as his sins let him look upon this Pillar and mark that it is a Monument erected against a relapsing convert against one that was turning from the vain pomp of the World and did not persevere For she that fled from Sodom and lookt back perished as well as they that never came out And he that will consider what an heinous crime it is to be invited unto mercy and abuse it let him taste of this salt and feel what a strange judgment remains in this example to cast away that which God would have saved All this is tacitly included in the words which I have read unto you and as the Prophets of old uttered their Prophetical spirit many times by deeds and gestures as well as by word and speech So God doth teach his Church as well by fact as by precept Those Exhortations I premised were not doctrinally delivered at the castigation of Lot's Wife but miraculously exhibited in a visible work objectivè non praeceptivè they are not passed over in a line or two by the Pen of a ready Writer but built up for all posterity to look upon in a durable Monument And when judgment advanceth it self in a Trophy in a standing Pillar every man will conceive that it is meant it should be a monitory to all succession rather than if it were a fluxive a transitory penalty that left no print behind it The Idol Calf which the Israelites worshipped was beaten to powder the dust of it blown away before the wind and drunk up in the River The Sea which had given back on either side for the passage of Gods Host met together and overwhelmed Pharaoh and his Army in the bottom that they were no more seen The Earth clave and opened it self to swallow up Korah Dathan and Abiram and it closed again so that no appearance of them remained Nothing was found of Jezebel eaten up of dogs but her skull her feet and the palms of her hands So it pleased him who sits on high that all visible memorial of these sinners should be rid out of the way But He made brine of Lot's Wife and congealed it into a Statue where it stood longafter nay I cannot convince those reporters who have written that the reliques of it are to be seen to this day that passengers might shake their heads at it and say Ah thou that wert pluckt out of Sodom like a brand out of the fire and yet didst loiter by the way and couldst not refrain to cast back a wishing and a voluptuous eye upon those filthy habitations Ingenious fancies have taken scope to riddle upon this judgment Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver sepulchrum tamen cadaver intus that she was a dead corps that had no sepulcher and that she was a sepulcher that had no dead corps and yet it was both corps and sepulcher This gives me the hint to divide my Text into an Epitaph and a Tomb the Epitaph His wife looked back from behind him the Tomb which that Epitaph respects is that she became a pillar of salt If you will have it in Logical terms which come all to one pass thus here are two principal heads to which all the matter is to be referred qua fecit quae passa est first what she did and that 's the summary Enditement of her sin secondly what she suffered and that 's the sentence of her punishment I bind my self to the first part only at this time in which there is cumulus salis as many corns of salt as will lie upon a knifs point so in these few words she looked back from behind him many Commandments are broken 1. She was inobsequens she looked back being expresly forbidden there 's disobedience 2. Excors here 's blindness of heart she might have saved her self by going streight on and looking forward yet she violated those easie conditions 3. Iâ—docilis she looked back from behind him Lot was a good example that went before her and she would go her own ways 4. Incredula she doubted whether those Cities should be destroyed as God had sent word or she thought it would not be the worse for her though she stood still and gazed upon Sodom 5. Recidiva she fainted in well doing and had a desire growing upon her to live again among those filthy sinners whom she had escaped 6. Misericordiae contemtrix she was slow to save her self and did not fly away upon the wings of mercy 7. Beneficii pertaesa she rather valued what she had lost than what she had saved her Habitation her Estate and Riches were consumed for her lifes preservation she set little by that and so loathed the benefit The Angel speaks in the 17. verse of this Chapter Escape for thy life look not behind thee neither stay thou in all the Plain yet she would not hearken no not to such a Monitor as an Angel but she looked back from behind him and so stands guilty of disobedience For disobedience is a sin by it self alone Cum crimen potius contra prohibitionem quà m contra rem ipsam fiat says the School when the fact it self were innocent but that the prohibition of the Lawgiver makes it nocent There are some Commandments of Gods which lean not so much upon apparent reason as upon absolute authority For though there be weighty causes which moved the most wise God to appoint it so yet when those reasons are not emergent out of the seeds of nature nor any way exprest and revealed as the Angel expresseth none in this place then the Command is said to come from absolute and uncontradicted dominion to try obedience There is a natural Law which lighteth every man that cometh into the World to choose the good in sundry cases of honesty and to refuse the evil this light is not a pure elementary fire but ignis culinaris as we say in Philosophy an impure smoaky flame which makes it apparent to the understanding what 's filthy to the soul as well as what 's noxious to the body And in those things where God is little known or at least little thought of humanity it self doth suggest the performance But because we rest not in the good of nature only as beasts do but aspire to a supernatural end and felicity therefore there is a supernatural Law to bring us to it Repent and believe and thou shalt be saved this is the Covenant of mercy and forgiveness which is made in Christ and the grace of God doth work in us a good will to those Divine duties that we do not frustrate our salvation Then thirdly the Sacraments of the New Testament are the Seals of the righteousness of faith as Sacraments they are Ceremonial Ordinances and are solemnly kept upon submission to the absolute Command of the Divine Authority but as faith is necessarily now knit unto them so they are a limb of the supernatural Law and are carefully observed not as Canons
gestemus he doth bear us up always in his hands let us bear him and enclasp him in our Faith and say as Israel did I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me says Origen Was it so beneficial to a poor woman to touch the hem of Christs garment in the Gospel then how profitable will it be to hold him close in our embraces as this Father did And as Maldonat says very truly Non credentis est modo sed amantis complectimur quos amamus This doth not only betoken Faith but exceeding love we hug them in our arms whom we have in dear estimation we catch them in our arms as if we would grow together so if we love the Lord sincerely we are one with him and he with us we dwell in him and he in us This amplexus arctissimus and he that loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Chiefly at this time in the holy Sacrament we see him upon the Lords Table we take him in our hands we incorporate him in our souls by a lively faith and at his mystical presence in these Elements let us say as it is reported of a Religious Votary called Maria Aegyptiaca when Zozimus the Abbat gave her the Bread of Life upon her sick bed she beheld the Sacrament wishly which is the seal of all Christs mercies towards us and brake out into this song of Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Amen THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE i. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people AMong all portions of Scripture that afford matter for Christmass day I have for the most part hitherto chosen those Texts to speak of before you which are extracted out of the Songs of the New Testament Our Proverb goes It is good to be merry and wise Every Section of the Gospel disposeth us to be wise unto eternal life but the Canticles which sing the birth of Christ they teach us to be merry and wise unto Salvation Nothing doth better agree with this day than a godly Song Sing we merrily unto God our strength make a chearful noise unto the God of Jacob. You have heard me divers times preach unto you out of the Angels Carol Luke ii The last year I made my Sermon out of the Song of Simeon Nunc dimittis and I am sure I could not furnish my self better this year than out of the Song of Zachary so appositely doth it serve our turn both for our spiritual benefit procured in our Saviours Nativity and for our temporal benefit God having repossessed us after a lingring and destructive contagion in health and safety to break out into this Thanksgiving Blessed be the Lord c. The Lord turn us unto him and bring us out of our evil ways for therefore he visited us The Lord make us his own peculiar people zealous of good works for therefore he hath redeemed us When you hear of a Visitation and Redemption I know your thoughts will carry you presently to your late sufferance under a bitter scourge and to Gods merciful deliverance This is not amiss and I wish it may be long in your mind to bring forth the fruit of righteousness But this Visitation whereof my Text speaks it invites you to look above you not about you it invites you to think of that heavenly Infant that was born unto us not of those Sucklings and Infants that were swept away with the late mortality and by all means let us prefer the rejoycing that we have in Christ at this time before that other gladness for our bodily prosperity intend that chiefly and the condition of our own particular welfare let that come behind in a latter regard so did Zachary the Priest from whose mouth my Text proceeded God did give him a Son for the comfort of his own Family and such a Son as a greater than he was not born of a woman John the Baptist God also gave him to understand by Prophetical illumination that the Messias the Redeemer of the World was in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mark now the Piety of this good old man first he praiseth God for the Incarnation of Jesus that he raised up an horn of salvation for them out of the house of David and in the last close of the Song he magnifies that blessing that such a Son should be born to him in his old age and thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest This is a fair direction for our use that this should be the first thing in our thoughts and in our thankfulness to say Blessed be the Lord that the Word was made Flesh and hath dwelt among us Having told you how well this Song doth become the day and that the chief note of the Song is in the word Visitavit the Son of God did visit his people in an humane body I will yet give you more content out of the Text by informing you that it is a most remarkable Prophesie from Malachy for the space of four hundred years there had been no Prophet in all the Land of Judaea and therefore we count all that Apocryphal Scripture which is thrust upon us from the days of Malachi to Christ because there was no Prophetical inspiration among the Jews Behold now when a Prophet was grown such a rare thing among them the Lord opens the mouth of Zachary the Priest and he begins to Prophesie It is well noted of Origen that after the blessed Virgin conceived our Saviour men and women wheresoever she came were all inspired with Prophesie Elizabeth the wife of Zachary breaks out into admiration and how is it that the Mother of my Lord doth come unto me And she Prophesies the Child sprang in the mothers womb for exultation that the Messias was under that Roofe that was a mighty Prophesie not in word but in deed When Mary came to the Temple and brought Jesus with her to be purified after the Law Simeon and Anna in their several turns gave thanks unto the Lord and Prophesied but Zachary though last named he is the first and most memorable of the rest that spake mighty things in the Spirit the reviver of Prophesie after a long time it had lain asleep and to set an Emphasis upon my Text the words of it are the first that came from him after he had been dumb and the first that he uttered after he became a Prophet In a word mark it that he is the first-born of the Sons of the Prophets in the New Testament and this Text is the first fruits of his Prophesie Christ was yet but an Embrio his mother but three months gone since she conceived and yet Zachary speaks with a most Prophetical confidence of things to come as if they were past already as if the sweet Babe were born who had not yet opened the womb He hath visited and he
Person of the Trinity did fight against them they resisted the Spirit of God and the same Spirit resisted them Certainly you shall confess out of holy Scripture that not only these but all other refractory men are inchanted with a kind of Sorcery who are contumacious and will not believe what the Word of God doth evidently perswade them 2 Tim. iii. 7. There are some says the Apostle ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth for as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobates concerning the Faith There are some who are always learning why there is no hurt in that nay it is most worthy of praise Seek the Lord and your soul shall live says David seek his face evermore My often named St. Austin hath a pure meditation upon it Quaeramus inveniendum quaeramus inventum ut inveniendus quaeratur occultus est ut inventus quaeratur immensus est That is seek the Lord that he may be found seek him when he is found be ever learning His glory is hidden secretly therefore he must be sought that he may be found And his glory is immense and infinite therefore seek him evermore when he is found But how comes it to pass that such as are always learning never come to the knowledge of the truth Because they deceive themselves and think that God hath made them wiser than their Teachers They will do nothing unless their own ignorant surmises and private spirit and doating revelations give them satisfaction There are labourers great store in the harvest you cannot say that you want Teachers I would we had not cause to complain that we want Learners Every illiterate man is as peremptory in his own opinion as if he were not a Disciple but a Judge of Divinity and if they be checkt for perverseness that they will not let the Pastor of their soul perswade them they are ready to reply as Zedekiah the false Wizzard did to Michaiah Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from us to you Take heed of this stiff-neckt perverseness as well in Civil matters as Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the best Poet let us condescend one to another I to you you to me and reach out our arms to hold peace and charity fast between us As for the obstinate and contentious they are far from the spirit of John Baptist who knew himself to be most insufficient to baptize our Saviour yet after one words direction he obeyed and Then he suffered him And this is enough to be spoken of the first part of the Text unless some turbulent spirits among you do still resolve to be obstinate in their obstinacy John refuseth no more and the impediment of this famous baptizing is removed away so the instrumental cause being aptly prepared now follows the effect Jesus was baptized The reasons for which Baptism I will first pass on and then some meditations of Use upon it I draw the reasons why Christ submitted his own Person to be baptized into five heads First that an Institution so poor and despicable in it self might not be contemned for what can be said more to give it warrant and authority than to say Thus my Saviour was washt in Jordan What so divine an instigation to press us all to come unto the floud of living waters to thirst for that immortal spring of grace than this that the Son of God himself did not decline to be partaker of the Baptism of Repentance To what end did he apply that remedy to himself whereof most manifestly he did not stand in need but that sinners should wishingly affect it for their souls health whose infirmities before the eyes of God and men do want a remedy Christus recipiendo Johannis baptismum instituit suum John did neither point to any Prediction to enable him to baptize which was spoken of by the Prophets no miracle from heaven did shine upon his labours that all men might say this is the finger of God the Scribes and Pharisees although they durst not gainsay because of the people yet they did not encourage and applaud his Ministry this Ceremony therefore had faln away like water which is spilt and cannot be gathered but that the mirrour of heaven and earth that draws all men after him came to Jordan to be baptized of him God dwelleth in light incomprehensible and he is too great to be imitated by man Man himself is a creature of much corruption and is a most ticklish uncertain example to be immitated by man the wisdom from above therefore did provide for us in the safest wise Vt videret homo quem sequeretur Deus factus est homo says Leo To set up a spectacle fit for our eyes to look upon God himself was made man And as our own Histories report of Cesar being somewhat reproachfully repelled by the ancient Brittains insomuch that his Cohorts kept themselves in their Ships and durst not land at last Cesar cast forth the chief Ensign their Eagle upon the shore waded forth himself into the waters and bad the best daring spirits to follow him So to make my Parallel complete the beginning of the next Chapter manifests that we have a Ghostly enemy to encounter our Ensign is not an Eagle but a Dove that came down upon the waters our Commander is the mighty God who first casts himself into the waters of Jordan that we may follow him and at the same Sacrament defie the Devil our enemy and all his works A comfortable General that would wear his own Colours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Paul The author and the finisher of our faith Heb. xii 2. which Text may comfortably be reduced to the two blessed Sacraments for in his Last Supper he was the Author of our Faith most probably it being supposed that first he eat bread after he had blessed it and then gave it to the Disciples In Baptism he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfecter and finisher of faith for John did begin that wholsome Ordinance and Christ did finish it and stampt a Seal of Authority upon the Institution because himself was baptized Secondly Christ was not only baptized to seal the Sacrament with his Priviledge and Licence but in that act he did sanctifie the waters to the blessing of his Church If Naaman had not been filled with the disease of Leprosie Elisha had not sent him to Jordan to wash and be clean If there had not been some impurity upon the best of the Apostles our Saviour had omitted his Ceremony to rinse their feet in water and to wipe them with a Towel Because every Infant is polluted with bloud from the nativity Occiso magis quam nato similis says Seneca more like to one that is killed than to one that is born therefore it is rub'd with water to take away all defilement So unless much filthiness did inhere in every child
the same end to make us magnifie God for his Wisdom Goodness and Justice Nay I add compare the Law of Works imposed upon Adam and the Law of Faith imposed upon Christians and both of them are possible to be done For the first man according to the integrity wherein he was created and by the virtue of supernatural Grace bestowed upon him might have obeyed the Commandement given if he had not turned to disobedience and by the Divine help of the same grace we to whom God hath preached the glad tidings of his Son are endewed with power to believe that we may be saved Now in a word let us lay the difference of these two one against another God gave the Law in Paradise as a King in his Justice but he gave the Gospel in Sion as a Father of Grace and Mercy according to that Law the reward had been given ex debito by debt and due say the Schoolmen but to him that believes the reward is given by mere Grace which excludes boasting He that disobey'd that Law was to look for the most strict severity of Justice so condemnation belongs likewise to the unbeliever according to Justice but perhaps it shall be temper'd with some moderation for Christs sake Finally this is the main disagreement the first Covenant made with Adam did exclude all hope of remission of sins but the second Covenant made in Christ runs in this tenour to them that live by Faith your sins shall be blotted out and your iniquities forgotten After you have understood the first point how there was a Law imposed upon Adam when he was created and endewed with original Justice you must now give ear to the next thing in order what heavy and astonishing matter is contained in that Law which was given by Moses to the Children of Israel and remember that I consider the Law deliver'd in the two Tables at Mount Sinai Seorsim and by it self separated from all the promises contained in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David These then are the remarkable differences between the Covenant written in Tables of stone and this Covenant of the New Testament in the Blood of Christ First God gave the Law at Sinai being wrath with our sins for whereas we had lost both the wisdom of our understanding and the loyal obedience of our will by the transgression of our first parent yet God impos'd his Commandement upon us and exacts such measure of holiness which we are not able to perform Therefore that Law was given in the barren Wilderness because it is not able to bring one soul unto God likewise it was delivered with signs full of wrath thunder and lightning and a dreadful noise to shew that God was full of indignation when he laid it upon us On the contrary he made the new Covenant of peace being reconciled to them that were lost or at least proffering reconciliation in his beloved Son Read this Doctrine Heb. xii from the 18. to the 24. verse Ye are not come to the Mount that might not be touched and that burnt with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which they that heard entreated they might hear it no more They could not endure that which was commanded And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake but ye are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God c. Wherefore the Gospel was presented with manifest tokens of love and benevolence Ecce Evangelizo behold I bring you good tidings 2. There 's a difference arising between the first Testament and the last from the several Mediators that came between God and the people Moses was a servant faithful in the Family and he was the Mediator of the Old Testament Christ is the Son and Heir of all he was the Mediator of the New The Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ 3. The old Covenant was ratified with the blood of Beasts but loe the New Covenant doth much surpass it which was ratified with the precious Blood of that immaculate Lamb which took away the sins of the world which is therefore called the Blood of the New Testament 4. The old Law in St. Paul's phrase contained poor and beggerly rudiments not able to bring to life It was a killing letter the ministry of death and condemnation it worketh wrath it entred that sin might abound it is like Hagar which gendreth children unto bondage Gal. iv 24. The Gospel is the power of salvation to every one that believeth a quickening Spirit it purgeth us from our sins it speaketh better things than the blood of Abel 5. That which Moses brought was an heavy burden which neither the Fathers nor the Children could bear but of the Gospel Christ saith his yoke is easie and his burden is light and in it you shall find rest for your souls Lastly the Old Testament endured unto Christ and no longer wherefore because it passed away it is called the Old the New Testament remaineth for ever so says St. Paul of our Blessed Saviour taking flesh who is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life No passage or comparison can be made between them but the Law given at Mount Sinai will appear to be an harsh and most unwelcome injunction and that which doth clear us from the curse thereof is Evangelium the best tidings that ever arriv'd at the ear of man Hitherto I have consider'd the Old Testament in no respect but as it contains the killing letter of the Law but you must not mistake that the Holy Spirit hath interlaced many fast-holdings of Faith and promises Evangelical almost every where in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David Nay the Old Testament is rather Promise than Law yet it was fit the rigour of the Law should be repeated that it might more appear how necessary the promise of Grace was that we could not live without it and that every man being convicted in his conscience by the sentence of the Law we might more ardently fly to Grace for the end of the Moral Law is double to set us a rule what we should endeavour to do and to discover our own impotency unto us what we are not able to do that we may seek a remedy in the satisfaction of Christ But this I say that the darkness and obscurity of the Old Testament was enlightned with many excellent promises that the believing Israelites might be partakers of Faith and of everlasting life they had the same Gospel which we have the same Christ the same Faith the same Spirit sealing the truth of promise unto them Where is then the priviledge you will say that the tidings are better to us then unto them or far surpassing on our side every way Israel that believed in the promised seed was an heir but under age
For if we say we feel our selves translated from death to life by the fruits of mortification and vivification for the time past and by a firm resolution to produce better fruits for the time to come how will this agree with continuing in the works of the Devil and yet to collect we are the Sons of God There is no coherence in these two nay there is a flat contradiction in the terms For the practice of sin especially of any great crime cannot possibly stand with the assurance of special faith You cannot say I do verily believe I shall persist without interruption in the grace of God unless you add I do firmly purpose to walk in all the ways of God Eternal life is given conditionally believe that is believe effectually and thou shalt be saved Now it were extreme folly to make God a liar to think we should attain everlasting life without keeping the condition or giving all diligence to keep it As for the rejoynder to this it is altogether as weak as the objection that many live debauchedly and yet presume and crack of special assurance I know that the most wholsom truth that ever was taught may be distorted to ill use and so this Doctrine taken with the left hand may prove hurtful to some evil men will distort the Scripture to their own perdition Yet it is against reason and against the grounds of special faith if any man will look upon them but with half an eye For whosoever live like Libertines regardless to please God so far ought they to be from being certain of life eternal that according to that present state of bitterness wherein they are unless they mend they are certain of eternal damnation The Grashopper feedeth only on the dew and Ephraim feedeth on the wind Hos xii 1. A man that is in a dream may be deceived and think he sees what he doth not shall he that is awake therefore and knows what he sees misdoubt that he is deceived I do defend it and maintain it and that upon good consideration that there is no motive in Divinity of greater force and efficacy to encourage a man to do well or to preserve him from hainous sins than to fix in his heart that Christ died for the sins of the whole world and for his sins in particular and albeit he is laden with iniquity and hath abused the bloud of the Covenant yet by repentance and newness of life he is perswaded that bloud shall not be in vain to him but that God hath remitted his sin and is this a stumbling-block to make a man a hypocrite Will any but a most riotous unreclamable Son run on in leudness because he knows he hath an indulgent Father Or waste and consume his means because his Father hath entailed his Land upon him The Prodigal in the Gospel came to himself and turn'd a new leaf because he knew he had a Father would receive and forgive him Shall we abide in sin because grace abounds Rom. vi 1. St. Paul cries out upon it as the greatest Solecism in Divinity The more a man is assured of Gods love towards him in Christ in pardoning his sins in redeeming him in glorifying him hereafter the more will his heart be enflamed with love towards God and towards his neighbour yea towards his enemy for Gods sake the more studious he will be of his glory the more desirous to please the more careful to obey the more ready to return and repent when he hath offended I say it will be so not barely it ought to be so Paul and Peter and divers in the Gospel were assured upon Christs words of their Salvation do you ever read they were less faithful in their ways or any whit the more presumptuous If words can be clear and legible these are in St. John 1 Ep. iii. 2 3. We know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure As if he had said A man cannot stedfastly hope for glorification but it will make him purifie his heart I must gather up my meditations briefer in the three following Conclusions And the third is in part already opened that this special assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith but an effect which follows it Faith is called special faith two ways 1. Because our Lord Jesus and his merits is the object of it and so it is called faith in his bloud Rom. iii. 5. For although by that faith which doth justifie we believe all the Articles of faith and the whole Word of God as well threatnings as promises yet the object of it as it justifies is Christ and in regard of the general compass of belief it is called special faith 2. It is called special faith in regard of the effect by which particularly and specially we apply Christ unto our selves Some have most inconsiderately taught That this special faith in the latter sense or particular application is the very essence of justifying faith Which opinion hath drawn upon it self a world of scandal and absurdity By faith we obtain remission of sins that is the Covenant of the Gospel But by what faith It cannot be by this special assurance For certainly a mans sins must be forgiven before he can be assured they be forgiven what more idle than to be assured by special affiance that we were reconciled to God before we were reconciled therefore in order of nature there is another degree of faith which goeth before by which we are justified before God and that is a lively and effectual assent that this is most true that Christ came into the World to seek and to save that which is lost This is eternal life that we might know thee the only God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. xvii 3. And as that is a plain speculative Text so we have the exercise and practise of it Mat. xvi 16. Our Saviour ask'd his Disciples Whom say ye that I am Peter answered Thou art Christ the Son of the living God This was his intellectual asset to the truth of salvation and thereby he was justified Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona blessed for that confession Therefore special assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith In a word our confidence is begotten by Gods mercy our confidence doth not beget Gods mercy We live in our Mothers womb as soon as ever the soul possesseth the body yet we feel not when life was first given So we live by faith and we are justified by acknowledging the mystery of salvation as it is Rom. x. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Yet we do not feel or perceive we are justified till the actions and fruits of faith put themselves forth abundantly in us Infants are
he called unto Moses out of the midst of the Cloud Some more veneration certainly redounds to the Divine Majesty by drawing a Veil before him that his glory may be kept secret The Mercy-seat from whence God promised the Children of Israel to tell them all things whatsoever they should do it was covered with the wings of the Cherubins that every rash eye might not behold it But this was not all that a shadowed darkness should beget veneration there was another reason that men might see no manner of shape or resemblance to make them figure the Lord in any form and commit Idolatry I will take Salmeron the Jesuit at his word in this Notation Ne si aliqua effigies videretur Deus pingeretur a Cloud did invelop the glory of the Father whensoever he spake that men might not say they saw his likeness and therefore paint or carve an image like unto him And since the Lord continues to speak out of a Cloud as well in the New Testament as in the Old surely his purpose continues the same to bridle our inclinations to Idolatry O that men knew what this Cloud meant and they would never be so forward to make the Images of God and they that will not learn that wholsom lesson from the Pillar of Cloud shall be consum'd by the Pillar of Fire Let us come from the substance of it to the qualities and certainly St. Matthew hath left us matter to work upon that he says it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bright Cloud it seems it lookt like that part of Heaven which we see in a fair night and is called via lactea the Milky way which is the concurrence of the light of many small Stars as if it were a Lane made or paved with dimpling Stars Such a Cloud must needs be more delectable than the clearest Summer day which had no thickness in the air but were all serenity And such it must be in a great measure in Aquinas's interpretation for when Peter talkt of Tabernacles close shady Arbors to keep out the light of the Sun he was thus confuted says Aquinas that light did rather become the Saints than shady darkness Claritas mundi innovati erit sanctorum tabernaculum when there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth bedeckt with infinite light that 's the Tabernacle of the Blessed which shall abide for ever But the chief reason was to fulfil that promise which David knew should be performed the Lord shall make my darkness to be light here was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Jesus Christ it is He that came to bring a Lantern to our feet and a Light unto our paths that we should not stumble and fall In the Old Testament the Clouds where God appeared were densissima tenebrosae thick and dark Clouds Exod. xix 16. vapours and pillars of smoak in the New Covenant the darkness is dispersed and the Cloud remaines white and of a pure lustre For the first Testament is full of Ceremonies and Shadows of things to come the Covenant of Faith in the Gospel exhibits the manifest and open truth says Paschasius Ratbertus it was neither a fiery Cloud nor a dark Cloud but a brightsom quia non in igne terroris nunc venit non in caligine caecitatis sed in lumine veritatis the terror of fire is overpast the mistiness of Clouds is cleared truth comes forth like the morning and is ascended to the height like the Sun at noon day Nay as the things to be believed are clear so there are no mists and fogginess in their affections where the spirit of grace will abide Non calligat affectibus hominum sed revelat occulta says St. Ambrose Our depraved imaginations shall not make the truth a lie but God shall bring to light the hidden things before the eyes of all men What 's the whole Gospel indeed but nubes lucida a very Cloud in it self but made lightsome and perspicuous by the gift of interpretation For although the Veil of the Law is removed away yet even among the Evangelical Writers there are says St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain things hard to be understood the Incarnation of our Lord the Resurrection of the Dead the ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity still we are in nubibus these are thick Clouds and it is impossible for the natural man with the dim eye of nature to see through them without doubt great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh Faith is a very mysterious thing but that the cloud is illuminated by the revelation of the Holy Spirit and as he that sees through the Water or through a Cloud suppose an Oar through the Water or the Sun through a Cloud will rather trust to his judgment than to his outward sense which would much deceive him so because we do all see the secrets of God through a thick Cloud let us rather trust to our faith than to our reason there are many strong delusions incident to reason because it looks through the clouds of sin and infirmity And Beloved as for the Priests that should keep the Key of knowledge what is their Office and Calling but to make Clouds appear bright And therefore Christ said of his Apostles Vos estis lux mundi Ye are the light of the world Though now adays it is the fashion of many to make that which was lightsom before appear as duskie as a Cloud Such as especially about Gods unsearchable decrees tangle knots and ravel Divinity that you shall find no end And after much is spoken or written you may say Incertior sum multó quà m dudum I was in a Cloud before that was dark now I am in a smoak that puts out my eyes All the light which some voluminous Compilers afford which would teach men Gods secret purpose in their Election and the way of their own heart in their Conversion both which are inscrutable it is like a Candle in a Thieves Lanthorn perhaps they see a little themselves but I am sure no body else shall be the better for their light Finally to end this Point God who can colour a thick Cloud with whiteness and make it transparent is able to lay the dark conveyances of our hypocrisie conspicuous and naked before him Laban could not find his Idols because Rachel had hid them in her Tent but God can discover those sins which are our greatest Idols though we have set them up in the inmost corner of our heart If the Spirit of Elisha went along with Gehazi when Gehazi ran after Naaman to take a Bribe then the Lord that gave that Spirit to Elisha traceth along all the Compacts of Simony all the fine conveyances of Bribery all manner of Corruption though it be dark as midnight The fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is 1 Cor. iii. 13. When it once catcheth fire it will be
Pollinctores quia pollutos ungerent But among divine Writers all do embrace this as a strong conjecture and indeed not to be denied that the Servants of God embalmed and anointed the dead both in the Old and New Testament in honour of the Resurrection So Joseph commanded the Physicians to embalm his Father So certain devout Widows washed the body of Tabitha and laid her forth in an upper Chamber Acts ix 37. Let me not omit how Christ himself did approve of that Ceremony while he was living A woman broke a box of Oyntment of Spikenard very precious upon his head and when some had indignation at it he forbad his Disciples to trouble her saying She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying Mar. xiv 8. That woman spent her cost upon him when he was alive to give her thanks Mary came to pour her Spices upon his Grave when she thought he was dead true Love is munificent to them who are dear unto it when they live but more abundantly when they are deceased Now carry your attention with you to the third part of the Text that no season was so fit to be watch'd as this which the women laid hold of The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalen This coming was upon the third day after Christ had been laid in the Grave and it was upon the same day which from thenceforth was called the Lords day wherein our holy Assemblies every week do meet together these two things are fit to be examined before I leave the Treatise of this Point From the beginning of the world was there never any thing of so great expectation as the success of this day whether that which Christ had so often foretold should come to pass that he should die and the third day he would rise again How busie were the women to come abroad and try what they could learn And I verily think the waves of the Sea rowl not about so fast in a Tempest as the thoughts of the Disciples beat within their heart and earned within them between fear and hope whether the day were like to prove glorious or uncomfortable well God did rather go beyond his own word than come a whit behind it He made this third day the most memorable Feast that ever the Sun shined upon It was a third day when Joseph released his brethren out of Prison Gen. xlii 18. On the third day in the morning after the people had come to Mount Sinai the Law of God was delivered Exod. xix 16. On the third day Esther put on her Royal Apparel and stood before Ahasuerus and desired him to be good to her Nation Esther v. 1. On the third day Abraham came to the place where his faith was tried and Isaac was restored back again alive when the sacrificing knife had been at his throat Gen. xxii 4. To come near to the mark the third day Jonas was cast safe upon the Land out of the belly of the Whale and that was the sign which Christ gave to the Jews able to convince all infidelity as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale and then came forth alive so Christ burst open the Monument the third day and appeared unto many Reason may be busie to enquire why the Son of God prefix'd such a space of time for his Resurrection before he would quicken his flesh rather than any other Certainly there is but one modest conjecture which is this he would lie no longer than some hours of a third day in the grave lest he should keep the weak faith of his Disciples too long in suspense yet sooner he would not open his monument lest his enemies the Jews should pretend he was but cast into a swoon by the sharpness of pain and not truly dead These following I will allow for ingenuous allusions and no more that our Redeemers body was bereaft of life unto the third day to appease the offended justice of every Person in Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to signifie that we were dead in sin by thought word and deed To bring unto eternal life them that believed either under the Law of nature under the Law of Moses or under the new Covenant of grace To restore the three parts of spiritual life unto us Faith hope and charity Tria sunt omnia says another three days are the sum of mans life both here and for ever A day of labour in this World a day of rest in the Grave a day of reward in the Resurrection If there be any Son of Adam that would have a fourth day Dies otii in hâc vitâ A day of ease and pleasure in this life such a one is Lazarus quatriduanus putet It may be said of him as the two Sisters said of Lazarus their Brother He hath lain four days in the ground and begins to smell Three days are all labour rest and reward these are allusions I said to the Resurrection of Christ upon the third day One thing is very observable to match this circumstance of the New Testament and an accident which fell out in the Old Even this very day wherein Christ arose and gate dominion over death the same day which was the third day after the eating of the Passeover Moses brought the Children of Israel through the Red Sea unto dry Land certainly intimating that they went through death to life and so did Christ St. Peter hath a Text 1 Epist 1.10 which doth authorize me yet to search further and more diligently about the time of this Resurrection Saies he The Prophets have enquired and searched diligently what manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow And surely there is a great mystery coucht in the circumstance of time that the Evangelists have differently set down other observations that concurred upon the Resurrection but all of them in one phrase do agree in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this wonder was wrought upon the first day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vna Sabbati The Jews gave such honour to their Sabbath that every day following had the denomination from it the first second and the third day after the Sabbath and so unto the sixth The Latine Church in their Liturgies hath given the same honour to Easter Day for Easter day by principallity being called Feria the Holy Day The Latines from it call the days of the week primam secundam tertiam Feriam and so unto the sixth Our vulgar English calls the first day of the week Sunday and all other days following are denominated from some of the Planets we received such Language in this Island from our Forefathers who were Paynims and knew not God but we differ from them in the intention they did it out of Idolatry to the Sun and Moon c. we to signifie that God made the Host
in hand to drive the money changers out of the Temple than to correct the Publicans and Tole-gatherers at the Custom-house who were the greater Extortioners A tree that was made to bear fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire if it continue barren but wild Plants from which neither Figs nor Olives were expected God never threatens them with the Axe but lets them stand till they decay with age and rottenness This is the reason of it that although God had no more in Sodom for his share but a very little houshold yet one of his own Domesticks that look'd back upon Sodom perish'd as well as those his Enemies that never came out But if God spared not his own what remains for them that were never folded up in his flock never called by his name Si flagellantur filii quid debent sperare servi nequissimi says S. Austin If the Sons of the Family be scourged what can Runnagates hope for If King Josias a Saint worth all the men of Judah beside was brought to an untimely end that stroke was but a forerunner that all the stubborn Nation beside should soon after be cast out into a most woful captivity Quando justis non parcitur propter perficiendam purgationem non parcetur impiis tanquam sarmentis praecisis ad combustionem so St. Austin goes on in a sweet similitude If God do not forbear the Righteous but prune them off sometimes to trim the tree certainly the unrighteous shall not be endured who are dead sear boughs and most combustible for the fire Vpon the Land of my people shall come up thorns and briars how much more upon all the houses of the joyous City Isa xxxii 13. As waters are still and shallow near the Spring-head but run with the swifter Current as they are further off so the indignation of Divine Justice which begins calmly in the Church which is near to God will increase more violently among the out-casts of Satan among whom at last it will end Says St. Peter 1 Epist iv 17. The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God The House of God shall be punished and severity begins at them but it is not finis eorum that is not their final doom nay it is no more but a twitch by the way but punishment in St. Peters own words is the end the last cast of impenitent sinners What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel Inchoatur ira judicii divini à correptione justorum ut in reproborum damnatione conquiescat so Gregory in reference to St. Peter The Rod of Gods Power begins with the chastisement of the Just that it may give over in the damnation of Reprobates And as Gregory expounds St. Peter so our Vulgar English Margin makes St. Peter to expound Solomon Prov. xi 31. Behold the Righteous shall be recompenced in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Finally as God spares not the nearest to him so let us take up the same justice my meaning is let no man spare himself Proximus egomet mihi If thy right eye offend thee thine own eye thy right eye pull it out and cast it from thee Beati qui cum omnium misereantur sibi nunquam penitus ignoscant says Salvianus Happy are they that are pitiful to all men only they will not pity themselves but avenge themselves of themselves that God may shew them mercy Secondly She became a Pillar of Salt even she that was one of four that were brought out of Sodom to be delivered and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. I will not move that question hereupon that one did to our Saviour in the Gospel Luk. xiii 23. Lord are there few that be saved No answer can be given to this directly but either curious or uncomfortable Our Saviour replies unto it in that same place thus Strive to enter in at the straight gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able But because St. Matthew says of that straight gate that leadeth unto life few there be that find it Therefore Cajetan says that in effect our Saviour rejoyned to that mans question few should be saved Ex angustiâ portae significans paucos esse qui salvantur the narrowness of the way did signifie how few should hit upon that path that conducteth to eternal life But I had rather take in light at another window and receive St. Austins Exposition that Christ did purposely decline to give punctual and affirmative satisfaction to that question deriving his words to this scope rather to make us study which way every man may be saved than to know how many or how few shall be saved Ad questionis vaniloquium nihil dicit sed transfert suum sermonem ad rem magis necessariam He would not reply to such an impertinent interrogatory but raised doctrine out of it more necessary to edification Let not that curious investigation then lie in our way what a small number of souls four were in respect of so many thousands that were burnt to ashes in the destruction of four Cities and yet how much that portion decreased because one of them four was cut short by the way rather I will turn the Point into this consideration that the Devil is always detracting and abating from that small portion and remnant which God hath set apart for himself Could our Saviour have chosen fewer than Twelve Apostles to testifie over all the world what they had heard and seen And yet the Devil entred into one of these to make him the guide unto those that betrayed Jesus God cantonized out for himself but Twelve Families or Tribes out of all the Kingdoms of the Earth with whom he made a Covenant by Sacrifice and Ten portions of those Twelve revolted both from God and the King and fell into Idolatry and Treason I might be infinite both in Sacred and Humane Histories but our own experience is as sure a touch unto us The Christian Faith you know is received but into few Regions of the habitable world I may say according to Nathans Parable that Europe was unto God as that only Ewe Lamb all that the poor man had but the Devil is like that rich one that had many Flocks and Herds besides in all places under the Sun yet you see what a great stride Mahomet hath stept into Europe though the Church complains of her small number as Micah did Woe is me I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits as the grape-gleanings of the Vintage there is no cluster to eat yet the envious one would abate the Lord of that small Remnant among all the Inhabitants of Sodom he thought four too great a number to escape and one of them relapsed and became
Parable But this Vow of the Rechabites may be discharged with facility Of their Pastoral life they had many examples in other Countries of men living in Woods as if they had been born of Trees and of their temperate life they had an instance in the Nazarites But nothing is more feizable in the World than evil therefore in the third place it concerns a Vow to be lawful To resolve upon evil is a defiance against God omnis promissio mali est comminatio Isaiah calls it an agreement with Hell and a Covenant with Death Lamech that swore in his wrath to kill a man the Mother of Michah who did solemnly dedicate her Silver for a molten Image the Swordmen that vowed the death of Paul these gave their faith in hostage to the Devil to work iniquity Put to these the revengeful Romanist that is sent to sea by his Ghostly Father with a worse Devil in him than was in the Gergasens Swine to set Kingdoms in combustion and to destroy the Lords Anointed There are also unlawful Votaries but not so bad as the former whose heart was right with the Lord in their Vow but being rash and sudden never considered that the issue might be dangerous Thus Jepthab returning from the slaughter of the Ammonites brought a deliberate curse upon his own Daughter And what justice was in the Oath of Saul that swore every man should die that tasted food that day as well he that heard the Law as Jonathan that did not These are Vows like sharp arrows shot up into Heaven soft enough while they are in the air but the danger is whose head they light upon when they return again Well I acquit the Vow of the Rechabites from any harm to drink or spare is lawful it is our freedom making no conscience Not one Expositor of many but conceive that Jonadab and his Children took this penance upon them because it grieved them to hear that Sion should be desolate and Jerusalem an heap of stones Let others feast it while destruction comes upon them unawares There are such lovers of themselves qui mallent stellam de coelo perire quà m vaccam de armento who had rather Heaven should lose a Star than himself be endamaged a Sheep the Vine will not leave his sweetness nor the Olive his fatness neither would put away private content for the publick good but a zealous Rechabite is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and leaves both the sweetness of the Wine and all power for ever to plant Vineyards the better to be prepared to pray for Jerusalem Lastly multa licent quae non expediunt May it be done safely that is some content but is it fit to be done faciens ad cultum Dei is it profitable for holiness that is the fourth Condition Every act of Divine Worship well placed raiseth up our melody unto God in a higher note the noise of every idle superstition drowns the Musick When David vowed an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob Arise O Lord into thy resting place thou and the ark of thy strength then he fill'd Heaven and Earth with his Melody We heard of the same at Ephrata and found it in the woods But that rude noise Templum Domini Templum Domini to vow Pilgrimages and gadding about to I know not what it breeds no incensement of devotion a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like an Artist more busie than well occupied that made a Charriot for a Fly to draw it But that this Vow was of some moment in the practice of piety it appears by Gods benediction upon them in the last verse of this Chapter For as it was said of Socrates his goodness that it stood the Commonwealth of Athens in more stead than all their warlike Prowess by Sea and Land so that Religious life of the Rechabites was the best Wall and Fortress to keep Judah in peace and safety Those that like Thomas the Apostle would put their finger into the world and thrust their hand into riches and see the print of their nails or else they will not believe these would make you think that they were Disciples of Christ and yet indent to receive Tribute from him as if he were their Servant And almost who doth not follow Christ rather to be a gainer by him than a loser Ecce nos reliquimus omnia Behold we have left all and followed thee that was the perfection of the Apostles that was the state of the Rechabites not simply all every thing that belonged to the maintenance of a man and so to live upon beggery sed quid velle debeant didicerunt they have learned to ask nothing but a Gourd to cover their head a few Flocks of Sheep to imploy their hands the Spring water to quench their thirst They that must have no more have cut off superfluous desires that they can never ask more And so I have declared that piety and a godly life were chiefly aimed at in the Vow of the Rechabites But admit it had all in one Vow which could be good in any will it avail to license a Profession of Votaries in our Reformed Church my Text casts this Question in the way and I will remove it in a word If any man would make a single Vow for his own person by this Example let him go on and prosper Advice is necessary in so great a business and in the multitude of Counsellors there is safety A Vow of Private Devotion hath always been allowed in these cases following First when the heart of any humble Supplicant did earn to obtein some great mercy from God 2. When a terror of some imminent judgment did hang over the head of sinners and threaten destruction not to be fourty dayes distance off as in the case of the Ninevites 3. It may be a caveat to check concupiscence lest we sin over our enormous sins not once but often Lastly it kindles a frozen and benummed zeal and puts a flame into it as if it had been set afire by a Seraphin with a Coal from the Altar Now for publick Confederacy of many persons in one Order it is as lawful being well managed as it is full of exceptions before the institution Why may there not be holy Combinations to praise the Lord as there are Orders for Chivalry and Honour in divers Countries as the most noble Order of the Garter in our own Kingdom the Knights of the Golden Fleece and the like I know not any well advised man that can take exceptions at the Knights of the Sepulcher instituted in a strict Collegiate life covenanting to fight against Pagans for the Christian Faith upon their own charges and bearing Crosses about their neck in remembrance of our Saviours five wounds but if any other condition shall intervene to the affronting of Religion quae dederam supra repeto funemque reduco I will no more approve such knots of superstition than I would allow of Sheba the Son of Bichri
though they came of Bond-women Bildah and Zilpah Non illis obfuerunt natales ancillarum sed praevaluit semen paternum says St. Austin it did predominate in the advancement of their fortune that such a Father did beget them though their Mothers were Servants So it prevails in the holy things of the Gospel that the Father of Grace is above that blesseth them though they be delivered to you immediately by him that is a bond-man to iniquity the impediments that are under foot here be no impediments because our Jerusalem is from above Fourthly This holy City of God is above because it pursues not the things beneath but it seeks those things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God it is above in its affections The delights of the Synagogue were victory over their Enemies length of days a Land of Wine and Olives and flowing with Milk and Honey poor accessories of a transitory happiness This was tolerated unto them when the first Rudiments of the fear of God were taught but grandescenti puerilia excutiuntur these are too childish for us to look after In as much as long continuance of time hath taught us to choose the better part Jerusalem facit amor Dei Babyloniam facit amor seculi says St. Austin he refers all the World to belong to two Cities which he calls Jerusalem for the sound part Babylon for the wicked The whorish Babylon is built up with the love of transitory things the Virgin the Daughter of Sion is built upon the love of God Our Predecessors that lived near to the Apostles days did give such reputation to the Christian Name in the holiness of their conversation that all that they did or desir'd savour'd even in the nostrils of their Enemies of that which was above ask them what they would have The Kingdom of Glory And why they spent the day and night in fasting and weeping For the Kingdom of Glory And why they exposed their lives to ovethrow the Idols of the Heathen To get the Kingdom of Glory What need we more witnesses said the Judges that examin'd them their heads are forfeit for by their own confession they seek the Kingdom Alas poor souls trained up by Fishermen who had learn'd that one lesson from the mouth of their Teacher Behold we have left all No delights under the sky which they forsook not that they might not be forsaken of God took no more but bare necessaries for life out of all the store which the Earth afforded but fill'd up the wide chinks of their heart with the contemplation of that which is above In the antientest Irish Synod held under St. Petricius there is a polite passage for those Times and that Climate Use these outward things moderately non sumit lucerna nisi quo alitur all is superfluous in a candle but that which the snuff sucks up to maintain the light Some came after these that were renowned for the contempt of transitory things and the sweet elevation of their spirit among whom was Gregory the Great says our Bede praising him for our sakes animo illius labentia cuncta subter esse as water runs under a Bridg so all the fluxive things of fortune flowed beneath his mind But all latter Ages have justly deplored the decay of sanctity of manners as the vertues of Miracles were withdrawn so that admirable sanctity in the Church which bred both envy and amazement in the Heathen came to a much meaner perfection I know not how the baits of honours and voluptuousness are grown to be stronger tentations now than in those days when our Progenitors were squeaz'd between persecution and poverty for where is he that doth his duty now-a-dayes and looks not for some part of his payment in hand and to reap a crop out of these transitory possessions As Manna desisted to fall when the people eat of the fruits of the land so the sweetness of heavenly joy is not perceived any longer when our appetite rageth for these vile things for a dividend of dust and clay Recall your Soul and lure it higher when it stoops to this bait below when it extends its desires to things that are worse than its own substance so is every thing that we behold with our bodily eye it must needs return home less unto it self and be justly despised of God whom we talk to in our Prayer as if we were perswaded he was in Heaven and yet so busie we are in action beneath as if we sought our God upon Earth In a word by penetrating so far into these corruptible objects you have excommunicated your own Soul from the Church of Saints for that Jerusalem is above Fifthly The Church Evangelical is Jerusalem above in respect of the Jewish Hagar propter sublime pactum the Covenant that is made with us is sublime and magnificent not the dreadful Law of Works but the mild and gentle Covenant of Faith in the bloud of Christ Now this is nothing else but the very next point in effect the freedom or eternal redemption of Jerusalem which requiring a more spacious part of time to handle it I conclude all that hath been spoken for the present in the name of the Lord. AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON GAL. iv 26. Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all ST Paul in his Apology which he made against those that did detract from him at Corinth confessed that he was rude in speech And St. Hierom says Paulum nequaquam de humilitate sed de conscientiae veritate dixisse That is he wrote it in the earnestness of truth and not in the submission of humility St. Austin says he did but grant his obtrectators their own false opinion in that saying for he had the genius of a most perswasive Oratour and spake with the tongue of an Angel These passages may be reconciled For verily he did for the most part go the beaten way of the Spirit of God and handled heavenly things in a plain stile For the Gentiles sought after wisdom but since by wisdom they knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe Yet St. Austin had his eyes open that he did espy very elegant and most graceful amplifications here and there in his Epistles as occasion did demand that he should dip his Quill in Eloquence We are at home for an instance in this Text. An Allegory of all other Tropes in Rhetorick is no little Bud but the fairest flower and most blown in their Garden This Figure the Apostle makes use of as he professeth vers 24. and runs upon it very copiously to set the Synagogue and the Christian Church the Old and New Testament in comparison one against another He carries it before him from the situation of two Mountains Sinah in the Desart of Arabia Sion in the Holy Land which two Hills became very famous by accident Sinah for the Law Sion for the
Jerusalem our Mother hath indulgence to appoint all external administrations of holiness It is no small ease as I have shewed it to be disingaged from the incumbrance of the old Ceremonies but that which comes next in order is so essential to our happiness that from thence we may say truly and from nothing else the Lord turned the captivity of Sion The time is past when salvation was offered to them turned the captivity of Sion The time is past when salvation was offered to them that did the works of the Law O those were days of bitterness and desperation the Covenant is renewed unto us in another form through the promise of mercy to them that believe in Jesus Christ Now Sin that great Tyrant shall have no dominion over us for we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. vi 14. Mark the two Covenants and the severe exaction in the one and the mild temperature of the other the one comes blustering like the whirlwind and breaks down Mountains before it the other is the still voice which beats sweetly upon the ear of Elias the one hath nothing but dayes of trouble and reproach the other is a continual Jubilee of rest and peace The Law may be compared to those wretched men that work at the Oar in a Gally they strein their sinews and their strength to plow the waves and yet they meet with such strong tempests that they cannot recover the Haven but the Gospel is a Ship whose sails are spread with faith and hope and the winds of mercy blow them fairly on that the Passengers are carried as in a dream to the Port with speed and tranquillity Hear them both speak Rom. x. 5. for that 's the clearest Scripture I take it for their distinction The righteousness of the Law saith the man that doth these things shall live by them but the righteousness which is by faith speaketh on this wise if thou shalt confess the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved The man that doth these things shall live but the Lord looked down from Heaven and found no such man upon all the earth Be the imperfections in our manners that are not scandalously culpable yet the law hath not pardon for them that which must be weighed in Gods Balance it must not want a scruple Correct the wandring of your eye bridle your tongue watch your heart â—r servent in prayer be vigilant against tentations yet there is that repugnancy to the Law that unruliness in this body of death that the evil which you would not you shall do and then the Law turns to be that Adversary in St. Matthew which delivers you over to the Tormentor till you have paid the utmost farthing This was not only a bondage under a churlish Nabal that would not be satisfied with such diligence as a Servant could perform but the condition of a beast whose qualities cannot excuse him totally but that sometimes he shall be spurred and beaten Yet none were ever born that can impeach the Law of rigour no not in the equity of humane reason if you will examine them from first to last it will come but into the Margent of our Enditement that our actions have not been so pure and holy and fervent as the bounty of the Divine goodness towards us requires turpitudes of life abominable desires of the heart bruitish intemperance scalding malice unclean passions will fill up our accusations O what a perturbation what unquietness of consciences what a hell of fear it is to know that our Arraignment is just and to have nothing but the Law that inexorable letter of condemnation to comfort us Imus imus praecipites we should feel our selves tumbling down and see no bottom Sin is so ponderous that if the Ship had not been lightned of Jonas it had sunk the Heaven could not hold the Devil and his Angels from falling the Earth could not support Core and Dathan but it is more massy and leaden upon the conscience than in all the Elements What need I to tell you that God did give the Law in an angry form upon Mount Horeb or that he delivered it to Moses a Servant to bring to note the bondage of the Letter I have looked back enough to this let me bring you from this Ergastulum this Prison of Works into the Courts of Gods House into Jerusalem above which is free Jerusalem at the time when this Epistle was written to the Galatians was in bondage two ways in Civil servitude under the Romans in Legal servitude under Moses a miserable case that they should not feel the oppression they were in under Moses car'd not for a Deliverer nay did as much as in them lay to curse their Deliverer Christ that came to set them free they used him as a Servant in crucem servus they crucified him which was a most servile punishment Thus their stupidness in their bondage did make for our freedom and thereby was consummated the Covenant of Faith that we might believe in him who died to be a propitiation for our sins O what a pleasant condition it is what a free what a Princely state of life to wait upon Gods mercy and to be subject to the Ordinance of Faith Upon it depend Pardon Forgiveness Reconciliation Grace Adoption of Saints the Inheritance the Kingdom the Promise of everlasting life With how much diffidence did the Lawgiver intercede in the behalf of Israel Forgive the sin of the people if not blot me out of the book of life To supplicate forgiveness is a message sent from Faith but the Law plucks it back with this distrustful Omen if not if there be no hope then is my confusion before me for ever This is noted in the Generation of Ismael the Son of the Bond-woman Says Sarah to Abraham Go in to Hagar it may be I may obtain children by her This is the Law which despairs and doubts whether God will be gracious but Faith never speaks so faintly looks for no denial how unworthy soever to obtein its Petitions Publicans invite Christ home Adulteresses wash his feet Thieves recommend themselves to be received into his Kingdom and all this not because they are free from the Law but from the Covenant of it which is the bondage of the Law Had their conscience misdeemed that they must be saved by Works they had run away like Bond-men from an austere Lord their tongue had been tied that it durst not wag but light shining in their hearts revealed unto them that Jerusalem was free that the Inheritance came by the Promise of Grace they flock unto him who is the Mediatour of a better Covenant who vindicates his Portion from the bands of Sin and Death and Hell and hath given power to his Ministers to bring those that seek for mercy out of the prison and servitude of Satan for whatsoever they loose upon Earth shall be loosened in Heaven Hold here and stir not from this rock put not the point to
disputation but to inward examination how you look to be freed from the fire of Hell when you shall stand before the Judgment Seat of God Will you trust to inherent righteousness and say it will be well for me this good I have done Or to the imputed justice of Christ which is true and perfect justice and pleaseth the eyes of God O there is no ground can be laid for peace and salvation but in his righteousness that justifieth a sinner They that carp at this take them from their sentences and quodlibets and search what they say in their Books of Devotions Manuals of Prayer Graduals of love and repentance Meditations of Death then nothing comes from them but O Lord deliver us O Saviour redeem us O Son of God remember not that which is past then they never fly to the bloudy Altar of the Law but to the Sanctuary of the Gospel In a word whosoever refers his justification in any part to a legal righteousness is yet in bondage but Jerusalem which is above is free It is this Covenant of Faith that turneth away the captivity of Jacob. Now under the Discipline of Faith the Spirit attracts us by love and meek perswasions it doth not threaten and bend the fist at us as the Law did and that 's the third part of bondage which our Jerusalem hath escaped it is not awed with compulsion and fear but it follows the direction of the Spirit with gladness which is the next step to the state of Angels It is not good for a Child to be too much scar'd by Praeceptors and Governours such nipping weather is an enemy to a flourishing Spring Then imagine what a shivering Ague it was to the Israelites Sons of God but not yet come to age as St. Paul describes them to struggle with so many austere Statutes as Moses gave them Scourgings loss of eyes loss of limbs burning stoning forfeiting the life of a man for the trespass of a beast losing the right hand for a casualty a moral man that knew not the strictness of Gods Judgments would say for a trifle Add unto these so many pollutions circumstantial natural that could not be helpt to be expiated with continual cost and labour add above all these that noise of Malediction louder than thunder Cursed is he that doth not continue in all the words of this Law to do them amidst these terrours that came so thick as they were good to bridle stubbornness so many generous resolutions of the mind that would have put forth must needs be suffocated The Angel of God when he came with a message from heaven and would have it intelligently received likely he began with this Preface Fear not Nay God did deliver this People from the fear of Pharaoh and his Host before ever he would give them a Law to serve him Men that are held to their Tasque by minacies Magis aguntur quà m agunt He that doth a thing out of love is carried to it by an internal complacency he is a self mover and the action is his own he that goes forward to his Tasque because the scourge is behind him the action is not his own raptatur ad obsequium his will rows against the stream but the Tide is so strong that it carries him with it by Coaction And that harvest of obedience which is reapt with the Sickle of stern dominion and threatning when all is done it is not worth the bringing into the barn For it keeps a man that he dares not break out into a scandalous transgression of the Law Is not that all The External Act is smooth and conformable to justice But what reformation is there all that while in the heart It is not fear but love which takes upon it to cure the concupiscence which is in the mind If there be no better School-master than fear the body may worship God alone and the mind remain an Idolater A longer declaration of this there needs not We all know that a Palsie of fear will shake Judgment out of the wit The Oratour that pleaded upon peril of his life Lugdunensem rhetor dicturus ad aram he would pronounce but badly and surely much of the imperfections of the Jews may be imputed to this that the Law did subject them to the Spirit of Bondage It is the Spirit of the New Testament which turns us about and sets us free from the superciliousness of the Law and it would have us please the Lord for his mercies sake and out of the sense of his goodness it exhorts us that our service should grow out of his favours and our duty out of his bounty and benefits so shall there be alacrity and readiness in the soul to all manner of vertue as well as passive obsequiousness in the body The Schoolmen observe it rightly that filial fear which is the freedom and ingenuity of obedience riseth out of the love of God but servile fear which is a plain captivity of Spirit riseth out of the love of our selves The Servant who goes through his Tasque that he may not suffer correction would do as much as may keep his skin whole that is for love of himself A Son that honoureth his Father and rejoyceth to hear his voice seeks his Fathers glory that he may receive of his glory and this is purely out of the love of God No wonder therefore if this hath redounded to far more fruits than ever the tree of the Law did bear which was pelted and beaten For as one hath noted it well Gods Church hath increased more by the love of God than by the terrour which he sent in the old time but when persecutions were rife it increased more by the terrours of men than by their love The use of it is that we serve God as those that are past the Spirit of bondage reverently with fear and chearfully without fear Faith is the great promoter of reverential fear and breeds in us an awe of Gods Majesty and a dread of his glory as the Cherubins do cover their faces with their wings before him This is clean and pure refined in the flame of love caused neither by sin nor punishment but it reflects upon the baseness of our own substance the Creature compares its own vileness with the infinite excellency of the Creator and so approacheth with all due distance of humility But Faith again cools the inflammation of servile fear with the water of Baptism wherein we were sprinkled with the bloud of Christ It teacheth us to decline offences with all care and study not to escape punishment but out of gratitude to him who hath done so great things for us It ingenders an ardent sollicitousness to be unblameable not because the wrath of the Lord is terrible when he is displeased but because his Mercy and Redemption deserve to be recompenced with all manner of obedience Labour for that integrity which is expected from one that is free from sin but a servant to