop to reach them up if these were the end of our Hopes wee were of all men most miserable if this were all the Heaven that were promis'd wee should not beleeve there was either a God or Heaven Compare them if you please worldly Glories with spirituall blessings the one come toward us smiling and make us mirth and melody but they soon turn their back and leave us sad and disconsolate in the very shadow of Death The other present themselves at first with great distast to flesh and blood because we look upon them through a sad and dark medium through disgrace and affliction and Death it self but if wee look often and converse familiarly with them we shall see them in Beauty and Riches and Heaven and God himself and is it not a great deal better for a while to watch and strive and fight it out and afterwards rejoyce and triumph as Conquerors then by the impatience of one houre to be slaves for ever Quid enim est malum nisi impatientia boni Tertul de patientia for what is evill what is our yeelding to Temptations the slacking of our watch but our want of patience towards that which is good Thus if we compare them we shall soon discover their deformity and on holy desires and strong resolutions as with the wings of a Dove fly swiftly away that we may be at rest Thus if we know them they can hardly hurt us for what Pliny spake of Monsters and Prodigies is true either of faire or black Tentations Ostenterum vires in eorum potestate sunt quibus portenduntur as of the one Prout quaeque accepta sunt ità valent Plin. Nat. hist. l. 28.3 so of the other their power is no greater then they would have it to whom it is shewed and presented and are of force so farre as they are received have no power to hurt us but from our selves and therefore we must deal with them as they did with those prodigies neglect and slight them that they may not hurt us beat down Crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts disgrace and vilify every imagination that exalts it self against God Hate them with a perfect hatted For not to yeeld is to overcome to study and learne and know temptations and find out where their great strength lyeth and cut it off to consider them as they are and not in appearance but reality to contemne and put them by is that which makes way to victory and prepares us for the coming of the Lord. 3. But Thirdly Nihil in bello oportet contomni let us not so neglect and slight them as to let them come up too neer us for so to neglect an Enemy is to strengthen him but let us stand at the Doores and represse and put them back at the first sight either of their false glory or their borrowed Terrour let us turne away our eyes that they behold not vanity periculosum est crebrò videre Nemo diu â—u tus periculo proximus Cyp. ep 61. per quae aliquando captus sis a dangerous thing it is nay a folly it is to behold those objects and look upon them often which may be a snare unto us to dally with the point of that sword which may enter our Bowels to sport with that serpent which may sting us to death What should they doe long in the eye why should they stay so long in the Fancy till she gild and beautifie them and set them up as an Idoll to worship no let us watch and rowse up our selves and beat down every Altar as soone as it is erected there nay stay the
that which is not good in it self good and profitable and advantageous to us view it well and consider it and you cannot but say it is wroth the shewing wroth the sight and worth the purchase though we lay down all that we are worth And now to proceed that you may fall in love with it and embrace it It is first laid open and naked and manifested unto you Iadicavit tibi He hath shewed the. 2ly publisht by open proclamation as a law which hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forcing and necessitating power that if the cords of love will not draw you the bonds and force of a law may confine you to it 1. he shews it he hath shewed thee O man what is good 2ly he requires it he wills he commands it for what doth God require but this He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require And first That which is truely good is open and manifest unto all God exposes and layes open puts it to sale and bids us come and buy It is a treasure and he hath unlockt it it is a pearle Math. 13. and he hath opened the casket It is his light and he hides it not under a bushel It is a rule by which we are to walk and being it concernes our conduct in our way it is easie and obvious and open to the weakest understanding sua fronte proponitur saith Tertullian it is presented to us without any mask or vaile For indeed it is the property of a rule to be so perspicuous otherwise it is not a rule but an Oracle or rather a snare to catch us for how shall we be able to embrace it if we cannot see it how shall we be able to do our duty if we know not what it is if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to battle saith Saint Paul If this good be clouded with darknesse and perplexities who shall gird up his loynes to make his approches and addresses to it 't is true indeed to draw neere to lay hold and joyne with it having no better retinue commonly then contempt and reproch then misery and affliction then persecution and death being compassed about with these terrors is a matter of difficulty in regard of our weaknesse and frailty which loves not to look upon beauty in such a dresse and that domestick war which is within us and that fight and contention which is between the flesh and the spirit and in this respect it is a narrow way and we must use a kind of violence upon our selves to work through it to our end but yet it is shewed and manifested and the knowledge of the way is not shut up and barricadoed but to those who are not willing to find it but run a contrary way by some false light which they had rather look upon and follow then that which leads them upon the pricks upon labour and sorrow and difficulty Whatsoever concernes a man is easie to be seen for it is as open as the day in other passages and dispensations of himself in other effects of his power and wisdome God is a God afar off but in this which concernes us he is neere at hand he is with us about us and within us In other things which will no whit advantage us to see he makes darknesse his pavilion round about him but in this he displayes his beams His way is in the whirlwind Nahum 1.3 and his footsteps are not known Ps 77.19 why he lifts up one on high and layes another in the dust why he now shines upon my tabernacle and anon beats upon it with his tempest why he placeth a man of Belial in the throne and sets the poore innocent man to grind at the mill why he passeth by a brothel-house and with his thunder beats down his own temple why he keepeth not a constant course in his works but to day passeth by us in a still voice and to morrow in an earthquake as it is far removed out of our ken and sight so to know it would not promote or forward us in our motion to happinesse we are the wiser that we do not know them for there is no greater folly in the world then for a mortall finite creature to discover such a mad ambition as to desire to know as much and be as wise as his creator This was my infirmity saith David I was even sick when I did think of it and he checketh himself for it Psal 77.11 Behold the world is my stage and here I must move by that light which he hath afforded me and not be put out of my part to a full shame by a bold and unseasonable contemplation of Gods proceedings not run out of my own wayes by gazing too boldly on his My businesse is to embrace this good and that will be my Angel to keep me in all my wayes that I dash not my foot against a stone against those perplext and crosse events which are those stones which we so hardly digest I cannot know why he lifteth up one and pulleth down another but if I cleave to this This will lift up my head even when I am down It is not fit I should know why the wicked prosper but by this light I see a serpent in their Paradise which will deceive and sting them to death why they prosper I cannot find out but he that seemes to hide himself comes so neere me as to tell me Their prosperity shall slay them Prov. 1.32 That their greatest happinesse is their greatest curse and if there be an hell on earth it is better then their heaven It is not convenient for me to know things to come quem mihi quem tibi sinem Dii dederint what will be my end and what will be theirs to know the number of their dayes how long they shall rage and I suffer these are like the secrets of great Princes and they may undoe us and therefore they are lockt up from us in the prescience and bosome of God and he keeps the key himself and will not shew them But cast thy burden upin him do thy duty exercise â—hy self in that which he hath shewen and then thon mayest lye down and rest upon this that their damnation sleepeth not that their rage shall not hurt thee and that thy patience shall crown thee In a word If it be evil and thou forseest it it may cast thee down too low and if it be good it may lift thee up too high and thy exaltation may be more dangerous then thy fall but Eschew Evil and follow that which is good and this will be a certain Prophesie and presage of a good end be it what it will whether it come to meet thee in the midst of rayes or of a tempest These things God will not shew thee because thy eye is too weak to receive them nor in the next place will he answer thy curiosity and determine every
these to that reward which is laid up for those who do seminare in benedictionibus who sow plentifully what are riches that have wings to immortality what 's a Palace to heaven we visit the sick and the spirit of comfort visits us we serve our brethren and the Angels minister unto us we cover the naked with our cloth and God clothes us with joy we convert a sinner and sline as starrs we part with a few shekels of silver and the hand of Mercy works and turns them into a crown we sow Temporall Transitory things and the Harvest is eternity whilest we make them ours they are weak and impotent but when we part with them they work miracles and remove mountains all that is between us and blessednesse all the riches in the world will not add one cubit to our stature but if we thus tread them under our feet they will lift us up as High as Heaven Nulla sunt potiora quam de misericordia compendia The best gaines are those we purchase with our losse and the best way to find our bread is to cast it upon the waters Will you see the practice of the Primitive Christians I doe the rather mention it because methinks I see the face of Christendome much changed and altered and Christians whose Plea is Mercy whose Glory is Mercy who but for Mercy were of all men most miserable who have no other businesse in the world then to save and help themselves and others using all means to dry up the Fountain of Mercy shaping to themselves vi tutem duram ferream bringing forth Mercy in a coat of a Maile and like Goliah with an Helmet of Brasse standing as Centinel as a Guard about our wealth with this loud prohibition to all that stand in need Touch not Taste not Handle not Let us therefore look back and see what they were in former times and we shall find them so unlike to those of succeeding generations that they will rather be brought under censure then set up as a pattern for imitation for we are as far removed from their Piety as we are from the Times wherein they lived They I am sure thought Mercy a vertue and the chiefe vertue of the Gospel a vertue in which they thought it impossible to exceed and made it their daily bread to feed others Melior est racematio c. their Grapes were much better then our Vintage Justin Martyr in his Apologie for the Christians tels us That that which they possessed they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring it into a common Treasury Tertullian calls it Arcam communem a common chest Tert. Apol. Nor was this Benovolence exacted as a Tribute from those who desired to be joyned with them in communion as the Heathen did calumniate but every man did sponte conferre saith Tertullian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tert. Apol. c. 42. saith Justin Martyr voluntarily and what he would And that which was gathered was committed to the hands or trust of the Bishop and after when he was taken up with other matters more proper for his calling to the Deacons which by them was laid out for the clothing of the naked the maintenance of the pooâ—e of Orphans and old men to redeeme Captives to succour men who had been shipwrackt by Sea and those who were in prison for their profession and the Gospel of Christ Plus nostra misericordia insumit vicatim qu m vestra superstitio Templatim saith Tertullian Our Mercy layes out more in the streets on the poore then your Superstition doth on your Gods in your Temples our Religion hath a more open hand then your Idolatry and to this end they had matriculas egenorum certaine Catalogues of the names of their poore Brethren personarum miserabilium persons as they termed them miserable How many of them were there who as Aristotle speaks did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did greatly exceed in their liberality Aristot l. 10. Eth. and did seem to be more mercifull then the Lord requires Nazianzen tells us of his Mother Nonna Naz. Orat. 10. that she was possest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an immoderate and unmeasurable desire of bestowing her goods That she was willing not onely to sell all that she had but even her very children for the use and relief of the poore Gorgonia her daughter suckt this pious and melting disposition though not from her breasts yet from her good example who stript her self of all committed her body to the earth and left no other Legacie to her children but her great example and the imitation of her virtues which she thought was enough to enrich them though they had nothing else Saint Hierom tells us of his Paula that though she were Eminent in many virtues yet her Liberality did exceed and like a swelling river could not be kept within the banks hac habebat voti ut mendica moreretur she wisht for that which most men do feare as much as death it self and her great ambition it was that she might dye a beggar We might instance in more and these examples have shined in the Church as starrs of the fairest magnitude but after-ages have thought them but comets looked upon them and feared them and though they know not well how to condemn this exceeding piety yet they soone perswade themselves and conclude that they are not bound to follow it and so are bound up as in a frost in the coldnesse and hardnesse of their hearts because some did seem to overflow and passe their limit These indeed are strange examples Easil orat in samem siccitat but yet Saint Basil delivers a doctrine as strange for he would not give it as his counsel if it had not truth to commend and confirm it Licèt vnus tibi tantùm panis sit And if thou hast but one loafe left in thy house saith he yet if a poore man stand at thy doores and ask for Bread bring it forth and give it him with thy hands lifted up to Heaven whilest thou doest that which God requires and for thy own supply reliest on the Providence of Thy Father which is in Heaven do it in his Name and in his Name thou shalt be fed assuredly thou hast parted with thy one loafe here but his power to whom thou gavest it can and will multiply it for they that thus give are as wells which are soone drawn dry but fill the faster and the more they are exhausted the fuller they are I know not whether it may be safe to deliver such a doctrine in these daies and therefore we will not insist upon it and these examples which I have held up to you may be Transcendent that we may not bind every man to reach them These pious women may seem perhaps to have stretcht beyond the line and exceeded the bounds of moderation but yet we cannot but think that this was truly to go out of the world whilest they were in
be that seale it up and seare it as Saint Paul speaks as with a hot Iron If it speake to us we are deafe if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul beat and wound it more and more multi famam pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny the loudest noise our conscience can make is not heard but the censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we heare it and we tremble we are led like fooles with melody to the stocks what others say is our motion and turnes us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we heare it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of conscience is defraud not your brother nay but we will over-reach him the voice of conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self nay but we will oppresse him the voice of conscience is Love Mercy nay but we will love our selves what we speak to our selves our selves soon make hereticall How Ambitious are we to be accounted Just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it what a sin is uncleannesse in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet with what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death he whips the theef and hangs the murderer and indeed whips and hangs himself by a Proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we owe to our selves are of any great force to prevaile with us to order our steps aright walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give eare to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusuall That there is little hope that it will compleat and perfect our walk and make us Just and Mercifull men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God and to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion that whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he makes is infinitely and incomparably more cleare and certain then that which we make by our sences that we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts that thou seest not the birds fly in the ayre so distinctly as he sees thy thoughts fly about the world to those severall objects which we have set up for our delight that he sees and observes that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Yet neverthelesse though being as we are in the flesh and so led by sence were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That he did but see us as man sees us or were this as evident to our faith as that is to our sence we should be more watchfull over our selves more wary of the divels snares and baits then we commonly are magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary Hil. in Psal 178. for there is a necessity laid upon us of feare and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe That he now stands by as a witnesse who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly beleived Glorious things are spoken of faith we call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask is ours so would to God it were nay would for many of us we did but believe that he is present with us and sees what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye would our faith were but as a grain of mustard-seed even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but would run from as from serpents as from the divel himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and Power were so neer And now in the last place Let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion doe walk on in the haughtinesse of their hearts and neither bowe to the Laws of God or men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerfull Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Many walk saith Saint Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the presumptuous sinner walks not with God who hath first hardened his heart and then his face as Adamant whose very countenance doth witnesse against him who declares his sins as Sodome and hides them not and they who first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself first lose their reason in their lusts and then their modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil who doe that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain who first make shipwrack of a good conscience and then with the swelling salies of Impudence hasten to that point and haven which their boundlesse lusts have made choice of as we should doe to eternall happinesse per calcatum patrem as Saint Jerome speaks over Father and Mother over all Relations and Religion it self forsake all these not for Christs sake and the Gospel but for Mammon and the world What foule pollutions that grinding and cruell oppressions what open profanenesse have there been in the world and we may ask wit the Prophet Ieremiah cap. 8.12 Confusi sunt Were they ashamed when they committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed neither could they have any shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 4.18 for the hardnesse and blindnesse of their heart For in sin and by sin they at last grow familiar in sin clothe themselves with it as with a robe of Honour bring it forth into open view
shall be the Temple of God an house of feasting and joy where sorrow may look in at the window at the sensitive part but be soon chased away It shall be even ashamed of its Tabernacle of flesh and pant and beat to get out that it may be clothed upon and mortality be swallowed up of life In brief it will make us strangers and keep us strangers even such strangers which shall be made like unto the Angels and whom when they come to their journeys end the Angels shall meet and welcome and receive into their Fathers house where they shall rest and rejoyce for evermore I have done with my Text and now must turn your eyes and thoughts upon this pilgrime here this Honoured and worthy Knight who hath now passed through the busie noise and tumults of this world to his long home and rest In which passage of his as I have received it from men of place and worth and unquestioned integrity he hath so exactly performed the part and office of a stranger and pilgrime that he is followed with the applause of them that knew him and as in his death he is become an argument to prove the doctrine which I have taught so in his life he made himself a great ensample for them to look upon who are now travelling and labouring in the same way Look upon him then in every capacity and relation either as a part of the Common-wealth or a member of the City or a Father of a Family and you shall discover the image and faire representation of a stranger in every one of these relations for no man can take this honour to himself to be a good Common-wealths-man a good master of a family but he who is as David was a stranger All the ataxie and disorder all the noise we heare and mischiefs we see in the world are from men who love it too well and would live and dwell and delight themselves in it for ever For the first I may truly say as Lampridius did of Alexander Severus he was vir bonus Reipublicae necessarius he was a good man and of necessary use in a Common-wealth and laid all the strength he had to uphold it and preferred the peace and well-fare of it to his own as well knowing that a private house might sink and fall to the ground and yet the Common-wealth stand and flourish but that the ruine of the whole must necessarily draw with it the other parts and at last bury them in the same grave And here he found as rough a passage as Aufidienus Rufus in Tacitus did in that commotion and rebellion of Percennius Tacit. l. 1. Annal. who was pulled out of his chariot loaded first with scoffs and reproches and then with a fardell of stuffe and made to march foremost of all the company and then ask'd in scorn whether he bore his burden willingly or whether so long a journey was not tedious and irksome to him so was this worthy Knight taken from his wife whom he entirely loved and from his children those pledges of his love conveyed to ship and by ship to prison in a remote City where he found some friends and then brought back from thence to a prison neerer home where if the providence of God had not gone along with him and shadowed him he had met the plague so that in some measure that befell him which Saint Paul speaks of himself He was in journeying often in perills of waters in perills of his own Country-men in perills in the City in perills on the Sea in perills amongst false brethren But it may be said what praise is it to suffer all this if he suffer as an evil doer and for conscience towards God I come not hither to dispute that but am willing to refer it to the great triall which shall open every eye to behold that truth which now being dazled with feares and hopes and even blinded with the love of the world it cannot see But if it were an errour and not knowledg but mistake drove him upon these pricks yet sure it was an errour of a faire descent begot in him by looking stedfastly on the truth by having a steddy eye on the oath of God Eccles 8.2 and if here he fell he fell like a Christian who did exercise himself to keep a good conscience for he that follows not his conscience when it errs will be as far from hearkning to it when it speaks the truth for even errour it self shews the face of truth to him that erres or else he could not erre at all And yet I need not feare to say it It is an errour of such a nature that it may rather deserve applause then censure even from those who call it by that name for we do not use to fall willingly into so dangerous vexatious and costly errours errours which will strip us which will put a yoke upon us errours which will put us in prison no to fly from these we too oft fly from the truth it self when 't is as open as the day and commands or faith though not our tongue and forceth our assent when we renounce it Private interest love of our selves feare of restraint hope of advancement these are the mothers commonly of this monster which we call errour when we do not erre and in these it is ingendred and bred as serpents are in carrion or dung He that erres and loseth by it erres most excusably and shews plainly that he would not erre for who would do that which will undoe him Again take him in the City in which he bore the highest honour and filled the greatest place and was rather an ornament to it then that unto him for he sate in it as a stranger and a pilgrime as a man going out of the world nor did so much consider his power as his duty which lookt forward and had respect on that which cannot be found in this but is the riches and glory of another world and therefore this world was never in his thoughts never came in to sowre Justice to turn judgement into worm-wood by corrupting it or into vinegar by delaying it no cries of orphans no teares of the widdow no loud complaints of the oppressed to disquiet him in his passage which use to follow the oppressor even to the gates of hell and there deliver him up to those howlings which are everlasting How oft hath he been presented to me and that by prudent and judicious men as the honour and glory of the City And thus he went on his way full of temptations and troubles and full of honours even of those honours which he refused for you may remember how he bore this great office and you may remember how he refused it and gained as much honour in the hearts of men by the last as by the first as much honour by withdrawing himself and staying below as he did formerly in sitting in the highest place with the sword