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
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
are guilty of a strange Misnomer and do not give every thing its due and proper name Some call Disobedience Liberty and are not free they think but with their Quod volumus sanctum est when they are let loose to do what they please Every man desireth Liberty and forfeiteth it every man calleth for it and chaseth it away every man would bring her in and proscribeth her Nay we may rise up and fight for her and when the day is ours and the battel ended find our selves in chains For when we cry so loud for it we desire nothing but the name That which our desires and hopes fly to when we have overtaken and laid hold of it changeth its countenance and we look upon it and repent and bemone our selves and say when it is too late This is not it which we meant And thus it falleth out not onely in civil affairs but in religious in the work and business of our Salvation When we are rich then are we poor when we are loose then we are in fetters when we reign as kings then are we slaves being free from righteousness Rom. 6.20 we are the servants of sin saith S. Paul Licet ut volo vivere To live as I please is to lose my liberty And therefore to draw it home to our present purpose a Law is so far from being an abridgment to our Liberty that it is rather a pillar to uphold and sustain it or rather it is the foundation upon which it is built and on which it will stand fast for ever Nor is there any liberty but under some Law For that is Liberty which preserveth not which destroyeth a thing by which it keepeth its own native qualities or improveth them The Obedience of the Creature to the Law of his kind is his Liberty The Angels have a Law by which they work And their Law in respect of God is All ye his Angels praise him And their Law in respect of Men is Ye Angels that do his will a Law which bindeth them to works of ministerial imployment And their obedience to this Law is their Liberty As the foundation of all Evangelical glory and Perfection is in obedience so the happiness of the Intelligences saith the Philosopher consisteth in their subjection to the First When the Angels reflecting on their own beauty and excellency would be like unto God they fell saith S. Jude from their first estate from their Liberty and then would have no God at all and so were driven out of their habitation and reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Obedience confirmeth an Angel but Desire to break his bounds and limits throweth him down from his heaven and Liberty and bindeth him in chains for evermore It is so in heaven And it is so also below God made a Law for the Rain and gave his decree unto the Sea and so to every creature And as they keep the Law of their kind unwittingly so their preservation is a kind of liberty The Sun hath then its liberty when as a giant it runneth its unwearied course not if it should stand still and rest it self and the Moon when it knoweth its seasons not if it should wander from its beaten way But this indeed is not properly liberty because we speak of those creatures which can do no otherwise then they do so that with them Necessity is a kind of liberty and to be drawn from their proper or natural course Rom. 8. Servitude And thus S. Paul telleth us of the bondage of the creature and of its groning to be delivered being made subject by man to vanity dragged and forced to be instrumental and serviceable to his lusts But it is so really in civil affairs Nothing more unlike Liberty then that which men call unto them with that heat and violence both by their words and works Unless you call it a liberty to be unjust a liberty to oppress a liberty to manifest our folly and our wickedness a liberty to go into hell O infelices quibus licet peccare Oh unhappy they who have such a liberty to undo themselves What should they do with liberty who are ever the same and never the same who domineer to day and cringe to morrow who take up a resolution they know not how and lay it down again they know not wherefore prone to mercy in a fit and in a fit as swift to shed bloud who are led by opinion and not by truth who consult and give sentence and then repeal it and after repeal the repeal it self who call for light and are soon angry with it chuse a religion and abhor it raise a faction and anon persecute it frame a government and then demolish it His opus est lege What should such a Beast do without a curb What should these move but under a Law who must be made good to themselves and others against their will Free them from a Law and they take liberty a liberty to undo themselves In a word The obedience of the Creature is his Liberty the obedience of the Angels is their Liberty the obedience of Man is his Liberty For leave him to himself to his wild lusts and affections and there can be no greater enemy to destroy him then himself So then a Law and Liberty may well consist and stand together Nay God hath joyned them together and no man must put them asunder joyned them together even in this great Jubilee in this proclamation of Remission and Liberty For every Pardon is also an Obligation As it cancelleth one bill so it leaveth no room for a future As it pardoneth sins past so it hath the force of a Law and forbiddeth us to sin again SIN NO MORE is a Law written even upon the Mercy-seat When we are pardoned there is mors criminum vita virtutum as Cyprian speaketh Sin must die and we are bound as by a Law to live to righteousness When the Understanding is a magazine of saving knowledge and the Will embraceth the truth of the Gospel and the Affections are poised and carried on by the love of Christ exhibited in this Law and all the faculties of our souls and members of our bodies are subject to this perfect Law then are we like unto Christ like unto God We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine constitution or according to Seneca's high expression imbecillitatem hominis securitatem Dei with the frailty and imbecillity of Man we have the security and liberty of God or more truly that which resembleth his We are indeed the freest and noblest creatures in the world On the contrary an Understanding that purveyeth for the world a Will that reacheth after it an Anger that is raised with every breath a Fear that ducketh at every frown a Hope that swelleth at every pleasing object a Joy that is loud at every folly a Love that kisseth every idole an Eye wandering after every vanity
be a sanctuary to such as dwell not in Christ 320. How much it concerneth us to try whether we dwell in Christ and Christ in us 321. By this mutual union all His become ours and all ours his 321 322. ¶ Christ must be looked upon and considered not in part but wholly 394. What it is to consider Him as our Priest Prophet King 492 493. What it is for a Christian to remember Christ aright 463 c. The mistake of the world in the manner of receiving Christs Person 523. as great in respect of his Doctrine 524. ¶ Christ was wont to draw his discourse from some present occasion 309. The Scope of his Sermon on the mount 560. He cured mens bodies and purged their souls 572. The end of his Miracles 572 c We must by no means defeat him of his end but cooperate with him 575. Many talk of Christ and profess to follow him but few walk as he did 518. 520. His Example is to be followed by us 510. v. Servant This is the principal standard Rule by which all are to be examined and according to which all are to be squared 1026 1027. Wherein Christ is not to be imitated by us 1026. wherein he is 1027. ¶ We ought to think of Christ's second coming 235. He shall though most put it out of their Creed certainly come to judge all 237. He knoweth mens hearts and all things 277 573. He was despised of old by most forgotten now 237. Why he delayeth his coming 238 239. Christ's second coming is an object for our Faith to look on 240. 735. for our Hope to reach at 242. 736. and for our charity to embrace 242. 736. It will be not for carnal but spiritual and heavenly ends 243. 954. It will be for the Advantage of Angels Men and other Creatures 245 246 His judgment will not be like ours but according to truth 247. The precise time of his coming not to be enquired after nor to be known 248 c. 737. What use we ought to make of the uncertainty thereof 250. 738. It is enough to know Christ will come it concerneth us not to know when 251 252. 737. It is better for us not to know it 252. No reason why either good or bad should know it 252. If the wicked knâ—w the very hour they would be never the better 253. Christ's coming will be sudden 254. When-ever he cometh let him not find us ill employed 254 255. What inferences Flesh and Bloud draw from the doctrine of Christ's coming 256. The belief of Christ's second coming affordeth unspeakable comfort to the godly but the contrary to the wicked 952. Why he foretold the signs of his second coming 1042. How the sight of such signs should work upon us 1045. v. Signs How to prepare our selves to meet our Lord at his second coming 1049. Though Christ deliver-up his Kingdome and be subject to the Father yet his Dominion is everlasting 235. 240. ¶ The doctrine of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness grosly mis-interpreted and misapplyed 870 c. 993 994. He came to make us happy which neither Nature nor the Law could do for us 716 717. He hath freed us from the guilt and power of Sin 1097 1098. from the rigour of the Moral and the servitude of the Ceremonial Law 1098. Many have a bare speculative knowledge of Christ which availeth nothing at all 723 c. What it is for us to be crucified with CHRIST and to rise again with him 725. Christendome v. View Christian and Christianity A good Christian who 68 69. 78. Every man may be a Christian 661. v. Truth Many would go for Christians that are nothing less 319. The end of Christianity is to draw our hearts from earth to heaven 645 c. 649. v. Religion Popery But alas how many Christians walk quite contrary 652. How Christian Religion is degenerated 915. 1071. The bare name of Christian will do us no good 291. v. Formality Hypocrisy Profession Sin in a Christian is far worse then in a Turk or a Jew 417 418. The sins of Christians cause Christianity to be evil spoken of 913 914. 1071. Christians who live unchristianly are guilty of the bloud of Jews and Pagans 914. 1071. It is not the name of Christian or of Christ that will save us if we dishonour it 915. How strangely most Christians mock God and contradict themselves 921. Christianity maketh a man not morose and sowre but sweet and tractable 504. It doth not discharge us from subjection to our Superiours 639 1102 1103. It is both the most delightsome and the most troublesome calling 1011. A Christian is both the freest and the most subject creature in the world 638. 1101. A true Christian is firm and constant 1111 1112. A strong Christian and a weak one described 458. Christmass-day the great metropolitane feast of the year 1. The antiquity of this anniversary solemnity 2. Church a word much abused 149. Many fruitless disputes about the Ch. 10â—8 Church magnified unreasonably by the Papists 680 601. Prosperity not a mark of the true Ch. 191. 295-298 It is always one and the same how 175. 696. never exempted from persecution 175 c. 709. subject to change 190. What alterations we have had in our Engl. Ch. 191. Of how different constitution Christ's C. is from the Kingdoms of the earth 188 710. It is not our joyning to this or that particular C. or faction rather but our dwelling in C. that can make us Christians 320 321. v. Congregation No discipline so essential to the Church as Piety 320. We must not make the World a platform of the Ch. 191. How the Ch. is to deal with her enemies 194. Of the povver God hath left in his Ch. 225. v. Common-wealth Church vvhy called Catholick 233. v. View How the Church is the pillar and ground of truth since the Truth is the pillar of the Church 600. Even Three make a Church 837. Yea One 836. Churches antiently used 847. how far necessary 581. 846 847. how holy 581 582. 847 c. They should not be abused but used to the right end 582. How vve ought to honour them 849 850. It is an horrible shame that our houses should be trim and Churches ruinous and sordid 850. How the Devotion of the antient Christians in building and adorning of Ch. shameth the neglect of our age 850. Though it be pious to build and beautifie Churches yet in case of necessity Churches may be stripped to relieve the poor 851. Against such as vvould have no Churches 847. Against them that vvill not come to Church 581 c. We must go to Church not for fashion or formality but out of love 853. How devout persons behave themselves in the Ch. 854 855. 857. 864. Reverence is due in the Ch. upon several accounts 857 858. None quarrel at Churches but the proud and Covetous 856. City v. View Col. i. 24. 638. iii. 12. 279. Comely Our first thought
and for the advantage of those things which are necessary that are already under a higher and more binding law than any Potentate or Monarch of the earth can make The acts I say of Charity are manifest But those of Christian Prudence are not particularly designed Prudentia respicit ad singularia because that eye is given us to view and consider particular occurrences and circumstances and it dependeth upon those things which are without us whereas Charity is an act of the will And here if we would be our selves or rather if we would not be our selves but be free from by-respects and unwarrantable ends if we would devest our selves of all hopes or fears of those things which may either shake or raise our estates we could not be to seek For how easy is it to a disingaged and willing mind to apply a general precept to particular actions especially if Charity fill our hearts which is the bond of perfection Col. 3.14 Rom. 13.10 and the end and complement of the Law and indeed our spiritual wisdome In a word in these cases when we go to consult with our Reason we cannot erre if we leave not Charity behind us Or if we should erre our Charity would have such an influence upon our errour that it should trouble none but our selves 1 Cor. 13.7 For Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things This is the extent of the Spirit 's Lesson And if in other truths more subtil than necessary we are to seek it mattereth not for we need not seek them It is no sin not to know that which I cannot know to be no wiser than God hath made me And what need our curiosity rove abroad when that which is all and alone concerneth us lieth in so narrow a compass In absoluto facili aeternitas saith Hilary The way to heaven may seem rough and troublesome but it is an easy way easy to find out though not so easy at our first onset to walk in and yet to those that tread and trace it often as delightful as Paradise it self See God hath shut up Eternity within the compass of two words Believe and Repent which is a full and just commentary on the Spirit 's Lesson the sum of all that he taught Lay your foundation right and then build upon it Because God loved you in Christ do you love him in Christ Love him and keep his commandments than which no other way could have been found out to draw you neer unto God Believe and Repent this is all Oh wicked abomination whence art thou come to cover the earth with deceit What malice what defiance what contention what gall and bitterness amongst Christians yet this is all Believe and Repent the Pen the Tongue the Sword these are the weapons of our warfare What ink what blood hath been spilt in the cause of Religion How many innocents defamed how many Saints anathematized how many millions cut down with the sword yet this is all Believe and Repent We hear the noyse of the whip and the ratling of the wheels and the prancing of the horses The horseman lifteth up his bright sword and his glittering spear Nah. 3.2 3. Every part of Christendome almost is a stage of war and the pretense is written in their banners you may see it waving in the air FOR GOD AND RELIGION yet this is all Believe and Repent Who would once think the Pillars of the earth should be thus shaken that the world should be turned into a worse chaos than that out of which it was made that there should be such wars and fightings amongst Christians for that which is shut up and brought unto us in these two words Believe and Repent For all the truth which is necessary and will be sufficient to lift us to our end and raise us to happiness can make no larger a circumferance than this This is the Law and the Prophets or rather this is the Gospel of Christ this is the whole will of God In this is knowledge justification redemption and holiness This is the Spirit 's Lesson and all other lessons are no lessons not worth the learning further than they help and improve us in this In a word this is all in all and within this narrow compass we may walk out our span of time and by the conduct of the same Spirit in the end of it attain to that perfection and glory which shall never have an end And so from the Lesson and Extent of it we pass to the Manner and Method of the Spirit 's Teaching It is not Raptus a forcible and violent drawing but Ductus a gentle Leading and Guiding The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall lead Which implyeth a preparedness and willingness to be led And the Spirit that leadeth us teacheth us also to follow him not to resist him that he may lead us Acts 7.51 Eph. 4.30 1 Thes 5.19 2 Tim. 1.6 not to grieve him by our backwardness that he may fill us with joy not to quench him that he may enlighten us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up his gifts that they dye not in us Now this promise was directly and primarily made to the Apostles whose Commission being extraordinary and their Diocess as large as the whole world they needed the Spirits guidance in a more high and eminent manner gifts of Tongues and diversities of graces which might fit them for so great a work that as their care so their power might be as universal as the world And yet to them was the Spirit given in measure and where measure is there are degrees and they were led by degrees not straight to all truth but by steps and approaches S. Peter himself was not wrapt up as his pretended Successor into the chair of Truth to determine all at once For when Pentecost was now past he goeth to Caesarea Acts 10.11 34. and there learneth more then he had done at Jerusalem seeth that in the Sheet which was let down to the earth which he heard not from the Tongues and of a truth now perceived what he did not before that God was no accepter of persons that now the partition-wall was broken down that Jew and Gentile were both alike and the Church which was formerly shut up in Judea was now become Catholick a Body which every one that would might be a member of Besides though the Apostles were extraordinarily and miraculously inspired yet we cannot say that they used no means at all to bring down the blessed Spirit For it is plain they did wait for his coming they prayed for the truth and laboured for the truth they conferred one with another met together in counsel deliberated before they did determin Nor could they imagin they had the Spirit in a string and could command him as they please and make him follow them whithersoever they would And then between us and the Apostles there
Honesty is but of a narrow compass which measureth it self out by that rule and reacheth no further then to that point which the Laws of men have set up and maketh that its Non ultra Fest. verb. Pietas Piety constraineth us to do many things where the Law leaveth us free What Law did force that pious Daughter to suckle her old Father in prison and nourish him with the milk from her own breasts Spartianus or Antonine the Emperour to lead his aged Father-in-law and ease and support him with his hand Again Humanity bindeth us where the Law is silent Humanitatis est quaedam nescire velle For where was it enacted that we should not open the letters no not of our enemies yet Julius Caesar burnt those which he found in their Tents whom he had conquered and the Athenians and Pompey did the like Liberality hath no Law and yet it is a debt No Law enjoyneth me to keep my promise and make good my faith and yet my promise bindeth me as firmly Beati divites quia caeteris prodesse possunt debent Alciat de verb. Significat and should be as sacred as my oath All these are extra publicas tabulas not to be found in our Statute-books that confineth his studies and endeavours to these that hath no other compass to steer by in the course of his life then that which he there findeth written Fides juramentum aequiparantur ut hoc servari debet ita illa Menoch cap. 367. cannot take this honour to himself this honourable title of a Just and Honest man For how many inventions and wiles have men found out to work iniquity as by a Law to drive the proprietary out of his possessions before the Sun and the people and then wipe their mouths and proclaim it as just to all the world How many eat no other bread but that which is kneaded by craft and oppression and sometimes with blood and yet count it as Manna sent down from Heaven How short is the hand of the Law to reach these Nay how doth the Law it self many times enable them to invade the territories of others and to riot it at pleasure How is it made their musick Consensere jura peccatis c. Cypr. ad Donat by which they dance in other mens blood Justice or common Honesty is but one word but of a larger compass then Ambition and Covetousness are willing to walk in In a word A thing may not be just and honest and yet there may be no Law to punish it no man that dare reprehend it Cicer. 2. de Finib â—3 Lex Stagiritarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian Var. Hist l. 3. c. 46. Clem. Alex. 2. Strom. 398. Dolus quidam in contractu est non indicare errorem Hermias apud Damas in Phot. Bibl. saith Tully Take not up that which thou laid'st not down count that which thou findest in the way but as a pledge to be returned upon demand said the Stagirites If thou sell a thing declare the fault of it If thou under-buy a thing upon the discovery pay the full price These no humane Law but Justice and Honesty and the Law of Nature requireth To collect and draw out a catalogue of all those irregularities in behaviour which will not consist with Justice and Honesty as it is a thing not necessary to be done so is it impossible to do it For as day unto day teacheth the knowledge of that which is good so day unto day and hour unto hour teach the knowledge of that which is evil and it is not easie to open those Mysteries of iniquity The mind of Man when it is corrupted is restless in finding out new and untrodden paths which may lead to its desired end and is wheeled about from one falshood to another begetteth a second lye to defend the first and draweth in cheat upon cheat that it may have at least the shadow of Justice and Honesty to veil and obscure it And so long he is an Honest man that is not a detected knave as he is counted a good Lawyer who can find out something in fraudem legis some hansome colour or fetch to delude the Law He that hath the sentence on his side is Just and he that is fallen from his cause is fallen from the truth and so honesty is bound up in the verdict of the Jury and twelve perjured men may make an oppressour honest when they please We will not therefore go in Hue and Cry after every thief nor follow the deceitful person in those rounds and windings and turnings which he maketh And I can truly say Non multùm incola fuit anima mea I have been but a stranger and sojourner in these tents of Mesech I have not so much conversed in these waies of thrift and arts of living as to read a lecture upon them and discover the Method and course of them It may so fall out and doth too often that they who are the best artists in these are the worst of men For the wisdome of this world is not like that in Aristotle which resisteth in it self and never seeketh another end For in this the theory and the practice go hand in hand and advance one another Nor do we make use of it onely to preserve and defend our selves but we let it out to disquiet and diminish others And they that tread these hidden and indirect wayes though they hide themselves from others yet seldome do so far deceive themselves as not to know they walk deceitfully They check and comfort themselves at once they know they do not justly and yet this thought setteth them forward in their course even this poor and unworthy thought That it is good to be rich and so the light which they see is somewhat offensive but the Love of gain is both a provocative and a cordial Isa 28.17 We will therefore bring Justice to the line and Righteousnes to the plummet and have recourse to the Law and the Prophets not stand gazing upon the practice of the world and actions of men but look upon the rule by which a diligent eye may easily discover all particulars swervings and deviations though they be as many as the atomes before the Sun For as Seneca well difficile est animam suam effugere it is a hard matter for a man to fly from himself or to divest himself of those principles with which he was born or so to fling them from him as that they shall never return to restrain and curb him or at least to molest him when his flesh and lusts are wanton and unruly and violent to break their bounds And now what doth the Lord require but to do justly that is but to do that which first the Law of Nature requireth secondly that which he at sundry times by holy men and his Prophets hath taught Hebr. 1.1 and in the last daies hath urged and improved
in any office for which the one should be pluckt out or the other cut off both the one and the other are in their highest exaltation being both now under the will of God Our Understanding many times walketh in things too high for it yet thinketh she is above them and our Will inclineth and that too oft to things forbidden because they are so cannot endure the check and restraint of a command but breaketh it under that name the two greatest evils under the Sun We are too wise and we are too willful Now the pride of our Will is quickly seen and therefore the more curable It sheweth it self in the wild irregular motions of the outward man It lifteth up the Hand it moveth the Tongue it rowleth the Eye it painteth it self upon the very Countenance either in smiles or frowns either in chearfulness or terrour It is visible in each motion and there be laws to check and curb it that it may not be so troublesome and destructive as otherwise it would be But quae latent nocent The Serpent at the heel an overweening conceit of our own knowledge of our own perfections how invisible doth it enter us how deceitfully doth it flatter us how subtilly ensnare us Bene sapimus in causa nostra We are wise in our own cause We have digged deep and found the Truth which others do but talk of We cannot be deceived and the thought That we cannot be deceived doth deceive us most Now we are rich now we are learned now we are wise 1 Cor. 4.8 now we reign as Kings and carry all before us We controll the weak with our power the ignorant with our knowledge the poor with our wealth the simple with our wisdome and confute our selves with our own arguments and are poor because we are so rich can do little because we can do so much are deceived and manifest our folly unto all men because we are so wise For whither will this high conceit of our selves lift us Even above our selves besides our selves against our selves For wheresoever we stand we stand a contradiction to our selves and others and are as far from what we would set up as they are who would set up something else which is nothing like it We conceive the world is shaken and out of order and we put forth our hand to bear up the pillars of it We form Common-wealths we square out one by another and know the dimensions of neither We model Churches draw out their Government that is make a coat for the Moon We make a Church and clothe it with our phansie fit it with a Government as with a garment which will never be put on or if it be the next Power may pluck it off and leave it naked leave it nothing or put on some other which may be worn with more honour and safety to that Power which put it on This is visible and open to the eye and that eye is but weak and dull which doth not see and observe it Why should then our Pride and Self-conceit thus walk as in shadow as in a dream Why should we thus disquiet our selves in vain and busie our selves and trouble others to build up that to which we can contribute no more then a poor feeble wish which hath not power enough to raise it to that desired height in which we would have it seen but will leave it where it was first set up an useless unregarded thing in our brain and imagination Christ and his Apostles did not leave the Church naked but fitted her with a garment which she wore for many ages in which there were scarce any that did stand up and say it did not become her And if we do not now like the fashion but sit down and invent another we do but teach and prompt others to do the like so we shall have many more and none at all be ever chusing ever changing even to the end of the world This is it which hath divided Christians which have but one name and giveth them so many that it will cost us labour and study but to number them This rendeth the Church with schism For men that will not be confined are ever asking how they should be governed and they are busiest to question the present form of discipline who would have none And if you observe the behaviour of the Schismatick you may behold him walk as if he had the Urim and Thummim on his breast the breast plate of judgement ever with him For by a thought which is but a look of the mind he discovereth and determineth all things So dangerous is this spiritual Pride both to our selves and others Nor is the high conceit of our own perfections and holiness less dangerous but most fatal to our selves For that heaven which we draw out in our phansie hath no more light and joy in it then the region of darkness Onely what is wanting in reality we supply with thought but to no more purpose then that Souldier who having no other pillow to lay his head on but his head-piece that he might make it more easie filled it with chaff Gal. 6.3 We think our selves to be something as the Apostle speaketh and we are nothing and are deceived Pride is but a thought and Pride is folly Nazianz. Nor we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more regular then the rule more exact then the Law more bright then light above the command Not believe us is infidelity not to obey us is a kind of rebellion not to admire us is profaneness not to joyn with us is schism not to subscribe to what we say is heresie We are and we alone We are as he that lyeth on the top of the mast and we sleep and dream out the tempest We may be Adulterers Murderers Traytours and the Favourites of God We may be men after Gods own heart and yet do what his soul hateth All our sins are venial though never so great Our sins do not hurt but rather advantage us The greatest evil that is in us will turn to our good for our faith is stedfast our hope lively and our election sure And to this height our imagination hath raised us and from this we fall and are lost for ever And therefore it will concern us to captivate both our Understanding and our Will Rom. 12.3 16. First not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be overwise not to be wise in our own conceits not to be such Gnosticks as to seem to know what we do not nay sometimes not to seem to know what we do know This will defend us from errour and our Brethren from offense Then it concerneth us to subdue our Will to our Reason and the Rule and to subject our Will against our natural desire and inclination to the Will of God ad nutum ejus nutu citiùs obedire to obey every beck of his as soon as the beck is given in the twinkling of an
done or may do then do what they should are so much in heaven and to so little purpose that they lose it But the Apostle's method is sure 2 Pet. 1.10 to use diligence to make our election sure and so read the Decree in our Obedience and sincere Conversation and if we can perswade our selves that our names are written in the book of Life yet so to behave our selves Phil. 2.12 so to work on with fear and trembling as if it were yet to be done As it was told the Philosopher that he might have seen the figure of the stars in the water but could not see the water in the stars All the knowledge we can gain of the Decree is from our selves It is written in heaven and the characters we read it by on earth are Faith and Repentance If we believe and repent then God speaketh to us from heaven and telleth us we shall not die If we be dead to sin and alive to righteousness we are enrolled and our names are written in the book of Life Here here alone is the Decree legible and if our eye fail not in the one it cannot be deceived in the other If we love Christ and keep his commandments we are in the number of the elect and were chosen from all eternity Be not then cast down and dejected in thy self with what God hath done or may do by his absolute Power For thou maist build upon it He never saved an impenitent nor will ever cast away a repentant sinner Behold he calleth to thee now by his Prophet QVARE MORIERIS Why wilt thou die Didst thou ever hear from him or from any Prophet a MORIERIS that thou shalt die or a MORTVVS ES that thou art dead already Thou hast his Prayers his Entreaties and Beseechings He spreadeth forth his hands all the day long Isa 65.2 Rom. 10.21 Deut. 32.29 Luke 1.55 73. Thou hast his Wishes Oh that thou wert wise so wise as to look upon the MORIEMINI to consider thy last end Thou hast his Covenant which he sware to our fore-fathers Abraham and his seed for ever His Comminations his Obtestations his Expostulations thou mayest read but didst thou ever read the Book of life Look on the MORIEMINI look on the Deaths head in the Text look not into the Book of life Thou hast other care that lieth upon thee thou hast other business to do Thou hast an Understanding to adorn a Will to watch over Affections to bridle the Flesh to crucifie Temptations to struggle with the Devil to encounter Think then of thy Duty not of the Decree and the sincere performance of the duty will seal the Decree Eph. 4.30 and seal thee up to the day of redemption It is a good rule which Martine Luther giveth us Dimitte Scripturam ubi obscura est tene ubi certa Where the Text is dark and obscure suspend thy judgement and where it is plain and easy express and manifest it in thy conversation which is the best descant on a plain song Thou readest there are vessels made to dishonour Rom. 9.21 2 Tim. 2.20 Whether God made them so as some will have it or they made themselves so as Basil and Chrysostom interpret it it concerneth not thee That which concerneth thee is plain thou mayest run and read it 1 Thes 4.4 Jude 20. that thou must possess thy vessel in honour and build up thy self in thy holy faith The Quare moriemini is plain It is plain that God is not willing thou shouldest die but hath shewed thee a plain passage unto life He hath not indeed supplied thee with means to interpret riddles and untie knots and explain and resolve hard texts of Scripture but he hath supplied thee with means of life hath brought thee to the gates of paradise Psal 16.6 to the wayes of life to the vvells of salvation The lines are fallen to thee in a fair place Behold he hath placed thee in domo Israelis in the house of Israel in domo salutis in the house of salvation Which is next to be considered The Two and Twentieth SERMON PART VII EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. For why will ye die O house of Israel GOD is not vvilling vve should die He is Goodness it self and no evil can proceed from him no not the evil of punishment For it is his strange work Orat. Quid Deus non sic autor mali and rather ours then his saith Basil If our sins did not call and cry out for it he vvould not do it as delighting rather to see his glory in that image vvhich is like him then in that vvhich is defaced and torn and mangled and novv burning in hell Ipse te subdidisti poenae that is the stile of the Imperial Law His wrath could not kindle nor Hell burn till we did blow the coals We bring our selves under punishment and then God striketh and we die and are lost for ever It was his Goodness that made us and it was his Goodness which made a Law and made it possible to be kept And in the same stream of Goodness were conveyed unto us sufficient and abundant means by the right use of which we might be carried on in an even and constant course of obedience to that Law and so have a clearer knowledge of God a nearer union with him a taste of the powers of the world to come Hebr. 6.5 Psal 16.12 a share and part in that fulness of joy which is at his right hand for evermore And why then will ye die O house of Israel And indeed why should Israel why should any of the house of Israel die For take it in the letter for the Jews take it in the application for us Christians take it for the Synagogue which is the type Rom. 9.6 or take it for the Church which is Israel indeed as the Apostle calleth it and a strange thing it is and as full of shame as wonder that any one should die in the house of Israel or perish in the Church Si honoratior est persona Salvian l. 1 de Gub. M. major est peccantis invidia The malice of sin is proportioned to the person that commits it It is not so strange a thing to die in the streets of Askelon as in the house of Israel nor for a Turk or Infidel to be lost as for a Christian For though the condition of the person cannot change the species of the sin for Sin is the same in whomsoever it is yet it hath not so foul an aspect in one as in another it crieth not so loud in the dark as in the light It is most fatal and destructive where there are most means to avoid it and most mortal where there is most light to discover its deformity A wicked Israelite is worse then an Edomite and a bad Christian worsâ— then a Turk or a Jew To be in the house of Israel to be a member of the Church
behold not the Turk against the Christian but Christian against Christian not Papist against Protestant but Protestant against Protestant all on fire ready to consume one another What mutual stabbings what digladitions amongst them What fiery contentions not who shall be the best but who shall be the loudest not who shall convert but who shall supplant not who shall save but who shall destroy the other Par pari refertur invicem nobis insanire videmur We return scorn for scorn and reproach for reproach and each side and faction seemeth mad unto the other and to a discreet stander by they both are so And though they have neither the spirit nor heat of John Baptist yet they take up his words and call one another a generation of vipers Oh what wantonness in religion what religion in railing what disgrace flung upon learning and what honour to ignorance What hardness of heart and contempt of God's word and commandment How many controversies are there raised in the world about a dead Faith I mean matter of opinion and what little noise about Charity which is the soul and life of Religion How many Anathema's thundred out for the one and how few voices lifted up for the other How many will fight for a Ceremony who will not fight against their lusts How many are hot for a new Discipline whose charity nevertheless is very cold Still saith Gerson we adhere to the things which are adinventionis nostrae of our own invention and phansying Here we are so busie in tithing mint and cumin that we forget those things which are mandati Divini and come under the command of God the weightier things of the Law those excellent and heavenly precepts of Christianity Such a fire hath our self-love and self-opinion kindled which consumeth the fairest part of our crop and harvest For the sting of malice is never more venemous then when pretense of religion and of knowledge the proper issue of covetousness and love of the world thrusteth it forth Then the Devil's weapons are most fiery when he darteth them from him in the shape of an Angel of light I cannot be so particular in my application as I intended for the time hath cut me off And what should I talk of our fire or our light Our fire is from hell and our light is out Our heat is unkindly and our light a flash Or if we be lamps it is such as the Furies carry in their hands to pursue and persecute one another not such lamps as were set up in the Temple but such as were put into Gideon's pitchers a terrour to all that come near us And we are indeed more like to the Jews then to the Baptist They rejoyced in the light for a season and what hath our delight in the Truth been but for a season as our life is a vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away nay not so long as that span For what inflexions and fluctuations are there in all our wayes what fits in our devotion The time was when John Baptist was a light What a Star was a Preacher What beauty in our Government what a heaven in our Order But now the Prince of this world hath so blinded us that what before was a spectacle like heaven is now become as full of horrour as hell that we hate the light for shining and the beams for the light that we would blow it out for no other reason but because it is a light And now every man the meanest of the people is a Baptist a crier in the wilderness in the streets in every house not to make the wayes of the Lord straight but to smooth their own to honour and wealth and in the worst sense to exalt every valley and to level every high hill and make it it low We hear many times the doctrines of Truth which are the beams of this light as a pleasant song as musick at a feast but when we are to draw them near us and apply them when the Truth layeth hold of us and biddeth us stay not do what we would not do and yet will do for our skin we make an escape and slip out of the way versa est cithara in luctum all our melody is at an end Sometimes we change for some terrour without and sometimes for some fightings within sometimes for fear and sometimes for hope sometimes for hatred and sometimes for love sometimes because we will change and sometimes we know not why And if we have not set up to our selves with the Jews a glorious Messias yet we dream of Canaan and Paradise of Riches and Abundance of Liberty and independency and we hope to reign as Kings And these phansies choke our delight seal up our lips silence our applause cancel our decrees that we will not see the light in its brightness nor profess that Truth which is written in our hearts Oh that the parallel should run thus even on this side God grant that Judgement draw not the line and it run as even on the other in the event I may say with the Baptist Repent Mat. 3.2 Rom. 11.20.21 for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand or with S. Paul Be not high-minded but fear For if God spared not the natural branches but cut them off for their wavering and infidelity let us take heed lest he also spare not us Amongst many other prodigies which were seen before the destruction of Jerusalem there was also a voice heard in the Temple by the Priests going to their morning-office MIGREMUS HINC Let us leave this place And behold their house is left unto them desolate The delight in John was lost in their errour and their wilful errour hath scattered them about the world and made them a proverb of obstinate impiety Now these things are written for our ensample that we should not sport and play the wantons with the light that shineth that so we may hear no such voice no Migremus hinc that God may yet stay with us who is now ready to depart out of our coast that he may not leave us to that wisdom which will befool us to that strength which will fail us in the time of trial to those riches which we make no use of but treasure up as a prey for the enemy but rather gather our selves together before the decree come forth before that voice be heard one would think we heard it now before the day of his extreme anger come upon us rather behold the light when it shineth and delight in it and persevere unto the end that he may still shine upon our tabernacles that there may be many lights to burn and shine amongst us that we may look up and rejoyce in them and not stay here ready to fly off but confirm and settle our delight and by this light walk from strength to strength till we shall all shine as stars in the firmament and appear before God in
Soul the other base and fordid next to nothing the Body These be the parts which constitute and make us Men the subject of Sin Rom. 6.12 and therefore of Humility Let not Sin reign in your mortal body but let Humility depose it and pluck it from its throne Inde delinquit homo unde constat saith Tertullian From thence Sin is from whence we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene With our selves we fight against our selves We carry about with us those forces which beset us We our selves are that army which is in battel-array against us Our enemies are domestick at home within us And a tumult must be laid where first it was raised Between Soul and Body there is saith Nazianzene a kind of warlike opposition and they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pitch their tents one against thâ— other When the Body prevaileth the Soul is down And when â—he Body is on the bed of sickness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then is the 〈◊〉 as high as heaven and when the Soul is sick even bed-rid with sin then the Body is most active In both there is matter for a Humiliamini in both are excrescences and extuberations to be lopped off and abated The Body is to be beat down and humbled that the Soul may thrive and the Soul is to be checked contracted and depressed in it self nè in multa diffluat that it do not spread or diffuse it self on variety of objects It must not be dimidiata humilitas an Humility by halves but holocaustum a whole burnt-offering both Body and Soul wasting and consuming in this holy conflagration I know not how good duties are either shrunk up in the conveyance not driven home by the masters of the assemblies or else taken into pieces in the performance Doth God ordain Sacrifice He shall have it till he be weary and forbid that which he enjoyned Doth he proclaim a Fast See the Head is hanged down the look is changed and you may read a famine in the face and yet the Fast is not kept HUMBLE YOUR SELVES Why so we will He shall have our knee our look he shall see us prostrate on the ground say some who are as proud as when they stood up He shall have the heart no knee of us say others as proud as they Satis Deus habet say they in Tertullian Corde suspiciatur If we can conceive a humiliation and draw forth its picture in our heart or rather phansie it it is enough We are most humble when we least express it So full of contradiction is the hypocrite And what a huge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gulf is there between Hypocrisie and Humility The Hypocrite reaching at impossibilities can serve God and Mammon be humble in the height of pride salvâ fide peccare sin without the least injury to his faith be reverent and profane humble and yet exalt himself against all that is called God and so go to hell in a pleasant dream Thus do we divide our Humility nay thus do we divide our selves from our selves our souls from our bodies Either our Humility is so spiritual that we cannot see it neither dropping at the eyes nor hanging on the looks nor looking on the ground or so corporeal that we see it all God hath his part and we a part and then the conjecture is easie who hath the other But our selves includeth both Neither is my Body my self nor my Soul my self but I am both Body and Soul fibula utriusque naturae saith Tertullian the button and connexion in which they are tied both together and my Humility lasteth no longer then whilst I am one of both Whilest then we are so let us give God both And first the Soul For there is no vice more dangerous or to which our nature is more subject then spiritual Pride Other vices proceed from some ill in us or some sinful imbecillity of nature but this many times ariseth out of our good parts Others flie from the presence of God this dareth him to his face and maketh even Ruine it self the foundation of her tabernacle Intestinum malum periculosius The more near the evil cleaveth to the soul the more dangerous it is I may wean my self from the world fling off her vanities and take my soul from sensual objects But Pride ultima exuitur is the last garment which we put off When we are naked we can keep her and when we can be nothing we can be proud Therefore the Schools have placed Humility in the soul as a canopy covering and shadowing both the faculties moderating the Understanding and subduing the Will For our Understanding walketh too oft in things too high for her yet thinketh she is above them And our Will inclineth to things forbidden because they are so and cannot endure the restraint of a command The two greatest evils under the Sun We are either too wise or too wilful Now the Pride of our Will is quickly seen and therefore the more curable It sheweth it self in the perversness of the outward man It lifteth up the hand it moveth the tongue it rolleth the eye it is visible in each action and there be laws to check and curb it But quae latent nocent The serpent at the heel an overweening conceit of our own knowledge of our own goodness how invisibly doth it enter us how deceitfully doth it flatter us how subtilly doth it ensnare us Rene sapimus in causa nostra We are too wise in our own cause We have digged deep and found the truth which others did but talk of We cannot be deceived and the thought that we cannot be deceived doth most deceive us This is it which divided Philosophers into so many sects that we can hardly name them This hath divided Christians which have but one name and given them so many that we cannot number them and made Religion so perplexed a thing that but to think of her is full of danger saith Cassander This rendeth the Church with Schism For if you observe the behaviour of the Schismatick you may behold him walk as if he had the Urim and Thuâ—â—â—im in his breast For by a thought which is but a look of the mind he discovereth and determineth all things So dangerous is this spiritual Pride both to our selves and others Therefore in a word it will concern us to captivate both our Understanding and our Will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. be over wise not be wise in our own conceits not be Gnosticks and seem to know what we do not know nay sometimes not to seem to know what we do know And this will safeguard us from errour and our brethren from offence Then it concerneth us also to subdue our Will to Reason and the Rule to subject our Will contrary to our natural desire and inclination to the will of God ad nutum ejus nutu citiùs obedire to obey every beck of his sooner then a beck is given in the
and dare not abide the answer Audire nusquam veritatem regium est We think it a goodly thing to live as we list without check or reproof and never be told the truth For Truth is sharp and piquant and our ears are tender Some Truths peradventure are musick to the ear but strike not the heart Others are harsh and ill-sounding and when we hear them we entreat they may not be spoken to us any more as the Israelites did when the Law was promulged with thunder and lightning and the mountain smoked we remove our selves and stand afar off But that we may not seem to do as Pilate did ask what Truth is and then go our way let us a little recount what kinds of Truths there be in the world that so amongst them all we may at last single out that which here by Wisdome it self we are instructed to buy And indeed Truths there are many kinds First there are Truths proper to the studies of great Scholars and learned men truths in Nature in the Mathematicks the knowledge of natural causes and events of the course of the Sun and of the Moon and the like These we confess are excellent truths and they deserve to be bought though we pay dear for them With these truths God was pleased supernaturally and by miracle to endow King Solomon 1 Kings 4.33 when he gave him the knowledge of Beasts Birds Creeping things and Fishes of Stones and of Plants from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Moss that groweth upon the wall Yet this is not that Truth which we are here commanded to buy Again there are many excellent Truths concerning the preservation of our Bodiess which are also well worthy to be bought Health is the chief of outward blessings without which all the rest lose their name For present all the glory and riches and pleasures of the world to a sick person Eccl. 30.18 and what are they but as the Wise-man speaketh like messes of meat set upon a grave for he can no more tast and relish them then a dead man sealed up in his monument Therefore as the same son of Sirach saith Eccl. 38.1 honour the Physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him for the Lord hath created him The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth and he that is wise will not abhorre them 4. Yet the skill of the Physician is not that Truth that Solomon here biddeth us buy Further yet there are many necessary Truths which concern the making and executing of Laws and the government of Commonwealths and Kingdoms By these the world is ordered peaceably and every wheel made to move in its proper place Without these Commonwealths would become as the hills of robbers Innocency alone would prove but a thin and weak defense in the midst of so many several tempers and dispositions as we daily encounter These Truths therefore are worth the buying also With skill in these did God honour his Priests under the Law Mal. 2.7 The Priests lips were to preserve such knowledge and the people were to seek the Law at his mouth and he was ordained to judge betwixt cause and cause betwixt man and man But neither yet is this the Truth here recommended to us We may descend lower yet even to the very Plough and find many useful conclusions and truths in Husbandry and Tillage whereby food and rayment and other necessaries for the body are provided without which we could not subsist Of these truths God professeth himself the Authour For the Prophet speaking of the art of the plough-man telleth us that his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Isa 28.26 c. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cumin but the fitches are beaten out with a staff and the cumin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised c. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working Yet neither is this nor any other of these truths that Truth which is here meant For first all these Truths concern onely those particular persons whose breeding and vocation calleth them to them All are not to buy them but ii tantùm quibus est necesse such whose education and occasions lead them to them If all were one member saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 12.19 where were the body If all men were subtile Philosophers or skilful Physicians or learned Lawyers and Politicians or painful Husbandmen the world could not well subsist Again all are not fitted for every truth for every calling All if they had a heart thereunto Prov. 17.16 yet have not a price in their hand Every Philosopher is not fit to hold the plough nor every one that handleth an ox-goad to be a Physician nor every Physician to plead at the bar These arts seem to be of a somewhat unsociable disposition and a very hard thing it is for a man to learn and practise perfectly more then one of them for the mind being distracted amongst many things must needs entertain them but brokenly and imperfectly Sic opus est mundo and thus Divine Providence hath ordered it But the Truth here is of a more pliable nature and therefore the commandment is given to all All must buy it It is put to sale and proferred to the whole world to him that sitteth on the throne and to her that grindeth at the mill to the Husbandman in the field to the Philosopher in the Schools to the Physician in his study and to the Trades-man in his shop No man of what calling or estate soever is unfit for this purchase The poorest that is may come to this markets and find about him money enough to purchase the commodity Yea let him go whither he will and live amongst what people and in what part of the world he please whether at Jerusalem or amidst the tents of Kedar in the city or in the wilderness he shall still find himself sufficiently furnished for this bargain And that he buyeth serveth both for this world and the next it will prove both a staff and a crown it will direct his feet in his pilgrimage and crown his head at his journeyes end All the other Truths I reckoned up to you as they may be bought so also they may be sold and forgone Yea there may come a time when they must all give place to the Truth in my Text and become the price for which it must be bought and be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss and dung Phil. 3.7 3. that we may gain it as S. Paul speaketh of his skill and forwardness in the Jews religion in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus But though those Truths continue with us all our life yet at last they will forsake us Who will look for a Philosopher or a Physician or
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
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
and passive obedience of Christ The act of Justification is the act of a Judge and this cannot concern us so much as the benefit it self which is the greatest that can be given not so much as our duty to fit us for the act Oh that men would learn to speak of the acts of God in his own language and not seek out divers inventions which do not edifie but many times rend the Church in pieces and expose the truth it self to reproch which had triumphed gloriously over Errour had men contended only for that common faith which was once delivered to the Saints My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil They hear and obey and do not dispute and ask questions They taste not trouble and mud that clear fountain of the water of life And as in Justification so in the point of Faith by which we are justified What profit is there so busily to enquire whether the nature of Faith consisteth in an obsequious assent or in the appropriation of the grace and mercy of God or in a meer fiducial apprehension and application of the merits of Christ What will this add to me what cubit what hair to my stature if so be I settle and rest upon this that the Faith by which I am justified must not be a dead faith but a faith working by charity Oh let me try and examine my Faith let me build my self up in it and upon it those actions of Obedience and Holiness which are the language of Faith and speak her to be alive and then I shall not trouble my self too much to determine utrùm fides quae viva or quà viva Whether a living Faith justifieth or whether it justifieth as a living Faith Whether Good works are necessary to Justification as Efficient or Concomitant For it is enough to know that a dead Faith is not sufficient for this work and that Faith void of good works is dead and therefore that must needs be a living Faith which worketh by charity Whether Charity concur with Faith to the act of Justification as some would have it Whether it have an equal efficacy or unequal or none at all Whether the power of justifying be attributed to Faith as the fountain and mother of all good works or as it bringeth these good works into act or it have this force by it self alone as it apprehendeth the merits of Christ although even in that act it is not alone In the midst of all this noise in the midst of all these doubts and disputations it is enongh for me to be justified And what is enough if it be not enough to be saved Which I may be by following in the way that is smooth and plain and not running out into the mazes and labyrinths of disputes It is the voice of the Gospel behind thee HAEC EST VIA This is the way FAITH WORKING BY CHARITY and thou mayest walk in it and never ask any more questions But if men will inquire let them inquire But let them take heed that they lose not themselves in their search and dispute away their Faith talk of Faith and be worse then Infidels of Justification and please themselves in unrighteousness of Christ's active obedience and be to every good work reprobate of his Passive obedience and deny him when they should suffer for him of the inconsistency of Faith and Good works in our justification and set them at as great a distance in their lives and conversation and because they do not help to justifie us think they have no concurrence at all in the work of our salvation For we are well assured of the one and fight for it and most men are too bold and confident in the other But the doctrine of the Cospel is a perfect Law and bindeth us to both both to believe and to do for it requireth a working and an active Faith In the book of God all our members were written All our members yea and all the faculties of our soul And in his Gospel he hath framed laws and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off limit the Understanding to the knowledge of God bind the Will to obedience moderate and confine those two Turbulent Tribunes of the soul the Concupiscible and Irascible appetites direct our Fear level our Hope fix our Joy restrain our Sorrow condescend to order our Speech frame our Gesture fashion our Apparel set and compose our outward Behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious And the time would fail me to mention them all In a word then This Law is fitted to the whole man to every faculty of the soul to every member of the body fitted to us in every condition in every relation in every motion It will reign with thee it will serve with thee It will manage thy riches comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee sit down with thee on the dunghil It will pray with thee fast with thee labour with thee rest and keep a Sabbath with thee It will govern a Church it will order thy family It will raise a kingdom within thee not to be divided in it self free from mutinies and seditions and those tumults and disturbances which thy flesh with its lusts and affections may raise there It will live with thee stand by thee at thy death and be that Angel which shall carry thee into Abraham's bosom It will rise again with thee and set the crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more Or what need there more then that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to Blessedness and there is but one Law And this runneth the whole compass directeth us not only ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not only to that which is the end but to the means to every passage and approch to every help and advantage towards it leadeth us through the manifold changes and chances of this world through fire and water through honour and dishonour through peace and persecution and uniteth us to that one God giveth us right and title to that one heaven and bringeth us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes Particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this Law It is true But then they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make sometimes raised by weakness sometimes by wilfulness sometimes even by that sin it self which reigneth in our mortal bodies And to such this Law is as an ax to cut them off But be their original what it will if this Law reach them not or if they bear no analogy or affinity with those cases which are contained in the Gospel nor depend upon them by any
c. 411. God's Wisdome is the fountain of Laws 106. His Laws are most just and unalterable 106. They are not mere indications of His Power but the issue also of His Love 107. God alone is infallible 678. The belief of God's Knowledge is natural 918. yet most men live as if they believed it not 919 c. When men sin they wish God could not know 921. and at last they strive and study to believe he doth not 922. God is more jealous of his Wisdome then of his Power 933. 1034. No hiding ought from Him 933. 1059. He is therefore more offended with the Excuse then with the Sin 1034 1035. How God is said not to know some things 170. ¶ God's Omnipotencie 103. He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 103. His Power passeth through all 104. From His Power in making us floweth His Autority over us 104. Why He made us v. Man What moved Him to create the world 404. Those Powers which the Heathen phansied to be in several Gods are all united in the One onely true God 341. ¶ Gods Omnipotence submitteth to his Will 21. 103. and we magnifie Him more by giving Him an absolute Will then an infinite Power 21. The Will of God under a fourfold consideration 306. 406. 585 c. How he is said to will that that which is sinful 301. 306. 584 c. Whether God's Permission of sin be as some say effective 407 c. Why God permitteth Sin which he hateth and forbiddeth and punisheth 410. 585. God doth not will that sin be committed though he is willing to permit it 411. 585. Hardening and Blinding how ascribed to God 411 412. 587. Evil cometh not from God properly but from our selves 417. God's secret Will is no rule of our actions but his revealed is 577. God's Will of Permission doth not thwart any other will of his 585 c. The Will of God is not alwayes effected 409. 587. It is often resisted 587. All things that are done are not the work of his Hand 409. 584. ¶ God's Love to Man 381 743. His Love to Man and his Mercy to sinners exceeding great 358. The infiniteness of his Love and Mercy 22 23. v. Christ God's Love of two sorts 30. God's glory and Man's salvation are twisted together 34. His Mercy to penitent sinners set forth 348 349. But he will have no mercy on the presumtuous 349 350. 368. The doctrine of God's Mercy to be delivered with great caution 349 350. Nothing provoketh God to anger more then the abuse of his Mercy 358. 360. 381. 613. 794. God's Wisdome Justice Power Mercy shewn in Man's salvation 744. 763. ¶ Of God's Goodness 404 405. His benefits come not alone but one is a pledge of another 19. He serveth us more then we him 56. God's favours must be improved 579. Why God's favours are so often recorded and mentioned in Scripture 590. Abuse of his gifts highly provoketh Him 595. God is so absolute and all sufficient a Good that nothing is evil with him nothing good without him 784. He alone can satisfie the vast desires of Man's mind 786. 1124. ¶ God delighteth in his Justice 930. His Law enjoyneth not things impossible 109 c. 118. He is not willing Man should die 403. 424 c. He usually warneth before he striketh 323. He chastiseth gently at first but if we will not amend he layeth on heavier strokes 611 612. Out of zele to his honour we must not question His actions 21. ¶ How strange His Providence seemeth to humane reason 189. It runneth a course quite contrary to Mans wisdome 703. God protecteth even the wicked 115. He sometimes delivereth up his people to his utter enemies 298. v. Righteous God employeth oftentimes the worst of men to chastise his people and when they have done their office he throweth the rod into the fire 299 300. That act of Gods is a permission not a commission 299 300. The glory of their profession as the Ark was to the Israelite may be taken away 300. c. God's wayes are equal when they seem most unequal 305. From God's permitting the wicked to prosper we may not conclude He loveth them 684 685. ¶ We need God's Grace but whether it work irresistibly is a question 435 436. God biddeth us be good and useth means to make us so but not violence 585 586 The Conversion or Induration of a sinner is not a work of God's uncontrollable Power 587. v. Conversion God may do what he will but it is ill depending on that 368. 434. Our Wills must be conformable to God's Will in all things 305 c. Submission to God's Will maketh a man enjoy tranquility amid the greatest storms 307 308. God's wayes are secret and unsearchable but his will concerning our duty is manifest 93. God must be obeyed as Lord paramount though Men say nay 114. and though our Flesh hang back 115. His autority and commands are not to be disputed 451. 587 588. ¶ God's Judgements unsearchable 291. As supreme Lord over us he may take all from us at his pleasure 294. He justly taketh his blessings away when we abuse them 302. Nothing so terrible as the apprehension of Gods Wrath 25 26. How careful we ought to be lest we provoke God to jealousie and anger 381. 612 613. ¶ God is alwayes alike and immutable 381 382. 614. Why God who is free from all passion seemeth to put on Passion 384. Of those Affections that seem to be in God 385. ¶ He cannot lie nor dissemble 403 404. He is Truth and loveth it in us 369. and hateth nothing more then Hypocrisie 372. Why Hypocrisie is so hateful to him 1058 1059. He applieth himself sutably to our infirmity 452 453. ¶ God is all-sufficient and standeth not in need of any thing 404 405. His glory being infinite can neither be improved nor impaired 405. 590. 744. We must glorifie God in our spirit 744. 748. and in our body 745 c. 749. Nothing gloryfieth nothing pleaseth God so much as our being like him 1058. ¶ The reason of our dulness in Seeking of God is our ignorance and mistake of him 783. Many think they seek God well when their seeking is slight and lame 787 788. What it is to seek him aright 789. To that end we must hear the Word fast and pray 790 c. God should be sought without delay 792-803 The virtues that shine in God should kindle the like in us 826. What a shame it is that God should seek us and we run from him 881. ¶ God's house v. Church God's service doth best in God's house 580. When we offer unto God we must take heed we think not any thing good enough for him 849 850. ¶ God's Decrees are not to be pried into 415 416. v. Decrees To God all men all actions all events are present 288. 1043. ¶ God's Hand is mighty 626. 642. We should therefore stand in aw of Him and fall