have abundance Having is using for the unfaithfull Servant had a Talent but he did not use it And then follows But from him that hath not shall be taken that that he hath How can that be taken away that he hath not He is said not to have it because he did not use it It is the same from him that hath not used it shall be taken away that he hath So the Scripture runs still God gives the grace and he must have the glory of his grace and that is gotten by action Otherwise as Plinie observes well of Phydeus the famous Painter that had the habite of the Art above all of his time sayth he that great Art and skill that Phideus had it was to no purpose unlesse he had excercised and practised it upon some Table So it is with the graces and virtues of a Christian if he apply them not accommodate them to use and occasion that God may get glory it is all one as a Candle under a â—ushell there is no glory to God no light to others What profite is there in gold it selfe that is so precious if it be still in the Myne The Myne may be rich there may be gold in the Myne but it is not a Treasure It is of use when it is out of the Myne and when it is in the hands of men and accommodated to use then it brings good to others and to it selfe it gets lustre and glory So it is with all graces they are virtues and graces while they are in the Myne in the habite in the inner man before they come to use and action yet they are not profitable What profite at all is there in faith if it doe not fructifie Or in charity if it doe not work Or in repentance if we doe not humble our selves Or in obedience it cannot be called obedience for that is full of action but what is obedience if there be no excercise and practise of obedience Here is the second latitude when we have got the habite we are not come to perfection there must action follow Knowledge availes not without practise we must goe therfore from strength to strength from knowledge to practise from possession to use from habite to act that is from strength to strength Besides this there is a third and I will add a fourth and put them together Besides habits and acts there is a consideration of degrees and multiplying of acts so the third and fourth consideration is from one action of Piety to another stay not in one or two or three but still goe on That is to be fruitfull and when we have attained one or two degrees if grace stay not but goe further that is to climb up That is the rule the Apostle sets in Phillip 3. He pressed forward to the mark St. Paul got a great mastery and conquest over Errour and sin and made a great progresse in the way of Piety none ever came nearer perfection then St. Paul and at that time when he wrote he was still in motion and action yet still he did goe forward step after step he was content with no mediocrity I presse towards the mark I labour for the end of the race There is the same in Heb. 6. he bids them goe on to perfection there must be a proceeding It is well expressed in Revel 22. He that is holy let him be holy still he that is righteous let him be righteous still What! shall we think it is onely meant of perseverance to keep at the same stay in the same proportion of holinesse and righteousnesse That is not it but it adds the degrees the multiplied acts he that is holy let him be more holy and he that is righteous let him be more righteous These are the degrees of grace by which we must ascend to Heaven If any aske me how many and what those Degrees are That Question cannot be resolved by any who can tell the dust of Jacob I will not say as it is in one place of Scripture you may as well number the dust of the earth for there is nothing of Earth in grace but I say as God said to Jacob See if thou canst tell the Starrs in the skie we may as easily number the Stars of Heaven as number the degrees of the ascents of grace that carries up to it For if they be not so great and so many the degrees of grace yet thus far who can tell the steps of Jacobs Ladder There is a Ladder spirituall better then that that he saw the severall steps that lead to Heaven it is as hard to number them as the steps of that It is true some of the Fathers have gone about for our better direction to give us an account of some numbers of degrees St. Gregory in one or two places names fifteene degrees of ascent to perfection in the scale of perfection answerable to the fifteene degrees that carryed up to the Sanctuary But they are far more therefore Johannes Climachus doubles the number he makes the degrees thirty but infinitly short for there are a greater number of graces and virtues and there are twise as many degrees of every grace St. Bernard reckons seaven degrees of humility that is but one grace of the quire what doe you think are the multitudes of degrees of the rest And the degrees that he names are the degrees that he conceives have been attained who can tell the degrees that have not been attained Therefore stay this question the degrees are not to be numbred but goe on it is an indefinite as I told you But what encouragement is there If there be no period that is an endlesse work and that that is endlesse affords no comfort No it is not endlesse as Statius saith of an Old man that was busie in planting when one asked the reason why Old men should plant they plant Trees in the earth whither themselves are going they are never like to eat of the fruit And who plants a Vineyard and doth not eat of the fruit of it O but sayth he they doe good for succession they plant Trees that may profit another age So a Christian admit he doe not come to the top to the highest degree in this World we plant grace that may bring us to another age that may bring comfort and glory in Heaven We doe not look to reap the fruit of our labours here admit the pitch of all be not attained to here it is reserved for Heaven here we dig that there we may reap the fruit But God of purpose hath set perfection out of our reach that we may still be proficients and goe on forward and labour after it It is not with the growth of the mind as it is with the body in the growth of the body there is a peculiar stature set a height and pitch of every Creature there is no Creature that is capable of growth but hath a pitch In the life of man there are those
is sadly recorded of Paul and Barnabas the contention was so sharpe betwixt them that they departed one from another Whose difference is thus moralized by some who observed Saint Paul a great Doctor a Controversall divine Saint Barnabas a good man and comfortable Preacher therefore called the Son of consolation that skill in Schoole-Divinity and practicall profitable preaching seldome agree in the same person But if ever they were reconciled to the height in any of our Nation it was in the worthy Author of these workes by which that thou mayest reap benefit is the hearty desire and prayer of Thy servant in Christ Jesus THO. FULLER The Peoples Happinesse A SERMON PREACHED IN St. MARIES IN CAMBRIDGE Upon Sunday the 27 of March being the day of His MAJESTIES happy Inauguration By RI. HOLDSVVORTH D. D. Master of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge Vicechancellour of the Universitie and one of His MAJESTIES Chaplains Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the Vniversity of Cambridge Anno Dom. 1642. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE CHARLES By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Most Gracious Sovereign I Had not adventured to bring these unpolished meditations into the publick light much lesse to have set them before the Sunne but that Your Majestie was pleased to becken them to Your self and to draw them as by Your own beams so under Your own shade into Your Royall Presence that being first animated with the gentlenesse of Your beams they might not be dazled with the splendour Neither is this the least of Your Princely excellencies Matth. 8.1 that You please as Christ in the Gospel to come down from the Mount for the more free accesse of Your people and know with Moses to put the vail of Goodnesse over the shinings of Majestie so that the meanest of Your subjects may be refresht with the light of Your countenance notwithstanding the lustre and draw livelihood from the splendour through the serenitie finding the medium of their happinesse as well as the object to be under God in Your Self It is not to be expected at this present that the irradiations of this light should be so vigorous in a cloudy Region we now see to our grief what a misery it is to have the Royall influence intercepted as of late it hath been and still is by those disastrous obstructions which at first had onely the appearance of Elia's cloud 1. Kings 18.44 like the hand of a man but are since grown to that vastnesse as they threaten to the whole Kingdome such ruine as our sinnes call for Yet in the midst of these sad distractions it is Your Majesties comfort that as their occasions are from below so their disposall is from above both for the exercise of Your Princely clemency and patience and for the triall of the sincerest loyaltie of Your subjects yea and religious hearts through all these clouds can discern and do with thankfulnesse acknowledge the saying of Solomon to be most true Prov. 16.15 In the light of the Kings countenance there is life the life of the whole State that it may happily rise to the former glory wherein it so long flourished the life of the Church that it may recover out of this sad languishing condition into which it is brought the life of the Universities that they may fruitfully spread forth their numerous branches to all parts of the Land Lastly the life of this small inconsiderable Tractate in as many degrees as Nature hath bestowed it upon man in that Your Majestie vouchsafed first to require a copie in writing then to command it to the Presse then to afford it Your Patronage whilest it presenteth to the world some little portion of that great happinesse which this eighteen years we have enjoyed under your blessed government I wish the Argument had had a better workman but what is defective in the Sermon shall be supplied by my prayers That the happinesse hereafter spoken of howsoever it be now eclips'd may again shine forth in full strength through Your Majesties great prudence whose Royall beams as they are powerfull for the fostering of piety so I hope they shall be powerfull also for the dispelling of all foggie vapours that may hazard either to prejudice the welfare of Your people or to pervert their alleigance Which as it hath been hitherto untainted to the envie of other Nations and honour of our own So that it may be alwayes inviolably preserved is the daily prayer of Your MAjESTIES humblest subject and servant Ri. Holdsworth PSALME 144.15 Happy is that people that is in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the LORD THe Genius of this Scripture as it is very gracefull and pleasing in it self so it is also very suitable to the respects of this day on which we are met together It presents unto us what we all partake of if we be so well disposed as to see it Fâ—licitie or Happinesse And if a single happinesse be too little behold it is conveyed in two streams the silver stream and the golden It is reached forth as it were in both the hands of Providence There is the happinesse of the left hand which is Civill in the first clause of the words and the happinesse of the right which is Divine and Religious in the second Answerable to these are the two welcome aspects of this day the Civill aspect or reference which ariseth from the annuall revolution as it is Dies Principis a day of solemnitie for the honour of the King and the Religious aspect from the weekly revolution as it is Dies Dominica a day of devotion for the worship of God In these there is so evident a correspondence that I cannot but congratulate both the day to the text and the text to the day in regard of their mutuall complications For we have on the one side both clauses of the text in the day and on the other both references of the day in the text Happinesse is the language of all and that which addes to the contentment it is Happinesse with an Echo or ingemination Happy and Happy From this ingemination arise the parts of the text the same which are the parts both of the greater world and the lesse As the heaven and earth in the one and the body and the soul in the other so are the passages of this Scripture in the two veins of Happinesse We may range them as Isaac doth the two parts of his blessing Gen. 27. The vein of civill happinesse Gen. 27.28 in the fatnesse of the earth and the vein of Divine happinesse in the dew of heaven Or if you will have it out of the Gospel here 's Marthaes portion in the many things of the body Luke 10.41 42. and Maries better part in the Vnum necessarium of the soul To give it yet more concisely here 's the path of Prosperity in Outward comforts Happy is the people that is
companie blessed the wombe that bare him Lek 11.28 he presently replies Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it In like manner the Prophet David having first premised the inferiour part and outside of an happy condition fearing lest any should of purpose mistake his meaning and hearing the first proposition should either there set up their rest and not at all take in the second or if take it in yet do it preposterously and give it the precedence before the second according to the worlds order virtus post nummos In this respect he puts in the clause of revocation whereby he shews that these outward things though named first yet they are not to be reputed first The particle Yea removes them to the second place it tacitly transposeth the order and the path of piety which was locally after it placeth virtually before 'T is as if he had said Did I call them happy who are in such a case Nay miserable are they if they be onely in such a case The temporall part cannot make them so without the spirituall Admit the windows of the visible heaven were opened and all outward blessings powred down upon us admit we did perfectly enjoy whatsoever the vastnesse of the earth contains in it tell me What will it profit to gain all and to lose God If the earth be bestowed upon us and not heaven or the materiall heaven be opened and not the beatificall or the whole world made ours and God not ours we do not arrive at happinesse All that is in the first proposition is nothing unlesse this be added Yea happy are the people which have the LORD for their God You see in this part there is aliquid quod eminet something which is transcendent Therefore I will enquire into two particulars see both what it is that transcends and what is the manner of propounding of it The manner of propounding it is as I said corrective or by way of revocation the summe whereof is thus much That temporalls without spiritualls in what aboundance soever we possesse them cannot make us truly happy They cannot make happy because they cannot make good They may denominate a man to be rich or great or honourable but not to be virtuous Nay Seneca carrieth it a little further Non modò non faciunt bonum fed nec divitem They are so farre from making a man good that they make him not truly rich because they encrease desire and riches consist in contentation Not he that hath little but he that desires more is poor nor he that hath much but he that wants nothing is rich Yea and we may go further then Seneca They are so farre from making good that they often make evill if they be not sanctified they possesse the heart with vile affections fill it full of carnall and sinfull desires Wheras there are foure good mothers which bring forth ill daughters prosperitie is one Truth begets hatred securitie danger familiaritie contempt prosperitie pride and forgetfulnesse of God In this I might well make a stop but there is one degree more They are so farre from making good that they do not bring good but many evils and inconveniences They bring not the good of contentment but infinite distractions they are aureae compedes as S. Bernard speaks fetters or manicles which entangle the soul that it cannot attend upon better things Nor the good of freedome they do enthrall the soul to that which is worse then it self and it cannot be apprehended how a thing worse then our selves can make us happy Lastly not the good of safetie for they oftentimes expose us to dangers Multos sua felicitas stravit as Gregorie speaks Many men their lives had been longer if their riches had been lesse their happinesse made them miserable consolationes factae sunt desolationes as S. Bernard again Upon these grounds the Psalmist had very good reason to sequester them from true happinesse and by this corrective particle to reduce them to the second place though he set them in the first He knew very well that they are burdens shares impediments to piety as often as furtherances He knew them to be vain and transitory things Prov. 23.5 that we cannot hold They make themselves wings as Solomon speaks They are onely the moveables of happinesse Bractealis felicitas as Seneca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen What 's that S. Austin seems to translate it felicitas fallax a fabulous and personate felicitie Nay not onely fallax but falsa fictitious spurious deceitfull which leaves the soul empty when it most fills it that being most true which the same Father adds felicitas fallax major infelicitas falsa felicitas vera miseria Therefore that I may shut up this point let this be the use of it We must learn from hence to regulate our judgements according to the wisdome of the Spirit revealed in the word And that we may do if we keep to Gods method and set every thing in the due place where God hath seated it Now the Scripture constantly doth give the inferiour place to these temporall things If to come after be inferiour it sets them there Seek first the kingdome of God c. Matth. 6.33 If to be below be inferiour it placeth them there Set your affection on things above c. Coloss 3.2 Even gold and silver the best of these things they are seated under the feet of men and the whole world under the feet of a Christian Rev. 12.1 to teach us to despise it Lastly if to be on the left hand be inferiour the Scripture reckons them there too they are called the blessings of the left hand to teach us to give them the same place in our affections In one sense we may put them on the right by using them to God's glorie but in love and esteem they must be on the left S. Hierome illustrates it by this similitude As flax when it is on the distaffe it is on the left hand but when it is spunne into yarn and put on the spindle it is on the right so temporall things in themselves when first we receive them they are as flax on the distaffe all this while on the left hand but spinne them forth and use them to God's glorie they are as yarn on the spindle transposed to the right Thus we must learn to order them to the right hand onely for use to the left for valuation Otherwise if we pervert God's order and put them on the right it is to be feared they will set us on the left at the day of judgement if we elevate them above they will keep us below and make us come after if we set them before The highest place they can have is to be seconds to pietie here holy David placeth them though he mentions pietie last yet he giveth it the precedence in this word of revocation Yea happie that is Yea first yea more
not yet learned to play the Hypocrites wee are not come so farre as the Pharisees we are not come so farre as to dissigure our faces There is no man almost turnes his countenance that turnes his eye to the ground We are smitten but we are not sensible Gods hand presseth us but we are not humbled the Fan is sent out but we are not winnowed wee are a corrupt floore and a corrupt generation that goe on still We are out of the way we and our Princes and Nobles and as our fathers before us so we have done evill as Daniel saith still we are a rebellious people I may aske Chrisostomes question that he asked the people of Antioch who is there among us all that his heart smites him who is there among us all that once grieves for sinne that once smites on his Thigh that makes his hand smite upon his breast to recal himselfe to turne to the Lord Nay wee may say as the Prophet of the people of Israell Jer. 3. I called but they would not turne and in Jer. 8. I hearkned and heard to see if there were any that would leave their wicked wayes but behold there was no man they all went on in the imaginations of their owne hearts and none said what have I done Or as the house of Judah Jerem. 18. I called to them for the forsaking of their sinnes but they gave me this answer Nay but as for us we will walke in the devises if our hearts and doe that which is delightfull in our owne eyes and according to the imaginations of our owne Spirits It is the answer that wee returne generally to God though we say it not with our lips we resolve to walke according to the devises of our owne hearts and what are those the devises of pride and vanitie of fraud and iniquitie and of lying and reviling one another and these are the devices of our owne hearts not the devises of Gods Spirit and of his law and these are the answers that we returne Nay but we will walke according to the devises of our owne hearts I cannot tell into what principle I shall resolve what should be the cause of so much impenitencie and hardnes Were it so that God had set us hard conditions I should cease to wonder but the conditions are easie it is but Turn to me Were it that we were not sensible of these things and heard not these doctrines in our eares I should not wonder but we heare them and harden our heart It can be nothing but the Spirit of securitie and drowsinesse that Isaiah speakes of that possesseth us The Spirit of slumber is on them and they have closed the eyes of their understanding Wee sleepe and promise our selves good dayes when God pronounceth evill It were well if it were no more but a Spirit of slumber there might be hope that we should awake but it is as a Spirit of derision of scorne like Job's horse that laughs at destruction we laugh when our feare cometh and as his horse is described there so men goe on in sin they rush into the battell though they be to encounter with God as if they were able to meet with judgements I have oft wondred that upon all those inducements to seeke heaven and salvation that men should neglect it so much and I see the reason is because men love life temporall better then eternall earth is heaven this world is better then the other yet that is some reason because this life hath som what sensible and we are lead by sense it must be a heart of faith that lookes after the other life sensible men will looke to this life But this I wonder at that men should not only love temporall life better then eternall but that men should love sinne better then life There is nothing that a man hath in this world better then life he will part with skin for skin arme after arme thousands after thousands with eye and skin and arme and all to save his life shall we be willing to part with those and not with sinne after sinne were it once said and all that a man had committed would he give for his life it were something if we would part with sinne after sinne no but wee love sinne beter then life and that is the reason though wee be in danger we goe on in sinne Remember the voyce of him that calleth God could not propound to you a more gracious way turne by prayer and repentance There are many bonds that will put us upon it The bond of nature cals upon us all creatures turne to God the insensible creatures the Ravens and Lyons they turne to God and seeke their meat of him shall we be more insensible then they There is not only the bond of nature but of obedience God cals upon us to turne we owe so much obedience to his command we owe it in dutie it is a dutie God will make us come in by the lure of judgement whether we will or no. The bond of thankefulnesse cals upon us whatsoever we have is from God the blessings of this life and the hopes of a better our health and strength and meanes and countenance our wits and comforts the hope of salvation and the hope of the pardon of sinne all is from God by the bond of thankefulnesse let us turne to him that gives us all that is the fountaine of all blessings we have none but from him Further there is the bond of necessitie that if we turne not to God we can turne no where if he take away his countenance we are consumed into our first dust and it were well if wee were resolved into that but wee are turned into Hel when God takes away the light of his countenance Hell is where God is not O! whether shall I turne saith Bernard that I may turne to the Lord whither shall I goe but to thee say the Disciples Thou hast the words of eternall life whom have I in heaven but thee or what in earth in comparison of 〈◊〉 whether shall we flie from God if we cannot flie â—â—rom him there is a bond of necessitie that we returne to him If there were no love necessitie should constraine us to turne to God Againe there is the bond of congruitie God turnes to us and he turnes first and he turnes woing and beseeching and intreating that we would returne to him and love our selves if wee will not love God yet let us love our selves and conform to Gods gracious affection that supreame Majestie that is pleased to descend from that high Throne to turne to sinfull man and to call upon him and he turnes to us now when he speakes to us and he turnes to us ever in granting our Prayers and in exercising his long-suffering daily that bond of congruitie should make us turne Yet that is not all There is the bond of experience in our selves that when we have turned to him heretofore he
had one tongue in their hearts and another in their tongue God looks to the language of the heart As we must bring naked open hearts so we must bring simplicity of speech All the confessions in Scripture run thus with naming the sins not in generall onely but in particuler So the Israelites Numb 21. We have sinned in that we have spoken against the Lord and his servant Moses they name their sin So in 1 Sam. 12. when Samuel presseth them home and layes to their heart all the sins that they had committed then they make confession in naked simple words We have sinned and added this to all our sins to aske a King They did not onely confesse in generall we have sinned but in particuler this is that sin that wee have provoked God by As Davids heart smote him when he had numbred the people presently he tells God hee had sinned in this sinne of numbring the people while his heart was hott and the sinne lay upon him hee opens it to God in simple naked words That is the third sort Last of all There is another bring with you forcible words weighty words aggravating words such words as may exagerate your sins against your selves such words Lay them not onely open but make them more if it were possible though it be a sinne to lye to God but though a man say with Paul Of whom I am cheife it is farr from dissimulation he that knowes his owne heart is able to say hee is the cheife of sinners though the World be able to lay nothing against him because every man knowes the sinne of his owne heart Therefore he that comes to confesse will not bring cold words but aggravating words So run all the formes in Scripture because when we aggravate God extenuates and when we make more God makes lesse but we cannot make them more but aggravate our sins in confession Looke to that in Nehemiah how he aggravates with words after words We have dealt proudly and stoutly with the Lord. So saith Ezra Wee have hardned our hearts and refused to obey wee have not hearkned to his Commandements we have rebelled against him we and our Kings our Princes our Preists and our Fathers And Daniel in his confession adds The men of Judah and the people of Israel There are all aggravations against the persons and against the sins Wee have dealt proudly wee have hardned our hearts we have not hearkned to Gods Law we have rebelled against him And such were the confessions that David made one we have in Psal 106. We have sinned and dealt wickedly and committed iniquity as if he wanted words to expresse himselfe and it is the very same words with Daniel and Ezra in their confessions David in Psal 51. My iniquities are gone over my head and are as a burthen too heavy to beare See how could he exagerate more they are over my head above my reach I cannot compasse them as the flood that overwhelmes a man in the bottom of the water and he sees nothing but destruction so my sins are gone over my head I cannot look to the top or bottome or reach them and they are too heavy a burthen I cannot beare them thou alone must ease me of them Daniel and Ezra aggravate sin in the same words Our sins are increased up to Heaven here was a high pitch he tooke to himselfe not onely in the knowledge of them so every sin grows up to Heaven because God knows them but for multitude and increase we have piled sin upon sin As the Giants of old set Pelion upon Ossa and Parnassis upon both so we have set one sin upon another that they are heaped up to Heaven the Earth is weary with bearing of them they reach to Heaven So here is the form of words bring naked simple humble forcible aggravating words And after all this when wee looke upon all these formes of confession and see the practice of the Saints of old and see the burthen of sin and of the commands are we not all stirred up are we not all ready to burst Is it possible to hold but to cast off such shame almost and in the middest of much people to acknowledge wee have sinned Lord we have sinned and for our iniquities and transgressions these troubles are come upon us If wee want words of our owne let us borrow of those confessions in Scripture We have need to take all helps sin lyes close all helpes of discovery of removall and of comfort so we shall be able to expresse our selves when we see those formes that they exprest themselves in that was the end when the Prophet bids them take words that is get the language of repentance goe humble your selves and your soules to God take words and goe and confesse to him that is the first thing I see the time is spent and the weather is hot yet points that are depending one upon another are best applyed when the heart is warme and sometimes the dependance adds so much grace to a point that the grace of it is lost if the season be not taken Take to you words The language of confession and the language of prayer Take words to you when you turne to the Lord by repentance then take words and when you turne to the Lord by prayer then take words These two goe together confession and prayer In Nehem. 1. there they be joyned I prayed before thee for the Children of Israel and confessed to thee the sins of the Children of Israel And in Dan. 9. I prayed to my God and made my confession before him There must be no prayer made to God where there is no confession of sin for if we multiply our prayers and pray every houre yet there goes sin betweene and though it be a sin repented of and though it be a sin that is pardoned before yet David confessed his sin after it was pardoned nothing moves so much to confession as the knowledge of pardon Prayer will not availe without confession therefore I first spake of the other Prayer without confession saith Chrysostome it is as if a Bird should have her wings at liberty and her feet be tyed Confession is as the feet and prayer as the wings if a Bird have the wings free and the feet in a snare it cannot get up so though the heart pray yet if the foot of confession be in a snare there is no hope that the heart should flye to God it is as a Bird that hath the wings at liberty and the foot is in a snare therefore these must goe together take to you words of confession and prayer I must be breife therefore I will reduce them to three heads There are three things the Prophet aimes at in this exhortation Take to you words of prayer He shewes the necessity of vocall prayer Take to you words He shewes the necessity of preparation to prayer Take words It is not onely use words and pray but take them
were not able to learne it he joynes these that we might learne to joyne them in our Prayers They are the things that God joynes therefore he joines them They are the things that the promises of God joyne therefore he joynes them They are the things that other Saints joyned therefore he joynes them God when he speakes of himselfe he joynes these The Lord the Lord gracious and mercifull pardoning iniquity c. They goe together in God can a man make a better prayer to God or more perfect then that that is taken from those Attributes and termes that are most emynent in God The Spirit of God joynes these together in God we may well joyne them in Prayer As Cyprian saith of the Lords Prayer it is good to come to the Lord in his owne words though there be no vertue in the words without the Spirit God will accept the words of his owne Son when we come in the name and words of Christ So here it is the Spirit of God that commenceth and makes our Suites it is the Spirit of God that frames our Bill that Dictates our Prayers He is the Counsellor of the Father he knowes what the Father will grant Shall we neglect to make such Prayers as the Spirit dictates Can you have sayth St. Austin a better to Coppy your Prayers then the Spirit of God Then here the Spirit of God joynes the grace and mercy of God we must joine them in our Prayers God will acknowledge the words of his Holy Spirit if we come to Christ in his owne words As they are the words that God joynes so they are the words that are joyned in the Promise I will be mercifull to their Transgressions and I will pardon their Sins In many of the Promises of God these two still meet Prayer builds upon a Promise when Prayer gets a promise it builds it goes up to Heaven upon promises there is the Ladder of promises It is impossible Prayer should miscarry that takes the direction of the promise God hath promised to pardon therefore prayer sues for it God hath promised to be gracious therefore prayer begs it These two are joyned in the promise therefore they should in our Prayers Thirdly they are the two that the Saints joyne God be mercifull to us and blesse us and be mercifull unto us he delights to put these two God be mercifull and mercifull God take away our sins and receive us graciously be mercifull in pardoning and be mercifull in powring out and diffusing the light of thy Countenance O! when the Saints set before us the Patterns of such Prayers it is comfortable to us such Patterns as they sped with when they were in our condition It is a great incouragement and comfort and assurance to a Christian when I come with the Prayer of David of the Prophets and Apostles O! It is a comfort when a soule can enlarge it selfe in those Heavenly words that the Spirit of God wrought in the hearts of the Saints in former times For this very purpose the Prophet records this Prayer that they might learne it then and we treasure it up now for it is full of the Jewells of Heavenly grace That shall serve to have spoken of that Take away iniquity and receive us graciously the reason why he adds this clause to the other There is one thing behind the Order but that I must reserve for another time SERMON V. Hosea 14.2 Take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously So will we render thee the Calves of our lips GOOD and evill are the two bounds that are set to all obedience That they are the hounds of obedience the Prophet David shews in Psa 37. where he reduceth all the duty of man to those two heads in shunning of evill and following that that is good Eschew evill and doe good and dwell for ever That they are the bounds of the grace of repentance the Prophet Ezekiell shews us Chap. 38. Cast away from you all your Transgressions make you a new heart and a new Spirit As the Apostle Paul Ephes 4. Put of the old man with the deeds thereof and be renewed in the spirit of your mind That they are the bounds of Prayer our blessed Saviour shews in those two parts Pray that you enter not into temptation there is the one Seeke first the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof there is the other part Lastly that they are the bounds of the duty of thankfullnesse the Psalmist shewes againe in Psal 103. Blesse the Lord O my soule and all that is within me blesse his holy name that forgiveth all thine iniquities that Crowneth thee with mercy and loving-kindenesse All the Saints of God they well know this that piety is excercised about these two these two are the hinges upon which the Door of piety turnes both backward and forward upon these it is that obedience turnes in the shunning of evill and pursuing of good upon these it is that Prayer turnes in deprecating evill and petitioning for good Lastly upon these two the worke of thankfullnesse turnes too in giving God praise for the diverting of evill and for the effusion of good And according to these limits we may see all these duties plainly set out in the text by the severall bounds of them Here is the worke of Repentance with the bounds thereof in that clause Turne to the Lord to set out to us as I shewed before both the terme from which we must turne the aversion of ill and the terme of happinesse to which we must turne that is the conversion to that that is good Put away your sins from you turne from them and then turne to the Lord. There are the bounds of repentance For the duty of Prayer with the bounds of that we have it in the next words Take away all iniquity there is the deprecation of that that is evill and receive us graciously there is the Petition we make for that that is good Lastly for the duty of thankfulnesse we have that in the last words with the bounds thereof So will we render If thou wilt take away sin we will render the prayse of that work and if thou wilt shew us thy Salvation we will render the praise of that worke Of the first of these we spake already and of the last I am to speake afterward and in the second I am conversant at this time The forme of Prayer the Prophet sets to the people according to the bounds of it in which I considered before these two parts There are the parts of the Prayer and the order of the parts The parts of the Prayer in those two First for the removall of sin Take away all iniquity I shewed you the reasons why he directs his prayer against sin why he would have them direct it against all sin why he Prayes against sin for the taking of it away The 2. part of the prayer is for the powring down of the grace they stood in
suffer patiently and for righteousnesse sake Put these together and you have the meaning of the words To shut up all what is the use we may make briefly thus much To lead us to the right understanding of the nature of Temptations and Tribulations that you may see there is a great deale of comfort and a great deale of honour and contentment in the right enduring of them and that it is a grace to be laboured for that we may attain And that we may attaine the right enduring of tentation One grace above all is to be learned Labour for patience under the Crosse for patience in affliction and Tribulation labour for that grace it is that excellent grace that hath a mixture in every grace It is Custos the keeper of all other vertues of faith hope and Charity and every other grace they all come to their end by the preservation of patience they would faint all were it not for patience Patience lends support to every grace as Gregory speakes well It is the roote of all those flowers in the wreath of Christian vertues the roote of all those graces Patience who can tell the usefullnesse of it it is usefull to a man in all conditions if his liâ—e be prosperous he hath need to stir up patience against the day of distresse If his life be afflicted he needs a treasure of patience because he hath present use of it Besides it is the grace that God honours in many places with his approbation he promiseth a reward to no grace more frequently then to this Nay it is the grace that God honours with the name he takes to himselfe and set us an example even from himselfe he condiscends to set us an Example of longanimity Mercy it selfe doth not more extoll Gods goodnesse then his patience doth for patience is more then mercy for patience is multiplied renewed mercy he could shew no mercy but for patience Therefore he takes the name as the God of judgement so of patience he sets us the example of himselfe that we might learne to get this grace Besides patience is the proper mark of a Christian if the Crosse of Christ be the badge the bearing of the the Crosse the cognizance of a Christian a Christian is not knowne by any thing more then by suffering and therefore is to be defined by no grace more then patience the grace of suffering In one of the first words Christ spake in the Gospell he calls to the Crosse Whosoever will come after me let him take up his Crosse by the same word he called us to patience therefore it is one of the first graces that Christ forceth it is the very mark of a Christian And it is that grace that carries a man through all encounters that sweetens all afflictions whatsoever admit a man endure poverty if he have contentation he doth not feele it it is all one not to have the world and not to want it he that wants not hath abundance contentation is abundance in the middest of want And so for afflictions it is all one not to have affliction and to bear it if there be patience patience never feeles it no affliction can be weighty if Patience bee there it beares all Impatience turnes every thing contrary If a man have fulnesse yet if a man have an impatient spirit he is in affliction in happinesse and aboundance as covetousnesse makes a man alwayes want so impatience make a man alwayes afflicted Take it by a familiar instance if a bird taken in a lime-twig sit still if she have a little patience there may be hopes of recovery but while she flutters her wings she is more fast taken by stirring she brings her selfe into greater afflictions So a man if he be wounded if hee be of a fiery nature and fret within if he be of a fretting spirit it makes the wound worse and not better So if a man be in bonds and in fetters and he begin to be impatient and to stirre much and to strive with the bonds the bonds will make him lame but if he would endure them with quietnesse the bonds are no bonds he feeles them not after they are once setled So in a feaver if a man keepe himselfe in a calme temper and do not stirre and tosse up and downe by toleration the fervor of the feaver diminisheth if he be unquiet it encreaseth the feaver So it is with all afflictions that God layes upon us if we have impatient spirits the more we stirre and fret and vexe our selves the more we encrease our owne tribulation patience is only that that sweetens and seasons all Therefore if wee will rightly come to suffer and endure tribulation get the grace of Patience it is worth our labour by prayer and meditation and by whatsoever good meanes wee may have a happy supply of it Yet that is not all for there must be the other graces joyned to patience Constancy for patience will not come to victory except constancy carry it to the end of the race therefore the blessing is not joyned to patience but it is joyned to constancy Be thou faithfull to death and I will give thee the crowne of life And henceforth is laid up a caowne of righteousnesse but I must finish my couâ—se A man may expect the crowne when he hath runne his race not before there is immortall glory but to those that continue in well-doing so that it is not to those that are patient but that continue to endure as long as God continues to try he that is carryed to the end with constancy hath a title to the blessing otherwise as St. Ambrose saith of faith it is not faith that is received but faith that is kept that preserves a man to Gods Kingdome so it is not patience that is not gotten but patience that is preserved and kept by constancy it is not patience that is fading but that is lasting A man may goe on farre by the help of patience but if constancy be wanting that he goe not out to the very end if hee leave before hee come to the very last step he may chance come neere heaven but constancy brings a man to it So it was that grace that carryed all the Martyrs and Saints through their pilgrimage and suffering they had no other scaling-scaling-ladder to climâ— to heaven by but constancy every step till they came to the top of that ladder It is the ladder that caryed our Saviour through his course pilgrimag As he was man upon earth he was to us both an example as S. Bernard saith he was obedient to death he left not off the obedience to death he walk'd along to the last to the end We must follow our blessed Lord if we wil shew our selves his true Disciples Saith St. Bernard thou whosoever thou art O Christian set not up thy staffe any where else but where Christ hath set up his Christ sets not up his staffe his rest untill hee come
any man should be ignorant he doth not reserve the knowledge as long as he doth the thing the thing shall be given then it is promised now in the meane time it is God that hath promised it it is God that gives it That is the first thing that the Apostle implies Then if we look to the manner of the conveyance it is in this word it is by promise it comes to us by deed by good deed good assurance There is no better deed then that that is written by the Finger of God and sealed to us by the blood of Christ The promise depends both upon the merit of Christ and upon the truth of God He lets us see therefore the conveyance in this word that though we cannot yet come to see the glory of the crown in the thing we may see it in the conveyance and promise As he that is the Heire apparent to any great matter but is not come to the possession though he cannot behold the inheritance as his owne with the eye of sence he may with the eye of reason if he cannot read it where it is Scituated he may in his deeds and conveyances It is all that the Saints had to shew for Heaven when they were on Earth they could see Heaven in the promise they could see and read it in the conveyance Abraham did see Christs day and he that sees Christs day of his first appearing by faith can see his second appearing The Apostle tells us Heb. 11. of all the Saints in the Old Testament though they inherited not the possession of the promises they saw them a far off in the tenure of the promises God deales with us as he did with Moses because he would not bring him to the Land of Canaan he carries him to the Mount and shews it him there he shews it in a Vision in the Vision and glasse of the promises before he translates us he shews us what Heaven is Indeed when we come to Heaven there we shall see from the Mount of Vision but here we may look from the Valley of Vision that we may know what the conveyance is whence it comes the Apostle adds this word The Crowne of life the Crowne promised Yet he tells us not where it is promised nor in what place of Scripture The Apostles were full of quotations yet sometimes they did forbeare them too It had been but an easie labour but yet it was needlesse being a promise of a thing so precious as indeed all the promises are precious promises as the Apostle speaks being a promise so precious he supposed that every man that was conversant in the word of God would be sure to treasure up these Scriptures of all Scripture promises and of all promises those that concerne Heaven are most precious A man that accounts the Book of God a Jewell the most precious of all the Jewells are these promises that concerne Heaven He supposed that every man would pluck these and treasure and lay them up in the Store-house of his heart that he may pick comfort from them in the time of need he names them not therefore that every man might get these It was needlesse in another respect too there is hardly any Booke in the whole Bible in which there are not promises of â—alvation It is the sum of both Testaments there are promises of the Crowne of life every where In the Psalmes oft times With thee is the Well of life In thy presence is fullnesse of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore When I awake I shall behold thy face in righteousnes You have it in the Book of the Proverbs oft repeated Length of dayes are in her right hand and in her left hand riches and glory You have it in the Prophets oft Those that are just shall shine as the stars of the Firmament in glory It dropt oft from the mouth of Christ and oft from the mouths and pens of the Apostles What need was there to point out any place where the promise was made when it is made in every place A man cannot open the Bible almost but he shall hit on it God would plant this foundation of faith in every part any man that is not conversant in reading the whole let him cast his eye on any part he shall meet with this there are frequent iterations of it it was renewed daily being the grand promise of the rest it was fit it should have many repetitions and many renovations There was no way it could be conveyed to us by any assurance but by promise even the least blessings there is no blessing that we look for in act but it is conveyed by promise If it be comfort to a distressed man that is oft repeated Come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you If it be the promise of support and strength in sicknesse that is repeated He shall make all his bed in his sicknesse What say I more If there be promises of lesse blessings there must needs be of the greatest that that comprehends all in it the promise of glory the Crowne of life it is the course that God observes in Scripture he gives all by promise he gives it twice because he would be sure to give Heaven to us he gives Heaven in the PROMISE that is Heaven in hope and then in act that is in possession and fruition There is a great deale of reason if we look on our selves or on God First look on God it was fit he should give it by promise Partly for the better testification of his truth that he might appeare to be Deus verax a God of his word The truth of God could not appeare unlesse there were a word to make good and fullfill his gift and that could not be but by promise this glorious Attribute would fall to the ground but for that there might be some suppositions of him to be a God of infinit goodnesse and purity but we had not had experience of it but by promise And then for the demonstration of his wisdome that he would not give Heaven without advise and deliberation and not as we give rashly He took counsell the gift of glory is a work of counsell a work of counsell in the first ordaining Ephes 1. We are predestinate according to the Counsell and purpose of his will God doth all advisedly as he begins with counsell so he carries it along with counsell there is no better testimony of his wisdome then to give it first by promise he disposeth it by degrees that he may appeare to be a wise God he gives it by deliberation and therefore by promise Lastly for the better demonstration of his goodnesse that he might appeare to be Deus bonus Promise is a kind of debt he that gives a promise makes himselfe a Debtor Whereas we are all Debtors to God debtors to his justice in regard of our sins debtors to his love for
our selves and all that we have see his goodnesse that whereas we are debtors to him he condiscends to make himselfe by promise and stipulation debtors to us as St. Austin very well Vt sicut c. That as we should praise God as the Donor of all the good we have so we should depend upon him as the holy debtor of all the good we look for to testify this great goodnesse he gives it first â—y promise and that because it is a long time before we come to possession God staies our stomacks by a promise as a bit before the heavenly supper When that Supper comes then we have fruition and because we may have desires hot towards Heaven and our stomacks sharp God staies them and gives us a little of the first fruits and these are in the promises And then there is good reason if we consider our selves The reason that we are so fraile and weak in faith and have so much trouble and conflicts and agonies in our spirits is because we doe not converse with the promises we treasure not up these The promises are a great support of three graces First they are the great support of faith faith would sinck and lag unlesse it were for the promises The promises are to faith as Aaron and Hur were to Moses Moses hands were feeble and then Aaron and Hur bring a stone and set it under When Moses had the stone under and Aaron and Hur supported his hands then Israel prevailed Moses was strengthened The promise is as that stone it brings the Rock Christ it makes us look to the Rock that is higher then our selves It brings the Rock and sets it not onely above us but under us The promise undersets faith and keeps the building from tottering Nothing can support it more then the promise For in that the promise supports it God supports it and all in all his attributes There is somwhat of all the attributes of God in the promise of his wisdome of his truth of the power and justice of God all these support saith A man hath enough if he have but one Attribute to support him in any exigent How strong is he that hath all these in the promise Because God is faiâ—hfull and just and true the promise it is the support of faith As it is the support of faith so it is of hope and of patience There is no grace that hath so great correspondency with the promise as hope and patience The promise teacheth hope to live by Providence whereas every man can live by the present the promise supports hope and makes it live by the future by reversion it instructs hope to live by providence not onely in temporalls but spiritualls And as it instructs hope so it doth patience it is a great cherisher of patience Patience is the grace that waits and so doth hope hope is patience Sister or if you will Patience is the Daughter of hope and the promise is the supporter of both The promise will teach hope and patience to depend upon God not onely for the thing he gives but for the time there is a great deale of comfort in the time it will make it submit to Gods order and method What is Gods method This before he gives possession he gives reversion the promise is the reversion the promise is the support of hope and patience there is a great deale of comfort comes to a Christian this way A worldly man is all for the present he cares not for the future if he can be happy for the present that is the pitch he goes to A worldly man desires to take if it be possible his wages before hand he cares not for taking any thing at the last day He is nothing for reversion he would take all as much as he could before That is the reason he is left voyd of comfort at the howre of death because he took up all he knowes not where to take up more as Christ saith He hath his reward he hath his portion in this life he hath no more to take unlesse it be that Son remember thou in thy life-time receivedst pleasure and likewise Lazarus paine now he is comforted and thou art tormented he cannot take it and expect it A godly man contrary he desires not to work for present payment but he works to a day he knowes that God is a good Pay-master he would not have all for the present he knowes the lesse he hath now the more he shall have after because he lives by the promise he lives by hope and hope makes him patient and the promise supports them both It is the grace of hope that sets a man in Heaven when he is on Earth and the promise sets hope in Heaven Hope cannot goe to Heaven but by the promise A Christian could not goe to Heaven on Earth and take a spirituall flight but for hope The promise brings downe Heaven to the heart it inverts that Speech of St. Paul he sayth While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. But hope turnes it and makes it while we are in the body it teacheth us how to be present in Heaven Here is the benefit of hope and because of hope therefore of the promise Therefore if we would looke for comfort let us look to the treasuring up of the promises the promises support There is no condition that befalls a Christian in this life but there is a promise for it there is some promise for it whither it be of prosperity or adversity of life or of death of falling of want there are promises for all and the promise will still keep the head above water what ever the affliction be it will still keep life and soul together If there be no bâ—ame of comfort appeare yet the promise will support in the middest of all distresse If a man grasp but a promise he is well enough If the soul be in perplexity and doubting it will settle it if it be in affliction the promise will comfort it if it be in any distresse the promise will afford consolation therfore make much of the promises If salvation be promised to believers it is hope that presently grasps and layes hold of it it doth it by the promise If forgivenesse be promised to the penitent hope looks after it and layes hold of it and it doth that by the promise If it be the Crowne to â—erseverance hope looks after that too and layes hold of it it doth it still by the promise Hope is the Watch-man or the Sentinell among the graces as a Watch-man upon a Tower will discover before all others that are below when day breaks if there be but the breaking of any day light any beame of comfort to be seene hope will discover it and pick it up Though every grace be as an eye and hereupon the Apostle sayth that the Saints in the Revelations are full of eyes before and behind It is not
onely true of the state of glory but of grace every grace is an eye devotion and prayer that is as an eye by which the devout soul looks up to God And faith that is an eye by which a beleiving soul spies God patience that is as an eye to look after comfort in affliction Every grace is as an eye but hope that is an eye that sees for all the sight of hope is serviceable to all other graces whatsoever they are It is the same to the soul that an Anchor is to the Ship the promise is the same to hope as hope is to the soul the promise is the Anchor of hope as hope is the Anchor of the soul It is better then other Anchors for in other Anchors the ship is above the Anchor that is let downe below it takes hold upon the Earth in the Bottome But here the contrary the ship of the soul that is below but the Anchor is above the Anchor is in Heaven there a man hath his hold hope is that Anchor hope is in Heaven because the promise is in Heaven Hope and the Promise cannot be Severed hope is therefore an Anchor in Heaven because the promise is seated there There being so much comfort to be drawne from the promise so much support to faith and hope and patience so many discoveries of the goodnesse and wisdome and truth of God that all these might appeare together and all be couched under one word hereupon after he had told us of the Crowne of life he adds this word so full of comfort and enjoyment for the present as well as for the future therefore he sayth that God hath promised That is the consideration in respect of God Now I goe on to another consideration on our partâ— there is another clause the Crowne that is promised to them that love God Here is that that is required on our part to get our title and interest in the promise A man would think that the Apostle should rather have varied it in this clause though love be an excellent grace and as much interressed in the promise as any other yet it was not so pertinent one would think to mention the love of God in this after he had spoken of suffering if it had run ordinarily and regularly it should have run thus Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crowne of life which God hath promised to those that suffer for him Having made mention of tribulation before a man would have thought he would have continued in the course of speaking to those that suffer for him As Christ doth Blessed are those that suffer for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Or if the Apostle would have set it larger yet he might have annexed it to other graces that are comprehensive as well as love as the Crown that is promised Timentibus to those that feare him Or Vincentibus to them that overcome and persevere Or Credentibus to those that beleive Or Colentibus to those that serve him all these have interest in the Crowne of life But he could not set it better it is set by the spirit of God but we may see good reason that the Crowne is promised to those that love him It is not Improper It is not Straite It is not Exclusive It is not improper having begun to speak of suffering blessed are they that endure and suffer tribulation tentation he ends with love why so there is good reason nothing enables a man more to suffer for the name of god then love God never thinks we suffer for him if we doe not love him There is no burthen so light but it is heavy if love be wanting and there is no burthen so heavy but it is light where love is As Bernard sayth there is nothing that love cannot make easie and light every yoake Solus amor c. As St. Austin sayth well love is onely that that finds no difficulty it leaps over every impediment and obstacle there is nothing can stand in the way of love to keep it from Christ Nothing is hard to love God cannot give a Command so severe to the eye of flesh and blood he cannot lay so much weight of suffering but love will beare it it makes all things easie The Apostle St. John he tells us in 1 John 1. of keeping the Commandements by Love and then followes This is love to keepe his Commandements and his Commandements are not grievious Why are they not grevious Love accounts every thing easie Therefore because he would shew the way how we are to suffer and to come to the Crown he sayth he hath reserved it For them that love him because love will endure and beare all things love will endure any thing for God There is good reason and it was very proper that the Apostle should place it so Secondly it is not exclusive it doth not exclude other graces that are not mentioned The Crowne is promised in other places to other vertues There is no vertue but hath the promise of the Crowne made to it in some place See the wisdome of the spirit of God he so gives honour to one grace that he passeth not by another As you have it concerning the Saints in the Old Testament there is an honour done to every Saint sometimes to one sometimes to another Sometimes Job is memorable for patience sometimes Abraham for faith David for repentance There is no Saint of God in Scripture but hath some remarkable note of commendation God so honours one that he doth not forget the rest every one in his way and kind So it is with graces they are all amiable and lovely and have commendation from Heaven but not all at the same time Every one interresseth in the Crowne but sometime one hath the promise sometimes another to encourage us to all That we may be encouraged to patience there is the promise to that that we may be stirred up to purity it is promised to that Againe to faith the promise is made to that and so of the rest every grace hath the promise therefore because in other places the promise is made to feare and faith and patience and purity the Apostle here singles out the Mistris grace and settles the promise on her on love they are not excluded though they be not named Lastly it is not a strait narrow expression but very full so full that it comprehends all other expressions Tell me what grace you would have cannot I find it in love Because love is the Bond of perfection in that it is made to love it is made to all there is none wanting where love is Love is the fullfilling of the Law it is all the Commandements in that it is all the Commandements it is all duties all duties are in love in that it is all duties it is all graces if love be named all is named As there is no grace that
that is usefull In summ it is nothing else but this the Lot or portion that discends upon every man here in this World the share or dimensum that is allotted to him whither it discend by succession or be demised by gift that is a mans Heritage in a large sence Thereupon it is that it is translated from temporalls to spiritualls because God is so gracious he gives to his Servants Bona sui of his owne good as every thing is Gods in the World but more especially things celestiall Divine super supreame blessings these things celestiall are the good things of God he gives to his Servants of his owne good Hereupon it is that Heaven is called the inheritance of the Countrey And grace which leads to Heaven and the word of God that begets grace is called the inheritance of the way And indeed for Heaven iâ—selfe there is good reason why it should be called by this name of inheritance or heritage It is that portion that God hath prepared for his Servants before the Foundation of the World it is that that Christ hath purchased by his owne blood he hath bequeathed it to them by will it is demised to them by gift Heaven it may well be called their inheritance for they are borne to it The Saints of God are borne to a Kingdome they are borne not by the birth which is naturall but by the second birth which is spirituall It descends upon them by lineall succession as inheritances doe It descends from Saint to Saint from the beginning of the World and from the Head Christ to all the Members there is a spirituall succession There is good reason therefore why Heaven should be called an inheritance they are begotten and borne to it Begotten by him to an inheritance immortall as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 1. And because inheritances descend not upon all but onely upon the first borne God therefore gives all his Servants a right of Primo-geniture that they may be capable to inherit all are first-borne and all are first-begotten as the Apostle speaks to the Hebrews they are all Primo geniti there is good reason then that Heaven should be called an Inheritance But why the word of God why the testimonies divine should be called by the Psalmist an inheritance why he brings them within the compasse of this notion may seeme not a thing so easily understood the word of God points out the inheritance it is not the inheritance it selfe Yes there is good reason to be given of it were there no more but this that we consider the inestimable comfort and Heavenly treasure that is to be found in the word of God it is a rich Myne of all celestiall treasure it is a Store-house of all good things of all saving knowledge All priviledges whatsoever they are that we can expect in Earth or Heaven they are all conteined in the word of God here is ground enough why it is called an inheritance he hath a good Heritage that hath all these Yet there is a better reason then this for if it be so that Heaven is our inheritance then the word of God is because it is the word that poynts out Heaven that gives the assurance of Heaven We have in the word of God all the evidences of Heaven Whatsoever title any Saint hath to Heaven he hath it in and out of the word of God There are the evidences in the word of God Both the evidence of discovery it is a holy terrior of the celestiall Canaan And the evidence of assurance it is as a sacred Deed or Indenture betweene God and his Creature St. Gregory said wittily when he called it Gods Epistle that he sent to man for the declaration of his will and pleasure he might as well have called it it is Gods pactionary Record or Deed whereby he makes over and conveyes to us all those hopes that we look for in Heaven Whatsoever interest we have in God in Christ whatsoever hope of blisse and glory whatsoever comfort of the Spirit whatsoever proportion of grace all are made over to us in the promises of the Gospell in the word of God Now put this together look as in humane affaires evidences though they be not properly the inheritance it selfe yet they are called the inheritance and are the inheritance though not actually yet virtually because all the title we have to an inheritance is in the Deeds and Evidences therefore evidences are precious things though it be but a piece of paper or parchment full of dust and worme-eaten yet it is as much worth sometimes as a Countrey as much worth as all a mans possessions besides So likewise it is with the Book of the Scriptures they are not actually and properly the inheritance it selfe they are Via the way to the Kingdome it is called The Gospell of the Kingdome nay more the Kingdome it selfe The Kingdome of God is come among you or to you Why the Kingdome Why the Inheritance By the same reason both because here we have the conveyance here we have the Deed here we have the assurance of whatsoever title or claime we make to Heaven So here is the reason of the appellation why the Psalmist gives them this word he makes them his inheritance both because they point out the Inheritance we had never had a portion in Heaven but by the Scriptures they convert the soul we had never knowne of such an inheritance in Heaven but by the Scriptures The Heathens that have not the knowledge of the Scriptures they have not the knowledge of God or of Heaven because they bring to the knowledge nay they bring to the thing it selfe In keeping of them there is great reward that great reward is Heaven And St. Paul sets it downe thus Act. 20. to the Elders of Ephesus We commend you to God and the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you inheritance among them that are sanctified Here is the ground of the appellation Holy David seeing that Heaven was his inheritance he was begotten to an inheritance immortall and uncorrupt he therefore makes the word of God his heritage because it leadâ— to Heaven Seing God was his portion Thou art my portion Lord and my hope in the Land of the living he makes therefore the Scriptures his portion because they bring to the knowledge of God he calls them his Heritage Thy testimonies have I taken as a Heritage Because he thought them a rich possession he thought he was abundantly rich if he had nothing besides when he was owner of the comforts in the word of God An Heritage as if it were a holy depositum committed to his trust and indeed so it is it is a depositum or trust that God puts into all our hands a Tallent to improve to his glory and our comfort not onely to be preserved but to be observed by us An Heritage as if it were to descend by lineall succession so it doth
of the commandements as worship praise obedience adoration they are all performed in heaven by the Saints and Angels it is in heaven the commandements put them together since the commandement was in heaven David looks after it there he knew there was but an imperfect custody of it in earth It is that that we pray for daily thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven When we look to the commandements let us look to heaven there they are perfect Holy David when he stretched out his hands to the commandements he reached not forward but upward and since they were in heaven he directs his affection and the strength of his resolution thither there is the reason of the first word the verbe is set with an Emphasis elevabo I will lift up But there is another emphasis upon the other my hands take it figuratively my hands that is my heart the hand is put for the affections because they are the instruments whereby the heart and affections work love is seen in the hand as well as in other parts he might very well put them for the whole man My hands will I lift up that is my selfe my heart Or take it properly he therefore mentions his hands as the excitements or signe or testimony of lifting up his heart because the heart that works in the outward man Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh the eye seeth and the hand worketh to shew that his heart was lift up to Gods commandements he saiâ—h he will lift up his hands so here is now the summe it is nothing but thus much the expression of the welcome the great welcome and dutifull entertainment that he gives to the commandements of God he presents God to his heart here as publishing the commandements offering them as a gift and hee reacheth out his hand to accept and take them as Galen saith well the hand is not only the instrument of invention but of assumption we take all by the hand he would take it of God a great gift that hee would bestow his commandements God offers and David accepts the dutifull welcome that he gives to the commandements of God may be parallel'd Heb. 12. Lift up the feeble knees and the hands that hang down so make streight steps to your paths Take all those parts in a spirituall sense the soule hath hands and feete as well as the body the feet of the soule are the affections the hands of the soule is reason the same that is the eye is the hand Holy David pursues it in the same impression he rouzeth up himselfe and strengthneth himselfe to keep Gods commandements he quickens every part after in other parts of the Psalm he hath taken order for other parts Hee takes order for his eyes Open mine eyes and I shall see wonders in thy law He takes order for his feet I remembred my wayes and turned my feet to thy testimonies That hee might shew that there was a dedication of his whole selfe to God he passeth by the strength of no part he served him with all his soule with all his heart and with all his strength he gives God the strength of every part he sets down his hands not my eyes or my heart only it is not only the ordering of his feet affections but the strength of the whole man I will lift up my hands to thy commandements which I have loved here is the sum and pattern that David sets forth it is a good pattern for us to imitate and in what should we imitate him Immitate David in resolution the reason we come so short in piety is because we are not armed with resolution we goe weakly and carelesly about the work of God we doe the work of salvation that concerns our souls negligently nothing will keep the soule in a better temper and keep a man more out of the way of sinne then oft to fortifie and strengthen the heart with resolution and what resolutions shall wee take the same that David takes what is that I will lift up my hands how doth he lift up his hands to Gods commandements To lift up our hands to Gods commandements is to apply our selves to the keeping and exercise of them the hands are the instruments of action and exercise not but that it must be done by the heart and every part but therefore he refers it to the hand because action is the life of Christianity that to keep the commandements of God there must be action and the hands are the instruments of action Origen well we lift up our hands when we lift up the works of our hands to the commandements of God and when doe wee lift up the workes of our hands saith he when we walk worthy of God and live according to his prescripts and rules this is to lift up our hands to Gods commandements I but our hands are feeble our hands are weak as Moses were Exod. 17. We read that Moses hands were heavy he could not hold them up so it is with many of us when we would walke in the ways of Gods commandements our feet are dull and feeble when we would work the works of God our hands are feeble heavy hands in worse case then Moses his hands were heavy through corporall infirmitie ours through spirituall the palsie hand through the decay of faith the withered hand by the declining of love and the hands manacled and pinioned and clog'd with the lusts of the flesh and the enticements of sin how then shall we doe to lift up our hands we must say as David in another place pray to God to strengthen us I will run the wayes of thy commandements when thou hast set my heart at liberty I will labour to keepe thy commandements to lift up my hands when thou shalt release me and enlarge me I will wash my hands in innocency because our hands are clog'd with sinne we must wash them in innocency bring clean and pure hands they are the only hands we can lift up we must not come with hands defiled with sinne Here is the resolution of David when he speaks of his hands they are to be understood by way of Idea that is pure hands clean hands holy hands charitable hands these were the hands that he would hold up to God I have done with the first part of his resolution I will lift up my hands to thy commandements the other that is behind in the last words I will meditate in thy statutes This is his second resolution the second branch and it is partly the same in effect with the former but it is varied and otherwise expressed Here is another name given to the word of God then in the former part there it was the Commandements here it is the Statutes Statute is more then precept the second name hee gives not for variety but as a word that is more emphatical it serves better for the expression of his purpose The commandements of
God are called Statutes because they are immoveable they cannot be altered and changed thereupon it is that you have this Epithite anexed oft in Scripture they are sure and stedfast and faithfull The statutes of the Lord are sure Psal 19. A more sure word of prophecie saith Peter Stedfast promises Rom. 4. Sure and stedfast commandements Heb. 2. It is an epithite still given to shew the surenesse they are called Statutes the Latine word signifies stability the Hebrew signifies visitation that God visits for breaking them yet this is proper they are called Statutes because they are ratified they are firm the things that God hath established Every thing is said to be ratified that stands My counsell shall stand saith God in Isa and out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established therefore we stand to it it is the rule and summe of our faith that cannot be abolished it is a thing ratified thy Statutes Statutes is more then precepts they are unabrogable precepts they are Statutes Sanctions Decrees Constitutions If I would enlarge my selfe from this particular I could shew that hence there is an obligation laid to observe Gods lawes because they are Statutes that that God by his decree hath established we cannot nullifie them by our transgressions wee nullifie Gods commandements as much as lies in us as oft as we break them to transgresse the commandements is as much as in us is to cancell that that God hath confirmed and to nullifie that that God hath ratified it is not only to break it by sinne but to break it in the validity There is no man that transgresseth but he wisheth there were no commandements no rule of obedience and piety It is not so with other creatures all other creatures have a law and it is a statute-law because it is a law that they have not broken they all keepe those Statutes that God hath given them and they have nothing but the instinct of nature not only animate but inanimate creatures the Stars keep their courses and the Earth and the Sea keeps it's course and motion of ebbing and flowing as the impression was first made in them when they were created it is a firmer law that is given to man not only that law but the law of Gods commandements He hath given him that law that shall stand more firme for that law of nature shall be abrogated when there shall be a dissolution of all Heaven and earth shall passe the law of nature the law of the creatures shall cease then there shal be a cessation of that but though heaven and earth passe not one jot or tittle not one jot of Christs word shall passe it is Austins observation jod is the least of all letters and the affix is the little dash of it Our blessed Saviour saith there shall not an iota not an affix passe but the least part of Gods commandements shall be kept Then if other creatures keep their law shall not wee much more labour to observe that that God hath given us If wee labour not to keep them as statutes we shal as judgments if they be not done a nobis they shall be executed de nobis if they be not done by us they shall be executed upon us but I will not prosecute the word that that he calls before commandements he calls here statutes A stationary exercise he useth a stationary object I will dwell or stand upon the exercise of thy Statutes The first was for the exercise this for the meditation he contents not himselfe with one resolution or with the second this whole Psalm is nothing but a multitude of holy resolutions and ejaculations take but this one part of the Psalm this one division that my Text is out of see how resolutions come one on the necke of another In vers 46. there is one I will speake of thy testimonies before Kings In the 47th there is another I will delight my self in thy commandements After that he is not content he gives a third I will lift up my hands to thy commandements which I have loved And in the latter part he closeth with a fourth I will meditate in thy Statutes He arms himselfe with resolutions and these two resolutions are subservient one to another the preparatorie act to meditation in Gods statutes I will lift up my hands to thy commandements He first prepares before he falls to meditate he doth not rush upon the sudden as we do in prayer uncivily when we come into the house of God hee fits and tunes his heart he sets the parts in order before he goes to meditate he composeth himselfe his eyes his hands his heart all the whole man before he goes to meditate I will first lift up my hands to thy commandements and then meditate on thy statutes as it is in Psal 51. Before he will sing he will tune Awake my Lute Harp awake my glory and my selfe will awake right early David would not sing before he was prepared he tunes before he sings Psal 45. My heart is enditing of a good matter I speake of the things which I have made touching the King He prepares his heart that hee may get Gods approbation so here before he sets seriously to meditation he puts every affection in a right key and tune and then when he had set all right after he had composed his very gesture his eyes fixed to heaven his hands lifted to Gods throne then I will meditate in thy statutes He sets the most heavenly act on an heavenly object there is no object fitter for meditation then the Commandements there is no act fitter for the commandements then meditation Meditation is the improving of all other exercises spirituall whatsoever meditation is an Angelicall exercise the only exercise or the chiefe that we know of that the Angels exercise in heaven is the meditating of Gods will and wayes and works If we would conform our selves nay if we would attain to the height of Angels it must be by meditation yet we generally the most of us are very negligent and backward in this duty few men know what belongs to meditation or what is the comfort of it those that professe they love God and delight in his commandements though they read sometime and heare sometime they labour not to improve that that they read hear by meditation meditation is come to be the scorn of the world I account meditation is scorned because conference about holy things repetition is a thing in reproach in the world It is true I know those things may be done sometimes as they are out of faction and under pretence of repetition oft times conventicles are made but a modest humble soule will not do things for applause or offence but if we look to benefit our selves by the word of God we will take all helps to remember what we hear and apply it to our selves and we cannot do it without meditation and repetition
is a great help he will not profit by the word of God that calls not himselfe to account for his memory and his life and lays them according to the levell of the things he heares The world is full of imagination meditation is scarce it is a wonder to see how men weary themselves with imagination suffer their hearts to run after every vanity they think imagination is meditation when their hearts have wild roving thoughts sometimes sinful alway vain that is not meditation but vanity meditation is that act whereby the heart pours it self forth to God and is fixed on heavenly things and makes an impression of that heavenly act whatsoever it is upon upon it selfe by a reflexion of the soul upon it selfe in the exercise of those duties that are meditated Therefore if we will benefit by reading and hearing of the word let us oft times call our selves to account by meditation If we would be well acquainted with God conversant in heaven it must be done by meditation Meditation is that that makes the seede of the word take root in the heart that â—â—gests and incorporates it and turns all to blood and spirits we can never profit and edifie by Sermons unlesse by meditation and rumination we chew the cudd after Admit it be but a weak Sermon that we hear some will say what should I meditate on that though it be a weake one there is matter still of meditation A man that hath love to another man will love every thing that belong to him if we have a love to the word of God there will be a love of all that belongs to it A love of that place where the Ordinances are handled a love of the time when the Ordinances are handled a love of the weake hand the earthen vessel that dispenseth it though through much infirmities and weakness Gregory Nazianzen observes of St. Bazile they loved him â—o much in his time they reverenced his vertues so much that they would imitate him in his infirmities it is true there are no infirmities or errours in the word of God to be loved there but if we have true love to the word of God we will imbrace it from an infirm hand though it be dispensed in a weake manner Always something may be gotten to edification and the application of it must be made by meditation it is that that is an excellent supply of privacy it is the sole companion of a retired heart A man addicted to meditation can leave earth and goe up to heaven and walk and converse with God with all the commandements of God he needs no booke he needs no teacher that can addict himselfe to meditation Meditation is that heavenly exercise that is the improvement of every grace if we would thrive in all we must addict our selves to it that was Davids order he was conversant in reading and hearing too but meditation is the act that he resolves on to improve both and as he would give God his outward man so he will his inward The testification of the outward man is in these words I will lift up my hands to thy commandements which I have loved And then because neither tongue nor hand nor feet nor eye can be acceptable to God without the heart the inward man he seconds his first resolution with another as I will lift up my hands to thy commandements so I will meditate in thy statutes THE Saints Progresse DELIVERED IN TVVO SERMONS BY That Learned reverend Divine RICHARD HOLSWORTH Doctor in Divinity somtimes Vice-Chancellour of Cambridge Master of Emmanuel Colledge and late Preacher at PETERS POORE in LONDON 2 Pet. 3.18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ LONDON Printed by M. Simmons in Alders-gate-streete 1650. SERMON I. PSAL. 84.7 They goe from strength to strength untill and every one of them appeare before God in Zion THEY goe from Company to company from Mansion to Mansion so some Translations read it as alluding to the solemn journeys of the Children of Israel to the Land of Promise Or to the annuall Travell of the Jews to appeare before God for the worship of his name in Jerusalem And if I should read the words so now to you it would be a faire and proper Lesson to us to learne that we are now in the state of Pilgrims We have here no abiding Citty As the Patriarchs of old we still look for a Countrey There is removing and Mansions and going from Countrey to Countrey It would very well fit my selfe too and be a good entrance to this new removing from Mansion to Mansion from Company to Company But I will not read the words so but take them as they are exprest in the Text From strength to strength So it is a short but an accurate modell of the spirituall growth of a Christian in this world from one degree of righteousnesse to another so breathing after perfection and it is a part of that excellent Psalme that the Prophet David made to let us understand the great comfort and benefit and priviledge that comes to us by our frequent repairing to the House of God One great priviledge is this that here it is that we get spirituall strength Here we not onely had our initiation to Christ and the first seeds of Piety sowne and the first Foundation laid but we get growth and goe on and make progresse in piety There are many excellent passages in the Psalme yet this is one of the most remarkable for there is somthing in it more then in the whole Psalme it selfe The Psalme it selfe is none of those that are called the Psalmes of degrees yet this is a Text or Verse of Degrees And those degrees are not such as relate to the steps of the materiall Tabernacle but shew the steps of our ascention the ascent that we make up to Heaven There are two passages in the Psalme that point at it One in Vers 5. In whose heart are thy wayes or as some read it thy ascentions the degrees of proficiency whereby Christians come to stature or great growth of piety are Gods ascentions Gods ascentions because they lead to him and ours because they carry us up to God Another place that points to these degrees or ascentions is in the Title of the Psalme it is one of those Psalmes that is ascribed To him that excelleth or to the End shewing that the onely way to excell is to hold out to the end and he that holds out to the end of all others will be the most excellent and both these are stamped and graved upon this Verse One part is to him that excelleth They grow from strength to strength Another part that is to the End Till every one appeare before God in Zion According to these two there are two parts There is the motion of Christianity And the rest The rest that is God in the last words Every one of them appeares before
not faith if it faint not love if it decline and wax cold not obedience if it give over not repentance or humility or patience or meeknesse if they have not their perfect work Faith that will hold but that it holds out it is from perseverance Love will take its flight and mount up but that it mounts up to the highest to Heaven it must be from perseverance Obedience will follow after Christ but to hold to the end in obedience to be carried to the full length it 's from perseverance So every grace hath that that is the accomplishment of it from the grace of perseverance Without it as St. Bernard sayth very well neither he that fights can hope to overcome at all or if he overcome and conquer a little he cannot look for the Crowne unlesse he conquer still and goe on There is the second excellency of perseverance The third and principall excellency of perseverance that that more expresly toucheth upon the Text it is the continuation of the motion of a Christian that that keeps a man still going And motion is excellent in every Creature the Creature the more excellent it is the more excellent it is in its motion The Earth that is the lowest Element and the basest moves not at all The Water that is next above the Earth moves but not so fast as the Aire that is above the Water and the Aire though it move faster and more constantly then the Water yet it moves not so nobly and constantly and so fast as the Heavens the celestiall bodies and the Starâ— of Heaven Take but one instance the Moone hath two motions which shee dispatcheth at once with a great deale of swiftnesse and constancy Let men that are below blaspheme and curse let Dogs bark let the Winds blow let stormes bluster and the Clouds frowne the Moone goes on to finish her course So a Christian if he be of a heavenly temper there will be the motion of the Heavens perpetuity of motion Perseverance makes the motion perpetuall it gives perennity to the motion of a Christian that though a Christian meet with many discâ—uragements in the way of piety temptations and tribulations and persecutions yet for all this as the Sun and Moone and Stars he keeps on his motion though wicked men oppose themselves though St. Pauls Dogs doe more then bark though the stormes of temptation bluster and the winds of persecution gather themselves together though Heaven and Earth oppose yet perseverance will carry a Christian strait on his way through all impediments and make him leap over all discouragements it will bring his motion to the end that is the excellency of perseverance That is the first thing if we take the phrase under the similitude of locall motion They goe on Secondly consider it under the similitude of Vitall motion for as I said their going on is their growing on Growth is a vitall motion for properly nothing is said to grow but that that hath life Therefore Scaliger observes there is a great deale of difference betwixt those two words augmentation and extention things inanimate that want life may receive extention and dimension but they are not properly said to grow but things that have life Plants and Trees and living Creatures Growth therefore properly is a vitall motion and that vitall motion is remarkable in Christianity in a spirituall sence there are many words whereby 〈◊〉 Scripture sets out these advances of Piety When it considers us in the way of piety it is called proceeding when it respects the emulations of piety it is called excellency when it respects the operations of piety it is called abounding when it respects our progresse in piety it is called persevâ—ring when to the state of piety it is called growth And all these there is good reason to be given of them in respect of the severall relations a Christian hath in this World We are viatores in this World we must proceed and goe on We are Work-men in the Vinyard of the Lord we must persevere We are lights in the World lights must excell that is their commendation We are Rivers as David makes the similitude Rivers of God they must swell and abound Christians they are the Babes in Christ that are to come to the stature of spirituall Man-hood being Babes they must grow Of all other expressions those two are remarkable when it is called abounding and growing David useth both these the word of abounding or excelling All my delight is in those that abound or excell in vertue Psal 16. The other word of growth is in Psal 92. speaking of the righteous man He shall grow up as a â—edar in thine house St. Paul makes use of both those words too sometimes he exhorts to grow in grace sometimes to abound and excell Strive that you may excell to the edifying of the Church Alway abound in the work of the Lord. The phrase or word of abounding is a metaphor taken from Rivers Rivers that get encrease by running A man would think a River in continuall motion should doe nothing but spend it selfe and not get but lose but the longer it runs the more accesse of water flowes to it and the further its progresse the greater it is It is little at the head but it is great at the foot the longer it goes on So should a Christian be like Ezekiells waters that at the first were but up to the Ancles and then ascended till they came to the Neck till at last they covered the whole man such is the swelling Spirituall the excelling and abounding in grace The other word of growing is a metaphor taken almost from all sorts of vitalls It is taken sometimes in Scripture from building as a building from a small beginning growes to a great vastnesse and magnitude so a Christian being built on the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles our blessed Lord being the Corner stone he growes up to a holy Temple in the Lord Ephes 2. Sometimes it is taken from the similitude of Plants and Trees Hosea 14. They shall grow up as the Lillie and as the Vine their Root shall be like Lebanon Sometimes againe it is taken from the similitude of other Creatures in Mal. 4. speaking of righteous men he sayth They shall grow as the Calves of the stall Sometimes it is taken from our selves from the similitude of the growth of the body corporall growth So in Ephes 4. he speaks of Growing up to the fullnesse of stature to a perfect man in Christ As the body first hath seed and then life and then supply of nourishment and then by it it comes to height and stature So it is in the state of grace there is first the seminall being of a Christian in regeneration or the new birth then after come the supplies of nourishment by the influence of grace and receiving the sincere milke of the word after these supplies of nourishment comes this spirituall growth That you may
growth nor that without life nor that without being in Christ So being is the first step and strength is the pitch because it is either perfection it selfe or the next step to perfection So here is the Use that we are to make of this point to labour to understand our need of strength we are those that must set this aime of getting spirituall strength and so we would if we understood our selves for we are most of us in a condition of weaknesse and those that are of a stronger growth yet they are as a man of a good constitution subject many times to infirmities stronger Christians have many weaknesses and infirmities There is no weaknesse or infirmity that is pleasing to a Christian or that can be pleasing to God Paul tells us of infirmities and he gloried in them but they tended not to sin but were those that the World accounted infirmities tribulations whereby he brought glory to God but if they be infirmities of sin if we did know the danger of making ship-wrack it would make us love strength to overcome these infirmities As Maximus Terens sayth every thing would have commendations if the use of it were knowne if we did know the use and benefit by spirituall strength how neare it brings us to God and stablisheth our hearts in his feare it would make us endeavour and groane after it to attaine it To sum up those Uses they are briefly these two they are accomodate to two sorts of Christians The first state is Travellers we are Viatores we have a journey to take and as the Angell said to Elias it is a long Journey that brings to Everlasting life it is a long Journey from Earth to Heaven but that God hath shortened the way to grace though it seem long to sence and be extreame long to nature and for ought we know we have but a little time to dispatch that long Journey in we know not how short our life is It is not onely a long Journey but full of difficulties It is not onely a long journey but the way lies upward it is hard to get forward there must not onely be moving but climbing It is Jerusalem that is above there is our Countrey A man that goes to an upper Roome he goes by steps and stairs There are these spirituall staires that are the ascensions of God In whose heart are thy wayes or thy ascensions There must be breathing of our selves by ascending and climbing up It being so long a Journey and lying upward and so many difficulties we have need of strength Strength is needfull to Travellers or else they will faint by the way David understood it well therefore as in one Psalme he bâ—moanes himselfe for the want of strength in his Journey He hath brought downe my strength in my Journey So in another he Prayes for strength in his Journey Spare a little that I may recover my strength for the going on in my Journey What are the encumbrances of those that are much in Travells Many feares and dangers meet us oft in the way hunger and thirst and heat and cold many encumbrances Paul sets them downe when he speaks of his spirituall journey 2 Cor. 11. he was In hunger and thirst and cold and nakednesse in perill of Robbers in perills every where A man that would encounter all these had need have strength as Plutarch sayth of the Scythians they boasted that they did fight against men Good Souldiers are so well disciplined that they can fight not onely against men but against hunger and cold and thirst against all Enemies So a Christian that he may be enabled so to doe he must get spirituall strength that he may fight not onely with Beasts after the manner of men at Ephesus but with hunger and thirst and cold and impediments in his Journey because we are Viatores we must have strength to accommodate us to that journey Then another estate we are in here we are not onely as Travellers but Souldiers and our Enemies are many not onely Companies but Armies as many as there are Tribulations and Afflictions to be endured in the World as many as there are Temptations to seduce us to sin as many as there are severall sins to be committed for these are the great Enemies as many as there are Spirits in the Aire and Devills in Hell and these are great and many Enemies To let us see that they are strong Enemies they are called Principallities and Powers and to shew that they are many they are called Legions Besides these the multitude of sins that a man must take heed of that are like the Hydra's heads cut off one and another starts up Cyprian well describes it saith he if a man be so happy as to cut off one Hidra's head Coveteousnesse another will come in the roome of it if he take not heede there will come Lust and Wantonnesse and if he cut off that if he take not heed there will come malice and pride and ambition and if he cut off these if he take not heed there wil come up more all these are to be encountered with spirituall strength Besides these there are many Tribulations in the World and which is the worst affliction in the World the many delights and pleasures and vanities of the World which we account not Enemies but friends yet these are to be overcome There is more danger in these then in the hardnesse and Tribulations of the World We have more cause to feare the baits of the World then the threatnings the allurements then the discouragements of the World It deales with us both wayes If the World plant Thornes in our way the danger is not great because it is seene but if it strew flowers it is not observed it is more dangerous It takes hold of both the Devill layes both to keep us from piety Sometimes the World le ts fall a golden Apple Sometimes it layes Snares and sets pits in the way Sometimes it persues a man with clamours Sometimes it sings a Syrenean Song that lulls him a sleep in security here is the greatest danger but there is danger in both and we have need of strength to overcome both as Cyrill sayth well he had need be a strong Christian that must overcome the rough hewne way but I tell you he had need be a stronger Christian that will overcome the pleasures and delights and enticements of the World strength is specially required for that Put it together having so many Enemies so strong and so busie we have need not onely of store of spirituall wisdome but of strength and that strengh comes by growth Having now put all these together I hope I need not use any Exhortation to make you in love with that which is the improvement of all other graces Perseverance I told you before strength enableth to persevere and that we may persevere we must get strength the one enableth to the other by perseverance we get strength and
the Table of the Lord we should bethink our selves what strength we bring what stature we come with Much more when we appeare before God in Heaven there shall be no appearing before God in Heaven unlesse there there be a perfection of competency Heaven is made for the perfect Paul dares not think of Heaven till he have finished his course and Christ calls to God to glorifie him when he had done his work I have done the work that thou gavest me to doe glorifie thy Son We must not look to appeare before God in glory unlesse we goe through these degrees of grace then we shall appeare before God when we are come from strength to strength Then there is a word of distribution it is not all of them but every one The universall collective would have done it Paul sayth We shall all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ But it is more emphaticall Every one each man in the whole and each one for himselfe Every one comes and appeares before God In these Courts of his House though it be in a Crowd God observes every mans carriage and proficiency God takes speciall notice when there are thousands as if there were but one but all here are present before God Much more when we come into his presence of glory then every one shall appeare God will take account of every one what Oyle he hath in his Lamp what improvement he hath made of his Tallents Then there shall be notice of each mans state and measure of every mans height what growth he is come to and according to his stature shall be his reward and Crowne The higher stature the higher measure of glory to him that hath gained five Talents shall be given five Citties to him that hath gained two two Citties to him that hath gone through many degrees of vertue and strength and hath glorified God by an habituall practise of piety there shall be a high reward to them that have gone From strength to strength there shall be an addition of glory to glory THE Vigilant Servant DELIVERED IN TVVO SERMONS BY That Learned reverend Divine RICHARD HOLSWORTH Doctor in Divinity somtimes Vice-Chancellour of Cambridge Master of Emmanuel Colledge and late Preacher at PETERS POORE in LONDON 2 Chron. 20.12 We know not what to doe but our eyes are upon thee LONDON Printed by M. Simmons in Alders-gate-streete 1650. SERMON I. PSAL. 123.2 Behold as the eyes of Servants looke unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistresse So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God untill that he have mercy upon us FOR the satisfying of your expectations I have therefore made choise of this Text at this time as being very agreeable whither I look to the parts of the Auditory or the whole or to the time or to what circumstance soever For the lower part Servants may learne their duty For the upper Masters may have the understanding of theirs And for all your conditions are such that you are those that have been held a long time between hope and feare with doubtfull news and ambiguous and neutrall expectations And I may well presume it of you because I measure you by my selfe I my selfe that am wavering have beene wearied and tortured both with good and bad tidings as desirous as you to reap the comfort if they be good or at least to know the certainty if they be bad I have for severall dayes gone through Texts for both parts of the day because I was resolved to proportion my Meditations to the times however things fall out but at length finding no true ground to proceed by no certainty in this World of any thing almost we are not certaine of our selves therefore I did resolve and pitch upon this Scripture that I might yet at least raise your expectations a little higher and bring you from these neutrall thoughts to setled thoughts of Heaven that I might bring you from these carnall dependencies upon man by the eare to a sweet and comfortable resting and setling and fixing and waiting with your eyes upon God And that cannot be done better then by this Scripture that I have read to you It was penned for this very purpose for the sustaining of the Church in doubtfull exigents or any great extremity That this is the intendment of the words appeares by the very scope of the Psalme which is nothing but this a Psalme of confidence for the Church of God when she should be in any state of affliction And if the scope of the Psalme were silent yet the very time would speake how it corresponds it is the fourth of the fifteen that are called Psalmes of Degrees because they were sung upon the fifteene ascents that were to goe to the Temple and so many ascents I have had in doubtfull expectation it is now fifteene dayes since the first heavy tidings came to our eares and yet we are not certaine Therefore now since we cannot find any part of truth on Earth let us have recourse to Heaven we shall be sure to find them there And the whole Book of God is nothing else but tidings brought from Heaven to Earth from God to his Creature Evangelion the good tidings That was the course of the Saints in all exigents still to have recourse to God by praying to him so we shall be sure to understand the end of these thing if we wait upon God for the issue he will send it in good time if we follow the example of the Prophet David here as good Servants to abide his leasure till he have mercy upon us I shall handle the other clauses but I shall dwell upon the last because I shall have opportunity to remember your of that duty that otherwise I had not spoken of but that the Text 〈◊〉 on it That this is the drift at which the words 〈…〉 Verse demonstrates for there is somwhat in every Verse In the first two Verses there is somwhat of our comfort or lifting up our eyes to God the waiting upon God in Prayer In the last two Verses thâ—re is somewhat of our affliction We are filled with contempt in Vers 3. Our soul is filled with the scornefull reproach of the proud Vers 4. Is not this our case If not your souls have not your eares been filled at least some of you with the scornefull reproaches of the proud that have asked where is now your hope And your help Give them leave to enjoy themselves but remember it is not so much for them to boast in a state flying as those that are in hope of pursuite But let them support their tottering ruinous cause by insolent Questions the Psalmist hath taught us both what to doe and what to answer Our hope and help stands in the name of the Lord. There is our answer As the eyes of Servants are to the hands of their Masters so our eyes waite upon the Lord our God
the mind with grace and reason and for what end That while he is upon Earth he should know which way to have his converse in Heaven which cannot otherwise be done but by the mind that now while he is in the body he might make himselfe present with the Lord he cannot doe it but by lifting up of the heart So it is both these eyes that are meant here I lift up mine eyes to thee And to shew that both are meant the Plurall is used the word is used foure times in these two Verses and it is Plurall in all Once in the first Verse and thrice in this Verse Vnto thee I lift mine eyes and the eyes of a Servant and the eyes of a Hand-maid So doe our eyes David runs upon it oft to point out that it should be done alway or to shew the diversity of eyes that are in us There are but two of the body but there are many more of the mind That that is said of the Saints glorified of the living Creatures Revel 4. That they were full of eyes before and behind There is good reason to be given of that why they should be full of eyes before and behind because they were to receive happinesse in every part Seing beatificall happinesse consists in Vision they must be all eye that they may be all blessed that they may be full of vision they are full of eyes before and behind there is good reason that the glorified Saints should be full of eyes And there is good reason that the Saints millitant should be full of eyes too The eyes that they have have both positures to look back to the promises fullfilled and to look forward to the promises that are to be fulfilled and to look downe upon Earth but not except it be to the contempt of it and to look up to Heaven with a desire after it they have eyes within and eyes without that both may be directed to God They are full of eyes There is the eye of devotion that is lift up in Prayer In the morning will I direct my Prayer to thee and will looke up Where ever there is Prayer there is looking up Prayer is the Messenger that we send up and the eye is a second Messenger that we send after it for Conduct the eye carries the Candle to our Prayers to lead them the way to Heaven it goes before them to point them the way there is the eye of Devotion in Prayer and there is the eye of contemplation that is lift up in meditation and the eye of faith that is lift up to God in trust and beleiving There is the eye of patience in hope and the eye of attendance in giving obedience to God Look how many heavenly duties there are so many eyes there are Because there is no duty or work can be done without the light of the eye it is that that is the Guide and light So now the summ of all is this that it is a speciall act of Religion to lift up our eyes to God It is an act of Religion not onely for the mind but to lift up the eyes of the body It shall appeare to be an act of Religion easily an act of piety by the contrary The Scripture useth the other the contrary as an act of superstition and Idolatry In Ezek. 18. God blames them there and threatens them because they lifted up their eyes to the Idolls of the House of Israel they lift up their eyes that is they Worshipped them it was an act of Religion it was religious worship they gave them when they lifted up their eyes When we lift up our eyes to God it is an Act of piety it is so and we must make it so There is good reason why we should make it so We owe God the strength of our bodies as well as of our souls He that sayth we shall worship God withall our soule saith we shall worship God with all our strength If we owe God the strength of our bodies we owe him no part more then the eye The eyes are the glory of the body those Lamps have more of Heaven then any part of the body there is no part of the body that pertakes so much of Heaven as the eye There is no part that God bestowed so much cost on in the creation as on the eye Therefore the strength of the eye must returne upon him the curiosity of the eye is such that all the Jewells and precious stones in the World are not able to match the excellency of the eye The next reason is because when the soule is lifted up if the eye goe with it it makes a perfect Elevation There is the soule for all within and the eye carries all without there is a perfect elevation of the whole man Then the third reason is because the soule cannot be lifted up without the eye for there is no part that the soul shews it selfe so much in as in the eye What ever the affection of the heart be it will appeare in the eye If it be sorrow it will appeare in the eye the eye will be dejected If it be anger the eye will sparkle If it be devotion the eye will be lift up It is the very beames the strength of the beames of the eye when they are enlivened by faith that pierce Heaven as well as our words pierce Heaven with ejaculations God reads the very notions and thoughts of our hearts in our eyes though he need not these wayes to know them for he reads them in the heart it selfe but when the eye testifies them it is a testimony of that we think given by our eye There are many testimonies in the lifting up the eyes to Heaven First it is a testimony of a beleiving humble heart Infidelity will never carry a man above the Earth Pride can carry a man no higher then the Earth neither The proud man looks aloft his eyes are high yet they are below they are upon the Earth still the loftinesse is the lownesse there is nothing lower then pride The humble mans eye is aloft though it be below and the proud mans eye is low though it be aloft infidelity and pride will not carry above the Earth but faith carries to Heaven to the Throne of God and looks on him as a helper as a rewarder and a Judge It is a testimony of a beleiving heart And the lifting up of the eye it is a testimony of an obedient heart A man that lifts up his eye to God he acknowledgeth thus much Lord I am thy Servant he acknowledgeth that he hath all from him his body and his soule his body is not his owne his eyes are not his owne but for Gods service he acknowledgeth that he will dedicate to God both soule and body that he will subject both to his will and appointment It is a testimony of an obedient heart And it is a testimony thirdly of a thankfull heart A man that
lifts up his eyes to Heaven acknowledgeth that he receives every good blessing every perfect gift from above that he receives all from the hand of God It is a testimony of a thankfull heart Then it is a testimony of a Heavenly heart he that lifts up his eyes to Heaven acknowledgeth that he is weary of the Earth his heart is not there his hope and desire is above A man will cast his eye where his wishes are he will oft cast his eyes where his heart is Either we are all Hypocrites or our hearts are in Heaven If we constantly lift our eyes to Heaven and have our hearts on Earth we play the egregious Hypocrites with God If we lift our eyes up to Heaven and our hearts are not there judge what you doe God looks upon that heart that sends up those eyes and sees whither the heart be there for the lifting up of the eyes is a testimony of a Heavenly heart If we lift not up the heart when we lift up the eye we tell a lye to God with our eyes It is a testimony of a heavenly heart It is a testimony of a devout heart there is no part of the body besides the Tongue that is so great an Agent in Prayer as the eye The Tongue is the greatest in vocall prayer but the eye must be next the Tongue nay in one thing above the Tongue for in Prayer the eye is the Interpreter of the heart together with the Tongue Nay and further it is not onely the hearts Interpreter but the hearts intelligencer which the Tongue is not for as a man takes order for his way he spies and discernes what he can discover if there be any danger the eye is the light of all the body So a man that humbles himselfe in Prayer he lifts up his eyes to Heaven he looks and spies whence Salvation comes where he shall have help and whence he receives comfort the soul looks up and the eye spies out in what distresse soever we are If we be disconsolate the eye looks up for comfort If we be in persecution the eye looks about for rest If we be burthened the eye looks for ease if we be in want the eye looks for supply in every affliction the eye spies out the comfort for all the eye is the souls Intelligencer therefore the lifting up of the eyes is the argument of a devout heart Because all these good things come from above from God therefore the soule is lifted up and whensoever the soule goes to be lifted up the eye as a good Servant waits on it it never goes alone Therefore we must labour and exercise our selves to give God the glory of our eyes as well as the glory of our Lips and then we give him the glory of our eyes when we lift up our eyes and lift up such eyes as God requires What eyes are those Let us take heed what eyes we lift up There are adulterous eyes there are proud and haughty eyes take heed of bringing these to God close them close them rather wink when you come to God open not those eyes First therefore bring eyes that are chast they are Doves eyes that must look up to that God of purity Then they must be humble eyes that must look to that Throne of Majestie they must not be eyes that are fastidious and lustfull Then they must be innocent eyes not bloud-shot not revengefull eyes that must look up to that God of mercy and goodnesse O how pure had a man need to make his eyes that will look up to God How pure should his heart be and his eyes be He must be purified in every part The eye is the purest part If a man doe but look upon the Sun he cannot look with his owne eyes but he must borrow eyes of others both pure and strong eyes Now the eyes of the mind are the strongest if the heart be kept innocent and upright and in purity let us bring these eyes to God look up to him with these eyes I must cut off my selfe in my Meditations the time runs on with swifter Wings then Speech I goe to the next poynt Thus much of the duty that is the Basis of the whole Now the other is more speciall the second is the patterne the Coppy that he propounds to himselfe to write by As the eyes of Servants looke to the hands of their Masters and the eyes of a Maiden to the hands of her Mistris There is the Coppy it is set downe with the best advantage if we consider the persons here meant There are three things observable in the forme of Penning this part First it is not said simply as Servants look to their Masters and a Maiden to her mistresse but as the eyes of Servants are towards their Masters and the eyes of a Maiden to her Mistresse What is the reason of this phrase There is good reason Because there is a Service that is to be done to those Masters that are set over us below even with the eye Not with eye-service that is not with eye-service alone saith the Apostle But there is a service that is to be done with the eye A man may shew obedience and observance and reverence with his eye a man may give a shrewd untoward answer with his eye as well as with his Tongue A Servant may testifie his chearfull and diligent attendance on his Master with his eye if there be obedience it will appeare in the eye Againe it should be so generall a respect and good demeanour that Servants should carry towards their Masters that even their eyes should testifie it their eyes should be acquainted with their Masters will as Plauâ—us speaks well a good Servant is so acquainted with his Masters affairs that his very eye knowes what his Master would have you may read it in his fore-head though his Master speak not And look as it is with Masters it is Hillaries Observation A Master may give Commands as well with his eye as with his voyce Non solum ore c. A Master will Command not onely with his voyce but with his hand and with his eye so a Servant may obey and expresse his behaviour and respect and carriage toward his Master he may testifie his obedience not onely in action or Speech or Tongue but with his very eye Non ore c. he eyes and obeys with his eye as well as with his voyce Therefore it is As the eyes of Servants are towards their Masters The Servant is so carefull to content his Master that he will not offend him so much as with his eye There is the first Observation for the phrase It is not simply said as Servants but the eyes of Servants Secondly it is not said simply as the eyes of Servants are towards their Masters but as the eyes of Servants are towards the hands of their Masters and the eyes of a Maiden to the hands of her Mistresse Why is this word added
Parents the constant love of the Father and the tender love of the Mother One word cannot set it out So here because all dominion is due to God and we are to pay him all subjection and service therefore one word cannot set it out there are words of both sexes used there is a relative to be found in both superiours Master and Mistresse and inferiours Servants and Hand-maid As the eyes of Servants and Hand-maids so our eyes waite upon the Lord our God There is mention of both sexes in our propinquity to Christ and his nearenesse to us that is the reason that both these are set downe So doe our eyes waite upon the Lord our God The fifth and last is that that makes the paralell and proportion to all the former there hangs the meaning So. As the eyes of Servants So doe our eyes And here now there is a great deale of matter in this word It argued a sweet temper in the Prophet David that he that was so great a Prince and King yet thought it his greatest honour to call himselfe by the name of Gods Servant Nay there was yet a greater submission he did not onely reckon himselfe in the number of Gods Servants but he learned this lesson from the duty that Servants give their Masters he stooped so low as to men of meane condition to be instructed It is a lesson you may learne from your Servants see what duty they give you give you the same to God So it seems to be but one argument but there are foure in it First De facto from the thing that was done as Servants give all respect to their Masters so will we to God Then De jure as Servants should give respect to their Masters so will we It is an argument taken from the equality as so we will doe it so chearfully as they doe our delight shall be in the Lord as they delight in their Masters We will doe it so properly as they doe we will wait on him in all things whatsoever he Commands us we will doe so they doe to their Masters we will doe it as plainly and evidently A good Christian looks on God so plainly that he considers him as neare him as the Master is to the Servant God is alway at hand What shall I say So that is so excellently so constantly and comfortably it is an argument taken from equality Nay further it is an argument that may be prest from a greater dependence So nay much more shall our eyes wait on the Lord. There is the true height of the argument We have more reason to wait upon God then Servants on their Masters Servants have a compensation and they deserve it for their work and service we doe no service for God that deserves any thing Servants owe obedience to their Masters not simply but in subordination to God we owe duty and respect to God simply Servants their eyes are fixed upon their Masters here on Earth our service is to be continued in Heaven Servants doe it for a time our service lasts alwayes Servants doe it for men of the same condition with themselves they give obedience to their Masters and yet have fellowship of nature with them and have priviledges and prerogatives of grace commonly they have the same title to Heaven the same fellowship of the Spirit yet they give true obedience to their Masters though they have fellowship in the Spirit and community of nature There is no such community between our great Master and us Christians there is an infinite distance between God and us therefore we must doe more God is infinitly gracious he powres out more blessings we have more good from him so then we should not onely doe so but more Therefore that is it now that Christians will lay hold on to force the word as David betters the coppie so let us better the similitude of David as Servants so we nay more But I must recall the word O it were happy if we gave so much as Servants to their Masters Where is the man to be found that gives more obedience to God then Servants to their Masters or that gives so much Who gives so much to God as his Hireling doth to him Who walks so faithfully to God as a Servant that is hyred but for one Weeke doth to his Master That is who gives so much service to God as a good Servant to a good Master Nay more as a good Servant to a bad Master Nay further as the worst Servant to any Master There is not the worst Servant but he gives obedience to any Master generally better then we doe to God In the fore-noone I told you it was a fault Servants are grown to an ill passe they are unfaithfull but now Masters will justifie Servants if the Servants be ill the Masters are worse There is not the worst Servant but may put us to â—lush when we consider our selves in the obedience we owe to God because there is not the worst Servant but gives better and more Compare the particulars The worst Servant can but delaâ—â—â—â—â—â— and wast his Masters goods and they are but temporall but we doe the graces of Salvation and the Talents that God hath given us not onely the Talents of life and health and strength and riâ—hes that we wast on pleasures but the Talents of grace and gifts and the hope of Heaven we delapidate out our Masters goods The worst Servants murmure when they are ill used by their Masters we grudge and repine when God poures plenty in our laps The worst Servant sleeps when his Master is absent we sleep in our Masters presence when he is speaking to us Not thinking that it is the Ordinance of God we will not take off our selves It is not onely an irreligious but an uncivill thing Infirmities will grow I yeild to it but let us strive against them we sleep in our Masters presence The worst Servant can but despise and contemne his Master he can but neglect his Commands and his worke and that work is corporall we neglect the work of our Master and it is a spirituall work the great work of his glory that brings good to our selves We are worse then the worst Servant there is not the worst Servant in the World but may be justified by the obedience that we give to God Examine it by these two perticulars we are glad to heare of God as a Father see if we account him a Master put the two Questions in the Prophet If I be a Master where is my feare If I be a Father where is my honour If God be our Lord and Master where is his honour and feare Here are the two Questions First if God be our Master where is our livery Servants goe in their Masters cloath without shame When I speake of a badge I speake not of the spirituall badge of Christianity but of the temporall badge for cloaths are of Gods bestowing There are the spirituall
other mercies alway for generall mercies every day And it is a point now worth the considering in these times because the state of our times is so that every man almost is ready to let goe his confidence If things succeed not in every perticular according to our expectations and desires then we think the whole Chaine of providence is dissolved if one linck be loosed we think all the businesse is overturned and all our hopes disappointed if God answer us not in our time upon every occasion The reason is we know not what it is to wait on God Beloved it is true if God were tied to one way or meanes or to one time or to any one person or to any one instrument there were good cause that we should suspect our hold in the successe of the affaires of the Church at all times then we had good cause to be fearefull But God is not straightened so much he hath wayes that we know not and times that we understand not of and persons he can make to spring out of the Ashes of them that are taken away that are contemptible in our eyes and God can strengthen them though they be as the shaking of an Olive God will perfect this work if we be not the impediment if our sins stay him not if we wait It is true I confesse it pleaseth me exceedingly and I congratulate and rejoyce your desires almost as much affect me with joy as the other with sorrow to see men in amazement at such a time It is a signe of your love to the Church beyond the Seas yet how unacceptable was it upon the first relation No man knew what to speake or what to think It is a signe that Religion hath taken some impression It is a signe that you have a simpathy with the Servants of God it is a signe that you have the affections of Servants towards God But for all this take heed while you doe right to the Servants of God that you doe not injury to God himselfe because he is faithfull that hath promised Remember he orders the affairs himselfe God can raise up a Josuah in Moses room I rather use the word because I am very much delighted with the Simile of that noble victorious Prince he was a Moses Was said I O that is a wounding word that you cannot endure O that I could say he is and yet I cannot say the contrary we are kept betweene hope and feare though it be more to be feared then hoped in that particular I am afraid But whether was or is like Moses he was and if he be Is God was with him as he was with Moses in the leading of his People He came into Germany as Moses into Aegypt with a greater band but a small traine in respect of the Enemies but God turned his weaknesse to strength He was faithfull as Moses was he sought not himselfe as Moses did not Moses brought the Children of Israel out of the Furnace he brought the poore afflicted of Germany a good way out of the Furnace And now that all may be like Moses Moses Sepulcher is not known to this day and the life or death of that excellent Prince is not yet knowne to this day like Moses Sepulcher There is yet our perplexity yet there is our comfort there is some comfort in that word that it is uncertaine for that that is uncertaine may be otherwise O but I think that it may be Howsoever be it so or otherwise God hath done his part he hath not left us without a comfort See but how he hath tempered sad Tidings with a mixture of comfort he hath tempered the losse with gaine there is sorrow with joy there is feare with hope there is losse with Victory Why then if God doe thus to us and so feed us with his mercy and support our longanimity if he ply us thus have we not reason to wait upon him Let us now run to this word in the Text. Behold as the eyes of Servants wait on their Masters so doe our eyes wait on God till he have mercy on us and alwayes but esspecially then For did you but know the comfort that comes by hope and expectation innumerable comforts come from hope Hope holds life and soule together if thingâ— goe ill hope continues us still in life till things goe better Hope is the Pillar of the wavering soule hope is the Ladder that hath one end in Earth and another in Heaven hope waits for all the good things that God hath promised Hope is the Anchor of the soule as the Apostle compares it Nay not onely the Anchor sayth St. Chrysostome but the Ship to that good Anchor It must needs be well when it is both the Ship must ride safe for the Anchor is hope it must be safe it selfe for upon it is the Ship the Ark that carries the Saints through the troubles of this World it is the Anchor that makes us keep our riding that we dash not on the Shelves and Rocks that encounter us It is a better Anchor then other Anchors they are alway below the Ship at the ground but this Anchor is above it is not fastened in Earth but in Heaven How sure would a Ship be if it were fastened aloft to Heaven if God had the Tacle in his hand God hath the Cable of this Anchor in his hand Faith is the Cable hope is the Anchor the Ship will ride safe if the Anchor be in Heaven Let us waite we have good cause to wait he is powerfull and can doe more he is gracious and will doe nay further he is faithfull and hath done and will doe abundantly beyond our expectation and he that hath begun will perfect it O therefore let us acquaint our souls with waiting We are so impatient that if God give us not all at the first call what our hearts are prompt to suggest we think all is lost O if we had hope the nature of hope is to abide and stay Gods leasure Hope is never frustrate See it in the example of the Saints David I waited patiently on the Lord and God heard me It is confirmed and ratified by promises Solomon sets one Waite on the Lord and he will save thee David another Wait on the Lord and he will preserve thy soule Wait patiently on the Lord and he will bring it to passe We have it ratified by promise Nay in experience who ever waited and was frustrated Our Fathers trusted in God and were not ashamed he gave them their hearts desire and he hath exceeded ours therefore have recourse to that Anchor and learne what it is to wait on God that we may say as Job Though he kill me I will trust in him Though he disappoint all I will hope my hope and waiting shall be placed on God my trust shall be in him he never suffered that staid his leasure to be ashamed they were had in remembrance Therefore our eyes shall wait
them to teach us thus much that it was not by their owne words but by the word and power of the Spirit of Gods grace powred upon the Gentiles it was not them but he that converted by their Preaching whose word they preached Is it not so with us now Though we be as Earthen and more earthen vessells that speake to you now as earthen as ever and as weake yet in whose name come we Be the instruments never so meane of the lowest and most inferior note yet there is that that adds Majesty to our word we speake from God we come from the great Master when we presse upon you any Doctrine of Exhortation doe we presse the Exhortation from our selves When we discover to you any sin that you should leave and forsake is it that we call it sin or that the Scripture calls sin When we intreat you to give us your attention doe we intreat you to listen to us No if any man come in his owne name let him have your neglect stop your eares let him be cursed but if we come in the name of Christ in the name of the great Master in the name of God if we tell you it is he your Redeemer your Saviour it is he that speaks it is the Lord your Judge it is the Lord your Master O who will not melt at the hearing of this name The Master sayth it is the word that includes in it all comfort he that can alone teach by his Spirit he from whom you expect Salvation whatsoever this Booke speaks whatsoever it saith he sayth because it was penned by this Spirit it is the Master that sayth it that is the first thing Though I would have you withall remember that it is not the Master beseecheth but the Master sayth that is the Master â—ommands Christ would hereby shew that all hearts all eares they bow to him it is the Master sayth a man would have thought this had beene but a familiar forme to come and have made provision of a Chamber and Lodging for Christ to say the Master sayth nay we come in his name not to entreat and beseech no but to shew that he had the supremacy and Government of all they doe not say the Master intreats but the Master Commands that is the first thing the Message and the strength of their Commission The Master sayth The next is the enquiry after the place they are to provide Where is the Guest-Chamber In this we may observe these two things it sets out to us two things that are contrary See here both the Poverty Plenty of Christ It sets out to us first his Poverty he was one that stood in need of a Lodging to keep the Passover he had no House nay not so much as a Chamber nay neyther he nor his Disciples for if any of his Disciples had had a house or a Chamber it is very likely the Passover should have beene kept at that house and his last Supper should there have been instituted the word signifies an Inn it is so called because men commonly when they have done their businesse and have baited sufficiently they loose from such a place to another they doe not abide in the place there is a departure a loosing a going away nay more it doth not onely signifie the whole house but any Roome that is hired or taken up or marked out Christ had not a Roome not a Chamber of his owne in Jerusalem no not for duties of piety he was faine to goe and entreat for one he sends his Disciples to provide one It is that that himselfe saith The Son of man hath not whereon to lay his head even the inferior Creatures in this particular had that priviledge notwithstanding all the cunning and force of the pursuers yet the â—oxes have Houses and Holes notwithstanding the Snares of the Fowlers yet the Birds you know how they will keep their Nests their houses and places of refuge yet he that was the Lord of the World had not a house on Earth nay not to keepe the Passover he had not a Cradle when he was Borne he was faine to be laid in a Manger he had not a Tomb of his owne when he suffered he was faine to be laid in a Sepulchre that belonged to another he had not a Chamber now to keep his Passover in Let the men of the World heare this that build to themselves stately Pallaces upon Earth that desire to be kept stately to lie softly those whose delight is as the Prophet speaks to build faire Houses and strong for themselves and think they have made themselves a name those that dote so much upon the World that they build so as if they were to live for eternity is that an argument in us that we are men mortified to the world If our affections run that way onely after stately Habitations or doe we think hereby we conforme our selves to Christ Though there is a Liberty that we may take yet if we come to set our hearts upon such things doe we not think that they will draw so much of our affections from Heaven Againe let them heare this that have no House to put their head in here is comfort for them though they want a Habitation yet they want not conformity to Christ it is so oft times now in the World that Christ in his Members wants Lodging they want a place to Lodge in I will cease to wonder at it if ever I live to see it as we may see it too oft the Saints of God wandring abroad destitute afflicted tormented driven to live in Caves of the Earth in Dens and Deserts and Woods and secret places that they may hide themselves from the persecuting of Enemies as now in those parts of the Church beyond the Seas I will cease to wonder seeing that Christ their head and Christ their Redeemer the Lord of our Salvation even he himselfe that was owner Possessor of all things he would not take to himselfe the title of any house when he was below but was faine to borrow If ever it shall be my owne condition or yours I cannot tell yet let us cease to repine and murmure and grudge at Gods providence would we not be willing to tread in that Path and to tread it out and walk to the end that Christ hath set to us in his owne person The condition of diverse of the best Saints of God hath been the condition of Christ himselfe therefore this shall be my contentation and comfort though we misse a Lodging on Earth he that cannot get a grave in Earth as Lazarus we read not that he had any yet he found a Mansion of glory in Heaven a Bosome prepared for him Abrahams bosome though we be thrust out of all mens Doors here yet God will set that open if we be of the number of those that beleive in his name and walke in the wayes of his Commandements the path that he hath set to us
He comes oft-times in the habite of a Poore man and begs a lodging and askes for the Guest-Chamber and the Roome there are many that are furnished for worse uses and never a Corner that Christ can be thrust into He that found a roome in bloudy Jerusalem is excluded out of the Houses of many Christians and left in the streets He comes oft and solicits thy heart and speaks to thee to pay him his owne not thine to pay his Tithes to burne thy double Leases to Cancell thy soule-condemning Customes to restore those things that thou hast taken away from him by Laws as wicked as he that made them thus he calls for his owne The entertainment that this humble man gave Christ in the Text he finds it not with us we are so far from giving him a Chamber that we shut him out of the House we are so far from giving him any thing that is ours that we take from him that that is his We take the Houses of God into our owne possession Churches and Chancells are in the power of lay-men poore Ministers they bury and secular men they have the fees The Sanctum Sanctorum that the high Priest onely might enter into and onely once a yeare it is now in the possession of lay-persons the place that answers to that the Chancell and the Church Is this an argument of a heart that would receive Christ Would we part with any of our Rooms for Christ that have taken these from him Think of it think of it it may be that little moytie of their estate is that that makes all moulder away when all is done for whosoever hath right to them you have none It was a better resolution that this man makes to himselfe and we should practise that I have done with the second thing Here is the divinity of him that sent them and the great benignity of him that received them as soone as they had made the motion he wellcomes it Now thirdly here is the last thing and then I have done here is the businesse and imployment of them that did goe There prepare and no otherwise Christ as he sent a Message to him so he gave a Commandement to them he made them his Harbingers to mark out his lodging and directs them what lodging he would have as though he had beene acquainted in the House Make ready there prepare for the Passover It was the Command that was then given to them but it is a great deale better direction to us and concernes us more then it did them It hath a truth now there is a Roome of this nature that Christ will be entertained in it must be a large upper Roome and a Roome furnished St. Bernard observes it that there are three Guest-Chambers there are three Rooms in which Christ is received There is the Chamber of the Scriptures that is a large Roome because there is in it all saving Truths That is an upper Roome because it was penned and inspired by the Spirit of God that came from above That is a Roome furnished there is a storehouse of all comforts upon all occasions for men in want for men in affliction for men in prosperity for young for old for all sorts there are truths to be applied and directed When is it that this Room is prepared Then the Roome of the Scripture is prepared for God when the bread of life is rightly broken and divided to the people then this Roome is made ready for Christ Secondly there is another Chamber and that is the Chamber of the Church All the properties also meet in this Roome it is a large Roome the corners of it spread to the utmost parts of the Earth And it is an upper roome the upper part of it is in Heaven the Church tryumphant and thence it is that all grace comes and falls upon it It is a Roome furnished sayth Jerome well It is furnished with variety of gifts and graces with variety of Scriptures and Sacraments that God hath provided and appointed It is a dineing Roome it is a Supping Chamber It is a Guest-Chamber properly that sayth Jerome because there it is that we meet at the Lords Table we partake of the Lords Supper even to the end of the World The Church of God it is a supping Guest-Chamber When is this Chamber provided and prepared for Christ Then when the wheat is gathered into the Barne then when men are gathered into the bosome of the Church and preserved there then when they are built up in this holy faith then this Roome is prepared Thirdly there is yet another the Chamber of the Conscience the Chamber of the heart that is Caenaculum too a spiritnall supping Roome and place for Christ and the Spirit of Christ I will come and sup with him sayth Christ in the Revelation Chap. 3.20 I and my Father will come and sup with such a man Christ will come and Sup with that man that receives him he will sup with the faithfull soule that is he will dwell there and take up his lodging Here is the Roome that Christ wants and that is the Roome that we must prepare It was a materiall Roome that they were to provide that Roome that God calls to us for is the Roome of the heart Think not that it is the Roome the Chamber as St. Austin sayth Christ alludes to it when he sayth of the godly man that in Prayer he will get into his Chamber and shut his Doore Every man that will pray aright enters into the Chamber of his Conscience David sayth plainly in Psal 4. Enter into your Chamber into the Cabbin of the heart this is the Roome that we must provide It hath all the properties too God will not feast in any other hearts then those that are provided First it was a large Roome where the Lord did institute and eat his Supper A large Roome is an enlarged heart enlarged with Devotion and thankfullnesse We must not put Christ in a corner we must not pen him up He will have the whole house and the whole heart it is that he calls for My Son give me thy heart that is as much in effect as Where is the Guest-Chamber there I will lodge there I will baite and there I will stay and abide and dwell make ready that Roome let it be a large Roome and a large heart for God Secondly it must be an upper Roome too the heavenly heart is the upper Roome a heart lift up it is the word that is used in the Psalmes I lift up my heart yet we keep them grovelling upon Earth Art thou not ashamed Look upon thy selfe why hath God given thee eyes and set them in that place aloft whereas he hath set them forwards in other Creatures but that they should be oft lifted up to Heaven Why hath God given man a Spirit and not other Creatures but that it should be lifted up oft Is it not a shame then to have thy head
the inheritance yet every man hath his share and all pertake of it There is but one Heaven for both and one inheritance for both and that consists in the Vision of the Son of God because the Angells desire to look upon the Son of God that is the second deduction that is cleare that the Angells and Saints have one beatitude But I may not stand upon this because this is the forced meaning yet I would not be deprived of it for this reading goes not upon a good bottome because the Interpretation follows the reading of the Singular number and that is not to be found in any Greeke Coppy As it is not so as it may have reference to the Holy Ghost nor so that it may have reference to the word Christ or to the word God it is not Singular In quem To whome but Plurall To which things We must find it out as well as we can it must be read Plurally all the Greek Coppies are so though the meaning be Orthodox and good yet the reading will not suffer it to be read in the Singular there must be a plurall antecedent for this plurall relative Now you will aske as the Disciples of Christ when he told them of the famous things that were done at Jerusalem What things So here when it is said The Angells desire to looke into these things What things How shall we find a plurall antecedent Yes well enough there is one plurall antecedent in the Verse before the sufferings of Christ which the Angells desire to behold It stands in the Verse before but it may have reference to that that the Angells when the sufferings of Christ were transacted they desired to see it and doe now study it Not that they delighted to see the Son of God brought so low they had no pleasure in the sufferings of Christ as sufferings but to see him suffer patiently and victoriously and to lay downe that meritorious blood to offer that all sufficient Sacrifice for the whole World that was the joy and delight of Angells they desired to look to the sufferings of Christ Therefore St. Cyprian extends it also to the sufferings of the Members of Christ the Martyrs for Christ when we are in the combate and conflict eyther of temptation or suffering for the name of Christ God looks on us Christ looks on us the Angells look on us The Apostle Paul alludes to it We are made a Theatre a Spectacle to God to Angells and to men It is a great support in all our sufferings in all the afflictions that we undergoe that in these afflictions the Angells are Spectators they give their applause and they are delighted It is the joy of Angells to see the Saints of God suffer patiently and constantly and with confidence and so as to bring glory to the name of Christ If we therefore refer it to the sufferings of Christ it is a plurall antecedent and well agrees with the plurall relative Yet this is too strait though this be part of the object yet this is not all Come a little nearer there is another plurall antecedent in this Text and it is more generall and more long the things that were Preached and reported the things that were spoken Into which things the Angells desire to looke Here now we have it take this clause and put it to the former clause then there is the latitude of the object in the full extent the Mysteries of redemption that the Prophets searched into and the Apostles Preached those the Angells desire to looke into The things that were Preached by the Apostles are the same that the Angells desire to make inspection into Of all the Latine Fathers Ireneus onely he pitcheth upon this for so I call him though there be Greek fragments that goe under his name I know his Countrey yet I reckon him so He comes home and applies it thus into which things All those good and excellent things that God conveys to us by Christ all those things salvificall those are the things the Angells desire to look into Sophronius goes further to apply it not onely to the good things of Redemption by Christ but circumstances and places and the like Unto the Nativity of Christ to the death of Christ to the place of his birth into these things the Angells desire to looke I will not presse it so farr as he to put forward to goe to the place of his birth There are hardly any footsteps left for Angells to behold or discerne where that place stood where the Manger was But thus far we may extend it to all those saving actions and passions that are the streams and branches of the work of our redemption The whole work of our redemption in the active and passive part of it wrought by the birth and death and resurrection and ascention of Christ these are the things which the Angells desire to behold That I may not give it barely upon trust though there be enough said to make it cleare that these must be so understood I will shew it plainly in Vers 12. there is mention of it the things Preached by the Apostles In Vers 1â— the things testified by the discent of the Holy Ghost from Heaven in Vers 10. the things searched into by the Prophets What are all these things the things searched by the Prophets preached by the Apostles and testified by the Holy Ghost from Heaven what were they The Mysteries of our redemption in the severall parts of it the Mysteries of the Gospell as in this Verse that I have read and the Mysteries of our redemption as in the two Verses before these are the things that the Angells desire to looke into Now we have gotten the full meaning we see in generall what the things are Now to make the point full there are these four properties of these things that may serve for our instruction that the Angells desire to looke into The first property is this that they are sublime speculations of Angells Eagles stoop not to Flies but where the Carkasse is where the Mysteries of Christ are there are the speculations of Angells Angells stoop not to meane inferiour contemplation And are there any speculations more sublime then the Mysteries of our redâ—mption That great Mystery of Christs incarnation of his Passion of his Session at the right hand of God of his intercession there is nothing that belongs to the work of redemption but are sublime montanous speculations It is Gregories word upon those words Cant. 3. He comes leaping by the Mountaines and skipping by the Hills These leaps that are taken there upon the Mountaines he makes to be the severall passages of the work of our redemption There was a leap from Heaven to the Virgins womb another to Jordan another to the Desart another to the Crosse another to the Grave another up in the resurrection upon Earth and then another to Heaven there was a leap There is somwhat montanous sublime in
every passage of our redemption When he was conceived by the holy ghost that is a sublime speculation he came then leaping on the Mountaines then when he was Baptised in Jordan then when he was tempted in the Desart he came leaping over the Mountaines when he laid downe his life upon the Crosse and sent out that comfortable word of Consummatum est he came then leaping on the Mountaines sayth Gregory all these speculations are sublime To teach us that mankind may learne to admire what they cannot comprehend because that all these are things that Angells converse about and study they are things transcendent they are beyond our reach They are sublime speculations Secondly as they are things sublime so they are delightfull speculations The Angells they doe not busie themselves with any sad subject Angells they think of no heavy subject because the beatificall state is not capable of any sorrow However we read of some writing of Angells of the griefe of Angells for sin and it is the Observation of Macherius and Jerome and Ambrose that as Angells rejoyce at the Conversion of sinners so they grieve at their sin and impenitency and sufferings When ever there is any sin committed by any Christian by any Servant of God sayth Macherius there is a great deale of sorrow and crying in Heaven And Jerome and Ambrose very plainly as they rejoyce at the Conversion and redemption of sinners so they mourne and lament and weep at the miseries they suffer and at their continuing in their sins But this must be understood with a graine of Salt for when we read of the greife of Angells we must so understand it as of greiving the Spirit of God not that the holy Spirit is capable of such an affection as griefe so the Angells in that beatificall estate are not capable of sorrow in that place there is not one drop of sorrow comes in Heaven there are no tears in Heaven they shall never see tears in their eyes But the greife of Angells is thus much to expresse their sympathie with us when we suffer and their distast and dislike of sin when we continue in it they are said to greive at it as we are said to greive the Spirit of God But properly Heaven is not receptive of sorrow but capable onely of joy all the objects of Saints and Angells they are all objects of joy And what could be a more delightfull object for Angells to be conversant about what more delightfull then the Mysteries of our redemption There is nothing answerable to this in sweetnesse to this consideration the goodnesse of God revealed in Christ there is no such sweet and comfortable meditation that brings so much comfort to men or to Angells It is part of the Angells happinesse to think of Gods goodnesss manifested to man in Christ Christ is an object so delightfull that not onely Angells but God himselfe delights to look on Christ as Mediator he looks on him aâ— Mediator and through Christ to sinners And that brings the delightfull beames of Gods gracious aspect upon the Church when he looks upon sinners in and through Christ It is so delightfull an object Christ that God never satisfieth himselfe with looking enough upon Christ If God delight to look upon him Angells may well imploy their eyes in this service to look upon Christ And if Angells make it their meditation Beloved we may well make it ours our eyes may twinkle when it dazles the eyes of Angells If Angells be imployed in these speculations O let Christians much more they have more particular benefite by it They are the most delightfull speculations That is the second property they are delightfull Thirdly as they are delightfull so they are not fruitlesse but saving speculations The sum of all the speculation of Angells is Salvation they seldome think of any other thing but Salvation When they look upon their owne happinesse and behold it in God their thought is of Salvation When they looke for the happinesse that â—e expect that is to be fullfilled in Heaven and they are imployed in in their Ministery upon Earth they think of Salvation all the parts of the Angells Ministery and their thoughts have reference to Salvation because they think of the Mysteries of our redemption there is Salvation stamped upon all the parts of them upon the death of Christ upon the birth upon the Resurrection of Christ It should be an incitement to us to make it the matter of our meditation what should we delight in What should our hearts run to What should we busie our heads with Take it in one word Salvation it will be our delight and meditation in Heaven shall we not make it our best meditation on Earth It should be the onely thing we should think of Angells make it not onely their chiefe but their onely meditation He that truely makes this the sum of his thoughts he will not be busie he will not delight in other things If Angells doe it we should much more the Angells are comprehenders they enjoy Salvation already we are Viatores Pilgrims in the way if they in the Country consider and look upon these things that are to be accomplished in the way shall not we much more in the way make those things our speculation that belong to the Country That is if Angells that have Salvation already make it their meditation shall not we make it ours that want it If Angells make their meditations upon those things that concerne men upon Earth shall not we upon Earth busie our thoughts about the things of Heaven In that the Angells make these things their study it is a good excitement to us as they are sublime and delightfull so they are saving speculations that is the third property Fourthly they are good things common to us with the Angells they are good things that concerne them not alone they concerne us as well as them and us more then them All the custody of Angells is imployed about the keeping of men all the speculations that Angells are imployed about is the Salvation of men they delight to look upon those things that concerne us with them and us more then them for they have it already They are brotherly Spectators it shews that as they are Creatures of happinesse so they are Creatures of love that make our good things their meditation Therefore the Apostle Jude Vers 3. he calls this Salvation Common Salvation He might well doe so for it hath a great extent it is so common that it is not onely common to all men but common to us with Angells It reacheth very far from the beginning of the World to the end of it that is a great extent those are the two poles of time It reacheth from East to West from North to South that is a great distance those are the two Poles of locall distance It reacheth to all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Believers to all of all ages and sexes and sorts of men
this is a great extent this is the pole of Persons Further it reacheth not onely to the Visible Earth and the visible Heavens but to the invisible Heavens not onely to men but to Angells there are no poles of that Heaven there is no extent It is Salvation common to men with men and common to men with Angells being the common worke they make it their common beatificall or salvificall object these things of redemption of Salvation these things that are so delectable and salvificall that concerne our good as well as Angells it is into these things that they desire to looke Now I have done with the second thing I have shewed you who the persons are and what the good things are There is onely one behind that is the maine what kind of desire it is and what is the root of this desire and the cause of this inspection But thus much for this time SERMON II. 1 PETER 1.12 Which things the Angells desire to looke into HOWSOEVER the method of nature and the method of Art be justly in themselves distinguishable yet it falls out oft times that there is the same Proceedings in both and as nature goes before so Doctrine follows after such is the method that I have set to my selfe in picking out scriptures for you during the time of this solemnitie which is still continued to me though it be ended in it selfe if wee looke to the method of nature we shall find that the Creatures they are so ordered that man he is the horizon of all things visible and Angells they are the horizon simply of all Creatures Angells are the top and man is next to them therefore if we ascend in this order where man ends there it is that the Angelicall nature begins so man is in the confines of Angells above and other Creatures below In his body he partakes of Earthly things in his soule he hath affinity with the Angelicall nature man being the next Creature under Angells and Angells the onely Creature above man therefore I say where it is the humane nature ends there the Angelicall nature begins in order of ascending so in those Scriptures that I have propounded to you all the other Texts that I have chosen have beene for you that I might shew to you in what manner you are to entertaine the Declaration of these great benefits that this solemne time hath presented to us but now where man ends there the Angells begin and as I shewed you what your inspection should be so now I will shew you what entertainment the Angells give these tidings and great blessings and what their inspection is that as they desire to looke upon us when we are seemly conversant in the worship of God so now we may goe forward to look on them in this Text as the Scripture presents them to us and see how they are conversant in the admiring and entertaining of these Mysteries of Salvation they sayth Nazianzen keepe Christmasse with us I am verily perswaded sayth he the Angells keep this Feast this very day speaking of the Nativity of Christ I will goe a little further for I am not onely perswaded but I am sure that they keep not onely one day but every day for this their inspection is the keeping of the Angells Christmass the inspection into the incarnation of our blessed Saviour which because it is a great Mystery in it selfe and because the Text of Scripture that I handle wants not its difficulties therefore I am resolved to goe on in the course that the Lord set Ezekiel Ezek. 20. Son of man drop thy words Abstruse things are not to be cast downe by whole Buckets but by drops so there are three drops three things in it two I have gone over in the forenoone First who these Angells are I shewed at large Negatively not the evill Spirits Affirmatively that it must of necessity be understood of the good Angells the other Angells have no delight to look into the Mysteries of Salvation except it be for their wicked advantage they look to Mysteries but they are Mysteries of iniquity not to the Mysteries of redemption they find no sweetnesse in them it must be the good Angells those that were attendant and imployed and their service required and their ministration used to the Law in the publication of it and to the Saints of God in the making knowne and declaring those Mysteries they have benefite in them as well as we it is the good Angells Because these Mysteries of redemption are Angelicall speculations we need not to be ashamed to be conversant in the study of them it is an honourable study Because it is fit for Angelicall study we must look on them with sobriety the Angells set them bounds we must not goe too far That was the first-drop The second thing was what these things are in particular that the Angells desire to looke into I shewed in what Coppies the Singular number is used into whome the Greeke into which the same good things that are set downe in the foregoing words the good things testified by the Holy Ghost from Heaven certified by the Prophets before and reported by Christ that is in one word summarily the Mysteries of the Gospell those are the things they desire to looke into In particular they are high speculations that the Angells looke into They are delightfull and plausible arguments there are no sad thoughts come into the Angells hearts they study no sorrowfull subject whatsoever Thirdly they are all things that concerne Salvation the Angells thoughts run upon nothing else though they enjoy Salvation either in the glorifying of God for their owne or in striving to be serviceable to God in the furthering of others their thoughts are upon Salvation Lastly they are brotherly speculations The Angells have the good things they looke to with us they are theirs and ours nay more properly ours then theirs they are not drawne by these meanes they were confirmed in an instant we are drawne by degrees This is the sum of the two first parts in the forenoone There is but one behind which is the maine and will prove the longest that is to see Quae radix desiderij what is the Originall and ground of this holy desire that the Angells have to looke into these sublime and glorious Mysteries to make them the object of their speculation except we find out this we find out nothing Because there are many things questionable seeing oft times inquisition comes from curiosity or from want of desire or from ignorance and the Angelicall nature is not subject to these defects they are not curious to enquire into that that is concealed from them and they are not defective in the knowledge of any thing that is necessary for them to know therefore upon this Wheele the whole frame will turne to find out the ground and Originall of the desire of the Angells why they are carried with so holy and impetuous motion to looke to those Mysteries
is that that breeds inspection this is the second true ground from expectation The third ground or Radix whence this desire comes it is from contentation whereas in humane things contentation makes desire to cease in celestiall things it increaseth desire and from contentation they desire to behold they are ravished with the great mercy of God in the work of redemption O they desire to be more ravished they are satisfied and would be more they are full yet they desire as if they were empty they have all and yet they desire as if they had nothing sayth Gregory they alway see these Mysteries yet they alway desire to see them I joine these two together least any man should have mistaken the nature of Angelicall desire how it stands and though this desire be a bar to contentation when we understand and conceive of desire that comes from want we are onely to limit it to humane things so St. Austin defines desire it is a longing after those things that we have not no man desireth that that he hath when he comes to fruition desire ceaseth but Thomas Aquinas shews well by a good distinction how desire may well stand with contentation and fruition Desiderium habendum c. Desire of things that we have not that we may have it that argues want but desire of the things that we have already that it may be continued that argues not a necessity and want so the Appetite and desire of the Angells what is it not of want but complacency not an Appetite and desire of more but a desire of the continuance of that they have there is desire and there is fruition in their saciety there is no dstiast and in their desire there is no want sayth Gregory well So now it shews us the excellent beatificall estate in Heaven in what it consists in that glory and joy there shall be fullnesse and yet desire there shall be the fruition of all good things promised and yet an earnest longing after the continuation of it Isidore sets it out sweetly there shall be thirst in Heaven and saciety A man would wonder that there should be thirst in Heaven yes sayth he the Saints shall alway be full and shall alway long and thirst but it is not a thirst of necessity and there is no loathing and distast in that fullnesse It shews us an excellent difference between Heavenly and Earthly things the nature of Earthly things how is it Why thus Earthly things are alway desired when we want them desire ceaseth when we have them And againe Earthly things we love them most when we want them and lesse when we have them looke over all Earthly things and you shall find that it is so meat and drink they naâ—ciate after fullnesse all pleasures whatsoever after a man hath taken his fill of pleasure he disgusts them they are unsavory I those very fashions you are so much delighted in that no Preaching Heaven it selfe cannot fetch you out of If Christ himselfe were on Earth I am confident he would not prevaile with you I say those fashions that Heaven it selfe cannot fetch you out of your folly yet after you have used them a while use makes you sick of them and your owne humours make you weary because all things Earthly make weary and happy we are that when we have them we begin to loath and distast them and be sick of them but it is otherwise with celestiall things they are most loved when we enjoy them are most desired when they are had there is no Heavenly thing that nauciates a man is never sick of any thing that is Heavenly there is no loathing of that it is not so with grace and glory the Angells as Peâ—rus Damianus he makes the Observation sayth he they are alway full of that they alway desire and they alway desire that they are alway full of glory cannot be distastfull nay grace is not so how far grace is from being distastfull it is of that sweetnesse that a man never thinks he wants it till he hath it O how sweet is it that grace is of such a Heavenly relish that a man is so far from thinking he hath too much when he enjoys it that he never thinks he hath enough nay he never thinks he hath it till he hath it this is a holy Coveteousnesse as the Apostle sayth the very temper of a Coveteous man is the more he hath the more he desires it is the onely temper commendable in grace the more a man hath the more he longs and thirsts Spirituall things the more they are enjoyed the more they are desired this should more stir up our desire O how should we long for Heaven that are out of it when the Angells long so that injoy it When they long that are in fruition how should not we long for the fruition Yet Heaven we cast behind our backs therefore we should stir up our souls as David As the hart panteth after the Rivers of Water nay let us change the phrase and turne it to a more sublime example not as the hart but as the very Angells pant and long and breath and desire to looke into those Mysteries so doth my soul after thee O God after the place where the Angells are say againe with David O that any would give me to drink of the Water of Bethell Nay save the labour God hath given us to drink of Christ the Water of the Well of Bethell say againe with David O that I had Wings like a Dove that I might fly away and be at rest Nay save the labour he hath given thee Wings of the Dove the holy Ghost descended in fire upon the Apostles the gifts and graces that descended are the Wings of the Dove and you may save that labour Therefore to shut up all with the holy desire of the Angells they are alway conversant about spectacles of happinesse and yet never weary of their speculation and the more they have the more they thirst and the more they are satisfied the lesse they are satisfied and though they have fullnesse yet they desire to have it continued That is the third ground The fourth and last ground that is the Radix of the desire of the Angells it grows from exultation from abundance of joy that they rejoyce in the revelation of those Mysteries and they desire that they may alway rejoyce they alway desire the continuance that they may rejoyce They rejoyce both in respect of Themselves and in respect of Vs There are these two reasons of their joy and so of their inspection and these are the two most proper reasons of all the rest One reason of their joy is a respect they have to themselves they rejoyce in the Mysteries of Salvation because they have the benefite of them the benefite of Christs meditorious work extends to Angells The Apostle Paul shews plainly Ephes 1. It pleased God to recapitulate or gather to one to sum up
to one all things both things in Heaven and things in Earth that is men and Angells The Apostle shews it more plainly Colos 1. It pleased him by the blood of his Crosse to reconcile to himselfe the things in Heaven and things in Earth to reconcile to himselfe Christ is a Medium of reconciliation to Angells how is it to be understood To reconcile to himselfe things in Heaven and things in Earth that is men and Angells For howsoever if reconciliation be properly taken it is onely understood of men that fell those that were out of Gods favour were onely reconciled reconciliation is a bringing into the favour of God those are said to be brought into Gods favour that were out of it man was out of it by sin therefore properly it belongs to man but analogically it extends to Angells their confirmation is to them as reconciliation they are confirmed in the favour of God and in a beatificall Vision and in glory confirmation to them is as reconciliation to us therfore the Apostle joyns both under one word To reconcile all things to himselfe things in Heaven and things in Earth that is men and Angells Therefore they desire to look into the Doctrine of reconciliation they have benefite by it Therefore St. Paul 1 Tim. 5. he calls them Elect Angells now Election is in Christ in that he calls them Elect Angells it is plain that their confirmation in this glory is in Christ Christ works it hence it is that Collos 2. the Apostle calls Christ the head of principallities and powers If Christ be the head then the Angells must needs be supposed to be part of the body if they be part of the body then the other part is man men and Angells make up the tryumphant body the mysticall body of Christ and Christ is the head of theâ— then it must follow that Christ is a Saviour even to Angells in respect of Confirmation for the Apostle sayth that Christ is the Saviour of the whole body therefore he of every one that is part of the body and he is head of principallities and powers St. Bernard layes it downe clearly and St. Austin for all layes that as a ground St. Austin excellently stated this point that it is agreed on by all that the Angells estate in blisse and confirmation it is not connaturall to them they brought it not into the World in the first Creation but they had it after from the grace of God bestowed upon them if by grace then by Christ for he is the Pipe of all grace St. Bernard I say sets it well downe when he puts together men and Angells how they come into one reconciliation he that raised man when he was fallen kept the Angells that they should not fall and so he was a Mediator of Redemption to them both sayth Bernard because he confirmed the one and erected and raised the other he loosed our bands from us and preserved the Angells therefore because the Angells have benefite in the Mystery of redemption they have part and share as well as man therefore they rejoyce in the work and because they rejoyce they desire to make further inspection in regard of Exultation That is the first reason Secondly that is not all for as their inspection comes from joy in their owne happinesse so secondly from the abundance of joy that they conceive of our happinesse because we are taken into their fellowship whereas a gap was in the order of Angells now in the conversion of a Sinner they rejoyce that he is brought in to make up that gap for the making up of the tryumphant body that was without an Arme till supply be made by the Salvation of men and that they may shew they rejoyce abundantly in the Salvation of man as well as their owne they disdaine not therefore that men should be accounted their fellow-heirs and to be Keepers of the Saints and minister to them because they know they are fallen Members brought into the same beatitude And it must needs be so for if the Angells rejoyce at the conversion of one sinner much more at the gathering of all at the redemption of mankind The Use that we are to make of it is this if there be such joy in Angells that are in these Mysteries that are in the fruition of them it should stir us up if they rejoyce for us let us for our selves we are nearer our selves then any other let us imitate them we cannot have a better patterne they are confirmed in grace Imitate them in admiration admire Gods goodnes in that wondrous work let us carry our souls out of themselves into a holy rapture that we may blesse God sufficiently for that imitate them in holy expectation that as we have experience of Gods goodnesse in fullfilling the first promise so rest in hope for them that are behind rest on God waite upon God till he bring all to a period say with those under the Altar How long Lord How long Imitate them in hope imitate them in joy in desire in inspection there is one holy knowledge common to us with the Angells the knowledge of Heaven and Salvation there is one place of happinesse common to us with them Heaven is the happiness and inheritance of both As there is then common blessedness so let there be common joy and common study and common thankfullnesse and common desire to look into there Mysteries to cast an assiduous eye upon them as they doe to make all the returns that we give to God again of praise and thanks make them such as the Angells It is well said of Turtullian we are those that are in Albo inrolled to the number of Angells let us tread in their steps in those works in which we are to have our fellowship with them Let us for the great work of redemption for the incarnation of Christ let all that we returne to God be Heavenly and Angelicall Our joy Angelicall when is it so When it is spirituall and not carnall secular joy away with that Glory to God on high these are Angelicall Songs and Psalmes the Songs of the Angells let us follow these Mysteries with Angelicall Meditations what are those Heavenly Meditations that are Angells Meditations O to get Heavenly hearts often to think of the great Comfort that comes by Christ and the knowledge of Salvation Make these things our study and our Meditation matter of our studies and matter of our thankfullnesse and desire matter of study we may well make it who would not be content to study those things that the Angells are busie about to be Fellow Students with the Angells Make them the matter of our thankfullnesse also who would not blesse God for that for which the Angells admire Lastly make them the matter of our desire Who would not long to enjoy the Vnion in that place where Angells are and where Angells though they be yet they desire still to injoy the comfort of the meditation of