delivered up into the hand of the Philistine D minus est it is the Lord. And novv if vve look vvell upon the inscription vve shall finde it to be like the pillar of the cloud Exod. 14. a cloud of darknesse to the Philistine but giving light to the Israelite And 1. the Philistine hath no reason to boast of this as a preferment that he is made the instrument of God in the execution of his judgements upon his people for vve shall finde that it hath been one of the most dangerous and fatal offices in the World Nebuchadnezzar vvas so God called him to it Jer. 21. Go up against the Land of Merathaim or of Rebels and he did lead Israel into Captivity but hear the vvord of the Lord. How is the Hammer of the Lord cut a sunder and broke Jerusalem is taken but Shishak also shall fall and in the 28. of that Prophesie that cup which was sent to Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah and the kings thereof and put into their hands to drink at the 15. ver is afterward put into the hand of the king of Shishak to drink and to be drunken to spew and fall Thus saith the Lord you shall certainly drink it Jer. 25.27.28 and he gives the reason at the next verse for lo I begin to bring evil upon the City which is called by my Name or where my Name is called upon and shall you go free shall you go utterly unpunished if you can raise such a hope then hear a voice from Heaven which shall dash it to pieces I have said it and I will make it good you shall not go unpunished v. 29. I have begun with my own house but I am coming towards you in a Tempest of fire to devour yours I have shaken my own Tabernacle and the house of Dagon shall not cannot stand For they whom God appoints as Executioners of justice upon his people are like the image which the Tyrant saw in his dream Daniel the 2. partly iron and partly clay partly strong and partly broken v. 42. First God findes them apt and fit full of malice and gall for whose hands were fitter to fling stones at David then his whose mouth was full of curses who fitter to keep Gods people in bondage then a Pharaoh or to lead them into Captivity then he whom God did afterwards drive into the fields amongst the Beasts who could have crucified the Lord of life but the Jews and finding them apt and fit he permits them gives these serpents leave to spit their poison gives these Hang-men leave to do their Office This his not hindring them was all the warrant and commission they had Gâ—up against the Land can be no more then this I know you are upon your March and I will not stand in your way to stay you but you shall do me service against your wills with that malice which my Soul hates for we cannot think that God inspired the Tyrant or sent a Prophet to him with the message to bid him do that which he threatens to punish no he doth but permit them he gives them leave to be his Executioners and in this his permission is their strength they pursue the Israelite and lay on sure strokes their malice is caried on in a Chariot of four wheels made up of cruelty impatience ambition impudence and drawn as Bernard expresses it with two wilde horses Bern. in Cant. Ser. 39. earthly power and secular pomp and now they drive on furiously and God is as one asleep as one that marks them not because he will not hinder them but within a while he will awake strike off their Chariot wheels and restrain them say to them as he doth to the swelling Sea Hitherto you shall go and no farther and them they are but clay they crumble and fall to nothing Why should the Philistine boast himself in his mischief the goodnesse of God endureth yet dayly and is every day Psal 51.2 and in every age the same and it is no concluding argument that we please God when we are imployed in the punishment of those that offend him nor can we thus argue no more then we can attribute reason and wisdom to an Asse because it pleased God once to make use of so contemptible a Creature to reprove the folly of a Prophet Secondly it gives light to the Israelite by which he may order his steps with more caution and warinesse For as our Saviour sayes we may make a friend of Mammon and Saint Chrysostom adds even of the Devil himself so may a true Israelite make a friend of a Philistine and they who survive may learn by the 34000. who were slain who being dead yet speak unto them and us to fly from the wrath of God who when we rebell against him can punish us by far worse then our selves Oh who would not look upon those sins as the most horrid spectacles in the World for the punishment of which God should cull out such instruments that are under a greater curse fitter for the fire then those on whom they are used If we go on and continue in sin Joel 2.25 God may send out his great Army against us his Grashoppers his Cankerworm and his Caterpillar and eat up our Harvest Habbac 2.11 He may raise up every Creature even the timber out of the wall to speak against us and if we still stand out against him he may raise up some accursed Alien some Philistine some childe of Perdition to wreak his vengeance upon us who would not be afraid of that cup of bitternesse which must be brought to him by the hand of a Philistine and forsake sin if not for the punishment yet for the executioner A sad sight it was to see David the Father whipt for his Adultery by his Son and David the King chastised by his Subject who should have kist his Feet 2 Sam. 16.11 he himself saies The Lord bid him doe it to see a whole Nation carried away Captive by a man who did afterwards degenerate into a Beast to see so many thousand Israclites fall at the feet of Idolaters and servants of Dagon but the inscription is indeleble what is writen is written Dominus est it is the Lord. 4. But now in the last place not onely the Priests and the people but the Ark it self was delivered up the Ark of his Covenant and the Ark of his strength Ps 132. Exod. 37. 1 Sam. 4. from whence God gave his Oracles wherein were the Tables of the Law and Testimony written by the Finger of God the Glory of God as Phinchas his wife calls it even this was made a prey to these cursed Aliens brought in Triumph into the house of Dagon at the sift Chapter And here we may lay our hands upon our mouth once have I spoken yea thrice but here is a great depth Horror and amazement and we may fear to proceed any further What defeat his own
ever was came not to destroy but to perfect nature not to blot out those common notions which we brought into the world with us but to make them more legible to improve them and so make them his Law and if we look upon them as not belonging to us we our selves cannot belong to the covenant of grace for even these duties are weaved in and made a part of the covenant and if we break the one we break the other and not onely if we believe not but if we live not peaceably if we stretch beyond our line if we labour not in our calling we shall not enter into his rest For these also are his Laws and these doth our blessed Apostle teach and command And to conclude such a power hath Christ left in his Church conferred it first on his Apostles and those who were to succeed and supply their place who were to speak after them in the person and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we will not dispute now what power it is it is sufficient to say it is not an Earthly but a Heavenly Power derived from Christ himself the Fountain and originall of all power whatsoever As Christs kingdom is not of this world so is not this power of that nature as to stand in need of an Army of Souldiers to defend and hold it up but is like to the object and matter it works upon spirituall a power to command to remember every man of his duty in the Church or Common-wealth for the Church and Common-wealth are two distinct but not contrary things and both powers were ordained to uphold and defend each other the civill power to exalt Religion and Religion to guard and fence the civill power and both should concur in this that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godlinesse and honesty Our commission is from heaven and we need no other power then his that sealed it and the virtue and Divinity of it shall then be made manifest when all earthly power shall cease and even Kings and they who did what they list shall tremble before it We see that power which is exercised here on earth though the glory of it dazle an eye of flesh yet sits heavy upon them who weare it we see it tortures them that delight in it eats up them that feed on 't eats up it self and driving all before it at last falls it self to the ground and falls as a milstone upon him that hath it and bruiseth him to pieces It is not such a power but I may be bold to say though it be lookt upon laught at despised by the men of this world yet is it a greater power than that which sometimes sets it up on high and sometimes makes it nothing and hath its end when it hath not its end for to publish our masters will to command in his name is all and though the command prove to some the savour of death unto death yet the power is still the same and doth never faile and if men were what they professe themselves Christians if they had any taste of the powers of the world to come they would more tremble at this then at the other be more afraid of a just reproof then a whip of an excommunication then a sword of the wrath of God which is yet scarce visible then of that which comes in fire and tempest to devour us for his favour or his wrath ever accompanies this power which draws his love neerer to them that obey it and poures forth his vengeance on them that resist it To conclude then look upon the command and honor the Apostle that brings it for the commands sake for his sake whose power and command it is A power there is proper and peculiar to them who are called to it and if the name of power may move envy for we see men fret at that which was ordeined for their good and so wast and exhale all their Religion till it be nothing if the name of power beare so harsh a sound we will give you leave to think it is not much materiall whether you call it so or no whether we speak in the imperative mood hoc fac do this upon your perill or onely positively point as with the finger this is to be done we will be any thing do any thing be as low as you please so we may raise you above the vanities of the world above that wantonnesse which stormes at that which was ordained for no other end but to lift you out of ruine into the highest heavens Our power and the command of Christ differ not so much but the one includes and upholds the other and if you did but once love the command you would never boggle at the name of power but blesse and honour him that brings it Oh that men were wise but so wise as not to be wiser then God as not to choose and fall in love with their own wayes as more certain and direct unto the end then Gods as not to preferre their own mazes and Labyrinths and uncertain gyrations drawn out by lust and fancy before those even and unerring paths found out by an infinite wisdome and discovered to us by a mercy as infinite oh that we could once work out and conquer the hardship of a command and then see the beauty of it and to what glory it leads us we should then receive an Apostle in the name of an Apostle and look upon the command though brought in an earthen vessell as upon heaven it self oh that we were once spirituall then those precepts which concern our conversation on earth would be laid hold on and embraced as from the Heaven Heavenly then should we be as quiet as the Heavens which are ever moving and ever at rest because ever in their own place then should we be as the Angels of Heaven who envy not one another malice not one another trouble not one another but every Angel knows his office and moves in his own order and our assiduous labour in our calling would be a resemblance of the readynesse of those blessed spirits who at the beck of Majesty have wings and haste to their duty who are ever moving and then in their highest exaltation when they are in their ministery In aword then should we every one sit under his own vine and figtree and no evill eye should look towards him no malice blast him no injury assault him no bold intrusion unsettle him but we should all rejoyce together the poore with the rich the weak with the strong the low with the high all blesse one another help one another guard one another and so in the name of the prince of peace walk peaceably together every one moving in his own place till we reach that peace which yet we do not understand but shall then fully enjoy to all Eternity The One and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MICAH v. 6. Wherewith shall I come
and Attire Clothed he was with a garment down to the foot which was the Garment of the High Priest and his was an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 7.24 and he had a golden Girdle or Belt as a King v. 13. for he is a King for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end Righteousnesse shall be the girdle of his loynes and Faithfulnesse he girdle of his reines Es 11.5 His head and his haires were white as wooll v. 14. and as white as snow his Judgement pure and uncorrupt not byassed by outward respects not tainted or corrupted by any turbulent affection but smooth even as waters are when no wind troubles them His eys 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 brasse sincere and constant like unto himself in all his proceedings in every part of his Oeconomy his voyce as many waters v. 15. 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 but discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart and taking vengeance on those who persecute his Church His Majesty dazled every mortall eye his Countenance was as the Sun shining in his strength and now of him who walks in the midst of his Church whose Mercy is a large Robe reaching down to the feet who is girt with Power who is clothed with Justice whose Wisdom pierceth even into darknesse it self whose Word is heard from one end of the world to the other whose Majesty displayes its beams through every corner of it we cannot but confesse with Peter This is Christ the Sonne of the living God And can the Saviour of the world the desire of the Nations the glory of his Father can Beauty it self appeare in such a shape of Terrour shall we draw out a mercifull Redeemer with a warriours Belt with eyes of Fire with feet of Brasse with a voyce of Terrour with a sharp two-edged Sword in his mouth Yes such a High Priest became us who is not onely mercifull but just not onely meek but powerfull not onely fair but terrible not onely clothed with the darknesse 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 condemne the world it self S. John indeed was troubled at this sight and fell down as dead but Christ rouzeth him up and bids him shake off this feare 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 powerfull non accepimus iratum sed fecimus he is not angry till we force him 't is rather our sins that turn back again upon us as furies than his wrath that makes him clothe himself with vengeance and draw his sword To S. John to those that bow before him he is all Sweetnesse all Grace all Salvation and upon these as upon St. John he layes his right hand quickens and rouzeth them up Feare not neither my girdle of Justice nor my eyes of fire nor my feet of brasse nor my mighty voice 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 powerfull 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 live for evermore c. Which words I may call as Tertullian doth the Lords Prayer breviarium Evangelii the breviary or summe of the whole Gospel or with Austin symbolnm abbreviatum the Epitome and abridgement of our Creed and such a short Creed we find in Tertullian which he calls Regulam veram immobilem irreformabilem the sole immutable unalterable rule of Faith and then The articles or parts will be these 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 which is to all eternity I live for evermore 4. Power of Christ which he purchased by his death the power of the keyes I have the keyes of Hell and of Death And these 1. Are ushered in with an Ecce Behold that we may consider it 2. Sealed ratified with an Amen that we may believe it That there be not in any of us as the Apostle speaks an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God I am he that liveth and was dead And of the death of Christ we spake the last day Par 1. we shall onely now look upon it in reference to the Resurrection consider it as past for it is fui mortuus 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 saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam Luke 24.25 Heb. 2.20 from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Christ and his Church are in computations but one person he ought to suffer and we ought to suffer they suffer in him and he in hem to the end of the world nor is any other method either answerable to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indelible characters nor to our mortall and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed must be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up quicquid Deo convenit Tetuil homini prodest that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us that which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head there is an oportet set upon both he ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again And first it cannot consist with the wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and we live as we please and the reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Divel for those who will be his vassals that he should foile him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this
we could not have taken him for our Captaine and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers non novimus Christum si non credimus we do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captaine that leads us as Moses did the children of Israel through the Wildernesse full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposes some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looks back into some grave Tolle certamen ne virtus quidem quicquam erit take away his combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations Religion it self were but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it a fable What were my Patience if no misery did look towards it what were my Faith if there were no doubt to assoile it what were my Hope if there were no scruple to shake it what were my Charity if there were no misery to urge it no malice to oppose it what were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead Fui mortuus I was dead saith the Lord of life and it is directed to us who do but think we live but are in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils which are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomlesse pit when we hear this voice by the vertue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcometh the world Nor need this Method seeme grievous unto us for these very words Fui mortuus I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plaine and easie method For by his Death we must understand all those fore-running miseries all that he suffer'd before his death which were as the Traine and Ceremony as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as poverty scorne and contempt the burden of our sinnes his Agony and bloudy sweat which we must look upon as the principles of this Heavenly science by which our best master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to rayse us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings for we have not such an High priest who will not help us but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touch'd with the feeling of our Infirmities and is mercifull and faithfull Heb. 2.17 hath not onely power for that he may have and not shew it but a will and propension a desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the Gates of death Indeed mercy without power can beget but a good wish Saint James his complementall charity Be ye warmed and be ye filled and be ye comforted which leaves us cold and empty and comfortlesse and Power without mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heale a broken heart may as well strike us dead as revive us but Mercy and Power when they meet and kisse each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and rayse us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a Bath a Rack a Bed and persecution a Blessing will call those sorrowes that are as if they were not such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his compassion and mercy were coeternall with him as God yet as man didicit he learnt it He came into the world as into a Schoole and there learnt it by his sufferings and death Heb. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feele it in our selves it must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggs of me and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way side and then I powre my oyle and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feele the Hell of sinne in my self before I can snatch my Brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walks abroad and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and heales two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him for they were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffer'd are the maine strength of our Salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be mercifull then he could leave off to be the sonne of God yet before he emptyed himself and took upon him the forme of a servant sicut miseriam expertus non era ita nec miscricordiam experimento novit saith Hilary as he had no experience of sorrow so had he no experimentall knowledge of mercy and compassion his own hunger moved him to work that miracle of the loaves for it is said in the Text He had compassion on the multitude his poverty made him an Crator for the poore and he begs with them to the end of the world He had not a hole to hide his head and his compassion melted into tears at the sight of Jerusalem When he became a man of sorrowes he became also a man of compassion And yet his experience of sorrow in truth added nothing to his knowledge but rayseth up a confidence in us to approach neer unto him who by his miserable experience is brought so neer unto us and hath reconciled us in the Body of his flesh Coloss 1.21 for he that suffer'd for us hath compassion on us and suffers and is tempted with us even to the end of the world on the Crosse with Saint Peter on the Block with S. Paul in the fire with the Martyrs destitute afflicted tormented would you take a view of Christ looking towards us with a melting eye you may see him in your own soules take him in a groane mark him in your sorrow behold him walking in the clefts of a broken heart bleeding in the gashes of a wounded spirit or to make him an object more sensible you may see him every day begging in your streets when he tells you He was dead he tells you as much In as much as the children were partakers of flesh and Bloud he also himself took part of the same and in our flesh was a
powerfull Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant c. HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN 16.13 Howbeit when He the spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all truth WHen the spirit of truth is come c. and behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memoriall of his coming a memoriall of that miraculous and unusuall sound that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as he came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen heard so he comes though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not it a mighty wind yet he rattles our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our souls are shaken no fire appears yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the Holy Ghost descends both as an Instructer and a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing not drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth When He the spirit of truth is come c. In which words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzen speaks or rather the promise of his coming and appearance and if we well weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40. For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Es 11.2 and I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christs Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirits for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christs Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirits Advent to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us Captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it for we may soon see that the one will little availe without the other Christs Birth his Death and Passion Chists glorious Resurrection but a story in Archivis good newes sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him Phil. 3.10 and the vertue and power of his Resurrection and make us conformable to his death This is the summe of these words and in this we shall passe by these steps or degrees First carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirits Advent the miracle of this day cùm venerit when the spirit of truth comes in a sound to awake them in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Secondly consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his person the demonstrative pronoune ille when he shall come 2. Nomen naturae a name expressing his nature he is a spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose spirit it is In the second we shall find Nomen officii a name of office and administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way for so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be their leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a strait and even course in the way And in this great office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the lesson he teacheth it is Truth Secondly the large extent of this lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he leads into all truth Thirdly The method and manner of his discipline which will neerly concern us to take notice of it is ductus a gentle and effectuall leading he drives us not he drawes us not by violence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word here he takes as it were by the hand and guides and leads us into all truth Cùm venerit ille spiritus veritatis When He the spirit of truth c. And first though we are told by some that where the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to fo there we are to understand the person of the Holy Ghost yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille when he the spirit of truth shall come he shall lead you which points out to a distinct person For if with Sabellius he had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts or some effect of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He designes a certain person and ille he in Christs mouth a distinct person from himself Besides we are taught in the Schools Actiones sunt suppositorum actions and operations are of persons now in this verse Christ sayes that he shall lead them and before he shall reprove the world and in the precedent chapter he shall testifie of me which are proper and peculiar operations of the blessed Spirit and bring him in a distinct person from the Father and the Son And therefore S. Augustine rests upon this dark and generall expression The Holy Ghost communicates both of the Father and the Son is something of them both whatsoever we may call it whether we call him the Consubstantiall and Coeternall communion and friendship of the Father and the Son or with Gerson and others of the Schools Nexum Amorosum the Essentiall Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations in which if we speak not in the Spirits language we may sooner lose than profit our selves and speak more than we should whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough It will be safer walking below amongst those observations which as they are more familiar and easy so are they more usefull and take what oare we can find with ease than to dig deeper in this dark mine where if we walk not warily we may meet with poysonous fogs and damps instead of treasure We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the Spirit of Truth for divers
attributes he hath he is called the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 the Spirit of Grace of Love of Joy of Zeale for where he worketh Grace is operative our Love is without dissimulation our Joy is like the joy of heaven as true though not so great our Faith a working faith and our Zeal a coale from the Altar kindled from his fire not mad and raging but according to knowledge he makes no shadowes but substances no pictures but realities no appearances but truths a Grace that makes us highly favoured a precious and holy Faith full and unspeakable Love ready to spend it self and zeal to consume us of a true existence being from the spirit of God who alone truly is but here the spirit of Truth yet the same spirit that planteth grace and faith in our hearts that begets our Faith cilates our Love works our Joy kindles our Zeal and adopts us in Regiam familiam into the Royall Family of the first-born in Heaven but now the spirit of Truth was more proper for to tell men perplext with doubts that were ever and anon and sometimes when they should not asking questions of such a Teacher was a seal to the promise a good assurance they should be well taught that no difficulty should be too hard no knowledge too high no mystery too dark and obscure for them but Omnis veritas all truth should be brought forth and unfolded to them and have the vayle taken from it and be laid open and naked to their understanding Let us then look up upon and worship this spirit of Truth as he thus presents and tenders himself unto us as he stands in opposition to two great enemies to Truth as 1. Dissimulation 2. Flattery and then as he is true in the lessons which he teacheth that we may pray for his Advent long for his coming and so receive him when he comes And first dissemble he doth not he cannot for dissimulation is a kind of cheat or jugling by which we cast a mist before mens eyes that they cannot see us it brings in the Divel in Samuel's mantle and an enemy in the smiles and smoothness of a friend it speakes the language of the Priest at Delphos playes in ambiguities promises life As to King 〈◊〉 who a 〈…〉 slew when death is neerest and bids us beware of a chariot when it means a sword No this spirit is an enemy to this because a spirit of truth and hates these in volucra dissimulationis this folding and involvednesse these clokes and coverts these crafty conveyances of our own desires to their end under the specious shew of intending good to others and they by whom he speaks are like him and speak the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.12 in the simplicity and godly sincerity of the spirit not in craftinesse not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handling the Word of God deceitfully 2 Cor. 4.2 Eph. 4.14 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the slight of men throwing a Die what cast you would have them noting their Doctrine to men and the times that is not to men and the times but to their own ends telling them of Heaven Wisdom 1.5 when their thoughts are in their purse This holy spirit of Truth flies all such deceit and removes himself far from the thoughts which are without understanding and will not acquit a dissembler of his words there is nothing of the Divels method nothing of the Die or hand no windings nor turnings in what he teacheth but verus vera dicit being a spirit of truth he speaks the truth and nothing but he truth and for our behoof and advantage that we may believe it and build upon it and by his discipline raise our selves up to that end for which he is pleased to come and be our teacher And as he cannot dissemble so in the next place flatter us he cannot the inseparable mark and character of the evill spirit qui arridet ut saeviat who smiles upon us that he may rage against us lifts us up that he may cast us down whose exaltations are foiles whose favours are deceits whose smiles and kisses are wounds for flattery is as a glasse for a fool to look upon and so become more fool than before it is the fools eccho by which he hears himself at the rebound and thinks the wiseman spoke unto him and it proceeds from the father of lies not from the spirit of truth who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever who reproves drunkennesse though in a Noah adultery though in a David want of faith though in a Peter and layes our sins in order before us his precepts are plain his law is in thunder his threatnings earnest and vehement he calls Adam from behind the bush strikes Ananias dead for his hypocrisie and for lying to the holy Spirit deprives him of his own Thy excuse to him is a libell thy pretence fouler than thy sin thy false worship of him is blasphemy and thy form of godlinesse open impiety and where he enters the heart Sin which is the greatest errour the grossest lye removes it self heaves and pants to go out knocks at our breast and runs down at our eyes and we hear it speak in sighs and grones unspeakable and what was our delight becomes our torment In a word he is a spirit of truth and neither dissembles to decieve us nor flatters that we may deceive our selves but verus vera dicit being truth it self tells us what we shall find to be most true to keep us from the dangerous by-paths of errour and misprision in which we may lose our selves and be lost for ever And this appears is visible in those lessons and precepts which he gives which are so harmonious so consonant so agreeing with themselves and so consonant and agreeable to that Image after which we were made to fit and beautifie it when it is defaced and repaire it when it is decayed that so it may become in some proportion measure like unto him that made it for this spirit doth not set up one precept against another nor one text against another doth not disanul his promises in his threats nor check his threats with his promises doth not forbid all Feare in confidence nor shake our confidence when he bids us feare doth not set up meeknesse to abate our zeale nor kindles zeale to consume our meeknesse doth not teach Christian liberty to shake off obedience to Government nor prescribes obedience to infringe and weaken our Christian liberty This spirit is a spirit of truth and never different from himself never contradicts himself but is equall in all his wayes the same in that truth which pleaseth thee and that which pincheth thee in that which thou consentest to and that which thou runnâ—st from in that which will rayse thy spirit and that which will wound thy spirit And the reason why men who
way and through all the surges of this present world brings us to the presence of God who is truth is self a truth which leads us to our Originall to the Rock out of which we were hewen and brings us back to our God who made us not for the vanities of this world but for himself an Art to cast down all Babells all towring and lofty imaginations which present unto us falshoods for truths appearances for realities plagues for peace which scatter and divide our soules powre them out upon variety of unlawfull objects which deceive us in the very nature and end of things For as this spirit brought life and immortality to light 2 Time 1.10 for whatsoever the prophets and great Rabbies had spoken of immortality was but darknesse in comparison of this great light so it also discovered the errors and horror of those follies which we lookt upon with love and admiration as upon heaven it self What a price doth luxury place on wealth and riches what horror on nakednesse and poverty How doth a jewell glitter in my eyes and what a slurr is there upon virtue what Glory doth the pomp of the world present and what a sad and sullen aspect hath righteousnesse How is God thrust out and every Idol every vanity made a God but the truth here which the spirit teacheth discovers all pulls off the vayle shewes us the true countenance and face of things that we may not be deceived shewes us vanity in riches folly in honour death and destruction in the pomp of this world makes poverty a blessing and misery happinesse and death it self a passage to eternity placeth God in his Throne and man where he should be at his footstoole bowing before him which is the readiest way to be lifted up unto him and to be with him for evermore In a word a truth of power to unite us to our God that brings with it the knowledge of Christ the wisdome of God which presents those precepts and doctrines which lead to happinesse a truth that goes along with us in all our wayes waits on us on our bed of sicknesse leaves us not at our death but followes us and will rise again with us unto judgement and there either acquit or condemn us either be our Judge or Advocate For if we make it our friend here it shall then look lovely on us and speak good things for us but if we despise it and put it under our basest desires and vile affections it will then fight against us and triumph over us and tread us down into the lowest pit Christ is not more gracious then this truth to them that love it but to those who will not learne shall be Tribulation and anguish the Sun turn'd into Bloud the world on fire the voyce of the Archangel the Trump of God the severe countenance of the Judge will not be more terrible then this truth to them that have despised it For Christ Jesus shall judge the secrets of the heart acquit the just condemn the impenitent according to this truth which the spirit teacheth according saith Saint Paul to my Gospel Rom. 2.16 The large extent of this lesson This is the lesson The spirit teacheth truth let us now see the extent of it which is large and universall for the spirit doth not teach us by halves doth not teach some truths and conceal others but teacheth all truth makes his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous and full of saving knowledge For saving knowledge is all indeed that truth which brings me to my end is all and there is nothing more to be known I desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 here his desire hath a Non ultra this truth is all this joyns heaven and earth together God and man mortality and immortality misery and happiness in one drawes us neer unto God and makes us one with him This is the Spirits lesson Commentum Divinitatis the invention of the divine Spirit as faith is called the gift of God not onely because it is given to every believer and too many are too willing to stay till it be given but because this spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith And as he first found it out so he teacheth it and leaves out nothing not a tittle not an Iota which may serve to compleat perfect this Divine Science In the book of God are all our members written All the members yea and all the faculties of our soul and in his Gospel his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off which limit the understanding to the knowledg of God which bind the will to obedience and moderate confine our Affections level our hope fix our joy stint our sorrow which frame our speech compose our gesture fashion our Apparel set and methodize our outward behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious and what should I more say for the time would faile me to mention them all In a word then this truth which the spirit teacheth is fitted to the whole man fitted to every member of the body to every faculty of the soule fitted to us in every condition in every relation it will reign with thee it will serve with thee it will manage thy riches it will comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee and sit down with thee on the dunghill it will pray with thee it will fast with thee it will labour with thee it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee it will govern a Church it will order thy Family it will raise a kingdome within thee it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abrahams bosome and set a crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more or what need more than that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to blessednesse and there is but one Truth and that is it which the Spirit teacheth and this runs the whole compass of it directs us not onely ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not onely to that which is the end but to the means to every step and passage and approch to every help and advantage towards it and so unites us to this one God gives us right to this one Heaven and brings us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this truth which the spirit hath plainly taught 't is true but then for the most part they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make cases sometimes raised by weakness sometimes by wilfulness sometimes even by sin it self which
eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word we manifest the truth and make it visible in our actions and the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and secret closet of truth displayes his beames of light as we press forward and mend our pace every day shining upon us with more brightnesse as we every day strive to increase teaching us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those vertues which are his lessons and our duties we learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaks Psal 119.99 wiser then our teachers to conclude day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead into more which may at last strengthen establish us in the truth and so lead us from truth to truth to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore THE FIRST SERMON JAMES I. Vers ult Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is This to visite the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction and to keep himselfe unspotted from the World NOthing more talkt of in the world then Religion nothing lesse understood nothing more neglected there being nothing more common with men then to be willing to mistake their way to withdraw themselves from that which is indeed Religion because it stands in opposition to some pleasing errour which they are not willing to shake off and by the help of an unsanctified complying fancy Multi fibi fidem ipsi potiut constitunut quam accipiunt dum quae velunt sapiunt nolunt sapepere quae vera sunt cum sapientiae haecveritas sit ea interdum sapere quae nolis Hilar. 8. de Trin. V. 22. to frame one of their own and call it by that name That which flatters their corrupt hearts That which is moulded and attempered to their bruitish desigus That which smiles upon them in all their purposes which favours them in their unwarrantable undertakings That which bids them Go on and prosper in the wayes which lead unto death That with them is True Religion In this Chapter and indeed in every Chapter of this Epistle our Apostle hath made this discovery to our hands Some there were as he observes that placed it in the ear did hear and not do and rested in that some did place it in a formall devotion did pray but pray amisse and therefore did not receive some that placed it in a shadow and appearance Verse 25. seemed to be very religious but could not bridle their tongue and were safe they thought under this shadow others there were that were partiall to themselves despisers of the poor that had faith and no works in the second Chapter and did boast of this others that had hell fire in their Tongue and carried about with them a world of iniquity which did set the wheel the whole course of Nature on fire in the third Chapter and last of all some he observed warring and fighting killing that they might take the prey and divide the spoil in the fourth Chapter And yet all religious Every one seeking out death in the errour of his life and yet every one seeming to presse forward towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To these as to men ready to dash upon the rock and shipwrack doth our Apostle cry out as from the shore to turn their compasse and steer their course the right way and seeing them as it were run severall wayes all to meet at last in the common gulph of eternall destruction He calls and calls aloud after them To the superstitious and the prophane To the disputer and the scribe to them that do but hear and to them that do but babble To them that do but professe and to them that do but beleeve the word is Be not deceived This is not it but Haec est This is pure Religion is vox à Tergo as the Prophet speaks Esay 30. a voice behinde them saying This is the way walk in it This is as a light held forth to shew them where they are to walk as a royal Standard set up to bring them to their colours This doth Infinitatem rei ejicere as the Civilians speak Take them from the Devils latitudes and expatiations from frequent and fruitlesse hearing from loud but heartless prayer from their beloved but dead faith from undisciplined and malitious zeal From noise and blood from fighting and warring which could not but defile them and make them fit to receive nothing but the spots of the world from the infinite mazes and by-paths of Errour and brings them into the way where they should be where they may move with joy and safety looking stedfastly towards the End Let us now hear the conclusion of the whole matter whatsoever Divines have taught whatsoever Councels have determined or the schoolmen defined whatsoever God spake in the old times whatsoever he spake in these last dayes That which hath filled so many volumes and brought upon us Fatigationem Carnis that weariness of the flesh Ecclesia 1 2.12 which Solomon complains of in reading that multitude of Books with which the world doth now swarm with That which we study for which we contend for which we fight for as if it were in Democritus his Well or rather as the Apostle speaks in Hell it self quite out of our reach or if there be any truth that is necessary or any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying even in this of Saint James Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit c. I way call it the picture of Religion in little in a small compasse and yet presenting all the lines and dimensions the whole signature of Religion fit to be hung up in the Church of Christ and to be lookt upon by all that the people which are and shall be born may truly serve the Lord May it please you therefore a while to cast your eyes upon it and with me to view First The full proportion and severall lineaments of it as it were the essentiall parts which constitute and make it what it is and we may distinguish them as the Jew doth the Law by Do and Do not The first is Affirmative To do Good to visit the fatherlesse and widdows in their affliction The second not to do evil to keep our selves unspotted from the world And then secondly to look upon as it were the colours and beauty of it and to look upon it with delight as it consists First in its purity having no mixture Secondly in its undefilednesse having no pollution And then thirdly the Epigraph or title of it the Ratification or seal which is set to it to make it Authentick
are but as one day so in the case we now speak of a thousand a million a world of men are with him but as one man and when the Lord Chief Justice of Heaven and Earth shall sit to do judgement upon sinners what Caligula once wantonly wished to the people of Rome all the world before him have but as it were one neck and if it please him by that jus pleni Dominii by that full power and Dominion he hath over his creature A Platone dicitur Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide Plutarch quaest convival l. 8. q. 2. He may as he welneer did in the Deluge strike it off at a blow His judgements are past finding out and therefore not to be questioned He is the great Geometrician of the World which made all things in number weight and measure and hath infinitely surpast all human inventions whatsoever and therefore we cannot do him less honour then Hiero King of Sicily did to Archimede the great Mathematician for when he saw the Engins which he made and the marvellous effects which they did produce he caused it to be proclaimed that whatsoever Archimede did after affirme how improbable soever it might seem yet should not once be called into question but be received and entertained as a truth Let the course of things be carried on as it will let death passe over the door of the Egyptian and smite the Israelite let Gods Thunder misse the house of Dagon and shiver his own Tabernacle yet God is just and true and every man a liar that dares but ask the question why doth He this Look over the whole Book of Job and you shall see how Job and his Friends are tost up and down on this great deep For it being put to the question why Job was thus fearfully handled his Friends ground themselves upon this conclusion that all affliction is for sin and so lay folly and hypocrisie to his charge and tell him roundly that the judgement of God had now found him out though he had been a close irrigular and with some art and cunning hid himself from the eye of the World but Job on the contrary as stoutly pleads and defends his innocencie his justice his liberality and could not attain to the sight of the cause for which Gods hand was so heavy on him why should his Friends urge him any more Job 30.32 or persecute him as God they dispute in vain for in their answers he sees nothing but lies At last when the controversie could have no issue C. 21.34 Deus è machina God himself comes down from Heaven and by asking one question puts an end to the rest Job 38.2 who is this that darkneth Counsel with words without knowledge condemns Iob and his Friends of ignorance and weaknesse in that they made so bold and dangerous attempt as to seek out a cause or call his judgement into question 2. It may be we may save the labor that we need not move the question or seek any reason at all for in these common calamities which befall a people it may be God doth provide for the Righteous and deliver him though we perceive it not Some examples in Scripture make this very probable the old World is not drowned till Noah be stript and in the Ark the shower of fire falls not on Sodom till Lot be escaped Daniel and his fellows though they go away into captivity with rebellious Judah yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respects in the Land into which they go and which was a kinde of leading captivity captive they had favour and were intreated as friends by their enemies who had invaded and spoiled them And may not God be the same upon the like occasions How many millions of righteous persons have been thus delivered whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded some things of no great worth are very famous in the world when many things of better worth lie altogether buried in obscurity caruerunt quia vale sacro because they found none who could or would transmit them to posterity Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona no doubt but before and since millions have made the like escapes though their memory lies rak'd up and buried in oblivion But then suppose the righteous do taste of the same cup of bitternesse with the wicked yet it hath not the same taste and relish to them both for calamity is not alwayes a whip Calamitas non est poena militia est minus Foe lix nor doth God alwayes punish them whom he delivers over to the sword to lose my goods or life is one thing and to be punisht another it is against the course of Gods providence and justice that innocency should come under the lash Gen 28.23 shall not the Judge of all the earth do right yes he shall and without any breach of his justice take away that breath of life which he breathed into our Nostrils though we had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression for he may do what he will with his own and take away our goods or lives from us when and how he pleaseth because he is Lord over them and we have nothing which we received not from his hands God is not alwayes angry when he strikes nor is every blow we feel given by God the avenger for he may strike as a Father and therefore these evils change their complexions and very natures with the subject upon whom they are wrought they are and have the blacknesse of darknesse in the one but are as Angels and messengers of light to the other and may lead the righteous through the valley of death into the land of the living when the wicked are hewen down by the sword to be fuel for the fire What though they both be joyned together in the same punishment as a Martyr and a Thief in the same chain August de civitate Dei l. 1. c. 8. yet manet dissimilitudo passorum in similitudine passionum though the penalties may seem alike yet the difference is great betwixt the patients though the world perhaps cannot distinguish them and death it self which is a key to open the gates of Hell to the one may be no the other what the Rabbles conceive it would have been to Adam had he not fallen but osculum pacis a kisse of peace a gentle and loving dismission into a better state to conclude this then a people a chosen people a people chosen out of this choice Gods servants and friends may be smitten Josiah may fall in the battle Daniel may be lead into Captivity John Baptist may lose his head and yet we may hold up our inscription Dominus est it is the Lord. And now let us but glance upon the inscription and so passe to the third particular and the first sight of it may strike a terror into us and make us afraid of those sins which bring these general judgements upon
hugg themselves in it are very weak even Children in understanding Gerson the devour Schoolman tells us Mulieres omnes propter infirmitaetem consilii mâ—jores nostri in Tutorum potestate esse voluerunt Cicero pro Mutaena it is most commonly in Women quarum aviditas pertinacior in assectu fragilior in cognitione Whose affections commonly outrunne their understanding who affect more then they know and are then most enflamed when they have least light and it is in men too and too many who are as fond of their groundless Fancies and ill-built Opinions as the weaknesse of that sex could possibly make them are as weak as the weakest of women and have more need of the bitt and Bridle then the Beasts that perish what greater weaknesse can there be then to follow a blind guide and deliver our selves up to our Fancy and affective Notions and make them Masters of our Reason and the only Interpreters of that word which should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathes For if we check not our Fancy and Affections they will run madding after shadows and apparitions They will shew us nothing but Peace in the Gospel nothing but Love in Christianity Nothing but Joy in the Holy Ghost They will set our Love and Joy on Wheeles and then we are straight carried up to Heaven in these siery Chariots One is Elioas Another John Baptist Another Christ himself If the Virgin Mary have an Exultat they have a Iubilee If Saint Paul be in the Spirit They are above it and right Reason too and the Spirit is theirs if he put on that shape which best likes them If he be a Spirit of Counsel we are his Secretaries of his Closet and can tell what he did before all Times and Number over his Decrees at our Fingers ends If a Spirit of strength we bid defiance to Principalities and Powers If a Spirit of Wisedome we are filled with him the wise-men the sages of the World though no man could ever say so but our selves If a Spirit of Ioy we are in an Extasy if of Love we are on fire But if he be Spiritus Timoris a Spirit of Feare there we leave him and are at Ods with him we seem to know him not and we cannot Feare at all because we are bold to think that wee have the Spirit 'T is true whilst we stand thus affected a Spirit we have but 't is a Spirit of illusion which troubles and distorts our Intellectualls and makes us look upon the Gospel ex adverso situ on the wrong side on that which may seem to flatter our infirmities but not on that which may cure them and as Tully told his friend That he did not know Totum Caesarem all of Caesar so we know not totum Christum all of Christ wee know and consider him as a Saviour but not as a LORD wee know him in the Riches of his Promises but not in the Terror of his Judgements know him in that life he purchas'd for Repentant sinners but not in that death he threatens to Unbeleevers For to let passe the Law of works Heb. 12.20 we dare not come so neere as to touch at that for we cannot endure that which was commanded Let us well weigh and consider the Gospel it self which is the Law of Faith was not that establish'd and confirmed with promises of Eternal life and upon penalty of Eternall Death In the Gospel we are told of weeping and gnashing of Teeth of a condition worse them to the a Mill-stone hanged about our necks and to be throwne into the bottom of the Sea and by no other then by the Prince of Peace then by Christ himself who would never have put this feare in us if he had knowne that our Love had had strength enough to bring us to him And therefore in the Tenth of St. Matthews Gospel at 28. verse he teacheth us how we shall feare Rectâ methodo he teacheth us to be perfect methodists in Fear that we misplace not our Feare upon any Earthly Power he sets up a Ne Timete Feare not them that can kill the Body and when they have done that have done all and can do no more and having taken away one feare he establisheth another But feare him who can both cast Body and Soul into Hell fire and that we might not forget it for such troublesome guests lodge not long in our memory he drives it home with an Etiam Dico Yea I say unto you feare him Now Him denotes a Person and no more and then our feare may be Reverence and no more It may be Love it may be Fancy it may be nothing but qui potest is equivalent to quia potest and is the reason why we must feare him even because he can punish And this I hope may free us from the Imputation of sinne if our Love be blended with some Feare and if in our Obedience we have an eye to the hand that may strike us as well as to that which may fill us with good things and if Christ who is the Wisedome of the Father think it fit to make the Terror of Death an argument to move us we cannot have Folly laid to our charge if we be moved with the Argument Fac Fac saith Saint Austin vel timore poenae si non Potes adhuc amore justitiae Doe it man Doe it if thou canst not yet for Love of Justice yet for fear of punishment I know that of Saint Austin is true Brevis differentia legis Evangelii Amor Timor Love is proper to the Gospel and Feare to the Law but 't is Feare of Temporall punishment not of Eternall for that may sound to both but is loudest in the Gospel The Law had a whip to fright us and the Gospel hath a Worm to Gnaw us I know that the Beauty of Christ in that great Work of Love the work of our Redemption should transport us beyond our selves and make us as the Spouse in the Canticles is said to be even sick with love but we must consider not what is due to Christ but what we are able to pay him and what he is willing to Accept not what so great a Benefit might challenge at our hands but what our Frailty can lay downe for we are not in Heaven already but passing towards it with Feare and trembling And he that brings forth a Christian in these colours of Love without any mixture of Feare doth but as it was said of the Historian votum accomodare non historiam present us rather with a wish then an History and Character out the Christian as Xenophon did Cyrus Non qualis est sed qualis esse deberet not what he is but what he should be I confesse thus to fear Christ thus to be urged and chased to Happinesse is an Argument of Imperfection but we are Men not Angels We are not in heaven already we are not yet perfect and
himself out of the snare of the Devill maternus ei non deest assectus she is still a Mother even to such Children her shops of spirituall comfort lie open there you may buy Wine and Milk Indulgences and Absolution but not without money or money-worth be you as sick as you will and as oft as you will There is Physick there are Cordialls to refresh and restore you I dare not promise so much in the House of Israel in the Church of Christ for I had rather make the Church a Schoole of Virtue then a Sanctuary for Offenders and wanton sinners We dare not give it that strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints in heaven or to conveigh their Merits to us on Earth wee cannot work and temper it to that heat to draw up the blood of Martyrs or the works of supererogating Christians who have been such profitable servants that they did more in the service of God then they should into a common Treasury and then showre them downe in Pardons and Indulgences but yet though we cannot finde this power the re which is a Power to doe nothing yet we may find strength enough in the Church to keep us from the Moriemini to save us from Death Though I cannot suffer for my Brother yet I may beare for him Gal. 6.2 even portare onus fratris beare my brothers burden Though I cannot merit for him yet I may work for him though I cannot die for him I may pray for him Though there be no good in my Death nor profit in my Dust yet there may be in my memory of my good Counsel my Advice my Example which are verae sanctorum reliquiae Consult Cass c. de Relig. 5. saith Cassander the best and truest reliques of the Saints and though my Death cannot satisfy for him yet it may Catechize him and teach him how to die nay teach him how to overcome Death that he shall not die for ever and by this Communion it is that we work Miracles that in Turning the Covetous turning his bowels in him we recover a dry Hand and a narrow Heart in teaching the Ignorant we give sight to the blind in setling the inconstant wavering mind we cure the palsie for we can well allow of such Miracles as these in the Church but not of Lyes For as there is an Invisible union of the Saints with God so is there of Christians amongst themselves which union though the Eye of flesh cannot behold it yet it must appeare and shine and be resplendent in those duties and offices which doe attend this union which are as so many Hands by which we lift up one another to happiness As the Head infuseth life and vigor into the whole body so must the members also annoynt each other with this Oyle of Gladnesse Each member must be Active and Industrious to expresse that Virtue without which it cannot be one Let no man seek his owne but every man anothers Wealth saith the Apostle not seek his own 1 Cor. 10.24 what more naturall to man or who is neerer to him then he himself but yet he must not seek his owne but as it may bring advantage and promote the Good of others not presse forward to the mark but with his hand stretcht forth to carry on others along with him not goe to Heaven but saving some with feare and pulling others out of the fire Ep. Iud. 23. and gathering up as many as his Wisedome and care and zeal towards God and man can take up with him in the way And this is necessary even in humane Societies and those Politick Bodies which men build up to themselves for their Peace and security Turpis est pars quae toti suo non Convenit that is a most unnecessary superfluous part or Member for which the whole is not the better ut in sermone literae saith Austin as letters in a word or Sentence so men are Elementa Civitatis the principles and parts which make up the Syntaxis of a Republique and he that endeavours not the advancement of the whole is a Letter too much fitt to be expung'd and blotted out but in the Church whose maker and Builder is God it is required in the highest degree especially in those transactions which may enlarge the Circuit and glory of it here every man must be his own and under Christ his Brothers Saviour for as between these two Cities so between the happinesse of the one and the happinesse of the other there is no Comparison As therefore every Bishop in the former Ages called himself Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae a Bishop of the Catholick Church although he had Jurisdiction but over one Diocesse so the care and Piety of every particular Christian in respect of its diffusive Operation is as Catholick as the Church every soul he meets with is under his charge and he is the care of every soul in saving a soul from Death every man is a Priest and a Bishop although he may neither invade the Pulpit or ascend the Chaire I may be eyes unto him Numb 10.31 as it was said of Hobab I may take him from his Error and put him into the way of truth if he feare I may scatter it If he grieve I may wipe off his Teares If he presume I may teach him to feare and if he despaire I may lift him up to a lively Hope that neither feare nor grief neither Presumption nor despaire swallow him up thus may I raise a dead man from the grave a sinner from his sinne and by that example many may rise with him who are as dead as he and so by his friendly communication transfuse our selves into others and receive others into our selves and so runne hand in hand from the Chambers of Death And thus farr we dare extend the Communion of Saints place it in a House a Family a society of men called and gathered together by Christ raise it to the participation of the Priviledges and Charters granted by Christ calling us to the same faith leading us by the same rule filling us with the same Grace endowing us with severall Gifts that we may guard and secure each other and so settle it in thoe Offices and Duties which Christianity makes common and God hath registred in his Church which is the Pillar of Truth where all mens Joyes and Sorrows and Feares and Hopes should be one and the same And then to die surrounded with all these Helpes and Advantages of God above ready to Help us of men like unto our selves prest out as auxiliaries to succour and relieve us of Precepts to guide us of Promises to encourage us of Heaven even opening it self to recerve us then to die is to die as fools die to suffer their hands to be bound and their feet put in fetters and to open their Breast to the sword for to die alone is not so grievous not so imputable as to die in such Company
all things written nay he keeps a book in the very closet of thy heart the onely book which shall go along with thee and when he comes it shall fly open every chapte revery letter every character of sin shall be as plain to thy eye as to his and though we here seal up this book he can read it when it is shut He sitteth there tanquam venturus as one coming Indeed to us who like those Philosophers in Tully seeing nothing with our minde refer all to our sense and scarce beleeve any thing but that for which we have an ocular demonstration the eye of whose faith is so dull and heavie that it cannot clearly discern that eye of our Lord which is ten thousand times brighter then the sun he is most times as lost like Epicuus his God doing nothing like Baal either in his journy or sleeping and as at his first coming he was had in no reputation so now he is at the right hand of God he is in a manner forgot We do not insult over him in plain termes as those did in Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what doth the Carpenters son now do but we are as slow of heart to beleeve what we are taught and what we say we beleeve as those disciples which went to Emaus We are told that he did rise again from the Dead and ascended and sitteth at the right hand of God and wil come again but 't is a long time since these things were done and he is long a coming To the Athiest to the prophane person to the Luke-warm Christian to the Hypocrite he is in a manner lost they have seald up his grave and he will come no more And this is one argument that he will come even this that we so little regard it for can a Lord that breathes nothing but love bear with such contempt can he whom the voice of God and man whom Scripture and Miracles and reason have placed on the Tribunal and made judge of all the world be kept back by these vain Imaginations which are nothing else but the steame and exhalations from our sensual and Bruitish part shall not he judge all the earth because we are guilty and deserve to be condemned no veniet veniet his etiamsi nolis veniet he will come August he wil certainly come whether thou wilt or no nor is delay in comming an Argument that he will not come For the Lord is not slack concerning his promise and Coming as some count slackness some scoffers who walk after their own lusts and ask where is the promise of his coming For sensuality is the Mother and nurse of unbeleefe and the sense flyes the Knowledge of that which is terrible to it and so we are as Saint Peter tels us 2 Pet. 3.3,4 willingly ignorant of that which we are Taught and will not consider that the world is made of corruptible parts and therefore must at last be dissolved and vers 12. that as the old world perished by water so this shall by fire For what guilty Person doth not study to drive the thought of a Judge coming out of his mind He that hath his delight his heaven in this world is not willing to heare of another to come venit the Lord comes is not in his Creed Sed nulla est mora ejus quod certò eveniet but the deferring or delay of that which will certainly come should not come into our Consideration for come he will though he come not yet and when he is come all the time past and before in which we grew wanton and presumptuous and beat our fellow servants is not in true esteeme so much as a moment or the twinkling of an eye 'T is not slackness 't is not delay That is our false Glosse who when we break the Law are as willing to misinterpret the Law-giver The Hypocrite thinks him as very a dissembler as himself and is well perswaded that though he threaten yet he meaneth it not though he hath denounced judgement against those that sinne and repent not yet he will not be so good or rather as bad as his word The sacrilegious person lookes upon him as an enemie to Churches and he it is that puts the hammer into his hand to beat down his own Temple Tertul. de Animâ The profane person would excaecare providentiam Dei would put out the eye of his Providence and the morall Atheist pull him from his Throne and thrust him out of the world Every man frames such a God as will fitt him and proportions him to his lusts we draw him out as the Painter did the Goddess in the likeness of those vanities which wee most dote on and so we entitle him to our fraud and Oppression Petrarch invenimus quomodo etiam Avarum facerem we have found an Art to bring him in as an Abbettor a Promoter of our Covetousness and Ambition and so as much as in us lies make him as Ambitious Psal 50.21 and Coveto us as our selves Thou thoughtest verily that I was like unto thee saith God to the Hypocrite behold Christ sits at the right hand of God in full power and Majesty ready to descend but he comes not yet and hence the scorner concludes he will never come This is a false Gloss and a false conclusion the result and Inference of flesh and blood for 't is not slackness that 's the dictate of our lusts but if Truth interpret it 2 Pet. 3.15 't is long suffering his long suffering should end and be eas'd in our repentance Saint Peter tells us It is Repentance It is what it should be if it be not Repentance we have drove it from it self and see now 't is nothing but wrath and Indignation his long suffering is either our Repentance or our Condemnation And this is the true reason Why hee comes not yet Isid l. V. why he is not yet come but as it were a comming For Time is nothing unto him nor is it any thing in it self nec intelligitur nisi per actus humanos nor can we conceive or understand it but by those Actions which we doe now and againe and which we cannot doe at once A Thousand years in his sight are but as yesterday but not so long not so long as a Thought he delays not but he beares with us in this our Time we look upon the Day of Judgement as upon a Day to come but to him it is present That he is not come to us is for our sakes For the Church of Christ till the consummation of all things is in Fluxu in Corpore Temporum as Tert. speaks is wrapt up in the Body of Time comes not simul semel at once but successively gaines the addition of parts St. Paul cals it a body and though it be not such a Body as the Stoicks fancied quod more Fluminum in assiduâ diminutione adjectione est which
like Rivers receives every day encrease and every day diminution and is not the same to Day which it was yesterday yet is it corpus aggregatum a collected Body which is not made up at once in every part but receives its parts successively She is Terrible as an Army with Banners as it is said of the Spouse in the Canticles and in an Army you know the Van may lodge there to night where the Rere commeth not till the Morning So it is with the Church it hath alwayes its parts yet hath alwayes parts to be added so we read Acts 2. and the last verse That the Lord added daily that is successively such as should be saved Quantum iniquitatis grassatur tantum abest regnum Dei quod secum affert plenam re â—itudinem saith the Father Christ is come and yet is still a coming whilst there are Heresies and Schismes in the Church whilst the one undermineth the Bulwarks without and the other raises a Mutiny within whilst the Divell rageth and men sinne there be yet some to be gathered to his Sheep-fold and though in respect of his Power he be already come yet for his Elects sake he will not execute it yet And this is the very reason which Justine Martyr gives of the proroguing and delay of his comming and why the Consummation and end of all things is not yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mankinds sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the seed of Christians which is yet to be propagated for by his eternall Wisdome he fore-sees That many there be who will beleeve and turne to him by Repentance and some that bee not even many who are yet unborn in his second Apologie for the Christians For the promise is made to you and to your children saith Saint Peter natis natorum qui nascentur ab illis and to all that are afar off Acts 2.39 even as many as the Lord God shall call for how many thousands are not yet who shall be Saints for their sakes it is that the Lord doth not consume the world with fire that he doth not come to judge the world that wicked men are permitted to revell on the earth and the devil to rage that he suffers that which he abhors suffers injustice to move its armes at large and spread it self like a green bay tree and leaves innocency bound in chaines that he suffers men to break his commands to question his providence to doubt of his being and essence that we see this disorder and confusion the world in a manner dissolved before its end but when that number is full a number which we know not or if we did cannot know when he will fill it up when that is compleat then time shall be no more then Lo he comes and will purge the world of Heresie and Schisme will appear in that Majesty that the Athiests shall confesse he is God and see all those crooked wayes in which his providence seemed to walk made even and strait then the Epicure shall see that it was not below him to sit in heaven and look upon the children of men no dishonur to his Majesty to mannage and guide all those things which are done under the Moon that he may ride upon the Cherubin and yet number every haire of our head and observe the Sparrow that falls from the house top then we shall see him and we shall see all things put under his feet even Heresy and Schisme prophanesse and Atheisme sin and death Hell and the Devil himself This he hath in effect done already by the virtue and power of his Crosse and therefore may be said to be come But because we resist and hinder that will not suffer him to make his conquest full and when we cannot reach him at the right hand of God pursue and fight against him in his members he will come again and then cometh the end another consummatum est all shall be finisht his victory and triumph compleat and he shall lift up the heads of his despised servants and tread down all his enemies under his feet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper sense Coloss 2.15 Triumph and make a shew of them openly And this is a fit object for a Christian to look upon Of this more THE FIFTEENTH SERMON MATTH 24.42 Dominus venturus The Lord will come Nescitis quâ horâ You know not what hour PART II. WEE have already beheld the person our Lord and we have placed him on his Tribunal as a judge for the Father hath committed the judgement to the Son you have seen his Dominion in his Laws which were fitted and proportioned to it as his Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousnesse so his Laws are just no man no Devil can question them we approve them as soon as we hear them and we approve them when we break them for that check which our conscience gives us is an approbation You have seen the vertue and power of his dominion for what is regal right without regal power what is a Lord without a sword or what is a sword if he cannot manage it what is a wise-man if a wiser then he what is a strong man if a stronger then he comes upon him but our Lord Es 9.6 as he is called wonderful Counsellour so is he the Mighty God who can stand before him when he is angry We have shewed you the large compasse and circuit of his Dominion no place so distant or remote to which it doth not reach It is over them that love him and over them that crucifie him It is over them that honour him Luk. 1.33 and over them that put him to open shame and last of all the durability or rather the eternity of it for of his Dominion there shall be no end saith the Angel to Mary and take the words going before he shall reign over the house of Jacob and the sense will be plain for as long as there is a house of Jacob a people and Church on earth so long shall he reign as his Priesthood so his Dominion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall never passe away We must now fix our eyes upon him as ready to descend in puncto reversus settled in his place but upon his return Dominus venturus the Lord will come it is a word of the future tense as all predictions are of things to come and it is verbum operativum a word full of eshcacie and vertue First to awake and stir up our faith Secondly to raise our hope and Thirdly to inflame our charity It is an object for our faith to look on for our hope to reach at and for our Charity to embrace And first it offers it self to our faith for ideo Deus alscessit ut fides nostra corroboretur therefore doth our Saviour stay and not bow the heavens and come down that our faith which may reach him there may be built up here upon
earth and he is therefore absent and in a manner lies hid that this eye might finde him out For faith is a kinde of prospective or optick Instrument by which we see things afar off as if they were neer at hand things that are not yet as if they were turns venturus est into the present tense behold Christ not onely sitting at the right hand of God but as now already descending with a shout With this eye of faith I see new Heavens and a new earth a new face of every thing I see what a nothing that is which mortals sweat and fight for what a nothing the world is for I see it on fire I see righteousnesse peace and order constancy duration even whilst I walk in this shop of vanities this World of wickednesse this Chaos and confusion this seat of change I see honesty pittied scorn'd baffled honesty lifted up on high far above reproach or injury I see injustice powerful all conquering Triumphant injustice trembling before this Lord arraigned condemned flung down into the lowest pit there to be whipt with many stripes I see now the wisdom of men made foolishnesse and the foolishnesse of God wiser then men I see that restored which I saw lost I see the eye that was bored out in its prace again I see the plowed back with no furrow on it I see Herod in prison and John Baptist with his head on I see my goods restored before I lose them and I am in heaven before the blow is given in blisse when every eye doth pitty me and what is now left for the boasting Tyrant to do what can he take from me that is worth a thought what can he strip me of but that which I have laid down and left already behinde me will he have my goods the treasurie where they are kept is out of his reach will he take from me my good name T is written in the book of life or will he take my life my life he cannot For 't is hid with Christ in God This is sancta impudentia Fidei the holy boldnesse and confidence of faith to break through flesh and blood all difficulties whatsoever to draw down Heaven to earth and if the object be invisible to make it visible if it be at distance to make it present if the Lord say he will come to faith he is come already This operation faith will have if it be not dull'd and deaded by our sensuality for what faith is that which is not accompanied with these high apprehensions and resolutions equal to them what faith is that which leaves us weary of the truth and ashamed of our profession what faith is that which we are so ready at every frown to renounce shall I call that faith which cannot strike the Timbrel out of our hands nor the strumpet out of our armes That shews Christ coming to the Covetous yet leaves him digging in the earth to the ambitious and cannot stop him in his mount to the hypocrite and cannot strike off his mask to the Polititian and cannot make him wise unto Salvation that cannot make us displease our selves that cannot make us love our selves not awe an eye not binde a hand not silence a word not stifle a thought but leaves us with as little power and activity as they who have been dead long agoe although the venturus est the Doctrine of Christs second Advent sound as loud as the Trump shall do at the last day faith shall we call this or a weak and faint perswasion or a dream or an Echo from an hollow heart which when all the World proclaimes it venturus est he will come resounds it back again into the world a faith which can speak but not walk or work a faith which may dwell in the heart of an Hypocrite a murderer a Devil for all this he may beleeve or at least professe and yet be that liar that Antichrist which denies Jesus to be the Lord or that he ever came in the flesh or will come again to judge both the quick and the dead Secondly As it casts an Aspect upon our Faith so it doth upon hope which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of our Faith saith Clemens Alexand. Paedag. 1. Tertul. advers Gnostic c. 6. without which it will grow faint and pale and languish oportet habere aliquem spei cumulum saith Tertul. and therefore this addition of Hope to Faith is necessary for if we had all Faith and had not hope this Faith would profit us nothing and faith without Hope may be in Hell as well as on the earth Beleeve who does not or at least say so but how many expect his coming how many are saved Heb. 10. the Apostle speaks of a fearfull looking for of Judgement indeed they who hope not for it who doe but talke of it and are unwilling to beleeve themselves may be said to look for it because they ought to doe it and his coming is as certain as if they did Truly and properly they cannot be said to expect it for how should that he in their expectation which is not so much as in their thought Hope will not raise it selfe upon every Faith nor is that Faith which the most of the world most depend on a fitt Basis for hope to build upon even he that despaires beleeves or else he could not despair for who will droop for fear of that veniet of that judgement which he is so willing to perswade himself will never come Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us that we should glory in Faith an Hope and make them the subjects of our Songs and rejoycing when our Faith is but such a one as is Dead and our hope at last will make us ashamed when our Faith is the same which is in hell and our Hope will leave us with the Devil and his Angels a Faith worse then Infidelity and a hope more dangerous then despair a Faith when we doe not beleeve and a Hope when there is great reason wee should despaire and which will serve onely to adde to the number of our stripes yet this is the Faith this is the hope of the Hypocrite of the Formall Christian These are thy gods oh Israel 3. And therefore in the last place that we may joyne these two together Faith and Hope we must draw in that excellent gift of Charity which is Copulatrix virtus saith Cyprian the uniting coupling Virtue not onely of men but of these two Theologicall Virtues which will not meet together but in Love or if they do with so little truth and reality that they will rather disadvantage then help us for where Virtue is not the name is but an Accusation I told you before that hope doth Suppose Faith For we cannot hope for that which we doe not beleeve yet Faith such as it may be may shew it self and speak proud words when Charity is Thrust out of Doores and many there
when we awake we watch to look about and see what danger is neere when we work wee watch till our work be brought to perfection That no Trumpet scatter our Alms no Hypocrisy corrupt our Fast no unrepented sinne denie our prayers no wandring Thought defile our Chastity no false fire kindle our zeal no Lukewarmnes dead our Devotion when we strive we watch that lust which is most predominant and Faith if it be not Dead hath a restless Eye an eye that never sleeps which makes us even here on Earth like unto the Angels for so Anastasius defining an Angel calls him a reasonable Creature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one as ver sleeps Corde vigila Fide vigila spe vigila charitate vigila saith St. August an active Faith a waking Heart a lively hope a spreading Charity assiduity and perseverance in the work of this Lord these make up the vigilate the watching here These are the seales Faith Hope and Charity set them on and the Watch is sure But this is to Generall To give you yet a more particular acaccount we must consider 1. That God hath made man a Judge and Lord of all his Actions and given him that freedom and Power which is Libripens emancipatià Deo Boni Tert. l. 2. cont Marcion which doth hold as it were the ballance and weigh and poyse both good and evill and may touch or strike which Scale it please that either Good shall out-weigh Evill or Evill good for man is not evill by Necessity or Chance but by his will alone See I have set before thee this Day Life and Good Death and Evill Therefore chuse Life Deut. 30.19 Secondly he hath placed an apparency of some good on that which is evill by which he may be wooed and enticed to it and an apparency of smart and evill on that which is Good Difficulty Calamity persecution by which he may be frighted from it But then thirdly he hath given him an understanding by which he may discover the horror of Evill though colour'd over and drest with the best advantage to Deceive and behold the Beauty and Glory of that which is good though it be discolour'd and defaced with the blacknesse and Darkness of this world He hath given him a Spirit Prov. 20.27 which the Wise man calls the Candle of the Lord searching the inward parts of the belly his Reason that should sway and govern all the parts of the body and faculties of the Soule by which he may see to eschew evill and chuse that which is good adhere to the Good though it distast the sense and fly from evill though it flatter it By this we discover he Enemy and by this we conquer him By this we see danger and by this we avoid it By this we see Beauty in Ashes and vanity in Glory And as other Creatures are so made and framed that without any guide or Leader without any agitation or business of the mind they turn from that which is Hurtfull and chuse that which is Agreeable with their Nature as the Cocles which saith Pliny carent omni alto sensu quam Câ—bi periculi C. 9. N. 1 Q. c. 30. have no sense at all but of their food and of Danger and naturally seek the one and fly the other So this Light this Power is set up in man which by discourse and comparing one thing with another the beginning with the end and shewes with Realities and faire Promises with bitter effects may shew him a way to escape the one and pursue life through rough and rugged wayes even through the valley of Death it self And this is it which we call vigilancy or watchfulness Attende tibi ipsi saith Moses Deut. 4.9 Tom. 1. Take heed to thy self and Basil wrote a whole Oration or Sermon on that Text and considers man as if he were nothing else but mind and soul and the Flesh were the Garment which cloth'd and coverd it and that it was compast about with Beauty and Health Sicknesse and deformity Friends and Enemies Riches and Poverty from which the mind is to guard and defend it self that neither the Gloty nor Terror of outward Objects have any power or influence on the mind to make a way through the flesh to deface and ruine it and put out its light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed to thy self prae omni custodiâ serva cor tuum Keep thy heart with Diligence ab omni cautione so 't is rendered by Mercer out of the Hebrew from every thing that is to be avoided ab omni vinculo so others from every tye or bond which may shackle or hinder thee in the performance of that Duty to which thou art obliged whether it be a chain of Gold or of Iron of pleasure or paine whether it be a fayre and well promising or a black Temptation keep it with diligence and keep it from these Incumbrances and the reason is given For out of it are the Issues of Life processiones vitarum the Issues and Proceedings of many lives for so many Conquests as we gaine over Temptations so many lively motions we feele animated and full of God which increase our Crown of joy All is comprehended in that of our Saviour Math. 26.41 Watch and pray lest you enter into Tentation If you watch not your heart will lie open and Tentations will Enter and as many Deaths will issue forth Evill Thoughts Fornications Murders Adulteries Blasphemy as so many Locusts out of the Bottomlesse Pit To watch then Philip. 2. is to fixe our mind on that which concernes our Peace To work out our Salvation with fear and trembling to perfect holiness in the Feare of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 12.28 2 ep John 8. to serve him with Reverence and Godly Feare That we lose not those things which we have wrought so that by the Apostle our Caution and watchfulness is made up of Reverence and Feare and these two are like the two Pillars in the Porch of the Temple of Solomon Jachin and Boaz. 1. of Kings and the second to establish and strengthen our Watch For this certainly must needs be a Soveraign Antidote against sinne and a forcible motive to make us look about our selves when we shall Think that our Lord is present every where and seeth and knoweth all Things when we consider him as a witness who shall be our Judge That all we doe we doe as Hilary speaks in Divinitatis sinu in his very presence and Bosome when we deceive our selves and when we deceive our brethren when we sell our Lord to our Feares or our Hopes when we betray him in our craft crucify him in our Revenge defile and spit upon him in our uncleanness we are even then in his Presence if we did firmly beleeve it we would not suffer our eyes to sleep nor our eye-lids to slumber For how carefull are we how anxious how sollicitous in our behaviour how
and that compasse wherein God hath bound and circumscribed us the 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all unactivenesse and supine negligence in our own place and station And the 3. and last makes it a necessary study and brings it under a command sicut praecepimus vobis you must do it as I have commanded you Or because to be quiet is here proposed as matter of study we will consider 1. the object or thing it self in which our study must be seen and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet and peaceable behaviour 2. the act which requires the intention of our mind thoughtfulnesse and a diligent luctation and contention with our selves we must make it our study 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ambitious of it Thirdly the method we must use we must meddle with our own businesse and work with our hands And last of all the warrant of this method I have commanded it and of these we shall speak in their order Ut operam detis that you study to be quiet c. And first to be quiet is nothing else but to be peaceable to keep our selves in an even and constant temper to settle and compose our affections that they carry us not in a violent and unwarranted motion against those with whom we live though they speak what we are unwilling to hear and do what we would not behold though their thoughts be not as our thoughts nor their wayes as our wayes though they be contrary to us That there be as S. Paul speaks no schisme in the body 1 Cor. 11.25 but that the members may have the same care one of another That we doe not start out of the Orb wherein we are fixt and then set it on fire because we think it moves disorderly but that we look on all with a charitable and Evangelicall eye not pale because others are rich not sick for our neighbours vineyard not sullen because others are cheerfull not angry because others are weak not clouded with envy and malice because others in some respects out-shine us but as S. Paul speaks leading a quiet and peaceable life in all Godlinesse and Honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 for the Gospel of Christ hath left us no other eye but that of charity to look abroad with that this peace of Christ may rule in our hearts 3 Coloss 15. to the which also we are called in one body may rule in our hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit as judge there for so the word signifies being in its native propriety spoken of the Judge in the Olympick games Let peace rule in your hearts let it have this office let it be the onely judge to set an end to all Controversies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand in the midst between two contrary sides and draw them together and make them one to be a Mediator between the offence that is given and the smart that is felt to command our patience against rhe injury to awake the one to conquer and annihilate the other and so bury it in oblivion for ever And that we may better understand it we must sever it from that which is like it for likenesse is the mother of error from whence it is that there be so many lovers of peace and so little of it in the world that when ambition and covertousnesse harrass the earth when there be warrs and rumours of warrs when the kings of the earth rise up when the people are as mad as the Sea when it rageth when the world is on fire yet there is not one that will be convinced or perswade himself that he ever raised one spark to kindle it It was a just and grave complaint of Saint Hierom non reddimus unicuique rei suum vocabulum we are guilty of a dangerous misnomer and do not give every thing its proper name and think we study quietnesse when we are most bent to war and ready to beat up the drumme Alii Dominationem pacem appellant some call tyranny peace and nothing else and think there is no peace unlesse every man understand and obey their beck unlesse all hands subscribe to their unwarrantable demands quiet they are and peaceable men when like a tempest they drive down all before them to him that tyrannizeth in the common-wealth he is rebell that is not a parasite and to him that Lords it in the Church he that bows not to every decree of his as if God himself had made it is an heretick a schismatick an Anathema then this peace and not till then when every look and word when every lye of theirs is a law Others call even disobedience it self peace and are never quiet but with their quod volumus sanctum est but when they are let loose to do what they please are filii pacis the the children of peace when they digg her bowells out as the Donatists in Saint Aust who were the greatest peace-breakers in the world yet had nothing so much in their mouths as the sweet name of peace and how is she wounded by those who stand up in her defence we call that peace which hath nothing of it but the name and that too but of our own giving and esteeme our selves as quiet and peaceable men when we are rather asleep then settled rather senselesse and dead then delighting our selves in those actions which are proper to us in that motion which tends to rest rather still and silent then quiet bound up as it were with a frost till the next thaw the next faire weather and opportunity as faire and then we spread abroad and run out beyond our limit and bounds nor can we be conteined or kept in them Again others there be such as Tacitus speaks of who are solâ socordiâ innocentes who are very quiet and still and do little hurt by reason of a dull and heavy disposition and therefore saith Tully do removere se à publicis negotiis step aside and remove themselves out of the publick wayes withdraw themselves out of the company and almost out of the number of men who do no harme because they will do nothing whose greatest happinesse is nihil agere nihil esse Honestum pacis nomen segni otio imposuit Tacit. de Turpiliano Annali 14. to do nothing and to be nothing whose soules are as heavy and unactive as those lumps of flesh their bodyes and so raise no thoughts but such which lye levell with their present condition and reach not so high as to take in the publick interest who know not what to think and so care not how unevenly or disorderly the course of things is carried along so it be not long of them being as much afraid of action as others are weary and sick of rest as unwilling to put forth a hand to support a shaking and falling commonwealth as others are active and nimble to pull it down Nay some there are of so tender and soft disposition ut non possint in
caput alterius nè testimonium dicere as the orator observes in Senecas controversies that they cannot be brought to bear witnesse to that truth which may endanger the life of any man so heartlesse that they cannot speak the truth having so much of the woman and the coward that they know not how but count it as a punishment to be just and honest men May we not take these now for quiet and peaceable men no these are not quiet for they never studied it and the orator will tell us mores naturâ non constant there is more required to the composing of our manners and the raising and fixing this virtue in our mind then that which the hand and impression of nature left in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen Nazianz. orat 31. for those imbred dispositions those naturall virtues do not reach home Who thanks the sire for its heat or the water for its moisture the snow for being cold or the sun that it doth shine and may we not truly say of these low and tender dispositions whom no disorder can affect no violence move that they are Lambs that is have as much quietnesse as nature instil'd and put into them Again as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a naturall quietnesse so there may be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a constrained quietness wrought in us by necessity the quietnesse of Esau which would last but till his fathers funerall the quietnesse of a Philistim under the yoke and harrow I might say the quietnesse of Goliah when his head was off And indeed this forced quietnesse is like that of a dead man of whom we may say quiescit he is at rest and quiet because he cannot move Absalom and Achitophel Theudas and Judas Catiline and Cethegus and all those turbulent boutefeaus which history hath delivered to the hatred and detestation of posterity were as quiet before opportunity and hope set their spirits a working as now they are in their urnes or graves Much quietnesse the world hath yielded in this kind and many men who have been quiet against their will who have stood still because they were bound hand and foot or as little able to break forth into action as those that are whilest authority was too strong for them and held them in they were as silent as the night but when the reines were slacked and the bit out of their mouths as raging as the Sea and as loud as the noise of many waters as Virgil describes his horse stare loco nescit they could not be quiet they could not stand still and keep their place or as Job characters out his they swallowed up the ground for rage and fiercenesse they mockt at feare and turned not back from the sword like those wild horses which set the world on fire and threw Phaeton out of the chaire when they were weak and low upon their knees tendring supplications but when their strength increased reaching forth their demands on the point of their sword These Pageants the world shews every day but this is not to be quiet in Saint Pauls sense for nemo pius qui pietatem cavet no man is good or quiet who cannot or dare not for some danger that is neere him and hangs over his head be otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil we commend those men and call them good and quiet men who are so by choice and election and not by necessity For as he is not a Jew who is one outwardly so is not he a peaceable man who is so outwardly and for a time nor is that quietnesse which is outward in the flesh but he is quiet who is so inwardly and quietnesse is that of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God for if the love of peace be in the heart the lips will be sealed and the hands bound up for ever So that to be quiet consists in sweet composure of mind in a calme and contented conversation in a mind ever equall and like unto it self and he is a quiet and peaceable man who is not moved when all things else are stands upon his own basis when all about him is out of frame when the world passeth by him and inverts its scene and changes its fashion every day now shining and anon lowring now flattering anon striking now gliding by us in a smooth and delightfull streame and anon raising up its billows against us in every change is still the same the same when the sword hangs over him and peace shadows him the same when riches increase and poverty comes towards him as an armed man the same when religion flourisheth and the commonwealth hath nothing praeter obsessum Jovem Camillos exules but God dishonoured and good men opprest the same when the world runs crosse to his desires as when he can say So So thus would I have it 〈◊〉 in rebus novis nihil novum to whom nothing comes as new and unexpected who stands as a rock and keeps his own place and station not swelling at an error not angry with contempt not secure in peace not afraid of persecution not shaken with feare not giddied with suspicion not bowed down with covetousnesse nor lifted above himself with pride who walks and is carried on in every motion by the same rule in cujus decretis nulla litura whose decrees and resolutions admit no blot who doth not blot out this daies quietnesse with to morrowes turbulency as Aristides spake of Pericles who is not unquiet or troubled for any rub or interposition Aristides in Photii Bibl. for any affront in his way but keeps himself in an even and constant course as constant in his actions as his knowledge as if you should ask him a question of numbers he will give you the same answer to day which he did yesterday or to morrow which he did to day and many yeares before who by his patience possesseth his soul and will not yield or surrender it up to any temptation or provocation whatsoever there to be swallowed up and lost whom another mans evil doth not make evil another mans riches doe not make pale another mans honor doth not degrade from himself whom another mans noise doth not disquiet another mans riot doth not discompose another mans fury doth not distract another mans schisme doth not divide from the Church in a word who changeth not colour with the world nor is altered with that confused variety and contradiction of so many humors of so many men and applyes himself to every one of them as a Physician to supple and cure and not to enrage them this man is quiet hath gained this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this quietnesse of mind this man cannot but be at peace with himself and all the world And to this Christianity and the religion which we professe doth bind us this is a plant which our heavenly Father alone doth plant in our hearts in which when
it is planted it will shoot forth and grow up and raise it self far above the love of the world above covetousnesse and envy and malice and fraud which first disquiet and rack that breast in which they are and then breath forth that venom which blasts the world and troubles and provokes those which are neere us sometimes gnashing the teeth which eats and consumes us sometimes breathing forth hailestones and coales of fire which fly back in our faces and destroy us sometimes laying of snares in which our selves are caught for envy is the rottennesse of the bones saith Solomon and anger killeth the foolish and the Bread of deceit though it be sweet at first yet it shall fill the mouth with gravell nemo non in seipsum priùs peccat saith Austine no man disturbs the peace of another but he breaks his own first no man repines at his brothers good but he makes it his own evil and his vice is his executioner no man breaths forth malice but it ecchoes back upon him no man goes beyond his brother but hath outstript himself and the Psalmist tells us that evill shall bunt the violent man to destruction But when this plant this peace is deeply rooted in us it spreads its branches abroad over all over all crosse events over all injuries over all errors and miscarriages over envy malice deceit and violence and shadows them that they are not seen or not seen in that horror which may shake it spreads it self over the poore and relieves them over the malicious and melts him over the injurious man and forgives him over the violent man and overcomes him by standing the shock keeps it self to its roote is fixt and fastened there and when this wind blows when this raine falls when all these beat upon it when the tempest is loudest is ever the same is peace still And this is the work of the Gospel the summe of all the end of all that it teacheth to work this quietnesse and peace in us that we may raise it up in others that this peace may beget and propagate it self in those who are enemies to it that the kid may feed with the wolf and the Lamb with the Leopard so long as the moone endureth that there may be no deceit no envy no violence no invasion no going out no complaining in our streets This is the Evangelicall virtue this is peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of propriety every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting heathens Tert. Apol. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this that they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weaknesse and unprofitablenesse of the law could not reach nor could the Jews bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket or the philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soule to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquillity and quietnesse which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terror that is in it humane reason was too weake to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it nor was it seen in its full beauty till that light came into the world which did improve and exalt and perfect our reason the Philosophers cryed down anger yet gave way to revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice The language of the law was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old you shall love your neighbour Math. 6. and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an humility more bending a patience more constant a meeknesse more suffering a quietnesse more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more cleerly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law for is not eternity of blisse a stronger motive then the basket or glory or temporall enjoyments is not heaven more attractive then the earth under the Law this peace and quietnesse was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schooles of Philosophers it was but a fancy the peace and quietnesse they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis non de Fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian Tertull. de Animax 1. out of an industrious affected endurance of every evill that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evill of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remaine it self untoucht unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect this was the businesse of the prince of peace who came into the world but not with drumme and colours but with a rattle rather not with noise Tertull. cont Judaeus but like rain into the mowen grasse not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee and with no sword but that of the spirit who made good that prophesie of the Prophet Micah that swords should be turned into plow-shares and speares into pruning hookes Micah 4.3 that all the bitternesse and malice of the heart should be turned into the love and study of modesty and peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own figtree and gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor feare it nor disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the earth might be a temporall paradise a type representation of that which is eternall For this he came into the world and brought power enough with him to performe it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good and when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the prophesy
that should follow whilest self-love led in the Front First lovers of themselves and then Covetous Boasters proud disobedient to Parents Traitors Heady minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and such men can never be quiet 2ly We must root out that root of all evill Covetousnesse which will never suffer us to be quiet is ever busie abroad seeking to add house to house and land to land to draw all unto it self nam avaritia amat unitatem saith Aust For even covetousnesse is a lover of unity and commands and drives us from place to place even through the world till it collect all into one and make it its own and to this end we must confine our desires and begin not to stand in need of Fortune for if we let them run out they will be ever running and never at an end and throw down whatsoever is against them for what our desires are let out and upon the wing we speak to every man which stands between us and the object they fly to as Joab did to Asahel 2 Sam. 2. Turne thee aside or we will smite thee to the Ground This fills the hills with Robbers the Sea with pirates the Commonwealth with theeves and cheats and oppressors this raiseth sedition tumults wars Aurato Capitolio bella gessimus Sen Controv. saith the Orator whilest Rome was poore peace was within her walls but when the Capitol was gilded rich and glorious then war brake in The Gods and Religion might be the pretence but Covetousnesse and Ambition beat up the drumme And therefore we must in the next place pull back our Ambitition which is a busie troublesome and vexatious evil carrying us over our brothers necks to that pitch from whence we commonly fall and break our own never quiet till then And then we shall the more easily bind our malice which is ever lurking and prying for the prey and bridle our anger which will never suffer us to be at quiet in our selves or with others but will drive us from our selves and put us in the posture and motion of mad-men make us run out of our own house to burne our neighbours and afflict our selves to trouble others And last of all empty our selves of all suspicion and evil surmizing of all discontent which never want fuell to foment them which feed on shadows on whispers on lyes empty reports and draw conclusious out of any out of no premises at all which call small benefits injuries and every frown a persecution which levell us in our best estate impoverish us in riches raise a tempest in a calme and strike us on the ground when no evill breatheth in our coasts which have a miraculous power to turne a rod into a serpent a creating power to work not good out of evil but evil out of nothing are quick and apprehensive strike at every guat and make it a Camel to choke us in brief which are that worme which gnawes us continually which kindle a hell on earth torment us in pleasure bruise us on profit bind us in liberty lay us on our bed fright us with visions and dreams and fearefull apparitions which turnes a seraglio into a prison a talent into a mite and a mite into nothing and whatsoever comes neere into a punishment which is worse then nothing These are the evill spirits which torment and teare us and strike us to the ground and make us wallow and fome and when we have dispossessed our selves of these we shall sit quietly and in our right minds or if we move we shall move in our own sphere and compasse which is a motion in our place and such a motion is rest This is our spirituall exercise and this we must study this is the labour and work of our faith and we must practice it every day and when we have practiced it practice it again repeat our lesson over and over and be jealous of our selves that we are not yet perfect as Petrach counsells students Sic philosophari ut philosophiam amemus so study to be quiet that we may love it love it as that which will purchase us the love of the God of Peace And if we take the proper signification of the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our love must be of that nature that we must love it as that which will crown us with glory we must be ambitious of it And how do ambitious men stretch and rack their wits how do they study to attain first one degree of honor then another and then the top of all and then study again to be higher then the highest for ambition though it do begin with the end yet it is alwaies a beginning and this is proper to it that it never looks back or considers how high it hath soar'd it begins at one kingdome and then begins at another and though it make way ad cubile solis to the end of the world yet it doth but begin there Thus should we be ambitious of quietnesse of a setled mind and a peaceable behaviour which no mans height can sink no mans greatnesse can diminish no mans anger can move nomans malice can shake no mans violence can disorder as others are of honor which they must win with fire and sword Naz. or 18. and so make up Nazianzens number who tells us there be three things which cannot be overcome or disquieted God and an Angel and a good Christian for God is not troubled when he is angry though for our sakes he tells us he is even pressed as a Cart under sheaves and 't is our sin not wrath that whets the sword of the destroying angel and shall we not be ambitious to make up the third to be like unto our heavenly Father to be like unto the Angels in this to be quiet and keep the same temper and evennesse in the midst of so many humours as men to be the same when others run severall wayes and all to trouble us to be humble when one scornes us to be meek when another rageth to be silent when this man doth raile not to be transported with what others do but to stay at home with our selves and be still when the world is out of order not to pull it to pieces in seeking to settle it not to enrage a fire by attempting to quench it to establish this order this peace this heaven within our selves and as much as in us lies keep it with all men This is truly Religion not to hear and talk and fill the world with noyse and confusion not to exercise our selves in things too high for us but to fight against our lusts and trouble none but our selves though this aged world is grown over-wise and hath found out a way to divorce Religion from honesty and peace This is truly Christianity the command and practice of Christ who would not be an Arbitrator between two brethren For who saith Christ hath made me a Judge or Divider over
live and dye with them and yet do onely take her mantle and vizor and in it walk on the whole course of their life here beating their fellow servants here defaming one and defrauding another and defaming him that they may defraud him they sharply inveigh against and lash the iniquities of the time they are severe Justiciaries and chastise all but themselves Ausonii Cupido Crucisixus as the wanton women in Ausonius did crucify Cupid on the wall sibi ignoscunt plectunt Deum they know well enough how to pardon themselves for fraud for lying for false weights and measures for covetousnesse and malice and the whole body of their Religion is made up in this to fling disgrace upon the name of dishonesty and so punish it but in a picture For conclusion then to avoid these rocks at which so many have been cast away and lost Let us first look up upon this light of nature and walk honestly as in the day and not after those blind guides the love of our selves and the glory of the world which will lead us on pleasantly for a while and at last slip from us and leave us in the dark there to lament and curse the folly of our waies For Riches and Honour and Pleasure are not naturall unto us but adventitious and accidentall and that which is naturall should be prevalent against all that is accidentall Accidentali praevalâ—t naturale c. 3. ff de Tutelis say the Civilians This Relation by Nature should be strong against all forraign Circumstances whatsoever And therefore it is but a busie folly a studious kind of iniquity to come and frame distinctions which may wipe out this relation and so leave us at loose with line enough to run out unto a liberty and priviledge of encroching on others by fraud or violence As the Persians in Xenophon taught their children that they might lye or not lye with a distinction lye loudly to their enemies so they remember to speak truth to their friends deceive a stranger and not an acquaintance and I feare we have too many such Persisians in this our Island and if they do not utter and dictate it yet their hearts speak it and their hands speake it and their practice proclaimes it to the whole world He is a stranger he is an enemy of another Religion of another Faction I may make what advantage I can upon him undermine and blow him up and thus the man the image of God the brother is quite lost And what is the issue of this Diabolicall coynage even the same which Xenophon there observed to be of the Persian education Their children saith he soone forgot the distinction and grew up at last to be so bold as to lye to their best friends And so it is with them who find it an easier thing to call themselves Religious then to make themselves honest who first begin with these proviso's and distinctions to practice injustice and with so much gravity and demurenesse to deceive their brethren and to be dishonest by a rule at last they fall down to an universall and promiscuous iniquity Friends brother they of the same family they of the same Sect and faction all are the same with them when they look for advantage no respect of persons when they look for Balaams wages every man then is a stranger an enemy or as strangely used as if he were and this is to put out the light of nature and so to go a whoring after our own inventions which once kindled by the love of this world are those false lights which lead us into that darknesse which Saint John speaks of He that thus handleth his brother 1 Iohn 2.19 walketh in darknesse and knoweth not whither he goeth because darknesse hath blinded his eyes that he cannot see a man in a man nor a brother in a brother a man in the same shape and built up of the same materialls a man of the same passions with himself And therefore by this light of Nature let us check and condemn our selves when any gall of bitternesse riseth in our hearts and allay or rather root it out with this consideration That it is most inhumane and unnaturall that we cannot nourish it in our breast and not fall from the honour of our Creation and leave off to be men How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer and cut down to the ground Es 14.12 and how art thou fallen O man whosoever thou art that doest unjustly that takest from another that which is his either by violence or deceit How art thou fallen from heaven for on earth there is no other heaven but that which Justice and Charity make How art thou fallen to hell it self nay to be an hell a place for these foul spirits malice and fraud to reign and riot in and to torment others and thy self How art thou fallen from conversing with Angels to wallow in blood from the glory of thy Creation to burning fire and blacknesse and darknesse and tempest O what a shame is it That a man thus created thus Elemented and composed should delight in fraud in violence and oppression should feed on that bread not which his father who made him did put into his hands but which craft did purloine or violence snatch from the hands of others who were not so wise or so strong as himself That this creature of love made by love and made to be Sociable should be as hot as a fiery furnace sending forth nothing but sulphur and stench That this honourable Creature should be a beast nay a devil to ensnare to accuse to deceive and destroy his brethren This is a sad aggravation but if the light of Nature be too dimme and cannot lead us out of the world and those winding and crooked paths which the love of it makes in it every day let us in the last place look up upon that clearer light that light which did spring from on high and hath visited us why should not our friends be more powerfull with us then our enemies why should not Grace be stronger then a temptation why should not the rich and glorious promises of the Gospel be more eloquent and perswasive then the solicitations of the flesh which is every moment drawing neerer to the dust or of the world which changeth every day and shall at last be burnt with fire why should they not have the power to purge and clense us from all unrighteousnesse why should we chuse rather to be raised and enrich'd here for a span of time by craft and power then to be crowned by Justice and Integrity for ever For this is the end for which this great light hath shined to lighten every man that is in the world that they may walk in the paths of righteousnesse It is a light that leads unto blisse but it will not go before an oppressor a theef an Impostor a Tyrant to lead them to it because they delight
within him In a word to love Mercy is to be in Heaven every man according as he purposeth in his heart let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerfull giver such a mercy is Gods Almoner here on earth and he loves and blesseth it follows it with his providence and his infinite Mercy shall crown it That gift which the Love of Mercy offereth up is onely fit to be laid up in the Treasury of the Almighty And now I have set before you Mercy in its full beauty in all its glory Conclusion you have seen her spreading her raies I might shew you her building of Hospitalls visiting the sick giving eyes to the blind raising of Temples pittying the stones breathing forth Oracles making the ignorant wise the sorrowfull merry leading the wandring man into his way I might have shewed you her sealing of Pardons but we could not shew you all these are the miracles of Mercy and they are wrought by the power of Christ in us and by us but by his power the fairest spectacle in the world Let us then look upon it and love it what is mercy when you need it is it not as the opening of the heavens unto you and shall it then bea punishment and hell unto you when your afflicted brethren call for it Is it so glorious abroad and shall it be of so foul an aspect as not to be thought worthy of entertainment at home shall it be a Jewel in every Cabinet but your own hearts Behold and lift up your eyes and you shall see objects enough for your Mercy to shine on If ever one depth called upon another the depth of calamity for the depth of our compassion if ever our bowells should move and sound now now is the time I remember that Chrysologus observes that God did on purpose lay Lazarus at the rich mans Gate quasi pietatis conflatorium as a forge to melt his stony heart Lazarus had as many mouthes to speak and move him to compassion as he had ulcers and wounds and how many such forges hath God set before us how many mouthes to beseech us how many wounds wide open which speak loud for our pity how many fires to melt us shall I shew you an ulcerous Lazar They are obvious to our eye we shall have them alwaies with us saith our Saviour and we have them almost in every place Shall I shew you men Stript and wounded and left half dead that may be seen in our lives as well as in the high waies between Jericho and Jerusalem Shall I shew you the teares drilling down the cheeks of the orphans and widdows shall I call you to heare the cry of the hire kept back by fraud or violence for that cryes to you for compassion as oppression doth to God for vengeance and it is a kind of oppression to deny it them Have you no compassion all ye that passe by and every day behold such sad spectacles as these shall I shew you Christ put again to open shame whipt and scorned and crucified and that which cannot be done to him in his person laid upon his Church shall I shew you him now upon the crosse and have you no regard all you that passe by shall I shew you the Church miserably torn in pieces shall I shew you Religion I would I could shew you such a sight for scarce so much as her forme is left what can I shew or what can move us when neither our own misery nor the common misery nor sinne nor death nor hell it self will move us If we were either good Men or good Citizens or good Christians our hearts would melt and gush forth at our eyes in Rivers of water If we were truly affected with peace we should be troubled at war If we did love the City we should mourn over it if we did delight in the prosperity of Israel her affliction would wound us if Religion were our care her decay would be our sorrow for that which we love and delight in must needs leave a mournfull heart behind it when it withdraws it self But private interest makes us regardlesse of the common and we do not pity Religion because we do not pitty our own soules but drink deep of the pleasures of this world enlarge our Territories fill our barnes make haste to be rich when our soul is ready to be taken from us and nothing but a rotten mouldring wall a body of flesh which will soon fall to the ground between us and hell I may well take off your eye from these sad and wofull spectacles it had been enough but to have shewn you Mercy for she is a cloud of witnesses a cloud of Arguments for her self and if we would but look upon her as we should there need no other Orator I beseech you look into your Lease look into your Covenant that Conveyance by which blisse and immortality are made over to you and you shall find that you hold all by this you hold it from the King of Kings and your quit-rent your acknowledgement for his great Mercy is your Mercy to others pay it down or you have made a forfeiture of all if you be Mercilesse all that labour as 't is called of charity is lost your loud profession your forced gravity your burning zeal your faith also is vain and you are yet in your sinnes For what are all these without Mercy but words and names and there is no name by which we can be saved but the name of Jesus Christ and all these Devotion Confession Abstinence Zeal Severity of life are as it were the letters of his name and I am sure Mercy is one and of a faire character and if we expunge and blot it out it is not his name Why boast we of our zeal without mercy it is a consuming fire 'T is true he that is not zealous doth not love but if my love be counterfeit what a false fire is my zeal and one mark of true zeal is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 14. if it be kept within its bounds and mercy is the best watch we can set over it to confine and keep it in The Church of Christ is not placed under the Torrid Zone that these cooler and more temperate vertues may not dwell there if you will have your zeal burn kindly Ignis zeli ardere debet oleo misericordiae Aquâ—… de Eruditione princip l. 1. c. 15 16. it must not be set on fire by any earthy matter but from Heaven where is the Mercy-seat and which is the seat of Mercy if you will be burning lamps you must poure in oleum misericordiae the oyl of mercy as Bernard speaks if this oyl faile you will rather be Beacons then Lamps to put all round about you in Arms as we have seen in Germany and other places Men and Brethren I may speak to you of the Patriarch David who is dead and buried and though we
in their dialect and language Accolae sumus peregrini we are strangers and Pilgrimes on the earth And so we passe from the person I King David and come to take a neerer view of his condition and quality I am a stranger on the earth We passe now from the King to the stranger and Pilgrime and yet we cannot passe from the one to the other for they are ever together for there is so neer a conjunction between them that though the one appeare in glory the other in dishonour the one sits on a Throne the other lyes in the dust yet they can never be put asunder nor separated the one from the other for he that is a King is but a Pilgrime and he that is a stranger was born and designed unto a Kingdome and a greater Kingdome then Davids was Thou hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reigne upon the earth This is the song of Pilgrimes and they sing it to the Lamb in the fifth of the Revelation v. 10. The Kingdome of heaven is taken by violence and the violent take it by force Mat. 11.12 And these violent men are such as are Pilgrims and strangers to that place they travell endure many a storm many a fall and bruise in their way so that the immediate way to be a King is first to be a stranger in the earth Now that Man is naturally a stranger on the earth we have the Word of God written and the Word of God within us we have both the holy Scripture and right Reason to instruct us both these are as the voice of God and by these he speaks unto us and calls us by our name when he calls us strangers And first in the Old Testament the life of Man is every where almost term'd a pilgrimage so Jacob in the 47. of Genesis when Pharaoh asked him How long he hath lived in his answer doth as it were correct his language The dayes saith he not of my life but of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years So that in the language of Jacob Life and Pilgrimage are all one The same is the language of the New Testament Whilst we are in the flesh Peregrinamur à Domino saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5.6 we are absent we are travellers we are wanderers from God but we are returning to him on our way pressing forward to our home And though we make haste out of the world yet as S. Bernard observes some savour some taste something that is from the earth earthy we shall carry about with us till we come to our journeys end Not onely they are strangers who with the Prodigall take their journey into a far countrey and cleave to every vanity there but they who are shaking them off every day yet look more then they should and like more then they should and are not yet made perfect Not onely they are strangers from God who are Aliens from the house of Israel but they who with the Patriarchs in the 11. to the Heb. confesse themselves strangers in the land which is allotted them and look for a City whose Foundation and Builder is God It is the observation of S. Hierome in his Epistle to Dardanus That the Saints in Scripture were no where called Inhabitatores terrae the inhabitants of the earth There is a woe saith he denounced against sinners in the eighth of the Revelation and under that name vae habitatoribus terrae woe to the Inhabitants of the earth And Saint Austin almost speaks the same where he puts this difference and distinction between them that the righteous can onely be said esse in Tabernaculo carnis to be in this tabernacle of the flesh to be there as the Angels are said by the schoolmen to be in uno loco quòd non sint in alio to be in one place because they are not in another but to be circumscribed no where and they are onely said to be on the earth because they are not yet in heaven but neverthelesse have their conversation there but the wicked do habitare in Tabernaculo carnis do dwell on earth and have their residence in it and may passe into a worse but never into a better place and these though they will not be strangers to it yet are strangers on the earth and passe away from that to which their soul was knit on which they fixed their hope and glutted their desires and raised their joy which was their heaven they passe away and fall from it and shall see it no more This then is the voice and language of Scripture and in the second place this even common reason may teach us which is the voice of God and is our God upon earth and should be in his stead and place to command and regulate us here and if we were not first lost in our selves if we were not strangers to our selves we should not seek for a place of rest in that world whose fashion every day changeth and which must at last with its work be burnt with fire For do we not see by this common light that the mind of man is a thing of infinite capacity and utterly insatiable and here on earth never receives full content content is that which all men have desired but never yet any did attain but still as one desire is satisfied another riseth and when we have all that we desired we will have more now we would have but this and when we have it it is nothing for our measures are enlarged by being filled Are you learned enough nay but there be yet more conclusions to be tried Are you ever wise enough If but once you be deceived you will complain that a thousand things which might have been observed have past your sight But are you ever rich enough The fool in the Gospel was not till his soul was fetched away nor Dives till he was in hell Nay are you not most miserably poor when you are most abundantly rich do you not want most when you have most or was ever your heart so much set on riches as when they did increase or hath the Ambitious any highest place any verticall point one world was not enough for Alexander and had there been as many as those Atomes of which Democritus made it up he would have wished after more Our appetite comes by eating and our desires are made keen and earnest by enjoying majora cupere ex his discimus the obtaining of something doth but prompt us to desire more And now to draw this to our present purpose If the things of this world be not able to satisfie us if never man yet found full content if nothing on earth can allay this infinite hunger of the soul which certainly was not imprinted in us in vain If we cannot find it here though we should double and treble Methusalems age If we cannot find it in the world though we should live to the end of it we cannot