Crucified his death for sinne with our Death to it his Resurrection with our Justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away He shed his blood to melt our Hearts and he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose againe for our Justification and to gaine Authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our convertimini our Turne is the best Commentary on the consummatum est it is Finished for that his last Breath breathed it into the world we may say It is wrapt up in the Inscription Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes for in him even when he hung upon the Crosse were all the Treasuries of Wisdome and Knowledge hid 2 Coloss 3. In him Justice and Mercy are at Peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seale our Pardon we were in our Blood and her voice was Live we were miserable and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowells yearn'd but then Justice held up the Sword ready to latch in our sides God loves his Creature whom he made but hates the sinner whom he could not make and he must and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevail'd Mercy had been but as the morning Dew and soon vaâ—…sh'd before this raging heat and if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory his hatred of sinne and fearfull menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and had portended nothing Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. had been void and of no effect If he had been extreme to marke what is done amisse men had sinned more and more because there could be no hope of Pardon and if his Mercy had seal'd an absolute Pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their Evill wayes because there could be no feare of punishment And therefore his wisedome drew them together and reconciled them both in Christs propitiatory Sacrifice and our Duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the Guilt the other from the Dominion of sinne and so both are satisfy'd Justice layes downe the sword and Mercy shines in perfection of Beauty God hates sinne but he sees it condemned in the flesh of his Sonne and fought against by every member he hath sees it punisht in him and sees it every day punisht in every repentant sinner that Turnes from his evill wayes beholds the Sacrifice on the Cross and beholds the Sacrifice of a broken Heart and for the sweet savour of the one accepts the other and is at rest his death for sinne procures our Pardon and our death to sinne sues it out Christ suffers for sinne we turne from it his satisfaction at once wipes out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees Tert. de anima c. 1. destroyes sinne it self Haec est sapientia de scholâ caeli This is the method of Heaven this is that Wisedome which is from above Thus it takes away the sinnes of the world And now wisedome is compleat Justice is satisfyed and Mercy triumphs God is glorified man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Tert de poenit c. 8. Heus tu peccator bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tert. Take comfort sinnner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy returne what musick there is in a Turne which begins on earth but reaches up and fills the highest Heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed Image on which God delights to look for there he beholds his wisedome his Justice his mercy and what wonders they have wrought Behold the shepherd of our souls see what lies upon his shoulders you would think a poor Sheep that was lost nay but he leads sinne and Death and the Devill in Triumph and thou mayst see the very brightnesse of his Glory the fairest and most expresse Image of these Three his most glorious Attributes which are not onely visible but speake unto us to follow this heavenly Method His wisedome instructs us his Iustice calls upon us and Mercy Eloquent mercy bespeaks us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us To Turne à viis malis from our evill wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance for it hath these Three Gods Wisedome and Iustice and Mercy to seale and ratify it to make it Authentique The 2. part Turn ye Turn ye We come now to the dictum it self and it being Gods and it being Gods we must well weigh and ponder it and we shall find it comprehends the Duty of Repentance in its full latitude For as sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore and conversio ad creaturam and aversion and Turning from God and an inordinate conversion and application of the soul to the Creature so by our Repentance we doe referre pedem start back and alter our course worke and withdraw our selves a viis malis from evill waies and Turne to the Lord by cleaving to his Lawes which are the minde of the Lord and having our feet enlarged run the way of his Commandements We see a streight line drawne out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further and further you draw it the weaker and weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bow'd and brought back againe towards its first point Eccles 7.20 The Wise man will tell us That God at first made man upright that is simple and single and syncere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many Inventions mingled himself and Ingendered with Divers extravagant Conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines now drawne out to that object now to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh and sometimes on the world now on Idolatry and anon on Oppression and so at a sad Distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his Center and therefore God seeing him gone so farr seeing him weak and feeble wound and Turned about by the Activity of the Devill and sway of the Flesh and not willing to loose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as the Instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistencie in his former and proper place to draw him back from those Objects in which he was lost and so carry him on forward to the Rock out of which he was hewed whilst he is yet in viis malis in his evill wayes all is out of Tune and Order for the Devil who doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. de poenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon repentance and boldness and senlessness upon sinne but Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our Turne we see the danger we plaid
Lact. l. 6 de ver cult c. 24. A thing indeed it is which may seem strange to flesh and blood and Lactantius tells us that Tully thought it impossible but a strange thing it may seem that the sigh of a broken heart should slumber a Tempest That our sorrow should bind the hands of Majesty that our Repentance should make God himself repent and our Turne Turne him from his wrath and a change in us alter his Decree and therefore to Iulian that cursed Apostate it appear'd in a worse shape not onely as strange but as ridiculous and where he bitterly derides Constantine for the profession of Christianity he makes up his scoffe with the contempt and derision of Repentance Julian Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whosoever is a corrupter or defiler of Women whosoever is a man-slayer whosoever is an uncleane Person may be secure 't is but dipping himself in a little water and he is forthwith clean yea though he wallow again and againe in the same mire pollute himself with the same monstrous sinnes let him but say he hath sinned and at the very word the sinne vanisheth let him but Smite his breast or strike his forehead and he shall presently without more adoe become as white as snow And 't is no marvaile to hear an Apostate blaspheme for his Apostacie it self was blasphemy no more then 't is to heare a Devill Curse both are fallen from their first estate and both hate that estate from whence they are fallen and they both howle together for that which they might have kept and would not upon Repentance there is Dictum Domini thus saith the Lord and this is enough to shame all the witt and confute all the Blasphemy of the world As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner but that he Turne and in this consists the Priviledge and power of our Turn this makes Repentance a Virtue and by this word this Institution and the Grace of God annexed to it A Turne shall free us from Death a Teare shall shake the powers of Heaven a repentant Sigh shall put the Angels into Passion and our Turning from our Sinne shall Turne God himself even Turne him from his fierce wrath and strike the Sword out of his hand Turne ye Turne ye then is Dictum Domini a voice from Heaven a command from God himself And it is the voice and dictate of his Wisdom an Attribute which he much delights in more then in any of the rest saith Naz. Orat. 1. for it directs his power for whatsoever he doth is done in wisedome in Order Number and Measure whatsoever he doth is best his raine falls not his Arrowes fly not but where they should to the marke which his Wisedome hath set up It accompanies his Justice and make his wayes equall in all the disproportion and dissimilitude which can shew it self to an eye of flesh It made all his Judgements and Statutes It breathed forth his Promises and Menaces and will make them good in Wisedome he made the Heavens and in Wisedome he kindled the fire of Hell nothing can be done in this world or the next which should not be done Againe it orders his Mercy for though he will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy yet he will not let it fall but where he should not into any Vessell but that which is fit to receive it for his Wisedome is over all his works as well as his Mercy he would save us but he will not save us without Repentance he could force us to a Turne and yet I may truly say hee could not because he is wise he would not have us die and yet he will desTroy us if we will not Turne he doth nothing either good or evill to us which is not convenient for him and agreeable to his wisedome Nor can this bring us under the Imputation of too much boldnesse to say The Lord doth nothing but what is convenient for him for 't is not boldnesse to magnifie his wisedom They rather come too neer and are bold with Maiesty who fasten upon him those Counsells and determinations which are repugnant and opposite to his wisedome and goodnesse and which his soul hates as That hedid Decree to make some men miserable to that end that he might make his Mercy glorious in making them happy that he did of purpose wound them that he might heale them That he did threaten them with Death whose names he had written in the book of Life That he was willing man should sinne that he might forgive him That he doth exact that Repentance as our Duty which himselfe will worke in us by an irresistible force That he commands intreats beseeches others to Turne and Repent whom himselfe hath bound and fetter'd by an absolute Decree that they shall never Turne That he calls them to Repentance and Salvation whom he hath damn'd from al eternity and if any certainly such Beasts as these deserve to be struck through with a Dart. No 't is not boldness but Humility and Obedience to his will to say He doth nothing but what becommeth him what his wisedome doth justify and he hath abounded towards us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint tPaul Ephe. 1.8 in all Wiedome and Prudence His wisedome findes out the meanes of Salvation and his Prudence orders and disposeth them his wisedome shewes the way to life and his Prudence leads us through it to the end I Wisedome was from everlasting Proverb 8. and as she was in initio viarum in the beginning of Gods wayes so she was in initio Evangelii in the beginning of the Gospel which is called the wisedome of God unto salvation and she fitted and proportioned meanes to that end means which were most agreeable and connaturall to it It found out a way to conquer Death Heb. 2.14 and him that hath the power of Death the Devill with the weapons of Righteousness to digge up sinne by the very Roots that no work of the flesh might shoot forth out of the Heart any more to destroy it in its effects that though it be done yet it shall have no more force then if it were annihilated then if it had never been done and to destroy it in its causes that it may be never done againe Immutabile quod factum est Quint l. 7. to draw together Justice and Mercy which seemed to stand at distance and hinder the work and to make them meet and kisse each other in Christs Satisfaction and ours for our Turne is our satisfaction all that we can make which she hath joyned together Condigna est satisfatio mald facta corrigere est correcta non reiterare Ber. de Just. Dom. c. 1. Satisfactio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiochens conc can 2. never to be severed his Sufferings with our Repentance his Agony with our sorrow his Blood with our Teares his Flesh nailed to the Crosse with our lusts
for which it was held First we consult Secondly we settle and establish our Consultations and last of all we gaine a Constancy and perseverance in those Actions which our Consultations have engaged and encouraged us in and all these three we owe to Feare Did we not Feare we should not Consult did not Feare urge and drive us on we should not determine and when this breath departeth our Counsells fall and all our Thoughts perish Present Christ unto us in all his beauty with his Spicy cheeks and Curled locks with hony under his Tongue as he is described in the Canticles present him as a Jesus and we grow too familiar with him Present him on the Mount at his Sermon and perhaps we will give him the hearing Present him as a Rock and we see a hole to run into sooner then a Foundation to lay that on which is like him and we run on with ease in our evill wayes having such a friend such an indulgent Saviour alwaies in our Eye but present him descending with a shout and with the Trump of God and then we begin to remember that for all these Evill wayes we shall be brought into Judgement Our Counsells shift as the wind blowes and upon better motion and riper consideration we are ready to alter our Decrees For these three follow close upon each other pallemus horrescimus Circumspicimus Plin. Epist. saith Pliny first Feare strikes us pale then puts into a fitt of Trembling at last wheeles us about to fee and consider the danger we are in this consideration follows us nor can we shake it off longiorisque timoris causa Timor est this wind increaseth as it goes drives us to consultation carries us on to determine and by a continued force binds and fastens us to our Counsells And therefore Aquinas tells us that our Turne proceeds from the feare of punishment tanquam à primo motu as from that which first sets it a moving for though true Repentance be the gift of God yet fear works that Disposition in us by which we Turne when God doth Turne us The Feare of punishment restraines us from sin in the restraint a hope of Pardon shewes it self upon this hope we build up strengthen our Resolution and at last see the horror of sin not in the punishment but in the sin hate our folly more then the whip and our evill wayes more then Death it self which we call a Filial feare which hath more of love then feare and yet doth not shut out this Feare quite for a good sonne may feare the Anger of a good Father and thus God is pleas'd to condescend to our weakness and accept this as our reasonable service at our hands though our chiefest motive to serve him at first were nothing else but a flash from the Quare moriemini nothing else but a feare of Death For in the last place Bas in Psal 32. this is a principall effect of the feare of punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as it brings us to Consultation so is it a faire Introduction to Piety it self Feare takes us by the hand and is a Schoolmaster unto us and when Feare hath well disciplin'd and Catechised us then love takes us in hand and perfects our Conversion so that we may seem to goe from Feare to Love as from a School to an Universitie In the 28. of Genesis at the Twelfth verse Jacob sees a Ladder set upon the Earth and the Top of it reaching up to heaven and we may observe that Jacob makes Feare the first step of the ladder for when he awakes as in an extasie he cryes out Quam terribilis iste locus how dreadfull is this place verse 17. so that feare is as it were the first rung and step of the Ladder and God on the top and Angels Ascending and Descending Love and Zeal and many Graces between Think what we please disgrace it if we will and fasten to it the badge of slavery and servility it is a blessed thing thus to feare the first step to happiness and one step helps us up to another and so by degrees we are brought ad culme Sionis to the top of the Ladder to the Top of perfection to God Himself whose Majesty first wounds us with feare and then gently bindes us up and makes us to love him who leads us through this darkness through this dread and terror into so great light makes us Tremble first that we may at last be as mount Sion and stand fast and firme for ever We now passe and rise one step higher to take a view of this feare of punishment not onely as usefull but lawfull and commanded not under the Law alone but under the Gospel as a motive to Turne us from sinne and as a motive to strengthen and uphold us in the wayes of Righteousnesse not onely as a restraint from sionne but as a preservative of Holiness and as a help and furtherance unto us in our progresse in the wayes of perfection And here it may seem a thing most unbefitting a Christian who should be led rather then drawn Plat. l. de Rep. and not a Christian alone but any moral man and therefore Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiberal and base disposition to be banisht the School of morality and our great master in Philosophie makes punishment one of the three things that belong to slaves as the whip doth saith Solomon to the fooles back for to be forced into goodnesse to be frighted into health argues a disposition which little sets by Health or goodnesse it self But behold a greater then Plato and Aristotle our best master the Prince of Peace and love himselfe strives to awake and stirre up this kind of feare in us tells us of Hell and everlasting Darkness of a Flaming Fire of weeping and gnashing of Teeth presents his Father the Father of Mercies with a Thunder-bolt in his hand with Power to kill both body and soul shews us our sinne in a Deaths Head and in the fire of Hell as if the way to avoid sinne were to feare Death and Hell ad if we could once be brought to feare to die we should not die at all Many glorious things are spoken even of this feare The Philosopher calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basan Ps 31. Tert. de poenit c. 6. the bridle of our Nature Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of our lusts Tertullian Instrumentum poenitentiae an Instrument to worke out Repentance Pachomius placeth it supra decem millia paedagogorum makes it the best Schoolmaster of ten Thousand Harken to the Trumpet of the Gospel be attentive to the Apostles voice what found more frequent then that of Terror able to shake and divide a soul from its sinne Had Marcion seen our Saviour with a whip in his hand Had he heard him cursing the Figg-tree and by that example punishing our sterility had he weigh'd the
sorry if we die He looks down upon us calls after us he exhorts and rebukes and even weepes over us as our Saviour did over Jerusalem and if we die we cannot think that he that is life it self should kill us If we must die why doth he yet complaine why doth he expostulate for if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us how can a desire or command breath in those coasts which the power of an absolute will hath laid waste already if he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the Contrary that his Decree be not void and of no effect otherwise to passe sentence an irrevocable sentence of Death and then bid us live is to look for liberty and freedome in Necessity for a sufficient effect from an unsufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a Dead man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcasse and bid it walk Indeed by some this why will you die is made but sancta simulatio but a kind of holy dissimulation so that God with them sets up man as a marke and then sticks his deadly arrows in his sides and after askes him why he will die And why may he not saith one with the same liberty Damne a soul as a Hunter kills a Deere a bloody instance as if an immortall soul which Christ set at a greater rate then the World it self nay then his own most pretious Blood were in his sight of no more valew then a Beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy mens souls for delight and pleasure Thus though they dare not call God the Author of sinne for who is so sinfull that could hear and not Anathematize it yet others and those no children in understanding think it a Conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloody premises and they are more encouraged by those ill-boding words which have dropt from their quills For say some vocat ut induret He calls them to no other end but that he may harden them he hardens them that he may destroy them He exhorts them to turn that they may not Turn◠He asks them why they will die that they may run on in their evill wayes even upon Death it self when they break his command they fulfill his will and 't is his pleasure they should sinne 't is his pleasure they should die and when he calls upon them not to sinne when he asks them why they will die he doth but Dissemble for they are dead already Horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous Decree of Reprobation And now tell me If we admit of this What 's become of the expostulation what use is there of the obtestation why doth he yet ask why will ye Die I called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason unanswerable but if this Fancy this Interpretation take place it is no reason at all why will ye die the Answer is ready and what other answer can a poore praecondemned soul make Domine Deus tu nosti Lord God thou knowest Thou condemnest us before thou mad'st us Thou didst Destroy us before we were and if we die Even so Good Lord For it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur it is our Destiny or rather Est deus in nobis not a stoicall fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistible Arme hath destroyed us and so the expostulation is answered and the Quare mortemini is nothing else but mortui estis why will ye die that 's the Text the Glosse is you are dead already But in the Second place That this expostulation is true and Hearty may be seen in the very Nature of God who is Truth it self who hath but one property and Quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness and therefore cannot bid us live when he intends to kill us For consider God before man had fallen from him by sin and disobedience and we shall see nothing but the works of his Goodnesse and Love The heavens were the workes of his Fingers Basil Hem. in Famem sicci◠he created Angels and men he spake the word and all was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil what necessity was there that he should thus break forth into Action who compell'd him who perswaded him who was his Counsellor He was All-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. non quasi Indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus it was not out of any indigencie or Defect in himself that he made Adam after his Image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could millions of Worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made or Seraphin or Cherubin he gain'd not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athena Legatio pro Christianis said Aristotle for there could be no Accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagor as calls it as an Instrument to make him Musick Did he cloth the Lilies and dresse up Nature in various colours to delight himself or could he not reigne without man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerfull and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would for he might both will and not will the Creation of all Things without any change of his will but it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into Action will you know the cause saith the Sceptique why he made world Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quam cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vaine then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing and were it not for his Goodnesse we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All-sufficient 1 Tim. 1.11 and Blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the Heaven and the Earth though there had neither been Angel or man to worship him but he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertul. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur Tert. adv Marcion l. 2. si agatur Goodness is an Active and restlesse quality and it is not when it is Idle it cannot containe it self in it self and by his Goodness he made man made him for his Glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to Heaven made him a living soul ut in vitâ hac compararet vitam that in this short and Transitory life he might fit himself for an Abiding City and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of Himself God is good nor can any evill proceed from him if he frowne we first move him
if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a Tempest we have rais'd it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it we force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas Accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father his goodnesse is Naturall his severity in respect of its Act Accidentall for God may be severe and yet not punish for he strikes not till we provoke him his Justice and severity are the same as everlasting as himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams Bosome yet were he Good if there were neither Angel nor men he were still the Lord blessed for evermore in a word he had been just though he had never been Angry he had been mercifull though man had not been miscrable he had been the same God just and good and mercifull though sin had not entred in by Adam nor Death by sinne God is active in Good and not in Evill he cannot doe what he doth detest and hate he cannot Decree Ordaine or further that which is most contrary to him he doth not kill me before all time and then in time aske me why I will die He doth not Condemne me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my Candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his Exhortations and Expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he comes to punish Isai 28.21 sacit opus non suum saith the Prophet doth not his owne worke doth a strange work a strange Act an Act that is forced from him a worke which he would not doe And as he doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to manifest his Glory in it which as our Death proceeds from his secondary and occasion'd will For God saith Aquinas seeks not the manifestation of his Glory Aquin. 2.2 q. 132. art 1. for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternall as himself no Quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphin and Cherubin in the midst of all the Blasphemies of men and Devills is still the same and his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it strives in the perfection of Beauty rather then when it is decay'd and defaced rather then in a Damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit and so to receive his Glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on Earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest Heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde admortem sed ante ad vitam The sentence of Death was pronounced against man almost as soon as he was man but he was first created to life we are punished for being evill but we were first commanded to be good his first will is That we glorify him in our Bodies and in our soules but if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his Glory out of that which dishonor'd him and write it with our blood In the multitude of the People Prov. 14.28 is the Glory of a King saith the wisest of Kings and more Glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebell and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man fills his place then where the Prisons are filled with Theeves and Traytors and men of Belial and though the Justice and wisedome of the King may be seen in these yet 't is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more Power then the sword In Heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is in it to see it in the Church of the First-borne and in the soules of just men made perfect it is now indeed his will which primarily was not his will to see it in the Divel and his Angels For God is best pleased to see his Creature man to answer to that patteâ—e which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended And as every Artificer glories in his work when he sees it finish't according to the rule and that Idea which he had drawne in his minde and as we use to look upon the work of our hands or witts with that favour and complacency we doe upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon man when he appeares in that shape and forme of Obedience which he prescrib'd for then the Glory of God is carried along in the continued streame and course of all our Actions breaks forth and is seen in every worke of our Hands is the Eccho of every word we speak the result of every Thought that begat that word and it is Musick in his eares which he had rather heare then the weeping and howling of the Damned which he will now heare though the time was when he us'd all fitting meanes to prevent it even the same meanes by which he raised those who now glorify him in the Highest Heaven God then is no way willing we should die not by his Naturall will which is his prime and antecedent will for Death cannot issue from the Fountaine of Life and by this will was the Creature made in the beginning and by this preserved ever since by this are administred all the meanes to bring it to that perfection and happiness for which it was first made for the goodness of God it was which first gave a being to man and then adopted him in speâ—… regâ—…i design'd him for immortality and gave him a Law by the fulfilling of which he might have a Tast of that Joy and Happinesse which he from all Eternity possest And therefore secondly not voluntate praecepti not by his will exprest in his command in his precepts and Laws For under Christ this will of his is the onely destroyer of Death and being kept and observ'd swallows it up in victory for how can Death touch him who is made like unto the living Lord or how should Hell receive him whose conversation is in heaven Ezek. 16. â—1 13.21 If we do them we shall even live in them saith the Prophet and he repeats it often as if Life were as inseparable from them as it is from the living God himself by which as he is life in himself so to man whom he had made he brought life and immortality to light
God qui sibi sufficit ad beatitudinem who is all-sufficient and Happinesse it self and therefore was placed in an Estate where he might work out his owne Happinesse but still with a Possibility of being miserable And herein was the Goodnesse and Wisedome of God made visible and as from his goodnesse it is that he loved his Creature so in his goodnesse and Wisedome he placed before him Good and evill that he might lay hold on Happinesse and be good willingly and not of Necessity For it is Impossible for any Finite Creature who hath not his completenes his perfection in himself to purchase heaven but upon such termes as that he might have lost it nor to lose it but upon such Termes as that he might have took it by violence For every Law as it supposeth a possibility of being kept so doth it also a possibility of being broken which cannot be without permission of sinne Lex justo non est posita if Goodnesse had been as Essentiall to man as his Nature and soule by which he is if God had interceded by his Omnipotency and by an irresistible force kept sinne from entring into the world The Jewes had not heard the noise of the Trumpet under the Law nor the Disciples the Sermon on the Mount under the Gospel there had been no use of the Comfortable breath of his Promises nor the Terror of his Threatnings for who would make a Law against that which he knows will never come to passe a Law against sinne supposeth a permission to sinne and a possibility of sinning Lastly it stands in no shew of opposition to his occasion'd and consequent will for we must suppose sinne before we can take up the least conceit of of any will in God to punish Omnis poena si justa est peccati poena est saith Austin in his Retractations all punishment that is just is the punishment of sinne and therefore God who of his Naturall Goodnesse would not have man commit sinne out of his Justice wills man's Destruction and will not repent Sic totus Deus bonus est dum pro bono omnia est Tert. l. 2. adv Marcion saith Tertullian Thus God is entirely good whilst all he is whether Mercifull or severe is for Good minus est tantummodò prodesse quia non aliud quid possit quam prodesse his reward might seem too loose and not carry with it that Intinite valew and weight if he could not reach out his hand to punish as well as to reward and some distrust it might work in the creature That he could not doe the one if he could not doe both So â—…en sinne is permitted though God hate sinne that which brings us to the gates of Death is permitted though God hath tendered â—…s will with an Oath That he will not have us die Though he forbids sinne though he punish it yet he permitts it I have said too little Nay he could nor forbid and punish it if he did not permit it Yet permission is permission and no more nor is it such a Trojan Horse nor can it swell to that bulke and Greatnesse as to hide and conteine within it those Monsters of Fate and Necessity of Excaecation and excitation of inclination and induration which devoure a soule and cannot be resisted which bind us over unto Death when the noise is loud about us why will ye die For this permissive Will of God or his will of permission is not operative nor efficacious neither is it a remitting or slackning of the will of God upon which sinne as some pretend must necessarily follow nor is it Terminated in the thing permitted but in the permission it self alone for to permit sinne is one Thing and to be willing that sinne should be committed is another for it is written in the leaves of Aeternity That God will not have sinne committed as being most abhorrent and Contrary to his Nature and will and yet this permission of sinne is a positive Act of his will for he will permit sinne though he hath clothed it with Death to make us afraid of it and upon paine of Eternall Damnation forbids us to sinne though it were his will to permitt it These two To be willing to permit sinne and to be willing that sinne should be committed are as different in sense as in sound unless we will say That he who permits me to be wounded when I would not look to my self and hold up my buckler â—id cast that Dart at me which sticks in my sides we have been told indeed Qui volens permittit peccata certè vult voluntate permissivâ ab alijs fieri That he that is willing to permit sinne by that permissive will is willing also to have that sinne committed but it is so unsavoury so thin and empty a Speech that the least cast of the Eye pierceth through it a rotten stick whitled by unskilfull hands to make a Pillar to uphold that Fabrick of the Fancy The absolute Decree of Reprobation Take away this supporter That God will have that to be done which he permits that is That he will have that to be done which he forbids and down falls this Babel of Confusion to the ground And now what is God's will Haec est voluntus Dei sanctificatio vestra This is his will even your sanctification Saint Luke calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Counsell of God and so doth Saint Matthew 1 Thess 4.3 Luk. 7.30 his counsell his wish his desire his will his naturall syncere and constant will and it savours of much vanity and weakness to talke and dispute of his Decree which in respect of particulars must needs be to us most uncertaine when we certainly know his will when he cries to day if you will heare his voice when his Precepts his Laws are promulg'd hodie To Day to enquire what he did before all Eternity we may rest on the Goodnesse of God who would not have created us Isa 43.7 if he had not loved us I have made thee I have formed thee I have Created thee saith God for my Glory on the Mercy of God with which it could not consist to precondemne so many to Misery before they were upon the Justice of God which cannot punish without desert which could not be in the Creature before he was and on the Wisedom of God which doth nothing much lesse doth make man for nought stamp his Image upon him to deface it nor useth to make and unmake to build and pull down to plant and to digge up and to the grace of God which hath appeared unto all men that they may know him to be the True God and him whom he hath sent Christ Jesus But now we are told that some places of Scripture there are which seem to give God a greater hand in sinne then a bare and feeble and uneffective permission for in the 6. of Esay 9 10. vers God bids the Prophet Goe tell the
Pharaohs heart was hardned 3. God hardned Pharaohs heart and now let us Judge whether it be safer to interpret Gods induration by Pharaohs or Pharaohs by Gods for if God did actually and immediately harden Pharaohs heart then Pharaoh was a meer patient nor was it in his power to let the people go and so God sent Moses to bid him do that which he could not and which he could not because God had hardned him but if Pharaoh did actually harden his own heart as 't is plain enough he did then Gods Induration can be no more then a just permission and suffering him to be hardned which in his wisdom and the course he ordinarily takes he would not and therefore could not hinder sufficit unus Huic operi one is enough for this work of induration and we need not take in God for to keep to the letter in the former hakes a main principle of truth that God is in no degree Author of sin but to keep to the letter in the latter cleeres all doubts prevents all objections and opens a wide and effectual door to let as in to a cleer sight of the meaning of the former For that man doth harden his owne heart is undeniably true But that God doth harden the heart is denied by most is spoken darkly and doubtfully by some nor is it possible that any Christian should speak it plainly or present it in this hideous monstrous shape but must be forced to stick and dresse it up with some far fetcht and impertinent limitation or distinction For lastly I cannot see how God can positively be said to do that which is done already to his hand For induration is the proper and natural effect of sin and to bring in God alone is to leave nothing for the devil or man to do but to make Satan of a Serpent a very flie indeed and the soul of man nothing else but a forge and shop to work those sins in which may burn and consume it everlastingly God and nature speak the same thing many times Aristot l. 7. Eth. c. 1. though the phrase be different that wihch the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ferity and brutishnesse of nature that in Scripture is called hardnesse of heart for every man is shaped and formed and configured saith Basil to the actions of his life whither they be good or evil one sin draws on another and a second a third and at last we are carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our own accord and as it were by the force of a natural inclination till we are brought to that extremity of sin which the Philosopher calls Ferity a shaking of all that is man about us and the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate minde And such a minde had Pharaoh 1 Rom. 2.8 who was more and more enraged by every sin which he had committed as the Wolf is most fierce and cruel when he hath drawn and tasted blood For it is impossible that any should accustome themselves to sin and not fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this hardesse of heart and indisposition to all goodnesse and therefore we cannot conceive that God hath any hand in our death if we die and that dereliction Incrassation excaecation hardnesse of heart are not from God further then that he hath placed things in that order that when we accustome our selves to sin and contemn his grace blindnesse and hardnesse of heart will necessarily follow but have no relation to any will of his but that of permission and then this expostulation is real and serious Quare moriemini Why will ye die And now to conclude I have not been so particular as the point in Hand may seem to require nor could I be in this measure of Time but onely in Generall stood up in defence of the Goodness and Justice of God for shall not the Judge of all the Earth doe right shall he necessitate men to be evill and then bind them by a Law to be good shall he exhort beseech them to live when they are dead already shall his Absolute Dominion be set up so high from thence to ruine his Justice This indeed some have made their Helena but 't is an ugly and ill-favoured one for this they fight unto Death even for the Book of life till they have blotted out their names with the Blood of their Brethren This is Drest out unto them as savoury meat set for their palate who had rather be carried up to heaven in Elias fiery Charriot then to pace it thither with Trouble and paine That GOD hath absolutely Decreed the salvation of some particular men and passed sentence of Death upon others is as Musick to some eares like Davids Harpe to refresh them and drive away the Evill Spirit Et qui amant sibi somnia fingunt mens desires doe easily raise a belief and when they are told of such a Decree they dreame themselves to Heaven for if we observe it they still chuse the better part and place themselves with the sheep at the right Hand and when the Controverly of the Inheritance of Heaven is on foot to whom it belongs they do as the Romanes did who when two Cities contending about a piece of Ground made them their Judge to determine whose it was fairly gave sentence on their own behalf and took it to themselves because they read of Election elect themselves which is more indeed then any man can deny and more I am sure then themselves can prove And now Oh Death where is thy sting The sting of Death is sin but it cannot reach them and the strength of sinne is the Law but it cannot bind them for sinne it self shall Turne to the good of these Elect and Chosen Vessels and we have some reason to suspect that in the strength of this Doctrine and a groundless conceit that they are these particular men they walk on all the daies of their life in fraud and malice in Hypocrisy and disobedience in all that uncleannes and pollution of sinne which is enough to wipe out any name out of the Book of Life Hoc saxum defendit Manlius Sen. Controv. hic excidit For this they rowse up all their Forces this is their rock their fundamentall Doctrine their very Capitol and from this we may feare many thousands of soules have been Tumbled down into the pit of Destruction at this rock many such Elect Vessells have been cast away Again others miscarry as fatally on the other hand for when we speak of an absolute Decree upon particulars unto the vulgar sort who have not Cor in Corde as Austin speaks who have their Judgement not in their Heart but in their sense they soon conceive a fatall necessity and one there is that called it so Fatum Christianum the Christian mans Destiny they think themselves in chaines and shackles that they cannot Turne when they cannot be predestinate not to Turne but
excludes all stoicall fate all necessity of sinning or dying there is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or binde us over to death so that if we die it is in our volo in our will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason quia volumus because we will die We have now brought you to the very Cell and Den of death where this monster was framed and fashioned where 't was first conceived brought forth and nurst up I have discovered to you the Original and beginnings of sin whose natural issue is death and shut it up in one word the will that which hath so troubled and amuzed men in all the ages of the Church to finde out That which some have sought in Heaven in the bosom of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked Hell and made the devil the Author of it who is but a perswader a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the fancy alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to binde men much lesse the Gods themselves as 't is said what many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to finde out opening the windows of Heaven to finde it there running to and fro about the universe to finde it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own Breasts in our own heart the will the womb that conceives this Monster this Viper which eats through it and Destroyes the Mother in the Birth For that which is the beginning of Action is the beginning of sinne and that which is the beginning of sinne is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit Hilar. in Ps 118. saith Hilary there is nothing in man Nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death and In homine quic-quid est sibi nocet there is nothing in man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and Instrument of sinne That which hurts him may help him That which Circumspection and Diligence may make an Antidote neglect and Carelesness may Turn into Poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as goodness so sinne is the work of our will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither Good nor Evill I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse saith GOD by his Servant Moses I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and cursing Deut. 30.19 and what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own Hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sinne Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weake Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of Dying For the Qeustion or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law why are you weake or why are you Dead for Reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisedome of God will stand up to defend them but the Question is Why Will ye die for which there can bee no other Reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will for upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a Temple of the Lord or into that Tower of Babel and Confusion which God will Destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our Folly and madness so full of Contradictions is a wilfull sinner that though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of Death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion Tert. Apol. c. 1. That he was ever willing to Die nolumus nostrum quia malum Agnoscimus we will not call sinne ours because we know it Evill and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself 'T is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is Comfort sounds every where but we are deafe and cannot heare it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fetter'd and can make no use of it There is Balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our naturall weakness of our want of Grace and Assistance when we might know the Danger we are in we plead Ignorance when we willingly yeeld our Members servants to sinne we have learnt to say we did not doe it plenâ voluntate with a full Consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the faire Glosse of a good Intention and meaning we complaine of our Bodies and of our Souls as if the Wisedome of God had fail'd in our Creation we would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we might be good we will be evill And these Webbs a sick and unsanctify'd Fancy will soon spin out These are Receipts and Antidotes of our own Tempering devis'd and made use of against the Gnawings of Conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience begins to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and to put it to silence wee carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostoms time bound the coines of Alexander the Great or some part of Saint Johns Gospel to ease them of the Headach for by these Receits and spells we more envenom our souls and draw neerer to Death by Thinking to fly from it and are ten-fold more the Servants of Satan because we are willing to doe him service but not willing to weare his Livery and thus excusando exprobramus our Apologies defame us our false Comforts destroy us and wee condemn our selves with an Excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to passe we will take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from these First from our Naturall weakness Secondly from the Deficiency of Grace for neither can our Naturall weakness Betray nor can there be such a want of Grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much Power as to force the will and so there will be no Necessity of Dying either in respect of our Naturall weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his Grace and then in the second place that neither Ignorance of our duty nor regret or reluctancie of Conscience nor any pretence or good Intention can make sin lesse sinfull or our Death lesse voluntary and so bring Death to their Doores who have sought it out who have called it to them who are Confederate with it and are worthy to bee partakers thereof And Why Will you
persons though we be so ill qualified that an Impartiall eye beholds it and findes so much probability as points to it as to the marke of the Beast It is with many of us as it was with the slave in Tacitus Annal. 2. who being like Agrippa in outward favour and the linaments of his body did also take upon him to counterfeit his Person and being askd by Caesar How he came to be Agrippa stoutly answered As thou camest to be Caesar Nemo non benignus sui Judex there are but few or none at all that are not too favourable Judges in their owne cause and though they be slaves and servants unto sinne yet will be ready to put on the person of a Prince of a Saint of a chosen vessell and by the help of Imagination and the frequency of those pleasing and deceitfull thoughts at last verely beleeve himself to be so And if reluctancie and regret and the turning away of the Face of the soule the Conscience at the evill we doe be a marke of a Regenerate man then certainly a very Pagan a Notorious sinner may find this marke about him and though he commit sinne with greedinesse yet lay him downe and rest and sleep upon this conclusion That hating sin as he doth and committing that sinne which he thinks he hates his name may be written in Heaven and that he is also one of the Elect. But then to conclude this A strange thing it may seem That we should first wound our Conscience and then force her to powre in this Balme first not hear her speak and then bring her in to make this plea That we did not Heare her first to slight and offend her and then make her our Advocate I spake unto you and you heard not it is your happinesse Had I not spoken your sinne had been greater then it is and thus we doe it with lesse danger That 's our thought because we first told our selves That we should not doe it But call our sin what we please a sinne of Infirmity or a sinne with a halfe-will with a Half Consent with a will and no will non mutatur vocabulis vis rerum Quintil l. 9. Inst c. 1. words and names have no power to change and alter the nature of our sinne or to abate any degree of its poyson and malignity and pretend what we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sentence and Judgement is the Lords and in his sight even those sinnes which we doe with reluctancy and some contention with our selves and voluntary and without Repentance bind us over to Death Even of them who sinne though they check and condemne themselves before the Act say they would not and yet doe it this Question may be askt Why will ye die The fift and last Common pretense We come now to the last pretense which is commonly taken up by men who are willing to be evill but not willing to goe under that name and we shall but touch it for it will soon fall to pieces with a Touch. And this pretence is made up of a bad will and a good Intention or meaning which is indeed of a Good will and a bad the one being levell'd on the end the other on the means that lead unto it and the one is set up to commend and Authorize the other for as some think if the end be faire it casts a beauty and lustre upon the way that leads to it though it be as foule as sinne can make it and then when our Will is evill it is not evill because it looks further then that evill to something that is so good that by its vertue it will transforme and change the nature of it and make it like unto it self And if we look into the world we shall find that nothing hath deceived men more nothing hath wrought more mischief on the Earth then a groundlesse thought that that must needs please God which is done to a good end with a good mind and an Ardent Affection and zeal That of the two Tables we may break the one to secure and preserve the other that we may serve God when we break his will and honour him when we deface his Image that that sin which may Damne a soule and the least may doe that is not considerable if we carry it along but in our hopes to that End which we have set out with the fair title of Good though it may sometimes be a greater sinne then that which we would make use of to raise it up But we must suppose it good but yet wee cannot think it can have such a strange and more then Omnipotent virtue to change every thing even that which is most contrary to it into its self or to make Things not to be what they are or at the same time to be both good and Evill This is but a Sophisme but a cheat put upon us by the Devill for there be two things to make up a good Intention or else it is not good First it must be levell'd to a right and warrantable end and then carried to it in a due and orderly course by those means which are fitted and proportioned to that end and sure sinne is so unlike to that which is good that it were easier to dissolve the Earth and then set it upon its pillars againe then to draw them to such a subordination as to serve to advance one another what a strange sight would it be to see such a figge grow on such a Thistle to see one evill Spirit drive out another which commonly brings in seven worse then himself to see Religion brought into the World upon the Devills shoulders Besides every thing that is good whether it be a naturall Good or a Civill good or a Divine good hath its proper and peculiar means ordained and fitted to it either to procure or preserve it If I desire Health Temperance and a good diet are the means If I would have food and raymeant Industry is the meanes If I would keep my friend Fidelity is the means If I would have a well-ordered Family Discipline is the means if I would establish a Common-Wealth Prov. 20.28 Justice is the means That That alone will uphold it saith Solomon who was the wisest of Kings and knew the fittest means for that end but who ever heard of any use that sinne was ever of what end can that be proportioned to if there be any 't is not worth the nameing the end of it is Damnation Run to and fro the Earth look about in every corner of the universe search all the Records from Adam to this moment you shall never find any other For our Health it destroys it strikes us in the very Gates of life Cutts us off in the midst of our dayes and Tumbles our Gray Haires with sorrow into the Grave For this many are weak and sick amongst us 1 Cor. 2.10 and many are asleep For our food it
makes it gravell in our mouths and strips us of our rayment and drives us amongst Swine For Friendship It may tie a knot but it will fly in pieces of it self for the friendship of evill men is as false and deceitfull as themselves For our Families It raises a Tempest even in these Basons Fluctus in Simpulo Proverb Tull. 3. de leg these little bodies these petty resemblances of a Republick It sets Father against Sonne and sonne against Father makes a servant a Traytor and raises enemies within doores and draws out a Battalio in a Cottage For Common-wealths the least sinne may sooner overthrow them then the greatest set them up and of all their Glories they cannot shew any one of them that was brought in by either It may raise them for a time perhaps to some height butthen it gets up above them lies heavy upon them and presseth them downe breaks them to pieces and Buries them in their Rubbish this it doth and shall that which can doe nothing but worke desolation be a fit prop for Religion to leane on when shee seems to sink or to bring her back when the voice is that she is gone out of our Coasts Can evill be fitt for any Thing but that which is like it But we are told Tale critopus tuum qualis Intentio Bernard de modo bene vivendi c. 15. that our work doth follow the Nature and quality of our Intention True if the Intention be Evill If I build a Church to set up Idolls If I build a colledge to perpetuate my name If I be very holy on the sudden and pay my vow to usury a Crown if I do a good act in it self for some evil end for then the intention alters and changes the Nature of it and makes it like unto it self and the reason is plain because any one bad Circumstance is enough to make an Action evil but bonum ex causâ intergrâ the concurrence of all is required to denominate it good Greg. Past Cur Part. c. 4. multa non illcitavitiat animus the minde and intention doth bring in a guilt upon those Actions which are otherwise lawful but cannot make that just which is forbidden cannot answer for the breach of a Law Briefly a good intention and a good action may be joyned together and be one nor can they be good but in this conjunction but to joyn a good intention to a bad action is with Mezentius in the Poet to tie a living Body to a Carcase it may colour indeed and hide a bad Action but it cannot consecrate it it may disguise a man of Belial but it cannot make him a Saint it may be as a Ticket or a passe to carry a wicked man to the end which he sets up and there leave him more secure it may be but without doubt more wicked then before For Murder now hath no voice Faction is Devotion Sacriledge is zeal all is well because we mean well we fix up a good intention in our fancy and that is our pole-star and having that in our eye we may steer our course as we please and buldge but swell our sayles and bear forward boldly till at last we are carried upon that rock which sinks us for ever and therefore to conclude this a good intention cannot pull out the sting from death nor the guilt from sin but if we sin though it be with an honest minde we sin voluntarily in brief though we know it not to be a sin though from the Tribunal of conscience we check our selves before we commit it though we do evil but intend good though we see it not though we approve it not though we intend it not as evil yet evil it is and a voluntary evil and without repentance hath no better wages then death and this expostulation may be put up to us Quare moriemini Why will ye die for we cannot say but they are willing to die who make such hast to the pit of ruine and in their swift and eager pursuit of death do but cast back a faint look toward the land of the living We must now draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all even death it self in the will of man we cannot lay it upon any natural weaknesse nor upon the want of grace and Asistance we cannot plead ignorance nor the distaste and reluctancy of our minde nor can a good intention name that will good which is fixt on evil nor the means which we use commend and secure that end which is the work of sin and hath death waiting upon it if we die we can finde no other answer to this question Why will ye die but that which is not worth the putting up 't is quiavolumus because we will die Take all the weaknesse or corruption of our nature look upon that inexhaustible sountain of Grace but as we think dryed up take the darknesse of our understanding the cloud is from the will Nolumus intelligere we will not understand take all those sad symptomes and prognosticks of death a wandring unruly fancy 't is the will whiffs it about turbulent passions the tempest is from the will etiam quod invitus facere videor si facio voluntate facio even that which I do with some reluctancy if I do it I do it willingly all provocations and incitements imaginable being supposed no love no fear no anger not the devil himself can determine the will or force us into action and if we die it is quia volumus because we will die If death be the conclusion that which infers it is the will of man which brought sin and death into the world And this may seem strange that any should be willing to die Ask the prophanest person living that hath sold himself to wickednesse and so is even bound over to death and he will tell you he is willing to be saved heaven is his wish and eternal happines his desire as for death the Remembrance of it is bitter unto him death if you do but name it he trembles The Glutton is greedy after meat but loathes a disease the wanton seeks out pleasures but not those evils they carry with them under their wing the Revenger would wash his feet in the blood of his enemy but not be drownd in 't the Thief would steal but would not grinde in the prison but the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Ath. 2.1 the beginning of all these is in the will and he that will be intemperate will surfet he that will be wanton will be weak he that taketh the sword will perish by the sword he that will spoil will be spoiled and he that will sin will die Clem. Alex. strom 2. every mans death is a voluntary act not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of any natural appetite to perish but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his own choice who did chuse it though not in se
eyes for our advantage that by the doubtful and pendulous expectation of the hour our faith might be put to the trial whether it be a languishing dead faith or fides armata a faith in armes Tert. de Anima c. 33. and upon its watch ut semper diem observemus dum semper ignoramus that whil'st we know not when 't will be it may present it self unto us every moment to affront and awe us in every motion and be as our task-master to over-see us and binde us to our duty that we may fulfill our work and work out our salvation with fear and trembling that our whole life may be as the vigils and Eve and the houre of his coming the first houre of an everlasting Holy-day Lastly there is no reason why it should be known neither in respect of the good nor of the evil for the good satis est illis credere it is enough for them that they beleeve they walk by faith saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.7 and in their way behold the promises and comminations of the he Lord and in them as in a glasse behold heaven and hell the horrour of the one and the glory of the other and this sight of the object which they have by the eye of faith is as powerful to work in them obedience as if Heaven it self should fly open and discover all unto them to the true beleever Christus venturus Christ to come and Christ now coming in the clouds are in effect but one object for Faith sees plainly the one in the other the last hour in the first the World at an end in the prediction But to Evil and wicked men to men who harden themselves in sin Jud. Ep. v. 10. no evidence is cleer enough and light it self is darknesse what they naturally know and what they can preach unto themselves in that thy corrupt themselves and give their senses leave to lead them to all uncleannesse whilst reason which should command is put behinde and never hearkned to are as bruit Beasts in spite of all they have of man within them and if they beleeve his coming and will not turn back and bow and obey their Reason they would remain the same beasts or worse though they knew the very hour of his coming After all those judgements Pharaoh was still the same after the rivers turned into blood after frogs and lice after the plague on man and beast after every plague which came thick as line upon line precept upon precept after all these the effect and conclusion was Exod. 10.27 Pharaoh hardned his heart was Pharaoh still the same Tyrant till he was drowned in the Red-sea Balaam though the Asse forbad his folly and the Angel forbad it though the sword was drawn against him and brandisht in his very face that he bowed on the ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse vpon them and death upon himself for he was slain for it with the sword Exod. 31.8 what evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knows well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come and he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breath vengeance in his face for howsoever we pretend ignorance yet the most of the sins which we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the foolish man that the lips of the Harlot will bit like a Cockatrice he knows it well enough and yet will kisse them tell the intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived the cruel oppressor will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eats bread who knows not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice who knows not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death and yet how many seek it out and are willing to to travail with it though they die in the birth cannot the thought of judgement move us and will the knowledge of a certain houre awake us will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and will he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined houre were upon record No 2 Tim. 3.13 they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the devil avoid though they knew the very houre I might say though they now saw him coming in the clouds For wilt not thou beleeve God when he comes as neer thee as in wisdom he can and his pure Essence and Infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou shalt believe him if he would please to come so neere as thy sick Fancy would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dreame of a sick and ill affected mind that complaines of want of Light when it shines in thy face for that Information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more Miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same Lethargiques which we were in a word if his doctrine will not move us the Knowledge which hee will not Teach will have little force and though it were written in Capitall Letters at such a time and such a day and in such an Houre the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this Death in sinne till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam Conclus and so conclude and we may learn even from our Ignorance of the Hour thus much That as his coming is uncertaine so it will be sudden as we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we doe not think on 't Tert. Apol. c. 33. cum Totius mundi motu cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tert. with the shaking of the whole world with the Horror and amazement of the Universe every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did waite for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1. Of Travell coming upon a Woman with Child 1 Thess 5.2,3 Luk. 21.35 2. Of a Thief in the night and 3ly Of a snare Now the Woman talks and is cheerfull now she layeth
us made like unto God exalted by his Humiliation raysed by his descent magnified by his minoration Candidati Angelorum lifted up on high to a sacred emulation of an Angelicall estate with songs of joy and Triumph we remember it and it is the joy of this Feast fratres Domini the Brethren of Christ Thus with a mutual aspect Christs humility looks upon the exaltation of our Nature and our exaltation looks back again upon Christ and as a well made picture lookes upon him that looks upon it so Christ drawn forth in the similitude of our flesh looks upon us whilst we with joy and Gratitude have our eyes set upon him They answer each other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and are parallels Christ made like unto men and again men made like unto him so like that they are his Brethren Christ made like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things will fill up the office of a Redeemer and men made like unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things which may be required at the hands of those who are Redeemed his obedience lifted him up to the crosse and ours must lift us after him and be carried on by his to the End of the world And as we find it in Relatives they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a kind of Convertency in these Terms Christ and his Brethren Christ like unto his Brethren and these Brethren like unto Christ Christ is ours and we are Christs saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. and Christ Gods And in the last place the modification the Debuit It behoved him carries our thoughts to those two common Heads or places the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Convenience and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Necessitie of it and these two in Civil Acts are one for what becomes us to doe we must doe and t is necessary we should doe it what should be done is done and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians because the law supposeth obedience Impossibilitas juris which is the Complement and perfection of the law and this Debuit looks equally on both both on Christ and his Brethren if in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto his Brethren which is the benefit Heaven and Earth will conclude men and Angels will inferre Debemus that it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ which is the Duty My Text then is divided equally between these two Termes Christ and his Brethren That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is First his Divine 2. his Humane Nature 3. the union of them both for 1. we cannot but make a stand and enquire quis ille who he was who ought to doe this and in the 2. place enquire of his Humane nature For we find him here flesh of our flesh and Bone of our Bone Assimilatum made like unto us what can we say more Our Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things and then will follow the union of them both exprest in this passive fieri in this his assimilation and the Assumption of our Nature which all fill us with admiration but the last rayseth it yet higher and should rayse our love to follow him in his Obedience quod debuit that it behoved him that the dispensation of so wonderfull and Catholique a benefit must be Translated tanquam ex officio as a matter of Duty The end of all is the end of all Our salvation the end of our Creation the end of our Redemption the end of this assimilation and the last end of all the glory of God which sets an oportet upon Man as well as upon Christ and then his Brethren and he will dwell together in unity Onely here is the difference our obligation is the easiest t is but this to be bound and obliged with Christ to set our hands to that bond which he hath sealed with his Bloud no heavy Debet to be like unto him and by his condescension so low to us to raise our selves neerer to him by a holy and diligent imitation of his obedience which will make up our last part and serve for application And in the first place we aske with the Prophet quis ille who is he that cometh who is he that must be made like unto us what is done and who did it of so neere a relation that we can hardly abstract the one from the other and if one eye be leveld on the fact the other commonly is fixed on the hand that did it Magnis negotiis ut magnis Comediis edecumati apponuntur actores Great Burdens require equall strength to beare them matters of moment are not for men of weak abilities and slight performance nor every Actor for all parts To lead Captivity Captive to bring prisoners to Glory to destroy Death to shut up the gates and mouth of Hell these are Magnalia wonderfull things not within the sphere of common Activity We see here many sonnes there were to be brought unto Glory at the 10. v. but in the way there stood sinne to Intercept us the feare of Death to Enthrall us and the Divell ready to devour us and we what were we Rottennesse our mother and wormes our Brethren lay us in the ballance lighter then vanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men fallen below the condition of men lame and impotent not able to move one step in these wayes of Glory living Dead men quis novus Hercules who will now stand up for us who will be our Captaine we may well demand quis ille who he is Some Angel we may think sent from Heaven or some great Prophet No inquest is made in this Epistle neither the Angels nor Moses returned The Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no wise Glorious Creatures indeed they are Caelestiall spirits but yet Ministring spirits in all purity serving the God of purity saith Naz not fit to intercede but ready at his Beck o Nazianz. Orat. 43. with wings indeed but not with Healing under them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but second lights too weak to enlighten so great a Darknesse their light is their Obedience and their fairest Elogium Ye Angels that doe his will they were but finite Agents and so not able to make good an infinite losse they are in their own Nature mutable and so not fit agents to settle them who were more mutable more subject to change then they not able to change our vile bodies much lesse able to change our soules which are as immortall as they but are lodgd in a Tabernacle of Flesh which will fall of it self and cannot be raised againe but by his power whom the Angels worship In prison we were and Cui Angelorum written on the doore miserable Captives so deplorably lost that the whole Hierarchie of Angels could not help us And if not the Angels not Moses sure though he were neerest to God and saw as much of his Majesty as Mortality was able to bear
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
with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things we have with Christ and the Apostle doth not onely tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt puts up a quomodo non challenges as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him give us all things And this question addes energy and weight and emphasis and makes the position more positive the affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should more possible for a City upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or Hell to raise it self up to his Mercy-seat than for him to with-hold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome Naz. Or. 36. his Justice his Goodnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his will to deny us any thing In brief if the Earth be not as Iron the Heavens cannot be as Brasse God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable and when he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive when he descends Mercy descends with him in a ful shower of Blessings to make our Souls as the Paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouze up our Hope and in this Light in this Assurance in this Heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the question against all Doubts all Feares all Temptations that may assault us He that sparede not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things The Conclusion And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the Crosse and from thence he looks down and speaks to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit Cathedra docentis the Crosse on which he suffered was the Chaire of his profession and from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience and perfect Obedience an exact art and method of living well drawn out in severall lines so that what was ambitiously said of Homer that if all Sciences were lost they may be found in him may most truly be said of his Crosse and Passion that if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World yet now nailed to the Crosse Let us then with Love and Reverence look upon him whothus looks upon us put on our Crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrys every Vertue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord and draw the picture of a Crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth for Gods Glory and our Salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thred are linked together in the same bond of Peace I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runs and it runs on evenly in a stream of love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of Glory may come in If you seek Salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your Salvation Thou may'st cry loe here it is or loe there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily exercise the Zelot in the Fire and in the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the profane Libertine in Hell it self Then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the glory of God which shines most gloriously in a Crucified Christ and an Obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the markes of the LORD JESUS To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him that is Believe in his name that is be faithfull to him that is love him and keep his Commandements which is our conformity to his Death and then he will give us what will he give us he will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive him take in Christ take him in his Shame in his Sorrow in his Agony take him hanging on the Crosse take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our Teares with his Blood drag our Sin to the Bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its Face at the fairest presentment it can make and then naile it to the Crosse that it may languish and faint by degrees and give up the Ghost and die in us and then lye down in peace in his Grave and expect a glorious Resurrection to eternall life where we shall receive Christ not in Humility but in Glory and with him all his Riches and Abundance all his glorious Promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternall life HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask of whom speaketh S. John this or who is he that speaks it for we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meanes the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse tells us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God Leâ— 26.11,12 that they might be his people Will ye see his Robes
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
hungry was spet upon was whipt was nayld to the Crosse which were as so many parts of that discipline which taught him to be mercifull to be mercifull to them who were tempted by hunger because he was hungry to be mercifull to them who were tempted by poverty because he was poore to be mercifull to those who tremble at disgrace because he was whipt to be mercifull to them who will not yet will suffer for him who refuse and yet chuse tremble and yet venture are afraid and yet dye for him because as man he found it a bitter Cup and would have had it passe from him who in the dayes of his flesh offer'd up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares for mortall men for weak men for sinners pertinacissimè durant quae discimus experientiâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ariâ—… Anâ—… post l 2. c. xix This experimentall knowledge is so rooted and fix'd in him that it cannot be removed now no more then his naturall knowledge he can as soon be ignorant of our actions as our sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher Experience is a collection of many particulars registred in our memory and this experience he had and our Apostle tells us didicit he learnt it and the Prophet tells us he was vir sciens infirmitatum Es 53. a man well read in sorrowes acquainted with grief and carryed it about with him from his Cradle to his crosse and by his Fasting and Tentation by his Agony and bloudy sweat by his precious Death and Buriall he remembers us in famine in Tentation in our Agony he remembers us in the houre of death in our grave for he pitties even our dust and will remember us in the day of judgement We have passed through the hardest part of this Method and yet it is as necessary as the end for there is no coming to it without this no peace without trouble no life without death Not that life is the proper effect of death for this cleare streame flowes from a higher and purer fountaine even from the will of God who is the fountaine of life which meeting with our obedience which is the conformity of our will to his maketh its way with power through fire and water as the Psalmist speaks through poverty and contumilies through every cloud and tempest through darknesse and death it self and so carryes it on to end and triumph in life I was dead that was his state of humility but I am alive that 's his state of Glory and is in the next place to be consider'd Vivo I am alive Christ hath spoken it who is truth it self and we may take his word for it for if we will not believe him when he sayes it neither should we believe if we should see him rising from the dead And this his life and resurrection is most conveniently placed in that Non dabis thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption for what stronger reason can there be found out in matters of faith then the will pleasure of that God who brings mighty things to pass to this end Saint Paul cites the 2. Psalme and S. Peter the 16. and in this the humble soule may rest and behold the object in its glory and so gather strength to rayse it self above the fading vanities of this world and so reach and raise to immortality What fairer evidence then that of Scripture what surer word then the word of Christ He that cannot settle himself on this is but as S. Judes cloud carryed about with every wind wheel'd and circled about from imagination to imagination now raysed to a belief that it is true and anon cast down into the midst of darknesse now assenting anon doubting and at last pressed down by his own unstablenesse into the pit of Infidelity He that will not walk by that light which shines upon him whilst he seeks for more must needs stumble and fall at those stones of offence which himself hath laid in his own way why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead to life If such a thought arise in a Christian Acts 26.8 reason never set it up I verily thought my self saith Saint Paul in the next verse but it was when he was under the Law and he whose thoughts are staggered here is under a worse law the law of his members his lusts by which his thoughts and actions are held up as by a law is such a one that studies to be an Atheist is ambitious to be like the beasts that perish and having nothing in himself but that which is worse than nothing is well content to be annihilated For why should such a temptation take any Christian why should he desire clearer evidence why should they seek for demonstration or that the Resurrection of Christ should be made manifest to the eye That is not to seek to confirm and establish but to destory their faith for if these truths were as evident as it is that the sun doth shine when it is day the apprehension of them were not an act of our faith but of our knowledg and therefore Christ saith Tertullian shewed not himself openly to all the people at his Resurrection ut fides non mediocri praemio destinata Tert. Apol. non nisi difficultate constaret that faith by which we are destined to a crown might not consist without some difficulty but commend it self by our obedience the perfection and beauty whereof is best seen in making its way through difficulties and so Hilary Habet non tam veniam quà m praemium Hil. l. 8. de Trin. ignorare quod credis not perfectly to know what thou certainly believest doth so little stand in need of pardon that it is that alone which drawes on the reward For what obedience can it be for me to assent to this that the whole is greater then the part that the Sun doth shine or any of those truths which are visible to the eye what obedience is it to assent to that which I cannot deny but when the object is in part hidden in part seen when the truth we assent to hath more probability to establish it then can be brought to shake it then our Saviour himself pronounceth Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed Besides it were in vain he should afford us more light who hath given us enough for to him that will not rest in that which is enough nothing is enough When he rained down Manna upon the Israelites when he divided the red sea wrought wonders amongst them the Text sayes For all this they sinned still and believed not his wondrous works The Pharisees saw his miracles yet would have stoned him they saw him raise Lazarus from the dead and would have killed them both The people said He hath done all things well yet these were they that crucified the Lord of life Did any
ever but Christ living infuseth life into us that the bonds of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place for it is impossible it should hold them and you may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell for how can light dewll in darknesse how can purity mix with stench how can beauty stay with horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and to be both true yet this is such a contradiction which unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Heaven and earth may passe away but Christ lives for evermore and the power and vertue of his life is as everlasting as everlastingnesse it self And againe There was a pale Horse Rev. 6.8 and his name that sate on him was death and he had power to kill with the sword with hunger and with the beasts of the Earth but now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger and sling us down to rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour to be the Death of death it self Death was a king of terrors and the Feare of death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 brought us into servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures lesse delightfull and our virtues more tedious then they are made us tremble and shrink from those Heroique undertakings for the truth of God but now they in whom Christ lives and moves and hath his Being as in his own dare look upon him in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertull and are ready to meet him in his most dreadfull march with all his Army of Diseases racks and Tortures and as man before he sinned knew not what Death meant and Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so doe they with death and having that Image restored in them are secure and feare it not for what can this Tyrant take from them Their life that is hid with Christ in God It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keys in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing that troubled S. Austin to define what it is we call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as Omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses the law of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate this law by which we are bound over unto death because it is soprofitable and advantageous to us it was threatned it is now a promise or the way unto it for death it is that lets us in that which was promis'd it was an end of all it is now the beginning of all it was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it we may say it is the first point and moment of our After-eternity for t is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them for we live or rather labour and fight and strive with the world and with life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and presse forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our soules and we from our miseries and Tempâ—…tions and this living everliving Christ gathers us together again breaths life and eternity unto us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the maine Articles of our faith 1. Christs death 2. his life 3. his eternall life and last of all his power of the keys his Dominion over hell and death we will but in a word fit the Ecce the behold in the Text to every part of it and set the seale to it Amen and so conclude And first we place the Ecce the behold on his death he suffer'd and dyed that he might learne to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and rayse thee from both and wilt thou learne nothing from his compassion wilt thou not by him and by thy own sinnes and miseries which drew from him teares of Bloud learne to pitty thy self wilt thou still rejoyce in that iniquity which troubled his spirit which shed his bloud which he was willing should gush out of his heart so it might melt thine and work but this in thee to pitty thy self we talk of a first Conversion and a second and I know not what Cycles and Epicycles we have found out to salve our irregular motion in our wayes to blisse if we could once have compassion on our selves the work were done and when were you converted or how were you converted were no such hard questions to be answer'd for I may be sure I am converted if I be sure that I truly pitty my self shall Christ onely have compassion on thy soule But then again shall he shed his bloud for his Church that it may be one with him and at unity in it self and canst thou not drop a teare when thou seest this his body thus rent in pieces as it is at this day when thou seest the world the love of the world break in and make such havock in the Church oh 't is a sad contemplation will none but Christ weep over Jerusalem Secondly let us look upon him living and not take our eye from off him to fill and feed and delight it with the vanities of this world with that which hath neither life nor spirit with that which is so neer to nothing with that which is but an Idol Behold he liveth that which thou so dotest on hath no life nor can it prolong thy life a moment who would not cease from man whose breath is in his nostrills and then what madnesse is it to trust in that which hath no breath at all shall Christ present himself alive to us and for us and shall we lay hold of corruption rottennesse and when heaven opens it self to receive us run from it into a charnell-house and so into hell it self But then in the third place Behold he lives for evermore and let not us bound and imprison our thoughts
30 makes as one with him makes us as Christ speaks his brother and sister and mother This is our affinity this is our honour this is in a manner our Divinity on earth For God and man saith Synesius have but this one onely thing common to them both and that is Heb. 13.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do good To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is pleased This then may well go for one part or limb of Religion And in the next place as in the visitation of the fatherlesse and widows all charity to our Brother is implyed so all charity to our selves is shut up in this other in keeping our selves unspotted of the world And this phrase in keeping our selves is very significant and that its weight for those spots which so defile us and make us such Leopards are not so much from the world as from our selves as a cheat is not onely from the cunning of the Impostor but from the want of wisdom and experience in him that is deceived 't is Ignorance that promotes the cheat that draws the power and faculty into Act makes him that hath a subtle wit injurious and t is an evil heart that makes the world contagious for wisdom prevents a cheat and watchfulnesse a spot This world in it self hath nothing in it that can defile us for God saw all that he made was good Tertul. despectaculis c. 2. and it was very good but Nihil non est Dei quod Deum offendit there is nothing by which we offend God but is from God that beauty which kindles lust is his gift that gold which hath made that desolation upon the earth was the work of his hands he gives us the bread we surfet on he filleth the cup that intoxicates us the world is the Lords and all that therein is but yet this world bespots us not because 't is his who cannot behold much lesse could make any unclean thing We must therefore search out another world and you need not travell far 1 ep 2.16 for you may stay at home and finde it in your selves S. John hath made the discovery for you in his first Epistle where he draws the map of it and divides it to our hands into three provinces or parts the first the lust of the flesh where unlawfull pleasures sport themselves secondly the lust of the eyes where covetousnesse builds her an house thirdly and the pride of life which whets a sword for the Revenger erects a throne for the Ambitious raiseth up a triumphant Arch for the vain-glorious this is the world saith S. John even a world of wickednesse this inverteth the whole course of Nature makes the wheel of the Creation move disorderly this world within us makes that world without us an enemy makes beauty deceitfull wine a mocker riches a snare works that into sinne out of which we might have made a key to open the gates of Heaven drops its poyson under every leaf upon every object and by its mixture with the world ingenders that serpent which spets the poyson back again upon us and not onely bespots James 1.15 and defiles but stings us to death for when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and when sinne is finished it defiles a man and leave those spots behinde it which deface him and gives him a thousand severall shapes the Schools call it maculam peccati the blot and stain of sinne which is of no positive reality but a deprivation and defect of beauty in the soul and varies as shadows do according to the diversity of those bodies that cast it We see then that there is a world within us as well as without us and when these two are in conjunction when our lust joyns it self to the things of this world as the prodigall is said to do to a master in a farr countrey then follows pollution and deformity and as many spots as there be sins which are as many as the hairs of our head Beauty brings in deformity riches poverty plenty brings leanness into the soul and therefore to conclude this to keep our hearts with diligence and to keep our selves unspotted of the world is a main and principall part of our Religion and will keep us members of Christ and parts of the Church when prophanenesse and coverousnesse which is Idolatry shall have laid her discipline her honor in the dust A man of tender bowels and a pure heart is as the Church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against him By this we imitate that God we worship we draw neer unto him as neer as flesh and mortality will permit our escaping the spots and pollutions of this world makes us followers of that God who marks every spot we have and is not touched sees us in our blood and pollution and is not defiled beholds all the wickednesse in the world and yet remains the same for ever even goodnesse and purity it self this makes us partakers as Saint Peter speaks of the Divine nature in a word 2 Pet. 1.4 to be in the world and tread it under our feet to be in Sodom and to be a Lot on the hills of the robbers and do no wrong to be in the midst of snares and not be taken to be in Paradise Import and see the Apple pleasant to the sight to be compast about with glorious objects of delight and pleasures and not to Taste or Touch or Handle is the neerest assimilation that Dust and Ashes that mortall man can have to his Creator I may well then call these two the Essentiall parts of Religion Antigoni Imaginem â—…otegenes obliquam fecit ut quod corpore deerat picturae potius deesse videretur tantumque eam partem oslendit quam toram poterat ostendere Plin. Nat. Hist l. 35. c. 11. of which as you have taken a short severall view so be pleased to observe also their mutuall dependance and necessary connexion for if either be wanting you spoil the whole peece for neither will my charity to my brother entitle me to Religion if I be an enemy to my self nor my abstaining from evil Canonize me a saint if my goodnesse be not diffusive on others and if we draw out in our selves the picture of Religion but with one of these we do but like the painter who to flatter Antigonus because he had but one eye Drew but the half face For first to visit the Fatherlesse and widdows i. e. to be plenteous in good works ista sunt quasi incunabula pietatis saith Gregory Augustin these are the very beginings and nurcery of the love of God and there is no surer and readier step to the love of God whom we have not seen then by the love of our Brethren whom we see Gregor Tunc ad alta charitas mirabiliter surgit cum ad ima proximorum se misericorditer attrahit Then our charity begins to improve itself
we suffer our selves to be over-swayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never doe what we know well enough and are otherwise enabled to Now to walk in Christ takes in all these Faculty Power Will Knowledge Love Then you see a Christian in his walk rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the Counsellor and points out This is the way walk in it and the will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the understanding bows it self and as a Queen drawes with in those inferior faculties the senses and Affections when it opens my eye to the wonders of Gods Law and shutts it up by covenant to the vanity of the world when it bounds my touch and tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing when it makes the senses as windows to let in life not death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the world and the Devill and lifting up their Heads to let the King of Glory in when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a Peace and Harmony setting our love to piety our anger to sinne our feare to Gods wrath our hope to things not seen our sorrow to what is done amisse and so frameth in us nunc modulos Temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as Saint Ambrose speakes now the even measures of Temperance now a Psalm of piety now the Threnody of a broken heart even those Songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven and God himself delight in and all these are vitually included in this one word to walk in Christ and if any of these be wanting what proffers soever we make what fancies soever we entertaine what empty conceptions soever we foster yet flesh and blood cannot raise it self on these wings of wind nor can we be more said to walk then they who have been dead long agoe For so farre is the bare knowledge of the way from advancing us in our walke that it is a thing supposed and no where under the command as it is meerly speculative and ends in it self no more then to see or feele or heare and so essentiall is this motion of walking to a Christian that in the language of the Spirit wee are never truely said to know till wee walke and that made imperfect knowledge which receives those things which concern our peace no otherwise then the eye doth colours or the eare sounds never being once named or mentioned in the Scripture but with disgrace If any man say I know him and keep not his Commandements he is a lyar 1 Joh. 2.4 so that to define our walking by Knowledge and speculation is a kind of Heresy which rather deserves an Anathema and should be drove out of the Church with more zeal and earnestness then many though grosse yet silly impertinent errors which pâ—sse abroad about the world but under that name For 1. this speculative knowledge is but a naked assent and to more and hath nothing of the will and the understanding is not an arbitrary faculty but necessarily apprehends objects in that shape and form they represent themselves nor is it deceived even when it is deceived I mean in things which concern our walk for the bill and accusation against us is not that we doe not but that we will not understand nolumus intelligere ne cogamur facere saith Aug. we wilnot know our way for no other reason but because we are most unwilling to take the paines and walk in it And therefore in every Christian peripatetique there must be something of the Seraphin and something of the Cherubin there must be heat as well as light love as well as knowledge for love is active and will pace on Hugo de Sancto vict where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze Amor intrat ubi cognitio foris stat love is active and will make a battery and forcible entrance and take the Kingdom of heaven by violence whilst Speculation stands without and looks upon it as in a Map What talke we of knowledge and speculation It is but a look a cast of the mindes eye and no more and doth but place us as God did Moses once upon mount Nebo to see that spirituall Canaan which we shall never enjoy and then what comfort is it to know what Justification is and to want that hand of a quick and active faith which alone can lay hold on Christ to talke of Election and never make it sure to dispute of Paradice and have no title to it to speak of nothing more then Heaven and be an heire of Damnation And then what a fruitlesse mock-knowledge is that which sets God a walking whilst we sleep and dreame makes the Master of the Vineyard work and sweat and stands idle it self all the day long which hath a full view of what God hath done before all Time and no power at all to move us to do any thing in this our day when we are well seen in the Decrees of God and little move in our own Duties when we can follow God in all his ways and tell how he worketh in us and are afraid of that feare and trembling with which we should work out our Salvation can speak largely of the Power of Gods Grace and resist it of perseverance and fall more then seven times a day This knowledge I say is but a bare assent and so far from being enjoyn'd us that as the case now stands ignorance were the safer choice and rather then thus to know him we may say with the Apostle Let him that is ignorant 1 Cer. 14.38 be ignorant still For in the second place as we use it it workes in us at the most but a weake purpose â—f minde a faint velleity a forc'd involuntary approbation which we would shake off if we could as we do a friend which speaks what we would not hear and calls that poyson which is as Honey to our tast For who can see such sights and not in some degree be taken with them Who can look upon the Temple and not ask what Buildings are these who can see the way to life and not approve it but you know I may purpose to rise and yet fold my hands to sleep I may commend the way and not walke in it Nay how often do we pray Give us ever of this Bread of life and yet labour most for this bread that perisheth which we at once revile and embrace and speak evill of it because we love it when heaven is but as a Picture which we look upon and wonder and refuse and hath no better place of reception then that common Inne of all wild and loose imaginations the fancy Christ is the way it is in every mans Creed and if this would make us walkers what a multitude of Sectaries what a Herd of Epicures what an assembly of Atheists what a congregation of fools I had almost said what a Legion of Devills might goe under that
with and the horror of those Paths in which we sported we see in our flight a banishment in every sinne a Hell and in our Turne a Paradice Divers words we have to expresse the true nature of Repentance but none more usuall more full and proper then this of Turning for it includes all the rest It is more then a bare knowledge of our sinnes more then Griefe more then an acknowledgement or confession more then a desire of change more then an endeavour for if we doe not Turne a Termino in Terminum from one Terme or state to another from every sinne we now embrace to its contrary If we do not fly and loath the one and rest and delight in the other our knowledge of sinne is but an accusation our Grief is but a frail and vanishing displacency and our Teares are our recreation Iugentibus lachrymae quietis recreationis loco sunt Mos Maimmon Doct. perplex l. 3. c. 4 s. our desires but as Thoughts and our Endeavours proffers but if wee Turne and our turne be reall these Instruments or Antecedents These disposing and preparing Acts must needs be so also true and reall we talke much of the knowledge and sense of our sinne when we cannot be ignorant of it of grief when we have no feeling of consession and acknowledgement when the Heart is not broken of a deâ—…re to be Good when we resolve to be evill of our endeavour to leave off our sinnes when we seed and nourish them and even hire them to stay with us In udo est Maenas et Attin our Repentance is languid and faint our knowledge without observation our grief without compunction our acknowledgement without trepidation our desire without strength and our endeavour without Activitie but they are all compleat and made perfect in our turne and Conversion If we turne from our sinnes then we know them and know them in their Deformity and all those Circumstances which put so much horror upon them If we Turne our head will be a Fountaine of Teares Lament 1.16 and the Eye will cast out water our confession will be loud and hearty Our desire eager and impatient and our Endeavours strong and earnest and violent This turn is as the hinge on which all the rest move freely and orderly Optima poenitentia nova vita saith Luther the best and truest Repentance is a new life a turne carries all the rest along with it to the end The end of our knowledge of our griefe of our acknowledgement the end of our desires and endeavours For we know our sinnes we bewaile them wee acknowledge them wee desire and endeavour to leave them in a word we turne that we may be saved 1. The Knowledge of our sinnes And first it includes the knowledge of our sinnes for he that knows not his malady will neither seek for oure nor admitt it Isid Pelusiot l. 1111. ep 149. he that knows not the danger of the place he stands in will not turne his face another way he that dwells in it as in a Paradise will look upon all other that yeeld not the same delight as upon Hell it self he that knows not his wayes are evill will hardly go out of them Malum notum res est optima saith Luther 'T is a good thing to know evill for the knowledge of that which is evill can have no other end but this To drive us from it to that which is Good when sinne appeares in its uglinesse and monstrosity when the Law and the wrath of God and Death it self display their Terrors before our face That face is more then brasse or Adamant that will not gather blackness and Turne it self But this Prescript To know sinne one would think should rather be tendred to the Heathen then Christians Act 15 20. Quandâ— hoe Factum non est quando reprehensum Quando non Pâ—…missum Cic. â—…o M. Caeliâ— Rom. 1.31 To them some sinnes were unknowne as Revenge Ambition Fornication and therefore they are enjoyn'd to absteine from it and yet even those which the light of Nature had discovered to them they did committ though they knew That they who did commit them were worthy of death But to Christians it may seem unnecessary for they live in the Church which is spoliarium vitiorum Ethic. 3. c. 22. a place where sin is every day revil'd and disgraced where it is Anatomized and the bowells and entrayles every sinew and veine of it showne I should say our Church were reformed indeed if we did commit no sinnes but those we doe not know many things we doe saith the Philosopher we may say most sinnes we commit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not which reason perswades but which the flesh betrays us to not to which our knowledge leads us but our sensuallity Stat contraratio Reason when we sinne is not so foyled or beaten downe but it stands up against us and opposeth us to our face It tells the Miser that Covetousness is Idolatry The wanton that Lust is that fire which will consume him the Revenger that he diggs his owne Grave with his sword it is indeed commonly said That reason is corrupt but the Truth is that which we call corrupt reason is our passion or sensuality for that cannot be reason which directs us to that which is unreasonable The sense doth too oft get the better but can never silence or corrupt it so as to call evill good or good evill For that is the language of the Beast of the sensuall part and for ought I see we may as well assigne and Entitle our Good Actions to our sensitive part when we keep as our bad to our Reason when we break the Law Reason never yeelds and our knowledge is still the same In Lust it commends Chastity in Anger Meeknesse in Pride Humility when we surfeit on those delights which sinne brings with it our Reason plainly tell us That they are deadly Poyson We need not then be over-sollicitous to secure this Ingredient the knowledge of our sinnes to bring it into the Recipe of our Repentance for there be but few which we know not fewer which we may not know if we will if we will but take the paines to put it to the question either before the Act what we are about to doe or after what it is we have done for it is a Law a plaine Law we are to try it by not a dark riddle and if we doe mistake it is easy to determine what it was that did worke and frame and polish the cheat Not a sinne which comes with open mouth to devour us and swallow up our Peace but is of that Bulke and corpulency that we cannot but see it and though we may peradventure here Turne away our eye yet we cannot put it out Our knowledge will not forsake us and our Conscience follows our knowledge which may sleep but cannot die in us which is an evill spirit that all the
Love for as my Joy is to have so my Grief is to want what I love and ours may have no better principle then the love of our selves and then it comes à Fumo peccati from the troublesome smoake which finne makes or rather from the very Gall of Bitternesse a Grief begot betwixt Conscience and Lust betwixt the Deformity of sin and the pleasure of sinne betwixt the apprehension of a reall evill and the flattery of a seeming good when I am troubled not that I have sinned but that it is not lawfull to sinne much disquieted within me that that sin which I am unwilling to fly from is a Serpent that will sting me to death That there is Gravell in the Bread of deceit That that unlawfull pleasure which is to me as sweet as Honey should at last bite like a Cockatrice That the wayes in which I walk with delight should lead unto Death That that sinne which I am unwilling to fling off hath such a Troope of Serjants and Executioners at her heels and so it comes à Fumo Gehennae from the smoke of the bottomlesse Pitt from feare of punishment which is farre from a Turne but may prepare mature and ripen us for Repentance But then it may come from the Feare of God wrought in us by the apprehension of his Justice and Mercy and Dominion and Power to Judge both the quick the dead and this Griefe is next to a Turn the next and immediate cause of our Conversion when out of the admiration of his Innocence Majesty and Goodness I am willing to offend my self for offending him and offer up to him some part of my substance the Anguish of my soul the Groanes of Contrition and my teares Anastas Bib. pairum which are ex ipsa nostrâ essentia sicut sanguis martyrum from our being and essence and are offer'd up as the blood of Martyrs Confession of sinne 3. And this Grief will in the third place open our mouthes and force us to a Confession and acknowledgement of our sinnes I mean a sad and serious Acknowledgement which will draw them out Bas in Ps 37. and not suffer them to be pressed downe and settle like foule and putrifyed matter in the bottome of the soule as Basil expresseth it For the least grief is vocall the least displacencie will open our mouthes yea where-there is little sense or none we are ready to complaine and because St. Pauls Humility brought him so low look for an Absolution if we can say what we may truly say but not with St. Pauls Spirit That we are the chiefest of sinners For nothing more easy then to libell our selves where the Bill takes in the whole world and the Best of Saints as well as the worst of sinners How willing are we to confesse with David That we are conceived in sinne and borne in Iniquity how ready to call our selves the Children of wrath and workers of all unrighteousness what delight doe we take to miscall our virtues to finde Infidelity in our Faith wavering in our Hope Pride in our Humility Ignorance in our Knowledge coldness in our Devotion and some degrees of Hostility in our very love of God what can the Devil our great Adversary and Accuser say more of us then we are well pleased to say of our selves But this Acknowledgement is but the product of a lasy knowledge and a faint and momentary disgust and it comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speaks not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. Art c. â— c. 15.1 it is but the calves of our lips not the Sacrifice of our Hearts we breath it forth with noise and words enough we make our sinnes Innumerable more then the haires of our head or the Sands of the Sea-shore but bring us to a particular account and we find nothing but Ciphers some sinnes of daily Incursion some of sudden subreption some minute scarce visible sinnes but not the Figure of any sinne which we think will make up a Number he that will confesse himselfe the chiefe of Sinners upon the most gentle remembrance upon the meekest reprehension will be ready to charge you as a Greater or peradventure Take you by the Throat But this is not that Confession which ushers in Repentance or forwards and promotes our Turne it is rather an Ingredient to make up the Cup of stupefaction which we take downe with Delight and then fall asleep and dreame of safety even when we are on the Brinke and ready to fall into the pitt David 't is true Aug. Hom. 4.1 In his Tribus Sâ—llabis Flammâ— sacrificii ecram â—emino ascenctit in coelum said no more but peccavi and his sinne was Taken away Tantum valent Tres syllabae saith St. Aust such force there was in Three Syllables and can there be virtue in Syllables no man can imagine there can but Davids Heart saith he was now a sacrificing and on these three Syllables the name of that sacrifice was carryed up before the Lord into the highest heavens If our knowledge of our sinnes be cleane and affective if our Grief be reall then our confession and acknowledgement will be hearty our Bowells will sound as a Harpe our Inwards will boyle and not rest our heart will tremble and be Turned within us our Sighes and our Groanes will send forth our words as sad messengers of that Desolation Is 16.11 Job 30.27 which is within Our heart will cry out as well as our Tongue My heart my heart is prepared saith David which is then the best and sweetest Instrument when 't is broken 4. Desire 4. And these three in the fourth place will raise up in us a desire secondly an endevour to shake off these feares and this weight which doth so compasse about and infold us Heb. 12.1 for who is there that doth see his sinnes and weep over them execrate them by his Teares Fletus humanarum necessiatum verecunda execratio Sen. Câ—nt 8.6 and condemn them by his Confession that shall see sin clothed with Death The Law a killing letter the Judge frowning Death ready with his Dart to strike him through who would be such a Beast as to come so neere and Hell opening her mouth to take him in who will not long and groane and travaile in paine and cry out to be delivered from this body of Death Quissub tali conscientiâ c who would live under such a Conscience which is ever galling and gnawing him what Prisoner that feels his Fetters would not shakethem off certainly he that can stand out against all these Terrours and Amazements he that can thwart and resist his knowledge wipe off his Teares and fling off his sorrow and baffle and confute his owne acknowledgement he that can slight his own conscience mock his Distaste Trifle with the wrath of God which he sees neer him and play at the very gates of Hell he that is in profundis in
in 't Death onely is terrible to the living and then there can be no stronger argument that thou art alive then this that thou doubtest thou art dead already And list up thy head too Thou despairing and almost Desperate sinner whom not thy many sins but thy unwillingness to leave them hath brought to the ' Dust of Death who first blasphemest God then drawest the punishment neerer to thee then he would have it and art thy own Hang-man and Executioner not that Pardon is deny'd but that thou wilt not â—ue it out Look about thee and thou mayest see Hope comming towards thee and many Arguments to bring it in An Argument from thy soul which is not quite lost till it be in hell and if thou wilt possesse it it shall not be lost An argument from thy will which is free and mutable and may Turne to good as well as evill An argument from the very Habite of sin which presseth thee down which though it be strong yet is it not stronger then the grace of god and the activity of thy will It is very difficult indeed but the Christian mans work is to overcome difficulties An argument from those sholes and multitudes of offenders who have wrought themselves out of the power of death and the state of Damnation from many who have committed as many sinnes as thou but this one of Despaire from those Publicans and sinners who have entered into the Kingdome of Heaven An argument from thy own argument which thou so unskilfully turnst against thy self for it is no argument 't is but a weak peremptory conclusion held up without any Premises or Reason that can enforce it For Despaire is but Peâ—itio Principii proves and concludes the same by the same makes our sinnes greater then Gods Mercies because they are so and Repentance impossible because it is so Though the Soule be not quite lost till it be lost for ever though the will be free and Grace offers it self though the voice of God be Turne Though multitudes have Turn'd and that which hath been done may be done againe Though the Argument be no Argument yet despaire doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against what reason â—oever hold up the Conclusion Thou sayst That God cannot forgive thee if he cannot then he is not mercifull neither is he just and so he is not God and then what needst thou despair we begin in sinne proceed to Blasphemy and so end in despaire But a God he is and mercifull but thy sinnes ae greater then his Mercies which is another Blasphemy and brings in something more Infinite then God and takes Gods office from him and dispences his Mercies of which he alone is Lord and shuts up his rich Treasury of goodness when he is ready and willing to lay it open and so ruins us in despight of God But thou saist Though canst not repent which is thy greatest error and the main cause of thy despaire for when the heart is thus hard it beats off all succours that are offered all those meanes which may be as Oyle to supple it Thou canst not is not true Thou shouldst say Thou wilt not Repent for if thou wilt thou maist for thou canst not tell whether thou canst repent or no because thou never yet putst it to the Tryall but being in the pit didst shut the mouth of it upon thy self and stop it up with a false opinion of God and of thy self with dark notions and worthlesse conceits of Impossibilities Behold God calls after thee againe and againe his Grace as a devout Writer speaks is most officious to take thee out his Mercy ready to embrace thee if thou do not stubbornly cast her off Behold a multitude of penitents who have escaped the wrath to come and beâ—ken to thee by their example to follow after them and retire from these Hellish thoughts and conclusions into the same shadow and shelter where they are safe from those false suggestions and fiery darts of the enemy and if this will not move thee then behold the blood of an immaculate Lamb streaming down to wash away thy sins and with them thy despair to raise thee from thy Grave this sepulchre of rotten bones baneful Imaginations that thou mayest walk before him in the land of the living to beget Repentance and to beget a hope to pity us in our tentations who was sensible of his own Hebr. and to drive despair from off the face of the earth For why should the name of a Saviour and despair be heard of in the same coasts if it breath within the curtains of the Church 't is not Christ but the Devil and our sensuality that brings it in The end of his coming was to destroy it for this he came into the world for this he died Ask Christ saith Saint Basil what he carries on his Shoulders it is the lost sheep Ask the Angels for whom they rejoyce it is for a sinner that repenteth Ask God for what he is so earnest as to call and call again It is for those who are now in their evil wayes Ask the Shepherd and he will tell you he left ninty and nine to find but one lost sheep his desire is on us and he had rather we would be guided by his Shepherds-staff then be broken by his rod of iron if thou wilt return returne his wisdom hath pointed out to it as the fittest way His justice yeelds and will look friendly on thee whilst thou art in this way and mercy will go along with thee and save thee at the end If thou wilt thou mayest Turn and if thou wilt Turn thou shalt not despair or if a cloud overspread thee it shall vanish at the brightnesse of mercy as a mist before the Sun Here then is Balm of Gilead Turn ye Turn ye a loving compassionat call to turn even those who despair of turning The second hinderance presumption a Doctrine of singular comfort but this Balm is not for every wound nor will it drop and distill upon him who goeth on in his sin for mercy is as strong drink and wine to be given to them who are ready to perish and to such who have grief of heart Prov. 31.6 Many times it falls out by reason of our presumption and hardnesse of heart that there is more danger in pressing some truth then in maintaining errours care not for the morrow is as Musick to the sluggard and he hears it with delight and folds his hands to sleep If we commend labour the covetous hath encouragement enough to drudgon to rise up early and lie down late to gain the meat that perisheth if we but mention a worship in spirit and truth the sacrilegious person takes up his hammar and down goes ceremony and order and the Temple it self how many solifidians hath free grace occasioned how many Libertines hath the indiscreet pressing of the freedom we have by Christ raised the Gospel it self we see hath
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
World thus to play with danger To seek Death first in the Errors of ourlife and then when we have run out our Course when Death is ready to devour us to look faintly back upon light For the Endeavors of a man that hath wearyed himself in sinne can be but weak and faint like the Appetite of a dying man who can but think of meat and loath it The later we Turne the lesse able we be to Turne the further we stray the lesse willing shall we be to look back For sinne gathers strength by delay devotes us unto it self gaines a dominion Over us holds us as it were in Chaines and will not soon suffer us to slip out of its power when the will hath captivated it self under sinne a wish a sigh a Thought is but a vaine thing nor have they strength enough to deliver us One Act begets another and that a Third many make up a habit and evill Habits hold us back with some violence What mind what motion what Inclination can a man that is drown'd in sensuality have to God who is a Spirit A man that is buried in the Earth for so every Covetous man is to God who sitteth in the highest heavens He that delights in the breath of Fools to the Honor of a Saint Here the further we go the more we are In That which is done once hath some affinity to that which is done often and that which is done alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Rhet. c. 11. saith Aristotle when an arme or Limbe is broke it may have any motion but that which was naturall to it and if wee doe not speedily proceed to cure it will be a more difficult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set it in its right place againe that it may performe its natural functions now in sinne there is a deordination of the will there is a luxation of that faculty hence weakness seiseth upon the will and if we neglect the first opportunity if we doe not rectifie her betimes and turne her back againe and bend her to the rule it will be more and more infeebled every day move more irregularly and like a disordered clock point to any figure but that which should shew the Houre and make known the time of the day Wee may read this truth in Aged men saith Saint Basil Orat. ad Ditescentes when their body is worne out with Age and there is a generall declination of their strength and vigour the mind hath a malignant influence on the body as the body in their blood and youth had upon the mind and being made wanton and bold with the Custome of sinne heightens and enflames their frozen and decay'd parts to the pursuit of pleasures past though they can never overtake them nor see them but in Essigie in their Image or Picture which they draw themselves They now call to minde the sinnes of their youth with delight and act them over againe when they cannot Act them as youthfull as when they first committed them They have milk they thinke in their Breasts and marrow in their bones they periwigg their Age with wanton behaviour Their Age is Threescore and Ten when their speech and will is but Twenty They boast of what they cannot Act and would be more sinfull if they could and are so because they would It is a sad contemplation how we startled at sinne in our youth and how we ventured by degrees and engaged our selves how fearfull we were at first how indifferent afterwards how familiar within a while and then how we were setled and hardened in it at the last what a Devill sinne was and what a Saint it is become What a Serpent it was and how now we play with it we usually say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ibid. Custome is a second Nature and indeed it follows and imitates naturall motion It is weake in the beginning stronger in the Progresse but most strong and violent towards the end Transit in violentiam voluntas antiqua That which we will often we will with eagernesse and violence Our first on-set in sinne is with feare and Reluctation wee then venture further and proceed with lesse regret we move forwards with delight Delight continues the motion and makes it customary and Custome at last drives and bindes us to it as to our Center vitia insolentiora renascuntur saith Seneca Sin growes more insolent by degrees first flatters then commands after enslaves and then betrays us First gains consent afterwards works delight at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shamelesness in sinne Jere. 6.15 Were they ashamed They were not ashamed nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil magis in naturâ suâ laudare se dicebat quam ut ip sius verbo utar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suet. Caligula a senselesnesse and stupidity in sinne and Caligula's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stubbornnesse and perverseness of disposition which will not let us Turne from sinne For by neglecting a timely remedy vitia mores fiunt Our evill wayes become our manners and common deportment and we look upon them as upon that which becomes us upon an unlawfull Act as upon that which we ought to do Nay peccatum lex sinne which is the Transgression of the Law is made a Law it self Saint Austin in his Confessions calls it so Lex peccati est violentia consuetudinis That Law of sinne which carries us with that violence to sinne is nothing else but the force of long Custome and Continuance in sinne For sinne by Custome gaines a Kingdome in our soules and having taken her seat and Throne there Lex alia in membris meis repugnavit legi mentiâ—… 〈◊〉 Româ— Lex n. peccati est violentia consuetudinis quâ trahitur tenetur etiam invitus animus eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur Aug. l. 8. Confess c. 5. promulges Lawes If she say Goe we goe and if she say Doe this we doe it Surge inquit Avaritia she commands the Miser to rise up early and lie downe late and eate the bread of sorrow she sets the Adulterer on fire makes him vile and base in his owne eyes whilst he counts it his greatest honor and preferrment to be a slave to his Strumpet She drawes the Revengers sword she feeds the intemperate with poyson And she commands not as a Tyrant but having gain'd Dominion over us she findes us willing subjects shee Holds us Captive and we call our Captivity our liberty Her poyson is as the poyson of the Aspick she bites us and we smile and Die and Feele it not 2. The danger of delay in respect of God Secondly It is dangerous in respect of God himself whose call we regard not whose counsels we reject whose patience we dally with whose Judgements we slight to whom we wantonly turn the back when he calls after us to seek his sace and so tread that mercy under foot which should save us
For as the Philosopher well tells us that we are not onely beholding to those who accurately handled the points and conclusions in Philosophy but to those also and even to Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who did light upon them by chance and but glaunce upon them by allusion so may we receive instruction even from these Hypocrites who did repent tanquam aliud agentes so slightly as if they had some other matter in hand We must fast and put on sackcloth with Ahab we must hear the word with Herod we must beg the prayers of the Church with Simon Magus but finding we are yet short of a true turn we must presse forward and exactly make up this divine science that our turn may be real and in good earnest that it may be finished after his form who calls so loud after us that it may be brought about and approved to him in all sincerity and truth Thus much of the second property of Repentance The third property of our Turn It must be total and Vniversal The third is it must be poenitentia plena a total and Universal conversion a turn from all our evil wayes For if it be not total and Universal it is not true A great errour there is in our lives and the greatest part of mankinde are taken pleased and lost in it to argue and conclude à parte ad totum to take the part for the whole and from the slight forbearance of some one unlawful act from the superficial performance of some particular duty to infer and vainly arrogate to themselves a hatred to all and an universal obedience as if what Tiberius the Emperor was wont to say of his Half-eaten-meats were true of our divided our parcel and curtail'd Repentance Suet. Tiber. Cas cap. 34. Omnia eadem habere quae totum every part of it every motion and inclination to newnesse of life had as much in it as the whole body and compasse of our Obedience and there were that mutual agreement and sympathy of duties in a Christian as Physitians say there are of the parts of a living Creature the same sapor and taste in a disposition to Goodness as in a Habit of goodness The same Heat and Heartiness in a Thought as in a constant and earnest perseverance in a velleity as much activity as in a will as much in a Pharisees pale countenance as in Saint Pauls severe discipline Hippocrat de locis in Homine and mortification and as Hippocrates speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the least performance all the parts of our obedience in a meer approbation a desire in a desire a will in a leaving one evil way a turning rom all and cutting off but one limb or part the utter destruction of the whole body of sinne And therefore as if God did look down from Heaven and from thence behold the children of men and then saw how we turn'd oen from luxury to covertousnesse another from superstition to prophanesse a third from Idols to sacriledge as if he beheld us turning from one sin to another or from some great sin not another from our scandalous and not from our more Domestick Retired and speculative sins he sends forth his voice and that a mighty voice turn ye turn ye not from one by-path to another not from one sin and not another but turn ye turn ye that you need turn no more turn ye from all your evil wayes Curt. l. 6. c. 3. In corporibus aequis nihil nociturum medici relinquunt Physitians purge out all noxious humours from sick and crazy bodies and so doth our great physitian of soules sanctifie and cleanse them that he may present them to himself not having spot or wrinckle Eph. 5.26,27 or any such thing that they may be Hely and without Blemish For to turn from one sin to another from prodigality to sorditude and love of the world from extreme to extreme is to flee from a Lion to meet a Bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremities are equalities Amos 5.19 though they are extremes and distant yet in this they agree that they are extreames and though our evil wayes be never so far asunder yet in this they meet that they are evil Superstition dotes prophanesse is mad covetousnesse gathers all prodigality scatters all rash anger destroyes the innocent soolish compassion spares the guilty We need not ask which is worst when both are evil for sin and destruction lie at the door of the one as well as of the other To despise prophesying and to hear a Sermon as I would a song not to hear and to do nothng else but hear to worship the walls and to beat down a Church to be superstituious and to be prophane are extremes which we must equally turn from down with superstition on the one side and down with prophanesse on the other down with it even to the ground Because some are bad let not us be worse and make their sin a motive and inducement to us to run upon a greater because some talk of merits be afraid of good works because they vow chastity pollute our selves because they vow poverty make hast to be rich because they vow obedience speak evil of Dignities It is good to shun one rock but there is as great danger if we dash upon another Superstition hath devoured many but prophanesse is a gulph which hath swallowed up more Phod cod 77 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Photius in his censure of Theodorus Antiochenus for that which is opposite to that which is worst is not good for one evil stands in opposition to another and both at their several distance are contrary to that which is good nor can I hope to expitate one sin with another to make amends for my Oppression with my wasteful expences to satisfie for bowing to an Idol by robbing a Church for contemning a Priest by hearing a Sermon for standing in the way of sinners by running into a conventicle for I am still in the seat of the scornful this were first to make our selves worthy of death and then to run to Rome or Geneva for sanctuary first to be villaines and men of Belial and at last turn Papists or Schismaticks in both we are what we should not be nor are our sins lost in a faction this were nothing else but to think to remove one disease with another and to cure the cramp with a Fever Turn ye turn ye whither should we turn but to God In hoc motu convertit se anime adunitatem et identitatem in this motion of turning Gerson the soul strives forward through the vanities of the world through all extreames through all that is evil though the branches of it look contrary wayes to unity and Identity to that good which is ever like it self the same in every part of it and is never contrary to it self strives forward to be one with God as God is one in us and as he
is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same God in all his commands not forbidding one sin and permitting another as his wayes are equal so must our turn be equal not from the right hand to the left not from superstition to prophanesse not from despising of prophesie to Sermonhypocrisy not from uncleannesse to faction not from Riot to Rebellion but a turn from all Extreams from all evil a collection and levelling the soul which before lookt divers wayes and turning her face upon the way of truth upon God alone If we turn as we should if we will answer this earnest and vehement call we must turn from all our evil wayes we use to say that there is as great a miracle wrought in our conversion as in the Creation of the world but this is not true in every respect for man though he be a sinner yet is something hath an understanding will affections to be wrought upon yet as it is one condition required in a true miracle that it be perfect so that there be not onely a change but such a change which is absolute and exact that it may seem to be as it were a new Creation that water which is changed into wine may be no more water but wine tht the blind man do truly see the lame man truly walk and the dead man truly live so is it in our turn and conversion there is a total and perfect change the Adulterer is made an Eunuch for the kingdom of Heaven the intemperate comes forth with a knife at his throat the revenger kisseth the hand that strikes him when we Turn sinne vanisheth the Old man is dead and in its place there stands up a new Creature In the 15. to Galatians Saint Paul speaking of the works of the flesh which are nothing but sins and having given us a catalogue reckoned up many of them by which we might know the rest at last concludes Of which I tell you before as I have told you often that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God where the Apostles meaning is not that they who do all these or most of these or many of these or more then one of these but they who die possest of any one of these shall have no place in the kingdom of God and of Christ for what profit is there to turn from one sin and not all when one sin is enough to make us breakers of the whole Law and so liable to eternal death It is a conclusion in the Schools that whosoever is in the state of any one mortal sin and turns not from it whatsoever he doth do he pray or give almes bow the knee before God or open his hand to his brother be it what it will in it self never so fair and commendable it is forth with blasted and defaced and is so far from deserving commendations that it hath no other wages due to it but death I cannot say this is true for so far as it is agreeable with reason so far it must needs be pleasing to the God of reason so far as it answers the rule so far is it accepted of him that made it nor can we think that Regulus Fabricius Cato and the rest who do convitium facere Christianis upbraid and shame many of us Christians were damned for their justice their integrity their honesty Hell is no receptacle for men so qualified were there nothing else to prepare and fit them for that place but yet most true it is that if we be indued and beautified with many vertues yet the habit of one sin is enough to deface them to draw that night and darknesse about them that they shall not be seen to put them to silence that they shall have no power to speak or plead for us in the day of trial though they be not sins not bright and shining sins for I cannot see how darknesse it self should shine yet they shall become utterly unprofitable they may peradventure lessen the number of the stripes but yet the unrepentant sinner shall be beaten For what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is under Arrest nay what performance can acquit him who is condemned already Reason it self stands up against it and forbids it for what obedience is that which answers but in part which follows one precept and runs away from another and then what imperfect monsters should the kingdome of Heaven receive a liberall man but not chast a Temperate man but not honest a Zealous man but not Charitable a great Faster and a great Impostor a Beadsman and a Theese an Apostle a great Preacher and a Traytor such a Monsterous mishapen Christian cannot stand before him who is a pure uncompounded Essence the same in every Thing and Every Where One and the same even Unity it self For againe every man is not equally inclin'd to every sinne This man loves that which another loathes and he who made the Devil fly at the first Encounter may entertaine him at a second he that resisted him in lust may yeeld to him in Anger He who will none of his delicates may fayle at his Terrors and he that feared not the roaring of the Lyon may be ensnared by the flattery of the Serpent For the force of Temptations is many times quickned or Dull'd according to the Naturall Constitutions and severall complexions of men and other outward Circumstances by which they may work more coldly or more vehemently upon the will and Affections A man of a dull and Torpid disposition is seldom Ambitious a man of a quick and active Spirit seldome Idle the Cholerick man not obnoxious to those evills which melancholly doth hatch nor the Melancholick to those which Choler is apt to produce As hard a matter it may be for some men to commit some one sinne as it is for others to avoid it as hard a matter for the Foole in the Gospel to have scattered his Goods as it was for the other Foole the Prodigall to have kept them as hard a matter for some to let loose their Anger as it is for others to curbe and bridle it some by their very temper and Constitution with ease withstand lust but must struggle and take paines to keep down their Anger Some can stand upright in Poverty but are overthrown by wealth some can resist this Temptation by slighting it but must beat and macerate themselves must use a kind of violence before they can overcome another which is more sutable and more flatters their Constitution And this we may find by those darts which we cast at one another those uncharitable Censures we passe For how do the Covetous condemne and pity the Prodigal and how doth the Prodigal loath and scorne the Covetous How doth the Luke-warme Christian abominate the Schismaticque and the Schismaticque call every man so if he be not as mad as himself How doth this man bless himself and wonder that any should fall into such or
such a sin when he that commits it wonders as much that he should fall into the Contrary For the Enemy applies himself to every Humour and Temper and having found where every man lies open to invasion there strives to make his Battery where every man is most assaultable and there enters with such forces which we are ready to obey with a sword which the Revenger will snatch at with Riches which the Covetous will digge for with a dish of dainties which the Glutton will greedily devour and what bait soever we taste of we are in his Snare he hath his severall Darts and if any one pierce the heart he is a Conqueror For he knows the wages of any one sinne unrepented is death We are indeed too ready to flatter and comfort our selves in that sinne which best complies with our Humour ever more to favour and Pardon our selves in some sinne or other and to make our obedience to one precept an Advocate to plead for us and hold us up in the breach of another I am not as other men are there are more Pharisees then one that have spoke it Some sinne or other there is either of Profit or pleasure or the like to which by Complexion we are inclin'd which we too oft dispense with as willing it should stay with us as Austin confesses of himself that when he prayed against Lust he was not very willing to be heard or that God should too soon divorce him from his beloved sinne At the same time we would be Good and yet evill we would partake of life and yet joyne with that which tends unto death we would be converts and yet wantons we would Turne from one sin and yet cleave fast to another Oh let me Hugg my Mammon saith the Miser and I le defy lust let me take my fill of love saith the wanton and I le spurn at Wealth Let me wash my feet in the blood of my enemies saith the Revenger and all other pleasure I shall look upon and loath I will fast and pray saith the Ambitious so they may be wings to carry me to the highest place where I had rather be then in heaven it self Every man may be induced to abstaine from those sinnes which either hinder not or promote that to which he is carried by the swindge of this naturall Temper and disposition And as every Nation in the times of Darkness had its severall God which they worshipt and neglected others so every man almost hath his beloved sinne which he cleaves to and rather then he will Turne from it will fling off all respect and familiarity to the rest will abstaine from evill in this kind so he may take in the other which is pleasant to him will be for God so he may be for Baal too will not Touch so he may Tast will not look on this forbidden Tree so he may pluck and Tast of the other And this is to sport and please our selves in that evill way which leads to Death For what though I scape the Lion if the Beare teare me in peeces what is it to leane our hand and rest upon the forbearance of some sinnes if a Serpent bite us what is it to Turne from many sinnes and yet be too familiar with that which will destroy us Saul wee know spared many of the Amalekites when Gods command was to put all to the sword and the event was he spared one too many for one of them was his Executioner God bids us destroy the whole Body of finne to leave no sinne reigning in our mortall Bodies and if we favour and spare but one that one if we Turne not from it will be strong enough to Turne us to Destruction For againe It is Obedience onely that commends us to God and that as exact and perfect as the equity of the Gospel requires and so every degree of sinne is rebellion God requires totam voluntatem the whole will for indeed where it is not whole it is not at all it is not a will and integram poenitentiam a solid entire universall Conversion True Obedience saith Luther non transit in genus deliberativum doth not demurr and deliberate I may add non transit in genus judiciale doth not take upon it self to determine which Commandement is to be kept and which may be omitted what in it is to be done and what is to be left undone For as our Faith is imperfect if it be not equall to that Truth which is revealed so is our obedience imperfect when 't is not equall to the command and both are unavailable because in the one we stick at some part of the Truth reveal'd and in the other come short of the command and so in the one distrust God in the other oppose him what is a sigh if my murmuring drown it what is my Devotion if my Impatience chill it what is my Liberality if my uncleanness defile it what are my Prayers if my partiall obedience turne them into sinne what is a morsell of bread to one poore man when my oppression hath eaten up a Thousand what is my Faith if my malice make me worse then an Infidell The voice of Scripture the Language of Obedience is to keep all the Commandements the language of Repentance to depart from all Iniquity For all the Virtues in the world cannot wash off the guilt of one unrepented sin Shall I give my first-born for my Transgression saith the Prophet the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule shall I bring the merits of one Saint the supererogations of another and add to these the Treasure of the Church shall I bring my Almes my Devotion my Teares all these will vanish at the guilt of one sinne and melt before it as the wax before the Sun for every sinne is as Seneca speaks of Alexanders in killing Calisthenes Crimen aeternum Sen. de Benef. an everpentance can redeeme For as oft as it shall be said that Alexander slew so many thousand persians it will be reply'd he did so but withall he slew Calisthenes He slew Darius 't is true and Calisthenes too He wan all as farre as the very Ocean 't is true but he killed Calisthenes and as oft we shall fill our mindes and flatter our selves with the forbearance of these or those sinnes our Conscience will check and take us up and tell us but we have continued in this or that beloved sin and none of all our performances shall make so much to our comfort as one unrepented sinne shall to our Reproach And now because in common esteeme one is no number and we scarce count him guilty of sin who hath but one fault Let us well weigh the danger of any one sinne be it Fornication Theft or Covetousnesse or the like be it whatsoever is called sinne and though perhaps we may dread it the lesse because it is but one yet we sahll find good reason to Turne from it because it is sinne
do our evils which are covered by Repentance revive againe by sinne Not onely my Almes are devoured by oppression my Chastity defloured by my uncleanness my Fasting lost in my luxurie but my former sinnes which were scattered as mist before the Sun return again and are a thick cloud between me and the bright and shining mercy of God Not that there is any mutability in God no God doth not repent of his gifts but we may of our Repentance and after pardon sinne again and so bring a new guilt upon our soules and not onely that but vengeance upon our Heads for the contempt tempt of his Mercy and slighting of his former pardon For nothing can provoke God to Anger more then the abuse of his goodness and Mercy nor doth his wrath burn more violently then when 't is first quencht and allaid with the Teares of a sinner and afterwards kindled againe by his sinne Then he that was well pleased to be reconciled will question and condemne us and yet make good his Promise he that forgat our sinnes will Impute our sinnes and yet be Truth it self For remission of sinnes is a continued Act and is and remains whist the condition which is required remains but when we faile in that the door of Mercy which before was wide open unto us is shut against us for should he Justify and forgive him who breaks his Obligation and returns to the same place where he stood out against God and fought against him shall he be reconciled to him who will be againe his Enemy if the righteous relapse his righteousness shall not be mention'd Ez. 18.21.24 nor shall the wickedness of the wicked be mentioned if hee repent for the change is not in God but in our selves aliter aliter judicat de homine aliter et aliter disposito he speaks in Mercy to the Penitent but in anger to the relapsed sinner The Rule of Gods Actions is constant and like himself and in this particular this is the Rule this his Decree To forgive the Penitent and punish the relapsed Sinner So hee forgives the sinner when he repents and punisheth him when he falls away And why should it be put to the Question whether God revoke his first Pardon Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest as Tertull. speakes if we think he did it not or cannot doe it yet what profit is it that that should remain which doth not profit nay which doth aggravate our sin or what Pardon is that which may remaine firme when he to whom it was given for his revolt may be Turned into Hell when the Servant falls down he is moved with Compassion Matth. 18. and looseth him and forgives him the debt But when he takes his fellow servant by the Throat he delivers him to the Tormenters till he should pay the utmost farthing because God is ever like unto himself constant to his Rule and he forgives and punisheth for this reason because he is so and cannot change For as we begg our Pardon upon promise so doth he grant it upon supposition of perseverance for he doth not pardon us our sinne that we should sinne again and if we break our Promise we cut selves have made a Nullity of the Pardon or made it of as little Virtue and Power as if it had never been For as the Schools tell us that the Sacraments are Protestationes fidei the Protestations of our Faith so is our Prayer for Pardon a Protestation and promise of Repentance which is nothing else but a continued obedience we pray to God To cast our Sinnes behinde his back with this Resolution to extirpate them and upon this Condition God seales our Pardon which we must make a motive not to sinne and fall back but to a new life and Constant obedience If we Turne and Turne back againe he may Turne his face from us for Ever Againe in the Third Place we have reason to arme our selves against Temptation after Pardon because by our relapse we doe not onely add sin to sin but we are made more inclinable to it and anon more familiar with it and so more averse and backward to the Acts of Piety Tert. l. 1. ad uxorem c. 8. for as Tertullian observes viduitas operosior virginitate that it is a matter of more difficulty to remaine a Widow then to keep our Virgin not to tast of pleasure then when we have tasted to forbeare so it is easier to absteine from sin a first then when we are once engaged when we have tasted of that Pleasure which commends it And then when we have loath'd it for some bitterness it had for some misery some Disease it brought along with it and when that 's for got look towards it again and see nothing but those smiles and allurements which first deceived us we like and love it more then we did before it gave us any such distast and at last can walk along with it though wrath be over our heads and Death ready to devour us and what we did before with some reluctancy we do now wiht greediness we did but lap before with some feare and suspition at last we take it downe as the Oxe doth water And what an uneven distracted course of life is this to sin and upon some distast to repent and when that is off since againe and upon some pang that we feel Repent again and after some ease meet and joyn with that which hath so pleased which hath so troubled us The Stoick hath well observed homines vitam suam amant simul oderunt some men at once both hate and love themselves now they send a divorce to sinne anon they kisse and embrace it now they banish it anon recall it Now they are on the wing for Heaven anon cleaving to the Dust now in their Zenith and by and by in their Nadir Saint Ephreem the Syrian expresseth it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calls it a falling rise or a rising fall a course of life consisting of Turning and Returning in rising and relapsing in sinning and repenting because men find it more for their ease deprecari crimen quam vacare crimine to begg Pardon for sinne committed then to forbeare committing it after and so sinne and Repent and sin againe and as solemnly by their sinne renounce their Repentance as they doe by their Repentance recant their sinne We deale with our beloved sinne as Maecenas did with his Wife Sen. ep 114. quae cum unam habuit millies duxit saith Seneca who had but one yet married her and divorced her from him and then married her againe a Thousand times First we look upon the painted face and Countenance of sinne and are taken as it were with her Eye and Beauty and wee draw neere and embrace it but anon the worm gnaweth us our conscience is loud and troublesom and then we would put it from us when it flatters we are even sick
with love and when it turns its worst face towards us we are weary of it and have an inclination a velleity a weak and feeble desire to shake it off our soul loveth it and loatheth it we would not and we will sin and all upon presumption of that mercy which first gave us ease upon hope of forgiveness quis enim timebit prodigere quod habebit posteà recuperare Tertul. de pudicitia c. 9. for who will be tender and sparing of that which he hopes to recover though lost never so oft or be careful of preserving that which he thinks cannot be irrecoverably lost so that Repentance which should be the death of sin is made the security of the Sinner and that which should reconcile us to God is made a reproach to his mercy and contumelious to his goodness in brief that which should make us his friends makes us his enemies we turn and return we fall and rise and rise and fall till at last we fall never to rise again And this is an ill signe a signe our Repentance was not true and serious but as in an intermitting fever the disease was still the same onely the fit was over Gravedinosos quosdam quosdam tor ninosor 〈◊〉 mus non quia semper sed quia saepesunt Tul. Tusc q. l. 4 Galen de fanitat Tuendâ or as in an Epilepsie or the falling sickness it is still the same is stil in the body though it do not cast it on the ground and such a Repentance is not a Repentance but to be repented of by turning once for all never to turn again or if it be true we may say of it what Galen said of his art to those that abuse it who carry it not and continue it to the end perindè est ac si omnino non esset it is as if it were not at all nay it is fatal and deleterial It was Repentance it is now an accusation a witness against us that we would be contrà experimenta pertinaces even against our own experience taste that cup again which we found bitter to us and run into that snare out of which we had escaped and turn back into those evil wayes where we saw death ready to seise upon us and so run the hazard of being lost for ever And these four are the necessary requisities Concl. and properties of Repentance it must be early and sudden upon the first all For why should any thing in this world stop and stay us one moment in our journey to a better is not a span of time little enough to pay down for Eternity it must be true and sincere for can we hope to binde the God of Truth unto us with a lie or can a false Turn bring us to that happinesse which is real it must be perfect and exact in every part for why should we give him lesse then we should who will give us more then we can desire or how can that which is but in part make us shine in perfection of Glory Last of all it must be constant and permanent for the crown of life is promised unto him alone who is faithful unto death Turn ye Turn ye now suddenly in reality and not in appearance Turn ye from all your evil wayes Turn never to look back again and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint render it to turn for ever and so to presse forward in the wayes of righteousnesse till we are brought to that place of rest where there is no evil to Turn from but all shall turn to our Salvation Thu much of the exhortation Turn ye Turn ye the next is the Reason or Expostulation For why will you die O House of Israel THE NINTH SERMON PART V. EZEKIEL 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye from your evill wayes For why will you die Oh House of Israel WHY will you die is an Obtestation or Expostulation I called it a reason and good reason I should do so for the moriemini is a good reason that we may not die a good reason to make us turn but tendered to us by way of expostulation is another reason and puts life and efficacy into it makes it a reason invincible unanswerable The Israelite though now in his evil wayes dares not say He will die and therefore must lay his hand upon his mouth and Turn For God who is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free from all passion being to deal with man subject to passion seems to put it on exprimit in we have here a large field to walk over but we must bound our discourse within the compass of those observations which first offer themselves and without any force or violence may naturally be deduced from these words and we shall first take notice of the course and method God takes to turn us he draws a sword against us he threatens death and so awakes our fear that our fear might carry us out of evil our wayes Secondly that God is not willing we should die Thirdly that he is not any way defective in the administration of the means of life Last of all that if we die the fault is onely in our selves and our own will ruines us Why will ye die O house of Israel We begin with the first the course that God takes to turn us he asks us why will ye die in which we shall passe by these steps or degrees First shew you what fear is Secondly how usefull it may be in our conversion Thirdly shew it not onely useful but good and lawful and enjoyned both to those who are yet to turn and those who are converted already The fear of death the fear of Gods wrath may be a motive to turn me from sin and it may be a motive to strengthen and uphold me in the wayes of righteousnesse God commends it to us timor iste timendus non est and we need not be afraid of this Fear Quare moriemini Why will ye Die And death is the King of terrours to command our fear that seeing death in our evil wayes ready to destroy us Job 18.16 we might look about and consider in what wayes we were and for feare of death turn from sin which leads unto it for thus God doth Amorem timore pellere subdue one passion with another drive out love with fear the love of the world with the fear of death present himself unto us in divers manners according to the different operations of our affections sometimes with his rich promises to make us Hope and sometimes with fearful menaces to strike us with fear sometimes in glory to encourage us and sometimes in a tempest Clem. Alexand. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whirle-winde to affright us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in the dispensation of his goodnesse that if hope drive us not to the promises yet fear might carry us from death and death from sin and so at last beget a Hope
and delight and ravish us with the glory of that which before we could not look upon Now what feare is we may guess by Hope for they are both hewed as it were out of the same Rock and Expectation is the common matter out of which they are framed as Hope is nothing else but an Expectation of that which is good so Feare saith the Philosopher hath its beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. 2. c. 6. from the Imagination of some approaching Evill where there is Hope there is Feare and where there is Feare there is Hope For he that doth but feare some evill may befall him retaines some Hope that he may escape it and he that hopes for that which is desirable stands in some feare that he may not reach and possess it so that you see Hope and Feare though they seem to look at distance one upon the other yet are alwayes in Conjunction and are levell'd on the same Object till they lose their Names and the one end in Confidence the other in Despaire Now of all the Passions of the Mind Feare may seem to be the most improfitable for the Wise-man will tell us it is nothing else but the Betraying of those succours which reason offereth Wisd 17.11 Curt. and the Historian speaking of the Persians who in their flight flung away their weapons of Defence shuts up all with this Epiphonema adeo pavor ipsa auxilia formidat such is the nature of Feare that it disarmes us and makes us not onely runne from Danger but from those Helps and Succours which might prevent and keep it off It matures and ripens mischief anticipates Evill and multiplies it and by a vaine kind of Providence gives those things a being which are not spe jam praecipit hostem saith the Poet It presents our Enemie before us when he is not neere and latcheth the Sword in our Bowels before the Blow is given And indeed such many times are the effects of Feare but as Alexander sometimes spake of that fierce and stately Steed Bucephalus qualem isti equum perdunt Curt. l. 1. dum per imperitiam mollitiem uti nesciunt What a brave Horse is spoil'd for want of manning so may we of Feare a most usefull Passion is lost because we doe not mannage and order it as we should for we suffer it to distract and amaze when it should poyse and byas us we make it our Enemy when it might be our Friend to guard and protect us and by a Propheticall presage or mistrust keep off those Evills which are in the approach ready to assault us for prudentia quaedam Divinatio est our Prudencie Vit. Pompon Attici which always carries with it Feare is a kind of Divination Our Passions are as a winde and as they may thrust us upon the Rocks so they may drive and carry us on to the Heaven where we would be All is in the right placing of them passiones aestimantur objectis our passions are as the objects are they look on and by them they are measured and either fall or rise in their esteeme to feare an Enemy is cowardize to Feare labour is slothfulnesse to feare the face of man is something neere to baseness and servility to be afraid of a command because it is difficult is disobedience but Pone Deum saith Saint Austin place God as the Object and to Feare him not onely when he shines in Mercy but when he is girded with Majesty to feare him not onely as a Father but a Lord nay to feare him when he comes with a Tempest before him is either a virtue or else leads unto it Now to shew you how Feare works and how usefull it may be to forward our Turn we may observe first that it works upon our memory revives those Characters of sin which long Custome had sullied and defaced and makes that Deformity visible which the delight we took in sin had vayl'd and hid from our sight when the Patriarchs had sold their Brother Joseph into Egypt for Ten yeares space and above whilst they dreaded nothing they never seem'd to have any sence of their fact but lookt upon it as a lawfull or warrantable sale or made as light on 't as if it had been so Joseph was sold and they thought themselves well rid of a Dreamer But when they were now come down into Egypt Genes 42. and were cast into Prison and into a feare withall that they should be there chain'd us as Captives and slaves then and not till then it appeared like an ill Bargaine then they could give it is right name and call it a sinne against their Brother we are doubtlesse guilty of our Brothers Death say they one to another vers 21. Said I not saith Reuben that you should not offend against the Lad at the next verse Thus whilst our Sun shines cleare without cloud or Tempest all Conscience of sinne is asleep and we forget what we have done even as soon as we have done it and it is to us as if it never had been or appeares in such a shape we can delight in but when the weather changes and the Tempest is loud when the pale Countenance of death is turned towards us if then our Countenance changes because our mind doth so we have other thoughts and other eyes and by the very sight of Death are led to the sense of sinne Now our sinne which was buried in Oblivion is raised againe and appears in its own shape with that terror and Deformity that we begin to hate and at last are willing to destroy it Death hath a Terrible looke but the sight of Death may make us live as the Brazen Serpent did Heale those who were bitten in the Wilderness onely by being look'd upon For Secondly Having a sense and feeling of our sinne we begin to advise with our selves and aske Counsell of our Reason which before we had left behind us and our Thoughts which were let loose and sent abroad after every vanity that came neere us are collected and turn'd inward upon themselves to revolve and see what an ill flight they made and what poyson they gathered where they sought for Manna how they were worse then lost in such deceitfull Objects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Rhet. 2. c. 6. for Feare brings us saith the Philosopher to consultation Call the Steward to account and he is presently at his Quid faciam what shall I doe Luke 16.3 when a King goes to warre and warre is a bloody and fearfull Trade the text tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 14.31 he fitteth down first and takes Counsell Feare is the mother of a device and Consultation dies with feare when we presume Counsel is but a reproach and is taken as an Injurie and when we despaire it is too late There be three things saith Saint Basil which perfect and consummate every Consultation and brings it to the end
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
Errors because they have so many and that none can Erre but he that sayes he cannot and for which we call him Antichrist This bandying of Censures and Curses hath been held up too long with some loss and injury to Religion on both sides Our best way certainly to confute them is by our practice so to live that all men say The Feare of God is in us of a Truth to weave Love and Feare into one Peece to serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce in Trembling Hilar. in Fs 2. ut sit timor exultans exultatio tremens that there may be Trembling in our Joy and Joy in our Feare not to Divorce Jesus from the LORD nor the Lord from Jesus not to Feare the Lord the lesse for Jesus nor love Jesus the less for the Lord but to joyne them both together and place Christ in the midst and then there will be a pax vobis peace unto us his Oyntment shall drop upon our Love that it be not too bold and distill upon our Feare that it faint not and end in despaire that our Love may not consume our Feare nor our Fear chill our love but we shall so Love him that we do not Despaire so Fear him that we do not presume That we may Feare him as a Lord and love him as Jesus and then when he shall come in Glory to Judge both the quick and the dead we shall find him a Lord but not to affright us and a Jesus to save us our Love shall be made perfect All doubting taken from our Faith nay Faith it self shall be done away and the feare of Death shall be swallowed up in Victory and we who have made such use of Death in its representation shall never dye but live for evermore And this we have learnt from the Moriemini Why will you Die THE TENTH SERMON PART VI. EZEKIEL 33.11 why will you die Oh House of Israel WEE have lead you through the Chambers of Death through the school of Discipline The School of feare For why will ye Die Look upon Death and feare it and you shall not Dye at all Thus farre are we gone We come now ad domum Israelis to the House of Israel Why will ye die oh house of Israel For to name Israel is an Argument Take them as Israel or take them as the House of Israel Take the House for a Building or take it for a family and it may seem strange and full of Admiration that Israel which should prevaile with God should embrace Death That the House of Israel compact in it self should ruine it self In Edom 't is no strange sight to see men run on in their evill wayes In Mesheck or the Tents of Kedar there might be at least some colour for a Reply but to Israel it is Gravis expostulatio a heavy and full Expostulation Let the Amorites and Hittites let the Edomites let Gods enemies perish but let not Israel the People of God Dye Why should they die The Devil may be an Edomite but God forbid he should be an Israelite The Quarè moriemini why will ye Die we see is levell'd to the marke is here in its right and proper place and being directed to Israel is a sharp and vehement exprobration Oh Israel why will ye die I would not have you die I have made you gentem selectam a chosen people that you may not Die I have set before you Life and Death Life that you may chuse it and Death that you may run from it and why will you die My sword is drawne to affright and not to kill you and I hold it up That I may not strike I have placed death in the way that you may stop and retreat and not go on I have set my Angel my Prophet with a sword drawne in his Hand That at least you may be as wise as the Beast was under Baalam and sink and fall down under your Burden I have imprinted the very Image of Death in every sinne will ye yet goe on will ye love sinne that hath such a foule face such a terrible countenance that is thus clothed and apparrell'd with Death Quis furor oh Cives what a madnesse is this oh ye Israelites As Herod once upbraiding Cassius for his seditious behaviour in the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrot no more but this Herod to Cassius Thou art mad Philostrat in vit Herodis so God may seem to send to his People God by his Prophet to the Israelites you are mad Therefore doe my people run on in their evill wayes Isa 5.13 because they have no understanding For now look upon Death and that affrights us Look upon God and he exhorts us Reflect upon our selves and we are an Israel a Church of God There is no cause of dying but not Turning no cause of destruction but Impenitency If we will not die we shall not die and if we will Turne we cannot die at all for that if we die God passeth sentence upon us and condemnes us but kills us not but perditio tua ex te Israel our destruction comes from our selves It is not God it is not death it self that kills us but we die because we will Now by this Touch and short descant on the words so much Truth is conveyed unto us as may acquit and discharge God as no way accessary to our death and to make our Passage cleer and plain we will proceed by these steps or degrees draw out these three Conclusions 1. That God is not willing we should die 2. That he is so far from willing our death that he hath plenteously afforded sufficient meanes of life and salvation which will bring in the Third and last That if we die our death is voluntary That no other reason can be given of our death but our own will And the due consideration of these three may serve to awake our shame Naz. Or. 20. as death did our feare which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks another Help and furtherance to worke out our Salvation Why will ye die oh House of Israel And first That God is not willing we should die is plaine enough First from the Obtestation or Expostulation it self Secondly from the Nature of God who thus expostulates For 1. why will ye die is the voice of a friend not of an enemy He that askes me why I will die by his very Question assures me he intends not to destroy me God is not as man that he should lie what he works he workes in the cleer and open day His fire is kindled to enflame us his water flows to purge and cleanse us his oyle is powred forth to supple us his commands are not snares nor his Precepts Accusations He stamps not the Devill 's face upon his Coyne He willeth not what he made not and he made not Death saith the Wiseman He wisheth he desireth we should live he is angry Wisd 1.12 and
where the text is dark and obscure suspend thy judgement and where it is plain and easy expresse and manifest it in thy conversation which is the best descant on a plain song Thou readest there are vessels made to dishonour whether God made them so as some will have it or they made themselves so as Basil and Chrysostome interpret it it concerns not thee That which concerns thee is plain thou mayest run and readit that thou must possesse thy vessel in honour and build up thy self in this holy faith the Quare moriemini is plain it is plain that God is not willing thou shouldest die but hath shewed thee a plain passage unto life hath not indeed supplied thee with means to interpret riddles and untie knots and explain and resolve hard texts of Scripture but he hath supplied thee with meanes of life brought thee to the gates of paradise to the wayes of life and the wells of salvation The lines are fallen to thee in a faire place Behold he hath placed thee in Domo Israelis in the house of Israel in domo salutis in the house of salvation Which is next to be considered THE ELEVENTH SERMON PART VII EZEKIEL 33.11 For why will you die Oh House of Israel GOD is not willing we should die for he is goodnesse it self and no evil can proceed from him Or. quod Deus nonsit Autor mali no not the evil of punishment for it is his strange work and rather ours then his saith Basil for if our sins did not call and cry out for it he would not do it as delighting rather to see his glory in that Image which is like him then in that which is defaced and toru and mangled and now burning in hell Ipse te subdidisti poenae that 's the stile of the imperial Law his wrath could not kindle nor Hell burn till we did blow the coals we bring our selves under punishment and then he strikes and we die and are lost for ever It was his goodnesse that made us and it was his goodness which made a Law and made it possible to be kept and in the same streame of goodnesse were conveighed unto us sufficient and abundant means by the right use of which we might be carried on in an even and constant course of obedience to that Law and so have a clearer knowledge of him a neerer union with him a taste of the powers of the world to come a share and part in that fulnesse of joy which is at his right hand for evermore And why then will you die Oh House of Israel And indeed why should Israel why should any of the House of Israel die For take it in the letter for the Jews Take it in the application for us Christians take it for the Synagogue which is the Type Rom. 9.6 or take it for the Church which is Israel indeed as the Apostle calls it and a strange thing it is and as full of shame as wonder that any one should die in domo Israelis in the house of Israle or perish in the Church Si honoratior est persona major est peccantis invidia Salvian l. 1. de Gub. M. the malice of sin is proportion'd to the person that commits it not so strange a thing to die in the streets of Askelon as in the house of Israel nor for a Turk or Infidel to be lost as a Christian For though the condition of the person cannot change the species of the sin for sin is the same in whomsoever it is yet it hath not so foul an aspect in one as in another cries not so loud in the dark as in the light and is most fatal and destructive where is most means to avoid it is most mortal there where there is most light to discover its deformity A wicked Israelite is worse then an Edomite and a bad Christian worse then a Turk or a Jew In domo Israelis to be in the house to be a member of the Church is a great priviledge but if we honour not this priviledge so far as to make our deportment answerable even our priviledge it self being abused and forfeited will change its countenance and accuse and condemn us We finde it as a positive truth laid down in the Schools and if it were not in our Books common reason would have shewed it us in a character legible enough Gravius peccat fidelis Aquin. 2.2 q. 10 art 3. quam Infidelis propter Sacramenta fidei quibus Contumeliam facit of all Idolaters an Israelite is the worst and no swine to the unclean Christian no villain to him if he be one for here sin makes the deeper tincture and impression leaves a stain not onely on his person but his profession Flings contumely on the very Sacraments of his faith and casts a blemish on his house and family whereas in an Infidel it hath not so deadly an effect but is vailed and shadowed by ignorance and borrows some excuse from Infidelity it self For first to speak a word of the house of Israel in the letter and so to passe from the Synagogue to the Church the Jews were Domestica Dei gens as Tertullian calls them Tert. Apolt c. 18. the Domestick and peculiar people of God like Gideons fleece full of the dew of Divine Benediction when all the world was dry besides to them were the Oracles given those Oracles which did foretel the Messias Rom. 2.3 and by which they might more easily know him then the Gentiles Rom. 9.4 to them pertained the adoption for they were called the Children of God Deut. 14.1 They had the Covenant written in Tables of stone and the giving of the Law and constitutions which might link and unite them together into a body and society and the service of God they had their sacrifices but especially the Paschal Lamb and that their memory might not let slip his statutes and Ordinances he doth even Catechize their eyes and makes the least Ceremony a busie remembrancer Behold a Tabernacle erected Aaron and his sons appointed the Sacrifices slain the Altars smoking all so many Ocular Sermons They may behold Aaron and his sons ascending the Temple laying all their sins upon the head of a sacred Goat and so carrying them out of the City they might behold him entring the vail with Reverence His garments Hier. ad Fabiol de vestit sacerd his motion his Gesture all were vocal quicquid agebat quiequid loquebatur doctrina erat populi saith Saint Jerom his Actions were Didacticall as well as his Doctrine and the priest himself was a Sermon and these were as so many antidotes against death The 23. and 26. v. of this Chapter the Prophet reproveth them for their capital and mortal sins Adultery murder and Idolatry and God had sufficiently instructed and fortified them against these He forbad lust not onely in the Decalogue but in the Sâ—arrow Levit. 11. murder in the Vulture and Raven
Novatian de cib Judacicis and those Birds of prey ut Israelitae murdareatur pecora culpatasunt to sanctifie and cleanse his people he blames the Beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and laies a Blemish upon his other Creatures to keep them underfiled and for to keep our Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies 1 a. 1 ae which he ordeined for that end ne vacaret Idololatriae servire saith Aquin. that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from men and they might learn from beasts to Turn from their evil ways Isal 5.4 and God might well cry out Quid facerem quod non fecerim what could I have done that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Quare c. why will ye die Oh House O house of Israel But to passe from the Synagogue to the Church which excells merito fidei et majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happinesse of Gods people was to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty which lets usnot loose in our own evil wayes but makes us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish and here Why will ye die if it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter Sarcasme as bitter as death it self It is here improved and drove home a minori ad majus by the Apostle himself for if that which should be abolisht was glorious 2 Cor. 3 11. much more shall that which remaines whose fruit is everlasling be glorious And again If they escaped not who resused him who spake on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel Acts. 7.38 how shall not we escape if we turn away from him who spake from Heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. Colos 2.20.21 the whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the Armory of God ubi mille clipei armatura fortium where are a thousand Bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off death the helmet of Salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of Faith to quench all the Fiery Darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6. And as it is a House Eph. 3.5 so is it a Familie of Christ of whom all the Family of heaven and earth is named who is M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the Houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Familie by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the Tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which makes the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles some Pastors some Prophets some Teachers Eph. 4. there be some to be Taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which makes up the integrity of the parts and then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and and knit together by every joynt by the bond of charity which is the coupling and uniting vertue as Prosper calls it by the unity of faith by their agreement in holinesse having one faith one Baptisme one Lord and at last every string being toucht in its right place begets a harmony which is delightful both to heaven and earth For when I name the Church I doe not meane the stones and building some indeed would bring it downe to this to stand for nothing but the walls but I suppose a subordination of parts which was never yet questioned in the Church but by those who would make it as invisible as their Charity Not the foot to see and the eye to walke and the Tongue to heare and the Eare to speake not all Apostles not all Prophets not all Teachers but as the Apostle sayes it shall be at the Resurrection Every man in his own Order Naz. Or. 25. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Order is our security and safe-guard in a rout every man is a Child of Death every throat open to the Knife but when an Army is drawn out by Art and skill all hands are active for the Victory Inequality indeed of persons is the ground of disunion and discord but Order draws and works advantage out of Inequality it self when every man keeps his station the common Souldier hath his Interest in the victory as well as the Commander and when wee walke orderly every man in his owne place wee walk hand in Hand to Heaven and Happinesse together For further yet In the Church of God there is not onely a union an Order but as it is in our Creed a Communion ef parts The glorious Angels as ministring Spirits are sent to guard us and no doubt doe many and great services for us though we perceive it not The blessed Saints departed though we may not pray for them yet may pray for us though we heare it not and though the Church be scattered in its Members through all the parts of the world yet their hearts meet in the same God Every man prayes for himself and every man prayes for every man Quodest Omnium esi singulorum that which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongs unto the whole For though we cannot speak in those high Termes of the Church as the Church of Rome doth of her self yet we cannot but blesse God and count it a great favour and priviledge that we are filii Ecclesiae as the Father speaks Children of the Church think of our selves as in a place of safety and advantage where we may find protection against Death it self Wee cannot speak loud with the Cardinal si Catholicus quisquam labitur in peccatum and Bellarm praefar ad Controv If a Catholique fall into a sinne suppose it Theft or Adultery yet in that Church he walketh not in Darkness but may see many helps to salvation by which he may soon quit
hairy scalp of wilful offenders who loath the means despise prophecy quench the spirit and so hinder it in its operation of men who are as stubborn against Grace as they are loud in its commendations as active to resist as to extol it For this is to cast it away and nullifie it this is to make it nothing by making it greater nay to turn it into wantonnesse But it may be said that when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves we willingly grant it that we have therefore need of new strength and new power to be given us which may raise us up we denie it not and then Thirdly that not onely the power but the very act of our recovery is from God ingratitude it self cannot denie it and then that man can no more withstand the power of that grace which God is ready to supply us with then an infant can his birth or the dead their Resurrection that we are turned whether we will or no is a conclusion which these premises will not yeeld This flint will yeeld no such fire though you strike never so oft we are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be Dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better Basis then a figure or because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called nor is our obedience to Gods inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creator for the Creature hath neither reason nor will as man hath nor doth his power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kinde how often he hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flowed out how often hath he said Fiat lux let there be light when we remained in darknesse for we are free agents and he made us so when he made us men and our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary not doth his power work according to the working of our Fancy nor lies within the level of our carnal Imaginations to do what they appoint but is accompanied and directed by that wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it As it was said of Caesar in Lucan though in another sense Velle putant quodcunque potest We think that God can do whatsoever he can but we must know that as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise and sweetly disposeth all things as he will and he will not save us against our will for to necessitate us to goodnesse were not to try our obedience but to force it quod necessitas praestat depretiat ipsa Necessity takes of the price and value of that it works and makes it of no worth at all And then God doth not voluntarily take his grace from any but if the power of it defend us not from sin and death it is because we abuse and neglect it and will not work with it which is ready to work with us For Grace is not blinde as Fortune nec cultores praeterit nec haeret contemptoribus she will neither passe by them who will receive her nor dwell with those persons which contemn her nor save those who will destroy themselves To conclude this He is most unworthy to receive Grace who in the least degree detracts from the power of it and he is as unworthy who magnifies and rejects it and makes his lise an argument against his Doctrine sayes he cannot be resisted and resists it every day he that denies the power of it is a scarse a Christian and he is the worst of Christians who will not gird up his loins and work out his salvation but loiters and stands idle all the day long shadows and pleaseth himself under the expectation of what he will do and so Turns it into wantonnesse Let us not abuse the Grace of God and then we cannot magnifie it enough but he that will not set his hand to work upon a fancy that he wants Grace he that will not hearken after Grace though she knock and knock again as Fortune was said to have done at Galbas gate till she be weary hath already despised the Grace of God and cannot plead the want of that for any excuse which he might have had but put it off nay which he had but so used it as if it had been no grace at all They that have grace offered and repell it they that have Antidotes against death and will not use them can never answer the expostlation Why will ye die The third pretence And certainly he that is so liberal of his grace hath given us knowledge enough to see the danger of those wayes which lead to death and therefore in the next place ignorance of our wayes doth not minuere voluntarium doth not make our sin lesse wilfull but rather aggrandize it For first we may know if we will know every duty that tends to life and every sin that bringeth forth death we may know the Devils enterprises saith saint Paul 2 Cor. 2.11 and the ignorance of this findes no excuse when we have power and faculty light and understanding when the Gospel shines brightly upon us to dispel those mists which may be placed between the truth and us Sub silentiae faâ—ultate nesâ—ire repudiatae magis quà m non com pertae veritatis est reatus Hil. in Psal 1.8 then if we walk in darknesse and in the shadow of death we shall be found guilty and not so much of not finding out the truth as of refusing it as Hilary speaks of a strange contempt in not attaining that which is so easily atchieved and which is so necessary for our preservation I know every man hath not the same quicknesse of apprehension nor can every man make a Divine and it were to be wisht every man would know it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for him that thresheth out the corn to resolve controversies or State-questions but Saint Peter requires that every man should be able to give an answer 1 Pet. 3.15 a reason of his faith and if he can do that he that knows the will of God is well armed and prepared against death and may cope with him and destroy him if he will And this is no perplext nor intricate study but fitted and proportioned to the meanest capacity he that cannot be a Seraphical Divine may be a Christian he that cannot be a Rabbi may be an honest man and if men were as diligent in the pursuit of the truth as they are in managing their own temporal affaires if men would try as many conclusions for knowledge as they do for wealth and were as ambitious to be good as they are to be rich and great if they were as much
afraid of Gods wrath as they are of poverty and the frown of a mortal this pretense of want of knowledge would be soon removed and quite taken out of the way For now the Grace of God hath appeared unto all men and commanded all men every where to repent and turn from their evil wayes What Apologie can the oppressor have when wisdom it self hath sounded in his ears and told him Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self for even flesh and blood would soon conclude that no man will oppresse himself What can the Revenger plead after that thunder vengeance is mine what can the covetous pretend when he hears Go sell all and give to the poor what can the seditious say when he is plainly told he that resists shall receive damnation can any man misse his way where there is much light to direct him when he brought a great part of his Lesson along with him into the world which he may run and read and understand How can he there erre dangerously where the Truth is fastned to a pillar where there is such a Mercury to shew him his way And therefore in the second place if we be ignorant it is because we will be ignorant and if we could open a window into the breasts of men we should soon perceive a hot contention between their knowledge and their lusts struggling together like the twins in Rebeccahs womb till at last their lust supplants their knowledge and gains the preheminence nolunt intellgere ne cogantur facere saith Austin they will not understand their duty lest that may draw upon them an obligation to do it nor will see their errour because they have no mind to forsake it for their knowledge points towards life but not to be attained to but by sweat and blood which their lust loathes and trembles at and therefore this knowledge is too wonderful for them nay t is as the gall of bitterness unto them and as Neros mother would not suffer him to study Philosophy quia impetaruro contraria Suet. Nero. c. 25. because it prescribes many moral virtues as Sincerity Modesty and Frugality which sort not well with the crown and must needs fall crosse with those actions in which Policy and Necessity many times engage the Monarchs of the Earth so do these look upon the truth as a thing contrary to them as checking their pride bridling their malice bounding their ambition chiding their injustice threatning their Tyranny and so study to unlearn suppresse and silence it and will not hear it speak to them any more but set up a lie first the childe then the Parasite of their lusts and enthrone it in its place to reign over them and guide them in all their wayes I remember Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles tells us that he observed many cast down and very sad and dejected upon the knowledge of the truth not so much for this that it did shew them the danger they were in and withall an open and effectual door to escape but that it choaked the passages and stopped up the way to their old Asylum and Sanctuary of ignorance For truth is not onely a light but a fire to scorch and burn us not onely a direction but a Satyre and teacheth us to denie ungodly lusts and if we obey not it censures and condemns us This ignorance then cannot excuse our sin or make our death lesse voluntary because our lust hath taken the place of knowledge and dictates for it and we grope at noon-day and will not see those sins which though they be works of darknesse yet are as visible as the light it self Rebellion is not therefore no sin because it comes gravely towards us in the habit of zeal and religion Prophaness is not excusable because Fanatick persons count Reverence Superstition Deceit is not warrantable because I hold it as a positive truth that the wicked have title to the things of this world and my Phantastick lusts have drawn out another conclusion where there was no medium no premises to be found that I am a righteous person then follows a conclusion as wilde as that that I may rob and spoil him But these are but bella Tectoriola but artificial Daubings and the weakest eye may see through them and discover a monster and as Tully in one of his Books de Finibus tells us that those Philosophers who would not plainly say that pleasure was their summum bonum or chiefest Happinesse but vacuity of sorrow and trouble did vicinitate versari bordered and came neer to that which they first called it so the world hath found out divers names to colour and commend their soulest sins but bring them to the trial and they must needs mean one and the same thing and that zeal and Rebellion Devotion and Prophainess taking from the wicked and down-right Cosenage are at no greater distance then these two a Fiend and a Devil but that the Devil is then worst when he takes the name of an Angel of light The truth is plain enough but the Prince of this world hath so blinded them that they will not see it For their lusts which laid their Conscience asleep hath taken the chaire and prescribes for it and drives them on to do that which was never done nor seen Judg. 19.30 to tread all Laws of God and man under feet and make their strength the Law of unrighteousness I know not whether we may call this ignorance or no It is too good a name for it and nothing but our Charity can make it so or grace it so much if it be ignorance it is a proud puffing majestick insolent ignorance the Jewish Rabbies might well say Error Doctrinae reputatur pro superbiâ Maimonid more Henoch p. 3. 41. this ignorance is nothing but pride or the issue of it even of that pride which threw Lucifer down from Heaven and raiseth men here upon earth to fling them down after him But in the last place to conclude this if this ignorance be not affected or rather forced and made a pillow to sleep on yet if it proceed onely from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that non-attention that supine negligence to keep it out yet in matters which concern life and death we are as much bound to know the means how as to strive to attain the one and escape the other for what I ought to do I ought to know Pet Aerod de Reb. Judicat de Fide Relig. c. 5. Idem The Jews have a saying Delinquit propheta qui à prophetâ decipitur 't is a great fault in a Prophet to be deceived though by another Prophet The Civilians imperitia medicorum dolo comparatur Ignorance in a Physitian is a kinde of cheat and a bloody cheat Plin. N. Hist for the ignorant Physitian negotiatur animas hominum saith old Cato in Pliny doth Trade and deceive men out of their lives when they most trust in
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
voluntate with an imperfect with an half will we know not how There may be indeed a kind of velleity and inclination to that which is good when the will hath embraced that which is evil there may be a probo meliora a liking of the better when I have chosen the worser part which is not a willing but an approbation an allowing that which is just which ariseth from that light of our minde and Law of our understanding from that natural Judgement by which we discern that which is evil from that which is good and is an Act of our reason and not of our will and thus I may will a thing and yet dislike it I may embrace and condemn it I may commend Chastity and be a wanton Hospitality and be a Nabal Clemency and be a Nero Christianity and be worse then a Jew I may subscribe to the Law that it is just and break it I may take the cup of Fornication and drink deep of it for some pleasant taste it hath when I know it will be my poyson And therefore in the second place this renitency and resistancie of Conscience is so far from Apologizing for us as for such as sin not with a full consent that most times it doth adde weight to it and much aggravate our sin and doth plainly demonstrate a most violent and eager consent of the will which would not be restrained but passed as it were this Rampier and Bulwark which was raised against it to the forbidden object which neither the Law nor the voice and check of Conscience which to us in the place of God could stop or restrain and that we play the wantons and dally with sin as the wanton doth with his strumpet that we do opponere ostium non claudere put the door gently to Senec. N Q. l. 4.2 but not shut and lock it out which is welcom to us when it knocks but more welcome when it breaks in upon us and so frown and admit chide embrace bid it farwel when we are ready and long to joyn with it make a shew of running from it when we open our selves to receive and lodge it in our heart For again if the pravity and obliquity of an act is to be measured and judged by the vehement and earnest consent of the will then the sin which is committed with so much reluctancy will prove yet more sinful and of a higher nature then those we fall into when we heard no voice behinde us to call us back For here the will of the sinner is stubborn and perverse and makes hast to the forbidden object against all opposition whatsoever against the voice of the Law which is now loud against him against the motions of the spirit which he strives to repell against the clamors of Conscience which he heares and will not hear even against all the Artillery of Heaven it doth not yeeld to the tentation when no voice is heard but of the tempter nothing discover'd but the beauty and allurement of the object nor upon strategeme or surprisals but it yeelds against the thunder of the Law and dictate of Conscience admits sin not in its Beauty and glory when it is drest up with advantage and comes toward us smiling to flatter and wooe us but it joyns with it when it is clothed with death when it is revealed by conscience and hung round about with all the curses of the Law Swallows down sin not when it is as sweet as honey but when it hath a mixture and full taste of the bitternesse of Gall and so though our sin be against our conscience yet it is not against our will and therefore is the more voluntary Besides in the last place this is a thing which almost befalls every man that is not delivered over to a reprobate sense whose eye of reason is not quite put out who is not unman'd and hath any feeling or sense of that which is evil and that which is good nay it was in Cain it was in Judas it is in every despairing sinner or else he could not despair These pauses and deliberations these doubtings and disputes and divided thoughts are common to the righteous and to wicked persons Duplici in diversum scindimur Hamo Hunccine an hunc sequemur Most men are more or lesse thus divided in themselves and as Plautus observes it is the humour of some men when they are at a feast to dislike the dishes but no whit the more abstain Culpant sed comedunt tamen they finde fault with their meat and did eat it up so it is with us we too oft disrelish sin and swallow it down we cannot but condemn sin and we are as ready to commit it and with him in the Comedy Ask Quid igitur Faciam When shall we now do when we are knocking at the harlots door and are ready to break forth into Action And therefore this Conceit that a regenerate man doth not sin with a full consent in that his conscience calls after him to retire in the very adventure is very dangerous and may be mortal to the heart that fosters it for when this conceit hath filled and pleased us we shall be ready with Pilate to wash our hands when they are full of blood and cry out we are Innocent when we have released Barrabas let loose our Sense Appetite and Affections to run riot and delivered Jesus the just one to be scourged and crucified deliver'd up our reason to be a slave and ministerial to all those evils which the flesh or devil can suggest and delivered up our affections to be torn and scattered as so many straws upon a wrought sea and never at rest in a word contemnere peccata quià minora putamus to slight and passe by our sinnes in silence because we will not behold them in their just shape and proportion in that horror that Terror and deformity which might fright us from it And this conceit is a greater Tentation then that which hath first taken us for it brings on and ushers in the Tentation Takes from it all its displacency that it may enter with ease and when it hath prevail'd shuts out Repentance which should make way for that mercy and forgivenesse which alone must make our Peace Every man favours himself and is very open to entertaine any Doctrine which may cherish and uphold this humour and make him lesse wicked or more righteous then he is and though at first we find no reason which commends it to us and craves admittance for it yet because it speaks so friendly to our Infirmities and helps to raise up that which we desire to see in its height we take it upon Trust and beleeve it to be true indeed and stand up and contend for it as a part of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saitns and having this mark of the Righteous That we sinne but check our selves in it we take our selves to be so righteous
Fancy in its work repress them here in causis in their beginnings Take these Babylonish brats and dash them against the stones for he that doth not meet and withstand an evill in the approach hath fairely invited it to come forward qui morbo non occurrit sibi manus infert he that doth not use speedy means to keep back a disease is as he that kills himself A A thought begets Delight delight begets consent consent is seen in Action Action begets Custome Custome necessity necessity Death it was but an object but an apparition but a Thought at first and now 't is Death and he that was willing a Thought should lead in the Front was willing also that Death should come in the reare It is not safe thus to Dally with a Temptation to resolve not to act it and yet to act in the mind which will soon make the Basis and ground-work of a resolution to be afraid of the Action and yet commit the sinne to nourish that sinne in my bosome which I am ashamed to be seen with abroad which will yet at last break forth before the Sunne and the people to harbour that in my closet which within a while will be on the House top That of Bernard is most true though it be in ryme non nocet sensus ubi non est consensus the sense hurteth not where there is no consent It is no sinne for the eye to see or the care to heare or for the Fancy to set up objects within her in that shape in which they appear but it is a hard matter as Saint Hierome speaks integritate mentis abutivoluptatibus to abuse those pleasures which daily present themselves to a good end to have them as Aristippus had his Lais and not to have them to live in pleasure without that delight which makes Tentation a sinne we may say of Temptations as he did of Fortune ana est ad illam securitas non toties illam experirt The best security we have against Fortunes fickle inconstancy is not to make tryall of her too often not to want her so of Tentations It is not good to look too often upon them when they flatter not to see too often not to heare too often not to open our eyes or our eares to vanity For as they who busy themselves in worldly affaires when all things succeed prosperously doe begin at last to doate on Riches and love them for themselves which they sought for at first but for their necessity so what we look upon at first as a common object by degrees insinuates and is made familiar to us and winnes our affection to it delights and overcomes us and what did at first stand at doore and begge an entrance at last enters in and takes full possession of us and commands in chief Last of all let us Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession CHRIST JESVS even this Lord who is to come who hath openâ—d the Treasuries of Heaven broughâ— own Life and Immortality display'd his rich and precious promises of Heaven and Everlasting Happinesse all which he will make ours if we make good but this one word but this one syllable Watch This is the price of Heaven This he dyed for that we should be a peculiar People unto him Even his Watch-men That as he for the joy which was set before him endured the Crosse despised shame suffered the Contradictions of sinners and yet was yesterday and to Day Heb. 12. and the same for ever So wee by his Power and the efficacy of his Spirit by the vertue of his Precepts and the Glory of his Promises may establish our selves watch over our selves secure our selves in the midst of snares and so be in the World as out of the world walk in the midst of Temptations and be untoucht walk in the midst of all these Fiery Tryalls as the Three Children did in the Furnace and have no hurt Heare the Musick of the world but not hearken to it behold its allurements and not be moved be one and the same in all the Changes and variety of Temptations the same when they flatter and the same when they Threaten which is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be like unto our Lord. And because the watch man watcheth in vain unlesse the Lord keepeth the house we must call upon this Lord to watch with us and to watch over us who is not gratiae angustus as Saint Ambrose speaks no niggard of his Grace but as he hath given us a command to watch so he hath given us another to depend upon him Greg Hom. 36. for assistance et scimus quià petentes libenter exaudit quando hoc petitur largiri quod jubet and we know it is impossible he should denie us our requests when we desire him to grant us that which he desires we should have his help and assistance to do that which he commands do we desire it he wisheth it do we begg it of him he beseeches us to accept it we begg his assistance against the lusts of the flesh 1 Thes 4.3 he commands us to crucifie them against the pollutions of the world his will is our sanctification against the Devil if we will he will tread him under our feet he commands us who is Xistarcus the master of the race and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the over-seer and Captain of the watch by whose power and wisdom we may keep back all our enemies If the Devil suggests evil thoughts he inspires good if the enemy lay hard at us that we may fall his mercy is ready to hold us up if we be subtle our Lord is wisdom it self in all our trials in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgement he is our Lord and his Grace is sufficient for us If we fail and miscarry 't is because we will not joyn him with us because we begghis assistance and will not have it call upon him for help and weary him with our refusals be seech him to do that which we will not suffer him to do bespeak him to watch over us Is 21.11 If you will enquire enquire and fll fast asleep If you will repent repent saith the watch-man Iaf you would watch why do ye not How many yeers have you worn out in this spiritual exercise nay Vide Castalionis perutilem Tract de quinque impedimentis bonae mentis Job 8.9 to fall lower have we devoted two or three moneths nay lower yet how many weeks have we spent a week is not long but how many dayes our dayes on earth are but a shadow but how many hours and houres we say have wings and fly away I am ashamed to ask again How many minutes hath it cost us our life is but a span how much of this span how little of this little what a nothing of this nothing hath this great businesse took
world pleaseth us we are as willing to please the world and we make it our stage and Act our parts wee call our selves Friends and are but Parasites wee call our selves Prophets and are but Wizards and Juglers wee call our selves Apostles and are Seducers wee call our selves Brethren though it be in Evill and like Democritus his Twinns wee live and dye together wee flatter and are flattered wee are blind and leaders of the Blind and fall together with them into the Ditch and bring our Burden after us we please men to please our selves lull them into a pleasant Dreame and our Damnation sleepeth not You see now what it is to please men and from whence it proceeds from whence it springs even from that bitter root the root of all evill the Love of the World Let us now Behold that huge Distance and Inconsistency which is between these two The pleasing of men and the service of Christ Jf I yet please men I am not the servant of Christ I am thy Servant Hil. in Loc. saith David Psal 119. Grant me understanding to know what it is to be thy Servant Latet sub familiaribus verbis maxima Fidei conscientiae professio saith Hilary By this familiar word of Servant we bind our Faith and Conscience to the will and command to the beck of him we serve The servant of Christ It is a title too great too high an Honor for mortall man too high for an Emperour for an Apostle for an Angel for a Seraphim but since he is pleased to give it we are bound to make it Good That every Action and motion every thought of ours may be to him That whether we live we may live unto him whether we die wee may die unto him That whatsoever wee doe we may be the Lords And first wee cannot do both not serve men and Christ no more then you can draw the same streight line to two points to touch them both you cannot saith Christ serve God and Mammon One Master may have many servants but one servant cannot have many Masters Imperium dividi potest Amor non potest Power and command may stretch and spread and divide it self to many but Love and Observance cannot be carryed and levell'd but on one nor can the mind saith Quintilian seriously Intend many things at once Quocunque respexerit desinit intueri quod propositum fuerat to whatsoever it turnes it self it turnes from that which it first lookt upon and loseth one Engagement in another because it cannot fitt and apply it self to both How then can one and the same man bestow himself upon Christ and upon the world For it is not with the will and Affections as it is with the Intellectuall facultie The understanding may easily sever one Thing from another and understand them both nay it hath power to abstract and separate Things really the same and consider them in this Difference but it is the property of the will and Affections in unum ferri se in unitatem colligere to collect and unite and make it self one with the Object nor can our Desires be carryed to two contrary Objects at one and the same Time wee may apprehend Christ as righteous and Holy and the World and Riches of it as vanity it self but we cannot at once serve Christ as Just and Holy and love the World and the vanities thereof Our Saviour tells us we shall love the one and hate the other leane to the one and despise the other If it be a love to the one it will be at best but a liking of the other If it a will to the one it will be but a velleity to the other If it be a look on the one it will be but a glance on the other And this liking this velleity This glance are no better then disservice then hatred and Contempt For these proceed from the understanding but my love from my will which is fixed not where I approve but where I choose 'T is easy to say and we say it too often for the Divell is ready to suggest it 'T is true wee set our Affections upon things below but yet so That we doe not omit the Duties of Divine worship we are willing to please men but we doubt not but we may please Christ also we are indeed Time-servers but we are frequent Hearers of his Word we pour Oyle into our Brothers eares but we drop sometimes a Peny into the Treasury Thus we please others and we please our selves we betray others and are our own Parasites but Christ is ready to seale up our lips with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters So that you see what a weak Foundation that Hope hath which is thus built up upon a Divided love and service it is built in the Aire nay it hath not so sure a Basis it is built upon nothing It is rais'd upon Impossibility Secondly The Servant must have his eye upon his Master and as he sees him doe must doe likewise Now Christ is called Gods Servant Isai 62.10 and he broke through Poverty Disgrace and the Terrors of Death it self that he might doe his Fathers will Omitted no tittle or lota of it but he that would not break a bruised reed shook the Cedars of Libanus pronounced as many woes to the Pharisees as they had sinnes calls Herod Fox plucks off every visor plowes up every Conscience and thus shook the Powers of Hell and Destroy'd the Kingdome of Satan for he came not to do his owne but his Fathers will Look upon his Acts of mercy even them he did not to please men non habent divina adulationem Hil. de Trin. l. 2. saith Hilary His divine works his works of Love and Compassion had Nothing of Flattery in them He did them not as seeking his owne Glory for he had a Quire of Angels to chant his praise he did them not to flatter men for he needed not that which is ours for the world was his and all that therein is Power cannot flatter and Mercy is so intent on its work that it thinks of nothing else to work wonders to please men were the greatest wonder of all And thus should we look upon him and Teach our brethren as he wrought miracles not for prayse which may make us worse not for Riches which may make us poorer then we were but beseech them in Christs stead and in the Person of Christ and speake like him in whose mouth there was neither flattery nor guile speak the Truth though it displease speak the Truth though the Heathen Rage and the People imagine a vaine Thing speake the Truth though for ought we know it may be the last word wee speak speak the Truth though it nayle us to the Crosse where we shall most resemble him with this Title The servant of Christ as his was The King of the Jewes He that takes Nothing but his Name serves
duty and performance By Jesus Christ there is our seale to make good and sure our acceptance Chrysostome besides that great Sacrifice of the Crosse hath found out many more Chrysost in Ps 5â— Martyrdome Prayer Justice Almes Praise Compunction and Humility and he brings into the preaching of the World which all make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ep 87. saith Basil a most magnificent and precious sacrifice We need not cull out any more then these in the Text for in offering up these we shall find the true nature and reason of a Sacrifice observed For to make any thing a true Sacrifice there must be a plain and expressed change of the thing that is offered It was a Bull or a Ram but it is set apart and consecrate to God and it is a Sacrifice and must be slain And this is remarkable in all these in which though no Death befall us as in the Beast offered in Sacrifice but that Death which is our Life our death to sin yet a change there is which being made to the honour of Gods Majesty is very pleasing and acceptable in his sight When we doe justly we have slain the Beast the worst part of us our love of the world our filthy lusts our covetousnesse and ambition which are the life and soul of fraud and violence and oppression by which they live and move and have their being When we offer up our Goods there is a change For how strong is our affection to them how do we adore them as Gods are they not in common esteeme as our life and blood and do we not as willingly part with our breath as with our wealth Now he that doth good and distribute he that scatters his wealth poures forth his very blood binds the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the Altar le ts out all worldly desires with his wealth and hath slain that sacrifice saith Saint Paul with which God is well pleased And last of all Humility wasts and consumes us to nothing makes us an Holocaust a whole burnt-offering Nothing in our selves nothing in respect of God and in htis our Exinanition exalts all the graces of God in us fills us with life and glory with high apprehensions with lively anticipations of that which is not seen but laid up for us in the Treasuries of heaven These are the Good mans sacrifice and they naturally flow from this Good which is here shewed in the Text and are the parts of it These were from the beginning and shall never be abolisht and if we offer up these we shall never be questioned nor askt will God be pleased with these for he is pleased onely with these and for these with whatsoever we offer and he will love us for them and accept us in him who to sanctifie and present these offered himself an offering a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour even Jesus Christ the righteous who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Thus have we taken a view of this Good which is shewen in the Text as it stands in opposition with the Sacrifices of the Law and outward formality and now the vail is drawn we shall present it in its full beauty and perfection in our next HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART II. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God WE have shewed you That Piety is termed Good in it self in opposition to Sacrifice and the ceremonies of the law which were but ex instituto for some reasons instituted and ordained but in themselves were neither Good nor Evil. We might now take a view of this Good as it stands in opposition to the things of this world which either our Luxury or Pride or Covetousnesse have raised in their esteeme and above their worth and called Good as the heathens consecrated their affections their diseases their very vices and placed them in the number of their Gods For Good is that which all desire which all bowe and stoop to but yet it hath as severall shapes as there be opinions and constitutions of men and all the mistake is in our choice that we set up something to look upon which is not worth a glance of our eye That we call Evil Good and that Good which is neither evil nor good but may make us so Good if we use it well and Evil if we abuse it Non est bonum quo uti malè possis and that cannot be truely and in it self good Sence ep 20. which we may use to an evil end saith Seneca that we propose to our selves objects which are attended with danger and very often with horror and give to them this glorious title paint out of our selves some deformed strumpet and call her a goddessE and kisse the lips of that which wil bite like a Cockatrice Good we desire and when our desires have run to that which we set up for good we meet with nothing but evil which shewes not it self till it be felt we hoyse up our sailes and make towards it and are swallowed up in that Sea as Austin calls it of the good things of this world which we thought mighty carry us to the end of our hope we take it for bread and in our mouth 't is gravell we took it for pleasure and when we tasted it it was gall we hunt after riches as Good and they begger us climb to honour and that breaks our neck and though we swallow down these good things as the Oxe doth water yet we are never full Saint Hilary in his comments on the first Psalme having observed that some there were who drew down all their interpretations of that book respectively to spirituall things and God himself because they thought it some disparagement to that book that terrene and secular matter should so often interline it self yet passeth on them no heavier censure then this haec corum opinio argui non potest c. We need not be so severe as to condemn this opinion of theirs because it proceeds from a mind piously and Religiously affected and it is a thing which deserves rather commendation then blame by a favourable endeavour to strive to apply all things to him by whom all things were made For these things are not Good but onely go under this deputative and borrowed title The world hath cryed them up but the scripture hath no such name for them it is Good to praise the Lord nay 't is Good to be afflicted this we read but where do we read It is good to be rich It is good to be honorable It is good to go in purple and fare deliciously every day we find many curses and woes sent after them but we never find them graced with the title of good Thou hast received thy good things faith Abraham to
the grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy death But for all this his triumph death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadfull as before All is finisht on his part but a covenant consists of two and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not thou shalt believe But every promise every act of grace of his implies a condition He delivers those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible All the terrour death hath is from our selves our sin our disobedience to the commands of God that 's his sting And our part of the covenant is by the power virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it from him and at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the Scepter out of his hand and spoile him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as Saint Paul speaks dye to profit dye to pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us feare death Then we shall look upon it not as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrims as a message sent from Heaven to tell us our walk is at an end and now we are to lay down our staffe and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat Tert. de patientia What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly fears God can feare nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortall before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never goe hence Last of all It will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knows the condition of a stranger how many dangers how many cares how many stormes and tempests he was obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that he had now passed through them all and was set down at his journeys end why should he who looks for a City to come be troubled that his fellow pilgrime came thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy Emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unlesse it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandments which might give us a taste of a better estate to come unlesse it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers and yet unwilling to draw neer our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery we send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke and harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are neerest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into aire when indeed there is no more then this one pilgrime is gone before his fellows one gone and left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith Saint Hierom we are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeys end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keeps us in that temper which the Philosopher commends as best in which we do sentire desiderium opprimere she gives nature leave to draw teares but then she brings in faith and hope to wipe them off Sen. ad Marciam she suffers us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Orator ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembers whereof we are made is not angry with our love and will suffer us to be men but then we must silence one love with another our naturall affection with the love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then he was a stranger and now at his journeys end and here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Blessed are such strangers blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours For conclusion let us feare God and keep his commandments this is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Lawes which came from that place to which he is going let these his Lawes be in our heart and our heart will be an elaboratory a limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of world through which we are to passe It shall be as a rock firm and solid against every wave and temptation that shall beat against it and a shop of precious receipts and proper remedies against every evil It shall be spoliarium mortis a place where death shall be stript and spoiled of its sting and of its terrour In a word It
those rules and precepts hath raised such a fence and hedg about every common-wealth which if we did not pluck it up our selves might secure and carry them along in the course of things even to their end that is to the end of the world but this we talk of as we do of many other things and talk so long till we believe it and rest on our guesse and conjecture as on a demonstration but the truth is we are our own fate and destiny we draw out our thread and cut it we start out of our places and divide our selves from one another and then indeed and not till then Fate and Necessity lye heavy upon a kingdom and it cannot stand Christianity binds us to our own businesse and till we break loose till some one or other steps out of his place from it there is peace we are safe in our lesser vessels and the ship of the common-wealth rides on with that smoothnesse and evennesse which it hath from the consistencie of its parts in their own place for though all are one in Christ Jesus yet we cannot but see that there is a main difference between the inward qualification of his members and the outward administration and government of his Church In the kingdomes of the world and so in the Church visible every man is not fit for every place some must teach and some govern some must learne and obey some must put their hand to the plough some to this trade and some to that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks those who are of more then ordinary wit and ability 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot l. 6 Polit. c. 5. must beare office in Church or Common-wealth One is noble another is ignoble one is learned another is ignorant one is for the spade and another for the sword one for the flaile and sheephook another for the scepter and such a disproportion is necessary amongst men for nihil aequalitate ipsa inaequalius Plin. Epist there is no greater inequality in the world then in a body politick where all the parts are equall for that equality which commends and upholds a Common-wealth ariseth from the difference of its parts moving in their severall measures and proportions as musick doth from discords when every part answers in its place and raiseth it self no higher then that will beare when the magistrate speaks by nothing but the Laws and the subject answers by nothing but his obedience when the greater shadow the lesse and the lesse help to fortifie the great when every part doth its part and every member its office then there is an equality and an harmony and we call it peace For if we move and move cheerfully in our own sphere and calling we shall not start forth to discompose or disorder the motion of others in theirs if we fill our own place we shall not leap over into anothers our desires will dwell at home our covetousnesse and ambition dye our malice cease our suspicion end out discontent vanish or else be soone changed and spiritualized our desires will be levelled on happinesse we shall covet the best things we shall be ambitious of heaven we shall malice nothing but malice and destroy it suspect nothing but our suspicion and be discontent with nothing but that we are so and so in this be like unto God himself and have our Center in our selves or rather make peace our Center that every motion may be drawn from it that in the compasse and Circumference of our behaviour with others all our Actions as so many lines may be drawn out and meet and be united in peace And this is not onely enjoyned by Religion and the Gospel but it is the Method of nature it self which hath so ordered it that every thing in its own place is at quiet and rest and no where else The earth moves not water is not ponderous in its proper place the fire burnes not in its sphere but out of it it hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam saith Pliny it spreads it self most violently and devours every thing it meets with nay poyson it self is not hurtfull to those tempers that breed it Senec. ep 81. Illud venenum quod serpentes in alienam perniciem proferunt sine suâ continent saith Seneca The venome of the Scorpion doth not kill the Scorpion and that poyson which serpents cast out with danger and hurt to others they keep without any to themselves And as it is in nature so is it in the society of men Our diligence in our own businesse is soveraign and connaturall to our estates and conditions but most times poysonous abroad and dangerous and fatall to our selves and others When Uzzah put forth his hand to hold up the Ark of God and keep it from falling though his intention were good yet God struck him for his error and rashnesse in moving out of his place and struck him dead 2 Sam. 6.7 because he did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe his own businesse when Uzziah invades the Priests office the 2. Chr. 26. and would burn Incense and Azariah the Prophet told him ad te non pertinet it pertaineth not to thee it is not thy businesse even while the censer was yet in his hand his sinne was writ in his forehead he was struck with a leprosie cut off from the city of the Lord v. 21. When Peter was busie to enquire concerning John What shall this man doe Our Saviour was ready with a sharp reply quid ad te what is that to thee thy businesse is to follow me When Christians out of a wanton and irregular zeale did throw down Images and were slaine by the Heathen in the very fact the Church censured them as disturbers of the peace rather then Martyrs and though they suffer'd death in the defiance of Idolatry yet allowed them no place in the Dypticks or in the Catalogue of those who laid down their life for the truth Corah riseth out of his place and the earth swallows him up Sheba is up and blowes a Trumpet and his head flyes over the wall Absalom would up into the Tribunall which was none of his place and was hang'd in the Oke which was fitter for him and if any have risen out of their place as we use to say on the right side and been fortunate villaines their purchase was not great honey mingled with gall Honour drugg'd with the hatred and curses of men with feares and cares with gnawings within and Terrors without all the content and pleasure they had by their great leape out of their place was but as Musick to one stretcht out on the Rack or as that little light which is let in through the crack or flaw of a wall into him that lyes fettered in a loathsome dungeon and at last their wages which was death eternall death and howling for ever Nay when we are out of our place and busie in that which
concernes us not though what we do may be in it self lawfull and most expedient to be done yet we make that act a sin in us which is another mans duty and so shipwrack at that point to which another was bound perish in the doing of that for which he shall perish for not doing it The best excuse that we can take up is that we did honesta mente peccare that we did that which is evil as we say for the best that we did sin and offend God with a good intention and pious mind which Glosse may be fitted to the greatest sin and is the fairest Chariot the Devil hath to carry us to hell If we would be particular the instances in this kind would be but too many For such Agents the Enemy of the Truth hath alwayes had in all the Ages of the Church who have unseasonably disturbed the publique peace and their own whose businesse it was and sure it could be none of their own to teach Pastors to Govern and Divines how to Preach every day to make a new coat for the Church to hammer and shape out a new form and discipline as if nothing could be done well because they stood not by and had a hand in the doing it and so make her not so faire but certainly as changeable as the moone One sect dislikes this and another that and a third quarrels at them both and every one of them if their own fancy had been set up and establisht by another hand would have kickt it down For this humour is restlesse and endlesse and for want of matter will at last feed on him that nourisheth it as it was in that experiment of the Egyptians in Epiphanius who filled a bag with serpents and when afterwards they opened it found that the greatest had eat up the rest and half of it self we may well say of them as Gregory the great doth illos alienorum actuum sagax cogitatio devastat they so busie their thoughts upon other mens actions that they have none left for their own which being sent abroad into the world leave a devastation a wildernesse at home which fly to every mark which is set up but that which their calling and Religion directs them to aim at whose whole life and imployment is to do other mens businesse and sleep in their own It is not safe neither for Church nor common-wealth that such busie-bodies should walk in matters so far above their sphere and compasse nor is it fit that Phaeton should sit too long in the chaire for if these turbulent domineering spirits prevaile if the mercy and providence of God prevent it not the whole course of nature will be set on fire or else dislocated and perverted and the foot shall stand where the hand doth the eare shall speak and the tongue heare and the foot see all shall be Prophets all Teachers I might say all shall be kings and I might add all will be atheists If then we will study peace or desire to be quiet in our place let RELIGION guide us which hath drawn out to our hands the most exact method and most proportion'd to that end or let us follow the method of nature it self and in the course of nature thus we see it The heavens are stretcht forth as a canopy to compasse the Aire the Aire moves about the earth the earth keeps its Center and is immoveable the Sun knoweth his season and the Moon her going down the Starres start not from their spheres Heavy bodies ascend not nor doe the light goe downwards but all the parts of the Universe are tyed and linkt together by that law of providence and order that they may subsist And so it is both in Church and Common-wealth we are not in Termino we cannot be quiet and rest but in our own place and function what should a Starre doe in the earth or a strone in the firmament what should an inferior step into a superiours seat and set himself above those who are over him in the Lord which I am sure is to be out of his place where he cannot move but disorderly If men would but fill their own they would have but little leisure to step into another mans place or to be so much fooles as to set their foot within their neighbours doores Thucidides For the Historian hath observed it that those men who neglect their private affaires are ever very busie in examining publick proceedings well skil'd in every mans duty but their own Who fitter to change the face of a Common-wealth Julius Caesar before the civil war said it of himself Quà m multis indigeo ut nihil habeam then he that was so far indebted that he dared not to shew his own who wanted so much that he might be worth nothing who more ready to shake and dissolve a state then he that hath wasted his own with riotous living who will sooner be a traytor then a bankrupt I might here urge and presse this duty which confines every man to his own businesse 1 à decoro from the grace and beseemingnesse of it for what garment can fit us better then our own what businesse more naturall to us then our own what motion more gracefull then in our own our own place best becomes us and we are riculous and monstrous in any other Apelles with an aule in his hand or the cobler with his pencill Midas with asses eares or an asse in purple Nero with his fiddle or a fidler with a crown Commodus in his artifex quae stationis imperatoriae non erant c. Ael Lampridius Comodus making of glasses a good dancer and a sword-plaier or a glasseman and a dauncer giving laws a tradesman in the pulpit or a divine with the meteyard in his hand the Lord in his servants frock and the servant on his footcloth are objects of that nature that they command our finger and our smile and the first and easiest censure we passe on them is our laughter and it were happy for common-wealths if they deserved no worse But they are not onely ridiculous but ominous and prodigious and appeare like comets threatning and ushering in some plague or war some strange alteration in Church or Common-wealth whereas our own place be it what it will doth not onely conserve but become and adorn us and our regular motion in it is a faire prophesie of peace to our selves and all that are about us and though it be the lowest we may be honorable in it as Themistocles once said being chosen into a meane office that he would so mannage it as to make it of as great repute in Athens as the highest 2 ly ab utili from the advantage it brings quod enim decet ferè prodest saith Quintilian for that which becomes us Quint. instit l. x. 1. commonly doth also further and promote us we usually say our plough goes forward and when the plough goes and is ours