life and would see good daies let him eschew evil and do good But he hath a very obvious objection it is the most concerning part of wise men in the choice of means to pitch on such as are within their power for to deliberate about and to intend impossibilities is the most horrible instance of folly Now the man of this world chuseth such means as humanely speaking seem within man's power But the means whereby the Christian must attain his ends he thinks are not so and he is glad to think so 't is Apology and he had rather have the excuse of God's not giving grace to him than have the virtue and 't is certain truth that God must give it O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels all just works do proceed saith our Church All holy desires for he prepares the heart that his ear may hearken thereto his Spirit is the Spirit of supplication he must intercede in us with grones unutterable as if men need not set themselves to it but were to wait for inspiration for it from that Spirit who blows where he listeth All good counsels also and just works are from him For we are not able of our selves to think a good thought as of our selves all our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. the very preparations of the heart are from him Psalm 10. 17. 't is he that does touch the heart 1 Sam. 10. 26. and open it Acts 16. 14. turn it Jer. 31. 18. he must draw us John 6. 44. which if he do not no man cometh to him and must give an heart to know him Jer. 24. 7. give a new heart Ezek. 36. 26. and in all variety of expression a new spirit I will put within you and will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and cause you to walk in my statute and ye shall keep my judgments and do them In a word he worketh in us both to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. Now since he onely does all this at his own pleasure as St Paul affirms there therefore 't is not in man's power I know O Lord saith Jeremy c. 10. 23. that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps no not to his main soveraign end And in this the worldling thinks he has advantage but does he not know that he must pray too as well as labor for his own bread Matt. 6. 11. it is God produceth all in order to it He bringeth food out of the earth and giveth wine that maketh man's heart glad and bread which strengthens it Psalm 104. 14 15. He that watereth the hills from his chambers v. 13. and his clouds drop fatness he prepares men corn Psalm 65. 9 10. c. 'T is he that gives us power to get what we have and he that does not know this knows not God Deut. 8. 14 17 18. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God and say in thy heart my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth yea he gives it it self whatever labor we bestow in getting it 1 Chron. 29. 16. O Lord our God all this store cometh of thine hand and is all thine own riches and honor come of thee v. 12. 'T is I gave them corn and wine and oyl and multiplied her silver and her gold even that whereof they did make Baal made an Idol And God is so jealous of his honor in this particular that if men do not render this acknowledgment he threatens to take all away Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof and will recover my wooll and my flax given to cover her nakedness Hos. 2. 8 9. And if he do not take it he must bless it otherwise we shall not thrive shall have no comfort in it for the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. Without that bread may stuff us but not nourish we may have saturity but not have sustenance 1 Hag. 6. 9. for I did blow upon it saith the Lord. So that for ought appears if Scripture signify to the men of this world as here they appeal to it the means whereby they should attain their Ends seem no more in their power then the others For as in the order of Grace those general rules to which he hath determin'd the conversion of a sinner God must work with his means to make them effectual so in the order of Nature those general rules by which all things in nature are effected he must prepare the means and bestow the power and bless the endeavors yea and himself give all too otherwise they also cannot be effectual Thus he hath in both appointed that in one and the other we should live with constant application to and with entire dependence on him in the faithful use of means both in the one and the other order So that the objection is quite vanisht 'T is true tho somtimes God doth blast mens actions so that do they what they can they cannot prosper for some secret cause that 's unaccountable to us yet because for the most part in the sphere of Nature so far as the men of this world diligently use the means they attain their aims in some measure therefore notwithstanding all the interest God pleads in these things they make no doubt but they are sufficiently in their power much more then those in the sphere of Grace are in that of the Christians where they have express promises of not being disappointed and are requir'd by most strict and multiplied commands which represent the work of grace as duty For tho all good desires and Prayers come from God's good Spirit and from his preparing of the heart as we saw yet Before thou praiest prepare thy self and be not as one that temts God as one that waits for a particular inspiration to it one that will not pray without a Miracle Tho God is said to open Lydia's heart yet Rev. 3. 20. he dos only knock and we must open He turns the heart and therefore Ephraim praies turn thou me O God yet by Ezekiel he saies turn your selves from your transgressions and bids Judah Return now every one from his evil waies and make your waies and your doings good He promises to circumcise the heart Deut. 30. 6. but yet he bids them circumcise the foreskin of their hearts Deut. 10. 16. He dos engage to put a new heart and a new spirit in them Ezek. 18. 31. In fine altho he worketh in us both to will and to do as S. Paul says yet he therefore charges us Work out your own Salvation For it is God that worketh in you Now when the man of this world thinks all those expressions of Gods workings in the course of Nature are
that account thy rod comforts us our correction is joyous we take pleasure in the stones of Sion and we favor love her dust the other Symtom They prize her reliques wht is standing of her and since 't is on their account namely thro their demerit that she is so low and weak they are more tender love and pity her more in that condition which they brought her into will do what they can to raise her pulverem ejus evehere cupiunt in the Tigurine Translation 'T is true indeed the stones of Sion in the dust are apt to become stones of stumbling and rocks of offence as St Peter saith of the chief corner stone of Sion Christ hmself 1 Pet. 2. 8. whereat many stumble and fall We had fatal experience how when once the building was disorder'd the subordination broken the Church offices and powers thrown down on the one side Sion strait became like Babel every one almost spoke a strange language and so built by himself built up divided Faiths and Churches and Religions on the other side that broken tottering State made many run away as from a falling Church take shelter in another and what the Cross of Christ was to the Jews that the Cross of his Spouse too was to many pretended Christians a ground to renounce her They no sooner saw their Mother wounded naked in the dust but they concluded her fit to be buried and ran from her as from the house of death as if in the noblest way of sufferings to follow Christ could look like the mark of being Anti-Christian and the yet unsettled state of it is made great use of for the same intents her stones are laid on purpose to be stones of stumbling and to give occasion of falling And truly 't is to be confest that since the bonds of Government which kept men under discipline were unloos'd and since the Churches Ministeries and her Powers are cut so short that they are not so effectual to the ends of their institution to work out a strict Christian life as were to be wisht and since men are divided so by claims of several Churches and by fearful expectations also both the Coversations and the Faiths of men too are grown loose and dissolute and 't was not the least Stratagem of our Adversaries to contrive men should be such as could while they continue such find Sanctuary no where but in their Church at their Altars whether they have but to come to be absolv'd of all But truly 't is extreme barbarity in us when 't is on our account by our demerits for our punishment that she is distressed that fears and dangers press upon her then to sleight her if when we see our Mother gasping then to throw dirt at her make her mouth her mouth be stopt with the reports of her ungodly offspring the reproches of a pointing Scorner that shall cry see how her Sons behave themselves how little love or pity they have for her He favors her stones that beautifies and guilds them with inscriptions of Religious actions this if any thing will raise them and repair her And truly'tis to be expected from the men that do pretend to have the pity and the sorrow that is due to their Mother whom the powers of Hell seem arm'd against to ruin her so far as she 's disabled should themselves supply to themselves what is wanting if her discipline be loosen'd and she have no strong ties on mens actions we should do her work upon us put obligations fetters on our selves 'T is probable this very state of Sion in the text was that which Nehemiah labour'd to repair and see how he effected it c. 9. after a most solemn fasting and confession and bemoaning rather of their guilts then sufferings in the 10th himself the Princes and the Priests and Levites and he rest of all the People with their Wives their Sons and Daughters that were come to understanding entred into a curse and into an oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and do all the Commandments of the Lord our God his Judgments and his Statutes v. 29. Here was a cement would compact the Stones of Sion the whole building against all assaults whatever seat her in her perfect height and beauty It is not he loves her who curses them that laid her in the dust but he who enters such a curse of serving God 't is not he favors her dust who wishes talks or swears on the Churches side but he that humbles himself daily in the dust in her confessions and Prayers he who binds himself with such an obligation to worship and serve God faithfully as she prescribes this will help to raise her make her visible in the lives of her Children and when the dust of Sion shall have a more perfect Resurrection in this world and this of Christ shall as his other body rise out of the earth it will be comfortable to each one that put his hands to the repairs that did but fit one stone to it that would not let God rest till he had establisht our Jerusalem again a praise in the Earth Then God almighty would be importun'd prevail'd upon to put it in the hearts of those men whose part 't is to secure our Sion and repair her breaches to build by a true line and level make such an establishment as may be fitted not to the satisfying parties factions interests or any human appetites but the just obligations or Religion not build weakly fearing as it were the Churches strength should aw men in their practices that the weapons of her warfare should gall their vices besides that their own strong holds may be still able to hold out and not be beat down by her forces for this were to model the structure of Sion to mens own and to their sins convenience But to build her up so as that the profession and the practice of true Religion may be preserv'd safe and Gods Worship kept intire that upon our one onely foundation the rock Christ Jesus we may be built up with a lively faith into an holy life all cemented by Charity and all divisions be made up and we may with one heart and one voice meet and join in giving Glory Honor c SERMON V. OF THE EXERCISE OF CONSCIENCE In the avoiding of Offence towards God and Men. Acts 24. 16. And herein do I exercise my self to have alwaies a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man MY text is the sum of a Christians practical duty for as St Paul had in the verse before set down his faith and hope here he sets down his workings In the words we have 1. The state of that duty exprest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a onscience void of offence 2. That is brancht out into its several respects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and towards man and those either 1. As the objects of that which a good conscience endeavors
bliss which to conceive is to be as God and to enjoy is to be one with him And O thou Blessed Jesu the eternal Lord of all those comforts be favourable unto us thy servants that turn to thee with weeping and with mourning that do with hearty bewailing for our hardness desire thee to teach our souls with some compunction for those iniquities that did put thee to death and would ruin us to break our rocky hearts that they may stream out tears for those our sins which shed thy bloud and would cast us into eternal wailings and as thou hast humbled us into the dust and prostrated our very souls unto the ground to grant unto us to sit down in that dust and to bewail our own demerits which our very ruin can neither equal nor amend O suffer us not to be so obdurate as to prove unmoveable by all thy pressures insensible of our own miseries and sufferings and such as amidst the pains of sin do still retain the malice and the obstinacy and then at last by these thy methods and our greifs recover us from the follies of our lives close our eyes and withdraw our affections from the temting lightnesses and vanities of our conversations and fix our thoughts and appetites upon thy serious comforts those heavenly refreshments after so much sadness that we being reckon'd amongst them whom thou dost chasten put into the number of thy mourners whose share of sorrows are dispenc't in this life may have title to the inheritance of Sons the joys of blessedness and the portion of eternal consolations in the land of everlasting pleasures with thee the Lamb that wert slain and art therefore worthy to receive all honor power praise might majesty and dominion with the Father and the Holy Ghost now and for evermore SERMON VII OF THE CLEANSING POWER Of Christian HOPE 1 John 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure HOPE is of all others the most active passion setting all the rest of them and the whole man on work for who would ever do or desire any thing if he did not hope for some good by it It is this hope alone that employs all the men and all the professions of the world it is the wings of the Desires and Actions carrying them thro the greatest difficulties with courage and alacrity with Confidence and an unwearied Constancy Ad bonas spes pertinax animus est Never will a man leave so long as he does hope and of all hopes that of the Christian should be the most active because it aims at the highest good in comparison of which all other good things are but shadows For what are the pleasures of earth to the things of God not worthy to be the expressions no nor the foils of them Now we see the greater the hopes the more active men are in the pursuit of them for who is there that will take so much pains for a Cottage as for a Crown And is it not then a wonder that of all Hopes yet this Hope of Heaven should be the least effectual in the minds of men and of all pleasures those of God should least invite and least imploy us For what one is there that does not with more eager and constant industry pursue the hopes of profit or the hopes of pleasure than he does the hopes of Immortality and of Blessedness How few are there that do not spend more time and more endeavors take more and longer pains in their Sports than in their Religion which could not certainly be if they had not surer and greater hopes of joy from their sports than from Heaven for the greater hope would certainly set them the more on work No Heaven is a thing of no tast carries no profit no pleasure in the meaning of it for if it did it would employ them in the gaining of it and every one that had this hope would purify himself as he is pure Matth. 5. 8. If the inheritance of the Kingdom of God were as some were upon earth entail'd so that do they what they will they could not be put by it there were then some reason not to wonder wherefore we see men live in the broad way to Hell and yet then hope to come to Heaven and certainly nothing but such a perswasion as that can possibly lull men into such a wretchless security as they are possest with in a thing of this eternal consequence For if we should examin them the most sinful wretch of them all hath hopes to be sav'd yea he would not be able to stand under the burden and the horror of his own killing thoughts if he should but once despair of that so that hope he will and yet if he believe one jot of Scripture it is impossible for him to hope it For that bids him not be deceiv'd neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor theeves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God So that he dares not not hope and yet if he do but ask himself he knows he cannot hope and what then makes him do it Certainly the opinion that such and such the inheritance is entail'd upon and be they what they will they shall have Heaven But alas they are mistaken in the nature of the inheritance we may read of many that were cast off and the Heir must be a servant as long as he is a child if he do not obey no hopes of his arriving at his inheritance when he is come to age St John here will dash all those vain hopes and will tell them as they cannot justly hope for none such as they can be possest of that inheritance and therefore 't is to no purpose for them to hope it So also that they do not indeed hope for if they did ever expect to arrive at Heaven they would not run on in a course that leads a clean contrary way The Apostle here propounds five Arguments to exhort them to the study of Piety to press after Holiness and to leave off their courses of sin I shall name them backwards First in the tenth verse if we be Christians we not onely will not but cannot sin Yea secondly we are indeed Children of the Devil if we do v. 8. Neither thirdly have we any Communion with Christ possibly or interest in his Righteousness v. 6 7. Nay fourthly they destroy the very end of Christ's coming into the world v. 5. Lastly in the front of all these neither can they hope to enjoy any of those glorious promises that God hath made to his Children those of giving them glory and immortality For he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure In the handling of these words I shall shew you what it is to purify himself Secondly what kind of purity he is to strive after as he is pure Thirdly what the
OF THE CHRISTIAN'S BLESSEDNES In beholding God's Face Psalm 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall beâ—â—atisfied when I awake with thy likeness Or as the other Rendring reads it very little different from that But as for me I will behold thy presence in righteousness and when I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it THE words import an express opposition between the satisfactions of the person in the Text and those of them that are describ'd before here in the context â—â—amely of the men of the world which have their portion in this life and whose belly thou O God fillest with thy hid treasure v. 14. of whom he had also said v. 10. they are inclosed in their own fat their mouth speaketh proud things i. e. the satisfaction of these wordlings lies in this that they are great and rich abound with all things that they and their children have their fill of their desires they leave plentiful remains to their posterity these advantages of this life are the onely good things which they value and seek after they receive them as their portion and the having them so plentifully makes them proud of the possession insolent in the use but as for my part I will serve thee faithfully truly and justly and with all sincerity and diligence in the performance of my duty I will seek thy face mercy and favor and so doing wait till thou lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and then whatsoever my condition be on this earth where I would not have my good things I expect other sort of portion from my Heavenly Father yet when I awake out of the dust at thy appearance in thy glory since we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him then at my rising it will be impossible that any thing which is to satisfy me can be wanting to me for my satisfactions cannot but be Glorious Divine Infinite and Immortal as thine are if I awake up in thy likeness So that we have here 1. The nature of that state and the certain satisfactions of it which King David did propose to and assure himself of to awake up after God's likeness and he knows he shall be satisfied with it 2. The sure means of arriving at this state beholding of God's face in righteousness 3. His peremtory resolution as to the use of these means I will behold 4. With the courage of resolution which is taken up against the almost universal practice and the as great contradiction of the World that generally minds far different satisfactions I declare publickly and confess But as for me I will 1. The nature and the certain satisfactions of that state which holy David in the Spirit did propose to and assure himself of The state the Psalmist do's suppose expresly here a state to which he shall awake out of the sleep of death For however some expound his words another way yet from his opposition of himself as to his own expectations to the men of this world as to their enjoiments and declaring of them that they have their portion in this life 't is plain he sets his not in this life in that therefore which he says he shall awake to That state also which St Paul assure us Heb. 11. all the Patriarchs did look for which all the Nation of the Jews had such a faith of that the Sadduces were always from their first appearance counted Heretics for their denying it That I say there is such a state now after so much signal revelation after so much miracle of Resurrections from death is not to be made the argument of a discourse to Christians who can be such no otherwise nor further than as they believe and are assur'd of it And it seems altogether as absurd to undertake to treat upon the nature of that state which St Paul after he had a tast of it says is unspeakable and not possible to be utter'd which he was so far from knowing after he had bin in it that he knew not himself in it knew not whether he were in the body or out of it when he did enjoy that state which St Peter when he had a glimps in our Saviors Transfiguration in the astonishment by reason of the light attemted but to speak of it it is said he knew not what he said it put him so beside out of himself And 't is no wonder if we cannot pertinently discourse of it if as Scripture says it cannot enter into the heart of man to comprehend it while he is in this animal and mortal state And indeed it were the same thing as to comprehend what is the Incomprehensible God himself for 't is the nature of that state that we awake into his likeness the Text says and St John hath said the same more expressly 1 John 3. 2. Beloved now we are the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he or it shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is I do not find it said in Scripture of the Angels in what ever rank of Principality they stand that they are like God rather to be like the most High is believ'd that very ambition that destroy'd all those that fell But as when man was made out of the dust he was the onely creature that was said to be made after God's own image and similitude so after he is fallen again into that dust when he awakes out of it he is that onely thing that is sayd to bear the image of the Lord from Heaven to be like God And 't is not strange if that nature which God did assume to himself come at last to be glorified with some endowments which transcend all those of Angels yet 't is said of them they always see the face of our heavenly Father Matt. 18. 10. To see God therefore as he is do's seem more than to see his face continually and is such a sight as if it do not causally produce a likeness to God in us which yet possibly it may and the Schools think it do's yet 't is certain that it consequentially proves 't is absolutely necessary that we shall be like him otherwise it were impossible that we should see him as he is Which evidently follows from the Argument of our Apostle we know we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is so that such a sight of him is that which either makes us or concludes us like God yea and that to such a degree that in St Peter's words we are made partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. I shall not undertake to be interpreter to the Apostles as to this expression or to give the meaning of those words but whatsoever more it may imply surely it signifies that those Attributes that are essentially natural to the Divinity
Cities might be spar'd in fine when once they have wrought out the measure of God's mercies and their iniquity is full it is no wonder if the measure of their Judgment be full too and it self irreversible and utter But yet tho in all these Judgments whether partial or final Innocent and Righteous persons suffer with the wicked All things come alike to all there is one event to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Ecclesiastes 9. 2. So as that it should seem the sincere Christian can no more depend than others or if he do his trust will fail him yet to omit the reasons of this dispensation of God's Providenc which are many very just ones that alone sufficeth good men in the midst of all such Judgments to depend upon which St Paul writes on the very account of such distresses and necessities Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God even those afflictions working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. They are God's words and so trusting and depending on them we know whom we have believed namely God the person and my last part wherein I am to enquire on what accounts especially he that does depend upon him in these cases hath assurance such as that he can profess I know whom I have believed Now there is scarce that Attribute in God which is not a firm ground for resignation of our selves to and of reliance on him But to pass all those which are every where in God's Book to be met with and are urg'd with all advantage and to name two other onely First 't is certain that we may with the most comfortable hope and greatest confidence rely on him who when we have most need is readiest to relieve As we read in the Scripture of an accepted time of the day of Salvation to let us know that it is not to be catcht in every season as if whensoever we shall have a mind to be delivered and ask for it God must hearken and command deliverances no sure there are proper set times and we must be unwearied in waiting for it so also ordinarily that the time of greatest need is God's opportunity and the day of extremity the day of Salvation is obvious All other times he tries us and does exercise our virtues but when we are past all other help then he relieves us Therefore David is most peremtory with the Lord on that account Psalm 102. 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come And why thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust and Psalm 9. 9. The Lord also will be a refuge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXXII in opportunitatibus in tribulatione in the true opportunity that is when trouble comes And we shall find a reason for this way of working in his Praier Psalm 109. 26 27. O save me according to thy mercy that they may know that this is thy hand and that thou Lord hast don it When we are in such distress as is past man's aid then if deliverance come we cannot chuse but know the hand when we are in darkness and dimness of anguish and if we look unto the earth behold nothing but darkness as of the shadow of death then if any light arise we know it is the day-spring from on high that visits us And if besides this reason and those Texts we but consult the Annals of God's actings we shall find it always thus and not to mention those that refer to particular persons of which Joseph's single story is a manifold instance which also gave birth to those great events which shall make up a demonstration that this is the way of God's procedure In Egypt when the design was laid so that the People of Israel could not have lasted longer than one Age for posterity was forbidden and the Nation was to be murder'd by a prohibition of being born and when they could not to avoid this persecution get out thence except the sea would at once make a passage for them and a wall and rampart to secure that passage and if it also should do so it would but land them in a wilderness and they but fled from water to perish for want of it and escapt being drown'd to die with thirst a place too where unless the desert can bring forth the bread of Heaven unless Flesh and Manna can grow there where nothing grew they have but chang'd their fate and brought themselves into a more unavoidable and speedy ruin when this state of exigence was come then God comes in by weak means a stammering tongue and little rod works all deliverance And again afterwards in the captivity of that Nation a state which Jeremy the Prophet when he had bewailed in sorrowful eloquence in lamentations that live still yet wish'd his head had bin a fountain of tears to weep for it when in seventy years the people was so mixt incorporated with their Conquerors as must needs be very hard to separate and tear them asunder and as for their Temple it was ruin'd and despoil'd of all its holy furniture which was not onely rob'd but desecrated and profan'd so as not to be likely nor scarce fit to be returned the vessels of the Sanctuary being made the utensils of their Idol-feasts and their own riots and those holy bowls made up their drunkeness as well as sacriledge yet when these conquering Robbers were enjoying their spoils and crimes as if wine in those holy bowls did stupity men past all sense they and the great Babylon are taken ere they knew it and the Jews return strait follow'd Again when Cestius Gallus had sate down before Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles when the Nation being oblig'd by their Religion was all in that City and the Christians of the Land were there too after several assaults and when he might have taken it he on a sudden rais'd the siege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Josephus without any reason no body knows why but onely as God put it in his heart to do so to give way for the Christians to obey that voice which the same Josephus saith was heard in the Temple at the Feast of Pentecost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us go hence and upon it all the Christians went to Pella not one staid but every one escapt that ruin which Titus sitting down before that City brought upon that People the great Enimies of his Church to a final utter desolation Once more when after the nine Persecutions which like so many torrents of fire had swept away the Christians in flame Dioclesians like a tenth wave came as if it meant to swallow not
invitations of his Promises the engagement of his Justice Truth and Faithfulness worth all the issues of his Goodness Mercy and Benignity worth the Incarnation Death and Passion of his Son worth Christ's Bloud to purchase worth the giving him all Power in Heaven and Earth exalting him to his own right hand a Prince and Savior to give us repentance and remission that we might be capable of that life and then to bestow it on us if this be not worth the while to strive for not in opposition to Hell eternal then indeed we know not whom we have believ'd Consider how it is this issue that such put it to a most fatal issue but the sure one of all those that will give credit to the suggestions of their flesh and this world Lord Christ we believe thee help our unbelief SERMON XVII THE CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD are wiser than the Children of Light Luke 16. 8. The Children of this world are in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light BY the Children of this World are meant those that look after and take care for onely the advantages and satisfactions of this World have no thought of or at most design for any other by the Children of Light all those that see farther into one to come and who look after that accordingly all Christians are called so 1 Thess. 5. 5. of whom howsoever some are more and some less Christian all yet are suppos'd to have bin visited by that day-spring from on high enlightned in some measure by the Gospel which brought Life and Immortality to light 2. Those former are said here in their generation in their own affairs of this World which alone they busy and concern themselves in or in their contrivance for their Age or time in this life to be wiser than those others Now Wisdom tho it import many offices and of highest concernment which have place in every serious action of our lives it weighs interests and obligations and considers circumstances which do somtimes make necessities and somtimes void them and which cannot all fall under Rules and Precepts and are therefore left to the decisions of Prudence which does judge of them and then accordingly direct and steer the actions yet these offices of Wisdom do not come directly into this comparison of our Savior It s main office in the general is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to consult and counsel well and rightly which acts since they cannot be emploi'd but about things that must be don in order to an end therefore 1. The Wise man always looks at and intends some end and 2. He pitches on such means as seem most useful and directly tending to that end yea 3. Since this Wisdom is not speculative but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Ratio agibilium deals in things that must be don it therefore sets the man upon the use of those means in pursuit of that end it applies him to it and guides him in the execution and does all by Rules proper to each one of these Offices Now as to these three Offices of Wisdom we will try to find out how far and in what respect the Children of this World are wiser than the Children of Light the Worldling than the Christian than the most of them yea than the best and how this comes to pass that so if men will not be wrought upon by any Rules not by God's Precepts nor by means examples yet comparing themselves with themselves how much they fail of the observance of the Rules of Prudence that concern the next World in comparison of their observance of those very same Rules as to this World they may shame themselves into discretion and may learn to be a Rule and an Example to themselves which I must first enforce by that property of Wisdom which I mention'd in the first place that the wise man always looks at and intends some end I suppose this and I may well do so for the World allows the action that hath no end to be to no purpose vain and foolish Now the worldly man as such proposes as I told you to himself the satisfactions of this world either more particularly of some one kind or else all in general and the Child of Light so far as he is so designs especially the happiness of the world to come But then if in relation to their aims those men be wisest that propose the best end to themselves the Child of Light is as much wiser than the worldling as eternal Blessedness above is better than the little broken dying starts of satisfaction here below And truly 't is not in relation to their several ends in general that our Savior here compares them but the one saith he are wiser in their generation in their own concerns and that first in relation to their ends For the worldly man is intent upon his end his will is fixt to it and his affections all concenter in it We are most assur'd of this by the pains he takes to compass it all which are carried on and sweetned and made easy merely by his aims and expectation which his heart is therefore passionately set on for mens actions will be chearful vigorous and lively onely by those measures that the Soul breaths spirit into them If the will and outward faculties lookt several ways all his external motions would be force and violence not nature but since his pursuits are eager his affections are in them I should enter into an Abyss of matter and should find no end of the discourse should I attemt to shew this in the several states of men of this World in relation to their several inclinations to this World's advantages Some pour out and sell the bloud and souls both of their own and other Nations but to purchase some accession to their Territories to enlarge their bounds and glory And it is matter of astonishment how 't is possible that humane nature should attain to such a monstrous excess of barbarous bloudy villany to acquire their ends as Sylla and Marius practis'd Yet neither should men wonder and complain of these so much for every little great man that hath power would be enterprizing upon others outing and supplanting catching at more power cutting short diminishing the rights of others to extend their own and altho these Aggressors be not bloudy as the former which 't is possible they would be if they durst yet they are as unjust and false and they that are not able to do so much are not in a state to put a force on others force themselves break their own natures into soft compliances and servile attendances to reach their ends 'T is thus in all conditions the Soldier charges and storms fire and the Merchant storms the raging Sea and Tempests and if the man's heart be once bent on getting wealth he â—ells his meals his sleeps his sweat the whole emploiment of his life and his anxieties for that which onely
for these do still put demurs and nothing but discomfort dwells upon my spirit A dark and ill state this and therefore 't is no wonder if the Spirit of darkness sheds it especially where he cannot draw in the soul to works of darkness if he cannot quench the heats of their devotion then he will strive to cool them by these arts which like little dashings of water thrown into the fire if they cannot put it out yet at least they darken the flame and change that which was pure and clear into thick fume and smother so do these raise smoak and cloud in the soul. If the Devil cannot betray the heart to downright vice but his suggestions are shut out and temtations scorn'd or at least avoided then he will trouble them in their duties he will suggest things that under the vizor of nicer and stricter Religious shall be let in and when they are in shall put the soul in little combustions and disturb all its performances Therefore these are to be combated with and the heart to be fortified against them as soon as ever we find these little spies and incendiaries of Satan stirring in the mind let us strait seize them and examin what they do there what account they can give of themselves Have they any ground or plea when a thought checks me with a sudden motion of heart least what I do may be amiss I will question instantly hath God said so any where is there any Law that forbids it If I cannot resolve my self I will call in counsel for if I be not ashamed to whisper the unhandsomnesses of nature to a Physician to betray uncomely infirmities shall the chearful quiet of my Soul and the comfortable progress of my Religion be less considerable to me and if by these means I cannot find God hath forbid it any way either directly or by consequence why then shall I do Satan's work for him help him to disquiet my own heart make the semblance of Religion hinder my Religion and with a pudder about duty keep my self from doing duty much more of which I might perform with less trouble than I do think of these things and with infinitely more comfort No sure I will make no sins to my self that God hath not made but in God's name with an upright heart set about my known duty in full assurance of faith But Secondly it will become us whosoever is at any time troubled with these to consider with our selves when we find scruples arise about things of very small concern to examin am I thus wary and thus nice in every peice of known duty have I as sharp checks there and is my conscience as stirring in every circumstance of sure Religion if a true object of charity pass by me or I hear of such an one whose real wants seem to call upon me for Christ's sake and I instead of satisfying his needs satisfy only the importunity of my own thoughts by some little excuse I have not about me or let others give that are more able or why should I give to every one that asks me In this case now is my heart restless and scrupulous least the real wants of the poor soul should make an alms duty unsatisfied till I either know that or till I do releive him If when Praiers call and at the same time either a trifle or something which I had time enough before to prevent and knew well enough the fit times of doing one and t'other yet seek to detain me have I scruples here and are they strong enough to throw aside the less concerns and will not let my heart rest till it brings me honestly and zealously to my devotions If some little slight injury or it may be inadvertency of another fret my mind and begin to swell me into a passion or thicken into a grudg and I am in present heat of words and remember him with a slight or a less esteem do scruples rise as fast as these heats and my heart become more troubled at it self than at the little conceiv'd injury and never well at ease till I am calm to him If it be not thus but we who strain at gnats and swallow camels we whose eies boggle at motes in the Sun can wink or suffer beams to hood-wink them we that scruple at things indifferent things of which we have no rule to judge them sins and are not nice at all in things of certain duty have no such scrupulous conscience in known faults or at least in much more concerning matters we may do well to consider whether our nicest carefulness in these do not betray that in such little things the main of our Religion lies our hearts lay their greatest stress upon these There are certain formalities of Religion things that speak people Professors distinctive characters of a Party professing Godliness little things by which they are discriminated as niceties in habits or gestures or modes or tones of speaking or forms of doing things in Religion or some strict forbearances of things that all the world beside themselves never imagin'd hurt in Now they that do make such to be the stamp and signature of a Professor it is no wonder if they be nice and scrupulous in them and truly to be scrupulous especially in such indifferencies do's dangerously look towards that 't is certain where the greatest care and watchfulness is laid there will the most and greatest scruples be apt to stir so that if these be most in such indifferencies either the heart hath entertain'd some end besides Religion the seeming strict or a Professor or else the heart hath bin betraied and by being bred up to strict cares especially in such things it hath let it self be besotted by those strict and handsom appearances and low spirited as it is hath rais'd no higher but set up his cheif rest there they think if they do these things they are religious There cannot be any other reason given of these different strictnesses this scrupulosity in little things and negligence in greater interests and therefore 't is worth the search in every heart in which examination whosoever shall find his scruples to be universal and proportion'd to the duty his heart watchful especially where the concern is greatest and there most careful where it most behoves him let that heart take comfort that quality is but the nicety the quickness of a clear pure eie that can endure no dust no soil upon it and such an eie shall lead a person thro the paths of God's word which is a light to the feet and a light unto the paths here to the Land of everlasting light and glory where in God's light he shall see light for evermore SERMON XXI THE LIGHT OF THE BODY is the Eye Matt. 6. 22 23. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evill thy whole body shall be full
to me rather than use a violence upon my self I must find out some salve now to quiet Conscience and yet keep the Vice And truly if it be but one thing that a man transgresses in he is apt to be gentle to himself and finds plump grounds to be so The best man hath his fault and this is his only in this the Good Lord pardon him in other things he will be strict but this is his particular infirmity to which his very making did dispose him having been poysoned by its Principles without his fault or conspiration 'T is true indeed men have some one or other sinful inclination which is a weight and violence upon them and which they did derive from Adam whose sin like an infection taken in by divers men breaks out in several Diseases according to variety of Constitutions But truly Adam gave them no ill Customs and they have no Original habits themselves did educate their inclinations into Vices and for those inclinations that are derived into them the water of their Baptism was therefore poured upon them to cool those inbred heats and quench those flashings out of Nature wash away those foul innate tendencies in that Laver of Regeneration which therefore they who spare and are tender to because they are original and natural they spare them for that very reason for which they there engaged to ruin them and do renounce their Baptism as to the aims and uses of it There thou didst list thy self a Soldier to fight against the Devil World and Flesh now whichsoere of these gets most into thee wilt thou think fit to spare thy Enemy because he is thy bosom one the Risque is greatest when the Foe is Rebel and Traytor too is got in thy own Quarters shuffled with thy own Forces entred thy Holds and thy Defences and mixes in thy Counsels does counterfeit thy Guard so that thou but command'st and leadst on thy own ruin Sure here is need of strictest care to rid thy self of so much treacherous danger so far is it from a defence to say this is the single force and bent of Nature in me that if I no not therefore most resist it I am perjuriously confederate with my Destruction and howsoever pure I keep my self from other Vices I am not clean David will tell me when I am Psalm xviii 23. I was uncorrupt before him and eschewed my own wickedness God hath not given us Authority to pick and choose our duties observe him where we like and leave the rest and when in the severe contritions of Repentance we come to judg our Lives we have no leave to spare a Vice because custom hath made it our Companion and Intimate or 't is as near to us as the close inclinations of our hearts He that does so although he live a careful life in other things yet all his Innocence is only this he hath a mind to but one sin and those he does not care for he forbears but that which pleaseth him that he commits And sure God is beholden to him that there is but one way of provoking which does take him and therefore must allow him what he hath an inclination to and pardon him because he does abstain from those he does not like I shall now only add that in this case St James's Aphorism holds that Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point only he is guilty of all he that allows himself to break one Precept does keep none but shall be reckoned guilty of those things which he does not commit For whosoever keepeth the whole Law and yet thus offendeth in one point is guilty of all And then I need not prove such have no Title to the goodness of the Text but may conclude if God be good to Israel it is to such as are of a Clean Heart And so I fall upon the subject Heart And here I must first caution not to think the Heart is set as if it were the entire and only Principle by which a judgment might be past upon our doings as if our Actions so wholly deriv'd denomination from it that they were pure which came from a clean upright heart In opposition to which I shall not doubt to put That the external actions may have guilts peculiar to themselves such as are truly their own not shed into them by an evil mind and a man may be wicked in the uprightness of his heart when he does not intend any such thing but rather the clean contrary Our Saviour tells his Apostles The time will come that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service John xvi 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he does offer an Oblation or Worship shall think his Murder Sacrifice that that would propitiate for other faults his Crime should seem Religion and attonement to him We have seen guilts put on such colours too and yet by these same actions which their hearts pursued with Holy aims out of a Zeal to God as S. Paul says Rom. x. 2. they sacrificed themselves and their Nation to Gods Vengeance Once more St. Paul does find reason to call himself the chief of Sinners 1 Tim. i. 15. for the commissions of that time of which he says that he served God with a pure Conscience ver 3. did what he was persuaded in his heart he ought to do pursued sincere intentions and after says he had lived in all good conscience before God until that day Acts xxiii 1. So that here was enough of the clean heart a good and a pure conscience and could his fiery persecutions by vertue of that flame within be Christned Holy Zeal Could his Pure Conscience make his Bloody hands undefil'd Oh no! 't was blasphemy and persecution and injury for all 't was Conscience for all his heart was clean from such intentions I was before a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious ver 13. We may not think to shroud foul actions under handsom Meanings and an Innocent Mind a Conscientious man may yet be chief of Sinners St. Paul was so he says and a clean Heart will not suffice alone Therefore Heart is put here accumulatively as that whose cleanness must be added to the purity of Conversation to compleat it and it implies what elsewhere he does set down more expresly Clean Hands and a Pure Heart all which a clean Heart may be set to signifie because under Gods Holy Spirit it is the principal and only safe agent in the effecting of the rest as that which only can make the other real valuable and lasting When a Disease hath once insinuated it self into the Vitals spread through the Marrow and seised the garrisons of Life the Souls strong holds and after fallies out into the outer parts in little pustles and unhandsome Ulcers they who make application only to those outward Ulcers may perchance smooth and cure the skin make the unhandsomness remove and shift its seat but all that while the man decays
the Forts of Life are undermin'd and sink the vitals putrefie and the whole Skin becomes but the fair Monument of its own rotten Inwards Just so we have a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inward deep infusion bed or seed-plot of malignity which sometimes shews it self in outward gross commissions but if we only use the Lance or corrosive to these we may perchance make a man shift a sin thus it is possible that the profane may alter into Factious or contrary the profuse Proud man turn Covetous but till the ground of these be purg'd away the man 's not cur'd but only the Disease is chang'd and he is as unsound as ever Gods severe Judgments that did lie so long so close upon us like strong repercussives may have stricken back the breakings out of former sins or inclinations But then no care being taken of the Heart the first heat sent them out again and Mercy made a restauration of Vices too But if the Heart once entertain a real and sincere sense of Religion if it consent to thorough resolutions of Piety as far as the man discerns so far the Cure is perfected and such are fitted for Gods goodness for truly God is good to Israel even to those that are of such a clean Heart And so I fall upon them both together first in the former sense propos'd That Clean heart signifies sincere true-hearted men I have not only the assurance of Translations and among them the Syriack but the Text it self does evince it because such only are indeed of Israel for so our Saviour says Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile John i. 47. One like the Father of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. xxv 27 a man unfeigned that did seem nothing he was not all Heart And such each Israelite each man that does expect an interest in that goodness which the Lord hath for Israel must be sincere and without guile 1. In his Conversation with Men I am not here to say Sincerity is much most generous when it looks like a disingenuous fear to be afraid of my own mind when my Heart dares not look into my Face or speak in my Tongue but must lurk under a disguise of words or countenance that are assum'd and not its own Nor is it Secondly my business to say it is the greatest prudence or as we call it Policy and that not only because it hath most reason to attend and to expect Gods Blessing which other false acts cannot but because though bold open Truth breeds Anger frequently yet insincerity breeds hatred and contempt there being no so ignominious thing as Reputation of Falsness which yet is unavoidable for events must discover insincerity and then how piteous a thing he is when he must turn and wind still in more Mazes till he be quite lost in his own shifts and having no clue for his own Labyrinths betrays himself more by his not knowing where he is and men must needs be much more angry at pretences when they find them than they were at unpleasing truth at first when they discern their wants and expectations too deceived themselves refus'd and mock'd find nothing but a Vizard for a Friend nay find an Enemy indeed for so is the Dissembler to mankind Great Casuists do tell us that the moral Obligations to speak truth depend upon a right that each man hath who is a member of humane society Man being a sociable Creature meerly by vertue of his Speech But speech could not contribute to cement Society if there were not an obligation to speak truth hence they conclude that Children Fools and Madmen who are not truly members of Humane society and also open Enemies with whom we are in a state of War and have broke that society as to all things but Laws and Articles of War all these and these alone we may deceive and then surely the false insincere man either esteems all others Fools and Madmen or holds himself in a state of War with all Mankind out of all Laws and Obligations of Humane society and is an Enemy to the World a Creature by himself but that there are so many of them But to pass by such Arguments Gods Precepts of not lying to one another oblige us and all those that require faithfulness and his Command that Love should be without Dissimulation that while we speak gently we should not be hard-hearted give melting language soft as the airs of Flattery but yet have crusted inwards that cannot yearn nor stretch into compassion Jacobs voyce but Esau's rough red hands Besides Gods reasons do inforce this Putting away lying speak every one truth to his Neighbour for we are members one of another So that Dissimulation is as great a Treachery as for the Eys to seek Traps to ensnare the Feet the Hands to sauce stones for a Meal which may perchance delight the Palate with a transient gust of that they are condited with but cannot be digested into Nourishment Go prepare for your hungry stomachs only festival Smells which may encourage fainting Appetite but do but mock its emptiness go warm a cold part with a painted light cover a naked member with a shadow when your own parts would take it well from one another to be thus insincerely dealt with then not till then will it be tolerable to Dissemble For we are members one of another all fellow-members of Christs Body the Church this Israel to which the Text says God is truly good not in presence or colour onely he hath not the hypocrisies of kindness Now such a true good God he will not be to them who are but counterfeit and mock-parts of his Israel for what is there in such a man that he can be good to To the good kind well-spoken part Alas that is but shape and varnish 't is not the man that speaks 't is all a motion and artifice he puts it on and then it vanisheth and dies is not a subject for Gods kindness or to the heart but that is hard and is not qualified for his Goodness our true good God being onely such to those that are of a clean true and sincere heart towards their brethren 2. And much more Secondly is he such onely to them that are sincere in their Religion to him Christ hath nothing but woes for Hypocrites the 23d Chap. of S. Matth. is made up of them when he would word Gods Vengeance to Sinners he says he shall give them their portion with Hypocrites and Vnbelievers Things strangely coupled sure that they whose Life does seem all Faith all Godliness should be onely fit Company in Tophet for the Unbelievers rank'd and condemned with them that all their strong belief cannot remove them from an Infidel Sure they are far enough from the goodness of the Lord when the portion of Hypocrites is Rhetorick of Hell is its Torments exprest with Art They whose heart is not clean to God in their Pieties but
let their strictnesses take in some temporal aim besides as Reputation with their Party or getting Praise or Wealth they serve Mammon or Fame with Gods Religion and make the very Worship of the Lord be the Idolatry of Covetousness or of Honour If Jehu in his Executions on Ahab and his Family intend the cutting off the Regal Line as well as Baals worship and with their Blood to purple his own Royalty though God did bid him shed that blood yet does it stain his Soul with crimson guilt and God will punish him for his Obedience I will visit the blood of Jezreel upon the House of Jehu Hos. i. 4. But he that lets a vicious aim mix with his Vertue and does good to an ill end addresses Gods Religion to the Devil and makes Christ minister to Belial he does sin multipliedly both in his vicious intention and in debauching Vertue to serve Vice and he might much more innocently not have been Pious Neither is that Vertue or Heart sincere whose intentions are not purely and meerly vertuous but intend to compass some Religious end by means that are not lawful For such intentions are not clean but mixt with Vice and 't is sure I cannot please God with such kind of holy meanings If Saul will sacrifice with the Sheep and Oxen he was bid to destroy his very worship loseth him the Throne of Israel Nor an I serve God with such Pieties God never does require an action which he sees I cannot compass without sin for he requires no man to sin for that were to command me to break his Commands and I were bound to disobey him in obedience to him Shall I speak wickedly for God saith Job and then shall I do so Such Religious intentions the justice of those ends will never qualifie me for Gods goodness when it but makes Damnation just to me for so S. Paul affirms Rom. iii. 5 6 7 8. In fine if there be any wickedness in the heart it gives so foul a tincture to whatever pious actions we perform that they become sin to us 'T is true Prayer is as the Incense David says and the lifting up of our hands is like the Evening Sacrifice but if the heart of him that Prays have any heats of Malice in it truly that man does light his Incense with strange fire kindles his sacrifice with the flames of Hell for so S. James does call those heats He that gives God any of his performances and hath a naughty Heart like Nadab and Abihu he presents his Offering in an unhallowed Censer and all his holy worship will get nothing else from Heaven for him but a consuming fire as theirs did He that will offer any thing to God must take a care it be not tainted with such mixtures which spoil all the Religion making it not sincere and also spoil the Heart by making it not clean and undefiled The last remaining sense A Clean and undefiled Heart Of those things which our Saviour says defile the man some are meerly sins of the Heart such as may be consummated within the Soul and for the perpetration of which a spirit is sufficient to it self such are Pride especially spiritual pride the sin of those that think none holy as themselves and cast the black doom of Reprobation upon all that do not comply with their Opinions and interests such also are uncontentedness with our estates inward repinings at the dispositions of Providence concerning us black malice bitter envyings Now in these as the mind does need no outward members to consummate them requires no accessary Organs to work them out so neither does it require any outward accessary guilt to make them liable to condemnation we know 't was one sin of the spirit onely that made Angels Devils If a foul body be abominable to the Lord shall a foul spirit be less odious he that defiles his Soul offends God in a much nearer concern of his because that speaks nearer relation to him than the Body this was only his workmanship made out of Earth the Spirit was created out of himself a foul body is but filthy Clay but he that does pollute his Soul does putresie the Breath of God and stains a beam of the Divinity The other sort of things that are said to come from the Heart and to Defile are those which S. Paul calls works of the Flesh such as if they be committed must be committed outwardly Murders Drunkenness Revellings Revenge Wrath and Contentions Seditions Factions Schisms all Vncleannesses c. In these indeed the Heart can be but partial Actor the utmost it can do is to desire and to intend them and to contrive and manage the designs of compassing them which yet Providence or the Innocence of others may put out of the reach of mans power or his own temporal fears may make him not dare to set upon them though he do cherish the desires Now if they be obstructed from committing most men use to conclude gently of their guilts while they do keep within the Heart the Execution of them is the onely thing that does look mortal and till the sin be perfected there is no death in it And truly I confess that as it happens many times on a sudden surprize of soul when a bright gilded temptation strikes the heart and dazles the mind we see that the Will rushes on it instantly consents and wishes heartily yet within a while the Spirit does recover out of the surprize puts by the thrusts of fancy and the stabs of the temptation and that Will languishes and dies like a velleity as if it had been nothing but a woulding and now the man would not by any means consent to the commission In this case though there be a guilt to be repented of and cleansed with many tears yet this is Innocence in the comparison but if the Will purpose contrive and do its utmost it is the same to the man as if he had committed 'T were easie to demonstrate this that whatsoever evil thing a man intends and does fixedly resolve he is guilty of though he do nothing or though the thing he chance to do be never so much lawful Those sayings of St. Paul I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is no meat unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean Rom. xiv 14. and he that doubteth is damned if he eat ver 23. These could have no truth in them unless the heart by choosing and pursuing to the utmost any thing that it does judg unlawful incurr'd the guilt of that unlawfulness even to Damnation and all that meerly by it self without the Action which in that case had nothing sinful in it A weight that is upheld by a mans hand and otherwise would rush down to the earth does surely gravitate as much it is as heavy though it do not fall quite down as if it did and were it let alone
hold on any noble part take in some Nerve or Artery then he must cut the thread of Life that cuts it off So he must rent my heart indeed that tears my pleasures from me Life it self does seem to have so little salisfaction without them that it is a death to me to part with them Or else hath the Old Man no Soul is he all Flesh and hath Iniquity debas'd the whole of him so that his very Spirit is become Body of Sin so as that Wickedness should be our very Being be all one with us and I and my corruptions prove denominations of one importance signifie the very same so it is indeed Besides the carnal part that is sold under sin and consequently does deserve the Cross that punishment of Slaves the part also that is in the quite opposite extream that lusts against the flesh that must be made away Be ye 〈◊〉 ansform'd by the renewing of your mind Rom. xii 2. And if there be any sublimer and more deâ—â—â—cated past in that it must submit to the same Fate 〈…〉 in the spirit of your mind Ephes. iv 23. Corruption hath invaded that To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the diviner ruling part is grown a slave to the Beast part of him it hath debauch'd its notions whereby it should discriminate good from evll so that now it can discern no natural difference between them but does measure both meerly by his present inclinations and concerns and the eternal Laws of Honesty are blotted our and principles of interest and irreligion rais'd there in the place and buttress'd by false reasonings and Discourses Now all these Fortresses of Vice that maintain and secure a man in sin must be demolish'd all such imaginations cast down and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and every thought brought into Captivity to the obedience of Christ That Spirit of the mind must be destroyed and we transformed into persons of new notions and reasonings But above all the remaining part of Man his own Will must be mortified which besides its natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by perverse inclinings to sollicitations of flesh is most corrupted and most dangerous in that which way soever it inclines it draws the whole Man after it If any thing in us be crucified in a Conformity to Christ it must be this for in that death wherein Christ offered up himself upon the Cross where although the Divine Nature gave the value 't was onely the Humane Nature made the Offering there it was the crucifying his own Will that above all other the ingredients made his Death a Sacrifice and the price of our Redemption God that had given him his Blood and Life might call for it again when and how he saw good and being due it was not properly a price that could be given him for sin but his free voluntary choice his being willing to endure the Agonies and Contempts of the Cross his stabbing his own natural desires with a resolute determination Not my will but thine be done This his own Will was his own Offering and such is ours if we be Crucified with Christ made conformable to his death if we present our selves a Sacrifice acceptable to the Lord for our will is not given up to him till it do perfectly comport with his but that it cannot do till we renounce our own desires till we have brought our selves to an indifference in outward things to such a resignation as she is storied to have had who being in her Sickness bid to choose whether she rather would have Health or Death made answer Vehementissimè desidero ut non facias voluntatem meam Domine this above all I desire that thou wilt not do my will I would have thee not do what I desire and would have So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole of us the Spirit Soul and Flesh go to make up this Person and the body of Sin is the Old man entire I whole I am nothing but a mass of guilts my Senses are the bands of wickedness that procure for my evil inclinations my members are the weapons of unrighteousness my Body is a Body of Sin and Death and the affections of my Soul are Lusts its faculties are the powers of Sin yea and the Spirit of my mind that Breath of God is putrefied that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Angel-part of me is fall'n and turn'd Apostate and however I be partly Son of Man and partly Son of God yet I am wholly Child of Wrath and so fit to be Crucified Which calls me to the next Enquiry to the nature of the duty here intended I am Crucified What is design'd by it S. Paul does perfectly declare Rom. vi 6. Our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of Sin might be destroyed that we should no longer serve sin So that it means a through Repentance and abandoning of former evil Courses A Duty which there are few men but in some instants of their life think absolutely necessary and persuade themselves they do perform it At some time or other they are forc'd to recollect and grow displeas'd and angry at their sins and have some sad reflections on them beg for mercy and forgiveness and do think of leaving them and when they have return'd to them again they shake the head and chafe and curse at their own weakness and renew their purposes it may be and do this as oft as such a Season as this is or other like occasions suggest it to or move them And with this they satisfie themselves and hope if God do please to take them hence in some such muddy gloomy fit of their Repentance all 's well Now shall we call this being Crucified are there Racks and Tortures in this discipline hath a Spear prick'd them to the heart and no blood nor no water no tears gush out thence hath it made no issue for some hearty Sorrow to purle out Indeed I must confess the Scripture does sometimes word the performance of this Duty in expressions that are not so sower but of an easier importance as first put off the Old Man as if all were but Garment put it off I say not as they strip'd our Saviour in order to his Scourgings and his Cross but intimating to us what an easie thing it is to cast off Sin for them who do begin with it betimes before it get too close to the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Theophyl even as easie as putting off thy Cloaths and thy Repentance is but as thy Shift thy change of life like changing thy Apparel But alas for all the easiness which this expression hints where the sins also lie in the Attire as besides emulation pride vainglory great uncharitableness and inhumanity cruel injustice and oppression often do when many are undone through want of those dues which do furnish other men with the excesses of this
kind when the sins therefore lie in the Attire and they may put them off without a Metaphor yet it is so hard that it cannot be done sometimes the worth of a whole Province hangs upon a slender thread about a Neck a Patrimony thrust upon one joint of one least Finger and these warts of a Rock or a Shell-fish with the appendages eat out Estates and starve poor Creditors for whom indeed they should command these stones to be made bread but that 's a Miracle too stubborn for their Vertue And then how will they proceed to the next expression of this Duty Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts Jer. iv 4. These are harder and more bloody words they differ in the pain and anguish that they put us to as much as to uncloath and flea would do It appears indeed this punishment of fleaing often went before the Cross. To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ctesias of one having his Skin pull'd off he was Crucified And the scourges in some measure did inflict this on our Saviour when they put off his Cloaths they strip'd his Skin also left him no covering but some rags of that which whipping had torn from his flesh Yet this expression sounds harsher when it bids us circumcise the foreskin of our hearts and tear it from thence flea that When long Conversation with the pleasures of a sin hath not onely given them Regallias but hath made them necessary to us so as that we cannot be without them when Custom craves with greater feaver than our thirst when if we want it we have qualms saintings of Soul as if the life were in that blood of the grape when men can part as easily with their own bowels as the Luxuries that feed them if you take away their Dishes then you take their Souls which dwell in them when the sins of the Bed are as neâ—dful and refreshing as the sleeps of it when to bid a man not look not satisfie his lustful eye is every jot as cruel as that other Iâ— thine eye offend thee pluck it out For if he must no more find pleasure in his sight he hath no use of it yea if this be indeed a kindness not to leave him Eyes to be to him the same as Appetite to Tantalus that which he must not satisfie and is his hell 'T is easie if the Lust be got no further than the Eye to pull them out together but if through that it shoot into the Blood and Spirits mix heats with those if it enwrap the heart twist with its strings and warm the Soul with its desires so that it Spirit all the motions all the thoughts and wishes of the heart when it is thus to make the heart to stifle its own motions stab its thoughts and strangle all its wishes to untwist and disentangle and to tear it thence if this be to be Circumcised with the Circumcision of Christ and he that hath not the sign of this the Seal of the New Covenant as he that in the Old had not the other was must be cut off our long habituated hardned Sinners must not think that there is any thing of true Repentance in their easie perfunctory sleight performances there is something like Death in the Duty which yet is required of us farther under variety of more severe expressions for we are bid thirdly to slay the Body of Sin Rom. vi 6. to mortifie our members Col. iii. 5. and to Crucifie Gal. vi 14. which how it may be done the next consideration of S. Paul's condition in the Text and my next part declare I am Crucified with Christ that is first as he was by being made conformable to his Death And truly should we trace him through all the stages of his Passion we should hardly find one passage but is made to be transcribed by us in dealing with our sins First he began it with Agony when his Soul was exceeding heavy for it labour'd with such weight of indignation as did make the Son of God to sink under the meer apprehension And he was sorrowful unto Death so as that his whole Body did weep Blood The Sinners passion his Repentance is exactly like it it begins always with grief and sense of weight whoever is regenerate was conceiv'd in sorrow and brought forth with pangs and the Child of God too is born weeping And for loads the Church when she does call us to shew forth this Death of Christ as if she did prescribe that very Agony requires that we should find that Garden at the Altar makes us say we are heartily sorry for our misdoings the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the burden of them is intolerable So that the Sinner's Soul must be exceeding heavy too Secondly There he is betrayed by his own domestick sold for the poorest Price imaginable as a Slave for thirty pieces of silver I shall not mind you what unworthy things the love of Money does engage men to to sell a Christ a Saviour and a God! and rather than stand out at such a base rate as we scorn to buy a sin at every single act 's engagement to Damnation costs more than the Ransom of the World is sold for and the Blood of God is purchas'd cheaper than any one opportunity of Vice does stand us in But I onely mind you here that he shall have a better hire that will but be a Judas to his own iniquities do but betray the Regent sins deliver them up and thou shalt have everlasting Heaven Thirdly We find him next carried before the High Priest And the strictest times of Christianity would serve their sins so to receive his doom upon them to be excommunicated into Reformation But I shall not urge how we can discover to a Physician our shames all our most putrid Guilts as well as Ulcers and make him our Confessor in our most secret sins neither will I be inquisitive why the Physicians of our souls are balk'd but will pass this part of the Conformity and follow Christ to Pontius Pilate And for this part we our selves are fitted the whole furniture of a Judicial Court all that makes up both Bench and Bar is born within us God hath given us a Conscience whereby we are a Law to our selves Rom. ii We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Jews did want such evidence as is sufficient to condemn us the same Conscience that is privy to our doings and stands by our thoughts and sees through our intentions is a thousand witnesses And that there may be a Prosecutor our own thoughts accuse us saith S. Paul and if we will give them way will aggravate each Circumstance of guilt and danger bark and howl and cry as loud against us as the Jews did against Christ for Sin is of so murthering a guilt it will be sure to slay it self and that he may not want his deserved Ruin the Sinner makes his
are his incitations and motions In sum as to wickedness they are meer Demoniacks This therefore is his chief and the first Engine The second Instrument by which he does demolish whatsoever hopes of Vertue we are built up to is Want of Imployment And in order to this he hath so far prevail'd on the Opinions of the World that they believe some states of men not onely have no Obligation to be busied but to have no Calling is essential to their condition which is made more eminent upon this account that they have no business Wealth how great soever if with an imployment or Profession makes a man onely a more gentile Mechanick But Riches and nothing to do make a Person of quality As if God had made that state of men far the most generous part of the whole kind and best appointed for the noblest uses of the World to serve no other ends but what the Grashoppers and Locusts do to sing and dance among the Plants and Branches and devour the Fruits and Providence had furnished them with all advantages of Plenty for no better purposes Such persons think not onely to reverse Gods Curse and In the sweat of others faces eat their bread but reverse Nature too for Job saith Man is born to labour as the sparks fly upwards in his making hath a Principle to which Activity is as essential as it is to fire to mount from which nothing else but force can hinder it As if man did do violence to his making when he did do nothing and it were his hardest work and pressure not to be imployed it were like making flame go downwards I am sure it is one of the busiest ways of doing Satan's work Our Saviour in a Parable in the 12. Chap. of S. Matth. from the 43. ver saith When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he goeth through dry places seeking rest and findeth none Then he saith I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there Where under the similitude of a man cast out of his habitation who while he wanders through none but desert places seeking for a dwelling he is sure to meet with none but if he find an House that 's empty swept and garnished he hath found out not a receptacle onely but an invitation an house dress'd on purpose to call in and to detain Inhabitants He signifies that when a Temptation of the Devil is repell'd and himself upon some working occasion by a resolute act of holy courage thrown out of the heart as he finds no rest in this condition every place is desert to him but the heart of man is indeed Hell to him for he calls it Torment to be cast out thence yea he accounts himself bound up in his eternal Chains of darkness when he is restrained from working and engaging man to sin so while he goeth to and fro seeking an opportunity to put in somewhere if he find that heart from which he was cast out or any other heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the word is idling not imploy'd or busied so it signifies such an heart is empty swept and garnished for him 't is a dwelling that 's dress'd properly to tempt the Devil fitted to receive him and his forces too prepared for him to Garrison and make a strong hold of whence he cannot be removed for he takes unto him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there No doubt they are the Patron-Guardian spirits of the seven deadly Sins their Tuâ—elary Devils Some of those good qualities that are the attendants of Idleness you may find decypher'd in the Scripture S. Paul says when people learn to be idle they grow tatlers busie bodies speaking things which they ought not 'T is strange that Idleness should make men and women busie bodies yet it does most certainly in other folks affairs Faction than which nothing in the world can be more restless is nurs'd by it Where are States so censured so new modell'd as at certain of our Refectories places that are made meerly for men to spend their time in which they know not what to do with At those Tables our Superiours are dissected Calumny and Treason are the common are indeed the more peculiar entertainments of the places In fine where persons have no other employment for their time but talking and either have not so much Vertue as to find delight in talking good things or not so much skill as to speak innocent recreation there they talk of others censure and backbite and scoff This is indeed the onely picquant conversation Gall is sawce to all their Entertainments And that you may know these things proceed from that old Serpent they do nothing else but hiss and bite 'T is the poyson of Asps that is under their lips which gives rellish to their Discourses 't is the sting that makes them grateful venom that they are condited with More of the brood of this want of Imployment you may find at Sodom namely Pride and Luxury For saith Ezekiel This was the Iniquity of Sodom Pride fulness of bread and abundance of Idleness was in her and in her daughters And indeed the Idle person could not possibly know how to pass his hours if he had not Delicacies to sweeten some Wine to lay some asleep and the solicitous deckings of Pride to take up others But the studious gorgings of the inside and the elaborate trimmings of the outside help him well away with them Good God! that for so many hours my morning eyes should be lift up to nothing but a Looking-glass that that thin shadow of my self should be my Idol be my God indeed to which I pay all the devotions I perform And when with so much care and time I have arrayed and marshall'd my self that I should spend as much more too in the complacencies of viewing this with eager eyes and appetite surveying every part as if I had set out expos'd them to my self alone and only dress'd a prospect for my own sight and since Nature to my grief hath given me no eyes behind that I should fetch reliefs from Art and get vicarious sight and set my back parts too before my face that so I may enjoy the whole Scene of my self And why all this for nothing but to serve vain Ostentation or negotiate for Lust to dress a Temptation and start Concupiscence And that the half of each Day should be spent thus the best part of a reasonable Creatures and a Christians life be laid out upon purposes so far from Christian or reasonable And truly Luxury will easily eat the remainder up that sure Companion of Idleness For when the Israelites were in the Wilderness where they could not eat but by
him draw off and flie It is not strange to find him siding with a natural Inclination with the bent of Constitution still presenting Objects laying Opportunities throwing in Examples and all sorts of Invitation always pressing so that when a man hath strugled long he does grow weary of the service not enduring to be thus upon his guard perpetually watching a weak heart with strong inclinations busie Devils do lay siege to and so growing slack and careless he is presently surprised Or else despairing that he shall be always able to hold out lays hold upon a tempting opportunity and yields by the most unreasonable and basest cowardise that can be yields for fear of yielding lest he should not hold out he will not but gives up and puts himself into that very Mischief which he would avoid meerly for fear of coming into it For which fear there is no reason neither For 't is not here as in our other Sieges where if it be close continuance must reduce men to necessity of yielding Strengths and Ammunitions will decay Provisions fail and if the Enemy cannot their own Hunger will break through their Walls and make avenues for Conquest time alone will take them but in these Spiritual Sieges one Repulse inables for another and the more we have resisted the Temptation is not onely so much flatter and more weak and baffled but the inward Man is stronger Victory does give new forces and is sure to get in fresh and still sufficient supplies For God giveth more grace saith S. James And they shall have abundance saith our Saviour So that where the Devil after several repulses still comes on with fresh assaults we may be sure he does discern there is some treacherous inclination that sides with him And although the man refuse himself the satisfaction of the sin the Devil sees he hath a mind to it his refusals are but faint not hearty though he seem afraid to come within the quarters of the Vice he keeps it may be correspondence with the incentives to it entertains the opportunities plays with the Objects or at best he does not fortifie against him Now this gives the Tempter hopes and invites his assaults and does expose the person to be taken by him But where he sees he is resisted heartily his offers are received with an abhorrency discerns Men are in earnest watch to avoid all opportunities and occasions and prepare and fortifie and arm against him there he will not stay to be the triumph of their Vertue We may know thâ—â— by his Agents those that work under the Devil whom he hath instructed in the mysteries of waging his Temptations Where they are not like to speed and as to this they have discerning spirits they avoid and hate and come not near but study spite and mischief onely there The intemperate men are most uneasie with a person whom they are not able to engage in the debauch the rudeness and brutality of their excesses are not so offensive to the sober man as his staid Vertue is to them they do not more avoid the crude egestions shameful spewings of their overtaken fellows Riot then they do the shame and the reproach that such a man's strict Conversation casts on them which does in earnest make them look more foul and nasty to themselves In fine every Sinner shuns the Company of those whom he believes Religious in earnest 't is an awe and check to them they are afraid and out at it as their Great Master also is who when he is resisted must be overcome And as they that are beaten have their own fears also for their Enemies which are sure to charge close put to slight chase and pursue them so it seems he also is afraid of a sincere and hearty Christian for he flies him So he did from Christ Matth. iv verse 11. and so the Text assures If you resist him he will flie from you And now although we all did once renounce the Devil and his works were listed Soldiers against him took a Sacrament upon it and our Souls the immortality of life or misery depend upon our being true and faithful to our selves and Oaths or otherwise nor is there more required of us but resolution and fidelity onely not to be consenting to our Enemies Conquest of us not to will Captivity and Servitude Yet as if in meer defiance of our Vows and Interests we not onely will'd the ruine but would fight for it we may find instead of this resisting of the Devil most men do resist the Holy Ghost quench not the fiery darts of Satan but the Spirit and his flames by which he would enkindle love of God and Vertue in them If he take advantage of some warm occasion to inflame their courage against former follies heat them into resolutions of a change as soon as that occasion goes off they put out those flames and choak these heats until they die If he come in his soft whispers speak close to the heart suggest and call them to those joys of which himself is earnest to all these they shut their ears can hear no whispers are not sensible of any sounds of things at such a distance sounds to which they give no more regard than to things of the same extravagance with the Musick of the Spheres Nay if he come with his more active methods as the Angels came to Lot send mercy to allure and take them by the hand as they did to invite and lead them out of Sodom if that will not Judgments then to thrust them out as they did also come with fire and brimstone to affright them they not onely like the men of Sodom do attempt a violence and Rape upon those very Angels but they really ally debauch the Mercies and profane the Judgment having blinded their own Eyes that they might see no hand of God in either using thus unkindly all his blessed methods of reclaiming them till they have grieved him so that he forsake and leave them utterly As if they had not heard that when the Holy Spirit is thus forc'd away the evil spirit takes his place 1 Sam xvi 14. As if they knew not that to those who close their eyes and stop their ears against the Holy Spirit 's motions till they are grown dull of hearing and blind to them God does send a spirit of slumber that they should not see nor hear and that for this dire reason that they may not be converted nor be saved Five times he affirms it in the Scripture Yea once more in words of a sad Emphasis 2. Thess. ii 12 13. He sends them strong delusions that they may believe a lye that they all may be damn'd who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness And that because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Blessed God! Is it so easie for such Sinners to believe and be converted that thy self shouldst
indulg'd license makes them too big and heady to be brought under discipline And is 't not so with us Among many of those that stay within the Church I know not whether I do well to say so when of these I mean there is little other Evidence of their doing so but this that they will swear and drink of the Churches side blessed Sons of a demolished Church who think to raise their Mother a Temple by throwing stones at her by reason of the late overthrow of Government and discipline and the consequent licences Vice hath been so nurst up not only by an universal barefac'd uncorrected practice but by principles of liberty that can dispute down all Ecclesiastical restraints and have set up the Religion of License that now sin is grown so outragious as to be too strong for discipline nay rather than it should be set up 't is to be feared they would endeavour to reverse all in the Church and enterprise as much in their vices quarrel as others have done for mistaken Religion And indeed to what purpose were the Censures whose first and medicinal effect is shame amongst men where 't is in very many instances the only shameful thing not to be vitious where men stand candidates for the reputation of glorious sinners take to themselves sins they have not committed that are not theirs and usurp Vice sins and damnations hypocrites What work is here for discipline But this state wants not precedents the censures of the Church were not only lay'd aside in the Vastations of the Arian heresie and persecution when the weapons of the Churches warfare were too weak to make defence against all their cruelties and impieties and before that in Diocletian's days against the Lapsi But we find also that Saint Paul is forc'd to break out only in a passionate wish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would they were even cut off that trouble you cut off by excommunication he means Gal. 5. 12. When he saw the ill humours were too spreading and too tough also Sedition and Sehisme wide and obstinate so that neither his authority could reach nor his methods cure but were more likely to exasperate them Then he does excommunicate them only in desire And again 2 Cor. 10. 6. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfill'd It becomes therefore every one that hath good Will for Sion to labour to fulfill his own obedience that so the Church may be empower'd to use Christ's Method for reforming of the rest And thet that will not do so must know they shall not only answer for their sins but for refusing to be sav'd from them that they resist all medicine as men resolv'd that nothing shall be done towards their Cure as men that rather choose to perish and prefer destruction And for the seasons and degrees of putting this work into Execution Wisdom must be implor'd from that Spirit of Wisdom that calls unto this work The last Part Whereunto I have called them The Nature of the calling of the Holy Ghost is a Subject that would bear a full discourse But waving those pretensions which Necessity and inward incitation do make to be the Calls of the Holy Ghost I shall positively set down that the call of God and of the Holy Ghost to any Work or Office for I enquire not of his calling to a privilege or state of favour is his giving abilities and gifts qualifying for that Work or Office The call immediate when the gifts were so but mediate and ordinary when the abilities are given in his blessing on our ordinary labours 'T is so in every sort of things Exod. 31. 2. See I have call'd Bezaleel and I have fill'd him with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of Workmanship to devise cunning works and to work in all manner of Workmanship and behold I have given him Aholiab and in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put Wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee And he repeats the same again Chap. 35. 30. adding that he hath put in his heart that he may teach both he and Aholiab so that giving this skill to work and teach is nam'd Gods calling So in another case the Lord does say of Cyrus I have call'd him Esay 48. 15. which he explains in the 49. I have holden him by my right hand to subdue Nations before him to loose the loyns of Kings I have girded him So when Isaiah saith the Lord hath call'd me from the Womb or rather says that of our Saviour Isa. 49. 1. he tells you how ver 5. he form'd me and prepared me from the Womb to be his servant to bring Jacob to him And throughout the New Testament as his Call to a privilege is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace in allowing such a state of favour so his calls to a Work are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts enabling for it The Gifts of these Apostles by which they were enabled for their Office and which made up their call are set down Those of Barnabas in the fore-cited 11 Act. He was a good man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost and Paul's call was a little Extraordinary If we look into times we shall find reason to believe those Revelations in 2 Cor. 12. were given to Paul a little before this consecration of him in the Text. That Epistle was writ saith Baronius in the second year of Nero and this separation was in the second of Claudius as may be gathered also in some measure from the famine mention'd in the 28th verse of the 11th chap. betwixt these two were fourteen years now saith Saint Paul when he wrote that he had his revelation somewhat above 14. years before a little therefore before this solemnity Here was a call indeed call'd up to the third heaven to receive instructions for his Office and for ought he did know call'd out of his own body too that he might be the fitter for it whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knows v. 2. and that again v. 3. They whom Gods Spirit qualifies for Consecration to separate to these diviner Offices may be stil'd Angels well when they are call'd from all regards or notices of any body that belongs to them their gifts and graces set them above the consideration of flesh In the entertainment of these qualifications the Soul is swallowed up so that it cannot take cognizance whether it have a body of its own and is not sensible of that deer partner of it self it is so onely sensible of this Employment 'T is not for an Apostle or for his Successor to think of things below with much complacency When these have all their uses all their glories on they but make pomp to dress the body which an Apostle does not design for nor knows whether he be concern'd at all
Condition There never was so much pretence of seeking God as in those late days of his absence from us and it should seem indeed we knew not where to find him we took such several ways to seek him But if God did not look down from heaven then as he did Psal. 14. to see if any did understand and seek after God should he not then have found it here as there They are altogether gone out of the way their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues have they deceived the poison of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and unhappiness is in their ways and the way of peace have they not known there is no fear of God before their eyes They eat up my people as it were bread and which is worse in these then them they even then call upon God as if they craved a blessing from the Lord upon that meal that did devour his people and when they did seek God they meant to find a prey Yet where were any others that did seek him Or that do cleave to him now The Schismatick does not seek God who shuns the place where he appears and meets and dwells nor does he cleave to God who tears himself off from the Lord's body Mark such as cause divisions saith S. Paul and avoid them and if all Christians must avoid them then I am sure God is not with them The other Schismaticks that divide from the World by cutting off the World from them do they seek God that are diverted by so many Saints and Angels that terminte divinest Worship in a creature Or do they cleave to God when their devotion embraceth stocks and stones Or did they seek God for the purpose of my Text who did not seek David their King but did apply themselves to several foreign Princes and to others which they hoped would set up their Golden Calf Incendiaries that make fires and raise commotions these are farr from God for the Lord was not in the fire or in the Earth-quake but in the still small voice in the soft whispers of peace and love The Atheist he that says in his heart there is no God will not seek God you may be sure nor does he care to seek David his King who is equally well under all Governments that will allow his Licences and who hath no Religion to tie him to any If he at all disliked the former it was upon reasons of Burthen or of Pride or Libertinism So much Religion though counterfeit was a reproach to him and the face of such strictness was uneasie to him These are so far from seeking God that God says these did drive him out of Israel Ezek. 9. 9. And then when that hath so long been the Wit that it is now the Complexion of the Age and they who thought fit to shew their not being Hypocrites by License and to give it an easie word by drollâ—ry in sacred things have now made nothing to be sacred to them how shall the Lord dwell among such They are enough to exercise God out of a Nation The Hypocrite also for all his Fasts and Prayers never did seek God for he is but a whited Sepulcher our Saviour says Now who would seek the Living God among the dead the Lord of Life sure is not to be found in Graves Golgotha was a place to crucifie him in not Worship him He takes not in the Air of Funeral Vaults for Incense it was a Demoniack that used to be among the Tombs The subtle false and faithless men that walk in Mazes never shall meet God These are the windings and the tracts of the Old Serpent and they lead only to his habitation They that do climb as if they meant to find God on his own Throne that follow Christ up to a pinnacle of the Temple or to the top of that exceeding high Mount whence they can over-look the glories of the World and pick and chuse these do not go to seek Christ there It is the Devil that does carry up thither upon his own designs Nor is it possible to seek the Lord in the ways that lead to the strange Womans house for her house is the way to hell Solomon says and he did know nay more her steps take hold on hell seise on those everlasting burnings which her foul heats kindle and begin In a word they that seek their own that turn all meerly to their advantage they cannot seek God too he will not be joynt God with Mammon And then where are the men that sought him That did retrive him to us Or with whom does he dwell If he be not among us we do in vain flatter our selves in our prosperity and peace gawd it in all our bright appearances Have we not seen the Sun rise with a glory of day about him and mounting in his strength chase away all the little receptacles and recesses of the night not leave a cloud to shelter the least relicks of her darkness or any spot to chequer or to fleck the countenance of day When strait a small handful of vapor rais'd by that Sun it self did creep upon his face and by little and little getting strengh be-dasht his shine and pour'd out as full streams of storm as he had done of light 'till it even put out the day and shed a night upon the Earth in spight of him So may prosperity it self if the Lord and his blessing be not in it raise that which will soon overcast and benight the most glorious condition of a Nation That Wine which now makes your hearts glad may prove like that which did commit the Centaâ—res and the Lapithae first kindle Lusts then Wars and at last onely fill a Cup of trembling and astonishment and that Oyl that does make you chearful countenances may make your paths slippery and nourish flames that will devour and ruine all But God who is found of them that seek him not nay who himself sought the lost sheep and carried him when with his straying he was wearied into impossibility of a return as also sought and found and brought together us and our great Shepherd For this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes These ways of his also are so past finding out that we may well conclude they are the meer foot-steps of his incomprehensible goodness and we have onely now to fear that goodness But give me leave to say Those that despise his goodness do not fear it and they whom it does not lead to repentance do despise it S. Paul says Rom. 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-sufferance not knowing that the goodness of the Lord leads thee to repentance And now O Lord what sort of men among us hath thy goodness wrought upon and made repent Those whom it was directed to convince
and came on purpose to to prove by their own onely argument they had of providential Miracles they were not in the right but that destruction and misery were in their ways yet these chuse rather to deny their own conclusions and resist Gods goodness then to be convinced and repent For we have seen them as bold Martyrs to their Sin as ever any to Religion signalize their resolv'd impenitence with chearful suffering as if the fire they were condemn'd to were that Triumphal Chariot in which the Prophet mounted up to Heaven Others that did not go so far in condemnation nor guilt as they and therefore think they have no reason to repent of that do they repent of what they did contribute to it Of those that lifted up their hands to swear and fight how many are there that have made them fall and smite their own thigh saying What have I done Do not all rather justifie as far as they themselves proceeded And if all that were well why do not we repent of our Allegiance and Loyalty If all that were well what hath thy goodness done O Lord that hath reverst it all And for the rest those that do not partake the plenties of thy goodness murmur and repine at it are discontent at having what they pray'd for what they would have died for Those that have been partakers of it have turned it into wantonness have made it furnish them for base unworthy practices such as have not the generosity of Vice have not a noble manly wickedness are poltron sins have made it raise a cry on the Faithfullest party the best Cause and the purest Church in the World While we have debauched Gods own best Attribute made his goodness procure for our most wicked or self-ends and the face of things is so vicious in every order and degree and sex that But the Confession is onely fit for Litanies and we have need to make the burthen of ours be Lord give us some afflictions again send out thy Indignation for we do fear thy goodness it hath almost undone us and truly where it does not better it is the most fearful of Gods Attributes or Plagues for it does harden there St. Paul says so in the forecited place and Origen does prove this very thing did harden Pharaohs heart indulgence was his induration Now induration is the being put into Hell upon the Earth There is the same impenitence in both and judgment is pronounced already on the hardned and the life they lead is but the interval betwixt the Sentence and the Execution and all their sunshine of Prosperity is but kindled Brimstone onely without the stench And then to make the treasures of Gods bounty be treasures of wrath to us to make his kindness his long-suffering that is St. Peter says salvation condemn us his very goodness be Hell to us But sure so great a goodness as this we have tasted cannot have such deadly issues and it was great indeed so perfectly miraculous in such strange and continued successes resisting our contrivances and our sins too overcoming all opposition of our vices and our own policies that do not comport with it and in despight of all still doing us good it was fatality of goodness Now sure that which is so victorious will not be worsted by us But Oh! have we not reason so much more to fear the goodness The greater and more undeserved it is the more suspicious it is As if it were the last blaze of the Candle of the Lord when its light gasps its flash of shine before it do go out the dying struggles and extream efforts of goodness to see if at the last any thing can be wrought by it And if we did consider how some men manage the present goodness make use of this time of it and take and catch we would believe they did fear the departure of it But yet it is in our power to fix it here If we repent Gods gifts then are without repentance but one of us must change Bring Piety and Vertue into countenance and fashion and God will dwell among us Nay St. Paul says Goodness to thee if thou continue in his goodness If we our selves do not forsake it and renounce it not fear it so as to flie from it but with the fears of sinking men that catch and grasp lay fast dead hold upon it if as God promises he so put his fear in our hearts that we never depart from it fear that hath love in it and is as unitive as that then it shall never depart from us but we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living and shall be taken thence to the eternal fulness of it This day shall be the Birth-day of Immortal Life the entring on a Kingdom that cannot be moved A Crown thus beautified is a Crown of Glory here and shall add weight and splendor to the Crown hereafter A Church thus furnished is a Church Triumphant in this World and such a Government is the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth and then we shall all reign with him who is the King of Kings and who washed us in his Blood to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father To whom be glory and dominion for ever Amen SERMON XVIII AT CHRIST'S-CHURCH IN OXFORD ON St STEVEN's Day MATH V. 44. But I say unto you love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you I Need no Artifice to tie this Subject and this Day together The Saint whose memory we celebrate was the Martyr of this Text And 't is impossible to keep the Feast but by a resolution of obeying these Commands you being call'd together on this day to beseech God to grant that you by the Example of this first Martyr St. Stephen who pray'd for his Murderers may learn to love your Enemies and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you A strange command in an Age in which we scarcely can find men that love their Friends nor any thing but that which serves their interests or pleasures that indeed love nothing but themselves nor is it onely injury that works their hate and enmity but difference in opinion divides hearts and men are never to be reconcil'd that have not the same mind in every thing as if one Heaven should not hold them that have not one judgment in all things we see that one Church cannot hold them and they that have but one same God one Redeemer and Saviour one Holy Spirit of Suplication cannot agree yet in one Prayer to him though they have but one same thing to pray for to him will not meet in their Worship because they do not in some Sentiments and 't is no wonder all Christ's reasonings and upbraidings all the Advantages he does propose to them that love the shames he casts on them