removed after we are fast planted and grounded in the house of God he takes us aright This is a certainty that we may that we must labour to aspire unto Commo vetur sides non excutitur as Chamier well We must therefore give all diligence to make this effectuall calling this eternall election thus sure unto us Mark in what order first our calling then our election nor beginning with our election first it were as bold as absurd a presumption in vain Men first to begin at Heaven and from thence to descend to Earth The Angels of God upon Jacobs ladder both ascended and descended but surely we must ascend onely from Earth to Heaven by our calling arguing our election If we consider of Gods working and proceeding with us it is one thing there he first foreknowes us and praedestinates us then he calls us and justifies us then he glorifies us Rom. 8.29.30 If we consider the order of our apprehending the State wherein we stand with God there we are first called then justified and thereby come to be assured of our predestination and glory Think not therefore to climb up into Heaven and there to read your names in the book of Gods eternall decree and thereupon to build the certainty of your calling believing persevering this course is presumptuously preposterous but by the truth of your effectuall calling and true believing grow up at last towards a comfortable assurance of your election which is the just Methode of our Apostle here Make your calling and election sure Mark then the just connexion of these two If the calling then the election one of these doth necessarily imply the other many Thousands are outwardly called who yet have no right in Gods eternall election here is as much difference as between many and few But where the heart is effectually called home to God by a true and lively faith applying the promises of God and laying effectuall hold of Christ there is certainly an election Doubtless there is much deceit and mis-prision in the World this way every Faith makes not an effectuall calling there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Temporary there is an inform there is a counterfeit Faith Many a one thinks he hath the true David when it is but an Image stuff't with goates hair we know how deceitfull Mans heart is and how cunning Satan is to gull us with vain showes that he may hold us off from true and solid comforts But if there be false saith we know there are true ones yea there could not be false if there were not a true one so much more must be our diligence to make sure work for our Faith and by that for our calling which ascertained will evince our election As Men when they hear there are many conterfeit slips and much washed and clipped coyne abroad are the more carefull to turn over and examine every peece that passeth through their hands So then those whom God hath thus joyned neither Man nor Devil can put asunder Our calling and Election Three heads then offer themselves here to our present discourse 1. That our Calling and Election may be made sure 2. That we must endeavour to make them sure 3ly How and by what means we may and must endevor to assure them As for the first of these the very charge and command it self implyes it The justice of God doth not use to require impossible things from us when therefore he bids us gâ—â—e diligence to do it what doth it imply but that by diligence it may be done what will our diligence do in a business that cannot be done should a man be bidden to take care that he flye well or waâ—k steddily on his head this would justly sound as a mockery because he knowes they are not fecible but when he is bidden to walk circumspectly and to take heed to his feet it presupposeth our ability and requireth our will to performe it and so doth this precept here Men are apt to imploy their wits to their own disadvantage The Romish Doctors have been of late times very busy to cry down the possibility of this certainty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pontificiam nos seriò damnamus aversamur toto coelo errant qui hanc cum isto dogmate confundunt Alia est istaec perpetua dubitatio sive fluctuatio qua statuunt Pontificii nâ—minem in hac vita certitudine fidei certum esse posse se gratiam apud Deum adeptum esse Quid hoc ad praesentem quaeâ—tionem Quis nostrûm hanc Pontificiorum sententiam unquam approbavit Imo ut huic calumniae maturè obviam iremus in propositione sententiae nostrae circa quintâ—m articulum exsertè professi sumus thesi 7. Vere fidelem ut pro tempore praesente de fidei conscientiae suae integritate certum esse posse ita de suâ salute salutifera Dei erga ipsum benevolentia pro illo tempore certum esse posse ac debere addentes insuper Pontificiam sententiam nos hîc improbare Remonstr defens 51. articuli p. 338. they and none but they for all Protestants of what profession soever disclaim this Doctrine even those our brethren that follow the school of Arminius are herein for the possibility of our present certainty with and for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pontificiam they are their own words nos serio damnamus aversamur this popish doubtfulness and irresolution we hate and condemn c. So as only the Pontifician Divines are in this point opposite to us all and not all of them neither Catherinus is for us and some others come close to us But the stream of them runs the wrong way teaching that we may hope well and give good conjectures and attain perhaps to a moral certitude of our present acceptation and future blessedness but that no assurance can be had hereof nor none ought to be affected without a special revelation as their St. Anthony St. Francis St. Galla and some few others have had the contrary whereof their Estius dare censure for perdita perâ—itrix haeresis Why will wise men affect to be thus much their own enemies Is not salvation the best of good things Should not a man rather incline to wish himself well What pleasure then can it be for a man to stand in his own light and to be niggardly to himself where God hath been bountifull to stave himself off from that comfortable certainty which God hath left in his possibility to make good to his owne Soul Let us then a little inquire into the faisibleness of this great improvement of our holy and Christian diligence And cettainly if there be any let in the possibility of this assurance it must be either in our present faith or in the perpetuation of it for in the connexion of a lively faith with salvation it cannot be That he who effectually believes and perseveres to the end shall be saved no man no Devil
with Antinomianism another with Familism and all these run a madding after their own fancies and affect nothing so much as to draw others into the society of their errors and damnation Take heed to your selves for Gods sake ye that stand surest in the confidence of your setled judgment grounded knowledg honest morality the pestilent influences of wicked society are not more mortall then insensible In vain shall ye plead the goodness of your heart if ye be careless of the wickedness of your heels and elbowes St. Paul thought it a sentence worthy to borrow from an Heathen Poet and to feoffe it in the Canon evill conversation corrupts good manners As therefore Moses said in the case of Korah and his company so let me say in the case of others wickednesse whether it be in matter of judgment or practise Depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye be consumed in all their sins Num. 16.26 It is worth your observing that in that great rebellion and dreadfull judgment the sons of Corah dyed not 2 Chron. 26.11 They had surely a dear interest in their Father yet their natural interest in a Father could not feoffe them in their Fathers sin though they lov'd him in nature yet they would not cleave to him in his rebellion they forsook both his sin and his tents and therefore are exempted from his judgment If we love our selves let us follow them in shunning any participation with the dearest of sinners that we may also escape the partnership of their vengeance This for the frequence the passion followes I tell you weeping And why weepest thou O blessed Apostle What is it that could wring tears from those eyes Even the same that fetch 't them from thy Saviour more then once The same that fetcht them from his Type David from the powerfull prophet Elisha 2 Kings 8.11 In a word from all eyes that ever so much as pretended to holinesse Grief for sin and compassion of sinners Let others celebrate St. Peters tears I am for St. Pauls both were precious but these yet more Those were the tears of penitence these of charity those of a sinner these of an Apostle those for his own sins these for other mens How well doth it become him who could be content to be Anathema for his brethren of the circumcision to melt into tears for their spirituall uncircumcision Oh blessed tears the juice of a charitable sorrow of an holy zeal a gracious compassion Let 〈◊〉 man say that tears argue weaknesse even the firmest marble weeps in a resolution of Air He that shrinks not at the Bear Lion Goliah Saul ten thousand of the people that should beset him round about yet can say Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law Ps 119.136 what speak I of this when the omnipotent son of God weeps over Jerusalem and makes his tears the preface of his blood Nay rather these tears argue strength of piety and Heavenly affections To weep for fear is childish that is unbeseeming a man and to weep for anger is womanish and weak to weep for mere grief is humane for sin Christian but for true zeal and compassion is Saint-like and divine every one of these drops is a pearl Behold the precious liquor which is reserved as the dearest relique of Heaven in the bottles of the Almighty every dram whereof is valued at an eternall weight of glory even a cup of cold water shall once be rewarded and behold every drop of this warme water is more worth then many cups of cold weep thus awhile and laugh for ever sowe thus in tears and be sure to reap in joy But wo is me what shall I say to those men that make themselves merry with nothing so much as sin their own or others whether their act or their memory I remember of old the fool that made the all sport in the play was called the Vice and surely it is no otherwise still vice is it that makes the mirth in this common theater of the world were it not for quaffing ribaldry dalliance scurrile profaneness these men would be dull and as we say dead on the nest These things are the joy of their life yea these are all the life of their joy Oh God that Christians and Divells should meet in the same consort that we should laugh at that for which our Saviour wept and bled that we should smile at that upon earth whereat God frowns in Heaven and make that our delight wherewith the holy spirit of God is grieved Wo be to them that thus laugh for they shall weep and wail and gnash St. Paul weeps to tell of mens sins tears do well in the pulpit as it is in the buckets of some pumps that water must first be powred down into them ere they can fetch up water in abundance so must our tears be let down to fetch up more from our hearers the chair of God can never be better fitted then with a weeping Auditory I remember holy Augustine speaking of his own Sermons saith that when he saw the people did show contentment and delight in their countenances and seemed to give applauses to his preaching he was not satisfied with his own pains but when he saw them break forth into tears then he rejoyced as thinking his labours had sorted to their due effect I have heard some preachers that have affected a pleasantness of discourse in their Sermons and never think they have done well but when they see their hearers smile at their expressions But here I have said of laughter thou art mad and of mirth what doest thou Surely jiggs at a Funeral and laughter at a Sermon are things prodigiously unseasonable It will be long my beloved ere a merry preacher shall bring you to Heaven True repentance which is our only way thither is a sad and serious matter It is through the valley of Bachah that we must pass to the mount of God the man with the writers inkhorne in Ezekiel marks none in the forehead but mourners Oh then mourne for the abominations of Jerusalem ye that love the peace of it and would be loath to see the ruine and desolation of it and your own in it weep with them that weep yea weep with them that should weep as our Apostle doth here That which is said of the Israelites that they drew water in Mizpeh and powred it out before the Lord 1 Sam. 7.6 is by some interpreters taken of the plentiful water of their tears which is so much the more likely because it is joyned with fasting and publick humiliation Oh that we could put our eyes to this use in these sad times into which we are faln how soon would the heavens clear up and bless us with the comfort of our long wished for peace wordly and carnal men as they have hard hearts so they have dry eyes dry as a Pumice-stone uncapable of
free man neither hath any man free-will to good but he Be ambitious of this happy condition O all ye noble and generous spirits and do not think ye live till ye have attained to this true liberty The liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free So from the liberty we descend to the perogative Christs liberation Here is the glorious prerogative of the Son of God to be the deliverer or redeemer of his people They could not free themselves the Angels of heaven might pitty could not redeem them yea alas who could or who did redeem those of their rank which of lightsome celestiall spirits are become foul Devils Only Christ could free us whose ransome was infinite only Christ did free us whose love is infinite and how hath he wrought our liberty By force by purchase By force in that he hath conquer'd him whose captives we were by purchase in that he hath pay'd the full price of our ransom to that supream hand whereto we were forfeited I have heard Lawers say there are in civill Corporations three wayes of freedom by Birth by Service by Redemption By Birth as St. Paul was free of Rome by Service as Apprentises upon expiration of their years by Redemption as the the Centurion with a great sum purchased I this freedom Two of these are barred from all utter possibility in our spiritual freedom for by Birth we are the sons of wrath by service we are naturally the vassals of Satan It is only the precious redemption of the Son of God that hath freed us Whereas freedom then hath respect to bondage there are seven Egyptian Masters from whose slavery Christ hath freed us Sin an accusing Conscience danger of Gods wrath tyranny of Satan the curse of the Law Mosaicall Ceremenies humane Ordinances see our servitude to and our freedom from all these by the powerfull liberation of Christ 1. It was a true word of that Pythagorean Quot vitia tot domini sin is an hard master A master Yea a tyrant let not sin reign in your mortall bodies Rom. 6 14. and so the sinner is not only servus corruptitiae a drudge of corruptions 2 Pet. 2.19 but a very slave sold under sin Rom. 7.14 So necessitated to evill by his own inward corruption that he cannot but grind in this Mill he cannot but row in this Gally For as posse peccare is the condition of the greatest Saint upon earth and Non posse peccare is the condition of the least Saint above so non posse non peccare is the condition of the least sinful unregenerate as the prisoner may shift his feet but not his fetters or as the snail cannot but leave a slime track behind it which way soever it goes Here is our bondage where is our liberty Ubi spriritus domini ibi libertas where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.7 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank my God through Jesus Christ So then Christ hath freed us from the bondage of sin An accusing conscience is a true task-master of Egypt it will be sure to whip us for what we have done for what we have not done Horrour of sin like a sleeping Mastive lyes at our door Gen. 4.7 when it awakes it will fly on our throat No closer doth the shaddow follow the body then the revenge of self-accusation followes sin walk Eastward in the morning the shadow starts behind thee soon after it is upon thy left side at noon it is under thy feet lye down it coucheth under thee towards even it leaps before thee thou canst not be rid of it whiles thou hast a body and the Sun light no more can thy soul quit the conscience of evil This is to thee instead of an Hell of Fiends that shall ever be shaking fire brands at thee ever torturing thee with affrights of more paines then thy nature can comprehend Soeva conturbata conscientia Wisd 17.11 If thou look to the punishment of loss it shall say as Lysimachus did how much felicity have I lost for how little pleasure If to the punishment of sense it shall say to thee as the Tyrant dream'd his heart said to him out of the boiling caldron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the cause of all this misery Here is our bondage where is the liberty Having our hearts sprinkled from an evill Conscience Heb. 10.22 Sprinkled with what Even with the blood of Jesus vers 19. This this only is it that can free us It is with the unquiet heart as with the troubled Sea of Tiberias the Winds rise the Waters swell the billowes roar the ship is tossed Heaven and Earth threat to meet Christ doth but speak the word all is calme so Christ hath freed us Secondly from the bondage of an accusing conscience The conscience is but Gods Bayliff It is the displeasure of the Lord of Heaven and Earth that is the utmost of all terribles the fear of Gods wrath is that strong winde that stirrs these billowes from the bottom set aside the danger of divine displeasure and the clamoâ—rs of conscience were harmless this alone makes an Hell in the bosome The aversion of Gods face is confusion the least bending of his brow is perdition Ps 2. ult but his totus aestus his whole fury as Ps 78.38 is the utter absorption of the creature excandescentia ejus funditur sicut ignis His wrath is poured out like fire the rocks are rent before it Nahum 1.6 whence there is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fearfull expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10.27 Here is the bondage where is the liberty Being just fyed by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then Christ hath freed us thridly from the bondage of the wrath of God As every wicked man is a Tyrant according to the Philosophers position and every Tirant is a Devil among men so the Devil is the Arch-tyrant of the creatures he makes all his Subjects errand vassals yea chained slaves 2 Tim. 2. ult That they may recover themselves from the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will lo here is will snares captivity perfect tyranny Nahash the Ammonite was a notable Tyrant he would have the right eyes of the Israelites put out as an eminent mark of servitude so doth this infernal Nahash blind the right eye of our understanding yea with the spightful Philistim he puts out both the eyes of our apprehension and judgment that he may gyre us about in the Mill of unprofitable wickednesse and cruelly insult upon our remedilesse misery And when he hath done the fairest end is death yea death without end Oh the impotency of earthly tyranny to this the greatest blood-suckers could but kill and livor post fata as the old word is but here is an homicida ab initio and a fine
clear and piercing and therefore it is purposely added for the further Emphasis In him is no darkenesse Oh the infinite clearnesse of the Divine knowledg to which all things lye open both past present and to come which doth not only reach in one intuition to all the actions motions events of all Creatures that have been are shall be but which is infinitely more then all these extends to the full comprehension of himself his whole Divine nature and essence to which the World though full of innumerable varieties is lesse then nothing The Sun is a goodly globe of Light The visible World hath nothing so glorious so searching and yet there are many things lye hid within the bosome of the Earth and Sea which his eye never saw never shall see Neither can it ever see more then half the World at once darkness the while enwraps the other nor indeed of any much lesser if round body And though it give light unto other Creatures yet it gives not light to it self like as our eye sees all other objects but it self it cannot see And though it enlighten this materiall Heaven both above and below it self as also this lower Air and Earth yet the Empyreal Heaven transcends the beames of it and is filled with a more glorious illumination But God the Light of whom we speak who is the Maker of that Sun sees the most hidden secrets of Earth and Hell sees all that is done in Earth and Heaven at one view sees his most glorious self and by his presence makes Heaven Most justly therefore is God Light by an eminence Now the reflection of the first quality of Light upon us must be our clear apprehension of God the World and our selves and by how much more exact knowledg we shall attain unto of all these by so much more do we conform our selves to that God who is Light and by how much less we know them so much more darkness there is in us and so much less fellowship have we with God If the eye have not an inward Light in it self let the Sun shine never so bright upon it it is nevertheless blind What are we the better for that which is in God if there be not an inward Light in our Souls to answer and receive it How should we love and adore God if we know him not How shall we hate and combat the World if we know it not How shall we value and demean our selves if we know not our selves Surely the want of this Light of knowledg is the ground of all that miserable disorder which we see daily break forth in the affections in the carriages of men I know the common word is that we are fallen into a knowing age such as wherein our speculative skill is wont to be upbraided to us in a disgracefull comparison of our unanswerable practise our forward young men out-run their years bragg that there is more weight in the down of their chins then in the gray beards of their aged Grandsires Our artificers take upon them to hold argument with and perhaps control their Teachers neither is it any newes for the shop-board to contest with the schooles every not Knight or Rook only but Pawn too can give check to a Bishop The Romish Church had lately her Shee-Preachers till Pope Urban gagg'd them and our Gossips now at home in stead of dresses can tattle of mysteries and censure the Pulpit in stead of neighbours Light call you this No these are fiery flashes of conceit that glance through vain minds to no purpose but idle ostentation and satisfaction of wild humours without stability or any available efficacy to the soul Alas we are wise in impertinencies ignorant in main truths neither doth the knowledg of too many go any deeper then the verge of their brains or the tip of their tongue I fear true solid knowledg is not much less rare then when our unlett'red Grand-fathers were wont to court God Almighty with false Latin in their devotions For did the true Light shine into the hearts of men in the knowledg of God the World themselves how could they how durst they live thus Durst the leud tongues of men rend the holy name of God in peices with oaths and blasphemies if they knew him to be so dreadfull so just as he hath revealed himself Durst the cruell oppressors of the World grind faces and cut throats and shed blood like water if they were perswaded that God is a sure revenger of their outrages Durst the goatish adulterer the swinish drunkard wallow in their beastly uncleannesse if they knew their is a God to judge them an Hell to fry in Durst the rebellious seditionary lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and that under a colour of religion if the fool had not said in his heart There is no God Could the covetous fool so admire and adore his red and white Earth could the ambitious so dote upon a little vanishing honour as to sacrifice his soul to it if he knew the World could the proud man be so besotted with self-love as that he sees his God in his glass if he knew himself Surely then the true Light is as rare as it is precious and it is as precious as life it self yea as life eternall This is eternall life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ What were the World without Light and what the soul without the Light of knowledg We condemne Malefactors to darkness that is one great part of the horrour of their durance Jo. 17. â— and by how much more haynous their crime is so much darker is their dungeon Darkness of understanding then is punishment enough alone as it is also the entry into hell which is described by blackness of darkness None but savage Creatures delight in darkness Man naturally abhorres it in all things If our eyes be dim we call for glasses if our houses be dark we make windows if the evening grow dark we call for lights and if those lights burn dim we call for snuffers and shall we avoid darkness in every thing except our soules which is our better and more Divine part Honourable and beloved as we love and tender those dear soules of ours let us labour to furnish them with the Light of true and saving knowledg What is this Gospell which shines thus daily and clearly in your faces but the Vehiculum lucis the carriage of that heavenly Light to the World Send forth thy Light and thy Truth saith the Psalmist Thy Word is Truth saith our Saviour that word of truth then is the body of that Light which God showes to men Oh let it not shine upon us in vain let us not trample upon the beams of it in our floore as that foolish woman that St. Austin speaks of did to those of the Sun with a Calco Manichorum Deum But now while God gives these happy opportunities let us enlarge our hearts to receive
great power are met in any Prince he can be content to fit still and not break forth into some notable breaches of publick peace And where once the fire of war is kindled it is not easily quenched yea it runs as in a trayn and feeds it self with all the combustable matter it meets withall on every side and therefore t is a marveilous work of the power and mercy of God that he makes war to cease And this he doth either by an over-powering victory as in the case of Hezekiah Sennacherib which should seem to be the drift of this Psalme whereof every passage imports such a victory and triumph as the conquered adversary should never be able to recover Or by tempering and composing the hearts of men restraining them in their most furious carriere and taming their wild heats of revenge and inclining them to termes of peace This is a thing which none but he can do the heart of man is an unruly and head strong thing it is not more close then violent as none can know it so none can over-rule it but he that made it It is a rough sea he only can say here shalt thou stay thy proud waves Shortly then publick peace is the proper work of an Almighty and mercifull God His very title is Deus pacis the God of peace Rom. 15.33 and 16.20 Heb. 13.20 so as this is his peculium yea it is not only his for he owes it but his for he makes it I make peace and create evill I the Lord do all these things Esa 45.7 That malignant Spirit is in this his profest opposite that he is the great make-bate of the World Labouring to set all together by the ears sowing discord betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt one peece of Earth against another Man against Man Nation against Nation hence he hath the name of Satan of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Diabolus of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whose whole indeavour is enmity and destruction Contrarily the good God of Heaven whose work it is to destroy the works of the Devill is all for peace he loves peace he commands it he effects it He maketh wars to cease This is his work in the kinde and so much more his work in the extent To the ends of the Earth by how much more good any work is by so much more it is his and by how much more common any good is by so much better it is Even the pax pectoris the private and bosome peace of every man with himself is his great and good work for the heart of every man is naturally as an unquiet sea ever tossing and restlesse troubled with variety of boistrous passions he only can calme it the peace of the family is his he maketh men to be of one minde in an house without whose work there is nothing but jarres and discord betwixt husband and wife parents and children masters and servants servants and children with each other so as the house is made if not an hell for the time yet a purgatory at the least the peace of the neighbourhood is his without whom there is nothing but scolding brawling bloodsheds lawing that a City is at unity in it self not divided into sides and factions it is the Lords doing for many men many mindes and every man is naturally addicted to his own opinion hence grow daily destractions in populous bodies That a Country that a Nation is so is so much more his work as there are more heads and hearts to governe But that one Nation should be at unity with another yea that all Nations should agree upon an universall cessation of armes and embrace peace A domino factum est hoc est mirabile it must needs be the Lords doing so much more eminently and it is marveilous in our eyes Faciam eos in gentem unam was a word fit only for the mouth of God who only can restrain hands and conjoyne hearts as here He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth Now wherefore serves all this but for the direction of our recourse for the excitation of our duty and immitation for the challenge of our thankfulnesse In the first place are we troubled with the fears or rumours of wars are we grieved with the quarrells and dissensions that we finde within the bosome of our own Nation or Church would we earnestly desire to finde all differences composed and a constant peace setled amongst us we see whether to make our addresse even to that omnipotent God who maketh warrs to cease unto the ends of the earth who breaketh the bow and snappeth the spear in sunder And surely if ever any Nation had cause to complain in the midst of a publick peace of the danger of private destractions and factious divisions ours is it wherein I know not how many uncouch Sects are lately risen out of Hell to the disturbance of our wonted peace all of them eagerly pursuing their own various fancies and opposing our formerly received truth what should we do then but be take our selves in our earnest supplications to the God of peace with an Help Lord never ceasing to solicit him with our prayers that he would be pleased so to order the hearts of men that they might encline to an happy agreement at least to a meek cessation of those unkinde quarrels wherewith the Church is thus miserably afflicted But secondly in vain shall we pray if we do nothing Our prayers serve only to testifie the truth of our desires and to what purpose shall we pretend a desire of that which we indeavour not to effect That God who makes wars and quarrels to cease useth means to accomplish that peace which he decrees And what are those means but the inclinations projects labors of all the well-willers to peace It must be our care therefore to immitate yea to second God in this great work of peace-making The phrase is a strange but an emphaticall one that Deborah uses in her song Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 Lo what a word here is To help the Lord what help needs the Almighty or what help can our weaknesse afford to his omnipotence Yet when we put our hands to his and do that as instruments which he as the authour requires of us and works by us we help that Lord which gives us all the motions both of our wills and actions so must we do in the promoting of peace and the allaying of quarrells when an house is on fire we must every one cast in his pail-full to the quenching of the flames It is not enough that we look on harmlesly with our hands in our bosomes No we add to that burning which we indeavour not to quench We must contribute our utmost to the cessation of these spirituall and intellectuall wars which shall be
consider first the miseries of war and then the benefits and comforts of peace The former of these may be talk't of but can never be thoroughly conceived by any but those that have felt them I could tell you of sieging and famishing sacking and spoiling and killing and ravishing and burning of weltring in blood and a thousand such tragicall calamities of war but I had rather the spirit of God should describe them in his own expressions These Sword without terrour within shall destroy both the Young-man and the Virgin the suckling also with the Man of gray haires Deut. 32.25 And Jeremy Every battle of the warriour is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood but this shall be with burning and with fenell of fire Jer. 9.5 Not to presse those passionate descriptions of Esay and Nahum that one of the Prophet Azariah the Son of Obed shall shut up all Chro. 15.6 In those times there was no peace to them that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countreys and Nation was destroyed of Nation and City of City for God did vex them with all adversity Mark but the foot of this report upon the mention of war straight it followes God did vex them with all adâ—ersity surely there is no adversity incident unto a Creature which doth not inevitably attend a war and as all wars are thus wofull and hideous so much more the intestine and domesticall those that are raised out of our own bowels these are beyond all conceit dreadfull and horrible As therefore we do in our ordinary prayers put all these together which are the effects and concomitants of war From plague pestilence and famine from battail and murder and from suddain death good Lord deliver us so good reason have we to put them into the tenor of our hearty thanksgiving that God hath graciously delivered us from the fury of all these in that he caused wars to cease to the ends of our Earth As for the benefits of peace if we were not cloyed with them by their long continuance we could not but be heartily sensible of them and know that all the comforts we enjoy either for Earth or for Heaven we owe to this unspeakable blessing of Peace whereto if we add the late accession of further strength by the union of our Warlick neighbours and the force of a strong and inviolable league for the perpetuation of our peace and unity there will need no further incitements to a celebration of this day and to our hearty thankfulness unto the God of peace who whiles he hath made wofull desolations in all the Earth besides yet hath caused wars to cease unto our ultima the ends of our Earth and hath broken the bow and cut the spear in sunder Oh then prayse the Lord O Jerusalem prayse thy God of Sion for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates and blessed thy children within thee Ps 147.12.13 He maketh peace within thy borders and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat To that good God of all glory peace and comfort Father Son Holy Ghost one infinite God in three most glorious persons be given all praise honour and glory as is due from Heaven and Earth from Angels and Men from this time forth and for evermore Amen THE MISCHIEFE OF FACTION And the REMEDIE of it Laid forth in a SESMON Before his MAJESTY In the COURT-YARD AT WHITE-HALL On the Second Sunday in Lent 1641. By JOS. EXON PSALM 60.2 Thou hast made the Earth to tremble thou hast broken it heal the breaches thereof for it shaketh MY text is a complaint and a suit a complaint of an evill and a suit for a remedy An evill deplored and an implored redresse The evill complained of is double the concussion or unsettlement of the state of Israel and the division of it For it hath been the manner of the prophets when they would speak high to expresse spirituall things by the height of naturall allusions fetcht from those great bodies of Heaven Sea Earth the most conspicuous and noted pieces of Gods Almighty workmanship It were to no purpose to exemplifie where the instances are numberlesse Open your Bibles where you will in all the Sapienciall or Propheticall books your eyes cannot look beside them And thus it is here I suppose no man can be so weak as to think David intends here a philosophicall history of Earthquakes although these dreadfull events in their due times and places are worthy of no lesse then a prophets either notice or admiration But here it is not in his way It is an Analogicall morall or politicall Earth-quake that David hear speaks of and so our usuall and ancient Psalter Translation takes it well whiles for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth it reads the Land by a just Synecdoche and for making the Earth to tremble reads moving the Land and for broken reads divided and for breaches sores so as by comparing of both translations The Earth is the Land the tremblings are the violent motions of it whether by way of action or passion the divisions thereof are breaches and those breaches sores which the hand of God both makes and heals Shortly then here is first an Earth-quake such as it is 2ly The effects of that Earth-quake breaches or sores 3ly The authour of both Thou hast made the Earth to tremble thou hast broken it 4ly The remedy of both with the authour of it Heal thou the Sores or breaches and Lastly the motive of the remedy for it shaketh The Text falls into these parts so naturally that there is none of you who hear me this day but were able to divide it for me which I shall desire to follow with all perspicuous brevity and profitable enforcement And first hear and consider that the motions of the distempers or publick calamities of States are Earthquakes either or both For this Earthquake is either out of a feare or sense of judgment or out of the strife of contrary affectations the one we may call a passive the other an active Earth-quake Earth-quakes we know are strange and unnaturall things There is no part of all Gods great Creation save the Earth that is ordained for rest and stability The waters are in perpetuall agitation of flux and refluxes even when no wind stirs they have their neap and spring tides The air cannot stand still whiles the Heavens whirle about The Heavens or any part of them never stood still but once since they were made but the Earth was made for fixednesse and stability Hence ye find so oft mention of the foundations of the Earth and the stile of it is nescia moveri the Earth that cannot be moved and that stands fast for ever And therefore for the Earth to move it is no lesse prodigie then for the Heavens to stand still Neither is it more rare then formidable If we should see the Heavens stand still but one houre
we should as we well might expect a dissolution of all things neither hath it lesse horrour in it to feel the Earth stagger under us Whose hair doth not start up at this trepidation and the more a man knowes the more is his astonishment He hangeth the Earth upon nothing saith Job Job 26.7 For a man to feel the Earth that hangs upon nothing but as some vast ball in the midst of a thin yielding air totter under him how can his soul choose but be possessed with a secret fright and confusion Me thinks I tremble but to think of such a trembling Such are the distempers and publick calamities of States though even of particular Kingdoms but so much more as they are more universall they are both unnaturall and dreadfull They are politickly unnaturall For as the end of all motion is rest so the end of all civill and spirituall agitations is peace and settlednesse The very name of a State implies so much which is we know a stando from standing and not from moving The man riding upon the red Horse which stood upon the myrtle trees Zachar. 1.11 describes the condicion of a peacefull government Behold all the Earth sitteth still and is at rest and Micah They shall sit still every man under his vine and figtree Micah 4.4 and none shall make them afraid Particular mens affayres are like the Clouds publick government is as the Earth The Clouds are alwayes in motion it were strange for any of them to stand still in one point of the air so it were to see private mens occasions void of some movings of quarrells or change the publick State is or should be as the Earth a great and solid body whose chief praise is settlednesse and consistence Now therefore when publick stirs and tumults arise in a well ordered Church or Common-wealth the State is out of the socket or when common calamities of war famine pestilence seize upon it then the hearts of men quake and shiver within them then is our prophets Earth-quake which is here spoken of Thou hast made the Earth to tremble To begin with the passive motions of publick calamities they are the shakings of our Earth So God intends them so must we account them and make use of them accordingly what are we I mean all the visible part of us but a peece of Earth besides therefore that magneticall vertue which is operative upon all the parts of it why should or can a piece stand still when the whole moveth Denominations are wont to be not from the greater but the better part and the best part of this Earthen World is man and therefore when men are moved we say the Earth is so and when the Earth in a generality is thus moved good reason we should be so also we must tremble therefore when God makes the Earth to do so What shall we say then to those obdured hearts which are nowhit affected with publick evils Surely he were a bold man that could sleep whiles the Earth rocks him and so were he that could give himself to a stupid security when he feels any vehement concussations of government or publick hand of Gods afflictive judgment But it falls out too usually that as the Philosopher said in matter of affaires so it is in matter of calamities Communia negliguntur Men are like Jonas in the storm sleep it out though it mainly concern them surely besides that we are men bound up each in his own skin we are limbs of a community and that body is no lesse intire and consistent of all his members then this naturall and no lesse sensible should we be of any evill that afflicts it If but the least toe do ache the head feels it but if the whole body be in pain much more do both head and feet feele it Tell me can it be that in a common Earth-quake any house can be free or is the danger lesse because the neighbours roofes rattle also Yet too many men because they suffer not alone neither are singled out for Vengeance are insensible of Gods hand Surely such men as cannot be shaken with Gods judgment are fit for the center the lowest parts of the Earth where there is a constant and eternall unrest not for the surface of it which looks towards an Heaven where are interchanges of good and evill It is notable and pregnant which the prophet Esay hath hear it all ye secure hearts and tremble In that day did the Lord of Hosts call to weeping and mourning and baldnesse and girding with sackcloth and behold joy and gladnesse slaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine And what of that Surely this iniquity shall not be purged till you die saith the Lord God of Hosts What shall we say to this honourable and beloved wherefore hath God given us his good creatures but that we should injoy them Doth not Solomon tell us there is nothing better then that a man should Eat and Drink and make his soule injoy good in his labour Eccles. 2.24 And why is God so incensed against Israel for doing what he allowes them Know then that it is not the act but the time that God stands upon Very unseasonableness is criminall here and now comforts are sins to be joviall when God calls to mourning to glut our maw when he calls to fasting to glitter when he would have us sackcloth'd and squalid he hates it to the death here we may say with Solomon Of laughter thou art mad and of mirth what is this thou doest He grudges not our moderate and seasonable jolities there is an Ope-tyde by his allowance as well as a Lent Go thy wayes Eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for now God accepteth thy work Lo Gods acceptation is warrant enough for our mirth Now may his saints rejoyce and sing but there is a time to mourne and a time to daunce It was a strange word that God had to the Prophet Ezekiel that he would take away from him his wife the comfort of his life and yet he must not mourne but surely when he but threats to take away from us the publick comforts of our peace and common welfare he would have us weep out our eyes and doth no lesse hate that our hearts should be quiet within us then he hates that we should give him so just cause of our disquiet Here the Prophet can cry out Quis dabit capiti meo aquas And how doth the mournfull prophet now pour out himself into Lamentations How hath the Lord covered the doughter of Sion with a cloud in his anger and cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel Lament 2.1 Oh that our hearts could rive in sunder at but the dangers of those publick Judgments which we have too well deserved and be lesse sensible of our private concernments then should we make a right use of that dreadfull hand of God of
sinners never nay he strives to forget God and when the notion of a God is forced upon him he struggles against it and sayes to the Almighty Depart from me And even this alone showes how he stands in respect of his affections He loves not God no not whiles he promerits him with his favours It is the Title that St. Paul gives to wicked men Rom. 1. â—0 that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-haters One would think this should not be incident into a man for nothing but evill is the object of hatred and God is absolute goodnesse it self yet such is the cankered and corrupt nature of the sinner that apprehending God sub ratione mali he hates him who is in himself infinitely amiable and as he saies in his heart there is no God so he wishes in his heart there were no God He is never well therefore whiles he hath any thing to do with God whiles he is in his company or in the company of those that he thinks belong to him his conscionable servants and whiles he is imployed in any of his services he stands upon thornes Thus the sinner is in his affectations aloof off from God and for his carriage and actions they are answerable to both the other All his life is nothing else but a departing from the living God and therefore he must needs at last be farr off Look to all his wayes you shall find how diametrally contrary they are to Gods Gods wayes are direct ones the sinners are oblique and crooked God hath chalked out his wayes in the Ten words of his royall law the sinner turnes his back upon every one of them and walkes point-blank opposite God commands an holy and religious disposition towards his Majesty the sinner gives himself over to a wild and loose profanenesse to a lawlesse course of godlesnesse and walks as without God in the world God commands all reverent and awfull usage of his name the sinner tears it in pieces with his oathes and blasphemies God commands all dutifull obedience to authority not for fear only but for conscience sake the sinner is ready to say disrumpamus vincula let us break their bonds and cast their cords from us God commands all sobriety chastity temperance the sinner runs into all excesse of riot Finally God commands all charity and justice to our neighbour the wicked heart is mercilesse and cares not upon whose ruines he raiseth his own advantages so every way both in his thoughts affections and actions the sinner is afarr off from God Now the morall and civill man hears this and turnes it off as nothing concerning him he is as near to God as the best and indeed in some sense he is so St. Paul could say to his Athenians He is not far from every one of us Every creature hath equally his living moving being from God but as for any relation to God in respect of holinesse of grace and mercy of glory this man is as far off as Earth is from Heaven yea as Heaven is from Hell For even by nature we are the best of us the Sons of wrath And if we had no more then even our birth sin this alone would estrange us sufficiently from God but besides this our actuall sins set us off yet further and if we had no sins of commission as we have numberlesse for in many things we sin all yea in all things we sin all yet those of omission cannot but put us into an utter distance for if the morall man could be supposed to do nothing actually against Gods will yet his thoughts are not upon him being wholly taken up with the World his affections are not towards him being wholly set upon the World and these earthly things his best actions are not regulated by the royall law of righteousnesse but by the rules of civility and common humanity and the end which he proposeth to himself in them is not the glory of God but his own honour or advantage And therefore both the wicked man and the mere morall man are aloof off from God and therefore out of the benefit of Gods favour and protection even as we know that those which live under the two poles are out of the comfortable reach of the Sun-beames or those Antichthones which are on the other side of the globe of the Earth are now whiles it is day with us Please your selves therefore ye sinfull and naturall men with the spirituall condicion wherein ye stand God is no otherwise near to you but to plague and punish you Ye can never receive any glimpse of true comfort in your soules whiles you so continue and therefore as ye tender your own present and eternall welfare stir up your selves to take this divine Counsell of the Apostle Draw nigh unto God And so from the distance implyed we descend to the approach injoyned which we shall consider as it hath respect to the presence of God and to the motion of man To the presence of God in relation to his Ordinances and to his Spirit First then we draw nigh unto God when we attend upon him in his worship and service for God is where he is worshipped and where he reveales himelf In this regard when Cain was banished from the presence of God it was not so much an exile as an excommunication Hence is all the legall service called appearing before the Lord So David when shall I appear in thy sight Psal 42.2 and can find in his heart for this cause to envy the sparrowes and swallowes as herein happier then himself Thus Jacob of his Bethel God was here and I knew it not Then therefore do we draw nigh unto God when we come into his house when we present our selves to him in our prayers whether private or publick when we attend upon him in his word whether read or preached in his holy Sacraments in all religious exercises And those that do willingly neglect these holy services they are no other then aloof off from God and certainly whatsoever they may think of it this estate of theirs is very dangerous for if the worst peece of hellish torment be that of losse and utter departing from the presence of God then surely our voluntary Elongation of our selves from his presence must needs be a fearfull introduction to an everlasting distance from him Let our Recusants whether out of heresie or faction make what sleight account they please of these holy assemblies Surely the keeping away from the Church is the way to keep out of Heaven Auditus aspectum restituit as Bernard well It is our hearing that must restore us to the sight of God This in relation to his Ordinances that to his spirit followes we do then Secondly draw nigh to God when upon our conversion to him we become the receptacles and entertainers of his good Spirit For God is undoubtedly where he breathes into the soul holy desires where he works Heavenly grace in the heart This
excellent the Person so much more hainous is the offence done to him As to offend an Officer is in the eye of the Law more then to offend a private Subject a Magistrate more then an inferiour Officer a Peere more then a Magistrate for that is Scandalum Magnatum a Prince more then a Peere a Monarch more then a Prince Now in very nature a Spirit is more excellent then a Body I could send you higher but if we do but look into our own breasts we shall finde the difference There is a Spirit in Man saith Elihu Job 32.8 The Spirit of Man is as the Candle of the Lord saith Wise Solomon Prov. 20.27 without which the whole House is all dark and confused Now what comparison is there betwixt the Soul which is a Spirit and the Body which is Flesh even this which Wise Solomon instanceth in may serve for all The Spirit of a Man sustains his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can hear Lo the Body helps to breed infirmities and the Spirit bears them out to which add the Body without the Spirit is dead the Spirit without the Body lives more It is a sad word of David when he complaines My bones are vexed Ps 6.2 and cleaves to my skin Psal 102.5 yet all this is tolerable in respect of that My Spirit faileth me My Spirit is overwhelmed within me my heart within me is desolate Psal 143.4 they were sore strokes that fetcht blood of our blessed Saviour but they were nothing to these inward torments that wrung from him the bloody sweat in his Agony when he said my soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heavy unto the Death could we conceive that the Body could be capable of pain without the Spirit as indeed it is not since the Body feeles only by the Spirit that pain were painlesse but this we are sure of that the Spirit feels more exquisite pain without the Body in the state of separation from it then it could feel in the former conjunction with it and the wrong that is done to the Soul is more haynous then that which can be inflicted on the Body By how much then more pure simple perfect excellent the Spirit is whom we offend by so much more grievous is the offence to offend the Spirit of any good Man one of Christs little ones is so hainous that it were better for a man to have a milstone hanged about his neck and to be cast into the bottom of the Sea Mat. 18.6 To offend an Angel which is an higher degree of spirituality is more then to vex the Spirit of the best man Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy Flesh to sin neither say before the Angel that it was an errour Eccles 5.6 Hence St. Paul heightens his adjuration to Timothy I charge thee before the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 And giving order for the decent demeanure of the Corinthian Women in the Congregation requires That they should have power on their head because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 To offend therefore the God of Spirits the Father of these spirituall Lights must needs be an infinite aggravation of the sin even so much more as He is above those his best Creatures and there cannot be so much distance betwixt the poorest worme that crawles on the Earth and the most glorious Archangel of Heaven as there is betwixt him and his Creator One would think now there could be no step higher then this yet there is our Saviour hath so taught us to distinguish of sins that he tells us All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven Matth. 12.31 and Marc. 3.29 Not that we can sin against one Person and not offend another for their essence is but one but this sin is singled out for a special obstruction of forgivenesse for that it is done against the illumination and Influence of that Grace whereof the Holy Ghost is the immediate giver and worker in the Soul who is therfore called the Spirit of Grace hereupon is Stevens challenge to the stiff-necked Jews Act. 7.51 Ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost And his charge to Ananias Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Act. 5.3 Ye see then how this charge riseth and what force is put into it by the condition of the Person A Spirit the holy Spirit the holy Spirit of God enough to make way for the consideration of the Act inhibited Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Grieve not c. How incompatible are the termes of this charge That which makes the sin as it is set forth more sinfull may seem to make it impossible If a Spirit how is it capable of passion and if it be impassible how can it be grieved Alas we weak mortalls are subject to be hurried about with every blast of passion The Almighty is above all the reach of these unquiet perturbations Lo that God which mercifully condescended because his infinite glory transcends our weaknesse to speak unto us men by man and by Angels in the forme of Men speaks to us men in the style and language of Men Two wayes then may the Spirit of God be said to be grieved in Himself in his Saints in himself by an Anthropopathie as we call it In his Saints by a Sympathie the former is by way of Allusion to humane passion and carriage so doth the Spirit of God upon occasion of mens sins as we do when we are grieved with some great wrong or unkindnesse And what do we then First we conceive an high dislike of and displeasure at the Act Secondly we withdraw our countenance and favour from the offender Thirdly we inflict some punishment upon the offence and these are all of them dreadfull expressions of the grieving of Gods Spirit even these three displeasure aversion punishment For the first Esay expresseth it by vexation Esay 63.10 A place so much more worthy of observation for that some judicious interpreters as Reverend Calvin Zanchius Pagnine and Cornelius a Lapide think very probably that this text is borrowed from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they rebelled and vexed the Spirit of his holinesse Where such an Act is intimated as compriseth both grief and Anger surely we do not think it safe to irritate the great and if it be but a man a little bigger then our selves we are ready to deprecate his displeasure but if it be a man that is both great and dear to us with whom we are faln out how unquiet are we if we have any good nature in us till we have recovered his lost favour do ye not see with what importunity good David seeks to appease the wrath of his incensed Father in Law none of the best men and causelesly provoked Let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if they
God hath taken at our thus Grieving of him his Indearments our Ingagements his Expectation were we a people that God had no whit promerited by his favours that he had done nothing for us more then for the savage Nations of the World surely the God of Heaven had not taken it so deeply to heart but now that he hath been more kind to us then to any Nation under Heaven how doth he call Heaven and Earth to record of the justnesse of his high regret Hear O Heaven and hearken O Earth for the Lord himself hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Esa 1.2 and excellently Jerem. 2.31 O generation see the word of the Lord have I been a wilderness to Israel a land of darkness therefore it followes Behold I will plead with thee ver 35. Neither are his indearments of us more then our ingagements to him for what Nation in all the World hath made a more glorious profession of the name of God then this of ours What Church under the cope of Heaven hath been more famous and flourishing Had we not pretended to holiness and purity of religion even beyond others the unkindness had been the lesse now our unanswerablenesse calls God to the highest protestation of his offence Be astonished O Heavens and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters and have hewen them out Cisternes broken Cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2.11 And who is so blind as my servant Esa 42.19 Now according to his Indearments and our Ingagements hath been his just expectation of an answerable carriage of us towards him the Husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desart but where he hath Gooded and plowed and Eared and Sowne why should not he look for an harvest And this disappointment is a just heightner of his griefe what could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done I looked for grapes and it brought forth wild grapes And now I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and I will lay it wast Esa 5.4 5. Wo is me we do not hear but feel God making his fearfull word good upon us I need not tell you what we suffer the word of Esay is fulfilled here It shall be a vexation onely to understand the report Esa 28.19 Alas we know it too well what rivers of blood what piles of Carcasses are to be seen on all sides would God I could as easily tell you of the Remedy and why can I not do so Doubtlesse there is a remedy no lesse certain then our suffering if we had but the grace to use it too long alas too long have we driven off the applying of our redress yet even still there is Balme in Gilead still there is hope yea assurance of help if we will not be wanting to our selves we have grieved our God to the height Oh that we could resolve to make our peace with our provoked God at the last Excellent is that of Esay 27.5 Let him take hold of my strength and make Peace with me and he shall make peace with with me Oh that we could take hold of our strong Helper who is mighty to save that we would lay hold on the strength of his marvellous mercies Oh that we could take Benhadads course here as they said of the King of Israel much more may I say of the God of Israel He is a merciful God let us put sackcloth upon our loynes and ropes upon our heads and go to the God of Israel and say Thy servants say I pray thee let us live 1 K. 20.31 Oh that it could greive us thoroughly that we have greived so good a God that we could by a sound and serious humiliation and hearty Repentance reconcile our selves to that offended Majesty we should yet live to praise him for his mercifull deliverance and for the happy restauration of our peace which God for his mercies sake vouchsafe to graunt us Thus much for the grieving of the holy Spirit in himself by way of allusion to humane affection Now followes that grievance which by way of Sympathy he feels in his Saints Anselme Aquinas Estius and other latter Interpreters have justly construed one branch of this offence of the Holy Spirit to be when through our leud despightful words or actions we grieve and scandalize those Saints and Servants of God in whom that Holy Spirit dwells It is true as Zanchius observes well that it is no thank to a wicked man that the Spirit of God is not grieved by him even in person he doth what he can to vex him the Impossibility is in the Impassiblenesse of the Spirit of God not in the Will of the Agent But although not in himself yet in his faithful Ones he may and doth grieve him They are the Receptacles of the Holy Ghost which he so possesses and takes up that the injuries and affronts done to them are felt and acknowledged by him As when an enemy offers to burn or pull down or strip plunder the house the Master or Owner takes the violence as done to himself We are the Temples the Houses wherein it pleaseth the Spirit of God to dwell what is done to us is done to him in us He challengeth as our Actions The Spirit of God prayes in us Rom. 8.26 so our Passions also he is grieved in our grief such an interest hath God in his that as Christ the second person in the Trinity could say to Saul why persecutest thou me So the Holy Ghost appropriates our injuries to himself If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye saith S. Peter for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified 1 Pet. 4.14 Lo the Holy Spirit is glorified by our sufferings and is evil spoken of in our reproaches the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is blasphemed so as it is a fearful thing to think of to speak contumelious words against Gods children is by the Apostles own determination no better then a kinde of blaspheming the Holy Ghost See then consider ye malicious uncharitable men your wrongs reach further then ye are aware of ye suffer your tongues to run ryot in bitter Scoffs in spightful slanders in injurious raylings against those that are truly conscionable ye think ye gall none but men worse then your selves but ye shall finde that ye have opened your mouthes against Heaven I speak not for those that are meer outsides visors of Christianity making a shew of Godliness and denving the power of it in their lives I take no protection of them God shall give them their portion with Hypocrites But if he be a true childe of God one that hath the true fear
of God planted in his heart and one that desires to be approved to God in all his wayes though perhaps he differ in judgment and be of another profession from thee in some collateral matters as the God of Heaven stands not upon such points let him I say be one of Gods dear and secret ones whom thou revilest and persecutest the Spirit of God feels the Indignities that are offered to such a one and will let thee feel that he feels them make as slight as you will of scandalizing and wronging a good man there is a good God that will pay you for it What an heavy complaint is that which the Apostle makes to his Corinthians concerning himself and his fellowes I think saith he that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle to the World and to Angels and to Men 1 Cor. 4.9 and verse the 13. We are made as the filth of the world the off-scouring of all things unto this day Alas if this were the condicion of the blessed Apostles to be thus vilified why should it seem strange to us their unworthy successours and Disciples if we be thought fit for nothing but to be cast upon the dunghill but these reproaches however we may take coolly and calmly as that Stoick Philosopher did who whilst he was discoursing of being free from passions it being the doctrine of that sect that a wise man should be impassionate a rude fellow spat purposely in his face and when he was asked whether he were not angry answered no truly I am not angry but I doubt whether I should not be angry at such an abuse but there is a God that will not put up our contumelies so we strike his servants on Earth and he feels it in Heaven It is very emphaticall which the Apostle hath to this purpose Coloss 1.24 I fill up that which is behind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Asterings of the Afflictions of Christ in my flesh Intimating that there is one intire body as it were of Christs sufferings part whereof he indured in his own person and part he still sustaines in his members so as he cannot be free whiles they suffer inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of my brethren ye did it unto me Mat. 15.40 As the soul feels what is done to the body the Iron entred into his Soul saith the Psalmist so what is done to the faithfull soul God is sensible of and will revenge it accordingly what shall be done to thee thou false Tongue saith the Psalmist even mighty and sharp Arrowes with hot burning Coales Psal 102.3 Thou hast shot thine Arrowes even bitter words against Gods chosen ones and God shall send thee sharper arrowes of his vengeance singing into thy bosome thy tongue hath been set on fire with contention and hath helpt to kindle it in others and now God shall fill thy mouth with hotter coales of that fire which shall never be quenched Oh then as we tender our own safety let us binde our Tongues and hands to the good behaviour and resolve with the holy Apostle To give none offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God 1. Cor. 10.32 Now as the holy Spirit of God both in himself and in his Children is grieved with our leud speeches and offensive carriage so contrarily God and his holy Spirit are joyed in our gracious speeches and holy conversation Luc. 15.10 I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Lo this is Gods joy and the Angels witnesse it it is the owner that hath found the lost Groate and that saith Rejoyce with me how doth conscionable and godly behaviour and holy Communication make Musick in Heaven We have known many that have thought their time well bestowed if they could make a great Man smile Principibus placuisse c. And perhaps their facetious urbanity hath not passed unrewarded Oh what shall we think of moving true delight to the King of glory It was no small incouragement to the Colossians that the Apostle professes he was with them rejoycing and beholding their Order Coloss 2.5 What a comfort then must it needs be that the great God of Heaven is with us and takes notice of our carriage and contentment in it Revel 2.2 I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience saith the Spirit of God to the Angel or Bishop of the Church of Ephesus and Videndo vidi saith God to Moses concerning the Israelites I have seen the afflictions of my people it is said of Anthony the Hermite Let no man bogle at this that I mention an Hermite to this Congregation those first Eremites that went aside into the Wildernesse to avoid those primitive persecutions were holy men great Saints and of a quite different alloy from those of the present Romish Church Mera Nominum Crepitacula that when he was set upon by Divells and buffeted by them as St. Paul was 2 Cor. 12. according to learned Cameran his interpretation after the conflict he cryed out O bone Jesu ubi eras O Lord Jesu where wast thou and received answer juxta te eram c. I was by thee and lookt how thou wouldst demean thy self in thy combat who would not fight valiantly when he fights in the eye of his Prince It is the highest consideration in the World this how doth God rellish my actions and me The common rule of the World is what will men say what will my neighbours what will my superiours what will posterity and according to their conceits we are willing to regulate our carriage but a true Christian looks higher and for every thing he sayes or does inquires after the censure or allowance of God himself still caring that the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart may be accepted of his God and if his heart tell him that God frownes at his actions all the World cannot chear him up but he will go mourning all the day long till he have made his peace and set even termes between God and his Soul but if that tell him all is well nothing in the world can deject and dishearten him but he takes up that resolution which Solomon gives for advice Let thy Garments be white and let no Oyle be wanting to thine head go thy way Eat thy bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart for now God accepteth thy works Eccles 9.7 8. And this consideration as it never can be unseasonable so is a most fit cordiall for every honest and good heart in these dismall times we are in a sad condicion and perhaps in expectation of worse the sword is either devouring or threatning we are ready to be swallowed up with grief or fear what should we now do Dear Christians let every one of us look in what termes he stands with his God do
claim to eternal glory For what is that but the inheritance of the Saints Colos 1. Who should have your Lands but your heirs and Lo these are the heirs of God and none but they Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you saith our Saviour Matth. 25.34 Many a one here is borne to a fair estate and is strip't of it whether by the just disherson of his offended Father or else by the power or circumvention of an adversary or by his own mis-government and unthriftiness here is no danger of any of these On our Fathers part none For whom he loves he loves to the end On our Adversaries part none None shall take them out of my hand saith our Saviour The gates of Hell shall not prevaile against his On our part none For whereby can we lavish out our estate but by our sins and he that is borne of God sinneth not sinneth not so as to incurr a forfeit he may so sin as to be frowned on for the time to be chid yea perhaps to be well whipped of his Father not so as to be unsonned or dis-herited For the seed of God remains in him Lo whiles he hath the Divine seed in him he is the Son of God and whiles he is a Son he cannot but be an heir Oh then the comfortable and blessed priviledges of the Sons of God! enough to attract and ravish any heart for who doth not effect the honour of the highest parentage not under Heaven but in it who can be but eagerly ambitious of the title of the Lord of the world so closely yea to be interessed in the great God of Heaven and Earth by an inseparable relation to be attended on by those mighty and majesticall Spirits and lastly to be feoffed in the all-glorious Kingdome of Heaven and immortal crown of glory None of you can be now so dull as not desire to be thus happy and to ask as the blessed Virgin when she was told of her miraculous conception Quomodo fiet istud How shall this be How may I attain to this blessed condition This is a question worth asking Oh the poor and base thoughts of men How may I raise my house how may I settle my estate How may I get a good bargain how may I save or gain how may I be revenged of mine enemy whiles in the mean time we care not to demand what most concerns us which way should I become the child of God But would we know this to which all the World is but trifles surely it is not so hard as useful whose Sons we are by nature we soon know too well It is not enough to say our Father was an Amorite and our Mother an Hittite or to say we are the children of this world Luke 16.8 or a seed of falsehood Esay 57.4 or yet worse the children of the night and darknesse 1 Thess 5.5 worse yet we are filii contumaciae the sons of wilfull disobedience as the original runs Ephes 2.3 and thereby yet worse the sons of wrath Ephes 2.2 and which is the height of all miseries the Sons of death and eternal damnation how then how come we to be the Sons of God It is the Almighty power of Grace that only can make this change A double Grace the Grace of Adoption the Grace of Regeneration Adoption God hath predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ Ephes 1.5 Regeneration So many as received him he gave them this power or right to be made the Sons of God those which are borne not of blood or the lust of the flesh but borne of God John 1.12 13. and that which referrs to both Ye are all the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Galat. 3.26 Shortly then if we would be Sons and Daughters of God for the case is one in both the soul hath no sexes and in Christ there is neither male nor female we must see that we be borne again not of water only so we are all sacramentally Regenerated but of the Holy Ghost If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 we must not be the men we were and how shall that be effected In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospell saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.15 He hath begotten us by the word of Truth Jam. 1.18 This word is that immortal seed whereby we are begotten to God let this word therefore have it's perfect work in us let it renew us in the inner man mortifying all our evill and corrupt affections and raising us up to a new life of Grace and obedience then God will not shame to own us for his and we shall not presume in claiming this glorious title of the Sons of God But if we be still our old selves no changlings at all the same men that we came into the World without defalcation of our corruptions without addition of Grace and Sanctification Surely we must seek us another Father we are not yet the Sons of God But me thinks ere I was aware I am falling to anticipate my discourse and whiles I am teaching how we come to be the Sons of God am showing how we may know that we are so which is the drift of this Scripture in the qualification here mentioned So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God It is not enough for us my beloved to be the Sons and Daughters of God unlesse we know our selves to be so for certainly he cannot be truely happy that doth not know himself happy How shall we therefore know our selves to be the Sons of God surely there may be many signes and proofes of it besides this mentioned in my Text or rather many specialties under this general As first Every Child of God is like his Father It is not so in carnall Generation we have seen many Children that have not so much as one lineament of their Parents and as contrary to their dispositions as if they had been strangers to their loines and womb In the spiritual son-ship it is not so every Child of God carries the true resemblance of his Heavenly Father as he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Well then my Brethren trie your selves by this rule our Heavenly Father is merciful are we cruel Our Father is righteous in all his wayes are we unjust Our Heavenly Father is slow to anger are we furious upon every sleight occasion Our Heavenly Father abhors all manner of evill do we take pleasure in any kind of wickednesse certainly we have nothing of God in us neither can we claim any kindred with Heaven Secondly every Child that is not utterly degenerate bears a filial love to his Parents answering in some measure that naturall affection which the parent bears towards him we cannot but know that the love of
a motive for God to give largely unto us as that we give freely unto God 2 Sam. 11 16. David did but intend to build God an house and now in a gratious retribution God tells him by Nathan The Lord will build thee an house and will establish thine house and thy kingdome for ever before thee and contrarily in this it holds as in all other pious bequests 2 Cor. 9.6 He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly if some particular wayes of the conveighance of our bounty were anciently ceremonial Prov. 3.9 yet we are sure this charge is perpetual Honour the Lord with thy substance Had our blessed Saviour been of the mind of these drye and pinching Devotionists he had surely chid Mary Magdalene for the needlesse wast of that her pretious ointment and have agreed with Judas how much better it migh have been employed for the relief of many poor soules that wanted bread then in such a complement of unnecessary delicacy Mat. 26.13 but how kindly this seasonable expence was taken by our Lord Jesus appears in that the memorial of this beneficence is ordained by him to have no narrower bounds of Time or Place then this blessed Gospel it self Shortly as the honest and learned Gerson long since distingushed in matter of Doctrine so must we learn to distingush in matter of practise some things are of the necessity of devotion others of the piety of devotion and yet further in this second ranke some things are essential to the piety of devotion without which it cannot be at all others are accidental without which it cannot be so well under this latter sort expedience and decency both of cleanliness and cost challenge a due place and cannot justly be denyed it As it is in our own case some things are requisite out of the necessity of nature without which we cannot subsist other things are requisite for the convenience of our estate without which we cannot maintain a well being He that hath Bread and Drinke and Cloathes may live but he that hath not his Linnen washed and his meat cleanly dressed and change of warme suits will hardly live with comfort To the great marriage of the Kings son in the Gospel all comers are invited yea the guests are fetcht from the very high waies Mat. 22.9.10 and hedges where there could be no probability of any choice Wardrobe yet when the King comes in and finds a man without his wedding garment he in displeasure asks Friend how camest thou in hither sufficienty intimating that even comlinesse of fashion and meet complement are worthily expected in the solemn entertainments of God To conclude if we have rightly apprehended the dreadful and glorious Majesty of the great God we shall never think we can come with reverence enough into his holy presence and it is no small appendance of reverence to have our very bodies decently composed before him and if we have well weighed the absolute soveraignty of this great King of Glory and the infinite largess of our munificent God who hath given us our selves and all that we have or are or hope for that hath not grudged us ought in earth or heaven no not the dear son of his love and eternal essence but hath sent him out of his bosome for our redemption we cannot think all our little enough to consecrate to his blessed name and service and shall hold that evil eye worthy to be pulled out which shall grudg the fattest of his flocks and heards to the altar of the Almighty Now the appâ—ication of this whole discourse I leave to the thoughts of every reader who cannot but easily finde how too much need there is of a monitor in this kind whiles the examples of a profane indecency so abound every where to the great shame of the Gospel and scandall of all ingenious mindes I forbear to particularize a volume would be too straight for this complaint It is not the blushing of my Nation the derision of Foraigners the advantage of adversaries that I drive at in these seasonable lines it is the reformation of those foul abuses gross neglects outward indignities notorious pollutions which have helpt to expose the face of this famous Church late the glory of Christendom to the scorne of the nations round about us who now change their former envy at her unmatchable beauty into a kinde of insulting pity of her miserable deformity Returne dear brethren returne to that comly order and decency which won honour and reverence to your goodly forefathers After the main care of the substance of divine worship which must be ever holy spiritual answerable to the unfailing and exact rule of the eternal word of God let the outwatd carriage of Gods sacred affairs be what may be sutable to that pure and dreadful Majesty whose they are let his now neglected houses be decently repaired Nequid pâ—ofanum Templo Dei insâ—ratur â—oâ—feâ—sus sedâ—m quâ—m inhabitat deâ—eâ—inquat Cyprian de habitâ— virg neatly kept reverently regarded for the owners sake and inviolably reserved for those sacred uses to which they are dedicated let his holy table be comly spread attended with awful devotion let them be clean both within and without that bear the vessels of the Lord let the maintenance of his altar be free liberal chearful let Gods chair the pulpit be climb'd into by his chosen servants with trembling and gravity briefly let his whole service and worship be celebrated with all holy reverence this is the way to the acceptation of God and to honour with men Good Security A Comfortable DISCOURSE OF The Christians Assurance of Heaven Grounded upon 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure IT shall be my onely drift and endeavour in this discourse to settle the hearts of those who profess the name of Christ in a main case of Christian resolution concerning their present and final estate the mean whereof is no lesse comfortable and useful then the extremes miserably dangerous whiles one is causelesly confident and dyes presuming another is wilfully careless and perisheth through neglect both fearfully mis-carry and help to fill up hell I shall desire to guide the wise Christian in a midway between both these and teach him how to be resolute without presumption and to be awful without distrust how to labour for an holy security and modest confidence Ere we descend to the matter Three termes require a little clearing what this calling is What election What the sure-making of both As to the first this cannot be taken of an outward calling For we are sure enough of that wheresoever the Gospel is preached we are called outwardly neither are we much the nearer to be sure of that for many are called few chosen yea certainly this not answered shall aggravate our damnation It is therefore an inward and effectuall calling that we must endeavour to make sure a call not by the sound of the word only