by Snatches but that the Residue of his Time might be wholly God's Many others might here be nam'd Seven at least I am sure who eas'd themselves as being weary of the Great Seal of England in order to their advancement unto far greater things in a World to come And thô it cannot be deny'd but that being Persons of most incorruptible Integrity they might safely have continued in their Great Iudicatures on Earth without the danger of being cast in the Court of Heaven yet they resolv'd to take the Way which they thought the surest as knowing it better to make it easy than meerly possible to be sav'd For they consider'd what they well knew as well by Scripture as by Reason as well by History as by Experience as well by other men's Experience as by their own that thô it is not quite impossible yet'tis a difficult thing on Earth for the very same man to be Great and Innocent to be a Favourite both of This and the other World to fare as deliciously as Dives all his Days here below and yet at last to lye with Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom I am sure Sir Thomas Randolph thought it a thing so rare and difficult to be a man of much Publick and Secular Business and at the same Time to be fit to dye that by Letters he exhorted his intimate Friend Sir Francis Walsingham to bid adieu to all the Wiles of a Principal Secretary of State as He himself had newly done to all the Frauds or an Embassadour for the Number of his Embassies had been no less than Eighteen and to prepare himself by a penitent and private life for the life to come An Admonition very seasonable in regard of Both Persons concerned in it Walsingham to whom and Randolph himself by whom 't was given For they had long liv'd together as eminent Ministers of State and neither of them liv'd long from after the time of This Advice Nor did the one outlive the other above a Month or two at most What induced Queen Mary the Royal Sister of Charles the Fifth to quit her Government of Belgium in Exchange for a private and quiet Life 't is very easy to conjecture but hard to tell Perhaps 't was chiefly out of Reverence to the Example of her Brother as 't was done the same Day wherein He laid down his Empire and Crown of Spain and even wept out of Compassion to his poor Brother and his Son Philip whose feeble Shoulders were now to sink under two such Loads to wit the Kingdom of Spain and the German Empire I say whatever was Her Inducement to do a thing above the Rate of her Sex and Breeding sure we are that Queen Etheldred was wholly induced by her Devotion to forsake the Pomps and Pleasures she might have liv'd in all her days as the Daughter of one King the Widow of another and the Wife of a Third had she not thought it an happier choice to live retiredly in an Abby which she had built and indow'd and was the Abbess of till her Death And not to mention Queen Christina of Sweden or Bambas of Spain unless it be thus by a Paralipsis no fewer than Nine of our own Saxon Kings within the Space of Two hundred years did freely relinquish their Crowns and Kingdoms To which I add That when Ionadab impos'd That strict Command upon his Sons to drink no Wine to build no House to sow no Seed to plant no Vineyard and all their days to dwell in Tents in little despicable Huts by the River Iordan He did not only so command them to shew his Dominion and his Will or only to exercise their Obedience and Self-denial But because he did esteem it the safest state and condition to help enable them for an Innocent and Pious Life § 21. Another Use of This Text is with a Distinction to contradict it We must not seek Great Things for our selves because we must Not Great Things because the Greatest For what can be Greater than a Kingdom and what so Great Kingdom as the Kingdom of God to the seeking of which our Lord excites us Matth. 6. 33. So by St. Paul we are commanded to seek those things that are above Col. 3. 1. Not above us here on Earth but above every thing that is Earthy Nor are we only to seek God's Kingdom thô vastly Great But what is infinitely Greater we are to seek God himself who is The Great Rewarder of Them that diligently seek him and The Rewarder of None besides Heb. 11. 6. Thus the Dehortative Seek not is strongly inforced and urged on by a vehement Exhortation Seek Those Things that are Above Seek the Greatest Things imaginable and Seek them for your selves too Ye have not here a continuing City and therefore Seek one to come For what says the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews The life we have is worth Nothing compar'd with That we hope for Which being yet hid with Christ in God we must seek and seek on till we find it out Some things are Great which are not Good and some are Good but not Great But These are the Good and Great Things which alone are worth seeking and which we are not only allow'd but bid and bound to seek after In comparison with These The Life which is hid with Christ in God The Kingdom of God and God Himself we ought to slight the arrant Nothingness of the Things here below which by a pitiful Catachresis the World calls Great and as devoutly seeks after as after an Heaven upon Earth So every Hillock is a Great thing with a Community of Emmets wherewith 't is Peopled thô 't is not determin'd by Philosophers whether like Bees they are a Kingdom or like some other Insects a Commonwealth But yet as Great as That Hillock does seem to Them we know 't is no bigger in respect of all the Earth than All the Earth in respect of Heaven And yet so it is notwithstanding their littleness and their contemptibility we do no more excel Them in point of Quantity and Strength than they do us in the good Qualities of Peace and Prudence For all Communities of Emmets are still at Agreement among Themselves are never indanger'd much less destroy'd by any Intestine or Homebred either Divisions or Insurrections Whereas We have a Kingdom so sadly divided against It self that wicked men hope and wise men fear and there is ground for a suspicion it cannot long stand § 22. Now to shew the Real Littleness the Prophet Esa calls it the Nothingness of the Great Things below being weighed in the Ballance with Those Above It will not probably be amiss to put them Both into the Scales that so we may see how much the later weigh down the former First the Great Things below are but figuratively such and secundum quid somewhat Great in Appearance but not indeed or only Great in their relation to what is very much less and
in vain Philip. 2. 16. that we do not faint as we are running and possibly miss of the Prize within a stride of the Goal For though we work for Salvation whole years together and work for it never so hard yet whilst we are in the Body and compass'd about with a Tempting world we cannot say we have work'd it out So that That is a Thing to be still in doing and to be done with Fear and Trembling For as there are a sort of Labourers who do not come into the Vineyard until the ninth or tenth hour so there are that fall off in the very Evening and lose the benefit of their Labour during the heat of the Day For when they cease from being Righteous all their pass't Righteousness shall not be mention'd Ezek. 18. Had not Iudas been worthy Christ had not made him an Apostle and had he not been a good Apostle he had hardly been trusted with the Bag much less had he been sent to dispense the Gospel 'T is very late e're we read the Devil enter'd into Iudas hardly sooner than a day or two before his Death And though our Saviour said he chose twelve whereof one was a Devil yet did he not say He chose a Devil For Iudas was not a Devil that is a Traytor 'till some time after he had been chosen Which fitly serves to put us in mind that if we know what we are we are not sure of what we shall be What our last days will be we cannot tell till we have liv'd them We may speak out of Hope but out of Certainty we cannot I know who they are who breath nothing but Assurance of Life eternal as if That were the english of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as if their Rebellions were meritorious mistake the sturdiness of their Presumption for the stability of their Faith So little or nothing are they concern'd in St. Paul's Exhortation to Fear and Trembling that supposing they are sure they think it below them to be solicitous I would to God that such Professors had but the patience to consider that St. Peter doth not exhort us to make our selves sure of our Election but to make our Election sure The vvord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not meant in an Active but Passive sense nor of the Person but of the Thing St. Paul had sure as much reason not to doubt of his Election to life Eternal as any meer mortal before or after And yet vvith vvhat a deal of fear and trembling did he run the Race that was set before him how did he strive for the Mastery And in order thereunto how very temperate was he in all things How did he keep under his body how did he bring it into Subjection and all for fear left whilst he was preaching unto others He himself might be a Castaway How did he suffer the loss of all things and count them but Dung for the winning of Christ who was at once his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at once his Rewarder and his Reward the setter out of the Prize and the Goal it self 'T is true indeed He wins that loses who loses All to win Christ. But in order unto this end with what fear and trembling did he press towards the Mark and reach forth to those things that were before him embracing a fellowship with the Sufferings of Christ and being conformable unto his Death if by any means he might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead if by any means he might apprehend That for which he was also apprehended of Christ Iesus And here to anticipate an Objection which very easily may be made by a sort of men I think it of use to be observ'd That He first had fought the good Fight and finished his Course before he durst presume to say in the following words Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness It was not till after his Perseverance with Faith and Patience unto the end that is but a little before his Death when the Axe and the Headsman stood ready for him at least when both were within his Prospect that he was able to speak with so great Assurance For before that Season whilst he was yet but in his Course and had not fought to a perfect Victory he flatly told his Philippians He did not speak of his Proficiency in the School of Christ as if he counted himself to have apprehended or as if he thought he were already made perfect But on the contrary He did so work out his Salvation with Fear and Trembling as that he macerated himself and what with fasting and watching and other Austerities of Life he did bear in his body the Dying of the Lord Iesus lest whilst he preach'd to save others he himself might not be sav'd He had not yet endured unto the end and so he was not yet free from Fear For he that endureth unto the end the same is he saith our Saviour who shall be sav'd Matth. 24. 13. It was the voice of God himself reveal'd from Heaven five several Times He that overcometh shall inherit all things Rev. 21. 7. He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the Tree of Life Rev. 2. 7. He that overcometh is He that shall not be hurt with the second Death v. 11. He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the hidden Manna v. 17. And who is he that overcometh but he that keepeth God's works unto the end v. 26. To Apply this now unto our selves If we can say with St. Paul that our Battle is quite fought against the World the Flesh and the Devil And that our Course is quite finished in so much that we are able to lay our hands upon the Goal we then may say with him too Henceforth is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness We may say we have a Right to the Tree of Life That God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a righteous Iudge who will not be so Unfaithful having given us a Promise as to forget our work and labour of love Heb. 6. 10. And so being sure to be with Christ we may desire to be dissolv'd too But whilst we are upon the way and we cannot tell how far from our Iourneys end Nor what may happen 'twixt This and That sure the use we are to make of our present standing is to take great heed that we do not fall We must beware if we are righteous that we do not return from righteousness to sin The higher we stand in God's Favour we must beware so much the more that we be not high-minded but rather fear lest for having like Capernaum been lifted up to Heaven we be the rather like Capernaum cast down to Hell There was a Proverb among the Iews The Sow is turned being wash't to her wallowing in the Mire And St. Peter applys it to certain Christians who have made it good in the Application even by
on Earth too It is enough for poor Lazarus to have his Good things hereafter And enough for Rich Dives to have his proportion of Good things here But the good men I speak of will needs be happier than Lazarus and yet much richer than Dives too They will have their good things as well in this as another World All the subject of their Inquiry is not how to be better than other men in Acts of Iustice and Works of Mercy But how to be greater and more regarded which is call'd a being better in point of Quality and Degree And after these very things do the Gentiles seek They of Iava and the Molucco's They of Tartary and China whether as greedily as Christians I cannot tell But our Saviour spake only of Food and Rayment as of things which the Gentiles are wont to seek And well it were for Real Christians if Nominal Christians would seek no more If Food and Rayment would serve the turn Christians then like other Creatures might quietly live by one another But it seems they have no more than the Name of Christians who chiefly seek with the Gentiles the low concernments of the Flesh. For as many as are Christians in very good earnest will bestow themselves in seeking the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof supposing such things as These will be added to the rest as a good Appendix Man not living by Bread alone as our Saviour said to Satan but by bread as it is blessed by the good Word of God Nor indeed is he worthy to live by Bread who is not able to live without it who is not able to subsist upon better things When we reckon Food and Rayment among the Necessaries of Life which we do with good reason we only speak of such a painful and dying life as is not worthy our caring for unless in order to life Aeternal And for the nourishing of That the very famishing of the Body may pass for food unto the Soul From all which together it seems to follow That they who arrogate to themselves not only the greatest both Faith and Hope but the perfectest Assurance of life Aeternal do prove themselves unaware the greatest Infidels in the World whilst neglecting the grand Inquiry they ought to make after Heaven they let the Tide of their Affections run out wholly upon the Earth For did they really look for a Day of Iudgment as much as they do for an Hour of Death they would as certainly provide against the one as commonly they do against the other They would take as much Care to be just and honest as universally they do to be rich or healthful And make as much of their Souls by Mortification and Self-denial as now they do of their Bodies by a plentiful Injoyment of Creature-Comforts 'T is true indeed Life Aeternal is a thing which is quickly talk't of nor are there any so uncivil as not to afford it a friendly mention It is no hard thing to be another mans flatterer much less is it difficult to be ones own To be secure and praesumptuous is cheap and easy Yea 't is pleasant to flesh and blood to be carnally set free from that fear and trembling wherewith a man is to work out his own Salvation Thence it is that we abound with such an Herd of Fiduciaries and Solifidians who having persuaded themselves to fancy that Life Eternal is a thing which cannot possibly escape them and that all the next world is irresistibly their own They think they have nothing to do in This but to make a Trial whether it hath not been decreed that all shall be theirs that they can get and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall get all they try for and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall try to get All. When men are season'd with such a Principle they cannot think it concerns them to give all Diligence for the making of their Calling and Election sure by ceasing to do evil and by learning to do well or by adding to Faith Vertue and one Vertue unto another But supposing their Election so sure already as to be pass't the possibility of being miss't It is natural for them to give all diligence to make themselves sure of somewhat else For let them say what they will and let them think what they please and let them do what they can they cannot possibly give diligence to seek a thing in their possession or to secure what they believe it is impossible for them to lose No man living will light a Candle to look about for those Eyes which he believes are in his Head nor will he search after his head which is he doubts not upon his shoulders Our Saviour's two Parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Groat cannot but seem an arrant Iargon unto a man of such Principles as now I speak of For will He send about the Country to find a Sheep which is in his Fold or sweep the House for a Groat which he praesumes is in his Pocket No being poyson'd with an opinion that he was justified from Eternity and hath Grace irresistible and therefore cannot fall totally much less finally from Grace he will esteem it a thing impertinent for a man of his Talents to be so anxious as to Inquire what Good things he ought to do that he may inherit Eternal Life § 6. The great unhappiness of it is what I am sorry I have reason to believe I say truly That there are few Congregations wherein there are not such Professors as now I speak of who as long as fermented with such a Leven cannot possibly be profited by all our Preaching And therefore They above others must be inform'd That by the Nature of our Inquiries we ought to try as by a Touchstone of what sort we are whether Silver or Alchymy whether true and solid Gold or but polished Iron with double Gilt. By this we may explore from whence we came and whither 't is that we are going of whom we are and whom we are for For that Saying of our Saviour Matth. 24. 28. which historically refers to the Roman Army Wheresoever the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together must needs be applicable and true in This sense also which is our Saviour's own Sense Luke 12. 34. Where your Treasure is there your Heart will be also From whence it follows unavoidably That if we are men of another world and have our Treasure laid up in Heaven we shall behave our selves as Pilgrims and perfect Sojourners here on Earth We shall be commonly looking Upwards with our Backs upon Egypt and our Faces towards Canaan Our Souls will be athirst for God Psal. 42. 1 2 3. our Hearts will pant after Eternity as the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks crying out with holy David in an Exiliency of Spirit O when shall we appear before the Presence of God How low soever both our Bodies and
his Reason For of this sort are they who creep into Houses and lead captive silly women laden with Sins and led away with divers lusts Ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth After this they are compared to Iannes and Iambres withstanding Moses men of corrupt minds or men of no judgment and Reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3. from the first verse unto the ninth This is St. Paul's Exact Description of wicked Doers in the last Days and that in the Bosom of The Church too as learned Beza expresly words it Now whether the last Days refer to the Destruction of Ierusalem or to the End of the World or have an Aspect upon Both which I conceive to be the Best of the Three Opinions we cannot but say it suits well a great deal too well with the Days we live in For § 4. If we consider the Faith of Christ in the first general sense I lately mention'd How is it totally rejected or most wretchedly depraved by the Mahomedans in the Eastern and by the Multitude of Fanaticks in the Western parts of the World what with Heathens and Iews arrant Atheists and empty Theists modern Arrians or Socinians what with Dogmatists and Scepticks and the more brutish Acatalepticks and damnable Hypocrites in Religion who if it is possible may be thought worse than the worst of These How few in Christendom are Christians or more than Professors of Christianity And even of Professors how many are there who in their words do own Christ whilst in their works they quite deny him like Those concerning whom St. Paul saith to Titus They are Abominable Disobedient and to every good work Reprobate Do not the Turks use our Saviour with much more reverence and respect thô they believe him but a meer Prophet than many Thousands of Verbal Christians who do profess him to be a God The Turks chastize their Christian Slaves whensoever their Anger or Impatience moves them to swear or to blaspheme A Turkish Sultan could afford a good Admonition to a Pope and a Christian Emperour that Iesus Christ had commanded them to put up Injuries and Affronts but not to offer or to revenge them How like an Heathen did Iustinian break his Contract with the Mahomedans and how sadly did they make an Example of him How did Nicephorus do the like with the Turkish Aaron and how was he made a like Example A whole victorious Christian Army dead in Drunkenness and Sleep was so cut off by the Saracens during the Reign of Michael Ducas that only a man was left alive to carry home Tidings of that Calamity The Christian Emperour Diogenes found as much Faithfulness and Humanity from the most admirable Axan a Turkish Sultan and an Enemy who took him Pris'ner as he found Falsness and Barbarity from his own Christian Subjects at his Enlargement Lord the wonderful difference between these Two His Turkish Enemy sav'd his life his Christian Subjects took it away And the most Scandalous * Violation of Christian Faith with the Mahomedans to which the impious Pope Eugenius had most unchristianly exhorted the King of Poland cost Ladislaus the signal loss of more than Thirty thousand Soldiers whom their good Father of the Papacy may well be esteemed to have slain To deal impartially with our selves as well as honestly with our Enemies and religiously with our Saviour whose Praediction in my Text I am now justifying and proving what Incouragement have the Turks to joyn themselves with the Christians whilst they observe so many Christians wearing Religion as a Cloak a Cloak to cover Irreligion a Cloak of Maliciousness and Hypocrisie to be put off and on as occasion serves a Cloak for Knavery and Sedition and Violation of Oaths What Invitations or Inducements have the Worshippers of Mahomed to be converted to Christianity whilst for one Drunkard in Turky They see there are Multitudes in Christendom or whilst they fear by turning Christians they shall be under the Persecution of Fellow Christians whereas continuing to be Turks the Christians can do them but little Hurt or whilst they find Christian Princes buying Peace of the Great Turk that they may break it with one another or whilst they hear that Prosperity is avowed by many Christians to be a Mark of the True Religion or whilst they read that a most gracious and religious Christian King Charles the First of Great Britain was cruelly kill'd in cold Blood by his Christian Subjects and by the best sort of Christians as some esteem them at least as They esteem Themselves Dissenting Protestants and Reformers Refiners of The Reformation and even Menders of the Magnificat Now what says The Mahomedan within himself and to others on this occasion If such as These are the Characters whereby Christians are to be known and Christians of the purer sort too Christians tenderer in Conscience than others are Christians scrupling at a Surplice or Cross in Baptism sit Anima mea cum paganis The Turkish Musulman will say Let my Soul be with Theirs who never once heard of the Christian Creed O my Soul says the Infidel come not Thou into their Secret to their Assembly mine Honour be not Thou united For in their Anger they slew a Man and in their self-will they digged down a strong Wall Him who was to His People for Walls and Bulwarks Cursed be their Anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Such is the Infidel's Indignation thô expressed in the words of a most Faithful dying Iacob concerning two of his own Sons Unto which may be added That other Prophecy of the same Iacob touching the same combining Sons as Sons of Violence and Bloodshed that sooner or later God will divide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israel § 5. But let us consider whether The Iews have greater incouragement than The Turks to unite with Those Christians in point of Faith who hold that None is to be kept with their Fellow-Christians if forsooth they are not fully of their Perswasion and for That reason only are called Hereticks The Italian Iews at this day do hate Adultery to the Death whilst they observe Italian Christians do hardly accompt it a greater Crime than to eat Flesh upon a Friday The Iews are so much at unity within themselves that as covetous as they are and how much soever scatter'd abroad they have a kind of Community of Goods and Fortunes in that they leave not their Poor ones without Relief nor their Captives without a Ransom Whereas the Christians they observe and as well Protestants as Papists are full of Enmity and Strife and perhaps of somewhat more than Vatinian Hatreds from whence arise their Departures and Separations from one another They will not meet to serve God under one and the same Roof with their Christian Brethren for fear they should obey Man and the Laws in force Now the Iews cannot