among the leaves that nurses a worm to consume it when we least think of it Nay though we had coronam militum a Crown an Army of men as thick as the spires of Grass to encompass and guard either our honours wealth or pleasures yet they would all prove in a little time but as the Grass all men are nothing else Sr. Iames i. 11. but particularly the rich man so says that Apostle ver 10. the rich man as the flower of the grass he shall pass away He shall not stay for a storm to blast or blow him away even the Sun of prosperity shall do it Mole ruit suâ his own weight and greatness shall throw him down For the Sun is no sooner mark but that no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower of it falleth and the grace of the fashions of it perisheth so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways Mark that too in his very ways his own very ways shall bring him to ruine and destruction 'T is so with the leaves of honour 't is so with the leaves of pleasure the very Sun no sooner rises upon them but it withers them the very Sun-shine and favour of the Prince ruines them the burning heat of their pleasures waste them away make their pleasures troublesome and burthensome in a little while and a while after vanish and confound them with shame and reproach leave them nothing upon their heads but ill coloured and ill seated leaves ignominy and dishonour nothing in their souls but driness and discomfort their estates too oftentimes drained dry scarce any thing but the Prodigals Husks to refresh them or dry leaves to cover them But the Christians Crown is nothing such 't is a flourishing Crown Psal. cxxxii 18. a Crown of pure Gold Psal. xxi 3. a Crown of precious Stones Zech. ix 16. a Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. iv 8. a Crown of Life St. Iames i. 12. a Crown of Honour Psal. viii 5. a Crown of Stars Rev. xii 1. a Crown of Glory 1 Pet. v. 4. a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away in the same verse eternal everlasting A flourishing not a withering Crown a Crown of Gold not of Grass of precious Stones not of Leaves of Righteousness not unjustly gotten of Life not unto Death of Honour not to be ashamed of of Stars not Stubble of Glory not vanity that never so much as alters colour but continues fresh and flourishing and splendid to all eternity An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us says St. Peter 1. Pet. i. 4. And having now compared our Crowns and finding so vast so infinite a difference between them Can we think much to do as much for this incorruptible Crown of Glory as the other do for their vain and corruptible one Shall they that strive for petty masteries for toys and trifles for ribbands and garlands be so exact in their observances so strict in their diet so painful in their exercises so vigilant in their advantages so diligent in providing strengthning and enabling themselves for their several sports and undertakings and shall we that are to strive for no less than Heaven it self be so loose in our performances so intemperate in meat and drink so sluggish in our business so careless of advantages so negligent in all things that make towards it Are leaves worth so much and the fruit of eternal peace so little Is a little air the vain breath of a mortal man to be so sought for and is the whole Heaven it self and the whole Host and God of it the praise of God and Saints and Angels that stand looking on us to be so slighted as not worth so doing doing no more than they Where is that man Dic mihi musâ virum shew me the man that can that takes the pains for eternal glory that these vain souls do for I know not how little enough to stile it But if we compare the pains the ambitious man takes for honour the voluptuous for his pleasure the covetous man for wealth meer leaves of Tantalus his Tree that do but gull not satisfie them the late nights the early mornings the broken sleeps the unquiet slumbers the many watches the innumerable steps the troublesom journeys the short meals the strange restraints the often checks the common counterbuffs the vexatious troubles the multitude of affronts neglects refusals denials the eager pursuits the dangerous ways the costly expences the fruitless travels the tortured minds the wearied bodies the unsatisfied desires when all is done that these men suffer and run through the one for an honour that sometimes no body thinks so but he that pursues it the other for a pleasure base oftentimes and villanous the third for an estate not far from ruine nay oftentimes to ruine his house and posterity If I say we compare these mens pains and sufferings with what we do for Christ and God and Heaven and happiness true real immoveable happiness and glory Good Lord how infinitely short do we come of them shall not they rise up against us in judgment and condemn us nay shall not we our selves rise up against our selves in judgment who have done many of these things suffered many for a little profit vain-glory or vain hope which we thought much to do for eternal glory This we do we strive and labour and take pains for vanity we are temperate in all things restrain and keep in our selves for the obtaining sometimes a little credit sometimes a little affection or good opinion from some whose love or good opinion is worth nothing or if it be is as easily lost as soon removed changed from us is commonly both corrupt and corruptible without ground and to little purpose But for Gods Judgment Christs Affection the Holy Spirits good Love to us for the praise of good men of Saints and Angels the whole choire of Heaven rejoycing over us nay for Heaven it self and blessedness and glory all which we might obtain with the same pains and lesser trouble and in the same time 't is so little that we do so far from all that I may without injury stile it nothing But for Gods sake for Christs sake for our own sake let it not be so for ever let us not always prefer Glass before Diamonds Barley Conrs before Pearls pleasure or profit or honour before Heaven and Happiness and Glory There are in Heaven unspeakable pleasures whole Rivers of them there There are in Heaven infinite and eternal riches which we can neither fathom nor number there is glory and honour and immortality and eternal life There are all these Crowns made incorruptible and everlasting all running round encircling one another like Crowns encircling our souls and bodies too like Crowns without end without period If we would have any Crowns Honour or Riches or Pleasure let us there seek them where they are advanced to an
that to others Good will towards men 3. But good will is not enough good works are graces let 's study to encrease and abound and to be rich in them 4. Yet Gratia is in St. Pauls stile in this Chapter ver 1. and elsewhere bounty and liberality to the poor rich in this grace especially we are to be 'T is the peculiar grace of Christmas hospitality and bounty to the poor 'T is the very grace St. Paul here provokes the Corinthians to by the example of those of Macedonia and Achaia ver 1. who to their power and beyond their power he bears them witness were not only willing to supply the necessities of the Saints but even entreated him and them to take it By the example 2. of Christ who both became himself poor that we might be the more compassionate to the poor now he was in the number and made us rich that we might have wherewith to shew our compassion to them Now surely if Christ be poor and put himself among them who would not give freely to them seeing he may chance even to give to Christ himself among them when he gives however what is given to any of them he owns it as to himself S. Mat. xxv 40. What ye dâ— to any of the least of these my brethren ye do it unto me And can any that pretends Christ be so wretchedly miserable as not to part with his mony upon this score Can any be so ungrateful as not to give him a little who gave them all shall he become poor for our sakes and we not shew our selves rich for his it were too little in reason not to make our selves poor again for him not to be as free to him as he to us Yet he will be contented with a little for his all that we should out of our abundance supply the want of his poor Members He is gracious Behold the grace of our Lord I in this too in complying with our infirmities not commanding us as he might to impoverish our selves with acts of mercy but to be only rich and abundant in them to which yet he promises more grace still the reward of glory Come ye blessed of my Father ye who supply and help my poor ones come inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world where ye that have followed me in my poverty or become poor for my sake or have been rich in bounty to the poor as it were to a kind of poverty shall then reign with me amidst all the riches of eternal Glory THE EIGHTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day PSAL. viii 4 5. What is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower then the Angels to crown him with glory and worship BUT Lord What is man or the Son of man that thou didst this day visit him that thou this day crownedst him with that glory didst him that honour so we may begin to day for 't is a day of wonder of glory and worship to stand and wonder at Gods mercy to the sons of men and return him glory and worship for it For Lord what is man that the Son of God should become the Son of man to visit him that God should make him lower then the Angels who is so far above them that he might crown us who are so far below them with glory and honour equal to them or above them It was a strange mercy that God should make such a crum of dust as man to have dominion over the works of his own hands that he should put all things in subjection under his feet that he should make the Heavens the Moon and Stars for him and the Psalmist might very well gaze and startle at it But to make his Son such a thing of nought too such a Quid est that no body can tell what it is what to speak low enough to express it such a Novissimus hominum such an abject thing as man such a cast-away as abject man as the most abject man bring him below Angels below men and then raise him up to Glory again that he might raise up that vile thing called man together with him and restore the Dominion when he had lost it is so infinitely strange a mercy that 't is nearer to amazement than to wonder And indeed the Prophet here is in amaze and knows not what to say Both these mercies he saw here but he saw not how to speak them Gods mercy in mans Creation and Gods mercy in mans Redemption too What God made man at first and to what he exalted him when he had made him What God made his Son for man at last what he made him first and last lower then the Angels first higher then they at last that he might shew the wonders of his mercy to poor man both first and last But if David did not see both in the words he spake the Apostle did for to Christ he applies them Heb. ii 6 7. And that 's authority good enough for us to do so to bring it for a Christmas Text especially Christ himself applying the second verse Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength as spoken in relation to himself St. Matth. xxi 16. And that 's authority somewhat stronger Yet to omit nothing of Gods mercy to do right on all hands to Prophet and Apostle and Christ too we shall take them in both senses To refer them to man the plain letter with the whole design and context of the Psalm is sufficient reason To understand them yet of Christ he himself and his Apostle will bear us out And though the Text be full of wonder it is no wonder that it has two senses most of the old Testament and Prophesies have so a lower and a higher a literal and a more sublime sense Thus out of Egypt have I called my son Hos. xi i. Rachels weeping for her children Jer. xxxi 14. I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion Psal. ii 6. all applied to Christ or his business and affairs and yet spoken first to other purposes of Israel or David I should lose time to collect more places 'T is better I should tell you the sum of this that it is the Prophet Davids wonder at Gods dealing towards man and his dealing towards Christ that he should deal so highly mercifully towards man and so highly strangely towards Christ so mercifully with man as to remember him to visit him to make him but little lower then the Angels and crown him with glory and worship So strangely with Christ as to make him a Son of man and lower then the Angels first then afterward to crown him with glory and worship Things all to be highly wondered at And the Text best to be divided into Gods mercy and Davids wonder I. Gods mercy manifested here in three particulars 1. In his dealing with man What is man
cry'd out openly We fools we fools indeed how have we cheated our selves of Heaven the glorious Kingdom whilst the poor Lazarus's these poor contemptible things crept in and we with all our pride and riches and vaunting quite shut out ver 8. And now I may read the Text another way as an assertion not a wish and I find it read so Thus Si saperent intelligerent providerent If men were wise they would both understand and consider all these things without this ado They would presently turn considerarent into providerent too and so the word is rendred by the vulgar and provide now for their latter end And the provision will not stand us in much nor shall I stand long upon it Three ways to do it and you have all The Son of Syrach's 1. Remember thy end and let enmity cease says he Ecclus. xxviii 6. Let us not spend our wits our courage our estates any longer in feuds and enmities seeing God has now at length so strangely brought us all altogether The 2. way shall be his too with a little alteration Ecclus. vii 36. Remember thy latter end and that thou never henceforward do amiss I know 't is read remember and thou shalt not but 't is as true if read remember and thou wilt not if you consider it as you should you will also provide you sin no more To make all sure make the provision our Blessed Saviour would have you for a third Provide the bags that wax not old St. Luke xii 33. friends that will not fail you make them to you out of the Mammon you have gotten make the poor your friends with it That when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations S. Luke xvi 9. And consider lastly for the close of this part of the Text and I am almost at the close of all that all this is Gods desire He wishes it here he wishes it all the holy Text through Oh that there were such an heart in them Deut. v. 29. O that my people would hearken to it Psal. lxxxi 14. O that men would therefore Psal. cvii. four times in it II. And yet the second general of the Text tells you he does more wishes it so heartily that he complains again complains they answer not his wishes And wisht he has so often that he may well complain How often have I says he St. Luke xiii 34. so often nor they nor we can tell it Only so often Noluistis as often as he would so often they would not All the day long he had stretched out his hand unto them sent to them by his messengers early and late to desire them visited them with judgments courted them with mercies and yet they would not disobedient and gain-saying people that they were And therefore complain he does that do what he can he must give them up though with a Quomodo te tradam Hos. xi 8. with great regret and sorrow give them up for fools men of neither understanding nor consideration men that like fools throw away Gold for baubles men that are so far from understanding or considering that they live as if they car'd not whether they went to Heaven or Hell But I love not to lengthen out complaints in this case I should ne're have done and 't is time I should And the Text only insinuating not enlarging Gods complaints gives me an item to do so too Only give me leave in brief to sum up all Every wise man before at any time he begins a work sits down and considers what he has to do and to what end he does it O that we would be so wise in ours that we would retire our selves some minutes now and then to consider the ill courses at any time we are in or entring on And when we are got into our Chambers and be still thus commune with our selves What is this business I am about to what purpose is this life I lead this sin this waste this vanity Am I grown so soon forgetful of my late sad condition or so insensible of my late rebellions and of the pardon God has given me as thus impudently to sin again Is this the reward I make him for all his mercies thus one after another to abuse them still or is it that I am weary of my happiness and grown so wanton as to tempt destruction Is it that I may go with more dishonour to my Grave leave a blot upon my name and stand upon record for a fool or worse to all posterity for ever Is it that I have not already sins enough but I must thus foolishly still burthen my accompts Is it that I may go the more gloriously to Hell and damn my self the deeper Is it that I may purposely thwart God in all his ways of mercy and judgment cross his desires scorn his entreaties defie his threats despise his complaints anger him to the heart that I may be rid of him and quit my hands of all my interests in Heaven for ever Why this is the English of my sins my profaneness and debaucheries the courses I am in or now going upon and will I still continue them This would be considering indeed and a few hours thus spent sometimes would make us truly wise And let us but do so we shall quickly see the effect of them God shall have his wishes and we shall be wise and we shall have ours too all we can wish or hope and no complaining in our streets All our former follies shall be forgotten and all ill ends be far off from us and when these days shall have an end we shall then go to our Graves in peace to our Accompts with joy and passing by some of us perhaps even the gates of Hell come happily to the end of all our hopes the salvation of our souls have our end glory and honour and immortality and eternal life where we as Daniel tells us the wise do shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever Whether he bring us who is the eternal Wisdom of his Father Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one Eternal Immortal Invisible and only Wise God be all Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing for ever and ever A SERMON ON THE ANNUNTIATION OF THE Blessed Virgin Mary St. LUKE i. 28. And the Angel came in unto her and said Hail thou that art highly favoured The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women THe day will tell you who this Blessed among women is we call it our Lady-day And the Text will tell you why she comes into the day because the Angel to day came in to her And the Angel will tell you why he to day came in to Her she was highly favoured and the Lord was with her was to come himself this day into her to make her the most blessed among women sent
they whom they please dishonour they all the old Saints how they list 1. God has his Saints says our Text and ver 5. Saints in glory Saints in their beds or in their graves his they are and Saints they are though there His Saints 2. have and shall have honour A signal special honour 3. it is they have This honour such honour as the former verses spake of All of them 4. have it All his Saints have it 5. from him are to have it from us gloria sit so some read Let this honour be given to all his Saints that 's the last and all five so many parts of the Text. I go on with them in their order I. God has his Saints Saints in heaven St. Mat. xxvii 52. Saints upon earth Psal. xvi 3. Saints in glory ver 5. and Saints of grace Saints at rest in their beds of honour and Saints in the bustle of noise and trouble The stranger men they that engross the title to themselves strike all the Saints out of the Kalendar and will not call them so whom God has call'd so Yet if to be Saints be to be holy the title is their due that are in heaven they are the holiest If to be Saints be to be called effectually they are called to purpose that are already there If to be Saints be to be separate to God from the drossie multitude they are of the highest separation If to be Saints be to be established if Sancti be Sanciti there are none so sure so established as they who are in heavenly glory And dare men be so bold to rob them of this honour so proper and peculiar to them that 't is but a kind of an impropriety to give it to any here below which yet both Scripture and their own tongues give to some below yet to none but such as are in Communion with those above and as far only as they are in it God has a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a separate or peculiar people a people to shew forth his praise called out of darkness into his marvelous light to do it says St. Peter 1 Pet. ii 9. St. Paul and the rest of the holy Epistlers say as much call Believers Saints ever and anon and these have fellow-Citizens Eph. ii 19. Saints in an inheritance of glory Eph. i. 18. worth the knowledge says St. Paul and now 2. worthy honour too II. For his Saints have honour are persons of honour Kings and Priests Rev. i. 6. Heirs of a Kingdom St. Iam. ii 5. Sons of God St. Iohn i. 12. Children of the most Highest Psal. lxxxii 6. So that if the Sons of Kings or Kings themselves if men in highest Office or the nearest relation to the highest Princes be men of honour the Saints are they who are so honourably related to and so highly employed by the King of Kings Who are first honoured by him with such titles as his friends St. Ioh. xv 15. as his anointed Psal. cv 15. as his Sons and Daughters Who 2. are so his that he reckons what is done to them is done to him receive them and receive him despise them and despise him St. Luke x. 16. the very least of them not excepted St. Mat. xxv 40. Who lastly are so entrusted by him that he admits them into his secrets Psal. xxv 13. makes them of his Privy Counsel Prov. ii 32. an honour without question of the first and highest rank Enough however to teach us 1. not to despise them whom God thus honours though they here walk in rags and are fed with crumbs and look desolate and though they are covered with poverty and encompassed with afflictions and had in derision and a Proverb of reproach whilst they are here and when they depart hence seem to die and their departure is taken for misery they are honourable for all that such as the Great King delights to honour and must not be despised Sufficient 2. it is to teach us not to dishonour our selves with any unworthy action or behaviour 'T is not for persons of honour to do things base and vile indeed to live or act like men of ordinary and mean condition Nor is it for any of them that are called to be Saints to employ themselves in the drudgeries and nastinesses of sins in the low poor businesses of the earth to work in Mines and Metals or make that our business here For 3. this honour is to teach us to do honourable things higher thoughts and higher works to live like Saints like such as are to inherit the earth Mat. v. 5. to reign and rule in it not to serve it like such as are to inherit heaven too and are therefore to have our conversation there to do all things worthy of it nothing but what becomes the Kingdom of Christ especially seeing it is not only meer honour ordinary honour but a signal special honour that is here given to the Saints Gloria haec est or Gloria hic est omnibus sanctis ejus This honour have all his Saints or He is the honour of all his Saints What it is we shall best gather by the Context out of the foregoing verses III. 1. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people ver 4. There 's the honour of a Favourite 2. He will beautifie them with salvation in the same verse there 's the honour of his salvation as David speaks in another place there 's a second honour 3. Let the praises of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hands to be avenged of the heathen c. ver 6 7. there 's the honour of Conquerours that 's a third 4. To execute upon them the judgment written ver 9. There 's the honour of judges that 's a fourth 5. Look back again Let the Saints be joyful in glory ver 5. there 's the honour of glory of eternal glory that 's a fifth 6. Let them rejoyce in their beds or sing aloud upon their bed there 's the honour of eternal peace and security or the security of their honour 7. Lastly Gloria hic est for the Pronoune is Masculine in the Hebrew He is the honour of his Saints God is their honour so the Text may well be rendred there 's the infinity of their honour Honor infinitatis or honor infinitus their infinite honour that 's the last So here 's the Saints honour like Wisdom with her seven Pillars strongly built firmly seated magnificently set forth upon them They have the honour of being favourites the honour of being ever and anon honourably saved and delivered the honour of being Victors the honour of being judges a glorious secure infinite honour the Saints have 1. This honour that they have is the honour of grand Favourites God is well pleased in them taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants his delight is placed in them the Lords delight is in them that fear him Psal. cxlvii 11. He deals with
St. Luke vi 23. the reward of their Inheritance both together The greater honour to be so honoured as to have glory it self call'd their reward strange honour to them to have honour entitled to them as their due But honour joy and glory given to them in their beds to have joy and glory conferr'd upon them in their beds to have it as it were with ease with lying still and to enjoy it with security without fear of rousing from it and in the very beds of dust the dark Chambers of the grave the Mansions of death it self to have this light and glory shine upon them to have security and peace ease and pleasure establisht on their glory and those melancholy rooms that are hang'd with worms and rottenness enlightned with the beams of perpetual joy and comfort is a vast addition to their glory Yet this they have not only an immarcessible and incorruptible crown of glory 1 Pet. v. 4. laid up for them 2 Tim. iv 8. but their very bones flourish out of the grave Eccl. xlvi 12. and even the lodgings of their very ashes seem to exult with a kind of joy to be made the receptacles and cabinets of those Jewels of the Almighty and their Sepulchres and Memorials are blessed for evermore Ecclus. xlix 10. The very places where they come are joyful at their shadows as they pass by Miracles have been done by their shadows whilst they passed by Acts v. 15. and when their bones have lain a while silent in the grave the dead have yet been raised by them to life again 2 Kings xiii 21. Thus his Saints have honour in life and death and after death then when they seem to have been some while nay a long while raked up in dust and quite forgotten Nay lastly Gloria hic est their honour is infinite too 't is a masculine glory All other glories and honours are but Feminine weak poor things to it God is their glory honoured they are with his blessed Presence honoured with his sight with his embraces they see him and enjoy him This is the very glory of their honour the height and pitch of all for in thy presence is joy and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore honour advanced into eternal glory And this honour also have all his Saints some in spe and some in re some in hope and some in deed all either in promise or in possession All his Saints some way or other more or less are partakers of it that 's their honour at the full extent an honour wherewith this day is great which is a great considerable also in the Text that this honour of the Saints as special a one as it is is yet also universal some way or other belonging to all the Saints IV. Some way or other I say for this honour 't is to be confest at first is not equal to them all One star differs from another star in glory 1 Cor. xv 41. One Saint differs from another in his honour There is a Sun and Moon greater and lesser stars in the firmament of Saints There are Coelestial and Terrestrial Saints Saints wholly busied in the work of heaven and Saints who intermeddle also with the works of earth Contemplative Saints and active Saints There were Saints before the Law there were Saints under the Law and Saints still after it Patriarchs and Prophets Martyrs and Apostles all were Saints Iews and Christians and Gentiles too have Saints among them And all have their honour The Iews literally to the very words the Christians mystically to the higher sense and meaning greater honour these because more abundant grace than they The Gentiles Proselyâ—es they come in also for their share Beloved and favoured by him all delivered by him some way or other all Conquerours at least over their ghostly enemies all of them to be judges all at last and prepared to glory and honour and Gods Presence after all There are false Saints many as there are false Gods many and false honour there is too that is by some men given to both the false and true ones yet this no reason to scrape the true ones out of the Kalendar nor deny the true honour that is due to them If God say the Saints have honour est erit for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Complutensian Bibles read it as others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they have and shall have I cannot but think that man too bold that dares contradict it that dares annul the Festival or memorial of All Saints of any Saints together or asunder or rob them of the honour that God has given them Holy they are Saints is nothing else and the Scripture so often calls them holy that 't is Infidelity to doubt it Impudence to question it and Atheism to deny it and therefore Sacriledge it must needs be too to violate their honours or plunder them of that which God has given them for this honour says he here himself or his Spirit for him have all his Saints V. Have it from God first are therefore 2. to have it from us too Have it from God for he has promised it Those that honour me I will honour says he 1 Sam. ii 30. and honour them he does 1. He speaks of them with honour throughout the holy Page and tells forth their praise builds there as it were a lasting Monument to their memories 2. He gives them titles of honour calls Abraham his Friend Enoch in a manner his Companion one that continually walk'd with him Iob his Servant with an Emphasis with a Quis similis in all the earth David his dear heart as one would say a man after his own heart The true Israelites the precious Sons of Sion Lam. iv 2. and all his Saints his Jewels Mal. iii. 17. Jewels made up and laid up in Cabinets in the Cabinets of the highest Heaven 3. He gives them high and honourable employment to Moses to be faithful in all his house his High Steward there to Ioshua and Ieptha and Gideon and David to be Generals of his Wars and fight his Battels to Solomon to be his Master Builder and the Overseer of his Works to all his Saints to be his Courtiers and tread his Courts honourable all Nay 4. he makes them all as it were Masters of his Requests grants Petitions often upon their score Thus for Abraham my Servant for the oath I sware unto Isaac for my Servant Davids sake 1 Kings xv 4. at the Petition of my Servant Iob Iob xlii and the like says God I will do this or that Many many things God did for Israel for their sakes many times withheldâ—his his Judgments and bestow'd his Mercies for their only sakes and with us he deals so too grants us many favours and blessings for some of our holy fore-fathers sakes which he would not give us for our own 5. He so honours them that he seldom discovers any of their faults or but easily
than they mean or do what they say be content at least to be at peace and not disturb it but let it rule so the Apostle would have it and so it should rule in our hearts and rule in our lives rule in our hearts and make them unanimous rule in our tongues and make them thankful rule in our hands and keep them quiet rule in our actions and make them peaceable rule us all into one as we are called into one rule us all into one mind and one heart and one soul as we are in one body rule us as a rule sent from God to rule us For 't is the peace of God we speak of and we ought every way we can to be ruled by it and be thankful for it 'T is St. Pauls request here in the Text or his command rather to the Colossianss yet the better to commend it home to you I shall divide it into two parts The Motion for peace and thankfulness And The Arguments to perswade them If you will draw the Motion into smaller parcels for six things the Motion is 1. For peace 2. For the peace of God 3. For the Rule and Dominion of it 4. For a place for it to rule in our hearts 5. For the manifestation and expression of it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by being gracious and compliant as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies in Scripture and may do here and does so say St. Ierom and St. Chrysostome 6. And lastly for our being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again in the common sense that we would be thankful for it Let the peace of God rule in your hearts and be ye mild and gracious or be ye thankful And the Arguments for these are full as many in number as the Motions 1. You are called you are Christians that is the sons of peace let peace therefore rule among you 2. 'T is that also which ye are called to and let it therefore rule 3. In one body ye are too let it therefore rule your hearts into one also 4. Into this body ye came not by chance came not of your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye were called into it God brought you brought you lately to it For this goodness sake of his be rul'd a little now ye are once again called together be at peace one with another For 5. Unthankful ye will be else the proof of your thankfulness lies upon it and therefore let this peace of God be in your hearts that ye may shew your selves to be thankful Nay 6. and lastly gracious ye cannot be but graceless and perverse creatures you will seem if ye stand out now and therefore whatever has been hitherto let the peace of God now really rule your hearts at last Thus I have given you the Text in Parts which all together give you this in the sum that it lies as a duty upon us all to let peace rule among us to endeavour by all means that it may to use all arguments for it that we can both to our selves and others and be thankful that it does so much as it does that it does in part and let our thanfulness more and more encrease as that encreases But I pursue the Parts and make my first Motion for peace it self I. And truly 't is worth the Motion worth the moving for Pacem to thee O peace say the Poet with an Apostrophe who would be without thee Te Poscimus omnes Every body would have peace all but the ungodly no peace to the wicked indeed they have they would have none They have none among themselves would have none among us They fish best in troubled waters All else are for peace and quiet God is for it he is the God of peace Rom. xv 33. Christ is for it he both commanded and bequeathed it St. Iohn xiv 27. St. Mark ix 50. The Apostles are for it one after another St. Paul St. Iames St. Iohn St. Peter St. Iude they all commend it 1 Thes. v. 13. St. Iam. iii. 18. 1 Pet. iii. 11. 2 Iohn 3. Iude 4. The Prophets before them were for it they proclaimed it Isa. ix 7. Ier. xiv 13. Ezek. xxxvii 26. Hag. ii 9. Zech. ix 10. Mal. ii 5. The Angels are for it they bring and sing it St. Luke ii 14. All good men are for it Their daily Prayer is Give peace O Lord though it be but in our time only So rather than not at all Nay though with Hezekiah in other things it go hard with them yet that 's good for all that Isa. xxxix 8. 2 Kings xx 19. Good and pleasant also Psal. cxxxi 1. Many good things are not so fasting and watching mortification repentance and many other vertues good they are but they are not pleasant peace is both to dwell together in unity pleasant as well as good very pleasant and very good O quam so good and pleasant that he is fain to leave it upon the question he cannot answer it or leave it with an exclamation O quam leaves us only to admire it at the goodness and sweetness of it The messengers that bring but the tidings of it too how beautiful are their very feet Rom. x. 15. Yea even afar off upon the tops of the mountains says the Prophet Isa. lii 7. afore they come near us As far as we can see them we adore them they are the only Evangelists that preach peace they bring the Gospel their words no less whose words are peace And no wonder for Peace is a word of that vast Latitude that all Gods blessings are folded up in the very name It signifies all the temporal and all the spiritual yea and all the eternal goods we can expect Glory and honour grace and mercy and truth life and plenty and joy are in their several turns joyn'd with it you may so read them ever and anon Rom. ii 10. Tit. i. 4. Ier. xxxiii 6. Zach. viii 16. To wish us peace is to wish us all to pray for peace is to pray for all to give peace is to give all But the Notion being so large and general we must distinguish it to understand it the better here There is an outward and there is an inward peace There is a Spiritual a Temporal and an Eternal peace or if you will there is peace the Blessing and peace the Grace and peace the Reward Our hearts I hope are for them all but that which is here to rule them is peace the grace or vertue the study and pursuit of peace the other are our happiness this our duty And of this two kinds we have in the Text the Particular and the Publick Peace both to be endeavoured The particular among our selves of one member with another The General of the members with the body The first is with our Brethren and Neighbours the second is with the Church it self Peace among our selves that must be had says St. Paul 1 Thes. v. 13. And Peace with the Church
Hymn of his goodness an Anthem of his love a Psalm of his mercy and in sweet numbers carol forth his praise set our heads to do it our hearts to endite it our pens to write it our voices to sing it and with the three Children in their Song invite all the creatures in Heaven and Earth Angels and men all the sensible and insensible creatures to bear us company so to make a full noise of all kinds of Musick to set forth his praise Do it with our hands too do that which will exalt his praise Then 't is benedixit complete when it has benefecit next it We speak best when we do best when our lives and actions speak it Benedixit bene vixit are not so near of sound for nothing A holy life is not more truly Gods blessing to man than again it is mans chiefest and most acceptable blessing God Many ways may this blessing God be performed by us but as we stand now with some relation to this days blessing the blessed Eucharist the feast of blessing the cup of blessing as the Apostle stiles it I shall shew you now you have taken it what blessing is more peculiarly required after it Three acts of blessing there are to be performed after this act of so taking Christ into our arms and for it three points of blessing for this great blessing of the Holy Communion Thanksgiving Oblation and Petition Bless him and give thanks to him Bless him and offer up his Son to him again and our selves with him offer his Son in our own arms him and our selves Bless him and present our petitions to him our prayers as well as praises Or in the language of the Text Benedicamus Speak well of him do somewhat for him and bring our requests and petitions to him You see I need not run out of the Text for any kind of blessing First then Bless him with your tongues Speak good of his Name and let your lips speak forth his glory and wonderous works tell the world what he has done for you what great and mighty things Salutem ejus evangelizate Psal. xcvi 4. Tell it out for good tidings the tidings of great joy Be always speaking always telling it Call to all the creatures to bear you company every thing to rejoyce with you Tell your happiness to the Woods and Mountains in your solitary retirements tell it to the Towns and Villages speak of it in all companies tell it to the young Men and Maids old Men and Children all Sexes and Ages what God has done for your souls Tell it to the Summer and Winter both in your prosperity and adversity let nothing make you forget your thanks Tell it to the Frost and Fire in your coldnesses and in your fervencies and zeals to the Earth and to the Waters in your drinesses of soul and in the sorrows of your hearts praise him in all conditions Tell it to the Angels and Heavens as you are about your heavenly business Tell it to the Fowls of the Air even in the midst of your airy thoughts and projects that they may be such as may set forth his glory Tell it to the Priests and Servants of the Lord to solemnize your thanksgiving Tell it to the Spirits and Souls of the righteous to bear a part with you in your Song and intreat them all all estates and orders all conditions and things to bring in each their blessing to make up one great and worthyblessing for this days blessing to rejoyce and sing exult and triumph with you for this happy arm-full of eternal blessings this day bestowed upon you Begin we the blessing blessing and honour and power and glory and thanks and praise and worship and great glory be unto God for ever and ever and let all the creatures say Amen Bless we him secondly with our Offerings Hold we up first our hands and bless him hold we up our hands and vow and resolve to serve him from henceforth with hand and heart and all our members offer him our vows and resolutions holy ones strengthen our hands and renew our purposes to serve him now henceforward with a high hand maugre all the pleasures and profits of the world say what they will against it with a strong hand do they what they dare or can against us Bless him and resolve to bless him for ever and every day renew we still our resolutions that our hands may be so strengthened by them that none may be able to take him out of our hands 2. Catch we fast hold of him with our hands when we bless him clasp him fast by a lively hope as assured that all our hope is in him all our hope in holding him clasp we him fast and bless him 3. Spread your arms and bless him with your Faith Open your souls and every day more and more let him come in let it be your continual exercise more and more to trust him to rely upon him 4. Open your hands and cast down your blessings upon the poor He that blesses the poor blesses God What you have done to them says Christ you did to me St. Matth. xxv Open your hands and bless God 5. Cross your hands and beat your breasts Bless him with your hands a cross as humbly acknowledging your vileness and unworthiness of so great a favour as his presence as the seeing and touching and handling and â—asting him He truly blesses God on high that thus makes himself low 6. Fill your hands and bless him bless him with a full hand both your hands full of blessings blessings of all sorts all good works and vertues An universal obedience is the onliest blessing God Simeon being interpreted is obedient and he it is that here blesses the obedient soul that at any time only truly blesses God 7 Wash we yet our hands before we either open or spread or hold up or cross or clasp or fill them Wash we before we bless wash away our impurities with our tears bewail and bemoan our defects and weaknesses and imperfections which in our receiving have been too many that by this hand our oblation and blessing may be offered with pure and unspotted hands and hearts 8. Clap we then our hands and bless him do it with joy and not with grief we may do it well when we have so washt them first Let it be our way of blessing to do it chearfully to settle our selves to all the works of piety and obedience of faith and hope and charity and humility and in a word to an universal righteousness with all the purity we can with all the strength and resolution we are able Bless with a chearful and ready hand set our selves ever hereafter merrily to this work But remember we all this while we so use our hands to bless that we so open and shut so spread and cross them that we let not Christ go out the while Offer we up our selves and him together Resolve we
whoever shall take him shall take us too We will not part no not in death we will live and die and sleep and rise again together He that will have him shall have us whether he will or no He is in our arms there we will keep him Yet in lieu of parting with him we will part with our selves and offer our selves for him if that will do it yes and that will do it Duo minuta habeo Domine corpus animam says the devout Father I have two mites O Lord I have two mites to offer to give thee for thy Son to offer thee for him my soul and my body Them thou shalt have willingly I am content to part with them so I may keep him and they will content him Offer them up then a living reasonable sacrifice for it will be an acceptable service too an acceptable blessing of him Yet as we offer up our selves we must now lastly offer up Christ too He gave him to us to be an offering for us to sanctifie all our offerings for a blessing to us to bless all our blessings And for the imperfection of all our righteousness offerings and sacrifices prayers and praises and blessings to make them accepted which in themselves and their weak performances no way deserve he was given us to offer His perfection will make amends for our imperfections his purity for our impurities his strength for our weakness and for them when we have done all we can to be accepted we must offer him or have all rejected We must when we begin to bless turn our selves with old Iacob to this Caput lectuli this beds-head whereon only the soul can rest or leaning upon the top of this Staff as the Apostle renders it the only staff wherein old Israel trusts the only staff whereon we rely for mercy and acceptance This is the name of the Angel in whom only we are to bless in whom only we are blest in whom either God blesses us or we him This is the sum he the chief of all our oblations all our blessings by oblation and the blessing both of our resolutions and endeavours all without whom we can do neither the one nor other neither resolve good nor practice it He therefore is to be offered with all thankfulness to God by us his merits only to be pleaded by us and the form of all our blessing thus to run Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy holy Son the Child Iesus give the praise It was not our own arm that helped us to him 't is not our own arms that can hold him 't is not our own strength that can keep him 't is not our own hands that can present any offering worthy of the least acceptance To God only therefore be the praise to Chrìst only the merit of all our blessings Thus are we lastly to pray too that God would accept us and our blessing Bless him with our petitions 1. That he would please to pardon all our sins or pass by all our weaknesses in this days in every days performance our neglects our coldnesses our drinesses our wearinesses and all the issues of our infirmities any ways That 2. he would accept our offerings and be pleased with us in his Son accept us in his beloved That 3. he would grant us the benefit of that holy Sacrament which we have this day received all the benefits of his Death and Passion the full remission of all our sins and the fulness of all his graces signified and conveyed by those dreadful mysteries That 4. he would particularly arm us every one of us against their particular corruptions with strength and grace proportionable to every one and effectual to us all For proper and particular petitions rising from the sense of our several necessities are this day proper to be askt and as easie to be obtained whilst it is his own day in which he invited us to him and will deny us nothing that we shall earnestly faithfully and devoutly ask him For this also to pray to petition is benedicere and it is a way of blessing God to offer up our prayers thereby acknowledging and confessing his power and goodness which is no less in other words than to praise and bless him He that offers praise honours him and he that presents prayers professes and proclaims him Almighty Father gracious and good and glorious God at the very first dash God blessed for evermore Light up now your Candles at this evening Service for the glory of your morning Sacrifice 't is Candlemas Become we all burning and shining lights to do honour to this day and the blessed armful of it Let your souls shine bright with grace your hands with good works Let God see it and let man see it so bless we God Walk we as Children of the light as so many walking lights and offer we our selves up like so many holy Candles to the Father of light But be sure we light all our lights at this babes eyes that lies so enfolded in our arms and neither use nor acknowledge any other light for better than darkness that proceeds from any other but this eternal light upon whom all our best thoughts and words and works must humbly now attend like so many petty sparks or rays or glimmerings darted from and perpetually reflecting thankfully to that glorious light from this day beginning our blessing God the only lightsome kind of life till we come to the land of light there to offer up continual praises sing endless Benedicite's and Allelujahs no longer according to the Laws or Customs upon earth but after the manner of Heaven and in the Choire of Angels with holy Simeon and Anna and Mary and Ioseph all the Saints in light and glory everlasting Amen Amen He of his mercy bring us thither who is the light to conduct us thither he lead us by the hand who this day came to lie in our arms he make all our offerings accepted who was at this Feast presented for us he bless all our blessings who this day so blessed us with his presence that we might bless him again and he one day in our several due times receive our spirits into his hands our souls into his arms our bodies into his rest who this day was taken corporally into Simeons arms has this day vouchsafed to be spiritually taken into ours Iesus the holy Child the eternal Son of God the Father To whom with the holy Spirit be all honour and praise and glory and blessing from henceforth for evermore Amen A SERMON ON THE First Sunday in Lent 2 COR. vi 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation ANd truly such a time is worth beholding For the business of it here being of no less concernment than Gods reconciling us to himself ver 18 19. of the former Chapter the committing the word and office of this reconciliation to his Ministers ver 20. of the
come upon us and hurry us hence before we are aware into the horrors and miseries of everlasting darkness 4. By this time you understand this ecce is not to set us a gazing up into Heaven or observing days and months and times and years but to retrive our months of vanity as holy Iob calls them and fill the days we live with more acceptable employments For God having so late accepted our persons and our complaints and prayers and tears or rather us indeed without them and desiring only of us that we would but accept and employ those mercies and all others of his to our own salvation we should be me thinks the most unreasonable of men to be so unkind to God as either not to receive his grace or receive it still in vain Worthy it is of better usage for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. iv 9. Accepted here the same with that worthy of all acceptation there The very time says our Apostle is such what then is the salvation of it that surely much more Accept we it therefore and the time of it with all readiness with all thankfulness with all humility Take we all the opportunities henceforward of salvation look every way about us and slip none we can lay hold on This ecce ecce reiterated is to rouse us and to tell us that our ecce should answer Gods Ecce tempus says he ecce me or nos say we Behold the time behold the day says God Behold us say we O God our hearts are fixed our hearts are fixed our hearts are ready our hearts are ready to accept it Ecce adsum says Abraham behold here I am Ecce venio says Christ Lo I come to do thy will O God Behold thy servants are ready says David to do whatsoever my Lord shall appoint And behold we are coming we are here we are ready with thee according to thy heart these are the returns or Eccho's we are to make God back again Nor is it time to dally now Time is a flitting Post Day runs into night e're we are aware this Now is gone as soon as spoken and no certainty beyond it and no salvation if not accepted e're we go hence There are I know that cry to day shall be as yesterday and to morrow as to day all things continue as they were since our Fathers fell asleep And this thing you call Religion does but delude us and our Preachers do but fright us this salvation they talk of we know not what to make of it if there be such a thing indeed the day is long enough we may think time enough of it many years hence Such scoffers indeed St. Peter told us we should meet with But I hope better things of you my beloved and such as accompany salvation And I have told you nothing to fright you from it I have not scar'd you with the antient rigour nor terrified you with primitive austerities I have only shewed you there is such a thing as salvation to be thought of and 't is time to set about it You cannot fast you 'l tell me you are weak and sickly it will destroy you You cannot watch you say it will undo you you cannot give Alms you have no moneys You cannot come so oft to Prayers as others your business hinders you But however can you do nothing towards it towards your own salvation can you not accept it when 't is offered can you not consider and think a little of it If you do but that I shall not fear but you will do more When you have business you can spare a meal now and then to follow it and nothing's made on 't when you are at your sports or play you can sit up night after night and catch no hurt for a new fashion impertinence or vanity you can find mony and time enough at any time for any of these I desire you would but do as much nay half as much I am afraid I may say the tenth part so much to save your souls spend but as much time seriously upon that as you do upon your dressing your visits your vanities not to require any thing so much of you upon that as upon worldly business and dare promise you salvation you shall be accepted at that day at that day when our short Fasts shall be turned into eternal Feasts our petty Lents consummate into the great Easters when time it self shall improve into eternity this day advance into an everlasting Sun-shine and salvation appear in all its glories Accept us now O Lord we pray thee in this accepted time save us we beseech thee in this day of salvation that we may one day come to that eternal one through him in whom only we are accepted thy beloved Son Christ Jesus To whom with thee and thy Holy Spirit be consecrated all our times and days all our years and months and hours and minutes from henceforward to whom also be all honour and praise all salvation and glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON THE Second Sunday in Lent 1 COR. ix 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a castaway DVrus sermo A hard Text you 'l say a whipping Sermon towards that begins with castigo and ends with reprobus that is so rough with us at the first as to tell us of chastning and keeping under the body and so terrible at the last as to scare us with being castaways unless we do it And that too cum aliis praedicaverim the greatest Preachers the very Apostles themselves after all their pains no surer of their Salvation than upon such severe conditions If the Preacher will needs be preaching this tell us of disciplining our bodies talk to us of being castaways Quis cum audire potest who can endure him who can bear it Well bear it how we can think of it what we please be the doctrine never so unpleasing it must be preacht and bear it we must unless we know what to preach better than St. Paul or you what to hear or do better than that great Apostle And 't is but time for us to preach for you to hear it Men daily fool away their souls by their tenderness to their bodies and their salvation by the certainties they pretend of it 'T is time to warn them of it And this Time as fit a time as any can be to do it in the holy time of Lent A time set apart by the holy Church to chasten and subdue the body in And the opportunity is fallen into my hand among the rest and vae mihi si non I cannot excuse my self if I do not take it if I neglect the occasion to do my utmost to keep my self and you from being castawaies I know people do not love to hear on 't and the Preacher shall get
branches of palm-trees and the boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook and so rejoyce before the Lord Lev. xxiii 40. whence afterward it became usual in all Feasts of solemn Joy to do as much So we read Simon entring the tower of Ierusalem with thanksgivings and branches of Palm-trees St. Matth. xiii 51. and when Iudas Maccabeus had recovered and cleansed the Temple they bare branches and fair boughs and palms also rejoycing for it 2 Mac. x. 7. So that the reason 's ready why the multitude met Iesus in this fashion They would long before have made him King they believed he was the Messiah the King of Israel and therefore thus go out to meet him and receive him They had heard his word they had seen his miracles never man say the very Pharisees officers spake like him with more authority and power he then all their Iewish Doctors and Rabbi's all together never man did such things as he and therefore no wonder if the people do some strange things too to express their opinions of him But the matter is not so much what they do as what we learn by Christs suffering them to do so And by it we first gather that Christ is no enemy to outward Ceremonies and respects to outward civilities and expressions That 2. he dislikes not neither even the Ceremonies of solemn joys and triumphs of respects done to Kings and Princes and great Persons or publick congratulations with them in the days of their joy or of any publick joy or particular gladness as occasion shall present it That 3. he rejects not even the old and antient Ceremonies is as much content with such as any other these were no other and yet he sticks not to receive them stumbles not at them Nay 4. even in his Service and for his own honour he accepts them is not only content but pleased also that they should do them to himself It is the Pharisees only and Pharisaical spirits men of meer pretended Piety and Religion whose devotion is only to be seen of men whose whole business is to appear holier than others not to be so that find fault with the doing it that would have them rebuk'd for it St. Luke xix 39. To whom Christ answers that if they did not the stones would do more they even they would both cry out against them for their silence and not doing it and do what they could to express that joy of his coming to Ierusalem of which they seem'd so insensible The very trees would bow themselves and every branch shake off its leaves and spread the ways if men should not spread their garments break off themselves if they would not cut them down to strow them the very stones of the Wall fall themselves into an even pavement to kiss the feet of their Lord and maker Insensible and sensless stones are men the while that deny Christ eternal reverence outward worship reverent and ceremonious approches to him that make I know not what sensless arguments and excuses idle scruples and pretences against old good significant Ceremonies in his service to his honour The very stones confute them and Christs telling us they would cry if men should not signifies as well they would bow and worshp and fall down beautifie the ways and places where he comes if men should not rear themselves into Temples and Altars if men should be so irreligious not to raise and employ them to it I now spare any other confutation We learn 5. by Christs thus suffering them and Gods secret moving them thus to spread the ways with boughs and garments that he would be acknowledged to be that great He to whom all creatures owe themselves to whom all are to be devoted who is to be serv'd with all even to a thred the trees to pay their boughs and men their garments to strip themselves to the very skin and consecrate even their garments to his honour to lay them at his feet to resign all to him to be content that he nay the very ass he rides on should trample on us if it be to his praise and glory that that may be augmented by it Lastly This spreading the way with Garments and Palm-branches was the way of entertaining conquerors in their triumphs and by his disposing it at this time to himself he gave them to understand that he was the conquerour over Death and Hell In this only differing from other conquerours that he triumphs before his conquest none so but he because none certain of the victory till it be perfected but he This might go for a mystery among the rest but it concern those persons peculiarly and those times The mystery of this point as it concerns us we are next to see how these garments and branches this spreading and strowing belong to us how we are still so to spread our garments and straw branches before Christ. Now Garments 1. pass in the accompt for riches Zech. xiv 14. and he that either bestows plentifully upon the poor that clothes the naked and feeds the hungry and supplies the needy with any thing to cover comfort or refresh him and spreads Gods holy house and table with offerings gives or does any thing to beautifie his service to add honour and solemnity to his Worship spreads his Garmtnts before Christ. 2. Garments are reckon'd among necessaries and he that not only out of his superfluity but as the Apostle testifies of the Corinthians 2 Cor. viii 2. out of his poverty also abounds unto the riches of liberality that spares somewhat from his necessities spreads even his inner garment at the feet of Christ. But 3. the Garments the multitude here spread were honorary the outward vestments and more honourable that we might know our honours also are to be laid aside nay laid down to be trod upon by any Ass for Christs sake we to count nothing of our honour in comparison of his tread all under foot and reckon nothing so honourable as the reproach of Christ. 4. Garments are a shelter from the injury of wind and weather of heat and cold Yet if Christs business require it of us we must not think much to lie open to storm and tempest to be deprived of house and shelter of robes and rags nothing too much nothing enough for Christ. 5. To spread our Garments under ones feet was construed for a profession of subjection and obedience to him for whom we spread or to whom we send them 2 Kings ix 13. and 1 Kings x. 25. so to spread our garments in the way of Iesus is to profess and promise and begin obedience to him the chief spreading the way that he desires the best way of entertaining him 6. Our righteousness is called our Garment Rev. iii. 4. and xvi 15. This also we are to spread before him that he may consecrate and hallow it till he has set his mark upon it and seal'd it it will not pass for current all our righteousness
things beyond the ordinary course of action seem mad though we be sober as the Prophets did sometimes when the Spirit came upon them lay down naked use strange gesture or speak words with Caiphas which at the time we understand not run like mad-men with some Martyrs into flames and fires to blocks and halters upon the sudden powerful and miraculous motion of Gods Spirit or Grace within us These for all that not to be looks for now Yet 't is ever to be noted here that how strange soever the expressions of some holy Saints have been in such excesses though they have not understood themselves yet others have they never spoke non-sense by the Spirit never blasphemy never contradictions to holy Scripture never any thing against Christian Patience and Obedience We have heard of late of the Pattern in the Mount a Church talked of to be form'd according to that Pattern Indeed it seems to have somewhat of St. Peter's Bonnm est of his desire to be with Christ without the Cross to build Tabernacles here for him a new Kingdom upon earth to set up King Iesus a phrase much canted but to this St. Luke gives his dash 'T is a Nesciens quid diceret that neither he nor they know what they say what they would have 'T is meer fear of I know not what a fear where no fear is a meer stupor as St. Mark and a desiring what is not to be desired an expectation of what is not to be expected of nothing but ease and pleasure and glory in Christs service Their present condition and successes make them say and wish they know not what For if we truly examine it we shall find this saying what comes next we heed not what comes from present contentments and successes when all things succeed to our mind then we begin to forget our selves or not to know our selves Worldly felicities commonly so transport us that we know not care not what we say or do our greatness we think shall bear us out We say in our hast too with David we shall never be removed so care not what we say how we behave our selves to God and Man only Bonum est esse hic we set our selves to enjoy our pleasures and build houses for them that shall come after Yet 't is worth the noting that whilst we are thus speaking we speak often against our selves when we do not intend it We call all our great buildings all our great hopes but Tabernacles with St. Peter so as it were presaging their remove that they are of no long continuance and abiding How many have we heard of in their times who have by some sudden word some unexpected expression been the presages of their own ruine and by the slip of some unlucky syllable or two doom'd the period and fore-told the shortness of this Mountain of Glory Of so unhappy speech are we when we begin to talk of any glory or continuance upon the high places of the earth we pitch a word instead of a Tabernacle that takes away all our bonum est esse hic on a sudden even whilst we mean no such matter whilst we know not what we say And as no holy company Moses nor Elias nor Christs own can keep us from all indiscretion in our speech no more then they did St. Peter so neither do they keep us from undoing our selves often with our own language We in a passion say we know not what enough to throw down all our Tabernacles remove all our Bonum est all our goods The more need then with the Psalmist of setting a watch before our lips and a guard before our mouths that we offend not in our tongues that we consider what we say before we say it that we learn to speak before we speak it that we keep our mouths even from good words as the same holy Prophet has it that we do not take up every word that seems good and godly but weigh and ponder it in the ballance of the Sanctuary by Christs Rule and Precept before we utter it And so doing and so speaking we may in all conditions high and low in glory and ignominy in prosperity and adversity in all companies in all places say merrily and cheerfully without danger Master it is good for us to be here and make Tabernacles here for Christ and Moses and Elias to keep them with us we may build in the Mountain or in the Valley without fear of this censure not knowing what we do All will be good unto us all will work for good if we temper our words and speak them soberly and place them rightly and direct them every one to his hic nunc to his proper object and circumstances and Christ will tarry with us and Moses not forsake us and Elias not depart away out of the Mountain from us till we come to the everlasting Hills to eternal Mansions houses not made with hands eternal in the Heavens to dwell with Christ and Moses and Elias and all the Patriarchs and Prophets see them face to face be transfigured and cloth'd in bright shining garments and shine like Stars for ever and ever THE FIRST SERMON UPON All Saints PSAL. cxlix 9. Such honour have all his Saints SO the Text So the day a day dedicated to God in honour of all his Saints Such honour has God allowed them such honour has the holy Church bestow'd upon them Because they are his and as his here they are had in honour because his holy ones Sancti ejus as his Saints or holy ones honour'd with a holy day or if you will God honoured in them on the day For this honour also have all the Saints that all the honour done to them all the honour done by them by the Saints in earth to the Saints in heaven all the vertues of the one all the praises of the other are to the honour and praise and glory of God in all the Congregations of the Saints whether in heaven or earth 'T is not fit therefore any of them should be forgotten from whose memories God receives so much not reasonable to deny them any honour that so redounds to Gods The Psalm gives them it and the Day gives them it God says they shall have this honour and the Church this day pays it and we must pay it if we honour either him or her God or the Church or Father or mother pay it to them all to all to whom 't is due all honour that is due This is a day for us to meet all together to pay it in for them altogether to receive it in We cannot do it to all severally they are too many we may do it to all together We profess a great Article of our faith the Communion of Saints by doing it are therefore surely not too blame for doing it having so good authority so good a ground so good a profession for it For say our new Saints what they will unsaint