nothing in his house but what was great great Servants and great Vessels of Silver calceos etiam majores Shoes also too great for him And from this fantastick humor he took his name and was called SENECIO GRANDIO Senecio the Great Yet for all this he added not one hairs breadth unto his stature Beloved if we would measure our selves aright we should find that that is not Greatness which the World calls by that name outward state and pomp and stateliness to cast men on their knees with a frown or to raise an army with a stamp of the foot We are the less for these and to think our selves greater for these is to run upon the same error which Senecio Grandio did Again it is but a phansie and a vain one to think there is most ease and most content in worldly greatness or that we sleep best when our pillow is highest Alass when our affrighted thoughts shall awake each other and our conscience put forth her sting when those sins shall rise up against us by which we have climb'd to this pitch all the honor of the World will not give us ease Will a legg or a cap think you still this noyse Will the obsequious cringe and loud applause of the multitude drown the clamour of our Conscience which like an awaked Lion will roar loud against us No Beloved not all the pomp not all the pleasure of the world not the merry Harp and the Lute and the Timbrel no not a triumph will be able to slumber the tempest within us no more then the distressed weather-beaten Mariner can becalm a boysterous Sea with his whistle or a wish We read of a Souldier who being to sleep upon a hollow piece of steel complained his pillow was hard but stuffing it with chaff he thought it much the lighter Just so it fares with ambitious men When they have run on in the wayes of Honor when they have attained their ends they shall find that their pillow is steel still only they filled it with more chaff then other men Besides Honor doth not make him greater that hath it but him that gives it For if it proceed from virtue bonum nostrum non est sed alienum it is not our virtue but his that honors us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sign saith the Philosopher of another mans good esteem and opinion which opinion is raised not from the person but his virtue And therefore the Apostles counsel is In giving honor go one before another as if he were truly honorable not who receives honor but who gives it and all precedency were in this And indeed Honor is if not a virtue yet a strong argument of it in him who bowes himself in a just veneration of Goodness Scias ipsum abundare virtutibus qui alienas sic amat saith Pliny You may be sure he is full of virtue himself who loves to see the splendor of it in other men Lastly Greatness and Honor adds nothing to Virtue Nothing accrews to a Good man when he rises and comes on in the world nothing is defaulked from him when he falls and decayes The Steed is not the better for his strappings nor doth the Instrument yield sweeter musick for its carved head or for the ribbon which is tyed unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtue in the open ayre naked destitute and afflicted is of as fair a presence as when she sits under a canopy of state David in the wilderness as honorable as on his throne Job on the dunghil as in all his wealth and Joseph in the stocks as when he was a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house When God speaks by his Prophet he tells us that his wayes are not our wayes nor our wayes his and here where Christ speaketh to his Disciples by his answer it appears that his judgment and theirs were not the same When God sent Samuel to anoint David Jesse brought forth Elias and Samuel said Surely this is the Lords annointed But God corrected his error and bade him not look upon his countenance nor the height of his stature for God seeth not as man seeth Beloved if with the Disciples here we have a thought that Christs Kingdome is a temporal Kingdome God hath not chosen that thought If we look upon the countenance of men and think them the greatest who are of highest stature and in honor and dignities are taller then their fellows by the head and shoulders we are deceived and the God of this world hath blinded our eyes that this Pygmay in Christs Kingdome appears to us as big as a Colossus But there is a little one a child behind an humble and low Convert And whosoever shall humble himself as this little child the same shall be the greatest in the kingdome of heaven To conclude all Let us seek for Honor but seek for it in its own coasts On earth it is nothing or it signifieth nothing and most commonly it is given to them who signifie as little Therefore let us look up to the highest Heavens where the seat of Honor is Let him who put us into the Vineyard give us our wages and let the King of glory bestow honor upon us Let us make him alone our Spectator him alone our Judge and He will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing Rom. 2. 6 7. seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life Which God grant us all through Christ our Saviour The Eighth SERMON 1 COR. XIII 7. hopeth all things AT the very reading of this Chapter the true Christian cannot but think himself in a kind of Paradise and conceive he sees Charity growing up like a tree of Life spreading its branches full and hanging down the head inviting him to gather such fruit from every one of them as may be pleasant to his taste and abound to his account At this time I have laid hold but on one of them but such an one as will give you a taste of all the rest For in true Hope there is Long-suffering and Kindness there is Patience and Meekness there is no Envy no Malice no Pride no Suspition And if we take down this and digest it the rest will be sweet unto our taste and pleasant as honey to our mouth The tree is a tree of Life and every branch of it is beautiful and glorious and the fruit thereof excellent and comely to them that Isa 4. 2. are escaped of Israel It is truly said that Charity doth virtually contein within her self all other Graces St. Paul calls it the greatest virtue and the complement and fulfilling of the Law If there be Liberality Charity in largeth the heart if Temperance she binds the appetite if Chastity she makes the Eunuch for the kingdome of heaven if Patience she works it if Resolution she makes us valiant Charity saith one is as the Philosophers stone that turns all into Gold It
as their argument It is plain we must not understand here Moses 's Heaven the Ayr for the Firmament but St. Pauls third Heaven This is the City of the great King the City of the living God the Psal 48. 2. Hebr. 12. 22. Hebr 1 10. 1 Tim. 6 16. Psal 103. 19. heavenly Jerusalem a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Here our Father dwelleth in light inaccessible unconceivable Here he keepeth his glorious residence and here he hath prepared his throne Here he keepeth his glorious residence and here he hath prepared his throne Here thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand Dan. 7. 9. before him Here he still sheweth the brightness of his countenance and to all eternity communicateth himself to all his blessed Angels and Saints Beloved the consideration of this stately Palace of the King of Kings should fill our hearts with humility and devotion and make us put-up our petitions at the throne of Grace with all reverence and adoration Is our Father Psal 104. 1. Gen. 18. 27. in heaven clothed with honor and majesty Then let us who are but dust and ashes vile earth and miserable sinners when we make our approaches to this great and dreadful God not be rude and rash and inconsiderate vainly multiplying Dan. 9 4. words before him without knowledge and using empty and heartless repetitions but let us first recollect our thoughts compose our affections bring our minds into a heavenly frame take to our selves words fit to Hos 14. 2. express the desires of our souls and then let us worship and bow down and Psal 95. 6. kneel before the Lord our Maker and let us pour forth our prayers into the bosome of our heavenly Father our Tongue all the whiâ—e speaking nothing but what the Heart enditeth This counsel the Preacher giveth us Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before Eccl. 5. 2. God For God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few Again is our Father in heaven Then our heart may be glad and our Psal 16. 9 10. glory rejoyce and our flesh also rest in hope God will not leave us in the grave nor suffer us to live for ever under corruption but in due time we shall be brought out of that bonaage into a glorious liberty and be admitted into those Rom. 8. 21 happy mansions in our Fathers house He will have his children like unto John 14. 2 3. himself Therefore we may be assured that as now he guideth us with his counsel Psal 73. 25. so he will afterwards receive us into glory Our elder Brother who is gone before and hath by his ascension opened the gate of Heaven and prepared a place for us will come again at the end of the world and awake us John 14. 3. Psal 17. 15. Mat. 25. 21 23. 1 John 3. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 49. out of our beds of dâ—st and receive us unto himself that we may enter into the joy of our Lord for ever behold his face see him as he is be satisfied with his likeness and as we have born the image of the earthy so bear the image of the heavenly And now Beloved having this hope in us let us purifie our 1 John 3. 3. selves even as our Father which is in heaven is pure While we remain here below and pass through this valley of Tears let us ever and anon lift up our Psal 84. 6. Psal 121. 1. Isa 57. 15. eyes unto the hills even to that high and holy place wherein dwelleth that high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity yet not boldly to gaze and busily to pry within the veil For Heaven is too high and bright an object for our Eye to discern and discover for our Tongue to discourse and dispute of But SURSUM CORDA Let us look up to heaven that we may learn not to mind earthly things but to set our affections on those things which are above to Col. 3. 2. have our conversation in heaven and our heart there where our everlasting Phil. 3. 20. Matth. 6. 21. treasure is Let us still wish and long and breathe and pant to mount that holy hill and often with the Spirit and the Bride say Come Come Lord Rev. 22. 17 20 Jesus come quickly and sigh devoutly with the Psalmist When shall we come Psal 42. 2. and appear before God And in the mean time let us sweeten and lighten those many tribulations we must pass through with the sober and holy contemplation Acts 14. 22. of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory of the fulness of joy 2 Cor. 4. 17. that is in Gods presence and of those pleasures for evermore that are at the Psal 16. 11. right hand of OUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory now and ever Amen The Two and Thirtieth SERMON PART IV. MATTH VI. 9. Hallowed be thy Name WE have past the Preface or Frontis-piece and must now take a view of the Building the Petitions themselves We find a needless difference raised concerning the number of them Some have made seven Petitions and have compared them to the seven Stars in heaven to the seven golden Candlesticks to the seven Planets to the river Nilus which as Seneca tells us per septena ostia in mare effunditur ex his quodcunque elegeris mare est is divided into seven streams and every stream is an Ocean Others have fitted them to the seven Gifts of the Spirit Those we will not call with A. Gellius nugalia or with Seneca ineptias toyes and trifles but we may truly say Aliquid habent ingenii nihil cordis Some shew of wit we may perhaps descry in them but not any great savor or relish of sense and judgment What perfection there can be in one number more than in another or what mystery in the number of seven I leave it to their inquiry who have time and leasure perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum as the Father speaks to search and dive into the secrets of Numbers who by their art and skill can digg the ayr and find precious metal there where we of duller apprehension can find no such treasure I confess men of great wits have thus delighted themselves numeros ad unquem excutere to sift and winnow Numbers but all the memorial of their labor was but chaff The number of Fourty for Christ after his Resurrection staid so long upon earth they have divided into four Denaries and those four they have paralleld with the four parts of the World into which the sound of the Gospel should go The number of Ten they have consecrated in the Law and the number of Seven in the holy Ghost Perfecta lex in Denario numero
the mouth he makes it become a cordial in the stomach that so we may say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted And he puts gall and wormwood on Pleasure that we may seek it where it is in his Law and Testimonies that neither Sorrow dismay nor Pleasure deceive us We may truly say The very finger of God is here For it is the work of God to create Good out of Evil and Light out of Darkness which are heterogeneous and of a quite contrary nature For as the Apostle tells us that every creature of God is good being sanctified by the word of God so when God speaks the word even the worst Evil is Good and not to be refused because by this word it is sanctified and set apart and consecrated as a holy thing to holy uses The word of God is as the words of consecration And when he speaks the word then the things of this world receive another nature and new names and have their denomination not from what they appear but from what they do not from their smart but from their end Then that which I call Poverty shall make me rich and that which I esteem Disgrace shall stile me honourable Then the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt Then this Affliction this light and momentany affliction shall bring with it an eternal weight of glory And therefore we may behold the blessed Saints of God triumphing in their misery and counting those blows which the wicked roar under as favours and expressions of Gods love John and Peter esteemed it an honour and high preferment and rejoyced as they who are raised from the dunghil to the throne that they were thought worthy to suffer shame And so doth Paul For after he had Act. 5. 41. besought the Lord thrice to be freed from that buffeting of Satan and had 2 Cor. 12. recoverd that answer My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is perfected is made open and manifest in weakness he presently breaksforth into these high triumphant expressions Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me So rest upon me that no evil may rest upon me to hurt me that I may have a feeling and a comfortable experimental knowledge of it For this I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong My opinion is alterd my thoughts are not the same my judgment is divers from what it was That which was terrible to my Sense is pleasing to my Reason That which was Persecution is a Blessing That which was a Serpent is a Rod to work wonders and forward my deliverance Nova rerum facies There appears a new face and shape of things as there doth to a man who is removed out of a dungeon into the light And as Plato tells us that when the Soul is delivered from the Body for we may call even Death it self a deliverance it doth find a strange alteration and things in the next world divers from what they were in this so when the Soul is delivered from Sin every thing appears to us in another shape Pleasure without its paint and Sorrow without its smart The Devil is not an Angel of light but a Devil a Lion a Serpent a Destroyer in what shape soever he puts-on Oppidum mihi carcer solitudo paradisus saith St. Hierom A City is a prison and the Wilderness a paradise The waters of Affliction break-in but the bloud of Christ is mingled with them Here is the gall of bitterness but the power of Christ works with it and it is sweeter than hony or the hony-comb For this cause I am wel pleased in infirmities I am saith St. Paul so far from desiring to be freed from them that I take Christs word as a kiss and think it best with me when it is worst Let him handle me how he will so he fling me not out of his hands For if I be in his hands though the World frown and the Devil rage yet his hand will be exalted and his mighty power will be eminent in my weakness If God be with us no Evil can be against us Therefore the Apostle calleth Affliction a gift To you saith he it is given not onely to believe on him but also to suffer for his Phil. 1. 29. sake not forced upon you as a punishment but vouchsafed you as a gift We mistake when we call it evil It is a donative and a largess from a royal Prince to his Souldiers who have stood it out manfully and quit themselves well in the day of battel When men have been careful in their waies and have been upright and sincere towards God in all their conversation then God doth grace and honour them by making them champions for his truth and putting them upon the brunt He doth not lend or sell them to calamities but appoints it to them as an office as a high place of dignity as a Captains place a Witnesses place a Helpers place And how great an honour is it to fight and die for the Truth How great an honour is it to be a Witness for God and to help the Lord First God crowneth us with his grace and favour and then by the Grace of God we are what we are holy and just and innocent before him and then he crowns our Innocency with another crown the crown of Martyrdom Quarta perennis erit And at last he crowns us with that everlasting crown of Glory This is truly to be delivered from all evil to be delivered that it may not hurt us and to be delivered that it may help us But we have run too long in generalities we must be more particular For I fear we do not thus understand it nor pray to be delivered in this manner or if we do quod voto volumus affectu nolumus our affections do not follow our prayers When we think of Smart and Sorrow we are all for Gods Preventing grace to step in between us and the Evil that it come not near us not for his Assisting grace by which we may change its nature and make it good unto us for his Effective providence which may remove it out of sight not for his Permissive by which he suffers it to approach near unto us to set upon us and fight against us and put us to the tryal of our strength But beloved we must joyn them both together or else we do not put up our petitions aright We must desire Health for it self but be content with Physick for Healths sake We must look upon Evil and present it before our eyes as our Saviour in that fearful hour did Gods Wrath towards mankind not yet appeased and Death in its full strength and Hell not yet mastered by any and then on the other side a World to be saved
Comet we saw him blaze a little while and after fall We have taken the extent of the promise made to the Meek and the full compass of his inheritance And we may now walk about and tell the towers and every part of it That commonly he is full that God is his supply when he is empty that he supplies him by miracle that if he do not supply him it is for his greater gain that God is to him both in poverty and riches both in life and death advantage And all this God doth in a very little while both pull down the mighty from their seat and exalt the humble and meek But what shall God who is the Antient of dayes only move in this little while and shall we whose breath is in our nostrils sit down and sleep and hope to purchase this inheritance in a dream to think thus of God is to loose both the while and the inheritance For God doth not sow Wheat as the Devil doth Tares dormientibus hominibus while men sleep The time will come saith our Saviour of his Disciples that the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast Now this PAULULUM this little while may seem to be that time and the Bridegroom to be taken from us For his bodily presence his presence by temporal blessings of peace and Health and Plenty we enjoy not and therefore we fast and pray to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit that the Soul may be more free and active in operation The while is well spent if we do this But if we will avoyd the bitter curse of Meroz there is something else to be done in this while We must come to help the Lord help him by helping his Anointed help him by opposing the Wicked man help him by promoting the endeavours of loyal Subjects help him by following peace if so be we can overtake it help him by destroying those Sins which hinder him in his work For as many times he cannot punish by reason of the importunity of our prayers so also many times he cannot deliver because of the importunity of our Sins And he may say to us let me alone in the one as well as in the other And if we let him but alone and hinder him not by the noyse of our Sins of Sacriledg for why should we help them that rob him of Oppression for why should he help them that grind his face of Uncleanness for why should he help them that make his members the members of an Harlot of Revenge for why should he help them that wound him of Hypocrisy for why should he help them that mock him if we silence these then will he move and work forward and within a while perfect his work And though the people imagine a vain thing though Jesuites and worse than Jesuites would drive us out of the land for the bottomless pit never sent out worse Locusts than those that will eat up their own country yet wait yet a little while and keep his way and he shall exalt us to inherit the land Our Silence shall drown their Noyse our Patience shall dull the edg of their Malice our Simplicity shall be wiser than their Policy our Weakness stronger than their Power and our Meekness shall be unto us all in all even Strength and Policy and Deliverance and all this after a little while And then where there is no while when Time shall be no more he shall lead us into those new heavens and into that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness where there are no war nor rumors of wars but joy and peace and immortality and eternal life Into which he bring us who is that Prince of Peace even Jesus Christ the Righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glorie now and for ever The One and Twentieth SERMON MATTH XV. 28. O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt THis woman came from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon saith our Evangelist v. 21 22. was a Greek a Syrophoenician by nation saith St. Mark 7. 26. and so a Gentile by birth Which when we remember saith St. Chrysostom we cannot but consider the virtue of Christs coming and the power of his most glorious dispensation which reached from one end of the world unto the other and took in those who had not only forgot God but had also overturn'd the laws of Nature and darkned that light which was kindled in their hearts which called sinners to repentance even gross idolaters and admitted doggs to eat of the childrens bread A Greek she was and in this she bespeaks us Gentiles exire è finibus Tyri Sidonis to come out from those coasts which whilst we remain in we are indeed no better then doggs to leave our sins and the occasions of sin to leave the coasts where Sin breaths and to come to Christ to be dispossessed of those evil spirits which vex our souls and will destroy them The Story of this Cananaean concerns us you see But wherefore comes she out of her own coasts You shall hear that in her loud cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text v. 22. she speaks it in a still voice Her daughter was grievously vexed with a devil No wind so powerful to drive us from Tyre and Sidon to Christ from the coasts of Sin to the land of the living as Calamity When we are vexed eximus when this wind blows we presently bethink our selves and depart out of those coasts But better stay at home then not be heard when we cry She cryes but Christ answers her not a word Yet she cryes still His Disciples come and beseech him and then he answers but his answer is rather a reason of his silence then a grant He answers that to help her was beside his errand that he was not sent to that purpose but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Non ostiolum spei not the least wicket of hope is set open to her not any beam of comfort shines Lost indeed she was but not a lost sheep a dogg rather and of Canaan she not of the house of Israel Here is a linguarium one would think a muzzel to shut up her mouth in silence for ever a hedge of thorns to stop up her way but Faith and the Love of her daughter drive her on even against these pricks and pull her on her knees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text Like a Dogg she croucheth before him she falls down and worships him saying Lord help me And now he who seemed to be deaf to her cry makes answer to her silence and he who regarded not her noyse makes a reply to her reverence and adoration Not a word from Christ till he sees us upon our knees Our noyse is not alwayes heard but he speaks when we worship But yet his answer carries less fire with it to kindle any hope of comfort then did his