The time past is gone and thou canst not recall that to repent in the time to come is vncertaine and thou canst not assure that to repent in the present time is onely thine and thou maiest repent in that but anon that will bee gone too Therefore when Christ wept ouer Ierusalem hee sayd O if thou hadst knowne in this thy day calling none their day but this day if none can bee called thy day but this day then this is thy day of repentance or els thou hast none at al. Therfore one resembleth the mercy of God to the Poole in Iurie where the sicke and leprous lay for at one time of the day an Angell came and stirred the water and then he which stept in first was healed of his disease he which stept in first was healed none but he which stept in first so he which taketh time is sure but hee which foresloweth time oftener faileth thā speedeth for when golden opportunitie is past no time will fit for it yet as when Christ went about to cast out diuels they sayd that hee tormented them before the time so whensoeuer thou goest about to dismisse thy sinnes and pleasures though thou stay till thou beest sicke and old and readie to dye yet they will say still that thou dismissest them before the time but then is the time when the diuell saith the time is not yet for the diuell is a lyar and knoweth that what licour our vessels be seasoned with at the first they will tast of the same euer after Therefore linger not with Lot for if the Angell had not snatched him away he had perished with Sodom for his delay They were not wise virgins but foolish virgins which sought not for oyle before the Bridegroome came Samuell began to serue God in his minoritie Timothie read the Scriptures in his childhood Iohn grewe in spirite as he ripened in yeares so whether thou be old or yong thy repentance cannot bee too soone because thy sinne is gone before If thou lackest a spurre to make thee runne see howe euery day runneth away with thy life youth commeth vpon childhood age commeth vpon youth death commeth vpon age with such a swift sayle that if our minutes were spent in mortifying our selues yet our glasse would be runne out before wee had purged halfe our corruptions Thus much of the first step The second step in your iourney is to keepe the way as God taught the Israelites a way to Canaan sending a fierie pillar before them which they did follow wheresoeuer it went so when he ordained a heauen for men hee appointed a way to come vnto it which way he that misseth shal neuer come to the end As Herod sought Christ ouer all Iurie but none founde him but those which followed the starre so there is something still that leadeth men to Christ which we must follow or els we cannot come where hee is There bee many wrong waies as there be many errors but there is but one right way as there is but one trueth And therefore Iacob did not see many but one Ladder which reached to heauen and Iohn Baptist is sayd not to prepare the waies of the Lorde but the way shewing that there is but one right way in this life which Salomon vnderstandeth for the meane and therefore he saith Turne not to the right hand nor to the left implying that wee may erre aswell of the right hand as of the left as if hee should say some are too hotte as other are too cold some are too superstitious as other are too careles some are too fearefull as other are too cōfidēt there is as zeale without knowledge a loue without singlenes a prayer without faith and a faith without fruites Therefore the Apostle doth warne vs to examine whether we be in the faith not whether we haue a kind of faith but whether we be in the faith that is the true faith Therefore Paule saith Runne so it is not enough to runne but wee must know how we runne it is not enough to heare but we must care how to heare it is not enough to beleeue but we must care how we beleeue it is not enough to pray but we must care how we pray it is not enough to worke but wee must care how wee worke for we cannot doe good vnlesse wee doe it well as wee may see in this example Cain offered and God abhorred because he cared not for the manner God cared not for his offering Simon Magus beleeued Herod listened Foelix feared Saul obeyed Iesabell fasted the Pharisees prayed but because they did not beleeue so heare so feare so obey so fast so pray so as he which saith Learne of me whē they say that they haue fasted prayed and obeied Christ he will answer them as hee doth in Mathew I know you not Therefore if ye aske like the scribe how ye shal come to heauen the right way to heauen is the word which came from heauen But here some will say the word indeed doth containe the right way but many cannot finde that way without a guide Therefore I haue picked out of the worde that way which God calleth the right way the way which the word doth set thee in to heauen is to doe vnto other as thou wouldest haue other doe vnto thee to exercise good workes and yet beleeue that Christs works shal saue thee to pray without doubting and yet be content that thy prayer be not graunted to keepe within thy calling and doe nothing by contention to bring thy will vnto Gods will and suffer for Christ because he hath suffered for thee to repent not onely for thine open and grosse faultes but for to count euery sinne great to apply all things to the glory of God and of euery thing to make some vse Thus the worde goeth before vs like the fierie pillar and shewes vs when we are in and when we are out or else the broad way would seeme the best way and therefore all which care not for the word go like blinde men to hell for heauen looke but to the Papists which haue the word in an vnknowne tongue some clamber to heauen with merites some by Angels some by penance and some by pardons and euery man hath a way by himselfe and all out of the way As Naaman answered Elisha whē he was commaunded to wash himselfe in Iorden are not Abanah and Pharpar riuers of Damascus better then Iorden may I not wash there and be healed so they say are not pardons as good as works are not pilgrimages as good as prayers is not sacrifice as good as obedience is not reading as good as preaching may I not goe to heauen this way and that way as well as by the word No as no water but Iorden could clēse Naamans leprosie so no way but the word can bring to heauen For which cause the lawes of God are called the waies of God and the word of God
are the more we should seeke for helpe else where In outward and bodilie foes and forces wee confesse the truth of this and doe all what we can to shew our selues wise circumspecte and couragious Howe much more had wee need here to expresse all these things where the conflict is more hard though the conquest obtained be more glorious and where againe our foes and their forces be more mightie and many though their ouerthrow once performed giueth them the fooles foile But whom shall we looke to herein Other men are as weake as our selues if not worse for all men lay them vpon a ballance they are altogether lighter than vanitie it selfe And if wee feare and distrust our selues how dare wee or howe can wee put considence in others specially sith God saith Cursed is euery one that maketh flesh and bloud his arme To looke vp to the holy and elected Angels will doe vs little good because they goe not but being sent and alwaies waite for a word and warrant from the Lords owne mouth for all their actions besides that their owne oyle and force is little enough for their owne supportation To God therefore that is the God of our strength wee must needes come yea and to him alone or else wee are vtterly ouerthrowne and cast away And if wee cannot say and do too as Dauid did Lord whom haue I in heauen but thee I haue desired none in earthwith thee we are in a wofull taking and vtterly lost For feare without and fire within Satans malice also mens mischiefe and our corruption will carrie and harrie vs as it were a violent tempest or whirlewind Amongst the heathen they had many odde conceits to chase away bodily and spirituall enemies as those that haue written their histories and actions haue plainely set forth sometimes fire sometimes water sometimes bloud and sometimes one thing and sometimes an other as mans braine is a bountifull ship to forge such deuises in The Papists differ not much from them who thinke that whippinges and scourgings will tame and subdue the corrupt affections of the heart and that the casting of a little holy water as they call it or the making of a crosse in the face forehead breast or any other place will chase away Satan al his hellish powers Of al which actions ceremonies either heathenish or popish were they better than they be but indeed they are slarke naught as they vse them we may say as the Apostle saith Bodily exercise profiteth little but godlines is profitable vnto all things And had Satans malice and mans presumption stayed here and gone no further in grosse imaginations concerning this and other matters it had bin the lesse euill But in our light and libertie of the Gospell some suppose that the very saying of Lord haue mercy vpon vs and that without saith or feeling many times is all in all and the pronouncing of this petition Leade vs not into temptation and that without sense or vnderstanding of it is sufficient to sunder Satan and our owne corruption as farre from vs as the East is from the West Vpon them their spirituall enemies preuailed by grosse ignorance and superstitious conceits vpon vs by carelesse presumption and presumptuous carelesnesse neither the one of vs nor the other vnderstanding rightly as wee should either our foes forces or our owne weakenes And that is the cause why they and we in former time and of late ioyned with them and sundred from them haue receiued very fearefull falles and ouerthrowes For all is one with Satan so he catch and snatch men and haue them in possession he cateth not by what meanes But wilt thou not escape danger onely but ouercome also I will shew thee O man what thou shalt doe at any hand go out of thy selfe and other creatures whatsoeuer for if thou sticke to them though neuer so little thou doest disaduantage thy selfe at the least if not ouerthrow thy selfe The wicked spirits are as strong to effect euill as the elect are to doe good and so much the more powerfull that way by howe much they attempt it with commission from God and finde fit matter in men to worke vpon And what then fixe the eye of thy faith fast vpon God in Christ and thou shalt neuer miscarrie For hee that cannot lye hath sayd it I will not faile thee nor forsake thee for euer and in the new Testament Christ hath tolde vs which is also a word of as sure a promise The gates of hell shall not preuaile against this faith Nay I will say more in the strength and power of this perswasion thou shalt be made more than a conquerour thorow him that hath loued thee and washed thee in his owne hart blood I know and confesse there are many lets and hinderances to the perswasion and practise of this truth but heare and beleeue onely and I will shewe you yet a more perfect and assured waye by which you shall bee made to walke safe either in the day of death or in the time of temptation or in any other course or crosse that may betide you in this life See that you haue not onely the two side postes and the vpper doore postes of your houses stricken ouer with the bloud of the Lambe but your harts purged through faith in his bloud from the power of dead works and then the destroyer that ouerthroweth others shall passe ouer thee and bring thee in good time to the full fruition of the heauenly Canaan But thou wilt say as the slothfull person doth in the Prouerbs There is a lyon yea many lyons in the way I answere reckon them vp and bring them forth they shall all by Gods grace be easily remoued All sorts of afflictions are bitter I confesse it and so are many thinges in meate drinke and phisicke and yet wee refuse them not but vse them rather because of the good we know or hope they will effect in vs. And why say wee not as the Apostle by the spirite doth Nochastisement for the present seemeth to bee ioyous but grieuous Howbeit afterward it bringeth forth the quiet fruite of righteousnesse vnto them which are thereby exercised Death also is dreadfull what then but to whom I pray thee euen to the man that hath his trust in his riches or hath no hope of a better life but to him that beleeueth in Christ it is become through the power of the death and obedience of Christ a speedie passage to eternall life We endure many dreadfull and dangerous thinges and runne through fire water and alfor a corruptible crowne And why should wee not with patience and prayer passe through this which is the very high way to heauen Besides hell is horrible Neither will I deny that but still I demaund to whom it is so surely to the diuell and his Angels and all manner of wicked ones for whom it hath beene prepared of old but as for the godly and elect it cannot
come nigh them For Christ the very way truth and life it selfe hath tolde vs and therefore we ought to credit it He that heareth my words and beleeueth in him that sent mee hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death vnto life Lastly is not sinne a shrewd and sore enemie to encounter with I confesse it but to whome tell mee I beseech you euen to them in whose mortall bodies it raigneth to fulfill the concupiscences thereof To other in whom the â—ooâ—e of it is dead it is not so whether we respect this life or that which is to come for here the reliques of sinne are but as pricks in our sides to prouoke vs to better things and to stirre vs vp to hunger and thirst after righteousnes and for the life to come we shall be vtterly freed from the same and haue all teares wiped froÌ„ our eyes To bring all into a summe I say let all obiected be as true as any thing may bee yet all these and a thousand more such like are nothing to him that is in Christ. For the Apostle sayth There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and it is hee alone that hath destroyed death and became sinne for vs that wee in him might bee made the righteousnes of God And surely such a one may in some good measure of comfort ioyfully say to the defiance euen of death it selfe and all other ghostly enemies whatsoeuer O death where is thy sting O graue where is they victorie The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the lawe but thankes bee vnto GOD which hath giuen vs victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. Yea hee may say as the Saints and Martyrs haue sayd in the middest of fierie flames I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate me from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Oh but death is terrible still I answer in such a cloud of witnesses and euidence of truth may I not in some sort and sense say O faithlesse generation how long shall I bee with you how long now shall I suffer you Is it fearefull to any but to a naturall man and to him that hath his felicitie here and in the things of this life Surely it is nothing terrible to him that is made a comfortable partaker of the fruits of the death of Christ who dyed and rose againe to the ende hee might destroy death and him that had the power of death euen the diuell himselfe But hel is horrible True but yet to theÌ„ for whom it is prepared but thou art in Christ exempted from it For why did he himselfe suffer hellish torments both in body soule to leaue the 〈…〉 to make it terrible or horrible to thee no but to free thee and all his from the feare of hell the feeling of euerlasting condemnation Oh but what shall I say touching my sin that is great and grieuous the peculiar wages of it is death eternall That is true in the nature of sin the iustice of God but with the Lord there is mercie that he may be feared Stand still a while and you shall beholde the great workes of God be not faithlesse but faithfull and beleeue the truth of the word What is more cleere then this where sinne hath abounded there grace hath abounded much more And though it be in a Prophet yet where haue we a more plaine plentifull or euangelicall promise then this Though your sinnes were as crimson they shall be made white as show though they were red as skarlet they shal be as woll If we haue the haÌ„d or writing of an honest man we think our selues bound to giue credit therto how much more shuld we beleeue the most true vnchaÌ„geable word of the eternal To which not for any want in himself but by reason of the weakenes of our faith he hath bin willing the more aboundantly to shew vnto the heires of promise the stablenes of his couÌ„cel to adioyne binde himselfe with an oath saying As I liue I wil not the death of a sinner yea I wil be merciful to their vnrighteousnes and I wil remember their sinnes and iniquities no more that so by two immutable things that is his inuiolable oath assured promise wherein it is vnpossible that God should lye we might haue strong consolation And as for these obiections or any the like what are they else but in trueth and substance the very euil reports that the spyes brought vpoÌ„ the promised land And yet there was a very true testimonie giuen by Ioshua and Caleb yea the palpable proofes they had by the cluster of grapes and other things which they brought from thence were irrefragate witnesses Will you beleeue then because they are many that is flat poperie besides God forbiddeth vs to cleaue to a multitude to doe euill Will you feare theÌ„ because they are mightie That is to distrust God who is greater then al and to make them omnipotent which is blasphemie Wil you doubt because they double their assaults That is no end of temptation but this rather to ad an edg vnto our prayers that so through theÌ„ we may heare in our hearts that cofortable speech My grace is sufficient for thee my strength shal be perfected through weaknes And when we shall haue all our senses satisfied in the contrarie truth yea so farre forth as that our eyes may see our eares may heare our haÌ„ds may haÌ„dle the good things of God ouer and besides the faith we haue in him concerning them it is not grosse onely but impious not to beleeue But here in this life are many pleasures and certaine delights lawfull as houses friends wiues children goods honor and almost infinite such like That is very true but with this honie God interâ—ingleth some gall least the soules of his seruants might run not to sin And who is he that can be ignorant of the vncertaine estate of al euery one of them Our friends fall away as a fruite that is ripe before his time or as the morning dewe Our houses are ouerthrowne and are like the ruines of a defaced hold not one stone of them being left vpoÌ„ another Our wiues may be lewde in their lippes loose in their liues and wicked as was Iobs and wish vs to curse God die Our children not riotous only and disobedient but vnnatural also and rising vp against vs as Absalon The goods we possesse are not vnfitly by Salomon resembled to the Egle that taketh her to her wings flieth aloft into the ayre as for our honor which we make as it were some deitie vpon earth it is turned into shame in the twinckling of an eye or else forgotten as it had neuer been And wee
that in our owne imaginations are Lords of all are as the dust or chaste of the earth caried from all And what reason is there then that these or any such like should hinder vs in our race towards heauen He that hath an inheritance or land in the world will not be hindred from taking the possession or enioying of it when it falleth vnto him by the teares of his wife the intreatie of his children the heape of his riches or any such like thinges And why should we suffer these simple conceits to steale away our hearts from the hope and hauing of heauen Besides who knoweth not that as in respect of the life to come all these heaped vp in the greatest measure that possible can bee in this world are not so much as a shadow of the good things that shall be reuealed Hath the spirit said in vaine that which the eie hath not seene neither the care heard neither euer yet entred into mans heart hath GOD prepared for them that loue him Or shall wee thinke it a lye or that GOD ment to dissemble and dallie with vs Oh bee it farre from vs to thinke or speake so Is that glorious description of that holy and heauenly Ierusalem mentioned in the reuelations but a fiction or forgerie It were blasphemie for any mans heart to imagine so wee are rather to thinke that God by that which is knowen and can bee comprehended expresseth that which yet is hidden from vs and shall in good measure bee comprehended of vs also we knowing then euen as wee are knowne now Wherefore let vs not feare all or any of our aduersaries or pulbacks for true loue expelleth feare neither let vs bee saint hearted in our selues but labour rather to lift vp our handes which hang downe and to strengthē our weak knees for faithfull is he that hath promised who will also performe it Bee faithfull vnto the death and I will giue thee the crowne of life He that so runneth shall bee sure to obtaine and haue his portion with the Saints in the heauenly inheritance of a crowne that neuer fadeth nor falleth away But hee that careth not for this course must haue his portion with hypocrites in the lake of fire and brimstone that burneth for euermore and be shut out of the kingdome with the fearfull vnbeleeuing abhominable murtherers whoremongers sorcerers idolaters and such like Wherefore as you loue life and loth death runne well I beseech you yea euen as our text was at the beginning so say I at the ending So runne that ye may obtaine which I doe not onely propound vnto you by exhortation but commend and commit by supplication to God for my selfe and you that euery one of vs and I my selfe especially may in feeling and faith say I am now readie to bee offered and the time of my departing is at hand I haue fought a good fight and haue finished my course I haue kept the faith from hence is layd vp for mee the crowne of righteousnes which the Lord the righteous iudge shall giue me at that day not to me onely but vnto them also that loue his appearing FINIS Pro. 8. 17. Pro. 1. 28. Agge 1. 2. 2. Cor. 6. 2. Mat. 25. 15. Luk. 19. 13. Gen. 1. Gen. 1. 14. Mat. 3. 2. Mat. 10. Mat 4. 10. Psal. 90. 12. 2 King 2. 23. Psal. 25. 7. Deut. 6. 7. Mat. 19. 14. Exod. 3. Ioh. 21. 15. Act. 24. 25. Iohn 5. 2. Mat. 8. 29. 2. Tim. 3. 15 2. Step. 1. Step. Mathew 5. 4. step Iudg. 9. 9.