speak in Faith speak in the bitterness of your souls speak in Hope and speak in the heavenly dialect which is Love ye then truly say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. And this Jesus shall be your Jesus shall plead and intercede for you fill you with all the comforts and ravishments of his Gospel And this Lord shall descend to meet you here and welcome you to his Table And when he shall descend with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God he will enable and encourage you to meet him in the air and take you up with him into heaven that ye may be and rejoyce with Jesus the Lord for evermore Which the Lord grant for his infinite mercy's sake The Eighteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost WE have hitherto detained you in the Lesson Which is indeed a short one but in it is comprised the whole Gospel For when we have let loose our phansie and sought out many inventions when we have even wearied our selves in the uncertain gyres and Meanders which our imaginations cut out when we have laid out that time in following that we cannot overtake which we should have imployed in that work which is visible and put into our hands when our Curiosity hath even spent it self this is all Jesus is the Lord. And to profess him to be the Lord whom we must obey in all things who hath power in heaven and in earth a power to command our Understandings to bow to the Truth and our Wills to imbrace it is compendium Evangelii the sum of Religion the whole intent and scope of the Gospel of Christ This is the Lesson And I told you in the next place we must learn to say it that is first to Profess it But that is not enough All Nations have said it and the Devils have said it And what Religion is that in which the sons of perdition and the Devils themselves may joyn with us What a Profession is that which may be heard in Hell What a poor progress do we make towards happiness if the cursed Spirits go along with us and reach as far as we There is then secondly verbum mentis a word conceived in the mind a perswasion of the Truth And this also may come too short For many times there is not so much Rhetorick and power in this to move us to our duty as there is in a piece of money or a painted face to carry us from it but it lieth useless and of no efficacy at all suffering our members to rebel our flesh to riot it our passions to break loose and hurry us into by-wayes and dangerous precipices speaking to us for the Lord whilst we despise and tread him under foot For if we consider that intimacy and familiarity that many men have with those sins which cannot but present to the mind so much monstrosity as might fright them from them if we behold with what eagerness and delight men pursue that which is as loathsome as Hell it self how they labour and dig for it as for treasure how they devote both body and mind to its service how every trifle is in esteem above Grace and every Barabbas preferred before Jesus the Lord we might easily be induced to conclude that they do not believe that there is a God or that Jesus is the Lord but as the Heathen in scorn did ask Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabulâ count the Gospel and Christianity as a fable For it is not easie to conceive how a man that is verily persuaded in his heart that Jesus is the Lord and that to break Christ's command is to forfeit his soul that for every wilful sin he loseth Paradise and for a moments brutish pleasure he shall find no better purchase then an irreversible state in hell should dare to do that which he doeth every day in a kind of triumph and Jubilee or dip but the tip of his finger in the water of bitterness which he drinketh down greedily as an oxe But upon a review and more mature consideration we may observe that Sin is not alwaies the effect of Infidelity but sometimes of Incogitancy and because we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop and look intentively upon this truth that we have indeed learned this lesson but when we should make use of it to restrain us are willing to forget that Jesus is the Lord. We believe that we shall die but so live as if we were eternal We believe there is hell-fire but stoln waters are sweet and quench those flames We believe that there is a heaven but every trifle is a better sight We believe that Jesus is the Lord but the object that next smileth upon us becometh our Master We believe but are willing to forget what we believe Heaven and Hell the Law and the Gospel and the Lord himself In a word we believe that Death is the wages of sin but the pleasures and vanities of the world come towards us in a gaudy and triumphant march and swallow up this faith and this persuasion in victory detain it and put it in chains that it is not able to do its office not to move and work by Charity For if Heaven did display all its glory and Hell breathe forth all its terrour yet if we do but look upon it and then turn away our eye our persuasion will soon shrink back and withdraw it self and leave us naked and open to every temptation weak and impotent not able to struggle and resist it and we shall laetari in rebus pessimis rejoyce in evil sport and delight our selves at the very gates of hell as an intoxicated thief may laugh and jest at the ridge of the gallows Be not then too well persuaded of every persuasion For if it be but the word and the language of the mind it may soon be silenced And therefore we must nourish and soment it stir it up and enliven it that in the last place it may be of force to move the Tongue and the Hand that as the Heart doth speak to the Lord by a sincere belief Lord I belive so we may speak it with our Hands and Eyes and Feet and sound it out with every member that we have and together make that glorious report which may enter the highest heavens Lord we are ready to do whatsoever thou commandest that we may pray in his ears and weep in his ears Numb 11.18 that our Alms may speak louder then our Trumpet and our Fasting and Humility may houl unto him and not our exterminated face that he may hearken to our thoughts as well as to our words and that an universal Obedience may declare our Faith as the heavens do his glory This is the language of Canaan the
bound our discourse within the compass of those observations which first offer themselves and without any force or violence may naturally be deduced from the words And we shall first take notice of the course and method God taketh to turn us He draweth a sword against us he threatneth Death and so awaketh our Fear that our fear may carry us out of our evil wayes Secondly God is not willing we should die Thirdly He is not any way defective in the administration of the means of life Last of all If we die the fault is onely in our selves and our own wills ruine us Why will ye die O house of Israel We begin with the first the course that God taketh to turn us He asketh us Why will ye die In which we shall pass by these steps or degrees Shew you 1. what Fear is 2. how useful it may be in our conversion 3. that it is not onely useful but good and lawful and injoyned both to those who are yet to turn and those who are converted already The fear of death and the fear of Gods wrath may be a motive to turn me from sin and it may be a motive to strengthen and uphold me in the wayes of righteousness God commendeth it to us timor iste timendus non est we need not be afraid of this Fear Death is the King of terrours to command our Fear that seeing Death in our evil wayes ready to destroy us Job 18.14 we may look about and consider in what wayes we are and for fear of death turn from sin which leadeth unto it Thus God doth amorem timore pellere subdue one passion with another drive out Love with Fear the Love of the world with the Fear of death He presenteth himself unto us in divers manners according to the different operations of our affections sometimes with his rich promises to make us hope and sometimes with fearful menaces to strike us with fear sometimes in glory to encourage us and sometimes in a tempest and whirlwind Clem. Alexandr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to affright us He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 various and manifold in the dispensation of his goodness that if Hope drive us not to the promises yet fear might carry us from death and Death from sin and so at last beget a Hope and delight and ravish us with the glory of that which before we could not look upon Now what Fear is we may guess by Hope for they are both hewed as it were out of the same rock Expectation is the common matter out of which they are framed As hope is nothing else but an expectation of that which is good so Fear saith the Philosopher hath its beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the imagination of some approching evil Arist Rhet. 2. c. 6. Where there is Hope there is Fear and where there is Fear there is Hope For he that doth fear some evil may befal him retaineth some hope that he may escape it and he that hopeth for that which is desirable standeth in some fear that he may not reach and possess it So you see Hope and Fear though they seem to look at distance one upon the other yet are alwayes in conjunction and are levelled on the same object till they lose their names and the one end in Confidence the other in Despair Now of all the passions of the mind Fear may seem to be the most unprofitable Wisd 17.12 Curt. l. 3. For the Wise man will tell us it is nothing else but the betraying of those succours which Reason offereth And the Historian speaking of the Persians who in their flight flung away their weapons of defence shutteth up all with this Epiphonema Adeò pavor ipsa auxilia formidat Such is the nature of Fear that it disarmeth us and maketh us not onely run from danger but from those helps and succours which might prevent and keep it off It matureth and ripeneth mischief anticipateth evil and multiplieth it and by a vain kind of providence giveth those things a being which are not Spe jam praecipit hostem saith the Poet It presenteth our enemy before us when he is not near and latcheth the sword in our bowels before the blow is given And indeed such many times are the effects of Fear But as Alexander sometimes spake of that fierce and stately steed Bucephalus Curt. l. 1. Qualem isti equum perdunt dum per imperitiam mollitiem uti nesciunt What a brave Horse is spoiled for want of manning so may we of Fear A most useful passion is lost because we do not manage and order it as we should We suffer it to distract and amaze when it should poyse and byas us We make it our enemy when it might be our friend to guard and protect us and by a prophetical presage or mistrust keep off those evils which are in the approch ready to assault us For prudentia quaedam divinatio est Vit Pompon Attici our Prudence which alwayes carrieth with it Fear is a kind of divination Our Passions are as winds and as they may thrust us upon the rocks so they may drive and carry us on to the haven where we would be All is in the right placing of them Passiones aestimantur objectis Our passions are as the objects are they look on and by them they are measured and either fall or rise in their esteem To fear an enemy is Cowardise to fear labour is Slothfulness to fear the face of man is something near to Baseness and Servility to be afraid of a command because it is difficult is Disobedience but Pone Deum saith S Augustine place God as the object and to fear him not onely when he shineth in mercy but when he is girded with Majesty to fear him not onely as a Father but as a Lord nay to fear him when he cometh with a tempest before him is either a virtue or else leadeth unto it Now to shew you how fear worketh and how useful it may be to forward our Turn we may observe first that it worketh upon our Memory reviveth those characters of sin which long custome had sullied and defaced and maketh that deformity visible which the delight we took in sin had vailed and hid from our sight When the Patriarchs had sold their brother Joseph into Egypt for ten years space and above whilst they dreaded nothing they never seemed to have any sense of their fact but looked upon it as lawful or warrantable sale or made as light of it as if it had been so Joseph was sold and they thought themselves well rid of a Dreamer But when they were now come down into Egypt Gen. 42.21 22 and were cast into prison and into a fear withall that they should be there chained up as captives and slaves then and not till then it appeared like an ill bargain then they could give it its right name and call it
faction What press on to make thy self better and make thy self worse go up to the Temple to pray and profane it What go to Church and there learn to pull it down Why Oh why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are that we are a House and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and mutually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep Death from entring in that we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves 1 Tim. 3.15 that we are his Church which is the pillar and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have God's Word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us We have many helps and huge advantages And if we look up upon them and lay hold on them if we hearken to his Word resist not his Grace neither idolize nor profane his Sacraments but receive them with reverence as they were instituted in love if we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another Rom. 6.9 Gal. 7.16 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can have no more dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves If we die it is quia volumus because we will die For look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is Death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us and there are armouries of weapons treasuries of wisdome shops of physick balm and ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which openeth its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not dig it our selves The Church exhorteth instructeth correcteth God calleth inviteth expostulateth Death it self threatneth us that we may not come near Thus are we compassed about auxiliorum nube with a cloud of helps and advantages The Church is loud Death is terrible God's Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner Ezek. 33.11 and confirmed with an oath As he liveth He would not have us die And it is plain enough in his lightning and in his thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it And it excludeth all Stoical Fate all necessity of sinning or dying There is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or bind us over to Death so that if we die it is in our volo in our Will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason Quia volumus Because we will die We have now brought you to the very cell and den of Death where this monster was framed and fashioned where it was first conceived brought forth and nursed up I have discovered to you the original and beginnings of Sin whose natural issue is Death and shut it up in one word the Will That which hath so troubled and amused men in all the ages of the Church to find out that which some have sought in heaven in the bosome of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked hell and made the Devil the authour of who is but a perswader and a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the phansie alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to bind men much less the Gods themselves as it is said that which many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to find out openiâ—g the windows of Heaven to find it there running to and fro about the Universe to find it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own breasts in our own heart The Will is the womb that conceiveth this monster this viper which eateth through it and destroyeth the mother in the birth For that which is the beginning of action is the beginning of Sin and that which is the beginning of Sin is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit saith Hilary In Psal 118 There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death And in homine quicquid est sibi nocet There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and instrument of sin That which hurteth him may help him That which circumspection and diligence may make an antidote neglect and carelesness may turn into poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil As Goodness so Sin is the work of our Will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither good nor evil I call heaven and earth to witness Deut. 30.19 said GOD by his servant Moses I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing And what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sin Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weak Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of dying For the Question or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law Why are you weak or Why are you dead for reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisdome of God will stand up to defend them But the Question is Why will ye die for which there can be no other reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will For upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a temple of the Lord or into that tower of Babel and Confusion which God will destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our folly and madness so full of contradictions is a wilfull sinner Wisd 1.16 that
though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion That he was ever willing to die Tert. Apol c. 1. Nolumus nostrum quia malum agnoscimus We will not call sin ours because we know it evil and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself It is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is comfort soundeth every where but we are deaf and cannot hear it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fettered Jer. 8.22 and can make no use of it There is balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our natural weakness of our want of grace and assistance When we might know the danger we are in we plead ignorance When we willingly yield our members servants unto sin Rom. 6.13 19. we have learnt to say We did not do it plenâ voluntate with full consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the fair gloss of a good intention and meaning We complain of our bodies and of our souls as if the Wisdome of God had failed in our creation We would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we may be good we will be evil And these webs a sick and unsanctified phansie will soon spin out These are receipts and antidotes of our own tempering devised and made use of against the gnawings of conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience beginneth to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and put it to silence We carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostom's time bound the coins of Alexander the Great or some part of S. John's Gospel to ease them of the head-ach For by these receipts and spells we more envenom our souls and draw nearer to Death by thinking to fly from it and are tenfold more the servants of Satan because we are willing to do him service but not willing to wear his livery And thus excusando exprobramus our apologies defame us our false comforts destroy us and we condemn our selves with an excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to pass we will first take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from our Natural weakness and from the Deficiency of Grace For neither can our natural weakness betray nor can there be such a want of grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much power as to force the Will and so there will be no necessity of dying either in respect of our natural weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his grace And then in the next place we will shew that neither Ignorance of our duty nor Regret or Reluctancy of Conscience nor any Pretense or good Intention can make Sin less sinfull or our death less voluntary And so we will bring Death to their doors who have sought it out who have called it to them vvho are confederate vvith it and are vvorthy to be partakers thereof And First Why will ye die O house of Israel Why will ye die vve may perhaps ansvver vve are dead already Haeret lateri lethalis arundo The poysoned and deadly dart is in our sides Adam sinned and vve die Omnes eramus in illo uno cum ille unus nos omnes perdidit We vvere all the loins of that one man Adam vvhen that one man slevv us all And this we are too ready to confess that we are born in sin Nay we fall so low as to damn our selves before we were born This some may do in humility but most are well content it should be so well pleased in their pedegree well pleased to be brought into the world in that filth and uncleanness which God doth hate and make the unhappiness of their birth an advocate to plead for those pollutions for those wilfull and beloved sins which they fall into in the remaining part of their life as being the proper and natural issues of that Weakness and Impotency with which we were sent into the world But this is not true in every part That vveakness vvhatsoever it is can dravv no such necessity upon us nor can be vvrought into an apology for sin or an excuse for dying For to include and vvrap up all our actual sin in the folds of original vveakness is nothing else but to cancel our own debts and obligations Licentiam usurpare praetexto necessitatis Tert. De cult Faemin and to put all upon our first parents score and so make Adam guilty of the sins of the whole world Our natural and original weakness I will not now call into question since it hath had such Grandees in our Church men of great learning and piety for its nursing Fathers and that for many centuries of years but yet I cannot see why it should be made a cloak to cover our other transgressions or why we should miscarry so often with an eye cast back upon our first fall which is made ours but in another man nor any reason though it be a plant watered by the best hands why men should be so delighted in it why they should lie down and repose themselves under its shadow why they should be so willing to be weak and so unwilling to hear the contrary why men should take so much pains to make the way to happiness narrower and the way to death broader then it is in a word why we should thus magnifie a temptation and desparage our selves why we should make each importunate object as powerful and irresistible as God himself and our selves as idoles even nothing in this world Petrarch 1.3 R. S. c. 1. Magna pars humanarum que relarum non injusta modò materiâ sed stulta est The world is full of complaints and excuses but the complaints which the world putteth forth are for the most part most unjust and void of that reason which should present and commend them For when our souls are pressed down and overcharged with sin when we feel the gripes and gnawings of our conscience we commonly lay hold on those remedies which are worse then the disease and suborn an unseasonable and ill-applied conceit of our own natural weakness which is more dangerous then the temptation as an excuse and comfort of our overthrow We fall and plead we were weak and fall more then seven times a day and hold up the same plea still till we fall into that place where we shall be muzled and speachless not able to say a word where our complaints will end in curses in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Hieron Amando Omnes nostris vitiis favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem We are
Body and his Bloud and S. Paul calleth it the Bread and the Cup Nor is S. Paul contrary to Christ but determineth and reconcileth all in the end both of Christ's suffering and our receiving in the words of my Text As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew or shew ye the Lord's death till he come In which words the Death of the Lord of life is presented to us and we called to look up upon him whom our sins have pierced through to behold him wounded for our transgressions ex cujus latere aqua sanguis Isa 53.5 utriusque lavacri paratura manavit as Tertullian out of whose side came water and bloud to wash and purge us which make the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper And the effect of both is our Obedience in life and conversation that we should serve him with the whole heart who hath bought us at so dear a price that we should wash off all our spots and stains and foul pollutions in the laver of this Water and the laver of this Bloud And therefore as he offered himself for us on the Cross so he offereth himself to us in the Sacrament his Body in the Bread and his Bloud in the Cup that we may eat and drink and feed upon him and taste how gracious he is Which is the sum and complement and blessed effect of the duty here in the Text to shew the Lord's death till he come For he that sheweth it not manducans non manducat eating doth not as Ambrose doth eat the Bread but not feed on Christ But he that fully acquitteth himself in this shall be fed to eternal life Let us then take the words asunder And there we find What we are to do and How long we are to do it the Duty and the Continuation of it the Duty We must shew forth Christ's death the Continuation of it We must do it till he come again to judgment In the Duty we consider first an Object what it is we must shew the death of the Lord Secondly an Act what it is to shew and declare it The death of the Lord a sad but comfortable a bloudy but saving spectacle And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew a word of as large a compass as Christianity it self And the duration and continuation of it till he come that is to the end of the world Of these in their order The object is in nature first and first to be handled the death of the Lord. And this is most proper for us to consider For by his stripes we are healed and by his death we live And in this he hath not onely expressed his Love but made himself an example that we may take it out and so shew forth his death First it is his Love which joyned these two words together Death and the Lord which are farther removed then Heaven is from the Earth For can the Lord of life die Yes Amor de coelo demisit Dominum That Love which brought him down from his throne to his footstool that united the Godhead and Manhood in one Person hath also made these two terms Death and the Lord compatible and fastned the Son of God to the Cross hath exprest it self not onely in Beneficence but also in Patience not onely in Power but also in Humility and is most lively and visible in his Death the true authentick instrument of his Love He that is our Steward to provide for us who supplieth us out of his rich treasur◠who ripeneth the fruit on the trees and the corn in the fields who draweth us wine out of the vine and spinneth us garments out of the bowels of the worm and the fleece of the flock will also empty himself and pour forth his bloud He who giveth us balm for our bodies will give us physick for our souls will give up his ghost to give us breath and life And here his love is in its Zenith and vertical point and in a direct line casteth the rayes of comfort on his lost creature This Lord cometh not naked but clothed with blessings cometh not empty but with the rich treasuries of heaven cometh not alone but with troops of Angels with troops of promises and blessings Bonitas foecunda sui Goodness is fruitful and generative of it self gaineth by spending it self swelleth by overflowing and is increased by profusion When she poureth forth her self and breatheth forth that sweet exhalation she conveyeth it not poor and naked and solitary but with a troop and authority with ornament and pomp For Love bringeth with it whatsoever Goodness can imagine munera officia gifts and offices doth not onely give us the Lord but giveth us his sufferings his passion his death not onely his death but the virtue and power of it to raise us from the lethargy and death of Sin that we may be quick and active to shew and express it in our selves Olim morbo nunc remedio laboramus The remedy is so wonderful it confoundeth the patient and maketh health it self appear but fabulous Shall the Lord of Life die why may not Man whose breath is in his nostrils be immortal Yes he shall and for this reason Because it pleased the Lord of Life to die We need not adopt one in his place or substitute a creature a phantasm as did Arius and Marcion in his office For he took our sins and he will take the office himself Isa 63.3 he will tread the wine press alone and will admit none with him Nor doth this Humility impair his Majesty but rather exalt it Though he die yet he is the Lord still The Father will tell us that they who denied this for fear were worse then those who denied it out of stomach and the pretense of his honour is more dangerous then perversness For this is to confine and limit this Lord to shorten his hand palos terminales figere to set up bounds and limits against his infinite Love and absolute Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shape and frame him out to their own phansie and indeed to blaspheme him with reverence to take from him his heavenly power and put into his hand a sceptre of reed His Love and his Will quiet all jealousies and answer all arguments whatsoeever It was his will to die and he that resteth in God's Will doth best acknowledge his Majesty For all even Majesty it self doth vail to his Will and is commanded by it What the Lord of life equal to the Father by whom all things were made shall he die Yes quia voluit because he would For as at the Creation he might have made Man as he made other creatures by his Word alone yet would not but wrought him out of the clay and fashioned him with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send an Angel one of the Seraphim or Cherubim or any finite creature which he might have done
in Scripture words of Command and Duty carry with them more then they shew and have wrapped up in them both the Act and the End and are of the largest signification in the Spirit 's Dictionary To HEAR is to Hear and to Doe To KNOW is to Know and to Practice To BELIEVE is to Believe and to Obey The Schools will tell us FIDES absque addito in Scriptura formata intelligitur Where Faith is named in Scripture without some addition as a dead Faith a temporary Faith an hypocritical Faith there evermore that Faith is commended which worketh by Charity And so to shew or to preach the death of the Lord is more then to Utter it with the tongue and Profess it For thus Judas might shew it as well as Peter thus the Jews might shew it that crucified him Thus the profane person that crucifieth him every day may shew it Yea Christ's death may be the common subject for discourse and the language of the whole world Therefore our shewing must look farther even to the end For what is Hearing without Doing What is Knowledge without Practice What is Faith without Chariâ—y What is shewing the death of the Lord if we do it not to that end for which he did die Our hearing is but the sensuality of the ear our Knowledge but an empty speculation our Faith but phansie and our shewing the death of the Lord a kind of nailing him again to the cross For to draw his picture in our ear or mind to character him out in our words and yet fight against him is to put him to shame We must then understand our selves when we speak to God as we understand God when he speaketh to us and in the same manner we must shew him to himself and the world as he is pleased to shew and manifest himself unto us Christ did not present us with a picture with a phantasm with a bare shew and appearance of suffering for us Nor must we present him with shadows and shews And what is God's shewing himself Psal 80. Thou that sittest between the Cherubims shew thy self saith the Psalmist shine thou clearly to our comfort and to the terrour of our enemies God manifesteth his Power and breaketh the Cedars of Libanus He maketh known his Wisdom and teacheth the children of men He publisheth his Love and filleth us with good things His Words are his blessings and his demonstrations in glory He speaketh to us by peace and shadoweth us by plenty and our garners are full And see how the creature echoeth back again to him The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth welleth out speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge God's language is Power God's language is Love and God's language is Hope God planted a vineyard Isa 5. that expresseth his Power and built a tower in it and made a wine-press therein there is his Love and he lookâ—d for grapes there Hope speaketh for he that planteth planteth in hope He spake by his Prophets he spake by his judgments and he spake by his mercies but still he spake in hope for he doth neither shine nor thunder but in hope This is the heavenly dialect and we must take it out We must not speak as one that beggeth on a stage but as he that beggeth on the high way naked and cold and pinched with hunger Verba in opera vertenda By a religious Alchymie we must turn words into works and when God speaketh to us by his Prophets answer him by our obedience when he speaketh to us in Love give him our hearts and when he looketh for grapes be full of good works This is Christ's own dialect and he best understandeth it and his reply is a reward But from shews and words he turneth away his ears and will not hear that is for still in God's language more is understood then spoke he will bring us to judgment And now we see what it is to shew the death of the Lord not to draw it out in our imagination or to speak it with the tongue but to express the power and virtue of it in our selves to labour and travel in birth till Christ be fully formed in us till all Christian virtues which are as the spirits of his bloud be quick and operative in us till we be made perfect to every good work And thus we shew his death by our Faith For Faith if it be not dead will speak and make it self known to all the world speak to the naked and clothe him to the hungry and feed him to those who erre and are in darkness and shine upon them This is the dialect of Faith But if the cold frost of temptations as S. Gregorie speaketh hath so niped it that it is grown chil and cold and can speak but faintly if we have talked so long of Faith till we have left her speechless if she speak but imperfectly and in broken language now by a drop of water and now by a mite and then silent shew the death of Christ onely in some rare and slender performance behold this is your hour and the power of light this your time of receiving the Sacrament is the time to actuate and quicken your Faith to make it more apprehensive more operative more lively to give it a tongue that it may shew and preach the wonderful works of the Lord. And as we shew the Lord's death by our Faith so we shew it by our Hope which if it be that Hope which purifieth the heart will awake our glory the Tongue If it be well built and underpropped with Charity it will speak and cry and complain And the language is the same with that of the souls under the Altar How long Lord Rev. 6. How long shall the Flesh fight against the Spirit How long shall we struggle with temptations When wilt thou deliver us from this body of death When shall we appear in the presence of our God Though we fall we shall rise again Though we are shaken we shall not be overthrown Though thou killest us yet we will trust in thee This is the dialect of Hope And here at this Table we must learn to speak out to speak it more plainly to raise and exalt it to a Confidence which is the loudest report it can make Thirdly we shew and preach the Lord's death by our Love Which is but the echo of his Love And we speak it fully as he doth to us fill up the sentence and leave not out a word make it manifest in the equality and universality of our obedience as he offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for us Quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit Our love to Christ must be equal and like himself not meet him at Church and run from him in the streets not embrace him in a Sermon and throw him from us in our conversation not flatter him with a peny
so have our Desires theirs which is their end And here we have them both the Object of our Knowledge delivered first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a generality UT COGNOSCAM ILLUM That I may know him that is Christ secondly dilated and enlarged in two main particulars 1. Resurrection 2. his Passion In the one he beholdeth power in the other fellowship and communion which includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity to his death Christ indeed is risen but he suffered first so must we be conformable to his death if we will feel the power of his resurrection So these three are most considerable 1. Christ 2. the power of his resurrection 3. the fellowship of his sufferings these are three rich Diamonds and if they be well set if we take the words in their true Syntaxis and joyn configuratus to cognoscam our conformity to his death to our knowledge of his sufferings and resurrection we shall place them right even so fix them in the Understanding part that they will reflect or cast a lustre on the Heart even such a lustre as will light us through the midst of rocks and difficulties unto the end here aimed at the Resurrection of the dead Of these then in their order Of the Object first then of the Nature of our Knowledge which will bring us to the End though beset with words of fear and difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if by any means We begin I say with the Object in general That I may know him We begin with Christ who is Α and Ω the beginning and the ending From whom we have saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live and to live well and to live for ever If we begin without him we run into endless mazes of errour and delusion every on-set is danger every step an overthrow And if we end not in him we end indeed but it is in misery without an end John 17.3 To know him is life eternal Then our Ignorance must needs be fatal and bring on a death as lasting For where can we be safe from the Deluge but in the Ark Where can we rest our feet but upon this Stone Where can we build but upon this Foundation For let Philosophie and the Law divide the world into Jew and Genâ—ile and then open those two great Books of God his Works and his Words and see the Philosopher hath so studied the Creature that he maketh his God one Rom. 1 23. and turneth his glory saith the Apostle into the similitude of corruptible Man nay into Birds and Beasts â—â—d Creeping things And the Jew's proficiency reached but so far as to know he was the worse for it On every letter he findeth gall and wormwood and the very bitterness of Death The Philosopher hath learned no more then this that he can be but happy here and the Jew that without a better guide he must be unhappy for ever Reason the best light the Heathen had could not shew them the unsteddy fluctuations of the mind the storms and tempests of the soul the weakness of nature and the dimness of her own light how faint her brightness is how she is eclipst with her own beams how Reason may behold indeed a supreme but not a saving Power because she will be Reason It is true the light of Reason is a light and from heaven too But every light doth not make it day nor is every star the Sun And though we are to follow this light which every man brought with him into the world yet if we look not on that greater Light the Sun of Righteousness which hath now spread his beams over the face of the earth we cannot but fall into the ditch even into the pit of destruction The light then of Reason will not guide us so far in the wayes of happiness as to let us know we stand in need of a surer guide and therefore the Gospel you know is called that wisdom which descended from above But now in the next place for the Jew Ye will say that the Law was the Law of God and so made to be a lantern to their feet and a light to their paths 'T is true it was so But the Apostle will tell us that by this light too we may miscarry as being not bright enough to direct us to our end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 7.18 because it giveth a weak and unprofitable light In the verse before my Text S. Paul seemeth to run away from it and utterly to renounce the Law not quoad substantiam not indeed in regard of the duties therein contained but quoad officium justificandi in that it could not justifie not make him perfect not lead him to his end It may threaten accuse contemn and kill and so in Scripture it is said to do And then what guilty person will sue for pardon from a dead letter which is inexorable We may say of the Law as S. Paul speaketh of the yearly sacrifice Heb. 10.1 that is did not make the comers thereto perfect but left behind it a conscience of sin not onely ex parte reatus a conscience that did testifie they sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which questioned not onely their sin but their atonement and told them plainly that by the Law no man could be justified And therefore S. Chrysostom on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemed they had conscience that accused them of sin but that they sacrificed continually argued that they had a conscience too which accused their sacrifice of imperfection Wherefore then served the Law The Apostle answereth well Gal. 3.19 It was added because of trangressions not to disannul the Covenant but as an attendant an additament as a glass to discover sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens The Law doth not beget sin for that it cannot do but manifest it Non est in speculo quod ostenditur I may shew you a Death's head in a glass but there is no such horrid substance there And the Law which is most perfect in it self may represent my wants unto me and make me flie to some richer Treasury for a supply Now to draw this home When both Lights fail when the Law of Nature is so dim that it cannot bring us to our journey's end and the Law written is as loud to tell us of our leasings as to direct us in our way what should we do but look up upon the Sun if righteousness Christ Jesus who came to improve and perfect Nature and who is the end of the Law and the end of our hopes and the end of our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calleth him that great Sabbath in which the Jew and the Gentile may rest in which the Father resteth as well pleased and the holy Ghost resteth in whom the Saints and Martyrs and the whole Church have
wonderful for us that we cannot attain to it But Lord God thou knowest that this dissolved pâ—â—rified carcase-Soul may see the light again that Mary Magdalene may rise from sin as well as her brother Lazarus from the grave that my Understanding which is now an Egypt a land of darkness may be a Goshen full of light that my Will may leave her erratick motion from good to evil and from evil to worse and settle and fix on the Truth it self and be guided by one rule that my Affections may dwell at home that that lively image of Truth which the Father of lies defaced may be renewed again ut interpolator se opus Christi doleret perdidisse as S. Hierom that as the envy of the Devil was great in our destruction so he shall rage more and more find hell more hell then it is to see us now built up fairer in our restauration Thus thus they are Christ's as they have crucified the lusts and affections so are they risen with Christ. And indeed we cannot well tell how to distinguish Christ's Resurrection and ours they are so linked together He is risen and we are risen and we rose both together His Easter-day and ours are but one and the same Feast We were not a royal priesthood nor did reign till now but then when Christ was risen as Tertullian speaketh we had our inauguration For if we view the passages of a Christian's life there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that joyneth and linketh Christ and us together and maketh us one with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conformed to him in my Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3.1 If ye be risen together with him And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.4 We are buried together with him in baptism The threefold immersion into the water which was in use in the first times shewed them in the grave three dayes with Christ and their Emersion brought them up again as risen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Ye are buried with him Col. 2.12 And in these waters they promised to leave their filth and corruption It is sufficient they did lie there the remainder of their life must be a Resurrection But it may be said If this be the power of the Resurrection why is it not so extended as to be effectual in all We answer so it is as far as is convenient for that power to work and the subject is capable Tota humanitas Christi influit in omnes homines Christ's Humanity hath an influence and operation upon all mankind He took it all and will raise it all Our Apostle is plain and positive As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive again All even the wicked too But they barely by his power as a Judge The godly by a kind of fellowship with their elder Brother Both by the virtue of his Resurrection And thus it worketh upon a Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body that is now putrefied and incinerated and almost annihilated And it worketh upon a Soul with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath an understanding and a will though biassed and perverted and carried from their proper operations for which they were made It is the great errour of the world and the mother and nurse of all the rest that that maketh men worse then the beasts that perish that they think their souls are to be raised up here in this life in the same manner as their bodies shall be at the last day and that their first resurrection may be wrought as their second shall be in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye We would be gathered into heaven as we are unto our fathers by a kind of order or course of Nature or by that word and power which created us We would have the heavens bow themselves and take us in and make our passage unto bliss through the same wide way which leadeth unto Death We would out of our graves and leave no grave-cloths nothing of our mortality or corruption behind us And yet I do not read of any precept to bind us or counsel to persuade us to contribute any thing to or put a hand to forward the resurrection of our bodies Nor can there be any For it will be done whether we will or no. But to awake from that pleasant sleep we take in sin to cast off the works of dâ—rkness to be renewed and raised in the inward man we have line upon line precept upon precept We have promises that if we gain a part in this first resurrection we shall be blessed And though Christ work in us both the will and the deed yet a necessity and law lieth upon us and woe be unto us if we work not out our salvation with fear and trembling It is a lazy and wilful ignorance so to magnifie Christ's power as to leave him none at all no power over our wills to regulate them or over our affections to compose and subdue them but the very same which raised him out of his grave And this maketh us rot and stink in ours This hope destroyeth all hope For what hope of recovering or raising him who will be sick upon this presumption that his Physician is able and willing to cure him whether he will or no For may he not thus raise up Devils as well as Men And what great difference between them and an obstinate sinner who hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact expresseth it a mind of marble which will receive no impression neither from the beauty of God's promises nor from the terrour of his threatnings which reverberateth and beateth back every precept and that Hammer of God which beateth upon it which neither the glory of Heaven nor the fire of Hell can melt What great difference is there I say between them In them there is the same detestation of Divine justice the same perversness of will the same blasphemous thoughts in the heart All the difference is that these are not in termino as the damned Spirits are and so not under an impossibility of being raised But Death maketh them the very same For every obstinate offender that dieth without repentance carrieth a Devil along with him into the next world that is a stubborn and uncorrected will which did ever detest and now will curse the righteous will of God Beloved if we have no part in that first Resurrection it is not from any desect of power in Christ's For as he raiseth up every man in his own order so doth he after his own manner of working He calleth and groneth at our graves as he did at Lazarus's For can we think that he who made such hast out of his own can be well pleased to see us rotting in ours It is a good rule Tertullian giveth That it is neither honour to Christ nor wisdom for our selves to
not onely placeth us upon but as Solomon speaks makes us an everlasting foundation by raising up in us a good conscience And this it doth as necessarily as fire sendeth forth heat or the Sun light For it is impossible to love God sincerely and not to know it and it is as impossible to know it and not to speak it to our own heart and comfort our selves in it For Conscience follows Science A light it is which directs us in the course of our obedience and when we have finished our course by the Memory it is reflected back upon us It tells us what we are to do and what we have done We have a kind of short but useful Genealogy in S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned From Faith unfeigned ariseth a good Conscience from that the Purity of the inward man from that that Peace which maketh us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace A golden chain where every link fits us in some degree for a dissolution nay where every link is unseparably annexed to each other and with it we cannot but tend naturally and cheerfully yea and hasten to our place of rest For our Conscience is our Judge our God upon earth And if it be of this royal extraction the product of our Faith and Obedience it will judge aright it will draw the Euge to us and tell us what sentence the Judge will pass at the last day and we even now hear in our ears Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy masters joy And when our Conscience hath past this sentence upon us we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God This this is an everlasting foundation and upon it we build as high as Heaven Our thoughts and desires our longings and pantings soar up even to that which is within the vail which is yet hidden and we are earnest to look into Let us then exercise our selves to have alwaies a conscience void of offense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word intimates the clearness of a way where no spy can discover any thing amiss For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas is speculator explorator a Scout a Spy So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a conscience clear and free from offense The want of this makes Death a King of terrours and puts more horrour in the Grave then it hath When Death comes towards wicked men on his pale horse it comes as a Serjeant to arrest them to put them out of possession of that which they had taken up as their habitation for ever to banish them out of the world which they made their paradise and to let them into eternity of torment If we love the world how can the love of God abide in us We plead for titles saith a learned Gentleman of our own who had large experience of the vanity and deceitfulness of the world and was exemplum utriusque fortunae an example of both fortunes good and evil We plead for titles till our breath fails us we dig for riches whilst strength enables us we exercise malice whilst we can revenge and then when Age hath beaten from us both youth and pleasure and health it s lf and Nature it self loatheth the House of old Age we then remember when our memory begins to fail that we must go the way from whence we must not return and that our bed is made ready for us in the grave At last looking too late into the bottom of our conscience which the Vanities of the world had lockt up from us all our lives we behold the fearful image of our actions past and withal this terrible inscription THAT GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JVDGMENT Thus he And this our vvay uttereth our foolishness in increasing the fear of Death and Judgment by striving to chase it away never thinking of Deaths sting till vve feel it putting by all sad and melancholy thoughts in our way till they meet us again vvith more horrour at our journeys end This is it which makes Death vvhich is but a messenger a King yea a King of terrours We can neither live nor are vvilling to dye vvith such a conscience vvhereas had vve learnt as Seneca speaks and studieâ— Death had vve not fed and supplyed this enemy with such vveapons a make him terrible had we cut from him now this now that desire an anon another for Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fights against us with our selves vvith our Wantonness and Luxury and Pride and Covetousness haâ— vve spoiled him of those things vvhich make Death terrible and the Dâ—â—vil our accuser vve might have boldly met him nay desired to meet him For vvhy should they fear Death vvho may present themselves vvith comâ—fort before God and shall meet Christ himself in all his glory coming iâ— the clouds To conclude Death shall be to them vvho love God and keep a good conscience a messenger of peace a gentle dismission into a better vvorld an Ostiary to let us in to the presence of God vvhere there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Our Apostle here calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a departing or dissolution To vvhich vve should lead you but vve cannot now so fully speak of it as vve vvould and as the matter requires vve will therefore reserve it for some other time The Seven and Thirtieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 1. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. THat which the Philosopher telleth us in the first of his Ethicks that we must not look for that certainty in Moral Philosophy which we do in the Mathematicks is most true And the reason is as plain For the Mathematician separateth and abstracteth the forms and essences of things from all sensible matter And these forms are of that nature for the most part that they admit not of the interposition of any thing Inter rectum curvum nihil est medium Between that which is straight and that which is crooked there is no medium at all for there is no line which is not either straight or crooked But in Morality and in the duties of our life the least circumstance varieth and altereth the matter and the forms there handled have something which cometh between so that there is an inclination which draweth us near sometimes to the right hand sometimes to the left sometimes to one extreme sometimes to another And in respect of this variety of circumstances it is that the Philosopher telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a hard matter many times to make our choice or in our judgment to prefer one thing before another Therefore they who have given us precepts of good life have also delivered us rules to guid us in this variety of circumstances that we swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left For as in artificial works the
unto death There is lex Factorum the Law of Works For they are not all Credenda in the Gospel all articles of Faith there be Agenda some things to be done Nor is the Decalogue shut out of the Gospel Nay the very articles of our Creed include a Law and in a manner bind us to some duty and though they run not in that imperial strain Do this and live yet they look towards it as towards their end Otherwise to believe them in our own vain and carnal sense vvere enough and the same faith vvould save us vvith vvhich the Devils are tormented No thy Faith to vvhich thou art also bound as by a Law is dead that is is not faith if it do not vvork by a Law Thou believest there is a God Thou art then bound to vvorship him Thou believest that Christ is thy Lord Thou art then obliged to do what he commandeth His Word must be thy Law and thou must fulfill it His Death is a Law and bindeth thee to mortification His Cross should be thy obedience his Resurrection thy righteousness and his Coming to judge the quick and the dead thy care and solicitude In a word in a Testament in a Covenant in the Angel's message in the Promises of the Gospel in every Article of thy Creed thou mayest find a Law Christ's Legacy his Will is a Law the Covenant bindeth thee the Good news obligeth thee the Promises engage thee and every Article of thy Creed hath a kind of commanding and legislative power over thee Either they bind to some duty or concern thee not at all For they are not proposed for speculation but for practice and that consequence vvhich thou mayest easily draw from every one must be to thee as a Law What though honey and milk be under his tongue and he sendeth embassadours to thee and they intreat and beseech thee in his stead and in his name Yet is all this in reference to his command and it proceedeth from the same Love which made his Law And even these beseechings are binding and aggravate our guilt if we melt not and bow to his Law Principum preces mandata sunt the very intreaties of Kings and Princes are as binding as Laws preces armatae intreaties that carry force and power with them that are sent to us as it were in arms to invade and conquer us And if we neither yield to the voice of Christ in his royal Law nor fall down and worship at his condescensions and loving parlies and earnest beseechings we increase our guilt and make sin sinful in the highest degree Nor need we thus boggle at the word or be afraid to see a Law in the Gospel if either we consider the Gospel it self or Christ our King and Lord or our selves who are his redeemed captives and owe him all service and allegeance For first the Gospel is not a dispensation to sin nor was a Saviour born to us that he should do and suffer all and we do what we list No the Gospel is the greatest and sharpest curb that was ever yet put into the mouth of Sin The grace of God saith S. Paul hath appeared unto all men teaching us that is commanding us Tit. 2.11 to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Libertas in Christo non fecit innocentiae injuriam saith the Father Our liberty in Christ was not brought in to beat down innocency before it but to uphold it rather and defend it against all those assaults which flesh and bloud our lusts and concupiscence are ready to make against it Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world He taketh away those sins that are past by remission and pardon but he setteth up a Law as a rampire and bulwork against Sin that it break not in and reign again in our mortal bodies There Christ is said to take away not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin of the world that is the whole nature of Sin that it may have no subsistence or being in the world If the Gospel had nothing of Law in it there could be no sin under the Gospel For Sin is a transgression of a Law But flatter our selves as we please those are the greatest sins which we commit against the Gospel And it shall be easier in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah then for those Christians who turn the grace of God into wantonness who sport and revel it under the very wings of Mercy who think Mercy cannot make a Law but is busie onely to bestow Donatives and Indulgences who are then most licencious when they are most restrained For what greater curb can there be then when Justice and Wisdom and Love and Mercy all concur and joyn together to make a Law Secondly Christ is not onely our Redeemer but our King and Law-giver As he is the wonderful Counsellour Isa 9 6. Psal 2.6 so he came out of the loyns of Judah and is a Law-giver too Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion The government shall be upon his shoulder He crept not to this honour Isa 9.6 but this honour returned to him as to the true and lawful Lord With glory and honour did God crown him and set him over the works of his hands Heb. 2.7 As he crowned the first Adam with Understanding and freedom of Will so he crowned the second Adam with the full Knowledge of all things with a perfect Will and with a wonderful Power And as he gave to Adam Dominion over the beasts of the field so he gave to Christ Power over things in heaven and things on earth And he glorified not himself Heb. 5.5 but he who said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he it was that laid the government upon his shoulder Not upon his shoulders For he was well able to bear it on one of them For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily And with this power he was able to put down all other rule autority and power 1 Cor. â—5 24 to spoil principalities and powers and to shew them openly in triumph to spoil them by his death and to spoil them by his Laws due obedience to which shaketh the power of Hell it self For this as it pulleth out the sting of Death so also beateth down Satan under our feet This if it were universal would be the best exorcism that is and even chase the Devil out of the world which he maketh his Kingdom For to run the way of Christ's commandments is to overthrow him and bind him in chains is another hell in hell unto him Thirdly if we look upon our selves we shall find there is a necessity of Laws to guide and regulate us and to bring us to the End All other creatures are sent into the world with a sense and understanding of the end for which they come and so without particular direction and yet unerringly
saith Calvine Harmon in locum His pain was so great that it gave no time or leisure to his Reason to weigh what he said Which in effect is He spake he knew not what But we may truly say Non fuit haec Interpretis meditata oratio This Author did not well understand nor consider what he wrote and may seem not well to have advised with his Reason that would leave Wisdome it self without the use of it No question it was the language of a bleeding heart and the resultance of Grief For grieve Christ did and fear He who as God could have commanded a Legion of Angels as Man had need of one to comfort him He was delivered up to Passions to afflict not to swallow him up There was no disorder no jar with Reason which was still above them There was no fullenness in his grief no dispair in his complaints no unreasonableness in his thoughts not a thought did rise amiss not a word misplaced not a motion was irregular He knew he was not forsaken when he asked Why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 The bitterness of the cup struck him into a fear when his Obedience called for it He prayed indeed Let this cup pass from me But that was not as some think Matth. 26.39 the cup of his Cross and Passion but the cup of his Agony And in that prayer it is plain he was heard for the Text telleth us Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven to strengthen him Being of the same mould and temper with man he was willing to receive the impressions which are so visible in man of Sorrow and Fear even those affections which are seated in the Sensitive part and without which Misery and Pain have no tooth at all to bite us Our Passions are the sting of Misery nor could Christ have suffered at all if he had been free from them If Misery be a whip it is our Passion and Phansie that make it a Scorpion What could Malice hurt me if I did not help the blow What edge hath an Injury if I could not be angry What terror hath Death if I did not fear It is Opinion and Passion that make us miserable take away these and Misery is but a name Tunde Anaxarchum enim non tundis You touch not the Stoick though you bray him in a mortar Delivered then was the Son of God to these Passions to Fear and to Grief These strained his body rackt his joynts stretched his sinews these trickled down in clods of blood and exhaled themselves through the pores of his flesh in a bloody sweat The fire that melted him was his Fear and his Grief Da si quid ultrà est Is there yet any more or can the Son of God be delivered further Delivered he was Not to Despair for that was impossible nor to the torments of Hell which could never seize on his innocent soul But to the Wrath of God which withered his heart like grass Psal 102.3 4. and 22.15 burnt up his bones like a hearth and brought him even to the dust of death Look now upon his Countenance it is pale and wan upon his Heart it is melted like wax upon his Tongue it cleaveth to the roof of his mouth What talk we of Death The Wrath of God is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the terriblest thing in the world the sting of Sin which is the sting of Death Look into our own souls That weak apprehension of it which we sometimes have what a night and darkness doth it draw over us nay what a hell doth it kindle in us What torments do we feel the types and sad representations of those in the bottomless pit How do our delights distast us and our desires strangle themselves What a Tophet is the world and what Furies are our thoughts What do we see which we do not turn from what do we know which we would not forget what do we think which we do not startle at Or do we know what to think Now what rock can hide us what mountain can cover us We are weary of our selves and could wish rather not to be then to be under Gods wrath Were it not for this there would be no Law no Conscience no Devil but with this the Law is a killing letter the Conscience a Fury and the Devil a Tormenter But yet there is still a difference between our apprehension and Christ's For alas to us God's wrath doth not appear in it its full horror for if it did we should sooner dye then offend him Some do but think of it few think of it as they should and they that are most apprehensive look upon it as at a distance as that which may be turned away and so not fearing God's wrath treasure up wrath against the day of wrath To us when we take it at the nearest and have the fullest sight of it it appeareth but as the cloud did to Elijah's servant 1 Kings 18.44 like a man's hand but to Christ the heavens were black with clouds and winds and it showred down upon him as in a tempest of fire and brimstone We have not his eyes and therefore not his apprehension We see not so much deformity in Sin as he did and so not so much terror in the Wrath of God It were Impiety and blasphemy to think that the blessed Martyrs were more patient than Christ De patient Cujus natura patientia saith Tertullian whose very nature was patience yet who of all that noble army ever breathed forth such disconsolate speeches God indeed delivered them up to the saw to the rack to the teeth of Lions to all the engines of cruelty and shapes of death but numquid deseruit they never cryed out they were forsaken He snatched them not from the rage of the persecutor by a miracle but behold a greater miracle Sil. Ital. l. 1. Rident superántque dolores Spectanti similes In all their torments they had more life and joy in their countenance than they who looked on who were more troubled with the sight than the Martyrs were with the punishment Their torture was their triumph their afflictions were their melody Of weak they were made strong Prudent Hymn in laudem Vincentii M. Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridensque flammis lamina Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est Torments Racks Strappadoes and the last enemy Death it self were but a recreation and refreshment to Christians who suffered all these with the patience of a stander-by But what speak we of Martyrs Divers sinners whose ambition never reach at such a crown but rather trembled at it have been delivered up to afflictions and crosses nay to the anger of God But never yet any nay not those who have despaired were so delivered as Christ We may say that the Traytor Judas felt not so much when he went and hanged himself For though Christ could not despair
yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than those that do who bear but their own burthen whereas he lay pressed under the sins of the whole world God in his approaches of Justice when he cometh toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rods and his Axes carried before him Many sinners have felt his Rods And his Rod is comfort his Frown favour his Anger love and his Blow a benefit But Christ was struck as it were with his Ax. Others have trembled under his wrath Psal 39.10 but Christ was even consumed by the stroke of his hand Being delivered to God's Wrath that wrath deliverth him to these Throws and Agonies delivereth him to Judas who delivereth nay betrayeth him to the Jews who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangeth between thot Thieves I mention not the shame or the torment of the Cross for we Thieves endured the same But his Soul was crucified more than his Body and his Heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his Hands or Feet TRADIDIT ET NON PEPERCIT He delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more TRADIDIT ET DESERVIT He delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew comfort stood as it were afar off and let him fight it out unto death He looked about and there was none to help Isa 63.5 even to the Lord he called but he heard him not Psal 18 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God Matth. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me And could God forsake him Psal 38.8 When he hung upon the cross did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did Heb. 12.2 but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in poenam saith Leo By the counsel of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should add to his Punishment that his knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happiness his Misery that there should not only be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Myrrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Myrrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could Sin do And can we love it This could the Love and tht Wrath of God do his Love to his Creature and his Wrath against Sin And what a Delivery what a Desertion was this which did not deprive Christ of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light What a strange Delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves What misery equal to that which maketh Strength a tormenter Knowledge a vexation and Joy and Glory a persecution There now hangeth his sacred Body on the cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jews who pierced him for whom he prayeth when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles Tantam patientiam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproach of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrows not only which himself then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall sound and he shall come again in glory The last Delivery was of his Soul which was indeed traditio a yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father He preventeth the spear and the hand of the executioner and giveth up the ghost What should I say or where should I end Who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth openeth her mouth and the Grave hers and yieldeth up her dead the veyl of the Temple rendeth asunder the Earth trembleth and the Rocks are cleft But neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this Wisdom and Love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of Men nor Angels is able to express it The most powerful eloquence is the threnody of a broken heart For there Christ's death speaketh it self and the virtue and power of it reflecteth back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of Love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love we have passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calverie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World is nailed to the cross and being lifted up upon his cross looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looketh upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us Which is one ascent more and bringeth in the Persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all III. Now that he should be delivered FOR VS is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest For if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask the question Why for us Why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortal Spirits we as the grass withered before we grow Yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 and chained them up in everlasting darkness We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us No it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meer compassion of our wants With the Angels God dealeth in rigor and relenteth
extent as may reach to every man to every corner of the earth as may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in Christ never drew any such Conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings But when honest labour and industry have brought riches in Christ setteth a seal imprinteth a blessing on them sanctifieth them unto us by the Word and Prayer and so maketh them ours our servants to minister unto us and our friends to promote us unto everlasting habitations Our Charter is large enough and we need not interline it with those Glosses which the Flesh and the Love of the World will soon suggest With Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was delivered We have his Commands which are the pledges of his love for he gave us them that he might give us more that he might give us a Crown We have his Promises of immortality and eternal life Faciet hoc nam qui promisit est potens He shall do it for he is able to perform it With him every word shall stand He hath given us Faith that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive the promises and Hope Eph. 2.8 to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us that is scarce looked upon as a gift but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us He hath given us his Spirit and filleth us with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his Commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things vve have with Christ And the Apostle doth not only tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt putteth up a QVOMODO NON challengeth as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him also freely give us all things This Question addeth energy and weight and emphasis and maketh the Position more positive the Affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing Shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should It is more possible for a city upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or for Hell to raise it self up to God's Mercy-seat than for him to withhold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome and his Justice and his Goodness Naz. Or. 36. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his Will to deny us any thing In brief If the Earth be not as iron the Heavens cannot be as brass God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable When he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive When he descendeth Mercy descendeth with him in a full shower of blessings to make our souls as the paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouse up our Hope And in this light in this assurance in this heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the Question against all doubts all fears all temptations that may assault us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of Love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the cross And from thence he looketh down and speaketh to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit cathedra docentis The Cross on which he suffered was the Chair of his Profession And from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience perfect Obedience an exact Art and Method of living well drawn out in several lines What was ambitiously said of Homer That if all sciences were lost they might be found in him may most truly be said of Christ's Cross and Passion That if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae Agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb Rev. 13.8 slain from the foundation of the world yet now nailed to the Cross Let us then with love and reverence look upon him who thus looketh upon us Let us put on our crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome every virtue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord 2 Cor. 4.10 and draw the picture of a crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth For God's glory and our salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thread and linked together in the same bond of peace Psal 50.15 I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runneth and it runneth on evenly in a stream of Love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Psal 24.7 9. Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of glory may come in If you seek salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your salvation Thou mayest cry Lo here it is or Lo there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily Exercise the Zelote in the Fire and the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the prophane Libertine in Hell it self But then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the Glory of God which shineth most gloriously in a crucified Christ and in an obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the marks of the LORD JESVS Gal. 6.17 To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his own Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him John 1.12 that is believe in his name that is be faithful to him that is love him and keep his Commandments which is our conformity to his Death And then he will give us What will he give us He will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive
saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Hebr. 2.10 Christ and his Church are in computation but one person He ought to suffer and they ought to suffer They suffer in him and he in them Luke 24.26 to the end of the world Nor is any other method answerable either to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indeleble characters or to our mortal and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up Quicquid Deo convenit homini prodest saith Tertullian that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us That which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head There is an oportet set upon both Luke 24.26 He ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again First it cannot consist with the Wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and that we might live as we please and then reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Devil for those who will be his vassals that he should foil him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble and beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this we could not have taken him for our Captain and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers Non novimus Christum si non credimus We do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captain that leadeth us as Moses did the children of Israel through a wilderness full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposeth some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looketh back into some grave Tolle certamen nè virtus quidem quicquam erit Take away this combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations and Religion it self will be but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it but a fable What were my Patience if no Pain did look towards it What were my Faith if there were no Doubt to assault it What were my Hope if there were no Scruple to shake it What were my charity if there were no Misery to urge it no Malice to oppose it What were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead I was dead saith the Lord of life And his speech is directed to us who do but think we live being indeed in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils that are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit Rev. 9 3. And when we hear this voice and by the virtue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ 1 John 5.4 our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcomeh the world Nor need this method seem grievous unto us For these very words I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plain and easie method For by Christ's Death we must understand all those miseries that he suffered before which were as the train and ceremony of his Death as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as Poverty Scorn and Contempt the Burden of our sins his Agony and bloody Sweat These we must look upon as the principles of this heavenly Science by which our best Master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to raise us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings For we have not such an High priest who will not help us Hebr. 4.15 2.17 but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is merciful and faithful hath not only power for that he may have and not shew it but will and propension also desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the gates of death Indeed Mercy without Power can beget but a good wish S. James his complemental charity Be ye warmed and Be ye filled and Be ye comforted Jam. 2.16 which leaveth us cold and empty and comfortless And Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heal a broken heart It may as well strike us dead as revive us But Mercy and Power when they meet and kiss each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and raise us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a bath a rack a bed and persecution a blessing will call those sorrows that are as if they were not Such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his Compassion and Mercy were coeternal with him as God yet as Man he learnt them He came into the world as into a school and there learnt them by his sufferings and death Hebr. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feel it our selves It must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggeth of me Luke 16. Luke 10.30 34. and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way-side and then I powre my oyl and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feel the Hell of sin in my self before I can snatch my brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walketh abroad Job 29.15 and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and so healeth two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him They were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffered are the main strength of our salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be merciful then he could leave off to be
We have also the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on 't and when they could not live to publish it laid down their life and sealed it with their Blood And therefore we on whom the ends of the world are come have no reason to complain of distance and that we are removed so many ages from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object than before the diversity of mediums have increased and multiplyed it We see him in his Word we see him through the Blood of Martyrs and we see him with the eye of faith Christ is risen and alive 1 Cor. 15.3 4. secundum scripturas saith S. Paul and he repeateth it twice in the same chapter Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem it is S. Augustines and let it pass for his sake When the Jew stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity will find no excuse if we see him not now when he appeareth as visible as a mountain There is more in this VIVO than a bare rising to life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He liveth in as much as He giveth life There is vertue and power in his Resurrection a power to abolish Death 2 Tim. 1.10 and to bring life and immortality to light a power to raise our vile bodies and a power to raise our viler souls He will raise them nay he hath done it already Col. 2.12 3.1 We are risen together with him and we live with him We cannot think that he that made such haste out of his own grave can be willing to see us rotting in ours From this VIVO it is that though we dye yet we shall live again Christ's Living breatheth life into us In his Resurrection he cast the modell of ours Idea est eorum quae fiunt exemplar aeternum saith Seneca And this is such a one an eternal pattern Plato 's Idea or common Form by which he thought all things have their existence is but a dream to this This is a true and real an efficacious and working pattern For as an Artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ lose his power when he had raised himself but as he is so it is everlasting and worketh still to the end of the world Perfectum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which Christ wrought upon himself is most exact and perfect a fit pattern of that which he meaneth to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious And now VIVO I live is as loud to raise our Hope as the last trump will be to raise our Bodies And how shall they be able to hear the sound of the trump who will not hear the voice of their Saviour Christ's life derives its vertue and influence on both Soul and Body on the Body with that power which is requisite to raise a body now putrified and incinerated and well near annihilated and on the Soul with such a power as is fitted to a soul which hath both Understanding and Will though drawn and carried away from their proper operations for which they were made We do not read of any precept to bind us or any counsel â—o perswade us to contribute any thing or put a hand to the resurrection of our bodies nor can there be it will be done whether we will or no But to Awake from the pleasant sleep of sin to be Renewed and raised in the inward man to Die to sin and Live to righteousness we have line upon line and precept upon precept And though this Life of Christ work in us both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 Phil. 2.13 yet a necessity and a law lieth upon us and wo will be unto us if we work not out our salvation By his power we are raised in both but not working after the same manner There will be a change in both As the flesh at the second so the soul at the first resurrection must be reformata Angelificata spiritualized refined and angelified or rather Christificata If I may so speak Christified drawing in no breath but Christs Phil. 2.5 Job 17.13 14 having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst Corruption is our father and the Worm our mother and sister we cannot be said to be risen and whilest all the alliance we have is with the World and it is both Father and Mother and Sister to us whilest we mind earthly things we are still in our graves nay in hell it self Death hath dominion over us For let us call the World what we please our Habitation our Delight our Kingdome where we would dwell for ever yet indeed it is but our Grave If we receive any influence from Christ's life we shall rise fairly not with a mouth which is a sepulchre but with a tongue which is our glory not with a withred hand but with a hand stretched out to the needy not with a gadding eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an obedient ear not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart Our Life Col. 3.3 saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God and whilest we leave it thereby a continual meditation of his meritorious suffering by a serious and practical application of his glorious resurrection we hide it in the bosome of Majesty and no dart of Satan can reach it When we hide it in the minerals of the earth in the love of the world the Devil who is the Prince of the world is there to seize on it when we hide it in malicious and wanton thoughts they are his baits to catch it when we hide it in sloth and idleness we hide it in a grave which he digged for us we entomb our selves alive and as much as in us lies bury the Resurrection it self But when we hide it in Christ we hide it in him who carrieth healing and life in his wings Mal. 4.2 When we worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord and put our life in his hands 2 Cor. 4.11 then the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh then we have put off the old man yea in a manner put off our mortality we are candidati aeternitatis as Tertullian speaketh Candidates for eternity and stand for a place with Abraham and Isaac for we have the same God and he is not the God of the dead Matth. 21.32 but of the living We see now what virtue and power there is in this VIVO in the Life of Christ But we must rise yet higher even as high as Eternity it self Hebr. 6.20 Hebr. 7.16 For as he liveth so behold he is alive for evermore a Priest for ever and a King for ever being made not after the law of a carnal commandment after that law which was given to
it self and fill the world with Atheists which will learn by no Masters but such as instruct fools nor acknowledge any Keyes but those which may break their head But indeed we have had these Keyes too long in our hands For though they concern us yet are they not the keyes in the Text nor had we lookt upon them but that those of the Romish party wheresoever they find keys mentioned take them up and hang them on their Church But we must observe a difference betwixt the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Matth. 16.19 which were given to Peter and the keyes of Hell and of Death although with them when the Keyes are seen Heaven and Hell are all one For the key of David Rev. 3.7 which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth was not given to the Apostles but is a regality and prerogative of Christ who only hath power of Life and Death over Hell and the Grave who therefore calleth himself the first and the last because although when he first publisht his Gospel he died and was buried yet he rose again to live for ever so to perfect the great work of our salvation and by his power to bind those in everlasting chains who stood out against him and to bring those that bow to his sceptre out of prison into liberty and everlasting life The power is his alone and he made it his by his sufferings Phil. 2.8 9. He was obedient to death therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2.7 11. He became a Lord by putting on the form of a servant But he hath delegated his power to his Apostles and those that succeed them to make us capable and fit subjects for his power to work upon which nevertheless will have its operation and effect either let us out or shut us up for ever under the power of Hell and of Death Were not he alive and to live for evermore we had been shut up in darkness and oblivion for ever But Christ living infuseth life into us that the bands of Hell and of Death can no more hold us than they can him There is such a place as Hell but to the living members of Christ there is no such place For it is impossible it should hold them You may as well place Lucifer at the right hand of God as a true Christian in Hell For how can Light dwell in Darkness How can Purity mix with stench How can Beauty stay with Horrour If Nature could forget her course and suffer contradictories to be drawn together and be both true yet this is such a contradiction as unless Christ could die again which is impossible can never be reconciled Matth. 5.18 Heaven and earth may pass away but Christ liveth for evermore and the power and virtue of his Life is as everlasting as Everlastingness it self Rev. 6.8 And again There was a pale horse and his name that sat on him was Death and he had power to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth But now he doth not kill us he doth but stagger us and fling us down that we may rise again and tread him under our feet and by the power of an everliving Saviour be the death of Death it self Job 18.14 Death was the King of terrors and the fear of Death made us slaves Heb. 2.15 and kept us in servility and bondage all our life long made our pleasures less delightful and our virtues more tedious made us tremble and shrink from those Heroick undertakings for the truth of God But now they in whom Christ liveth and moveth and hath his being as in his own dare look upon Death in all his horror expeditum morti genus saith Tertullian and are ready to meet him in his most dreadful march with all his army of Diseases Racks and Tortures Man before he sinned knew not what Death meant then Eve familiarly conversed with the Serpent so do Christians with Death Having that Divine Image restored in them they are secure and fear it not For what can that Tyrant take from them Col. 3.3 Their life That is hid with Christ in God Psal 37.4 It cannot cut them off from pleasure for their delight is in the Lord. Matth. 6.20 It cannot rob them of their treasure for that is laid up in heaven It can take nothing from them but what themselves have already crucified Gal. 5.24 their Flesh It cannot cut off one hope one thought one purpose for all their thoughts purposes and hopes were leveld not on this but on another life And now Christ hath his keyes in his hand Death is but a name it is nothing or if it be something it is such a thing as troubled S Augustine to define what it is We call it a punishment but indeed it is a benefit a favour even such a favour that Christ who is as omnipotent as he is everlasting who can work all in all though he abolished the Law of Moses and of Ceremonies yet would not abrogate the law by which we are bound over unto death because it is so profitable and advantageous to us It was indeed threatned but it is now a promise or the way unto it for Death it is that letteth us into that which was promised It was an end of all it is now the beginning of all It was that which cut off life it is now that through which as through a gate we enter into it We may say it is the first point and moment of our after-eternity for it is so neer unto it that we can hardly sever them We live or rather labour and fight and strive with the World and with Life it self which is it self a temptation and whilst by the power of our everliving Christ we hold up and make good this glorious contention and fight and conquer and press forward towards the mark either nature faileth or is prest down with violence and we dye that is our language but the Spirit speaketh after another manner we sleep we are dissolved we fall in pieces our bodies from our souls and we from our miseries and temptations and this living everliving Christ gathereth us together again breatheth life and eternity into us that we may live and reign with him for evermore And so I have viewed all the parts of the Text being the main articles of our Faith 1 Christs Death 2. his Life 3. his eternal Life and last of all his Power of the Keyes his Dominion over Hell and Death We will but in a word fit the ECCE the Behold in the Text to every part of it and set the Seal Amen to it and so conclude And first we place the ECCE the Behold on his Death He suffered and dyed that he might learn to have compassion on thy miseries and on thy dust and raise thee from both and wilt thou learn nothing from his compassion
not as warrantably conceive so of the other Persons For God wrought in the Creation and the Heavens are the work of his hands Nay with reverence to so high a Majesty we may say God serveth us more then we do him who are nothing but by his breath and power Dust and ashes can do him no service But he serveth us every day He lighteth us with his Sun he raineth upon us he watereth our plants Luke ◠53 Psal 47.9 he filleth our granaries He feedeth the hungry with good things nay he feedeth the young ravens that call upon him He knocketh at our doors he intreateth waiteth sufferreth commandeth us to serve one another commandeth his Angels to serve and minister unto us res rationésque nostras curat he keepeth our accounts numbreth our tears watcheth our prayers If we call he cometh if we fall he is at hand In our misery in the deepest dungeon he is with us And these are no disparagements but arguments of his excellency and infinite goodness and fair lessons to us not to be wanting to our selves and our brethren who have God himself thus carefully waiting upon us and to remember us That to serve our brethren is to exalt and advance and raise us up to be like unto him When we wash our brethrens feet bind up their wounds sit down in the dust with them visit them in prison and minister to them on their beds of sickness we may think we debase our selves and do decrease as it were but it is our honour our crown our conformity to him who was the Servant of God and our Servant and made himself like unto us that he might serve us in his flesh and doth so to the end of the world invisibly by his Spirit It is the Spirit 's honour to be sent to be a Leader a Conduct and though sent he be yet he is as free an Agent as the Son and the Son as the Father Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth to supply his place But that argueth no inequality for then the Son too must be unequal to the Father for his Angel his Messenger he was and went about his Father's business Luke 2.49 To conclude this In a farr remote and more qualified sense we are his Vicar's his Deputies his Steward 's here on earth and it is no servility it is our honour and glory to do his business to serve one another in love Gal. 5.13 to be Servants to be Angels I had almost said to be holy Ghosts one to another As my father sent me saith our Saviour to his Disciples John 20.21 so send I you And he sendeth us too who are haereditarii Christi discipuli Christ's Disciples by inheritance and succession that every one as he is endowed from above should serve him by serving one another And though our serving him cannot deserve that name Judg. 5.23 yet is he pleased to call it helping him that we should help him to feed the hungry to guide the blind and teach the ignorant and so be the Spirit 's Vicars as he is Christ's that Christ may fill us more and more with his Spirit which may guide and conduct us through the manifold errours of this life through darkness and confusion into that truth which may lead us to bliss For as he is the Spirit of truth so in the next place the Lesson which he teacheth is Truth even that Truth which is an Art S. Augustine calleth it so and a law to direct and confine all other arts quâ praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus which goeth before us in our way and through the surges of this present world bringeth us to the presence of God who is Truth it self A Truth which leadeth us to our original to the Rock out of which we were hewen and bringeth us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself An Art to cast down all Babels all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our souls powr them out upon variety of unlawful objects and deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this Spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 for whatsoever the Prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of Immortality was but darkness in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth Luxury place on Wealth and Riches What horror on Nakedness and Poverty What a heaven is Honour to my Ambition and what an hell is Disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a Jewel glitter in my eyes and what a slur is there upon Virtue What a glory doth the pomp of the World present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath Righteousness How is God thrust out and every Idol every Vanity made a God But the Truth here which the Spirit teacheth discovereth all pulleth off the veyl sheweth us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived sheweth us Vanity in Riches folly in Honour death and destruction in the pomp of this World maketh Poverty a blessing and Misery happiness and Death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and Man where he should be at his footstool bowing before him Which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a Truth that hath power to unite us to our God that bringeth with it the knowledge of Christ and the wisdome of God and presenteth those precepts and doctrines which lead to happiness a Truth that goeth along with us in all our wayes waiteth on us on our beds of sickness leaveth us not at our death but followeth us and will rise again with us unto judgment and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate If we make it our friend here it will then look lovely on us and speak good things for us if we make it our Counsellor here it will then be our Advocate but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this Truth to them that love it But to those who will not learn shall be Tribulation and anguish Rom. 2.9 Acts 2.20 2 Thes 4.16 The Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into blood the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this Truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of them Rom 2.16 acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this Truth which the Spirit teacheth
on those actions which in themselves are lawful Nay multa mandata vitiat it may make that unlawful which is commanded Hebr. 10.31 Oh it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! but how fearful is it to have his hand fall upon us when we stand at his Altar to see him frown and hear him thunder when we worship in anger to question us when we are doing our duty What a dart would it be to pierce our souls through and through if God should now send a Prophet to us to tell us that our frequenting the Church and coming to his Table are distastful to him that our fasts are not such as he hath chosen and that he hateth them as much as he doth our Oppression and Cruelty to which they may be the prologue that he will have none of the one because he will have none of the other And yet if we terminate Religion in these outward formalities make them wait upon our lusts to bring them with more smoothness and with more state and pomp and applause to their end to that which they look so earnestly upon if we thus appear before God he that shall tell us as much of our Hearing and Fasting and Frequenting the Church shall be as true a Prophet as Micah the Morasthite was And now to conclude if you ask me wherewith ye shall come before the Lord and bow your selves before the most High look further into the Text and there you have a full and complete Directory Do justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God With these you may approch his courts and appear at his altar In aram Dei justitia imponitur saith Lactantius De vero cultu l. 6. c. 24. Justice and Mercy and Sincerity are the best and fittest sacrifices for the Altar of God which is the Heart of man an Altar that must not be polluted with blood Hoc qui exhibet toties sacrificat quoties bonum aliquid aut pium facit The man that is just and merciful doth sacrifice as oft as he doth any just and merciful act Come then and appear before God and offer up these Nor need you fear that ridiculous and ungodly imputation which presenteth you to the world under the name of mere moral men Bear it as your crown of rejoycing It is stigma Jesu Christi a mark of Christ Jesus And none will lay it upon you as a defect but they who are not patient of any loss but of their honesty who have learnt an art to joyn together in one the Saint and the Deceiver who can draw down heaven to them with a thought and yet supplant and overreach their brother as cunningly as the Devil doth them Bonus vir Caius Seius Caius Seius is a good man Tertull. Apolog. his only fault is that he is a Christian would the Heathen say He is a good moral man but he is not of the Elect that is one of our faction saith one Christian of another I much wonder how long a good moral man hath been such a monster What is the Decalogue but an abbridgment of Morality What is Christs Sermon on the mount but an improvement of that and shall Civil and honest conversation then be the mark of a Reprobate Shall Nature bring forth a Regulus a Cato a Fabricius Just and Honest men and shall Grace and the Gospel of Christ bring forth nothing but Zanies but Players and Actours of Religion but Pharisees and Hypocrites Or was the New creature the Christian raised up to thrust the Moral man out of the world Must all be Election and Regeneration Must all Religion be carried along in phrases and words and noise and must Justice and Mercy be exposed as monsters and flung out into the land of oblivion Or how can they be elect and regenerate who are not just and merciful No The Moral man that keepeth the commandments is not far from the kingdome of God Mark 12.34 and he that is a Christian and buildeth up his Morality and Justice and Mercy upon his Faith in Christ and keepeth a good conscience and doth to others what he would that others should do unto him Matth. 7.12 shall enter in and have a mansion there when speculative and Seraphick Hypocrites who decree for God and preordain there a place for themselves shall be shut out of doors Come then and appear before God with these with Innocence and Integrity and Mercifulness Wash your hands in innocency Psal 26.6 Rev. 1.6 and compass his altar For Christ hath made us Priests unto his Father there is our Ordination To offer up spiritual sacrifice 1 Pet. 2.5 there is our duty and performance By Jesus Christ there is our seal to make good and sure our acceptance Chrysostom besides that great Sacrifice of the Cross In Psal 59. hath found out many more Martyrdome Prayer Justice Almes Praise Compunction and Humility and he bringeth in too the Preaching of the Word Epist. 87. Which all make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a most magnificent and pretious sacrifice We need not cull out any more then these in the Text for in offering up these we shall find the true nature and reason of a Sacrifice observed For to make any thing a true Sacrifice there must be a plain and express change of the thing that is offered It was a Bull or a Ram but it is set apart and consecrate to God And it is a Sacrifice and must be slain And this is remarkable in all these in which though no Death befall us as in the Beast offered in Sacrifice but that Death which is our Life our Death to sin yet a change there is which being made to the honour of Gods Majesty is very pleasing and acceptable in his sight When we do justly we have slain the Beast the worst part of us our Love of the world our filthy Lusts our Covetousness and Ambition which are the life and soul of Fraud and Violence and Oppression by which they live and move and have their being When we offer up our Goods there is a change For how strong is our affection to them how do we adore them as Gods are they not in common esteem as our life and blood and do we not as willingly part with our breath as with our wealth Hebr. 13.16 Now who so doth good and distributeth and scattereth his wealth he poureth forth his very blood bindeth the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar letteth out all worldly desires with his wealth and hath slain that sacrifice saith S. Paul with which God is well pleased And last of all Humility wasteth and consumeth us to nothing maketh us an Holocaust a whole-burnt-offering nothing in our selves nothing in respect of God and by this our exinanition it exalteth all the Graces of God in us filleth us with life and glory with high apprehensions with lively anticipations of that which
Jew busie at his Sacrifice and it looketh forward to the beauty of holiness and is levelled at the very heart of those errours which led the people from the city of God into the wilderness from that which is truly Good to that which is so but in appearance which did shew well and speak well but such words as were clothed with death First it checketh them in their old course and then sheweth them a more excellent way The Jew as we have told you formerly pleased himself in that piece of service which was most attempered to the Sense and might be passed over and performed with least vexation of the Spirit and labour of the Mind For what an easie matter was it to approch the courts of God to appear before the Altar Psal 118.27 What great trouble was it to bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of it Nay this was their delight this they doted on this they thought none could cry down but a false Prophet Did they not thus speak and murmur within themselves If this be not what is then Religion If to appear in his courts to offer sacrifice be not to serve God how should we bow before him and serve him As many say in their hearts now adayes If to go to Church to be zealous in a faction to cry down Superstition be not true Religion what Religion can there be Who can speak against it but an uncircumcised Philistin or he that hath drunk deep of the cup of the Whore He that preacheth any other Law or any other Gospel let him be Anathema And therefore the Prophet to silence this asketh another question Do you ask If this be not what is true Religion I ask also What doth the Lord require Not this in which you please your selves but something else to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God And this But as it is an Exclusive and shutteth out all other services whatsoever which look not this way or are not conducible to uphold and support and promote it so it doth colour as it were and place a kind of amiableness a philtrum upon that which may invite and win us to embrace it For commonly those duties which require the luctation of the Mind the strivings and victories of the Spirit are more formidable and so more avoided then those which imploy only the outward man the Eye the Tongue the Ear and the Hand Here every man is ready and officious and thrusteth himself into the service every man almost rejoyceth to run his race and there is a kind of emulation and contention who shall be the forwardest But those commands which set us at variance within our selves which busie the Spirit against the Flesh which sound the alarm and call us into the lists to fight the good fight of Faith against our selves against our Imaginations even those which lye unto us and tell us All is well these are that Medusa's head which turneth us into stones And we who were so active and diligent in other duties less necessary when these call upon us to move are lame and impotent we who before had the feet of hinds can move no more then he did who lay so long by the pool-side John 5. The Prophet Elisha biddeth Naaman the leper Go wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be clean 2 Kings 5.10 But Naaman was wroth and thought that may be done with the stroke or touch of the Prophets hand Are not Abanah and Pharpar 12. rivers of Damascus saith he better then all the rivers of Israel But the Servants were wiser then the Master and truly told him that what the Prophet enjoyned was no great thing for it was but this Wash and be clean 13. So it was with the Jew and so it is with us That which will cure and heal us we most distast Nauseat ad antidotum qui hiat ad venenum Tertul. Scorp c. v. The stomach turneth at the antidote that is greedy of poyson What bid us be Just and Merciful and Humble Will not Sacrifice suffice Are not our Sabbath-dayes exercise our Psalms and Hymns of force enough to shake the powers of heaven and draw down blessings upon us Why may he not speak the word and heal us Why may he not save us by miracle To be just and honest will shrink the curtains of our tabernacles To be merciful and liberal will empty our chests To be humble will lay us in the dust These are harsh and rugged hard and unpleasing commands beyond our power impossible to be done Nay rather these are the ebullitions and murmurs of the flesh the imaginations of corrupt hearts And therefore the Prophet Micah setteth up his But against them to throw them down and demolish them Quare formidatis compedes sapientiae Why are you afraid of the fetters of Wisdome They are golden fetters and we are never free but when we wear them Why do you startle at God's Law It is a Law that giveth life Why do you murmur and boggle at that which he requireth Behold he requireth nothing but that which is first Possible secondly Easie thirdly Pleasant and full of delight He requireth but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And first the Prophet here doth not bid us do any great things He doth not bid us work miracles remove mountains do that which is beyond our strength Do that which you cannot do Do justly for you cannot do so Be merciful for you cannot be so Walk humbly before me though it be impossible you should God never yet spake so by any Prophet This were to make God's commands such as S. Augustine telleth us those of the Manichees were not only nugatoria light and vain De Morib Manich but pugnatoria opposit and destructive to themselves For nothing is more destructive and contrary to a Law then to place it under an impossibility of being kept For the Keeping of a Law is the virtue and force and end of a Law the end for which it is enacted It is true Gal. 3.22 God hath now concluded all under sin And the reason is given For all have sinned Rom. 3.23 But the Apostle there delivereth it as an instance and matter of fact nor as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles He doth not say All must sin but All have sinned For both the Gentiles might have kept the Law of Nature and were punisht because they did not as it is plain Rom. 1. and the Jews might have kept that Law which was given to them as far as God required it for so we see many of them did and God himself bore witness from heaven and hath registred the names of those in his Book who did walk before him with a perfect heart 2 Chr. 15.17 1 Kings 11.33 34 38. 2 Kings 22.2 as of Asa of David that he kept Gods Laws of Josias that he turned
Ishmael Thus by looking on the Persons in the Text you may plainly see the face and condition of the Church and that no priviledge she hath can exempt her from persecution This will yet more plainly appear from the very Nature and Constitution of the Church which is best seen in her blood when she is Militant Which is more full and expressive then any other representation or title that she hath The Church of Christ and the Kingdomes of the earth are not of the same making and constitution have not the same soul and spirit to animate them These may seem to be built upon Air they are so soon thrown down That is raised upon a holy Hill These have a weak and frail hand to set them up and as weak a hand may cast them down That is the work of Omnipotency which fenceth it about and secureth it from Death and Hell These depend upon the Opinions upon the Affections upon the Lusts of men which change oftner then the wind upon the breath of that monster the Multitude which is any thing and which is nothing which is it knoweth not what and never agreeth with it self is never one but in a tempest in tumult and sedition That is founded upon the eternal Decree and Will of God and upon Immutability it self and shall stand fast for ever These when they are in their height and glory are under uncertainty and chance The Church under the wing and shadow of that Providence which can neither erre nor miscarry but worketh mightily and irresistibly to its end His evertendis una dies hora momentum sufficit These are long a raysing and are blown down in a moment But the Church is as everlasting as his love that built it In a word these are worn out by Time The Church is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most glorious when Time shall be no more I know well Persecution appeareth to us as a Fury sent from hell and every hair every threat is a snake that hisseth at us but it is our Sensuality and Cowardise that whippeth us Yet the common consent of all men hath given her a fairer shape and they that run from her do prefer the suffering part And as our Saviour said Acts 20.35 It is more blessed to give then to receive so is it vox populi the voice of the People though they practice it not It is better to suffer then to oppress Even they who have the sword in their hand and breath nothing but terrour and death will rage yet more if you say they persecute you and either magnifie their cruelty with the name of Justice or else seek to perswade the world that they and they alone suffer persecution Every man flieth persecution and every man is willing to own it The Arians complained of the cruelty of the Orthodox and the Orthodox of the fury of the Arians Epist 48 68. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem saith Augustine to the Manichees You say you suffer but our houses are laid wast by you You say you suffer but your armed men put out our eyes You say you suffer but we fall by the sword What you do to us you will not impute to your selves but what you do to your selves you impute to us Thus it was then And how do we look back upon the Marian daies as if the bottomless pit did never smoke but then And are not they of the Romish party as loud in their complaints as if the Devil were never let loose till now We bring forth our Martyrs with a faggot on their shoulder and they theirs with a Tiburn-tippet as Father Latimer calleth it and both glory in Persecution We see then every party claimeth a title to Persecution and counteth it honour to be placed in the number of those that suffer And indeed Persecution is the honour the prosperity the flourishing condition of the Church for it maketh hâ—r indeed visible Nazianzene I remember calleth it the Sacrament and mystery of blood a visible sign of invisible grace where one thing is seen and another thing done where the Christian suffereth and rejoyceth is cast down and promoted falleth by the sword to rise to eternity where Glory lieth hid in Disgrace Advantage in Loss and Life in Death a Church shining in the midst of all the blackness and darkness and terrours of the world Epist 20. â—â— Floridi Martyres they are called by S. Cyprian But this you may say is true if we take the Church as Invisible made up of Sheep onely as Collection of Saints To speak truly Charity buildeth up no other Church For all she beholdeth are either so or in a possibility of having that honour though the eye of Faith can see but a small number to make up that body But take the Church under what notion you please yet it will be easie to observe that Persecution may enlarge her territories increase her number and make her more visible then she was when the weather was fair and no cloud or darkness hung over her that when her branches were lopt off she spread the more that when her members were dispersed there were more gathered to her that when they were driven about the world they carried that sweet-smelling savour about them which dtew in multitudes to follow them that in their flight they begat many children unto Christ Apolog. Crudelitas vestra illecebra est sectae saith Tertullian In the last place As it was then so it is now S. Paul doth not say It may be so or It is by chance but so it is by the Providence of God Provedentia ratio ordinis rerum ad finem Aquin. which is seen in the well ordering and bringing of every motion and action of man to a right end which commonly runneth in a contrary course to that which Flesh and Blood humane Infirmity would find out Eternity and Mortality Majesty and Dust and Ashes Wisdome and Ignorance steer not the same course nor are they bound to the same point My wayes are not your wayes nor my thoughts yours Isa 55.8 saith God by his Prophet to a foolish Nation who in extremity of folly would be wiser then God Mine are not as yours not such uncertain such vain such contradictory and deceitful thoughts but as far removed from yours as heaven is from the earth God hideth himself under a veil Deus tum maximè magnus eum homini pusillus tum maximè optimus cum ho â—ini non bonus Tert l. 2. adv Marcion c. 2. and is merciful when he seemeth angry and just when in outward appearance he favoureth oppression he shadoweth us under his wings when we think he thundreth against us and raiseth his Church as high as heaven when we tremble and imagin he hath opened the gates of hell to devour her Were Flesh and Blood to build a Church we should draw our lines out in a pleasant place It should
each other the civil Power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civil Power and both should concur in this 1 Tim. 2.2 that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Our commission is from Heaven and we need no other power then his that sealed it And the virtue and divinity of it shall then be made manifest when all earthly Power shall cease and even Kings and they who did what they list shall tremble before it We see that Power which is exercised here on earth though the glory of it dazle an eye of flesh yet sitteth heavy upon them who wear it we see it tortureth them that delight in it eateth up them that feed on it eateth up it self driving all before it at last falleth it self to the ground and falleth as a milstone upon him that hath it and bruiseth him to pieces It is not such a power But I may be bold to say though it be lookt upon and laught at and despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes setteth it upon high and sometimes maketh it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end For to publish our Master's will to command in his name is all And though the command prove to some the savour of death unto death yet the Power is still the same and doth never fail And if men were what they profess themselves Christians Heb. 6.5 if they had any tast of the powers of the world to come they would more tremble at this then at the other be more afraid of a just Reproof then of a Whip of an Excommunication then of a Sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which cometh in fire and tempest to devour us For Gods favour or his wrath ever accompanieth this power which draweth his love nearer to them that obey it and poureth forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then Look upon the command and honour the Apostle that bringeth it for the commands sake for his sake whose power and command it is A Power there is proper and peculiar to them who are called to it And if the name of Power may move envy for we see men fret at that which was ordained for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of Power bear so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much material whether you call it so or no vvhether vve speak in the Imparative mood HOC FAC Do this upon your peril or onely positively point as vvith the finger This is to be done We vvill be any thing do any thing be as lovv as you please so vve may raise you above the Vanities of the vvorld above that Wantonness vvhich stormeth at that vvhich vvas ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our Povver and the Command of Christ differ not so much but the one includeth and upholdeth the other And if you did but once love the command you vvould never boggle at the name of Power but bless and honour him that bringeth it Oh that men vvere vvise but so vvise as not to be vviser then God as not to choose and fall in love vvith their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to prefer their own mazes and labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by Lust and Phansie before those even and unerring paths found out by an infinite Wisdome and discovered to us by a Mercy as infinite Oh that we could once work out and conquer the hardship of a command and then see the beauty of it and to what glory it leadeth us We should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle Matth. 10.40 look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessel as upon Heaven it self Oh that we were once spiritual Then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from Heaven heavenly then should we be as quiet as the Heavens which are ever moving and ever at rest because ever in their own place then should we be as the Angels of heaven who envy not one another malice not one another trouble not one another but every Angel knoweth his office and moveth in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readiness of those blessed Spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and hast to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery in a word then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evil eye should look towards him no malice blast him no injury assault him no bold intrusion unsettle him but we should all rejoyce together the poor with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all bless one another help one another guard one another and so in the name of the Prince of Peace walk peaceably together every one moving in his own place till we reach that Peace which yet we do not understand but shall then fully enjoy to all eternity The Tenth SERMON PART I. MATTH XXIV 42. Watch therefere For yee know not what hour your Lord doth come THese are the words of our blessed Saviour and a part of the answer he returned to that question which was put up by his Disciples vers 3. Tell us When shall these things be and what shall be the signe of thy coming and of the end of the world Where we may observe that he doth not satisfy their curiosity which was measuring of Time even to the last point and moment of it when it shall be no more but he resolveth them in that which was fit for them to know and passeth by in silence and untoucht the other as a thing laid up and reserved in the bosome of his Father The time he telleth them not but foretelleth those fearful signes which should be the forerunners of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world Which two are so interwoven in the prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them We need not take any pains to disintangle or put them asunder At the thirtieth verse our Saviour presents himself in the clouds with power and great glory The Angels sound the Trumpet at the next The two men in the Field and the two women grinding at the mill in the verses immediately going before my Text the one taken the other left are a fair evidence and seem to point out to the end of the world which will be a time of discrimination of separating the Goats from the Sheep And then these words will concern us as much as the Apostles In which He who is our Lord and King to rule
no right at all if it could be taken from him Neither deceit nor violence can take away a right No man can lose his right till he forfeit it which was impossible for this supreme Lord to do All the contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his title or contract his power If all should forsake him Luke 19.14 if all should send this message to him We will not have thee reign over us yet in all this scorn and contempt in this open rebellion and contradiction of sinners he is still the Lord. And as he favoureth those subjects who come in willingly whom he guideth with his staff so he hath a rod of iron to bruise his enemies And this Lord shall command and at his command his servants and executioners shall take those his enemies who would not have him reign over them 27. and slay them before his face He will not use his power to force and drag them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offereth them and turn his grace into wantonness then will he shew himself a King and his anger will be more terrible then the roaring of a lion They shall feel him to be a Lord when it will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and howl under that Power which might have saved them For the same Power openeth the gates of heaven and of hell Psal 75.8 In his hand is a cup saith the Psalmist and in his hand is a reward and when he cometh to judge he bringeth them both along with him The same Power bringeth life and death as Fabius did peace or war to the Carthaginians in the lap of his garment and which he will he powreth out upon us and in both is still our Lord. When Faith faileth and Charity waxeth cold and the world is set on wickedness when there be more Antichrists then Christians he is our Lord yesterday and to day Hebr. 13.8 and the same for ever In the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is it most lasting and shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 It shall break in pieces and destroy all the Kingdoms of the earth but it self shall stand fast for ever No violence shall shake it no craft undermine it no time wast it but Christ shall remain our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaketh of an end of delivering up his Kingdom 1 Cor. 15.24 28. and of subjection It is true there shall be an end but it is when he 〈◊〉 delivered up his Kingdom and he shall deliver up his Kingdom but not till he hath put down all authority Finis hic defectio non est nec traditio amissio nec subjectio infirmitas saith Hilary This end is no fayling this delivery no loss this subjection no weakness nor infirmity Regnum regnans tradet He shall deliver up his power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzen's interpretation and then this Subjection is nothing else but the fuâ—filling of his Father's will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36th Oration which he made against the Arians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in computation is but one Person with Christ and when his Church is perfected then doth he deliver up his Power and Dominion But let us but observe the manner of the ending of this Kingdom and the fayling and period of others and we shall gain light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties Either Kingdoms are undermined by craft and shaken by the madness of the people who shun the whip and are beaten with Scorpions cast off one yoke and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complained or Kingdoms are changed and altered as it pleaseth those who are victorious whose right hand is their God But the Power of this Lord is then and onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of laws when the subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and crown them with glory and honour for ever Here is no weakness no infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crown and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in chains and his subjects free free from the fear of Hell or temptations of the Devil the World or the Flesh And though there be an end yet he reigneth still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaineth a Lord and King for evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God his Right and Power of government his Laws just and holy and wise the Virtue and Power the Largeness and the Duration of his government A sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the coming of this Lord. For they that long to meet him in the clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right hand of God Look upon him then sitting in majesty and power and think you now see him moving towards you and descending with a shout For his very sitting there should be to us as his coming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great day Look upon him and think not that he there sitteth idle but beholdeth the children of men those that wait for him and those that think not of him And he will come down with a shout not fall as a timber-log for every frog every wanton sinner to leap upon and croak about but come as a Lord with a reward in one hand and a vengeance in the other Oh it is far better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Laws and write them in your hearts For the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consisteth not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them For Obedience is the best seal and ratification of a Law Christ is Lord from all eternity and cannot be devested of his Royal office yet he counteth his Kingdome most complete when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold
God This added to the rest maketh up a number an account Without this our joyning with such a body or company nay our appearing in his Courts our naming him and calling upon his name are but cyphers and signifie nothing It is not the Church but the Spirit of Christ and our own consciences which can witness to us that we are inhabitants of the new Jerusalem and dwell in Christ We read Gen. 45. that when Jacob had news that his son Joseph lived his heart fainted for he believed them not but at the sight of the chariots which Joseph sent to carry him his spirit revived So it is here When we shall be told or tell our selves for our selves are the likeliest to bring the news that we have been of such a Church of such a Congregation and applaud our selves for such a poor and unsignificant information bless our selves that the lines are fallen unto us in so goodly a place Psal 16.6 when we shall have well looked upon and examined all the priviledges and benefits we can gain by being parts of such a body all this will not assure us nor fix our anchor deep enough but will leave us to be tossed up and down upon the waves of uncertainty fainting and panting under doubt and unbelief For to recollect all in a word our admiring the Majesty of Christ our loving his command our relying on his protection and resting under the shadow of his wing again our sense and feeling of the operation of the Spirit of Christ by the practick efficacy of our knowledge the actuation and quickning of our faith and the power of it working an universal constant sincere obedience these are the chariots which Christ sendeth to carry us out of Egypt unto our celestial Canaan And when we see these and by a sweet and well-gained experience feel the power of them in our souls then we draw neer in full assurance then we joyfully cry out with Jacob It is enough then we know that our Joseph is alive and that Christ doth dwell and live in us of a truth And now to conclude and by way of conclusion to enforce all these to imprint and fasten them in your hearts what other motive need I use then the thing it self Christ in Man and Man in Christ For if honour or delight or riches will move us here they are all not as the world giveth them but as Truth it self giveth them A sight into which the Angels themselves stoop and desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 To be in Christ to dwell in Christ if a man did perfectly believe it of himself that he were the man non diu superstes maneret said Luther he would even be swallowed up and die of immoderate joy Here now is Life and Death set before us Heaven and Hell opened to our very eye If we do not dwell in Christ if we be not united to him we shall joyn our selves with something else with flesh and blood with the glory and vanity of the world which will but wait upon us to carry us to our grave feed us up and prepare us for the day of slaughter Oh who would dwell in a land darker then darkness it self who would be united with Death But if we dwell in Christ and he in us if he call us My little children and we cry Abba Father then what then Who can utter it The tongue of Men and Angels cannot express it Then as he said to the Father All mine are thine and thine are mine so all his is ours John 17.10 Col. 1.24 and all ours is his Our miseries are his and when we suffer we do but fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ He is in bonds in disgrace in prison with us and we bear them joyfully for we bear them with him who beareth all things Our miseries nay our sins are his He took them upon his shoulder upon his account He sweat he groned he died under them and by dying took away their strength Nay our good deeds are his and if they were not his they were not good Hebr. 13.15 for by him we offer them unto God by his hand in his name He is the Priest that prepareth and consecrateth them Our Prayers our Preaching our Hearing our Alms our Fasting if they were not his Nazianz. were but as the Father calleth the Heathen mans virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair name a title of health upon a box of poison the letter Tau written in the forehead of a reprobate Again to make up the reciprocation as all ours are his so all his are ours What shall I say His Poverty his Dishonour his Sufferings his Cross are ours Yes they are ours because they are his If they had not been his they could not be ours none being able to make satisfaction but he none that could transfer any thing upon man but he that was the Son of man and Son of God His Miracles are ours for for us men and for our salvation were they wrought His Innocency his Purity his Obedience are ours For God so dealeth with us for his sake as if we were innocent and pure as if we our selves had satisfied Let S. Paul conclude for me in that divine and heavenly close of the third chapter of his former Epistle to the Corinthians Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods And if we be Christs Rom. 8.17 then we be heirs joynt-heirs with Jesus Christ As he is heir so have we in him right and title to be heirs and so we receive eternal happiness not onely as a gift but as an inheritance In a word we live with him we suffer with him we are buried with him we rise with him and when he shall come again in glory we who dwell in him now shall be ever with him even dwell and reign with him for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART I. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes For why will ye die O house of Israel WE have here a sudden and vehement out-cry Turn ye turn ye And those events which are sudden and vehement the Philosopher telleth us do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leave some notable mark and impression behind them An earthquake shaketh and dislocateth the earth a whirlwind rendeth the mountains and breaketh in pieces the rocks What is sudden at once striketh us with fear and admiration Greg. in loc Certainly reverenter pensandum est saith the Father This call of the Prophet requireth a serious and reverent consideration For if this vehement ingemination be not sharp and keen enough to enter our Souls and divide asunder the joynts and the marrow here is a Quare moriemini a Reason to set an edge
on them If his gracious and earnest call his Turn and his Turn will not turn us he hath placed Death in the way the King of terrours to affright us If we be not willing to dye we must be willing to turn If we will hear Reason we must hearken to his Voice And if he thus sendeth his Prophets and his voice from heaven after us if he make his Justice and Mercy his joynt Commissioners to force us back if he invite us to turn and threaten us if we do not turn either Love or Fear must prevail with us to turn with all our hearts And in this is set forth the singular mercy of our most gracious God Parcendo admonet ut corrigamur poenitendo Before he striketh he speaketh When he bendeth his bow when his deadly arrows are on the string yet his warning flieth before his shaft his word is sent out before the judgment the lightning is before his thunder Ecce saith Origen antequam vulneramur monemur When we as the Israelites here are running on into the very jaws of Death when we are sporting with our destruction in articulo mortis when Death is ready to seise on us and the pit openeth her mouth to take us in the Lord calleth and calleth again Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes And if all this be too little if we still venture on and drive forward in forbidden and dangerous wayes he draweth a sword against us and setteth before us the horrour of death it self Why will ye die Still it is his word before his blow his Convertimini before his Moriemini his praelusoria arma before his decretoria his blunt before his sharp his exhortations before the sentence Non parcit ut parcat non miseretur ut misereatur He is full in his expressions that he may be sparing in his wrath He speaketh words clothed with death that we may not die and is so severe as to threaten death that he may make room for his mercy and not inflict it Why will ye die There is virtue and power in it to quicken and rowse us up to drive us out of our evil wayes that we may live for ever This is the sum of the words The parts are two 1. an Exhortation 2. an Obtestation or Expostulation or a Duty and a Reason urging and inforcing that Duty The Exhortation or Duty is plain Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes The Obtestation or Reason as plain Why will ye dye O house of Israel I call the Obtestation or Expostulation a Reason and good reason I should do so For the Moriemini is a good Reason That we may not dye a good Reason why we should turn But it being tendred to us by way of expostulation it is another Reason and maketh the Reason operative and full of efficacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason invincible and unanswerable For this very Expostulation is an evidence fair and plain enough that God would not have us die and then it is as plain that if we die we have killed and destroyed our selves against his will Of these two in their order And first of the Exhortation and Duty In which we shall pass by these steps or degrees 1. We will look up upon the Authour and consider whose Exhortation it is 2. Upon the Duty it self and 3. in the last place upon that pugnacem calorem that lively and forcible heat of iteration and ingemination Turn ye turn ye the very life and soul of Exhortation And first we ask Quis Who is he that is thus urgent and earnest And as we read it is Ezekiel the Prophet And of Prophets S. Peter telleth us that they spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet 1.21 as they were moved by the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Isai 1. And they received the word non auribus sed animis not by the hearing of the ear but by inspiration and immediate revelation by a divine character and impression made in their souls So that this Exhortation to repentance will prove to be an Oracle from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine and celestial remedy the prescript of Wisdome it self and to have been written with the finger of God And indeed we shall find that this duty of Turning the true nature of Repentance was never taught in the School of Nature never found in its true effigies and image in all its lines and dimensions in the books of the Heathen The Aristotelians had their Expiations the Platonicks their Purgations the Pythagoreans their Erinnys but not in relation to God or his Divine goodness and providence Tert. De poenit Aratione ejus tantum abfuerunt quantum à rationis autore They were as far to seek of the true reason and nature of Repentance as they were of the God of Reason himself Many useful lessons they have given us and some imperfect descriptions of it but those did rise no higher then the spring from whence they did flow the treasure of Nature and therefore could not lift men up to the sight of that peace and rest which is eternal They were as waters to refresh them and indeed they that tasted deepest of them had most ease and by living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the directions of Nature gained that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that peace and composedness of mind which they 〈…〉 Happiness and which was all they could attain to Tully and Câ—â—â—â—â— not such divided and distracted souls as Cataline and Cethegus Aristot l. 1. Eth. c. 13. 〈◊〉 had not those ictus laniatus those gashes and rents in his heart 〈◊〉 had Even their dreams were more sweet and pleasant then those of other men as being the resultancies and echos of those virtuous actions which they drew out in themselves by no other hand then that of Nature which looked not beyond that frailty which she might easily discover in her self and so measured out their happiness but by the Span by this present life Or if she did see a glimpse and faint shew of a future estate she did but see and guess at it and knew no more Reason it self did teach them thus much that Sin was unreasonable Nature it self had set a mark upon it omne malum aut timore aut pudore suffudit had either struck Vice pale Tert. De poenit or died it in a blush did either loose the joynts of sinners or change their countenance and put them in mind of their deviation from her rules by the shame of the fact and the fear they had to be taken in it These two made up that fraenum naturae that bridle of Nature to give wicked men a check and make them turn but not unto the Lord. For were there neither heaven nor hell neither reward nor punishment yet whilst we carry about with us this light of Reason Sin must needs have a foul face being so unlike unto Reason And if
we would suffer Reason to come in to rescue when our loose affections are violent we should not receive so many foils as we do A natura sequitur ut meliora probantes Quint. l. 6. c. 6. pejorum poeniteat Not to sin to forsake sin Nature it self teacheth but Nature never pointed out to this plank of Repentance to bring a shipwrackt soul to that haven of rest which is like it self and for which it was made immortal Turn ye turn ye is dictum Domini a doctrine which came down from heaven and was brought from thence by him who brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 For it is impossible that it should ever fall within the conceit of any reasonable creature to set down and determine what satisfaction is to be made for an offense committed against a God of infinite Majesty What fit recompense can God receive from the hand of Dust and Ashes What way can Men find out to redeem themselves who are sold under sin Ten thousand worlds were too little to pay down for the least of those sins which we drink down as an Ox doth water The Ocean would not wash off the least spot that defileth us All the beasts of the Mountains would not make a sacrifice Spiritus fractus Psal 51.17 Naz. Or. 3. sacrificia Dei Other Sacrifices have been the inventions of men of the Chaldeans and Cyprians and but occasionly and upon a kind of necessity providently enjoyned by God But a relenting and turning heart is his Sacrifice nay his Sacrifices instar omnium worth all the sacrifices in the world his own invention his own injunction his own dictum his own command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath but one sacrifice Naz. Or. 15. and that is the sacrifice of purgation a cleansed purged contrite heart a new creature For when the inventions of men were at a stand when Discourse and Reason were posed and could make no progress at all in the wayes of happiness not so far as to see our want and need of it when the earth was barren and could not bring forth this seed of Repentance Lib. De poenit Deus eam sevit saith Tertullian God himself sowed it in the world made it publici juris known to all That he would accept of a Turn of true Repentance as the onely means to wash away the guilt of sin and reconcile the Creature to his Maker So that as Theodoret called the Redemption of mankind the fairest and most eminent part of Gods Providence and Wisdome so may we too give Repentance a place and share as without which the former in respect of any benefit that can arise to us is frustrate and of no effect A thing it is which may seem strange to flesh and blood Quod fieri posse Cicero non putavit Lact. l. 6. De ver cult c. 24. and Lactantius telleth us that Tully thought it impossible But indeed a strange thing it may seem that the sigh of a broken heart should slumber a tempest that our sorrow should bind the hands of Majesty that our repentance should make God himself repent our Turn turn him from his wrath and a change in us alter his decree Therefore to Julian that cursed Apostate it appeared in a worse shape not onely as strange but as ridiculous Where he bitterly derideth Constantine for the profession of Christianity Julian Caesar he maketh up the scoff with the contempt and derision of Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whosoever is a corrupter or defiler of women whosoever is a man-slayer whosoever is an unclean person may be secure It is but dipping himself in a little water and he is forthwith clean Yea though he wallow again and again in the mire and pollute himself with the same monstrous sins let him but say he hath sinned and at the very word the sin vanisheth Let him but smite his breast or strike his forehead and he shall presently without more ado become as white as snow And it is no marvail to hear an Apostate blaspheme for his Apostasie it self was blasphemy no more then it is to hear a Devil curse Both are fallen from their first estate both hate that estate from whence they are fallen and they both howl together for that which they might have kept and would not Upon repentance there is DICTVM DOMINI Thus saith the Lord and this is enough to shame all the wit and confute all the blasphemy of the world As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner but that he turn And in this consisteth the priviledge and power of our Turn This maketh Repentance a virtue and by this word by this institution and the grace of God annexed to it a Turn shall free us from death a tear shall shake the powers of heaven a repentant sigh shall put the Angels into passion and our Turning from our sin shall turn God himself from his fierce wrath and strike the sword out of his hand Turn ye turn ye then is Dictum Domini a voice from Heaven a command from God himself And it is the voice and dictate of his Wisdom an attribute he much delighteth in more then in any of the rest saith Nazianzene Orat. 1. It directeth his Power for whatsoever he doth is done in wisdome Wisd 11.20 in order number and measure Whatsoever he doth is best His rain falleth not his arrows fly not but where they should to the mark which his Wisdome hath set up It accompanieth his Justice and maketh his wayes equal in all the disproportion and dissimilitude which sheweth it self to the eye of flesh It made all his Judgements and Statutes It breathed forth both his Promises and Menaces and will make them good In Wisdome he made the heavens and in Wisdome he kindled the fire of hell Nothing can be done either in this world or the next which should not be done Again it ordereth his Mercy for though he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy Exod. 33.19 Rom. 9.15 18. yet he will not let it fall but where he should not into any vessel but that which is fit to receive it Psal 145.9 His Wisdome is over all his works as well as his Mercy He would save us but he will not save us without repentance He could force us to a Turn and yet I may truly say he could not because he is wise He would not have us die and yet he will destroy us if we will not turn He doth nothing either good or evil to us which is not convenient for him and agreeable to his Wisdome Nor can this bring us under the imputation of too much boldness to say the Lord doth nothing but what is convenient for him for it is not boldness to magnifie his Wisdome They rather come too neer and are bold with Majesty who fasten upon him those counsells and determinations which are repugnant
protestationes fidei protestations of our faith So is our Prayer for pardon a protestation and promise of Repentance which is nothing else but a continued obedience We pray to God to cast our sins behind his back Isa 38.17 with this resolution to exstirpate them And upon this condition God sealeth our Pardon Which we must make a motive not to sin and fall back but to lead a new life and to perform constant obedience If we turn and turn back again God may turn his face from us for ever Again in the third place we have reason to arm our selves against temptation after pardon because by our relapse we not onely add sin to sin but are made more inclinable to it and anon more familiar with it and so more adverse and backward to acts of piety For as Tertullian observeth Lib. 1. ad uxorem c 8. Viduitas operiosior virginitate it is a matter of more difficulty to remain a widow then to keep our virgin not to tast of pleasure then when we have tasted to forbear So it is easier to abstain from sin at first then when we are once engaged and have tasted of that pleasure which commendeth it And when we have loathed it for some bitterness it had for some misery or some disease it brought along with it and afterwards when that is forgot look towards it again and see nothing but those smiles and allurements which first deceived us we then like and love it more then we did before it gave us any such distast and at last can walk along with it though Wrath be over our heads and Death ready to devour us And what we did before with some reluctancy we do now with greediness we did but lap before with some fear and suspicion but now we take it down as the ox doth water And what an uneven and distracted course of life is this to sin and upon some distast to repent and when that is off to sin again and upon some pang that we feel to repent again and after some ease to meet and joyn with that which hath so pleased which hath so troubled us The Stoick hath well observed Homines vitam suam amant simul oderunt Some men at once both hate and love themselves Now they send a divorce to Sin anon they kiss and embrace it now they banish it anon recall it now they are on the wing for heaven anon cleaving to the dust now in their Zenith by and by in their Nadir S. Ephrem the Syrian expresseth it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calleth it a falling rise or a rising fall a course of life consisting of turning and returning rising and relapsing sinning and repenting Men find it more for their ease deprecari crimen quà m vacare crimine to â—â—g pardon for sin committed then to forbear committing it after and so they sin and repent and sin again and as solemnly by their sin renounce their repentance as they do by their repentance recant their sin We deal with our beloved sin as Maecenas did with his wife quam Epist. 114. cùm unam habuit millies duxit saith Seneca who had but one yet married her and divorced her from him and then married her again a thousand times First we look upon the painted face and countenance of Sin and are taken as it were with her eye and beauty and then draw near and embrace it But anon the worm gnaweth us our conscience is loud and troublesome and then we would put it from us When it flattereth we are even sick with love but when it turneth its worst face towards us we are weary of it and have an inclination a velleity a weak and feeble desire to shake it off Our soul loveth it and lotheth it we would not and we will sin and all upon presumption of that mercy which first gave us ease upon hope of forgiveness Quis enim timebit prodigere quod habebit poste à recuperare saith Tertullian De pudicitia c. 9. For who will be tender and sparing of that which he hopeth to recover though lost never so oft or be careful of preserving that which he thinketh cannot be irrecoverably lost So Repentance which should be the death of Sin is made the Security of the Sinner and that which should reconcile us to God is made a reproch to his Mercy and contumelious to his Goodness In brief that which should make us his friends maketh us his enemies We turn and return we fall and rise and rise and fall till at last we fall never to rise again And this is an ill sign a sign our Repentance was not true and serious but as in an intermitting fever the disease was still the same Gravedinosos quosdam quosdam torminosos dicimus non quia semper sint sed quia saepe sint Tull. Tusc q. l. 4. De sanitate tuenda onely the fit was over or as in the epilepsie or falling sickness it is still the same still in the body though it do not cast it on the ground And such a Repentance is not a Repentance but to be repented of by turning once for all never to turn again Or if it be true we may say of it what Galen said of his art to those that abuse it who carry and continue it not to the end Perinde est ac si omnino non esset It is as if it were not all nay it is fatal and deleterial It was Repentance it is now an accusation a witness against us that we would be contra experimenta pertinaces even against our own experience tast that cup again we found bitter to us run into that snare out of which we had escaped turn back into those evil wayes where we saw Death ready to seize upon us so run the hazard of being lost for ever These four are the necessary requisites and properties of Repentance It must be early and sudden upon the first call For why should any thing in this world stop and stay us one moment in our journey to a better Is not a span of time little enough to pay down for Eternity It must be true and sincere For can we hope to bind the God of Truth unto us with a lie or can a false Turn bring us to that happiness which is real It must be perfect and exact in every part For why should we give him less then we should who will give us more then we can desire or how can that which is but in part make us shine in perfection of glory Last of all Rev. 2.10 it must be constant and permanent For the crown of life is promised unto him alone who is faithfull unto death Turn ye turn ye now suddenly in reality and not in appearance Turn ye from all your evil wayes Turn never to look back again This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint render it to turn for ever and so to press
wrote no more but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herode to Cassius Thou art mad So God may seem to send to his people GOD by his Prophet to the Israelites You are mad Therefore do my people run on in their evill wayes because they have no understanding Isa 5.13 For now look upon Death and that affrighteth us Look upon God and he exhorteth us Reflect upon our selves and we are an Israel a Church of God There is no cause of dying but not turning no cause of destruction but impenitency If we will not die we shall not die and if we will turn we cannot die at all If we die God passeth sentence upon us and condemneth us but killeth us not but perditio tua ex te Israel our destruction cometh from our selves It is not God it is not Death it self that killeth us but we die because we will Now by this touch and short descant on the words so much truth is conveyed unto us as may acquit and discharge God as no way accessory to our death And to make our passage clear and plain we will proceed by these steps or degrees and draw out these three Conclusions 1. That God is not willing we should die 2. That he is so far from willing our death that he hath plenteously afforded sufficient means of life and salvation which will bring in the third and last That if we die our death is voluntary that no other reason can be given of our death but our own will And the due consideration of these three may serve to awake our Shame as Death did our Fear which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 20. as Nazianzene speaketh another help and furtherance to work out our salvation And that God is not willing we should die is plain enough first from the Obtestation or Expostulation it self secondly from the Nature of God who thus expostulateth For 1. Why will ye die is the voice of a friend not of an enemy He that asks me why I will die by his very question assureth me he intendeth not to destroy me God is not as man Numb 23.19 that he should lie What he worketh he worketh in the clear and open day His fire is kindled to enflame us his water floweth to purge and cleanse us his oyl is powred forth to supple us His commands are not snares nor his precepts accusations He stampeth not the Devil's face upon his coyn He willeth not what he made not Wisd 1.13 and he made not Death saith the Wise man He wisheth he desireth we should live he is angry and sorry if we die He looketh down upon us and calleth after us he exhorteth and rebuketh and even weepeth over us Luk. 19.41 as our Saviour did over Jerusalem And if we die we cannot think that he that is Life it self should kill us If we must die why doth he yet complain why doth he expostulate For if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us How can a desire or command breathe in those coasts which the power of an absolute will hath laid waste already If he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the contrary that his Decree be not void and of no effect Otherwise to pass sentence and irrevocable sentence of death and then bid us live is to look for liberty and freedome in Necessity for a sufficient effect from an unsufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a dead man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcass and bid it walk Indeed by some this Why will ye die is made but sancta simulatio a kind of holy dissimulation so that God with them setteth up Man as a mark and then sticketh his deadly arrows in his sides and after asketh him why he will die And Why may he not saith one with the same liberty damn a soul as a hunter killeth a deer A bloody instance As if an immortal soul which Christ set at a greater rate then the world itself nay then his own most pretious blood were in his sight of no more value then a beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy mens souls for delight and pleasure Thus though they dare not call God the Authour of sin for who is so sinful that could hear that and not anathematize it yet others and those no children in understanding think it a conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloody premisses And they are more encouraged by those ill-boding words which have dropt from their quills For say some Vocat ut induret He calleth them to no other end but that he may harden them He hardeneth them that he may destroy them He exhorteth them to turn that they may not turn He asketh them why they will die that they may run on in their evil wayes even upon Death it self When they break his command they fulfil his will and it is his pleasure they should sin it is his pleasure they should die And when he calleth upon them not to sin when he asketh them why they will die he doth but dissemble for they are dead already horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous decree of Reprobation And now tell me If we admit of this what is become of the Expostulation what use is there of the Obtestation why doth he yet ask Why will ye die I called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason unanswerable But if this phansie this interpretation take place it is no reason at all Why will ye die The answer is ready and what other answer can a poor praecondemned soul make Domine Deus tu nôsti Lord God thou knowest Thou condemnedst us before thou madest us Thou didst destroy us before we were And if we die even so good Lord For it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur It is our destiny Or rather Est Deus in nobis Not a Stoical Fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistable arm hath destroyed us And so the Expostulation is answered and the Quare moriemini is nothing else but Mortui estis Why will ye die that is the Text The Gloss is Ye are dead already But in the second place that this Expostulation is true and hearty may be seen in the very nature of God who is Truth it self who hath but one property and quality saith Trismegistus and that is Goodness Therefore he cannot bid us live when he intendeth to kill us Consider God before Man had fallen from him by sin and disobedience and we shall see nothing but the works of Goodness and Love Psal 8.3 The heavens were the works of his fingers He created Angels and Men He spake the word and all was done Hom. in Famem siccitatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil What necessity was there that he should thus break forth into action Who compelled
him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 We force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh not till we provoke him His Justice and Severity are the same as everlasting as Himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams bosome yet were he good Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his exhortations and expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. ◠seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils is still the same And his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced in a damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit And so to receive his glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde ad mortem sed antè ad vitam The sentence of death was pronounced against Man almost as soon as he was Man but he was first created to life We are punished for being evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 But if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his glory out of that which dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more power then the Sword In heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is to see it in the Church of the first
meaning is His absolute will is that they should die And let them shift as they please and wind and turn themselves to slip out of reach after all defalcations and subtractions they can make it will arise near to this sum which I am almost afraid to give you That God is willing we should die For to this purpose they bring in also Gods Providence To this purpose I should have said to none at all For though God rule the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this law of Providence as Nazianzene calleth it though he disposeth and ordereth all things and all actions of men yet he layeth not any law of Necessity upon all things Some effects he hath fitted with necessary causes Prima part q. 22. art 4. that they may infallibly fall out saith Aquinas and to other effects which in their own nature are contingent he hath applyed contingent causes so that that shall fall out necessarily which his Providence hath so disposed of and that contingently which he hath left in a contingency And both these in the nature of things necessary and contingent are within the verge and rule of his Providence and he altereth them not but extra ordinem when he would do some extraordinary work Psal 104.19 when he would work a miracle The Sun knoweth his seasons and the Moon its going down and this in a constant and unchangeable course but yet he commanded the Sun to stand still in Gibeon and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon Josh 10.12 But then I think all events are not as necessary as the change of the Moon or the setting of the Sun for all have not so necessary causes Unless you will say to walk or stand to be rich or poor to fall in battel or to conquer are as necessary effects as Darkness when the Sun setteth or Light when it riseth in our Horizon And this indeed may bring in a new kind of Predestination to walk or to stand to Riches and Poverty to Victory and Captivity as well as to everlasting Life and everlasting Perdition But posito sed non concesso Let us suppose it though we grant it not that the Providence of God hath laid a necessity upon such events as these yet it doth not certainly upon those actions which concern our everlasting welfare which either raise us up to heaven or cast us down to destruction It were not much material at least a good Christian might think so whether we sit or walk whether God predetermin that we be rich or poor that we conquer or be overcome What is it to me though the Sun stand still if my feet be at liberty to run the wayes of Gods commandments What is it to me if the Moon should start out of her sphere if I lose not the sight of that brightness which should direct me in my way to bliss What were it to me if I were necessitated to beggery so I be not a predestinate bankrupt in the city of the Lord Let him do what he will in heaven and in earth let the Sun go back let the Stars lose their light let the wheel of Nature move in a contrary way let the pillars of the world be shaken Let him do what he will it concerneth us not further then that we say Amen so be it For we must give him leave who made the world to govern it If all other events and actions were necessary we might well sit down and lay our hands upon our mouth But here lis est de tota possessione We speak not of riches and poverty or fair weather and tempests but of everlasting life and everlasting damnation And to entitle God either directly or indirectly to the sins and death of wicked men so to lay the Scene that it shall appear though masked and vailed with limitations and distinctions and though they be not positive yet leave such premisses out of which this conclusion may easily be drawn is a high reproch to Gods infinite Goodness a blasphemy however men wipe their mouthes after it of the greatest magnitude Not to speak the worst it is to stand up and contradict God to his face and when he sweareth he would not have us die to proclaim it to all the world that there be thousands whom he hath killed already and destroyed before they were and so decreed to do that from all eternity which in time he swore he would not do I speak not this to rake the ashes of any of those who are dead that either maintained or favoured this opinion nor to stir the choler of any man living who may love this child for the fathers sake but for the honour of God and his everlasting Goodness which I conceive to be strangely violated by this doctrine of efficacious Permission or by that shift and evasion of a positive Efficiency joyned as it is said inseparably with this Permission of sin which is so far from colouring it over or giving any loveliness to it that it rendreth it more horrid and deformed and is the louder blasphemy of the two which clotheth as it were a Devil with Light who yet breaketh through it and rageth as much as if he had been in his own shape Permission is a fair word and bodeth no harm but yet it breatheth forth that poysonous exhalation which killeth us For but to be permitted to sin is to be a child appointed to death The antients especially the Athenians did account some words ominous and therefore they never used to speak them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prison they called the House Helladius apud Photium the Hangman the Common Officer and the like And the Romanes would not once mention Death or say their friend was dead but Humanitus illi accidit We may render it in the Scripture-phrase He is gone the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 1 Kings 2.2 What their phansie led them to Religion should perswade us to think that some words there be which we should be afraid to mention when we speak of God Excitation to sin Inclination Induration Reprobration as they are used are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-boding words But yet we must not with the Heathen onely change the language and mean the same thing and call it Permission when our whole discourse driveth this way to bring it forward and set it up for a flat and absolute Compulsion For this is but to plough the wind to make a way which closeth of it self as soon as it is made This is not to teach men but to amaze them Sermo per deflexus anfractus veritatem potiùs quaerit quà m ostendit saith Hilary When men broach these contradictions to known and common principles when they make these Meanders these windings and turnings in their discourses they make it also apparent that they are still in their search and have not yet found out the
as we please and bulge but swell our sayls and bear forward boldly till at last we are carried upon that rock which sinketh us for ever And therefore to conclude this a good Intention cannot pull out the sting from Death nor the guilt from Sin but if we sin though it be with an honest mind we sin voluntarily In brief though we know it not to be a sin though from the tribunal of Conscience we check our selves before we commit it though we do evil but intend good though we see it not though we approve it not though we intend it not as evil yet evil it is and a voluntary evil and without repentance hath no better wages then death and this Expostulation may be put up to us QVARE MORIEMINI Why will ye die For we cannot say but they are willing to die who make such hast to the pit of ruine and in their swift and eager pursuit of Death do but cast back a faint look toward the land of the living We must now draw towards a conclusion and conclude and shut up all even Death it self in the Will of man We cannot lay it upon any natural Weakness nor upon the Want of grace and assistance We cannot plead Ignorance nor the Distaste and Reluctancy of our mind Nor can a good Intention name that Will good which is sixt on evil nor the Means which we use commend and secure that end which is the work of Sin and hath Death waiting upon it If we die we can find no other answer to this question Why will ye die but that which is not worth the putting up It is quia volumus because we will die Take all the Weakness or Corruption of our nature look upon that inexhaustible fountain of Grace but as we think dryed up take the darkness of our Understanding the cloud is from the Will Nolumus intelligere We will not understand Take all those sad symptomes and prognosticks of death a wandring unruly phansy it is the Will whiffeth it about Turbulent Passions the tempest is from the Will Etiam quod invitus facere videor si facio voluntate facio even that which I do with some reluctancy if I do it I do it willingly All provocations and incitements imaginable being supposed no Love no Fear no Anger not the Devil himself can determin the Will or force us into action and if we die it is quia volumus because we will die If Death be the conclusion that which inferreth it is the Will of man which brought Sin and Death into the world And this may seem strange that any should be willing to die Ask the profanest person living that hath sold himself to wickedness and so is even bound over to Death and he will tell you he is willing to be saved Heaven is his wish and eternal happiness his desire As for Death the remembrance of it is bitter unto him Death Eccl. 41.1 if you do but name it he trembleth The Glutton is greedy after meat but loatheth a disease The wanton seeketh out pleasures but not those evils they carry with them under their wing The Revenger would wash his feet in the bloud of his enemy but not be drowned in it The Thief would steal but would not grind in the prison But the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. Eth. 2.1 The beginning of all these is in the Will He that will be intemperate will surfet he that will be wanton will be weak he that taketh the sword will perish by the sword Matth. 26.52 he that will spoil will be spoiled and he that will sin will die Every mans death is a voluntary act not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. out of any natural appetite to perish but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his own choice who did chuse it though not in se not in it self which is so terrible but in causis as the Schools speak in its causes in those sins in which it is bound up and from which it cannot be severed Sin carrieth Death in its womb and if we sin we are condemned and dead already We may see it smile upon us in some alluring pleasure we may see it glitter in a piece of gold or woo us in the rayes of Beauty but every smile every resplendeney every raie is a dart and striketh us through Why will we dye Why The holy Ghost is high and full in the expressing it We love Death and Love saith the Father Prov. 8.36 is vehemens voluntas a vehement and an active will It is said to have wings and to flie to its object but it needeth them not for it is ever with it The Covetous is kneaded in with the world they are but one lump It is his God one in him and he in it The Wanton calleth his strumpet his Soul and when she departeth from him he is dead The Ambitious feedeth on Honour as it is said Chamelions do on air a disgrace killeth him Amamus mortem we love Death which implyeth a kind of union and connaturality and complacency in Death Again exsultamus rebus pessimis Prov. 2.14 we rejoyce and delight in evil Ecstasin patimur so some render it we are transported beyond our selves we talk of it we dream of it we sweat for it we fight for it we travel for it we triumph in it we have a kind of traunce and transformation we have a jubile in sin and we are carried delicately and with triumph to our death Isa 28.15 Nay further yet we are said to make a covenant with Death We joyn with it and help it to destroy our selves As Jehoshaphat said to Ahab 1 Kings 22.4 I am as thou art and my people as thy people we have the same friends and the same enemies we love that that upholdeth its dominion and we fight against that that would destroy it We strengthen and harden our selves against the light of Nature and the light of Grace against Gods whispers and against his loud calls against his exhortations and obtestations and expostulations which are strength enough to discern Death and pull him from his pale horse And all these will make it a Volumus at least not a Velleity as to good but an absolute vehement Will After we have weighed the circumstances pondered the danger considered and consulted we give sentence on Death's side and though we are unwilling to think so yet we are willing to die To love Death to rejoyce in Death to make a covenant with Death will make the Volumus full To the question Why will ye die no other answer can be given but We will For if we should ask further Yea but why will ye here we are at a stand horrour and amazement and confusion shut up our mouth in silence as Matth. 22.12 when the Guest was questioned how he came thither the Text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capistratus est he
was muzled he was silent he could not speak a word For conclusion then Let us as the Wise-man counselleth keep our heart Prov. 4.23 our Will with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and out of it are the issues of Death Let us take it from Death and confine and bind it to its proper object bind it with those bonds which were made to bind Kings and Nobles the most stout and stubborn and imperious heart bind it with the Fear of Death with the Fear of that God which here doth ask the question and not seek to ease our selves by an indiscreet and ill-applied consideration of our natural Weakness For how many make themselves wicked because they were made weak How many never make any assay to go upon this thought That they were born lame Original Weakness is an article of our Creed and it is our Apologie but it is the Apologie of the worst of the Covetous 1 John 2.16 of the Ambitious of the Wanton when it is the lust of the eyes that burieth the covetous in the earth the lusts of the flesh that setteth the Wanton on fire the pride of life that maketh the Ambitious climb so high Prima haec elementa these are the first Elements these are their Alphabet They learn â—â—â—m their Parents they learn from their friends they learn from servants to raise a bank to enoble their name to delight themselves in the things of this world These they are taught and they have their method drawn to their hands By these evils words which are the proper language and dialect of the world their manners are corrupted And for this our father Adam is brought to the bar when it is Mammon Venus and the World that have bruised us more then his fall could do Secondly pretend not the Want of Grace For a Christian cannot commit a greater soloecisme then to pretend the want of that which hath been so often offered which he might have had if he would or to conceive that God should be unwilling he should do his will unwilling he should repent and turn unto him This is a charge as well as a pretense even a charge against God forbidding us rise up and walk when we were lame and not affording us a staff nor working a miracle Grace is of that nature that we may want it though it be not denied we may want it when we have it and indeed we want Grace as the covetous man wanteth money we want it because we will not use it and so we are starved to death with bread in our hands For if we will not eat our daily bread we must die In the next place let us not shut up our selves in our own darkness nor plead Ignorance of that which we were bound to know which we do know and will not which is written with the Sun-beams which we cannot say we see not when we may run and read it For what mountainous evils do men run upon what gross what visible what palpable sins do they foster quae se suâ corpulentiâ produnt sins which betray themselves to be so by their bulk and corpulency Sacrilege is no sin and I cannot see how it now should for there is scarce any thing left for its gripe Lying is no sin it is our Language and we speak as many lies almost as words Perjury is no sin for how many be there that reverence an oath Jura perjura Iusjurandum rei servandae non perdendae conditum est Plaut Rud. Act. 5. sc 3. Mantile quo quotidianae noxae extergentur â—aber is an Axiome in our Morality and Politie and secureth our estates and intaileth them on our posterity Deceit is no sin for is is our trade Nay Adultery is no sin you would think with the Heathen with those who never heard of the name of Christ nay but with those who call upon it every day and call themselves the knowing men the Gnosticks of this age And whilst men love darkness more then light with some men there will scarce be any sins upon that account as sins till the day of judgement Next bring not in thy Conscience to plead for that sin which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat and wound thy Conscience For the office of thy Conscience is before the fact to inform thee and after the fact if it be evil to accuse thee and what comfort can there be in this thought That thou didst not follow her information That she called it a sin and thou didst it That she pointed out to it as to a rock and thou wouldst needs chuse it for thy haven No commonly this is the plea of those whose hearts are hard and yet will tell you they have a tender conscience And so they have tender in respect of a ceremony or thing indifferent Here they are struck in a manner dead quite beside themselves as if it were a basilisk here they are true and constant to their conscience which may erre but not tender in respect of an eternal Law where it cannot mistake Here they too often leave their conscience and then excuse themselves that they did so In the one they are as bold as a Lion in the other they call it the frailty of a Saint This they do with regret and some reluctancy that is by interpretation against their will Last of all do not think thy action is not evil because thy Intention was good For it is as easie to fix a good intention upon an evil action as it is to set a fair and promising title on a box of poison Hay and stubble may be laid upon a good foundation 1 Cor. 3.12 but it will neither head vvell nor bed vvell as they say in the vvork of the Lord. We must look as vvell to vvhat vve build as to the Basis vve raise and set it on or else it vvill not stand and abide We see vvhat a fire good Intentions have kindled on the earth and vve are told that many of them burn in hell I may intend to beat down Idolatry and bury Religion in the ruines of that I beat down I may intend the establishing of a Common-wealth and shake the foundation of it I may intend the Reformation of a Church and fill it with Locusts and Caterpillars innumerable I may intend the Glory of God and do that for which his Name shall be evil spoken of and it will prove but a poor plea when we blasphemed him to say we did it for his Glory Let us then lay aside these Apologies for they are not Apologies but accusations and detain us longer in our evil wayes then the false beauty and deceitful promises of a tentation could which we should not yield to so often did not these betray us nor be fools so long if we had not something to say for our selves And since we cannot answer the Expostulation with these since these will be no plea in the court of
Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
therefore they turn the ear from S. Paul and open it to let in the poyson of asps which the lips of those false Apostles carried under them and for no other reason but because they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make a fair shew in the flesh Gal. 6.12 make them put on the form and shape of a Jew to avoid the fury of the Romane who did then tolerate the Jew but not the Christian And how many have we nowadayes who do Galatizari as Tertullians phrase is who are as foolish as the Galatians Gal. 3.1 and make this humour the onely rule by which they frame and measure out their Religion who make it as their Mistress and love it most then when it is exploded who will hear no teacher but that Pharisee who hath made them his proselytes Every man is pleased in his Religion and that is his Religion which pleaseth him that he will rely upon and anathematize S. Paul or any Angel Gal. 1.8 9. if he shall preach any other Gospel but that Our two Tables are not written with the finger of God our Religion is not framed in the Mount but here below in the region of Phantasmes by Flesh and Bloud which must not be displeased but swelleth against every thing that doth not touch it gently and flatter it and so maketh us like to the Beasts that perish who have no principle of motion but their Sense Nay worse then they for they have no Reason but we have Reason indeed sed quae suo malo est atque in perversum solers Seneca but which is made instrumental against it self taught to promote that which it condemneth to forward that which it forbiddeth and serveth onely to make us more unreasonable For in the second place this humour this Desire to be pleased doth not make up our defects but maketh them greater doth not make Vice a virtue but Sin more sinful For he is a villain indeed that will be a villain and yet be thought a Saint such a one as God will spue out of his mouth And what is it to acknowledge no defect and to be worse and worse Rev. 3.1 to seign a Paradise and be in Hell to have a name that we live and to be dead And what content is that which is more mortal then our selves and will soon end and end in weeping and lamentation Better far better were it that a sword did pass through our heart that the hidden things of darkness were brought to light 1 Cor. 4.5 and the counsels of our heart made manifest to us then that it should be dead as a stone sensless of its plague better we were tormented into health then that we should thus play and smile and laugh our selves into our graves Look upon those sons of Anak those giant-like sinners against their God who have bound up the Law Isa 8.16 and sealed up the testimony which is against them who will do what they please and hear what they please and nothing else who deal with the Scripture as Caligula boasted he would with the civil Law of the Romanes Sueton. Calig c. 34. take care nè quid praeter eos loquatur that it shall not speak at all or not any thing against them Look upon them I forget my self for I fear we look upon them so long till our eyes dazle at the sight and we begin to think that is not truth which these men will not hear But yet look upon them not vvith an eye of Flesh but that of Faith an Evangelicall eye and it vvill rather drop then dazle pity then admire them O infelices quibus licet peccare Oh most unhappy men of the vvorld vvho have line and liberty to destroy themselves vvhom God permitteth to be evil as in vvisdom he may and then in justice permitteth to defend it vvhose chariot-vvheels he striketh not off t ll they are in the Red-sea vvhom he suffereth vvhen they vvould not hearken to his voice to be smothered to death vvith their ovvn povver and the breath and applause of fools Oh it is the heaviest judgment in the vvorld not to feel and fear a judgement till it come It may be said perhaps what in all ages hath been said and not vvithout murmur and complaining Behold these are the wicked yet they prosper in their wayes Their pride compasseth them about as a chain Psal 73.6 12. their violence covereth them as a garment They feel no pangs no throws have no luctations no struglings within them They call themselves the children of the Most High And what evil can be to him that feeleth it not What is Hell to him that is not sensible But these are but the ebullitions and breathings of Flesh and Bloud that seeth no more of Man then his face and garment For what seest thou A painted sepulchre but thou dost not see the rotten bones within Thou seest triumphs and trophees without but within are horrour and stench Thou seest the Tree of life painted on the gates open them and there is Fire and Brimstone Hell and Damnation Thou hearest the Tongue speak proud things but thou seest not the worm which gnaweth within All this Musick is but a Dirge sung at their funeral their joy but an abortive and untimely birth begot by Pleasure and Power and Wealth a shadow cast from outward contentments when these depart this joy perisheth For in the third place this humour this Desire to be pleased doth not take the whip from Conscience but enrageth her layeth her asleep to awake with more terrour 1 Tim. 4.2 For Conscience may be seared indeed but cannot be abolisht may sleep but cannot die but is as immortal as the Soul it self Conscience followeth our Knowledge and it is impossible to chace that away impossible to be ignorant of that which I cannot but know It is not Conscience but our Lusts that make the Musick For in the common and known duties of our lives Conscience doth not cannot mislead us Whose Conscience ever told him that Murder or Treason were virtuous But our Lust having conceived and brought forth Sin licketh and shapeth it to the best advantage He that is taken in adultery will not say that Adultery is no sin but that Flesh was weak and Beauty importunate saith Hilary He that revengeth wâ—ll look more on the foulness of the injury then the irregularity and exorbitancy of his wrath He that troubleth the peace of Israel will make Necessity his plea or say he troubleth none but those that trouble Israel Thus Conscience may be supprest but not totally and for a time but not for ever It may be slumbred by diversion of the mind from troublesome thoughts by immersing it in pleasures and delights by the lullabies of parasites and false prophets and so be in a manner held down by the weight of the flesh but still it is not dead but sleepeth And then when these are removed when Pleasure shall
Will that profane person ever stoop to an Angel who is thus familiar with God himself And for the Law it goeth for a letter a title and no more For Ceremonies they were but shadows but are now monsters Christ in appearance left us two and but two and some have dealt with them as they use to do with monsters exposed them to scorn and flung them out Prov. 25.11 So that this counsel now in respect of us will not appear as an apple of gold with pictures of silver but may seem to be quite out of its place and season But yet let us view it once again and we shall find that it is a general prescript looking forward and applyable to every age of the Church an antidote against all errours and deviations And if we take it as we should it will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look round upon all and either prevent or purge out all errour whatsoever For though our errours be not the same with the Colossians yet they may proceed from the same ground and be as dangerous or worse Peradventure we may be in no danger of Philosophy but we may be in danger of our selves and our Self-love may more ensnare us then Philosophical subtilties can do We may be too stiff to bow to an Angel but our eyes may dazle at the power and excellency of Men Eph. 4.14 and we may be carried about from doctrine to doctrine from errour to errour with every breath of theirs as with a mighty wind And though we stand out against the glory of an Angel yet we may fall down and miscarry by the example of a mortal man In a word we may defie all Ceremonies and yet worship our own imaginations which may be less significant then they Let us then as the Apostle elsewhere speaketh Hebr. 13.22 suffer this word of exhortation Let us view and handle this word of life and it will present us with these two things 1. A Christian mans Duty in these words AMBVLATE IN CHRISTO Walk in Christ. 2. The Rule by which we must regulate our motion and be directed in our Walk SICVT ACCEPISTIS We must so walk in him as we have received him Which two stand in flat opposition to two main errours of our life For either we receive Christ and not walk in him or walk in him but not with a SICVT not as we have received him Of these in their order In the handling of the first we shall point and level our discourse at two particulars and shew you 1. That Christianity is not a lazy and idle profession a sitting still or a standing or a speculation but a Walk 2. Wherein this Walk or motion principally consisteth First we find no word so expressive no word more commonly used in holy Writ then this To walk with God Gen. 5.22 24. to walk before God Gen. 17.1 and 24.40 to walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 to walk in good works Ephes 2.10 and in divers other places For indeed in this one word in this one syllable is contained the whole matter the end and sum of all all that can be brought in to make up the perfect man in Christ Jesus For first this bringeth forth a Christian like a pilgrime or traveller Phil. 3.13 forgetting what is behind and weary of the place he standeth in counting those few approches he hath made as nothing ever panting and striving gaining ground and pressing forward to a higher degree to a better place As there is motus ad perfectionem a motion to perfection so there is motus in perfectione a motion and progress even in perfection it self the good Christian being ever perfect and never perfect till he come to his journeyes end Secondly it taketh within its compass all those essential requisites to action It supposeth 1. Faculty to discover the way 2. a Power to act and move in it 3. Will which is nothing else but principium actionis as Tertullian saith the beginning of all motion the imperial power which as Queen commandeth and giveth act to the Understanding Senses Affections and those faculties which are subject to it And besides this to Walk implieth those outward and adventitious helps Knowledge in the Understanding and Love in the Will which are as the Pilgrimes staff to guide and uphold him in his way Rom. 13.13 2 Cor. 5.1 His Knowledge is as the day to him to walk as in the day And his Love maketh his journey shorter though it be through the wilderness of this world to a City not made with hands Hebr. 9.11 nor seen Faculty without Knowledge is like Polyphemus a body with power to move but without eye sight to direct and therefore cannot chuse but offend and move amiss And Faculty and Knowledge without Love and Desire are but like a body which wanting nourishment hath no sense of hunger to make it call for it and therefore cannot but bring leanness into the soul For be our natural faculty and ability what it will yet if we know not our way we shall no more walk in it then the traveller sound of body and limb can go the way aright of which he is utterly ignorant Again be our Abilities perfect and our Knowledge absolute yet if we want a Mind and have no Love if we suffer our selves to be overswayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never do what we knovv vvell enough and are otherwise enabled to Novv To walk in Christ taketh in all these Faculty Povver Will Knovvledge Love Then you see a Christian in his Walk Psal 19.5 rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the counsellour and pointeth out This is the way walk in it Isa 30.21 and the Will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the Understanding boweth it self and as a Queen draweth with it those inferiour faculties the Senses and Affections when it openeth my Eye to the wonders of Gods Law Psal 119.18 Job 31.1 and shutteth it up by covenant to the vanity of the World when it boundeth my Touch and Tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing Col. 2.21 when it maketh the Senses as windows to let in life not Death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the World and the Devil and lifting up their heads to let the King of glory in Psal 24.7.9 when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a peace and harmony setting our Love to piety our Anger to sin our Fear to Gods wrath our Hope to things not seen our Sorrow to what is done amiss and so frameth in us nunc modulos temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as S. Ambrose speaketh now the even measures of Temperance now a psalm of Piety now the threnody of a Broken heart even those songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven God himself delight in All these are virtually included in this one duty to
life more then our soul are unnatural and strangers to us and we unto them and we must turn our selves about and look towards something else which may meet and fill our desires which here find nothing to stay but every thing to enlarge them Here are Delights that vanish and then shew their foulest side here are Riches that make us poor and Honour that maketh us slaves here are nothing but phantasms and apparitions which will never fill us but feed the very hunger of our souls and increase it There in our country at our journeyes end there is fulness of joy which alone can satisfie this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and infinite appetite Psal 16.11 Therefore the Earth is but our stage to walk through Heaven is our proper place and country and to this we are bound Here we are but strangers Si velimus accolae si nolimus accolae If we will we may be strangers and if we will not but love to dwell and stay here yet we shall be strangers whether we will or no. And as we are so our abode here is that of strangers in another country as of those who are ever in their way and moving forwards never standing still but striving to go out of it whose whole motion and progress is a leaving it behind them When Adam was Lord of all the world he was but a stranger in it For God made him naked in Paradise and withall gave him no sense of his nakedness And the reason is given by S. Basil That Man might not be distracted and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from meditation upon God that the care of his flesh might not steal away his mind from him that made him So that Adam was made a stranger when he was made the sole Emperour of the world But when he was fallen God clotheth him with skins ut illum veluti morte quadam indueret saith Proclus in Epiphanius that he might clothe him as it were with Death it self which was represented unto him in the skins of dead beasts that he might alwaies carry about with him the remembrance of it the most suitable garment that a stranger or pilgrime can wear A stranger cometh not to stay long in a place he is here as we say to day and gone to morrow so is Man Psal 9.25 4.2 Psal 90.9 He flyeth as a Post or rather as a shadow and continueth not at an end as soon as a tale that is told and not so long remembred There may be many errours in his way but there is none in his end Which way soever he travelleth wheresoever he pitcheth his tent his journeyes end is the Grave De Anim◠c. 50. Hoc stipulata est Dei vox hoc spopondit omne quod nascitur saith Tertullian This is the stipulation and bargain which God hath made with every soul By being born we made a promise and obliged our selves to dye We are bound in a sure obligation and received our souls upon condition to resign them pure and unspotted of the world James 1.27 Would you know when we pay this debt We begin with our first breath and are paying it till we breathe out our last Hoc quod loquor indè est Whilest I speak and you hear we are paying part of the sum and whether this be our last payment we cannot tell I am dying whilest I am speaking Every breath I fetch to preserve life is a part taken from my life I am in a manner entombed already and every place I breathe in is a grave for in every place I moulder and consume away in every place I draw nearer and nearer to putrefaction Suet. vit Claud Cas We may say as those mariners who were to fight and dye did as they said by Claudius the Emporour Morituri te salutant O Emperour dying men salute thee So we pass by and salute one another not so much as living but as dying men Whilest I say Good morrow I am nearer to my end and he to whom I wisht it is nearer to his One dying man blesseth and one dying man persecuteth another that is one Pilgrime robbeth another In what relation soever we stand either as Kings or Subjects Masters or Servants Fathers or Children we are all Morituri but dying men all but strangers and pilgrimes Comfort thou thy self then thou oppressed innocent It was a dying man that put the yoke about thy neck And why dost thou boast in mischief Psal 52.1 thou man of power In the midst of all thy triumphs and glories thou art but a dying man He that kisseth thy lips is but a dying man and he that striketh thee on the face is but a dying man The whole world is but a Colony every age new planted with dying men with pilgrimes and strangers This you will say is a common theme and argument and indeed so it is for what more common then Death And yet as common as it is I know no lessen so much forgotten as this For who almost considereth how he came into the world or how he shall go out of it Ask the wanton the Mammonist the Ambitious of their minute and they will call it Eternity Sol iste dies nos decipit c. The present the present time that deceiveth us and we draw that out to a lasting perpetuity which is past whilst we think on it Such a bewitching power hath the Love of the world to make our minute eternity and eternity nothing and the day of our death as hard and difficult to our faith as our resurrection For though day unto day uttereth knowledge though the Preacher open his mouth Psal 19.2 and the Grave open hers and we every day see so many pilgrimes falling in though they who have been dead long ago and they who now dye speak unto us yet we can hardly be induced to believe that we are strangers but embrace the world and rivet our selves into it as if we should never part we deny that which we cannot deny resolve on that which we cannot think will not be perswaded of that which we do believe or believe not that which we confess but place Immortality upon our mortal and so live as if we should never dye And can we who thus every day enlarge our thoughts and hopes Psal 90.10 and let them out at length beyond our threescore years and ten measuring out Lordships building of palaces anticipating pleasures and honours creating that which will never have a being and yet delighting in it as if we now had it in possession can vve vvho love the world as that friend from which we would never part but lose all others for it can we who would have this to be the world without end and have scarce one thought left to reach at that which is so and to come can we who love and admire and pride our selves in nothing more in nothing else say or think we are pilgrimes and
sojourners and strangers in the earth It is true strangers we are for all are so and passing forward apace to our journeys end but not to that end for which we were made Therefore that we may reach and attain to it we must make our selves so Eph. 4.22 put off the old man which loveth to dwell here take off our hopes and desires from the world look upon all its glories as dung look upon it as a strange place Phil. 3.8 upon our selves as strangers in it and look upon the place to which we are going fling off every weight shake off every vanity Hebr. 12.1 every thing that is of the earth earthy make haste delay not but leave it behind us even while we are in it for a Christian mans life is nothing else but a going out of it And to this end in the last place you must take along with you your viaticum your Provision the Commandments of Gods Hide not thy commandments from me saith David And he spake as a stranger and as in a strange place as in a place of danger as in a dark place where he could not walk with safety if this light did not shine upon him Here we meet with variety of objects Here are Serpents to flatter us and Serpents to bite us here are Pleasures and Terrours all to deceive and detein us Here we meet with that Archenemy to all strangers and pilgrimes in several shapes now as a roaring Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 and sometimes as an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 And though we try it not out at fists with him as those foolish Monks boasted they had often tried this kind of hardiment though we meet him not as a Hippocentaur Hic on de vita Pauli Eremitae Malchi Hilarionis as the story telleth us Paul the Hermite did or as a Satyre or she-Wolf as Hilarion did to whom were presented many fearful things the roaring of Lions the noise of an Army Chariots of fire coming upon him Wolves Foxes Sword-plaiers and I cannot tell what though we do not feel him as a Satyre yet we feel him as voluptuous though we do not see him as a Wolf yet we apprehend him thirsting after bloud though we meet him not in the shape of a Fox yet non ignoramus versutias 2 Cor. 2.11 we are not ignorant of his wiles and enterprises though we do not see him in the Tempest we may in our fear and though his hand be invisible yet we may feel him in our impatience and falling from the truth We cannot say in our affliction This is his blow but we may hear him roar in our murmuring Or we may see him in that mongrel Christian made up of Ignorance and Fury of a Man and a Beast which is more monstrous then any Centaure We may see him in that Hypocrite that deceitful man who is a Fox and the worst of the cub We may meet him in that Oppressour who is a Wolf in that Tyrant and Persecutour who is a roaring Lion In some of these shapes we meet him every day in this our Pilgrimage And here in the world we can find nothing to secure us against the World Adversity may swallow up Pleasure in victory but not the Love of it Impotency and Inability may bridle and stay my Anger but not quench it Providence may defend me from evil but not from Fear of it Nor can the World yield us any weapon against it self Therefore God hath opened his Armoury of heaven and given us his Commandments to be our light our provision our defense in our way to be as our Pilgrimes staff our Scrip our Letters commendatory Ps 91.11 to be our Angels to keep us in all our waies And there is no safe walking for a stranger without them And as when the children of Israel were in the wilderness God rained down Manna upon them and led them as it were by the hand till he brought them to the land of promise so he dealeth still with all that call upon his name whilest they are in via in this their peregrination ever and anon beset with temptations which may detein and hinder them He raineth down abundance of his grace Wisd 16.20 which like that Manna will serve the appetite of him that taketh it is like to that which every man wanteth and applieth it self to every tast to all callings and conditions to all the necessities of a stranger Thus we walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Festina fides Faith is on the wing and leaveth the world behind us Heb. 11.1 is the substance and evidence of things not seen It looketh not on those things which are seen 2 Cor. 4.18 and please a carnal eye or if it do it looketh upon them as Joshua did upon Ai Josh 8.5 c. first turneth the back and then all its strength against them maketh us fly from them that we may overcome them 1 Joh. 5.4 For this is the victory which overcometh the world even our faith Hebr. 6.19 20 And Festina spes Hope too is in her flight and followeth our Forerunner Jesus to enter with him that which is within the veil even the Holy of holies Heaven it self Spe jam sumus in coelo We are already there by hope And to him that hath seen the beauty of Holiness the World is but a loathsome spectacle to him that truly trusteth in God it is lighter then Vanity and he passeth from it And then our Love of God is our going forth our peregrination It is a perishing a death of the soul to the world If it be truly fixt no pleasure no terrour nothing in the world can concern us but they are to us as those things which the traveller in his way seeth and leaveth every day and we think no more of the glory of them then they who have been dead long ago Col. 3.3 For we are dead saith the Apostle and our life is hid hid from the world with Christ in God Our Temperance tasteth not our Chastity toucheth not our Poverty in spirit handleth not those things which lye in our way but we pass by them as impertinencies as dangers as things which may pollute a soul more then a dead body could under the Law The stranger the pilgrime passeth by all His Meekness maketh injuries and his Patience afflictions light and his Christian Fortitude casteth down every strong hold every imagination which may hinder him in his course Every act of Piety is a kind of sequestration and driveth us if not from the right yet from the use of the world Every Virtue is to us as the Angel was to Lot Gâ—n 19.14 17. and biddeth Arise and go out of it taketh us by the hands and biddeth us haste and escape for our life and not look behind us And with this Provision as it were with the two Tables in our hands we
the Devil Why should any mortal now fear to dye It is most true Christ dyed and by his death shook the powers of the Grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy Death Job 18.14 But for all this his triumph Death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadful as before All is finisht on his part but a Covenant consisteth of two parts and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not Thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not Thou shalt believe But every Promise every Act of grace of his implieth a Condition He delivereth those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed Death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible 1 Cor. 15.56 All the terrour Death hath is from our selves our Sin our Disobedience to the commands of God that is his sting And our part of the Covenant is by the power and virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it off from him at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the sceptre out of his hand and spoil him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as S. Paul speaketh dye to Profit dye to Pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us fear Death Then we shall not look upon it as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a Sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrimes as a Message sent from heaven to tell us our walk is at an end now we are to lay down our staff and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above Tert. De patientia for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly feareth God can fear nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks Luk. 15.16 Heb. 6.5 because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortal before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with Vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never go hence Psal 39.13 Last of all this will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knoweth the condition of a stranger how many dangers and how many cares and how many storms and tempests he is obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that his friend hath now passed through them all and is set down at his journeys end Why should he who looketh for a City to come Hebr. 13.14 be troubled that his fellow-pilgrime is come thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unless it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandements which might give us a tast of a better estate to come unless it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers yet unwilling to draw near our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now to be removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery We send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are nearest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into air when indeed there is no more then this One pilgrime is gone before his fellows one is gone hath left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith S. Hierome We are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeyes end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth Religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keepeth us in that temper which the Philosopher commendeth as best in which we do sentine desiderium Sen. ad Marciam op primere She giveth Nature leave to draw tears but then she bringeth in Faith and Hope to wipe them off She suffereth us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and Love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 4.13 saith the Oratour ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembreth whereof we are made Ps 103.14 is not angry with our Love and will suffer us to be Men But then we must silence one Love with another our natural Affection with the Love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then He was a stranger and now at his journeyes end And here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Rev. 14 13. Blessed are such strangers Blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours For conclusion Let us fear God and keep his commandments Eccl. 12.13 This is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Laws which came from that place to which he is going Let these Laws be in our heart and our heart will be an Elaboratory a Limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of the world
Key still a golden Key but to open no gates but those of Death Power is a gift of God for there is no power but of him to shadow the innocent to take the prey from the oppressour to stand between two opposite parties till it draw them together and make them one to work equality out of inequality to give Mephibosheth his own lands to be the peace of the Church the wall of the Common-wealth and the life of the Laws This is the end why power is given And what may it be made Of a Sword it may be made a Rasor to cut deceitfully to cut a purse nay to cut a throat to kill and take possession as Ahab did to make Virtue vice and Vice virtue to condemn the innocent bloud and make him a Saint who hath no other father then him who was a murtherer from the beginning to make the Law a nose of wax and the Scripture as pliable as that to make that Religion not which is best but which is fittest for it self to make Men beasts and God nothing in this world to make the Common-wealth an asylum and Sanctuary for Libertines a nest of Atheists a Synagogue of hypocrites in a word a map and representation of Hell it self This I say Power may be And so may every blessing of God be drawn from that end for which it was given Wit may make us fools Riches may beget pride Power confusion and Peace it self war Health may breed wantonness and that which was made to be the womb of good may be the mother of evil as we read in Aelian that Nicippus's Sheep did yean a Lion God oft complaineth of this in holy Scripture And indeed this abuse of God's gifts is the seed-plot and cause of all the evil in the world Were it not for this we should not hear such complaints from such a place of peace as Heaven is I have brought thee out of the land of Egypt and thou breakest my statutes I took thee from the sheepcoat 2 Sam. 12. and anointed thee King and gave thee thy masters house and thou hast despised my command I washed thee with water I decked thee with ornaments Ezek. 16. I gave thee beauty and thou playedst the harlot I have chosen you twelve John 6. chosen you all to the same end Judas as well as Peter and yet one of you is a Devil It is indeed a complaint but if we slight and neglect it it will end in judgment God will confound our Wisdom blow upon our Riches and shake our Power and our Wit shall ruine us our Riches undo us our Power crush us to pieces and our Greatness make us nothing And if this were all yet it might well deserve an Ecce and be an object to be looked upon even by Atheists themselves But there is another end an end without end a fire ready kindled to devoure these adversaries a worm that shall gnaw their hearts who received the gifts of God and corrupted them torment for Health poverty for Riches and everlasting slavery for Power abused And then how happy had it been for Ahitophel if he had not been wise for Dives if he had not been rich for Hereticks if they had not been witty for Ahab and Nero if they had not been Kings how happy for the swaggerer and wanton if he had been a Clinick or a Recluse confined to his bed or shut up between two walls all the dayes of his life And now I think you will say we may well fix an Ecce to remember us of that we have received whether Health or Wit or Riches or Power that what was meant for our good turn not to our destruction So from the object considerable we pass to the Act What it is to behold and consider it ECCE Behold is as an asterisk or a finger pointing out to something remarkable some object that calleth for our eye and observation and that is already held up and we behold it That is soon done you will say for what is more sudden then the cast and twinckling of an eye If a thing be set up and placed before us we cannot but behold it But we shall find that this Ecce is of a large extent and latitude and very operative to awake all the powers and faculties of our souls to excite our faith and to enflame our love that it requireth the sedulous endeavour the contention the labour the travel of the mind Many times we do not know what we know and what we behold we do not behold because we do not rightly consider it Tantum valet unum vocabulum Of such force and energy is this finger this star this one word Behold John 1. Behold the Lamb of God saith the Baptist He points out to Christ as with a finger Why they could not but behold him But they are called upon with an ecce to behold him better The Pharisees beheld Christ the Jews beheld him but they did not behold and consider him as the Lamb of God For had they thus beheld him they had not blasphemed him 1 Cor. 2.8 they had not butchered him as they did Had they known him they had not crucified the Lord of glory We behold the heavens the work of God's fingers the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained Rom. 1.19 We behold this wonderful frame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be known of God God hath shewed us But we do not as David speaketh consider it It doth not raise us up to the admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our subjection We are no more affected with it then as if it were still without form and void a lump a Chaos We behold our selves and we behold our selves mouldring away and decaying and yet we do not behold our selves For who considereth himself a mortal We carry our tombs upon our heads like those aves sepulcrales those sepulcral birds which Galen speaketh of we bear about with us our own funerals Every place we stand in is our grave for in every place we draw nearer to corruption Yet who considereth he is a living-dying man Dives in his purple never thought how he came into the world or how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We dye daily and yet think we shall not dye at all The Certainty of death may stand for an article of our faith and as hard a one almost as the Resurrection In a word we are in our consideration any thing but what we are We sin and behold it and sin again but never look upon Sin as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the soul as that which hath no better wages then death Our Paralytick did rise and walk and could not but behold it yet Christ here in the Temple calleth upon
God's benefits whether Beauty or Wit or Riches or Health is to make them benefits indeed But if we turn them into wantonness they will be turned into judgements we shall be the verier fools for our Wit the poorer for our Riches the more deformed for our Beauty the more despicable for our Power our Health shall be worse then a disease and Miracles themselves shall stand up to condemn us But if we behold that is consider them they will be as the influences of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions from God himself distilling upon us to refresh and quicken us and make us active in those duties which return them back again with praise unto their Fountain And in the strength of them we shall walk on from faith to virtue from virtue to knowledge from knowledge to temperance from temperance to patience till we are brought into the presence of God who is the giver of all things In a word If we thus behold and consider God's benefits we shall sin no more nor shall a worse thing come unto us Which is our third and last part and cometh next to be handled The Fifth SERMON PART III. JOHN V. 14. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee MAN hath not found out more wayes to destroy himself then God hath to save him You shall find God's preventing mercy his following mercy Psal 59.10 Psal 23.6 Psal 119. Psal 6.2 his reviving and quickening mercy his healing mercy Here they are all even a multitude of mercies Healing Preventing Following and Reviving Here I told you is 1. Misericordia solicita Mercy sollicitous to perfect and complete the cure The healing of this impotent mans body was but as a glimmering light as the dawning of the day Mercy will yet shine brighter upon him 2. Misericordia excitans Mercy rousing him up to remember what he was by the pool's side and to consider what he now is in the Temple And these two we have already displayed before you 3. The last now sheweth it self in rayes and light and full beauty Misericordia praecipiens Mercy teaching and prescribing for the future I may call it a Logical Rational Concluding Mercy making the miracle as the Premisses and drawing from it Salvation as the Conclusion Behold thou art made whole Therefore sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned Interpreter And we find that those lessons which are most plain are most necessary as those things which are most common are most useful When we are to build an house we do not go to the mines for gold or to the rocks for perle but to the quarry for stone Corn which feedeth us groweth almost in every field and Sheep which clothe us grase in flocks upon the mountains But those things quibus luxuria Pretium fecit which would be of little esteem did not our luxury set a price upon them are remote and in a manner hidden from us and we find them out with labour and hazard of our lives So it is in spiritual matters Those truths which are necessary lie open and naked to the understanding so that he that runneth may read them But more abstruse and subtle speculations as they are not necessary so are they set at distance and are hard to find out For it is not Curiosity but Humility that must build us up in our most holy Faith And yet the plainest truths in Scripture require our pains and labour as much as the obscurest We may observe that in the winter-season when the Sun is far removed from us we lay our selves open and walk the fields and use means to receive the light and heat of it but in the summer when it is almost over our heads we retire our selves and draw a curtain to exclude both light and heat The same behaviour we put on in our Christian walk When the Sun of righteousness cometh near us and shineth in our very faces we run with Adam into the thicket and hide our selves in excuses but when he withdraweth and as it were hideth himself and will not tell us what is not necessary for us to know we gaze after him and are most busie to walk where we have no light The obscurer places in Scripture are like unto the Sun in winter We delight to use all means to gain the light and meaning of them But the plainest are like the Sun in summer They come too near our Zenith their light and heat offend us they scald and trouble us by telling us plainly of our duty and therefore we use art and draw the curtain against them to keep off their heat As we have heard of the people of Africk that they every morning curse the Sun because the heat of it annoyeth them These plain words of the Text are a notable instance For to defeat the true meaning of them what art do we use what curtains do we draw When we should sin no more we question the possibility of the precept and whether there be any such estate or no As if Christ did bid us sin no more when he knew we could not but sin again and again And then we multiply our sins as we do our dayes and make them keep time almost with every hour and moment of our life And to this end we draw distinctions before the words to keep of their light SIN NO MORE that is Not unto death or SIN NO MORE that is Not with a full consent Not without some reluctancy or strugling of conscience And now where is this Text Even lost and swallowed up and buried in the glosses of flesh and bloud We may we think observe it and yet sin as oft as the flesh or the world shall require it Let us then take some pains to raise the Text from this grave and take off those cloths in which it is enwrapped let us draw it from those clouds and curtains wherewith it is obscured In the course of our speech we shall meet with some of them Now we shall take the words in their natural meaning as they lie And in them you may observe 1. the Prescript or Caution Sin no more 2. the Danger of not observing it If we sin again a worse thing will come unto us And by these we may try our selves as the Eagle doth her young ones If with open eyes w◠can look upon the Text as it lies in its full strength and meaning then are we of the true airy but if we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be weak sighted and cannot endure the light and heat of it we may then justly suspect our selves to be but bastard and counterfeit Christians First of all we shall consider how far the words Sin no more do extend and stretch themselves secondly the Possibility of keeping of them The first is a consideration of some consequence that we may not violate the word of God nor do the Scripture any
For shew me he that can one passage of Scripture that looketh favourably on Riches Luke 18.24 It is plainly said How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! but it would puzzle the wit of the best Logician in the world to draw out of Scripture but by way of consequence this conclusion BEATI DIVITES Blessed are the rich Indeed when men are rich the Scripture giveth them good counsel what to do Not to trust in them To make them a sacrifice To distribute and communicate which indeed is to contemn them to empty them out It counselleth us to be rich in good works and then the Vae will fly away from us as a mist doth before the Sun I am unwilling to leave the Rich and the Wo so near together but would set them at that distance that they may never meet To conclude then let us not be too familiar wich Riches lest whilest we embrace them we take the plague and the Wo enter into our very bowels The love of the world is a catching disease and it is drawn on with dallying with a very look The covetous man saith Aristotle first seeketh money for his want and then falleth in love with it And love of money increaseth with our heaps so that even a mountain of gold is counted but a mole-hill He that is grown rich complaineth he is poor And so indeed he is poorer then that Lazar that lieth naked at his door This plague the Love of the world is got insensibly we know not how For the Eye is the burning-glass of the soul and as we see in glasses of that nature if we wag and stir them up and down they produce no flame but if we hold them fixed and steddy between the Sun and the object it will presently kindle so if we plant our eyes and hold them steddy betwixt the glittering wedge of gold and the catching matter of our heart it will unite and grow strong and strike a fire into our soul which is not so easily quenched as it might have been avoided We see nothing but glory in Riches when they are gendring a Wo. Let us therefore rather look upon them as strangers for our traffick and our trading should be in heaven Alienum est à nobis omne quod seculi est saith Hierome The World and a Christian are of a diverse nature and constitution We do not traffick for gold where there are no mines nor can we find God in the world He that maketh him his purchase will find business enough to take up his thoughts and little time left for conference and commerce in the world scarce any time to look upon it but by the By and in the passage as we use to look upon a stranger A look is dangerous a look of liking is too much but a look of love will bury us in the world where we are sown in power but are raised in dishonour We rest and sleep in this dust and when we awake the Wo which hung over our heads falleth upon us In a word then let us not onely look upon Riches as strangers but handle them as serpents warily lest they sting us to death Let us take them by the right end and then that which was a serpent may prove a rod to work wonders Your riches like the widow's oyle shall increase by being poured forth and you shall purchase most when you sell all that you have So you shall turn the Vae into an Euge the Wo into a Blessing Make these strangers these enemies these Riches of unrighteousness to be friends by keeping a kind of state and distance from them Work off their paint force from them their deceitfulness and malignancy Make them such friends as shall plead and intercede on your behalf be your Harbingers to prepare a place for you and when you faile when they faile open the gates of heaven and make a way for you to be received into everlasting habitations The Seventh SERMON PART I. 1 PET. V. 6. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time I May call my Text ITINERARIUM MENTIS AD DEUM The Journal of the Soul to God or A bref Discovery of the way to heaven and of the occurrences and remarkable passages therein For here we have two terms Humility and Exaltation a Valley and a Hill a Valley of tears and a holy Hill Now you see there is a great distance between these two terms as great as between SURSUM and DEORSUM below and above And between these two there is a God to be bowed to an hand to awe us and a mighty hand to shake and shiver us into a spiritual nothing Whether it be his hand which he reacheth forth to help us or his hand which he stretcheth forth to strike us whether it be his hand with which he leadeth his people or his hand with which he bruiseth the nations his hand of Mercy or his hand of Vengeance his hand it is and a mighty hand mighty to lay us on the ground and mighty to raise us up again able to turn our dunghil into a throne our sackcloth into a triumphant robe and our humility into glory Now Humility is causa removens prohibens the cause that putteth by all obstacles and retardances that prepareth our way and maketh our paths straight nay causa movens the moving cause that hath an operative causality and efficacious virtue in it illex misericordiae as Tertullian that matureth and ripeneth us for God's mercy and draweth on and inviteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his mighty hand to crown us Fear not Mary saith the Angel for thou hast found favour with God And fear not thou virgin humble soul thou shalt find favour with God Thy vileness is thy honour thy low estate is thy high preferment thy minoration thy exinanition thy nothing is thy All For see Humility looketh directly upon Glory Between them there is but a short line nay there is an hand in the Text that draweth them both together and uniteth them as it were in puncto The whole line the whole course of a Christian is Humility and Glory And as in a Line there be infinite Points yet thou canst not say Here is this point and here is that to distinguish them so our Humility must be continued degree upon degree sigh upon sigh contrition upon contrition so close so without pause or interval as to be impercepâ—â—ble I am sure our Exaltation shall be infinitely and imperceiveably continued Onely here is the difference Our Humility is drawn on in a straight but short line it hath it extremes an end it hath but our Exaltation shall be everlasting and run round in a Circle as Eternity This is the sum of these words The Division now is easie The parts are but two First our part Humbling of our selves Secondly God's part he will raise us up again Now the Wise-man will
this world saith the Apostle passeth away And what is that that passeth away to that which is immortal The Heart of man is but a little member It will not saith S. Bernard give a Kite its break fast and yet it is too large a receptacle for the whole world In toto nihil singulis satìs est There is nothing in the whole Universe which is enough for one particular man in which the appetite of any one man can rest And therefore since Satisfaction cannot be had under the Sun here below we must seek for it above And herein consisteth the excellency the very life and essence of Christian Religion To exalt the Soul to draw it back from mixing with these things below and lift it up above the highest heavens To unite it to its proper object To make that which was the breath of God Gen. 2.7 breathe nothing but God think of nothing desire nothing seek for nothing but from above from whence it had its beginning The Soul is as the Matter the things above the Form The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Plato calleth Matter the receptacle of things above as the Matter is of Forms And it is never rightly actuated or of a perfect being till it receiveth the heavenly graces The Soul is the Pot the Vial so Chrysostom calleth it not wherein is put Manna but the Son and the holy Ghost and those things which they send from above The Soul is as the Ground and these the Seed the Soul the Matrix the Womb to receive them Matth. 13. And there is a kind of sympathy betwixt the immortal Seed and the Heart and Mind of Man as there is between Seed and the Womb of the earth For the Soul no sooner seeth the things above unveiled and unclouded not disguised by the interveniencie of things below by disgrace poverty and the like but upon a full manifestation she is taken as the Bridegroom in the Canticles with their eye and beauty Heaven is a fair sight even in their eyes whose wayes tend to destruction For there is a kind of nearness and alliance between the things above and those notions and principles which God imprinted in us at the first Therefore Nature it self had a glimpse and glimmering light of these things and saw a further mark to aim at then the World in this span of time could set up Hence Tully calleth Man a mortal God born to two things to Vnderstand and Do. And Seneca telleth us that by that which is best in Man our Reason we go before other creatures but follow and seek after the first Good which is God himself Again as these things bear a correspondence with the Mind and Soul of man as the Seed doth with the Womb of the earth so hath the Soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative faculty to shape and fashion them and by the influence of God's Grace and the kindly aspect of the Spirit to bring forth something of the same nature some heavenly creature to live in the world and hate it to walk in it and tread it under its foot THE NEW MAN which is renewed after the image of God Vers 1◠made up in righteousness and holiness The beauty of Holiness may beget that Violence in us which may break open the gates of heaven the virtue of Christ's Cross may beget an army of Martyrs and the Glory above may raise us up even out of the dust out of all our faculties to lay hold on it that so we may be fitted as with planes and marked out as with the compass as the Prophet Esay speaketh in another sense that we may be fitted to glory and those things above as others are to destruction Rom. 9.22 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 2.9 John 14.3 And hence this glory is said to be laid up and to be prepared for them which love God And our Saviour now sitteth in heaven to prepare a place for them even for all those who by setting their affections on things above are fitted and prepared for them Thus you see it is the chief work and end of Christian Religion to abstract and draw the Soul from sensual and carnal objects and to level and confine it to that object which is fitted and proportioned to it even the things above This is the work of the Gospel by which if we walk we shall suspect and fear the things below the pleasures and glory of this world as full of danger and set our affections on those things which are above and so have our conversation in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Let us now see what use we can make of this and draw it near to us by application And certainly if Christian Religion doth draw the Soul from that which is pleasing to the Sensitive part then we ought to try and examine our selves and our Religion by this touch-stone by this rule and be jealous and suspicious and afraid of that Religion which most holdeth compliance with the Sense and with our worldly desires which flattereth and cherisheth that part at which the Soul goeth forth and too often bringeth back Death along with her which doth miscere Deum seculum joyn God and Mammon the Spirit and the Flesh Christ and the World together and maketh them friendly to communicate with each other and so maketh the Christian a monster crying Abba Father but honouring the world falling down and worshipping Christ not in a stable but in a palace taking him not with persecution and self-denial but with honours riches and pleasures which in true esteem are but as the Apostle termeth them dung I will not mention the Heathen For what Religion can they have who are without God in the world Nor yet Mahumetism although wee see with what ease it prevailed and got a side and overflowed the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of lusts and such alluring promises as the sensual part could relish and digest well enough though they were never fo absurd If from these we pass over into Christendom we shall soon see Christian Religion falling from its primitive purity remitting much of its rigour and severity painted over with a smiling countenance made to favour that which formerly it looked upon as capital and which deserved no better wages then death For how hath the Church of Rome fitted and attempered it to the sensitive part and most corrupt imaginations pulled off her sackcloth put on embroidery and made her all glorious without Allaying it with Worshipping of Saints which is but a carnal thing and Worshipping of Images a carnal thing Turning Repentance into Penance Fasting into Difference of meats Devotion into Numbering of beads Shutting up all Religion in Obedience and Submission to that Church Drawing out Religion from the heart to the gross and outward act With what art doth she uphold her self in that state and
a Lawyer or an Husbandman in the grave But the Truth here as it must be bought so it must never be sold by us It will not leave us at our death but lie down with us in the grave and rise up with us to judgment At the last day it will be our Advocate or our Judge and either acquit or condemn us If now in this our day we lay out our money our substance that is our selves upon it then in that terrible day of the Lord it will look lovelily upon us and as the bloud of Christ doth speak good things for us But if we place it under our brutish desires and lowest affections it will help the Devil to roar against us and he who now hindereth our market will then accuse us for not buying Christ himself is not more gracious then this Truth will be to them that buy it But such as esteem it trash and not worth the looking on to them shall it procure tribulation and anguish to them the Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into bloud the whole world on fire the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall not be so terrible as this Truth And now before I was aware I have told you what the Truth here is that we are to buy Shall I say with the Poet cujus non audeo dicere nomen that I dare not utter its name It hath no name Men it seemeth have been afraid to speak of it and therefore have given it no name The Wise-man here in the Text bestoweth on it certain titles calling it Wisdom and Instruction and Vnderstanding but all these do not fully express it being words of a large signification and comprehending a multitude of other Truths beside it Will ye know indeed what this Truth is It containeth all those Precepts and conclusions that concern the knowledge and service of God that conduce to virtue and integrity and uprightness of life and that are carefully observed by all quos Deus in aeternae felicitatis exemplis posuit whom God meaneth to bring to endless felicity and to place among the ensamples of his love If this Truth doth not manage and guide the Will then our passions those pages of opinion and errour will distract and disorder us Lust will inflame us Anger swell us Ambition lift us up to that formidable height from whence we must needs fall into the pit But the Truth casteth down all Babels and casteth out all false imaginations which present unto us appearances for realities yea plagues for peace which make us pour out our souls on variety of unlawful objects and pitifully deceive us about the nature and end of things What a price doth Luxury set on wealth and how doth it abhor poverty and nakedness What an heaven is the highest place to Ambition and what an hell disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a jewel glitter in the eye and what a slur is there on virtue What brightness hath the glory of the world and how sad and sullen an aspect have Religion and Piety And all this is till the purchase be made which our Text commendeth No sooner have we bought the Truth but it discovereth all pulleth off every masque and suffereth us no longer to be blinded and beguiled but sheweth us the true face and countenance of things It letteth us see vanity in riches folly in honour death and destruction in the pomp of this world It maketh poverty a blessing misery a mercy a cottage as good as the Seragglio and death it self a passage to an happy eternity It taketh all things by the right end Exod. 4.4 and teacheth us how to handle and deal with them as Moses taking the serpent by the tail had it restored to its own shape In a word the Truth here meant is that which S. Augustine calleth legem omnium artium artem omnipotentis artificis a Law to direct all arts an Art taught by Wisdom it self by the Maker of all things It teacheth us to love God with all our hearts to believe in him and to lead upright lives It killeth in us the root of sin it extinguisheth all lusts it maketh us tread under foot pleasure and honour and wealth it rendreth us deaf to the noyse of this busie world and blind to that glaring pomp which dazleth the eyes of others Hâc praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus It goeth before us in our way and through all the surges of this present world it bringeth us to the vision and fruition of him who is Truth it self Therefore this concerneth us above all other Truths yea others are of no use at all further then by being subservient to this they help us to our chief end our union to God who is the first Truth and our communion with him If I know mine own infirmities what need I trouble my self about the decay of the world If the word of God be powerful in me what need I search the secret operations of the stars Am I desirous to know new things The best novelty is the New creature What folly it is to study the state and condition of the Saints and in the mean time to take no pains to be one to be curiously inquisitive how my soul was conveyed into me and wretchedly careless how it goeth out to dispute who is Antichrist when I my self am not a Christian to spend that time in needless controversies in which I might make my peace with God to be more careful to resolve a doubt then to cure a wounded spirit to to maintain my opinion then to save my soul to be ambitious to reconcile opinions which stand in a seeming opposition and be dull and heavy in composing my own thoughts and ordering my counsels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aescl yl Not he that knoweth much but he that knoweth that which is useful is wise Why gaze we on a bugle or piece of glass when we are to bargain for a pearl for that Truth which doth alone adorn that mind which was made not to joyn with shadows and phantasmes but to receive wisdom and virtue and God himself Thus I have given you some kind of view of the merchandise and shewed you in general what the Truth here meant is Now that it may appear unto you the more desirable and more worth the buying in the next place I will discover the nature and quality of it Neither will I do as those are wont who expose their wares to sale over praise the commodity so to kindle the buyer and make him more easily part with his money or else shew it by an half-light but I will deal plainly with you according to that Law of the Aediles or Clerks of the market in Rome by which he who sold any thing was to disclose to the buyer what fault or imperfection it had If he were selling an house wherein the plague was he was to proclaim Pestilentem domum vendo that he
bargain who wanteth his eye-sight Again let not the authority of any man be the compass by which we steer For it may point to Beth-aven and call it Beth-el present us with a box whose title is TRUTH when it containeth nothing but the poyson of Falshood Why should there be such power such a spell such witchcraft in a name Why should the Truth be built upon a Church which must be built upon it or else it is not a Church Or why upon a name which though it be glorious in the world is but the name of a man who is subject to errour Tolle mihi è causa nomen Catonis saith Tully Cato was a name of virtue and that carried authority with it and therefore the Oratour thought him not a fit witness in that cause against Muraena So tolle è causa nomen Augustini Take away the name of Augustine of Luther Acts 4.12 of Calvine of Arminius when ye come to this mart There is but one name by which we can be saved and his name alone must prevail with us Hebr. 12.2 He onely hath authority who is the Authour and Finisher of our faith Let us honour others but not deifie them not pull Christ out of his throne and place them in his room There is not there cannot be any influence at all in a name to make a conclusion true or false If we have fixed it on high in our mind as in its firmament it will sooner dazle then enlighten us And it is not of so great use as men imagine For they that read or hear can either judge or are weak in understanding To those who are able to judge and discern Errour from Truth a Name is but a name and is no more esteemed For such look upon the Truth as it is and receive it for it self But as for those who are of a narrow capacity a Name is more likely to lead them into errour then into truth or if into Truth it is but by chance for it should have found the same welcome and entertainment had it been an errour for the Names sake All that such gain is They fall with more credit into the ditch Wherefore in our pursuit of Truth we must fling from us all Prejudice and keep our mind even after sentence past free and entire to change it upon better evidence and not tye our faith to any man though his rich endowments have raised his name above his brethren follow no guide but him that followeth right Reason and the Rule not be servants of men for though they be great yet there is a greater then they though they be wise yet there is a wiser then they even he that is the Truth it self Let Augustine be a friend and Luther a friend and Calvine a friend but the Truth is the greatest friend without which there is no such thing as a friend in the world When the rule is fixed up in a plain and legible character though we may and must admit of the help of advice and the wisdome of the learned yet nothing can fix us to it but right Reason He who maketh Reason useless in the purchase of Truth maketh a Divine and a Christian a beast or a mad man Suprae hoc non potest procedere insania It is the height and extremity of madness to judge that to be true and reasonable which is against my Reason For thus we walk amongst Errours as Ajax did amongst the Sheep and take this or that Errour for this or that Truth as he did the Rams one for Menelaus another for Ulysses and a third for Agamemnon It hath been said indeed that right Reason is not alwaies one and the same but varieth and differeth from it self according to the different complexions of times and places But this even Reason it self confuteth For that which is true at Rome is true at Jerusalem and that which was true in the first age of the world is true in this and will be true in the last though it bind not alike That Truth which concerneth our everlasting peace Hebr. 13.8 that which we must buy is the same yesterday and to day and for ever And as the Truth so our Reason is the same even like the decrees proposed to it Prov. 20.27 it never changeth This candle which God hath kindled in us is never quite put out Whatsoever agreeth with it is true and whatsoever dissenteth from it is false Affectus citò cadunt aequalis est ratio saith the Stoick The Affections alter and change every day but Reason is alwaies equal and like unto it self or else it is not Reason The Affections like the Moon now wax anon wane and at length are nothing They are contrary one to another and they fall and end one into another What I loved yesterday I lothe to day and what now I tremble at anon I embrace What at the first presentment cast me down in sorrow at the next may transport me with joy But the judgement of right Reason is still the same She is fixed in her tabernacle as the Sun still casteth the same light spreadeth the same beams rejoyceth to run her race from one object to another and discovereth every one of them as it is When we erre it is not Reason that speaketh within us but Passion If Pleasure have a fair face it is our Passion that painteth it If the world appear in glory it is our Passion that maketh it a God If Death be the terriblest thing in the world it is our Fear and a bad Conscience that make it so Right Reason can see through all these and behold Riches as a snare Pleasure as deceitful and Death though terrible to some yet to others to be a passage into endless life We may erre with Plato and we may erre with Socrates we may erre out of Passion and Prejudice these being the Mother and Nurse of Errour But that we should erre and yet have right Reason on our side is an errour of the foulest aspect for it placeth errour in Truth it self which is not Truth but as it agreeth with right Reason It is true indeed right Reason hath not power enough of it self to find out every Truth For as Faith Eph. 2.8 so all the precepts of Truth are the gift of God commentum Divinitatis saith Tertullian the invention of the Deity But it is true also that Reason is sufficient to judge and discern them when they are revealed according to his mind who revealed them and set up this light within us to this end Though the thing be above Reason yet Reason can judge it true because God who is Truth it self revealed it Take away the use of Reason ye take away all election and choice all obedience all virtue and vice all reward and punishment For we are not carried about in our obedience as the Sphears are in their motions or the brute creatures in theirs as natural or irrational
Therefore in the third place if we consider the Church which is at her best nothing else but a collection and a body of righteous men we shall find that whilest she is on the earth she is Militant And no other title doth so fully express her For do we say she is Visible The best and truest parts of her are not so 2 Tim. 2.19 For the Lord onely knoweth who are his Do we call her Catholick and Vniversal She is so when her number is but small she was so when Christ first built her as an house upon a rock open to all though not many rich not many noble entred Shall we give her the high and proud Title of Infallible Although she be so in many things without which she cannot be a Church yet in many things we erre all But when we draw her in her own bloud when we call her Militant when we bring her in fighting not onely against Flesh and Bloud against Men but against all the Powers of Darkness then we shew and describe her as she is To say she is the body of Christ filled with him who filleth all things is to set her up as a mark for the World and the Devil to shoot at and thus to set her up is to build her up into a Church So that though Persecution come forth with more or less horrour yet to say the Church is ever free from all persecution is as full of absurdity as to say a man may live without a Soul But now take it with all its terrour accompanied with whips and scorpions with fire and sword with banishment and with death it self yet is it so far from destroying this body of the righteous which we call the Church that it rather establisheth enlargeth and adorneth it For this is the Kingdom of Christ And Christ's Kingdom is not of this world but culled and chosen out of the world John 18.35 And in this the Kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of Christ differ That which doth ruine the one doth build up the other The sword and fire and persecution demolish the Kingdomes of this world but these evermore enlarge the Church and stretch forth the curtains of her habitation Those may perish and have their fatal period but this is everlasting as his love is that built it and shall stand fast for ever Those are worn out by time but this is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most glorious when Time shall be no more Therefore I may be bold to present you with a speculation which may seem a paradox but being well examined will be found a truth and it is this That persecution is so far from ruining the righteous that it is to them as peace For if Peace signifie the integrity and whole perfection of ones good estate as it doth in Scripture often then may Persecution well deserve that name which bringeth the righteous out of the shadow into the sun setteth them on the stage there to act their parts spectantibus Angelis Archangelis before God and Angels and men maketh them more glorious putteth them to their whole armoury their whole strength the whole substance of their faith as Tertullian calleth it that they may suffer and conquer which is indeed to build them up into a Church And therefore Nazianzene calleth it the mystery of persecution where one thing is seen and another done where glory lieth hid in disgrace increase in diminution and life in death it self ecclesiae in attonito the righteous stirring and moving in their place in the midst of all these amazements and terrours of the world And thus some analogy and resemblance there is between the persecution of the righteous and the peace of the world For as in times of peace we every one sit under his own vine and fig-tree every one walketh in his own calling the merchant trafficketh the trades-man selleth the husbandman tilleth and ploweth the ground and the scholar studieth so the time of persecution though it breatheth nothing but terrour is by God's grace made the accepted time to the godly and the day of salvation a day for them to work in their calling when they sit under the shadow of God's wings when they study patience and Christian resolution when they plough up their fallow ground and sowe the seeds of righteousness when they traffick for the rich pearl and buy it with their bloud when every one in his place acteth by the virtue and to the honour and glory of the Head who himself was consecrate and made perfect by sufferings We may demonstrate this to the very eye For never did the branches of the true Vine more flourish then when they were lopped and pruned never did they more multiply then when they were diminished Constantine we are told brought in the outword peace of the Church but it is plain and evident that Christianity did spread it self in Asia Africk and Europe in far greater proportion in three hundred years before that Emperour then it did many hundred years after For Persecution occasioneth dispersion and dispersion spreadeth the Gospel It is S. Hierom's observation in the life of Malchus That the Church of Christ was sub tyrannis aurea that under tyrants it was as gold tried in the fire giving forth the lustre of pure doctrine and faith Sed postquam coepit habere Christianos Imperatores but when the Emperours themselves were Christians she grew up in favour and outward state but fell short in piety and righteousness and as Cassander professeth of the Church of Rome Crescentibus divitiis decrevit pietas what she got in wealth and pomp she lost in devotion and at last grew rich in all things but good works In time of persecution and dispersion how many children were begot unto the Church When persecution was loudest then the righteous did grow up and flourish When tyrants forbad men to speak in the name of Christ then totius mundi vox una Christus then was Christ as the same Father speaketh become the voice and language of the whole world Plures efficimur quoties metimur saith Tertullian When the righteous are drove about the world and when they are drove out of the world then they multiply To conclude this So far as righteousness or the Graces of the Spirit from bringing any privilege to exempt men from persecution that through the malice of Satan and the corruption of men they are rather provocations to raise one and make Persecution it self a privilege For in the last place it cometh not by chance that the righteous are persecuted What hath Chance to do in the school of Providence No Persecution is brought towards the righteous by the providence and wisdome of a loving Father Tam pater nemo tam sapiens nemo No such Father and none so provident I say by the providence and wisdome of God which consisteth in well ordering and bringing every thing to its right end by
him in the Sacrament we many times leave our callings but to hear of him But yet all these may be rather profers then motions rather pleasing thoughts then painful strugglings with our selves rather a looking upwards then a rising cogitationes similes conatibus expergisci volentium as S. Augustine speaketh of himself in his Confessions thoughts like unto the endeavours of men half-asleep who would and would not be awaked who seem to move and stir and lightly lift up the head and then fall down fast asleep fall back again into their graves and into the place of silence Nay 3. This Speculation this naked approbation is but a dream Visus adesse mihi Christ may seem to rouze us when he moveth us not at all And as in dreams we seem to perform we do every thing and we do nothing Nunc fora nunc lites we plead we wrastle we fight we triumph we sail we flie and all is but a dream So when we have seen the Gospel as in a map when we have made a phansiful peregrination through all the riches and glories and delights it affordeth when we have seen our Saviour in the cratch led him into the High priest's hall followed him to mount Calvary seen him on his cross brought him back again with triumph from his grave we may think indeed we are risen with him But when Conscience shall begin to be enlightned and dart her piercing raies upon us and plainly tell us that we have not fasted with him that we have not watched with him that we have not gone about with him doing good that we have been so far from crucifying our flesh for his sake that we have crucified him again to fulfil the lusts thereof that the World and not Christ hath been the form that moved us in the whole course of our life that our rising hath been nothing else but deceptio visûs an apparition a phantasm a jugling and Pharasaical vaunting of our selves behold then it will appear that all was but a dream that we have seen Christ rising from the dead and acknowledged the power of his resurrection but are no more risen our selves then our pictures that we have but dreamed of life and are still under the power of Darkness and in the valley and shadow of Death For conclusion then What saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead For this is to know and feel the power of Christ's resurrection Let us not please our selves with visions and dreams with the flattery of our own imaginations Let us not think that if we have magnified the power of the Resurrection we are therefore already risen For we can never demonstrate this power till we actually rise Let Knowledge beget Practice and Practice encrease our Knowledge Let us know Christ that is obey him Let us know the power of his resurrection that is rise from the death of Sin to walk in righteousness For this is with open face to behold the glory of Christ and his Resurrection This practick and affective Knowledge maketh us one with Christ Col 3.5 Rom 6.6 Col. 3 3. 2 Cor. 5.15 giveth us a fellowship of his sufferings conformeth and fashioneth us to his death mortifieth our earthly members destroyeth the whole body of sin maketh us die with Christ and live unto Christ unto him who died for us and is risen again By this we are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 limmers nay the very pictures of the Passion and Resurrection that we may be dead to sin and alive to righteousness that we may deal with our Sin as â—â—e Jews did with Christ hate and persecute it lay wait for it send forth a band of souldiers all the strength we have to apprehend and take it drag it to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face that there may be vinegar in our tears and gall in our Repentance that we may nail Sin to the cross and put it out of ease that it live but a dying life not able to move our members more then he can his who is nailed to a tree that it faint and languish by degrees and at last give up the ghost and then that we may rise again that the good Spirit may descend from heaven and remove the many stones the many vicious habits and customs that lie heavy upon us that we may leave our graves and our grave-cloths behind us all pretenses and palliations all ties and bonds of sin and whatsoever hath any sent or savour of corruption To conclude This is truly to know Christ and the power of his resurrection And this Knowledge will melt us this liquefaction will transform us and this transformation unite us to Christ and this union will be our exultation and this exultation an everlasting jubilee In a word This will quit us of all uncertainties lead us through all difficulties and by these means we shall attain to not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full resurrection which no death no evil shall follow a Resurrection to eternity of life of bliss and glory The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS I. 10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven HEaven is a fair sight and every eye beholdeth it but without Jesus we would not look upon Heaven it self Here we have them both presented to the eye This Jesus was taken up into heaven and that tâ—â— Disciples might see it he led them out as far as to Bethany Luke 24.50 he brought them to mount Olivet to an open and conspicuous place and made them spectators of his Triumph that they might preach it to the whole world Christ was willing to imploy their sight to confirm this main Article of the Ascension But yet as Christ liketh not every touch but there is a NOLI ME TANGERE Touch me not because I am not yet ascended so there is a QUID STATIS INTUENTES a check given to the eye because he is ascended already When the cloud hath taken him up no looking after him He loveth to be seen not to be gazed after Our love he approveth but not our curiosity Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were looking stedfastly toward heaven there stood by them saith the Text two men IN ALBIS in white apparel in the same colour they saw them in at his Tomb and as there so here they came not by chance but were dispatched as messengers from heaven at once to draw the Disciples eyes from needless gazing and to confirm them in the belief of their Master's Ascension The one they do by way of Question Why stand ye gazing into heaven the other by a plain and positive
and casteth us on the ground and maketh us fome at our mouths fome out our own shame it casteth us into the fire and water burneth and drowneth us in our lusts And if it bid us Do this we do it We are perjured to save our goods beat down a Church to build us a banquetting-house take the vessels of the Sanctuary to quaff in fling away eternity to retain life and are greater devils that we may be the greater men Whilest Sin reigneth in our mortal bodies the curse of Canaan is upon us we are servi servorum the slaves of slaves And if we will judge aright there is no other slavery but this Now empti estis By the power of Christ these chains are struck off For he therefore bought us with a price that we should no longer be servants unto Sin but be a peculiar people unto himself full of good works which are the ensigns and flags of liberty which they carry about with them whose feet are enlarged to run the wayes of God's commandments Again there is a double Dominion of Sin a dominion to Death and a dominion to Difficulty a power to slay us and a power to hold us that we shall not easily escape And first if we touch the forbidden fruit we dye if we sin our sin lieth at the door ready to devour us For he saith our Saviour that committeth sin is the servant of sin obnoxious to all those penalties which are due to sin under the sentence of death His head is forfeited and he must lay it down Ye are dead saith S. Paul in trespasses and sins not onely dead as having no life no principle of spiritual motion not able to lift up an eye to heaven but dead as we say in Law having no right nor title but to death we may say heirs of damnation And then Sin may hold us and so enslave us that we shall love our chains and have no mind to sue for liberty that it will be very difficult which sometimes is called in Scripture Impossibility to shake off our fetters Sin gaining more power by its longer abode in us first binding us with it self and then with that delight and profit which it bringeth as golden chains to tye us faster to it self and then with its continuance with its long reign which is the strongest chain of all But yet empti estis Christ hath laid down the price and bought us and freed us from this dominion hath taken away the strength of Sin that it can neither kill us nor detain us as its slaves and prisoners There is a power proceedeth from him which if we make use of as we may neither Death nor Sin shall have any dominion over us a power by which we may break those chains of darkness asunder Look up upon him with that faith of which he was the authour and finisher and the victory is ours Bow to his Sceptre and the Kingdom of Sin and Death is at an end For though he hath bought us with a price yet he put it not into the hands of those fools who have no heart but laied it down for those who will with it sue out their freedom in this world For that which we call liberty is bondage and that which we call bondage is freedom Rom. 6.20 When we were the servants of sin we were free from righteousness and we thought it a glorious liberty But this Liberty did enslave us Prov. 10.24 For that which the wicked feared shall come upon him They that built the tower of Babel did it that they might not be scattered and they were scattered say the Rabbies in this world and in the world to come So whilest men pursue their unlawful desires that they may be free by pursuing them they are enslaved enslaved in this world and in the world to come But let us follow the Apostle But now being made free from sin Rom. 6.22 you are servants unto God See here a service which is liberty and liberty which is bondage the same word having divers significations as it is placed And let us sue out Liberty in its best sense in foro misericordiae in the Court of Mercy Behold here is the price the bloud of Christ And you have your Charter ready drawn If the Son make you free John 8.36 Acts 16. that is buy you with a price ye shall be free indeed Which words are like that great earthquake when Paul and Sylas prayed and sung Psalms At the very hearing of them the foundation of Hell shaketh and every mans chains are loosed For every man challengeth an interest in the Son and so layeth claim to this freedom Every man is a Christian and so every man free The price is laid down and we may walk at liberty It fareth with us as with men who like the Athenians hearken after news Whilest we make it better we make it worse and lose our Charter by enlarging it But if we will view the Text we may observe there is one word there which will much lessen this number and point out to them as in chains who talk and boast so much of freedom And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall be free indeed not in shew or persuasion For Opinion and Phansie will never strike off these chains but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really substantially free and indeed not free 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in appearance or in a dream which they may be whose damnation sleepeth not Many persuade themselves into an opinion they call it an Assurance of freedom when they have sold themselves Many sleep as S. Peter did between the two souldiers bound with these chains Many thousands perish in a dream build up to themselves an assurance which they call their Rock and from this rock they are cast down into the bottomless pit and that which is proposed as the price of their liberty hath been made a great occasion to detain them in servitude and captivity which is the more heavy and dangerous because they call it Freedom Therefore we must once more look back upon that place of S. John and there we shall find that they shall be free whom the Son maketh free So that the reality and truth of our freedom dependeth wholly upon his making us free If he make us free if we come out of his hand formed by his Word and transformed by the virtue of the price he gave for us then we shall be free indeed If we have been turned upon his wheel we shall be vessels of honour And now it will concern us to know aright what the meaning of his buying is and the manner how he maketh us free 1 Cor. 7.23 By Purchase by buying us with a price and so it is here Col. 2.14 By Taking away the hand-writing which was against us and nailing it to his cross Eph. 5.2 By Satisfaction being made a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God for us But then also
either draw it dry which is a glorious conquest or keep it in the proper chanel which was ordained for it and where it may pass with honour that so the Man may either be an eunuch for the kingdom of heaven or soli uxori masculus a man to his wife alone and so glorifie God in his frail and mortal body I would not be a Pharisee to boast but yet I know nothing by my self but that I may fling a stone at the adulterer Nor am I so much a Pharisee as to point out to that Publican at whom I should fling it I know Jess by others then I do by my self For as I see not their actions so I cannot see their heart nor what fire it is that burneth upon that Altar But yet when I see Vanity every day advance her plumes and tread her wanton measures before the Sun and the people when I read a Law that makes Adultery death and then hear some of them that made it a Law make it a jest first set up a Mormo and then laugh at it when I see men talk with their eyes and speak with their feet and teach and invite with their fingers as the Wise-man describeth it when I see those affected gestures which are the forerunners and prologues to the foulest acts when I see both men and women drest up with that advantage as if they would set themselves to sale and provoke one another not to good works but to those of darkness when I hear those evil words which corrupt good manners a verse of a Poet but sanctified and made canonical by S. Paul or rather those evil words which are the marks of the plague in the heart the symptoms and indications of a corrupted and nasty soul when I see Obscenity as well as Oaths made an ornament of speech when I observe an art and method that some use in foming out their own shame when it is become the mode of the time and he is the best Wit that is thus wanton and he the best speaker that speaketh words clothed with death when I see and hear this as who seeth and heareth it not I cannot but fear that there are more fornicators then those who are marked in the hand more Adulterers then those who die on the tree When I see men thus walk upon hot coals I cannot but think that their feet will be burned When I see this thick and fuliginous smoke I cannot but look down towards the lowest pit and say Certainly that is the place from whence it came But this is not to glorifie God in our body but to glory in our shame Nor can any light be struck out of such a Chaos nor the Glory of God be resplendent in such a sink Let us then in the next place as Julian the Apostate speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wage war with this our flesh let us deny our appetite that our lust may not be importunate let us afflict our bodie by fasting and abstinence discipline and keep them under and bring them into subjection For talk what we will of Fasting till the body be afflicted and sensible of that affliction it is no fast The fast is not complete till the body be subdued Then by the power of God we have the conquest and his is the Glory But what glory is it to him to see his image shut up and buried in a full body as in a grave what honour to see an active and immortal soul as dull and earthy as that clod of clay which incloseth it to see the work of his hands set up against him to see the body wanton and the soul which he breathed in breathe nothing but filth to see the man whom he made for life nourished up for the day of slaughter What glory can it be to him to see that which should be his Temple become a kitchin a stews I will not prescribe you the rules of Abstinence The Pythagoreans abstained from living creatures because they phansied to themselves a Transmigration of Souls the Manichees from herbs and plants because they thought that Earth it self had life Montanus gave laws of Fasting and had three Lents What mention we these who were but Philosophers and Hereticks There be that cry down Heresie and anathematize it who abstain from Flesh and from Eggs because potentially flesh and from Milk too Take heed of that that is sanguis albus white bloud saith Bellarmine This is not to fast to forbear those ordinary meats and feed on dainties But they are far worse who to confute them will have no Fast at all who make it a matter rather of dispute then practice and instead of fasting ask whether a Fast may be enjoyned or no whether the Church have power to appoint a fast whether it be not a sin to fast as the Papists do And so from non Pontificium we are even fallen to nullum from no Popish fast to no fast at all or are driven to a fast as Balaam's ass was to the wall by the terrour of the sword It will not be much material now to determine although it is soon done who hath the power of proclaiming a Fast When God is to be glorified in our bodies every man is his own Magistrate and may enjoyn himself a fast when he please and without blowing a trumpet Though he cannot work a miracle yet he may fast with Christ and may use Fasting to that end our Saviour did As Christ made it an entrance into his calling and Prophetick office so may the Christian make it a praeludium to his warfare He may fast that he may repent he may fast that he may give almes fast that God may see the conquest of the Spirit over the Flesh and glory in it If Fasting hath its magistery and operation as the Fathers speak it may be a wing to our Prayers and a nurse of our Devotion It is not it self a virtue but it is instrumentum virtutum an instrument to work out perfection The end of Christian discipline consisteth not in it but by it we are brought with more ease unto our end It is virtus animi purgativa as the Pythagoreans speak a purgative virtue that clenseth and prepareth the soul for religious endeavours sweepeth and adorneth it as a place for God's Honour to dwell in And as it cometh from the heart for a broken heart will soon proclaim a fast so it reflecteth upon the heart again and confirmeth that affection which begat it It sharpeneth our Sorrow it swelleth our Anger it enflameth our Zele it raiseth our Indignation it keepeth fresh our tears it correcteth and prepareth the body by a kind of art the body which as the Historian speaketh of the common people aut humiliter servit aut superbè dominatur must either crouch under us as a servant or will soon insult over us as a Lord. Statim ubi par esse coeperit superius erit Let it be once your equal and it will
furta fidei the thefts and pious depredations of Faith But that Faith should be idle or speechless or dead is contrary to its nature and proceedeth from our depraved dispositions from Love of the world and Love of our selves which can silence it or lull it asleep or bury it in oblivion Thus we may have Faith as if we had it not and use it as we should use the world as if we used it not or worse abuse it not believe and say it but believe and deny it not believe and be saved but believe and be damned For the Devil can haereticare propositiones make propositions which are absolutely true heretical Believe and be saved is as true as Gospel nay it is the Gospel it self but by his art and deceit many believe and are by so much the bolder in the wayes which lead unto Death believe Jesus to be the Lord and contemn him believe him to be a Saviour and upon presumption of mercy make themselves uncapable of mercy and because he saveth sinners will be such sinners as he cannot save because they believe he taketh away the sins of the world will harden themselves in those sins which he will not take away Many there be who do veritatem sed non per vera tenere maintain the Truth but by those wayes which are contrary to the Truth make that which should confirm Religion destroy Religion and their whole life a false gloss upon a good Text having a form of godliness but denying the power of it crying Jesus is the Lord but scourging him with their blasphemies as if he were a slave and fighting against him with their lusts and affections as if he were an enemy sealing him up in his grave as if he were not that Jesus that Saviour that Lord but in the Jews language that deceiver that blasphemer But this is a most broken and imperfect language And though we are said to believe it when we cannot believe it to have the habit of Faith when we have not the use of Reason and so cannot bring it forth into act as some Divines conceive though it be spoke for us at the Font when we cannot speak and though when we can speak it we speak it again and again as often almost at we speak Lord Lord though we gasp it forth with our last breath and make it the last word we speak yet all this will not make up the Dicere all this will not rise to thus much as to say JESUS IS THE LORD Therefore In the third place that we may truly say it we must speak it to God as God speaketh to us whose word is his deed who cannot lie who Numb 23.19 if he saith it will doe it if he speak it will make it good And as he speaketh to us by his Benefits which are not words but blessings the language of Heaven by his Rain to water the earth by his Wool to clothe us and by his Bread to feed us so must we speak to him by our Obedience by Hearts not hollow by Tongues not deceitful by Hands pure and innocent Our heart conceiveth and our obedience is the report made abroad And this is indeed LO QUI to speak out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make our works vocal and our words operative to have lightning in our words and thunder in our deeds as Nazianzene spake of Basil that not onely Men and Angels may hear and see and applaud us but this Lord himself may understand our dialect and by that know us to be his children and accept and reward us In our Lord and Saviour's Alphabet these are the Letters in his Grammar these are the Words Meekness and Patience Compassion and Readiness to forgive Self-denial and Taking up our cross This must be our Dialect We cannot better express our Jesus and our Lord then idiomate operum by the language of our works by the language of the Angels whose Elogium is They doe his will the Tongue of Angels is not so proper as their Ministery for indeed their Ministery is their Tongue by the language of the Innocents who confessed him to be the Lord not by speaking but by dying by the language of the blessed Martyrs who in their tumultuary executions when they could not be heard for noise were not suffered to confess him said no more but took their death on it And this is truly to say Jesus is the Lord. For if he be indeed our Lord then shall we be under his command and beck Not a thought must rise which he would controll not a word be uttered which he would silence not an action break forth which he forbideth not a motion be seen which he would stop The very name of Lord must awe us must possess and rule us must inclose and bound us and keep us in on every side Till this be done nothing is done nothing is said We are his purchase and must fall willingly under his Dominion For as God made Man a little World so hath he made him a little Commonwealth Tertullian calleth him Fibulam utriusque substantiae the Clasp or Button which tieth together two diverse substances the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other saith S. Paul are carried diverse wayes the Flesh to that which is pleasing to it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as pleasing nor irksom but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the perfection and beauty of the soul Gal. 5.17 They lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battel is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit against those inclinations and motions which the Word and the Spirit beget in us And then Sin taketh the chair the place and throne of Christ and is Lord over us reigneth as S. Paul speaketh in our mortal bodies If it say Go we go and if it say Come we come and if it say Doe this we doe it It maketh us lay down that price for dung with which we might purchase heaven See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look and the glance of an eye and bindeth him with a kiss which will at last bite like a serpent See how Self-love driveth on thousands as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword And thus doth Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it over us And in this bondage and slavery can we truly say Jesus is the Lord when he is disgraced deposed and even crucified again Beloved whilest this fighting and contention lasteth in us something or other will lay hold on us and draw us within its
peculiar precepts quibus respondere liberum est Nolo which some must keep and others may answer they will not but universal and common and binding all alike Haec obligationis nostrae ratio est secreto fidelissimo hunc thesaurum depositi commendati nobis praecepti reservare saith Hilary This is the nature and force of our obligation to God to keep his commandments and faithfully to preserve that rich treasure which he hath deposited and laid up with us and commended to our charge For In the next place not to keep covenant with God but prodigally to misspend that substance which he gave us nay not to improve it but when he cometh to ask for his Talent to shew him a Napkin is a plain Forfeiture and bringeth us in danger of the Law And though we did owe our selves before even all that we have yet we were never properly Debtors till now But now it is debitum liquidum a plain and manifest Debt because we can give no account of what we have received at God's hands For what account can he give of his Soul who hath sold it to sin What tender can he make of his Affections who hath buried them in the world What Love can he present that hath pawned it to vanity What Fear can he make shew of who lived as if God could not be angry Or how should he appear before God who is long since lost to himself For St. Augustine needed not to have retracted that speech of his UT REDDERER MIHI CUI ME MAXIME DEBEO That I might be restored to my self to whom I did especially owe my slf and changed it into this UT REDDERER DEO that I might be restored and paid back unto God unto whom alone I am due The truth is Till Man be quite lost to himself to his Reason and Obedience and all that may style him Man he is still in manutenentia Dei in the hands and power and protection of God But when Man prodigally spendeth his estate amongst harlots and breaketh his covenant with God he maketh another contract with the World the Flesh and the Devil For Sin as it is in one respect a forfeiture and bringeth us in debt so on the other side it is a contract and bargain such as it is For can we call Death and Hell a purchase What hath Luxury brought in but rottenness to my bones and emptiness to my purse What hath my Soul gained but blackness and darkness and deformity What have I for my Trust in the world but Despair in God for my Integrity and Honesty which I flung away but Wealth perhaps or Honour or Pleasures which are but for a moment Which all are but speciosa supplicia Though we look upon them as glorious and gawdy ornaments and wear them as chains about our necks yet are they but shackles and the very chains of darkness In a word what have we for the Favour of God which we slighted but a gnawing Worm and a tormenting Conscience For In the last place the Penalty followeth Qui autor legis idem est exactor He that lent me these sums cometh to require and exact them at my hands and I have nothing to give him which I may call my own but the breach of his Law and he hath power not onely to sell me to Punishment for sin and to Sin for punishment but to expose me to shame not onely to kill the body but to put both body and soul into hell The penalty cometh in close upon the breach of contracts We have not such a God in the New Testament as Marcion the heretick phansied to himself qui solis literis prohibet delinquere who giveth no further check and restraint unto sin then by letters and words that doth fear to condemn what he cannot but disapprove that doth not hate what he doth not love and who beareth with that being done which he forbad to be done No He whose voice was in the thunder This thou shalt do thundereth still Ego condo mala It is I that create all those evils which flesh and bloud trembleth at His Sword hath still this inscription SI NOLUERITIS HIC GLADIUS VOS COMEDET If you will not obey this sword shall devour you Now in Obligations between man and man the Forfeiture and Penalty are expresly set down and the Creditor cannot exact two talents where the penalty is but one but here though the penalty is exprest yet not the measure unless in those comfortless terms That they are immeasurable Which when God remitteth and forgiveth to the penitent he manifesteth his infinite Goodness but when he inflicteth it as due to him who would needs die in his debt he magnifieth his Justice And S. Augustine giveth the reason Quia meliùs ordinatur natura ut justè doleat in supplicio quà m ut impunè gaudeat in peccato Because it is far better ordered that Justice should bring the impenitent to smart in punishment then that Impunity should encourage him forever to triumph in sin And he that peremptorily will offend doth by consequent will also the punishment which is due unto him Thus he that would not give God his obedience and so pay him his own must give himself to be dragged into prison He that would not be brought under the power of the Law must be brought under the stroke of the Law He that would not once read it when it is written for our instruction and presented in a golden character with precious promises must look upon it when it is a killing letter and as terrible as Death For Divines will tell us Per peccatum homo Dei potestati non est subtractus Man though by sin he runneth away from his God yet is still in his chain and though he have put on the Devil's livery yet he is still within the verge and reach of God's power who can deliver him up to Satan and make his new master whom he serveth his goaler and executioner For the Obligation still holdeth and God hath the hand-writing against us as S. Paul calleth it Which whether we term the Decalogue with some which was written with the finger of God or our own Memory with others which is nothing else but a gallery hung round about with our own deformities or whether with Aquinas we call it the Memory of God where our sins are written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond whatsoever it is and wheresoever you place it it still looketh towards us In the Law there is horror and in God's memory our sins where they are sealed up as in a bag Job 14.17 where he keepeth them as his proofs and evidences by which he may convict us and that they may be in a readiness Lam. 1.14 hath bound our transgressions by his hands And lastly in our own memories are the very same bills and accusations which are in the register of God Nam qui peccat peccati sui
for the breach of the Law For let it once be granted what cannot be denied that we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty and culpable before God that all have sinned Rom. 3.19 and are come short of the glory of God then all that noise the Church of Rome hath filled the world with concerning Merits and Satisfaction and inherent Righteousness will vanish as a mist before the Sun and Justification and Remission of sins will appear in its brightness in that form and shape in which Christ first left it to his Church Bring in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles and deck them with all those vertues which made them glorious but yet they sinned Bring in the noble army of Martyrs who shed their bloud for Christ but yet they sinned They were stoned they were sawen asunder they were slain with the sword but yet they sinned and he that sinneth is presently the servant of sin obnoxious to it for ever and cannot be redeemed by his own bloud because he sinned but by the bloud of him in whom there was no sin to be found JUSTIFICATIO IMPII This one form of speech of justifying a sinner doth plainly exclude the Law and the works of it and may serve as an axe or hammer to beat down all their carved work and those Anticks which are fastned to the building which may perhaps take a wandering or gadding phansie but will never enter the heart of a man of understanding We do not find that beauty in their forced and artificial inventions that we do in the simple and native Truth neither are those effects which are as radiations and resultances from Forgiveness of sins so visible in their Justification by Faith and Works as in that free Remission which is by Faith alone The urging of our Merits is of no force to make our peace with God They may indeed make us gracious in his eyes after Remission but have as much power to remove our sins as our breath hath to remove a mountain or put out the fire of hell For every sin is as Seneca speaketh of that of Alexander's in killing Callisthenes crimen aeternum an eternal crime which no vertue of our own can redeem As often as any man shall say He slew many thousands of Persians it will be replied He did so but he killed Callisthenes also He slew Darius but he slew Callisthenes too And as often as we shall swell our minds and fill them with the conceit of our good deeds our Conscience will reply But we have sinned Let me adde my Passions to my Actions my Imprisonment to my Alms let me suffer for Christ let me dye for Christ But yet I have sinned Let us outgo all the ancient examples of piety and sanctity But yet we have sinned And none of all our acts can make so much for our glory and comfort as our sin doth for our reproch Our sins may obscure and darken our vertues but our vertues cannot abolish our sins For what peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel as our sins be so many Ot what ease can a myriad of vertues do him who is under arrest under a curse who if Mercy come not in between is condemned already And therefore we may observe those Justitiaries who will not build upon Remission or Not-imputation of sins how their complexion altereth how their colour goeth and cometh how they are not the same men in their Controversies and Commentaries that they are in their Devotions and Meditations Nothing but Merit in their ruff and jollity and nothing but Mercy on their death-beds nothing but the bloud of Martyrs then and nothing but Christ's now nothing but their own Satisfaction all their lives and nothing but Christ's at their last gasp Before magìs honorificum it was more honourable to bring in something of our own towards the Forgiveness of our sins but now for the uncertainty of our own Righteousness which were no whit available to a guilty person if it were certain because there is no harbour here Christ's Righteousness is called in with a Tutissimum est as the best shelter And here they will abide till the storm be over-past To conclude then Remission of sins hath no relation or dependence on any thing which is in man is not drawn on or furthered by any merit of ours but is an act of the Mercy and Providence of God by which he is pleased to restore us to his favour who were under his wrath to count us righteous who were guilty of death and in Christ to reconcile us unto himself and though he have a record of our sin yet not to use it as an indictment against us but so to deal with us as if his book were rased and so to look upon us as if we had not sinned at all Et merebimur admitti jam exclusi And we who were formerly shut out for our sin shall be led into the land of the living by a merciful and perfect and all-sufficient Mediatour It is his Mercy alone that must save us This is as the Sanctuary to the Legal offendor This is as mount Ararat to Noah's tossed Ark as Noah's hand to his weary Dove as Ahasuerus his golden sceptre to the humble penitent Come then put on your royal apparel your wedding garment and touch the top of it But touch it with reverence Bring not a wavering and doubtful heart an unrepented sin a rebellious thought with thee For canst thou touch this Sceprre in thy lust or anger canst thou touch it with hands full of bloud Such a bold irreverent touch will turn this Sceptre into a Sword to pierce thee through For nothing woundeth deeper then abused Mercy Behold God holdeth it forth to thee in his Word Come unto him all ye that are heavy laden and touch it and you are eased He holdeth it forth in his Sacrament first in the flesh of his Son and then in the signs and representations of it and here to touch it unworthily is to touch nay to embrace Death it self The woman in the Gospel came behind Christ and did but touch the hem of his garment and was healed Most wretched we saith the Father who touch him nay feed on him so oft in his Sacrament and our issue of bloud runneth still we are still in our sins our Pride as swelling our Malice as deadly our Appetite as keen our Love of the world as great as before and all because we do not touch it with reverence nor discern the Lord's body which must not be touched by every rude and unclean hand Wash you then make you clean and then as your Sins are pardoned so here your Pardon is sealed with the bloud of the Lamb. Here thou dost see thy ransome Onely believe and come with a heart fit to receive him The best enterteinment and welcome thou canst give him is a broken contrite and reverent heart a a heart
esse Caesar sed tunc maximè occidi videretur that they conceived it not as a thing done and past as if he were killed already but as if he were now under the parricides hands Certainly no blot can be great enough for injuries nor are they truly and sincerely forgiven till we are willing till we study to forget them Nemo diu tutus periculo proximus There is no long safety to be expected where danger is at hand Therefore we must in this as in all other duties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow God as the Pythagoreans counselled For if we measure our selves by our selves if we raise not the SICUT as high as our Father of whom we beg mercy we shall fail of the condition and so bring upon our selves an uncapability of pardon But to forgive freely and voluntarily to forgive sincerely and fully to take off not onely our anger from injuries but to drive them out of our memory is Divino more ignoscere to forgive as God And indeed in the next place this maketh us like unto God and investeth us with his power by which we overcome all injuries whatsoever and scatter them as dust before the wind By this we break the cedars of Libanon in pieces the tallest enemies we have by this we â—ill the raging of the sea and the madness of the people Fot who would 〈◊〉 forgive a bedlam by this we pour coals of fire upon our most obdurate enemies and melt and thaw them by this we work miracles And indeed Mercy is a great miracle For Beloved that power which we use in resistance and revenge is not power but weakness Vera magnitudo est non posse nocere verior nolle The true power by which a Christian prevaileth is seen in this not to be able to do hurt the greatest power not to be willing And if we will make a truce with our Passions and a while consult with Reason we shall soon discover that the desire to shew our power in revenge of an injury hath its beginning from extreme weakness Omnis ex infirmitate feritas saith Seneca All fierceness and desire of revenge is from infirmity and proceedeth from that womanish and brutish part of man nay from those vices which make us worse then the beasts that perish Chap. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings saith S. James from whence contentions and strifes come they not from hence even from your lusts which war in your members from Pride Covetousness Luxury Ambition and Self-love In urbe luxuria creatur saith Tully ex luxuria exsisttat avaritia necesse est ex avaritia erumpat audacia unde omnia scelera gignuntur In the city Luxury is begot and that calleth in Covetousness as a necessary supply to feed and nourish it Covetousness bringeth in Audacious and impudent behaviour and this filleth all with Bloud and Oppression Ambition giveth the stab for a lye Covetousness layeth hold on the throat for a peny Luxury will wade to pleasure though it be through bloud and Self-love maketh every look a frown every frown a blow and every blow death And this is extreme weakness and infirmity We may think indeed we have done wonders when we have laid our brother at our feet when we have put him in fetters and ript up his bowels and made him pay his debt with his bloud but in all this our glory is our shame For in this contention we never triumph till we yield When we are weak then are we strong when we suffer disgrace then are we honourable and we overcome not when we resist but when we dye By this an enemy is a friend By this saith the Father the Mother in the Macchabees priùs viscera carnifici quam verba impendit gave the executioner her bowels but not a word This restoreth what was stoln from me bringeth back what the robber taketh keepeth my name when it is most defiled as a precious ointment and maketh the day of death better then the day of my birth In a word this Deus averruncus chaseth away all evil whatsoever cancelleth all debts is a severe act and the onely antidote against Malice which cannot be overcome saith the Apostle but with good and sheweth from whence it hath its original by manifesting it self in a full and plenary forgiveness of all injury and oppression and contumely of all that cometh under the name of debt I may now seem perhaps to have stretched this Condition too far For we are very willing that God should enlarge his mercy but that ours be drawn into as narrow a compass as may be We would clip our wings to cover but a few but call upon him to spread his wings to cover all offences And therefore it is safer to stretch the condition then to contract and confine it because we are so ready transilire lineas to leap over the bounds which are set us and so take line and liberty to exact some debts and at last break loose upon all and when our revenge hath its full swinge say we seek but our own I had rather therefore tell you what you may not do then what you may And if you shall ask me whether it be not lawful in some cases to fetch back and exact your own I shall say as St. Augustine do of Time If you ask me once I can tell you but if you ask me again I can give you no answer For I fear such a question proceedeth from an evil disposition which would fain break its bounds For can Charity ask how far she may molest a brother and be Charity Would Mercy which should run like a river and overflow to refresh every dry place seek out inventions to divert or dam up her self Shall we strive to make the condition easier which in respect of the promise would be very easie though it were much harder then it is But yet by this I neither strike the sword out of the Magistrate's hand nor make the Laws of men void and of no effect For the Condition here is put in respect of injuries For though it be far better I should lose my coat then revenge my self because by the law of equity no man can be judge in his own cause yet let the Magistrate restore my coat to me and the act is not revenge but justice Justice saith Plutarch accompanieth God himself and breatheth revenge against those who break his Law which men also by the light of nature use against one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are citizens and members of a body politick This SICUT therefore this Condition is laid down to order and compose our minds to the pardon of those wrongs which are offered to our private persons but it bindeth not the Judge who is a publick person and standeth in the midst as it were between two opposite sides to draw them together and make them one again to use his power not onely rescindendo peccatori to cut of the wicked
the glory of that to encourage us in the way Righteousness is the way and we must first know what it is before we can seek it And it is not at such a distance that we cannot easily approch it It is not in heaven that we should ask what wings we should take to flie unto it neither is it beyond the sea that we should travel for it Non nos per difficiles ad beatam vitam quaestiones vocat Deus saith Hilary God doth not hide himself and bid us seek him he doth not make darkness a pavilion about that Righteousness which he biddeth us seek but he hath brought it near unto us and put it into our very mouths and hearts and as he brought immortality and eternal life to light so he hath also made the way unto it plain and easie so that no mist can take it from our eyes but that which we cast our selves no night can hide it from us but that which our lusts and affections make It is a good observation of Seneca the Philosopher Nullius rei difficilis inventio nisi cujus hic unus inventae fructus est invenisse God hath so settled and ordered the course of things that there is nothing very hard to find out but that of which after all our labour we can reap no other fruit but this that we can say we have found it out Quod supra nos nihil ad nos as Socrates was wont to say Those curious speculations which are above us and out of our reach commonly pay us back nothing for that study and weariness of the flesh which we undergo in the pursuit of them but a bare sight and view of them which may bring some delight perhaps but no advantage to our minds As Favorinus in Gellius well replied to a busie and talkative Critick Abundè multa docuisti quae quidem ignorabamus scire haud sanè postulabamus Sir you have taught us too too many things which in truth we are ignorant of but of that nature that we did not desire to know them because they were of no use at all So many questions there have been started in Divinity which have no relation to righteousness or to the kingdom of God which we study without profit and may be ignorant of without danger And when men stand so long upon these they grow faint and weak in the pursuit of Righteousness lose the sight of that which they should seek whilest they seek that which profitteth not as the painter who had spent his best skill in painting of Neptune failed in the setting forth of the majesty of Jupiter In hoc studio multa delectant pauca vincunt as the Philosopher speaketh In the study of Divinity we may meet with many things which may touch our thoughts with some delight but the number of those is not great which will forward and promote us to our end Righteousness is the object here the way and who understandeth it not whose mouth is not full of it The very enemies of Righteousness know it well enough and bear witness to it but through the corruption of mens hearts it cometh to pass that as sometimes we mistake one object for another set up Pleasure for an Idol and Mammon for a God so we do many times not so much mistake as wilfully misinterpret that which is proposed unto us as most fit and worthy of our desires When the duty is hard and frighteth us with the presentment of some difficulty proposeth something which our flesh and sensual appetite distasteth and flyeth from then malumus interpretari quà m exsequi we had rather descant and make a commentary upon it then fully express it in the actions of our life and conversation As the Etrurian in the Poet bound living and dead bodies together so do we joyn that Righteousness which is indeed the way to the Kingdom of God to our dead and putrified conceits to our lukewarmness to our acedy and sloth nay to our sacriledge and impiety to our disobedience and want of natural affection to our high contempt of God's Majesty Or as Procrustes delt with his guests upon his bed of iron we either violently stretch it out or cut it shorter in some part or other that if our actions cannot apply themselves to it it may be brought down and racked and forced to apply it self to our actions If Righteousness excludeth Superstition yet it commendeth Reverence and even Idolatry it self shall go under that name It forbiddeth the love of the world but it biddeth us labour with our hands and this labour shall commend our tormenting care and solicitude and make Covetousness it self a vertue It dulleth the edge of revenge and maketh my anger set before the Sun but it kindleth my zeal and that fire shall consume the adversary Thus we can be righteous and Idolaters we can be righteous and Covetous we can be righteous and yet wash our feet in the bloud not of our enemies but our Brethren we can be what we will and yet be righteous and that is Righteousness not which the wisdom of God hath laid before us as our way but that which flesh and bloud shall set up with this false inscription Holiness to the Lord. And our weakest nay our worst endeavours though they stretch beyond the line or though they will not reach home but come far too short yet we call them by this name and they must go for Righteousness Not the way we should but the way we do walk in though it be out of the way though it lead to death that is the way We can take God's honour from him and do it with reverence we can be covetous and not love the world we can breathe forth the very gall of bitterness and spit it in our brother's face and yet be meek So what Hilary speaketh in another but the like case is most true Multi fidem ipsi potiùs constituunt quà m accipiunt Many there be even too many even the most who rather frame a religion to themselves and call it Righteousness then receive one What they will is Righteousness and what is Righteousness they will not cùm sapientiae haec veritas sit interdum sapere quae nolis when this is the greatest part of true wisdom to be wise against our selves against the wisdom of our flesh to condemn our appetite and our phansie of extreme folly when they put in for their share and would divide with righteousness To be wise against this wisdom is to be wise unto salvation to make haste to that object not which flattereth our sense but which is most proportioned to our reason to seek that which we would not have the streight and narrow and rugged way which leadeth to this Kingdom to seek the Truth though it imprison us and bind us to a stake Temperance though it wage war with our appetite Chastity though it shut up our eyes Self-denial though it take us from our selves and in
then evident that it is one thing to say that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us another that faith is imputed for righteousness or which is the very same our sins are not imputed unto us Which two Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not-imputation of sin make up that which we call the Justification of a sinner For therefore are our sins blotted out by the hand of God because we believe in Christ and Christ in God 1 Cor. 1.30 That place where we are told that Christ of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification is not such a pillar of Christ's Imputed righteousness in that sense which they take it as they phansied when they first set it up For the sense of the Apostle is plain and can be no more then this That Christ by the will of God was the onely cause of our righteousness and justification and that for his sake God will justifie and absolve us from all our sins and will reckon or account us holy and just and wise not that he who hath loved the error of his life is wise or he that hath been unjust is righteous in that wherein he was unjust or he that was impure in that he was impure is holy because Christ was so but because God will for Christ's sake accept receive and embrace us as if we were so Unless we shall say that as we are wise with Christ and holy and righteous so with Christ also we do redeem our selves For he who is said to be our righteousness is said also to be our redemption in the next words I would not once have thought this worth so much as a salute by the way but because I see many understand not what they speak so confidently and many more and those the worst are too ready to misapply it are will be every thing in Christ when they are not in him and well content he should fight it out in his own gore then they though they fall under the enemy in him may be styled conquerours Why should not we content our selves with the language of the Holy Ghost That certainly is enough to quiet any troubled conscience unless you will say it is not enough for a sinner to be forgiven not enough to be justified not enough to be made heir of the kingdom of heaven But yet I am not so out of love with the phrase as utterly to cast it out but wish rather that it might either be laid aside or not so grosly misapplied as it is many times by those presumptuous sinners who die in their sins If any eye can pierce further into the letter and find more then Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not imputation of sins for Christ's righteousness sake let him follow it as he please to the glory but not to the dishonour of Christ let him attribute what he will unto Christ so that by his unseasonable piety he lose not his Saviour so that he neglect not his own soul because Christ was innocent nor take no care to bring so much as a mite into the Treasury because Christ hath flung in that talent which at the great day of accounts shall be reckoned as his So that men be wary of those dangerous consequences which may issue from such a conceit quisque abundet sensu suo let every man think and speak as he please and add this Imputation of Christ's righteousness to this which I am sure is enough and which is all we find in Scripture Forgiveness and Not-imputation of sins and the Imputation of faith for righteousness I pass then to this Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith which indeed is properly called Evangelical Righteousness because Christ who was the publisher of the Gospel was also authour and finisher of our Faith And here we may sit down and not move any further and call all eyes to behold it and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is it Nec curiositate opus est post Jesum Christum When Christ hath spoken and told us what it is our curiosity need not make any further search The Righteousness of faith is that which justifieth a sinner Rom. 1.17 For the just shall live by faith or as some render it the just by faith shall live Mar. 9.23 If thou canst believe saith our Saviour and Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 16.31 and thou shalt be saved and thy houshould saith S. Paul to the Gaoler Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to these waters yea come buy wine and milk without money or money-worth I doubt not but every man is ready to come every man is ready to say I believe Lord help my unbelief But here it fareth with many men as it doth with those who first hear of some great place fallen unto them but afterwards find it is as painful as great The later part of the news sowreth and deadeth the joy of the former and the trouble taketh off the glory and dignity Believe and be saved is a messuage of joy but Believe and repent or Repent and believe is a bitter pill But we must joyn them together nor is it possible to separate them they both must meet and kiss each other in that Righteousness which is the way to the Kingdom of God It is true Faith is imputed for righteousness but it is imputed to those who forsake all unrighteousness Faith justifieth a sinner but a repentant sinner It must be vera fides quae hoc quod verbis dicit moribus non contradicit a faith which leaveth not our manners and actions as so many contradictions to that which we profess Faith is the cause and original of good actions and naturally will produce them and if we hinder not its casuality in this respect it will have its proper effect which is to Justifie a sinner This effect I say is proper to Faith alone and it hath this royal prerogative by the ordinance of God but it hath not this operation but in subjecto capaci in a subject which is capable of it In a word it is the Righteousness of a sinner but not of a sinner who continueth in his sin It is a soveraign medicine but will not cure his wounds who resolveth to bleed to death For to conceive otherwise were to entitle God to all the uncleanness and sins of our life past to make him a lover of iniquity and the justifier not of the sinner but of our sins Christ was the Lamb of God which took away our sins John 1.29 And he took them away not onely by a plaister but also by a purge not onely by forgiveness but also by restraint of sin He suffered those unknown pains that we should be forgiven and sin no more not that we should sin again and be forgiven He fulfilled the Law but not to the end that we should take the more heart break it at pleasure and adde rebâ—â—lion to rebellion because
he hath put a pardon into our hands We must therefore seek out another Righteousness And we may well say we must seek it for it is well near lost in this Imputed Righteousness is that we hold by and Inherent righteousness is Popery or Pâ—lagianism We will not be what we ought because Christ will make us what we would be We will not be just that he may justifie us and we will rebell because he hath made our peace As men commonly never more forfeit their obedience then under a mild Prince But if the love of the world would suffer us to open our eyes we might then see a Law even in the Gospel and the Gospel more binding then ever the Law was Nor did Christ bring in that Righteousness by faith to thrust out this that we may do nothing that we may do any thing because Faith can work such a miracle No saith S. Paul he establisheth the Law He added to it he reformed it he enlarged it made it reach from the act to the look from the look to the thought Nor is it enough for the Christian to walk a turn with the Philosopher or to go a Sabbath-day's journey with the Jew or make such a progress in Righteousness as the Law of Moses measured out No Christ taught us a new kind of Righteousness and our burthen is not onely reserved but increased that this Righteousness may abound a Righteousness which striketh us dumb when the slanderer's mouth is open and loud against us which boundeth our desires when vanity wooeth us setteth a knife to our throat when the fruit is pleasant to the eye giveth laws to our understanding chaineth up our will when Kingdoms are laid at our feet shutteth up our eyes that we may not look upon a second woman which a Jew might have embraced calleth us out of the world whilest we are in the world and maketh us spiritual whilest we are in the flesh Justitia sincera a sincere Righteousness without mixture or sophistication and justitia integra an entire and perfect Righteousness Righteousness like to the love of our Saviour integros tradens integrum se danti a Righteousness delivering up the whole man both body and soul unto him who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world For conclusion of this point and to make some use of it Beloved this is the Object we must look on And we must use diligence and be very wary that we mistake it not that we take not that to be our Juno which is but a cloud that to be Righteousness which flesh and bloud our present occasions our present necessities our unruly lusts and desires may set up and call by that name This is the great and dangerous errour in which many Christians are swallowed up and perish not to take Righteousness in its full extent and compass in that form and shape in which it is tendered and so fulfil all righteousness but to contract and shrink it up to leave it in its fairest parts and offices and to vvork all unrighteousness and then make boast of its name And thus the number of the Righteous may be great the Goats more then the Sheep the gate vvide and open that leadeth unto the Kingdom of God Thus the Hypocrite vvho doth but act a part is righteous the Zelote vvho setteth all on fire is righteous the Schismatick vvho teareth the seamless coat of Christ is righteous he whose hands yet reek vvith the bloud of his brethren is righteous righteous Pharisees righteous Incendiaries righteous Schismaticks righteous Traitours and Murtherers not Abel but Cain the righteous All are righteous For this hath been the custom of vvicked men to bid defiance to Righteousness and then comfort themselves with her name We vvill not mention the Righteousness of the heathen For they being utterly devoid of the true knowledge of Christ it might perhaps diminish the number of their stripes but could not adde one hair to their stature or raise them nearer to the Kingdom of God Nor will we speak of the Righteousness of the Jew For they vvere in bondage under the Elements of the world nor could the Lavv make any of them perfect We Christians on vvhom the Sun of Righteousness hath clearly shined depend too much upon an Imputed Righteousness An imputed Righteousness why that is all It is so and will lift us up unto happiness if we adde our own not as a supplement but as a necessary requisite not to seal our pardon for that it cannot do but to further our admittance For we never read that the Spirit did seal an unrighteous person that continued in his sin to the day of his redemption No Imputed Righteousness must be the motive to work in us inherent Righteousness and God will pardon us in Christ is a strong argument to infer this conclusion Therefore we must do his will in Christ. For Pardon bringeth greater obligation then a law Christ dyed for us is enough to win Judas himself those that betray him and those that crucifie him to repentance The death of Christ is verbum visibile saith Clement a visible word For in the death of Christ are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Righteousness If you look upon his Cross and see the inscription JESUS OF NAZERETH KING OF THE JEWS you cannot miss of another HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE LORD There hung his sacred body and there hung all those bracelets and ornaments as Solomon calleth them those glorious examples of all vertues There hung the most true and most exact pictures of Patience and Obedience and unparallel'd Love And if we take them not out and draw them in our selves imputed Righteousness will not help us or rather it will not be imputed What Righteousness imputed to a man of Belial Christ's Love imputed to him that hateth him his Patience to a revenger his Truth to the fraudulent his Obedience to the traitour his Mercy to the cruel his Innocency to the murtherer his Purity to the unclean his Doing all things well to those who do all things ill God forbid No let us not deceive our selves Let us not sleep in sin and then please our selves with a pleasant dream of Righteousness which is but a suggestion of the enemy whose art it is to settle that in the phansie which should be rooted in the heart and to lead us to the pit of destruction full of those thoughts which lift us up as high as heaven Assumed names false pretences forced thoughts these are the pillars which uphold his kingdom and subvert all Righteousness Vera justitia hoc habet omnia in se vertit True Righteousness complieth with nothing that is contrary or diverse from it It will not comply with the Pharisee and make his seeming a reality it will not comply with the Schismatick and make his pride humility it will not comply with the prosperous Traitour and make him a Father of his
nudam a common and naked will or rather a faint and feeble desire or a forced approbation of Righteousness but it is of a poisonous nature and infecteth the whole soul and at last leaveth not so much as an inclination lameth and cripleth us and turneth our weak desire to Righteousness into a strong resolution against it At first we applaud the precept as just and we think we are bound to do it nay perhaps faintly determine to betake our selves to action but as water taken from the fire groweth colder and colder and at last by some circumsistent cold is congealed into ice so this resolution waxeth fainter and fainter and in the end per frigus tentationum as Gregory calleth it by the chill cold of some tentation is bound up and we who before had Righteousness in our wish have it not now in all our thoughts but set all the powers of our soul against it If the will be not chearful it is not Angelical it is no will at all Again it must be Constant as also the Angels is They are pictured out unto us in those mystical Wheels Ezek. 1. to shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their perpetual and constant motion and in the shape of Young men to express the vigorous force and continual instauration of their obedience For an Angel cannot wax old or weary and faint He doth not minister to day and to morrow slack his obedience is not to day an Angel of light and to morrow a devil but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constant and immoveable in his ministerial office which is his Righteousness So should our will to Righteousness be constant and ever the same not a good intention and then flag We must not have those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immutations and reflexions in our proposals and desires which Nazianzene observed in Julian the Apostate to night passing a just sentence and the next morning reversing it not to day fasting and to morrow thirsting after bloud not setting the knife to our own throats now and anon to our brothers heri in ecclesia hodie in theatro yesterday in the Church and to day in the theatre now humbling our selves and within a while swelling above measure For if we have these ebbings and flowings in our pursuit of Righteousness now swelling towards it anon falling back it is manifest we never sought it Quae modò sunt modò non sunt is qui verè est non acceptat saith the Father He that is truly and everlastingly doth not accept of those desires which now are and anon are not of those fits in devotion those transitory offers which like some creatures appear not but at some times of the year For if we look towards Righteousness if we begin to move towards it and some black or smiling tentation strike as it were the hollow of our thigh and put our desires out of joynt that they either move not at all or move irregularly we may flatter our selves that we are still in our quest after Righteousness but indeed we are posting to the gates of death Did I say our will should resemble the will and motion of Angels Our seeking of Righteousness should be like Gods seeking of us which is real and hearty and ever the same For he would save us when we will perish and it is not he but we that in a manner alter his decrees change his counsels reverse his purposes break his promises For how oft would he and we would not We talk much of God's decrees I am sure he hath decreed it shall be to us even as we will If we will be saved he is ready to crown us But if instead of Righteousness we seek death in the errour of our life if we will perish we perish but it is against his first and primitive will which was serious and without dissimulation to save us And such should our wills be to Righteousness For if we can flatter our selves and think that God will be content with our faint desires and feeble wishes we cannot in any reason expect any other comfort from him then that he should tell us that he also did desire our salvation did wish that we would be wise If we pretend we are willing to be gathered into his garner what other answer can he give but this Oh how oft would I have gathered you and you would not How willing was I to have set the crown of glory upon your heads which yet I will not do against your wills Oh that there were that proportion and analogy which is meet and which even common reason requireth between our desire of Righteousness and God's desire of our Happiness between his will to do us good and our will to do our duty Oh that we were as willing to be righteous as he is we should be glorious What a shame is it that he should bow the heavens and come down and we run into holes and caverns and with Dathan and his complices bury our selves quick in the earth for so every covetous man doth saith Origen that he should appear in his glory and beauty and we should dote on that which is of near alliance to the worm and rottenness for so every lustful man doth that he should look upon us and woe us in our bloud and we wallow still and not once look up upon him for this every unrepentant sinner doth that he should wait and we delay that he should bid us live and we love death that he should be sorry for our sin and we triumph in our sin that he should long and we lothe that his bowels should yern and our hearts be stone that Righteousness should spread her beams display all her beauty and we turn away from it and joyn our selves with Deformity and Death that God should bid us seek him and we should seek Bethel and Gilgal the vanities of the world which shall come to nought This this is it which will draw the hand-writing against us in capital letters and be as terrible as Hell it self That we may then raise our desires and level them with the Object that we may not deceive our selves and think we seek Righteousness when our desires are carried another way let us as the Stoicks admonish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 check and stay our phansie prove and examine it by the right rule By this men may know you are my disciples saith our Saviour and by this you may know you do indeed seek Righteousness First there will be in us a sense and feeling of vacuity The fuller we are of Righteousness the more sensible we are of want Nor do any more earnestly seek it then they who have made it theirs and hold it as it were in possession I have not yet attained saith S. Paul when he had attained but I press forward The Pharisee is ever full but to the righteous ever something is wanting And this putteth a difference between our spiritual
us be sure to keep our condition and God will make good his promise It is not our great care for them our early rising or late sitting up our sweating and thronging and bustling in the world that bringeth them in Christ's method certainly is the best nor can Wisdom it self erre The best and surest way to have these things is not to seek them not too earnestly to ask them For when our Saviour telleth us all these things shall be cast in upon us he chalketh out unto us the true way to make our selves possessours of them and in effect telleth us that if we ask as Solomon did we shall be rewarded as Solomon was When God 1 Kings 3. had said to Solomon Ask what I shall give thee and Solomon had asked onely an understanding heart to discern between good and evil Because saith God thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked for thy self long life or the life of thy enemies lo I have done according to thy words Thou hast thy desire But I will do more then this and give thee that which thou askedst not even riches and honour so that among the Kings there shall be none like unto thee all thy dayes Here then is the true method though little followed in the world of prevailing with God for temporal blessings As when Jacob had got him Leah and Rachel to be his wives Laban gave him Zilpah and Bilhah as handmaids to wait on them a gift which Jacob never requested so doth God give some blessings like to Leah and Rachel principal and excellent blessings some he addeth like Zilpah and Bilhah earthly blessings of an inferiour and baser nature as handmaids and attendants on the former If we sue unto him for the former for Leah and Rachel the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness he will give us the later Zilpah and Bilhah these earthly things these handmaids and servants to Piety though we never ask them I know it is a hard matter to persuade the world of the truth of this doctrine For what is Righteousness to the world Is it not as an art teaching not to be rich not to be great not to thrive in proportion to the rest of the world As S. Peter telleth us there would come mockers who should ask Where are the promises of his coming and Do not all things continue alike since the creation so there may be who will ask Where is this promise of adding these things made good to the righteous Is it not with them as it is with other men nay is it not worse with them then with any men Is any man poor and are not they poor Is any man weak and are not they weak Is any persecuted and are not they persecuted Are they not spoiled every day of these things and are they not spoiled because they are righteous We must then remove some errours which are like motes in the eyes of common Christians that they cannot see God's hand open and pouring down blessings even these things upon them 1. We are too prone to mistake the nature and quality of God's promises When he telleth us he will adde these things we presently conceive that he will come down unto us in a showre of gold that he will open the windows of heaven and fill our garners that he is obliged by this promise to exempt us from common casualties to alter the course of things for our sakes and when Poverty cometh towards us as an armed man to fight against it and tread it down under our feet when common calamities overflow as an inundation to provide for us an Ark as he did for Noah to flote in till the waters abate But the promise of God giveth us no ground thus far to presume Nor is there any way of avoiding common casualties but by preparing our selves to bear our part As the sword devoureth so poverty seizeth on one as well as an other Nor is it any new thing in the world to see that Lazar at the rich man's door who within a while shall be in Abraham's bosom Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord shall deliver him out of all This comfort the righteous have above all the world beside that in all general deluges of Famine Captivity Pestilence God doth extraordinarily take care of those which are his and that in such a manner as the world useth not to do When his own people were led into captivity the Psalmist telleth us Psal 106.46 that he gave them grace and favour in the eyes of their enemies and made all those who had led them away captive to pity them which was to make them mighty and victorious in their chains When the Goth had taken Rome he gave security by publick proclamation to all those who fled into the Temples of the blessed Apostles and made it death for any man to molest them In which example S. Augustine justly triumpheth and challengeth all the ethnick Antiquity of the world beside to shew where ever it was heard that the Temples of the Gods did give security to those who fled unto them And then he maketh it evident that all the distress and infelicity which befel the city of Rome at the time of sacking it was but out of the common casualties and custome of war but all the graces and mercies by which men found refuge and security came onely for righteousness sake and through the power of the name of Christ In these common miseries therefore which befal Cities and Common-wealths we may easily read not so much this edict of the Goth as the proclamation of God himself Touch not mine anointed Psal 105.15 and do my prophets no harm God can make good his promise when it seemeth to be broken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can find out means when all mens inventions fail He doth more then we can challenge when he seemeth to do less then he doth promise and sometimes secretly but alwayes most certainly is as good as his word 2. Many times this promise is made good unto the righteous when yet his present misery weakeneth his faith so and so dulleth its eye that he perceiveth it not For as the Jews would not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive Christ because he came not in that pomp and state in which they expected their Messias so if God come not home to our desires we are ready to think that his hand is shortned or that he hath withdrawn himself Whereas we ought to consider that be it little or much that he affordeth us it is sufficient to make good his promise For that a righteous man thriveth at all that he hath any footing in the world is meerly from God and not the will of the world For the righteous man like Scaeva must stand up against a whole host He hath the Prince of this world and all that is in the world for his enemy And if God should permit them once to their proper
in evil as from Gods Grace in good proceed both the Will and the Deed. For when this Persuasion is wrought in us when by degrees we have lessened that honour and detestation of Sin which God hath imprinted in the mind of every man when we have often tasted those delights which are but for a season when this false inscription From hence is our gain hath blotted out the true one The wages of Sin is Death for we seldom take down this sop but the Devil enters when either Fear of inconvenience or Hope of gain hath made us afraid of the Truth and by degrees driven us into a false persuasion and at last prevailed with us to conclude against our own determinations and to approve what we condemn then every part of the body and faculty of the soul may be made a weapon of unrighteousness then we rejoyce like giants to run our race though the way we go be the way that leads unto Death Good Lord what a world of wickedness may be laid upon a poor thin and groundless Persuasion What a burden will Self-deceit bear What mountains and hills will wilfull Errour lie under and never feel them Hamor and Shechem must fall by the sword Gen. 34.26 and their whole city must be spoyled and what 's the ground Nothing but a mongrel Persuasion made up of Malice and Religion vers 31. Should he deal with our Sister as with an harlot Joseph must be sold and what 's the reason Behold the dreamer cometh Absalom would wrest his fathers sceptre out of his hand What puts him in arms Ambition and that which commends Ambition a thought that he could manage it better Oh that I might do justice King and Nobles and Senators all must perish together at one blow For should Hereticks live Holy things must be devoured For should Superstition flourish Such inconsequences and absurdities doth Self-deceit fall upon having no better props and pillars to uphold her then open Falshood or mistaken or misapplied Truth For as we cannot conclude well from false premisses so the premisses may be true and yet we may not conclude well For he that saith Thou shalt not commit adultery hath said also Thou shalt not kill He that condemns Heresie hath made Murder a crying sin He that forbids Superstition abhorreth Sacrilege All that we call Adulterers are not to be slain All that we term Hereticks are not to be blown up All that is or seems to be abused is not presently to be abolished For Adulterers may be punished though not by us Hereticks may be restrained though not by fire and things abused may be reserv'd and put to better uses And yet see upon what a Nothing this Self-deceit upholds it self For neither were they all adulterers that were slain by those brethren in evil nor were they Hereticks who were to be blown up nor is that Superstition which appears so to them whom the prince of this world hath blinded Oh what a fine subtle webb doth Self-deceit spin to catch it self What a Prophet is the Devil in Samuels mantle How do our own Lusts abuse us when the name or thought of Religion is taken in to make up the cheat How witty are we to our own damnation O Self-deceit from whence art thou come to cover the earth the very snare of the Devil but which we make our selves his golden fetters which we bear with delight and with which we walk pleasantly and say The bitterness of death is past and so we rejoyce in evil triumph in evil boast of evil call evil good and dream of paradise when we are falling into the bottomless pit Secondly this Self-deceit which our Apostle forbiddeth hath brought an evil report upon our Profession upon Christianity it self there having scarce been found any of any Religion who have so wilfully mistaken and deceived themselves in the rules of their Profession as Christians Christianity is a severe Religion and who more loose then Christians Christianity is an innocent Religion and full of simplicity and singleness and who more deceitful then Christians The very soul of Christianity is Charity and who more malitious then Christians The Spirit that taught Christianity came down in the shape of a Dove and who more vultures then Christians What an incongruity what a soloecism is this The best Religion and the worst men Men who have learnt an art to make a Promise overthrow a Precept and one precept supplant another sometimes wasting and consuming their Charity in their Zeal sometimes abating their Zeal with unseasonable Meekness now breaking the second Table to preserve the first and defying the image of God in detestation of Idolatry now losing Religion in Ceremony and anon crying down Ceremony when all their Religion is but a complement Invenit diabolus quomodo nos boni sectationibus perdat saith Tertullian By the deceit of the Devil we take a fall many times in the pursuit of that which is good and are very witty to our own damnation What evasions what distinctions do we find to delude the precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles As it hath been observed of those God-makers the Painters and Statuaries of the Heathen that they were wont to paint their Goddesses like their mistresses and did then think them most fair when they were most like that which they most loved so hath it been with many professors of Christian Religion they temper the precepts of it to their own phansie and liking they lay upon them glosses and interpretations as it were colours to make them look like unto that which they most love So that as Hilary observes quot voluntates tot fides there be as many Religions as there be Tempers and Dispositions of men as many Creeds as Humours We have annuas menstrnas fides We change our Religion with our Almanach nay with the Moon and the rules of Holiness are made to give attendance on those sick and loathsome humours which do pollute and defile it If I will set forth by the common compass of the world I may put in at shore when my vessel is sunk I may live an Atheist and dye a Saint I may be covetous disobedient merciless I may be factious rebellious and yet religious still a religious Nabal a religious Schismatick a religious Traytor I had almost said a religious Devil For this saith S. Paul the name of Christ is evil spoken of that worthy Name as S. James calleth it by those who by our conversation should be won to reverence that Name For this that blessed Name is blasphemed by which they might be saved Omnes in nobis rationes periclitantur that I may use Tertullians words though with some change We are in part guilty of the bloud of those deceived Jews and Pagans who now perishing in their errour might have been converted to the faith had not the Christian himself been an argument against the Gospel It might well move any man to wonder that well
a seed which may be sown in any ground and will grow up even in Epicurus his garden Who deny'd indeed the Providence but not the Foreknowledge of God as thinking the events and motions of things on earth rather below his care then out of his sight And though he had the confidence to deny the Administration he had not the power to deny the Nature of God In a word it is a principle of Nature written in our hearts by the finger of God himself and we must first loose our selves before we can blot it out And yet as undeniable as it is S Peter foretells that there will come mockers in the last times even mockers of God And the words here are not a bare negative proposition and no more but a silent reprehension and being urged and preached as it were a plain intimation that some there might be who deceiving themselves in their religion would take courage at last to question a principle of Nature Psal 10. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud under his tongue is mischief and vanity saith David and then it follows in the close God hath forgotten he hideth his face Ezek. 9.9 and will never see it nor require it The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great and the land is full of bloud and the city full of perversness for they say The Lord hath forsaken the earth and the Lord seeth not Psâ—l 53.1 They say as the fool doth in his heart There is no God say it rather by rote as that they would have then make an article of their faith For none believe that there is no God but they for whom it were better there were none indeed None believe he doth not see but those who do those works of darkness which he cannot look upon but in anger May we then conclude that there be some who attempt to cosen God as the Cerarians did their Jupiter who think they can bâ—ffle him and put a trick upon him obtrude dross for silver and a gilded sin for true holiness and righteousness A hard saying this who can bear it Yet such no doubt there are and we have just cause to fear not a few who are secretly possest of such a phansie For this their folly is manifested unto all men as the Apostle speaketh And it shews it self 1. in vita hominum in mens Lives 2. in votis hominum in the Wishes of wicked men 3. in studio in their Desire and Study to make themselves believe it And first if we look into the lives and conversations of men we shall find the whole course and order thereof to be nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of scene and as it were an action upon a stage What masks and disguises do they put on and all populo ut placeant that they may deceive the people who indeed are delighted with shews and will swallow down any pill be it to their own ruine and destruction if it be gilded over with a fair pretense who cannot think themselves wise but by being constant or rather stubborn fools Thus first they deceive and mock themselves then they deceive and mock others come forth in this shew and saint-like majesty as Herod in his royal apparel that they may be taken for Gods not Men. And now they dare tell any Prophet in the world though they peradventure will not call him Blessed of the Lord that they have fulfilled the Commandment of the Lord. For having gained this applause they tread their measures with more state and majesty they begin to feel themselves to be those persons whom they did present as Quintilian observes of some Players that they put on that affection which they were but to express and went weeping off the stage Now they are Holy now they are Just now they are Defenders of the faith and by degrees work in themselves a belief that God also is of their opinion delighted in shews and apparitions And therefore in this habit which at first they did put on but for a purpose they commend themselves to God himself like the Pantomime or Dancer in Seneca who because he pleased the people well was wont every day to go up into the Capitol and dance before Jupiter and thought he did the God great pleasure in it Did I say this folly was seen in the course of mens lives You may think it is rather hid there It is true but so hid as the Bee was in the gumme latet lucet hid but so hid that with half an eye we may see it well enough For the Hypocrite though he carry on his actions with that art and subtle continuance as if he would deceive the eyes of the Sun and of Justice yet some one thing or other there will be which shall discover and unmask him I have performed the commandment of the Lord said Saul to Samuel And Samuel said 1 Sam. 15.13 What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear I am just and holy saith the Hypocrite what meaneth then this loud Oppression this raging Malice this devouring Covetousness which are as the bleating of the sheep and lowing of the oxen to discover all and make this Angel of light as full of horrour as the Devil himself And as it is seen in close and painted iniquity so is it most visible in open profaneness in those sins which we commit before the Sun and the people And in these we do not so much mock God as laugh him to scorn think that he will keep siâ—ence at our Oaths shut his eyes at our uncleanness fall asleep whilest we watch whole nights in prodigious intemperance and be at last a Father of mercy to those rebellious children which defie him to his face Such Mockers the world is full of These Locusts swarm and cover the face of the earth and corrupt the whole land Quae regio in terris What corner of the earth is there where these do not quarter Look into the Court there the King is the Preacher and his example a lasting Sermon I doubt not but there be many who do sub larva servire aulae as Nazianzene spake of his brother Caesarius who wait upon the King to do service to the King of Kings and make their place here but a step to a better in heaven Yet if we may prophesie in the Kings Court we may discover some who by their colour and complexion do not make shew as if they had lived so near the Sun or wiâ—hin the beams and influence of so resplendent an example Look into the Camp I cannot think but there be many there qui sub paludamento alterius alteri militant who in their coat-armour serve the Lord of Hosts and so live as those that fight his battels But are there none whose very words are clothed with death and whose swords are instruments of violence
born of the spirit is spirit And herein is the excellency of those Comforts which we gather in this Paradise the Word of God above those we rake up in the wilderness the vain and vast inventions of the world First they are more general As the light they shine from one end of the world to the other upon the whole Microcosm the whole little world of Man upon the whole mass of Evil and body of sin Nothing no evil is hid or removed from the light and influence of them They reach David in his flight and they reach him in his bed of tears They refresh the Lazar at the Gate and they refresh the Sinner at the mouth of Hell They raise us from the dunghill and when sin hath taken hold of us they lift up our head Some faint and shallow comforts even the Heathen found out and that but for some miseries but here is an amulet against all These comforts do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ruine round the whole army of miseries and defeat them all A wounded spirit who can bear And a wounded spirit what Philosopher could ever cure What Gilead what balm had they to heal it Being without this Word they were without God in the world They hung as it were upon a cross tormented as it were between these two Fear of punishment and a miserable Ignorance how to avoid it between some light and utter darkness The medicine which must cure a wounded spirit is to be found not in schola Platonis in Plato's School but in portica Solomonis in the Porch of Solomon in the Temple in the Word of God where he is manifested in whom all the treasuries of Comfort and Peace are hid the Mediatour Christ Jesus Rom. 5.10 who died to reconcile us to God Secondly comforts drawn from Scripture are solid and true being built upon a surer foundation upon the unchangeable and everlasting will of God who as he hath made us fit for such impressions obnoxious and liable to all those evils which either he sends or permits to fall upon us so he hath also fitted and proportioned a salve for every sore a remedy for every evil and hath made our selves the elaboratories and assemblies to extract and distill them He hath made us both the patients and physicians and hath directed us to this Garden of Eden this fruitful seed-plot the Scripture even to this Tree of Life whose leaves are to heal the Nations The Philosophers Comforts were like their Virtues faint and void of life but paper-comforts begotten either by meditation or by a continual habit of sufferings by abandoning all natural affections by comparing a less evil with a greater They had lost something but retained something still by comparing of Times the present with the future It is now evil it will be better and so leaping over their misery and carryed beyond it on the wings of Hope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a word by Example by the End by fatal Necessity by Continency and Chance which are but idols and so Nothing in this World These were their Topicks a thin and bare shelter for a man to repose himself in when the Storms of misery beat upon him But the Word of God which is his Will and Mind evermore attended with his Omnipoteny chafeth them all away as the Sun doth a mist pulls out the sting of Death and the sense of every evil makes Afflictions the messengers and angels of God sent and commanded and directed by him swayed and governed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his hand of Providence 1 Cor. 10.13 which first tempers them to our strength and then maketh them as the weapons of righteousness to destroy Sin and such evils as prevent a greater evil for we are therefore chastned that we may not be condemned 1 Cor. 11.32 and lastly makes them in this span of time this moment work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory These are the Divine Topicks or rather Demonstrations The Goodness the Wisdom the Providence of God are Premisses aeternae veritatis eternally and unchangeably true And out of them if we depend upon them we can draw no other Conclusion but Comfort Other comforts are but phantasmes and apparitions these are Angels Others are but as lightning dammicant exstinguuntur they are exstinguisht in the very flash These are those Everlasting Burnings which never go out Others are as deceitful as the Serpent which suggests them like the forbidden fruit We take them that we may not dye and we dye by taking them But these are as God himself True as he is true and lasting as he is lasting Other waters soone are turned into bloud but this reteins both its colour and nature and springs up into everlasting life And thus you see what a store-house of Comfort what a paradise the Scripture is But yet we must be very careful how we gather Comforts from thence and how we apply them And we must fit and prepare our selves to receive them The Wisdom of God is the best guide but it will not sustein him who delights to walk in slippery places The Providence of God reacheth unto all but it will not protect him who loveth danger His Mercy is over all his works but it will not cover a stubborn unrepentant sinner As Jehu said to Jorams Horsman What hast thou to do with peace So what comfort can the foolish man find in the Wisdom the careless in the Providence or he that is cruel to himself in the Mercy of God yet God remains still the same the wise the provident the merciful God the Holy One of Israel When we need Comfort here it is to be found but it will not fit every one that needs it It is the property of men in any perplexity to seek for ease and comfort si non inveniant facient if they find none they will frame some to themselves and cull out that part of Scripture which will not fit them as men in distress will lay hold on that which will not help them There be very few Rachels in the world that will not be comforted the most either seek out false Comforts or apply true ones falsly and so make that their poyson which well and rightly applyed would have been an antidote Judas would not make use of rich and pretious balm of Mercy yet how many misapply it and so break their necks and forfeit their souls and fall into the same place into which he did Many will not say what St. James says they ought to say If the Lord will we will do this or that and yet will do what the Lord hateth upon this presumption that he wills it How many walk safely under the Canopy of Gods Providence and how many doth their Presumption tumble down when they think they are under it How many will not be wise nor provident how many are ungracious upon no other motive then this that Gods Wisdom and
with admiration then it speaketh nay it cryeth unto the Lord. When S. Paul was caught up into paradise and heard those unspeakable words which he could not utter his admiration supplyed that defect and was as the lifting up of his voice unto God For what is a Miracle if it be not wondered at Or is it fit a Miracle should pass by us as a shadow unregarded Is it fit that that which was done for us men and for our salvation should not move us so much as those common things which are done before our eyes every day that we should be little affected with that Gospel which was thus confirmed by signs and wonders that nothing should be wonderful in our eyes but that which is not worth a thought For what is that we wonder at Even that from which we should wean our affection we wonder at those things in the pursuit of which we our selves become monsters We wonder at Wealth and are as greedy as the Horseleach We wonder at Beauty and become worse then the beasts that perish We wonder at Honour and are those Chamelions that live on air We have mens persons in admiration Jude 16. and make our selves their Horse or Mule which they may ride at pleasure We wonder at Power and become stocks or stones and have no more motion of our own then they These appear to us in glory these dart their beams upon us and we are struck with admiration But mirabilia legis the wonderful things of the Law the wonderful things of the Gospel we scarce open our eyes to behold them and but faintly desire God to do it for us His wonderful counsel in sending his Son we do but talk of The mystery of our Redemption is hidden still God's eternal will that is our sanctification we scarce spare an hour to think on his precepts are not in so much esteem as the statutes of Omâ—i What a glorious spectacle is a clod of earth and what a Nothing is Heaven Behold these are the wonderful things of Christ To unite God and Man to tye them together by a new covenant to raise dust and ashes to heaven this is a great miracle indeed To draw so many nations and people to the obedience of faith to convert rich men by poor learned men by illiterate and by those whom they persecuted and put to death so that they brought in their riches and honours and usual delights and laid them down as it were at the feet of those poor instructers whom they counted as the off-scouring of the world To make not onely his Precepts but the Meekness the Patience the Silence the very Death of his Professors as so many Apostles and Messengers to win them to the faith this if we did truly consider and weigh as we should would busie and intend our thoughts and raise and improve them into that amazement and admiration which would joyn us to that innumerable company of just men and make us of the number of those who shall be saved Many things saith Hillary Christ hath done for the sons of men the blessed effect of which is open as the day though the cause be bid and where Nature comes short Faith steps forward and reacheth home In his quoque quae ignoro non nescio Even in those which my understanding is too narrow to receive I am not utterly ignorant but walk by faith and admire that vvhich my good Master doth and yet vvill not let me know It is no miracle no mystery at all vvhich deserveth not admiration Secondly by her lifting up her voice and blessing the womb that bare Christ vvhich vvas a kind of adoration for Admiration had not so shut up her devotion and love but that it vvas vocal and reverent vve are taught to magnifie our Saviour vvith the Tongue and Hand and Knee and every member vve have as David speaketh For these also have their voice and vve may confess Christ not onely vvith the tongue but vvith our adorations and genuflexions and those outward expressions vvhich are equivalent to it Auditur philosophus dum videtur Though he hold his peace yet the Philosophers very gesture is a lecture of morality Therefore where we read that Man was made a living soul Gen. 2.7 the Chaldee renders it factus est in spiritum loquentem He was made a speaking soul to speak the praises of his Maker with every faculty and part he hath For as God made both Body and Soul so he requires both the inward devotion of the one and the outward expressions of the other a Soul saith Isidore which may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by its operative devotion call down God from heaven and in her self frame the resemblance of his presence and a Body which may make that devotion and love visible to the very eye It is S. Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5. â—3 that God would sanctifie them wholly that the soul and body may be blameless in the day of the Lord that Holiness might be as an impression which from the soul might work upon the body and give force and motion to the whole man This is to sanctifie them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in part but all of them not to sprinkle but to baptize them with holiness Profanus and non integer are the same in Tertullian and it is profaneness not to give God all Athanasius makes the Soul as a Musician and the Body which consists of the Tongue and other members as a Harp or Lute which she may tune and touch till it yield a celestial harmony a song composed of divers parts of Spirit and Flesh of Soul and Body of every faculty of the soul and every part of the body must accord with the elevation of the soul Certainly a sweet note But then the lifting up of the voice mends it and makes it far more pleasant An ejaculation from the Soul yea and the sound thereof from the Tongue and Hands and Knees a holy Thought yea and a zealous and reverent depottment these make a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks perfect and complete Otherwise as the Poet spake of the beggar half wrotten and consumed he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an half-strung and half-tuned instrument Look back unto former and purer times and you shall see Devotion visible in every gesture in their Walking in their sitting in their Bowing in their Standing up you shall hear it in their Hymns and Psalms in their Hallelujahs and Amens which were saith Hierome as the voice of many waters or as a clap of thunder You shall hear the Priest blessing the people and the people echoing it back again unto the Priest the Priests praying and the people answering the Priests which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Antiphones or Responsals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us stand decently They did spake it and they did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us stand with the
us to bliss But when the Will is subdued and made obedient to the Truth then Gods precepts which are from heaven heavenly fill the soul with a joy of the same nature not gross and earthy but refined and spiritual a joy that is the pledge and the earnest as the Apostle calls it of that which is to come When the Will is thus subject and framed and fashioned according to the rule and pattern which God hath drawn it cloths it self as it were with the light of heaven which is the original of this chast delight Then what a pearl is Wisdome what glory is in poverty what honour in persecution what a heaven in obedience Then how sweet are thy words unto my tast Psal 119.103 yea sweeter then honey unto my mouth saith David In quibus operamur in illis gaudemus for such as the work is such is the joy A work that hath its rise and original from heaven a work drawn out according to the law which is the will of God begun in an immortal soul and wrought in the soul promoted by the Spirit of God and the ministery of Angels and breathing it self forth as myrrh or frankincense amongst the children of men will cause a joy like unto it self a true and solid joy having no deceit no carnality no inconstancy in it a beam from heaven kindled and cherisht by the same Spirit a joy which receives no taint nor diminution from those sensible evils which to those that keep not Gods word are as Hell it self and the onely Hell they think of but giving a relish and sweetness to that which were not evil if we did think it so making Poverty Disgrace and Death it self as fewel to foment and increase it upholding us in misery strengthning us in weakness and at the hour of death and in the day of judgment streaming forth into the ocean of eternal Happiness Blessedness invites attends and waits upon Obedience and yet Obedience ushereth it in being illix misericordiae it inviteth Gods Mercy and draws it so near as to bless us and it makes the blessing ours not ex rigore justitiae according to the rigour of justice as I call that mine which I buy with my money For no obedience can equal the reward And what can the obedience of a guilty person merit but ex debito promissi according to Gods promise by which he hath as it were entailed Blessedness on those who hear his word and keep it Hebr. 6.10 and God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love Oh let neither our obedience swell and puff us up as if God were our debtor nor let us be so afraid of merit as not to keep Gods word Let not our anger against Papists transform us into Libertines and let us not so far abominate an errour in judgment as to fall into a worse in practice let us not cry down Merit and carry a Pope nay Hell it self along with us whithersoever we go Let us not be Papists God forbid And God forbid too that we should not be Christians Let us rather move like the Seraphims which having six wings covered their face with the uppermost Isa 6.2 and not daring to look on the majesty of God and covered their feet with the lowest as acknowledging their imperfection in respect of him but flew with those in the midst ready to do his will Let our obedience be like unto theirs Let us tremble before God and abhor our selves but between these two let the middle wings move which are next to the Heart and let our hearty Obedience work out its way to the end For conclusion Let us not look for Blessedness in the land of darkness amongst shades and dreams and wandring unsetled phantasmes Phansie is but a poor petard to open the gates of heaven with Let us not deceive our selves To call our selves Saints will not make us Saints to feign an assurance will not seal us up to the day of redemption Presumption doth but look towards Blessedness whilst Disobedience works a curse and carries us irrecoverably into the lowest pit What talk we of the imputed righteousness of Christ when we have none of our own what boast we of Gods grace when we turn it into wantonness The imputed righteousness of Christ is that we stand to when we are full of all iniquity and this we call appearing in our elder brothers robes and apparel that as Jacob did we may steal away the blessing Thus the Adulterer may say I am chast with Christs chastity the Drunkard I am sober with Christs temperance the Covetous I am poor with Christs poverty the Revenger I am quiet with Christs meekness he that doth not keep his word may keep his favour and if he please every wicked person may say that with Christ he is crucified dead and buried As Calvisius Sabinus in Seneca thought he did do himself what any of his Servants did if his servant were a good Poet he was so if his servant were well-limb'd he could wrestle if his servant were a good Grammarian he could play the Critick And so if Christ fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights we fast as long though we never abstain from a meal If Christ conquered the devil when he tempted him we also are victorious though we never resist him If Christ opened not his mouth when he was haled to the slaughter we also are as sheep though we open our mouth as a sepulchre And therefore as Seneca speaks of that rich man Nunquam vidi hominem indecentius I never saw a man whose Happiness did less become him so most true it is This obedience is but an unbeseeming garment because it had no other artificer but the Phantasie to spin and work and make it up Beloved if we keep God's word he will keep his and impute righteousness to us though we have sinned and come short of the Glory of God! What talk we of applying the promises which he may do who is an enemy to the cross of Christ If we keep his word the promises will apply themselves And indeed applying of the promises is not a speculative but a practick thing an act rather of the Will then of the Understanding When the Will of man is subject to the will of God this dew from heaven will fall of it self Vpon them that walk according to the rule shall be mercy and peace and upon the Israel of God To conclude If we put on the Lord Jesus if we put him on all his Righteousness his Obedience his Love his Patience that is if we keep his word he will find his Seal upon us by which he will know us to be his and in this his likeness he will look upon us with an eye of favour bless us here with joy and content and so fit and prepare us for everlasting blessedness at the end of the world when he shall pronounce to all that have kept his word that blessed
must put on incorruption this mortal must put on immortality There will be caro reformata angelificata as Tertullian speaks our flesh will be new refined and angelified so in our Conversion and Regeneration there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a kind of transmutation or transfiguration 2 Cor. 3.18 We are transformed into the image of Christ For God who hath made us after his own image will have us reformed unto the likeness of his Son As the Flesh then so the soul must be reformata angelificata refined and angelified or rather Christificata Christified having the same mind which was in Christ Jesus For we are no further risen nisi in quantum caeperimus esse Angeli but so far forth as we begin to be like unto the Angels but so far forth as we have that admonishing S. John speaks of and are like unto Christ Where their is no change 1 Jo. 2.20 there is no rising Whilst our bed is in the darkness whilst Corruption is our father and the Worm our mother and sister we cannot be said to be risen And whilst all the alliance we have is with the World whilst it is both father and mother and sister unto us whilst we mind earthy things we are still in our grave nay in Hell it self and Death devoureth us For let us call the World what we please our kingdome our place of habitation our delight yet indeed it is but our grave Will you now see a Christian rising He rises fairly not with a Tongue which is a sword and a Mouth which is a sepulchre but with a Tongue which is his glory and a Mouth full of songs of thanksgiving not with a gadding eye but an eye shut up by covenant not with an itching but with an humble ear not with a heart of stone but with a heart after Gods own heart And as in the Resurrection of the body unde videtur perdidisse quod erat inde incipit hoc apparere quod non erat from whence he doth seem to have lost that which he was from thence he begins to appear to be that which he was not So no change no resurrection It is a gross errour and deceives many and keeps their heart dead within them as a stone to think they are risen when they are bound hand and foot both dead and buried to think they are up and walking when alass they are in their grave As the Philosopher speaks of ignorant and self conceited men that they might have proved men of understanding had they not thought that they had already atteined unto knowledge so many who profess the name of Christ might have also risen with Christ but for a groundless conceit that this is a business of quick dispatch and that as Hymeneus and Philetus said their resurrection is past already The rising of the thought the raising of the voice the lifting up of the hand the elevation of the eye every inclination every profer every weak resolution is with them a Resurrection But this is as we vulgarly speak to rise on the wrong side And therefore In the third place as our Resurrection so our Regeneration must be universal of every part Quid est resurrectionem credere nisi integram credere saith Tertullian We do not believe the Resurrection if we do not believe it to be entire and of every part of that part which is bruised and of that part which is cut off Detruncatio membri mors membri The maiming or detruncation of any member is the death of the member and the body must be restored and revived in those parts which are dead So that to be raised from the dead is to be made a whole man Blind Bartimaeus must have his eyes Mephibosheth his legs and John Baptist his head again or else we cannot call it a Resurrection So it is in our rising with Christ The whole man must be renewed the man of God must be made perfect to every good work and be presented unblameable and unreproveable in Gods sight with an understanding enlightened and a heart renewed with holy desires and clean hands and sanctified lips which make us as it were the integrity of his parts In the common affairs of the world many times we do things by halves we begin to build and cannot make an end we send our hopes afar off and fall short in the way that we follow them we propose to our selves a mountain and when we have done all it is but a mole-hill because many cross accidents like so many Sanballats come in between to hinder our work And yet nevertheless though we cannot finish it we may be said to have begun it and to have done something But here in our Regeneration in our Rising with Christ there can no cross accident intervene All the hindrance is from the perversness of our own wills And therefore in this work nothing is done if any thing be left undone If we end not we begin not and if we rise not in every part in every faculty of our souls we are not risen Non vult nisi totam qui totam fecit He that made the whole soul will have it all If it be not restored in every part God hath no part in it There be say the Schools particulares voluntates particular habits particular dispositions and particular wills to some kind of virtues Some are born Eunuchs saith our Saviour Some are chast not merciful Some are liberal not temperate Some have a quick ear and but a heavy hand Some can hear and speak and walk peradventure a Sabbath-days journey and yet we cannot say they are risen For these particular operations are not natural but artificial not the actions of a living soul but like unto the motions of that artificial body which Albertus made not proceeding from any life within us but formed as it were by certain wheels and engines by Love of a good name by outward Respects by a Desire to bring our purposes about and the like This is not generalis but portionalis resurrectio a portional a particular an half resurrection indeed as good none at all This is not Gods manner of raising us Deus cùm liberat non partem aliquam liberat sed totam liberat saith S. Augustine When God raiseth us he raiseth not a part but he raiseth all His voice is Lazare veni foràs Lazarus come forth not the body alone but the soul also and not one faculty of the soul but every power of it that is the whole man all Lazarus For if any part of Lazarus yet savour of rottenness and corruption we cannot say that Lazarus is risen Let us not deceive our selves He that is risen with Christ stands not as Solomon was pictured by an Archbishop half in heaven and half in hell but his conversation is in heaven and he is raised far above all principalities and powers above the power of darkness and the
respect of himself but not of the precepts of Christ It trod down the Man but not the Christian under its feet It devoted the Honour and Repute and Esteem which he had in Christs Church to his brethren but not his Soul I could wish to be accursed to be Anathema i. e. to be in esteem as a sacrilegious person who for devouring holy things is Anathema cut off and separated from the society of men to suffer for them the most ignominious death for so the word doth often signifie to be separate from Christ from the body and Church of Christ and of his Apostle and Embassadour to be made the off-scouring of the world the most contemptible person on earth a spectacle to God and to men and to Angels And this could not but proceed from an high degree and excess of Love Love may break forth and pass over all privileges honours profits yea and life it self but it never leaves the Law of God behind it For the breach of Gods law is his dishonour and love if it be spiritual and heavenly is a better methodist then to seek to gain glory to God by that which takes it away at the same time to cry Haile to Christ and crucifie him It was indeed a high degree of the Love of Gods Glory and his brethrens salvation which exprest this wish here from the Apostle and which brought him into this strait but his wish was not irregular and his Doubt was not of that nature but he could make himself away to escape and did resolve at last against himself for the Glory of God and for the good of his brethren For the Glory of God first That that must be the first the first mover of our Christian obedience For though there be other motives and we do well to be moved by them the Perfecting of our reason the Beautifying of the Soul and the Reward it self yet this is first to be looked upon with that eye of our faith wherewith we look upon God Heaven is a great motive but the Glory of God is above the highest Heavens and for his Glories sake we have our conversation there We do not exclude other motives as unfit to be lookt upon For it is lawful saith Gregory for a Christian remunerationis linteo sudores laboris sui tergere to make the sight of the reward as a napkin to wipe off the sweat of his brows and comfort the labour of his obedience with hope But the chief and principal matter must be the Glory of God The other ends are involved in this sicut rota in rota as a wheel within a wheel a sphere within a sphere but the Glory of God is the first compassing wheel which must set all the rest a working We must neither live nor dye but to God's glory The Glory of God and our Happiness run round in the same cord or gyre but the Glory of God is primum mobile still on the top And then our Love to God comes nearest and hath the fairest resemblance to the Love God hath to us whose actions are right in themselves though they end in themselves whose glory is the good of his creature In a word he that loveth God perfectly cannot but deny himself neglect himself perish and be lost to himself but then he riseth again and is found in God whilst he thinks nothing but of him whilst he thinks he is loved of him and thus lives in him whilst he is thus lost Amor testamentum amantis Our Love to God should be as our last will and testament wherein we deliver up all to him our whole life on earth and some few years which we might have in heaven to him we thus love To this high pitch and unusual degree of love our Apostle had attained What is his desire but to be with Christ Oh for the wings of a Dove for he cannot be with him soon enough But then the desire of Gods Glory stays him in his flight and deteins him yet longer among the sons of men to make them the sons of God and so to glorifie God on earth And this inclination to glorifie God is in a manner natural to those who are made partakers of the Divine nature and the neerer we come to the nature of God the more do we devote and surrender our selves for his glory We will do any thing suffer any thing for the glory of God In the next place This Love of Gods Glory hath inseparably united to it the Love of our brethrens Good For wherein is Gods Glory more manifested then in the renewing of his image in men who are filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the glory and praise of God It is true Phil. 1.11 the Heavens declare the Glory of God But the glory of God is not so resplendent in the brightest Star in the Sun when he runneth his race as in the New creature in Man transformed by the renewing of his mind There is Gods image nay saith Tertullian his similitude and likeness There he appears in glory There is Wisdome his Justice his Mercy are displayed and made manifest There his glory appears as in his holy Temple For as the Woman is the glory of the Man in being subject to him so are we the glory of God when we are Deiformes when our Will is subject and conformed to him when our Will is bound up in his Will For then it may be said that God is in us of a truth shining in the perfection of beauty in those graces and perfections which are the beams of his in our Meekness and Liberality and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering which are the Christians Tongue and Glory and do more fully set forth Gods praise then the tongues of Men and Angels can do Thus Gods Glory is carried along in the continued stream and course of all our actions Thus doth it break forth and is seen in every work of our hand and is the eccho and resultance of every word we speak The eccho of every word nay the spring of every thought which begat that word and work Now to improve the Glory of God in his brethren to build them up in their most holy faith and upon that foundation to raise that Holiness and Righteousness which are the fairest representations of it did S. Paul after that contention and luctation in himself after he had lookt upon that place which was prepared for him in heaven and that place of trouble and anxiety to which he was called on earth determine for that which was not best for himself but most fit and necessary to promote Gods glory by the furtherance of the Philippians faith And thus as every creature doth by the sway of Nature strive to get something of the like kind something like unto it self as Fire by burning kindles and begets it self in every matter that is combustible so doth every true Disciple of
this they did contradict themselves who brought in their Wiseman sensless of pain even on the rack and wheel When the Body is an unprofitable burden unserviceable to the Soul oportet educere animam laborantem we ought to do drive the Soul out of such an useless habitation Cum non sis quod esse velis non est quod ultrà sies When thou art what thou shouldst be there is no reason thou shouldst be any longer Quare mori voluerim quaeris En quia vivam Would you know the reason why I would dye The onely reason is because I do live These were the speeches of men strangers from the common-wealth of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those who were without without Christ and so without God in this world But the Christian keeps his station and moves not from it injussu Imperatoris but when the Lord of all the world commands who hath given us a Soul to beautifie and perfect with his graces but hath not given us that power over it when it is disquieted and vexed as he hath given to the Magistrate over us if we offend and break the peace of the common-wealth Qui seipsum occidit est homicida si est homo He that kills himself is a murderer and homicide if he be a man And he that thus desires death desires it not to that end for which it is desireable to be with Christ but to be out of the world which frowns upon him and handles him too roughly which he hath not learnt to withstand nor hath will to conquer This desire is like that of the damned that hills might cover them and mountains fall on them that they migâ—â— be no more No this desire of S. Paul is from the heaven heavenly drawn from that place where his conversation was wrought in him by the will of God and bowing in submission to his will a longing and panting after that rest and sabbath which remains after that crown which was laid up for him And this Desire filled the hearts of all those who with S. Paul loved God in sincerity and truth in whom the Soul being of a divine extraction and like unto God and cleaving and united to him had a kind of striving and inclination to the things above and was restless and unquiet till it came to rest in him who is the centre of all good Here they acted their parts in the world as on a stage contemned hated reviled it trod it under foot and longed for their exit to go out Vae mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est saith David Wo is me that I sojourn in it any longer So Elias who could call down fire from heaven give laws to the clouds and shut and open heaven when he would cryes out unto God It is enough Take away my life for I am not better then my fathers And this affection the Gospel it self instills into us in that solemn Prayer Thy kingdome come wherein we desire saith Tertullian maturius regnare non diutiùs servire to reign in heaven sooner and not to stay longer and serve and drudge upon the earth Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death this whole state and generality of sins of Calamities and those evils which the world swarms with life brings along with it So Pharaoh speaking of the Locusts which were sent Intreat saith he the Lord your God to take away this death from me This desire that vvas in S. Paul in some degree possesseth the heart of every regenerate person and is nourished and fomented in them by the operarion of the blessed Spirit as a right spirit a spirit of Love vvorking in us the Love of God and as a spirit of Peace filling our hearts vvith Peace making our conscience a house of Peace as the Ark of God as the Temple of Solomon where no noise was heard We love Christ and would be there where his honour dwelleth our conscience is at rest and we have confidence in God Now first to love God is not a duty of so quick despatch as some imagin It is not enough to speak good of his name to call upon him in the time of trouble to make laws against those which take his name in vain to give him thanks for that he never did and will certainly punish to make our boast of him all the day long For do not even hypocrites and Pharisees the same But to love him is to do his will and keep his commandments John 17. By this we glorifie him I have glorified thee on earth saith Christ and the interpretation follows I have finished the work thou gavest me to do that is I have preached thy law declared thy will publisht both thy promises and precepts by the observation of which men may love thee and long after thee and be delivered from the fear of death Idem velle idem nolle ea demùm est firma amicitia then are we truly servants and friends to God when we have the same will when we have no will of own The sting of Death is sin and there is no way to take it out to spoil this King of terrour of his power but by subduing our Affections to our Reason the Flesh to the Spirit and surrendring up our wills unto God Then we dare look Death in the face and ask him Where is thy terrour Where is thy sting God loves them that love him nay he cannot but love them bearing his Image and being his workmanship in Christ And he that is thus loved and thus loves cannot but hasten and press forward and fly like the Doves as the Prophet speaketh to the windows of heaven It is a famous speech of Martin Luther Homo perfectè credens se esse haeredem Dei non diu superstes merueret A man that perfectly and upon sure grounds doth believe himself to be the child and heir of God would not long survive that assurance but would be swallowed up and dye of immoderate joy This is that transformation and change by which our very nature is altered Now Heaven is all and the World is Nothing All the rivers of pleasures vvhich this world can yield cannot quench this love What is Beauty to him that delights in the face of God what is Riches to him vvhose treasure is in heaven vvhat is Honour to him vvho is candidatus Angelorum vvhose ambition is to be like unto the Angels This true unfeigned Love ravisheth the soul and setteth it as it were in heavenly places This makes us living dying men nay dead before we depart not sensible of Pleasures which flatter us of Injuries vvhich are thrown upon us of Miseries vvhich pinch us having no eye no ear no sense no heart for the world vvilling to loose that being which vve have in this shop of vanities and to be loosed that vve may be with Christ Secondly this Love of God and this Obedience to his will
Church and we grope as in darkness and follow meteors and illusions and false lights That we should read of Joseph's Chastity and be caught with every smile of Mose's Meekness and storm at every breath that crosseth us of Job's Patience and when calamity is but in the approch roar as upon a rack of Paul's Beating down his body and pamper ours of Paul's Keeping a good conscience and lay down ours at every beck That we should read of the acts of so many Saints and do contrary and yet hope to be as good Saints as they That we should do the works of the Father of lyes and yet call him our Father who is the Good of Truth Beloved if we look upon the command we shall find that every man should be a Joseph a Moses a Job a Paul For it looketh alike upon all The same Law bindeth us the same reward inviteth us the same promises allure us the same heaven openeth to receive us if we obey Our God is the same and we are the same and heaven is the same Our great mistake is that we conceive that a demensum a certain measure of saving and sanctifying grace is given to every man and so no man can be better then he is that God hath set a bound to Piety as he hath done to the Sea Hitherto it shall go and no further Hereupon we lye down and comfort our selves and turn the grace of God into wantonness as if it were our duty not to be the best and God would take it ill at our hands if we were as good as S. Paul Be not deceived We are called here to follow S. Paul not as Peter did Christ a far off but to come up close to him as near as we can in all holiness and righteousness to stretch our endeavours to the farthest and with him to press on towards the mark We may come too short it is impossible we should exceed For though there be degrees of Holiness and the Saints as the Stars differ from each other in glory yet his light will soon be put out that maketh it not his ambition to be one of the greatest magnitude If we come short God will accept us but not if we fall short because we thought it as needless as troublesom to mend our pace consulting with flesh and bloud which soon concludeth It is enough and will teach us to ask our selves that unprofitable question What should we be as good as S. Paul Fear not It is no presumption to follow Paul in all the wayes of holiness it is no presumption to exceed him Not to follow him and expect the same crown is great presumption But to strive to follow him to the highest pitch is that holy Ambition which will fit our heads for a diadem And it was his wish whilst he was on earth that every man were as he was except his bonds To conclude then Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise in any Saint let us think on these things Let us chew and digest and turn them into good bloud let us shape and fashion them in our hearts till they break forth into the like actions that we acting the Saints and following them here on earth may with them follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth that our good works by which we resemble them whilest we live may follow us when we are dead and make us like unto the Angels of heaven blessed as they are and blessing God for evermore But so it is Good examples glitter in our eyes and we look up and gaze upon them as little children do upon a piece of gold which they are ready to exchange for a counter We are swift enough to follow the Saints of God in their errours and deviations but are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill expressers of their piety and religion And there is as great danger in their examples where they betray themselves to be men as there is profit where they are led by the Spirit of God Therefore S Paul putteth in a Caution commendeth Imitation but limiteth it exhorteth the Corinthians to follow him but withall restraineth them with a SICUT Be ye followers of me but even as I also am of Christ My last Part Of which briefly Those things which degenerate are so much the worse by how much the more useful they had been if they had been levelled by the rule Therefore in Imitation besides the Persons we must also consider What it is we must imitate in them We must no farther follow them then they do the Rule Ut in pessimis aliquid optimi ita in optimis aliquid pessimi saith St. Hierom. The best men are not priviledged from sin and errour And as in the most men there is some good thing though clouded with much corruption so in the best Saints of God there may be something amiss though scarcely seen because of the splendor of those many vertues with which it is incompassed For as many vices do darken one single vertue so many vertues may cast a colour upon some one sin and errour and make it in appearance fair and beautiful even like unto them and commend it to our imitation Here then is need of a SICUT of a Caution and Limitation For proclivis malorum imitatio Men are too prone to follow that which is evil especially where the person by his other better endowments not onely palliateth but addeth authority to his fault or errour Examples of famous men are like unto two-edged swords which cut deep both wayes both for the good and for the bad Against good examples we too oft hold up some buckler of defence that they may not reach us but evil examples we receive toto corpore with an open body and with a willing mind and are well pleased they should wound us unto death The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many times of good men those actions which fall from them by chance or inadvertency we are more ready to take out then their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the works which made them famous to all the world and canonized them for Saints Saepe vitium pro exemplo est If there be any thing irregular in them that we set up for a patern and example Tully telleth us of Fusius that he fell short of those sinews and strength of eloquence which was in Caius Fimbria and atteined nothing but a bad gesture and the distortion of his countenance And Quintilian observeth that there were many in his time who thought they had gained a Kingdom in Eloquence if they shut up every period and clause with esse videatur But that is most remarkable which Gregory Nazianzene relateth of divers who were admirers of Basil that they did imitate in their behaviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his corporal defects and blemishes his paleness
them nay the very same the Faith that must qualifie and prepare us for Christ's second coming must be like his coming full of glory and power must shake the powers of the Grave must awake those that sleep must demolish Sin must make us like unto Christ not onely in his passion but also in his rising from the dead must be to us as the trump of God to call us out of our graves not fides inermis a weak and unarmed faith which hath neither buckler nor sword which can neither defend nor strike a stroke but is well content to stand by and see our Saviour fight it out but fides pugnax a faith armed against the day of trial that can fight it out against principalities and powers and against all the fearful signs which shall be set up and fides vincens a faith that overcometh the world and the love of the world and fides triumphans a faith that every day triumpheth over Sin and the Devil maketh a shew of them openly and manifesteth it self to God to Angels to men This Faith hath a clear and strong eye and can look upon these terrible signs By this faith Christ doth dwell in our hearts and if Christ dwell there Ephes 3.17 he bringeth with him courage and resolution How fit is he to behold the Sun darkned who hath this light in him to see the falling of the Stars who hath this bright Morning-star fixed in his heart And what if the world end if he be with him who is the Begining and the End This Faith will make us fit to behold any object will settle us in the knowledge of the providence of God of which we had before but certain confused notions little better then dreams This Faith is like the Emperour 's large Emerald in which he beheld wars and ruine slaughter and desolation whose colour tempered the object and made it appear less terrible then it was This Faith heareth a voice from heaven speaking to the whole host and army of calamities to all these fearful signs which shall usher in the end of the world as David did concerning Absalom Do the young man no harm Do my anointed my peculiar people no harm In a word this Faith will stay with us will wait and attend us in the midst of all this tumult and confusion And when the powers of heaven are shaken and the elements melt with fire and the world is ready to be dissolved it will bring us good news of help at hand Fear you not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. For this Faith alwaies bringeth with it Repentance which is another end why we are called upon to behold these things For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that long-suffering of God's which calleth us to repentance improveth and increaseth the means as we increase our hardness The more heavy our sleep is in sin the more noise and stir God maketh to awake us After we have spent our estate amongst harlots and fed with swine yet if we return he will receive us If we will not behold and consider him when he shineth upon our tabernacles yet if we fall down before him when these signs appear when he cometh with a tempest round about him then he will receive us When the world regardeth us not when it frowneth upon us when it is ready to be dissolved yet if we return he will receive us In wars and rumours of wars when the Sun is darkened and the Moon turned into bloud yet if we return he will receive us Never was the world so full of wickedness as in this last age of it for as our forefathers went before us in time so do we before them in iniquity And therefore were there never greater means to reclaim it So that this time of judgement is a time of mercy wherein Mercy even whilest Justice holdeth up the sword whilest she is striking spreadeth her wing and waiteth till we come under the shadow of it And these signs if we will behold them as we should and make them so may be signs of the dissolution of the body of Sin as vvell as of the frame of the Universe For the long-suffering of God is repentance saith S. Peter and will bring forth the fruits of it if it be not abused and hindered And the destruction of a sinner is never so absolutely decreed by God but that there is still hope of recovery even then when his foot is upon the very brink of death and desolation Let him then pull back and return to his God and he shall find that with him there is mercy and plentiful redemption Behold I have told you before And I have told you that you may behold and consider it that you may excutere veternum awake from that sleep in which security and self-love have lulled you that you may quicken your faith and perfect and complete your repentance and so be signed with these signs that the Spirit may sign and seale you to the day of redemption And this is the compasse of the Ecce And in this compasse we may walk and behold these signes behold them with a watchful eye with a believing eye with a repentant eye washing off all their malignity with tears These are the several rayes of consideration And if we thus behold these signs we shall be also fitted and prepared to meet Christ at his second coming Being thus qualified we shall look upon all the ill-boding calamities in the world which appear unto us in a shape of terrour as upon so many John Baptists telling us that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand we shall-look upon Death when he cometh towards us on his pale horse and not fear him we shall look upon the Son of man when he cometh towards us with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and it shall be as musick to us For he hath promised that where he is we shall be also and he hath made death and these signes and the dissolution of the world it self a promise For if we should not dye if the world should not be dissolved we could not enjoy the promise But when these signs shall usher him in when he shall come again then shall he free us from the yoke and harrow from oppression and tyranny Then the meek shall be higher then the proud and Lazarus richer then Dives Then that bloudy hypocrite which called himself a Saint shall have his portion with the Devil and his Angels and the innocent the despised condemned innocent shall look up and lift up his head Then though the heavens be shaken he shall stand fast as Mount Sion though the sea roar he shall be at peace though the Stars fall his heart shall be fixed Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae And when the Son of man shall come in the clouds he shall be ready to meet him and when the heavens shall be gathered
Powers and Principalities Laws and Precepts and all that is named of God Ambition maketh Laws Jura perjura Swear and forswear Arise kill and eat Covetousness maketh Laws condemneth us to the mines to dig and sweat Quocunque modo rem Gather and lay up Come not within the reach of Omri's statutes of humane Laws and you need not fear any Law of Christ. Private Interest maketh Laws and indeed is the Emperour of the world and maketh men slaves to crouch and bow under every burthen to submit to every Law of man though it enjoyn to day what it did forbid yesterday to raise up our heads and then duck at every shadow that cometh over us but we can see no such formidable power in the Royal Law of Christ because it breatheth not upon it to promote and uphold it but looketh as an enemy that would cast it down biddeth us deny our selves which we do every day for our lusts for our honour for our profit but cannot do it for Christ or for that crown which is laid up for those that do it Thus every thing hath power over us which may destroy us but Christ is not hearkned to nor those his Laws which may make us wise unto salvation For we are too ready to believe what some have been bold to teach that there are no such Laws at all in the Gospel Therefore in the last place let us cast this root of bitterness out of our hearts let us look upon it as a most dangerous and baneful errour an errour which hath brought that abomination of desolation into the world and into the lives and manners of Christians which have made them stink amongst the inhabitants of the earth amongst Jews and Pagans and Infidels which tremble to behold those works of darkness which they see every day not onely done but defended by those who call themselves the children of light Because in that name we bite and devour one another for this they despise the Gospel of Christ because we boast of it all the day long and make use of it as a Licence or Letters patent to be worse then they riot it in the light beat our fellow-servants defraud and oppress them which they do not in darkness and in the shadow of death The first Christians called the Gospel legem Christianam the Christian Law and so lived as under a Law so lived that nothing but the name was accused But the latter times have brought forth subtle Divines that have disputed away the Law and now there is scarce any thing left commendable but the name A Gospeller and worse then a Turk or Pagan a Gospeller and a Revenger a Gospeller and a Libertine a Gospeller and a Schismatick a Gospeller and a Deceiver a Gospeller and a Traitor a Gospeller that will be under no Law a Gospeller that is all for Love and Mercy and nothing for Fear I may say the Devil is a better Gospeller for he believeth and trembleth And indeed this is one of the Devils subtilest engines veritatem veritate concutere to shake and beat down one Truth with another to bury our Duty in the Good news to hide the Lord in the Saviour and the Law in the covering of Mercy to make the Gospel supplant it self that it may be of no effect to have no sound heard but that of Imputative righteousness From hence that irregularity and disobedience amongst Christians that liberty and peace in sin For when Mercy waiteth so close upon us and Judgment is far out of our sight we walk on pleasantly in forbidden paths and sin with the less regret sin and fear not pardon lying so near at hand To conclude then Let us not deceive our selves and think that there is nothing but Mercy and Pardon in the Gospel and so rely upon it till we commit those sins which shall be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Nemo promittat sibi quod non promittit Evangelium saith Augustine Let no man make the promise larger then the Gospel hath made it nor so presume on the Grace of God as to turn it into wantonness so extol it as to depress it so trust to Mercy as to forfeit it but look into the Gospel and behold it in its own shape and face as pardoning sin and forbidding sin as a royal Release and a royal Law And look upon Christ the authour and finisher of our faith as a Jesus to save us Psal 2. and a Lord to command us as preaching peace and preaching a Law Rom. 8.3 condemning sin in his flesh dying that sin might dye and teaching us to destroy it in our selves In a word let us so look into the Gospel that it may be unto us the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death so look upon Christ here that he may be our Lord to govern us and our Jesus to save us that we may be subject to his Laws and so be made capable of his mercy that we may acknowledge him to be our Lord and he acknowledge us before his Father that Death may lose its sting and Sin its strength and we may be saved in the last day through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Two and Fortieth SERMON PART II. JAMES I. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed THat the Precepts of the Gospel do bind us as Laws ye have heard already and how the Doctrine of the Gospel is a Law We must in the next place see how it is a perfect Law And first That is perfect saith the Philosopher cui nihil adimi nec adjici potest from which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added Such is the Gospel You cannot adde to it you cannot take from it one lota or tittle If any shall adde unto these things Rev. 22.18 God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this book And if any shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life There needeth no second hand to supply it and that hand deserveth to be cut off that shall corrupt or alter it For look upon the End which is Blessedness There you have it drawn out in the fairest lines that flesh and bloud can read in as large a representation as our humane nature is capable of Then view the Means to bring us to that end They are plainly exprest and set out there in such a character that we may run and read them open to our understanding exciting our faith raising our hope and even provoking us to action There is nothing which we ought to know nothing which we must believe nothing which we may hope for nothing which concerneth us to do nothing which may lift us up to happiness and carry us to the end but it is written
in the Gospel as it were with the Sun-beams S. Paul giveth it this character that it is profitable that is 2 Tim. 3.16 17. sufficient for doctrine which is either of things to be believed or of things to be done for reproof of greater and more monstrous crimes for correction of those who fall by weakness or infirmity for instruction in righteousness that those who have begun well may grow up in grace and every vertuous work that the man of God may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect and consummate throughly furnished unto all good works Take him in what capacity you please there in the Scripture in the New Testament especially yea and in that alone he may find what will fill and qualifie him and fit him in every state and condition Take him in the worst condition as an unbeliever there is that will beget faith and form Christ in him as wavering in the faith there is that will confirm him as believing and fallen into errour or sin there is that will restore him as rooted and built up in Christ there is that will settle and establish him as under the cross there is that will strengthen him as crowned with peace there is that will crown that crown and settle it on his head as in health there is that will make him run the wayes of God's commandments as in sickness there is that will tune his grones and quicken him even when he is giving up the ghost as a King there is that which will manage his sceptre as a Subject there he may learn to bow Take him as a Master or a Servant as Rich or Poor as in prison or at liberty living or dying there he shall find what is necessary for him in that condition of life even to the last moment and period of it and not onely that which is necessary but under that formality as necessary so fitted and proportioned to the end that without it we can never attain it They that lay hold of it shall have peace with God and they who despise it shall have a worm ever gnawing them These shall go away saith our Saviour into everlasting punishment but the righteous who look into this perfect Law into life eternal Will you behold the Object of your Faith There you shall see not onely a picture of Christ but Christ even crucified as S. Paul speaketh to the Galatians before your eyes Will you behold that Faith which shall save you There you shall behold both what she is and what wonders she can work Have you so little Charity as not to know what she is There you may see her in every limb and lineament in every act and operation which is proper to her her Hand her Ear her Eye her Bowels There you may see what is worth your sight Et quod à Deo discitur totum est We can learn no more then God will teach us When we affect more and pour forth all the lust of our curiosity to find it out we at last shall be weary and sit down and complain that we have lost our labour For thus Curiosity which is a busie Idleness punisheth it self as a frantick person is punished with his madness Quicquid nos beatos facturum est aut in aperto est saith Seneca aut in proximo Whatsoever can make us happy is either open to the eye or near at hand We will instance but in one and that the main point Justification because the Church of Rome hath set it in the front of those points of doctrine which are imperfectly or obscurely delivered in the Gospel and therefore require a visible and supreme Judge of controversies to settle and determine them It is true indeed The Gospel hath been preached these sixteen hundred years and above and many questions have been started and many controversies raised about Justification For though men have been willing to go under the name of Justified persons yet have they been busie to enquire how Justification is wrought in them They are justified they know not how Many and divers opinions have been broached amongst the Canonists and Confessionists and others Osiander nameth twenty And there are many more at this day And yet all may consist well enough for ought I see and still that sense which is delivered in Scripture as necessary remain entire For 1. it is necessary to believe that no man can be justified by the works of the Law precisely taken And in this all agree 2. It is necessary to believe that we are not justified by the Law of Moses either by it self or joyned with Faith in Christ And in this all agree 3. It is necessary to believe that Justification is by Faith in Christ And in this all agree 4. That Justification is not without Remission of sins and Imputation of righteousness And in this all agree 5. That a Dead Faith doth not justifie And here is no difference 6. That that is a Dead faith which is not accompanied with Good works and a holy and serious purpose of good life And in this all agree 7. Lastly that faith in Christ Jesus implieth an advised and deliberate assent that Christ is our Prophet and Priest and King Our Prophet who hath fully delivered the will of his Father to us in his Gospel the knowledge of all his precepts and promises Our Priest to free us from the guilt of sin and condemnation of death by his bloud and intercession Our King and Law-giver governing us by his Word and Spirit by the vertue and power of which we shall be redeemed from death and translated into the Kingdom of heaven And in this all agree Da si quid ultrà est And is there yet any more All this which is necessary is plainly delivered in the Gospel And what is more is but a vapour from Curiosity which when there is a wide door and effectual is ever venturing at the needles eye This is so plain that no man stumbleth at it But those interpretations and comments and explications which have been made upon this nihil ampliùs quà m sonant make a noise but no Musick at all nec animum faciunt quia non habent nor can they add spirit to us in the way to bliss because they have none And as we find them not in the Scripture so have we no reason to list them amongst those doctrines which are necessary As to instance for the act of Justification what mattereth it whether I believe or not believe know or not know that our Justification doth consist in one or more acts so that I certainly know and believe that it is the greatest blessing that God can let fall upon his creature and believe that by it I am made acceptable in his sight and though I have broke the Law yet shall be dealt with as if I had been just and righteous indeed whether it be done by pardoning all my sins or imputing universal obedience to me or the active
and Monarch of the Church who hath full and absolute power to determine of those things which concern our peace and to judge the Law it self to discover its defects and to supply and perfect it And here upon this foundation what a Babel of confusion may be built Upon these grounds what errour what foul sin may not shew its head and advance it self before the Sun and the people and outface the world With the one Scripture is no Scripture but a dead letter And with the other it hath no life but what they put into it With the one it is nothing and with the other it is imperfect which in effect is nothing For what difference in matters of this nature and in respect of a Law between being nothing and not being what it is For to take away the force of a Law is in a manner to annihilate it With them as Calvin speaketh of those in his time St. Paul was but a broken vessel John a foolish young man Peter a denier of his Master and Matthew a Publican And the language of ours at this day is little better And with the other they are little less For when they speak plainest they teach them how to speak And now that which was a sin yesterday is a vertue to day vertue is vice and vice vertue as the one is taught within and the other is bold to interpret it The Text is Defraud not thy brother The inward Word biddeth thee spoil him The Text is Touch not mine anointed By the autority of the Church thou mayest touch and kill him And let me tell you the inward Word will do as much Deceit Injustice Sacrilege Rebellion Murther all may ride in in triumph at this gate for it is wide enough to let them in and the Devil together with all his wiles and enterprises withall his most horrid machinations He did but mangle and corrupt the Scripture to make a breach into our Saviour These take it away or make it void and of no effect to overthrow his Church Must the Church of Rome be brought in like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts with great pomp and state with Supremacy and Infallibility Then Peter is brought out and his Rock nay his Shadow to set out the Mask and the Autority of the Church leadeth him on And they open their vvardrope and shew us their Traditions such deceitful ware that we no sooner look upon it but it vanisheth out of sight Again must some new phansie be set up which will not bear the light of Scripture but flieth and is scattered before it as the mist before the Sun Must some horrid fact be put in execution which Nature it self trembleth at and shrinketh from and which this perfect Law damneth to the lowest hell Then an inward Word is pretended and God is brought in to witness against himself to disanul his own Law and ratifie the contrary to speak from heaven against that which he declared by his Son on earth to speak within and make that a duty which he openly threatned to punish with everlasting fire What is become now of our perfect Law It is no Law at all but as the Son came down to preach it so there is a new holy Ghost come into the world to destroy it Which is to do worse then the Jews did For they only nailed Christ's body to the cross these crucifie his very mind and will Which yet will rise again and triumph over them when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his Gospel For what man of Belial may not take up this pretence and leave Nature and Grace Reason and Religion behind them and walk forward with it to the most unwarrantable and unchristian designs that a heart full of gall and bitterness can set up Ahithophel might have taken it up and Judas might have taken it up even parricides have taken it up And if every inward persuasion the off-spring of an idle phansie and a heart bespotted with the world be the voice of God then Covetousness may be a God and Ambition may be a God and the Devil himself may be a God For these speak in them these speak the word which they hear which because they are ashamed to name they make use of that Name which is above every name to usher in these evil spirits in which Name they should cast them out In the name of Piety what is this inward Word this New light It may be the echo of my lust and concupiscence the resultance of an irregular appetite the reflexion of my self upon my self It is the greatest parasite in the world For it moveth as I move and sayeth what I say and denieth what I deny As inward as it is its original is from without The Object speaketh to the Eye and the Eye to the Heart and the Heart hot with desire speaketh to it self A rent and divided Church will make up my breaches A shaken Commonwealth will build me up a fortune A dissolved College will settle me in an estate And I hear it for I speak it my self And it is the voice of God and not of man Of this they have had sad experience in forein parts in both the Germanies and in other places And we have some reason to think that this monster hath made a large stride and set his foot in our coasts But if it be not this it is Madness Nay if this Word within may not be made an outward word it is Nothing For this Word within as they call it bringeth with it either an intelligible sense or not intelligible If it bring a sense unintelligible and which may not be uttered and expressed then it is no Word or the Word of a fool that uttereth more then his mind and speaketh of things which he knoweth not For what Word is that which can neither be understood nor uttered But if it bear a sense intelligible then it may be received of the understanding and uttered with the tongue and written in a book and then the same imputation will lye upon it which they lay upon the outward Word that it is but an ink-horn phrase And written with ink it may be For with amazed eyes we have seen it written with bloud I am even weary of this argument But men have not been ashamed openly to profess what we blush within our selves to confute And this Word within this loathsom phansie this Nothing hath had power to invenom the Word of life it self and make it the savour of death unto death For conclusion then Let us not say Lo here is Christ or Lo there is Christ Let us not frame and fashion a Christ of our own For if he be of our making he is not the Son of God but a phantasm And such a Christ may speak what we will have him speak to our hearts our lusts our vices Such a Christ will flatter us deceive us damn us But let us behold him in
a bare and inefficacious knowledge that is here meant For who knoweth not the Gospel To whom hath not this arm of the Lord been revealed They that blaspheme it look upon it They that deny the power of it look upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth more not a naked knowledge but a knowledge with the bending and incurvation of the Will If a man say he looketh into the Gospel and knoweth Christ and keepeth not his commandments he is a liar 1 John 2.4 He that looketh but slightly looketh not at all or to as little purpose as if he had been blind He that saith he knoweth the power of the Gospel and yet is obedient to the flesh and the lusts thereof is a liar and the truth is not in him For how can one at once look into the Gospel and see the glory of it and despise it What a Soloecism is the Gospel in his mouth who is yet in his sins It is not a looking but a looking into not speculative but practick knowledge that must bring on the end and crown us with blessedness It were better not to look on the Gospel then to look and not to like better to be blind then so to see for if we were blind we should have no sin that is none so great we should have some excuse for our sin Carelesly to look on the Law of liberty is not a window to let in Religion but a door and barricado to keep it out of the heart For what a poor habitation is a Look for the Gospel and Grace to dwell in The Gospel is a royal Law and a Law of Liberty Liberty from the guilt and from the dominion of sin We look upon it and are content well it should be so We know it and subscribe to it But if this would make us Gospellers what an assembly of Pharisees and Hypocrites what a congregation of men of Belial might be the true Disciples of Christ I had almost said What a Legion of Devils might go under that name We look into the Gospel and talk of nothing more In our misery and affliction in anguish and distress of conscience we confess the Gospel must charm the storm and give medicine to heal our sickness Thus we preach and thus have you believed But all this is nothing if you do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow and bend and apply your selves to the Gospel If you acknowledge its all-sufficiency and trust in the arm of flesh If when the tempest of affliction beateth upon you you make a greater tempest in your souls If ye look and go away and forget by such neglectful looking upon it ye make the word of life a killing letter For what is it to see Sin condemned in Christ's flesh and to justifie it in our own to sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that triumphant song over Death and wilfully to run upon that disobedience of which Death is the wages to see Satan trod under our feet and yet to make our selves his slaves to look upon Life and yet to chuse Death to look upon a Law and break it upon a Law of Liberty and be servants of Sin worse then bored slaves To look then into the Law of liberty is so to weigh and consider it as to write it in our hearts and make it a part of our selves For every Look will not make a Christian The Jews did look upon Christ but they did not look upon him as the Lamb of God for then they had not butchered him We may look upon the heavens the work of God's fingers upon the Moon and the stars which he hath ordained upon this wonderful frame Rom. 1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God but we do not alwayes as David speaketh so look upon it as to consider it And then it doth not raise us up to a due admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our Subjection We are no more affected with it then as if all were still without form and void a lump or Chaos At first it is a glorious sight and no more and at last when we have familiarly looked upon it it is nothing We look upon our selves mouldering and decaying and yet we do not look into our selves for who considereth himself a mortal Dives in purple never thought how he came into the world nor how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can a rich man die He will say he shall but doth he believe himself Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We die daily and yet think we shall not die at all In a word We are any thing but what we are because we do not look into nor consider our selves We look upon Sin and condemn it and sin again For we do not look into it and consider it as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the Soul as a breach of that Law of liberty which was made to free us as that which hath no better wages then death and eternal separation from the God of life If we did look into it and consider it we could not commit it For no man ever yet did considerately destroy himself What then is it to look into the Law of liberty and in what is our Consideration placed He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them saith our Saviour is he that looketh into this Law and observeth it He hath an Evangelical eye I may say an Angelical eye for he boweth and inclineth himself to see And no man hath a clear eye but he that doeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a firm purpose of Doing which is to look into We must distinguish between an active and a Contemplative look or assent Then we look into this Law then we actively assent when we have first considered what difficulties accompany this Law what fightings within and terrours without what a body of sin we carry about with us what pleasing what black temptations are ready to meet us at every turn what enemies we have abroad and what in our own bosom how not onely the way but our feet also are slippery Then we must consider that eternal weight of glory which Christ hath promised to those who are obedient to this Law And then exactly observe that certain and inseparable connexion which is between this Law and Blessedness that if the one be observed the other must naturally and necessarily follow that if we be true Gospellers here we shall be Saints hereafter If this be looked into and rightly considered as it should the Will must needs bow and be obedient to this Law which as it is compassed with difficulty so it leadeth to happiness which bringeth a span of trouble and an eternity of bliss From hence ariseth that Love of Christ and his Law which
omnem which undergoeth the shock of the whole war observeth the enemy in all his stratagems wiles and enterprises meeteth and encountereth him in all his assaults meeteth him as a Serpent and is not taken with with his flattery meeteth him as Lion and is not dismayed at his roarring but keepeth and guideth us in an even and constant course in the midst of all his noise and allurements and so bringeth us though shaken and weather-beaten unto our end to the haven of rest where we would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience Quid enim malum nisi impatientia boni saith Tertullian For what is Evil but an impatience of that which is good What is Vice but an impatience of vertue Pride will not suffer us to be brought low Covetousness will not suffer us to open our hand Intemperance will not suffer us to put our knife to our throat The Love of the world is impatient of God himself His Word is a sword and his commands thunderbolts At the sound of them we are afraid and go away sorrowful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have need of patience For we must run our race in a constant and uninterrupted course in an awful reverence to our Law-giver living and dying under the shadow of his wings that whether we live or die we may be the Lord's Non habitat nisi qui verè habitat say the Civilians He is not said to dwell in a place who continueth not in it And he doth not remain in the Gospel who is ready upon every change of weather upon every blast and breathing of discontent to change his seat He doth not remain in it who if the rain descend and the flouds come and the winds blow will leave and forsake it though it be a rock which will easily defend him against all these For what evil can there be against which it hath not provided an antidote what tempest will it not shroud us against Bring Principalites and Powers the Devil and all his artillery unus sufficit Christus the Gospel alone is sufficient for us And in this we see the difference between the World and the Church The world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion of the world the scene is every day changed and presenteth things in another shape But the Church is built upon a Rock Matth. 16. upon CHRIST that is upon that Faith in Christ which worketh by charity And he who is built upon this Rock who is fully persuaded that Christ is the best Master and that those duties which he teacheth are from heaven heavenly and will bring us thither is sufficiently armed against the flattery of Pleasure the lowring countenance of Disgrace the terrours of Poverty and Death it self against all wind and weather whatsoever that might move him from his place Look into the world There all things are as mutable as it self Omnia in impia fluctuant All things ebbe and flow in wicked men flie as a shadow and continue not Their Righteousness is like the morning dew Hos 13.3 dried up with the first Sun their Charity like a rock which must be strook by some Moses some Prophet and then upon a fit or pang no gushings forth but some droppings peradventure and then a dry rock again their Vows and Promises like their shadows at noon behind them their Friendship like Job's winter-brooks overflowing with words and then in summer when it is hottest in time of need quite dried up consumed out of its place their Temperance scarce holding out to the next feast nor their Chastity to the next twilight The world and the fashion of it passeth away but on the contrary the Gospel is the eternal word of God And as the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 Prov. 8.18 so his graces are durable riches opes densae firm and well compacted such as may be held against all assaults like him from whom they descend yesterday and to day and the same for ever Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfeigned Love abiding Hope an anchor He that is a true Gospeller doth remain and continue and not wander from that which is good to that which is evil is not this day a Confessor and to morrow an Apostate doth not believe to day and to morrow renounce his Creed doth not love to day and loath to morrow doth not hope to day and droop to morrow but unum hominem agit he is the same man and doth the same things assiduè aequaliter constantly and equally He remaineth not in the Gospel in a calm onely and leaveth it when the winds rise but here he will remain fixed to those principles and acting by them vvhen the Sun shineth and vvhen the storm is loudest By the Gospel he fixeth and strengthneth all his decrees and resolutions and determinations that they are ever the same and about the same now beating down one sin anon another now raising and exalting this vertue anon that If you ask him a question saith Aristides the Sophister of Numbers or Measures he vvill give you the same answer to day vvhich he vvill give you to morrow and the next day and at the last breath that he draweth In the next place if we do not remain in the Law of liberty vve do not obey it as we should For to remain in the Gospel and to be in Christ are words of stability and durance and perpetuity For vvhat being is that vvhich anon is not What stability hath that vvhich changeth every moment What durance and perpetuity hath that vvhich is but a vapour or exhalation drawn up on high to fall and stink To remain in the Gospel and to remain for ever may seem two different things but in respect of the race vve are to run in respect of our salvation they are the very same We vvill not here dispute Whether Perseverance be a vertue distinct from other graces Whether as the Angels according as some Divines teach vvhich stood after the fall of the rest had a confirming grace given them from God which now maketh them utterly uncapable of any rebellious conceit so also the saving graces of God's Spirit bring vvith them into the soul a necessary and certain preservation from final relapse For there be vvho violently maintain it and there be vvho vvith as great zele and more reason deny it To ask Whether we may totally and finally fall from the grace and favour of God is not so pertinent as it is necessary to hearken to the counsel of the Apostle and to take heed lest we fall to take heed lest we be cut off and to beware of those sins vvhich if vve commit vve cannot inherit the kingdom of God For vvhat vvill it avail if vve be to every good work reprobate to comfort our selves that vve are of the number of the elect What vvill it help us if by adultery and murther and pride
There onely is blessedness to be found 986. Heaven-gate not so easie to be entred as some men dream 1070. 1078. Heaven will not be atteined by a phansie a thought a wish a bare profession 1067. The way to Heaven though rough haply at first smooth and pleasant afterwards 60. Hebr. xiii 21. 588. Hell no place for a true Christian 48. Sin an embleme of Hell 932. St. Basil's opinion of Hell-torments 380. Heresies Their original 263. Hertha 462. Hieroglyphicks of great use in Egypt of old and still in China 1017. St. Hierome 391. Hilarion 539. Holy Ghost v. Ghost Holiness It s large extent 196. Many mistakes about it 196. It pleaseth even them that oppose it 553. How Churches Dayes Means c. are holy 847. c. v. Churches Honest v Profitable It is a good way to make one an honest man to pretend we take him to be so 1002. Honours v. Riches That which the world counteth Honourable is quite contrary with God 210. Why and how we ought to honour our selves and how not 318. Honour a vain thing to satisfie the soul 648. Hope is a necessary companion of Faith 242. 736. It is best allayed with Fear 399. How a firm Hope is gained 669. Bad men oft hope too much and good men in a manner despair 344 c. 351. v. Assurance Presumtion We must hope well of every man endeavour his salvation 576 577. How Hope of Wealth or Honour enslaveth and deceiveth us 671. Nothing in this world worthy to place our Hope on 674. Humility Christ's H. the onely remedy for Man's Pride 6. Man's heart naturally averse from it 157 630. It is the door-keeper in Christ's School 159. 631. It appeareth in every action of a Christian 156. 638. VVherein it consisteth 159. 631. Many practice it by halves 160. 632. Humility of the Soul the cheif H. 160 c. 633. But that of the Body must not be wanting 162. 634. Many praise H. few practice it 630. It s proper vvork 631. Many look to have this grace vvrought in them vvithout striving for it but this is a dangerous errour 628 629. Humility twofold Forced and Voluntary 629. God's Power should move us to H. 642. but his Mercy is the most powerful motive 643. H. is the next step to Honour 644. Exceeding great advantages vve receive by it 644 645. Humbling our selves is a most Christian exercise 627. A blameworthy Humility 428. 459. That is bad H. that keepeth us from doing our duty 459 c. 609. Husband A Christian H. is soli uxori masculus 1078. Hypocrisy not dead vvith the Pharisees but alive at this day 1059. How to be discovered 64. v. Formality H. set-forth in its colours 1055. The Hypocrite set-forth 171. 777. 780. A character of the Hypocrites of this Age 1060. Hypocrites like the vvheels of a Clock or motions by Water-works 370. They deceive others and themselves 919. Let them not think to hide themselves from God's all-seeing ey 1059. Their portion in hell the saddest 372. What instruction may be received even from Hypocrites 373. H. is most odious 369 372. It is often witty and laborious but quickly at an end 370. It is most hateful to God as being most opposit to his Justice 1058. and to his Wisdome 1059. Hypocritical Fasting Hearing Praying v. Fasting c. I. IDleness is contrary to the dictate not onely of the Spirit but even of Nature 220. It is the mother and nurse of pragmatical Curiosity 218. It maketh more Monks then Religion 220. Idle Gallants reproved 222. Idle and unactive souls deserve not to be accounted peaceable 199. The Idle Sluggard is a thief robbing both the Common-wealth and himself 220. The Idle man's Texts vindicated 222. Ignorance v. Malice Nature hath annexed a shame to Lust and Ignorance 500. Ignorance by some accounted holiness 97. There were of old some who professed Ignorance 1095. We have some now that are Ignorant but would not be held so 1095. Many mens Ignorance is a wilfull and proud Ignorance 437 438. Some pretend knowledge but are grosly ignorant 97. Ignorance a slight excuse 437. 447. No Ign. is an excuse but what is irresistible 439. Ignorance in a Physician is a cheat 439. Ign. of our selves the worst Ign. 481. Ignorance of some things better then skill in them 131. Affected Ignorance is most fearful 688 689. Image of God defaced in Man renewed by Christ 13. Wherein it consisteth 647. Imitation of the Saints must be with caution and limitation 1025 c. v. Examples How foolishly some imitated Basil 1025. Impatience a sign of a worldly man 542. Impenitence after deliverances will pull down greater judgments 610 c. Impenitence and Infidelity the onely unpardonable sins 29 c. Impossibilities are not required of us by God 109 c. 602 c. If exact Obedience were indeed impossible whether it be fit the people should be told so 111. 605. Imputation v. Righteousness Many lay claim to Christ's Imputed Righteousness vvho have none of their own 993. Incarnation v. CHRIST Inclination v. Affections Thoughts No natural Inclination or Appetite is evil in it self 265. Good Inclinations are from God 361 362. Inconstancie in mens actions whence 317. To â—lter ones opinion upon clearer evidence is not Inconstancie 678. Indifferent things become necessary when commanded by lawful Autority 59. 1077. These are the onely sphere that Autority moveth in 60. In things Indifferent vve must follow the rules of Charity and Prudence 1077. We must abstein from things otherwise lawful if not expedient 639. 1102. Induration v. Hardning Industrie It s efficacie 1066. Industrie and Pains-taking often frustrate in temporal matters alwayes speed in search of the Truth 67. It is the way to Knowledge 96 97. v. Calling Labour Infidelity is in every sin 100. This sin onely maketh Christ's bloud ineffectual 29 c. The cause of it 41 42. Ingratitude a most odious vice 363. 799. Injustice Many talk of Honesty and Religion and live unjustly 134. Injustice is far worse then Poverty Grief Death 126. It can have no good pretense to excuse it 127. It is a most unmanly quality 135. It floweth from Distrust of God and Love of the World 136. v. Oppression The dismal doom of Injustice 136 137. Intention As is the Intention so is the action how to be understood 444. v. Meaning Sin Interest Private Interest of how great sway in the vvorld 1071. Irreverence in the house of God springeth from Covetousness 755. and from Pride 859. It offendeth God Angels and good Men and encourageth the Profane 858. Many are so Irreverent in the Church as if they thought God vvere not there 920. Their pretense vvho place Religion in Irreverence 757 v. Reverence Arguments of profane Irreverent men answered 859. Isa v. 3 4. 486. ¶ vi 9 10. 411. ¶ lv 8. 189. 703. ISRAEL The very name is a great motive to obedience and a sore aggravation of sin 402. 417. v. Jews The state of
c. He who hath no part in the first R. shall have none in the second 996. Newness of life often called Rising 997. The woful state of a Soul not yet risen from the death of Sin 997. Our Conversion may be stiled Rising because this World may go for a grave 998. and because as in that of the Body so in this of the Soul there will be a change 999. and that universal of every part 1000. In both our corporal and spiritual R. God is all in all 1001. yet in that of the Soul we are bid to do something 1001. It behoveth us rather to enquire Whether we are willing to be raised then How we are raised 1001. Our spiritual R. should be early and without delay 1002. c. We must manifest our spiritual R. by our good Works 1004. and by our Affection to the things above 654. Revelation Of the Book of the Revelation and its Interpreters 244. Rev. i. 12-18 paraphrased 36. ¶ xiv 13. 709. ¶ xx 6. 244. Revenge though perhaps allowed by the Old T. is forbidden by the New 1079. It is allowed by Philosophers c. is forbidden by the Gospel 202. It is an act and argument of impotency 820. Reverence What 460. Some allege Reverence to excuse their neglect of Communicating 459 460. Reverence and Obedience must go together 462. Reverent gestures in God's service not to be blamed as Idolatrous Popish superstitious 963. R. though by some held superstitious is comely and necessary 162 163. 745. 755 c. and to be used in our service of God 634 635. v. Form Humility Worship Where there is Devotion there is also a Reverent deportment 755. 757 758. 981. It is due in God's house in respect of the Angels 857. and of Men both good and bad 858. Covetousness and Sacriledge drive Reverence out of the Church 755. Some questions for them to answer who scruple outward R. in the Church 757. Irreverent persons arguments answered 859. v. Irreverence The Papists say of us That having no Reverence we have no Church 757. The Reverence of the primitive times and that of this Age how different 757 758. 981. Rewards the most powerful Rhetorick 636. v. Laws Riches and Honours and Pleasures the creatures of our Phansie 32. v. World These even Reason teacheth us to contemn 126. 134. Why God giveth Riches 139 c. Neither do Riches invite Christ nor Poverty exclude him 974. Our Riches are then most ours when we part with them to the poor 142. For we are Stewards rather then Proprietaries 140. 142. The best use of Riches 143. R. how abused 594. 620. c. As Riches may be a snare so Poverty may be a gulf 1089. R. may be an instrument of Perfection as well as Poverty 1090. R. are not as the World accounteth them certain signs of God's love 619. They are held Necessaries and Ornaments of Virtue yet are not so 620. but rather an hindrance to it 620. and helps to evil 621. Yet they are not so in themselves but men make them so 621. 897 898. Rich men are admired and even adored in the world 616 617. but a Wo is denounced against them by God 616 c. Pelagius's opinion That no Rich man can be saved is a wholsome errour 618. What it is that draweth the Wo upon the Rich 622. That Rich men may escape the Wo they must cast away their Riches but how 622. 1090. Riches must be brought into subjection to Christianity 622. We must not set our hearts on them 623. 1090. We must contemn them 623. or else they will make us contemn our brethren 623. and draw contempt on us 624. We must be jealous of our selves that we love them too well 624. How R. should be looked upon and handled and used by us 625. 896 c. Right hand v. Christ Righteous The R. sometimes suffer with the wicked and why 291 c. They are often preserved in publick calamities 294. Though they tast of the same cup with others yet it hath not the same tast to both 294. v. God's people Righteousness Many call that Righteousness which is quite another thing 867. 883. 891 892. The R. of the Heathen though it could not save them yet shameth many among us 868. The R. of the Jews very weak and imperfect 869. The R. of the Scribes and Pharisees what 869. Legal and Evangelical R. how different 870. Christ's imputed R. vindicated from mis-interpretations 870 c. The R. of Faith what 872. What R. the Gospel requireth of us 873. Many challenge the name of R. who bid defiance to the thing 873. Imputed R. should be a motive to Inherent R. 872 c. 993. Many conceit they are Seekers of Righteousness vvhen they are not 875. To name R. yea to commend it is not enough 876. Neither is Hearing of R. as many think enough 877. No nor bare Praying for it 877 878. Seeking of R. is To have a Will ready to entertein it 878. and that a chearful quiet Angelical Will 879 880. and a Will that is constant and regular that will make us seek R. sincerely as God seeketh our happiness 880 881. If vve seek R. aright we shall still be sensible of our want of it 881 882. we shall love and affect it exceedingly 882 and shall be kept from it neither by flattery nor affrightments 883 884. R. is to be sought in the first place before the things of this life 884 c. If we seek it not first vve seek it not at all 890. What a world of wickedness proceedeth from seeking these things before Righteousness 891 c. But they who first seek R. cannot doubt of a sufficient portion of these things 900. Rom. i. 28. 3. 9. ¶ vii 19. 879. ¶ viii 15. 397. ¶ 28 29 30. 697. ¶ ix 3. 1007 1008. ¶ xi 20 21. 392. Romanes They having been at first all for handsome servants were afterwards as much for dwarfs applied 651. Romish The R. Church counteth all goats that are not within her fold 319. S. SAbellius 5. Sabinus Calvisius Sabinus a man strangely conceited 870. 993. Sacraments A Sacrament must be immediately instituted by Christ himself 451. Out of Christ's side came both the Sacraments 469. How quarrelled by many 582 583. They are highly to be honoured 303. v. Word They are too highly esteemed by some too little by others 81. Sacrifices no essential part of God's service 70 71. not really good in themselves but onely as commanded 72. Why the Jews vvere commanded to offer S. to God 72. v. Ceremonies Outward worship The Sacrifices of Christians 83 84. A broken heart the best S. 325. Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies as a S. unto God 749 754. Sacrilege once was a sin now some count it a virtue 581 582. Against S. 848 849. 854. Saints as St. Hierome saith never called in Scripture inhabitants of the earth 536. How to be honoured by us 1021. Some forsooth will not allow the title
and rage of Lust And what a benefit is this If it be a benefit it is such a one as himself sometimes spake of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift no gift a gift as good as none at all For a better then Sophocles S. Basil will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperance in old age is not temperance it is impotency Old men are not temperate but they can be no longer intemperate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very carcase that lieth rotten in the grave hath as fair a title to Temperance as they Would you be righteous indeed Health is the time For in sickness you have nothing left you but a will and that many times as saint and sickly as your selves if not dead within you At best if you have the habit of Virtue it is there more like a faculty and power then a habit and is no more in respect of action You are but as artificers when their shop is shut up as Apelles without a hand or pencil or as a Musician that is dumb But in health a good lesson may be a sword to enter and divide asunder the soul and spirit and it may evaporate and break forth and triumph in action be heard from your tongue and felt from your hand and shew it self in every motion as you walk When there is bloud in your veins and marrow in your bones when you are in health then is the best time to conquer sin by strength of reason Domitius Afer a famous Orator being now grown old and his strength and memory decayed would needs still come to the bar and plead and therefore it was said of him malle eum deficere quà m desinere that he had rather fail through impotency then cease and leave off in time convenient Such may seem to be the resolution of most men They will rather fail through weakness then cease to sin whilst their strength lasteth and any oyle is left in their lamps How many do we see every day upon whom the evil dayes are come feeble and weak to all good purposes as those who have been dead long ago but ad peccandum fortes strong and active and youthful in sin having their hair white but their affections and ambition green violently framing and forcing themselves to be sportful and gamesome and peruking their age with youthful behaviour And yet these men peradventure at the last cast when their members are dried up and done can be content to offer them up to God as the old forworn fencers amongst the Romans were wont Herculis ad postem arma figere to offer up their weapons in Hercules Temple when they could make no further use of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 complained the God of War in the Poet when he saw such unbeseeming gifts and monuments offered up in his Temple And so may the Lord of hosts complain much more These darkened and distracted understandings these faultring memories these crooked wills these dulled and blurred senses these juyceless and exhausted and almost dead bodies these arms of statutes these pictures of men wasted and spent in the service of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are not the weapons and faculties I made Fit they are for the grave and rottenness but utterly unfit for the Temple of the Lord of hosts Behold thou art made whole That is the time that is God's time and thy time that is the accepted day the day in which thou must work out thy salvation To this end thou wert taken out of the porch by the pool's side and set on thy legs to this end thou art bid to walk that thou maist sin no more For in the second place if Health have not this end it will have a worse a contrary one As there are but two places Heaven and Hell so are there but two ends God's and the Devil's and we never stray from the one but we run to the other We never turn our back to Jerusalem but we make forwards towards a strange land It is as impossible to stand still between both and not move to one of them as for a man that hath the use of reason to be neither good nor evil For the mind of of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever in motion and if it do not follow those graces and favours which God affordeth for our viaticum and help in our way it will force them to a bad end and make that which might have been the savour of life unto life to become the savour of death unto death Health is the gift of God and should be used as his gift and returned back as a sacrifice to him crowned with the spoils of Satan and the triumphs over sin And if it be not thus used and offered it will be a sacrifice to Devils instrumental to all wickedness and advantage to Fraud a help to Ambition a bawd to Uncleanness the upholder of Revenge the nurse of Pride an assistant to Covetousness and the very life of War We may be evil on the bed of sickness but in health we publish and demonstrate it Then the deceitful coyneth his plots the ambitious soreth the wanton neigheth the revenger draweth his sword the proud lifteth up his head the miser toyleth and the souldier washeth his feet in the bloud of his enemies Quid non est Dei quod Deum offendit saith the Father There is nothing we receive from God but by it we may offend him Nihil tam sacrum quod non inveniat sacrilegum Nothing is so sacred but it may be sacrilegiously abused nothing is given us to a good end but it may be diverted and forced to a bad one Wit is the gift of God to this end Prov. 8.12 to find out knowledge of witty inventions to devise cunning works to work in gold and silver and brass Exod. 31.4 to find out arts to find out musical tunes Eccl 44. to the glory of him quia illa omniae quae possunt inveniri primus invenit as Lactantius speaketh who first shewed what was afterwards found out And we see it hath been brought down to endite for our lusts and malice for our sorrows and triumphs for every passion which transporteth us it hath wrought in Satyre and Elegy to feed our malice and to encourage our lust it hath made Philosophy perplexed Divinity a riddle and Trades mysterious and is a golden cup as Augustine speaketh in which we drink and carouse our selves to the Devil Again Riches are the gift of God And though he reacheth them forth but with his left hand Prov. 3.16 yet we may make of them a key to open the Kingdom of heaven And to that end they were given Yet the rich of this world too often make them the instruments of Pleasure the fuel of Vice a Patent and Prerogative to do what they please a Canopy to walk under and commit evil with more state and majesty a Supersedeas against Conscience in a word a