and govern us He that was and that is and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to come telleth us of his coming openeth his will Rev. 1.4 and manifesteth his power and as he hath given us Laws telleth us he will come to require them at our hands He that is the Wisdome of his Father He that neither slumbreth nor sleepeth calleth upon us maketh this stir and noise about us and the alarum is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be watchful Call it what we please an Admonition or an Exhortation it hath the necessitating and compulsive force of a Law and Christ is his own Herald and proclaimeth it as it were by the sound of the trumpet For this VIGILATE ERGO Watch therefore is tuba ante tubam is as a trumpet before the last trumpet and thus it soundeth To you it is commanded to fling your selves off from the bed of security to set a court of guard upon your selves to rowze up your selves to stand as it were on a watch-tower looking for and expecting the coming of the Lord. I may call it a Law but it is not as the laws of men which are many times the result of mens wills and are guided and determined by their lusts and affections and so Ambition maketh laws and Covetousness maketh laws and private Interest maketh laws with this false Inscription BONO PVBLICO For the publick good But it is prefaced and ushered in with Reason which concerneth not so much the Head as the Members not the Lord as his Servants not the King as his Subjects for us men and for our salvation For him that is in the field and him that is in the house for him that sitteth on the throne and her that grindeth at the mill for the whole Church is this warning given is this law promulged And every word is a reason 1. That he is our Lord that is to come 2. That he will come 3. That the time of his coming is uncertain A Lord to seal and ratifie his laws with our blood which we would not subscribe to nor make good by our obedience Matth. 25.14 and a Lord gone as it were into a far Countrey Luk. 19.12 13. and leaving us to traffick till he come but after a while to come and reckon with us and last of all at an uncertain time at an hour we know not that every hour may be unto us as the hour of his coming for he that prefixeth no hour may come the next Every one of these is a reason strong enough to enforce this Conclusion Watch therefore A Lord he is and shall we not fear him To come and shall we not expect him To come at an hour we know not and shall we not watch These are the Premisses and the Conclusion is Logically and formally deduced primae necessitatis the most necessary Conclusion that a servant or subject can draw So that in these words we have these things considerable first the Person coming your Lord secondly his Advent He will come thirdly the Uncertainty of the hour We know not when it will be Out of which will naturally follow this Conclusion which may startle and awake us out of sleep Watch therefore We will follow that method which we have laid down and begin with the premisses First it will concern us to look upon the Person For as the person is such is our expectation And could we take the Idea of him in our hearts and behold him in the full compass and extent of his power we should unfold our arms and look about us veternum excutere shake off our sloth and drowsiness and prepare for his coming For it is Christ our Lord. Ask of me Psal 2.8 and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance saith God to Christ John 10.30 And Christ saith I and the Father are one We believe he shall judge the world John 5.22 and we read that the Father hath committed all judgement to the Son Take him as God or take him as Man he is our Lord. Cùm Dominus dicitur unus agnoscitur for there is but one faith Eph. 4 5. and but one Lord. So that Christ may well say John 13.13 You call me Lord and Master and so I am A Lord as in many other respects so jure redemtionis by redemption having bought us with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 and jure belli by way of conquest by treading our enemies under our feet and taking us out of slavery and bondage And that we may not think that Christ laid down his power with his life or that he is gone from us never to come again we will a little consider the nature of his Dominion and behold him there from whence he must come to judge the quick and the dead And the Prophet David hath pointed out to him sitting at the right hand of God where we should ever behold him and fix our thoughts and our eye of faith upon him in this our watch Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool Which speech is metaphorical and we cannot draw it to any other sense then that on which the intent of the speaker did level it which reacht no further then this To shew that his own Kingdom was nothing in comparison of Christs which was of another and higher nature Non ex parabolis materias commentimur sed ex materiis parabola◠interpretamur Tertull De Pudicit c 8. As Tertulian spake of Parables We do not draw conclusions and doctrines out of Metaphors but we expound the Metaphor by the doctrine which is taught and the scope of the teacher nor must we admit of any interpretation which notwithstanding the Metaphor might yield that is not consonant and agreeable to the doctrine and analogie of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher We can neither bring a Metaphor into a definition nor can we build an argument upon it We may say of Metaphors as Christ spake of the voice from heaven They are used in Scripture for our sakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 5. Top. c. 2. for likeness and proportions sake and serve to present intellectual objects to the eye and make that light which we have of things familiar to us a help and medium by which we may more clearly see those which are removed and stand at greater distance For he cannot be said to sit there at the right hand of God from the position and site of his body We cannot entertain so gross an imagination Acts 7.56 And S. Stephen telleth us he saw him standing at the right hand of God But it may declare his victory his triumph and his rest as it were from his labour Secundùm consuetudiuem nostram illi consessus offertur qui victor adveniens honoris gratiâ promeretur ut sedeat It is borrowed saith S. Ambrose from our customary speech by
which we offer him a place and seat for honours sake who hath done some notable and meritorions service And so Christ having spoiled the adversary by his death having led captivity captive and put the Prince of darkness in chains at his return with these spoils heareth from his Father Sit now down at my right hand Nor doth God's right hand point out to any fixt or determined place where he sitteth For Christ himself telleth the high Priest that they shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds of heaven Mark 14.62 which if literally understood we must needs conceive him coming and sitting at the same time All agree it is a Metaphor and some interpret it of that Supremacy Christ hath above the Creature For so he is described sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places Eph. 1.20 21. far above all principality and power and every name that is named not onely in this world but in the world to come Some have conceived that by this honour of sitting at the right hand of God not onely an Equality with God is implyed but something more Equal to the Father as touching his God head Atha Nas Cr. Not that the Son hath any thing more then the Father for they are equal in all things but because in respect of the exercise and execution of his Royal office he hath as it were this dignity to sit in his Royal seat as Lord and Governour of his Church For the Father is said as I told you to commit all judgement to the Son But we may say with Tertullian Malo in scripturis fortè minùs sapere quà m contrá De Pudicit c. 9 We had rather understand less in Scripture then amiss rather be wary then venture too far and wade till we sink And that will prove the best interpretation of Scripture which we draw out of Scripture it self And then S. Paul hath interpreted it to our hands For whereas the Prophet David telleth us The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand the Apostle speaketh more expresly 1 Cor. 15.25 He must reign till he hath put down all enemies under his feet and in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 8.1 We have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens that is We have such an high Priest who is also a Lord and King of majesty and power to command and govern us who hath absolute authority over things in heaven and things in earth over all the souls and bodies of men and may prescribe them Laws reward the obedient and punish offenders either in this world or the next or in both For though he were a Lord and King even in his cratch and on his cross yet now his dominion and Kingly power was most manifest and he commandeth his Disciples to publish the Gospel of peace and those precepts of Christian conversation to all the world and speaketh not as a Prophet but as a Prince in his own name enjoyneth repentance and amendment of life to all the nations of the earth which were now all under his dominion Thus saith Christ himself Luke 24.46 47. it is writen and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his name among all nations And his Dominion is not subordinate Matth. 8.9 but absolute He commandeth not as the Centurion in the Gospel who had divers under him yet himself was under authority but Prov. 30.31 as Solomon's King he is Rex ALKVM a King against whom there is no rising up And now that it may appear that he is not for ever thus to sit at the right hand of God but there sitteth to rule and govern us to behold and observe us in every motion and in every thought and will nay must come again with a reward for those who bow to his sceptre and with vengeance to be poured forth upon their heads who contemn his laws and think neither of him nor the right hand of God and will not have him reign over them though they call him their King let us a little further consider the nature and quality of his Dominion that our fear and reverence our care and caution may draw him yet a little nearer to us and we may not onely conceive of him as sitting at the right hand of God but so live as if he were now coming in the clouds Tell ye the daughter of Sion Matth. 2.51 Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting on an ass and a colt the foal of an ass This was his first coming in great humility Philip. 2.8 9. And this and his retinue shew that his Kigdom was not of this world He humbled himself saith S. Paul wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name given him power dignity and honour and made him our Lord and King For his Prophetical office which he exercised in the land of Judea was in a manner an act and effect of his Kingly office by which he sitteth as Lord in the throne of Mejesty For by it he declared his Fathers will and promulged his Laws throughout the world As a King and Lord he maketh his Laws and as a Prophet he publisheth them a Prophet and a Priest and a Lord for ever For he teacheth his Church he mediateth and intercedeth for his Church and governeth his Church to the end of the world Take then the Laws by which he governeth us the virtue and power the compass and duration of his Dominion and we shall find it to be of a higher and more excellent nature then that which the eye of flesh so dazleth at Rev. 19.16 that he is The LORD of Lords and KING of Kings And first the difference between his Dominion and the Kingdomes of the world is seen not onely in the Authours but the Laws themselves The Laws of men are enacted many times nec quid nec quare and no reason can be given why they are enacted good reason there is why there should be Laws made against them and they abolished Some written in blood too rigid and cruel some in water ready to vanish many of them but the results and dictates of mens lusts and wild affections made not so safeguard any State but their own But Christs are pure and undefiled exact and perfect such as tend to perfection to the good of his Subjects and will make them like unto this Lord heirs together with him of eternity of bliss And as the reward is eternal so are they unchangeable the same to day and to the end of the world not like the Laws of the Heathen which were raised with one breath and pulled down by another which were fixed by one hand and torn down by a
no right at all if it could be taken from him Neither deceit nor violence can take away a right No man can lose his right till he forfeit it which was impossible for this supreme Lord to do All the contradictions of all the men in the world cannot weaken his title or contract his power If all should forsake him Luke 19.14 if all should send this message to him We will not have thee reign over us yet in all this scorn and contempt in this open rebellion and contradiction of sinners he is still the Lord. And as he favoureth those subjects who come in willingly whom he guideth with his staff so he hath a rod of iron to bruise his enemies And this Lord shall command and at his command his servants and executioners shall take those his enemies who would not have him reign over them 27. and slay them before his face He will not use his power to force and drag them by violence to his service but if they refuse his help abuse the means which he offereth them and turn his grace into wantonness then will he shew himself a King and his anger will be more terrible then the roaring of a lion They shall feel him to be a Lord when it will be too late to call him so when they shall weep and curse and gnash with their teeth and howl under that Power which might have saved them For the same Power openeth the gates of heaven and of hell Psal 75.8 In his hand is a cup saith the Psalmist and in his hand is a reward and when he cometh to judge he bringeth them both along with him The same Power bringeth life and death as Fabius did peace or war to the Carthaginians in the lap of his garment and which he will he powreth out upon us and in both is still our Lord. When Faith faileth and Charity waxeth cold and the world is set on wickedness when there be more Antichrists then Christians he is our Lord yesterday and to day Hebr. 13.8 and the same for ever In the last place as the Dominion of our Lord is the largest that ever was so is it most lasting and shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 It shall break in pieces and destroy all the Kingdoms of the earth but it self shall stand fast for ever No violence shall shake it no craft undermine it no time wast it but Christ shall remain our Lord for ever The Apostle indeed speaketh of an end of delivering up his Kingdom 1 Cor. 15.24 28. and of subjection It is true there shall be an end but it is when he 〈◊〉 delivered up his Kingdom and he shall deliver up his Kingdom but not till he hath put down all authority Finis hic defectio non est nec traditio amissio nec subjectio infirmitas saith Hilary This end is no fayling this delivery no loss this subjection no weakness nor infirmity Regnum regnans tradet He shall deliver up his power and yet be still a Lord. Take Nazianzen's interpretation and then this Subjection is nothing else but the fuâ—filling of his Father's will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his 36th Oration which he made against the Arians Take others and by Christ is meant his Church which in computation is but one Person with Christ and when his Church is perfected then doth he deliver up his Power and Dominion But let us but observe the manner of the ending of this Kingdom and the fayling and period of others and we shall gain light enough to guide us in the midst of all these doubts and difficulties Either Kingdoms are undermined by craft and shaken by the madness of the people who shun the whip and are beaten with Scorpions cast off one yoke and put on a heavier as the young men in Livy complained or Kingdoms are changed and altered as it pleaseth those who are victorious whose right hand is their God But the Power of this Lord is then and onely in this sense said to have an end when indeed it is in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and perfection when there will be no enemy stirring to subdue no use of laws when the subjects are now made perfect when this Lord shall make his subjects Kings and crown them with glory and honour for ever Here is no weakness no infirmity no abjuration no resignation of the Crown and Power but all things are at an end his enemies in chains and his subjects free free from the fear of Hell or temptations of the Devil the World or the Flesh And though there be an end yet he reigneth still though he be subject yet he is as high as ever he was though he hath delivered up his Kingdome yet he hath not lost it but remaineth a Lord and King for evermore And now you have seen this Lord that is to come you have seen him sitting at the right hand of God his Right and Power of government his Laws just and holy and wise the Virtue and Power the Largeness and the Duration of his government A sight fit for those to look on who love and look for the coming of this Lord. For they that long to meet him in the clouds cannot but delight to behold him at the right hand of God Look upon him then sitting in majesty and power and think you now see him moving towards you and descending with a shout For his very sitting there should be to us as his coming it being but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the preparation to that great day Look upon him and think not that he there sitteth idle but beholdeth the children of men those that wait for him and those that think not of him And he will come down with a shout not fall as a timber-log for every frog every wanton sinner to leap upon and croak about but come as a Lord with a reward in one hand and a vengeance in the other Oh it is far better to fall down and worship him now then not to know him to be a Lord till that time that in his wrath he shall manifest his power and fall upon us and break us in pieces Look then upon this Lord and look upon his Laws and write them in your hearts For the Philosopher will tell us that the strength and perfection of Law consisteth not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due performance of them For Obedience is the best seal and ratification of a Law Christ is Lord from all eternity and cannot be devested of his Royal office yet he counteth his Kingdome most complete when we are subject and obedient unto him when he hath taken possession of our hearts where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men Behold
Honesty is but of a narrow compass which measureth it self out by that rule and reacheth no further then to that point which the Laws of men have set up and maketh that its Non ultra Fest. verb. Pietas Piety constraineth us to do many things where the Law leaveth us free What Law did force that pious Daughter to suckle her old Father in prison and nourish him with the milk from her own breasts Spartianus or Antonine the Emperour to lead his aged Father-in-law and ease and support him with his hand Again Humanity bindeth us where the Law is silent Humanitatis est quaedam nescire velle For where was it enacted that we should not open the letters no not of our enemies yet Julius Caesar burnt those which he found in their Tents whom he had conquered and the Athenians and Pompey did the like Liberality hath no Law and yet it is a debt No Law enjoyneth me to keep my promise and make good my faith and yet my promise bindeth me as firmly Beati divites quia caeteris prodesse possunt debent Alciat de verb. Significat and should be as sacred as my oath All these are extra publicas tabulas not to be found in our Statute-books that confineth his studies and endeavours to these that hath no other compass to steer by in the course of his life then that which he there findeth written Fides juramentum aequiparantur ut hoc servari debet ita illa Menoch cap. 367. cannot take this honour to himself this honourable title of a Just and Honest man For how many inventions and wiles have men found out to work iniquity as by a Law to drive the proprietary out of his possessions before the Sun and the people and then wipe their mouths and proclaim it as just to all the world How many eat no other bread but that which is kneaded by craft and oppression and sometimes with blood and yet count it as Manna sent down from Heaven How short is the hand of the Law to reach these Nay how doth the Law it self many times enable them to invade the territories of others and to riot it at pleasure How is it made their musick Consensere jura peccatis c. Cypr. ad Donat by which they dance in other mens blood Justice or common Honesty is but one word but of a larger compass then Ambition and Covetousness are willing to walk in In a word A thing may not be just and honest and yet there may be no Law to punish it no man that dare reprehend it Cicer. 2. de Finib â—3 Lex Stagiritarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian Var. Hist l. 3. c. 46. Clem. Alex. 2. Strom. 398. Dolus quidam in contractu est non indicare errorem Hermias apud Damas in Phot. Bibl. saith Tully Take not up that which thou laid'st not down count that which thou findest in the way but as a pledge to be returned upon demand said the Stagirites If thou sell a thing declare the fault of it If thou under-buy a thing upon the discovery pay the full price These no humane Law but Justice and Honesty and the Law of Nature requireth To collect and draw out a catalogue of all those irregularities in behaviour which will not consist with Justice and Honesty as it is a thing not necessary to be done so is it impossible to do it For as day unto day teacheth the knowledge of that which is good so day unto day and hour unto hour teach the knowledge of that which is evil and it is not easie to open those Mysteries of iniquity The mind of Man when it is corrupted is restless in finding out new and untrodden paths which may lead to its desired end and is wheeled about from one falshood to another begetteth a second lye to defend the first and draweth in cheat upon cheat that it may have at least the shadow of Justice and Honesty to veil and obscure it And so long he is an Honest man that is not a detected knave as he is counted a good Lawyer who can find out something in fraudem legis some hansome colour or fetch to delude the Law He that hath the sentence on his side is Just and he that is fallen from his cause is fallen from the truth and so honesty is bound up in the verdict of the Jury and twelve perjured men may make an oppressour honest when they please We will not therefore go in Hue and Cry after every thief nor follow the deceitful person in those rounds and windings and turnings which he maketh And I can truly say Non multùm incola fuit anima mea I have been but a stranger and sojourner in these tents of Mesech I have not so much conversed in these waies of thrift and arts of living as to read a lecture upon them and discover the Method and course of them It may so fall out and doth too often that they who are the best artists in these are the worst of men For the wisdome of this world is not like that in Aristotle which resisteth in it self and never seeketh another end For in this the theory and the practice go hand in hand and advance one another Nor do we make use of it onely to preserve and defend our selves but we let it out to disquiet and diminish others And they that tread these hidden and indirect wayes though they hide themselves from others yet seldome do so far deceive themselves as not to know they walk deceitfully They check and comfort themselves at once they know they do not justly and yet this thought setteth them forward in their course even this poor and unworthy thought That it is good to be rich and so the light which they see is somewhat offensive but the Love of gain is both a provocative and a cordial Isa 28.17 We will therefore bring Justice to the line and Righteousnes to the plummet and have recourse to the Law and the Prophets not stand gazing upon the practice of the world and actions of men but look upon the rule by which a diligent eye may easily discover all particulars swervings and deviations though they be as many as the atomes before the Sun For as Seneca well difficile est animam suam effugere it is a hard matter for a man to fly from himself or to divest himself of those principles with which he was born or so to fling them from him as that they shall never return to restrain and curb him or at least to molest him when his flesh and lusts are wanton and unruly and violent to break their bounds And now what doth the Lord require but to do justly that is but to do that which first the Law of Nature requireth secondly that which he at sundry times by holy men and his Prophets hath taught Hebr. 1.1 and in the last daies hath urged and improved
have been cast away and lost let us first look up upon the light of Nature and walk honestly as in the day Rom. 13.13 and not after those blind guides the Love of our selves and the Glory of the world which will lead us on pleasantly for a while and at last slip from us and leave us in the dark there to lament and curse the folly of our waies For Riches and Honour and Pleasure are not natural unto us but adventitious and accidental and that which is natural should be prevalent against all that is accidental Accidentali praevalet naturale c. 3. ff de Tutelis say the Civilians This Relation by Nature should be strong against all forein circumstances whatsoever And therefore it is but a busie folly and a studious kind of iniquity to come and frame distinctions which may wipe out this relation and so leave us at loose with line enough to run out unto a liberty and privilege of encroching on others by fraud or violence As the Persians in Xenophon taught their children that they might lye or not lye with a distinction lye loudly to their enemies so they remember to speak truth to their friends deceive a stranger but not an acquaintance And I fear we have too many such Persians in this our Island And if they do not utter and dictate it yet their hearts speak it and their hands speak it and their practice proclaimeth it to the whole world He is a stranger he is an enemy of another Religion of another Faction I may make what advantage I can upon him undermine and blow him up And thus the Man the Image of God the Brother is quite lost And what is the issue of this diabolical coynage Even the same which Xenophon observed to be of the Persian education Their children saith he soon forgot the distinction and grew up at last to be so bold as to lye to their best friends And so it is with them who find it an easier thing to call themselves Religious then to make themselves honest who first begin with proviso's and distinctions to practice injustice and with much gravity and demureness to deceive their brethren and to be dishonest by a rule At last they fall down to an universal and promiscuous iniquity Friends Brothers they of the same family they of the same sect and faction all are the same with them When they look for advantage no respect of person when they look for Balaams wages every man then is a stranger an enemy or as strangely used as if he were And this is to put out the light of Nature and so to go a whoring after our own inventions which once kindled by the Love of this world are those false lights which lead us into that darkness which S. John speaketh of He that thus handleth his brother 1 John 2.11 walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because darkness hath blinded his eyes that he cannot see a Man in a Man nor a Brother in a Brother a Man in the same shape and built up of the same materials a Man of the same passions with himself And therefore by this light of Nature let us check and condemn our selves when any gall of bitterness riseth in our hearts and allay or rather root it out with this consideration That it is most in humane and unnatural that we ought not to nourish it in our breast and so fall from the honour of our creation and leave off to be men How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer Isa 14.12 and cut down to the ground And how art thou fallen O man whosoever thou art that doest unjustly that takest from another that which is his either by violence or deceit How art thou fallen from heaven For on earth there is no other heaven but that which Justice and Charity make How art thou fallen to hell it self nay to be an hell a place for these foul spirits Malice and Fraud to reign and riot in and to torment others and thy self How art thou fallen from conversing with Angels to wallow in blood from the glory of thy Creation to burning fire and blackness and darkness and tempest O what a shame is it that a man thus created thus elemented and composed should delight in fraud and violence and oppression should feed on that bread not which his Father who made him did put into his hands but which Craft did purloin or Violence snatch from the hands of others who were not so wise or so strong as himself that this Creature of Love made by Love and made to be sociable should be as hot as a fiery furnace sending forth nothing but sulfur and stench that this honourable Creature should be a beast nay a Devil to ensnare to accuse to deceive and destroy his brethren This is a sad aggravation But if the light of Nature be too dim and cannot lead us out of the World and those winding and crooked paths which the Love of it maketh in it every day let us in the last place look up upon that clearer light that light which did spring from on high and hath visited us Why should not our friends be more powerful with us then our enemies Why should not Grace be stronger then a Temptation Why should not the rich and glorious promises of the Gospel be more eloquent and perswasive then the solicitations of the Flesh which is every moment drawing nearer to the dust or of the World which changeth every day and shall at last be burnt with fire Why should they not have the power to purge and cleanse us from all unrighteousness Why should we chuse rather to be raised and enriched here for a span of time by Craft and Power then to be crowned by Justice and Integrity for ever For this is the end for which this great light hath shined John 1.9 to lighten every man that is in the world that they may walk in the paths of righteousness It is a light that leadeth unto bliss but it will not go before an Oppressour a Thief an Impostour a Tyrant to lead them to it because they delight not in it Matth. 6.23 and do but talk of it The light that is in them is darker then darkness it self Their Judgement is corrupt their Will is averse and looketh another way from the region of light Hebr. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God It is true But without Justice and Honesty Faith is but a name For can we imagin that Religion should turn Thief and Devotion a Cutpurse Rom. 13 13. To conclude then That you may do justly and walk honestly as in the day consider Injustice Oppression and Deceit in their true shape and proportion and not dawbed over with untempered morter not disguised with the pleasures and riches of the world not veiled and drest up with pretenses and names which make them lovely and make them worse Consider well and
narrow heart and an earthy mind Cant. 4.12 And if there be any Mercy in us it is as a fountain sealed up which sendeth not forth a drop or a garden inclosed where no man can come to fill his hand This hard opinion the world hath of Mercy as of the most useless and the most unprofitable and disadvantageous thing in the world as the nurse of Prodigality and the mother of Beggery as that which letteth out our blood and life to feed and strengthen others We will therefore in the next place as Tertullians phrase is in hunc ictum confiderare have an eye on this blow and we shall avoid it with ease For indeed it is rather a proffer then a blow And it will soon appear that it is Mercy alone that maketh our wealth ours that it is never more ours then when we part with it that Alienation is our best Assurance and continueth it to us for ever For first it is but an errour to imagin that God openeth his hand and filleth our basket and giveth us the good things of the world for our selves alone and for our own use that he openeth the windows of heaven and droppeth down his blessings into us there to settle and putrifie and corrupt For this is saith Basil as if a man who made hast to the theatre should think all others excluded because he came first This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to appropriate to thy self those things which are common to all to lock up that in thy chest which should fill the bellies of the poor The goods of the Church in former ages were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wealth of God and of the poor Apol. c. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things of God Tertullian calleth them deposita pietatis the pledges of Mercy deposited in our hands And if I should call the wealth of Christians so I should not erre Bern. l. 4. de considerat for all are bound to count them so patrimonium crucifixi the patrimony of their crucified Saviour given them not onely to feed and cloath themselves but to supply the necessity of others who have a right which indeed they cannot challenge have something in our granaries and wardrobes to which we onely keep the key with a charge from Heaven to open them when Nakedness and Misery come but so near as to knock at our eyes For God who gave them is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Auditour who will take a strict account if we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 use them as our own as the Antients use to speak or spend that in wantonness which should strengthen the weak knees and hands that hang down We are ready to say saith the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom do I wrong in keeping of my own And must I be cruel to my self that I may be merciful to others Must I put my knife to my throat that a stranger may be fed And we are easily perswaded that we are good Christians if we be not Foxes to deceive or Lions to devour them The greatest part of our Piety is negative and I would we did but make that good Not to oppress Not to defraud Not to take away with us is to be Merciful as Thieves saith Salvian out of Tully qui putant se vitam dare quibus non eripiunt who will say they give him his life whom they do not kill And yet if Mercy open not my bowels and my hand too I may wrong my brother when I do him no harm I may defraud and spoil him when I take nothing from him I wrong no man is a poor apology Why man Ad voluntatem commodantis commodatarius uti debet accommodato alioquin furtum facit in re commodata Bern. de Inteteriori dom c. 25. thou wrongest the King of Kings when thou sufferest his subjects to perish And this Negative Mercy is no better then Theft The bread which thou layest up is not thine but the bread of the hungry The garment which thou hast lockt up in thy chest is the garment of the naked The gold which thou hidest in the earth is the revenue of the poor and needy As he said of his writings Omne tuum nihil tuum All is thine and nothing is thine For in the second place the best use we can put our riches to the true use which God that gave them hath taught us is so to use them that they may stead us in our greatest necessity to open our hand that it may be filled to water that we may be watered again saith Solomon Prov. 11.25 Luke 16.9 to make them our friends saith a wiser then Solomon to make that which is a parasite to deceive us a snare to entrap us an enemy to fight against us a friend to help and succour us so to use it that it may return multiplyed into our hands For what is properly gain Is not this for a mite to receive a talent for one seed one work of Mercy to receive an hundred-fold Negotiatio est aliqua amittere ut plura lucreris Tertull. ad Mart. c. 2. saith the Father It is a kind of traffick and merchandise to lay out something that you may gain more to venture a knife or bugle to bring back a diamond to treasure up by spending to increase our stock by diminishing it and by losing all to purchase more What was ever saith Julian the Apostate the poorer for what he gave And of himself he telleth us that whatsoever he laid out to supply the wants of others was returned back again by the Gods as the Apostate had now learnt to speak into his hands with usury For when his Liberality had well-near exhausted his own estate his Grand-mothers happily and opportunely fell into his hands What that cursed Apostate falsly attributeth to his false Gods that the God of Gods doth most exactly perform He hath set up his Assurance-office to pay us back in our own coine or if not in that which cannot be valued being of an inestimable price I make no doubt but Gods Mercy is ready to shine upon ours for he loveth it and loveth to look on it I doubt not but he rewardeth our Mercy with the blessings of this life For a cup of cold water which the hand of Mercy filleth and poureth out he giveth many times riches and honour though we perceive it not but attribute them to something else as to our Wisdome and Industry rather then to that Providence which alwaies waiteth upon Mercy blessing it in the work and blessing it when the work is done But what are these to that reward which is laid up for those who do seminare in benedictionibus sow plentifully What are Riches that have wings to Immortality What is a Palace to Heaven We visit the sick and the Spirit of comfort visiteth us We serve our brethren and the Angels minister unto us
as under heaven the Throne of God which shall stand fast for ever When we walk with men we walk as with them whom we can sometimes delude sometimes muzzle and bind But when we walk with God we walk with him who is every where and seeth every event whose eye is ever open whose hand is ever stretched out Psal 29.5 and whose voice breaketh the cedars of Libanus But now secondly as the Laws of men do not so aw and regulate us but that we break out too oft beyond those bounds which Reason and Religion hath set up no more doth the Law within us the Law of our Vnderstanding as Damascene calleth the Conscience command or confine us in our walk Sometimes we gloss it sometimes we slight it sometimes we silence it and some there be that seal it up and sear it as S. Paul speaketh as with a hot iron If it speak to us we are deaf 1 Tim. 4.2 if it renew its clamours we are more averse and if it check us we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul beat and wound it more and more Multi famam 1 Cor. 8.12 pauci conscientiam verentur saith Pliny The loudest noise our Conscience can make is not heard but the Censure of men which is not most times worth our thought is a thunder-clap we hear it and we tremble We are led like fools with melody to the stocks What others say is our motion and turneth us about to any point but when we speak to our selves we hear it but believe it not fling it by and forget it The voice of Conscience is Defraud not your brother nay 1 Thes 4.6 but we will over-reach him The voice of Conscience is Love thy neighbour as thy self Lev. 19.18 nay but we will oppress him The voice of Conscience is Love Mercy nay Matth. 19.19 but we will love our selves What we speak to our selves our selves soon make heretical How ambitious are we to be accounted just and how unwilling to be so How loud are we against Sin in the presence of others and then make our selves as invisible as we can that we may commit it What a sin is Uncleanness in the Temple and what a blessing is it in the closet With what gravity and severity will a corrupt Judge threaten iniquity What a pilferer Let him be whipt What a murderer He shall dye the death He whippeth the Thief and hangeth the Murderer and indeed whippeth and hangeth himself by a proxie So that we see neither the power of the Laws nor the respect and obedience we ow to our selves are of any great force to prevail with us to order our steps aright Walk with men or as before men That may have some force but it reacheth no further then the outward man Walk with our selves give ear to our selves This might do much more but we see the practice of it is very rare and unusual that there is little hope that it will complete and perfect our walk and make us Just and Merciful men which is here required It will be easie then to infer that our safest conduct will be to walk with God And to secure both the Laws of men and that Law within us that they may have their full power and effect in us we must first raise and build up in our selves this firm perswasion That whatsoever we do or think is open to the eye of that God who is above us and yet with us That that discovery which he maketh is infinitely and incomparably more clear and certain then that which we make by our senses That we do not see our friend so plain as he seeth our hearts That thou seest not the birds fly in the ayr so distinctly as he seeth thy thoughts fly about the world to those several objects which we have set up for our delight That he seeth and observeth that irregularity and deformity in our actions which is hid from our eyes when our intention is serious and our search most accurate Though we are in the flesh and so led by Sense were this belief rooted and confirmed in us That God doth but see us as Man seeth us or were this as evident to our Faith as that is to our Sense we should be more watchful over our selves and more wary of the Devils snares and baits then we commâ—â—ly are Magna necessitas indicta pietatis c. saith Hilary There is a necessity laid upon us of fear and reverence and circumspection when we know and believe that he now standeth by as a Witness who will come again and be our Judge What a Paradise would the world be and what a heaven would there be upon earth if this were generally and stedfastly believed Glorious things are spoken of Faith We call it a full assent we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 11.1 a full and certain perswasion It is the evidence of things not seen I ask Is ours so Would to God it were Nay would for many of us we did but believe that God is present with us and seeth what we do or think as firmly as we do a story out of our own Chronicles nay as many times we do believe a lye Matth. 17.20 Would our faith were but as a grain of mustard seed Even such a faith if it did not remove mountains yet would chide down many a swelling thought would silence many a proud word would restrain us from those actions which now we glory in but should run from as from Serpents as from the Devil himself if we could fully perswade our selves that a God of wisdome and power were so near Now in the last place let us cast a look upon those who for want of this perswasion do walk on in the haughtiness of their hearts bow neither to the Laws of God nor men nor hearken to the Law within them which notwithstanding could not be in them were not this bright Eye and powerful Hand over them And this may serve for Use and Application Phil. 3.18 Many walk saith S. Paul to the Philippians of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to God And first the Presumptuous sinner walketh not with God who hath first hardned his heart Zech. 7.12 Isa 3.9 and then his face as an adamant whose very countenance doth witness against him who declareth his sins as Sodome and hideth them not These first contemn themselves and then scornfully reject what common Reason and Nature suggest to them and then at last trusting either to their wit or wealth conceive a proud disdain of all that are about them and not a negative but a positive contempt of God himself First they lose their Reason in their lusts and then their Modesty which is the onely good thing that can find a place in evil They do that upon the open stage which they did at first but behind the curtain They first make
the towers of a City these rend the Veil nay dig up the very foundation of the Temple The Spirit is named but from the Flesh is the persecution Matth 21.38 For what did the Husbandmen set upon the Lord of the vineyard but to gain the inheritance What set the whole city of Ephesus in an uproar but Demetrius his Rhetorick Acts 19.25 the brutish but strong perswasions of the flesh From this craft have we this gain Though the Truth and Religion be held up and shewed openly for a pretense yet envy and Malice Covetousness and Ambition envenom the heart and strengthen the hands of all the enemies of the Church these whet the sword these make the furnace of Persecution seven times hotter then it would be The flesh is the treasury from whence these winds blow that rage and beat down all before them Thus it is with every one that is born of the flesh he is ever in labour with mischief ever teeming and travelling with persecution and wanteth nothing but Occasion as a Midwife to bring it forth Now as we have beheld one person in this Tragedy and the chiefest actour so let us look upon the other the Patient born after the spirit And behold a Lamb for the Spirit who came down like a Dove begetteth no Tigers or Lions Behold a Man a Worm and no Man virum perpissitium Epist. 104. as Seneca calleth Socrates a man of sufferance deaf or if not yet dumb to all reproches and when injuries are loudest as silent as the Grave kissing the hand that striketh him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritualized in matter as Nazianzene candidatum crucis as Tertullian saith one that is so fitted and prepared for the Cross that he looketh upon it as upon a preferment Poor Lamb he cannot bite and devour he cannot scatter the counsels of the crafty he cannot bind the hands of the mighty Ignorant and foolish Psal 73.22 as David speaketh as a beast in this world a man in nothing but in Christ Jesus being elemented and made up of Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness the principles of the Spirit Gal 5.22 having no security no policy no eloquence no strength but that which lieth in his innocency and truth which he carrieth about as a cure but it is lookt upon as a persecution by those who will not be healed Why hast thou set me up as a mark saith Job Why every one that is born of the spirit is set up as a mark S. Paul calleth it a spectacle 1 Cor. 4.0 He that is born of the spirit is no sooner thus born but he cometh forth a contentious man Jerem 15.10 that striveth with the whole earth The Spirit cannot breathe and work in him but it shaketh every corner of the earth every thing that is from the earth earthy It striveth to pull the Wanton from the harlots lips and to level the Ambitious with those who are of low degree it beateth the Covetous from his Mammon it wresteth the sword out of the hand of the Revenger it striketh out the teeth of the Oppressour Rom. 16.17 it marketh the Schismatick and avoideth him it anathematizeth the Heretick Numb 22 22. It is that Angel which standeth in our way when we are running greedily for a reward It is that Prophet that forewarneth us Jude 11. Dan. 5.5 that Hand on the wall that writeth against us that Cock that calleth us to repentance Matth. 26.74 that Trump that summoneth us to judgement Well said Martine Luther Nihil scandalosius veritate There is not a more offensive thing in the world then that spirit of Truth which begetteth and constituteth a Christian It much resembleth the Load stone qui trahit simul avertit is at once both attractive and averse at one part draweth the Iron at the other loatheth it The Truth knitteth all good men all that 〈◊〉 born of the spirit in a bond of peace but withdraweth it self and will not joyn with the evil with those who are born after the flesh and so maketh them enemies And therefore I may add to Luther Nihil periculosius veritate There is not a more dangerous thing in the world in respect of the world then the Truth For as the Truth as it was said of Noah Heb. 11.7 condemneth the world that is convinceth it of infidelity and so leaveth it open to the sentence of condemnation so doth the world also condemn the Truth 1. By reproching it Ecquis Christus cum sua fabula said the Heathen What ado here is with Christ and his Legend And so saith every Atheist in his heart every one that is born after the flesh 2. By selling it as the Wanton doth for a smile the Covetous for bread Isa 55.2 for that which is not bread the Ambitious for a breath a sound a thought the Superstitious for a picture an idole which is nothing 3. 1 Cor. 8.4 By violence against the friends and lovers of Truth that they may drive it out of the world by commanding and charging them to speak no more in that name Acts ◠17 5.28 by persecuting them as Ishmael did Isaac with ascoff For this is all we read Sarah saw Ishmael mocking And this scoff this derision Gen. 21.9 whatsoever it was S. Paul calleth persecution And this is the Devils Method to make a scoff the prologue to a Tragedy to usher in Persecution with a Jeer first put Christians in the skins of beasts and then bait them to death with dogs first disgrace them and then ad Leones Away with them to the Lions first call the orthodox Bishops traditores and then beat them down at the very Altar first make them vile and then nothing The Psalmist fully expresseth it Swords are in their lips Psal 59.7 For every word these scoffers speak eateth flesh It is a mock now it will be a blow it will be a wound It beginneth in a libell it endeth in Rise kill and eat The first letter the Alpha is a mock the last the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is desolation Thus the son of the free woman he that is born after the spirit is ever the patient and the son of the bond-woman he that is born after the flesh layeth on sure strokes Vnus venter sed non unus animus saith Augustine As the twins strove in the womb of Rebekah so these two the Good and the Evil strive in the World the one by silence the other by noise the one by being what he is the other by being angry that he is so the one by his life the other by his sword Art thou born of the Spirit Eccl. 2.1 a true member of Christ Then prepare thy self for temptation as the son of Sirach speaketh For when thou hast put on these graces that make thee one thou hast with them put on also a crown of thornes If thou be an Isaac thou shalt find an
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
peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of Propriety Every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting Heathens Apolog. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this That they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law could not reach Hebr. 7.18 19. Neither could the Jew bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket nor the Philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soul to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquility and quietness which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terrour that is in it Humane Reason was too weak to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it Nor was it seen in its full beauty till that Light came into the world which did improve and exalt and perfect our Reason The Philosophers cryed down Anger yet gave way to Revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other Both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice Exod. 21.24 Matth. 5.38 42 c. The language of the Law was An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution Whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an Humility more bending a Patience more constant a Meekness more suffering a Quietness more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more clearly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law For is not Eternity of bliss a stronger motive then the Basket or Glory or Temporal enjoyments Is not Heaven more attractive then the Earth Under the Law this Peace and Quietness was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schools of Philosophers it was but a phansie The Peace and Quietness they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis De Anima c. 1. non de fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian out of an industrious affected endurance of every evil that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evil of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remain it self untoucht and unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect This was the business of the Prince of Peace who came into the world but not with drum and colours Tertull. cont Iudaeos Psal 72.6 but with a rattle rather not with noise but like rain on the mowen grass not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee with no sword but that of the Spirit Who made good that prophesie of the Prophet that swords should be turned into plow shares Micah 4.3 4. and spears into pruning books that all Bitterness and Malice of heart should be turned into the love and study of Modesty and Peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor fear it not disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the Earth might be a temporal paradise a type and representation of that which is eternal For this Christ came into the world and brought power enough with him to perform it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good And when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the Prophesie is fulfilled For it was never yet foretold by any Prophet that they should be quiet who made it their delight and study and the business of their whole life to trouble themselves and others What could Christ in wisdome have done more then he hath done He hath digged up Dissension at the very root Malè velle malè dicere malè cogitare ex aequo vetamur saith Tertullian To wish evil to speak evil to think evil are alike forbidden in the Gospel which restaineth the Will bindeth the Hand bridleth the Tongue fettereth the very Thoughts commandeth us to love an enemy to surrender our coat to him who hath stript us of our cloak to return a blessing for a reproch and to anoint his head with oyl who hath struck us to the ground which punisheth not the ends only but even the beginnings of dissension which bringeth every part to its own place the Flesh under the Spirit the Will under the law of Charity which is the Peace of the Soul the obedience of Faith under the eternal Law which is our Peace with God the Servant under the Master the Child under the Parent the Subject under the Magistrate which is the Peace of an House of a Commonwealth of the World which maketh every part dwell together in unity begetteth a parity in disparity raiseth equality out of inequality keepeth every wheel in its due motion every man in his right place is that Intelligence which moveth the lesser sphere of a Family and the greater orb of a Commonwealth composedly and orderly which is its Peace For Peace and Quiet is the order and harmony of things The Father calleth it a Harp and it is never well set or tuned but by an Evangelical hand which slacketh and letteth down the string of our Self love to an Hatred of our selves and windeth up the string of our Love to our brother in an equal proportion to the Love of our selves We must hate our life in this world Joh. 12.25 and we must love our brother as our selves Nay it letteth it lower yet Matth. 22.39 even to our enemies and the sound of it must reach unto them Talk what we will of Peace if it be not tuned and touched by Charity if it take not its rise and spring from this Peace here from the Peace of the Gospel it
madmen make us run out of our own house to burn our neighbours and afflict our selves to trouble others And last of all we must empty our selves of all Suspicion Evil-surmizing and Discontent which never want fuel to foment them but feed on shadows on whispers on lyes empty reports and draw conclusions out of any out of no premises at all which call small benefits injuries and every frown a persecution which level us in our best estate impoverish us in riches raise a tempest in a calm and strike us on the ground when no evil breatheth in our coasts which have a miraculous power to turn a Rod into a Serpent a creating power to work not good out of evil but evil out of nothing which are quick and apprehensive strike at every gnat and make it a camel to choak us in brief which are that worm that gnaweth us continually which kindle a hell on earth torment us in pleasure bruise us on profit bind us in liberty lay us on our bed and fright us with visions and dreams and fearful apparitions which turn a Seraglio into a prison a talent into a mite and a mite into nothing and whatsoever cometh near into a punishment which is worse then nothing These are the evil Spirits which torment and tear us and fling us to the ground and make us wallow and fome When we have disposessed our selves of these we shall sit quietly and in our right minds or if we move we shall move in our own sphere and compass which is a motion in our place And such a motion is rest This is our spiritual exercise and this we must study This is the labour and work of our Faith and we must practice it every day and when we have practiced it practice it again repeat our lesson over and over and be jealous of our selves that we are not yet perfect as Petrarch counselleth Students sic philosophari ut philosophiam ament so study to be quiet that we may love it love it as that which will purchase us the love of the God of Peace If we take the proper signification of the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our love must be of that nature that we must love it as that which will crown us with glory we must be ambitious of it And how do ambitious men stretch and rack their wits How do they study to attain first one degree of honour then another then the top of all and then study again to be higher then the highest For Ambition though it begin with the end yet is alwaies a beginning And this is proper to it that it never looketh back or considereth how high it hath soared It beginneth at one Kingdome and then beginneth at another and though it make way ad cubile solis to the end of the world yet it doth but begin there Thus should we be ambitious of quietness of a setled mind and a peaceable behaviour which no mans height can sink no mans greatness can diminish no mans anger can move no mans malice can shake no mans violence can disorder as others are of Honour which they must win with fire and sword and so make up Nazianzens number Orat. 18. who telleth us there be three things which cannot be overcome or disquieted God and an Angel and a good Christian God is not troubled when he is angry though for our sakes he telleth us he is even pressed as a cart under sheaves Amos 2.13 and it is our sin not wrath that whetteth the sword of the destroying Angel And shall not we be ambitious to make up the third to be like unto our heavenly Father to be like unto the Angels in this to be quiet and keep the same temper and evenness in the midst of so many humours as men to be the same when others run several wayes and all to trouble us to be humble when one scorneth us to be meek when another rageth to be silent when this man doth raile not to be transported with what others do but to stay at home with our selves and be still when the world is out of order not to pull it to pieces in seeking to settle it not to enrage a fire by attempting to quench it to establish this order this peace this heaven within our selves and as much as in us lieth Rom. 12.18 keep it with all men This is truly Religion not to hear and talk and fill the world with noise and confusion Psal 131.1 not to exercise our selves in things too high for us but to fight against our lusts and trouble none but our selves though this aged world is grown over-wise and hath found out a way to divorce Religion from Honesty and Peace This is truly Christianity the command and practice of Christ who would not be an Arbitrator between two brethren Who saith Christ Luke 12.14 hath made me a judge or divider over you My business is to give you general precepts which you must draw down to particular cases and not to put my hand to help to manage the affairs and business of particular men He came down into the world as rain into a fleece of wooll to beget us with his word that we his children might move and walk in the world as he came down into it that is without noyse Lastly this is truly honourable a mark which the Ambition of a Christian should flie to For it is an honour to cease from strife Prov. 20.3 Sedere quiescere so it is rendred to sit still and be quiet Possess your selves 1 Thess 4.4 saith S Paul in sanctification and honour in sanctity which is your honour by which you honour and adorn the temple of the holy Ghost We count it indeed an honour to make our tongues our own and speak what we list to make our hands our own and do what we please Psal 18.37.42 to pursue our enemies and take them and beat them as small as the dust before the wind we count it an honour to stand in the valley and to touch the mountains till they smoke to reach at that which is above us and pull it down to divide that which is united to shake that which is establisht to violate that which should not be toucht we are ever moving and heaving upward to be more than we should be to be what we should not be vile and ignoble and dead in our own place and never honourable we think till we have left it behind us to gain us a name though it be by firing a temple or setting the world it self in combustion Thus honours are dispensed amongst the children of men amongst the sons of Belial honourable Schismaticks 1 Kings 14.16 descended from Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin Gen. 49.5 honourable Revengers of the tribe of Simeon and Levi those brethren in evil honourable Hypocrites Pharisees and the sons of Pharisees Matth. 23.33 a generation of
strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonour to his Majesty to manage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every hair of our head and observe the Sparrow that falleth from the house-top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresie and Schism Profaneness and Atheism Sin and Death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Cross and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finished his victory and triumph complete and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense triumph Coloss 2.15 and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more The Eleventh SERMON PART II. MATTH XXIV 42. Yee know not what hour your Lord doth come WE have already beheld the Person Your Lord and we have placed him on his tribunal as a Judge John 5.22 For the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son You have seen his Dominion in his Laws which are fitted and proportioned to it Psal 45.6 As his sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness so his Laws are just No man no Devil can question them We approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience giveth us is an approbation You have seen the Virtue and Power of his Dominion For what is Regal right without Regal power What is a Lord without a sword Or what is a sword if one cannot manage it What is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he cometh upon him Es 9.6 Psal 76.7 But our Lord as he is called Wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God Who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large Compass and Circuit of his Dominion No place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him and over them that put him to open shame Luke 1.33 And last of all you have seen the Durability or rather the Eternity of his Dominion Of his Kingdome there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary And take the words going before He shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain For as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign Hebr. 7.24 As his Priesthood so his Dominion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never pass away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversûs settled in his place but upon his return The Lord will come It is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of efficacy and virtue 1. to awake and stir up our Faith 2. to raise our Hope and 3. to inflame our Charity It is an object for our Faith to look on for our Hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace First it offereth it self to our Faith For ideo Deus abscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur Therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our Faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon earth And he is therefore absent and in a manner lieth hid that this eye might find him out For Faith is a kind of prospective or optick instrument by which we see things afar off as if they were near at hand things that are not yet as if they were It turneth venturus est into the present tense It beholdeth Christ not onely sitting at the right hand of God but as now already descending with a shout With this eye of faith I see new heavens and a new earth a new face of every thing I see what a nothing that is which mortals sweat and fight for what a nothing the world is for I see it on fire I see Righteousness peace order constancy duration even whilst I walk in this shop of vanities this world of wickedness this Chaos and confusion this seat of change I see honesty pitied scorned baffled Honesty lifted up on high far above reproch or injury I see Injustice powerful all-conquering triumphant Injustice trembling before this Lord arraigned condemned flung down into the lowest pit there to be whipt with many stripes I see now the wisdome of men made foolishness 1 Cor. 1.20 25 and the foolishness of God wiser then men I see that restored which I saw lost I see the eye that was bored out in its place again I see the plowed back with no furrow on it I see Herod in prison and John Baptist with his head on I see my goods restored before I lose them and I am in heaven before the blow is given in bliss when every eye doth pity me And what is now left for the boasting Tyrant to do What can he take from me that is worth a thought What can he strip me off but that which I have laid down and left already behind me Will he have my goods The treasury where they are kept is out of his reach Will he take from me my good name It is written in the book of life Or will he take my life He cannot For it is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 This is sancta impudentia Fidei the holy boldness and confidence of Faith to break through flesh and blood all difficulties whatsoever to draw down heaven to earth and if the object be invisible to make it visible if it be at distance to make it present If the Lord say he will come to Faith he is come already This operation Faith will have if it be not dulled and deaded by our sensuality For what Faith is that which is not accompanied with these high apprehensions and resolutions equal to them What Faith is that which leaveth us weary of the truth and ashamed of our profession What Faith is that which we are so ready at every frown to renounce Shall I call that Faith which cannot strike the timbrel out of our hands nor the strumpet out of our arms that sheweth Christ coming to the Covetous yet leaveth him digging in the earth to the Ambitious and cannot stop
Captain the Apostle and High Priest of our profession Heb 3.1 opening the gates of heaven unto us manifesting his glory streaming forth his light ready with his strength free in his assistance powring forth his grace now triumphing over these our enemies and leaving us onely the chase and pursuit of them to fill up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some small matter that is behind Coloss 1.24 which is nothing in respect of that which he both did and suffered let us lay this to heart and view it well all our dangers and all our advantages and we shall find that it is not the strength nor multitude of our adversaries nor yet our own weakness and infirmity which we so willingly acknowledge nor the craft of Satan for we have Wisdome it self on our side nor his strength or power for he hath none but our want of watchfulness and circumspection that giveth us the blow and striketh us on the ground For want of this our first Parents fell in Paradise and had certainly fallen saith S. Chrisostom had there been no Serpent Fp. ad Clymp no Tempter at all For he that watcheth not tempteth the Tempter himself who would not assault us so often did we not invite him nor fling a dart towards us did he see us in our armour with our buckler and upon our watch By want of this Adam fell and by use of this Adams posterity after the fall recovered their state escaped the corruption which is in the world and fled from the wrath to come So necessary is this for a Christian that had we no other defence but this yet we could not be overcome Fortis saepe victus est cautus rarissimè The strong man hath often been ruined with his own strength but he that standeth upon his guard though the adversary lay hard at hand yet is never overthrown We may look back with comfort upon the eternal purpose and decree of God I mean to save penitent believers but we must give diligence to make our calling and our election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 We cannot but magnifie the Grace of God which bringeth salvation Tit. 2.11 but we must work it out with fear and trembling We cannot deny the power of the Gospel Philip. 2.12 2 Cor. 2.16 2 Tim. 4.8 but it is Watchfulness that maketh it the savour of life unto life We look for a crown that is laid up but it is Watchfulness that must put it on And now having as it were set the watch we must next give you the particular orders to be observed in our Watch. And we must frame and fashion them not onely by the majesty of the Lord which is to come but also by the power and force and manner of working of those temptations which we are to cope withal and watch against that when they compass us about we may find away to escape them Solus Christianus novit Satanam saith Tertullian It is the character of a Christian and it is peculiar to him to know the Devil and his enteprises Veget. l. v. Et difficilè vincitur qui potest de suis adversarii copiis judicare saith Vegetius It is a very hard matter to overcome him who truâ—y knoweth his own strentgh and the strength of his adversary First we must know our selves how we are framed and fashioned and how the hand of God hath built us up And we shall see that he hath ever laid as open to tentations Job 7.20 16.12 Nazianz. Orat. 38. and set us up as Job speaketh as a mark for the enemy to shoot at that Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one creature but made up of two different natures the Flesh and the Spirit and put into this world which is a shop of tentations hung full with vanities which offer themselves and that with some importunity to the eye and ear and every sense he hath Eccles 7.29 Into this when God first put him he made him upright but withal mutable The root of which mutability was his Will by which he might incline to either side either bargain or pass by either embrace temptations or resist them Legem dedit Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 38. In hoc est lex constituta non excludens sed probans libertatem saith Tertullian To this end a Law was enacted not taking away but proving and trying the liberty which we have either freely to obey or freely to trangress Else why should God enact a Law For the Will of Man looketh equally on both And he being thus built up did ow to his Maker absolute and constant obedience and obedient he could not be if he had not been thus built up To this end his Understanding and Will were to be exercised with arguments and occasions which might discover the resolution and the choice and election of Man Now these arguments and occasions are that which we call Temptations Which though they naturally light upon the outward man yet do they formally aim at the inward and are nothing do nothing till they seise upon the Will which may either joyn with the Sensitive part against the Reason which maketh us to every good work reprobate or else with our Reason against our Sensual appetite which worketh in us a conformity to the Will of God for God willeth nothing to be done which right Reason will not have us do The Will is that alone which draweth and turneth these temptations either to a good end by watchfulness and care or by supine negligence turneth them to a bad turneth them from that end for which they were permitted and ordained and so maketh Satans darts more fiery his enterprises more subtle his occasions more powerful and his perswasions more perswasive then indeed they are so that what God ordained for our trial and crown by our security and neglect is made a means to bring on our downfal and condemnation We must therefore in the midst of temptations as in a School learn to know our selves And in the next place we must learn to know our enemies and how they work and mine against us examin those temptations which make toward us lest we judge of them by their outside look upon them and so be taken with a look lest as the Romanes observed of the barbarous Nations that being ignorant of the art of engining when they were besieged and shut up they would stand still and look upon the enemy working on in the mine not understanding quò illa pertinerent quae ex longinquo instruebantur what it meant or wherefore those things were prepared which they saw afar off and at distance till the enemy came so near as to blow them up and destroy them so we also behold temptations with a careless and regardless eye and not knowing what they mean suffer them to work on to steal nearer and nearer upon us till they enter into our souls and dwell there and so take full possession
there it is visible to be seen In its joy it leapeth there in its grief it languisheth there in its fear it droopeth there in its anger it threatneth there in its hope it looketh out chearfully and in its despair it sinketh in again and leaveth the living man with no more motion then a carkass The heart of man changeth his countenance saith the Wise man If we stand not upon our guard the state and peace of our mind will soon be overthrown Respexit oculis saith S. Ambrose sensum mentis evertit os libavit crimen retulit The man did but look back and his mind was shaken he did but open his ear and lost a good intention he did but lightly touch and shadow the object and took in a sin he did but touch and was on fire You see now the force and strength of the enemy you see him in his mine and you see him in his march with his flatteries and menaces with his glories and terrours with his occasions and arguments And if to these you oppose your prudency and watchfulness your fortitude and Christian resolution you put him to flight or tread him under your foot For first temptations may enter the Senses without sin To behold the object A. Gell. Noct. Att. L. 19. c. 2. Tertull. de Coron Mil. c. 5. to touch or tast which are called belluini sensus our more brutish senses is not to commit sin because God himself hath thus ordered and framed the Senses by their several instruments and organs Auditum in auribus fodit visum in oculis accendit gustum in ore conclusit saith the Father He hath kindled light in the Eyes he hath digged the hollow of the Ear for Hearing and hath shut up the Tast in the Mouth or Palate and hath given Man his Senses very fit for the trial and reward of virtue For as he made the Eye to see so he made every thing in the world to be seen Frustrà ii essent si non viderentur saith Ambrose They were to no end if they were not to be seen And seen they may be to our comfort and to our peril As temptations may enter in at the Eye or Ear or any of the other senses so we may make them the matter of virtue as well as the occasion of sin In a word make a covenant with our Eye bridle our Tast bind our Touch purge our Ears and so sanctifie and consecrate every sense unto the Lord and this is indeed to watch Secondly temptations may enter the thoughts and be received into the Imagination and yet if we set our Watch not overcome us For as yet they are but as it were in their march bringing up their forces but have made no battery or breach into the soul For as God hath Blood Uncleanness and all the foul actions which are done in the world written in his book and yet every leaf thereof is fair and clean as Purity it self so may the Mind of man mingle it self with the most polluted objects that are and yet be a virgin still chast and untoucht I may entertein all the Heresies that are in my thoughts and yet be orthodox I may think of evil and with that thought destroy it It is not the sight of the object nor the knowledge of evil nor the remembrance of evil nor the contemplation of evil that can make me evil for if I watch over my self and it I may think of it and loath it I may remember and abhorre it For how could a Prophet denounce judgement against sin if he did not think of it How could I abhorre and avoid sin how could I repent of it if it were not in my thought This we cannot doubt of But then Thirdly the Sense and Phansie may receive the object with some delight and natural complacency and yet without sin if we stand upon our guard suffer it to win no more ground but then oppose it most when it most pleadeth for admittance For thus far it will advance And as the rational and intellectual delight is from some conclusion gained and drawn out of the principles of discourse which is the work of Reason so there is a sensible complacency Arnob. l. 7. adv Gent. which is nothing else but adulatio corporis the pleasing of the sense by the application of that which is most agreeable to it as of a better red and white to the Eye of a more pleasant voice to the Ear. That which is sweet the Tast judgeth so that which is fair the Eye receiveth so for this is natural to it and inseparable from it and so it is to the Phansie to entertein objects in that shape and form they represent themselves But then we must stay and question them here at their first approch and arrival in these their raies and glory God hath made Man keeper of his heart as of a castle which he betrayeth not till he hath delivered it up into the enemies hands Bern Clavis hujus castri cogitatio est The key of this castle is his Thought this openeth his Heart and may shut it this giveth way and room for the tentation to enter which is not done till he think as the enemy would have him till he busie and roul about his thought which is as the turning of a key to open a door and passage unto him I may think it is a fair sight and my Will may turn from it I may think it Musick and my Will may be deaf I may think it pleasant to the tast and my Will may distast and loath it when Reason hath discovered death in the apple But when we draw near to it and in a manner invite it to enter when we delight in that Beauty which attempteth our Chastity that Pleasure which assaulteth our Continence and stay and dwell and solace our selves with these unlawful objects then it is more then a thought it is more then a natural complacency it is a sin for not onely the Sense is pleased but the Will For we would not have set it up so high in our phansie we would not have deified it there if we had not been willing to fall down and worship it And now though it be but a thought it is a work of the Flesh wrought and finished in the Mind and wanteth nothing but opportunity to bring it into act Nec enim cogitatus licèt solos De resurrect carnis c. 15. licèt non ad effectum per carnem deductos à collegio carnis auferimus saith Tertullian So far is it that the Soul should be alone in the actions of our life that we cannot take these thoughts which are alone and not yet brought into act from the society and fellowship of the Flesh which worketh in the Soul as the Soul doth by it For in the Flesh and with the Flesh and by the Flesh that is done by the Soul which is done in the heart and inward man
the patients though the world perhaps cannot distinguish them and Death it self which is a key to open the gates of hell to the one may be to the other what the Rabbines conceive it would have been to Adam had he not fallen but osculum pacis a kiss of peace a gentle and loving dismission into a better state To conclude this then A people a chosen people a people chosen out of this choice Gods servants and friends may be smitten Josiah may fall in the battle Daniel may be led into captivity John Baptist may lose his head and yet we may hold up our Inscription DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. Let us now a little see what use we may make of this doctrine And first since the judgments of God are many times powred out upon whole nations without respect and beat upon the righteous as well as the wicked let us not be rash either to judge others when the hand of God hath touched them or to flatter our selves when he seemeth to shine upon our tabernacle For the hand of God may touch may strike down to the dust whom notwithstanding he meaneth to lift up to the highest pitch of happiness and he may shine upon the tabernacle of others when he is coming towards them in a tempest of blackness and darkness For though affliction be often the punishment of sin yet it is not alwaies so There were worse sinners then those Galilaeans whose bloud Pilate mingled with their sacrifices Luke 13. and they were not the greatest sinners on whom the tower of Siloa fell Good and bad may fall together in the battle and they may survive and escape the edge of the sword who amongst the bad were the worst The sword as David said 2 Sam. 11.25 devoureth one as well as another But what it was that did put an edge to the sword and strength to the hand of the enemy can be certainly known to none but God whose providence he moveth by is like the light he dwelleth in so past finding out that no mortal eye can reach and attain it I will not be so bold as to make Prosperity a sign of a bad man or Affliction and Poverty of a good For in whatsoever estate we are we may work out our salvation Abraham the rich man was in heaven Luke 16. and the poor man in his bosome Through Afflictions if we bear them and through riches if we contemn them and so make them our friends we may enter into the kingdome of heaven But it will be a part of our spiritual wisdome to be jealous rather of the flatteries of this world than of its frowns because the one maketh us reflect upon our selves the other commonly corrupteth and blindeth us and where Affliction slayeth her thousand Prosperity we may justly fear killeth her ten thousand It will be good indeed when calamity seizeth upon us to seize upon our selves to judge and condemn our selves to say This Fever burneth me up for the heat of my lust This Dropsie drowneth me for my intemperance This Lethargy is come upon me for my forgetfulness of Gods commands and my drowsiness in his service And here if I erre the errour is not dangerous but advantageous for this errour leadeth me to the knowledge of my self But when the like calamities befall others to draw the same inference and positively to conclude the same of them is boldly to take the chair and deliver my uncharitable conjectures for the oracles of God The messenger that brought the sad news That Israel was fled before the Philistines 1 Sam. 4.7 said no more then what was too true but had he also inferred that the Philistine was better then the Israelite or that God did favour him more then the other he had brought the Truth to usher in a lie he had related that which he knew and affirmed that which he could not know For Israel may fly before the Philistine and yet God is not the God of Ekron but of Israel In the second place as we must not be rash to judge others when they are cast down so must we not be ready to flatter our selves when some kindly gale of prosperity hath lifted us up above our brethren or to make Prosperity a mark of a righteous person as they of the Papacy do of the true Church For this were indeed to set Dagon above the Ark to plead for Baal to consecrate every sin and make it a virtue to place Dives in Abraham's bosome and Lazarus in hell to prefer Mahomet before Christ to pull Christ out of his kingdome the Martyrs out of heaven and to pluck the white robes from those who were sealed and who washed them white in the bloud of the Lambâ— this were to countenance Nimrod Rev. 7.14 and Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander and all the priviledged thieves and robbers of the earth This were to countenance all the oppressours and murderers of the world who have been so unhappy as to be happy in bringing their bloody purposes to an end For though good intents may have an happy end yet those arts are much to be suspected which have nothing else to commend them but prosperity and good success A conquerd Israelite is not alwaies so evil as a victorious Phelistine For if Prosperity were an argument under the Law which yet it was not for who then more fat more lusty and strong then the wicked yet I do not see how it can be so under the Gospel where affliction is not threatned but promised nay given To you it is given to suffer for Christs sake Phil. 1.29 where Persecution cometh forth with a crown on her head Blessed are ye when men persecute you And indeed this conceit of temporal felicity thwarteth the scope and primary intent of the Gospel which biddeth us look upon our actions with no other perspective but the rule and in respect of our conformity to that count all the prosperity in the world as dung For if I be an adulterer can impunity make me chast if I be a murderer shall that be my sanctuary If I be an oppressour can my gathering of riches make me just If I do that which Nature and Religion forbid and a Heathen would tremble to think on shall I comfort my self that it is done without sin because I have done it without controll Let us not deceive our selves When we have plunged our selves in sin and are fast in the devils chain prosperity and good success will prove but a weak deceitful ladder to climb up by into heaven For let us on the one side behold the Israelite flying before the Philistine For ought we know he may be flying also from his sin unto his God Let us behold the four and thirty thousand dead in the field and can we think that they all together fell into hell because they all together fell in the battel Or shall we call the Philistines the people of God because they vanquisht
Supper They had Moses preacht in their Synagogues every Sabbath day so have we I speak like a fool we have more the Gospel interpreted or abused every Sabbath-day nay every day of the week I had almost said every hour of the day We are baptized with a Sermon and we are married with a Sermon and we are buried with a Sermon When we take our journey a Sermon is our farewell and when we return it is our welcome home If we feast a Sermon is the Grace before it If we sayl a Sermon must weigh ancor And if we fight a Sermon is the alarum to battel If we rejoyce we call to the Preacher to pipe to us that we may dance for many times we chuse our Preachers as we do our Musicians by the ear and phansie not by judgment And it must needs be a rare choice which a Woman and Ignorance makes and such an one is to us as a lovely song of one that hath a very pleasant voice And if we be in grief he must turn the key Ezek. 33.32 and change his note and mourn to as that we may lament A Sermon is the grand Sallet to usher in every dish like Sosia or Davus in the Comedy scarce any scene or part of our life without it It is Prologus galeatus a Prologue that will fit either Comedy or Tragedy every purpose every action every business of our life In a word What had the House of Israel which we have not in measure pressed down They had the favour and countenance of God they had the blessings of the Basket So had we if we could have pinned it and kept them in and not plaid the wantons in this light and so let them fly away from us that we can but look after them and sadly say We had them They had Temporal blessings we have Graces and Spiritual endowments more Light richer Promises mo and more gracious Privileges then they Their administration was with glory but ours is more glorious 2 Cor. 3.7 c Glorious things are spoken of this City glorious things are seen amongst us able to deceive a Prophet nay if it were possible the very Elect. For he that shall see our outward formality the earnestness the demureness the talkativeness of our looks and behaviour when we flock and press to Sermons he that shall hear our noyse and zeal for Religion our anger and detestation against Idolatry even where it is not he that shall scarcely hear a word from us which soundeth not as the word of God he that shall see us such Saints abroad will little mistrust we come so short of the honesty of the Pagans in our shops and dealings He that shall see such a promising form of godliness cannot presently discover the malice the fraud the uncleanness the cruelty that lieth wrapt up in it like a Devil in light He that shall see this in the City cannot but say of it as the Prophet Samuel did of Eliab Surely the Lords anointed is here This is the faithful City 1 Sam. 16.7 This is the City of the Lord. But God who seeth not as man seeth nor looketh on the outward appearance but on the heart may account us dead for all these glories this pageantry this noise which to him is but noise as the found of their trumpet who will not fight his battels but fall off and run to the enemy as a song of Sion in a strange land psal 137.3 4. even in the midst of Babylon We read in our books that it was a custome amongst the Romanes when the Emperour was dead in honour of him to frame his image of wax and to perform to it all ceremonies of state as if the image were the living Emperour The Senate and Ladies attended the Physicians resorted to him to feel his pulse and Doctorally resolved that he grew worse and worse and could not escape a Guard watcht him Nobles saluted him his dinner and supper at accustomed hours was served in with water with sewing and carving and taking away his Nobles and Gentlemen waited as if he had been alive there was no ceremony forgot which State might require Thus hath been done to a dead carcase and if we take not heed our case may be the same All our outward shews of Churches of Sermons of Sacraments our noyse and ostentation which should be arguments of life and antidotes against death may be no more then as funeral rites performed to a carcase to a Christian to a City whose iniquities are loathsome of an ill-smelling savour to God The great company of Preachers whereof every one choseth one according to his lusts may stand about it and do their duty but as to an image of wax or a dead carcase the Bread of life may be served in and divided to it by art and skill as every man phansieth it may be fitted and prepared for every palate when they have no tast nor relish of it and receive no more nourishment then they that have been dead long ago Be not deceived Psal 68.19 Benefits are burdens God loadeth us daily with benefits saith David burdens which if we bear not well and as we should do will grind us to pieces All prerogatives are with conditions and if the condition be not kept they turn to scorpions They either heal or kill us they either lift us up to bliss or throw us down to destruction There is heaven in a privilege and there is hell in a privilege and we make it either to us We may starve whilst we hang on the breasts of the Church we may be poisoned with antidotes Those mouthes that taught us may be opened to accuse us the many Sermons we have heard may be so many bills against us the Sacraments may condemn us the blood of Christ cry loud against us and our profession our holy profession put us to shame John 14.9 Have I been so long with you and knowest thou not me Philip saith our Saviour Hast thou had so good a Master and art thou yâ—t to learn Hast thou been so long with me and deniest thou me Peter Hast thou been so long with me and yet betrayest me Judas Hath Christ wrought so many works among us and do we go about to kill and crucify him Hath he planted Religion true Religion amongst us and do we go about to dig it up by the roots Hath the Gospel sounded so long in our ears and begot nothing but words words that are deceitful upon the balance words which are lies So many Sermons and so many Atheists So much Preaching and so much defrauding So many breathings and demonstrations of love and so much malice in the house of Israel So many Courts of justice and so much oppression So many Churches and so few Temples of the Holy Ghost What profess Religion and shame it cry it up and smother it in the noise and for a member of Christ make thy self the head of a
all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our Lusts conceived and brought forth by the midwifery of our Will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this complaint against Nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and Nature hath imprinted in our souls those common principles of goodness That good is to be embraced and evil to be abandoned That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst as the Stoicks call them of the mind and preparations against Sin and Death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke them might lift up our souls far above those depressions of Self-love and Covetousness and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which Reason with the help of Grace overcometh at once For Reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but also when we are beat to the ground it checketh and upbraideth us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation Psal 62.1 121.1 is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam And when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weakness as well as we do with the temptation Psal 103.14 then if we fall God remembreth whereof we are made considereth our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever But to think of our weakness and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves Wisd 1.12 to seek out Death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approch as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weakness is to charge God and Nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself And thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fall willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anak too strong for such grashoppers as we We delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the mother of all those mishapen births and monsters which walk about the world we dress and deck up and give it a fair and glorious name and call it Humility Which is Humilitas maximum fidei opus Hil. in Psal 130. saith Hilary the hardest and greatest work of our faith to which it is so unlike that it is the greatest enemy it hath and every day weakneth and disenableth it that it doth not work by charity but leaveth us Captives to the world and sin which but for this conceit it would easily vanquish and tread down under our feet We may call it Humility but it is Pride a stubborn and insolent standing out with God that made us upon this foul and unjust pretense That he made us so humilitas sophistica saith Petrus Blesensis the humility of hypocrites which at once boweth and pusheth out the horn in which we disgrace and condemn our selves that we may do what we please and speak evil of our selves that we may be worse Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are we groan it out and there is musick in the sound which we hear and delight in and carry along in our mind and so become wretched indeed even those miserable sinners which will ever be so And shall we call this Humility If it be Col. 2.18 it is as the Apostle speaketh a voluntary humility but in a worse sense He is the humblest man that doth his duty For that Humility which is commended to us in Scripture letteth us up to heaven this which is so epidemical sinketh us into the lowest pit That Humility boweth us down with sorrow this bindeth our hands with sloth that looketh upon our imperfections past this maketh way for more to come that ventureth and condemneth it self condemneth it self and ventureth further this runneth out of the field and dare not look upon the enemy Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt And it is no marvel they should fall and perish whom their own so low and groundless opinion hath already overthrown For first though I deny not a derived Weakness and from Adam though I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self or bound to the centre of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with others yet it is easie to deceive our selves and to think it more contagious then it is more operative and more destructive then it would be if we would shake off this conceit and rowse our selves and stand up against it Ignaviâ nostrâ fortis est It may be it is our sloth and cowardise that maketh it strong Certainly there must be more force then this hath to make us so wicked as many times we are and there be more promoters of the kingdom of Darkness in us then that which we brought with us into the world Lord what a noise hath Original sin made amongst the sons of Adam and what ill use hath been made of it When this Lion roareth all the Beasts of the forrest tremble and yet are beasts still We hear of it and are astonished and become worse and worse and yet there are but few that exactly know what it is When we are Infants we do not know that we are so no more then the Tree doth that it grows Much less can we discover what poyson we brought with us into the world which as it is the nature of some kind of poyson though it have no visible operation for the present may some years after break forth from the head to the foot in swellings and sores full of corruption and not be fully purged out to our
that they might bow before him he was willing to forget their pride that they might renounce it And that they may be low in their own conceit he placeth them high in his favour and entitleth them to a Kingdom He sealeth their pardon that he might sow Humility in their hearts This was the true end why Repentance and Forgiveness of sins was published to set a period to sin and to destroy him who is King over the children of pride For if the hand of God and eternal death had laid upon all mankind if there had been no hope of mercy and reconciliation there had been no place for Humility but fad Despair of ever being high and Certainty of being cast down for ever had swallowed up all Humility and Religion in victory But now Deus sevit poenitentiam saith Tertullian God first sowed the seed of Repentance that Humility might grow up with it proclaimed pardon of sin that men might be humbled for their sin calleth himself a Father of mercies that we his children might be the more willing to acknowledge our selves to be but dust and ashes For we may observe that nothing hath more force and energie to conciliate and bow the hearts of men then Mercy and Beneficence Nunquam magìs nomina facio quà m cùm dono saith Seneca I never oblige men more then by giving Who can swell under an obligation Who can withstand these everlasting burnings Who can rise up under that hand which is sealing his pardon Who will not be his humble servant that will knock off his fettets and set him at liberty Magnes amoris amor Love is the load-stone to draw on Love even that Love which is the mother of Humility And therefore we shall find that the Saints of God did never so humble shall I call it or disgrace themselves as when they were in greatest favour If Jacob have an Angel sent unto him Gen. 32. then he straight contracteth and shrinketh himself I am less then the least of thy blessings Vers 10. for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands When Nathan had pronounced David's pardon then he lieth down on the ground washeth his couch with his tears writeth those Penitential Psalms in perpetuam rei memoriam and setteth them up as so many pillars of remembrance that the generations which were not born might see his Humility and praise the Lord. What am I or what is my father's houshold saith he And when S. Paul had received favour I may ask What was he A servant of Christ An elect vessel And he was so for God himself styleth him so But what doth he write himself what is his style 1 Cor. 15. The very least of the Apostles An abortive born out of due time such as they use to cast it away 1 Tim. 1.15 The chief of sinners In the register of God a Saint but in his own eyes the greatest of sinners Thus have all the Saints of God bowed themselves under the hand that raised them up have been humbled with favours never lower then when they have been in the third heaven bended most when they have been laden with benefits like ears of corn in harvest full and hanging down the head Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God mighty to destroy you and mighty to save you And that we may be active in this Christian exercise in the last place look upon the Motive and Reward which might yield us matter for a large discourse but must now serve onely for a conclusion Humble your selves and he shall exalt you 1. This is God's method his analytical method by which he resolveth us into our principles into a spiritual Nothing and then raiseth us up into a new creature first beateth down the sinner and then raiseth up the Saint first striketh us to the ground and then ripeneth the heavens and sheweth us Christ sitting at the right hand of God It is his method to heal us by contraries to cure us by diseases to raise us by ruine first to wound and then to kiss us These two Humility and Glory stand well together and we must not separate them 2. Nay as Christ calleth his Cross his exaltation so is Humility ours We are lifted up upon it as he was upon his Cross lifted up above the errours and vanities of the world lifted up to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim nay to have fellowship with God himself It lifteth up our Understanding to apprehend God For the lower we are the clearlier we see him Humility seeth that which is veiled to Pride It lifteth up the Will co embrace him For Humility and Obedience are our embracing of God It lifteth up the Affections and setteth them on things above It lifteth us up and buildeth us up a Temple a receptacle for God Isa 57.15 For he that dwelleth in the highest Heaven will dwell also in the lowly spirit in the highest heaven which is his habitation above and in the humble spirit which is his heaven below It is saith the devout School-man the most potent Monarchy in the world making us rich by making us poor making us strong by making us weak making us Kings by making us servants making us wise by making us fools giving us all things by leaving us nothing laying us at God's foot that we may sit in his bosom Scio quibus viribus opus est saith the Father I know what strength I had need of to persuade high minded men to be humble or that Heaven is so low-arched that we must stoop to enter But the eye of Faith I had almost said of Reason may soon discover Humility in these rayes of glory And he that shall set himself seriously to this Christian exercise of Humbling himself under God shall certainly find the force and omnipotency of this virtue and what wonders it can work in his soul shall feel it chearing his spirits strengthning his hand slumbring all tumults filling his heart and fortifying it against all assaults of the Enemy against all the darts of Satan against all those evils which could not hurt us did we not stand so high and think too well of our selves as of priviledged persons exempt from those temptations which are common to men This is the power the Monarchy of Humility 1 Cor. 10.13 To raise up our Understandings to supernatural truths to behold a loathsome World which others dote on delightful Statutes which others are afraid of blessed Afflictions which others tremble at To place our Wills under God's will which is to make us one with him To rouse our Affections to things above And this it will do in our mortal bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is most seasonable in these last times these worst of times these times of darkness and blackness And then when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved when Time shall be no more it will make our exaltation complete and crown us
agents Nor can he who maketh not use of his Reason on earth be a Saint in heaven We are rewarded because we chose that which right Reason told us was best And we are punished because we would not discover that evil which we had light enough to see but did yield to our lusts and affections and called it Reason The whole power of Man is in Reason and the vigour and power of Reason is in Judgment Man is so built saith S. Augustine ut per id quod in eo praecellit attingat illud quod cuncta praecellit that by that which most excelleth in him Reason he may attain to that which is the best of all eternal happiness Ratio omnis honesti comes est saith Seneca Reason alwaies goeth along with Virtue But when we do evil we leave Reason behind us nor is it in any of our waies Who hath known the mind of the Lord at any time Rom. 11.34 or who hath been his counseller It is true here Reason is blind Though it be decked with excellency and array it self with glory and beauty Job 40.9 10. it hath not an eye like God nor can it make a law as he or foresee his mind But when God is pleased to open his treasury and display his Truth before us then Reason can behold apprehend and discern it and by discourse which is the inquisition of Reason judge of it how it is to be understood and embraced For God teacheth not the beasts of the field or stocks or stones but Men made after his own image Man indeed hath many other things common to him with other creatures but Reason is his peculiar Therefore God is pleased to hold a controversie with his people to argue and dispute it out with them and to appeal to their Reason 1 Cor. 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judge within your selves To judge what is said is a privilege granted to all the children of men to all who will venture for the Truth It is time for us now to proceed to the other hindrance of Truth Therefore II. We must cast away all Malice to the Truth all distasting of it all averseness from it Certainly this is a stone of offense a bulwork a mountain in our way which if we remove not we shall never enter our Canaan that floweth with milk and hony we shall never take possession of and dwell in the tabernacles of Truth Now Malice is either direct and downright or indirect and interpretative onely And both must be laid aside The former is an affected lothing of the Truth when the Will affecteth the ignorance of that which is right and will erre because it will erre when it shunneth yea hateth the Understanding when it presenteth it with such Truths as might regulate it and divert it from errour and this to the end that it may beat back all remorse silence the checks and chidings of Conscience and slumber those storms which she is wont to raise and then take its fill of sin lie down in it as in a bed of roses and solace it self and rejoyce and triumph therein Then we are embittered with hony hardened with mercy enraged by entreaties then we are angry at God's precepts despise his thunder-bolts slight his promises scoff at his miracles Then that which is wont to mollifie hardeneth us the more till at length our heart be like the heart of the Leviathan as firm as a stone Job 41.24 yea as hard as a piece of the nether mill stone Then satis nobis ad peccandum causa peccare it is a sufficient cause to do evil that we will do it And what impression can Truth make in such hearts What good can be wrought upon them to whom the Scripture attributeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.28 a reprobate mind who have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reverberating mind an heart of marble to beat back all the strength and power of Truth unto whom God hath sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2.11 Rom. 1.18 strong delusion that they should believe a lie who hold the Truth in unrighteousness and suppress and captivate it that it cannot work its work who oppose their Wrath to that Truth which perswadeth patience and their Lust against that which would keep them chast who set up Baal against God and the world against Christ Eph. 4.19 These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past feeling and have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.18 they have their understanding darkned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For wickedness by degrees doth destroy even the principles of goodness in us Hos 4.11 blindeth our eyes and taketh away our heart as the Prophet speaketh and maketh us as if we had no heart at all Either 1. by working out of the understanding the right apprehension of things For when the Will chuseth that which is opposite to the Truth non permittit Intellectum diu stare in dictamine recto it swayeth the Understanding taketh it off from its right dictates maketh it deny its own receptions so that it doth not consider that which it doth consider it averteth and turneth it to apply it self to something that is impertinent and maketh it find out reasons probable or apparent against that Truth which had its former assent that so that actual displacency which we found in the entertainment of the contrary may be cast out with the Truth it self We are willing to leave off to believe the Truth that we may leave off to condemn our selves When this light is dim the Conscience slumbreth but when it spreadeth it self then the sting is felt In our ruff and jollity we forget we have sinned but when the hand of vengeance removeth the veil and we see the Truth which we had hid from our eyes then we call our sins to remembrance and they are set in order before us Where there is knowledge of the Truth there will be conscience of sin but there will be none if we put that from us Or else 2. positively when the Will joyneth with Errour and embraceth that which is evil and then setteth the Understanding on work to find out the most probable means and the fairest and smoothest wayes to that which it hath set up for its end For the Understanding is both the best and the worst counseller When it commandeth the Will it speaketh the words of wisdome giveth counsel as an oracle of God and leadeth on in a certain way unto the Truth But when a perverse Will hath got the upper hand and brought it into a subserviency unto it then like the hand of a disordered dial it pointeth to any figure but that it should Then it attendeth upon our Revenge to undermine our enemy it teacheth our Lust to wait for the twilight it lackeyeth after our Ambition and helpeth us into the uppermost seat it is as active
wherein Sin and Satan have laid us For this is the end of both For this end Christ suffered and for this end he rose again For this end he payed down a price even his bloud to strike off those chains and bring us back into the glorious liberty of the sons of God to gain a title in us to have a right to our souls to guide them and a right to our bodies to command them as he pleaseth But though the price be payed yet we may be prisoners still if we love our fetters and will not shake them off if we count our prison a paradise and had rather sport out our span here in the wayes of darkness then dwell for ever in the light Christ hath done whatsoever belongeth to a Redeemer but there is something required at their hands who are redeemed namely when he knocketh at our graves and biddeth us come forth to fling off our grave-clothes and follow him not to stay in our enemy's hands and love our captivity but to present our selves before our Captain and shew him his own purchase a soul that is his and a body that is his a soul purged and renewed and a body obedient and instrumental to the soul both chearful and active in setting forth his glory This is the conclusion of the whole matter this is the end of all not onely of our Creation which the Apostle doth not mention here although even by that God hath the right of dominion over us but also of our Redemption which is later and more special and more glorious as one star differeth from another in glory Take all the Articles of the Creed take Christ's Birth his Death his Resurrection his Glory is the Amen to all Take all God's Precepts all his Promises and let them stand as they are for the Premisses and no other Conclusion can be so properly drawn from them as this That we should glorifie God The Premisses are drawn together within the compass of the first words of my Text EMPTI ESTIS PRETIO Ye are bought with a price and the Conclusâ—â—n in the last ERGO GLORIFICATE Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's So the Parts you see are as the Persons are the Redeemer and the Redeemed two 1. a Benefit declared Ye are bought with a price 2. a Duty enjoyned Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's The first remembreth us what God hath done for us the second calleth upon us to remember what we are to do for him to give unto God those things which are God's to glorifie him in our body and in our spirit which are God's These are the parts and of these we shall speak in their order First of the Benefit Ye are bought with a price This Purchase this Redeeming us supposeth we were alienated from Christ and in our enemy's hand and power 2 Tim 2.26 in the snare of the Devil and taken captive by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken by him as it were in war And indeed till Christ bought us his we were even made servants to him as servants use to be venditione by sale and jure belli by right of war We had sold our selves as S. Paul speaketh unto him sold our birth-right for a mess of pottage sold our selves for that which is not bread for that Pleasure which is but a shadow for those Riches which are but dung for that Honour which is but air Every toy was the price of our bloud He opened his false wares and we pawned and prostituted our souls and gave up our hope of eternity for his pianted vanities and a glittering death His was but a profer and we might have refused it But we believed that Father of lies and so gave up our selves into his power and his we were by bargain and sale And as we were his by sale so we were his in a manner by right of war For he set upon us and overcame us not so much by valour as by stratagem by his wiles and devices as S. Paul calleth them For not onely the Sword but those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Polybius speaketh deceits and thefts of war work out a way to victory And he that faileth in the battel is as truly a captive when art and cunning as when force and violence maketh him bow the knee and yield This our enemy setteth upon a soul as a soul with forces proportioned to a soul which cannot be taken by force no though he were ten times more a Lion more roaring then he is He hath indeed rectas manus some blows he giveth directly striking at our very face And he hath aversas tectásque others he giveth cunningly and in secret But when we see the wounds and ulcers which he maketh we cannot be ignorant whose hand it is that smote us He is that great invisible Sophister of the world saith Basil He mingleth himself with our humour and inclination and so casteth a mist before us and cloudeth our understanding that we may be willing to lay hold of Falshood for Truth of Evil for Good and by a kind of legerdemain he maketh Vertue it self promote sin and Truth errour And as there so in his wiles and enterprises ipsa fallacia delectat we are willing to be deceived and taken because the sleights themselves are delightful to us The Devil's Temptations are in this like his Oracles full of ambiguities And as Demosthenes said of Apollo's Oracle that it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak too much to the desire and mind of Philip so do these flatter each humour and inclination in us and at last persuade us that that which we would have true is true indeed And thus do we give up all into the Enemies hands and are taken captive and brought under the yoke sub reatu peccati under the guilt of sin which as a poisoned dart sticketh in our sides and galleth and troubleth us wheresoever we go I canâ—ot better call a bad conscience then flagellum Diaboli the Devil's whip with which he tormenteth his captives and maketh large furrows in their soul As the Roman lords did over their slaves in terga cervices saevire imprint marks and characters and as the Comedian speaketh letters on their backs so doth this laniatus ictus wounds and swellings and ulcers He is not so much a slave that is chained to an oar as he that liveth under a bad conscience Now empti estis From this slavery we are redeemed by Christ For being justified by faith we have peace with God and the noise of the whip is heard no more Next we were sub dominio peccati we were under the power and dominion of Sin so that it was a Tyrant and reigned in us If it did say Go we did go even in slippery places and dangerous precipices upon the point of the sword and death it self Like that evil spirit in the Gospel it rendeth and teareth us
faculties of the soul and over-ruleth them that it moveth our soul as the soul doth our body For such a Knowledge and such a knowledge is onely meant in Scripture doth ever draw with it Affection and Practice that we may love the Lord and call him Lord and make it the crown of our rejoycing to be subject to his Dominion Secondly by quickening and enlivening and even actuating our Faith For this Spirit dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3.17 maketh us to be rooted and grounded in love enableth us to believe with efficacy For from whence proceed all the errours of our life From whence ariseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh that irregularity those contradictions and consequences in the lives of men that to day they wash and to morrow wallow to day bow and to morrow exalt themselves now mourn like doves and anon rejoyce and vaunt as giants now sigh and anon curse now sin and by and by repent and then sin again like wanton lovers quarrel and embrace love and hate almost in the same moment from whence is this double-mindedness and wavering but from hence that we admit not the Spirit in his office nor suffer him to quicken and enliven our faith but vex and grieve him and drive him away by our vain and carnal imaginations as Bees are driven away with smoke If we did not inquietare Spiritum tenerum delicatum as Tertullian is bold to style him disturb and disquiet this tender and gentle Spirit if we did handle him with humility and peace and quietness and not with choler and anger and grief and other carnal passions which he will not come near if we made not our selves such vultures when this Dove is ready to descend he would certainly draw near unto us even into our hearts and do his office and fill us with all spiritual knowledge and seal us up to the day of redemption A Teacher then he is But great care is to be taken that we mistake him not or take some other Spirit for him For indeed the world is too Spirit-wise and there were never greater Pneumatomachi Fighters against the Spirit in the Church of God then in these our dayes The Eunomians the Sabellians they who questioned his Divinity they who made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inferiour a servant yet never entitled him to Profaneness to Sacriledge to Murther Now whatsoever we say of Jesus whatsoever we do to Jesus the Spirit is the Teacher We say he is the Lord by the Spirit and we say this Lord looketh for neither knee nor hand nor any reverence by the same Spirit That he hath Dominion over us and must have our service we say it by the Spirit but we are bold upon it that we must serve him out of pure love but by no means out of fear by the same Spirit Each Dream must go current for an Inspiration and men think themselves enlightned with Illusions The fanatick Anabaptist though the Devil be in the vision thinketh he seeth a glorious Angel and boldly concludeth that the Spirit teacheth him And then quicquid dixerit legem Dei putat whatsoever Text he meeteth with he will commend his gloss and interpretation for the dictate of the holy Ghost Doth S. Paul preach Christian Liberty What then doth the Magistrate with the sword of Justice in his hand the Judge on the tribunal or the King on his throne Will you hear them in their own dialect An Hezekiah is no better then a Sennacherib a Constantine as insufferable as a Julian every King is a Tyrant and every Tyrant a Devil MEUM ET TUUM Mine and Thine are harsh words in the Church They are almost of the wind of the Carprocrations in Clemens who because the Air was common would have their Wives so too Mundus senex delirus said Gerson of the like The world is now grown aged and beginneth to dream dreams And if we prodigally lend our ears to every one that upon presumption of the Spirit will stand up and prophesie we may hear news as from Heaven indeed but such as the Devil was the father of Whatsoever the Text be the Interpretation is Jesus is the Lord thus to be feared that is such a Lord as we will make him a Lord that must countenance us to do our own wills and send his Spirit to truck and traffick for us to be our Minister to advance our lusts our Conduct to bring us to that end we have set up to be ready at hand when our Ambition or Covetousness will call for him that we may hold him up against himself and bring him in as an auxiliary for his enemy If we murther the Spirit moveth the hand if we pull down Churches it is with the breath of the Spirit if we would bring in a Parity the pretence is The Spirit cannot endure that any should be Supreme or Pope it but our selves Our Humour our Madness our Malice our Violence our implacable Bitterness our Railing and Reviling are all the Inspirations of the Blessed Spirit Simeon and Levi Absalom and Ahithophel Theudas and Judas the Pharisees and Ananias they that despite the spirit of grace they that grieve the Spirit they that resist him they that blaspheme him they that draw him down to their carnal ends and entitle him to their several purposes as the Popish Priests give the names of several Saints to one Image for their advantage and to multiply their oblations these Scarabees bred in the dung these Impostors these men of Belial must go no longer for a generation of vipers but the Scholars and Friends of the holy Ghost May we not now make a stand and put it to the question Whether there be any holy Ghost or not or if he be Whether he teacheth us Indeed these appropriations and violent ingrossings of the Spirit have I fear given growth to conceits almost as dangerous That the Spirit doth not spirare breatheth no grace into us That we need not call upon him That the Text that telleth us the holy Ghost teacheth us is that holy Ghost that teacheth us That the letter is the Spirit and the Spirit the letter An adulterate piece new-coined an old Heresie brought in a new dress and tire upon the stage again That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unheard of Deity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ascriptious and supernumerary God I may say more dangerous then those that quite take him away For to confess the Spirit and abuse him to draw him on as an accessory and abettor nay a principal in those actions which Nature it self abhorreth and trembleth at is worse then to deny him What a Spirit what a Dove is that which breatheth nothing but gall and wormwood but fire and brimstone What a Spirit is that which is ever pleading and purveying for the Flesh Petrarch will tell us Nihil importunius erudito stulto That there is not a more troublesome creature in the
literas scribit saith the Father He that offendeth doth write as many letters in this book as he committeth sins And the guilt and obligation is as certain and the condemnation as just as if we had wrote and sealed it with our own hands and subscribed a Fiat Let it be so for my debts are many and my sins more then the hairs of my head Thus I have shewed you at last the analogy and likeness which is between our Sins and Debts We will now point out to some operations which they produce alike and which are common both to men engaged and oppressed with Debt and to men burthened with Sin First we know what a burthen Debt is what perplexities what fears what anguish it doth bring how it taketh all relish from our meat all sweetness from our sleep maketh pleasure tedious and musick it self as harsh and unwelcome as howling and tears how it doth out-law and excommunicate us drive us from place to place bring the curse of Cain upon us and make us fugitives upon the earth how it maketh us afraid of our selves afraid of others and to take every man we meet for a Serjeant to arrest us And such a burthen is Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom hard to be born a yoke to gall us a talent of lead to keep us down Zech. 5. It lay so heavy even upon David the servant of God that he had no rest in his bones because of his sins And quis non maluit centies mori quà m sub tali conscientia vivere who would not rather die a hundred times then live under such a conscience whose every check is an arrest whose every accusation is a summons to death Neque frustà sapientes affirmare soliti sunt si recludantur tyrannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus ictus saith the Historian Neither is it for nothing that the wisest have seriously told us that were the hearts of wicked men laid open we should see there swellings and ulcers torments and stripes here a bruise by Impatience here a swelling of Pride here a deep wound which Malice hath made there we should see Satyres dancing and Furies with their whips there we should see one dragged to the bar and quarterred for Rebellion another disciplined for Wantonness and Luxury there we should see the deep furrows which Sacriledge and Oppression have made a type of the day of Judgment and a representation of Hell it self Nemo non priùs in seipsum peccat Whosoever sinneth beginneth with himself Look not on the wounds thou hast given thy brother thou hast made as many and as deep in thy own heart Fot as a Debtor though he shift from place to place though he may peradventure evade and not come under arrest yet he can never cast off or shift himself of the obligation so it fareth with a Sinner the Obligation the Judge and his Sin follow him whithersoever he goeth sicut umbra corpus saith Basil as the shadow doth a body and he may as well run from his own shadow as from his sin Secondly Sin and Debt have this common effect that as they make us droop and hang down the head so they entangle us with trouble and business It is far easier to keep us out of bonds then to cancell them far easier not to be endebted then to procure our Apocha and acquittance and it is nothing so difficult to â—â—oid sin at the first when it flattereth as to purge it out when it hath stung us as a serpent God â—â—lleth Cain so If thou doest well and thou mayest yet do well shalt thou not be accepted Gen. 4.7 and if thou doest not well sin lyeth at the door ready to arrest thee And the reason is plain and given by Columella though to another end Operosior negligentia quà m diligentia Sloth and carelesness and neglect put us to more trouble and pain create us more business then diligence For what at first if we be provident may be done with a quick hand within a while being neglected cannot be brought to rights again but with double and treble diligence We leap into debt but we hardly creep out of it That enemy which the Centinel might have kept out having gained ground and opportunity may make it the business of a whole Army to drive back again That sin which at first we might have avoided by circumspection alone having made its entrance will not onely drive us to consultation how to expell it but perhaps let in troops at the same breach with all which we must encounter before we can be free If the evil spirit make a re-entry he bringeth with him seven worse then himself And thus both Sin and Debt bring on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unfoordable gulf of difficulties and business In the third place the Wise-man hath observed of some borrowers that for their neighbour's money they will return words of grief Eccl. 29.5 6. and complain of the time nay pay him with cursings and railings and disgrace And it is a common thing for men to hate those who have been beneficial to them si vicem reddere non possint imò quia nolint saith Seneca if they cannot requite him yea in very truth because they will not And in the like manner deal sinners with their God never think him a hard man an exactor till they are in his debt never murmure against him till they have given him just occasion to question them never fight against him till they have forced him to draw his sword to destroy them We see in the Parable Matth. 25.24 the servant that had buried his talent in the earth telleth his Lord that he did it because he knew him to be a hard man reaping where he had not sown and gathering where he had not strawed And as the Historian observeth of men hardly bestead and whose fortunes are low that they most complain of the State and Commonwealth wherein they live and think all not well in the publick because they have miscarried in the managing of their private estates So when sinners are in a great streight and dare not approch unto God and yet know not how to run from him when they have consumed the riches which he gave them de communi censu out of the common treasury out of that fountain of goodness which he is then they begin to neglect and contemn God and do despite to the holy Ghost then his precepts are hard sayings who can bear them then the flesh is weak and the condition is impossible then the very principles of goodness which they brought with them into the world begin to be worn and vanish away and they wish the Creed out of their memory would be content there were no God no obligation no penalty no such debt as Sin no such prison as Hell And these are the sad effects and operations both of Sin and Debt But one main difference we find between them
opportunities of Time and Place to serve him in bless him for those who erected these fabricks and bless him for those who repair and adorn them and by the right use of these means build we up our selves on our most-holy fâ—ith Jude 20. and so deck and beautifie our souls that they may be fit temples of the holy Ghost And then whensoever we spread forth our arms in this place God will stretch forth his hand and help us when our prayers ascend as incense he will receive them as a sweet-smelling savour when we bow our knees to him he will bow down his ear to us when we speak he will hear and return our prayers back again into our bosom when we pour out our petitions he will pour down his blessings peace of conscience with all things necessary for this life which are a pawn and pledge and earnest of those everlasting blessings glory honour and immortality Thus we have led you into the house of the Lord the main circumstance in the Object of the Psalmists joy The place we are going to and the thing we are about may be of such a nature that Many may be worse then none Resolution may be pertinacie and madness Agreement and Union may be conspiracy and Hast may be precipitancie A man had better in some things be like Mephibosheth lame on both his feet then like Asahel light of foot as a wild roe 2 Sam 9.13 2.18 Ye have read how that pursuing after Abner he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner 19. and so ran straight to his own death Psal 1.1 There be too-too many who walk in the counsel of the ungodly and stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful There may be a Synod of Hereticks a Senate of rebells as ye know there is a Legion of Devils Pliny telleth us Mark 5.9 Major coelitum populus quà m terrae that there were more people in heaven then on earth and it might be true when they made God's for they might make as many as they pleased But the broad way hath most travellers Matth. 7.13 there they go in sholes in bodies in companies in Societies and some under the name of JESUS And our Saviour saith that many there be which go in at the wide gate Secondly resolve men may and oftentimes resolve they do and are resolute in that which they should abhor Their Dixit is a Factum est they say and do it no law no conscience no thunder from heaven can deter them from it Matth. 2 6. Give me money enough and I will betray my Master said Judas and he did do it betray him into the hands of his enemies Thirdly men may gather together and be united to do mischief thieves and murderers may cast in their lots together and have all one purse Prov. 1.14 Yea men of disagreeing and different principles may agree and combine in the same wicked design though they have severall judgements yet may they be brethren in iniquity Gen. 49.7 Judg. 15.4 5 they may be tied together as Samson's foxes were though their heads look divers wayes and one be an Anabaptist another a Brownist a third a Disciplinarian a fourth a Seeker a fifth a Quaker a sixth but there are so many Sects that I cannot tell you their names though their looks and language be never so opposit yet they may be linked together by the tails and carry those firebrands between them that may burn up the harvest As Paterculus said of Jugurtha and Marius In iisdem castris didicere quae postea in contrariis facerent They learnt their skill in arms both in the same camp which they afterwards practised in divers even one against the other So have the Jesuites and these Sectaries taken up some common principles and we know in whose camp they learnt them which they make use of to drive on their purposes and yet defie one another as much as Jugurtha and Marius ever did Many wicked men ye see may agree we see too many do and their agreement breaketh the peace and maketh the body of Christendome fly asunder into so many pieces and parts with that noise and confusion that we tremble to behold it ridente Turcâ nec dolente Judaeo whilest the Turk laugheth and a Jew pulleth the veil closer to his face and comforteth and applaudeth himself in his errour Last of all as men may resolve and agree so may they encourage themselves in evil Rom. 1.32 and not onely do the same thing but as S. Paul speaketh have pleasure in them that do it they may go together with a shout and with a merry noise sport in the miseries dance in the ruines and wash their feet in the bloud of the innocent and their word still be So Psal 35.25 so thus we would have it Thus I say the Many may resolve agree and delight in that which is forbidden they may have a firm heart they may have but one heart they may have a merry heart in that which is evil their hearts may be fixed their hands joyned and their feet swift to shed bloud Prov. 1.16 Isa 59.7 Rom. 3.15 Therefore we must look forward to the last circumstance the Place the house of the Lord the Service of God This shineth upon all the rest and beautifieth them Many here make a Church To Resolve here is obedience To Agree here is peace the peace of God which maketh us one of the same mind of the same will To be one in place and not in mind is poena saith a Father it is not a blessing but a punishment To be one in mind and not in place is bonitas goodness To be one in place and in mind both is felicitas greatest happiness Then in the last place to Go together chearfully to the house of the Lord is an expression of that joy which is a type and earnest of that which is in the highest heavens There is nothing here we told you which a religious mind can check at No just scruple can arise concerning the place seeing we have God's word for it under the Law and Christs word for it under the Gospel that it is God's house If any do arise it riseth like a fog it steameth from a foul and corrupt heart from Pride and Covetousness the mothers of Pertinacy and Contradiction Which cannot be brought to conform to the counsels of the wise no not to the wisdom of God himself but call Truth heresie because others speak it Bounty wast because others lay it out Reverence superstition because others bow would pull down Churches because others build them spurn at every thing nihil verum putant nisi quod contrarium think nothing true but what is diverse and contrary and breatheth opposition against the Truth This is a great evil under the Sun to quarrel even the blessings of God to be angry with
are these false and deceitful comforts as those Christs are Antichrists so these comforts are curses greater then those we fly from In poverty we seek for wealth and that makes us poorer then we were In prison we seek for enlargement and enlargement fettereth us more binds us hand and foot with the cares of this world In the dust vve look up unto the highest place and we no sooner fill it but we are filled with care These are not fit remedies Wealth is no cure for poverty nor Enlargement for restraint nor Honour for discontent This is not the true method but we vvalk as in a vain shadow as in a dream We dream that vve eat and vvhen vve awake vve are hungry vve dream of abundance and still vve vvant vve dream of honour and are lower then he that is on the dunghill vve dream of liberty and are slaves of pleasure and comfort and are miserable Thus it is in temporal evils in those evils vvhich are not so until vve make them so And thus it is and much more in those evils which are truly so and vvhich make us evil When it thundreth vve hide our selves When God comes towards us in the cool in the wind of the day vve run into the thicket When our Conscience holds up the whip vve fly from it vvhen it is angry vve flatter it We comfort our selves against Gods jealousie till it burn like fire against the checks and bitings of Conscience till it be a vvorm that vvill gâ—aw us everlastingly When the tempest is loudest vve lull our selves asleep We are as willing to forget sin as to commit it And the Devil is not more subtle in his tentations then in suggesting those foeda peccandi solatia as S. Hierom calls them those foul and dangerous refreshments of a perishing soul Either he casts our sins behind us or if they be before us vve look upon them as Lot did upon Zoar Are they not little ones and our soul shall live Thus vve comfort our selves that either it is a first sin or that it is a small sin or that others have committed a greater sin We pollute our selves in every high way and under every green tree and every thing we see casts a shadow to comfort us We comfort our selves by our selves and by others by our own vveakness and by others vveakness And vve comfort our selves by Sin it self We find comfort not onely in heaven above but in the earth below and in the depth of hell it self We comfort our selves by the mercy of God by the vanity of the creature by the subtilty of Satan And thus vve find out antidotum adversus Caesarem an antidote against vengeance and the vvrath of God but this Antidote is poyson these remedies are vexations these comforts are as Devils to torment us more Tranquillitas ista tempestas est saith S. Hierome This calm is more dangerous then a tempest This haven vve flie to shipwracks and overwhelms a soul vvhich if vve took a right method and applyed that medicine vvhich the true Physician hath prescribed might though through a storm have seen that light by which it might escape and flie away and be at rest For the best comfort is that vvhich is vvrought out of the sense of sin as that joy is most ravishing vvhich vve gain out of sorrow cùm consoletur dolor when as S. Augustine speaketh Grief it self is made a comforter Aegra anima Deo proÌ„xima saith Nazianzene The sâ—ck soul and not that soul only which is sick but which grones and complains in its sickness God is best acquainted with He will descend and visit that soul and make it glad with the joy of his countenance It is good and safest to observe a method in this as we do exactly also in all things else The Tradesman hath his way to gather wealth and he calls it his craft or mystery And he will not fail in the least minim or punctilio for if he do he may prove a bankrupt The Souldier hath his art and discipline his military rules For there is a method observed even in killing of men And to mistake or fail in any one of them is to commit an errour that can never be recalled or remedied not to fight according to rule is to lose the victory Ars non virtus indocta praestat victoriam It is art and method not rude and boisterous valour which wins the day and crowns the conquerour The Philosopher hath his method Yea Philosophy it self is nothing else but method and an orderly carrying the mind of man from one thing to another from one conclusion to another As there is a time so there is a way for every thing under the Sun There is a certain means for every purpose a certain order in coming to every end we set up and so there is in this in comforting our selves or others which if we observe not the more waters we draw the more foul and bitter they will be the more physick we take the sicker we are the more we comfort our selves the more we stand in need of comfort and thus to keep off our Hell makes it burn more ragingly then before And how have we failed in the true method of Comfort how have we drawn this water out of every puddle and sink We go not to Jacobs well to the true fountain of comfort or if we do we have nothing to draw with Our vessels are broken not a sherd left that will hold this water no Understanding and less Will they being taken up with fallacious hopes and comforts of this world Can we draw this water out of the wells of Salvation We had rather draw bloud out of the hearts of our oppressors and wash our feet in their bloud and so be at rest a comfort it would be to see every Nebuchadnezzar every Tyrant turned into a beast and driven into the field to see them that trouble us cut off and made as dung for the earth to see the Sacrilegious person struck dead Let thine enemies perish O Lord let thine enemies perish that is our prayer and it was our Comfort to see it and till we see it we will not be comforted Thus we erre and such immethodical Chistians we are For Gods Providence is not to wait upon our wills and affections but our wills and affections must bow and submit to it and wait upon it as the eye of the servant looks upon the hand of his master not to guide it but to obey and kiss it as well when he withdraws it from us as when he stretcheth it out to help us The hope of enemies destruction might have been a comfort under the Law because then it was a promise that one should chase a thousand they shall come out one way and flee seven waies Then they could say Lo thine enemies shall perish thine enemies shall perish even in this world But there is no such promise under the Gospel and therefore no
saith Augustine It is most dangerous both to men and manners cùm veritas imperitorum populorum irrisione sondescit when the Truth confirmed by a miracle or which is so open and manifest that it needs no miracle to confirm it shall be cryed down and laught and hooted out of the world by the scornes and jests of malicious and ignorant people when Piety it self shall be driven out of the world by a scoff when that which may lift us up to heaven must be trodden under foot because fools like it not We will therefore praescribere accusatoribus as the Civilians speak put in our exception in its right place against these mockers And first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth or at least Probability should be the rule And what probability nay what shew of probability was there that the Apostles were drunk It was their great feast and then it was a constant custome as Josephus relates it for the Jews to fast till the sixth hour and now it was but the third hour about eight or nine of the clock in the morning Besides they were altogether in private for fear of the Jews And rebus attonitis in the midst of fears and terrors men use rather to ask advice of their Reason then to drown it in liquor Who takes the cup into his hand when his enemy is at his elbow and ready for ought he knows to mingle his bloud with the wine Again others wondred Jews and Proselytes and Romans perhaps some of them who crucified Christ and some of all nations confessed in plain terms that they heard them speak every one in his own language so that vve may be sure vve have a major if not the better part against them Lastly it was the feast of Pentecost too early in the year if Chrysostomes observation be true for them to have new wine to fill them But Malice and Ignorance run over all regard not circumstances forget all probabilities that may make against them What speak we of customes Though they used to fast till noon yet now they may be drunk in the morning and drown their fears in wine If all the world give in evidence they laugh on they consider not national customs they oppose a cloud of witnesses they invert the order of Nature and make it Autumn at Whitsuntide But yet though there were no reason nor probability to justifie their scoff some shew and some appearance there was to countenance it The Apostles after this gift of Tongues talkt much they were fervent and hot and peradventure their countenance was cheerful and of a ruddy colour saith Gregory they being filled with joy though not with wine Mysticum est ut quod per ludibrium dicitur rei ipsa conveniat They made a mockery of the mystery but there was a mystery in their very mock The Disciples were full indeed with new wine with the wine of the New Testament and as drunken men they were merry and cheerful they publish secrets they fear no face they regard no power they regard not themselves being free they run into bondage before hid in a chamber now preaching on the house-tops before affrighted with the voice of a silly damsel now boldly speaking in omni praetorio in omni consistorio before every tribunal in every consistory lifting up their voices before Kings and not ashamed Cupiunt esse quod antè despexerunt odisse incipiunt quod erant They begin to be what they despised and to despise what they were Drunk indeed any Jew might think them that chose misery before content fasting before delights watching before rest dangers before safety and poverty before the glory of the world Hoc spiritali mero calebant This was the wine that filled them this was the intoxicating cup that overcame them and transported them beyond themselves sic inebriabat ut magis sobrios faceret It so overcame them that it made them more wise and sober then before Some shew some resemblance then these mockers had which might help to prompt their malice and make up a scoff Something they observed in the Apostles which they thought with the people might well pass under the name of Drunkenness the people I say which are the onely paper to print a ly on which they sell to one another for nothing There you may imprint or sow or ingrave as you please they will soon learn a lie and assoon teach it and anon it multiplies and every valley and obscure corner is ready to echo it back again Behold saith S. James how great a matter a little fire kindles c. 3. And he might well call the Tongue a fire for we find it is like that of a beacon which not onely burneth it self but occasioneth the firing of others and at last sets the whole Commonwealth in an uprore and combustion At first it is but a mock at last it cuts like a sword At first it doth but offend the ear at last it draws bloud At first it strikes at ceremony at last it beats down a Church At first it sports with the man at last it cuts off his head The persecution of the Apostles began you see in a scoff At first they are drunk anon they are setters forth of new doctrine bablers hereticks not fit to breath in the world This hath alwayes been and to this day is the great errour of the world to make shadows substances similitudes identities the faintest representations truth Hannahs lips moved when she poured out her soul before God 1 Sam. 1.13 and old Eli tells her she was drunk David in great joy danced before the Ark and in his wife Michols eys be was but a vain fellow What speak we of David 2 Sam. 6.20 Behold Christ himself a greater then David when the multitude followed him when he taught them and confirmed his doctrine by miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his friends his kinsmen seeing him laying himself open to the malice of his enemies went to lay hands on him for they said Mark 3.21 He is besides himself And to this day this argument a simili holds strong and what is but like nay what is not like but seems so to us we conclude to be the very same Upon this ground Faith was called presumption by the Heathen because it is like it Christianity is called madness for when we mortifie the flesh and estrange our selves from the world most that behold us think us not well in our wits At this day true Devotion goes for phansie Reverence for superstition Bowing for idolatry The Letany is conjuring because it is like it as like it as a saint is to a murderer as hearty and well-grounded Devotion is to babling and blasphemy and non-sense True Pastors are Baals priests for both are men The Pulpit as the Anabaptist called it is a prescript place or a Tub for both are wood Our Fasts are stage-playes wherein one acteth Sin another Judgment a third Repentance and a fourth the