represent to you your own Consciences if they be but called to cannot choose but reflect them to your sight Your outward profession and frequency in it for the general is acknowledged your Custom of the place requires it of you and the example of Piety that rules in your Eyes cannot but extort it Only let your lives witness the sincerity of your professions let not a dead Carcass walk under a living head and a nimble active Christian brain be supported with bed-rid mentionless Heathen â—imbs Let me see you move and walk as well as breath that I may hope to see you Saints as well as Christians And this shall be the summ not only of my advice to you but for you of my Prayers That the Spirit would sanctifie all our hearts as well as brains that he will subdue not only the pride and natural Atheism of our understandings but the rebellions and infidelity and heathenism of our lusts that being purged from any reliques or tincture or suspicion of irreligion in either power of our Souls we may live by Faith and move by Love and die in Hope and both in Life and Death glorifie God here and be glorified with him hereafter SERMON VIII LUKE XVIII 11 God I thank thee that I am not as other men extortioners c. or even as this Publican THAT we may set out at our best advantage and yet not go too far back to take our rise 't is but retiring to the end of the 8. Verse of this Chapter and there we shall meet with an abrupt speech hanging like one of Solomon's Proverbs without any seeming dependance on any thing before or after it which yet upon enquiry will appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faln down from Heaven in the posture it stands in In the beginning of the Eight verse he concludes the former Parable I tell you that he will avenge them speedily and then abruptly Nevertheless when the Son of man comes shall he find faith upon the earth And then immediately Verse 9. he spake another parable to certain that trusted in themselves where this speech in the midst when the Son of man comes c. stands there by it self like the Pharisee in my Text seorsim apart as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or intercalary day between two months which neither of them will own or more truly like one of Democritus his atomes the casual concurrence of which he accounted the principle and cause of all things That we may not think so vulgarly of Scripture as to dream that any title of it came by resultance or casually into the world that any speech dropt from his mouth unobserved that spake as man never spake both in respect of the matter of his speeches and the weight and secret energie of all accidents attending them it will appear on consideration that this speech of his which seems an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a supernumerary superfluous one is indeed the head of the corner and ground of the whole Parable or at least a fair hint or occasion of delivering it at that time Not to trouble you with its influence on the Parable going before concerning perseverance in prayer to which it is as an Isthmus or fibula to joyn it to what follows but to bring our eyes home to my present subject After the consideration of the prodigious defect of faith in this decrepit last age of the world in persons who made the greatest pretences to it and had arriv'd unto assurance and security in themselves he presently arraigns the Pharisee the highest instance of this confidence and brings his righteousness to the bar sub hac formâ There is like to be toward the second coming of Christ his particular visitation of the Jews and then its parallel his final coming to judgment such a specious pompous shew and yet such a small pittance of true faith in the world that as it is grown much less than a grain of mustard-seed it shall not be found when it is sought there will be such giantly shadows and pigmy substances so much and yet so little faith that no Hieroglyphick can sufficiently express it but an Egyptian temple gorgeously over-laid inhabited within by Crocodiles and Cats and carcasses instead of gods or an apple of Sodom that shews well till it be handled a painted Sepulchre or a specious nothing or which is the contraction and Tachygraphy of all these a Pharisee at his prayers And thereupon Christ spake the parable verse 9. there were two men went up into the temple to pray the one a Pharisee c. verse 10. Concerning the true nature of faith mistaken extreamly now adays by those which pretend most to it expuls'd almost out of mens brains as well as hearts so that now it is scarce to be found upon earth either in our lives or almost in our books there might be framed a seasonable complaint in this place were I not already otherwise imbarked By some prepossessions and prejudices infus'd into us as soon as we can conn a Catechism of that making it comes to pass that many men live and die resolv'd that faith is nothing but the assurance of the merits of Christ applied to every man particularly and consequently of his salvation that I must first be sure of Heaven or else I am not capable of it confident of my salvation or else necessarily damned Cornelius Agrippa being initiated in natural magick Paracelsus in mineral extractions Plato full of his Idea's will let nothing be done without the Pythagoreans brought up with numbers perpetually in their ears and the Physicians poring daily upon the temperaments of the body the one will define the soul an harmony the other a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Philoponus And so are many amongst us that take up fancies upon trust for truths never laying any contrary proposals to heart come at last to account this assurance as a principle without which they can do nothing the very soul that must animate all their obedience which is otherwise but a carcass or heathen vertue in a word the only thing by which we are justified or saved The confutation of this popular error I leave to some grave learned tongue that may enforce it on you with some authority for I conceive not any greater hindrance of Christian obedience and godly practice amongst us than this for as long as we are content with this assurance as sufficient stock to set up for Heaven there is like to be but little faith upon the earth Faith if it be truly so is like Christ himself when he was Emmanuel God upon the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incarnate faith cut out and squared into limbs and lineaments not only a spiritual invisible faith but even flesh and bloud to be seen and felt organiz'd for action 't is to speak and breath and walk and run the ways of God's Commandments An assent not only
seated in his throne by God all their designs and enterprises against him are blasted by the Almighty and prove successless and ruinous to them And so in like manner all the opposition that Satan and his Instruments Jews and Romans Act. iv 25 make against Christ the Son of David anointed by his Father to a spiritual Kingdom a Melchizedekâ—an Royal Priesthood shall never prevail to hinder that great purpose of God of bringing by this means all penitent believers to salvation 2. The Kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying Paraphrase 2. The Princes and Governours of the Nations round about Judea the Kings of the Philistims and Moabites and Damascenes and many more rose up against David the Syrians joyned with Hadadezer King of Zobah 2 Sam. viii 5. and in so doing opposed the Lords anointed one set up and supported by God in a special manner and so in effect rebelled against God himself In like manner did Herod and Pilate and the Jewish Sanhedrim make a solemn opposition and conspiracy against the Messias Gods holy child Jesus by him anointed Act. lv 27. and therein were fighters against God Act. v. 39. 3. Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us Paraphrase 3. Both of these alike resolving that they would not by any means be subject the Philistims c. to David the Jews c. to Christ and the divine laws and rites of Religion by which either of their Kingdoms were to be governed 4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision Paraphrase 4. But God that ruleth all things and is much more powerful than they will defeat all their enterprises and magnifie his divine providence as in the securing of David and giving him Victories over them all so in erecting and inlarging of Christs Kingdom and making the utmost of the malice of men and devils as means of consecrating him to that office of Royal Priesthood to which God had designed him 5. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure Paraphrase 5. All their enterprises against this Government of Gods erecting shall not atattain any part of their desire but only provoke God to great severities and terrible vengeances against them remarkable slaughters in Davids time upon his enemies and under Christs Kingdom the state of Christianity upon the Jews and Romans 6. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Paraphrase 6. Mean while 't is an eminent act of Gods power and mercy to David that soon after his anointing in Hebron 2 Sam. v. 3. he overcame the Idolatrous Jebusites v. 6. and took the strong hold of Zion and made it the seat of his Kingdom and placed the Ark of the Covenant there and thereupon called it the Mountain of the Lord the hill of holiness and there setled the Kingdom long since fore-promised by Jacob to the Tribe of Judah but never fixed in that Tribe till now And the like but exceedingly more eminent act of power and mercy it was in him to seat Christ in his spiritual throne in the hearts of all faithfull Christians possest before his coming by heathen sins and trusting to false Idol Gods parallel to the lame and the blind 2 Sam. v. 16. i. e. not improbably the Jebusuites images Teraphims or the like which could neither go nor ste and yet were confided in by them that they would defend their city 7. I will declare the decree The Lord hath said unto me Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Paraphrase 7. Now was that Covenant solemnly sealed and ratified to David which he is therefore to publish unto all so as it shall be in force against all persons that shall transgress it that at this time God hath taken the kingdom from the house of Saul Ishbosheth being now slain 2 Sam. iv 6. and setled it upon David who was anointed over Israel also 2 Sam. v. 3. given him the Rule over his own people set him up as his own son an image of his supremacy having at length delivered him from the power of all his enemies and set him victoriously on his throne in Sion which is a kind of birth-day to him the day of his inauguration the birth-day of his power though not his person of his kingdom though not of the King and this much more considerable than the other And in the parallel the Evangelical Covenant is now sealed to Christ and in him to all faithful Christians a Covenant to be publisht to all the world and the foundation of it laid in the death or rather the resurrection of Christ the eternal Son of God who having taken our mortal flesh and therein offered up a full sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the world the third day after was brought forth as by a new birth out of the womb of the grave see Act. xiii 33. now never to die again and thereby hath ascertain'd unto us as many as spiritually partake of these that die unto sin and live again to righteousness a blessed immortal life 8. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the outmost parts of the earth for thy possession Paraphrase 8. To this is consequent as a free and special mercy of Gods the inlarging of this his Kingdom not only to the Inhabitants of Judea but to many other heathen nations the Philistims Moabites Ammonites Idumeans and Syrians c. who were all subdued by David through the power of God 2 Sam. v. and viii and x. and subjected to him And so upon the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ by the wonderful blessing of God upon the preaching of the Apostles not only the Jews many thousands of them Rev. vii but the heathens over all the world were brought in to the faith of Christ 9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters vessel Paraphrase 9. All these neighbouring enemies that rise up against him shall he subdue and slay great multitudes of them And so shall Christ deal with his enemies Jews and Heathens subdue some and destroy the impregnable and obdurate 10. Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth Paraphrase 10. This therefore may be fit matter of admonition to all neighbour Princes as they tender their own welfare that they endeavour to profit by others sufferings and not fall foolishly into the same danger that timely they make their peace and enter into League with David and undertake the Service of the true God which he professes And in like manner when Christ is raised from the dead by his divine power and so instated in his Office of Royal Priesthood it will neerly concern all those that have hitherto stood out
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the LXXII so Gen. 3.8 the faces i. e. presence of the Lord as we render it so Gen. 4.16 Cain went out from the faces we duly read from the presence of the Lord and often elsewhere And so here v. 24. the hiding his faces is by the Chaldee rendred the taking away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Schechinah or majestatick presence of his glory And so that will be the best rendring here the light of thy presence as God we know testified his presence to the Israelites by a light shining cloud going before them and conducting them and not the light of thy countenance as that is all one with his favour the mention of that following in the next words as the original and reason of this his shining presence and not as the thing it self V. 8. Boast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel signifying to praise or celebrate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is regularly to be rendred here We have praised And the preposition ב prefixt to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes no difference being many times a pleonasm and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the future from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be best rendred in the future we will confess thy name for ever by the former signifying what is past as the pledge and pawn of his future mercies whereon he is resolved to depend for the future And thus in both parts the Syriack renders it we have praised and we will confess V. 12. Nought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies wealth or any kind of valuable possession and so fitly follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. literally and hast not multiplied but it must best be rendred and hast not gained or made advantage or increase as men are wont to do by the sale of those things that are any way valuable The Romane Copies of the LXXII read as 't is evident S. Augustine did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there was no multitude in their jubilations and Asulanus's Copy reads yet worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is apparent both by the Latine which reads in commutationibus and so by the Syriack also that the true reading was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a price The plain meaning is that as things that are useless and burthensome are not sold for any valuable price but allowed to be taken away by any that will have them so are they dealt with by God at this time not regarded by him and so permitted to be conquered and carried away captive by every one that will assault them The Arabick here hath contrary to use rendred it with some difference from the LXXII thou hast diminished the multitude of their numbers seeming thereby to refer to the first captivity in Aegypt where servitude encreased their numbers they multiplyed in Children as their task-masters encreased their tale of brick But here their captivity is not thus recompensed but the contrary is the effect of it The Forty Fifth PSALM TO the chief Musitian upon Soshannim for the sons of Coreh Maschil a song of loves Paraphrase The Forty fifth Psalm is thought to be an Epithalamium or marriage-song upon the nuptials of Solomon and the King of Aegypts daughter 1 King 3.1 but is withall mystically and in a most eminent manner applicable to Christ composed in the persons of her bride-maids and committed to the Praefect of the Musick to be sung by the posterity of Corch to the tune known by the name of Maschil 1. My heart is inditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King My tongue is the pen of a ready writer Paraphrase 1. I have meditated and composed a festival nuptial hymn brought it ready prepared as an oblation Eucharistical and I will now recite it to the King as he is a type of the great God and King of heaven the King by whom Kings Reign the Messias who shall espouse a church of believers here on earth my tongue being alacriously and chearfully bent speedily to deliver it 2. Thou art fairer than the children of men grace is poured into thy lips therefore God hath blessed thee for ever Paraphrase 2. O how gloriously beautifull is this bridegroom above all the men in the world what gracious and lovely and excellent speech comes from him God having accomplishâ— and adorned and blessed him in a most illustrious degree and manner And in the Mystical sense The Messias is infinitely beyond all the men in the world a divine person speaking as never man spake all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him 3. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O most mighty with thy glory and thy majesty Paraphrase 3. Thou art a mighty Prince it becometh thee to appear in a glorious and majestick manner as it doth any man of valour to be girt with a belt and sword In the mysticall sense O thou mighty God and Prince of Peace be thou pleased to set up thy spiritual kingdom in our hearts by the power of thy grace to rule and reign in them 4. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things Paraphrase 4. And mayst thou long and prosperously injoy this thy dignity reign successfully to the maintaining of all divine vertues such are beyond others faith and humility and aâ— manner of justice and charity And making such use of thy power no doubt God will establish thee in it and give thee all manner of strange successes and make thee formidable to all about thee In the mystical sense God grant him all good success in his regal office in subjecting all mens hearts unto his spiritual regiment And as his installment shall not be by riding on the regal mule or being mounted on a proud and sprightfull horse or in any other guise of secular pompe but in a much more excellent and divine equipage all kind of the most eminent virtues drawing in his triumphal charriot and carrying him aloft to victory so may the mighty God of heaven prosper him in those great affairs on which he is imployed 1. of bringing all men to the faith 2. of subduing all the prides of the hautiest heathen obdurate hearts and making them meek and gentle and lowly humble toward God and man 3. of planting all degrees of justice and charity among Christians In the discharge and execution of this great office of spiritual sovereignty God shall be with him â—nabling him to do miracles to cast out the heathen false gods or devils out of their temples out of mens hearts and out of the bodies of those that are possest with them and so to bring down all other religions wheresoever Christianity enters 5. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people fall under thee Paraphrase 5. Thy power
shall be sufficient to bring down thy greatest enemies and many shall feel the effects of it being conquered by thee In the mystery the grace of Christ shall come with great efficacy to the converting of Idolatrous heathens and shall be mightily successful in bringing the Gentile world to subjection to his kingdom 6. Thy throne O God is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter Paraphrase 6. The kingdom of the Messias is never to have an end the Laws by which 't is administred are admirably good and just most agreeable to the dictates of true reason and the nature of man not seduced or corrupted with passion And herein is Solomon a type of him the kingdom of Judah now setled on him shall indure till the time of the Messiah's coming and entring on his immutable kingdom And they are divine laws of Gods own prescribing by which he shall administer his government 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows Paraphrase 7. He hath earnestly espoused the cause of all goodness justice hath wrought by his precepts and promises and grace effectually to bring the practice of all virtue into the world and beareth a perfect hatred against vice and by strict prohibitions and threats of eternal hell and by suffering himself upon the cross for our sins an example of Gods great wrath against sin chusing rather to punish it on his own Son than to suffer it to go unpunisht hath laboured to cast that out of mens hearts And therefore God the Father hath advanced and dignified him above all Angels and men see note on Matth. 26. c. and Act. 10.10 exalted him to his own right hand there to reign for ever and to dispence his graces abundantly and freely into all mens hearts Herein also was Solomon a type of the Messias whose choise of wisdom rather then of all secular wealth was highly rewarded by God beyond all other men 8. All thy garments smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia out of the Ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad Paraphrase 8. This Bridegrooms garments are very richly perfumed the odour of them comes out from the magnificent rooms wherein he takes pleasure and so commonly resides in them And so the mystical Bridegroom Christ his graces send forth a most fragant perfume most grateful and pleasant to all to whom they come 9. Kings daughters were among thy honourable women upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir Paraphrase 9. He is very magnificently attended many royal beauties are in his train and his Bride the Queen is placed at his right hand in the most glorious nuptial array Proportionably the faith of the Messias shall be received by many persons of great rank in the world and the Church his spouse shall be advanced by him to a most flourishing condition 10. Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house Paraphrase 10. It will now be happy for the Bride if she will consider the true dignity she is advanced to and the advantages she may reap by it if she will utterly forsake the Idolatries wherein she hath been brought up in Aegypt as the new-married spouse entring into a new family must relinquish all her old relations and not preserve so much as her former name and give up her faith and obedience uniformly to the law of the true God which here is worshipt And so in the mystical sense the Jews being assumed after their many adulteries and divorces unto that better wedlock celebrated in the Gospel must think themselves obliged to forget their old relations all the rites of their law nay the distinctive marks of their extraction from the loins of Abraham circumcision c. and so recommend themselves to their Lord and Bridegroom And so generally they that will come to be members of the Christian Church must forsake all their old wicked courses and perform all diligent faithful chearful obedience to the commands of Christ or else they will be little the better for being Christians 11. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for he is thy Lord God and worship thou him Paraphrase 11. So shall she become truly amiable to her husband Solomon the King the type of the Messias that eternal son of God who when he comes into the world shall be the very God of heaven in our humane nature and is therefore he and none but he to be adored by all men in the world and so shall be acknowledged and worshipt by the Christian-Church see Justin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. p. 287. B. 12. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour Paraphrase 12. The Tyrians shall bring him presents see 1 King 5. and so the greatest and most potent of his Neighbours shall court him and be ambitious of his friendship And so shall the heathen people come in to the faith of Christ and in process of time the Emperors and greatest Princes 13. The Kings daughter is all glorious within her cloathing is of wrought gold Paraphrase 13. The spouse being of a regal extraction is a very accomplisht person both in respect of inward virtues and outward splendor and magnificence And such shall be the Christian Church gathered first and made up of the pious faithful remnant of the Jews 14. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee Paraphrase 14. She shall be conducted to the Bridegroom in a very sumptuous and glorious guise and attended with her Bride-maids after the nuptial manner And this signifies the Churches glory inward from the graces of God humility charity c. with which it is content without any others and yet hath also the accession of outward from the good Providence of God waiting over it and advancing it to a very flourishing condition Nor shall this Elder sister the daughter of Sion the Jewish believers come single to these nuptials But the Gentile Churches aâ— virgins to accompany the Spouse shall likewise come in to the faith be presented to him a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish Ephes 5.17 15. With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought and shall enter into the Kings palace Paraphrase 15. And this shall be a very joyful and festival meeting And so shall the reception of the Christian faith in the heathen world their entring into the Church the palace and house of God and their giving themselves faederally to the obedience of Christ there being no state of life in this world so blessed and matter of so much inward real satisfaction and joy as the life of a sincerely humble and charitable Christian 16. In stead
of all piety there being no course wherein I shall more delightfully exercise my self 46. I will speak of thy testimonies also before Kings and will not be ashamed Paraphrase 46. Yea I will proclaim and boast of the excellency of thy Law and the advantages of ordering our lives by it and recommend it with confidence to the greatest Princes in the world as that which will inhaunse their crowns and make them much more glorious and comfortable to them if they will resolve to guide their lives after this model 47. And I will delight my self in thy commandments which I have loved Paraphrase 47. And for my self as in my love and value of thy precepts I prefer them before all other jewels in the world so will I entertain and recreate and gratifie my self by this exercise the meditation and practice of these rather than by any other way of divertisement which the world doth most esteem of 48. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes Paraphrase 48. And this pleasure shall not be an aerial idle speculative pleasure but such as shall set me vigorously about the practice of all holy obedience to thee and therein will I constantly and diligently exercise my self and thereby express the reality of my love to them ZAIN 49. Remember the word unto thy servant on which thou hast caused me to hope 50. This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickned me Paraphrase 49 50. O Lord thou hast made me many most gracious promises and thereby given me grounds of the most unmoved hope and comfort And these are able to support and inliven me in the midst of the greatest pressures 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision yet have I not declined from thy law 52. I remembred thy judgments of old O Lord and have comforted my self Paraphrase 51 52. Atheistical wicked men when they see me in distress make a mock at my relyance and trust in God and think it ridiculous to talk of relief from heaven when earthly strength faileth But all their scoffs and bitterest sarcasms shall not discourage me or tempt me to forsake my hold I have many notable illustrious examples of thy power and goodness of the seasonable interpositions of thy reliefs to thy servants in their greatest distresses and these being laid to heart have infinitely more force to confirm my faith than all their Atheistical scoffs to shake it 53. Horror hath taken hold on me because of the wicked that forsake thy law Paraphrase 53. Nay these their heathenish discourses have been so far from working thus on me that they are matter of great disquiet and commotion and trembling to me to think of the direfull condition which they are in that have utterly forsaken God and all thought of obedience that have quite devested themselves as of all hope so of all dread of him 54. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage Paraphrase 54. For my part what ever can befall me in this frail transitory life I can take joy in the commands and promises of God and make them true real solaces to me in whatsoever distress as knowing that I suffer nothing but what God sees to be best for me and that if I faithfully wait on him he will in his time give me a seasonable deliverance 55. I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy law 56. This I had because I kept thy precepts Paraphrase 55 56. With these thoughts of God I have in the solitude and darkness of the night intertained and supported my self and thereby taken up a courage and constancy of resolution never to relinquish this hold for any other Thus hath God abundantly rewarded my diligence in his service by a pleasure resulting from it v. 54. by a stedfast unmovable hope and comfort in him v. 50. and by a durable constant resolution of a persevering obedience never to depart from him CHETH 57. Thou art my portion O Lord I have said that I would keep thy word Paraphrase 57. Blessed Lord of all the possessions and comforts of the world thou onely art worth the having thy promises are precious promises thy commands most excellent divine commands I have by thy grace deliberately made my choice preferred these before all the glories of this world and resolved that thy word shall be my treasure which I will most diligently preserve 58. I intreated thy favour with my whole heart be mercifull to me according to thy word Paraphrase 58. To this thy grace is most necessary for without it I can do nothing for this therefore I make my most humble sincere passionate address to thee O be thou graciously pleased to grant my request to vouchsafe me this mercy which thou hast promised never to deny to those that ask and importunately seek and beg it of thee 59. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies Paraphrase 59. But neither have I contented my self with my bare prayers for strength and grace I have set to my part in a diligent examination of my past sins and a carefull watch over my future actions and so have forsaken my old ways and diligently pursued that course which thou hast prescribed me 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments Paraphrase 60. And to this end I did immediately set out I made no one minutes stay in so necessary a pursuit as knowing that the longer I should dally the more unlikely I should be ever to perform so great a journey 61. The bands of the wicked have robbed me but I have not forgotten thy law Paraphrase 61. In my course I have oft met with disturbances the assaults and injuries of wicked men but these how sharp soever they were have been but exercises of my patience have not provoked me to doe any thing but what best becometh thy servant 62. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments Paraphrase 62. This and the many other benefits and advantages of thy Law and my obedience to it are such as I am bound to acknowledge all the days of my life and even to interrupt my lawfull sleep and repose to find frequent vacancies for so necessary a duty of lauding and magnifying thy mercy 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts Paraphrase 63. And for my days exercise I endeavour to associate my self with all those that serve and obey thee conscientiously by that society to excite one another and to attain to some proficiency in so good a work 64. The earth O Lord is full of thy mercy teach me thy statutes Paraphrase 64. O Lord thy goodness and mercy and grace is abundantly poured out upon the men in the world O let me enjoy a special degree of it for the sanctifying my soul
God will make use of such imploy and assist and prosper them wonderfully in executing his judgments on sinfull people when the measure of their iniquities is filled up and God's decree gone out against them as it was against the seven nations whose lands the Israelites took destroyed their Kings put some of them in gyves as Adonibezek Jud. 1.7 and eradicated the whole people And thus in a mystical sense hath the faith of Christ been assisted by God and prospered and propagated wonderfully till it subdued the greatest Princes and Empire of the world to the sceptre of Christ And this certainly is a glorious prerogative of the people and beloved of God for which they are obliged for ever to magnifie him and sing perpetual Hallelujahs to him The Hundred and Fiftieth PSALM Praise ye the Lord. The last Psalm is a solemn exhortation to all men in the world to make use of all melodious Instruments and Voices to celebrate the praises of God's power and majesty The title of it was according to the matter Hallelujah 1. PRaise God in his sanctuary praise him in the firmament of his power Paraphrase 1. O let us praise and magnifie the God of heaven that dwelleth so high in power and glory above us poor creatures on this earth and yet is pleased to exhibit and presentiate himself to us to hear and answer our prayers and accept and reward our praises in the place of the publick assembly O let us be sure constantly to meet him there and render him our humblest Eucharistical acknowledgments for all his mercies those especially vouchsafed to us in Christ 2. Praise him for his mighty acts praise him according to his excellent greatness Paraphrase 2. He hath shewed forth wonderfull acts of power toward us not once or twice but frequently reiterated his miracles of mercy O let our acknowledgments indeavour to bear some proportion with them in the ardency and frequency of our services 3. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet praise him with the psaltery and harp 4. Praise him with the timbrel and dance praise him with stringed instruments and organs 5. Praise him upon the loud cymbals praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals Paraphrase 3 4 5. All the instruments of Musick that are at any time used to express the greatest ovations to attend the noblest triumphs or festivities the trumpet the psaltery or decachord the harp the timbrel the cymbals that have the loudest sounds and are fittest for exultation and withall the attendants of musick dancings such as are customary in seasons of rejoycing Jud. 21.21 Exod. 15.20 are all very proper expressions of that thanksgiving which we owe unto God and of the delight we take in paying him that tribute There being no subject so fit for our devoutest and most vigorous affections to pour out themselves upon as this of the glorious excellencies and gracious acts of the divine power and goodness toward us 6. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Paraphrase 6. Let this therefore be part of the daily constant offices of the Church of God to sing Hosannahs and Hallelujahs Psalms and Hymns to him to frequent the blessed Eucharist the cup of blessing and rejoycing And let him be thought unworthy to live to injoy the breath of life or any of the graces of God's spirit which doth not chearfully exercise himself in this part of devotion as ready to acknowledge the receipt of mercies from God as to solicit them HALLELVJAH Annotations on Psal CL. V. 1. Firmament of his power The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expansion which by the LXXII is generally rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firmament in respect of the firmness stability and compactedness of that vast body so distended and beaten out as it were by God after the manner of a plate of gold or any other metal is known to comprehend both the regions of the air and all the celestial orbs all that is above and surrounds the earth Here it is taken as Gen. 1.14 for the superiour part of this Expansion that which we call the heavens which being the place of God's special residence is called the expansion or firmament of his power the throne where this powerfull God of heaven dwells But then as the sanctuary or place of God's appointed solemn worship here below is by the Apostle Heb. 9.23 24. styled the figure and pattern or copy of heaven and God pleased in a singular manner to presentiate and exhibit himself there so the sanctuary in this verse exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his holy or holiness but by the Chaldee exprest to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of his sanctuary is poetically set down by this style which belongs to heaven it self as the Church of God in the New Testament is oft styled the kingdom of heaven So Aben Ezra renders the firmament by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ark and saith the Psalm is an exhortation to the Levites to praise God who upon these ten sorts of instruments were wont to play in the Temple and accordingly all of them are distinctly reckoned up V. 3. With the sound of the trumpet The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undoubtedly signifying a trumpet and so interpreted by the LXXII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lightly varied from the Hebrew is yet rendred by the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which the Latin cornu is but little removed an horn but this not to inject any suspicion that any other instrument is here meant but onely to refer to the ancient custom of making their trumpets of that matter the horns of beasts bored or made hollow agreeable to which is the Arabick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a trumpet and the Latin buccina hath some affinity to that from the common Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to empty or make hollow The use of trumpets in war to celebrate a victory and not onely so but to excite their souldiers and encourage them to fight is most known and allowed by the usage of all nations to have that propriety in it and so might not unfitly be derived from the camp to the spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or warfare God's service in the Temple both to celebrate their thanksgivings with this solemnity of greatest joy and transportation and also to quicken to stir up affections in the performance of such sacred Offices The first mention we find of it in Scripture is in consort with thunder from heaven Exod. 19.16 to solemnize and signifie the presence of God on Sinai and to raise a reverence in the people and withall to assemble them thither And that use of it for the calling assemblies as it is taken from the military custom of assembling all to battel unanimously by this sound so is it of God's own appointment Numb 10.2 and to that use I suppose are the trumpets designed which
and to become able to steer thy whole life by those excellent rules of all sorts and never transgress any of them 10. When wisedom entreth into thy heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul 11. Discretion shall preserve thee understanding shall keep thee Paraphrase 10 11. And when by these closer and more intimate embraces by the constant practice of vertue and experience of the sweetness of it which at a distance is never discerned wicked men knowing not what belongs to it thou comest to esteem it as it really is the most desirable valuable and even sensual pleasing course especially if compared with the unsatisfying empty joys or rather vexations and burthens of the flesh and world this very apprehension of it if there were nothing else will prove a consideration of great efficacy a competent armature against all temptations whensoever any the most specious promising sensual or secular bait shall invite and solicit thee out of thy road of obedience and adherence to the commands of God thine own judgment will assure thee that it bids thee to thy loss that by catching after that phasme or shadow of false pleasure thou shalt deprive thy self of the most real solid and durable joys which are all made up in the constant exercises of all moral and Christian duties humility meekness mercifulness peaceableness contentedness temperance purity justice c. and are not to be found in the confines of the contrary vices which beside the wounds and gratings of an accusing conscience bring all manner of uneasiness and dissatisfactions along with them nay even pains and torments after them And this one would think should be sufficient to uphold and continue us unchanged in the ways of vertue to fortifie us against all such treacherous competitours as come on purpose to rob and waste and undoe when they most pretend and undertake to gratifie and oblige us 12. To deliver thee from the way of the evil man from the man that speaketh froward things Paraphrase 12. To secure us from the snares that tempters are ready to lay for us ch 1.10 and keep us from imitating or associating with them in their unlawfull destructive practices designed to shed others blood but generally redounding to their own mischief bringing that on themselves which they projected against others ch 1.18 19. 13. Who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness Paraphrase 13. Considering what a strange irrational choice it must needs be to forsake what is so infinitely valuable and advantagious in exchange for that which is so detestable and destructive even the same that it would be to leave a direct lightsome way that conducts to all bliss for a melancholy gloomy crooked path that leads to eternal misery 14. Who rejoyce to doe evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked Paraphrase 14. Can there be any thing so distant from right judgment so contrary to all even humane measures as to delight and take joy in doing things that are most detestable without any intuition of gain or advantage by them to place a felicity in affronting God and nature and going on obstinately and imperswasibly in such abhorred fruitless courses which beside the pleasure of opposing all that is good which none but devils one would think should have taste of or appetite to have nothing else to recommend them to any man 15. Whose ways are crooked and they froward in their paths Paraphrase 15. Were they not as crooked and distorted as their ways are were not their hearts set wholly on opposing and despising of all that is good and perversly bent never to hearken to any sober counsels it were impossible they should thus like and love their wandrings and prevarications such chargeable gainless variations from their duty 16. To deliver thee from the strange woman even from the stranger which flattereth with her words Paraphrase 16. The very same method will fortifie thee against all other the most enticing ensnaring sins particularly that of unlawfull embraces The vertue either of virginal or conjugal chastity is certainly so much more pleasant and desirable than the liberties of various lust be it recommended to thy phancy by never so many flattering and false colours that thy own judgment and discretion v. 11. is sufficient to arm thee against any such be they never so insinuating proposals 17. Which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God Paraphrase 17. Were there nothing but the breach of the conjugal faith and perjurious falseness that such commissions are guilty of thiâ— were enough to avert any man from this sin with another man's wife The adulteress is a most scandalous disloyal person breaks through the greatest obligations both of duty and kindness justice and gratitude to her lawfull and tender huâ—band and having entred into mutual sacramental bands a most strict covenant to him and vow to God of continuing her love and faith to him constant and undefiled she most traiterously violateth all these obligations and thou that joynest with her in the sin art beside thine own guilty of all her falsenesses 18. For her house enclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead Paraphrase 18. But beside the horribleness of the sin the punishments which it must expect to meet with may most reasonably deter any man from it All the plagues and miseries of this world and rottenness and wretched diseases and death are the ordinary attendants of it Whilst men are in pursuit of this sin it speaks them fair v. 16. promises them pleasure at a distance but they that are thus ensnared find â—n abyss of infelicities inseparably annext to it 19. None that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life Paraphrase 19. And beyond all one curse attends this sin that it is a kind of hell to them that are once engaged in it As to him that is once in those chains of darkness there is no possibility of returning to a capacity of any tolerable much less happy life so those that are any thing deeply immerst in this sin of adultery seldom ever get out of it again Experience shews of such how unsuccessfull all calls of God the most powerfull methods of his grace and providence are to disintangle them or to recover them to a life of sobriety and piety 20. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous Paraphrase 20. And as this prescribed method cannot doubt to be successfull in fortifying thee against the temptations forementioned so it will be abundantly sufficient to secure thy perseverance in all piety by considering how much a more easie nay delectable joyous course it is v. 10. than that which either the world or flesâ— can tempt thee to 21. For the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it Paraphrase 21. Piety having the promises even of this life
't is in the bullion I shall require your patience but to these two heads of probation One by viewing severally some of the chief duties of Christianity The other by enumeration of the special good things which have ever been prized by mankind The first I say by surveying the duties of a Christian the tasks that are prescribed him by Christ the particulars of his yoke and burthen Consider them a while and if they be not the object of all other mens envy if his toyls be not demonstrably the vastest pleasures his exercises the most joyous divertisements and highest rank of entertainments that any mortal hath arrived to I shall be content with Cassandra's fate never to be credited in my affirmations For instance Well-doing in general in the first place the conscience of any degree of having discharged any part of duty that euge bone serve from the God within thee what a ravishment is it to any the meanest undertaker what an olio of all high tasts compounded together Their very enemies could say it of the Athenians in Thucydides That there was nothing that they could count feast or banquet but the having done what they ought And the Persians when they beheld the solemnity of the Grecian Olympick games such courage and patience of the combatants and no reward expected but an Olive crown expostulate with Mardonius Why dost thou bring us to fight against those who fight not for mony but vertue A conscience of having done well serv'd in with a few leaves about it was it seems the daintiest dish and most animating emboldning reward in nature And if a Christian cannot outvie those Heathens if it be not in our breasts as it is in the Translations of our Bibles a merry heart all one with a good conscience and the attribute of that a continual feast to thee as it was to Solomon believe it thy tast is mortified thou art no competent judge of dainties And that is one part or indeed the summe of all Christ's yoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things a good conscience In the second place not to lead you out of the most vulgar rode that our discourse may be the more demonstrative the Trinity of Theological vertues Faith Hope and Charity what are they but so many elevations of the Soul above all that 's mean and painful so many steps of entrance into obedience and bliss into discipleship and paradise together For Faith 't is S. Peter's expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believing you do exult for joy Faith naturally hath that acquiescence and joy in it and that a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inexpressible and glorified joy even in this life Take it but in the meaner of its offices as it is a trusting God with our temporal weal a full submission not only to the will but wisdom of God a resolution that God can chuse for us better than we for our selves that whatever he sends his hottest or bitterest potion is fit for our turns and so absolutely better and even to us when we see 't is his will more eligible more desireable than any thing we could have prayed for That chearful valiant resignation of all into God's hands with an old Eli's Dominus est It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good what a blessed pill of rest is this unto the Soul what a Sabbath from all that servile work those horrid perjuries those base submissions that the covetous Mammonist or cowardly trembler drudges under Though the earth shake or the hills be carried into the midst of the Sea he is the Cube indeed that Socrates pretended to be he hath a basis that will not fail his feet stand fast he believeth in the Lord. He hath gotten a superiority of mind that all this region of meteors cannot disquiet he hath rifled all the Sects of the old Philosophers robb'd each of them of his master-piece the Sceptick of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifference and untroubledness the Stoick of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath none of the tragical complaints how tragical soever his sufferings be and Epicurus of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tranquillity or calm of mind to the acquiring of which all his philosophy was designed a thing so hugely pleasurable that he hath been taken for a carnal voluptuous swine ever since upon no other merit but for seeking out those great composers of the Soul so much beyond all other Sensuality Those boasts I say and prides those dreams and wishes of those Philosophers are now the reality and acquisition of a Christian an Epicurism which faith and only faith undertakes to furnish us with A thing so deeply considerable that I cannot but resolve all the differences of mens estates and fortunes as well as Souls their secular felicity and infelicity as well as piety and impiety to proceed from this one fountain opened by Christ to the House of David No Prince more happy than the Peasant in the present advantages of this life but as he hath more faith than he the spring of our daily misery as well as our sins is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O ye of little faith And so certainly for Hope that second Christian Gemm that Royal High Priest of ours that enters within the Veil takes possession before-hand of all that 's rich or secret brings down all the Treasures of another world to be our daily portion in this hope of Eternity hope of Heaven you will not wonder if I assure you 't is a far pleasanter Companion than the possession of all worldly preferments You would be amazed to hear a Papist describe his Purgatory flames so scorching and yet go chearfully out of this world into the midst of those flames but he will satisfie your wonder when he tells you that the expectation of the heavenly joys that those flames do confirm and ascertain to him though after never so many hundred years the precious hope that dwells there and the assurance of a Title in Heaven a portion in that glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or inrolment is richly sufficient to allay those flames to make those scorchings supportable And then judge what a confluence of pleasures is this one grace supposed to be which is resolved sufficient to sweeten and recommend a Tophet to make torments desirable like the kind gales and benign vapours under the Line that Menardus tells of which make the Torrid'st Clime habitable and the presence of that Fourth in Nebuchadnezzar's Fornace which makes the Three Children sing in the midst of flames As for Charity that is certainly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superiour to either Faith or Hope for joy and pleasure as well as use and excellency Can there be any thing so ravishing as love love of so for-ever-satisfying a beauty that heroical improvement and elevation of Soul the want of which is as great a punishment as 't is a sin
Army once did and an Army of united prayers may do so again but the Eagle to a carkase the Night-raven to the funeral of a Consumptive Church and Monarchy an Hell from Heaven upon an abominable people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Tyrant Phalaris say He that is not made soâ—er by many sufferings is absolutely insensate And yet God knows out of this rock the greatest part of this Age seems to be hewed The thunder about our ears that could teach the most barbarous Nations to believe and tremble the breaking in of the Lions that disciplin'd the Assyrians in Samaria to seek out instruction in the manner of the God of the land 2 Kings 17. Gods using us as the Physician in the Epigram did the Lethargick Patient putting a Lunatick into the same room with him to dry-beat us is possible into sense and life again His proceeding to that great cure of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissolving the habit of the body politick and to that end letting blood to a deliquium which Hippocrates resolves so necessary to abate the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the high full athletick health that is so dangerous in his Aphorisms the driving out into the field with Nebuchadnezzar which infused reason into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which untransform'd him again and raised up his eyes to an acknowledgment of him that liveth for ever Dan. 4. have God knows wrought the quite contrary on us wasted the seeds of natural piety within us erected Academies of Atheism endowed them with Schools and Professours where the art of it may be learned at a reasonable rate a young sinner of an ordinary capacity may within a few months observation set up Atheist for himself prophane scoff at the Clergy be very keen and witty upon Scripture have exceptions against the Service of the Church and all with as good grace as if he had serv'd and Apprentiship in Italy or at the feet of that great Master that Martyr of Atheism Vanninus He that at the breaking in of this torrent of misery upon the land had but walk'd in the counsel of the â—ngodly was but upon probation and deliberation whether he should be wicked or no that after some months when the waters began to turn into blood was yet advanced to a moderate proficiency a standing in the way of sinners and found it but an uneasie wearisome posture a standing upon thorns or flints is now fairly sate down in the chair of the Scorner or prophane Atheist in cathedrâ as a place of ease or repose can blaspheme without any regrets of a petulant conscience in cathedrâ as a seat of state prophanes with a better grace than he can do any thing else is become a considerable person upon that one account is valued among Lookers on by that only excellency and in cathedrâ again as a Professors chair a Doctor of that black faculty ready to entertain Clients to gather Disciples to set up an Independent Church of rational Blasphemers and being himself a complete Convert sufficiently approved to Satan to confirm and strengthen those puny Brethren that are not arrived to the accursed measure of that fulness fit them with Machiavels capacity for vast undertakings by that excellent quality of being wicked enough the want of which saith he hath been the undoing of the world And shall not God visit for this shall he not be avenged on such a Nation as this A wonderful and horrible thing is wrought in the land the judgments that were sent to awake have numni'd and petrefied us the fire in the bowels of this earth of ours hath turn'd us into perfect quarry and mine and as Diodorus tells us in Arabia the Ice and Crystal is congeal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the power of Divine fire and not by cold so are these icy Crystal hearts of ours frozen by that fire from Heaven that shall one day set the whole Universe a melting But besides these Atheists of the first magnitude other inferiour pretenders there are that cannot shake off all apprehensions of all judgment to come but yet upon distant tamer principles can do Satans business as well for such trifles as this Text takes notice of the contraries to justice and continence they have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Marcus in Iren. that charnied shield from the Mother of the Gods which shall render them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible to the Judge The judicature erected by Christ takes not cognizance of such moral breaches as these there nothing but infidelity proves capital or if the breaches of the First Table may be brought in collaterally under that head yet for these venial defailances against the Second this toy of circumventing our brethren of defiling the flesh as its consequent in S. Jude speaking evil of dignities Christ came to make expiation for such not to receive bills of indictment against them to be their Priest but not their Judge I remember a saying of Picus Mirandula That a speculative Atheist is the greatest monster but one and that is the practical Atheist And yet this is the darling of the carnal Fiduciaries that can help him to reconcile his grossest sins his any thing with Faith how well you will have leisure to see if you please to descend with me from the absolute to the relative view of the matter of S. Pauls Sermon and consider first the relation which it hath to the Text on which he preach'd it and that you shall see in the former verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the faith on Christ and that is my next stage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The faith on Christ the phrase that some nice Observers have laid such weight on to denote the special act of justifying faith as 't is and affiance on Christ of a far higher pitch than either the believing Christ or believing in Christ and yet it seems those so despicable moral vertues those that so few think necessary and some have affirm'd destructive and pernicious to salvation are here brought in by S. Paul I hope not impertinently under this head justice and continence and judgment to come parts of a Sermon of the faith on Christ So 1 Cor. where St. Paul had fasten'd his determination chap. 2. to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and him crucified in the very next chap. he charges them with sins of carnality strife envyingâ— factions in the 5. with Fornication or incest In the 6. with going to law before Infidels all these it seems the prime contrarieties to the faith or knowledge of the crucified Saviour Thus in St. James you may mark that works of charity and mercy are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religion ch 1.27 And being authorized from such great Apostles I shall not fear to tell you that the prime part of the knowledge and faith and religion of CHRIST the life and power of Christianity is the setting up and reigning of these vertues in our hearts
of Gath the tallest Philistine in the company There is a wide distance betwixt reproaching of present and absent sinners the same that betwixt reproof and backbiting the boldness and courage of a champion and the detractions and whispers of a villain the first is an indication of spirit the second of gall the first that a man dares attempt the loving and saving of his brother when he shall endanger being cursed and hatâ—d for it sacrifice your opinion to your health your kindness to your souls the second is a character of a Sollicitor fee'd on none but Satans errand an Orator to set you a railing but not a trembling one that can write Satyrs on condition they shall do you no good incense but not reform that if it shall be possible for hell to lose by his Sermon will never preach more The one meaneth to transform his Auditory into converts and Saints the other into Broylers and Devils the one hath all the charity the other all the mean malice and treachery in his design And having such a copy before our eyes suppose a man should divert a little to transcribe it and instead of prudence and tempering and reviling of those that are out of our reach reason a while of one branch of justice yea and of the faith of Christ in which 't is possible we may some of us be concern'd and enquire Whether there be not a piece of Turkish Divinity stole out of their Alchoran into our Creed that of Prosperum felix scelus virtus vocatur whether the great laws of Vertue and Vice be not by some Politici taken out of the Ephemerides nothing decreed honest but what we can prognosticate succesful the victa Catoni the liking that cause which the heavens do not smile on is a piece of Philosophical sullenness which we have not yet learn'd of Christ What is this but as Saint Bernard complains in his time that those images had the most hearty adorations performed to them which had most of the gold and gemms about them the God obliged to the Image and the Image to the dress for all the Votaries it met with Have the Romanists marks of the Church so convinc'd us that we must presently forsake a Saviour because we see him in danger of crucifying tear our Gospels and run out with horrour assoon as we come to the 26. of Mat. The multitude with swords and staves for to take him Was the Cause of God worth the charge and pains of killing men formerly and is it not worth the patience and constancy of suffering now Is there any condition in the world so hugely desireable as that of suffering for or with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold we count them happy that suffer was Gospel in Saint James his days Chap. 5.11 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes the state of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead Saints in their countrey of Vision as you know Saint Steven at the minute of his sufferings saw the glory of God and Jesus sitting the state of suffering is a state of bliss I may add a superiour degree of a glorified state a more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dignity above that Orbe that the Angels move in For they for want of Bodies are deprived of the honour of suffering all that they aspire to is but to be our Seconds our Assistants in this combate only Christ and we have the enclosure of that vast preferment And if there be any need to heighten it yet further is there any prize more worthy that masculine valour than that venerable sacred name Jerusalem the Mother of us all that brought us forth unto Christ begot us to all our hope of bliss and now for no other crime but that is a strugling under the pangs and agonies of a bitter combate with the ingratefull'st children under Heaven the Church of England I mean which whosoever hath learning and temper enough to understand knows to be the brightest image of primitive purity the most perfect conjuncture of the most ancient and most holy Faith that for these twelve hundred years any man ever had the honour of defending or suffering for And should the provocations of an ungracious people the not valuing or not walking worthy of the treasures here reserv'd the rude continued iniquities of our holy things tempt God to deliver it up as he did once his Ark to the Philistins his Christ to the Pharisees and the Souldiers the zeal of the one and the fury of the other yet sure this would not be the confuting of what now I say 't would not I must hope be an argument of Gods renouncing that Ark and that Christ which he did not thus deliver The Turks having conquer'd and torn out of the Christians hands the places of the Birth and passion of Christ did after this way of Logick infer that God had judg'd the cause for Mahomet against Christ and Trajan could ask the primitive Martyr Ignatius Et nos non tibi videmur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Have not we as much of God in us as you who prosper by the help of our deities against our enemies Let me purloin or borrow this heathen piece out of your hands and I shall be able to give you an antienter piece in exchange for it a thorough Christian Resolution of abiding by God of approving our selves to Heaven and to our own breasts whatsoever it costs us of venturing the Ermins fate the very Hunters hand rather than foul her body the pati mori posse the passive as well as the active courage which will bear us up through all difficulties bring us days of refreshment here or else provide us anthems in the midst of flames a paradise of comfort here and of joyes hereafter and let this serve for the exemplifying the point in hand the fitness of our Apostles discourse to Felix's state I might do it again by telling you of the dreadful majesty that dwells in this house the designation of it to be a house of Prayer to all people a place of crying mightily to the Lord at such times as these should I let loose a whole hour on this theme in this place 't would be but too perfect a parallel of Saint Pauls discourse of chastity before Felix which in any reason ought to set many of my Auditors a trembling but it seems we have not yet sufferings enough to do so and there is one particular behind that will rescue you from this uneasie subject the manner of Saint Pauls handling this theme by way of reasoning And when he reasoned c. The importance of this reasoning I shall but name to you which I conceive to be 1. The proposing to a very Heathens consideration the equity and reasonableness that there should be a judgment to come to recompence the unjust and incontinent person And 2. the charging home to each sinners heart the extream unreasonableness that for so poor advantages as
custom what indulgence in sin i. e. what Tophet what Hell shall be able to separate us from the love the favour the heaven of God He that hath Christ the Priest hath all he that believes in the sufferings hath Christ the Priest though not the King hath the faith though not the works i. e. the righteousness though not the Heathenish morality the Protestant Orthodox part though not the Popery the Antichristianism of a Christian and so is but the richer for that want hath the greater portion in the sufferings of Christ by the abundance of those sins he suffered for the more of the Priest is ours by how much the less of the King is discernible in us Having driven our unchristian lives to this principle this solemn conceit of ours that the Priestly office of Christ to which if rightly understood we owe all our salvation is nothing but the death of that Christ methinks 't were now possible to convince the secure Fiduciary of the error and sophistry of his former way to rob him of his beloved cheat now that we have prov'd so clear that Christ commenc'd his eternal Priesthood that on which all our blessedness depends from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not till after his resurrection For Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth and mourneth and bleedeth for in secret thou carnal confident that hast wearied thy self in the greatness of thy way thy profane wild-goose chase of sin and yet hast not said there is no hope thou that wilt profane and be saved too riot and be saved too reconcile faction rebellion sacrilege oppression oaths carnality all the unchristian practices in the world the confutation of the whole Gospel with salvation Tell me I say what Christ it is thou wilt be tried or saved by by Christ the King I am confident thou wert never so impudent to venture thy rebellions to that cognizance Well it is Christ the Priest thou so dependest on and â—y Christ the Priest Why because he hath sacrificed himself for thee Now let me tell thee 1. That some have guest shrewdly that though Christ died for all the sinners and sins in the world yet his sufferings being but finite in duration though infinite in respect of the person of the sufferer will not prove a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proportionable ransom for thy sins I mean the impenitent sinners sins in duration infinite being as they are undetermin'd uncut off by repentance Thou must return reform confess and forsake or else thou hast out-sinn'd the very sufferings of Christ out-spent that vast ransom out damn'd salvation it self that may be a conviction ad hominem perhaps and therefore I mention'd it in the first place But then 2. Thou art it seems all this while mistaken in thy Priest thou art it seems all for the Aaronical and hast not yet thought of the Melchisedech-Priest thou art all for the sacrificer and never dream'st of the blesser Thou layest all thy weight on the Cross of Christ and art ready to press it down to hell with thee with leaning onely but not crucifying one lust on it never thinkest of being risen with Christ the condition so indispensably necessary to give us claim to the benefit of his death and so in effect thou leavest Christ in the grave and thy self in that mournful case of the despairing Disciples speraveramus we had hoped but never look'st after a resurrection 'T was Saint Pauls saying If in this life only we have hope in Christ we were of all men most miserable I suppose it is in this life only not of us but of Christ on this earth for it is brought to prove Christs resurrection there and it follows immediately but now is Christ raised 1 Cor. 15.20 and if that be the sense of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there the this life of Christ contains also his death under it for both those together it is that must make up the opposite to the resurrection And then I shall enlarge the Apostles words though not sense If in the earthly life and death of Christ we had hope only a sad life and a contumelious death if there were no such thing as a resurrection to help bless us we were of all men the most miserable hadst thou no other Priest but the Sacrificer the mortal finite Aaronical-Priest nothing but the ransom of Christs death which though it be never so high a price is yet finally unavailable to many for whom it was paid he bought them that are damn'd for denying him 2 Pet. 2.1 the wilful sinner treads under foot the Son of God profanes the blood of the covenant by which he is sanctified Heb. 10.29 and so there 's destruction enough still behind for the impenitent wretch after all that Christ hath suffer'd for thee what forms of ejulation and lamentation were enough for thee Alas my Brother ah Lord or ah his glory what mourning or wailing were thy portion Tell me wilt thou be content to leave thy Father before he hath blessed thee Jacob would not do so with the Angel but would wrestle his thigh out of joynt rather than thus part with him and even the profane Esau will run and weep bitterly for it and then art thou more nice and tender than that smooth Jacob wretchless than that profane Esau if thou content'st thy self only to have brought Christ to the grave that state of curse and never look'st out for the blessing provided for thee in the resurrection Mistake me not I would not drive you from this Cross of Christ discourage you from that most necessary act of faith the apprehending the crucified Saviour No if my lot had fallen on a Good-friday I would have spent my whole hour on that one theme and known nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified Only my desire is that you will not allow one act of faith to turn Projector to get all the custom from the rest that you will permit Christ to live in you as well as to die for you to bless as well as to satisfie to rise again for your justification as well as to be delivered up for your offences that you will attend him at Galilee as well as at Golgotha think of the triumphant as well as the crucified Saviour the Melchisedech as well as the mortal Aaron-Priest And not only to think of his rising I must tell you but count of a work a mighty important necessary work that of turning in this Text to be wrought on us and in us by that resurrection now after the pardon impetrated by his passion I say not only to think of and believe him risen the Devil hath as much of that thought as frequent repeated acts of that belief as you and there is not such magick in that faith or phansie as to bear you to Heaven by meditating on his journey thither to elevate you by gazing on his ascension No that faith must be in our hearts too that
but animal sensitive actions to be had from him And of this kind of imperfect Creatures it will be perhaps worth your marking that the principal faculty which is irrecoverably wanting in such and by all teaching irreparable and unimproveable is the power of numbring I mean not that of saying numbers by rote for that is but an act of sensitive memory but that of applying them to matter and from thence that of intellectual numbring i. e. of comparing and measuring judging of proportions pondering weighing discerning the differences of things by the power of the judicative faculty which two seem much more probably the propriety and difference of a man from a beast than that which the Philosophers have phansied the power of laughing or discoursing To reckon and compute is that which in men of an active clear reason is perpetually in exercising per modum actus eliciti that naturally of its own accord without any command or appointment of the Will pours it self out upon every object we shall oft deprehend our selves numbring the panes in the Window the sheep in the Field measuring every thing we come near with the eye with the hand singing Tunes forming every thing into some kind of metre which are branches still of that faculty of numbring when we have no kind of end or design in doing it And this is of all things in the world the most impossible for a meer Natural or Idiot And so you have here the third and that is the prime most remarkable degree of simplicity that the unchristian fool the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether you render it the animal or natural man is guilty of that piteous laesum principium that want of the faculty of weighing pondering or numbering that weakness or no kind of exercise of the judicative faculty from whence all his simplicity and impiety proceeds The Hebrews have a word to signifie a wise man which hath a near affinity with that of weighing and pondering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath no difference in sound from that which signifies ponderavit whence the Schecle the known Hebrew word is deduced to note as the Psalmist saith that he that is wise will ponder things All the folly and Unchristian Sin comes from want of pondering and all the Christian Wisdom Piety Discipleship consists in the exercise of this faculty Whatsoever is said most honourably of Faith in Scripture that sets it out in such a grandeur as the greatest designer and author of all the high acts of Piety Heb. xi and as the Conqueror over the World 1 John v. 4 is clearly upon this score as Faith is the Spiritual Wisdom or Prudence for so it is best defined and as by comparing and proportioning and weighing together the Promises or the Commands or the Terrours of the Gospel on one side with the Promises the Prescriptions and Terrours of the World on the other it pronounces that Hand-writing on the Wall against the latter of them the Mene tekel upharsin They are weighed in the balance and found most pitifully light in comparison of those which Christ hath to weigh against them and so the Kingdom the usurpt Supremacy that they have so long pretended to in the inconsiderate simple precipitous world is by a just judgment torn and departed from them Will you begin with the Promises and have but the patience a while to view the Scales and when you have set the Beam even removed the carnal or secular prejudices which have so possessed most of us that we can never come to a right balancing of any thing the beam naturally enclines still as our customary wonts and prepossessions will have it when I say you have set the beam impartially throw but into one scale the Promises of Christ those of his present of his future bliss of present Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entred into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. ii 9 prepared for them that love God and that at the very minute of loving him the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referring to the manna of old the Hebrew deduced from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praeparavit and therefore described by the Author of the Book of Wisdom according to that literal denotation of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread baked as it were and sent down ready from heaven to the true Israelite the gust of every Christian duty being so pleasurable and satisfactory to the palate as it were of our humane nature so consonant to every rational soul that it cannot practise or taste without being truly joyed and ravished with it and so that which was the Israelites feast the Quails and Manna being become the Christians every day ordinary diet you will allow that to be of some weight or consideration if there were nothing else but that present festival of a good conscience in the scale before you but when to that you have farther cast in the glory honour immortality which is on arrear for that Christian in another life that infinite inestimable weight of that glory laid before us as the reward of the Christian for his having been content that Christ should shew him the way to be happy here and blessed eternally and when that both present and future felicity is set off and heightned by the contrary by the indignation and anger and wrath that is the portion of the Atheistical fool and which nothing could have helped us to escape but this only Christian Sanctuary when the bliss of this Lazarus in Abrahams bosome is thus improved by the news of the scorching of the Dives in that place of torments and by all these together the scale thus laded on one side I shall then give the Devil leave to help you to what weight he can in the other scale be it his totum hoc all the riches and glory of the whole world and not only that thousandth part of the least point of the Map which is all thou canst aspire to in his service and what is it all but the bracteata felicitas in Seneca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Naez a little fictitious felicity a little paultry trash that nothing but the opinion of men hath made to differ from the most refuse stone or dirt in the Kennel the richest gems totally beholding to the simplicity and folly of men for their reputation and value in the World Besides these I presume the phansies expect to have liberty to throw in all the pleasures and joys the ravishments and transportations of all the Senses and truly that is soon done all the true joy that a whole age of carnality affords any man if you but take along with it as you cannot chuse but do in all conscience the satieties and loathings and pangs that inseparably accompany it the Leaven as well as the Honey under which the pleasures of sin are thought to be prohibited Levit. ii 11 it will make but
travail in the Spirit Be the brain never so soft and pliable never so waxy and capable of impressions yet if the heart be but carnal if it have any thing much of that lust of the flesh 1 John ii 15 in its composition it will be hard for the spiritual life to be conceived in that man For Faith the only means by which Christ lives and dwells in us Ephes iii. 17 is to be seated in the heart i. e. the will and affections according to the express words That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith So that be your brains never so swelled and puft up with perswasions of Christ our Saviour be they so big that they are ready to lye in and travail of Christ as Jove's did of Minerva in the Poem yet if the heart have not joyned in the conception if the seed sown have not taken root and drawn nourishment from the will it is but an aerial or phantastical birth or indeed rather a disease or tympany nay though it come to some proof and afterward extend and encrease in limbs and proportions never so speciously yet if it be only in the brain neither is this to be accounted solid nourishment and augmentation but such as a Camalion may be thought to have that feeds on air and it self is little better and in sum not growth but swellings So then if the will either by nature or custom of sinning by familiarity and acquaintance making them dote on sensual objects otherwise unamiable by business and worldly ambitious thoughts great enemies to faith or by pride and contentment both very incident to noble Personages and great Wits to Courtiers and Scholars In brief if this Will the stronger and more active part of the Soul remain carnal either in indulgence to many or which is the snare of judicious men in chief of some one prime sin then cannot all the faith in the world bring that man to Heaven It may work so much miracle as Simon Magus is said to have done who undertook to raise the dead give motion to the head make the eyes look up or the tongue speak but the lower part of the man and that the heaviest will by no charm or spell be brought to stir but weigh and sink even into Hell will still be carcass and corruption Damnation is his birth-right Ecclus xx 25 And it is impossible though not absolutely yet ex hypothesi the second Covenant being now sealed even for God himself to save him or give him life It is not David's Musick that exorcised and quieted Saul's evil spirit nor Pythagora's Spondees that tamed a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set him right in his wits for ever that can work any effect on a fleshy heart So that Chrysostom would not wonder at the voice that cryed O Altar Altar hear the voice of the Lord because Jeroboam's heart was harder than that nor will I find fault with Bonaventure that made a solemn prayer for a stony heart as if it were more likely to receive impression than that which he had already of flesh It were long to insist on the wilfulness of our fleshy hearts how they make a faction within themselves and bandy faculties for the Devil how when grace and life appear and make profer of themselves all the carnal affections like them in the Gospel Joyn all with one consent to make excuses nothing in our whole lives we are so sollicitous for as to get off fairly to have made a cleanly Apology to the invitations of God's Spirit and yet for a need rather than go we will venture to be unmannerly We have all married a Wife espoused our selves to some amiable delight or other we cannot we will not come The Devil is wiser in his generation than we he knows the price and value of a Soul and will pay any rate for it rather than lose his market he will give all the riches in the world rather than miss And we at how low a rate do we prize it it is the cheapest commodity we carry about us The beggarliest content under Heaven is fair is rich enough to be given in exchange for the Soul Spiritus non ponderat saith the Philosopher the Soul being a spirit when we put it into the balance weighs nothing nay more than so it is lighter than vanity lighter than nothing i. e. it doth not only weigh nothing but even lifts up the scale it is put into when nothing is weighed against it How many sins how many vanities how many idols i. e. in the Scripture phrase how many nothings be there in the world each of which will out-weigh and preponderate the Soul It were tedious to observe and describe the several ways that our devilish sagacity hath found out to speed our selves to damnation to make quicker dispatch in that unhappy rode than ever Elias his fiery Chariot could do toward Heaven Our daily practice is too fâ—ll of arguments almost every minute of our lives as it is an example so is it a proof of it Our pains will be employed to better purpose if we leave that as a worn beaten common place and betake our selves to a more necessary Theme a close of Exhortation And that shall be by way of Treaty as an Ambassador sent from God that you will lay down your arms that you will be content to be friends with God and accept of fair terms of composition which are That as you have thus long been enemies to God proclaiming hostility and perpetually opposing every merciful will of his by that wilfulness so now being likely to fall into his hands you will prevent that ruine you will come in and whilst it is not too late submit your selves that you may not be forced as Rebels and Outlaws but submit as Servants This perhaps may be your last parley for peace and if you stand out the battery will begin suddenly and with it the horrendum est Heb. x. 31 It is a fearful hideous thing to fall into the hands of the living God All that remains upon our wilful holding out may be the doom of Apostates from Christianity a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries Vers 27. And methinks the very emphasis in my Text notes as much Why will you die As if we were just now falling into the Pit and there were but one minute betwixt this time of our jollity and our everlasting hell Do but lay this one circumstance to your hearts do but suppose your selves on a Bed of sickness laid at with a violent burning Fever such a one as shall finally consume the whole world as it were battered with thundering and lightning and besieged with fire where the next throw or plunge of thy disease may possibly separate thy soul from thy body and the mouth of Hell just then open and yawning at thee and then suppose there were one only minute wherein a serious resigning up
pray God to encrease his graces In matters of spiritual joy and sorrow I will if I can be counselled by an heart which once was broken that I may see how he recovered and repair my breaches by a pattern and yet even these things may be learnt from him which never had them but in his speculation as the Physician may cure a Disease though himself was never sick of it But for the ordinary Theories of Religion I will have patience to receive instructions from any one and not examine his practices but in modesty and in submission and humility receive the Law at his mouth But all this with caution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to a guide not a Monarch of my Faith rule he shall my belief but not tyrannize over it I will assent to my teacher till I can disprove him but adhere and anchor and fix my self on the Scripture 7. In matters of superstruction where Scripture lays the foundation but interpreters i. e. private spirits build upon it some gold some stubble c. and I cannot judge or discern which is firmliest rooted on the foundation I will take the Philosophers Counsel in the first of his Rhetor. and observe either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be guided either by the ancientest if they have shewed themselves in the cause or else men alive which be best reputed of for integrity and judgment I shall scarce trust the honestest man you can commend to me unless I have some knowledge of his parts nor the learned'st you can cry up unless I can believe somewhat in his sincerity 8. All the contradictions and new ways of my own brain opposite or wide from the current of the learned I must suspect for a work of my own phansie not entitle them to Gods spirit in me Verebar omnia opera mea saith Job whatever a man can call his own he must be very cautious and jealous over it For 't is no less than atheism which the scorners of the last age are to fall upon by walking after their own lusts 2 Pet. iii. 3 And thus was the Pharisees practice here who makes use of his own authority to deny Christ 't was the Pharisees that said Have any of the Pharisees believed on him There is not a more dangerous Mother of Heresies in the midst of Piety than this one that our phansy first assures us that we have the spirit and then that every phansie of ours is Theopneust the work of the spirit There are a multitude of deceits got altogether here 1. We make every idle perswasion of our own the evidence of Gods Spirit then we join infallibility to the person being confident of the gift then we make every breath of our Nostrils and flame that can break out of our hearts an immediate effect of the spirit and fire which hath spiritually enlivened us and then we are sure it is authentical and all this while we never examine either the ground or deductions from it but take all upon trust from that everlasting deceiver our own heart which we ought to sit upon and judge of by proofs and witnesses by comparing it with other mens dictates probably as godly perhaps more learned but certainly more impartial Judges of thee than thou canst be of thy self Lastly If the word of God speak distinctly and clearly enforce as here by miracles done before all men to their astonishment and redargution then will I not stay my belief to wait on or follow the learnedst man in the world when Christ himself speaks to my Eyes the proudest eminentest Pharisee in Earth or Hell nay if any of their Sect have crowded into Heaven shall not be able to charm my Ear or lay any clog upon my understanding So that you see the Pharisees argument in that case was sophistical the matter being so plain to them that they needed no advice His works bore witness of him John v. 36 yet in the general it holds probable and learning remains a good guide still though an ill Master in matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first thing we undertook to demonstrate And this we should draw down yet lower to our practice and that variously but that almost every Proposition insisted on hath in part spoken to your affections and so prevented store of uses This only must not be omitted For Scholars to learn to set a value on their precious blessing which God hath vouchsafed them above all the World beside to bless God infinitely that they understand and conceive what they are commanded to believe this I am sure of there is not a greater and more blessed priviledge besides Gods spirit which our humane condition is capable of than this of learning and specially divine knowledge of which Aristotle himself witnesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none i◠better than it As long as we have no evidence or demonstration from that which yet it most nearly concerns us to rely upon we cannot enjoy without an immediate supernatural irradiation a tranquillity and consistency of spirit we cannot peremptorily have resolved our selves that we have built upon the rock every temptation proves a discouragement to us many horrours take hold of us and sometimes we must needs fall to that low ebb not far from despair which the Apostles were in Luke xxiv 22 We had trusted but now we know not what to think of it that this was he that should have redeemed Israel But to see all the Articles of my Faith ratified and confirmed to my understanding to see the greatest treasure and inheritance in the World sealed and delivered to me in my hand written in a Character and Language that I am perfectly skilled in O what a comfort is this to a Christian Soul O what a fulness of joy to have all the mysteries of my Salvation transcribed out of the Book of the Lord and written in my heart where I can turn and survey and make use of them as much and as often as I will Nay where I have them without Book though there were neither Father nor Bible in the World able out of my own stock to give an account nay a reason of my faith before the perversest Papist Heathen or Devil This serves me instead of having lived and conversed and been acquainted with Christ By this I have my fingers put into the print of the nails and my hands thrust into his side and am as sure as ever Thomas was I see him as palpably as he that handled him that he is my Lord and my God 'T was observed by the Philosopher as an act generally practised among Tyrants to prohibit all Schools and means of learning and education in the Commonwealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer neither learning nor Schools nor common meetings that men being kept blind might be sure to obey and tyrannical commands through ignorance be mistaken for fair Government And thus did Julian interdict the Christians all manner
of literature and chiefly Philosophy for fear saith Nazianzen they should be able to grapple with the Heathen and cut off Goliah's Head with his own Weapon The continuance of these arts of spiritual Tyranny you may observe in the prescribed stupidity and commanded ignorance of the laity through all Italy All which must call for a superlative measure of thanks to be exprest not in our tongues and hearts only but in our lives and actions from us I say who have obtained not only a knowledge of his laws but almost a Vision of his secrets and for as much as concerns our eternal bliss do even see things as they were acted having already comprehended in our reason not only in our Faith the most impossible things in nature the bredth and length and depth and height of the conceived incarnate and crucified God and if all that will not serve our turn but we must press into his Cabinet-secrets invade the Book of Life and oversee and divulge to all men abscondita Domini Dei nostri then are Gods mercies unworthily repaid by us and those indulgences which were to bestow civility upon the World have only taught us to be more rude In summ the reallest thanks we can perform to God for this inestimable prize is modestly and softly to make use of it 1. To the confirming of others Faith and 2. to the expressing of our own For 1. he is the deepest Scholar saith the Philosopher who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 best able to teach other men what himself conceives and then 2. he hath the habit most radicated who hath prest it down into his heart and there sow'd a Seed which shall encrease and fructify and spread and flourish laden with the fruits of a lively Faith He is the truest Scholar that hath fed upon learning that hath nourished and grown and walked and lived in the strength of it And till I see you thrive and bestir your selves like Christians I shall never envy your learning the Pharisees were great Scholars well seen in the Prophets and 't is much to be suspected could not choose but find Christ there and acknowledge him by his Miracles they saw him plain enough and yet not a man would believe on him My second part The greatest Scholars are not always the best Christians 'T is observable in the temper of men that the cowardly are most inquisitive their fears and jealousies make them very careful to foresee any danger and yet for the most part they have not spirit enough to encounter and they are so stupid and sluggish that they will not get out of its way when they have foreseen it the same baseness and timorousness makes them a sort of men most diligent at a distance to avoid and near hand most negligent to prevent Thus in Dan. iv 5 Nebuchadnezzar dreams and is affrighted and a Proclamation is made for all the Wisdom of the World to come in and consult and sit upon it and give their verdict for the interpretation of the Dream and when he had at last got the knowledge of it by Daniel that his fears were not in vain that the greatest judgment that ever was heard of was within a twelve Month to fall on him then as though he had been a Beast before his time without all understanding he goes and crowns himself for his slaughter Just when according to the Prophecy he was to suffer then was he walking in his pride whilest he was ignorant he was sensible of his danger and now he sees it before his Eyes he is most prodigiously blind At the end of twelve months when his ruine was at hand ver 29. he walked in the Palace of the Kingdom of Babylon and the King spake and said Is not this great Babylon that I have built c. In brief he that was most earnest to understand the Dream is most negligent of the event of it and makes no other use of his knowledge of God's Will but only more knowingly and wilfully to contemn it And this generally is the state of corrupt nature to keep a distance and a bay betwixt our knowledge and our wills and when a truth hath fully conquer'd and got possession of our understanding then to begin to fortify most strongly that the other Castle of the Soul the affections may yet remain impregnable Thus will the Devil be content to have the Out-works and the Watch-Tower taken so he may be sure to keep his treasure within from danger and will give us leave to be as great Scholars as himself so we will continue as prophane And so we are like enough to do for all our knowledge for Wisdom saith Aristotle is terminated in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it neither looks after nor produces any practical good saith Andronicus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay there is no dependence betwixt knowing and doing as he that hath read and studied the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may perhaps be never the better Wrastler nor the skilfullest Physician the more healthy experience and tryal must perfect the one and a good temperature constitute the other A young man may be a good Naturalist a good Geometer nay a wise man because he may understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonders depths nay Divine matters but hee 'l never be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prudent or actually vertuous i. e. a good Moralist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moral precepts they cannot be said to believe they have not entred so far they float only in their memories they have them by heart they say them over by rote as Children do their Catechism or Plato's Scholars saith Plutarch his depths of Philosophy they now recite them only and shall then understand them when they come of Age when they are stayed enough to look into the meaning of them and make use of them in their practice The Mathematicks saith Aristotle have nothing to do with the end or chief good that men look after never any man brought good or bad better or worse into a demonstration there 's no consultation or election there only plain downright diagrams necessary convictions of the understanding And therefore for these meer speculations which hover only in the brain the youngest Wit is nimblest for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharpness of apprehension is a sprightfulness of the mind and is there liveliest where there be most spirits but prudence and active vertue requires an habituate temper of passions a stayedness of the mind and long tryal and experience of its own strength a constancy to continue in vertue in spight of all foreign allurements or inward distempers And the ground of all this is that those things that most incumber the Will and keep us from practice do nothing clog or stop the understanding sensuality or pleasure hinders us not from knowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that a Triangle hath three angles equal to two right ones and the like Nay the
Soul bestows all life and motion on it and enables it to perform any work of nature Again the Body and Soul together considered in relation to somewhat above their power and activity are as impotent and motionless as before the Body without the Soul Set a man to remove a Mountain and he will heave perhaps to obey your command but in event will do no more towards the displacing of it than a stone in the street could do but now let an Omnipotent Power be annext to this man let a supernatural spirit be joined to this Soul and then will it be able to overcome the proudest stoutest difficulty in nature You have heard in the Primitive Church of a grain of Faith removing Mountains and believe me all Miracles are not yet out-dated The work of Regeneration the bestowing of a spiritual Life on one dead in trespasses and sins the making of a Carcass walk the natural old man to spring again and move spiritually is as great a miracle as that Now the Soul in that it produces life and motion the exercise of life in the body is called a principle that is a Spring or Fountain of Life because all comes from it in like manner that which moves this Soul and enables it to do that which naturally it could not that which gives it a new life which before it lived not furnisheth it with spiritual powers to quell and subdue all carnal affections which were before too hard for it this I say is called properly an inward principle and an inward because it is inwardly and secretly infused doth not only outwardly assist us as an auxiliary at a dead lift but is sown and planted in our hearts as a Soul to the Soul to elevate and enable it above it self hath its seat and palace in the regenerate heart and there exercises dominion executes judgment and that is commonly either by Prison or Banishment it either fetters or else expels all insolent rebellious lusts Now the new principle by which not the man but the new man the Christian lives is in a word the spirit of God which unites it self to the regenerate heart so that now he is said to be a godly man a spiritual man from the God from the Spirit as before a living reasonable man from the Soul from the reason that inform'd and ruled in him which is noted by that distinction in Scripture betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate exprest by a natural or animal and a spiritual man Those Creatures that have no Soul in them are called naturals having nothing but nature within to move them others which have a Soul animals or living Creatures by both which the unregenerate is signified indifferently because the Soul which he hath stands him in little stead his flesh rules all and then he is also called a carnal man for all his Soul he is but a lump of flesh and therefore whether you say he hath a Soul and so call him an animal or hath not a Soul and so call him a mere natural there is no great difference in it But now the regenerate man which hath more than a Soul Gods spirit to enliven him he is of another rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual man nay only he properly a Christian because he lives by Christ He lives yet not he but Christ liveth 〈◊〉 him Gal. ii 20 This being premised that now you know what this new Creature is he that lives and moves by a new principle all that is behind will be clearliest presented to you by resolving these four questions first whence it comes secondly where it lodges thirdly when it enters fourthly what works it performs there To the first whence it comes the answer is clear and punctual John iii. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from above from whence comes every good and especially every perfect gift James i. 17 but this most peculiarly by a several and more excellent way than any thing else Since Christs Ascension the Holy Ghost of all the persons in the Trinity is most frequently employed in the work of descending from Heaven and that by way of mission from the Father and the Son according to the promise of Christ John xv 26 The comforter whom I will send from the Father Now this spirit being present every where in its essence is said to come to us by communication of his gifts and so to be peculiarly resident in us as God is in the Church from which Analogy our Bodies are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. vi 19 God sends then his spirit into our hearts and this I said by a peculiar manner not by way of emission as an Arrow sent out of a Bow which loses its union which it had with the Bow and is now fastned in the Butt or White nor properly by way of infusion as the Soul is in the Body infus'd from God yet so also that it is in a manner put into our hands and is so in the man's possession that hath it that it is neither in any mans else nor yet by any extraordinary tye annext to God from whom it came but by way of irradiation as a beam sent from the Sun that is in the air indeed and that substantially yet so as it is not separated from the Sun nay consists only in this that it is united to the Sun so that if it were possible for it to be cut off from the Sun it would desist to be it would illuminate no longer So that you must conceive these beams of Gods spirit at the same time in the Christians heart and in the spirit and so uniting that spirit to the heart as you may conceive by this proportion I have a Javelin or Spear in my hand if I would mischief any thing or drive it from me I dart it out of my hand at it from which Gods judgments are compared to shooting and lightning He hath bent his bow he hath sent forth his arrows he cast forth lightnings Psalm xviii 14 But if I like any thing that I meet with if I would have it to me I reach out my Spear and fasten in it but still hold the Spear in my hand and having pierc't it draw it to me Thus doth God reach forth his graces to us and as I may so say by keeping one end in his hand and fastning the other in us plucks and unites us to himself from which regeneration is ordinarily called an union with Christ and this union by a strong able band 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb his phrase which no man can cut asunder 'T is impossible to divide or cut a spirit and this Bond is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual one and that made St. Paul so confident That no creature should ever separate him Rom. viii 39 And this God does by way of emanation as a Loadstone sending out its effluvia or magnetick atomes draws the Iron to
from the 22. verse and 1 Peter i. 5 All these graces together though some belonging to one some to another faculty of the Soul are yet all at once conceived in it at once begin their life in the heart though one be perhaps sooner ready to walk abroad and shew it self in the World than another As in the 2 of Kings iv 34 Elisha went up on the bed and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and eyes upon his eyes and hands upon his hands and stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm and verse 35. the Child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes Thus I say doth the spirit apply it self unto the Soul and measure it self out to every part of it and then the spiritual life comes at once into the Soul as motion beginning in the centre diffuses it self equally through the whole sphere and affecteth every part of the Circumference and the flesh of the child waxed warm where the flesh indefinitely signifieth every part of it together and in the spiritual sense the whole Soul and this is when the inward principle when the habit enters Then for acts of life one perhaps shews it self before another as the Child first sneezed seven times a violent disburthening it self of some troublesome humours that tickle in the head to which may be answerable our spiritual clearing and purging our selves by Self-denyal the laying aside every weight Heb. xii 1 then opened his eyes which in our spiritual Creature is spiritual illumination or the eye of Faith these I say may first shew themselves as acts and yet sometimes others before them yet all alike in the habit all of one standing one Conception one plantation in the heart though indeed ordinarily like Esau and Jacob the rougher come out first We begin our spiritual life in Repentance and contrition and with many harsh twinges of the spirit and then comes Faith like Jacob at the Heels smooth and soft applying all the cordial promises to our penitent Souls In brief if any judgment be to be made which of these graces is first in the regenerate man and which rules in chief I conceive Self-denial and Faith to be there first and most eminent according to that notable place Matth. xvi 24 where Christ seems to set down the order of graces in true Disciples Let him deny himself and take up his Cross that is forgo all his carnal delights and embrace all manner of punishments and miseries prepare himself even to go and be Crucified and then follow me that is by a lively Faith believe in Christ and prize him before all the World besides and indeed in effect these two are but one though they appear to us in several shapes for Faith is nothing without Self-denial it cannot work till our carnal affections be subjected to it Believe a man may and have flesh and fleshly lust in him but unless Faith have the pre-eminence Faith is no Faith The man may be divided betwixt the law of his members and the law of his mind so many degrees of flesh so many of spirit but if there be constantly but an even balance or more of flesh than spirit if three degrees of spirit and five of flesh then can there not be said to be any true Self-denyal and consequently any Faith no more than that can be said to be hot which hath more degrees of cold than heat in it In brief 't is a good measure of Self-denyal that sets his Faith in his Throne and when by it Faith hath conquered though not without continual resistance when it hath once got the upper hand then is the man said to be regenerate whereupon it is that the regenerate state is called the life of Faith Faith is become a principle of the greatest power and activity in the Soul And so much for these four Queries from which I conceive every thing that is material and directly pertinent to instruct you and open the estate of a new Creature may be resolved And for other niceties how far we may prepare our selves how cooperate and join issue with the spirit whether it work irresistibly by way of physical influence or moral perswasion whether being once had it may totally or finally be lost again and the like these I say if they are fit for any I am resolved are not necessary for a Countrey Auditory to be instructed in 'T will be more for your profit to have your hearts raised than your brains puft up to have your spirits and souls inwardly affected to an earnest desire and longing after it which will perhaps be somewhat performed if we proceed to shew you the necessity of it and unavailableness of all things else and that by way of use and application And for the necessity of renewedness of heart to demonstrate that I will only crave of you to grant me that the performance of any one duty towards God is necessary and then it will prove it self for it is certain no duty to God can be performed without it For 't is not a fair outside a slight performance a bare work done that is accepted by God if it were Cain would deserve as much thanks for his Sacrifice as his Brother Abel for in the outside of them there was no difference unless perhaps on Cain's side that he was forwardest in the duty and offered first Gen. iv 3 But it is the inside of the action the marrow and bowels of it that God judges by If a summ in gross or a bag sealed up would pass for payment in Gods audit every man would come and make his accounts duly enough with him and what he wanted in gold for his payment should be made up in Counters But God goes more exactly to work when he comes to call thee to an account of thy Stewardship he is a God of thoughts and a searcher of the hearts and reins and 't will then be a harder business to be found just when he examines or clear when he will judge The least spot and blemish in the Face of it the least maim or imperfection in the Offering the least negligence or coldness in the performance nay the least corruption in the heart of him that doth it hath utterly spoiled the Sacrifice Be the bulk and skin of the work never so large and beautiful to the Eye if it come not from a sanctified renewed gracious heart it will find no acceptance but that in the Prophet Who hath required it at your hands This is not it that God is taken with or such as he commanded it may pass for a complement or a work of course but never be valued as a duty or real service Resolve thy self to dwell no where but in the Church and there like Simeon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euseb plant thy self continually in a Pillar with thy Eyes and words fixt and shot up perpetually towards
more We say therefore that we believe the forgiveness of sins and 't is a blessed confidence that all the treasures in the World cannot equal But do our selves keep equipage and hand in hand accompany this profession Let me Catechize you a while You believe the forgiveness of sins but I hope not absolutely that the sufferings of Christ shall effectually clear every mans score at the day of Judgment well then it must be meant only of those that by repentance and faith are grafted into Christ and shall appear at that great Marriage in a wedding garment which shall be acknowledged the livery and colours of the Lamb. But do our lives ever stand to this explication and restriction of the Article Do they ever expect this beloved remission by performing the condition of repentance Do we ever go about to make our selves capable of receiving this mercy conditionally offer'd us Nay do we not by our wilful stupidity and pertinacious continuing in sin nullify in respect of us all that satisfaction of Christ and utterly abandon those means which must bring home this remission to us The truth is our Faith runs only on general terms we are willing to lay all our sins on Christs shoulders and perswade our selves somewhat slightly and coldly that he will bear them in the root and in the fruit in the bullion and in the coyn in the gross and in the retail i. e. both our original and our actual transgressions but we never take any course to rest satisfied that we in particular shall participate of this happiness This requires the humiliation of the whole man the spirit of bondage for a while afterwards a second purity and virginity of the Soul recovered by repentance and then a soberly grounded faith and confidence and an expressing of it by our own forgiving of others And till this piece of our Creed be thus explained and interpreted in our conversation we remain but confident Atheists not able to perswade any body that hears us that indeed we believe what we profess Sixthly and lastly The resurrection of the body and its consequent everlasting life is the close of our Faith and end and prop and encouragement and consummation of our hope and yet we take most pains of all to prove our selves Infidels in this our whole carriage both in the choice and observance of our Religion shew that we do not depend on it that we put no confidence in the Resurrection If we went on this assurance we should contemn any worldly encouragement and make the same thing both the object and end of our service We should scorn to take notice of so poor a thing as profit or convenience is in a matter of so high importance knowing and expecting that our reward shall be great in Heaven This one thought of a Resurrection and an infinite reward of any faithful undertaking of ours would make us disdain and almost be afraid of any temporal recompence for our worship of God for fear it should by paying us before-hand deprive us of that everlasting one We should catch and be ambitious of that expression of devotion which were most painful and least profitable as to worldly advantage and yet we in the stupidity of Atheistical hearts are so improvidently covetous so hasty and impatient in our Religion that unless some present gain allure and draw us we have no manner of life or spirit or alacrity to this as we count it unprofitable service of God The least incumbrance in the world will fright us from the greatest forwardness and nimbleness and activity in Religion and the least appearance of promotion or other like encouragement will produce and raise in us these affections and expressions of zeal which the expectation of the resurrection could never work in us Our religion is somewhat like that of the Samaritans before Christs time either Jews or Heathens according as their King Antiochus would have them after Christs time were perpetually either Jews or Christians according as the Romans their new Lords and Masters either threatned or granted priviledge to the Jews If there were any thing to be gotten by the profession they would be as solemn Christians as any So when the Goths and Vandals over-run Italy and whether upon good affection or compulsion from God I know not spared them that fled to the Basilica in Rome the place where the Christians exercised then I say they which formerly persecuted the Christians now bore them Company very friendly to their Churches and to save their lives fled to the Temple for a refuge which before they abomin'd and made use of Christianity for their safe-guard which they would not own for their religion and hurried to that Sanctuary for their lives which they would not visit for their Souls The condition of our Religion is like that which is upbraided to Ephraim Hos x. 11 Ephraim is like an Heifer that loveth to tread out the Corn. 'T was prohibited by the Law to muzzle the Ox or Heifer that treadeth out the Corn 't was allowed them to feed as long as they did the work and that made Ephraim love the toil so well because that at the very time he performed the labour he enjoy'd the fruit of it had as we say his wages in his hand had some present emolument that would ingratiate his work to him was not left to such a tedious expectation to so long a date as to wait for his reward till the Resurrection those were too hard terms for him he could not endure to be ty'd so long up to the empty rack or feed upon the bit And thus hasty are we in the exacting of our reward for our service of God we will never set our hands to it unless we may make our conditions we are resolved not to be such Fools as to serve God for nought to spend the quickest of our spirits in a sowre crabbed profession and expect our thanks at Dooms-day This plainly demonstrates that however our theory be possest our practice places no trust no confidence no assurance in that part of our Creed the resurrection Again 't was an excellent argument to perswade doubtful Christians in the youth and non-age of the Church of the certainty of the Resurrection that religious men and those whom undoubtedly God loved were full of sufferings in this World and lived and died many of them without any expression of Gods favour to them which made them certainly to conclude that no doubt God hath some other course to exhibit himself in the riches of his mercy to them and seeing there was no hope but in another World Verily there should be a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth and by this argument we may try our selves for the sincerity of our Faith in this business If we can be patient to endure afflictions here and not complain or grumble for a respite and deliverance but keep all our hopes to be