Paul and when we do those things which Nature her self is asham'd at and blusheth then we are dead the second day 3. God gave us a Law by Moses for the spark which he had kindled in nature was almost put out and it was time to dig that into stone which was worn out in flesh and he that violates the Law of Moses is dead the third day 4. Sin is grown strong by the Law Precept upon Precept made us the worse corruption in the soul is like an ill affected body it desires that most which is forbidden And therefore Christ gave us Legem Evangelii a short Lesson Repent and believe which is called the Law of the Gospel and if we violate that Law it is the fourth day of death and we begin to stink in the Sepulcher What an hard task hath Christ what a troublesome work have we put him to to diminish the power of original sin to rectifie the impairs and decays of Nature to satisfie for the Law but above all to mollifie a stony heart that will not believe to quicken an unrepentant heart this is dignus vindice nodus Martha and Mary sent to Christ when their Brother was sick to come and help now he had more need of Christ quatriduanus est this is the Parable of a sinner that will not believe the Gospel Help Lord and raise us up for who else can do it but the Lord Five Miracles you shall meet with in this Gospel of St. John four of which are recorded by no other Evangelist every one is greater than another but this is the Master-piece The first was turning of Water into Wine at Cana in Galilee Christ at the first conversion makes us quite other men than we were before cold water becoms warm and chearful wine 2. Follows the scourging of the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple that signifies contrition and compunction of the heart when theevish fancies such as steal away our soul are cashiered from the holy place 3. A man was healed at Bethesda that had been sick of an infirmity 38 years Custom in sin and want of devotion is a sore languishing sickness it is more to cure them than to cast the den of theeves out of the Temple 4. A man born blind was restored to his sight he that languished 38 years had enjoyed health before but he that was born blind was never better and it exceeded all the rest to dispel ignorance and blindness quando synteresis extincta est when the light of the conscience was quite put out But fifthly what talk we of sickness or blindness the dead man the Graves Tenant for four dayes dead by original sin dead by imperfection of nature dead by disobedience to the Law dead by unbelief and want of faith in Christ dead four days is raised up Tollite lapidem says Christ away with the stone removete legis pondus gratiam praedicate away with the burden that lies heavy upon him preach grace and remission of sins unto him and he shall live Behold another Moral of the same Authors in the Sermons de tempore if they be St. Austins Sin when it is made very sinful grows up by four degrees titillatione consensu facto consuetudine 1. By delighting in the suggestions of sin not but that suggestions of sin are sin but I speak of the growth of sin and not the root 2. By consenting to those delights 3. By committing the evil whereunto we consented 4. By continuing in the custom of delight and consent and committing evil Delight is the rotting of the seed in the ground Consent is the blade Commission of evil is the grown fruit Custom is the root that fastens it to the ground the seed may quickly be pickt up the blade may be blasted the fruit may be cut down but the root lies deep hidden you must plow and turn up the earth and dig deep before you can get it out In the 3 former parts the waves of ungodliness are coming up but custom is the inundation of iniquity the stream that goes over our head It was said of one Mandrabulus that the Oracle of Apollo pronounced against him that he grew worse and worse For out of a thankful mind for all his happiness received the first year he offered up a Gold Cup he repented him of his cost and the next year it was a Cup of Silver yet he thought he was too bountiful and the third year it was a Boul of Wood the fourth year he thought he had been thankful enough and gave just nothing Now says Apollo is Mandrabulus as bad as He can be So the heart which pleaseth it self with vicious cogitations is much corrupted yet God may still have the better part The heart that makes a bargain with Satan to do injustice is half the Devil 's yet the Body is not defiled with the act The body also may be an instrument of uncleanness then the heart is even lost and gone yet it may detest the fact and return unto the Lord. But when custom hath as it were sealed the Covenant to the Devil and delivered up the Deed the case is very desperate all the heart is in the enemies hand Lazarus is under a Grave-stone four days Difficilè surgit quem moles malae consuetudinis premit he will hardly swim above water again that is cast into the bottom of the Gulf with a Milstone of evil custom about his neck Yet Christ can quicken him as he did Lazarus I do not deny it but let no man treasure up sin as it were to prepare himself to repent of such a mass of iniquities but let no man dispair of that repentance if frailty have overtaken him If you feel your self incline to presume of repentance says St. Austin oppose against it the uncertain hour of death if you feel your self incline to despair of repentance oppose against it the abundance of grace Moderation is the best When sin doth post from delight to consent from consent to act from act to custom yet after four days says Christ Lazarus come forth So much of that circumstance Lazarus quatriduanus that being four days dead he was raised up to life It follows to be considered Lazarus ligatus he was bound hand and foot with grave-cloaths and his face with a Napkin He was laid like a pledge in the grave and bound for security Christ was willing to release him some bonds he cancelled himself and some he left to be untied by others As for the bonds of death God did bind them and unloose them as for the bonds of the grave-cloaths let them unknit them that made the knot God did unty that which God bound let men unty their own work and then they are sure there can be no deceit As if our Saviour had said I know you will say of Lazarus as you did of the man born blind This is not he Will you deny it But here is your own
Prophet sute with him Out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting Can this be meant of any mortal man when you hear him measured not by time but by days of Eternity This is invincible I suppose against the incredulous But some sharp-witted Rabbins do recriminate that our Evangelists words are quite contrary to the Prophesie of Micah the one says Thou Bethlehem Ephrata though thou be little among the thousands of Israel St. Matthew very differently Thou Bethlehem in the land of Judea art not the least among the Princes of Judah The least and not the least some good interpretation must salve it or it will remain a flat contradiction One usual reconciliation hath faln from many Pens that Bethlehem was very little for territory of ground or sumptuousness of buildings it seems so that there was but small receipt in it by the entertainment of the Blessed Virgin who was delivered in a Stable but it was no little seat for honour that the Governour came out of it who should repair the ruins of Israel and of all Nations This is a most sensible distinction in it self but considering that one of these Texts are the quotation of another it agrees not to me as if it ended the Controversie Junius is of that mind but for a quainter reason the Scribes would terrifie Herod with the expectation of the Messias and would not relate the Text thou Bethlehem art little but thou Bethlehem art not the least the more to vex the Tyrant St. Hierom hath a strange fetch to soder all up that St. Matthew alledgeth the words not originally by the Copy of Micah but purposely wrong to discredit the chief Priests and Scribes whose negligence or perverseness was such that they miscited the holy Scriptures to Herod Though this of St. Hieroms be questionable yet some others of his own time are much more to be rejected who grant most dangerously that some forgetfulness might be incident to the Evangelist through humane infirmity yet for the better edifying of the Church by the dispensation of the Holy Ghost Much better St. Austin in another place all falshood is abhorrent from an Evangelist Non solum ea que mentiendo promitur sed etiam ea que obliviscendo Not only that which is derived from wilful lying but even from weak forgetfulness To be short among all that toss these words about in their Expositions I stick close to them that read the words both of the Prophet and the Evangelist without any difference and that 's done by drawing Micha's words into an interrogation Thou Bethlehem Ephrata art thou little among the thousands of Israel So St. Matthew varies not a jot to say Thou Bethlehem art not the least among the Princes of Judah This is no ungrounded conjecture for learned Authors say that some ancient Copies of the Septuagint read the Prophet interrogatively so do some Gothick Testaments translated as it is thought 1200 years since Such another place just to match it is in Isaiah xlix 6. the Text is bent to speak of Christ and you must help the sense by a meiosis in the pronuntiation It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Judah and to restore the preserved of Israel I will give thee for a light unto the Gentiles It is a light thing says Isaiah but the Septuagint turn it It is a great thing that thou shouldest be my servant and the Chaldee Paraphrast reconciles both by interrogation Nunquid parum est is it a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant so by making an interrogation of those words of the Old Testament you may unite them easily to the New And so I have set in joynt Micha's Prophesie that Christ came out of Bethlehem A City worthy for his sake that was born in it not only to have a strange Star hang over it like a Canopy but for ever to be call'd the Star of all Cities the glory of the whole earth Such as have viewed it and observed it with their bodily eyes commend it and Mount Tabor for the most delicious ground in all Palestina Here the Mother of our Lord brought him forth there He was transfigured in glory From Jerusalem to Bethlehem which are six miles in sunder all fruitfulness and pleasures are to be found which that part of the world affords I know our Saviour had no need of these fleshly delights who came to endure miseries and sorrows yet the earth owed him all the delicacies it could bring forth especially to bedeck the seat of his Nativity And I collect the curiosity of the sight from hence that St. Hierom says after the desolation of the Country that Idolaters were possessed of the land Adonis his Grove was erected where Bethlehem once had flourisht and all Scholars know the meaning of Adonidis horti Adonis his Gardens were the choicest Fields that could be found I need not rehearse that St. Hierom spent his best days and ended his last days at Bethlehem or that Helen the Mother of Constantine founded so glorious a Church there that all the world as far as I can hear are not able at this day to shew such a pile of building besides four Monasteries within those walls of her own cost and erection in one of which the most Holy Paula a Roman Lady of the great race of the Scipio's magnified Gods name day by day for the Incarnation of Christ until her own soul left it in carnation These inhabitants it had not for the sweetness and commodiousness of the place which I speak of but to befit them in their prayers and contemplations Here they did often eat the bread of Angels in Bethlehem which is by interpretation the house of bread And should not the living bread which came down from heaven first appear among men in the house of bread This day and many other days the table of the Lord is our Bethlehem our house of bread of which we may say after the words of the Prophet forenamed And thou loaf of bread consecrated for that holy use art but plain and common food out of which every one can have but little of them that participate yet every one whose heart believes unto righteousness shall with thee receive that body which was born for thee in the manger and broken for thy sins upon the Cross that thou mightest inherit eternal life I will not fill up the time with those other reasons which some give to design out Bethlehem as more fit for this Nativity than any other seat of the world The Scripture hath uttered but one thing that way and by the mouth of the Jews He cometh out of the Town of Bethlehem where David was John vii 41. The Son of David was born there that you may be more certain of the promises that he came of the stock and lineage of
ingrafted into Christ by Baptism before they can perceive their insition and do not say this reason holds not in us we are of age to understand our own belief It is not our understanding that makes God gracious unto us but his own free mercy And in this respect many like new-born babes receive the kingdom of heaven I mean that divers go out of this World into Abrahams bosom who never overcome distrusts and tentations at least till they are even going out of the World But this charitable and most true assertion were invalid if particular application of Christs mercies by firm assurance did justifie a sinner I resolve it therefore unto you that general assent goes first in order that Christ perfect man and perfect God is the Saviour of all those that believe then we draw a particular assent that he is my God and my Saviour then our boldness and assurance that by him we shall pass from death and reign with him in glory is the effect of that particular assent and so the Scripture speaketh Eph. iii. 12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which causeth us to speak with alacrity to God here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may assure it self any thing and these are effects produced by faith in him that is by justifying faith Not to cloy you with more than one other quotation 1 Tim. iii. 13. They purchase themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus The object of faith is verum the object of certitude and assurance is bonum Faith is a perswasion or assurance of the mind though working upon the heart Affiance is an affection of the heart though proceeding from the assurance of the mind Now hear the fourth Conclusion speak This affiance or special assurance is not alike in all that are justified nor at all times alike in any man This Conclusion will serve to quiet the troubles of the Conscience two ways First When the same man at sundry times finds himself so divers from himself now full of spiritual Consolation a few days after that his comfort is but luke-warm at another season almost stark cold let no man think his case remediless because of these alterations in his Spirit Many times doubts will arise and continue long with a terrible perplexity Nevertheless though I am sometime afraid yet put I my trust in thee says Dauid Psal lvi 11. When these flat contrary perswasions come into your mind yet God will never leave you so destitute of his grace but that you shall have some strength left to pray to be delivered out of those tentations that the bones which he hath broken may rejoyce and a happy wading out of those doubts may prove to be the greater confirmation The spirit of a good man is sometimes well enlightned with assurance sometime a little obscured sometime very dark after there shall be a long and a lasting serenity in his Conscience As a woman that hath newly conceived begins to suspect her conception by and by some other signs cast into her mind that she is deluded Afterwards she feels the fruit of her womb quicken and then her opinion is constantly confirmed Faith after the manner of alterative qualities hath its growth its declension its reparation It grows to an infancy then to youthfulness then to a stronger age and the more it lays hold of the Promise for its own blessing the more it cleaves fast to the foundation Besides this should procure them peace of mind who cannot alledge that great confidence for their own part and strength of assurance that others seem to challenge to themselves yea and truly have Every tree doth not shoot out his root so far as another and yet may be firm in the ground and live as well as that whose root is largest So every faith stretcheth not forth the arms of particular assurance to embrace Christ alike and yet it may be a true faith that lives by charity repentance and good works some faith abounds with one sort of fruits some with another God is delighted with all that are good and he will reward them In all kind of Divine Conclusions some are more doubtful spirited than others In our very meats one believeth that he may eat all things another eateth herbs Rom. xiv One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth all days alike Let not him that is strong in faith despise him that is weak So one hath examined himself is perswaded especially by his good endeavours to please the Lord and by the redemption of Christs bloud which he felt effectual in him in the Sacraments rests every way assured that Christ will glorifie him at his second appearance Another dares not take such solid comfort for he is more oppressed with tentations more afflictions come upon him and chiefly perhaps ignorance darkens his understanding give this man leave to say and he shall be heard Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Because I said that ignorance especially darkens the understanding of them that are so weak in faith you shall know wherein Many are pluckt back from particular affiance in Christ because they know not the method how to proceed For they are taught that nothing is to be believed with the certainty of faith unless it be contained in the Creed or in holy Scripture but they cannot find this or that mans Salvation written there therefore they are posed how to apprehend it with the certainty of faith I make my answer First how easie it is to reduce it to one of the Articles of the Creed or more than one but especially to this that we believe the forgiveness of sins But to the main Objection all the Doctrine of Faith which we believe is written or deduced out of holy Scripture but the act wherewith we believe is in our selves and not to be lookt for in Paper and Ink No but that is wrot in our own hearts through the testimony of the Spirit by good examination Now the Major Proposition is Whosoever believeth stedfastly shall be saved in Scripture The Minor Proposition but I believe stedfastly is wrote by the Spirit in our own heart therefore the Conclusion is divine and good And because it dependeth upon an Argument whereof the principal part which draws on all the rest is totally and immediately revealed in Scripture therefore the assurance of a mans particular Justification is lawfully reduced to the assurance and certainty of Faith Another fair pretence causeth divers men rather to leave place in themselves for some distrust than to aim at strong assurance because it relisheth much more of humility to be cast down at the recognition of our manifold sins Indeed it is good to ponder our own unworthiness and imbecillity so far as to make us humble and to acknowledge no good can come to us from any thing that is in our selves but it
resistency be never taken away in this life but is ever smothered and couchant in the bitter root of our corruption yet according to the efficacious and sweet motion of grace God disposeth that it shall not come out into act It is not therefore the power to resist which is taken away for then the will were violenced and nature quite transformed whereas grace is the perfection not the abolition or destruction of nature It is only the actual resistency which is stopt Most excellently Prosper Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem ut negemus violentam There is a special abundant grace which is the Lot of that remnant which shall be saved and this we believe that it hath powerful success upon the will but makes no violent that is irresistible entrance But it carries all the affections with it with a most urgent undeniable perswasive force it ravisheth a man from himself he feels himself as it were compelled in spight of Tyrants in spight of death to confess the truth We cannot but speak the things which we have heard and seen Acts iv 20. Nihil imperiosius side The Spirit of God hath a most imperious authority over the soul where it will dwell a smooth tongue in an eloquent man will win much upon his hearers and draw them far but the Spirit of God is a commanding principle a rushing mighty wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius this is a sign of abundance of vehemence it is the breath of God whose might is invincible But thirdly there is another way that some conjecture at the vehemency of the Wind and that was to strike terrour Into whom you will say In some sort says Calvin into the Disciples themselves that received the Holy Ghost Thus he most judiciously Nunquam ad recipiendam Dei gratiam ritè sumus comparati nisi domitâ priùs carnis confidentiâ That is we are never fitly disposed to receive the grace of God untill our carnal pride and security be beaten down and humbled Some roaring terrible wind of judgment and the expectation of hell fire if we repent not must shake us soundly Or else we will fall asleep in our sins and wallow in wantonness with the slumbering soft noise of mercy As the Spring of the year wherein all things grow begins roughly with March and ends sweetly with May so Renovation and New-birth it begins austerely with the angry Pedagogie and Discipline of the Law with consternation in a troubled Spirit then begin the fruits of the Spirit to spring up but it proceeds to gladness and rejoycing and to peace in Christ First the strong Wind passed by Elias that rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces then an Earthquake and a fire and after the fire a still small voice The Angels coming to the Blessed Virgin had first fear and astonishment in it then greeting and salutation So the Wind that came at the Feast of Whitsontide did first roar and terrifie them that were gathered together afterwards it was as Oyl that comforted and as new Wine that maketh glad the heart So says Bernard upon the conclusion of it Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia quietum aspicere quiescere est God is peace and sets all at peace and to behold him in whom our soul rests is to rest for ever But others say for all the mightiness of the Wind it is not expressed that any fear did fall upon the Apostles the vehemency of the sound was to corroberate the Apostles and to let them know there were blasts in store to cast down their enemies Such as repelled the Darts of Maximinus the Tirant into his own face when he gave battel to the Christians Such as hath dispersed the invincible Navies of our Enemies Et conjurati veniunt in classica venti Christ descended gently as the rain into the Fleece of Wool in the days of his exinanition He shall not cry nor cause his voice to be heard in the street Isa xlii 2. But now he is exalted into glory and hath the rule put into his hand he will thunder and break forth in strong violence against his enemies Thus far you have heard that the Holy Ghost came sensibly and audibly to the Ear like a sound the similitude of that sound was the noise of the Wind the Attributes of it two sudden and mighty and yet these two Points are undispatcht the terminus à quo it came from heaven and the terminus ad quem it filled the house where they were sitting But briefly The first of these moves much to one thing that is handled before that there is vehement strength in the grace of God because it comes from heaven says the great Counsellor Gamaliel If this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it The Winds naturally arise out of the Caves of the earth they steame from beneath and blow laterally from one Coast to another So are worldly graceless devices all unsanctified counsels they blow from beneath from the Forge of Satan the principles are drawn from Ambition Hatred Emulation Treachery and have an oblique collateral motion which is profound dissimulation But the root of grace is above in heaven and grows down to the earth it fetcheth all its drifts from Peace from Religion from Charity from the Sanctuary from the Glory of God Strip all your politick projects from their fair pretences and see the ground and foundation upon which they rest and you will find them to be hollow and putrified vapours Again slight not the harmless ways and simplicity of good men for if you could discover their conscience as God doth you would find their scope and aim to be celestial And nothing comes from heaven but with this purpose to convert our earthly inclinations into heavenly directions And let this superficial inspection satisfie for the term and place whence the sound came it came from heaven The end of our work is the consideration of the place where it staid and lighted It filled all the house where they were sitting If you expect to have it treated of how the blast of the Spirit did fill the house I must put you off to the fourth verse of this Chapter where it is recorded of the Apostles that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and better speak of it touching men than touching the Room of an house that Christ is the fulness of him that filleth all in all Moreover if you look for any touch upon the House it self remember I told you such Traditions for it last year as I found in Antiquity but with this modest conclusion that the Point was not material and all humane Records are uncertain This we may and must build upon that it was an upper Room of some dwelling in Jerusalem Acts i. 13. and of large capacity we are sure to contain at least one hundred and twenty persons ver 15. Perhaps also of
Father Vasarenes as Agathias reports the Soothsayers foretold that his Mother should bring forth a Male child and he was crowned in her Womb his honour began the soonest I ever read of any and his guiltiness of sin and obligement to Gods wrath began as soon as the soul did inform the body If ever there were a Paradox in the world which Turks and Infidels hitherto have shamed to maintain it is the contrary to this doctrine that some iniquity is not the cause of perishing before the wrath of God Peribit in iniquitate it was ever good Divinity before Mariana and some Jesuits have perswaded desperate cast-aways to be saved by iniquity Saved did they say And for working abomination O are not the tender mercies of the wicked cruel St. Paul comforted our Mothers in their travel that the woman should be saved by bearing Children into the world they teach Reprobates to purchase a Saintship by murdering such whom the world is not worthy of Slaughter and bloudshed says our Philosopher Rhet. 1. lib. are not fit to make a question for discourse because it was never disputed by some either to be lawful or tolerable Nay in the second Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can make Murder a good action much less Treason But this was the pity of a Philosopher and Alexanders Courtier not the stomach of a Jesuit and a grand Inquisitor If all the Saints should appear before God with the Instruments of their Piety Moses with the two Tables Aaron with his Rod David with his Psaltery Dorcas with the Garments of her Charity would you look for a Priest among them girded with a bloudy knife Or a Villain provided with fire and Gunpowder Who would look for it Except as when the Sons of God stood before the Lord Job i and Satan also was among them Nay heaven and earth shall pass away before Peribit in iniquitate become Apocryphal before the Wormwood of sin become the Palm of immortality Thus much for the cause in general but what offence his iniquity did give the sin of Achan will ask a peculiar and a larger trial You are deceived if you think it was but Larceny or greedy pilfering if a Thief steal he shall restore fourfold says the Law or seven fold says Solomon when stealing grew worse and worse that was the most of it But God saw more pernicious faults in Achan for his justice is not fidelis in minimo sharpest against small offences like the Popes Decretals which enjoyn a Priest forty days penance if he spill one drop of the Cup of the Lords Table and but seven days penance for Fornication But hainous was the fact of Achan first in scandal that an Israelite preserved so long in the Wilderness one that fought the Lords Battels and came always home with victory that he should be the first that trespassed among the Canaanites the heathen that would blaspheme the living God Secondly In disobedience that Joshuah his noble General made the head of all the Tribes by Gods appointment and Moses good liking and Eleazars Unction could not command to be obeyed Thirdly In faithless covetousness That since Manna did fall no more from heaven about their Tents the Lord did heed his people no longer every man must catch what come to his hands so Achan took the accursed c. Here is scandal to them that were without within themselves contempt of the Lord and his servant Joshuah in his own heart an inordinate desire to grow rich and sumptuous I do not make Achans fault the greater that Gods vengeance may be more plausible as St Austin spake of disgracing Cacus to honour Hercules the more Nisi nimis accusaretur Cacus parum Hercules laudaretur but remember my scope is all one with S. Pauls Interrogatories With whom was he grieved And to whom did he swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest If there be any delight in comparing sins as the Prophets use to dash the Idols of Jerusalem with the Idols of Samaria me thinks the first transgression of the Garden of Eden and the pleasant Land of Canaan almost another Eden are very semblable Eve walking in Paradise saw the fruits and her eye enticed her to take that which was forbidden and then she hid her self out of Gods sight So Achan treading upon the soil of Canaan saw a Babylonish Garment and his eye enticed him and he took it when it was forbidden and accursed and hid both the Garment and his sin from the sight of Joshuah But those are impudent crimes like the forehead of an Harlot that leave their memory to the evil world to be the first examples of transgressions cursed be that sin for it festers into scandal and unhappy shall be their end that fly from the Lord till they be left as a Beacon on the top of a Mountain and as an Ensign on a Hill says the Prophet Isaiah Many offences had never been committed or else brought forth by a worse Generation long after unless an evil Author had made the way known and easie for our corrupt nature therefore the first that gathered sticks and broke the Sabbath the Shilonites Son the first that cursed impious Gehazi the first that took sinful wages for the gift of God Ananias and Saphira the first dissemblers in the Primitive Church Achan the first Malefactor in the Land of Canaan these had their portion suddenly and drunk the Cup of Gods fury unto the dregs thereof I know not how fatal it is but since the small trenches of Rome were filled with too much bloud of Rhemus anon after they were digg'd massacres and persecutions have never departed from that unlucky building As the heavens are spread above us and seem to speak like the Statue of the King of Egypt In me quis intuens pius esto So the ground whereon we tread sometimes quakes and seems to be too holy to be defiled But if ever there were an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or incongruity of place to say unto sin exiforas this is no ground for sinners was it not the Land of Promise A small sin in Canaan was greater than a fornication in Egypt a trespass in Jerusalem is worse than an Idol in Samaria Had this deed been done in the Wilderness or in the paths of the Red Sea it had been more tolerable as one speaks of Pompeys obscure death in Egypt a thousand Leagues from Rome Procul hoc ut in orbe remoto abscondat fortuna nefas the offence had not been so notorious But the Angels themselves do wonder in a field of choice Wheat Vnde zizania Lord whence come Tares Will you resolve the Prophet Jeremy the same question He makes very strange fidelis civitas How is the faithful City become an Harlot To use the Lords own Sacrifice with the Sons of Eli for Riot and Extortion his own Supper for drunkenness with the bad Corinthians to employ the soyl of his own
humour into devotion and Prayer Is your Temperature Sanguine and chearful I can tell what that will do if this living water feed it the mind will be bountiful easie to remit injuries glad of reconciliation comfortable to the distressed always rejoycing in the Lord. If a man be Phlegmatick and fearful there is a trial likewise what God can bring forth from such a nature How wary will the Conscience be to give no offence How pitiful How penitent How ready to weep over its own transgressions Finally in every Age of the life old or young in every condition of fortune regal honourable or servile this living water where God pleaseth incorporates it self into it and makes it grow and fructifie according to that use and purpose for which it was planted It is water then which doth increase and vegetate every Plant which our heavenly Father hath planted but with much disparity from our common waters as you may apprehend by divers instances For first pour all that you can draw from your fountain upon a tree that is quite dead and your labour is lost it will never spring again but most wretched were the state of man if the water which Christ gives did not bring us to live again when we were quite dead in corruption And you being dead in your sins hath he quickned c. having forgiven you all your trespasses Col ii 13. All the Sons of Adam beside our earthly mortality are under the infliction of a double death by nature it is a spiritual death to be bereft of grace It is an eternal death to be guilty of hell fire We are St. Judes fruitless trees bis mortuae once were enough but we are twice dead pluckt up from the root yet if the light of Gods countenance shine upon us we shall sprout again and wax green like a Cedar in Libanus What a sapless tree was Zachaeus before the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life as we do well call him in the Nicene Creed did bring salvation to his house You might as soon have squeezed water from a Pummy stone as charity from a Publican before his conversion yet though he were dead in covetousness as soon as He began to live in him he scattered abroad and gave unto the poor As the Father said of his Prodigal Child being now come home into his bosom This thy brother was dead and is alive again So let every penitent soul confess my root was dried up how should it come to spring again but by some influence from heaven I was a withered tree that cumbered the ground how am I exalted like Aarons Rod to bring forth Buds and Almonds I was a sensless stone and God hath raised me from thence to be a Child of Abraham Take another instance of diversity in every Plant that lives water is the means to make it bear but in every Plant it makes it bear such fruit and no other as was first grafted upon it it causeth a Fig-tree to bring forth Figs and a Vine to be laden with Grapes But if the fruit were sowre and unpleasant by nature water it while your arms ake it will never help it But this water in my Text which is so worthy of our Saviours praise it will make you gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles Indeed it should do so but our Preaching is no better with many than River water gushing upon a Crab-tree the more we teach the more you are laden with your own natural fruit Pride Luxury Intemperance Faction Malice and Incontinency are as rife as ever they were nothing grows upon the stock for all the labour that is spent but sowre Wildings that set the teeth on edge it seems the chief ingredient is wanting the blessing from above you mind other things and then the chief pipe of all will be stopt by which the Spirit should enter into our soul There are some and I would they were but few that put in Bill and Answer as it were against Gods plea they urge their personal infirmities and natural inclinations and think that God can ask no more I am dull of understanding says one and what I am taught I cannot bear it away I am suddenly transported with indignation and I cannot suffer I am retentive of a wrong and cannot easily be reconciled All these are in the same tune with those ill manner'd Guests in the Gospel we cannot come I pray you have us excused Humilitas sonat in ore superbia in actione To plead excuse is a form of humility but in effect it is an open arrogancy Spend this breath of excuse in Prayer and Supplication and cry out often and affectionately drop down upon this heart O Lord drop down upon it and it shall bring forth fruit quite against the grain of your custom quite against the bias of nature The high-minded shall be humble as a Lamb The implacable shall forgive his brother seventy times seven times The Impostor shall make restitution the Bravaries of the time shall confess and amend their vanity Loe this is an alteration which nothing can produce but living water from natural sterility of good to supernatural fruitfulness Origen confounds Celsus with this Argument that the Christian Religion must needs be the power of God and not of man For in all Kingdoms where it had success it did civilize the most barbarous Nations It did mollifie and intenerate the most stony hearts It brought in Justice and good Laws among them that lived by Rapine and Robbery A strange fruit to be found upon such wild Plants Could it otherwise come to pass than because they were watered from above I think you will like this Doctrine best in the Prophet Isaiahs expression Chap. xi 6. under the Kingdom of Christ so it goes before The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid. The Calf and the young Lâ—on and the Fatling shall feed together and a young Child shall lead them All that place is noted by Eusebius for a Prophesie to be meant of the conversion of the Gentiles whose brutishness and savage life was changed into good nurture and sweet conversation Ye were darkness but now ye are light in the Lord. O blessed are ye when that which is natural and inbred to our disposition drops off and grows no more Then if ye be planted by the River of God ye shall bring forth your fruit in due season and look whatsoever you do it shall prosper Take a third instance of diversity Our Elementary water helps a Plant to bring forth one kind fruit at one season of the year and this is a blessing of Gods left hand to fill us with the plenty of the earth but the water which is the blessing of his right hand hath this excellency to make the same tree bear all manner of spiritual fruit and at all times and seasons never unfurnisht never empty A moral temperate man may be unjust A