time of age it was best for men to marry it was answered That for old men it was too late and for young men too soon This was but a merry reply But the truth is many of our civil businesses whensoever they are done are either done too soon or too late for they are seldome done without some inconvenience But this our Rising may peradventure be too late for old men but it can never be too timely for the young It is a lesson in Husbandry Serere nè metuas Be not afraid to sow your seed when the time comes delay it not And it is a good lesson in Divinity Vivere nè metuas Be not afraid to live You cannot be alive too soon Vult non vult He wills and he wills not is the character of a Sluggard which would rise and yet loves his grave would see the light and yet loveth darkness better then light like the twin Gen. 38. puts forth his hand and then draws it back again doth make a shew of lifting up himself and sinks back again into his sepulchre Awake then from this sleep early and stand up from the dead at the first sound of the trump at the first call of grace But if any have let pass the first opportunity let him bewail his great unhappiness that he hath stayed longer in this place of horrour in these borders of hell then he should and as travellers which set out late moram celeritate compensare recompense and redeem his negligence by making greater speed And now we should pass to our last consideration That the manifestation of this our Conversion and Rising consists in the seeking of those things which are above But the time is welnear spent and the present occasion calls upon me to shorten my Discourse For conclusion Let me but remember you that this our Rising must have its manifestation and as S. James calls upon us to shew our faith by our works so must we shew and manifest our Resurrection by our seeking those things which are above It is not enough with S. Paul to rise into the third heaven but we must rise and ascend with Christ above all heavens Nor can we conceal our Resurrection and steal out of our graves but as Christ arose and was seen 1 Cor. 15. as S. Paul speaks of above five hundred brethren at once and as S. Luke having told us of Christ The Lord is risen presently adds and hath appeared unto Simon so there must be after our Resurrection an Apparuit we must appear unto our brethren appear in our Charity forgiving them in our Patience forbearing in our Holiness of life instructing them in our Hatred of the world and our Love of those things which are above Indeed some mens rising is but an apparition a phantasme a shadow a visour and no more But this hinders not us when we are risen but we may make our appearance nor must the Pharisee fright away the Christian Quaedam videntur non sunt Many things appear to be that which indeed they are not But this action cannot be if it do not appear If there be no apparition there is no Resurrection It is natural to us when we rise to shâ—w our selves If we rise to honour Acts 25. you may see us in the streets like Agrippa and Bernice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great pomp If we rise in our Estates for that is the Worldlings Resurrection and not to rise thus with him is indeed to be dead you may see it in the next purchase If we rise and increase in knowledge which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance then scire meum nihil est we are even sick till we vent knowledge is nothing it the world cry us not up for men of knowledge And shall we be so ready to publish that which the world looks upon with an evil eye and conceal that from mens eyes which onely is worth the sight and by beholding of which even evil-doers may glorifie God in the day of visitation Shall Dives appear in his purple and Herod in his royal apparel and every scribler be in print and do we think that rising from sin is an action so low that it may be done in a corner that we may rise up and never go abroad to be seen in albis in our Easter-day-apparel in the white garment of Innocency and Newness of life never make any shew of the riches and glory of the Gospel have all our Goodness locked up in archivis in secret nothing set forth and publisht to the world What is this but to conceal nay to bury our Resurrection it self Nay rather since we are risen with Christ let us be seen in our march accoutred with the whole armour of God Ephes 2. â—0 Let us be full of those good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them for by these we appear to be risen and they make us shine as stars in the firmament We may pretend perhaps that God is the searcher and seer of the heart Well he is so sed tamen luceat opera saith the Father yet let thy light shine forth make thy apparition For as God looketh down into thy heart so will thy good works ascend and come before him and he hath pleasure in them Lift up your hearts They are the words we use before the Administration and you answer We lift them up unto the Lord. Let it appear that you do And therefore as you lift up your hearts so lift up your hands also Lift up pure and clean hands such hands as may be known for the hands of men risen from the dead Let us now begin to be that which we hope to be spiritual bodies that the Body being subdued to the Spirit we may rise with Christ here to newness of life which is our first Resurrection and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead we may have our second Resurrection to glory in that place of bliss where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God To which he bring us who is our Resurrection and Life even Jesus Christ the righteous who died for our sins and rose again for our justification To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for evermore The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PHILIPP I. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Or For I am greatly in doubt on both sides desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all WE may here behold our blessed Apostle S. Paul as it were between heaven and earth doubtfully contemplating the happiness which his Death and the profit which his Life may bring perplexed and labouring between both and yet concluding for neither side To be with Christ is best for him to remain on earth is best for the Philippians
each other the civil Power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civil Power and both should concur in this 1 Tim. 2.2 that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Our commission is from Heaven and we need no other power then his that sealed it And the virtue and divinity of it shall then be made manifest when all earthly Power shall cease and even Kings and they who did what they list shall tremble before it We see that Power which is exercised here on earth though the glory of it dazle an eye of flesh yet sitteth heavy upon them who wear it we see it tortureth them that delight in it eateth up them that feed on it eateth up it self driving all before it at last falleth it self to the ground and falleth as a milstone upon him that hath it and bruiseth him to pieces It is not such a power But I may be bold to say though it be lookt upon and laught at and despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes setteth it upon high and sometimes maketh it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end For to publish our Master's will to command in his name is all And though the command prove to some the savour of death unto death yet the Power is still the same and doth never fail And if men were what they profess themselves Christians Heb. 6.5 if they had any tast of the powers of the world to come they would more tremble at this then at the other be more afraid of a just Reproof then of a Whip of an Excommunication then of a Sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which cometh in fire and tempest to devour us For Gods favour or his wrath ever accompanieth this power which draweth his love nearer to them that obey it and poureth forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then Look upon the command and honour the Apostle that bringeth it for the commands sake for his sake whose power and command it is A Power there is proper and peculiar to them who are called to it And if the name of Power may move envy for we see men fret at that which was ordained for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of Power bear so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much material whether you call it so or no vvhether vve speak in the Imparative mood HOC FAC Do this upon your peril or onely positively point as vvith the finger This is to be done We vvill be any thing do any thing be as lovv as you please so vve may raise you above the Vanities of the vvorld above that Wantonness vvhich stormeth at that vvhich vvas ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our Povver and the Command of Christ differ not so much but the one includeth and upholdeth the other And if you did but once love the command you vvould never boggle at the name of Power but bless and honour him that bringeth it Oh that men vvere vvise but so vvise as not to be vviser then God as not to choose and fall in love vvith their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to prefer their own mazes and labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by Lust and Phansie before those even and unerring paths found out by an infinite Wisdome and discovered to us by a Mercy as infinite Oh that we could once work out and conquer the hardship of a command and then see the beauty of it and to what glory it leadeth us We should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle Matth. 10.40 look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessel as upon Heaven it self Oh that we were once spiritual Then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from Heaven heavenly then should we be as quiet as the Heavens which are ever moving and ever at rest because ever in their own place then should we be as the Angels of heaven who envy not one another malice not one another trouble not one another but every Angel knoweth his office and moveth in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readiness of those blessed Spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and hast to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery in a word then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evil eye should look towards him no malice blast him no injury assault him no bold intrusion unsettle him but we should all rejoyce together the poor with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all bless one another help one another guard one another and so in the name of the Prince of Peace walk peaceably together every one moving in his own place till we reach that Peace which yet we do not understand but shall then fully enjoy to all eternity The Tenth SERMON PART I. MATTH XXIV 42. Watch therefere For yee know not what hour your Lord doth come THese are the words of our blessed Saviour and a part of the answer he returned to that question which was put up by his Disciples vers 3. Tell us When shall these things be and what shall be the signe of thy coming and of the end of the world Where we may observe that he doth not satisfy their curiosity which was measuring of Time even to the last point and moment of it when it shall be no more but he resolveth them in that which was fit for them to know and passeth by in silence and untoucht the other as a thing laid up and reserved in the bosome of his Father The time he telleth them not but foretelleth those fearful signes which should be the forerunners of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world Which two are so interwoven in the prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them We need not take any pains to disintangle or put them asunder At the thirtieth verse our Saviour presents himself in the clouds with power and great glory The Angels sound the Trumpet at the next The two men in the Field and the two women grinding at the mill in the verses immediately going before my Text the one taken the other left are a fair evidence and seem to point out to the end of the world which will be a time of discrimination of separating the Goats from the Sheep And then these words will concern us as much as the Apostles In which He who is our Lord and King to rule
crop and harvest of our Devotion This is truly cum parvo peccato ad ecclesiam venire cum peccatis multis ab ecclesia recedere to bring some sins with us to Church but carry away more for fear of the smoke to leap into the fire for fear of coming too near to Superstition to shipwreck on Profaneness for fear of Will-worship not to worship at all like Haggards to check at every feather to be troubled at every shew and appearance to startle at every shadow and where GLORY TO THE LORD is engraven in capital letters to blot it out and write down SUPERSTITION I see I must conclude Beloved fly Idolatry fly Superstition you cannot fly far enough But withal fly Profaneness and Irreverence and run not so far from the one as to meet and embrace the other Be not Papists God forbid you should But be not Atheists that sure talk what we will of Popery is far the worse Do not give God more then he would have but be sure you do not give him less Why should you bate him any part who giveth you all Behold he breathed into you your Souls and stampt his Image upon them Give it him back again not clipt not defaced but representing his own graces unto him in all holiness and purity And his hands did form and fashion your Bodies and in his book are all your members written Let THE GLORY OF GOD be set forth and wtitten as it were upon every one of them and he shall exalt those members higher yet and make thy vile Body like to his most glorious body In a word Let us glorifie God here in soul and body and he shall glorifie both soul and body in the day of the Lord Jesus The Seventeenth SERMON PART I. 1 COR. XII 3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost THat Jesus is the Lord was seen in his triumph at Easter made manifest by the power of his Resurrection The earth trembled the foundations of the hills moved and shook the graves opened at the presence of this Lord. Not the Disciples onely had this fire kindled in their hearts that they could not but say The Lord is risen but the earth opened her mouth and the Grave hers And now it is become the language of the whole world Jesus is the Lord. All this is true But we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is it What profit is it if the Earth speak and the Grave speak and the whole World speak if we be dumb Let Jesus be the Lord but if we cannot say so he may and will be our Lord indeed but not our Jesus we may fall under his power but not rise by his help If we cannot say so we shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall cross with him nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak the quite contrary If we cannot call him Lord then with the accursed Jew we do indeed call him Anathema we call the Saviour of the world an accursed thing Si confiteamur exsecramur If we confess him not we curse him And he that curseth Jesus needeth no greater curse We must then before we can be good Christians go to school and learn to speak not onely Abba Father but Jesus the Lord. And where now shall we learn it Shall we knock at our own breasts and awake our Reason to lead us to this saving truth Shall we be content with that light which the Laws and Customs of our Country have set up and so cry him up for Lord as the Ephesians did their Diana for company and sit down and rest our selves in this resolution because we see the Jew hated the Turk abhorred and Hereticks burned who deny it Shall we alienis oculis videre make use of other mens eyes and so take our Religion upon trust These are the common motives and inducements to believe it With this clay we open our eyes thus we drive out the dumb Spirit And when we hear this noise round about us that Jesus is the Lord our mouth openeth and we speak it with our tongue These are lights indeed and our lights but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceitful My Reason is too dim a light and cannot shew me this great conjunction of Jesus and the Lord. Education is a false light and misleadeth the greatest part of Christians even when it leadeth them right For he that falleth upon the Truth by chance by this blind felicity erreth when he doth not erre having no better assurance of the Truth then the common vogue He walketh indeed in the right way but blindfold He embraceth the Truth but so as for ought he knoweth it may be a lye And last of all the greatest Authority on earth is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faint uncertain and failing proof a windy testimony if it blow from no other treasury then this below No we must have a surer word then this or else we shall not be what we so easily persuade our selves we are We must look higher then these Cathedram habet in coelo Our Master is in heaven And JESUS IS THE LORD is a voice from heaven taught us saith the Apostle by the holy Ghost who is vicarius Christi as Tertullian calleth him Christ's Vicar here on earth and supplieth his place to help and elevate our Reason to assure and confirm our Education and to establish and ratifie Authority Would you have this dumb spirit dispossessed The Spirit who as on this day came down in a showre of tongues must do it Would you be able to fetch breath to speak The holy Ghost must spirare breathe into us the breath of spiritual life inable us by inspiration Would we say it we must teach it If we be ignorant of this the Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have us to understand that No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And now we have fitted our Text to the Time the Feast of Pentecost which was the Feast of the Law For then the old Law was given then written in tables of stone And whensoever the Spirit of the living God writeth this Law of Christ THAT HE IS THE LORD in the fleshly tables of our hearts then is our Pentecost the Feast of the holy Ghost then he descendeth in a sound to awake us in wind to move and shake us in fiery tongues to warm us and make us speak The difference is This ministration of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh far more glorious And as he came in solemn state upon the Disciples this day in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come Though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together Though no house totter
What can be better for him then heaven and what can be better for his brethren then by his ministery to be fitted and prepared for heaven It is much better saith he for me there he laies hold on Abrahams bosome v. 24. But it is more needful for you and I know I shall abide with you all v. 25. there he doth as it were pull his hand back again as willing to loose so much time out of paradise to serve his brethren on earth a valley of tears and misery There be poor to be fed poor souls to be delivered out of the snare of the Devil and snatcht out of the fire the Church to be increased God to be honoured in his Saints and now though pressing forward to the prize and price of his high calling he stayes and demurs he checks his desires he desires and he desires not he is in a great streight he feels a double motion in himself and in appearance a contrary motion a desire to live and a desire to be dissolved a desire to be with Christ and a desire to remain with his brethren both springing from the same principle the Love of God He would lay down his earthly tabernacle because he loves him and he would abide in the flesh because he loves him Mortem habet in desiderio vitam in patientiâ saith S. Hierome He desires to dye and yet is willing to live and to both the love of Christ constraineth him For saith he I am in a great strait desiring to depart or to be loosed and to be with Christ which is far better In this speach S. Paul presents unto us his Doubt and his Desire his Doubt which to chuse Life or Death and his Desire fixt on the last his Departure and Dissolution a desire so reasonable that it leaves no room for doubt For 1. he doth not simply and absolutely desire it but upon reason and his reason is most warrantable most undeniable he would depart to be with Christ 2. That reason is backt with another with a MVLTO MAGIS MELIVS It is far better These carry strength enough one would think to deliver S. Paul out of his strait to redeem him from all perplexed doubtings For it is an easie matter to chuse when we know what is best When the object appears unto us with a multò magis melius it is a foundation sure and firm enough and we may soon build a resolution on it What doubt when the object appears in such beauty and excellency When heaven gates stand open who can doubt to go in When Christ is so near a man as but to be dissolved and loosed is to meet him shall he draw back and doubt and yet S. Paul doubts and is in a great strait and professeth he knows not what to choose We will therefore in the first place behold him in his Srait and consider his Doubt and then in the second commend to you his Desire And the topicks or reasons to commend it by are wrapt up in the object even in Death it self For 1. it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dissolution a resolving of the whole into its parts 2. It brings us to Christ and then we cannot but conclude that that is much the best and the fittest object for our desire to fasten it self upon These are the particulars and with these we shall exercise your devotion at this time First let us behold S. Paul in his strait and there see him ignorant and yet knowing what to chuse doubting and yet resolving what is best What to chuse I wot not and to be with Christ is best in the Text v. 21. and in the next verse to abide in the flesh is more needful for you And we may say with Bernard Affectus locutus est non intellectus that it was the language of his Love and Affection not of his Understanding Yet he spake with the spirit and he spake with his understanding also His Understanding did dictate what was best for himself and he well understood what was best for them but his Love to Christ and them put upon him these golden fetters bound him within this strait and swallowed up his Love to himself nay to his Will and Understanding in victory And now he will not have what he desires he knows not what he knows and cannot chuse that which he cannot but chuse Such riddles doth Love make and yet unfolds them such perplexities doth it bring us to and yet resolves them such seeming contradictions doth it put us upon and yet makes them plain The Apostle would be with Christ and yet remain with the Philippians he would be dissolved and yet live he would be in paradise and yet stay on earth he would have what is best for himself and yet will have what is best for the Philippians furtherance and joy of faith and his Love of Gods glory and the Churches good reconciles all This hath the praeeminence in all this bows and swayes his will from that which was best for himself to that which was best for others this answers all objections this is able to justifie the greatest soloecisme this hath a priviledge that it cannot be defamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato By a kind of law Love hath the prerogative of Honour makes slavery free and disgrace honourable makes earth a fitter place for a Saint then heaven makes service more necessary then reward and made this Apostle willing to retire even when he was entring into his Masters joy The Glory of God and the Good of his Church being put in the scales outweigh our Will and earnest Desire and make us willing prisoners for a while longer in these tabernacles of flesh S. Paul here was willing to prolong his trouble to defer his joy and to stay some time from Christ that he might carry more company along with him From this heroick spirit and height of love was that strange wish of his to be accursed from Christ for his brethrens sake Pro amore Christi noluit habere Christum Rom. 9.3 saith Hierom his Love of Christ did seem so far to transport him that no honour him he would even loose him And so some of latter time have interpreted those words That he was willing to purchase the salvation of his brethren with the loss of his own and to redeem them from destruction to fall into it himself But this had been such a love cujus non audeo dicere nomen a love which was never yet heard of in the world This had been a wish inconsistent with Love For how can one mans soul be the price of another Nor can it be lawful for any Christian to wish the loss of that which he is bound to work out with fear and trembling Or if it were it would far exceed the love of Jesus Christ himself who was Love it self The Apostles love was great unto his brethren but not irregular It laid aside all
invincible and irresistible thing placing us under the wing of God far above all principalities and powers above all the flatteries and terrours of the world there with Stephen pleading for Saul the persecutour till he become Paul the Apostle which is in effect to cast out the Persecution it self 2. By our patience and long-suffering Patience worketh more miracles then Power It giveth us those goods which our enemies take from us it maketh Dishonour glorious it dulleth the edge of the sword it cooleth the flames of fire it wearieth cruelty shameth the Devil and like a wise Captain turneth the ordnance upon the facc of the enemy Rom. 5.3 It is the proper effect of Faith for if we believe him who hath told us our condition what will we not suffer for his sake And it is omnipotent by the virtue of this S. Paul professeth he could do and suffer all things Philip. 4.13 It may seem strange indeed that a mortal and frail man should be omnipotent and do all things yet it is most evidently true so true that we cannot deny it unless we deny the faith To sit still and do nothing to possess our souls with patience and to suffer all things is to cast out the bond woman and her son 3. We cast them out by our innocency of life and sincerity of conversation Thus we shall not onely cast them out but persecute them as righteous Lot did the men of Sodom This is to keep our selves to mount Sion to that Jerusalem which is above to defend our priority our primogeniture our inheritance this is to be born after the spirit There is saith Augustine Hom. 8.10 justa persecutio a just and praiseworthy persecution For Isaac to be heir was a persecution to Ishmael For the Church to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles Christ being the head corner-stone was a persecution to the Jews Acts 22.21 22 23. for no sooner had Paul mentioned his sending to the Gentiles but they fling off their clothes and fling dust into the air and cry Away with such a fellow from the earth And nothing more odious to a Jew at this day then a Christian Judaeorum Synagogae fontes persecutionum Tertul. Scorp c. 10. Wisd 2.12 The holy and strict conversation of the just is a persecution to the wicked Castigat qui dissentit He that walketh not by our rule but draweth out his religion by another is as a thorn in our eyes and a whip in our sides and doth not instruct but control and punish us Do they not speak it in plain words He is contrary to our doings it grieveth and vexeth us to look upon him He will not dig with us in the mine for wealth he will not wallow with us in pleasure nor climb with us to honour He will not cast in his Lot with us to help to advance our purposes to their end And let us thus persecute them with our silence with our patience with our innocency even persecute those Ishmaelites no other way but this by being Isaacs 4. Lastly we may cast them out by casting our burden on the Lord Psal 55.22 by putting our cause into his hands who best can plead it by citing our Persecutours before his tribunal who is the righteous Judge If we thus cast it upon him we need no other umpire no other revenger If it be a loss he can restore it if an injury he can return it if grief he can heal it if disgrace he can wipe it off And he will certainly do it if we so cast it upon him as to trust in him alone The full perswasion of God's Power being that which awaketh him as one out of sleep putteth him to clothe himself with his Majesty setteth this power a working to bring mighty things to pass and make himself glorious by the delivery of his people To shut up all and conclude Thus if we cast our burden upon him Luk. 21.28 thus if we look up to the Hills from whence cometh our Salvation we shall also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look up and lift up our heads behave our selves as if all things did go as we would have them look up and lift up our heads as herbs peep out of the earth when the Sun cometh near them and birds sing when the Spring is near so look up as if our redemption our Spring were near Thus if we importune God by our prayers wait on him by our patience walk before him when the tempest is loudest in the sincerity and uprightness of our hearts and put our cause into his hands if there be any Ishmael to persecute us any enemies to trouble us he will cast them out either so melt and transform them that they shall not trouble us or if they do they shall rather advantage then hurt us rather improve our devotion then cool and abate it rather increase our patience then weaken it raise our sincerity rather then sink it rather settle and confirm our confidence then shake it in a word he will so cast them out as to teach us to do it that we may so use them as we are taught to use the unrighteous Mammon Luk. 16.9 to cast them out by making them friends even such friends as may receive us into everlasting habitations Which God grant for his Son JESUS CHRISTS sake c. The Eighth SERMON PART I. 1 THESS IV. 11. And that ye study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you THe sum of Religion and Christianity is to do the will of God v. 3. And this is the will of God even our sanctification Eccles 12.13 This is the whole duty of man And we may say of it as the Father doth of the Lords Prayer Tertul. De orat Quantum substringitur verbis tantum diffunditur sensibus Though it be contracted and comprised in a word yet it poureth forth it self in a sea of matter and sense For this Holiness unto which God hath called us is but one virtue but of a large extent and compass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is but one virtue but is divided into many and standeth as Queen in the midst of the circle and crown of all the Graces and claimeth an interest in them all hath Patience to wait on her Compassion to reach out her hand Longanimity to sustain and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Placability of mind and Contentation in our own portion and lot to uphold her and keep her in an equal poyse and temper ever like unto her self that we may be holy in our Faith and holy in our Conversation with men without which though our Faith could remove mountains yet we were not holy Tot ramos porrigit tot venas diffundit So rich is the substance of Holiness so many branches doth she reach forth so many veins doth she spread into And indeed all those virtues
ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse upon them and death upon himself Num. 31.8 for he was slain for it with the sword What evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knoweth well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come And he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breathe vengeance in his face For howsoever we pretend ignorance yet most of the sins we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the Foolish man that the lips of the harlot will bite like a Cocatrice he knoweth it well enough and yet will kiss them Prov. 20.1 Tell the Intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived The cruel Oppressour will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eateth bread Psal 14.4 53.4 Matth. 7.12 Who knoweth not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice Who knoweth not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 and yet how many seek it out and are willing to travail with it though they die in the birth Cannot the thought of judgment move us and will the knowledge of a certain hour awake us Will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and would he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined hour were upon record No they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.13 Earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the Devil avoid though they knew the very hour I might say though they now saw the Lord coming in the clouds For wilt not thou believe God when he cometh as near thee as in wisdome he can and as his pure Essence and infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou wilt believe him if he would please to come so near as thy sick phansie would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dream of a sick and ill-affected mind that complaineth of want of light when it shineth in thy face For that information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same lethargicks which we were In a word if Christ's doctrine will not move us the knowledge which he will not teach would have little force And though it were written in capital letters At such a time and such a day and such an hour the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this death in sin till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam and so conclude We may learn even from our Ignorance of the hour thus much That as the Lords coming is uncertain so it will be sudden As we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we do not think on it cum totius mundi motu Apol. c. 33. cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tertullian with the shaking of the whole world with the horrour and amazement of the Vniverse every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did wait for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1 Thes 5.2 3. Luke 21.35 1. of travel coming upon a woman with child 2. of a Thief in the night and 3. of a Snare Now the Woman talketh and is chearful now she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff and now she groaneth Now the Mammonist locketh his God up in his chest layeth him down to sleep and dreameth of nothing else and now the Thief breaketh in and spoileth him Now our feet are at liberty and we walk at large walk on pleasantly as in fair places Now the bitterness of death is past and now the Snare taketh us Now we phansie new delights send our thoughts afar off dream of Lordships and Kingdoms Now we enlarge our imaginations as Hell anticipate our honours and wealth and gather riches in our mind before we grasp them in our hand Now we are full now we are rich now we reign as Kings now we beat our fellow-servants and beat them in our Lord's name and in this type and representation of hell we entitle our selves to eternity of bliss we are cursed and call our selves Saints and now even now he cometh Now sudden surprisals do commonly startle and amaze us but after a while after some pause and deliberation we recover our selves and take heart to slight that which drove us from our selves and left us as in a dream or rather dead But this bringeth either that horrour or that joy which shall enter into our very bones settle and incorporate it self with us and dwell in us for evermore Other assaults that are made upon us unawares make some mark and impression in us but such as may soon be wiped out We look upon them and being not well acquainted with their shapes they disturb our phansie but either at the sight of the next object we lose them or our Reason chaseth them away Aul Gel. Noct. Att l. 19. c. 1. The tempest riseth and the Philosopher is pale but his Reason will soon call his blood again into his cheeks He cannot prevent these sudden and violent motions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not consent he doth not approve these unlookt-for apparitions and phantasies He doth not change his counsel but is constant to himself Sudden joy and sudden fear with him are as short as sudden But this coming of our Lord as it is sudden so it bringeth omnimodam desolationem an universal horrour and amazement seiseth upon all the powers and faculties of the Soul chaineth them up and confineth them to loathsome and terrible objects from which no change of objects can divert no wisdome redeem them No serenity after this darkness no joy after this trembling no refreshing after this consternation For no coming again after this coming for it is the last Ser. 140. de Tempore And now to conclude Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine He shall come he shall come my brethren His coming is uncertain and his coming is sudden
of us And first we may lay it as a ground That nothing properly provoketh it self as Fire doth not provoke it self to burn nor the Sun to shine For the next and necessary causes of things are rather Efficients then Provocations which are alwayes external either to the person or principal or part which is the principal and special agent And so the Will of man doth consummate and finish sin but provoketh it not but is enticed to that evil or frighted from that which is good by some outward object which first presenteth it self unto the Sense which carrieth it to the Phansie which conveyeth it to the Understanding whence ariseth that fight and contention between the inferiour part of the Soul and the superiour the Sensual appetite and the Reason not to be decided or determined but by the Will And then the Will like Moses Exod. 17.11 holdeth up his hands as it were and is steady and strong the Reason prevaileth and when it letteth them down the Sense The Senses then are as Hierome calleth them fenestrae animae the windows of the Soul through which tentations enter to flatter and woo the Phansie and Affections to joyn with the principal faculties of the Soul to beget that Sin which begetteth Death And if you will observe how they work by the Senses upon the Soul you will soon find that they do it not by force and battery but by allurement and speaking it fair or else by frowns and terrours that there is no such force in their arguments which spiritual wisdome and vigilancy may not assoil that there is no such beauty on them which may not be loathed no such horrour which we may not slight and contemn First they work us occasions of sin And all the power that Occasion hath is but to shew it self If it kill it is as the Basilisk by the eye by looking towards us or indeed rather by our looking towards it Occasion is a creature of our own making we give it being or it would not be and it is in our power as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 11 12. to cut it off When we see the Golden wedge we know it is but a clod of earth Wee see beauty and can call it the colour and symmetry of flesh and bloud of dust and ashes and unless we make it so it is no more Indeed we commonly say Occasio facit furem that Occasion maketh a thief but the truth is it is the Thief that maketh the occasion For the Object being let in by the Senses calleth out the Soul which frameth and fashioneth it and bringeth it to what form it please maketh Beauty a net and Riches a snare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Psal 1 Hieron And therefore bonum est non tangere it is not safe to see or touch There is danger in a very touch in a cast of the eye Upon a look or touch the Soul may fly out to meet the Object and be entangled unawares Vtinam nec videre possimus quod facere nobis nefas est We may sometimes make it our wish not to see that which we may not do not to touch that which may be made an occasion of sin not to look upon wine when it is red Prov. 23.31 nor the strange woman when she smileth For in the second place Objects are not onely made occasions of sin but are drest up and trimmed by the Father of lies who taketh up a chamber in our Phansie in that shape and form in those fair appearances which may deceive us There is a kind of Rhetorick and eloquence in them but not that of the Oratours of Greece which was solid and rational but that of the later Sophisters which consisted in elegancies and figures and Rhetorical colours that which Plato calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flattery and popular eloquence For as they who deliver up themselves to Fortune and tread the wayes to honour and the highest place do commonly begin there with smiles where they mean to shake a whip and cringe and bow and flatter the common people whom they intend to enslave stroke and clap them and so get up and ride the Beast to their journeys end so do these tentations insinuate and win upon the weaker part of man whilst the stronger is left to watch work upon that part first which is easier to be seduced then the Reason or Will which must needs deny them admittance if they came and presented themselves in their own shape and were not first let in by the Senses and Phansie and there coloured over and beautified and in this dress sent up unto them Indeed the Senses are merely passive receive the object and no more The Eye doth see and the Ear hear and the Hands feel and their work and office is transacted And thus if I be watchful I may see Vanity and detest it I may hear Blasphemy and abhorre it I may touch and not be defiled But as the Prophet speaketh Death cometh in at the windows Jer. 9.21 and so by degrees entreth into the palace of our Mind The Civilians tell us Possessio acquiritur etiamsi in angulo tantùm ingrediamur We take possession of a house though we come but into a corner of it So through our negligence and unwariness many times nay most times it falleth out that when the temptation hath gained an entrance at the eye or ear it presseth forward to the more retired and more active faculties and at last gaineth dominion over the whole man from the Senses it is transmitted to the Phansy which hath a creating faculty to make what she pleaseth of what she list to put new forms and shapes upon objects to make Gods of clay to make that delightful which in it self is grievous that desirable which is lothsome that fair and beautiful which is full of horrour to set up a golden calf and say it as a God August lib. Music c. 11. Et habentur phantasmata pro cognitis These shews and apparitions are taken for substances these airy phantasmes for well-grounded conclusions And the Mind of man doth so apply it self unto them ut dum in his est cogitatio ea intellectu cerni arbitramur that what is but in the Phansy and wrapped up in a thought is supposed to be seen by the eye of the Understanding in the same shape What we think is so and with us in these our distempers Opinion and Knowledge are one and the same thing And this inflameth and maddeth the Affections that they forget their objects and look and run wild another way Our Hatred is placed on that which we should love and our Love on that which we should detest we fear that which we should embrace and we hope for that which we should fear we are angry with a friend and well pleased with an enemy Now profaneness soundeth better then a hymn or a Psalm of thanksgiving Hilar in Psal
heart Take that Zeal which consumeth not our selves but others about us this fire is not from Heaven nor was it kindled by the Father of lights That hand which is so ready to take a brother by the throat was never guided by the Authour of our Religion who is our Father That tongue which is full of bitterness and reviling Isa 6.7 James 3.6 was never toucht by a Seraphin but set on fire of hell These are not Religions before God and the Father But this Religion TO DO GOOD and TO ABSTAIN FROM EVIL ex alto originem ducit acknowledgeth no Authour but the God of heaven hath God and the Father to bear witness to it was taught by the Prophets thundred out by the Apostles and by Christ himself who is the Authour and Finisher of our Faith and Religion Hebr. 12.2 This may serve first to make us in love with this Religion because it hath such a Founder as God the Father who is wisdome it self and can neither be deceived nor deceive us Men and brethren Acts 13.26 whosoever among you feareth God to you is this word of salvation sent sent to you from Heaven from God and the Father In other things you are very curious and ever desire to receive them from the best hands What a present is a picture of Apelles making or a statue of Lysippus Not the watch you wear but you would have it from the best artificer And shall our Curiosity spend it self on vanities and leave us careless and indifferent in the choice of that which must make our way to eternity of bliss Shall we make darkness our pavilion round about us and please our selves in errour when Heaven boweth and openeth it self to receive us Shall we worship our own imaginations and not hearken what God and the Father shall say What a shame is it when God from heaven pointeth with his finger to the rule HAEC EST This is it that we should frame a Religion to our selves that every mans phansie and humour or which is the height of impiety every mans sin should be his Lawgiver that when there can be but one there should be so many Religions arbitrary Religions such as we are pleased to have because they smile upon us and flatter and bolster up our irregular desires a hearing Religion and a talking Religion and a trading Religion a Religion that shall visit the widow and orphan but rather to devour then refresh them Behold and look no farther God the Father hath made a Religion which is pure and undefiled to our hands Therefore as Seneca counselleth Palybius when thou wouldst forget all other things cogita Caesarem entertain Caesar in thy thoughts so that we may forget all other sublunary and worldly I may say Hellish Religions let us think of this Religion whose Authour and Founder is God whose wisdome is infinite whose power uncontrollable whose authority unquestionable For talk what we will of authority the authority of Man is like himself and can but binde the man and that the frailest and earthliest part of him onely God is Rex mentium the King of our minds and no authority in heaven or on earth can binde or loose a Soul but his who first breathed it into man Come then let us worship and fall down before God the Father the Maker both of us and of our Religion Again if S. James be canonical and authentick if this be true Religion then it will make up an answer sufficient to stop the mouth of those of the Romish party who are very busie to demand at our hands a catalogue of Fundamentals and where our Church was before the dayes of Reformation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Proverb These and such like questions they put up unto us as Archytas did his rattles into childrens hands to keep them from doing mischief that being busie and taken up with these we may have less leisure to pull down the idoles of Rome or discover her shame Do they ask what truths are fundamental Faith supposed as it is Here they are Charity to our selves and others Nihil ultrà scire est omnia scire To know this Tert. De prascript is to know all we need to know For is it not sufficient to know that which is sufficient to make us happy But if nothing will satisfie them but a catalogue of particulars They have Moses and the Prophets they have the Apostles Luke 16.29 and if they find their Fundamentals not there in vain shall they seek for them at our hands They may if they please seek them there and then number them out as they do their Prayers by beads and present them by tale But if they will yet know what is fundamental in our conceit and what not they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 draw out with both hands For first let them observe what points they are in which we agree with their Church and if they be in Scriptu e let them set them down if they please as fundamental in our account And on the other hand let them mark in what points we refuse Communion with them and they cannot but think that we esteem those points for no Fundamentals And again do they who measure Religion rather by the pomp and state it carrieth with it then the power and majesty of the Authour whose command alone made it Religion ask us where our Religion was in the dayes before there was a withdrawing from the Communion with that Church we may answer It was here in the Text. For HAEC EST this is it And if they further question us where it was professed we need give no other reply then this It was professed where it was professed If it were not professed in any place yet was it true Religion For the Truth dependeth not on the profession of it nor is it less truth if none receive it But professed it was even amongst them in the midst of them round about them But wheresoever it were this was it This was true Religion before God and the Father To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep our selves unspotted from the world To conclude then Men and Brethren are these things so Is this onely true Religion To do good and to abstain from evil What a busie noise then doth the world make for Religion when it offereth it self and falleth so low offereth it self to the meanest understanding the narrowest capacity and throweth it self into the embraces of any that will love it Littus Hyla Hyla omne sonabat Religion is the talk of the whole world it is preached on the house-tops and cryed up in the streets we are loud for it and smother it in that noise we write for it and leave it dead in that letter to be found no where but in our books we fight for it and it is drowned in the blood that is spilt and S. James's that is Christ's Religion is
is a great priviledge but if we honour not this priviledge so far as to make our deportment answerable even our priviledge it self being abused and forfeited will change its countenance and accuse and condemn us We find it as a positive truth laid down in the Schools and if it were not in our Books common Reason would have shewed it us in a character legible enough Aquia 2. 2. q. 10. art 3. Graviùs peccat fidelis quà m infidelis propter sacramenta fidei quibus contumeliam facit Of all Idolaters an Israelite is the worst and no swine to the unclean Christian no villain to him if he be one For here Sin maketh the deeper tincture and impression leaveth a stain not onely on his person but also on his profession flingeth contumely on the very Sacraments of his faith and casteth a blemish on his house and family whereas in an Infidel it hath not so deadly an effect but is vailed and shadowed by Ignorance and borroweth some excuse from Infidelity it self For first to speak a word of the house of Israel in the letter and so to pass from the Synagogue to the Church Apol. c. 18. The Jews were domestica Dei gens as Tertullian calleth them the domestick and peculiar people of God Judg. 6.37 38. like Gideon's fleece full of the dew of Divine benediction when all the world was dry besides Rom. 3.2 To them were the oracles given those oracles which did foretel the Messias and by which they might more easily know him then the Gentiles Rom 9.4 To them pertained the adoption for they were called the Children of God Deut. 14.1 They had the Covenant written in Tables of stone and the giving of the Law and constitutions which might link and unite them together into a body and society They had the service of God they had their sacrifices but especially the Paschal Lamb. For that their memory might not let slip his statutes and ordinances God did even catechize their eyes and make the least ceremony a busie remembrancer Behold a Tabernacle erected Aaron and his sons appointed Sacrifices slain Altars smoking all so many ocular Sermons They might behold Aaron and his sons ascending the Temple Levit. 16.21 22. laying all their sins upon the head of a sacred Goat that should carry them out of the City They might behold him entring the vail with reverence His garments his motion Ad Fabiol de vest sacerd his gesture all were vocal Quicquid agebat quicquid loquebatur doctrina erat populi saith S. Hierome His actions were didactical as well as his doctrine the Priest himself was a Sermon and these were as so many antidotes against Death v. 25.26 Our Prophet reproveth them for their capital and mortal sins adultery murder and idolatry and God had sufficiently instructed and fortified them against these He forbad Lust not onely in the Decalogue but in the Sparrow Murder in the Vulture and Raven and those birds of prey Novatian de cib Judaicis Vt Israelitae mundarentur pecora culpata sunt To sanctifie and cleanse his people he blameth the beasts as unclean which they could not be of themselves because he made them and layeth a blemish upon his other creatures to keep them undefiled And to keep out Idolatry he busied them in those many ceremonies which he ordained for that end 1 a. 1 ae nè vacaret idololatriae servire saith Aquinas that they might not have the least leisure to be Idolaters So that to draw up all they might learn from the Law they might learn from the Priest they might learn from the Sacrifice they might learn from each Ceremony they might learn from Men they might learn from Beasts Isai 5.4 to turn from their evil wayes and God might well cry out What could have been done more that I have not done and speak to them in his grief and wrath and indignation Why will ye die O house of Isreal But to pass from the Synagogue to the Church which excelleth merito fidei majoris scientiae in respect of a clearer faith and larger knowledge to come to the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 in which all things which pertain to the full happiness of Gods people were to be raised to their last height and perfection to look into the Law of liberty Jam. 1.15 which letteth us not loose in our own evil wayes but maketh us most free by restraining and tying us up and withholding us from those sins which the Law of Moses did not punish And here Why will ye die If it were before an obtestation it is now a bitter sarcasme as bitter as Death it self It is improved and driven home à minori ad majus by the Apostle himself 2 Cor. 3.11 For if that which should be abolisht was glorious much more shall that which remaineth whose fruit is everlasting be glorious And again Hebr. 12.25 If they escaped not who refused him who speak on earth from mount Sinai by his Angel how shall we escape Acts 7.38 if we turn away from him who spake from heaven by his Son For the Church is a house but far more glorious Eph. 2.20 21. built upon the foundation of the Apostles Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone in whom all the building coupled together groweth into a Temple of the Lord. The whole world besides are but rubbage as bones scattered at the graves mouth The Church is compact knit and united into a house and in this house is the armoury of God Cant. 4.4 where are a thousand bucklers and all the weapons of the mighty to keep off Death the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of Satan as they be delivered into our hands Eph. 6.16 17. And as it is a House so is it a Familie of Christ Eph. 3.15 Of whom all the family of heaven and earth is named Who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Master of the houshold For as the Pythagorean fitting and shaping out a Family by his Lute required 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of all the parts as it were the set number of the strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composing and joyning them together as it were the tuning of the instrument and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skilful touch which maketh the harmony So in the Church if we take it in its latitude there be Saints Angels and Archangels if we contract it to the Militant as we usually take it there be some Apostles Eph. 4.11 some Prophets some Pastours and Teachers there be some to be taught and some to teach some to be governed and some to rule which maketh up the Integrity of the parts And then these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle coupled and knit together by every joynt by the bond
yet be dead to the world and so make his way through the valley and shadow of death to his journeyes end Psal 23.4 to that rest which remaineth for the people of God who are but strangers Hebr. 4.9 and pilgrimes upon earth This is the best supply Hebr. 11.13 And for this the Psalmist putteth up his petition in the words of my Text I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy commandments from me They are the words of the Kingly Prophet And in the thirty ninth Psalm he hath the very same Hold not thy peace at my tears Psal 39.12 for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were In them he presenteth unto us his state and condition and in his own the condition of all mankind Menander fecit Andriam Perinthiam One man is the map of all Mankind and he that knoweth one knoweth them all David was and then all men are but accolae inquilini Howsoever their pomp and glory may dazle the eyes of men yet if we will define them aright and set them out as they are they are but strangers and pilgrimes upon earth We have here first a Doctrine declaring what we are We are but strangers upon earth That is our condition He that is least in it is so and he that hath most and is Lord of it is no more Secondly the Use or Inference Hide not thy commandments from me He that hath one eye upon his Frailty and Defects will have another upon a Supply He that knoweth himself a stranger will desire a guide Or you have 1. our Character We are strangers and 2. our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Viaticum our Provision in our way the commandments of God Or if you please you may consider I. the Person I David II. his Quality and Condition a King and yet a stranger on the earth And these two draw together into one the two most different states of the world a powerful Prince and a poor Pilgrime him that sitteth on the Throne and him that grindeth at the mill the crowned Head and that Head which hath not a hole to hide it seif in And III. the Reason why the holy Ghost to teach us our condition doth make choice of a King Out of which we shall raise this Doctrine which is but a Paraphrase of the Text first That Man by nature is but a stranger to the world secondly That he is to make himself so And that you may I must hold out to you IV. your Provision the commandments of God and shew you of what use they be to you in this your peregrination and pilgrimage First we must look on the Person that speaketh And we may peradventure wonder that he speaketh it that he who was as a God upon earth one of those whom God himself calleth so should yet speak in the low and humble language of a Lazar and count himself a stranger We may well think the character doth but ill befit him It may seem rather to be the speach of some one of the Rechabites who by their father Jonadab were forbidden to build houses Jer. 35 7. to sow seed to plant vineyards or to have any but all their lives to dwell in tents or of some one of the Essenes a Sect amongst the Jews who left the City and betook themselves to fields and mountains Nat. Hist l. 6. 1◠Gens aeterna in qua tamen nemo nascitur said Pliny of them a lasting nation in which notwithstanding none were born for they begat Sectaries and not Children or of some one of them of whom the Apostle speaketh Hebr. 11.38 that wandred in desarts and mountains in dens and caves of the earth or of some Ascetical Monk devoted and shut up in some cloyster or of some Anchorete shut up between two walls This speach had well befitted one of these And had Demosthenes or Tully been to draw the character of a Stranger upon earth they would have brought him out of the streets or high-wayes out of some cell or prison with all the marks about him but their imagination would have passed by the Palaces of Princes as yielding nothing of him For a KING is but a nick-name but a soloecisme if he be not at home in every place But the holy Ghost regardeth not this Rhetorick observeth not this art which indeed is made up but by the eye His method is è schola Coeli drawn out by that Wisedome which formed and fashioned us and knoweth whereof and what we are made And that which flesh and bloud counteth a soloecisme with him is the most exact propriety of language What with us is lookt upon as against the rules of art with him is most regular I may say Truth is the Spirits art and those words which convey it are the best elegancies And thus to commend this lesson to us he maketh choice of a person to an eye of flesh most unlikely 1 Kings 18.33 as Elijah took water to kindle the fire upon the Lords Altar A King on the earth and a stranger on the earth will hardly be coupled together in the same proposition For how can they be strangers on earth who are the onely Lords and proprietaries of it Kings are Domini rerum temporúmque Lords of the times and of all affairs and carry all before them 1 Sam. 8.11 c. This shall be the manner of the King saith Samuel He shall take your sons and your daughters and make them his servants He shall take your fields and your vineyards and turn them to his own use A KING The very name striketh a terrour into us and putteth out the best eye we have our Reason that we cannot discern between the King and the Man nor the Man and the Stranger that we judge of him by what he is Si libet licet His will is his Law and what he doth is just or he will make it so for who dares say Eccl. 8.4 What dost thou And yet this King this God is but a stranger Take him in his Zenith take all his broad-blown glories his swelling titles his over spreading power and all are drawn together and shrunk up in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accola Whatsoever he is whatsoever he appeareth he is but a stranger Behold here the Kingly Prophet maketh it his profession layeth by the title of a King as guilty of a Misnomer and calls himself a Pilgrime And as in the darkness of Popery he that vowed a Pilgrimage either to our Lady or some other Saint to Rome or to Jerusalem did present himself before the Altar and then receive his Scrip and Staff so am I here this day occasioned by this Pilgrime this honoured Knight to exhort you to vow a Pilgrimage not to this or that Saint but to the King of Saints and this you may do and stay at home In your house and peivate closets this Pilgrimage is best vowed
be looked upon by others in his Church militant and to look upon himself in the Church triumphant a glorious spectacle a picture of great use a speaking image encouraging the good and perswading the evil to become good prevailing many times with those Tyrants and executioners whose hands God made use of in this his work and making them take up that cross and bear it which before they laid upon other mens shoulders teaching them to be martyrs who were the greatest murtherers Therefore in the second place this is the reason why God suffereth this mixture of good and evil why he suffereth Tyrants and bloud-thirsty men to go on and prosper in their wayes Ideo tolerantur mali ut probentur boni saith Augustine Therefore is there a toleration of evil men that good men might be manifested to the world The Disposer of all things suffered the Church to be rent and torn with Heresies and Schisms ut Basilius meus cognosceretur saith Nazianzene that Basil might be known that his piety and wisdom might be seen in making them up If there were not evil men there could be no persecution For I cannot see how good men should persecute one another It is more probable that Satan should rise up against Satan and one Devil cast out another then that one righâ—â—ous man should pursue another Evil men may rage against evil men because they are evil For that that made them brethren in evil may make them enemies Herod and Pilate may fall out and then be made friends Luke 23.12 and joyn their forces against Christ and then fall out again Many there may be that may pursue the innocent as one man and hold out their swords together and bend their forces to rob and spoil them and then when they are to divide the spoil turn the points of their swords at anothers breasts Evil changeth its countenance but Goodness is alwaies like it self and loveth it self and every man that loveth it A good man can no more do evil to him that is like him then one minister of light can to another or a Seraphin to a Cherubin Nor can he persecute an evil man for it is the greatest part of his goodness to bless him No Persecution is the first-born of the Prince of this world and he sendeth it into the world to be entertained and made much of by the children of this world For from whence cometh it but from Envy and Malice and Covetousness and Ambition which if they cannot find an occasion of doing evil will make one and force it out of Good it self As the Apostle every where joyneth Covetousness with Uncleanness so may we with Hatred and Persecution These are they that make that desolation on the earth these are those Phaethons which set the world on fire Look back upon every age of the Church and tell me was there ever rent or schism which these made not was there ever heresie which these coyned not was there ever fire which these kindled not was there ever torment which these invented not was there ever evil in a city which these have not done Howsoever we talk like Saints and walk like Angels though we oppress our brethren with more formality of devotion then ever the Pharisees devoured widows houses and pretend with Cillicon that we are going to sacrifice when we are about to set a city on fire these are but as the voice of Jacob when the blow falleth we shall feel that the hands were Esau's The righteous are led as sheep to the slaughter but Covetousness leadeth them on in the name of righteousness Persecution never rageth more then when a worldling a man of Belial striketh in the name of the Lord. Again as the men of this world cannot pass to the end of their hopes but by striking down those who seem to stand in their way cannot be rich but by making others poor not be mighty but by making others weak not be at liberty but by binding others not soar to their desired height but by laying others in the dust not live at ease unless they see others in their grave which are the several kinds of persecution as it were the stings of that Scorpion so the righteous are fitted and qualified for all are ready to be diminished and brought low to be poor to be weak to be bound to be disgraced to sit in the dust â—o lie in the grave suspecting riches afraid of liberty loving the lowest place and dying daily set forth as S. Paul speaketh as a spectacle 1 Cor. 4.9 as men appointed to die Tertullian rendereth it elegit veluti bestiarios culled out and set apart to fight with beasts a mark for Envy to shoot out her eye at for Malice to strike at spit at for every Shimei to fling a stone at and a curse together for every Zibah to couzen for every Judas to betray a mark for all the Devil's artillery for all the fiery darts the malice and subtilty of the Devil can draw out of hell They must appear saith Seneca as fools that they may be wise as weak that they may be strong as ignoble that they may be more honourable and this for no other reason but because they are righteous For they are made contentious men men that strive with the whole earth as Jeremiah speaketh of himself They shake every corner of the earth every thing that is earthy Their Liberality shameth the miser their Chastity stoneth the adulterer their Mercy accuseth the oppressor and their Honesty arraigneth the thief occasion enough to raise a persecution For nihil scandalosius justitiâ There is not a more scandalous thing in the world then Righteousness For as it knitteth all righteous men together in a bond of peace so it upbraideth and condemneth the wicked and so maketh them Enemies Heb. 11.7 By this Noah condemned the world And nihil periculosius justitiâ there is nothing in the world more dangerous then Righteousness For as it condemneth the world leaveth it open to the sentence of condemnation so doth the world also condemn it first by reproching it and bringing an evil report on it as an unnecessary thriftless troublesome seditious thing secondly by selling it as the Wanton doth for a smile the Covetous for that which is not bread the Ambitious for a breath a blast the Superstitious for a picture an Idol which is nothing and thirdly by seeking to drive it out of the world by violence against the friends and lovers of it Duo amores duas faciunt civitates Two several kind of Loves make up two Cities one of the World and another of the Lord and these two are ever up in arms one against the other Righteousness conquereth the World and the World persecuteth Righteousness The world saith S. John knoweth not the godly and therefore handleth them as spies and traitors Whilst the righteous are in the world which is one of their greatest enemies they must needs suffer persecution
their eternal rest For such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 separate from the Gentile's blindness and separate from the Jew's stubbornness and imperfection of a transient mortality and a permanent beatitude a God and a Man that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather together into one both Jew and Gentile Law and Reason make the Law Natural useful and the Law written useful that so those fair whispers of Truth which mis-led the Gentile and that loud accusing Truth which affrighted the Jâ—w may be in subserviency and attendance on Christ himself that the light of Nature and the light of the Law which were but scattered beams from his eternal Brightness may be collected and united in Christ again who is Α and Ω the Beginning and the End in which Circle and Compass they are at home brought back again to their Original And do we not now begin to look upon our Reason as useful indeed but most insufficient to reach unto the End Do we not renounce the Law our selves all things Do we not melt in the same flame with our Apostle Is it not our ambition to be lost to all the world that we may be found in Christ Shall we not cast all things behind us that we may look forward upon him What would we not be ignorant of that we may know him That we may know him we will know nothing else Our understandings here are fixed and cannot be removed Nor shall our contemplation let him go till we have seen him rising from the dead and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of his resurrection Which is the next Object we are to look upon and our next Part. That Christ is risen from the dead is an article of our Faith fundatissimae fidei saith the Father a principle of the Doctrine of Christ a truth so clear and evident that the malice and envy of the Jew cannot avoid it For let them be at charge to bribe the watchmen and let the watchmen sleep so soundly that an earthquake cannot wake them and then say his Disciples stole him away this poor shift is so far from shaking that it confirmeth our faith For if they were asleep how could they tell his Disciples stole him away Or if they did steal him what could they take away more then a carcase He is risen he is not here If an Angel had not said it yet the Earthquake the Clothes the Grave it self did speak without an epitaph Or if these were silent yet where such strange impossibilities are brought in to colour and promote it a Lie doth confute it self and Malice helpeth to confirm the Truth For it we have a verdict given up by Cephas and the twelve 1 Cor. 15.5 we have a cloud of witnesses even five hundred brethren and more who saw him We have a cloud of bloud too the testimony of Martyrs who took their death on it so certain of this Truth that they sealed to it with their bloud and because they could not live to publish it proclaimed it by the loss of life And can we have better evidence Yes we have a surer word the word of God himself a surer verdict then of a Jury a better witness then five hundred a louder testimony then the bloud of Martyrs And we have our Faith too which will make all difficulties easie and conquereth all And therefore we cannot complain of distance or that we are so many ages removed from the time wherein it was done For now Christ risen is become a more obvious object then before The diversity of the Mediums have increased and multiplied him We see him through the bloud of Martyrs and we see him in his Word and we see him by the eye of Faith Christ is risen according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15. Offenderunt Judaei in Christum lapidem saith S. Augustine When the Jews stumbled at him he presented but the bigness of a stone but our Infidelity can find no excuse if we see him not now he appeareth as visible as a mountain Christ then is risen from the dead And we have but touched upon it to give you one word of the day in the Day it self But that our Easter may be a feast indeed and our rejoycing not in vain let us as the Apostle speaketh go on to perfection and make a further search to find the reason of our joy in the power of his resurrection And what is the power of his resurrection The Apostle telleth us it was a mighty power Eph. 1.19 Indeed it rent the rocks and shook the earth and opened the graves and forced up the dead bodies of the Saints We may adde It made the Law give place and the Shadows vanish it abolished the Ceremonies broke down the Altars levelled the Temple with the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonders all Magnitudo virtutis ostenditur in effectu The greatness of power is most legible in the effects it worketh And here the volume is so great that the world cannot contain it Come see saith the Angel the place where the Lord lay A Lord he was though in his grave And by the same power he raised both himself and us By the same power he shook the earth and will shake the heaven also Heb. 13. disannulled the Law and established the Gospel broke down one alter and set up another abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 shall raise our vile bodies and shall raise our vile souls Shall raise them He hath done it already Conresuscitavit saith the Apostle Eph. 2.6 we are raised together with him both in soul and body and all by the power of his resurrection For 1. Christ's Resurrection is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least an exemplary cause of our spiritual rising from the death of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Christ is risen from the dead that we may follow after him we who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. 6.5 dead to our lusts as he was to the functions and operations of life and planted with him in the likeness of his resurrection rising and exalting our selves and triumphing over Sin and Death so grafted in him that we may spring and grow green and blossom and bring forth fruit both alike and by the same power Now as Christ's Resurrection is a patern of our soul's resurrection so is it of our bodie 's also For we are not of Hymenaeus and Philetus mind to think the resurrection past already and make it but an Allegory No Christ hath cast the model of our bodie 's Resurrection also Plato's Idea and common Form by which he thought all other things had their exsistence was but a dream This is a real patern The Angel descended at his and shall at ours He is risen in our nature Isaac's figurative Resurrection
is somewhat without that hath either flattered our sense or complied with our reason The effect doth in some sort demonstrate the cause And the cause of Joy is the union and presence of some good And as the cause is such is the effect as the object is such is the joy If our joy spring from the earth it is of the same nature earthy muddy gross unclean Eccl The Wise-man calleth it madness But if it be from heaven and those things which are above it is bright serene and clear What is it then that maketh David so glad that he thus committeth his joy to a Song and publisheth it to the world The next words tell us Something that he heard the voice of a company earnest in expectation and loud in expression hasting and even flying to the service of God and to the place where his honour dwelleth They said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. Now if ye look upon the object so divine and consider David a man after God's own heart ye cannot wonder to find him awakening his harp and viol and tuning his instrument of ten strings to hear him chanting his Laetatus sum and to see him even transported and ravished with joy So now you have the parts of the Text 1. David's Delight 2. the Object or Reason of it In the Object there are circumstances enough to raise his joy to the highest note First a Company either a Tribe or many of or all the people They said unto me So in another place he speaketh of walking to the house of God in company Psal 55.14 A glorious sight a representation of heaven it self of all the Angels crying aloud the Seraphim to the Cherubim and the Cherubim echoing back again to the Seraphim Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth Secondly their Resolution to serve the Lord dixerunt they said it And to say in Scripture is to Resolve We will go is either a Lie or Resolution Thirdly their Agreement and joynt Consent We This is as a Circle and taketh in all within its compass If there be any dissenting unwilling person he is not within this Circumference he is none of the We. A Turk a Jew and a Christian cannot say We will serve the Lord and the Schismatick or Separatist shutteth himself out of the house â—f the Lord. We is a bond of peace keepeth us at unity and maketh many as one Fourthly their Chearfulness and Alacrity They speak like men going out of a dungeon into the light as those who had been long absent from what they loved and were now approching unto it and in fair hope to enjoy what they most earnestly desired We will go We will make haste and delay no longer Ipsa festinatio tarda est Speed it self is but slow-paced We cannot be there soon enough Fifthly and lastly the Place where they will serve God not one of their own chusing not the Groves or Hills or High-places no Oratory which malice or pride or faction had erected but a place appointed and set apart by God himself Servient Domino in domo sua They will serve the Lord in his own house They said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. Thus much the Object affordeth us enough to fill such an heart as David's with joy Now let us look upon the Psalmist in his garment of joy And we may observe First the nature of his Joy It was as refined as spiritual as heavenly as its object What they said was holy language and his Joy was true and solid the breathing and work of the Spirit of truth Secondly the Publication of it He could not contein himself Psal 39.3 but his heart being hot within him he spake with his tongue and not content with that he conveyed his speech into a song He said it he sung it he committed it to song that the people being met together at Jerusalem might sing it in the house Lord. I was glad when they said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord. These are the Parts and of these we shall speak in order We begin with the Object for in nature that is first We cannot tell what a mans Joy is till we see what raised it The Object therefore of David's joy must be first handled Therein the first circumstance is That there were many a Company that resolved to go into the house of the Lord. v. 4. The tribes go up saith the Psalmist even the tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel that is the people of Israel go up according to the covenant made with Israel Psal â—8 11 And The Lord gave the word great was the company of those that published it He speaketh as if there were some virtue in Number And so his son Solomon Two and if two Eccles 4.9 then certainly many are better then one Yet such an imputation lieth upon the Many that peradventure I might well have omitted this circumstance Non tam bene cum rebus humanis agitur ut plures sint meliores The world was never yet so happy that the most should be best 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called saith St. Paul And Many are called saith Christ but few are chosen Matth. 20.16 It was the Many that resisted the holy Ghost that stoned the Prophets that persecuted the Apostles It is the Many that now divide the Church that disturbe and shake the common-wealth that work that desolation on the earth What security nay what religion can there be when our estates and our lives when Truth it self must be held by Votes must rise or fall by most voices Christus violentiâ suffragiorum in crucem datus saith Tertullian This is it which layeth the cross upon us which nailed the Son of God himself to the Cross I did not well to mention it For indeed it is the errour not of the Church of Rome alone but of all others also to judge of the Church by the multitude of Professours as the Turk doth of an army by its number nec aestimare sed numerare not to weigh and consider what the professours are but to number them And they have made Multitude a note of the true Church As if to shew you the Sun-rising I should point to the West or where there are but a few cry out Behold a troup cometh Matth 7 14. Luk. 13.23.24 Our Saviour saith there are few that shall be saved But say they if ye will know the true Church indeed behold the multitudes and nations behold the many that joyn with her that fall down and worship her Every faction striveth to improve it self Every Heretick would gain what proselytes he can Every Church would stretch forth the curtains of her habitation All would confirm themselves in their errour by the multitude of those who are taken in it Cùm error singulorum
our carnal desires The body is mortal and changeable decayeth and is repaired and therefore hath an appetite which is soon dulled or changed The soul is of a more refined essence and hath an appetite fitted and proportioned to it infinite and unsatiable and made so by its very object which raiseth a desire when it is received which is favourable and benevolent and admitteth at once of content and desire The more Righteousness we have the more we desire and when we have found most we seek most Therefore the Philosophers rules of moderation have here no place For when the desire is turned towards the right object there can be no excess nor can we give it wing enough Our Love cannot be too ardent nor our Sorrow too great nor our Anger too loud Nor can we fear that should be too much which cannot possibly be great enough We cannot knock too hard at â—he gates of heaven nor seek too earnestly after Righteousness I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing was the boast of lukewarm Laodicea Rev. 3.17 Rev. 18.7 1 Sam. 15.13 who was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I sit as a queen and shall know no sorrow was the boast of Babylon I have fulfilled the commandement of the Lord was the voice of Saul a rejected King I am and I alone I am more righteous then thou I am a Saint is commonly the language of those who are children of the Father of lies These sounds we hear not but from empty vessels But the holy language is not so high and lofty nor do we hear from the righteous what they are but what they would be When they are rich then are they poor when they are strong then are they weak when they are full then are they empty and when they have found then they seek How have the perfectest men in Christ Jesus the fairest plants in the paradise of Righteousness deplored their want and emptiness How when they embrace this object do they look upon it as if it were at distance almost quite out of sight How they still bargain for the rich pearl in the Gospel even when they have bought it Nihileitas mea My nihileity My nothingness saith one Postremissimus omnium the last of the last even behind the last of all saith another a superlative of a superlative The least of the Apostles The chiefest of sinners saith another the best servant that Christ Jesus ever had upon earth Lord how long have I been absent from this beauty of holiness how little have I enjoyed it How ignorant is my knowledge how feeble my devotion how cold my charity How farre am I from being like unto an Angel but then how far am I from being like unto God! How much do I want of that Righteousness which becometh the Gospel of Christ In a word when we truly seek Righteousness we seek it with that heat and eagerness as if we had never sought it never panting more after the water of life then when vve are full For in the second place where there is this desire there is a taste and a savour of the power of Righteousness What we seek we seek for some good we find in it The Philosopher calleth it a pregustation as in a new-born babe of milk which maketh it so greedy of the teat Ex quibus sumus ex illis nutrimur We are nourished with something which is congruous and proportionable to that of which we consist And that is the reason why one man is affected with this another with that and every object doth not please every eye alike It is so with the body and it is so with the soul In the ways of evil we find it The Envious man hath an evil eye an evil disposition and if full of envy then followeth murther deceit malignity The Wanton hath an eye full of the adulteress and he waiteth for the twilight The Revenger hath a sanguine soul and he thirsteth for bloud And it is so in the vvayes of Righteousness For as they who are after the flesh savour the things of the flesh Rom. 8.5 so they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit They that have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soft and sweet disposition are ever pouring themselves forth in mercy and seeking the opportunity to do good They that have a broken heart breathe forth nothing but grones and prayers and supplications David was described to be a man after God's own heart and Procopius telleth us that was seen in his bounty and liberality For where the heart is of a Divine constitution there will follow the labour and pain or as Tertullian calleth it the operation of love Nihil incongruum appetitur We seek and desire that most which is most proportioned and agreeable to our disposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and temper of our soul If the same mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus if Christ as Paul speaketh be fully formed in us we shall seek the things of Christ which have near relation to those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and every thing which standeth in opposition to Christ will be as distasteful to us as if it were Antichrist In a word if we love Righteousness we shall seek it For in the last place this will force a boldness upon us to venture upon any thing how terrible soever which the World and the Devil can place between us and Righteousness Be it Pleasure we slight it be it Wealth we count it dung be it Honour we disgrace it We shall lose all that we have rather then our honesty be poor rather then perjured forfeit our life rather then our fidelity deliver up our bloud to the persecutor rather then our conscience be any thing that his power can make us rather then be those unrighteous persons which none can make us but our selves We shall seek Righteousness through good report and evil report through honour and dishonour through the valley of tears and shadow of death through hell it self even that hell which wicked men and atheists make upon earth Righteousness is most amiable and lovely and attractive in it self but it doth not appear so to flesh and bloud but to men of divine constitution who can receive it with the greatest horrour can be put upon it with poverty and contempt with mockings and scourgings with imprisonment and death it self When we are carnal and our wills perverse then we turn away from the precepts of Righteousness our spirits fail us and our hearts are dead within us as if Righteousness were a Medusa's head to turn us into stones Then we begin to paint it over to make restrictions and limitations that we may seem to come near unto it we call Evangelical precepts counsels we make that which is necessary arbitrary and call great plagues peace What lesser sin do we not dispense with
respect of himself but not of the precepts of Christ It trod down the Man but not the Christian under its feet It devoted the Honour and Repute and Esteem which he had in Christs Church to his brethren but not his Soul I could wish to be accursed to be Anathema i. e. to be in esteem as a sacrilegious person who for devouring holy things is Anathema cut off and separated from the society of men to suffer for them the most ignominious death for so the word doth often signifie to be separate from Christ from the body and Church of Christ and of his Apostle and Embassadour to be made the off-scouring of the world the most contemptible person on earth a spectacle to God and to men and to Angels And this could not but proceed from an high degree and excess of Love Love may break forth and pass over all privileges honours profits yea and life it self but it never leaves the Law of God behind it For the breach of Gods law is his dishonour and love if it be spiritual and heavenly is a better methodist then to seek to gain glory to God by that which takes it away at the same time to cry Haile to Christ and crucifie him It was indeed a high degree of the Love of Gods Glory and his brethrens salvation which exprest this wish here from the Apostle and which brought him into this strait but his wish was not irregular and his Doubt was not of that nature but he could make himself away to escape and did resolve at last against himself for the Glory of God and for the good of his brethren For the Glory of God first That that must be the first the first mover of our Christian obedience For though there be other motives and we do well to be moved by them the Perfecting of our reason the Beautifying of the Soul and the Reward it self yet this is first to be looked upon with that eye of our faith wherewith we look upon God Heaven is a great motive but the Glory of God is above the highest Heavens and for his Glories sake we have our conversation there We do not exclude other motives as unfit to be lookt upon For it is lawful saith Gregory for a Christian remunerationis linteo sudores laboris sui tergere to make the sight of the reward as a napkin to wipe off the sweat of his brows and comfort the labour of his obedience with hope But the chief and principal matter must be the Glory of God The other ends are involved in this sicut rota in rota as a wheel within a wheel a sphere within a sphere but the Glory of God is the first compassing wheel which must set all the rest a working We must neither live nor dye but to God's glory The Glory of God and our Happiness run round in the same cord or gyre but the Glory of God is primum mobile still on the top And then our Love to God comes nearest and hath the fairest resemblance to the Love God hath to us whose actions are right in themselves though they end in themselves whose glory is the good of his creature In a word he that loveth God perfectly cannot but deny himself neglect himself perish and be lost to himself but then he riseth again and is found in God whilst he thinks nothing but of him whilst he thinks he is loved of him and thus lives in him whilst he is thus lost Amor testamentum amantis Our Love to God should be as our last will and testament wherein we deliver up all to him our whole life on earth and some few years which we might have in heaven to him we thus love To this high pitch and unusual degree of love our Apostle had attained What is his desire but to be with Christ Oh for the wings of a Dove for he cannot be with him soon enough But then the desire of Gods Glory stays him in his flight and deteins him yet longer among the sons of men to make them the sons of God and so to glorifie God on earth And this inclination to glorifie God is in a manner natural to those who are made partakers of the Divine nature and the neerer we come to the nature of God the more do we devote and surrender our selves for his glory We will do any thing suffer any thing for the glory of God In the next place This Love of Gods Glory hath inseparably united to it the Love of our brethrens Good For wherein is Gods Glory more manifested then in the renewing of his image in men who are filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the glory and praise of God It is true Phil. 1.11 the Heavens declare the Glory of God But the glory of God is not so resplendent in the brightest Star in the Sun when he runneth his race as in the New creature in Man transformed by the renewing of his mind There is Gods image nay saith Tertullian his similitude and likeness There he appears in glory There is Wisdome his Justice his Mercy are displayed and made manifest There his glory appears as in his holy Temple For as the Woman is the glory of the Man in being subject to him so are we the glory of God when we are Deiformes when our Will is subject and conformed to him when our Will is bound up in his Will For then it may be said that God is in us of a truth shining in the perfection of beauty in those graces and perfections which are the beams of his in our Meekness and Liberality and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering which are the Christians Tongue and Glory and do more fully set forth Gods praise then the tongues of Men and Angels can do Thus Gods Glory is carried along in the continued stream and course of all our actions Thus doth it break forth and is seen in every work of our hand and is the eccho and resultance of every word we speak The eccho of every word nay the spring of every thought which begat that word and work Now to improve the Glory of God in his brethren to build them up in their most holy faith and upon that foundation to raise that Holiness and Righteousness which are the fairest representations of it did S. Paul after that contention and luctation in himself after he had lookt upon that place which was prepared for him in heaven and that place of trouble and anxiety to which he was called on earth determine for that which was not best for himself but most fit and necessary to promote Gods glory by the furtherance of the Philippians faith And thus as every creature doth by the sway of Nature strive to get something of the like kind something like unto it self as Fire by burning kindles and begets it self in every matter that is combustible so doth every true Disciple of
the living to preserve the memory of the dead For this were the Diptychs read in the Church which were two leaves or tables on the one whereof were written the names of those pious men and Confessors who were yet alive and on the other of those who had dyed in the Lord and were at rest To this end Churches were dedicate to God but bore the names of Saints to preserve their memory I might tell you and that truly if there be any truth in Story but I am unwilling to bring the Martyrs of Christ within the least suspicion of being superstitious but History hath told us that they hung up their pictures in their private shops and houses that they engraved the pictures of the Apostles in their very drinking-cups celebrated their feast-dayes honoured their memories framed Panegyricks of them wrote their Lives Basil wrote the Life of Barlaam who was but a poor Shepherd Nazianzene of Basil and of others which he saith he left to posterity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a common table of virtue for all the world to behold For since men are delighted in the imitation of others and led more easily by examples then laws what more profitable course could the Church of Christ have found out then the preservation of the acts and memory of the Saints and transmitting them to posterity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory Nyssene speaketh as provision to help and uphold us in our way How are we affected with these narrations What deep impressions do they make How do our minds naturally cleave unto them like stars fastned to their orbs and so move together with them We are on the dunghil with Job in a bed of tears with David on our knees with Daniel ready to be offered up with St. Paul at the stake and on the rack and at the block with the Martyrs The very remembrance of good men of the Saints of God is a degree and an approach unto Holiness To drive this yet a little more home The Apostle's counsel to the Hebrews is to consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 narrowly to mark and observe and to study Heb. 10.24 one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whet and sharpen each others affection now dulled perhaps with vain and impertinent speculations to provoke unto love and good works To this end God hath placed us in the Communion of Saints a benefit which we either understand not or undervalue and he hath ordained it that one Christian should be as a lesson to another which he should take out and learn and teach again and then strive to improve For it is in this as it is in Arts and Sciences Qui agit ut prior sit forsitan si non transierit aequabit He who stirred up with an holy ambition maketh it his industry to exceed his patern may become as glorious a star as he yea by his holy emulation peradventure far out-shine him Qui sequitur cupit consequi For he who followeth others maketh it his aim we may be sure if not to exceed yet to overtake them And this use we have of Examples They are set before us to raise up in us an holy emulation It is true Emulation hath this common with Envy that we sorrow and are angry but the Philosopher putteth the difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We sorrow not that others are beautified with graces but that we our selves are not This Sorrow and Anger hath not the same rise and ground in the one as in the other For this godly Sorrow in holy emulation bringeth forth a repentance not to be repented of and our indignation is not on the Saint we look upon but on our selves and it proceedeth from a love and admiration of those Heroes whom virtue and piety have made glorious in our eyes Love and Hope are both antidotes against the venom and poison of Envy but are the ingredients which make up the wholsom composition of Emulation No such Sorrow and Anger in Emulation as that which setteth the teeth of Envy on edge but there is Love which carryeth fire in it and is full of activity and impatient of delay and Hope quae expeditam reddit operationem which setteth us forward in our way and maketh our feet like hinds feet not to follow but to run after those who are gone before and are now in termino at their journeys end Divina dispensatio quot justos exhibuit tot astra supra peccatorum tenebras misit saith Gregory As many just and holy men as the Providence of God hath shewed to the world so many Stars hath he fixed in the firmament of the Church to lighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Dionysius Longinus Such is the delight we take in example that we see many men are rapt and inspired with other mens spirits And as the Priests of Apollo at a chink or opening of the earth received a Divine breath and inspiration which so filled them that they could give answer to those who consulted the Oracle so from the virtues and holiness of good men if we look stedfastly upon them and consider them aright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by so many sacred doors and conveyances are derived those defluxions of piety which do so fill us that we are able with alacrity and a kind of tryumph to follow after In a word by the virtue of Imitation it is that we become meek with Moses patient with Job chaste with Joseph upright with David that we forget what is behind and press toward the mark with St. Paul who here calleth after us to be Followers of him My next part And here we have a hard task St. Paul an ensample which all men magnifie but few follow QUOTIDIE MORIOR I dye daily was his Motto and we had rather chuse another who tremble at the very thought that we must dye once St. Paul a mark for all the miseries in the world to shoot at In afflictions necessities distresses in stripes and imprisonment in watchings and fastings Who would be drawn out in these colours Who would be such a Paul though it were to be a Saint Follow him perhaps into the third heaven we would but we have no mind to follow him through tumults on earth and tempests at Sea before Tyrants and to the block here we turn countenance and cannot stir a foot But then I told you he taketh in all the Saints the glorious company of the Apostles the noble army of martyrs Menander fecit Andriam Perinthiam He that made one made both He that was glorious in St. Paul was glorious in all the rest St. Paul I think the best servant that ever Christ had upon the earth the Map of all the Saints And he that followeth him must follow all An ensample one would think not to be reached by imitation Difficulty is the great excuse of the world and because things are hard to be
his blessed spirit seal us up to the day of our Redemption In a word we shall find mercy here to quicken and refresh our sick and weary souls and the same mercy shall crown us for evermore The Nine and Thirtieth SERMON MATTH XXVIV 25. Behold I have told you before IT is the observation of Chrysostom That there was never any notable thing done in the world which was not foretold and of which there was not some prediction to usher it in and make way for it These things have I told you Joh. 16.4 saith our Saviour to his Disciples That when the time shall come you may remember that I told you of them And in my Text Behold I have told you before of the fearful signs which shall be the forerunners of Jerusalem and of the end of the world Which two are so interwoven in the prediction that Interpreters scarce know how to distinguish them Behold I have told you before that you may be ready with the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day that it come not upon you unawares but find you ready as those who have overcome it when it was yet afar off in its approch and pulled out its sting and poison before it strook its terrour into you Our blessed Saviour here layeth open to his Disciples and in them to all succeeding generations those evils which should be the forerunners of his second coming and of the end of the world as Famine and Pestilence and Earthquakes and Wars and Fearful sights treacherous Parents false Brethren deceiful Kinsfolk and Friends worse then enemies that when these things come to pass they might the less trouble us as darts which pierce not so deep when they are foreseen Did I say that they might the less trouble us Nay this prediction must have a stronger operation on us then so These fearful apparitions must not trouble us but that is not enough we must make right use of them and by them be admonished to prepare and fit our selves for Christ's second coming They must be received as Messengers and servants to invite us to the great Supper of the Lamb. In the words may it please you to observe with me three things 1. the Persons to whom this prediction is made I have told you 2. The things foretold mentioned in this Chapter 3. the End of the prediction or the Reason why they are foretold That we may behold and consider them These three the Persons the Things and the End shall exercise your devotion at this time First for the Persons Though these words were spoken to the Apostles yet if we look nearer upon them they will seem especially to concern us and if we reflect upon our selves we shall find that we indeed are the men to whom they are spoken The Apostles who received them from the mouth of our Saviour were but as cisterns or water-pipes to convey them to us but we are the earth which must drink them in The Apostles who were the hearers of them have many hundred years since resigned up their souls to their almighty Creatour and were never earum affines rerum quas fert senecta mundi never had the knowledge of those things which are to accompany the declining age of the world Not they therefore certainly but we on whom the ends of the world are come are the natural hearers if not of this whole Sermon yet of a great part of it namely of that which concerneth Christ's coming to judgment Nor can we think of it as of some strange thing that our Saviour should direct his speech unto us who stand at so great a distance from him even sixteen hundred years and more removed from the time he spake There is no reason we should For our Saviour was God as well as Man And it is not with God as it is with Man With Man who measureth his actions by Time or whose action are the measure of Time for Time is nothing but duration something is past something present something to come But with God who calleth the things that are not as if they were as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 4.17 there is no difference of times nothing past nothing to come all is present no such thing with him as First and Last who is Alpha and Omega both First and Last He that foretelleth things to come it mattereth not whether they come to pass ten or an hundred or a thousand years after quia una est scientia futurorum because the knowledge of things to come is one and the same saith S Hierom. Adam the first man who was created and whosoever he shall be that shall stand last upon the earth are to God both alike They that walk in valleys and low places see no more ground then what is near them and they that are in deep wells see onely that part of the heaven which is over their heads but he that is on the top of some exceeding high mountain seeth the whole countrey which is about him So it standeth between us mortals and our incomprehensible God We that live in this world are confined as it were to a valley or to a pit we see no more then the bounds which are set us will give us leave and that which our wisdom or providence foreseeth when the eye thereof is clearest is full of uncertainty as depending many times upon causes which may not work or if they do by the intervening of some cross accident may fail But God who by reason of his wonderful nature is very high exalted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as from some exceeding high mountain as Nazianzene speaketh seeth at once all men all actions all causualties present and to come and with one cast as it were of his eye measureth them all Now that vve may dravv this home Our Saviour Christ vvhen he spake these vvords did an act of his God-head and spake to the things that vvere not as if they vvere and to him vvhen he gave this vvarning vvere vve as present as his Disciples vvere vvho then heard him speak or as vve our selves novv are And therefore in good congruity he might speak unto us hovv far soever removed vve may think our selves to be But that we may plainly see that we are the men whom these words most properly concern let us in the next place consider the things foretold And when we find out those things we shall see that tanquam exserto digito every one of them as it were with a finger pointeth out unto us And find them we shall if we look upon passages precedent and subsequent to the Text. For take the predictions literally or take them morally with that interpretation which is put upon them by the learned and we need not make any further enquiry after the Persons because they so nearly concern us Look over this Chapter and you shall find mention of Deceivers and false Prophets of Nation rising against Nation