covetous practises on Gods owne Day count any time of their life any worke of their hand any sheaffe of their corne any penny of their purse throwne quite away even as so much bloud powr'd out of their veines which is bestow'd on the worship of God and on the service of the Altar but because men thinke that there is indeed more life in their monie and the fruits of their ground then in their God or the promises of his Gospell Else how could it possibly be if men did not in their hearts make God a lier as the Apostle speakes That the Lord should professe so plainely from this day upward since a stone hath beene layed of my house since you have put your selves to any charges for my worship I will surely blesse you and againe Bring all my tithes into my house and prove me if I will not open the windowes of heaven and powre a blessing upon you that there shall not be roome enough to hold it and againe He that hath pitty on the poore lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him againe and againe If thou wilt hearken unto me and obserue to doe all these things then all these blessings shall come on thee and over-take thee blessings in the city and in the field c. If men did in good earnest personally and hypothetically beleeve and embrace these divine truths How could it be that men should grudge Almighty God and his worship every farthing which he requires from them of his owne gifts that they should date let the service and house of God lie dumbe and naked that they should shut up their bowels of compassion against their poore brethren and in them venture to denie Christ himselfe a morsell of bread or a mite of monie that they should neglect the obedience prophane the name word and worship of God use all base and unwarrantable arts of getting and all this out of love of that life and greedinesse of that gaine which yet themselves in their generall subscription to Gods truth have confessed will either never be gotten or at least never blessed by such cursed courses so prodigious a property is there in worldly things to obliterate all notions of God out of the heart of a man and to harden him to any impudent abominations I spake unto thee in thy prosperity saith the Lord but thou saidst I will not heare According to their pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me Take heede lest when thou hast eaten and art full thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God Therefore it is that we reade of the Poorerich in faith and of the Gospell preached to the Poore and revealed unto babes because greatnesse and abundance stops the eare and hardens the heart and makes men stand at defiance with the simplicitie of the Gospell Now then that we may be instructed how to use the Creature as becommeth a dead and impotent thing wee may make use of these few directions First have thine Eye ever upon the Power of God which alone animateth and raiseth the Creature to that pitch of livelihood which is in it and who alone hath infinite wayes to weaken the strongest or to arme the weakest Creature against the stoutest sinner Peradventure thou hast as much lands and possessions as many sheepe and oxen as Iob or Nabal yet thou hast not the lordship of the clouds God can harden the heavens over thee hee can send the mildew and canker into thy corne the rot and murren into thy cattell though thy barnes bee full of corne and thy fats overflow with new wine yet he can breake the staffe of thy bread that the flowre and the winepresse shall not feed thee though thou have a house full of silver and gold he can put holes into every bagge and chinkes into every Cisterne that it shall all sinke away like a winter torrent God can either denie thee a power and will to enjoy it and this is as sore a disease as poverty it selfe or else hee can take away thy strength that thou shalt not relish any of thy choisest delicates he can send a stone or a gowte that shall make thee willing to buy with all thy riches a poore and a dishonorable health and which is yet worst of all he can open thy conscience and let in upon thy Soule that lyon which lies at the dore amaze thee with the sight of thine owne sinnes the historie of thine evill life the experience of his terrours the glimpses and preoccupations of hell the evident presumptions of irreconciliation with him the frenzie of Cain the despaire of Iudas the madnesse of Achitophel the trembling of Felix which will damp all thy delights and make all thy sweetest morsels as the white of an Egge at which pinch however now thou admire and adore thy thicke clay thou wouldest count it the wisest bargaine thou did'st ever make to give all thy goods to the poore to goe bare-foote the whole day with the Prophet Esay to dresse thy meate with the dung of a man as the Lord commanded the Prophet Ezekiel to feede with Micajah in a dungeon on bread of affliction and water of affliction for many yeeres together that by these or any other meanes thou mightest purchase that inestimable peace which the whole earth though changed into a Globe of Gold or Center of Diamond cannot procure So uttterly unable are all the Creatures in the world to give life as that they cannot preserue it intire from forraine or domestique assaults nor remove those dumps and pressures which doe any way disquiet it Secondly to remove this naturall deadnesse of the Creature or rather to recompence it by the accession of a Blessing from God use meanes to reduce it unto its primitive Goodnesse The Apostle shewes us the way Every Creature of God is good being sanctified by the Word of God and by Prayer In which place because it is a text then which there are few places of Scripture that come more into dayly and generall use with all sorts of men it will be needfull to unfold 1. What it meant by the sanctification of the Creature 2. How it is sanctified by the Word 3. How wee are to sanctifie it to our selves by Prayer For the first The Creature is then sanctified when the curse and poison which sin brought upon it is remooved when we can use the Creature with a cleane conscience and with assurance of a renewed and comfortable estate in them It is an Allusion to legall purifications and differences of meates Levit. 11. No Creature is impure of it selfe saith the Apostle in its owne simple created nature But in as much as the sinne of man forfeited all his interest in the Creature because eo ipso a man is legally dead and a condemn'd man is
his worship Thus all those phantasticall felicities which men build upon the Creature prove in the end to have been nothing else but the banquet of a dreaming man nothing but lies and vanitie in the conclusion Lastly They Deceive us likewise in respect of evill No Creatures however they may promise Immunitie and deliverance can doe a man any good when the Lord will be pleased to send evill upon him And yet it is not for nothing that a truth so universally confessed should yet bee repeated in the Scripture That silver and gold and corruptible things are not a fit price for the soules of men Doubtlesse the holy men of God forsaw a time when false Christs and false Prophets should come into the world which should set salvation to sale and make merchandise of the Soules of men as wee see at this day in popish Indulgences and penance and the like no lesse ridiculous then impious superstitions Neither is it for nothing that Salomon tells us That riches yea whole Treasures doe not profit in the day of death a speech repeated by two prophets after him For surely those holy men knew how apt wealth and greatnesse is to bewitch a man with conceits of Immortality as hath been shewed Who were they that made a covenant with death and were at an agreement with hell to passe from them but the scornfull men the Rulers of the people which had abundance of wealth and honour Who were they that did put far away the evill day in despight of the Prophets threatnings did flatter themselves in the conceite of their firme and inconcussible estate but they who were at ease in Sion who trusted upon the Mountaines of Samaria who lay upon beds of I◅orie and stretch'd themselves upon their couches But we see all this was but deceite they go captive with the first of those that go captive the banket of them that stretched themselves is removed All earthly supports without God are but like a stately house on the sand without a foundation a man shal be buried in his owne pride He that is strong shall be to seeke of his strength he that is mighty should deliver others shall be too weak for his own defence he that is swift shall be amaz'd and not dare to fly if he be a bowman at a great distance if he be a rider have a great advantage he shal yet be overtaken and he that is couragious adventures to stand out shall be faine to flye away naked at the last What ever hopes or refuges any Creature cā afford a man in these troubles they are nothing but froth vanity the Lord challenges derides them al. And the Prophet Esay gives a sound reason of it all The Egyptians are men and not God their horses are flesh not spirit when the Lord shal stretch out his hand both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is helpen shal fal down and they al shal faile together Before wee proceed to the last thing proposed here is a question to be answered If the Creatures be so full of Vexation It should seeme that it is unprofitable and by consequence unlawfull either to labour or to pray for them Which yet is plainely contrary to Christs direction Give us our daylie bread and contrary to the practice of the Saints who use to call for the fatnesse of the earth and dew of heaven peace of walls and prosperity of Palaces upon those whom they blesse To which I answere That which is evill by accident doth not prejudice that which is Good in it selfe and by Gods ordination Now the vexation which hath been spoken of is not an effect flowing naturally out of the condition of the creature but ariseth meerely by accident upon the reason of its separation from God who at first did appoint his owne blessed communion to goe along with his Creatures Now things which are good in themselves but accidentally evill may justly be the object of our prayers and endeavours And so on the otherside many things there are which in themselves alone are evill yet by the providence and disposition of God they have a good issue they worke together for the best to them that love God It was good for David that he had been afflicted yet wee may not lawfully pray for such evils on our selves or others upon presumption of Gods goodnesse to turne them to the best Who doubts that the calamities of the Church doe at this time stirre up the hearts of men to seeke the Lord and his face and to walke humbly and fearefully before him yet that man should be a curse and prodigie in the eyes of God and men who should still pray for the calamities of Sion and to see the stones of Ierusalem still in the dust Death is in it selfe an evill thing for the Apostle calles it an enemy 1. Cor. 15. yet by the infinite power and mercy of God who delights to bring good out of evill and beauty out of ashes it hath not onely the sting taken away but is made an entrance into Gods owne presence with reference unto which benefit the Apostle desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. Now notwithstanding this goodnesse which death by accident brings along with it yet being in it selfe a Destructive thing we may lawfully in the desires of our soule shrinke from it and decline it Example whereof we have in the death of Christ himselfe which was of all as the most bitter so the most pretious and yet by reason of that bitternesse which was in it hee prayes against it presenting unto his Father the desires of his Soule for that life which he came to lay downe as his obedience to his Father and love to his Church made him most willingly embrace death so his love to the integritie of his humane nature and feare of so heavy pressures as he was to feele made him as seriously to decline it And though the Apostle did most earnestly desire to be with Christ yet he did in the same desire decline the common rode thither through the darke passages of death 2. Cor. 5. 4. Vnlawfull indeed it is for any man to pray universally against death because that were to withstand the Statutes of God Heb 9. 27. but against any particular danger wee may as Ezechiah did 1. King 20. 1 2. reserving still a generall submission to the will and decrees of God For we are bound in such a case to use all good meanes and to pray for Gods blessing upon them which amounts to a prayer against the danger it selfe So then by the Rule of contraries though the Creatures be full of vanitie and vexation yet this must not swallow up the apprehension of that goodnesse which God hath put into them nor put off the desires of men from seeking them of God in those just prayers which he hath prescribed and in those
Abounds like the pumping of water out of a fountaine the more it is drawne the faster it comes We grant indeed that the Lord being the Fountaine of life doth allow the Creature in regard of life temporall some subordinate operation and concurrencie in the worke of preserving life in us But we must also remember That the Creatures are but Gods Instruments in that respect and that not as servants are to their masters Living instruments able to worke without concurrence of the superior cause but Dead instruments and therefore must never be separated from the Principall Let God subduct from them that concourse of his owne which actuates and applies them to their severall services and all the Creatures in the world are no more able to preserue the body or to comfort the mind then an axe and a hammer and those other dead instruments are able by themselues alone to erect some stately edifice It is not the corne or the flowre but the staffe of bread which supports the life and that is not any thing that comes out of the earth but something which comes downe from heaven even the blessing which sanctifies the Creature for man liveth not by bread alone but by the word which proceedeth out of Gods mouth The Creature cannot hold up it selfe much lesse contribute to the subsistence of other things unlesse God continue the influence of his blessing upon it As soone as Christ had cursed the figge-tree it presently withered and dried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frâ—m the rootes to shew that it was not the roote alone but the blessing of Christ which did support the figge-tree The Creatures of themselues are Indifferent to contrary operations according as they have been by God severally applied Fire preserved the three children in the furnace and the same fire lick'd up the instruments of the persecution Fire came downe from heaven to destroy Sodome and fire came downe from heaven to advance Elias the same sea a Sanctuarie unto Israel and a grave unto Egypt Ionah had been drown'd if he had not been devour'd the latter destruction was a deliverance from the former and the ravine of the fish a refuge from the rage of the sea pulse kept Daniel in good liking which the meat of the kings table could not doe in the other children for indeed Life is not a thing meerely naturall but of promise as the Apostle speakes Let the promise be removed and however a wicked man lives as well as a righteous man yet his life is indeed but a breathing death onely the cramming of him to a day of slaughter When the blessing of God is once subducted though men labour in the vâ—ry fire turne their vitall heate with extremity of paines into a very flame yet the close of all their labour will prove nothing but Uanitie as the Prophet speakes We should therefore pray unto God that we may live not onely by the Creature but by the word which sanctifieth the Creature that wee may not leane upon our substance but upon Gods promises that we may not live by that which we have onely but by that which we hope for and may still finde God accompanying his owne blessings unto our Soule But here the vanitie and wickednesse of many worldly men is justly to be reproved who Rest on the Creature as on the only staffe and comfort of their life who count it their principall joy when their corne and wine and oyle encreaseth who magnifie their owne arts sacrifice to their owne net and drag which is the Idolatrie of Covetousnesse so often spoken of by the Apostle when all the trust and hope and glory and rejoycing which men have is in the Creature and not in God They boast saith the Psalmist in the multitude of their Riches Nay so much sottishnesse there is in the nature of man and so much sophistrie in the Creature that the proud foole in the Gospell from the greatnesse of his wealth concludes the length of his life Thou hast much laid up for many yeeres and the certainety of his mirth and pleasure Take thine ease eate drinke and be merry Their inward thought is that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling places to all generations And David himselfe was over-taken with this folly I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved Yea so much seed is there of pride in the heart of man and so much heate as I may so speake vigour in the Creature to quicken it as that men are apt to Deifie themselves in the reflection on their owne greatnes to deifie any thing else which contributes to the enlargement of their ambitious purposes The greatnesse of the Persian Emperors made them all usurpe religious worship from their subiects The like insolence we finde in the Babilonish monarchs they exalted themselves above the height of the clouds and made themselves equall to the most high Esai 14. 14. yea their pride made them forget any God save themselves I am and there is none besides me Esai 47. 7. 8. It was the blasphemous arrogance of Tyrus the rich citty I am a God I sit in the seate of God I have a heart like the heart of God Ezek. 28. 26. neither are these the sinnes of those times alone the fountaine of them is in the nature and the fruites of them in the lives of those who dare not venture upon the words For albeit men with their mouths professe God there is yet a bitter roote of Atheisme and of Polutheisme in the mindes of men by nature which is mightily actuated by the abundance of earthly things Where the treasure is there is the heart where the heart there the happinesse and where the happinesse there the God Now worldly men put their trust in their riches set their heart upon them make them their strong citty and therefore no marvell if they be their Idoll too What is the reason why oftentimes wee may obserue rich and mighty men in the world to bee more impatient of the Word of God more bitter scorners of the power of religion more fearefully given over to the pursuite of fleshly lusts and secular purposes to vanity vaine-glory ambition revenge fierce implacable bloudy passions brasen and boasting abominations then other men but because they have some secret opinion that there is not so great a distance betweene God and them as betweene God and other men but because the abundance of worldly things hath brawned their heart and fatted their conscience and thickned their eyes against any feare or faith or notice at all of that supreme dominion and impartiall revenge which the most powerfull and just God doth beare over all sinners and against all sinne What is the reason why many ordinary men drudge and moile all the yeere long thinke every houre in the Church so much time lost from their life are not able to forbeare their
build uâ—…grounded presumptions of safety to it sâ—…lfe by the fellowship of such whom it conceives to be in a good condition Thirdly they involve themselves in the common calamities with those with whom they communicate It Israel had not separated themselves from Egypt by the blood of the Paschall Lambe but hâ—…d communicated with them in their idolatâ—…y they should have felt the sword of the destroying Angell in their houses as well as the Egyptians If upon hostility betweene nations warning be given by an adversary to all strangers to voyde the place which he commeth against and they take not the summons though of themselves they bee no way engaged upon the quarrell yet being promiscuously mingled with the conquer'd people they also shall share in the common calamity and become captives with the rest so good men by communion with the wicked are involved in the generall miseries of those with whom they communicate Fourthly they betray the safety and tranquillitie of the Church and state wherein they live for they under Christ are the foundations of the common wealth their prayers establish the Princes throne their cryes hold God fast and will not let him alone to destroy a people If the Salt bee infatuated every thing must be unsavoury if the foundations faile what can the people doe Now lastly in the words of the Text the Apostle shewes the aptnesse of the promises to clense and purifie and that therefore they to whom they are made do mis-imploy and neglect them if they purifie not themselves from all that filthynesse of flesh and spirit which by communion with the wicked they were apt easily to contract I shall not trouble you with any division of the words but observe out of them the point I have proposed Touching the pollution and filthinesse of sinne and inferre other things in the Text by way of corolarie and application unto that The wise man saith That God made all things beautifull in their time and then much more man whom hee created after his owne Image in righteousnesse and holynesse with an universall harmony rectitude in soule and body Hee never said of any of the Creaâ—…ures Let uâ—… make it after our oâ—…ne Image as he did of Man and yet the Creatures have no more beautie in them then thâ—…y have footesteps of the power wisedome and goodnesse of him that made them How much more beautifull then was the soule of man for whose service this whole glorious frame was erected and who was filled with the knowledge and love of all Gods revealed Will Now sinne brought confusion disorder vanity both upon the whole Creation and upon the Image of God in Men and Angels What thing more glorious then an Angell what more hideous then a Devill and it was nothing but sinne which made an Angell a Divell What thing more beautifull and benigne then Heaven what more horrid and mercilesse then Hell and yet it was sin which drew a Hell out of Heaven even fire and brimstone upon Gods enemies What more excellent and befitting the hands of such a workman then an universall fulnesse and goodnesse in the whole frame of nature What more base and unserviceable then emptinesse and disorder And it is sinne which hath put chinkes into all the Creatures to let out their vertue and hath brought vanitie and vexation of Spirit upon all things under the Sunne In one word what more honourable then to obtaine the end for which a thing is made What more abhorrid then to subsist in a condition infinitely more wofull then not to be and it is sin only which shall one time or other make all impenitent sinners wish rather to bee hurried into that fearefull gulfe of annihilation and to be swallowed up in everlasting forgetfulnesse then live with those markes of vengeance under those mountainous and unsupportable pressures which their sinnes will bring upon them When we looke into the Scriptures to finde out there the resemblances of sinne wee finde it compar'd to the most loath some of things To the blood and pollution of a new borne childe before it bee cut washed salted or swadled Ezek. 16. 6. To the rottennesse of a man in his Grave The whole world lieth in mischiefe and sinne 1. Ioh. 5. 19. even as a dead man in the slime and rottennesse of his Grave To that noysome steame and poysonous exhalation which breath s from the mouth of an open sepulcher their throat is an open sepulcher Roâ—… 3. 13. that is out of their throate proceedeth nothing but stinking and rotten communication as the Apostle cals it Eph. 4. 29. To the nature of Vipers Swine and Dogges Luk. 3. 7. 2. Pet. 2. 20. To the dung or garbage the poyson sting excrements vomit of these filthy creatures to a roote of bitternesse which defiloth many Heb. 12 15. to thorns and briers which bring forth no other fruites but cuâ—…ses Heb. 6. 8. To the excrements of mettals drosse and reprobate silver Ier. 6. 28. Ezek. 22 18. To the excrements of a boyling pot a great scumme Ezek. 24. 11. 12. To the worst of all diseases sores Esai 1. 6. Rottennesse 2. Tim. 3. 8. Gangrenes or leaprosies 2. Tim. 2. 17. Plague and pestilâ—…nee 1. King 8. 38. The menstruousnesse of a removed woman Ezek. 36. 17. To a vessell in which there is no pleasure which is but the modest expression of that draught into which nature emptieth it selfe Hos. 8. 8. And which is the summe of all uncleannesse sinne in the heart is compar'd to the fire of hell Iam. 3. 6. So that the pure eyes of God doe loath to see and his nostrils to smell it Zach. 11. 8. Amos. 5. 21. It makes all those that have eyes open and judgements rectified to abhoâ—…re it in otâ—…ers The wicked is an abomination to the righteous Prov. 29. 27. When desperate wretches poure out their oâ—…thes and execrâ—…tions against Heaven scorne and persecute the Word of Grace count it basenesse and cowardise not to dare to bee desperately wicked then every true heart mournes for their pride compassionates their misery defies their solicitations declines their companies and courses even as most infectious serpentine and hellish exhalations which poison the ayâ—…e and putrifie the earth upon which they â—…reade And when God gives a man eyes to looke inward unridgeth the Conscience unbo welleth the heart stirreth up by his Word the sinke which is in every mans bosome makes him smell the carrion of his owne dead workes the uncleannesse of his evill Conscience the filthinesse of his Nature every man is then constrained to abhorre himselfe to be loathsome in his owne sight and to stoppe his nose at the poyson of his owne sores Ezek. 36. 31. For the more particular discovery of this Truth let us first looke upon the best workes of the best men Though we say not that they are sins and in naturarei culpable as our adversaries charge us yet so much evill doth adhere unto