chief Butler of Pharaoh forgat his ingagement and Iosoph but we should not forget the afflictions of Joseph we should as we may speak broach a new vessel of tears for him Nehemiah the Kings Cup-bearer had more affection to Ierusalem and gave the King a good account of his sad countenance in the 2. chap. 2 3. verses He good man was as ready to fill Gods bottles with tears as the Kings cup with wine that God might powre out a blessing upon Jerusalem Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal 81.10 Indeed we are like narrow mouthed vessels we can take in but as by drops and we can let out also but by drops if we could open our eyes and fill up the measure of tears or rather had we no measure we should have more of Gods mercies See if there were ever sorrow like unto this in the land of our nativity we are an Island without but within we should be as it were all Sea in sorrow for the most desperate breaches which ever Satan imagined and man made We had a Kingdom as great as those who had more compass In those things which are not great by bulk the goodness is the greatness as his rule is And this Nation was great by some kindes of goodness not by quantity Had it been but of indifferent credit and name it had not been envyed had it not been envyed it had missed these calamities When Excellency goes before Envy is like to go behinde to trip up the heels Sin hath deserved it but envy and covetousness of our own hath done it undone it If ever laughter was madness as the wise man saith then certainly now when we seem all to have lost our reason After the body of the Nation had lost so much bloud then to take off the Head what is it when ever so done by whom Can it be said to be done by two whereof one would be next to Christ the other to Jesus One would have it to be done according to their principle the other in form of justice according to their hypocrisie Where lived he who wished all had but one neck that he might be but once cruel And when but then did all lie under one head Head of the Church and of the Common-wealth could not stand together The head is taken from our Master so then our Master is taken from our head and as he said We are rather without a Master then in liberty unless to weep if even this Was not the punishment ours for we were beheaded And what is left in the body but a few equivocal spirits The breath of our nosthrils is taken away and how then do we live It is necessary said he to put unity before all multitude but we have preferred a multitude and when many are put before one what do they stand for Surely we are in a vertiginous disposition and our feet are where our head was and we think we are in England when we are out of the Kingdom Beelzebub hath now found out being the Prince of flies such flies as the Roman Eagle will catch And he hath found out a way to gratifie the Italian with such servants as will make their own liveries with home-made cloth I would the servant of servants had that foot in the grave which was wont to be kissed but I am afraid he hath set that foot on our ground Indeed we seem to drive him out as some do drive out beasts out of the corn when they drive them more in and they cry him down as those who mingle with the Hue that they may not be discovered But this object seems to exceed our faculty and we cannot almost think of it without sinking by the weight of it into sorrow without a bottom and without hope For those that are dead we sorrow not without hope in obedience to the precept 1 Thes 4.13 for they shall have a glorious Resurrection but for them who are living we sorrow without hope for there is little hope of a resurrection from this condition unless we hope in him that quickeneth the dead and maketh those things which are not as though they were We have in our selves the sentence of death as the Apostle there in another sense In our selves what have we to make us think that we are not condemned to uttter ruine when we think of all our enemies and all our sins which are yet whole in us What is there to be broken so soon as our hearts And what is there which is not broken but our hearts What vengeance may that Nation look for which by unamendment yea greater iniquities requireth more punishment or if it be spared without contrition even that may be the greatest punishment Nolo hanc misericordiam Domine said the devout man Lord let me have none of that mercy And therefore all the comfort is that we are yet punished that all the dose of the purge is not yet taken There is no doubt but we are weary of our punishments but we should be more weary of our sins and until we be more weary of our sins it is a favour not to be eased of our strokes and burthen of adversities We should have been weary of our sins before the rod came but I would we were weary of them now If any of our sins be not now committed are they yet mortified It may be some of them do not come abroad in the exercise but they keep close at home in the mind And that which locks them in is security We are like men in sleep upon the top of a mast when the windes blow and the waves roar and the Ship reels on this side and on that side and the Pilot thrown over and yet every one scuffling for the goods and every one will handle the rudder And yet we are fools and enemies if we do not like this condition How much do we suffer because we will not be deceived Have we not cause to mourn for these things have we not cause to mourn that we cannot mourn as we should have we not cause to mourn that we cannot mourn that we cannot mourn and so make our mournings infiinte What can we think of in the land which will keep us from bleeding to death in tears had we so serious apprehensions of things as their nature and circumstances do require Or if we had not matter enough within our own Territories for grief we might enlarge our selves and expatiate into the whole world For every Christian is Oecumenical and hath a care of the whole world and if he be right he doth grieve that the world hath so much work of repentance to do and yet hath so little time and that there are so many contrefait Christians who if they mend not must go soon from the white Devil to the black And what is there yet more deserving to be washed with this briny water then this that when sins and errors do so much every where abound
starve the virtue and the poor together Take it for an honour from God that he hath made thee able to be like him in doing good As he said it is good to be Gods Alms-man but it is better to be his Almoner Because the Papists think to merit by their good works do thou communicate more lest thou dost decline their errour by another Distinguish betwixt their Substantives and their Adjectives in Religion Shall not we pray or fast because they make a sat is faction in them Their actions in Religion are due in their substance their conceit of merit is added When two do the same thing it is not the same thing done as the rule is Because others herein deal with God by way of commutative justice wilt thou shew no mercy to the poor Because others require infinite use for their money given by manner of debt wilt not thou put out thy money to use upon Gods favour such use as will not bite thy neighbor and yet may increase thy own Let us vindicate our Doctrine from their slanders by our works And let us shew it to be as necessary for us to do good works as for them though we do not hold them to be meritorious and more because no man can rightly be said to be bound to merit but when salvation is freely given us we are the more obliged to do good works in duty and thankfulness and ingenuity We are not at liberty herein because we are plenarily redeemed by Christ without any purchase of ours but because we are thus redeemed we are more bound I have heard of one who commended in three sorts of men three several things good works of the Papist sound faith of the Protestant good chear of the Puritane But let the sound faith of the Protestant work by love and chear the poor that the Pontifician may be ashamed to impute the want of our practise to the severity of our tenet Whosoever separated that which is just from that which is profitable is under Socrates's curse as Clem. Alexandrinus hath it and to be sure he that separateth true charity from right faith is not like to have Gods blessing And he is not like neither to have a good word given him from man that will not do a good work to man Do not thou shut up thy bowels Christian but open thy heart and thy hand and do not say the times are hard for if thou pleadest that thou canst hardly live with that thou hast how shall they live who have nothing nor work but good works of others to live upon But charity begins at home Yes therefore communicate lay it out for advantage traffique with it Improve it Pay Tithes that you may be rich as the Jew said and scatter thy seed and give it to the poor that thou mayst have a good harvest Riches are rather in the use then in the possession said he in his Rhetoricks And he is rich not that hath much but that hath given much as St. Chrysostom Dorcas was full of good works which she had done Act. 9.36 She had done them as we may gloss and she was full of them We are full of nothing more then that we have done well Shall I give my bread and my meat But who said it Nabal and folly was with him The fool nabal hath said in his heart there is no God They think there is no God to whom these things in propriety do belong In respect of one another we have a propriety but in respect of God we are but as Stewards and dispensers of these things to all as they have need but specially to the houshold of faith All the world is Gods great house we are to take care of all but specially of his children Yet we cannot be deceived in the object if we finde him to be man God hath given him in his nature a ticket to thee for his entertainment If thou dost shut him out of thy house take heed God doth not shut thee out of heaven If he be bad yet it is good for thee to do him good that he may be better Thou canst not do ill in doing as God doth And he doth good to them who are not good Either thou art not good or thou hast been not good if thou art not good what would become of thee should God deal with thee as thou dealest with him if thou hast been naught remember what mercie God hath shewed to thee and do thou likewise Therefore let thy love be as universal as man There is no man a stranger to thy nature And did not he that made thee make him Have we not al one Father as is said Abraham said of Sarah that she was indeed his sister for she was the daughter of his father though not the daughter of his mother although the tearms be taken largely according to the manner of the language so he whosoever he is is thy brother and he is the child of thy Father God though he be not the childe of thy Mother Ierusalem which is above which is the Mother of us all as the Apostle speaks Were he thine Enemy yet thou must love him otherwise thou art not thy heavenly Fathers own childe A Christian is one that hath no enemy as one of the Fathers said he hath enemies and he hath not enemies he hath enemies to him such as hate him but he hath no enemies from him such as he hates There is not such another creature in the world as a Christian if he be right as there is not a worse creature in the world if he be false For then he is a white Devil and worse as white then as Devil What shall we do with him where shall we have him If he were not a promising Christian we would not trust him If he were not an hypocritical Christian he would not deceive us But a true real Christian is one of the Admirables under heaven Nay indeed there is none but he And declaratively towards men all that he is he is by charity whereby his spirit and affection goeth over all the world in an universal diffusion and would do had it efficacy good to all the Earth at once but would serve those which are good in a special intention First it wraps all men together in one community of notion but in particular consideration would prefer those whom God hath preferred Thou hast not where withal to give thy neighbor grace for it exceeds morality but have the grace to give more to those who are virtuous because it is more of charity As for any exhortations to this virtue there is no need of any to those who know more delight in it then in any thing else We have reason to love it for it is love He that doth not hath a misery in the negative greater then in the contrary St. Paul giveth it the prelacy 1 Cor. 13. ult Those three are the three Worthies amongst the Theological virtues And he
yet that those who think themselves to be the Favorites of Heaven should vaunt that these are glorious times because they have their humours and the interess What shall the Heathen State-Historian say that nothing is to be expected to be prosperous which is not ingenuous and shall we do any thing for our advantage and if we attain it make use of this argument but mark the issue Will it not be bitterness in the end That and thou cannot prosper together Do we not look to have our Master Christ to rend off our liveries and to scourge us for al our enormities Blessed Saviour is not this abusing of thee by our sins more grievous to thee then thy suffering upon the Cross for that passion was for our redemption but this doth more abuse thy patience That was done by souldiers These things therefore the souldiers did as it is said but this is done by those who are of thy houshold in Profession Christians If these be real Christians who are not Let us either have other names or lives And let us not say We shall have peace though we walk after the stubbornness of our own hearts if we do the wrath of the Lord shall smoak against that man he will not be merciful to him but all the curses of the book shall light upon him and God shall put out his name from under heaven Deut. 29.20 How many have been cut off from the earth and from under heaven and for what Need we any mourning women to move dolour when we have so many widows that cannot be hired from it Is not this doleful that as in a mist we have killed one another to please our adversaries and yet shall not have the courtesie to be last destroyed but first We have found them horses and they have found riders who have ridden us and spurred us and blouded us on both sides Even like to the Horse in the Poets Apologue which when the Stagge was too hard for him with the horns desired a Man to take his back and drive the Stagge out of the pasture and when that was done the man would not leave his back so we have desired others to ease us of oppression as we conceived and when that was done we are yet ridden and have such upon our backs as will not let us groane Mary wept because they had taken away her Lord and she knew not where they had layed him St. Joh. 20.13 And may not we be sorry that they have taken away Religion and we know not where they will lay it Is it not doleful that Religion should go on one side and on the other side and that he who should endevour to set it right should be reckoned an enemy on both sides Or can we without heaviness consider that since betwixt no religion and that which is irregular there should be so little and yet none should pass for religious people but those who are irregular Is it not worth a tear to see that no reformation will please the people but that which takes away the subject thereof and that this must be done hand over head Will our eyes be dry when we have a minde to observe how many wise men we have had in our Nation and yet we should be such fools as not to see when we are well nor yet neither when we are ill So true is that of Tertullian in his Apology Caecitatis duae species facilè concurrunt two sorts of blindeness do easily concur that those who doe not see that which is seem yet to see what is not and also when men seem to see what is not they do not see what is Before they would see nothing right but all amiss and therefore they will not see now or will not acknowledge what is amiss I am weary of this sad work and yet we have need of a fresh supply of lamentations for the perplexities of weaker Christians who are pulled out of the way on this hand and on that and do not know where to set a sure foot in actions of the Church or actions Civil For the Masters of each faction are very careful to perswade the people that each way is that which the people should have Gods blessing in And whereas the Heathen Poets feigned several gods to be favourable to several Nations we have the boldness to make the one true God to be favourable to divers ways As the Apostle said Is Christ divided is God divided Both sorts stand for the Kingdom of Christ and enemies to one another upon that account because they put Christ his mark upon their commodities To say no more in this kinde The Church of England hath nourished them up unto so much piety as that now they are too good for their Mother It hath bred them and now they cast her off and are ready to give testimonies of their own if the Church of Rome needed them that there is no such thing now as the Church of England What sport do our adversaries make of this that they have ordered our hands to sacrifice to their Moloch And that they have beguiled us to make us guilty of their errours and their evil practices that we may no more speak against them lest we speak against our selves So they have made us their fools to laugh at us and yet which is the greatest folly we must laugh too or else we are looked upon as those who are disaffected ill affected O tyranny over the mindes of men which he that likes it doth very well deserve And when liberty which is promised cometh his fault and his punishment should be together to be a servant of corruption And if he be of the Clergy he should be served right if he were degraded for his degradation of it CHAP. X. THere is another act of piety which is indeed outward and that is hearing of the Word of God And this would be better done after repentance and also repentance would be better if it did follow it And yet also if we did go to Church with more broken hearts we might return with more comfort Had we gone under any contrition before the Word of God had had less to do upon us and we should the sooner have been fitted and squared for our spiritual building But how little of that which is spiritual doe we spiritually We are up head and ears in Religion as we may say in talking of religion and in hearing and yet we have none within We have no more then is in hypocrisie And how much hath hypocrisie when that which hath light and no heat shall have for the convenient punishment in hel heat without light Alas too much have we got Religion by the end but yet have no principle If all godliness be in the going to Church and sitting there we have all If none be in them who have none but there or in other outward profession we have as little as any Even as it was in Ezekiels time 33.31