teach us as Saint Austine noteth that neither the poverty of the one brought him thither nor the wealth of the other kept him from thence y John 14.2 In my Fathers house saith our Saviour there are many mansions some for the rich some for the poore some for noble some for ignoble some for z Agapet ad Justin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kings some for beggars and it is hard to say whethers crowne in Heaven shall be more massie and be set with more orient jewells the rich mans who is also rich in God or the poore mans who is poore for God the wealthy who hath given much to Christ or the needy who hath lost all for his sake the noble and honourable man who by his birth and place hath innobled the Christian faith or the ignoble who hath preferred the ignominy of Christs crosse to all the honours of this world the King who layeth downe his scepter at the foot of Christs crosse or the Beggar who taketh up his crosse and readily followeth Christ It is true which Saint a Cypr. de laps Multos patrimonia pondere suo depresserunt in terâ—am Cyprian chargeth many of the rich in his time with that their great patrimonies and large revenues of their lands with the weight thereof pressed them downe to the earth nay some to hell But the fault was in their minde not in their meanes in their desires not in their fortunes or estates For as when a man taketh a heavie Trunke full of plate or mony upon his shoulders it crooketh his back and boweth him down toward the earth but if the same weight be put under his feet it lifteth him above ground in like maner if we put our wealth and riches above us preferring them to our salvation they will presse us downe to the ground if not to hell with their weight but if wee put them under our feet and tread upon them as slaves to us and quite contemne them in respect of heavenly treasure they will raise us up towards heaven As they did Job who made so many friends of unrighteous Mammon that every eye that saw him blessed him As they did Mary Magdalen whose name is and shall bee like an oyntment powred out to the end of the world because shee brake an Alabaster boxe of most costly b Matth. 26.12 13. Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memoriall of her oyntment upon the head of our Saviour As they did Cornelius whose almes-deeds were a forcible meanes to carry up his prayers into Heaven Acts 10.31 Thy prayer is heard and thine almes-deeds are had in remembrance As they did Dorcas whom the clothes which shee made for the widowes and poore orphants kept warme in her death bed The c Acts 9.39 widowes stood by her weeping and shewing the coates and garments which Dorcas made whilest shee was with them and were motives to Saint Peter by miracle to restore her to life As they did Constantine the great who made his crown the basis of Christs crosse As they did Ludovicus who by continuall largesse turned all his state into obligations The meaning then is not that none are blessed but poore for d 1 Tim. 4.8 Godlinesse is profitable unto all things c. Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and the life to come But to make up the harmony of the Evangelicall doctrine in this place wee must take one note from the words as they are related by Saint Luke and another from the words as they are recorded by Saint Matthew in my Text. The note from Saint Luke is That the worlds miserable man is for the most part Christs blessed man Christs words in Saint Luke are these e Luke 6.20 21 24 25. Blessed be yee poore for yours is the Kingdome of God Blessed are yee that hunger now for yee shall be filled Blessed are yee that weep now for yee shall laugh But woe unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe be unto you that are full for you shall hunger Woe unto you that laugh now for you shall mourne and weep Vicibus res disposita est Happinesse goes by turnes Dives shall be Lazarus hereafter and Lazarus on earth shall be Dives in Heaven those who laugh here shall weep there and those who weep here shall laugh there those who feast continually and riot in pleasures in this world shall fast in the other and those who fast upon earth shall feast with the Lambe in Heaven But the note which we are to take from Saint Matthew is That affliction and penury unlesse it be sanctified to us by God no way maketh us happy Blessed are the poore not simply but with an addition in spirit The poore are blessed if poore in spirit that is humble Blessed are they that mourn if their mourning be a godly mourning either out of sense of their owne sinne or compassion of their brethrens miseries For godly f 2 Cor. 7.10 sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to bee repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death Blessed are they that hunger and thirst if it be for righteousnesse for there are that hunger for the flesh-pots of Egypt and there are that thirst after bloud or after g Prov. 9.17 Stolne waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but hee knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depth of hell stolne waters which are sweet in the mouth but poyson in the belly and rottennesse in the bones And neither of these are blessed All that are in want are not Christs poore neither are all that weare blackes his mourners Saint Luke saith in effect not many rich are blessed Saint Matthew addeth nor all poore but the poore in spirit onely that is such as are of an humble spirit or a h Prov. 16.19 Esay 57 15. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit contrite spirit Those i Beza in Mat. 5. Qui sive paupertate sive aliis calamitatibus domiti sive ultro peccatorum suorum sensu tacti ab omni superbiâ remoti sese Deo subjiciunt who by any affliction outward or inward are so thoroughly tamed and subdued that they humble themselves under the mighty hand of God wholly relying upon his providence for their estate and upon his mercy for their salvation None is poore in spirit saith k Calvin harm Nemo spiritu pauper est nisi qui in nihilum apud se redactus in Dei misericordiâ recumbit namque desperatione fracti cum adversus Deum fremunt elato superboque spiritu esse oportet Calvin but he who being brought to nothing in himselfe casteth himselfe wholly upon Gods mercy For hee who groweth into desperate fits and murmureth against the most
the flames of fire are the conquerers c Pareus in Apoc Corporaliter victi sunt spiritualitèr vicerunt dum in verá Christi fide ad mortem us◠perstiterunt Paraeus expoundeth this riddle The servants of Christ who seale the truth with their blood are in their bodies mastered but in their soules undaunted and much more unconquered whilest notwithstanding all the tortures and torments which the malice of man or devill can put them to they persist in the profession of the true faith unto death For this is the d 1 Joh. 5.4 victory of the world even our faith In that famous battell at Leuctrum where the Thebans got a signall victory but their Captaine Epaminondas his deaths wound Plutarch writeth of him that he demanded whether his buckler had beene taken by the enemy and when hee understood that it was safe and that they had not laid hands on it hee died most willingly and cheerefully Such is the resolution of a valiant souldier of Christ Jesus when hee is wounded even unto death hee hath an eye to his shield of faith and finding that out of the enemies danger his soule marcheth out of this world singing Saint Pauls triumphant ditty e 2 Tim. 4.7.8 I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is layd up for me a crowne of righteousnesse To cleare the summe which I have beene all this while in casting Christian victory is a prerogative of the regenerate purchased unto them by Christs death and resurrection whereby in all conflicts and temptations they hold out to the end and in the end overcome on earth and after triumph in heaven First it is a prerogative of the regenerate for none but those that are f 1 Joh. 5.4 borne of God overcome the world Secondly this prerogative is purchased unto them by Christ and therefore the Apostle ascribeth the glory of it to his grace g 1 Cor. 15.57 Thankes bee unto God who giveth us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thirdly this victory is not in one kinde of fight but in all whether Satan the world or the Devill assault us whether they lay at our understanding by sophisticall arguments or at our will by sinfull perswasions or at our senses by unlawfull delights whether our profession bee oppugned by heresie or our unity by schisme or our zeale by worldly policy or our temperance by abundance or our confidence in God by wants or our constancy by persecution or our watchfulnesse by carnall security or our perseverance by continuall batteries of temptations in all wee are more than conquerours through him that loved us h Rom. 8.35.36.37 What or who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword as it is written For thy sake wee are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours c. Obser 6 None can overcome who fighteth not valiantly none can fight valiantly unlesse they be trained up in Martiall affaires and provided of good and fit armour both for offence and defence this spirituall armour is got by instant and constant prayer and reading and meditating on Gods word and wee put it on by due application of what wee read and heare and wee use it by the exercise of those divine vertues above mentioned from whence the severall pieces of our armour take their names Moreover that a man may conquer his enemie three things are most requisite 1 Exasperation 2 Courage 3 Constancy Exasperation setteth him on Courage giveth him strength and Constancy holdeth out to the end Exasperation is necessary because anger as Aristotle teacheth is the goad or spurre of fortitude neither indeed can any man maintaine a hot fight in cold blood And this is the cause why wee are so often put to the worst in our spirituall conflicts because wee fight like her in the Poet Tanquam quae vincere nollet wee fight not in earnest against our corruptions but either in shew onely dallying or faintly without any earnest desire of revenge Saint i Aug. confess l. 8. c. 7. In exordio adolescentiae petieram chastitatem sed timebam ne me nimis citò audiret citò sanaret à morbo concupiscentiae quem malebam expleri quam extingui Austine before his thorough conversion prayed against fleshly lusts but as he confesseth with great anguish sorrow of heart for his insincerity so aukwardly against his will that secretly hee desired that his lust should rather be accomplished than extinguished As it was then with him so it is with too many that take upon them the profession of Christians and would thinke it foule scorne to bee taken for other than true converts When the voluptuous person offereth a formall prayer to God to extinguish the impure flame of lust rising out of the cindars of originall sinne Satan setteth before his fancy the picture of his beautifull Mistresse and as the Calor ambiens or outward heat in a body disposed to putrefaction draweth out the naturall heat so this impure heat of lust draweth out all the spirituall heat of devotion and so his faint prayer against sinne is turned into sinne In like manner while the covetous man prayeth against that base affection in his soule which ever desireth that wherewith it is never k Aristophan in Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sen. ep 15. Si quid in his esset solidi aliquando implerent nunc haurientium sitim concitant Horat. carm l. 2. od 2. Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops nec sitim pellit nisi causa morbi fugerit venis aquosus albocorpore languor satisfied Mammon representeth unto him the rising up of his heapes and swelling of his bagges by his use-mony whereby his heart is tickled and so his prayer also turneth into sinne Thus all sinners that are not brought to a perfect hatred and detestation of their bosome sinne even whilest they pray against the forbidden fruit hold it under their tongue and their carnall delights suffocate their godly sorrow Spirituall courage is most necessary that is confidence in God and in the power of his might This confidence is the immediate effect of a lively faith which S. John calleth l 1 Joh. 5 4. the victory of the world When Christ bad Peter come to him walking on the sea upon the rising of a storme Peters faith began to faile and no sooner his heart sanke in his body but his feete also sanke in the water even so when any storme of persecution ariseth for the word when wee see our selves encompassed on every side with dangers and terrours and our faith faileth wee presently sinke in despaire if Christ stretch not out his hand presently to support us and establish our heart in his promises 3 Thirdly constant perseverance is most needfull for though all vertues runne in
knowing it to be the faith and patience of the Saints Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum saith Tertullian If our hope were in this life onely wee were of all men most miserable saith Saint Paul And the rather doth the Spirit ascertaine this doctrine because it hath many enemies Atheists Libertines and sundry sorts of Heretickes besides The Atheist thinketh there is no resurrection because hee seeth no reason for it to whom though it were sufficient to answer with Gregory Fides non habet meritum ubi ratio humana praebet experimentum and with Saint Ambrose Credimus piscatoribus non dialecticis yet to reason a little with these unreasonable men in the words of Saint Paul Acts 26.8 Why seemeth it incredible unto you that Christ should raise the dead Is it not as easie to restore life as to give it at the first to raise man out of ashes as to create him at first out of the dust Considera autorem tolle dubitationem saith Saint Austine The Libertine would have no resurrection that hee might still enjoy the pleasures of sinne and sacrifice to his belly but for him there is first a Text of counsell 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to live righteously and if that will not serve a Text of judgement Phil. 3.19 Whose end is damnation whose god is their belly Of Heretickes that professedly oppugned the doctrine of the resurrection some taught that there is no resurrection at all as the Saduces some that the resurrection was already past as Hymineus and Philetus Satan is a subtle Serpent and turneth divers wayes to get in his head Before Christs death hee worked powerfully in the children of disobedience in Judas to betray him in the Pharisees to accuse him in Pilate to condemne him but after knowing that the time was come that the Prince of the world was to bee cast out by the death of Christ hee was much troubled and laboured by all meanes to hinder Christs Passion Utinam ne in nemore Pelio hee wisheth there were no wood in all the world to make a Crosse of hee workes remorse in Judas giveth him a halter to hang himselfe hee employes Pilates wife to send to her husband to have nothing to doe with him When hee was fast nailed to the Crosse hee setteth the Jewes upon him to see whether they could perswade him to descend from thence After this hee spreads abroad a rumour that Simon Cyreneus was crucified for him or if hee were crucified that it was but in appearance onely and that hee was falsâ pendens in cruce Laureolus and when his resurrection was so palpable that it needed no other argument than the amazement of the watch and Pilates letter to the Emperour hee suborned a desperate rout to sweare that his Disciples stole him away by night After all this hee stirred up certaine Heretickes who taught that albeit Christ were indeed risen yet that wee were not to expect any future resurrection because the resurrection was past already But all these shall find that there is a resurrection for them to wit Resurrectio ad condemnationem John 5.29 Use 1 Is it so that Christ our head is risen then shall wee his members rise also For hee is primogenitus mortuorum primitiae dormientium the first fruits are carried already into the celestiall barne and the whole crop shall follow And this may bee a staffe of comfort to all drouping and fainting soules ut tali exemplo animati sub ictu passionis as Cyprian speaketh non retrahant pedem that they draw not backe but courageously goe on forward to make a good profession as being secure Christi milites non perimi sed coronari bonam mortem esse quae vitam non perimit sed adimit ad tempus restituendam in tempore duraturam sine tempore This was Jobs comfort I know my Redeemer liveth and of other distressed ones who would not bee delivered that they might bee partakers of a better resurrection An ancient father giveth these words for a Christians Motto Fero taceo spero Fero meam crucem ut ille suam taceo quia tu Domine fecisti spero quia utique fructus erit justo Use 2 Is Christ risen from the dead then wee that are his are risen with him at least in the first resurrection if therefore yee are risen with Christ seeke the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father This indeed ought to bee so but wee finde it otherwise never more preaching of the resurrection and never lesse fruit For all seeke their owne and none the things that are Jesus Christs So that Bernards observation fitteth our time Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum zelum fervere pro solâ dignitate tuendâ honori totum datur sanctitati nihil and againe all men learned and unlearned presse to Ecclesiasticall cures Tanquam sine curis quique victuri sint cùm ad curas pervenerint The Apostle telleth us Qui Episcopatum desiderat bonum opus desiderat non dignitatem saith Saint Jerome sed laborem non delicias sed solicitudinem non crescere fastidiis sed decrescere humilitate Nay not onely opus but onus also in Saint Bernards judgement though perhaps some Atlas's may thinke they never have load enough But are the Laity more excusable who buy and sell the poore for shooes and gay apparrell and strong drinke to whom mee thinkes I heare the poore cry Et vos vanitate peritis nos spoliis perimitis How many are there of them who ingrosse the Lords portion and bestow hallowed things upon worse than vanity Wee have a saying against them also out of the same Saint Bernard De patrimonio crucis Christi non facitis codices in Ecclesiâ sed pascitis pellices in thalamis adornatis equos phalerantes pectora capita deaurantes Is this our resurrection from sinne Saint Paul giveth this lesson with a memento Remember saith hee O Timothy that Christ is raised from the dead It is a truth as stable as the poles of Heaven that wee shall have no part of the second resurrection to the life of glory if wee have not a good part in the first to the life of grace And I have the keyes of Death and of Hell They are well called keyes of Hell because there are Inferorum portae mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew Matth. 16.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are many opinions about these keyes some will have them to bee two Clavis cognitionis and Clavis authoritatis but Allensis and the Schoolemen denie knowledge to bee a key except in an improper speech Quia requiritur ad usum clavis and they doe well to denie it for what key of knowledge had that Priest of whom the Master of the Sentences maketh mention who baptized in nomine Patria Filia Spiritua sancta Bonaventure ingenuously confesseth Quidam in Ecclesiâ habent clavem quidam claviculam quidam nullam
last of all by Antichrist and his adherents Yee see by this Epitomy of her story the reason of her complaints n Cant. 1.6 Regard mee not because I am blacke for the sunne hath looked upon mee the sonnes of my mother were angry against mee o Cant. 5.7 The watchmen that went about the City found me they smote mee and wounded mee and tooke away my vaile from me Stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sick for love Hereby also you may give a fit motto to those emblemes in holy Scripture A lilly among thornes A dove whose note is mourning A vine spoyled by little foxes and partly rooted out by the wild bore of the forrest A woman great with childe and a fiery dragon pursuing her According to which patternes Saint Jerome frameth his p Rubus ardens est figura ecclesiae quae flammis persecutionum non consumitur sed viret magis Hier. in verb. Exod. 3.2 A bush burning yet not consuming and as fitly Saint Gregory draweth her with Christs crosse in her hand with her challenge there unto Ecclesia haeres crucis The Church is an inheretrix of the crosse And it appeareth by all records hitherto that she hath possessed it and if wee examine the matter well wee shall finde that Christ had nothing else to leave her at his death For goods and lands upon earth hee never had q Mat. 8.20 The foxes saith hee have holes and the birds nests but the sonne of man hath not where to lay his head His soule hee bequeathed to his father his body was begged by Joseph of Arimathea his garments the souldiers tooke for their fee and cast lots upon his vestments onely the crosse together with the nailes and gall and vinegar bestowed upon him at his death hee left her as a Heriot For these withall the appurtenances scourges cryes sighes groanes stripes and wounds hee bequeathed to her by his life time in those words r Joh. 16.33 Mat. 10.17 18. 24.9 10 11. Joh. 16.10 In the world yee shall have troubles they shall persecute you in their Synagogues and scourge you and yee shall bee hated of all men for my names sake insomuch that they that kill you shall thinke they doe God good service Yee shall weepe and mourne but the world shall rejoice Upon which words Å¿ Lib. de spectac c. 28. Vicibus res disposita est lugeamus ergò dum ethnici gaudeÌ„t ut cum lugere coeperint gaudeamus ne paritèr nunc gaudentes cum quoque paritèr lugeamus delicatus es Christiane si in seculo voluptatem concupiscis imò niâ—iâ—is stultus si hoc existimas voluptatem Tertullian inferreth God hath disposed of joyes and sorrowes by turnes let us mourne when worldlings rejoice that when they mourne wee may rejoice Thou art too dainty and choice O Christian if besides the joyes of heaven laid up for thee thou lookest for a liberall portion of delights and pleasures in this world nay thou art too foolish if thou countest there is any true pleasure in such things wherein they place their happinesse I need not presse many texts of Scripture which yeeld this sharp juice as t Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the righteous u 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution * 1 Pet. 4.17 Judgment begins at the house of God this verse alone which I now handle is sufficient to cleare Christs afflicted members from all note of heresie and imputation of reprobates For if afflictions are chastisements of Gods children and tokens of his love I rebuke and chasten as many as I love then are they not necessarily judgements for sinne messengers of wrath much lesse proper markes of heretickes and reprobates The kingdome of heaven is not necessarily annexed to earthly crownes nor is eternall glory any way an appendant to worldly pompe To conclude affluence of temporall blessings is no note of the true because store of afflictions is no note of the false Church Which truth is so apparent that many Papists of note have expresly delivered it in their annotations upon holy Scripture as u Stap. in verb Joh. In mundo pressuras habebitis Stapleton the Rhemists and x Mald. in Mat. 5. Facit solem orire supâ—r bonos malos unde perspicuum est hominum aut nationum prosperos successus nullum signum aut testimonium esse verioris aut purioris religionis Maldonate God causeth his Sunne to rise upon the just and upon the unjust whence saith the Jesuite it is evident that the prosperity of men or nations is no certaine signe or argument of the truth or purity of religion which they professe Howbeit as Praxiteles drew Venus after the picture of Cratina his Mistresse and all the Painters of Thebes after the similitude of Phryne a beautifull strumpet so Bellarmine being to paint and limme Christs Spouse took his notes from his own Mistresse the Romane Phryne the whore of Babylon and mother of fornications Looke upon the picture of that strumpet drawne to the life by Saint John Apoc. 17. and let your eyes bee Judges I saw saith hee a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast vers 3. full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten hornes vers 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and pretious stones and pearles what is this but Bellarmine his note of temporall felicity having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations of which it seemeth the Cardinall dranke deepe when he tooke the pencill in his hand to pourtray the true Church else hee could not be so out in his draught nor so utterly forget not only what others but himselfe also had formerly set downe in this point For in his solution of an objection of Martin Luther who stood in the opposite extreme affirming afflictions to bee an inseparable note of the Church hee confesseth freely that the Church in the beginning and in the end was in great straights and for this purpose to shew that persecutions though they eclipse the glory of the Church yet can never utterly extinguish it hee alledges such remarkable passages out of the ancient Fathers as these y Justin Mart. in apolog Persecution is but the pruning of Christs vine and z Tertul. in Apologet the blood of Martyrs is as seed and * Leo Ser. 1. de Pet. Paul the graines that fall one by one and dye in the earth rise up againe in great numbers If the Church runne into superfluous stemmes without the pruning knife of afflictions if the blood of martyrs turneth into seed to generate new Martyrs if the Church in her nonage had many sore conflicts and shall have greater in her old age certainly abundance ease pleasure and glory which make up temporall felicity are no notes of her for a L. 1. de
and branch by the Romans Within lesse than halfe an age after our Lords death Jerusalem bewailed it with bloudie teares and the Temple rued it in the ruines dust and ashes whereof we may reade this motto There is no place priviledged from Gods judgement no Sanctuarie for presumptuous sinners no protection from arrests taken out of the Court of Heaven The Palladium saved not Troy from the Greekes nor the Arke the Israelites from the Philistims nor the Temple the Jewes from the Romanes nor the tombes of Martyrs Rome from the Gothes nor the Crucifix the Christians in Palestine from Saladine the Sultan of Egypt God most hateth sinne in them whom he loveth most and most severely punisheth it in them as Moses Job David and Saint Paul felt by their owne smart When the Jewes in Jeremie cryed out h Jer. 7.4 The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord presuming that God would save them for the Temples sake the Prophet might have answered Which you have defiled which you have polluted which you have prophaned The cry of our sinnes will soone move the justice of heaven if we stop it not to turne the mouth of this roaring Cannon towards us We are we trust in the God of Israel the Israel of God and if we take not their destruction to heart it will prove ours For we cannot but thus reason with our selves If God spared not the naturall branches for their unfruitfulnesse will he spare the engraffed If judgement beginneth at the house of God where is it like to end If God hath sent a bill of divorce to the beloved Citie and hath quite forsaken his first love may his latter Spouse the Church of the Gentiles presume to escape better if she prove alike disloyall If it hath beene thus done as before is specified to the greene tree what shall bee done to the drie If Jerusalem be made an example and the Temple a lamentable spectacle of divine justice can Babylon and the house of Rimmon stand long If the seven golden Candlestickes placed by Christs owne hand in Asia and furnished with burning and shining lampes are removed and their lights put out have not we cause to feare that our Candlestickes shall bee removed if we love darkenesse more than light Did God not spare his owne House but suffered it to bee burnt to Ashes for the sinnes committed in it will hee thinke yee spare our houses if such wickednesse bee found in them for which hee destroyed the Holy of Holies But I list not to dwell any longer upon the ruines of Israel I hasten to the cause of Israels woe Which as it concerned the Israelites more nearely so it will come also more home to us Thou hast destroyed thy selfe Tu Te. Praise God O Israel for thy former prosperitie but now thanke thy selfe for thy imminent desolation i Clem. Alexand. strom l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alexandrinus observeth acutely that although Theologie flowing from the fountaine of sacred Scripture runne all in one channell yet that many other rivers arising from divers heads and sources fall into it as for example in the proper doctrine of this text that destruction is from our selves but salvation from God Morall Philosophie entervaineth with Divinity in that her assertion k Plat. apol Socr. Anytus Miletus occidere me possunâ— laedere non possunt Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso no man is hurt but by himselfe Politie in that observation l Lucan de bello Pharsal l. 1. In se magna ruunt Great States as buildings are oppressed with their owne weight and fall upon themselves Art militarie in that stratagem intus Equus Trojanus that Trojane horse is within the walls which ruines the Citie The sword of the enemie draweth out but a little corrupt bloud that may bee well spared it is sedition and intestine warre that giveth the State her deathes wound m Lucan ibid. nulli penitus discindere ferro Contigit alta sedent civilis vulnera dextrae Are not all mixt bodies corrupted by the disagreement of elements and the elements themselves by the strife of contrarie qualities within them n Ovid. Met. l. 1. quia corpore in uno Frigida pugnabant calidis humentia sic cis Mollia cum duris sine pondere habentia pondus Are not all metals defaced with their owne rust Trees and fruits eaten with little wormes Garments with mothes breeding in them What need I bring in out of Pliny the Hedge-hog for instance disarmed by the o Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 37. Urinam ex se reddunt tabificam teâ—gorispinisque noxiam water that comes from her and softens her prickes and rots them The p l. 11. c. 19. Nocent sua mellaipsis alis ut visco implicitis fistula quae oris loco est obruâ—ata Bees often choaked with their owne hony The q l. 10. c. 3 Oppetunt fame in tantum superiore accrescente rostro ut aduncitas aperiri non qutat Eagle starved by his ravenous feeding which makes his bill grow so big that he cannot open it wide enough to receive in food The historie of all times brings in evidence of fact to confirme the truth of this observation in humane affaires Sodome might have stood for all the five Kings that bid her battaile if the unnaturall fire of lust had not drawne downe upon her unnaturall fire I meane the fire of hell as r Salviâ—n de gubern Dei l. 1. Deus voluit declararâ— udicium qâ—ando super impium populum Gehennam misit de coelo Salvian speaketh from heaven Troy might have stood a thousand yeeres for all the Grecian Fleet of a thousand ships if Antenor had not by trechery opened the Scean gate and the Inhabitants upon the unexpected remove of the Fleet throwne their houses out at the windowes whereof the Greekes having intelligence Å¿ Virg. Aen 2. Invadunt Urbem somno vinoque sepultam surprise the Citie partly in a dead sleepe partly dead drunke It was not Dan's vigilancie but t Judg. 18.27 And they came unto Laish unto a people that were quiet and secure and they smote them with the edge of the sword and burnt the City with fire Laish her securitie that exposed her to spoile It was not u Xen Cyr. poed Cyrus his valour and prowesse but Babylons effeminatenesse and luxurie that subdued it the Citizens kept a feast and their King Belshazzar was quaffing in the bowles of the Sanctuary when the Persians stole in upon them and slew them like beasts They were not Fabius his souldiers but Capua's pleasures which conquered x Capua Hannibali Cannae Hannibal It was not Titus his siege without but the Zelots sedition within the walls that dispeopled Jerusalem strowing her streets with carkasses and dying her common Seurs with bloud It was not the Turkes puissance but the covetousnesse of the Citizens of
right string 't is worth your hearing Christus primus surrexit in incorruptione the rest before they were raised began at least to corrupt it is sayd of Lazarus expressely that he x Joh. 11.39 stanke but God suffered not his holy One to see corruption they rose in their naturall and corruptible bodies Christ in an incorruptible and as the Apostle calleth it a spirituall body ver 44. 2 That which Cornelius A lapide answereth is considerable that though Christ were not primus tempore the first that rose in time yet that he was primus in intentione Dei the first in Gods intention 3 Aquinas comes yet nearer the matter Christus primus sua virtute resurrexit Christ was the first that rose himselfe by his own power they before Christ were raysed by others If any thing be yet lacking S. Bernard and Beza will supply it alii suscitati sunt mortui sed iterum morituri other dead were raised but dyed againe like drowned men which rise up twice or thrice from under water but sinke againe to the bottome Christus simul resurrexit aeternam beatamque vitam recepit Christ at once rose and obtained an eternall and blessed life y Rom. 6.9 Christ being risen from the dead dieth no more death hath no more power over him Whereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bee added that others rose as private men Christ as a publike person and the cause of all other mens rising either univocall as of all the Elect who rise as hee did to happy eternity or equivocall as of the reprobates who are raysed to eternall misery They who rose before Christ were either singular types of him or as common sheafes of the heape Christ was the first that ever rose in the nature and quality of the first fruits to sanctifie the whole harvest of the dead in him who are here called Them that slept z Aristot lib. de mirabil auscult Aristotle writeth of certaine serpents in Mesopotamia which doe great mischiefe to strangers but do no hurt at all to the inhabitants such is death it hath power to sting those that are strangers and aliens from the common-wealth of Israel it hurteth not at all the naturall Israelites which are fellow-citizens with the Saints of the houshold of faith Those which are without God in the world and without Christ though within the visible Church have cause to feare death because like the Phalangium in a Strab. l. 2. geog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strabo it stings them to death in such sort that they dye either laughing or madde that is either making a jest of judgement and hell and the life to come or distracted in some fearefull fit of desparation And as Diogenes when hee felt himselfe falling into a slumber a little before his death said pleasantly * Eras apoph Diog. Frater me mox est traditurus fratri suo one brother is now delivering mee to the other hee meant sleep to death so it is most true of these scoffers at God and all religion dying impenitently that their temporall death delivers them over to eternall death the elder death to the younger but longer liver the first death to the b Ubi mors vivit finis incipit Greg. Morah in Job second but upon those who are in Christ and have part in the first resurrection the second death hath no power and in that regard the first death is not terrible unto them nay so farre is it from being terrible that even lying on their death-beds they insult both upon death and the grave with holy sarcasmes c 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Graec. liturg The immortall entred into a single combate with death on the crosse and gave death a death wound even by his death and now death is no more death to the godly but a sleep e Mat. 9.24 The damosell is not dead but asleepe our friend Lazarus is f Joh. 11.12 but asleepe Stephen though hee came to his end by a violent meanes yet it is said of him that g Act. 7.60 he fell asleep And I would not have you ignorant brethren saith S. Paul concerning them which are h 1 Thess 4.14 asleep and so in my text they who before were called the dead now after the mention of Christs resurrection are termed Them that slept Which words are not so to bee understood as if their soules slept with their bodies till the day of judgement That is a drowsie heresie out of which Calvin shaketh some in his time whom he calleth by the right name * Soule-all-night-sleepers Psychopamychistas but in three other respects 1 Because they rest from their toylesome labours as those that sleepe wee say are at their ease 2 Because they neither minde nor at all meddle with any affaires of this life either good or bad as those that are fast asleepe i Hom. Il. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the time neither thinke nor often so much as dreame of any thing in the world 3 Because they shall certainely be awaked by the shrill sound of the last Trumpet as those that sleepe at night are awaked againe in the morning by the Weytes your City musicke Do you believe all these things I know you do Why do you then take on in such grievous manner when your friends are taken away from you by corporall death Why doe you make their death-beds swimme with your teares non amisistis sed praemisistis you have not lost them but sent them to bed before you they are but asleepe they shall awake againe they are but as seede sowne in the earth they shall rise out of it againe Bern. in Cant. Occidit me Deus cum succidit Gervasium meum I know that where hearts have bin knit together they cannot be rent asunder without exceeding great pain and unexpressible griefe neither do I find fault with naturall affection much lesse condemne the Christian compassion of those who k Rom. 12.15 weepe with them that weepe It is for a Stoicke or rather a stocke to bee without all sympathy of others sorrow or sense of his owne losse l Cic. pro dom ad Pont. eam animi duritiam sicut corporis quod cum uritur non sentit stuporem potius quam virtutem puto Our Lord and Master reads us another lesson who himselfe m Joh. 11.35 wept for Lazarus and whosoever reades if yet for teares hee be able Davids lamentation for Jonathan Saint Ambroses for Satyrus Nyssens for Saint Basil Nazianzens for Gorgonia Augustines for Nebridius and Bernards for Gervasius will finde that the heat of love is contrary to all other For all other dryeth but this the greater it is in the heart the moister the eyes are Yet love must not exceede proportion nor teares measure n Hieron in epitaph Paulae grandis in
thing so much as their tiring In summe they spend all their time in a manner in beautifying and adorning their body to please their lovers but in comparison none at all in beautifying and adorning their soules to please their Maker and Husband Christ Jesus Of these Saint m James 5.5 James long ago gave us the character They live in pleasure in the earth and waxe wanton and are fatted for the day of slaughter I spare to rehearse other lavishing out of time lest the rehearsing thereof might seeme worthy to bee numbred among the idle expences thereof And now it is time to set the foot to the account of my meditations on this Scripture The Conclusion and draw neere to that which we all every day draw neerer unto an end The * 1 Pet. 4.7 end of all things is at hand be sober therefore watch unto prayer The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the workes thereof shall be burned up This great Doomes-day cannot bee farre off as wee see by the fearfull fore-runners thereof howsoever the day of our death which may be called little doomes-day will soon overtake us peradventure before the Sunne yet set or this glasse be runne Wherefore I beseech you all that heare mee this day in the feare of God by occasion of the summons in my Text to enter into a more strict examination of your life than ever heretofore bring out all your thoughts words deeds projects councels and designes and lay them to the rule of Gods Law and if they swerve never so little from it reforme and amend them recount how you have bestowed the blessings of this life how you have imployed the gifts of nature how you have increased your talents of grace wherein the Church or Common-wealth hath been the better by you consider how you have carried your selves abroad in the world how at home in your private families but how especially in the closet of your owne heart You know out of the Gospel that a mans n Mat. 12.44 house may be swept and garnished that is his outward conversation civill and faire and yet harbour seven uncleane spirits within If lust and covetousnesse and pride and envie and malice and rancour and deceit and hypocrisie like so many serpents lye under the ground gnawing at the root of the tree be the leaves of your profession never so broad and seem the fruits of your actions never so faire the vine is the vine of Sodome and the grape the grape of Gomorrah There is nothing so easie as to put a fresh colour upon a rotten post and to set a faire glosse upon the fowlest matters to pretend conscience for most unconscionable proceedings and make religion it selfe a maske to hide the deformity of most irreligious practices But when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened and the intents and purposes of all our actions manifested and the most hidden workes of darknesse brought to light As it is to bee hoped that many that are infinitely wronged in the rash censures of men shall be justified in the sight of God and his Angels so it is to be feared that very many whom the world justifieth and canonizeth also for Saints shall be condemned at Christs barre and have their portion with hypocrites in hell there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Wherefore sith we shall all one day come to such a publike such an impartiall such a particular tryall of all that we have done in the body either good or evill let us looke more narrowly to all our wayes and see that they be streight and even 1. Let us search our heart with all diligence let us look into all the corners thereof and see there lurke no wickednesse nor filthinesse nor hypocrisie there let us looke to our thoughts that they be pure to our desires that they be lawfull to our affections that they be regular to our passions that they be moderate to our ends that they be good to our purposes that they be honest to our intentions that they be sincere to our resolutions that they be well grounded and firme 2. Next let us take our tongue to examination and weigh all our words in the ballance of the Sanctuary and try whether they have not been light and idle but grave and profitable not crafty and deceitfull but simple and plaine not false and lying but true and faithfull not outragious but sober not filthy but modest not prophane but holy not censorious but charitable not scurrilous but ponderous not insolent but lowly and courteous not any way offensive and unsavoury but such as might o Ephes 4.29 minister grace to the hearers 3. Lastly let us lay our hands upon our handy workes and examine our outward acts and deeds 1. Whether they have been alwayes justifiable in generall by the Law of God that is either commanded by it or at least warranted in it 2. Whether they have been and are conformable to the orders of the Church and lawes of the Land For wee must obey lawfull authority for conscience sake in all things that are not repugnant to the divine Law as Bernard piously resolveth saying Thou must yeeld obedience to him as to God who is in the place of God in those things that are not against God 3. Whether they have been agreeable to our particular calling For some things are justifiable by the Law of God and man in men of one state and calling which are hainous sinnes in another as we see in the cases of Uzza and Uzziah 4. Whether they have been answerable to our inward purposes intentions and dispositions For though they are otherwise lawfull and agreeable yet if they goe against the haire if they are done with grudging and repining and not heartily they are neither acceptable to God nor man 5. Whether they have been all things considered most expedient For as many things are profitable and expedient that are not lawfull so some things are lawfull that are not p 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawfull unto me but all things are not expedient expedient and because they are not expedient if necessity beare them not out they become by consequent unlawfull For we are not onely bound to eschew all the evill we know but also at all times to doe the best good wee can else wee fulfill not the commandement of loving God with all our heart and all our soule and all our strength To summe up all I have discoursed unto you first of the Stewardship of the things of this life secondly of the account of this Stewardship thirdly of the time of this account The Stewardship most large the account most strict the time most uncertaine After the explication of these points in the application I arraigned foure Stewards before you first the sacred
passe judgement whether he be happy or miserable No man knoweth who hath gotten honour or infamy till the race is runne but after the course is finished when the rewards are distributed to every man according to his worke when they that have kept within the wayes of God and held on straight to the price of their high calling receive an incorruptible crowne of glory but they who have turned out of the right way to pursue earthly vanities receive their wages eternall death then all men shall see who was the wiser of the two and tooke the better course then the wicked themselves shall confesse their beastly folly thus rubbing upon their owne sores and fretting their owne wounds as we reade in the booke of Wisedome And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves y Wisd 5.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. This was he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverbe of reproach We fooles accounted his life madnesse and his end to bee without honour How is he numbred among the children of God and his lot is among the Saints Therefore have we erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined unto us and the sun of righteousnesse rose not upon us We wearied our selves in the way of wickednesse and destruction yea we have gone through desarts where there lay no way but as for the way of the Lord we have not knowne it What hath pride profited us or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and as a Poste that hasted by And as a ship that passeth over the waves of the water which when it is gone by the trace thereof cannot bee found neither the path-way of the keele in the waves Where is now our gay and gorgeous apparrell where are our sumptuous hangings our rich cubboard of plate our gold and silver where are our orient pearles our blushing rubies our glowing carbuncles our sparkling diamonds our beautifull damsels our pompous shewes our various delights and pastimes our riotous banquets our effeminate songs our melodious musicke our lascivious dancing our amorous imbracings All these things are vanished like shadowes but our sorrowes come upon us thicke and threefold all our joyes delights and comforts are withered at the root but our terrours hearts griefe and torments grow on us more and more and shall till time shall be no more Application If these piteous complaints and hideous shrikes of the damned in hell move us not I tremble to speake it they shall be one day ours then with anguish of heart and bitternesse of soule we shall sigh and say O that wee had been wise then wee would have understood these things and in time considered of our later end Observ 5 Our later end setteth before us quatuor novissima the foure last things 1. Death most certaine 2. Judgement most strict 3. Hell most dreadfull 4. Paradise most delightfull O Death how bitter is thy remembrance to him that is in the prime of his pleasures and pride of his fortune yet the remembrance of judgement is more bitter than of death of hell than of judgement death in comparison were no death if judgement followed not after and judgement were no judgement or nothing so dreadfull if immediately upon it hell were not opened and hell were not hell if it deprived us not of the pleasures of Paradise for ever O that men were wise to consider in the beginning or at least before it bee too late what their later end shall bee first to dye then to bee brought to judgement and after sentence Application either to be led to the rivers of pleasure springing at the right hand of God for evermore or to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone with the Divell and his angels and all the reprobate and damned the z Apoc. 14.11 smoake of whose torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Ashes keepe fire alive and the consideration of our end and dissolution which shall be into dust and ashes not onely keepeth alive but also stirreth up the sparkes of Gods grace in us after this manner Why doe I thus torment my selfe with projects cares and designes I shall shortly I know not how soon returne to my earth and then all my * Psal 146.1 thoughts shall perish Why doe I beare my head so high now it shall lye low enough one day Why doe I lay on so much cost on gorgeous apparrell which covereth nothing but dust and dung Why doe I prodigally lavish out my patrimony in exquisite dainties and all kindes of delicious meates which feed nothing but wormes Why dote I upon the fairest beauty flesh and bloud can present to a lascivious eye if it be artificiall it is nothing but paint and powder if naturall nothing but dust and ashes Why doe I send to the uttermost parts of the earth for the rarest stuffes the finest linnen and napery I shall carry nothing of it all away with mee but my winding sheet Lastly why doe I make so great purchases of lands and possessions I shall keep the possession of nothing but the measure of my grave and perhaps bee disturbed in it too as two of the greatest purchasers of land in the world were William the Norman who conquered a great part of this Island and Alexander the great who conquered the greatest part of the knowne world both lay a long time above ground unburied being denied that which the poorest beggar that never had foot of land in all his life hath freely given unto him a hole to lay his head in under ground Verily as nothing can quench the burning slime of Samosaris called a Plin. nat hist l. 2. c. 104. Limum flagrantem quam Maltham vocant◠tetra tantum extingui docuêre experimenta Flagrat mons Chimaera immortali flammâ extinguitur tamen terrâ fimo Maltha nor the flame of the hill Chimaera but onely earth so nothing can extinguish the ever burning desires of the ambitious for honour of the voluptuous for pleasure of the covetous for gaine but onely mold and earth the complements of our grave and remaines of our later end In my discourse of our later end to draw towards an end before the destruction of the holy City and Temple Josephus writeth of a man afflicted in minde that ran about the City crying Wo to the City wo to the Temple wo to the Priests wo to the people and last of all wo to my selfe at which words he was slaine on the walls by a stone out of a sling Let us take away but one letter turning wo in O and his prophesie for the future may be our admonition and the application of this observation for the present O that the world O that this Kingdome in the world O that this City in this Kingdome O that we in this
mistaking of any other man should not take off the edge of our desires to gaine an invaluable jewell but whet our diligence the more to observe more accurately the notes of difference betweene the true and counterfeit stone upon which I shall touch anon after I have convinced our Romish sceptickes by evidence from the nature of faith the profession of Gods Saints the testimony of the Spirit and undeniable signes and effects that all that are called by the word effectually have this white stone in my text given unto them whereby they are assured of their present estate of grace and future of glory Doct. 1 The faith of Gods e Tit. 1.1 Elect is not a bare assent to supernaturall verities revealed in Scripture which may bee in a Reprobate and is in the f Jam. 2.19 Devils themselves Thou beleevest there is one God thou doest well the Devils also beleeve and tremble but a divine grace whereby being fully assured of Gods favour to us wee trust him with our soules and wholly rely on him for salvation through the merits of his sonne The sure promises of the Gospell are like a strong cable let downe to a man in a deepe pit or dungeon on which hee doth not onely lay hand by faith but hangeth and resteth himselfe upon it and thereby is drawne out of darkenesse to see and possesse the inheritance of the Saints in light To beleeve the communion of Saints is not onely to bee perswaded that there is a communion of Saints in the world remission of sinnes in the Church resurrection of the flesh at the last day and life everlasting in heaven but to bee assured by faith that wee have an interest in this communion benefit by this remission and shall partake the glory of this resurrection and the happinesse of life everlasting They who had beene stung by fiery serpents and were healed by looking upon the brazen serpent did not onely beleeve that it had cured many but that it would cure them Here the Logicians rule holdeth Medicina curat Socratem non hominem physicke is not given to mans nature to cure the species but to every man in individuo to heale his person and to every sicke soule that applieth unto it selfe the promises of the Gospell Christ saith g Mat. 9.22.29 Bee it unto thee as thou beleevest thy faith hath made thee whole goe in peace Hereupon Saint h Fides dicit aeternabona reposita sunt spes dicit mihi teposita sunt charitas dicit ego curro post ea Bernard bringeth in the three divine graces Faith Hope and Charity singing as it were a catch and taking the word one from another Faith beginneth saying everlasting treasures are layd up in heaven Hope followeth saying they are layd up for mee Charity concludeth I will seeke after them And verily no man by a generall Romish credulity but by a speciall faith in Christ can say with Job My redeemer with David My salvation with the Spouse My beloved with the blessed Virgin My Saviour with Thomas My Lord and my God much lesse can hee warrant these possessives with a scio i Job 19.25.26.27 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall see him stand up at the last day upon the earth and though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my selfe And k Psal 45.11.12 I know that thou favourest me thou upholdest mee in my integrity and fettest me before thy face for ever And l Rom. 8.28 Wee know that all things worke for the best to them that love God We know that when m 2 Cor. 5.1 our earthly tabernacle is dissolved wee shall have an eternall in the heavens n 1 Joh. 2.5 Wee know that wee are translated from death to life because we love the brethren Opinion and science a conjecturall hope and an assured beliefe as much differ as a shaken reed and a well growne oake which no winde can stirre To know any thing saith o L. 1 posterior c. 2. Scire est causam rei cognoscere quod illius causa sit quod res illa aliter se habere non posset Aristotle is to know the cause and that this cause is the cause of such an effect and that the thing it selfe cannot bee otherwise than wee conceive of it in which regard the Greeke Etymologist deriveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because opinion waggeth and inclineth the mind by probabilities on both sides but science fasteneth it and maketh it stand unmoveable With these texts of scripture attributing knowledge of salvation to all beleevers our Trent Merchants are manifestly gravelled and sticke in the mud yet they endevour to boye up their sunke vessell by a distinction of a double knowledge 1 By common faith 2 By speciall revelation They yeeld that some who have been admitted to Gods privie Councell by speciall revelation have been assured of their crowne of glory but they will by no meanes grant that beleevers can attain to this certainty by their common faith yet such is the clearnesse of the texts above alledged for the point in question that they easily like the beames of the sunne breake through this popish mist For Job speaketh not of any speciall secret revealed unto him but of the common article of all our faith concerning the resurrection of the flesh I know that my Redeemer liveth and hee shall stand up and I shall see him with these eyes And what David speaketh of his knowledge of Gods favour and stedfast beliefe of his future happinesse p Ad Monim l. 1. â—ustus ex fide vivens fiducialiter dicit credo videre bona domini in terra viventium Fulgentius applyeth to every beleever The just man living by faith speaketh confidently I beleeve that I shall see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living And S. John ascribeth this knowledge not to any singular revelation but to charity the common effect of faith We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren whereupon S. q Tract 5. in ep Joh. Nemo interroget hominem redeat ad cor suum si ibi invenerit charitatem securus sit quia transiit à morte ad vitam Austin giveth this sage advice Let no man enquire of man let him have recourse to his owne heart if he find there charity let him rest assured that he is passed from death to life And S. Paul joyneth all the faithfull with him saying We know that all things worke for the best to them that love God and There is layd up a crown of righteousnesse which the righteous Judge shall give mee at that day and not to mee onely but to all them also that love his appearing In like manner Saint r Ep. ex regist l. 6. Hac fulti certitudine de ejusdem redemptoris nostri misericordiá nihil ambigere
circumveniat why doth he compasse the earth but to circumvent us Circumvention is more easily understood than prevented or avoided A Wrestler who can circumvenire come about his adversary taketh hold where hee list to his best advantage in a duell fought on horse-backe hee that can nimbly turne his beast and circumvenire come about his Antagonist hee striketh him at pleasure when a passenger is met by a theefe at every turne he is properly circumvented when a city is environed and begirt with a puissant army that is circumvented there is no hope to escape By which few instances you may perceive how apt this phrase is to expresse the great danger of Satan his temptations Yet the Kings Translation lest Satan get advantage of us commeth neerest to the Greeke Etymology which imports to have more or the better to gaine over and above and Oecumenius the Greeke Scholiast descanteth upon this signification of the word after this manner * Oecumenius in 2 Cor. 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doth not Satan gaine over and above when hee gaines upon us both wayes when hee getteth an advantage of us both by sinne and repentance both by vitious pleasures and by godly sorrow as hee would have done upon this Corinthian whom first hee perswaded to make an incestuous match to satisfie his lustfull desires and after hee felt the smart of his sinne and severe censure of the Church hee wrought upon his sorrow and sought to drive him into desparation But why doth the Apostle say lest hee get advantage of us was Saint Paul in any danger or had Satan any designe upon him We may piously conceive that Saint Paul joynes himselfe with them because hee esteemed all those whom hee begot to Christ by the Gospell no other than his own children and the Father cannot but suffer in the losse of his childe The f Cypr. de laps Plus pastor in gregis sui vulnere vulneratur shepheard must needs be endamaged when any of his flocke is diminished g 2 Cor. 11.29 Who is offended saith Saint Paul and I burne not yet this is not all Saint Paul was further interessed in this businesse than so for the Corinthians had excommunicated this incestuous person by order from the Apostle himselfe and therefore if he had miscarried Satan had made his advantage upon all upon the incestuous person whose soule hee would have ruined upon the Church which hee had maimed of a member upon the Corinthians and S. Paul himselfe under whose hands this patient had beene so roughly handled that hee died in the cure These were Satans reaches or as they are here called devices which he could not carry so closely but that the Apostles vigilant eye descryed them for saith hee Wee are not ignorant of his devices Did the housholder know what night the thiefe would come to rob him he would certainly guard his house did the birds know a snare were laid for them would they come neare it were the fishes aware that a net were spread for them would they run into it had the souldiers certaine notice of an ambush set for them would they bee surprized Loe here beloved snares of temptation nets of circumvention ambushes of destruction prepared by a most subtle enemy and wee are not ignorant of them if then we be taken entangled or surprized can we lay the blame upon any thing but upon our carelesse and retchlesse folly Could wee plead with him in the Poet Non expectato vulnus ab hoste tuli I was wounded by a dart I was not aware of our case deserved some compassion but when wee know our enemy and are foreshewed what fiery darts hee prepareth for us and when and how hee will cast them at us if we receive our deaths wound our blood must needs bee upon our selves Satan assaults us two maner of waies by his lions paw by his serpents sting by open force and by cunning sleights by the one in time of persecution by the other in time of peace of the latter the Apostle here speaks saying wee are not ignorant of his Devices Devices are subtle meanes to compasse our ends such as are trickes in gaming fallacies in disputing sleights in wrestling mysteries in trading policies in state and stratagems in war the enemy of our soule is full of them cui nomina mille Mille nocendi artes Lypsius hath written of all the warlike engines used by the ancients and Vegetius of their military policies and Captaine-craft but never any yet was able to recount much lesse describe all Satans poliorcetickes and stratagems Some of the chief and most dangerous partly out of scripture and partly out of experienced souldiers of Christ I purpose to acquaint you with at this time 1. The first stratagem policy or device of Satan is To observe the naturall constitution of every mans minde and body and to fit his temptations thereunto For hee knoweth well that as every plant thrives not in every soyle so neither every vice in every temper and complexion Though there bee in every man a generall aversenesse from good and propension to evill and albeit nature as it is corrupted since the fall bee a step-dame to all vertue and a mother to all vices yet shee is not equally affected in every one to all her owne children Some ill conditions are more incident to some climats to some countries to some families than others The Easterne people were for the most part given to sorcery the auncient Jewes to idolatry the Greeks to curious heresie the Latine Church to superstition Unnaturall lust seemeth to bee naturalized in Italy pride in Spaine levity in France drunkennesse in Germany gluttony and new fangled fashions in great Brittaine Ambition haunteth the Court mostly faction the University luxury and usury the City oppression and extortion the Countrey bribery and forged cavillations the Courts of justice schisme and simony the Church Pliny writeth of some families that they had privie marks in their bodies peculiar to those of that line the like may bee found in mens mindes and every one herein is like the Leopard Cognatis maculis parcit fera hee h Greg. mor. in Job l. 29. Priùs conspersionem uniuscujusque intuctur pòst tentationum laqueos apponit favoureth his owne spots These spots Satan curiously marketh and accordingly frames his suggestions hee observes our walkes and spies our usuall haunts and there sets gins for us As the Mariner marks the wind and accordingly hoiseth up or striketh saile or as the cunning Oratour learneth which way the Judge propendeth and ever draweth him where hee seeth him comming on so the Devill maketh perpetuall use of the bent of our nature to helpe forward his temptations rightly considering that it is a very easie matter to bow a tree the way it bendeth of it selfe to cast a bowle swiftly downe the hill to push downe a wall where it swaggeth already to trip up his heeles whose foot is sliding Hee
blessed Virgin the babe a Luke 1.41 sprang in the wombe of Elizabeth so I doubt not but that at the reading of this text in your eares the fruits of your devotion which are your religious thoughts and zealous affections leap and spring for joy in the wombe of your soule for now is the accepted time the time of grace now is the day of salvation the day of our Lords Incarnation As the golden tongued Father spake of a Martyr Martyrem dixisse laudâsse est to name a man a Martyr is to commend him sufficiently so it may be said of this text to rehearse it is to apply it I need not fit it to the time for the time falleth upon this time and the day upon this day now if ever is this Now in season If any time in all the yeere be more acceptable than other it is the holy time we now celebrate now is the accepted time on Gods part by accepting us to favour now is the day of salvation by exhibiting to us a Saviour in our flesh let us make it so on our parts also by accepting the grace offered unto us and by laying hands on our Saviour by faith and embracing him by love and by joy dilating our hearts to entertain him with all his glorious attendants a troupe of heavenly Souldiers singing b Luke 2.14 Glory be to God on high on earth peace and good will towards men c Esay 49.13 Sing O heavens and be joyfull O earth and breake forth into shouting O ye mountaines for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon the afflicted Keepe this holy day above others because chosen by God to manifest himselfe in the flesh bid by an Angell and by him furnished both with a lesson and with an Anthem also Well might the Angell as on this day sing glory in excelsis Deo c. for on this day the Son of God out of his good will towards men became man and thereby set peace on earth and brought infinite glory to God in the highest heavens Well may this be called by the Apostle d Gal. 4.4 The fulnesse of time or a time of fulnesse which filled heaven with glory the earth with blessings of peace and men with graces flowing from Gods good will The heavens which till this time were as clasped boxes now not able longer to containe in them the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind burst open and he whose name is e Cant. 1.3 an ointment poured forth was plentifully shed upon the earth to revive the decayed spirits and heale the festered sores of wounded mankind Lift up then your heavie lookes and heavier hearts yee that are in the midst of danger and in the sight nay within the claspes of eternall death you have a Saviour borne to rescue you Cheare up your drouping and fainting spirits all ye that feele the smart and anguish of a bruised conscience and broken heart to you Christ is borne to annoint your wounds bruises and sores Exult and triumph ye gally slaves of Satan and captives of Hell fast bound with the chaine of your sinnes to you a Redeemer is borne to ransome you from spirituall thraldome Two reasons are assigned why festivities are religiously to be kept 1. The speciall benefits of God conferred upon his Church at such times which by the anniversary celebration of the dayes are refreshed in our memories and visibly declared to all succeeding ages 2 The expresse command of God which adjoyned to the former reason maketh the exercises of devotion performed at these solemnities duties of obedience It cannot be denied that in this latter consideration those feasts which are set downe in the booke of God have some prerogative above those that are found wrtiten onely in the Calendar of the Church But in the former respect no day may challenge a precedencie of this no not the Sabbath it selfe which the more to honour him whose birth we now celebrate resigned both his name place and rites to the f Athanas hom de semenie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords day and if we impartially compare them the worke wrought on this day was farre more difficult and the benefit received upon it greater than that to the memory whereof the Sabbath was at the first dedicated It was a greater miracle that God should be made a creature than that he should make all creatures and the redemption of the world so farre exceeds the creation as the means by which it was wrought were more difficult and the time larger the one was finished in sixe dayes by the commandement of God the other not in lesse than foure and thirty yeeres by the obedience of Christ the one was but a word with God the breath of his mouth gave life to all creatures the other cost him much labour sweat and bloud and what comparison is there betweene an earthly and an heavenly Paradise Nay if wee will judge by the event the benefit of our creation had beene none without our redemption For by it we received an immortall spirit with excellent faculties as it were sharpe and strong weapons wherewith wee mortally wounded our selves and had everlastingly laid weltring in our own blood had not our Saviour healed our wounds by his wounds and death and raised us up againe by the power of his resurrection To which point Saint Austine speaking feelingly saith Si natus non fuisset bonum fuisset si homo natus non fuisset If hee had not beene borne it had beene good for man never to have beene borne if this accepted time had not come all men had beene rejected if this day of salvation had not appeared wee had all perished in the night of eternall perdition Behold now is the accepted time In this Scripture as in a Dyall wee may observe 1 The Index 2 The Circles Certaine Behold Different 1 The larger 2 The narrower The accepted time The day of salvation To man in generall it is an accepted time to every beleever in particular it is a day of salvation Lynx cum cessat intueri cessat recordari Because we are like the Lynx which mindeth nothing no longer than her eye is upon it the Spirit every where calleth upon us to looke or behold Behold not alwayes or at any time but now not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not time simply but season the flower of time not barely accepted but according to the originall well accepted or most acceptable not the day of helpe or grace but a day of salvation As in the bodies which consist of similar parts the forme of the whole and the forme of every part is all one for example the whole ocean is but water and yet every drop thereof is water the whole land is but earth and yet every clod thereof is earth the
take no pity on him To silence these curious questionists the most judicious Divines teach that albeit God hath speciall reasons of his will for every thing he determineth yet to us his will must stand for the last and best reason The fullest answer that can be given to that demand why Christ was borne in the dayes of the Roman Augustus about the two and fourtieth yeere of his reigne is that then was the fulnesse of time that is the time was fully come which God appointed before all time for the comming of his Sonne in the flesh And surely a fitter time could hardly have beene chosen whether we respect the condition of the patient or the quality of the Physician or the state of Judaea or of the whole world at that time First if we regard the condition of the patient before Adam fell and by his fall tooke his deaths wound there was no need of a Chirurgian or a Physician and after he was wounded it was fit that he should feele the smart of his wounds a while and by wofull experience find that he was not able to help himselfe With this reason d Summ. p. 3. q. 1. art 5. Non decuit à principio humani generis ante peccatum Deum incarnari non enim datur medicina nisi infirmis nec statim post peccatum conveniens fuit Deumincarnari propter conditionem primi peccati quod a superbia pervenerat unde comodo homo erat liberandus ut recognosceret se indigere liberatore Aquinas rested satisfied Secondly if we regard the quality of the Physician For no man sendeth for the greatest Doctour especially if he be farre off before he hath tried others that are neere at hand or the cure grow dangerous if not desperate Before the King commeth himselfe many Embassadours and Noble men are sent Nature and Art observe the like method proceeding from lesse noble to more noble workes from the egge to the chicke from the seed to the fruit from the kernell to the apple from the dawning to the day from childhood to youth and from youth to perfect age The painter in like manner first maketh a rude draught of a face after perfectly pourtrayeth it and last of all casteth beautifull colours upon it the Chirurgian first washeth the wound then poureth in wine to search it and after oile to supple and heale it in like manner the providence of God proceeded in the dispensing the meanes of mans salvation after the twylight of nature and dawning as it were of the day the day starre appeared more obscurely in the publishing of the law but manifestly in Saint John Baptists doctrine and then the Sunne arose in the preaching of the Gospell first God sent Priests and Prophets as messengers then Angels and the Archangell as it were Princes and Peeres of heaven and last of all he sent his Sonne the heire of all things Like a Chirurgian he first cleansed the sores of wounded man by pouring in the wine of the Law after he suppled and healed them by pouring in the oyle of the Gospell first he rough hewed us by Moses and after plained and smoothed us by Christ that we might be as the polished corners of the Temple Thirdly if we regard the state of Judaea which was now most deplorate being destitute both of King and Law-giver for Herod a stranger usurped the Crowne and destroyed the Sanedrim or great Councell they had now no Prophet or Seer to lead them in this time of thickest darknesse now therefore if ever the Messiah must come to set all right Fourthly if we regard the state of the whole world which at this time was most learned and thereby most capable of the doctrine of the Gospell Besides it being reduced to a Monarchy and the parts thereupon holding better correspondency one with the other a greater advantage was given for the dispreading of Christian doctrine through all the Provinces of the Roman Empire 2 Of the yeere of the age As God crowned the age in which our Lord tooke flesh with many remarkeable accidents so also the yeere of that age 1 First Herod this very yeere bereaving the Tribe of Judah of King and Lawgiver utterly abolished their grand Councell and thereby the Prophesie of Jacob was verified that c Gen. 49.10 the Scepter should not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from betweene his feet till Shilo come The substance of the Scepter if I may so speake was departed before and this yeere the shadow also remaining hitherto in the Sanedrim which had a kind of sovereign power to make lawes and execute them vanished away now therefore Shilo commeth 2 Secondly Moreover this very yeere Augustus Caesar d Luke 2.1 sent forth a Decree that the whole world should be taxed which was not without a mystery viz. that this yeere the world should be prized and an estimate made thereof when our Lord came into the world to redeeme it Little thought Augustus when he gave order for drawing that Proclamation of drawing Marie to Bethlehem that she might there be delivered according to the prophesie of e Micah 5.2 Micah yet so did Augustus his temporall Decree make way for Gods eternall determination of Christs birth in Bethlehem 3 Thirdly this very yeere the same Emperour shut up the Temple of f Functius in Chron. Janus where all the Roman warlike provision lay and established a peace through the whole world that so the Prince of peace might be borne in the dayes of peace 4 Fourthly this yeere also he enacted a law g Sethus Calvisius ex Dione Cassio De manumissione servorum of setting servants at liberty which might have some reference to the spirituall freedome which h John 8.36 Christ purchased for us whereof hee himselfe saith If the Sonne make you free you shall bee free indeed 5 Fiftly this yeere in a certaine Shop or Inne to be let in Rome a i Plat ex Eutrop paulo diac fountaine of oyle sprang out of the earth and flowed a whole day without intermission Magna taberna fuit tunc emeritoria dicta De qua fons olei fluxerat in Tiberim Which may seeme literally to verifie those words of the Prophet k Esay 10.27 It shall come to passe in that day that his burden shall be taken off thy shoulder and his yoake from off thy necke and the yoake shall be destroyed because of the oyle or annointing 6 Sixtly what should I speake of the falling downe of the Temple of l Magdeburg ex Petro comest Templum pacis corruit Romae ne alibi quam in Messiâ pax quaereretur peace in Rome about this time Might not that be an item that true peace was no where now to bee sought save in Jesus Christ our onely Peace-maker now come into the world to reconcile Heaven and Earth and establish a covenant of grace betweene God and man for ever 7 Seventhly neither is m Calvis
in Chron. ad an c. 1. Calvisius his hote discordant from our purpose viz. that the yeere of our Lords birth was Annus Sabbathicus a yeere made of seven multiplyed or a yeere of Jubile For even by this very circumstance wee may bee put in minde that he who was borne in a temporall Sabbathicke yeere on earth procureth for us an everlasting Sabbath in heaven 3 Of the day of the yeere From the age in which our Lord was incarnate wee have already proceeded to the yeere now from the yeere wee will come to the day on which God hath set many glorious markes 1 First St. Matthew telleth us of a n Mat. 2.2 new starre that appeared to the heathen Sages which guided them in their way to Bethlehem 2 Secondly St. o Quest vet N.T. Hodâ—eâ—no die natus est Christus octavo Calend. Jan. ab illo die crescunt dies ecce à nativitate Christi dies crescit illo oriente dies proficit Austine and St. p Ambros Serm. 8. de temp Ambrose and q Prudent in hyâ—n ad Cal. Jan. Quid est quod Arctum circulum Sol jam recurrens deserit Christusne terris nascitur qui lucis augit â—ramitem Prudemius note that the day of our Lords birth fell precisely upon the winter solstice and from that day the dayes begin to lengthen 3 Thirdly this day in the vineyard of r Magdeburg ex Martino Vinca Engaddi quae balsamum ferebat horem fructum liquorem simul fudit Engaddi the Balsamum tree both blossomed and bare fruit and liquor also dropped from it Thus we see what golden characters God hath fixed upon the age yeere and day of our Lords birth in which we may read the benefits of his incarnation which are these First rest this seemeth to be figured by the Sabbathicke yeere Secondly peace this was shadowed by the temporall peace concluded through all the world by Augustus Thirdly libertie from spirituall thraldome this was represented by the law of manumission of servants Fourthly Knowledge this was shewed by the new starre Fiftly encrease of grace this was signified by the lengthening of the dayes from Christs birth Sixtly spirituall joy this was expressed by the oyle which sprang out of the earth Seventhly health and life this the Balsamum was an embleme of This peace this libertie this knowledge this grace this joy this health God offereth to us in this accepted time and day of salvation Behold now c. The Jewes had their now and that was from the day of our Lords birth to the time of the destruction of the Temple before which a voyce was heard at midnight saying Å¿ Joseph de bello Jud. l 7. Migremus hinc Let us goe hence The Gentiles now or day of grace began after Peters t Acts 10.11 vision and shall continue untill the fulnesse of all Nations be come in Our Countrie 's now for their conversion from Paganisme began when Joseph of Arimathea or Simon Zelotes or Saint Paul or some other of the Apostles planted the Gospell in this Island for our reversion to the puritie of the ancient doctrine and discipline was from the happie reformation in King Henry the eighth his time and Kings Edward the sixts and shall last till God for our sinnes remove our golden Candlesticke All your now who heare me this day is from the day of your new birth in baptisme till the day of your death Application Behold now is your accepted time now is your day of salvation make good use of these golden moments upon which dependeth your eternall happinesse or miserie Yet by a few sighes you may drive away the fearefull storme that hangeth over you yet with a few teares you may quench the fire of hell in your consciences yet by stretching out your armes to God and laying hold on Christ by faith you may be kept from falling into the brimstone lake While yee have the light of this day of grace t Phil. 2.12 Worke out your salvation with feare and trembling before the night of death commeth when u John 9.4 no man can worke If you reject this accepted time and let slip this day of salvation there remaineth nothing for you but a time of rejection x Mat. 7.23 Away from mee I know you not and a day of damnation y Mat. 25.41 Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire To apply this now yet once more Behold now in these feasts of Christmas is tempus acceptum an accepted time or a time of acceptation a time when wee accept and entertaine one another a time of giving and accepting testimonies of love a time of receiving the holy Sacrament a time when God receiveth us into favour biddeth us to his owne table Behold now is the day of salvation the day in which our Saviour was borne and the y Titus 2.11 grace of God bringing salvation appeared unto all men This day our Saviour will come into thy house and if with humble devotion godly sorrow a lively faith and sincere love thou entertaine him what himselfe spake to Zacheus the Spirit will speake unto thee z Luke 19.9 This day is salvation come to thy house Which God the Father grant for the merits of his Sonne through the powerfull operation of the holy Spirit To whom c. THE SPOUSE HER PRECIOUS BORDERS A rehearsall Sermon preached Anno 1618. THE XXXII SERMON CANT 1.11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver Right Honourable c. AS the riches of Gods goodnesse are set forth to the eye of the body by the diversity of creatures in the booke of nature so are the treasures of his wisedome exposed to the eye of the mind by the varietie of senses in the booke of Scripture Which in this respect is by reverend antiquitie compared to the scrole in a Ezek. 2.10 Vid. Hier. in c. 2. Ezekielis Ezekiels vision spread before him which was written Intus à tergo within and without without in the letter within in the Spirit without in the history within in the mystery without in the typicall ceremonies within in the morall duties without in the Legall resemblance within in the Evangelicall reference without in verborum foliis within in radice rationis as St. Jerome elegantly expresseth it The former sense resembleth the golden b Exod 16.33 And Moses said to Aaron take a pot and put an Omer full of Manna therein c. pot the latter the hidden c Rev. 2.17 Manna it selfe that is as the shell or mother of pearle this as the Margarite contained within it both together as d Nazianz ad Nemes Literalem comparat corpori spiritualem animae Verbum Dei geminam habet naturam divinam invisibilem humanam visibilem ita Verbum Dei scriptum habet sensum externum internum Nazianzen observeth make this singular correspondency betweene the incarnate and the inspired
faithfull and thy faith to be sound and thy patience to bee invincible and thy workes and the last to be more than the first The faire and magnificent Colledges lately founded and Churches sumptuously repaired and Libraries rarely furnished and Schooles richly endowed and Students in the Universities liberally maintained and the poore in Hospitals charitably relieved are standing testimonies and living evidences thereof Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee that thou sufferest the woman that sitteth upon seven hils the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth Jezabel of Rome which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse and Mistresse of all Prophets and Prophetesses by Priests and Jesuites to teach and deceive my servants to make them commit spirituall fornication and freely communicate with Idolaters and I gave her space to repent sixty yeers at least that she might not complain that I began with violent extreme courses and launced her wounds whilest they were greene but all this while she hath not repented of her Superstitions and abominable Idolatries therefore I will lay it heavie upon her I will send plague after plague and heape sorrow upon sorrow and adde affliction to affliction and if all will not serve I will poure out the dregges of my red wine on her and quench the fire of my wrath with her stained bloud I will kill her children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am hee that searcheth deep into the wounds of the heart and reines and discover filthinesse corruption in the inward parts and I will give unto every one according to his workes but unto you I say and to the rest in great Britaine as many as have not this doctrine of the Romish Jezabel and which have not knowne the depths of Sathan her mysteries of iniquity I will put upon you no other burden of Lawes or Canons but that which you have already Hold fast till I come to judgement In this Letter observe we 1. The superscription mysterious Ver. 18. 2. The contents various presenting to our religious thoughts 1. A sweet insinuation Ver. 19. 2. A sharpe reprehension Ver. 20 21. 3. A fearfull commination Ver. 22 23. 4. A comfortable conclusion Ver. 24. In the superscription wee have an admirable description of the glorified body of our Redeemer which shineth more brightly than a flame of fire or the finest metall glowing in the furnace Secondly an eminent title attributed to the Bishop or Super-intendent of the Church in Thyatira The Angel To the Angel in Thyatira saith the Sonne of God who hath eyes like a flame of fire to a Bullengerus in hunc locum Illuminat alios alios igne sempiterno concremat inlighten the godly and burne up the ungodly and feet like brasse to support his Church and bruise the enemies thereof I know thy workes proceeding from thy love and thy love testified by thy service and thy service approved by thy faith and thy faith tryed by thy patience and that the silver springs of thy bounty have more overflowed at the last than at the first Thus farre the sweet insinuation which afterwards falls into a sharpe reprehension like as the sweet river b Solinus c. 20. Hypanis Scythicorum amnium princeps haustu saluberrimus dum in Exampeum fontem inferatur qui amnem suo vitio vertit Hypanis into the bitter fountaine Exampeus Notwithstanding I have an action against thee that thou sufferest the filthy Strumpet Jezebel to corrupt the bodies and soules of my servants by permitting corporall fornication to them and committing spirituall with them whose judgement sleepeth not no not in her bed but even there shall surprise her For behold I will cast her into a bed where she hath cast her selfe in wantonnesse I will cast her in great weaknesse and will make her bed of pleasure a racke to torment her Ubi peccavit punietur where she swilled in her stolne waters that rellished so sweet in her mouth shee shall take downe her bitter potion Ubi oblectamentum ibi tormentum Of which plagues of Jezebel when God shall open the vials mouth at this time I purpose to gather some few observations from the two former branches of this Scripture but to insist wholly upon the third in the explication whereof when I have proved by invincible arguments that Jezebel is not to be tolerated in the application I will demonstrate that the Pseudo-catholike Romane Church otherwise called the Whore of Babylon is Jezebel or worse if worse may bee as God shall assist mee with his Spirit and endue mee with power from above for which I beseech you all to joyn with mee in prayer O most gracious God c. And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write c. The Naturalists observe that the thickest and best hony is that which is squeezed last out of the combe and usually the daintiest dish is served in at the last course and Musicians reserve the sweetest straine for their close and Rhetoricians take speciall care of their peroration The last speech of a dying friend leaves a deep impression in our hearts and art imitating nature holdeth out the last note of the dying sound in the organ or voice which consideration should stirre up our religious thoughts and affections to entertain with greatest alacrity and singular respect the admonitions and prophecies delivered in this booke as being the last words of our Lords last will and testament d Sen. ep 12. Gratissima sunt poma cùm fugiunt deditos vino potatio extrema delectu c. and the last breath as it were of the Spirit of God If that of the Poet be true that the beames of the c Esse Phoebi dulcius solet lumen jamjam cadentis Sunne shine most pleasantly at his setting how pleasant and deare ought the light of this Propheticall booke be unto us which is the last irradiation and glissoning of the Sunne of righteousnesse In it discerne we may 1. Counsels chapt 2.3 2. Predictions of the state of the Church 1. Militant from the 4th to the 21. 2. Triumphant from the 21. to the end The manner of delivery of both to Saint John was by speciall revelation which you will better conceive if you be pleased to take notice of the meanes whereby all knowledge divine and humane is conveighed into the soule As all water ariseth either from Springs below or falleth from the Clouds above so all knowledge is either gathered from the creatures by naturall reason grounded upon experience or immediately descendeth from the Father of lights and is attained unto by supernaturall illumination Supernaturall illumination is either 1. By ordinary inspiration common to all the Pen-men of the holy Ghost who wrote the dictates of the Spirit and were so assisted by him that they could not set downe any thing amisse 2. By extraordinary revelation which may be either 1. Of things past whereof there remaine no records monuments or memorialls to furnish
for one Starre differeth from another in glory and so shall be the resurrection of the dead 5. Fifthly looke yee yet neerer upon these shining stones and yee shall finde that they will not onely delight and lighten the eyes of your understanding but also heate and enflame your devout affections They are as twelve precious bookes wherein you may reade many excellent lessons printed with indeleble characters You see cleerly here the names of each of the Tribes in severall engraven let your marginall note be God hath from all eternity decreed a certaine number of Elect to bee saved and hee hath written their names in severall in the booke of life 6. Sixthly observe that the names of the Tribes are not written in paper nor carved in wood but engraven in solid and precious stones with the point of a Diamond never to be razed out let your interlineary glosse be None of those whose names are written in the book of life can be stricken out For there is no blotting interlining nor variae lectiones in that booke stars there are but no obeliskes the Elect therefore though they may fall grievously and dangerously yet not totally nor finally Stella cadens non est stella cometa fuit Were you beloved but embossed or enammeled in the ring upon our Saviours finger you were safe enough for no man can plucke any thing out of our Saviours hand but now that you are engraven as signets on our Saviours heart what can be your feare what may be your joy Is it so doth our high Priest set us on his heart and shall not wee set our heart on him shall we esteem any thing too deare for him who esteemeth us so deare unto him Hee who once upon the Crosse shed his heart bloud for us still beareth us upon his heart and esteemeth of us as Cornelia did of her Gracchi and presenteth us as it were in her words to his Father Haec sunt ornamenta mea these be my jewels Doth he make such reckoning of us and is it our desire he should doe so then for the love of our Redeemer let us not so dishonour him as to fill the rowes of his breast-plate with glasse in stead of jewels let us not make him present to his Father either counterfeit stones through our hypocrisie or dusky through earthlinesse and worldly corruption let us rub scowre and brighten the good graces of God in us that they may shine in us we may be such as our Saviour esteemeth us to be that is orient and glorious jewels The summe of all is this Yee have heard of foure rowes of precious stones set in bosses of gold upon Aarons breast-plate and by the foure rowes you understand the foure well ordered methodicall Sermons by me rehearsed by the jewels either the eminent parts of the Preachers or their precious doctrines by the embossments of gold in which these precious gems of divine doctrine were set their texts nothing remaineth but that the breast-plate being made you put it on and as Aaron did beare it on your hearts By wearing bearing it there you shall receive vertue from it and in some sort participate of the nature of these jewels in modesty of the Ruby in chastity of the Emrald in purity of the Onyx in temperance of the Amethyst in ardent love of the Carbuncle in invincible constancy of the Adamant in sacrificing your dearest hearts bloud and affections to Christ in passion for him if you be called thereunto of the Hematite You shall gloriously beautifie the brest-plate of our Aaron who hath put on his glorious apparrell and sacred robes and is entred into the Sanctum Sanctorum in heaven and at this time beareth our names on his breast for a remembrance before God his father and long it shall not be ere he come from thence and all eyes shall t Apoc. 1.7 see him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him then shall he say to us Lift up your heads looke upon my breast reade every one your name engraven in a rich jewell You were faithfull unto death therefore see here now I give you a crowne of life behold in it for every Christian vertue a jewel for every penitent teare Chrystall Pearle for every green blew wound or stripe endured for me an Emrald and a Saphir for every drop of bloud shed for the Gospel a Ruby and an Hematite weare this for my sake and reigne with mee for evermore Cui c. THE DEVOUT SOULES MOTTO A Sermon preached in Saint Peters Church in Lent Anno 1613. THE XXXVI SERMON PSAL. 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Right Worshipfull c. THe words which our a Luke 12.49 Saviour spake concerning the issue and successe of his preaching may serve fitly for a preface to my intended discourse upon this Text Ignem veni missurus inter vos quid volo nisi ut accendatur I come to put fire among you or rather in you and what is my desire but that by the blasts and motions of Gods Spirit and the breath of my mouth it may presently bee kindled and burne in your hearts Burne it will not without fuell take heed therefore saith b In opusc Cave ne injicias quod fumum aut foetorem ministret Bonaventure what you cast into this fire to feed the flame for if it be grosse impure and earthy matter the flame will be obscure and the fume unsavoury but if it be refined pure and celestiall the flame will be cleare and the fume a sweet perfume in the nostrils of Almighty God Nadab and c Levit. 10.1 Abihu smoaked themselves for offering strange fire upon Gods Altar but wee are like to burne in unquenchable fire if wee offer not continually the fire I am now to treat of upon the Altar of our hearts and yet it is a strange fire too for it giveth light yet burneth not or rather it burnes yet consumeth not or rather it consumes yet impaires not but dilateth and enlargeth the heart Other fire burnes blacke and marreth the beauty of the body but this contrariwise giveth beauty to the soule for as Saint d Mor. in Job l. 18. Non clarescit anima fulgore aeternae pulchritudinis nisi hic arserit in officinâ charitatis Gregory rightly observeth the soule shineth not with the brightnesse of everlasting beauty that burneth not in the forge of charity With this beauty God is so enamoured that Saint e De dilig Deo Major est in amore Dei qui plures traxerit ad amorem Dei Bernards observation is true that he is greatest in favour and in the love of God who draweth most to the love of God If we desire to know saith Saint f Aug. Enchirid ad Laurent c. 117. Austine what a man is wee enquire not what he beleeveth or what he hopeth
3.3 Thou hadst a whores forehead thou refusedst to be ashamed they were not ashamed neither could they blush I answer 1 By distinguishing of shame which is sometimes taken for the inward affection and irksome passion of a sinner that hath cast any foule staine upon his conscience sometimes for the outward expression by dejection in the countenance faultring in the speech a cloud in the eye and flushing in the forehead and cheekes No sinner is without shame in the first sense though many by custome in sinne grow senselesse thereof and consequently shamelesse in the latter sense and in the end they come to that height of impudencie that they blush for it if they blush and are ashamed of their shamefacednesse pudet non esse impudentem But this hardinesse doth them no good at all for they doe but stop the mouth of the wound that it bleed not outwardly it bleedeth inwardly the faster and much more dangerously 2 A sinner may be considered either before or after his regeneration before his regeneration he committeth many sinnes whereof he is not then ashamed either because he accounteth them no sins or not such sinnes as may any wayes trench upon his reputation For though the dim light of corrupt nature discovereth some workes of darkenesse yet not all nor any in the right hiew As a man that is in the water feeleth not the weight of it so the sinner whilest he is in the state of corruption feeleth not the weight of sinne For he accounteth great sinnes small and small none at all but when he is out of that state then he feeleth the smallest sinne unrepented of as heavie as a talent of lead able to drowne his soule in eternall perdition as it followeth For the end For the end of these things is death That is the end of all these things By end here the Apostle meaneth not the finall cause moving the sinner but the finall effect of sinne for the sinner propoundeth to himselfe a divers end either gaine which the covetous man shooteth at or glorie which the ambitious or pleasure which the voluptuous but they misse their marke and in stead of gaine which the covetous man promised himselfe in his sinfull course of life in his returne by weeping crosse he findeth irrecoverable losses for what fruit had yee in stead of glorie and honour which the ambitious aimeth at shame and infamie whereof yee are now ashamed in stead of a pleasant temporall life which the voluptuous shot at a painefull and eternall death For the end of these things Is death Is death That is death temporall which is the sinners earnest as it were and death eternall which is his full hire and wages death corporall which is the separation of the soule from the body is hastened by sinne death spirituall which is the separation of the soule from God is sinne and death eternall in Scripture termed the second death which is the tormenting of body and soule for ever in the lake of fire and brimstone is the full reward of sinne and this death is here principally meant as may be gathered from the words ensuing my text but the gift of God is eternall life for that death which is opposed to eternall life can be no other than eternall death Obser The meaning of the text being thus cleared the speciall points of observation are easily discerned the first is That the smart of the wound of conscience for sinnes past is a speciall meanes through grace to keepe us from sinne to come Upon this the Apostle worketh in the words of my text What fruit had yee in those things whereof ye are now ashamed The burnt child doth not more dread the fire nor the scholar severely corrected beware the fault for which he smarted nor the Pilot keep off from the rock at which he formerly dashed his bark and hazzarded his life and goods nor the intemperate gallant tormented with an extreme fit of a burning feaver forbeare the pouring in of wine and strong drinkes which were the oyle that kindled and maintained the flame within his bowels than he that hath felt the sting of sinne in his conscience and beene formerly confounded with the shame thereof dreadeth and flieth and seeketh by all meanes to shunne those sinnes which have left so sad a remembrance behind them As some parts of our bodies are more sensible than others the sinewie parts more than the fleshly yet all that have life in them have some sense of paine so some consciences are more tender that feele the least pricke of sin some harder and more stupid and benummed like the u Solin c. 29. Matres Ursorum diebus primis 14. in â—omnum ita concidunt ut ne vulneribus pridem excitati queant Numidian Beares which scarce feele stripes or wounds yet all that have any life of grace in them or use of reason have some touch of conscience at some times which marreth all their mirth and overcasteth their faire weather with clouds of griefe powring downe showres of teares I know the wicked seeke to dissemble it like the man in Plutarch who having a foxe under his cloake never quatched though the beast bit through his sides and devoured his bowels The * Pro. 14.13 foole saith Solomon maketh a mocke of sinne but the heart knoweth the bitternesse of his soule for even in laughing the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is mourning I speake not of a melancholy dumpe but of an habituall and constant pensivenesse arising from the sting of sinne left in the soule No tongue can sufficiently expresse it onely the heart that feeleth it can conceive the nature of this griefe and smart of this paine which the lash of conscience imprinteth x Juven sat 13. Mens habet attonitos surdo verbere caedit Occulto quatiente animum tortore flagello Yet some sense wee may have of it by the similitudes whereby it is expressed It is called a y Act. 2.37 pricking of the heart and lest that wee should imagine it to bee as it were a pricke with a small pinne or needle it is called a wound in the heart My z Psal 109.22 heart was wounded within me O what paine must a wound in the heart needs be where the least prick is death Yet farther that wee might not thinke this wound might bee drawne together it is called the cutting asunder of the heart * Joel 2.13 Rent your hearts and not your garments yet farther that wee might not thinke any part of the heart to remaine entire it is called the a Psal 51.17 breaking of it into small pieces and b Psal 22.14 melting these also and can there bee any sorrow like unto this sorrow which pricketh the heart nay woundeth it being pricked nay rents it being wounded nay breaketh it being rent nay melteth it being broken This pricking wounding renting breaking melting the heart is nothing else
taking the houses of God in their owne possession a fearfull and most shamefull end What gained k 1 Kin. 22.31 2 Kin. 9.33 Ahab and Jezabel by Naboths vineyard the vine of Sodom and the grapes of Gomorrah it cost them their lives and their kingdomes What gained l Dan. 5.28 Balthasar by the plate of the Temple the division of his crown betweene the Medes and Persians What gained m Act. 5.5 10. Ananias and Sapphira by their fraudulent keeping backe part of the price for which they sold their possessions a sudden and most fearfull death What gained n Mat. 27.5 Judas by his thirty pieces of silver which hee received to betray innocent blood a halter to hang himselfe As Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar o Dan. 4.19 this dreame bee to the Kings enemies so I will be bold to say such gaine as is made by commerce with Satan be to Gods enemies Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and the life to come ungodlinesse of neither but contrariwise threats of judgements in both which sometimes fall upon the estate of those that are rich and not in God sometimes upon their bodies but alwayes upon their soules either God suddenly bloweth them away from their great estates or hee bloweth upon their estates and the fruits of their labours and they subscribe probatum est to the Latine proverbs Malè part a malè dilabuntur and De malè quaesitis non gaudet tertius haeres ill gotten goods prosper not The officers whom p Suet. in Vesp. Vespasian employed like spunges to sucke in the blood of the subjects he after they were full squiezed them till they were dry And how often doe we see the great spoylers of others spoyled themselves and the secret underminers of other mens fortunes undermined themselves the cruellest exacters upon their tenants exacted upon by their superiour Lords In the second place I treated of the second attribute or consequent of sin shame and by evidence of Scripture and testimony of every ones conscience proved that sin shameth us three manner of waies 1 Within our selves making us seeme most vile filthy lothsome and odious to our selves 2 In the world staining our credit and branding us with a note of infamy 3 At the tribunall of Christ before God Angels and men when our consciences which now like a scrole of parchment lye folded together shall bee opened and spread abroad that all men may read what is written there If the consideration of the unfruitfulnesse and shame of sinne affect us not much nor make any sensible alteration in our lives and conversations behold yet stronger physicke which will worke with us if we be not dead already The end of those things is death Here are three bitter pills that are to bee taken by all them that surfeit in sinfull pleasures and worldly vanities whether they bee lusts of the flesh or lusts of the eye or appertaine to the pride of life 1 These things will have an end The end 2 The end of these things is fearfull Death 3 This death is the second death and hath no end I see saith David q Psal 119.96 that all things come to an end but thy commandements are exceeding broad yea so broad that all wayes and courses besides the path of Gods lawes come to a speedy end and very short period What the Historian observed concerning the race of men Vita hominum brevit principum brevior pontificum brevissima that the life of man is shorter than of other creatures of Princes than of other men of Popes than of Princes may be applied thus to our present purpose The lives of men are but short their actions and endevours of a shorter date but indirect and sinfull courses of the shortest duration of all All the fruit that comes of them like the fig-tree cursed by our Saviour withers suddenly Crassus enjoyed not long the fruit of his covetousnesse but was slain in war and had melted gold poured into his mouth by the Parthians Julius Caesar enjoyed not long the fruit of his ambition but was stabbed with twenty five wounds in the Senate Heliogabalus enjoyed not long the fruit of his pleasure but was slaine and throwne into a jakes Dionysius enjoyed not long the fruit of his sacriledge and tyrannie but was constrained to change his scepter for a ferular and teach Scholars for a small stipend to keepe him from starving If the prosperity of the wicked be an eye-sore unto us as it was sometimes unto David r Psal 73.17 18 19. Let us enter into the sanctuary of God and wee shall see the end of these men namely that God doth set them in slippery places and casteth them downe to destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrours Achan spent not his wedge of gold nor ware out his Babylonish garment but was soone discovered and stripped of all hee had and came to a fearfull end It was not long after Ahab and Jezabel purchased a vineyard at the deare rate of the blood of the owner but they watered it with their owne blood Belshazzar had scarce concocted the wine in his stomacke which hee carowsed in the bowles of the Sanctuary before hee saw a hand writing his doome on the wall and soone after felt the arme of Cyrus executing it upon him Achitophel his policy tooke not long for within a short space after he had animated the sonne against the father his counsell was rejected and hee hanged himselfe The price of innocent blood was not long in Judas his hands before with the same hands hee fitted his owne halter Titus exhibited to the people stately pageants pompes carosels and triumphant festivities for an hundred dayes Asuerus kept royall feasts for halfe a yeere together of both after the prefixed tearm was expired nothing remained but infinite spoile of Gods creatures and an excessive bill of charge Hee that thriveth most by sinfull courses and gurmandizeth all sorts of pleasures and keepeth continuall holy-dayes a great part of his life yet before hee goeth out of the light of this world seeth an end of all his worldly happinesse and there remaines nothing unto him but a sad remembrance distempers in his body wounds in his conscience and a fearfull account to bee given to his Lord and Master for thus lavishing out his goods and wasting his substance in riotous living Pleasures like blossomes soone fall the garlands of honour are withered in a few yeeres the treasures of wickednes soon rust all lewd and sensual all base and covetous all proud and ambitious all false and deceitfull wayes have a short period and a downfall into a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone ſ In ep ad Rom. Servitutis culpae triplex est incommoditas primo quia cum damno multo secundo quia cum fructu nullo tertiò quia cum fine malo Gorrhan summeth up all briefly thus There is
tender the life of your bodies and soules hearken to a word of exhortation Taste not the least drop of the poyson of sinne for though it put you not to so great torment and be not so present death yet deadly it is and without repentance and saving grace will kill your soules Destroy the Cockatrice in the shell breake the smallest seeds of sinne in your soule as the Emmet biteth the seeds which she layeth up for her selfe that they may not grow againe in the earth Parvulos Babylonis allidite ad petram in quâ serpentis vestigia non reperiuntur Dash the Babylonish babes against that rocke into which no serpent can enter I know not how it commeth to passe that as in nature we see the Adamant which nothing relenteth at the stroake of the hammer is dissolved with the warme bloud of a Goate the Elephant which no great beast dare encounter is killed by a small Mouse creeping in at his truncke and eating his braines and the Lions in Mesopotamia are so pestered with a kind of Gnat flying into their eyes that to be rid of the paine they sometimes teare them out with their clawes and sometimes drowne themselves so the strongest Christians are often over-taken with the least temptations and conquered with a reed nay with a bull-rush To forbeare more examples David was taken by a look only Peter affrighted by the speech of a Damsell Alipius was overthrowne by a shout in the Theater The breach of the Commandement in lesse things even because they are lesse and so might more easily be avoided maketh the disobedience the greater and all sinne is the more dangerous by how much the lesse it is feared Saint Austine maketh mention of certaine flies in Africa so small that they can scarce be discerned from moates in the ayre Quae tamen cum insederint corpori acerbissimo fodiunt aculeo which yet are armed with a most venemous sting those little sins that are so small that we can scarce discerne them to be sinnes are like those Cynifes Saint Austine speaketh of they pricke the conscience with a most venemous sting Now if the sting of these small Flies put the conscience to such paine and affect it with such anguish who will be able to endure the teeth of the Adder or the taile of the Scorpion If whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgement and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councell and whosoever shall say Thou foole shall be in danger of hell fire what punishment is he like to endure who beareth malice in his heart against his brother envieth his prosperity undermineth his estate woundeth his good name nay spilleth his bloud this is a crimson sinne and mortall in a double sense not onely because it slayeth the soule but also because it killeth the body If we shall give an account at the day of judgement for every idle word what answer shall we make for irreligious and blasphemous words for calumnious and detractious speeches for uncharitable and unchristian censures for false witnesse for oathes for perjury I am loth harder to rub on the sores and galls of your consciences and leave them raw therefore my conclusion shall be the application of a plaister unto them which will certainly heale them That which our Saviour after his resurrection promised to those that should beleeve on his Name that if they z Mar. 16.18 dranke any deadly thing it should not hurt them was performed according to the letter to the Disciples in the first ages but in the spirituall sense to all of us at this day If we have drunke any deadly poyson of sinne as who hath not yet through repentance and faith in Christs bloud it shall not hurt us The nature of poyson is to work upon the bloud and to venome that humour but contrariwise the bloud of our Saviour worketh upon the poyson of sinne and killeth the venemous malignity thereof Though the most veniall sins in mens esteeme are mortall in their owne nature yet the most mortall are made veniall by grace No sin mortall but to the reprobate and infidell no sinne veniall but to the elect and faithfull nay no sinne but mortall to the reprobate and infidell no sinne but veniall to the faithfull and penitent Nothing deadly to Gods chosen nay not death it selfe For the sting thereof is plucked out by Christ O death a 1 Cor. 15.57 where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be unto thee O b Hieron epit Nepot Gratias tibi Christe Salvator nos tua agimus creatura quòd tam potentem adversarium dum occideris occidisti Saviour who hast given death his deaths wound by thy death Beloved Christians so many sins as we have committed so many deaths eternall wee have deserved from so many deaths Christ hath delivered us and therefore so many lives if we had them we owe unto him and shall we not willingly render him this one for which hee will give us immortality blisse and glory in heaven with himselfe Cui c. THE GALL OF ASPES OR THE PANGS OF THE SECOND DEATH THE XLV SERMON ROM 6.21 For the end of those things it death Right Honourable c. I Hope time hath not razed those characters out of your memory which I borrowed from time it selfe to imprint my observations upon this Text in your mind Sinne as yee have heard may be considered in a reference to a three-fold time 1. Past 2. Present 3. Future In relation to the first it is unfruitfull to the second shamefull to the third pernicious and deadly The unfruitfulnesse of sinne cannot but worke upon all that have regard to their estate in this world the shamefulnesse of sinne cannot but touch neere and affect deeply all that stand upon their reputation and good name but the deadlinesse or pernicious nature thereof cannot but prevaile with all to beware of it that tender their life here or immortality hereafter If sinne be unfruitfull have no fellowship with the workes of darknesse but reprove them rather If sinne be shamefull hate even the garments spotted by the flesh let not such things be named among you much lesse practised which cast a blurre upon your good name and fame among the Saints of God If sinne be pernicious and deadly flye from it as from a Serpent taste not the wine of Sodome nor presse the grapes of Gomorrah for their wine is the bloud of the Dragon a Job 20.14 and the gall of Aspes which we know is present death The end of those things That is all the pompe and vanity of this world the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye the pride of life all sinfull pleasures wherewith yee surfeit your senses shall have an end and this end is death and this death
yet not willing to bee put to an infamous cruell and accursed death he became obedient to death even the death of the crosse The repeating the word death seemeth to argue an ingemination of the punishment a suffering death upon death It was wonderfull that hee which was highest in glory should humble himselfe yet it is more to bee obedient than to humble himselfe more to suffer death willingly or upon the command of another than to be obedient more to bee crucified than simply to die Hee was so humble that hee became obedient so obedient that hee yeelded to die so yeelded to die as to bee crucified his love wonderfully shewed it selfe in humbling himselfe to exalt us his humility in his obedience his obedience in his patience his patience in the death of the crosse His humility was a kinde of excesse of his love his obedience of his humility his death of his obedience his crosse of his death He humbled himselfe According to which nature divine or humane In some sort according to both according to his divine by assuming our nature according to his humane by taking upon him our miseries And became obedient It is not said hee made himselfe obedient because obedience presupposeth anothers command wee may indeed of our selves offer service to another but wee cannot performe obedience where there is no command of a Superiour parere and imperare are relatives To whom then became hee obedient To God saith Calvin to Herod and Pilate saith Zanchius the truth is to both to God as supreme Judge according to whose eternall decree to Pilate by whose immediate sentence hee was to suffer such things of sinners for sinners To death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether inclusivè or exclusivè whether is the meaning hee was obedient all his life even to his last gaspe or hee was so farre obedient that hee yeelded himselfe to the wrath of God to the scorn of men the power of darknesse the infamy of all punishments the shame of all disgraces the cruelty of all torments the death of the crosse The difference betweene these is in this that the former maketh death the limit and bound the latter an act of his obedience to which interpretation I rather subscribe because it is certaine that Christ was not onely obedient unto the houre of his death but in his death also and after his death lying three dayes and three nights in the grave Here then we have the sum of the whole Gospel the life and death of our Lord and Saviour his birth and life in the former words He humbled himselfe his death passion in the latter and became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse He humbled that is took on him our nature infirmities became obedient that is fulfilled the law for us by his active satisfied God for our transgressions by his passive obedience Obedience most shews it selfe in doing or suffering such things as are most crosse repugnant to our wil natural desires as to part with that which is most dear pretious to us and to entertain a liking of that which we otherwise most abhor Now the strongest bent of all mens desires is to life honor nothing men fear more than death especially a lingring painful death they are confounded at nothing more than open shame whereby our Saviours obedience appeares a non pareil who passed not for his life nor refused the torments of a cruel nor the shame of an ignominious death that he might fulfill his fathers will in laying down a sufficient ransom for all mankinde Even the death of the crosse As the sphere of the Sun or Saturn c. is named from the Planet which is the most eminent part of it so is the passion of Christ from his crosse the crosse was as the center in which all the bloody lines met He sweat in his agony bled in his scourging was pricked in his crowning with thornes scorned and derided in the judgement hall but all this and much more hee endured on the crosse Whence we may observe more particularly 1 The root 2 Branches 3 Fruit. Or 1 The cause 2 The parts 3 The end of all his sufferings on it 1 Of the cause S. a Aug. l. 3. de Civ Dei c. 15. Regularis defectio non nisi in lunae fine contingit Austin demonstrateth that the Eclipse of the sun at the death of our Saviour was miraculous because then the Moon was at the full Had it bin a regular Eclipse the Moon should have lost her light and not the Sun so in the regular course of justice the Church which is compared to the Moon in b Cant. 6.10 Scripture should have been eclipsed of the light of Gods countenance and not Christ who is by the Prophet Malachy stiled c Mal. 4.2 Sol justitiae the Sun of righteousnesse But as then the Sun was eclipsed in stead of the Moon so was Christ obscured in his passion for the Church he became a surety for us therfore God laid all our debts upon him to the uttermost farthing The Prophet Esay assureth us hereof d Esa 53.4 5. He bare our infirmities carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him by his stripes we are all healed O the wonderfull wisdom justice of God! the just is reputed unjust that the unjust might be reputed just the innocent is condemned that the condemned might be found innocent the Conquerer is in bonds to loose the captive the Creditor in prison to satisfie for the debtour the Physitian taketh the bitter potion to cure the patient the Judge is executed to acquit the prisoner What did the welbeloved of his Father deserve that he should drink the dregs of the vials of wrath why should the immaculate Lamb be put to such torture in the end be slain but for a sacrifice why should the bread of life hunger but for our gluttony the fountain of grace thirst but for our intemperancy the word of God be speechlesse but for our crying sin truth it self be accused but for our errors innocency condemned but for our transgressions why should the King of glory endure such ignominy shame but for our shameful lives why should the Lord of life be put to death but for our hainous and most deadly sins what spots had he to be washed what lust to bee crucified what ulcers to bee pricked what sores to bee launced Doubtlesse none at all our corrupt blood was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thornes our sores launced with his speare our lusts crucified on his crosse our staines washed away with his blood It was the weight of our sins that made his soule heavie unto death it was the unsupportable burden of our punishment that put him into a bloody sweat all our blood was corrupt all our flesh as it were in
and reluctancy nay rather they for Christs sake desired them and rejoyced in them Something then it was above all the torments man can devise much lesse beare that our Saviour felt in his agony and expressed by his bloudy sweat and strong cries Whilest our Saviour was in this wofull plight what doe his Disciples Doe they condole him pray with him arme themselves to defend him Nay in this feare and perplexity of their Master they fall fast asleep at the first after in his greatest danger forsake him only Judas commeth neere him and saluteth him with a kisse O that perfidious treachery should touch those lips in which there was no guile that he should be m Cyp. de bon patient Insultantium sputamina exciperet qui sputo suo caeci oculos paulò ante formastet coronaretur spinis qui Martyres floribus coronat aeternis palmis in faciem verberaretur qui palmas veras vincentibus tribuit spoliaretur veste terrenâ qui indumento immortalitatis caeteros vestit cibaretur felle qui cibum coelestem dedit potaretur aceto qui poculum salutare propinavit spit upon who cured the eyes of the blind with spittle that his face should be smitten with palmes of the hand who putteth palmes into the hands of all that overcome that he should be crowned with thornes who crownes Martyrs with never withering flowers that he should be stripped of his earthly garments who arraies us with celestiall robes that hee should be fed with gall who feeds us with bread from heaven that vinegar should be given to him for drinke who prepareth for us the cup of salvation But before we goe out of the garden we will gather some flowers As the first sinne was committed in a garden so the first satisfaction was made in a garden in that garden there was an evill Angel tempting in this garden a good Angel comforting Adams sentence in that garden was that hee should get his living with the sweat of his browes and in this the second Adam procureth life unto us by the sweat of his whole body Adam was driven out of that garden by an Angel brandishing a fiery blade and our Saviour is fetched out of this with swords and staves and brought into the high Priests palace where he is most injuriously dealt withall they cannot hold their hands off him whilest he is examined before the Judge but contrary to all law and good maners they smite him with staves at his arraignment Yea but they were but rude souldiers or fawning servants Is there any more justice in the high Priest or the Councell who not only take willingly any allegation against him but also seeke out for false witnesses and when they find none that were contests yet they condemne him and that for no ordinary crime but for blasphemy in the highest degree Neither were the Judges more unjust than the people mad against him Away with him say they away with him Crucifie him crucifie him Why what evil hath he done Spare Barabbas not him What save a murderer and murder a Saviour O ye people of Judea and inhabitants of Jerusalem what so enrageth you against him He hath cleansed your lepers he hath cured your blind he hath opened your deafe eares he hath loosened your tongue-tyed he hath healed your sicke he hath raised your dead he hath preached unto you the Gospel of the Kingdome and the glad tidings of salvation and is he not therefore worthy to live He inviteth you to grace Come unto mee all ye that are heavie laden unto glory Come ye blessed of my Father and therefore away with him away with him With these out cries Pilate is overborne as if clamours of the promiscuous rout were to be taken for depositions of sworne witnesses and hee pronounceth the unjustest sentence that ever was given that Jesus was guilty of death After the sentence execution immediately ensueth he is stript starke naked before the multitude what would not an ingenuous man rather endure than this shame his flesh is torne with whips and scourges appointed for slaves so cruelly that Pilate himselfe moved at so lamentable a spectacle sheweth him to the people with an ecce homo either to move them to pity or to satisfie their bloud-thirsty appetite As for the insolencies and indignities offered unto him by the souldiers they are so odious and intolerable that I cannot with patience relate them and therefore I passe with our Saviour to Mount Calvarie where foure great nailes were driven into the most tender and sinewy parts of his body wherewith after he was fastened to the crosse his crosse was set up in the midst betwixt two theeves the Mediatour of God and man now hangeth in the middle betwixt heaven and earth I need not amplifie upon the death of the crosse a death for the torment most grievous most infamous amongst men and n Deut. 21.23 accursed of God himselfe Any one may conceive what a torment it must needs be when the whole weight of the body hangeth upon the wounds in the hands feet But there were foure circumstances which very much aggravated his passion 1. The nature of his complexion for being made of Virgins flesh and thereby of the purest and exactest temper hee could not but be more sensible of excruciating torments than any other 2. The place and time the place Jerusalem the Metropolis of all Judea the time at Easter when there was a concourse of people from all parts of Palestine besides an infinite multitude of strangers that came to see that great solemnity 3. The sight of his mother and dearest Disciple in their sight to be put to so infamous and cruell a death what a corrasive must it needs be This was the sword that pierced his mothers heart and how thinke wee it affected him his compassion was no lesse griefe to him than his passion 4. The insolency of his adversaries now flocking about his crosse and by their deriding scoffes and taunts powring sharpest vinegar into his wounds To endure that which man never did nor could to be put to all extremiy of tortures and torments and not to be bemoaned nay to be mocked at and reviled Others he hath saved himselfe he cannot save Thou that destroyedst the Temple and buildedst it up againe in three dayes come downe from the crosse and we will beleeve thee O this is an hyperbole of misery There are yet foure considerations which put as it were a spirituall crosse upon his materiall and more tortured his soule than the other his body 1. His unconceivable griefe for the obstinacy of the Jewish nation 2. The apprehension of the destruction of the City and Temple with a desolation of the whole Country to ensue shortly after his death 3. The guilt of the sins of the whole world 4. The sense of the full wrath of his Father for the sinnes of mankind which he tooke upon himselfe And now ye have the full dosis
many jewells I make no doubt but that you will resolve with the Apostle to desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified Let Israel hope in the Lord saith the b Psal 130 7. Psalmist for with the Lord there is mecrcy and with him is plenteous redemption Plenteous for what store of bloud shed he in his agony in his crowning with thornes in his whipping in his nailing and lastly in the piercing of his side whereas one drop of his bloud in regard of the infinite dignity of his person might have served for the ransome of many worlds one drop of his bloud was more worth than all the precious things in the world As Pliny writeth of the herbe c Plin. l. 22. c. 15. Scorpius herba vâ—let adversus animal sui nominis Scorpius that it is a remedy against the poyson of a Scorpion so Christs death and crosse is a soveraigne remedy against all manner of deaths and crosses For all such crosses make a true beleever conformable to his Redeemers image and every conformity to him is a perfection and every such perfection shall adde a jewell to his crown of glory This death of Christ so precious so soveraigne we shew forth in shadow as it were and adumbration when either we discourse of the history of Christs passion or administer the Sacrament of his death but to the life when as Saint Francis is said to have had the print of Christs five wounds on his body so wee have the print of them in our soules when we expresse his death in our mortification when we tye our selves to our good behaviour and restraine our desires and affections as he was nailed to the crosse when we thirst after righteousnesse as he thirsted on the crosse for our salvation when we are pierced with godly sorrow as his soule was heavie unto death and when as his flesh so our carnall lusts are crucified when as hee commended his soule to his Father so we in our greatest extremities commit our soules to God as our faithfull Creatour Cui c. THE SIGNE AT THE HEART A Sermon preached on the first Sunday in Lent THE LXVII SERMON ACTS 2.37 Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren What shall we do SInnes for repentance to worke upon and repentance for sinne take up in a manner our whole life Not onely the wicked in their endlesse mazes in the rode to hell but even the godly who endeavour to make the streightest steps they can to heaven Ambulant in circuitu walke in a kind of circuit From fasting to feasting and from feasting againe to fasting from Mount Gerizin to Mount Hebal and from Mount Hebal to Mount Gerizin from sinnes to repentance and from repentance backe againe though against their will to sin It is true that grace in the regenerate never quits the field but groweth more and more upon corrupt nature and in the end conquereth her yet so conquereth her as Lucullus and other Romane Captaines did a Cic. de leg Manil. Ita tamen superarunt ut ille pulsus superatusque regnaret Mithridates that nature still ruleth in the members and often putteth the mind to the worst alwaies to much trouble Wherfore as the Sea-mew that maketh her nest on the sea shore is forced daily to repaire it because every day the violent assault of the sea waves moulter away some part thereof so the regenerate and sanctified soule hath need to renew the inward man daily and repaire the conscience by repentance because every day nay almost every houre by the violent assaults of tentation and sinnes as they are termed of ordinary incursion some breach or other is made into it Now albeit private repentance hath no day set nor time prefixed to it but is alwayes in season yet now is the peculiar season of publike when the practice of the primitive and the sanction of the present Church calls us to watching and fasting to weeping and mourning to sackcloth and ashes to humiliation and contrition when in a manner the whole Christian world I except only some few Heteroclites accordeth with us in our groanes and consorteth with our sighes and keepeth stroake with us in the beating our breasts and setteth open the sluces to make a floud of teares and carry away the filth of the whole yeere past Abyssus abyssum invocet let this floud carry away the former deluge Verily such is the overflowing of iniquity and inundation of impurity in this last and worst age of the world that the most righteous among us can hardly keep up their head and hold out their hands above water to call to God for mercy for themselves others hath not then the Church of God great reason to oppose the Eves Embers Lent fasts as so many floud-gates if not quite to stay yet somewhat to stop the current of sin Anselme sometimes Archbishop of Canterbury whom the Church of Rome hath inserted into the Canon of Saints but he ranketh himselfe among the Apocrypha of sinners recounting with hearts griefe and sorrow the whole course of his life and finding the infancy of sinne in the sinnes of his infancy the youth and growth of sinne in the sinnes of his youth and the maturity and ripenesse of all sinne in the sinnes of his ripe and perfect age breaketh forth into this passionate speech Quid restat tibi O peccator nisi ut totâ vitâ deploret totam vitam What remaines for thee wretched man but that thou spend the remainder of thy whole life in bewailing thy whole life What should wee Beloved in a manner doe else considering that even when we pray against sin wee sin in praying when we have made holy vowes against sin our vowes by the breach of them turne into sinne after wee have repented of our sinnes we repent of our repentance and thereby increase our sinne In which consideration if all the time that is given us should be a b Hier. ep 7. In quadragesima abstinentiae vela pandenda sunt tota aurigae retinacula laxanda Lent of discipline if all weekes Embers if all daies of the weeke Ashwednesdayes how much more ought we to keep Lent in Lent now at least continually to call upon the name of God for our continuall blaspheming it Now to fast for our sinnes in feasting now to weep and mourne for our sinnes in laughing sporting and rioting in sinfull pleasures to this end our tender mother the Spouse of Christ debarreth us of all other delights that wee should make Gods statutes our delights for this cause shee subtracteth our bodily refection that wee may feast our soules therefore shee taketh away or diminisheth our portion in the comforts of this life that with holy David wee should take God for our c Psal 119.57 portion This is a time as the name importeth Lent of God to examine our
to an account to consider how deeply thou hast engaged Gods justice to poure down the vialls of his vengeance upon thee for thy rebellion against his ordinances thy corporall and spirituall fornication thy resisting the spirit of grace thy peremptory refusing of the meanes of salvation thy persecuting the truth even to the death and imbruing thy hands in the bloud of Gods dearest servants sent to thee early and late for thy peace Jerusalem had a day and every City every Nation every Church every congregation every man hath a day of grace if he have grace to take notice of it hath an accepted time if he accept of it and he may find God if he seek him in time It was day at Jerusalem in Christs time at Ephesus in S. Johns time at Corinth Philippi c. in S. Pauls time at Creet in Titus time at Alexandria in S. Markes time at Smyrna in Polycarps time at Pergamus in Antipas time at Antiochia in Evodius and Ignatius time at Constantinople in S. Andrew and Chrysostomes time at Hippo in Saint Austines time now in most of these it is night it is yet day with us O let us worke out our n Phil. 2.12 salvation with feare and trembling whilest it is o Heb. 3.7 13. called to day if the Sun of righteousnesse goe downe upon us we must looke for nothing but perpetuall darknesse and the shadow of death Although Ninevehs day lasted forty daies and Jerusalems forty yeers and the old worlds 120. yeers and although God should prolong our daies to many hundred yeeres yet we should find our day short enough to finish our intricate accounts That day in the language of the holy Ghost is called our day wherein wee either doe our own will and pleasure or which God giveth us of speciall grace to cleare our accounts and make our peace with him but that is called the Lords day either which he challengeth to himselfe for his speciall service or which he hath appointed for all men to appeare before his Tribunall to give an account of their own workes A wicked man maketh Gods day his owne by following his owne pleasures and doing his own will upon it and living wholly to himselfe and not to God but the godly maketh his owne daies Gods daies by imploying them in Gods service and devoting them as farre as his necessary occasion will permit wholly to him Wherefore it is just with God to take away from the wicked part of his owne daies by shortening his life upon earth and to give to the godly part of his day which is eternity in heaven I noted before a flaw and breach in the sentence as it were a bracke in a rich cloth of Tissu If thou knewest in this thy day what then thou wouldst weep saith S. p Homil. in Evang Gregory thou wouldest not neglect so great salvation saith q Comment in Evaâ—g Euthyrtius it would bee better with thee saith Titus Bostrensis thou wouldst repent in sackcloth and ashes saith r Brug in Evang Brugensis But I will not presume to adde a line to a draughâ— from which such a workman hath taken off his pensill and for the print I should make after the pattern in my Text and now in the application lay it close to your devout affections I may spare my farther labour and your trouble for it is made by authority which hath commanded us to take notice of those things that belong to our peace viz. to walke humbly with our God by fasting and prayer wherefore jungamus fletibus fletus lachrymas lachrymis misceamus let us conspire in our sighes let us accord in our groanes let us mingle our teares let us send up our joynt praiers as a vollie of shot to batter the walls of heaven let all our hearts consort with our tongues and our soules with our bodies what wee doe or suffer in our humiliation let it be willingly and not by constrant let our praiers and strong cries in publike be ecchoed by the voice of our weeping in private who knoweth whether God may not send us an issue out of our present troubles by meanes unexpected who knoweth not whether he may not have calicem benedictionis a cup of blessing in store for those his servants beyond the sea who have drank deep of the cup of trembling Christ his bowells are not streightened but our sins are enlarged else it would be otherwise with them and with us I have given you a generall prescription will ye yet have more particular recipe's take then an electuary of foure simples The first I gather from our Saviours garden Let your Å¿ Luke 12.35 loines be girt and your lamps in your hands Let your loines be girt that is your lusts be curbed restrained and your lamps burning that is your devotions enflamed Gird up your loines by mortification discipline and have your lamps burning both the light of faith in your hearts and of good workes in your hands The second I gather from S. John Baptists garden t Matth. 3.8 Bring forth fruits meet for repentance or worthy amendment of life let your sorrowes be * Cyp de laps Quam grandia peccavimus tam granditer defleamus answerable to your sinfull joyes let the fruit of your repentance equall if not exceed the forbidden fruit of your sin wherein ye have most displeased God seek most to please him Have ye offended him in your tongue by oathes please him now by lauding and praising his dreadfull name and reproving swearing in others Have ye offended in your eies by beholding vanity and casting lascivious glances upon fading beauty enticing to folly make a covenant from henceforth with your eies that they cast not a look upon the world or the flesh's baits imploy them especially from henceforth in reading holy Scriptures and weeping for your sins Have ye offended in thought sanctifie now all your meditations unto him Have ye offended in your sports let now your delight be u Psal 1.2 in the Law of God let the Scriptures bee your * Aug. l. 11. confes c. 2 Sint deliciae meae Scripturae tuae nec fallar in iis nec fallam ex iis delicacies with S. Austine meditate upon them day and night make the Lords holy-day your delight Esay 58.15 and honour him thereon not following your owne waies nor finding your owne pleasure nor speaking your owne words The third I gather from S. James his garden x Jam. 4.10 Cast down your selves before the Lord and he will lift you up The Lion contenteth himselfe with casting downe a man if he couch under him and make no resistance he offereth no more violence Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrâsse Leoni It is most true if we speake of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah for hee will not break a bruised reed much lesse grind to powder a contrite heart If Ahabs outward humiliation who notwithstanding had sold himselfe
to worke wickednes in some degree appeased Gods wrath how much will inward outward humiliation of the redeemed of God prevaile with him to remove his heavie judgements from us which he inflicteth on us especially to humble us and if he find us humbled already hee will doubtlesse lay no more load upon us The last I gather from King Davids garden y Psal 2.12 Kisse the Son God hath a controversie with us as he had with the Israelites in the daies of * Hâ—sea 4.1 Hosea and no man can plead for us but our z 1 Joh. 2.1 Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous We have so far provoked the Almighty some by profanenesse some by superstition some by indifferency in point of Religion some by covetousnesse and extortion some by fraud and falshood some by quarrelling and contention some by swearing and blaspheming some by gluttony and drunkennesse some by chambering and wantonnesse that he hath already taken hold of his glittering sword and who in heaven or in earth can or dare treat for our peace but Christ our peace-maker who hath signed a league of amity between God all beleevers with his own bloud Wherefore as Themistocles understanding that King Admetus was highly displeased with him took up his young sonne into his armes and treated with the father holding that his darling in his bosome and thereby appeased the Kings wrath so let us come to the Father with Christ in our armes let us present our suites by him He is our a Amb. l. 2. de Isaac Ille oculus est per quem Deum videmus ille dextera est per quam Deo offerimus ille os nostrum est per quod Patrem alloquimur eye with which we see God our hand by which we offer to him he is our mouth by which we speake to him By this eye we look upon thee O thou that dwellest in the heavens by this hand we offer unto thee the incense of our zealous affections by this mouth we send up our prayers with our sighes unto thee O Lord turne thy face from our sins and looke on thy well beloved Son in thy bosome consider not our actions but his passions weigh not our transgressions but his merits regard not our sinfull pleasures but his painfull torments respect not our wicked life but his most innocent death heale us by his stripes cure us by his wounds free us by his bonds ease us by his torments comfort us by his agony and revive us by his death To whom with the Father c. Errata PAge 10. in marg line 10. reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 11. l. 5. dele not l. 16. dele to p. 32. l. 16. r. was of p. 58. l. 37 r. Busiris p. 61. in marg l. 3. r. ad l. 16. r. palpitabunt p. 92. l. 2. r. hoc in tristi p. 103. l. 35. r. let him p. 104. l. 23. d. and care p. 114. in marg l. 33. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 138. l. 23. d. not p. 143. l. 20. r. trumpets p. 157. in marg l. 28. r. contactum p. 170. l. 42. r. types p. 174. l. 45. r. and p. 193. l. 7. r. cabinet p. 208. l. ult r. ought to differ p. 221. l. 13. r. these p. 223. in marg l. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 225. l. 40 r. the p. 239. in marg l. 3. r. gubernat p. 247. l penult in mar r. nam qui p. 253. in marg l. 19. r. nos p. 270. l. 45. r. this is p. 294. l. 30. d. it p. 297. in mar l. ult r. de fuga in persecutione p. 302 l 11. r. God his house p. 332. in mar l. 3. r. in primam secundae disp 214. p. 345. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 397. in mar l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 362. l. 40. r. in aspiring p. 389. l. 14. r. from whom p. 395. l. 2. r. beauty l. 16. r. the flesh p. 518. l. 24. r. coelestis p. 527. l. 5. r. the opinion of some Reformed Churches p. 564. l. 20. r. Melchizedeck p. 567. in mar l. 25. r. Thuanus p. 585. l. 39. r. referendis p. 604. l. 3. r. verè l. 8. r. ut ut l. 14 r. aut l. 16. r. ut ut l. 20. r. adversus p. 605. l. 7. d. Anglo Genevensium p. 606. l. 26. d. Anglo Genevensium p. 696. l. 12. r. afflictions p. 699. l. 12. r. would p. 728. in mar l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 686. l. 3. 6. r. in the regency of Duke Richard p. 729. l. 13. r. which was p. 736. l. 29. d. whole p. 737 l 42. r. between some reformed Divines p. 738. l. 44. r. all his Disciples fled and forsook him p. 744. in mar l. 29. r. qui ubicunque p. 745. in mar l. 1. r. panegyr p. 754. l. 15. r. standest and holdest p. 779. l. 23. r. if not worse p. 808. in mar l. 10. r. ep 38. p. 820. l. 24. r. hard bound p. 844. l. 32. r. Oecumenius p. 845. l. 24. d. it p. 814. l. 21. r. other countries with ours p. 878. l. 25. d. of the besieged in Rochel p. 884. l. 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 890. l. 42. r. they p. 894. in mar l. 10. r. metaponto p. 895. l. 12. r. thus errours p. 903. l. 43. r. hath been