the greater the burthen A greater tribute is due unto Love then to Fear And our Saviour hath proposed it as an everlasting Truth That to whom much is given of him much shall be required And therefore he hath left these precepts more heavy on the back of Christians then formerly upon the Jews Not that the Law of Moses was not perfect in its kind and in it self but that it was less perfect then the Gospel So that what Christ brought in non adversario sed adjutore praecepto not by an opposite or contrary but an helping precept destroyed not what God esteemed as best then to be done but took away that which he permitted to be done only for a time It was no sin for a Jew to hate his enemy or in some case to take revenge at least it was not imputed as a sin not but that it was far better and more acceptable to God to have done otherwise but because God was pleased so far to indulge to their present condition and the hardness of their hearts as not to propose it under the commanding terms of a Law But Christ as he is more indulgent to us in giving his graces so he is less indulgent to us in giving his graces so he is less indulgent to us in exacting his Laws And that Christ doth not permit so much unto us is plain by the EGO VERO But I say uuto you By which he did not only clear the Law from those false glosses with which the Scribes and Pharisees had corrupted it but added something to it not to contradict but perfect it For had he meant to have expunged the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees no doubt he would have mentioned them whom he so often taxed by name And had it been their leaven he would have done what he often did injoyned his Disciples to beware of it Besides the Scribes and Pharisees were not of so long standing as Josephus thinketh This Sect had not its beginning long before Christ And it is probable that when the gift of prophesie ceased then men who were ambitious of a name and reputation did seek to gain it by severe discipline and austerity of life which might lift them up as high in the opinion of the people as the foretelling of things to come did the Prophets before them But I say unto you implieth then an addition to the Law of Moses or to that sense in which the Jews understood it and to which they were bound Let the Apostle conclude for me The Law made nothing perfect Hob. 7.19 brought none to that true and inward sanctity But if any attained to it they owed it not to the Law but borrowed it as it were from the grace of the Gospel But the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw nigh unto God The Jews were under tutors and governours in bondage under the elements of the world but at the appointed time our Lawgiver brought us Laws from heaven out of the bosom of his Father and shewed us yet a more perfect excellent way I might here inlarge my self but we will only draw down all to our selves by application so conclude And if the Doctrine of the Gospel be a perfect Law of abundant power and sufficiency to bring us to our end then we may pass a censure upon those who argue it of great imperfection and therefore are bold to add to it or call it a dead letter and so receive it not as a Law but make one of their own as those of the Church of Rome and the Libertines or as they call themselves Spiritual men And we may observe that though they look several wayes yet they both tread their measures alike and finding themselves at loss finding no satisfaction in the Gospel to their pride and ambition to their malice and lust and feeing they cannot draw it to their part will put up and suborn something of their own to supply that defect Both agree in this to make something besides and above the Scripture the rule of their faith and actions But some difference and dissimilitude there is between them The Libertine layeth a foundation for a loose inconstant and uncertain Religion the Church of Rome for an ingrossed impropriated and tyrannical Religion For what the inward Word is to the Libertines that to those of the Romish faction are Traditions and the Autority of the Church The inward Word is common or rather proper to every particular man hath no other word without it self to regulate it and therefore is free for every man And so we may have as many Religions as there be several senses and inward words as they call them spoken or conceived And so there be as many Religions as there be men Proveniunt oratores stulti novi adolescentuli Young men and maids old men and children I may say fools and mad-men may hear this word or rather speak this word to themselves and so set up a Religion Again the Autority of the Church and Traditions being carried on by themselves and looking on no outward Word as a common rule to try them by put out the eyes of every private man devest him of his reason and judgement and leave him in the dark that he may be subject unto that Church alone and seek light from her as from the greatest luminary altenis oculis videre alienis pedibus ambulare see with her eyes and observe her steps and follow her precisely though it be in those paths which lead to the pit of destruction The Libertine attributeth it sometimes to one man the Papists to the Church and when the accounts are cast up that is but one man Both agree in this that they challenge to themselves infallibility in judgement We have a Revelation saith the one We have Traditions saith the other and a Church that cannot err The inward word saith the Libertine The Church the Church the oecumenical Catholick Church saith the Papist These are their spels and charms with which they take the simple and unwary people who are carried about with every puff of doctrine and are alwayes ripe and fitted for a cheat qui quod vident non vident who will not see what they cannot see who receive every novelty as an oracle every new phansie as the dictate of the Spirit and never bless or applaud themselves more then when they are deceived In a word The Libertine maketh as many Popes as there be men who pretend a skill in this Pythonick art and ventriloquy who can hear their lusts and passions speak within them and say it is the voice of the Spirit who do not stay till the third call but at every motion of the Flesh at every whirl of their Phansie are ready to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth And thus every man be a Pope But the Papists erect but one and set him in his throne to whom all other men must bow as to the Head
enter but in that name and resemblance And when Truth appeareth in its rayes and glory and that light which doth most throughly and best discover it it runneth from Errour as from a monster and boweth to the Sceptre and command of Truth It is never so wedded to any conclusion though never so specious as not to be ready to put it by and forsake it when another presenteth it self which hath better evidence to speak for it and commend it to its choice and practice Thus S. Paul was a champion of the Law and after that a Martyr of the Gospel Thus he persecuted Christians and thus he dyed one Acts 10. Thus S. Peter would not converse and eat with the heathen as polluted and unclean yet when the sheet was let down and in it the will of Christ he preached unto them and baptized them This is the mother of all Repentance For what is Repentance but the changing of our mind upon better information This if it were well practised would fill the world which is now full of Errour with Recognitions and Recantations which are not only confessions but triumphs over a conquered Errour as the rejoycings and Jubilees of men who did fit in darkness but have now found the light This would be an amulet and sure preservative against Prejudice and those common and prevailing errours to which it giveth life and strength and which spread themselves as the Plague and infect whole families cities and nations In brief this would make our errours more venial and men more peaceable For he that seeketh the Truth with this impartial diligence is rather unfortunate then faulty if he miss it and men would never advance their opinion with that heat and malice against dissenters if they could once entertein this thought That it is possible that they themselves may erre and that that opinion in which they now say they will dye may be false if they did not rest in the first evidence as best and so suffer it to pass unquestioned 2 Pet. 1.19 and never seek for a sure word of prophesie or a well grounded assurance that this is one For if this were done as it should either Errour would not overtake or if it did it could not hurt us But this is an argument of a large compass a subject full and yielding much matter and I was but to declare my mind and intention which may better thrive and be more seen under the manage of more nimble and ready wits and the activity of a better penne Secondly as I thought it worth my pains and endeavour to strike at those common errours at which so many stumble and into which they willingly fall and with great complacency so did I set up in the course of my office and ministery this desire and I could not bring much more then desire to present in as fair an appearance as I could those more necessary and essential truths by the embracing of which we lay hold on happiness and come nearest to it and to set them up as a mark at which all mens actions should especially aim For if this be once obtained the other will follow of it self because these truths are not so obnoxious and open to prejudice and men would not run into so many obliquities if they did principally and earnestly intend that to which they are everlastingly and indispensably bound nor could they so often erre if they were willing to be good It was as wise counsel as could have been given to those who sat to solve knotty doubts and to determin controversies in Religion in the Council at Dort and it was given by a King and it would have made good his Motto and styled him a Peacemaker BEATI PACIFICI King James his Motto or Dicton though there had been nothing else to contribute to that title Paucissima definienda quia paucissima necessaria That they should not be too busie and earnest in defining and determining many things because so few were necessary Which counsel if men had thought it worth their ear and favour and willingly bowed to it had made the Church as Jerusalem a City compact within it self and there would have been abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth Psal 122 3. Psal 72.7 For Questions in Divinity are like Meats in this The more delicate and subtile they are the sooner they putrifie and by too much agitation and sifting annoy and corrupt the rule whilest men are more swift and eager in the pursuit and advance of that humour that raised them then in following those truths which are but few and easie Jude 19. and with which they might build themselves up in their holy faith Lex nos innocentes esse jubet non curiosos Senec. Controv Innocency and not Curiosity is the fulfilling of the Law as it is not Luxury which raiseth an healthful constitution but Temperance and those meats which are as wholesome as common The sum of all Christianity is made up in this To level and place all our hope where it should be on God through Jesus Christ our Lord to love him and keep his commandments which are both open and easie when we are willing In other more nice then useful disquisitions I am well pleased to be puzzled and to be at loss and yet am not at loss because I cannot lose that which I would not which I cannot have and resolve for God and not my self or indeed for my self because for God And my answer is most satisfactory That I believe the thing and God only knoweth the manner how it is and doth not therefore reveal it because it is not fit for me to know When I am to appear before God in his House and at his Table I recollect my thoughts and turn them upon my self I severely enquire in what terms I stand with God and my Neighbour whether there be nothing in me no imagination which standeth in opposition with Christ and so is not suitable with the feast nor with him that maketh it And when this is done my business is at an end for to attempt more is to do nothing or rather that which I should not do But I do not ask with the Schools How the ten Predicaments are in the Eucharist How the Bread is con-or transubstantiated or How the body of Christ is there For they who speak at distance most modestly and tell us it is not corporally but yet really there do not so define as to ascertain the manner but leave it in a cloud and out of sight Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he will raise me up at the last day 1 Cor. 15.19 for he hath promised who raised himself and is the first fruits of them that slept But I do not enquire What manner of Trumpet it shall be that shall then sound nor of the Solemnity and manner of the proceeding at that day or How the body which shall rise
Christ in his shame in his sorrow in his agony take him hanging on the cross take him and take a pattern by him that as he was so we may be troubled for our sins that we may mingle our tears with his blood drag Sin to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face at the fairest presentment it can make and then nail it to the cross that it may languish and faint by degrees till it give up the ghost and die in us Then lye we down in peace in the grave and expect a glorious resurrection when we shall receive Christ not in humility but in Majesty and with him all his riches and abundance all his promises even Glory and Immortality and Eternal life A SERMON Preached on Easter-Day REV. I. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death WE do not ask Of whom speaketh S. John this or Who is he that speaketh it For we have his character drawn out in lively colours in the verses going before my Text. The Divine calls him a voyce ver 12. when he meaneth the man who spake it I turned to see the voyce that spoke with me and in the next verse telleth us he was like to the Son of man in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks governing his Church Lev. 26.11 12. setting his Tabernacle amongst men not abhorring to walk amongst them and to be their God that they might be his people Will you see his robes and attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot v. 13. which was the garment of the High Priest Hebr. 7.24 And his was an unchangeable Priesthood He had also a golden girdle or belt as a King For he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Luk. 1.33 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loyns and faithfulness the girdle of his reins Isa 11.5 His head and his hairs were white as woll and as white as snow v. 14. his Judgment pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth and even as waters are when no wind troubleth them His eyes as a flame of fire piercing the inward man searching the secrets of the heart nor is there any action word or thought which is not manifest in his sight His feet like unto fine brass v. 15. sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy His voyce as the sound of many waters declaring his Fathers will with power and authority sounding out the Gospel of peace to all the world And last of all out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword v. 16. not onely dividing asunder the soul and the spirit Hebr. 4.12 but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortal eye his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength And now of him who walketh in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power and clothed with Justice whose Wisdome pierceth even into darkness it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayeth its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confess with Peter This is Christ Matth. 16.16 John 6.69 Hagg. 2.7 the Son of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the Desire of all nations the Glory of his Father Beauty it self appear in such a shape of terrour Shall we draw out a merciful Redeemer with a warriours belt with eyes of fire with feet of brass with a voyce of terrour with a sharp two-edged sword in his mouth Yes Such a High Priest became us Hebr. 7.26 who is not onely merciful but just not onely meek but powerful not only fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darkness of Humility but with the shining robes of Majesty who can dye and can live again and live for evermore who suffered himself to be judged and condemned and shall judge and condemn the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and biddeth him shake of that fear For he is terrible to none but those who make him so to Hereticks and Hypocrites and Persecutors of his Church to those who would have him neither wise nor just nor powerful Non accepimus iratum sed fecimus He is not angry till we force him It is rather our sins that run back again upon us as Furies than his wrath These make him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all sweetness all grace all salvation and upon these as upon S. John he layeth his right hand quickneth and rouzeth them up Fear not v. 17. neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brass nor my mighty voyce nor my two-edged sword for my Wisdom shall guide you my Power shall defend you my Majesty shall uphold you and my Mercy shall crown you Fear not I am the first and the last more humble than any more powerful than any scorned whipped crucified and now highly exalted and Lord of all the world I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore c. These words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lord's Prayer breviarium Evangelii the Breviary or Sum of the whole Gospel or with Augustine Symbolum abbreviatum the Epitome or Abridgement of our Creed And such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable and unalterable rule of Faith And then the Articles or parts will be 1. The Death of Christ I was dead 2. The Resurrection of Christ with the effect and power of it I am he that liveth 3. The Duration and continuance of his life It is to all eternity I am alive for evermore 4. The Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the Power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And all these are 1. ushered in with an ECCE Behold that we may consider it and 2. sealed and ratified with an AMEN that we may believe it that there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaketh an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God Hebr. 3.11 I am he that liveth and was dead Of the Death of Christ we spake the last day Par. 1. We shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection and consider it as past For it is FVI MORTVVS I was dead And in this we may see the method and proceeding of our Saviour which he drew out in his blood which must sprinkle those who are to be
yet are themselves still as greedy and rapacious as before They take up the Cross but it is to lay it on other mens shoulders They follow Christ but as Peter did afar off or rather as the Jews to crucify him They fight against the world that is against one another who shall possess it For even this we do not do not fill our coffers but in the name of Christ and Religion They lay hold on Christ but it is to carry him along with them to promote and further their designes They love him it is plain they do and yet give him not a cup of cold water when he beggeth at their door They love him as they do one another till it is put to the trial They are adopted but not of his family regenerated but are liker the Father of lies then him they pretend to They are called and converted for they know the very hour and moment of time when they heard the voice and said Amen to it Lord what a noyse have these phrases these words made in the world and yet it is the world still James 3.6 Sen. Controv. even a world of wickedness As the Oratour said of Figures Possumus sine his vivere We may live and be saved with less noise For all these signifie but one and the same thing To deny our selves to take up the cross to follow Christ to fight against the world to lay hold on Christ to love him to be adopted regenerated and converted all is no more then this to believe in Christ and to be sincere upright just and honest men Yet these words are words of holy Writ the language of the Spirit of God and they are all full and significant nor can I give you a fairer interpretation of my Text He that denieth himself walketh in Christ He that loveth Christ walketh in him he that is adopted regenerate converted walketh in Christ But this is too general and I see but ill use made of these excellent expressions They should make us better but through our own wilfull folly they make us worse For we may shape our selves how we list in our phansie and be quite the contrary We will therefore interpret this Walk in Christ by that of S. Paul Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called 1 Cor. 7.20 Grot. in loc Where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was called pointeth out and designeth as a learned man hath observed the time of his heavenly Calling and so both callings are made compatible and friendly linkt together my condition of life in this world and my calling to a better my being a part of the Common-wealth and my being a member of Christ For Christ came not to break Relations or to disturb Common-wealths not to shut up the Tradesmans shops not to block up the sea to the Merchant not to take the Husband man from the plough I may do all these and yet deny my self and take up the Cross and fight against the world Or rather I cannot do all these unless I do the other I cannot abide in one calling as I should unless I walk worthy of the other not be a good Merchant unless I be a good Christian that we doubt not nay but not walk in Christ unless we walk in our Calling The life saith S. Paul Gal. 3.2 which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God that is Those things which I do pertaining to the flesh and which this natural and mortal life requireth as to eat drink converse with others and to seek my meat by the sweat of my brows which may seem to have no relation to a spiritual life I do them in the faith of the Son of God For in all these things I have alwayes an eye to the rule of Faith I make that my Star and my Compass to steer by and my care is to make every action of my life in my temporary conformable and consonant to my heavenly calling And the reason is plain For even our natural and civil actions as far as they are capable of honesty or dishonesty pertain or have reference to Faith For although Christ's Religion do not necessitate or compel men to engage in this or that particular action or calling yet notwithstanding it is a rule sufficient to govern and direct us in any to keep us in a fair correspondency and obedience to Reason and the Will of God the Faith and Religion of Christ being practical and having that force and efficacy which may be shewn and manifested in all the civil actions of our life As the Jewish Rabbines report of the Manna the children of Israel ate in the wilderness that it had this wonderful property Wisd 16.21 that it would fit it self to every mans tast look what viand or meat it was that any was delighted with it would in tast be like unto it so doth Christianity like that Manna doctâ quadam mobilitate by a certain secret force apply it self to every tast to every calling Read the Sermon on the mount and those Epistles which the holy Apostles sent to several Churches and tell me What is there delivered the Foundation first laid but an Art of governing our selves and of conversing with men 1 Cor. 7.21 Or there it is Art thou called being a servant Eph. 6.9 Art thou called to be a Servant Serve as in the sight of Christ Art thou called to be a Master Remember thou hast a Master in heaven Art thou a Husbandman Religion will hold the plough with thee Art thou a Trades-man It will buy and sell with thee Art thou a Scholar It will study with thee If thou go into the Vineyard Matth. 20. it will bear the heat of the day with thee till the evening and then pay thee thy wages If thou sell it will oversee thy weights and measures If we bargain it will remember us that we defraud not one another 1 Thes 4.6 This counsel was given to the Thessalonians who were most of them men of Trade and Merchants When we speak Ephes 4.25 it biddeth us cast away lying Thus doth Christian Religion spread its beams through every corner of the earth shining upon us at every turn and every motion waiting upon us in every condition of life keeping every man within the bounds of his Calling and of Honesty And whilst we follow this light walk within these bounds stretch not as S. Paul speaketh 2 Cor. 10.14 beyond measure beyond our line we may be truely said to walk in Christ Therefore to make some use of this let us not deceive our selves and think we never walk in Christ but when we walk to Church to hear some news of him that when we have shut him out of our houses and shops we shall be sure to meet with him again at Church If we never serve him but in his own house we have some reason to
None of these will fit us but SICVT ACCEPIMVS as we have received from Christ and his Apostles which is the onely sufficient Rule to guide us in our Walk 1. Not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others walk No though their praise be in the Gospel and they are numbred amongst the Saints of God For as S. Bernard calleth the examples of the Saints condimentum vitae the sawce of our life to season and make pleasant what else may prove bitter to us as Job's Dunghill may be a good sight for me to look upon in my low estate and his Patience may uphold me David's Groans and Complaints may tune my sorrow Saint Pauls Labours and Stripes and Imprisonment may give me an issue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way 1 Cor. 10.13 a power to escape the like temptation by conquering it I may wash off all my grief with their tears wipe out all disgrace with their contumelies and bury the fear of Death in their Graves so they may prove if we be not wary venenum vitae as poyson to our life and walk For I know not how we are readier to stumble with the Saints then to walk with them readier to lie down with David in his bed of lust then in his couch of tears readier to deny Christ with Peter upon a pretense of frailty then to weep bitterly out of a deep sense of our sin In the errours and deviations of my life I am Noah and Abraham and David and Peter I am all the Patriarchs and all the Apostles but in that which made them Saints I have little skill and less mind to follow them It will concern us then to have one eye upon the Saint and another upon the Rule that the actions of good men may be as a prosperous gale to drive us forward in our course and the Rule the Compass to steer by For it will neither help nor comfort me to say I shipwrackt with a Saint James 2.1 My brethren saith S. James have not the faith of Christ in respect of persons It is too common a thing to take our eye from the Rule and settle it upon the Person whom we gaze upon till we have lost our sight and can see nothing of Man or Infirmity in him His Virtue and our Esteem shine and cast a colour and brightness upon the evil which he doth upon whatsoever he saith though false or doth though irregular that it is either less visible or if it be seen commendeth it self by the person that did it and so stealeth and winneth upon us unawares and hath power with us as a Law Could S. Augustine erre There have been too many in the Church who thought he could not and to free him from errour have made his errours greater then they were by large additions of their own and fathered upon him those mishapen births which were he now alive he would startle at and run from or stand up and use all his strength to destroy Could Calvine or Luther do or speak any thing that was not right They that follow them and are proud of their names willing to be distinguished from all others by them would be very angry and hate you perfectly if you should say they could And we cannot but be sensible what strange effects this admiration of their persons hath wrought upon the earth what a fire it hath kindled hotter then that of the Tyrant's fornace Dan. 3. For the flames have raged even to our very doors Thus the Examples of good men like two-edged swords cut both wayes both for good and for bad and Sin and Errour may be conveyed to us not onely in the cup of the Whore but in the vessels of the Sanctuary They are as the Plague and infect wheresoever they are but spread more contagion from a Saint then from a man of Belial In the one they are scarce seen in the other they are seen with horror In the one we hate not the sin so much as the person and in the other we are favourable to the sin for the person's sake and at last grow familiar with it as with our friend De Abrog priv Miss Nihil perniciosius gestis sanctorum said Luther himself There is nothing more dangerous then the actions of the Saints not strengthened by the testimony of Scripture and it is far safer to count that a sin in them which hath not its warrant from Scripture then to fix it up for an ensample for it is not good to follow a Saint into the ditch Let us take them not whom men for men may canonize themselves and others as they please but whom God himself as it were with his own hand hath registred for Saints Hebr. 11.32 Numb 25.7 8 Psal 106.30 Samson was a good man and hath his name in the catalogue of Believers Phinehas a zealous man who staid the plague by executing of judgement but I can neither make Samson an argument to kill my self nor Phinehas to shed the bloud of an adulterer Lib. 2. de Baptismo q. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 10.24 S. Basil observeth that amongst those many seeming contradictions in Scripture one is of a Fact or Work done to the Precept The Command is Thou shalt not kill Samson killed himself Phinehas with his spear nailed the adulterous couple to the earth but every man hath not Samson's spirit nor Phinehas's commission The Father's rule is the rule of Wisdome it self When we read in Scripture a Fact commended which falleth cross with the Precept we must leave the Fact and cleave to the Precept For Examples are not rules of life but provocations to good works SICVT VIDIMVS As we have seen then is not a right SICVT We must be like unto Elias but not consume men with fire like unto Peter but not cut off a mans ear like unto S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.1 but himself correcteth it with a SICVT EGO CHRISTI as I am unto Christ 2. In the next place if not SICVT VIDIMVS as we have seen others then not SICVT VISVM FVERIT as it shall seem good in our own eyes For Phansie is a wanton unruly froward faculty and in us as in Beasts for the most part supplieth the place of Reason Vulgus ex veritate pauca Pro Roscio Comaedo ex opinione multa aestimat saith Tully The Common people which is the greatest part of mankind for vulgus is of a larger signification then we usually take it in are led rather by Opinion then by the Truth because they are more subject and enslaved to those two turbulent Tribunes of the Soul the Irascible and the Concupiscible appetite and so more opinionative then those who are not so much under their command It is truly said Affectiones facilè faciunt opiniones Our affections will easily raise up opinions For who will not soon phansie that to be true which he would have so which may either fill his