5. two of them together not one single comforter alone but comfort upon comfort deliverance upon deliverance spiritual and temporal one at the right hand and another at our left But lastly hereafter to be sure we shall meet them in full Choires when we rise out of our Sepulchres then like young men indeed both they and we then to be always so never die again never grow old nor our garments neither but have them always shining The next point of the good success is to receive direction from them Two parts of it there are first to recal us from the wrong and then secondly to set us right Why seek you the living among the dead he is not here that 's the correction of our judgments and affections He is risen that 's the setting them to the right For a Traveller when he is out of the way to be told he is so is a thing any of us would take well and when we are stragling out of the way to Heaven going out of that safe and fair and happy way into the bogs of the world and mires of lusts and ditches of Hell to have an Angel one of a thousand as Iob speaks but a messenger of the Lord of Hosts to call out to us that we are wrong is certainly a happiness if we understood it and such God sends always to them that seek him truly if they will but turn their heads at the call and look after him Well but what says he that so calls out to us Why why seek you the living among the dead what 's that I. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation by the Law of Moses long since dead and buried II. They seek the living among the dead that seek it by the works of nature by the power of them Nature without Grace is dead Verebar omnia opera mea says holy Iob there is not in us one poor work to trust to III. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation that think to be sav'd by a meer outward holiness by the outward body of Religion without the inward life by forms of godliness whether they be meerly ceremonial performances of Religion or great shows and pretences of godliness without the power of it in their lives and conversations They lastly seek the living among the dead that seek Christ upon worldly interests that take up their Religion upon by-respects that do it for carnal or worldly affections But say the Angels He is not here Christ is not here Christ the Saviour is not that is our salvation is not to be found in the Law of Moses or by the Law of Works or in meer external performances or great pretences or in worldly and carnal hearts they are but Graves and Sepulchres all which we too much and too often bury our souls in and stand weeping by and are much perplexed at if we cannot find it there but must be forc'd from thence to a new search as here are the women are to leave these kinds of seeking all of them and betake us now to think of him as risen thence For so the Angels say he is He is risen And in this he both tells us what to conceive of him and at the same time to put off all our perplexities and tears and sorrows to rejoyce with him He is risen Risen and not rais'd others indeed have been rais'd from death the Sareptans Child the Widows Son one of these Mary's Brother Lazarus but none risen but he he rais'd himself they did not so he rais'd them all must raise us all too will raise us by his Resurrection For Risen that is 2. his Body risen that is we members of it to have part also in his Resurrection for if our Head be risen the Members also will follow after Must 3. in the interim follow him so raise our thoughts above the earth as to seek him now above to seek those things which are above that 's it the Angel directs us to by telling us he is risen so pointing us where now to fix our thoughts to leave the Sepulchre to bemoan it self to cast off all the ways and paths of death to throw off all worldly perplexities fears and sorrows or in the midst of them to take a ray at least from their shining garments and put on the looks of joy and gladness This both the direction they give us and the joy they make us partakers of To tell us he is risen whom we seek he is alive whom we bemoan for dead he that is our head our hope our love our life our joy our comfort our crovvn of rejoycing he in vvhom vve trusted vve may trust still hope still joy in him still for he is risen and alive That 's the close vve are novv to make to day that the ansvver vve are to give to the Angels speech that the application of the Text to make it full run vve once more over it Grovv vve then first as sensible as we can of our sad condition vvithout Christ hovv the Grave the last place of rest from all troubles has nothing in it vvithout him hovv our souls cannot be at quiet vvithout him hovv our hearts cannot but tremble vvhen he is gone our spirits faint our faces look sad and heavy dull and earthy vvhen he is from us Let us upon this â—it dovvn and vveep and be troubled and tremble at it that we may not at any time give him occasion henceforvvard to desert us or leave us comfortless at the Grave but send his Angels thither to direct and to conduct us to his joyful presence When we are thus made sensible what we are without him we then secondly certainly will make after him with all care and reverence all earnestness and diligence all humility and devout repentance troubled at his absence fearful of our own unworthiness and truly humbled for our sins that drove him from us perplext to lose him fearful to offend him vigilant to seek him that so at last we may recover him for you see he is recovered from the Grave and may again be by us recovered to our souls This the duty both our own necessities and the opportunity of this great day require of us The business we are next to go about exacts as much We are with these women come here to seek the Lords body and I shall anon give you news of greater joy than here the Angels did the Women They say he is not here but he is risen I say but he is risen and is here will be here by and by in his very Body Your eye cannot see him but your souls may there see and taste him too Lift up then your heads O ye immortal gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in Look up and lift up your heads for your salvation draweth nigh Bow down your faces no longer to the earth neither look here as to an earthly
could words of comfort come better then in the full discourse of the day of Judgment nor can comfort ever be more welcome then in the midst of those affrightments Christ never spoke out of season but here he seems to have even studied it When these things begin to come to pass before they are at their full height even then look up Worldly comforts come not so early The heat and fury of the Disease must be abated e're they yield us any refreshment They are only heavenly comforts that come so timely to prevent our miseries or to take them at the beginning Nor is it yet only when the day begins to dawn wherein the Son of man comes forth to Judgment that we should first begin to take courage to approach but whilst the foregoing signs of that day are now first coming on Those terrors that affright others should not startle us even whilst the lightnings run upon the ground whilst the Earth trembles the Sea roars the Winds blow and Heaven it self knows not how to look the Righteous is as bold as a Lion he stands in the midst of security and peace This is the state we are to labour for so to put our trust in the most High that no changes or chances of this mortal life may either remove or shake it or make us to miscarry Every calamity should teach us to look up but these should teach us also to lift up our heads Whilst common fears and troubles march about us our Christian patience will teach us cheerfulness but when these things begin to come to pass these which are the ushers to our glory these should rejoyce and cheer us up that our reward is now a coming to us Vs I say for this comfort is not general to all that shall see the Son of man coming in glory but his Disciples only such as have followed him on earth to meet him in heaven Lift up your heads to his servants he speaks such as hear his words and attend his steps and do his precepts Others indeed must hold down theirs the ungodly shall not be able to look up in judgment The covetous man has look'd so always downward that he is not now able to look up The Drunkard has so drown'd his eye-sight in his cups so over-burthened his brain that he can neither lift up his head nor his eyes at this day The voluptuous man has dim'd his eyes with pleasures that he cannot look about and the ambitious man has so lost his hopes of being high and glorious and is become so low and base in the eyes of God that he is asham'd to lift up his head These only that are the true Disciples of their Master whose eyes are us'd to heaven who have so often lift up their eyes thither to pray and praise him they only can look up when these things come to pass Nothing can affright the humble eye nothing can amaze the eye that ever dwells in heaven nothing can trouble the eye that waits upon her God as the eye of a Maiden upon the hand of her Mistriss The humble devout and faithful eye may look up chearfully whilst all things else dare not be seen for shame O blessed God how fully doest thou reward thy servants that wilt thus have them distinguish'd from others by their looks in troubles who hast so order'd all things for them that nothing shall affright them nothing make them to hold down their heads This is a kind of comfort by it self above ordinary that grief or amazement should not appear so much as in our eyes or looks though so many terrors stand round about us I will lift up my eyes unto the Hills and I will lift up mine eyes to thee O thou that dwellest in the heavens are the voice of one that looks up for help and in the midst of these dreadful messengers of Judgment it will not be amiss for us even so to lift up our eyes to beg assistance and deliverance But that is not all our comfort though it be a great one that we can yet have audience in Heaven amidst these fears we have besides the refreshment of inward joy whereby we rejoyce at our approaching glory The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance Psal. lviii 9. even when the day of vengeance comes and the righteous shall rejoyce in their beds Psal. cxlix 5. whilst they are now rising up and lifting up their heads out of their graves to come to Judgment Nor must it seem strange to see the righteous with chearful looks whilst all other faces gather blackness It is not the others misery that they rejoyce at but at their Saviours Glory and their own happiness For their Redemption draweth nigh that 's the ground of all their joy And would you not have men rejoyce who are redeem'd from misery and corruption from the slavery of sin and the power of death would you not have poor Prisoners rejoyce at the approach of their delivery you cannot blame'um if at such news with Paul and Silas they sing in prison sing aloud for joy so loud that the doors dance open for joy though the Keepers awake and even sink for fear Your redemption draweth nigh They are words will make the scattered ashes gather themselves together into bones and flesh words that will make the soul leave Heaven with joy to lift up the head of her dear beloved body out of the Land where all things are forgotten Yea the insensible creatures that groan now under the bondage of corruption will at these words turn their tunes when they see at hand the days of the liberty of the Sons of God Death and destruction are things terrible but when the fear of them is once overpois'd by the near approach of a redemption to eternal life and glory O' Death then where is thy sting O Grave then where is thy victory They shrink in their heads and pull in their stings and cannot hurt us while we with joy and gladness lift up our heads What are all the signs and forerunners of the day of Judgment that they should trouble us when we know the day of Judgment is our day of redemption our day of glory What are the darkness of Sun and Moon the falling of the Stars the very totterings of Heaven it self to us who even thereby expect new heavens where there is neither need of Sun nor Moon nor Star to give us light for the glory of God shall lighten it and the Lamb this Son of man that is coming in his cloud is the light of it Rev. xxi 23. What are the quakings of the Earth and roarings of the Sea to them who neither need Land nor Sea in their journey to heaven What are Wars and rumors of Wars Famines and Plagues and Pestilences and false Brethren what are persecutions and delivering up to Rulers to death and torments what are those perplexities and fears that rob men of their hearts and courages for looking
a cold sweat to think of it before 't was built Gen. xxviii 17. Will the Lord dwell on earth Is it true says Solomon Can it be so Lord What am I says Holy David and my people that we should but offer to it Lord What is it that we should be allow'd to touch so holy ground with our unhallowed feet look upon so holy a sight with our unholy eyes that such a glo-worm as Man should be set upon a Hill But above all 3. Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou should'st so regard him as to advance him also into the holy Hill of Heaven too Lord what can we say what can we say Shall corruption inherit incorruption dust Heaven a worm creep so high What he that lost it for an Apple come thither after all he in whom dwelleth no good thing be let stay there where none but good and all good things are He that is not worth the Earth worth nought but Hell be admitted Heaven Lord What is Man or rather what art Thou O Lord how wonderful in mercies that thus priviledg'st the sons of men Admirable it is worth the whole course of your days to admire it in and you can never enough It will appear yet the more by the glory that accompanies it It is a glorious priviledge indeed even admirable for its glory Even in all the senses we take the words 't is 5. a Glorious Priviledge Glorious to be Sains they are heirs of Glory Glorious to be Saints in Churches for the Angels that are there 1 Cor. xi 10. to wait upon us and carry up our Prayers for the beauty of holiness that is seated there for the God of Glory whose presence is more glorious there But it is without comparison to be Saints in Glory Grace is the portion of Saints that 's one ray of Glory The Church the House of God is the Gate of Heaven Gen. xxviii 17. that 's the entrance into Glory What then is Heaven it self What is it to enter there into the very Throne of the King of Glory Lift up your heads O ye Gates lift up your heads and let us poor things in to see the King of Glory the Hill of the Lord can be no other then a Hill of Glory His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of Glory And being such you cannot imagine it 6. but hard to come by the very petty glories of the World are so This is a Hill of Glory hard to climb difficult to ascend craggy to pass up steep to clamber no plain campagnia to it the broad easie way leads some whether else St. Mat. vii 13. the way to this is narrow ver 14. 't is rough and troublesome To be of the number of Christs true faithful servants is no slight work 't is a fight 't is a race 't is a continual warfare fastings and watchings and cold and nakedness and hunger and thirst bands imprisonments dangers and distresses ignominy and reproach afflictions and persecutions the worlds hatred and our friends neglect all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go A man cannot leave a lust shake off bad company quit a course of sin enter upon a way of vertue profess his Religion or stand to it cannot ascend the spirtual Hill but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with But not only to ascend but to stand there as the word signifies to continue at so high a pitch to be constant in Truth and Piety that will be hard indeed and bring more difficulties to contrast with And yet to rise up to keep to that Translation that is to rise up in the defence of holy ways of our Religion is harder still to bloud it may come at last but to sweat it comes presently cold and hot sweats too fears and travels that 's the least to be expected Nor is it easie as it often proves to gain places to serve God in Temples are long in building that of Hierusalem 64 years together Great preparation there was by David and Solomon to that before and no little to the rearing of the Tabernacle It was 300 years and upward that Christianity was in the World before the Christians could get the priviledges of Sanctuaries and Churches The more ought we sure to value them that we come so hardly by them We would make more of the priviledge if we considered what pains and cost and time they cost how unhandsom Religion looks without them how hard it is to perform many of the holy offices where we want them how hard it would be to keep Religion in the minds of men if all our Churches should be made nests of Owls and Dragons and beds of Nettles and Thistles Yet I confess it is hard too to enter into those holy places with the reverence that becomes them to rise up holy there Every one that comes into the Church does not ascend he leaves his soul too oft below comes but in part his body that gets up the Hill the mind lies grovelling in the Valley amongst his Grounds and Cattel Nor may every one be said to rise up or stand in his holy place that stand or sits there in it unless his thoughts rise there unless his attention stands erect and stedfast up to Heaven when he is there he is indeed in the place but he unhallows it it is no longer holy in respect of him He must ascend in heart and soul raise up eyes and hands voice and attention too that can be properly said to ascend into the Hill of the Lord or rise up in his holy place Which how hard it is the very stragling of our own thoughts there will tell us we need not go to the Prophet to find a people that sit there as if they were Gods people and yet are not that hear his Word and stand not to it that raise up their voices and yet their hearts are still beneath We can furnish our selves with a number too great of such enow to tell us how hard it is to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and rise up in his holy place so few do it And if these two ascensions be so hard what 's the third the very righteous are scarcely sav'd 1 Pet. iv 18. If by any means I may says St. Paul 1 Cor. ix 27. supposes he may not he is afraid at least after all his Preaching he should become a cast-away fall short of the goal miss the Crown come short of the top of the Hill of the holy Place So hard a thing is Heaven so clogg'd are the wings of our soul so heavy and drossie are our spirits and our earth so earthy that it is hard to ascend so high We feel we find it and they but deceive themselves that think 't is but a running leap into Heaven a business to be done wholly or easily upon our Death-beds when we can
choose to come by or rather will choose not to come by right good sound ways they must be if they be his And 2. right streight ways too no turning to the right hand or to the left not do one way in adversity another way in prosperity one Religion when the days are calm and quiet another when the days are stormy and troublesom Rectas facite in deserto so it is in the Prophet and Hebrew Text Isa. xl 3. Make his paths streight in the Desart even when we are deserted of all when we are in the barren and dry Wilderness where no water is no earthly comfort about us in the greatest tribulation we must keep us still to uprightness and honesty that 's the way to Christ however for a while he seem to be far from us thither it will bring us after a while keep innocency and do the thing that is right and that will bring a man peace at the last Yet 3. one path or two made streight is not sufficient semitas 't is an indefinite somewhat a kin to an universal it must be all he that fails or offends in one is guilty of all S. Iames ii 10. If all be not streight all the paths as well as the ways that you have heard all the little ways as well as the great according to our poor power if at least we do not study and endeavour it it is not it is not right Nor is it so or will it be unless we take in 4. the Prophets in deserto too desert and forsake our selves a little renounce our own ways quite seek not our own but his streighten our selves a little of our own lusts and liberties of our own desires and ways that the only way to make his streight and make Christ come streight to us V. We have one point yet behind who it is to whom all this is spoken and is given in charge I confess the Ministers and Preachers of the Word are the publick messengers and harbingers who are sent to prepare the Lords way as S. Iohn Baptist was before him yet every one must sweep his own door For the words are by S. Iohn Baptist preach'd to all Pharisees and Sadduces Publicans and Souldiers and all the people that came to him every one to have a share and so he gives it them S. Luke iii. 10 11. verses and so onward tells people and Publicans and Souldiers what to do sets every one his path his part of the way to prepare and streighten Give me leave to do so too The Ministers of the Gospel they come first they have the greatest share with S. Iohn Baptist to go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way but how To give knowledge of salvation says old Zachary to his people for the remission of sins or somewhat more even to give remission too to give absolution so to give knowledge to the people or instruct them and to absolve them is some part at least of the Ministers share but to Baptize also with the Baptist and to consecrate with Christ himself is to prepare his way too to make way for him to raise the Valleys to comfort the dejected the cast down and afflicted soul against his sorrows the penitent against his sins the fearful against the fear of death the weak hearted against trouble and persecution to encourage them to lift up their heads and look to the recompence of reward to raise up the groveling souls of men from earth and flesh to heaven and heavenly business 2. To cast down the Mountains of Pride and Singularity Schism and Heresie that lift up themselves against the obedience of Christ. 3. To rectifie the perverse and crooked souls of men And 4. to smooth and soften them to lay the way of Christ smooth and plain before them make them know his yoke is easie and his burthen light by continual preaching to them and instructing them so preparing them for the way of Christ. Thus the Minister prepares his way in the peoples hearts sometimes cleansing the young Infants way by Baptism and sometimes rectifying the young and old mans ways by advice and exhortation sometimes clearing them with Absolution sometimes purifying them with the Holy Sacrament some way or other always preparing them against the Lords coming And it lies upon him so to do And 2. for the People There needs no more then has been said The ways already mentioned concern us all There is none so righteous but needs some kind of preparation And he that is not he needs them all And if we consider now the time so much the more in that his coming is nearer whom we prepare for 'T is now but a few days to the day he once came to us in the flesh Let 's think of that and prepare our selves to give him thanks to cry Hosanna blessed is he that cometh blessed this blessed way of his coming and blessed the blessed day of his so coming 'T is not many more days 2. to the coming of his flesh and blood in the Holy Sacrament unto us We are expecting and hoping for it and 't is fit we should be preparing for it Better preparation then you have heard I cannot give you for the one or the other Only I may add in solitudine again Withdraw your selves aside into some desart and solitary place to prepare you in retire in private to your souls and to your business I will bring her into the Wilderness says God concerning Israel and speak comfortably unto her Hos. ii 14. The place to hear the voice of divine and heavenly comfort is in our Solitude When we are alone God only and our selves together Remember then we go into our Closets and there prepare our selves forget no point of the preparation but sweep and cleanse and smooth and adorn our souls with all holy vertues or resolutions and come well guarded with attention care and vigilance that nothing unbeseeming pass from us in the way raise up our spirit with holy thoughts and heavenly desires cast down our souls with reverence and humility come without any roughness or unevenness in our affections or behaviour in our ways or paths so shall the Lord come and come with comfort and take us with him and bring us safely to the end of our way the end of our hope to those things which neither eye hath seen or ear heard or ever entred into the heart of man which he has prepared for them that prepare for him in the City prepared for us in the Heavens A SERMON ON The Third Sunday in Advent S. LUKE xxi verse 27 28. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud with power and great glory And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh AND because the day of your Redemption draweth nigh the day in which your Redeemer came in a Cloud of Flesh and Clay we are this
cannot but afflict us at his coming so it is we must see him See we must though but to see the justice of our own damnation Nothing can be more certain then this sight sight it is the surest sense and to see him at his coming is to be certain of it at the least but to see the Son of man at his coming is certainly with evidence and to be bound to see it to have such a tie upon us such a condition on us that we shall see it whether we will or no is a certainty with a necessity upon it That so no man may doubt of a final retribution whilst he is certain he shall one day see him who will reward every man according to his work Let not then the unjustly oppressed innocent let not the less prosperous godly spirit droop or the glorious and yet triumphing sinner the prosperous Rebel or thriving Atheist pride himself in the success of his Sins for he is coming that shall come and make the just mans eyes run over with joy and happiness for his fore-passed tears and fill the others eyes with shame and confusion for all their glory It may be long before he comes but come he will at last and his reward is with him 5. But who is this that comes so the Prophet once so we now or in what shape will he appear God is the Judge of all the earth and who is it that can see God Or if he has committed all judgment to the Son as it is S. Iohn iii. Yet who can see him either being of one substance with the Father the same individual and invisible Essence That therefore he may be seen he comes in the form of the Son of man This was that which Daniel foresaw in his night visions Dan. vii 13. one like the Son of man coming with the Clouds of Heaven that which S. Peter told Cornelius that he it was who was ordain'd to be the judge of quick and dead Acts x. 42. Not as he was Lord of Heaven and Earth or as he was the eternal off-spring of the Deity for so he could not be ordain'd he himself being from all eternity but as the Son of man for he hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man St. John v. 27. That was it by which he obtain'd the Throne of Judgment having in that form both done and suffered all things for our salvation God thinking but just that he should be our Judge who came to save us from judgment that he should judge us who had been partaker of our infirmities and knew our weaknesses and would by the compassion of nature easier acquit us or with more evidence of justice condemn us himself having once been subject to the like humane though not sinful passions This is the form in which all eyes may see him all Nations behold him nor shall the scars of his wounds be covered but that even by them we may acknowledge our crucified Saviour is become our Judge Who whilst he judges us in the form of man will condemn us for nothing above the power of man And yet even by his actions as he was man will he condemn ours His Humility our Pride his Abstinence our Gluttony and excess his Patience our Impatience his Chastity our Lusts his paying Caesar beyond his due our undutiful with-drawings from him in a word his Goodness Piety and Devotion our ungodliness impieties and prophaneness And as it is a mercy thus to be judg'd by one who is sensible of our frail condition so is it a glory besides that our nature is so high exalted as to be the Judge of the world not of men only but Angels too What favour may we not expect when he is our Judge who is our Saviour who will not lay aside our nature in his Glory that he may retain that sympathy and compassion to us which was taken with it when he took it from us 6. I shall not here need to spend much time to tell you 6. what he comes for who have told you so often of a day of Judgment and the Son of man to sit on the tribunal His coming is to Judgment for he comes with power and that power of a Judge Only I must tell you 2. that his motion is no faster then an easie coming So loth is he to come to Judgment so unwilling to enter into dispute with Flesh and Blood that he delays the hasty prayers of the afflicted Saints under the Altars of Heaven seems a little to with-hold the full beams of mercy which he has laid up for the Saints rather then to post to the destruction of the wicked Yet for the elects sake to hasten he does a little and therefore he makes a Cloud the Chariot of his Power that when he once begins to come he may come quickly And not so only but come in Glory which is the last observable in his coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory In a Cloud he ascended Acts 1. and the Angel told the Disciples there that he should so come as they saw him go In the Clouds say the other Evangelists they speak of more then one His cloud is not a single cloud there are attendant clouds upon it Angels surround his Throne S. Mat. xxv 31. the Trumpet of the Archangel sounds before him 2 Thess. i. 7. his Throne is a throne of Glory S. Mat. xix 28. and his Apostles Thrones are round about him and all things are in subjection under his feet 1 Cor. xv 27. Thus is he rewarded with Majesty and Glory for his meekness and humility that we seeing the recompence of those despised vertues may learn to embrace them by so strong incentives and allurements What will ye one day say O ye obstinate Iews when you shall see his Glory whose poverty you so despised What will ye do at his Throne of Judgment who would not receive him in his Cradle of Mercy How will his enemies bemoan themselves with them Wisd. v. We fools thought his life madness and his end without honour How is he now numbred among the children of God the first born amongst many brethren Fools indeed to count him what we did for he shall come again with Majesty and Glory Glory is a word by which Christ seems as it were ever and anon to refresh the fainting spirits of his Disciples which are ready to betray their Masters to despair upon the apprehension of the fears and terror which their Lord had told them should precede and accompany the latter day This word recalls their spirits that they begin to look up again and lift up their heads For having thus as it were amaz'd their thoughts and unhing'd their patience he setles them again with some special comfort that when these things begin to come to pass they should look up and lift up their heads for however it fall out to others their Redemption draweth nigh Never
after those things which shall come upon the earth what are all these together to them who are thus by those very things redeem'd out of all their troubles Saint Paul is bold to set up a challenge Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these we are more then conquerours through him this him in the Text that loved us Rom. viii 35. 37. And he goes on yet higher For I am perswaded says he that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus ver 38 39. And if thus nothing can ever separate us from Christs love what should trouble us at his coming whose coming is but to draw us nearer to himself Be not troubled be not terrified says he ver 9. but in patience possess your souls ver 18. for there shall not a hair of your heads perish ver 17. Others may fall and sink and perish but do they what they can against you those that hate you yet care not for it look up look up to me I am coming to redeem you lift up your heads and behold the glory into which I am at hand to lift you up The sum of all now is that in the midst of all your troubles all your amazements all your fears and dangers you first still lift up your heads and look to Heaven for comfort and fetch it thence by prayers and petitions 2. That in the midst of all calamities you yet remember your redemption is a coming and so lift up your heads with joy in the heat and fury of them all knowing that they are nothing else but so many forerunners of your glory Lastly that you look up and lift up your heads with thankfulness that he has thus accounted you worthy to see him in his glory and that your redemption is no further off That having thus begun to look up and lift up your voices in praises and thanksgiving upon earth he may lift you up into Heaven in soul and body at his coming there to sing Allelujahs with the Saints and Angels and the four and twenty Elders to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore there to be partakers of all his Glory A SERMON ON The Fourth Sunday in Advent PHILIPPIANS iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand THE Text is a part of the Epistle for the day chosen you may conceive because the Lord that is the time of his coming is at hand A fit preparation thought by the Church for Christmas now so near to prepare us how to entertain the happy day the joyful news of our Lord Christs coming in the flesh To entertain it I say not with excess and riot but moderation not with rude tricks and gambols but softness and meekness not in vanity of clothes but modesty not in iniquity but equity somewhat departing from our own right and seeking occasions to do others right that all men may see and know we behave our selves like Servants expecting their Lords coming according to all the several senses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated moderation in the Text but stretching further then any one English word can express it A word chosen by the Apostle to comprehend the whole duty if it might be of a Christian preparing for his Lord in the midst of much affliction and long wearied expectation back'd with an assurance that the Lord was now hard by a coming to deliver them The poor Philippians were somewhat sad or sad-like by the persecutions they suffered from the unbelieving Iews and Gnostick Hereticks that were among them many were daily falling off by reason of them ver 18. of the former Chapter and much hurt those dogs as the Apostle calls them ver 2. of that Chapter the concision that is those Hereticks had done or were like to do them But for all that says he Rejoyce and again Rejoyce in the verse before the Text rejoyce too that all men may see it see your joy in the Lord and in your sufferings for him yet so that they may see your moderation in it too that as you are not sad like men without hope so you are not merry like men out of their wits but as men that know their Lord is nigh at hand as well to behold their actions as to free them from their sufferings to see their patience and moderation as well as their trouble and persecution A perswasion it is or exhortation to patience and meekness and some other Christian Vertues which by examining the word you will see anon from the forementioned consideration A perswasion to moderation from a comfortable assurance of a reward the Lord at hand to give it A perswasion to prepare our selves because our Lord is coming A perswasion so to do it that all may know what we are a doing and what we are expecting that they may see we are neither asham'd of our Religion nor of our Lord that we neither fear mens malice nor our Lords mercy that we are confident he is at hand ready to succour and rescue all that patiently and faithfully suffer for him to take vengeance on his enemies and deliver his Servants out of all The time is now approaching even at the doors And if we apply this as we do all other Scriptures to our selves to teach us moderation and whatever else is contain'd under the word which is so rendred and draw down the Lords being at hand in the Text to all Christs comings in Flesh in Grace in Glory it will no way disadvantage the Text but advance it rather improve the Apostles sense and meaning to all Churches and times to prepare them all to go out to meet the Lord when or howsoever he shall come unto them And moderation must be it we must meet him with be the times what they will come the Lord how or when he please know we time or know it not be what will unknown our moderation must be known and yet his coming as unknown as it may be must be consider'd always in our minds it must be that the Lord is one way or other continually at hand Indeed I must confess the times were troublesom and dangerous when the Apostle thus exhorted and comforted the Philippians but the best times are dangerous danger there is as much of forgetting Christ in prosperity as of falling from him in adversity and as much need there is of moderation when all happinesses flow in upon us as when all afflictions fall upon us so the advice cannot be unseasonable And though we call'd the Text St. Pauls advice or the Christians duty in sad times and his comfort in them and so divide the words yet they will reach
into Heaven cannot now but look askew upon the earth To look up into Heaven is 2. to despise and trample upon all things under it He is not likely to be a Martyr that looks downward that values any thing below Nay he dies his natural death but unwillingly and untowardly whose eyes or heart or sences are taken up with the things about him Even to die chearfully though in a bed of Roses one must not have his mind upon them He so looks upon all worldly interests as dust and chaff who looks up stedfastly into heaven eyes all things by the by who eyes that well The covetous worldling the voluptuous Gallant the gaudy Butterflies of fashion will never make you Martyrs they are wholly fixt in the contemplation of their gold their Mistresses their Pleasures or their Fashions He scorns to look at these whose eyes are upon Heaven Yet to scorn there but especially to fit us against a tempest or a storm of stones there is a third looking up to Heaven in Prayer and Supplication It is not by our own strength or power that we can wade through streams of Blood or sing in flames we had need of assistance from above and he that looks up to Heaven seems so to beg it It was no doubt the spirit of Devotion that so fixt his sight he saw what was like to fall below he provides against it from above looks to that great Corner-stone to arm him against those which were now ready to shower upon his head It is impossible without our prayers and some aid thence to endure one petty pebble But to make it a compleat Martyrdom we must not look up only for our own interests for we are 4. to look up for our very enemies and beg Heavens pardon for them He that dies not in Charity dies not a Christian but he that dies not heart and hand and eyes and all compleat in it cannot die a Martyr Here we find S. Stephen lifting up his eyes to set himself to prayer 't is but two verses or three after that we hear his prayer Lord lay not this sin to their charge This was one thing it seems he lookt up so stedfastly to Heaven for A good lesson and fit for the occasion so to pass by the injuries of our greatest enemies as if we did not see them as if we had something else to look after then such petty contrasts as if we despis'd all worldly enmities as well as affections minded nothing but heaven and him that St. Stephen saw standing there All these ways we are to day to learn to look up to Heaven as 1. to our hop'd for Country as 2. from things that hinder us too long from coming to it as 3. for aid and help to bring us thither as 4. for mercy and pardon thence to our selves and enemies that we may all one day meet together there The posture it self is natural 'T is natural for men in misery to look up to Heaven nay the very insensible creature when it complains the Cow when it lows the Dog when he howls casts up its head according to its proportion after its fashion as if it naturally crav'd some comfort thence 'T is the general practice of Saints and holy persons Lift up your eyes says the Prophet Isa. xl 26. I will lift up my eyes says Holy David Psal. cxxi 1. And distrest Susanna lifts up her eyes and looks up towards Heaven ver 35. Nay Christ himself sighing or praying or sometimes working miracles looks up to Heaven who yet carried Heaven about him to teach us in all distresses to look up thither in all our actions to fetch assistance thence If we had those thoughts of Heaven we should I know how little of the eye the earth should have Vbi amor ibi oculus where the love is there 's the eye We may easiy guess what we love best by our looks if Heaven be it our eyes are there if any thing else our eyes are there 'T is easie then to tell you St. Stephens longings where his thoughts are fixt when we are told he so stedfastly lookt up to heaven And indeed it is not so much the looking up to Heaven as the stedfast and attentive doing it that fits us to die for Christ. 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a kind of stretching or straining the eye-sight to look inquisitively into the object To look carelesly or perfunctorily into Heaven it self to do it in a fit to be godly and pious now and then or by starts and girds will not serve turn to mind seriously what we are about that 's the only piety will carry it Plus vaâ—â—t hora fervens quam mensis tepens One hour one half hour spent with a warm attention at our prayers is worth a month a year an age of our cold Devotions 'T is good to be zealous says St. Paul somewhat hot and vehement in a good matter And it had need be a stedfast and attentive Devotion that can hold out with this But. To stand praying or looking up to Heaven when our enemies are gnashing their teath upon us and come running head-long on us to have no regard to their rushing fury nor interrupt our prayers nor omit any ceremony of them neither for all their savage malice now pressing fiercely on us but look up stedfastly still not quich aside this looks surely like a Martyr The little Boy that held Alexander the candle whilst he was sacrificing to his Gods so long that the wick burnt into his finger and yet neither cried nor shrunk at it lest he should disturb his Lords Devotions will find few fellows among Christians to pattern him in the exercise of their strictest pieties Let but a leaf stir a wind breathe a fly buzz the very light but dwindle any thing move or shake and our poor Religion alas is put off the hinge 't is well if it be not at an end too What would it do if danger and death were at our heels as here it was Oh this attentive stedfast fastning the soul upon the business of heaven were a rare piety if we could compass it This glorious Martyr has shew'd us an example the lesson is that we should practise it But all this is no wonder seeing he was full of the Holy Ghost That Almighty Spirit is able to blow away all diversions able to turn the shower of stones into the softness and drift of Snow able to make all the torments of Death fall light and easie If we can get our souls filled once with that we need fear nothing nothing will distract our thoughts or draw our eyes from Heaven Then it will be no wonder neither to see next the Glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God I call'd this point St. Stephens confirmation or his encouragement to his death He that once comes to have a sight of God and Christ of Gods Glory and Christ at the right hand of
there Happy then this Day to us Happy we that this Day came which opens to us a door of hope have reason therefore to remember it and with Joy to keep it as the first dawning of a better hope the day-spring of all our happiness This Day our Head is risen and with him our hope has enlarg'd its borders and made a prospect into the other World sees some comfort there for our sorrows here This Days bright-shining beams have lightned our eyes that now we shall not sleep in death a Sun-day indeed the first true Sunday that ever shone wherein the Sun of righteousness arose out of the Chambers of the Grave to guide our feet out of misty darkness into marvellous light out of the paths of the dead into the land of the living out of this miserable into a blessed life by Christs Resurrection I know the Apostle gathers his Argument somewhat otherwise If there be no Resurrection says He then is Christ not risen If Christ had not be not risen say We there is not will not be a Resurrection To the same purpose both he and we both of us making Christs rising the cause the ground of ours If He then We if not He not We neither Our grounds the same And the inferences the same too For whether we say If there be no Resurrection Christ is not risen or if Christ be not risen there is no Resurrection we affirm both Christs rising and our own And if either be false we are found false witnesses both nay all Not St. Paul only who saw him last but those also that saw him first but Cephas also and the Twelve but five hundred brethren at a clap who saw him all at once St. Iames too and all the Apostles who both eat and drank with him after his Resurrection who bare witness of it and preacht it to the World preacht our Resurrection from it False witnesses liars all all the Fathers all the Preachers ever since who preacht nothing so much as both the one and the other So if either be false our preaching is vain but that perhaps is little in the worlds account who could peradventure willingly spare both Preachers and Preaching too nay but your faith is also vain your hope is vain you are yet in your sins and when you die you perish and miserable you are both alive and dead Miserable deceivers We to preach Miserably deceived You to trust a Saviour who could not save himself but is dead and perished Miserable both You and We to continue in a Religion so groundless so unprofitable so troublesome so uncomfortable so hopeless whence little good is to be expected here and less hereafter as it must needs be if there be no other hope in Christ but only here But the comfort is the Text is but a Supposition What would become of us if our hope were only here Now a meer Supposition as it infers a necessary consequence upon the supposal So being but a meer Supposition it as evidently proves a real truth contrary to the Supposal If in this life only we have hope supposes that so it is not truly though truly so it might be And we were most miserable says in effect that so we are not though upon the supposal so it would be So that by this we have two general parts to handle in the Text 1. What our Hope might be and what then might be the Issue It might be only in this life such hopes there are and then the Issue would be Misery Then 2. what our Hope is and what therefore the success It is not in this life therefore in the other or not in this life only then in both a double Hope a lasting and everlasting Hope And then the Effect sure will be good if the other end in misery happiness must be the close of this The first of these is true only upon Supposal the second true without it The first the Apostle only supposes to prove the absurdity of denying a Resurrection or our hope in Christ concerning it The second he truly means That the Christians hope in Christ is not only here and he is therefore the most happy of the world because it is not though if it were he of all were the most desperately miserable The sum must be to teach us 1. Where not to place our Hope And 2. where to place it 3. What is the Effect of an ill placed hope And 4. what of that which is rightly set By both shewing us even the necessity of a Resurrection and of a faithful expectation of it And two Kinds of Hope now with their several Effects shall divide the Text a False one and a True one I. A False Hope In Christ in this life only And its Effect Misery misery both in this life and in the other Most miserable of all men most miserable then in both lives to be sure II. A True Hope Not in this life only With its Effect Happiness double happiness here and hereafter both That also not in this life only for if the other makes its owners the most miserable this then by the Law of contraries makes most happy in this world as well as in the other Though there most because there is most yet here too because here is some The First Hope and its Effect more plainly exprest The Second and its Effect as necessarily implied both of them together the full Contents of the Text. I shall for once begin with the False Hope because the Apostles purpose here seems more especially to be to beat down that Which once done a few words and a little time will serve for the other and as the Apostle here does but only intimate it so it shall serve us anon but to touch it lest we too much transgress the bounds both of Text and time To search then throughly into the vanity and misery of a Hope that reaches short of heaven we shall consider these four Particulars 1. That such a Hope there is a false hope in Christ. That 2. that which is in him in this life only is such a one That 3. the Effect of it is misery all those that have it miserable they that have hope in Christ in this life only miserable they Yet 4. of those some more miserable than others some most miserable We of all We Apostles We the Ministers We the Preachers of it most miserable of all of all the rest If in this life only we have hope We of all c. That a False Hope there is even in him who is the hope of all the ends of the earth I would we could not say But a false belief there is in him nay many false ones therefore a false hope too yea many such For all hope presupposes a belief and such as our belief such is our hope also We could easily peradventure bear it were that hope only false which is in things below in things transitory Why They deceive
day by the course of Holy Church to wish you to look up and lift up your heads to see the Son of man your Redeemer in his second coming coming in a Cloud of Glory That we knowing it is the same Son of man who was once born in a Stable and cradled in a Manger that shall one day come to be the Iudge of Heaven and Earth we might so celebrate his first coming in flesh that when all flesh shall stand before him we might lift up our heads with joy and comfort For many there are which shall hang down theirs such who have not thought aright of his coming into the world or not worthily entertain'd it or not walked with him in it along the stage of his humility or never rightly pondered the terrors of this second coming in the day of Judgment which he himself here Preaches to his Disciples that they might take heed to themselves lest at any time their hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness the Disease that usually infects all our Christmasses and cares of this life the Disease that infects all our days and so that day come upon them unawares but that watch they should and pray always that they might be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of man ver 34. They had but three days before accompanied him to Ierusalem in his progress of meekness and now in one of his returns he begins to tell them of another kind of coming to it in judgment and fury His Disciples who by the sight of such strong and goodly buildings could not conjecture they should end unless the world fell with them ask him presently upon it when those things should come to pass and when should be the end of the world Their Master that he might at once both satisfie and blind their curiosity mingles the signs of the particular destruction of Ierusalem and of the general ruine of the world together that he might the better keep them awake to attend both his general and particular coming and make both them and us at the approach of particular judgments upon Cities or Nations always mindful and prepared for the general judgment of the last day which he here calls the coming of the Son of Man and tells us how to entertain it So that in the Text as the verses so the parts are two 1. Christs coming Then shall they see the Son c. ver 27. 2. The Christians comfort When these things c. ver 28. In Christs coming 1. The time when Then after the signs forementioned then shall they see 2. The generality of it They all that can see shall see his coming 3. The evidence of his coming so plain he may be seen seen by the eye of Faith 4. The certainty They shall see him to be sure 5. The form in which he comes as the Son of man 6. The end to which he comes He comes with power with the power of a Judge for quick and dead 7. The manner of his coming In a Cloud with power and great glory In the Christians comfort 1. Where it begins When these things begin to come to pass then that begins too Then look up 2. To whom it belongs You Disciples do you look up 3. What kind of comfort 't is A looking up a lifting up the head when all heads else droop with fear and grief 4. Whence this comfort arises from what ground it springs for your redemption draweth nigh I go on with all in oâ—der as they lie so that if you remember the words you cannot forget the order and method Then shall c. At Christs coming there we begin but when is that the Heavens shall tell you the Earth shall tell you the Sea shall tell you Men shall tell you The Heavens by signs and wonders by storms and tempests the lights of Heaven shall lose themselves in darkness and forsake their Spheres and their constantest powers shall be shaken out of their course and harmony The Earth shall quake for fear and change its place The Waves shall fright themselves with their own roarings and mens hearts shall fail for fear neither knowing how to stand nor to avoid this dreadful coming When these with all the host of heaven and earth startled out of their natural seats and postures shall have prepar'd and usher'd him the way then shall he come He comes not till all things else have done their motion and have gone their last Nor is it fitting so great a coming should be without an universal preparation where every creature forgetting its own nature begins at last to study his There is nothing that can stand when God comes Heaven it self is at a loss and remembers not its perpetual motion when it but apprehends his approach Every thing is a wonder to it self when he appears If nature it self be thus terrified which groans not for it self but 〈◊〉 what shall we be with all our sins about us how can 〈◊〉 abide his coming Yet then shall he appear when we know not how to appear Heaven and Earth will change their faces Men and Angels will hide theirs only he it is that dares be seen Sins or imperfections make all the creatures cover themselves with some disguises or endeavour it only he who is all purity all perfection comes then to shew himself Yet when this Then shall be when that day and hour shall come no man knows no not the Son of man himself S. Mark xiii 32. as man He that could tell you that come he would and could tell you the immediate signs that would fore-run it knew not then the time when those signs should be or knew it not to tell you That we might always be waiting for his coming Had it been fit for us to know no doubt he would have told us but so far unnecessary it seems to be acquainted with that secret time that he gives us signs which rather puzzle then instruct us signs which we sometimes think fulfilled already signs which have often been the forerunners of particular ruines and fates of Countries and Kingdoms signs which at the same time we fear past already yet think they are not that so by this hard dialect of tokens in heaven and earth we might behold our presumptuous curiosity deluded into a perperual watching for this last coming There were in the Apostles times and there are still in ours men who lov'd to scare the people with Prophesies and Dreams of the end of the world as if this then already were at hand such as would define the year and day as if they had lately dropt out of Gods Council Chamber but we beseech you says S. Paul that you be not troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand 2 Thess. ii 2. Let no man deceive you ver 3. they do but deceive you they vent