the same Apostle telleth the Athenians Act. 17.14 c. that God made the world and all things therein and made of one bloud all nations that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us not far from us if we will seek him The Schools call it vehiculum creaturae the chariot of the creature by which we may be carried up as Elijah was to Heaven by which Man who amongst all the creatures was made for a supernatural end is lifted up nearer to that end For as the Angels have the knowledge of the Creature in the Creator himself saith Bernard for what a poor sight is the Creature to an Angel that seeth the face of him that made it so Man by degrees gaineth a view of God by looking on the works of his hands Secondly As God manifesteth himself in his creature so he appeareth as a light in our very souls Prov. 20.27 He hath set up a candle there Solomon calleth it so The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly a light to all the faculties of the soul and to all the parts of the body to guide and direct them in the seeking after God By this light it is that thou lookest upon thy self and art afraid of thy self By this light they that are in darkness they that are darkness it self the profanest Atheists in the world at one time or other behold themselves as stubble and God as a consuming fire behold that horror in themselves which striketh them into a trembling fit This candle may burn dim being compassed about with the damp of our corruptions but it can no more be put out then the light of the Sun In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved I am a Saint of God a man of blessings guided assisted applauded by God himself Here the candle burneth dim But when Fortune or rather Providence shall turn the wheel and throw me on the ground then it will blaze and by that light I shall behold God my enemy whom I called my friend and fellow-worker Whilest we are men we have reason or we are not men and whilest the spirit remaineth it is a candle though we use it not as we should but are guided rather by the prince of darkness Thirdly to quicken and revive this light God hath sent another Light into the world God was made manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3 16. John 1.14 saith S. Paul The Word was made flesh not onely to dwell amongst us but to teach us to improve the light of nature and all those principles of the knowledge of good and evil with which we were born John 17.26 He declared his father's name he made him visible to the eye and set him up as an ensample of purity and justice of mercy and love His Flesh being the window through which Immortality and Eternity and God himself was discovered to mortal men that so he might joyn finem principio the end to the beginning Man to God that so we might seek him in the light of his face God being made thus conspicuous in his Gospel Psal 89.15 shining in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face and person of Jesus Christ who is the brightness of his glory 2 Cor. 4.6 Hebr. 1.3 and the express image of his person And indeed to seek God is not to seek his essence which is past finding out but his will which Chirst hath fully manifested in his Gospel This true light hath made God an object indeed hath given us a more distinct knowledge of him then the light of Nature could do hath declared his attributes revealed his will rent every veil cleared all obscurity scattered every mist and cloud made him of an unknown a known God hath revealed his arm his power to punish us if we seek him not hath opened his bowels proclaimed a jubilee a re-instating of all those who will forsake their old wayes and seek him with their whole heart For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes 2.10 2 Cor. 5.17 which God hath ordained before that we should walk in them that so we might be new creatures that as he created the world out of a rude heap or mass without form to bring forth fruits so he might make us of disobedient and disorderly men composed and plyable to his will that he might draw us out of the chaos of our own confused imaginations and redeem us from bondage into the glorious liberty of the sons of God which liberty consisteth alone in seeking and serving him Thus then you see though God be invisible and incomprehensible yet he hath discovered himself so far as to draw us after him we may see so much of him as to seek him so much as to make us happy and unite us to him And is not this enough Is it not enough for us to be happy Unhappy we if we neglect this delight by desiring more Unhappy we if we do not seek him because he is not as visible as our selves This were indeed to make him like unto our selves to confine and limit him that is to deny him to be God this were to be the worst Anthropomorphites in the world to give God hands and eyes and voice and not believe he is unless he object and offer himself to our very senses And yet see he doth in a manner present himself to thy very sense For why shouldst thou not hear him in his thunder see him in his miracles feel him in every work of his hands Or rather why canst thou not hear him in his Word for that is his voice see him in thy self for thou art built up after his image and no hand but that which is Almighty could have raised such a structure Why canst thou not feel him in his sweet and secret insinuations in the inward checks he giveth thee when thou art doing evil and in his incitements to piety When we feel these we may truly say Est Deus in nobis that God is in us of a truth Hold up then the buckler against this temptation against this fiery dart of Satan which is of force if thou repellest it not to consume and wast thy soul this temptation I say That God and Divine things appear not in so visible a shape as thou wouldst have them What folly is it to aim at impossibilities and to desire to see that which cannot be seen It is plain they are the worst and meanest things that are open to the eye Who ever saw Vertue saith Ambrose who ever handled Justice And wouldst thou dust and ashes have thy God appear in such a shape as thou mayst behold him Walk then by faith For that is the eye thou hast to see him with whilest thou art in this mortal body
yet the wrath of God was more visible to him than those that do who bear but their own burthen whereas he lay pressed under the sins of the whole world God in his approaches of Justice when he cometh toward the sinner to correct him may seem to go like the Consuls of Rome with his Rods and his Axes carried before him Many sinners have felt his Rods And his Rod is comfort his Frown favour his Anger love and his Blow a benefit But Christ was struck as it were with his Ax. Others have trembled under his wrath Psal 39.10 but Christ was even consumed by the stroke of his hand Being delivered to God's Wrath that wrath deliverth him to these Throws and Agonies delivereth him to Judas who delivereth nay betrayeth him to the Jews who deliver him to Pilate who delivered him to the Cross where the Saviour of the world must be murthered where Innocency and Truth it self hangeth between thot Thieves I mention not the shame or the torment of the Cross for we Thieves endured the same But his Soul was crucified more than his Body and his Heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his Hands or Feet TRADIDIT ET NON PEPERCIT He delivered him and spared him not But to rise one step more TRADIDIT ET DESERVIT He delivered and in a manner forsook him restrained his influence denied relief withdrew comfort stood as it were afar off and let him fight it out unto death He looked about and there was none to help Isa 63.5 even to the Lord he called but he heard him not Psal 18 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He roared out for the very grief of his heart and cryed with a loud voyce My God my God Matth. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me And could God forsake him Psal 38.8 When he hung upon the cross did he not see the joy which was set before him Yes he did Heb. 12.2 but not to comfort but rather torment him Altissimo Divinitatis consilio actum est ut gloria militaret in poenam saith Leo By the counsel of the Godhead it was set down and determined that his Glory should add to his Punishment that his knowledge which was more clear than a Seraphins should increase his Grief his Glory his Shame his Happiness his Misery that there should not only be Vinegar in his Drink and Gall in his Honey and Myrrhe with his Spices but that his Drink should be Vinegar his Honey Gall and all his Spices as bitter as Myrrhe that his Flowers should be Thorns and his Triumph Shame This could Sin do And can we love it This could the Love and tht Wrath of God do his Love to his Creature and his Wrath against Sin And what a Delivery what a Desertion was this which did not deprive Christ of strength but enfeeble him with strength which did not leave him in the dark but punish him with light What a strange Delivery was that which delivered him up without comfort nay which betrayed and delivered up his comforts themselves What misery equal to that which maketh Strength a tormenter Knowledge a vexation and Joy and Glory a persecution There now hangeth his sacred Body on the cross not so much afflicted with his passion as his Soul was wounded with compassion with compassion on his Mother with compassion on his Disciples with compassion on the Jews who pierced him for whom he prayeth when they mock him which did manifest his Divinity as much as his miracles Tantam patientiam nemo unquam perpetravit Tert. de Patientia with compassion on the Temple which was shortly to be levelled with the ground with compassion on all Mankind bearing the burden of all dropping his pity and his blood together upon them feeling in himself the torments of the blessed Martyrs the reproach of his Saints the wounds of every broken heart the poverty diseases afflictions of all his Brethren to the end of the world delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not and to a sense of theirs who grone under them delivered up to all the miseries and sorrows not only which himself then felt but which any men which all men have felt or shall feel to the time the Trump shall sound and he shall come again in glory The last Delivery was of his Soul which was indeed traditio a yielding it up a voluntary emission or delivering it up into his Fathers hands praevento carnificis officio saith the Father He preventeth the spear and the hand of the executioner and giveth up the ghost What should I say or where should I end Who can fathome this depth The Angels stand amazed the Heavens are hung with black the Earth openeth her mouth and the Grave hers and yieldeth up her dead the veyl of the Temple rendeth asunder the Earth trembleth and the Rocks are cleft But neither Art nor Nature can reach the depth of this Wisdom and Love no tongue neither of the living nor of the dead neither of Men nor Angels is able to express it The most powerful eloquence is the threnody of a broken heart For there Christ's death speaketh it self and the virtue and power of it reflecteth back again upon him and reacheth him at the right hand of God where his wounds are open his merits vocal interceding for us to the end of the world We have now past two steps and degrees of this scale of Love with wonder and astonishment and I hope with grief and love we have passed through a field of Blood to the top of mount Calverie where the Son of God the Saviour of the World is nailed to the cross and being lifted up upon his cross looketh down upon us to draw us after him Look then back upon him who looketh upon us whom our sins have pierced and behold his blood trickling down upon us Which is one ascent more and bringeth in the Persons for whom he was delivered First for us Secondly for us all III. Now that he should be delivered FOR VS is a contemplation full of delight and comfort but not so easie to digest For if we reflect upon our selves and there see nothing but confusion and horrour we shall soon ask the question Why for us Why not for the lapsed Angels who fell from their estate as we did They glorious Spirits we vile Bodies they heavenly Spirits we of the earth earthly ready to sink to the earth from whence we came they immortal Spirits we as the grass withered before we grow Yet he spared not his Son to spare us but the Angels that fell he cast into Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 and chained them up in everlasting darkness We may think that this was munus honorarium that Christ was delivered for us for some worth or excellency in us No it was munus eleemosynarium a gift bestowed upon us in meer compassion of our wants With the Angels God dealeth in rigor and relenteth
the sea in the deluge of our lusts if we do not bury our selves alive in stubborn impenitency if we do not stop up all the passages of our souls if we do not still love darkness and make it a pavilion round about us he will look upon us through this light and look lovingly upon us with favour and affection He will look upon us as his purchase and he that delivered his Son for us will with him also freely give us all things Which is the End of all the End of Christ's being delivered and offereth it self to our consideration in the last place IV. God delivered God sent God gave his Son All these expressions we find to make him a Gift He is the desire and he is the riches of all Nations As whatsoever we do we must do so whatsoever we have we receive in his name The name of Jesus saith S. Peter of the impotent man Acts 3.13 1 Cor. 6.11 Col. 2.3 hath made this man strong By his name we are justified by his name we are sanctified by his name we shall enter into glory With him we have all things for in him are all the treasures of riches and wisdome We may think of all the Kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them but these come not within the compass nor are to be reckoned amongst his Donations For as the Naturalists observe of the glory of the Rainbow that it is wrought in our eye and not in the cloud and that there is no such pleasing variety of colours there as we see so the pomp and riches and glory of this world are of themselves nothing but are the work of our opinion and the creations of our phansie and have no worth or price but what our lusts and desires set upon them Luxuria his pretium fecit It is our Luxury which hath raised the market and made them valuable and in esteem which of themselves have nothing to commend them and set them off My Covetousness maketh that which is but earth a God my Ambition maketh that which is but air an heaven and my Wantonness walketh in the midst of pleasures as in a paradise There is no such thing as Riches and Poverty Honour and Peasantry Trouble and Pleasure but we have made them and we make the distinction There are no such plants grow up in this world of themselves but we set them and water them and they spread themselves and cast a shadow and we walk in this shadow and delight or disquiet our selves in vain Diogenes was a king in his tub when Great Alexander was but a slave in the world which he had conquered How many Heroick persons lie in chains whilest Folly and Baseness walk at large And no doubt there have been many who have looked through the paint of the pleasures of this life and beheld them as monsters and then made it their pleasure and triumph to contemn them And yet we will not quite exclude and shut out Riches and the things of this world from the sum For with Christ they are somthing and they are then most valuable when for his sake we can fling them away It is he alone that can make Riches a gift and Poverty a gift Honour a gift and Dishonour a gift Pleasure a gift and Trouble a gift Life a gift and Death a gift By this power they are reconciled and drawn together and are but one and the same thing If we look up into heaven there we shall see them in a neer conjunction even the poor Lazar in the Rich mans bosome In the night there is no difference to the eye between a pearl and a pibble between the choicest beauty and most abhorred deformity In the night the deceitfulness of Riches and the glory of Affliction lie hid and are not seen or in a contrary shape in the false shape of terrour where it is not or of glory where it is not to be found But when the light of Christ's countenance shineth upon them then they are seen as they are and we behold so much deceitfulness in the one that we dare not trust them and so much hope and advantage in the other that we begin to rejoyce in them and so make them both conducible to that end for which he was delivered and our convoyes to happiness All things is of a large compass large enough to take in the whole world But then it is the world transformed and altered the world conquered by faith i Cor. 3.21 22 23. the world in subjection to Christ All things are ours when we are Christ's There is a Civil Dominion and right to these things and this we have jure creationis by right of Creation Psal 24.1 115.16 For the earth is the Lord's and he hath given it to the sons of men And there is an Evangelical Dominion not the power of having them but the power of using them to God's glory that they may be a Gift and this we have jure adoptionis by right of Adoption as the sons of God begotten in Christ Christ came not into the world to purchase it for us or enstate us in it He did not suffer that we might be wanton nor was poor that we might be rich nor was brought to the dust of death that we might be set in high places Such a Messias did the Jews look for and such a Messias do some Christians worse than the Jews frame to themselves and in his name they beat their fellow-servants and strip them deceive and defraud them because they phansie themselves to be his in whom there was found no guile They are in the world as the mad Athenian was on the shore Every ship every house every Lordship is theirs And indeed they have as fair a title to their brothers estate as they have to the kingdome of heaven for they have nothing to shew for either I remember S. Paul calleth the Devil the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 and these in effect make him the Saviour of the world For as if he had been lifted up and nailed to the cross for them to him every knee doth bow nor will they receive the true Messias but in this shape They conceive him giving gifts unto men not spiritual but temporal not the graces of the Spirit Humility Meekness and Contentedness but Silver and Gold dividing inheritances removing of land-marks giving to Ziba Mephibosheth's land making not Saints but Kings upon the earth Thus they of the Church of Rome have set it down for a positive truth That all civil Dominion is founded in Grace that is in Christ A Doctrine which bringeth with it a Pick-lock and a Sword and giveth men power to spoyl whom they please to take from them that which is theirs either by fraud or by violence and to do both in the name and power of Christ But let no man make his Charter larger than it is In the Gospel we find none of such an
the Church is and not like unto the world Wonder not then for the Church hath its peace even in persecution And that we may not think it strange let us not frame and fashion to our selves a Church by the world For by looking too stedfastly upon this world we carry the impression it maketh in us whithersoever we go and that maketh Persecution appear to us in such a monstrous shape that we begin to question the providence of God in suffering it to rage within his territories How doth it amaze us to see Innocency trod down by Power to see a Saint whipped by a Devil But in the world we are born in the world we are the world is the greatest part of our study and hence it cometh to pass that in the pursuit of the knowledge of Christ and his Church we are ready to phansie something to our selves like unto the world Temporal Felicity and Peace is the desire of the whole world and upon this some have made it a note and mark of the true Church like the Musician in Tully who being asked what the Soul was answered that it was an harmony is à principiis artis suae non recessit He knew not saith he how to leave the principles of his own art From hence it is that when we see persecution and the sword and fire rage against the true professours we are at our wits end and think that not onely the glory is departed but the light of Israel is quite put out that when desolation hath shaken a Kingdom the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church As groundless a conceit well near as if we should take the description of Heaven in the Revelation to be true in the letter and that it is a City of pure Gold that the foundations of the walls are adorned with pretious stones that every gate is a pearl and the streets shine like glass Let us then wipe out this carnal errour out of our hearts That the Kingdom of Christ doth hold proportion with the form and managing of these Kingdoms below here on earth that the same peace doth continue and the same division and pâ—â—secution dissolve and ruine both that the same violence which removeth the Candlestick doth blow out the light And let us abstract and wean our selvâ—â— from the world let us be dead to the world let us crucifie the world in a word let us not love the world nor the things of the world and we shall then begin to think persecution a blessing and all these conceits of outward peace and felicity will vanish into nothing And therefore in the third place let us cast down these imaginations these bubbles of wind blown and raised up by the flesh the worser part which doth soonest bring on a persecution and soonest fear one and let us in the place of these build up a royal fort build up our selves in our most holy faith and so fit and prepare our selves against this fiery tryal For as those are called mysteries which are precedaneous and go before the mysteries and he may be said to fight who doth but flourish and arm and fit himself for the battel so the blessed Spirit of God every where calleth upon those who are his souldiers to watch and stand upon their guard to put on the whole armour of God that when the devil assaulteth them in a storm of persecution they may be able to stand Eph. 6.11 to look upon the sword beforehand to take it up and handle it to dispute it out of its force and terrour and so by a familiar conversing with it beforehand by opposing our hopes of happiness and the promises of life to the terrours that death may bring opposing the second part of my Text to the first the Kingdom of heaven to persecution we may abate its force and violence and so by a due preparation conquer before we suffer and leave the persecutor no more power but to kill us And to this end let us view and well look upon the beauty and glory of Righteousness and learn to love it to make it our counsellour our oracle whilest the light shineth upon our heads to let it have a command over us and when it saith Do this to do it For if we thus make it our joy and our crown display it abroad in every action of our life in the time of peace we shall not part with it at a blast nor fling it off and forsake it in time of persecution If we love Righteousness Righteousness will love us and cleave close to us when our friends and acquaintance leave us and fall away like leaves in Autumn A good conscience is an everlasting never-failing foundation but the clamours and checks of a polluted one will give us no leisure at all to build up an holy resolution For when we have a long time detained the truth in righteousness kept it down as a prisoner and not suffered it to work in us when in the whole course of our life we have kept her captive under our sensual lusts and affections it is not probable that in time of danger and astonishment it should have so much power over us as to win us to suffer for its sake but these sensual lusts which in time of peace did keep the Truth and Righteousness under will now shew themselves again in time of persecution and be as forcible to deter us from those evils which are so but in shew and appearance as they were to plunge us into those evils of sin which are true and real If then thou wilt be fitted for Persecution and so for Blessedness first persecute thy self crucifie thy flesh with the lusts and affections raise up a persecution in thy own breast banish every idle thought silence every loud and clamorous desire whip and correct every wandring phansie beat down every thing that standeth in opposition to Righteousness be thus dead unto thy self and then neither death nor life neither fear of death nor hopes of life neither principalities nor powers neither present evils nor those to come shall ever be able to shake thy confidence or separate thee from the love of Righteousness which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And now as we have brought the Righteous person into this Field of bloud and prepared and strengthned him against the horror of it so must we bring the Persecutor also that he may behold what desolation he hath made Why boastest thou thy self in thy mischief O mighty man That thou hast sped that thou hast divided the prey that thou hast made Innocence it self to lick the dust of thy feet that thou hast spilt the bloud of the righteous as water on the ground Thus did the tyrants of old triumph and dance in the bloud which they shed Behold thou persecutest thy self and though the righteous fall under thee yet thou sufferest most Every blow thou givest them entereth into thy own soul that power with which
the highest heavens for evermore The Sixteenth SERMON PART II. 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's THese words are a Logical Enthymeme consisting of two parts an Antecedent Ye are bought with a price and a Consequent naturally following Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's God's by Creation and God's by Redemption the Body bought and redeemed from the dust to which it must have fallen for ever and the Soul from a worse death the death of sin from those impurities which bound it over to an eternity of punishment and therefore both to be consecrated to him who bought them How God is to be glorified in our spirit we have already shewn to wit by a kind of assimilation by framing and fashioning our selves to the will and mind of God He that is of the same mind with God glorifieth him by bowing to him in his still voice and by bowing to him in his thunder by hearkening to him when he speaketh as a Father and by hearkening to him when he threatneth as a Lord by hearkening to his mercy and by hearkening to his rod. For the Glory of a King is most resplendent in the obedience of his subjects In a word we glorifie God by Justice and Mercy and those other vertues which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions and emanations from his infinite goodness and light In a just and perfect man God shineth in glory and all that behold him will say that God is in him of a truth The Glory of God is that immense ocean into which all streams must run Our Creation our Redemption are to his glory Nay the Damnation of the wicked at last emptieth it self and endeth here This his wisdom worketh out of his dishonour and forceth it out of blasphemy it self But God's chief glory and in which he most delighteth is from our submissive yielding to his natural and primitive intent which is that we should follow and be like him in all purity and holiness In this he is well pleased that we should do that which is pleasing in his sight Then he looketh with an eye of favour and complacency upon Man his creature when he appeareth in that shape and form which he prescribed when he seeth his own image in him when he is what he would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him and that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should wait upon him alone when he falleth not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as God is merciful perfect as God is perfect Then is he glorified then doth he glory in him Deut. 30.9 and rejoyce over him as Moses speaketh as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted not defaced Then is Man taught Canticum laudis nothing else but the Glory and Praise of his Maker Thus do we glorifie God in our spirit Now to pass to that which we formerly did but touch upon Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made up of both of Body and Spirit and therefore must glorifie God not onely in the spirit but in the body also For such a near conjunction there is between the Body and the Soul that nothing but Death can divorce them and that too but for a while a sleeping-time after which they shall be made up into one again either to howl out their blasphemie or to sing a song of praise to their Maker for evermore If we will not glorifie God in our body by chastity by abstinence by patience here we shall be forced to do it by weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter It is true the body is but flesh 2 Cor. 4.11 yet the life of Jesus may be made manifest in this our flesh It is but dust and ashes but this dust and ashes may be raised up and made a Temple of the holy Ghost a Temple in which we offer up ch 6.19 not beasts our raging lusts and unruly affections nor the foul stench and exhalations of our corrupted hearts but the sweet incense of our devotion not whole drink offerings but our tears and strong supplications such a Temple which it self may be a sacrifice a holy and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.1 post Dei templum sepulcrum Christi saith Tertullian and being a Temple of God be made a sepulchre of Christ by bearing about in it the dying of our Lord Jesus For when we beat it down and bring it in subjection when we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep it chast and pure quench those unholy fires which are even ready to kindle and flame up in it bind and tye it up from joyning with that forbidden object to which its bent and natural inclination carrieth it when we have set a watch at every sense at every door which may be an in-let to the Enemy when we have learned so far to love it as to despise it to esteem of it as not ours but his that made it to be macerated and diminished to be spit upon and whipt to be stretched out on the rack to be ploughed up with the scourge to be consumed in the fire when his honour calleth for it when with S. Paul we are ready to offer it up then is the power of Christ's death visible in it and the beauty of that sight is the glory of God First we glorifie God in our bodies when we use them for that end to which he built them up when we make them not the weapons of sin but the weapons of righteousness when we do not suffer them to make our Spirit and Reason their servants to usher in those delights which may flatter and please them but bring them under the law and command of Reason Touch not Taste not Handle not which by its power may check the weakness of the Flesh and so uphold and defend it from those allurements and illusions from that deep ditch that hell into which it was ready to fall and willing to be swallowed up Now saith S. Paul vers 13◠the body is not for fornication It was not created for that end For how can God who is Purity it self create a body for uncleanness Not then for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Who made it as an instrument which the mind might use to the improvement and beautifying of it self as a vessel to be possest by us in holiness and honour 1 Thes 4.4 his Temple and thy vessel his Temple that thou mayest not profane it and thy vessel that thou mayest not defile and pollute it nor defile thy soul in it For this kind of
they neglect that rule by which they were to walk the one upon the rock of Superstition the other as it oft falls out in disputes of this nature not onely from the errour they oppose but from the Truth it self which should be set up in its place Between these two we may walk safely and guide our selves by the Womans voice and the Angels voice and call her Blessed and Saint though not God and we may place her in heaven though we set her not in the throne BLESSED as the occasion of so much good For when we see a clear and sylver stream we bless the Fountain And for the glory and quickning power of the beams some have made a God of the Sun Whatsoever presents it self unto us in beauty or excellency doth not onely take and delight us but in the midst of wonder forceth our thoughts to look back to the coasts from whence it came For Virtue is not onely glorious in it self but casts a lustre back upon generations past and makes them blessed it blesseth the times wherein it acts it blesseth the persons wherein it is and it blesseth all relations to those persons and the neerest most We often find in Scripture famous men and women mentioned with their relations Arise Barak thou son of Abinoam Blessed shal Jael be Judg. 5. the wife of Heber the Kenite David the son of Jesse Solomon the son of David Blessed was Abraham who begat Isaac and blessed was Isaac who begat Jacob and then thrice blessed was she who brought forth the Blessing of the world JESVS CHRIST a Saviour Therefore was Barrenness accounted a curse in Israel because they knew their Messias was to be born of a woman but did not know what woman should bring him forth Again if it be a kind of curse to beget a wicked son or as Solomon did the foolishness of the people Eccl. 47.23 The Historian observes that many famous men amongst the Romans either died childless or left such children behind them that it had been better their name had quite been blotted out and they had left no posterity And speaking of Tully who had a drunken and a sottish son he adds Huic soli melius fuerat liberos non habere It had been better for him to have had no child at all then such an one Who would have his name live in a wanton intemperate sâ—t who would have his name live in a betrayer of his countrey in a bloudy tyrant If this curse reflect upon those who have been dead long ago and is doubled on the living who look upon those whom they call affectus their affections and caritates their love as their greatest grief and torment then certainly a great blessing and glory it is for a parent to have a virtuous child in whom he every day may behold not onely his own likeness but the image of God which shines in the face of every looker on and fills their hearts with delight and their mouths with blessings If it be a tyrant a Nero we wish the doors of his mothers womb had been shut up Job 3.10 and so sorrow and trouble hid from our eyes Ventrem feri saith the mother her self to the Centurion who was sent to kill her Strike strike this cursed belly that brought forth that monster But if it be a Father of his country if it be a wise just and merciful Prince if he be a Titus we bless the day wherein he was born we celebrate his Nativity and make it a holy-day and we bless the rock from whence he was hewen the very loynes from whence he came And therefore to conclude this we cannot but commend both the Affection of this Woman and her Speech the one great and the other loud For the greatness the intention of the affection is not evil so the cause be good and it cannot move too fast if it do not erre If the sight of virtue and wisdome strike this heat in us it is as a fire from heaven in our bowels And such was this womans affection begot in her by Wisdome and Power and both Divine It rose not from any earthly respect secular pomp or outward glory but she hearing Christs gracious words and seeing the wonders which he did the fire kindled and she spake with her tongue And she still speaketh that we may behold the same finger of God as efficacious and powerful in Christ to cast out the devil out of us the devil which is dumb that we may speak his praises and the devil that is deaf that we may hearken to his words the devil that is a serpent that we may lay aside all deceit the devil that is a lyon that we may lay aside all malice the devil that wicked one that we may be freed from sin that so we may put on the affection of this Woman and with her lift up our voice and say Blessed is the womb that bare Christ and the paps which he sucked And further we carry not this consideration We come next to our Saviours gentle Corrective IMO POTIUS Yea rather And this Yea rather comes in seasonably For the eye is ready to be dazled with a lesser good if it be not diverted to a greater as he will wonder at a storm that never saw the Sun We stay many times and dwell with delight upon those truths which are of lesser alloy and make not any approch towards that which is saving and necessary we look upon the excellencies of Christ and find no leisure to fall down and worship him we become almost Christians and come not to the knowledge of that truth which must save us and make us perfect men in Christ Jesus The Philosopher will tell us that he that will compare two things together must know them both What glory hath Riches to him who hath not seen Virtue as Plato would have her seen naked and not compassed about and disguised with difficulties disgraces and hardships What a brightness hath Honour to bind that hath not tasted of the Favour of God What a Paradise is carnal pleasure to him that a good Conscience never feasted What a substance is a Ceremony to him that makes the Precepts of the Law but shadows How doth he rely on a Priviledge who will not do his duty How blessed a Thing doth she think it to bring forth a Son that can work miracles who knows not what it is to conceive him in her heart who can save her Therefore it is the method of Wisdome it self to present them both unto us in their just and proper weight not to deny what is true but to take off our thoughts and direct them to something better that we may not dote so long on the one as to neglect and cast off the other From wondring at his Miracles Christ calleth us to the contemplation of the greatest miracle that was ever wrought the Redemption of a sinner from his Miracles to his Word for
extent as may reach to every man to every corner of the earth as may measure out the world and put into our hands any part of it that either our wit or our power can take in Christ never drew any such Conveyance the Gospel brought no such tidings But when honest labour and industry have brought riches in Christ setteth a seal imprinteth a blessing on them sanctifieth them unto us by the Word and Prayer and so maketh them ours our servants to minister unto us and our friends to promote us unto everlasting habitations Our Charter is large enough and we need not interline it with those Glosses which the Flesh and the Love of the World will soon suggest With Christ we have all things which work to that end for which he was delivered We have his Commands which are the pledges of his love for he gave us them that he might give us more that he might give us a Crown We have his Promises of immortality and eternal life Faciet hoc nam qui promisit est potens He shall do it for he is able to perform it With him every word shall stand He hath given us Faith that is the gift of God to apprehend and receive the promises and Hope Eph. 2.8 to lift us up unto them He hath given us his Pastors to teach us that is scarce looked upon as a gift but then he hath given us his Angels to minister unto us He hath given us his Spirit and filleth us with his Grace if we will receive it which will make his Commands which are now grievous easie his Promises which are rich profitable which may carry us on in a regular and peaceable course of piety and obedience which is our Angel which is our God and we call it Grace All these things vve have with Christ And the Apostle doth not only tell us that God doth give us them but to put it out of doubt putteth up a QVOMODO NON challengeth as it were the whole world to shew how it should be otherwise How will he not with him also freely give us all things This Question addeth energy and weight and emphasis and maketh the Position more positive the Affirmation more strong and the truth of it more perswasive and convincing Shall he not give us all things It is impossible but he should It is more possible for a city upon a hill to be hid than for him to hide his favour from us more possible for Heaven to sink into Hell or for Hell to raise it self up to God's Mercy-seat than for him to withhold any thing from them to whom he hath given his Son Impossible it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most inconvenient as that which is against his Wisdome and his Justice and his Goodness Naz. Or. 36. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as abhorrent to his Will to deny us any thing In brief If the Earth be not as iron the Heavens cannot be as brass God cannot but give when we are fit to receive and in Christ we are made capable When he is given all things are given with him nay more than all things more than we can desire more than we can conceive When he descendeth Mercy descendeth with him in a full shower of blessings to make our souls as the paradise of God to quicken our Faith to rouse up our Hope And in this light in this assurance in this heaven we are bold with S. Paul to put up the Question against all doubts all fears all temptations that may assault us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things And now we have passed up every step and degree of this scale and ladder of Love and seen Christ delivered and nailed to the cross And from thence he looketh down and speaketh to us to the end of the world Crux patientis fuit cathedra docentis The Cross on which he suffered was the Chair of his Profession And from this Chair we are taught Humility constant Patience perfect Obedience an exact Art and Method of living well drawn out in several lines What was ambitiously said of Homer That if all sciences were lost they might be found in him may most truly be said of Christ's Cross and Passion That if all the characters of Innocency Humility Obedience Love had been lost they might here be found in libro vitae Agni in the Book of the Life nay of the Death of the Lamb Rev. 13.8 slain from the foundation of the world yet now nailed to the Cross Let us then with love and reverence look upon him who thus looketh upon us Let us put on our crucified Jesus that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome every virtue his Humility his Patience his Obedience and so bear about with us the dying of our Lord 2 Cor. 4.10 and draw the picture of a crucified Saviour in our selves To this end was he delivered up for us to this end we must receive him that we may glorifie God as he hath glorified him on earth For God's glory and our salvation are twisted together and wrought as it were in the same thread and linked together in the same bond of peace Psal 50.15 I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Thus it runneth and it runneth on evenly in a stream of Love Oh how must it needs delight him to see his Gift prosper in our hands to see us delivering up our selves to him who was thus delivered for us to see his purchase those who were bought with this price made his peculiar people Psal 24.7 9. Lift then up the gates of your souls that this King of glory may come in If you seek salvation you must seek the glory of God and if you seek the glory of God you shall find it in your salvation Thou mayest cry Lo here it is or Lo there it is but here it is found The Jew may seek salvation in the Law the Superstitious in Ceremony and bodily Exercise the Zelote in the Fire and the Whirlwind the phantastick lazy Christian in a Thought in a Dream and the prophane Libertine in Hell it self But then then alone we find it when we meet it in conjunction with the Glory of God which shineth most gloriously in a crucified Christ and in an obedient Christian made conformable to him and so bearing about in him the marks of the LORD JESVS Gal. 6.17 To conclude then Since God hath delivered up his own Son for us all and with him given us all things let us open our hearts and receive him John 1.12 that is believe in his name that is be faithful to him that is love him and keep his Commandments which is our conformity to his Death And then he will give us What will he give us He will heap gift upon gift give us power to become the Sons of God Let us receive
the spoyls of that Hypocrisie which supplanteth and overthroweth it and usurpeth both its place and name Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings is in effect I must not do it That which is good that which is Religion hath so little relation to it that it can subsist without it and most times hath been swallowed up and lost in it It was in the world before any command came forth for Sacrifice and it is now most glorious when every Altar is thrown down and hath the sweetest savour now there is no other smoke The Question putteth it out of all question That this Good is best without it What will the Lord do to the husbandmen that killed the heir Matth. 21.40 41. Our Saviour putteth it up by way of question And you know how terrible the answer is What will he do what will he not do He will miserably destroy those wicked men Is it comely that a woman pray uncovered 1 Cor. 11 13. Judge in your selves You cannot say it is comely As the Athenians used to ask the guilty persons who were arraigned before them and by sufficient evidence convict of the crime Are you not worthy of death that they might first give sentence against themselves and acknowledge the sentence to be just which was to pass upon them So doth the Prophet here ask the sacrificing Jews who so doted on outward Ceremony that they scarce cast an eye or look towards that which was truly the service of God as if there were no more required at their hands then that which was to be done at the Altar Shall you bring burnt-offerings Shall you offer up your first-born the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul Your selves shall be witness against your selves and out of your own mouth shall you be condemned O ye Hypocrites you cannot be so ignorant as to think nor so bold as to profess that this is the true service of God I remember Gregory Nazianzene calleth Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we may call this good in the Text so a spiritual heavenly statue And as the Statuary by his art and with his chizel doth work off all that is unnecessary and superfluous and having finisht and made his work complete in every part fixeth it as the lively representation of some God or Goddess or heroick Person whose memory he would perpetuate in the minds of those who are to look upon it so doth the Prophet Micah here being to delienate and express the true servant of God in his full and perfect proportion first out of the lump and mass which made up the body of the Jews Religion he striketh off that which was least necessary and most abused all that formality and outward ceremony in which they most pleased themselves Burnt-offerings and calves of an year old these he layeth aside as that which may be best spared as that which God did not require for it self or for any good there was naturally in it and then he draweth him out in every part in those parts which do indeed make him up in that perfection in which he may shine as a great example of eternal happiness Wherewith shalt thou come before the Lord and bow thy self before the high God Not with Burnt-offerings those he putteth by as no essential materials as the scurf and least considerable part of Religion But with thy Heart and with thy Will and Affections with a just and merciful and broken Heart With these thou shalt walk with him or before him even with Justice and Mercy and Humility with those graces which will make thee like unto him and transform thee into the image of God and set thee up as a fair statue and representation of thy Maker He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. Or if you please you may conceive of true Piety and that which is good as of a Tree of Life planted in the midst of Paradise in the midst of the Church spreading as it were its Branches whereof these three in the Text are the fairest 1. Justice and Uprightness of conversation a straight and even Branch bearing no fruit but its own 2. Mercy and Liberality yielding much fruit to those weary and faint souls who gather it and are refresht under the shadow of it and 3. Humility a branch well laden full and hanging down the head Hebr. 10.9 More plainly and for our better proceeding thus He taketh away the one that he may establish the other He taketh away Ceremony and Sacrifice that he may set up true Piety and that which is Religion indeed Which here is 1. termed that which is Good in it self and for it self which Sacrifices and all other ceremonious parts of Gods worship were not 2. manifested and pointed out to as with a finger God by his Prophet hath shewed it 3. Published and promulged as a law What doth the Lord require of thee 4. Lastly charactered and drawn out in its principal parts 1. Justice and Honesty 2. Mercy and Liberality 3. Humility and sincerity of mind which is the beauty and glory of the rest and commendeth them maketh our Justice and Mercy shine in the full beauty of holiness when we are this and do this as with or before God These be the particulars We begin with the first That Piety and true Religion is here termed good in it self and for it self in opposition to the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law And 1. the Sacrifices and Ceremonious part of Gods worship were good but ex instituto because God for some reason was pleased to institute and ordain them Otherwise in themselves they were neither good nor evil They were before they were enjoyned And men offered them up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resp ad Orthod in operib Justini Mart. ad Interrog 83. Jer. 7.22 23. not in reference to any command but out of a voluntary zeal and affection to the honour of God which they expressed and shewed forth in this especial act in devoting that unto him which was with them of highest esteem as more due to the Giver of all things then to them for whose use they were given God did not command but did accept them for the zeal and affection of them who offered them up And he telleth them so himself I spake not to your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices But this thing I commanded them saying Obey my voyce 2. When they were commanded they were not commanded for any real goodness there was naturally in them For what are Blood and Smoke to the God of Spirits but brought in for that good effect which the Wisdome of God could work out of them which had nothing of Good in them which might commend them but the end for which they were ordained Therefore God commanded them not as desirable in themselves but by way of condescension submitting himself as it were
Scripture Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest in Sloth and Idleness thou that sleepest in a tempest in the midst of thy unruly and turbulent Passions arise from the grave and sepulchre wherein thy Sloth hath intombed thee arise from the dead from that nasty charnel-house of rotten bones where so many vitious Habits have shut thee up Break up thy monument Hebr. 12.1 cast aside every weight and every sin that presseth down and rise up and be but a Man improve thy Reason to thy best advantage and this Good shall shine upon thee with all its beams and brightness and Christ shall give thee light if not to see things to come to satisfie thy Curiosity yet to see things to come which shall fill thy soul as with marrow and fatness Psal 63.5 if not to know the uncertain yet certain wayes of Gods providence yet to know the certain and infallible way to bliss if not to know things too high for thee yet to know that which shall exalt thee to heavenly places in Christ Jesus He hath shewn thee O man what is good Dost thou see it dost thou believe it Thou shalt see greater things then these Thou shalt see what thou dost believe and enjoy what thou dost but hope for Thou shalt see God who hath shewed thee this Good that thou mightest see him Thou shalt then have a more exact knowledge of his Wayes and Providence a fuller tast of his Love and Goodness a clearer sight of his Beauty and Majesty and with all his Angels and all his Saints behold his Glory for evermore Thus much of this Good as it is an Object to be lookt on We shall in the next place consider it as a Law QVID REQVIRIT What doth the Lord require The Third SERMON PART III. MICAH VI. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly c. HE hath shewed thee O man what is good what it is thou wert made for even that which is fitted and proportioned to thy Soul that which is lovely and amiable and so a fit object to look on that which will fill and satisfy thy Soul and turn the greatest evil the world can lay as a stone of offense in thy way into good and raise it self upon it to its highest pitch of glory And this he hath made plain and manifest drawn out in so visible a character that thou mayest run and read it And thus far we have already brought you We must yet lead you further even to the foot of mount Sinai What doth the Lord require of thee This is as the publication of it and making it a Law Hebr. 12.19 For with the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet Exod. 20.2 and the voice of words this voice was heard I AM THE LORD THVS SAITH THE LORD is the Prophets Warrant or Commission I THE LORD HAVE SPOKEN IT is a seal to the Law By this every word shall stand by this every Law is of force It is a word of power and command and authority For he that can do what he will may also require what he will in heaven or in earth So then if he be the Lord he may require it In this one word in this Monosyllable all power in heaven and in earth is contained For in calling him Lord he assigneth unto him an absolute Will which must be the rule of our Will and of all our actions which are the effects and works of our Will and issue from it as from their first principle and mover And this his Will is attended 1. with Power 2. with Wisdome 3. with Love By his Power he made us and still protecteth and preserveth us and from this issueth his legislative Power Again as by his Wisdome he made us so by the same Wisdome he giveth us such a Law as shall sweetly and certainly lead us to that end for which he made us And last of all his Love it is to the work of his own hands thus to lead us And all these are shut up in this one word Lord. Let us view and consider all these and so look upon them as to draw down their influence and virtue into our souls to work that obedience in us which this Lord requireth and will reward First it is the Lord requireth I need not trouble you with a recital of those places of Scripture where God is called the Lord. For if the Scripture be as the Heaven this is a Star of the greatest magnitude and spreadeth its beams of Majesty and Power in the eyes of all men And to require is the very form of a Law I will I require if Power speak it is a Law It will be more apposit and agreeable to our purpose that we may the more willingly embrace and entertein this Good which is publisht as a Law to look upon this word Lord as it expresseth the Majesty and Greatness of God He is therefore said to be the Lord because he is omnipotent and can do all things that he will He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene a vast and boundless Ocean of Essence and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boundless and infinite Sea of Power Take the highest pitch of Dominion and Lordship that our imagination can reach yet it falleth short of his who is Lord of Lords to whom all earthly Majesty must vail and at whose feet all Princes lay down their Crowns and Sceptres And therefore Dionysius Longinus falling upon the story of the Creation De sublimi genere orat Sect. 7. maketh that expression of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let there be light and there was light Let there be earth and there was earth the highest and most sublime that the art or thought of man could reach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thus the Majesty of God is best set forth He no sooner speaketh but it is done Nor can it be otherwise For as he is a Lord and hath an absolute and uncontrollable Will so his Will is attended by an infinite Power which is inseparable from it You may find them both joyned together Acts 4.28 All things are done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever his hand and his counsel determined to do Because he can do all things therefore he bringeth to pass whatsoever he will And his Hand and Power hath here the first place because all Counsell falleth to the ground if Power be not as a pillar and supporter to uphold it What is the strength of a strong man if there be a stronger then he to bind and disarm him What is it to conceive something in the womb of the mind to shape and form and fashion it and to bring it even to the door of life if there be no strength to bring it forth What is my Will if it be defeated Libera voluntas in nullum habet imperium praeterquam in se Hierocles apud
Ishmael Thus by looking on the Persons in the Text you may plainly see the face and condition of the Church and that no priviledge she hath can exempt her from persecution This will yet more plainly appear from the very Nature and Constitution of the Church which is best seen in her blood when she is Militant Which is more full and expressive then any other representation or title that she hath The Church of Christ and the Kingdomes of the earth are not of the same making and constitution have not the same soul and spirit to animate them These may seem to be built upon Air they are so soon thrown down That is raised upon a holy Hill These have a weak and frail hand to set them up and as weak a hand may cast them down That is the work of Omnipotency which fenceth it about and secureth it from Death and Hell These depend upon the Opinions upon the Affections upon the Lusts of men which change oftner then the wind upon the breath of that monster the Multitude which is any thing and which is nothing which is it knoweth not what and never agreeth with it self is never one but in a tempest in tumult and sedition That is founded upon the eternal Decree and Will of God and upon Immutability it self and shall stand fast for ever These when they are in their height and glory are under uncertainty and chance The Church under the wing and shadow of that Providence which can neither erre nor miscarry but worketh mightily and irresistibly to its end His evertendis una dies hora momentum sufficit These are long a raysing and are blown down in a moment But the Church is as everlasting as his love that built it In a word these are worn out by Time The Church is but melted and purged in it and shall then be most glorious when Time shall be no more I know well Persecution appeareth to us as a Fury sent from hell and every hair every threat is a snake that hisseth at us but it is our Sensuality and Cowardise that whippeth us Yet the common consent of all men hath given her a fairer shape and they that run from her do prefer the suffering part And as our Saviour said Acts 20.35 It is more blessed to give then to receive so is it vox populi the voice of the People though they practice it not It is better to suffer then to oppress Even they who have the sword in their hand and breath nothing but terrour and death will rage yet more if you say they persecute you and either magnifie their cruelty with the name of Justice or else seek to perswade the world that they and they alone suffer persecution Every man flieth persecution and every man is willing to own it The Arians complained of the cruelty of the Orthodox and the Orthodox of the fury of the Arians Epist 48 68. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem saith Augustine to the Manichees You say you suffer but our houses are laid wast by you You say you suffer but your armed men put out our eyes You say you suffer but we fall by the sword What you do to us you will not impute to your selves but what you do to your selves you impute to us Thus it was then And how do we look back upon the Marian daies as if the bottomless pit did never smoke but then And are not they of the Romish party as loud in their complaints as if the Devil were never let loose till now We bring forth our Martyrs with a faggot on their shoulder and they theirs with a Tiburn-tippet as Father Latimer calleth it and both glory in Persecution We see then every party claimeth a title to Persecution and counteth it honour to be placed in the number of those that suffer And indeed Persecution is the honour the prosperity the flourishing condition of the Church for it maketh hâ—r indeed visible Nazianzene I remember calleth it the Sacrament and mystery of blood a visible sign of invisible grace where one thing is seen and another thing done where the Christian suffereth and rejoyceth is cast down and promoted falleth by the sword to rise to eternity where Glory lieth hid in Disgrace Advantage in Loss and Life in Death a Church shining in the midst of all the blackness and darkness and terrours of the world Epist 20. â—â— Floridi Martyres they are called by S. Cyprian But this you may say is true if we take the Church as Invisible made up of Sheep onely as Collection of Saints To speak truly Charity buildeth up no other Church For all she beholdeth are either so or in a possibility of having that honour though the eye of Faith can see but a small number to make up that body But take the Church under what notion you please yet it will be easie to observe that Persecution may enlarge her territories increase her number and make her more visible then she was when the weather was fair and no cloud or darkness hung over her that when her branches were lopt off she spread the more that when her members were dispersed there were more gathered to her that when they were driven about the world they carried that sweet-smelling savour about them which dtew in multitudes to follow them that in their flight they begat many children unto Christ Apolog. Crudelitas vestra illecebra est sectae saith Tertullian In the last place As it was then so it is now S. Paul doth not say It may be so or It is by chance but so it is by the Providence of God Provedentia ratio ordinis rerum ad finem Aquin. which is seen in the well ordering and bringing of every motion and action of man to a right end which commonly runneth in a contrary course to that which Flesh and Blood humane Infirmity would find out Eternity and Mortality Majesty and Dust and Ashes Wisdome and Ignorance steer not the same course nor are they bound to the same point My wayes are not your wayes nor my thoughts yours Isa 55.8 saith God by his Prophet to a foolish Nation who in extremity of folly would be wiser then God Mine are not as yours not such uncertain such vain such contradictory and deceitful thoughts but as far removed from yours as heaven is from the earth God hideth himself under a veil Deus tum maximè magnus eum homini pusillus tum maximè optimus cum ho â—ini non bonus Tert l. 2. adv Marcion c. 2. and is merciful when he seemeth angry and just when in outward appearance he favoureth oppression he shadoweth us under his wings when we think he thundreth against us and raiseth his Church as high as heaven when we tremble and imagin he hath opened the gates of hell to devour her Were Flesh and Blood to build a Church we should draw our lines out in a pleasant place It should
Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 11. Noct. Attic. c. 16. De Tranq c. 12. which Gellius confesseth he cannot render no not obscurely in many words Seneca inquietam inertiam an unquiet and troublesome sloth by which we run up and down and never abide at one stay but like men which run in hast to quench a fire shoulder every one we meet and tumble down our selves and others in the way Sticho act 1. sc 3. and so fall together Curiosus nemo est quin sit malevolus saith he in Plautus Curiosity is the breath of Malice and is mischievous And Mischief provoketh Wrath and Injustice and Mischief on the one side and Impatience and Wrath on the other meet and strive and struggle together and in the contention either one or both are lost And therefore Plato telleth us De Repub c 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to meddle with our own matters and not to busie our selves in other mens is that which we call Justice for by this we leave to every man that which is his untoucht and preserve to our selves that which is ours that is we are just to others and just to our selves we do not trouble and disadvantage other men in their station and defend our own But when we fly out and pass beyond our bounds we are not what we should be but carry about with us a world of iniquity Our thoughts are let loose full of desire and are doubled upon us full of anxiety and when we gain most we are the greatest losers We are injurious false deceitful we are oppressours thieves murderers usurpers we are all that in our selves which we condemn in others For this is the seminary of all those evils which are sent forth as so many emissaries to break the peace of Church and Common-wealth And therefore not onely Religion but Reason also not onely Christianity but even Nature it self hath copsed and bound us in from flying out and hath designed to every man his proper business that he may not stray nor wander abroad First Christianity is the greatest peace-maker and keepeth every man to his own office if Ministery to wait on his Ministery if Teaching Rom. 12.7 to teach if Trading to follow his Trade if Government to rule with diligence if Service to be obedient with singleness of heart Eph. 6.5 Every man hath his gift and every man hath his measure and proportion And as it was in the gathering of Manna he that hath much hath nothing over Exod. 16.18 and he that hath little hath no lack Every mans place is the best for there is no place either in Church or Common-wealth which is not honourable and a great honour it is to serve God in any place 1 Cor. 15.41 One star differeth from another star in glory but in its proper sphere every Star shineth but out of it it is either a Mass or lump or nothing It is true indeed Gal. 3.28 in Christ Jesus there is neither high nor low neither rich nor poor Psal 49.2 no difference between the Noble and the Peasant Exod. 11.5 between him that grindeth at the mill and him that sitteth on the throne because his spiritual graces are communicated non homini sed humano generi not to this man or that to this calling or that but to as many as will receive them to all the world And every man that is Christs servant is a Peer a Priest and a King And when he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead he will not pardon this man because he was a King nor condemn that man because he was a begger For neither was Dives put in hell because he was rich nor Lazarus carried into Abraham's bosome because he was poor neither was Nero lost because he was an Emperour nor Paul saved because he was a tent-maker But yet for all this he hath made up his Church and formed Common-wealths not of Angels but of Men who live in the world and so under order and government and hath assigned every man his place and calling which every man would keep and make good every man would be quiet and in peace the Church would be as Heaven it self all glory and all harmony and the Common-wealth would be a body compact within it self never fly in pieces but last for ever and flourish in it self being subject to no injury but that of Time or a greater and overpowerful forrein force For that conceit of a designed Period and a fatality hanging over every body Politique which at last sinketh it down and burieth it in that ruine upon which another is raised is generally believed in the world but upon no convincing evidence having neither Reason nor Revelation to raise it up to the credit of a positive truth For That such a thing hath been done is no good Argument that it shall ever be so Though God hath foretold the period and end of this or that Monarchy yet the prophesie doth not reach unto all And he himself hath given us rules and precepts to be a sense and hedge about every Common-wealth which if we did not pluck it up our selves might secure and carry along the course of things even to their end that is to the end of the world But this we talk of as we do of many other things talk so long till we believe it and rest on our bare guess and conjecture as on a Demonstration But the truth is we are our own fate and destiny we draw out our thread and cut it We start out of our places and divide our selves from one another and then indeed and not till then Fate and Necessity lye heavy upon a Kingdome and it cannot stand Christianity bindeth us to our own business And till we break loose till some one or other step out of his place from it there is peace we are safe in our lesser vessels and the ship of the Common-wealth rideth on with that smoothness and evenness which it hath from the consistencie of its parts in their own place Gal. 3 28. For though all are one in Christ Jesus yet we cannot but see that there is a main difference between the inward qualification of his members and the outward administration and government of his Church In the Kingdomes of the world and so in the Church visible every man is not fit for every place Some must teach some govern some learn and obey some put their hand to the plough some to this trade some to that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaketh Polit l. 6 c. 5. those who are of more then ordinary wit and ability must bear office in Church or Commonwealth One is noble another is ignoble one is learned another is ignorant one is for the spade another for the sword one for the flail or sheephook another for the scepter Plin. Epist. And such a disproportion is necessary amongst men
and help himself out of them and take himself off from that amazement Marcion ran dangerously upon the greatest blasphemy Duos Ponticus Deos tanquam duaâ— Symplegadas naufragit sui adfert quem negare non potuit i. e. creatorem i. e. nostrum quem probare non poterit i. e. suum Tertull. 1. adv Marcion c. 1. and brought in two Principles one of Good and another of Evil that is two Gods But when the Lord shall come and lay judgment to the line all things will be even and equal and the Heretick shall see that there is but one Now all is jarring discord and confusion but the Lord when he cometh will make an everlasting harmony He will draw every thing to its right and proper end restore order and beauty to his work fill up those breaches which Sin hath made and manifest his Wisdome and Providence which here are lookt upon as hidden mysteries in a word he will make his glory shine out of darkness as he did Light when the earth was without form 1 Cor. 15.28 That the Lord may be all in all Here in this world all lyeth as in a night in darkness in a Chaos or confusion and we see neither what our selves nor others are We see indeed as we are seen see others as they see us with no other eyes but those which the Prince of this world hath blinded Our Judgment is not the result of our Reason but is raised from by and vile respects If it be a friend we are friends to his vice and study apologies for it If it be an enemy we are angry with his virtue and abuse our wits to disgrace it If he be in power our eyes dâ—zle and we see a God come down to us in the shape of a man and worship this Meteor though exhaled and raised from the dung with as great reverence and ceremony as the Persians did the Sun What he speaketh is an oracle and what he doth is an example and the Coward the Mammonist or the Beast giveth sentence in stead of the Man which is lost and buried in these If he be small and of no repute in the world he is condemned already though he have reason enough to see the folly of his Judges and with pitty can null the censure which they pass If he be of our faction we call him as the Manichees did the chiefest of their sect one of the Elect But if his Charity will not suffer him to be of any we cast him out and count him a Reprobate The whole world is a theatre or rather a Court of corrupt Judges which judge themselves and one another but never judge righteous judgment For as we judge of others so we do of our selves Judicio favor officit our Self love putteth out the eye of our Reason or rather diverteth it from that which is good and imployeth it in finding out many inventions to set up evil in its place as the Prophet speaketh We feed on ashes Isa 44.20 a deceived heart hath turned us aside that we cannot deliver our soul nor say Is there not a lye in our right hand Thus he that soweth but sparingly is Liberal he that loveth the world is not covetous he whose eyes are full of the adulteress is chast he that setteth up an image and falleth down before it is not an Idolater he that drinketh down bloud as an ox doth water is not a Murderer he that doth the works of his father the Devil is a Saint Many things we see in the world most unjustly done Multa injustè fieri possunt quae nemo possit reprehendere Cic. de Finibus Mic. 6.16 which we call Righteousness because no man can commence a suit against us or call us into question and we doubt not of Heaven if we fall not from our cause or be cast as they speak in Westminster-hall If Omri's statutes be kept we soon perswade our selves that the power of this Lord will not reach us and if our names hold fair amongst men we are too ready to tell our selves that they are written also in the book of life This is the judgment of the world Thus we judge others and thus we judge our selves so byassed with the Flesh that for the most we pass wide of the Truth Others are not to us nor are we to our selves what we are but the work of our own hands made up in the world and with the help of the world For the Wisdome of this world is our Spirit and Genius that rayseth every thought dictateth all our words begetteth all our actions and by it as by our God we live and move and have our being And now since Judgment is thus corrupted in the world even Justice requireth it Et veniet Dominus qui malè judicata rejudicabit the Lord will come and give judgment against all these crooked and perverse judgements and shall lay Righteousness to the plummet Isa 28.17 and with his breath sweep away the refuge of lyes and shall judge and pass another manner of sentence upon us and others then we do in this world Then shall we be told what we would never believe though we have had some grudgings and whisperings and half-informations within us which the love of this world did soon silence and suppress Then shall he speak to us in his displeasure and Aliud est judicium Christi aliud anguli su surrorum Hier. though we have talked of him all the day long tell us we forgot him If we set up a golden image he shall call us Idolaters though we intended it not and when we build up the sepulchres of the Prophets and flatter our selves and accuse our forefathers tell us we are as great murderers as they and thus find us guilty of that which we protest against and haters of that which we think we love and lovers of that which we think we detest and take us from behind the bush from every lurking hole from all shelter of excuse take us from our rock our rock of ayr on which we were built and dash our presumptuous assurance to nothing Nor can a sigh or a grone or a loud profession or a fast or long prayers corrupt this Lord or alter his sentence but he shall judge as he knoweth who knoweth more of us then we are willing to take notice of and is greater then our Conscience which we shrink and dilate at pleasure 1 John 3.20 and fit to every purpose and knoweth all things and shall judge us not by our pretense Rom. 2.16 our intent or forced imagination but according to his Gospel VENIET He shall come when all is thus out of Order to set all right and straight again And this is the end of his Coming And now being well assured that he will come we are yet to seek and are ready with the Disciples to ask Matth. 24.3 When will these things be and What hour will he
didicit perfectè obedire l. 4. de instit Caeâ—ob he hath no judgement non habet suum velle he hath no will of his own when our understandings wills and affections are Christ's as if we were but one flesh and one bloud and one soul that we will neither know nor serve nor hearken to any but Christ that we will have no King no Priest no Prophet but him then we dwell in him More particularly thus If we dwell in Christ we shall 1. discover and admire his majesty 2. acknowledge his power and love his command 3. rely and depend upon him alone as our sure castle and protection We shall dwell as it were within the beauty of his rayes within his jurisdiction and under the shadow of his wing 1. If we dwell in Christ we shall discover and admire his Majesty We may observe that every thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any eminency sendeth a kind of majesty from it as the Sun doth its beams which maketh a welcome and pleasing glide into the minds of men and at once striketh them with admiration and with love Sometimes this appeareth in the persons sometimes in the manners and behaviour of men sometimes in the order and polity of a well-governed Common-wealth So we read the skin of Moses's face after he had talked with God Exod. 34.29 30. did shine so bright that Aaron and the people were afraid to come neer him So when holy Job went out to the gate the young men saw him and hid themselves Job 29.7 8. and the aged arose and stood up It sheweth it self also in a well-ordered Common-wealth It was called majestas pop Romani Majestas est in imperio atque in omni Pop. Rom. dignitate Quint. l. 7. Iustit c. 3. Matth. 17.2 6 the Majesty of the people of Rome Now if Christ be considered by thee as one in eminency and supreme thou wilt behold him not onely fair and lovely but clothed with Majesty I do not mean his Majesty in his transfiguration when his face did shine as the Sun and his Disciples fell on theirs nor his Majesty when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead and yet these are fit objects for the eye of Faith to look on but his Majesty in his cratch his Majesty in his humility his Majesty on the cross even here the thief discovered it and it was imputed to him for righteousness and made the Cross it self a gate and passage into Paradise But these are too remote and for the many we look upon them as at distance have so small regard of them as if they concerned us not We can see Majesty in a lump of flesh in those that cannot save themselves sooner then in him we call our Saviour But then canst thou discover Majesty in him now Majesty in his discipline Wisdome in the foolishness of Preaching Power in weakness now in this life when he is whipt and spit upon and crucified again when he liveth covered over with disgraces and contumelies when his Precepts are dragged in triumph after flesh and blood and whatsoever it dictateth when for one Hosanna he hath a thousand Crucifige's for one formal hypocritical acknowledgment a thousand spears in his sides when the Truth is what we will make it the Gospel esteemed no more then a fable and Christ himself if we look into mens lives the most disesteemed thing in the world When thou seest him in this cloud in this disfiguration in this Golgotha where is thy faith what eyes hast thou Doth he not still appear a worm Psal 22.6 and no man a man of sorrows When thou seest him thus Isa 53.2 3. is there any form that thou shouldest desire him Or dost thou even now see his glory as the glory of the onely-begotten Son of God 1 John 1.14 Doth he now appear to thee as the Head of all principality and power Col. 2.10 Canst thou see him in that naked Lazar that persecuted forlorn imprisoned Saint Doth his Majesty shine through the vanities of this World and make them loathsome through thy labour of charity and make it easie through persecution Hebr. 6.10 and make it joyful In the midst of rage and derision of fury and contumely is he still to thee the King of glory Psal 24.8 10. Then thou dwellest in him even in the beauty of holiness 2. If we dwell in Christ we shall be under his Command For they who command us do in a manner take us into themselves they possess and compass bound and keep us in on every side And if we dwell in Christ we shall be within his reach and power we shall not have our excursions and run from him into the streets and high wayes again into Bethâ—aven the house of vanity I say we shall be under Christs command we shall be his possession his propriety For Man is a little world I may say he is a little Common-wealth De Resurrect carn c. 40. Tertullian calleth him fibulam utriusque substantiae the clasp or button which tieth together divers substances and natures the Soul and the Body the Flesh and the Spirit And these two are contrary one to the other Gal. 5.17 saith S. Paul are carried divers wayes the Flesh to that which pleaseth it and the Spirit to that which is proportioned to it looking on things neither as delightful nor irksome but as they may be drawn in to contribute to the beauty and perfection of the soul These lust and struggle one against the other and Man is the field the theatre where this battle is fought and one part or other still prevaileth Many times nay most times God help us the Flesh with her sophistry prevaileth with the Will to joyn with her against the Spirit and then Sin taketh the chair the place of Christ himself and setteth us hard and heavy tasks setteth us to make brick but alloweth us no straw biddeth us please and content our selves but affordeth us no means to work it out See how Mammon condemneth one to the mines to dig for metalls and treasure for that money which will perish with him See how Lust fettereth another with a look with the glance of an eye bindeth him with a kiss a kiss that will at last bite like a Cockatrice See how Self-love driveth us on as Balaam did his beast on the point of the sword Thus Sin doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercise its force and power Rom. 6.12 Lord it and King it reign in our mortal bodies Again sometimes and why but sometimes but sometimes the Will sanctified and upheld and encouraged by the Spirit of Christ taketh the Spirit 's part determineth for it against the Flesh chuseth any thing which the Spirit commendeth though it be compassed about with terrours and fearful apparitions though it be irksome and contrary to the Flesh And when we depose Mammon Matth. 16.24 crucifie the flesh deny our selves
The unbelieving man that dwelleth not in Christ hath either no place to fly to or else that he flyeth to is as full of molestation and torment as that he did fly from He flieth to himself from himself He flieth to his wit and that befooleth him he flieth to his strength and that overthroweth him he flieth to his friend and he faileth him He asketh himself counsel and mistrusteth it He asketh his friend counsel and is afraid of it He flieth to a Reed for a staff to Impotency and Folly and hath not what he looked for when he hath what he looked for He is ever seeking ease and never at rest And vvhen these evils vvithout him stir up a worse evil within him a conscience which calleth his sins to remembrance vvhat a perplexed and distracting thing is he what shifts and evasions doth he catch at He runneth from room to room from excuse to excuse from comfort to comfort He fluttreth and flieth to and fro as the Raven and would rest though it vvere on the outside of the Ark. This is the condition of those vvho are not in Christ But he that dwelleth in him that abideth in him knoweth not vvhat Fear is Col. 2.3 because he is in him in whom all the treasures of wisdome and power are hid and so hath ever his protection about him He knoweth not vvhat danger is for Wisdome it self conducteth him He knoweth not what an enemy is for power guardeth him He knoweth not vvhat misery is for he liveth in the region of happiness He that dwelleth in him cannot fear what Man vvhat Devil vvhat Sin can do unto him because he is in his armory abideth safely as in a Sanctuary 2 Tim. 1.12 under his wing I know whom I have trusted saith S. Paul not the World not my friends not my Riches not my Self Not onely the World and Riches and Friends are a thin shelter to keep off a storm but I know nothing in my self to uphold my self but I know whom I have trusted my Christ my King my Governour and Counsellor who hath taken me under his roof who cannot deny himself but in these evil dayes in that great day will be my patrone my defence my protection Thus doth the true Christian dwell abide in Christ 1. admiring his majesty 2. loving his command 3. depending vvholly upon his protection These three fill up our first part our first proposition That some act is required on our parts here expressed by dwelling in him We pass now to our second That something is also done by Christ in us some virtue proceedeth from him vvhich is here called dwelling in us There goeth forth virtue and power from him from his promises from his precepts from his life from his passion and death from vvhat he did from vvhat he suffered as there did to the vvoman who touching the hem of his garment was healed of her bloody issue Mark 5. Luke 8. a power by which he sweetly and secretly and powerfully characterizeth our hearts and writeth his mind in our minds and so taketh possession of them and draweth them into himself The Apostle telleth us he dwelleth in us by his spirit Rom. 8 11 14 and that we are led by the spirit in the whole course of our life Eph. 2.22 and that we are the habitation of God through the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his tabernacle his temple which he consecrateth and setteth apart to his own use and service There is no doubt but a power cometh from him but I am almost afraid to say it there having been such ill use made of it For though it be come already Rom. 1.16 for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation yet is it still expected expected indeed rather then hoped for For when it doth come we shut the door and set up our will against it and then look faintly after it and perswade our selves it will come at last once for all There is power in his Precepts for our Reason subscribeth and signeth them for true There is power in his Promises they shine in glory These are the power of Christ to every one that believeth And how can we be Christians if we believe not But this is his ordinary power which like the Sun in commune profertur is shewn on all at once There yet goeth a more immediate power and virtue from him we deny it not which like the wind worketh wonderful effects but we see not whence it cometh John 3.8 nor whither it goeth neither the beginning nor the end of it which is in another world The operations of the Spirit by reason they are of another condition then any other thought or working in us whatsoever are very difficult and obscure as Scotus observeth upon the Prologue to the Sentences for the manner not to be perceived no not by that soul wherein they are wrought Profuisse deprehendas quomodo profuerunt non deprehendes as Seneca in another case That they have wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which they wrought are impossible to be brought to demonstration But though we cannot discern the manner of his working yet we may observe that in his actions and operations on the soul of man he holdeth the course even of natural agents in this respect that they strive to bring in their similitude and likeness into those things on which they work by a kind of force driving out one contrary with another to make way for their own form So Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac Jacob and every creature begetteth according to its own kind Plato said of Socrates's wise sayings that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of his mind so resembling him that you might see all Socrates in them So it is with Christ Where he dwelleth he worketh by his spirit something like unto himself He altereth the whole frame of the heart driveth out all that is contrary to him 2 Cor. 10.5 all imaginations which exalt themselves against him and never leaveth purging and fashioning us till a new creature like himself be wrought till Christ be fully formed in us Gal. 4.19 So it is with every one in vvhom Christ dwelleth And this he doth by the power of his Spirit 1. by quickning our Knowledge by shewing us the riches of his Gospel his beauty and majesty the glory and order of his house and that vvith that convincing evidence that vve are forced to fall dovvn and vvorship by filling our soul vvith the glory of it as God filled the tabernacle vvith his Exod. 40. that all the powers and faculties of the soul are ravisht vvith the sight and come vvillingly as the Psalmist speaketh fall down vvillingly before him by moving our soul as our Soul doth our Body that when he saith Go vve go and vvhen he saith Do this vve do it So it is in every one in vvhom Christ dwelleth 2. He dwelleth in us
him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 We force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh not till we provoke him His Justice and Severity are the same as everlasting as Himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams bosome yet were he good Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his exhortations and expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. ◠seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils is still the same And his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced in a damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit And so to receive his glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde ad mortem sed antè ad vitam The sentence of death was pronounced against Man almost as soon as he was Man but he was first created to life We are punished for being evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 But if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his glory out of that which dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more power then the Sword In heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is to see it in the Church of the first
calleth in a world of Parasites to bow before us and bless us in the Name of the Lord. And thus we are first pleased to sin and then are easily pleased in it We are in danger and will not know it and when the God of Israel is angry 2 Kings 1.2 3. we will hear what the God of Ekron will say In a word we raise a storm in our selves whistle it down we wound our selves and skin it over we are too soon troubled and too soon eased might recover were not our remedy more fatal then our disease Thus you see this humor of being pleased is very predominant in most men In the third place as it proceedeth from the power and force of Conscience which will speak it she may be heard and doth speak even when she is not heard so it doth from the lustre and glory of Piety and Holiness which spreadeth her beams and darteth her light in the very face of them who have proscribed her sent her a bill of divorce and put her away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Goodness is equally venerable to all men Not onely good men speak well of her but her enemies praise her in the gates Who is so evil that he is willing to go under that name How angry will a Strumpet be if you call her so Call a Pharisee a Hypocrite and he will thrust you out of the Synagogue Though I bow down before an image yet I am not an Idolater though I break the bonds of peace yet I am not factious though I never have enough yet I am not covetous I am not evil though I do those things for which we justly call men so Our rule here is quite contrary to that known and received axiome of the world Malo me divitem esse quà m haberi In the managing of our worldly affairs we had rather be rich then be accounted so but in the course of our Religion we are rich enough we are good enough if we have but the name that we are so we are good enough if none dare call us evil And thus it is both in the errours of our Understanding and of our Will In the one we think it better to pretend to knowledge and rest our selves in that then to be taught to alter our mind Quintil. l. 3. Instit. c. 1. Malumus didicisse quà m discere That we know something already is our glory but to submit our selves to instruction is an argument of imperfection and therefore we account it a punishment to be taught And this is the reason why so few have retracted their errours and why most have stoutly defended them even a Loathness to seem to have erred which mightily reigneth in most men but especially in all pretenders unto knowledge Nature it self having annexed a shame unto these two above all other things which naturally befal us Lust and Ignorance For as the Italian proverb is A learned fool will be a fool ever And so it is in the errours of the Will In the practick errours of our life we would not know our selves nor have others know Eccles 1.18 that we have done any thing amiss He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow When the knowledge of the Truth inciteth us to follow after it and the force of Custome draweth us back we are as it were at war and divided in our selves our motion is unquiet as the bounding of a heady steed with the bit in his mouth We are in our own way and impatient of a check and we hate those counsellers which are willing to be eyes to us and lead us out of danger Tell a Heretick he is so he will anathematize you Tell a Schismatick he is so he will fly from you as from the plague Tell a Persecuter he is so and he will rage more and make it good upon your self deny it and yet make it too manifest that he is so For the Will of man loveth the channel which it hath chosen and would run on smoothly and evenly without interruption But when it meeteth with any stop or bank it beginneth to rage and fome and cast up mire and dirt in their faces who do attempt to stop its course Volumus errare we will erre and he is an enemy that telleth us the truth Volumus peccare we will sin but he that telleth the Sinner Thou art the man shall not be received as a Prophet but be defied as an adversary Sin is of a monstrous appearance who can stand before it and therefore we either cloud and hide it with an excuse or dress it up in the mantle of Virtue in the habit and beauty of Holiness as Pompey to commend the theatre which he built called it a Temple And these are the causes which beget and nurse up this evil humour in us this Desire to be pleased this Unwillingness to be troubled though it be to be pluckt out of the fire 1. a Defect in our selves which when we cannot fill up with righteousness we do with the shadow of it 2. the power of Conscience which when we cannot quiet we slumber and cast into a deep sleep and 3. the glory and beauty of Goodness which forceth from us though not a complacency yet an approbation and maketh them lay claim unto her who have violently thrust her out of doors He that loveth to erre loveth not to be told so he that is not righteous will Justifie himself and the worst of men desire to bear up their head and esteem with the best Let us now see the danger of this humour and the bitter effects it doth produce And first this Desire to be pleased placeth us out of all hope of succour leaveth us like an army besieged when the enemy hath cut off all relief It is a curse it self and carrieth a train of curses with it It maketh us blind to our selves and not fit to make use of other mens eyes It maketh our rain powder and dust Deut. 28.24 corrupteth all that counsel and instruction which as moisture should make us fruitful It maketh us like to to the Idoles of the Heathen to have eyes and see not to have ears Psal 115. and not to hear living dead men such as those to whom the Pythagoreans set up a sepulcral pillar such as Plato saith do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleep in hell men made up of contradictions in health and therefore desperately sick strong and therefore weak and never more fools then when they are most wise Plus quà m oportet sapiunt plùs quà m dici potest desipiunt saith Bernard They are wiser then they should be and more deceived then we can express Look on the Galatians in this Epistle and you shall see how this humour did bewitch them and what fools it made them They had received the spirit by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 but this spirit did shake and trouble them frowned upon that which they too much inclined to and
best and most experienced Masters so doth he condescend and indulge to our infirmity and appointeth the fittest for us and those of whom we will soonest learn Our first question commonly is Who is the Preacher We deliver up our Judgments to our Affections and converse rather with mens fortunes then their persons and make use of no other rule in our censure of what is done or said then the Man himself that did or spake it If Honour or Power or Wealth have made the man great in our eyes then whatsoever he speaketh is an oracle though it be a doctrine of Devils and have the same Father which all other lyes have Truth doth seldome go down with us unless it be presented in the cup in which we love to divine and prophesie Eccl. 9.15 There was a poor wise man found saith Solomon that delivered the city by his wisdome but none remembred or considered this poor wise man For Poverty is a cloud and casteth a darkness over that which is begot of light sullieth every perfection that is in us hideth it from an eye of flesh which cannot see Wisdome and Poverty together in one man whereas Folly it self shall go for Wisdome and carry away that applause which is due to it if it dwell in the heart or issue from the mouth of a purple and gallant fool Vt sumuâ— sic judicamus As we are so we judge and it is not our Reason which concludeth but our Sense and Affection If we love Beauty every painted wanton is as the Queen of Sheba and may ask Solomon a question If Riches Dives with us will be a better Evangelist then S. Luke If our eyes dazle at Majesty Acts 12.21 22 Herodes royal apparel will be a more eloquent oratour then he that speaketh and the people shall give a shout and cry The voice of a God and not of a man Do but ask our selves the question Doth not Affection to the person beget Admiration in you and Admiration commend whatsoever he saith and gild over Errour and Sin it self and make them current Do not your Hopes or Fears or Love make up every opinion in you and build you up in your most unholy faith Is not the Coward or the Dotard or the Worldling in your Creed and Profession Do you not measure out one another as you do a tree by the bulk and trunk and count him best who is most worth Is not this the compass by which you steer Is not this the bond of your peace the cement of all your friendship Doth not this outward respect serene or cloud your countenance and as the wind and the state of things change make you to day the dearest friends and to morrow the deadliest enemies Can you think ill of them you gain by or speak ill of them you fear Can he be evil who is powerful or dare you be more wise then he that hath thirty legions We may say this is a great evil under the sun But it is the property of the blessed Spirit to work good out of evil to teach us to remember what we are by those who so soon make us forget what we are to make use of Riches which we dote on of Power which we tremble at of that Glory which we have in admiration to instruct us to the knowledge of our condition and to put us in mind of our mortality and frailty by Kings whom we count as Gods Behold a King from his throne proclaimeth it to his subjects and all the world That his Power is but as a shadow cast from a mortal his Glory but his garment which he cannot wear long and his Riches but the embroidery which will be as soon worn out And when we have gazed and fallen down and worshipt and are thus lost in our own thoughts if we could take away the film from our eye which the world hath drawn over it and see every thing in its nature and substance as it is we should behold in all these raies of glory and power and wealth nothing but David the stranger So that we see Kings who are our nursing-Fathers are become our School-masters to teach us Psal 49.10 For we see that ignorant and foolish men perish and they dye as fools dye not remembred nor thought on as if nothing fell to the ground but their Folly The begger dyeth Luke 16.22 but what is that to the rich who cannot see him carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome The righteous also perish and no man layeth it to heart I Isa 57.1 but Kings of the earth fall and cannot fall but with observation they fall as a star are soon mist in their orb and soon forgot But then living Kings make their Throne a Pulpit and preach from thence and publish to the world their own frail and fading condition measure out their life by a span Psal 39.5 12. Psal 85.8 and prophesie the end of it call their life a Pilgrimage and shall we not hearken what the Lord God doth say by such royal Prophets Shall their Power make us beasts of burden to carry it whithersoever their beck shall direct us and shall not their Doctrine and Example perswade us that we are men travelling men hasting to another counâ—ry Behold then here David a Prophet and a King made and set up an ensample to us And if David be a stranger upon the earth we can draw no other conclusion then this Then certainly much more we If David and all his Fathers if pious Kings and bloudy Tyrants if good and bad found no setled estate no abiding place here why should we be so foolish and ignorant as to turmoil or sport and delight our selves under the expectation of it If Kings be pulled down from their thrones and fall to the dust we have reason to cast up our accounts and reckon upon it that we are gliding and passing nay posting and flying as so many shadows and that our removal is at hand 1 Cor. 10.11 For these things happened to them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition They prophesied to us and they spake to us I may say They died to us and to all that shall follow them to the last man that shall stand upon the earth When Adam had lived nine hundred and thirty years Gen. 5.5 he dyed led the way to his posterity not that they should live so long but that they should surely dye every son of his till the second coming of the second and last Adam Abraham was a stranger and Moses a stranger and David a stranger that we might look back upon them and see our condition When Patriarchs and Prophets and Kings preach not onely living but dying not onely dying but dead we shall not onely dye but dye in our sins if we take not out the lesson and learn to speak in their dialact and language ACCOLAE SVMVS ET PEREGRINI We are strangers and pilgrimes on the
will yield no such fire though you strike it never so oft We are said sometimes to sleep and sometimes to be dead in sin and we are commanded to awake and rise but it is ill building conclusions upon no better a basis then a Figure and because we are said to sleep or be dead in sin to infer a Necessity of rising when we are called Nor doth God's power work after the same manner in the one as in the other nor is our obedience to God's inward and outward call of the same nature with the obedience of the creature to the voice and command of the Creatour How many Fiats of God's have been frustrate in this kind How often hath he called and we answered not How often hath he spoke the word to us to be up and doing and we have done nothing How often hath he smote our rocky and stony hearts and no water flowed out How often hath he said Let there be light and we still remain in darkness We are free agents and God made us so when he made us Men and our actions are voluntary not necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil Goodness is the work of our Will not of Necessity If it could be wrought in us against our will it could not be Goodness What more voluntary then Goodness saith Augustine which if it were not voluntary could not bear that name They who would be wiser then God and did seem to murmure that in their natural constitution there was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a necessity of being good and an Impeccability an impossibility of being evil did neither love good nor hate evil The Father telleth them in that book which he wrote That God was not the authour of sin that in this vain desire to raise man to that pitch which nothing but phansie could set up they much dishonoured him and that in seeking to make him more then an Angel they made him less then a Man and preferred a beast before him Pâ—â—l 2.13 It is true God is said to work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure but this is so far from taking away of our power that it is brought as a reason by S. Paul why we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling God doth indeed work it in us but he doth it by giving us the knowledge of his promises by exciting and strengthening us by his Spirit He worketh it who supplieth us with all sufficient means to work it And the honour is due unto him who is the first Cause who is α and ω by whose grace we begin and perfect it He useth his power but not violence Hebr. 13.21 working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight stirring us up unto it and when we thought not of it preventing us with his grace administring means and helps suggesting occasions cherishing and fomenting it in our hearts Thus he doth it but not without us He doth it but not whilest we lye like men asleep or as dead men in their graves non nobis nesciis vel invitis vel otiosis saith the Father not when we are ignorant of his working or unwilling to receive his impressions or standing idle all the day but when we will entertain him when we endeavour and make use of those means which he hath plenteously afforded us when we strive to enter in at that wide and effectual door which he hath opened He hath opened his will and he hath opened the heavens unto us and shewed us all the beauties and glories thereof but we must take it by violence He shineth upon us and striketh us on our sides but we must shake off our fetters and gird our selves and follow after him I did at first think but to touch this and indeed I have not spoken of it so largely as I might But thus much I have spoken because I perceive the Devil hath made use not onely of the flying and fading vanities of this world but of the best graces of God to file and hammer them and make snares of them and hath wrought temptations out of that which should strengthen us against temptations Faith is suborned to keep out Charity the Spirit of truth is taught to lead us into errour and the power of God's Grace hath lost its activity and energy by our unsavoury and fruitless panegyrick We hear the sound and name of it but the power is not visible in our motions it floateth on the Tongue but never moveth the Heart or the Hand For do we not lye still in our graves expecting till this trump will sound Do we not cripple our selves in hope of a miracle Do we not settle upon our lees and say God can draw us out Do we not wallow in our bloud because he can wash us Do we not love our sickness because we have so skilful a Physician and since God can do what he will do not we what we please This is a great evil under the Sun and one cause of that evil which is upon the earth and maketh us stand still and look on it nay delight in it and leave it to God alone and his power to remove it as if it concerned not us at all or it were too daring an attempt for us mortals to purge and cleanse that Augean stable which we our selves have filled with dung as if God's Wisdome and Justice did not move at all and his Mercy and Power were alone busied in the work The Fourth SERMON PART II. JOHN V. 14. Behold thou art made whole SO dull and heavy we are even after a miracle so senseless after Christ hath laden us with his benefits that we have need of a Monitor a Doctor The Historian calleth him circumspectorem one that may look about us and take care of us when the cure is done As he who after victory rode in triumph had a publick servant behind him whose office it was to cry out unto him Respice post te hominem memento te esse Look behind thee remember thou art also a man So have we need of continual monitions and excitations to put us in mind of what we are For when we are made rich how soon do we forget we were poor When we are in health how soon do we forget we were sick When we are upon our legs and walk how soon do we forget the miracle Or if we do not forget it for how can it slip out of our memory so soon between the Pool and the Temple how can Christ's mercy be quite lost in this span of time yet we do not well weigh and consider it which is indeed to forget it Not a Jew but could have related the story of their leading out of Egypt and of dividing the Sea and making the waters stand as a heap yet the Psalmist is positive They forgat his works Psal 78.11 and his wonders which he had shewed them The impotent man here could not look upon
and rage of Lust And what a benefit is this If it be a benefit it is such a one as himself sometimes spake of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift no gift a gift as good as none at all For a better then Sophocles S. Basil will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperance in old age is not temperance it is impotency Old men are not temperate but they can be no longer intemperate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very carcase that lieth rotten in the grave hath as fair a title to Temperance as they Would you be righteous indeed Health is the time For in sickness you have nothing left you but a will and that many times as saint and sickly as your selves if not dead within you At best if you have the habit of Virtue it is there more like a faculty and power then a habit and is no more in respect of action You are but as artificers when their shop is shut up as Apelles without a hand or pencil or as a Musician that is dumb But in health a good lesson may be a sword to enter and divide asunder the soul and spirit and it may evaporate and break forth and triumph in action be heard from your tongue and felt from your hand and shew it self in every motion as you walk When there is bloud in your veins and marrow in your bones when you are in health then is the best time to conquer sin by strength of reason Domitius Afer a famous Orator being now grown old and his strength and memory decayed would needs still come to the bar and plead and therefore it was said of him malle eum deficere quà m desinere that he had rather fail through impotency then cease and leave off in time convenient Such may seem to be the resolution of most men They will rather fail through weakness then cease to sin whilst their strength lasteth and any oyle is left in their lamps How many do we see every day upon whom the evil dayes are come feeble and weak to all good purposes as those who have been dead long ago but ad peccandum fortes strong and active and youthful in sin having their hair white but their affections and ambition green violently framing and forcing themselves to be sportful and gamesome and peruking their age with youthful behaviour And yet these men peradventure at the last cast when their members are dried up and done can be content to offer them up to God as the old forworn fencers amongst the Romans were wont Herculis ad postem arma figere to offer up their weapons in Hercules Temple when they could make no further use of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 complained the God of War in the Poet when he saw such unbeseeming gifts and monuments offered up in his Temple And so may the Lord of hosts complain much more These darkened and distracted understandings these faultring memories these crooked wills these dulled and blurred senses these juyceless and exhausted and almost dead bodies these arms of statutes these pictures of men wasted and spent in the service of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are not the weapons and faculties I made Fit they are for the grave and rottenness but utterly unfit for the Temple of the Lord of hosts Behold thou art made whole That is the time that is God's time and thy time that is the accepted day the day in which thou must work out thy salvation To this end thou wert taken out of the porch by the pool's side and set on thy legs to this end thou art bid to walk that thou maist sin no more For in the second place if Health have not this end it will have a worse a contrary one As there are but two places Heaven and Hell so are there but two ends God's and the Devil's and we never stray from the one but we run to the other We never turn our back to Jerusalem but we make forwards towards a strange land It is as impossible to stand still between both and not move to one of them as for a man that hath the use of reason to be neither good nor evil For the mind of of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever in motion and if it do not follow those graces and favours which God affordeth for our viaticum and help in our way it will force them to a bad end and make that which might have been the savour of life unto life to become the savour of death unto death Health is the gift of God and should be used as his gift and returned back as a sacrifice to him crowned with the spoils of Satan and the triumphs over sin And if it be not thus used and offered it will be a sacrifice to Devils instrumental to all wickedness and advantage to Fraud a help to Ambition a bawd to Uncleanness the upholder of Revenge the nurse of Pride an assistant to Covetousness and the very life of War We may be evil on the bed of sickness but in health we publish and demonstrate it Then the deceitful coyneth his plots the ambitious soreth the wanton neigheth the revenger draweth his sword the proud lifteth up his head the miser toyleth and the souldier washeth his feet in the bloud of his enemies Quid non est Dei quod Deum offendit saith the Father There is nothing we receive from God but by it we may offend him Nihil tam sacrum quod non inveniat sacrilegum Nothing is so sacred but it may be sacrilegiously abused nothing is given us to a good end but it may be diverted and forced to a bad one Wit is the gift of God to this end Prov. 8.12 to find out knowledge of witty inventions to devise cunning works to work in gold and silver and brass Exod. 31.4 to find out arts to find out musical tunes Eccl 44. to the glory of him quia illa omniae quae possunt inveniri primus invenit as Lactantius speaketh who first shewed what was afterwards found out And we see it hath been brought down to endite for our lusts and malice for our sorrows and triumphs for every passion which transporteth us it hath wrought in Satyre and Elegy to feed our malice and to encourage our lust it hath made Philosophy perplexed Divinity a riddle and Trades mysterious and is a golden cup as Augustine speaketh in which we drink and carouse our selves to the Devil Again Riches are the gift of God And though he reacheth them forth but with his left hand Prov. 3.16 yet we may make of them a key to open the Kingdom of heaven And to that end they were given Yet the rich of this world too often make them the instruments of Pleasure the fuel of Vice a Patent and Prerogative to do what they please a Canopy to walk under and commit evil with more state and majesty a Supersedeas against Conscience in a word a
Though it cannot yet better Nothing then be at loss But our Accountant here S. Paul when he hath reckoned all sitteth down a loser For you see his Particulars are many but his Sum is Nothing and which is worse then Nothing Loss and lower yet but Dung ver 8. the most unsavoury loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcision is concision and the teachers of it dogs ver 2. that will not onely bark but bite evil workers that work to pull down and build to ruine His confidence in the flesh he castest away his privileges disenable him his zele is madness the Law and the righteousness thereby oh he is ashamed of it He will by no means be found in it ver 9. His gain is loss all things but dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 garbage and filth to be thrown to dogs ver 8. Obsecro expone te paululum saith the Father Good Apostle what paradoxes what riddles are these Unfold thy self What Circumcision Nothing Thy self bledst under the knife The Law Nothing Why it was just and true and holy and good And Righteousness the very name is pretious Expone te paululum We are in a cloud and besieged with darkness we cannot believe S. Paul himself without an exposition Verily a strange contemplation it is and we may at first conceive S. Paul now to have been not in the third heaven but in a cloud Every step is in darkness every word a mystery But yet follow him to ver 8. and some day appeareth the day-spring from on high hath visited us And then the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is most excellent is most desirable Bring in the knowledge of Christ and righteousness by faith and the righteousness which is of the Law is not a wish nor worth the looking on In Comparisons it is so One object may carry that lustre and eminency above another that they will scarce stand together in comparison What is a Bugle to a Crown What is a Cottage to a Kingdom What is Gold to Virtue What is unrighteousness to the Law And what is the Law to Christ My Apostle then concludeth well Circumcision is nothing and the Law is nothing and gain is loss and all things are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. It is now day with us and Christ himself appeareth But every dawning is not a day Every apparition is not a full manifestation A general notion of Christ is not light enough but leaveth him still as it were in shadows and under the veil To know him is life but to know him crucified saith S. Paul As Apelles in every line so Christ is most clearly seen in the several passages of his glorious dispensation and oeconomy Christ crucified Christ risen from the dead Christ on the wings of the wind in his ascension is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great spectacle worthy our contemplation an object as full of light as comfort Who would not go forth to see such a sight Behold then Faith ver 9. draweth and openeth the veil and presenteth Christ not onely in his bloud and sufferings but in his triumph and resurrection with the keyes of Hell and of Death with power and authority And can we wonder to see S. Paul contemn and spurn at all that he hath to sell all that he hath for this Pearl Should he take up dung and leave a diamond Can we think he forgetteth himself when he desireth to be forgetful of those things which he hath cast behind him Or what posture can we think to behold him in but in that of Extension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 13. stretched forth and earnestly reaching at the object For see his supply far exceedeth what before he could not want and the gain answereth and confuteth each particular of his loss Do the evil workers cry up Circumcision S. Paul doth so little need it that himself is the supply For we our selves are the circumcision ver 3. That which maketh and constituteth a Christian is the Circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 Do they thunder out the Law He is as loud for the knowledge of Christ. Do they plead Righteousness He pleadeth it too but his plea is stronger the Righteousness through the faith of Christ they plead the Law which worketh wrath and cannot give life In a word He will renounce his stock his tribe his sect the Law and will be no more a Jew or Pharisee that he may be a Christian That he may know him and the power of his resurrection c. This is the dependence of my Text. Apart it affordeth thus much variety We have here our Apostle's desire levelled on two things To attain and To know To attain to the resurrection of the dead and To know Christ and the virtue of his resurrection and passion The first is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime architectonical end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher would call it that which setteth all a working a Resurrection to glory The second comprehendeth those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intermediate operations which lead us to this end To rise to glory is a glorious end and it is proposed to all but none attain to it but by the knowledge of Christ and by the power of his resurrection and by the fellowship of his sufferings and conformity to his death I know there is a subordination of Ends but here we cannot suddenly determine which is S. Paul's principal and chief end his desire is carried with that vehemency and so fixed on both He desireth to attain and he desireth to know and he would not know but that he might attain nor attain without this knowledâ—â— He would rise with Christ in glory but he would rise and suffer with him here first in this life He would be a Saint in heaven but first a Christian on earth His desire is eager on both and it is not easie to discern where the flame is hottest I told you he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extended and stretched forth And so he is like Elijah on the child on each part and limb of Christ's oeconomy For though he mention onely his Passion and Resurrection yet he includeth the rest And we must remember to take the great work of our Redemption though the passages and periods of it be various for one continued act S. Paul would be born with Christ and he would die with Christ that he might rise with Christ and that he might reign with Christ His desire is eager but not irregular He would not be with Christ if he were not first like him nor have Glory without Grace nor attain if he did not know nor go to heaven without Christ's unction which may make him conformable to him My Division now is easie Our Apostle desireth to know and to attain And as Knowledge hath its Object
give him so much power as to think there is nothing in our selves and because he can bear all the burthen not to touch it with one of our fingers For this is to defeat his Will of its end and his Power of its operation and as much as in us lieth to bury the Resurrection it self To conclude this Behold the Lord shall descend with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the dead bodies shall arise And this is the Resurrection of the body And behold he descendeth with a shout with his own voice with the trump of God which is his Gospel he descendeth and knocketh and is willing to enter the heart of Man though it be but a sepulchre of rotten bones And they that hear his voice do come forth and walk in newness of life And this is the first Resurrection But it is too plain every man doth not hear Christ's voice and the power of his Resurrection is still the same For here something is required at our hands something we are to do our selves And though all supply be from him and we have nothing which we have not received yet he is pleased to take it as our contribution In this he doth not love to be alone For what is an Object without an Act What is the beauty of the firmament if there were no eye to discover it Therefore if we will have Christ anoint us or his Resurrection powerfully to raise us we must with S. Paul learn to forget all other things and stretch our selves towards him and earnestly study to know him and the power of his Resurrection Which is next to be considered That I may know him and the power of his resurrection We cannot take in all and therefore will conclude with this That I may know him Why who knoweth him not They that blaspheme him know him they that betray him know him they know him that persecute and crucifie him in his members every day they that make use of his name not to cast out Devils but to be so the accusers and destroyers of their brethren who make use of the name of a Saviour to pluck up and root out even those that know him and his resurrection And if to know him be all then with Hymenaeus and Philetus we may say the resurrection is past already all graves are open and not onely many Saints but even Devils themselves are risen But we must remember that in Scripture works of knowledge imply the Affections and Knowledge is commonly linked and joyned with its end If a man say he knoweth him 1 John 2.4 and keepeth not his commandments he is a liar He that shall say he knoweth Christ that he receiveth and embraceth his doctrine that he loveth him and is his disciple and yet keepeth not his commandments which is the onely argument of Love the best approbation of his Doctrine and the true badge and mark of a Disciple is a liar and he that saith he knoweth the power of his resurrection and is not risen from the dead is a liar and the truth is not in him For how can he at once embrace his doctrine and reject it love Christ and yet despise him be a disciple and betray him And what a soloecism is the power of the Resurrection in his mouth who loveth his grave and will not be raised up It is not speculative but practick knowledge that the Apostle here studieth For that knowledge which endeth in it self is worse then Ignorance because Ignorance may somewhat mitigate and lessen our neglect but Knowledge profest Knowledge doth enlarge the bill and hand writing which is against us and draweth it out in more bloudy and killing characters then before This Knowledge is not here meant For 1. This speculative Knowledge is a naked assent and no more and hath nothing in it of the Will For the Understanding is not an arbitrary but a necessary faculty and cannot but apprehend things in that shape and form they represent themselves in And therefore towards our Resurrection there is required something of the Seraphim and something of the Cherubim Heat as well as Light and Love as well as Knowledge For Love is active and will remove every stone and difficulty when speculative Knowledge and idle Faith may leave us in our graves onely looking upwards but bound hand and foot Love will make a battery and forcible entrance into heaven whilest Speculation standeth without and looketh upon it as in a map For Speculation is but a look a cast of the eye of the Understanding and no more and doth but place us as God did Moses on mount Nebo to see that spiritual Canaan which we shall never enjoy And then what comfort is it to know what Justification is and want the hand of a lively Faith to lay â—old on Christ what Sanctification is and yet to stand it out and resist the blessed Spirit to read and believe it too that a good conscience is a continual feast and not to taste of one of her dainties to dispute of Paradise and have no title to it to know Christ and not savour of his oyntment and the power of his resurrection and be more unremoveable then a rock more unrecoverable then they who have been dead long ago and are in a manner to be restored out of Nothing And what a fruitless Knowledge is that which can speak largely of God's Grace and resist it of Perseverance and fall more then seven times a day This is not true Knowledge but a bare assent and so far from being injoyned in Scripture that in respect of it Ignorance may seem the safer choice and rather then thus onely to know we may say with the Apostle Let them that be ignorant be ignorant still For 2. This bare naked Knowledge doth work in us at the most but a weak purpose of mind a faint velleity a forced and unvoluntary approbation For who can see such a sight and not in some degree be taken Who can see the glory of his Resurrection and not be moved Who can look upon the Temple and not ask What buildings are these Who can see the way to life and not approve it Christ is the way and Christ is risen that we might rise from sin We know it and confess it But if this would raise us up what a multitude of Sectaries what a herd of Epicures what an assembly of Pharisees what a congregation of fools I had almost said what a Legion of Devils were already risen with him We know Christ we talk of nothing more In our misery we implore his help In his name we lie down and in his name we rise up In his name we cast out Devils When affliction beateh upon us he charmeth the storm when our conscience chideth us he maketh our peace In adversity in distress in the tempest of a torn and distracted soul he is all in all We talk of him we feed on
him in the Sacrament we many times leave our callings but to hear of him But yet all these may be rather profers then motions rather pleasing thoughts then painful strugglings with our selves rather a looking upwards then a rising cogitationes similes conatibus expergisci volentium as S. Augustine speaketh of himself in his Confessions thoughts like unto the endeavours of men half-asleep who would and would not be awaked who seem to move and stir and lightly lift up the head and then fall down fast asleep fall back again into their graves and into the place of silence Nay 3. This Speculation this naked approbation is but a dream Visus adesse mihi Christ may seem to rouze us when he moveth us not at all And as in dreams we seem to perform we do every thing and we do nothing Nunc fora nunc lites we plead we wrastle we fight we triumph we sail we flie and all is but a dream So when we have seen the Gospel as in a map when we have made a phansiful peregrination through all the riches and glories and delights it affordeth when we have seen our Saviour in the cratch led him into the High priest's hall followed him to mount Calvary seen him on his cross brought him back again with triumph from his grave we may think indeed we are risen with him But when Conscience shall begin to be enlightned and dart her piercing raies upon us and plainly tell us that we have not fasted with him that we have not watched with him that we have not gone about with him doing good that we have been so far from crucifying our flesh for his sake that we have crucified him again to fulfil the lusts thereof that the World and not Christ hath been the form that moved us in the whole course of our life that our rising hath been nothing else but deceptio visûs an apparition a phantasm a jugling and Pharasaical vaunting of our selves behold then it will appear that all was but a dream that we have seen Christ rising from the dead and acknowledged the power of his resurrection but are no more risen our selves then our pictures that we have but dreamed of life and are still under the power of Darkness and in the valley and shadow of Death For conclusion then What saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead For this is to know and feel the power of Christ's resurrection Let us not please our selves with visions and dreams with the flattery of our own imaginations Let us not think that if we have magnified the power of the Resurrection we are therefore already risen For we can never demonstrate this power till we actually rise Let Knowledge beget Practice and Practice encrease our Knowledge Let us know Christ that is obey him Let us know the power of his resurrection that is rise from the death of Sin to walk in righteousness For this is with open face to behold the glory of Christ and his Resurrection This practick and affective Knowledge maketh us one with Christ Col 3.5 Rom 6.6 Col. 3 3. 2 Cor. 5.15 giveth us a fellowship of his sufferings conformeth and fashioneth us to his death mortifieth our earthly members destroyeth the whole body of sin maketh us die with Christ and live unto Christ unto him who died for us and is risen again By this we are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 limmers nay the very pictures of the Passion and Resurrection that we may be dead to sin and alive to righteousness that we may deal with our Sin as â—â—e Jews did with Christ hate and persecute it lay wait for it send forth a band of souldiers all the strength we have to apprehend and take it drag it to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face that there may be vinegar in our tears and gall in our Repentance that we may nail Sin to the cross and put it out of ease that it live but a dying life not able to move our members more then he can his who is nailed to a tree that it faint and languish by degrees and at last give up the ghost and then that we may rise again that the good Spirit may descend from heaven and remove the many stones the many vicious habits and customs that lie heavy upon us that we may leave our graves and our grave-cloths behind us all pretenses and palliations all ties and bonds of sin and whatsoever hath any sent or savour of corruption To conclude This is truly to know Christ and the power of his resurrection And this Knowledge will melt us this liquefaction will transform us and this transformation unite us to Christ and this union will be our exultation and this exultation an everlasting jubilee In a word This will quit us of all uncertainties lead us through all difficulties and by these means we shall attain to not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full resurrection which no death no evil shall follow a Resurrection to eternity of life of bliss and glory The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS I. 10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven HEaven is a fair sight and every eye beholdeth it but without Jesus we would not look upon Heaven it self Here we have them both presented to the eye This Jesus was taken up into heaven and that tâ—â— Disciples might see it he led them out as far as to Bethany Luke 24.50 he brought them to mount Olivet to an open and conspicuous place and made them spectators of his Triumph that they might preach it to the whole world Christ was willing to imploy their sight to confirm this main Article of the Ascension But yet as Christ liketh not every touch but there is a NOLI ME TANGERE Touch me not because I am not yet ascended so there is a QUID STATIS INTUENTES a check given to the eye because he is ascended already When the cloud hath taken him up no looking after him He loveth to be seen not to be gazed after Our love he approveth but not our curiosity Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were looking stedfastly toward heaven there stood by them saith the Text two men IN ALBIS in white apparel in the same colour they saw them in at his Tomb and as there so here they came not by chance but were dispatched as messengers from heaven at once to draw the Disciples eyes from needless gazing and to confirm them in the belief of their Master's Ascension The one they do by way of Question Why stand ye gazing into heaven the other by a plain and positive
evidence or confirmation at all And therefore saith Tertullian Christ shewed not himself openly to the people after his resurrection ut fides non mediocri praemio destinata difficultate constaret that faith which is destined to a crown might not consist without some difficulty but commend it self by our obedience Nec tam veniam quà m praemium habet ignorare quod credis Not perfectly to know what thou believest doth so little stand in need of pardon that it will procure and bring with it a reward What obedience is it for a man to assent to this That the whole is greater then the part That the Sun doth shine or to any of those truths which are so visible to the eye that they force the understanding and leave there an impossibility â—o dissent But when the object is in part hidden and in part seen when the truth which I assent to hath more probability to speak for it and persuade it then can be brought to shake and weaken it John 20.29 then our Saviour himself pronounceth Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed Again it were in vain that Christ should thus visibly every day shew himself We have Moses and the Prophets We have the testimony of his Disciples who saw him ascend And if we will not believe them neither would we have believed if we had been with them on mount Olivet and seen him received up into the cloud For if we will not believe God's word we should soon learn to discredit his miracles though they were done before the Sun and the people God rained down Manna upon the Israelites For all this they sinned still and believed not his wondrous works The Pharisees saw Christ's miracles yet would have stoned him The people said He hath done all things well yet these were they who crucified the Lord of Life And the reason is plain For though Faith be an act of the Understanding yet it dependeth upon the Will Whence it cometh to pass that many men build up an opinion without any basis or foundation at all without any evidence nay against all evidence whatsoever Quot voluntates tot fides So many Wills as there are nay so many Humours so many Creeds there be For every man believeth as he will I dare appeal to men of the poorest observation and least experience What else is that which turneth us about like the hand of a dial from one point to another from one persuasion to a contrary What is that that wheeleth and circleth us about that we touch at every opinion and settle on none How cometh it to pass that I now tremble at that which anon I embrace though I have the same evidence that that is not Perjury to day which was so yesterday that that is Devotion and Zeal now which from my youth upwards to this present I branded with the loathsom name of Sacrilege How is it that my belief shifteth so many scenes and presenteth it self in so many several shapes Beloved it is the prevalency and victory of our Sensitive part over our Reason that maketh so many several so many contrary impressions in the mind Self-love and the Love of the world these frame our Creeds these plant and build these root out and pull down build up a belief and then beat it down to the ground and then set up another in its place For commonly we believe and disbelieve for the same reason We are Atheists for advantage and we are Christians for advantage We embrace the Truth for our profit and convenience and for our profit we renounce it and we make the same overture for heaven which we do for destruction will believe any thing for a truth that flattereth our humour and count that Truth it self a heresie that thwarteth it In a word that we believe not the Truth is not for want of evidence but for want of will Last of all the knowledge a Christian hath of these high mysteries can be no other but by Faith Novimus si credimus Christian dost thou believe Thou hast then been at mount Olivet and seen thy crucified Saviour ascend into heaven With S. Stephen thou hast seen the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand And though thou canst not argue or dispute though thou canst not untie every knot and resolve every doubt though thou canst not silence the Jew nor stop the mouth of the unbelieving Arheist yet qui credit satis est ei quod credat there is required of thee no more then to believe and to believe is salvation One man saith the Father hath faith another hath also skill and ability to stand out against all the world and comâ— forth a defender of the faith another is strong and mighty in faith but not so able with art and skill to maintain it The one is doctior non fidelior The one hath advantage and preeminence over the other in learning and knowledge but not in faith may be the deeper scholar but not the better Christian may be of necessary use titubantibus to men who doubt but not credentibus to those who stand fast in the faith and liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free Both have the same evidence and it may be as powerful in the one for practice as it is in the other for speculation and argument We know those who saw Christ suscitantem mortuos raising up men from the dead believed not when he believed and confessed him who saw him pendentem in ligno hanging on the cross Surgunt indocti Simple and unlearned men take the kingdom of heaven by violence when the great Rabbies stand below and make no approch Illi ratiocinentur nos credamus Let the wise and the scribe and the disputer of this world argue and doubt our rejoycing is in our faith Let them dispute we will fall down at this great sight Let them reason we will believe not onely that this Jesus was thus taken up but that he shall come again Which is another article of our Creed and our last part and must now serve onely for conclusion And it is good to conclude with comfort And VENIET He shall come again was not onely a Resolve but a Message of comfort by two Angels who stood by in albis in the colours of joy to comfort the Disciples who were now troubled and did stoop for heaviness of heart because Christ was taken away He shall come again Prov. 12.25 was that good word which did make their hearts glad made them return to Jerusalem as Christ ascended into heaven in Jubilo in triumph But now it may be a word of comfort yet not unto all that shall hear it That which is comfort to one may be a sentence of condemnation to another The VENIET He shall come again may open as the heavens to receive the one and as the gates of hell to devour the other For what is a promise to him that is not partaker of
the unfolding and displaying his essential proprieties by acts proper to them And here they all meet and are concentred his Justice Wisdom Power Mercy His Justice satisfied his Wisdom manifested his Power raiseth us from the dead and his Mercy saveth us and in all God is glorified For this 1. we glorifie him in our spirit in our inward man by transforming our selves into the likeness of his Son who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his Father And we are too in a lower degree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is brightness but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more then brightness even such a bright thing which hath a lustre cast upon it from some other thing As in us all the light which is seen in these dark souls of ours is from the Father of lights His Justice his Mercy his Wisdom shine upon us and all those graces in us are but the reflexion of his light And this reflexion of his Graces is his Glory Commonly when we hear mention of the Glory of God we think of nothing but the calves of our lips But there is a louder language of our Conformity to his will There his glory appeareth as in his holy Temple No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his Glory He is the same in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men or Devils But as the Woman is the glory of the Man in being subject to him so are we the glory of God when we do his will For then it may be said that God is in us of a truth shining in the perfection of beauty in those graces and perfections which are but beams of his in our Meekness in our Justice in our Courage and Resolution in our Patienc◠which are the Christian's tongue and glory and do more fully set forth God's glory then the tongues of men and of Angels can these are the best Doxology of the Saints For how well pleased is God to see his creature Man to answer that pattern which he hath set up to be what he should be and what he intended For as every artificer is delighted and glorieth in his work when he seeth it finished according to the rule by which he did work and as we use to look upon the works of our hands or wits with favour and complacency as we do upon our Children when they are like us so doth God upon Man when he appeareth in that shape and form of obedience which he prescribed Thus should the Glory of God be carried on along in the continued stream and course of all our actions and break forth and be seen in every work of our hands it should be the echo of every word we speak the echo of every word nay the spring of every thought that begat that word It may seem indeed a hard thing to keep this intention alive and not to think or speak or act but when this is present before us not to do a good deed till we have told our selves we will do it for God's glory And it is so a hard thing Nor doth God require at our hands an actual and perpetual intention of his glory Thou mayest nay thou dost work to his glory when thy thoughts are busie and intent upon thy work though peradventure his glory doth not so fill thy heart as to fix it on it The Glory of God must be the primum mobile the first motive of our Obedience and the force and virtue of that must carry it about from vertue to vertue We see an arrow flieth to the mark by the force of that hand out of which it was sent He that travelleth on the way may go forward in his journey though his thoughts sometimes be carried and look upon some occurrences in the way and do not alwayes fix themselves upon the place to which he is going So when the Will and Affections are quickned and enlivened with the love of God's Glory every word and action will carry with it a savour and relish of that fountain from whence they spring An Architect doth not alwayes think of the end for which he buildeth his house but his intention on his work doth sometimes so fully take him that that is left out and as it were forgotten when it is not forgotten but alwayes supposed And though he make a thousand pieces yet he still retaineth his art saith Basil So though we cannot make this first intention of God's glory keep time with us in all the passages of our Christian conversation and send up every action thus incensed and perfumed yet the smell of our sacrifice shall ascend and come before God because it is breathed forth from that heart which is Gloriae ara an altar dedicated wholly to the Glory of God Onely thy care must be to keep it as thy heart with diligence to nourish and strengthen it that if it seem to sleep yet it may not die in thee to guard and barricado thy heart against all contrary and heterogeneous imaginations all earthy all wandring thoughts which may as Jacob take this first-born this first intention of God's Glory by the heel and supplant it and rob it of its birth-right For these extravagant and contradicting thoughts will borrow no life from thy first intention of God's glory but the intention of God's glory will be lost and die in these thoughts Remember then to beautifie thy inward man and fill it with the glory of God that it may be as a gallery hung round with the fairest pictures and representations of his Glory those vertues perfections which will make thee like him that thou mayest be nothing else but the praise and Glory of thy Maker that thou mayest sing a new song nunc Pietatis carmen nunc modulos Temperantiae as Ambrose speaketh now a song of Sion a Psalm of Piety and again the composed measures of Temperance and Chastity that thou mayest be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so make up a Gloria Deo in a complete and perfect harmony And thus we glorifie God in our spirit But in the next place a body hast thou prepared me and we must glarifie God in our bodies also God must have our Knee our Tongue our Eye our Countenance Philosophus auditur dum videtur The Philosopher and so the Christian is heard when he is seen Come saith the Psalmist Psal 95.6 let us worship and fall down .. Nunquam vericundiores esse debemus quà m cùm de Diis agitur saith Aristotle in Seneca Modesty and reverence never better become us then in those intercourses which are made between God and us We enter Temples saith he with a composed countenance Vultum submittimus togam adducimus We cast down our looks we gather our garments together and every gesture is an argument of our inward reverence Tam corpus est Homo quà m anima saith
celestial dialect and not as some of late have been ready to make it the language of the Whore of Babylon as if Faith onely did make a Protestant and Good works were the mark of a Papist What mention we Papist or Protestant The Christian is the member of this Body and Common-wealth this is his language Zeph. 3.9 the pure language When Hand and Tongue Faith and Good works a full Persuasion and a sincere Obedience are joyned together then we shall speak this language plainly and men will understand us and glorifie God the Angels will understand and applaud us and the Lord will understand and crown us We shall speak it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faintly and feignedly ready upon any allurement or terrour to eat our words but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall make it plain by an Ocular demonstration And this is truly to say JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. This is the Lesson our first Part. And thus far we are gone And we see it is no easie matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak but these three words JESUS EST DOMINUS Jesus is the Lord. For we must comprehend Eph. 3.18 saith the Apostle the breadth and length and depth and height of this Divine mystery the breadth saith S. Augustine in the expansion and dilatation of my Charity the length by my continued perseverance unto the end the height in the exaltation of my hope to reach at things above and the depth in the contemplation of the bottomless sea of God's mercies These are the dimensions And if we will learn these Mathematicks because we see the Lesson is difficult we must have a skilful Master And behold my next Part bringeth him forth bringeth us news of one who is higher then heaven broader then the sea and longer then the earth as Job speaketh It is the holy Ghost For no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost And indeed good reason that he should be our Teacher For as the Lesson is such should the Master be The Lesson is spiritual the Teacher a Spirit The Lecture is a lecture of piety and the Spirit is an holy Spirit The Lesson proposeth a method to joyn Heaven and Earth God and Man Mortality and Immortality Misery and Happiness in one to draw us near unto God and make us one with him and the holy Ghost is that consubstantial and coeternal Friendship of the Father and the Son nexus amorosus as the Schools speak the essential Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity Flesh and blood cannot reveal this great mystery it must be a Spirit And the Spirit of this world bringeth no news from Heaven we may be sure It must be SPIRITUS SANCTUS the holy Ghost SPIRITUS SANCTUS for JESUS DOMINUS the holy Ghost for Jesus the Lord that by the grace of the holy Spirit we may learn the Power of the Son and by the inspiration of his Holiness learn the mystery of Holiness For it is not sharpness of wit or quickness of apprehension or force of eloquence that can raise us to this Truth but the Spirit of God must lead us to this tree of Knowledge Therefore Tertullian calleth Christian Religion 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 but because the Spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith O qualis artifex Spiritus sanctus What a skilful Artificer what an excellent Master is the blessed Spirit who found out a way to lift up Dust it self as high as Heaven and clothe it with eternity whose least beam is more glorious then the Sun and maketh it day unto us whose every whisper is as thunder to awake us cujus tetigisse docuisse est whose every touch and breathing is an instruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene For this Spirit is wise and can he is loving and will teach us if we will learn He inspireth an Herdsman and he straight becometh a Prophet He calleth a Fisherman and maketh him an Apostle Et non opus est morâ Spiritui Sancto He standeth not in need of any help from delay Without him Miracles are sluggish and of no efficacy but upon his breathing our Saviour shall appear glorious in his ignominy and the Thief shall worship him on his cross as if he had been in his Kingdom in whom he wrought such an alteration that in S. Hierom's phrase mutavit homicidii poenam in martyrium he was so changed that he died not a thief or murtherer but a Martyr And such a powerful Teacher we stood in need of to raise our Nature and that corrupt unto so high a pitch as the participation of the Divine Nature For no act and so no act of holiness or spiritual knowledge can be produced by any power which is not connatural to it and as it were a principle of that act So that as there is a natural light by which we are brought to the apprehension of natural principles whether speculative or practick by which light many of the Heathen proceeded so far as to leave most of them behind them who have the Sun of righteousness ever shining upon them so there must be a supernatural light by which we may be guided to attain unto truths of a higher nature Which the Heathen wanting did run uncertainly as S. Paul speaketh and beat the air and all those glorious acts by which they did out shine many of us were but as the Rainbow before the Floud for shew but for no use at all The Power must ever be connatural to the Act. Nature may move in her own sphere and turn us about in that compass to do those things which Nature is capable of but Nature could not make a Saint or a member of Christ To spiritualize a man to make him Christi-formem to bring him to a conformity and uniformity with Christ is the work alone of the Spirit of Christ Which he doth sweetly and secretly powerfully characterizing our hearts and so taking possession of them The Apostle telleth us that Christ dwelleth in us by his Spirit by his power and efficacy Rom. 8.11 which worketh like fire enlightning warming and purging our hearts Matth. 3.11 which are the effects of Fire First by sanctifying our knowledge of him by shewing us the riches of his Gospel and the beauty and majesty of Christ's Dominion and Kingdom with that evidence that we are forced to fall down and worship by filling the soul with the glory of it as God filled the Tabernacle with his Exod. 30. that all the powers and faculties of our soul are ravished at the sight that we come willingly and fall down willingly before this Lord in a word by bringing on that Truth which our heart assenteth to with that clearness and fulness of demonstration that it passeth through all the
fecerit publicum errorem singulorum facit publicus First the errour of some few spreadeth it self and is made publick and then being made publick and commended by the Many it soon taketh in and involveth the rest That there are many then is but a weak motive to work a good opinion in us of those we behold or to fulfil our joy I need not stand to confute this Tenent any further Your very eye will discover the falshood of it For take away the Wolves in Sheeps clothing take away Hereticks and Schismaticks take away those sons of Belial open profaners take away the proud the disobedient the traitour the lukewarm professour the formalist take away those who profess Religion onely for companies sake and so because there are many so and then tell me what is become of the Many or how many there be how many to raise a Prophets joy Certainly there is not there cannot be any force or efficacy in number nor hath it any influence at all to make evil good or an hypocrite a saint Devotion is the same in millions and in one single man Etiam tres Ecclesiam faciunt saith Tertullian Even three make up a Church Yea some have thought that at the passion of Christ the Church was in the Virgin Mary alone Thus it is in reality and in respect of the truth But in respect of us whose Charity must give sentence and not our Faith who have indeed a Tribunal within in us but from thence can judge none but our selves many professours a multitude of those who come to serve God is a glorious sight a representation of heaven it self The tribes come up v. 4. even the tribes of Lord saith David To him all Gods people were holy and every one that came up was a true professour Faith maketh up a Church as Gideon did his army taketh not up all she meeteth Judg 7. but out of many thousands selecteth a band of three hundred and no more But Charity seeth not any which may not fight and conquer To Faith Christs flock is a little flock Luke 12.32 but Charity seeth none that call upon the name of God which may not be gathered into his fold If they be the tribes of the Lord if they come up David will rejoyce and the encrease of the number will encrease his joy The more come up the gladder will he be Prov. 14.28 In the multitude of people is the honour of a King And in the multitude of professours is his joy And this God himself requireth not onely modestum fidei our modest and secret tetirements our private devotions in our chamber Yet even there the light of his countenance shineth upon us He whose providence reacheth over all findeth us out even in the wilderness in the closest grot or cave He that heareth all men heareth every man He went out with Isaac into a Gen. 24.63 the field when he prayed he heard Job from the dung-hill he was with David when he b Psal 6.6 washed his bed with his tears with Jonah in c Ion. 2.1 the whales belly with Daniel when d Dan. 6.10 he kneeled upon his knees in his chamber three times a day And though thou prayest in secret d Dan. 6.10 he that seeth in secret will reward thee openly e Matth. 6.6 f Deut. 6.4 1 Pet. 5.7 The Lord our God is one and he careth for every one And now from this the argument will hold well That if God careth for every one he careth for many and is better pleased to see many professours then one and to hear many call upon him then one alone That he is best pleased when many sons are brought unto glory Heb. 2.10 One is no number yet One may make a Church If in that great apostasie and decay of religion 1 Kings 9.10 1 Kings 19. there had been none but Elijah jealous for the Lord God of Hosts Elijah had been the Church Yet the single service of one is not so powerful and prevailing with God as the joynt service of many He is willing to seal as many thousands as will come in Rev. 7. And the more come in the more willing he is to seal them He heareth every man but where men meet together Matth. 18.20 he is in the midst of them Quasi manu factâ like an army they besiege him and in a most accepted way invade the Majesty of heaven Such violence is very welcome to God to this he boweth his ears and is most willing to yield For yield he must to his own glory and his glory shineth brighter in many then in one If his image in one single person delight him how greatly will it delight him to see it in many If he favourably look on one poor beads-man on one penitent upon his knees how brightly will he cause his face to shine upon a thousand Triumphus Dei passio martyris When one Martyr suffereth God triumpheth And if he hath a triumph in one Martyr what hath he in an army This made the holy Fathers oft times break out into expressions of joy and congratulation when they saw the people flocking and thronging into the Church S. Chrysostome falleth into a large commendation of Fear maketh a kind of panegyrick on Persecution it self because it had made the people leave the theatres and driven them in sholes to Gods house S. Hierome telleth us that in the primitive times the Hallelujah of the Congregations was like the noise of many waters and their Amen like a clap of Thunder To conclude this Though there be no virtue in number though the proverb Plures mali be very true that the most are the worst though Heraclitus said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that One may be better then thirty thousand and an innumerable company be of no account though as Chrysostome saith one Elijah or one David put in the scales against a world of ungodly men would far outweigh them all yet as the Apostle exhorteth let not us forsake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assembling of our selves together Hebr. 10.25 but let us make up a company make the Many as many as we can Evil beginneth haply in one and then spreadeth in many And as many may become evil so many may be made good We see here many the tribes the people resolve on that which was very good and so made David glad They said We will go into the house of the Lord. And so we are fallen upon 2. Their Resolution DIXERUNT They said To Say in Scripture is to Resolve I said I will take heed to my wayes that is Psal 39.1 I resolved to set a watch upon my self For there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that floateth on the tongue and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word conceived and shaped in the inward man a word spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very heart verbum operis a
and he reflecteth a blessing upon me Quod est omnium est singulorum That which is all mens is every mans and that which is every mans belongeth unto the whole Proprietas excommunicatio est saith Parisiensis Propriety is an excommunication When I appropriate my devotion to my self I do in a manner thrust my brother out of the Church nay I shut my self out of heaven I at once depose and exauctorate both my self and him Nay I cannot appropriate it for where it is it will spread It is my sorrow and thy sorrow my fear and thy fear my joy and thy joy Ye see here the Tribes go up to the house of the Lord with joy and this joy raiseth another or rather the same a joy of the same nature in David At the very apprehension of it he taketh down his harp from the wall and setteth his joy to a tune and committeth it to a song I was glad when they said c. And thus I am fallen upon 2. The second thing observable in the Psalmists joy the Publication thereof He setteth it to Musick he conveyeth it into a song and as the Chaldee Pharaphrast saith Adam did assoon as his sin was forgiven him he expresseth sabbatum suum his Sabbath his content and gladness in a Psalm that it might pass from generation to generation and never be forgotten but that this sacrifice of thanksgiving which himself here offereth might still upon the like occasion be offered by others unto the worlds end and that the people which should in after-ages be created might thus praise the Lord. Thus David hath passed over and entailed his joy to all posterity This is thanks and praise indeed when it floweth from an heart thus affected when it breaketh forth like light from the Sun and spreadeth it self like the heavens and declareth the glory of God Gratè ad nos beneficium pervenisse indicamus effusis affectibus saith Seneca Then a benefit meeteth with a greateful heart when it is ready to pour forth it self in joy and the affections not being able to contain themselves are seen and heard shine bright in the countenance and sound aloud in a song Certainly Gratitude is neither sullen nor silent Saul's evil melancholick Spirit cannot enter the heart of a David nor any heart in which the love of God's glory reigneth At the sight of any thing that may set it forth the pious soul is awaked and the melancholick and dumb spirit is cast out Psal 47.1 4. nor can it return whilest that love is in us When God hath chosen our inheritance for us then O clap your hands all ye people shout unto God with the voice of triumph To draw towards a conclusion By this rejoycing spirit of David's we may examine and judge of the temper of our own If we be of the same disposition with him no sight no object will delight us but that in which God is and in which his glory is seen We shall not make songs of other mens miseries nor keep holiday when they mourn We shall not like any thing either in our selves or others which dishonoureth God's name Prov. 2.14 In a word we shall not rejoyce to do evil nor take pleasure in the frowardness of the wicked But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our whole life will be one holiday one continued Sabbath and rest in good Of what spirit then are they who rejoyce not in their own miseries but in their sins who take great delight and complacency not onely in the calamities but also in the falls and miscarriages of others especially if they cast not in their lot and make one purse with them Prov. 1.14 who as Judas did carry their religion and their purse in the same hand whose religion is in their purse and openeth and shutteth with it who that they may triumph in the miseries rejoyce first in the defects whether seeming or real of their dissenting brethren Every man that looketh towards Jerusalem Luke 9.53 and will not stay with them at their Samaria must be cast out of doors Criminibus debent hortos praetoria campos They owe their wealth and possessions shall I say to other mens crimes no they owe them to their own For a great sin it is to delight in sin but to make that a crime which is not a sin is a greater What is it then to turn piety it self into sin To call an asseveration an oath is a fault at least And then what is it to call devotion superstition the house of God a sty and reverence idolatry Yet if these were sins why should my brothers ruine be my joy Why should I wish his fall delight in his fall follow him in his fall as the Romanes did their sword-players in the theatre with acclamation So so thus I would have it We cannot say this proceedeth from piety or is an effect of charity 1 Cor. 13.6 For Charity rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Charity bindeth up wounds doth not make them wider And when people sin Charity maketh the head a fountain of tears but doth not fill the mouth with laughter Charity is no detractour no jester no Satyrist it thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.5 it is not suspicious It cannot behold a Synagogue of Satan in the Temple of the Lord nor Superstition in a wall nor Idolatry in reverence This evil humour indeed proceedeth from Love but it is the love of the world which defameth every thing for advantage laugheth at Churches that it may pull them down maketh men odious that it may make them poor and dealeth with them as the Heathen did with the first Christians putteth them into bears skins that it may bait them to death This certainly is not from David's but from an evil spirit Nor can it be truly termed Joy unless we should look for joy in hell and content in a place of torment Rejoycings and jubilees of this sort are like unto the howlings of devils In the Devil there cannot be joy My drunkenness cannot quench the flames he burneth in my evil conscience cannot kill that worm which gnaweth him my ignorance cannot lighten his darkness my loss of heaven cannot bring him back thither Should he conquer the whole world he would still be a slave But yet in the Devil though properly there be no joy there is quasi gaudium that which is like our joy in evil which we call Joy though it be not so And it is in him saith Aquinas not as a passion but as an act of his will When we do well that is done which he would not and that is his grief and when we sin we are led captive according to his will and that is his joy 2 Tim. 2.26 And such is the joy of malicious wicked men for whom it is not expedient nor profitable that those who are not of the same mind with them should be good and therefore against their will And to this
respect of himself but not of the precepts of Christ It trod down the Man but not the Christian under its feet It devoted the Honour and Repute and Esteem which he had in Christs Church to his brethren but not his Soul I could wish to be accursed to be Anathema i. e. to be in esteem as a sacrilegious person who for devouring holy things is Anathema cut off and separated from the society of men to suffer for them the most ignominious death for so the word doth often signifie to be separate from Christ from the body and Church of Christ and of his Apostle and Embassadour to be made the off-scouring of the world the most contemptible person on earth a spectacle to God and to men and to Angels And this could not but proceed from an high degree and excess of Love Love may break forth and pass over all privileges honours profits yea and life it self but it never leaves the Law of God behind it For the breach of Gods law is his dishonour and love if it be spiritual and heavenly is a better methodist then to seek to gain glory to God by that which takes it away at the same time to cry Haile to Christ and crucifie him It was indeed a high degree of the Love of Gods Glory and his brethrens salvation which exprest this wish here from the Apostle and which brought him into this strait but his wish was not irregular and his Doubt was not of that nature but he could make himself away to escape and did resolve at last against himself for the Glory of God and for the good of his brethren For the Glory of God first That that must be the first the first mover of our Christian obedience For though there be other motives and we do well to be moved by them the Perfecting of our reason the Beautifying of the Soul and the Reward it self yet this is first to be looked upon with that eye of our faith wherewith we look upon God Heaven is a great motive but the Glory of God is above the highest Heavens and for his Glories sake we have our conversation there We do not exclude other motives as unfit to be lookt upon For it is lawful saith Gregory for a Christian remunerationis linteo sudores laboris sui tergere to make the sight of the reward as a napkin to wipe off the sweat of his brows and comfort the labour of his obedience with hope But the chief and principal matter must be the Glory of God The other ends are involved in this sicut rota in rota as a wheel within a wheel a sphere within a sphere but the Glory of God is the first compassing wheel which must set all the rest a working We must neither live nor dye but to God's glory The Glory of God and our Happiness run round in the same cord or gyre but the Glory of God is primum mobile still on the top And then our Love to God comes nearest and hath the fairest resemblance to the Love God hath to us whose actions are right in themselves though they end in themselves whose glory is the good of his creature In a word he that loveth God perfectly cannot but deny himself neglect himself perish and be lost to himself but then he riseth again and is found in God whilst he thinks nothing but of him whilst he thinks he is loved of him and thus lives in him whilst he is thus lost Amor testamentum amantis Our Love to God should be as our last will and testament wherein we deliver up all to him our whole life on earth and some few years which we might have in heaven to him we thus love To this high pitch and unusual degree of love our Apostle had attained What is his desire but to be with Christ Oh for the wings of a Dove for he cannot be with him soon enough But then the desire of Gods Glory stays him in his flight and deteins him yet longer among the sons of men to make them the sons of God and so to glorifie God on earth And this inclination to glorifie God is in a manner natural to those who are made partakers of the Divine nature and the neerer we come to the nature of God the more do we devote and surrender our selves for his glory We will do any thing suffer any thing for the glory of God In the next place This Love of Gods Glory hath inseparably united to it the Love of our brethrens Good For wherein is Gods Glory more manifested then in the renewing of his image in men who are filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the glory and praise of God It is true Phil. 1.11 the Heavens declare the Glory of God But the glory of God is not so resplendent in the brightest Star in the Sun when he runneth his race as in the New creature in Man transformed by the renewing of his mind There is Gods image nay saith Tertullian his similitude and likeness There he appears in glory There is Wisdome his Justice his Mercy are displayed and made manifest There his glory appears as in his holy Temple For as the Woman is the glory of the Man in being subject to him so are we the glory of God when we are Deiformes when our Will is subject and conformed to him when our Will is bound up in his Will For then it may be said that God is in us of a truth shining in the perfection of beauty in those graces and perfections which are the beams of his in our Meekness and Liberality and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering which are the Christians Tongue and Glory and do more fully set forth Gods praise then the tongues of Men and Angels can do Thus Gods Glory is carried along in the continued stream and course of all our actions Thus doth it break forth and is seen in every work of our hand and is the eccho and resultance of every word we speak The eccho of every word nay the spring of every thought which begat that word and work Now to improve the Glory of God in his brethren to build them up in their most holy faith and upon that foundation to raise that Holiness and Righteousness which are the fairest representations of it did S. Paul after that contention and luctation in himself after he had lookt upon that place which was prepared for him in heaven and that place of trouble and anxiety to which he was called on earth determine for that which was not best for himself but most fit and necessary to promote Gods glory by the furtherance of the Philippians faith And thus as every creature doth by the sway of Nature strive to get something of the like kind something like unto it self as Fire by burning kindles and begets it self in every matter that is combustible so doth every true Disciple of