Prophecies the darkest part of all yet are not without some degree of lustre they shine saith S. Peter though but as a candle in a dark place But then the light of the Gospel that is a most glorious light shining forth as the Sun when he is in his greatest strength at noon day in Summer 11. Hence also ariseth as one light commonly begetteth another a third light the light of grace and saving knowledge wrought in the hearts of men by the holy word of God set on by his holy Spirit withal accompanying it God who bringeth light out of darkness hath shined in your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4. 12. And where the light of grace is there is another light also fourthly that alwayes attendeth thereupon the light of comfort For Grace and Comfort are Twins the blessed inseparable effects of one and the same blessed Spirit Lux orta est justo there is sprung up or as some translate it there is sowen a light for the righteous and joyful gladness for such as be true hearted Psal. 97. The true heart that is the light heart indeed Light in both significations light without darkness and light without sadness or heaviness 13. There is yet remaining a fifth light the light of Glory Darkness is an embleme of horrour We have not a fitter similitude whereby to express the miseries of the hell within us that of an evil conscience or of the hell without us that of eternal torments then by inner and outer darkness But light is a most glorious creature then which none fitter to express to our capacities either the infinite incomprehensible glory and majesty of God He clotheth himself with light as with a garment and dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto or that endless glory and happiness which the holy Angels do now and all the Saints in their due time shall enjoy in heaven Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 14. In these respects he that hath the honour to be styled a Christian in any degree hath also a title so far forth to be styled a childe of light Whether it be by the outward profession of the Christian faith only or by the inward sanctification of the Spirit also Those are nomine tenùs Christiani Christians but in name and shew equivocal Christians these only are Christians indeed and in truth Of these is made up the Church of Gods elect otherwise called the invisible Church of Christ and not unfitly because the persons appertaining to that Church as members thereof are not distinguishable from others by any outward infallible character visible to us but by such secret inward impresses as come not within the cognisance of any creature nor can be known by any creature otherwise then conjecturally only without special revelation from God The foundation of God standeth firm having this seal Dominus novit The Lord knoweth who are his Should we take these here meant the opposition between the children of this world and the children of light would be most perfect Those who remain in the state of depraved nature and so under the dominion of Sin and Satan being the children of this world in the strictest notion and those whom God hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light that is brought out of the state of nature into the state of grace and translated into the kingdom of his Son Iesus Christ being the children of light in the stricter notion also 15. But forasmuch as we who cannot look beyond the outside are no competent judges of such matters it will best become us to make use of that judgment which alone God hath allowed us I mean that of Charity And then it will be no hard business for us to pronounce determinately applying the sentence even to particular persons who are to be esteemed the children of light Even all those that by outwardly professing the name and faith of Christ are within the pale of the visible Church of Christ. The holy Apostle so pronounceth of them all 1 Thess. 5. Ye are all the children of the light and of the day And Eph. 5. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are light in the Lord. our very baptism entitleth us hereunto which is the sacrament of our initiation whereby we put on Christ and are made members of Christ and children of God Whence it is that in the Greek Fathers Baptism is usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an enlightning and persons newly baptised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an office in the Greek Church to whom it belonged to hear the confessions of the Catechumeni and after they were approved to present them to baptism with many other phrases and expressions borrowed from the same metaphor of light and applied in like manner to Baptism 16. Now to bring all this long and as I fear tedious discourse home to the Text the question here resolved seemeth in the right stating thereof to come to this issue whether natural and worldly men in the managery of their worldly affairs to the best temporal advantage or they that profess themselves Christians in the business of their souls and pursuit of everlasting salvation do proceed the more rationally and prudentially in their several wayes towards the attainment of their several ends How the question is resolved we shall consider by and by In the mean time from this very consideration alone that the children of light and the children of this world stand in mutual opposition one to the other we may learn something that may be of use to us We would all be thought what I hope most of us are not nomine tenùs only by outward profession and at large but in very deed and truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Christians and children of light in the stricter and nobler notion Yet were it but the other only our very baptism and profession of Christianity would oblige us to a holy walking sutable to our holy calling and profession and to the solemn vow we took upon us at our baptism It were a base yea a very absurd thing for us to jumble and confound what we finde here not only distinguished from but even opposed against the one the other Children of God and of the Church by profession and yet children of Satan and of the world in our conversation Children of light and yet hold fellowship with and take delight in the unfruitful works of darkness Quae communio saith S. Paul It astonisht him that any man could think to bring things so contrary as Light and Darkness to any good accord or but tolerable compliance When we were the children of this world and such we were as soon as we were born into the world by taking Christendome upon us at our
performance what it can be God is both pleased and honoured therewithal Who so offereth praise glorifieth me Psal. 50. That is so he intendeth it and so I accept it 10. You have now all I would say by way of explication from these words The particulars are six First we should propose to our selves some end therein Secondly look at God Thirdly that God may have glory and that he alone may have it Fourthly Fifthly that something be done for the advancement of his glory and Lastly that it be done by us The result from the whole six taken together is That the glory of God ought to be the chiefest end and main scope of all our desires and endeavours In what ever we think say do or suffer in the whole course of our lives and actions we should refer all to this look at this as the main Whatsoever become of us and our affairs that yet God may be glorified Whether ye eat or drink saith S. Paul or whatsoever else ye do let all be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. He would have us not onely in the performance of good works and of necessary duties to intend the glory of God according to that of our Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven but even in the use of the Creatures and of all indifferent things in eating and drinking in buying and selling and in all the like actions of common life In that most absolute form of prayer taught us by Christ himself as the patern and Canon of all our prayers the glory of God standeth at both ends When we begin the first petition we are to put up is that the Name of God may be hallowed and glorified and when we have done we are to wrap up all in the conclusion with this acknowledgement that to him alone belongeth all the kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever 11. The glory of God you see is to be the Alpha and the Omega of all our votes and desires Infinitely therefore to be preferred not onely before riches honours pleasures friends and all the comforts and contentments the World can afford us in this life but even before life it self The blessed Son of God so valued it who laid down his life for his Fathers glory and so did many holy Martyrs and faithful servants of God value it too who laid down their lives for their Masters glory Nay let me go yet higher infinitely to be preferred even before the unspeakable joyes of the life to come before the everlasting salvation of our own souls It was not meerly a strain of his Rhetorick to give his brethren by that hyperbolical expression the better assurance of his exceeding great love towards them that our Apostle said before at Chap. 9. of this epistle that he could wish himself to be accursed to be made an Anathema to be separated and cut off from Christ for their sakes Neither yet was it a hasty inconsiderate speech that fell suddenly from him as he was writing fervente calamo and as the abortive fruit of a precipitate over-passionate zeal before he had sufficiently consulted his reason whether he should suffer it to pass in that form or not for then doubtless he would have corrected himself and retracted it upon his second thoughts as he did Acts 23. when he had inconsiderately reviled the High-Priest sitting then in the place of judicature But he spake it advisedly and upon good deliberation yea and that upon his conscience ey and upon his Oath too and as in the presence of God as you may see it ushered in there with a most solemn asseveration as the true real and earnest desire of his heart I speak the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience bearing me witness in the holy Ghost Not that S. Paul wished their salvation more then his own understand it not so for such a desire neither was possible nor could be regular Not possible by the law of Nature which cannot but begin at home Omnes sibi melius esse malunt quà m alteri Nor regular by the course of Charity which is not orderly if it do not so too That is not it then but this That he preferred the glory of God before both his own salvation and theirs In so much that if Gods glory should so require hoc imposibili supposito he could be content with all his heart rather to lose his own part in the joyes of heaven that God might be the more glorified then that God should lose any part of his glory for his salvation 12. And great reason there is that as his was so every Christian mans heart should be disposed in like manner that the bent of his whole desires and endeavours all other things set apart otherwise then as they serve thereunto should be the glory of God For first all men consent in this as an undoubted verity That that which is the chiefest good ought also to be the uttermost end And that must needs be the chiefest good which Almighty God who is goodness it self and best knoweth what is good proposeth to himself as the End of all his actions and that is meerly his own glory All those his high and unconceiveable acts ad intra being immanent in himself must needs also be terminated in himself And as for all those his powerful and providential acts ad extra those I mean which are exercised upon and about the creatures and by reason of that their effluxe and emanation are made better known to us then the former if we follow them to their last period we shall finde that they all determine and concenter there He made them he preserveth them he forgiveth them he destroyeth them he punisheth them he rewardeth them every other way he ordereth them and disposeth of them according to the good pleasure of his will for his own names sake and for his own glories sake That so his wisdom and power and truth and justice and mercy and all those other his divine excellencies which we are to believe and admire but may not seek to comprehend might be acknowledged reverenced and magnified Those two great acts of his most secret and unsearchable counsel then the one whereof there is not any one act more gracious the Destination of those that persevere in Faith and Godliness to eternal happiness nor any one act more full of terrour and astonishment then the other the designation of such as live and die in Sin and Infidelity without repentance to eternal destruction the scriptures in the last resolution referr them wholy to his Glory as the last End The glory of his rich mercy being most resplendent in the one and the glory of his just severity in the other Concerning the one the scripture saith that he predestinated us to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.
better to draw my Sermon towards a conclusion then by observing how the great Preacher concludeth his Eccles. last After he had taken a large and exact survey of all the travels that are done under the Sun and found nothing in them but Vanity and vexation of Spirit he telleth us at length that in multitude of books and much reading we may sooner meet with weariness then satisfaction But saith he if you will hear the end of all here it is this is the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole business of man upon which all his care and employment in this world should be spent So I say we may puzzle our selves in the pursuite of knowledg dive into the mysteries of all Arts and Sciences especially ingulph our selves deep in the studies of those three highest professions of Physick Law and Divinity For Physick search into the writings of Hippocrates Galen and the Methodists of Avicen and the Empericks of Paracelsus and the Chymists for Law wrestle through the large bodies of both Laws Civil and Canon with the vast Tomes of Glosses Repertories Responses and Commentaries thereon and take in the Reports and year-books of our Common-Law to boot for Divinity get through a course of Councils Fathers School-men Casuists Expositors Controversers of all sorts and sects When all is done after much weariness to the flesh and in comparison thereof little satisfaction to the mind for the more knowledg we gain by all this travell the more we discern our own ignorance and thereby but encrease our own sorrow the short of all is this and when I have said it I have done you shall evermore find try it when you will Temperance the best Physick Patience the best Law and A good Conscience the best Divinity I have done Now to God c. AD AULAM. Sermon X. WHITE-HALL at a publick Fast. 8 Iuly 1640. PSALM 119.75 I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled 1. IN which words the holy Prophet in two several conclusions giveth unto God the glory of those two his great attributes that shine forth with so much lustre in all the Works of his providence his Iustice and his Mercy The glory of his Iustice in the former conclusion I know O Lord that thy judgments are right the glory of his Mercy in the latter And that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled And to secure us the better of the truth of both conclusions because flesh and bloud will be ready to stumble at both We have his Scio prefixed expresly to the former only but the speech being copulative intended to both I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and I know also that thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled Our order must be to begin with the Conclusions first as they lie in the Text and after that to proceed to Davids knowledg of them although that stand first in the order of the words In the former Conclusion we have to consider of two things First what these judgments of God are that David here speaketh of as the subject and then of the righteousness thereof as the Predicate I know O Lord that thy judgments are right 2. What Iudgements first There are judicia oris and there are judicia operis the judgements of Gods mouth and the judgements of Gods hands Of the former there is mention at Vers. 13. With my lips have I been telling of all the judgements of thy mouth And by these Iudgements are meant nothing else but the holy Law of God and his whole written word which every where in this Psalme are indifferently called his Statutes his Commandements his Precepts his Testimonies his Iudgements And the Laws of God are therefore amongst other reasons called by the name of Iudgments because by them we come to have a right judgment whereby to discern between good and evil We could not otherwise with any certainty judg what was meet for us to do and what was needful for us to shun A lege tuâ intellexi at verse 104. By thy Law have I gotten understanding St Paul confesseth Rom. 7. that he had never rightly known what sin was if it had not been for the Law and he instanceth in that of lust which he had not known to be a sin if the Law had not said Thou shalt not covet And no question but these judgments these judicia oris are all right too for it were unreasonable to think that God should make that a rule of right to us which were it self not right We have both the name that of judgments and the thing too that they are right in the 19th Psalm Where having highly commended the Law of God under the several appellations of Law Testimonies Statutes and Commandements verse 7. and 8. the Prophet then concludeth under this name of Iudgments verse 9 The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether 3. Besides these Iudicia Oris which are Gods judgments of direction there are also Iudicia Operis which are his judgments for correction And these doe ever include aliquid poenale something inflicted upon us by Almighty God as it were by way of punishment something that breedeth us trouble or grief The Apostle saith Heb. 12. that every chastening is grievous and so it is more or less or else it could be to us no punishment And these again are of two sorts yet not distinguished so much by the things themselves that are inflicted as by the condition of the persons on whom they are inflicted and especially by the affection and intention of God that inflicteth them For all whether publick calamities that light upon whole Nations Cities or other greater or lesser societies of men such as are pestilences famine war inundations unseasonable weather and the like or private afflictions that light upon particular families or persons as sickness poverty disgraces injuries death of friends and the like All these and whatsoever other of either kind may undergo a two-fold consideration in either of both which they may not unfitly be termed the Iudgments of God though in different respects 4. For either these things are sent by Almighty God in his heavy displeasure as plagues upon his enemies intending therein their destruction Such as were those publick judgments upon the old world swept away with the floud upon Sodom and the other Cities consumed with fire from heaven upon Pharaoh and his host overwhelmed in the red Sea upon the Canaanites spewed out of the land for their abominations upon Ierusalem at the final destruction thereof by the Romans And those private judgments also that befell sundry particular persons as Cain Absolon Senacherib Herod and others Or else they are laid by Amighty God as gentle corrections upon his own children in his fatherly love towards them and for their good to chastise them