weighs the simplicity and severity of Christian religion from whence it should come to pass that many Christians surpass even Turks and Jews in fraud deceit and cruelty And the resolution is almost as strange For by the policy of Satan our very Religion is suborn'd to destroy it self which freely offering mercy to all offenders many hence take courage to offend more and more pardon being so near at hand They dare be worse then Turks upon this bare encouragement that they are Christians So that to that of S. Paul Rom. 7. Sin took an occasion by the Law we may adde Sin takes an occasion by the Gospel and so deceiveth us It is possible for an Atheist to walk by that light which he brought with him into the world Even Diagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might have been an honest man For that Wisdom vvhich guides us in our common actions of morality is nothing else saith Tully but ratio adulta perfecta Reason improved and perfected But the Christian hath the advantage of another light another lavv a light which came down from heaven and a royal Law to vvhich if he take heed he cannot go astray Miserable errour shall I call it It is too good a name It is Folly and Madness thus to be bankrupt with our riches to be weaker for our helps to be blinded with light in montes impingere as S. Augustine speaks having so much light to run upon such visible palpable and mountanous evils to enter the gates of our enemies as friends and think our selves in Dothan when we are in the midst of Samaria Let us not deceive our selves which were bought with a price and redeemed from errour Let us not flatter our selves to destruction It is not the name of Christian that will save us no more then Epictetus his lamp could make a Philosopher Nay it is not the name of Christ that can save us if we dishonour it and make it stink amongst the Canaanites and Perizzites among Turks and Jews and Infidels Behold thou art called a Christian and restest in the Gospel and makest thy boast of Christ If thou art a Christian then know also thou art the Temple of Christ not onely in which he dwells but out of which he utters his oracles to instruct others in the wayes of truth If thou art a Christian thou art a member of Christ a member not a sword to wound thy sick brother unto death The folly of thy wayes thy confidence in errour doth make the Turk smile and the Jew pluck the veil yet closer to his face It is a sad truth but a truth it is This stamping Religion with our own mark and setting upon it what image and superscription we please hath done more hurt to Christianity then all the persecutions for Christ to this day These by diminishing the number of Christians have increased it and by the blessing of God have added to the Church from day to day such as should be saved The Sword and the Flame have devoured the Christian but this is a gulff to swallow up Christianity it self What Seneca spake of Philosophy is true of Religion Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes When men did frame and square their lives by the simplicity and plainness of the rule it was not so hard and busie a thing and there were fewer errours when the greatest errour was Impiety But after by degrees it began to spend and wast it self in hot and endless disputations one faction prescribing to another and promulging their dictates as Laws which many times were nothing else but the trophies of a prevailing side waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived And now all is heat and words and our Religion for the most part if I may so speak is a negative religion hath no positive reality in it at all Not to be a Papist is to be a Christian not to love the picture is to be a Saint not to love a Bishop is to be a Royal Priesthood not to be a Brownist or Anabaptist is to be Orthodox Should a Pagan stand by and behold our conversation he might well say Where is now their God Where is their Religion Thus hath the Church of Christ suffer'd from her own children from those who suck her breasts She had stretched her curtains further to receive in those who were without had they not been frighted back by the disconsonancy and horrour of their lives whom they saw in her bosome and she had had many mo children had not they who called her Mother been so ill-shapen and full of deformity and that is verified in her which was said of Julius Caesar Plures illum amici confoderunt quà m inimici She hath received more wounds from her friends then from her enemies Last of all This Errour in life and conversation this wilfull mistake of the rule we should walk by is an errour of the foulest aspect of greater allay then any other For in some things licet nescire quae nescimus it is lawfull to erre Errour in it self having no moral culpable deformity In some things oportet nescire quae nescimus we must not be too bold to seek lest we loose our way Some things are beside us some things are above us some things are not to be known and some things are impertinent In some things we erre and sin not for errantis nulla est voluntas saith the Law He that hath no knowledge hath no will But Self deceit in the plain and easie duties of our life is so far from making up an excuse that it aggravates our sin and makes it yet more sinfull For we blind our selves that we may fall into the ditch we will erre that we may sin with the less regret we place our Reason under the inferiour part of our soul that it may not check us when we are reaching at the forbidden fruit we say unto Reason as the Legion of Devils said to our Saviour What have we to do with thee art thou come to torment us before our time Art thou come to blast our delights to take the crown of roses from off our heads to retard and shackle us when we are making forward towards the mark to remove that which our eye longeth after to forbid that which vve desire and to command us to hate that vvhich vve best love We persuade down Reason vve chide down Reason vve reason down Reason and vvill be unreasonable that vve may be vvorse then the beasts that perish First vve vvash our hands vvith Pilate and then deliver up Jesus to be crucified Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that thus deceivest thy self Yea so far is this Self-deceit from making up an excuse that it deserveth no pity For vvho vvill pity him vvho is vvilling to be deceived vvho makes haste to be deceived vvho makes it his crown and glory to be deceived Had it been an enemy that deceived me or had it been a friend
many gross errours in the Church of Christ For what can Curiosity bring forth but monsters The Anomoei thought God as comprehensible as themselves and indeed upon a slender stock of knowledge we grow wanton and talk of God as we do of one another and no marvel that they who know not themselves should be so ignorant of God as to think to comprehend him Against these S. Chrysostom wrote The Manichees confined God to a place And these S. Augustine confuteth Others took upon them to qualifie and reform this speech God is in every place by changing the preposition IN into CVM God is with every place Others conclude that the Essence of God is most properly in heaven Others have shut him up there and excluded his presence from this lower world The heaven they will tell you is his throne But then is not the earth also his footstool why may he not then be in earth as well as in heaven for the argument is the very same Nor must we conceive of God as we do of great Potentates whom we do not entertein in a cottage but in a palace Nor can his Majesty gather soyl by intermingling it self with the things of the earth a most carnal conceit for the very Poet will tell us Tangere tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res that nothing but a body can be touched much less defiled We cannot think the Angel impaired his beauty by being in prison with Peter Acts 12. Dan. 6. Dan. 3. Job 15.15 or in the Den with Daniel unless we will say he was scorched in the furnace when the three men did not so much as smell of the fire The heavens themselves are unclean in his sight saith Eliphaz yet he remaineth saith the Father pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a most wonderful exuberance beyond all Hyperbole No pitch can defile him no sin pollute him no deformity on earth can sully his beauty Our cursed oathes do even blast his Name Ezek. 16.6 yet his Name is the same The Holy of Holies His Eyes beheld us weltring in our blood Eccl. 23.19 yet they are ten thousand times brighter then the Sun And therefore God is truly called Actus primus an Act or Essence as free from contagion as composition We take perfection from him he receiveth no imperfection from us Psal 2.4 He sitteth in heaven yet his Majesty is not increased He walketh on the earth yet his Majesty is not diminished Psal 104.3 He rideth on the wings of the wind yet his Majesty and Glory is still the same Psal 18.11 He is in darkness maketh darkness a pavilion round about him yet is Light it self He is in our corrupt hearts yet is Purity it self Nusquam est ubique est He is no where because no place can contein him He is every where because no body no place no substance whatsoever can exclude him Psal 139.3 And as he is present with us and about our paths so he seeth and knoweth every motion and action of ours our inclinations our thoughts when they are risen whilest they were arising before there was either object or opportunity to raise them or any temptation to draw them up He seeth our habits our vices and virtues before we ventured on that action which did lead the way and begin them I know him Gen. 18.19 said God of Abraham and that he will do justice and judgement 1 Kings 14.13 He knoweth our dispositions He found some good thing in Jeroboams child He seeth all our actions long before they are done our thoughts before they are conceived our deliberations before we ask counsel and our counsels before they are fixt Of what large extent were many of the Prophesies How many years how many cross actions how many contingencies what numberless swarms of thoughts inconsistent and not understood and yet concurrent and introductory to that which was foretold came between the Prophesie and the fulfilling of it yet God saw through all these and saw all these and how they were working to that end of which he was pleased to give the Prophets a sight The Prophet Daniel foretelleth the succession of the Monarchies the division of Alexanders Kingdoms the ruine of the Jews and that so plainly that Porphyry a great enemy to the Christians to disgrace and put it off said that it was a discourse much like Lycophrons Cassandra written after the things were done and so publisht to cajole and deceive the people who are soon pleased and so soon taken with a cheat Malè nôrunt Deum De Resurr Carn c. 38. qui non putant illum posse quod non putant saith Tertullian They have but little knowledge of God who do not think that he can do yea and doth know and see what they cannot think For he that made the eye shall not he see Psal 94.9 10. Psal 33.15 He that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know He that fashioneth the heart shall not he consider all our works He seeth us when we fall down before him he seeth us when we harden our faces he seeth us in our tears and he seeth us in our blood and yet he remaineth yesterday Hebr. 13.8 and to day and the same for ever For as it is an argument of his infinite Perfection to understand all things so is it of his judiciary and infinite Power to see and know and observe those motions those offers those inclinations which are against his Law and by which we are said to fight against him I may know Adultery and yet be chast I may see Malice and debate in the city and yet be peaceable I may hear Blasphemy and yet tremble at Gods name For Sin doth not pollute as it is in the understanding but as it is in the will not as it is known but as it is embraced not by any physical but a moral contagion which first infecteth the Will alone If the bare Knowledge of evil could pollute then he that maketh himself an eunuch for the kingdome of heaven may be an adulterer Matth. 19.12 and the Judge that sitteth to condemn the sin may be a Parricide God then may be present every where and this is the poorest exception that can be made against it I have waved you see the more subtile and intricate disputes And there be too many for men are never weary of doing nothing That which hath been spoken is as plain as necessary and no man can take it as a thing out of his sphere and reach Let us pass to that which we proposed in the second place and for which we proposed this of the Omniprescence and Omniscience of God For the consideration of this is the best preservative of Mercy and pillar to uphold Justice septum Legis a fense a hedge set about the Law that no unclean beast be so bold as to break in and come so near as to touch it The Prophet David maketh
ground and fell flat on his face yet he rose again and took courage to betray the Israelites to that sin with the Midianitish women which brought a curse upon them and death upon himself Num. 31.8 for he was slain for it with the sword What evidence can prevail with what terrour can move a wicked man hardned in his sin who knoweth well enough and can draw the picture of Christ coming and look upon it and study to forget it and then put on an ignorance of his own knowledge and though he know he will yet perswade himself he will not come And he that can thus stand out against his own knowledge in the one may be as daring and resolute in the other and venture on though Hell it self should open her mouth against him and breathe vengeance in his face For howsoever we pretend ignorance yet most of the sins we commit we commit against our knowledge Tell the Foolish man that the lips of the harlot will bite like a Cocatrice he knoweth it well enough and yet will kiss them Prov. 20.1 Tell the Intemperate that wine is a mocker he will taste though he know he shall be deceived The cruel Oppressour will say and sigh it out that the Lord is his God and yet eat up his people as he eateth bread Psal 14.4 53.4 Matth. 7.12 Who knoweth not that we must do to others as we would have others do to us and yet how many are there I may ask the question that make it good in practice Who knoweth not what his duty is and that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 and yet how many seek it out and are willing to travail with it though they die in the birth Cannot the thought of judgment move us and will the knowledge of a certain hour awake us Will the hardned sinner cleave to his sin though he know the Lord is coming and would he let it go and fling it from him if the set determined hour were upon record No they wax worse and worse saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.13 Earth is a fairer place to them then Heaven it self nor will they part with one vanity nor bid the Devil avoid though they knew the very hour I might say though they now saw the Lord coming in the clouds For wilt not thou believe God when he cometh as near thee as in wisdome he can and as his pure Essence and infinite Majesty will suffer and art thou assured thou wilt believe him if he would please to come so near as thy sick phansie would draw him Indeed this is but aegri somnium the dream of a sick and ill-affected mind that complaineth of want of light when it shineth in thy face For that information which we so long for we cannot have or if we could it would work no more miracles then that doth which we already have but leave us the same lethargicks which we were In a word if Christ's doctrine will not move us the knowledge which he will not teach would have little force And though it were written in capital letters At such a time and such a day and such an hour the Lord will come we should sleep on as securely as before and never awake from this death in sin till the last Trump To look once more upon the Non nostis horam and so conclude We may learn even from our Ignorance of the hour thus much That as the Lords coming is uncertain so it will be sudden As we cannot know when he will come so he will come when we do not think on it cum totius mundi motu Apol. c. 33. cum horrore orbis cum planctu omnium si non Christianorum saith Tertullian with the shaking of the whole world with the horrour and amazement of the Vniverse every man howling and lamenting but those few that little flock which did wait for his coming It is presented to us in three resemblances 1 Thes 5.2 3. Luke 21.35 1. of travel coming upon a woman with child 2. of a Thief in the night and 3. of a Snare Now the Woman talketh and is chearful now she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff and now she groaneth Now the Mammonist locketh his God up in his chest layeth him down to sleep and dreameth of nothing else and now the Thief breaketh in and spoileth him Now our feet are at liberty and we walk at large walk on pleasantly as in fair places Now the bitterness of death is past and now the Snare taketh us Now we phansie new delights send our thoughts afar off dream of Lordships and Kingdoms Now we enlarge our imaginations as Hell anticipate our honours and wealth and gather riches in our mind before we grasp them in our hand Now we are full now we are rich now we reign as Kings now we beat our fellow-servants and beat them in our Lord's name and in this type and representation of hell we entitle our selves to eternity of bliss we are cursed and call our selves Saints and now even now he cometh Now sudden surprisals do commonly startle and amaze us but after a while after some pause and deliberation we recover our selves and take heart to slight that which drove us from our selves and left us as in a dream or rather dead But this bringeth either that horrour or that joy which shall enter into our very bones settle and incorporate it self with us and dwell in us for evermore Other assaults that are made upon us unawares make some mark and impression in us but such as may soon be wiped out We look upon them and being not well acquainted with their shapes they disturb our phansie but either at the sight of the next object we lose them or our Reason chaseth them away Aul Gel. Noct. Att l. 19. c. 1. The tempest riseth and the Philosopher is pale but his Reason will soon call his blood again into his cheeks He cannot prevent these sudden and violent motions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth not consent he doth not approve these unlookt-for apparitions and phantasies He doth not change his counsel but is constant to himself Sudden joy and sudden fear with him are as short as sudden But this coming of our Lord as it is sudden so it bringeth omnimodam desolationem an universal horrour and amazement seiseth upon all the powers and faculties of the Soul chaineth them up and confineth them to loathsome and terrible objects from which no change of objects can divert no wisdome redeem them No serenity after this darkness no joy after this trembling no refreshing after this consternation For no coming again after this coming for it is the last Ser. 140. de Tempore And now to conclude Veniet fratres veniet sed vide quomodo te inveniet saith Augustine He shall come he shall come my brethren His coming is uncertain and his coming is sudden
attributes which are not onely visible but also speak unto us to follow this heavenly method His Wisdome instructeth us his Justice calleth upon us and his Mercy his eloquent Mercy bespeaketh us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us to turn from our evil wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance It hath these three Gods Wisdome Justice Mercy to seal and ratifie it and make it authentick We come now to the Dictum it self It being God's we must well weigh and ponder it And we shall find it comprehendeth the duty of Repentance in its full latitude As Sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore conversio ad creaturam an aversion and turning of the soul from God and an inordinate conversion and application to the Creature so by our Repentance we do referre pedem start back and alter our course work and withdraw our selves from evil waies and turn to the Lord by cleaving to his laws which are the mind of the Lord and having our feet enlarged we run the way of his commandments A straight line drawn out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further you draw it the weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bowed and brought back again towards its first point The Wise man telleth us that God at first made man upright Eccles 7.29 that is simple and single and sincere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many inventions mingled himself and ingendered with divers extravagant conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines drawn out now to this object by and by to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh sometimes on the world now on Idolatry anon on Oppression and so at a sad distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his centre Therefore God seeing Man gone so far seeing him weak and feeble wound and turned about by the activity of the Devil and sway of the Flesh and not willing to lose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as in instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistency in his former and proper place to draw him back from those objects in which he was lost and to carry him on forward to the rock out of which he was hewed Whilest he is yet in his evil wayes all is out of tune and order for the Devil who hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost hom de Paenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon Repentance and boldness and senslesness upon Sin But Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our turn we see the danger we plaid with and the horrour of those paths in which we sported we see in our flight a banishment in every sin a hell and in our turn a Paradise Divers words we have to express the true nature of Repentance but none more usual full and proper then this of Turning This includeth all the rest It is more then a bare Knowledge of our sins more then Grief more then an Acknowledgement or Confession more then a Desire of change more then an Endeavour For if we do not turn a termino ad terminum from one term or state to another from every sin we now embrace to its contrary if we do not fly and loath the one and rest and delight in the other our Knowledge of sin is but an accusation our Grief is but a frail and vanishing displacency Lugentibus lachryma quietis recreationis loco sunt Moses Mairmon Doct. perplex l. 3. c. 41. our Tears are our recreation our Desires but as thought and our endeavours proffers But if we turn and our turn be real these instruments or antecedents These disposing and preparing acts must needs be so also true and real We talk much of the Knowledge and Sense of our sin when we cannot be ignorant of it of Grief when we have no feeling of Confession and Acknowledgement when the heart is not broken of a Desire to be good when we resolve to be evil of an Endeavour to leave off our sins when we feed and nourish them and even hire them to stay with us In udo est Maenas Attis Pers sat 1. Our Repentance is languid and faint our Knowledge without observation our Grief without compunction our Acknowledgement without trepidation our Desire without strength and our Endeavour without activity But they are all complete and made perfect in our Turn and Conversion If we turn from our sins then we know them and know them in their deformity and all those circumstances which put so much horrour upon them If we turn our head will be a fountain of tears Jer. 9.1 and the eye will cast out water our Confession will be loud and hearty Lam. 1.16 our Desire eager and impatient our Endeavours strong and earnest and violent This Turn is as the hinge on which all the rest move freely and orderly Optima paenitentia nova vita saith Luther The best and truest repentance is a new life A Turn carrieth all the rest along with it to the end the end of our Knowledge of our Grief of our Acknowledgement of our Desires and Endeavours For we know our sins we bewail them we acknowledge them we desire and endeavour to leave them in a word we turn that we may be saved First it includeth the Knowledge of our sins He that knoweth not his malady will neither seek for cure nor admit it He that knoweth not the danger of the place he standeth in will not turn his face another way Isid Pelusiot l. 1111. ep 149 He that dwelleth in it as in a paradise will look upon all other that yield not the same delight as upon hell it self He that knoweth not his wayes are evil will hardly go out of them Malum notum res est optima saith Luther It is a good thing to know evil For the knowledge of that which is evil can have no other end but this To drive us from it to that which is good When Sin appeareth in its ugliness and monstrosity when the Law and the Wrath of God and Death it self display their terrours that face is more then brass or adamant that will not gather blackness and turn it self But this prescript To know sin one would think should rather be tendred to the Heathen then to Christians Act 15.29 Quando hoc factum non est quando reprehensum quando non permissum Cic. pro M. Caelio Rom. 1.31 To them some sins were unknown as Revenge Ambition Fornication and therefore they are enjoyned to abstein from them yet even those which the light of Nature had discovered to them they did commit though they knew that they who did commit them were worthy of death But to Christians it may seem unnecessary For they live in the Church which is
spoliarium vitiorum a place where Sin is every day reviled and disgraced where it is anatomized and the bowels and entrayls yea every sinew and vein of it shewn I should say our Church were Reformed indeed if we did commit no sins but those we do not know Many things we do saith the Philosopher Ethic. 1.3 c. 22 we may say Most sins we commit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not which Reason perswadeth but which the Flesh betrayeth us to Pers Sat. 5. not to which our Knowledge leadeth us but our Sensuality Stat contra ratio Reason when we sin is not so foyled or beaten down but it standeth up against us and opposeth us to our face It telleth the Miser that Covetousness is idolatrie Cor. 3.5 the Wanton that Lust is that fire which will consume him the Revenger that diggeth his own grave with his sword It is indeed commonly said that reason is corrupt but the truth is that which we call corrupt Reason is our passion or sensuality for that cannot be Reason which directeth us to that which is unreasonable The sense doth too oft get the better but can never silence or corrupt Reason so as to make it call evil good or good evil That is the language of the Beast of the Sensual part And for ought I see we may as well assign and entitle our good actions to our Sensitive part when we keep as our bad to our Reason when we break the Law Reason never yieldeth and our Knowledge is still the same In Lust it commendeth Chastity in Anger meekness in Pride Humility When we surfet on those delights which Sin bringeth with it our Reason plainly telleth us that they are deadly poyson We need not then be over solicitous to secure this Ingredient the Knowledge of our sins to bring it into the Recipe of our Repentance For there be but few which vve knovv not fevver vvhich vve may not knovv if vve vvill if vve will but take the pains to put it to the question either before the act What vve are about to do or after What it is vve have done For it is a Lavv a plain Lavv vve are to try it by not a dark riddle And if vve do mistake it is easie to determin vvhat it vvas that did vvork and frame and polish the cheat Not a sin cometh vvith open mouth to devour us and svvallovv up our peace but it is but of that bulk and corpulency that vve cannot but see it and though vve may peradventure here turn away our eye yet we cannot put it out Our Knowledge will not forsake us and our Conscience followeth our Knowledge This may sleep but cannot die in us This is an evil spirit that all the musick in the world will not ease us of Though we set up bulworks against it compass our selves about with variety of Delights and fense our selves in with Honour and Power which we make the weapons of unrighteousness yet it will at one time or other make its sallies and eruptions and disturb our peace God hath placed it in us Exod. 28.30 as he fixed the Vrim and Thummim on the breast-plate of judgement by which he might give answer unto us what we are to do what not to do what we have done well and what amiss as he did to the Priest who by the viewing the Breast-plate saw whether the people might go up or not go up But when we have once defiled our Conscience we care not much for looking towards it and we lose the use of it in our slavery under Sin Esr 2.63 Neh. 7.65 Psal 19.12 Levit. 4.2 Heb. 9.7 as they lost the use of their Vrim and Thummim at the Captivity of Babylon But then who knoweth how oft he offendeth who knoweth his unadvised errours his inconsiderate sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his ignorances those which he entertaineth as the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unwillingly which steal in upon him at unawares even whilst he is busie in subduing others as we see one part of an army may be surprized and fly whilst the other conquereth The best of men through the frailty and mutability of their nature may receive many such blows and not feel them It fareth with us in the course of our life as it doth with travellers in their way Many objects many sins we pass by and not so much as cast an eye that way which yet in themselves are visible enough and may be seen as well as those we look upon with some care and sometimes with astonishment Yet even these secret and retired sins are known and condemned both by our Fear and Hatred We know such there be though we know not what they are nor can call them by their name and our begging pardon for them is our defiance of them and declareth not onely our sorrow for them but our anger against them it breatheth revenge though we know them not and sheweth how roughly and disdainfully we should handle them if we did The Knowledge then of our sins is a thing presupposed in our Turn And so in the next place is the Grief and Sorrow which ordinarily doth arise from such a convincement Some displacency it will work though not of strength enough to move us or drive us from that which we make a paradise but is our Tophet and turn us to imbrace that condition and estate which at first presenteth the horrour of a prison but is a sanctuary Now Grief is not sub praecepto under any command Quint. Decl. 185. nor indeed can it be Medicamenta mandata non accipiunt You may prescribe Physick but you give it not with a command nor can you say Thus it shall work You may exhort me to look about me and consider my estate but you cannot bid me grieve When we wish men to fear or hope to be sad or merry we speak improperly and ineffectually unless our meaning be they should enter into those considerations which may strike a fear or raise a hope work a sorrow or beget a joy The Apostle preacheth to the Jews Acts 2. putteth his goad to their sides and the Text saith They were pricked in their heart Acts 2.37 38. and it followeth Then Peter said unto them Repent His words were sharp and did prick them at the heart but they were no commands The command is Repent and be baptized What a sea of words may flow and yet not a drop fall from our eye What fearful prognosticks may we see what mournful threnodies may we hear and yet not be cast down or change the countenance Nay what penance may we undergo and yet not grieve For Grief followeth the Apprehension and Knowledge of the object and riseth and falleth with it varieth as that varieth If our Apprehension be clear our Sorrow will be great if that be pure this will be sincere if it be inward this will be deep But if it be superficial this will be but
any one of these Amalekites live and reign in us and escape our hands even this one will find time and place to be our executioner We read that Tully had learnedly defended Popilius and saved his life and he for a reward afterwards cut off his Patrone's head You may easily apply it God grant we may never feel it applied He that cherisheth his sin which he should extirpate he that favoureth his sin he that defendeth his sin which he should arraign and condemn shall meet the same fate and fall as Tully did have no fairer a return made All he shall have from it is it will find a time to be his headsman If you will yet sin again you let that in to dwell and be familiar with you which the more friendly it is used the more enemy it will be and through all its smiles and flatteries make a way to fall upon you and destroy you Let us now pass from the Extent of the words to the Possibility of keeping them And if it were impossible to keep them our Saviour who is Wisdom it self would not leave it as a prescript He must needs be a good interpreter of Christ's words who lay in his bosom John the Disciple whom he loved 1 John 1.8 And he though he tell us that if we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves that is If we say we have no need of Christ and the knowledge of the Gospel to purge us from our sins yet chap. 5.18 is positive that whosoever is born of God sinneth not So that a difference we may observe between peccata habere and peccare between To have sin and To sin Joh. 9.41 As you may find it also If ye were blind ye should have no sin John 15 22. that is your sin would he padonable and If I had not come they had not had sin but now they have no cloke for their sin So that To have sin is not to remain in sin but To be guilty of those sins which God doth not but might punish if he would be extreme to mark what is done amiss To sin by ignorance or subreption to feel those sudden motions and perturbations those ictus animi those sudden blows and surprisals of the mind but then to mark and watch them and to be ready against them at the next assault For the less voluntary sin is the less sin it is And even these suggestions and motions are not so natural and rooted in us but that by long custom and violence upon our selves they may be so subdued as they shall not or but seldom rebel and assault and beat down the power of Reason It may be done and no doubt in many Saints of God it hath been done Which perfection though others attain not to they do not therefore presently come under the sentence of death For all sin doth not lay waste the conscience All sin is not inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace which presupposeth a possibility of avoiding all those sins which are repugnant to it as great sins and little sins if we be bold to commit them because they are little For thus a little sin little I mean in comparison may become a great sin Nay every sin which we carelesly admit of which we say as Lot did of Zoar Is it not a little one and my soul shall live even this may wound us to death For should we wilfully succour that enemy which he who made so gracious a Covenant with us came to destroy No If we fail by infirmity yet we must not fail through want of care and diligence Fot he that is born of God saith S. John keepeth himself that is setteth a watch and court of guard upon himself and that Wicked one toucheth him not For he is ready upon his guard with his buckler of faith to quench and repel the fiery darts of Satan And though he be tempted yet he falleth not into tentation It is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father speaketh Man who is of a compounded nature is the subject of that discord which Sin bringeth in God onely who is of a simple and uncompounded essence is impeccable For Simplicity and Indivisibility of essence is alwayes at peace with it self and cannot receive any change or alteration That Man is peccable himself doth plainly demonstrate by being a Man But that he should sin that is remain in sin is rather a matter of history then prophesie For he that forbiddeth him to sin prophesieth nay telleth him plainly that he may not sin The Law supposeth a possibility of being kept And that we sin is made good by the event rather then by reason For what reason can there be given that we should sin since nothing is more contrary to Reason then Sin A necessity there was that Man should be subject and obnoxious to sin for otherwise he had not been capable of virtue but that he should break out actually into sin there was no necessity Nulla necessitas delinquendi quibus una necessitas non delinquendi saith Tertullian There was no tie of necessity lay upon him to offend who was fenced and bound in by a Law that he might not offend But the Scripture saith S. Paul hath concluded all under sin Gal. 3 22. Rom. 3.23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God The Apostle delivereth this as matter of fact not as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles For he doth not say All must sin but All have sinned Therefore we may observe in that hot contention between the Orthodox and Pelagians when to build up Perfection in this life the Pelagians brought in the examples of the Saints of God which either had committed no mortal and devouring sin in the whole course of their lives or else had broke off their sins by repentance and afterward persevered to the end in holiness of life they found opposition on all hands not one being found who would give this honour to the Saints But where they urge that Perfection is not impossible where they speak not de esse but de posse not that it is so but that it may so not that men do not sin but that they may not S. Augustine himself joyneth hands with them Nam qui dicunt esse posse hominem in hac vita sine peccato non est illis continuò incantâ temeritate resistendum We must not be so rash as unwarily to oppose them who say it is possible for a man to live without sin in this life De peccator remiss l. 2. c. 6. And he addeth this reason For if we deny a possibility we at once derogate from the Will of man which inclineth to it and from the Power and Mercy of God who by his helping hand and gracious assistance may bring it to pass So that the onely difference between them was but this The one thought it possible by the power of Nature the other by
him in the Sacrament we many times leave our callings but to hear of him But yet all these may be rather profers then motions rather pleasing thoughts then painful strugglings with our selves rather a looking upwards then a rising cogitationes similes conatibus expergisci volentium as S. Augustine speaketh of himself in his Confessions thoughts like unto the endeavours of men half-asleep who would and would not be awaked who seem to move and stir and lightly lift up the head and then fall down fast asleep fall back again into their graves and into the place of silence Nay 3. This Speculation this naked approbation is but a dream Visus adesse mihi Christ may seem to rouze us when he moveth us not at all And as in dreams we seem to perform we do every thing and we do nothing Nunc fora nunc lites we plead we wrastle we fight we triumph we sail we flie and all is but a dream So when we have seen the Gospel as in a map when we have made a phansiful peregrination through all the riches and glories and delights it affordeth when we have seen our Saviour in the cratch led him into the High priest's hall followed him to mount Calvary seen him on his cross brought him back again with triumph from his grave we may think indeed we are risen with him But when Conscience shall begin to be enlightned and dart her piercing raies upon us and plainly tell us that we have not fasted with him that we have not watched with him that we have not gone about with him doing good that we have been so far from crucifying our flesh for his sake that we have crucified him again to fulfil the lusts thereof that the World and not Christ hath been the form that moved us in the whole course of our life that our rising hath been nothing else but deceptio visûs an apparition a phantasm a jugling and Pharasaical vaunting of our selves behold then it will appear that all was but a dream that we have seen Christ rising from the dead and acknowledged the power of his resurrection but are no more risen our selves then our pictures that we have but dreamed of life and are still under the power of Darkness and in the valley and shadow of Death For conclusion then What saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead For this is to know and feel the power of Christ's resurrection Let us not please our selves with visions and dreams with the flattery of our own imaginations Let us not think that if we have magnified the power of the Resurrection we are therefore already risen For we can never demonstrate this power till we actually rise Let Knowledge beget Practice and Practice encrease our Knowledge Let us know Christ that is obey him Let us know the power of his resurrection that is rise from the death of Sin to walk in righteousness For this is with open face to behold the glory of Christ and his Resurrection This practick and affective Knowledge maketh us one with Christ Col 3.5 Rom 6.6 Col. 3 3. 2 Cor. 5.15 giveth us a fellowship of his sufferings conformeth and fashioneth us to his death mortifieth our earthly members destroyeth the whole body of sin maketh us die with Christ and live unto Christ unto him who died for us and is risen again By this we are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 limmers nay the very pictures of the Passion and Resurrection that we may be dead to sin and alive to righteousness that we may deal with our Sin as â—â—e Jews did with Christ hate and persecute it lay wait for it send forth a band of souldiers all the strength we have to apprehend and take it drag it to the bar accuse and condemn it revile and spit in its face that there may be vinegar in our tears and gall in our Repentance that we may nail Sin to the cross and put it out of ease that it live but a dying life not able to move our members more then he can his who is nailed to a tree that it faint and languish by degrees and at last give up the ghost and then that we may rise again that the good Spirit may descend from heaven and remove the many stones the many vicious habits and customs that lie heavy upon us that we may leave our graves and our grave-cloths behind us all pretenses and palliations all ties and bonds of sin and whatsoever hath any sent or savour of corruption To conclude This is truly to know Christ and the power of his resurrection And this Knowledge will melt us this liquefaction will transform us and this transformation unite us to Christ and this union will be our exultation and this exultation an everlasting jubilee In a word This will quit us of all uncertainties lead us through all difficulties and by these means we shall attain to not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full resurrection which no death no evil shall follow a Resurrection to eternity of life of bliss and glory The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS I. 10 11. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven HEaven is a fair sight and every eye beholdeth it but without Jesus we would not look upon Heaven it self Here we have them both presented to the eye This Jesus was taken up into heaven and that tâ—â— Disciples might see it he led them out as far as to Bethany Luke 24.50 he brought them to mount Olivet to an open and conspicuous place and made them spectators of his Triumph that they might preach it to the whole world Christ was willing to imploy their sight to confirm this main Article of the Ascension But yet as Christ liketh not every touch but there is a NOLI ME TANGERE Touch me not because I am not yet ascended so there is a QUID STATIS INTUENTES a check given to the eye because he is ascended already When the cloud hath taken him up no looking after him He loveth to be seen not to be gazed after Our love he approveth but not our curiosity Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were looking stedfastly toward heaven there stood by them saith the Text two men IN ALBIS in white apparel in the same colour they saw them in at his Tomb and as there so here they came not by chance but were dispatched as messengers from heaven at once to draw the Disciples eyes from needless gazing and to confirm them in the belief of their Master's Ascension The one they do by way of Question Why stand ye gazing into heaven the other by a plain and positive
Reformed Church 401. Regeneration v. Resurrection Regenerate men may sin with a full consent 439 c. Relapses into sin how dangerous 380 c. 614. Whether they cancel God's former pardon 381 c. 613 614. How apt men are to relapse 383. Religion much talked of little understood 273. Religion indeed what it is not and what it is 70 c. v. Piety It s essential parts are To do good and To eschew evil 274. Why St James in his description of pure Religion doth not mention Faith 275. nor Prayer nor Hearing of the Word 276 277. True R. is pure simple solid ever the same 282. undefiled 282 283 It hath God alone for its Authour 284. From the corruption of mens lives proceed the corrupt mixtures in Religion 283. Popish R. is the invention of men 284. and so is that of hypocritical Zelots 284. Religions that comply with the Sense are to be abhorred 650 751. R. is to be taken up upon better inducements then Law and Custome and Education 756. 760. How shameful and sinful it is not to love and embrace the R. which hath its original from God 285. The perswasion of God's almighty Power the first rise to R. 313. True R. is never the less true though none profess it 286. 298. If it were in power it would put an end to wars and contentions 286. It should direct us in all our wayes 653. It is the same in Riches or Poverty in Marriage or Virginity in a Cell or a City 1091. v. Godly All sorts of men may be Religious if they will 88. Religion cannot suffer with the professors of it 298. If it could suffer it would suffer more by the sins of its professours then by the sword of its enemies 298 299. Why R. hath many professours but few friends 75. 77. Many of the Reformed Church make R. serve their corrupt ends 651. Some mens R. dwelleth only in the ear 221. Against such as place R. in Fasting Prayer Hearing and Formalities 1060. Religion sometimes made a pretense for most irreligious practices 287. 1060. Of such as alter their R. according to the times 98. Alterations of Religion difficult 968. The world is wont to judge of R. by its state and spreading 298. v. Church Remembrance of Christ at the Communion what 463. If we remember him he will be sure to remember us 466. The Word must be remembred by us 1116. Remission Great difference among Christians about it 811. The Heathen counted it a folly in Christians to believe it 811. It is not the effect of our Merits but of God's free Mercy in Christ 811 c. How comfortable how inestimable a favour 813. Into what posture we must put our selves to receive it 813. It most strongly obligeth us to duty 822 c. Repentance a lesson too high for the School of Nature and the books of the Heathen 324. Tully thought it impossible 325. Julian scoffeth at it 326. It is God's own invention and injunction 325. Nothing pleaseth God like it nothing without it 325. It is a precept not absolute but upon supposition 352. He is best who needeth it least 350. R. is a Turning from our evil wayes to the Lord 328. 374 375. v. Turning Knowledge of Sin and a necessary ingredient of R. 329 c. and so is Grief 331. and Confession 333. and Desire to be rid of sin 333 334. and a serious Endeavour to leave off sinning and to live well 334. What true Repentance is 335. 340 341. It includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 335. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 336 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 336. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 336. In R. the main Turn is of the Will 336 c. Many aim at R. few hit it 339 340. There is an outward and an inward part of R. and we must perform both 340 341. Why God calleth so earnestly for it 341 c. Two great lets of R. Despair and Presumtion removed 342 c. How late and false and lame most mens R. is 354. We must repent without delay 335. 360. 1002 c. v. Advise Delay Opportunity To do otherwise is to be guilty of extreme folly 356. 366 367. Delay maketh the duty more difficult 356 357. 366 367. 793. Yea if the present time be not taken a time may come when thou mayest not be able to repent 359. 794. Arguments to make the opinion probable that such a time there is 357. 360. 365. 795 c. Though it be an errour it may be happy for thee to believe it 359 c. 795. Now even now without procrastination let us repent 361. 366 c. 373 c. 1001. We must hearken to good motions that God stirreth in us and not check and choke them 361 c. 798 799. Better to repent when God shineth upon us then when he thundereth against us 363. 799 800. But if that acceptable time have been let slip yet at least let us turn to him in our trouble 364. 800 801. v. Judgements God hath promised a blessing to R. at all times but not power to repent when we list 797. What use we are to make of the example of the good Thief and other late Penitents 797. It is just with God to punish continuance in sin with final impenitency 797. Our R. must be sincere 369 c. Feigned R. hath its rise from false grounds may make a fair shew but is soon at an end 370 371. It is worse then no R. 372. An Ahab's an Herode's a S. Magus's R. will not must not serve our turn 372 373. Our R. must be total and universal 373. 600 c. It must be lasting and hold out to the end 380. Relapses into sin after R. very grievous 380 c. v. Relapses The course God taketh to bring us to R. 385. Fear first setteth us on repenting 389. How necessary a qualification R. is of a worthy Communicant 489. Some make R. an occasion of sinning more 614 615. The doctrine of R. to be preached warily 349 350. Whether the Papists do well to make R. a Sacrament 340. Reprehension is a duty incumbent on all 293. Neglect hereof interesteth a man in the sins of others and also in their plagues 293 294. Reproof seemeth to be against us but its end is peace 841. Resolution The mighty force of a well-setled Resolution 839. We are for the most part resolute in evil but weak and wavering in good things 852 853. Respect No Respect of persons with God 213. Resurrection v. Christ Christ's Resurrection an examplary and efficient cause of ours 719 720. Our dead bodies notwithstanding all alterations and dispersions shall be raised again 720. R. of the dead is the very life and soul of a Christian 995. Deny this all is vanity and vexation 995. The R. of the Soul that was dead in sin by the power of Christ's Resurrection described 721. In this we must do something though we are meerly passive in that of our Bodies 722
man else They leap over all their Alphabet and are at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their end before they begin They are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or round They study heaven but not the way to it Faith but not Good works Repentance without a Change or Restitution Religion without Order They are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool They study Predestination but not Sanctity of life Assurance but not that Piety which should work it Heaven and not Grace and Grace but not their Duty And now no marvel if they meet not with saving Truth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this so great disorder and confusion No marvel when we have broke all rules and order and not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leadeth us into the truth 4. The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation and Practice of the truths we learn This is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goeth under that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. Strom. l. 4. and is called an exercise by Clemens Alexandrinus Nyssene Cyrill of Hierusalem and others And though they who lead a Monastical life have laid claim to it as their own they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirit 's Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leadeth Which is to make the World it self a Monastery A good Christian is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by this dayly exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit doth drive the Truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit Talis quisque est qualibus delectatur Inter artificem artificium mira cognatio est Anaxagoras said well Manus causa sapientiae It is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge and worketh wisdome And true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consisteth not in being a good Critick and rightly judging of the sense of words or in being a good Logician drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 34.10 He that hath no experience knoweth little Ex mandato mandatum cernimus By practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God Joh 7.17 he shall know the Doctrine In Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them We learn Devotion by prayer Charity by giving of alms Meekness by forgiving injuries Humility and Patience by suffering Temperance by every-day-fighting against our lusts As we know meat by the tast so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover Heaven it self in piety And this is that which S. Paul calleth doctrine according to godliness We taste and see how gracious the Lord is 1 Tim. 6.3 Psal 34.8 1 Joh. 1.1 we do as it were see with our eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word when we manifest the Truth and make it visible in our actions the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and closet of Truth He displayeth his beams of light as we press forward and mend our pace He every day shineth upon us with more brightness as we every day strive to increase He teacheth us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those virtues which are his lessons and our duties We learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaketh Psal 119 99. Psal 19.2 wiser then our teachers To conclude Day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead us further from truth to truth till at last we be strengthned and established in the Truth and brought to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MICAH VI. 6 8. v. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Psal 4.6 THere be many who say Who will shew us any good saith the Prophet David For Good is that which men naturally desire And here the Prophet Micah hath fitted an answer to this question He hath shewed thee O man what is good And in the discovery of this Good he useth the same method which the Philosopher doth in the description of his moral Happiness First he sheweth us what it is not and then what it is And as the Philosopher shutteth out Honour and Riches and Pleasure as being so little necessary that we may be happy without them so doth the Prophet in the verses going before my Text in a manner reject and cast by Burnt-offerings and all the cerimonial and typical part of Moses Law all that outward busie expensive and sacrificing Religion as no whit esseâ—tial to that Good which he here fixeth up as upon a pillar for all eyes to look upon as being of no great alliance or nearness nor fit to incorporate it self with that Piety which must commend us to God And as a true Prophet he doth not only discover to the Jews the common errour of their lives but sheweth them yet a more excellent way first asking the question Non satis est reprehendisse peccantem si non doceas recti viam Colum. de Re Rust l. 11. c 1. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams Whether Sacrifice be that part of Religion with which we may appear and bow before our God and be accepted and then in his answer in the words of my Text quite excluding it as not absolutely necessary and essential to that which is indeed Religion And here the Question Will the Lord be pleased with sacrifice addeth emphasis and energy and maketh the Denyal more strong and the Conclusion in the Text more positive and binding then if it had been in plain terms and formally denyed Then this Good had been shewed naked and alone and not brought in with
nature which do not deserve the name of questions because they cannot be resolved or are resolved with so little profit as concerning the state of the Dead which they could not or would not discover who were raised from it of the nature of Hell-fire when it should be the study of our whole life to be those New creatures who shall never know it of the condition of Infants that dye in the womb of Gods Decrees and the order of them of his Omnipotency Omniscience Omnipresence which we as boldly speak of as we do of the Virtues in Aristotles Morals as if we did see him as he seeth us and did know him as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 Many more Questions there are and to these many Cases of conscience which do rather perplex and rack the Conscience then guide and settle it and too many which as the Apostle speaketh of Fornication and Vncleanness Eph. 5.3 are not fit to be named amongst us Poteramus has horas non perdere The time which hath been spent in the discussion of these might to speak no more have been bestowed with more advantage to the Church and the common cause for I do not see how they come within the compass of this Good or have added one hair to its perfection For what need this loss of oyl and labour this stir and noise Why should this Curiosity spread so as to be as universal as the Church it self when all that God will shew or that concerneth us to see is drawn up within the narrow compass of this one word that which is Good Would you view it in its particulars I need not send you to those many Creeds framed at sundry times and in divers manners Quò plus est dogmatum hòc uberior est haeresium materia Nunquam fuit sincerior castiorque Christiana fides quà m cùm ilâ—o uno ecque brevissimo Symbolo contentus est orbis Erasm Guliel Varamo Archiep Cant. Praefat. ad ep Hieron For Erasmus will tell us that Religion was never more sincere and uncorrupt then when they used but one Creed and that a short one S. Paul calleth it the proportion of faith Rom. 12 6. that proportion which we must not come short of nor exceed the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 which hath no corrupt doctrine mixed with it and the truth which is after godliness Tit. 1.1 which is therefore shewn that we may be just and merciful and humble Who knoweth not what it is to believe in Christ * Tit. 2 12. to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts What Oppressour knoweth not what Justice is and who more ready to demand it What Tyrant is not ready to beg Mercy at his need Who is so puffed up as to be quite ignorant what Humility is Who understandeth not our Saviours Sermon on the mount where this Good in the Text is spread and dilated into its several parts And to know these is to know all that should be known And did we practise what is easie to know we should not thus trouble our selves and others to know what to practise The antients use to say The way to knowledge is easie to them who are desirous to be good nor was this light ever hid from those who did delight to walk by it The Law is light saith Solomon and to say it is not visible when it is held forth Prov. 6.23 is to deny it to be a light For God therefore sheweth it that it may be seen He hath shewed thee O man c. God hath shewn us 1. all those things which concern us 2. all that we can apprehend all those truths of which we are capable And these two are alwaies in conjunction and have a mutual aspect one on the other What concerneth us that we can apprehend and what we can apprehend that concerneth us The mind is large enough for that which will better it and that which will better it is obvious to the Mind As S. Paul speaketh Whatsoever things are true Phil. 4.8 whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue any praise these are within the compass of this Good here in the Text and are set up and pointed to by the finger of God for all that are men to look upon But now it may be asked If the object be so fair and visible how cometh it to pass it is hid from so many eyes that there be so few that see it or see it so as to fall in love with it and embrace it For as the Prophet asketh Who hath believed our report so may we Isa 53.1 Who hath delighted in this sight I must therefore call your thoughts to look upon the Spectatour as well as the Object the Man as well as the Good If it be good it was shewn to the Man and if he be a Man he can see it He hath shewed thee O man what is good This word Man runneth through every vein of the Text He was built up to be a spectatour of this great sight The Man it is to whom the Law is given and if he be a man he cannot but behold it for when he seeth it not he doth exuere hominem put off the Man quite devest himself of Reason and become like to the beasts that perish Many hindrances there may be to keep this object from our eyes that we do not rightly judge of this Good in which the Man is lost and swallowed up in victory Isidore of Pelusium hath given us three 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Narrowness of the understanding and judgment 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sloth and neglect in the pursuit of it 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Improbity of mens manners and a wicked and prophane conversation First Narrowness and defect in the understanding is an evil incident but to a few For how can the Understanding be too narrow to receive that Good which was fitted and proportioned to it If it will receive Evil it will receive Good For there can be no reason given why it should be as the needles eye to Piety and Holiness and a wide open door of capacity enough to let in a legion of Devils No this befalleth none but those who know it not indeed and yet shall never be questioned for their ignorance Non est dementia quae est in hominis potestate Quint. declam 348. as natural fools and madmen which bring that disease with them into the world which they can neither avoid nor cure and of which the cause cannot be found out saith the Oratour And these men come not under the common account nor are to be set down in the roll and catalogue of Men. Pet. Faber adel 124. Furiosus pro absente saith the Law Wheresoever they are they are as absent and whatsoever they do they do as if they did it
walk as if he were a near spectatour as if he were visible before us Not to shroud and mantle our selves Not to run into the thicket as if there he could not see us but so to behave our selves as if he were a stander by and eye-witness of all our actions to curb our phansie keep our tongue be afraid of every action upon this certain perswasion That God is at hand For as God is EMANVEL God with us when he blesseth us and doth us good so do we walk with God when we bless him and do our duties Josh 1.5 As I was with Moses so will I be with thee saith God to Joshua Then God is with us when he strengthneth our hands when he shadoweth us under his wing when he poureth forth his graces upon us and when we walk with him when we bowe before him use all the faculties of our souls and move every mâ—mber of our bodies as his and as in his sight when we devote our selves to him alone Psal 123.2 when our eye looketh upon him as the eye of the handmaid on the eye of her mistress and by a strict and sincere obedience we follow him in all those waies which he hath appointed for us This I take to be the meaning of the words We shall draw all within the compass of these considerations 1. That God hath an all-seeing eye that he seeth all ad nudum as the Schools speak naked as they are surveyeth our actions heareth our words and searcheth the very inwards of the heart 2. That truly to believe this is the best preservative of the other two the best means to establish Justice and uphold Mercy in us to keep us in an even and unerring course of obedience For will any man offend his God in his very eye And 3. we shall discover and point out those who do not thus walk with God but walk in the haughtiness and deceitfulness of their hearts as if God had neither eye to see nor ear to hear nor hand to punish them that we may mark and avoid them And this shall serve for use and application First that we may walk humbly with our God this must be laid as a foundation to build upon as the primum movens as that which first setteth us a walking and putteth us into this careful and humble posture That God is present every where and seeth and knoweth all things And here we must not make too curious and bold a disquisition concerning the manner how God is present every where and how he seeth all things It is enough for us to believe he doth so and not to seek to know that which he never told us and which indeed he cannot tell us because we cannot apprehend it For how can we receive knowledge of which we are not capable Jer 23.24 Isa 66.1 Job 11.8 9. We read that he filleth the earth and the heaven that heaven is his throne and the earth his footstool that he is higher then heaven and deeper then hell and longer then the earth and broader then the sea that he is not far from every one of us Acts 17.27 28 that in him we live and move and have our being Psal 147.5 Hebr. 4.13 that his understanding is infinite that there is no creature which is not manifest in his sight that all things are naked to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 open as the entrails of a beast cut down in the back for sacrifice that he looketh down from heaven on the children of men Psal 14.2 Job 34.21 Jer 16.17 that his eyes are upon all their waies that neither they nor their iniquity are hid from his face hoc satìs est dixisse Deo And this is enough for God to tell us and this is enough for us to know I dare be bold to say saith S. Augustine Forsitan nec ipse Johannes dicit de Deo ut est S. John was an Eagle and flew aloft to a higher pitch then the rest but could not soar so high as to bring us down a full relation and tell us what God is This is a message which no man can bring nor no man can hear He was a man inspired from God himself If he had not been inspired he could have said but little and being a man he could say no more They that walk in valleys and in low places see not much more ground then they tread they that are in deep wells see onely that part of the world which is over their heads but he that is on the top of some exceeding high mountain seeth all the level even the whole country which is about him So it standeth betwixt us mortals and our incomprehensible God We that live in this world are confined as it were into a valley or pit we see no more then the bounds which are set us will give us leave and that which our scant and narrow wisdome and providence foreseeth when the eye thereof is clearest is full of uncertainty as depending upon causes which may not work or if they do by the intervening of some cross accident may fail But God who is that supreme and sublime Light and by reason of his wonderful nature so high exalted as from some exceeding high mountain seeth all men at once all actions all casualties present and to come and with one cast of his eye measureth them all This we are told and it is enough for us that God hath told us so much that he is in heaven and yet not confined to that place that he is every where though we do not know how that he seeth all things knoweth all things that he is Just and Wise and Omnipotent And here we may walk with safety for the ground is firm under us Upon this we may build up our selves on our most holy faith Upon this we may build up our Love which alwaies eyeth him our Honour to him which ever boweth before him our Patience which beareth every burden as if we saw him laying it on our Fear to which every place is as mount Sinai where it trembleth before him our Hope which layeth hold on him as if he were present in all the hardship we undergo our Obedience which alwaies worketh as in his eye To venture further is to venture as Peter did upon the sea Matth. 14. where we are sure to sink Nor will Christ reach out his hand to help us but we shall be swallowed up in that depth which hath no bottom Rom. 11.33 and be lost in that which is past finding out For this is the just punishment of our bold and too forward Curiosity It worketh on busily and presseth forward with great earnestness to see it self defeated it loseth that which it might grasp and findeth nothing It is enough for us to see the back-parts of God that is Exod. 33.23 as much as he is pleased to shew us And the want of this moderation hath occasioned
come VENIET Come he will Et hoc satìs est aut nescio quid satìs sit as P. Varus spake upon another occasion This is enough or we cannot see what is enough But nothing is enough to those who have no mind nor heart to make use of that which is enough To them enough is too much for they look upon it as if it were nothing Therefore Christ doth not feed and nourish this thriftless and unprofitable humour but brideleth and checketh it putteth in his Prohibition not to search after more then is enough NON NOSTIS HORAM You know not the hour is all the answer which he who best knoweth what is fit for us to know will afford our Curiosity For what is it that we do not desire to know Sen. de vit Etat c. 32. Curiosum nobis Natura dedit ingenium saith the Philosopher Nature it self may seem to have imprinted this itch of Curiosity in our very minds and wits made them inquisitive given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eye which never sleepeth never resteth upon one object but passeth by that and gazeth after another That he will come is not enough for our busie but idle Curiosity to know we seek further yet to know that which cannot be known the Time and very Hour of his coming The mind of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enormi otiosae curiositati tantum decrit discere quantum libuerit inquirere Tert. de Anima c. ult restless in perpetual motion It walketh through the earth sometimes looketh upon that which delighteth it sometimes upon that which grieveth it stayeth and dwelleth too long upon both and misinterpreteth them to its own impoverishing and disadvantage Perrumpit coeli munimenta saith Seneca It breaketh through the very gates of heaven and there busily pryeth after the nature of Angels and of God himself but seeth it not entreth the Holy of holies and there is venturing into the closet of his secrets and there is lost lost in the search of those things of times and seasons which are past finding out and are therefore set at such a distance that we may not send so much as a thought after them which if they could be known yet could not advantage us It was a good commendation which Tacitus giveth of Agricola In vitae Agricola Retinuit quod est difficilimum in sapientia modum He did what is difficult for man to do bound and moderate himself in the pursuit of knowledge and desired to know no more then that which might be of use and profitable to him Which wisdome of his had it gained so much credit as to prevail with the sons of men which would be thought the Children of Wisdome they had then laid out the precious treasure of their time on that alone which did concern them and not prodigally mispent it on that which is impertinent in seeking that which did fly from them when they were most intentive and eager in their search If this moderation had been observed there be thousand questions which had never been raised thousand opinions which had never been broacht thousands of errours which had never shewn their heads to disturb the peace of the Church to obstruct and hinder us in those wayes of obedience which alone without this impertinent turning our eye and looking aside will carry us in a straight and even course unto our end Why should I pride my self in the finding out a new conclusion when it is my greatest and my onely glory to be a New creature Why should I take such pains to reconcile opinions which are contrary My business is to still the contradictions of my mind those counsels and desires which every day thwart and oppose one another What profit is it to refute other mens errours whilst I approve and love and hug my own What purchase were it to find out the very Antichrist and to be able to say This is the man All that is required of me is to be a Christian What if I were assured the Pope was the Beast I sought for He appeared in as foul a shape to me before that title was written in his forehead For I consider more what he is then what he is called And thousands are now with Christ in heaven who yet never knew this his great Adversary on earth And why should I desire to know the time when Christ will come when no other command lieth upon me but this to watch and prepare my self for his coming when all that I can know or concerneth me is drawn up within the compass of this one word Watch which should be as the centre and all other truths drawn from it as so many lines to bear up the circumference of a constant and a continued watch Christ telleth us he will come Hoc satìs est dixisse Deo and this is enough for him to tell us and for us to know he telleth us that we cannot know it that the Angels cannot know it that the Son of man himself knoweth it not that it cannot be known that it is not fit to be known and yet we would know it Some there have been who pretended they knew it by the secret revelation of the spirit though it were a lying a spirit or a wanton phansie that spake within them For men are never more quick of belief then when they tell themselves a lye and yet the Apostle exhorteth the Thessalonians that they be not shaken in mind 2 Thes 2.2 nor troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from him as that the day of Christ is at hand Others call in tradition Others find out a mystery in the number of Seven and so have taken the full age of the world which is to end say they after six thousand years And this they find not onely in the six moneths the Ark floted on the waters Gen. 8.4 and its rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh in Moses going into the cloud and the walls of Jericho falling down the seventh day Exod. 24.16 18. but in the seven Vials and the seven Trumpets in the Revelation Josh 6. Such time and leasure have men found perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum to divine by Numbers by their art and skill to dig the air and find pretious metal there where men of common apprehensions can find no such treasure inter irrita exercere ingenia to catch at atomes and shadows and spend their time to no purpose For Curiosity is a hard task master setteth us to make brick but alloweth us no straw setteth us to tread the water and to walk upon the wind putteth us to work but in the dark And we work as the Spirits are said to do in minerals They seem to dig and cleanse and sever metals but when men come they find nothing is done It is a good rule in Husbandry Columel and such rules old Cato called oracles Imbecillior
esse debet ager quà m agricola The farm must not be too great for the husbandman but what he may be well able to manure and dress And the reason is good Quia si fundus praevaleat colliditur dominus Because if he prevail not if he cannot manage it he must needs be at great loss And it is so in the speculations and works of the mind Those inquiries are most fruitful and yield a more plentiful increase which we are able to bring unto the end which is truly to resolve our selves Thus it is as a little plot of ground well tilled will yield a fairer crop and harvest then many acres which we cannot husband for the Understanding doth not more foully miscarry when it is deceived with false appearances and sophismes then when it looketh upon and would apprehend unnecessary and unprofitable objects and such as are set out of sight Res frugi est sapientia Spiritual Wisdome is a frugal and thrifty thing sparing of her time which she doth not wantonly wast to purchase all knowledge whatsoever but that which may adorn and beautifie the mind which was made to receive Virtue and Wisdome and God himself To know that which profiteth not is next to ignorance But to be ambitious of impertinent speculations carrieth with it the reproch of folly Hom. 29. adv calumn 8. Trin. What is it then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaketh to seek with such diligence for that which is past finding out And first the knowledge of the hour of Christ's coming is most impertinent Acts 1.7 Psal 31.15 and concerneth us not It is not for us to know the times As our dayes so the times are in God's hand and he disposeth and dispenseth them as it pleaseth him fitteth a time to every thing which all the wisdome of the world cannot do Thou wouldst know when he would take the yoke from off thy neck It is not for thee to know That which concerneth thee is to possess thy soul with patience which will make thy yoke easie Thou wouldst know when he will break the teeth of the ungodly and wrest the sword out of the hand of them that delight in blood It is not for thee to know Thy task is to learn to suffer and rejoyce and to make a blessing of persecution Thou wouldst know when the world shall be dissolved Why shouldst thou desire to know it Thy labour must be to dissolve the body of sin and set an end and period to thy transgressions Thou wouldst know what hour this Lord will come It is not for thee to know but to work in this thy hour and be ready and prepared for his coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The present the present time that is thine and thou must fill it up with thy obedience That which is to come of what aspect so ever it be thou must onely look upon and consider as an help and advantage to thee in thy work The Lord will come speaketh no more to me then this To labour and sweat in his vineyard till he come All the daies of my appointed time will I wait Job 14.14 saith Job There is a time and an appointed time and appointed by a God of eternity and I do not study to calculate or find out the last minute of it but I will wait which is but a syllable but of a large and spreading signification and taketh in the whole duty of man For what is the life of a Christian but expectation of and waiting for the coming of the Lord David indeed desireth to know his end and the measure of his dayes Psal 39.4 but he doth not mean so to calculate them as Arithmeticians do to know a certain and determined number of them so to number them as to tell them at his fingers ends and say This will be the last but himself interpreteth himself and hath well explained his own meaning in the last words Let me know the measure of my dayes that I may know how frail I am know not exactly how many but how few they be let me so measure them that I may know and consider that they are but few that in this little time I may strive forward and make a way to eternity This was the Arithmetick he desired to have skill in It may seem a paradox but there is much truth in it few men are so fully resolved of their mortality as to know their dayes are few We can say indeed that we are but shadows but the dreams of shadows but bubbles but vapours that we began to die before we were born and in the womb did move and strive forward towards the gates of Death and we think it no disparagement because we speak to men of the same mold who will say the same of themselves and lay to heart as little as we But should we pass over Methusalem's age a thousand times yet when we were drawing even towards our end we should be ready to conceive a possibility of a longer race and hope like the Sun to run the same compass again And though we die every day yet we are not so fully confirmed in this that we shall ever die Egregia res est condiscere mortem saith Seneca The best art is the knowledge of our frailty and he must needs live well who hath well learnt to die And egregia res est condiscere adventum Domini Ep. 26. It is a most useful thing to have learnt and well digested the coming of the Lord. For we cannot take out this as we should but we must be also perfect in those lessons which may make us fit to meet him when he cometh The hour of his coming is lockt up in the treasury of his Wisdome and he hath left us no key to open it that we might not so much as hope to find it and so mispend our thoughts in that which they cannot lay hold on and which should be fastened on the other to advance and promote our duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fix that well which is present here lay out all thy store all the powers of thy soul Whilest it is time whilest it is day whilest it is thy day make ready for his coming For secondly though it be in the future tense VENIET he will come though it lie hid as it were in the womb of Time and we know not when it will be brought to birth yet at this distance it looketh upon us and hath force enough in it self to work that fear and caution in us which the knowledge of the very hour peradventure might not do We say we believe it and that is enough And some have given Faith the preeminence above Knowledge and count the evidence we have by Faith clearer and more convincing then that we have by Demonstration But if it were not yet even that which is but probable in other things doth prevail with us and is as it were principium motus the
spring and beginner of all motion towards it Lord what Rhetorick what Commanding eloquence is there in that which is but probable nay many times in that which is most improbable if it carry any shew of probability with it Nay if it do not our ardent affections supply all deficiencies in the object and hurry us along to do that which when the heat is over we could easily see could not be done How doth Love carry us as it were on the wing to lay hold on that which we must needs know is out of our reach It is but probable that Industry will make us rich How do we toyl and sweat It is but probable that Flattery will lift us up on high and making our selves little will make us great Lord how do we strive to mishape and disguise and contract our selves What dwarfs what minims will we appear How do we call contumelies favours and feed on injuries onely because we are told that Potentates will make them Lords that make themselves their slaves Probability is the hand that turneth every wheel the Intelligence which moveth every sphere and every man in it Hearken to the busie noise of all the world behold the hollow look the pale and careful countenance the speaking and negotiating eye and the active hand see men digging sweating travelling shouldring and treading one another under foot and if you would know what worketh all this behold it is nothing but that which hangeth in Futurition that which is but probable and uncertain And if Probability have such Power and force in other things why should it not in this especially the evidence being so fair and clear that it is impossible to find out or set up any better against it which might raise any doubting in us and make us disbelieve it To a true believer DOMINVS VENIET The Lord will come is enough Nor need he seek any further A further inquiry to be assured of the time is but inquieta inertia a troublesome sloth and busie negligence like Ixion's wheel to turn us about where we shall never fasten and rest but be circled about in a giddy and uneffective motion Thirdly the knowledge of the very hour can be of no use at all to forward and carry on that which we are now to do Non prodest scire sed metuere futura saith Tully To know that which is to come is of no use but to fear it If I know it and not fear it I do but look upon it as to come And that doth but leave us setled in our lees This leaveth the Covetous in the mine the Revenger in his wrath the Wanton in the strumpets arms If we confess he will come and are not startled what a poor squib would that be if we should be told he would come at such an hour what a long hour should we make it how should we extend and thrust it back to all eternity Prov. 6.10 Yet a little sleep a little slumber For Poverty is in arms and coming but not yet come Yet let me grind the poor saith the Oppressour Yet let me crown my self with roses saith the Luxurious Yet a little more dalliance saith the Wanton Yet let me boast in mischief saith the Man of power Whilest we consider things in the future fit ut illud futurum semper sit futurum imò fortassis nunquam futurum saith the Father that which is to come will be alwaies to come nay peradventure we shall think at last that it will never come All futures are contingents with us and at last are nothing Time flieth away and will stay its course neither for the delaier nor the uncautelous and therefore our Lord who knoweth what is sufficient and best for us would not let us know any more Quod à Christo dicitur totum est That which he hath taught us is all that we can learn If the knowledge of the precise hour of his coming would add but one cubit to our stature and growth in grace Christ would have left it behind written in the fairest character but it is hid from our eyes for our advantage that by the doubtful and pendulous expectation of the hour our Faith might be put to the trial whether it be a languishing and dead faith or fides armata Tert. de Anima c. 33. a faith in arms and upon its watch ut semper diem observemus dum semper ignoramus that whilst we know not when it will be it may present it self unto us every moment to affront and aw us in every motion and be as our task-master to over-see us and bind us to our duty that we may fulfill our work Phil. 2.12 and work out our salvation with fear and trembling that our whole life may be as the Vigils and Eve and the hour of Christs coming the first hour of an everlasting Holy-day Lastly there is no reason why it should be known neither in respect of the good nor of the evil For the good Satìs est illis credere It is enough for them that they believe 2 Cor. 5.7 They walk by faith saith the Apostle and in their way behold the promises and comminations of the Lord and in them as in a glass behold heaven and hell the horrour of the one and the glory of the other And this sight of the object which they have by the eye of faith is as powerful to work in them obedience as if Heaven it self should fly open and discover all to them To the true believer Christ to come and Christ now coming in the clouds are in effect but one object for Faith seeth plainly the one in the other the last hour in the first the world at an end in the prediction But to evil and wicked men to men who harden themselves in sin no evidence is clear enough and Light it self is Darkness What they naturally know Jude 10. and what they can preach unto themselves in that they corrupt themselves and give their Senses leave to lead them to all uncleanness whilst Reason which should command is put behind and never hearkned to These are as brute Beasts in spite of all they have of Man within them And if they believe Christ's coming and will not turn back and bow and obey their Reason they would remain the same beasts or worse though they knew the very hour of his coming After all those judgements Pharaoh was still the same After the Rivers turned into blood after Frogs and Lice after the Plague on man and beast after every plague which came thick as line upon line precept upon precept after all these the effect and conclusion was Pharaoh hardned his heart was Pharaoh still the same Tyrant Exod. 10.27 Num 22. 2 Pet. 2.15 till he was drowned in the Red sea Balaam though the Ass forbad his folly and the Angel forbad it though the sword was drawn against him and brandisht in his very face that he bowed on the
consecrate us to eternity All these are in our Turn in our Repentance but all these do not compleat and perfect it For I am not turned from my evil wayes till I walk in good I have not shaken off one habit till I have gained the contrary I am not truly turned from one point till I have recovered the other I have not forsaken Babylon till I dwell in Jerusalem Turn ye from your evil wayes in the holy language is Turn unto me with all your heart Work out one habit with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 2. Ethic. c. 1. Let your actions now controll and demolish those which you built up so fast That which set them up will pull them down Perseverance and Assiduity in action The Liberal hand casteth away our Alms and our Covetousness together Often putting our knife to our throat destroyeth our Intemperance Often disciplining our flesh crucifieth our Lusts Our acts of Mercy proscribe Cruelty Our making our selves eunuchs for the Kingdom of heaven stoneth the Adulterer Our walking in the light is our turn from darkness Our going about and doing good is our voluntary exile and flight out of the world and the pollutions thereof Then we are spiritual when we walk after the Spirit and when we thus walk we are turned I know Repentance in the writings of Divines is drawn out and commended to us under more notions and considerations then one It is taken for those preparatory acts which fit and qualifie us for the Kingdom and Gospel of Christ Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Matth. 3.2 It is taken for that change in which we are sorry for our sin and desire and purpose to leave it which serves to usher in Faith and Obedience But I take it in its most general and largest acception for Leaving of one state and condition and constant cleaving to the contrary for Getting our selves rid of every evil habit and investing our selves with those which are good or to speak with our Prophet Ezek. 18.27 31. for Turning away from wickedness and doing that which is lawful and right for Casting away all our transgressions and making us new hearts and new spirits I am sure this one syllable Turn will take in and comprehend it all For what is all our preparation if when we come near to Christ we start back what are the beginnings of obedience if we revolt what is the bend or Turn of our intention if we turn aside like a deceitful bow what is our sorrow if it do but bow the head and leave the heart as wanton as before what is our desire if we have but the strength of a thought what is our endeavour if it shrink and contract it self and is lost at the sight of the next temptation But our Turn supposeth all these and taketh in all the dimensions of Repentance the body and full compass of it and though it be but a word yet it is as expressive and significant as any other in Scripture and containeth them all It includeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Regeneration For if we turn we turn à termino ad terminum Titus 3.7 from one term to another And as in generation and our natural birth there is Non ens tale and ens tale a progress or mutation from that which was not to that which now is so it is in our Turn It was Nehushtan a rude piece of brass it is now a polisht statue of Piety It was a child of wrath Luke 15 3◠it is now a child of blessings Rom. 12.2 It was dead and is alive And it taketh in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5.17 our Renovation or Renewing Behold old things are passed away all things are become new The sinner that turneth leaveth his strange apparel and his filthy rags behind him and cometh forth glorious in the robes of righteousness And it comprehendeth our Cleansing or Purification i Cor. 5.7 He that turneth from his evil wayes hath purged out his old leaven and is made a new lump Repentance is as Physick to the soul but not to be given ad pondus mensuram so many grains or so many drams by measure and proportion Non est piriculum nè sit nimium quod ei maximum debet We may take too little there is no fear at all that we should take too much of it Repentance for our sins is the business of our whole life For indeed what is Perseverance but an entire and continued Repentance a constant turning away from our evil wayes When Sinne hath corrupted our faculties we purge it out by Repentance and when it is dead we bury it by Repentance and it is quite lost and forgotten in the wayes of righteousness And being turned we never look back never cast a thought after it but with sorrow and anger and detestation And when it appeareth before us it appeareth in a fouler shape and in greater horrour then we beheld it in when we first fell upon our knees for pardon For the more confirmed we are in goodness the more abhorrent we are of evil and defy it most when we stand at the greatest distance We never loath our disease more then when we are purged and healthy There is another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath a good sense put upon it which yet the word doth not naturally yield Matth. 21.32 It rather signifieth a trouble of mind then a turn It is spoken of Judas himself Matth. 27.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented himself And what a Repentance was that which he should have repented of what a Turn was that that choked him Had his Turn been right he might have dyed a Martyr who dyed a Traytour and a murderer of his Master and himself L. 27. c. 2. De Aconito Ea est natura ut hominem occidat nisi invenerit quod in homine perimat Deep melancholy and trouble of mind is like that poysonous plant which Pliny speaketh of which if it do not take away the disease killeth the man Judas indeed was called the son of perdition but it was because he destroyed himself But there yet is another word which is more proper and more used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Turn and change of the mind What of the Understanding There may be such a change and yet no Turn no Repentance For how many have been brought to a knowledge of their sins who could never be induced to leave them nay but of the Will For this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the primitive and the compounds of it 1 Cor. 2.16 do bear Who hath known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind the will the decree of the Lord Rom. 1.28 And God delivered up those that reteined him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a reprobate mind that is a will to do those things which are not convenient not to knowledge of evil but to the practise
Moses turn his back who will not be afraid to come near to the mount If men of more reserved conversation who keep themselves unspotted of the world tremble and dare not come nigh how many weak Christians who hope here to receive their additional strength be struck with terrour and so refuse to come and think of these mysteries as the Germanes in Tacitus did of those offices which they performed to their Goddess Hertha De morib Germanor the Earth The Goddess was washed and they who ministred unto her were swallowed up in the same lake Arcanus hinc terror sanctáque ignorantia saith the Historian quid sit illud quod tantùm perituri vident Hence a secret terrour and holy ignorance possest them who wondred what that Divine power should be which none could see but they who were to perish in the sight For to minister to it was to dye I know we cannot give too much reverence unto the Sacrament we cannot give enough But that servant doth but little honour his master who will bow and cringe and kiss his hand and keep at distance and yet sleep in his service Obedience and Reverence are twins they are born and grow up and dye together I am not truly reverent till my Obedience speaketh and publisheth it If I obey not my Reverence is but a name and profiteth nothing as S. Paul spake in another case If I be a breaker of the law Rom. 2.25 my circumcision is made uncircumcision If I do not come as Christ commandeth I may call it Reverence but he will count it a great dishonour to his love We complain much of the Superstition of the Romish party we are angry with their Altars their vestments their bowings and cringes and count it a kind of theatrical Idolatry and I think without breach of charity we may for as they make it it is one of the greatest Idoles in the world But we must take heed how we cry down Superstition in others whilst we suffer it to lye at our own doors how we condemn it for a monster as it walketh abroad when we hug and cherish it in our own breasts Superstitio error insanus est amandos timet quos colit violat Quid enim interest utrum Deos neges an infames Sen. ep 123. For what is Superstition but a groundless fear what is it but a fear where no fear is or if there be a fear which we are bound to abolish A fear to do our duty is something worse then superstition If we do not make the Sacrament an Idole yet by this kind of lazy reverence we make it nothing in this world and as much as in us lyeth frustrate the Grace of God which in these outward Elements is presented in a manner to the eye I have dwelt the longer on this subject because I see this duty so much neglected Some not fit to come others not so much unfit as unwilling Some so spiritual or rather so carnal and profane that they contemn it some so careless that they seldome think of it but suffer their soul to run to ruine not to be raised and repaired till it be taken from them Some pleading their own infirmity others the high dignity of these mysteries The best of which pretenses is a sin which one would think were but a hard and uneasie pillow for a sick conscience to rest on Not come because I care not not come because I will not not come because I dare not Not come That utterly is a fault and Neglect doth aggrandize it Contempt doth make it yet greater and Infirmity and Conceit of our unworthiness is another fault and our high Esteem of the ceremony cannot wipe it out but it sheweth it self even through this Reverence and sheweth us guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ though we eat not this Bread nor drink this Cup. We pretend indeed we cannot but the truth is we will not come Let us not then bring in our Unworthiness as an excuse For such an Apology is our doom which we pass against our selves which removeth and setteth us far off from any relief of that mercy which should seal our pardon because we say we need it not We ought not to do what we ought to do and We are unworthy to do our duty is brought in as an excuse but it is our condemnation Let us then do it and let us do it often And in the last place let us do it to that end for which Christ did first institute and ordain it Let us do it in remembrance of him And now we may imagin that this is a thing soon done a matter of quick dispatch For as the Jews had Moses Acts 15.21 so have we Christ read in our Churches every Sabbath-day He is the story and the discourse of the times We name him almost as often as we speak too often name him because not with that reverence which we should But thus to remember him may be a greater injury then forgetfulness Better we never knew him then thus to remember him And therefore we must remember that this Remembrance consisteth not in a bare calling back into our mind every passage of his glorious oeconomy by bringing him from his cratch to his cross and from his cross to his grave For words of Knowledge in Scripture evermore imply the Affections When Joseph desired Pharaohs Butler to remember him his meaning was he should procure his liberty Gen 40.14 Neh. 13.22 When Nehemiah prayeth to God to remember him he interpreteth himself and pardon me according to the multitude of thy mercies When the Thief on the cross bespeaketh Christ to remember him when he came into his kingdome he then begged a kingdome Luke 23.42 Indeed such a benefit deserveth to be had in everlasting remembrance For what is a jewel of a rich price in the hands of a fool who hath no heart to receive and keep it Prov. 17.16 What were all the glory of the Stars and of the Sun and of the Moon which God hath ordained if there were no eye to behold them How can seed be quickned if the womb of the Earth receive it not What a pearl is the Gospel if the Heart be not the cabinet and what is Christ if he be not remembred We must then and upon this occasion especially open the register of our soul and enroll Christ there in deep and living characters For the Memory is a preserver of that which she receiveth But it is not enough for us to behold these glorious phantasmes and carry them about with us as pretious antidotes Cont. Faust. Manic l. 6. c. 7. unless we bring them ab intestino memoriae ad os cogitationis as S. Augustine speaketh from the inward part of the Memory to the mouth and stomach of the Cogitative faculty which is our spiritual rumination and chewing of the cud unless we do colloqui cum fide hold a colloquie within us
calleth in a world of Parasites to bow before us and bless us in the Name of the Lord. And thus we are first pleased to sin and then are easily pleased in it We are in danger and will not know it and when the God of Israel is angry 2 Kings 1.2 3. we will hear what the God of Ekron will say In a word we raise a storm in our selves whistle it down we wound our selves and skin it over we are too soon troubled and too soon eased might recover were not our remedy more fatal then our disease Thus you see this humor of being pleased is very predominant in most men In the third place as it proceedeth from the power and force of Conscience which will speak it she may be heard and doth speak even when she is not heard so it doth from the lustre and glory of Piety and Holiness which spreadeth her beams and darteth her light in the very face of them who have proscribed her sent her a bill of divorce and put her away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Goodness is equally venerable to all men Not onely good men speak well of her but her enemies praise her in the gates Who is so evil that he is willing to go under that name How angry will a Strumpet be if you call her so Call a Pharisee a Hypocrite and he will thrust you out of the Synagogue Though I bow down before an image yet I am not an Idolater though I break the bonds of peace yet I am not factious though I never have enough yet I am not covetous I am not evil though I do those things for which we justly call men so Our rule here is quite contrary to that known and received axiome of the world Malo me divitem esse quà m haberi In the managing of our worldly affairs we had rather be rich then be accounted so but in the course of our Religion we are rich enough we are good enough if we have but the name that we are so we are good enough if none dare call us evil And thus it is both in the errours of our Understanding and of our Will In the one we think it better to pretend to knowledge and rest our selves in that then to be taught to alter our mind Quintil. l. 3. Instit. c. 1. Malumus didicisse quà m discere That we know something already is our glory but to submit our selves to instruction is an argument of imperfection and therefore we account it a punishment to be taught And this is the reason why so few have retracted their errours and why most have stoutly defended them even a Loathness to seem to have erred which mightily reigneth in most men but especially in all pretenders unto knowledge Nature it self having annexed a shame unto these two above all other things which naturally befal us Lust and Ignorance For as the Italian proverb is A learned fool will be a fool ever And so it is in the errours of the Will In the practick errours of our life we would not know our selves nor have others know Eccles 1.18 that we have done any thing amiss He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow When the knowledge of the Truth inciteth us to follow after it and the force of Custome draweth us back we are as it were at war and divided in our selves our motion is unquiet as the bounding of a heady steed with the bit in his mouth We are in our own way and impatient of a check and we hate those counsellers which are willing to be eyes to us and lead us out of danger Tell a Heretick he is so he will anathematize you Tell a Schismatick he is so he will fly from you as from the plague Tell a Persecuter he is so and he will rage more and make it good upon your self deny it and yet make it too manifest that he is so For the Will of man loveth the channel which it hath chosen and would run on smoothly and evenly without interruption But when it meeteth with any stop or bank it beginneth to rage and fome and cast up mire and dirt in their faces who do attempt to stop its course Volumus errare we will erre and he is an enemy that telleth us the truth Volumus peccare we will sin but he that telleth the Sinner Thou art the man shall not be received as a Prophet but be defied as an adversary Sin is of a monstrous appearance who can stand before it and therefore we either cloud and hide it with an excuse or dress it up in the mantle of Virtue in the habit and beauty of Holiness as Pompey to commend the theatre which he built called it a Temple And these are the causes which beget and nurse up this evil humour in us this Desire to be pleased this Unwillingness to be troubled though it be to be pluckt out of the fire 1. a Defect in our selves which when we cannot fill up with righteousness we do with the shadow of it 2. the power of Conscience which when we cannot quiet we slumber and cast into a deep sleep and 3. the glory and beauty of Goodness which forceth from us though not a complacency yet an approbation and maketh them lay claim unto her who have violently thrust her out of doors He that loveth to erre loveth not to be told so he that is not righteous will Justifie himself and the worst of men desire to bear up their head and esteem with the best Let us now see the danger of this humour and the bitter effects it doth produce And first this Desire to be pleased placeth us out of all hope of succour leaveth us like an army besieged when the enemy hath cut off all relief It is a curse it self and carrieth a train of curses with it It maketh us blind to our selves and not fit to make use of other mens eyes It maketh our rain powder and dust Deut. 28.24 corrupteth all that counsel and instruction which as moisture should make us fruitful It maketh us like to to the Idoles of the Heathen to have eyes and see not to have ears Psal 115. and not to hear living dead men such as those to whom the Pythagoreans set up a sepulcral pillar such as Plato saith do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleep in hell men made up of contradictions in health and therefore desperately sick strong and therefore weak and never more fools then when they are most wise Plus quà m oportet sapiunt plùs quà m dici potest desipiunt saith Bernard They are wiser then they should be and more deceived then we can express Look on the Galatians in this Epistle and you shall see how this humour did bewitch them and what fools it made them They had received the spirit by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 but this spirit did shake and trouble them frowned upon that which they too much inclined to and
Will that profane person ever stoop to an Angel who is thus familiar with God himself And for the Law it goeth for a letter a title and no more For Ceremonies they were but shadows but are now monsters Christ in appearance left us two and but two and some have dealt with them as they use to do with monsters exposed them to scorn and flung them out Prov. 25.11 So that this counsel now in respect of us will not appear as an apple of gold with pictures of silver but may seem to be quite out of its place and season But yet let us view it once again and we shall find that it is a general prescript looking forward and applyable to every age of the Church an antidote against all errours and deviations And if we take it as we should it will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look round upon all and either prevent or purge out all errour whatsoever For though our errours be not the same with the Colossians yet they may proceed from the same ground and be as dangerous or worse Peradventure we may be in no danger of Philosophy but we may be in danger of our selves and our Self-love may more ensnare us then Philosophical subtilties can do We may be too stiff to bow to an Angel but our eyes may dazle at the power and excellency of Men Eph. 4.14 and we may be carried about from doctrine to doctrine from errour to errour with every breath of theirs as with a mighty wind And though we stand out against the glory of an Angel yet we may fall down and miscarry by the example of a mortal man In a word we may defie all Ceremonies and yet worship our own imaginations which may be less significant then they Let us then as the Apostle elsewhere speaketh Hebr. 13.22 suffer this word of exhortation Let us view and handle this word of life and it will present us with these two things 1. A Christian mans Duty in these words AMBVLATE IN CHRISTO Walk in Christ. 2. The Rule by which we must regulate our motion and be directed in our Walk SICVT ACCEPISTIS We must so walk in him as we have received him Which two stand in flat opposition to two main errours of our life For either we receive Christ and not walk in him or walk in him but not with a SICVT not as we have received him Of these in their order In the handling of the first we shall point and level our discourse at two particulars and shew you 1. That Christianity is not a lazy and idle profession a sitting still or a standing or a speculation but a Walk 2. Wherein this Walk or motion principally consisteth First we find no word so expressive no word more commonly used in holy Writ then this To walk with God Gen. 5.22 24. to walk before God Gen. 17.1 and 24.40 to walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 to walk in good works Ephes 2.10 and in divers other places For indeed in this one word in this one syllable is contained the whole matter the end and sum of all all that can be brought in to make up the perfect man in Christ Jesus For first this bringeth forth a Christian like a pilgrime or traveller Phil. 3.13 forgetting what is behind and weary of the place he standeth in counting those few approches he hath made as nothing ever panting and striving gaining ground and pressing forward to a higher degree to a better place As there is motus ad perfectionem a motion to perfection so there is motus in perfectione a motion and progress even in perfection it self the good Christian being ever perfect and never perfect till he come to his journeyes end Secondly it taketh within its compass all those essential requisites to action It supposeth 1. Faculty to discover the way 2. a Power to act and move in it 3. Will which is nothing else but principium actionis as Tertullian saith the beginning of all motion the imperial power which as Queen commandeth and giveth act to the Understanding Senses Affections and those faculties which are subject to it And besides this to Walk implieth those outward and adventitious helps Knowledge in the Understanding and Love in the Will which are as the Pilgrimes staff to guide and uphold him in his way Rom. 13.13 2 Cor. 5.1 His Knowledge is as the day to him to walk as in the day And his Love maketh his journey shorter though it be through the wilderness of this world to a City not made with hands Hebr. 9.11 nor seen Faculty without Knowledge is like Polyphemus a body with power to move but without eye sight to direct and therefore cannot chuse but offend and move amiss And Faculty and Knowledge without Love and Desire are but like a body which wanting nourishment hath no sense of hunger to make it call for it and therefore cannot but bring leanness into the soul For be our natural faculty and ability what it will yet if we know not our way we shall no more walk in it then the traveller sound of body and limb can go the way aright of which he is utterly ignorant Again be our Abilities perfect and our Knowledge absolute yet if we want a Mind and have no Love if we suffer our selves to be overswayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never do what we knovv vvell enough and are otherwise enabled to Novv To walk in Christ taketh in all these Faculty Povver Will Knovvledge Love Then you see a Christian in his Walk Psal 19.5 rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the counsellour and pointeth out This is the way walk in it Isa 30.21 and the Will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the Understanding boweth it self and as a Queen draweth with it those inferiour faculties the Senses and Affections when it openeth my Eye to the wonders of Gods Law Psal 119.18 Job 31.1 and shutteth it up by covenant to the vanity of the World when it boundeth my Touch and Tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing Col. 2.21 when it maketh the Senses as windows to let in life not Death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the World and the Devil and lifting up their heads to let the King of glory in Psal 24.7.9 when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a peace and harmony setting our Love to piety our Anger to sin our Fear to Gods wrath our Hope to things not seen our Sorrow to what is done amiss and so frameth in us nunc modulos temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as S. Ambrose speaketh now the even measures of Temperance now a psalm of Piety now the threnody of a Broken heart even those songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven God himself delight in All these are virtually included in this one duty to
walk in Christ And if any of these be wanting what profers soever we make what phansies soever we entertein what empty conceptions soever we foster yet flesh and bloud cannot raise it self on these wings of wind nor can we be more faid to walk then they who have been dead long ago For so far is the bare Knowledge of the way from advancing us in our Walk that it is a thing supposed and no where under the command as it is meerly speculative and endeth in it self no more then to See or Feel or Hear And so essential is this motion of Walking to a Christian that in the language of the Spirit we are never truly said to know till we walk and that is made imperfect knowledge which receiveth those things which concern our peace no otherwise then the Eye doth colours or the Ear sounds it never being once named or mentioned in the Scripture but with disgrace He that saith I know him 1 John 2.4 and keepeth not his commandments is a lyar So that to define our Walking by Knowledge and Speculation is a kind of heresy which rather deserveth an Anathema and should be drove out of the Church with more zeal and earnestness then many though gross yet silly and impertinent errours which pass abroad about the world but under that name For first the speculative Knowledge is but a naked assent and no more and hath nothing of the Will The Understanding is not an arbitrary faculty but necessarily apprehendeth objects in that shape and form they represent themselves Nor is it deceived even when it is deceived I mean in things which concern our Walk For the bill and accusation against us is not That we do not but Thatwe will not understand Nolumus intelligere nè cogamur facere saith Augustine We will not know our way for no other reason but because we are most unwilling to take the pains to walk in it Therefore in every Christian Peripatetick there must be something of the Seraphin and something of the Cherubin heat as well as light love as well as knowledge For Love is active and will pace on where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze Amor intrat ubi cognitio forìs stat Hugo de S. Vict. Matth. 11.12 Love will make a battery and forcible entrance and take the kingdome of heaven by violence whilst Speculation standeth without and looketh upon it as in a map What talk we of Knowledge and Speculation It is but a look a cast of the minds eye and no more Deut. 32.49 34.1 4. and doth but place us as God did Moses once upon mount Nebo to see that spiritual Canaan which we shall never enjoy And then what comfort is it to know what Justification is and to want that hand of a quick and active Faith which alone can lay hold on Christ to talk of Election and never make it sure to dispute of Paradise and have no title to it to speak of nothing more then Heaven and be an heir of Damnation And then what a fruitless mock-Knowledge is that which setteth God a walking whilst we sleep and dream which maketh the Master of the vineyard work and sweat and standeth idle it self all the day long which hath a full view of what God hath done before all time and no power at all to move us to do any thing in this our day when we are well seen in the Decrees of God and little move in our own Duties when we can follow God in all his wayes and tell how he worketh in us Phil. 2.12 and are afraid of that fear and trembling with which we should work out our salvation can speak largely of the power of God's Grace and resist it of Perseverance and fall more then seven times a day This Knowledge I say is but a bare assent and so far from being enjoyned us that as the case now standeth Ignorance were the safer choice and rather then thus to know him 1 Cor. 14.38 we may say with the Apostle Let him that is ignorant be ignorant still For in the second place as we use it it worketh in us at the most but a weak purpose of mind a faint velleity a forced involuntary approbation which we should shake off if we could as we do a friend which speaketh what we would not hear and calleth that poyson which is as honey to our tast For who can see such sights and not in some degree be taken with them Who can look upon the Temple and not ask What buildings are these Mark 13.1 Who can see the way to life and not approve it But you know I may purpose to rise and yet fold my hands to sleep I may commend the way and not walk in it Nay how often do we pray John 6.34 27. Give us ever of this bread of life and yet labour most for this bread that perisheth which we at once revile and embrace and speak evil of it because we love it when Heaven is but as a picture which we look upon and wonder and refuse and hath no better place of reception then that common inne of all wild and loose imaginations the Phansie Christ is the way John 14.6 is in every mans Creed And if this would make us Walkers what a multitude of Sectaries what a herd of Epicures what an assembly of Atheists what a congregation of fools I had almost said what a Legion of Devils might go under that name For even the Devils themselves have acknowledged Christ and this way is not evil spoken of nay it is magnified of them who had rather wallow in the mire then walk in it How is Christ made not onely panis quotidianus our daily bread but sermo quotidianus the talk of every day and hour In our misery we implore his help In his Name we lie down and in his Name we rise up In his Name we prophesy If afflictions beat upon us he is called upon to calm the storm If our conscience chide us we have learnt an unhappy art and skill to force him in to make our peace We love to talk of him We many times leave our necessary callings and trades most unnecessarily but to hear of him But all these may be rather profers then motions rather pleasing and flattering thoughts then painful ambulations as S. Augustine speaketh of himself in his Confessions cogitationes similes conatibus expergisci volentium L. 8. c. 5. thoughts like to the endeavours of men half asleep who would be awaked and cannot who move and stir and lightly lift up the head and then fall down fast asleep I have been too liberal and given them more strength then they have I mean then these Gnosticks give them whom they neither move nor stir but leave them in their prospect fast asleep Or at the best in the third place this inclination this approbation is but a dream Virg. Aen. 2. Visus adesse mihi
c. Christ may seem to walk with us when he is not in all our wayes And as in dreams we seem to perform many things we do all things and we do nothing Nunc fora nunc lites laeti modò pompa theatri c. Auson Ephem we plead we wrestle we fight we triumph we sayl we fly we see not what is but hath been or should be done and all is but a dream So when we have made a phansiful peregrination through all the pleasant fields and rivers of milk through all the riches and glory of the Gospel and delights which it affordeth when we have seen our Saviour in his cratch led him to mount Calvary beheld him on his cross brought him back with triumph from his grave and placed him at the right hand of God we may think indeed we have walked all this while with Christ but when our conscience shall recover her light which was darkned with the pleasures and follies of this present life when she shall dart this light upon us and plainly tell us that we have not fasted with Christ that we have not watched one hour with him Matth. 26.18 Acts 10.38 Gal. 5.24 Hebr. 6.6 Rom. 13.14 that we have not gone about with him doing good that we have loved those enemies which he came to destroy that we have been so far from crucifying our flesh that we have crucified him again to fulfill the lusts thereof that the World and not Christ hath been the Form which moved us in the whole course of our life behold then it will appear that all was but a dream Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us We dispute we write books we coin distinctions we study for the Truth we are angry for the Truth we lose our Peace for the Truth we fight for the Truth we die for the Truth and when all is done upon due examination nothing is done but we have spun a spiders web which the least breath of Gods displeasure will blow away We have known the way and approved it have subscribed that This is the way but have made no more progress towards our journeyes end then our picture hath we have but dreamt of Life Psal 23.4 Isa 9.2 and are still in the valley of the shadow of death And now what saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5.14 that dreamest and stand up from the dead Let us not please our selves with visions and dreams with the suborned flattery of our own imaginations Let us not think that if we seek the way and like it and speak well of it we are in heaven already or have that Hope that well grounded never-failing Hope which may entitle us to it Why should such a thought arise in our heart a thought that maketh us worse then fools or mad-men and will keep us so courting of sin labouring in iniquity and with greediness working out our own destruction a thought that shutteth out God and maketh an open entrance for a legion of Devils and then welcometh and attendeth them For all the sins which the Flesh is subject to or the Devil can suggest may well stay and find a place of rest with such a thought Why should we please and loose our selves in such a thought See here is water what doth let me to be baptized Acts 8.36 said the Eunuch to the Philip. Here is light what hindreth that we do not walk in it Behold Heaven openeth it self and displayeth all its beauty and glory why do we run from it Knowledge directeth but we will not follow Knowledge perswadeth but we will not hearken Knowledge commandeth but we rebel We are illuminated we profess we know Christ but we will not be sanctified Tit. 1.16 For by our works we deny him Our knowledge followeth and pursueth us we cannot shake it off it staieth with us whether we will or no it goadeth it provoketh it chideth it importuneth it triumpheth within us but yet not over us because those vanities which we are too familiar with will not suffer us to yield We cannot be ignorant of what we know but we are too often unwilling to do that of which we cannot be ignorant Our Self love undoeth us and our own Will driveth us on the rocks whilst the light within us pointeth out to the haven where we should be And the Knowledge within us which did exhort instruct and correct is made a Witness against us Luk 12.47 48 Matth. 4.16 and a Judge to condemn us to more stripes then they shall feel who had not so much as a glance of light but did sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death Let us then not fly but walk not hover aloft in the contemplation of what is to be done but stoop down and do it subdue our Will to our Knowledge our Sense to Reason Let us learn to walk and by walking be more learned then before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 3. For Practice saith Nazianzene is to Knowledge what Knowledge is to it a foundation As we build our Practice upon Knowledge for we must know before we can walk so we raise our Knowledge higher and higher upon Practice as Heat helpeth Motion and is increased by it and the torch burneth brighter being fanned by that air which it inlightneth Psal 25.14 The secret of the Lord is revealed to them that fear him and his covenant to give them more understanding saith David Let us then joyn 2 Pet. 1.6 8. as S. Peter exhorteth with Knowledge Temperance and with Temperance Patience and with Patience Godliness And these will make that we shall neither be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idle and not walk nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk but to no purpose unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ For to joyn these two Knowledge and Practice and to abound more and more is to walk in Christ And thus we see a Christian mans life is not an empty and aery speculation a Sitting still or Standing but a Walk Let us now in the second place see wherein this motion or Walk principally consisteth And you may think perhaps that I shall now point out to the Denial of our selves Matth. 16.24 shew you Christ's Cross to take up and bid you follow him bid you fight against the World and all that is in the World the lust of the flesh 1 John ◠16 the lust of the eyes and the pride of life bid you lay hold on Christ love Christ be adopted be regenerate be called and converted With these generalities the Religion of too many is carried along not with the thing it self but the name And with these names and notions they play and please themselves as the silly Fly doth with the flame of the taper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till they lose their wings and feet and become but a body a lump that can neither walk nor move They deny themselves with an oath and
fear we never serve him worse never Walk less then when we walk so far Certainly if the End be better and more noble then the means then our even and upright motion in our several conditions must needs have the preeminence For here in the Church we are called but there we work in the Vineyard here we take out our lesson there we con it here we receive rules to guide us there we practice them here Christ is formed in us Gal. 4.19 1 Tim. 3.16 there he is manifested as it were in our flesh in our outward actions in a word here we are taught to go there we walk in Christ. Oh then let us not so perversly honour Christ as to dishonour him or think that he who passed through the contumelies of our nature as Tertullian speaketh and was made like unto his brethren should disdain to be with us and to walk with us in our calling be it never so mean That Christ is disgraced when we call him into our counting-houses or our shops that we do not walk in Christ when we sweat in our calling Luke 3.12 14 You know what S. John Baptist said to the Souldier and to the Publicane And certainly if the Publicane in his Custome-house if the Souldier with his sword in his hand may walk in Christ I know no calling so mean no trade so low as to be excluded It was a witless and groundless Etymon which he gave who said they were called Mechanick arts quia intellectus in iis quodammodo moechatur because the Understanding in these manual trades seemeth to adulterate and pollute it self For nothing can pollute a Soul but Sin and Dishonesty And the Soul is then most pure when passing as it were through these earthy and carnal affairs she ordereth them aright and receiveth nothing that is earthy or carnal from them retaining still in the midst of these imployments her native and proper spirituality Gen. 3. Adam himself is set to till the ground Gen. 6. Noah is a Ship-wright Gen. 24. you shall see Rebeccah with bracelets indeed on her arms but with a pitcher on her shoulder Judg. 6. Gideon receiveth his Commission to be Captain of Israel whilst the flayl was in his hand And when did our Saviour call the Disciples but as they were mending their nets And quite to take off this imputation Luke 2. â—1 Coll. cum Tryph. Judaeo himself descended to a trade and was obedient to his parents Justine Martyr saith he made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ploughs and yokes Be our calling what it will we then walk truly in Christ when we walk honestly in it Not only our attention our sighs our groans our often mentioning Christ's name but our silence our honesty our industry may make us Christian Peripateticks Let us then in the name of Christ and Religion abide in our particular calling Whatsoever Providence hath placed us in high or low rich or poor let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abide in it against all temptations whatsoever 1 Cor. 7.20 bear them bear up against them by his power keep a good conscience against the flatteries of the world and the lowring and bitter menaces of Poverty In his name rise up early and lie down late In his name cast out those evil Spirits those false suggestions which may hinder us in our Walk and so press forward in a constant and uninterrupted motion never shaken nor changed with the manifold changes chances of this fading world and then we shall be not onely Christs Servants but his Companions and Friends he will call us so And then when Christ thus goeth along with us in all our wayes when we walk on earth but by this light from heaven we may assure our selves by thus walking we walk in Christ. We pass now from the Duty To walk in Christ to the Manner How we must walk in him or the Rule by which we must regulate our motion SICVT ACCEPISTIS We must so walk as we have received him As you have received Christ so walk in him that is Since you have received him walk in him And in this sense we may take it Rest not in the outward Profession Think not that you are onely vessels to receive him ye must be also chanels or conduits through which he must be conveyed He must pass through every vein through every faculty of your souls and every member of your bodies and so be made visible in the actions of your life To receive him and not to walk in him will but swell and enlarge the burden of our accounts as to receive any good from him and not to use it to that end for which it is was given is the worst evill that can befal us Many receive him because he cometh with so much beauty that they cannot refuse him Psal 45.2 because they are convinced that he is fairer then the children of men and most worthy to be received Psal 8 2. For not onely out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings but out of the mouthes of wicked men hath God ordained strength and Wisedom is justified Mâ—tth 11.19 not onely of her friends but of her enemies Many receive Christ as it were in a throng they applaud Christianity and dare not refuse it lest the multitude of those they live with should confute and silence them Greg Hom. 32. in Evang. Si nomen Christi in tanta gloria non esset tot professores Christi sancta Ecclesia non haberet saith Gregorie If the name of Christ were not so high and glorious in the world the Church would fall short in her number of Professours whereof many make but a profer at Christianity for companies sake This the Apostle may seem either to have seen or been afraid of either to have had it in his eye or in his jealousie and therefore he striveth to remove or to prevent it It is far the lesser evil not to know Christ's name then thus to receive him an unhappy ignorance finding some mercy even in judgement of which a fruitless and ungrateful knowledge is not capable And in this sense we may take it But if we look forward and consider the many cautions the Apostle putteth up against Philosophy Traditions of men and the law of Ceremonies Nihil peregrinum audite Oecum in loc I see not but thar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be an adverb of Similitude and Likeness And then the sense will run thus Walk in him in that manner you have received him as he was presented delivered to you by me or as S. Jude interpreteth it as he was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once for all unto the Saints Jude 3. Sicut edocti estis v. 7. Otherwise we receive him not or receive something else for Christ or something more or something less then Christ And as the danger is great if we receive him not so is it no less if we receive him not
you what it was that made John a burning and what a shining light And here I need not tell you that he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet He was fibula Legis Evangelii as Tertullian calleth him the hasp which tied together the Law and the Gospel the middle Prophet which looked back upon the Truth obscurely shadowed in figures and types and looked forward on Christ that at the very voice of Christ's mother he sprang in his mother's womb prophetavit antequam natus erat and was a Prophet before he was a man Our Saviour here calleth him a burning light Supernatural illumination might have been enough to have made him a light to others but not to burn in himself Even Saul was amongst the Prophets and Caiaphas did prophesie and Baalam fell into a trance saw the vision of the Almighty took up his parable and breathed forth a prophesie a prophesie of as large a compass and extent as any we find in Scripture and yet he loved the wages of unrighteousness Even these were moved by the holy Ghost and spake as they were moved but were not holy men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil but the word of Prophesie came unto them by way of dispensation not for any purity or worth of theirs but for the present exigence and occasion and the instruction of others He that opened Balaams eyes opened also the Asses mouth to rebuke him All these may be called lights but we cannot say they burned or if they did not with any fire from heaven For Knowledge whether natural or supernatural whether gained by way of conclusion out of premisses or by the evidence of the things themselves or by Divine inspiration and extraordinary radiation is not alwaies accompanied with this heat and fire because the acts or reception of the Understanding are rather natural and necessary then arbitrary and the mind of man cannot but receive the species and forms of things as they are presented and imprinted either by the object it self or by a Divine supernatural hand In a word if the Truth open and display it self the Understanding cannot but receive it If the Spirit come upon Saul he must prophesie These radiations and flashes of light upon the Understanding do not alwayes make us burn within our selves but many times are darted on us when there is a frost at the heart when we are bound up and sealed as it were in our graves in a kind of Lethargy without heat or activity Every knowing man doth not love the truth which he knoweth nor is every Prophet a Saint Scire nihil aut parùm operatur ad virtutem saith the Philisopher Knowledge of it self bringeth no great store of fuel to this fire nor doth it conduce to the essence of Virtue For we do not define Virtue by Knowledge It may direct and illuminate but it doth not alwaies warm us it may help to fan this fire but it is not that heat with which we burn What is it then that made John Baptist and maketh every righteous man a burning light Not the Knowledge alone though it were supereminent but the Love of Truth For the Understanding is at best but a Counsellor to the Will It may call upon me to awake and I fold my arms to sleep It may speak as an oracle of God and I reject its counsel It may say This is the way when I run counter It may breathe upon my heart and no fire burn But when the Will is so truly affected with the Truth as to woo and imbrace it when I am willing to lay down my life for it then there is a fire in my bones and this fire doth melt me and this liquefaction transform me and this transformation unite and marry me to the Truth And this is that fire with which we burn which maketh this holy conflagration in us And indeed it hath the operation of Fire For first as Fire it is full of activity nor can any thing withstand its force It hath voracitatem toto mundo avidissimam as Pliny speaketh It is the most devouring thing in the world Nihil tam ferreum quod non amoris igne vincitur saith Augustine There is nothing so hard or difficult which it doth not overcome It esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood Be it Service it is a glorious liberty Be it seven years it is but a few dayes to Love Be it Disgrace it enobleth it Be it Poverty it enricheth it Be it Torment it sweetneth it Be it Death for the Truth 's sake it is made advantage and gain O beloved that the voice of power so soon shaketh us that the glittering of a sword the horrour of a prison a frown so soon loosneth our joynts abateth our courage that we either halt between God and Baal or plainly fall from the Truth is because we are but coldly affected to it If this fire were kindled in us it would make Persecution peace enlighten a prison and make Horrour it self an object of glory and joy That which is a tempest to others to them that love is a pleasant and prosperous gale Secondly as Fire it is very sensible and maketh us even to burn within us and to be restless and unquiet for the Truth 's sake Inquies animus ipso opere pascitur as Livy spake of himself It is fed with what it doeth and as that restless element it either spreadeth or dieth It is kindled from heaven and will lick up all the water all contrary matter 2 Cor. 5.13 as the fire did which Elijah called down Whether we be besides our selves or whether we be sober it is for the Truth 's sake Love urgeth and constraineth us driveth us upon the pricks upon any difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gordius the Martyr in Basil What loss am I at that die but once for the Truth In labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prison more frequent saith S. Paul And could he do no more Yes he could Vbi historiam praestare non potuit votum attulit What he could not do to fill up an history he supplieth with a wish and maketh it his prayer for the good of the Church Rom. 9. to be cut off from the Church pro Christo non habere Christum for Christ's sake to be separate from Christ And to speak truth in this Love differeth from Fire Fire will die if it want fuel but Love will live in that breast where it was first kindled and where it meeteth not with matter to work upon it burneth the more for want of it When it cannot fight with the Philistine not encounter Satan with his fiery darts not slight him in the pomp of the world not contemn him in his terrours it striveth and strugleth with it self and supposeth and frameth difficulties Nihil imperiosius charitate Nothing is more powerful nor commanding then Love And yet when it hath done all supposed all it is content
be common to all and piety and strictness of life the business but of a few that severity should dwell in no breast but that which beareth the Urim and Thummim that none should be bound to discipline and obedience but they who are tied to the pulpit that I may be a cheater an oppressor a wanton an adulterer in a russet cloak but must be a Saint in an Ephod Such a distinction we may make if we please and delight in it But when the time of distinction and seperation shall come then tribulation and anguish will be on every soul that repenteth not on the Priest first and also on the people Then he that is not a lamp to burn and shine shall be cast into the fire And now brethren we see our calling that we are all to be bound to the same law who look to be bound up in the same bundle of life that we are all to be John Baptists forerunners of Christ to make a way for him in our hearts that we are all to be burning and shining lights that our love of the Truth may kindle the like flame in others our holiness may beget holiness in the profane our ardent devotion may warm the heart of the lukewarm our compassion may soften the heart of the cruel and our sincere piety convert the Atheist Behold the plague of Egypt is upon us even darkness which may be felt and yet darkness which we feel not Vbique discurrite ignes sancti ignes decori saith Augustine Ye holy ye beautiful fires run about the earth exalt your selves as high as heaven that you may lighten them which sit in darkness and let fall a kindly influence upon the dry and barren places of the earth that they may grow green and flourish And that your heat may be kindly and effectual first see what fire it is that warmeth you Let it not be ingendred in a cloud in a thick and wandring imagination nor in the bowels of the earth derived from worldly considerations nor yet in the lowest pit of hell in that gall and bitterness which maketh us devils one to another but let it be from heaven heavenly For that which kindleth from any other place like that vvhich Philosophy speaketh of simul fit cadit is and falleth and vanisheth at once or leaveth that heat behind vvhich vvill consume both our selves and others When our private phansie or some passion blovveth the coals it will prove no warming but a consuming fire Therefore that this fire may burn and consume nothing but our dross that it may not waste our vital spirits and best bloud our charity our meekness our discretion we must be sure that this heat be raised from the word of God alone which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignitum valdè able to refine and purge out all our dross our pride our self-love our carnality And to this end we must take heed of a dangerous evil self-conceit and a false pretended knowledge which may make a blaze perhaps but will never kindle this holy fire in our hearts For as we find that many men of poor and weak estate having by a kind of civil sophistry approved themselves for men of wealth and means have by this made good purchases bore up fairly in the world and wrought wonders so it fareth every day with many whose stock of knowledge hath not been very great they presently take the chair and dictate to others and by many are sought to as oracles They do not teach but trouble the world like fire indeed they consume all before them and call it Peace where they make a desolation For Man being a witty creature hath invented a kind of creation a wondrous art of raising much out of nothing It was said of Florimundus Raimundus a late French Advocate and Writer Scripsit sine scientia judicavit sine conscientia aedificavit sine pecunia that he wrote without knowledge judged without conscience and built without money and of one of the Dukes of Venice that he spoke much and knew nothing promised much and paid nothing spent much and had nothing And thus it hath fared with men who never digged deep for the Truth but sought it in summa terra lightly and superficially as counting that the Truth which they first light upon vent they must and lay open their store to the world as having no reason to suspect any part of it since they took no time to try and examine it And such persons we see with our eyes never want favourable hearers and hearts prepared to welcome them He that telleth the earth and the inhabitants thereof that they are ready to be dissolved will be soon looked upon as the onely pillar to underprop and establish it For as these are ready to commend their phansies and intellectual meteors so are others well near as wise as themselves apt to incline to a foolish credulity From hence have sprung all the heresies and many of the schisms which have troubled the peace of the Church And therefore that grave saying of Quintilian which is onely directed to School masters concerneth indeed most especially these lying Prophets these blind Seers these pretenders to knowledge these omniscient Ignaro's Optandum ut sint eruditi planè aut se non esse eruditos sciant It were to be wished that they were either learned indeed or knew that they were not so that they had less fire and more light or that their fire were like David's fire to burn inwards and that this heat did keep within them For this false fire and this pretended light and knowledge serveth them to no other use but to distract themselves and others and begetteh more Dippers then Baptists more franticks and mad men then Saints For S. Hierom will tell us Nihil tam facile quà m vilem plebeculam linguae volubilitate decipere quae quicquid non intelligit plùs miratur There is nothing easier in the world then to put a cheat upon the common sort of people who are never wiser in their own conceits then when they are deceived who count him an Angel who is but an impostor and him an interpreter one amongst a thousand who confuteth his Text and who rejoyce when they have a cheat put upon them as those who have found a great spoil But were either all men learned or did as many as it concerneth know themselves to be ignorant or at least would they be so modest as to suspect it we might then peradventure see those happy dayes which Fabius Pictor spoke of felices futuras artes cùm de iis artifices tantùm judicarent that the Arts would then be happy when none but Artists were made judges of them I need not tell you what manner of heat this pretence to knowledge and religion kindleth in mens breasts For if you please to look about you you may behold the world it self on fire which the bloud of many thousands have not as yet quenched â—â—u may
not work to the end and have that effect which was intended and is proper to it Again if Christ urge forvvard his vvork and desisteth not but follovveth us still to find us out vvhen vve think all is done maketh a miracle but the preface and forerunner of a greater vvork it vvill concern us to uphold this course of love both to others and our seâ—â—es 1. To others To be instant in season and out of season in our leisure and in our business To stir up and quicken in them the beginings of grace Not upon ill success to go back and fall off but still to labour and travel with them as S. Paul speaketh till Christ that is all Christian duties be fully formed in them To be their solicitours their advocates their remembrancers and vvhâ—n God hath vvrought a miracle and delivered them from poverty or prison or death to speak to them â—â—â—ok back and behold What though vve prevail not yet let us 〈◊〉 desist The husbandman doth not take off his hand from the plough for one bad year nor doth the merchant leave off navigation for one wreck at sea Spargenda est manus saith Seneca succedet aliquando multa tentanti We must scatter again and again all will not be lost after many attempts The sower in the Gospel sowed his seed in four places though it came up and yielded increase but in one Jer. 20.8 9. The word of the Lord saith the Prophet was made a reproch unto me and a derision daily Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name But it followeth His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay He then that cannot expect his brother that cannot hope well of his brother is neither a true Prophet nor a good Christian That plain Axiom of S. Augustine is of good use De nullo vivente desperandum We may not despair of any man alive but whilest he breatheth we must hope we must pray for him and find him out and instruct him That common speech of some in S. Chrysostom's time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leave off from admonishing and counselling these kind of men the Father calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deceit of the Devil an engine made by him to undermine and shake all religion and piety Some we have had of late who have pronounced it unlawful to pray for the salvation of all men An errour of so monstrous a shape that former ages were afraid of it and it was reserved for this last and worst age to wait upon its mishapen damme that ill-begotten phansie of the absolute decree of Reprobation I could not easily believe that any should take delight in such a speculation which striketh off all hope of salvation and all care of our brother withall that he may go whither he will For whithersoever he goeth he is lost for ever never to be found This doctrine leaveth some men in worse case then the Swine in the Gospel The Devils entered into them indeed but presently carried them violently into the sea and drowned them but by this doctrine some men there be prepared on purpose to be an habitation of Devils for ever But withall I see they who cut off all hope of life from some and with it the prayers and instructions of the Church are all sheep themselves pure and innocent and so sure of their salvation that in this they rest as in a miracle as if nothing more were to be done and therefore they will not work it out They tell us That some be vessels of wrath and therefore that we ask and attempt an impossible thing That the condemnation of many and the Salvation of all cannot both be brought to pass because this implieth a contradiction I answer It is true it implieth indeed a contradiction that â—ll should be saved yet many damned but yet I see no force in the contradiction to fright us from our devotion or shut up our mouths that we may not instruct and remember every man of his present condition that when we have begun we may not follow and find him out and instruct him yet more fully This foundation standeth very sure The Lord knoweth who are his But we do not read in Scripture that God hath any where imparted this knowledge unto any man Suppose it were true that God doth indeed sit in heaven and pass an irreversible sentence upon the lives of some certain men yet doth this nothing concern us nor can we judge by any outward marks upon our brother what God doth in his secret closet and counsel Judgement belongeth unto him and duty unto us Let God do what he please in heaven or in earth a necessity lieth upon us and wo-will be unto us if we instruct not our brother Nor is the secret will of God any rule of our actions nor can it be For it is the property of a Rule to be manifestly known and if it be not known it is not a Rule The rule that concerneth us is as manifest as the light That we must love our brother That we must find him out and instruct and save him That we must begin and promote and as far as in us lieth perfect and finish this work That we must seek the conversion of all men Haec regula ab initio Evangelii decucurrit This is a constant and everlasting rule and hath run along in a continued stream of light ever since the Son of righteousness did arise in the hemisphere of the Church But for what God will do with particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a thick cloud cast a veil drawn before it that no mortal eye can discern the least glimpse or scintillation of it We read in the Scripture that the number of true believers is but small but my duty to my brother in praying for him and promoting his spiritual health is not grounded upon that act which apprehendeth the number of the elect to be but few but upon that which apprehendeth the mercies of God to be infinite and that it cannot stand with his goodness to make any man purposely to destroy him And it is an act of our Charity which like some artificial glasses multiplieth the object a thousand times And this is a kind of privilege and prerogative which Charity hath above Faith Christ hath already begun with my brother the miracle is wrought his wounds are still open and they will drop their medicinal power and virtue upon the weakest member he hath yea upon him that is yet no member and my care must be to help him to apply it There is no heart so much stone which Christ's bloud cannot soften and out of it raise a child unto Abraham No piece so crooked ever sprung from Adam's root but of it God can erect a statue of himself None is so miserably desperate of whom we are not
God's benefits whether Beauty or Wit or Riches or Health is to make them benefits indeed But if we turn them into wantonness they will be turned into judgements we shall be the verier fools for our Wit the poorer for our Riches the more deformed for our Beauty the more despicable for our Power our Health shall be worse then a disease and Miracles themselves shall stand up to condemn us But if we behold that is consider them they will be as the influences of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions from God himself distilling upon us to refresh and quicken us and make us active in those duties which return them back again with praise unto their Fountain And in the strength of them we shall walk on from faith to virtue from virtue to knowledge from knowledge to temperance from temperance to patience till we are brought into the presence of God who is the giver of all things In a word If we thus behold and consider God's benefits we shall sin no more nor shall a worse thing come unto us Which is our third and last part and cometh next to be handled The Fifth SERMON PART III. JOHN V. 14. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee MAN hath not found out more wayes to destroy himself then God hath to save him You shall find God's preventing mercy his following mercy Psal 59.10 Psal 23.6 Psal 119. Psal 6.2 his reviving and quickening mercy his healing mercy Here they are all even a multitude of mercies Healing Preventing Following and Reviving Here I told you is 1. Misericordia solicita Mercy sollicitous to perfect and complete the cure The healing of this impotent mans body was but as a glimmering light as the dawning of the day Mercy will yet shine brighter upon him 2. Misericordia excitans Mercy rousing him up to remember what he was by the pool's side and to consider what he now is in the Temple And these two we have already displayed before you 3. The last now sheweth it self in rayes and light and full beauty Misericordia praecipiens Mercy teaching and prescribing for the future I may call it a Logical Rational Concluding Mercy making the miracle as the Premisses and drawing from it Salvation as the Conclusion Behold thou art made whole Therefore sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned Interpreter And we find that those lessons which are most plain are most necessary as those things which are most common are most useful When we are to build an house we do not go to the mines for gold or to the rocks for perle but to the quarry for stone Corn which feedeth us groweth almost in every field and Sheep which clothe us grase in flocks upon the mountains But those things quibus luxuria Pretium fecit which would be of little esteem did not our luxury set a price upon them are remote and in a manner hidden from us and we find them out with labour and hazard of our lives So it is in spiritual matters Those truths which are necessary lie open and naked to the understanding so that he that runneth may read them But more abstruse and subtle speculations as they are not necessary so are they set at distance and are hard to find out For it is not Curiosity but Humility that must build us up in our most holy Faith And yet the plainest truths in Scripture require our pains and labour as much as the obscurest We may observe that in the winter-season when the Sun is far removed from us we lay our selves open and walk the fields and use means to receive the light and heat of it but in the summer when it is almost over our heads we retire our selves and draw a curtain to exclude both light and heat The same behaviour we put on in our Christian walk When the Sun of righteousness cometh near us and shineth in our very faces we run with Adam into the thicket and hide our selves in excuses but when he withdraweth and as it were hideth himself and will not tell us what is not necessary for us to know we gaze after him and are most busie to walk where we have no light The obscurer places in Scripture are like unto the Sun in winter We delight to use all means to gain the light and meaning of them But the plainest are like the Sun in summer They come too near our Zenith their light and heat offend us they scald and trouble us by telling us plainly of our duty and therefore we use art and draw the curtain against them to keep off their heat As we have heard of the people of Africk that they every morning curse the Sun because the heat of it annoyeth them These plain words of the Text are a notable instance For to defeat the true meaning of them what art do we use what curtains do we draw When we should sin no more we question the possibility of the precept and whether there be any such estate or no As if Christ did bid us sin no more when he knew we could not but sin again and again And then we multiply our sins as we do our dayes and make them keep time almost with every hour and moment of our life And to this end we draw distinctions before the words to keep of their light SIN NO MORE that is Not unto death or SIN NO MORE that is Not with a full consent Not without some reluctancy or strugling of conscience And now where is this Text Even lost and swallowed up and buried in the glosses of flesh and bloud We may we think observe it and yet sin as oft as the flesh or the world shall require it Let us then take some pains to raise the Text from this grave and take off those cloths in which it is enwrapped let us draw it from those clouds and curtains wherewith it is obscured In the course of our speech we shall meet with some of them Now we shall take the words in their natural meaning as they lie And in them you may observe 1. the Prescript or Caution Sin no more 2. the Danger of not observing it If we sin again a worse thing will come unto us And by these we may try our selves as the Eagle doth her young ones If with open eyes w◠can look upon the Text as it lies in its full strength and meaning then are we of the true airy but if we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be weak sighted and cannot endure the light and heat of it we may then justly suspect our selves to be but bastard and counterfeit Christians First of all we shall consider how far the words Sin no more do extend and stretch themselves secondly the Possibility of keeping of them The first is a consideration of some consequence that we may not violate the word of God nor do the Scripture any
a Lawyer or an Husbandman in the grave But the Truth here as it must be bought so it must never be sold by us It will not leave us at our death but lie down with us in the grave and rise up with us to judgment At the last day it will be our Advocate or our Judge and either acquit or condemn us If now in this our day we lay out our money our substance that is our selves upon it then in that terrible day of the Lord it will look lovelily upon us and as the bloud of Christ doth speak good things for us But if we place it under our brutish desires and lowest affections it will help the Devil to roar against us and he who now hindereth our market will then accuse us for not buying Christ himself is not more gracious then this Truth will be to them that buy it But such as esteem it trash and not worth the looking on to them shall it procure tribulation and anguish to them the Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into bloud the whole world on fire the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall not be so terrible as this Truth And now before I was aware I have told you what the Truth here is that we are to buy Shall I say with the Poet cujus non audeo dicere nomen that I dare not utter its name It hath no name Men it seemeth have been afraid to speak of it and therefore have given it no name The Wise-man here in the Text bestoweth on it certain titles calling it Wisdom and Instruction and Vnderstanding but all these do not fully express it being words of a large signification and comprehending a multitude of other Truths beside it Will ye know indeed what this Truth is It containeth all those Precepts and conclusions that concern the knowledge and service of God that conduce to virtue and integrity and uprightness of life and that are carefully observed by all quos Deus in aeternae felicitatis exemplis posuit whom God meaneth to bring to endless felicity and to place among the ensamples of his love If this Truth doth not manage and guide the Will then our passions those pages of opinion and errour will distract and disorder us Lust will inflame us Anger swell us Ambition lift us up to that formidable height from whence we must needs fall into the pit But the Truth casteth down all Babels and casteth out all false imaginations which present unto us appearances for realities yea plagues for peace which make us pour out our souls on variety of unlawful objects and pitifully deceive us about the nature and end of things What a price doth Luxury set on wealth and how doth it abhor poverty and nakedness What an heaven is the highest place to Ambition and what an hell disgrace though it be for goodness it self How doth a jewel glitter in the eye and what a slur is there on virtue What brightness hath the glory of the world and how sad and sullen an aspect have Religion and Piety And all this is till the purchase be made which our Text commendeth No sooner have we bought the Truth but it discovereth all pulleth off every masque and suffereth us no longer to be blinded and beguiled but sheweth us the true face and countenance of things It letteth us see vanity in riches folly in honour death and destruction in the pomp of this world It maketh poverty a blessing misery a mercy a cottage as good as the Seragglio and death it self a passage to an happy eternity It taketh all things by the right end Exod. 4.4 and teacheth us how to handle and deal with them as Moses taking the serpent by the tail had it restored to its own shape In a word the Truth here meant is that which S. Augustine calleth legem omnium artium artem omnipotentis artificis a Law to direct all arts an Art taught by Wisdom it self by the Maker of all things It teacheth us to love God with all our hearts to believe in him and to lead upright lives It killeth in us the root of sin it extinguisheth all lusts it maketh us tread under foot pleasure and honour and wealth it rendreth us deaf to the noyse of this busie world and blind to that glaring pomp which dazleth the eyes of others Hâc praeeunte seculi fluctus calcamus It goeth before us in our way and through all the surges of this present world it bringeth us to the vision and fruition of him who is Truth it self Therefore this concerneth us above all other Truths yea others are of no use at all further then by being subservient to this they help us to our chief end our union to God who is the first Truth and our communion with him If I know mine own infirmities what need I trouble my self about the decay of the world If the word of God be powerful in me what need I search the secret operations of the stars Am I desirous to know new things The best novelty is the New creature What folly it is to study the state and condition of the Saints and in the mean time to take no pains to be one to be curiously inquisitive how my soul was conveyed into me and wretchedly careless how it goeth out to dispute who is Antichrist when I my self am not a Christian to spend that time in needless controversies in which I might make my peace with God to be more careful to resolve a doubt then to cure a wounded spirit to to maintain my opinion then to save my soul to be ambitious to reconcile opinions which stand in a seeming opposition and be dull and heavy in composing my own thoughts and ordering my counsels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aescl yl Not he that knoweth much but he that knoweth that which is useful is wise Why gaze we on a bugle or piece of glass when we are to bargain for a pearl for that Truth which doth alone adorn that mind which was made not to joyn with shadows and phantasmes but to receive wisdom and virtue and God himself Thus I have given you some kind of view of the merchandise and shewed you in general what the Truth here meant is Now that it may appear unto you the more desirable and more worth the buying in the next place I will discover the nature and quality of it Neither will I do as those are wont who expose their wares to sale over praise the commodity so to kindle the buyer and make him more easily part with his money or else shew it by an half-light but I will deal plainly with you according to that Law of the Aediles or Clerks of the market in Rome by which he who sold any thing was to disclose to the buyer what fault or imperfection it had If he were selling an house wherein the plague was he was to proclaim Pestilentem domum vendo that he
for the covetous as for the liberal and filleth his garments as conclusive for the malicious as for the meek and filleth his hands with bloud findeth out as many waies to destruction as it can to life This in Scripture is termed Folly and Errour Isa 5.13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no understanding saith God by his Prophet not that they had no understanding but that they used their understanding amiss making it a conduct to them in their evil waies which should have been their guide in the waies of Truth Where is the wise 1 Cor. 1.20 where is the disputer of this world We may look upon them with admiration and bow before them as the grand Sophies of the world But in the book of God where Wisdome it self speaketh they have their true name and are set down for Fools Now as there is a direct positive and wilful Hatred of the Truth so there is also Malitia interpretativa as the Schools speak a Malice which doth not shew its face so openly as the other is not so soon understood by our selves or others but may easily be discovered and found out if we take the pains to interpret it a Malice which we carry about with us when we think it is not near us And this is it When we use no more diligence to know the Truth then if we did directly affect Ignorance when we have so low an opinion of it that we think it not worth the saluting nisi in transitu but onely by the By. This if ye open and interpret it is no better then Malice For not to love the Truth is to hate it not to draw it near to us and embrace it is to thrust it far from us Lataâ—culpa nimia negligentia saith the Civile Law A careless negligence is a great fault Malitiae soror saith the Poet the sister of Malice and goeth hand in hand with her For what is the reason that Folly is with us The Heathen could tell us Quia illam fortiter non repellimus Because we like its company well enough and do not rouse up our selves to drive it away Quia citò nobis placemus Because we are soon at peace and well pleased with our selves because we do not open our breasts to the Truth but to our own and others flatteries and touch but lightly upon so great a thing Thus at once we love the Truth and hate it will not be better because we think our selves the best are soon wise and ever foolish I may call this a Pharisaical hypocritical Malice which hideth and sheweth it self all at once We cannot give a more favourable interpretation but must needs look upon it as a malicious distast of the Truth It is neither a willing nor a nilling to refuse the Truth properly so called for we neither chuse it nor absolutely refuse it we neither seek it nor plainly shun it but stand still when we should make hast towards it hold the price in our hand and never profer it but what Antony imputed to Augustus as an argument of his cowardise lie supinely on our backs and look up to heaven when we should fight when we should be up and doing This is properly I say neither a chusing nor a refusing But because it should be one of them and is not it is therefore in esteem the contrary Because we do not love the Truth to which our Love is due we may be truly said to hate it Because we do not lay down the price for such a jewel it is argument of force enough to make it good that it is not in all our hearts This interpretative Malice hath taken hold of the greatest part of mankind and so entangled and puzzled them in the mazes and labyrinths of Errour that they wander from vanity to vanity and can never find the way out Many are hurried away by their Affections more swallowed up by Prejudice and buried therein as in a grave Few there be that are professed enemies to the Truth but this indirect Hatred of it even covereth the face of the earth like a deluge and there remain but a few souls within the Ark. Every man almost commendeth Truth yet most proscribe her and give her a bill of divorce Every man professeth himself a Scholar of the Truth but few learn it Every man cometh to the market but few buy The Bloud thirsty will detest cruelty in others and yet wash his feet in the bloud of the innocent The Oppressour will plead for mercy to the poor and yet grind their face will cry down persecution and yet raise one The wanton will fling a stone at an adulterer and defile himself The Intemperate will make a panegyrick on Temperance and be a beast Virtue I say is as the Sun and we see it but when we should receive its rayes and influence into our selves and grow thereby we turn away our face and understand not what we do understand and see not when we see we see it at distance but when we should draw it near unto us and apply it we are stark blind Then Cruelty is Mercy Oppression justice Intemperance temperance an Evil is any thing but what it is Jer. 4.22 Thus the Prophet saith of the Jews My people is foolish they have not known me they are sottish children and they have no understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr This ignorance sometimes is called Ignorance and sometimes hath the name of knowledge in the Scripture Such knowledge is ignorance nay it is worse then ignorance because we draw it not forward to its end but run to the contrary and so fall more dangerously then if we saw nothing at all but were blind indeed Again how many precepts of Truth are there which though delivered in plain terms we will not understand Luke 14.13 14. When thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind And a reason is annexed And thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just Yet what rich mans table is furnished with such guests Do we not look upon this Evangelical precept as the Priest and the Levite did upon the wounded man Luke 10.31 32 and pass by on the other side We are so far from counting it a duty that it appeareth to us a mere solecisme and gross absurdity in behaviour And we doubt not to receive the reward promised though we make not our selves ridiculous by performing the duty Again Luke 6.35 Lend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking for nothing again The words are plain and they are the words of Wisdom and yet what can be more heretical to the covetous In udo est veritas All the truth we have floteth upon our tongues Why else should any Truth distast us why should we be displeased at any
Though it cannot yet better Nothing then be at loss But our Accountant here S. Paul when he hath reckoned all sitteth down a loser For you see his Particulars are many but his Sum is Nothing and which is worse then Nothing Loss and lower yet but Dung ver 8. the most unsavoury loss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcision is concision and the teachers of it dogs ver 2. that will not onely bark but bite evil workers that work to pull down and build to ruine His confidence in the flesh he castest away his privileges disenable him his zele is madness the Law and the righteousness thereby oh he is ashamed of it He will by no means be found in it ver 9. His gain is loss all things but dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 garbage and filth to be thrown to dogs ver 8. Obsecro expone te paululum saith the Father Good Apostle what paradoxes what riddles are these Unfold thy self What Circumcision Nothing Thy self bledst under the knife The Law Nothing Why it was just and true and holy and good And Righteousness the very name is pretious Expone te paululum We are in a cloud and besieged with darkness we cannot believe S. Paul himself without an exposition Verily a strange contemplation it is and we may at first conceive S. Paul now to have been not in the third heaven but in a cloud Every step is in darkness every word a mystery But yet follow him to ver 8. and some day appeareth the day-spring from on high hath visited us And then the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is most excellent is most desirable Bring in the knowledge of Christ and righteousness by faith and the righteousness which is of the Law is not a wish nor worth the looking on In Comparisons it is so One object may carry that lustre and eminency above another that they will scarce stand together in comparison What is a Bugle to a Crown What is a Cottage to a Kingdom What is Gold to Virtue What is unrighteousness to the Law And what is the Law to Christ My Apostle then concludeth well Circumcision is nothing and the Law is nothing and gain is loss and all things are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. It is now day with us and Christ himself appeareth But every dawning is not a day Every apparition is not a full manifestation A general notion of Christ is not light enough but leaveth him still as it were in shadows and under the veil To know him is life but to know him crucified saith S. Paul As Apelles in every line so Christ is most clearly seen in the several passages of his glorious dispensation and oeconomy Christ crucified Christ risen from the dead Christ on the wings of the wind in his ascension is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great spectacle worthy our contemplation an object as full of light as comfort Who would not go forth to see such a sight Behold then Faith ver 9. draweth and openeth the veil and presenteth Christ not onely in his bloud and sufferings but in his triumph and resurrection with the keyes of Hell and of Death with power and authority And can we wonder to see S. Paul contemn and spurn at all that he hath to sell all that he hath for this Pearl Should he take up dung and leave a diamond Can we think he forgetteth himself when he desireth to be forgetful of those things which he hath cast behind him Or what posture can we think to behold him in but in that of Extension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 13. stretched forth and earnestly reaching at the object For see his supply far exceedeth what before he could not want and the gain answereth and confuteth each particular of his loss Do the evil workers cry up Circumcision S. Paul doth so little need it that himself is the supply For we our selves are the circumcision ver 3. That which maketh and constituteth a Christian is the Circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 Do they thunder out the Law He is as loud for the knowledge of Christ. Do they plead Righteousness He pleadeth it too but his plea is stronger the Righteousness through the faith of Christ they plead the Law which worketh wrath and cannot give life In a word He will renounce his stock his tribe his sect the Law and will be no more a Jew or Pharisee that he may be a Christian That he may know him and the power of his resurrection c. This is the dependence of my Text. Apart it affordeth thus much variety We have here our Apostle's desire levelled on two things To attain and To know To attain to the resurrection of the dead and To know Christ and the virtue of his resurrection and passion The first is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime architectonical end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher would call it that which setteth all a working a Resurrection to glory The second comprehendeth those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intermediate operations which lead us to this end To rise to glory is a glorious end and it is proposed to all but none attain to it but by the knowledge of Christ and by the power of his resurrection and by the fellowship of his sufferings and conformity to his death I know there is a subordination of Ends but here we cannot suddenly determine which is S. Paul's principal and chief end his desire is carried with that vehemency and so fixed on both He desireth to attain and he desireth to know and he would not know but that he might attain nor attain without this knowledâ—â— He would rise with Christ in glory but he would rise and suffer with him here first in this life He would be a Saint in heaven but first a Christian on earth His desire is eager on both and it is not easie to discern where the flame is hottest I told you he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extended and stretched forth And so he is like Elijah on the child on each part and limb of Christ's oeconomy For though he mention onely his Passion and Resurrection yet he includeth the rest And we must remember to take the great work of our Redemption though the passages and periods of it be various for one continued act S. Paul would be born with Christ and he would die with Christ that he might rise with Christ and that he might reign with Christ His desire is eager but not irregular He would not be with Christ if he were not first like him nor have Glory without Grace nor attain if he did not know nor go to heaven without Christ's unction which may make him conformable to him My Division now is easie Our Apostle desireth to know and to attain And as Knowledge hath its Object
Joseph's Pit and Prison Jonah's Whale Daniel's Den were but types and bare resemblances This is a patern with power He hath shewed it us already and at his second coming he will give us power to take it out For as an artificer hath not lost his art when he hath finished one piece no more did Christ his power when he raised himself No it worketh still even to the end of the world Perfectissimum est exemplar minùs perfecti That which he wrought upon himself was most exact and perfect a fit patern for that he means to work on us which will be like to his indeed but not so glorious Not that Christ is so like us that he cannot work but by a patern nor raise us out of our graves unless he look back into his own Our imaginations are not so gross But Christ hath drawn forth his Resurrection as exemplary ex parte resuscitandorum for us to shew how we should rise and that upon our graves shall be written too the epitaph of Resurrection They are risen they are not here Thus is Christ the exemplary cause of our resurrection But this indeed demonstrateth not a power nor will a patern raise me I may have the copy of the Universe but I cannot make another world I may behold the picture of Christ rising from the dead and not be able to draw a line after it Christ is risen I read it in Scripture and believe it too but this will no more raise me up then it will make me valiant to read of Scipio or of Julius Caesar I confess Objects have a moving and attractive force but no such forcible causality The Heavens are a fair sight but they will not make a blind man see And shall a bare patern then make a dead man rise again It is true If it were onely a patern and no more it could not or if he who gave us the patern who was the patern had not given us an instrument to work by even Faith the instrumental cause of our spiritual Resurrection And now it doth raise us up as the object of our Faith merely by being looked upon as the brasen serpent did heal those who were bitten in the wilderness Besides this we may boldly say there is a proper efficiency in Christ's Resurrection an influence and virtue flowing from it upon us a dew as the Prophet calleth it a dew on our souls and a dew on our bodies a dew which will recover a withered soul and make a dead body grow again Our Apostle plainly saith Rom. 4.25 By it we are justified and by it we are raised For if there went forth virtue from his very garment why may not a power proceed also from his Resurrection I know Christ is all in all not bound nor confined to any instrument If he had not risen yet as God he might have raised us But when he dieth and riseth again for our sakes when he useth this to this end we may well call it an efficient cause because he made it so But did not Christ finish all upon the cross Nor do I attribute all to his Resurrection but a power to perform something after the Consummatum est when all was done a power to apply his merits and make his satisfaction sure pay as the stamp and character doth not better a piece of gold but make it current I told you before the whole work of our Redemption though the passages be various is in esteem but one continued act Nor in laying out the causes of our salvation must we sever and divide the Passion from the Resurrection And yet we never read that either the Resurrection did satisfie or the Passion raise us and we may be bold to say without any derogation to Christ's Death and Passion that we are raised again by the power of his Resurrection And now Come see in Christ's Resurrection thy own Nostra natura in Christi hypostasi revixit saith the Father Our nature was united in Christ's Person and in him revived As he took of us To die once so we take from him To rise again and live for ever Son of man can these bones live Ezek. 37.3 it was said to the Prophet in the valley of bones Can these dry bones this dust scattered before the wind this flesh burnt to ashes or devoured by fishes or digested by Cannibals after so many alterations and dispersions and assimilations live Yes He will prophesie upon these bones and call them from the four winds and the breath of Christ's Resurrection shall revive them And this is not a bold presumption as the Heathen termed it For though my flesh be eaten by a Cannibal and that Cannibal by a beast and that beast by fishes and those fishes by men and those men by fishes again though I have all these dispersions and transmigrations of my flesh yet am I still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the storehouses of a powerful Lord and he will recollect and restore me to my own substance again de Caio Caius reducetur as Tertullian speaketh the same Caius that died shall be raised up Think saith he what thou wert before thou wert and then thou canst not doubt but that he that made thee by his word of Nothing can gather thy sacttered parts again by the power of his resurrection But if power be most seen in the performance of the greatest difficulties see yet a more uncouth and horrid spectacle more irrecoverable then rottenness more sensless then a carcase Behold a dead Soul in a living body which is dead and yet dieth every moment behold a man who if he were not mortal would be dead and dying to all eternity You will say the man liveth and eateth and talketh and is in health I but his Soul is dead by which he liveth and then what life is that which Death it self doth actuate For see a Man the statue of himself who being destitute of Grace hath lost his Reason or maketh no other use of it but to mislead him Aures assunt sed migravit auditor His Ears are open but his hearing is gone Eyes he hath but seeth no more then a dead corpse with the eyes open His Tongue is nailed to the roof of his mouth and he keepeth silence but onely from good No action no motion no affection His Understanding is the house of darkness and oblivion his Will a wandering shadow his Affections distracted and blown before the wind scattered like so many straws on a wrought sea from billow to billow from vanity to vanity from one excess to another Son of man can these bones live Can these broken sinews of the soul come together again Can such a disordered clock where every wheel is broken be set again Can this dead soul this almost a Devil be made a Saint and walk before God in the land of the living We stand amazed and must answer with the Prophet O Lord God thou knowest This knowledge is too
give him so much power as to think there is nothing in our selves and because he can bear all the burthen not to touch it with one of our fingers For this is to defeat his Will of its end and his Power of its operation and as much as in us lieth to bury the Resurrection it self To conclude this Behold the Lord shall descend with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the dead bodies shall arise And this is the Resurrection of the body And behold he descendeth with a shout with his own voice with the trump of God which is his Gospel he descendeth and knocketh and is willing to enter the heart of Man though it be but a sepulchre of rotten bones And they that hear his voice do come forth and walk in newness of life And this is the first Resurrection But it is too plain every man doth not hear Christ's voice and the power of his Resurrection is still the same For here something is required at our hands something we are to do our selves And though all supply be from him and we have nothing which we have not received yet he is pleased to take it as our contribution In this he doth not love to be alone For what is an Object without an Act What is the beauty of the firmament if there were no eye to discover it Therefore if we will have Christ anoint us or his Resurrection powerfully to raise us we must with S. Paul learn to forget all other things and stretch our selves towards him and earnestly study to know him and the power of his Resurrection Which is next to be considered That I may know him and the power of his resurrection We cannot take in all and therefore will conclude with this That I may know him Why who knoweth him not They that blaspheme him know him they that betray him know him they know him that persecute and crucifie him in his members every day they that make use of his name not to cast out Devils but to be so the accusers and destroyers of their brethren who make use of the name of a Saviour to pluck up and root out even those that know him and his resurrection And if to know him be all then with Hymenaeus and Philetus we may say the resurrection is past already all graves are open and not onely many Saints but even Devils themselves are risen But we must remember that in Scripture works of knowledge imply the Affections and Knowledge is commonly linked and joyned with its end If a man say he knoweth him 1 John 2.4 and keepeth not his commandments he is a liar He that shall say he knoweth Christ that he receiveth and embraceth his doctrine that he loveth him and is his disciple and yet keepeth not his commandments which is the onely argument of Love the best approbation of his Doctrine and the true badge and mark of a Disciple is a liar and he that saith he knoweth the power of his resurrection and is not risen from the dead is a liar and the truth is not in him For how can he at once embrace his doctrine and reject it love Christ and yet despise him be a disciple and betray him And what a soloecism is the power of the Resurrection in his mouth who loveth his grave and will not be raised up It is not speculative but practick knowledge that the Apostle here studieth For that knowledge which endeth in it self is worse then Ignorance because Ignorance may somewhat mitigate and lessen our neglect but Knowledge profest Knowledge doth enlarge the bill and hand writing which is against us and draweth it out in more bloudy and killing characters then before This Knowledge is not here meant For 1. This speculative Knowledge is a naked assent and no more and hath nothing in it of the Will For the Understanding is not an arbitrary but a necessary faculty and cannot but apprehend things in that shape and form they represent themselves in And therefore towards our Resurrection there is required something of the Seraphim and something of the Cherubim Heat as well as Light and Love as well as Knowledge For Love is active and will remove every stone and difficulty when speculative Knowledge and idle Faith may leave us in our graves onely looking upwards but bound hand and foot Love will make a battery and forcible entrance into heaven whilest Speculation standeth without and looketh upon it as in a map For Speculation is but a look a cast of the eye of the Understanding and no more and doth but place us as God did Moses on mount Nebo to see that spiritual Canaan which we shall never enjoy And then what comfort is it to know what Justification is and want the hand of a lively Faith to lay â—old on Christ what Sanctification is and yet to stand it out and resist the blessed Spirit to read and believe it too that a good conscience is a continual feast and not to taste of one of her dainties to dispute of Paradise and have no title to it to know Christ and not savour of his oyntment and the power of his resurrection and be more unremoveable then a rock more unrecoverable then they who have been dead long ago and are in a manner to be restored out of Nothing And what a fruitless Knowledge is that which can speak largely of God's Grace and resist it of Perseverance and fall more then seven times a day This is not true Knowledge but a bare assent and so far from being injoyned in Scripture that in respect of it Ignorance may seem the safer choice and rather then thus onely to know we may say with the Apostle Let them that be ignorant be ignorant still For 2. This bare naked Knowledge doth work in us at the most but a weak purpose of mind a faint velleity a forced and unvoluntary approbation For who can see such a sight and not in some degree be taken Who can see the glory of his Resurrection and not be moved Who can look upon the Temple and not ask What buildings are these Who can see the way to life and not approve it Christ is the way and Christ is risen that we might rise from sin We know it and confess it But if this would raise us up what a multitude of Sectaries what a herd of Epicures what an assembly of Pharisees what a congregation of fools I had almost said what a Legion of Devils were already risen with him We know Christ we talk of nothing more In our misery we implore his help In his name we lie down and in his name we rise up In his name we cast out Devils When affliction beateh upon us he charmeth the storm when our conscience chideth us he maketh our peace In adversity in distress in the tempest of a torn and distracted soul he is all in all We talk of him we feed on
entail the inheritance of Heaven on themselves and them of their own sect Putares eos jam in coelo esse You would think they were in heaven with God already Is there not a kind of competition and holy emulation who shall be nearest to God who shall find him soonest This is the generation of them that seek the Lord that is a generation of vipers For let me tell you For all this stir and noise for all this pressing and thronging we may be far from God And if we bring our endeavours to the ballance we shall find that our seeking commonly falleth short and is too light Take all those parts which make it up and we shall find peradventure some approches some elevations of the mind theoricos animi conatus as the Schools call them some thin and airy speculations the busie but fruitless labour of the thoughts similes conatibus expergisci volentium as St. Augustine speaketh like to the turnings and strivings of men who would awake when sleep is heavy on them they strive to rise and then fall down upon their pillow fast asleep All our seeking is for the most part but the sudden flight of the soul the business of the mind the labour nay the lust of the ear verbum abbreviatum a short word a profer an ejaculation a breath an intention a thought inanibus phantasmatibus tanquam pictis epulis reficimur These phantasms these vain imaginations these dreams of God are but as a banquet in a picture For as painted junkets may delight the eye but not fill the stomack A painters shop is but a poor ordinary so do these weak but glorious conceptions of the mind tickle and please the phansie perhaps A Saint is sooner canonized in the brain then in the heart but bring leanness into the soul and leave it empty and poor A great errour there is in our lives to argue à parte ad totum to take the part for the whole and from the superficial performance of some particular duty to conclude and vainly arrogate to our selves an universal obedience as if what Tiberius the Emperour was wont to say of his half-eaten meats were true also of our divided duties our parcel and curtail'd seeking of God Omnia eadem habere quae totum every part of it every motion and inclination to it had as much in it as the whole body and compass of obedience and as if there were that mutual agreement and sympathy of duties in a Christian which Physicians say there is of the parts of a living creature the same sapor and tast in a disposition to goodness that is in a habit of goodness the same heat and heartiness in a thought or word that is in a constant and earnest perseverance in a velleity as much activity as in a will as much in a Pharisee's exterminated countenance as in St. Paul's severe discipline and mortification and as Hippocrates speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the least performance all the parts of our obedience in a mere approbation desire in a desire will in a displacency repentance and in a wish our seeking Saepe sibi de se mentitur mens ipsa saith Gregory We never lye more often and more foully then to our selves The mind is made the Devil's forge in which he worketh and shapeth those pleasing errours which destroy it so prone we are to deceive our selves Where our seeking of God is defective and lame we underprop it with a thought a thought that we run the wayes of God's Commandements when we lye weltring in our own bloud We call a sight of God a seeking of God a looking after him an embrace nay our very running from him a cleaving to him and our covenant with hell our peace with God as erring men call opinion knowledge and hereticks anathematized all others as so as we commonly call the dawning or first appearance of light the Day though the Sun be not yet up And this is nothing else but in the Father's phrase texere operibus vacuis araneae telam to spin out these empty and thin speculations as the spider doth his web which every breath will sweep away or as Basil speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be broad awake and yet to see visions or which is more true to dream dreams You will ask me then What is it to seek the Lord I deny not any of these but these are not all Lectio inquirat contemplatio degustet Let us search the Scripture to find him there let our contemplation tast and feed upon him let our thoughts be full of him and let us sing his praises every day But nisi vim feceris coelorum regna non capies saith Hierome God is not found the Kingdom of Heaven is not taken but by violince To win God we must first overcome our selves quantum possumus imò plus quà m possumus as far as we can nay if it be possible more then we can In a word we must seek him in those wayes in which he is pleased to lead us For if we should chuse our own wayes we should straight be in his Cabinet and in his Throne ordering and marshailing his decrees when it will be far safer for dust and ashes to keep its proper station to move in its own sphere and to walk below and seek him here on earth it s allotted place We are all sick of our father's disease and instead of seeking desire to be as God but not in that which will make us like him We would know as God foresee as God when this knowledge is too high for us this prescience and foresight would make us never a whit the wiser For what profit were it to foresee that evil which I cannot avoid or what could this bring but a mere vexation of spirit And if we had his power which is impossible it would undo us Omnipoteney in a mortal would be the most incongruous and dangerous thing in the world If man had an illimited power certainly the world could not subsist we should soon be raining down fire and brimstone we should never be seen but in a tempest round about us in thunder and lightning We see that little power that derived power we have what desolations it hath made on the earth No to desire these the knowledge of things to come or a power to do what we will is not to seek the Lord. Let the Prophet then interpret himself in the verse immediately following my Text Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. This is to seek him not a thought not knowledge not an inefficacious faith not a vain and empty speculation but an universal obedience and conformity to his will not when we cry Lord Lord but when we do the will of our Father which is in Heaven then we seek him For our seeking of him is nothing else but a bowing of the will and conforming it to his law
light to stand up against our helps and to disgrace that for which the Saints of God have offered up the calves of their lips Hebr. 13.15 the sacrifice of praise from generation to generation But when we have no peace within we trouble all that is about us When the love of our selves and of the world hath gained a throne and power within us it presently raiseth a tempest distracteth and maddeth our passions and sendeth them abroad our Anger on that we should love our Fear on that we should embrace our Sorrow on that which should make us glad our Anger on the Temple whilest our Love is carried with a swinge to the gold of the Temple And then what an unruly thing is Phansie in men who talk much and know little in men of narrow minds and heavy understandings in men who have bound their reason to the things of this world and not improved it by the knowledge of the truth What Comedies and Tragedies will it make what ridiculous but withall sad effects will it produce If this humour were general as it is in too-too many within a while we should not know where or when or what to pray we shall not know how to move our selves how to stand or go or kneel we should make some scruple and be troubled to take up a straw we should fall out with others and disagree with our selves we should to day build a Church and within a while pull it down and shortly after set it up again we should kneel to day and stand to morrow and every day change our postures and appear in as many shapes as Proteus we should do and undo and every day do what we should not do be Antipodes to all the world and which is strange to our selves also and so having been every thing at last turn Apostates first oppose the private spirit to Scripture and then as some have done of late deny it to be the word of God first wrest and abuse it and then take it quite away These are the common operations of a sick and distempered brain the evaporations of a corrupt heart Nor can we look for grapes from thorns nor for figs from thistles Matth. 7.16 It cannot be expected that things sacred should escape the hands of Violence and Profaneness till men begin to love Religion for it self and cease to think every thing unlawful that may be spoken against till they have learnt that totum Christiani that which maketh a Christian indeed learnt to subdue their affections to the truth and not to draw down the truth to be subject to their unquiet and turbulent passions When true devotion hath once purified and warmed our hearts we shall not trouble our selves or others with low and groundless questions concerning God's house Though he be indeed every where yet we shall think him more present here then in any other place more ready to shine upon us to distill his blessings as dew upon us in his own house then in our closet or shop more ready to favour the devotion of many assembled together then of one single person and yet hearing and favouring both Or if we do not think the Lord more present here then elsewhere yet we shall demean our selves as if we did think so we shall use all reverence as in the sight of God before vvhom vve present our selves vve shall use all reverence as being before the holy Angels What you will say do Angels come to Church Yes They did in St. Paul's time And certainly they do still unless we chase them away with our irreverence One argument that the Apostle useth why women should be veiled and covered in the Church and men uncovered is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 Nor need we strain and study for an interpretation and say he meant the Pastours of the Church because in Scripture sometime they are called Angels Hagg. 1.13 Mal. 2.7 For this is too much forced and maketh the reason less valid and putteth the Veil upon the Man as well as the Woman Nor can we understand the evil Spirits Psal 78.49 Matth. 25.41 Rev. 12.7 9. Hebr 1.14 which are no where called Angels but with addition Nor can I see any reason why we may not understand the holy Angels to be there meant For they are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation then doubtless they minister to us in the Church assoon as in any other place They rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner Luke 15. ◠10 then doubtless they rejoyce also at our prayers and praises in the house of the Lord. But say some the Apostle in that place exhorteth women to imitate the reverent and modest behaviour of the Angels Isa 6.2 who are said to cover their faces before the throne of God But then this again would concern Men as well as Women All will be plain if we consider that at that time it was a received custome for women to be veiled and men uncovered in the Church 1 Cor. 11.7 13. The words are plain A man indeed ought not to cover his head and Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered If the women therefore will not be covered because of men 11. let them do it because of the Angels who are sent by Christ into the congregations of Christians to take care of them to help them in every occasion and withall to observe whether they behave themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 14.40 decently and in order Here they are present in the name of their Lord here they stand as witnesses of what is done To them as to their Lord that sent them modest and reverent behaviour is pleasing boldness profaness and disorder hateful As they do their duty in ministring to us so they rejoyce to see us doe ours in serving God Why should they be grieved who are so ready to attend on us Therefore it will concern Women not to neglect or alter the custome of the Church lest by so doing they give offense to the blessed Angels who are great lovers of decency and order and make them who would minister to them to become witnesses against them upon the beck of Majesty executioners of judgement upon their heads This I take to be the meaning of the Apostle in that place Reverence is due to the house of God not onely because God is present there Ye shall reverence my sanctuarie Levit. 19.30 I am the Lord but because the Angels are present there also who are the ministers of the God of order and rejoyce in our order and are offended at the contrary Further yet a reverent deportment in the Church is necessary in respect of men Some men by their severity and eminency in virtue have obtained to themselves this privilege and prerogative that no man dareth do any evil or undecent thing in their presence Seneca saith
that deceived me every man vvould be ready to say Ah my brother or Ah his glory but vvhen it is I my self deceive my self when I my self am the cheater and the fool and never think my self vviser then vvhen I beguile my self it is a thing indeed to be lamented with tears of bloud but yet it deserves no pity at all Nulla est eorum habenda ratio qui se conjiciunt in non necessarias angustias saith the Civilian The Law helps not those vvho entangle themselves with intricate perplexities nor doth the light of the Gospel shine comfortably upon those vvho vvill not see it It is a true saying He that will not be saved must perish Dyed Abner as a fool dyeth saith David Doth this man erre as a fool erreth or is he deceived for want of understanding or because of the remoteness and distance of the object Then our Saviour himself will plead for him John 9. If you were blind you should have no sin But in the Self-deceiver it is not so His hands are not bound nor his feet tyed in fetters of brass His eye is clear but he dimms it The object is near him even in his mouth and his heart but he puts it from him The law is quick and lively but he makes it a dead letter He turns the day into darkness gropeth at noon as at midnight and turns the morning it self into the shadow of death We have a worthy Writer who himself was Ambassadour in Turky that hath furnisht us with a polite narration of the manners of the people and the customes of the places Amongst the rest he tells us what himself observed that when the Turks did fall to their cups and were resolved to fill themselves with such liquor as they knew would intoxicate and make them drunk they were wont to make a great and unusual noyse with which they called down their Soul to the remotest part of their bodies that it might be as it were at distance and so not conscious of their brutish intemperance Beloved our practice is the very same When we venture upon some gross notorious sin which commends and even sanctifieth it self by some profit or pleasure it brings along with it we straight call down our Reason that it may not check us when we are reaching at the prey nor pull us back when we are climbing to honour nor work a loathing in us of those pleasures which we are drinking down as the ox doth water we say unto it Art thou come to blast our riches and to poyson our delights Shall we now part with the wedge of gold shall we fly the harlots lips as a cocatrice Shall we lay our honour in the dust Shall every thing which our soul loveth be like the mountain which must not be toucht Avoid Reason not now Reason but Satan to trouble and torment us What have we to do with thee Thou art an offense unto us a stone of offense a scandal And now if there be a Dixit Dominus against us if the Lord say it he doth not say it if a Prophet speak it he prophesies lyes if Christ speak it we bid him Depart from us for we will be sinful men And hence it comes to pass that our errour is manifest and yet not seen that our errour is known but not acknowledged that our errour is punisht but not felt Hence it comes to pass that we regard not the truth we are angry with the truth we persecute the truth that admonitions harden us that threatnings harden us that judgments harden us that both the sunshine and the storm when God shines upon us and when he thunders against us we are still the same knowing enough but basely prostituting our knowledge and experience to the times and our lusts false to God and our selves and so walking on triumphantly in the errours of our life dreaming of eternity till at last we meet with what we never dreamt of death and destruction Read 2 Kings 8. and see the meeting of Elisha and Hazael The Text saith v. 11 12 13. The man of God wept And when Hazael askt him Why weepeth my Lord the Prophet answered Because I know the evil that thou wiâ—t do to the children of Israel Their strong holds thou wilt set on fire and their young men thou wilt slay with the sword and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child What did Hazael now think Even think himself as innocent as those children What is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing Should the same weeping Prophet have wept out such a Prophesie to some of after ages and have told them Thus and thus you shall do actions that have no savour of Man or Christian actions which the Angels desire not to look upon and which Men themselves tremble to think on would they not have replied as Hazael did Are we Dogs and Devils that we should do such things And yet we know such things have been done I might here enlarge my self and proceed to discover yet a further danger For Errour is fruitful and multiplies it self It seldom ends where it begins but steals upon us as the Night first in a twilight then in thicker darkness Onely the difference is it is commonly night with us when the Sun is up and in our hemisphere We run upon Errour when Light it self is our companion and guide First we deceive our selves with some gloss some pretense of our own Our passion our lust our own corrupt heart deceiveth us And anon our Night is dark as Hell it self and we are willing to think that God may be of our mind well pleased with our errour Now against this we must set up the Wisdom of God Be not deceived It is not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is not mocked saith our Apostle This I call'd the Vindication of Gods Wisdom my second part Of which in the next place The Nine and Twentieth SERMON PART II. GALAT. VI. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap HAving done with the first part of the Text a Dehortation from Errour in these words Be not deceived I proceed to the second which I call a Vindication of God's Wisdome in the next words God is not mocked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an undeniable position The eyes of the Lord saith the Prophet 2 Chron. 16.9 run to and fro throughout the whole earth Deus videt and Deus judicat are common notions which we receive è censu naturae out of the stock and treasury of Nature there being such a sympathy betwixt these principles and the mind of Man that so far forth as the acknowledgment of these will bring us the soul is naturaliter Christiana a Christian by nature it self without the help of Grace There was no man ever who acknowledged a God but gave him a bright and piercing eye This is
truly stiled Catholick Some reason perhaps they may have to rely upon Number because indeed they have neither reason nor autority to uphold the state and supremacy of their Church Therefore having no better forces they make use of this their forlorn hope like men who having a bad cause care not what aid they take-in The Oratour said well of the three hundred Spartanes now doubting to go up against the numerous army of Xerxes Lacones se numerant non aestimant that the Spartanes did number not esteem themselves And it might be justly said of us if this Mormo should affright us if we should distrust our cause because there be so many that oppose it What though a troop cometh Yet if the Truth be on our side one of us shall be able to chase ten thousand Isa 37.6 Be not afraid of the words which ye have heard as the Prophet said to Hezekiah Be not afraid of their number nor ashamed of the Truth when her retinue is but small The multitude may perish that are born in vain as the Lord said to Esdras And we say of it as Tertullian doth of the unveiling of Virgins Id negat quod ostendit Multitude is so far from being a note of the Church that it doth rather deny then demonstrate it For see amongst so many men in comparison but few there are who profess the name of Christ amongst so many professours but few orthodox amongst so many orthodox but few righteous persons amongst the multitude but one woman that lifteth up her voice in the behalf of Christ And as it was no prejudice to the Truth that she was but one no more was it that she was a Woman For why might not a woman whose eye was clear and single see more in Christ then the proudest Pharisee who wore his phylacterie the broadest All is not in the miracle but in the eye in the mind which being goggle or misset or dimmed with malice or prejudice beholdeth not things as they are but through false mediums putteth upon them what shape it pleaseth receiveth not the true and natural species they present but vieweth them at home in it self as in a false glass which returneth back by a deceitful reflection And this is the reason why not onely Miracles but doctrinal Precepts also find so different enterteinment Every man layeth hold on them and wresteth them to his own purpose worketh them on his own anvile and shapeth them to his own phansie and affections as out of the same mass Phidias could make a Goddess and Lysippus a Satyre Do ye wonder to hear a Woman bless the womb that bare Christ and the Pharisees blaspheme him It is no wonder at all For though the acts of the Understanding depend not on the Will and the Mind of man necessarily apprehendeth things in those shapes in which they present themselves yet when the Will rejecteth those means that are offered when Anger raiseth a storm and Malice and Prejudice cast up a mist then the Understanding groweth dim and receiveth not the natural shapes of things but those false appearances which the Affections tender to it When the Will is perverse non permittit intellectum diu stare in dictamine recto saith Scotus The Understanding followeth her planetary motion and having no better guide runneth into the very den of Errour Therefore the complaint in Scripture is They will not understand Experience will teach us how common a thing it is in the world for men to stand stiff in their opinions against all evidence whatsoever though it be as clear as the day S. Augustine observeth of the Manichees Scio esse quosdam qui quanquam bono ingenio ista videant malâ tamen voluntate quâ ipsum quoque ingenium sunt amissuri Lib. de morib Manich. pertinaciter negant I know saith he many of you who have sharp and quick understanding and cannot but see the truth but your Will is evil which betrayeth the Understanding and leadeth you to that pertinacy that will never consent to the truth but seeketh out rather what probably may be said against it And this very reason Arnobius giveth of the Heathens obstinacies Quid facere possumus considerate nolentibus c. saith he What can we do or say or how can we convince them who will not be induced once to deliberate and weigh things as they are nor condescend to speak and confer with themselves and with their own reason This I take to be the meaning of that in Hilary Quot voluntates tot fides every man frameth his belief by his disposition and his will So many wills so many faiths He might as well have said there be as many Creeds as passions For the Passions are subversivae rationis apt and ready to captivate the Will and to overthrow the Reason even when she standeth most erect against Errour and looketh most stedfastly on the truth While Reason hath the command they are profitable servants but when she yieldeth they are cruel tyrants and put out her eyes It is wonderful to see what a power they have in changing the face and countenance of objects Fear maketh a shadow a man and a man an hobgoblin Anger mistaketh a friend for an enemy Love of the world putteth horrour upon virtue and obstinate Malice can set nothing but the Devil's face in a miracle Common reason no doubt did perswade the Pharisees here that Christ had wrought a miracle and we cannot but think that they saw as much of the beauty of Christ's excellencies as the Woman But their gross conceit of the Messias and their love of Moses law made them find no room to entertein Him who came in a posture so contrary to their expectation no though even in the midst of them God approved him by miracles Acts 2.22 wonders and signs as they themselves knew It was their knowledge that kept them ignorant 1 Cor. 26 27. and their wisdome made them fools Not many wise after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise saith S. Paul Not that God did reject and cast men off because they were wise or mighty or noble and choose others onely for this cause because they were poor We must not think so saith Oecomenius No Tros Tyriúsve fuat nullo discrimine habetur Wise or ignorant mighty or mean noble or ignoble all are one to God neither is there with him any respect of persons But the poor received the Gospel and the rich and mighty and wise did not because it brought with it a check to their wisdome cast disgrace on their riches and a slur on their nobility with which they were so filled that there was no room for Christ Nec enim vult aeterna Sapientia haberi nisi ubi habens nihil de suo tenuit ut illam haberet The eternal Wisdome of God will keep residence in that soul
but Love joynes the Will and the Tongue and the Hand together and indeed is nothing else but a vehement and well ordered will Knowledge may be but a dream but Love is ever awake up and doing 1 John 2.3 I may so know the truth that I may be said not to know it but I cannot so love the truth that I may be said to hate it For though the Scripture sometimes attributeth knowledge of the truth to them who so live as if they knew it not yet it never casts away the pretious name of Love on those who so live as if they loved it not A Pharisee an hypocrite may know the truth but it was never written that they loved it but that they loved the praise of men more then of God And this was the reason that they had eyes and saw not eares and heard not nor understood that they had tongues and spake not that they would not be perswaded when they were convinced and withstood the truth when they were overcome In a word Knowledge may leave us like unto the idoles of the heathen with hands that handle not and mouths that speak not Love onely emulateth the power of our Saviour and works a miracle casts out the spirit which is dumb For when he spake these things not the Pharisees but a woman of the company lift up her voice And thus her heart was truly affected and she lift up her voice As the Prophet speaks Jer. 20.9 The Love of Christ was in her heart as a burning fire shut up in her bones and she was weary of forbearing and she could not stay It was like that coal of the Seraphins which being laid on her mouth Isa 6.7 she spake with her tongue Now in the next place what was it that begat her love but the admiration of Christs person his power and his wisdome This was it which kindled that heat within her which broke out at her lips Plato calls Admiration the beginning of Philosophy We admire and dwell upon the object and view it well till we have wrought the Idea of it in our minds Whence Clemens citeth this saying out of the Gospel according to the Hebrew Qui admiratus fuerit regnabit qui regnabit requiescet He that at first admires that which to him is wonderful shall at last reign and he that reigns shall be at rest shall not waver or doubt or struggle formidine contrarii with fear that the contrary should be true and that that which he saw should be but a false apparition and a deception of the sight This woman here saw and wondred and loved she saw more then the Pharisees to whom a sign from heaven appeared in no fairer shape then the work of Beelzebub She saw Christs miracles were as his letters of credence that he came from God himself She had heard of Moses and his miracles but beholds a greater then Moses here For 1. Christs miracles breathed not forth horrour and amazement as those of Moses did in and about the mountain of Sinon Nor 2. were they noxious and fatal to any as those which Moses wrought in Pharaohs court and in Aegypt He did not bring in tempest and thunder but spake the word and men were healed He did not bury men alive but raised men out of their graves He brought upon men no fiery serpents but he cast out devils If he suffered the devils to destroy the hogs yet he tyed them up from hurting of men and what is a Hog to a Man In a word Moses's miracles were to strike a terrour into the people that he might lead them by fear but Christs were to beget that admiration which might work love in those whom he was to lead with the cords of men with the bonds of love All Christs miracles were benefits Acts 10.38 For he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the devil for God was with him Christs miracles were above the reach and power of Nature Nature had no hand in the production of any of them All that we vvonder at are not Miracles not an Eclipse of the Sun vvhich the common people stand amazed at because they know not the cause of it Nor is that a Miracle vvhich is besides the ordinary course of Nature For then every Monstre should be a Miracle Nor that vvhich is done against Nature for so every child that casteth a stone up into the air doth vvork a Miracle But that is a Miracle vvhich is impossible in Nature and vvhich cannot be vvrought but by a supernatural Hand 2. Christs miracles vvere done not in a corner but before the sun and the people This Woman here heard the dumb speak she savv the blind see the lame go and the lepers cleansed Miracles vvhen they are wrought are not the object of our faith but of our sense They are signs and tokens to confirm that which we must believe 3. Christs miracles were done as it were in an instant With a touch at a word he cured diseases which Nature cannot do though helpt by the art of the Physician All the works of Nature and of Art too are conceived and perfected in the womb of Time 4. Last of all Christs miracles were perfect and exact When he raised Jairus's daughter Luke 8.55 he presently commanded them to give her meat When he cured Peters wives mother forthwith she was so strong that she arose and ministred unto them Matth. 8 1â— He gave his gifts in full measure nor could more be desired then he gave And shall not these miracles and these benefits appear wonderful in our eyes Shall not his Power beget Admiration and Admiration Love and Love command our voice Shall a woman see his wonders and shall we be as blind as the Pharisees Shall she lift up her voice and shall we still keep in us the devil that is dumb It came to pass as he did and spake these things a certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said And now we should pass to what she said but I see the time passeth away Let us therefore make some use of what hath already been said and so conclude And first let us learn from this woman here to have Christs wonderful works in remembrance to look upon them with a stedfast and a fixed eye that they may appear unto us in their full glory and fill us with admiration For Admiration is a kind of voice of the soul Miracula obstupuisse dixisse est saith Gregory Thus Silence it self may become vocal and truly to wonder at his works is to profess them This motion of the heart stirred up with reverence to the ears of the uncircumscribed Spirit is as the lifting up of the voice which speaks within us by those divers and innumerable formes and shapes of admiration which are the inward expressions of the soul When the soul is in an ecstasie when it is transported and wrapt up above it self
the foolish Virgins and our wisdom in the Wise And this is the very reason which the Fathers give why our Saviour spake so often in Parables Because we stand in need of the help of ensamples our Saviour himself whose life was ensample enough to have instructed the whole world proposeth others The cruel Miser may read his destiny in Dives's burning tongue Non guttam qui non micam He that would not give a crum of bread could not beg a drop of water The Samaritane shall instruct the Lawyer and if the Lawyer approve the mercy of the Samaritane our Saviour is ready to drive the example home and apply it Go and do thou likewise If the Disciples grow ambitious and ask who shall be greatest he will bring a child in the midst If they be contentious to wipe out that stain he will wash their feet If I your Master have washed your feet you who are but fellow-servants ought to wash one anothers feet in all humility descend to the lowest office which the necessity of your bretheren may require and call for If the Master hath done it it is no service but an honour to be like the Master The Schools will teach us Naturalia signa magis significant quà m positiva Those signs which by their very nature and a kind of secret imitation signifie things are far more expressive then those which art and humane invention have framed to this purpose and most times we are better taught by things then by words as we know a man better by his picture then by his name Therefore some have been of opinion that the best and surest way to knowledge is that which the Aegyptians of old used and the men of China use to this day to learn by Hierogliphicks Words may admit of glosses and interpretations and therefore we are forced as Tertullian speaketh vindicare proprietatem vocabuli sorti suae in our doctrines and disputes to vindicate and preserve the propriety of words entire otherwise we teach not that which we intend to teach and two may dispute to the worlds end and yet be two and at odds Fides nominum salus est proprietatum Unless you retain their proper signification there is no trust in words at all To be justified by faith the word is plain enough and yet after 1600. years we are not agreed what it is to be justified And the difference is but verbal for some take the word in this sense and some in that and so dispute Andabatarum more as blind men fight blindfold and in the dark The duties which concern our peace are written with the Sun-beams and yet we cannot well read and understand them but when we should be up and doing doubt and ask the question what it is we are to do Nec vitae discimus sed scholae We mis-spend that time in fruitless questions which was measured out unto us that in it we might be fruitful in good works If I am to give I stay my hand because I will not know to whom I am to give or how much If I am to fast I would first be resolved of the manner and the time and at last conclude and rest in that which is least terrible to the flesh To change my dyet or to miss a meal is to fast If I am to pray I am troubled whether I may use a form or do it as the spirit that is my own phansie shall on the sudden give me utterance O what a strange darkness hath over-spread the world that men cannot yet see what it is to Fast to Pray to Give an Alms What needless controversies and disputes hath it been filled with concerning the Church and Heresie and Free-will and the like Quot palaestrae opinionum quot propagines quaestionum What wrestling in opinions what multiplying of questions which had all been stated settled and composed had not each party made advantage of the words which are capable of that sense and signification which either side will lay upon them Therefore Martin Luther saith well Omnes abutuntur his vocabulis These words have been fouly abused Non enim fidei sed suis studiis ea aptant For men have so handled the matter in their disputes that they have shaped and formed them to their own purpose not to the building up of each others faith but of that politie in the Church which they affect The CHURCH sometimes is a Congregation of Saints and sometimes like Noah's Ark it taketh in both clean and unclean beasts Sometimes it is a Body whose Head is in heaven and sometimes it is a Body whose Head is also visible on earth FAITH sometimes is an Assent and a full Persuasion of the truth of what is delivered in the Gospel and sometimes it is an Application of the promises With some it is an Instrument and with some a Condition And FREE-WILL is confined to evil alone which is not the freedom but the slavery of the Will For can there be a greater slavery then to be free that is to be bound with the chains of darkness Thus you see it is with words But that representation which one thing giveth of another is more lively and constant is not capable of so much ambiguity and dispute but carrieth about with it the same face and countenance It is true the Rule in all things must have the preeminence but we are too ready to make the Rule what we please and many times it passeth by unregarded But being written out in the practice of the Saints it is of great force and efficacy St. Paul in the flesh was the best commentary on his own Epistles Would you define Humility to the life behold Christ on the Cross What better character of Zele then Phinehas with his spear nailing the adulterous couple to the ground What fairer picture of Charity then the poor widow casting in her two mites into the Treasury Would you know the true nature of Contrition and Repentance You need not pass per spineta Scholasticorum through the briars and intricate disputes of the Schools but may learn it more perfectly in the practice of the primitive Saints Behold them kissing the chains of imprisoned Martyrs washing the feet of Lazars wallowing at the Temple doors adgeniculatos charis on their knees begging the prayers of the Saints with their hair neglected their eyes hollow their bodies withered their feet bare and their knees of horn as Nazianzene poureth it out to us in a sloud of eloquence and draweth the picture for us These were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore speaketh the living statues of all Christian Philosophy for us to look upon more lively figures of true Christian Piety then all the dogmata all the positions and definitions of the Schools And this I take to be the reason why God himself hath given us a fair catalogue of all the virtues of men and women famous in their generations and hath been pleased to put it into the hearts of
a bare and inefficacious knowledge that is here meant For who knoweth not the Gospel To whom hath not this arm of the Lord been revealed They that blaspheme it look upon it They that deny the power of it look upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth more not a naked knowledge but a knowledge with the bending and incurvation of the Will If a man say he looketh into the Gospel and knoweth Christ and keepeth not his commandments he is a liar 1 John 2.4 He that looketh but slightly looketh not at all or to as little purpose as if he had been blind He that saith he knoweth the power of the Gospel and yet is obedient to the flesh and the lusts thereof is a liar and the truth is not in him For how can one at once look into the Gospel and see the glory of it and despise it What a Soloecism is the Gospel in his mouth who is yet in his sins It is not a looking but a looking into not speculative but practick knowledge that must bring on the end and crown us with blessedness It were better not to look on the Gospel then to look and not to like better to be blind then so to see for if we were blind we should have no sin that is none so great we should have some excuse for our sin Carelesly to look on the Law of liberty is not a window to let in Religion but a door and barricado to keep it out of the heart For what a poor habitation is a Look for the Gospel and Grace to dwell in The Gospel is a royal Law and a Law of Liberty Liberty from the guilt and from the dominion of sin We look upon it and are content well it should be so We know it and subscribe to it But if this would make us Gospellers what an assembly of Pharisees and Hypocrites what a congregation of men of Belial might be the true Disciples of Christ I had almost said What a Legion of Devils might go under that name We look into the Gospel and talk of nothing more In our misery and affliction in anguish and distress of conscience we confess the Gospel must charm the storm and give medicine to heal our sickness Thus we preach and thus have you believed But all this is nothing if you do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow and bend and apply your selves to the Gospel If you acknowledge its all-sufficiency and trust in the arm of flesh If when the tempest of affliction beateth upon you you make a greater tempest in your souls If ye look and go away and forget by such neglectful looking upon it ye make the word of life a killing letter For what is it to see Sin condemned in Christ's flesh and to justifie it in our own to sing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that triumphant song over Death and wilfully to run upon that disobedience of which Death is the wages to see Satan trod under our feet and yet to make our selves his slaves to look upon Life and yet to chuse Death to look upon a Law and break it upon a Law of Liberty and be servants of Sin worse then bored slaves To look then into the Law of liberty is so to weigh and consider it as to write it in our hearts and make it a part of our selves For every Look will not make a Christian The Jews did look upon Christ but they did not look upon him as the Lamb of God for then they had not butchered him We may look upon the heavens the work of God's fingers upon the Moon and the stars which he hath ordained upon this wonderful frame Rom. 1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God but we do not alwayes as David speaketh so look upon it as to consider it And then it doth not raise us up to a due admiration of God's Majesty nor bring us down to a due acknowledgment of our Subjection We are no more affected with it then as if all were still without form and void a lump or Chaos At first it is a glorious sight and no more and at last when we have familiarly looked upon it it is nothing We look upon our selves mouldering and decaying and yet we do not look into our selves for who considereth himself a mortal Dives in purple never thought how he came into the world nor how he should go out of it We neither look backward to what we were made nor forward to what we shall be Can a rich man die He will say he shall but doth he believe himself Can Herod an Angel a God be struck with worms We die daily and yet think we shall not die at all In a word We are any thing but what we are because we do not look into nor consider our selves We look upon Sin and condemn it and sin again For we do not look into it and consider it as the work of the Devil as the deformity of the Soul as a breach of that Law of liberty which was made to free us as that which hath no better wages then death and eternal separation from the God of life If we did look into it and consider it we could not commit it For no man ever yet did considerately destroy himself What then is it to look into the Law of liberty and in what is our Consideration placed He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them saith our Saviour is he that looketh into this Law and observeth it He hath an Evangelical eye I may say an Angelical eye for he boweth and inclineth himself to see And no man hath a clear eye but he that doeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a firm purpose of Doing which is to look into We must distinguish between an active and a Contemplative look or assent Then we look into this Law then we actively assent when we have first considered what difficulties accompany this Law what fightings within and terrours without what a body of sin we carry about with us what pleasing what black temptations are ready to meet us at every turn what enemies we have abroad and what in our own bosom how not onely the way but our feet also are slippery Then we must consider that eternal weight of glory which Christ hath promised to those who are obedient to this Law And then exactly observe that certain and inseparable connexion which is between this Law and Blessedness that if the one be observed the other must naturally and necessarily follow that if we be true Gospellers here we shall be Saints hereafter If this be looked into and rightly considered as it should the Will must needs bow and be obedient to this Law which as it is compassed with difficulty so it leadeth to happiness which bringeth a span of trouble and an eternity of bliss From hence ariseth that Love of Christ and his Law which
Israel and of England compared 422 423. J. JAmes St. James and St. Paul seem to contradict each other but do not 276. Jealousie vvhat in Man vvhat in God 381. 613. 643. Jer. xxv 18-29 299. JESUS how excellent a name 732 733. That JESUS is the Lord though Law and Custome and Education teach us yet vve cannot say it but by the holy Ghost 759 c. Many say so yet but few say it 763 764. He vvho saith it aright saith it vvith his Tongue 764. 770. with his Heart 765. 770. and vvith his Hand 766. 270 c. Oh vvhat pity and shame it is that Man should suffer the Flesh the World and the Devil to Lord it over him and not Jesus 768. Jews vvhy commanded to offer sacrifice 72. Why blamed sometimes for so doing 80. 82. They pleased themselves exceedingly in this and in other outward servics 108. v. Formality Their great privileges 418. Privileges of Christians greater then theirs 419. Many things vvere permitted to be done by the Jews vvhich are unlawful for a Christian 869. Their course of sinning 611. Jew a term of reproch 194. Job's case 292. 903. Joh. vi 63. 468. ¶ viii 36. 742. 1 Joh. ii 4. 723. ¶ 16. 280. ¶ iv 18. 398. ¶ v. 3. 112. St. John v. Charity St. John Baptist a burning and shining light 549 c. How the Jews at first admired him 553. but vvithin a vvhile disliked him 554. Joy good and bad 338. Sensitive and Rational 553. It is configured to the soul that receiveth it 860. God's Joy over us and our Joy in Him and in one another 861. Against them that rejoyce in the sins or calamities of others 862 863. Joy that ariseth from Contemplation of good is nothing to that which ariseth from Action 1125. True Joy floweth from Love 153. and from Obedience 113. 992. 1125 1126. Sorrow is vvont to go before Joy 560. Judas's repentance 336. his despair 343. Judge neither others sinners because afflicted nor thy self a Saint because prosperous 295 c. 616. We may disannul our former Judgment upon better evidence vvithout inconstancie 676 c. The Judgment of God and of the World how different 964. God's J. and Man's differ much 616. That of Men for the most part corrupt and partial 246 247. Judgment Few believe there shall be a day of Judgment 926. Though scoffers say Nay it will assuredly come 237 238. Why it is so long in coming 238. It cannot be the object of a wicked man's hope 242. 737. v. CHRIST Curious enquiry after the time of the last Judgment condemned 248 c. We ought to exspect and wait for it 250. Signes of the day of Judgment 1043 c. Judgments Of God's temporal Judgements 611. Judgments justly fall even on God's own people vvhen they sin 290. In general J. many times the good are involved vvith the evil vvithout any prejudice to God's Justice 291. Reasons to prove that point 292. A fearful thing to be under J. and not to be sensible of them 643. Judgments should fright us from sin and drive us to God 364. 800. If they vvork not that effect they are forerunners of hell-torments 365. 801. We should especially be afraid of those sins vvhich are vvont to bring general J. on a Nation 297. It is the greatest judgement not to fear J. till they come 502. 615. We must studie God's J. 615. v. Punishment Judge The Judge's calling necessary 821. His office 120. How his autority may be lawfully made use of 822. Julian the Apostate 957. His liberality 143. His malitious slander of the Christians 148. He wounded Religion more with his wit then with his sword 959. His death 959. Justice of how large extent 119. What it is 120. Private J. is far larger then publick 121. Our common Nature obligeth to live justly 123. and so doth the Law of Nature 124. 126. c. 134. and Fear of God's Vengeance 125. and the written Law of God 128. especially Christ's Gospel 129. How strict observers of Justice some Heathens have been 128. How small esteem Justice hath in the world 131. Motives to live justly 134 c. That which is not Just can neither be pleasant nor profitable 126. v. Mercy Justification what 811. The Church of Rome's doctrine confuted 812 813. Faith justifieth but none but penitents 872. The several opinions about Justification may all be true 1074 c. But many nice and needless disputes there be about it 1075. Wherein Justification consisteth 1075. K. KEyes Power of the Keyes neither to be neglected nor contemned 47. Kingdomes v. Fate Kings though mighty Lords on the earth are but strangers in the earth 532. 535. K. love not to be too much beholding to their subjects 232. It is not expedient for the world to have onely one King 233. Kneeling in the service of God proved by Calvine to be of Divine autority 756. Knowledge Want of Knowledge many alledge to excuse themselves but without cause 437. Pretended K. how mischievous 556 557. Three impediments of K. 96 c. Four wayes to get K. 66. Of which Practice is the chief 68 69. K. is the daughter of Time and Industrie 956. What kind of K. it is that we have in this life 678. God's wayes are not to be known by us his will and our duty easily may 93. We should not studie to know things not revealed 248. Though the K. of what is necessary be easy and obvious 93. 95. yet it is to be sought for with all diligence 96. K. even in the Apostles grew by degrees 61. K. of all future things if we had it would do us no good 789. K. of Sin v. Sin K. of Nature Medicine Laws Husbandry is very excellent 656 657. Saving K. is onely necessary 59 60. 248. K. of Christ surpasseth all other K. 715 c. but it must be not a bare speculative K. but practical 723 c. Many know the Truth but love it not 549. 690. Knowledge Will Affections all to be employed in the walk of a Christian 516 c. Speculative K. availeth nothing without Love 517. It is but a phantasm a dream 518 519. 724 725. It is worse then Ignorance 518. 520. 523. 690. 723. Adde therefore to K. Practice 519 725. As K. directeth Practice so Practice encreaseth K. 520. 693. Words of Knowledge in Scripture imply the Affections 463. Love excelleth Knowledge 977. How God is said not to know the wicked 173. L. LAbour is the price of God's gifts 219. It is not onely necessary but honourable 220. No grace gotten by us no good wrought in us without Labour and pains 667 c. v industrie Sin is a laborious thing 927. more laborious then Virtue 928. It is sad to consider that many will not labour so much to be saved as thousands do to be damned 928. Law Whether going to Law be lawfull 821. Good men have alwayes scrupled the point 822. Cautions and rules to be observed 822. 824. Lawfull