Atheist who carrieth it along with him to destroy that of which it is the Image but take it for that which it representeth as little children and fools take Pictures and Puppets for Men. Is he unclean who seeth that when he is at the Altar Doth he defraud his brother who would say so that should see him on his knees Hath he false weights and ballances It is impossible for you may see him every day in the Temple Are his feet swift to shed blood It cannot be for he fasteth often behold how he hangeth down his head like a bulrush The vein of Gold is deep in the earth and we cannot reach it but with sweat and industry True Piety and that which is good is a more rare and pretious thing then Gold and the veins of it lye deep It s original is from heaven in Christ at a huge distance from our carnal desires and lusts and so it requireth great anxiety strong contention and mighty strivings to reconcile it to our Wills This Pearl is as it were in a far countrey and we must sell all to purchase it the whole man must lose and deny himself to search and find it out we must lay down all that we have our understandings our wills and affections at his feet that selleth it And therefore that we may not trouble nor excruciate our selves too much that we may not ascend into heaven or go down into hell for it that we may not undergo so much labour and endure so much torment in attaining it we take a shorter way and work and fashion something like unto it which is most contrary to it and transelement Impiety it self and shadow it over with Devotion and publish it to others and say within our selves This is it For what Seneca said of Philosophy is true of Religion Adeò res sacra est ut siquid illi simile sit etiam mendacium placeat It is so sacred and venerable a thing that we are pleased with its resemblance and that shall soon have its name that hath but its likeness that shall be the true pearl which is but counterfeit and by this means all Religion is confined to the Altar and that shall consecrate that which is not good and make it appear so That Piety which came from the bosome of the Father and was conveyed to us by the wisdome of the Son must be shut up in outward worship in formality and ceremony and shew and that which quite destroyeth it and trampleth it under our feet must go under that name and make us great on earth though it make us the least in the kingdome of heaven so that we shall have no place there but be tumbled down into the lowest pit Isa 1.22 As the Prophet speaketh Our silver is become dross our wine is mixt with water Nay our best silver our most refined actions are dross our wine is gall and bitterness Or as he speaketh in another place all our righteousness and he meaneth such formal and counterfeit righteousness is as a menstruous cloth Isa 64.4 5. Again in the last place This Formality and Insincerity is most opposit to God who is a God of truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unissimus a most single and uncompounded Essence James 1.17 with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of changing saith S. James no mixture nor compassion of divers or contrary things His Justice doth not thwart his Mercy nor his Mercy disarm his Justice his Providence doth not bind his Power nor his Power check his Providence What he is he alwaies is like unto himself in all his waies De Bapt. c. 2. Tertullian giveth him these two proprieties simplicitatem potestatem Simplicity or Uncompoundedness and Power He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys De Divin Nom. the Singleness of all that are of a pure and single heart And hence the strictest Christians in the first times were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Father viri singulares men that were one in themselves and of a single heart who did strive and press forward as far as Mortality and their frail condition would suffer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Divine Vnity to be one in themselves as God is ever most one and Unity it self For God who gave us our Soul looketh that we should restore it to him one and entire not contemplating heaven and wallowing in the mire not feeding on ceremony and lothing of purity not busie at the altar and more busie in the world The Civilians will tell us Dicitur res non reddita quae deterior redditur That cannot be said to be restored which is returned worse then it was when it was first put into our hands And what can accrew to a soul by sacrifice by ceremony by any outward formality if it receive no deeper impressions then these can make if we return it back to God with nothing but words and noise and shews in the posture of a bragging coward with his scarfs and ribbons and big words and glorious lyes With no better hatchments then these we return it far worse then we received it worse then it was when it was as a smooth unwritten table Tertull. De Testim anim when it was such a soul qualem habent qui solam habent such a one which they have who have it only as other creatures have to keep them alive and in being and no more And better we had breathed it out when it was first breathed in then that we should thus keep and retain it and then return it with no better furniture no better endowed and filled then with shadows and lyes That which adorneth and bettereth a soul and maketh it fit to be returned must be as spiritual as it self Self-denyal Sincerity Honesty love of Mercy Humility These are the riches and glories of a soul which must make it fit to be presented back again into the hands of its Creatour For these for the advancement of these were all outward Ceremony and Formality ordained and without these Sacrifice is an abomination and the Brownists calumny or rather blasphemy will be a truth our Preaching will be but Preachments our time of preaching but disputing to an hour-glass our Pulpits prescript places our solemn Fasts but stage-playes wherein one acteth Sin another Judgment a third Repentance and a fourth the Gospel and the blessed Sacrament will be but as a Two-peny-feast Or which is worse our outward Formality and busie Diligence in those duties which require the least will but serve contenebrare incesta Tertull. Apol. as the Father speaketh to cast a mist and darkness upon our impurities which may hide them from our own eyes whom it most concerneth to see them and for a while from others who see the best of us which indeed is the worst of us because it maketh us worse and worse whilest the evil they shadow and hide is in our very bowels and spreadeth
eye without deliberation or demur in a word not to do what thou wouldst but to obey in what thou wouldst not in that which the Flesh shrinketh from This is the crown and perfection of Obedience put on by the hand of Humility And this is the Humility of the Soul Hebr. 10.5 But is this enough No. A body hast thou prepared me God seeth thy Body as well as thy Soul and will have the Knee the Tongue the Eye Tertull. de Fallio the Countenance Auditur Philosophus dum videtur The Philosopher and so the Christian is heard when he is seen Thou art to walk with him Ps 95.6 or before him Come saith David let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Then you may best take Humilitie's picture when the Body is on the ground You may mark her how she boweth it down watch her in a tear take hold of her in a look follow her in all her postures till she faint and droop and lye down in dust and ashes Oh beloved the time was when men did so walk as if God had been visible and before them The time was when Humility was thought a virtue when Humility came forth in this dress multo deformata pulvere with ashes sprinkled on her head with her garments rent like a Penitentiary You might have beheld her kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple-doors begging the prayers of the Saints You might have seen her rent and torn stript and naked the hair neglected the eye hollow the body withered the feet bare Orat. 12. and the knees of horn as Nazianzene describeth it Then was Humility not sunk into the Soul but written and engraven in the Body in capital letters that you might have run and read it But I know not how the face of Christendome is much altered and humility grown stately She hath bracelets on her arms and rich diamonds on her head We have fed her daintily and set her upon her feet Walk humbly That we can without hat or knee with a merry and lofty countenance with a face set by our Ambition and even speaking our Pride and Scorn and we appear in the service of God as in a thing below us and which we honour with our presence Humility with an humble look a bowed knee a bare head a composed countenance Away with it It is Idolatry and Superstition But let us not deceive our selves God hateth the visour of Humility but not her face If she borrow from art and the pencil she is deformed but appearing in her own likeness in that dress which God himself hath put her in she is lovely and shineth upon those duties in which we are imployed and maketh them most delightful to behold It is true the Thought may knock at heaven when the Body is on the ground and when that is shut up between two walls may measure out a Kingdome and the whole world may be too narrow for an Anchorete But it is as true that Humility never seized on the Mind but it drew the Body after it If I lose my friend my look will tell you he is gone If a rober spoil all that I have there is a kind of devastation of the countenance Prov. 8.14 Ps 31.9 10. 6.7 102.3.4 38.6 But a wounded spirit who can bear If thy Soul be truly humble thy bones will consume and thy marrow wast as David speaketh thy eye wax old and thou will forget to eat thy bread thou wilt go heavily all the day long Think what we will pretend what we can flatter our selves as we please I shall assoon believe him chast whose eyes are full of adulteries 2 Pet. 2.14 or who will sell a copyhold to buy Aretines pictures I shall as soon think him modest whose mouth is an open sepulchre Ps ◠9 Rom. 3.13 him charitable who will sooner eat up twenty poor men then feed one as that man devote and humble in his heart who is so bold and irreverent in his outward gesture I cannot but look upon it as upon an impossibility to draw these two together a Neglectful deportment and Humility For I cannot imagin nor can any man give me a reason why every passion nay why every vice should shew it self in the outward man totâ corpulentiâ as the Father speaketh in its full proportion and dimensions that Anger should shake the lips and set the teeth and dye the face sometimes with white sometimes with red that Sorrow should make men put on sackcloth rend their garments beat their heads against the walls as Augustus did for the defeat and loss of Varus that even dissimulation it self should betray it self by the winking of the eye Prov. 10.10 that every vice and virtue should one way or other open it self and even speak to the eye onely Devotion and Humility should sinck in and withdraw it self lurk and lye hid in the inward man as if it were ashamed to shew its head that we should be afraid to kneel afraid to be reverent that it should be a sin to kneel a sin to be humble that to come and fall down or bow though it be in the house of God is to worship Dagon Reason and Religion help us and destroy every Altar and break down every Image and burn it with fire and chase and banish all Superstition from the face of the earth Deut. 27. And let all the people say Amen But God forbid that Reverence and those motions and expressions of Humility which are the works and language of the heart should be swept out together with the rubbish that the wind which driveth out Superstition should leave an open way for Profaneness and Atheism to enter in And let all the people say Amen to that too For if we do not present our bodies as well as our souls a living sacrifice Rom. 12.1 glorifying God in every motion of our Body as we do in every conception of our Mind our service cannot be a reasonable service of him and the same tempest may drive down before it Religion and Reason both S. Paul hath joyned them both together as in the purchase so also in the obligation Yea are bought with a price This is the Antecedent 1 Cor. 6.20 and then it followeth necessarily Therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your spirits which are Gods But this may seem too general Yet if we know what Humility is we shall the better see how to walk humbly with our God But we will draw it nearer Gen. 17.1 Psal 119.1 3. Isa 2.5 and be more particular And indeed to walk humbly with our God and to walk before him and to walk in his statutes and to walk in the light of the Lord to walk in his sight differ not in signification nor present unto our understandings diverse things For all speak but this To walk as in his presence To
twinkling of an eye not to do what thou wilt but to obey in that thou wouldest not which is the crown of thy Obedience put on by the hand of Humility And this is the Soul's Humility But is this enough No A body hast thou prepared me It is not inward Humility will fill the precept God must have the Knee the Tongue the Eye the Countenance Philosophus auditur dum videtur The Philosopher and so the Christian is heard when he is seen Come saith the Psalmist let us worship and fall down You may best take Humility's picture when the body is on the ground You may mark her how she boweth the body watch her in a tear take hold of her in a look follow her in all her postures till she faint and droop and lie down in dust and ashes Oh beloved the time was when heaven was thought a purchace when Humility came forth in this dress multo deformata pulvere with ashes sprinkled on her head and her garments rent like a Penitentiary You might have beheld her kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple-doors adgeniculatam charis begging the prayers of the Saints You might have seen her rent and torn stript and naked the hair neglected the eye hollow the body withered the feet bare and the knees of horn as Nazianzene speaketh in his 12. Oration Then was Humility not sunk into the soul but written and engraven in the body in capital letters that you might run and read it But I know not how the face of Christendom is now much altered and Humility grown stately She hath bracelets on her arms and diamonds on her head She is fed daintily and set on her feet BE HUMBLE That we can without hat or knee with a chearful countenance nay with a brazen face with the same behaviour in the house of God with which we swagger in a theatre Humility with an humble look a bowed knee a bare head a composed countenance away with it that is Pharasaical I will not mention what I too often see and lament For now it is accounted Religion to be irreverent But let us not deceive our selves God hateth the visour of Humility but not her face If she borrow of the pencil she is deformed but appearing in her own likeness lovely It is true the Thought may knock at heaven when the body is in the dust and when that is shut up between two walls may measure out a Kingdom and the whole world be too narrow for an Anchorete But it is as true that Humility never seizeth on the mind but draweth the body after If I lose my friend my look will tell you he is gone If a robber spoil all that I have there is a devastation of the countenance But a wounded spirit who can bear If thy soul be truly humbled thy bones will consume as David speaketh the eye will wax old thou wilt forget to eat thy bread Think what we will pretend what we can flatter our selves as we please I shall as soon believe him chaste whose eyes are full of adulteries him modest whose mouth is an open sepulchre him charitable who grindeth the face of the poor as that man devout and humble in his heart who is irreverent in his gesture For I cannot imagine nor can any man give a reason why every passion nay every vice should shew it self in the outward man totâ corpulentiâ as the Father speaketh in its full bulk and dimensions that Anger should shake the lips and set the teeth and die the face sometimes pale sometimes red that Sorrow should make men put on sackcloth rent their garments beat their heads against the wall as Augustus did for the loss of Varius that even Dissimulation should bewray it self by winking with the eye Prov. 10.10 that every Vice and every Virtue should some way or other discover it self to the eye onely Devotion and Humility should shrink in and withdraw it self lurk and lie hid in the inward man as if it were ashamed to shew its head that we should be afraid to sit bare afraid to kneel afraid to be reverent that it should be made a sin to sit bare a sin to kneel a sin to be reverent that to come and fall down though it be in the house of God is to worship Dagon Reason and Religion help us and destroy every altar and break down every image and burn it with fire and chase all Superstition from the face of the earth And let all the people say Amen But God forbid that Reverence and humble expressions should be swept out with the rubbish that the wind which drove out Superstition should leave an open way for Profaneness and Atheism to enter in And let all the people say Amen to that too For if we do not present our bodies as well as our souls a living sacrifice glorifying God in every motion our service will scarce be reasonable Rom. 12.1 And the same tempest will drive down before it Religion and Reason both I must conclude Fly Idolatry Fly Superstition but fly Profaneness and Irreverence also and run not so fast from the one as to meet with the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Extremities are equalities They are both equal in this that they are extremes And it is hard to judge which is the worse Consider your selves behold your frame and how you are built up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both Body and Soul Empty and humble your Souls bow your Understandings subdue your Wills be lower and lower viler and viler yet in your own eyes But let this Humility have so much power as to draw the Body after it to bow and bend it to lay it on the ground at his footstool whose hands did make and fashion it If it be true Humility this power it will have And this Humility God will behold and favour He will dwell in an humble Soul and delight in a prostrate body and at the restauration of all things he will re-unite the body and the soul and exalt them in the highest heavens there to fall down before the Lamb and praise him for evermore The Eighth SERMON PART II. 1 PET. V. 6. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time IN these words we have 1. a Duty Humble your selves 2. Reasons enforcing it one pointing to the hand of God his mighty hand another implied in the note of Illation Therefore which reflecteth upon the verse before my Text Where Pride meeteth with check God resisteth the proud If we will not humble our selves under his hand his hand will humble us So that Humble your selves therefore is the conclusion and the Power and the Will of God are the Premisses both aeternae veritatis of necessary and eternal truth and all make up a perfect Demonstration But such is our weakness and ignorance nay such is our perversness that we thwart principles
Reproch then Misery and Affliction then Persecution and Death being compassed about with these terrours is a matter of difficulty in regard of our Weakness and Frailty which loveth not to look upon Beauty in such a dress and of that domestick war which is within us and that fight and contention which is between the Flesh and the Spirit And in this respect it is a narrow way and we must use a kind of violence upon our selves to work through it to our end But yet it is shewn and manifested and the knowledge of the way is not shut up and barricadoed except to those who are not willing to find it but run a contrary way by some false light which they had rather look upon and follow then that which leadeth them upon the pricks upon labour and sorrow and difficulty Whatsoever concerneth a Man is easie to be seen for it is as open as the Day In other passages and dispensations of himself in other effects of his power and wisdome God is a God afar off but in this which concerneth us he is near at hand Jer. 23.23 he is with us about us and within us In other things which will no whit advantage us to see he maketh darkness his pavilion round about him Psal 18.11 but in this he displayeth his beams His way is in the whirlwind Nah. 1.3 Psal 77.19 and his footsteps are not known Why he lifteth up one on high and layeth another in the dust Why he now shineth upon my tabernacle and anon beateth upon it with his tempest Why he placeth a man of Belial in the throne and setteth the poor innocent man to grind at the mill Why he passeth by a brothel-house and with his thunder beateth down his own temple Why he keepeth not a constant course in his works but to day passeth by us in a still voice and to morrow in an earthquake as it is far removed out of our ken and sight so to know it would not promote or forward us in our motion to happiness We are the wiser that we do not know these things For there is no greater folly in the world then for a mortal finite creature to discover such a mad ambition as to desire to know as much and be as wise as his Creatour This was my infirmity Psal 77.10 saith David I was even sick when I did think of it and he checketh himself for it Behold the world is my stage and here I must move by that light which God hath offered me and not be put out of my part to a full shame by a bold and unseasonable contemplation of his proceedings not run out of my own wayes by gazing too boldly on his My business is to embrace this Good Psal 91.11 12. and that will be my Angel to keep me in all my wayes that I dash not my foot against a stone against perplext and cross events which are those stones we so hardly digest I cannot know why God lifteth up one and pulleth down another but if I cleave to this Psal 75.7 this will lift up my head even when I am down It is not fit I should know why the wicked prosper Jer. 12.1 but by this light I see a Serpent in their Paradise which will deceive and sting them to death Why they prosper I cannot find out but he that seemeth to hide himself cometh so near me as to tell me that their prosperity shall slay them Prov. 1.32 that their greatest happiness is their greatest curse and if there be a hell on earth it is better then their heaven It is not convenient for me to know things to come quem mihi Horat. l. i. od 11. quem tibi Finem Dii dederint what will be my end and what will be theirs to know the number of their dayes how long they shall rage and I suffer These are like the secrets of great Princes and they may undo us and therefore they are lockt up from us in the prescience and bosome of God and he keepeth the key himself and will not shew them But cast thy burden upon him Psal 55.22 do thy duty exercise thy self in that which he hath shewn and then thou mayest lye down and rest upon this that their damnation sleepeth not 2 Pet. 2.3 that their rage shall not hurt thee and that thy patience shall crown thee In a word If it be evil and thou foreseest it it may cast thee down too low and if it be good it may lift thee up too high and thy exaltation may be more dangerous then thy fall Psal 34.14 1 Pet. 3.11 but eschew evil and follow that which is good and this will be a certain prophesie and presage of a good end be it what it will whether it come to meet thee in the midst of rayes or of a tempest These things God will not shew thee because thy eye is too weak to receive them Nor in the next place will he answer thy Curiosity and determin every question which thou art too ready to put up nor redeem thee from those doubts and perplexities which not Knowledge but Ignorance hath led thee into and so left thee in that maze and labyrinth out of which thou canst not get For it favoureth more of Ignorance then of Knowledge to venture in our search without light to conclude without premisses and to affect the knowledge of that which we must needs know was yet never discovered and therefore can never be known That Good which is good for us God bringeth out of the treasurie of his Wisedome Psal 34.8 and layeth it before us and biddeth us come and see how gracious he is But that which is curiosae disquisitionis as Tertullian speaketh of a more subtle nature he keepeth from our eyes For Religion may stand fast as mount Sion though it have not those deeper speculations to support it which many times supplant and undermine it and rob it of that precious time and those earnest endeavours which were due and consecrated to it alone What a fruitless dispute might that seem to be between S. Hierome and S. Augustine concerning the Original of the Soul when after long debate and some heat and frequent intercourse of letters S. Augustine himself confesseth in his Retractations De origine animae nec tunc sciebam nec adhuc scio Concerning the Soul's original I knew nothing then and know as little now What a needless controversie arose between the Eastern and the Western Bishops concerning the time of the keeping of the Feast of Easter when whensoever they kept it they gave some occasion to standers by of fear that they kept it both with the leaven of malice and uncharitableness And what a weakness is it to put that to the question which before inquiry made we may easily know we shall never find Many such questions have been in agitation many such inquiries made and some others of another
of the soul which are called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puffings up for riches or learning or beauty or strength or eloquence or virtue or any thing which we admire our selves for elations and liftings up of the Mind above it self stretching of it beyond its measure 2 Cor. 10.14 making us to complain of the Law as unjust to start at the shadow of an injury to do evil and not to see it to commit sin and excuse it making our tongues our own Psal 12.4 our hands our own our understandings our own our wills our own leaving us Independents under no law but our own The Prophet David calleth it highness or haughtiness of the heart Solomon Psal 131 1. Prov. 16.18 haughtiness of the spirit which is visible in our sin and visible in our apologies for sin lifting up the eyes Psal 10.4 and lifting up the nose for so the phrase signifieth and lifting up the head and making our necks brass as if we had devoured a spit as Epictetus expresseth it I am and I alone Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant Arrian in Epict. is soon writ in any mans heart and it is the office and work of Humility to wipe it out to wipe out all imaginations which rise and swell against the Law our Neighbour and so against God himself For the mind of man is very subject to these fits of swelling Humility Our very nature riseth at the mention of it Habet mens nostra sublime quiddam impatiens superioris saith the Oratour Mens minds naturally are lifted up and cannot endure to be overlookt Humility It is well we can hear her named with patience It is something more that we can commend her But quale monstrum quale sacrilegium saith the Father O monstruous sacrilege we commend Humility and that we do so swelleth us We shut her out of doors when we entertein her When we deck her with praises we sacrilegiously spoil her and even lose her in our panegyricks and commendations We see for it is but too visible what light materials we are made of what tinder we are that the least spark will set us on fire to blaze and be offensive to every eye We censure Pride in others and are proud we do so we humble our brethren and exalt our selves It is the art and malice of the world when men excel either in virtue or learning to say they are proud and they think with that breath to level every hill that riseth so high and calleth so many eyes to look upon it But suppose they were alass a very fool will be so and he that hath not one good part to gain the opinion of men will do that office for himself and wonder the world should so mistake him Doth Learning or Virtue do our good parts puff us up and set us in our altitudes No great matter the wagging of a feather the gingling of a spur a little ceruss and paint any thing nothing will do it nay to descend yet lower that which is worse then nothing will do it Wickedness will do it 〈◊〉 10.3 He boasteth of his hearts desire saith David he blesseth himself in evil Prov. 2.14 He rejoyceth in evil saith Solomon he pleaseth and flattereth himself in mischief And what are these benedictions these boastings these triumphs in evil but as the breathings the sparkles the proclamations of Pride Psal 10.4 The wicked is so proud he careth not for God God is not in all his thoughts When Adam by pride was risen so high as to fall from his obedience God looketh upon him in this his exaltation or rather in this ruine and beholdeth him not as his creature but as a prodigie and seemeth to put on admiration 〈…〉 22. ECCE ADAM FACTVS TANQVAM VNVS E NOBIS See the man is become as one of us God speaketh it by an Irony A God he is but of his own making Whilest he was what I made him he was a Man but innocent just immortal of singular endowments and he was so truly and really but now having swelled and reached beyond his bounds a God he is but per mycterismum a God that may be pitied that may be derided a mortal dying God a God that will run into a thicket to hide himself His Greatness is but figurative but his misery is real Being turned out of paradise he hath nothing left but his phansie to deifie him This is our case our teeth are on edge with the same sowr grapes We are proud and sin and are proud in our sins We lift up our selves against the Law and when we have broke it we lift up our selves against Repentance When we are weak then we are strong when we are poor and miserable then we are rich when we are naked then we clothe our selves with pride as with a garment And as in Adam so in us our Greatness is but a tale and a pleasing lye our sins and imperfections true and real our heaven but a thought and our hell burning A strange soloecisme a look as high as heaven and the soul as low as the lowest pit It was an usual speach with Martine Luther that every man was born with a Pope in his belly And we know what the Pope hath long challenged and appropriated to himself Infallibility and Supremacy which like the two sides of an Arch mutually uphold each other For do we question his Immunity from errour It is a bold errour in us for he is supreme Judge of controversies and the conjecture is easie which way the question will be stated Can we not be perswaded and yield to his Supremacy Then his Parasites will tell you that he is Infallible By this we may well ghess what Luther meant For so it is in us Pride maketh us incorrigible and the thought that we are so increaseth our Pride We are too high to stand and too wise to be wary too learned to be taught and too good to be reproved We now stand upon our Supremacy See how the Worm swelleth into an Angel The Heart forgetteth it is flesh and becometh a stone and you cannot set Christs Impress HVMILITY upon a stone Learn of me for I am humble The Ear is deaf the Heart stubborn Matth. 11.29 the Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret a reprobate Rom. 1.28 reverberating mind a heart of marble which violently beateth back the blow that should soften it Now the office of Humility is to abate this swelling its proper work is to hammer this rock and break it to pieces Jer. 23.29 to drive it into it self to pull it down at the sight of this Lord to place it under it self under the Law under God to bind it as it were with cords to let out this corrupt blood and this noxious humour and so sacrifice it to that God that framed it to depress it in it self that
did such service for his friend then but a private man that he made him first a Conquerour then a King the Historian giveth this note That Kings love not to be too much beholding to their Subjects nor to have greater service done then they are able to reward and so how truly I know not maketh the setting on of the Crown on his friends head one cause of the losing of his own But it is not so with this our Lord who being now in his throne of Majesty cannot be outdared by any sin be it never so great never so common and can break the hairy scalp of the most giant-like offender and shiver in pieces the tallest cedar in Libanus Who shall be able to stand up in his sight In his presence the boldest sinner shall tremble and fall down and see the horrour of that profitable honourable sin in which he triumpht and called it Godliness The Hypocrite whose every word whose every motion whose every look was a lye shall be unmaskt And the man of Power who boasted in malice and made his Will a Law and hung his sword on his Will to make way to that at which it was levelled shall be beat down into the lowest pit to howl with those who measured out justice by their sword and thought every thing theirs which that could give them Before him every sin shall be a sin and the wages thereof shall be Death Again he hath rewards and his Treasury is full of them Not onely the powring forth my blood as water for the Truths sake Matth. 10.42 but a cup of cold water shall have its full and overflowing recompense nor shall there ever any be able to say What profit is it that we have kept his Laws No Mal 3.14 saith S. Paul Non sunt condignae Put our Passions to our Actions Rom. 8.18 our Sufferings to our Alms our Martyrdome to our Prayers they are not worthy the naming in comparison of that weight of glory which our Lord now sitting at the right hand of God 1 Cor. 2 9. hath prepared for them that fear him Nec quisquam à regno ejus subtrahitur Nor can any go out of his reach or stand before him when he is angry He that sitteth on the throne and he that grindeth at the mill to him are both alike Psal 76.7 And now in the third place that every knee may bow to him Rom. 14.11 and every tongue confess him to be the Lord let us a little take notice of the large compass and circuit of his Dominion The Psalmist will tell us that he shall have dominion from sea to sea Psal 72 8. and from the river unto the ends of the earth Adam the first man and he that shall stand last upon the earth every man is his subject For he hath set him Eph. 1.20 21. saith S. Paul at his right hand in heavenly places and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to his Church And what a thin shadow what a Nothing is all the overspreading power of this world to this All other Dominion hath its bounds and limits which it cannot pass but by violence and the sword Nor is it expedient for the world to have onely one King nor for the Church to have one universal Bishop or as they speak one visible Head For as a ship may be made up to that bulk that it cannot be managed so the number of men and distance of place may be so great that it cannot subsist under one Government Thus it falleth out in the world but it is not so in the Kingdom of this our Lord. No place so distant or remote to which this Power cannot reach Libyam remotis Gadibus jungit All places are to him alike and he sees them all at once It is called the Catholick Church and in our Creed we profess we believe SANCTAM CATHOLIC AM ECCLESIAM the holy Catholick CHVRCH that is That that Church which was shut up within the narrow confines of Judea now under the Gospel is as large as the world it self The invitation is to all and all may come They may come who are yet without and they might have come who are bound hand and foot and cannot come The gate was once open to them but now it is shut Persa Gothus Indus philosophantur saith S. Hierom The Persian and the Goth and the Indian and the Egyptian are subjects under this Lord. Barbarism it self boweth before him and hath changed her harsh notes into the sweet melodie of the Cross Judg. 6.37 â—0 There was dew onely upon the Fleece the people of the Jews but now that flâ—ece is dry Matth. 24.14 and there is dew upon all the earth The Gospel saith our Saviour must be Preached to all nations And when the holy Ghost descended to seal and confirm the Laws of this Lord there were present at this great sealing or confirmation some Acts 2.5 11. saith the Text of all nations under heaven that did hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wonderful things of God every one in his own language so that the Gospel might seem to have been Preached throughout the world before the Apostles did stir a foot from Jerusalem But here we may observe that Christ who hath jus ad omnem terram hath not in strictness of speech jus in omni terrâ The right and propriety is his for ever but he doth not take possession of it all at once but successively and by parts It is as easie for him to illuminate all the world at once as the least nook and corner of it but this Sun of righteousness spreadeth his beams gloriously but is not seen of all because of the interposition of mens sins who exclude themselves from the beams thereof John 1. This true Light came into the world but the world received him not But yet what our sensuality will not suffer him to do at once he doth by degrees and passeth on and gaineth ground that so successively he may be seen and known of all the world But suppose men shook off their allegiance as too many the greatest part of the world the greatest part of Christendome do suppose there were none found that will bow before him which will never be suppose they crucifie him again yet is he still our King and our Lord the King and Lord of all the world Such an universal falling away and forsaking him would not take away from him his Dominion nor remove him from the right hand of God and strip him of his Power If all the world were Infidels yet he were a Lord still and his Power as large and irresistible as ever For his Royalty dependeth not on the duty and fidelity of his subjects If it did his Dominion would be indeed but of a very narrow compass the Sheep not so many as the Goats his flock but little Indeed he could have
of this world I should scarce have vouchsafed to mention an errour so gross and which carrieth absurdity in the very face of it but that we have seen this monster drest up and brought abroad and magnified in this latter age and in our own times which as they abound with iniquity so they do with errours which to study to confute were to honour them too much who make their sensual appetite a key to open Revelations and to please and satisfie that are well content here to build their tabernacle and stay on earth a thousand years amongst those pleasing objects which our Religion biddeth us to contemn and to be so long absent from that joy and peace which is past understanding Their Heaven is as their virtues are full of dross and earth and but a poor and imperfect resemblance of that which is so indeed and their conceit as carnal as themselves which Christianity and even common Reason abhorreth For look upon them and you shall behold them full of debate envy malice covetousness ambition minding earthly things and so they phansie a reward like unto themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like embraceth like as mire is more pleasing to swine then the waters of Jordan And it is no wonder to hear them so loud and earnest for riches and pleasure and a temporal Kingdome who have so weak a title to and so little hope of any other But God forbid that our Lord should come and Flesh and Blood prescribe the manner For then how many several shapes must he appear in He must come to the Covetous and fill his cofers to the Wanton and build him a Seraglio to the Ambitious and crown him No his advent shall be like himself He shall come in power and majesty in a form answerable to his Laws and government And as all things were gathered together in him Eph. 1.10 22. which are in heaven and which are in earth and God hath put all things under his feet so he shall come unto all to Angels to the Creature to Men. And first he may well be said to come unto the Angels For he is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos 2.10 And as at his first coming he confirmed them in their happy estate of obedience which we believe as probable though we have no plain evidence of Scripture for it so at his second he shall more fully shew to them that which they desired to look into as S. Peter speaketh 1 Pet. 1.12 give them a clearer vision of God and increase the joy of the good as he shall the torments of the evil Angels For if they sang for joy at his birth what Hosannahs and Hallelujahs will they sound forth when they attend him with a shout 1 Thess 4 16. If they were so taken with his humility how will they be ravisht with his glory And if there be joy in heaven for one sinner that repenteth Luke 15 7 10. how will that joy be exalted when those repentant sinners shall be made like unto the Angels when they shall be of the same Quire Luke 20.36 and sing the same song Glory and honour to him that sitteth upon the throne Rev. 5.13 and to this Lord for ever more Secondly he cometh unto the Creatures to redeem them from bondage Rom. 8 19-22 For the desire of the creature is for this day of his coming and even the whole creation groneth with us also But when he cometh they shall be reformed into a better estate There shall be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3 13. Now the Creature is subject to vanity not onely to change and mutability but also to be instrumental to evil purposes to rush into the battle with us to run upon the Angels sword to be our drudges and our parasites to be the hire of a whore and the price of blood They grone as it were and travail in pain under these abuses and therefore desire to be delivered not out of any rational desire but a natural inclination which is in every thing to preserve its self in its best condition To these the Lord will come Acts 3.21 and his coming is called the restitution of all things that which maketh all things perfect and restoreth every thing to its proper and natural condition The Creature shall have its rest the Earth shall be no more wounded with our plowshares nor the bowels of it digged up with the mattock there shall be no forbidden fruit to be tasted no pleasant waters to be stolen no Manna to surfet on no crowns to fight for no wedge of gold to be a prey no beauty to be a snare The Lord will come and deliver his Creature from this bondage perfect and consummate all and at once set an end both to the World and Vanity Lastly the Lord will come to men both good and evil He shall come in his glory Matth 25.31 32. and gather all nations and separate the one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and by this make good his Justice and manifest his Providence in the end His Justice is that which when the world is out of order establisheth the pillars thereof Sin is an injury to the whole Creation and inverteth that order which the Wisdom of God had first set up in the World My Adultery defileth my body my Oppression grindeth the poor my Malice vexeth my brother my Craft removeth the land-mark my particular sins have their particular objects but they all strike at the Universe disturb and violate that order which Wisdom it self first established And therefore the Lord cometh to bring every thing back to its proper place to make all the wayes of his Providence consonant and agreeable to themselves to crown the repentant sinner that recovered his place and bind and fetter the stubborn and obstinate offender who could be wrought upon neither by promises nor by threats to move in his own sphere The Lord will come to shew what light he can strike out of darkness what harmony he can work out of the greatest disorder what beauty he can raise out of the deformed body of Sin Sin is a foul deformity in nature and therefore he cometh in judgment to order and place it there where it may be forced to serve for the grace and beauty of the whole where the punishment of sin may wipe out the disorder of sin Act 1 25. Gerson Then every thing shall be placed as it should be and every man sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his proper place Nec pulchrius in coeâ—o angelus quam in gehennâ diabolus Heaven is a fit and proper place for an Angel of light for the children of God and Hell is as fiâ— and proper for the Devil and his Angels Now the wayes of men are crooked and intricate and their actions carried on with that contrariety and contradiction that to quit
of the world cannot receive a poor Christ The Pride of life cannot receive an humble Christ The Lust of the flesh cannot receive a chaste Christ The sinner who confesseth and crucifieth him cannot receive him Those Antichrists cannot receive Christ no though they knock and knock again though they cry and cry aloud though they fast and pray and sequester themselves at some set times Then onely we are fit to receive him when we are Christi-formes made conformable to him The humble and obedient heart is his house his Temple and he will dwell in it for he taketh a delight therein Sequester then your selves draw your thoughts and apply them to this great benefit fast and pray and commune with your selves but do not then say We have done all that thou commandest us but let all these begin and end in obedience and holiness Let that be on the top the chief mark you aim at Tie it to you as an ornament of grace upon your head as a chain about your neck all the dayes of your life This will make you fit for Christ fit to receive his Body and Bloud and all the benefits of his Cross and his love will stream forth in the bloud which he shed and feed and nourish your souls to eternal life This I conceive to be the full compass of this duty of Examining of our selves And as it is necessary at all times so ought we especielly at this time to use it when we are to approch the Table of the Lord to make it our preparation before the receiving of the Sacrament He that neglected the Passeover was to be cut off from among his people And he that eateth and drinketh unworthily without examination of himself eateth and drinketh his own damnation because he discerneth not that is neglecteth the Lord's body Here at this Table thou dost as it were renew thy Covenant and here thou must renew thy Examination and see what failings and defects thou hast had and what diligence thou hast used in keeping of thy Covenant and bewail the one and increase and advance the other Consider whose Body and Bloud it is thou art to receive and in what habitude and relation thou art unto him and try thy Repentance thy Faith thy Charity For these unite thee to Christ bring thee so near as to dwell in him transform thee after his image and so give thee right and title to him and to all the riches and wisdom which are hidden in him Examine first your Repentance therefore Whether it be true and unfeigned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that circumcision made without hands Col. 2.11 Whether it be moved and carried on by a true spring hatred of sin and love of Christ Whether it be constant and uniform and universal consisting not in a head hanging down and a heart lifted up in to-day's sorrow and to-morrow's relapse in the detestation of idolatry and the love of sacrilege For this is as Luther saith poenitere simul non poenitere satis to repent and not repent to rise and fall and fall and rise This is not to repent but prevaricate to forsake our own cause and promote the Devil's No that Repentance which must place us at this Table must devote and consecrate us wholly to him whose Table it is And as our sins crucified him so must our repentance crucifie us and offer us up unto him as a holocaust or whole-burnt-offering who offered up himself a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world In the next place the Apostle exhorteth us to examine our selves whether we be in the Faith or no 2 Cor. 13.5 to prove our selves whether Christ be in us Without Faith there is no true Repentance There may be some distaste some regret some sorrow but not according to God Some distaste even those have had who never heard of Christ But it will not raise and improve it self not draw on a constant and serious resolution to shake off that which distasteth us to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us till Faith possesseth our hearts and a firm persuasion that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself 2 Cor. 5.19 I believed and therefore I spake saith David We believe and therefore we examine our selves and take a strict survey of our souls we grone under our burthen and desire ease we find our selves sick and run to the Physician we find our selves dead in sin and flie to the Fountain of life Faith is the salt which seasoneth all our actions Nor will Christ admit us to his Table without it nor give himself to those who do not believe in him Faith is the mouth of the soul and with it we receive Christ To come unto him and receive him and believe in him are one and the same thing As the Word preached did not profit them that heard it Hebr. 4.2 not being mixed with faith not having this salt so the Sacraments are but bare signs and signifie nothing to them that believe not Accedens Verbum ad elementum facit Sacramentum non quia dicitur sed quia creditur saith Augustine The Word added to the Element maketh a Sacrament not because it is spoken but because it is believed That is without faith it profiteth nothing in respect of us although by Divine institution it hath force and power and ought to quicken and enliven us By the eye of Faith alone we follow Christ through every passage and period of his blessed oeconomy we behold him in the manger in his swadling-cloths and worship him we follow him in the streets going about and doing good and imitate him we behold him in his agonie and are nailed with him to his cross we see him rising and ascending and behold the heavens open and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God and lastly we behold him here in the Sacrament and lift up our hearts above these visible Elements to those things which are spiritual and invisible we see in them Christ's body lifted up upon the cross as the Serpent was in the wilderness and by this sight by this Faith we are cured Here in the Sacrament our Saviour again presenteth himself unto us openeth his wounds sheweth us his hands and his side speaketh to us as he did to Thomas Reach hither your fingers and behold my hands and reach hither your hands and thrust them into my side Take eat This is my body and be not faithless but believing Here shake off that chilness that restiveness that weariness and faintness of your faith here warm and actuate and quicken it Here God doth not shew us his face his extraordinary glory and majesty which no mortal can behold and live but we see him as it were in his back-parts and in these outward Elements Here he exhibiteth and giveth us his Son who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his Person in whom he hath
a sigh or a feigned and formal confession so far we are content to humble our selves And this we may deplore with tears of bloud but cannot hope to remove though we should speak with the tongue of men and Angels since it hath taken such deep root in the hearts of men that they who cry down this Expecting of grace and Fighting against grace and who had rather see a fair shew of it in their lives then in their Panegyricks and would think it a more delightful sight to see them grow in grace then commend it and resist it are themselves cryed down and counted bringers in of new doctrine and enemies to the Grace of God because they would establish it And so the Drunkard may swill his bowls and chear up his heart in the dayes of his youth and expect that happy hour when Sobriety and Temperance shall possess him unawares The Oppressour may grind the face of the poor more and more since God's Grace is sufficient to melt his heart He may hope he may be honest one day who as yet resolveth to be a knave He that is turbulent in all his wayes who like a Haggard checketh at every feather and is troubled with every gust of wind nay with every breath may imagin that Grace will soon settle and compose his mind that Content and Peaceableness will one time or other suddenly fall upon him as a sweet and pleasant sleep He that hath a high look and a proud heart may be brought down and humbled in the twinckling of an eye And what is this but to cast away the Grace of God as S. Paul speaketh to turn it into wantonness as S. Jude to make it nothing else but a pretense and excuse to prolong our time in the tents of Kedar to encourage us to sport it on in our evil wayes like the wild asse or the wanton heifer Oh 't is a dangerous thing to attribute so much to Grace as to make it void and of no effect to cry up its power and be unwilling to feel it to say it can do that which we will not suffer it to do It is the constant voice of Scripture to commend God's Grace but withal to awake our industry to encourage us with the sight of so sure a guide and then bid us Vp and be doing God beseecheth us to be reconciled and commandeth us to reconcile our selves His will is that we should be saved and his will is that we should work out our salvation He persuadeth us to be patient and he persuadeth us to possess our souls with patience Where we are told that he worketh in us both to Will and to Do Phil. 2.13 it is given as a reason why we should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MAGIS OPERARI work more strenuously and intentively AUGESCERE IN OPERE as some increase and abound in our work Grace is a good wind to drive us on but must not be made a pillow to sleep on Humbled God would see us and he enjoyneth us to humble our selves S. Ambrose speaketh it plainly Non vult invitos cogere he will not save us against our wills And if we stand out and will not he cannot save us Non vult importunus irruere he breaketh not in by violence but when he entereth he calleth thee to open And this maketh our Humility voluntary that thy Will may lead thee and not Necessity draw thee A forced Humility is but Pride in a chain and a stubborn heart with a weight of led upon it Pharaoh's Humility Zech. 5. driven on with an East-wind and compassed with Locusts Ahab's Humility at the sound of the Prophet's thunder For here is the difference The righteous fall to the ground the wicked are tumbled down Their Humiliation is like Haman's going before Mordecai not like David's dancing before the Ark like the submission of a condemned man to the block which upon refusal he had been dragged to There is saith the devout Schoolman Humilitas poenalis and Humilitas medicinalis Humility which is not a virtue but a punishment and Humility which is not a punishment but a medicine Humility which is gall and wormwood and Humility which is an antidote When the vial is broken upon my head it poisoneth me but when I temper it my self and take it down it is a cordial The Gospel our Saviour calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a yoke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a burthen a yoke which if we yield not our necks will break them and a burthen which if we bow not under will sink us but when Humility beareth it it is easie and when it weareth it light To be humbled then is not enough we must humble our selves and take some pains to do it Not enough to be on the ground unless our hand hath thrown us down Not enough to be in sackcloth unless we have put it on Not enough to be crucified unless we crucifie our selves Take them both together Be humbled and Take pains to humble your selves and you have crowned S. Peter's Exhortation We come now to our second Consideration and must shew you Wherein this Humbling of our selves consisteth The Oratour will tell us Virtutis laus in actione consistit Every virtue is commended by its proper act and operation and is then actually when it worketh And thus S. Paul exhorteth Timothy 1 Tim. 4.7 to exercise himself unto godliness which is learned by doing it and Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to exercise the soul Every virtue is seen in its proper act Thus Temperance doth bind the appetite Liberality open the hand Modesty compose the countenance Valour guard the heart and Humility work its contrary out of the mind every thing that riseth up every swelling and tumour of the soul 2 Cor. 12.20 The Apostle calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puffings up for Riches or Learning or Eloquence or Virtue or something which we admire our selves for the elation and lifting up of our mind above it self 2 Cor. 10.14 the stretching of it beyond its measure setting it up against the Law against our brethren against God himself making us complain of the Law start at the shadow of an injury commit sin and excuse it making our tongues our own our hands our own our understandings our own our wills our own leaving us Independents under no Law but our own Psal 131.1 Prov. 16.18 The Prophet David calleth it the highness or haughtiness of the heart and Solomon the haughtiness of the spirit which is visible in our sin and visible in our apologies for sin lifting up the eyes Psal 10.4 and lifting up the nose as the phrase signifieth lifting up the head making our neck brass as if we had devoured a spit as Epictetus said I AM AND I ALONE is soon written in any man's heart and no hand but that of Humility can wipe it out For the mind of man is much subject to these fits of swelling Humility our
and whatsoever the Premisses are stand out against the Conclusion Of God's Power we may cry out with the Prophet Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And his Will we do but pray it may be done and fulfil our own What now will move us Our last part presenteth a most winning motive And it is God's hand still but his hand not armed with a thunder-bolt but holding out a reward an Exaltation stronger then a Demonstration Goodness is more persuasive then Power and a Promise more rhetorical then a Command Omnes mercede ducimur He that commandeth with promise he that cometh with a reward shall more prevail then seven wise men that can render a reason Of the Duty we have spoken already in general We called it an Exercise and we shewed you in what it doth consist We gave you the extent of it and told you that it is an exercise full of pain and toilsome in which we fight against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness and against the wantonness of the flesh beating down imaginations all aversness in the Understanding and all frowardness in the Will subduing both Soul and body to the obedience of the truth working wonders in the Soul and manifesting it self also in the outward man in a cast-down eye in a weak hand in a feeble knee glorifying God both in soul and body Let us now descend to a more particular delineation And there is a word in my Text which if well and rightly placed giveth all the lines and dimensions of it and that word is but a Preposition and the Preposition but a monosyllable But the sound of it is harsh in our ear and findeth no better entertainment and welcome with us then if it were a Satyre or a Libel It is the Preposition SUB We must humble our selves under Et quantum turbat monosyllabon How are we troubled with this one monosyllable Our nature is stiff and stubborn and this Preposition this monosyllable is a yoke SUB TUTORIBUS under tutors a hard Text for the Heir G l 4.2 O how doth he expect and long for the appointed time when he shall be his own man and Lord of all SUB POTESTATE DOMINI under the power of the Master so should Servants be Eph. 6.5 But they are not so alwayes with good will doing service It is many times but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the down-cast of the eye You see them on the ground at your feet but in their mind they are on horse-back SUB POTESTATE VIRI under the power of the husband Gen. 3.16 is scarce good Scripture with every Wife No set the Servant on horse-back make the Heir a Lord and the Wife the head either no coming under no SUB at all or else misplace it But SUB PRAECEPTO under the Command there we should be For as that was made for us so were we elemented and made up and sitted for that for a Law and Precept Which whilest we keep under we are in the way to perfection In Religion there is Order and in Order there is a SUB a coming under Here there is a precept Humble your selves How come we under it No otherwise then if we were brought under a yoke Every command is our captivity every injunction an imprisonment Lex ligat Enact a Law and we are in fetters Nay Lex occidit the Law is a killing letter in this sense too He that bringeth us a command might as well present us with poison or a sword and bid us kill our selves At the first hearing one goeth away sorrowful another angry another laborem fingit in praecepto hath seen a lion some perillous difficulty in the way Every man is ill-affected and wisheth him silenced that bringeth it Nay further yet The Gospel of peace an Angel bringeth it yet we know what enterâ—ainment it found Nay how was he intreated who is α and ω the Beginning and the End the Author and Finisher of the Gospel Let him be crucified say the Jews Ecquis Christus cum suâ fabula say the Heathen Away with Christ and his Legend And now we who name Christ and delight in that name and make our boast of the Gospel all our life long how do we struggle and strive under it as dying men do for breath Deny your selves Take up your cross they are the voice of Wisdom crying out unto us and no man regardeth it Not SUB LEGE under the Law the Gospel hath taken away that SUB but not SUB GRATIA we are unwilling to come under Grace and SUB CHRISTO under Christ himself The shadow of his wings is as full of terrour to us as the shadow of Death This this was it which killed God's Prophets stoned his Messengers burned his Martyrs crucified the Lord of life himself and at this day crucifieth him afresh and putteth him to open shame our want of Humility our falling out with and not obeying the Gospel of Christ. It is the Apostle's phrase 2 Thes 1.8 This trampleth under foot the bloud of the new Testament as if it were a profane and unholy thing But we must remember that this SUB this neglected and scorned Preposition is that we hold by all we can shew all the Patent we have for heaven Had not Christ come SUB TEGMINE CARNIS as Arnobius speaketh under the covert of our flesh in the form of a servant had he not been made SUB LEGE under the Law had he not been brought SUB CULTRO under the knife at his circumcision had he not been SUB CRUCE undergone the Cross we had been SUB PECCATO under sin under the cross and as low as Hell it self It it most true Nothing but Humility could save us And when we could not bring an Humility equal to our Pride nor a Repentance answerable to our Disobedience then He that was above all was made under the Law Col. 1.24 and humbled himself But yet there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something behind of the afflictions and humility of Christ Not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours be also his required For an humble Head and proud Members an humble Christ and a stiff necked Christian is a foul incongruity a monster made up of God and Belial Something then of Christ's Humility is behind not that his Humility was imperfect but that ours is also requisite not ex parte operationis suae as if he had not fully accomplished the work of our Redemption but ex parte cooperationis nostrae in respect of something to be performed by us not that it was his Talent and our mite his three parts and our one No he payed down the price of our Redemption at one full and entire payment and that de suo of his own he borrowed not of us His SUB his Humility was able to raise a thousand worlds and yet our Humility must come in with a SUB too we must be under his
and dare not abide the answer Audire nusquam veritatem regium est We think it a goodly thing to live as we list without check or reproof and never be told the truth For Truth is sharp and piquant and our ears are tender Some Truths peradventure are musick to the ear but strike not the heart Others are harsh and ill-sounding and when we hear them we entreat they may not be spoken to us any more as the Israelites did when the Law was promulged with thunder and lightning and the mountain smoked we remove our selves and stand afar off But that we may not seem to do as Pilate did ask what Truth is and then go our way let us a little recount what kinds of Truths there be in the world that so amongst them all we may at last single out that which here by Wisdome it self we are instructed to buy And indeed Truths there are many kinds First there are Truths proper to the studies of great Scholars and learned men truths in Nature in the Mathematicks the knowledge of natural causes and events of the course of the Sun and of the Moon and the like These we confess are excellent truths and they deserve to be bought though we pay dear for them With these truths God was pleased supernaturally and by miracle to endow King Solomon 1 Kings 4.33 when he gave him the knowledge of Beasts Birds Creeping things and Fishes of Stones and of Plants from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Moss that groweth upon the wall Yet this is not that Truth which we are here commanded to buy Again there are many excellent Truths concerning the preservation of our Bodiess which are also well worthy to be bought Health is the chief of outward blessings without which all the rest lose their name For present all the glory and riches and pleasures of the world to a sick person Eccl. 30.18 and what are they but as the Wise-man speaketh like messes of meat set upon a grave for he can no more tast and relish them then a dead man sealed up in his monument Therefore as the same son of Sirach saith Eccl. 38.1 honour the Physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him for the Lord hath created him The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth and he that is wise will not abhorre them 4. Yet the skill of the Physician is not that Truth that Solomon here biddeth us buy Further yet there are many necessary Truths which concern the making and executing of Laws and the government of Commonwealths and Kingdoms By these the world is ordered peaceably and every wheel made to move in its proper place Without these Commonwealths would become as the hills of robbers Innocency alone would prove but a thin and weak defense in the midst of so many several tempers and dispositions as we daily encounter These Truths therefore are worth the buying also With skill in these did God honour his Priests under the Law Mal. 2.7 The Priests lips were to preserve such knowledge and the people were to seek the Law at his mouth and he was ordained to judge betwixt cause and cause betwixt man and man But neither yet is this the Truth here recommended to us We may descend lower yet even to the very Plough and find many useful conclusions and truths in Husbandry and Tillage whereby food and rayment and other necessaries for the body are provided without which we could not subsist Of these truths God professeth himself the Authour For the Prophet speaking of the art of the plough-man telleth us that his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Isa 28.26 c. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cumin but the fitches are beaten out with a staff and the cumin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised c. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Yet neither is this nor any other of these truths that Truth which is here meant For first all these Truths concern onely those particular persons whose breeding and vocation calleth them to them All are not to buy them but ii tantùm quibus est necesse such whose education and occasions lead them to them If all were one member saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 12.19 where were the body If all men were subtile Philosophers or skilful Physicians or learned Lawyers and Politicians or painful Husbandmen the world could not well subsist Again all are not fitted for every truth for every calling All if they had a heart thereunto Prov. 17.16 yet have not a price in their hand Every Philosopher is not fit to hold the plough nor every one that handleth an ox-goad to be a Physician nor every Physician to plead at the bar These arts seem to be of a somewhat unsociable disposition and a very hard thing it is for a man to learn and practise perfectly more then one of them for the mind being distracted amongst many things must needs entertain them but brokenly and imperfectly Sic opus est mundo and thus Divine Providence hath ordered it But the Truth here is of a more pliable nature and therefore the commandment is given to all All must buy it It is put to sale and proferred to the whole world to him that sitteth on the throne and to her that grindeth at the mill to the Husbandman in the field to the Philosopher in the Schools to the Physician in his study and to the Trades-man in his shop No man of what calling or estate soever is unfit for this purchase The poorest that is may come to this markets and find about him money enough to purchase the commodity Yea let him go whither he will and live amongst what people and in what part of the world he please whether at Jerusalem or amidst the tents of Kedar in the city or in the wilderness he shall still find himself sufficiently furnished for this bargain And that he buyeth serveth both for this world and the next it will prove both a staff and a crown it will direct his feet in his pilgrimage and crown his head at his journeyes end All the other Truths I reckoned up to you as they may be bought so also they may be sold and forgone Yea there may come a time when they must all give place to the Truth in my Text and become the price for which it must be bought and be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss and dung Phil. 3.7 3. that we may gain it as S. Paul speaketh of his skill and forwardness in the Jews religion in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus But though those Truths continue with us all our life yet at last they will forsake us Who will look for a Philosopher or a Physician or
against those assaults and tentations which as so many winds beat upon it to drive it from that object to which God hath confined it to that indeed which it may cleave to being a free faculty but that there is a Veto a prohibition writ upon it to dull and by degrees to take off that inclination For talk what we will of seeking him as who talk more then they that scarce look after him yet we never seek him till we have lost denied and hated our selves Yet by the surrendry of our wills we do not lose them but make them more ours For herein consisteth the beauty and rectitude and true liberty of the will in that it conformeth to his will who is Wisdom it self and followeth his imperious command Multum est abnegare quod habes sed valde multum est negare quod es saith Gregory It is much for a man to renounce what he hath but it is very much and more praise-worthy to renounce what he it and yet he is not truly till he doth renounce it For as St. Bernard telleth us nihil ardet in inferno praeter propriam voluntatem nothing sinketh us to hell but our own will so is it most true nothing bringeth us to God but denial of our selves and renouncing of our wills That is the best holocaust when our will is sacrificed For as they who lay siege to cities when they have taken the chief and principal fort soon make themselves masters of the town so it fareth in our spiritual warfare and search Till we have given up our will unto God taken it from those vanities and forbidden objects which we most hunt after and sacrificed it to him we seek him not though we call upon him louder then those idolatrous priests did upon their Baal Till he hath taken that we are none of his For though he fetter our hands and put out our eyes and tack up our tongues to the roof of our mouths yet we may still stand out and fight against him by murther without a hand by blasphemy without a tongue by lust without an eye For though the Will be frustrate of its effect yet it remaineth a will still and may finish and determine its act and make us guilty as evil-doers when nothing is done But when this principal fort this commanding faculty is taken and captivated then God taketh possession of all entereth with all his graces dwelleth there and reigneth as King for ever All the faculties of our soul all the parts of our body are ready at his beck we seek him and we find him the Understanding is open to saving knowledge the Memory faithful to retain it the Phansie catcheth not at shadows but becometh an elaboratory and workhouse of wholsom thoughts which are winged to flye after God Then we do not onely seek but run after God totâ fidei substantiâ as Tertullian speaketh with the whole strength and power and substance of our faith our Eye seeketh him whilest we wait on his providence our Ear seeketh him whilest we hearken to his voice our hands seek him whilest we cast our bread upon the waters our Tongue seeketh him by being an instrument of his glory our Faith layeth hold on him our Hope attendeth him our Patience waiteth upon him and our Love embraceth him and will not let him go You may call it what you please Obedience or Holiness or Repentance or Denial of our selves and Renouncing of our wills but this is truly to seek the Lord. That we may thus seek the Lord we must make use of that light which God holdeth up unto us and those means which he hath graciously afforded us to help and forward us in our search Some duties there are which look further then those acts vvhich seem to perfect and accomplish them and if they attain not that end they are nothing yea vvhich is vvorse they are sins but being rightly performed they expedite and facilitate those actions of our life vvhich being linked and united together are as an ornament of grace unto our head and chains about our neck in vvhich dress and glorious habit vve make our approches unto the Lord. I name but three Hearing and Reading of the Word Fasting and Prayer Exercising our selves in these is commonly called seeking the Lord by those vvho either do not or vvill not understand what they speak Many thus seek him vvho nevertheless run from the presence of the Lord further then Jonah did not to some Tarshish or to the bottom of the ship but to Hell it self They hear and run from him fast and run from him pray and run from him They hear that they may sin fast that may continue in it pray that it may prosper and as if it vvere some head corner stone they bring it out with shoutings and cry Grace Grace unto it But vve must remember these are means appointed but not to this end and next that they are the Means and not the End For first the Word of God as it is the mother vvhich begetteth this desire in us so is it the nurse to cherish it as it first began that motion vvhich tendeth to God so it improveth every day our activity in seeking keepeth every vvheel in its ovvn place fitteth and applieth it self to every one of the generation of seekers of vvhat state and condition soever But novv If all be hearing where is our smelling vvhere is our eye and hand And if to hear of him be to seek him there needeth no Prophet's voice to rowse us up there needeth no Moses to bid us Hear Oh Israel For they who are lame and impotent criples and so lye at the beautiful gate of the Temple and cannot move at all when he biddeth them take up their cross and follow him without the help of a Peter without a miracle will walk and leap and be as swift as a roe to run to a sermon to hear of him But this indeed is to abuse those helps and means which God doth plentifully afford us For Hearing of it self is of singular use if it drive to a right end and therefore it was wise counsel which Demosthenes gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work the first cure upon our ear that it may be fit to receive the Word of God and conveigh it downward into the heart and so beget a new creature a child of God that we may not count Hearing seeking but so hear that we may seek the Lord. Secondly that our ears may be purged that we may have clean ears and so have pure hands we must beat down our body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring it into subjection by Fasting and abstinence make it a servant that every part may be ready at the beck of Reason For to this end Fasting is enjoyned not to a politick but spiritual not a natural but a supernatural end God forbid that a fast should either keep us evil or make us worse It is but as a stage-play as
neminem ausurum coram catone peccare no body had the impudence to do any thing amiss before Cato And Tully saith of him Oh happy man of whom no man ever durst ask any thing that was unfit to be given And Job saith Job 19 8. that when the young men saw him they hid themselves and the aged arose and stood up But there is a reverence due in this place in respect of every man in the place lest we offend some and teach others offend some who know what order and decency is and teach others who understand so little of it that they are not willing to learn more but come to Church one would think on purpose to be irreverent as if it were a part of the Service as if they counted it devotion not to be devout reverence to be profane humility to out-face the Congregation and God himself And indeed why should they thus confidently doe it if they did not place a kind of religion in it especially in this place which is set apart onely for religious duties But let them know that by thus doing they not onely offend God and his holy Angels but also scandalize pious and well-affected persons and confirm and encourage those who are negligent and profane in their unbeseeming and irreligious behaviour Job 32.7 For when dayes do this and multitude of years by their example teach it as a piece of wisdome Job 8.9 they that are but of yesterday that is the younger sort will quickly be as wise that is as irreverent as they I will not press this any further 1 Cor. 11 1â— but onely say with the Apostle Judge in your selves Is this comely And that you may judge aright ye must resolve the thing the action into its first principle from whence it had its rise and beginning as the Schools speak Consider with your selves what it is that moveth you to this careless and graceless deportment Whether Scripture or Reason The Word of God it cannot be for that breatheth nothing but reverence and devotion It biddeth us keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 I do not find that we are any where bid to take such care of our heads We need no spur for that Neither can Reason plead for us but contrà stat ratio Reason is against us and telleth us in our ear That we should be more reverent before God and his Angels then in the presence of Men in the house of the Lord then in a great mans parlour That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy duties are to be performed holily that is with reverence which ever attendeth and waiteth upon holiness and is inseparable from it as on the contrary no two things are more unlike and at greater distance one from the other then Holiness and Irreverence Dic Quintiliane colorem What colour then have we for rude and unhandsome demeanour in God's house Fear of superstition That hath long since received its deaths blow and it is now buried but not in its proper grave a regular devotion but rudely and disorderly raked up in profaneness Fear that others should imagine we did reverence to the walls Nothing but extreme ignorance can raise such a thought For who knoweth not that a wall is but a wall and that he that setteth up a cottage may build a Church He that passeth this sentence upon thee may as well conclude thou art not a man or that coming into the house of God thou leavest thy reason behind thee But thou art weak and sickly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is but a shift and excuse For if thou art sick thou mayest I might say thou art bound to stay at home God will have mercy and not sacrifice Hos 6.6 Matth. 9.13 12.7 And his mercy shall stay with thee in thy private closet when his sacrifice doth not draw thee to the Church He doth not require thy presence to hasten thy end but looketh favourably upon thy private devotion which prepareth thee for it What is the matter then I fear it is Pride which swelleth in opposition against every plant which it self hath not planted and would root it out Quod ego volo pro canone sit as Constantius the Arian said The continued practice of the Church for many hundred years is no Directory for us What we say or do that must go for Canonical that must be the rule And so to seem wise we become I am unwilling to say what but the best and wisest men have ever accounted it the extremest folly in the world For what wisdom what honour is it first to be unreasonable and then to comfort our selves with this thought That we are wiser then our teachers and then all the holy men of God that went before us In a word then It is but an humour let us purge it out it is pride let us beat it down It is the house of the Lord ye come into and there reverence is due Ye know well enough and are not to seek what Reverence is I am sure that behaviour in Churches which is of common use is so unlike it that ye cannot commit a greater soloecisme then to give it that name unless ye call it so as the Poet calleth Covetousness sacred because it is a cursed thing or as War is termed Bellum that is good and pleasant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is not so but the worst and most displeasing thing in the world We will go into the house of the Lord. This one word LORD one would think might answer all arguments purge out every evil humour check and pull down our pride bow our hearts and knees I might adde uncover our heads especially in the time when we perform that which we call Divine Service This one word LORD should be of more force to bring in reverence into the Church then any argument that Humour or Pride or Faction have contrived to keep it out We have long insisted upon the Object of David's joy we will now therefore leave it yet so as to have it ever and anon in our eye while we consider the other part of the Text and behold the Psalmist in his triumph and jubilee in these words LAETATUS SUM I was glad Herein we observe 1. The Nature of David's delight It was like the Object like himself after God's own heart a company going to the house of the Lord. Psal 69.9 And what fitter object for him to look upon whom the zele of God's house and a studious care to preserve it holy had even eaâ—â—n up A Temple filled with Tribes falling down and worshiping must needs fill that heart with joy which was before filled with devotion Those things which delight us saith the Philosopher are alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitted and sutable to our nature And this maketh our delights so various so contrary The Philosopher flingeth his money into the sea because he hath a pure and
Every wilful sin is fruitful and seldom endeth in it self He that telleth a lie is in a disposition to betray a Kingdom He that slandereth his neighbour is in an aptitude to blaspheme God We may see Wantonness even budding out of Luxury Strife shooting forth out of Covetousness out of Strife Murther He that yieldeth up his Conscience for his flesh and State will be the more pliable to yield it up when they call for it upon the hardest terms Take heed of these yieldings and condescensions Saepè peccat qui semel One fall naturally draweth on another and that a third till we come in profundum to the very bottom Every little sin if we commit it because we think it little is a great one and carrieth as it were written in its forehead BEHOLD A TROOP COMETH Therefore to conclude this let us not trifle with our conscience but honour it And we honour our Conscience as we do our God for she is as our God upon earth We honour her when we observe her and bow to every beck hearken what she will say and do it and what she forbiddeth avoid not touch not taste not handle â—â—ye from it as from a serpent that doth now flatter but will hereafter sting us to death It is no honour to commend Conscience and wound her to call her a Temple of Solomon a Paradise of delights the Court of God and the Habitation of the Spirit as Bernard calleth a good Conscience Then we honour her when we make her so when we let her keep her throne when we bow to her sceptre when the image of her Dictates is visible in all the emanations of our Soul in our Thoughts when they are such as she would mould in our Words when we speak after her and in our Works when she doth begin and finish them When we subscribe to her first commands which we received when we were free from all interpellations of Fear or Hope and fall not off at their after-solicitations to the contrary and then build up a false persuasion in honour of it and call it Conscience offend and sin against her and then give up her name to an Idol When she commandeth silence and we blaspheme when she lifteth up our heart to heaven and our thoughts are full of adulteries when she prescribeth patience and we strike when she bindeth our hands and we break loose when she sealeth up our lips and we will open them to perjury when by-respects shall win us to that of which she hath said see you do it not when vve are not vvhat she would have us to be but fashion our selves to the world and yet bear her image and superscription are the worst of men with a Good conscience then we dishonour her place her under our lusts and most loathsome desires take her from her throne and lay her in a Golgotha They who look as she looketh and speak as she speaketh and do as she commandeth they vvho obey her these alone are they vvho honour her And then as she is our God on earth that is as she is in the place of God so vvhat God spake of himself will be verified of our Conscience also They that honour her she will honour She will be as our Angel to keep us in all our wayes that we hurt not our foot against any stone of offence She will root and build us up in the faith and in a constant obedience to this perfect law of liberty She vvill settle and establish us to remain in it and set the crown upon our heads even all the Blessedness this life is capable of and that Blessedness which remaineth for ever in the life to come And so we have brought you to the last and best of all the Reward set down in the last words This man shall be blessed in his deed This is the End of all and the End is the crown of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle The End is that which all look upon In this all our desires and endeavours and counsels meet and rest It is that which giveth force to a Law which maketh Perfection something and Liberty a gift And vvithout it a Law vvere void and no Law Perfection vvere nothing and Liberty but a name The end shineth and casteth an influence and lustre upon all upon the Law upon Perfection upon Liberty For we are obedient to the Law we strive forward to Perfection we stand fast in our Liberty for some end and that is Blessedness Reward and Punishment are the two adamantine pillars saith Plato of a Commonwealth And they are the two pillars vvhich uphold the Church Democritus called them Gods that bear and uphold all things These lead us under a Law guide us to Perfection and uphold us in Liberty If those were not these could not be but all Law Perfection and Liberty would fall to the ground If Heaven were not happiness it were not worth a thought much less our violence To enjoy something better then what we do is the basis and foundation on which every action is raised For who doeth any thing onely that he may do it That action is vain that endeth in it self Fruition is the ultimus terminus the last end of all Knowledge and Volition For To know onely to know is no better then Ignorance And in every act of the Will it is manifest For no man willeth onely that he may will no man loveth onely that he may love no man hateth onely that he may hate no man hopeth onely that he may hope but in every proffer inclination and determination of the Will we look further then the act in which it endeth When we desire any thing we do it with an intent to be united to it to meet and embrace it and from that union something else in which the desire may rest and be fully satisfied This made Moses meek Abraham obedient David devout Job patient This made Apostles and Martyrs this led them through honour and dishonour through good report and evil report and at last brought them to the cross and to the block the next stage unto Blessedness For that which moveth the Will to obedience of the Law is before the obedience it self as that which exciteth and worketh it If this be not set up there is no such thing as Conscience or Obedience at least our Conscience would lose its office and neither accuse nor excuse us neither be our comforter nor tormenter If there were no Hell there were no worm and if there were no Heaven in the next there were no joy in this life The Apostle is plain Without faith that is Heb. 11.6 without a full persuasion of a future estate it is impossible to please God And He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And in this appeareth the glory and excellency of the Gospel of Christ of this Law of Liberty that