upon me and there is a law of sin and a law in my flesh which after the water of Baptism taken and the water of penitent teares given after the blood of Jesus Christ taken and mine own blood given that is a holy readiness at that time when I am made partaker of Christs death to die for Christ throwes me back by relapses into those repented sins This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation O wretched man that I am And yet he found a deliverance even from the body of this death through Jesus Christ his Lord that is a free an open recourse and access to him in all oppressions of heart in all dejections of spirit Now when this Chyrographum this bond of Adams hand Original sin is cancell'd upon the Cross of Christ And this Pactum this band of mine hand actual sins washed away in the blood of Christ and this Lex in membris this disposition to relapse into repented sins which as a tide that does certainly come every day does come every day in one form or other is beaten back as a tide by a bank by a continual opposing the merits and the example of Christ Jesus and the practise of his fasting and such other medicinall disciplines as I find to prevaile against such relapses when by this blessed means the whole Law against which I am a trespasser is evacuated will God condemn me for all this and not by a Law When I have pleaded Christ and Christ and Christ Baptism and Blood and Teares will God condemn me an oblique way when he cannot by a direct way by a secret purpose when he hath no law to condemn me by Sad and disconsolate distorted and distracted soul if it be well said in the School Absurdum est disputare ex manuscriptis it is an unjust thing in Controversies and Disputations to press arguments out of Manuscripts that cannot be seen by every man it were ill said in thy conscience that God will proceed against thee ex manuscripto or condemn thee upon any thing which thou never saw'st any unrevealed purpose of his Suspicious soul ill-presaging soul Is there something else besides the day of Judgement that the Son of Man does not know Disquiet soul Does he not know the proceeding of that Judgement wherein himself is to be the Judge But that when he hath died for thy sins and so fulfilled the Law in thy behalfe thou maist be condemned without respect of that Law and upon something that shall have had no consideration no relation to any such breach of any such Law in thee Intricated intangled conscience Christ tells thee of a Judgement because thou didst not do the works of Mercy not feed not cloath the poor for those were enjoyned thee by a Law But he never tells thee of any Judgement therefore because thy name was written in a dark book of Death never unclasped never opened unto thee in thy life He sayes unto thee lovingly and indulgently Fear not for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdome But he never sayes to the wickedest in the world Live in fear dye in anxiety in suspition and suspension for his displeasure a displeasure conceived against you before you were sinners before you were men hath thrown you out of that Kingdome into utter darkness There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus the reason is added because the Law of the Spirit of Life hath made them free from the Law of Sin and of Death All upon all sides is still referred to Law And where there is no law against thee as there is not to him that is in Christ and he is in Christ who hath endeavoured the keeping or repented the breaking of the Law God will never proceed to execution by any secret purpose never notified never manifested Suspicious jealous scattered soule recollect thy self and give thy self that redintegration that acquiescence which the Spirit of God in the means of the Church offers thee study the Mystery of godlinesse which is without all controversie that is endeavour to keep repent the not keeping of the Law and thou art safe for that that you shall be judged by is a Law But then this Law is called here a Law of Liberty and whether that denotation that it is called a Law of Liberty import an ease to us or a heavier weight upon us is our last disquisition and conclusion of all So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty Lex libertatis That the Apostle here by the Law of Liberty meanes the Gospel 1.25 was never doubted He had called the Gospel so before this place Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein shall be blessed in his deed that is blessed in doing so blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel But why does he call it so a Law of Liberty Not because men naturally affecting liberty might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel by proposing it in that specious name of Liberty though it were not so The Holy Ghost calls the Gospel a Pearle and a Treasure and a Kingdom and Joy and Glory not to allure men with false names but because men love these and the Gospel is truly all these a Pearle and a Treasure and a Kingdome and Joy and Glory And it is truly a Law of Liberty But of what kind and in what respect Not such a Liberty as they have established in the Roman Church where Ecclesiastical Liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State and from being Traitors though they commit treason because they are Subjects to no secular Prince nor the liberty of the Anabaptists that overthrowes Magistracy and consequently all subjection both Ecclesiastical and Laick for when upon those words Be ye not servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 S. Chrysostome sayes this is Christian liberty Nec aliis nec sibi servire neither to be subjects to others nor to our selves that 's spoken with modification with relation to our first Allegeance our Allegeance to God not to be so subject to others or to our selves as that either for their sakes or our owne we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God Deo First then the Gospel is a Law of Liberty in respect of the Author of the Gospel of God himself because it leaves God at his liberty Not at liberty to judge against his Gospel where he hath manifested it for a Law for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself to judge according to that Law where he hath published that law But at liberty so as that it consists onely in his good pleasure to what Nation he will publish the Gospel or in what Nation he will continue the Gospel or upon what persons he will make this Gospel effectuall So Oecumenius who is no single witness nor speaks not alone but compiles the former Fathers places this
of our Professors themselves who as she thinks come as near to her as they dare Because she hath gained of late upon many of the weaker sex women laden with sin and of weaker fortunes men laden with debts and of weaker consciences souls laden with scruples therefore she imagines that she hath seen the worst and is at an end of her change though this be but indeed a running an ebbing back of the main River but onely a giddy and circular Eddy in some shallow places of the stream which stream God be blessed runs on still currantly and constantly and purely and intemerately as before yet because her corrections are not multiplied because her absolute Ruine is not accelerated she hath some false conceptions of a general returning towards her and she fears up her self against all sense of Truth and all tenderness of Peace and because she hath rid out one storm in Luther and his successors therefore she fears not the Lord for any other Quia non habent Because she hath no changes now Habuerunt then They have had changes and Habebunt They shall have more and greater Impii non stabunt says David The wicked shall not stand In how low ground soever they stand and in how great torment soever they stand yet they shall not stand there but sink to worse and at last non stabunt in judicio They shall not stand in judgement but fall there from whence there is no rising Non stabunt They shall not stand though they think they shall they shall counterfeit the Seals of the Holy Ghost and delude themselves with imaginary certitudes of Salvation and illusory apprehensions of Decrees of Election nay non stabunt They shall not be able to think that they shall stand that which the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 10.12 Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall belongs onely to the godly onely they can think deliberately and upon just examination of the marks and evidences of the Elect that they shall stand God shall suffer the wicked to sink down not to a godly sense of their infirmity and holy remorse of the effects thereof but yet lower then that to a diffident jealousie to a desperate acknowledgement that they cannot stand in the sight of God they shall have no true rest at last they shall not stand nay they shall not have that half that false comfort by the way they shall not be able to flatter themselves by the way with that imagination that they shall stand Now both the ungodly and godly too must have Changes in matter of Fortune changes are common to them both and then in all of all conditions Mortalitas Mutabilitas says St. Augustine even this That we must die is a continual change The very same word 14.14 which is here kalaph is in Job also All the days of my appointed time till my changing come And because this word which we translate changing is there spoken in the person of a righteous man Symma some Translators have rendred that place Donec veniat sancta nativitas mea Till I be born again the change the death of such men is a better birth And so the Chaldee Paraphrasts the first Exposition of the Bible have express'd it Quousque rursus fiam Till I be made up again by death He does not stay to call the Resurrection a making up but this death this dissolution this change is a new creation this Divorce is a new Marriage this very Parting of the soul is an Infusion of a soul and a Transmigration thereof out of my bosome into the bosom of Abraham Bernard But yet though it is all this yet it is a change Maxima mutatio est Mutabilitatis in Immutabilitatem To be changed so as that we can never be changed more is the greatest change of all All must be changed so far as to die yea those who shall in some sort escape that death those whom the last day shall surprise upon earth though they shall not die yet they shall be changed Statutum est omnibus semel mori All men must die once Heb. 9.27 we live all under that Law But statutum nemini hic mori since the promise of a Messiah there is no Law no Decree by which any man must necessarily die twice a Temporal death and a Spiritual death too It is not the Man but the Sinner that dies the second death God sees sin in that man or else that man had never seen the second death So we shall all have one change besides those which we have all had good and bad must die but the men in this text shall have two But whatsoever changes are upon others in the world whatsoever upon themselvs whatsoever they have had whatsoever they are sure to have yet Quia non habent non timent Deum Because they have none now they fear not God And so we are come to our third and last Part. They fear not God This is such a state Part III. Non timent as if a man who had been a Schoolmaster all his life and taught others to read or had been a Critick all his life and ingeniosus in alienis over-witty in other mens Writings had read an Author better then that Author meant and should come to have use of his Reading to save his life at the Bar when he had his Book for some petty Felony and then should be stricken with the spirit of stupidity and not be able to read then Such is the state of the wisest of the learnedest of the mightiest in this world If they fear not God they have forgot their first letters they have forgot the basis and foundation of all Power the reason and the purpose of all Learning the life and the soul of all Counsel and Wisdom for The fear of God is the beginning of all They are all fallen into the danger of the Law they have all sinn'd they are offer'd their Book the merciful promises of God to repentant sinners in his Word and they cannot read they cannot apply them to their comfort There is Scripture but not translated not transferr'd to them there is Gospel but not preached to them there are Epistles but not superscribed to them It is an hereditary Sentence Psal 111.10 Prov. 1.7 Ecclus 1.16 and hath pass'd from David in his Psalms to Solomon in his Proverbs and then to him that glean'd after them both the Author of Ecclesiasticus The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom All three profess all that and more then that It is Blessedness it self says the father David Blessedness it self says the son Solomon and Plenitudo Sapientiae and Omnis Sapientia says the other The fulness of wisdom and the onely wisdom Job had said it before them all Ecce timor Domini 28. ipsa est sapientia The fear of the Lord is wisdom it self And the Prophet Esai said it after of Ezechias 33.6 There
The Incarnation of God and then the death and Crucifying of that God so Incarnate could never have fallen within the desire nor wish of any man neither would any man oâ— himself ever have conceived That the Sacraments of the Church poor and naked things of themselves for all that the wit of man could imagine in them or allow to them should be such means to sâ—al and convey the graces which accompany this Redemption of our souls to our souls Divisio So then Having thus represented unto you a model and designe of the miserable condition of man and the abundant mercy of our Redeemer so far as those words which the Holy Ghost hath chosen in this text hath invited and led us That we may look better upon some pieces of it that we may take such a sight of this Redeemer here as that we may know Him when we meet Him at home at our house in our private meditations at His house in the last judgment I shall onely offer you two considerations Exprobrationem and Consolaâ—ionem First an exprobration or increpation from God to us And then a consolation or consolidation of the same God upon us And in the exprobration God reproches to us first our Prodigality that we would sell a reversion our possibility our expectance of an inheritance in heaven And then our cheapness that we would sell that for nothing Prodigality First then Prodigality is a sin that destroys even the means of liberality If a man wast so as that he becomes unable to releive others by this wast this is a sinful prodigality but much more if he wast so as that he is not able to subsist and maintain himself and this is our case who have even annihilated our selves by our proâ—useness For it is his mercy that we are not consumed It is a sin and a viperous sin it eats out his own womb The Prodigal consumes that that should maintain his Prodigality It is peccatum Biathana ton a sin that murders it self Now as in civil Prodigalities in a wastfulness of our temporal estate the Laws inflicts three kinds of punishment three incommodities upon him that is a Prodigal so have the same punishments a proportion and somethings that answer them in this spiritual prodigality of the soul by sin The first is bonis suis interdicitur He that is a Prodigall in the Law cannot dispose of his own Estate whatsoever he gives or sells or leases all is void as of a mad-man or of an Infant And such is the condition of a man in sin He hath no interest in his own natural faculties He cannot think he cannot wish he cannot do any thing of himself the venem and the malignity of his sin goes through all his actions and he cannot purge it The second incommodity is Testamentum non facit The Prodigal person hath no power allowed him by the Law to make a will at his death And this also doth an habitual sinner suffer For when he comes to his end he may dictate to a Notary and he may bid him write Imprimis I give my Soul to God my Body to such a Church my Goods to such and such persons But if those Goods be lâ—able to other debts â—he Legâ—tarie shall have no profit If the person be under excommunication he shall not lye in that Church If his soul be under the weight of unrepented sins God will do the devil no wrong he will not take a soul that is sold to him before The third Incommodity that a Prodigal incurrs by the Law is Exhaeredatus creditur He is presum'd to be disinherited by his father that whereas by that Law if the father in his Will leave out any of his childrens names and never mention him yet that child which is pretermitted shall come in for a childs part except the father have assigned a particular reason why he left him out If this childe were a Prodigal there needs no other reason to be assigned but Exhaeredatus Creditur He is presum'd to be disinherited And so also if we have seen a man prodigal of his own soul and run on in a course of sin all his life except there appear very evident signs of resumption into Gods grace at his end Exhaeredatus Creditur we have just reason to be afraid that he is disinherited If any such sinner seem to thee to repent at his end Faâ—eor vobis non negamus quod petit saith St. Augustin I confess we ought not to deny him any help that he desires in that late extremity Sed non praesumimus quia bene exit I dare not assure you that that man dyes in a good state he adds that vehemence non praesumo non vos fallo non praesumo I should but deceive you if I should assure you that such a man dyed well There was one good and happy Thief that stole a Salvation at the crucifying of Christ but in him that was throughly true which is proverbially spoken Occasio facit furem the oppotunity made him a thief and when there is such another opportunity there may be such another theif when Christ is to dye again we may presume of mercy upon such a late repentance at our death The preventing grace of God made him lay violent hands upon heaven But when thou art a Prodigal of thy soul will God be a prodigal too for thy sake and betray and prostitute the kingdome of Heaven for a sigh or a groan in which thy pain may have a greater part than thy repentance God can raise up children out of the stones of the street and therefore he might be as liberal as he would of his people and suffer them to be sold for old shoes but Christ will not sell his birth-right for a messe or pottage the kingdome of Heaven for the dole at a Funeral Heaven is not to be had in exchange for an Hospital or a Chantry or a Colledge erected in thy last will It is not onely the selling all we have that must buy that pearl which represents the kingdome of Heaven The giving of all that we have to the poor at our death will not do it the pearl must be sought and found before in an even and constant course of Sanctification we must be thrifty all our life or we shall be to poor for that purchase It is then an unthrifty a perplexed bargain when both the buyer and the seller loose our losse is plain enough for we loose our souls And certainly howsoever the devil be expressed to take some joy at the winning of a sinner howsoever his kingdome be thereby enlarged yet Almighty God suffers not his treason his undermining of man to be unpunished but afflicts him with more and more accidental torments even for that as a licencious man takes pleasure in the victory of having corrupted a woman by his solicitation but yet insensibly overthrows his constitution by his sin so the withdrawing of Gods Subjects from
then this pactum this contract of mine own hand actual and habitual sin for of these one is wash'd out in water and the other in blood Ro. 7.20 in the two Sacraments But then there is Lex in membris saith the Apostle I find a law that when I would do good evil is present with me Sin assisted by me is now become a Tyrant over me and hath establish'd a government upon me and therefore is a law of sin and a law in my flesh which after the water of baptism taken and the water of penitent tears given after the blood of Christ Jesus taken and mine one blood given that is a holy readiness at that time when I am made partaker of Christs death to die for Christ throws me back by relapses into those repented sins This put the Apostle to that passionate exclamation O wretched man that I am and yet he found a deliverance even from the body of his death through Jesus Christ his Lord that is a free and open recourse and access to him in all oppressions of heart in all dejections of spirit Now when this Chirographum this band of Adams hand Original sin is cancell'd upon the Cross of Christ and this pactum this band of mine own hand actual sins wash'd away in the blood of Christ and this Lex in membris this disposition to relapse into repented sins which as a tide that does certainly come every day does come every day in one form or other is beaten back as a tide by a bank by a continual opposing the merits and the example of Christ Jesus and the practice of his fasting such other medicinal disciplines as I find to prevail against such relapses when by this blessed means the whole law against which I am a trespasser is evacuated will God condemn me for all this and not by a law when I have pleaded Christ Christ and Christ baptism and blood and tears will God condemn mean oblique way when he cannot by a direct way by a secret purpose when he hath no law to condemn me by Sad and discomposed distorted and distracted soul if it be well said in the School absurdum est disputare ex manuscriptis it is an unjust thing in controversies and disputations to press arguments out of manuscripts that cannot be seen by every man it were ill said in thy conscience that God will proceed against thee ex manuscriptis or condemn thee upon any thing which thou never sawst any unreveal'd purpose of his Suspicious soul ill-presaging soul is there something else besides the day of Judgment that the Son of man does not know disquiet soul does he not know the proceeding of that Judgment wherin himself is to be Judg but that when he hath died for thy sins and so fulfill'd the law in thy behalf thou maist be condemn'd without respect of that law and upon something that shall have had no consideration no relation to any such breach of any such law in thee Intricated entangled conscience Christ tels thee of a Judgment because thou didst not do the works of mercy not feed not cloth the poor for these were enjoyn'd thee by a law but he never tels thee of any Judgment therefore because thy name was written in a dark book of death never unclaps'd never opened unto thee in thy life He saies to the lovingly indulgently fear not for it is Gods good pleasure to give you the Kingdom but he never saies to the wickedest in the world live in fear dy in anxiety in suspition and suspension for his displeasure a displeasure conceiv'd against you before you were sinners before you were men hath thrown you out of that kingdom into utter darkness There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus The reason is added because the law of the Spirit of life hath made them free from the law of sin and of death All upon all sides is still refer'd to a law And where there is no law against thee as there is not to him that is in Christ and he is in Christ who hath endeavoured the keeping or repented the breaking of the law God wil never proceed to execution by any secret purpose ever notified never manifested Suspicious jealous scattered soul recollect thy self and give thy self that redintegration that acquiescence which the spirit of God in the means of the Church offers thee study the mysterie of godliness which is without all controversie that is endeavour to keep repent the not keeping of the law and thou art safe for that you shall be judged by is a law But then this law is called here a law of liberty and whether that denotation that it is called a law of liberty import an ease to us or heavier weight upon us is our last disquisition and conclusion of all So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Lex libertatis That the Apostle here by the law of liberty means the Gospel was never doubted he had call'd the Gospel so before this place whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty 1.25 and continueth therein shal be blessed in his deed that is blessed in doing so blessed in conforming himself to the Gospel but why does he call it so A law of liberty not because men naturally affecting liberty might be drawn to an affection of the Gospel by proposing it in that specious name of liberty though it were not so The holy Ghost calls the Gospel a pearl and a treasure and a kingdome and joy and glory Not to allure men with false names but because men love these and the Gospel is truly all these a pearl and a treasure and a kingdome and joy and glory And it is truly a law of liberty but of what kind and in what respect not such a liberty as they have established in the Roman Church where Ecclesiastical liberty must exempt Ecclesiastical persons from participating all burdens of the State and from being traitors though they commit treason because they are Subjects to no secular Prince nor the liberty of the Anabaptist that overthrows Magistracy and consequently all subjection both Ecclesiastical Laick for when upon those words 1 Cor. 7.23 Be ye not servants of men St. Chrysostome sayes This is Christian liberty Nec aliis nec sibi servire neither to be subjects to others nor to our selves that 's spoken with modification an allegiance with relation to our first allegiance to God not to be so subject to others or to our selves as that either for their sakes or our own we depart from any necessary declaration of our service to God Deo First then the Gospel is a Law of Liberty in respect of the author of the Gospel of God himself because it leaves God at his liberty Not at liberty to judg against his Gospel where he hath manifested it for a law for he hath laid a holy necessity upon himself
to bear any slavish yoak had a tyrannical meaning in his words But in this Text as in one of those Tables in which by changing the station and the line you use to see two pictures you have a good picture of a good King and of a good subject for in one line you see such a subject as Loves pureness of heart and hath grace in his lips In the other line you see the King gracious yea friendly to such a subject He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend The sum of the words is that God will make an honest man acceptable to the King for some ability which he shall employ to the publike Him that proceeds sincerely in a lawful calling God will bless and prosper and he will seal this blessing to him even with that which is his own seal his own image the favor of the King He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend We will not be curious in placing these two pictures nor considering which to consider first As he that would vow a fast till he had found in nature whether the Egge or the Hen were first in the world might perchance starve himself so that King or that subject which would forbear to do their several duties Serm. 24. till they had found which of them were most necessary to one another might starve one another for King and subjects are Relatives and cannot be considered in execution of their duties but together The greatest Mystery in Earth or Heaven which is the Trinity is conveyed to our understanding no other way then so as they have reference to one another by Relation as we say in the Schools for God could not be a father without a Son nor the Holy Ghost Spiratus sine spirante As in Divinity so in Humanity too Relations constitute one another King and subject come at once and together into consideration Neither is it so pertinent a consideration which of them was made for others sake as that they were both made for Gods sake and equally bound to advance his glory Here in our Text we finde the subjects picture first Divisio And his Marks are two first Pureness of Heart That he be an honest Man And then Grace of lips that he be good for something for by this phrase Grace of lips is expressed every ability to do any office of society for the Publike good The first of these Pureness of heart he must love The other that is Grace of lips that is other Abilities he must have but he must not be in love with them nor over-value them In the Kings picture the principal marke is That he shall be friendly and gracious but gracious to him that hath this Grace of lips to him that hath endeavored in some way to be of use to the Publike And not to him neither for all the grace of his lips for all his good parts except he also love pureness of heart but He that loveth pureness of heart There 's the foundation for the grace of his lips There 's the upper-building the King shall be his friend In the first then which is this Pureness of heart we are to consider Rem sedem Modum what this Pureness is Part. 1. Puritas Then where it is to be lodged and fixed In the heart and after that the way and means by which this Pureness of heart is acquired and preserved which is implyed and notified in that Affection wherewith this pureness of heart is to be embraced and entertained which is love For Love is so noble so soveraign an Affection as that it is due to very few things and very few things worthy of it Love is a Possessory Affection it delivers over him that loves into the possession of that that he loves it is a transmutatory Affection it changes him that loves into the very nature of that that he loves and he is nothing else For the first Pureness it self It is carried to a great heighth Res. for our imitation God knows too great for our imitation when Christ bids us be perfect Mat. 5.48 even as our father which is in heaven is perfect As though it had not been perfectness enough to be perfect as the Son upon earth was perfect he carries us higher Be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect The Son upon Earth Christ Jesus had all our infirmities and imperfections upon him hunger and weariness and hearty sorrow to death and that which alone is All Mortality Death it self And though he were Innocence it self and knew no sin yet there was no sin that he knew not for all our sins were his He was not onely made Man and by taking by Admitting though not by Committing our sins as well as our nature sinful Man but he was made sin for our sakes And therefore though he say of himself sicut ego John 15.10 Keep my Commandements even as I have kept my fathers Commandements yet still he refers all originally to the Father and because he was under our infirmities and our iniquities he never says though he might well have said so sicut ego Be pure be perfect as I am perfect and pure but sicut Pater be pure as your Father in heaven is pure Hand to hand with the Father Christ disclaims himself Mat. 26.39 disavows himself Non sicut ego Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt O Father We are not referr'd for the pattern of our purity though we might be safely to him that came from heaven The Son but to him which is in heaven The Father Nor to the Sun which is in heaven the Sun that is the pure fountain of all natural light nor to the Angels which are in heaven though they be pure in their Nature and refined by a continual emanation of the beams of glory upon them from the face of God but the Father which is in heaven is made the pattern of our purity That so when we see the exact purity which we should aim at and labor for we might the more seriously lament and the more studiously endeavor the amendment of that extreme and enormous fouleness and impurity in which we who should be pure as our Father which is in heaven is pure exceed the dog that turns to his own vomit again 2 Pet. 2.22 and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Yet there is no foulness so foul so inexcusable in the eys of God nor that shall so much aggravate our condemnation as a false affectation and an hypocritical counterfeiting of this Purity There is a Pureness a cleanness imagin'd rather dream't of in the Romane Church by which as their words are the soul is abstracted not onely à Passionibus but â Phantasmatibus not onely from passions and perturbations but from the ordinary way of coming to
Death of his Bitter Passion of the Ransome of his Blood of the Sanctuary of his Wounds and yet his Life and Death and Passion and Blood and Wounds is oftner in their mouthes in execrations then in the mouth of the most religious man in his prayers They revile Christ Praetereuntes Origen as they pass along not onely as Origen sayes here Non incedentes recte blasphemant they did not go perversly crookedly Hierom. wilfully and so blaspheme nor as Hierome Non ambulantes in vero itinere Scripturarum blasphemant they did not misinterpret places of Scripture to maintaine their errours and so blaspheme but they blasphemed Praetereuntes out of negligent custome and habit they blaspheme Christ and never think of it that they may be damned obiter by the way collaterally occasionately damned Luke 23.24 But it was not onely they Praetereuntes but the people that stood and beheld reviled Christ too men that doe understand Christ even then when they dishonour him doe dishonour him to accompany some greater persons upon whom they depend in their errours The Priests who should have called the Passengers Thr. 1.12 with that Have ye no regard all ye that passe by the way the Scribes who should have applyed the ancient Prophesies to the present accomplishment of them in the death of Christ the Pharisees who should have supplied their imperfect fulfilling of the Law in that full satisfaction the death of Christ the Elders the Rulers the Souldiers are all noted to have reviled Christ they all concurre to the performance of that Prophesie in the person of Christ and yet they will not see that the Prophesie is performed in him Psal 22.7 Psal 69.26 All they that see me have me in derision they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they adde unto the sorrowes of him whom thou hast wounded Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted in thee Psal 22.4 and were delivered but I am a worm and no man a shame to men and the contempt of the people Pilate had lost his plot upon the people to mollifie them towards Christ he brought him out to them Flagellatum illusum scourged and scorned John 19.1 thinking that that would have reduced them But this Preacher leaves all the rest either to their farther obduration or their fitter time of repentance if God had ordained any such time for them he turns to this one whose disposition he knew to have been like his own and therefore hoped his conversion would be so too for nothing gives the faithfull servants of God a greater encouragement that their labors shall prosper upon others then a consideration of their own case an acknowledgement what God hath done for their souls When the fear of God had wrought upon himself then he comes to his fellow Nonne tu times fearest not thou First Times Nonne tu We have not that advantage over our auditory which he had over his to know that in every particular man there is some reason why he should be more afraid of Gods judgements then another man But every particular man who is acquainted with his own history may be such a Preacher to himself and ask himself Nonne tu hast not thou more reason to stand in fear of God then any other man for any thing that thou knowest Knowest thou any man so deeply indebted to God so far behind-hand with God so much in danger of his executions as thou art Thou knowest not his colluctations before he fell nor his Repentances since when thou hearest S. Paul say Quorum maximus hadst not thou need say Nonne tu Dost not thou fear who knowest more by thy self then S. Pauls History hath told thee of S. Paul for in all his History thou never seest any thing done by him against his conscience and is thy case as good as that But to this thief this thief presses this no farther but this what hope soever of future happiness in this life by the coming of a Messias those that stay in the world can expect what 's all that to thee who art going out of the world Quid mihi sayes that man who looked upon the Rainbow when he was ready to drown though God have promised not to drown the world what 's that to me if I must drown I must be bold to say to thee Quid tibi if God by his omnipotent power will uphold his Gospel in the world he owes thee no thanks if thou do nothing in thy calling towards the upholding of it Nonne tu Dost not thou feare that though that stand Gods judgement will fall upon thee for having put no hand to the staying of it Nonne tu times It had been unreasonable to have spoken to him of the love of God first now when those heavy judgements were upon him The Fear of God is alwayes the beginning of Wisdome most of all in calamity which is properly Vehiculum timoris the Chariot to convey and the Seal to imprint this feare in us Because I thought surely the feare of God is not in this place Gen. 20.9 therefore I said Sarah was my sister Where there is not the fear of God in great persons other men dare not proceed clearly with them but with disguises and Modifications they dare not attribute their prosperity and good success to the goodness of God but must attribute it to their wisdome they dare not attribute their crosses and ill successe to the justice of God but must attribute it to the weakness or falshood of servants and ministers where there is not this fear of God there is no directness Beloved there is love enough at all hands it is a loving age every where love enough in every corner such as it is but scarce any feare amongst us Great men are above fear no envy can reach them Miserable men are below fear no change can make them worse and for persons of middle rank and more publick feares of plagues of famines or such the abundant and over-flowing goodness of God hath so long accustomed us to miraculous deliverances that we feare nothing but thinke to have miracles in ordinary and neglect ordinary remedies Deum But what should this man fear now his Glass was run out his Bell was rung out he was a dead man condemned and judged and executed what should he fear In Rome as the Vestal Virgins which dyed were buried within the city because they dyed innocent so persons which were executed by Justice were buryed there too because they had satisfied the Law and thereby seemed to be restored to their innocence So that condemned persons might seem least of all to feare But yet Nonne times Deum fearest not thou God for all that Have not the laws of Men Witnesses Judges and Executioners all men brought fearfull things upon thee already and is it not a fearfull thing if all those real torments be but Types and Figures of those greater which God
to us sincerely shall certainly have the heavier condemnation for having had that which they wanted Our multiplicity of Preachers and their assiduity in preaching our true interpretation of their labours when we doe heare and our diligent coming that we may hear shall leave us in worse state then they found us si non fecerimus If we doe not doe that which we heare And to doe the Gospel is to doe what we can for the preservation of the Gospel I know what I can do as a Minister of the Gospel and of Gods Word out of his Word I can preach against Linsey-woolsey garments out of his Word I can preach against plowing with an Oxe and with an Asse against mingling of Religions I know what I can do as a Father as a Master I can preserve my Family from attempts of Jesuits Those that are of higher place Magistrates know what they can do too They know they can execute lawes if not to the taking of Life yet to the restraining of Liberty Serm. 2. And it is no seditious saying it is no saucinesse it is no bitternesse it is no boldnesse to say that the spirituall death of those soules who perish by the practise of those seducers whom they might have stopp'd lies upon them And how knowes he who lets a Jesuit scape whether he let go but a Fox that will deceive some simple soule in matter of Religion or a Wolfe who but the protection of the Almighty would adventure upon the person of the highest of all Non facient quae dixeris is as far as the Text goes they will not do that we say but Quae dixerint is more they will not do that which themselves have said But Quae juraverint is most of all If they will not do that which for the preservation of the Gospel they have taken an Oath to do The Increpation the Malediction intended by God in this Text that all our preaching and all our hearing shall aggravate our condemnation will fall upon us And therefore this being the season in which especially God affords you the performance of that part of this Prophecy assiduous and laborious and acceptable and usefull preaching where all you of all sorts are likely to hear the Duties of Administration towards others and of Mortification in your selves powerfully represented unto you this may have been somewhat necessarily said by me now for the removing of some stones out of their way and the chafing of that wax in which they may thereby make the deeper and clearer impressions that so we may not onely be to you as a lovely song sung to an Instrument nor you onely heare our words but doe them AMEN A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Serm. 3. February 20. 1628. SERMON III. James 2.12 So speak ye and so Do as they that shall be Judged by the law of Liberty THis is one of those seven Epistles which Athanasius and Origen call'd Catholick that is universal perchance because they are not directed to any one Church as some others are but to all the Christian world And S. Hierom call'd them Canonical perchance because all Rules all Canons of holy Conversation are compriz'd in these Epistles And Epiphanius and Oecumenius call'd them Circular perchance because as in a Circle you cannot discern which was the first point nor in which the compass begun the Circle so neither can we discern in these Epistles whom the Holy Ghost begins withall whom he means principally King or Subject Priest or People Single or Married Husband or Wife Father or Children Masters or Servants but Universally promiscuously indifferently they give All rules for All actions to All persons at All times and in all places As in this Text in particular which is not by any precedent or subsequent relation by any connexion or coherence directed upon any company or any Degree of Men for the Apostle does not say Ye Princes nor ye people but ye ye in general to all So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty So these Epistles are Catholick so they are Canonical and they Circular so But yet though in a Circle we know not where the compass began we know not which was the first point yet we know that the last point of the Circle returns to the first and so becomes all one and as much as we know the last we know the first point Since then the last point of that Circle in which God hath created us to move is a kingdome for it is the kingdom of heaven and it is a Court for it is that glorious Court which is the presence of God in the communion of his Saints it is a fair and a pious conception for this Congregation here present now in this place to believe that the first point of this Circle of our Apostle here is a Court too and that the Holy Ghost in proposing these duties in his general Ye does principally intend ye that live in Court ye whom God brings so neer to the sight of himself and of his Court in heaven as that you have always the picture of himself and the pourtraiture of his Court in your eyes for a Religious King is the Image of God and a Religious Court is a Copy of the Communion of Saints And therefore be you content to think that to you especially our Apostle says here Ye ye who have a nearer propinquity to God a more assiduous conversation with God by having better helps then other inferior stations do afford for though God be seen in a weed in a worm yet he is seen more clearly in the sum So speak ye and so Do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Now Divisio as the first Divels were in heaven for it was not the punishment which they feel in Hell but the sin which they committed in heaven which made them Divels and yet the fault was not in God nor in the place so if the greatest sins be committed in Courts as even in Rome where they will needs have an Innocent Church yet they confess a guilty Court the faults are personal theirs that do them and there is no higher author of their sin The Apostle does not bid us say that it is so in Courts but lest it should come to be so he bids us give these rules to Courts So speak ye and so Do as they that shall be judged by a law of liberty First then here is no express precept given no direct commandment to speak The Holy Ghost saw there would be speaking enough in Courts for though there may be a great sin in silence a great prevarication in not speaking in a good cause or for an oppressed person yet the lowest voice in a Court whispering it self speaks a loud and reaches far and therefore here is onely a rule to regulate our speech Sic loquimini So speak ye And then as here is no express precept for
and he hath transgressed that The necessary precipitations into sudden executions to which States are forced in rebellious times we are faine to call by the name of Law Martial Law The Torrents and Inundations which invasive Armies pour upon Nations we are fain to call by the name of Law The Law of Armes No Judgement no Execution without the name the colour the pretence of Law for still men call for a Law for every Execution And shall not the Judge of all the earth doe right Shall God judge us condemn us execute us at the last day and not by a Law by something that we never saw never knew never notified never published and judge me by that and leave out the consideration of that Law which he bound me to keep 1 Cor. 1.20 I ask S. Pauls question Where is the disputer of the world Who will offer to dispute unnecessary things especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us to forbear such Disputations Blessed are the peace-makers that command and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey and accommodate themselves to peace in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies 1 Tim. 3.16 but without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness The Apostle invites us to search into no farther mysteries then such as may be without controversie the Mystery of Godlinesse is without controversie and godliness is to believe that God hath given us a Law and to live according to that Law This this godliness that is Knowledge and Obedience to the Law hath the promises of this life and the next too all referr'd to his Law for without this this godliness which is holiness no man shall see God All referr'd to a Law This is Christs Catechisme in S. John That we might know the onely true God 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he sent A God commanding and a Christ reconciling us if we have transgressed that Commandment And this is the Holy Ghosts Catechisme in S. Paul Deus remunerator Heb. 11.6 That we believe God to be and to be a just rewarder of mans actions still all referr'd to an obedience or disobedience of a Law The Mystery of godliness is great that is great enough for our salvation and yet without controversie for though controversies have been moved about Gods first act there can be none of his last act though men have disputed of the object of Election yet of the subject of Execution there is no controversie No man can doubt but that when God delivers over any soule actually and by way of execution to eternall condemnation that he delivers over that soule to that eternal condemnation for breaking his Law In this we have no other adversary but the over-sad the despairing soule and it becomes us all to lend our hand to his succour and to pour in our Wine and our Oyle into his Wounds that lies weltring and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soule That soule who though it can testifie to it self some endeavour in the wayes of holinesse yet upon some collateral doubts is still suspicious and jealous of God How often have we seen that a needlesse jealousie and suspition conceived without cause hath made a good body bad A needlesse jealousie and suspition of his purposes and intentions upon thee may make thy mercifull God angry too Nothing can alienate God more from thee then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him How wouldst thou have God mercifull to thee if thou wilt be unmercifull to God himself And Qui quid tyrannicum in Deo Basil He that conceives any tyrannical act in God is unjust to the God of Justice and unmercifull to the God of Mercy Therefore in the 17. of our Injunctions we are commanded to arm sad souls against Despaire by setting forth the Mercy and the Benefits and the Godliness of Almighty God as the word of the Injunction is the godliness of God for to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soule were to impute ungodliness to God Therefore to that mistaking soule that discomposed that shiver'd and shrivel'd and ravel'd and ruin'd soule to that jealous and suspicious soule onely I say Let no man judge you Coloss 2.16 sayes the Apostle intruding into those things which he hath not seene Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God which they have not nor you have not seen for that by which you shall be judged is the Law that Law which was notified and published to you The Law alone were much too heavy if there were not a superabundant ease and alleviation in that hand that Christ Jesus reaches out to us Consider the weight and the ease and for pity to such distrustfull souls and for establishment of your owne stop your devotions a little upon this consideration There is Chyrographum a hand-writing of Ordinances against me 14. a Debt an Obligation contracted by our first Parents in their disobedience and falne upon me And even that be it but Originall sin is shrewd evidence there 's my first charge But Deletum est sayes the Apostle there that 's blotted that 's defaced that cannot be sued against me after Baptisme Nay Sublatum cruci affixum it is cancel'd it is nailed to the Crosse of Christ Jesus it is no more sin in its self it is but to me to condemnation it is not here 's my charge and my discharge for that 28.15 But yet there is a heavier evidence Pactum cum inferno as the Prophet Esay speaks I have made a covenant with death and with Hell I am at an agreement that is says S. Greg. Audacter Indesinenter peccamus diligendo amicitiam profitemur We sin constantly we sin continually and we sin confidently and we finde so much pleasure and profit in sin as that we have made a league and sworn a friendship with sin and we keep that perverse and irreligious promise over-religiously and the sins of our youth flow into other sins when age disables us for them But yet there is a Deletum est in this case too our covenant with death is disanull'd sayes that Prophet when we are made partakers of the death of Christ in the blessed Sacrament Mine actuall sins lose their act and mine habituall sins fall from me as a habit as a garment put off when I come to that there 's my charge and my discharge for that But yet there is worse evidence against me then either this Chyrographum the first hand-writing of Adams hand or then this pactum this contract of mine own hand actuall and habituall sin for of these one is wash'd out in water and the other in blood in the two Sacraments But then there is Lex in Membris sayes the Apostle Rom. 7.21 I finde a law that when I would do good evil is present with me Sin assisted by me is now become a tyrant over me and hath established a government
been scandaliz'd and led into tentation by them till his law have been evacuated that that use of the law which is to shew sin to our consciences be annihilated in us till such a Cry come up to him by our often and professed sinning that it concerns him in his Honour which he will give to none and in his Care of his Churches which he hath promis'd to be till the end of all to take knowledge of them Yea though this Cry be come up to his Ears though it be a lowd Cry either by the nature of the sin as heavie things make a great noise in the moving or by reason of the number of the sins and the often doing thereof for as many children will make as great a noise as a loud Cryer so will the custome of small sins Cry as loud as those which are called peccata clamantia Crying sins Though this cry be encreased by this liberty and professed sinning that as the Prophet sayes Esa 3.9 They declare their sins and hide them not as Sodom did Though the cry of the sin be increased by the cry of them that suffer oppression by that sin as well as by the sin it self as the voice of Abel's bloud cryed from earth to heaven yea Gen. 4.10 though this cry ring about Gods ears in his own bed-chamber under the Altar it self in that Usquequo Domine when the Martyrs cry out with a loud voice How long Lord holy and true Revel 6.10 dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud yet God would fain forbear his Revenge he would fain have those Martyrs rest for a little space till their fellow servants and their brethren were fulfilled God would try what Cain would say to that Interrogatory Where is thy brother Abel And though the cry of Sodom were great and their sin exceeding grievous yet says God I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according unto that cry and if not I may know God would have been glad to have found Errour in their Inditement and when he could not yet if Fifty Fourty five Thirty Twenty Ten had been found righteous he had pardoned all Adeo malum Gregory quasi cum difficultate credidit cum audivit so loth is God to believe ill of man when he doth hear it This then is his patience Sententia But why is his patience made a reason of their continuance in sins Is it because there is no sentence denounced against sin These busie and subtile Extractors of Reasons that can distil and draw Poyson out of Manna Occasions of sin out of Gods Patience will not say so That there is no sentence denounced The word that is here used Pithgam is not truly an Hebrew word And though in the Book of Job and in some other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures we finde sometimes some forreign and out-landish word deriv'd from other Nations yet in Solomons writing very rarely neither doth Solomon himself nor any other Author of any part of the Hebrew Bible use this word in any other place then this one The word is a Chaldee word and hath amongst them the same signification and largeness as Dabar in Hebrew and that includes all A verbo ad legem from a word suddenly and slightly spoken to words digested and consolidated into a Law So that though the Septuagint translate this place Quia non est facta contradictio as though the reason of this sinners obduration might have been That God had not forbidden sin and though the Chaldee Paraphrast express this place thus Quia non est factum verbum ultionis As though this sinner made himself believe that God had never spoken word of revenge against sinners yet this sinner makes not that his reason That there is no Law no Judgement no Sentence given for every Book of the Bible every Chapter every Verse almost is a particular Deuteronomy a particular renewing of the Law from Gods mouth Morte Morieris Thou shalt die the death and of that Sentence from Moses mouth Pereundo peribitis You shall surely perish and of that Judgement from the Prophets mouth Non est Pax impiis There is no peace to the wicked And if this obdurate sinner could be such a Goth and Vandal as to destroy all Records all written Laws if he could evacuate and exterminate the whole Bible yet he would finde this Law in his own heart this Sentence pronounced by his own Conscience Stipendium peccati Mors est Treason is Death and sin is Treason His reason is not That there is no Law he sees it nor that he knows no Law his heart tells it him nor that he hath kept that Law his Conscience gives judgement against him nor that he hath a Pardon for breaking that Law for he never ask'd it and besides those Pardons have in them that clause Ita quod se bene gerat Every Pardon bindes a man to the good behaviour and by Relapses into sin we forfeit our Pardons for former sins All their Reason all their Comfort is onely a Reprieve and a Respite of Execution August Distulit Securim attulit Securitatem God hath taken the Ax from their necks and they have taken Security into their hearts Sentence is not executed Executed Execution is the life of the Law but then it is the death of the Man And therefore whosoever makes quarrels against God or arguments of Obduration out of this respite of Execution would he be better pleased with God if God came to a speedy Execution But let that be true Where there is no Execution there is no reverence to the Law there is truly and in effect no Law The Law is no more a Law without Execution then a Carcase is a Man And so much certainly the word which is here rendred sententia facta doth properly signifie A Judgement perfected executed Gen. 25.25 When Esau was born hairy and so in the likeness of a grown and perfect man he was call'd by the word of this text Gnesau Esau factus perfectus And so when God had perfected all his works Gen. 1. ult that is said then that he saw that all was good that he had made where there is the same word That he had perfected So that if the judgements of God had been still without execution if all those Curses Deut. 28.15 Cursed shalt thou be in the town and cursed in the field cursed in the fruit of thy body and in the fruit of thy land and in the fruit of thy cattel cursed when thou comest in and when thou goest out The Lord shall send thee cursings and trouble and shame in all thou setst thy hand to The Lord shall make a pestilence cleave to thee and a consumption and a fever The Lord shall make the heavens above as brass and the earth under thee as iron with all those Curses and Maledictions which he flings and slings and stings the soul of
then contract them in thy self and consider Gods speedy execution upon thy soul and upon thy body and upon thy soul and body together Was not Gods judgement executed speedily enough upon thy soul when in the same instant that it was created and conceiv'd and infus'd it was put to a necessity of contracting Original sin and so submitted to the penalty of Adam's disobedience the first minute Was not Gods judgement speedily enough executed upon thy body if before it had any temporal life it had a spiritual death a sinful conception before any inanimation If hereditary diseases from thy parents Gouts and Epilepsies were in thee before the diseases of thine own purchase the effects of thy licentiousness and thy riot and that from the first minute that thou beganst to live thou beganst to die too Are not the judgements of God speedily enough executed upon thy soul and body together every day when as soon as thou commitst a sin thou art presently left to thine Impenitence to thine Insensibleness and Obduration Nay the judgement is more speedy then so for that very sin it self was a punishment of thy former sins But though God may begin speedily yet he intermits again he slacks his pace and therefore the execution is not speedy As it is said of Pharaoh often Because the plagues ceased though they had been laid upon him Ingratum est cor Pharaonis Pharaoh's heart was hardned But first we see by that punishment which is laid upon Heli That with God it is all one to begin and to consummate his judgement When I begin I will make an end 1 Sam. 3.12 And when Herod took a delight in that flattery and acclamation of the people It is the voice of God and not of man Acts 12.22 the angel of the Lord smote him immediately the worms took possession of him though if we take Josephus relation for truth he died not in five days after Howsoever if we consider the judgements of God in his purpose and decree there they are eternal And for the execution thereof though the wicked sinner dissemble his sense of his torments and as Tertullian says of a persecutor Herminianus who being tormented at his death in his violent sickness cryed out Nemo sciat ne gaudeant Christiani Let no man know of my misery lest the Christians rejoyce thereat so these sinners suppress these judgements of God from our knowledge because they would not have that God that inflicts them glorified therein by us Yet they know their damnation hath never slept nor let them sleep quietly and in Gods purpose the judgement hath been eternal and they have been damned as long as the devil and that 's an execution speedy enough But because this appears not so evidently but that they may disguise it to the world and with much ado to their own Consciences Therefore their hearts are fully set in them to do evil And so we pass to our third Part. Part III. This is that perversness which the Heathen Philosopher Epictetus apprehends and reprehends That whereas every thing is presented to us Cum duabus sausis with two handles we take it still by the wrong handle This is tortuositas serpentis The wryness the knottiness the entangling of the Serpent This is that which the Apostle takes such direct knowledge of Rom. 2.4 Despisest thou the riches of Gods bountifulness and long-suffering not knowing that it leads thee to repentance St. Chrysostome's comparison of such a sinner to a Vulture that delights onely in dead carcases that is in company dead in their sins holds best as himself notes in this particular that the Vulture perhorrescit fragrantiam unguenti He loaths and is ill affected with any sweet savour for so doth this sinner finde death in that soveraign Balm of the patience of God and he dies of Gods mercy Et quid infelicius illis qui bono odore moriuntur says S. Augustine In what worse state can any man be then to take harm of a good air But as the same Father addes Numquid quia mori voluisti malum fecisti odorem This indisposition in that particular man does not make this air an ill air and yet this abuse of the patience of God comes to be an infectious poyson and such a poyson as strikes the heart and so general as to strike the heart of the children of men and so strongly as that their hearts should be fully set in them to do evil First then what is this setting of the heart upon evil and then what is this fulness that leaves no room for a Cure When a man receives figures and images of sin into his Fancie and Imagination and leads them on to his Understanding and Discourse to his Will to his Consent to his Heart by a delightful dwelling upon the meditation of that sin yet this is not a setting of the heart upon doing evil To be surpris'd by a Tentation to be overthrown by it to be held down by it for a time is not it It is not when the devil looks in at the window to the heart by presenting occasions of tentations to the eye nor when he comes in at the door to our heart at the ear either in lascivious discourses or Satyrical and Libellous defamations of other men It is not when the devil is put to his Circuit to seek whom he may devour and how he may corrupt the King by his Council that is The Soul by the Senses But it is when by a habitual custom in sin the sin arises meerly and immediately from my self It is when the heart hath usurp'd upon the devil and upon the world too and is able and apt to sin of it self if there were no devil and if there were no outward objects of tentation when our own heart is become spontanea insania voluntarius daemon Such a wilful Madness Chrysost and such a voluntary and natural Devil to it self as that we should be ambitious though we were in an Hospital and licentious though we were in a wilderness and voluptuous though in a famine so that such a mans heart is as a land of such Gyants where the Children are born as great as the Men of other nations grow to be for those sins which in other men have their birth and their growth after their birth they begin at a Concupiscence and proceed to a Consent and grow up to Actions and swell up to Habits In this man sin begins at a stature and proportion above all this he begins at a delight in the sin and comes instantly to a defence of it and to an obduration and impenitibleness in it This is the evil of the heart by the mis-use of Gods grace to devest and lose all tenderness and remorse in sin Now for the Incurableness of this heart it consists first in this that there is a fulness It is fully set to do evil such a full heart hath no room for a
thou pass away uncharitably towards him thou raisest an everlasting Trophee for thine enemy and prepar'st him a greater triumph then he proposed to himself he meant to triumph over thy body and thy fortune and thou hast provided him a triumph over thy Soul too by thy uncharitableness and he may survive to repent and to be pardoned at Gods hands and thou who art departed in uncharitableness canst not he shall be saved that ruind thee unjustly and thou who wast unjustly ruind by him shalt perish irrecoverably And so we have done with all those peeces which constitute our first part Sis aliquid profess something Hoc age do seriously the duties of that profession and then Sis aliquis propose some good man in that profession for thine immitation as we have proposed Stephen for general duties falling upon all professions And we shall pass now to our other part which we must all play and play in earnest that conclusion in which we shall but begin our everlasting state our death When he had said this he fell asleep Second part Mors impti Here I shall only present to you two Pictures two pictures in little two pictures of dying men and every man is like one of these and may know himself by it he that dies in the Bath of a peaceable he that dies upon the wrack of a distracted conscience When the devil imprints in a man a mortuum me esse non curo I care not though I were dead it were but a candle blown out and there were an end of all where the Devil imprints that imagination God will imprint an Emori nolo a loathness to die and fearful apprehension at his transmigration As God expresses the bitterness of death in an ingemination morte morietur in a conduplication of deaths he shall die and die die twice over So aegrotando aegrotabit in sicknesse he shall be sick twice sick body-sick and soul-sick too sense-sick and conscience-sick together when as the sinnes of his body have cast sicknesses and death upon his Soule so the inordinate sadnesse of his Soule shall aggravate and actuate the sicknesse of his body His Physitian ministers and wonders it works not He imputes that to flegme and ministers against that and wonders again that it works not He goes over all the humors and all his Medicines and nothing works for there lies at his Patients heart a dampe that hinders the concurrence of all his faculties to the intention of the Physitian or the virtue of the Physick Loose not O blessed Apostle thy question upon this Man 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory for the sting of Death is in every limb of his body and his very body is a victorious grave upon his Soule And as his Carcas and his Coffin shall lie equally insensible in his grave so his Soule which is but a Carcas and his body which is but a Coffin of that Carcas shall be equally miserable upon his Death-bed And Satan's Commissions upon him shall not be signed by Succession as upon Job first against his goods and then his Servants and then his children and then himselfe but not at all upon his life but he shall apprehend all at once Ruine upon himselfe and all his ruine upon himselfe and all him even upon his life both his lives the life of this and the life of the next world too Yet a drop would redeeme a shoure and a Sigh now a Storme then Yet a teare from the eye would save the bleeding of the heart and a word from the mouth now a roaring or which may be worse a silence of consternation of stupefaction of obduration at that last houre Truly if the death of the wicked ended in Death yet to scape that manner of death were worthy a Religious life To see the house fall and yet be afraid to goe out of it To leave an injur'd world and meet an incensed God To see oppression and wrong in all thy professions and to foresee ruine and wastefulnesse in all thy Posterity and Lands gotten by one sin in the Father molder away by another in the Sonne To see true figures of horror and ly and fancy worse To begin to see thy sins but then and finde every sin at first sight in the proportion of a Gyant able to crush thee into despair To see the Blood of Christ imputed not to thee but to thy Sinnes To see Christ crucified and not crucifyed for thee but crucified by thee To heare this blood speake not better things then the blood of Abel but lowder for vengeance then the blood of Abel did This is his picture that hath been Nothing that hath done nothing that hath proposed no Stephen No Law to regulate No example to certifie his Conscience But to him that hath done this Death is but a Sleepe Many have wondred at that note of Saint Chrysostom's Mors Piorum That till Christ's time death was called death plainly literally death but after Christ death was called but sleepe for indeede in the old-Testament before Christ I thinke there is no one metaphor so often used as Sleepe for Death and that the Dead are said to Sleepe Therefore wee wonder sometimes that Saint Chrysostome should say so But this may be that which that holy Father intended in that Note that they in the old-Testament who are said to have slept in Death are such as then by Faith did apprehend and were fixed upon Christ such as were all the good men of the old-Testament and so there will not bee many instances against Saint Chrysostome's note That to those that die in Christ Death is but a Sleepe to all others Death is Death literally Death Now of this dying Man that dies in Christ that dies the Death of the Righteous that embraces Death as a Sleepe must wee give you a Picture too These is not a minute left to do it not a minutes sand Is there a minutes patience Bee pleased to remember that those Pictures which are deliver'd in a minute from a print upon a paper had many dayes weeks Moneths time for the graving of those Pictures in the Copper So this Picture of that dying Man that dies in Christ that dies the death of the Righteous that embraces Death as a Sleepe was graving all his life All his publique actions were the lights and all his private the shadowes of this Picture And when this Picture comes to the Presse this Man to the streights and agonies of Death thus he lies thus he looks this he is His understanding and his will is all one faculty He understands Gods purpose upon him and he would not have God's purpose turned any other way hee sees God will dissolve him and he would faine be dissolved to be with Christ His understanding and his will is all one faculty His memory and his fore-sight ate fixt and concentred upon one object upon goodnesse Hee remembers that
us in this History of this Heroical Woman Esther what she did in a perplexed and scrupulous case when an evident danger appeared and an evident Law was against her action and from thence consider Serm. 22. what every Christian Soul ought to do when it is surprised and overtaken with any such scruples or difficulties to the Conscience For Esther in particular this was her case She being Wife to the King Haman who had great power with the King had got from him an Edict for the destruction of all her people the Jews When this was intimated to her by Mordecai who presented to her Conscience not onely an irreligious forsaking of God if she forbore to mediate and use her interest in the King for the saving of hers and Gods people but an unnatural and unprovident forsaking of her self because her danger was involved in theirs and that she her self being of that Nation could not be safe in her person though in the Kings house if that Edict were executed though she had not then so ordinary access to the King as formerly she had had yea though there were a Law in her way that she might not come till she was called yet she takes the resolution to go she puts off all Passion and all particular respects she consecrates the whole action to God and having in a rectified and well informed Conscience found it acceptable to him she neglects both that particular Law That none might have access to the King uncalled and that general Law That every Man is bound to preserve himself and she exposes her self to an imminent and for any thing she knew an unescapable danger of death If I perish I perish For the ease of all our memories we shall provide best Divisio by contracting all which we are to handle to these two parts Esthers preparation and Esthers resolution How she disposed her self how she resolved What her consultation was what her execution was to be Her preparation is an humiliation and there first she prepares that that glory which God should receive by that humiliation should be general All the people should be taught and provoked to glorifie God vade congrega Go and assemble all Secondly The act which they were to do was to fast Jejunate And thirdly It was a limited fast Tribus diebus Eat not nor drink in three days and three nights And then this fast of theirs was with relation and respect to her Jejunate super me Fast ye for me But yet so as she would not receive an ease by their affliction put them to do it for her and she do nothing for her self Ego cum Ancillis I and my Maids will fast too and similiter likewise that is As exactly as they shall And so far extends her preparation Her resolution derives it self into two branches First That she will break an Humane and Positive Law Ingrediar contra legem I will go in though it be not according to the Law and secondly She neglects even the Law of Nature the Law of Self-preservation Si peream peream To enter into the first part The assembling of the people though the occasion and purpose here were religious yet the assembling of them was a civil act 1. Part. Assemblies an act of Jurisdiction and Authority Almost all States have multiplied Laws against Assemblies of People by private Authority though upon pretences of Religious occasions All Conventicles all Assemblies must have this character this impression upon them That they be Legitima lawful And Legitima sola sunt quae habent authoritatem principis onely those are lawful which are made by the Authority of the State Aspergebatur infamia Alcibia des quòd in domo sua facere Mysteria dicebatur There went an ill report of him because he had sacrifices and other worships of the gods at home in his own house And this was not imputed to him as a Schismatical thing or an act of a different Religion from the State but an act of disaffection to the State and of Sedition In times of persecution when no exercise of true Religion is admitted these private Meetings may not be denied to be lawful As for bodily sustenance if a man could no otherwise avoid starving the Schoolmen and the Casuists resolve truly That it were no sin to steal so much meat as would preserve life so those souls which without that must necessarily starve may steal their Spiritual food in corners and private meetings But if we will steal either of these foods Temporal or Spiritual because that meat which we may have is not so dressed so dished so sauced so served in as we would have it but accompanied with some other ceremonies then are agreeable to our taste This is an inexcusable Theft and these are pernicious Conventicles Dan. 6. When that Law was made by Darius That no man for thirty days should ask any thing of God or man but onely of the King though it were a Law that had all circumstances to make it no Law yet Daniel took no occasion by this to induce any new manner of worshipping of God he took no more company with him to affront the Law or exasperate the Magistrate onely he did as he had used to do before and he did not disguise nor conceal that which he did but he set open his windows and prayed in his Chamber But in these private Conventicles where they will not live voto aperto that is pray so as that they would be content to be heard what they pray for As the Jews in those Christian Countreys where they are allowed their Synagogues pray against Edom and Edomites by name but they mean as appears in their private Catechisms by Edom and Edomites the Christian Church and Christian Magistracy so when these men pray in their Conventicles for the confusion and rooting out of Idolatry and Antichrist they intend by their Idolatry a Cross in Baptism and by their Antichrist a man in a Surpless and not onely the persons but the Authority that admits this Idolatry and this Antichristianism As vapors and winds shut up in Vaults engender Earth-quakes so these particular spirits in their Vault-Prayers and Cellar-Service shake the Pillars of State and Church Domus mea Domus orationis and Domus orationis Domus mea My house is the house of Prayer says God and so the house of Prayer must be his house The Centurion of whom Christ testified That he had not found so great Faith even in Israel Matth. 8.10 thought not himself worthy that Christ should come under his Roof and these men think no Roof but theirs fit for Christ no not the Roof of his own House the Church For I speak not of those Meetings where the blessed Children of God joyn in the House to worship God in the same manner as is ordained in the Church or in a manner agreeable to that Such Religious Meetings as these God will give a blessing to but when
will inflict upon thee after death How easily hath a cunning malefactor sometimes deluded and circumvented a mild Justice at home that lives neighbourly by him and is almost glad to be deceived in favour of life but how would this man be confounded if he came to be examined at the Council-table or by the King Omni severius quaestione a te interrogari was said by one of the Panegyricks to one of the Roman Emperours That it was worse then the rack to be examined by him When we come to stand naked before God without that apparel which he made for us without all righteousness and without that apparell which we made for our selves not a fig-leaf not an excuse to cover us if we think to deale upon his affections he hath none if we think to hide our sins he was with us when we did them and saw them we shall see then by his examination that he knowes them better then we our selves Tom. 10. in Append Ser. 49. And to this purpose to shew Gods particular judgement upon all men and all actions then it is that S. Augustine if that Sermon which is the 130. de Tempore be his for it is in the copies of Chrysostome too reads those words thus Nonne times Deum tuum fearest not thou thy God that if a man would go about to wrap up all in Gods generall providence all must be as God hath appointed it he might be brought to this particular consideration that he is Deus tuus not onely God of the world and God of mankinde but thy God so far thine as he shall be thy Judge In all senses and to all intendments that may make him the heavier to thee he is thy God he shall be thy God in his severe examinations as he is Scrutator Renum as he searches thy reines thy God in putting off all respect of persons in renouncing kindred Mater frater they are of kin to him that do his will and in renouncing acquaintance at the last day Nescio vos I know not whence you are and thy God in pronouncing judgement then Ite maledicti go ye accursed He shall be still Deus tuus thy God till it come to Jesus tuus till it come to the point of redemption and salvation he shall be thy God but not thy Redeemer thy Saviour And therefore it is well urged in this place by Saint Augustine Nonne times Deum tuum Fearest not thou thy God Especially this great calamity being actually upon thee now Condemnatio Saint Peter when he would have converted Agrippa and all the company he wishes they were all like him in all things Act. 26.29 Exceptis vinculis excepting his bands This new convert deals upon his fellow with that argument Quia in iisdem vinculis since thou art under the same condemnation thou shouldest have the same affections Now the general condemnation which is upon all mankind that they must dye this alone scarce frights any man scarce averts any man from his purposes He that should first put to Sea in a tempest he might easily think it were in the nature of the Sea to be rough always He that sees every Church-yard swell with the waves and billows of graves can think it no extraordinary thing to dye when he knows he set out in a storm and he was born into the world upon that condition to go out of it again But when Nathan would work upon David he puts him a particular case appliable to himself and when he had drawn from him an implicite condemnation of himself then he applies it When David had said As the Lord liveth 2 Sam. 12. the man that hath done this shall surely dye and Nathan upon that had said Thou art the man Then David came to his Peccavi coram Domino I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan to his Transtulit Dominus August The Lord hath taken away thy sin And so this preacher Qui clavis confixus non habuit sensum confixum who though he were crucified in body had his spirit and his charity at liberty he presses his fellow to this fear therefore because he is under a particular condemnation not because he must dye but because he must dye thus and every man may find some such particular condemnation in himself and in his own crosses if he will but read his own history in a true copy Eadem It is sub eadem the same condemnation If this identity be intended in comparison with Christs condemnation the comparison holds only in this judgment is given upon you both execution begun upon you both both equally ignominious equally miserable in the eye of the world why doest thou insult upon him revile him who art in as ill state as he thou seest him who though thou knowest it not hath other manner of assurances then thou canst have in Agonies in Feares in Complaints in Lamentations Why fearest not thou being under the same condemnation If this eadem condemnatio be intended in comparison of himself that speaks then the comparison holds only thus Thou hast no better a life then I thou art no farther from thy death then I and the consideration of my condemnation hath brought me to fear God why shouldst not thou feare being under the same condemnation especially there being no adjourning of the Court no putting off the Sizes no Reprieve for Execution Thou art now under the same condemnation the same Execution why shouldst thou not fear now why shouldst thou not go so far towards thy conversion this minute To end all it is all our cases we are all under the same condemnation what condemnation under the same as Adam the same as Cain the same as Sodom the same as Judas Quod cuiquam accidit omnis potest what sin soever God hath found in any he may finde in us either that we have falne into it by our misuse of his grace or should fall into it if he should withdraw his grace In those that are damned before we are damned in Effigie such as we are are damned and we might be but that he which was Medius inter personas divinas in his glory in heaven and Medius inter prophetas in his Transfiguration in Mount Thabor and Medius inter Latrones in his Humiliation in this text is Medius inter nos in the midst of the Christian Church in the midst of us in this Congregation takes into his own mouth now the words which he put into the thiefs mouth then and more Since I have been made a man and no man been born and died since I have descended and descended to the earth and below the earth since I have done and suffered so much to rescue you from this condemnation Nonne timetis will ye not fear the Lord but choose still to be under the same condemnation A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL February 12. 1618. SERMON II. Serm. 2. Ezek. 33.32 And lo thou art unto